It was none other than Michael and the angels.

“What the...?” Siegfried muttered and tilted his head as he looked at Michael and the angels.

All of them were so drenched that they resembled wet rats rather than majestic angels.

“Why are you coming from down there, Michael?” he asked.

“Ah, well... that is...” Michael replied, his voice shaking with embarrassment. Then, he said, “We dove in to locate the ancient ruins of the Illuminati.”

“Oh? And what happened? Did you find anything?” Siegfried asked.

“As you know, I’m not able to properly use my powers right now, so...”

He was the Chief Archangel, but descending from the Celestial Realm to the Middle Realm was still no easy task for him. Unless he was contracted with a vessel capable of containing his powers, he'd find it difficult to use even ten percent of his true powers.

“I couldn’t move freely due to the lack of air. And then we encountered enemies, too.”

“Huh? Enemies? What kind of enemies?”

“I’m not sure myself. But believe it or not, there was a massive city down there beneath the waters.”

“What?! R-Really?!”

“Yes, Siegfried. Those powerful enemies emerged from the city and attacked us.”

“Holy shit...”

“The ancient ruins of the Illuminati are most likely inside that city, but we have absolutely no way of entering it. Not only is it filled with powerful enemies, but it’s also so deep that we'll run out of breath before even reaching it.”

“Hmm... That sounds like quite the problem...” Siegfried muttered, grimacing at Michael’s words. Siegfried was a superhuman, but he was still a human in the end.

He needed oxygen to survive just like anyone else, and there was no way around it unless he stepped into the realm of Arc Grandmaster. He could indeed last far longer without air compared to ordinary people, but he couldn't stay underwater indefinitely.

At some point, he needed to get air, so diving into the deep sea for a long time was simply impossible.

“How deep is it?” Siegfried asked.

“I believe it was about... five thousand meters,” Michael replied.

“Ah...”

“The water pressure is too strong to withstand.”

At a depth of five thousand meters, the water pressure would be beyond at least five hundred psi. It was simply impossible for an ordinary human to dive five thousand meters underwater, and even if they somehow managed to dive that far, the water pressure would crush their bodies instantly.

Only superhumans like Siegfried, Michael, and the angels could survive in such an environment, but even they would struggle to stay long in it.

“This is a problem...” Siegfried muttered.

He racked his brains and tried to come up with a solution, but he couldn’t think of anything.

The deep sea would be nothing if Siegfried and Michael could use their true powers as the Demon King and Chief Archangel, but they were unable to do that while in the Middle Realm.

“Kyuuu! You'd better come clean right now, owner punk! Are you dumb or stupid? Call that whale dude!” Hamchi shrieked in frustration.

“The whale dude...?” Siegfried muttered, tilting his head in frustration.

“You know! That whale that you beat up real good last time! Kyuuu!”

“Ah!”

Siegfried recalled the time he conquered the Green Isles. Back then, he had gotten into a fight with a sperm whale named Albion while searching for Michael’s wings. After a long battle, he eventually decided to spare its life out of mercy.

“He said he was the prince of an underwater civilization or something, right? That he was exiled or something?”

“Kyuuu! Yes! Hamchi remembers him saying something like that!”

“He could probably help us with this. But how do we call him? I have no idea where that guy is.”

“Kyuuu... That’s true...”

Finding a single sperm whale in this vast ocean was practically impossible. No matter how wide the detection range of Inzaghi’s Clairvoyance was, scanning the entire ocean in search of a single creature was simply impossible.

‘Hmm... What should I do?’ Siegfried pondered.

“Kyuuu! Hamchi has a brilliant idea, owner punk! How about we ask the sea monsters?”

“Oh? Should we give it a try?”

Hamchi’s suggestion made perfect sense, as it was far more efficient for them to ask the sea monsters to find Albion rather than personally searching this vast ocean by themselves.

“Okay. Let’s give it a shot.”

Siegfried immediately gathered the sea monsters and ordered them to capture Albion.

Albion was an incredibly strong creature, but the sheer number of sea monsters under Siegfried’s command made it possible to bring him in once they located him.

The sea monsters under his command seemed to have reproduced quite a lot recently, so their numbers had grown massive.

“Try to find him and bring him in front of me,” Siegfried ordered the sea monster.

After sending them off, he waited patiently, hoping that they would somehow catch Albion and return with him in tow.

***

That night...

“Let go! I said let go of me, you bastards!”

Shockingly, the sea monsters managed to capture Albion in less than twelve hours.

“Eh?”

Siegfried was resting on the deck of a naval battleship that his comrades had brought over for him. He stood up instantly when he saw Albion being dragged in.

“Those guys actually caught him...?”

Siegfried was finally reunited with Albion.

Siegfried waved and called out, “Yo! How’ve you been doing, man?”

“H-Hiiiik! Y-You! You’re that bast—!” Albion shrieked in horror and recoiled the moment he saw Siegfried.

His reaction was only natural, especially when taking into consideration how he suffered during their previous encounter.

“I’m going to let you go for now.”

“T-Thank you...”

“But on one condition. You’re going to have to cough up whatever you’ve got in your belly first. Every last bit of it.”

“W-What are you talking about...?”

“I want your puke.”

Siegfried once punched Albion right in the solar plexus with all of his strength, all for the sake of obtaining the sperm whale’s vomit.

The vomit of a sperm whale, Ambergis, was far more valuable than its weight in gold, as it was a key ingredient to create the most expensive perfumes the continent had ever seen.

To produce the Ambergis, Siegfried had forced Albion to vomit by punching him repeatedly.

“A-Are you...!”

“Huh? What?”

“Are you going to hit me again for Ambergis...?” Albion asked carefully, trembling as the memories of being forced to vomit came back to him.

“Eh? Ah, no, it’s not about that this time,” Siegfried replied, waving his hand. Then, he said, “I need your help with something else—”

Albion suddenly shouted and cut him off, “W-Wait! This place is dangerous! Let’s talk somewhere else!”

“Huh? What do you mean by that?” Siegfried asked, tilting his head in confusion.

“I said it’s dangerous here! I can’t be here!”

“But why?”

“Because this place is—!”

At that moment—

Splash! Splash! Splash!

A group of warriors shot up from the waters and appeared.

“Huh? Who are they?” Siegfried tilted his head once again at the warriors wearing tight suits.

All of them carried tridents and wore full-body suits that clung tightly to their bodies like some sort of wetsuit.

“N-No! I knew this would happen!” Albion screamed.

The leader of the warriors shouted, “There you are! How dare you show yourself here, you traitor!”

At his words, about two hundred warriors emerged from the waters and charged at Albion all at once. Their swimming skills were so extraordinary that they moved over the waters as if they were on solid ground.

‘Oh!’

Siegfried instantly realized that these warriors were actually the Warriors of Atlantis of the underwater civilization, and they had come to capture Albion.

How did he come to that conclusion? Well, Albion wouldn't have panicked and demanded they talk somewhere else if this place weren't directly above Atlantis.

‘Oho... This is perfect for me,’ Siegfried thought with a grin.

Then, he drew out his Annihilation’s Grasp and turned to his comrades. “Wipe them out.”

A battle broke out, and the result was obvious.

“Let go! I said let go!”

“You filthy surface-dwellers! How dare you lay your filthy hands on me?!”

“Vile land creatures!”

“Are you not afraid of the sea’s wrath?!”

“Curse you!”

Half of the Warriors of Atlantis were slaughtered in the blink of an eye, and those fortunate enough to survive the battle were captured.

No matter how formidable they were as warriors, fighting above water rather than underwater was a massive disadvantage for them. Especially when they were up against Siegfried and his comrades, who were some of the most powerful figures on the continent.

They stood no chance at all.

“P-Phew... I’m alive,” Albion sighed in relief.

Siegfried flew toward him and called out, “Hey, you.”

“Huh? Y-Yes?”

“We need to go to Atlantis.”

“A-Atlantis?!”

“Yeah.”

“Why would you even want to go there?!”

“I have my reasons.”

“Forget about it. It’s impossible.”

“Is that so? Impossible... I see...” Siegfried muttered. Then, he cracked his knuckles and slowly hovered over toward the sperm whale.

“H-Huh? W-What’s wrong?”

“You see. I get angry when I hear someone say something’s impossible.”

“H-Hiiiik!”

“And I really need to vent it out on someone...”

“W-Wait! Hold on! Stay back!”

“Nope. Let’s talk after I vent it out and cool off a bit.”

Bam!

Siegfried’s fist came down on Albion’s head.

“Kieeeeeeek!”

***

After re-educating Albion, Siegfried said, “So, let me get this straight. You were originally a prince of Atlantis, but your retainers staged a rebellion and framed you for murdering the previous king?"

“Y-Yes, that is correct, sir...”

“And then they placed a curse on you, turning you into a sperm whale. But right before you were about to be executed, you got lucky and managed to escape?”

“Yes, sir...”

As it turned out, Albion, too, had his own tragic story, which explained why the prince of the underwater civilization was wandering aimlessly in the form of a beast.

“Okay. Let’s make a deal. If you help us get into Atlantis, I’ll help you reclaim your throne,” Siegfried proposed.

“There’s no way to enter Atlantis. Breaking into it is impossible, and the only way in is through the entrance,” Albion replied.

“Yeah? Why not?”

“It is how it is.”

“Are you talking about the water pressure and breathing underwater?”

“No, I have a solution that can help you with both of those.”

“Oh? What is it?”

“Wear the armor of those warriors you just defeated. Those are enchanted armor that allows you to breathe freely underwater while withstanding extreme water pressure.”

“That’s quite a useful piece of information.”

“But that’s as far as it goes. Secretly infiltrating Atlantis is just impossible.”

“Then we will just go in through the front.”

“Do you honestly think it will be that easy? No matter how strong you and your comrades are, the deep sea is still the deep sea. Even if you’re wearing enchanted armor, your people are genetically different from us. Your combat ability will drop significantly while underwater.”

“Don’t worry about that.”

“...What?”

“We’re going to enter proudly through the front. Those guys are probably going to throw us a grand welcome.”

“Huh? What is that supposed to mean?”

“You will see soon enough.”

“Eh? But that’s not possible—”

It was then.

A chill ran down Albion’s spine, and he trembled after noticing the sinister grin tugging at Siegfried’s lips.

While their encounter in the past was brief, he somehow knew that this human was not an ordinary one. Moreover, his grin looked more befitting of a demon than a human.

***

A few hours later, Siegfried and his comrades dove down into the deep sea where the underwater civilization, Atlantis, was located. It was an exhausting dive for everyone, but they were able to endure it thanks to the armor they had taken from the fallen Warriors of Atlantis.

Once they dove deep enough and passed a certain depth, the radiant protective barrier surrounding the underwater civilization revealed itself.

“Halt! Who goes there?!”

“Who dares step foot into Atlantis?!”

Countless guards appeared and surrounded Siegfried’s group in an instant.

“Wait!”

The very same leader of the group who had attacked Siegfried’s party at the surface a few hours ago stepped forward.

“These land-dwellers played a great role in capturing the traitor, Albion! Do not attack them!”

Siegfried had injected his radioactive microbes into the warrior and turned him into an Irradiator. Of course, there was no way the guards would be aware of that.

The guards were shocked by those words.

“What?! A-Albion?!”

“Ah! That’s Albion over there! I recognize him!”

“It’s the traitor!”

“Ptooey! Disgusting traitor!”

The guards were extremely hostile toward Albion.

Most of the Atlanteans believed that Albion was the one who had assassinated the late king, and they all branded him a traitor against their race.

“Since they helped in capturing the traitor, they shall be treated as heroes of Atlantis.”

“That’s right.”

“Very well. I will report it to my superiors, but you may enter.”

“Understood.”

With that, Siegfried and his part succeeded in entering the underwater civilization, Atlantis, without shedding a single drop of blood.

Thanks to turning the warriors who had attacked them earlier into Irradiators, they deceived the Atlanteans quite easily.

“See?” Siegfried whispered to Albion.

Albion could only respond by nodding, as he was being gagged.

“Now we head into your royal palace. We wait for the right timing and then flip this place upside down. Hehehe!”

“...?”

“You get to clear your name while we get to explore Atlantis. It’s a win-win scenario for both of us, isn’t it?”

“...”

“Let’s hurry up then! Kekeke!”

Siegfried looked to be in an unusually good mood for the first time in a long while, and Hamchi knew exactly why.

The giant hamster saw that and shook his head. ‘Tsk, tsk... Owner punk is excited that he finally gets to stab someone in the back again. Kyuu...’