Chapter 266: Keep up

Atlas’s tears slowly began to fall less and less, his hand reached toward his chest on its own instinctively, and he clenched his attire tightly as he felt the sorrow of all those years hit him all at once, only to slowly fade away at the same time.

The rage he had been containing and the revenge he wanted did not disappear simply because of what had happened. They were still there, but for the first time, they no longer felt as if they were controlling every thought inside his mind.

They remained, but this time, they were calmer than ever before. Atlas could still feel the same anger when he thought about everything that had happened to him, and the desire for revenge had not suddenly disappeared either.

The difference was that he could now look at those emotions without immediately being pulled along by them. He didn’t need to forgive anyone, and he didn’t need to forget what had happened to him. He simply needed to make sure that his own decisions remained his own.

His mind and heart seemed to tell him the same thing: ’I can still hate them but...the hatred shouldn’t be the one to control me, it is me who should control these emotions.’ Those words seemed to finally register throughout his entire being, allowing him to understand something he had never considered before.

Suppressing the hatred would only make it grow stronger inside him, and trying to force himself to forget everything that had happened would never make those emotions disappear.

So instead, he decided to control them however he wanted.

Even if the hatred and rage remained, he would decide how to use them and when to use them, not the other way around. He had already seen what would happen if he allowed those emotions to take control, and only some minutes ago, they had nearly caused his own death.

Atlas slowly pulled his right hand away from his chest and clenched it tightly before turning his gaze toward the Halo above them, ’Now I understand what Harleks was trying to convey to me...’

He let himself feel those emotions before finally accepting that they were a part of his past, not something that needed to decide his future. Only then did he shake his head and finally brush the remaining tears away from his eyes. His expression gradually returned to normal as he looked toward all the rulers around him. He had finally managed to calm himself, and just as he was about to speak, Orivian’s voice came from every direction again.

"Well, Well, Well, this is an Unusual development, but then again I was going to take all of your souls anyways, so it doesn’t bother me." With that came a SNAP sound, and before anyone could understand what had happened, they saw Thorsin’s body floating high above them.

His body shouldn’t even have been there, yet his soul had already been pulled out and was now hanging inside one of the rings surrounding him. Sylvaris’s eyes widened as she immediately understood what had happened, ’Impossible! I sent him into another dimension, How did he pull him out?!’

Her pupils contracted as she looked toward the surrounding rings, but she didn’t need to wait another second before Orivian explained what had happened, "You thought you could exert your Influence where I can consume events? Are you people in your right minds? Hahahaha!"

His maniacal laughter spread through the entire Domain from every direction as the others finally understood what he had done. Orivian had completely consumed the event of Thorsin being sent into another dimension, allowing him to pull Thorsin back as though that event had never happened.

Far away, Atlas narrowed his eyes as he kept the emotions from earlier in the back of his mind for now, he looked toward the ring holding Thorsin’s soul before finally speaking, "Is that so? Then can you consume something that is ’Nothing’? Let me see if you can do that..."

With those words, Atlas vanished from his position and reappeared directly beside Thorsin’s soul. He didn’t waste any time before punching the ring with the smallest amount of strength he could exert, making sure he didn’t accidentally erase Thorsin’s soul along with it.

The moment his fist struck the ring, it disintegrated into nothingness. Thorsin’s soul immediately became free from its restraint. For a brief moment, Atlas simply watched it remain there without being consumed, and he felt a small sense of relief that he had managed to destroy the ring without harming Thorsin himself.

He didn’t say anything about it, however, because there was no time to think about it for long. Sylvaris didn’t wait for another second before moving toward the soul and securing it with her Spirit Energy, preventing it from falling or being taken again.

However, before she could do anything else, she suddenly felt the soul disappear from her control.

It reappeared far away with another ring already wrapped around it.

Sylvaris furrowed her eyebrows as Orivian’s voice came again. "I also want to see if your ’Nothing’ event can keep up with my consumption of events."

The moment he said those words, Atlas gritted his teeth and turned toward the Halo above them. ’Why isn’t he showing himself?’ The question came naturally to him because until now, Orivian had been fighting them seriously, moving from one position to another and directly interfering whenever someone attempted to resist him.

Yet now, despite everything that had happened, Orivian still hadn’t appeared anywhere in front of them. Atlas had already seen enough of Orivian’s power to know that the man had no reason to hide himself if this was simply another attack.

Atlas’s eyes narrowed slightly as he continued staring at the Halo, something about the situation felt suspicious, but he couldn’t understand what it was.

Unknown to Atlas or any of the others, the one speaking to them at that moment was nothing more than a clone of Orivian. His original body was already in a completely different place, far away from the battlefield, where he had begun preparing for the most ruthless slaughter one could never imagine.

- - -

In a place where darkness seemed to stretch for infinity, Orivian could be seen standing silently in front of a translucent orb. Anyone who had seen the strange spherical object before would immediately recognize it as the same orb that had appeared before Velmira, the physical manifestation of none other than the Consciousness of Eliomor.

The two had appeared in front of each other only moments ago, yet neither of them had spoken immediately. They simply stared at one another in silence, as though it had been an extremely long time since their last meeting.

"Orivian Aez-Ruka, I suppose you decided to join ’them’ instead of staying true to your own ’Zin-Ruka’ Bloodline..." The same voice that had spoken through the orb before echoed through the darkness.

Orivian narrowed his eyes slightly, but his hands remained relaxed behind his back as he replied, "Do not mention ’them’ as if I am the only one to do that, you also joined ’them’ after my brother and I passed away."

The orb became silent after his words. Orivian continued staring at it for several seconds before finally speaking again, his expression becoming more relaxed. "Anyways, it is good that you did. I won’t have to waste time explaining what we need to do to get away from that catastrophe, right? Begin the ritual." The orb remained silent for another moment, floating at the same height as Orivian while neither side showed any intention of moving.

After a long silence, Eliomor finally responded, "Alright, we will begin the ritual. There are approximately fifteen billion souls in the entire world, including the souls of those who died thousands of years ago. I have kept them safe exactly for this moment, but..." The moment Eliomor paused on that final word, Orivian’s eyes narrowed with suspicion. "But?"

"But I would prefer giving one of those souls to you. One that could help you kill those two anomalies for good, or it could even allow you to extract their souls. It is the soul of the strongest being ever born in my world."

The moment those words reached Orivian’s ears, his interest immediately piqued. The suspicious expression that had appeared on his face disappeared as he looked toward the translucent orb with genuine curiosity.

"Oh? The strongest, you say? Does that mean he was even stronger than my brother, the first progenitor ever born?" His voice carried a hint of amusement, but the question itself was serious. Orivian knew Eliomor would never use the title ’strongest’ for someone who had not truly deserved it, especially when comparing that individual to the first progenitor.

"Yes, even stronger than the first progenitor, Michael Zin-Ruka."

Orivian’s expression changed slightly at the answer. He had expected Eliomor to mention someone powerful, but hearing that this unknown individual had surpassed even Michael immediately made him more interested.

Before he could ask anything else, Eliomor continued, "His name was... Luberion Ashenworth, born with an Ultimate Ability—Extraction."

The final words struck Orivian differently from everything that had been said before.

His eyes widened.