Chapter 615: The Last Link
The pressure from the door increased all at once.
Kael felt his fingers sink several millimeters into the stone while the two slabs tried to close over his hand. It was not only the weight of the structure. The runes spread across the entrance had recognized the mark on his arm and were now pulling his mana into the tower, trying to turn his own body into part of the mechanism.
He planted his feet more firmly on the ground.
Cracks spread beneath his boots.
"Elion."
His mother did not raise her eyes from the instruments attached to the sides of the entrance.
"I am working."
"How long?"
"Thirty seconds."
"You have ten."
"Then stop talking."
Kael gave a small smile despite the pressure. The answer was exactly what he had expected from her.
Eleonor kept both hands raised. The Witch Queen’s purple magic surrounded the stone slabs, but she did not try to push them directly. She had realized that excessive magical force was absorbed by the runes and redirected into the mountain. Instead, she held each part of the structure in space, preventing the door from gaining more speed.
Sylphie held Kael’s marked arm with both hands. Green energy pushed against the red lines, but being so close to the tower made the containment much more difficult. Every pulse from the Well pulled the mark toward his heart as though trying to complete a structure that had begun inside the vampiric palace.
"Do not use celestial mana," Sylphie said.
"I am not."
"The tower is pulling it on its own."
Kael looked into the corridor. The figure in white had already retreated almost to the curve at the end of the descent, but still watched them. It did not appear hurried. Its confidence said that this door was not the final barrier.
"Then cut the connection."
"I cannot without tearing out the mark with it."
"Would that be bad?"
"You could lose the arm."
Kael thought for half a second.
"Keep it as the second option."
Sylphie tightened her grip.
"There is no second option."
One of Elion’s tools made a sharp sound. The rune on the left side of the entrance lost its glow. Then the second. The third resisted for several more seconds before splitting down the center and releasing dark smoke, which Umbra captured before it could enter Kael’s shadow.
Elion stood.
"Now."
Kael pushed.
Eleonor released the spatial restraint at the same instant, but kept her magic around the edges. The door moved backward half a meter. Umbra spread her shadow across the opening, creating a layer between the slabs and the ground. Elion threw four more seals against the inner tracks.
The mechanism stopped.
Kael slowly removed his hand. His fingers were red, and two of them had small cuts where the stone had pressed against them, but they remained intact.
Sylphie immediately pulled his arm toward her.
"Let me see."
"It works."
"That does not mean it is fine."
Kael flexed his fingers.
"To me, that means almost the same thing."
Eleonor approached the entrance and examined the broken runes.
"This door was not made to stop intruders."
Amelia, who was coordinating the agents around the victims, looked toward her.
"What is its purpose?"
"To recognize permission."
Elion passed the tip of an instrument over one of the red lines.
"More specifically, to recognize consent. The tower wanted Kael to enter by his own decision. When he held the door, the mechanism interpreted it as partial acceptance."
Kael looked at the mark.
"So I already opened something."
"Yes," Elion replied. "I still do not know what."
"Wonderful."
The figure at the end of the corridor began moving away again.
Kael turned toward the others.
"Amelia, you stay here."
She immediately frowned.
"No."
"I need someone controlling the exit, the victims, and the teams. If the tower closes another passage, you organize the withdrawal."
"I can do that inside."
"Not if you do not know what is happening outside."
Amelia held his gaze for several seconds. Kael was not trying to keep her away because he considered her weak. He was entrusting her with the only position from which the entire operation could remain connected.
"You will answer the crystal," she said.
"When I can."
"No. Always."
"That may be difficult during combat."
"Then answer before it starts."
Kael exhaled.
"Fine."
He looked toward Irelia.
"Stay with her."
Irelia did not argue.
"I will keep the routes closed and follow the teams with the wagons."
"If any cargo becomes active again, tell me."
"Immediately."
Violet stepped forward.
"I am going in."
Kael studied the commander. She was armed, protected against blood magic, and knew better than any other soldier there what kinds of vampiric structures might exist inside the tower.
"You are coming. Eleonor, Elion, Sylphie, and Umbra too."
Eleonor raised an eyebrow.
"Are you giving orders to your grandmother?"
"I am trying."
"Keep trying."
Kael took that as acceptance.
He drew his sword and looked toward the descending corridor. The vessels fitted into the walls reacted to his presence. Remnants of light moved inside the cracked crystals, forming eyes, hands, and fragments of faces that disappeared before taking complete shape.
"Do not touch the vessels," Kael said. "And do not use large-scale magic until we know where the energy goes."
Elion smiled slightly.
"You are finally beginning to think like someone who studies ancient structures."
"Do not insult me."
She looked satisfied.
Kael crossed the doorway first.
The red line on the ground lit beneath his feet, but he did not allow mana to circulate through it. Instead, he distributed energy only through his own body, keeping Celestial Step ready without releasing it. Sylphie came immediately behind him, still connected to the mark. Umbra disappeared beneath his shadow. Eleonor and Elion followed in the center, while Violet closed the formation.
The corridor was longer than it had appeared from outside. It descended at a constant angle, curving into the mountain. The walls were made of dark blocks, each marked with numbers and partially erased names. There was no dust.
That passage was used often.
Kael touched one of the names with his fingertips.
"Families?"
Violet approached.
"Bloodlines."
She read what remained of the inscription.
"Some are vampiric. Others I do not recognize."
Eleonor observed the opposite wall.
"Because they do not belong only to vampires."
There were human and elven names, along with others written in ancient alphabets. The organization had not collected only blood. It had gathered memories, magical inheritances, and fragments from several races over a very long time.
The figure in white turned the curve at the end of the corridor.
Kael quickened his pace.
"Do not run," Sylphie said.
"I am walking quickly."
"You are about to use the technique."
"That is not running."
She pulled his shirt from behind.
Kael slowed slightly.
When they reached the curve, they found a smooth wall.
The figure had disappeared.
There was no door, passage, or shadow indicating where it had gone. Only a stone surface covered by hundreds of small circular marks.
Violet placed her ear against it.
"Nothing."
Elion brought one of her instruments closer.
"There is space behind it."
Kael examined the circles. Each was the same size as the vessels in the walls, but empty. At the center was a larger mark, similar to the one climbing his arm.
"It wants the mark."
"Probably," Eleonor said.
"Then we will give it something else."
Kael placed his sword between the stones and closed his eyes. He did not try to cut through the wall. He expanded his perception through the blade, using the metal as an extension of his mana. He felt the internal lines of the mechanism, the small channels connecting each circle to the central symbol, and the greater current descending toward the Well.
The structure expected his mark to complete the circuit.
Kael sent scarlet mana without the celestial portion.
The wall reacted.
The circles lit up, but the central symbol remained incomplete.
Elion looked at him.
"What are you doing?"
"Showing it the wrong key."
"It will notice."
"That is what I want."
Kael increased the flow for less than a second and cut it off abruptly.
The mechanism tried to complete the missing energy by itself. The internal channels pulled mana from the Well, reversed direction, and opened the wall to receive what they believed was the key.
The stone split down the center.
Elion remained silent.
Kael looked at her.
"You can praise me."
"That was reckless."
"But it worked."
"Unfortunately."
The passage beyond the wall was much wider. Mining rails crossed the floor, continuing toward a circular platform suspended over a deep space. Dozens of chains descended from the walls, each supporting rows of vessels. Some were empty. Others contained human lights pulsing slowly.
The figure in white stood at the center of the platform.
This time, it did not retreat.
"You learn quickly," it said.
Kael entered the chamber without lowering the sword from in front of his body.
"You keep making the same mistakes."
"Which ones?"
"You believe there is only one way to open a door."
The figure raised the cup.
The surrounding chains began to move.
The vessels were pulled upward, forming walls between the group and the central platform. Kael saw faces appearing inside the crystals. Some screamed. Others merely watched, too exhausted even to react.
"Do not attack," he ordered.
Violet stopped advancing.
Eleonor dismissed the magic she had been preparing.
The figure in white tilted its head.
"Your strength is useless here."
Kael studied the chains. Each passed through pulleys attached to the ceiling and ended in a set of seals beneath the platform. The system used the vessels as shields because it knew they would not risk destroying them.
"I do not need to break the vessels."
The figure made a small gesture with the cup.
The chains descended.
The walls of crystal advanced toward the group from three directions, compressing the space. If they were struck, they would be pushed toward the edge of the chamber or forced to destroy the vessels to escape.
Kael sheathed his sword.
Sylphie looked at him.
"What are you doing?"
"I need both hands free."
He lowered his center of gravity.
Celestial Step circulated through every muscle, but he did not release its full speed. He observed the chains, the spaces between the vessels, and the small openings created whenever the rows swung.
Then he disappeared.
Kael crossed the first wall through a gap barely wider than his shoulder. He turned his body in the air, touched the side of a vessel with his palm only to change his axis, and reappeared on the other side without causing a single crack.
The second row descended over him.
Kael took one short step to the left, another forward, and a third diagonally. The movement looked irregular to anyone watching, but each impulse took him exactly between two chains.
The figure raised the cup more forcefully.
The rows changed direction.
Kael was already beneath the platform.
He saw the seals.
Six large circles attached to the support columns. Each controlled one section of the chains. Destroying the circles would make the vessels fall. Interrupting them without support would cause the same thing.
So he did not destroy them.
Kael seized the first chain and pulled.
The metal resisted.
He planted his feet, channeled mana through his body, and tore the chain away from the seal, but kept it held in his hand. The row of vessels stopped in the air, supported by his own strength.
"Eleonor!"
His grandmother understood.
Purple magic surrounded the chain and fixed it in space.
Kael released it and moved toward the second.
The figure in white finally lost part of its calm.
"Stop."
Kael tore free the second chain.
Sylphie secured the row with roots of natural energy spreading across the ceiling.
Umbra held the third, using her own shadow as support beneath the vessels.
Violet reached the fourth and drove her sword between the links, locking the mechanism.
Elion threw instruments into the final two pulleys.
Within seconds, the moving walls were trapped.
Kael climbed the side of the platform and placed his feet at the center.
Now he stood in front of the figure.
It seemed taller from close by. The white cloak carried no symbol, but was stained with old lines of dried blood. The cup in its hand was made from a material resembling bone, covered in inscriptions so small they looked like cracks.
Kael pointed toward the object.
"That is the key."
The figure retreated half a step.
"You are."
"I am the door."
Kael used Celestial Step.
His hand closed around the cup before the figure could pull it away.
Force crossed his arm.
The red mark exploded with light.
The floor beneath the platform opened.
Kael saw the Well for the first time.
It was not a simple opening. It was a circular structure hundreds of meters deep, covered with stone rings, vessels attached to the walls, and rivers of dark mana descending toward something breathing far below. Every inhalation from that thing pulled light from the vessels. Every exhalation made the mountain tremble.
The figure seized Kael’s wrist.
"Now."
Kael realized the mistake.
The cup was not merely the key.
It was the final link required to connect his mark directly to the Well.
The red lines crossed his chest and reached the center of his mana.
Sylphie screamed his name.
The Well pulled.
Kael felt his entire body lean toward the opening even though his feet remained fixed to the platform. Something enormous opened its eyes far below. Two red lights appeared in the darkness, too far apart to belong to any ordinary creature.
The voice did not enter only his mind.
It echoed throughout the chamber.
"Sun."
Kael tightened his grip around the cup.
The figure in white smiled beneath the hood.
"Finally."
He looked at his own hand, then at the lines connected to the Well.
The fear existed.
But it did not paralyze him.
Kael noticed something the figure had not considered.
The connection worked in both directions.
If the Well could pull his mana through the cup, then he could also reach whatever existed on the other side.
Kael raised his eyes.
"You really should stop giving me chains."
Then he closed his hand around the cup and pulled the Well’s energy back.