The Pearl Chamber was no longer a sanctuary.
It had become a war altar.
Walls once luminous and serene were now smeared with black ink and streaks of green ectoplasm. Frost crawled across the marble floors in jagged veins, cracking beneath every step like brittle bone. The chandeliers above flickered, their glow distorted by smoke and steam rising from clashing elements.
Hope moved.
He was not thinking.
Once, he would have calculated angles, wind resistance, projected damage outputs. Numbers would have whispered in tidy rows behind his eyes.
Now his mind was quiet.
Only muscle memory.
Only instinct.
Prince Nereus' voice echoed in the hollow chamber of his memory.
"Flow with the water."
Hope flowed.
From shadow to shadow.From flame to flame.
Across from him stood the Octopus Commander, Ghoroz, a towering mass of scarred flesh and armored muscle. Four arms. Four weapons. A spiked mace that cratered the marble. A serrated spear that split the air. A hooked chain that slithered toward Hope's ankles like a living thing. A curved blade dripping with venom-dark ink.
Ghoroz moved like a siege engine given hatred.
But Hope was no longer where Ghoroz struck.
One moment he stood before the chain.
The next he hung upside down from the ceiling's shadow.
[SHADOW STEP: ACTIVE]
He had stolen this ability from Spectre in the arena. At first it had felt unstable, like wearing someone else's heartbeat. But now, immersed in the rhythm of battle, the shadows unfolded before him like doorways waiting to be used.
"Ghoroz will crush you!" the commander roared. "Stand still, boy!"
Hope dropped from the ceiling and landed on Ghoroz's back, scythe plunging toward the commander's spine.
CRACK.
Ghoroz bellowed and swung his chain backward blindly.
It would hit.
There was nowhere to dodge.
Hope was suspended in midair.
His eyes flicked toward Elara.
Across the chamber, Elara stood like the eye of a storm. Water spiraled around her form. Ice soldiers she had conjured clashed against waves of Octopus troops pouring through the shattered entrance. Spears passed through her liquefied body as she dissolved into water and reformed behind her enemies, freezing their limbs mid-swing.
Liquefaction.
If she could do it—
He could too.
His Architect Sight flared instinctively, analyzing her transitions even while he fought. He had practiced against her water constructs during training. He understood the theory.
Understanding was not the same as surviving.
The chain was inches from his chest.
Hope inhaled.
He released his physical form.
Green vapor swallowed him as his body dissolved into a spectral silhouette.
[SPIRIT FORM – ATTEMPT 1: FAILURE RISK 90%]
The chain tore through him.
But it touched nothing.
It dispersed only smoke.
Ghoroz staggered in confusion as Hope re-solidified behind him.
The cost hit instantly.
Nausea twisted his stomach. His soul felt yanked from his body and stuffed back in incorrectly, like a blade forced into the wrong sheath.
He swallowed hard.
"Disgusting," he muttered. "Doing that again might actually kill me."
"Hope!" Elara shouted.
She slammed her palms against the frozen floor. Ice surged upward, coiling around Ghoroz's legs, locking him in crystalline shackles.
"I have him pinned! Finish it!"
Royal-level magic pulsed from her. Frost crept across Ghoroz's skin, threatening to freeze his blood mid-flow.
Hope stepped forward.
Green flames licked along his scythe.
"This one's for you, Squid Head."
He lunged.
But Ghoroz did not break.
All four arms flexed violently.
Wounds across his body sealed with wet, grotesque sounds.
[HIGH-LEVEL REGENERATION]
"You are prey," Ghoroz growled.
With monstrous force he shattered the ice binding his legs. Instead of striking Hope, he pivoted and drove his mace into the wall.
Not at Hope.
At the chamber itself.
BOOM.
Pearl-plated stone fractured. The castle's skeletal supports bent inward. The so-called unbreakable wall cracked under the internal assault.
Ghoroz struck again.
The entire wall exploded outward.
Wind and debris roared through the opening.
Then his massive arm swung and smashed into Hope.
Hope was launched from the chamber—
But as he flew, he drove his scythe into Ghoroz's shoulder.
"If I'm falling," Hope snarled, "you're coming with me, you oversized shrimp!"
They plummeted together.
Behind them, Elara turned toward Hope's fall—
And was attacked from behind.
Octopus soldiers swarmed.
She reacted instantly, freezing the closest wave. But they were too many. She created a slick ice slide and shot downward from the broken chamber, the Octopus troops scrambling after her.
Halfway down, she dismissed the slide.
Below them, she had filled the landing zone with towering ice spikes.
The Octopus soldiers fell.
And were impaled.
Hope crashed through a fruit vendor's stall below. Crushed blue fruit pulp mixed with his blood across the cobblestones. His breath left him in a violent gasp.
Pain flared along his spine.
[Mürekkep Kanı – ACTIVE]
His bones began to knit together with agonizing heat.
He pushed himself upright.
Chaos had consumed the city.
Octopus forces flooded the streets. Siren guards and civilians fought desperately among broken market stalls and overturned carts.
Hope's scythe had landed several meters away, embedded in a statue.
He moved toward it—
Then froze.
Three hundred meters down the square—
A silver glow.
Lypin.
She stood protecting wounded civilians, Moon Shield deployed. The translucent barrier flickered and cracked under repeated blows from three massive Octopus soldiers.
One raised its spear.
The shield fractured.
Hope's heart stopped.
"LYPIN!"
He tried to move.
A hand seized him by the back of the neck.
Ghoroz.
The commander emerged from rubble, grinning as though untouched.
"Where are you going, little worm?"
He lifted Hope like a doll and slammed him into stone.
CRACK.
Boot pressed into Hope's chest.
"I said I would eat your legs first," Ghoroz hissed, saliva dripping. "Then that small girl. Dessert."
The spear descended toward Lypin.
Her shield shattered.
She screamed.
And something inside Hope tore.
Not logic.
Not system.
Something deeper.
The green flame in his eyes shifted.
Turned gray.
Veins along his arms ignited in burning sigils as his body lifted slightly from the ground.
"Remove," Hope said, voice no longer entirely human. "Your hand."
He grabbed Ghoroz's ankle.
Ghoroz smirked. "What will you do?"
Ancient, cursed symbols burned across Hope's arms.
[FORBIDDEN ABILITY ACTIVATED][HELLFIRE]
A gray-white flame erupted from Hope's hands and engulfed Ghoroz's leg.
The commander laughed.
"Fire? Underwater fire?"
He attempted to regenerate.
The flesh did not heal.
The flames did not extinguish.
They spread.
Up his leg. Across his torso. Into his arms.
"What is this?!" Ghoroz screamed.
He severed his own leg.
The flames continued burning from within.
His regeneration fed it.
Each new limb ignited upon forming.
An endless cycle.
The more he healed, the more he burned.
His scream overtook the battlefield.
This was not physical pain.
It was existential.
Hope shoved him aside as if discarding garbage.
He did not look back.
His eyes locked only on Lypin.
He moved.
Not running.
Flying.
As if he had always known how.
Gray flames still clung to his fingers.
But before he reached her—
A blur dropped from above.
Kai.
Twin daggers pierced an Octopus soldier's skull.
Bianca followed, cutting the throat of another with surgical precision.
The third fell moments later.
Lypin was safe.
Kai pulled her upright.
Hope stopped mid-air.
The gray faded from his eyes.
Flames vanished from his hands.
He landed slowly.
"Safe…" he whispered, collapsing to one knee.
Behind him, Ghoroz still burned.
Skin charred. Regenerated. Charred again.
Elara approached from the fountain's edge, water dripping from her form. Her expression toward Hope had changed.
She formed a massive spear of ice.
And drove it through Ghoroz's skull.
Deep enough to halt regeneration.
Cold enough to freeze thought itself.
Silence fell.
Ghoroz died.
Elara withdrew the spear and faced Hope.
"You left him in endless agony," she said quietly. "You did not kill him. You tortured him."
Hope stood.
There was no remorse in his face.
"I didn't notice," he replied flatly. "He was in my way. I removed the obstacle. I needed to reach Lypin."
Elara stepped back slightly.
This was not the same boy who had admired her tail in the garden.
This was someone who could condemn a man to eternity without blinking.
And yet—
She did not feel disturbed.
If Lypin or the others had witnessed it, they might have shouted at him.
Elara did not.
Before anything else could be said—
The city's speakers crackled.
Sirens halted.
A distorted voice echoed through every district.
"EMERGENCY! EMERGENCY!"
"ROYAL PRISON BREACHED!"
"CODE: RED INK!"
A pause.
Then—
"Octavia… The Octopus Princess… has been abducted!"
Hope and Elara locked eyes.
The invasion had never been about conquering the city.
The palace had been a distraction.
The real target—
Was the princess.
And the Octopus forces had succeeded.