Chapter 127: Secret Realm [2]

The corridor was quite long, or, at least, it was long enough for Drya to finish explaining everything Atlas needed to know.Firstly, it was unknown what the true number of people in the realm was. The only thing truly known was that all of them were moving at fast speeds to get ahead of each other.

Ars Goetia had an advantage because its members already knew about the realm from ancient records. Now that it was accessible, they had sent three teams to conquer it. Drya's was the last of them.

For a moment, Atlas believed that this would be a smooth run through the realm. However, problems appeared from the very beginning.

"This…" Drya muttered to herself once they entered the first realm space.

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"Isn't this meant to be the second trial?"

She looked to a bespectacled demon towards the back of the group. He nodded and came forward.

"The groups inside have not sent any word, but it is likely that the trial has somewhat changed. The Devil Fruit will still be present, as the conditions of the secret realm have not changed, but something else has happened in the time since its last opening to influence it in an unknown direction."

Drya nodded in understanding.

"It has been several thousand years since the last record of its opening, so it's natural if there are some changes. The second level has become the first, but it is still the same level that we know. Let's proceed forward without change."

The members of her group followed without question. It was clear that they trusted her directions.

"This time, our goal is to kill the beasts that appear and gather their essence. We can then use that essence to unlock the door to the next area."

The explanation was more for Atlas than the rest. They were in a damp and swampy cave. The water was still but filled with dark blue and green weeds. There was low visibility as well, but the appearance of the beasts wasn't hidden.

They crashed down from the ceiling and splashed into the shallow water, screeching loudly as they charged.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

Drya and her team immediately went to work. Atlas noticed that they were using Daos that he was familiar with, but the qi was different. It was darker in color and thicker in texture. Despite comprehending the same laws, their way of doing so was different enough to create entirely new scenes.

Bang!

Atlas grabbed his own chain sickles and confronted some of the spider beasts. He also had to pull his weight, after all.

'They have three backline members meant to support them, three who engage in close combat, and another two who support from midfield.'

It was a decent setup that covered most of their weaknesses. The beasts were no different from

Earth Sages, but they were still demolished quite easily. The combination of so many forces was too much for them in their smaller numbers.

Shik!

The blade of a chain sickle stabbed through the head of a spider. As it fell to the floor, a blue and white light essence floated out of its body. Atlas grabbed it and put it into his spatial ring before moving on.

The group fought for several minutes. Nothing special happened to disrupt their process, so they rapidly killed off the spiders that appeared until the rate at which they dropped slowed down to a crawl.

"Quickly bring me everything you've gathered! Let's move on as fast as we can," Drya said.

With all of the essences in her hand, she brought out an artifact that looked like a key. The light essences were absorbed into it, and as she walked to the nearest wall and inserted it, the space around them changed.

"Now, it's time for the fun part."

Regardless of the differences in the realm, one thing remained true.

They could still interfere with other people.

Actually, there was more to this first trial than just killing beasts, but Drya made the decision to put those things aside for now.

"The most important thing is striking before they clear the first trial."

Those people also just entered the realm. Their two groups were at the same place.

The wall morphed and twelve pieces of stone protruded from its surface.

"You said they were in the sixth, right?" Drya asked.

"Yes. They went into the sixth hallway from the left."

Drya nodded and moved to the piece of stone associated with said hallway. Pressing it in, she once again made the wall change. It retreated entirely and was replaced by a window-like projection that showed an area only differing from where they stood in that the weeds were distributed differently.

There, another group of eight fought against the same spiders. Drya's face lit up when she saw them.

"Great! Now, it should be…"

She placed her hand on the hologram, and it responded. Suddenly, the number of spiders falling from the ceiling in that space doubled.

"Be careful! Something is changing!"

The words were not heard through the hologram but could be understood by reading lips.

"This was not in the information!"

"Nothing was in the information! The source lied to us! Steady yourself and fight. The wave will eventually end!"

That conversation was precisely what Drya wanted to see.

"I wish I could do more, but there's only a limited number of times we can mess with people. I don't want to waste them too early and accomplish nothing."

She turned around with a refreshed look on her face.

"We should also get into the second phase. We don't want to lag behind and miss the chance to do this again!"

She put her people back to work. Larger and more dangerous spiders would fall soon. In order to move on, the group had to gather ten complete corpses of those spiders and arrange them in a formation.

Atlas worked with his new teammates without complaint, but he was observing the entire time. The group was filled with personalities that hadn't immediately shown themselves when he first saw them, but his concern was elsewhere.

'Heaven's Gate…they have accumulated a lot of ire from the masses.'

Certainly, cultivators were beings willing to kill others for even the slightest offense, but this was different. Most of Drya's hatred was directed towards the Great Society itself.

It wasn't just her. Her companions were less prone to showing their emotions so freely, but Atlas saw them looking over at the projection and smiling slightly when they saw the enemies struggling.

'It's a real indicator of their behavior.'

On the 11th Floor, an information broker named Greivus told him that the Great Society was viewed negatively, but he understated it greatly.

'The behavior of their lower tier members says enough about the people who lead them. The public can only bear grievances in their hearts and keep silent in fear of the power the Society holds, but these people don't have the same worries.'

They were backed by an equally strong influence, so they could actually voice their complaints.

'Hmm…'

Atlas frowned to himself.

At every step, he discovered more conflict. The Tower was nothing like a peaceful place.

No.

The people who were once spread across the infinite realms had all been contained in a single structure, and all of their conflicts were boiling over and colliding at the same time.

Currently, it had nothing to do with Atlas. He didn't believe the people of Heaven's Gate were still focused on him.

However, there was a feeling in his heart that he could not deny.

One day, he would be forced into those very conflicts that seemed unrelated to him now.

And Heaven's Gate…

'Heaven's Gate seems like the center of it all.'

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