The Last Heir of the Van Declaoria Bloodline - Chapter 8

The night inside the Van Declaoria Tower felt different.

Quieter.

But not calmer.

Herlucia Van Declaoria stood near the long glass wall of the council chamber, watching the city of Arlein stretch endlessly beneath her.

Thousands of lights.

Millions of lives.

All unaware that a silent war had already begun above their heads.

Her fingers rested lightly against the cold glass.

For a moment she closed her eyes.

Trying to imagine the next moves.

The hunt had started.

And hunts always followed patterns.

Predator.

Prey.

Survival.

A faint smile crossed her lips.

“It’s just like an online game app,” she murmured quietly to herself.

Her mind moved quickly through possibilities.

“But the problem is…”

Her eyes opened slowly.

“…we are now the hunters.”

Behind her, the council chamber remained dim.

Luke leaned against the marble table, scrolling through a tablet.

Amy sat lazily in one of the chairs, spinning a silver coin between her fingers.

Leticia stood near the screen displaying satellite maps of the surrounding region.

And at the head of the room, Ewan Van Declaoria watched them all silently.

The family was awake.

And when the Van Declaoria family woke up…

Entire countries could feel it.

“Any trace of the girl?” Luke asked.

Leticia shook her head.

“Nothing yet.”

Amy tilted her head.

“That’s impossible.”

Her eyes narrowed slightly.

“A child can’t disappear like that.”

Ewan finally spoke.

“Unless someone planned it.”

Silence filled the room.

Everyone knew exactly who he meant.

Lieta.

Miles away, deep inside the mountains, a hidden laboratory hummed quietly beneath layers of rock and steel.

The facility was old.

Older than most people would expect.

Its walls were filled with equipment, research monitors, and shelves of genetic samples collected over decades.

In the center of the room, a medical bed stood beneath a ring of cold white lights.

A man lay there.

Unconscious.

Bandages covered parts of his chest and shoulder.

Burn marks ran across his arms.

The explosion had nearly killed him.

But nearly…

was not enough.

The machines beside the bed beeped steadily.

Then the man’s fingers moved.

Slowly.

Painfully.

Regna Mileron opened his eyes.

For a moment the world around him blurred.

Bright light.

Cold air.

A strange smell of chemicals and metal.

He tried to sit up.

Pain shot through his ribs immediately.

“Easy.”

The voice came from the shadows.

Calm.

Deep.

Familiar in a way his mind could not yet understand.

“You survived something most people wouldn’t.”

Regna turned his head slowly.

A man stepped forward.

Tall.

Silver strands mixed with darker hair.

His face older, sharper, but unmistakably human.

Regna stared.

His heart skipped once.

“…Who are you?”

The man stopped beside the bed.

For a moment he simply studied Regna’s face.

As if confirming something he had waited decades to see.

Then he spoke.

“My name is Lukas.”

Regna froze.

The name struck him like lightning.

Lukas.

His father.

The man who had supposedly died when he was three years old.

“That’s impossible,” Regna whispered.

“You’re dead.”

Lukas gave a tired smile.

“I faked my death.”

The room fell silent.

Far away in Arnoise village, Lieta still stood inside the old wooden house.

Her hand rested against the carved symbol on the door.

The circle surrounding the letter V.

A symbol only one person had ever used.

Lukas.

Her breath was slow now.

Measured.

If Lukas was alive…

Then the past she thought buried had been watching everything all along.

And if Lukas had returned now…

Then something far bigger was moving beneath the surface of the Van Declaoria war.

Back in the underground laboratory, Regna struggled to process what he had just heard.

“You let us believe you were dead.”

Lukas nodded slowly.

“It was the only way.”

He pulled a chair closer to the bed.

“The Van Declaoria family was beginning something dangerous.”

Regna frowned.

“Project Argentum.”

Lukas raised an eyebrow.

“So Lieta told you about that?”

“No.”

“She didn’t.”

Lukas sighed.

“That sounds like her.”

He looked toward one of the large monitors in the room.

The screen displayed complex genetic structures.

Silver strands twisting like DNA spirals.

“The silver hair isn’t natural,” Lukas continued.

“It’s the result of decades of genetic manipulation.”

Regna felt the weight of the words settle heavily in his chest.

“My family…”

“Yes.”

“They’ve been engineering their own bloodline for generations.”

Lukas tapped the screen.

“The perfect strategist.”

“The perfect ruler.”

“The perfect heir.”

His eyes moved back to Regna.

“And you were supposed to be the next success.”

Regna slowly swung his legs off the medical bed.

The room tilted slightly.

But something inside his body felt different.

Stronger.

Sharper.

His senses seemed clearer than before.

“What did you do to me?”

Lukas watched him carefully.

“You were dying.”

“The explosion damaged several internal organs.”

“So I had two choices.”

He paused.

“Let you die.”

“Or finish the work I started decades ago.”

Regna’s voice hardened.

“What work?”

Lukas reached for a tablet and turned the screen toward him.

A genetic scan filled the display.

Highlighted markers ran across the DNA structure.

“You have Van Declaoria blood,” Lukas said.

“But unlike them…”

“You were never conditioned for it.”

Regna stared at the screen.

“What does that mean?”

“It means you are unstable.”

Lukas folded his arms.

“So I stabilized you.”

Regna looked down at his hands.

Something about them felt different.

His muscles tighter.

His reflexes sharper.

“You gave me something.”

Lukas nodded.

“A serum.”

“An enhancement derived from the original Argentum research.”

Regna’s voice dropped.

“You experimented on me?”

Lukas shook his head.

“I saved your life.”

Then he leaned closer.

“And now you’re stronger than any Van Declaoria heir who has ever existed.”

Regna stood still for several seconds.

The laboratory felt strangely silent.

Only the soft hum of machines filled the air.

He flexed his fingers slowly.

Something inside his body had changed.

Not just healing.

Not just survival.

His senses felt sharper.

He could hear the faint electrical buzz inside the walls.

The subtle rhythm of the ventilation system above the ceiling.

Even the distant drip of water somewhere deep inside the mountain.

Regna looked down at his hands again.

“They shouldn’t be moving like this,” he said quietly.

Lukas watched him carefully.

“The serum accelerated your cellular repair.”

Regna clenched his fist.

The muscles responded instantly.

Faster than before.

Stronger.

“How long was I unconscious?”

“Two days.”

Regna exhaled slowly.

“Two days…”

That meant the world already believed he was dead.

The explosion.

The fire.

The news reports.

Everything had already moved forward without him.

Lukas opened another console.

A digital map appeared.

Multiple red markers glowed across the screen.

Van Declaoria assets.

Facilities.

Surveillance networks.

The war map.

Regna studied it silently.

“And the first step?” he asked.

Lukas zoomed the map toward one familiar location.

Arnoise village.

The small house in the fields.

“Your mother,” Lukas said calmly.

Regna’s eyes narrowed slightly.

“She’s already moving.”

“Yes.”

Lukas allowed a faint smile.

“And when she sees the symbol I carved on that door…”

“…she will know exactly where to find us.”

Far above the laboratory, the mountain wind moved quietly through the forest.

And somewhere in the distance…

The Van Declaoria family continued their hunt.

But they had not yet realized one crucial mistake.

The heir they believed dead…

Was already preparing to hunt them back.