Atticus’s Odyssey: Reincarnated Into A Playground

Chapter 1578  Reach

‘The Exo suit…’

Atticus almost laughed. So that was it. This had been the woman’s true identity all along… the ego that had lodged itself in his mind from the moment he acquired the exo suit.

In all honesty, he hadn’t seen it coming.

‘When this is finished…’ The woman’s irritated voice echoed sharply in his mind. ‘…you will undergo extensive correction. The fact that you are still functional despite your habits is… offensive.’

Atticus found himself momentarily at a loss for words. A full second passed as her rant washed over him before he finally settled for an easy, unbothered response.

“Okay.”

‘Good. Then we end this. I will not tolerate inefficiency.’

Atticus shifted his focus toward the center of the cavern, where the ancient eye trembled more fiercely than before, relentless waves of purple light surging outward as though something within it was struggling to claw its way back into existence.

‘It’s trying to revive them.’

The realization came to him calmly, without any visible reaction. He had already used the molecules to kill each Marquis, and while their wills still lingered, unless he chose otherwise, their deaths had already been etched into reality as the new truth.

Still, molecules or not, Solvath was a primordial star. Atticus could feel its power grinding against his own in an endless, invisible struggle. The strain was pressing heavily against his mind, yet fusing with the exo suit had expanded his consciousness far beyond what he had known before. His perception had pushed past the limit of fifteen meters, stretching outward until he could feel every molecule within a kilometer grow unnaturally still beneath his presence.

This was power.

The power of an Elemental Arbiter.

Atticus’ brow furrowed as thick streams of purple energy spilled from Solvath’s eye like ink, spreading across the cavern floor. From within that seeping glow, two figures emerged moments later, each radiating a dangerous pressure.

Atticus narrowed his eyes.

‘Fragment bearers.’

So the star still had a few trump cards left.

The two figures raised their arms in perfect unison, purple energy rippling outward as the ground beneath them responded.

 In the next instant, an army numbering in the thousands surged forth, rushing toward Atticus in an overwhelming tide.

Atticus’ face remained indifferent as he spoke.

“Earth, detonate.”

A blinding radiance erupted from the ground, the walls, even the ceiling above, and in the following second, the entire cavern exploded into violent destruction. The descending army was torn apart instantly as a thick haze swallowed the space, shockwaves ripping through everything in their path.

Cracks spider webbed across the cavern as massive chunks of the mountain broke loose and came crashing down around him.

The elements responded his will without hesitation, flowing together and solidifying into a radiant katana in his grasp as he blasted forward toward the fragments.

A flash of purple drew his gaze downward just in time to see the two fragment bearers streaking toward him. Their expressions were detached and fissures crawled across their bodies. The explosion had erased the army completely, but it had done little more than wound them.

A sudden thought surfaced in Atticus’ mind, bringing with it the memory of the fifth art, and his gaze sharpened as he focused on the elements around the fragment bearers and swung.

“Be there.”

The molecules answered instantly. In the next moment, his blade appeared at their throats, severing their heads in a single, seamless motion. Without pausing, Atticus surged forward with even greater speed, weaving through falling debris as the mountain continued to collapse around him.

His pulse quickened as the fragments came into view. Finally, this could all be over.

‘Threat above.’

Atticus frowned at the warning and snapped his gaze upward, where the ancient eye stared directly at him with its unsettling iris, the glow around it swelling rapidly.

He narrowed his eyes just as a beam of pure purple energy erupted from it, surging toward him. ‘Do not allow contact.’

Atticus squinted. An ancient eye belonging to a primordial star unleashing an ominous beam straight at him… of course he wasn’t going to let it touch him.

‘Come to me.’

The molecules answered at once, converging tightly around his blade as he lifted it.

“Sever all.”

The elements twisted and distorted around the weapon, warping violently before fusing into blazing force as Atticus brought it down with all his strength.

 A stabbing pain tore through his head the instant the blade met the beam, but he gritted his teeth and forced himself forward.

His eyes flared as the blade split the beam cleanly in two, and he pulled in even more molecules, the weapon growing larger and heavier in his grasp. He carved straight through the attack, bursting through the fading energy and emerging before the fragments, drenched in sweat but still standing.

A shriller, angrier screech echoed from the ancient eye above, but Atticus ignored it entirely as he reached desperately toward the fragments.

Blinding light swallowed his vision the moment he made contact, yet his mind had already moved beyond the moment itself.

What followed unfolded too quickly to properly register. A towering pillar of purple light pierced through the mountain and into the sky, shattering the isolated world the fragments had constructed and tearing it open to the full weight of his will.

Atticus’ will flooded the world like molten lava, scorching mountains, forests, and endless fields as it converged relentlessly on Solvath’s fragments.

The ancient eye lashed out, struggling against the overwhelming pressure of his will, but Atticus’ will did not yield. Countless beams fired back toward it, striking from every direction until the eye finally imploded in a violent burst that was immediately consumed by the surging tide of will.

Moments later, that same endless tide swallowed the fragments whole, and then everything collapsed into darkness.

The stabbing pain in Atticus’ mind slowly receded until it disappeared entirely, replaced instead by a faint, nagging sense of disappointment, as though something, or someone, was staring down at him with unmistakable displeasure.

‘What did I do now?’

‘The correct question is what you failed to do,’ The woman clicked her tongue in clear annoyance. ‘Even with every indication placed before you, you required explicit clarification. That lack of foresight disqualifies you from being called my student.’

‘Who says I’m your student…?’

‘Such tomfoolery!’ she snapped. ‘You should be grateful that someone of my status would even consider calling you a partner. I can think of trillions who would beg to fall under my command.’

‘Be quiet. I like the silence.’

‘Y-you…! How dare you speak to your master like that! I’ll core—’

Atticus tuned her out before she could finish, his gaze drifting over the sight before him with weary eyes. Now that he knew exactly who she was, dealing with her felt… manageable.

An endless stretch of nothingness lay before him, steeped in absolute silence. After the crisis he had just endured, it was a stillness he found himself welcoming.