The battle had begun.
Safuu stood in the middle of the ruined streets.
Across from her stood the three men who had controlled modern Odania from the shadows.
General VAREK.
ZARQEN.
Minister NAREV.
They had finally come out.
Exactly as Safuu had wanted.
But none of them knew why she had started the civil war.
They believed they had come to stop an uprising.
They did not realize that the uprising had been the bait.
Safuu looked at them.
For a moment, nobody moved.
Then General VAREK stepped forward.
“You should be dead.”
Safuu looked at him calmly.
“I have heard that before.”
VAREK's expression hardened.
He raised his hand.
The battlefield changed.
Blood began moving through the streets.
At first, it looked like small streams.
Then the streams began rising.
They twisted through the air.
They formed chains.
Hundreds of them.
Then thousands.
The chains moved toward the people still fighting in the streets.
Safuu watched silently.
She knew what was coming.
The three men had begun using their Origin.
Blood Bringer.
SEENEE's voice entered the silence.
“Blood Bringer.”
“One Origin.”
“Three users.”
“Their Origin is connected to a dimension that does not belong to the ordinary world.”
“A dimension filled with blood.”
“Every living creature that dies can leave something behind there.”
“Blood.”
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“And Blood Bringer can retrieve it.”
The blood began moving faster.
Chains wrapped around buildings.
Around vehicles.
Around weapons.
Around people.
The battlefield became red.
General VAREK pulled his hand backward.
The chains followed.
People screamed.
Others tried to escape.
But there were too many.
ZARQEN joined him.
More blood appeared.
Blades.
Spears.
Hooks.
Whips.
Weapons formed from blood filled the streets.
Minister NAREV watched from behind them.
He did not need to fight.
He only needed to observe.
The three men had become something far more dangerous than they had ever imagined.
And still...
they did not understand what they were using.
They thought they were controlling Blood Bringer.
They did not realize that Blood Bringer was also responding to something deeper.
Instinct.
Hunger.
The desire for more blood.
More.
Safsan was somewhere else in the city.
He ran.
People were still fighting.
Buildings were burning.
He saw someone fall.
Then another.
His instincts took over.
Save them.
He moved toward the people closest to him.
He pulled one person away from a collapsing wall.
Then another.
But there were too many.
Far too many.
The sound of fighting continued.
Until suddenly...
it became quieter.
Safsan stopped.
He looked around.
The streets were covered in bodies.
Most of the people in Odania were dead.
Blood flowed everywhere.
Across the roads.
Through the streets.
Down the sides of buildings.
Safsan stood still.
His breathing became heavier.
He looked around.
The city he knew...
was becoming something else.
Then he heard a strange sound.
Something moved behind him.
Safsan turned.
A shape emerged from the blood.
It was not human.
It was not an ordinary weapon.
It looked like something formed from countless amounts of blood.
Its shape constantly changed.
Its surface moved as if it could never decide what form it wanted to keep.
Its entire existence seemed to be searching.
Searching for one thing.
Life.
SEENEE spoke again.
“This is what happens when Blood Bringer reaches beyond the simple use of blood.”
“A Blood Hunger.”
“It does not think like a human.”
“It does not choose.”
“It does not hate.”
“It does not kill because it wants to.”
“It kills because it is hungry.”
“When Blood Hunger leaves the blood dimension, it can sense living creatures that possess blood.”
“And once it senses them...”
“It seeks them.”
Its purpose was simple.
More blood.
More bodies.
More blood.
It did not want to leave anything alive.
Not because it had a plan.
Not because someone commanded it.
But because its instinct was telling it that everything should become blood.
Safsan stared at it.
The creature turned toward him.
It had found him.
Safsan's body froze.
The Blood Hunger moved.
A sword-like shape formed from its body.
It shot toward him.
Safsan tried to move.
Too late.
The weapon was already in front of him.
Then—
GREEN THUNDER.
A violent flash exploded through the street.
For a fraction of a second, Safsan felt as if the world itself had been pulled out from underneath him.
His stomach dropped.
His ears rang.
His vision blurred.
His muscles tightened violently as his body tried to understand where it was.
Then everything stopped.
Safsan crashed onto the ground.
He sucked in a breath.
For several seconds, he could not understand what had happened.
He tried to stand.
His legs almost gave out.
The street tilted beneath him.
Or at least...
his body believed it did.
He pressed one hand against the ground.
His heart was pounding violently.
His breathing was shallow.
A strange pressure filled his head.
His eyes struggled to focus.
He looked behind him.
The Blood Hunger was far away.
Much farther than it should have been.
Safsan slowly turned his head.
Someone was standing beside him.
A young man.
Green lightning still flickered faintly around him.
Safsan stared at him.
The stranger looked back.
Neither of them spoke.
Safsan didn't know him.
He didn't know where he had come from.
And he certainly didn't understand how he had moved him that far in the blink of an eye.
The young man looked at Safsan for a moment longer.
Then...
he smiled.
It wasn't a large smile.
It wasn't mocking.
It wasn't even comforting.
It was the kind of smile someone gives when they recognize something.
As if they had finally found exactly who they were looking for.
Safsan's eyes narrowed.
“Who are you?”
The young man said nothing.
The green lightning around him became brighter for a single moment.
Safsan blinked.
The young man was gone.
No sound.
No footsteps.
Nothing.
Just a faint trace of green light disappearing into the air.
Safsan remained frozen.
Then the pain arrived.
A sharp wave moved through his body.
His muscles cramped.
His chest tightened.
His stomach turned.
His balance disappeared again.
He dropped to one knee.
He grabbed his arm.
It felt as though every muscle had been forced to react before his mind could understand what had happened.
His vision flickered.
For a moment, he could hear nothing but a high ringing sound.
His body had moved.
His mind had not caught up.
Safsan breathed heavily.
“What... was that?”
There was no answer.
Only the distant sound of the battle.
Only the smell of smoke.
Only blood covering the streets.
And somewhere inside his body...
something still felt wrong.
He had survived.
But his body had paid a price for being moved through space faster than it was meant to understand.
Safsan forced himself back onto his feet.
He looked toward where the stranger had disappeared.
The green light was gone.
But the question remained.
Who was he?
His name was Kairo.
But Safsan did not know that yet.
And he certainly did not know...
that Kairo had come from the future.
Far away from them...
Safuu stood surrounded by the three men.
The city behind them was dying.
The streets were red.
The sky was dark with smoke.
General VAREK attacked.
ZARQEN followed.
Minister NAREV finally stepped forward.
Safuu looked at all three.
She knew this was what she had been waiting for.
The three enemies of modern Odania...
were finally standing together.
And now...
they were going to learn why she had brought them out.
Safuu took one step forward.
The three prepared themselves.
Blood filled the battlefield.
And the fight between Safuu...
and the three men who believed they controlled Odania...
continued.