"You… you weren't in Mesopotamia. How could you possibly be here…?"
Medusa's delicate face lit up with joy she couldn't suppress, disbelief written plainly across her expression.
"We didn't come alone."
Standing atop the Celestial Bow Maanna, Ishtar and Ereshkigal smiled knowingly as they pointed toward the stormy sea, where vast sheets of mist surged and rolled across the waters.
This is bad! The Argo!
The Furies, who knew exactly what the Argo expedition was meant to accomplish, snapped out of their daze. In a panic, they swung their arms downward, divine power bursting forth and tearing through the fog that obscured their view.
As the haze was swept away, crisp metallic chimes rang out across the battlefield.
All around the storm sea, silver chains streaked with droplets of water descended from midair, refracting brilliant colors under the sunlight. They poured down from golden whirlpools suspended above the raging waters, weaving together into a tightly sealed barrier that completely cut off every colossal war machine and aberration attempting to intrude.
At the same time, the King of Heroes of Uruk stood before that barrier of silver chains. His upper body was bare, a magnificent golden skirt of armor wrapped around his waist, scarlet divine markings glowing across his skin. In his hand, the crimson-black shaft of Ea slowly lowered as his fingers relaxed, its rotation gradually coming to a halt.
It was obvious now. These two outsiders who had blocked the storm sea were the ones who had worked together to neutralize the lingering shockwaves of the God of War's blade, buying precious time for the remnants of the Argo expedition.
Enkidu, the Chains of Heaven!
Gilgamesh, the Heavenly Wedge!
Everyone… really was here.
The sight before her felt unreal, so dreamlike that Medusa scarcely dared to believe it.
"Hmph. What's there to be surprised about?" Gilgamesh snorted. "To get here, all you need is to set out early and force your way through the entire Sea of Chaos beyond the world's barrier. If that Samael fellow could manage it on his own, why wouldn't this king be able to?"
Catching sight of Medusa's stunned expression, he crossed his arms and lifted his chin. Though he scoffed aloud, the slight upward curve of his lips betrayed how much he was enjoying the moment.
"Oh, please!" Ishtar shot back. "With your garbage navigation skills, you couldn't even find the route. We drifted around the Sea of Chaos for a full year!
If it weren't for the Mother Goddess guiding and protecting us, we'd have died several times over already! This goddess swears she's never getting on your trash ship again!"
Lowering the Celestial Bow Maanna slightly, Ishtar sneered mercilessly at her ever-boastful old rival.
"And you conveniently leave out the part where you took the helm for the rest of the trip and wasted another whole year," Gilgamesh retorted with a roll of his eyes.
Ishtar choked on her words, momentarily speechless.
Ereshkigal and Enkidu both raised a hand to their foreheads at the same time, their lips twitching with complicated expressions. Clearly, that journey had left them with many thoughts they didn't care to voice.
In truth, the plan to call in reinforcements from beyond had already begun the moment Samael awakened on Aeaea and sent word back to Mesopotamia.
Their position had been exposed, and the next confrontation would be a direct, all-out clash with Zeus.
Even a lion hunting a rabbit must go all out. As the weaker side, it was all the more necessary to mobilize every available resource and every possible trump card.
That was why the final hand he had prepared included the entirety of Mesopotamia's power: the Mother Goddess Tiamat, Ereshkigal, Ishtar, and Enkidu.
When Mother Goddess Tiamat departed for the boundary of the Oceanus, guiding the others was one of her most important objectives. She was there to lead Ishtar and the rest safely through the Sea of Chaos and ensure their successful rendezvous.
What none of them had expected was that navigating the Sea of Chaos would prove far more difficult than the Ancient Serpent had anticipated.
And so, only now, after nearly two full years spent crossing that endless chaos, did this extraordinary force finally arrive at its destination, becoming the key that could turn the entire battle around.
"Laaa!"
Sefar, who had been frustrated again and again, sensed the powerful enemy approaching along with the surging Chaos Tide. His presence sharpened, growing colder and more vicious.
Above the three Alien vanguards, their stellar rings began spinning wildly, projecting down onto the nearby sea. In an instant, thousands upon thousands of colossal war machines, aberrations, and reawakened deep-sea fleet vessels surfaced in dense clusters, filling the gaps left by the earlier fierce fighting.
Sefar's blade flared with blinding light, its power fully primed. His frigid, sinister gaze swept downward with chilling contempt.
If he couldn't crush those distant enemies in a single strike, then before the decisive battle began, he would eliminate every nuisance around the storm sea.
At the same time, as the remnants of the Greek forces shifted toward the Eye of the Tidal Sea, colossal war machines, aberrations, and deep-sea battleships rose one after another along their route, hemming them in and making every step forward a struggle.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
In that very moment, arcs of crimson light rained down from the sky, carving deep furrows through the waters leading to the Eye of the Tidal Sea. They tore violently through the tightly packed ranks of Titan fodder, blasting open a path and clearing the way forward for the battered Greek army.
As the roiling storm clouds behind them split apart, a majestic, thriving aerial fortress emerged from the darkness, advancing with overwhelming pressure.
Suspended around the mobile citadel were eleven jet-black panels, each more than twenty meters long. They converged beams of light and swept them outward, carving through deep-sea warships as effortlessly as a blade through soft flesh.
All around the upper and lower courtyards, rows of divine-crest artillery turrets automatically loaded, locked on, and fired. Like money meant to be burned, Noble Phantasms from the Babylonian Treasury were launched as disposable shells, brutally punching through the hardened armor of Colossal Gods and aberrations alike, revealing a spectacle both lavish and ferocious.
As the layered decks unfolded, they revealed ranks upon ranks of Magi, shrine maidens, priests, Gallû Spirits, warriors of divine blood, automatons, and countless other troops packed tightly together.
On the highest platform, Shamhat the sacred prostitute, Siduri the high priestess, and the sharp-eared queen clad in a black dress stood shoulder to shoulder. Calm and methodical, they issued attack orders to the moving fortress, coordinating its fire to clear every obstacle in its path.
So this… is the "ship" they came on?
Medusa stared upward in stunned disbelief as the mobile fortress tore through the black fog, advancing with savage firepower.
Screech, screech, screech!
Red Star Eyes!
Blue Star Eyes!
Dark Star Eyes!
Cross-shaped beams streaked across the sea at blinding speed, slicing through the air with piercing shrieks as they hammered into Sefar without pause. Faced head-on with the Origin Mother's onslaught, the Alien vanguard's body shattered and reformed again and again, forced steadily backward.
At the same time, Tiamat, Goddess of Saltwater, drew near the battlefield and invoked her authority, summoning the Chaos Tide to gradually reverse the Gigantification and self-mutation of life across the Oceanus.
The space available for the Colossal Gods and aberrations to maneuver shrank step by step.
"Laaa!"
Yet just as the situation turned against them and their forces were driven back, the three Alien vanguards raised their God of War swords in unison, their voices joining in a piercing sacred chant. Multicolored pillars of light surged skyward, merging together through the rotation of their stellar rings.
Unit 1 and Unit 3 began to fade, visibly turning translucent. Specks of light broke apart and streamed through the light rings, decomposing and converging into Unit 2, Sefar.
Three golden-blue stellar core vortices gradually took shape, one on each side of its palms and one at its chest. The creature's presence surged higher and higher, a suffocating aura boiling over. As luminous patterns spread outward, even the authority of Tiamat's Sea of Life was pushed back, unable to advance an inch. The waters already assimilated by the Goddess of Beginning began to lose their color.
You've got to be kidding me… it fused?
Trinity. Fifth Stage.
Gods, heroes, and humans alike felt their pupils constrict in shock. Samael couldn't help but curse inwardly.
At that moment, more Colossal Gods and aberrations began to materialize, their stellar markings denser and more complex than before. Many had even risen to the level of chief gods, throwing the already exhausted defenders into a desperate struggle.
The sea surged into violent waves as twisted, swelling phantoms coalesced from the abyss, rising to the surface. With ruthless resolve, they began purging the world's vessels of civilization, and an even greater horror loomed close at hand.
Now, shattered corpses of fallen gods and monsters rained down from the sky. Fewer than a dozen Greek warships remained, yet they resolutely moved to plug the gaps on both flanks, launching suicidal attacks against the Colossal Gods and aberrations. Above them, the floating mobile fortress endured thousands of wide-area annihilation weapons head-on, carving open a navigable path…
Every moment, someone died. Every moment, someone else stepped forward to take their place.
The war that would decide the fate of the world raged on.
...
…
At the same time, a golden chariot screeched to a halt above the storm sea. Zeus casually split apart a Colossal God's light-forged javelin, then seized the reins from Heracles' hands amid the violent shockwave, his eyes filled with approval.
"Well done, Heracles…"
"Call me Alcides…"
"As you wish. But no matter what, there is one thing you cannot change. The blood of this king flows through your veins. Go. Do what you must do. Not for the glory of the gods, but for your own future."
The wise God King placed a hand on the hero's shoulder, his deep, distant gaze meeting Heracles' as he spoke solemnly.
"The fate of humanity, and the fate of the gods, rests in your hands."
Turning away, the mighty hero paused briefly, then nodded and leapt. At the instant the Argo drew close to the Eye of the Tidal Sea, he dropped onto the deck, successfully boarding the ship.
Aboard the violently rocking Argo, Jason lunged for the helm. Veins bulged along his arms as he forced the ship to stop its retreat. He lifted his head and stared at the completely unobstructed Eye of the Tidal Sea less than a hundred meters away, then let out a hoarse, frenzied roar.
"Listen to me! Up to this point—
The gods have cleared the way for us!
Humanity has charged ahead for us!
The blood-wine of the gods has sent us off!
Countless corpses we never even knew have paved the road before us!
Across uncountable sacrifices, everything has been for this one purpose: to push us through this sea of death, for that one chance in ten thousand!
Those who boarded this ship, answer me. Are you afraid?!"
The heroes, forbidden from acting, ordered to conserve their strength and wait for the moment, slammed their fists against their chests. Grief and fury surged together as they roared back, faces twisted with resolve.
"Glory to the Argo Expeditionary Force!"
"Good! All hands to your positions! Target: the Eye of the Tidal Sea! Charge! Charge! Charge!"
The Argo shot forward like an arrow loosed from the bow, plunging toward the deep, dark vortex. Amid violent jolts and shuddering impacts, the ship disappeared into the abyss.
At this point, the human fleet had suffered ninety percent losses…
The gods' faction had fallen by seventy percent…
The Argo itself, all hands still alive!
The Sea of Death, breached!