With the enemy's situation unknown and only a handful of their people capable of fighting under eight tons of water pressure per square inch, they had no choice but to take the most conservative approach. The ocean floor had never been a domain for human activity in the first place.
"You draw that thing out, and I'll kill her with one shot." Nick Fury spoke as though he were talking about swatting a bug.
Namor gave a few cold chuckles. "You have no idea what's going on, do you? You don't even know what kind of enemy we're facing."
This time, Bella agreed with him. "Director Fury, it's difficult to explain Calypso's abilities in just a sentence or two. I once saw her from a great distance. She's a god—and an evil one fused with a sea monster. No matter what high-tech weapon you have, it still..."
Before she could finish, Nick Fury pulled an absurdly oversized sniper rifle from a cabinet nearby. It was more than two meters long, with a silver-gray metal body and a design that radiated futuristic technology.
The weapon looked somewhat like the gun Cable had used against Deadpool, except two sizes larger and considerably longer.
Bella stalled for a moment. Her senses had always been sharp, and merely seeing the rifle gave her an overwhelming sense of mortal danger. "Let me guess. That's a high-tech weapon from the future?"
Nick Fury had no desire to discuss the weapon. He neither confirmed nor denied it. "I'll snipe that thing. You draw her out. Any problems?"
Namor folded his arms proudly. "Atlanteans are built differently from you surface dwellers. Water pressure means nothing to us. Naturally, I can go down there. As for the rest of you, who knows?"
Nick Fury's weapon was neither a pulse rifle nor a laser. Its muzzle energy was impossible to calculate, and its green bullets infused with gamma radiation could punch through rock two kilometers away despite the crushing water pressure.
Bella did not believe a firearm could kill Calypso, but she did not reject the lure-and-snipe tactic.
"He handles the sniping, and I draw out the enemy. What are you doing here?" Namor asked Bella.
Bella did not possess the Atlanteans' constitution, which ignored deep-sea pressure, but she had spells suited for the task. The depths posed no difficulty for her. It was simply that Namor's swaggering, overbearing attitude rubbed her the wrong way.
"I'll cheer you on?"
Despite calling it cheering, Bella still had to enter the water with the two macho men.
Namor and five of his people left through Kepler Station's hatch without any protective gear. Their feet kicked through the water like fish as they swam to a position slightly above the station's field of view, where they watched the others with obvious pride.
Nick Fury wore a high-tech diving suit with greater pressure resistance than a submarine and carried the absurdly shaped sniper rifle on his back. No one knew where he had found such equipment.
Standing outside the hatch, he beckoned to Bella. The meaning was obvious: she had to come too. What was she doing merely watching the show?
Bella gestured that the water was too cold. When it became clear she could not refuse, she cast an environmental adaptation spell on herself. Like Namor and the others, she wore no protective gear as she moved freely through waters ten thousand meters deep.
Several Atlanteans examined her closely and whispered among themselves. They seemed curious why a surface dweller, in their eyes, was unafraid of the pressure. Bella chose that moment to smile as though it were nothing worth mentioning.
They began searching the surrounding waters. Calypso was hiding in the deepest reaches of the ocean, and even with all of Nick Fury's advanced technology, they could not pinpoint her position. Calypso could move, and the sea offered no landmarks. Who knew where she was? Their only choice was to split up and search.
It was far too dark underwater. Everything around them was utterly silent, without the slightest sound. Bella sensed no signs of life, so she immediately sent out a signal. The ghost ship that had already entered these waters slowly approached from the distance.
Smaug was strongest in aerial combat, but he could fight underwater as well. At present, he had merged with the ghost ship. His dragon head became its figurehead, the bones within his body layered themselves over the hull, his wings became oars, and his tail became the rudder.
The entire ship had doubled in length and grown one-third wider. The strength of the Avenging Ghost Alliance had risen dramatically from its original level.
The Flying Dutchman was no longer the dilapidated little ship it had once been. It had soldiers and commanders. As a mature ghost ship, it had the Nun—an expert familiar with both Heaven and Hell who could fight, tank damage, heal, and provide buffs—holding the fort. With the flying Smaug added to the equation, the ghost ship could now go out and hunt monsters by itself.
The ship currently carried all manner of ghosts and vengeful spirits, demons intercepted and subdued halfway by the Nun, undead Frost Giants awakened by Smaug's necromantic power in Jotunheim and Vanaheim, and gigantic undead orcs. Altogether, there were more than five hundred of them.
The ordinary humans with no combat ability had been left behind in the outside world. They normally handled tasks such as gathering information and were not aboard now.
Aside from Bella, ordinary people could not set foot on the ship. One day aboard would drive them insane, two days would kill them, and three days would turn them undead. The Frost Dragon brought living beings nothing but negative emotions such as despair, hatred, and sorrow. Combined with the Nun's evil aura and O'Rin of the Water's Funeral Dirge, no normal person could remain there.
More than eighty ghosts and three gigantic ghost sharks were pulling the ship. It moved with astonishing speed, crossing dozens of nautical miles in the blink of an eye.
Darkness. There was not a trace of light in the deep sea. A sinister, hidden killing intent lurked within the absolute silence. Bella stepped onto the deck and remotely summoned the Cauldron of the Cosmos.
In her hands, the cauldron became a divine reconnaissance artifact. She continuously poured psionic power into it as she searched for Calypso's trail.
"Found her!" Observing from afar, Bella immediately followed the traces of divine power and located Calypso.
Calypso was hiding behind an extremely well-concealed rock. The moment Bella saw her, realization struck. Calypso had seen Bella as well. In fact, the Sea Goddess's vision far exceeded Bella's limits, so she had probably discovered Bella long ago.
The conflict in their bloodlines, old personal grudges, and their current struggle over the paths they had chosen all pointed to one fact: they were mortal enemies. There was no possibility of reconciliation.
"Sea Goddess, today is the day you die!" They were separated by an enormous distance, but Bella knew Calypso could hear her.
The seawater churned. A mass of dreamlike whispers sounded in Bella's ears. She frowned and activated her Psychic Shield, blocking the murmurs outside her mental world.
Who was stronger, Smaug or Calypso? Under normal circumstances, the Sea Goddess, without question. Even if Smaug unleashed everything he had, he still could not defeat her. Now that his hide, teeth, tail, blood, and heart had all been taken away, leaving only a skeleton, he stood even less of a chance.