Inside the black limo, Neo sat between Hera and Esme on their way to Atlantis.
"Roughly, we lost a total of fifteen incompletes," Mr. White sighed.
While they were inside, a sleek flat-screen was embedded in the partition, quietly playing as the limousine glided through the city.
They watched Mr. White on it.
"Soon, the awakening ceremony will be carried out to determine which god our students have chosen and their talents," he continued. "Until then, I'd like everyone to thank Sunny Ink. If it wasn't for his bravery, many lives would have been lost."
Hera sighed and switched off the news channel.
While in the hospital, she hadn't asked Neo about his experience in the origin. "How was it?" Now, she had the perfect time.
Silence.
Neo stared at Esme, wondering if she'd say what happened between them and Paul.
"Were you able to bond with any primordial?" Hera asked, concerned.
Neo lowered his head in shame and frowned. Sadly, he wasn't compatible with any primordial.
"And what about you, Esme?"
"I bonded with the primordial god Ymir. It was thanks to Neo, though," Esme smiled.
"I just hid and waited for Esme. She saved my life, right?"
Esme kept quiet. She figured Neo had intentionally omitted the part about giving her the blood.
The part where he killed the gay senior and a bunch of other students, and especially the part where Paul tried to kill him for no reason.
But she didn't bother saying anything and simply nodded.
Soon after, the long drive came to a stop at the edge of the city. Any further, and they'd be swimming deep in the ocean.
All three stepped outside. They stood at the end of the dock, staring at the sea.
After a few seconds passed, a marine vessel rose in front of them.
"I apologize for my lateness," said the man who opened the submarine. It was unlike a normal one; since it was from Atlantis, it had been crafted in the shape of a whale.
Esme went in first, with Neo and Hera following behind.
As the whale submarine descended, they found themselves beneath the water, surrounded by a school of fish.
There were also two men outside the vessel, both wielding tridents and clearly capable of breathing underwater. After all, they were from Atlantis.
Neo sat down while Esme stood beside him like a personal bodyguard.
Atlantis was an underwater city with advanced technology, far beyond that of the surface dwellers.
In the novel, only Atlantis' history was explained, a city that once stood proud among surface dwellers.
Atlantis was once a kingdom of unmatched brilliance, ruled by the great King Atlan.
They had unlocked an energy that surpassed even the current age, and with the Trident of Neptune, gifted by the gods themselves, King Atlan could command the sea and ward off enemies.
However, he became too ambitious, and Pontus, the primordial god of the sea, was provoked.
The tides swallowed the horizon, buildings were destroyed, and people were taken by the sea.
In that final hour, King Atlan did not flee.
He stood before the raging sea and raised the Trident of Neptune, a divine relic gifted by the gods. With it, he performed a miracle.
The waters parted, and the city did not fall.
Instead… Atlantis descended, swallowed beneath the ocean rather than destroyed by it.
From that day forward, the people were changed.
They learned to breathe the sea as they once breathed air. Some took on the forms of the ocean's children, bearing fins and tails as a sign of divine adaptation.
Others remained as they were, chosen to dwell within the sacred inner city where the waters never touched.
At the heart of Atlantis, the Trident still stands. It holds back the crushing tides of the sea and sustains the kingdom.
The royal bloodline, descendants of Atlan, were chosen to guard it, not merely as rulers, but as protectors of the divine balance.
And so the throne passed on, generation after generation.
But...
King Atlan, in his later days, was said to have defied the will of the sea.
He was cursed by the primordial god of the sea himself, Pontus.
Stripped of his crown and cast into the endless ocean, he became a wandering wraith of the deep, bound forever to the waters he once commanded.
A warning to all who would challenge the gods.
For the rest of the novel, nothing more about Atlan was revealed. The only reason this history was even told was because of the main character, Sunny.
Just like in the stories, they finally reached the sunken city. The glow of Atlantis made the depths of the sea breathtaking.
Surrounding it were different sea creatures: seahorses, jellyfish, dolphins, and even an octopus hiding beside a rock.
The serenity of Atlantis was almost welcoming.
The whale submarine stopped in front of the city. "We've reached Atlantis," said the rider.
When Neo stepped into Atlantis, he was filled with excitement, though he kept his composure.
"It's already night?" Neo looked up and spotted the moon through the water.
---
The Hall of Neptune.
Queen Elizabeth sat on the throne with one leg crossed. Hera quickly addressed the reason she had come in the first place.
At the queen's left stood the tyrant princess, Ivy Gold. Just as her name implied, her beauty was radiant, and her golden hair flowed calmly down her back.
"Who are these people?" she whispered.
However, Elizabeth gave no reply. As Hera approached, she slightly lowered her head.
Esme and Ivy locked eyes, neither intimidated by the other's cold expression.
"Welcome, Hera, young Neo... You've grown so cute, and?" Elizabeth paused, looking at Esme, waiting for her name.
In the end, Esme said nothing. 'Around me, she's a bit childish? But outside, she remains the same?' Neo thought, as this was the same girl he had always known when he first woke up.
"Pardon, what have you surface dwellers come for?" Ivy asked. She hadn't been informed about her engagement to Neo.
Hera's eyes lazily shifted to Elizabeth, waiting for her to answer.
The queen chuckled. "Well, don't be mad, Queen Ivy, I mean, Ivy," she stuttered. "You're getting married to that guy over there," she added, trying to hide behind the Trident.
Neo frowned. 'What the hell is going on? Why is the queen acting like a child?' he thought. 'Something is wrong here'
"Weren't you informed?" Hera asked.
"Of course I wasn't," Ivy replied, shooting Elizabeth a deadly glare.
Hera sighed. "Well, it's your mother's wish for you to marry my son, Neo."
Only then did Ivy give the slender young man a proper look. Her eyes glowed faintly gold, and she saw something no one else could.
[Name: Neorion Hera]
Age: 21
Origin Rank: Awakened [E Talent]
Bloodline: None
She couldn't hold back her desire to laugh.
To Hera and Elizabeth, Ivy simply stared at Neo, visibly displeased. She clenched her fist, then slowly relaxed it.
"No, I cannot marry this... thing," she said.
Hera stepped forward. "What exactly did you just call my son?" she asked.
Neo, who had been quietly observing everything, had already begun forming a theory.
Elizabeth was never the true queen. It was Ivy. So why were they pretending?
"I asked you a question. What did you just call my son?" Hera repeated calmly.
Ivy clicked her tongue. She wasn't afraid of Hera, not even a little.
But the look on Elizabeth's face was enough to make her hold back.
"Forgive me, then, but I cannot marry your son. So please, leave before I lose my temper."
"Ayeeeeiii... This isn't good," Elizabeth muttered, clearly terrified.
Meanwhile... Esme has been quietly staring at Ivy the entire time.