Eron did not hesitate. He was no longer a man who walked upon the earth; he was a force of nature that demanded tribute. With a movement that effortlessly broke the sound barrier, he plunged vertically toward the Pacific Ocean. The impact on the surface was not a dive, but a detonation. The water was instantly vaporized within a radius of hundreds of meters, creating a column of steam that rose to the heavens as Eron descended like a blue-and-black meteor into the depths.
Diana followed him, enveloped in a pearlescent energy bubble, watching Eron's silhouette illuminate the dark abyss with the fury of an underwater sun.
In the depths, Atlantis's invasion alarm echoed through every coral tower. King Arthur and Queen Mera, who were still trying to stabilize the young Billy Batson, felt the shift in pressure before they even saw the enemy. The temperature of the water began to rise drastically.
"He's here," Billy said, his voice trembling as he shrank back on the throne.
Arthur Curry did not retreat. He swam out of the royal dome, wielding Neptune's Trident, its golden metal glowing with an ancestral light. At his side, thousands of Atlantean warriors mounted on armored sharks and war squids formed a defensive wall.
"Whoever you are, stop!" Arthur's voice echoed through the water, amplified by his royal power. "You are entering sovereign territory. Leave now, or you will be buried at the bottom of this trench!"
Eron stopped just meters from the Atlantean phalanx. He did not need oxygen; the ring and his own divinity sustained his lungs. He looked at the trident in Arthur's hand with a hunger that made the ocean boil.
"Sovereignty is a word for the weak, Arthur," Eron replied, the vibration of his voice shattering the crystal windows of nearby homes. "I did not come to negotiate. I came to take what is mine by right of strength. That trident carries the essence of the seas. I need it for what is to come."
"You'll have to take it from my dead hands," roared Aquaman, charging forward with the trident poised.
Eron smiled, a glow of Pride and Wrath emanating from his skin.
"As you wish, 'King.'"
Arthur struck with the trident, summoning a jet current powerful enough to crush a nuclear submarine. Eron simply extended his hand and, using the Strength of Hercules, grasped the tips of the divine weapon. The clash of power created a vacuum bubble on the ocean floor.
Eron felt the ocean's mystical electricity trying to fry his nerves, but he simply absorbed the energy, laughing as the sacred metal vibrated in his grip.
"Is that all?" Eron pulled the trident, dragging Aquaman closer. With his other hand, he delivered a punch that sent a shockwave for miles, knocking out half of the Atlantean army instantly.
Diana intervened, using her new powers to manipulate the will of the war sharks, turning the animals against their own Atlantean riders. Chaos was absolute.
Eron planted his feet on the ocean floor, cracking the tectonic plate. He began pulling the trident's energy directly into his body, as the sea around Atlantis started forming a titanic whirlpool, dragging everything toward the center of Eron's fury.
Eron was on the verge of breaking Arthur's will and absorbing Neptune's essence.
The silence of the depths was replaced by a sound Atlantis had not heard in millennia: divine metal groaning under impossible pressure. Eron held Neptune's Trident with both hands, his muscles—now infused with the density of Hercules—bulging beneath skin that glowed in a golden, electric tone.
Arthur Curry fought desperately, trying to maintain control over his sacred weapon, but it was like trying to hold back the shifting of a tectonic plate.
"This world is too small for secrets hidden beneath the waves, Arthur," Eron growled, his voice vibrating through the water like a deadly sonar. "If you want the ocean, I'll give you the sky."
With a roar that displaced trillions of tons of water, Eron applied absolute twisting force. Neptune's Trident, the mystical pillar of the seven seas, split in half.
A turquoise flash blinded everyone. Neptune's essence was released in an explosion of hydrostatic energy that Eron instantly absorbed through his chest. His eyes no longer merely glowed—they flowed like liquid mercury. He felt control over every drop of water on the planet merge with his magnetic will.
"Now…" Eron spread his hands to the sides, the power ring glowing at a frequency that made the ocean floor tremble. "RISE!"
Eron's magnetism, now amplified by oceanic divinity, seized the iron and basalt foundation upon which Atlantis was built. With a geological crack felt on every seismograph on Earth, the entire city was torn from the ocean floor.
The ocean opened into a massive whirlpool as the metropolis of crystal and coral ascended, breaking the surface like a gigantic glass leviathan. Thousands of tons of water cascaded from its domes as Atlantis rose, now floating three thousand meters above the Pacific Ocean, held aloft solely by Eron's magnetic will.
Arthur and Mera fell to the ground in the central plaza, gasping, staring at the open sky—something many Atlanteans had never seen.
Eron landed softly atop the highest tower, with Diana at his side. He looked down at the city suspended in the void, then toward the horizon, where the sun was beginning to set.
"The ocean has no more secrets," Eron said, his voice echoing across the floating city. "And the Earth has no more hiding places."
Diana smiled, watching the terrified Atlanteans.
"What shall we do with our new subjects, Eron?"
"They will be the first to witness the fortification of the world," he replied, looking toward the stars. "I will turn this city into my first planetary defense station."
Eron transformed Atlantis into a flying citadel under his total control. He now commands magnetism, divine physical strength, the magic of Shazam, and global hydrokinesis.