The truth slammed into her like a fist wrapped in fire.

Pain tore through Althea's side as she forced herself upright, her breath ragged and shallow. Every nerve screamed in protest, but her eyes locked on the red-haired figure moving steadily toward her.

"Nioh…" Her voice trembled, a whisper cracked by pain and dread.

"…how long have you known?"

Nioh's wild crimson hair floated in the charged air, a halo of chaos framing his face as he stepped over the rubble-strewn ground. His expression was unreadable—cold, relentless.

"From the beginning, Althea," he said. "Your face is identical to hers."

She froze. The words hit harder than any blow.

"Impossible," she spat, staggering to her feet. Her eyes burned with confusion and fury. "I erased everything. I killed them all. How can you—how can you be related to her?"

But she didn't wait for the answer. Rage detonated inside her like a collapsing star.

Her hands morphed in an instant—once sleek plasma knives, now brutal, roaring chainsaws of compressed stone and energy. She lunged forward, a shriek of hate ripping from her throat.

Nioh didn't flinch.

With fluid precision, he swatted her attack aside using the back of his right hand. In the same motion, he seized her throat, hoisting her into the air like she weighed nothing.

Her boots kicked helplessly above the scorched earth.

"Hephaestus," he growled, voice as cold and ancient as a glacier. "I've hunted you for years. You owe me blood. Lives. Everything."

His grip tightened.

Flashes lit up his mind like lightning—images burned into memory: the orphanage engulfed in flames, children's screams lost in the crackle of fire and steel, Granny Leah's lifeless body cradling a blood-soaked teddy bear.

Carnage. Limbs. Smoke. Silence.

He'd searched for the truth with a fanatic's obsession, following whispers and fragments with Xenah's help, tearing through the archives of the Daewyth military.

It was one clue—just one—left behind by Granny Leah that broke it all open. A name. An organization.

The Intra.

Fifty years of hidden data, of scorched towns and vanished labs, of explosions that bore the signature of designs he knew too well. The same techniques, the same principles—the ones Granny Leah had drilled into him when he was barely old enough to hold a soldering iron.

And then came the files. Buried deep.

The name Hephaestus.

A ghost within the Pantheon of Intra. A master of destruction. A phantom genius known only for the horrors he birthed.

No face. No trace. Just a legend.

Until Althea.

The moment Nioh saw her—her face, her movement, even the harmonic frequency of her biocore—it all clicked. Her genetic echo. Her energy was a mirror of Leah's. Beautiful, haunting, familiar. Then it all fell into place. Granny Leah was Hephaestus, the weapon designer behind the infamous terrorist organisation Intra.

She was responsible for the Biocore attack that left him deaf that year. The guilt in her eyes as she sacrificed everything for him began to make sense. She healed him, nurtured him, taught and protected him.

Until she was murdered, he saw her as a pure and knowledgeable noble.

The apparition of Althea just put the missing piece into place. The new Hephaestus had to kill the old one to gain the position of weapon master of the pantheon. Althea to him never felt human; the closest example would be Xenah. Granny Leah always talked about biocores being alive, and he understood what she was the second he laid eyes on her.

The culmination of Granny Leah's life's work.

From then on, the plan for revenge began. The mantis stalking the cicada was not aware of the oriole behind. When the Intra trap presented itself with the discovery of Noah's Arch. The stage was set for the greatest reversal possible.

He spread rumors of a weapon so powerful it could kill wardens. Too tempting to resist for someone like Hephaestus. A bait designed to pull the highest-ranking Intra into his trap.

Even if it meant sacrificing allies. Even if it meant becoming the monster they feared.

He would burn it all down for this moment.

Checkmate.

"You were never chasing a warden-killing weapon…" Hephaestus choked, clawing at his wrist. "You're insane. You burned two of your fused biocores… Just to reach this level?"

Nioh's smile was slow and terrible, curling across his face like a crack in the Earth.

He released her.

She collapsed to the ground in a heap of gasps and blood. But the danger wasn't over—Hermes and Aphrodite shot forward like thunderbolts, weapons drawn, fury in their eyes.

He darted backward, fluid and effortless, avoiding their strikes by inches.

They caught Hephaestus between them, helping her to her feet.

"He's burned through his biocore," she hissed. "He can't sustain that energy for long. Delay him. We wait him out."

But Nioh wasn't alone anymore.

Out of the smoke staggered four broken silhouettes—Magnus, Lithaa, Neil, and Aquila. Their armor was cracked, torn, and scorched. Blood slicked their faces. They could barely stand.

"Pick her up," Nioh ordered, gesturing toward Akron's crumpled form on the battlefield. "And get out of here."

Magnus blinked, uncertain. His eyes flicked between the three warden-level enemies in front of them and Nioh, who now glowed like a fallen star.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. It is about to get dangerous. I don't want her to see this."

Lithaa walked forward and lifted her unconscious sister off the ground. She sensed Akron's energy stabilizing and the hidden ailment phasing out slowly. She looked up at Nioh and said, "Thank you." She noticed the swirling energy around him become unstable, and the previous rage creeping up.

She understood he was restraining his power until they were sufficiently far away. So she began to make haste.

"You, have fallen into despair because of a false warden?" Hermes teased as he faced Nioh.

"There is three of us, and only one of him" Aphrodite added as both lunged forward before Althea could stop them.

The word was a roar.

Nioh's biocore erupted—blinding red light surging skyward, shaking the air with raw, unfiltered power.

The final act had begun

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