Chapter 76: Meeting the merfolks

"Sir, we have arrived near the trench, but the plane can’t go any further," the pilot suddenly said through the communicator, his voice trembling slightly against the heavy hum of the engines.

"No need to go any further. We will jump from here," Arthur said as he looked below from the reinforced window.

The aircraft was hovering approximately two kilometers away from the abyssal trench. The distance was calculated precisely so that the merfolks lurking in the depths couldn’t launch a surprise long-range attack on the machine. Below them, the surface of the ocean writhed under dark, heavy clouds.

"Everyone be prepared for a hostile reception. Those bastards are arrogant to their bones," Arthur said, his eyes turning exceptionally cold as he unbuckled his safety harness.

Without a second thought, Arthur stepped out of the open hatch, plummeting toward the violent sea below. Behind him, his elite team dropped through the cloud cover. As the wind roared in their ears, Arthur summoned his generals and ordered his four flying generals to assist with the descent.

The demon emperor unfolded four massive wings of shadowy fire that scorched the air, while the angel spread it’s feathers that bathed the sky in sacred shadowy light.

The dragon unleashed a thunderous roar, extending broad scales to break the falling momentum, and the giant butterfly fluttered its iridescent wings, scattering glowing dust that slowed their fall.

Together, the generals caught Arthur and the team, gliding down gracefully toward the water where his massive sea serpent general was already waiting on the surface.

Everyone landed on the thick scales of the sea serpent safely. Arthur patted its cool hide, and the beast let out a low rumble before charging directly toward the trench.

They didn’t need to travel much further before the surface of the ocean buckled. A huge vortex appeared in front of them, spinning violently and threatening to swallow the sea serpent whole. From the center of the roaring whirlpool, two male figures rose above the foam.

"Humans, this is the territory of the Atlantian Empire’s capital. You are not allowed to enter. Leave now and we will let you go," two mermen appeared in front of them, standing atop the swirling water. They held heavy tridents in their hands, crafted from luminous blue metal that pulsed with mana.

Arthur just smiled. He knew why they offered a warning instead of attacking outright. The guards had already felt the terrifying, oppressive aura emanating from his generals and his cousins. They didn’t want to blindly provoke such power.

"We are here to discuss the future of the two races. Take me to your king," Arthur said calmly, stepping to the edge of the serpent’s head.

The two mermen looked at each other, their amphibious eyes flickering with hesitation.

"Are you the leader of the human race? Can you represent the entire race?" they asked curiously. The raw pressure surrounding Arthur’s subordinates was far too overwhelming for them to underestimate him.

"Yes. I can represent the human race myself. What? You won’t welcome us?" Arthur narrowed his eyes slightly, a sharp dangerous light glinting in his gaze.

"Human, don’t be too presumptuous. We are offering this meeting just to make you our vassal. Don’t think that by obtaining this puny power, you can stand on an equal footing with us. Stand here and let our emperor decide if he wants to meet you or not," they said with a sinister, mocking smile on their faces.

Arthur didn’t waste time arguing with them either.

"Go," he muttered quietly under his breath.

At his word, his twelve subordinates moved toward the two guards like a gust of violent wind. Though they couldn’t fly through the air indefinitely like his four winged generals, they could move with enough supernatural speed to use the liquid surface of the water as a hard, solid platform for a short period of time.

The two guards were strong enough to fight level 15 legendary grade warriors with platinum foundations, making them terrifying monsters by human standards. However, the twelve figures rushing them were legendary grade players backed by divine foundations.

Puchi!

A sharp, wet sound echoed across the waves. The two guards didn’t even understand how they died before their armored bodies were sliced apart into red mist and falling debris.

"Move forward," Arthur ordered the sea serpent calmly as it started moving over the bloody water.

Before they could cover another hundred meters, the ocean buckled again. A huge tide appeared suddenly, rising thirty feet into the air. Ten mermen and five mermaids appeared above the huge tide, their scales darker and their weapons far more intricate than those of the gatekeepers. They clearly looked much more powerful and held commanding postures.

"How dare you kill our people? Is humanity declaring war against us?" the leader of the squad roared, his voice carrying through the water with spatial vibrations.

"War? You think a puny race like yours is worthy of a war against us?" Arthur smiled with utter disdain, looking up at them as if they were insects on a windshield.

This entire scene was currently being broadcasted directly to the emergency international meeting that was being held right now in a heavily fortified underground summit hall thousands of miles away. Every world leader, military commander, and powerful individual was watching the live feed with dead seriousness, their hands sweating as they stared at the giant holographic screens.

"What is he doing? Is he really going to cause an all-out war? They are so powerful! Even our strongest players are not a match for their perimeter guards. We shouldn’t have sent such a young fool for these important negotiations!" suddenly a leader stood up, slamming his heavy fist onto the wooden table until the glasses rattled.

Sofia glared at the leader with a cold, ruthless gaze, as if she was looking at a dead person already rotting in a grave. She had decided to stay behind at the summit at the last moment specifically so that she could handle these spineless fools while Arthur took care of the sea.

"If you dare to say another foul word against him, you won’t be leaving from here alive," she threatened coldly, her hand casually resting on the hilt of her blade as black shadows flickered beneath her boots.

"What did you say? Do you want to declare war against our country right here?" the leader sputtered, his face turning pale red, though he refused to back down in front of the other delegates.

"I will say the same thing as him. Declare war? Are you worthy?" Sofia replied, her voice dropping to a whisper that echoed unnaturally around the room.

Boom!

Suddenly the president slammed his fist on the table, the impact cracking the polished mahogany.

"Enough! He is the strongest player in the world. Let him handle the situation. Or do you think you can walk down to the bottom of the ocean and talk with those arrogant people yourself?" he looked at the panicking leader and asked coldly.

"I..." the man opened his mouth, but no words came out. He slowly sank back into his leather chair, trembling under the glares of the council.

"Then shut up. He is strong enough to destroy a nation probably in a month if he feels like it. Just sit and watch," the president of Arvia handled the situation before it could escalate any further, turning his hard eyes back to the live footage.

Back on the open ocean, the merfolk squad atop the massive wave grew tired of Arthur’s condescending attitude.

"Die, humans!" the leader of the merfolk guards barked, thrusting his trident forward.

The fifteen aquatic elites chanted in unison, summoning massive water spears and pressurized jets that tore through the air, tearing up the sea bed and aiming straight for the serpent’s head.

"Water attacks against a god grade sea serpent? How foolish!" Arthur mused silently, shaking his head at their utter lack of tactical awareness.

He casually waved his hand through the open air.

Instantly, the domain of absolute zero appeared around him, expanding in a flash of blinding white light. It was the combined domain of his own magic and his ice-attribute general, causing the temperature across a three-mile radius to plummet violently down below negative 250 degrees Celsius within a fraction of a second.

The entire domain, along with the cresting sea water, the violent spray, and the fifteen powerful merfolks, instantly turned into solid ice popsicles. Their high-tier water attacks all froze mid-air, suspended in the sky like intricate, jagged crystal sculptures sparkling under the pale sun. The ocean surface itself became an endless sheet of pale blue frost, locking the vortex in complete silence.

Arthur stood atop the frozen serpent’s head, his black coat fluttering softly in the newly formed arctic breeze. He casually tapped the frozen arm of the nearest mermaid sculpture with his finger, sending a high-pitched ring through the frozen wasteland.

"Do you wish to go on, or will you have a proper conversation now? Give me an answer within thirty seconds, or everyone dies here right now," Arthur smiled as he said this loudly, his voice reinforced with mana so that it pierced deep through the thick ice and resonated into the dark trenches of the underwater empire far below.