Chapter 319: Little Boy...

Meanwhile, Atlas could be seen suddenly appearing inside the same Rosaria Villa from where he had departed with Melina. Before entering Frostars, he had already altered the logic of space around this location, essentially marking its spatial coordinates in a way he could understand through his own Logic Alteration.

Although Atlas didn’t know the technical terms behind what he had done, he had understood that by marking this place and altering the logic of space connected to it, he could establish a connection between himself and this position.

As long as that connection remained, he could return to this exact location whenever he wanted.

For now, Atlas didn’t concern himself with those thoughts. He shifted toward the outside through the window and immediately noticed that almost nothing had changed from the moment he had left.

’Only some hours passed? This time dilation thing is messed up. I had to come back this early because of this.’ Atlas sighed internally as he considered going to meet Seraphiel, but after thinking about it for a moment, he shook his head.

’She is training right now. It won’t be good to interrupt her.’ Since he had already returned safely and there was nothing urgent that required him to see her immediately, he decided to leave her alone for the time being.

’Now it’s time for me to grow stronger, and a lot stronger at once. I have been putting off my own training and some other things for a while, but now that I am free...’ Atlas immediately vanished from his position and appeared in outer space.

The moment he arrived, his perception spread through the surrounding area, allowing him to sense the presence of the various rulers who were currently far away from his position. He narrowed his perception toward them and saw that everyone was sitting in a lotus position while absorbing enormous amounts of Aether into their bodies.

Kael was also among them, and compared to the others, he was absorbing the surrounding Aether the fastest among them. Atlas only observed them for a moment before withdrawing his perception and shifting his attention back toward the matter he had come here to handle.

’There had been four fundamental forces when I started my journey, and I had only mastered one of them, which is Gravity. Now the other three, Motion, Space, and Life, remain to be mastered completely.’ As soon as that thought appeared, Atlas made a small spatial cut in front of himself, and three books emerged from within it.

He had placed these three books inside a separate spatial dimension after retrieving all of his belongings from the Celestris Golden Inn. The books immediately floated in front of him under his control, remaining perfectly still in the surrounding space. Atlas looked at the three books for a moment before deciding where to begin.

’Space won’t be difficult, as I already use it a lot in many different applications, So I should start with that first.’ The three floating books moved according to his Logic Alteration, with the books about Motion and Life shifting toward his sides while the one related to Space remained directly in front of him. Atlas opened it and began reading through its contents.

The more pages he turned, the more he began noticing different methods of using the fundamental force of Space, many of which were applications he had never considered despite already using space in numerous ways, ’Oh! This is...interesting.’

The information inside the book surprised him, because every few pages contained ideas he could never have imagined on his own, gradually giving him a much clearer understanding of the force he had been using without fully mastering.

After ten minutes, Atlas finished reading all twelve different applications of the force of Space. ’From what I see, I would only be taking three applications from there, as I already use most of them.’ With that thought, he set the book aside, allowing it to float beside him on its own.

He then picked up the book related to the force of Motion and began reading through it in the same manner. Another ten minutes passed before he finished that book as well, and Atlas briefly glanced at the two books floating beside him.

’My reading speed also increased after all this time, it seems.’ Atlas set the book aside before continuing to think about what he had just read. ’These books are really knowledgeable, who even wrote them?’ He could only wonder, as he still had no idea who had originally created these books or where their knowledge had come from.

However, he didn’t spend too much time thinking about it and immediately turned his attention toward the final book, the one that studied the fundamental force of Life.

Before he even opened it, a thought suddenly struck his mind, ’Wait! Isn’t this similar to what Melina was saying about the Life Force of a world?’

Atlas immediately opened the book and looked at the first page. The information written there was exactly related to what he had been thinking about, and his eyes widened slightly as he continued reading. ’What?! How does this book have the same knowledge about Life Force of the entire world?!’

What he was seeing wasn’t merely some vague explanation about Life Force. There was an actual drawing of a world’s Core at the center of the page, with different parts of it clearly marked and explained in detail, followed by the main description of Life Force itself.

PICTURE

[Life Force: One of the fundamental forces which exists in every living being, be it a person, an animal, or even an entire world. To control the force of "Life" existing inside a living being, one needs to understand the Life Force within his or her own self.]

Atlas stared at the description for several moments. ’Understand the Life Force within me?’ He tried to understand what those words actually meant, but the more he thought about them, the more questions appeared in his mind.

’My own self...’

He closed his eyes without thinking any further and began focusing on himself, trying to search for the answer to the meaning of his own existence. It could mean two different things, either his Soul or his body, and Atlas remained silent as he carefully considered the distinction between the two.

Just as that thought appeared in his mind, something finally clicked, ’There is my Soul as my own self, but it is not just speaking about the Soul only. Life Force should exist in both the body and the Soul, after all, Life exists in both of them.’

Atlas finally understood what the book was trying to tell him. Somehow, he seemed to have become even more perceptive after interacting with so many strange things one after another, and the countless experiences he had accumulated were allowing him to understand concepts that would have been difficult for him to grasp in the past.

With that realization, he began focusing on both his Soul and his body at the same time. After witnessing countless Souls during his fight with Orivian, he had gained a much deeper understanding of what a Soul actually was, so he finally decided to attempt something he had been putting off because of the circumstances surrounding him.

However, the moment Atlas focused deeply within himself, he suddenly found himself looking into his own Soul. Something horrifying appeared before him, something he recognized and yet didn’t recognize at the same time.

His consciousness gradually drifted into what could only be described as the deepest darkness, and within that darkness...Atlas saw the Codex floating silently at the very center of it.

He stared at it for a long moment before slowly trying to move toward it, but the moment he did, he noticed that his own body had become somewhat translucent and white.

Atlas immediately looked down at himself and raised his hands, seeing and feeling the strange state of his own Soul, ’Is this...my Soul?’ He slowly flipped the back of his hand and noticed that Reiden was still there, carved in black directly into his Soul.

The sight made him pause for a moment as he looked at the mark before turning his attention back toward the Codex.

Just as he was about to take another step forward, a voice suddenly reached him from within the darkness.

"My little boy... don’t wander into the darkness all by yourself." The soft feminine voice seemed to pierce directly through his Soul itself.

Atlas’s entire consciousness suddenly stopped thinking as his eyes widened in shock.