When it came to underwater speed, Kevin could easily exceed Mach 2, and now that his physique had reached Level 6, with all-round improvements, Kevin could reach a maximum speed of Mach 9 in the water.
That was the so-called nine times the speed of sound!
But Kevin had never known that Aquaman Arthur could be so fast.
"Arthur actually came after us himself?"
Hearing that Arthur was chasing them, Mera was first startled, then suddenly realized something was amiss:
"How did he know where I was?!"
If previously Arthur had declared war on the land, demanding they hand over Princess Mera of Xebel, it could still be explained as 'he wanted to use Mera as an excuse to cause trouble.'
But now that Arthur himself had come knocking, it proved that he did indeed have some method of pinpointing Mera's location.
Yet Mera had no jewelry on her, and even the armor she had worn before was hidden somewhere by the sea, so how was Arthur locating her?
"That's no longer important! Batman, can we still accelerate?"
Kevin, who temporarily didn't want to confront Arthur, asked Batman.
Batman glanced at the map and said, "No need."
"?"
"The Trench you mentioned should be right ahead."
Hearing Batman say this, Mera immediately looked at the map.
"That's right! Ahead is the Trench. If Arthur doesn't slow down, he'll crash into that place of death!"
"But he really hasn't slowed down!"
In Kevin's perception, Arthur's speed not only hadn't slowed but had increased by a few points.
It seemed he was determined to catch up with Mera.
"He wants to stop us before we enter the Trench!"
Batman saw Arthur's objective.
Although the Trench was close, that was at the Batman's Batwing's speed of Mach 2; in reality, there was still a long distance.
If Arthur could intercept the Batwing before then, he wouldn't have to follow Kevin and them into the Trench's territory.
This might be Arthur's objective!
"He's got a good plan."
Kevin, knowing Arthur's objective, curled his lips.
Although sitting in the Batwing, Kevin couldn't go down to meet the enemy, but that didn't mean he truly had no way to stop Arthur.
Opening his skill tree, Kevin glanced at the number of skill points on it, and without hesitation, used several skill points to level up the transformation system of Water Magic to Level 5.
Most of the transformation skills in Water Magic were active skills, and each from 0 to Level 5 only required seven skill points.
Moreover, Kevin had already leveled these skills to Level 3 before, so now to level the skills in the [Transformation] system to Level 5, each skill only required four skill points.
A total of three skills, costing twelve points in total, completely depleted the remaining skill points, illuminating the [Ice] system. Only then did Kevin say to Batman:
"Slow down a bit, I'll stop him."
"What are you going to do?"
"He's only fast in the water, so I'll just freeze the surface, won't I?"
"?"
Kevin's words stunned both Batman and Mera.
Freeze the surface?
Kevin didn't explain. He said directly:
"No time to explain, just do as I say!"
At the critical moment, Batman did not hesitate.
He reduced the Batwing's speed and, at the moment of deceleration, raised the Batwing into the sky.
At the same time the Batwing slowed down, from beneath the water, Aquaman Arthur burst out of the water and leaped high!
He was like a flying fish shooting out from the bottom of the sea, soaring high into the sky, rapidly approaching the Batwing.
But how could Arthur, who could only temporarily leap using the power of the sea, compare to the Batwing, which could fly freely in the sky?
And Batman seemed to have guessed what Arthur was going to do; the moment the Batwing ascended, he controlled it to dodge to the side.
Arthur and the Batwing almost brushed past each other by a hair's breadth, but just as the two were about to separate, and Arthur was about to fall back into the water, he suddenly hurled the five-pronged trident in his hand towards the Batwing!
Arthur's strength was great, and his throwing speed was very fast. Coupled with the extremely close distance between him and the Batwing, the trident in his hand approached the Batwing in an extremely short amount of time!
Just as the tip of the trident was about to make contact with the Batwing and pierce it through, suddenly, the air instantly froze.
A cold aura overflowed from inside the Batwing, and at the front of the trident, layers of ice suddenly appeared, freezing the entire trident!
Clang!!
The frozen trident collided with the Batwing, but it had no effect on the Batwing.
As ice shards floated in the air, the trident fell from the sky, plummeting into the water along with Arthur.
And this was not the end; as Arthur and the trident simultaneously fell into the water, a cold wind swept across the sea surface.
Invisible cold air engulfed the sea, and the seawater began to freeze over a large area under the effect of the cold air.
Shifting the view inside the Batwing, Kevin's eyes were tightly closed, and a faint blue light pulsed on his hands.
Within the light, runes seemed to flow, and the cold air, controlled by Kevin, penetrated the Batwing and reached the sea surface.
This was magic!
Kevin's Ice Magic!
The transformation magic extended from Water Magic was divided into two major systems: one was the [Mist] system, which could transform water into Mist.
The other was the [Ice] system, which could freeze water into ice.
And what Kevin had just leveled up was [Extreme Cold Domain] in the Ice Attribute system, a field magic that could temporarily transform the surroundings into an environment suitable for using Ice Magic!
Level 5 [Extreme Cold Domain] was already enough to turn an area of thousands of meters into Kevin's domain.
Including the deep sea below!
Now the sea surface was frozen into ice, and even Aquaman Arthur was frozen in the ice block.
Even if Arthur's physique prevented him from freezing to death, such a large area ahead was frozen solid, making it impossible for Arthur to achieve such high speeds underwater.
Even if he took a detour, it would take some time to catch up with Kevin and them.
And Kevin and them were already within reach of the Trench.
"You can also use Ice Magic?! Who exactly are you!!?"
Seeing the seawater freeze, Mera's eyes widened as she looked at Kevin.
Atlantis people's magic was mostly related to water, but that didn't mean they could use Ice Magic.
Ice Magic... was generally used by people on land, such as those from the Greek pantheon.
Kevin said he was a hybrid of Atlantis and human, so... did his other half of the bloodline come from the Greek pantheon?
Was he a demigod?
Upon seeing Kevin's Ice Magic, Mera thought of many things in an instant.
Kevin smiled slightly and didn't explain, mainly because it would be too difficult to explain, so it was better to say nothing and act mysterious.
Batman didn't have as many questions as Mera. After shaking off Arthur, he continued to accelerate, reaching the skies above the Trench's territory in just a few minutes.
Once here, there was no need to worry about the Atlanteans catching up for the time being.
They regarded this place as a land of death and generally dared not come here.
And in this regard, Mera was the same; she looked down at the calm sea surface reflecting the sky, a hint of hesitation flashing in her eyes:
"This is the land of death, Kevin, we..."
"If you're worried, you don't have to go down. I can go alone."
Upon reaching the Trench, Kevin no longer needed Mera to accompany him. Rather, it was better for Mera to stay here; otherwise, if they encountered any danger, Kevin would have to divide his attention to save her.
However, Mera clearly had no intention of staying here. Kevin wanted to obtain the legendary trident, and so did Mera.
Or rather, to end the war between the ocean and the land, Mera had to obtain the trident.
After all, she couldn't truly trust handing the legendary trident to an 'outsider.'
"I'll go with you."
Finally, Mera made her decision.
Kevin raised an eyebrow, looking at her:
"I won't protect you then."
"I'm not just a pretty vase."
Mera rolled her eyes at Kevin.
Although she was a princess, she had also received warrior training.
Learning combat techniques, learning Water Magic, defeating all the teachers who had taught her.
Mera was absolutely not a weak woman, nor was she a mere vase in others' eyes; she possessed the strength to brave the land of death.
Looking deeply at Mera, and confirming that she had no intention of backing down, Kevin then said to Batman:
"Drop us off later, and then you can go back. We can leave from underwater."
"I should be going back even if you didn't say so. I don't want to be shot down by that Atlantean who was chasing me just now."
Batman said mercilessly.
With that, he opened the landing gear in the rear of the Batwing.
The ground beneath where Mera and Kevin were sitting opened, and the azure seawater was right before their eyes.
"Wish us a safe return, Batman."
After saying a final word to Batman, Kevin and Mera were dropped by Batman, released from the air into the water below.
The distance of less than a hundred meters from the sky to the sea surface was covered in an instant. Kevin and Mera, like fish falling into the water from above, sank into the water without stirring up any waves.
Because it was daytime, the light-sensitive monsters of the Trench did not approach the surface. From the surface to the trench where the Trench's fish monsters resided, the two encountered no attacks.
But as they continued to sink, entering the pitch-black deep sea, and as the light from above disappeared, the two finally saw clusters of monsters.
"They're coming!"
As Kevin saw the monsters of the Trench, the fish monsters of the Trench also saw the two above.
Crossing the boundary of light and darkness, the fish monsters smelled the scent of living beings. They bared their ferocious fangs, letting out low growls from the seabed, and swarmed towards the two.
Mera saw the dense swarm of fish monsters below and turned to call out to Kevin.
Kevin's hands emitted a faint glow, and the power of Water Magic was elevated to its peak at this moment.
"Don't worry," Kevin said, clenching both hands, and the seawater moved with his will, "I'll handle everything."
His eyes faintly emitted a blue light, and the ability to switch forms subtly activated at this moment.
Kevin's body seemed to become slightly transparent and ethereal, almost merging with the seawater.
And the light in his hands and the blue glow in his eyes, at the bottom of the sea, were like gradually rising daylight, illuminating every inch of darkness in the deep sea.
The seawater began to churn, and all the fish monsters that came before Kevin were swept up and flung away by the seawater controlled by Kevin.
A giant whirlpool centered on Kevin, drawing in and throwing out everything around it.
The number of fish monsters was almost endless, but compared to the seawater at the bottom of the sea, their number seemed scarce.
They were swept up by the water tornado, and then, as their numbers filled it, the water tornado turned into a 'fish' tornado.
Kevin controlled the tornado in this way, forming several whirlpools around to block the fish monsters from approaching, and then he smiled and said to Mera:
"The land of death doesn't seem so terrifying after all."
"..."
Looking at the fish monsters swept up by Kevin's Water Magic, Mera couldn't say anything.
Because the Water Magic she knew... wasn't like this...