Chapter 115 | The Door | Multiple Perspectives
"Open the Door?"
Leah lifted her head, her silver-gray eyes still wet with tears. She looked at Xiao Qi, at the blade in my chest, at the black light pulsing on the blade.
"What door?"
"Didn't I tell you about the 'open the door' plan?" Xiao Qi's voice changed, no longer that casual tone, but tight, "This blade is a key. The Patricide Blade, passed down through generations of Gatekeepers—not for killing, but for opening the Door. Once it touches a Gatekeeper's blood, it activates."
"Then turn it off!" Leah shouted.
"Can't turn it off." Xiao Qi clenched her teeth, "It knows its master. It knows his blood."
All eyes turned to me.
I looked down at the blade in my chest. Black light was spreading from the blade to the handle, then—flowing into my wound, mixing with my blood. It didn't hurt. Instead there was a strange warmth, like going back to some beginning.
"Where is it taking me?" I asked.
"The Door." Xiao Qi said, "the real Door between two worlds. Not a crack, but a passage. It's pulling you there."
As soon as she finished speaking—
the stone chamber walls began to turn clear. Black stone walls became see-through films, and behind the films wasn't dirt, wasn't rock, but—
another world.
Tall buildings. Steel jungle. Countless lights blinking in the night. No glowing forest, no spiral tower, no two moons. Only—
human civilization.
"Side B." Xiao Qi whispered, "It's connecting directly to Side B."
The walls got thinner and thinner. I could feel the air from the other side—car exhaust, electronic device buzzing, and some hard-to-describe feeling of being around too many people—pressure.
Leah grabbed my hand.
"No." She said, "you can't go. If you go—"
"I have to go." I said, my voice calmer than I expected, "the blade knows its master. It's calling me. If I don't go, the passage will lose control. The two worlds will crash right into each other. Not slowly joining, but—"
I coughed up blood.
"—explosion."
"Then I'll go with you." Leah said.
"You can't." Xiao Qi said, "the passage can only handle a Gatekeeper. She is the Silver Moon, she is light. Light going through the passage will burn through the barrier. Like—"
She looked for a comparison.
"—high voltage through insulation. She'll die."
Leah froze.
I looked at her. Her face was close, close enough for me to count the tears on her eyelashes. Her fingers gripped my hand tight, knuckles white. Her wings spread behind her, silver-white feathers in the black light looking like torn moonlight.
"I don't accept this." She said, voice shaking, "I don't accept another separation. I don't accept you going to die alone. I don't accept—"
"I won't die." I said.
"You say that every time!" she screamed, "and every time you almost die!"
Her tears fell on my face. Hot.
I didn't wipe them. I just looked at her.
"This time is different." I said.
"How is it different?"
"This time," I held her hand, putting it on my heart—next to the Patricide Blade, "I have the blade."
I smiled. That smile was bitter, but real.
"And," I said, "I promised you. Before teaching you to fly—I won't die."
"You can't teach me anymore." She choked, "you can't even fly—"
"That's why I have to go to that side." I said, "Xiao Qi said, that side has ultraviolet C wavelength. Has disinfection lamps. Has things that can make Night Walkers kneel. But for me—"
I stopped.
"—there might be a way to fix the core. Human technology, plus Gatekeeper knowledge. If I can recover, I can come back."
"What if?" She pushed, "what if you can't recover? What if that side is more dangerous than here? What if—"
She didn't finish.
Because the walls were completely clear.
The passage opened.
Not a crack. It was a complete, stable tunnel made of black light. On the other end of the tunnel was the night sky of the human world. I saw the moon—only one, silver-white, hanging alone above steel and concrete.
It was calling me.
The Patricide Blade started to pull itself out. An inch, two inches—blood sprayed, but I felt no pain. The passage's gravity was healing me, or rather—rebuilding me.
Leah grabbed the blade's handle.
Her fingers gripped the blade as it pulled out. Black light burned her skin, sizzling, white smoke rising. She went pale from pain, but she didn't let go.
"If you have to go," she said, silver-gray eyes looking straight at me, "then pull me in too."
"Leah—!"
"I won't let go." She clenched her teeth, skin on her hand starting to burn black, "never letting go in this life."
Xiao Qi rushed over: "Let go! You'll be ripped apart by the passage—"
"I won't let go!"
The passage's gravity was getting stronger. It was pulling me, also pulling Leah—because her hand gripped the blade, the blade connected to me. Gravity was like a greedy machine, wanting to swallow us both together.
Xiao Qi looked at us, something complicated flashing in her round eyes.
"Crazy people." She said.
Then—
she made a move.
She jumped into the passage.
Not sucked in. Jumped on purpose. Her body blocked between us and the passage, silver bells on her wrist making a sharp ringing sound. She spread her arms, like a door, like a wall—
like a lock.
"Rule rewrite." She shouted, voice not coming from her mouth, but from the bells, "Gatekeeper authority! Passage downgrade! Single passage changed to—"
She bit her own finger, smearing blood on the bells.
"—double!"
The bells exploded.
Silver pieces floated in the air, coming back together, becoming two glowing rings. One went around me. One went around Leah.
Gravity instantly balanced.
No more tearing. Just—holding.
Xiao Qi fell to the ground. Her wrist was bare, bells gone. Her face was pale, like all her blood was drained.
"Go—" she could barely breathe, "while the passage is still stable—go now—"
"What about you?" Leah asked.
"Me?" Xiao Qi smiled, that smile weak but proud, "I'm a Gatekeeper. I guard the Door. Where the Door is, I am. Once you leave, I'll close the Door. Then—"
She looked at the human world on the other end of the passage.
"—then I'll wait here for you to come back. Or wait for the next Gatekeeper to take over."
She pushed us.
The glowing rings dragged us, sliding toward the passage.
I took one last look at the stone chamber. Valeria leaned against the doorway, chest barely moving, she wasn't dead yet. Xiao Qi lay on the ground, waving at us, like saying goodbye at a party.
Then, everything shifted.
Light.
Noise.
Gravity.
I felt—real, human-world gravity. It pulled me down, no wings to catch me, no vampire lightness. I crashed hard onto something solid.
Concrete ground.
Leah crashed beside me. Her wings couldn't fold anymore, silver-white feathers in the human night sky looking like a mess of cotton.
We lay in an alley. Tall walls on both sides, walls covered with glowing signs. Above was the only moon, silver-white, cold.
In the distance came car horns. And people's laughter. And something I had never heard, constant—electronic music's bass.
I struggled to sit up.
Chest was still bleeding. Wings were still dead. Body was still broken.
But I felt something new.
Air. Without magic particles, pure, human-world air. It entered my lungs, not burning, not eating away, just—there.