The island of Atlantis.

The central city.

The once prosperous city seemed so desolate without any trace of life. In the center a huge energy barrier was flickering with a soft blue radiance. At times one could feel a faint tremor from the earth beneath. This was the same barrier that kept that disastrous black abyss sealed inside, but from its dimming radiance the barrier wouldn’t last for long.

On one of the defense towers located on the outskirts of the central city, King Diaprepes watched the entire scene unfolding. Judging from his demeanor, it seemed he had hurriedly returned from the border fortress. Despite the strain on his body his gaze was locked on the flickering barrier as he knew that whatever that black abyss was, if it wasn’t stopped they would lose their land.

Just then suddenly--

-Bang-

A soft sound was heard as if someone had banged something on the ground and dark clouds started gathering above the barrier. The ocean surrounding the island started to surge with great waves which threatened to break through the huge mountain ranges and drown the entire island. It seemed like a precursor to a calamity.

The flickering barrier finally lost all its energy and vanished. The devouring force of the black abyss soon spread all over the city. Thankfully the civilians were all evacuated to the peripheral cities beforehand but still the power that this abyss possessed was still too great. As even King Diaprepes standing on the defense tower on the outskirts could feel a slight tug of attraction.

Then the black clouds started twisting and turned into a huge hand almost as large as the central city itself. Despite being made of the clouds the hand emanated an aura which made all the citizens of Atlantis kneel as they started praying. Even King Diaprepes slightly bowed, displaying respect to the power after which he hurriedly left. This was the power that belonged to their ancestral weapon. The Trident.

The huge hand started closing in on the black abyss in an attempt to crush and squeeze it, but as it closed its palm a portion of its power was devoured by the black abyss. Beneath the central pyramid the Kings watched in horror as the black abyss devoured the power of their ancestral weapon.

“Everyone, stay calm. I can sense the devouring power of that abyss weakening. It seems that it needs to expend too much power in order to devour the power of our ancestral weapon. Do not stop!”

King Atlas conveyed as he was directly connected to the weapon he was able to sense the battle between them clearly. After listening to this every King's face lit up.

Time passed by and the Kings started to lose too much power and were literally on the verge of exhaustion.

‘Just a little more. We are almost there.’

King Atlas thought, but--

-Thud-

A soft thud was heard as one the King’s fell down on the ground, unconscious. With one King less the power of the Trident weakened and the stalemate that they had was lost. The burdens on the rest of the Kings increased and it wasn’t long before everyone would fall unconscious.

Before any other thought arose in their mind, hurried footsteps could be heard from the entrance. Everyone turned their attention towards the entrance and saw King Diaprepes running towards them. Nodding to everyone present he hurriedly took his position and a similar blue sapphire crystal emerged on his forehead. The balance was soon returned and there still seemed hope for the Kings to avert the crisis.

Since the shield generators on the island were shut it was now visible to the world, Captain Phenex and his squad were seated inside the modified MH-60 as they observed what was transpiring on the island. But one could notice that the previous squad of twenty people were missing more than ten people and the ones left were all injured, some severely and some lightly. Captain Phenex on the other hand was totally unconscious and his body was covered in various sigils and patterns. This was the price that they had to pay in order to destroy their enemy.

“Che! After suffering heavy loss we still couldn’t destroy that damn city!” A heavy voice filled with regret sounded within the cargo bay.

A bulky man with his head bandaged was seated beside the opened hatch and observed the situation of the black abyss getting suppressed by that cloudy gray hand, grumbling with dissatisfaction. The bulky man was Gothon, one of the members of the twenty man squad.

-Cough-

Suddenly Cap. Phenex started coughing blood which was black in color. The sigils and patterns covering his body started glowing in a certain purple hue---

-ROAR-

The same primal roar could be heard once again. Gothon, who was catering to the Caption turned his head and looked outside only to find that the huge gray hand was starting to shrink and very soon nothing was left of it. The black abyss was once again visible and its size had increased yet again. Despite this, Gothon was not happy as the Captain coughed black blood non-stop and his condition seemed to be deteriorating.

On the other hand beneath the central pyramid the condition of the Kings was also not good. Just as they thought they were winning, the black abyss suddenly surged with a great force which instantly devoured their energies and thus every King with the exception of King Atlas lay unconscious on the platform, whereas King Atlas was kneeling on the ground trying hard to not fall unconscious.

‘It seems this is it.’

That was the final thought that arrived in his mind, before he too lost consciousness and fell down on the platform.

Outside, the black abyss continued to exert its devouring force and after the recent roar the force seemed to have gotten stronger. The people in the outer cities were now tensed as despair took root within their hearts. When---

-BOOM-

An explosion sounded as a flash of light covered the entire island. The flash of light was so bright that everyone instinctively closed their eyes and when everyone opened their eyes, they found that everything had returned to normal.

“What the hell was that?”

Gothon cursed loudly from inside the cargo bay as he gazed at the center of the island. The place which represented the culmination of the civilization of Atlantis with its huge central pyramid and the device which shielded the entire island was nowhere to be seen. In its place lay a huge crater with scorching fumes in its place. Whatever landed here, it had the power to burn the land and melt the rocks in its place to such a degree that all it left was ashes.

-Cough-

His surprise was soon thrown to the back of his mind as he turned his attention to the Captain. The patterns and sigil covering his body had now disappeared.

-Cough-

“Return back----”

-Pew-

With his face pale and body barely sustaining itself Captain Phenex ordered and spewed a huge amount of black blood with a little red mixed in it. Very soon the aircraft left the island’s airspace and disappeared just the way it had arrived.

Moon. I-CA High Command.

Rear Admiral Amelia Valerie was seated in her office as she observed the situation that had transpired on the island. While most of the factions in the I-CA were not aware of the true destructive power of the two great factions, she knew. Thus she was not surprised but alas her surprise soon turned into horror as she observed the last scene recorded in the video taken by the surveillance equipment before it was destroyed by that intense flash of light.

-Beep-

[Incoming transmission]

“It better be something important, Commander Casey.” The Rear Admiral asked in a frustrated tone.

[We received a message from Captain Brad. CL-01 is enroute to base.]

“Hmm. Did Captain Brad specify the reason?”

Without being flustered, Valerie asked. For she knew the actual reason for the battleship to be dispatched with ‘them’.

[Cap. Brad mentioned that Captain Percy instructed them to do so.]

The talk went on as the Commander explained the entire situation. Valerie was once again surprised, after all considering the speed of the battleship they would have mostly crossed a long distance, but despite this ‘they’ were aware of the actual situation on the planet.

-Sigh-

Taking a deep breath she acknowledged the message.

Days passed by and it had been a week. The situation on the planet started to calm down, but was this the calm before the storm or not, time would decide. After that flash which almost destroyed half the central city of Atlantis, the Kings woke up. Due to them being located deep in the ground they were not harmed. Now all the attention of the Kings was devoted to rebuilding their defenses and reorganizing the army.

------------

“GODDAMMIT!!”

Jason roared loudly and hurriedly clutched the door bed in order to stop himself from falling all over the place. The trembling and movements of the ship were more like a rollercoaster ride. Finally when the situation calmed down a bit, he stood up. Only to---

-THUD-

“YOU MONGREL! DRIVE PROPERLY! ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL ME!”

A profane line of curses flew from his mouth. In rage, his pupils turned red and fumes started rising from his body as he made his way towards the cockpit.

The cockpit slid open. Once inside he found Lucifer heavily engrossed into the console, his fingers dancing on the screen as if he was a conductor of a music orchestra. Then Jason’s gaze landed on the huge screen which displayed the scene outside and all his rage vanished being replaced by fear as he gulped his saliva.

On the screen one could see huge rocks hurling towards the ship at a speed.

‘Are we dead?’

That was the only question that came to his mind after observing this situation. Just then the screen turned black and nothing was visible.

“Hey, is that not working?” He said pointing towards the screen.

But then suddenly the screen was covered in a purple hue. Puzzled, he thought that the screen had malfunctioned. Then---

-Bang-

A huge sound as if the ship had crashed into something hard. The shaking was so hard that Jason almost dropped on the ground. Just as one would think that it was all over, the shaking stopped and the black expanse of the space with the hurling rocks were once again visible on the screen.

“You can handle it from here, Aria.”

[Affirmative]

Lucifer said as he dropped his head on the console table seemingly half-dead.

“Hey, explain what was that? Are you trying to kill us all?” But alas Jason wouldn’t let Lucifer ‘die’ peacefully as he bombarded him with questions.

“You are too noisy, get lost.” Lucifer mumbled.

Suddenly without any warning, Jason started floating and a huge force pushed him back until he reached the doors. Once open, he was flung away like a fly as his body arched and crashed on one of the alloy walls.

“That hurt, you punk!” Jason grumbled as he stood up massaging his back.

‘Hmm anyways, let’s ask Uncle James to roast some meat.’

Remembering the tasty meat his mouth watered as he moved towards James cabin.

“Uncle James. Let’s---”

-BLAH-

When the door opened he was greeted by the sight of Uncle James seated on the bed holding a bucket and excreting everything from his stomach using his mouth.

“Nevermind.” Jason mumbled and hurriedly turned back.

“Sheesh, let’s see what the Captain is doing?” He once again moved towards the Captain’s cabin.

The doors opened and he saw Captain Percy seated crossed legged on his bed, meditating. Sighing lightly he turned around, only to be stopped in track by a small and dangerous voice.

“Where do you think you are going?”

“Ah captain, you are awake? I thought you were busy, never mind I will come back later.” Trying hard to maintain a smile he spoke awkwardly.

“It’s been a long time since I last saw you. Let me see how much you have improved in this time.” Captain Percy spoke slowly.