The abyss looked cold and brutal from an outside perspective. Not a single sane person would ever think about jumping into it even if they reached the border of the floor. Rather, this abyss discouraged that exact outco and forced Ascenders to remain on their current floor.
Atlas was falling through that sa void, and needless to say, it wasn't anything like a good experience.
His body almost instantly froze. The burns caused by the narrowly dodged attacks were cooled down and then frozen over. Skin was unable to grow back in that area, nor was Regeneration able to work.
The freezing soon went past his flesh and into his bones. It polluted his bloodstream, entirely disturbing his internal processes.
Atlas' eyes rolled back into his head. His lips turned blue, and his mind seed to weaken and constrain itself into a small area.
He could only feel the cold. There was sothing else as well, sothing mysteriously warm and indiscernible, but Atlas could no longer think with enough coherence to understand such things.
All rebellious thoughts, all hateful thoughts and all thoughts of rage disappeared from his mind.
'Cold.'
The freezing cold.
'Quiet.'
The dead silence.
'Deathly.'
The vacuum in which a man could not even breathe.
Atlas experienced them all fully with those thoughts only triumphed by a single word.
'Survive.'
He had to. No matter what, he had to. He had to find a way out of even this situation.
No, if he was truly fated to die here, then his vengeance couldn't end at Dusk. It would require him to reach into the God Realm and pull down the Treacherous Phoenix who forced him into this outco.
Perhaps the burning desire in his heart was what ward his body. Perhaps it was an impossible circumstance created by a variety of fortunate coincidences.
Or, perhaps Atlas was never being pushed to his death.
Perhaps…
Whoosh!
…the entity who extended a hand to Atlas was being sincere.
The gust of wind was surprising. It carried Atlas' body and smoothed his fall until he was suspended in the void. His mind barely retained consciousness, so he hardly noticed the difference.
However, sothing definite had changed. Not only had Atlas stopped, but the void around him had also beco sothing material.
The visage of a cloak ford from the clear blackness. A hood within which resided darkness alone, anthropomorphized only by the slit-like eyes within.
Such a being carried Atlas' breaking body inside of its own.
Atlas' own perception was hazy. He could barely make out the surroundings, and only those eyes burned themselves into his mory.
There was a familiar feeling in the air that he couldn't comprehend. It felt like ho. It was a feeling like he had finally returned to the place where he belonged, the place where he could find true peace.
Where did that feeling co from?
No, where was this place? Who was he?
Atlas' conscious mind disappeared, taking along with it his entire sense of self and identity. He was stripped of everything but what was hidden in the depths of his being.
The mysterious being who held him close to its bosom saw only those innermost thoughts and desires. The slit-like eyes it possessed were true windows into things that even Atlas didn't know about himself.
He looked into them as his world turned grey, and the wish inside the very depths of his soul was transmitted clearly.
"I want to live."
It was a wish that transcended everything. Even if all of his mories were combined, even if there wasn't a single hole in his recollection, this fact would never change.
He desired nothing more than a chance to continue his journey. He didn't beg for power. He didn't beg for help. Even his unconscious mind was still trying to find a way to worm its way out of this situation. No material desire could ever outweigh this instinct.
The being looked down at him without words. No, as it did not have anything like a face or a mouth, perhaps it could not communicate with him in a way he could understand.
It only looked at him. It looked at him, understood his wish, and acted.
As Atlas' vision faded and his mind entered the realm of unconsciousness, the last thing he saw was that being's body completely enveloping his own.
Then, once again it was only darkness.
***
"Hnngh…"
Was it sunlight?
How was there sunlight?
"Ack!"
The stinging pain proved that this was still reality, but this warmth…
Could this warmth really exist in that place?
'Am I hallucinating?'
Atlas truly didn't know whether his eyes were open or closed. He couldn't feel his body at all. It was completely numb, and everything around him felt like clouds.
There was a stinging pain in his chest that he couldn't ignore. It forced him to rember that he was indeed in reality.
'I am…alive…?'
Atlas tried his best to move, but he couldn't tell if he was doing it properly. He spent what felt like hours trying to wiggle his fingers before he felt any sort of sensation.
Still, the slight tingling was enough. With that slight tingling telling him where his arm was, he could tell that it was indeed moving along with his thoughts. rely, he could not feel it at all.
Atlas moved his working arm until he found the other. Lifting it up weakly, he placed it on his face and pushed up, crudely lifting open one of his eyelids.
His pupils dilated.
His eye was imdiately filled with an unfamiliar light. He winced in pain, his body shuddering as feeling slowly returned. He was both shivering and sweating. His physical form could not comprehend what had happened to it, so it was sending confused signals in every direction and bringing Atlas a great amount of discomfort.
"Huu…"
He was alive. A deep breath of fresh air proved that he was alive.
[Perfect Adaptability has activated.]
His mind reached stillness the mont he confird it. Slowly, gradually, he circulated qi according to the paths provided by the Five Elent Scripture. He provided warmth and stability to his ridians so they could do the sa for the rest of his body.
By the ti he had gained enough control over himself to sit up, the sun had already gone down the horizon.
'Where…am I?'
This environnt was nothing like the 21st Floor that he knew. He almost wanted to question if he was really still in the Tower, but that question answered itself in the form of a slew of notifications.
[Ascender [Atlas Vaun] has cleared the 22nd Floor.]
[Ascender [Atlas Vaun] has cleared the 23rd Floor.]
[Ascender [Atlas Vaun] has cleared the 24th Floor.]
[You have been awarded 10 Tower Points.]
[You have been awarded 5 Tower Points.]
[You have been awarded 15 Tower Points.]
[You have acquired…]
Atlas' confusion was not unwarranted.
What were these notifications?
Where was he?
And most importantly…
'What happened to after I fell off the edge?'
There were many questions that needed to be answered, but one thing was clear.
Atlas had escaped.
He was no longer re prey to an inescapable trap.
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