Proofreader&Editor: Lotas
"This is exactly why I'm here.
I was lucky to escape from the Trench and make it to this place."
Atlanna looked at Mera with complexity. The little girl who once resembled the Little Mermaid had grown so much. She wondered how her two sons were doing.
"You've been here alone for twenty years?"
Mera couldn't believe it.
Why not leave? The people of Atlantis had long thought their former queen dead, yet here she was, alive and well.
"It's harder to leave this world than to enter it."
Atlanna shook her head. "Without the power of the Trident, it's impossible to return to the surface."
To enter this place, one must escape from the jaws of millions, if not tens of millions, of Trench monsters. To leave, she'd rather face the Trench's encirclement and pursuit ten times over.
At least then, the odds of success weren't zero.
"How did you end up here?"
She had no choice but to flee to the abyssal depths, but what about Mera? Was she also sacrificed to the Trench by Atlantis?
"And who is he?"
She glanced at David beside her.
From this young man, Atlanna felt an immense pressure, as if a small fish in the deep sea had encountered an enormous, unsettling leviathan.
After his arrival, something about the small world she had lived in for twenty years seemed different.
She felt as though she was in the mouth of a massive beast, her life and death hanging on its whim.
"He says there's a Trident of Neptune here, and came to retrieve that treasure.
As for me… I was taken hostage."
Mera cast a surreptitious glance at David, who seemed to be sensing something with his eyes closed, and whispered her response.
"Taken hostage?"
Atlanna frowned slightly, wary of David.
"He's right.
The Trident of Neptune is indeed here."
"Truly here?"
Despite having a premonition upon seeing this strange little world, Mera was still astonished to have it confirmed.
The lost treasure of Atlantis was in the habitat of one of the seven tribes?
Could it be true that this land-dweller always knew where the Trident was but simply chose not to retrieve it?
"No matter his purpose for seeking the Trident.
He won't get his hands on it."
Hearing Atlanna's voice rise slightly, David knew the words were meant for him. He opened his eyes and looked at the mother of the current and future Aquaman.
"The remains of the first king of Atlantis and the Trident of Neptune are guarded by the deep-sea leviathan Carlsen.
It lies behind the waterfall in the canyon."
Atlanna pointed towards the waterfall cascading down the canyon behind the island, her demeanor exuding the poise and grace of a queen.
"Only the true king can claim it."
She not only revealed the Trident's location to David but also assisted him.
However, David had already sensed the Trident, held by the remains of the first king of Atlantis, and the monster behind the waterfall through his grasp of gravity.
"Carlsen, two kilometers in length, with the front half resembling a deep-sea crustacean and the back half sporting tentacles like an octopus."
Its massive size was like an immovable mountain range.
"What does the 'true king' you speak of refer to?"
David asked with apparent interest.
"I'm not sure."
Atlanna's gaze flickered, offering sincere advice: "If you don't have the bloodline of the Atlantean royal family, I'd advise against attempting it."
"Carlsen has killed all who sought the Trident. Its power is beyond your imagination.
Even the king of Atlantis with the Trident in hand was no match for it.
No one can defeat Carlsen."
Over the years, she had made countless attempts, and if not for her pure bloodline of the first king of Atlantis, she would have long been crushed to a pulp under those shadowy tentacles.
Mera choked on her words.
Perhaps the first king of Atlantis never intended for anyone to obtain the Trident.
With the Trident unable to defeat Carlsen, how could one pass the test and claim it barehanded? And if someone could pass the test without the Trident, would they even need it?
"Land-dweller, you've heard it too.
You'd best abandon your ambitions," she said, looking at David.
"Having come all this way, should I really leave empty-handed?"
David smiled.
"A deep-sea leviathan that no one can defeat?
I'd like to give it a try."
He looked beyond the waterfall, his gaze seemingly piercing through it, yet he remained motionless.
"You won't be ridiculed for giving up now, land-dweller."
Mera thought David was hesitating at the critical moment, her heart retreating, a trace of fear on her beautiful face.
"After all, that's Carlsen."
Though Carlsen had been absent for a long time, it remained the nightmare of the Atlanteans, the protagonist of the horror stories told to their children, a terrifying monster that lived in the deep sea and could sink an island with a single strike.
Atlanna's brows furrowed as she looked around, feeling something amiss, the earlier sensation growing stronger as if the invisible colossal beast had stirred.
Hummm!
The air buzzed, an invisible mighty force at work, causing pebbles on the ground to bounce.
Mera stumbled back in surprise.
"Be careful, don't die on me, you're still useful."
David turned to Mera with a smile and slowly rose into the sky.
He had brought Mera here not only to unite Ocean Master Orm and King of Xebel but also for another reason.
Once he ruled Atlantis, he couldn't always stay underwater; someone had to handle affairs in his stead. Orm was certainly not suitable, but Mera was an excellent choice.
"A high and mighty princess, willing to accept a cold political marriage for her country and people, marrying someone she doesn't even like."
A perfect target for threats and control.
"What?"
Mera didn't understand what David was talking about.
Wasn't he going to challenge Carlsen behind the waterfall?
Why was he telling her to be careful?
The next second, Mera got her answer.
Atlanna's pupils dilated, her mind reeling as she looked towards the distant canyon.
Boom!
The earth shook, the waterfall reversed its flow upwards, and the canyon seemed to be torn apart by two invisible colossal hands, the island appearing as fragile as a paper shell about to be ripped in two.
A massive rift was savagely torn open by an unimaginable force, revealing the deep sea on the other side of the island.
Both looked up to see the man in the sky, who seemed like a deity in control of everything, tearing the earth apart with a wave of his hand. The sight was etched deeply into their eyes, stirring up a storm in their hearts, their mouths agape.
Below the deep sea.
A resting leviathan, as if awakened from a dream, suddenly opened its eyes. It looked around, the sea water becoming agitated, an invisible colossal force enveloping it.
Dragging it upwards towards the sea.
Roar!
Carlsen let out an angry roar, the sound waves boiling the entire ocean. It tried to break free from the force, its mountainous tentacles lashing out, blasting tons of water into a void.
Boom!
But the force was omnipresent, impossible to disperse, brutally dragging it from the seabed, parting the towering waves, up to the sea surface.
"Carlsen!"
A shadow as vast as the sky cast darkness over the island. Both watched in shock as the deep-sea leviathan, exposed to the air and struggling in vain, was inevitably pulled from the seabed.
Their gaze returned to the figure in the sky, releasing earth-shattering power.
"God…!"