Ren could see it now, truly see it, thanks to his Siren's Perception. He watched the way her Vira surged beneath her skin, how it sharpened her muscles and propelled every step. She was enhancing both speed and strength, and because of that, he could predict her movements just before they happened.
That was the good news.
The bad news?
Knowing what was coming didn't mean he could stop it.
He saw her lunge, and the air rippled with it.
Before thought could catch up, he moved, diving to the side, not with speed but with instinct.
A fist tore through the space where his head had been a heartbeat ago, so close that the pressure alone sliced open his cheek. Heat bloomed beneath his eye in a sharp, stinging line.
'Oh Shit. Shit.'
He stumbled back, nearly losing his footing.
'Is she trying to take my head off?'
Blood dripped from his cheek. The cut wasn't deep, but it burned.
Aika grinned, genuinely this time, as if she was finally enjoying herself.
She spun, leg sweeping up in a wide arc, her kick aimed straight for his ribs.
Ren dropped low and rolled, awkward and unbalanced. His shoulder hit the floor first, then his hip, the motion rough and graceless. But it worked. The kick sliced over him harmlessly.
He crashed onto his back, breath knocked loose.
'Okay… that could've shattered something.'
He scrambled upright, still off-center, just in time to see another blur coming straight for his head.
'Fuck!'
He threw himself backward, spine arching past its limit in a messy, contorted dodge. Something in his back popped, loud and sharp.
He didn't wait to find out what.
He let himself fall, rolling across the floor in a desperate tangle of limbs. Momentum carried him, and he came up on one knee, gasping.
But she was already gone from his line of sight.
She had moved again.
He looked up and saw her flying straight at him. Both her legs were extended, parallel, her body perfectly horizontal as she hurtled toward his chest like a human missile.
Ren's instinct screamed. Then, without thinking, his body responded. Vira surged into his legs.
He didn't roll. He jumped straight up, legs splitting midair.
Aika shot beneath him in a blur of black and silver. Her heels slammed into the wall behind him, the impact spiderwebbing the concrete and making dust rain down around them.
'What the hell… was that?'
Ren landed hard, knees buckling as he caught himself.
Aika spun midair and dropped low, landing on all fours in a smooth, almost feline manner. She was not even winded.
"Good," she murmured. "You're starting to get the hang of your moisture sense."
'Moisture sense?'
Ren blinked, frowning.
'Oh… right. She doesn't know mine evolved into Siren's Perception…'
Aika tilted her head slightly, black bob falling into place as she dropped into a new stance.
"I'll pick up speed now."
"What?"
Ren's voice cracked louder than he meant it to.
"You can move faster? That's—"
He didn't even finish. She was already gone in a flash of motion, her body twisting in the air, knee rising like a spear aimed for his ribs.
His Siren's Perception was worlds beyond moisture sense, amplifying his awareness and letting him read movements with slow-motion clarity. But that didn't mean time actually slowed. It just meant he saw death coming, frame by frame, and couldn't do a damn thing about it, not yet.
If only he could figure out how to use his Vira to enhance his speed, then he might actually be able to react in time. He had managed to boost it once before, instinctively, when he leapt to dodge her legs from driving into his gut. But he still had no idea how to trigger it on command.
He tried to move but it was too late. Her knee crashed into his ribs. He felt it, a sickening crunch echoing through his chest, and then he was airborne, lifted clean off the ground and flung like a ragdoll into the far wall. The impact cracked something, maybe the wall, maybe him.
Pain exploded through his torso, white-hot and immediate. He crumpled to the floor, coughing hard, blood splattering across his hand.
His vision blurred and the room spun wildly, a high-pitched ringing shrieking in his ears. He clutched his side, gasping, but the air refused to come.
'Fuck... Did I piss this woman off earlier?
She's going to fuckin' kill me.'
He looked up and saw her through the haze.
She moved with calm, deliberate steps, cutting through his blurred vision like a silhouette drifting through water.
'She's really going to end me.
You know what? Fuck this.'
Ren forced his hand up, fingers trembling, and activated his derivative. His eyes flared, a deeper, colder shade of blue.
Aika stopped mid-step.
In an instant, ribbons of water coiled out of the air, spinning into existence around her head. They snapped inward, merging to form a tight, spherical prison of water that sealed around her face. Water surged into her mouth and nose.
Aika didn't flinch. Of course not. She could still breathe. She tilted her head slightly, puzzled more than alarmed.
Why would Ren try something so pointless?
'He knows I can breathe underwater… so why—?
Is he stupid? Or just desperate?'
Then she heard it, a single word spoken in a voice that was cold, quiet, and unnervingly measured:
"Drown."
Everything changed. Her breath hitched and then stopped as the water, once passive, turned on her. It thickened and pushed deeper, flooding every space—mouth, nose, ears, eyes—as if it wasn't water anymore, but something alive and cruel.
She dropped to one knee, choking, and immediately activated her derivative. Her Vira flared outward, sharp and instinctive. Mist hissed into the air, curling around her face like protective tendrils. She grabbed the orb, fingers digging in, and slowly the water began to dissolve into mist, vapor peeling away from her skin. She coughed violently, shoulders trembling.
Too late. A shape surged through the mist and she looked up just in time to see Ren's knee driving toward her face. The impact snapped her head back with a brutal crack, and she hit the ground hard, arms flung wide, vision swimming.
'Now's my chance,' Ren thought.
He staggered forward, dragging his battered body across the floor, one arm clamped tight over his ribs, every breath a blade. His plan had been simple: distract her, drown her just long enough to knock her off-balance, then finish it while she was still reeling. It wasn't clean. It wasn't honorable, but it was all he had. She was down, coughing and disoriented. That was enough.
He raised his foot, heel aimed for her skull, just one strike, but before he could bring it down, Aika spun from the ground, her leg sweeping outward. Her kick smashed into his ankle, knocking him off-balance. His body twisted violently mid-motion, his strike thrown wide.
He was still mid-fall when she rose, fluid, controlled, and merciless. She launched upward and with that same blinding speed her palm clamped around his skull, driving him down using his own falling momentum.
Hard.
His skull struck the tile with a crack that echoed through the room. The ground split beneath him, his skull fractured, blood blooming beneath his head in a slow, spreading halo.
Then darkness.
***
Penthouse — Two Days Later…
Balcony Pool.
——
The water was still. Ren opened his eyes. There were no stars in the sky, but the moon hung low, pale and bloated, casting silver ripples across the water.
He felt good, strangely good. The pain was gone—the bruises, the crack in his skull, the ache in his ribs, all of it.
He exhaled a soft sigh and let himself float, drifting slowly, the water cool against his skin.
Then—
Smoke?
He turned and there she was.
Aika floated nearby, half-submerged, wearing nothing but a black swim top and matching underwear, strange considering it was winter. A lit cigarette rested between her fingers, her eyes fixed on the moon.
When she heard the water shift, she spoke, still facing away. "Welcome back to the land of the living," she said dryly.
"Stay away from me, you vile creature," Ren scoffed. "I asked you to train me, not roleplay attempted murder."
Aika smiled faintly. "Fights between Virans aren't pretty, sweetheart."
She took a drag from the cigarette, then finally turned to him. "I thought we were training the body. Why'd you spam your derivative all of a sudden?"
Ren sighed and looked away. "I'm sorry about that. Guess I got desperate."
Aika glanced back up at the moon.
"Nah… that's actually a good thing," she muttered.
"You used your head. Figured out it was impossible to win physically and by the rules, so you came up with a strategy using your derivative. You also fought to kill, from what I saw. Well done." She took another drag.
"That's exactly how to survive. Keep that up."
Ren exhaled hard, eyes drifting to the moon. "How many days this time?"
Aika replied dryly, "A year."
Ren's eyes widened. "What? What—"
She cut in, "Relax. I'm messing with you. You spent two days in here."
Ren looked at her, genuinely considering whether he should dunk her head under the water and hold her there. Then he sighed and looked back up. "Well… two days isn't bad. Better than last time. I was out for six."
Aika took a slow drag from her cigarette. "Yeah…"
Smoke curled from her mouth, vanishing into the night. Then she added:
"By the way… what law was that? That's a counter to one of the biggest perks water Virans get."
"Law of Drowning," Ren answered. "Lets me decide who breathes underwater."
Aika blinked, then gave a low, appreciative whistle. "That's actually really cool, Ren."
A pause. "So… what's your path?"
Ren turned to look at her. "Siren," he said.
Aika's brows rose. "Siren?"
"Yeah."
She pulled the cigarette from her lips and gave him a slow, pointed look. "No shit…"
"Huh? What kind of reaction is that?" Ren asked.
Aika took a drag, then sighed. "The last anybody saw those creatures was fifty years ago. Some Virans think they went extinct."
Ren frowned. 'So Sirens were actually real?'
The Whisperscript had described them back then as creations of the sea god—beautiful, divine, and dangerous. Even after glimpsing one during the revelation that showed him his path, it had still felt unreal, distant, like something that might exist in a realm like his, but definitely not this world.
Now he was hearing they existed here too, that Virans had actually seen them, that one had even turned into an aberrant.
It felt off, like reality itself was starting to warp.
And thinking back now, the carvings, the markings scattered throughout his realm—could it have been one of them who left those behind?
"Have you come across one?" he asked.
Aika turned sharply and glared at him like he'd just insulted her intelligence.
"How old do you think I am, you son of a bitch?" she snapped. "I just said the last one was seen fifty years ago."
Ren looked away, sheepish. "Oh… right."
Aika exhaled another cloud of smoke, her expression dry. "They were known to be beautiful, but deadly. Real monsters in disguise."
"Yeah well, I've seen a siren," Ren muttered. "And they're not beautiful. They're nightmares."
Aika chuckled, then her tone grew darker. "The last recorded one was an aberrant in its second stage. I heard it took three Stage Threes, called Forgers, and a Stage Four, a Veinborn, to bring it down. Two of the Forgers died. The third has been in permanent sleep paralysis ever since, caused by the Siren. His eyes are open. Hasn't blinked in fifty years. Just lies there, body twitching from time to time."
She glanced at him. "No one knows what he sees. No one can wake him. As for the Veinborn… she came back without limbs. Said it was the most horrific experience any Viran could ever survive."
She took another drag from her cigarette, exhaled slowly, then sighed. "There are some creatures we do not want turning aberrant. Sirens? Definitely one of them."
Ren swallowed, eyes wide. Aika continued. "I told you before, didn't I? The longer an aberrant stays alive, the more powerful it becomes, because by then it's likely consumed a lot of Virans. So if you—"
She was still talking, but Ren's mind had already drifted, trapped in the thought of the siren. The memory surged back: the one he saw during his first revelation of his path, when he'd entered his resonance state. With it came a pressure in his chest. His heartbeat began to climb, fast, then faster.
Suddenly, it was like his affliction couldn't mute the fear. His breaths shortened, shallow and unsteady. He began to gasp, like someone slipping into a panic attack. It felt like something was watching him again.
"…and that's why you need to—"
Aika stopped mid-sentence. Her head turned sharply toward him.
"Ren?" she said quietly.
No response.
She narrowed her eyes and swam closer. "Ren?"
Still nothing.
She reached out and tapped his shoulder lightly. He flinched hard, like something had shocked him.
Then he jolted upright, eyes wide and wild, breath ragged. He looked around, disoriented, like someone waking from a nightmare.
"You good?" Aika asked, brow raised.
He stared at her for a moment, then at the water. His breathing slowed bit by bit. Finally, he took a deep breath and nodded. "Uh… yeah. Yeah, I'm fine."
Aika leaned closer, eyes narrowing slightly as she studied his face. "You sure? You looked like you were having a panic attack. Only—that's supposed to be impossible."
Ren glanced away, flustered. She was too close. He shifted back slightly. "Yeah, I'm fine. Really. It's nothing."
Aika tilted her head, unconvinced, but she let it go. "Alright. Then you probably need proper rest. Looks like suspended restoration wasn't enough."
She turned and swam back, and almost immediately, mist began to curl up from the water around her, lifting her effortlessly to the edge of the pool. She then stretched, exhaling slowly. "Anyway," she muttered, voice low, "I'm all sleepy now."
Tendrils of mist slid across the stone floor, lifting a towel from the arm of one of the chaise lounges. They floated it over to her, and she took it without looking. "We'll continue your training tomorrow," she said over her shoulder, then walked into the house.
Ren leaned back in the water, letting out a slow breath and sighed. His eyes drifted up to the fractured moonlight scattered across the pool's surface. Then, softly, almost to himself, he whispered, "What the hell was that?"