Chapter 819 Tartarus

Kisuke heard Tiamat's self-defeating words and stopped his train of thoughts, "I'd be honored to have you on my team, Tiamat-san. Please take care of me~."

"Those are my words. I have you as our captain, and if the other members are also competent enough, we'll have a real chance in winning."

"So should we call the other remaining members?", asked Sakura.

Curious, Tiamat asked, "And they are?"

"You'll know once they arrive.", but instead of leaving it to Sakura, Kisuke contacted them himself by triggering an alarm system in his previous hideout where they were currently staying and letting them know his current coordinates.

After setting up a barrier that reduces the space and energy fluctuations that leak outside over the room, a Teleportation Circle appeared once again and this time, two familiar figures emerged. Athena with her long and shiny blonde hair and Nyx with her long and jet black hair, both of them wearing attire that matched the modern Human world. But what caught Kisuke's attention was Nyx's prosthetics, 'So she still hasn't fixed that? Or is the limb regrowth still in the stage of infancy? After acquiring my research on souls, Azazel should have been able to develop it. It looks like he focused on strengthening the Sacred Gears more seeing that's one of the trump cards against strong enemies.'

Seeing his face, Athena sighed in relief.

"Oh? I've never expected that you'd be glad to see me, considering our history.", Kisuke commented with a chuckle.

Athena found a place to sit and relaxed her body, "I'm just glad that you didn't attack Olympus like what you'd announced more than a month ago."

Nyx, meanwhile, greeted Sakura, Cleria, and Diehauser, "It has been a while."

Sakura grabbed her hand and led her to one of the seats and said, "It really has been a while. Three months, is it? You two completely hid yourselves and we had no idea why you refused any form of contact from us." Sakura knew what she had done when she first met Kisuke, Yoruichi, and Sona, however, she couldn't stop herself from pitying her and she could even see her past self in her. Because of those reasons, the two of them evidently became closer. Nevertheless, she would never ask for Kisuke's forgiveness on her behalf. Even though she was just following Hades' orders, Nyx still had to redeem herself.

"Something came up and we had to investigate something," Nyx answered with an awkward expression. She didn't want to show her fondness of Sakura in front of her son's inspecting gaze, 'I don't want him to misunderstand.'

But before she let Nyx continue speaking, Athena looked towards the person she didn't know personally and quietly observed them, "I don't think we can speak any further than this. We only came because you finally revealed yourself, but we would like to keep hiding."

"Don't worry about her.", replied Kisuke, "And before anything else, why did you say you're glad that I didn't attack Olympus? Change of mind?"

Athena immediately shook her head, "Of course not. More than ever, I want to take down those who took advantage of the war efforts to kick out Gods that were not in the same faction as them. As of now, they have managed to solidify and centralize their forces."

"But that shouldn't be enough for your concern. It's fine to say it. What sort of trap have they prepared for me?"

Athena hesitated for a bit before saying, "They might have managed to get the cooperation of the Titans, including Typhon and Cronus."

"Titans are?" asked Kisuke.

Nyx answered his question, "Ancient Gods that once aimed for world domination through the destruction of other Mythological Factions. But before they could do any significant damage, Zeus raised a coup and won, sealing them within mount Tartarus. After that event, Zeus became the King of the Olympians."

"The reason why we didn't come contact you because my father suspected that Apollo might have been trying to establish a connection to the prisoners of Tartarus.", added Athena, "But thanks to those three months, we were able to indirectly confirm that Apollo or Hades was able to find the entrance to Tartarus."

Kisuke furrowed his brow and rubbed his chin, "If Zeus was the one who sealed those Gods, couldn't you have asked him about the seal's location?"

"Before I answer that, let me make one thing clear. Tartarus isn't just some isolated space, but a living entity. A being of pure energy. My father even told me that it's as strong as Ophis and Great Red. But compared to those two, Tartarus doesn't have a will of its own and is unthinking. Thanks to these properties, my father and his comrades were able to use Tartarus to seal those powerful Ancient Gods."

"Before letting go of Tartarus within the infinite sea of Dimensional Gap, my father also sealed Tartarus itself so that it'd be invisible for most of the time and change its location periodically. Ever since then, it hasn't been found even once, and even if someone was able to, they'd have to kill Tartararus, who's proven to be immortal to release those inside it before it forcefully teleports itself to another part of the Dimensional Gap."

"And how did you indirectly confirm that they were aware of its location?", Kisuke further asked.

Athena put her hands together and said, "It was actually Nyx's idea."

Nodding at her words, Nyx continued by asking Kisuke, "Remember the poison that I used on you last time?"

"Of course. That's a potent one that I tried recreating but failed due to its materials being too exotic."

"It struck me as strange when Hades told me that those poisons he's concocting were for the Gods. It's too potent and hard to administer. Even then, it's still in active development. And if others were to discover that he's poisoning other Gods which is pretty easy to tell, all sorts of unwanted attention would land on him. It's just too stupid as a countermeasure against his overt enemies, diplomatically, at least."

"It was then that I realized that it might not have been for the Gods but for a very hard to kill being . With that line of thinking, Athena and I tracked some of the key ingredients that are being transferred around on secret routes. Though we failed in tracking where it really goes, we found Cyclops on the way. After making sure of what we'd seen, we retreated."

Tiamat who has been quiet all this time suddenly spoke, "Cyclops... I heard they already disappeared long, long ago."

"Yes. Most of them were sealed along with their masters, the Titans, while the rest were hunted to extinction.", added Nyx.