"This place is still as high as it was back then."

Meilin stood on the sea cliff outside Ci'en Harbor. He stood on the edge of the cliff and looked down. The sea cliffs that were dozens of feet high were not an insurmountable height for him now, but for Meilin back then, he had sacrificed his life to complete the leap of survival.

"Have you jumped from here before? Merlin."

Icarus' lenses have a lot of data popped up, and field measurements of the cliff, she told Merlin:

"When you were an ordinary person?"

"I wasn't an ordinary person at that time."

Meilin looked at the ocean in the dusk in front of her. The sunset reflected on the horizon seemed so beautiful. There were seabirds flying around on the sea surface that reflected light. Coupled with the ships on the sea surface, the scene in front of Meilin looked so magnificent.

He replied to Icarus:

"I was certainly not as powerful as I am now, but I had barely gained some strength. I was in trouble at that time. In order to solve my own troubles, I traveled around the land. I met Bruce, we arrived at Port Tynn together, and then he went to Europe, and then I went to Florida from here overnight, then Texas, and then back to New York."

"Oh, I was so embarrassed at that time."

Meilin stood by the cliff, crossing his waist, recalling the past, he said:

"I give everything just to get a hope of relief, and I am always worried about whether the ability to lose control will hurt others."

He was silent for a few seconds and said to Icarus:

"But think about it carefully, the situation I am facing is the same now. I am trapped in the situation and cannot be free. Those shackles called responsibility, the burdens that are given, and the ones that I have to face... Maybe everything has not changed in the past 14 years."

"But you're stronger."

Icarus persuaded:

"No longer can only accept it as before, you have the right to choose."

"Choose to admit defeat? Or choose to obey?"

Merlin shook his head, looking at the sea in front of him, listening to the tide that flapped the reefs at dusk, and watching the dark red raven spirit Victor flapping his wings and roaring joy in the air.

He said:

"No, not enough, neither of these two is what I want. I'm not strong enough to shake my destiny, and I'm not enough to get the best reward."

He took a deep breath, opened his arms, and faced the cliff in front of him, the black windbreaker blew behind him by the sea breeze. His body leaned forward, and in Victor's loud hiss, Merlin's body fell to the sea dozens of feet below with a completely uncontrollable parabola.

He felt the wind slapping on his body, he felt the whistling coming from his ears, and he felt the falling faster and faster.

He said in a voice that only he could hear:

"I still have to keep moving forward and find a way out in the winding mud..."

“The stronger I am, the more free I am.”

"Buzz"

The moment before his body touched the cold sea water, the direction of gravity applied to him suddenly changed, and he stood on the water like a feather.

Between the contact between the shoes of the feet and the water surface, slight ripples spread outwards.

Merlin stretched out his hand, and the silver trident pendant fell from his palm and fell into the sea water below his feet, like a coin falling into the water, which quickly disappeared in the flash of light.

After sending the signal, Merlin waited patiently. After nearly 10 minutes, a ball of rapid leaping light suddenly jumped on the sea in front of Merlin. As Icarus' lenses continued to zoom, Merlin saw clearly the creatures running under the sea.

It was a huge seahorse with blue, dotted with green scales, and exquisite saddles and reins.

Just like a truly galloping horse on land, this elegant and peculiar creature carries the undersea man Vico and gallops towards Merlin.

Well, this should be a unique mount at Atlantis, and it is indeed full of regional characteristics.

"Swish"

As he approached Merlin, Vico threw away the reins, jumped up from behind the seahorse, broke through the seawater, and then fell in front of Merlin.

He held the silver trident pendant in his hand, and there was not much smile on his face.

Vico was exactly the same as Merlin's memory 14 years ago, and he did not grow old at all. He was wearing a weird combat uniform and a water-like waist knife. He looked at Merlin with his eyes full of scrutiny.

"What? Don't you know me anymore?"

Meilin spread his hands and smiled and said to the underwater man in front of him:

"Atlantis' memory should not be so bad, and I shouldn't be old enough to make you unrecognizable, right?"

"I'm just sighing."

Vico looked at Merlin and said:

"That weak young man back then could have let me hear your reputation in Atlantis in just over a decade. Merlin... Director, the miracles that you humans can create are sometimes really unreasonable."

"I was just an unexpected situation, you can understand that I am lucky."

Merlin said to Vico:

"We might find some time to talk about what happened in Atlantis over the years, but not tonight. I have to go back for dinner later. The kids are waiting for me."

"So, Vico, let's talk a long story."

Merlin looked around and stretched out her fingers and applied a magic barrier around the two of them. He said to Vico:

"Do you know that there is a man named Namo in your Kingdom of Atlantis?"

“Namor?”

When Vico heard this name, his expression changed immediately. He looked at Merlin in surprise and said:

"Yes, I know that Namo was not an unknown person in Atlantis. He promoted a dangerous and radical idea, and had a group of less settled supporters, but he had been missing for more than a year, and his followers were scattered...at least that's what my intelligence officer told me."

"I've seen him just a few days ago."

Merlin did not hide his encounter with Namo. He looked at Vico and said:

"I heard from Namo that Ovax, the king of your Atlantis Kingdom, is in poor health and may die in the past few years. Namo said that he also has the right to claim the throne, and he also said that he would not allow the throne to be passed on to Ovax's son... It's not Arthur, I mean the other son of the tyrant, Oum."

"He does have the right to claim the throne, and he has not lied to you."

Vico's expression became ugly. The royal servant who was loyal to the Atlantis royal family stroked his chin and said in a deep voice:

"Namor's body does have blood from King Thakur, which is the supreme bloodline of the Atlan Sea Emperor inherited from the First Age, but unfortunately, his bloodline and status from her mother were not enough to be accepted by his subjects because he has a other half of his body from land."

Vico was like an old pedan, saying in a stern tone:

"I know that you landmen have passed the feudal era, but our Kingdom of Atlantis has its own national conditions."

"Anyway, I mean, all Namo has is a weak claim, and in terms of orthodoxy, it is only slightly better than Arthur's little. Theoretically, as long as Prince Om does not do stupid things, Namo will never be able to ascend the throne."

After saying that, Vico narrowed his eyes and looked at Merlin:

"But I think, if you come and tell me this news, does it mean that you and the forces behind you are ready to support Namo to return to Atlantis and compete with Prince Om for the throne? Are you ready to support a pro-land king?"

"No, this is not a good choice, Merlin, I advise you not to do this."

"I don't care whether Namo can ascend the throne."

Merlin waved his hand and explained to Vico:

"I have no interest in interfering in Atlantis' internal affairs, and in fact, I care only one thing."

He stretched out a finger and said to Vico:

"In the future, after the death of that brutal Ovax, if Namo fights for the throne with Oum, will it affect the underwater kingdom and then the entire world? I don't want to see Atlantis soldiers rushing out from the sea to set off a tide to try to flood the land."

"You have to understand that Vico, the force you have is also something that my organization and I must take seriously."

Merlin said:

"Maybe I might have thought a little too much, but there are many precedents in history such things. The fire in the city gate will affect the fish in the pond. I must make the necessary preparations for this."

"Won't!"

Vico said to Merlin with certainty:

"I can assure you in the name of my family that your concerns will not happen."

"Atlantis has an ancient solution to the dispute over the inheritance of the throne. In fact, the dispute over the throne will be restricted to the circle of royal members. Such things rarely affect the stability of the country, and there will be no civil war."

"And since the end of the First Age and the arrival of the Great Slump, the only four remaining kingdoms in Atlantis have never interfered with land civilization. We were like this in the past and we will be like this in the future."

"All right."

Merlin glanced at Vico and said:

"Then I will trust you for now, but I will still keep an eye on it. Just as you are loyal to your king, I also need to be responsible for my civilization."

"I can understand."

Vico nodded and said to Merlin:

“We each have our responsibilities.”

"So if the throne alternates and its impact is important for you and for me. I think we should deepen our intelligence sharing."

Merlin finally revealed his fox's tail and said to Vico:

"What do you think?"

"I think you just want to take this opportunity to put an eye in the underwater kingdom and expand your eyes to places you have never gone deeper."
To be continued...