Chapter 4421: Prelude to Darkness (Part 13)

Arthur walked up. He sized up this woman; her complexion was actually okay, it was just that her expression was somewhat dull. And his arrival clearly disturbed the other party. That woman turned her head, and the moment she saw Arthur, she was stunned.

"You..."

She stepped back twice in disbelief. Arthur kept sizing her up, looking for his own traces on her. In fact, Arthur and the Queen didn't look very much alike, but he looked exactly like his father.

"By Atlan!" The Queen covered her mouth in disbelief. Her whole body was trembling, looking at Arthur's eyebrows and eyes, as if she had already sunk into memories.

"I am Arthur, Arthur Curry. My father is..."

"Tom! You are Tom's son!!!" The Queen's tears couldn't help but overflow from her eye sockets. She said, "God, you've grown so big; you were just a little baby when I left..."

Arthur's Adam's apple moved. He could imagine, a woman who was forced to separate from her own son shortly after giving birth, was chased and killed by soldiers, and was forced to give birth to the child of someone she didn't love. She was already painful enough. Not to mention later, she had been trapped in this dark place, enduring the torture of loneliness day after day for decades.

Hal hurriedly stepped forward and pulled Arthur. Unlike others, resurrection from the dead itself is an incredible thing, and people always need time to accept this matter. But if the relative didn't die at all, then it's much easier to accept.

But precisely because of this, the mastermind behind the scenes can easily set a trap here, making them think Arthur's mother didn't die, but in fact, this one is already a person resurrected from the dead—this is completely doable.

Arthur sighed long and said: "Mother, I have already returned to Atlantis and inherited the throne."

"What?!" The Queen appeared very surprised, she said, "How could you... then Tom? He... has he passed away?"

"No, he still guards the lighthouse."

"Then how could you leave him alone? Or did he have other children all these years?"

Arthur shook his head and said: "No, just me. He refuses to remarry, always waiting for you to return."

The Queen revealed a painful expression, then said: "Then you can't leave him even more. If you become the Sea King, then you can't return to land often, and he will be alone again."

"So, I want to pick you up and go back..."

"No!" The Queen refused cleanly, "Back then, I was chased and killed, suffered many injuries, and was exiled shortly after giving birth to Orm. This caused great damage to my body; I can no longer leave the seawater."

"But you can return to Atlantis..."

"That's even more impossible," the Queen refused again, "Now you have inherited the throne. If I, the former Queen, return, they won't know who to listen to. This is a taboo for ruling a country."

"Moreover, for me, there is no difference between there and here. Here I can still enjoy peace and quiet, without having to look at the ugly faces of that group of people. How is Orm? Did you kill him?"

Arthur shook his head and said: "No."

The Queen sighed and said: "I know you can't bear to do it, but I must remind you that Orm inherited his father's cruel genes. But both father and son have the biggest problem, which is not being smart enough. Even with violent means, they can't suppress the seven seas of the ocean at all, and will sooner or later bring disaster to the ocean."

"In fact, Orm has already done so," Arthur lowered his eyelids and said, "He not only wants to unify the seven seas of the ocean, but also wants to attack the mainland."

The Queen turned around, snorted disdainfully, then said: "He is exactly the same as his stupid dead ghost father. They don't understand at all that Earth has long been the world of humans. No one can take this planet away from their hands. The ancient tribes are already the past; still immersed in the past glory, trying to provoke war, is just looking for their own death."

Listening to these words from the Queen, Hal's heart moved. The Queen seemed to know many things, so he asked: "Queen Majesty, may I ask if you know about the Mother Box?"

The Queen turned around again, staring closely at Hal. Hal stretched out his hand and said: "We dealt with a monster called Steppenwolf before; he was sent by Darkseid to find the Mother Box."

The Queen's face changed instantly. She looked at Arthur and asked: "Steppenwolf?! Where is he now?"

"Has already been killed by us," Arthur said, "but Darkseid has set off a dark frenzy in the multiverse, and the first to bear the brunt is our universe."

"This guy is truly persistent!" The Queen cursed through gritted teeth, then said, "Regarding the Mother Box, I only heard about it. But I remember, there are three parts to the Mother Box that fell to Earth..."

"Wait a minute," Hal interrupted her and asked, "Divided into three parts, aren't there three Mother Boxes?"

Before the battle with Steppenwolf, they already knew that there were three mysterious cubes known as Mother Boxes. Among them, one was fused with Victor, and the other two, one was in Atlantis, and one was in the Amazon.

They originally thought there were three Mother Boxes, similar to gear parts of some machines, there were three of the same model. But listening to the Queen's meaning, there was only one Mother Box, then how did these three cubes come about?

The Queen shook her head and said: "This involves some principles I can't explain either. It seems there are three cubes, but in reality, there is only one Mother Box. Saying there are three parts is also not very accurate; it should be said that they are the three sides of the Mother Box. Although humans see three, in reality, they are just observed from different angles of rules; in reality, they are the same one."

Hal understood a bit. The Mother Box on Victor's body was actually just one side of the Mother Box. The other two sides weren't fused into his body, so the secondary power obtained might be incomplete. Although one side was enough to resurrect Victor, the secondary power it output wasn't enough to completely resurrect him.

"It seems many things happened outside during my time here," the Queen sighed and said, "But I am already old, and my body is not as good as before, really unable to help with anything. I can only tell you, if you want to pursue the most ancient secrets of Atlantis, you must go to the Tomb of Atlan."

"Tomb of Atlan?"

"Atlan is the ancestor of Atlantis. Because of participating in the struggle between Poseidon and Zeus, the entire Atlantis was destroyed. So he took the Golden Trident and exiled himself out of Atlantis..."

"Is the Golden Trident you mentioned this one?" Arthur beckoned, and the trident flew into his hand; the Queen's eyes widened.

"God, how did you get it?"

"It was taken from the Tomb of Atlan you mentioned. But I didn't see anything else."

"Did you see Atlan's corpse?"

Arthur shook his head, and the Queen continued: "Then you looked in the wrong place. That is his throne, not his tomb. His tomb hides many ancient secrets; if you can find it, perhaps it can answer many of your questions."

Hal and Arthur looked at each other, silently remembering this matter. The Mother Box is ultimately a hidden danger; if it cannot be completely solved, it will definitely become a big trouble in the future.

The Queen was unwilling to leave with Arthur. This meant she might not be a person resurrected from the dead. But they still didn't let down their guard. After leaving, Arthur asked Mera: "Who set up this protective shield?"

Mera thought for a while, then said: "I'm not very clear about this. But as long as one has been judged and exiled, one cannot leave the Trench. Only the Sea King recognized by the sea people can come and go freely here."

Arthur nodded. Don't look at the Queen now as if there is no problem, but maybe she will do one thing on the surface and another behind the scenes; not coming out is of course the best.

After the group left the Trench, Arthur said: "I want to stay and guard here, in case of any disturbance. In addition, I might need to explore the Tomb of Atlan. If there is any news, I will contact you as soon as possible."

Everyone approved of this plan, so Arthur stayed, and the others returned to the Justice League base.

"Next are the situations of Wonder Woman and Victor. They haven't appeared for so long, maybe they went to see their resurrected relatives. Who do you think we should start with?"

"I think we should split into two groups," Hal said, "The mastermind behind the scenes will soon realize that his plan has already failed for the most part. This kind of soft strategy doesn't work, maybe he will come hard with us; our time is already running out."

"That's right," Barry also nodded and said, "That mastermind behind the scenes must have a way to observe our universe, otherwise he wouldn't have chosen here. Once he discovers that this stage of the plan has failed, it's hard to avoid entering the next stage in advance, and what he will do after that, no one knows. We must be prepared early."

"Alright," J'onn said, "Hal, you have a better relationship with Victor, you go talk to him. Barry and I will go find Diana. In case the resurrected person is a god, a big battle is unavoidable; I can be safer if I go."

So they split into two groups. Barry took J'onn to the Amazon to find Diana, which will not be mentioned for now. Just talk about Hal; he originally planned to go find Victor, but before he could go find him, Victor came back.

Seeing Hal, Victor hurriedly stepped forward and asked: "How is your body? Feeling okay?"

"Actually, not bad," Hal nodded and said. He sized up Victor's expression. Victor was very young, and his emotional control ability wasn't that great; Hal soon noticed the clues.

But he didn't point it out directly, but used another way to tell the truth. He directly told Victor about the encounters of Barry and J'onn, and told them their solution.

"... that's how it is. Now, the impostors that appeared in their two homes have all been controlled. My father is too. I have to say, the mastermind is truly vicious. Fortunately, Batman had precautions early on."

Victor's body was clearly stiff. He realized Hal had already seen his abnormality, but he didn't know how to say it for a moment.

Victor felt very ashamed. Because it seemed that in the entire Justice League, only he hadn't made a calm decision, but on the other hand, he felt somewhat resentful. Even if one person was the same as him, he wouldn't face such great pressure. To abandon his mother, he really couldn't do it.

Just as he was feeling a hundred emotions, Victor suddenly remembered one thing. He looked at Hal and asked: "Barry and J'onn's families are waiting for them in their homes? Are they able to move freely?"

Hal was also stunned by his question, then nodded and said: "That's right. Later the police went to investigate, the grave had traces of being dug open, and it was dug from the inside out. This proves they really crawled out of the grave and returned to their own home..."

Victor had already stood up, said to Hal: "Sorry, I have something to do. I'll be back soon." ===== CHAPTER 4422 =====