Tower of Heaven

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So, where did Atlas go while the two of them were busy learning mind-altering news?

Well, unlike them, he had been closely observing the villagers to see if they ever slipped up. He didn't care about the small clues. Those could be left to Artemis and Horus.

His focus was on the people themselves.

On their fourth day in the village, Atlas randomly stumbled upon a hidden field somewhere on the back of the hill behind the guest house. It belonged to a man named Haku, and though he was just as much a part of the village as anyone else, he did his best to stay away from it.

He never went into the village unless he was returning to his own home. He avoided interactions with the others, and when asked about him, the villagers would always divert the topic.

He was clearly a sore spot for these people, but why was that?

Atlas realized that Haku was his key when he first stumbled upon that field precisely because of the words he said.

"Dammit. This village is going to hell. We are all finished."

He muttered to himself while picking at the dirt, not expecting anyone to be listening.

"The chief needs to do something about this, but he's just an idiot. If I had the Great God's magical power, I would fix everything in an instant."

[Prince of Darkness snickers at the mention of a Great God.]

[Great Sun of the Gods laughs, saying that mortals sure are interesting.]

[Huntress of the Night smirks slightly before telling you to hurry and reunite with her Apostle.]

The Gods were quite amused by the concept of the God that was worshipped here. It made sense, as to them, that being was no more than a flea.

Nevertheless, Atlas didn't pay attention to them. They'd been much quieter ever since he'd returned from the 30th Floor, but he didn't quite know why.

The Gods couldn't see what happened in Cumulative Trials, so the reason was probably unrelated to him.

Most likely, there was something more interesting taking place at a different point in the Tower, and all of them had gone to watch it.

The ones who were invested in Atlas specifically would eventually return when the time was right.

But, the focus was not on them. Haku's complaints didn't stop at the villagers or the village chief. He had an endless list of qualms with his living situation, and he was just dying to share them with someone.

So, when some more days passed, Atlas approached the hidden field and made his presence known for the first time.

The man named Haku was immediately on guard.

"Outsider, why are you here? I don't know about where you came from, but here, it is rude to enter another person's home without permission."

Atlas shook his head, raising his hands innocently.

"I do apologize for my intrusion, but I couldn't help myself. I truly wanted to speak to you," he said.

"Me?" Haku repeated, pointing to himself with a questioning expression.

"Yes. I was passing by some days ago and I accidentally overheard you talking to yourself…"

Haku's eyes narrowed.

"Alright, fine. What do you want?"

Nothing more needed to be said. No matter what Atlas heard, it was not good for him. He would be beheaded if some of those words were told to the village chief.

Atlas approached the wary man and patted his shoulder.

"Don't worry. I am not here to threaten you. In fact, I want to help you."

"Help me?" Haku echoed.

"Yes. Though you don't know it, the three of us…"

Atlas embellished his aura powerfully so that it could be sensed and witnessed by even an ordinary mortal.

"...are quite special."

Haku's eyes widened.

"You are…you are also a messenger of God?!"

"You could say I am something like that, but we three are different from the ones you have met. We are tasked with enacting justice where justice is due. However, we can only help if we are aware of the situation."

Atlas was able to discern some details from Haku's mumbling from all those days ago.

First of all, this "magical power of God" he spoke of was unmistakably qi. If Atlas used his status as a cultivator to his advantage, he could learn things that otherwise would have never been said.

Haku's expression changed when Atlas mentioned the word "justice." His eyes hardened and he took a deep breath, preparing himself for his next words.

"If you are truly a messenger of God who has come to serve justice, then I will tell you everything. It all started three hundred years ago."

The people in this village were immortal, as they were Replicas. They did not die, and even if they died, they would find themselves alive again soon enough.

For most Replicas, this was a process that went unnoticed. They would not even recognize their death and would forget all memories unrelated to their roles.

Haku was a little different. He hadn't died in these three hundred years as he kept himself away from the villagers, and somehow, he'd kept every memory of that time.

And so, the story of the village unraveled before Atlas.

"We were normal people at first. We don't really know how our village ended up here. It just did. Since we could still farm and the threat of being pillaged was gone, we didn't question it. Everything was the will of the Eiryu."

Eiryu, their God of Harvest, was the being attributed to their strange yet somewhat joyful fate.

"But everything changed when those outsiders came. The crops started to wilt and refused to grow. The outsiders said that it was God's punishment and showed us that divine energy, saying that they were messengers. They said that they could fix the village's problems and help us prosper."

Haku gritted his teeth.

"All we had to do was sacrifice ten people every harvest season. As long as we sacrificed people, we would be able to live."

He turned away, unable to bear those painful memories.

"In the beginning, everyone was against it. But when the harvest actually came back after the first round of sacrifices and was even more plentiful than ever before, people quieted down. I'm the only one who's been alive this whole time. Everyone else has been sacrificed over and over again. They keep coming back as if they never died, but I know the truth. All of them are living corpses. None of them are real!"

Haku's words were somewhat mad near the end. He clutched his hair with widened eyes. He knew he sounded like a crazy person. People didn't come back to life, and even living for three hundred years was impossible.

However, Atlas did not look at him like he was crazy.

'So they were cultivators.'

The problem did not come from within the village. Rather, around three hundred years ago, the village that had been displaced and replicated by the Tower's creation was completely disrupted.

'They are sacrificing the Replicas? For what reason?'

Atlas didn't know, and Haku couldn't tell him.

What he did know was that this was a much simpler problem to resolve than expected.

'If cultivators are the issue, then we only need to remove them.'

He nodded to himself.

"Fear not, Haku. I believe your story," he said, trying to provide the man some relief.

"The problems of your village…"

Atlas turned around. It was time to see what Horus and Artemia had been doing while he was in the hidden field.

"...we will solve them all when the Harvest Festival arrives."

Haku's eyes widened and welled up with tears. Without a shred of hesitation, he bowed deeply and screamed out.

"Thank you, hero!"

He didn't know yet if this person was trustworthy, but he knew that he was also a carrier of the divine power of the Gods.

If this person was truly willing to do as he said, if he was willing to save the village, then there was no need to be wary.

He could only sincerely thank him, sit back, and wait to see if his words were truths or lies.