Chapter 11 — Stains on the Throne
It's been three days since Lilith danced through their streets and left behind four mangled corpses and a lullaby. Since then?
Nothing.
No more singing.No more sightings.Just silence.
But the bloodstains are still there. Dried. Cracked. Unwashed.
Cainen sees them every time he steps outside.He told himself he'd build a kingdom.This is what it looks like.
Inside a half-fixed building that now serves as their "base," Cainen sits on a pile of scavenged chairs like a throne. It doesn't feel right.
Cainen (bitter): "We run this place. So why does it still stink like fear?"
Kaito: "Because we didn't clean up. We just killed louder."
DMK (from the wall): "Because you're not a king. Not yet."
Suddenly — shouting outside.
Cainen runs out.
A family is being dragged away by armed men in stolen government gear. Mercs? Fake lawmen? Doesn't matter. They're exploiting the chaos.
Man (to the woman): "You think this place belongs to some punk and his knife-boy? Nah. This is our city now."
The woman screams for her kid.
Cainen (walking up): "Drop her."
Merc (smirking): "Who the hell are y—"
Crack.
Cainen punches him in the jaw so hard his neck folds.Two more mercs pull guns.
Kaito (behind them, calm): "Shoot and you don't make it to the ground."
They hesitate.
They lose.
Chain slices. Bones crunch.
They're gone.
The family runs. Doesn't say thank you. Doesn't look back.
DMK (mocking): "You saved them. Congrats. Bet they still think you're a monster."
Cainen (breathing heavy): "Good. I don't need their thanks."
Kaito: "You want to run a district? You need more than muscle. You need rules. Order. Fear's not enough."
Cainen: "Then we make rules. Right now."
He carves a message into the side of a half-broken wall.Burns it in deep with DMK's help.
THE DEADLY SIX LAW:
1. This district is not free — it is ours.2. No abuse. No extortion.3. We kill liars, thieves, and fake kings.4. If you want to stay here, live. Don't leech.
Later that night, Cainen sits again on his chair-throne.
Same spot. Same cracked concrete.
But this time?
The blood's been cleaned.And the city's watching.
Not with respect.
With caution.
DMK (softly): "A throne's just a chair until someone dies in front of it."
Cainen: "Then it's a throne now."