Chapter 224: Counter Gaze

Far away from where Veyron was, near the center of the border between the Dragon Continent and the Human Continent, another figure could be seen speeding through the sky toward the entrance of the Human Continent, where the catastrophic destruction had just erupted.

That figure was none other than Atlas. It had taken him several minutes to cross the Dragon Continent and reach the border using the same technique he had used during his first entrance into Solara.

Atlas had used his Spirit Weaver Trait to weave a flat surface in the sky at roughly a forty-five-degree angle in the direction he wanted to travel. He then pushed against that surface with all his strength, using the resulting force to propel himself forward at a speed that surpassed the speed of sound by thousands of times. It wasn’t the fastest method available to him, but it allowed him to travel without consuming as much energy as some of his other abilities.

He had several other ways to reach the Human Continent much faster. Mu-Ho, Shadow Shift, and even his Cataclysm-rank Relic could have taken him there within seconds, with some of them capable of transporting him almost instantly. However, Atlas had deliberately chosen not to use them because he wanted to preserve as much energy as possible. He had no idea what kind of danger was waiting at the location of that enormous beam, and after seeing its scale, wasting his energy simply to arrive a few minutes earlier didn’t make sense.

’Strong people like the Kings and Queens would never miss a disturbance like that...’ That was what Atlas had thought when he first saw the beam, which was why he had immediately decided to travel there. Now that he had finally reached the Human Continent and saw the destruction spread across the land, his assumption had been proven correct. An attack capable of causing this level of destruction could only have come from someone at the highest level of strength in the World.

After the knowledge he had gained from the Library, Atlas already knew that the strongest known individuals were at the Special Ex-rank, and there were so few people at that level that their number could be counted on one hand.

However, just before the destruction occurred, Atlas had felt that strange hunger inside him spike to an extreme level for a brief moment. Even his rational thoughts had disappeared again as that sensation overwhelmed his mind, forcing him to chase toward its source without considering the danger ahead. Unlike before, though, the feeling had not completely disappeared after he reached the area.

Atlas eventually came to a halt and looked down at the land beneath him. There was no longer any proper ground to see. Instead, an enormous chasm stretched across the landscape, so large that even Atlas couldn’t take in its full size with a single glance. Mountains and forests had disappeared entirely, leaving behind a massive scar that extended across thousands of kilometers.

His eyes widened slightly as he looked at the destruction, ’What kind of power...?’

Atlas had seen powerful attacks before, but even with everything he currently possessed, he couldn’t imagine himself producing destruction on this scale. Even if he used Null, the amount of power required to completely erase such a massive area was still beyond what he could currently achieve.

As Atlas continued observing the destruction, that strange sensation inside him suddenly rose again, ’That feeling again—!’

His eyes immediately snapped upward.

Far above the devastated landscape, two figures had already moved so quickly that they appeared as nothing more than streaks of light. Their bodies collided and separated hundreds of times within a single second, with each exchange producing another burst of force that Atlas could barely follow with his eyes. His pupils contracted slightly as he observed their speed before his attention focused on the golden streak moving around the battlefield.

’That one...’ Atlas narrowed his eyes as the sensation inside him continued rising, ’That one is pulling me. I see... that one has Null.’

Unlike the sudden spikes he had experienced before, the hunger was now increasing gradually. It didn’t disappear after a few moments, and it didn’t weaken as he tried to suppress it. Instead, it continued growing little by little, drawing his attention toward the golden figure more strongly with every passing second.

That was when Atlas suddenly felt someone’s gaze fall upon him.

The sensation was strange. It wasn’t simply someone looking in his direction. It felt as though someone was inspecting him from a distance, attempting to see through his body and understand what he was. Atlas immediately turned his eyes toward the source, and the instant he did, his Killing Intent erupted from his body with a force far greater than anything he had released before.

His perception immediately locked onto the individual observing him.

Two vertical pupils were staring directly at him.

There was an overwhelming sense of dominion contained within that gaze, something that would have caused most people to instinctively retreat. Atlas, however, didn’t waver. His Killing Intent instead rose sharply in response, meeting the gaze head-on.

The moment Atlas released that Killing Intent, the gaze disappeared.

Atlas narrowed his eyes slightly before shifting his perception farther across the battlefield. From his position, he could now see several other powerful individuals fighting the Monsters. One of them was a man dressed in an elegant butler-style suit, floating beside a woman.

Not far from them, Atlas recognized the Queen of Celestara, who was casually dealing with the Monsters approaching her. Another female figure was fighting nearby, and slightly farther away stood a heavily built individual with an enormous beard whose appearance immediately made Atlas recognize him as a Dwarf.

Seeing so many powerful individuals gathered in the same area, Atlas slowly narrowed his eyes as the Killing Intent around him began to dissipate, ’Are they perhaps the Kings and Queens of the Continents?’

The thought made sense considering the circumstances. A disturbance of this scale would have attracted the strongest rulers in the World, and the individuals he could currently perceive were clearly far beyond ordinary S-rank or SS-rank power.

However, Atlas’s attention quickly returned to the man in the butler-style suit.

He remembered the feeling from that gaze and the strange sense of familiarity it had carried, almost as though he had been looking directly at a Dragon rather than a human being.

His eyes widened slightly as a conclusion formed in his mind, ’...He must be the Dragon King.’ Atlas was certain of it. He slowly retracted his perception from the surrounding rulers as the hunger inside him continued rising. At this point, suppressing it was becoming increasingly difficult, and his attention was once again pulled toward the golden streak moving through the sky.

Atlas shifted his body and took his stance.

Whatever was inside that golden figure was producing the same sensation that had been drawing him toward this battlefield from the moment he sensed the beam, ’Maybe he’s also behind all those Monster incidents...’

With that thought, Atlas finally prepared to move.

- - -

Far away from Atlas, roughly twenty kilometers from his current position, the Dragon Emperor remained floating in the air as he watched the direction where Atlas had disappeared. Unlike the other rulers who were focused on the approaching Monsters and the destruction caused by Velmira’s attack, Zaakrax’s attention remained entirely on the young man who had just countered his gaze.

"That’s the Variable my Relic foresaw, he is...dangerous. To not only perceive my gaze but to counter it with Killing Intent of that caliber..."

There was both amusement and caution in Zaakrax’s expression as he continued looking in the direction Atlas had disappeared. He could clearly sense that Atlas had not awakened a single Element yet, which meant that according to the current ranking system of the World, the young man should only possess the strength of an SS-rank.

Yet, despite possessing strength that should have placed him far below the Dragon Emperor, Atlas had not only noticed his gaze but had directly countered it with Killing Intent. Zaakrax had not expected such a reaction from someone at Atlas’s apparent level, and that was what made him more interested rather than immediately hostile.

Sylvaris, who was floating beside him, wasn’t amused in the slightest. She had also observed Atlas, although she had deliberately avoided looking at him directly like Zaakrax had. Instead, she had used an indirect method to inspect him without drawing his attention, yet somehow Atlas had still perceived her presence.

’How was he able to perceive me? I only allowed these four rulers to perceive me like this. What in the world is he?’

The shock in her eyes remained completely unfiltered as she tried to understand what had just happened. She had deliberately concealed her presence while allowing the rulers around her to perceive her, and Atlas shouldn’t have been able to notice that she was observing him in the first place. Yet he had sensed her gaze almost immediately.

Then she heard Zaakrax refer to Atlas as a Variable, and another question appeared in her mind, ’Variable...? What does he mean by that?’ Before she could ask, however, Zaakrax’s next words made her expression change completely. Sylvaris’s eyes widened as she looked toward the direction where Atlas had disappeared.

’H-He countered his gaze...? A being who is supposedly only an SS-rank managed to counter the perception of someone beyond the cultivation ranks of this World?’ For the first time in a long while, genuine uncertainty appeared in Sylvaris’s eyes. She had already been unable to understand how Atlas had detected her, but now even Zaakrax’s reaction was confirming that there was something fundamentally abnormal about him.

She immediately tried to locate Atlas again through her perception.

Nothing.

Her eyes narrowed as she expanded her senses farther into the surrounding area, but Atlas was nowhere within her perception. He had completely disappeared but the next moment she sensed him...

...He was already in between Velmira and Azarion!