Odysseus gazed at the five before him with twitching lips. "Isn't this the time for the yearly culling mission? By now the mortals should be in the midst of sacrificing their lives to keep the Insects from expanding? How did you get involved?! Did something happen this year?!"
Theseus could only shrug helplessly. If he said he wasn't the least a bit worried about their mission, he would be lying. However, he had not dared to show any hesitation or unhappiness before the Sovereign Lord.
Realizing that finding out had to be the crux of their mission, Odysseus sighed. "I'll get the servants to add some extra items that should help you while on that god-forsaken continent."
Theseus showed a grateful expression and bowed. "My eternal gratitude to you, Odysseus."
"Hmm." Odysseus grunted noncommittally before seeing to the rest of their preparations. Theseus made sure to remain to negotiate with the Demi-God of Adventures before leading his team to the docks..
There, they saw a huge ship ready to set sail, manned by hundreds of mortals who had volunteered to accompany them in their grand journey.
Most mortals usually died before the end of a Divine Odyssey due to the various monsters and challenges the actual heroes would have to face along the way.
Nevertheless, there was never a shortage of those signing up, believing in their own abilities or luck. Those who survived to the end, wouldn't just get to boast, no they would be set for life.
If they did exceptionally well, they might even receive a tiny Divine Spark granting them the chance to become a new Demi-God!
The five Demi-Gods boarded the galleon which soon set sail. Even though they had been provided griffins for their journey, it was impossible to cross the distance between the two continents so easily.
Using a galleon was also not truly feasible. Even if they could go without food or water, or had lots of it, and could easily fend off any sea monsters on the way, the time it would take to travel by sea would see most of the mortal's age and pass away before even 1/10th of the journey had been completed.
Fortunately, this galleon was a special type, crafted by Hephaestus and blessed by Poseidon, allowing those who used it to move across the water like a cannonball through the air.
Soon after the ship left the dock, it blasted off into the horizon, leaving behind a huge wall of water that would have certainly drowned the dock out should they have done this right from the get-go.
The mortals on the ship had already disappeared below the deck in order to survive the crazy movement of this ship, while the five Demi-Gods remained above to monitor their progress. They were unfazed by this kind of thing given their high stats.
Theseus even showed an expression of satisfaction and pleasure at being on a ship at sea, as he was a son of Poseidon with a human Princess. Pyrrha though, showed extreme discomfort at being surrounded on all sides by water, which was understandable given her nature.
After a week of nonstop high-speed movement where the world looked like a blur to them and they cut through the sea like a knife through butter, they eventually felt the ship begin to slow down as the mortals below worked on the controls.
Not long after the five saw a dark shape in the horizon where they had only seen blue sea and the sky before, indicating that land was abound. Since they were close, there was no need to go so fast anymore.
They eventually took another day to pull up to the shore of the island, anchoring about 1 kilometer away from the shore. The mortals on the ship rushed to take lifeboats to the shore, removing some materials they had brought along to quickly construct a makeshift dock.
The five Demi-Gods could not be bothered by what they planned to do as they alighted using their own means. Theseus jumped into the water and rode the waves casually like he was a lord of water.
Hercules simply crouched and jumped up with such great force that the entire ship sunk by a few meters, as he hurtled through the sky. Pyrrha smiled and blasted forward like a jet by releasing flames from beneath her feet and her arms.
Medea smiled and snapped her finger. The winds formed a gale that caressed her sensual form and carried her away to the shore like a princess. Achilles simply ran forward and used his spear to pole-vault in an amazing manner that sent him flying through the air.
All five parties landed on the shore at the same time, Theseus jumping off his wave, Pyrrha releasing her flames as she came down, Medea alighting from her throne of wind, Achilles landing on his feet and spinning around to negate the force and Hercules like a cannonball as the land for kilometers around them shook greatly when he met with the earth.
Finally, they had arrived on Pokterr!
"What a terrible wasteland." Pyrrha muttered with a grimace.
"Shockingly, I can not only sense but also receive Elysium's Faith Energy here…" Medea remarked slowly under her breath.
Achilles' eyes narrowed. "I sense a great battle has occurred here. There is also a remnant presence that is no weaker than that of Hercules."
Hercules nodded with a serious expression. "Yes, it is likely that half-giant. I have fought Gaia's Titans before, and I can sense their earthen energy, but as father warned us, this one is so pure its blood-chilling."
Theseus sighed. "Let's first travel to the sinkhole where the Gods send candidates to explore that sub-space. If there is anyone still alive, we can question them and then head to the central underground entrance from there."
None of them objected to his arrangements as he was the team leader and the plan was not foolish. As such, they all began flying forward rapidly, casting their senses out to perceive the nature of this continent and what was here.
They had arrived near the shore where the battle between Darius and the Grandmasters had occurred, which was why they had sensed Gunner's power who had directly destroyed this place with his Eraser Cannon back then.
As the five Demi-Gods headed towards their first target, they were forced to stop as they encountered something they had never seen before.
From the air, they had seen the brownish-black and cragged wasteland surprisingly change into a surface of silvery-grey mental that extended for a long way towards a certain direction.
This made the five frown as they found that it was weird. After a brief discussion, Theseus got the group to postpone their idea of heading into the sinkhole for information, instead they all agreed to investigate this strange occurrence first.
They passed over this metallic plain with solemn expressions, their faces becoming grimmer and grimmer with each kilometer they traversed and still saw only silver stretching as far as they could see.
Theseus and Medea had thunderous expressions as they recognized this metal to be Holy Silver, which was a precious mineral that was extremely hard to find and extract due to how ruined Pokterr was and the presence of the Insects.
Yet, it had been used to pave the ground so casually. This was enough to make the duo feel like they were heading into a danger zone, as any force that could casually waste such a resource could not be weak at all.
The five soon noticed a shape in the horizon finally, and increased their speed as they soon neared it. However, despite everything, what they did not expect was to find a metallic city and futuristic base manned by robots and various scientific weaponry.
What left them all the more speechless for a while was the fact that the base went into alert as soon as their presence had been sensed. The robots that could fight armed themselves while the weaker ones disappeared somewhere, yet the five Demi-Gods couldn't tell where.
On top of that, there were various vehicles and weird contraptions that glowed with a strange light as they aimed their muzzles towards them. From tanks to artillery guns and even rail gun stations.
The five Demi-Gods shared a look between each other.
"Well, what do we do?" Pyrrha asked with amusement.
"Zeus instructed us not to use force, unless necessary, so I say we parley with these… things and find out why they were here, who they serve and ascertain their purpose here." Theseus stated with a contemplative frown.
"Pah, I say we smash them apart. What we want to know cannot be told by mere metal men." Hercules interjected with a sneer.
"I agree with the son of Zeus. Truly, a more fitting and enterprising leader for this mission." Medea added with a light titter from the side, making Hercules puff his chest out.
"I am sorry, Theseus, but I agree with Hercules as well. These metal things do not look friendly nor do they possess souls, so they are not things that should be treated like a living person."
"We should first establish our might and then whatever we want to achieve will be handed to us in time." Achilles agreed with the others, while pointing his spear at the base.
