Rose arrived the moment she sensed it.
A terrific power that was foreign in nature and something that had never before touched the skies of the Kingdom of Neon.
She had just passed through the shattered remains of the City of Green that was recently welcomed into the Kingdom's fold, making sure no one had been left behind- no one dying, missed, or unsaved.
She'd descended like a saint bathed in green flame, weaving World Healing into every broken body she found before vanishing again, moving on to the next Human and Advanced Human of that Colony City in need.
Those she healed could only stare in stunned reverence, hands pressed to flesh once torn and ruined, now whole. They watched her retreating figure like a whispered miracle vanishing into the wind.
And just as she finished, she sensed it.
Above her, Achilles stood calmly, entertaining… a mermaid?
"I leave you for a few minutes and you go off and catch yourself a fish woman?"
Her eyes sparkled with relief and tiredness from all the lives lost and saved as she appeared at his side, her fingers sliding into his. Achilles gave her hand a light squeeze, feeling her warmth as his eyes remained fixed on the new arrival.
"We have a powerful Astral Core Ascension Atlantian here. Goes by… Atlana, right?"
He turned his attention to the blue-gold shimmer of the Atlantian floating before them, voice calm but watchful.
The woman's gaze didn't waver. She nodded, just as calm, just as unreadable.
Achilles didn't blink as he looked back to Rose.
"She showed up near the Kingdom, heavily injured. Said she was fleeing something- someone. But she hasn't said what enemy could've done that to her." He raised a brow, eyes narrowing toward Atlana. "So? Care to share?"
Atlana's eyes flared with coldness, her voice low and tense.
"I encountered a Mythological Ancient. A terror from the old world, the Abyss Crowned Leviacrypt. A Behemoth from the deep, forgotten oceans swallowed by Evolutius Catacombs. He devours all water sources and was drawn to me. He hasn't surpassed Astral Core Ascension, so I was able to escape."
Her story spilled out like practiced silk. But Achilles didn't flinch. He had already laced his Spores deep into her existence, her energy exposed and tinged with his will.
He nodded, gaze turning slowly toward the radiant pools of Thalassara surrounding them.
"Well then. I've got the Pools of Thalassara here, the Primal Neon Tower at the center of the Kingdom, and even the Titan Dwarves of Titanfall Mountain over there. Which do you want to know about first?"
His voice, once casual, dropped in temperature. It became cold and measured. And when he turned back to her, his eyes shimmered with dangerous apathy.
She must've felt the shift because her posture stiffened, that calm mask beginning to crack.
"What do you mean?" she asked, too quickly. "I'm just—"
"Cut the bullshit, Atlana of the Thalassphere Arx."
His words shattered the stillness. The skies trembled.
Atlana's form shuddered, blue gold starlight coiling around her. Her tail, once drifting serenely, now flared with the fury of a storm.
"You… knew the entire time?!"
It wasn't just fear in her voice. It was recognition, of the fact that he knew not just her identity, but the Supreme Force she hailed from.
Rose shook her head beside Achilles, expression unreadable as she voiced out.
"How did you survive the Ancient Times with a mind like that?" she asked flatly. "You thought you'd wander in injured, toss us some sob story, and we'd just let you in? No questions? What made you so stupidly bold?"
She looked at Atlana like one might stare at a washed-up fish on the shore, trying to understand how something so dead had made it this far upstream.
Atlana didn't answer. She just buzzed with power, the air sparking blue and gold. Water surged from her form, birthing a massive lake in an instant.
"I wasn't speaking to you, Mate of King Primal. Know your place when the powerful speak."
Royalty radiated off her in waves, fury cloaked in elegance.
In the skies, waves of storm like water began to surge as the emanated from the figure of Atlana herself, and they filled up everything nearby as even the body of Achilles and Rose became covered with star lit water.
The water was heavy and oppressive at the same time as if those within it would be bound in movement and in power and not be capable of expressing anything!
The moment had shifted beyond negotiation, and Atlana knew it. But she also believed she had the power to survive, and perhaps take what she came for as she began to prepare, while focusing on a single person here.
Achilles read her like an open scroll as he gauged her thoughts entirely.
But regardless of what she was doing…
Even if she insulted him, he might've kept the peace.
But… why did she have to go in insult Rose?
"Oh? I should know my place?"
Rose's voice dipped into something lethal, her eyes glowing with quiet anger.
Atlana didn't even flinch. She turned to Achilles.
"King Primal. Let's speak plainly. You, a human, possess a treasure that doesn't belong to you. One that threatens the Heart of the Sea. We were cautious, so we sent scouts. I was unsure before, but now I see. There's no other Astral Core Ascension entity here. Just you. Meanwhile, we have dozens. Soon, there will be hundreds more, all waking from the Long Slumber. "
Her words dripped with warning, cloaked in royalty.
"I am Princess Atlana, Daughter of the Second Tribe King of the Aquarius Domain of the Thalassphere Arx. I offer this warning, if you wish to avoid war not only with one of the Nine Supreme Forces, but two, you will surrender the item that has allowed you to surround your little kingdom in these mystical waters."
A woman that came bearing a warning! That if he did not want a war and decimation from the hands of two of the Nine Supreme Forces, he would have to hand over whatever treasure he had obtained that allowed him to do what he did with the kingdom of Neon!
At such a moment, Achilles' eyes pulsed sharply.
Everything clicked into place.