Chapter:174: Echoes of Blood, Screams of Thunder

Chapter Title: Echoes of Blood, Screams of Thunder

The chapter begins in one of the many undisclosed strongholds of the TEN. A dim cave, quiet, damp, and breathing with ancient air. Darkness clung to its walls like a second skin until a pair of eyes snapped open.

Draven gasped.

His breathing was shallow, panicked, and uncertain. The flickering light of a lone candle trembled on the rough stone ceiling above him. He blinked slowly, eyes scanning his arms, his chest, his legs all of them wrapped tightly in layered white bandages. The bindings clung to his skin like the remnants of a forgotten ritual.

Then the pain came.

His skull throbbed with violent, bursting flashes memories not his own but that of Lord Arcade's conquests, blood-drenched battlefields, the void of resurrection, the taste of immortality. He staggered, clutching his temple as the visions passed through him like knives piercing through his skin. And just as suddenly as they came, they receded.

He sat up, trembling.

His legs buckled under him as he slid off the stone slab that had served as his bed of rest. Steadying himself with a hand pressed against the wall, he limped forward. The darkness shifted. A door scraped open. And ahead, the fire of a single torch bled light into a stone corridor.

He followed it.

Eventually, the cave opened into a stark contrast of chrome and code a pristine modern lab carved into ancient stone, humming with machines. Inside, several figures turned.

"Draven!" Kenzy's voice cracked through the air. He rushed forward. "You're finally awake—I thought… I thought you weren't coming back."

Gansu helped steady him, and Circe, ever soft-spoken and steady, stepped forward with a slow smile. "How are you feeling?"

Draven ignored them all. His eyes scanned the room until they landed on a man who stood calmly, arms folded Papa Tunde.

"Where's Huey?" Draven asked, voice dry but deliberate.

Papa Tunde raised a brow. "Straight to business, huh?"

"Don't play games with me." Draven ordered,

"Well, the TEN's full campaign has started. Huey and the others are already deep in the war with SUHA. Greenland is in chaos." Papa tunde said…

Draven's jaw tensed. "And we're not helping them… why?"

There was silence.

Kenzy hesitated. "We were… waiting for you. Whatever choice you make—we agreed to follow."

Circe moved toward a monitor. "Before you do anything… you should see this."

She tapped a key. A rotating 3D model of Draven's body appeared, flickering with odd, unstable energy readings.

"You've changed, Draven. Whatever being Arcade used you to become, it's warped your Shen. I've never seen anything like it—this isn't just power. It's unstable evolution, frankly we don't know what you've become."

But Draven wasn't listening. His eyes dimmed with memory, and his voice dropped.

"I want to go to Antarctica… to bury Shiki properly."

Kenzy blinked. "You mean—?"

"Yes." Draven's expression hardened. "The last thing I remember under Arcade's control was… clarity. My brother, Shiki—he was all I had left. Even if I killed him… I owe him that much a proper burial ."

And with that, he turned and left.

⸻

Meanwhile. At the Southern Gate of Greenland.

The sky above churned in hues of crimson and violet, the Blood Moon pulsing with the rhythm of a cursed heart. Asger ducked low to avoid its gaze. She twisted, landed, and rolled—head down, vision narrowed to the blood-drenched soil.

A blood serpent burst from beneath her, fangs flashing.

It caught her mid-air, slamming its teeth into her back and hoisting her like a rag doll. She screamed, pinned like a banner above the battlefield, writhing in pain.

Across the scorched plain, Silas walked slowly toward her, his silver white hair flowing in the dark wind, eyes gleaming red with malice.

"It's over, little sister," he said coldly. "The boy… Madagascar. The Kenzo line ends here."

He raised his hand.

A slender, blinding blade shimmered into existence its hilt molten black, but its edge impossibly bright, as though carved from silence itself but it was made from

His very own blood . He lifted it above Madagascar, who hanged unconscious and bleeding, one eye socket torn from his face.

"Don't!" Asger shouted, tears mixing with blood.

Silas sneered. "Shut up."

The blade pierced Madagascar's skin—until—

CRACK—BOOM.

A bolt of lightning struck the earth like the wrath of gods.

From the light, a foot lashed out in a blur, slamming into Silas's face and hurling him across the field like a stone across water. He bounced and tumbled, stunned.

Where the bolt had landed, a shadow rose.

Sakamoto.

He stood there, eyes sharp, jaw clenched. A shadow bled from his feet—a void that warped the air around him. From that void, a black blade emerged, pulsing like a heartbeat.

Luton,The sword of shadows Taken from Headless in another time.(Reference to Holy City battle in India)

Without hesitation, Sakamoto swung.

A wave of dark energy screamed through the air. It tore through the blood serpent holding Asger, slicing it to ribbons. She dropped to the ground gasping, free.

Sakamoto turned to Madagascar, who lay broken—one eye missing.

His hands clenched. His face… twisted with fury.

"Saka—don't look up!" Asger cried, still lying wounded. "The Blood Moon—don't look at it!"

But it was too late.

Sakamoto's eyes snapped up.

Silas, recovering, grinned. "Yes. Look at me."

Sakamoto's blade trembled—but he didn't hesitate. He turned the blade, pointing its mouth-like edge forward and digging it into the ground as he said.

"Luton: ShadowScream Blast."

A grotesque mouth opened along the flat of the sword, and from it erupted a black sonic wave, a scream of pure hatred that shattered the silence of war.

The blast struck Silas head-on.

His right arm exploded—ripped clean off at the elbow. He howled, staggering, blood spiraling through the air like red ribbons.

⸻

At SUHA HQ, alarms screamed and officers scrambled.

"Minister Tenzy!" one shouted. "We've picked up a new combatant on the Southern Gate!"

Tenzy turned to the monitors, eyes wide.

"It's him. Sakamoto is back."

He took a breath, slowly. "That means… Sir Varion may not be far behind."

He looked at the screen again, at the chaos unfolding below the Blood Moon.

"God help them all."