The steel doors shuddered open beneath Ares’s push, groaning like dying beasts. Lantern-light spilled through the crack, slicing the dark. Dust swirled. The silence on the other side was not emptiness - it was anticipation.Ares stepped first. His shadow stretched long, cutting across the cracked floor toward the dais that waited at the far end. Hawk and Reyes followed close behind, two predators moving in sync. The scent of rust and blood lingered in the stale air. Every heartbeat was a drum. Every breath was a warning.And there he was.Kane lounged on a crooked chair draped with a red cloth, a mockery of a throne. His posture was casual, his smirk wider than the room deserved. Around him stood his guards, thick-armed men with rifles and blades, nervous hands twitching at the sight of Ares but holding their ground because Kane had not moved.“Well,” Kane drawled, voice sharp, carrying with ease. “The ghost finally comes out of the shadows. The God of War. I half-expected you to hide

“…and Ares knew the storm was only beginning.”The silence after Kane’s death was deceptive. Lin City had always been a beast with too many heads, and cutting off one only made the others stir. Ares felt it in his bones as he stood in the ruined hall, the scent of blood and smoke clinging to him like a second skin. Kane was gone, but the city was shifting under his feet, pulling itself toward the next war.Reyes broke the stillness first. His breathing was harsh, his chest heaving after the brutal fight, but his eyes were steady. “You think it’s over? You know it’s not.”Ares didn’t answer. His fists were still clenched, blood drying on his knuckles. Hawk paced restlessly at the edge of the hall, muttering curses, his nerves wired like a man who’d seen too many wars to believe in peace.Finally, Ares moved. His voice was low, but it carried the weight of a man who knew what lay ahead. “No. This is only the beginning. They’ll come harder now. All of them.”Outside, the night was unnatu

The storm didn’t end with the night. It crawled into the dawn, clinging to the gutters, dripping from the broken edges of Lin City’s skyline like the city itself was bleeding out. But in the alleys and high towers, the storm wasn’t rain - it was men sharpening knives, counting bullets, whispering about the name that had broken Kane.The God of War. Ares.And they wanted his head....Inside the safehouse, the air was heavy. The lamps gave off more smoke than light, filling the room with the stink of burned oil. Ares sat at the table, his big hands resting on the map Hawk had left behind, his eyes locked on the red circle inked over the industrial zone. He didn’t move, didn’t even blink. To anyone else, it would look like he was staring at lines on paper. Reyes knew better.“You didn’t tell them everything last night,” Reyes said from the wall, arms crossed.Ares didn’t look up. “They weren’t ready.”Reyes’s laugh was dry. “Not ready to hear half the city wants your head? That business

The city held its breath.After the depot massacre, Lin City was quiet - but it was the kind of quiet that sits heavy before a gun goes off. Shops opened late, shutters creaking in fear. Streets emptied faster at dusk. Gangs whispered, businessmen tightened their guards, and in the alleys, everyone asked the same question: What would the God of War do next?They didn’t have to wait long....Inside the safehouse, Ares stood at the table again. The map spread before him was stained now with blood and ash from the depot fight. Circles. Arrows. X’s where men had fallen.Reyes leaned back in his chair, arms folded. His knuckles were scabbed raw, his lip split. “So,” he muttered, “what’s the play? Sit and wait for them to knock again? Or do we finally kick their teeth in?”Hawk rubbed at his jaw, his voice lower. “We’re stretched thin. Half the Resistance is bleeding. If The Concord marches in full force, we’ll be crushed before sundown.”Mira listened from the corner, Elijah curled asleep

The night pressed heavy on Lin City, the smoke from burning homes clinging to the sky like a second skin. Inside the safehouse, silence weighed just as thick. Fighters who had once laughed in the face of death now sat hollow-eyed, their rifles laid across their knees like toys clutched in fear. Every distant shout sent them stiffening, waiting for the inevitable knock of war.But the true storm wasn’t outside. It was circling them, unseen.Ares stood at the cracked window, his frame etched in the orange glow of fires burning across the horizon. His hands were steady on the sill, but his jaw was steel, teeth gritted against the knowledge of what was coming.“They’ll come for him,” he said at last, his voice gravel in the silence.Mira stiffened, her arms tightening around Elijah who slept in her lap. Her eyes found Ares - sharp, trembling. “Don’t you dare say that out loud.”“I don’t say it to curse us,” Ares replied, turning. His gaze held hers, fierce, unblinking. “I say it because i