Cordelia grabbed the monster by the arm without any difficulty and began to send her power into her hand. In just a few seconds, Cordelia had thrust her hand into the monster’s throat and killed it there.
Still, no memory had emerged. Everything seemed to be over. Still, nothing had changed. Until...
"ATLAS!" Cassandra suddenly shouted. The Ancient Woman pointed to where Atlas was.
Atlas’s body had begun to slowly disappear. Cordelia immediately flew from where she was and tried to grab Atlas, but her hand passed right through his body.
At that moment, everyone realised it was an illusion.
They had no idea what to do next.
"What’s happening?" Cain asked, and immediately added, "Where is Atlas?"
Still, no one had an answer. The light spells flying around illuminated the semi-dark realm, trying to reveal what was happening, but nothing was happening.
The Sages did not know how many gods and goddesses were worried about them. A strange danger... or rather, a strange pressure, that incredible weight had suddenly descended upon each of them.
And in the far corner of the dungeon, Chaos and Atlas were still talking. Atlas kept pleading for the torture to stop and kept saying that their memories would affect them in a bad way.
Still, there was nothing to be done. No matter what Atlas said, the old man Chaos kept refusing and kept saying that the dungeon was designed this way.
"I don’t understand, please... They may be powerful, and their minds may be strong, but they are not gods or goddesses. Even they are falling into darkness, and yet you are torturing the Sages, who are mortal... You will destroy their minds," Atlas said, almost begging.
Chaos, with a sad expression on his face, asked, "Even if I had the power to do it, I wouldn’t, Atlas. Don’t you understand what I intended when I designed the dungeon?"
"All I see is the seven people I care about losing their minds because of me, shedding tears, or holding back tears. Please," Atlas replied. The expression on his face was enough to convey how worried Atlas was about them. Even though the Sages were very powerful individuals, Nyx kept telling Atlas that something else might happen.
"Atlas. Since its creation, several groups have tried to cleanse this dungeon. When you enter this dungeon, the person who has suffered the most pain up to that point is chosen. In this case, instead of the Sages, who have possessed incredible levels of mana and power since their birth, you, who have dug everything out with your nails, were chosen," Chaos said suddenly. These words immediately silenced Atlas.
"The memories of this person are shown one by one, from the least terrible to the most horrific. The members of the other groups literally killed themselves to avoid seeing more. So this dungeon is a dungeon of loyalty. If they trust you, if they can hold themselves back and move forward for you, the stone is yours. If they fail, they die. It’s that simple." Chaos added to his own words, and then, looking directly into Atlas’s eyes, he spoke these words:
"Sleep... When you wake up, you won’t remember our conversation or the dungeon itself. If they manage to get out alive, the stone will be yours anyway."
When Atlas heard these words, he was about to speak, but it felt as if someone had hit him on the head with a hard stick. His brain seemed to have shut down. His eyes darkened, and he fell down right there. He had fallen asleep.
"Hmm... How far can they go?" Chaos wondered.
When looking back at the other end of the dungeon, it was seen that monsters had gathered around the Sages. Monsters of different races and different powers. They could be described as quite terrifying, but of course, their powers were far too weak for the Sages.
Hundreds of monsters were being killed in seconds, and thousands more were reappearing in the vast realm. It was terrifying, but there was nothing they could do. After all, none of them knew what to do.
Still, there was one thing they all saw.
The words [How far you all can go for him?] that always appeared in the sky.
Each of the Sages was beginning to get angry. The mana scattered around was beyond measure. It was as if the dungeon was provoking them and constantly telling them that they would never be able to save Atlas. To tell the truth, this message, which appeared dozens of times a minute, would drive them mad.
Cordelia’s anger was growing with every passing second. To be blunt, the Ancient Woman’s expression was unlike any Sage or god or goddess had ever seen before.
Cordelia was literally spitting fire.
"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU GETTING AT, YOU FUCKING DUNGEON?!?!?!" Cordelia suddenly shouted.
The sound echoed throughout the entire massive hall, and with that, the writing around them stopped. Even though the monsters were growing stronger with every passing second, each Sage continued to attack without stopping for even a second, as if they had forgotten to breathe, and each of them destroyed hundreds of monsters in a matter of seconds.
Seconds turned into minutes, minutes into hours, and hours into days. Still, there was no end in sight.
Even though the Sages were not physically or mentally exhausted, their minds were on the verge of collapse.
Each of them continued to fight without even knowing how much time had passed. Without realising that days had passed, without closing their eyes once, without drinking a drop of water or eating anything, they continued to slaughter monsters as if nothing else mattered.
Thousands of monsters turned into tens of thousands, tens of thousands turned into hundreds of thousands, and then millions began to appear in the vast land.
Yet each horde of monsters was wiped out from the realm within minutes.
Despite all this, nothing had changed. Each of them was on the verge of losing their minds. They could even feel the veins in their brains pulsating one by one...