Through the thick quartz viewports, the Avengers watched as King Namor and Minister Vashti split into separate vectors, while Chisei Gen's unit vanished entirely into thin water near the trench floor.
"Are we really going to sit down here at four thousand meters just to admire the silt?" Tony Stark muttered, pushing off the bulkhead. "Helm, bring the engines online. Move us to their last known coordinates. We're not staying parked here like target dummies."
The command was relayed to the cockpit, and the submarine's massive rear turbines began to churn, propelling the black titanium hull forward.
Right at that moment, the murky water parted as Minister Vashti returned with the full imperial vanguard of Atlantis. Seeing the human warship accelerating toward the spatial breach, Vashti raised his coral staff, his voice booming with authority.
"Halt that vessel! Surround the perimeter!"
Dozens of armored Seahorse Knights swarmed across the trench, forming an impenetrable aquatic blockade directly in front of the submarine's bow.
"Until the royal crown has concluded its formal investigation, no surface-dweller departs this coordinate!" Vashti's voice vibrated through the surrounding currents, penetrating the hull with hydro-acoustic resonance.
Inside the cabin, the crew exchanged baffled, frustrated glances.
"Investigation? What the hell does he want to investigate?" Scott Lang stammered.
Unfortunately, without external broadcasting gear calibrated to aquatic frequencies, their voices were deadened by the reinforced pressure hull. There was zero possibility of communication.
Seeing the submarine's propellers continuing to spin without the slightest sign of decelerating, Vashti's expression darkened. He raised his hand, slashing it downward.
"Disrupt their bridge! Fire!"
The Atlantean vanguard raised their heavy, shell-forged Sonic Cannons in unison, pulling the triggers.
SKRRRRREEEEEEE—!
Invisible, hyper-concentrated sonic shockwaves tore through the water, vibrating the titanium hull like a colossal tuning fork.
Inside the cabin, the acoustic resonance bypassed physical armor, slamming directly into the human nervous system. Crewmen and tactical officers instantly collapsed to the deckplates, clutching their ears as blood dripped from their noses in blinding agony.
While the sonic barrage wasn't calibrated for immediate lethality, the neurological trauma it induced was no less agonizing than sustaining direct gunfire.
The Avengers fared little better. Caught entirely without specialized acoustic baffling, their physical bodies were subjected to the exact same crushing sensory overload. The only distinction was their elite combat conditioning and iron willpower; even while gasping through the torment, their instincts immediately sought a tactical countermeasure.
"Clint... we have to throttle the engines!" Natasha gasped, her knuckles white as she dragged herself up against a bolted steel bench. "Punch straight... toward Chisei's coordinates!"
Natasha forced her blurred vision to focus on Dr. Banner in the corner.
The physicist was on his knees, clutching his skull as his skin began to flicker with a radioactive, emerald sheen. Deep, guttural growls were building in his chest.
'If the Other Guy breaks out at this depth,' Natasha thought with cold urgency, 'his first punch will crack the pressure hull and drown every single one of us.'
"On it!" Hawkeye wheezed, stumbling forward alongside her.
Supporting each other against the vibrating bulkheads, the two seasoned operatives staggered step by step toward the bridge. Kicking the pressure door open, they found the primary helmsman slumped unconscious over the throttle. Hawkeye hauled the sailor out of the pilot's harness and threw himself into the seat.
Operating advanced naval craft was second nature to an agent of his clearance. Hawkeye slammed the dual throttle levers forward to absolute maximum override.
VROOOOOM!
The submarine surged violently forward like a rogue torpedo, cutting straight through the sonic perimeter.
"Pursue them!" Vashti commanded, urging his mount into a dead sprint as the Atlantean cavalry gave chase into the depths of the trench.
[Inside the Dimensional Pocket — The Nibelungen]
RIPPLE.
Passing through the invisible spatial membrane, King Namor's physical body crossed the threshold into the Nibelungen.
The crushing hydrostatic pressure of the Pacific instantly vanished, replaced by an open, atmospheric void.
Namor froze in mid-air, landing lightly on a floating expanse of pure white, solid mist. He looked around in absolute, stunned bewilderment.
Endless seas of luminescent white clouds stretched beneath a pale, open sky. Gigantic, shattered landmasses and ruined marble temples floated suspended in the air, interconnected by narrow causeways of condensed fog.
It was a celestial realm entirely disconnected from the ocean floor.
His sharp eyes immediately locked onto Chisei Gen, Yasha, and Sakura, who had arrived moments before him.
"Where have you taken me, surface-dwellers?!" Namor demanded, immediately dropping into a combat crouch with his golden trident levelled. "What dark sorcery is this?!"
His gaze burned into Chisei Gen—the man who had humiliated him by pinning him to the seabed with that invisible, crushing gravitational force.
Chisei did not offer Namor so much as a glance. He kept his back turned, his eyes fixed on the colossal, floating citadel at the center of the realm.
Seeing that the intruders were not engaging, Namor instinctively took two steps backward, intending to return to the ocean to regroup. He was fundamentally a creature of the sea; extended exposure to dry air steadily drained his biological strength and physical endurance.
THUD.
Before he could take a third step, an impenetrable, invisible spatial wall blocked his path.
The threshold was absolute. This Nibelungen was a one-way realm—open to entry, entirely closed to departure.
Namor's retreat did not escape the notice of the Execution Bureau, but they held zero interest in cornering him.
"We move," Chisei commanded quietly, stepping onto the central cloud bridge. "Herzog is at the primary citadel."
Seeing the three humans advancing without hesitation, Namor set aside his pride and fell into step several yards behind them.
CRASH—SCREEECH!
Before they could cover fifty paces, the fabric of space at the entry portal tore open with a deafening metallic screech. The massive, dark bow of the S.H.I.E.L.D. submarine burst through the spatial membrane, its titanium keel skidding violently across the cloud platform until half the vessel hung precariously over the open sky.
The upper conning tower hatch popped open, and the Avengers leaped down onto the solid mist, landing in braced stances.
"There they are!" Tony called out, spotting Chisei's team and Namor ahead.
FLASH!
Right behind the submarine, Minister Vashti and dozens of armored Seahorse Knights poured through the spatial tear, their weapons instantly snapping up to target the Avengers.
"Hold your fire!" Namor's voice boomed across the cloud causeway.
The command echoed through the quiet realm, instantly defusing the powder keg.
"King Namor!" Vashti called out in relief, lowering his coral staff as his mount trotted forward.
"Lower your weapons, Vashti," Namor ordered, his eyes sweeping the floating islands. "First... we must understand what kind of domain we have walked into."
With the Atlanteans standing down, the Avengers quickly jogged past Namor's perimeter, smoothly joining up with Chisei Gen's vanguard. At the same time, Vashti's contingent formed up behind their king.
Surrounded by a completely alien, hostile environment, neither faction possessed the appetite to wage a factional war. Both groups advanced along the vast cloud road toward the central fortress in silent, uneasy alignment.
"Mr. Gen," Tony said, falling into step beside the High Patriarch, his brow furrowed. "Did your people know there was an entire sub-dimension hidden beneath Tokyo Bay?"
Chisei continued forward without looking back.
"It is not a natural dimension, Stark," Crow chimed in from behind, lighting a fresh cigarette. "This is a Nibelungen—the absolute, sovereign domain of an ancient Dragon King."
Crow exhaled a thin stream of smoke, laying out the unredacted truth of what lay ahead: the biological hierarchy of purebloods, the apocalyptic power of ancient Draconic monarchs, and Herzog's plot to use the Bone Reliquary Jar to resurrect the King of Sky and Wind while ascending to the throne of the White King.
By the time Crow finished his explanation, the Avengers had completely stopped in their tracks.
"Wait a second..." Tony said, his voice dropping into a dead, icy register as he stared at Crow. "You're telling us... we are marching into a room to fight two fully awakened Dragon Kings simultaneously?"
Tony's face twisted in genuine fury. "Why the hell did you wait until we were trapped inside an unmapped dimension to share that minor detail?!"
The gravity of the situation hit the Avengers like a physical blow. While they had never fought a true Dragon King, if they used Hebe Shikai's catastrophic rampage in New York as a baseline unit of measurement... surviving a simultaneous encounter with two apex sovereigns verged on impossibility.
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Give me powerstones.
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