NOVEL NEXT Chapter 238: When The Full Moon Rises
"Calm down, Atlas," came a message from Nyx.
"Get your head together, my friend," came a message from Moros.
"If you lose your mind now, nothing will happen; you will lose, stay calm," came another message from Erebus.
Still, Atlas was in a state where he didn't know what to do, just standing there and trying to think, but his mind was still in a state of confusion.
He kept thinking about Chaos' words.
[If you keep this up, you'll die.]
[If you keep this up, you'll die.]
[If you keep this up, you will die.]
[If you keep this up, you will die.]
This voice had begun to echo in his mind, over and over again. He had thought he had overcome this thought, this fear, but in the end, this fear had engulfed him once again.
The worst part was that he wasn't personally afraid of death.
It was as if the voice he heard had changed from "If you keep this up, you'll die" to "You're dragging everyone to their deaths."
"Atlas!" Irene suddenly shouted, grabbing Atlas by the shoulders and shaking him back and forth as if she were roughing him up.
When Atlas came to his senses and saw the pain on Irene's face, he couldn't help but ask, "What are we going to do?"
"We'll think about it. That's what we have to do. We have to think. We have to lay out all the possibilities we have. Lady Juliet, I have a question," Irene said suddenly.
When Juliet turned to Irene curiously, she asked, "The Sages and Sister Eva. They're outside the gate, aren't they? Unlike Elder Cosmo."
When Juliet nodded her head up and down, Irene turned to the vampire soldiers standing in the throne room and shouted, "Gather every single Ancient Dragon in Shadowfall City here right now!!!"
Iso, who was standing at the front of the vampire soldiers, immediately nodded his head and left the throne room with three dozen vampires.
Victory messages were still coming in from many fronts, but the largest front had been lost. They needed to act quickly.
"Atlas... That pill Lucifer gave you... I think the time has come. We must go on the offensive. If there is anything that can help us, even if it only temporarily increases your power, you must use it," Irene said suddenly.
In short, the young woman was trying to present the possibility of Atlas sacrificing himself.
Juliet was surprised by Irene's words. Even the gods and goddesses knew how much Irene loved Atlas, seeing him as her brother.
In this situation, Irene saying such a thing must have cut deepest into her own heart.
When Atlas heard these words, he immediately reached into his inventory, took out the pill Lucifer had given him, and then took a deep breath and asked, "Should I do it now?"
"It's not illogical. After all, Lucifer said that when you reach the point of losing everything, you should swallow this pill. That's what he said. This is that moment," Juliet replied.
Atlas nodded his head up and down to indicate that he understood, and then swallowed the pill Lucifer had given him.
Everyone had stopped breathing. Every servant and soldier in the throne room, Irene and Juliet herself, every god and goddess watching from the sacred realm, had held their breath. They wanted to see what would happen.
Atlas closed his eyes and tried to sense something. One minute, two minutes, five minutes, ten minutes—he waited for twenty minutes, but nothing happened.
Not a single thing happened.
He had neither gained any abilities nor experienced a burst of power. Nothing had happened at all.
Atlas immediately realised that something was wrong; he must have done something wrong. He saw Lucifer's expression, everything, the emptiness in his eyes, the anxiety and traces of strain and fatigue.
Even though he was a great demon, Lucifer was a fallen angel, one of the two most powerful beings in existence. There was no reason for him to deceive Atlas, especially while locked away in the lowest level of the fake hell.
This also showed where Atlas was being pushed.
"A moment when you lose everything, when all your loved ones are dragged to their deaths…" Atlas had said. Despite the astonishment in the eyes of those around him, he had already concluded.
'Juliet,' Atlas said suddenly. This time, he didn't say "lady" or 'ma'am,' but addressed the Seventh Sage, Juliet Simone, as if giving an order.
'Speak,' Juliet replied, her seriousness alone telling the Sage that she had already realised something.
'How long do I have to wait for you to beam me to the middle of the battlefield?' Atlas asked suddenly.
As Juliet, Irene, and everyone else looked on in shock, dozens of message windows had already popped up in front of Atlas:
[YOU CAN'T DO THAT!]
[HAVE YOU LOST YOUR MIND?]
[WE WON'T LET YOU DIE!!!]
[WE FORBID YOU FROM GOING THERE!]
Dozens of gods and goddesses had begun sending him messages, but Atlas paid no attention to any of them. An idea had come to him—he had to take a gamble, a dangerous one that could lead to his downfall.
"I can recover in two days… What happened?" Juliet asked in great fear, terrified of what she thought Atlas might want.
"What about everyone else… Aveline, Mother, and all the remaining ancient dragons, the Epsilon Empire Army, and the Church of the Night, Pope and his soldiers? How long would it take to teleport them?" Atlas asked.
"A month. Maximum a month…" Juliet had said.
"Isn't the barrier still sturdy?" Atlas had asked.
"Yes," Juliet replied.
"Then get ready, we're going to war," Atlas responded, turning to Irene and saying, "Go to the teleportation circle, enter the Sun Palace in the capital, and convey these words to my uncle Aether:" He then took a deep breath and spoke:
"Either salvation or destruction. The choice is yours. A month from now, when the full moon appears in the sky, in the middle of the night, we will fight against millions of soldiers as Selene's Moonlight shines upon us."
Irene shook her head up and down, even though she was scared, and then left the area.
Meanwhile, Atlas turned to another of the vampire messengers in the throne room and said, 'Go to the Great Elf Palace and tell them these words,' and then took another deep breath and spoke:
'The Honourable Member of the Elves, the Valuable Child of the Sages, and the Duke of the Empire demands the repayment of your debt. Atlas Shorkeeper, the first Duke of the Fourth Duchy of the Epsilon Empire, is summoning all elves to war. I want everyone to be ready when Selene's Moonlight shines in the sky during the full moon.'
The messenger vampire shook his head and, with his hair standing on end, left the throne room and went to the second floor of Shadowfall Palace to the teleportation circle that would transport him to the elf palace.
Immediately afterwards, another messenger vampire turned and, without pausing for even a second, said, "Go to the Dwarf Empire and convey these words to the Queen of the Mountains," took another deep breath, and then spoke:
'Great Queen of the Dwarves, your friend Atlas Shorekeeper seeks your help in matters of life and death. When Selene's Moonlight shines upon us, when the full moon shines in the sky, we will fight with every soldier you have.'
As the messenger vampire made his way to the second floor of Shadowfall Palace, Atlas had no one left to call upon and had taken his seat on his throne.
There was one thing Atlas understood. He had finally grasped why his conversation with Chaos kept echoing in his mind.
[If this continues, you will die.]
[You have made the moves that lock your fate.]
[While everyone else's fate is changing, yours is locked.]
And many more.
This brought Lucifer's words to the forefront.
[When you reach the point where you lose everyone you love and value, you must swallow this pill.]
When these words came to Atlas at that moment, they told him what he had to do when the time came to act.
His fate had already been sealed. This battle would be the battle in which he would die. He had to face a power that even the Sages could not resist, but Atlas had already fought Beelzebub.
He had fought a twelve-day battle with him, a futile one that ended with his defeat, and in his previous life, he had been far weaker than he was now.
He could have succeeded.
"Juliet, the other Ancient Demons… Are any of them dead?" Atlas had asked.
'Three of them. Mammon, Asmodeus, and Leviathan are dead. Satan and Belphegor are severely injured. Both were betrayed by Beelzebub. The only one left who can fight is Beelzebub... unless all of this is just a game,' Juliet replied.
Atlas smiled, and hope returned instantly.
Beelzebub was the demon who tried to steal Lucifer's sin, "Pride," and merge it with his own sin, "Gluttony"… He was a demon too proud to play games.
He was honourable, proud, and powerful.
That was the only reason Atlas respected him, despite hating him.
At least he was a realistic demon.