The colossal phantom of Atlantis suddenly froze in place.
Rich, dark energy churned from the depths of the ocean beneath Orm's feet, spreading upwards, and as it almost reached Orm, Atlantis looked panicked.
"What is this? This... no... no..."
The shadow whooshed back into Orm's body, but Orm was still being manipulated to raise the Trident, screaming in agony. Lightning flashed behind him, and massive waves surged towards the shore, sending the people on the dock into panicked cries.
But soon another figure stood in the city's path, Arthur and the Atlanteans, like Orm before them, formed a solid curtain of water with the waves, blocking all incoming water.
The waters from both sides gradually converged, and although both came from the ocean, they clashed distinctly, forming a high water tornado not far from the dock. Even the clouds and lightning were swept into it, creating a wildly brutal whirlpool that reached for the heavens.
Within the water tornado, two strong figures clashed. Arthur's black hair, wet by the water and blown by the wind, obscured his face. He shouted at Orm, "Wake up, Orm! Don't let him control you. We are descendants of Atlantis. The ocean has a free will and can't be represented by anyone!"
Orm's body lit up with blue and gold patterns as countless violent forces erupted from his eyes, mouth, and nose. He roared in pain, and the surrounding waters wrapped around his limbs, serving both as a cage and as weapons.
The thunder and dark clouds in the sky churned and roared, pressing darkly down. The curtain of rain that fell seemed to have the weight of thousands of pounds. Whether it was the corpses floating on the sea or the crowd fleeing in panic on the dock, they all seemed as insignificant as the damp mist on a canvas.
The great power of nature was fully demonstrated at that moment. When the sea and the sky roared together, all other roars of life were no more than the cries of a newborn.
Arthur was unarmed, but the sea was his most effective means of attack. He flung his arm forward, and a jet of water shot out. The Trident emitted a faint light, barely blocking the attack, and Orm, roaring, charged at Arthur.
Arthur dodged to the side; his black hair fell across his forehead. Amidst the surging water, through the gap in his dense hair, he saw Orm's eyes, filled with pain and struggle.
Looking deeper, a strange black tide surged in the depths of his pupils. Another fierce battle raged within Orm's psychic space.
A rich green dominated half of the sky; Green Lantern Hal floated above a world filled with water, the intense green lantern energy repelling the endless assault of the sea. In the distance, the Dead King Atlantean, glowing golden, was recklessly mobilizing his power, trying to break through the green lantern energy's blockade.
"Wake up quickly, Orm. The one controlling you wants to destroy your homeland," Batman's voice echoed through the water. He stood on an isolated island above the water, in front of which an iceberg floated, imprisoning the figure of the Ocean Master Orm, which was clearly his true consciousness.
The powers of Atlantis entwined around the iceberg, like the most robust chains, trapping Orm's consciousness and numbing him, leaving him oblivious to what was happening.
Batman was attempting to break the power of Atlantis and rescue Orm's consciousness, aware that this universe was still young. Arthur had only recently come to understand his heritage, and he was far from matching Ocean Master Orm's understanding and control over the power of the sea.
To confront the Dead King Atlantean, both Orm and Arthur had to join forces. If Orm did not regain consciousness soon, the great battle in the ocean could potentially spread to the land.
At this very moment, the Primary Universe Batman here had some understanding of Atlantis's history. Atlanna was once the greatest king of Atlantis when it was still a glorious kingdom on land, a highly advanced civilization.
Atlanna's younger brother Orin was an old-fashioned conservative who believed that the power of Atlantis came from its pure bloodline, so he was decisively against Atlanteans intermarrying with other races.
However, Atlanna himself had married a woman from another race and had many children, which Orin saw as an act of defilement. Thus, he betrayed Atlanna, leading his followers to assassinate him. Injured, Atlanna fled while Orin killed Atlanna's wife and all their children.
Atlanna returned to Atlantis, saw his wife and children brutally murdered, and in a fury, sank the entire Atlantis with his trident, turning the glorious land civilization of Atlantis into a sea kingdom.
Exhausted, Atlanna slept in the Mariana Trench but never gave up on revenge. He always wanted to gather strength to completely destroy Atlantis.
Upon the cruise ship's arrival, Ion Lantern sensed the remarkable power fluctuations aboard the vessel, so Hal and Clark followed this energy all the way to the depths of the Mariana Trench.
There they found the refuge of Atlanna, but this once-great king was adept in Magic Tech. He had made his hideout impregnable, and without previous experience, Hal and Clark couldn't find a way in. They wandered the outer labyrinth for ages without a clue.
Clark considered using brute force to break through, but the sea here possessed a magical power that greatly weakened the intensity of physical attacks. Although Hal had Green Lantern energy, he did not know how to effectively assault the shield.
Neither of them made any progress for a long time, so they both thought of the same solution, which was to go back and find Batman.
The distance to the trench from the cruise ship was nothing for the two of them, and they quickly returned to the ship. However, they did not find the familiar Batman they knew, but the one from the Prime Universe.
The reason was that Bruce had just left to deal with music, and Beihan was being hunted down. Only the Primary Universe Batman was in the ship's engine room, studying energy traces. Like White Can, he had discovered something off about the ship's power source.
When Clark and Hal explained their purpose, Batman was already quite accustomed to it, since he was the brain of the Justice League in their universe and used to people seeking his help at any time and place.
Batman followed Clark and Hal to the depths of the trench and discovered that the direction of energy flow here was exactly the same as the energy traces on Dakotazo's power core engine. This was enough to show that Dakotazo was a ploy by Atlantean.
At that time, they had not yet figured out why Atlantean had gone through such a large loop to create a cruise ship to deceive people, but they also knew that if they could not break the shield where Atlantean was hiding, it would be impossible to restart the cruise ship's power system.
While studying the shield, Batman found that its structure was extremely ingenious, akin to a brand new magical system, but there was one flaw: Atlantean had left a gap on it and was transferring his own power somewhere else.
The three of them followed the power transmission channel and found Orm unconscious. Then they understood that Atlantean was controlling Orm, and considering Orm's challenger was Shiller, they feared that Shiller might be Atlantean's ultimate target.
Although they did not know what the grudge between the two was, the cruise ship was not far from Gotham's coastline. If Atlantean chose to attack there, the cities on land would inevitably be threatened, which was something none of them wanted to see.
Clark and Hal tried both physical and energy measures to wake up Orm, but to no avail. Atlantean's control of Orm was evidently premeditated and not accomplished overnight. His spiritual control was comprehensive and deep.
Batman deduced that under these circumstances, they had no way to wake up Orm from the outside. They must delve into his psychic world, defeat Atlantean there, and rescue Orm's spirit.
As soon as the psychic world was mentioned, Hal naturally knew whom to contact. He constructed a communicator with Green Lantern energy and contacted Constantine, obtaining partial access to the Dreamworld. Clark, limited by bandwidth, stayed behind to watch over their bodies, while Hal and Batman entered Orm's psychic world through the Dreamworld.
Upon arriving, all their speculations were confirmed. It was likely that many years ago, Orm's psyche had already been invaded by Atlantean, who continued to corrupt his psychic space until completely freezing Orm's spirit inside an iceberg.
Atlantean detected their invasion and immediately rallied his forces for a fierce attack on the two of them, preventing them from focusing on freeing Orm from the chains.
Therefore, Hal and Batman divided the labor. Hal was responsible for fending off Atlantean's attacks, while Batman worked on rescuing Orm.
But it was quite difficult. From the current situation, it was clear that Atlantean must have a complete plan. Corrupting and controlling Orm was just one part of it, and so was Dakotazo. His preparations were very thorough, and both Hal and Batman had been called upon in an emergency.
If they wanted to break the key part of this plan, which was controlling Orm, it was necessary to spend some time to understand how Atlantean managed to control Orm and then find a solution.
Batman was already working fast. He almost instantly discovered that the force sealing the iceberg was woven from a special magical structure, similar to the craftiness of the Dakotazo engine and the magical shield in the Mariana Trench.
Batman immediately gathered all the information he observed and began to decode it one by one in his mind. Still, even with the full operation of this true super brain, there wasn't enough time.
A surge of water hit near Batman's feet, and Hal shouted from that side, "This guy seems to be a psychic entity, very skilled at combat in the psychic world. I have little experience in this area and can probably only hold on for ten more minutes!"
"Then it's ten minutes!" Batman shouted, standing amidst the storm like a towering black wall, akin to the final barrier for humanity facing a natural disaster.
He heard Hal say, "If this guy is targeting Shiller, Shiller can't be unprepared. We need to wait for him!"
Batman was about to say that they should not pin their hopes on anyone else when he saw Atlantean's figure, who was wreaking havoc in mid-air, suddenly stiffen. Like a communication wave being disrupted, he flickered a few times and then disappeared.
Batman and Hal were somewhat baffled, but they quickly exchanged glances. Batman spoke, "First, let's rescue Orm, and then go back to his hideout to see what's going on."