[TIME: 30 MINUTES EARLIER][LOCATION: ROYAL PRISON ENTRANCE]
This was the darkest pit in Atlantis.
Far beneath the city's radiant towers and coral gardens, carved into the ocean floor between volcanic rock formations known as Leviathan's Teeth, stood the Royal Prison.
There was no true light here. Only the faint, uneasy blue glow leaking from the spears of the guards stationed along the obsidian gates.
Four figures waited before the massive black doors.
Deniz. Kai. Bianca. Lypin.
"This place…" Deniz muttered, knocking his Fists of Goliath together to warm up. "Smells like a graveyard. Why did the Prince post us here? What's inside?"
"What's inside isn't our concern, Big Guy," Bianca replied, flipping her dagger between her fingers. "The Prince said, 'Wait here. I'll secure Hope and Elara in the safe room and return.' Our job is to hold the door."
Kai perched on top of a stone statue, scanning the darkness from beneath his mask. His tail swayed restlessly.
"Something's wrong," he said quietly. "The silence… it's too thick. Even the fish cleared out."
Lypin clutched the pendant at her neck, her eyes uneasy as they swept across the shadows.
"I wonder if Hope is okay…" she murmured. "The Prince was training him harshly. His wounds weren't fully healed."
"That kid's a cockroach," Bianca said with a grin. "Drop a meteor on him and he'll crawl out. You worry about yourself, Lypin. You look pale."
Then—
The pressure in the water shifted.
Bianca's ears twitched.
TIIIIIN…
A metallic grinding sound echoed from below.
"MOVE!" Kai shouted, leaping down from the statue.
Too late.
The ground before the prison gate exploded upward.
BOOOOM!
It wasn't fire.
It was compressed water pressure detonating outward.
The shockwave hurled Deniz and Bianca backward. Lypin fell hard.
As debris and dust swirled through the water, black, viscous shadows surged upward from the fractured floor.
Ink.
And from within it—
They emerged.
Octopus Soldiers.
Skin harder than armor. Eyes burning with hatred.
More than three dozen.
And they came to kill.
"Attack!" Deniz roared.
He planted his feet and slammed his gauntlets together.
A blue barrier burst outward.
[IRON WALL]
Three spears struck at once.
Crack.
They shattered against his fists.
"You're not getting through me!"
Bianca moved like a shadow.
The instant she regained her footing, she launched herself at the nearest soldier.
Her legs became guillotines.
[BLOODY DANCE: HIGH KICK]
CRACK!
Her heel crushed the soldier's skull.
She didn't stop.
A spinning kick snapped another neck.
"Kai! Right flank!"
"I know!"
Kai became wind.
His new daggers gleamed through the water.
He slipped between enemies so fast he was barely visible.
Only the aftermath marked his path.
Throat. Joint. Eye.
Five strikes in a single second.
He was a storm focused on damage.
But—
They weren't normal.
The soldier Bianca had decapitated twitched.
Kai's cuts began sealing.
Black fluid sprayed outward, froze midwater, and pulled itself back together.
"Damn it!" Kai shouted. "They regenerate!"
"Go for lethal strikes!" Deniz yelled, pushing back four attackers. "Destroy the brain or the heart!"
Behind them, Lypin raised her hands.
Her silver eyes glowed.
[MOON'S GRAVITY: WEIGHT FIELD]
A gray circle formed across the battlefield.
Inside it—
The Octopus soldiers slowed.
As if crushed beneath invisible tons.
"Now!" Lypin cried. "They're slowed!"
Kai and Bianca carved through them.
But Lypin…
Wasn't okay.
Her hands trembled.
The silver in her veins shifted toward violet.
Her face drained of color.
The Starfallen power strained her body.
"I have to endure…" she whispered. "I have to be useful…"
She pushed harder.
Expanded the field.
Too far.
A thin trail of blood slipped from her eyes.
[WARNING: MANA DEPLETION.]
The field flickered—
And vanished.
That single second was enough.
An Octopus assassin burst from below, spear raised.
Aimed straight for Lypin's heart.
She saw it.
Couldn't move.
"I'm sorry…"
SHLAK.
The spear stopped.
A white flash intercepted it.
Kai.
He blocked with his dagger, but the force hurled him backward.
He rolled with Lypin and dragged her to cover.
"Are you okay?" he asked, breath heavy.
She looked at the cut on his arm.
"I… I messed up again… I couldn't hold the field… I'm useless."
The word hit him harder than any blade.
Useless.
Hope was an Architect.
Deniz was noble strength.
Bianca was brilliant.
Lypin carried a Starfallen.
And Kai?
Just a fast thief hiding behind a mask.
Then—
A new shadow rose from the shattered floor.
Not like the others.
Two primary arms.
Six long, blade-thin appendages extending from its back.
Armored.
Elegant.
Deadly.
Scylla. The Six-Armed Butcher.
The moment she stepped forward, all six arms shot outward.
Two Siren guards—
Torn apart instantly.
Deniz's barrier—
Shredded like paper.
"Weak," Scylla hissed. "Soft flesh. Brittle bone."
Kai stared at her.
Then at trembling Lypin.
"…We're screwed," he muttered under his breath.
He turned to Lypin.
"If you're not okay, stay back. Come when you've recovered."
"I can't," she whispered. "I'm out of mana. I'm just… dead weight."
Kai stopped.
Back still turned to her.
"No," he said, voice deepening strangely. "You're not useless, Lypin. You matter more than you realize. Especially to Hope."
He reached for his mask.
"The useless one… is me."
"Kai?"
He ripped it off.
Dropped it.
It clattered against stone.
His body changed.
Teeth lengthened.
Pupils narrowed vertically.
Muscles expanded.
Brown fox ears and tail turned pure white.
[KITSUNE BLOODLINE: FIRST FORM]
"I should've been faster…" he growled. "I should've closed that gap. I'll fix it."
His eyes burned.
"MORE… MORE HUNT."
He launched forward on all fours.
Twice as fast as before.
A white blur.
He didn't use daggers.
He used claws.
RIP.
Two of Scylla's six blades severed instantly.
"What?!" she recoiled.
Kai didn't stop.
He bit through a soldier's throat.
Tore open another's chest.
He was feral.
No ally. No enemy.
Just prey.
"Kai! Stop!" Deniz shouted. "You're scaring our own men!"
He didn't hear.
White fur turned red with blood.
As he lunged for Scylla again—
A sharp pain pierced his neck.
Click.
A syringe.
His vision blurred.
His body shrank back.
He would've collapsed—
But Bianca caught him.
"Idiot," she muttered, holding the empty injector. "I told you you can't control that form."
Kai's eyes were hazy.
"I left an opening… while saving Lypin… I was fixing my mistake…"
SMACK.
Bianca flicked his forehead.
"You didn't make a mistake. Stop being dramatic."
She hauled him upright and handed back his mask.
"We're discussing this later, delinquent. Right now we have a bigger problem."
She pointed at Scylla—
Regenerating.
And the reinforcements flooding in.
"You good?" Bianca asked. "Because I need my partner covering my back."
Kai put the mask on.
The monster vanished.
The thief returned.
He smiled.
"When you need me… I'm always here."
"Kids!" Deniz roared as his shield cracked. "If you're done flirting, I'm dying over here!"
Kai and Bianca glanced at each other—
And moved at the same time.
Not wild.
Not chaotic.
A dance.
[THIEVES' WALTZ]
Kai distracted Scylla head-on.
Slid beneath her strike.
Bianca vaulted upward.
Her daggers stabbed into shoulder joints.
Kai circled behind—
Severed tendons behind the knees.
Up and down.
Left and right.
One mind.
Scylla staggered.
"DIE!" she shrieked.
Deniz blocked her main strike with his gauntlets.
"NOW!"
Kai and Bianca carved a massive X across her chest.
Scylla dropped to her knees.
Defeated.
"We did it—" Kai started.
Too soon.
The broken gate filled again.
Fifty.
Maybe a hundred more.
Scylla laughed.
"We… are Legion…"
Her wounds healed.
Deniz fell.
Mana drained.
Lypin unconscious.
Kai and Bianca stood back to back—
Exhausted.
"This might be it," Bianca muttered.
Scylla rose again, fully healed, and lunged at Deniz. Scylla's arm shot toward Deniz's skull.
He closed his eyes.
VUUUUUUP.
The arm froze midair.
Not just the arm.
The water.
The blood droplets.
The dust.
Time didn't stop.
But it hesitated.
The prison floor turned transparent.
[ANCIENT SUMMONING: SPIRIT OF MOSASAUR]
From the abyss below—
A colossal spectral jaw rose.
A prehistoric sea monster.
Larger than the building itself.
It swallowed the entire battlefield.
GULP.
Scylla.
Soldiers.
Weapons.
Gone.
The phantom spiraled downward and vanished.
Silence remained.
The ceiling split.
A beam of divine light descended.
Within it—
Prince Nereus.
He stepped down calmly.
No urgency.
Hands behind his back.
"Pathetic creatures," he said softly, though his voice echoed inside every mind. "In my palace… touching my guests?"
He landed gracefully.
"Well done, Mosasaur," he whispered.
Not a single stain touched his attire.
He looked at the exhausted team.
"Magnificent," he said, applauding lightly. "Truly… admirable warriors."
Kai glared up at him.
"You were watching," he said through heavy breaths. "Weren't you?"
The Prince smiled.
"Of course."
"You could've intervened earlier!" Kai snapped. "Deniz almost died! You used us as bait!"
Prince Nereus did not deny it.
He inclined his head.
"You are sharper than you appear, Fox Child."
His gaze drifted to unconscious Lypin. To struggling Deniz.
"I needed to test your loyalty. Your strength. You have no homeland here. Yet you risked your lives… simply for Hope."
His eyes gleamed.
"Remarkable. And useful."
Deniz coughed as he sat up.
"So… we pass? If we pass… I'd appreciate a nap. My ribs are arguing with each other."
The Prince turned toward the massive prison cell behind them.
Inside—
Chained.
Head covered with a black hood.
A girl.
Octavia.
The Octopus Princess.
Prince Nereus raised his hand.
A perfect sphere of reinforced water formed around her.
"You passed," he said calmly. "Rest."
He lifted the sphere.
"The Octopus came for their Princess," he added without turning back. "They will leave empty-handed."
His voice grew colder.
"And they will pay dearly."
Kai watched him go.
That man…
Was far more dangerous than they'd assumed.
Friend?
Enemy?
Impossible to tell.
But for now—
They were alive.