CHAPTER 498: STARLIGHT ABOVE SKY

Atlas and Circe stood side by side, unmoving as though they were in the middle of a spar waiting for one of them to start the fight, and their gazes locked in a silence so taut it felt like one wrong breath could shatter the room.

Then out of nowhere, the door suddenly clicked open.

Both of their heads snapped toward it with such speed that the tense air in the room seemed to freeze mid turn.

Lastor, who had already sensed something was terribly wrong from the frigid air seeping under the doorway, hesitated before poking his head inside. The moment his eyes landed on the pair standing too close in that awkward and stiff position, as though ready to either collapse or explode— he swallowed hard.

Not again.

Why does he always appear when a couple were in such fights?

"Did... did I come at the wrong time...?" Lastor muttered, voice barely above a whisper. He didn’t dare speak any louder. The tension strangling the room felt thick enough to choke on and he thought if he speaks loud enough, he was going to start another war.

While he was surprised to see them in a fight, he wasn’t entirely surprised that this would happen.

Their relationship had always been filled with raw nerves and unhealed wounds, and now, with the looming threat of Morpheus, Arabella missing, and Cassius gone into the lion’s den, every fractured edge between them was cutting deeper.

Arabella’s disappearance and Cassius’s decision to walk straight into the castle of sorcerers was like a shove against a brimful cup— the kind of push that didn’t just spill water, but shattered the cup entirely.

And those two fragile, overfilled glasses were, of course, Atlas and Circe.

"No," Circe said to him without moving.

"Yes," Atlas answered at the exact same time.

They turned to glare at each other. Circe’s eyes narrowed in annoyance; Atlas’s brows drew together in quiet stubbornness.

Lastor took a careful step back, gripping the door as if it could save him. "I suppose... you two need your own time..."

But the very moment he tried to close the door, it refused to budge. Circe didn’t even look at him when she snapped with her hands still raised, humming with traces of magic on her fingertips that had stopped him from closing the door even if he had pushed it with his entire body weight.

"Don’t go!"

"But—"

"You heard her, Lastor. Don’t go," Atlas added, still not glancing his way. Though Atlas was a man who was born with a smile and that smile didn’t completely disappeared from his face, a part of Lastor felt a chill down his spine when he saw the gaze that Atlas had with his eyes.

Lastor gulped. Why was he being dragged into this?

What crime had he committed to deserve being stuck as the unwilling anchor between these two volatile forces?

Was it even normal for a couple to fight and demand for a guest to watch over the fight?

Circe finally turned toward Atlas, still with her arms crossed tightly in front of her chest. "I have a bad habit? Really?" She tilted her head, letting a sweet smile that felt borderline mockery to Lastor who was watching. "Alright then. Tell me. What bad habit do I have?"

Atlas didn’t blink, "That you think you are always correct."

Her smile froze. Slowly, her eyebrows drew in, irritation beginning to flicker through her mien.

Atlas continued, without batting an eye over the fire he was stoking. "It must be because you spend most of your days alone in solidarity. You’re brilliant, but you never have anyone around you who can challenge you. So you don’t seem to realize when you’re wrong. You never notice when you need to stop. And it doesn’t help that the people who follow you—" his voice sharpened ever so slightly, "—never tell you when you start walking down the wrong path."

Circe’s frown deepened, her jaw tightening. Lastor silently prayed to any deity that might be listening— because he was absolutely sure he was about to die in a crossfire of egos, magic, or both.

And neither Circe nor Atlas seemed ready to back down.

"And do you think that you are always right?" Circe snapped back instantly.

Atlas let out a wide smile as he raised both his hands, "No. Of course not. Isn’t that the whole point? No one in this world can always be right in every situation, Circe."

He took a faint breath and looked gently into hers, "You want me to be alive all the time. That’s your wish. But what about mine?"

Circe blinked, thrown off for a heartbeat.

Atlas stepped closer, knowing that Circe would never understand nor accept his words unless he spoke to her truthfully without holding back, "You know I don’t want to live alone. Not again. Not in a place where I don’t know anyone anymore. I’ve already been there once. I don’t want to go back to that."

"You can simply make a new bond," Circe argued quickly, raising a hand and pointing straight at Lastor. "That’s one person you’ve already gotten to know since you came back to life. And there is Arabella. Cassius, too, is right there. Forming connections comes easy to you, Atlas. Like a sun, everyone gravitates towards you, if you fear making a bond, you don’t have to."

"See?" Atlas exhaled, a weary sound leaving him. "Even now, you care more about solving the problem I pointed out than about understanding why I said it. You never consider that it could get tiring."

"Tiring?" Circe repeated, her voice dropping dangerously low. Her eyes narrowed, lightning sharp with hurt and fury. She took a step toward him.

"Why are you always so quick to throw your life away, Atlas?" she demanded. "Every single time you see a wall in front of you, you immediately jump to that same conclusion. You give up your life. As if it is nothing."

Atlas’s shoulders tensed, but he didn’t step away.

"Do you not care for it?" Circe continued, her voice cracking before she tightened it again. "Do you still not understand why I insist on protecting you? Why I insist on keeping you alive, no matter the cost?"

Her breathing grew uneven as old memories resurfaced, recalling that fateful night where she felt as though the grim reapers had called for her name when she found out how Atlas never had a future to look forward to as he had been poisoned.

"Because this is what you do," she whispered, almost shaking now. "Because of how easily you choose death. Because when you found out you were going to die that time, you just... smiled. You smiled, Atlas." Her voice broke. "You nodded and told me that all things eventually meet their end."

Atlas looked down, guilt flickering across his features.

"You accepted it so easily, so calmly, as if you truly wished for death. As if you were relieved." Her fingers curled into trembling fists. "As if... being alive meant nothing to you."

Her voice dropped into something raw, something she never let anyone hear.

"As if my presence... never once meant enough for you to stay in this world."

Her last words trembled like the last crack in a dam. And this time— even Atlas froze completely.

"You saved me.... I only wanted to save you, return you the life of a normal person where you get to love, where you get to actually live!" Circe’s surrounding trembled along with her voice that had quake as it left her trembling lips.

She clenched her fists tighter and stared at him with her eyes wet.

"Is it impossible for you to understand this? You could-"

"I have lived my life," Atlas answered.

For a moment stillness appeared in between them and knowing how Circe would begin to spiral into her own thoughts, he moved forward, held her by her arms and stared to her eyes as he spoke, "I have lived my life. I don’t think you will ever understand this Circe but the reason why I could live for so long was you. You were my life and I have lost my life. I have lived my life. I wasn’t peaceful when I found out I was dying, you know? I was angry. I cursed everything. I was going to simply fight fate and prove them that I could still remain alive for long but... I only became peaceful when I thought that you were happy."

Circe shook her head, "You weren’t sad."

"I was. I was more than sad. I was upset, I was angry, I... ask him," Atlas pointed to Lastor with a nudge of his chin.

Being put to the spotlight made the poor Lastor held to the door tighter but he saw Atlas’s pleading gaze and sighed before nodding.

"He went to my room drunk, mistress. He spent the full night telling me how you two met and how he wanted to marry you after becoming a King."

"I guess my performance worked far too well for you," Atlas then held her hands and smiled. "Which is why, I want you to understand that my time has passed. I have no reason to be in this place, especially when all I have done is tie you down. You can’t even rest or pass away peacefully because you know I will be awoken from that glass coffin. But, Circe, I don’t want to force my life again. No more. When my timely death has came, I have decided to accept it."

Circe eyed him as a tear slid over her now red eyes.

"Don’t you understand that this is finally a chance for you to be free from a witch’s spell? To live a life where you don’t have to protect me?"

"Don’t you know?" Atlas chuckled, "I’m a knight by heart. There is no reason for a knight to appear in this world without the person they wish to protect. My life isn’t life when there is no you."