Chapter 315: The Sea People Make Their Move

Just as Batman and the others began preparing their next move against Jovian, an uprising was already taking place beneath the ocean.

King Orm stood before an enormous gathering, weeping bitterly as tears streamed from his eyes. Countless Atlanteans and rulers from the other undersea kingdoms had assembled below him.

After crying for some time, Orm picked up a microphone and spoke with a pained expression.

"Everyone, I'm sorry. I'm truly sorry. I..."

"I want to remain strong, but I just received word that my beloved brother has been murdered by those vile surface-dwellers!"

"The pain is unbearable! All of you know that Arthur, my mother's firstborn son and my own older brother, was the rightful heir to the throne! He was the true Lord of the Seas! He was the chosen one, the man destined to rule the Seven Seas!"

"But..."

Orm collapsed to his knees before the podium. Although his face appeared consumed by grief, his eyes were filled with hatred.

"But those damned surface-dwellers killed him! Someone has murdered our rightful king! Tell me, what should we do to them?"

"Kill them!"

"Kill them!"

"Kill them!"

"Kill them!"

The entire underwater kingdom erupted into a frenzy. Countless Atlanteans roared furiously, clutching their tridents as murderous light flashed in their eyes.

"Before you all, I hereby proclaim my brother, Arthur Curry, the one true Lord of the Seas!"

"And as long as I fail to avenge my brother, I will never consider myself a true king! I will remain unworthy of this throne!"

Orm raised his trident high.

"Until my brother has been avenged, allow me to temporarily assume the duties of king and rule the oceans in his place!"

"We will annihilate humanity and avenge my brother, Arthur Curry, the great Lord of the Seas!"

"Yeah!"

"Long live King Orm!"

"Long live King Orm!"

"Long live King Orm!"

The Atlanteans loudly chanted Orm's name. In their hearts, a man as loyal and devoted to his family as Orm was unquestionably the most suitable person to inherit the throne.

"Thank you! Thank you, everyone!"

Orm left the podium and entered the royal chariot waiting nearby.

The moment he stepped into the shark-drawn carriage, his expression changed completely.

"Oh my God! Ever since I learned that I had a damned older brother, I've never been as happy as I am today!"

"Thank you, my magnificent brother! You've transformed me into the great hero of the oceans! I'll never disappoint you!"

"By Poseidon, the oceans will prevail!"

There was no trace of Orm's earlier despair. He laughed loudly and joyfully.

Ever since he had learned that he possessed a wretched, lowborn older brother, there had not been a single day when he had truly smiled. He had been furious and had despised Arthur with every fiber of his being.

But now he had to praise his brother.

Arthur's death had given him the perfect excuse to wage war against the surface.

No matter what else could be said about that idiot, half the blood flowing through Arthur's body had come from the ocean.

For the sake of that Atlantean blood alone, Orm was obligated to invade the surface and avenge him.

Besides, Orm had hated those surface-dwelling creatures for a very long time.

Sitting inside his chariot, King Orm imagined himself becoming the ruler of the land.

No, more accurately, he imagined the land being completely swallowed by the oceans and transformed into a new underwater realm.

With the unification of the underwater civilizations, seas throughout the world began to churn violently.

The phenomenon was particularly severe in the waters surrounding the United States.

"What's happening to the ocean?"

That question was now being asked throughout the world.

Marine animals had become unusually aggressive, and the sea itself no longer seemed welcoming. People were constantly being killed near the coast by unidentified creatures.

No one knew what kind of beings were responsible for the deaths.

"There is something I must explain to everyone."

"We humans proudly call ourselves the rulers of Earth, but unfortunately, we can only claim to be the dominant organisms on its surface. We have no right to call ourselves the masters of the entire planet."

"The truth is that Earth, especially its oceans, remains almost completely unknown to us. We have explored less than five percent of this vast marine environment. The remaining ninety-five percent is still uncharted, and we have no idea what may exist within those unexplored regions."

An expert sat across from the television hosts and spoke confidently.

"Are you suggesting that the oceans may contain creatures that humanity has never discovered?"

The interviewer sitting opposite the expert looked at him curiously.

"Heh."

"There's a slight problem with your question. It isn't merely possible that the ocean contains creatures we've never discovered. It's certain."

"Please remember, I'm not saying it might be true. I'm saying it is definitely true. This planet unquestionably contains species that remain completely unknown to humanity. I'm one hundred percent certain of that."

The expert's answer silenced the entire studio.

Everyone stared at him without speaking.

"Look at it this way. Before Mr. Jovian flew into the sky, we didn't even know that humanoid beings capable of unaided flight existed!"

"Wouldn't that qualify as the discovery of a new species?"

Noticing the awkward silence, the expert quickly offered a humorous comparison.

"Hahahaha!"

The atmosphere in the studio immediately became much more relaxed, and everyone began laughing.

"So what do you think these creatures attacking people from the ocean might be?"

The host continued questioning the expert.

"Hmm..."

"Personally, I think they might be some kind of undersea people."

"Think about it."

"If Jovian can fly through the sky, then there's no reason someone else couldn't breathe beneath the ocean, right?"

The expert considered the question before giving his answer.

"You mean humanoid creatures similar to Jovian?"

The host froze. She felt as though she might have accidentally asked a rather sensitive question.

"Could they be mermaids?"

One of the other guests' eyes lit up. She had finally found an opportunity to join the conversation.

"No, no."

"They wouldn't necessarily resemble humans. The deep ocean is a dark and unforgiving environment. Any species living down there may have completely abandoned anything resembling our standards of beauty."

"Their appearance may have evolved in an uncontrolled and savage direction. We mustn't romanticize them. They could very easily be hideously ugly!"

The expert quickly waved his hands.

He had never said these creatures would be beautiful. If the beings eventually appeared and turned out to be ugly, his credibility would be ruined.

"What do you think they would look like?"

"Something like this?"

The host displayed an illustration of a traditional mermaid, a beautiful human woman from the waist up with a fish's lower body.

"No, no. It wouldn't necessarily look anything like that!"

"To function in the deep ocean, the upper body would either need to be extremely flexible or incredibly durable. It certainly wouldn't look like this."

The expert answered with absolute confidence.

"More like this?"

The host paused before digitally replacing the mermaid's beautiful upper body with a grotesque monster.

"Yes, something along those lines."

"Also, I don't think the lower body would necessarily resemble a fish. They might have legs like humans, allowing them to walk on land."

"They would probably also possess specialized organs that allow them to move through water at tremendous speeds."

Following the expert's instructions, the host continued altering the image until a hideous monster appeared on the screen.

"Yes, that's probably close."

The expert examined the creature from top to bottom and nodded.

With the expert's endorsement, the grotesque image rapidly spread throughout the world.

Elsewhere, inside a police station across the Atlantic, a successful businessman wearing an expensive suit spoke nervously to two officers.

"I saw a mermaid!"

"Did it look like this, Mr. Lewis?"

After hearing his account, the two officers began drawing on a sheet of paper.

"No, it didn't look anything like that!"

"I said it was a mermaid! Haven't you ever seen one before? I'm talking about the beautiful kind!"

Mr. Lewis stroked his beard and stared at them in exasperation.

"Mermaids can't possibly look beautiful. The expert said they would look like this monster."

One of the officers shook his head, insisting that beautiful mermaids did not exist.

"Exactly. That's what the expert said."

The second officer nodded in agreement.

"And he was an American expert!"

As though that made his claim even more credible, the officer placed particular emphasis on the expert's nationality.

"You two..."

"Fine! I've told you what I saw!"

Mr. Lewis grabbed his coat and stormed out.

"Hahahaha!"

Shortly after he left, laughter echoed throughout the police station.

"Were you two just laughing at me?"

After hearing them, Mr. Lewis returned and questioned the officers.

"What are you talking about, Mr. Lewis? We've received professional training. We normally never laugh at witnesses."

One of the officers raised an eyebrow.

"Unless we can't help ourselves."

The other officer added the final line.

"You two have gone too far!"

Furious, Mr. Lewis turned and left the police station again.

"Hahahaha!"

The moment he disappeared, laughter once again erupted from inside.

Meanwhile, Jovian had finished patrolling his city and was preparing to leave the office when a stream of water suddenly shot toward him and wrapped itself around his wrist.

"You had better give me an explanation!"

A beautiful woman slowly emerged from the shadows. She wore a dark green combat suit and a crown, while long red hair flowed down her back.

"My dog stepped on a bee?"

Jovian raised an eyebrow as he looked at Mera, who was still at the height of her beauty, and uttered the strange sentence.

Mera froze, confusion appearing in her eyes.

"I said I heard that your dog stepped on a bee."

Jovian repeated the question.

"I don't have a dog."

Mera shook her head. She had never liked keeping dogs.

"You're not planning to shit in my bed and blame it on the dog, are you?"

Jovian continued questioning her.

"What the hell are you talking about?!"

Mera glared furiously at him.

Streams of water gathered around her in response to her anger.

"Heh."

Jovian sneered and casually drifted over to her.

"So what exactly do you want from me?"

"You killed Arthur! Now the entire ocean is in chaos! Orm is spreading the news everywhere, and the undersea kingdoms are preparing to invade the surface!"

"I don't know whether you understand how serious this is, but the surface world is about to be destroyed!"

"They're building a terrifying machine capable of creating tsunamis. Its power could return Earth to the state it was in billions of years ago, completely covered by the ocean!"

"Is that what you want to see?"

"Huh, you bastard whom countless surface-dwellers call the God Among Men?"

Mera strode directly up to Jovian, seized his tie, and shouted angrily into his face.

"Technically, I didn't kill your Arthur."

"He came here to kill me, and I killed him in self-defense."

Jovian shrugged.

He gently pushed Mera away, walked over to the nearby bar, and took out a glass.

"Would you like something to drink?"

Jovian looked at Mera.

She remained silent.

Mera pointed one finger toward the bar behind Jovian. A bottle instantly shattered, and the alcohol inside floated through the air before pouring itself into the glass in Jovian's hand.

"An interesting ability."

Jovian offered her the full glass.

"Glug, glug, glug."

"That's everything I can tell you."

"War is about to begin."

"What you do about it is your problem."

Mera drained the entire glass in a single gulp and turned to leave.

Her steps immediately became unsteady. After staggering forward several paces, she turned around and gave Jovian one last vicious glare.

Then she collapsed onto her ass and lost consciousness.

"You can't handle alcohol, yet you insisted on drinking."

Jovian shook his head as he looked down at Mera.

"The Atlanteans are preparing to invade the surface."

"Interesting."

With that thought, Jovian picked Mera up, slung her over his shoulder, and carried her toward his office.

At the same time, he began waiting.

He was waiting for the senior officials of the United States to come and beg him for help.

Several hours later, not long after Mera had arrived from the ocean to warn the surface, Jovian received a telephone call from an American general.

"Jovian, there's something we need your help with."

The general's voice was dry and strained.

"What happened, my dear General?"

Jovian sat inside his office in an excellent mood.

"Just moments ago..."

"Every nuclear weapon and warship in our country was disabled!"

"Our nuclear submarines, aircraft carriers, and every maritime detection system we possess have completely stopped functioning!"

"We've exhausted every method available in an attempt to discover the cause, but we've found nothing. Therefore..."

The general's meaning was obvious.

They wanted Jovian to intervene and investigate what had happened.

"I'm sorry."

"I don't have time to investigate who destroyed the weapons you use to invade other countries."

"My responsibility is to preserve world peace, not help you wage wars."

Jovian immediately hung up.

"Hahaha..."

"The game has only just begun."

Jovian chuckled.

He had no interest in the general's request. They expected him to work for them after offering nothing more than a few words.

They had shown no sincerity whatsoever.

//Check out my P@tre0n for 10 extra free chapters //[email protected]/Razeil0810