Chapter 23 – The Titan Who Waited

Cain's breath hitched. His pulse thundered in his ears as he locked eyes with the figure seated upon the Titan Throne.

Golden flames flickered behind the man's gaze, ancient and unreadable. His body was encased in blackened armor, lined with cracks that pulsed with the same golden energy Cain had come to recognize—Titan energy.

He wasn't just some remnant of the past.

He was alive.

Cain felt the weight of his presence pressing against his chest, an invisible force demanding acknowledgment. His Titan Core roared in response, but this time, it didn't burn wildly—it recognized what sat before them.

The woman beside him stiffened, her glowing blue eyes narrowing as she instinctively took a step back. She had been fearless against the Warbringers, against death itself—but now?

She was afraid.

Cain swallowed, forcing himself to speak. His voice came out rough. "Who… are you?"

The man on the throne tilted his head slightly, as if considering the question. Then, finally, he spoke.

"I am the last."

His voice was deep, weighted, each syllable carrying the echoes of something ancient, something lost.

Cain's fingers twitched. "The last what?"

The man exhaled, leaning forward slightly, his golden eyes scanning Cain with unsettling focus.

"The last Titan."

Cain's stomach dropped.

The last Titan.

It wasn't possible. The Titans were gone, erased, buried beneath the lies of Elysium. He had seen their memories, felt their power whispering through the ruins. They weren't just dead—they had been forgotten.

But now, one sat before him.

Cain struggled to process the weight of it, his thoughts crashing into each other like colliding storms. If this man was telling the truth…

Everything Elysium had built was a lie.

Cain clenched his jaw. "How are you still alive?"

The Titan's gaze pierced into him.

"Because the war was never over."

Cain's breath stalled.

"You believe you have awakened," the Titan continued, voice steady. "You believe you have taken the first step. But you do not yet understand what you are, what has been locked away inside you."

Cain's chest tightened.

The Titan stood.

Cain hadn't truly processed how massive he was until now. When seated, he had looked imposing, regal. But standing?

He dwarfed them.

His armor was heavier than steel, yet it moved like liquid. His presence radiated a force so overwhelming that Cain's Titan Core surged instinctively in response—like a child reaching toward the hand of its creator.

The Titan took a step forward. The chamber trembled.

Cain held his ground.

Beside him, the woman stiffened, her body tense, her energy flickering erratically.

She was ready to run.

Cain wasn't.

His fists tightened. "Then tell me," he said, voice steady. "Tell me what I am."

The Titan tilted his head slightly, then exhaled.

"You are what was left behind."

Cain frowned. "Left behind?"

The Titan lifted a hand, and the air around them twisted.

Cain barely had time to react before the chamber shattered.

He staggered as his vision blurred—not from pain, but from something else. His mind was being pulled, dragged through something unseen.

And suddenly, he wasn't in the chamber anymore.

He was somewhere else.

A battlefield.

Not just any battlefield—the final war.

Cain gasped as he saw it all at once—Titans standing against the forces of Elysium, their golden flames burning against the onslaught of man-made weapons.

It was a massacre.

The Titans weren't losing because they were weak. They were losing because they were betrayed.

Cain saw Elysium's leaders standing side by side with creatures that should not exist, forces that had never been part of the world before.

Dark things. Twisted things.

And then—the moment of destruction.

Cain felt it—the moment the Titans were erased.

Something deep and terrible was unleashed upon them, something even they had not foreseen.

The Titans burned from existence.

Not killed.

Not defeated.

Erased.

Cain's vision snapped back into place, his body staggering as he returned to reality. He gasped for breath, his limbs shaking.

The Titan watched him.

"You carry their remnants," he said simply. "You carry the last piece of what they once were."

Cain's stomach twisted. He looked down at his hands, golden energy curling at his fingertips.

It wasn't just power.

It was a piece of them.

Cain's pulse pounded in his ears. "Then why—why am I still here?"

The Titan exhaled.

"Because they hid you from the purge."

Cain froze.

The Titan's golden eyes burned brighter.

"Because they made sure you would survive."

Cain's throat was dry. "Who did?"

The Titan's voice was quiet.

"The Forsaken."

Cain's blood turned cold.

"And now," the Titan said, stepping forward, his aura pressing down like a collapsing star, "they will come for you."

Cain's breath stalled.

And then—the entire chamber shook violently.

A deep boom echoed through the ruins. Not a natural quake.

An impact.

Cain spun toward the entrance.

Then—the golden light outside the chamber began to darken.

Not from smoke.

Not from dust.

From something massive descending.

The Titan's expression didn't change.

"They have arrived."

Cain's heart slammed against his ribs.

Then, from the shadows outside, a horrific, twisting voice echoed through the ruins.

"Found you."

Cain turned to run.