War became normal frighteningly fast.
Not just for Kaien.
For the entire world.
The supernatural invasion that once shocked humanity slowly transformed into daily reality over the years that followed. Cities adapted. Militaries evolved. Entire industries reshaped themselves around surviving the new battlefield where corrupted armies and manifestations existed beside tanks, railguns, and mechanized divisions.
Humanity refused to die quietly.
And at the center of that resistance—
stood Kaien.
The first year after the awakening nearly broke the Dominion completely.
The Vesper Union expanded rapidly with the Entity's corruption empowering their forces beyond ordinary warfare. Entire frontline regions fell one after another while supernatural creatures appeared increasingly across battlefields worldwide.
Soldiers stopped calling it merely "the war."
They started calling it:
The Shift.
Because after that first contact with darkness—
the world itself changed forever.
Kaien fought constantly during those early years.
Every battle pushed him harder.
Every battlefield forced him to relearn himself.
Unlike his previous life as Arin, where Vijaya eventually returned fully as a bow, this life remained different. The spear never transformed. No matter how much his powers grew, Vijaya retained its current form.
And because of that—
Kaien became something entirely different from Karna.
Closer.
Faster.
More brutal.
He fought inside armies instead of above them.
Through them.
Entire corrupted battalions vanished beneath golden flashes of divine power while Kaien carved paths directly through supernatural forces that ordinary soldiers couldn't even approach.
The Dominion military eventually stopped assigning him to normal operations altogether.
Instead—
they deployed him only when reality itself started collapsing.
Manifestation outbreaks.
Dark fractures.
Corrupted titans.
Cities consumed by supernatural storms.
Whenever situations became impossible—
Kaien arrived.
And somehow survived.
Again.
And again.
And again.
But between the battles—
he returned to them.
Nyra and Lyss.
At first it remained awkward.
Painfully awkward sometimes.
Mostly because Kaien still spoke too directly about things normal people would never casually say aloud.
And because Nyra remained explosively embarrassed every single time.
Lyss handled it better.
Mostly because she laughed more often.
But over time—
all three of them slowly stopped pretending the connection didn't exist.
Because it became impossible to ignore.
The resonance between their souls only grew stronger with each passing year.
Memories started returning more clearly around them.
Not complete memories.
Fragments.
Feelings.
Warmth.
Loss.
Longing.
Sometimes Kaien would suddenly remember the sensation of holding someone beneath a sunset he had never seen in this life.
Sometimes Nyra would wake up crying without understanding why.
Sometimes Lyss would unconsciously speak words from ancient languages she never learned.
And every single time—
they understood silently.
The connection remained real.
Years passed.
Humanity adapted.
Kaien changed too.
At sixteen, he had still looked like a teenager carrying ancient memories.
By twenty-six—
he looked like war itself had shaped him personally.
Tall.
Broad-shouldered.
Cold-eyed when fighting.
The years hardened him physically while endless combat refined every movement into deadly precision. Scars crossed parts of his body now despite his abnormal regeneration. His black combat coat became iconic across Dominion battlefields while Vijaya remained permanently secured across his back whenever not in combat.
Soldiers started calling him many names over the years.
The Golden Spear.
The Sunborn.
The Monster of Novaris.
The Godkiller.
Kaien hated all of them.
Nyra especially loved using them against him.
"You know," she once said while sitting beside him on a transport rooftop overlooking a ruined battlefield, "The Godkiller one is actually pretty cool."
Kaien looked completely unimpressed afterward.
"It sounds arrogant."
Nyra grinned immediately.
"You destroyed a manifestation the size of a mountain by throwing a glowing spear through its skull."
"…that still sounds arrogant."
Lyss laughed so hard that day she nearly fell off the transport.
The twins changed too.
Both became extraordinary soldiers in their own right.
Nyra specialized in close combat and adaptive energy weaponry while Lyss became one of Dominion's most gifted tactical support commanders. Together they operated almost unnaturally well beside Kaien during missions.
Too well sometimes.
Entire squads started believing the three shared some supernatural telepathic connection.
They weren't entirely wrong.
By the sixth year—
Kaien could often sense where the twins were without seeing them.
And Nyra once instinctively reacted to an attack before Kaien himself noticed it.
The resonance deepened constantly.
Even Seraphine eventually admitted that no scientific explanation fully accounted for what linked them.
Soul synchronization remained the only accurate term.
Though Nyra still threatened violence whenever researchers called it that publicly.
The war worsened with time.
Because the Entity never stopped evolving its forces.
The corrupted Vesper soldiers slowly became less human over the years. Entire elite divisions willingly accepted dark integration in exchange for supernatural power while monstrous commanders started appearing across battlefronts more frequently.
And behind all of it—
Kael Draven remained silent.
The Vesper leader rarely appeared publicly anymore.
But every major offensive carried signs of increasing corruption.
Even Kaien noticed it immediately.
The darkness was spreading deeper into him.
Which terrified Kaien more than the armies themselves.
Because he remembered what happened to those consumed completely.
They stopped becoming human eventually.
Then came Year Eight.
The year humanity nearly lost.
A massive dark fracture opened directly above the Pacific Defense Ring.
The largest manifestation event in recorded history.
Entire cities vanished beneath supernatural storms while reality itself distorted across thousands of kilometers.
And from within the fracture—
something enormous emerged.
Not a manifestation.
Not corrupted human forces.
Something older.
One of the Entity's true servants.
The battle lasted three days.
Three entire days of nonstop destruction across collapsing coastlines while Dominion and Vesper forces alike were annihilated trying to contain it.
In the end—
Kaien killed it alone.
But barely.
He returned afterward covered in blood with half his body destroyed and Vijaya cracked for the first time since returning to him.
Nyra nearly killed the medical staff trying to keep her away from him afterward.
Lyss cried openly beside his bed for hours thinking he might actually die.
And Kaien himself—
for the first time in years—
felt fear again.
Because during that battle…
he sensed something familiar watching him.
The Entity itself.
It was getting closer.
By Year Ten—
the world no longer resembled the one Kaien was born into.
Entire continents remained scarred by supernatural warfare while humanity survived inside fortified mega-cities connected through military-controlled transport routes.
Children learned combat before mathematics.
Skylines remained filled with warships permanently.
And every human alive understood one terrifying truth:
If Kaien ever died—
humanity would probably collapse shortly afterward.
He became more than a soldier.
More than a weapon.
He became the line holding the world together.
And he hated that burden more every year.
Tonight, rain once again covered Novaris City while Kaien stood alone atop the command tower overlooking the endless lights below.
Ten years.
Ten years since the Shift began.
Ten years fighting without rest.
Ten years surviving.
Behind him, the rooftop door opened softly afterward.
Nyra stepped outside first wearing her black military coat loosely around her shoulders while Lyss followed moments later carrying warm drinks.
Neither needed to ask why he was here.
They already knew.
Kaien quietly looked toward them afterward.
And despite ten years of war—
his expression softened immediately.
Nyra walked beside him afterward before leaning against the railing quietly.
"You're thinking again."
Kaien gave a faint smile.
"You always notice."
Nyra smirked slightly.
"Of course I do."
Lyss handed him one of the drinks afterward before softly asking,
"Bad memories?"
Kaien remained silent briefly.
Then quietly—
"…something's changing."
The atmosphere shifted immediately afterward.
Because after ten years—
the twins trusted his instincts completely.
Nyra's expression sharpened slightly.
"What kind of changing?"
Kaien slowly looked toward the dark horizon far beyond Novaris.
Then softly—
"The Entity…"
Rain struck the rooftop harder around them afterward.
"…I think it's finally preparing to come here itself."