Late night. The moon was hidden behind clouds, with only a few scattered stars twinkling.
Kalen rode his motorcycle to the iron gate of Pines Cemetery and climbed over the wall. The cemetery sat on a hillside north of the city, tombstones casting long shadows in the moonlight. He walked through rows of graves and found his father's. The tombstone was simple, with only one line: "Markus Wester, 1968–2014, Rest in Peace."
Kalen knelt before the grave and was silent for a few seconds.
"I'm sorry, Dad. I need what you left for me," he said quietly.
He stood up and took off his jacket. The black star in his palm began to glow. He pressed his hands to the ground on either side of the tombstone. The God‑Eater Spine's ability — not devouring, but "sensing." He could sense the structure beneath: dirt, rock, rotting coffin, bones… and a metal object, about the size of a USB drive, buried at the bottom of the coffin. But he couldn't just devour the dirt — that would destroy the drive. He needed to dig manually.
He took a folding shovel from his backpack and started digging. The dirt was wet and heavy, each shovelful carrying the smell of decay. His muscles, enhanced by the God‑Eater Spine, could easily break through the hard earth, but the ease made him nauseous — he was digging up his own father's grave.
After about an hour, the shovel hit wood. He tossed the shovel aside and cleared the last of the dirt with his hands, revealing a rotten wooden coffin. The lid had collapsed halfway, and through the cracks he could see white bones. Kalen looked at those bones, his eyes reddening. But he didn't cry. He hadn't cried in a long time.
He reached into the coffin and felt beneath the bones. His fingers touched metal — cold, smooth metal. He pulled out the USB drive. It was military green, with a line of small text engraved on it: "For Kalen. By the time you read this, I'll be gone. But remember, Dad loves you."
Kalen clutched the drive, tilted his head back, and looked at the sky. The clouds had parted a little, revealing a few stars. "…I love you too, Dad," he whispered.
He put the drive in his pocket and began filling the grave. Shovelful by shovelful, he reburied his father's bones. When he'd thrown the last shovelful and stuck the shovel into the dirt at the head of the grave, his Eye of Truth picked up a signal — a dozen heat signatures rapidly approaching on the hillside in the distance. Heavily armed, carrying heavy weapons.
Kalen stood up and tucked the drive into his inner pocket. "…That was fast," he muttered.
He turned to face the hillside. In the moonlight, a dozen fully armed soldiers emerged from the trees, spreading into a semicircle. Red laser sights from their rifles painted a dozen dots across his body. A voice came over a loudspeaker, cold and devoid of emotion: "Kalen Wester, you are hereby under arrest by the North American Federation's Bureau of Divine Relics Affairs. Drop your weapons, put your hands on your head, and kneel on the ground. Repeat — drop your weapons, put your hands on your head, and kneel."
Kalen didn't move. He watched the red dots dance across his chest and head.
"I don't have any weapons," he said loudly.
The loudspeaker crackled again: "Your body is a weapon. You have been classified as a maximum‑threat level. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law."
Kalen activated his Eye of Truth. He saw the soldiers' energy — a pale blue aura around each of them, ordinary humans. But their ammunition contained trace amounts of divine substance — armor‑piercing rounds, designed specifically to take down divine‑relic holders. They weren't there to arrest him. They had orders: if he didn't cooperate, shoot to kill.
Kalen took a deep breath. "I don't want to hurt you. But I can't go with you either. So please, leave."
"Final warning —" the loudspeaker began.
Kalen didn't wait for him to finish. His body vanished from the spot — not teleportation, but speed too fast for ordinary eyes to track. The God‑Eater Spine had strengthened his muscle fibers, Thornheart gave him the ability to draw energy from the earth, and the Eye of Truth let him predict every soldier's firing trajectory.
In 0.3 seconds he'd broken out of the encirclement, in 0.5 seconds he'd knocked out the three nearest soldiers — not killing them, but striking their necks with a knife‑hand blow to render them unconscious — and in one second he'd vaulted over the cemetery's stone wall. Gunfire exploded behind him. Bullets slammed into the stone wall, sending chips flying. But not a single one hit him — the Eye of Truth showed him every trajectory, and his body automatically evaded.
He disappeared into the night.
At the same time, in the Bureau of Divine Relics Affairs operations room, General Stirling stood before a large screen showing live footage from the cemetery — soldiers searching, but Kalen was gone.
"He got away. His speed… more than triple anything we've recorded from any other relic holder," the intelligence officer said.
Stirling's face was expressionless. "How did he know we were coming?"
"Maybe his relic gives him some kind of sensing ability. That golden eyeball‑shaped relic we detected at the Sahara structure — maybe enhanced sensory perception."
"Where is he now?"
"We've lost his heat signature. He seems to be actively suppressing his body temperature — some relic ability."
Stirling was silent for ten seconds. "Activate the Hound Protocol. Full lockdown. All airports, train stations, highway exits — set up checkpoints. His photo has been sent to every law enforcement agency. I want him in custody within forty‑eight hours."
"General, if he fights back in the city, there could be massive civilian casualties —"
"Then don't give him a chance to fight back. Cut him off before he reaches any populated area."
Stirling turned to look at a map on the wall. The map showed the locations of thirty‑six surface structures worldwide, along with confirmed relic holders — Kalen's name circled in red, with a note beside it: "Maximum Threat · Priority Elimination."
He murmured, "Markus, your son is even more dangerous than you were. But you made one mistake — you turned him into a monster. And monsters don't deserve freedom."