Antihero In the Hero Academy: I Can Connect the Past Heroes
Chapter 210: Invasion Starts

Chapter 210: Invasion Starts

The three rings that Atlas wore on his left ring finger, middle finger, and index finger gave him certain powers.

He had obtained a ring from Circe that granted him affinity towards all living beings and a more stable mind, Demeter had given him a truly powerful ring that provided him with resistance against many elements, and Athena, as the master of craftsmanship, had given Atlas a ring that would protect him from a deadly attack three times.

With this, Atlas’s training was completely finished. He had truly done the best he could during this entire period, acquiring the best possible education and managing to spend this time in detail.

During the intervening period, Atlas had already passed the age of eighteen. He was now considered a full adult, and all his titles had been transferred to him.

In short, the title of Duke, which had been granted to him by rank, had suddenly become his own.

After thoroughly cleaning himself, he left the resting area and once again encountered Emma. However, this time, Atlas did not greet Emma.

The sole reason for this was the warning he had received from Nyx the moment his training had ended.

The passage had already been opened. Most of the Sages had scattered, and only Cassandra and Juliet remained in the Shadowfall Palace, the main centre of the battle.

Atlas began to move quickly through the palace, walking past every servant and knight he saw.

When he reached the door of the throne room, one of the highest and most important points in the palace, he entered and saw Cassandra and Juliet.

The battle had now fully begun, and the main general of the war, the one who had witnessed the battle before, had emerged.

Everything was in order. The demons must now be destroyed, and Lucifer must be saved somehow.

"Atlas," Cassandra said.

"I will prepare to go to the battlefield. Emma, go and start making the necessary preparations. Everything must be in order within two hours," Atlas said suddenly. After greeting Cassandra, he began to look at the maps and reports on the large table in the middle of the throne room.

Everything seemed to be in order. Completely.

Cordelia and the others were putting as much pressure as possible on the demon gate, and certain important regions of the empire that had been reported and whose movements needed to be kept in check were being protected from outside the gate.

Each of them was taking this matter very seriously, naturally.

Of course, this did not mean that the demons could not escape.

In Atlas’s previous life, the first demons to emerge from the demonic gateway were indeed low-level demons with bodies metres long and large, who had not yet gathered their strength.

They had sent these demons out first to strike the initial blows, so that when the time came, the demon lords could easily hunt down the individuals who had been summoned as heroes.

Now, however, this was not the case.

According to rumours, the remaining six Sin, that is, the six great demon lords other than Lucifer, had directly emerged from the gate.

The gate had opened so quickly that Cordelia and the others had not been able to go to protect the area.

The Sophia Empire, one of the southern empires where the gate had opened, had been completely destroyed in just one minute, leaving no living beings around or within it.

The Sophia Empire, which had covered nearly a quarter of a continent, had been completely annihilated.

Nevertheless, the magical barrier created by Constantine and Bellatrix had held, and six demon lords had been trapped inside it.

This was not particularly effective against the smaller, weaker demons.

The weaker demons, or rather those that were not of the highest level but still considered powerful, managed to slip through the barriers.

There weren’t too many casualties, but there were still enough deaths to warrant attention.

In just one week, there had been nearly ten thousand casualties. Even though the high-level demons were trapped inside the barrier, the outside of the barrier was a completely different matter.

Bellatrix’s spell was perfect in every way. She had managed to set up every single barrier properly without a single flaw. So the problem wasn’t with Sage Bellatrix. It was just that the demons were far too weak compared to the barrier spell.

They were so weak that, in the face of Bellatrix’s spell, the barriers literally didn’t recognise any demons as enemies.

It was strange, but that was exactly what was happening.

When preparations began to go to the battlefield at Atlas’s command, the bad news had already reached their ears.

When the door to the throne room suddenly opened, the person who entered was Irene. Cassandra and Juliet looked at Irene with the same shocked expression as Atlas, and the young woman said the following words:

"ATLAS! LEON’S VILLAGE HAS BEEN DESTROYED!!!"

The moment Irene uttered these words, Atlas’s face was filled with a completely dark expression. He furrowed his brow, but he did so with a look of bewilderment. Even the wrinkles on his forehead conveyed his bewilderment.

His eyes were trembling, and his eyelids were refusing to close.

Even though no one noticed, his heart had started pounding.

For the first time in a long time, Atlas was afraid. He had thought that if he stayed away from Leon, he could protect his fate to a certain extent, but now he had suddenly been thrown into a situation where he didn’t even know if Leon was alive.

This... was unacceptable.

Atlas immediately rushed from the table he was sitting at toward Juliet and shouted, "Please take me to the Prion Kingdom!"

Juliet, like everyone else around her, was naturally surprised. Atlas’s helpless gaze was truly heartbreaking. Both Juliet and Cassandra knew who Leon was, of course. And that made them realise the seriousness of the situation.

Atlas couldn’t lose himself while the battle had only just begun. He mustn’t lose himself.

Juliet immediately grabbed Atlas by the shoulders and said, "Calm down. Losing your focus right now won’t help anyone. We don’t even know if Leon is dead yet. We’ll go check together."

At least Juliet could help the young man in front of her calm down a little. Of course, that’s why she acted that way to comfort him.

Even though Atlas wasn’t completely relaxed and the stress in his mind continued to increase with every passing second, he managed to take a deep breath. After all, he knew Juliet was right.

"I’m sorry. Please, let’s go," Atlas said in a calm tone of voice.

When Atlas made this request to Juliet, Juliet turned to Cassandra and nodded for approval. After all, there was a reason Juliet was at the main centre. Even if the whole world collapsed, even if everything and everyone died, this place had to remain standing. A huge area that could accommodate millions of people would certainly be very important.

After giving her approval, Cassandra turned to Irene and said, "You will take Juliet’s place. Start reporting the incoming information immediately!"

Irene nodded nervously, while Juliet had already teleported away, holding Atlas tightly.

When the two opened their eyes again, they found themselves directly inside the Prion Kingdom, within the capital city.

The scene they saw was one they had never expected.

"KYAAA!!!"

"HELP!!!"

The cries for help that followed one after another shook Atlas. Not out of fear, but simply because he had seen this scene again.

Juliet, however, seemed to have grown accustomed to this sight. She held Atlas’s hand tightly and said, "Don’t hold back, do whatever you have to do to protect everyone... You love the Half-Humans, don’t you? Here’s your chance."

These words entered Atlas’s ear and instantly settled in the deepest part of his mind.

Juliet had flown into the air the moment she spoke those words.

The capital of the Prion Kingdom was under attack by hundreds of demons. It was impossible for a kingdom that was not particularly powerful, a kingdom that had only one ten-ringed wizard, to withstand the demons.

Unfortunately, the barriers could only protect the kingdom to a certain extent.

Although the successive barriers placed around the small kingdoms were able to hold back the mid-level demons, the low-level demons had managed to sneak inside.

The Kingdom of Prion was one of those kingdoms.

Atlas began running around without stopping for even a second.

By the time Juliet began suppressing the demons around her, Atlas had already started rescuing the half-humans trapped under the wooden and stone houses.

Each half-human looked at him with strange expressions. Of course they did. No human could come and say they didn’t hate half-humans. At least the half-humans in this kingdom were aware of that.

Until last year, their kingdom had been surrounded by humans and faced the threat of destruction.

How could they not be afraid?

Still, Atlas was different. They could see it just from his gaze.

The fact that he was running to a different place every second and even leading them to areas he thought were safe spoke volumes.