Learning where Annie was already made his journey to Prague faster than he had gone most places considering who she was with.
Out of all the places he expected Annie to wind up after all these years he did not expect her to be hunting with Blade the daywalker. Auggie of course kept tabs on her and talk to her still but he never mentioned anything like this.
As he got to the front door of their base he started to feel peeved off at Blade even if he hadn't met him. He looked back at scenes of blades fights and although they were cool they were also very fast which made him think of the Kintari.
-
Blade stood among the bodies, sword slick with fresh blood, his mind numb. Whistler was gone. The one man who'd kept him tethered to something real gone in fire and screams.
He heard footsteps. Slow. Deliberate. Too smooth for a vampire.
Blade turned, gun up, finger ready. What stepped out of the shadows wasn't a bloodsucker. It looked like a man tall, dark coat, calm face but something was off. The air shimmered subtly around him, like heat waves or warped glass. And the way he moved... it was like he was to fast but it was suttle
"I'm not here to fight," the stranger said. "Name's Arden."
"You're not human," Blade said flatly.
"No," Arden replied, eyes reflecting flickers of something strange, something curved and angular that didn't belong in this world. "Chronobit. I bend time when I move. Makes things... complicated."
Blade didn't lower his weapon.
Arden's form wavered slightly, like a figure caught in different frames of film. He stayed solid, but for a second his outline fractured shards of light cutting angles through the air, limbs shifting position.
"I'm not your enemy," Arden said. "I came for Annie Walker. She's supposed to be here. Still breathing, still sharp, even at eighty-four. I need her help."
"Yeah," Arden said with a faint smile.
Blade's jaw clenched. The rage hadn't faded. The loss was too fresh. "Then go to her."
"I will. But first I'm staying. You're about to walk into a storm. Someone's trying to remake the Blood God. and I would not recommend we let that pass"
Blade's eyes narrowed. "You talk a lot for someone who hasn't bled yet."
"I fight with motion, not monologues," Arden said. "I'm here because this is important. And because I don't like what's coming."
Blade lowered his weapon, just a little.
"Keep up, then."
"I'll do better," Arden said, confidently "I'll be there before you even need me."
-
The air was thick with something more than smoke and blood. Arden stepped through the cracked entryway, footsteps slow and measured. Every motion mattered. The faster he moved, the faster time flowed around him. And right now, he needed it to crawl.
Screams echoed down the stone corridors, lit only by flickering red lights and the strobe of gunfire. Blade was ahead, a blur of trench coat and sword, slicing through vampires like they were air. Annie was at his back, the years hadn't dulled her aim if anything, they'd sharpened her into something deadlier.
Arden didn't speak. He didn't need to. His presence was felt the moment he stepped into their tempo. The rhythm of the fight changed. Slowed. Tightened. Every vampire that got within six feet of him twisted mid-air, their limbs stationary as he made his attack accelerating according to all others.
A vampire lunged. Arden moved his hand just a twitch and the creature's leap froze mid-air. Its body stretched unnaturally like a frame stuck in slow motion. He sidestepped, let it crash into a steel pipe as time snapped back.
He couldn't help but glance at Blade. The man was efficient. Brutal. It reminded Arden of the Kintari. Fast. Sharp. Blunt with intention. A shiver crawled up his spine, but he shook it off. This wasn't about those weird memories. This was about stopping something worse.
They reached the altar room, circular and cavernous, where the would-be Blood God stood in the center, flesh already splitting with crimson energy. Arden could feel time spiraling around the man like a drain. Like a black hole.
"Time wimey bastard" Blade growled, eyes locked on the figure, "you got anything that slows gods down?"
Arden's eyes glowed for just a moment, the outline of his form fractaling like a shifting prism.
The room trembled. The Blood God's vessel howled, its body cracking like dry earth. Threads of crimson light bled from his pores, swirling upward into an ancient sigil carved into the ceiling. The air thickened, heavy with power and the weight.
Annie moved first, no hesitation. Her rifle barked twice silver-jacketed rounds aimed for the heart but the bullets evaporated midair, sucked into the vortex coiling around the godlike figure. She didn't curse. Just reloaded. Calm as ever.
Blade stepped beside her, shoulders squared, sword pointed forward. "We need that thing dead yesterday."
Arden moved to their side, raising his hands. Time bent outward from him like ripples in a pond, forcing the air to slow, to listen. His voice cut through the temporal static.
"This is just resurrection," he said. "If he succeeds, he'll never be able to be killed again"
"Then we tear the pages out," Blade growled.
The Blood God laughed, or maybe it was something deeper something layered behind sound, echoing in Arden's bones. It spoke in languages that shouldn't exist, that never were.
Arden stepped forward, and time peeled open.
They encircled the altar, moving in a perfect loop. With every motion every breath he pulled at the threads of the Blood God's, slowing the surge of resurrection, unspooling the myth.
The god screamed in a slow slur as his body flickered, torn between now and then.
"Now!" Arden shouted. "Strike while he's unstuck!"
Things to being amped up on so much blood Blade was already moving pure velocity and rage. Annie fired again, bullets now finding flesh, forcing the god back. And Arden, Arden reached out, fingers curled like a conductor pulling notes from silence.
The room bent, cracked. The altar shattered.
And screamed with them.
Blade stood over the remains what little was left. His blade dripped with dark, smoking blood. He didn't move for a long time.
Arden exhaled slowly. The fractures in his silhouette sealed, though faint lines still crackled across his skin like old lightning scars. He walked toward the others, slower now. Weary.
Annie lowered her rifle, the weight of it finally seeming to matter. Her hands shook just a little enough for Arden to notice. He offered a nod, and she gave one back, eyes sharp even through the wrinkles and war stories.
Blade looked at them both. "That… whatever that was. I've never seen space bleed"
Arden met his gaze. "It wasn't supposed to. That kind of power doesn't belong in this world."