Superman from the comics: Starting with the Black Robe

Chapter 62 Compassion and Surrender

"Do you find the pain of your loved one being killed so intense that it's enough for you to destroy hundreds of millions of innocent people?"

With the final, devastating punch, Aquaman's body was mangled beyond recognition. Had it not been for the protection of his trident, he would likely have perished on the spot.

Joey won't kill him outright. Aquaman's death would signify the division of Atlantis, making those fragmented states even more difficult to govern.

Moreover, what I'm about to do will require an audience.

The deep-sea fleet that came to support them was still sailing in from the distant sea, but Joey held their king in check, making them hesitant to fire.

The routes of these fleets at sea were all traceable, and thousands of tracks were enough for Joey to deduce exactly where the main city of Atlantis was.

With Aquaman's golden fish scale armor collar in his left hand, Joey leaped from the seabed at such a speed that he created deadly turbulent currents in the deep sea, scattering countless cannons aimed at his warships, and in an instant, he arrived in the depths of the Mediterranean Sea.

"What are you trying to do?!"

Upon seeing the familiar city of Atlantis, Aquaman, who was being held in Joey's hand, seemed to wake up from a dream and began to struggle.

After two exchanges, Aquaman clearly realized just how powerful his opponent was. Even his own Trident of Poseidon could no longer harm him in the slightest. Such a person would be a catastrophic disaster for the capital city, which was now almost undefended!

"What am I supposed to do?"

Joey flung Aquaman away, and the latter, now free, ignored his wounds and immediately grabbed his trident to stab Joey with all his might. But at this moment, his attack could not cause Joey even the slightest harm.

"I'm just going to do the same things you did to the Atlanteans."

At this moment, Aquaman was completely exhausted. No matter how eager he was to protect his country, he could no longer pose the slightest threat to Joey.

Joey then grabbed the opponent's trident and flung it, throwing him and Aquaman far into the interior of Atlantis.

Following Aquaman's parabolic flight path, Joey followed closely behind, forcefully crashing through the shield enveloping Atlantis, causing the city's alarms to blare.

Aquaman Arthur landed in a house outside the capital, smashing through half of the stone roof and causing screams from the Atlantean civilians inside.

"Run!" Hai Wang shouted at the mother and daughter in the room. Ordinary Atlanteans were indeed much stronger than land dwellers, but not strong enough to get involved in a battle of this level.

The mere aftershock of Aquaman swinging his trident was enough to kill the mother and daughter on the spot!

But the figure draped in a red cloak had already appeared behind the mother and daughter. Under Aquaman's almost desperate gaze, Joey pressed down on their shoulders, uttering in fluent Atlantean: "Why are you in such a hurry to run?"

The language of the Atlanteans was quite similar to ancient Greek, which was near their seas. Joe listened to the whispers of the Atlantean soldiers all over the ocean and easily learned the language.

But this did not make the mother and daughter feel any sense of closeness, because their king's expression and the wounds on his body said it all.

What could these orphans and widows do in the face of such a powerful enemy? They could only hold each other tightly and sob softly.

"Don't be afraid, Mommy's here..."

The mother is crying. The tears of the Atlanteans are usually not visible because they dissolve into the sea as soon as they come out.

"Look, this is what I want to do. I originally planned to do it all at once, but now I have a better idea."

Joey stood beside the mother and daughter, looking at Aquaman whose eyes were practically spitting fire, a hint of impatience appearing on his own face:

"I could just snap their necks and repeat this in front of you 173 million times. What do you say?"

The number 173 million deeply affected Aquaman. He used his trident to prop up his swaying body and roared at Joey:

"You madman! The sea god curses you! They are innocent, come at me if you dare!"

"Why are you so angry? I'm just preparing to do what you wanted to do before! You'd be willing to let five hundred million people die in an instant to vent your anger, but you can't even bear to sacrifice the lives of two Atlanteans?"

Joey moved the mother and daughter in front of him, so that Aquaman could get a good look at their faces:

"You are willing to sacrifice the lives of hundreds of millions of land dwellers without hesitation to harm the Amazons; then I can naturally regard these Atlanteans as insignificant collateral damage in order to harm you."

If looks could kill, Aquaman would have killed Superman thousands of times over. In Aquaman's mind, these people are his subjects, not collateral damage!

The tense situation overwhelmed the little girl, causing her to break free of Joey's right hand. She turned and punched Joey repeatedly, crying loudly, "Waaah! Let go of my mom!"

The little girl's punches obviously couldn't hurt Joey at all, but at this moment, Aquaman looked at Joey, who hadn't made a move yet, and understood the meaning of what she had said.

When Aquaman was very young, his father, Thomas Curry, took him to church a few times.

But after he stepped into the sea and seized the throne of Atlantis, as a born demigod, he no longer believed in the empty talk of maintaining rule that mortals had fabricated.

For an being like him, there's no need to care about the thoughts of mortals. The purpose of these ants' existence is simply to prove how superior people like him are.

But at this moment, a passage from a book that his long-deceased father had once recited inexplicably surfaced in his memory:

Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.

At this moment, Aquaman could only plead for mercy along with the girl's mother: "Please, I know I was wrong, they are innocent, I'll do whatever you want with them!"

"Wrong answer."

Joey simply stared indifferently at Aquaman; this was not the answer he wanted.

"We are at war now, Aquaman. War has no right or wrong, only sides."

Aquaman, who had been using his trident to support his body, finally stopped pretending. He loosened his grip on the weapon and let the trident, which represented the Atlantean monarchy, fall to the ground.

"Yes, we are at war..."

As the day of Atlantis' destruction drew near, Aquaman finally understood.

"I...I surrender."

He collapsed to the ground, utterly dejected, while Joey, sitting opposite him, immediately freed the Atlantean mother and daughter.

Meanwhile, the garrison of Atlantis's capital city arrived late. Their patrols across the globe had significantly diluted their underwater military strength, leaving their capital city's defenses extremely weak.

"Don't move!"

"Stop!"

Aquaman Arthur dismissed all the guards and then bowed his head to Joey:

"I will recall all Atlantean fleets deployed in the world's oceans to the deep sea, and Atlantis will never launch another attack on land again."

"No, that's not enough." Joey wanted more than that; he wanted control over the Atlanteans.

"Your previous performance has proven that your will cannot be fully implemented among all Atlanteans, so I have prepared an additional solution for this purpose."

"What plan?!"

As the party that surrendered, Aquaman naturally knew that he needed to make concessions, but these concessions were limited and could not threaten the survival of the Atlanteans.

"You have no choice but to prepare the shields for your cities."

After saying that, Joey leaped off the ground of the Atlantis capital. Aquaman, enduring the excruciating pain in his bones and muscles, tried to catch up, but failed.

The Sea King could only order the city's shield to restart at maximum power, and then anxiously await the other party's final decision.