Tower of Heaven

The moment he arrived on the floor, he was already in that place. It played out like clockwork.

"Are you lost?"

The voice came from a grand and ornate carriage that passed by right as Atlas arrived.

Regardless of his response, the next events were all the same.

"Come with me. We will give you a place to stay."

He was taken in by that person, and "in gratitude," he agreed to become a knight who served them loyally.

It was almost like the perception of time on this floor was intentionally skewed so that it felt unbelievably longer. Atlas' own body told him it had been a week since he came to this floor, but the progression of events in the story of this trial made it feel like he had been serving his "liege" for years.

In this week, he settled into his role. He played his part properly and protected his target, but the trial wasn't easy to complete.

He had to be in his "liege's" service until he "earned their trust." To do so, he had to remain loyal through the "events" that took place.

These events were usually assassinations or sudden ambushes from beasts. There seemed to be some sort of danger on the horizon that was meant to provoke an ultimate act of loyalty, but Atlas couldn't quite tell what it was yet.

He hadn't made it far, after all.

The trial had an interesting way of showing him how much that person trusted him. At the moment, he couldn't even see their face.

Their body was a black shadow that would slowly reveal pieces of their figure as they started to trust him.

Atlas saw hands that indicated that the individual was female and the hem of what looked like a very expensive dress, but that was the extent of it.

That was the extent of it until one day, while they were making a routine trip to a neighboring city, they faced a catastrophe.

Booooooooom!

A huge explosion rocked the surroundings.

"Get down!" Atlas yelled, grabbing everyone's attention.

They acted on instinct and followed his orders while he abruptly leapt in front of the main carriage and summoned his blades.

Bang!

His body was thrown into the air as a result of the impact, but the carriage remained unharmed.

"Retreat! I will cover the rear!"

Atlas' eyes narrowed as he stared into the distance in search of the assailant.

His eyes scanned the entire horizon before he was suddenly startled by a voice in his ears.

"Found you."

Boom!

Atlas rapidly ducked down and barely avoided two blades slashing at where his throat once was.

'Right. This is what I forgot.'

[3-Layered Shockwave]

Boom! Boom! Boom!

"That won't work this time. I already know that pattern, remember?"

The grating voice was a familiar one.

"So you were being serious about that game," Atlas sighed while retreating.

"I was. And since you're entertaining me, I guess you really must want the reward at the end."

"How do you know I am not concerned about those thousands of people you planned to kill?"

Cain tilted his head as if the question had an obvious answer.

"You're a cultivator, aren't you? Why would you care about a bunch of unrelated flies?"

"Either way, since I've found you, you have to kill me. Otherwise, you'll die without saving anyone or achieving anything."

"Isn't that what you want to see?"

Atlas took their conversation as a moment to prepare himself. As Cain said, he knew many of Atlas' moves.

This time, Atlas had to fight differently while also keeping in mind their potential future encounters. He had to hide his cards deeper and reveal them to the world at the same time.

'It's a difficult situation.'

It was, but since Cain decided to converse before starting the battle, it carried the air of a spar rather than a life-and-death encounter.

'I can treat it as such.'

Atlas readied himself. He knew that using the old chain sickles against Cain would yield him nothing close to a good result, but he still drew them.

The sickle blades were cracked, so they couldn't be used for cutting, but the chains they were attached to were still fully functional weapons.

As for the Iridescent Steel, he decided to save it for the moment. He didn't quite want Cain to be expecting his new weapon.

'His dexterity is something I could use.'

Cains's fighting style was actually very similar to what Atlas used in a sense. If he could adopt some of those ideas for himself…

"...re you ready?"

Atlas firmed his gaze. As Cain finished talking, he planted his feet and grounded himself.

The air between them was silent for a moment. The carriage, its passengers, and the remaining escorts and knights were all gone.

The only remaining things in this field were Cain, Atlas, and the wind that swept between them.

It was quiet enough to hear a leaf drop. In fact, they did hear a leaf drop. It was at that exact moment when Cain charged like a raging bull.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The once calm atmosphere was ruined in an instant and filled with the sounds of clashing metal.

Atlas used his chain sickles while still following the properties of [Counterflow]. With thick and durable chains as his weapons, he had access to a variety of parrying encountering techniques.

Cain's left arm came down and was greeted by the right chain. It wrapped around the arm blade and pulled it upward. Cain tried to pull it back down, but Atlas used that to his advantage and gave his blow extra momentum through the chain, forcing it to miss him entirely and dig into the ground instead.

Meanwhile, as Cain struck with his other arm, Atlas weaved around the trajectory and pushed his body forward, stepping into Cain's space and disrupting his balance.

Bang!

His fist struck the man's chest. He felt the bones in his wrist breaking, but he didn't miss the opportunity to strike.

[Mighty Flame Fist]

The flames acted in tandem with the energy of [Dominating Fist] and spread against Cain's chest, burning his skin off.

"Going for the same strategy?"

Cain continued to speak as if he was unbothered. He didn't show a single sign of pain despite being hit so hard.

"Unfortunately, that won't work a second time either. I made sure to reinforce this puppet to make things harder for you, you know."

"Tsk."

Going for the heart wouldn't be a viable option if the bone armor was reinforced in the chest area.

'But he had only three weeks. In this time, could he truly make significant changes to the existing structure?'

He didn't experience an entire year like Atlas did.

The frame of the corpse puppet was the same as the last one, which meant that they had been customized and created by Cain himself.

He wouldn't have had time to completely adapt to Atlas' strengths.

And, he had no idea that Atlas was now impossibly stronger than he was during their last encounter.

'He just moved around the puppet's originally existing features.'

Since the bone armor was stronger in the chest area now…

Bang!

Atlas squatted down and flicked his arm in a steady motion, sending a compounded wave of force into the chain weapon. It snapped against Cain's leg, bringing forth a disgusting shattering sound of bones being destroyed.

'Good.'

Atlas nodded to himself.

'If it is like this…'

He charged valiantly into battle once more.

'...then he is already as good as dead.'