The ruins of the old Siren Temple rose out of the mountain mist like the ribs of a dead god, cracked marble columns leaning at impossible angles, each etched with ancient hymns in Greek that glowed faintly whenever the wind passed. The farther the gang walked into the remains, the colder the air became—not the natural cold of altitude, but something deeper, the kind that came from old magic and older grudges.
Kairo felt the shift first. His dual Aether stirred inside him like two beasts waking from sleep. He pressed a hand against his chest, steadying himself. Lysandra noticed, her shadow-clone flickering beside her like a living mirror.
"You okay?" she asked quietly.
"I'm fine," Kairo answered, though the tremor in his Aether said otherwise. "Something here is calling to the energy. Like it recognizes me."
Kasai scoffed lightly, though even he sounded unsettled. "This temple was built for creatures that weaponized their voices. If anything recognizes you, it's probably a choir of dead sirens waiting to scream your soul out."
Ayo chuckled, molten heat rolling off him as he walked ahead. "Relax. We took a Cyclops together. What's one dead choir?"
"Famous last words," Reina murmured, her voice soft but her water Aether already folding into defensive patterns around her hands.
They reached the heart of the ruin—a massive circular chamber with a collapsed dome. Sunlight filtered through the shattered opening in thin, dusty lines, and in the center of it all rose an altar carved from coral and bone. Resting on it was the reason they were there: the Mirror of Echoes.
It wasn't a mirror in the usual sense. The surface rippled like dark water, reflecting not faces but fractured silhouettes that shifted, multiplied, and vanished. A relic of the Siren Queen herself. Capable of amplifying Aether. Or destroying it.
Kairo stepped forward, feeling the pull again.
Dagon spoke then, his voice unusually heavy. "Don't touch it without a plan. My master wrote about this artifact. It doesn't reflect what you see—it reflects what you fear." His poison mist flickered around his shoulders like an uneasy halo.
Kaito exhaled sharply. "So basically it's cursed."
"It was born from a curse," Hades whispered, emerging from the shadows. Kairo glanced at him. Hades looked pale, almost translucent under the light, his expression distant. He wasn't staring at the mirror—he was staring at Sensi, who stood in the far corner of the chamber, silent, arms folded.
Something about that look bothered Kairo.
Before anyone could step forward, the ground trembled. A low hum grew into a shrill wail, echoing off the broken walls. The Mirror of Echoes pulsed. Then the air cracked.
Three siren spirits materialized in a whirl of water and Aether, their bodies translucent and shifting, their faces half-beautiful, half-twisted by the rage of death. They circled the gang like vultures around fresh meat.
The first let out a scream so sharp it cracked stone. Kairo staggered, and Lysandra slammed a clone forward, the duplicate taking the brunt of the sonic attack before dissolving into wisps of shadow.
Ayo tanked the next wave, molten armor solidifying into a glowing orange shield, though the force pushed him back several steps.
Kaito and Reina unleashed a coordinated surge—thunder spearing through a wall of water, the collision forming a shockwave that disrupted the siren's form.
Kasai blinded another with a burst of solar flare, and Dagon's poison mist crawled into its open mouth, corrupting its Aether until it shrieked and evaporated.
Kairo's eyes narrowed as the remaining siren dove at him. The dual Aether roared inside him, demanding release. He raised his hands, letting both streams coil upward. Red for force. Blue for soul-binding. For a moment they clashed, resisting each other, then fused in a violent, unstable spiral.
"KAIRO, DON'T—" Lysandra shouted.
He released it anyway.
The blast hit the siren with a thunderous boom, the unstable dual Aether ripping it apart and shattering half the altar behind it. The Mirror flickered wildly, its surface cracking like ice.
When the dust settled, Kairo was on one knee, breathing hard. His arms shook violently, smoke rising from his sleeves. Dual energy backlash.
He had overused it again.
Lysandra grabbed him before he could fall. "Stupid," she muttered. "You could've burned your pathways."
"I had to," Kairo said through clenched teeth. "It was going for Reina."
Reina looked away, suddenly shy. "Thank you."
Kasai whistled low. "Remind me never to piss you off. That blast almost killed the architecture."
Sensi finally walked forward, his expression unreadable. "Enough delays. Retrieve the Mirror."
Ayo frowned. "Shouldn't one of us—"
"Hades," Sensi said.
The boy stepped forward silently. He looked fragile compared to the others, his dark hair falling into his pale eyes, but the moment he placed a hand on the Mirror, the entire ruin went silent. The Mirror steadied. Its cracks sealed. Its surface calmed.
The artifact obeyed him.
Ayo blinked. "Wait… how did you—"
Hades didn't answer. His eyes were fixed on Sensi again, and for a moment the air between them felt charged, tense, dangerous.
Kairo tried to stand, still dizzy from the dual Aether backlash. Lysandra supported him.
In that moment, something dawned on him—something instinctive, chilling, wrong.
Hades hadn't just handled the artifact.
He had commanded it.
A creature born of siren curse, yet he had bent it with ease.
Kairo watched the boy walk past him, watched the shadows coil around him like loyal hounds, watched him stand at Sensi's side like he belonged nowhere else.
And the thought returned with cold clarity:
Why were so many of them so powerful?
How had Sensi shaped them into this?
And what exactly had he stolen from Kairo's father?
Sensi turned to the gang. "We return home."
Nobody argued.
But for the first time, Kairo felt it—the faint, unmistakable taste of betrayal whispering at the edge of his thoughts.