The Eternal Sun Soul Art benefited Atlas, so he kept reading it intently.
"... Basically, I need to collect this so-called Sun Energy..."
Atlas looked up but sighed bitterly a while later: "Damn this place... not even a single ray of light can enter this hellhole..."
The Maze of Despair was built in a particular way so that the one trapped inside could easily lose the passage of time.
In fact, it was impossible to see the sun or the moon from Atlas's position.
"Bloody hell... I can't wait to check out this Sun Flame..."
After giving it some more thought, he closed his eyes again: "So... after this... I can use this Sun Flame to temper my soul and make it stronger... Geez, it will hurt like crazy!"
The advantages of this art were great, yet roasting his soul with the Sun Flame was truly scary.
"It's not a simple thing. One wrong step, and my soul will be ruined forever, if not something worse..."
The young man was a bit nervous, yet also a bit curious.
"Well... I should be careful and not test my limit too much..."
There was a lot more, yet those details were useless, so he concentrated on the absorbing process of the Sun Energy.
While Atlas was busy doing his stuff, Uranus had walked pretty far from Falerra's resting place.
The path was strangely silent and safe, a completely different situation from the one encountered the first time.
With his excellent sense of smell, nothing could surprise him, and so the journey to the exit proceeded very calmly.
After a couple of days, Atlas and Uranus encountered something strange.
"Hmm... what is that thing?"
Some noise came from the strange creature.
"Hmm..."
Feeling the whiff of the battle, Atlas stepped down from his companion and approached the creature slowly, holding Astra in his hand.
Scrink... Scrink...
The noises increased, and the creature came in full view when he was near enough.
It was a creature with a long body covered in tiny dark red scales all over the body and a swollen and elongated head. It was clearly part of the reptilian race.
A long trail of purple mucus was behind it, and more was gushing out of its body.
It took him a while, but Atlas finally recognized it: "A Hellground Basilisk!"
Feeling a profound sense of danger from the creature, the young man instinctively jumped back.
Fortunately, he succeeded because an evil pool of purple liquid was in the spot where he had been before.
ROAR!!
Uranus reacted similarly to the attack and activated the gravity field around them.
The duo had looked away for a second, but this was more than enough for the Hellground Basilisk. In fact, its second attack came immediately.
Another wave of purple liquid flowed from the creature's mouth, putting them in grave danger.
"Damn... Impenetrable Stone Dome!"
Atlas activated one of the strongest defensive abilities, and a vast dome of rock covered the duo.
One layer of rocks separated them from the deadly poisonous mucus, but it wasn't enough because the poison's corrosive power was more virulent than expected.
"It's such a powerful creature... it should be at the border between the Primordial Descendant Lord and the Epoch Descendant Ruler Realm..."
The danger was nearing, and since this creature was a deadly opponent for Uranus, Atlas sent him back into his pocket realm.
With a step forward, Atlas appeared far from the dome and, looking back, found the creature coiling around it with all his body.
Hiss!!
Atlas's movement didn't escape the Hellground Basilisk, who hissed and launched another onslaught.
Fighting against this creature with earth techniques was useless. Alas, he had only this at his disposal.
Atlas backed away once more, narrowly escaping the attack.
His brain was searching crazily for a solution, and after dodging it a couple more times, a possible plan emerged.
"Fuck..."
He was a bit risky but could do this or run away.
After stepping back one last time, Atlas prepared his body for a deadly move: "Mother Earth Grip!"
A hand made of rock formed in front of the ferocious creature and slammed down with the clear intent to hold its body in place.
HISS!
Feeling the danger, Hellground Basilisk released even more poisonous mucus from every pore of its body, covering everything except for its head with corrosive poison.
Its speed increased exponentially, yet the hand caught its tail.
HISS! HISS!
"Now!"
As soon as Atlas saw the creature locked in place, his body appeared above its head, and he held a deadly dagger tightly in his hand.
With a decisive thrust, the dagger darted down swiftly, yet the corrosion power was too mighty, and the creature escaped from the grip, slashing Atlas's ankle with its tail.
AH!!!
All happened so fast that Atlas could do nothing against it.
Feeling the corrosive power ruin his new boot, Atlas acted rapidly and extracted the artifact covered by the poison.
However, that malevolent liquid was so effective that some landed on his skin.
He screamed loudly, feeling his skin burn. He couldn't hold back his mouth as it was a different kind of pain from a superficial flame burn.
In fact, the poison acted so virulently that it left Atlas no other choice other than to remove part of his skin with a knife.
It was hurting like crazy, yet the corrosive power was gone, leaving only a tiny part of the poison flowing into his lower leg.
"Fuck... I must find a way to kill it, or the poison's effect will kill me before that happens."
After the two had the small clash, Atlas moved far from the enemy so he had enough time to handle everything.
Alas, time was running out since the creature was already standing a few steps from him.
"Damned creature..."
He didn't dare to block its attacks with the Impenetrable Void Shield because the poison had a particular composition that made it unpredictable.
At the moment, the only way to handle this mess was the Ruthless Void Dagger. One slash was enough to critically injure the creature, yet the first attempt ended in the worst case.
"Impenetrable Stone Dome!"
He erected another barrier around him to gain a bit more time.
His breathing was already ragged, and his mind was spinning and aching.
He needed to counter the poison, at least in a minimal part, so he took out an antidote. Unfortunately, it wasn't specific for this lethal poison, so he could only placate its effect for a few days.
"Huuu... It's a bit better now, but the effect will be reduced by the intense fight... I can't prolong this for too much..."
The layer of stone between them was almost gone, so Atlas activated another technique: "Earthly Submission!"
With the gravity power in place, the creature's body became enormously heavy. The barrier, which was already at its limit, crumbled, letting the beast fall inside.
HISS! HISS!
Atlas summoned the Ruthless Void Dagger again and then struck the enemy.
It was an excellent opportunity, but just when the dagger tip was one inch away from the creature's head, the Hellground Basilisk moved its body strangely, saving its head from a deadly hit but sacrificing its tail.
HISS!! HISS!
The voracious poison of the Hellground Basilisk was nothing compared to the endless devouring power of the void.
Only a few existences knew the true pain of being devoured by this ancient power, and that venomous beast was experiencing that.
HISS!! HISS!
Madly hissing and wriggling onto the ground was useless, so the creature bit its body a few inches from the tail.
It was a cruel action, but the infected part of its body was separated from its main body.
HISS!!
Hissing loudly from the pain, the Hellground Basilisk looked back at Atlas, yet it was just a brief moment because it quickly darted inside one of the many fissures on the rocks, disappearing from his view.
"Geez... what an intelligent creature! It survives even after this..."
Atlas was weak and surely didn't want to wait for its return, so he summoned Uranus and ran away.