Amid the boundless, eternal abyss enveloping the golden splendor of Atlantis, relentless hordes of corrupted, mutated sea creatures launched unending assaults on the city's protective barriers, while two fiery, sun-like purple eyes burned through the impenetrable darkness.
RUMBLE!
A powerful wave of raw, unyielding energy tore through the ocean's depths, compelling the Atlantean defensive lines to retreat several feet, despite their steadfast determination to hold their ground.
"What the hell is this?"
"SIR ORDERS!"
"BACK YOU BASTARDS!"
The determined shouts of Atlantis's defenders echoed through the shadowy waters, as relentless swarms of energized sea creatures pressed on with unyielding force. Despite their steadfast resistance, the defenders were steadily driven back towards the city's protective walls, their resilience strained under the ceaseless assault.
Eve began forming large orbs around massive groups of smaller fish before crushing what was inside into a singular bloody pulp.
CRUNCH!
CRUNCH!
CRUNCH!
CRUNCH!
The battlefield reverberated with the chilling symphony of bodies colliding, drawing the attention of countless warriors toward the source of the brilliant pink light.
Rain was among them, yet deep within his soul, he felt an unyielding pull in the opposite direction. There, a pair of radiant, sun-like purple orbs burned fiercely, their gaze fixed on both him and the grand city of Atlantis behind him. Their expression carried an enigmatic mix of curiosity and ominous intent.
He blinked, bewildered, but as his eyes reopened, those blazing orbs stood directly before him.
"What th..."
POW!
A powerful wave of force slammed into Rain's midsection, propelling him backward with such immense velocity that a vapor cone materialized around him as he shot through the air. In mere moments, his flight came to an abrupt halt as he crashed violently against the defensive barrier of Atlantis.
BOOM!
Rain's body appeared to dissolve into the surrounding water, but he swiftly reconstituted himself by absorbing the seawater around him. In an instant, he rematerialized in his full form, his gaze burning with hatred as he locked eyes with his attacker, who had now fully emerged into view under the gentle yet all-encompassing glow of Atlantis.
A female Atlantean adorned with intricate, swirling dark tattoos that converge at a focal point over her heart wields a trident of remarkable design. The weapon features a twisted three-pronged head forged from blackened meteorite iron, its tines bristling with coral spines and glowing with bioluminescent veins. The haft is wrapped in eel-skin leather that still pulses faintly with electric energy, adding an otherworldly vitality to the extraordinary weapon.
On the battlements, a stunned Aquarius, seeing this strange but distinctive trident, began to feel a chill deep in his bones as he vividly remembered the legends from the past his father would tell him of the old gods and their champions, as well as the weapons they used.
"The Abyssal Trident: Tides of Desolation... So, this must be..."
Before Aquarius can finish his sentence, however, a hauntingly beautiful voice rang out, seeming to come from the very sea itself.
"Kalyra Dreadtide has come back to take her rightful place as ruler, celebrate Atlantis, for the era of the false king and false gods ends today!"
WHOOSH!
The moment she spoke those words, thunder roared across the oceans, as if the very depths of the sea trembled in response. Every Atlantean, every fish, and every fragment of underwater plant life seemed to freeze, creating a profound stillness that swallowed the relentless chaos of the conflict.
She drove the Abyssal Trident toward the defensive lines, and between the central prong and the two outer prongs, a focused arc of what seemed to be frosty water materialized along the edges. In an instant, a beam as brilliant as pure light sliced through the ocean and struck the defensive walls with immense force.
BOOOOM!
Rain, who was recovering from previously crashing into the walls, had to quickly move out of the way as the beam seemed to come straight for him, and thankfully, only his arm was lost in his flight.
"AHHH.. DAMNIT!
He clenches his jaw in agony as the beam disintegrates the flesh from the bones on his arm, leaving it to dissolve and merge seamlessly with the surrounding seawater.
Eve soared into the air and positioned herself beside Rain, both standing resolutely in defense of the walls of Atlantis. As they prepared for the impending battle, Eve conjured a pristine new set of armor, unscathed and unmarred by the wear of previous conflicts.
Her gaze remained fixed on Kalyra. "She's not just some deep-sea creature. She rules the ocean itself."
Kalyra tilted her head, the trident throbbing with veins of dark energy, as though it were alive and insatiable. Her demeanor was calm, almost tender, yet every word carried venom.
"Children of surface deceptions. I am no creature… I am the tide that topples kings. You come here armed with stolen fire and shallow tricks, and you dare call yourselves protectors?"
The bioluminescence weaving through her trident blazed, unleashing shockwaves through the depths. Defenders on Atlantis's walls clutched their heads as the currents surged furiously, their resolve crumbling beneath the weight of her dominance.
Rain braced himself, anchoring his stance with dense, spiraling tendrils of pressurized water unfurling from his back like wings. "Eve… running isn't an option."
Eve gave a sharp nod, her pink constructs vibrating as they snapped into a defensive grid around her. "Then we hold until William arrives."
The ocean bellowed as if the abyss itself had spoken. Kalyra's trident erupted in a sickly, radiant blaze, the water around its tines boiling and fracturing under the crushing force of its energy.
"Then drown with the rest."
WHOOOSH!
A beam hurtled toward the pair, and Eve, reacting with all the speed she could summon, conjured a wedge-shaped barrier. Instead of absorbing the full impact of the blast, the barrier's design redirected the beam, splitting it into two halves that collided with the city's walls with significant but diminished force.
Eve and Rain stood with stern but slightly fearful glares behind the wedge-shaped barrier that had dark cracks throughout its surface.
She sighed in relief, but the relief was short-lived.
CRACK!The wedge shuddered, splintering like glass. Eve staggered, her constructs faltering under the relentless pressure of Kalyra's abyss-born might.
From the battlements, Aquarius's voice rang out, both shaken and commanding. "That trident is no ordinary weapon! It's one of the Abyssal Relics, forged in the era when the Old Gods bent the seas to their will. That relic has brought entire kingdoms to ruin!"
Kalyra's faint smile grew as she angled the weapon toward him, as though savoring his every word. "Ah, so the descendant of the false line recalls his bedtime tales." Her glowing eyes blazed more fiercely, the currents behind her forming a swirling vortex. "Then you already understand how this story concludes."
The trident pulsed with power, building a second beam, stronger and sharper than before, its width threatening to consume the entire defensive wall.
Rain gritted his teeth, drawing seawater into his core until his veins radiated with concentrated blue energy. "Eve, if this gets through, Atlantis is doomed."
Eve's constructs quivered under the strain, their jagged edges crackling. She met Rain's gaze with unwavering determination, her lips pressed into a firm line. "Then we make sure it doesn't."
The ocean roared in fury as Kalyra unleashed the next devastating wave.
Before the wave of divine force could collide with the barrier, Eve quickly summoned the massive, swift-moving form of a kraken. Simultaneously, an orange comet hurtled into the creature from the opposite direction as William dramatically revealed his presence to the Herald of the Deep.
BOOOOOOOOOOM!
The kraken was obliterated in an instant, exploding into a thick paste that dispersed through the surrounding seawater in a chaotic swirl of blood, ink, and saltwater.
"Anybody order Calamari?"
William's voice carried through the bloody mist before his presence became visible through the bloody mist.
Kalyra's glowing purple eyes narrowed into slits as she assessed the new opponent, taking in the eerie, otherworldly flames that encircled him.
The sea seemed to hold its breath. The battlefield, once a cacophony of screams and churning chaos, had fallen into a fragile silence, broken only by the low, oppressive hum emanating from the Abyssal Trident in Kalyra's grasp and the faint crackle of flames crawling across William's form.
She stood tall in the swirling darkness, her eyes alight with malice and intrigue, tattoos pulsing like veins connected to the ocean's heartbeat. The water itself leaned toward her trident, obedient and deferential.
Opposite her hovered William, Morrigan's blade extending from his hand, its fiery orange gem boiling the seawater into curling steam that wreathed him like a defiant banner of war.
"Another child of the false gods," Kalyra finally spoke, her voice rippling through the water and resonating in bone. "Atlantis spawns them like parasites, clinging to a throne that is not theirs to claim."
William tilted his head, his smirk razor-sharp, though his gaze remained steady. "Not Atlantean," he replied. "But parasite? That's a new one. Usually, they go with monster."
Behind him, Eve raised a glowing construct shield over Rain's broken body, its soft pink light pushing back the suffocating darkness just enough for him to recover. Yet she, too, remained silent. Every Atlantean soldier, every creature, and even the coral seemed transfixed, holding their collective breath as the confrontation unfolded.
Kalyra leveled the Abyssal Trident at William, the water surrounding its prongs crystallizing into sharp, jagged ice before dissolving into the crushing depths. "Then you are less than a parasite, prey. Your flame burns bright… but it will extinguish in my abyss."
William's smirk vanished, replaced by the steely glare that made the fire in his crystal-heart blaze all the fiercer. He spun Morrigan once, streaks of orange light slicing through the ocean's darkness.
"Amusing. Everyone says that before they fall."
The tension grew suffocating. The pressure intensified. The very water seemed to hum as fire forged from immortal blood and abyssal frost wielded by an ancient weapon collided in a silent struggle, neither force yet unleashed.
From the battlements, Aquarius could barely draw breath. "This… this is what the old wars must have been like."
A lone kraken's corpse drifted by, its charred and mangled form a testament to William's arrival. The ocean floor quaked beneath the impending clash of two titanic forces.
Kalyra raised her trident. William sank into a fighting stance.
Yet still, neither struck.
The fighting in the surroundings all ceased as if to watch what was about to happen, and the wait was just beginning to wear on the defender's nerves when...
BOOM!
Two bolts of lightning, one a vibrant orange and the other a deep purple, collided with a tremendous force, sending waves surging outward and creating a brief vacuum in the ocean's depths.
A blood-red sword clashed against the prongs of an ancient and deadly trident.
SHING!
William tried to disengage his sword by slashing downward, but Kalyra, with unmatched mastery of her weapon and the very water around her, hooked the sea itself with the bladed tips of her trident. Using it as a pivot, she spun gracefully, delivering a powerful kick directly to William's nose.
BOOSH!
William's body snapped backward, the impact of her kick unleashing a shockwave that roared through the ocean, splitting the waters with a force like thunder. Blood burst from his nose, spiraling into the depths like smoke before dissolving into the sea. For a brief moment, the tide seemed to shift in Kalyra's favor, the resolve of the Atlantean soldiers wavering as their supposed champion stumbled.
William wiped the blood from his face with the back of his hand, leaving a crimson streak smeared across his cheek. His grin returned, sharp and predatory, while the flames around him surged higher and more intense, as though his wounds fueled their insatiable hunger.
"You hit harder than I thought you would," he remarked, a sharp edge of amusement in his voice. "Good. I was afraid this might end up being dull."
Kalyra wielded the Abyssal Trident with an elegance that transformed his confidence into sheer arrogance, its veins throbbing with an intense violet luminescence that appeared to command the entire ocean to bow to her will. "Boredom will be the least of your concerns, parasite."
The waters surrounding them quaked with intensity as the two combatants, one steeped in the wisdom of ages and the other brimming with youthful vigor, charged toward each other yet again.
[AN: Why is it so hot outside!]