Mio blinked, his head snapping toward Eli, confusion flickering across his pale, tired face.
"Can what?" he asked, voice low but edged with disbelief.
Eli didn't look away from the creature in the distance. His gaze stayed fixed on the faint shimmer of the octopus's wounded eye, still pulsing like a dying ember.
"Maybe," he said quietly, almost as if testing the words on his tongue, "we can do this without Kairo."
For a moment, there was nothing.
Just the sound of dripping water, the echo of their breaths, the faint rustle of Mel shifting restlessly in the background.
Then Mio's brows drew together. "You mean… fight it?"
Eli turned toward him, the light from the water reflecting faintly in his golden eyes. He could see it—the way Mio's expression darkened, not with anger but something heavier.
Fear.
Doubt.
That quiet resignation of someone who had already decided he wasn't enough.
