The Rise of the Black Plain

Swimming as fast as they could, everyone in Minos' group who had survived so far, about 80% of the group, broke out in a cold sweat as they hurriedly swam into the depths of the North Sea.

Minos had already warned everyone he would use the Black Hole Bomb at some point during the battle that day, and the moment he gave his signal, everyone should flee as far away as they could.

He had advised them to flee to the depths of the sea because the water could partially protect them from the explosion of this powerful bomb.

As soon as he gave the signal, everyone stopped what they were doing and changed their courses, with the sea beasts returning to the sea. In contrast, the land beasts molded their bodies into humanoid forms to accompany their sea companions.

The weakest of the group received help from the mermaids, who were the fastest swimmers in the group and could escape the reach of the Black Hole Bomb more quickly.

But even the mermaids broke into a cold sweat as they swam to the bottom of the sea, feeling the terror of what Minos had just unleashed as they swam away, already physically and mentally exhausted.

After a high-level battle, almost everyone was mentally exhausted, some with severe injuries on their bodies, while others were not as badly off but mourned the deaths of their comrades.

While Minos fought against the strongest of the enemy Protectors, nearly 10 people who reached this last part of their exploration of the North Sea died in battle.

The enemy Protectors were powerful and fast, and while they were being killed or entertained by their group, these mechanical beings managed to deal fatal blows to some of Minos' companions.

Among them, two members of the Sea Folk, a Kraken, a Phoenix, and some mercenaries had met their end in the intense battle a few moments before.

The closest companions of these dead fighters naturally felt terrible at the moment.

'Damn it! I didn't think we would suffer so much!' One of them thought to himself as he walked through the dark part of the sea and saw everything in his path lit up very brightly while the explosion above the main island had just happened.

First, the light from the flash of that explosion hit Minos' group of companions, signaling that the bomb had been detonated.

Then, as they swam with even more trepidation, the shock wave, along with the sound wave from the huge explosion, reached them, causing even the level 93 dragon to shake violently.

KA-BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

The temperature of the place they were passing through suddenly increased. At the same time, the gases in the water stirred up the surroundings, causing great turbulence on the path they were passing through.

'Shit! Is it that powerful?' The dragon thought to himself as he avoided looking up because, according to Minos, the flash from the bomb's explosion would be enough to blind even level 93 Demigods, who were up to 100 kilometers away from the blast's focus.

Meanwhile, he endured the pain in his body, having lost one of his legs and half of one of his wings as a result of being severely injured.

Fortunately, he had companions to help him swim to the depths of the sea and quickly reach the safe zone, about 300 kilometers away from the explosion.

If they had been in the air, the safe zone would have been a thousand kilometers from the source of the explosion. But in the water, the distance they had to cover was naturally much shorter.

Minos...

Arriving at the point where they no longer had to swim, the group stopped, and Ruth looked up, seeing a lot of smoke in their path as she worried about her husband.

While everyone was wondering if everyone had escaped the massive explosion of the bomb, Minos appeared in front of Ruth and the mermaid who had been carrying her and Grant.

"Minos!" Ruth saw her husband fine but extremely exhausted, finally reaching the end of the Divine Sword's effect.

With him in a severely weakened state, she immediately used what little energy she had left to focus her regenerative powers on helping her husband.

Minos was still conscious, breathing rapidly and feeling pain all over his body.

He said in a low voice. "Save... Your strength for... For the most wounded..."

"But..."

"I am... Well... Despite everything... I'm not badly hurt... I can... Cough! I can hold out... For a while..." He said, not wanting to risk the lives of his companions, as he thought he was capable of recovering normally.

Minos hadn't used Ruth's ability to regenerate when he first went to the Divine Continent. After all, she hadn't accompanied him there. So, in the current situation, where he was much stronger than back then, and his group had been hurt much more than he had, he didn't want to 'waste' her powers.

The level 92 woman of the Sea Folk, the only survivor of her group, moved to Minos' side, not as wounded as the dragon and other of their strongest.

"Minos, did we win?" She asked as everyone turned their attention to him.

Minos looked up, where the boiling sea still covered the space where the focus of the explosion had been.

"If those robots weren't vaporized... Then there's nothing left for us to do... We'll meet our end today." He said with great difficulty.

But inwardly, Minos was very confident. The Black Hole Bomb he had used contained a black hole that could easily devour even level 94 Demigods.

Since it was a mechanism that amplified the power of the black hole, it should be able to threaten the lives of level 95 and even level 96 beings!

'Even if they didn't disappear after that, they're probably as weakened as us, if not weaker.' Minos thought as he looked up.

Meanwhile, hundreds of kilometers above where they were, the outskirts of the three islands where the Mechanic Empire's people were based in the Spiritual World were devastated.

The surrounding sea had evaporated in an instant, and the space where those islands had been for a few kilometers was suddenly replaced by water and vapor.

Meanwhile, two of the three islands had been completely wiped out, along with the many cannons, ships, and spaceships that had been in the area before.

Only one of the bodies of the Protectors who had been tricked by Minos moments ago remained. In contrast, all the others had been instantly annihilated by the core of the explosion.

But even if this creature hadn't been completely destroyed, all of its defensive armor had been melted, and the surrounding steam was melting its internal mechanisms.

There was still a glimmer in its eyes. Still, it was fragile at the moment, as this creature floated in the air in front of the defense barrier where its superiors were.

But even if that barrier had withstood the blast of Minos' Black Hole Bomb, it was not in good shape, with thousands of cracks all around it, while only the structures inside those defenses were intact.

"Damned Minos!" Iktun shouted from inside the protected area, realizing the situation they had reached.

...