Tower of Heaven

Chapter 342 Walk of Purgatory [2]

It was somewhat expected, but the darkness Atlas stepped into didn't change into anything else.

It remained as darkness, eternal and never-changing.

Atlas took several steps forward merely to confirm his position.

He was indeed standing on a solid surface that blended into the blackness all around. There wasn't anything around him, making this space feel infinite…

'This is not the Underworld.'

It was the first thought that came to his mind.

This was clearly not the Underworld. It didn't have any features of that place.

'But…if I am not mistaken, this is where I should be.'

He walked around, glancing at his surroundings. Naturally, there wasn't much to see at all.

'This plane is so large that it is almost impossible to meet another wandering soul. It was specifically designed for that purpose.'

It was a place that existed connected to all mythologies. It was a place best known as "Purgatory."

'The reason I was sent here is quite simple.'

Souls that entered the Underworld were delegated to the specific death realms that they followed. For instance, followers of Olympus, one of the largest Godly Societies, would be sent to the Underworld related to their Society Legend.

Most Society Legends had a form of an Underworld. Those who did not belong to those Legends or have relations to them, well, they would end up here.

In a land between life and death, a land where souls were meant to eternally wander.

They would wait in Purgatory until their souls were delegated to random Underworlds so they could be judged, cleansed, and sent into reincarnation.

Atlas didn't belong to any Society Legend that had ties to an Underworld. He was also a living being, so he naturally wasn't directly sent anywhere.

He was sent to the buffer point. From here, it was his job to find his own way.

It was his job, but there wasn't much he could do, was there?

There was only one rule in Purgatory. The souls trapped here could never stop moving. If they did, they would lose parts of themselves that were vital to their egos.

Atlas was alive, so it was even worse for him. As he walked through the darkness, he felt it latching onto his skin curiously.

It tasted him, embraced him, and tried to lull him into its grasp. It tried to take his human flesh from him and turn him into another wandering soul that would feed its Legend.

It took his perception of time.

It made him unable to know up from down or left from right. It didn't allow him to keep track of whether it had been some minutes or some months.

And, it confused his brain, making every second feel eternally long.

Atlas walked.

He walked and walked and walked with nothing else to do. He entertained himself with thoughts for as long as he could, but even those disappeared after a while.

Aimlessness couldn't be felt better in any other place.

For a time there, Atlas even felt that he'd become a wandering soul, a being that was miserable yet unaware of its own misery, existing with no purpose other than to exist until they could be judged for the deeds they committed during life.

However, he was different from them.

He only remembered this fact when that shining door of light appeared in front of him.

If he could see his own body, he'd be petrified. He was much skinnier than he was when he entered this realm and his face was sunken in like a malnourished mortal's.

Of course, his soul form maintained the appearance he held in his prime, but that soul form was still very attached to his body.

The last thing he wanted was for those two to separate.

The light door was too big. It was huge in both length and width, completely blinding Atlas.

He didn't enter its light on purpose. He stumbled forward as he tried to avert his gaze, falling into its grasp.

And for the first time, Atlas was revealed to a scenery other than blackness.

A long marble drawbridge with ropes made of threaded gold hung over a great darkness. Very unlike Purgatory, that darkness swayed and moved, ever-so-slightly allowing the ridges of a massive beast's back to peak through its surface.

At the end of the drawbridge was another set of massive doors. Only, this one was guarded.

It was guarded by a being that made Atlas fall to his knees before he could even approach.

A tall, slender figure at least ten meters tall. He wore a loincloth and a headdress unlike anything Atlas had ever seen before.

His neck was decorated by a necklace of large blocky jewels, and he had the head of a jackal with a pointed snout and sharp eyes that stared directly at the man who had entered his domain.

He held in his hand a totem that Atlas actually did know the identity of.

'An ankh.'

He'd heard the term from a dear friend of his. He'd heard a description of this very figure as well, which was what made him absolutely sure of what he was seeing.

A God.

Standing there and staring at him was an entity that could be described as no less than a God; a figure of equal stature to those who had been observing Atlas from the Heavens all this time.

He stared at that figure, unable to rip his eyes away. His mind was engulfed by the unfathomable aura that being carried.

If he was a soul as he was supposed to be, he wouldn't have been affected by this pressure. However, as a living person visiting this plane, he had no choice but to feel what soul forms could not.

As he sat there, he felt his mind suddenly begin to calm.

He looked in the air for a notification, but it never came.

'I see…'

[Perfect Adaptability] had activated.

'Since the Tower has less influence here, the message did not appear even when the effect was activated.'

The message never appeared, but nobody could doubt that Atlas' trait was working in full force.

Because, in just a few seconds, he was able to stand up and face that God properly.

He looked at the darkness below and tried to peek at the beast inhabiting it as he crossed the drawbridge and arrived on the other side.

He raised his gaze to look at that God, and no matter how daring or suicidal it seemed, he opened his mouth to speak.

"Anubis."

He said the name of that being, a name that was not an epithet used in the Tower.

It was the true name of this God, and if he truly was who Atlas thought he was, then he already knew what was going to happen.

He remembered back when he, Artemia, and Horus were adventuring through the Tower together. Back then, there were a few times when they were alone and Horus started talking about the life he lived before entering the Tower.

Anubis was a character that appeared in those stories. In Atlas' understanding, he was someone that Horus looked up to very much.

However…

'With the current state of the Ennead, it may not be wise to state my affiliations.' Continue your saga on empire

No, rather than that, this was a good opportunity for him to help his friend and confirm the allegiances of this God.

Really, for someone who hadn't even reached the World Core Realm, Atlas really had unbelievable ambitions.