Keith stared at Nathan in confusion. It felt like time had stopped around him, leaving just him and Nathan, standing on the pond. When he looked to the Nathan beside him, he took several steps back. It wasn't Nathan, but a siren. Befuddled, he tried to piece together how the siren had swapped places with Nathan, and why his friend was naked, the Siren wearing his clothes and backpack, its wings somehow fitting through them.

"Keith," Nathan said, and the magician turned his gaze back to him. "I've temporarily halted time, though the spell won't last. You haven't been traveling with me. That's the Siren King. He's bound me in a chamber deep beneath this pond, and what you're seeing is an astral projection. I can't grant you much aid until I finish breaking his binds."

"Since when can you do that?" Keith asked. "And why are you naked?"

"The Siren King stole my clothes when he bound me," Nathan answered. "He shouldn't have succeeded, but caught me off-guard while you and I were examining the one I killed from the ocean. He has some temporal powers as well. I copied them. Haven't you wondered what it is I'm doing when everyone wakes up and I've been up for awhile?"

"You said you were training," Keith said.

"Magic, yes," Nathan told him. "As a demigod, my capacity to learn magic is far greater than yours. I hid my extraordinary growth to avoid upsetting you and making you feel inadequate. I will do what I can from down here, Keith, but ensure this astral projection doesn't get destroyed. If it is, then I will be killed as well. I cannot dismiss this if I wish to continue assisting you, as I need a link to there in order to project my magic up. Sending this projection wasn't easy, but it allows me to assist you. My temporal halt is about to end, Keith. I'm amazed I managed to sustain it so long, it's my first time manipulating time, and it's through a projection. I will do my best to slow time as you fight, but I don't think I will be able to halt it again for awhile."

Before Keith could ask anything else, the Siren King began to move.

"I'm bigger," it said as it aimed its gun at Nathan.

Keith charged the Siren King, tackling him to the side and causing the shots to go wide.

"What are you doing?" The siren asked, throwing Keith off of him, then narrowed his eyes. "You have Player-Striker?"

"Stop pretending!" Keith said. "I know the truth, Siren King!"

"I'm not the Siren King!" The siren frowned. "Keith, what are you-"

"I can see through your illusion, now!" Keith lashed out with an air slash, which ripped open the siren's sleeve.

"Fuck," the siren muttered as it dodged another slash of Keith's.

It jumped forward, stretching out its wings and landing, then jump off of, one of the walls as it went after Nathan, only for Keith to knock him off-target with a series of slashes charged with force, air, and electricity. The siren landed in the water and sank beneath, and Keith sent several attacks in that direction.

"Be careful," Nathan said. "I can't move this form much now that I've fully implemented it, not much at the moment. I'll need to build up a little more power into this projection to start moving and attacking. Keith, your psychic power is granting you insight, I've granted you some of my energy to allow you to look past the illusion, so it won't affect you anymore. Your lightning in the water can damage me badly and weaken me, so please be careful."

Keith felt a rush of wind as the wind elemental suddenly attacked him, pushing him back. Knowing his own wind magic wouldn't work as the siren resurfaced in the pond, looking pissed off, Keith began to burn the air around him to drive the elemental back as he fired several slices of force magic at the Siren King.

"Attack the Siren King!" Keith commanded his familiar through their link as the Siren King roared in pain and dove back under the water.

"Keith," Nathan said as he floated up several more feet, the flames in the braziers rising with him. A dense barrier of force magic formed behind him, protecting him against the elemental's attack. "The elementals are affected by the Siren King's power, which can affect any creature of the male sex or which possesses no sex. They see me as the Siren King and the Siren King as me. I can stop Breezy from believing the Siren King's allure, but it won't be easy. Splashy is a lot more worrisome."

The wind elemental suddenly vanished, and Keith let up on his burning air as he commanded Splashy to attack the one it saw as Nathan.

"That's Nathan!"

"That's the Siren King!" Keith told it as he attacked the Siren King, which had resurfaced elsewhere and was beginning to fly out of the water. "Nathan's the one floating in the center!"

His familiar tried arguing, but Keith shut it down and attacked the Siren King as it performed a flip, firing several bullets at Nathan. A barrier of wind caught them and dropped them, and Keith drew the gun that Nathan insisted he keep on him, before firing at the Siren King as he let his mana recover a little. Grateful for Nathan's insistence on not using magic unless needed there, Keith had nearly enough to summon a bolt of lightning.

"How does it know how your cards work?" Keith asked as he fired at the Siren King, which generated an uneven barrier. "It's still trying to pretend it's you!"

"Siren Kings," Nathan said as he lifted a hand and blasted the Siren King with a gust of wind. "Can copy and use the power, knowledge, and skills of anyone they kiss, so long as the kiss is consensual."

"But you're completely straight!"

"I'm bisexual," Nathan told him as the last of Keith's bullets struck the evading Siren King, which had jumped onto a small outcropping on the cliff wall. "The Siren King's power worked against me, and I fell into his allure. It's how he acquired control of Breezy as well. I'm almost done freeing myself, Keith. Soon, I'll be able to assist you at full power. After we can discuss the real reason why Splashy made me uncomfortable earlier. Do know that I'm not a bottom in any way."

The Siren King watched the two of them, and Keith dropped the emptied gun, before holding his hands up and beginning to form the spell for a lightning bolt. Even with his Skill to decrease casting time – or rather, increase his magical casting speed – it would still take several seconds. Nathan nodded, stretching out one hand, and the Siren King was slammed with force magic, throwing it backwards into the cliff. As it began to fall, it twisted, then pushed off the cliff face with enough force to send him flying at Nathan.

Keith finished his lightning bolt spell and shot it at the Siren King, which roared from the impact, which sent it flying back into the cliffs. The heavenly storm elemental short towards it and caught it, forming a partial shield against Keith.

"I order you to retreat within me!" Keith commanded. "The Siren King has fooled you! Please obey, or I'll be forced to invoke your True Name!"

"Use your psychic powers!" His familiar responded. "You'll see that you're the one being fooled!"

Keith paused, then shook his head as his violet eyes glowed. He saw exactly what he was seeing – his familiar protecting the Siren King and Nathan floating above the pond, a white aura surrounding him.

"I have, and I see exactly what I was seeing!" Keith told him. "It shows me Nathan in the center and you protecting the Siren King!"

"If that is what you say, then perhaps you are right," his familiar responded quietly as it dropped the Siren King and began to fly back towards Keith. "I've never heard of sirens in reality, so I do not have experience in this sort of thing. To be affected by attraction magic despite having no sexual or romantic capabilities… quite interesting. I cannot find it in me to attack one which takes that form, so I will retreat within you, or I will be tempted to protect him against you, regardless of our bond."

"Thank you," Keith responded as the Siren King struggle back to its feet and his familiar slipped beneath his shirt and entered him. "I'll try to end this quickly. The Siren King is tough, but it looks like Nathan is managing to use more of his power."

"I never knew Nathan could do so much magic."

"He said he's been training secret," Keith responded. "I guess his acts with the barriers and force magic were to convince us he wasn't actually superior. I need to finish this, both to rescue Nathan and to find out what he meant."

Keith sent several more slices of air, force, energy, and fire at the Siren King, who stopped them with a barrier imitating Nathan's. The mage wondered why it continued the farce, even after it was clear Keith had seen through the truth.

It flew up, pushing off the cliff a few times with its feet, then pulled out a card as Keith summoned his wind hammer and slammed him with it. The Siren King was pushed into the cliff, a giant crater forming from the hammer's force, and the magician infused his spell with the power of lightning, draining several Mana Potions as the damage notifications stopped coming in, the Siren King's Health finally depleted.

It had less than I expected, Keith thought. Only around twenty-two thousand or so.

As Keith's mana ran out completely, even with the Mana Potions he used, the lightning aspect of the power spell draining him, he dropped to his knees.

"Nathan!" He called out.

"I can only do a little more," Nathan held out another hand as he slowly turned to face the Siren King, and a spear of ice slammed into the Siren King, impaling it against the cliff. "That's all I can do, but it should be enough to hold him until we can recover more."

Keith nodded, watching the Siren King, who was still gripping the card, its eyes half-closed as it breathed heavily, letting out a wheeze every few breaths. The shirt it had stolen from Nathan had disappeared at some point, and he was covered in cuts, scrapes, and burns from Keith's last spell, his body covered in bruises from the beating and bullets it had repeatedly taken.

The spear of ice itself went through the Siren King's stomach. Had Keith not already verified and known that was the Siren King and Nathan, the fact that it still lived would have told him. The part of the spear through its stomach was shaped like two triangles bisecting each other, a rod sticking out of the center. Six inches in width both horizontally and vertically, the Siren King's lower torso was destroyed by the warrior's spell. His lungs, intestines, liver, and more were completely destroyed.

The magician struggled to return to his feet, finding his strength sapped. Using his magic had drained him more than he realized.

"Lesser Boom," he heard the Siren King mutter, before it flicked the card.

Keith's eyes widened, and he thrust out a hand, casting a wind slice to destroy the card before it could activate. His spell missed, soaring past the card as it went for Nathan. It was a bomb card that he and Nathan had created. He wasn't even sure how it worked, but they had five suspected working copies of the card.

Four, as the Siren King had activated one.

The card glowed as the bomb image on it darkened, then the entire thing burst in an explosion of fire and magic that swirled around the pond, blinding Keith.

"Heh," he heard the Siren King chuckle. "Heh. Heheheheheh. No damage notification. It's still alive, too. I guess it wasn't enough to kill it. Stupid card. It's up to you now, Keith."

When Keith's vision returned, he tried to process what happened. Nathan was covered in burns and was glaring at the Siren King, his perfect body damaged terribly by the magical bomb card. As he watched, the warrior's flesh began to mend itself. The demigod's perfect, flawless body that Keith had wanted for so long, destroyed and damaged by the card, mending through his hidden power back to its marked state, its Health bar completely empty.

That was when Keith knew he had to end the fight. The Siren King had to die. He picked up the gun off the ground and ejected its magazine, then replaced it.

"I barely managed to protect myself," Nathan told Keith. "My astral projection is restoring, but it's taking all of the power I had poured into it. Kill it quickly, before it manages to remove my spear and recover. Unlike me, the Siren King can recover from damage and perform a series of powerful attacks-why are you aiming that at me?"

"You forgot to recover Ichtvar's marks," Keith answered, then began unloading the gun into Nathan, continuing even after he received the kill notification. When he finished, he dropped his arm to his side, holding the gun loosely. "Little mistakes like that can make or break a fight."

As the beast's corpse began to drop, the flames in the braziers returned to their original height, and Keith took a moment to let out a breath of relief.

Keith dismissed the notification for killing the Siren King Demiboss, then looked at Nathan as he ignored the other notification. He was back to looking like Nathan, complete with Ichtvar's crimson and gold marks on his chest, slightly-damaged by the spear sticking out of his stomach.

"I'm so sorry," Keith said as he used Spatial Mobility to reach Nathan in just a few leaps. "I don't… I don't know how to pull that out. Or save you. How are you still alive?"

"Death isn't always a fast thing," Nathan chuckled. "And with Ichtvar inside of me, it's a lot more difficult to attain. That, and I've had a few Health Potions when you weren't looking."

Keith looked down and saw the potions' bottles broken on the ground far beneath them.

"It fooled my Sight," Keith apologized as he pulled out another Health Potion and helped Nathan drink it. "I-I'm sorry, Nathan. I seriously thought you were-"

"I know," Nathan chuckled, then wheezed. "I figured that out fast. The Siren King's allure made you see what you wanted to see, made you hear what you wanted to hear. When were you going to say you had Player-Striker? And for how long?"

"I acquired it with the Level 80 batch," Keith told him. "I have Player Killer as well. The Siren almost took us both out, and probably by accident. Had I not had Player Striker, I would've been dead, then it would've just killed you."

"Heh," Nathan chuckled. "It was aiming for that, Keith. We aren't the first players, there are skeletons under the water, if you look close enough. They likely figured out that the people who come die if they attack another. It probably ran into a few who hadn't, but did when they killed others."

"Stop talking," Keith told him. "You're wheezing too much. Your lungs are damaged. Oh, fuck, how the fuck can I heal you? Ichtvar's still out for the count, or you'd have pulled him out already. I'm such a moron. I believed its lies. I'm so sorry, Nathan. You being bisexual? That's a dream of mine ever since I realized you were straight. It used that against me, knowing it was my weakness and would make it easier to manipulate me. How did it fool my Sight, though?"

"Sirens are part of the Grand Set," Nathan said. "Or at least, their kings are. Their persuasive power might be enough to subconsciously fool you. You probably saw the truth, but its power convinced you that you were seeing its truth."

"Stop talking," Keith said. "I need to think. I need to figure this out."

"Your emotional state his heightened," his familiar suddenly spoke into his mind. "Grief, sorrow, regret, guilt. What's going on?"

"I was the one who was fooled," Keith responded verbally, allowing his familiar to hear him. "The entire time, I was the one who was hallucinating. The Siren King fooled even my psychic power. Nathan's dying, he's been speared with ice against the cliff, and is so damaged by my attacks… he's dying. I don't-"

"You said ice, yes?" His familiar asked. "Let me out. If he can be saved, I can give him the optimal chance."

Keith allowed his familiar to release, and it floated out of the back of his shirt, before wrapping around the shaft of the spear. Then, it partially fused into it, acquiring control over the water which forged it, spreading its power to the blood touching it as well.

The magician watched as his familiar worked, Nathan beginning to lose consciousness. The heavenly storm elemental sent Nathan's blood back into him, restoring some of the sizable amount which had been lost. Then, it manipulated the ice to create a seal over the wound in Nathan's lower torso, front and back, the seal attaching to his organs as well.

"Nathan has an advanced healing due to being a demigod," the familiar told Keith as it grabbed the then-unconscious Nathan and began to fly down. "You lack healing magics and only ever keep one Health Potion on you for some ridiculous and stupid reason. If there is any hope for his survival, then it is to let him rest."

Keith jumped down and looked at his familiar as he approached.

"What are the odds of Nathan's survival?"

"Almost none," it responded. "You two shouldn't have continued on, Keith. That was stupid. Your odds of survival without him are almost nonexistent. The two of you need each other in this Dungeon just as much as you two need Ichtvar and me, and right now, it's just you and me. Even my powers as a heavenly elemental will not be enough to assist you all the way. As a familiar, much of what I do is restricted by the freedom you've given me and how much you consciously and subconsciously allow me to do. I could have killed the Siren King by myself, no doubt, but my link to you prevents me from wielding my true powers."

Keith sighed. He knew that was true – familiars were weakened by taking on a familiar contract, it was one downside to them for contracting with something weaker than them. That was part of why so few things in the Grand Set, Elementals, or Ultimate Trinity ever contracted with something.

"How did Nathan know that Siren Kings were parts of the Grand Set?" Keith asked. "He specified them."

"It's possible Ichtvar knew," his familiar responded. "Nathan may have tapped into the knowledge of our world-traveling phoenix."

Keith sighed, then began removing Nathan's destroyed pants.

"Getting frisky, are we?"

"His underwear's undamaged," Keith snapped. "And his legs are covered in injuries as well. He might have advanced healing, but his body will probably try to focus on the worst of it. The least I can do is try to clean up and mend the lesser injuries. I'm part of why they're there, after all. Do you know how to do healing magic? Or at least, know how I can use it? I doubt I'd be able to mend the spear's damage, but if I can take care of the weaker parts, I might be able to raise that 'almost none' to 'a little more than almost none'."

"Your knowledge of the human body might be helpful here," his familiar responded. "As you can use it to guide your magic. Breezy and I will keep watch, but try not to knock yourself out. There's always the risk that someone else shows up."

"Where is Breezy, anyway?" Keith asked. "The Siren King – while pretending to be Nathan – said that he could get Breezy to stop. I thought he'd forcibly pulled the elemental back into him."

Thinking about it, though, Keith realized that he didn't actually see the familiar's mark on the Siren King's appearance.

"He was teleported to another part of the island," the heavenly storm elemental answered. "I told him what you'd told me, and that it seemed we were both fooled. That was right before you pulled me back in. He told me once you released me that he figured it out before you did because he could still communicate with Nathan. I suppose I should have asked him. His connection to Nathan would have made it obvious. By the way, I forgot the boar tusks on the other island. Do you think we could find me some new ones once we leave the Siren's Lair?"

"Yes," Keith sighed as he placed his hands over one of the burns on Nathan's right thigh. "This burn is deep, and probably one of the bad ones. Do you think you can do that 'watch' you said you were going to do? I need to concentrate."