He raised his hand and patted Diana's shoulder, bidding farewell like a sailor: "It was an honor to work with you too, Diana. I hope you're right, and wish you the best on your journey."
"The good news is, I'm usually right—Amazon Warriors' intuition."
Diana gave a small smile and leaped from the side of the ship into the sea. In the visually impaired waters, she needed to find a way to break through Poseidonis's foundation and enter the underground space.
She headed underwater, leaving the rest to fend off the alien army above and delay the sea demon's contact with the surface for as long as possible.
From the look of things, the enemy's deployment of this super weapon seemed more like a scare tactic. The Death Sea Demon was stuck like a giant red cauliflower atop a barrier, without yet beginning to descend.
But the alien fleet had arrived, ships continuously sailing toward them; the aliens intended to reclaim this transport vessel.
They did not open fire, despite having countless cannons on those warships capable of destroying the Justice League's ship in an instant; the aliens chose to board the vessel instead.
Batman squinted his eyes, quickly discerning the enemy's intentions. Though not entirely clear why the enemy held this ship in high regard, it was undoubtedly an advantage.
"Close to the sea surface, right beneath the giant beast!"
He immediately informed Bo Bo, instructing him to follow the new plan.
If the enemy valued this vessel so much, then position it under the sea demon. If the demon fell, the ship would be doomed as well.
The enemy cherishing it would surely hesitate, buying them some time.
As for their own survival, if the sea demon touched the water, Earth was finished; their lives would be inconsequential.
Bo Bo grimaced, knowing more than Batman, but wagering everyone's lives was outright madness.
Why, whenever he piloted a ship for the Justice League, did he have to take so many unnecessary risks?
"Deathstroke, where have you run off to?"
Bo Bo held the helm with one hand, released the cigar from his mouth with the other, spat to the side, took a deep breath, and his gaze became resolute.
Now that things had come to this, he had no choice but to charge ahead.
Arthur stood at the ship's bow, looking at the overwhelming storm of the enemy army descending from the sky. He pounded his chest; though weapons were lost, he still had his fists.
"For the sinking Earth, charge!"
...........
Diana finally found a tunnel, or rather, she discovered a passage that Arthur and the others had previously excavated during the metal incident. She quickly entered this mysterious underground space.
No wonder Arthur hadn't spoken of it; the old Deathstroke had created a thief's tunnel atop Atlantis's new king's burial site—how could Arthur possibly mention it?
The area was uniquely protected by magic, isolating it from seawater. The tomb area ahead remained remarkably intact, devoid of any moisture, with even the lighting system still functioning normally.
Passing by several large golden coffins, she arrived at an area that resembled a storage for burial goods.
Under the lights, she observed that the underground space spanned several football fields in size. Besides various treasures, it was filled with odd and peculiar devices whose functions were unknown.
Everything around her shimmered golden, even the stone walls were plated with gold, exuding tremendous grandeur.
This golden glow only added to Diana's bewilderment.
"Justice League, I've arrived. Can you hear me?"
However, the earpiece was filled with static noise; the alien communication interference remained strong here.
"Damn it, what should I be looking for..." Diana glanced around, only to be unfamiliar with the equipment that seemingly knew her.
"Calm down, Diana, calm down..."
She muttered to herself, trying to think seriously, as everyone was still waiting above for her good news.
Recalling Deathstroke's usual style, she attempted to think from a bystander's perspective.
The current situation required finding the rocket's launch controller, which she couldn't identify among the plethora of devices.
"Then... since Arthur could recognize it before, it means that item was quite distinctive, something he could discern even with his basic understanding beyond high school education..."
Arthur's understanding of Atlantean history was roughly zero, and his understanding of Amazon was simply non-existent...
He could recognize the equipment for launching rockets because he learned from human society.
As she darted through the gaps between various devices, Diana mused on what could connect basic human knowledge to rocket understanding.
She thought of fuel.
Long ago, Atlantis didn't possess alien travel capabilities, so it called other aliens to Earth for meetings rather than venturing out themselves.
These rockets were Aryan's prototype experimental machines, lacking alien energy sources. They likely needed Earth's fuel to launch.
Externally, the rockets resembled giant spires, meaning such large rockets required immense fuel.
The rockets themselves could be preserved for long durations, but the fuel wasn't the alien-made batteries currently used by the Justice League, which couldn't be stored inside the rocket for over thousands of years—that would be a safety hazard.
Earth from thousands of years ago didn't have alien technology, so those rockets surely needed refueling before liftoff.
By simply following the exceptionally thick, concurrent series of pipelines, she'd find the underground fueling section of the rockets.
And this was something Arthur could comprehend, as both fishing boats and cars needed refueling, he probably recognized the fuel injection ports as the rocket.
Kids of course knew rocket principles—whether fireworks or water rockets, these were things they'd enjoy playing with.
Diana began running; she had caught sight of the four parallel metal conduits.
Sure enough, following them, she quickly spotted a massive handle resembling a latch, embedded beneath four enormous pillars, with pipes connected via plug-like interfaces to the pillars.
The rockets had more components underground, this was only their middle section.
Aryan designed the rockets to be capable of transporting people and goods, as well as sustaining life onboard, so their length was exaggeratedly long.
The spire on the earth's surface was the life section, now occupied as residences by the Atlanteans.
Here was the area for injecting and storing fuel, further down lay their engines deep in the abyss.
Diana let out a breath of relief, she had finally found it.
The situation was a little different than Diana imagined, for beside the control station, Aryan had drawn a design blueprint—a rocket spewing flames shooting toward space.
He erected a golden monument, nearly human-height, with the design engraved on it.
Arthur had noticed that, recognizing the rockets as illustrated on the comic-style drawings.
Diana covered her forehead, realizing she might have overestimated Arthur's wisdom. It seemed he hadn't learned much in school.....