The group had started talking, preparing to brainstorm. Atlas, however, was waiting silently, sipping tea from the cup in front of him.
Constantine and Bellatrix said they needed to work together and create a scanning spell using formation and illusion spells, while Cain and Talon argued that instead of looking up at the sky, they should perhaps search the underground areas.
Juliet, Cassandra, and Cordelia were still trying to decide which to do.
A few minutes later, Juliet’s gaze finally turned to Atlas, and she saw that the young man had his eyes closed and a very serious expression on his face as he thought about something.
Juliet got up from where she was sitting and walked quietly over to Atlas, and the gentle woman said the following words:
"Atlas, what’s wrong?"
At that moment, the conversation in the tent stopped, and all eyes turned to Atlas. Atlas opened his eyes, looked at the Sages one by one, and asked Talon, "You said you saw seven large ice mountains, right?"
When Talon nodded in agreement, Atlas took a deep breath and reached into his inventory, pulling out the [God Language Arts] book that Hecate had given him.
After slowly turning the pages of the book, he came to a specific page, then stood up from his chair, approached the table, and placed the book on it.
"I received this book as a gift from the Great Titan Hecate. This book has greatly expanded my knowledge of rune arts. I’ve seen it before. The thing written on page 113 of the book," Atlas said suddenly.
He then pointed to what was written in the book and read the following lines:
"Seven separate regions can form a line when they have absorbed sufficient magic. Unlike other types of magic and runes, this magic will directly create a teleportation formation. It is an extremely rare spell, and even the gods and goddesses find it incredibly difficult to perform."
"Huh... So the answer we’re looking for might be in those ice mountains, right?" Cain asked suddenly, filled with curiosity.
"It might not be, because there were truly enormous differences between the ice mountains. Look, the book says their sizes and intervals should be the same, but both their sizes and the intervals they had were much greater... at least from what I saw," Talon replied.
"I don’t think there’s any harm in trying, and we don’t have anything else to do anyway," Cordelia responded.
"But how will we make it work? I mean, how will we bring the formation into being?" Cassandra asked.
Atlas took the book in his hands and, after re-reading the detailed explanation over several pages, turned to Cassandra and began speaking:
"It seems that what needs to be done is very simple. Seven high-quality mages passing through seven different regions will activate the sealed spell with the mana they transfer and ensure the flow of the mana level gathered within by merging the regions. In short, you will activate the rune that already exists."
Cordelia and the other Sages seemed surprised by Atlas’ words.
"This... is a much easier solution than I expected," Cordelia said with a slightly playful tone.
"Likewise, my lady... Still, it’s a bit confusing that Chaos already knew this would happen," Atlas said.
Cordelia furrowed her brows in surprise and asked, "What are you trying to say?"
Atlas pointed to each Sage one by one and said:
"The runes hidden within the seven different regions form a larger rune, and there are seven power centres that can activate these runes. The person who will activate the formation is me, the one waiting at the centre of the formation. Don’t you think it’s a bit too obvious?"
Atlas’ words hit each of them like a slap in the face.
"I don’t think we’re pawns, Atlas," Cordelia said.
"I’m not saying we are, master," Atlas replied, then stretched in his chair and said, "I’m just saying that fate works in strange ways."
Then he stood up and said:
"The line of fate, like a tree, gains another branch with every step we take, and we are the ones who choose those branches. So, every move we’ve made up until now has brought us here. It’s as if everything has been prepared for us. I know Chaos doesn’t need to use us; after all, it’s not so foolish as to need such a long-standing game... isn’t he the creator itself?"
When Atlas said these words, he paused for a few seconds, then took a deep breath and said, "I just hope that the branches we’ve created in our tree of fate haven’t led us to the wrong place and that this strange scene prepared for us doesn’t bring us to our end, master."
After saying these words, he closed the book in his hand and threw it into his inventory, then asked, "Well then, what are we waiting for?"
When he said these words, Cordelia shook her head as if she had given up trying, then said, "What are we going to do with you?" and then said, "Well, let’s go."
With that, the tent they had set up was left behind, and Cordelia wrapped Atlas in her magic and began to fly.
The group began to fly and made their way through the snowstorm. After nearly two hours of steady flight, it began to get dark, and the weather had reached a point where it could freeze a normal person in less than a minute, but everyone had managed to reach the area.
The area was completely empty. There were seven ice mountains arranged in a circle as if forming a heptagon, but as Talon had mentioned, they were of different sizes and distances from one another.
When Atlas pointed to the mountains, Cordelia had left him in the area they believed to be the centre of the mountains, and then each Sage had climbed up the mountains, all the way to the clouds.
With all this, there was now one thing that each of them knew. Each of them could sense the meaning of the others and could see Atlas, even though he was below the clouds.
It was now clear that it was time to begin.