Atlantis looked like something straight out of a storybook. The large castle of Atlantis was a majestic structure made from white and blue marble. It had various towers surrounding it that would’ve been useful for sentries looking out over the ocean for enemies, and there was one large building in the center of the castle, along with many smaller buildings surrounding the main building. The castle was sitting on a large foundation of rock that looked like it had been dug straight out of the ground, and the entire structure shone with the undeniable glow of residual magic that showed it was still as mysterious and powerful as the day it had gone into hiding.
"It’s beautiful. Who would do all this to a world as beautiful as this?"
Gina spoke up from beside Jason with a frown on her face, and Jason could only smile as he looked at all the signs of battle on the castle. There were large holes in the roof, and some of the castle walls had been blown off completely. Scorch marks and blood splatter were visible even from all the way down here. There were bodies both on the roof and within the castle itself, but none of them were moving, so Jason figured that they were all dead. It was obvious that a huge battle had taken place here before the castle was taken into the sky, and whoever did it obviously didn’t care about trying to preserve a beautiful city. If there was one thing that Jason had learned on his travels, it was that those with power don’t really care about how beautiful a thing was. All they care about is what they can gain from it. Jason put his hands in his coat pockets, and he called on the Legion as he began to walk forward.
’Sweep the castle grounds. If you find anything that looks like a monster and it attacks you first, then kill it. But if you find any soldiers or mages that look like they’re sane, then let me know so I can talk to them.’
The Legion immediately followed Jason’s orders, and they surged out from the Alternate Dimension in a wave of power and quickly began to flash across the shadows as they spread out over the castle grounds! Gina came closer and hooked her hand into Jason’s elbow as he followed him, and Jason looked down at her and smiled as she grinned at him. Jason told Stella to come along, and Stella fell into line behind them as they began walking towards the castle. As they walked, Jason began to notice how well-preserved the entire castle was. Even though it was obvious that a major battle had taken place here, everything still looked like it had just happened yesterday. The blood and soot on the castle were still fresh, the bodies on the castle grounds still looked undecayed, and there was hardly any dust in the castle at all!
’Did the Kaleidoscope rune also act as a preservation rune? It must’ve kept the entire world in some sort of stasis while protecting it from outsiders.’
This was the only explanation that Jason could come up with for what was happening here, and Jason just ignored the bodies and blood all around him as he led the way up a flight of stairs and towards the large doors leading into the castle. The inside of the castle was as regal and majestic as Jason had expected it to be. The entire castle ground was covered in a royal blue marble that echoed with every step they took, and there were great paintings on the wall of former kings and queens of the Aquina, along with some mighty oceanic journeys with warriors controlling ships on raging waves. There were blood splatters covering many of the walls, and you couldn’t walk ten steps without running into multiple dead bodies on the ground. Jason ignored most of the bodies easily, but he noticed how Gina was frowning while looking down at some of the dead children that she passed. Gina’s hands were tight around his bicep, and Jason could understand why she would be so affected by the sight of dead children, so he didn’t bother her.
Jason’s subordinates were still sweeping across the entire castle, and so far, they hadn’t found anything alive in here. Jason didn’t know if they would find anything at all, but he hoped that there would be someone here who could explain what had happened. In truth, Jason didn’t even know what he was looking for in this castle. Jason’s main purpose for coming all the way to Riyad had been to figure out what the Machina were hiding in this world. The Machina had been acting very suspiciously ever since they heard that Jason wanted to go to Riyad, so it was obvious that there was something here that they didn’t want Jason to find, but even though Jason knew that there was something hidden here, that didn’t mean he knew where to look for it. The hidden secret could be anything from an artefact to a dead body, or maybe even a fucking weapon.
’What the hell am I looking for?’
’Over here~! Come this way~!’
Jason’s eyes narrowed, and he stopped immediately when he heard that voice! This was the same voice that Jason had been hearing ever since he fought against the phantom a long time ago, but this time the voice was clearer than it had ever been! It almost sounded like it was coming from right in front of him! Both Gina and Stella also stopped when they noticed Jason had paused, and Gina looked up at Jason and asked if there was something wrong. Jason turned to the side in the direction where the voice seemed to have been coming from, and he spoke.
"I can hear something calling me. I think it’s coming from here."
’Do you really think it’s a good idea to follow the voice? Did your parents never warn you about trusting strange voices in your head?’
Esdath suddenly spoke up from Jason’s Alternate Dimension, and Jason chuckled at the distrust in his voice. Jason knew that Esdath was right about not trusting random voices, but for some reason, Jason believed that this voice was something he needed to follow. There was no hypnotic or compulsive magic inside the voice, but the sheer desperation Jason could hear from whoever the voice belonged to showed him that they were pleading for help! And besides, this voice was one of the reasons why Jason came to this world in the first place, so Jason needed to see things through to the end.
’Please, over here~! I’m over here~!’
The voice echoed through Jason’s head again, and Jason started to walk forward to follow it, but Stella suddenly reached out and grabbed Jason by the arm!
"My Prince, wait! That could be dangerous, I didn’t hear any voice!"
Stella had a disturbed look on her face as she tried to make Jason stop! She hadn’t heard any voice, and the fact that a voice was only talking to Jason was a little disturbing! What if it was something dangerous? Like a monster that lured you in with hypnosis and then killed you when you let your guard down! You can’t just follow a random voice that calls out to you!
Stella said all of this to Jason, but Jason shook his head as he let go of her arm.
"This isn’t just some random voice. It’s one of the reasons why I came here in the first place. You don’t need to worry about me running into any monsters. My subordinates are already scanning the path ahead, so they’ll tell me if there’s any trouble before we get there."
Jason gave Stella a small smile before he started to walk again, and Stella released a tired breath before she hardened her will and began following Jason with her hand on her sword.