Chapter 64
The sound of discipline echoed through the City of Blood.
Steel on stone. Shouts in unison. The crack of impact against bone-hard training dummies.
Kan had wasted no time.
The former officer stood at the heart of the outer courtyard—a platform beneath the red-lit sky of the underground dome—his voice sharp, commands brutal.
"Form ranks! Again! If you can't march, you can't live!"
The 600 were already changing. The ragged desperation that once filled their eyes had begun to smolder into something sharper. Focused. Dangerous.
Clad in blood-woven gear forged from the city's strange forges, they moved like soldiers now. Each hour spent drilling. Running. Striking.
Some fell.
But more stood up again.
And Kiro watched it all from above—from the Throne of Bone and Memory, carved into the bloodstone wall overlooking the drills. His mind was half in the present... and half still haunted.
He hadn't spoken since Adim faded.