Sorrento quickly returned to the Undersea Temple, heading straight for the great central pillar of the Sea Emperor's temple where Poseidon's reincarnated body rested.
For some reason, every Mariner he passed gave him strange looks. A few even looked like they wanted to say something but held back. The whole atmosphere felt off.
Was it because of Athena on his shoulder? These Mariner grunts had probably never seen a god in their lives.
Only the Seven Sea Generals were qualified to meet Lord Poseidon. These country bumpkins should be grateful they got to see a goddess at all.
"Sorrento, what are you still doing here?" A furious shout jolted Sorrento out of his thoughts.
It was another Sea General—
The most hot‑tempered of them, Sea Horse Baian.
"As you can see, I just finished carrying out Lord Poseidon's orders," Sorrento replied, giving Athena, slung over his shoulder, a little shake.
Strangely, despite being a main god like Poseidon, Athena still hadn't woken up from his "Requiem of the End of Death." Maybe it was because she hadn't fully awakened and her divine power hadn't recovered yet? Still, it was odd. How could a little girl like Athena be this heavy?
"Sorrento, what nonsense are you spouting? Lord Poseidon told you to invite Athena here, and you're lugging around a rock?" Baian sounded like he'd just heard the funniest thing in the world.
A rock? What rock? Sorrento was clearly carrying Athena. Was this guy joking?
Frowning, Sorrento swung the bundle off his shoulder and thrust it toward Baian. "Open your eyes and take a proper look. This is clearly… what? Why is it a rock?"
He stared hard—and cold sweat instantly broke out all over him. He wasn't carrying Athena at all, but a chunk of reef heavily corroded by seawater.
Had he really been hauling a rock around this whole time? Wait… then where was Athena?
"Damn it! The Undersea Temple has been infiltrated!" Sorrento shouted in horror.
As for Athena—Saori—she had actually fallen under Ikki's Illusion Demon Fist the moment Sorrento launched his musical attack.
From the time they entered the sea realm to the very end, Sorrento had been trapped in illusion.
He had not only "escorted" Meruem and the others safely into the sea realm, he had also managed to make a complete fool of himself.
One could easily imagine the scene if Sorrento had really walked up to Poseidon holding a rock. No matter how much Poseidon valued him, he would probably have smashed his face in with one slap.
In a twisted way, Baian had actually just saved Sorrento's life.
Right now, Saori was wandering around the Undersea Temple with Meruem and the remaining Saints.
As for Hilda and the others, even though Poseidon had tricked them badly, they didn't dare go to war with the Mariners. Why? Because Poseidon was very much alive. Their own god Odin, by contrast, was nothing but a lingering soul, and the Celestial Palace still had its greatest enemy, Loki, lurking nearby.
Loki was always eyeing the Celestial Palace like a hungry wolf—the true mortal threat to the Norse realm. As for everything else, including the hit they'd taken from the sea realm this time, the Celestial Palace could only swallow its anger.
Once Meruem returned the Odin Cloth, they promptly withdrew and swore never again to stand against the Sanctuary.
For most of the Saints, this trip to the Undersea Temple was a novelty.
The sea realm was very different from the Underworld. Hades attacked the Sanctuary every two hundred years or so, like clockwork, but the sea realm was far less predictable—sometimes it would remain dormant for centuries, even millennia, rivaling Ares and his Berserker legions in inactivity.
Among the Saints present—Shura and Deathmask included—even the Underworld's Eight Prisons under Hades, the Sanctuary's greatest foe, were places few of them had seen, let alone the Undersea Temple. It was truly like Grandma Liu entering the Grand View Garden—everything was new and astonishing.
Probably only Meruem regarded the Undersea Temple with utter indifference. For him, this wasn't even "revisiting an old haunt."
He'd come here countless times in the past to gather Orichalcum from Poseidon for Cloth‑forging.
To Meruem, the Undersea Temple was more familiar than the Sanctuary, where he hadn't been for very long.
"Those big, black, thick pillars over there are the Main Pillars that support the Undersea Temple. Legend says each one holds up a section of the oceans above, and if a pillar is destroyed, the corresponding sea collapses. But that's nonsense. In simple terms, those pillars are just like the Twelve Temples in the Sanctuary. Another rumor claims that if the pillars fall, the entire Undersea Temple will crumble. That's not true either. What actually supports this place is Poseidon's divine power, not those big, hard columns. As long as Poseidon wishes it, the pillars can restore themselves at will." Leading the Saints toward the center of the temple, Meruem casually explained some of the sea realm's secrets.
He had long since experienced the Seven Sea Generals, so he had no interest in seeing them again.
Meruem intended to wrap up the Sea Emperor incident quickly. Ever since discovering that Yama existed in this world, a bad feeling had been hanging over him.
Even though he had made many preparations in the Saint Seiya world, the ultimate top‑tier forces here were still the gods. Without the rosary sealing him, Yama would absolutely reappear.
His goal was to remove the seal his own brother had placed on him. If he managed to do that and reclaim his divine power, he would instantly become the most terrifying being in the Saint Seiya world—without question. Being the younger brother of the Primordial God was no joke.
Compared to Saturn in Saint Seiya Ω, who turned people into stone, Yama was the one who truly treated humans as nothing more than toys.
He would lock time into an endless loop, make people immortal yet unaging, forcing his chosen puppets to live for hundreds of years. Then, just as they were about to finally be freed, he would turn them to dust in an instant, letting them wither away all at once. To him, all beings were pieces on a board, dancing strictly to the script he had written.
That was what a truly vile god looked like.
If Yama could manipulate a Goddess of Discord today, he could produce a Goddess of Fate tomorrow. The Saint Seiya world had no shortage of gods coveting the earth.
On the surface alone, the Twelve Olympians already included Ares, Venus, Poseidon, and Hades. Add to that the previous sun god Abel and the Holy Demon Angel Lucifer, whose power surpassed Abel's.
Then there were the enigmatic, morally ambiguous Apollo and Artemis.
In short, aside from Athena, any god could end up as a pawn of Yama's.
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