There was no doubt that Drake stealing the Divine Core had dealt Poseidon a devastating blow.
It wasn't merely a matter of stripping away a god's dignity.
More likely, the stolen Divine Core had lost its rational logic functions, suffered a systemic failure, and turned Poseidon into an existence driven solely by vengeance against Drake.
Shiomi moved alone across the deck of the Machine God, heading straight toward the location of the final core.
From the moment he boarded the warship, he had been able to sense the positions of the other cores, resonating with the Divine Core he now held in his hand.
The main body's attempt to reclaim the stolen core caused resonance between the cores, and that resonance instead exposed its own location, sparing Shiomi the trouble of searching.
The entire ship radiated an overwhelming Mana reaction. Trying to locate the Divine Core based on Mana alone would have been like searching for a specific tree in a forest shrouded in dense fog.
"How pitiful," Shiomi said quietly. "So this is what a so-called god becomes after losing a Divine Core."
As he neared the central control area close to the bow, Shiomi slowed his steps. He let the blade of his spear drag across the deck's hardened armor, sparks flying as it cut through the surface as if it were soil, leaving deep grooves behind.
"I must capture Francis Drake… must capture Francis Drake… must capture… ah? You are—?"
The voice echoing through the broadcast gradually slowed, then stopped repeating the meaningless phrases altogether.
"How surprising," Shiomi said, raising the Divine Core in his hand. "You haven't even recovered it yet, and simply interfering with the inside of the core is enough to restore your self-awareness, Poseidon?"
"Who… are you?" Poseidon focused on Shiomi. "You're not the woman who stole the Divine Core!"
"Who I am doesn't matter," Shiomi replied calmly. "What matters is that Drake entrusted this Divine Core to me, and now I've brought it right in front of you. With only the central Divine Core and the unrecovered one left, that makes just two. Even if you've regained your reason, you can't keep fighting like this, can you?"
"…Who exactly are you?" Poseidon fell silent for a moment before asking again. "A foreign god from another mythology?"
"Don't you care about your own Divine Core at all, Poseidon?" Shiomi asked.
"Arrogant!" Fury crept into Poseidon's voice. "Do you really think threatening me with the Divine Core will make the mighty Sea God beg for mercy?"
Unable to shed his Machine God form, Poseidon focused all his efforts on self-repair. More autonomous defense systems locked onto Shiomi as he stood near the central area.
"That's hard to say," Shiomi replied. "Maybe I came all this way to show my loyalty to the gods of Olympus. Unfortunately, your automatic targeting systems were a little too dangerous, so I had to dismantle some of them."
"…"
Poseidon fell silent.
The silence stretched on.
"Honestly, this is embarrassing," Shiomi said, tossing the Divine Core lightly in his hand. "The mighty Sea God, afraid of a mere human."
"A human?" Poseidon retorted. "You turned the entire Atlantis Sea upside down. That was no ordinary Noble Phantasm. Someone who wields authority like that is not just 'a human.'"
"Well said." Shiomi suddenly raised his voice and hurled the Divine Core forward. "I have no use for this thing anymore. Take it."
The instant the Divine Core left his hand, it burst into a blue light bright enough to illuminate the surrounding sea.
Having temporarily regained his sanity, Poseidon could not possibly abandon a Divine Core that was about to return to him. He drove the Mana of his entire true body into resonance with it, preparing to reclaim it.
At that moment, the ship's monitoring systems caught the faint trace of mockery flashing through Shiomi's eyes.
Poseidon instantly realized something was wrong.
But it was already too late.
The resonance had completed. The Divine Core Shiomi had discarded as worthless drifted toward the sphere housing Poseidon's final core and was absorbed into it.
"Core system failure… deep-sea navigation system failure… true body barrier failure…"
A cascade of alerts rang out, followed by Poseidon's furious roar.
"…What have you done?!"
"What did I do?"
Shiomi had already turned to leave. He paused, as if the question hadn't even crossed his mind, then answered as though suddenly realizing it.
"Nothing much. I just tried adding something called a divine curse to the core, like the one you used on Captain Drake," Shiomi said, pinching his fingers together to indicate a tiny amount. "It was my first time cursing a god. I didn't expect it to work so well…"
"A curse… a divine curse… impossible, impossible… ugh—ooohhhh—!!"
Poseidon's true body began to erupt in a chain of explosions. The barrier that kept the seawater out shattered, and massive volumes of water flooded in, engulfing the entire warship in an instant.
At the same time, explosions tore through Poseidon's true body from within.
These were not attacks from the Leyline-Blocking Armament.
Morgan had ceased firing the moment she saw signs of the barrier collapsing.
Because the Sea God Poseidon, upon seeing the Divine Core that represented his reason thrown away before him, had been unable to resist reclaiming it.
As the Divine Cores resonated with one another, the curse Shiomi had planted inside the core fully awakened at that very moment. It spread from within, plunging Poseidon into a malfunction far more severe than simply losing a Divine Core.
"Honestly, if you'd had a bit more backbone and hadn't rushed to reclaim it, I wouldn't have had such an easy time."
Before seawater completely flooded the interior of the shattered barrier, Shiomi left him with those final words. Then he turned and began ascending, moving to rejoin Storm Border and guide the ship into Olympus.
"Even if there's only one… even if there's only one left! I must not allow the one who curses gods to enter Olympus! I am the final line of defense!"
Poseidon's voice carried through the seawater as every remaining operational defense system locked onto Shiomi.
Shiomi merely cast a cold glance in their direction and paid them no further mind.
More Leyline-Blocking Armaments streaked past him, intercepting Poseidon's dying struggle and unleashing unrestrained attacks against his true body.
Under the combined effects of internal collapse and external bombardment, Poseidon's true form began to fracture. His Mana reaction spiked in an instant, reaching a level that could only be described as catastrophic.
Violent shockwaves from the explosions surged upward toward the surface. In the already turbulent depths, the undercurrents suddenly grew even more ferocious. Caught completely off guard, Storm Border lost control, spinning with the currents as it was dragged down into even deeper, darker waters.
Clinging to the ship's hull, Shiomi maintained his composure to the very end.
Because he had already sensed it.
That so-called Void Cavern—
The gateway to Olympus lay directly beneath the vortex.