Chapter 589: Between Blade and Blood
The alley reeked of smoke, rain, and death.
Jayden could barely stay on his feet. His shirt clung to his battered body, soaked in blood, sweat, and the unspoken price of survival.
Across from him, The Harbinger circled slowly, blade gleaming under the sickly yellow of a flickering streetlamp.
Each movement was a dance of death — deliberate, elegant, patient.
Jayden lunged first.
Pain screamed through his ribs, but he ignored it. The rebar in his hand clashed against the assassin's blade with a sharp, metallic shriek.
He fought like a cornered animal — desperate, furious, wounded.
The Harbinger barely seemed to move, yet Jayden's attacks never touched flesh.
Each swipe was met with a parry.
Each strike countered with a ghostlike evasion.
"You're fighting your fate," The Harbinger said, voice smooth as silk.
Jayden spat blood at the ground.
"Maybe," he rasped, "but at least I'll scar it first."
---
The fight dragged on — seconds bleeding into eternities.
Jayden's strength ebbed with every heartbeat.
His vision blurred.
His limbs grew heavy.
And still, he refused to fall.
In the end, it wasn't strength that saved him.
It was desperation.
He faked a stumble, falling to one knee. The Harbinger moved in for the kill, blade arcing through the mist.
At the last moment, Jayden twisted, driving the rebar upward with all the broken fury left inside him.
There was a sickening crack — metal meeting bone.
The Harbinger staggered back, blood darkening their silver robes.
Jayden didn't wait.
He ran.
He ran with everything he had left, vanishing into the ruined veins of the dying city.
---
Meanwhile...
Far above the chaos, behind glass towers and steel walls, the puppet masters watched.
A council of five — faceless, nameless, untouchable.
One of them — a woman with scarlet nails and a cruel smile — leaned forward.
"The boy survived," she said, voice dripping with amusement.
Another, an old man with eyes like rusted knives, chuckled darkly.
"Good," he said. "Let him suffer. Let him crawl."
The council had no intention of letting Jayden die quickly.
No.
They would tear everything he loved apart first.
Piece by piece.
Breath by breath.
Until nothing remained but ashes.
---
In another hidden room...
Matilda sobbed silently into her hands, shaking as the memories replayed over and over in her mind.
Jayden's face when he realized.
His eyes — full of hurt, confusion, betrayal.
"I didn't mean it," she whispered into the darkness.
"I didn't mean for it to go this far..."
But the shadows did not forgive.
And the price of her betrayal had already been written in blood.
---
Far from the city...
A black car raced down a forgotten road, tires hissing against wet asphalt.
Inside, Tielen stared grimly ahead, his fingers tightening around the steering wheel.
Beside him sat Wendy, cold determination etched into her beautiful features.
They had received Jayden's emergency signal.
They knew the trap had been sprung.
And now — now they would burn down the world to find him.
To save him.
Or to avenge him.
Whichever came first.
---