As the submarine climbed toward the surface, the silence inside was more deafening than the deepest and most lightless trenches of the ocean.
Inside the claustrophobic metal box, only the monotonous hum of siren magic could be heard. Kai had his arms crossed over his chest, his eyes fixed on the floor. Bianca was playing with the hilt of her daggers, yet she didn't lift her gaze even for a second. Lypin had her eyes closed, meditating as if she were exhausting every drop of her mana to suppress the dark cosmic storm inside her. And Hope... he was simply staring at the hatch. Deniz, meanwhile, sat in his corner, his massive frame blending into the darkness.
No one wanted him beside them. The betrayal in their minds was still fresh. But thousands of meters beneath the ocean, inside this narrow metal tube, no one truly knew what they were supposed to do either. The silence burned slowly like the fuse of a bomb ready to explode.
TISSSSS!
The submarine shuddered to a halt. The locks opened with a loud clang, and the heavy metal hatch above split open.
The air that rushed inside was not the warm, fresh, hopeful sunlight Hope had felt the day he first escaped the dungeon. Instead, a freezing, salty wind filled the interior, cutting through lungs like blades and burning the throat.
When Hope climbed the ladder and stepped onto the deck, the sight before him was like a physical reflection of the dead, cold feeling within the team.
There was no sun.
The sky was covered with heavy, leaden clouds. The submarine had surfaced beside a desolate shoreline of endless white snow and jagged, frozen rocks. A violent snowstorm howled around them, the freezing cold instantly biting into bone. The wind lashed snow against their faces like razor blades. Just like the icy tension between them, the world itself seemed to have turned its back on them.
One by one, everyone stepped outside and planted their feet onto the harsh, frozen land.
Deniz slung his massive bag over his shoulder and cracked his neck. After drawing a deep breath of the icy air, he began walking forward casually, as if the heavy confrontation in Atlantis had never happened, as if he were still the team's protective older brother.
"Alright, let's move, everyone," Deniz said, his deep and authoritative voice cutting through the wind. "According to the map, if we head north we should find shelter soon. We'll spend the night there and check our supplies."
Deniz took the first step into the snow, beginning to carve a path ahead as though nothing had happened.
"STOP!"
Hope's voice was so sharp, so firm and uncompromising that it split even the storm's cutting howl in half.
Deniz stopped where he stood. Slowly, he turned around and frowned beneath his thick brows. The familiar weary, condescending adult expression was back on his face.
"Again, Hope?" Deniz said, his breath forming white clouds in the freezing air. "Learn to use your brain already. This isn't the time to act like a child. We're in the middle of a freezing storm, and we need to get Lypin to the World Tree as soon as possible."
Hope stepped forward across the snow.
The wind whipped through his clothes and hair, but he stood as unmoving as a mountain. The green flames in his eyes began to glow like two deadly beacons in the middle of this white hell.
"No," Hope said. His voice did not tremble even slightly.
"I will take Lypin to the World Tree. You're not coming."
Hope pointed behind him at the two stunned thieves.
"Kai and Bianca will continue their own paths from here. They're not coming with us."
His words echoed through the freezing wind. Kai and Bianca exchanged glances. Hope had not even discussed this with them, but he was offering them an exit, freedom. After all, they had already said they planned to leave eventually.
The weary expression on Deniz's face slowly disappeared, replaced by a mocking, contemptuous smile. He crossed his arms over his massive chest.
"I guess you really didn't understand what I told you in Atlantis, Hope," Deniz said, shaking his head.
"You might be an Architect. Maybe the System gave you special treatment… but at the end of the day you're still just a naive child who doesn't understand his own powers and has no idea what he's doing. You can't beat me, Hope. Accept that. Wake up from those little hero fantasies in your head. Now shut your mouth, listen to me, and let's keep moving."
Hope's right hand opened to the side.
His mind, soul, and mana converged into a single point.
With a screaming surge of energy that tore through the air, the legendary massive scythe burning with green flames materialized in his hand. The terrifying heat radiating from it instantly melted the snow beneath Hope's feet into water.
"No," Hope said, leveling the curved blade of the scythe directly at Deniz's neck.
"Only we will continue the journey with Lypin. And if…"
Hope's voice turned as cold as a gravestone.
"…if you try to follow us, if you take even one more step…"
His grip tightened on the weapon.
"…YOU WILL BECOME ONE OF THE SOULS INSIDE MY SCYTHE!"
Instead of fear, Deniz burst into laughter at the death threat.
A thick, humiliating laugh echoed across the snowy landscape.
"Oh, really?" Deniz said, his shoulders shaking with laughter. "Did that little chat you had with Princess Elara really convince you that you could beat me? How pathetic."
Deniz fixed his scornful gaze on Hope.
"A pretty girl gives you a few sweet compliments, tells you 'You're special, you're amazing,' and you immediately start believing it, huh? You're nothing more than a pitiful brat who inflates his weak ego with a girl's words."
Hope did not bend under the psychological attack.
The poisonous green flames in his eyes stared deep into Deniz's own eyes, into the insecurities hiding behind his soul.
Before weapons won this fight, words had to.
"Stop trying your cheap tricks, Deniz," Hope said with a thin, dangerous smile.
"You can't play with my mind. I'm not afraid of you."
Hope slightly lowered his scythe, targeting Deniz's greatest wound: his status complex.
"If… if you really were the incredible warrior you think you are in your head…"
Hope's voice gained a mocking tone.
"…you'd be a respected royal soldier like Negra instead of fighting like a slave in an arena."
The smile on Deniz's face froze instantly.
Negra's name, the unreachable elite status of the royal guard, was like a knife stabbing directly into his pride.
"But you're not," Hope continued, deliberately choosing his words slowly and crushingly.
"You're not some royal knight. All you do is spill blood in an arena to entertain people. You're nothing more than a toy for the crowd to watch and gamble on. In the king's eyes you're not a respected agent, Deniz…"
Hope delivered the final blow.
"…you're just a simple clown."
The word exploded in Deniz's mind like a bomb.
For years he had done the king's dirty work, shed blood, and battered himself in the arena for nothing. And now this brat was telling him he was just a clown.
Thick veins bulged in Deniz's neck. His jaw clenched so hard that the grinding of his teeth mixed with the sound of the wind. His arms dropped to his sides, and his massive, rock-hard fists tightened.
This time, Hope was the one wearing the cruel, mocking smile.
"What's wrong?" Hope asked, tilting his head slightly.
"What's wrong, Great Knight Deniz? Did your enormous ego get hurt?"
Pure madness filled Deniz's eyes.
The masks had fallen. The mission was forgotten.
Now there was only blood and pride.
"If that's how you want to play it, Architect," Deniz growled, his voice like a wild predator's.
"Then let's play your way. I'll show you the power of a true royal gladiator!"
BOOM!
Deniz launched forward with enough force to shatter the ice and rock beneath his feet. Despite his massive body, he moved as fast as a tank shell.
Hope didn't panic.
His eyes read his opponent's movements second by second.
Just before Deniz's crushing fist could smash into his face, Hope raised his scythe with both hands and released his mana.
[FLAME TYRANT: BURNING WALL]
A massive wall of hellish green flames erupted before Hope, instantly vaporizing the snow around it.
But Deniz didn't stop.
He didn't avoid the fire.
His giant gauntlets surged with dense, pure physical mana as he drove his fist straight into the heart of the flame wall.
CRACK!
Deniz's punch tore through the green flames as if they were a literal physical barrier.
The metal fist bursting from the flames slammed violently into the shaft of Hope's scythe.
CLAAAAANG!
Metal crashed against metal. Mana collided with mana.
The shockwave blasted the snow around them into the air. Hope had blocked the strike with his scythe, but Deniz's physical strength was so monstrous that Hope's feet were dragged meters backward across the snow.
His arms went numb.
"You spoiled brat!" Deniz roared, unleashing a second, third, and fourth punch without pause.
Hope deflected each blow skillfully with the shaft and blade of his scythe.
But every block increased the pressure on his legs.
Deniz truly had been holding back during the journey.
This man's raw muscle strength and combat experience proved the blood-soaked past of a gladiator.
Suddenly, Deniz pulled back.
Seeing Hope stuck on the defensive, he lifted his right leg into the air. His eyes glowed with a heavy yellowish mana light.
"Did you ever wonder why the man you called a clown is the champion of the arena, Architect?!"
Deniz slammed his foot down on the snow-covered ground with the force of someone trying to split the world in half.
[EARTH MAGIC: FISSURE]
Hope's eyes widened in shock.
Deniz had magic?!
Wasn't he just a physical fighter who used fists and swords?!
The ground shook violently.
The thick ice and rock beneath Hope's feet cracked and split with a thunderous roar like a lightning strike. From within the earth, gigantic razor-sharp rock spikes burst forward toward Hope.
[Shadow Step]
Hope leaped backward at the last moment, but one of the stone spikes grazed his left leg, tearing his leather armor.
Blood dripped onto the white snow.
But Deniz wouldn't give him time to breathe.
Before Hope even landed, Deniz brought both gauntlets together. All the surrounding earth mana gathered around his fists in a swirling vortex of gold and brown.
This wasn't a normal attack.
It was a finishing blow meant for pure annihilation.
"Know your place!" Deniz roared.
Deniz leaped into the air and drove his joined fists down toward the exact spot where Hope would land.
[ANCIENT EARTH: COLLAPSE OF THE WORLD]
BOOOOOOOM!
The explosion was deafening.
The snowstorm scattered instantly, replaced by a massive cloud of dust and shattered rock.
It felt as if gravity itself had suddenly reversed direction.
The entire area where Hope had stood collapsed inward. Rocks, snow, and ice shattered apart.
As the dust cloud slowly cleared, a massive, dark sinkhole fifteen meters wide had opened in the center of the snowy ground.
Deniz stood at the edge of the crater, breathing heavily, smoke rising from his mechanical gauntlets.
He looked down into the pitch-black hole.
There was no sign of Hope.
He must have been crushed beneath the enormous mass of earth or smashed at the bottom of the pit.
Deniz wiped the sweat running down his shoulder. The madness in his eyes slowly faded, replaced once more by cold arrogance.
He spat into the darkness below.
"I told you you were weak, brat," Deniz said as his voice echoed through the sinkhole.
"Without my protection, in this outside world… you're nothing but prey."
The view shifted to the team frozen in front of the submarine hatch.
Lypin's hands trembled. Her eyes filled with tears, and a silent "No…" slipped from her lips. She wanted to step forward, but her legs refused to move.
Bianca stood frozen in disbelief.
Hope, who had accomplished the impossible… who had even defeated Ignis beneath the seas…
had been sent into the depths of the earth by a single true attack from Deniz.
The massive shock in Bianca's eyes whispered that everything was over.
And the storm slowly began covering the dark sinkhole with snow.