Chương 127: The Vault That Falls

Ghelkar saw them coming back by the road from Vhur. The first time, Zayn had entered the Comptoirs as an interesting anomaly. This time, the black towers shuttered their windows before he even reached the gates. The hanging chains above the Black Port stopped creaking. The cranes of the Debt Docks froze in place. In the Vault District, the floating vault-chambers descended a few meters, like enormous beasts drawing their heads down between their shoulders. Elyra looked at the city.

"They know." Zayn kept walking without slowing.

"Voragna is dead. Drakhar is dead. They'd look stupid if they didn't know." The fused scythe rested against his shoulder. The black skull still held that pale white glow trapped in its sockets, the echo of the imprisoned spirit that sometimes murmured without forming words. Zayn's right palm was wrapped in a strip of black cloth stolen from Vhur. The bandage was useless. The lines of Avarice burned through it. In his other arm, the heat of the Crook of Vhur slept poorly.

At times, his veins lit up beneath his skin, red and painful, and a thin smoke rose from his wrists. Elyra saw him grit his teeth.

"Drakhar's blood again?"

"Yes."

"You should stop." He let out a short laugh.

"In front of Ghelkar? Cassiel would take that as a negotiation." The scythe added,"And we do not negotiate. We break very expensive furniture." Lumeï, hidden beneath Elyra's cloak, murmured,"I'd like it if one day our plan couldn't be summarized like that." They passed through the gates without being stopped. It was almost insulting. No one asked their names. No one asked their price. No one asked their purpose. The streets of Ghelkar were empty. Not abandoned. Emptied. The merchants had shut their stalls.

The brokers had locked their offices. The porters had fled the docks. Even the demons of the lower quarters watched from their windows without daring to come closer. A line of black-gold light shone in the middle of the street. It led toward the Vault District. Zayn followed it. Elyra walked beside him.

"He's guiding you."

"I know."

"You're really going to follow the line he gives you?"

"Yes." She sighed.

"And then you'll do exactly the opposite of what he expects?" Zayn smiled.

"You learn too fast." The line of gold led them to the heart of the Vault District. There, Ghelkar stopped being a city. It was a vertical cage. Giant vault-chambers floated between towers of black metal, suspended by chains as thick as trees. Some were round, others cubic, others shaped like palace coffins. Thousands of locks gleamed on their surfaces. At the center, a vault larger than all the others hung above a bottomless abyss. The Mother Vault. Elyra looked up.

"That's what he wants you to attack." Zayn looked at the suspended mass.

"No." She frowned.

"No?"

"That's what he thinks I'll want to open." The scythe laughed softly.

"It's adorable when a vault thinks it's important." A voice dropped from above.

"A vault is important only to the one who believes what it contains can still be lost." Cassiel Varn appeared on a high walkway. He was exactly like Ghelkar. Elegant. Cold. Impossible to believe unarmed. His skin bore thin golden lines like precious cracks. His fingers were covered in seal-rings. His smile was exact, without warmth, without waste. The system opened before Zayn after a few seconds, as if it had needed to evaluate more than a body. [Demon General detected.] [Cassiel Varn — Avarice.] [Estimated Soul Force: 226.] Cassiel looked at Zayn. Then at the black bandage wrapped around his palm. Then at the red veins beneath his skin. Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

"You carry Voragna in your flesh, Drakhar in your blood, Vhur in your arm, a stolen spirit in your scythe, and my cracked ring in your pocket." His smile widened only slightly.

"You have become a very poorly organized collection." Zayn raised his head.

"You sold Elvarin."

"Yes." No excuse. No detour. Elyra stiffened. Cassiel continued,"Voragna made him useful. Drakhar made him necessary. I made him mobile. Each of us did what we knew how to do." The mark of Avarice pulsed in Zayn's palm.

"You moved what was mine." Cassiel tilted his head slightly.

"No. I understood before you did that you would consider him so." The ground trembled. Dozens of secondary vaults opened. Not with doors. With metal jaws. Guardians came out of them: empty armors filled with liquid gold, giants made of chains, blind vault-hounds, each carrying a lock in place of a heart. Elyra drew her blade of light.

"He isn't going to talk only." Zayn smiled.

"At last." Cassiel lifted a hand.

"Go on. Take what you can." The guardians attacked. Zayn entered their mass. The first vault-hound leaped for his throat. He cut off its head with the white edge of the scythe. The head fell, then tried to close its jaws around his boot. Zayn crushed it underfoot, activated Ruined Time, and the black metal rusted away in a single breath. A giant of chains struck with two enormous arms. Zayn raised his left hand. Drakhar's blood ignited. His veins burned.

A red flame ran through his forearm and climbed into his black wings. The edges of the membranes caught fire. He struck with the heat of Vhur. One of the giant's arms melted halfway. Zayn's skin melted too. He clenched his teeth while Voragna's regeneration nearly sealed the burns at once. Not fast enough to erase the pain. Fast enough to keep going. He tore the lock out of the giant's chest. His right palm opened beneath the bandage. The black lines of Avarice lit up.

"Right of Seizure." The lock resisted. Then gave way. The giant collapsed. [Vault Guardian destroyed.] [Soul Force absorbed: +2.] [Current Soul Force: 245 → 247.] Zayn threw the lock aside.

"Too little." Cassiel watched from the walkway.

"You still judge value by what it gives you immediately. That is very poor." Zayn looked up.

"Come down and make me richer." Cassiel smiled. Then snapped his fingers. The Mother Vault opened. A pale light came out. Not gold. Not weapons. Images. Zayn saw Elvarin. Not alive. A memory. The researcher, sold, moved, marked, trembling inside a transport crate. Copies of his notes. Fragments of his confessions. Names of the demons who had taken part in the exchanges. Pieces of archives on Rhel-Fosse. Human reports bought from the borders. Then, at the center of the vault, a black plate.

An incomplete copy of his first status. The one the humans had censored. The one Cassiel had tried to buy. Zayn went still. Elyra saw it.

"Zayn…" Cassiel spoke softly.

"You wanted Elvarin. He is dead. You wanted answers. They are here. You wanted what was taken from you at the beginning. A part of it is here as well." The Mother Vault slowly descended.

"Come in. Take them." The guardians fell back. A path opened. Too perfect. Elyra breathed,"It's far too obvious." Zayn was staring at the black plate. His name. His first title. The first thing this world had shown him before others decided to hide it. The mark in his right palm burned so fiercely that the bandage caught fire. Cassiel continued,"You see? I do not need to chain you. I only need to keep in one place what you refuse to lose." Zayn took a step forward. Elyra grabbed his arm.

"No." He turned a cold gaze on her.

"Let go."

"No." The guardians began moving again. Cassiel did not seem hurried. Elyra held Zayn's gaze.

"He wants to make you step inside the vault. He wants to seal you in there with your answers." Zayn smiled slowly.

"I know."

"Then why are you moving?" He raised his right hand. The mark of Avarice was no longer just a wound. It was a black door in his palm.

"Because he still thinks I want to open his vault." Cassiel's eyes narrowed slightly. For the first time. Zayn placed his right palm against the ground of the Vault District. Not on the Mother Vault. On the chain that held it. The biggest one. The central chain. The one linking the Mother Vault to the foundations of Ghelkar. Elyra understood. Her eyes widened.

"You're not going to—" The fused scythe laughed with both its voices.

"Oh, yes." Cassiel thrust out a hand.

"Stop him." All the guardians rushed Zayn. Elyra stepped in front of him. Lumeï sprang out of her cloak, light unfolding.

"I'm going to regret this!"

"So will I," said Elyra. She raised her blade. The light exploded. Not to kill. To hold. Walls of pale light formed between Zayn and the guardians. The vault-hounds crashed into them. The empty armors struck. Living chains wrapped around the barrier and began to crush it. Elyra trembled.

"Be quick!" Zayn was no longer listening. His open palm pressed against the central chain.

"Right of Seizure." The chain resisted. It was not a simple object. It was the anchor of the Mother Vault. Cassiel's physical guarantee. The symbol of everything Ghelkar believed impossible to steal. The mark of Avarice entered it. Zayn saw thousands of possessions. Names. Debts. Corpses. Secrets. Memories. Final breaths. Weapons. Promises. Maps. Betrayals. Sold tears. Titles locked away. The chain wanted to pull him in. To name him. To classify him. To give him a place inside the vault among dangerous things.

Zayn started laughing.

"No." His hand sank almost into the metal.

"You're the one coming." The ground of the Vault District split apart. The Mother Vault shuddered. Cassiel was no longer smiling at all.

"Impossible." Behind her barrier, panting, Elyra shouted,"You should ban that word." Zayn pulled. Not with his muscles. With everything Avarice had become. The hand from which things were always torn away. The vengeance stolen. The hidden status. The prey displaced. The scattered fragments. The right to say: this does not leave without me. The central chain gave at one link. Only one. The sound was enormous. As if Ghelkar had just lost a tooth. Cassiel made a violent gesture.

All the secondary vault-chambers opened at once. Thousands of objects fell toward Zayn like a rain of value: blades, cages, engraved skulls, relics, coffer-boxes, masks, jewels, bones, living parchments. Not to kill him. To distract him. To call him. Every object whispered: Take me. Keep me. Use me. Own me. Zayn clenched his teeth. The mark of Avarice screamed in his hand. Elyra shouted,"Don't look!" Too late. He saw a small black plate falling among the relics. His status. Or a copy of it. He wanted it.

The chain almost slipped from his palm. Cassiel spoke, calm again:"There. Avarice is not only taking much. It is also no longer knowing what must be let go." Zayn almost reached with his other hand toward the plate. Then he stopped. An image flashed. Elvarin on the anvil. Drakhar pulling back his fist. The thing that was his, taken because he had looked too late. His right hand clenched around the chain. Harder.

"Wrong lesson." He looked up at Cassiel.

"Avarice is also choosing what no one else will have." He activated the blood of the forge. His veins ignited. Heat surged into his right arm despite the pain. Voragna's regeneration tried to repair him at the same time his own blood burned him. He screamed. The central chain glowed red. Ruined Time descended through the scythe planted in the ground. The metal aged beneath the heat. Right of Seizure pulled. The link gave way. Then a second. Then ten. The Mother Vault fell. The entire Vault District screamed.

The hanging vault-chambers began to swing. Bridges tore loose. Black towers cracked. Guardians fell into the abyss. Cassiel leaped from his walkway, landing on a side chain. His face was finally hard.

"You cannot keep that vault." Zayn slowly rose. His right hand was burned to the bone. The mark of Avarice still glowed in the open flesh.

"There," he said. His voice was hoarse.

"Now we've both lost something." Cassiel turned an icy gaze toward him.

"You just destroyed answers that might have belonged to you." Zayn stepped forward.

"Yes."

"Why?" The fused scythe reformed completely in his left hand. The white edge trembled. The black skull smiled. Zayn answered,"Because they were in your hand." Silence. Then Cassiel laughed. A short, dry laugh. Almost admiring.

"Magnificent. Stupid, ruinous, excessive… but magnificent." He raised both hands. All his rings lit up. The General's Soul Force unfurled at last, full, dense, crushing. [Cassiel Varn — Estimated Soul Force: 226.] Zayn took a step forward. His own body was shaking, but his Soul Force burned heavier now after Drakhar. [Zayn Veylor — Current Soul Force: 247.] Cassiel saw the invisible number in the way Zayn stood. He understood. The gap was no longer in his favor. Not entirely. He smiled.

"Then this will be a duel poor in words." Zayn raised the scythe.

"At last." Cassiel snapped his fingers. The shattered vaults of the Vault District opened behind him, unleashing sealed weapons, guardian beasts, purchased shadows, and oaths turned into blades. Elyra raised her light again, exhausted but still standing. As for Zayn, he walked toward Cassiel through the rain of falling riches. The Vault District was collapsing around them. And for the first time in centuries, Ghelkar saw its master fight not to possess more.

But because someone had made him feel the thing he had always inflicted on others. Loss.