Marek was the first.
But he wasn't the last.
His blood had barely dried on my blade before I moved on to the next. One name scratched off my list, and a dozen more took its place. Titans who ruled over war-torn nations like gods. Superhumans who crushed cities beneath their feet. Monsters who believed they were untouchable.
I hunted them all.
For years, I carved my way through the strongest warriors this world had ever created. Their strength meant nothing to me. Their power was meaningless. Because no matter how strong they were, no matter how much destruction they could unleash—I was stronger.
And I proved it.
Over. And over. And over again.
---
The Butcher of Titans
My name became a whisper in the dark. A myth. A nightmare.
Titans began to fear me.
They spoke of me in hushed tones, their voices trembling. Governments denied my existence. Mercenaries were hired to track me down—they died just like the rest. Entire warlords vanished overnight, their fortresses reduced to rubble, their bodies never found.
They started calling me The Butcher of Titans.
Fitting.
Because that's what I had become.
I didn't just kill them. I eradicated them. I made sure they suffered. I left their bodies in the ruins of their own empires, reminders of what happened to those who abused their power.
No one was safe.
Not the Titan who drowned a city in flames just to prove his strength.
Not the warlord who turned his own men into experiments.
Not the Apex who thought himself a god.
One by one, I cut them down.
And yet…
It wasn't enough.
The rage never faded. The hunger never dulled. No matter how many Titans I killed, my hands always felt empty. The revenge I sought… it didn't satisfy me.
So I kept going.
---
The Endless Battle
Years passed, but I didn't count them. Time had lost its meaning.
I had no home, no allies, no purpose beyond the hunt. My body became a machine, moving from one battlefield to the next. It didn't matter where the fight was—I was always in the center of it.
Some Titans tried to challenge me.
They believed their power could match mine. That they were different.
They weren't.
They died just like the rest.
Some ran.
I hunted them down.
Some begged.
I made them suffer.
Some tried to reason with me.
I silenced them with my blade.
They thought Titans were the apex of existence. That they were invincible. That they were beyond human comprehension.
They were wrong.
Because I stood among them as their executioner.
---
I fought Titans in the ruins of ancient cities, our battles leveling what little remained of civilization.
I clashed with Apex warriors in the skies, our strikes shattering the clouds, sending shockwaves that cracked the earth below.
I tore through entire armies, cutting down enhanced soldiers like insects, their weapons useless against me.
I fought in deserts turned to glass from the heat of our war.
In frozen wastelands, where the ice beneath our feet split apart with every step.
In the depths of warzones, where blood rained from the sky, and screams became the soundtrack of my existence.
And still, I fought.
Because there was always another battle.
Because there was always another Titan.
Because I had nothing else left.
No home.
No family.
No end.
Only war.
Only power.
---
I stopped thinking of myself as human long ago.
Humans were fragile. Weak. Pathetic.
I had surpassed them. Surpassed Titans. Surpassed everything that once defined me.
And yet, the more I killed, the more the world whispered my name.
Ethan Kael.
The Apex Titan.
The Butcher of Gods.
Some called me a hero.
They were wrong.
I wasn't a hero. I wasn't a savior. I wasn't here to protect anyone.
I was a force of nature.
A storm that never stopped. A blade that never dulled. A monster that even monsters feared.
And as long as Titans ruled this world…
I would never stop hunting.
---
War had become my world.
I lived for battle. I existed to kill. Every Titan that fell beneath my blade was another step forward. Toward what? I didn't know anymore.
But then… she appeared.
A Titan unlike any I had ever met. One who didn't revel in power. One who didn't crush the weak beneath her heel. One who, despite everything, still believed in saving this dying world.
Her name was Sophia.
And for the first time in years—
I hesitated.
---
The city was already dead by the time I arrived.
Flames devoured steel and stone. The streets were slick with blood, the stench of death choking the air. A battlefield like any other. The ruins of another war fought by Titans who saw human lives as nothing more than collateral damage.
Another slaughter. Another hunt.
I moved through the wreckage, my black combat suit stained with the blood of the last Titan I had killed. My sword—a weapon that had torn through Apex beings like paper—rested against my shoulder, humming with energy.
I was here for one reason:
To erase the last Titan standing.
Or so I thought.
Because when I found her—
She wasn't fighting.
She was saving them.
--
Amid the rubble, kneeling beside a dying child, was a Titan.
Long silver hair flowed behind her, almost shining under the dim firelight. Her hands glowed with golden energy, mending the boy's shattered ribs, sealing wounds that should have been fatal.
Sophia.
A name I had heard whispered before. The Healer of the Forsaken.
A Titan who refused to fight. A Titan who used her powers not to destroy, but to heal.
A fool.
A naïve idealist trying to stop an avalanche with her bare hands.
But even as I watched, my instincts screaming that I should end her now, I hesitated.
Because there was something different about her.
Something I hadn't seen in years.
Humanity.
---
She noticed me before I spoke.
"You're Ethan Kael."
Her voice was calm. Steady. Not afraid. Not like the others who had begged for their lives before I cut them down.
I stepped closer, my golden eyes meeting hers. She didn't flinch.
"You're a Titan," I said coldly. "That makes you my enemy."
She didn't move. Didn't prepare to fight. Instead, she simply turned back to the wounded child, pressing her glowing hands against his skin, mending what should have been unfixable.
"I am a Titan," she admitted. "But I am not your enemy."
I laughed. A short, sharp sound. "That's where you're wrong."
Her golden eyes locked onto mine, filled with something I hadn't seen in so long that I almost didn't recognize it.
Conviction.
"You fight because you believe power is the only way to fix this world," she said. "I fight because I refuse to let it burn."
I frowned. "You don't fight at all."
She exhaled. "That's what you think?"
And then—
The ground trembled.
I felt it before I saw it. The shift in the air. The energy surge that sent a pulse through my veins. My instincts screamed—
Move.
I barely dodged as a wave of golden energy exploded outward, consuming the ruined battlefield. Not an attack. Not destruction.
But healing.
The corpses around us disintegrated into light, their bodies given a final rest. The air cleared, the stench of death replaced by something… purer.
I looked at her, this Titan who refused to break, who stood against everything I believed.
And for the first time in years—
I didn't know what to do.
---
I could have killed her.
I should have killed her.
But I didn't.
Because for some reason, in that moment, I didn't see an enemy.
I saw something I had lost a long time ago.
Sophia looked at me, her expression unreadable. "You're stronger than any Titan I've ever seen," she said. "But strength isn't enough. You will never save this world through blood alone."
I tensed. "I'm not trying to save it."
She tilted her head. "Then why are you still here?"
I had no answer.
For the first time in years—I had no answer.
So I turned and walked away.
But as I left, I gave her one warning.
"Stay out of my way, Sophia."
She didn't reply.
And somehow, I knew—
This wouldn't be the last time we crossed paths.