Novels by Achie Ver

The scream didn't sound anymore. It was a vibration. It tore through every wall and wire, making the air itself tremble.Kai grabbed Rhea and pulled her down as the floor split open beneath them. White light poured out like liquid fire. “Move!” he shouted.The chamber shifted, reshaping itself. Pillars bent sideways, ceiling folding like paper. The giant spine of light at the center twisted, sending sparks across the air.Marek fired toward it. The bullets melted mid-flight. “Nothing’s sticking!” he yelled.“It’s not supposed to,” Rhea snapped, dragging him behind cover. “This thing’s rewriting matter!”Kai rose, shielding his eyes. “Holt!”The woman at the base of the spine had risen. Her restraints had turned into glowing armor wrapping around her body. Her hair floated like strands of light.When she spoke, her voice was layered, human, mechanical, and something else beneath both. “You shouldn’t have come.”Kai’s chest tightened. “We came for you.”“There’s no me to come for.”She

Crest’s skyline was a forest of light, towers half melted, half alive, swaying like metal trees. The Spire rose at the center of it all, pulsing with white and blue veins that reached into the clouds.Every few seconds, a deep hum rolled across the city. The sound wasn’t mechanical. It felt like breathing.Kai stood on the edge of the ruins, his coat whipping in the wind. His eyes stayed on the tower.Behind him, the small strike team waited, twelve soldiers, Rhea, Marek, and two ex-Crest technicians who barely stopped shaking.Rhea moved beside him. Her face was pale under the flickering light. “Still think we can cut through that?”Kai didn’t answer right away. His hand rested on the pulse rifle slung over his shoulder. The weapon hummed softly, the core synced to his system.Finally, he said, “We don’t need to cut through. Just open a hole big enough to get inside.”Marek gave a short, humorless laugh. “And then what? Have tea with the machine god?”Kai’s eyes stayed on the tower.

The Civic Spire still stood, but only barely. From a distance, it looked like a monument of cracked glass and smoke, its upper floors open to the gray sky. The fires had died, but the air still shimmered with leftover energy. Director Liane Holt moved through the lower hallways with a small escort of soldiers. Their boots echoed against the marble, the sound hollow and endless. She had not slept in two days. Her right arm was wrapped in a bandage where Kai’s blast had burned her.Every few steps, she passed bodies, soldiers, technicians, council aides. The medics had already stopped counting. “Director,” one of the guards said quietly. “The Chancellor is waiting for you.”She nodded. “In the war room?”“Yes, ma’am. With the remaining council members.”She kept walking. The elevator shaft was dead, filled with dust and light. They climbed the stairs, passing flickering wall screens still showing corrupted system messages:INHERITANCE PROTOCOL ACTIVECORE RESONANCE DETECTEDMANUAL OVE

The convoy reached the Civic Spire just before dawn. The towers of Crest were still half-covered in smoke from the harbor strikes, but the Spire stood untouched, clean, white, and full of light. The streets around it were empty except for drones hovering silently above every intersection.Three armored trucks rolled across the square. The tires crushed pieces of broken glass that glittered in the weak sunlight. The lead truck slowed before the security gates, where lines of soldiers in black stood waiting.Director Liane Holt was already there. She wore her long dark coat and her eyes were hidden behind tinted lenses. Around her, the morning wind tugged at the edges of security banners, each one carrying the Crest insignia, a silver spiral against black. “Open it,” Holt said.The guards stepped aside. The trucks entered the inner yard of the Spire, their engines echoing against the marble walls. The gates closed behind them with a heavy metallic thud, sealing the world outside. Ins

The day broke thin and gray. Sirens moved like insects across the city. The council had spoken. The machines had answers.Director Liane Holt did not sleep. She wore a dark suit and carried a slim case. Her team waited in a low parking garage beneath the Civic Spire. Men and women in plain coats checked weapons. Their faces were cold. Each one had a badge that said only: BLACK UNIT.Holt looked at the line of faces. “We move in two waves,” she said. Her voice was short. “The first wave secures the surface routes. They cut civilian channels and block exits. The second wave goes for the tunnels. Find the prototype. Bring him here alive.”A captain stepped forward. His helmet hid most of his face. “Director, we also have psionic inhibitors ready. We can stop the resonance. We can take him in without heavy loss.”Holt nodded. “Use them. I want minimal blood. The council wants a clean capture. No public mess.”The men and women loaded into trucks. Engines hummed. Cameras rolled past them.

The tower that had once ruled Crest was gone, but its shadow still ruled everything. From the upper levels of the rebuilt Civic Spire, the city stretched like a scar of light. Drones moved in slow formations through the night sky. The lower streets glowed red with checkpoints and scanners. The people lived under curfew, and their silence was the empire’s new anthem. Inside the council chamber, silence had another meaning, fear.Six figures sat around a black table that reflected their faces like water. The walls hummed with soft blue light from the screens displaying surveillance feeds: the ruins, the tunnels, the movements of soldiers.At the head of the table sat Chancellor Eran Vale, once a diplomat, now a man with the posture of a dying king. His white suit was spotless, but his eyes were bloodshot.“Report,” he said.A woman in a dark uniform, Director Liane Holt, head of internal security, stood. Her voice was cold and steady. “We’ve confirmed activity in the eastern tunnels.

The crater still smoked. Dust hung thick in the air, glowing faintly in the light of Aiden’s mismatched eyes. Every breath stung with ash and burnt stone.Kylian stumbled forward, his legs weak, his sword dragging across the ground. His chest ached from the blast, but he didn’t care. His eyes locked on the lone figure standing at the crater’s heart. His brother. “Aiden,” Kylian called, his voice breaking.Aiden stood still, his head bowed, silver fire flickering along one arm, black shadow writhing across the other. His grip on his sword was tight, knuckles pale, as if letting go would shatter him completely.He looked up slowly. His silver eyes blazed. His red eyes glowed. And his lips moved. “Run.”The word echoed, layered with two voices. Elara was behind Kylian, her bow trembling in her hands though no arrows remained. Her silver eyes widened with alarm. “He’s losing control.”The stranger stood farther back, daggers drawn, their hood torn and face bruised from the shockwave. The

The square was silent after the blast, but the silence was wrong. It was heavy, broken by the crackle of strange energy around Aiden.The air shimmered with heat and frost at the same time. Silver fire burned along one side of his body, glowing bright, while black shadow curled and writhed on the other.Kylian stared, his sword slipping from his hand. “Aiden…” His voice cracked, barely a whisper.Aiden’s chest rose and fell with sharp, uneven breaths. His hands shook as he gripped his sword buried in the stone. His face was pale, sweat dripping, but his eyes… his eyes glowed with two colors.One silver. One red. The sight made Elara step back, her bow trembling in her grip. “This should not be possible,” she whispered. “No one can hold both.”The stranger’s eyes narrowed under their hood. “And yet he is.”Seraphiel still stood near the citadel gates, silver flames cloaking his form. But his calm was gone. His face, once steady, was tight with alarm. “This cannot be,” he muttered. “The

The square glowed like day. Silver fire poured from the citadel gates, flooding the cracked stones, burning back the black flames that caged them. The shadow tendrils shrieked as they withered, retreating into the ground.Elara collapsed to her knees, freed from the crushing grip. She coughed blood, her cloak torn, but her silver eyes still burned faintly. Kylian scrambled to her side, pulling her back from the heat, his own chest heaving with fear.The stranger stumbled to a halt, daggers raised, staring at the blaze with wary awe.And Aiden, Aiden could barely breathe. The silver glow in his eyes flared brighter, answering the light from the citadel. His sword trembled in his grip, his veins humming with energy that wasn’t fully his own. The fire parted, and the figure stepped forward.It was a man. Tall, cloaked in silver robes that shimmered like liquid light. His face was partly hidden beneath a hood, but what showed was strong, sharp lines, eyes like molten silver, glowing sof

The ground trembled. Black fire rose from the cracks, curling like serpents, coiling high until the entire square was a cage of shadow and flame. The heat pressed against their skin, though the fire gave no warmth, only cold, bitter, bone-deep.Aiden gripped his sword, his silver spark flickering in his eyes again. The glow was faint, weaker than before, but enough to catch in the dark flames. His body was still weak from the hidden road, every breath strained, but he forced himself to stand.Kylian stood in front of him, sword shaking in his hands, his jaw set in grim defiance. “You’re not touching him.”The stranger shifted, stepping into a low stance, both daggers drawn. Their eyes never left the hooded figure. “That’s not just another hunter. That’s him.”Elara’s silver eyes burned bright, her voice low, almost reverent. “Vatou. The Lord of Shadows.”The hooded figure tilted its head. The voice that came from it was not one voice, but many, deep, hollow, endless. “You speak my n

The river roared behind them, its spray misting the air, but no one turned back. The grass underfoot was damp, the earth cracked where silver and red had clashed. Smoke still lingered from the fight, but the hunters were gone. For now.Aiden leaned heavily on Kylian’s shoulder as they walked, his body still weak. His eyes had returned to their usual color, but the memory of that silver glow lingered in everyone’s mind. No one spoke of it. Not yet.The stranger walked ahead, blades sheathed but hands always near their hilts, eyes scanning the horizon. Elara followed behind, her bow in hand, silver eyes dark with thought.The only sound was the river fading into the distance and the crunch of their steps.Finally, Kylian broke the silence. His voice was tight, raw from shouting in battle. “We should rest. Aiden needs.”“No,” Elara cut in sharply. “Not here. Not anywhere near this place. The hunters will return, and if Kael calls others…” Her gaze swept the horizon. “We must reach the w

The wind howled across the cliffside. Grass bent low, and the river below roared like thunder. Lightning still danced in the clouds above, fading slowly, but its echoes filled the air with static.Aiden knelt in the center of it all, his sword buried in the earth, his chest rising and falling with ragged breaths. The black lines that had poisoned his flesh were gone, erased as if they had never existed. But his eyes glowed silver, brighter than moonlight.Kael stood frozen. His crimson blade still hummed, but for the first time his stance was not steady. His mask tilted slightly, his voice rougher than before. “Impossible.”The green and violet hunters shifted uneasily, their weapons glowing, but even they seemed to hesitate.Elara’s silver eyes widened, and for once, she looked shaken. She lowered her bow slowly, her lips parting. “No… it can’t be.”Kylian was kneeling beside Aiden, gripping his shoulder tightly. He looked into his brother’s glowing eyes and felt a shiver run down h

The villa slept in uneasy silence. The storm outside had passed, leaving only the sound of waves crashing against the cliffs. The night air was cool and damp, drifting through the half-open windows. Selena lay restless in her bed, staring at the ceiling. Her father’s last words haunted her. “Choose love, not blood. But Leon’s cold gaze haunted her even more. You chose him. You chose blood.”Her heart twisted until it hurt. She turned to the side, clutching the pillow. She wanted sleep, wanted peace, but none came, then she heard it.A faint click. Her blood ran cold. Slowly, her eyes turned to the window. It was wider than before. The curtains stirred though no wind blew, and then… he stepped through. Kael Voss.Tall. Calm. Silver eyes gleaming like knives in the moonlight. Selena’s breath caught in her throat. She sat up quickly, pressing back against the headboard. “No…”Kael’s voice was soft, almost a whisper, but it filled the room like thunder. “Yes.”He closed the window behin

The night was fire and smoke. Leon dragged Selena through the choking haze, her screams piercing the storm of gunfire. Jason covered their retreat, bullets snapping through the air. Eira moved like a shadow, her pistols flashing, cutting down Kael’s soldiers one by one. “Move!” Leon barked, pulling Selena toward the vehicles.“No! My father, let me go!” Selena thrashed against him, her face streaked with tears. “We can’t leave him! We can’t!”Gregory’s bloodied body lay on the concrete behind them, struggling to rise. His breaths were short, wet, ragged. Yet even in agony, his eyes burned with desperate resolve. “Go!” Gregory roared, his voice breaking. “Go, damn it! Don’t look back!”Another hail of bullets ripped across the dock. Jason cursed, firing wildly into the dark. “Boss, we’re out of time!”Eira hurled a smoke canister, the white cloud swallowing the battlefield. She grabbed Jason’s arm, shoving him toward the car. “Now!”Selena twisted free from Leon at the last second, s

The night exploded with fire and steel. Bullets tore across the docks. Sparks flew from metal containers as red tracers cut through the shadows. The air reeked of smoke, oil, and blood.Leon’s voice was a roar through the chaos. “Jason! Left flank! Eira, cover!”Jason fired burst after burst, his rifle kicking against his shoulder. “We’re outnumbered three to one!”Eira ducked behind a crate, twin pistols flashing in both hands. Her green eyes were cold fire, her jaw tight. “Hold them off!”In the center of it all, Selena knelt with Gregory, her heart slamming like a drum. She clutched his bound hands, trembling as Kael’s silver eyes pinned her from the container roof above.“Selena!” Kael’s voice was smooth, cutting through the storm. “Choose now, or your father dies!”Her body froze. The world seemed to tilt, spinning around her. Leon’s head snapped toward her even as bullets rained around him. His voice was raw. “Don’t you dare listen to him!”Gregory groaned beside her, his face p

The villa was heavy with silence. Outside, the waves crashed hard against the cliffs. Inside, the air felt thick, every shadow darker than it should have been.Selena sat on the edge of her bed, staring at the envelope in her drawer. She had hidden it again, but she could feel its weight even from here. Proof of her father’s betrayal. Proof of her own.Her father’s voice still echoed in her head: “Don’t do it, Selena. Don’t give him Leon.”But Kael’s words drowned it out: “Tomorrow night. The shipyard. Or your father dies.”Her hands shook in her lap. She whispered to herself, “There has to be another way.” But no answer came.A knock sounded on her door. She flinched. “Selena,” Leon’s voice said, deep and steady. “We’re leaving in an hour.”She forced her voice calm. “Where?”“To hunt Kael,” Leon replied. “I think I know where he’ll strike next.”Her blood ran cold. He didn’t know he was walking straight into Kael’s trap.Downstairs, Jason checked his weapons with quiet curses under

The night was cold, the sea whispering against the cliffs as Selena stood frozen before the black car.Kael’s tall frame blocked the open door. His silver eyes gleamed like a predator in the moonlight. Every part of him looked calm, controlled, but Selena could feel the storm of power beneath his stillness. “You came,” Kael said softly. “I knew you would.”Selena’s chest rose and fell quickly. Her voice trembled. “Where is my father?”Kael tilted his head slightly, as if amused by her fear. “Alive. For now. But his life, Selena, depends entirely on you.”Her hands curled into fists at her sides. She hated how weak she sounded when she whispered, “What do you want from me?”Kael smiled faintly. “Step inside. And I will show you.”Selena’s body screamed not to move. Every instinct told her this was a trap. But her father’s face, bloodied, bruised, dragged away, flashed in her mind. She forced herself forward.The car door shut behind her with a heavy thud. The interior smelled of leath

The storm broke at dawn. Rain hammered against the villa’s tall windows, running in heavy streams down the glass. Thunder rolled over the cliffs, shaking the walls. Lightning flashed across the horizon, casting the sea in silver and shadow.Inside, the atmosphere was just as stormy. Leon stood in the study, shoulders tight, staring at the maps spread across the table. He didn’t move, didn’t speak. The only sound in the room was the ticking of the old clock on the wall.Jason leaned against the doorframe, arms crossed. His eyes flicked between Leon and the storm outside. Finally, he muttered, “You’re wound so tight, boss, I can hear your teeth grinding.”Leon didn’t answer. His jaw flexed, his eyes locked on the map, but Jason knew he hadn’t seen a single line on it in the last hour.Eira entered quietly, her presence soft but sharp at the same time. She held a folder in her hand, damp from the rain. “Satellite confirmed Kael’s convoy moving east last night,” she said. “Toward the bo