Dead.
All dead.
The Trench monsters, who had dominated the Trench Kingdom for thousands of years, were utterly silenced by Lothar's single strike.
Dust to dust, ashes to ashes.
Sacrificed themselves to feed the fish and shrimp.
ra stared blankly at the golden, radiant figure, feeling an inexplicable dryness in her mouth. She wanted to drink water. Logically, as an Atlantean princess, she shouldn't lack water...
This was the first ti she had been so profoundly shocked by Lothar's demonstrated power.
The sheer devastation of the sprawling, dark mass of Trench monsters turning to dust in an instant from Lothar's simple strike was far more shocking than rely watching Steppenwolf get beaten up.
At least, for ra, it certainly was.
One was a complete one-on-one annihilation, the other was the destruction of an entire nation. The visual impact of the two was simply not on the sa level.
"Now that the obstacles are gone, how are you going to find the Golden Trident?" Lothar's voice roused ra from her daze.
"I, I an... it should be..."
ra's mind went blank for a mont after snapping out of it, not a single thought forming. "If what you and Woz said is true, then the Golden Trident should be hidden within the Trench Kingdom." She slapped her forehead, finally pulling herself out of the earlier shocking scene.
"But now, here's the problem."
"You destroyed the entire Trench Kingdom, Lothar."
ra, who had studied Atlantean geography, stepped on the fractured plates beneath her feet, looking at the transford terrain.
Comparing it to her mory of where the Trench Kingdom's palace should have been, she found she couldn't match it up anymore.
Arched mountains, shattered canyons, broken suspension bridges... Everything was so unfamiliar.
"You—"
Boom!
A violent explosion, like a sudden clap of thunder, cut ra short. A milky-white vortex gradually ford over the vast expanse of the Trench Kingdom's territory.
"Lee~"
A giant blue and white whale let out a friendly, gentle sound, twisting its imnse body as it swam out of the milky-white vortex, floating before ra, blowing bubbles.
ra: ???
"Lee~"
The giant whale opened its mouth. Right in front of ra, it opened its gaping maw. Lothar naturally threw a punch.
"Wait, Lothar!"
ra, fully aware that the giant whale's life would likely be over with Lothar's punch, imdiately spoke to stop him. For so reason, this giant whale gave her a strange sense of familiarity.
"Lee!"
As if startled by Lothar, the giant whale's cry suddenly beca incredibly sharp and piercing. With a flick of its tail, it seed to disregard all relations.
Thud!
Lothar's descending kick instantly made it obediently lie on the ground, not daring to move.
"Lothar..." ra didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
"Please show rcy, child."
The wronged blue whale, which had been whimpering limply at Lothar's feet, suddenly had tears streaming down its face like a broken dam upon hearing a familiar voice.
"Lee~~"
A high-pitched whale song, filled with grievance. It was exactly like a child eagerly complaining to its parent.
"It ant no harm."
A woman in silver soft armor slowly erged from the vortex. The fatigue written on her face could not conceal the unparalleled grace of her youth and beauty.
"Queen Atlanna?"
ra froze instantly: "Is that really you, Queen Atlanna?"
The forr Queen of Atlantis, Arthur Curry's mother. Queen Atlanna was scorned by the King of Atlantis for her illicit affair with a human from the surface and giving birth to the illegitimate son, Arthur Curry, and was ultimately sent to this place of exile.
"It's been a long ti, ra. In the blink of an eye, you've grown so big."
Atlanna smiled and took ra's hand, her fingers brushing the latter's cheek. mories from the past flooded her mind, adding a touch of sadness. ra had grown so much, but what about her child?
"It really is you!!! This is great!! This is great!!" ra, who had always believed Atlanna had perished in the maw of the Trench, was overco with excitent.
Since childhood, she had traveled back and forth between Atlantis and Xebel.
The forr Queen Atlanna was like a mother figure to her.
When she first learned that Atlanna had been exiled to the Trench Kingdom, she was heartbroken and protested for quite so ti, but unfortunately, she still couldn't change the King of Atlantis's decree.
"Lothar! Co here, quickly. Let introduce you, this is Atlanna, the Queen of Atlantis."
"The exiled Queen?" Lothar frowned, then was lightly nudged on the shoulder by ra.
Lothar: ???
"I'm sorry, Queen Atlanna, Lothar he—"
"No, it's alright. That is the truth, after all."
"Compared to that, ra, what just happened? Where are the Trench mbers?"
Atlanna shook her head. As soone who had "been there," she imdiately understood what ra's small gesture towards Lothar ant.
She was past the age for gossip. What she most wanted to know now was the cause of the recent tremor that had shaken the entire underwater world.
Because she was worried there might still be Trench creatures waiting outside, she had first sent out the blue whale she had tad to scout, only to find it imdiately pinned under Lothar's foot.
Seeing that a good beating was inevitable, Atlanna quickly revealed herself.
"The Trench has completely vanished from this world, starting today."
ra pointed to Lothar, recounting the earlier events in detail, which filled Atlanna's eyes with continuous astonishnt.
This destructive power, no matter how she heard it, seed utterly fantastical. Such a large race, a race that even the other six underwater kingdoms found incredibly troubleso, just... gone?
Are the Trench monsters now extinct?
Most importantly... she was free?
"ra, where are Arthur and his father? Did Atlantis make a move against them?"
Atlanna, having been cut off from information, eagerly sought news about her beloved son and husband from ra.
"No, they didn't. Don't worry, Queen, they are both fine. Atlantis has always honored its agreent with you and hasn't hard them."
"However..." ra hesitated, unsure whether to reveal the other matter.
"However what?" Atlanna imdiately grew incredibly tense.
"Orm is dead."
ra spoke with a solemn expression, but Atlanna's reaction surprised her.
"Orm is dead? Who did it?"
Although her tone was one of concern, compared to her previous level of concern for Arthur and his father, this tone was almost devoid of emotion. It was as if she had just heard that a neighbor's son had died, asking with slight interest.
ra felt a lump in her throat.
Not long ago, Lothar's deductions had completely overturned her long-held perceptions of Atlantis.
Now, she found that Queen Atlanna, who had taught her about "love and peace" in her childhood, didn't seem to embody that supposed "love and peace" herself.
Arthur was her son, so Orm wasn't?
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