CHAPTER 1176: HAVEN TOWN (4).

Cain stood among the smoldering ruins of the outpost, the wind thick with ash and ozone. The night was split by streaks of gunfire and the collapsing hum of dying energy barriers. He could still smell the copper tang of blood beneath the metallic smoke, could still hear the echoes of the fallen.

The war had dragged itself into a grotesque rhythm—advance, collapse, burn, repeat. Every victory tasted the same: hollow, bitter, bought with screams. The council’s banners still shimmered in the distance, faint holographic illusions pretending that order still existed.

Cain sheathed his blade and walked through the wreckage. His coat dragged against the scorched concrete, sparks leaping from the embers still clinging to the corpses. One of the bodies stirred—barely alive.

The soldier’s voice rasped through the static, "You... think this changes anything?"

Cain crouched down beside him. His eyes were steady, almost calm. "Change isn’t something we wait for," he said. "It’s something we take."

The soldier coughed blood, his hand twitching toward a pistol. Cain didn’t stop him. The gun trembled, the muzzle shaking. Then the shot came, a weak pop swallowed by the storm. The bullet missed. Cain drove his knife through the man’s throat, twisting until the movement stopped.

Behind him, Steve’s boots crunched over glass. "You keep doing that," he muttered. "Killing the already dead."

Cain rose, flicking blood from his blade. "It’s cleaner this way."

Susan appeared next, limping, her hair matted with soot. "Cleaner? There’s nothing clean left about this."

Roselle moved past them both, scanning the horizon with her rifle raised. "They’ll regroup before dawn. We hit their communications and logistics, but that won’t stop reinforcements. They’ve still got drones running patrol lines."

Hunter’s voice came through their comms, static-ridden but sharp. "Then we burn the lines before they burn us. Cain, you copy?"

Cain looked to the east, where faint lines of light flickered between the storm clouds—Daelmonts carrier crafts. "I copy."

He slung his rifle over his shoulder and started walking. "We’re not stopping here."

Steve frowned. "We’re running on fumes. Ammo’s low, mana cells are fried, and your blood’s half gone. You planning on scaring them to death?"

Cain’s tone was even. "If that works, I’ll take it."

They moved as a unit, ghosts in the rain. The path ahead wound through the carcass of the industrial district—collapsed cranes, twisted rails, shattered glass towers. The closer they got to the coast, the louder the wind screamed.

Halfway through the march, Susan stopped. "You hear that?"

Everyone froze.

Through the thunder, a low hum rose—a deep mechanical growl that grew sharper with each heartbeat.

Roselle’s eyes widened. "They’re deploying hunters."

Metal wings sliced through the darkness. Two, then four, then a dozen shapes dropped from the clouds—Daelmonts’ automated seraph-class drones. Their glowing halos burned red instead of gold.

Steve cursed. "You’ve got to be kidding me."

The first drone hit the ground like a meteor, folding its wings inward as its targeting arrays lit up. Cain reacted first. His rifle came up, firing a burst of compressed light rounds that shattered the machine’s cranial core. The drone collapsed, but three more replaced it.

"Spread!" he barked.

The team scattered. Roselle vaulted over a pile of rubble, rolling into cover as she launched EMP grenades into the swarm. The air detonated with blue light, the explosion cutting out half the drones mid-flight.

Susan threw up a barrier—thin but focused—just as an energy beam slammed into it, cracking it like glass. "I can’t hold this for long!" she shouted.

"Don’t," Cain said, rushing forward. "I’ll handle it."

He leapt onto a broken beam and vaulted upward, slashing one drone clean in half as he landed. Sparks rained over him like burning snow. Another drone dived, claws outstretched, but Cain twisted and drove his blade through its core, tearing it apart in one fluid motion.

Steve’s voice echoed through comms. "We’ve got three left, closing from north!"

Cain whirled, fired his pistol in rapid bursts, striking two. The last barreled into him, tackling him through a wall. The impact shattered the concrete, throwing them both into a collapsed corridor.

The drone’s claws clamped around his throat. Cain growled, ripping one off before plunging his blade upward through the machine’s jaw. The explosion sent him skidding across the floor. He rose slowly, blood streaking his face, breath ragged.

"Clear," Roselle’s voice came through.

Cain stepped out into the rain again, eyes cold. "Not yet."

He turned toward the flickering horizon. The Daelmonts fleet was descending. The storm churned harder, lit by burning silver clouds and falling debris.

Hunter’s voice returned, quieter this time. "They’ve sent their main vanguard."

Cain’s jaw tightened. "Then we’ll show them what’s left of ours."

The rain came down harder. Around them, the world began to burn again.

Cain pressed forward through the storm. The air was heavy with heat and tension, every breath thick with smoke and ash from the city’s burning skyline. The surviving buildings groaned as if protesting the chaos erupting through their steel bones. Electricity cracked through the air from the lingering remnants of spent mana, arcing like blue lightning across torn rooftops.

The soldiers that hadn’t fled stood paralyzed, watching the unfolding destruction between two figures tearing the skyline apart. Cain drove his fist into the ground, sending a shockwave of molten metal surging through the concrete. The wave rolled forward like a golden tide, splitting open the street and swallowing what remained of the vehicles and debris. It didn’t even slow Nebula down.

The bastard stood at the center of it all, surrounded by blades that shimmered with reflections of the burning world around him. Cain’s attack melted everything it touched, yet Nebula’s blades held firm, cutting the molten energy into harmless sparks before reforming midair.

Cain exhaled, fury and fatigue warring behind his eyes. "You just don’t stop, do you?"

Nebula smiled faintly, his voice barely audible over the thunderous crash of colliding forces. "Neither do you."

And then, once more, the world split open between them.