Saga of Atlantis

"Move faster, guys!" Aeloria shouted as she moved faster, calling us. "Hopefully, we aren’t going in the wrong direction."

Ah...

She jinxed it, didn’t she?

Whatever...

"Eden," Grace called to me as I looked at her.

"Hmm?" I hummed in response.

"I need your help." Biting her lip lightly, she said, a conflicting look etched on her face.

"Help with what?" I asked, noticing her hesitation to ask something.

"Not now," she replied, shaking her head, "after we get out of here."

"Now you’ve made me curious," I mumbled, looking at her. "What do you need my help with?"

"It’s about my bloodline," she replied after some hesitation.

"The black flames?" I asked, and she nodded in reply.

"You want to control them?" I understood why she was asking me about this; after all, they are not normal flames.

"Hmm," she hummed in agreement. "It’s hard to control them."

"Every time I try to use it, it creates mental pressure on my head. Often times, I feel like I will lose control of myself if I use it too much," she explained, and I thoughtfully nodded.

Her flames are linked with the goddess of flames, but the problem is those black flames of hers are mutations of a normal bloodline, and that’s why it’s hard for her to control them.

The event dedicated to her was the time when she totally lost control of her flames, killing hundreds of people, and well, she tried to kill Angelina as well, only to be stopped by Aron.

"..."

An uncomfortable feeling spread all over my body as I remembered her death from the game.

It was brutal... with her body mangled and broken.

"Eden?" I looked at Grace as she shook me slightly when I was lost in my thoughts.

"Yeah... Of course I can help you," I replied with a smile. "I am pretty good when it comes to flames."

Those things are not going to happen.

She won’t lose control of herself, neither will she die.

I will make sure of it.

"Come to think of it, you never told me what those flames are?" As if she remembered it, she asked curiously.

"The white flames?"

"Yes, those flames even for only a few seconds were able to push back my flames. How?" She asked, her curiosity increasing with her every word.

"That’s a secret," I replied with a smirk, immediately pouring cold water on her curiosity.

"Don’t tell me if you don’t want to," she grumbled, stepping on my feet.

"Hey!" I did the same, lightly stepping on hers.

Without saying anything, she returned the favor by stepping on my feet again.

"Now you’ve done it," I said, attempting to step on her feet as well, but she pushed her legs back, avoiding it.

I pushed my leg forward, and before she could push her feet further, I stepped on it.

"Why are you acting like a child?" she said glaring at me, stepping on my feet again.

"I can ask the same question," I replied, stepping on her feet one last time, and before she could react, I made some distance between us.

"Heh! I won," I smirked at her glaring look, which immediately made her close the distance between us.

Then, grabbing me with her soft hands by my shoulders, she made me halt my movement as her sweet smell assaulted me.

I felt her breath on my chest as she was smaller than me, while she looked down, her head resting on my chest.

Then, she stepped on my feet and looked up at me.

"Heh! I won," she replied with a beautiful smile.

Then, leaving me stunned there, she started to walk again.

It took me a moment to register what happened, and my lips raised slightly at her behavior, but...

"No, you don’t," arriving beside her and stepping on her feet before running towards Aeloria.

"Why are you running?" As soon as I arrived beside her, she grumbled, giving me an annoyed look which made me feel good for some reason.

"Because I want to," I replied, shrugging my shoulders.

"Anyway, what’s your real name?" I asked, as I remembered it.

Though the chances are low, I don’t want to have those types of situations where I know the person in my previous life, but I didn’t ask about it.

"Aeloria is my real name," she replied without hesitation.

"So, you have fully accepted that you are Aeloria, huh?" I asked, noticing her behavior.

Unlike other reincarnated persons, she has accepted what she is.

Unlike me, who hasn’t fully accepted it.

And I don’t want to accept it.

If I do, it will be hard to suppress my feelings of Eden for people I don’t want to feel anything about.

"Still, tell me your real name; it’s important," I said seriously, earning a frown from her.

"Fine, tell me yours and I will tell mine," she replied, folding her arms, waiting for my answer.

"..."

I remained silent.

I can’t tell her my real name.

Neil is quite famous in this world as someone from the Phoenix Clan, and I don’t want to expose my identity as him.

"See, you don’t trust me enough, and neither do I," she said after I remained silent for a while.

"Fine, at least tell me if your world ended or not," I asked, hoping to get some clue about her world.

"Ahhh!"

Her eyes widened in surprise, but before she could reply, I heard Grace’s startled voice as she walked beside us.

"What happened?" I asked, looking back at her.

"Opening," she muttered, pointing in front of us.

I looked where she was pointing and immediately noticed that the cave was ending, and a new place was opening.

"Get behind me," I ordered as I stood in front of both of them.

As we all cautiously moved towards the end of the cave, with each step, the air grew heavier, and I looked at the body of the creature.

"It’s not getting smaller," Aeloria mumbled anxiously, looking at the body of the serpent-like creature.

True...

That means we are moving towards the head.

She truly jinxed it, didn’t she?

The air grew colder, sending shivers down my spine as we approached the end of the cave.

As we moved forward, we arrived at a vast expanse where the ceiling towered high above.

And there, at the center of the chamber, rested the head of a creature unlike any I had ever seen.

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With scales like jade and eyes that gleamed with looking at us, the creature resembled a Chinese dragon, bounded by chains around it.

But not totally like it, it was different in a lot of ways.

"You have arrived."

Again, I heard its feminine-like voice in my head, and I immediately became alert.

_Tud tud_

My heartbeat dropped when I heard the sound of someone falling, and I immediately looked behind me, only to find both Aeloria and Grace lying on the ground.

"What did you do!" I shouted in anger, my voice echoing in the vast expanse as I moved beside them to check their condition.

"They are fine, child. You don’t want them to hear our conversation, do you?"

She replied calmly as I checked them, and they seemed to be fine, unaffected by whatever had caused them to fall.

I sighed slightly before fixing my focus on the snake.

"You can ask me anything if you want to," it said, focusing its yellowish eyes on me.

"What are you?" I asked as I sat beside Grace and Aeloria.

"I am known by a lot of names, but the most famous of them is ’the serpent of the world.’ Jörmungandr"

So it truly is a snake...

"Thor’s eternal enemy?" Suppressing my desire to kill this snake, I asked.

"It irked me when you remember me only as his enemy," it replied with displeasure.

Ignoring its tone, I waited for it to continue.

"Yes, and if I am sensing it correctly, you also have the blood of his flowing through your body."

"My mother’s family are his descendants," I replied, nodding my head.

"Hmmm, you truly are his descendant, huh?" It mumbled before its eyes moved towards Aeloria.

"That girl has divinity on her," it revealed, making me look at Aeloria.

"What do you mean?" I asked, frowning.

"That girl has the blessing of a goddess, and a powerful goddess at that."

"Goddess of Life," I mumbled, recalling Ivy’s words.

She once told me that she was sent to Aeloria specifically by the Goddess of Life.

"Anyway, child, don’t you have something important to ask me?" Shifting my gaze back at the serpent-like creature, it asked again.

I took a deep breath, preparing myself for what was to come next.

This single question could change my view of life from here on.

But I had to ask it.

I couldn’t ask it directly, but I had to ask.

Suppressing my anxiety, I parted my lips.

"How am I connected with the Human God?"