Outside the windows, the Atntic glowed gold, touched by the dying sun. Clouds shimmered like molten brass, and far below, the ocean mirrored their fire. Inside the cabin, no one spoke. Even Pixel’s usual hum of commentary had gone silent. Each of them sat with their own thoughts, watching the water or their own reflection in the gss. Waiting.

  Ren stood by the window, one hand resting lightly on the curved pane. The cold seeped into his skin. Beneath them — miles of water. And deeper still — secrets. He whispered the word without thinking: ??“Atntis…” His breath fogged the gss.

  “For millennia, we’ve taken it literally. A city swallowed by the sea. A myth of pride and punishment. Atntis… the doomed paradise.”

  From behind him, Sky stirred. She stood, set her tablet aside, and came to stand beside him. For a moment, she didn’t speak. Just watched with him, her expression unreadable. Then she murmured, her voice low and almost conspiratorial: ??“But what if it wasn’t a metaphor?”

  Ren blinked. ??“You mean… Atntis?” ??“No. Ats.”

  Her gaze didn’t leave the horizon. ??“What if Ats wasn’t a man or a god… but something geological?”

  Ren turned slightly, intrigued. ??“Go on.”

  Sky’s voice dropped to a whisper. ??“Ats was said to hold up the sky. But in structural geology… what holds up the Earth?”

  Ren’s brow furrowed. Something was clicking into pce. ??“Basalt,” he said, almost involuntarily.??“Oceanic crust. The Earth’s outer skin rests on a dense basaltic foundation.”

  Sky nodded slowly. ??“Exactly. Ats wasn’t a titan. He was… the rock beneath our feet.”

  Ren’s eyes widened. The thought settled in his chest like a heavy truth. ??“And Atntis? It’s not a sunken city. Not something that fell. It’s something that was hidden.”

  Sky’s voice was quiet, reverent. ??“A void beneath the crust. A hollow sealed away by time and pressure. A vault buried beneath the ocean’s weight.”

  They locked eyes. No need to finish the thought. It was there between them. A world beneath the world.

  Ren spun toward the map console. His fingers flew over the touchscreen, zooming into bathymetric data. ??“Right there—look!”

  His fingertip stopped on a faint scar in the seafloor. ??“Mid-Atntic Ridge. There’s a discontinuity—anomalous trench, right at the coordinate range the Sphere indicated.”

  Sky leaned over his shoulder. ??“That’s… not a rift. It’s not even tectonic.”

  She tapped the data. The depth readouts pulsed. ??“There’s a tunnel. A chamber. A hollow space.”

  Ren stepped back, breathing hard. ??“Atntis isn’t ruins. It’s infrastructure. Something ancient… that was never meant to be found.”

  The light from the screen painted their faces in icy blue. Outside, the sun had nearly vanished. The ocean shimmered like ink. And beneath it— answers. Or something else entirely.

  Ren’s thoughts drifted. He heard his mother’s voice, echoing from long ago: ??“Be careful what you chase, Ren. Some truths don’t want to be uncovered.”

  She had warned him. About obsession. About digging too deep. And yet—he couldn’t stop. Not now. The fire inside him burned too bright. He clenched a fist. No more fear. No more hesitation.

  He turned to Sky. She saw it in his eyes — resolve. The kind that didn’t break easily. ??“We’ll find it,” he said. His voice was quiet, but solid as stone.??“Even if we have to drill through the pnet’s spine.”

  Sky gave a crooked smile. ??“That’s the spirit, Compass.”

  They stood side by side in silence, watching the sea darken below them. And far beneath the twilight waters, the Earth waited to be opened.