All Chapters of SILENT VEINS: THE BLOODBORN ASCENSION: Chapter 1
- Chapter 10
16 chapters
The Blood That Breaks
The mop slapped against the linoleum floor. Back and forth. Back and forth.Kaelen's arms burned. His shoulders screamed. The fluorescent lights overhead buzzed like angry wasps, flickering every few seconds like they couldn't decide whether to live or die. Kind of like him, honestly.Two in the morning. Again.He dragged the bucket closer, the wheels squeaking loud enough to make him wince. The medical research wing was supposed to be empty this time of night. That's why they gave him this shift. That's why they always gave him the shifts nobody wanted.His stomach growled. When did he eat last? Morning, maybe. Yesterday morning. He couldn't remember anymore. The double shifts blurred together into one long nightmare of bleach fumes and aching muscles.Just get through tonight. Just get through tonight and tomorrow you can sleep.His hands trembled as he wrung out the mop. The shaking had gotten worse this week. Probably the lack of food. Probably the exhaustion. Probably the fact th
Chapter 2: Silence Absolute
The creature's hand stopped.Not because it wanted to. Because it couldn't. Like something invisible grabbed its wrist mid-swing and held it there, frozen inches from Kaelen's face.Where his blood touched the thing's ashen skin, black cracks spread. Fast. Like ice breaking under pressure, spiderwebbing across its entire body. The cracks glowed with a darkness that shouldn't exist, a black so deep it seemed to swallow the emergency lights around them.The creature's mouth opened. That horrible, too-wide mouth. But no sound came out. Just a silent scream that stretched its gray face into something that barely looked human anymore.Then it shattered.Just like that. Like glass. Like it was never real to begin with. The pieces didn't fall, they disintegrated, turning to ash before they hit the ground. Gray powder floated down around Kaelen like snow in some twisted winter scene.The hallway went silent.Not peaceful. Wrong. The kind of silence that presses against your eardrums and makes
Chapter 3: The Crimson Leaf
The alley smelled like burnt rubber and blood.Kaelen and Joren kept to the shadows, moving fast but not running. Running drew attention. And right now, attention was the last thing they needed.Every street they passed told the same story. Scorch marks blackened the walls like someone had dragged fire across them. Patches of ice covered the ground where it shouldn't be possible, glistening under the streetlights. Craters. Big ones. The kind explosions left behind.Bodies.Human and creature both, scattered like discarded toys.Joren stopped at each one. His cop training wouldn't let him walk past without checking. Looking for survivors. Checking pulses. But his hand came away empty every time, and his face got a little paler with each body they found."This doesn't make sense." Joren's voice was tight. Controlled. Like he was barely holding it together. "Where did these things come from? And those people with powers." He looked at Kaelen. "Did you see what they could do?"Kaelen didn
Chapter 4: The Veil Falls
Shen poured more tea. The steam rose between them like ghosts."The world you know is a lie," he said simply. "Or rather, half a truth."Kaelen's hand wrapped around the warm cup. The heat felt real. Everything else felt like a dream he couldn't wake from."There is a barrier," Shen continued. "We call it the Veil. It separates ordinary reality from what lies beneath. From the cultivation world.""Cultivation world." Joren's voice cracked. He looked at Kaelen, then back at Shen. "This is insane. This is...""Real." Kaelen stared at his hand. The black veins had faded but he could still feel them. Pulsing. Waiting. "It's real."Shen nodded. "Beneath the earth, flowing like rivers, are Ley Veins. Mystical energy older than civilization itself. Some humans can harness this energy. Channel it through their bodies. Gain abilities that seem impossible.""Like creating water from nothing," Kaelen said, remembering Lira."Like moving faster than the eye can follow. Like conjuring fire. Like s
Chapter 5: Baptism In Blood
The energy construct moved like liquid death.Kaelen barely saw it coming. One second it stood across the platform. The next, claws raked his shoulder. Pain exploded down his back. White-hot. Blinding.He hit the ground hard.Five minutes. Just five minutes.The thought barely formed before the construct was on him again. Pouncing. Moving faster than anything he'd ever seen. Faster than the creatures at the university. Faster than thought itself.Kaelen threw his arms up. Defensive. Desperate.Something happened.Blood dripped from his shoulder wound onto his hands. Where it touched, black veins spread across his skin like cracks in ice. The construct's claws met his forearms.Flash.Dark light erupted from the contact point. The construct stumbled back. Its form flickered like a bad hologram where it touched him. Parts of it turned translucent, unstable."Good!" Shen's voice echoed through the chamber. "You instinctively activated your Silent Veins. But instinct alone will get you ki
Chapter 6: The Seige
The air changed.Kaelen felt it before he heard anything. The atmosphere in the underground chamber thickened, pressing against his skin like invisible weights. Above them, through the ceiling that shouldn't exist, vibrations traveled down. Boots on hardwood. Heavy boots. At least twenty pairs moving in coordinated patterns.Tactical. Military precision.Shen's hand moved. A fluid arc, fingers tracing symbols in the air that left glowing amber trails. The symbols hung there, suspended for a heartbeat, before sinking into the stone walls like water absorbed by sand.The room's atmosphere shifted. Sounds from above muffled to whispers, as if they'd been wrapped in thick wool."A dampening barrier." Shen's voice barely rose above a whisper. "It will hide our life signatures and muffle sound. But it is temporary. Perhaps ten minutes before a competent seer breaks through."Joren had his service pistol drawn. His hands were steady but Kaelen saw the fear in his eyes. The weapon looked path
Chapter 7: Silver and Blood
They ran.The forest became a blur of silver and blue. Kaelen's legs pumped. His heart hammered against his ribs like it was trying to escape his chest. Behind them, the Sentinels moved with terrifying grace. Their mercury bodies flowed around trees, over roots, adapting to terrain without breaking stride.They didn't make footstep sounds. Instead, there was a wet *shlick-shlick-shlick* as their liquid forms impacted and released from the ground.Joren fired backward without looking. Three controlled bursts. The bullets hit. Kaelen saw the mercury bodies ripple where rounds impacted. But the Sentinels didn't slow. The bullets passed through, leaving holes that sealed themselves in seconds."Conventional weapons are useless!" Shen shouted. His elderly frame moved with impossible speed, robes streaming behind him like wings. "They are constructs of pure Vein energy! Only cultivation techniques or Voidborn blood can harm them!"A Sentinel dropped from above.Directly into Kaelen's path.
Chapter 8: The first lesson
The sanctuary transformed as night bled into dawn.Silver leaves caught the first light and reflected it in prismatic patterns. Thousands of tiny rainbows dancing across the moss-covered ground. Beautiful. Mesmerizing.Kaelen didn't see any of it.He'd been awake for twenty-three hours straight. Every muscle in his body screamed for rest. His vision blurred at the edges. His hands wouldn't stop shaking.Shen stood in the center of the training pavilion, which had somehow changed overnight. The smooth wooden floor was now marked with concentric circles of carved script that glowed faintly red. Activated by Kaelen's blood, Shen had explained. Each circle represented a different stage of training.Kaelen hadn't even cleared the first one yet.Joren watched from the sidelines. Wrapped in a blanket one of the Sentinels provided. He looked as exhausted as Kaelen felt. Dark circles under his eyes. But he refused to sleep. Not until he saw Kaelen make it through at least one session alive."A
Chapter 9: Baptism of Fire
The portal spat them out onto a rooftop.The sensory assault was immediate. Overwhelming.Screams. Hundreds of them, layered over each other like a symphony of terror. Explosions. Deep, concussive booms that Kaelen felt in his chest. The wet, tearing sounds of Hollow Beings feeding. And underneath it all, a low frequency hum that made his teeth ache and his blood vibrate in his veins.The northern district was burning.Not metaphorically. Like Literally on fire. Entire blocks consumed by flames that burned in wrong colors. Green fire that spread like liquid. Purple flames that floated upward like inverted rain. Black fire that absorbed light instead of creating it. And between the fires, moving through the smoke like sharks through murky water, were the Hollows.So. Many. Hollows.Not just the humanoid ones from the university. These were evolved. Some were massive. Fifteen feet tall. Bodies made of what looked like twisted concrete and rebar, as if buildings themselves became monster
Chapter 10: The Voice in the Blood
Lira moved like water made flesh.Fluid. Unstoppable. Beautiful in its violence. Her path toward Kaelen was a trail of destroyed Hollows. Each one cleaved in half by pressurized water blades that cut cleaner than any metal.But for every three steps forward, she was forced back two by the sheer press of bodies.Kaelen was a maelstrom of crimson and black. Standing at the eye of a storm of his own making. His blood-tendrils had evolved beyond his conscious control. They moved with predatory intelligence. Seeking out Hollows automatically. Piercing cores with surgical precision.He'd killed fifty. Seventy. A hundred.The number became meaningless.The black veins had covered half his face now. Reaching toward his right eye like grasping fingers. His expression was slack. Empty. The face of someone who wasn't entirely present anymore."KAELEN!"Lira's voice cut through the chaos. Amplified somehow. Carrying weight beyond mere sound. It was a technique, Kaelen dimly realized. Water-vein c