Chapter 45: What’s inside?
Rick stared at Spark.
The little creature stared back.
For once, Ethan wasn’t sure which of them looked more confused.
"Your home?" Ethan repeated.
Spark bobbed up and down with vigor as he continued to nod. With each repetition, his whole body bobbed up and down.
"Yes, Father."
"Here?"
"Yes."
Ethan stared at the large vault door in front of him. He looked over at Rick, who seemed to be coming to terms with something. He then returned his attention to Spark, who was clinging to Rick’s shoulder.
"Your home?" Ethan repeated. "I told you, this reserve and vault was built around the shell of the past Typhon," Rick muttered.
"...and nothing can break the shell of a Typhon except a Typhon itself."
Spark tilted his head.
"My home."
"Yeah. I got that part."
Rick stepped closer. His face had gone tight.
"By safe, I mean vault. We can’t open the vault and have it hatch in here and destroy the inside. That was the plan. Spark hatched too early. He was supposed to hatch here and form the inside of the vault, and only then could the destruction start. But you want to try it anyway?"
"That’s what we’re about to find out."
"Wait... let me try something," one of the men muttered.
He turned from the vault and walked to the door. The rest of the facility was typical imperial construction. He had expected nothing else, really. All of the facilities, bunkers, and strongholds of the Empire were built with clean lines and stamped numbers, all just so.
The rest of the facility was typical of Imperial construction; neat lines and stamped-in numbers adorned the bulkheads as Spark moved to a door on the opposite side of the room. A Roman eagle, together with other codes and identification plates of the legionaries who had once called this place home, had been affixed to the walls of the vault as well.
He stopped two meters short.
One of the symbols was a lightning bolt.
Ethan snatched his hand back to grasp for the circlet upon his head. As soon as his fingers made contact with the cool, hard metal, the drawings upon the vault suddenly erupted into flame.
Rick took a full step back.
"That wasn’t there before."
"Bad home," Spark said suddenly.
There was a wing. Then there was a serpent. And then there was something he had never seen before.
A circular mark that Ethan had never seen in any of the archives.
Spark stood completely still. He was a mass of twitching on a normal day, but here he stood with a look of ever-widening eyes on his face.
"Bad."
Ethan looked down.
"What?"
"Bad home."
This was the first time Spark had sounded afraid.
The vault hummed. It was a vibration that ran through the floor and into the soles of his boots.
[Divine structure detected.]
[Attempting analysis...]
[Analysis success.]
[Warning: Structure exists outside standard System architecture.]
Ethan frowned.
"System?"
[Analysis failed.]
"Can you at least tell me what’s inside?"
[No.]
"Very helpful."
Rick kept his weapon half-raised.
"Ryan, come back. I think whatever we try, this is the end here."
"We’re already here, man, don’t say that."
"That’s exactly why I’m saying it."
Dayan’s voice came from behind them.
"We’ve got a bigger problem."
Ethan looked over at Dayan, who was still staring off in the direction of the loud sound of metal ripping, her eyes wide with alarm.
Marcus appeared at Dayan’s shoulder.
"How long?"
"Less than three minutes."
Ethan looked at the vault again, then at Spark.
"Open it, Spark. You can do this."
Spark shook his head once.
"No."
Ethan blinked.
"What?"
"No."
"Come on, Spark, listen to Father, try it."
Spark had been climbing down Ethan’s arm the whole time, until he finally reached the floor and walked to the vault. When he got there, he put his hand against the cold metal.
Everything stopped.
Boom!
The floor jumped, and then the ceiling began to shed clouds of dust.
Rick brought his weapon up.
"What the hell was that?"
Spark backed away slowly.
"Sleeping. Should not open..."
Ethan’s eyes narrowed.
"Sleeping, should not open," Spark repeated as he backed away, shaking his head in confusion. "What’s sleeping? Rick, what the hell is inside the vault? Shouldn’t it be our credits?"
"..."
Rick was silent. "I was told that..."
The circlet changed from warm to scorching in an instant and forced Ethan to look at a System window that popped up in front of him.
[Divine resonance detected.]
[Bloodline: Zeus.]
[Foreign Authority attempting recognition.]
[Recognition denied.]
[Warning.]
[The being recognizes you.]
Ethan stared at the last line.
He felt a jolt as a Structure within the Vault recognized him, not Spark or the entire Zeus bloodline, but specifically Ethan.
The opening of the vault appeared as a single line of fracture running through the center of the door. The line split into two, then three more, each branching off in a different direction as the door finally opened.
Rick’s voice was sharp.
"Everyone back. It seems our superior didn’t want the credits, he wanted something let out from here."
Ethan didn’t move.
Black lines suddenly spread like the growth of black ice on pavement under immense pressure. As the event unfolded inside the vault, a huge storm cloud, the size of a city, seemed to hover above Ethan. A bolt of lightning would fall from it sooner or later. Right now his hair stood up straight, and he felt a strange sensation in his eyes as the left side turned white.
"Auuruu... ruuuur," Spark suddenly spoke, and then the crackling stopped.
Spark’s voice was small.
"Father."
"Yes?"
"Open."
Ethan put his palm flat against the door.
The ancient symbols ignited all at once.
[Identity verification.]
[Divine blood detected.]
[Bloodline compatibility: 100%.]
[The being inside grants access.]
Ethan’s expression changed.
"Wait... I don’t know what’s happening, but..."
The vault doors began to open.
"That’s enough!" a familiar voice echoed.
This must be the other player, Rick thought, looking at Ethan.
"Wait, I think the Chief is here," Ethan said, gesturing behind Rick.
Right at his back, she arrived.
"Ma’am, I can—" Rick muttered.
"Shut up! You traitor. How do you explain this treachery!"
She turned back to face Ethan, looking at him for a very long time.
"You! Don’t go in there. It’s locked for a god-damned reason."
Ethan waited. And in that short space of time much happened.
"It looks like a prison, and it looks like it’s been locked up for a very good reason," she said, standing close to Ethan and filling the air with her intense and powerful aura.
Step! Step! Step!
Everything went quiet again with her entry.
Spark hurried back up to Ethan’s shoulder, immediately sticking to his neck again.
"She... very bad."
One of the mages, under the chief’s order, raised his weapon.
"Trace... opened it, Chief. We have to seal this place. Now."
Ethan’s eyes narrowed.
What the hell is inside here?
"Because whatever is inside that chamber..."
Her voice had lost every trace of confidence.
"...was sealed by Zeus himself. The credits and everything, it was just a ruse. Bait for people like you."
Wait, did Rick just accept that the Empire knew everything and had simply been waiting for someone to take the bait from their hook?
"I failed you. I failed you all," he muttered.
Ethan looked at him. He knew what was in the other man’s eyes. Hopelessness.
The System produced one final message.
[Hidden Quest Unlocked.]
[THE FORGOTTEN SON]
[Objective: Enter the sealed chamber.]
[Warning: This action may alter the Divine Order.]
Ethan stared at the text for a long second.
Then he looked at them.
"You’re all going to hate this."
Her eyes widened.
"Ethan—"
He stepped backward, straight toward the open threshold.
"I’m going in."
She raised her weapon higher.
"You cannot!"
Ethan smiled.
"Apparently, I can."
He stepped through.
As Ethan stepped onto the black stone floor of the underground chamber, a mighty peal of thunder split the air of the facility above.
In every vault of power and in every corridor, each symbol exploded into a massive burst of energy. The lone Hermes-lineage descendant collapsed to one knee, her single arm slumping to her side.
Far above the mortal world, a god opened his eyes.
Zeus looked toward Earth.
For the first time in centuries, his expression changed.
Fear.
"My son."
And then he whispered the words no god had expected to hear again.
"He’s found it."
*****
I see how it is.
You sneaky little goblin.
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