Chapter 119 | The Chase | Multiple Perspectives
The castle was burning.
Not ordinary flames—Night Walkers' saliva carried a corrosive substance that landed on wood and stone, giving off blue-green flames. Adrian's agents were fighting in the hallways, using UV flashlights as weapons, but there were too few of them and too many enemies.
"This way!" Adrian led us through a secret passage.
The passage was hidden behind a bookshelf—narrow, damp, and smelling of rot. She ran in front, her small body surprisingly quick. I supported Kael in the middle—his wounds had reopened, blood soaking through my clothes. Leah guarded the rear, her silver-white wings, though damaged, could still be used as shields to block rocks and claws falling from behind.
"Where are we going?" Kael gasped.
"The Door," Adrian said. "The real Door. We have to open it there."
"Opening the Door now will let the Night Walkers in!"
"Not open," Adrian looked back, her round pupils flashing with a strange light. "Change."
The end of the passage was a spiral staircase. Down, always down, like going into the heart of the earth. After what felt like forever, we reached a cave.
Huge—the size of a cathedral—with the de Noct family crest carved into the dome. In the center of the cave was a round pool—not water, but some kind of silver liquid that reflected light that wasn't actually in the cave.
"The Door," Adrian said. "Not the passage Xiao Qi opened. The real Door—the root connecting two worlds."
She walked to the edge of the pool, her small hand touching the liquid surface. Ripples spread out, and in the ripples—
We saw Side A.
The Capital. The Moon-Eater was now directly above the city, its shape so huge it covered the entire sky. And below it, people were running, screaming, dying.
"Time's up," Adrian said.
She turned to us.
"The ritual needs two people to jump into the pool at the same time. Silver Moon and Waning Moon. Light and dark. Your blood will merge into the Door, changing its rules. From one-way to two-way. From separation to coexistence."
"What about you?" Leah asked.
"I'm the lock," Adrian smiled, and that smile held three thousand years of exhaustion. "When you jump, I lock it. Lock the new rules. Lock—myself."
"You'll die?"
"Won't die," she said. "I'll become part of the Door. Forever."
Kael and I looked at each other.
The Bloodbond surged—not weakened by distance, but stronger. As if the two worlds coming together made our connection clearer.
"Together?" I said.
"Together," he said.
We walked to the edge of the pool.
Behind us came the howls of Night Walkers. They broke through the secret passage and poured into the cave. Adrian's last three agents stood at the entrance, UV flashlights forming a thin line of defense.
"Go!" Adrian shouted.
We jumped.
The silver liquid swallowed us.
Not drowning—merging. I felt my Progenitor blood flowing out of my body, mixing with Kael's dark blood in the liquid. Silver and dark red twisted together, not fighting, but dancing. Like the first dance at a wedding—clumsy, but real.
Then I felt the Door.
It was an ancient consciousness, tired and lonely, waiting far too long. When our blood touched it, it woke up. Not angry, not joyful, but—satisfied.
Like finally getting an answer.
The Door changed.
I couldn't see exactly how, but I could feel it—its structure shifting. Once one-way, now two-way. Once sealed, now open a crack. And that crack wasn't for energy or matter—it was for consciousness.
We could see each other.
Side A's people and Side B's people. For the first time, with no barriers, no misunderstandings—truly seeing each other.
And that sight, by itself, was magic.
The silver liquid pushed us back to the surface. We floated on the pool, catching our breath. Kael's wings—dark red—spread out across the water like two flags drifting on a current.
I looked toward the shore.
Adrian was gone.
In her place was a silver lock, floating above the pool, slowly turning.
She had become the Door. Become the lock. Become—
an eternal guardian.
Kael pulled himself to shore, then pulled me up. Our hands were still clasped, blood dripping from our fingers, but neither of us let go.
Behind us, the Night Walkers' howling suddenly stopped.
I turned around.
They were kneeling. Every one of them. Their cloudy yellow slit pupils had gone clear, like dust washed away. They looked at me, then at Kael, then at the silver lock above the pool.
"Gatekeeper..." one Night Walker murmured. "New Gatekeeper..."
They didn't attack.
Because the Door had changed, and with it, the rules. They were no longer outcasts—they were part of a new order.
Kael leaned against my shoulder.
"Did it work?" he asked.
"It worked," I said.
"Then," he looked at the pool's surface, at the reflection of Side A shimmering there, "time to go home."
We jumped in again.
This time, the silver liquid didn't swallow us—it carried us.
Like a bridge. Like a mother's hand, gently pushing her children toward the future.
We rose from the pool, but the cave was gone.
Around us was—
Obsidian Moon Academy.
Night Owl Tower. Moonlight. The twin moons of Side A.
We were back.