Page 291

Mid Afternoon - Mid Winter : Atlas, Bahamut

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*tip* *tap* *tip* *tap* The echoes of my footsteps could be clearly heard bouncing off the distant walls as I followed the butler through a massive white-stone room filled with items, materials, and artifacts beneath the auditorium.

It was the main storage area, where the items to be sold over the next few days were stored, displaying countless beautiful artifacts, jewels, statues, and even slaves and pets.

But while I would have typically been quite fascinated seeing so many things from all over the world gathered in one place, the farther we walked into the room, the more anxious I became. -W..what is going on...-

It had only been a few minutes since Krystallo and I split up with Amphitrite at that point, but after being led into a lavish storage area, where we were presented with all the items Krystallo had bought as well as various 'courtesies' provided by the Chalastís family such as alcohol, jewelry, and art, I was pulled away by our butler to retrieve and 'verify the integrity' of the Eye of Bahamut.

With the way the butler worded it, I figured he was simply taking me to a separate, nearby storage room similar to the one we were in, but I quickly found that not to be the case.

Over the following eight minutes, we traced through a maze of hallways and security checkpoints while discussing how I would pay for the items until we eventually came into the main storage room.

The moment we got there, the butler abruptly turned completely silent. Within the room, the only thing that made noise was our footsteps and the occasional jingle of a chain from a slave, but that did not mean we were alone.

Spread throughout the room, there were seven ancients lying beneath a blanket of light magic, remaining completely silent while eyeing us as we walked.

But eventually, we came up to a colossal gold and marble door with a beautiful golden insignia of Bahamut on it and came to a stop.

"This is as far as I can lead you, Sir Vasilias." The butler spoke with a bit of hesitancy as he bowed.

-What does he mean? Is this the storage area?- I momentarily looked up at the door before turning back to him. "Is the artifact in there?"

He nodded immediately. "Indeed. However, not only am I not permitted to enter, I am afraid my mind is too frail to withstand the gaze of the artifact."

-So, that really is what I felt... I guess it's name came from somewhere...- "I see. In that case, forgive me for going ahead." *flash*

I quickly changed to my dragon form, but the butler didn't even react. "If you require assistance, please ask. I will retrieve those able to move it for you."

As my spell finished, I glanced back at him. "Good to know."

Quickly turning back to the marble door, I let more of my aura loose and walked over to it. *Vwoom*

The door was a few meters thick and unbelievably heavy, but as I walked up to it, the lock was undone, and it swung open on its own.

*ts-fwooosh* A strong but lifelessly dry and cold breeze immediately rushed out of the door as it opened, and with it, the horribly oppressive gaze returned.

*VWOOM* Unleashing my aura again, I tried to ease the pressure as I did in the booth, but while it helped for a moment, with every step I took into the room, it grew stronger and harder to resist.

The further I walked, the heavier my body felt and the more sluggish my mind became, until it finally felt like I was forcing my way through a deep bog.

But continuing forward, one step at a time, I entered the massive area and carefully walked all the way to its center, where a massive mythril pedestal laid, proudly displaying a deep black sphere.

Just standing there somehow made my legs weak and my body feel fatigued.

But as if that wasn't enough, the moment I looked at the artifact, my skin crawled. It felt as if I was looking into a black hole. As if I were looking at certain death.

"Hah... Hah..." My breaths immediately became strained, and before long, my instincts began telling me to leave, but I did the opposite. -Just.. what are you...-

With nothing but awful sensations filling my mind, I eventually worked up the courage to put a little mana into it; however, things didn't exactly go as expected.

*Vwowoom* "Huh?" Confusion instantly replaced my discomfort.

The moment I tried to give it some mana, I found that it wasn't an artifact at all. -W..what? What is this thing?-

Quickly gathering some space mana, I surrounded the sphere completely, but even at that scale, it seemed impossibly uniform and smooth and didn't allow any mana to pass into it.

That was when it finally clicked. "Is this.. pure divinity?"

Although I couldn't tell if it was hollow or solid, something in my gut told me it was somehow more than I imagined. -Just how much divinity is this...-

Succumbing to my curiosity, as I leaned in to look at it more closely, I moved my paw over to it.

As the tip of my claw approached it, my instincts screamed at me to turn around and leave, but I continued to move it closer and closer until finally... *tink*

*GASP* "AH!" I instantly jolted up in a panic, gripping my chest while drenched in sweat. "Hah.. hah..."

But nothing felt right...

-W..what just happened...-

Looking up, I found myself on a soft bed in a frigid room with a simple closet, clothes spread across the ground, and a bedside table with several pictures of unfamiliar humans on them. -W..what?-

Although I barely recognized it, I was back on Earth. In my room. -What the fuck?-

Looking toward the window, I saw a thin layer of ice and snow beginning to build on it and quickly jumped off the bed to see the familiar scene of snowfall through the frosted glass.

*Beep* *Beep* *Beep* *Beep* Hearing the loud beeping of an alarm suddenly filling the air, I looked over to see an alarm clock suddenly on the bedside table, reading '9:30 AM'. -What is going on...-

Quickly walking out of the room, I entered a carpeted hallway and walked down it to find a familiar office with a computer displaying dozens of blurry black and white images. -This isn't real...-

*creak* The cheap wooden doorframe only creaked as I gripped it, immediately causing doubt to seep into my thoughts.. but after another moment, I ran back down the hallway to where the bathroom was and found the mirror.

Looking into my reflection, I met eyes with a brown-haired, green-eyed human.

Although it was only slightly, they looked somewhat familiar.

They were me. But at the same time, they were a stranger.

But rather than questioning or doubting it, my blood started to boil.

In an instant, my reflection's pupils dilated and turned purple, its hair turned black and grew in length, and two wolf ears and dragon horns sprouted out of its head.

"What a sick fucking trick." *VWOOM-BAAAANG* The house instantaneously turned to plasma as a massive fireball consumed my surroundings, vaporizing the snow-covered trees and dispersing the dense clouds above me.

*splat* Landing in the pool of molten rock, I looked up at the sky to see the sun and moon sitting next to each other like the eyes of a creature, and the gaze I previously felt from the artifact returned several thousand-fold.

*VWOOOM-CRACK* But as the pressure destroyed everything around me, shattering the Earth's surface and launching molten debris far into the air, my angered stare didn't waver.

*flash* Changing to my dragon form, I moved an unfathomable mass of mana into my breath gland and looked up at the sky once more. *VWOOOOM* "Of all the visions you could have given me, putting me in this memory was by far the worst choice."

Opening my mouth, I aimed up at the moon and compressed all the matter in my breath gland to a single point.

*FLASH* A silent string of light instantly stretched into the sky, but after just one second, there was another, far more blinding flash on the moon's surface.

*CRUMBLE* As the flash dissipated with a massive light-warping ripple, an unfathomably enormous fireball was made visible, and the surface of the moon shattered, blasting colossal chunks of rock into space.

But rather than the debris floating out in a straight line, it all slowly began changing directions before sinking in toward the sun like water draining from a sink.

But it only made the gaze's pressure grow in strength. *CRRRRUNCH* My scales shattered instantly, and my head lowered to the ground, but as I resisted and forced my head back up, an unfamiliar voice met my ears.

"~What a fascinating being you have become...~"

The instant the voice finished speaking, my surroundings changed, and I once again found myself in the storage room, standing over the mythril pedestal, this time without the pressure of the gaze.

But as I went to look at the 'artifact' once more, I found Ilios gripping his teeth into it with an enraged expression. -Huh?-

Unlike earlier, during the bidding, he was himself, but he was wearing an expression I had never seen on him. "Ilios? Are you alright?"

His expression quickly eased as his tail began wagging, but after another moment, it suddenly stopped, and his demeanor changed once again. -What is he...-

He quickly shot me an unusual look before finally turning away and hopping off the pedestal with the artifact in his mouth.

"Hey, Ilios.. what are you-" *vwoom* He instantaneously disappeared through a black sphere as I spoke.

It made my eyes shoot open instantly. -W..what? S..since when could he.. do that...-

Feeling his 'presence' grow incredibly faint and distant, similar to when I was with Hera, I looked toward his presence through the ground, but before I could question where he was, another gate appeared in front of me, and he dropped out of it with a thin layer of frost on his fur. *vwoom*

His gaze and demeanor immediately returned to normal once he touched the ground as if what just happened was simply a fa?ade, but while he ran up to me, my expression wasn't of comfort but rather of concern.

"I..Ilios?"

He cutely tilted his head as he looked up at me.

But my chest was still tight with anxiety.. a part of me felt like naivety and ignorance would have been better than the truth, but even with that fact, after a moment, I asked it. "Are you.. really the Ilios, I know? Or has it all been.. an act..."

His momentary pause felt like an eternity, but after giving me a confused look, his tail started to wag, and he sat down and looked me in the eyes.

Unlike during the auction and just a moment ago, the deep void within his pupils didn't seem empty, but rather full of color.. and full of stars...

There was an immediate, comforting sensation that washed through my mind, but along with it, there was a string of doubt... A single question that would contaminate my mind for years to come. -If he is really the Ilios I love... Then what was that look I saw just a second ago...-

At that moment, it was what I wanted to ask him about it more than anything, but I also knew I wouldn't get an answer.

However.. that was undoubtedly for the best.. whether I really knew it then or not.

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