Tower of Heaven

"Well, I have high hopes for what we can accomplish. We can continue this conversation when we leave this realm."

Atlas addressed the red-haired man with a much calmer tone of voice. Now that all the calculations had been done in his head, he didn't need to worry about where they stood anymore.

"There's only one more thing I need to confirm," Atlas said, his gaze suddenly sharpening.

"What did you come to this realm for?"

The red-haired man raised his brow.

"Hmm, that is, there are a few things I came for. Basically everything other than the main artifact that created this place is my prey."

This time, Atlas was the one who had to raise a brow curiously.

"Why not the main artifact?"

"Why?"

The red-haired man echoed him and laughed.

"Because there's a certain guy that I want to form a connection with who clearly wants that treasure very much."

Atlas frowned, but didn't speak.

This was different from the debts he had with the Tatsuya Clan. Those were debts that he knew he would never "have" to pay off. He only "wanted" to do so.

Bernan wasn't someone so close to Atlas. The debt that he formed through that sentence was one Atlas would be forced to repay in the future.

'I have to maintain boundaries.'

He wasn't looking to form another familial bond. They were just cooperating because their motives aligned.

With that out of mind, both Atlas and Bernan moved on and entered the playroom. They faced their next trial, but in front of an Immortal, no challenge meant a thing.

In the playroom, more of the artifact's personality was revealed. It was twisted, but it clearly came from a good place. The "playroom" was filled with vestiges of the past that this artifact lived in. However, what had originally been a joyful environment was corrupted.

The playroom turned into a room of death meant to degenerate two people into shells of their true selves before pitting them against each other in a battle to the death.

Atlas and Bernan didn't have to deal with any of that. Since his strength had been revealed, Bernan didn't hold back nearly as much. He destroyed the room entirely, turned around, and grabbed the air.

Within his grasp materialized a black core, which he shattered into pieces.

All of a sudden, the entire manor disappeared. Atlas and Bernan were left in a completely black space.

Atlas shook his head.

He didn't need an explanation. Bernan, as an Immortal, used his expert control over qi to dismantle the manor's internal structure and drag its core out of hiding. When he crushed the core, the artifact lost its connection with the manor, which made the manifestation disperse.

"If you could've done that the whole time, what was the point of going through the trials?"

"I like to have fun. You're a really stuck-up guy, aren't you?"

Bernan shrugged as he walked up to the artifact that only the two of them could see. Considering that the others hadn't reached the core of the manor, none of them were transported to this black space.

To them, it looked like the manor just disappeared, dropping them back on the cliff where it once stood.

Atlas was a bit annoyed, since he wanted to see the subtle story the artifact was telling, but he didn't care all that much.

He watched as Bernan walked forward and grabbed hold of the book-shaped artifact in the center of the black space. It looked odd in his hands, as he had the appearance of someone who never even learned how to read.

After looking at his interaction with the artifact for a moment, Atlas turned his eyes to the "other" object in the space.

"I will be taking that."

"Hm? That? Yeah, go ahead. It doesn't look like an artifact, anyway."

"Hm."

With a small sound of appreciation, Atlas walked over and took the item that looked like a small coin, putting it in his spatial ring.

'He absolutely sensed the energy coming from this coin.'

If Atlas wasn't mistaken, it was something like a "proof." As he had it in his hands now, he had acquired the right to pursue the main treasure of this realm, the Death Relic.

'I didn't know there would be a mechanism like this.'

He didn't know, but as someone who had been to a variety of Mystic Realms, he was able to discern what the energy was immediately. Bernan ceded the coin because he also knew what it was. This was just a verification that he meant what he said before.

'If it is a matter of tokens, then there will only be a small number of people competing against me for the Death Relic.'

That made things much simpler. Atlas was able to rule out the element of chaos, knowing that he would be able to control the situation.

'Until there is some sort of sign that the Death Relic is manifesting, I can only enjoy this realm.'

Atlas glanced at the man beside him.

'We brushed past it, but he said that he is a Cosmic Dragon. It would be interesting to spar against him.'

Atlas had seen the abilities of Heavenly Dragons plenty of times. Adella, Mireiya, Alaric, Artemia, Veradon, and all of the other Azure Dragons he interacted with on a daily basis for a long time showed him exactly the kind of power their species could possess.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

What about Cosmic Dragons?

Seeing a Cosmic Dragon who was different from the perception he'd built of them, Atlas got curious. Were they below Heavenly Dragons because they truly had a genetic disadvantage, or did they only need to improve?

What were their strengths, and what were their weaknesses? How did they function, and how did they differ from the dragons Atlas knew?

All of these questions sprang to mind as his curiosity lost its original target. In his mind, it was Bernan's responsibility to satiate the curiosity that he originally disrupted.

Bernan left the area of the manor as soon as the black space disappeared. He didn't want to draw too much attention to himself by staying and making it obvious that he was the one who destroyed the manifestation.

Atlas followed him. The duo moved off of the cliff and into a distant part of the realm that Atlas hadn't seen before.

"Alright. I understand why you followed me. I'll be honest. I was disappointed with the strength you showed me when you attacked me in the manor. What I saw back then in the hidden world was completely different."

They stood in a dark clearing. As they faced each other, Bernan released his entire aura.

VOOOOOM!

Atlas' eyes narrowed. A huge wave of pressure washed over him. It filled the area several hundreds of kilometers surrounding them, scaring away anyone and anything that may have been present there.

It was not an ordinary pressure caused by the pure density of qi in a powerful cultivator's body, but the pure aura of a dragon. It had an energy that almost forced those who felt it to submit and bow their heads.

Atlas used his own qi to shield his body and somewhat ease the pressure. At the same time, earth qi swelled inside of his body. By subtly utilizing the concept of weight that he was learning, he made his own body lighter, lessening the weight he felt considerably.

He stared at the dragon standing across from him.

"Come at me, Atlas. Show me that you are capable enough to cooperate with me, Bernan Drake, and my compatriots."

The wave of aura retreated back into his body after accomplishing its purpose.

And almost instantly, their battle began.