Chapter Title: "The Eyes of Ice and War"
Golden clouds hovered above the city's domes, casting halos of light across the sacred grounds of the Anumari Clan Settlement. The golden city gleamed with calm perhaps too calm for a world unraveling.
Sakamoto chewed the last piece of grilled venison, letting the meat dissolve slowly on his tongue. Then something strange happened.
The taste faded.
His limbs went limp.
Darkness overtook him like a flood, and his body slumped backward unconscious.
In the blackness of his mind, the world pulsed.
And then a voice—formless, everywhere and nowhere—echoed through the void.
"Saka."
Sakamoto stood—or rather, floated. A liminal space stretched beneath his feet. Mist and emptiness swirled. He turned.
"Do you realize the weight of what is happening beyond this place? At Greenland?" The voice was a whisper and a roar.
"I have no idea what you're talking about," Sakamoto said, confused.
"The war has already begun. Your friends… they're fighting for their lives."
Before Sakamoto could respond, the ground below him turned white, shifting into a circular pool of light.
In it: shifting images. The battlefield.
On one side, he saw soldiers falling, blood freezing mid-air. President Mujin held a barricade alongside Zichen and Andrei, scorched and bloodied.
Another shift showed Asger, fending off monstrous hounds with her eyes tightly shut, while Madagascar, bound by a force unseen, writhed in pain.
And then…
A wave of pure dread flooded the void.
Jushin's voice cracked.
"I felt it—Lord Arcade. I could not sense him before, but now I fear he has returned… fully."
Sakamoto clenched his fists. "What the hell—why didn't SUHA reach out to Varion?!"
"Perhaps they can't. This place… the Anumari realm… is sealed too far from their reach."
The pool began to dim.
**"If you must go," Jushin said, "let it be known. The choice lies with you, boy."
A jolt surged through him.
His vision snapped back to the real world.
Sakamoto's eyes flew open.
Sweat clung to his forehead. He jolted up and turned sharply.
"Sir Varion," he said, "SUHA is under attack. The Ten… they've made their move."
Varion raised a brow. "How do you know this?"
"Jushin just showed me. Everything."
Varion rose immediately. "Then party time is over."
He turned to the fire pit where Volcanus sat, her gaze already meeting his.
"We will be leaving now."
Volcanus nodded slowly. "Very well. Go well… and may the Gods be with you."
Sakamoto, Varion, Cain, Dukun, and Ravenfeather moved in formation.
At the center of their courtyard, a glowing talisman sigil blazed to life. The runes shimmered blue and gold. A portal gate began to swirl open—a vortex humming with energy.
Varion looked back. "I can't guarantee we'll land on the same spot once we step in—but we will land in Greenland."
He drew his blade and nodded. "And I trust each of us to fight until we regroup."
One after the other, they stepped into the gate.
And vanished.
Southern Gatefront
The Blood Moon glowed overhead—its crimson light pulsing like a heartbeat. The tension in the air was unbearable.
"As long as I maintain the blood-bend, he won't explode," said Asger, her arms trembling slightly. "But I can't keep this up and fight."
Silas tilted his head, amused. "Trying to save him? Gonna marry him next?" His smirk cut deep.
Asger looked down at the ground—careful not to look at the Blood Moon directly.
"I must avoid eye contact at all costs," she muttered.
Silas took a step forward, scoffing. "You're getting me annoyed now. Want Won't you even look at Big Brother?"
He extended his hand.
Two snake-hounds, black and sinewy, burst from the Blood Moon and lunged. Asger backflipped without raising her head. The ground exploded behind her.
Before she could land, a third hound launched forward—she spun sideways, just barely dodging again.
"Fighting blind is so stressful!" she hissed, breath short.
Silas sneered. "Very well, then. Let me show you the power of the Third Eye."
He raised his palm. A mouth opened in its center. Blood coiled upward, spinning until it tethered to the sky.
The Blood Moon shimmered. The Third Eye in its core spun clockwise—click, click, click—until it vibrated with a low, horrifying hum.
Suddenly—
Madagascar, bound in blood magic, screamed. His body thrashed violently as the magic tried to crush and twist his soul.
"You're torturing him," Silas said. "Holding him still like that won't save him."
Asger, still eyes-down, whispered, "It's better than letting him tear himself apart."
Northern Border
The ground trembled beneath their feet.
Vincent took a step back. "The ground's… shaking."
And then it split.
From beneath the snow, over a hundred Red Walkers emerged—resurrected, armored in bone and flame, frost and steel.
Chiro cursed under her breath. "Seriously? Again?"
His sword gleamed as he unsheathed it. "Can't the dead just stay dead?"
Meanwhile Chiro ribbon reactivated and steadied its form to strike .
Central Front
The battlefield was scorched black, and three figures knelt in pain—Mujin, Zichen, and Andrei—each pierced by a hovering black rod controlled telekinetically by none other than Huey.
He floated slightly above the ground, three more rods orbiting him slowly.
Behind him, Julius Caesar, now healed and standing straight, approached.
His voice was low and irritated. "Why aren't you finishing them?"
Huey smiled faintly. "Lord Arcade may want their bodies. We're not here to kill them, Julius."
He turned his palms outward. "We're here to rebuild the world."
Above the southern skies, five jet fighters screamed toward the Blood Moon.
The pilots squinted.
"What the hell is that red thing?" One of the pilot talked after seeing the red moon core.
"Target locked preparing strike"
But it was too late.
As they neared, the Third Eye in the Blood Moon flared moved caught them and trapped them.
Their minds went blank they lost it completely.
Their bodies slumped forward, controls forgotten.
One by one
BOOM.
BOOM.
BOOM.
BOOM.
BOOM.
The jets exploded into the earth, shattering craters into the hills, and setting fire to the borderlands.
The moon pulsed again.
Hungry for more and Silas eyes dropped from the sky back to Asger as he chuckled.