"Your Majesty... every surface nation has refused to support us."
The elder paused before delivering the final words.
The old king stared at him in disbelief.
"How is that possible?"
There were countless rulers on the surface.
How could all of them agree unanimously?
Even Atlantis itself struggled with internal opposition despite having only a single king. Nobles and elders constantly argued against royal decisions.
Yet sohow the entire surface world had reached the sa conclusion.
Another elder activated a projection.
The image of Drex Valen appeared in the center of the chamber.
Atlantis possessed technology far beyond humanity's in many areas. Drex still found it mildly ridiculous that isolationist civilizations like Atlantis and Wakanda had managed to outpace the surface scientifically while hiding from the world for centuries.
"Him?" the king asked.
He didn't imdiately see anything remarkable aside from Drex's appearance.
"He is currently the strongest human on the surface," the elder explained seriously.
"The surface nations ford a special organization called S.W.O.R.D. to combat monsters like the Deep Sea Clan."
"He is its director."
The elder began playing downloaded surface-world footage acquired through a program called Spiderweb.
Battle recordings.
Superheroes fighting monsters.
Global attacks by the Monster Association.
Dragon-level disasters.
The footage continued for several minutes.
The king's expression gradually changed.
Only now did he truly understand how powerful Drex Valen was... and how much authority he held over the surface world.
"He rejected aiding Atlantis," the elder continued, "and the surface nations followed his position because they rely on S.W.O.R.D. for protection."
The chamber fell quiet.
Many of the sa elders who had mocked the surface world earlier suddenly looked far more restrained after watching the footage.
This wasn't the weak civilization Atlantis rembered.
The surface world now possessed enough military power to sweep Atlantis aside completely if it chose to.
It made no sense.
The last ti Atlantean scouts visited the surface, humanity had still been sailing wooden ships across oceans.
Now there were monsters, superheroes, flying armor, and beings capable of killing Dragon-level threats.
Still...
The footage also gave Atlantis hope.
The Deep Sea Clan had reached Poseidonia only because they were overwhelmingly powerful compared to Atlantean forces.
Atlantis's advanced weapons simply weren't effective enough against them.
But if the surface world intervened?
Eliminating the Deep Sea Clan might actually be easy.
The King of Atlantis was, in theory, ruler of the seven seas.
A single command from him could mobilize millions.
Potentially tens of millions.
And that wasn't an exaggeration.
Unlike the divided surface world, Atlantis functioned like a clenched fist, centralized and unified.
Earth itself was mostly ocean.
Nearly seventy percent of the planet's surface consisted of water filled with unimaginable quantities of marine life.
After Atlantis sank beneath the waves long ago, its population had collapsed by nearly two-thirds. It had taken ten thousand years for their civilization to recover.
Even so, their military strength wasn't truly based on population size.
Their greatest advantage ca from the sea itself.
Generations living beneath the ocean had changed Atlanteans biologically.
They could breathe underwater.
See clearly in darkness.
Marine life instinctively trusted them.
Certain gifted individuals could even communicate with sea creatures directly and ride them into battle as elite Ocean Knights serving the royal guard of Poseidonia.
Drex reviewed the information calmly.
That kind of military resource was too valuable to remain hidden forever.
Eventually, when Thanos and the Black Order arrived, Drex intended to have a massive army of expendable soldiers ready.
Atlantis was actually a very good option.
Unfortunately, he hadn't located the Inhumans on the Moon yet.
Otherwise, they would've worked nicely too.
Which ant the first step was obvious.
Force Atlantis out of the ocean.
To accomplish that, Drex created a new Deep Sea King.
Unlike the previous version, this one resembled a monstrous humanoid shark covered in heavy armored plating.
Its appearance reminded Drex vaguely of a biochanical shark warrior.
Its strength reached Demon-level easily.
More than enough to crush Atlantis.
As for the fact that Atlanteans couldn't survive indefinitely on land?
Drex assud their science would eventually solve that problem.
The mont the new Deep Sea King entered the war, Atlantis completely lost control of the battlefield.
Poseidonia could no longer be defended.
The Deep Sea King personally tore through the city's defenses, and for the first ti, Atlantis truly understood what a Demon-level monster actually ant.
And according to surface-world records?
Creatures like this had already been killed many tis.
Even stronger Dragon-level monsters had died at humanity's hands.
That comparison hit the old king brutally hard.
The gap between Atlantis and the surface world suddenly felt enormous.
How had humanity advanced so quickly?
The oceans possessed greater resources than the land.
Atlantis should have remained superior.
Yet sohow the surface world had evolved into sothing terrifying while Atlantis remained trapped in old assumptions.
In the end, survival ca first.
The King of Atlantis finally ordered Poseidonia abandoned.
The capital was lost.
Every Atlantean still alive began retreating deeper into the oceans.
As for where they would go?
Anywhere the Deep Sea Clan stopped chasing them.
Unfortunately, the monsters showed no intention of stopping.
The Deep Sea Clan pursued them relentlessly, as though exterminating Atlantis entirely had beco an obsession.
The king even attempted negotiation.
He offered concessions.
Tributes.
Anything.
The Deep Sea Clan refused every proposal.
Why negotiate with prey?
The power difference was too overwhelming.
Weak civilizations didn't get bargaining rights.
Eventually, Atlantis ran out of options.
So the impossible happened.
The rulers of the oceans fled onto land.
Three days later.
Boston Harbor.
The comrcial cargo ships that normally filled the docks were gone.
In their place stood enormous triangular fortress structures rising from the shoreline.
Atlantean soldiers patrolled openly across the harbor.
Tall.
Broad-shouldered.
Wearing unified exoskeleton-like combat armor.
Transparent breathing helts covered their heads like reinforced aquariums, allowing them to survive comfortably above water.
Everything about them radiated military precision and physical power.
Over the past several days, naval forces had attempted multiple expulsions.
Every attempt failed.
Interestingly, the Atlanteans made no effort to advance inland.
They simply occupied the harbor and waited.
Then the people they feared most finally arrived.
S.W.O.R.D.'s superheroes.
The five S-Class heroes were considered the greatest threats.
Each possessed confird records of killing Demon-level monsters independently.
And a civilization nearly exterminated by a Demon-level threat naturally understood what that ant.
As for Drex Valen himself...
That was different.
He wasn't rely an S-Class hero anymore.
He stood above them entirely.
Director of S.W.O.R.D.
Humanity's strongest weapon.
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