The Demon Kings Cowardly Vessel - Chapter 305

25 years ago in Atlantis,

Above the Southwestern Ocean, the surface of the ocean was boiling as two opposing auras fought violently above it. Dark and blue streaks of light moved past each other, tangling and disentangling.

Boom!

When they collided with each other, loud explosions could be heard from miles away.

“What the f*ck are these things?!” a wounded middle-aged man who was holding a spear roared as he unleashed dozens of water arrows at the group of black shadows that was in front of him. He was out exploring with a friend from a foreign world when they were hunted by these black shadows.

He had never seen them before, and he had definitely never seen their powers before. It was creepy. Whatever he threw at them, they threw back at him in some sort of black shadow-like attack. Like how he could make water arrows be solid enough to pierce through one’s body, the enemies could copy his attack and return it in the shadow form.

Hence, no matter what, the middle-aged man had to keep stopping his attacks a few inches before he hit the shadow figures. Otherwise, he wouldn’t be able to stop the shadow attacks in time.

He took a quick glance at his friend, who was heavily wounded by one of the shadow figures earlier.

Against everyone’s warning, they came to explore the treacherous Southwestern Ocean in order to find a ring that existed only in legend. According to his friend’s information, which he received from spying on the enemy of Wisterion and from his travels in other dimensions, this part of Atlantis would be where the ring would be; a ring that contained the soul of a powerful being.

Soul-related items had always been highly sought after, no matter what, where, or when. Upon agreeing that the middle-aged man would get the ring while his friend would be handsomely paid in the future, they came to the Southwestern Ocean with a huge entourage.

However, as they searched for the ring in the bottom of the sea, they met with a group of deep-sea creatures that they had never seen before.

These were not the normal deep-sea creatures that one could find in the encyclopedia. These were creatures that were born in Atlantis, and like the Atlanteans, they were born with certain abilities.

There was a school of fish about the size and length of a grown man’s arm with scales that were sharper than the sharpest knives swimming like they were high on substance, cutting through other larger or slow-reacting fishes as if they were made out of tofu.

There was a flat bottom-dwelling grey fish that exuded an eerie green substance as it swam, of which the other fishes avoided quickly. The multi-colored algae and tiny sand-dwelling fishes that could not avoid in time all flopped over, before being quickly devoured by the flat fish.

There were a few 50 meters long black sharks with hundred red eyes on their bodies that swam by lazily. When one of the eyes noticed the entourage, as if all the sharks were linked together telepathically, all the eyes on their bodies turned toward the entourage.

There was also a dark purplish blob fish with a small dangling ball that protruded out of its forehead. The dangling ball was glowing dimly in the dark water, providing what seemed like the only source of light for these deep-sea creatures.

The entourage was both scared and mesmerized by these fishes, many of which they had never even heard before, as Southwestern Ocean was not the most forgiving part of Atlantis. In history, almost 99% of the explorers all perished within a few days of arriving here. But those who returned almost always became rich overnight from selling their stories or the items they found here.

This trip had been years in the planning, ever since the middle-aged man met his friend during one of the latter’s earlier quinquennial visits to Atlantis. They had been friends for almost two decades before he trusted his foreign friend enough to let him know his real identity.

These two often explored parts of Atlantis together and discussed their strategies with them, and over time, the middle-aged man started to look forward to his foreign friend’s quinquennial visit, even taking the effort to stop any huge war with Terre D’eau in case the entrance from the other world was disrupted and destroyed.

With this visit, his friend brought more concrete evidence of the Elemental Rings, which were considered high-rank magical items. Legends had it that the souls of powerful beings were trapped in these rings a millennial ago. It was said that the owners of the souls were siblings who were blessed by the gods of the five basic elements, and their captive, out of spite or just for fun, killed them and captured their souls before scattering them in different dimensions.

The earliest record of the rings was written by a historian from a now-dead dimension, who upon escaping the then-dying dimension, accidentally passed by Atlantis. At that time, he brought the records of the Elemental Ring (Fire) with him.

A few hundred years after that, it was said that someone from a foreign dimension came to Atlantis, bringing gifts in exchange for a favor to completely rid of the reigning monarch that controlled the power of flames in their dimension. And one of the gifts was Elemental Ring (Electricity).

Since then, the ring had changed hands thousands of times, only to be lost during Atlas’ betrayal.

However, a hundred years back, an explorer who researched marine life forms noticed that the fishes that came from the Southwestern Ocean had been showing odd signs. For one thing, a lot of them, at least those who were able to use magic, was found to contain a small trace of electricity in their powers.

The explorer deduced that something with a strong power of electricity must have been affecting these fishes, basically changing their DNA and giving them power that was never seen before, and after some research, he and his team of researchers agreed that it must have been a weapon that contained a vast electric aura.

Upon learning about this many, many years later, the middle-aged man told his foreign friend about this story, and they both researched on their own before making the decision to explore the Southwestern Ocean to find out about the truth.

If the middle-aged man knew what was awaiting him, he would have thought twice before leaving behind his young son.

“Careful…” mumbled the head of the bodyguards whom the middle-aged man grew up with as he pushed the latter out of a fish with electric arcs bouncing off its body.

At first, the entourage ignored these fishes that were slowly swimming past them. However, when they stared into one of the blob fish with the dangling ball, something weird happened. The dangling balls of the fish, as if in unison, lit brighter one by one.

A muscular man in the group suddenly raised his spear and stabbed through his partner’s c.h.e.s.t, puncturing the latter’s heart and killing him instantly.

The middle-aged man who hired them turned back upon hearing the commotion, and when he saw what had happened, he could hardly believe his eyes. Those two were best friends since childhood.

Yet he had no time to think further. In the next second, the same scene repeated itself among the rest of his 50 or so group of soldiers.

While he was stunned by the scene temporarily, he could hear someone shouting, “Your Majesty! Run! Get out of here!”

Yes, that was right. The middle-aged man was King Alphonse of Wisterion!