Chapter 78: The supreme ruler appeared

The instant Commander Valzer gave the order, thousands of magical ballistas and bioluminescent naval cannons flared with blinding light. Energy beams, pressurized hydro-torpedoes, and enchanted harpoons tore through the pitch-black water, all converging on the exact spot where Arthur and his team stood. The force of the combined barrage was enough to level a mountain range, threatening to crush the tiny bubble of mana into nothingness.

Back in the International Summit Hall, world leaders shielded their eyes or covered their mouths, fully expecting the holographic feed to turn into a crimson cloud of blood and debris.

Arthur did not even blink.

With a casual flick of his wrist, he produced a small, obsidian sphere from his inventory, an item bought from the system shop specifically for underwater combat. He tossed it lightly into the dark water.

The moment the item activated, an astounding phenomenon occurred. A golden light expanded outward with explosive speed, instantly sweeping across a ten-kilometer radius. The device triggered an absolute spatial displacement, violently forcing every single drop of ocean water out of the zone.

The crushing fifteen-kilometer deep water pressure vanished in a fraction of a second, leaving behind a massive, bone-dry vacuum pocket surrounded by an impenetrable, translucent barrier that held the heavy ocean back.

The thousand underwater weapons fired by the merfolk malfunctioned mid-air. Engineered strictly for ocean combat, the specialized projectiles fell limply to the newly formed dry sea floor, useless in the sudden absence of water.

The merfolk soldiers stumbled and writhed in complete shock. They were aquatic beings, reliant on water pressure and marine energy to move and breathe. Deprived of their natural element, their movements became sluggish and clumsy, their gills flapping uselessly in the empty space.

In stark contrast, Arthur’s team now possessed the absolute high ground, standing firmly on the empty space with perfect mobility and unhindered sight. The advantage was completely and utterly overwhelming, and some merfolk soldiers tried to retreat toward the surrounding ocean, only to crash against the spatial barrier.

Before the bewildered merfolk could even comprehend the absurdity of their situation, Arthur stepped forward. Shadow energy surged around his body like a roaring black flame.

He raised his right hand and snapped his fingers.

"Arise," he commanded softly.

The abyss shook. Darkness bled from Arthur’s shadow, spreading across the dry sea floor before bursting upward into a thousand towers of pitch-black smoke.

Out of the shadows emerged one thousand heavy shadow soldiers, clad in terrifying dark armor with glowing purple eyes. Standing at the front of the battalion were ten massive shadow generals, radiating a suffocating aura that dwarfed even the high-tier commanders of the Atlantian army.

The sudden appearance of an elite, disciplined army equalized the numbers instantly, turning what was supposed to be a underwater ambush into a full-scale battle arena.

Arthur folded his arms, entirely unbothered to join the fray himself. He turned to his team and his shadow soldiers with a relaxed expression.

"Clear the trash," Arthur ordered calmly. "Generals, hold back your true power and do not execute your ultimate skills yet. Simply guide the troops and keep an eye on the perimeter."

The ten shadow generals bowed deeply in unison before taking their command posts. Though restricted from unleashing their full destruction, their strategic guidance made the shadow soldiers ten times more lethal.

A brutal, merciless slaughter began.

Arthur’s ten cousins, all top-tier players in their own right, moved with terrifying synergy. Chris, the team formation master, immediately stepped forward and slammed his staff into the ground.

A bright green pentagram expanded beneath the team, casting a powerful five-time amplification buff on everyone for three minutes. Power surged through their veins, causing their weapons to gleam with devastating magical energy.

Victor, the battle master, closed his eyes for a microsecond as his unique passive skill activated. His mind mapped out the entire battleground instantly, predicting every attack vector, enemy movement, and structural weakness seconds before they happened.

"Noah, attack the left flank three paces ahead. Irin, fire magic concentrated on the upper brigade now," Victor shouted, his voice ringing clearly across the vacuum dome.

Noah, the strongest among the ten cousins and an elite assassin, melted into the shadows like a ghost. He reappeared behind a squad of merfolk commanders, his dual daggers flashing in silver arcs. Before the guards could turn their heads, their life bars plummeted to zero, their bodies collapsing onto the dry ground.

Beside him, Irin, a supreme fire magus, unleashed devastating firestorms. Unhindered by water, her flames burned brighter and hotter, vaporizing clusters of merfolk who were already struggling to move without their aquatic support.

The rest of the team displayed equally terrifying combat prowess. The magic sword master slashed through heavy armor as if it were paper, the knight stood as an immovable wall blocking all incoming counterattacks, and the ice magus froze the air around the panicked enemies.

Even Arthur’s personal butler joined the defense.

Sebas the earth mage, manipulated the seabed beneath the merfolk, creating massive stone pillars that crushed enemy formations from below.

Anastasia, the team cook, used her flame manipulation to roast any stray monsters that tried to sneak up on their position. Meanwhile, Laura, the team healer, maintained a golden aura over the entire party, ensuring that any minor scratches were instantly restored to full strength.

Yet the most horrific element of the fight for the Atlantian army was the shadow soldiers themselves.

These were not ordinary undead summoned by low-tier necromancers. Every single shadow soldier was a self-detonating nuclear monster.

Whenever a shadow soldier took critical damage or was encircled by a group of merfolk, it would detonate in a blinding, mushroom-shaped explosion of dark energy. The blasts tore through the enemy ranks, killing hundreds of merfolk warriors in a single second.

And whenever a shadow soldier fell, Arthur simply replenished them instantly using his near-bottomless mana pool. The shadow army was completely immortal, endlessly reforming from dark smoke to continue the slaughter.

The Atlantian soldiers slowly realized that killing the shadow soldiers was meaningless. Every fallen monster returned, while every explosion weakened their own formations. Panic spread from the front lines to the rear, and disciplined military formations began collapsing into desperate groups.

The battle raged on for ten agonizing minutes. What was meant to be a trap for humanity turned into an absolute, one-sided meat grinder.

Crimson blood stained the dry, gray seabed, and the ground was littered with broken spears, shattered weapons, and fallen soldiers. Out of the thousands of elite merfolk warriors that had ambushed the group, nearly eighty percent were wiped out in less than a quarter of an hour.

Commander Valzer watched the carnage in absolute horror, his face pale and his body trembling as he realized the horrifying mistake he had made. He had believed the ocean itself would guarantee victory, but Arthur had turned that very advantage into a prison for his army.

Back in the International Conference Hall, the silence was absolute. Every single head of state, military general, and delegate was standing on their feet, staring at the holographic projection in utter disbelief.

They were witnessing a single player’s faction eradicate a high-tier legendary army fifteen kilometers under the ocean floor, completely defying the laws of physics and gaming logic.

"Oh my god. He can literally destroy a nation. It is no longer a hypothesis anymore," the president of Arvia muttered under his breath.

A cold sweat dripped down his temple, but deep down, a swell of immense relief washed over him as he remembered that his government was on good terms with Arthur and his shadowy legion.

Down in the vacuum domain, the fight was drawing to its natural conclusion when the air violently trembled. The translucent barrier holding back the ocean began to spider-web with massive, glowing cracks.

Arthur’s expression remained calm, but his eyes narrowed slightly. The pressure coming from beyond the barrier was fundamentally different from the attacks of the ordinary merfolk.

Boom!

A single, colossal fist smashed through the barrier from the outside. The ten-kilometer spatial dome shattered like fragile glass, and the monstrous ocean water, carrying millions of tons of pressure, roared back into the zone.

The sudden influx of rushing water threatened to crush everything in its path, but before the torrent could touch his companions, Arthur raised his hand and cast a flawless, multi-layered protective barrier around his team and cousins, shielding them completely from the incoming force.

The water cleared, revealing a tall, colossal figure standing at the center of the ocean floor. The new arrival radiated a terrifying, suffocating aura, far surpassing Valzer or any commander present.

His body was covered in pitch-black scales, and a crown of ancient coral rested upon his head. The true power of the Atlantian Empire had finally arrived on the field.

For several seconds, neither side moved. The remaining merfolk immediately lowered their weapons and bowed toward the newcomer, their expressions filled with fear and reverence. Even Valzer lowered his head, his earlier arrogance completely gone.

Arthur stood on his serpent general, looking down at the legendary underwater ruler with a faint, amused smile playing on his lips.

"You finally showed up. I was getting bored," Arthur said, his voice light and completely unbothered by the arrival of the supreme ruler.