"Since the big things are done, it is time to chat about some small matters."
After eating and drinking his fill, Darian wiped his mouth and said, "How do you think we should unify all the undersea kingdoms? I do not want to hear several different voices in the ocean; it will affect my future plans."
The few people present were speechless.
People consider food as their heaven; eating to fill one's stomach is the most important thing in life, and no one refuted this.
But unifying Atlantis? Can that really be considered a small matter?
However, upon second thought, considering Darian's strength, it really did not seem like a big deal.
At worst, he could just steamroll through everything, wipe out everyone who refused to submit, and then round up the surviving Atlanteans. From the results, that would count as unification.
As the few people thought about Darian's consistent style of doing things, they suddenly felt a chill down their spines.
Arthur quickly put down the crab leg, wiped his mouth, and spoke first, "As long as I return to Atlantis, defeat Orm head-on, seize the throne from him, and then send alliance invitations to other kingdoms as the new King of Atlantis, that would be a peaceful unification, right?"
"No!"
Queen Atlanna immediately frowned and vetoed it, her eyes full of worry as she looked at Arthur, "If you and Orm fight for the throne, according to the kingdom's ancient laws, the duel must take place in the Fire Ring Arena. Furthermore, according to traditional rules, neither side may surrender, and the loser faces certain Death."
Arthur and Orm were both her own children; she did not want to see her two sons killing each other.
Mera spoke after careful consideration, "Perhaps we can directly announce to all undersea kingdoms that Arthur has obtained the holy trident."
"According to ancestral teachings passed down from ancient times, the holder of the holy trident is the rightful monarch of Atlantis, and all seven kingdoms that split from Atlantis must unconditionally obey the holder's commands."
Darian shook his head and said slowly, "That method is not very reliable. After all, the holy trident is only something from legends; no one has seen the real thing with their own eyes. What if Orm insists on being a scoundrel and claims the holy trident has five prongs, insisting that the one in Arthur's hand is a fake? What would we do then?"
Who the hell would think a trident has five prongs!
Guess why it is called a trident!?
The three of them roared in their hearts simultaneously.
But complaining aside, they still had to nod with forced smiles, indicating that Darian's considerations were comprehensive, fearing that if he were dissatisfied, he might decide that steamrolling Atlantis was more convenient.
For the survival of all of Atlantis, they had truly worried themselves to Death.
Just for this painstaking effort, it would not be excessive for the people of Atlantis to erect a monument for each of them upon their return.
Mera thought for a moment and added, "If we can win the support of more than half of the undersea kingdoms, then even if Orm denies it, it will be useless."
"But the problem is, my father... King Nereus of Xebel, has already allied with Orm. Now Orm already has two votes in his hands. The only ones left to win over are the Kingdom of the Brine and the Fisherman Kingdom. Even if we get their two votes, it would at best be a tie."
Mera sighed.
Her father Nereus, like Orm, was a radical who advocated going to war with the surface, and even as his own daughter, she could not persuade him.
Now she was worried that if things continued like this, her own father might be wiped out by Darian in passing.
Thinking of this, Mera hardened her heart and decided to find an opportunity to make things clear to Nereus.
If Nereus insisted on going to war with the surface, then she, as his daughter, would not be polite. The ruler of Xebel did not necessarily have to be a man.
The first female ruler since the founding of the nation—just thinking about it felt exciting!
Darian smiled slightly, "You are wrong. There are seven undersea kingdoms, so how could there only be two votes?"
Mera said helplessly, "The Trench are all a group of mindless Beasts; they have no king. The Lost Kingdom was destroyed long ago, and The Lost Kingdom disappeared directly into history. All historical records about The Lost Kingdom have been erased. Counting it up, there are only four kingdoms that can vote."
"Who said The Lost Kingdom disappeared?"
Darian suddenly stood up, hands behind his back, chin lifted, exuding an overbearing aura.
"From now on, I am the successor of The Lost Kingdom, King Doom!"
Everyone: "..."
Fisherman Kingdom.
This was one of the seven kingdoms that split from Atlantis, and also the one with the weakest overall strength.
Unlike other undersea kingdoms, the citizens here loved peace, immersing themselves in art and philosophy all day long. They spoke of poetry and distant places, turning their noses up at fighting and killing, considering it something only barbarians would do.
Precisely because of this, their national development had long stagnated, making them the bottom-tier existence among all undersea kingdoms.
However, there are advantages to being weak; at least no one considered them a threat.
The kingdom's conference hall was a building shaped like a giant coral, with glowing seashells embedded in the walls, soft light flooding the entire hall.
King Ricou of the Fisherman Kingdom was floating in the main seat, with his wife and daughter on either side behind him.
The citizens of the Fisherman Kingdom, after a long evolution, had turned into a typical mermaid form.
Just that kind of merman/mermaid, half human and half fish.
Not left and right, but top and bottom.
But completely different from the image of mermaids in fairy tales that retained mostly human features, their appearance leaned more towards fish. Their entire bodies were covered in fine fish scales, with fins growing on their foreheads and backs. Even a prince would not be able to stand straight upon seeing them.
Opposite them floated King Orm of Atlantis and King Nereus of Xebel.
The two kings had come this time with a very clear purpose.
That was to persuade Ricou to join their camp and gather all the ocean's military forces to attack the surface together.
Orm spoke in a deep voice, "King Ricou, you should be very clear about how serious the human destruction of the ocean has been over these years. They dump trash into the sea, discharge sewage, and endlessly overfish marine life. If we continue to let them be, our homeland will be completely destroyed."
"Therefore, we must strike first and eliminate them before they destroy us."
Ricou's tone was calm, "King Orm, you are very right..."
Hearing this, Orm showed no sign of joy.
He was too familiar with this rhetoric; after this sentence of agreement, there would often follow a "but".
Sure enough, Ricou continued, "However, going to war with the surface is not the only option. I have always hoped that our citizens could abandon outdated concepts, find a suitable opportunity to actively contact the surface dwellers, and try to guide and educate them, rather than directly starting a war to destroy them."
Orm's lips curled into an undisguised sneer, and he laughed coldly, "King Ricou, you are being too naive. A crazy race that tries every possible way to destroy itself, and you actually delusionally want to reason with them."
Ricou still said unhurriedly, "Precisely because of that, we must be more patient in educating them. Only peace has a future; war only brings destruction and Death, and there are no real winners in war."
Pedantic fool!
Orm cursed inwardly.
If it were not for having absolutely no other choice, he would not bother wasting time with this bunch of people who only knew how to talk about grand principles.
But the problem was that the options available to win over among the seven undersea kingdoms were truly limited.
Xebel was already on his side, The Trench were a group of mindless Beasts, and The Lost Kingdom and The Lost Kingdom had long since become historical terms.
The only ones left to recruit were the Fisherman Kingdom and the Kingdom of the Brine.
But the Kingdom of the Brine was even more of a headache. That bunch of guys who looked like shrimp soldiers and crab generals were the complete opposite of the Fisherman Kingdom; they were all brutes with muscles for brains. They could only be beaten into submission, not persuaded.
Unfortunately, that group of people had mouths even harder than their own shells; they were the type that, even if you punched them to Death, they would still refuse to submit. The difficulty of conquering them was not small, which was why Orm had chosen the Fisherman Kingdom as his first stop.
As a result, he never expected that this old thing, Ricou, would be even harder to persuade than the brutes of the Kingdom of the Brine.
Orm's eyes grew cold bit by bit, a layer of killing intent rising in his eyes.
Since reasoning was useless, he could not be blamed for applying physics.
He gripped the trident in his hand, his knuckles whitening as he prepared to act, when suddenly a commotion broke out outside the conference hall.
Before the people in the hall could figure out what had happened, a figure had already burst in, knocking away several guards who tried to step forward to stop him, and arrived at the center of the conference hall.
"King's conference, why was I not notified?"
The nerves of everyone present instantly tightened.
Although the Fisherman Kingdom was at the bottom among the undersea kingdoms, no matter how weak their strength was, not just anyone could break in, let alone the core conference hall which had layers of guards.
This person being able to break in here without any warning meant his strength definitely could not be underestimated.
Orm stared fixedly at this suddenly appearing stranger, his gaze sharp, "Who are you? How dare you intrude on the King's conference!"
The newcomer said calmly, "Let me introduce myself; I am Darian, the current King of The Lost Kingdom."
"???"
Everyone was stunned.
Nereus was the first to react, his face full of absurdity, "This is simply nonsense! The Lost Kingdom disappeared from the ocean floor over a thousand years ago, and all records of its lineage have been broken. How could there possibly be a current king?"
Darian said cheerfully, "We only disappeared; it's not like we were wiped out like The Lost Kingdom."
Orm sneered, "You don't even have a trident representing the status of a king, yet you dare to call yourself the King of The Lost Kingdom?"
In the heritage of Atlantis, the trident is the symbol of the king's status; therefore, every king has an exclusive royal trident.
But Darian was empty-handed; he did not look like the King of The Lost Kingdom at all.
"Who said I don't?"
As he spoke, Darian pulled out the golden spear of longinus from behind his back.
Ricou was stunned, "Isn't this a spear?"
Darian glanced at Ricou, "Your eyesight is not very good. This is clearly a trident; it's just that many years ago, the left and right prongs were destroyed, leaving only this middle one, which is why it has become like this now."
Everyone: "..."
That the hell is still a spear!?
Orm's face darkened further, and he snorted coldly, "Stop your sophistry here. You are clearly a surface human, not even an Atlantean. How could you be the King of The Lost Kingdom?"
Darian shook his head, his tone sounding a bit wistful, "Back then, The Lost Kingdom was hit by a magic curse. All the citizens were abandoned by the ocean and turned into humans. Most of the citizens perished in the ocean because of this, with only a small portion escaping to the land to multiply. And I am the eighteenth-generation successor of The Lost Kingdom."
Nereus narrowed his eyes, "Words are proof of nothing. How can you prove it?"
"Although the people of our The Lost Kingdom were hit by a magic curse, we also turned a misfortune into a blessing and mastered the power of magic."
Darian lifted the spear of longinus in his hand and tapped the tail end lightly against the ground.
In an instant, the light in the hall suddenly dimmed.
They saw endless black figures crawling out from the shadows on the floor, walls, and ceiling, holding various weapons, their eyes glowing with a chilling red light.
In less than a moment, these Shadow Soldiers filled the entire hall, surrounding the people in the hall with three layers inside and three layers outside.
Everyone: (o_O)
Darian said happily, "Now you should believe me."
"Believe... we believe."
The few people nodded with dry smiles.
They could not afford not to believe; the surrounding Shadow Soldiers had all raised their weapons. If they dared to say they did not believe, they would be stabbed into sieves in the next second.
Ricou asked cautiously, "May I ask, King Darian, what do you want to do by coming here this time?"
"Nothing big."
Darian said as he walked forward two steps, scanning his surroundings.
These Atlanteans were all accustomed to floating in the water; the entire conference hall did not even have a place to sit.
He waved his hand casually, and several Shadow Soldiers immediately stepped forward, using their bodies to build a black throne.
Darian sat down calmly, crossed his legs, and scanned the three undersea kings in front of him. His eyes carried three parts mockery, three parts coldness, and four parts indifference—a complete pie chart.
"I came here just to say one thing: Atlantis has a new king."
"A new king?"
The three of them felt a thud in their hearts simultaneously.
Orm stared at Darian, his expression somewhat ugly, "The new king you speak of, could it be you yourself?"
His first reaction was that Darian wanted to take advantage of this opportunity to force his way to the throne, forcibly taking the position of the ruler of the seven kingdoms by force.
After all, he had come here today originally to force Ricou to take a side and help him sit on the throne of the new king. If Ricou did not agree, he would slice Ricou into sashimi and replace him with a compliant successor.
As a result, he did not expect that retribution would come so quickly; in the blink of an eye, he had become the one in Ricou's role.
Darian waved his hand, "Don't misunderstand. I have no interest in that throne. The new king I am talking about is Arthur Curry."
As soon as the words fell, Arthur, Mera, and Queen Atlanna walked side by side into the conference room door.
"Mother?!"
Orm saw Queen Atlanna, his pupils shrinking violently, his eyes full of disbelief.
He had always thought his mother had long died at the hands of The Trench; he did not expect her to be alive, and to be with his half-brother.
What was even more infuriating was that his long-lost fiancée, Mera, was actually following Arthur.
His fiancée had stayed outside with another man for several days; he dared not imagine what they had done.
Orm suddenly felt that the top of his head was turning green.
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