Octavia sat cross-legged inside her pearl cage, her chains clinking softly.
She looked as comfortable as if she were seated on her own throne rather than inside a dungeon. Her violet eyes burned in the darkness like twin poisonous lanterns, fixed on Hope and Elara.
"Well…" Octavia said, dragging her long tongue across her teeth. "Since you're all so eager, let me tell you a story. But I'll warn you now, Princess… this isn't one of those decorated 'Heroic Sirens' tales you read in your fancy history books. There's no happy ending in this one. Just blood, shit, and betrayal."
Octavia took a deep breath. She closed her eyes, her face tightening as if she could still smell those days.
"The year… who cares? We didn't keep calendars back then. We Octopuses and you Fish-heads lived together. Atlantis was whole. Vast, magnificent and… an empire built on lies."
She opened her eyes and looked directly at Elara.
"Do you know something, Princess? Our race and yours… we were never compatible. You Sirens worshipped magic. The flow of water, the tides, that damned moonlight… Your power was elegant but fragile. You belonged to the sea. Take you out of it and you'd dry up. But we…"
Octavia grinned. The tentacles along her back twitched eagerly.
"…we were different. Our skin was armor. Our blood was black as ink and most importantly… we regenerated. Cut off an arm and another would grow. Tear off a leg and a stronger one would replace it. And we didn't belong only to the sea."
She pointed upward toward the surface.
"This wasn't our dream. Our eyes were on the Surface. Under that cursed sun. On land. We were the only race that could leave the water, walk there, breathe there, and conquer it. Humans? Hah. Those soft-skinned worms were not even competition."
Hope listened without interrupting, but his mind kept analyzing. Evolutionary adaptation difference. Sirens aquatic, Octopuses amphibious.
"We were growing stronger," Octavia continued, her voice thickening. "Stronger every day. Our population increased. Our soldiers became more durable than Siren guards. And we had a plan: the Great Surface Campaign. Leave the ocean and seize the world above. Build a new empire. Make Atlantis ruler not just of the sea, but of the world."
Elara cut in, her voice trembling. "That's… that's an invasion plan. My brother was right. You were going to destroy the world."
"SHUT YOUR MOUTH!" Octavia roared. The cage trembled. "Don't interrupt me."
She inhaled deeply to calm herself.
"We weren't going to destroy the world. We were going to take it. But that wasn't the real problem, Princess. The problem was this: if we rose to the surface… what would become of you Sirens?"
She smiled cruelly.
"You would remain below. In our shadow. While we lived like kings above, you would stay here in this dark pit as our wardens. The balance of power was shifting. And do you know who noticed first?"
Hope guessed. "Prince Nereus."
"Bingo, handsome!" Octavia snapped her fingers. "He was young back then. Hadn't put that damned crown on yet, but the poison in him was the same. Nereus feared our strength. Our rise meant the end of the Sirens. You would lose your dominance. But Sirens are cowards. You couldn't fight us head-on. One on one, we would crush you."
Her face darkened. Her voice dropped to a whisper.
"So Nereus made a plan. A plan of betrayal. Since his own strength wasn't enough… he went to his enemy. To the humans."
Elara's eyes widened. "No… My father would never cooperate with humans."
"Your father?" Octavia laughed. "Your father was just a pawn then. The brain was Nereus. He went to the surface. He made a secret pact with the Human King, the father of the current King Khronos. He told them: 'A monstrous race is awakening below. If we don't stop them now, tomorrow they'll come and devour your wives and children. Help us wipe them out.'"
Octavia tightened her chains. The metal creaked.
"The humans were afraid. And frightened humans are dangerous. Siren magic and Human technology united. And that night…"
She swallowed, as if a knot sat in her throat.
"…the Crimson Coral Night happened."
"It wasn't a war," Octavia said, her eyes filling. "There wasn't even a warning. We were asleep. They poisoned the city's waters. A toxin that slowed our regeneration, paralyzed us. Then… they opened our gates. Siren mages froze our waters. Human divers entered our nests with their strange devices. Women, children, elderly… they made no distinction."
Elara felt nauseous.
This was not a war. It was genocide.
"Ink…" Octavia whispered, her voice shaking. "So much blood was spilled that Atlantis' waters ran black for a week. They built mountains from our corpses. My friends… My siblings… all torn apart before my eyes. Their goal wasn't to wipe us out completely. No. That would have been merciful. Their goal was to break us. Reduce our numbers so we would never be a threat again. The survivors were driven into those dark pits, the 'Outer Regions' filled with volcanic waste."
Elara leaned against the wall. Her legs would not hold her.
"This… this can't be," she whispered. "The history books… they say you attacked…"
"History is written by the victors, Princess," Octavia said. "But the defeated remember."
She lifted her head. The violet light in her eyes burned with vengeance.
"But the story doesn't end here. They didn't kill me. Do you know why?"
She locked her gaze on Hope.
"Because just as you are an Architect… just as you are special… so was I. I was an anomaly. A mutation born once in a thousand years among Octopuses."
"Inside me," Octavia said, striking her chest, "lies the ocean's deepest, darkest fear. Just as you have the potential to command the Leviathan, Elara… I have the ability to command the Kraken. It is not a monster. It is the embodiment of the ocean's wrath."
"Nereus knew this," she continued. "He wanted to use me as a weapon. But to trigger my power… he needed terror. Pure, unbroken terror."
Her voice turned to ice.
"That day… in the Throne Room. They chained me. Just like now. My mother stood before me. The Octopus Queen. A proud woman. Even after they slaughtered us, she never bowed her head."
"Your father, the King… began dragging that cursed trident across my mother's skin. Nereus stood beside him. And the Human King was there too, watching from behind glass. As if we were lab rats."
Hope saw Octavia's fists clench. Her nails cut into her palms.
"Nereus whispered in my ear: 'Scream, Octavia. Call the monster inside you. Or your mother will face things worse than death.'"
"I didn't scream. I didn't beg. Because my mother was looking at me. There was no fear in her eyes. Only… 'Be strong.'"
"Then…" Octavia's voice cracked. "Then your father drove the spear in. Not into her heart. Into her stomach. Then her shoulder. Then her leg. Slowly. With every strike she kept looking at me. But in the end… she couldn't endure it. She screamed. That sound…"
Octavia covered her ears as if she could hear it again.
"…that sound pierced my brain. And in that moment… the door inside me opened."
"The Kraken came," she whispered.
"But not under my control as they expected. It came as an uncontrolled catastrophe. That day… half of Atlantis was destroyed. The palace towers collapsed. The power was so immense that even Nereus and your father froze in fear. The Kraken took my mother's body and vanished into the ocean's deepest abyss, to a place no one could ever reach."
"That is why," Octavia said, turning to Elara, "Atlantis is no longer whole, Princess. After that day, they divided the land so that if another disaster like the Kraken came, the entire kingdom wouldn't fall. Seven seas, seven kingdoms. A prince appointed to each. Nereus became the ruler of this one, 'Old Atlantis,' but his fear never left him."
"They kept me here," she said. "For years. They take my blood. They experiment on me. They force me to summon the Kraken again so it can be controlled this time. But I didn't. I resisted."
"What happened yesterday…" Octavia grinned. "My people did not forget me. Those you call 'rebels' were actually a rescue unit. They didn't come to invade the city as Nereus told you. They came to save their princess. Their last hope."
The room fell into deep silence.
Only the distant murmur of water could be heard.
Elara had collapsed to her knees.
Her entire life, everything she believed… built on a lie. Her father was not a hero but a murderer. Her brother was not a protector but a psychopath.
"I…" Elara's voice trembled. "Am I descended from monsters?"
Hope touched Elara's shoulder, but his eyes remained on Octavia.
There were no inconsistencies in Octavia's story.
His analytical mind connected Prince Nereus's behavior, the prison's security measures, the poison incident… everything aligned.
"So," Hope said quietly, "Nereus wiped out a race to preserve his power. And now he intends to do the same by using me. The reason he suddenly saved us while we were escaping an enemy wasn't because he owed Deniz… it was because I'm an Architect."
Octavia nodded.
"You're a weapon too, Architect. Just like me. He feeds you, trains you, strengthens you. Why do you think? Because he loves you? No. When the time comes, he'll use you against something. Maybe against the Kraken. Or perhaps… something greater. Most likely he even made another deal with the Human King while 'saving' you."
Hope sank into deep thought. Deniz had confirmed what the Prince said. So had Deniz been lying to them too? His mind was a storm.
Octavia pulled against her chains. The metal rings bit into her flesh, but she did not even feel the pain.
That twisted smile where madness and grief blended appeared on her face.
She fixed her eyes on Elara and Hope.
"Well," Octavia said, her voice sharp as a blade.
"You bastards… convinced yet?"
Hope took a deep breath.
He looked at Elara. The shock on the princess's face was slowly hardening into cold fury.
Hope turned back to Octavia.
He summoned his scythe. Green flames illuminated the dungeon's darkness.
"Yes," Hope said. "I'm convinced."
He raised the scythe.
Not to attack Octavia.
He prepared to strike the barrier's control panel.