"We are here," Arka stood at the door, looking at Rasmus and the others that hadn’t left the cabin in the past twenty hours. "The Walloce Trench is only five miles away, and we are right above the outer line. If we go closer to it, our anchors will be useless."

Rasmus nodded with understanding and went to the deck with the others. They saw nothing but a vast sea and no sight of any island no matter how far they looked. It still amazed Rasmus that Neva was a lot bigger than Earth, making it impossible to explore it in one life span.

The reason they wanted to check the Walloce Trench first was because the depth of the sea was unexplored. Even back on Earth with advanced technologies, humans barely mapped a third of the sea. In this world, the sea was a complete mystery about what was in the deep.

"Feel anything?" Rasmus asked as he walked to the side of the boat, staring at the location where the trench was.

"Nothing," Aris shook her head even with her draconic eyes.

"No, I can’t feel anything either," Rullein shook her head even though she was supposed to be more sensitive to all types of corruption energies.

Yur didn’t feel anything as well, nor Serena or Videl. They were all more sensitive in terms of sensing energies because their eyes couldn’t see anything wrong with it. With that being said, Rasmus could only rely on them in times like this.

"Oh, I sense something coming though. The sea beasts are coming toward us, oddly moving in unison, which is unnatural," Rullein said with her eyes narrowed.

"How many?" Arka asked as he looked at Rullein, wanting to know what kind of danger they were going to face.

"Four of them," Rasmus answered when he began to sense the same energy when he dealt with the demonic beasts. "We are in the right place, one of the many places..." he added.

Arka who heard that immediately ordered to send a signal to the other ships. The mage released a blue fireball into the sky, giving a signal to prepare for battle. All of the ships began to prepare magic weapons, but they knew how big the sea beasts were and hoped they were enough.

Serena clasped her hands together and released a barrier of divine energy to protect the battleship while at the same time luring the demonic sea beasts toward them. It didn’t take a while until they could see colossal silhouettes from underneath the water. Not long after that, they watched the sea sink and created a powerful whirlpool that pulled all the ships toward it.

"Drop the anchors!" Arka shouted.

All the ships began to drop their anchors, preventing them from getting sucked toward the deeper sea. When they managed to prevent the ships from being sucked into the whirlpool, a massive caudal fin emerged from the sea, big enough that it could crush the battleship when dropped right above it.

"It’s a Cetus!" Marsius shouted, warning what kind of danger they were facing. "We need to move away now!" He looked at the mage to send the signal.

The mage shot a red flame into the sky, signaling the others to move away and retreat. However, it was already too late when the caudal fin smacked the sea water, creating a massive splash. The wave wasn’t that high, but that wasn’t what they feared, it was what came after that. Their fear came true when they saw the creature with a head like a dragon but with whiskers like a catfish. The body was of a sea lion that when the body emerged and hit the water, it created a massive wave like a tsunami.

Rasmus, Videl, and Serena were the ones who had never seen a sea beast before, and now it was right in front of them. The wave was so high that it could flip and even crush ships. Rasmus who saw the danger immediately jumped off the battleship without hesitation.

Aris and Rullein were surprised to see Rasmus making a move, and when they saw the energy that Rasmus had released, they realized what he was trying to do. The moment Rasmus’ foot touched the water, it froze instantly and then spread rapidly in less than a few seconds to the point his power froze the ocean at least a mile radius from where he was. Arka and the others were petrified by the immense power that Rasmus had shown.

Rasmus stood there and felt half of his body go numb because of the cold he had produced from his heart. However, he wasn’t bothered by it and began to walk toward where the sea’s demonic beasts were. He knew those creatures were powerful enough to break free from the ice, and he was right because not longer after that, the ice that trembled made a loud cracking and shattering sound along with the high-pitched roar of Cetus.

The demonic sea beasts appeared one after another, trying to break the ice on the water’s surface with their sturdy bodies. Suddenly, a bright orange fireball was shot from the battleship and exploded in the sky, attracting the sea beasts for a moment.

"Fire!" Venusius shouted, his voice echoed throughout the frozen sea.

The cannons shot wind magic, a powerful, sharp, quick, and concentrated one into the frozen waves. Each shot pierced and shattered the big waves like they were nothing, and the cannons could release three magic spells repeatedly until Mana could recharge the weapons.

Each of the wind magic was enough to have pierced through the scales of the demonic sea beasts, shredding and cutting a big chunk of the bodies. There were a total of forty ships that each had the same destructive power, including the three battleships that belonged to each commander that could release twenty spells in the span of five seconds.

The four demonic sea beasts were trapped by the ice because Rasmus kept freezing the water around them. Every damage the magic weapon did was enough to hurt them to the point where their limbs, scales, and skin were flying off of their bodies. It looked like complete obliteration, shredding them until there was nothing left but pieces of their bodies on top of the frozen sea.

Rasmus finally saw the true destructive power of the naval army. No armies could stop the naval army if the naval army decided to obliterate a nation with those things. After he had witnessed the power of the naval army, he jumped and landed on the deck.

"Thank you, Count. We might struggle in dealing all of them at the same time, and it might destroy a few of our ships," Arka said as he approached Rasmus, who still couldn’t believe a single man was capable of freezing the sea. He knew that Rasmus barely showed his true power, and he knew that he should be aware of what kind of person that stood in front of him.

"So you can deal with demonic beasts easily," Rasmus said, ignoring the praise.

"Yes, but as you can see, we need to recharge the magic weapons. Although we seem powerful, right now we are limited by resource," Arka answered as he nodded and pointed down toward a room where the ship hid the Mana stone.

"Is that so?" Rasmus hummed as he nodded. "You should ask Carrion and Erlina, they could provide you with what the Navy needed. They owned ninety percent of the mines in South Neva, and they also owned thirty percent of the mines in Central Neva, or should I say the Centriva Continent now. They will give you a fair price," he added.

Arka narrowed his brows, realizing that Rasmus had tried to make the whole Navy depend on his people, which was a terrifying thing to imagine. He knew Rasmus owned a trading company that had monopolized South Neva and had entered Centriva as well. He realized that Ramsus wasn’t just a powerful mage, he was also a businessman.

"I’ll keep that in mind," Arka could only respond with that. "What’s our next plan? Do you want us to go to the Walloce Trench?" He asked, trying to change the topic.

"No. Since you have shown us how powerful your fleet was, I believe all of you can go and check each island near the Walloce Trench. Yur will assists you and make sure nothing happens to all the ships," Rasmus answered as he shook his head and stared at the frozen sea.

"Then, what about you?" Arka furrowed his brows.

"We will explore the Walloce Trench from here on out. Seeing that demonic beasts exist here, meaning we are right on the suspicion," Rasmus walked to the edge of the ship. "What do you think?" He turned to look at Aris.

"Yes, that’s what I thought as well," Aris nodded in agreement. "Let’s go see what lies beneath the deepest part of West Neva," she looked at Rullein, Videl, Serena, and then at Rasmus.

They all nodded with understanding and jumped off the ship.

Arka watched the four of them walk on the frozen sea before he signaled to the others that they were leaving.