Chapter 614: Door
Kael crossed the mountain road in only a few movements, but slowed down as soon as the Tower of Aster appeared between the two peaks. The structure had lost half of its upper section, and what remained leaned against the mountain, held in place by ancient columns and walls too thick to have collapsed completely. There were no lights in the windows, guards at the entrances, or any visible movement outside. Only the dark column rising behind the tower and the constant vibration in the ground, growing stronger as he approached.
Umbra appeared beside him when he stopped behind a block of stone.
"It is too quiet."
"They are waiting."
"For you."
Kael looked at his marked arm. The red lines had already reached part of his chest, although Sylphie’s containment still prevented them from sinking deeper. The presence of the Well pulled the mark toward the tower as though an invisible thread connected it to the center of his mana. He felt the call, but also noticed something important.
The structure was no longer trying to invade his mind.
It did not need to.
It wanted him to enter willingly.
Kael studied the terrain in front of the tower. The road ended in a circular area covered with broken stones and old mining rails. There were many recent wheel marks across the ground, some deep enough to indicate loads heavier than the wagons they had intercepted. Two entrances were visible. A main stone door, partially buried beneath debris, and a side tunnel opened into the base of the mountain.
"Which one has more shadows?" Kael asked.
Umbra closed her eyes for several seconds.
"The tunnel."
"Then the main door is for me."
"Probably."
Kael took out the crystal.
"Amelia."
The answer came immediately.
"Position?"
"I am six hundred meters from the Tower of Aster. The structure is active, but there is no visible external surveillance. There are two entrances. A side tunnel filled with shadows and a main door without movement."
"Do not approach until Eleonor arrives."
"I am going to observe."
"Kael."
"Observe from close by."
Amelia remained silent for an instant.
"How long can you wait?"
He looked at the tower.
"Until something tries to come out."
"That was not what I asked."
"It was the most honest answer."
Sylphie’s voice came from the background.
"Kael, the mark is reacting more strongly."
"I know."
"You do not know what it will do when you reach the door."
"That is why I am going to find out without entering."
"That distinction does not reassure me."
Kael disconnected before the conversation became another order to return. He put the crystal away and began descending along the side of the road without using Celestial Step. The slow approach allowed him to feel changes in the terrain and observe any reaction from the tower. Umbra followed through the shadows of the stones, keeping enough distance not to be dragged in if the mark activated some trap.
When Kael reached the circular area, he found the first body.
It was a man dressed in mining clothes. He lay near the rails on his side, his arms held against his chest. There was no blood, no wounds, and no sign of combat. Kael crouched and touched his neck.
Weak pulse.
"Alive."
Umbra appeared behind him.
"No shadow."
Kael looked at the ground.
The man’s body rested beneath the gray light crossing the mountains, but cast nothing.
"Did they tear it out?"
"Not completely. They used it. His shadow is inside the tower."
Kael touched the man’s face and tried to wake him. There was no reaction. He expanded his mana perception and found only a small amount of energy circulating through the body, not enough to maintain consciousness for long.
"There are more."
He followed the wheel marks and found five other people scattered around the entrance. Two miners, a woman in traveling clothes, and two men who looked like mercenaries. All alive. All without shadows. They had not been left there carelessly. They were positioned at specific points around the tower, forming an incomplete circle.
Umbra noticed the pattern.
"They are anchors."
"For what?"
"To keep the tower connected to the outside."
Kael looked at the dark column above the structure.
"What happens if we move them?"
"The structure may react."
"Could it get worse?"
"Yes."
"Could it get better?"
"Also yes."
Kael exhaled.
"You are learning from Elion."
"That was insulting."
A sound came from the side tunnel.
It was not a roar or an explosion. It was footsteps. Many of them, organized, climbing through the underground passage. Kael stood and placed himself in front of the bodies.
"How many?"
Umbra looked into the darkness.
"Twenty-three."
"Human?"
"Some."
The first figures appeared.
Men and women emerged from the tunnel in rows, all wearing ordinary clothing. Miners, travelers, soldiers, merchants. None carried weapons, but their eyes were empty, and their shadows moved several centimeters ahead of their bodies, pulling them across the ground.
Kael recognized it immediately.
They were not conscious.
The first man advanced.
Kael avoided the strike and seized his wrist. The strength was far greater than it should have been, reinforced by the shadow attached to his body. Kael twisted the arm, struck the side of his neck with two fingers, and tried to knock him unconscious.
The man did not fall.
The shadow kept him standing.
"He does not feel pain," Umbra said.
"But the body can still break."
Kael pushed the man into the others without using enough force to cause serious injury. Three fell, but rose again almost immediately. The shadows on the ground pulled their limbs back into the correct positions.
More people left the tunnel.
Kael understood their purpose. They were not guards meant to defeat him. They were obstacles he could not kill without harming innocent people.
The voice entered his mind again.
"Bring the Sun."
Kael looked toward the main door.
"You are trying to rush me."
A woman advanced from his right. Kael used a short Celestial Step, appeared behind her, and placed his foot over her shadow before the body could turn. The woman froze in place.
He looked at Umbra.
"If I pin the shadow, they stop."
"For a short time."
"That is enough."
Kael moved.
He did not attack the bodies directly. He used Celestial Step in short movements, appearing beside each person only long enough to pin their shadow to the ground with small blades of scarlet mana. The first became motionless. Then the second. The third tried to seize him before the blade was placed, but Kael turned beneath his arm and drove the mana into the exact point where the shadow connected to the heel.
The technique began changing as he used it.
He no longer ran only in straight lines. He crossed distances of two or three meters, changed his body’s axis before the impulse ended, and reappeared with his feet already prepared for the next movement. There was no time to think about each activation. Celestial Step happened the moment Kael decided where he needed to be.
In less than twenty seconds, ten people were immobilized.
The others spread out.
The shadow controlling them was learning too.
Two advanced from the front, three from the sides, and others tried to reach the bodies used as anchors. Kael realized that if they touched them, the tower might accelerate the draining process.
"Umbra, protect the six on the ground."
"And you?"
"I will deal with the ones still moving."
Umbra spread her own shadow around the fallen bodies, forming a dark layer that isolated the absent shadows from any external contact. The tower reacted immediately. The black column above it tilted slightly toward Umbra, and heavy pressure crossed the circular area.
Kael felt the mark burn.
The controlled people advanced together.
He lowered his center of gravity.
The first Celestial Step carried him to the left. Kael pinned two shadows with the same blade. On the second, he crossed the space between three bodies and struck the ground with his palm, spreading a line of mana that fixed four more in place. On the third, he changed direction before stopping and appeared in front of the last group.
A large man tried to grab him.
Kael did not dodge.
He seized the man around the waist, turned, and threw him into the others. All of them fell. Before the shadows could raise them, Kael struck the ground with his foot and released a low, thin scarlet pressure distributed only across the surface.
The shadows were pinned.
Twenty-three bodies remained motionless.
No one dead.
Kael breathed deeply, feeling his ankle throb and the muscles in his legs tighten. The technique had worked, but the sequence had cost more than the previous ones. Not in mana.
In his body.
The short movements and changes in direction placed different tension on his joints.
Even so, he smiled.
"Now it is becoming useful."
Umbra observed the bodies.
"You improved."
"I know."
"That was arrogant."
"It was an observation."
The tower’s main door opened.
There was no sound of a mechanism. The stone simply withdrew, leaving a wide, dark passage. A red line of light appeared across the ground, emerging from the entrance and stopping a few centimeters from Kael’s feet.
It was an invitation.
Kael did not move.
"It wants you to enter," Umbra said.
"I noticed."
"Will you?"
"No."
She looked at him in surprise.
Kael took out the crystal.
"Amelia, the tower opened the main door."
The answer came with several voices in the background.
"Do not enter."
"I am not going to."
The silence on the other side lasted slightly longer than it should have.
Kael frowned.
"Do all of you really trust me that little?"
Amelia answered:
"We have experience."
"Stolen phrase from Liza."
"It remains correct."
He looked at the pinned bodies.
"I found twenty-nine victims outside. Six serving as anchors and twenty-three controlled by their own shadows. They are alive. I need healers and shadow specialists."
"The agents are already on their way."
"Eleonor?"
"Two minutes."
Kael looked at the door.
"It has one."
"Kael."
"I am not entering. But I am going to the entrance."
"What is the difference?"
"I want to see what reacts."
"That is a bad difference."
Kael put away the crystal.
Umbra crossed her arms.
"You said you would not enter."
"And I will not."
He walked toward the red line.
The mark on his arm pulsed with every step. When he came within several meters of the door, he could see part of the tower’s interior. The corridor descended instead of rising. The walls were covered with empty vessels fitted into stone niches.
Hundreds of them.
Some cracked.
Others still carried remnants of light.
At the end of the corridor stood a figure.
White cloak.
Motionless.
Waiting.
Kael could not see the face. The distance and darkness concealed everything above the chin, but he recognized the pale hand holding a cup.
The same figure from the memories.
"So you are real," Kael said.
The person answered without raising their voice.
"More real than the stories you found."
"Do you control the Well?"
"No."
"Then who does?"
"No one."
Kael looked at the red line across the ground.
"Convenient answer."
"You still think of control as a hand holding a chain. The First Blood does not need to be held. It only needs a mouth."
"Vlad."
"An attempt."
"Liza."
"A useful heir."
"Elizabeth."
"A better future."
Kael felt his mana grow hotter but did not advance.
"And me?"
The figure tilted their head slightly.
"The Sun will not be a mouth."
"Then what do you want from me?"
"A key."
Umbra approached but remained outside the red line.
"It is trying to make you ask."
"I know."
The figure in white raised the cup.
The dark column above the tower increased. The ground vibrated, and the lines across Kael’s chest advanced several centimeters before Sylphie’s containment reacted.
Kael did not look away.
"If I am the key, why did you allow me to destroy the wagons?"
"Because you needed to find the door."
"You could have called me."
"You would not have come."
"Probably not."
"Now you have."
Kael analyzed the corridor, the vessels, and the figure. Everything had been prepared for him. The organization had lost resources, agents, and part of the cargo, but perhaps considered it acceptable if he reached the tower while marked.
"You wanted me to touch the basin in the palace."
"Not you specifically."
"But it worked better than expected."
The figure did not answer.
That was enough.
Kael smiled slightly.
"So you improvise too."
For the first time, the person in white moved with less control. Only a small adjustment of the hand around the cup, but Kael saw it.
"You did not plan everything. The mark reached me by accident. Then you realized what I carried and changed the project."
"Enter."
"No."
"You wish to save the consciousnesses."
"Yes."
"They are connected to the Well. If it closes, they disappear."
"What happens if I enter?"
"We awaken what was forgotten."
Kael released a short laugh.
"That is a very poor way to convince me."
"You will enter."
"Perhaps."
The figure remained motionless.
Kael continued:
"But not because you ordered me."
A magical passage opened behind him.
Purple runes illuminated the circular area, and Eleonor crossed through first. Elion followed, carrying instruments and seals. Sylphie emerged next without waiting for permission and went directly toward Kael. Amelia, Irelia, and Violet appeared behind them, accompanied by containment specialists and the first agents.
The figure in white retreated one step.
Kael noticed.
"Uncomfortable now?"
The main door began to close.
Kael used Celestial Step.
He did not enter.
He appeared in front of the door and drove one hand between the two stone slabs before they met. The structure tried to crush his fingers. Kael planted his feet against the ground and held it.
Red lines covered his arm.
Sylphie ran toward him.
"Kael!"
"I did not enter."
"That does not make this better!"
Eleonor raised her hands, restraining the door with purple magic. Elion threw three instruments against the sides, forming blocking points. Umbra spread her shadow across the opening, preventing the darkness inside from closing it completely.
Kael looked at the white figure, now retreating down the corridor.
"You wanted me to find the door."
Scarlet mana spread through his arms as he pushed the stone backward.
"We found it."
The figure turned.
Kael clenched his teeth and opened the passage several more centimeters.
"Now you do not get to close it."
The tower’s runes lit up all at once.
The Well roared beneath the mountain.
But this time, Kael did not stand before it alone.
Eleonor stabilized the entrance. Elion began dismantling the seals. Sylphie held back the mark before it reached his heart. Umbra kept the shadows pinned. Amelia distributed the teams around the victims, Irelia coordinated the routes, and Violet formed the containment line in front of the side tunnel.
Everyone moved.
But Kael remained at the center.
He kept the door open.
He had found the path.
And the organization that had spent centuries acting unseen now had only a few minutes before the King of Witches crossed the entrance they had opened themselves.