"Damn, little fish, what kind of messed up stamina is that? Sheesh"

Words that the 8th Ruler of the Demon World never expected to say to another being of the same rank as her came out of her mouth. The problem was that this wasn’t the first time these words were said in the past few hours.

The first time these words were uttered from Barbatos’s mouth was after an entire hour of deadly skills clashing against one another in the dark waters of the Abyssal Zone as Noah adapted to his terrific new PHANTASMAL skill. The body of the Kaiju had extreme defenses while its heads let out terrible attacks.

Noah was able to withstand the blazing suns that Barbatos threw as well as the dreadful spirits she continued to summon. This continued until a sense of exhaustion filled the body of the Demon Empress and she was looking towards Noah with a frightening light in her eyes. He did not seem to have any sense of tiredness as the large three heads looked down at her menacingly.

After this came the second battle where the Demon Empress acted on her earlier words of letting the Atlantean have a taste of something he had been feasting his eyes on earlier that day. This battle took even longer than the first one.

This battle too, she had lost.

Noah looked at the exhausted figure of Barbatos lying on the bed as he moved out once again. He breathed out as he felt better after cooping himself in the Time Space for the past 21 days of constant training. He had never entertained the idea of Barbatos before, and just went along with the flow after he tested his PHANTAMSAL strength for the first time.

Even now he didn’t feel any sense of attachment, just slight guilt as he thought about a certain Queen that was leading a kingdom and a portion of the smooth establishment of relations with his homeworld.

He shook his head as his figure began to disappear in a silver light, his voice coming across before he disappeared from the Spiritual Land.

"I’ll move first. I’ll call you out if your aid is needed."

"Yea yea, I’m more interested to play around in this isolated space treasure than go searching for ugly fish in the bottom of the sea anyways~"

Noah fully disappeared as he heard the reply and found himself in the dark waters of the Abyssal Zone once more. His mind continued to think about the future as he considered which of the other maxed Mythical+ skills could be combined to make another extremely powerful PHANTASMAL skill.

The Spiritual Land was shrunk down and anchored to him once more as he moved deeper into the Abyssal Zone, this time confident of his chances if he met the terrible beast that most likely knew the whereabouts of the Trident of the Sea.

---

The oceans were vast and wild, with many species running rampant in the deeper waters. The figure of an Atlantean Noah was currently facing a large swarm of fearsome-looking [Dark Piranhas] that always moved in large groups.

He had been moving across the waters of the Abyssal Zone for the past few days, coming across various deep-sea creatures that only went further to add more skill books, items, and cores into his collection. He was saving many of them for a few figures that popped into his mind, and he planned to do something big after he got his hands on the Trident of the Sea.

Only a week remained before the forces that were led by the first ranked Ruler of the Demon World, Baal, would reach Atlantis. This was a force comprised of demons and their arrogant allies, the Cultivators. Noah’s mind moved fast, thinking about all of these things as he cut down the LEGENDARY ranked Piranhas around him using Mythical+ skills and his new additions of Mythical skills over the past few days.

He had come across two Mythical beasts that provided him with an additional three skills, cores, and some items. The additional skills were great to look at.

[Defiance] :: A ring full of baleful energy surrounds you. Your defenses cannot be penetrated as long as the ring is active.

[Resplendent Speed] :: A streak of light is all that can be observed by the untrained eye as your movements chase after the most supreme speed possible.

[Phasing] :: Damage from physical attacks are reduced by 90% while the phase state is active.

The skills only served to make him want to seclude himself into the Time Space so he could max their proficiencies and combine once more, but he focused on continuing to search for the beast at the bottom of the Abyssal Zone.

He was now entering a depth where he found fewer and fewer creatures, indicating that he was going in the right direction. Those weaker would steer clear of the home of one of the Calamities of the Sea.

The further down he went, the more careful he became as his [Crisis Avoidance] had already become active with a slight ringing. The ringing was very light and never increased, which put him in an alert state as he felt something would soon occur.

He stopped in the depth of the sea as the dark waters moved around him, a slight blue sheen making his Atlantean body visible in the darkness. The Kraken was something that the old King Neptune had befriended, if Noah did not have to fight such a beast, he wouldn’t actively look for a fight. But his skills were ready at a seconds notice if anything dangerous were to occur.

The waters around him were slightly vibrating as they seemed to signal the arrival of something.

No, not the arrival, just the appearance. Because it was already there.

A sharp light flashed through Noah’s eyes as he began seeing the form of something huge make itself visible all around him. His [Crisis Avoidence] was still only letting out a faint signal, meaning no heavy malicious intent was being thrown towards him, but the appearance of dark shining skin almost seemed to say otherwise.

Like a never-ending wall was blooming in front of his eyes, the shining skin of a tremendous behemoth that was melded with the environment was becoming visible. The body covered the entire region in front of Noah as behind him appeared tremendously long arms that could only be tentacles.

They appeared and seemed to wriggle endlessly as they looked both slippery and sharp, waving along the waters as they covered the entire area. What looked to be a wall in front of Noah suddenly had two maddeningly powerful red eyes snap wide open as an oppressive force finally spread out in the dark waters.

It was a terrifying sight in the depths of the Abyssal Zone as one of the Calamities of the Sea, the Kraken, appeared. It wasn’t just powerful, it could also completely erase its entire aura and become invisible at a moment’s notice.

A booming voice roiled out in the dark waters as the red eyes shone with a dangerous light.

"What kind of worthless Seeker has to be sought out?"

...