Thea sat for a while and got a bit impatient. She switched into her Hydro-Armor suit. Last time she was carrying Faora, so she hadn't demonstrated her maximum speed. She wanted to test exactly how fast she could go underwater.
"I didn't expect you to swim so fast!"
Mera, who also wasn't riding a dolphin but swimming with her own ability, was startled by Thea's sudden burst of speed. Although far inferior to Aquaman holding the Trident, it was already very close to Mera's speed.
"I'll race you!"
It had been a rough day for Mera. She couldn't make sense of the emotional undercurrents between human women. She felt her husband was an upright hero, yet the Arabian woman Kahina, the brown-skinned wild child Ya'Wara, and also Thea and Diana all posed a threat to her status. Among them, the unusually active Thea was the biggest threat. Mera admitted she couldn't beat Thea on land, but she didn't think she would lose in the sea!
Thea didn't think that much of it. If you want to race, let's race. No rules, no referee. They got ready and swam forward simultaneously.
Thea relied on the armor's energy source for propulsion, while Mera had nearly infinite stamina in the ocean. The two shot out like arrows from a bow at the same time.
Mera quickly took the lead with her skilled movements. Thea instructed Gideon to scan her movements—entry angle, body oscillation frequency—then calculate, simulate, optimize, and apply it to the armor. Her speed quickly caught up.
"You picked that up so fast?"
Mera didn't know about the existence of the AI. Seeing Thea's familiar movements, which were obviously simulating her own swimming posture, she thought Thea had learned it just by watching once. She was shocked inside; this surface dweller's learning ability is too terrifying!
Shock was one thing, but getting her to admit defeat was another matter entirely. Mera drew in a massive amount of seawater to propel herself forward. Her speed increased by another thirty percent out of nowhere.
So you can play it like that!
Thea felt she had learned another trick. This time she didn't need Gideon. Although she didn't use it often, she possessed the Water Attribute too! Following suit, she mimicked Mera, gathering a large mass of water magic behind her to push herself forward.
"1500 knots.""1600 knots.""1650 knots..."
The propulsion effect was immediate. Gideon faithfully reported her speed. The final speed settled at just under 1,700 knots.
Mera sensed Thea catching up again and could only speed up desperately. Thea followed behind her at an unhurried pace.
When they arrived at the Dead King's Island and everyone went ashore, Thea was still glowing with energy, while Mera was so tired her face turned pale. She had to soak in the sea alone for a long time to catch her breath.
"Did you fight her again?" Diana asked Thea in a whisper, looking at the pale-faced Mera.
"No, I just followed behind her. I didn't pass her from start to finish. I have to say, she swims really fast." Thea acted as if nothing had happened. She had consumed absolutely no stamina, using only the armor's energy. She was puzzled too. Thea didn't know that it was precisely this "didn't pass her from start to finish" that forced Mera to use the fastest speed of her life.
Aquaman couldn't figure out why his wife swam as if her life depended on it. He asked after her well-being warmly. Mera's legs were trembling, but she pretended nothing was wrong and dragged Aquaman into a full-on public display of affection.
Unfortunately, apart from her, the four other women were all tangled up in vaguely ambiguous relationships with each other. Of the three remaining men: one was a complete shut-in lost in his own head, one was half-crazy from being haunted by ghosts, and the only normal one was The Operative, but the old man was 70 and his grandson was 20; he couldn't appreciate Mera's painstaking efforts.
Mera scattered a handful of "dog food," but with the crowd's reactions flat and uneventful, she felt like her punch had hit empty air. Feeling a bit stifled, she followed everyone onto the island.
This island wasn't big. If one didn't walk close, even the Eye of Horus couldn't discover it. The vegetation on the island was very sparse. Within sight was a mountain that wasn't too high, with dark red magma flowing out occasionally. Due to the high temperature, the entire island seemed shrouded in a layer of invisible black smoke.
The group entered a cave on the side of the mountain. The cave was very deep. Along the way, everyone seemed to lose the interest to talk, walking carefully into the depths.
After walking for an hour through winding passages, the view suddenly opened up. A carved stone platform came into view before Thea.
A massive throne stood on the platform. Behind the throne, four female statues surrounded it, either looking up or bowing their heads.
Aquaman pointed at the female statues and said, "Back then, the artifacts they held were placed on those statues."
Thea observed for a moment. The Dead King had fallen into slumber; this island was just a deceptive array set up to hide the news of his death. The layout wasn't complicated. Or perhaps, the era he lived in was still obsessed with raw magical output; finesse lagged far behind modern spellcraft.
"You guys pick out any three artifacts. Use them, but don't let any energy leak out. I will find the resonance frequency, and we can open the secret compartment."
Ya'Wara took out her Globe of Transportation first. Kahina also took out the Golden Seal snatched back from Black Manta. Aquaman raised the Trident in his hand.
The fluctuations of the three artifacts were very similar. Thea concentrated on feeling the differences, her hands moving slightly to adjust the resonance of the three artifacts.
Once they hit a certain threshold, the three artifacts resonated at a bizarre wavelength. An invisible breeze swept in all directions. The female statues behind the throne slowly parted, and a golden scepter slowly rose from within.
The scepter was two meters long, entirely golden. One could see the head's initial shape was very similar to a trident, but the three prongs had been artificially closed together into one, forming a single, enclosing head. The two sides were extremely sharp. Looking closely, ancient script was carved on it.
This scepter looked a lot like a weapon from a game in Thea's memory: the Golden Staff of the Sin'dorei.
Thea looked back at everyone and seeing no one object, she reached out to take the scepter.
The scepter neither rejected her nor actively welcomed her. The sky didn't change color, the wind didn't surge—none of that happened.
It only transmitted a faint image to Thea. In the image, an old man suffered a miserable betrayal, then forged artifacts and returned to his country for revenge. After being abandoned by everyone, this old man angrily used the scepter to strike the magic node, causing the destruction of the ancient Atlantean Empire.
This old man is the Dead King, Atlan, right? Thea compared it with her memory and sighed a little. What a pity. The idea had been good—end war, embrace all races—only for him to be betrayed by his own blood and recast overnight from hero to monster.
Just as Thea was preparing to study the scepter's functions carefully, a high-pitched shout rang out.
"Surface Dweller! Put down the treasure in your hand! That is the holy relic of my Atlantis!"
A large group of weirdly dressed soldiers swarmed in, clustering around a young man holding a war halberd and wearing a finned helmet.