「 Atalanta 」

On a dark night without stars, on a planet without an atmosphere that protects it from sky objects, in stars far away in the universe.

A jet-black scaly dragon stared at the black sky that displayed a distant view of the universe. At his side was a handsome man who was holding an arrow in his hand.

They both look familiar like two good friends who have experienced thousands of battles together, it is seen from the expressions on their faces.

The dragon raised his head and said in a glorious voice.

"Again, this dark night sky, I hate this place ..."

But there was no reply from the handsome man beside him.

"Hey kiddo, do you think we can win the battle tomorrow?"

"With all the people we have brought together in this place, we will prevent the end of the series of stories that exist in this universe together, to protect the people we care about, and protect the future of the next generations ... This story isn't over yet. "

"You're right, you're right ..."

Then, the atmosphere became quiet before the handsome man broke the silence.

"But ... but if things don't go well, I want you to promise me one thing, *** ***."

" What? "

"If things go wrong, I want you to use my Axis to change the results, and return everything to the beginning ..."

Hearing that, the black dragon widened its eyes.

"... promise me."

***

* gasp *

"AH !!"

In a futuristic steel-walled rectangular room, a brown-skinned man was seen regaining his consciousness and shouting. The man is none other than Kira.

Meanwhile, Mai who slept while sitting in a chair beside his bed also woke up due to the Kira's scream.

Seeing Kira panting and looking like someone who had just had a nightmare Made Mai worry.

"Mr. Kira, are you alright? Do you feel any strange or strange feelings in your body?"

"Ah, Mai, where am I?" Said Kira, clutching his head tightly, feeling extreme pain.

"Can't you remember? You were in your room, a few hours ago you suddenly fainted in the kitchen when you were about to make a cup of coffee."

" Oh, I see... "

Kira thinking about the dream he saw in his sleep before.

'Looks like this time it's an important memory because it makes me lose consciousness like this ...'

"Did you see those dreams again, Mr. Kira?" Mai asked.

Previously Kira had told his body condition to Mai, of course he told everything to her because Mai was responsible for planting Apocrypha into his body. So she is obliged to know everything, including what Kira feels on his body and such.

The memories that appear in his dreams every day are also only told to Mai.

"Yes, it seems like this time the Apocrypha section is integrated into my body in quite a large amount at a time."

"Um." Mai nodded before she stood up from her chair and picked up something on the table in the corner of the room.

Kira then glanced at Mai beside him who was seen pouring a cup of water on him. Mai then took a few pills of medicine and gave it to Kira.

"Mr. Kira, please drink this to relieve your headache and reduce the side effects of Apocrypha."

Kira nodded and followed what Mai said.

* gulp *

"By the way, where are we now?" Kira asked, but, before Mai could answer her question the door of the room opened and gave rise to the figure of La Nave who was seen smoking and wearing clothes that were more casual than usual, but still emphasized her professional impression.

The appearance of La Nave which suddenly attracted the attention of Kira and Mai. She then said.

"Get ready, we have arrived at the capital of ​​the middle area in the floor of the everlasting rain ...

...Atalanta "

***

* Casssp *

The sound of iron clinking could be heard at the airport on the Atalanta border. Atalanta, is the name for the central place of the middle area on the 38th floor.

Atalanta Airport looks very quiet, there are only a few floating ships that can be seen berth there. And on one of the ships, three people came down the stairs.

The first person was Kira who was seen wearing a white coat, black innerwear, black gloves and white trousers. After a year, no significant changes occurred in his appearance.

While Mai beside him was wearing the same Trench coat and scarf, as well as La Nave beside her.

It has been one year since they started the journey to the 38th floor. And on each floor, Kira did all the tests by himself and completed them easily, because Mai was a Ranker and La Nave was a Guide, they were not meant to take the same exams as regulars .

And now, Kira is a D-Rank Regular.

* sssss *

The sound of raindrops dominated the air, the sky of Atalanta was always cloudy as if the sun had never lit it. Kira glanced around and he could only see some very strange non-human creatures milling about.

"I thought the name of the everlasting rain was only exaggerated, but it turns out I was wrong, this is really mesmerizing, is it raining like this all year long?" Kira asked La Nave, still staying in his place.

"Yup, it is like that, but it's not a normal rain, both of you realize it too, if this floor is very quiet."

Kira and Mai nodded, even though Mai was a Ranker, but before she was just a bird in a cage, she had indeed gone to some middle area on another floor, but she had never once come to Atalanta.

"That's because this place is not a place that can be visited by anyone, especially humans and regulars."

" What do you mean? "

"The rain that falls in this place is not ordinary rain, it ia not water but Shinsu with high density so it forms a Liquid."

Then La Nave was seen taking something out of her pocket, it was a two glowing prism the size of a finger. However, the object suddenly changed in size and became an oddly shaped steel umbrella. A compressor item that can change size.

Kira who saw it tilted his head while Mai knew what it was.

"Ah, that is ..."

"This is a special umbrella that can be used so as not to be affected by the rain on this floor."

Hearing that Kira tilted his head, he then said to La Nave.

"I didn't mean to be arrogant but Shinsu naturally avoided my body, so no matter how strong Shinsu's concentration wouldn't affect me, I don't think I need that umbrella."

"I know, even Miss Mai won't be affected by this rain because of her perfect body, but ordinary umbrellas can't be used in this place, so if you don't want your clothes and body to get wet, use this thing." La Nave said handed the two umbrellas in his hands.

Actually Kira could have used Chaos Energy to eliminate the rain around him, but at this time Kira still could not form his Chaos Energy at will, so Kira just nodded.

Then La Nave walked down the stairs and said to Mai and Kira behind her.

"Alright, let's go immediately to take care of our floating ship maintenance, because no floating ship can float in the sky of Atalanta, even for Archimedes who uses the highest purity suspendium."

Then the three of them continued walking before La Nave said.

"Also, be careful, this floor is also called the quiet sea floor because on this floor, we cannot hear the sound of steps, breathing, and inhaling certain scents because most of our senses are covered by Shinsu's rain, and the worst, our Shinsu sensor will be completely disrupted. So don't walk too far from me. "

Kira and Mai nodded silently, it was their first time coming to this place, so they didn't know anything and could only listen to what La Nave had instructed. She is a guide, a special position in the tower that has a unique specialty.

So, Kira could only rely on her to guide him to the place he was going to, Po Bidau Gustang's personal library.

With the help of La Nave, the three of them get permission to leave their floating ship. And surprisingly, those who take care of all administrative matters there are not humans.

But a humanoid race similar to the one they saw when they first arrived at Atalanta, which is a creature that has a human upper body and a seahorse lower body, they are called Homohippocampus or more familiar with the name Atalantean.

After taking care of all their business, Kira and the others started walking out of the Atalanta airfield and began walking on the main road which was very quiet as if there were no residents at all.

When they were on the edge of a rocky road, Kira then slightly smelled the fragrance, a very fragrant aroma and tickle his nose.

"Do you smell anything good?"

"Hm? What do you mean? I don't smell anything," La Nave said with a confused expression.

Mai also shook her head, and that made Kira put on a strange expression, but he immediately ignored it and looked around.

"It's really quiet and lonely, is this place really the middle area?"

"Well, from the beginning this place did have very extreme geographical conditions, only a few special races could live normally in such a climate, one of which was the Atalantean. Because of that condition King Jahad handed over management of this floor to the Eurasian family, a great Family who is truly blessed by Shinsu itself. "

Hearing that Kira slightly raised his eyebrows.

"So the ruler of this floor is also someone from the Eurasia family huh ..."

La Nave nodded and glanced to the sky behind her sunglasses.

"That's right, The Sleeping Beauty, Eurasia Daphne. A High-Ranker rank 88th, and currently in the 'Blue Hole' status."

"The Eurasia family huh ... Then why is Po Bidau Gustang's private library in this place, I mean they come from two different great families."

But the one who answered Kira's question was Mai behind him.

"It might be influenced by Po Bidau Gustang's status as a former lover of the Eurasian family head, Eurasia Blossom, besides that the Po Bidau and Eurasia families are quite well connected."

"So that's how it is, then where are we going next, as far as I can see, this place is surrounded by mountain ranges with very dense forests," said Kira, observing his surroundings.

Besides the sky which is always cloudy, Atalanta is also dominated by high mountains surrounded by dense forest at the foot of the mountain. Occasionally the Atalantean appeared without carrying an umbrella and walked like they were not affected by the Shinsu rain.

"I don't know," answered La Nave with an innocent face.

Hearing that Mai and Kira immediately stopped, he then raised his eyebrows in confusion.

"Huh? What do you mean you don't know? Isn't it that as a Guide you can predict future events?"

"Yes, that's right," La Nave said, turning on her cigarette while holding an umbrella.

" Then? "

"Well, being a Guide does not mean that I am omniscient, in the end the view i have as a Guide is very limited depending on time range."

Kira just listening carefully and La Nave continued while smoking her cigarette.

"What I know right now is ... ' the mist of dreams that reflects yourself will guide you to the stairs to the door of winter flowers' or something like that."

" What does it mean? "

"I don't know, it's quite rare for me to get such ambiguous phrases, after all this floor is called a dangerous floor not without reason."

Kira glanced around again before he looked down slightly and seemed to think hard.

'Mist of dreams? Self-reflection? The stairs to the gate of winter flowers? What does that mean. '

Kira thinking in the silence, there was no sound other than the rain falling to the ground and splashing in the air. It was so quiet that Kira could even hear her own heartbeat.

* tap * * tap *

'Do we perhaps have to find a stair to get to the library, or ...'

Kira then kept thinking before shaking his head. He gave up trying to connect the puzzle because there was no clue at all.

"I can't conclude anything, what about you Mai, do you know anything?"

"..."

There was no answer, and no response from Kira's question, both La Nave and Mai did not speak at all. Kira who felt something was wrong immediately turned around.

And when he turned around, Kira widened his eyes in surprise when he could not see the figures of La Nave and Mai anywhere. They just disappear.

"Oi ... Mai, La Nave, where are you?"

As expected, they had completely disappeared. Feeling that he was truly alone in this strange place, made Kira who still had a stoic expression dripping with cold sweat.

"Oi, Oi really? ... what should I do now."

***

Meanwhile, on the other hand La Nave and Mai also lost their tracks from Kira.

"Mr. Kira, where are you !? He gone? "

Mai looks put on a worried face, Kira just disappeared as if swallowed by a mysterious fog that currently surrounds them.

"La Nave, do you know anything about this?"

"Calm down Miss Mai, this fog, maybe this fog is the same as what is meant by my special vision."

She looked up and realized something.

'The rain also stopped, no ... is the rain blocked by this fog? '

"I don't care about that, why does Mr. Kira suddenly disappear? Why are we separated from him like this?" Asked Mai with a stoic but serious face.

However, suddenly dozens of step emergede from sky and began to form a stair up to the boundary that could not be seen.

La Nave and Mai who saw that became alert.

"Someone is coming," Mai said.

And then, a creature appeared, it was a man from the Atalantean race who wore a tuxedo neatly. The man had a polite and respectful expression on his face.

Looking at that person, La Nave raised his eyebrows. The Atalantean man then bowed his head in greetings to La Nave and Mai.

"Let me introduce you, I am Luxara, personal servant of Lady Eurasia Daphne. Miss Mai and Miss La Nave, I humbly welcome you to Atalanta. And at the behest of Lady Daphne, I will accompany both of you to her place."

_________________________________

Blue Hole

There is a term called Blue Hole, and it is used for High Rankers who have been inactive for so long since ancient times that no one knows if they are dead or alive, or Rankers whose true influence or power are difficult to measure.

_____________________________________

About Guide

SIU described Guides as a human GPS that can tell the best move or make predictions, but how that comes to be is not known until he further explains it. So even if they predicted that someone would die in a month they cannot give any specific way to avoid it, but they can try their best. Of course, a prediction a day or an hour ahead can be more detailed, someone can't avoid it once you end up on the wrong path.