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SM/DC Chapter 34 : Monarch of The Sky and Sea
🕑 Added 2025-02-18 23:58:11 +0000 UTCLevel 30, Arthur stepped forward, boots echoing through the abandoned ruins of the battlefield. His breathing was steady, barely labored, despite the carnage around him. At his back, Doom let out a low, guttural roar, its crimson eyes burning with menace. Beside him, Blade stood motionless, sword dripping with the blood of fallen warriors.
Arthur exhaled slowly, his gaze sweeping over the lifeless bodies of Hawkman and Hawkwoman. Their once-proud wings, now tattered and stained, lay broken beneath them. The battlefield had been theirs, a domain of sky and steel, but in the end, not even the heavens could save them.
He rolled his shoulders, wincing slightly at the dull ache settling into his muscles. This was different.
These past ten floors had been unlike anything he had experienced before.
Arthur thought back to Level 21...the moment everything changed.
The air had shifted, thick with an unnatural weight that pressed down on his chest. The environment was… wrong. Not just a different location but something fundamentally off. It didn’t feel like Earth anymore.
Gravity had changed. The sky was… wrong.
Instead of the endless void he was used to, he had found himself under a vast expanse of deep crimson clouds, swirling and shifting as if alive. The air crackled with energy that wasn’t quite magic, but something else entirely. The terrain had stretched unnaturally, like a warped reflection of reality, filled with structures that seemed too alien to belong to any civilization he knew.
And then came the warriors.
Not mindless monsters, not hollow shells conjured to test him. These ones had purpose.
They were Thanagarians.
At first, he had dismissed them as just another wave of enemies...until their weapons clashed against his armor, and he realized… they were real. They bled. They screamed. They felt fear.
The battle had been brutal. A sky full of warriors descending like a storm, their Nth metal weapons singing through the air, striking with the weight of entire worlds. But they had never fought someone like him.
Arthur had carved through their ranks, shadow soldiers following his every command, tearing through the battlefield with merciless precision. Blade moved like a wraith, silent and swift, his strikes almost artistic in their brutality. Doom, on the other hand...Doom was carnage incarnate.
Arthur had watched, arms crossed, as his unstoppable General ripped through entire squadrons, crushing warriors in his massive jaws, his roars shaking the very foundation of this realm.
Then came the last stand.
Hawkman and Hawkwoman.
He had expected more.
Their tenacity was admirable...they fought as warriors should. Hawkman’s rage was like a wildfire, every swing of his mace carrying the weight of vengeance. Hawkwoman moved like the wind, graceful, precise, deadly.
But even legends fall.
In the end, Arthur stood above them, their wings broken, bodies still.
The battlefield was eerily silent, save for the distant rumbling growl of Doom. Blade, still holding his sword at the ready, tilted his head slightly.
“This shadow still might be a bit overkill for these lower levels,” Arthur muttered, glancing at Doom.
The massive beast huffed, almost as if he was saying that this was the norm for him.
Arthur sighed, rolling his neck. Something wasn’t right.
The Thanagarians had felt real. Their weapons, their tactics, their emotions.
His eyes narrowed.
A theory had started forming in his mind, but he needed confirmation.
Level 31 would tell him everything.
****
Arthur barely had time to react before the world around him shifted violently. The moment he set foot in level 31.
One moment, he was surrounded by the eerie ruins of the last battlefield, his boots still wet with Thanagarian blood. The next...he was drowning.
Or at least, that’s what his instincts screamed.
Darkness engulfed him. Heavy, unrelenting pressure crushed down on his body as icy water wrapped around him like a suffocating cocoon. Panic spiked through his mind for a split second, his body tensing, preparing to fight his way back to the surface.
Except...there was no surface.
Arthur’s blue glowing eyes snapped open, their hue cutting through the abyss as he scanned his surroundings. His lungs, expected to burn with the lack of oxygen, remained steady. His body moved fluidly, his strength and speed unhindered despite the crushing depth of the ocean around him.
Something wasn’t right.
His gaze flickered as a blue screen materialized before him.
[Due to the unique Mana of the Shadow Monarch, you are able to breathe, move, and fight underwater indefinitely...so long as Mana is available.]
[Current Remaining Mana Duration: 4 Hours]
Arthur blinked, then scowled.
"Well, isn't that convenient."
He exhaled, watching as a trail of bubbles floated upward… endlessly. His gaze followed them, but he couldn’t see the surface. Nothing but an endless abyss.
His jaw clenched. “What the hell is going on? Why am I in the depths of the goddamn ocean?”
The silence of the deep was his only answer.
His grip tightened around the hilt of his sword before he let out a slow, measured breath, forcing himself to focus. Four hours. That’s all the time he had before the system decided he could no longer breathe.
"Well, no use wasting time."
His aura flared, casting long shadows through the ocean depths as he stretched out a hand.
“Come out. No slacking off... spread out, kill anything that moves.”
With those words, the darkness itself rippled.
Emerging from the void, his soldiers took shape...twisted silhouettes of death, their eyes glowing ominously in the dark waters. Blade materialized at his side, his sword gleaming with eerie brilliance, while Doom let out a guttural growl, sending a shockwave through the water.
And then, they moved.
****
Arthur had figured out the truth after the first wave of enemies.
The moment they appeared, clad in ornate Atlantean armor, their tridents glistening like deep-sea spears, he had known. The garbled words they shouted were clear enough despite the water:
"Intruder! An outsider dares invade Atlantis!"
That had been all he needed.
The fight wasn’t long. It couldn’t be.
Arthur didn’t have time to waste on soldiers who didn’t matter. His sword cut through them like a blade through butter, and his soldiers followed, merciless and efficient. Shadows drifted through the water like spectral reapers, tearing through the city’s warriors with inhuman precision.
And now, with one hour remaining, Arthur stood before the final gate...the heart of Atlantis.
A massive, ominous castle loomed before him, its golden spires glowing faintly in the dark waters. The remains of shattered guards floated lifelessly around him, their weapons drifting aimlessly in the currents.
Arthur didn’t even glance at them. His eyes were locked ahead, where the grand throne of Atlantis awaited its king.
Instead, he found something else.
Arthur exhaled slowly, eyes narrowing.
"Well… this is a disappointment."
He tilted his head, letting out a dry chuckle as he casually raised his Promethium sword.
“I was half expecting Aquaman.” His grip tightened. “Not his pathetic, jealous brother.”
A cold silence filled the throne room.
The faint glow of Atlantean torches flickered in the deep, casting eerie shadows that danced across the ruined hall. The water trembled. Not from a current—but from something far more ominous.
Ocean Master stood at the throne’s steps, his eyes burning with rage and defiance. He gripped his trident tighter, his ornate armor gleaming with a regal sheen.
Then, they appeared.
From the abyssal dark behind Arthur, two figures emerged.
First was Blade the shadow cloaked assassin whose very presence exuded lethal precision. His black sword, his cold, calculating eyes locked onto the false king, his stance coiled like a viper ready to strike.
Then came Doom.
A beast of shadow and steel. His form was massive, oppressive his guttural growl reverberated through the water, sending shockwaves that cracked the marble beneath them.
They stood behind Arthur, silent executioners, waiting for their monarch’s command. One word, and they would erase Ocean Master from existence.
But the command never came.
Schhiiing—!
Arthur’s Promethium sword shot out, slicing through the water like a blade through silk. It didn’t aim for Ocean Master. Instead, it cut directly in front of Blade and Doom, halting them in their tracks.
Their glowing eyes flickered in surprise.
Arthur didn’t turn to them. His voice was calm, but laced with an edge of amusement.
"No."
The word hung heavy in the water, carrying an undeniable authority.
Arthur tilted his head slightly, his eyes gleaming. “I want to enjoy this fight.”
A beat of silence.
Then...Blade lowered his weapon.
Doom let out a low, guttural sound, his monstrous shoulders relaxing.
Arthur smirked. “I had a mana handicap, yet you two were very efficient. Well done."
The weight of his words sank in, and for the first time since appearing, Blade and Doom knelt.
Not because they had to. Not out of obligation. But because they had earned the rarest thing from their Monarch...praise.
Arthur chuckled softly. “They didn’t defeat you once, so I didn’t lose any mana.”
The two shadows remained bowed before him for a moment longer, then without a word, faded into Arthur’s own shadow.
Arthur finally turned his full attention to Ocean Master.
A slow smirk curled at his lips as he rolled his shoulders, raising his sword once more.
“Now,” he said, his voice carrying an unmistakable edge of excitement.
“Let’s make this a little more fun than the previous fights.”
