Inside the Eye of the Tidal Sea.
The Argo's descent gradually stabilized. Deep within the abyssal ocean, it was nothing like the pitch-black void they had imagined. Vivid bands of light rippled outward with the sway of the water, interweaving and diffusing into dazzling hues, like rainbow ribbons appearing after a storm.
So beautiful… this is what the inside of the Eye of the Tidal Sea looks like.
Creak!
Just as the Argonauts were stunned by the breathtaking, beyond-comprehension scenery, a hidden current surged in. Ripples spread instantly, the hull lurched violently, and a piercing groan rang out as seawater surged upward, on the verge of washing over the deck and flooding into the hold.
Damn it!
Everyone snapped back to reality at once, remembering they were deep beneath the sea. Jason recalled the wreckage he had seen back at the harbor, his heart tightening as his face went pale.
"Don't panic. This ship can dive…"
A low voice echoed through the Magecraft array and into everyone's ears. That familiar tone inexplicably put the heroes at ease.
At the same moment, Samael's right hand behind his back curled slightly. The Argo let out a deep hum as several concealed wedge-shaped runes activated one after another. Layer upon layer of Magecraft defensive formations lit up, forming a tight barrier of light. At the same time, the decks along both sides of the hull began to fold upward, sealing together into an airtight wooden dome that formed a second line of defense.
Bang!
The raging current slammed into the ship. The Argo only swayed slightly, dispersing the force through the Magecraft array and the shifting structure of the deck, then continued its steady dive.
"The Argo can do that too?"
Jason stared, dumbfounded, and couldn't help muttering to himself.
Of course it could. The prototype of the Argo, Noah's Ark, had originally been built as a mobile fortress to withstand Enlil's Great Flood. Added to that was the need to cross the Sea of Chaos in search of the Greek World Egg. Whether it was preventing seawater intrusion or enduring extreme long-distance maritime conditions such as Ether storms or spatial distortions, this vessel was designed to handle it all.
Samael paced from the deck toward the captain's cabin, lost in thought. The corners of his lips lifted faintly, a trace of nostalgia flickering in his eyes.
After the Argo safely passed through the deep-sea current and its submerged course stabilized, Jason was overwhelmed with joy. He clasped his hands together and offered an excited prayer.
"Praise Athena! You truly are the greatest and wisest goddess!"
As a favored hero under Hera's protection, he expressed his boundless reverence toward the Goddess of Wisdom on War God Mountain.
Hey, kid, you're thanking the wrong god. If you're going to thank anyone, it should be me. What does that dead girl have to do with it?
Seeing this, Samael rolled his eyes inwardly and grumbled to himself.
"Stay sharp! Ahead! Irregular, droplet-shaped turbulence!"
Before anyone could relax, Orion, standing on the lookout and constantly monitoring the surroundings through external Magecraft arrays, detected something new. He rapped his wooden club and raised his voice in warning, his expression oddly excited.
Within the brilliantly colored depths, hundreds, even thousands of objects resembling transparent jellyfish and crystalline water droplets drifted and wriggled around them, almost as if alive. The surrounding seawater was either drawn in and absorbed or violently pulled away and repelled.
Worse still, they seemed to contain dense Ether. Once their outer water membrane was breached, they would inevitably explode like floating mines with unpredictable trajectories. Extremely dangerous.
Damn it! This place is even worse than the [Storm Sea]!
Even with Jason's exceptional talent for navigation, he couldn't help cursing inwardly. Hesitating again and again, he finally pulled a bitter face and quietly asked the troublesome friend beside him for advice.
"Hey, man, are you sure this is really the way out?"
"Absolutely! Did you forget our little navigator? She lives near the Storm Sea. The Eye of the Tidal Sea is probably the entrance to her home."
"Probably? Using that word for a place this dangerous makes me nervous."
"No matter how dangerous it is, it beats facing a Main God head-on, right? When you're cornered, you take the one path that might keep you alive."
Samael blinked and spoke earnestly, calmly reassuring Jason as if this were simply how things had to be.
"Uh… yeah, that's true…"
Thinking back to the sheer terror of Ares, Jason swallowed hard and nodded with a dry throat. He accepted the strategist's logic and sincerely thanked Samael for staying behind at the crucial moment, covering their retreat and ensuring the Argo's safe escape.
That had been a Main God. Even with Athena's divine descent, it was still a fight with almost no chance of survival. That Theseus had managed to hold out long enough for them to get away was already a miracle.
From here on, they could only rely on themselves.
And in that situation, the Eye of the Tidal Sea truly was the best route to shake off both Ares and the Colchis fleet.
As reality slowly sank in, Jason, driven by an overwhelming desire to survive, could only grit his teeth and focus fully on directing the crew, carefully steering around one droplet-shaped irregular current after another.
What eased his nerves slightly was the fact that the teddy bear on the lookout actually handed over a colorful scale etched with a sea chart. Once translated, it even marked out a safe route.
"Irregular turbulence zone ahead. Speed two. Slow and steady! Slow and steady, got it? Don't hit anything! Brothers, stay sharp. I worked my ass off to get the Golden Fleece. Once we're home, I'll be king and live the good life. I'm not dying here!"
"Forty-five degrees to port, evade! Entering a dense area. All gunports open. Be ready to block those things if they get close! Heracles, you take the bow. Big Sister, watch the port side. Diana, keep an eye on starboard!"
In the face of adversity, Jason displayed command skills far beyond his usual self.
All the preparation this Greek social butterfly had done paid off perfectly. He knew every crew member's background and strengths and assigned tasks with precision, making the best use of each person's abilities.
Whether it was the famed Heracles, the foul-mouthed and rebellious Caenis, or even the Moon Goddess and the Ancient Serpent in disguise, everyone followed the orders without complaint.
"Next is the rainbow coral zone. Stick close to that channel shaped like fish gills. Move through fast. Don't stare at the coral too long, or you'll start hallucinating!"
After the Argo followed the chart and passed through the heavily light-polluted area without incident, finally entering waters that were pure and deep blue, Jason's intense focus completely collapsed. He slumped into the captain's chair like a dead fish, weakly pointing toward a massive spiral current ahead, identical to the Eye of the Tidal Sea, and complained,
"All right, that's the exit up ahead. Forget Ares, even Zeus himself probably wouldn't guess where we are."
We're finally getting out of this hellhole!
The heroes felt their spirits lift, relief and excitement spreading through them as they immediately picked up the pace at the oars.
However, just as they were about to reach the vortex gate, Samael glanced down at the sea chart. When he looked up again, his eyes landed on a series of bronze cubes floating around them, each one engraved with dense, intricate patterns. He raised his right arm, frowned, and spoke,
"Wait. This… isn't on the chart."
"Bzzz—"
At the same time, as Samael's words echoed through the ship, an eerie rhythmic resonance spread from nearby. One by one, the bronze cubes lit up, the patterns on their surfaces glowing as metallic vibrations pulsed from within.
"Tss tss tss tss!"
In the next instant, as the Argo entered the crisscrossing zone formed by those objects, countless crimson beams swept through the space in intersecting arcs!
...
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