Chapter 251: Stopped Time

After some moments, the Dragon Emperor and Solaris came down as Seraphiel’s still-unconscious body remained in Solaris’s arms. She held her tightly, almost as if she were afraid that letting go for even a moment would somehow cause her to lose her again. Solaris looked at Seraphiel’s peaceful face with a worried expression as she wondered, ’Why isn’t she waking up? She is completely healed, right?’

Atlas looked at Solaris’s worried expression before turning his attention back toward Seraphiel. Before he could say anything, Zaakrax spoke while the two horns on his forehead slowly began retracting back into his head. "Do not worry. She has been subjected to many absurd things all at once, so her mental condition might not have recovered yet. She simply needs some time, and she will return to her normal condition."

Solaris turned toward Zaakrax and nodded at his explanation before looking back at Atlas. Her expression became colder as she sighed and spoke, "Although I should thank you for your help with the Relic and for making the contract with the Dragon Emperor that allowed us to save Seraphiel, the reason she was about to die in the first place was none other than you. So, consider this payback."

Atlas narrowed his eyes slightly at her statement, but he knew that she wasn’t entirely wrong. There was also the fact that he had never told Seraphiel to sacrifice herself for him, but he didn’t bother mentioning that. If she hadn’t appeared at that moment, he would have died a pathetic death because of his own foolish decision to seek revenge without considering the consequences.

’I should remain cautious, there is no telling what can happen on a battlefield.’

The thought returned to him as he remembered the scene of his future death again. His gaze slowly dropped toward Seraphiel’s unconscious face as another thought entered his mind. ’She must have felt that same pain to some extent. That thing called Soul Force directly attacks the soul, which means...’

Atlas gritted his teeth and turned his attention toward the man in the distance who was still attempting to fuse the two different forces while being relentlessly attacked by the new Individual he had encountered for the second time. ’He must have tried to take her soul as well. Maybe that is also one of the reasons she hasn’t woken up yet.’

His hand slowly clenched at his side as anger began building inside him. For the first time in his life, someone had done something for him that went far beyond those small acts of pity he had experienced throughout his life, such as someone giving him food simply because they felt sorry for him. What Seraphiel had done for him could not even be compared to those acts of kindness.

Now that Atlas had finally obtained the answer to why she had saved him, he found himself facing emotions that he didn’t know how to understand. There was anger toward the person who had attacked her, guilt because he knew her current condition was ultimately connected to the consequences of his own actions, and something else that he couldn’t put into words yet. He could recognize the first two emotions, but the last one was something he had never experienced before.

Atlas had spent his entire life believing that people only helped him when they had something to gain from it or when they simply felt pity for him. Because of that, the fact that Seraphiel had willingly thrown away her own life to save his was something his mind was still struggling to accept. He understood what she had done, but he couldn’t understand why someone would value his life enough to make that choice.

Yet he ultimately had to accept the fact that she had saved his life, and that realization left him with another question that he would have never thought of asking under normal circumstances, even after learning that she loved him.

Why did she love him?

Atlas had never needed to understand something like this before because no one had ever cared about him enough for him to question the reason behind their feelings. But now, after seeing everything through Seraphiel’s memories, he couldn’t simply ignore the question anymore. He wanted to understand what she had seen in him that had caused her feelings to develop in the first place.

It wasn’t only because he wanted to know why she loved him. He also wanted to understand what it meant for someone to feel that way toward him, what she had felt during all those moments they had spent together, and why those feelings had eventually become strong enough for her to choose his life over her own. Atlas had no experience that could help him understand something like this, so he could only examine it from what he had seen and experienced through her memories.

’But for now, I need to kill that bastard who has done this to me and... her.’

Atlas shifted his attention toward that man again, but just as he did, the golden bead inside his pocket suddenly reacted. It began glowing so intensely that he could feel the heat through the fabric, causing his eyes to immediately snap toward his pocket. He quickly took the bead out and stared at it, trying to understand why it had suddenly begun reacting.

He had barely examined it for a moment when something else reacted as well.

The Codex inside his chest suddenly began vibrating violently.

Atlas’s eyes widened, ’What?!’ Before he could think or do anything else, the Codex began forcing its way out of his chest on its own. Atlas immediately realized what was happening and his expression changed.

’No! Don’t come out here! There are too many powerful people here. If you come out now, my greatest secret will be revealed!

Atlas’s thoughts became increasingly frantic as he watched the Codex forcing its way out of his chest. Although he had experienced the book reacting like this to an outside object before, but the fact that the golden bead had started glowing at almost the exact same moment made him have an uneasy feeling. He didn’t know whether the bead was affecting the Codex or whether the Codex itself had sensed something hidden inside the bead, but either possibility was enough to make him nervous.

He immediately glanced around again, trying to determine whether anyone had noticed what was happening. Zaakrax was still nearby, as were the rulers while the battle between the two Individuals continued farther away.

There were simply too many powerful people around him for him to risk exposing the Codex now.

’Why is it reacting like this?!’

Atlas tried to suppress the Codex with his Spirit Energy first, but the moment he attempted to do so, the book continued emerging as though his attempts had no effect on it. Then he tried using Null but all the same, it seemed to have no effect on it. The sensation was completely different from every previous time he had summoned it, and that alone made Atlas realize that whatever was happening wasn’t something he could control.

Then finally, the Codex emerged completely from his chest.

The familiar book emerged from his chest just as it normally did, but this time, something completely different happened. Atlas’s expression became tense as he instinctively looked around to see whether anyone had noticed the Codex appearing.

Then he stopped.

Everyone was frozen.

Not only the people standing around him, but everything within his surroundings had stopped moving. The air that had been blowing moments ago had completely stopped, the debris floating through the battlefield remained suspended in place, and even the attacks that had been moving through the air were now motionless.

Atlas stared at the scene in disbelief.

Time itself had stopped.

’What... in the world?’