Eight years after successfully constructing the Great Machine and preventing the Dark Sun from destroying the earth, Jack West Jr. has retired to his farm in Western Australia.

While his adopted daughter Lily—now a twenty-year-old college student—is visiting him, he is called to the Pine Gap military installation to consult on an unusual anomaly detected by its top secret telescopic array.

Between each round, the champions are given the opportunity to recuperate, and West is approached by Iolanthe Compton-Jones, a member of the British royal family who reveals that the Hydra Games are being run by the four kingdoms that have secretly ruled the world for millennia.

Unsatisfied with the progress of humanity, it releases a rogue galaxy every few thousand years to destroy large swathes of the universe and start over.

West also discovers that one of Hades' sons, Dion, intends to usurp his father's position and forcibly marry Lily while his brother Zaitan completes the ritual and passes the knowledge onto him.

The royals are horrified at this sacrilege, but before they can react, the temple is attacked by hordes of Neanderthals dressed as minotaurs, having been inspired by West's saving E-147.

Having realized that Hades was the only royal who was not taking part in the Hydra Games for his own personal gain, West convinced him to join in the next stage of the quest: locating three lost cities that contain the knowledge needed to prevent the Omega Event.