The shifting dunes of Tartarus rolled endlessly beneath the crimson sky as Altopereh surged forward at impossible speed. Ever since leaving Kalian's domain the God Unit had flown without once slowing down, its restored frame cutting through the wasteland like a black spear flung across creation, while sand exploded behind it in colossal waves and whole ridges collapsed under the force of its engines. Inside the cockpit, warning lights flickered softly across the dark interior, and Youri stood behind the main control seat staring ahead in silence. Lea stood beside him with her hood lowered slightly and the crimson light of Tartarus playing over the rough wooden mask that covered her face. For a long time neither of them spoke.
Something about the desert ahead felt wrong — not hostile, not violent, but ancient. The farther they went, the more the world itself seemed to warp. The dunes no longer stayed still. Whole mountains of crimson sand drifted slowly across the horizon like living things crawling beneath the surface. Vast spirals formed in the distance and then collapsed again, and the sky above trembled faintly, as though reality bent around whatever lay ahead.
Then the terrain changed. The endless sea of dunes split suddenly apart, and Youri narrowed his eyes. At first it looked like a canyon opening beneath them, but the deeper Altopereh descended, the clearer it became that it was not a canyon at all. It was ruins — an entire civilization buried under the desert. Massive stone structures emerged slowly from beneath the shifting sand, broken towers, shattered roads, colossal walls stretching farther than the eye could follow, a city so ancient that it seemed to have existed before memory itself.
And then Youri saw it. Atlantis. The sunken city lay beneath the crimson heavens like the corpse of a forgotten god. At its center stood a spire so massive that it defied understanding, rising endlessly into the sky and vanishing somewhere within the blood-red clouds — less a building than a world carved into a single tower, its pale surface lined with endless arches and covered in hollow chambers and gigantic circular openings, so vast that whole civilizations could have lived within its walls alone. Around it stretched the remains of the city: great avenues cutting between enormous stone structures layered with stacked balconies and weathered façades, broken statues frozen beneath centuries of sand, great bridges joining towers that had half collapsed into the earth. Whole districts had sunk beneath the dunes while others still stood defiantly against time. The city felt dead, and yet alive, as though something were still watching from within its hollow streets.
Youri stepped slowly closer to the cockpit glass, unable to hide the shock in his eyes. "So this is Atlantis," he whispered.
The very origin of the God Units — the birthplace of the machines that had reshaped his life for ever. Every nightmare, every battle, every death. It had all begun here. Even Lea stood motionless beside him, and though she had once walked among the Sacros, the sight before them seemed to shake her as well.
Altopereh hovered silently above the ruins for several moments, and then its voice echoed through the cockpit. "You should look for the ship. It seems Almesis is not around."
Youri frowned at once. "So you're telling me you want control?"
A low laugh echoed off the cockpit walls. "Yes." Dark energy flickered briefly across the Orbiton's frame. "If I want to face Almesis at full power, I need to be free. And lucky for you, this is the only place where I can separate from the vessel without you sitting in that seat."
Youri's eyes narrowed. He didn't like the sound of that — not even slightly — but Altopereh went on before he could object. "So get out and find what you came here for. The ship should still exist somewhere in Atlantis."
The cockpit fell silent, and Youri stared down at the endless ruins below while everything in him screamed that this was a mistake. Leaving Altopereh alone in Atlantis felt like handing a blade to a monster and hoping it behaved. But they had come too far to turn back now. He took a slow, deep breath and released the cockpit restraints. The hatch above them hissed open, and a wave of ancient air swept in at once, dry, cold and heavy with dust older than worlds.
Youri climbed out first and stepped carefully onto Altopereh's massive shoulder plating. Lea followed shortly after with her dark cloak flowing behind her in the crimson wind. From outside, Atlantis looked even larger. The streets below stretched endlessly in every direction, gigantic statues towered over shattered plazas, and half-buried buildings leaned against one another like ancient corpses refusing to fall. And not a single sound came from anywhere — no wind, no creatures, nothing at all. The city was completely silent.
Youri turned back to Altopereh one last time. The massive God Unit stood motionless above the ruins with dark energy pulsing faintly beneath sections of its black armor. "No matter what," he said seriously, "don't take this too far. Once we find the ship, come back."
For a moment, silence answered him. Then Altopereh laughed — a deep, monstrous laugh that echoed across Atlantis itself. "Who do you think I am?" Dark anti-matter energy rippled softly across its body. "Just go find that damn ship. The rest is for me to decide."
Youri frowned. That answer did nothing whatsoever to reassure him.
Lea stepped quietly up beside him. "We should move," she said softly. "The longer we stay exposed, the worse this place becomes."
He nodded slowly, and together they climbed down from Altopereh onto one of Atlantis's massive stone platforms. The moment their feet touched the ancient city, Youri felt it — a strange pressure flowing through the ground itself, as though the city were alive. He turned and looked down one of the endless avenues stretching deeper into Atlantis, where enormous structures disappeared into darkness between the towering buildings, bridges joined whole sections of the city overhead, and gigantic statues watched over broken plazas. Some of them resembled the Sacros. Others resembled things far older.
Lea walked slowly ahead. "Atlantis was never just a city," she said quietly. "It was the center of everything."
Youri followed. "What do you mean?"
She looked up at the colossal spire piercing the heavens. "The Sacros built their empire from this place. The God Units were forged here. Their weapons, their armies, their technology — it all began in Atlantis." Her voice dropped. "And so did their sins."
Youri said nothing. As they went deeper into the city, he noticed strange markings carved into the stone beneath their feet — vast circular patterns stretching across whole streets, some of them still glowing faintly with golden light in spite of their impossible age — and the deeper they went, the stranger Atlantis became. Whole buildings floated partly above the ground. Broken machines taller than mountains lay frozen where they had fallen. Some streets looked untouched by time; others looked as though entire wars had been fought in them.
Then Youri stopped. Ahead of them, half buried beneath sand and ancient stone, lay something massive. A ship. Only part of its structure was visible, but even buried, it dwarfed the buildings around it, its dark metal surface jagged, uneven, layered with overlapping plates like armored scales.
His eyes widened slightly. "The ship from the vision…"
Lea stared at it in silence. "It's real."
The two of them approached the colossal vessel slowly. Ancient symbols covered its surface; some sections looked broken beyond repair, while others still pulsed faintly with dormant energy. Youri could feel it at once. This ship did not belong to Tartarus. It had come from somewhere else. And somehow, it was still alive.