Blindsided

In the seaside town of Grove, Julius Sanmar hides from his criminal past, masquerading as a bartender. He receives strange warnings about evolving mutants and maniac robots. When the former converge on the diner, devoted to his death, a driven paramilitary woman named Milia Renoith comes and tells him he is needed. The thief says goodbye to the friends he made and flees with her to her home, Lightning City.
While he reels from the loss of his two best friends, Julius explores Lightning City, built in the last two years, where more rumors spread of war and hostility. Who would want to destroy a city devoted to rebuilding from the War Before? Who would want to relive the brutal days of mass bloodshed? Everyone lays the blame on the Regrowers, a radical cult in the north. Julius thinks it's more complicated than that.
Milia and some of the Lightning Guards join him on a journey to the northwest where they discover bizarre technology that Julius could dismantle or wield for the good of Lightning City. But will any of them survive black holes, a torturer, armies of hybrid demons, and three hundred soldiers, give or take, attacking Lightning City? Even if they do the cost could be too high.