Chapter 137: Ashes and Core - Xiao Qi
The operating table was left behind by White Box.
Stainless steel. With straps. Above it, a shadowless surgical lamp. Next to it, a heart monitor with a green line jumping across the screen. The only difference is there's no anesthesiologist beside this operating table—just me.
I'm lying on it, face down, back exposed. My spine is broken between the third and fourth vertebrae, pressing on the nerves and causing paralysis in my lower body.
I need to reconnect it.
Not surgery—more like splicing. Using the nanobot repair gel White Box left behind. It's a black, sticky liquid. You inject it into the bone fracture, and within ten minutes it hardens, gluing the bones back together.
There are two problems.
First, the nanobot gel has to be injected from the back, with the needle going into the gap in the spine. Injecting it yourself is basically suicide.
Second, the nanobot gel has side effects. When it hardens, it generates high heat that burns the surrounding nerves. If you inject it in the wrong spot, you lose all feeling in your lower body forever.
But I have no one to help me.
Leah is pregnant. Kael is teaching her to fly. The Night Walkers don't do surgery.
I have to do it myself.
I grip the syringe. The needle is fifteen centimeters long, as thick as a chopstick. I feel along my back, finding the bumps of my spine. Between the third and fourth vertebrae, there's a small dip.
I take a deep breath.
I push the needle in.
Pain.
Not regular pain. That sharp, tingling sensation when the needle tip pierces through skin, muscle, ligaments, and touches the bone. I clench my teeth and keep pushing.
The needle breaks through the bone surface and enters the spinal gap. I feel the needle tip touch something soft—the spinal cord.
Can't go any deeper.
I press the plunger.
The nanobot gel flows in.
The black liquid seeps into the bone crack. Ten seconds later, I start feeling the side effects—burning. It spreads outward from my spine, like someone's shoving a red-hot iron into my back.
I scream.
The sound echoes through the operating room. No one hears it. Or maybe someone does, but no one comes.
The burning lasts five minutes. My lower body goes from numb to extreme pain, then back to numb again.
I'm lying on the operating table, soaked in sweat, fingers gripping the stainless steel edge.
Then—
My toe moves.
My right big toe, curling up slightly. Not on purpose—it's instinct.
The nerves are restored.
I try to lift my leg. My left leg moves. My right leg moves too. They're weak, but they respond to what my brain tells them.
I did it.
But just as I'm about to climb off the operating table—
The heart monitor starts beeping.
It's not mine.
The monitor is showing a different signal. It's coming from under the operating table. Some kind of sensor buried in the floor that wasn't active before is suddenly lit up.
I roll off the operating table, land on all fours, and lift up the metal grate in the floor.
There's a space underneath. About thirty centimeters deep, with a box inside. Black plastic, with a red light blinking on it.
I open the box.
Inside is a metal core.
Small. Only about the size of a thumbnail. But it's beating. Like a heart. The patterns on its surface are identical to the metal bones on the Gravekeeper's body.
White Box's backup.
The Gravekeeper's consciousness core.
It didn't go down with the main base. It was buried under the castle beforehand, as a final fail-safe.
I stare at it.
The indicator light blinks. Three short, three long. Morse code. SOS.
No, not a distress signal.
Some kind of beacon. Calling something.
I get it immediately. Even though the Gravekeeper is dead, White Box's plan is still running. This core is broadcasting a location, telling White Box's remaining forces—
The door is here.
Leah and Kael are here.
The twins are here.
"Fuck," I mutter.
I grab the core and rush to the door. My legs are still weak, so I lean against the wall and stumble-run toward the kitchen.
Leah and Kael are still on the terrace. They just landed, wings folded, holding hands.
"Xiao Qi?" Leah sees me. "Your leg—"
"No time," I toss the core to them. "White Box backup. The Gravekeeper's consciousness. It's sending out a signal. Sweepers or some other force might have already picked it up."
Kael catches the core. The moment his fingers touch its surface, the core's beating speeds up. Like it recognizes him.
"De Noct bloodline..." Kael murmurs. "It's responding to me."
"Responding to you?"
"It's trying to invade," Kael suddenly grips the core tight. "Trying to get into my consciousness through the bloodline connection. If it succeeds—"
"What happens?" Leah asks.
"It'll control me," Kael says. "Control the Gatekeeper. Control the door."
The core's indicator light flashes wildly. Red light leaks through Kael's fingers.
His pupils change. Black patterns appear around the edges of his ice-blue vertical pupils. Like ink spreading through water.
"Kael!" Leah grabs his hand. "Drop it!"
"Can't..." Kael grits his teeth. "It's... burrowing in..."
His knees buckle. He drops to the ground, forehead pressed against his fist, every muscle in his body tense and shaking.
"Help me..." His voice is barely there. "Help me... get it out..."
"How?"
"Knife..." he says. "Cut my... palm open... dig it... out..."
Leah doesn't hesitate.
She grabs a knife from the kitchen. A regular knife, stainless steel, for cutting bread. She presses the tip against Kael's palm.
"Hold on," she says.
The knife tip goes in.
Kael doesn't make a sound. His body shakes violently, but nothing comes from his throat. Blood flows from the wound, dark red, dripping onto the floor.
Leah uses the knife tip to pry his fingers open.
The core rolls out.
But it's still beating on the ground. The indicator light still flashing.
"Destroy it!" I yell.
Leah raises the knife and brings it down hard on the core.
The moment the blade hits the core—
Explosion.
Not a physical one. An electromagnetic pulse. An invisible wave bursts from the core, sweeping through the entire castle.
All the lights go out.
The heart monitor screen shatters.
The bloodbond signal cuts out for half a second.
Then it comes back.
But Kael collapses on the ground, unconscious.
The core splits in half. The indicator light goes dark.
I crawl over and check Kael's pulse. His heart's still beating. But it's really weak. His consciousness—after the electromagnetic pulse hit him, he's fallen into a deep coma.
"How is he?" Leah kneels beside me.
"Alive," I say. "But his brainwaves are really weak. Like... he's asleep. Deep sleep."
Leah cradles his head in her lap. Her hand is shaking.
"Will he wake up?"
"I don't know," I say. "Electromagnetic pulses affect vampire brains. Especially Gatekeeper brains—they're connected to the door. The impact might make him..."
I don't finish.
Because there's a sound coming from outside the castle.
Not the footsteps of Night Walker patrols. Mechanical sounds. The roar of propellers.
I rush to the window.
Three aircraft in the sky. Black, no markings. But from their shape, they're human military helicopters. Or White Box's private military.
They're hovering about two hundred meters above the castle. The cabin doors open, rappelling ropes drop down.
People in black combat gear start descending.
Not Sweepers. Sweepers wear white. These people are in black, with a new symbol on their chests—
A ring with a key in the center.
Cast Door Forgers.
White Box remnants. A new organization. They picked up the core's signal.
"They're here," I say. "At least twenty people. Fully armed."
Leah lifts her head. There's no fear in her eyes. Something colder, harder—
Determination.
She gently lays Kael down. Stands up. Spreads her wings.
Silver-white. Complete. Glowing faintly in the darkness.
"Protect him," she says. "I'll go."
"Just you?"
"Two of us." She looks at her belly. "And them."
She walks toward the terrace door.
I drag my barely-recovered leg and follow behind.
Night Walkers gather in the courtyard. Twelve of them. Their golden vertical pupils look like amber under the helicopter searchlights. They sense the threat, low growls rumbling in their throats.
But they're looking at Leah. Waiting for her command.
Leah stands in front of the castle gate. Silver-white wings fully spread. Right hand gripping that bread knife. Left hand protecting her belly.
On the helicopter, a man in a black uniform leans out of the cabin. He's holding a megaphone.
"Leah Vane," his voice booms down from above. "Hand over the fetuses. Hand over the Gatekeeper. The Cast Door Forgers will guarantee your survival. Otherwise—"
He waves his hand.
The helicopter's side weapon bay opens. A six-barrel machine gun is revealed.
"Otherwise, we'll destroy this castle and extract what we need from the rubble."
Leah looks up at him.
Wind blows through her hair. The corner of her mouth curves up.
"You want them?" she says. Her voice isn't loud, but it's clear. "Come and take them yourself."
She raises her left fist.
Then slams it into the ground.
Silver-white light surges from her fist, pouring into the stone slabs beneath. The runes on the slabs activate—runes left from forging the door. They light up, forming ripples that spread outward.
Every door within a kilometer of the castle responds to her.
Dark silver light descends from the sky like a barrier, wrapping around the entire castle.
The helicopters crash into the barrier.
Not a physical collision. Energy field repulsion. The helicopter propellers spark, electronic systems fail, the fuselage tilts and starts falling to one side.
The people in the cabin scream.
The first helicopter crashes into the forest outside the castle. Explodes. Fire shoots into the sky.
The other two try to pull up. But the barrier expands. Dark silver light surges toward them like a wave.
The second helicopter's engine dies. It crashes on a hill farther away.
The third tries to escape. But the barrier is faster. The light catches up, wraps around it, like a hand squashing a fly.
The helicopter breaks apart in midair. Not an explosion—decomposition. The metal shell melts like wax, pieces falling away.
Cast Door Forger soldiers fall from their rappelling ropes. Some fall to their deaths. Some are caught by Night Walkers—caught with their teeth.
The battle lasts five minutes.
Five minutes later, the sky is quiet.
Only burning wreckage. And metal fragments scattered everywhere.
Leah kneels in front of the castle gate. Her wings droop. The light from her belly flares up again, stronger, more steady.
The twins are helping her. Supporting her.
But she's paying a price too. Her nose bleeds. Silver-white blood. The reaction from overdrawing her Primogenitor bloodline.
I walk over and help her up.
"That's enough," I say. "They've pulled back."
She nods and leans against me.
We walk back into the castle. Kael is still on the kitchen floor, unconscious. Leah kneels beside him and grips his hand.
"Wake up," she says. "Please."
No response.
I check Kael's pupils. His light reflex is really weak. His consciousness... isn't here.
Where is it?
I don't know.
But I know one thing: the White Box remnants' attacks won't stop. The first time was twenty people. Next time it'll be two hundred. Two thousand. Until they get what they want.
Or until we completely destroy them.
I look out the window.
The burning forest. The fallen helicopters. Metal core fragments in the wreckage.
Even though the core cracked, its signal... might have already been sent.
"We need help," I say.
"What kind of help?" Leah asks.
"Help from Side A," I say. "Xiao Qi, can you contact Side A? Any way. Even the most basic one."
Xiao Qi is quiet.
Then she takes something from her pocket.
A bell fragment.
The last piece. We thought it was useless before. But now it's heating up. Vibrating. Responding to some—
Distant call.
"Someone on Side A is contacting us," Xiao Qi says, surprise flashing in her round eyes. "Through the bloodline network's leftover frequency."
"Who?"
Xiao Qi presses the fragment to her ear. Listens for three seconds.
Then she looks at me. Her expression is complicated.
"It's Kiran," she says. "And Avi. They say..."
She pauses.
"They found the Moon-Eater's weakness. And they're on their way to Side B."
Leah lifts her head.
"How?" she asks. "Isn't the passage closed?"
Xiao Qi smiles.
"They're coming by dragon," she says. "Side A's last dragon. It's been asleep for three thousand years, woken up by the Moon-Eater's energy waves. It agreed to carry them—as long as they give it enough blood-crystals."
Outside the window, in Side B's sky, the dark silver door rotates silently.
And somewhere on Side A, a massive shadow is taking flight.
Wings spread, blocking out half the moon.