The valley had fallen into a silence so heavy it felt like the air itself was holding its breath. Smoke curled in lazy ribbons from shattered rifles and broken armor, drifting above the blood-soaked dirt. The cries of the wounded had faded, the clash of steel and roar of rifles buried under something far louder - Ares’s heartbeat, thundering in his skull, pounding through his ribs like war drums.He swayed where he stood, fists hanging at his sides, slick with blood - most of it not his enemies’. His chest heaved, lungs clawing for air that refused to come clean. Every breath carried the taste of iron and ash.But still… he was standing.Across from him, the surviving soldiers of the enemy line froze, their boots grinding to halts in the mud. They stared at the man who should’ve been dead three times over, the man who had taken their commander’s skull, who had turned their charge into a graveyard. Fear rippled through them like wind through grass.Ares’s vision blurred, but through th

For the first time since the storm began, his heart believed it could be more than survival.It could be a return.But the weight of return wasn’t soft. It pressed heavy against Ares’s chest as he looked out at the ruined horizon. Smoke still curled above the fractured skyline, black ribbons that clung stubbornly to the sky. Lin City was broken, not by accident but by betrayal - by men who had worn polished shoes while others bled for their decisions.Ares stood in silence. His hands, scarred and calloused, flexed at his sides. He could still feel the tremor in his son’s grip when Elijah had held on to him earlier. It wasn’t just fear. It was trust - raw, blind trust. That was heavier than war.Mira shifted beside him. Her voice was quiet, but it cut through the crackle of the dying fires. “You’re thinking too far ahead again.”He didn’t answer immediately. His eyes tracked the movement of scavenger birds circling above a toppled tower. Too many graves without names. Too many debts wi

The council chamber was still heavy with silence when Ares stepped away from the lantern’s glow. His words lingered like iron in the air - It wasn’t just a return. It was a reckoning. No one argued, no one tried to soften the truth. The fear in their faces had already admitted everything.Hawk broke the stillness first, his voice a low rumble. “If Kane is alive, then we need proof. Whispers aren’t enough. People will follow fear, but soldiers… soldiers follow certainty.”Ares turned his head slightly, regarding his old comrade. Hawk was right. Rumors were fire, but fire without fuel burned out quickly. Kane would make sure the fuel was endless unless someone cut him off at the source.“We’ll find him,” Ares said flatly. “Not his men. Not his shadows. Him.”Mira stepped forward then, her arms crossed, her expression tight. “And when you do? What then? Do you kill him? Drag him into the streets? You think exposing him will end this?”Ares’s eyes narrowed. “If he’s breathing, he ends.”H

“It means the war we thought we ended has only just begun.”The words hung in the air like iron chains. Hawk shifted uneasily, blood dripping down his arm, his chest heaving. Reyes lowered his pistol but didn’t holster it, eyes scanning the fog as if Kane’s shadow might still be there, lurking just beyond sight. Mira clutched Elijah close, her knuckles pale, her face caught between fear and fury.The rail yard stank of cordite and blood. Crates were splintered, bodies sprawled where they had fallen, the silence almost louder than the gunfire that had shaken it moments before.Ares finally lowered his blade. His grip was so tight his knuckles gleamed, yet he couldn’t let go - not yet. Kane’s voice still echoed in his ears, that poisonous smirk still burned behind his eyes.Reyes broke the silence first. “We need to move. Cops will come sniffing around once the noise carries.”Hawk spat blood into the dirt and swore. “Let them come. I’ll put another hole in whoever’s dumb enough to try.

And if Kane wanted war, then war was what he would get.The fire at Pier Six had barely died when the whispers began. By dawn, the city was buzzing. Smoke still curled from the blackened ruins, drifting through alleys, taverns, and market stalls. Some called it justice. Others called it madness. But all spoke a single name.Ares Vex.By midday, Reyes returned to the safehouse with a look that silenced even Hawk’s crude jokes. He tossed a folded newspaper onto the table. The headline screamed in bold letters:“THE BUTCHER RETURNS: FALLUJAH’S HERO OR FALLUJAH’S CURSE?”Mira froze, her hands stiff over Elijah’s blanket. Hawk cursed under his breath. Ares stared at the paper without reaching for it. He didn’t need to read it. He already knew.Kane had struck his first blow.Reyes’s voice was grim. “He’s leaking it. Every word, every half-truth twisted into a blade. He’s telling them what happened overseas. Fallujah. Civilians. Fire.”Mira’s lips parted. “Is it true?”The question cut deep