The ocean swallowed the Ghost fleet.One after another, the black dreadnoughts crossed the outer boundary of the A-rank rift.The moment the first vessel entered, every sensor aboard the fleet began screaming.Pressure rose.Mana density increased.The water around the hulls darkened until even the most advanced illumination systems struggled to penetrate it.Yet the twenty-three Ghost dreadnoughts continued forward.They did not scatter.They did not hesitate.They moved as a single formation.At the center of the fleet, the Void Sovereign led the descent.Its black-iron hull was reinforced with Calamity Dragon-scale armor, sovereign-quality minerals, and multiple layers of energy shielding. The enormous vessel looked less like a ship and more like a moving fortress.Behind it came the remaining twenty-two dreadnoughts.Their formation created a massive armored corridor through the abyss.Marcus stood on the bridge.“Depth?”The navigation officer checked the readings.“Two thousand

The ocean floor moved.Ethan stood before the awakened temple, Void Chaser Bow in hand, while the ancient city continued glowing around him.Then the darkness beyond the ruins erupted.A massive creature surged between the coral towers.Its body was longer than a battleship.Its armored skull split open into a mouth lined with rows of crystalline teeth, and six enormous fins propelled it through the water with terrifying speed.The system identified it.[ABYSSAL LEVIATHAN.][LEVEL 76.]Before Ethan could move, another creature emerged from beneath the ruins.Then another.Then dozens.The Coral Abyss had awakened.The prehistoric monsters came from every direction.Some resembled enormous serpents.Others looked like ancient armored sharks.Several possessed tentacles long enough to wrap around the ruins.Others had enormous shells covered in glowing coral.The system struggled to classify them.[MULTIPLE ANCIENT LIFEFORM SIGNATURES DETECTED.][LEVEL RANGE: 72–81.][SPECIES DATA: INCO

The ruins had once been alive.Ethan knew it the moment he entered the central district.The Coral Abyss stretched around him in every direction, but beneath the enormous coral formations lay the remains of something far older than the modern hunter civilization.Buildings stood beneath the sea.Roads crossed the ocean floor.Bridges connected towers.Massive stone gates remained intact after centuries of darkness.There were homes.Training grounds.Markets.Temples.Military fortresses.And at the center of everything stood a structure unlike the others.A vast circular arena surrounded by twelve enormous pillars.Ethan descended toward it.The Leviathan Prime followed at a distance.Its enormous body moved slowly through the water, no longer behaving like a predator.It was following him.The system scanned the surrounding ruins.[ANCIENT CIVILIZATION DETECTED.][CULTURAL DEVELOPMENT: ADVANCED.][COMBAT STRUCTURE: CONFIRMED.][HUNTER-BASED SOCIETY: CONFIRMED.]Ethan stopped.Hunter

The Sovereign Grips did not feel like armor.They felt alive.Ethan stood at the center of the ancient vault with both fists lowered, watching thin streams of black-and-silver energy travel across the Mythic gauntlets. The metal had already conformed perfectly to the structure of his hands. There were no straps, no buckles, no visible mechanism holding them in place.They had become part of him.Yet the bonding process was not complete.The System continued to analyze the connection.[MYTHIC EQUIPMENT BOND DETECTED.][SOVEREIGN GRIPS — 100% PHYSICAL COMPATIBILITY.][BIOENERGETIC SYNCHRONIZATION INITIATED.]Ethan felt the first pulse travel from his right hand into his arm.It was not painful.It was heavier than pain.The sensation moved through his bones, muscles, nerves, blood vessels, and mana channels simultaneously.His Sovereign Frame responded.The Frost Titan Ancient Bloodline surged.The Sovereign Shadow Core awakened.Then the two bloodlines collided with the energy flowing

Ethan’s fist descended.The Kraken moved at the same instant.Eight enormous tentacles converged on him from every direction, while the creature’s jaws opened wide enough to swallow an entire section of the ancient temple. Abyssal energy compressed inside its throat, forming a sphere of darkness so dense that the surrounding water began collapsing inward.Neither attack stopped.Ethan’s fist struck first.The Sovereign Grip connected directly with the exposed core beneath the Kraken’s chest.For one fraction of a second, nothing happened.Then the entire Coral Abyss went silent.[AUTHORITY STRIKE — ACTIVATED.]The Mythic gauntlet released everything it had accumulated.Black sovereign energy surged through Ethan’s arm. Silver lines erupted across the gauntlet. Frost Titan power and Sovereign Shadow Core energy merged around his fist, compressing into a single point of overwhelming physical authority.The impact passed through the Kraken’s outer armor.Then the first internal barrier s