All Chapters of Silent Power: Rise Of the Hidden Heir: Chapter 1
- Chapter 10
17 chapters
The Shard And The Howl
The delivery was supposed to be easy. In and out. No drama.Ronan Burke slid down a rusted fire escape in Chinatown, boots scraping metal as he dropped the last few feet. A sealed packet of meds was tucked tight inside his vest. Lose that, and he didn’t get paid. Simple math.The air smelled like wet concrete and burned ozone. Sirens wailed somewhere far off, then closer, then faded again. Seven years after the Aura Revival, New York never shut up. Crisis was background noise now.Across the river, Manhattan’s regulated zones glowed behind bright energy shields. Military tech. Family arrays. Clean streets, real food, safety, for people who mattered. Out here on the edges, you survived or you didn’t.“Should’ve charged extra,” Ronan muttered under his breath.The client was a street alchemist with a bad temper and too much money. He’d paid triple to move the package fast and quiet from Queens. Ronan took the job because fast and quiet was what he did best.He crossed rooftops instead
Concrete And Aura
Part of a hillside had collapsed, but instead of dirt and rock, there was smooth black stone underneath. It was covered in strange, flowing carvings that looked nothing like modern work.Ronan’s breath caught. “No way…”An ancient site. Exposed by the Revival. The park had peeled the earth back and left it sitting there like a bad secret.A low, arched doorway stood in the stone. It was cracked open, just wide enough to squeeze through.“Shelter,” Ronan muttered. Then he hesitated. “Or a grave.”A howl cut through the trees, close. Way too close.“That answers that.”He dove inside.Cold air rushed over him the moment he crossed the threshold. The place smelled old. Dead. The only light came from the entrance, spilling into a round stone chamber.In the center stood a pedestal. On it sat a broken statue of a seated figure, its face worn smooth by time. In its lap lay scattered pieces of jade.Outside, the ground shook.Ronan spun just in time to see a massive shadow fill the doorway.
The First Perfect Step
Ronan could barely breathe as he went down the stairs. The air felt thick and heavy, like he was wading through water. Blue light glowed from the walls, pulsing slowly, like a living heartbeat. With every step, the sounds from above faded. The Beast Tide became nothing more than a low, distant rumble.The stairs ended in a small square room.It was empty, except for a flat stone platform in the center.Strange carvings covered the walls. Human figures twisted and bent, energy flowing through their bodies in looping paths. When Ronan stared at them too long, his head spun, and the images seemed to shift.A calm voice echoed in his mind.[Initial Cultivation Chamber.][Aura levels sufficient for Skin Refining, Stage One.][Instruction: Sit on the dais and meditate.]Ronan scoffed quietly. “You want me to sit?” he whispered. “Right now?”He looked back toward the stairs. “There’s a battle happening up there.”[Survival chance if you return: 4.7%.][Survival chance if you follow instruc
First Taste Of Power
[Skin Refining: Level 10 Complete.][Milestone achieved.][Physical body optimized for mortal limits.][New Objective: Exit chamber. Acquire food. Assess surroundings.]Ronan stood.He felt bigger, not bulkier, just… solid. Grounded. He tested himself without thinking, a jump, a twist in the air, a clean roll when he landed.He blinked. “Whoa.”Everything felt easier. Faster. His balance was perfect. His clothes hung loose, like they no longer quite belonged to him.“Guess I lost more than bad habits,” he muttered.He glanced at the stairwell. The blue glow on the walls was faint now, barely alive. Whatever power had been here was almost gone.Time to leave.He climbed the stairs, senses wide open. At the top, the massive wolf’s corpse still blocked part of the entrance. The smell hit him hard, rotting meat, waste, death.He grimaced. “Yeah… that’s bad.”But beneath it, he smelled more. Metal heavy blood. The sharp, wild scent of the beast’s fur. Wet earth and fresh air beyond the d
A Deal In The Dark
Kaelen’s smile didn’t touch his eyes. They stayed cold and sharp, like a jeweler inspecting a cracked gem. The two scavengers behind him froze, then slowly backed into the ruined trees, their fight forgotten in the shadow of real power.Ronan’s mind screamed.. “run. But his body didn’t move. His instincts, tuned by the system, kept him rooted. Running only made predators want to chase. Survival chance against this target: unknown.“I don’t want trouble,” Ronan said, keeping his voice steady. “I was just hiding from the Tide.”“Hiding,” Kaelen repeated, stepping closer, calm and measured. His gaze swept over the dead wolf, the smashed ruins, and lingered on Ronan’s hands. “In an unregistered, unsecured ancient site. And you come out of it with the aura of someone who just… feasted.”He sniffed the air like it told him secrets. “Skin Refining. Recent. Strong. For a gutter rat, that’s impressive. Almost as impressive as the fact my family’s scouts didn’t find this little hole in the gro
The Taste Of Lightning
Kaelen Obsidian touched down without a sound, but the moment he did, Ronan felt crushed.The air thickened, heavy and dry, like sand pouring into his lungs. Dark pressure pressed in from every side. Earth. Shadow. The Obsidian bloodline. Power passed down, polished, and deadly.Ronan’s instincts screamed.You’re dead.The system didn’t bother softening it.Peak Body Refining. Level fifteen.Survival chance: basically zero.The pain in Ronan’s core pulsed again, sharp and cruel, fighting with his racing heart. Running was off the table, Kaelen would catch him in a blink. Fighting was a joke. He wouldn’t last a second.So Ronan talked.“It was just Aura,” he said quickly, forcing his voice to stay steady. “The chamber was like a battery. I drained it. That’s all.”Kaelen smiled. Just a little.“Truth?” he said, stepping closer.The broken concrete under his boot didn’t crack. It flattened. Turned to fine dust.“Everything about you is wrong,” Kaelen went on calmly. “Your foundation is
Breakthrough
Kaelen froze mid step, his Aura stuttering. For the first time, he looked honestly confused.“He’s… breaking through?” Kaelen said sharply. “Now? You’ve got to be kidding me.”[Skin Refining Level 11 reached.]The moment it locked in, the energy burst outward.A ring of hot, refined Aura slammed out from Ronan, blasting dust, grit, and broken stone across the street. It didn’t even make Kaelen flinch, but energetically, it was loud.Too loud.Like firing a flare in the dark.The world answered.From a shattered tower two blocks away, a shrill cry tore through the air. It wasn’t human. It wasn’t anything that should still exist. It sounded like metal screaming through a storm.A massive shadow peeled away from the tower and dove toward them.It looked like a bird, if birds had evolved into weapons.Metal gray feathers. Wings as wide as a bus. A beak and talons that shone like forged steel as it cut through the air.[Target identified: Storm Glaive Raptor.][Threat level: Mid tier bea
The Vault’s True Guardian
The Voidfang Serpent didn’t move. It didn’t need to. Its sheer presence filled the vault, pressing down on Ronan like a weight. The faint glow of the lotus revealed its shape, thick as his thigh, scales blacker than shadows, coiled around itself. Its triangular head rested on its body, and those yellow, slit eyes never left him.[Host status: Injured. Energy low. Fighting chance vs predator: 2.1%. Retreat advised.]Retreat? Ha. The vault door was solid metal behind him, and the serpent blocked the only other exit. There was no way out.Ronan froze, hand still reaching. Slowly, carefully, he pulled it back to his chest. The serpent’s head followed every inch of the movement.“Easy… easy,” he whispered. “I didn’t know this was yours.”The serpent’s forked tongue flicked, tasting the air, his fear, his blood, the residue of his breakthrough.He was trapped. Again. Outside, the battle between Kaelen and the Storm Glaive Raptor raged, muffled but thunderous. In here, it was quiet. Deadly
The Bunker
The hum wasn’t just sound, it shook through the rock, through Ronan’s bones. Deep, steady, alive. It pulled at the Aura in his blood, whispering promises… and warnings.[Directive: Move carefully. Stay completely hidden.]Clutching the crinkled serpent skin, he crawled. The tunnel narrowed, forcing him flat on his belly. The air grew colder, the ozone metal smell sharp in his nose. The faint glow from the vault crack behind him faded fast, swallowed by the darkness.He crawled for what felt like hours, guided only by the hum and the system’s mapping.[Warning: Tunnel unstable. Signs of non human excavation detected.]The walls changed. Earth gave way to smooth, fused rock, melted, artificial. The Voidfang Serpent? Or something far worse?Finally, the tunnel opened. Ronan dropped a few feet onto a dusty concrete floor.A huge, dark chamber stretched before him. The hum was louder here, electric and alive. Steel beams crisscrossed the ceiling, high above. Faded letters were stenciled o
The Prisoner
Ronan’s hand froze just an inch from the stasis cylinder. He slowly turned, every muscle in his newly refined body coiled for a fight he knew he couldn’t win. The old man looked like death itself, but those eyes… sharp, burning, full of presence. This wasn’t just a forgotten prisoner.“Who are you?” Ronan rasped, his voice rough from dust and pain.The old man’s chuckle rattled into a dry cough. “Names down here? Pointless. Call me Silas. Been Silas in the dark for… a long time.” He rattled the heavy chain on his ankle. Thick metal, etched with faint green runes that pulsed sickly, suppression seals. “Your friend, Doctor Silva? Careful man. Didn’t trust his own creation. Didn’t trust me even more.”Ronan’s mind jumped. The creation, Drill Maw. But this man… “So you… you were part of the experiment too?”“Experiment?” Silas spat the word like bitter ash. “I was the scientist. Head of Theoretical Aura Dynamics for Project Anchorage. Silva? My assistant. We saw the Nectar forming in th