"Boom!"
At the same instant, Heracles reacted. His pupils snapped tight as he roared, flung Jason away, grabbed the ship's rail, and leapt off the Argo. Twisting midair, he shoved the vessel with all his strength, sending it hurtling away, then raised his bronze shield.
Boom!
The explosion shook the sea. Boiling water surged into towering waves, pushing the Argo farther forward.
Under the scouring force of a golden pillar dozens of meters wide, the bronze divine shield in Heracles' hands shattered inch by inch, until it finally collapsed completely.
Fully exposed to that overwhelming divine might, the mighty hero's expression remained as immovable as stone, even as the crushing force bore down. With the Sea God's blessing upon him, he sank his stance atop the waves, twisted his waist, and hurled a punch upward. Crimson-black divine power erupted, mixed with bursting clouds of blood mist, as he struck back.
Boom!
A violent shockwave swept outward, and vast sheets of white mist boiled up from the sea.
As the raging winds tore through the area, a bottomless, cylindrical vortex opened at the very center of the battlefield.
The figure upheld by the Sea God's blessing hovered proudly above the water, standing unbowed like a god propping up the heavens.
But when the mist finally dispersed and the view cleared, Jason, pulling himself up by the rail, felt his eyes turn red in an instant.
Both arms, the head, and everything above the chest of that body had been erased by the golden light.
What remained standing was nothing more than a corpse.
The Argonauts, seeing this, felt their eyes burn and their vision blur.
Yet amid this grief, the ferocious god suspended in the starry sky, tasked with cleansing the sea, showed not a shred of mercy. The golden cross-shaped light wheel locked onto its target and began to gather once more.
"Heracles! You're Greece's greatest hero! How could you die! How can you die! Damn it! We need you! Get back up! Do you hear me?!"
Watching his faith fall, Jason slammed his hands against the rail, face twisted as he roared in fury.
Whoosh!
Just as the cross-shaped light wheel in the sky was about to fire, a sharp twang rang out from the sea's surface. The rolling white mist was split apart by a streak of azure light, carrying the roar of wind and thunder.
Boom!
In the blink of an eye, dazzling light patterns detonated high in the sky. Silver-white lightning arcs raced across the heavens with deafening cracks, and the forming cross-shaped light wheel dimmed and went out.
Stunned, the Argonauts saw Heracles' ruined body within the steaming mist perform a miracle. Severed limbs regrew, whole once more. The reformed arms lifted a bronze bow, loosing the critical arrow that disrupted the celestial fiend's attack.
At the same time, the crimson divine patterns on his body grew brighter and thicker. His once bronze-hued muscles darkened to a deep red, as though molten magma flowed through his veins.
"Go!"
As his eyes regenerated within their sockets, the mighty hero looked up and saw the cross-shaped light wheel in the sky realigning, now aimed squarely at him. He immediately drew his bow, turned toward the Argonauts a hundred meters away, and roared with solemn force.
Boom!
Before the echo of his voice faded, an even thicker golden beam cleaved down toward the sea. Heracles' arrows were brutally erased, and the surging divine might crashed into his body without slowing.
In the violent explosion, the upper half of the great hero's body was burned away.
My comrades are calling to me. The Argo's journey still needs me.
Not for the orders of that bastard King Eurystheus. Not for Hera's labors. Not for the glory of the gods.
But to open a path for my comrades, for my people, and seize that one chance in ten thousand!
King's Order: Twelve Glories!
A silent roar erupted from his divine core, sending towering waves through the river of his heart. The defiant soul once bound by fate tore free of its chains and shone once more.
In an instant, guided by scarlet divine patterns, dense crimson-and-black veins spread across the remains of Heracles. Ether in the air surged wildly, flooding into the ruined shell, rebuilding it into newer, stronger limbs and tougher, more resilient organs.
"While Heracles is still alive and can hold that monster back, we move!"
Jason's expression tightened as he snapped the dazed Argonauts back to their senses. He issued the order in a hard voice, then turned and headed for the captain's quarters.
"You bastard! You coward! You're abandoning Heracles and running away again!"
The blunt and hot-tempered Caenis clenched her fists, cursing furiously as she surged forward, ready to argue with Jason.
However, the dark-skinned warrior was seized by Atalanta, Circe, and Little Medea together, forcibly held down and dragged back to her post.
"Why are you stopping me?!"
"That's enough! Put away your prejudice, Caenis! Can't you see it? Heracles has always been the captain's idol. Making this decision hurts him more than any of us!"
Grabbing Caenis by the shoulders, Atalanta slammed her against the wall and scolded her coldly.
"This is a war to reclaim the future of the world! Every one of us boarded this ship prepared to pay any price! From the moment we stepped onto the Argo, Heracles, you, me, and them all should have had that resolve!"
Hearing this, Little Medea and Circe instinctively straightened their backs, like soldiers marching resolutely toward the battlefield.
"Stop letting your thoughts run wild. Do what you're supposed to do. The captain will make the right decision. Do you understand?"
Under the huntress's shadowed, chilling gaze, Caenis lowered her head more and more, then nodded reflexively, her voice losing its edge.
"Y-Yes… I understand…"
Seeing Caenis's temper finally worn down, Atalanta casually released her shoulders and turned toward the control console for Dingir.
Little Medea, Circe, and even Caenis, who had just been reprimanded, instinctively followed after her. Clearly, on a subconscious level, they had already accepted Atalanta as the leader of the Argo's female heroes.
"Big Sis, that winged thing up there… we saw something like it when we came to Atlantis before, but it shouldn't have been this strong."
As they hurried along, Medea clutched her staff and voiced her doubts with a frown.
"Indeed. It jumped straight from Divine Spirit tier to Main God tier, to the point where even Heracles is struggling. Something must have changed in the Interstellar Mountainous City that we don't know about."
Atalanta responded with a furrowed brow, a trace of gloom flashing across her face. She quickly suppressed the emotion, patted Little Medea on the shoulder, and spoke calmly.
"But it doesn't matter. From the moment we stepped aboard the Argo, there was no turning back. No matter what has changed in the Interstellar Mountainous City, our mission is to break through it. Understood?"
"Yes! As long as it helps Lord Theseus, I'll do anything!"
Little Medea nodded earnestly. Even at the brink of apocalypse, her eyes still overflowed with pink-hued longing and dreams.
At that moment, while Heracles kept the skyborne fiend in check, the Argo's defensive Magecraft arrays extinguished one after another. The wildly surging Ether converged entirely into the spells driving the ship forward.
Boom!
Pushed to its absolute limit, the vessel shot ahead like an arrow loosed from the bow, tearing through the waves as it raced toward the shadow-shrouded continent.
Behind them, the sea rang with successive clashes and thunderous explosions. The Greek hero facing divine punishment seemed bathed in dazzling radiance.
...