Antihero In the Hero Academy: I Can Connect the Past Heroes
Chapter 237: Nothing Happened

Chapter 237: Nothing Happened

Aether did smile... There was a chance, hope.

When the black ice suddenly cracked, Atlas lunged forward again and shattered the massive black ice block with a single punch.

After that, without waiting even a second, he began to cast the Strike and Destruction runes, not into the air this time, but directly onto the passage.

He didn’t stop there. To make the two runes work faster, he didn’t forget to draw a few "Haste" runes directly.

The dozens of runes glowing on the demon gateway began to make a sound like a blacksmith hammering iron, and this sound spread for miles.

No demons were coming out of the demon gateway. More accurately, they couldn’t come out. Atlas’s ability to use runes had developed after he had naturally eliminated a total of 13 demon gates. He wasn’t as good as Constantine. That was impossible. Still, he was now faster, and the runes he created were much more stable.

He smiled and began to create more runes without pausing for even a second.

As the sound resembling the clanging of iron grew louder, the gate suddenly cracked, and Atlas, realising his work was done, left the area.

"I’m heading to the next gate!" Atlas shouted just before leaving.

He began running toward the gate, which was nearly fifteen kilometres away.

He had strengthened his lower body with his aura and also used the Night’s Step ability. His speed was truly immense.

He was accelerating every second, and when the Night’s Step ability ended, he used it again, effectively stacking his speed, that is, doubling it.

Within a short time, he had to stop a few minutes before reaching the demon pass. He could hear that several buildings had collapsed and the cries for help were growing louder.

He arrived at the area where the cries were coming from within seconds and then began to lift every piece of debris around him without further collapsing the buildings using his mana.

There were many imperial soldiers around, and even though they were happy about what was happening, they knew they had to take action.

They had taken action to rescue every person trapped under the debris. Meanwhile, Minerva Epsilon herself had managed to catch up with Atlas.

Atlas was not surprised by this. Unlike her mother and father, Minerva had been training herself in aura arts and, at such a young age, had already reached nearly the third level of aura.

The fact that Eva herself was training Minerva made everything even easier.

Considering that aura users were many times stronger than magic users, everything seemed quite normal.

Minerva didn’t hesitate for a second and immediately began helping the imperial soldiers with the transport.

The young girl was sweating profusely under her armour; she had never been to a real battle before. She was the crown princess of the Epsilon Empire; there was no need for her to participate in any battles, especially with Eva present.

Once the rescue and evacuation were complete, Atlas spotted Aether, Aelia, and Lars passing by. The trio was heading straight for the area where the gate was located.

Atlas would catch up to them through the side streets.

"MINERVA!" Atlas suddenly shouted.

As Minerva turned to him, he added, "Rescue as many people as you can from under the buildings with the soldiers. Once we destroy the second passage, the number of demons coming here will decrease significantly. Keep going!"

Minerva nodded as if she had understood the orders directly, ordered the imperial soldiers beside her, especially those who could cast spells, to act quickly, and then left the area.

Atlas, on the other hand, once again covered the lower half of his body with his aura and began moving forward using the Night’s Step ability.

The second gate was almost right in front of him.

Atlas had managed to clear ten gates, the second gate, the third gate, and so on, but he was starting to get tired. He didn’t know why. With his aura and mana levels, he shouldn’t have been able to get tired, but he was incredibly exhausted.

He had thought the demon of laziness was here, but he was aware that every ancient demon was already under attack by the Sages and others.

That’s why he had started moving calmly and continued attacking as much as possible.

It had only taken two days to completely cleanse the capital, but the real problem wasn’t here. When Atlas returned to Shadowfall Palace with another teleportation circle, he was devastated by the news he heard.

The one who gave him this news was Juliet herself. The ancient elf woman was injured. She was covered in blood, being cleaned by vampires.

In short, Eva, Cordelia, Cassandra, Talon, Constantine, Cain, and Bellatrix had been captured. Cosmo had been forcibly taken to hell and imprisoned.

When Atlas asked how this was possible, Juliet shook her head from side to side and then calmly said, "They used Lucifer. We don’t know how they did it, but they stole the magic of that demon I know as Lucifer. Neither Lady Cordelia nor Elder Cosmo could withstand that magic, and when the two who separated us from Beelzebub fell, we were defeated too."

Atlas couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

Just two days ago, he had been fighting against the demons, and now he had learned that his family had been imprisoned.

It had become the very thing Lucifer feared most.

[Stay calm, Atlas.] came a message from Nyx.

[You need to gather your thoughts, my friend.] A message came from Moros.

[If you lose your mind now, nothing will happen; you will lose, stay calm.] came another message from Erebus.

Still, Atlas was in a state where he didn’t know what to do, just standing there and trying to think, but his mind was still frozen despite everything.

He kept thinking about Chaos’s words.

[If you continue like this, you will die.]

[If you continue like this, you will die.]

[If you continue like this, you will die.]

[If you continue like this, you will die.]

This voice began to echo in his mind, over and over again. He thought he had overcome this thought, this fear, but in the end, this fear had enveloped him once again.

The worst part was that he was not personally afraid of this death situation.

It was as if the voice he heard had changed from "If you keep this up, you’ll die" to "You’re dragging everyone to their deaths."

"Atlas!" Irene suddenly shouted, grabbing Atlas by the shoulders and shaking him back and forth as if she were roughing him up.

When Atlas came to his senses and saw the pain on Irene’s face, he couldn’t help but ask, "What are we going to do?"

"We’ll think about it. That’s what we have to do. We have to think. We have to lay out all the possibilities we have. Lady Juliet, I have a question," Irene said suddenly.

When Juliet turned to Irene curiously, she asked, "The Sages and Sister Eva. They’re outside the gate, aren’t they? Unlike Elder Cosmo."

When Juliet nodded her head up and down, Irene turned to the vampire soldiers standing in the throne room and shouted, "Gather every Ancient Dragon in Shadowfall City here right now!!!"

Iso, who was standing at the front of the vampire soldiers, immediately nodded his head and left the throne room with three dozen vampires.

Victory messages were still coming in from many fronts, but the largest front had been lost. They needed to act quickly.

"Atlas... That pill Lucifer gave you... I think the time has come. We must launch an assault. If there is anything that can help us, even if it only temporarily increases your power, you must use it," Irene said suddenly.

In short, the young woman was trying to present the possibility of Atlas sacrificing himself.

Juliet was surprised by Irene’s words. Even the gods and goddesses knew how much Irene loved Atlas, seeing him as her brother.

In this situation, Irene saying such a thing must have hurt her heart the most.

When Atlas heard these words, he immediately reached into his inventory, took out the pill Lucifer had given him, and then took a deep breath and asked, "Should I do it now?"

"It’s not illogical. After all, Lucifer said that when you reach the point of losing everything, you should swallow this pill. That’s what he said. This is that moment," Juliet replied.

Atlas nodded his head up and down to indicate that he understood, and then swallowed the pill Lucifer had given him.

Everyone had stopped breathing. Every servant and soldier in the throne room, Irene and Juliet herself, every god and goddess watching from the sacred realm—they all held their breath. They wanted to see what would happen.

Atlas closed his eyes and tried to sense something. One minute, two minutes, five minutes, ten minutes—he waited for twenty minutes, but nothing happened.

Not a single thing happened.

He had not gained any abilities, nor had he experienced a power surge. In essence, nothing had happened.