Tower of Heaven

Atlas' brows remained furrowed as he thought it over, but there wasn't really anything he could garner.

The traditions of an Underworld depended heavily on the Society Legend associated with it. In this case, as Atlas didn't know what Society the Legend came from, he couldn't assume anything.

The payment could be anything from actual gold to live sacrifices. Depending on the kind of afterlife pictured in the disciplines of the Society, it could change drastically.

"Is the tribute necessary?"

Atlas asked a stupid question that was bound to expose him as someone who wasn't meant to be in this realm. Well, he didn't give off that kind of impression from the beginning, so it wasn't something he needed to worry about.

"Without a tribute, you cannot enter. Even if you have an audience with the Lord, you must pay the tribute."

The hooded man's answer came swiftly.

"And the price is…?"

This time, an answer didn't come at all.

Atlas sighed at the judging gaze he could feel from beneath that hood. It was a little unbelievable that this person here controlled his ability to enter the Underworld.

He wasn't a guardian, was he? He didn't have that kind of appearance. He looked like a ferryman and had a boat meant for ferrying. He existed on this dangerous river because it could not be passed without his boat.

Atlas clearly had to pay the tribute, but…

'Tributes are meant to support the realm, no?'

In other words, tributes were made to the realm's owner. This man…

'He's not a God.'

He couldn't be the realm's owner, yet, at the same time, didn't he have equal power in this specific area?

If Atlas could convince him to ferry him, then did a tribute matter?

'Breaking the Legend of a Society…well, it's only being broken if I give nothing.'

If he gave a separate tribute or gave a tribute with different intentions, would the Heavens expose him? Stay connected through My Virtual Library Empire

The cogs in his mind were certainly turning slower than they usually did, but it still didn't take him too long to find an answer.

He didn't have to look too far. After all, Hel made sure to remind him before he entered the pathway.

'The Death Relic…'

She told him he would need it soon. Was this what she meant?

'The Death Relic doesn't answer to me even though I am technically its owner. It isn't anything a God of any real caliber would desire. Hell, even the smaller Gods only desire the relic so they can gift it to their Apostles.'

Realistically, no matter how much growth potential it had, it didn't matter to a Divine Entity.

Rather, if they could promote its growth alongside the growth of an Apostle, they'd experience great gains.

What about non-Divine entities?

An entity like this ferryman, for instance. He had a place in the Legend of this Underworld and had eternal life because of it, but that life was also death. He didn't have a Divinity or an identity that extended further than his role.

If it was him, the Death Relic meant much, much more.

Atlas hesitated for a moment still. He wasn't worried about the reception. He was merely wondering how to broach the subject.

"You are a ferryman, correct?"

He chose the most obvious conversation point he could think of.

"I am a ferryman of souls. My role is to escort deceased souls into the afterlife."

The answer was textbook, but it was an answer nonetheless. Considering the fact that the ferryman didn't seem to like conversing, it was more than Atlas could have hoped for.

"You take tributes daily, correct? And they are all meant for your Lord?"

"Tributes…are necessary to cross the river."

It was only a moment of hesitation, but Atlas caught it. There was a pause between those words as if they hid within them a meaning that had to be deciphered.

"They are necessary, you say. For what reason?"

"You cannot cross the river without paying a tribute."

"Is that something established by your Lord?"

"..."

Atlas' brow creased deeper.

'Was I wrong?'

Was his original thought process incorrect?

Undoubtedly, if there was only a single path across the river, then the path was a part of the Society Legend.

But…

What if the world never forced a tribute?

What if the tribute was something carved into the Godly Legend by this very ferryman?

'In that case, if he truly established the tribute rule so he could accept bribes, or even if someone else established it for that purpose…'

At the end of the day, the tributes provided to the ferryman were meant to stay with the ferryman. That was what he didn't want to admit, wasn't it?

'He avoided it when I asked if the tributes are meant for his Lord. He avoided everything related to where the tributes are meant to go.'

Atlas decided that talking wasn't the best method. Even if it meant risking himself…

He suddenly reached into the air in front of him. His arm disappeared into a ripple of space, and when it returned to the world of reality, he was holding onto a strangely shaped object.

"What have you summoned, human?"

The ferryman immediately put up his guard. He held an oar in his hands, but when he raised it into the air, it transformed into a scythe, solidifying him as someone who could guide souls and reap them all the same.

"Do not attempt anything."

From his reaction, it was clear that many had tried to enter the Underworld by bypassing his existence, but how many times had it ever worked?

It couldn't be more than a handful.

"This is not a weapon."

Nevertheless, Atlas assured the ferryman.

"I know this may be different from the tributes you usually receive, but I promise you will be more than satisfied with it."

He held his hand out and allowed the Death Relic to unfurl itself. Its bat-like wings spread to the sides and revealed its circular eye body. That eye looked around, glanced at Atlas, and then turned to face the only other person present.

Its pupil dilated to an extreme.

That relic was made from death. It craved and loved death. This environment, the Underworld itself, was more than it could ever hope for.

And that individual that it laid its eyes on…

What kind of aura was that? Was it possible for a being to be so close to death? It had thought that its state as a non-living being gave it a unique ability to touch death. It thought that it was a manifestation of death itself.

However, in front of that ferryman, it was nothing. That ferryman had seen and interacted with a kind of death that the relic couldn't believe existed. It could not comprehend the level it was experiencing in this moment.

All of the instincts it had developed in its short life told it to rush to that being, and it did so without hesitation.

It shot forward, completely shattering its connection with Atlas in mere instants, and slammed itself into that being's cloak.

It seemed like whether or not he accepted it as a tribute, it had chosen him as its master.