155 Distortion

For a while longer everyone was talking happily, until Atlas excused himself to go to the bathroom. He had to fight against his will to want to stay there, as he strangely didn't want to leave.

When Atlas left the large room and silence took over the hallway where he was, he had to lean on a piece of furniture to avoid collapsing.

"What's happening to me?"

His body felt heavy and stiff, his hands were trembling and his mouth was completely dry. Atlas had gotten to the point of ignoring his tiredness and continuing at the party, but he felt fine.

Atlas pressed his head knowing that his thoughts were strange, and it wasn't until he calmed down that his thoughts organized themselves and he controlled his mind again.

'What is happening in this place?'

Atlas looked around making sure he was alone, then he began to walk down the castle hallway. It wasn't supposed to be a place he was supposed to be, but since there wasn't a single person around, Atlas didn't bother leaving.

After walking for a while, Atlas stopped in the middle of the hallway, and looking back, he sighed.

'I'm lost... What am I even looking for?'

Atlas knew that something strange was happening in the castle... no, not just in the castle, in the entire city and even in the empire.

The clan was supposed to have gone to the empire to investigate... something, but not even Atlas remembered it and every time he thought about it his thoughts became cloudy.

In the city it was not so clear, but when he visited the palace, the effects increased, to the point that Atlas thought it would be good to spend his entire life quietly enjoying the party.

With another light sigh, Atlas continued walking until he decided to carefully enter a random room.

As he put his hand on the doorknob, suddenly the door in front of him disappeared and almost as if it were an illusion, everything around Atlas began to distort.

'Ugh...'

Atlas felt nauseous watching how everything around him moved erratically until eventually everything began to normalize. Atlas looked around him with a hand on his head enduring the sudden dizziness.

"Where I am?"

The hallway around him had changed and now the walls were made of moldy stone, and in front of him, a large staircase leading down to a large, imposing door.

Atlas looked back only to see that the hallway seemed to extend to infinity, with no apparent end.

Confused, but wanting answers at the same time, Atlas carefully walked down the stairs as the torches on the walls lit up with every step he took.

Everything felt strange and mystical at the same time, and with each step down, the temperature began to rise.

Atlas paused briefly, the heat usually not being particularly uncomfortable, but the heat he felt at that moment felt different. Atlas couldn't describe it in words, but he knew instinctively that something was different.

Atlas continued down the wide stairs until he arrived in front of the large door.

'…It's huge'

The door is about 5 meters high and long. It was barely decorated, so it wasn't very impressive beyond its large size.

Hesitantly, Atlas put his hand on the door and that's when he heard a voice behind him.

"Beyond that door lies the profane"

Atlas felt a chill run through his body, not because of the voice nor because of the person's almost nonexistent presence, but because he had been discovered in a place where he was not supposed to be.

Slowly, Atlas removed his hand from the door and turned to look at the person at the top of the stairs. He had a completely white cape covering his body and was holding a staff that ended circularly with a blue pearl floating at the end of the staff.

Atlas narrowed his eyes slightly, feeling something familiar about the person at the top of the stairs, but he couldn't say why.

"The profane?"

"For a long time, he was locked up, but he was awakened as a form of divine punishment"

Atlas scratched his neck lightly.

"I don't understand anything…"

The person began to walk down the stairs slowly. From his voice, Atlas could tell that it was a man, but there wasn't much more information he could glean from his appearance.

"It is my duty to control everything before all disappears"

Atlas took a step back when he heard the man's words.

"Who are you?"

The man went down the last step and found himself several meters in front of Atlas.

"I am a priest of no god"

Atlas extended his hand, ready to summon the staff he kept in his ring, but he didn't do so for fear of angering the man in front of him.

"But neither my identity nor my duty matters before him, who will turn everything to ashes"

Atlas gulped and took another step back, colliding with the door.

"Who are you referring to?"

"Wait your turn, and eventually you will become his shackles"

Before Atlas could react, the man raised his staff and soon a light blinded him completely.

Atlas felt like his eyes were going to explode, and when he could see again, he realized that his surroundings had changed and now he was looking at a luxurious ceiling while he was lying on a couch.

Atlas blinked several times without understanding what had happened and where he was.

"… Where I am?"

A headache assaulted him, forcing him to hold his head.

'I… ran away from the party to go to the bathroom, so… what happened next?'

In the middle of his thoughts, Atlas suddenly felt someone touch his cheek, so he quickly turned his neck to see a girl with blue eyes and white hair poking her cheek.