More than six thousand meters beneath the Atlantic Ocean, the Deucalion once again arrived before the Aldnoah Drive.
Asseylum watched nervously as Kain reached out to touch it, worried that he might fail to activate it again.
The instant his palm pressed against its surface, the massive sphere, more than fifty meters in diameter, began to glow. Its radiance quickly surpassed the level Kain had achieved during his previous attempt.
In the end, it even shone brighter than when Asseylum had activated it.
That meant Kain had succeeded. The genetic activation code the Aldnoah Drive detected within him was now complete.
It also proved something else: the code truly could be transferred from her to him through their earlier intimacy.
Kain had not taken another sample of her blood. If the Drive had failed to activate again, they would have tried drawing more blood for him to consume.
Rumble!
The earth shook.
The surrounding seabed churned, and the ocean itself seemed to boil. Asseylum immediately tensed.
Panicked voices erupted over the open communications channel.
The shaking was so violent that even the Deucalion, a warship more than three hundred meters long, seemed tiny, like a wooden skiff tossed about in a raging sea.
Worse still, they were almost seven thousand meters underwater. The pressure generated by the violently surging ocean was beyond imagination. Even the anti-gravity system might fail, allowing the pressure to crush the ship flat.
"What's going on? Why is the anti-gravity field expanding?" Captain Darzana Magbaredge demanded sharply.
This could prove fatal.
Expanding the anti-gravity field would force the system into overload. If it collapsed, the tremendous pressure would strike the Deucalion and crush it like an aluminum can beneath someone's foot.
"No, the anti-gravity field hasn't changed," Yuki Kaizuka immediately replied.
She had noticed that the expanding waterless space outside was not being created by the warship. The massive Aldnoah Drive coming online appeared to be projecting a similar field and pushing the seawater away.
"Our depth is changing. Are we rising?" Nina Klein exclaimed from the helm.
Yet the Deucalion showed no sign of ascending. It remained almost perfectly level with the enormous Aldnoah Drive before it.
"The seabed is rising," Darzana realized. "No, the entire landmass of Atlantis is rising!"
"What? Seriously?"
Nina could hardly believe it, but there was no other explanation for what their instruments were showing.
The legendary land of Atlantis was rising from the ocean floor.
Her gaze shifted to the image of Kain activating the massive Aldnoah Drive. When she saw that he was unharmed, she breathed a sigh of relief.
She cared far more about Kain now than she had before.
After all, she had already chosen to become his.
The thought brought back memories of the accident several hours earlier, when she had fallen from the ceiling. Her face immediately began to burn again.
It had been an absurd coincidence. As she fell, the princess's attendant had panicked and grabbed at her clothing, leaving Nina in a mortifying and unexpectedly intimate position with Kain.
While Nina was still too flustered to think clearly, the princess had seriously asked whether she liked him.
If she did, Asseylum suggested that she stop treating the accident as something that had ruined everything. Kain would be willing to accept her feelings.
The question had left Nina even more confused.
Even if Kain was willing to accept her, what about the princess?
Asseylum's answer had made Nina wonder if she was dreaming. She said that they could both be Kain's lovers. The princess admitted, with obvious embarrassment, that she did not want to be the only person standing at his side.
After that, what else was Nina supposed to think?
She had decided to take the leap.
Besides, she really did have feelings for Kain.
The accident had already crossed a boundary she could never entirely forget. Rather than run away from it, she chose to face her feelings honestly.
She had quietly asked Kain what he thought. His answer had been simple: if this was truly her choice, he would not reject her.
That finally swept away Nina's remaining hesitation. No matter how many other people the princess had mentioned, she could worry about regrets later.
"Nina. Nina!"
"Huh?"
"Why are you spacing out? You're the helmswoman. Keep the Deucalion steady," Yuki scolded.
Nina had suddenly gone absentminded, and her face was so red that it was obvious what she had been thinking about.
That girl really was bold.
The princess was equally outrageous. After seeing what had happened to her trusted companion, she had simply invited Nina into the relationship.
Yuki and the princess's attendant had been left with no choice but to flee back into the passageway in embarrassment.
"Right!"
Snapped out of her memories, Nina lowered her head and focused on the helm and the displays.
Under her control, the Deucalion maintained a steady hover ten meters above the rising ground.
She checked the depth gauge. They were still ascending.
Looking toward the other displays, she saw the waterless zone around the landmass continuing to expand, revealing more of the buried city. The exposed structures resembled the ruins of Aldnoah civilization found on Mars.
"Two thousand meters to the surface!"
As the Aldnoah Drive carried Atlantis upward, Nina reported their depth over the communications channel every five hundred meters. Her voice grew increasingly excited with each announcement.
Asseylum, meanwhile, found herself reflecting on how abruptly she had invited Nina into their relationship.
She had assumed that the accident would change Nina's feelings toward Kain in one of two ways.
Either she would fall even harder for him, or she would pull away.
Pulling away did not mean Nina would hate him. Instead, after realizing the true nature of Kain and Asseylum's relationship, Nina might decide that she could never compare to the princess and was not worthy of him.
The accident would still have transformed Nina's feelings toward Kain, but she would be too afraid to approach him and risk intruding on their relationship.
As another woman, Asseylum could imagine how painful that would become.
That was why she had deliberately guided matters toward the other possible outcome.
Of course, she had also explained the circumstances beforehand.
For example, Asseylum and Nina would not be the only ones.
Asseylum had been incredibly nervous when she revealed that, afraid Nina would become angry.
To her surprise, Nina had accepted it without difficulty. Her reasoning was simple: if Asseylum, a princess, could accept it, then Nina had no reason to object.
She had also asked Asseylum a question.
Did she believe Kain was a villain or a hero?
Asseylum had answered with complete sincerity that he was a hero.
Nina had said that was all that mattered. As long as he was not a villain, the rest was her own decision. She would not regret it.
In fact, she even felt that she had come out ahead.
Her smile had been so innocent, slightly foolish, and almost painfully humble that Asseylum could not help feeling guilty.
She cast a faintly resentful look at Kain, who was still activating the Aldnoah Drive beside her.
If he had realized those three were entering the secret passage, he should have stopped and sent them away before continuing.
The thought that they had witnessed such an embarrassing scene made Asseylum want to dig a hole and hide inside it.
In what felt like the blink of an eye, Nina's countdown fell to one hundred meters.
Asseylum looked up. The hundred-meter-thick layer of seawater above them was no longer pitch-black. Sunlight could be seen filtering down from the surface.
The light grew steadily brighter until it suddenly became dazzling, forcing her to raise a hand and shield her eyes.
Once her vision adjusted, she found herself staring across the vast ocean.
"We're still rising!" Nina cried over the communications channel.
It seemed the landmass below was not merely going to float on the ocean's surface.
It was becoming a city in the sky.
At last, the island city came to a stop one thousand meters above the ocean.
Asseylum's eyes widened.
What was that?
"Mr. Kain, over there!"
She tugged at him, and Kain followed the direction of her slender finger.
At one end of the relatively small floating island city stood an unusual platform.
Its structure was identical to the lunar facility he had seen in the records concerning the Moon's Hypergate.
This was clearly another Hypergate.
(End of Chapter)
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