Chapter 120 | The Bell | Leah
I woke to the sound of bells.
Not Xiao Qi's silver bells. Something fainter, more distant—like wind through wind chimes, like memory through dreams.
I opened my eyes.
Ceiling. White. Human architecture. I lay in bed, covered by soft fabric. Wings folded inside my body, no longer hurting. Progenitor blood flowed within me, but slower, like a river half-frozen.
"Awake?"
Kael's voice.
I turned my head. He sat by the bed, back against the chair, posture relaxed, but eyes awake. His chest—the wound fully healed, only a faint pink scar remained. His wings—atrophied, but no longer shedding feathers. He looked like someone recovering from illness, not a dying monster.
"What happened?" I asked.
"You glowed," he said, corner of his mouth curving up. "Bright enough to make Night Walkers kneel and call you Mom."
"I'm not joking."
"Neither am I." His expression sobered. "You really made them evolve. From degenerates into... some new pure-blood. Golden vertical pupils, straight spines, no longer afraid of UV."
I fell silent.
That wasn't in my plan. I only wanted to protect him. I burned myself, and then—
Then a chain reaction happened.
"What about Xiao Qi?" I asked.
Kael's expression changed.
"She received your signal," he said. "The Moon-Eater stopped. Side A's destruction... delayed. But not stopped. Xiao Qi sent word—"
He paused.
"—she found a fourth path."
I sat up from bed. Head splitting, but I didn't care.
"What fourth path?"
"Changing the Door requires two Gatekeepers," Kael said. "Sealing the Door requires light and dark. Opening the Door requires fusion. But the fourth path—"
He extended his hand, covering mine.
"—is 'No Door.'"
I frowned.
"What does that mean?"
"Completely take down the Door," he said. "Not connecting two worlds, not separating two worlds. But making two worlds become—one. No Door, no Gatekeeper. No Gatekeeper, no curse. No separation, no Moon-Eater."
I processed this information.
"How do we do it?"
"We need something," Kael said. "Hidden in Xiao Qi's bells is a fragment. Not metal, but a piece of consciousness the Progenitor Queen left behind. That fragment records the 'No Door' spell. But the bells exploded, fragments scattered between Side A and Side B."
"So?"
"So," he gripped my hand, "we need to find the fragments. All of them. In the crack between Side A and Side B. That's the void, no light, no dark, no—"
He looked at me.
"—no protection. Just us two."
I looked at him.
The prince undefeated for three thousand years. The waning moon. My Kael.
He waited for my answer. For me to say "yes," or "no."
But the door opened.
Adrian rushed in. Her childish face showed unusual worry.
"Not good," she said. "The Night Walkers... after evolving... they didn't leave. They surrounded the castle. But they're not here to attack."
"Then what are they here for?" I asked.
"They brought a message," Adrian said. "From Side A. Through some connection between them and Side A's Night Walkers..."
She handed me a glowing screen.
On the screen was a video. Blurry, shaky, like it was filmed in terrible conditions.
In the frame—
was the Spiral Spire. But on top of the tower stood a person.
No, not a person.
It was some being made of black threads and dark red light. It had Kael's outline, but its face kept changing, sometimes like Kael, sometimes like the perfect "him," sometimes like—
my father.
It spoke.
The voice wasn't carried through air, but through the bloodline network's leftover frequency.
"Kael," it said. "You thought absorbing me could end me? Stupid. The Patricide Blade opened a passage, not just physical, but of consciousness. A piece of me... followed you... came to Side B."
The frame shook. The black being spread its wings—not dark red, but some corrupted, black-patterned—dark purple.
"I am in Side B," it said. "In this city. I possessed a Night Walker. An evolved Night Walker. And now—"
Its pupils—ice-blue, exactly like Kael's—stared straight at the camera.
"—I am looking for you. Silver Moon. Waning Moon. Gatekeeper. I will make you... all become part of me. Side A. Side B. Network. Door. All. Merge into one. Perfect—"
The frame cut off.
The room went quiet.
Kael's hand in my palm turned cold.
"It's here," he said.
Not a question.
I stood up. Wings stirred restlessly within my body, wanting to unfold. Progenitor blood responded—not fear, but anger.
"Then find it," I said. "Before it finds us. Kill it."
"How do we find it?" Kael asked. "It's in Side B. This city has tens of millions of people. It can possess any Night Walker."
I walked to the window.
Outside was the human night sky. Single moon. Steel and concrete. Traffic.
Then, I saw.
In the circle of Night Walkers below the castle hill, there was an empty space. They kept their kneeling positions, but all heads faced the same direction—
the city center.
They weren't surrounding us.
They were—
pointing.
"There," I said, pointing at a tower in the city center.
A tower of glass and steel, piercing the clouds. Its peak flashed red light, like a bleeding eye.
Kael came to my side. His breath brushed past my ear.
"You sure?" he asked.
"Not sure," I said. "But I'm sure of one thing."
"What?"
"If we don't go after it," I turned to him, silver-gray eyes looking straight into his ice-blue ones, "it will come for us. And by then, we won't be the only ones dying."
I held out my hand.
He gripped it.
Fingers intertwined.
"Let's go," I said. "Go kill that monster."
We walked toward the door.
Adrian didn't stop us. She only handed me something—
a gun.
A human weapon.
"UV bullets," she said. "Work on Night Walkers. Against it... I don't know."
I took the gun. The weight of metal felt strange and cold.
"Thanks."
"Don't thank me," Adrian said. "If you die, I'll have to guard two Doors alone. So—"
A trace of something that didn't belong to a child flashed in her round pupils—exhaustion.
"—don't die."
We walked out of the castle.
Night Walkers parted, making way. Golden vertical pupils in the night were like two rows of streetlights. They didn't speak, but their posture said everything.
They were waiting.
Waiting for their monarch to lead them—
to hunt another monarch.
We went down the mountain road, toward the city's lights. Behind was the ancient castle, ahead the unknown steel jungle.
Kael walked at my side, steps unsteady but steady.
"Leah," he said.
"Yeah?"
"If I die again—"
"You won't."
"If—"
"No if." I cut him off, raising the gun, aiming at that bleeding tower in the distance. "You taught me. Feel the wind. Use the wind. Don't fight it."
I turned to him.
"Now, the wind is blowing that way."
He smiled. That smile held three thousand years of settled ash, and something just ignited—fire.
"Good," he said. "Then let's go."
We walked toward the city.
And behind us, the castle bell rang. Not marking the hour, but some ancient, warning—
death knell.
For whom?
I don't know.
But I know, when that red eye on top of the tower goes out—
Either we win.
Or, the whole world learns fear.