Chapter 565: The Awakening of the Bloodline Thrones
"Victory births not peace, but new enemies."
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The field where the battle had ended was a wasteland of smoke, shattered stone, and scorched earth.
Jayden Ochieng stood at the center, breathing heavily. His body ached in ways he had never known before, every bone screaming from the clash against the fallen titan.
Around him, the survivors gathered, bloodied and bruised but alive, their faces lit by a new fire—the fire of having witnessed a legend reborn.
Matilda limped forward, offering Jayden a canteen of water. "You need to rest," she said, her voice hoarse.
Jayden shook his head. "Not yet. Something's wrong."
Sera, her armor cracked and her silver hair matted with blood, looked at him sharply. "You feel it too?"
Jayden nodded.
There was a disturbance in the world itself—as if ancient seals, long forgotten by time, were cracking open.
The battle they had just won had not ended the chaos.
It had only triggered something much worse.
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Far from the battlefield, deep within a hidden chamber carved into the roots of a forgotten mountain, figures stirred.
Thrones lined the great hall—thrones not made for mortals.
Each was shaped from the bones of beasts and the relics of old kingdoms, and on each throne sat a being cloaked in mystery.
The Bloodline Thrones.
The true rulers behind the curtains of empires.
Entities bound by ancient oaths and cursed blood.
They had slumbered for centuries, only awakening when a power strong enough to threaten their dominion arose.
Tonight, the first had awoken.
A woman with silver tattoos burning across her dark skin leaned forward on her throne, her voice a serpent's hiss. "Jayden Ochieng. He carries the spark."
Another, draped in robes made of shadows themselves, chuckled. "The world forgets so easily that names have power. Ochieng… the Hidden Lion. His name was buried for a reason."
A third—an old man whose veins glowed like molten gold—grinned, teeth too sharp to be human. "Perhaps it is time we remind the world… why we rule from the dark."
With a wave of his hand, maps unfurled before them—maps of kingdoms, cities, bloodlines.
All centered around one name: Jayden Ochieng.
The Bloodline Thrones began to scheme.
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Back at the shattered battlefield, Jayden gathered his core allies inside the ruined remains of an ancient tower.
Sera slammed a dagger into a map laid on a cracked table. "We can't wait for them to come to us. We have to find them."
Matilda crossed her arms, frowning. "Find who exactly? We don't even know what we're dealing with."
Jayden traced the lines on the map with a scarred finger.
He paused at an old, forgotten mark—a region erased from modern charts.
"The Bloodline Thrones," he said softly.
Everyone froze.
"You can't be serious," Zayden said, pale. "They're myths."
"They're real," Jayden said. "And they're waking up because of me."
Sera narrowed her eyes. "Then we need to know everything. Now."
Jayden took a deep breath.
"My real name isn't just Jayden. It's Jayden Ochieng. A name my family hid... to protect me. A name tied to bloodlines older than any kingdom we know. Bloodlines the Thrones once feared."
He lifted his shirt slightly, revealing faint, ancient tattoos that shimmered along his ribs—symbols only visible under true light.
"It's time to stop running," he said. "It's time to take the fight to them."
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Across the world, ancient families hidden among common folk stirred as news of Jayden's battle spread like wildfire.
An old woman in a distant village sharpened a blade passed down through nine generations, her blind eyes seeing more than sighted ones ever could.
A boy in a distant academy, whose blood pulsed with silent power, awakened to strange dreams of war and wings.
A forgotten prince, buried in exile, wept tears of rage upon hearing the name "Ochieng" whispered by the wind.
The hidden bloodlines—descendants of heroes, tyrants, and monsters—felt the ancient call:
The heir has risen.
The battle is coming.
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Night fell over the ruined land.
Jayden stood alone atop the highest point of the shattered tower, gazing into the endless dark.
The moon was blood-red.
He clenched his fists, feeling the surge of ancient energy within him.
No longer just Jayden.
Not just Ochieng.
But both.
A bridge between the forgotten past and the broken present.
Behind him, Sera approached quietly. "You should rest," she said gently.
Jayden didn't turn. His eyes blazed with determination.
"Rest will come after," he said. "First... we wake the world."
The winds howled around them, carrying a chilling promise:
The Bloodline Thrones would come for him.
And he would be ready.
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