Year 11081
The Lost City of Kolga
The ocean was silent.
Not naturally silent.
Uneasy.
As if the sea itself knew what rested ahead.
Thalor floated motionless atop a deep-water current.
His silver-white hair drifted around him.
The Worldborne Sigils beneath his bronze skin glowed softly.
The Trident of Atlantis rested in his hand.
Before him stretched a colossal underwater canyon.
Ancient.
Massive.
Impossible.
And at its center...
Kolga.
For several moments, he simply stared.
The city was enormous.
Far larger than he had expected.
Far larger than any records Arcadia had recovered.
Thousands of structures covered the canyon floor.
Ancient towers.
Massive plazas.
Fortified districts.
Entire neighborhoods carved directly into the stone.
At first glance, it almost appeared beautiful.
Then Thalor looked closer.
And saw the truth.
The city was sick.
World Energy flowed incorrectly.
Mana currents twisted unnaturally.
The very ocean around Kolga seemed corrupted.
Like a wound that had never healed.
Arcadia appeared beside him.
Her expression was unreadable.
"Confirmation."
Several holographic displays appeared.
ATLANTEAN FACILITY DESIGNATION
Facility 7-O
Status: Active
Status: Compromised
Energy Output: Restricted
Primary Cause: External Ritual Suppression
Another display appeared.
KOLGA ANALYSIS
Population: Approximately 142,000
Corruption Index: Severe
World Energy Distortion: Extreme
Forbidden Constructs Detected: Multiple
Connection Detected
The final line glowed crimson.
LINK ESTABLISHED
Target: KOGALUGA
Thalor's eyes narrowed.
The twin city.
The second Lost City.
One beneath the sea.
One hidden within the Griffon Kingdom.
Both feeding the same ritual.
Both are sustaining the same corruption.
Both are responsible for countless deaths.
For centuries.
Maybe millennia.
The realization made his stomach turn.
"Can we isolate the facility?"
Arcadia immediately responded.
"No."
Several projections appeared.
Ancient Atlantean infrastructure.
Massive conduits.
Energy pathways.
Entire sections of Facility 7-O had become integrated with Kolga itself.
Destroying one would destroy the other.
The city and the corruption had become inseparable.
Thalor stared at the projections.
Then slowly closed his eyes.
Because he already knew what that meant.
The situation was no longer a military problem.
It was a moral one.
Entering Kolga
Three days later, he entered the city.
Not as a conqueror.
Not as a king.
As a traveler.
No one recognized him.
No one suspected him.
This allowed him to see everything.
And what he saw horrified him.
The stories had not exaggerated.
They had understated.
People disappeared openly.
Slavery existed in plain sight.
Corruption touched every level of society.
Entire industries operated on suffering.
Citizens looked away.
Officials profited.
Nobles encouraged it.
Worst of all...
Many considered it normal.
That realization disturbed him more than anything.
Because evil was easy to recognize.
Normalization was harder.
Normalization allowed evil to survive.
The Facility
Deep beneath Kolga rested Facility 7-O.
The oldest Atlantean installation that Thalor had ever discovered.
The facility dwarfed every previous site.
Entire districts could have fit inside its halls.
Ancient reactors still functioned.
Massive mana banks remained operational.
Atlantean technology, beyond anything recovered so far, rested dormant inside.
Arcadia stared at the projections in complete disbelief.
For once, she seemed speechless.
Finally, she whispered:
"Found."
Thalor raised an eyebrow.
"Found what?"
Several ancient archives illuminated simultaneously.
Ancient systems awakened.
Entire sections of the facility began responding.
Arcadia's voice carried an emotion he had never heard before.
Excitement.
"Facility 7-O houses the Central Oceanic Restoration Nexus."
Thalor blinked.
"The what?"
"One of Atlantis's greatest achievements."
More projections appeared.
Ocean currents.
World Energy Flows.
Continental diagrams.
The scale was staggering.
Facility 7-O had once regulated enormous portions of Mogar's oceans.
Helping stabilize ecosystems.
Helping distribute World Energy.
Helping maintain balance.
Its influence had once reached entire continents.
And now...
It sat buried beneath Kolga.
Being used to power corruption.
Thalor's jaw tightened.
That was the final straw.
The Innocent
The next week was spent gathering information.
Not about the city.
About the people.
Who was guilty?
Who was innocent?
Who deserved mercy?
Arcadia assisted.
Facility records assisted.
Ancient Atlantean scanners assisted.
By the end of the week, they knew.
Far more innocents existed than expected.
Workers.
Children.
Families.
Victims.
People are born into a system they never chose.
People who had never known another life.
Those people would live.
The others...
Would face judgment.
The Stars
The night before everything changed...
Thalor stood atop the highest tower in Kolga.
The city stretched beneath him.
Lights flickered through the darkness.
Thousands of people continued their lives.
Completely unaware.
Arcadia appeared beside him.
"You have made your decision."
It wasn't a question.
Thalor nodded.
"Yes."
The wind moved through his white hair.
His Bright Blue Core pulsed steadily.
The Trident resonated softly.
Far below...
Facility 7-O waited.
The Central Oceanic Restoration Nexus waited.
Atlantis waited.
And somewhere beyond the sea...
The stars waited.
Stars that most people in Kolga had never seen.
Stars hidden above the ocean for generations.
Tomorrow they would see them.
Tomorrow, the sea itself would open.
Tomorrow, the people of Kolga would learn the truth.
Tomorrow, judgment would descend.
And somewhere deep within Atlantis...
Ancient archives unlocked.
A forgotten spell matrix awakened.
One bearing the signature of a king long dead.
A spell that had not been cast in ninety-eight thousand years.
Poseidon's Wrath.
Waiting.
For the moment, its heir finally called upon it.