2025-09-16 19:15:34The day after the mysterious observer had appeared, Kael woke with a restless energy he could not contain. His chest still throbbed with the memory of the aura surging yesterday, and the golden threads of power that had pulsed through him still seemed alive under his skin.
He dressed quickly, pulling on his simple training robes, and left his dormitory before the morning bell. The academy grounds were bustling with students rushing to their lessons, but Kael barely noticed them. Their eyes followed him with fear and awe, and even the instructors whispered as he passed. Yet none dared stop him, for the faint tremor in the air around him—his aura—warned them that Kael was no longer a boy to be trifled with. He moved toward the outer training fields, a secluded area seldom used for formal practice. It was perfect for what he had planned: a test of control. Kael closed his eyes and allowed the Dominating Aura to flow. It spread slowly at first, filling the space around him with pressure so subtle it was almost imperceptible. Then, like a tide growing stronger, it surged outward, brushing against the walls, the trees, even the distant mountains beyond the academy. The ground beneath his feet shivered, tiny cracks forming in the stones as the aura coiled and hissed like a living thing. “Focus…” he muttered to himself, his teeth clenched. “Control it, Kael. Or it will control you.” Hours passed as he trained, sweat soaking his robes, muscles aching, but still the aura resisted his full command. Every time he forced it into submission, it bucked back, writhing and threatening to explode. Yet slowly, ever so slowly, Kael began to understand the rhythm of it, how it responded to his thoughts, to his will, and even to his emotions. Then came the sound—a soft rustle behind him. Kael froze, sensing the same presence that had watched him the night before. “I see you’ve been busy,” a voice said from the shadows, low and measured, tinged with amusement. Kael spun around, eyes glowing faintly golden. Standing at the edge of the training field was the cloaked figure, the same mysterious observer from yesterday. Only now, the faint moonlight revealed a figure taller than most students, with an aura of calm authority that made even Kael’s Dominating Aura hesitate for a heartbeat. “Who are you?” Kael demanded, his voice steady, though his heart thumped in his chest. “Why are you following me?” The figure tilted their head, lips hidden beneath the hood. “I am… someone who takes interest in power when it awakens. Your aura is unusual, dangerous, and rare. Such a force rarely appears in someone so young.” Kael narrowed his eyes. “Dangerous? You mean… to others? Or to me?” The figure chuckled softly, a sound that carried both amusement and warning. “Both. And yet… it is raw, untamed. You wield it like a child swinging a sword, beautiful yet reckless. That recklessness will get you killed if you do not learn to master it.” Kael felt a thrill run through him. He had always wanted someone to challenge him, someone to push him beyond his limits. This stranger could be an enemy—or a teacher. “Then show me,” Kael said firmly, taking a fighting stance. “If you are here to test me, then test me. I am ready.” The figure laughed again, this time low and echoing. They extended a hand, and suddenly the aura in the field shifted. The wind rose without warning, swirling in violent currents that threatened to knock Kael off his feet. The ground quaked beneath them as the invisible force pressed against his body. Kael’s aura flared instinctively, a bright golden pulse radiating outward. The energy slammed into the swirling wind, colliding with it like two storms clashing. He gritted his teeth, struggling to maintain control, and for the first time, the raw force of the Dominating Aura pushed back against the observer’s test. “You are strong,” the figure said calmly. “But raw strength is meaningless if you cannot control it. Feel it. Listen to it. Speak to it as you would to a living thing. Only then will it obey.” Kael clenched his fists, focusing inward, shutting out everything except the pulse of his aura. Slowly, the winds calmed, the trembling of the stones ceased, and the energy in the field settled into a steady hum. He opened his eyes to see the figure nodding in approval. “Better,” they said. “But this is only the beginning. You are untrained in the ways of controlling such power. Many will come for you—students, nobles, even Elders—testing your strength. You must learn faster than they can act. That is your first challenge.” Kael’s chest heaved with exertion, his hair damp with sweat. For the first time, he felt both fear and excitement intertwined. This was what he had always wanted—a test worthy of his awakening. “Who… are you?” Kael asked again, panting. The figure’s eyes glimmered beneath the hood. “That does not matter—for now. Remember this: power alone does not make a master. Knowledge, patience, and willpower do. Train hard, Kael. The eyes of the world are already upon you.” And with that, the observer vanished into the shadows, leaving Kael alone in the quiet aftermath. Kael fell to one knee, his aura simmering in his chest, golden threads dancing softly. He understood the truth now: awakening was only the beginning. Control was the real challenge. And beyond control lay enemies, schemes, and battles that would shape his destiny. He clenched his fists, teeth gritted, eyes burning brighter than ever. “I will master it,” he whispered to himself. “No one, nothing, will stand in my way.” The first true challenge had arrived.
Previous Chapter
Latest Chapter
chapter 140 - The Drift Market
The salt air bit at their throats long before they saw the sea.Kael’s steps dragged, his boots crusted with white dust from miles of wind scorched plains. The horizon shimmered under heat haze, fractured light playing over something vast that floated above the distant waters. For a while, he thought it was a mirage until Selene pointed, squinting through the glare.“There. The Drift Market.”Her voice carried a faint rasp, exhaustion stitched between words.They’d been walking for two days since the Glass Node incident. Neither of them had slept properly. Every time Kael closed his eyes, he saw flashes of crystal light and felt the echo pulse at the base of his skull, the lingering hum of the Second Rhythm. It no longer hurt, but it remembered him, like something unfinished tugging behind his heartbeat.The Market came into view slowly, a sprawling patchwork of rusted hulls and ancient stone platforms lashed together by chains, drifting above a flat, mirrored sea of salt. Airships ho
chapter 139 - Dorian’s shadow
He woke to silence.Then came the pain.It crawled up from his ribs, slow, crawling, wet like something remembering how to live inside him. When he finally opened his eyes, the world was sideways. The ground glittered with black dust, and smoke coiled upward from what used to be the Dominion’s outpost.The air stank of ozone and blood. The shard that once lived in his chest lay inches from his hand, cracked into dozens of mirror splinters. Every fragment reflected a different piece of him, eyes, lips, jaw but none of them aligned.Dorian stared at them for a long time before whispering, hoarse, “You failed me.”The wind answered by scattering the pieces like ash.He tried to stand and nearly collapsed. The golden sigils that had once covered his arms were gone, leaving only faint burns in their shape. His body once a conduit of near divine power felt suddenly mortal. Weak. Breathing hurt, his pulse beat unevenly, like a clock missing half its gears.“You shouldn’t be alive,” a voice m
chapter 138 - The second seal
The plains shimmered like glass under a dying sun.Kael and Selene moved across the horizon in silence, boots crunching over brittle salt crust. The air was too still, so quiet that even their breath sounded like trespass. The world here had forgotten how to breathe.Ahead, the land rose into a mirrored swell curving upward like the frozen crest of an ocean wave. Beneath its translucent surface pulsed faint veins of pale gold, threading toward the heart of a buried sphere.Selene stopped first.“The Glass Node,” she whispered.Kael didn’t answer. He could feel it pulsing inside his bones, like a second heartbeat, an echo syncing to the rhythm that had haunted him since the Stone Vein. The closer he stepped, the louder it became. Not in sound, but in remembrance.Each pulse seemed to whisper through his ribs.“Return the balance… Unmade one…”He flinched. The words weren’t spoken aloud, but they still hurt.Selene glanced back. Sweat darkened the collar of her cloak; her hair clung to
chapter 137 - The glass steppe
Every movement sent ripples of fractured reflections across its surface, so that each step they took seemed to echo in light.A low hum vibrated through the soles of their boots. It wasn’t quite sound, not fully. It was a pressure that lived inside bone.Selene squinted into the glare. “It’s… beautiful,” she murmured, then frowned. “And wrong.”Kael didn’t answer. His pulse had already started syncing to the hum beneath their feet, an invisible rhythm threading through marrow and thought. The air tasted of iron and ozone, like a storm that had forgotten how to rain. When he blinked, the world seemed to split for half a heartbeat, two horizons, overlapping. Two Selenes walking slightly out of step with each other.He stopped.Selene turned. “What is it?”Kael pressed a hand to his temple. “I… saw...” He hesitated. “You. Twice.”“Heat mirage?” she asked, but her voice carried that careful edge she used when pretending she wasn’t worried.“Maybe,” he said. But it wasn’t. The mirage didn’
chapter 136 - The quiet between pulses
The desert had forgotten the battle, but Kael hadn’t.The dunes around the broken Stone Vein lay quiet again, no tremor, no light, only the faint shimmer of heat bending the horizon. Wind whispered through hollow rock, carrying the smell of dust and something older, ozone and ash, the lingering taste of what Dominion energy left behind when it burned through the world.Kael walked with a limp. His boots sank deep into soft sand, each step sending pain crawling up his leg. He could still feel the hum beneath his skin, faint but constant, like a second heartbeat refusing to fade.Selene followed a few paces behind, cloak drawn tight against the wind. Her hair stuck to her face with sweat and grit. She hadn’t said much since dawn. Neither of them had. Words felt fragile now, and silence easier to bear.When they finally reached the outpost, little more than three stone huts and the broken ribs of an old Dominion tower, Selene didn’t wait for Kael’s p
chapter 135 - The first node awakens
Dawn came like a wound, sharp, bleeding color across the horizon.Kael and Selene crested the final dune before the desert opened into a vast basin of black stone. The air hummed faintly, as if the earth beneath their boots were inhaling.At the center of that basin stood a monolith towering, smooth, half-buried in sand.It wasn’t carved, it was grown, its surface a fusion of glass and metal that seemed to shift colors with the rising light.And from deep within it, Kael could feel the pulse, the Second Rhythm, steady, waiting.Selene stopped beside him, shielding her eyes.“That’s the Stone Vein?” she whispered. “It doesn’t look asleep.”Kael nodded slowly. The Rhythm inside him was resonating, almost painfully.“It’s been awake longer than we thought.”The wind hissed through the basin. Sand skittered across the stone like whispers running between graves.They began their descent, cautious and silent. Each step drew them deeper into the hum, until it felt less like sound and more li
You may also like
Tales of the Slime Tamer
Rapture Tales60.7K viewsHoly Demon God
LuoFeng91519.7K viewsAgainst Heaven'S Destiny
Djisamsoe 28.0K viewsReturn of the S-class Young Master
IceFontana1818.2K viewsRise of the Strongest Soul Mage
Drew5.8K viewsSpirit Harvester
Thane978 viewsLEGEND OF THE FALLEN ANGEL
Swan181 viewsKey To The New World
Marie Mer2.2K views