In a final attempt to save his people, the king of the Aquina carried out a magical experiment that would sink his entire world into the ocean. This experiment was meant to preserve the Aquina in a state of unconsciousness to make sure they didn’t die, and they were meant to wake up a century later in a new time after the war would have hopefully ended. But even this act of desperation by the king ended up becoming a grave mistake. According to historians, a great battle between two TITAN Rank monsters had occurred in the middle of the experiments, and the battle ended up interfering with the experiment and causing a great accident! This accident drove all the Aquina to insanity due to a massive influx of tainted magic, and plunged Atlantis to the bottom of the ocean for eternity. No one truly knew what had happened to the Aquina or if there were any of them left alive, but even to this day, Atlantis continues to lie at the bottom of the ocean along with all its secrets and no one has been able to find it since.
"Or at least, that’s what the stories say. I only heard about the fall of Atlantis from passing storytellers and historians who were looking to make a name for themselves, but Avaran was busy fighting its own war at the time, so I didn’t have the freedom to come and investigate for myself. But from what I can see here, there might be some truth to that story."
Jason hummed in curiosity as Stella finally finished telling her story, and he looked forward once again. Right now, Trigon and Ragnar were flying over a large ocean that shone with a deep red hue that made it look like blood. There was a purple sun in the sky shining down on them, and the light from the sun cast the sky in a purple-black hue that made it look like they were in some eternal twilight zone. Jason and his group had been flying over the ocean for the past few minutes after coming to this world, and he followed the system’s instructions while heading for the previous location of Atlantis. But during the journey, Jason mentioned that he didn’t know much about the fall of Atlantis, and Stella said that she had been alive when the city fell, so she told Jason the stories she had heard from that time. Jason was thankful to have someone with a lot of knowledge like Stella on the team.
[...Is that so?]
Jason raised a brow when he saw this message from the system appear, and he couldn’t help but chuckle when he realised the system was jealous. Jason spoke up in an apologetic tone.
’You’re still my greatest source of information, so don’t worry.’
[The system wasn’t worried at all. The system simply wishes for the user to appreciate its efforts.]
’Of course I appreciate it. I wouldn’t be alive right now if it weren’t for you, so I owe you my life.’
[There’s no need for the user to get so sentimental. The system was simply doing its job.]
Jason chuckled in amusement at the system’s answer, and he shook his head when both Stella and Gina looked at him curiously. Jason told them not to worry about why he was laughing, and he looked forward again with a more serious expression on his face. After flying for so long, they had finally reached the location of the Aquina settlements from legend, and Jason was sure that even though he hadn’t heard anything about Atlantis or the Aquina in the past, he would still be able to tell that there had once been something here. The Aquina settlements made a wide circle on the ocean. There were more than a hundred large islands that formed concentric circles on the water, and they were all connected using wide pathways. But in the center of those islands, there was nothing but an empty wide space, and it was obvious that this was where the largest island was supposed to have been.
Ragnar and Trigon landed on the settlement closest to the center of the circles, and Jason pat them on their heads thankfully, before sending them back into the Alternate Dimension. Jason then turned around while putting his hand in his coat pockets, and he stared out into the wide open waters in front of him.
"This is pretty unsettling."
Jason turned to the side as Gina said this, and he smiled when he saw her glaring at the blood-red water. Even though they had already been to many other worlds, Jason and Gina just weren’t used to seeing water of this color, so it was almost like they were looking at an entire ocean of blood. It was obvious that Gina wouldn’t be comfortable with it. But Jason knew that it was just water, so it didn’t matter. Both the Machina and Hesabeth were right behind them, and if they wasted any time here, then they might not reach the settlement before they were found again. Jason quickly called on his [Swamp Viper] subordinates and more than a hundred of them appeared from the alternate dimension and fell into the water.
’Go down and search the ocean floor for any sign of the city. Anyone who finds it first gets a treat.’
HISSS~!
A loud hissing echoed from the water, and the two women were surprised when they saw the Swamp Vipers shoot down into the water! Stella asked Jason if those were his subordinates as well, and Jason said that they were. Stella still didn’t understand all of Jason’s powers, but she could tell that Jason had two main abilities. The first was the Avaran ability that she also had, which allowed him to consume mana crystals to gain power, but Jason’s other ability was something related to Necromancy, and that power was somehow stronger than his Avaran heritage.
Jason walked closer to the edge of the water, and he crouched before activating [Eye of the King]. Jason’s vision bled from black to red, and the scene in front of him changed to show what the swamp viper boss was seeing, but as the vipers went deeper underwater, Jason noticed that the water was growing darker far too quickly since the sun couldn’t get all the way to the bottom of the ocean. Thankfully, the swamp vipers had special eyes that allowed them to see perfectly underwater, so they simply activated their eyes, and they didn’t need to stop at all as they continued forward without any issues for the next few minutes. But by the time those few minutes had passed, Jason was frowning as he noticed that the swamp vipers were still diving. The water pressure had increased to an insane level, and the water was now so dark that Jason could only see about ten meters around the swamp vipers in every direction, but the swamp vipers didn’t stop, and they just continued downward.
"Master, is everything alright with your subordinates? If you wish, I can dive into the ocean along with them and search as well."
Stella spoke up respectfully from the side while looking at Jason for permission. Stella knew that the subordinates Jason had sent out were all below SSS Rank, so it was possible that they just couldn’t move quickly enough to map out the entire ocean floor by themselves. But Stella was a TITAN Rank, so she was fast and strong enough to cover more ground in a much shorter time. Once Stella spoke, she heard Gina chuckle from beside Jason, and Gina said.
"Let me guess, you have a skill that allows you to breathe underwater?"
Stella smiled at Gina’s sarcastic tone, and Jason couldn’t help but chuckle in amusement.