The river wasn't a grave; it was an oven. I should have been dead. The physics of a forty-story drop into water are unforgiving—it’s like hitting a slab of reinforced concrete at nearly eighty miles per hour. My ribs had been splinters, my lungs collapsed bags of fluid, and my heart a stalled engine. But the "Celestial Anchor" hadn't just shattered; it had dissolved into my skin, and now my blood was turning into liquid sun. "Agh—!" The scream died in my throat, replaced by a surge of boiling water. I was trapped in a cocoon of pulsating golden light twenty feet below the surface. [Warning: Divine Marrow Reconstruction in progress.] [Status: Dissolving mortal calcium structures. Replacing with Celestial Essence.] "Stop... stop it..." I clawed at my own chest. It felt like a thousand needles were stitching my muscles back together with white-hot wire. Through the murky water and the golden haze, I saw my own arm. The skin was peeling away in gray flakes, revealing something shimme

The silver-haired woman didn't flinch as the glass shards settled. She looked at the gasping elite in the room with nothing but disgust. "You're overstepping, Elias," she said, her voice cutting through the ringing in my ears. "Overstepping?" I let my aura flare, the golden light of the Anchor dancing across my knuckles. "He tried to kill me. He took my life, my name, and my father’s ring. Step aside, or you’re next." She let out a short, melodic laugh that chilled the marrow in my bones. "You think having a bit of raw energy makes you a god? Marcus is a fool, yes. He’s greedy, and he’s pathetic. But he is a 'secular dog' of the Shadow Sect. He provides the capital that keeps our temples hidden. Which means he is protected." "Protected?" I snarled. I lunged. I was fast—faster than any human alive—but she was a blur. She didn't just move; she flowed. I swung a heavy hook fueled by the Overlord Presence, but her palm met my forearm with a touch as light as a feather and as cold as

The elevator doors hissed open, and the scent of ozone and expensive cologne was instantly replaced by the metallic tang of blood. The lobby of Thorne HQ, usually a testament to glass-and-steel perfection, was a slaughterhouse."Elias, stay behind me!" Director Chen barked, his voice tight as he drew a compact sidearm."Like hell I will," I snapped. My skin was humming, a strange, rhythmic vibration deep in my marrow that I couldn't explain.Suddenly, the ceiling tiles exploded. Four figures in matte-black tactical gear dropped like spiders on silken threads. The Void Eye."Director Chen," the lead assassin sneered, his voice distorted by a vocoder. "The Council sends their regards. And they want the stray dog dead." He pointed a serrated blade at me."A stray dog that’s about to bite your head off," I spat."Kill them. Now!" Chen ordered his security detail, but they were already falling. The assassins moved like shadows, their blades finding gaps in the body armor of the Thorne guar

The air in the subterranean vault of the Obsidian Club didn't smell like money. It smelled like ancient dust, copper, and desperation. This wasn't a place for the wealthy; it was a sanctuary for the powerful. To find Sarah and the Void Eye, I had to be here."Eyes down, Elias," a contact had whispered to me at the door. "In here, your bank account is worthless. They only take what’s inside your soul."I walked through the gilded double doors, my heavy boots thudding against the plush velvet carpet. The room was a sea of masks—porcelain, gold, and bone. At the front, a stage was set with a single, glowing pedestal."Welcome back to the market of the damned," a voice boomed from the shadows.I felt a tug on my sleeve. A young woman, her face pale and her eyes rimmed with red, clutched a silver tablet. She looked like she was drowning in the middle of the room."You shouldn't be here," I said, my voice low."I have no choice," she whispered, her hands shaking. "I’m Lydia. My father is...

The General shoved the door of the SUV open, but I was already out, my boots cracking the pavement. The stolen energy from Master Yan was a jagged, violet fire behind my eyes, and with it came his memories—flashes of maps, ancient texts, and a pulsing heat signature buried deep in the city’s crust."Sire, the Bone-Giants are closing in! We need to extract!""Change of plans, General. We’re going back to where it started." I pointed at the jagged silhouette of the Thorne Financial Tower. "There’s a Spirit Vein directly beneath the foundation. Yan knew it. The Void Eye knows it. That’s why they wanted this specific territory.""A Spirit Vein? Under a hedge fund office?" The General looked skeptical, but he signaled the fleet to pivot."The perfect hiding place," I said, my voice vibrating with the power of the Anchor. "Hidden in plain sight under tons of steel and corporate greed."We tore through the lobby. I didn't wait for security. I waved a hand, and the reinforced glass doors expl