Tower of Heaven

The moment Atlas disappeared, the [Exploding Runes] he released as he left exploded, destroying the teleportation array entirely.

The man who caught him in the end was left without any leads. It truly would be a difficult task for him to track the mysterious bomber, but he didn't care.

That person was an enemy of Dusk, and Dusk was the Society that saved his life. Such a man would not be allowed to live under his watch.

"White mask…"

There were several people in the Tower known for their usage of white masks. It was too early to make an assumption about who that person was.

'Of those who use white masks, only three have grudges with Dusk.'

And, only two of them had the power to ever possibly challenge the influence.

Subtly, due to his own prejudice, the man eliminated Atlas from the suspect list.

But, as he wasn't completely stupid, he did not forget to keep that man's name in the back of his mind. If, by some sort of magical chance, that man was the culprit, he would not be the one to die because of his arrogance.

"Captain, should we report this?"

At that moment, his subordinate approached. The two of them were the strongest of the hidden presences Atlas sensed before. They had only come out of the shadows because the man she called "Captain" was curious about the suspicious individual he spotted.

He looked at the destroyed teleportation array for a long moment, thinking to himself.

"..."

After a pause, he finally spoke.

"No. We will find the White Mask on our own and present his head to the Lord. Notify those necessary for rebuilding the recruitment center, but silence their mouths."Nôv(el)B\\jnn

Despite saying he wouldn't die for his arrogance, he entertained it.

He felt like his pride was challenged by that man. He knew that it was better to report this matter, but at least for now, he wanted to handle it on his own.

Confidence only became arrogance when it was baseless. In other words, as long as he could catch that elusive criminal, he would be able to take the label of "arrogance" off of his actions."

His eyes narrowed as he focused in on the mental image he had of his target. He was known in this Tower as a tracker with a better nose than anyone else at his level. He knew he could follow that trail.

However, at this moment, as he pondered such things…

He truly had no idea what kind of battle he'd signed himself up for.

***

The place where Atlas found himself after using the teleportation array was something like a mass dormitory. When he spread his spiritual sense, he felt the existence of hundreds and thousands of rooms meant for housing alone.

But that was not important. Atlas had this location marked not because of the large number of people that would congregate here when night fell.

No, rather…

'This place is a hub for all of Dusk's recruitment centers. Everyone who lives in this place works at a recruitment center, which means this place contains teleportation arrays connected to all of the centers between the 11th Floor and the 30th Floor.'

After the 30th Floor, Ascenders were seen as their own beings. It was too late to recruit, and those who wanted to join the influence could find one of the existing centers on their own.

There were ten different recruitment centers. Before he struck any other institution, he was first going to destroy them all.

'Firstly, it deters new Ascenders from joining Dusk, knowing that they are facing a calamity. Secondly, the recruitment centers are empty when night falls. I can destroy them all without casualties and then come back here and destroy this place.'

Atlas wanted to create an illusion of strength. By attacking several locations with different techniques, he would make it seem like a group was behind the siege.

When Atlas himself appeared somewhere, he would be marginalized because he was not part of any group. It allowed him to maintain concealment until he decided it was time to fully reveal himself.

'I have to move fast.'

He only just destroyed the first facility. He had to ride this momentum. Before the day came, he had to destroy as many facilities as possible.

Everyone present in the dormitory was asleep. There were isolation arrays around every room that were built to protect the privacy of those within, but in this instance, they served as a weakness.

The people in their isolated rooms could not sense the footsteps of the person outside, so they were unable to stop him.

It took roughly one minute for Atlas to go from the teleportation array in the dormitory to its designated recruitment center. Using this method, he also no longer had to worry about the barriers.

It took roughly ten minutes for him to completely annihilate a recruitment center. They were all almost perfectly identical, so once he found the foundations of one, he was able to find all of them.

He returned to the dormitory immediately and moved to the next recruitment center, repeating the routine. Using qi to such a great extent, it was obvious that he would have to replenish his energy at some point, but he used Qi-Gathering Pills to speed up the process.

He knew he was harming his foundation every time he did it, but he couldn't help it. He could fix these small errors at a later date. Speed was more important.

One by one, recruitment centers fell. Their cities' populations rushed out to find the source of the commotion, but all they saw were destroyed buildings. At each and every one of them, the massive Dusk emblem that used to decorate the front of the building was cracked in half and left in the center of the rubble.

The person who caused the damage was no longer present, but their intentions were clear.

"Somebody" was declaring war on Dusk.

More and more people started to wake up to see the news. The peaceful night became a sleepless one. Though he was reaching the end of his qi capacity, he had one more job left to do.

'They probably already saw the damage. That means they'll come to this place soon.'

It had been one and a half hours since he started destroying the property of the strongest organization on the lower floors. Reaching its end, Atlas closed his eyes.

Every time he returned to the dormitory, he placed a portion of his qi into the ground before replenishing himself. As he closed his eyes, he connected to all of the qi he left behind and brought it out of the ground.

'Things won't be so simple anymore.'

Even now, the people who lived in this place were waking up from their slumber. There was no doubt that their superiors were angrily yelling at them over communication talismans.

However, it was too late for them. If they had awoken even thirty minutes earlier, the amount of accumulated qi would have been too little and Atlas would have had no choice but to flee.

His preparations were done. That kind of situation could no longer manifest.

Suddenly, as the first door shot open, Atlas' qi shot into the roof of the building. It spread out and splashed off of the walls like a roaring tide.

For his final trick, he was going to make this building, and everyone inside of it, disappear.

And all he planned to use was a single gust of flame.