At the base of the Interstellar Mountainous City, inside an abandoned great workshop.
The Argonauts who had narrowly escaped death collapsed in exhaustion beside tangled pipelines and in corners piled high with shattered mechanical remains. Eyes closed, they regulated their breathing, doing their best to recover their Ether.
Circe, Little Medea, and the God of Medicine moved about continuously, bandaging wounds, forcing down potions, or casting recovery Magecraft on both the lightly and severely injured.
Clap! Clap!
"Anyone who can still move, come over. We're sorting out what comes next."
Samael, brimming with energy, clapped his hands and called over several of the Argonauts' leaders to discuss their next steps.
Although they had crippled two True Machine Gods and wiped out more than a thousand autonomous weapons of various models, Samael had relied mostly on strategy rather than brute force. His consumption had been minimal, leaving him lively as ever.
Once the wounded were settled, the Argonauts forced themselves to their feet and gathered around a table.
As the instigator, Samael quickly sketched outlines and structures marked with Greek letters into the dust on the tabletop.
In just a moment, the layout of the entire Interstellar Mountainous City was laid bare.
"Look. This is the Abandoned Great Workshop, our current position. Upward, it runs through the entire Interstellar Mountainous City. Downward, it connects to the Sea God Temple at the heart of the Atalanta continent.
"If we want to leave safely, we wait until nightfall, slip quietly to the harbor, board the Argo, and once we sail beyond the borders of the Ten Kingdoms' islands, we're fish back in the sea."
Samael tapped the table lightly as he spoke, his tone calm and confident, as though everything were already under control.
"Man, you're unreal. You know how to bypass the outer defenses of the Machine God's Corridor. You know how to route through Altar Street and avoid the patrol blind spots of those autonomous weapons. You even know about this safe zone in the Abandoned Great Workshop… Don't tell me you've got Athena's divine blood running through you?"
Jason scratched his head, voicing his thoughts with a mix of amazement and disbelief.
The surrounding Argonauts nodded in agreement, their gazes growing increasingly strange.
Samael's face darkened as he rolled his eyes in irritation.
"Divine blood my ass. It's because there was a mole on the other side."
"..."
The unexpected answer left the Argonauts completely at a loss.
"Still not getting it? Without that insider guiding us, forget about entering the heavily guarded Interstellar Mountainous City, climbing the Great Altar, and rescuing Little Rhode. Our ship would've been blasted out of the sea long ago."
The Ancient Serpent narrowed his eyes, letting out an amused snort.
"You mean… Triton?!"
Shock spread across their faces, disbelief written plainly on every one of them.
The son of the Sea God, who had been shouting for their heads from the start and was temporarily holding most of Atalanta's real power, was actually the one secretly letting them through step by step? It was absurd beyond belief.
"Who else could it be?"
Samael glanced upward with a teasing smile, sharing an unspoken understanding with a certain master of acting.
Seeing that the others still struggled to accept it, the Ancient Serpent sighed helplessly and began pointing out the details with patient clarity.
"Think about it. The anomalies in the Storm Sea, the bronze matrix that suddenly appeared in the Spatial Curve, the wide-area annihilation weapons chasing us across the sea. Just use your head and you'll know how Atalanta treats outsiders.
"They'd rather kill the wrong person than let a single one slip through.
"You really think Triton was being hospitable, warmly inviting us to tour Atalanta?
"Wake up. If he hadn't used that excuse, that fleet would've blown our ship apart on the spot."
Recalling the hostile, predatory stares of the Atalanta guards and Olympian elites throughout the journey, the Argonauts finally began to understand.
"But wasn't he trying to trick us into Atalanta so he could poison us?"
Circe raised her small hand, perfectly embodying the good-student habit of asking questions when she didn't understand.
The moment she spoke, though, the silly bird sensed the strange looks landing on her from all sides and immediately regretted it.
"Given how overwhelming the difference in naval strength was, did he really need to go through all that trouble? Capture who needs capturing, threaten who needs threatening. Wouldn't it have been easier to just roll over us?"
"Without the excuse of poisoning us and taking us alive, how could he have openly led us into the Interstellar Mountainous City?"
"Otherwise, just the outer light-energy barriers, the defenses of the Ten Kingdom Islands, and the Sea God Temple on the Atalanta continent would've been more than enough to crush us."
Samael, who had taught all kinds of unlucky and troublesome divine students before, showed remarkable patience as he explained everything carefully.
Circe finally caught on. Her cheeks reddened, and she nodded repeatedly in embarrassment.
After a brief pause, Samael swept his gaze around the room and spoke in a lower, steadier voice.
"Honestly, all along the way, it looked like Triton was just showing me the sights. In reality, he was feeding me information about the Ten Kingdom Islands' layout, Atalanta's escape routes, and even this safe hiding place in the Interstellar Mountainous City."
"If you don't believe me, go back and think carefully about our conversations."
Everyone replayed those scattered words in their minds, piecing them together again and again. To their shock, everything lined up perfectly.
That deeply hidden mole, Triton, had practically laid bare Atalanta's entire foundation right under the noses of his own guards.
Even the safety of the Abandoned Great Workshop had been something he brought up himself.
"Then, Lord Theseus, was him getting captured during the chaos also planned with you in advance?"
Little Medea asked softly, clutching her staff, curiosity flickering in her eyes.
"There wasn't time to plan anything," Samael replied honestly, shaking his head. "It was all down to reading the situation."
That merman prince wasn't some naive fool who pinned everything on outsiders. The banquet in the hall, filled with hidden dangers, was both a test of vigilance and a way to sort out priorities.
Samael figured that if the Argonauts hadn't noticed anything amiss and were all knocked out by the poisoned wine, Triton would've used their freedom as leverage and forced them to retrieve Little Rhode from the Great Altar.
In that case, Triton would've held the initiative.
On the other hand, once they saw through the trick and turned the tables, Triton simply went along with it, getting himself captured and becoming the Argonauts' unwitting accomplice.
Otherwise, how could the early stages of rescuing Little Rhode have gone so smoothly?
What neither side expected was that the Sea God Temple, eager to claim credit for itself, would jump in as a third party and even deploy something like a [True Machine God], a weapon that had never been revealed before.
As a result, what should have been a clean operation, taking Triton hostage, rescuing Little Rhode, and escaping under the "escort" of Olympian soldiers, nearly ended in disaster. They were forced to hide here instead, waiting for another chance to withdraw.
And the fact that their pursuers didn't catch up immediately after they leapt from the Great Altar was probably thanks to that insider prince dragging things out.
Tch. If that old acquaintance from the Sea God Temple ever realized who really caused the operation to fail, he'd probably roar in grief and rage—
"The enemy is in Olympus!"
"I still don't get one thing. Why did Prince Triton help us?"
Atalanta frowned, voicing her confusion.
"Hey, I'm talking about your brother. Aren't you going to explain?"
Samael shot an annoyed look at the small head burrowing into Atalanta's chest, rolling his eyes hard.
"Huh? My brother? Yeah, he's awful! Always like that. Won't let me go out, won't even play with me!"
The little mermaid lifted her face, puffing out her cheeks as she complained without holding back, blue eyes flashing.
That was right. This little mermaid was also the biological child of the Sea King and Sea Queen, the younger sister of Prince Triton.
Just as I thought. Another Greek family drama.
Samael rubbed his forehead in exasperation, silently grumbling to himself. Then his gaze darkened.
Still, whatever it was that made Poseidon willing to sacrifice his own daughter… it couldn't be something simple.
...
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