Chapter: Chapter 149 – Into the Maw of the UnknownThe moment Collins Lutherchris stepped forward, the world shifted.Not violently.Not with the roar of collapsing earth or the blaze of uncontrolled flames.But with a quiet, deliberate certainty—as though the forest itself had been waiting for this single decision.A soft thrum vibrated under his boots. The air thickened, pressing against his skin like warm breath. The dim green glow that had guided him through the woods brightened, swirling into a faint spiraling path beneath the canopy.Collins inhaled.The scent of wet bark and old earth was suddenly overpowered by something stranger—burning embers, faint but unmistakable.His flame.Or… something like it.He clenched his fists.“Show yourself,” he murmured, voice low, controlled.A whisper swept through the branches.Not the wind.Not an animal.Not a monster.A presence.Then—A figure stepped out from between two towering trees, emerging with an unnatural grace.A cloaked silhouette, tall, draped in layers of dark fabric that
Last Updated: 2025-12-10
Chapter: CHAPTER 148 – The Stranger in the Trees2The forest remained death-silent.Not the natural silence Collins Lutherchris had grown used to—but the type that curled around his skin like cold smoke. The air felt tighter, heavier… as if reality itself was holding its breath.He didn’t move—not yet.Only his flame-blue eyes shifted, following the dark between the trees. The rustling had stopped, but the presence was still there. Watching. Waiting.“Show yourself,” Collins said quietly.The words did not echo. They simply vanished into the thick air.For a moment, nothing happened.Then a whisper drifted through the leaves.“You’re finally awake.”Collins stiffened.It wasn’t a voice carried by wind or spoken by a moving tongue. It was a voice that slid directly into his mind—cold, ancient, and layered with something that felt like flames trapped in ice.His instincts flared. Earth energy rolled under his feet. Fire pulsed in his palms. Wind curled around his shoulders like invisible wings. Water hummed like a river behind his hear
Last Updated: 2025-12-10
Chapter: CHAPTER 147 — The Thing in the TreesThe forest went completely still.Even the wind, which moments ago brushed gently through the branches, now felt trapped—held back by a presence that did not belong to the living world.Collins Lutherchris lowered his stance, fingers tightening around the faint ember of power resting within him. His heartbeat steadied, but every instinct screamed at him:Something was here. Something ancient. Something wrong.“Show yourself,” he murmured.The shadows didn’t move.But the silence did.A cold, crawling hush slipped through the forest, coiling around his ankles like mist. The leaves above trembled again—slow, deliberate, mocking. Collins’ eyes narrowed.Not an animal.Not a beast.Not a Spirit Walker either.This was something older.A presence brushed against his mind, not speaking, but probing—testing the boundaries of his consciousness, as though searching for cracks in his mental defenses.Collins snapped his will forward, forcing a spark of fire through his veins. The mental pressur
Last Updated: 2025-12-10
Chapter: CHAPTER 146— The Footsteps in the Dark —The night pressed tightly around Collins Lutherchris as he held his breath. The forest had gone too quiet—far too quiet. The rustling behind him had stopped, but the feeling of being watched only grew sharper, like invisible fingers crawling slowly up his spine.He didn’t turn immediately. Instead, he let his senses expand, just as Elder Thandor had taught him.Earth… listen.Wind… feel.Fire… awaken.Water… flow.Four elements pulsed inside him, slow and steady, responding to his tension.The trees whispered again.This time the sound came from his left.Then his right.Then behind him again.It wasn’t the wind.It wasn’t an animal.It was intentional. Something—or someone—was circling him.Collins finally exhaled and spoke into the darkness.“Step out. I know you’re there.”No reply.But the darkness moved.A shadow detached itself from a tree trunk, sliding forward like living smoke. Collins’ flames flickered to life around his fists, small but ready.The shadow stopped.Then—slowl
Last Updated: 2025-12-10
Chapter: CHAPTER 145 — The Silent WatcherThe forest fell into a stillness so deep it felt unnatural.Collins Luther Chris froze mid-step, every sense in his body tightening like a drawn bowstring. The rustling behind him stopped instantly—too instantly. No creature halted movement with such precision.He slowly turned, flames faintly shimmering beneath his skin, ready to burst free.Nothing.Only darkness and the towering silhouettes of ancient trees.But he felt it.A presence. Heavy. Focused. Intelligent.The kind that didn’t simply watch…It measured.Collins didn’t move. The silence pressed against him like a weight.“I know you’re there,” he said calmly, though a shiver crawled beneath his skin.His voice echoed faintly between the trees.For a moment, nothing changed.Then—A low, almost inaudible hum rippled through the air, like a breath exhaled from the forest itself.The shadows between two trees thickened, gathering like a pool of ink.Collins instinctively stepped back, flames flickering along his forearm.A figu
Last Updated: 2025-12-10
Chapter: Chapter 144_The Shadow Behind the LightThe ground trembled long before Collins realized the danger wasn’t coming from the sky…but from below.A harsh vibration rippled across the clearing like an angry heartbeat. Loose stones danced in frantic patterns, the trees groaned as if something ancient pushed against their roots, and the very air shivered with cold dread.Collins tightened his grip on the glowing Fragment of the Fourfold Seal.Lyra stepped closer. “This isn’t natural earth movement. Something is forcing the ground to open.”Before Collins could answer, the soil cracked. A long jagged line tore through the clearing, splitting the center with a violent roar. A hot wind surged upward from the fracture—carrying the smell of burning metal and old magic.A hand—shadow-black and clawed—shot up from the opening.Collins immediately activated the Earth Pulse, shielding Lyra and Arix with a stone wall as the creature heaved itself out of the crevice.It wasn’t fully physical.It wasn’t fully shadow either.It was something
Last Updated: 2025-12-10
Chapter: BOOK 2Chapter 239 – When the City BlinksThe city didn’t feel different.That was the problem.Rick stood on the roof of a half-abandoned parking structure, staring down at flickering streetlights and slow-moving traffic. Horns blared. A train rattled somewhere underground. Neon signs buzzed like tired insects.Normal.Too normal.Behind him, Kaela adjusted her jacket, trying—and failing—to blend in. The city didn’t suit her. The Veilborn forest had sharp edges and honest danger. This place hid its teeth.“You feel it too, don’t you?” she asked.Rick nodded. “The Veil’s thinner here.”Kaela frowned. “Cities should be loud to it. Crowds. Belief. Fear.”Rick exhaled slowly. “Something’s dampening it.”As if summoned by his words, the hairs on his arms rose.The air blinked.Not shifted. Not tore.Just… blinked.Rick’s shadow jerked sideways, lagging half a second behind him.Kaela swore under her breath. “That’s not natural.”“No,” Rick agreed. “That’s deliberate.”A low hum rolled across the rooftops, barely audible, like a s
Last Updated: 2025-12-15
Chapter: BOOK 2Chapter 238 – The Price of Being KnownRick didn’t sleep.Not because he couldn’t close his eyes—but because every time he tried, the Veil pushed back.He sat against the base of a twisted tree near their temporary camp, elbows on his knees, watching the slow drift of glowing spores through the air. The forest hummed softly now, like a distant engine idling.Kaela slept a few steps away, one hand resting on the hilt of her curved blade. Even unconscious, she looked ready to fight.Rick envied that.His shadow stretched long across the roots, darker than it should have been. It twitched once, then stilled.“You’re not subtle,” Rick muttered.The shadow didn’t answer—but it leaned closer.Rick swallowed. “Yeah. Thought so.”He flexed his fingers. The silver-and-black sensation stirred under his skin, restrained but alert, like a coiled wire. Ever since the Memory Well, something had shifted. Not power—clarity.He understood now why the Veil watched him.Why it whispered.Why it waited.Footsteps crunched softly through leave
Last Updated: 2025-12-15
Chapter: BOOK 2Chapter 237 – What the Veil RemembersThe forest didn’t return to normal.Not fully.Even after the Shadowbound withdrew, the air stayed tight, like the world was holding its breath. Leaves glowed dimmer now, their light pulsing in slow, uneven rhythms. Somewhere far off, branches cracked—too heavy to be wind.Rick stood where the ash had settled, staring at the dark smear soaking into the roots.“You felt that, didn’t you?” he said.Kaela nodded. “The Veil recorded it.”Rick frowned. “Recorded?”“Everything that matters leaves an echo,” she said. “Especially choices.”Rick exhaled slowly. “So now the forest knows I can kill Shadowbound.”Kaela looked at him. “No. Now it knows how you kill them.”That didn’t make him feel better.They moved again, deeper this time. The path Kaela chose wound downward, sloping into a shallow ravine where the trees grew close and tangled, their roots clawing out of the soil like exposed bones.Rick’s shadow stayed close now. Too close.It moved half a second slower than he did, like it was
Last Updated: 2025-12-15
Chapter: BOOK 2Chapter 236 – Lines in the BarkThey didn’t run.That was the first thing Rick noticed about himself as they moved deeper into the forest. His legs worked, his heart raced, but there was no panic driving him forward anymore. Just purpose—and a tight, coiled awareness that something would break soon.Kaela led them along a narrow path where the glowing leaves thinned and the air grew cooler. The Domain changed here. The trees were older, thicker, their bark carved with faint symbols that looked less like writing and more like scars.Rick slowed. “These markings… they’re not natural, are they?”Kaela shook her head. “No. They’re boundary lines.”“Between what?”“Between those who hunt,” she said, “and those who are hunted.”Rick exhaled. “Great. And we’re standing where?”Kaela didn’t answer right away. She stopped near a massive tree whose trunk split into three twisting columns. Pressing her palm to the bark, she whispered something Rick didn’t recognize.The tree responded.The symbols lit up, crawling across the b
Last Updated: 2025-12-15
Chapter: BOOK 2Chapter 235 – The Weight of Being SeenThe forest exhaled.Rick felt it—deep in his chest, like the world itself had just finished holding its breath. The silver glow dimmed slightly, shadows settling back into their natural places, but the pressure didn’t leave.If anything, it grew heavier.Kaela straightened slowly, eyes scanning the trees. “Do you feel that?”Rick nodded. “Yeah. Like… everything’s watching again. Just quieter about it.”“That’s worse,” she muttered.They moved out of the clearing carefully. Each step Rick took felt different now, as if the ground recognized him. Roots shifted subtly beneath his boots, never tripping him, never blocking his path.“Okay,” Rick said, trying to keep his voice light. “That’s new. And unsettling.”Kaela didn’t smile. “The Domain responds to status. Before, you were an anomaly. Now you’re… acknowledged.”“By everything,” Rick guessed.She glanced at him. “By things we don’t even have names for.”They hadn’t gone far when Rick’s mark began to itch.Not burn.Not pulse.Itched.
Last Updated: 2025-12-15
Chapter: BOOK 2 Chapter 234 – The One Who ReturnedLight didn’t fade.It pressed.Rick felt it crush against him from every side—hot, cold, sharp, and numb all at once. His body twisted as if being pulled through a narrow opening that refused to fit him.Then—He slammed into the ground.Air rushed violently back into his lungs. Rick coughed, rolling onto his side, hands clawing at soil instead of bone, heat instead of cold.Grass.Real grass.The scent of earth and rain hit him so hard he almost laughed.Rick pushed himself up, heart hammering. He was kneeling in a wide clearing beneath a dim, silver-lit sky. Towering trees ringed the area, their leaves glowing faintly like frost-touched glass.The Veilborn Domain.But something was different.The forest was silent.No whispers.No moving shadows.No watching eyes.Too silent.“Rick.”He turned.Kaela stood several feet away, her swords lowered but ready. Her face was pale, eyes wide—fixed on him like she wasn’t sure he was real.“Hey,” Rick croaked. “You look like you just saw a gho
Last Updated: 2025-12-15
Rebirth Of The Sealed Core: The Rise Of Billy Howell
✅ SYNOPSIS
Billy Howell grew up in the modern city of Silver Heights, known by everyone as the unlucky boy who never got anything right. What people didn’t know was that a strange and ancient force had been sealed inside him since birth. That seal kept his energy weak, his senses dull, and his future dim.
One day, a mysterious accident awakens the Eternal Origin Core, an ancient treasure buried deep within him. Along with the awakening comes a strange voice—
the Origin System, a powerful system containing rewards, tasks, and an exchange store.
From that moment, Billy’s life changes forever.
He begins to meet people with hidden supernatural abilities, discovers dangerous underground societies, and learns that the world is far from ordinary. But the biggest twist comes when a strange pull drags him into another world entirely—a place where cultivation, magical bloodlines, and ancient clans rule everything.
There, Billy realizes a shocking truth:
He has lived once in that world before.
And now, all the knowledge, instincts, and battle skills from his forgotten past life begin to awaken.
With the system guiding him, Billy rises faster than anyone else. Those who once mocked him are forced to watch as he becomes a name that shakes both worlds.
Read
Chapter: Chapter 34 — First RipplesThe fire was walking among them.Billy felt it with every step he took through the dim district streets. Not heat—awareness. The Ember Stone no longer reacted only to danger; it reacted to intent. Eyes lingered too long. Footsteps echoed half a second late. Breathing that didn’t belong to passersby brushed his senses.“You’re being tracked,” Aria said quietly without turning her head.“I know,” Billy replied. “At least three groups.”She raised an eyebrow. “Only three?”He almost smiled.They reached an old convenience store at the corner of the street. The sign flickered weakly, its lights half-dead. Billy stopped.“This is it,” he said.Aria frowned. “This place?”Billy nodded. “Neutral ground. No faction claims it. The owner’s an unawakened, but the building sits on a dead zone. Makes energy detection unreliable.”She looked at him, surprised. “How do you know that?”Billy hesitated—then answered honestly. “I don’t. The system does.”DING![SYSTEM NOTICE: Safe Zone Identified — Tem
Last Updated: 2025-12-17
Chapter: Chapter 33 — Stepping Into the OpenThe moment Billy crossed the threshold of the Council’s gates, the world felt different.Not louder.Not brighter.Heavier.The city stretched out before him, busy and alive, yet beneath the surface Billy could feel the currents—hidden forces sliding through alleyways, rooftops, and underground passages. The Ember Stone pulsed in quiet rhythm, no longer flaring wildly, but no longer dormant either.Aria walked beside him, her expression tense. “Once we leave this zone, there’s no protective barrier. Everything that senses awakened energy will know you’re active.”Billy nodded. “Good. Let them know.”She studied him for a moment. “You’ve changed.”He didn’t deny it.Kael’s voice echoed from behind them. “Remember your priorities, Billy Howell. Observation before engagement. Survival before pride.”Billy paused and glanced back. “I’ll remember. But I won’t hide.”Kael’s gaze lingered on him. “That balance… is what will decide whether you become a protector—or a catastrophe.”The gates s
Last Updated: 2025-12-17
Chapter: Chapter 32 — The Gathering StormBeyond the Council’s walls, the night shifted.Not in a way ordinary people could see—but in the way power recognized power.High above the city, inside a tower hidden behind illusionary veils, a massive circular chamber pulsed with dark-blue light. Dozens of floating screens flickered to life, each showing a different location: underground vaults, forgotten temples, abandoned factories, and sealed ruins scattered across the world.On every screen, the same name appeared.BILLY HOWELLA tall man stood at the center of the chamber, his back turned to the displays. His long coat flowed like liquid shadow, and faint chains of light wrapped around his arms—seals holding something dangerous in check.“So it’s true,” he murmured. “The Ember Vessel has passed the Trial.”A woman stepped forward from the shadows. Her eyes were silver, her presence heavy. “The Council confirmed it. The second crack stabilized instead of collapsing. That should be impossible.”The man turned slowly.His eyes bu
Last Updated: 2025-12-17
Chapter: Chapter 31 — The Weight of ProtectionThe chamber did not reset this time.Instead of runes fading and energy dispersing, the walls darkened further, the air growing heavier—dense, almost suffocating. Billy felt it immediately. This wasn’t another illusion meant to scare him.This was real pressure.Master Kael stood at the edge of the chamber, his expression no longer calm. “The final phase begins now. There will be no pause, no guidance. What happens next will test the one thing power alone cannot replace.”Billy steadied his breathing. “And that is?”Kael’s eyes locked onto his. “Responsibility.”The runes on the floor flared crimson.The chamber twisted violently, stone dissolving into shifting light. When Billy’s vision cleared, his heart dropped.He wasn’t in the Council Hall anymore.He stood in a familiar street—broken pavement, dim lights, the smell of smoke. The same place where he had first stabilized an awakening civilian.Only this time… it was worse.People were everywhere.Civilians screamed and ran as crac
Last Updated: 2025-12-17
Chapter: Chapter 30 — Flames Beyond ControlBilly took a steady breath, letting the Ember Stone’s pulse calm his racing heart. The first phase of the Trial of Ember had tested his control over fear and instinct—but Kael wasn’t done. He could feel it.“The trial continues,” Kael’s voice echoed, deeper now. “The next stage is not just about control. It is about expansion. You must push the Ember Stone beyond what you have ever dared.”Billy’s pulse quickened. Beyond control? He had just learned to manage the flames without letting them consume him. Now he was being asked to grow stronger, faster, sharper—while under pressure.Aria stepped closer, her hands glowing faintly. “Remember, Billy. The Ember Stone responds to intent. Focus your mind, or it will burn out of your control.”Billy nodded. He closed his eyes briefly, feeling the warmth of the Ember Stone. It hummed in response, thrumming against his chest like a heartbeat in sync with his own.DING![SYSTEM NOTICE: Trial Phase 2 — Expansion Mode Activated][Objective: Amplify
Last Updated: 2025-12-15
Chapter: Chapter 29 — The Trial of EmberBilly stepped cautiously into the inner chamber of the Council’s Hall. The air was thick with latent power, faint hums vibrating through the walls as magical seals glimmered on the floor. Master Kael led the way, his staff glowing softly, illuminating intricate runes etched into the stone.“This is where your first trial begins,” Kael said, voice calm but heavy with authority. “The Trial of Ember. It is designed to test not just your control over the Ember Stone, but your ability to adapt under pressure. You will face illusions, constructs, and projections of past failures. Only by mastering your focus can you prevail.”Billy’s eyes narrowed, fists clenching instinctively. The words “past failures” stirred memories—weaknesses, fear, and moments when he had been looked down upon.Aria stayed close, placing a reassuring hand on his shoulder. “You’re ready, Billy. Trust yourself.”Billy exhaled, letting the Ember Stone’s pulse resonate with his heartbeat. The fire within him responded, f
Last Updated: 2025-12-15
