Arise · #2 / 6
Dark Crusader
Hunted, confused, pissed off… this is one quarry you don’t want to back into a corner.
Steve and Ingrid have escaped the clutches of Athena, but Steve is still learning, both about his place in the world, and his capabilities, not to mention those of the creatures that surround him.
Ingrid, too, must find her way in the new reality she finds her world has become, and the pair need a plan.
Fortunately, Ingrid’s a lot brighter than Steve, and she’s had plenty of time to plan, to observe, and to build up a festering hatred of her ‘betters’.
Steve’s going recruiting—and harvesting—Greece is in for a hell of a surprise, and for the criminal element out there? It’ll be a fatal one…
The series
In a world where myth bleeds into machinery, where werewolves and nanites share the same pulse, one man stands on the edge of something vast and terrible. The Arise series by Jez Cajiao begins with a single broken soldier, Steve, whose body and soul are rebuilt by forces that blur the line between science and the divine. What starts as survival quickly unravels into revelation, exposing the truth that humanity was never the apex of creation but a weapon built for someone else’s war.
Read full series description
Each book deepens the fracture between what Steve was and what he is becoming. The nanites that saved him are evolving, rewriting him in ways that test his control, his morality, and his faith in what it means to be human. Ancient races stir, forgotten empires whisper from the dark, and every act of defiance drags him closer to a destiny written long before his birth. It’s not just a fight against monsters, it’s a reckoning with creation itself.
Blending the grit of dark fantasy, the escalation of LitRPG progression, and the vastness of science fantasy, this series doesn’t hold your hand, it drops you into chaos and dares you to climb out. Fans praise its brutal honesty, its complex world-building, and the way it refuses to give easy answers. Every victory feels earned, every loss leaves a scar.
For readers drawn to antiheroes, intricate lore, and worlds that feel both ancient and futuristic, Arise offers something rare: a journey that questions power, purpose, and the cost of evolution. It’s a story about what rises when the old world falls, and whether the man who survives it can still call himself human.
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