The words still burned into Ethan’s mind.“Ethan Cross: Last King.”They weren’t prophecy. They weren’t hope. They were a sentence, etched in cold stone. The Council hadn’t made a mistake in their centuries of domination. Yet here he stood, the one error they couldn’t erase, the anomaly they couldn’t cage.Standing in the dim archive chamber, the glow of broken glyphs illuminating his face, Ethan no longer felt like prey. He wasn’t running. He wasn’t hiding.They wanted an anomaly erased. Instead, they had made a King.By morning, the world saw his face.The Council hijacked every channel first. From neon skyscrapers in Shanghai to rusting shacks in the Sahara, their voice reached billions.“Ethan Cross is a contagion. A Cipher aberration. His existence threatens the cycle. For the safety of the Nine—and the world—he is to be erased.”The broadcast glitched. Static drowned their decree. And then Ethan appeared.Not the loser they had laughed at. Not the beaten delivery boy they had sp

The cathedral smelled of blood and smoke. Ethan stood at the center of it, his crown of Cipher flickering above his head, the mercenaries and rogues chanting his name until the walls shook. He should have felt power. Victory. But all he felt was the shadow of Cain breathing down his neck.Look at them, Cain whispered inside his skull, voice smooth and poisonous. Dogs who hated you yesterday, worshiping you today. All because you broke one of them like a twig. That is how you rule, Ethan. Through fear.Ethan clenched his fists. He wouldn’t let Cain see the hesitation eating him alive.From the corner of his eye, he saw Wren watching him with unreadable eyes, hand resting on the hilt of her blade. Across the room, Helena raised a cup of wine, her lips curving into that dangerous smile that promised kingdoms and ruin all at once.He had both of them close, and yet they felt like fire and ice circling, waiting for a spark.“Enough cheering,” Ethan said at last, his voice cutting through t

The rogues marched for three days, banners black against a blood-red sky. The Council’s spies trailed them at a distance, too afraid to come closer. Ethan could feel their eyes watching from the hills, waiting for him to stumble.But he didn’t stumble. Every step felt heavier, yes, but also more certain. He wasn’t the “loser” anymore. He wasn’t the anomaly the Council wanted to erase. He was Ethan Cross, King in exile—and the world was beginning to whisper his name.By the fourth night, they reached the shattered ruins of Prague. Once a Nine stronghold, now nothing more than broken towers and forgotten echoes. The rogues settled into the ruins like wolves, and Ethan climbed the cracked stairs of the cathedral to look over the city.Cain’s voice slid into his ear like oil. Here, Ethan. Here is where you build. From ashes to empire. All it takes is fire, blood, and a crown that never bends.Ethan clenched his jaw. He wanted to believe he was choosing his own path. But Cain’s voice alway

The cathedral ruins were alive with sound. Rogues sharpened blades, hackers tapped keys that glowed in the dark, and Lucien Vale leaned against a pillar with a smirk that never left his face. Ethan watched it all from the throne cobbled together from broken stone and steel.For the first time, the whispers of the city were shifting. They no longer called him anomaly, mistake, loser. They called him king.But a king’s hall is never silent.Helena drifted through the room like a shadow dipped in perfume. She spoke softly to mercenaries, laughed too sweetly with hackers, and touched Lucien’s arm a little longer than necessary. Wherever she walked, eyes followed. Wherever she smiled, loyalties wavered.Ethan noticed. He always noticed.Cain noticed too. His voice licked through Ethan’s mind like oil over flame. She is your serpent. She builds her throne inside yours. Slap her down, boy, or she’ll strangle you with your own crown.Ethan kept his jaw tight. He couldn’t afford to lash out bl

The night was heavy with smoke and gunpowder. Ethan stood on the balcony of the ruined skyscraper that now served as his war room. Below, his recruits—mercenaries, ex-heirs of the Nine, and the hackers who had once mocked him—trained under torchlight, sharpening knives, coding viruses, and testing new weapons.He had built something out of ashes.A throne out of ruins.But with every brick laid, he felt Cain’s shadow behind him.“War is the only way forward,” Cain’s voice whispered, smooth as venom. “Take the fight to the Council. Crush Helena before she seduces your army. Kill Wren before she betrays you.”Ethan’s fists clenched on the balcony rail.Cain always spoke like this—like a devil leaning close, breathing poison into his ear. And yet, part of Ethan couldn’t deny the power in his words.Behind him, footsteps echoed. Wren entered, dressed in black leather, her eyes sharp yet troubled.“They’re ready,” she said softly. “The rogues will follow you into fire if you order it.”Eth