Ssssh! Ssssh! Ssssh! Ssssh!
The Oceanus Sea looked like a fragile cream cake, carved apart by streaks of dazzling crimson-and-black light. Deep, bottomless chasms split open, while towering, violent waves were churned into being.
On the surface, the aberrations, the Deep Sea Fleet, and the Greek allied forces, like cherries and chocolate decorations atop the cake, were spared no more than the rest.
Each sweep of those radiant bands sent water exploding skyward. Steel-forged crimson-black warships tore apart like paper, snapping into sections and detonating as they broke.
Underwater snake-women, titan soldiers on the surface, and wide-area annihilation weapons in the sky were all the same. The moment they collided with those streaks of light slicing through the air, they were shredded and vaporized almost instantly.
The densely sweeping scythes of death showed no mercy to the human alliance either.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
Where the titan's divine radiance reached, Athenian warships vanished from the sea one after another. The people aboard barely had time to react before ship and crew alike exploded together, reduced to fundamental particles.
Even the sea nymphs and divine-blooded heroes who reacted a heartbeat faster, leaping away or fleeing their ships, were flung back by the blast waves like kites with their strings cut. Bones shattered, blood sprayed from their mouths, and they crashed down grievously wounded.
Once these civilization hosts fell alone into the sea, the surrounding primordial snake-women, primordial chimeras, and mutated sea beasts surged in like sharks drawn by blood. Amid savage collisions and tearing bites, they brutally tore apart the survivors who had escaped death only moments before.
Looking out, the sea was littered with splintered hulls and pale, waterlogged limbs. Beneath the rolling waves, layers of grim crimson spread outward, carrying a heavy stench of blood that made the stomach churn.
With just a single wide-area bombardment from the white titan, the human allied fleet lost a full third of its ships, large and small.
The losses were dozens of times greater than those inflicted on the Deep Sea Fleet.
If they hadn't reacted fast enough just now, even the Argo might have…
Jason stared at the wooden warships burning and sinking on both sides, his heart still pounding with lingering dread.
Before the human alliance could recover from the shock, an even more staggering sight unfolded over the Storm Sea.
A true god had fallen.
"Dionysus!"
Persephone, Queen of the Underworld, screamed in anguish as she looked up. In the sky above the Storm Sea, a handsome god with a gaping hole torn through his chest, his divine core melted through, crimson-gold blood spraying freely, drifted and fell toward the ocean.
The son of Persephone, one of the Twelve Olympian Gods, the God of Wine, had become the first chief god of Olympus to fall in battle.
"There's no saving him! Don't go over there!"
Hades seized his wife tightly, shouting into her ear as she struggled in madness and grief, trying to rush forward to fight the Alien vanguards.
Persephone, my poor Persephone…
Demeter, the mother goddess of agriculture, could not bear to look upon such a sight.
If the destruction of Atlantis had felt unreal, like a distant dream, and the desperate resistance of the Peloponnese could still be answered by fortresses built of blood and flesh,
then watching the Olympian gods they worshipped every day die so miserably before their eyes left a crushing sense of helplessness clinging to the heart.
This gap in power, like ants facing elephants, chilled the survivors on every ship to the bone. Blood seemed to freeze in their veins, morale plunging to rock bottom.
"Humans, gods… at a feast, there is no need for tears, and no need for fear. Let me go first, raise a toast for you, and see you on your way!"
At that moment, Dionysus, gravely wounded and drifting toward the sea, raised his broken wine god's staff, only half remaining and still entwined with grapevines. He laughed with unrestrained joy as divine patterns flared across his body, embedding themselves into flesh and bone like exquisite crackled glaze on porcelain.
Boom!
The sound cut off abruptly. His radiant body exploded in midair, crimson divine blood scattering in a wide spray, touching the lips of the gods, the cheeks of humans, and the bodies of monsters.
A rich aroma of wine spread across the sea. Threads of amber-hued mist drifted through the air, slipping past lips and teeth onto the tongue, or seeping through pores and into the body.
The drifting blood of Dionysus had already transformed into sweet, mellow wine, offering the gods and humanity a final blessing and compassion.
Under this feast, the gods who drank deeply of the divine blood found their grief soothed and their divine power refilled. The human warriors who partook felt their wounds close, pain fade away, their hearts surging and their momentum soaring!
Excellent wine!
Jason closed his eyes and savored it for a brief moment. With a murmur, he snapped his eyes open, thrust his sword forward, his flushed face twisted with fierce resolve as he roared.
"The Alien Vanguards are tied down! Target the Eye of the Tidal Sea! No matter the cost, break through this dead sea! Push through!"
Charge!
Charge!
Charge!
The exhilaration and madness brought on by the divine blood wine sent the human fleet into a frenzy. Driving their warships forward in an open V-shaped formation, they lunged savagely toward the Storm Sea, with the Argo positioned at the rear node, guarded by the left and right wings.
"Laaa!"
Sensing the intrusion of enemies, the three Alien Vanguards instinctively activated their sacred hymns. Across the ten Kingdom Islands encircling the Storm Sea, pillars of light shot skyward, linking with the stars to form a tightly sealed curtain of radiance.
At the same time, the surrounding waters boiled violently. Titan soldiers, Deep Sea Fleet vessels, creations of the Echidna Armory, wide-area annihilation weapons, and other guardians surfaced one after another, slamming head-on into the human fleet.
Meanwhile, as the two Alien Vanguards near the Storm Sea moved once more toward Unit 2, Sefar, preparing to regroup, the rebel gods of Areopagus and the Olympian pantheon each engaged Unit 1 and Unit 3, throwing everything they had into stopping them.
"Monsters, die!"
Persephone, suffering the agony of losing her child once again, was like a maddened she-wolf. Her brows drew tight, eyes blazing coldly as she raised both arms with all her strength. Under the pulsing life authority of the Goddess of Spring, bubbles surged across the sea. Vast swathes of emerald-green seaweed and vines, each more than ten meters thick, coiled upward like serpents, attempting to strangle Unit 3, the shared enemy of the Sky Gods and the Underworld Gods.
But the Alien Vanguard, already ascended to its fourth stage, merely spread its arms. The Underworld Queen's binding authority shattered piece by piece, and the God of War Sword came slashing down in a flash.
Clang!
The God of the Underworld raised his sword to block, yet when the violent ether turbulence erupted, even Hades was blasted away. Carrying Persephone with him, he smashed heavily into the sea, sending waves tens of meters high crashing outward.
With the Underworld King and Queen removed from the fight, the Olympian gods were pushed to the brink. In just a short span of time, beneath the overwhelming radiance of the God of War Sword, Hephaestus, Pan, the Full Moon Goddess, and the three Muses fell in succession.
The nymphs and subordinate gods responsible for holding back the surrounding titan soldiers suffered countless casualties.
Golden-red divine blood, severed limbs, and the corpses of gods scattered through the air, staining the sky a brutal crimson and driving the mutated sea beasts below into a frenzy of feeding and fighting.
"Divine Taboo!"
Moments later, Hades burst up from the deep sea, reversing his grip on the Sword of the Underworld and driving it downward as he let out a solemn, icy roar.
The seven strongest Divine Seal Puppets were released once more. The Demon Progenitor Typhon, the three Hundred-Handed Giants, and the three Titan Old Gods dragged their wounded bodies forward, charging at Unit 3 and plunging into the melee.
"Laaa!"
Yet at the same moment, the three Alien Vanguards raised their God of War Swords in unison and brought them crashing down. One after another, vast chasms split open, plunging straight into the abyssal depths of the sea.
From those fissures crawled swollen, twisted figures reeking of dense oceanic aura. Roaring like beasts, they surged forward to meet the Divine Seal Puppets, blocking the path of the Old God reinforcements.
The situation took a sudden and catastrophic turn for the worse.