Chapter 138: Coma Journey - Kael
I am falling in darkness.
Not the void. The void still has direction. Here there is nothing. No up, no down, no wind, no sound. Only consciousness floating, like a stone thrown into water, slowly sinking toward deeper depths.
The electromagnetic pulse knocked me out of my body.
Not death. Something more technical—offline. A Gatekeeper's brain is connected to the door. The pulse invaded along that connection, like a hacker breaking into a server. My consciousness was forcefully ejected, thrown into the network's junkyard.
Where is this?
I try to move. No body, but will remains. I drift in darkness, searching for any landmark.
Then I see light.
Not a lamp. Countless tiny points of light, like fireflies, like neurons firing. They form a path. No, a river. A river made of memories.
I drift toward it.
The first memory is mine. Three hundred years ago, northern fortress winter. Father teaching me to hold a sword. His hand covering mine, adjusting my knuckles. He said: "The sword is not an extension of your arm. It is an extension of your will."
The memory fades.
The second memory is Leah's. She is five years old, in a broken-down house in Dust Lane. Mother—or who she thought was mother—is braiding her hair. In the mirror, the little girl's brown eyes haven't turned silver-gray yet. She says: "Mommy, when I grow up I want to fly."
The memory fades.
The third memory belongs to neither me nor Leah.
It is... Adrian's?
No. Older. The first-generation Gatekeeper of the de Noct family. A man, standing before two doors. One leads to Side A, one leads to Side B. He says: "I choose to guard. Not because I am kind. Because I am a coward. I dare not choose sides."
The memory fades.
I continue drifting in the river of memories.
More and more images flood in. Some are mine, some are from ancient Gatekeepers, some are—
White Box's.
I see White Box's origin. Not Side A, not Side B. A crack between the two. A group of scientists and vampire mages, trying to understand the void, trying to harness the void. They made the Gravekeeper, made the Moon-Eater, made the fragment monsters.
They thought they were pursuing eternal life.
In reality, they were feeding something older.
I see its shadow. At the deepest part of the river of memories. A massive thing made of countless black threads. It has no name, or its name cannot be spoken. It is the void itself. The flip side of the network.
White Box calls it "the Forge."
The Forge needs fuel. And the best fuel is Gatekeeper blood, plus Silver Moon light, plus—
New life.
Twins.
My consciousness trembles. No body, but fear remains.
The Forge is waking. White Box's activities woke it. The Moon-Eater is only its probe. The fragment monsters are only its tentacles. The Gravekeeper is only its—
Butler.
Now the butler is dead. The Forge has decided to come personally.
It reaches toward me through the river of memories.
Black threads wrap around my consciousness. Not pain, but something more complete—dissolution. My boundaries blur, my "I" disappears, like salt dissolving in water.
"Kael."
A voice.
Not the Forge's. It is... Leah's?
No. Deeper. From the deepest layer of the Bloodbond.
The twins.
They are not yet born, but they have awareness. They can sense their father's danger. They are calling me.
"Daddy."
Not language. A pulse. Something primal, bloodline-based—a call.
The black threads pause for an instant.
Then silver light pierces through the void.
Not the Forge's power. The twins'. Through the Bloodbond, through Leah's womb, through the door's connection, they send energy directly into the river of memories.
The silver light cuts like a blade, severing the black threads.
I feel a pulling force. Upward. Back. Toward—
My body.
I struggle, following the pull upward. The river of memories recedes below, the Forge's roar echoes in the void, but is blocked by the silver light.
Then—
I open my eyes.
Ceiling. Stone. The castle kitchen. Leah's face above me. Her eyes are red and swollen, tear-stained. Her fingers touch my face.
"You're awake," she says. Her voice trembling.
I try to speak. My throat is dry.
"How long..."
"Three days," she says. "You were out for three days. I thought... I thought you—"
She doesn't finish. She cries. Tears fall on my face.
I raise my hand. Weak, but it moves. I wipe away her tears.
"I heard," I say.
"Heard what?"
"Them." I look at her belly. "Calling me. Daddy."
Leah freezes.
Then she smiles. Crying and laughing at once.
"They're still so small," she says. "But... yes. They're sensing you. Protecting you."
I sit up.
My body still hurts. Like I've been run over by a truck. But my mind is clear. The image of the Forge is still in my head, like a burning coal.
"Where's Xiao Qi?" I ask.
"On the terrace," Leah helps me stand. "She says... Side A has news. Kiran and Avi are on their way. Riding a dragon."
I walk to the terrace.
Xiao Qi stands there, her back to us, looking at the sky. Her leg has healed, standing straight. She's holding the bell fragment.
"How far?" I ask.
"Ten minutes," Xiao Qi doesn't turn around. "Dragons are fast. But it can't pass directly through the door. Side B's physics are different from Side A. If it forces through, it'll fall to its death."
"Then what do we do?"
"It needs permission," Xiao Qi turns around, her round pupils completely serious. "The Gatekeeper's permission. You. You have to open the door and let it through."
I look up at the sky.
The dark silver door hangs high, barely visible to the naked eye, only detectable through Gatekeeper perception.
"How do I open it?"
"Focus," Xiao Qi says. "Imagine the door is a lock. You're the key. Turn it."
I close my eyes.
My Gatekeeper perception reaches out. Touches the door. The door we forged with our own hands. Dark silver. Massive. Hanging in Side B's sky like an invisible wound.
I "turn" the key.
The door opens.
A crack. Dark silver light pours from the crack, like water bursting through a dam.
Side A's wind rushes in. Carrying the scent of the vampire world—rust, moss, ancient earth.
Then we see it.
A black dot, from Side A's direction, passing through the door's crack, entering Side B's sky.
Getting bigger.
Wings spread about thirty meters wide. Body deep green, covered in scales, not the dark red of Side A vampires, but more primitive, reptilian—olive green.
A dragon.
Two figures on its back.
One in a black windbreaker, short hair, gripping a long sword. Kiran.
One in a white uniform, golden vertical pupils, no wings on her back—did she lose the ability to fly on Side A? No, she stands steady on the dragon's back, relying on—
Avi. She's holding reins, tied to the dragon's horns.
The dragon passes through the door, entering Side B's sky. Its body shudders during the physics conversion, scales shifting from deep green to ink black, adapting to Side B's light. But it doesn't fall. It flaps its wings, steadies itself, and glides toward the castle.
"They're here," Leah says.
The dragon lands in the castle courtyard. The wind from its wings forces the Night Walkers back.
Kiran jumps off first. His landing is rough, knee hitting the stone path with a dull thud. But his hand still grips the sword, eyes still alert.
"Fucking hell..." he mutters. "Never riding a dragon again..."
Avi jumps off next. Her movement is more graceful, but her face is pale. She looks at Leah, at her belly, then at me.
"Situation?" she asks.
"Complicated," I say.
Kiran gets up. He walks over to me, looks me up and down.
"You look like a stepped-on tomato," he says.
"Thanks."
"You're welcome." He turns to the dragon, pats its hind leg. "This is Grendel. The last dragon of the northern border. It was sleeping. We woke it up. The price was—"
He lifts a bag. It makes the crisp sound of blood-crystals clinking together.
"—three hundred kilograms of blood-crystals. De Noct family inventory. I stole it."
The dragon lowers its head. Its eyes are yellow, vertical pupils, like pre-evolution Night Walkers. It sniffs the air, then lets out a low rumble.
"What's it saying?" Leah asks.
"It says," Xiao Qi translates, "Side B smells like shit. But it's hungry. Wants to know if there's meat."
The courtyard goes quiet for a second.
Then everyone laughs.
Real laughter. Exhausted, post-disaster, almost-crying laughter.
The dragon lies down, wings folded, like a small green mountain. Kiran and Avi lean against its side.
"What about the Moon-Eater?" I ask Kiran.
"It stopped," Kiran says. "After you forged the door, it stopped. Like a hound that lost its target, wandering in Side A's wilderness. But Avi found—"
He looks at Avi.
Avi pulls something from her chest. A black stone. Same as the fragment monster's core, but purer, smaller.
"This is the Moon-Eater's tracker," Avi says. "It fell from its body. I analyzed it. The Moon-Eater isn't a creature. It's some kind of... machine. A machine controlled by something in the void."
"The Forge," I say.
Avi freezes.
"How do you know that name?"
"I saw it while I was out," I say. "It's White Box's real master. It wants the twins. Wants to forge the door. Wants to—"
I pause.
"Wants to devour both worlds."
The courtyard's mood shifts.
The dragon raises its head. Its yellow vertical pupils stare at the sky. The dark silver door in the sky is still rotating, but—
Something is approaching.
Not from Side A. Not from Side B.
From inside the door.
The dark silver light trembles. Like something massive is hitting the other side of the door.
"It's here," Xiao Qi says, her voice shaking.
"What?" Leah asks.
"The Forge," I say.
At the center of the dark silver door, a black dot appears.
Not a crack. Corrosion. Like ink spreading on paper, the black dot grows larger, eating away the door's light.
The Forge is breaking through.
It found the door. Found the door we forged. It's trying to—
Break through.
The dragon stands. All its scales bristle, like a cat's fur standing on end when facing a threat. It lets out a deafening roar, wings spreading, blocking the path to the castle.
Kiran raises his sword.
Avi grips the black stone.
Leah spreads her wings, shielding her belly.
I stand at the front.
Gatekeeper. Waning Moon. Father.
I look at the expanding black dot.
"Come on," I say.
My voice isn't loud. But every word is like a nail striking an anvil.
"This is our door. Our home. Our children."
I spread my wings. Dark red. Newborn. Against the dark silver sky like a weak flame.
"If you want to come through," I say, "you'll have to step over my corpse first."
The black dot stops expanding.
It seems to be... calculating.
Then a voice comes from the black dot. Not human language, not ancient vampire tongue, but something transmitted directly at the neural level—
Information.
"Gatekeeper," it says. "You think one door can stop me?"
"Yes," I say.
"Why?"
"Because," I smile, "this door was forged with my bones and blood. Every brick holds my memory. You can't enter. You don't have the password."
The black dot is silent for three seconds.
Then it begins to contract.
Not retreating. Condensing. It's preparing some kind of... more focused attack.
"Watch out!" Xiao Qi shouts. "It's going to—"
The black dot shoots out a tentacle.
Black, woven from countless threads, like a spear, shooting straight toward—
Leah's belly.
It wants to take the babies directly.
I block its path.
The tentacle hits my chest. Pierces through. Exits my back.
I look down. Watch the black threads writhing inside my body, searching, pulling—
"Kael—!" Leah screams.
I grab the tentacle. With both hands. Pull it out of my body.
Pain.
Beyond any words for pain. Like pulling out my spine one vertebra at a time. But I don't let go.
"Leah..." I turn back, blood pouring from my mouth. "The door... needs... a lock..."
"How do I lock it?"
"Complete binding..." I say. "We... bind... with the door... together..."
She understands.
She rushes over. Holds me. Her wings wrap around us both. Silver light surges from her body, pouring into my wound, into the tentacle, into—
The door.
The Forge's tentacle trembles in the silver light. It retreats. What it fears is no longer the seed, but—
Mature love.
Complete binding. Two-way. Three thousand years ago I cut away weakness, so I was incomplete. Now I have her. Have the twins. Have family.
This is something the Forge cannot understand.
The tentacle breaks. Shrinks back into the black dot.
The black dot dissolves. The door stabilizes.
I collapse in Leah's arms.
The hole in my chest heals. Slowly, but it begins to heal. The energy from complete binding repairs me.
I look up. Look at the sky.
The door is still there. Dark silver. Quiet.
But it has one more lock now.
Not physical. Some kind of... rule-based lock. The Forge can't come back anytime soon.
"It will come back," Xiao Qi says.
"I know," I say.
"Next time it'll be stronger."
"I know."
I squeeze Leah's hand.
"But we'll be stronger too," I say.
The twins' heartbeats sound through the Bloodbond. Steady. Strong. Like two little drums.
Grendel snorts. Kiran pats its neck. Avi leans against the dragon's side, closes her eyes.
The Night Walkers crouch in the courtyard. Their golden vertical pupils glow like lamps in the dusk.
The castle stands firm in the post-fire ruins.
We're still alive.
The door is still open.
And the Forge—
It waits in the void.
For next time.