Hope bursting inside with his feet engulfed in flames shattered Atlantis' tranquil night silence like a bomb.
The green flames in Hope's eyes illuminated the dark room, drowning it in an eerie emerald glow. The boy's mind was completely locked into survival and protection instinct. The massive, faceless silhouette standing right behind Lypin, devouring the light itself, triggered every danger alarm in Hope's brain. Even Ignis' flames would have felt like a warm fireplace compared to the freezing, cosmic terror radiating from this entity.
"STAY AWAY FROM HER!"
Hope lunged forward at a speed that evaporated even the moisture in the air. Gripping his scythe tightly with both hands, he carved a perfect arc through the air with a merciless whistle, aiming straight for the shadow's neck—or where a neck should have been in that shapeless void.
The green flames roared, eager to tear the shadow apart, to burn it into ash.
But the expected sound of impact never came.
No crack of bones.No tearing of flesh.No flames striking against a surface.
Fwoosh.
Hope's legendary scythe passed through the dark silhouette… as if slicing through a dense cloud of mist. The blade touched nothing. The silhouette did not even react to the attack; it merely rippled where the scythe had passed, like waves spreading across a dark pool disturbed by a stone.
"Wha—"
Hope's eyes widened in shock. He stumbled forward, losing his balance. Did it have no physical body? Was this thing a spirit?
But Hope had no time to think.
His sudden entrance, that deadly shout, and the intense mana wave emanating from his scythe shattered the fragile balance surrounding Lypin's bed.
Lypin, deep in a trance with her eyes closed, furrowed her brows in pain. Her breath suddenly hitched.
The soothing silver Moon-dust aura swirling around her… suddenly darkened.
The silver turned into a pitch-black, sickly purple within a single second. Lypin's eyes snapped open; her pupils had vanished, replaced by that cosmic, dark purple energy.
From the girl's lips erupted a scream that did not belong to her—two-toned, guttural, filled with agony.
And then… the explosion occurred.
It was not a physical explosion. The walls did not collapse. The glass did not shatter. The bed did not break apart.
This was a transparent, wave-like purple shockwave aimed directly at the soul, at mana, at the void itself.
BOOOOM!
The moment the translucent purple wave struck Hope, it felt like an invisible sledgehammer had slammed into his chest.
[SYSTEM WARNING: COSMIC MANA FLUCTUATION DETECTED][CONSCIOUSNESS STATUS: UNSTABLE]
Hope's mind was violently shaken, as if hurled from the depths of the ocean into the airless, freezing vacuum of space. His body flew backward as though severed from gravity and slammed into the hard coral wall of the room. The air was knocked out of his lungs. His scythe slipped from his hand and clattered across the floor.
The room fell into silence.
A terrible, deafening silence.
The static flickering of the System screen slowly stabilized and returned to its normal green hue. The calm blue coral light that illuminated the room came back.
Groaning from the pain in his back, Hope dropped to his knees. He shook his head from side to side, trying to clear his vision. He was gasping for breath.
"Hope!"
He heard a frantic, familiar voice.
Right in front of him, kneeling on both knees, was Lypin. Her eyes had returned to normal. Her face was pale as a ghost, cold sweat dripping from her forehead, but her eyes held pure concern.
Lypin reached out, tightly grabbed Hope's hand, and pulled him toward her to help him up.
"Hope, are you okay? What did you do? Why did you suddenly barge in?!" Lypin asked, examining his face and arms for injuries.
With her help, Hope stood up on trembling legs. Without letting go of her hand, he scanned every corner of the room, the ceiling, beneath the bed, panic filling his eyes.
"Where is it?" Hope breathed. His voice trembled. "That disgusting silhouette… Where did that dark thing go?!"
Hope blinked and reignited the green flames in his eyes.
[ARCHITECT SIGHT: ACTIVE]
He scanned all mana flows, heat signatures, invisible entities within the room.
Nothing.
They were alone.
"What are you looking for, Hope?" Lypin asked in a calming but exhausted tone. "There's no one here but us."
"I saw it!" Hope said, summoning his scythe back into his hand. He stepped toward the corners of the room, sniffing the air. "It was standing right behind you! It was devouring the light, Lypin. My scythe passed right through it. I swear it was there. Or was it… Spectre? That bastard from the arena… He said he'd come for me! Was it him? Did he follow me all the way here?!"
Hope's heartbeat rang in his ears. Everything was crashing down at once. They had just escaped Ignis' inferno, and now ghosts of the past were chasing them?
Lypin let out a deep, trembling sigh.
She grabbed Hope's arm and stopped him. There was no lie in her eyes; only the sorrow of a burden too heavy to carry.
"It wasn't Spectre, Hope," she said slowly, her voice barely above a whisper. "There was no one in my room. No one followed us."
Hope stopped. His brows knitted.
"What do you mean no one was here? I saw it with my own eyes! That massive, faceless darkness… right behind you…"
"That darkness didn't come from outside, Hope," Lypin interrupted softly. She lowered her head, her hair casting shadows across her face. Slowly, she placed her right hand over her heart. "That darkness… came from within."
The room felt colder.
Hope's grip on his scythe loosened. His eyes widened.
"From within? What… are you talking about?"
Lypin walked to her bed and sat down heavily on its edge. She clasped her hands on her knees.
"That silhouette you saw," she said, struggling to choose her words, "…was the thing inside me. Starfallen."
Hope's breath caught.
Starfallen. The legendary cosmic energy that granted Lypin her overwhelming gravity powers, that had forced even Ignis to his knees.
"But… it looked like it had gained a physical body," Hope said quietly, stepping closer. "Shouldn't it exist inside you like mana? Like my Architect powers?"
"No," Lypin replied with a bitter smile. "Your powers are part of your soul, Hope. They obey you. But Starfallen… is a parasite. A cosmic, intelligent, and extremely hungry parasite. It's not just energy; it has consciousness. It has will. Right now, we're like two souls in one body."
She lifted her head. In her eyes was a helplessness Hope had never seen before.
"I used it too much in the battle," Lypin confessed. "To keep you alive. To crush Ignis, I had to open the gates of the [Inner Cage] completely. The more I used it, the more it fed on me. It grew stronger. I was meditating just now, trying to seal it back inside, to put it to sleep. But it's grown so powerful that… it's starting to leak into the physical world. It's trying to create a body for itself through my shadow."
The pieces fell into place in Hope's mind.
The silhouette that glitched the System, that devoured the light… was the shadow of the cosmic monster consuming Lypin's soul from within.
If Hope hadn't burst in and broken her concentration… would Starfallen have fully emerged?
Suppressing his horror, Hope sat beside Lypin on the edge of the bed.
Relief that it wasn't an external enemy was instantly replaced by colder panic. The enemy was in her heart.
"Why didn't you tell us?" Hope asked gently. "Why are you carrying this alone?"
"You were already wounded," Lypin said, resting her head against his shoulder. "Atlantis was collapsing. There were Ignis and Octopus problems. You had intense training. My little internal war felt insignificant at the time."
"Insignificant?" Hope's irritation flared briefly, though he didn't direct it at her. "Lypin, if that thing takes physical form—"
"I disappear," she said flatly. As if she had already accepted it. "My body becomes its vessel. And that cosmic hunger will consume everything in its path."
Hope stood abruptly. He dismissed his scythe and began pacing.
Running his hands through his hair.
"No. I won't allow that," he muttered. "There's a reason we've survived all this. I won't let you become food for that parasite."
He stopped and turned to her. That unyielding Architect determination burned in his eyes.
"How much time do we have?"
Lypin shrugged. "If I don't use it again… maybe months. Maybe weeks. But the cage cracks more each day."
"Then we don't have a single second to waste," Hope said firmly. "We know how to fix this. We're going to the World Tree. We're heading to the surface, finding that cursed tree, and getting the ancient magic that will rip this cosmic leech out of you. There's no other way."
A faint smile appeared on Lypin's pale face as she looked at Hope's unwavering faith.
"Alright, Captain," she said, slowly standing. "What's the plan?"
"We regroup," Hope replied, heading toward the door. "Our adventure at the bottom of the ocean is temporarily over."
Half an hour later.
In the temporary safe zone at the center of Atlantis, Kai and Bianca were seated around a coral table that had survived intact. They studied a map while packing supplies they had "borrowed" from Atlantis soldiers.
Hope and Lypin walked toward them side by side.
Hope wore a new black leather outfit stitched with green lines. In his ear rested the small black octopus earring Octavia had forced him to wear.
"Finally gracing us with your presence," Kai said, tossing a piece of dried seaweed into his mouth. "Bianca and I were reviewing surface exit routes. Prince Nereus owes us a submarine, doesn't he?"
"Prepare the route," Hope said as he reached the table. There was no humor in his voice. Only seriousness. "We're leaving Atlantis as soon as possible. Our destination is the World Tree."
Bianca noticed the urgency. She frowned.
"Is something wrong, Hope? We just got out of a war. Our wounds haven't even healed. If we stayed a few more days—"
"We don't have time," Hope cut her off. He wouldn't explain Lypin's condition publicly, but he needed them to feel the gravity. "We don't know what awaits us on the surface. The longer we stay here, the slower we become. Pack up."
At that moment, heavy metallic footsteps echoed from the shadows of the camp.
Deniz.
Deniz approached the table, his massive mechanical gauntlets repaired. The cheerful gladiator from before was gone. His eyes were tired. There was hesitation as he looked at the team.
Especially at Hope.
Silence fell over the table.
Kai stopped chewing. Bianca crossed her arms. Lypin looked at the ground.
During the war against Ignis, Deniz had fought beside them. It had been life or death. A ceasefire.
But the war was over.
And no one had forgotten Deniz's secret deal with Prince Nereus. No one had forgotten how he had dragged them into this ocean prison to escape Eraser, Yaat's killer.
Deniz cleared his throat.
"I… was checking the equipment," he began. "Should I start loading the supply crates into the submarine?"
He stepped forward and reached for a bag—
Hope's hand shot out like a serpent, gripping the handle and pulling it back.
Deniz's hand froze midair.
Hope's emerald eyes held neither rage nor hatred.
Only cold.
Absolute, freezing cold.
"Don't bother," Hope said, his voice calm like the deepest parts of the ocean.
Deniz swallowed. "Hope… I know I have things to explain. You're right. But we're heading to the surface. It'll be dangerous. You need my shields. My strength. Let me help. After that—"
"We'll talk later, Deniz," Hope interrupted. His tone didn't rise even a millimeter, yet his words cut like blades.
Hope slowly slung his scythe across his back and looked directly into Deniz's eyes.
Yaat's lifeless body flashed in Hope's mind for a moment.
Betrayal could be forgiven.
But gambling with his friends' lives could not.
"But given the current situation…" Hope said carefully, each word deliberate.
"…perhaps it would be better if you stayed here. In Atlantis."
Deniz's face crumbled, as if struck once more by Ignis' flames.
The giant stood frozen in place.
He was being expelled.
Kai silently looked away. Bianca said nothing.
Hope turned and walked off.
Because he was no longer someone who endured betrayal.
He was an Architect who set his own rules.