Chapter 341: Laugh

Atlas appeared high above Eliomor, having already located the presence of the other rulers. Since he had wanted to meet them directly, he decided to come here and see what they were discussing. From what he could sense, all of them had somehow reached Emperor Rank, which immediately caught his attention.

He couldn’t help but feel confused inwardly, ‘How did they comprehend all those things this fast?’ That was his main question. He himself had needed to use an extreme method to bypass the time required for comprehension, yet these people had apparently reached the same rank without doing anything similar.

Atlas turned toward Zaakrax and remembered that he could create an entire timeline, immediately realizing that the Dragon Emperor had a way to exploit time itself.

Even so, that didn’t explain how the others had reached this rank. ‘Did the Dragon Emperor help them?’ It was the only plausible explanation he could come up with, although he wasn’t entirely convinced. ‘Even if he can create timelines, maintaining one for a long time should be far too difficult, even for the Dragon Emperor.’

Atlas continued considering the matter, but before he could reach a conclusion, Kael’s voice rang out beside him.

“My Friend Atlas! You are finally here! As you can see, everyone of us is now Emperor Rank. How about we have a sparring match?” Atlas slowly turned toward him. He had already noticed Kael’s sudden movement, even though he had moved several times faster than light, so his appearance beside him wasn’t surprising.

However, two things about Kael bothered Atlas more than his speed.

First, Atlas clearly remembered that Kael had been SS-Rank in strength the last time they met. His rapid cultivation had already surprised Atlas back then, when they were in outer space, but reaching the same rank as him was enough to make Atlas suspicious of this guy.

The second issue was that Kael had suddenly started calling him a friend without any prior discussion about it.

Atlas calmly asked, “Who is your friend?” Kael immediately arched an eyebrow before answering in a hurry, “You, of course. From what I came to know about you, we’re the same age and equally strange… so why not become friends?” Atlas frowned at his unusual way of explaining things and replied, “What do you mean, equally strange? You’re the strange one, not me.”

Kael’s eyes widened at that statement. He couldn’t believe that the strangest person among all of them was actually calling him strange instead. He immediately retaliated, his expression changing into one of exaggerated distress as he spoke, “Wh-What the hell are you saying? If I’m the strange one, then what are you?”

Atlas went speechless at his dramatic expression because this was the first time he had ever encountered someone who behaved like this.

However, the moment he saw the massive tears forming in Kael’s eyes, Atlas could no longer maintain his composed expression. His attempt to remain calm failed as he suddenly burst into laughter. “Pfft! Hahaha!”

Kael looked at Atlas’s laughing face for the first time and responded by crying even more dramatically, “Master! See, he’s laughing! Please clarify who the strange one is, me or him!”

Eliana watched the interaction between Atlas and Kael, and she couldn’t hold back her laughter either. “Pfftt~ The strange one is you, Kael, my Disciple.” She covered her mouth with her palm in an attempt to hide her laughter, but it did little to help her maintain a straight face.

Kael froze at her answer before more dramatic tears appeared in his eyes, “E-Even you, M-Master? N-No! This cannot be!”

He turned toward Atlas and found him still laughing with his hands on his stomach. For the first time in his life, Atlas could barely contain his laughter, and the unfamiliar sensation had even made his stomach feel ticklish. He had never laughed like this before, and if Seraphiel could see him in this state, only she would know how she might react.

Everyone turned toward Atlas as his laughter continued, and Solaris watched him with a slight glow in her eyes. ‘His hatred has vanished completely… it’s now filled with genuine emotions that he is still discovering one by one…’

‘Thank God, Seraphiel is in good hands now.’ She felt a heavy weight lift from her entire being, as she had been constantly worried about Seraphiel dating someone who seemed to have no emotions at all. However, seeing Atlas laughing so naturally allowed her to finally put those concerns aside.

Atlas eventually stopped laughing after a long moment and wiped away the tiny tear that had formed at the corner of his eye. He then turned toward Kael and spoke, “Thanks for that, to repay you, I’ll spar with you as you requested.” Kael’s dramatic expression instantly disappeared, and he arched an eyebrow as he heard Atlas’s response.

A grin slowly formed on his lips as he replied, “Where do we begin? I’m itching to try out everything I have against you—” Before he could finish, Zaakrax’s voice came from the side. “Count me in as well. After this boy spars against you, I’ll go next.”

Atlas and Kael turned toward him and stared for a long moment before nodding in agreement.

Kael then looked toward Eliana, Solaris, Sylvaris, and the other Ancients, wondering whether they wanted to join the sparring matches as well. However, the moment he looked at them, Solaris spoke up, “We would prefer to watch from afar. Perhaps after your spars, we can fight among ourselves, excluding you three.”

The others immediately nodded, and the three Anomalies also understood their concerns and nodded in response.

“Alright, then, you guys can just watch.” Kael finished speaking with a nod, but before he could say anything else, Atlas’s voice came from in front of him, “I have a better plan, you and the Dragon Emperor should both fight me at once.”

The moment his words reached them, everyone widened their eyes in an instant. Kael shouted immediately, “Are you underestimating us?! You know very well how much of a disrespect that is right?” Atlas remained silent at his statement for a brief moment before exhaling a bit and answering him.

“Fine then let’s do it this way. Once we start fighting and you realize that you alone are not enough, The Dragon Emperor can join.” Kael arched an eyebrow again before gritting his teeth, ‘Tch, He must be strong as hell to state these things…’ he internally knew Atlas was stating facts out of his own experience over his strength, even Kael himself could feel it from him.

The aura Atlas radiated now was on an entirely different level compared to before, ‘Damn, I can’t sense an ounce of strength from him and as a knowledgeable person, I know it only happens when there is a massive infinitesimal gap between two people.’ He also couldn’t discard the abilities this monster possessed.

Yet even then Kael wasn’t going to back down, ‘Even though I feel like I am digging my own grave…I still want to test the abilities I have now and the only way to do it is fighting him!’ With that last thought Kael nodded and replied, “Alright, we will settle with that for now.”

Atlas and the Dagon Emperor nodded while Atlas thought something else with narrowed eyes, ‘Those pairs of eyes that tried to look at me from who knows where…they were powerful, extremely powerful. Even with all my abilities I could feel the gap between me and just those gazes.’ He couldn’t help but wonder what power lied in their original beings.

Atlas shook his head a little before snapping his fingers while saying, “Now that its settled, let me make a decent arena for the match.” In an instant everyone floating there, disappeared from Eliomor entirely.