Darkness was not merely the absence of light.

  The darkness that descended upon Atlantis was something alive, something that breathed, moved, and strangled its victims like a sentient organism tightening its grip.

  The moment that terrible, piercing scream spilled from Princess Octavia's lips, the palace's crystalline waters were swallowed within seconds by pitch-black ink. This was no ordinary spell. It was the physical manifestation of the Octopuses' thousands of years of evolution and predatory instinct. The black ink thickened the water, muffled sound, and most importantly, erased the Sirens' vision entirely.

  The lights died.

  Even the neon brilliance of the towering coral spires failed to pierce the suffocating black.

  Only one thing shone.

  At the very heart of the darkness, reflecting the hunger of a predator poised to tear apart her prey, Octavia's wild violet eyes burned.

  Chaos erupted instantly.

  "I can't see anything!" a Scale-Skin guard shouted, his voice distorted and panicked in the water. "Where are they?!"

  Electric spears fired blindly in every direction, blue bolts flashing briefly before vanishing inside the black ink. But for the Octopus army, this darkness was not an obstacle. It was home. Their eyes had evolved for precisely this abyssal void. Within the ink, they saw clearly where the Siren guards stood, where they looked, how desperately they flailed.

  The first blood triggered the screams.

  Thick, muscular tentacles shot out from the shadows, wrapping around throats and dragging guards into the depths of the black. The sounds of armor crushing, flesh tearing, and frantic, disorganized cries transformed Atlantis's magnificent courtyard into a slaughterhouse. The ambush was flawless. Though outnumbered, the Octopuses held absolute dominance within the blinding arena they had created.

  Hope perched atop a shattered coral pillar some distance from the battlefield. As the green interface flickered in his mind, he issued the command:

  [ARCHITECT SIGHT: THERMAL AND MANA SCAN]

  The pitch darkness dissolved into a digital map within Hope's vision. The ink vanished, replaced by luminous lines showing body heat and mana currents. He could see the massacre below with brutal clarity. The Octopus soldiers were terrifyingly organized and merciless. They were not simply killing the guards. They were tearing them apart.

  But Hope's eyes locked onto the true focal point.

  At the center of the battlefield stood two immense sources of mana.

  Prince Nereus, blazing like a colossal golden sun.

  And Octavia, radiating an aura of pure abyssal darkness.

  Despite the carnage around him, despite his soldiers being ripped to pieces, Prince Nereus had not moved an inch. He held his golden, single-pronged spear comfortably in his right hand. There was no fear on his face as he stared into the ink. Only deep boredom and disdain.

  "Petty tricks…" Nereus murmured. His voice echoed across the battlefield through magic. "Is this truly all you have? After years of scheming in those pits, after dreaming of bringing Atlantis to its knees… was your grand revenge nothing more than cheap theatrics?"

  He raised his spear.

  His blue irises flared like the deadliest storms of the ocean.

  "Allow me to remind you of your place."

  [ANCIENT WATER MAGIC: LEVIATHAN'S BREATH]

  The Prince spun his spear rapidly around himself. As it turned, it drew in the surrounding water like a monstrous vacuum. Within seconds, a colossal vortex formed around him. It spun so violently that even the water's own molecules seemed compressed under its force.

  Then Nereus slammed the spear downward.

  BOOOOOOM!

  The shockwave that exploded outward was a tsunami of pure, hyper-compressed water. It surged from the center with such overwhelming speed and power that Octavia's thick ink cloud was obliterated in seconds. The blackness vanished like smoke scattered by a hurricane.

  Atlantis shone once more.

  As the coral towers illuminated the battlefield again, the true scene was revealed.

  The Sirens were not unprepared.

  Beyond the dissipating ink stood thousands of elite Siren and Scale-Skin soldiers surrounding the palace grounds. They outnumbered the Octopus army by at least ten to one. Fully armored, heavily equipped, and supported by battle mages, they had formed a massive encirclement.

  The Octopuses had walked into a trap.

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  Yet at the very center of the battlefield, isolated from everything else, stood only two figures.

  Prince Nereus.

  Princess Octavia.

  "Let the armies occupy each other," Nereus said, leveling the tip of his spear at her. "My business is with you, freak."

  Octavia laughed.

  New limbs flexed where severed ones had regenerated. Her black blood flowed across her skin like living armor. The massive tentacles behind her coiled like serpents preparing to strangle prey.

  "How considerate of you, darling," she said, her voice dripping with sadistic delight. "Not leaving me to your army and insisting on handling me yourself. I'm touched."

  Nereus cracked his neck.

  "To be honest, I haven't dirtied my hands in quite some time. I've grown rusty from lack of practice. You'll make a fine training dummy."

  The mocking smile vanished from Octavia's face. Cold hatred replaced it.

  "Yes," she hissed. "You must have forgotten what a real battle feels like. Too busy torturing chained prisoners in your dungeons. Too busy betraying those behind your back. Allow me to remind you."

  BAM!

  Octavia launched forward with explosive speed, ignoring the resistance of water entirely. And not alone. Six massive tentacles sharpened into spears and shot toward the Prince simultaneously.

  The fight began.

  Nereus gripped his golden spear with both hands and met the assault. The clash of gold and hardened Octopus flesh rang sharply, metallic and piercing. The Prince fought with elegance, deflecting strikes, boiling the water with the spear's tip to deliver lethal counters.

  But there was no elegance in Octavia's style.

  Only raw, untamed savagery.

  She clawed for his face, attacked from every angle with her tentacles. Nereus stepped back to create distance and struck his left hand against the ground.

  [MIRROR MAGIC: ICE GUARDIANS]

  The water beneath them froze instantly. Fifteen ice constructs rose around the Prince, identical to the terrifying water copies Hope had fought for days within the Mirror Dome. Each held an ice spear.

  Hope swallowed hard as he watched from afar. One alone had nearly killed him. Facing fifteen at once would have been suicide.

  "Let's see what you do against these toys," Nereus said.

  The guardians attacked as one.

  Octavia did not even pause.

  She rolled her eyes.

  "Boring."

  She spun like a hurricane. Her tentacles lashed so fast that vortices formed in the water. Their tips hardened like steel.

  SHRAK! SHRAK! SHRAK!

  Within seconds, the fifteen guardians were reduced to shattered fragments, crushed as though fed through a grinder. Ice shards and steam scattered everywhere. Without losing momentum, Octavia shot through the debris like a bullet straight toward Nereus.

  Hope's eyes widened.

  The difference in power… overwhelming.

  The creatures he had nearly died fighting were nothing more than paper to her.

  Nereus had not expected that speed. He was not an athletic warrior. He was a mage. A tactician. Forced to defend, he held his spear horizontally like a shield. Octavia's fists and tentacles rained down, driving him backward with each impact.

  "Where's that arrogant smile, Prince?!" she shouted.

  Two tentacles pinned his spear. The other four stabbed into Atlantis's priceless marble and coral floor.

  The ground cracked.

  With a savage roar, Octavia tore free a massive slab of marble and hurled it at his face. Nereus shattered it mid-air with a sweeping strike, but dust clouded his vision. He retreated rapidly, breathing hard. His royal garments were torn.

  "Enough," he growled.

  He brought his left hand to his lips and exhaled sharply into the water.

  [BREATH OF THE DEPTHS: EXPLODING BUBBLES]

  Hundreds of transparent water bubbles flowed from his breath, drifting into the dust cloud. As Octavia lunged blindly forward, she entered their midst.

  One bubble brushed her shoulder.

  It detonated.

  Not a simple explosion, but a micro-compressed release of pressure equal to a submarine mine.

  BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

  A chain reaction.

  Water boiled. Shockwaves ripped through the battlefield.

  When the blasts ceased, Octavia fell to her knees behind a veil of steam. Her right arm was severed below the elbow. Her left was completely destroyed. Two tentacles were mangled beyond recognition. Black blood spilled into the water.

  Nereus planted his golden spear and smirked.

  "Your regeneration may be impressive, freak. But when I reduce you to pieces, I won't grant you the time to recover."

  Octavia's head hung low.

  Her body trembled.

  But she was not crying.

  She was laughing.

  "You truly believe," she said slowly, lifting her manic violet eyes, "that my abilities are limited to healing?"

  Her severed limbs and spilled blood did not lie motionless.

  [INK BLOOD: PUPPET LIMBS]

  The detached arm and hand shot upward as if alive. Black blood propelled them like independent weapons. The severed arm lunged from the right. The hand flew for his throat.

  Nereus froze in disbelief. Severed body parts attacking independently defied logic. He reacted on instinct, slicing the arm in half and crushing the hand with his spear's shaft.

  "Pathetic trick!" he snapped.

  "Not a trick," a whisper answered.

  Right behind him.

  Two seconds. That was all Octavia needed. Her limbs had fully regenerated. Moving with blinding speed reminiscent of Shadow Step, she appeared behind him.

  Nereus twisted, but too late.

  A spear-like tentacle pierced straight through his golden royal armor.

  RIP.

  A raw scream tore from Prince Nereus's throat. He twisted at the last instant to avoid a fatal strike, but the tentacle shredded the left side of his abdomen.

  Silver Siren blood bled into the water.

  He staggered back, gripping his spear, face drained of color. The wound was deep. Too severe to close instantly with magic.

  Octavia licked his blood from her claws.

  "Even your blood is dull."

  "You… I'll tear you apart!" he snarled, raising his spear again—

  The battlefield froze.

  The temperature did not drop.

  The lights did not dim.

  But the water itself grew heavy. A thousand times heavier.

  Hope collapsed to his knees atop the pillar. He could not breathe. His chest felt crushed. Across the battlefield, Sirens and Octopuses alike ceased moving. The pressure was so immense that even standing upright was nearly impossible.

  This was not a spell.

  This was a presence crushing the ocean by existing.

  From the darkness emerged a colossal silhouette.

  At least three times the size of a standard Octopus soldier. His body was covered in scarred flesh hardened like volcanic stone. Not six, but at least twenty massive tentacles coiled slowly behind him. Each step shattered marble beneath him.

  A Scale-Skin guard, trembling, raised his spear.

  The giant merely looked at him.

  [HYPER-PRESSURE: ABYSSAL COLLAPSE]

  In a fraction of a second, the water pressure around the guard intensified to that of the deepest ocean trench.

  CRUNCH.

  The guard was compressed into a small mass of blood and twisted metal.

  The being advanced, parting his army, and stopped behind his daughter like a god of ruin.

  The King of the Octopuses.

  King Dagon.

  Dagon's black, lifeless eyes fixed upon the wounded Prince Nereus.

  The arrogance on Nereus's face faded.

  Because he knew the legends.

  Facing this being was not an honor.

  It was suicide.

  King Dagon's voice rumbled like tectonic plates grinding across the ocean floor.

  "The slender fingers that spilled my daughter's blood…" he said, each word vibrating through the sea.

  "…I have come to tear them from their roots, little prince."