Atlantis Ambush End...
" The
" Soon, the Sea will be covered in Black, as envisioned. " Ragna tells him, as the Thorn is placed on top of the yard, its Black Shadow material thorned into depths of layers below the ground.
" Good, it's very good. " Twelve says, returning after defeating Poseidon.
" Do you happen to obtain anything other than EXPs? " Ragna asks, showing Twelve he only obtained EXPs as his reward, none other.
" Don't even think about it, the rewards are long gone after the 'Corruption Horns' activates. " Twelve tells Ragna, telling him that, once a god activates the horns, their everything doesn't belong to 'them', anymore.
" You know who had all of it now, if you had seen it all before your 'Twelve Eye' is damaged. "
" So, there's no Trident, or perhaps any Item that could be obtained from that damned Poseidon, huh? "
" Yeah, as well as his Soul. " Twelve tells him while standing beside Ragna, looking at the Gigantic Thorn they've brought to the place.
* Twelve sees the top of the Thorn above and looks down over the ground. *
" Do you know why I wanted you to make this thing gigantic in the first place? " Twelve asks Ragna while pointing at the ground.
" This yard may look wide and normal for a palace yard. "
" But not everyone knew that below this wide place, buried the heart of the titan that Poseidon had to kill with the other Olympians, the one who ruled the Earth's ocean before. "
" The Titan, whose corpse became the very foundation of Atlantis, the 'Guardian of the Ocean', Oceanus*. " Twelve tells Ragna the Titan, whose body became the very base of this great state under the ocean.
" An ironic fate it is, for once a gigantic and great being, he also fell in the hands of the gods... " Twelve pitied Oceanus for that, feeling ironic about what happened to him.
" But that should've been expected, right, Twelve? " Ragna suddenly asks him, startling Twelve of what he meant by that.
" The 'Horns of Corruption'... " Ragna mentions.
" Based on the info you gathered, it says it came from a 'Fruit' that came from a 'Tree' from the Deviants's world, is it not? "
" And only had been found and used after the 'First Holy War', is it after the 'Titanomachy'? " Ragna asks Twelve again.
" That's what I've gathered so far, based on some proof that needs to be clarified again. "
" Whether it was used even before the Holy Wars, it changes nothing as the fact that many gods eat the said 'Deviant Fruit' and received the 'Horns of Corruption', the proof signs over their pact, with... " Twelve sighs, saying this.
" Evil..., the worst... kind... "
" Do you believe the Horns' power was already used before 'Titanomachy'? " Ragna asks Twelve again.
" Who knows? " Twelve shrugs it.
" If that's the reason why these Gigantic Titans are dead now, then it could be... "
" After all, discussing the origin of the Horns might take centuries to recover, even I could only find some assumed proof over many Timelines, stored within the 'System Space'. "
" For the story behind is being hidden closely by the Gods, so, even some of their High-Borns or High-Ranks would probably be blind to this. "
" For me? I simply knew it because, during my escape over the Timelines, the Carlas managed to uncover some of it due to her 'Divine Hero' Status, as well as some tales from the Demonic Beings she defeated. "
" The demons (deviants) knew of this? " Ragna gets surprised.
" The Horns' origin is from their original leader, so of course they could tell about it somehow. "
" Besides, the Current Monarchs during this Timeline might've easily known which god had it, just by smelling them from afar. "
" For the Horns is like a token, a relic from their original leader before he left them after his defeat in the hands of the gods. "
" Perhaps..., this is my theory, but this assumption sounds true over the Timelines. "
" The reason the Demonic Monarchs, still trying to defy the gods despite the odds are... "
" The 'Horns', they want it for themselves... " Ragna quickly answers it as he sighs.
" That's why we have to destroy the gods who have it before the Deviants, demons, could ever take hold of it. "
" Those crazed bastards. "
" Well, it seems, we have proven ourselves, capable of killing one today, a big one. "
" We killed Poseidon after all, ain't that an achievement? " Ragna says, as he receives an achievement.
< [Achievement]: [Killing the Corrupted God III] >
" Yeah, what an achievement... " Twelve says with a low tone, not happy at all.
" What's wrong, Twelve? " Ragna asks him while Twelve just went silent over what happened.
"( With Atlantis down, we have taken over the oceans, using the 'Thorn' to cover it all with the Black Shadows... )"
"( Yes, people might go into chaos over the tainted waters, which means it will make us few humans to be made a threat before the Tournament. )"
"( But still... )"
"( When killing a god, the thing I want to do from the start... )"
"( I should've felt joy, even proud in doing so..., but instead. )"
"( I felt empty... as if something had a loss within me after... )" Twelve just went into silence, lamenting everything in his mind.
...
( Meanwhile. )
[ Asgard, Loki's Inner Sanctum ]
" GRAHH! " Loki smashes the things around his desk, smashing things as he roars inside a room filled with mirrors.
" You sound stressed? " a voice calls him, it's his reflection again, speaking to him.
" Atlantis had fallen... " Loki stutters when saying the name.
" Poseidon is dead, and all the gods have gone into chaos as many of their members, whom Poseidon helped to make them stay alive with his blood had all died. "
" It couldn't mean no other way, as I also heard from some gods that the Oceans have gone Black as the Shadows itself, people are in chaos about this. "
" So, the 'White Demon' had taken over the ocean, hmm... " the reflection thinks of this.
" Guess, Poseidon is just that useless, after all. "
" As well as, Hermes... " the reflection says to Loki, suddenly, the lights blip many times and after that.
* Body falls. *
" Gah, what is... " Loki stutters, seeing a corpse suddenly thrown out of nowhere.
" Calm yourself, Allftaher of Asgard... "
" You know who this is? " the reflection tells him to see the face.
" Hermes? " Loki asks, seeing the face, and immediately looking at the reflection.
" I could only recover that one from Atlantis, while the owner of that place is long gone. "
" Besides, since his corpse is here... "
" Shouldn't you take him to your lab, to your facility...? "
" To the place where you prepared..., her? " the reflection tells Loki as the scene changes to a tube, where a Blond girl, covered in cybernetic armor, is injected with many injections.
[ ARS-23 ]
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Extra:
* Oceanus.
First appeared in Chapter 365: The Strongest Olympian? Part 2.