Tower of Heaven

"The boy left."

When Atlas departed from Vanatos, Alaric went to see Mireiya.

"Did you know this would happen?"

He didn't know about it at all until Atlas came. Artemia was bound to a soul token, so if she was in danger, a signal would be sent to the Tatsuya Clan. The fact that Alaric did not see this signal meant that it had been hidden from him.

And, he wasn't happy that the first piece of news he heard about his daughter in three years was the fact that she had been attacked and kidnapped.

Walking into Mireiya's room and speaking without waiting for a response, Alaric pushed past the curtain and looked at her face to face.

A pale white complexion that looked almost sickly and hair of a platinum color, she had a rare beauty that was hidden and destroyed by the curse of her existence. Only Alaric could see what was beyond the exterior.

Looking back at her husband, Mireiya sighed.

"I did know. How could I not?"

She had known from the moment she met with Atlas last that this event would happen. She had enough time to properly prepare so that Alaric wouldn't do anything rash before anything actually occurred.

"Why?"

Why didn't she tell him? She didn't need him to say any more to understand his question.

"Isn't my reason the same as that boy? You cannot become a Calamity again. We both know what will happen if you do."

Alaric frowned, but he didn't argue.

His story was one known throughout the Tower. Nobody was stranger to the overall explanation of why Alaric became the Calamity Dragon, but the specifics of the situation were more convoluted than anyone could imagine.

What the public knew was this:

Due to a feud that had been ongoing for many years, Alaric Tatsuya was pushed off the edge. He went wild and showed the world what kind of power he possessed by destroying several floors of the Tower and slaughtering millions.

However, it was deeper than that. There were reasons that even Alaric could not speak out loud because of the vows he made when everything ended.

"They took Artemia because they know I cannot act," he said.

"Yes. You cannot act directly, but isn't that why that boy visited you? We still have the power of this clan behind us. We built all of this for that purpose," Mireiya responded kindly.

She held his hand and squeezed warmth into it.

"Trust him. I believe he will be able to save our daughter. And, while he does so…"

Alaric nodded with a sigh.

"...we will get revenge on those who had the audacity to test us."

He could not rage and riot, but revenge was not impossible. It just had to be carried out in different ways.

"At least tell me if our daughter is safe…"

His main concern was, of course, his daughter's status. More than "how" she was kidnapped, the fact that she was kidnapped at all was the problem in his mind.

Mireiya looked into his eyes and nodded.

"Just like you are her father, I am her mother. If she was not safe, I would not be so calm."n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

Alaric nodded.

'Has the time come for the younger generation to take over?"

It used to be common sense for him to take care of these things, but his interference was becoming less and less frequent.

'Even during the Blood Moon, I only took care of that one sage. Everything else was taken care of by the youngsters.'

He felt extremely uncomfortable knowing that he couldn't personally save his daughter. The lack of information about her whereabouts was also incredibly concerning.

But, just like Mireiya said, perhaps it was better to trust Atlas.

Because Alaric knew his disciple.

When that boy wanted something done, he wouldn't stop until he saw it so. Nothing could stand in his way.

Despite the circumstances, a small smile appeared on his face.

'Maybe a new Calamity will be born through him.'

It would be fun to see. Just as the older generation watched on as he terrorized the Tower all those years ago, he would do the same for these new rising dragons.

Though he preferred the frontlines, Alaric was also quite satisfied with this position.

***

Leaving Vanatos, Atlas returned to Minora.

Minora was the next truly habitable zone in the Tower. It was neutral in every sense and was not ruled by a few specific influences.

In other words, Minora was the place where smaller Societies thrived. They set up their roots there and protected each other so that the land could never be completely ruled by one force. They congregated and formed a great nation that defined the 40th Floor Neutral Zone.

Its climate was a mixture of many things and its qi didn't particularly favor one dao over another. It really was the perfect place to settle if one wanted to be away from the Tower.

Atlas specifically came here to meet with someone important. Naturally, it was the person who had become his personal informant over the past years.

"Is that really all of the information you have?" Scarlet Fox asked with a sigh.

"Yes. He said he sent them to hell. If I am assuming that he was telling the truth, then that is my only clue."

Scarlet Fox sighed again, rubbing her temple.

"It's too much of a possibility that he was just using it as an expression, but… Haa, fine. You would be lucky if he was talking about the place called Hell, but that probably isn't the case."

Quickly, she took out an artifact that looked like a book. After skimming through it, she took a small coin and tapped it to the page. A flow of qi moved between the page and the coin before she handed it over to Atlas.

"'Hell' is a term that's usually used to refer to an underworld. The problem is that there are countless underworlds. Each Godly Society has one related to their Legends, so I can't accurately predict which one they were sent to."

Atlas took the information with an expression of gratitude and skimmed through it. Immediately, he saw several different underworlds he'd never heard of before.

"If that guy really wasn't lying, then they'll definitely be in one of those places."

From his first source of information, that was all he could find. Scarlet Fox was currently in the process of setting up an information guild of her own, so she didn't have the means to get any and all information in the Tower yet.

Nevertheless, as long as Atlas had money, he knew multiple ways to confirm what he learned.

He looked up into the sky after parting with Scarlet Fox.

"Are you there?"

There were several Gods watching him, but the one he called knew who he was referring to.

[Treacherous Phoenix asks you what you would like to know.]

"I want to confirm that my comrades are truly in the underworld."

[Treacherous Phoenix asks if that is your only question.]

"If they are in the underworld, I also want to know how to get there."

[Treacherous Phoenix says that they can give you the information, but it will be costly.]

Atlas had saved up quite a bit of Tower Points since the last time he gave her everything he had, but the accumulation was slow. The Tower didn't award points so easily.

"Is 500 enough?"

He asked fruitlessly and got the response he expected.

[Treacherous Phoenix says you will need at least 5000 for the information you seek.]

Then, he didn't have a choice.

He took out the reward he received from the 40th Floor Cumulative Trial.

Back then, the notifications he ignored were simple.

They told him of the Tower Points he'd been awarded, of the Legends that had been enhanced, and most importantly…

[A reward is being generated for you based on your contributions…]

[You have been awarded an [Earthly Acquisition Token] for your contributions.]

It had a fancy name, but its use was simple.

It was a "pass" worth 10,000 Tower Points.

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