Chapter 127: Arthur the Atlantean

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71% of the Earth's surface was water-covered, and all the oceans were covered. Moreover, some places in those oceans could go as deep as several kilometers deep.

So finding something within this ocean, no matter it's size, was an extremely difficult matter.

Still, Fury had classified this thing as huge trouble, so Edward decided to give it a go. Moreover, it somewhat aligned with his goals as he wanted to train his Concepts while searching for a way to strengthen his soul.

For now, his Space Concept had reached the peak, and so he had the Time, Earth, Water, Fire, Air, Sword and Spear Concepts to work on.

For the Sword Concept, Edward didn't really care, he didn't use the sword anymore, maybe he would think about it later. As for the Time Concept, Edward had found some time ago that Space and Time seemed to be a notch stronger than the other Concepts, also making them harder to comprehend.

So it was a good thing he had managed to push his Space Concept to the peak, but without a similar opportunity, it would take a while to comprehend Time.

As for the Spear Concept, it was something he trained by practising with the Spear every day, and couldn't really be rushed, other than by fighting.

So Edward decided to spend time on the four Elemental Concepts, and exploring the ocean would allow him to study the Water Concept.

Edward found a few interesting things in the oceans, especially in the depth, in particular some animals that would make those on the surface panic if they knew of their existence.

Of course, before Edward, those beasts weren't really any different from a bunch of fishes.

And they didn't even want to attack him anyway. Edward's Royal Aura influenced humans to make them more agreeable to what he said, and the effect was even greater on animals of lesser intelligence, who mainly lived by instincts.

Actually, the stronger a living being's instincts, and the stronger the influence of Edward's Royal Aura would be. So Edward was able to observe the different lifeforms peacefully, allowing him to better understand how these lifeforms interacted with water.

However, after this week of searching, Edward did find something, not in the ocean though, but at home. While Edward was having dinner with his family, the news anchor, who didn't show any special facial expression, stopped talking abruptly.

Then, for a second, as if to confirm what he heard in his ear piece, he remained silent, before showing great shock. Finally, he looked into the camera, nervously cleared his throat, and announced, "Grave news have reached us.

"Today, at three pm, one of our country's nuclear submarines, the USS Nevada, was assaulted by an unknown enemy, alongside with another secret ship."

The anchor frowned, and added, "The crews of both ships have disappeared, as well as the weapons they were carrying… meaning an unknown person or most likely, group, is holding a nuclear weapon, as well as an experimental weapon of our Army."

The anchor gave out some more information, and meanwhile Donna asked, "It's strange, isn't it? They usually don't say those things, right?"

Donna nodded, and Edward said, "It's because the world has changed. The power of Supers may help in finding the weapons, so the government put aside their pride and spread the news… There's definitely something fishy, for them to damage their reputation like that."

Diana frowned, and asked, "Do you think they are trying to put this theft on you?"

Edward shook his head and replied, "Although there will always be people to make baseless theories, the masses should understand that I am much more dangerous than any nuclear weapon, so pinning the theft on me would be stupid. Instead, I think they want to draw someone out, probably me, but maybe someone else too."

Actually, Edward had a hunch that it really was him, and it relieved him. If he put together every piece of information he had received recently, the big trouble Fury talked about was probably the thief of the nuclear weapon and the experimental weapon.

The American government probably knew who attacked them too, and probably thought of either dealing with the threat that was the big trouble in the Atlantic, or deal with him using the trouble. No matter what, if Edward and the thief faced against each other, they could only benefit.

But what relieved Edward was that for them to pull such a move, it meant they were unaware of Fury telling him about it, and him searching for the thief for the past week already.

Of course, there was still the possibility of this being a plot aiming to exactly make him think Fury had kept the secret from them, but Edward decided to believe in the spy. It would be rather foolish of him, whom had witnessed his power, to make an enemy out of him.

Not out of personal interest, but Fury should understand that if pushed to his limits, Edward would be a far greater danger to the United States than any monster. For a man who could teleport anywhere he wanted, bombing cities across the country was easy, and stealing said bombs as well.

Anyway, the theft of a nuclear bomb was an important matter, and so was the experimental weapon, for it to be mentioned in the same capacity as the first weapon.

So Edward soon returned to the ocean, to search for the thief. What he didn't expect, was to find something interesting less than 24 hours later.

While several kilometers underneath the sea, Edward was watching a bunch of jellyfishes peacefully swimming around him, illuminating the surroundings with their bioluminescence, when Edward felt something enter his Chi Sense.

There were actually two presences, one was a strong lifeform, Diana level, while the other was an artefact.

The artefact suddenly sped toward Edward at great speed, but he did not feel any hostility, only the same feeling of respect Edward could feel from the average lifeform.

The artefact quickly reached him, and Edward discovered it to be a spear. More precisely, a trident.

Edward stretched out his hand, and the trident came to lodge itself in his palm. As he handled the trident, Edward felt it was a very powerful weapon, about as strong as Aeglos overall. The piercing power was lesser, but this trident had other abilities to make up for it.

The strong presence quickly followed after the trident though, and revealed themselves to be a man. Blond, dressed in a yellow fish scales armor. He was looking at Edward with some hostility and curiosity as he arrived, but once he saw his face, his hostility instantly disappeared, leaving place for even more wonder.

Edward stroked the trident lightly, before releasing it as it flew back toward the man. He then formed a bubble of air around them, and asked, "If I'm not wrong, then this most be Atlan's Trident… you must be the King of Atlantis then?"

The man shook his head though, and replied, "I am not the King. I'm Arthur. If I may ask, what are you doing here? And what was that with the trident?"

Edward smiled and said, "No need to fear, the Trident is yours, I don't want to steal it. As for what I'm doing, you may be able to help me… I heard a giant thing crashed into the ocean last week, and I'm searching for it to ascertain what kind of threat it is."

Arthur raised an eyebrow and revealed, "I don't know if it's what you're searching for, but recently different kinds of animals have been disappearing in an area, and I was heading there. Do you want to come with me?"

Edward thought about the question for a moment, before nodding. There wasn't any harm in following him, he might really find his target, and even if he didn't, it wouldn't hurt to form some ties with an Atlantean, especially one who wielded Atlan's Trident.

Speaking of which, Edward found it truly curious he could wield the trident despite not being a king. Kamar-Taj didn't only have spell books, they also had books containing knowledge about pretty much every place on Earth, and some of the more powerful artefacts.

Atlan was the first king of Atlantis, and his trident was a legendary item that passed down from one king to another, being both a great source of power, as well as a representation of their status.

So for someone else than the king to have the trident, it would be like for someone else than the Queen of the United Kingdom to wear the Crown Jewels of the United Kingdom.

Edward didn't ask about it though, the man didn't seem to want to talk about it, and they didn't know each other.

As the two swam away together, Arthur kept his speed rather slow at first, it was already surprising enough for a man to be so deep in the ocean, so he didn't expect him to be very fast.

But as they swam, Arthur noticed Edward was easily keeping up, so he slowly went faster, until he reached his cruise speed, his fastest comfortable travelling speed in the ocean.

And much to his shock, Edward still looked at ease as the water around him propelled him forward, much like how his trident was doing for him.

This was quite shocking for Arthur, but that was a good thing. Now travelling much faster than before, the two didn't take long to reach their destination, in the North part of the Mid Atlantic Ridge.

At their depth, light had completely disappeared, but Arthur's trident started emitting a powerful light, illuminating the surrounding few kilometers, and yet the light didn't hurt the eyes.

Rather than being a light source, the trident made everything emit some light, thus lighting up the abyss.

There were a few lifeforms in their surroundings, but the bottom of the ocean was mostly bare. Surviving at this depth was quite difficult after all, even after years of evolution.

But as they looked at the surroundings, both Edward and Arthur's eyes locked onto the same spot.

The entrance of a giant cave was there, and a few starfishes were coming in and out. This was very strange, because there was no way for a starfish to be able to survive at this depth. At least, not those kinds.

As the two approached, and the entrance of the cave entered Edward's Chi Sense, his face changed, but before he could say anything, a shocking scene took place before them.

A starfish left the cave, and seemed to have spotted them as it quickly swam toward them. But as it came closer, it also grew in size, and in a couple of seconds each of it's limbs were ten meters long, and still growing.