Arise

Steve is ex-military, ex-enforcer, and ex-human — a one-man nanite-fuelled nightmare who stole a hundred thousand from some very bad people and is trying to lie low on a Greek island. When he saves a pair of drowning girls and goes viral, lying low becomes impossible. He tells himself he is cleaning up his act, making up for the things he has done. But even he admits it is mostly a justification: he is a very bad man with horrifying abilities, and hunting the creatures of the night suits him just fine.

Steve and Ingrid have escaped Athena's clutches, but Steve is still learning the limits of his capabilities — and those of the creatures surrounding him. Ingrid, meanwhile, has had years to plan, observe, and build a festering hatred of those who consider themselves her betters. Steve is going recruiting. Greece is in for a hell of a surprise.

Steve and the team survived the assault on their new home. The Old Ones have agreed to his offer and granted him a month before he must present himself before the oldest of his kind — but that window is closing. To prepare, Steve needs to recover the Harvest Blade and access new abilities. Only one location can grant him all of those things: it is time to reclaim humanity's place in the stars.

A new player has entered the great game, and the Elders' edicts hold no sway over them. Steve and the team hold the ship — for now — but the world is waking to the new reality and the vultures are circling. Out of time and out of tricks, Steve still has a reservoir of brutality to draw on. He will need it, because one of the god-like creators has turned her gaze on him — and as far as she is concerned, he and all his kind are vermin.

There is an entire galaxy out there, and Steve has already started a war with part of it. He and his companions have been offered slim hope: the UC may protect Earth — but their protection could embroil billions in a new conflict, and it will never come cheap. It falls to Steve to figure out how to pay that debt, or survive without the UC's sheltering hand.

Ripped from everything he knew, Steve drifts among the shattered remains of dead worlds and civilizations. Faced with an impossible choice — evolve beyond his limits or be lost among the ruins — he must fight his way home. When he gets there, he will have to deal with the Ændari's greatest secret and remind the rest of the universe that humanity is not prey.