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Mid Evening - Late Winter - Year 24 : Acardi Wreckage Island

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*Tap-WOOOooom* Watching the colossal plume of steam ripping from the reactor thin and shrink as its steady hum fluctuated and settled, I swam up into it, masking and suppressing every part of my presence to be essentially invisible to the senses of everything up to an ancient.

-With how dense and fast the plasma is, their aura won't reach me.

..- Yet at the same time, I'd be able to watch their every move with my space mana. All from behind a wall of bubbles.

All I had to do was wait.

Knowing Hera would cover everything on the surface, I simply focused on my aura, using my extra time to practice my techniques using my aura's space mana.

However, even as hours turned into days, there wasn't a flicker of life around the reactor.

It was quiet, eerily so.

With the blaze of the reactor settling day by day, the plume of steam I was hiding in steadily became less and less of a shield from aura, and before long, the day of the Atlas team's arrival came.

-I told Hera to signal me when she wanted me to come up.

..- But despite feeling her aura's gentle caress on mine, the signal never came.

So I stayed, and before I knew it, another two days passed.

That was the first time I felt her aura twitch.

It wasn't the signal for me to come up, but rather.. as if she was alerted to something... -That's odd...-

Wondering what it could be, my mind raced for a moment.

However, not even a few moments later, I felt the hair on my neck crawl. -Hoh..?- Snapping my head to the side, my pupils thinned, locking on the colorless figure of a dragon swimming through the ocean. -Who do we have here?-

Resisting my urge to jump out and confront them, I waited, watching every swish of their tail as they glided through the depths. They weren't coming from the surface, but rather from along the coast.. along the wreckage...

Staring at them through the wall of steam with a sharp, blood-lust filled gaze, I used my aura to search everything they had. Digging through their waterproof bags, I read through every paper, deconstructed every artifact, and mentally dismantled every piece of Acardi technology they had.

But.. they were clean...

The countless papers the deep-blue-scaled woman carried all appeared to be informal research. In the bags she carried, there were all sorts of pieces of Acardi tech, as well as artifacts that you would typically see in research institutions.

It made the lady look like a normal, novice researcher... Certainly not someone who would understand fission, fusion, or Acardi machinery.

But something about them just felt off. The papers, while seemingly discussing things I would recognize based on the diagrams, all sounded like gibberish, and while the artifacts were indeed things commonly used in research, they weren't related to the things in the papers. -Something.. isn't adding up...-

Keeping a skeptical eye on her as she got closer and closer, starting to slow down as the temperature and radiation levels rose, I watched her reach into her bag and pull out an artifact from a hidden pouch. -Hm?-

It was an artifact I assumed was for detecting and measuring mana density, something that would slowly change colors depending on how dense the mana was.

However, as she pushed it out in front of her, the deep black orb started shifting to a dark purple before steadily getting brighter and brighter as she approached the reactor.

But the mana density around her wasn't changing. -She's using it to detect radiation...-

Cautiously creeping closer and closer to the reactor, never once pulling her eyes off the orb as it grew lighter and lighter, shifting up through the light spectrum, she quickly drew near.

All until, not more than a few dozen meters from the uranium stockpile, the orb turned crimson, and she stopped.

Standing about seventy meters tall, she was a young ancient with a slender body, one made for the water exactly as her deep-ocean colored scales would indicate; however, looking at her thick legs, and sprawled claws despite them being relaxed, it was clear she wasn't a dragon who regularly spent long periods down here. -So what are you doing here...-

Watching her slow to a halt before looking around and setting her eyes on the reactor with a troubled gaze, she reached back into her bag to pull out a large, loaded capacitor with an artifact fused to its bottom.

Still unsure what she was doing, or what her identity was, I stayed still, only tilting my head to question what she was doing.

At least until that was she opened her mouth, tensing in discomfort for a moment, she pulled out a barrel-sized metal sphere.

-Huh?- Wondering what it was, I was quick to push my space mana into it, but it just made my confusion and curiosity burn like gas vapors to a match. -I see...-

Spreading my wings as she started attaching the capacitor to it, I swam out of the plume of steam without so much as a ripple, swamping her with the enriched mana in my aura to dull her senses before getting up right next to her head. "It's best you stop doing that."

Snapping her eyes to mine, she froze with a quivering gaze.

"Whatever god you pray to, they won't save you here..." Swimming in front of her, I snatched the massive nuclear core from her paws before moving it above us. -To think they'd hide it in their breath gland... Those papers and artifacts are just a part of her disguise...-

Finishing the unification of the reactor core and capacitor, a blinding light instantly blanketed the water, and the massive nuclear blast, directed at the surface, lifted the ocean off of us. *WOOOOOOM*

Staring into the woman's eyes with a gaze sharp enough to draw blood as her pupils dilated, I spoke directly to her brain, simulating the signals of my voice through the nerves of her ruptured ears.

"If you wish for your soul to make it to reincarnation, you best answer these questions like the world's fate lies on it. "

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- Hera Monachikós ~

*WOOOOM* Feeling the entire ocean suddenly sink as if sucked in, my gaze snapped to the water just in time to watch the ocean lift into the sky *SPLAAAASH-WOOOOM* Watching a series of blasts come one after the other, raising thousands of square kilometers of water higher and higher into the sky, I couldn't help but feel a certain level of insignificance. -Looks like he had a fish bite...-

It was an explosion on a scale that brought on flashbacks from the war, a blast measured on the scale of kingdoms rather than people, buildings, or towns.

However, while Krystallo and I marveled at the sight, the others weren't so keen.

By then, it had been a couple days since the Atlas team had arrived, and after getting caught up to speed with Chioni and the other researchers, were preparing to make an expedition into the water.

That was at least until the ocean they were going to explore was abruptly connected to the night sky.

Feeling the shockwave rip over us, everyone immediately jumped out of their huts and looked out to the ocean, but as the wind howled, no one said a word.

To a bunch of normal adults and elders, the sight greeting them was nothing short of unfathomable, a display of power they couldn't comprehend.

At least for all but one.

Turning to look at one of the elders in the back, staring at the towering explosion with blank face, I squinted.

After sending off Vasilias, I had faked leaving the island with Krystallo, cloaking us with magic while masking our auras, using my aura to eavesdrop on the researchers about a kilometer away.

However, while nothing about them seemed particularly odd, there was another researcher who arrived just half a day before the Atlas team that I felt nervous to pull my eyes off.

From emotionlessly staring off into space to never saying a word, he was an odd one, but nothing he ever did, nor anything of his belongings were suspicious at all.. just a bunch of miscellaneous, amateur research and tools.

However, regardless of wanting to dismiss my suspicions, I kept my eye on him.

At least, that was until I was forced to turn my attention elsewhere.

*Crackle* -Huh?- *WOOM* Feeling the ground beneath us suddenly lift and expand from a colossal burst of blazing air, engulfing Krystallo and burying my legs and tail, the vast, snow-covered beach we stood on turned into a huge pit of loose sand, consuming everything on the surface like a starved goliath opening its mouth.

*VWOOM* Rushing to use my divinity, I was quick to grab Krystallo and take to the air, forcing us out of the sand before it gripped everything on the surface and dragged it into the depths.

But it wasn’t just our necks I needed to save.

Eventually getting above the plunge, I looked down to see several of the researchers all futilely flapping their wings as they sank further into the sea of aerated sand and were pulled into the pit, only to be buried by hundreds of meters of ocean and sand the moment they slammed into the bottom.

*PUUUFFF* -Shit… They won’t be able to get out if this hole fills. ..-

As I got ready to dive down though, I found the silent researcher hovering over the collapsing pit with an eager gleam in his eyes, dropping a tiny, melon-sized sphere from his claws. A nuclear core.

-Oh, no you don't!- Grabbing it with my aura, I instantly slung it towards us before tossing Krystallo into the air behind me and returning to full size. *FLASH*

However, as I revealed myself and caught the core in my mouth, the elder's gaze snapped to mine with an unnerving clarity.. a psychotic confidence...

All until the bomb finally went off. *WOOSH-CRRRAACK* Keeping my mouth open just enough to vent the blast, a wall of fire burst from my face like an erupting volcano, hiding my entire body and concussing every creature in front of me out to the horizon.

As the shockwave blew over the crazed elder and his eyes gleamed, watching the all-consuming fireball spread, he couldn't hold back a roaring laugh.

"Hah.. Haha.. HAHAHA!" Staring into the swirling flames with wide eyes, his craze spread like the blaze before him.

"SO MUCH POWER! SUCH INTENSE HEAT! WITH THIS, I COULD-"

"Die." Cutting him off, I appeared over him, showing my teeth still glowing red hot with a snarl before slamming my paw into his back.

*CrUuUNcH* Feeling the base of his wings, and his spine shatter into millions of pieces, the mans craze suddenly vanished, his gaze distorted with pain, and his vision blurred before zipping to the ground in a streak of light, slamming into a thin stretch of trees on the edge of the sandy pit the researchers were sucked into before tumbling for several more kilometers.

Knowing he wasn't going anywhere, I immediately returned to Krystallo, making sure she was okay before diving into the pit to catch the huge collapse of water and sand rushing to fill it in.

*VWOOM* -Shit...- Cursing myself, I looked down at the sand, submerged in about a hundred meters of water, questioning how I was going to get the researchers out while anxious some may get turned around and dig the wrong way.

But thankfully, just because I didn't have an idea, doesn't mean Krystallo didn't.

And while I was nervous she could have been hurt or even just stunned, as soon as I reached the surface of the water that had already started filling the pit, she jumped to action.

Even if she herself looked a bit nervous...