Meanwhile, beneath Altar Street in the Interstellar Mountainous City.
So… they actually survived.
Hearing the tremors overhead gradually fade away, Jason slumped against the bronze-cast wall, gasping for breath, the sensation of having narrowly escaped death finally sinking in.
After catching his breath, he casually picked up a nameplate engraved with Greek characters from the table. His fingertips traced the carved grooves as he shook his head, murmuring with a complicated expression.
[Breaker of Gods Alliance]. An alliance meant to break the gods… If he remembered correctly, it was Theseus who had come up with the name the last time they were here. He never imagined that, after so many twists and turns, they would end up back in this place again.
Just as Jason drifted into thought, a figure wrapped in a tattered black cloak stepped into the room and casually tossed two glass vials into the captain's arms.
"This place is safe for now. Here, drink these first. An energy potion and a recovery elixir."
The voice was hoarse and low, like a vast, heavy ocean, inexplicably calming.
"Sisyphus, Circe, Medea… how are the others I brought with me?"
Jason pulled out the cork and downed the liquid in one gulp, then turned slightly and asked with a furrowed brow.
"They've already taken medicine. They're all next door. Their injuries are severe, though. They'll need proper rest."
The shadow answered flatly, then fell silent once more.
"What about the others?"
"Much the same. Atalanta lost a great deal of blood and suffered nerve damage in her limbs. She's undergoing self-repair. The sibling pair have fractured Spirit Cores and exhausted Ether. They're still unconscious… In short, none of them should be fighting again anytime soon."
"So I ended up the least injured?" Jason gave a bitter laugh, pressing a hand to his forehead. "The one who least deserved to live actually made it out. Guess I'm lucky."
Heracles on the Titan Sea. Orion. The Peleus brothers. Caenis…
Meleager and Asclepius before the Temple of Poseidon…
Orpheus and Hylas in the Corridor of the Machine Gods…
Almost every fallen companion had been stronger than him, yet he, the weakest of them all, ended up the safest.
Without their desperate protection, he would have died long ago.
At least there was one piece of good news. Atalanta, who had been holding the line at Altar Street, and the Spartan siblings Castor and Pollux had encountered this mysterious man's help at the critical moment and survived.
Together with Sisyphus, Circe, Medea, and the others who made it out of the explosion in the Corridor of the Machine Gods, the Argonaut expedition still had ten survivors.
"Thank you for saving me… and my crew, Your Highness."
As the exhaustion and stabbing pain gradually faded, Jason flexed his limbs, set the nameplate back on the table, and straightened his expression. He offered a solemn bow of thanks to the mysterious figure concealed in the shadows beside him.
The figure reached up and pulled back his hood. Golden hair spilled free, revealing a strikingly handsome face with sharp features and blue eyes. It was none other than Triton, the missing son of the Sea God.
"I didn't expect this place to still be usable. If it weren't, we'd probably all be dead."
After listening carefully to the movements above and confirming everything was calm, Jason patted the bronze wall of the Breaker of Gods Alliance base, its surface densely carved with complex runes, and sighed in relief.
"That's because after you left, the situation changed too fast. I didn't have time to seal the flaws in this sector before the war began. As a result, the core mainframe Chaos still has no data on this area. The Breaker of Gods Alliance Base is essentially a ghost zone hidden within the Interstellar Mountainous City, which is why it managed to avoid detection by those things."
Triton glanced at Jason as he explained, a trace of emotion surfacing in his eyes.
The hidden passage he had left behind on a whim to help his sister Rhode escape had unexpectedly become the lifeline that saved both himself and this group.
Fate, at times, really was a strange thing.
"Your Highness, when did you hide down here? Don't tell me it was all the way back when the Alien Vanguards first awakened?"
Jason closed his eyes, recalling those figures who had stepped forward without hesitation to block the pursuing enemies. A knot tightened in his chest, his voice turning cold as a trace of sarcasm slipped out.
"Hmph. If that were the case, you wouldn't have faced just four True Body Machine Gods—Artemis, Demeter, Aphrodite, and Zeus. You'd have run into all twelve."
Triton frowned and let out a sharp snort, his sapphire eyes keen as blades.
"What? You've already destroyed the other eight True Body Machine Gods?!"
Jason shot to his feet, his face frozen in shock.
"Not 'you,'" the merman prince corrected firmly. " 'You all.'"
A hint of sorrow surfaced in Triton's blue eyes as he continued.
"When the Alien Vanguards awakened, the Ocean Gods weren't completely unaware. But everything happened too fast. The spatial pathways cut Atlantis off from the outside world. They fought with everything they had against the corruption, but all they managed to buy was fifteen minutes.
"During that time, all I could do was destroy the database of Terminal Chaos, sever the links between the aberrations in each region, and, while I was at it, eliminate the eight True Body Machine Gods docked in the star sea.
"Humans, don't think you're the only ones resisting. Even facing annihilation, we struggled with all our strength, carving out even the smallest chance of victory for those who would come after us."
Hearing this, Jason lowered his head in silence. The flippancy and resentment faded from his expression as he paid quiet respect to the Ocean Gods and the people of Atlantis, who had died at sea without fanfare or glory.
It was because of their sacrifice that the Argo had even gained the chance to reach the Machine God Corridor and approach the Great Altar.
Otherwise, if all twelve Machine Gods had moved together, even if they had fought until nothing remained, they would never have set foot on the Interstellar Mountainous City.
"Still," Triton went on, "the reason there were four Machine Gods left unaccounted for… actually has something to do with you."
"Hey, not everything that goes wrong is Atlantis's fault. What does that have to do with us?" Jason shot back.
"You remember the last time you caused a ruckus in the Machine God Corridor and disabled three True Body Machine Gods—the God of Agriculture, the Moon God, and the Goddess of Love, right?"
"Uh… yeah, I guess. What about it?"
"After their systems were shut down, they were sent along with the main unit, Zeus, to the Echidna Armory for repairs. Because of that, I couldn't use Terminal Chaos's authority to deal with the remaining four.
"Later, when the Alien Vanguards overran Atlantis, they retrieved those four True Body Machine Gods, reactivated them, and modified them. They were then assigned to guard four critical points: the Ocean of Giants, the Atlantis Sea God Temple, the Machine God Corridor in the Interstellar Mountainous City, and the Great Altar."
"…"
After laying out the explanation, Triton shot the group a withering look, clearly unimpressed with their ruthlessness.
Jason's mouth twitched violently, leaving him at a loss for words. He had never imagined that so many of the Argonaut expedition's close calls were connected to their previous adventure.
As for how he felt about it? Regret. Deep, crushing regret. And a strong sense of injustice.
After all, as captain, he had never once planned on coming to this cursed place called Atlantis.
So… who exactly was supposed to take the blame for all this?
Just as the image of a certain prime culprit surfaced in Jason's mind, a violent tremor interrupted his thoughts.
This shaking wasn't normal.
Sensing something amiss, Triton sprang to his feet. After a brief hesitation, he raised his left hand and activated a risky detection Magecraft on the table, projecting the situation above into the room.
At once, the ground split open with countless fissures. The sky shattered like a broken mirror, cracks spreading with sharp, echoing snaps. The entire world looked like a porcelain vessel barely held together with glue, on the verge of collapse.
"What's going on?!"
"The world is breaking apart," Triton replied grimly. "It looks like the Alien Vanguards' erosion of Greece is almost complete. We don't have much time left."
As Triton withdrew his heavy gaze, Jason's expression darkened. He pressed on urgently.
"The Sky Garden and the Machine God Corridor have both collapsed by half. All the debris smashed straight into the Core Temple. That place is already a dead zone. Do you have any other way to reach the Great Altar?"
"I do," Triton said, nodding without hesitation. "I've been trying to reclaim control of the core terminal this whole time. I secretly gathered parts and assembled a flying craft that can pass the recognition system."
He revealed his final card with decisive calm.
Even if Atlantis fell and the Ocean Gods became nothing but history, he would never crawl into some tunnel like a rat, hiding in the dark just to survive.
"Perfect timing," Jason said, drawing a deep breath as he took out the second multicolored scale Poseidon had left behind. "I have the permission code to modify Terminal Chaos."
The blond youth rose to his feet, stretching lazily. He glanced at the remaining Argonauts resting in the corner, then turned back to Triton and extended his hand.
"So, how about it? Care to put everything we've got on one final gamble with me, my friend?"
"Do I even have a choice?" Triton replied, shaking his head as he reached out to clasp Jason's hand.
A chill instantly spread through Jason's palm. He instinctively looked down, his expression shifting to shock.
"Your hand…"
"Living here always comes at a price," Triton said casually.
He rolled up his sleeve and tapped the black alloy arm that had replaced his severed limb, embedded deep into the flesh of his shoulder.
Then the merman prince's gaze grew sharp. He pressed a hidden mechanism, and with a faint metallic scrape, eight objects resembling chips or crystals popped out from concealed slots along the metal arm. Looking at Jason, he murmured quietly,
"And this might turn out to be even more useful than the original."