Chapter 134: Inside the Pillar of Light - Kael
The void is not empty.
It's full of sound. Not the kind you hear with your ears, but the kind you feel in your bones. Like standing next to an airport runway, the engine roar traveling through the soles of your feet, your teeth aching from the vibration.
I'm carrying two people. Xiao Qi on my right shoulder, like a sack of wet sand. Leah's cocoon in my left arm, the silver film getting thinner—the cradle's energy is almost gone.
The Exile Door's light beam is up ahead. Dark red. But only half as thick as before. The countdown is running, the door is closing.
"How much farther?" Xiao Qi's voice is muffled against my back.
"Twenty seconds," I say.
But my legs are protesting. The wound in my right lung grows with every breath, blood spilling from the corner of my mouth, dripping into the void—there's no ground in the void, the blood drops just float there, like dark red pearls.
The Bloodbond tells me Leah is restless in the cocoon. The twins' heartbeats are speeding up. They sense their father's injuries, they're nervous, trying to—
Help me.
A faint silver energy seeps out of the cocoon, flowing along my arm into my body. Not healing, but some kind of... pain relief. Like anesthetic, temporarily making me forget the broken ribs and torn lung.
"They're helping you?" Xiao Qi sounds surprised.
"Yeah."
"The babies... are feeding back to their father?"
"What else?" I grit my teeth. "Their last name is de Noct. People from House de Noct are born knowing how to protect family."
The light beam is getting closer. Dark red light like a lighthouse in the void.
But just as we're about to touch its edge—
Something wraps around my ankle.
Black threads. Surging up from below the void, like tentacles, like vines, gripping my bones tight.
I look down.
The fragment monster's remains. That wisp of black thread that got away. It caught up to us in the void.
"Kael!" Xiao Qi screams.
I try to break free. But the threads tighten, climbing upward, from calf to knee to thigh. Wherever they touch, skin corrodes, white smoke rising, the smell of burning flesh.
It's eating me.
"Put me down..." Xiao Qi says. "Put me down, take Leah and go. The light beam is closing—"
"Shut up."
I don't put anyone down. I raise the Kin-Slaying Blade and slash backward, cutting my own thigh.
The blade cuts through the black threads. And at the same time, it cuts through my own skin and muscle.
Blood gushes out. Pain like lightning shoots through my whole body. But I'm free.
I leap into the light beam.
Darkness swallows us.
Then falling. Directed falling, downward, like jumping off the top of a waterfall. Wind screaming in my ears, pressure changing.
Boom.
We land.
Not Side B's castle. Somewhere colder, harder—
Steel floor.
I open my eyes.
We're not in the castle. We're in a huge room made of metal. The walls are gray alloy, ceiling lights arranged in neat rows, lighting up the whole space. There's no scent of the vampire world in the air, only—
Machine oil and ozone.
"This is..." Xiao Qi slides off my shoulder, collapses on the ground, looking up, "This isn't Side B. This is... White Box's base?"
I look around.
The room is circular, about fifty meters across. In the center is a platform with a machine on it. The machine is made up of countless pipes, cables, and blood-crystals. At its core is a transparent cylindrical container, filled with—
Liquid. Dark red.
Blood.
Someone is standing next to the container.
Not Dr. Chen. Someone else. White suit, back to us, silver-white hair, tall. He's holding a tablet, recording data.
Our landing catches his attention.
He turns around.
I see his face.
Ice-blue vertical pupils. A de Noct family trait. But his face is older than mine, more worn, like rock carved by time.
"Kael," he says. Voice deep, not surprised at all. "You finally made it."
I freeze.
I know this face.
No, impossible. He's been dead. Three thousand years.
"Father...?"
He smiles. The corner of his mouth curves up, but there's no warmth in his eyes.
"No," he says. "But I was made from his DNA. White Box's cloning technology is pretty advanced. We made twelve generations of test subjects. I'm the only one who survived."
He walks toward me, white leather shoes clicking on the steel floor.
"You can call me... the Gravekeeper," he says. "I'm in charge of guarding this door. The real door. Not those childish little cracks in Side A or Side B. This is—"
He points to the container at the center of the machine.
"—the Eternal Door. Made from the blood of all de Noct family Gatekeepers, plus Silver Moon's womb, the ultimate passage."
He looks at Leah's cocoon.
"She's right on time. The babies have formed too. With these three materials, the door can be completed within twenty-four hours."
I stand in front of Leah.
The Kin-Slaying Blade is still in my hand, but my hand is shaking. Not from fear. From blood loss. My leg is barely working from where I cut myself, now I'm down on one knee.
"You can't kill me," the Gravekeeper says. "I was made from your father's DNA plus White Box technology. I have a Prince-level body, but none of the vampire weaknesses. UV doesn't work on me. Silver doesn't work on me. And—"
He raises his hand.
In his palm, a mass of black energy swirls. Not Shadow, not vampire power. Something I've never seen—
Void energy.
"And," he says, "I'm stronger than you."
He waves his hand.
A shockwave sends me flying. I slam into the alloy wall, at least three vertebrae breaking. The Kin-Slaying Blade slips from my hand, sliding to the other end of the room.
I slide down, paralyzed on the ground.
Can't move.
This time, really can't move.
The Gravekeeper walks toward Leah's cocoon. He reaches out, placing his hand over the silver film.
"Twins," he murmurs. "Perfect material. Gatekeeper's blood, Silver Moon's light, plus a little... catalyst."
He pulls a syringe from his white suit pocket. Transparent liquid swirls inside.
"Oxytocin," he says. "Speeds up delivery. Once the babies are born, the door can activate."
He raises the syringe, aiming at the cocoon.
"Stop—" I try to get up, but my bones won't cooperate.
The needle pierces the film.
Just as the liquid is about to be injected—
All the lights in the room go out.
Not a power failure. Something more complete, more deliberate—darkness. Even the emergency lights go out.
In the darkness, a voice speaks.
Young, cheerful, with a smile—
"Sorry uncle, I know this place better than you do."
The lights come back on.
Standing in front of the Gravekeeper is a girl.
Black short hair. Human round pupils. Bandages wrapped around her wrists, nothing underneath—no bells.
Xiao Qi.
No, not the Xiao Qi from just now. She's lying next to me, spine still broken.
This is another Xiao Qi?
"A clone?" The Gravekeeper frowns.
"No," the girl smiles. "I'm the original. The one you caught was a decoy. The real me has been hiding here. Three years. Waiting for today."
She raises her hand.
In her hand is a device. Round, like a landmine, with a red button on top.
"Know what this is?" she asks.
The Gravekeeper doesn't answer.
"This is called 'Anchor-Breaker,'" Xiao Qi says. "Made specifically to destroy Gatekeeper anchor points. You White Box people used de Noct family blood to make the door, I'll use your blood to blow it up. Eye for an eye."
She presses the button.
The container at the center of the machine starts shaking. The blood inside boils, bubbles rising, making an ear-piercing screech.
The Gravekeeper's face changes.
"You're insane—!" He lunges at her.
Xiao Qi doesn't dodge.
She spreads her arms, like she's embracing him.
"Let's die together," she says.
The container explodes.
Dark red blood sprays like a fountain, pouring onto the Gravekeeper. This isn't ordinary blood—it's concentrated Gatekeeper energy, activated by the Anchor-Breaker device into—
Acid.
The Gravekeeper's white suit dissolves instantly. His skin starts blistering, peeling, exposing metal bones and synthetic muscle underneath.
"Damn—!" He screams, backs away, tries to shake off the blood on him.
But the blood keeps coming. After the container explodes, the entire floor is flooded with blood, ankle-deep.
Xiao Qi stands in the pool of blood, still smiling, but her body is shaking.
"Hurry..." she turns to look at me, "The door is collapsing. This is White Box's main base, in the crack between Side B and Side A. With the anchor destroyed, this place will sink into the void."
"How do we get out?"
"Over there." She points to the wall on the other side of the room. There's an emergency exit sign on the wall, green, with human text, "Goes straight to Side B castle. A secret passage I dug three years ago. Go!"
I try to get up. But too many bones are broken.
Xiao Qi walks over. She picks up Leah's cocoon—her strength is impossibly strong, a White Box modified body.
"Can you still crawl?" she asks me.
"I'll try."
I prop myself up with one arm, dragging my broken leg, crawling toward the emergency exit. Behind me, the Gravekeeper thrashes in the pool of blood, his body already half corroded, metal bones exposed.
"You can't escape—!" he hisses, "White Box won't be destroyed! The door will be completed—!"
I don't look back.
Xiao Qi kicks open the emergency exit door. Behind it is a staircase, going down, very deep. She jumps down first, carrying the cocoon, like carrying a giant egg.
I follow, rolling down the stairs. Each step hits broken bones, pain so intense my vision goes black.
But we made it.
At the bottom of the stairs is a stone door. Behind it is familiar air—Side B's air. Cold, damp, with that moldy smell from the castle underground.
Xiao Qi pushes the door open.
We're back in the castle underground. The stone chamber is still there, Adrian's corpse still there, the control panel wreckage still smoking.
But the Exile Door's light beam is gone.
The door is closed.
We're trapped on Side B.
Xiao Qi sets the cocoon on the stone platform. She collapses against the stone wall, breathing hard.
"We're safe for now," she says. "White Box's main base sank into the void, the Gravekeeper's half-dead. But—"
She looks at Leah in the cocoon.
"But Leah's in bad shape. The cradle's energy is gone, the light from her belly is fading. The twins still have heartbeats, but if the mother gets weaker—"
She doesn't finish.
I crawl to the cocoon's side. Put my hand on the film. Silver light seeps through from inside, but much weaker than before.
Through the Bloodbond, I sense Leah's consciousness. She's in deep sleep, saving the last bit of energy for the babies. She's waiting for me.
"Is there a way?" I ask Xiao Qi.
Xiao Qi is quiet.
For a long time.
"There is one," she finally says. "But you won't like it."
"Tell me."
"Kill moon to forge door," Xiao Qi looks at me, no joke in those round pupils. "Use Leah's blood, plus your blood, to forge a new small door in this castle underground. It'll be small, but the energy is enough to stabilize the babies. After forging the door, the babies can get energy from Side A through it. Leah can survive too."
"What's the cost?"
"The cost is," Xiao Qi says, "after forging the door, you two will be permanently bound to it. Can't leave the castle more than a kilometer. You'll become... new Gatekeepers. Forever."
I look at Leah in the cocoon.
Forever trapped in the castle. Forever unable to go to the Royal City. Forever unable to go to the wilderness. Forever unable to—
Be free.
But alive.
And the babies can live.
I lower my head.
Press my forehead against the cocoon's film. Silver light seeps through, reflecting on my face.
"Leah," I say softly, not sure if she can hear, "Wake up. We need to talk."
The film moves slightly.
The hand inside slowly rises, pressing against the inside of the film, opposite my hand.
Separated by a thin layer of silver light, I can feel her warmth.
She's awake.
And she heard.