Chapter 132: Underground - Kael
Night Walker corpses are piled seven layers deep outside the stone room.
They weren't killed by enemies—they rushed out on their own, using their bodies to block the Sweepers' UV cannons and buy me time. After death, their golden vertical pupils turn gray-white, their scales lose their shine, like a heap of shed old skin.
I stand in front of the crack at the back of the stone room. In my hand, the shattered control crystal cuts into my palm, blood running down my wrist to my elbow.
Leah is on Side A. Through the blood bond, I can sense her—she's running, in pain, protecting her belly. Her fear is like a thread wrapped around my heart, each pull making it hard to breathe.
The twins' heartbeats come through too. Weak, but stubborn. Like two seeds buried in the dirt, sprouting in a storm.
"De Noct."
A voice from behind.
I turn around.
Dr. Chen stands at the entrance to the stone room. He's changed clothes—not a white coat, but black combat armor with the White Box symbol on his chest: a cross and a box. He's holding a weapon—not a UV lamp, but something thicker with rails—a railgun. Human heavy weaponry.
"You killed it?" he asks, pointing at the monster's slime on the ground. "You killed the fragment?"
"Wounded it," I say. "It ran. Went underground."
"Underground?" Dr. Chen frowns. "That's impossible. Underground there's only—"
"The Exile Door," I say. "It wants to eat the anchor. It wants to devour the Gatekeeper's core."
Dr. Chen's expression shifts. That scholarly composure cracks for the first time.
"The Exile Door can't be activated," he says. "Once it's activated, the passage between Side A and Side B will be completely sealed. Our White Box plan—"
"Your plan is to kill the moon and forge a door." I step forward, Night Walker blood dripping from my boot soles. "Use Leah's blood and my blood to create a permanent door. Let White Box members live forever. Let Side A swallow Side B."
Dr. Chen doesn't deny it.
He raises the railgun. The barrel points at my chest.
"Prince-level vampire," he says. "A living sample is worth more than a dead one. Especially... an incomplete one."
He fires.
Not a solid bullet—some kind of electromagnetic projectile, faster than Mach speed. I dodge sideways, the round grazes my shoulder blade, taking a chunk of flesh with it.
I charge at him.
No mind control. No shadow step. Just three thousand years of refined combat instinct. My shoulder slams into his chest, knocking him to the ground. The railgun flies from his hands, sliding three meters away.
His armor is hard, but his neck is exposed. I grab his throat, my thumb pressing against his windpipe.
"How do you activate the Exile Door?" I say through clenched teeth.
"Won't... tell you..." He struggles, his hand reaching for his waist.
I'm faster, pulling out his sidearm. A UV pistol. I press it against his temple.
"Three seconds," I say.
"Killing me won't help!" he shouts. "The control room needs Adrian's handprint! She's dead! The door is locked forever!"
I pull the trigger.
The UV beam pierces his skull. His skin burns, his skull cracks, his brain boils inside the helmet.
He's dead.
I stand up and tuck the UV pistol into my belt.
Adrian's handprint.
I turn and run back to the stone room. Adrian's body still leans against the wreckage of the stone platform, her white nightgown soaked in blood. I crouch down and lift her right hand.
Cold. Stiff.
But I notice something—a scar on her right index finger. Not from birth, but carved later. A De Noct family tradition: Gatekeepers implant a bio-chip in their index finger that stores handprints and DNA keys.
I use a UV scalpel to cut open the skin on her index finger. Inside is a silver grain, the size of a rice kernel.
The chip.
I dig it out and close it in my palm.
Then I walk toward the crack at the back of the stone room.
The crack leads underground. Toward the Exile Door. The Night Walkers clear the way ahead, the remaining dozen using their claws to dig through collapsed rubble, their bodies supporting unstable rock.
I follow them down.
The passage gets narrower. The air gets colder. Human graffiti appears on the walls—not Side A runes, but Side B writing—WARNING: RESTRICTED AREA. RADIATION. DEATH.
After about ten minutes, the passage suddenly opens up.
A huge underground cave. The dome is about fifty meters high, naturally formed, but the floor has been artificially leveled. In the center is a circular platform, twenty meters across, carved with ancient vampire script and human circuit patterns—mixed technology.
At the center of the platform is a door.
Not a physical door—a projection. Made of dark red light, the doorframe two massive stone pillars wrapped in withered vines. Inside the door isn't a view but a vortex, like Side A's void, like Side B's black hole.
The Exile Door.
Next to the door is a control panel. Metal, covered with buttons and levers, with an indent in the center—a handprint scanner.
I walk over.
I press Adrian's chip into the indent.
The scanner glows green. The screen lights up.
A line of text appears:
"Gatekeeper confirmed. De Noct bloodline. Rank: Third Prince. Operating authority: Full."
Then options:
1. Open Exile Door (Destination: Side A designated coordinates)
2. Close Exile Door (Permanently seal passage)
3. System Diagnostics
I press option 1.
The screen changes. An input box appears: Please enter Side A receiving coordinates.
I don't know the coordinates.
I don't know where exactly Leah is on Side A. The Spiral Tower ruins? The northern border? Or deeper underground?
I close my eyes and sense her through the blood bond.
She's moving. Running. Moving through ruins. Her heartbeat is fast, the twins' heartbeats speeding up too.
But coordinates—I don't know how to convert them into numbers.
"Fuck," I curse under my breath.
I try typing "Spiral Tower." The screen shows: Invalid format.
I need exact coordinates. Latitude and longitude. Or Side A's spatial code.
And I have nothing.
Night Walkers gather at the edge of the platform, their golden vertical pupils watching me. They're waiting. Their king is waiting.
I look back at the screen. There's a small button I hadn't noticed before:
"Blood Bond Location"
I press it.
The screen shows: "This function will consume 30% of the operator's source energy to track the exact coordinates of the blood bond partner. Confirm?"
30%.
My source is already incomplete. Another 30%, I might not even be able to stand.
But I don't hesitate.
I press confirm.
A needle extends from the control panel. It pierces my wrist.
Blood is drawn. Dark red, carrying Gatekeeper bloodline information. The numbers on the screen jump wildly, like an overloaded machine.
Then the coordinates appear.
"N-47.23, E-119.87, Depth: -12 meters. Target status: Moving. Vital signs: Unstable."
Unstable.
My heart tightens.
I enter the coordinates into the Exile Door system. The vortex inside the door starts spinning, faster and faster. Dark red light surges from the doorframe, lighting up the entire cave.
"Exile Door activation countdown: 60 seconds."
A mechanical voice announces.
I wait.
But the countdown has only reached 50 seconds—
An explosion comes from the cave entrance.
Not a natural collapse—controlled demolition. Rubble and dust pour in from the entrance.
Then footsteps. Many of them. Heavy boots.
Sweepers. White Box reinforcements. They've caught up.
"Stop him!" someone shouts. "Don't let him activate the Exile Door! The forging plan needs the Moon Devourer to consume the Silver Moon!"
UV cannon beams shoot from the entrance.
Night Walkers rush forward, blocking with their bodies. Their golden scales smoke and char under the UV light, but they don't back down.
I stand guard in front of the control panel.
Countdown: 40 seconds.
A projectile hits my back. Not UV—a solid round. It pierces my right lung.
I fall forward, slamming into the control panel. Blood pours from my mouth, dripping onto the screen.
Countdown: 35 seconds.
I prop myself up with my hands, keeping myself from sliding down. My fingers fumble across the screen, looking for—
The lock button.
Once locked, the countdown can't be stopped.
I find it. Red, the size of a fist.
I press it.
The screen shows: "Exile Door locked. Countdown cannot be interrupted. Current countdown: 30 seconds."
I smile. Blood leaking through my teeth.
Sweepers rush into the cave. UV cannons aimed at me.
"Kill him! Now!"
The barrels light up.
I close my eyes.
But the shots never come.
Because the Night Walkers make their final charge. The last seven all leap at the Sweepers. They have no weapons, only claws and fangs. They bite cannon barrels, tear protective suits, cover muzzles with their bodies.
UV beams fire wildly through the cave. Hitting rock walls, hitting stalactites, hitting the Night Walkers' own bodies.
Screams. Breaking bones. The smell of blood.
Countdown: 15 seconds.
I lie against the control panel, my vision blurring. Blood in my lungs makes every breath feel like swallowing glass.
But I watch the screen.
Watch the countdown.
10 seconds.
9 seconds.
8 seconds.
The vortex inside the Exile Door turns blazing white. Energy building to its peak.
7 seconds.
6 seconds.
5 seconds.
The Sweepers finally break through the Night Walkers' defense. The leader raises his UV cannon, aiming at the back of my head.
"Goodbye, Prince."
4 seconds.
3 seconds.
The barrel lights up.
2 seconds.
1 second.
The Exile Door erupts with a beam of light.
Not upward—downward, through the platform, through the rock, through the barrier between worlds, shooting straight toward Side A.
The light swallows me.
It also swallows the Sweepers' shots.
The UV dissolves in the dark red beam, like salt thrown into fire.
I feel myself rising. Or crossing. No gravity, no direction, only the blood bond thread pulling me forward, like an umbilical cord, drawing me back to—
Leah's side.
But in the final second before I lose consciousness, I feel something.
Not Side A's earth. Not Side B's light.
A third thing.
Some presence in the void. It's been waiting for the Exile Door to open. Waiting for this beam to cross the barrier.
It's not the Moon Devourer. Not the fragment monster.
It's—
White Box's true master.
It's laughing.
Through the beam, it sees me. Sees Leah. Sees the twins.
"Finally," its voice rings directly in my bones. "The door is open. I can... come through."
Then, darkness.
Complete darkness.