Chapter 138: overwhelming strength

# Chapter: The Gate Beneath the Kingdom

The creature was not trying to escape.

It was trying to let something in.

Amon moved.

The corridor exploded behind him as he accelerated toward the lower levels.

Theron followed with the Royal Guard commander, but neither could maintain the same speed.

Amon did not care.

The system continued updating.

[Gate opening progress: 13%.]

[15%.]

[17%.]

Too fast.

He reached the first underground checkpoint.

The reinforced doors were open.

Two guards lay outside.

Alive.

Unconscious.

Amon crouched beside the nearest.

No wounds.

Black residue covered the man’s temple.

The foreign entity had passed through here.

He continued.

The next level was worse.

Formation lines across the walls had been erased.

Not broken.

Erased.

Entire sections of carefully constructed defensive arrays had simply ceased to exist.

Theron finally caught up.

He stopped when he saw the damage.

"That’s impossible."

Amon glanced at him.

"You say that often."

Theron ignored the comment.

He touched one of the blank sections.

"There were six defensive arrays here."

"Not anymore."

"No."

Theron’s face tightened.

"They weren’t destroyed."

Amon already knew.

The formation master looked toward him.

"They were removed from the formation structure itself."

Amon’s eyes narrowed.

"Can you restore them?"

"Not quickly."

"Then they’re irrelevant."

Amon continued downward.

[Gate opening progress: 21%.]

A deep vibration spread through the palace.

Stone dust fell from the ceiling.

The commander drew his sword.

"How far?"

Theron looked down the spiral passage.

"Another nine levels."

Amon disappeared again.

He crossed three before the next attack came.

A royal guard stepped from a side corridor.

"Amon!"

He stopped.

The man was injured.

Blood covered one side of his armor.

"We found it."

"Found what?"

"The intruder."

Amon’s Danger Sense reacted.

Too late.

The guard smiled.

Black filled his eyes.

Amon cut his head off.

The corpse remained standing.

One hand reached toward Amon’s chest.

He caught the wrist.

"Still using the same trick."

The vessel smiled with its severed head lying on the floor.

Then the entire body exploded.

Black script covered the corridor.

[Foreign binding structure detected.]

Amon activated Suppression.

The symbols froze.

Theron and the commander arrived just as Amon crushed the vessel anchor.

The body collapsed.

Theron stared at it.

"That was one of ours."

"Not anymore."

Amon looked ahead.

"Check everyone before they approach."

The commander nodded.

Amon continued.

The next four levels contained more bodies.

Some were guards.

Some servants.

Two were formation workers assigned to the lower chambers.

Every one possessed black eyes.

Every one attacked.

Amon killed them without slowing.

Their anchors became easier to find.

Chest.

Spine.

Skull.

Abdomen.

The foreign entity was becoming careless.

Or desperate.

[Gate opening progress: 29%.]

Amon reached the final sealed descent.

A circular door blocked the passage.

More than twenty formation layers covered it.

Theron arrived seconds later.

He immediately began activating seals.

Nothing happened.

His expression changed.

"It isn’t responding."

Amon stepped forward.

"Move."

Theron looked at him.

"This door was built to withstand..."

Azrael struck once.

The entire structure split down the center.

Theron fell silent.

Amon kicked the two halves inward.

The passage beyond descended vertically.

No stairs.

A black shaft.

Amon jumped.

Theron looked over the edge.

"There’s a lift."

The commander stared at him.

Then both men jumped after Amon.

The fall lasted several seconds.

Amon landed first.

Boom!

The impact cracked the floor.

The chamber around him illuminated automatically.

Ancient symbols glowed across the walls.

Not royal formations.

Prison script.

Amon’s eyes narrowed.

The kingdom had built its palace above this place.

But they had never built this chamber.

Theron and the commander landed behind him using movement techniques.

Theron looked around.

"I’ve never been this deep."

Amon glanced at him.

"You opened the gate three nights ago."

"The upper interface."

Theron pointed toward the ceiling.

"We never entered this section."

That meant someone else had.

Amon looked ahead.

The chamber extended into a long corridor.

At the end stood another black door.

Already open.

[Gate opening progress: 34%.]

They moved forward.

The pressure increased with every step.

Azrael vibrated.

The Prison Law Fragment reacted.

Then Amon noticed the bodies.

Dozens.

Not recent.

Skeletons.

Some human.

Others not.

Many had chains wrapped around their limbs.

Theron slowed.

"What is this place?"

Amon activated Seal Recognition.

Information flooded his perception.

Lines.

Containment structures.

Suppression layers.

Transfer mechanisms.

Then one concept formed clearly.

"Processing chamber."

Theron looked at him.

"For what?"

Amon studied the chains.

"Prisoners."

Silence.

The commander looked toward the open door.

"So the gate..."

"Wasn’t just an entrance."

Amon continued walking.

"It moved prisoners."

The final chamber opened before them.

All three stopped.

The gate dominated the room.

A circular structure nearly thirty meters tall stood embedded inside the far wall.

Its surface looked like black glass.

Silver symbols rotated around its edges.

At the center, darkness moved like liquid.

The creature stood before it.

Not one vessel.

Dozens.

Bodies surrounded the gate in a circle.

Men.

Women.

Guards.

Servants.

People Amon had never seen.

All standing with arms extended.

Black threads connected them to the structure.

The gate progress rose.

[41%.]

Amon raised Azrael.

Every vessel turned toward him.

The same smile appeared across every face.

"You came quickly."

Amon stepped forward.

"You knew I would."

"Of course."

The voices overlapped.

"You always choose her."

Amon’s eyes darkened.

The creature continued.

"That is why the system chose you."

Theron looked toward him.

Amon ignored it.

"Stop the gate."

The vessels laughed.

"No."

Amon vanished.

Azrael tore through three bodies.

Their anchors shattered instantly.

The gate flickered.

[Gate opening progress reduced: 39%.]

Amon noticed.

The vessels were powering it.

Good.

He moved again.

Five bodies rushed him.

Two exploded before reaching him.

Black script spread across the room.

Suppression activated.

The script failed.

Amon cut through another vessel.

Then another.

[37%.]

The entity’s voice changed.

"You think killing these bodies will stop it?"

Amon crushed an anchor.

[35%.]

"It seems to be working."

The gate pulsed.

Something struck the other side.

BOOM!

Everyone froze.

The black surface bent outward.

Theron’s face went white.

"What was that?"

The entity smiled through twenty mouths.

"Someone who has waited a very long time."

A second impact.

BOOM!

Cracks of silver light spread across the gate.

The system reacted.

[Warning.]

[Containment pressure increasing.]

Amon looked toward the remaining vessels.

"Commander."

The man straightened.

"Kill the bodies."

The commander hesitated.

"They’re citizens."

"They’re already dead."

The entity laughed.

"Are they?"

One vessel cried out.

Not with the shared voice.

A woman’s voice.

"Help me!"

The commander froze.

The woman’s black eyes flickered back to normal.

"Please!"

Theron stepped forward.

"She’s alive."

Amon’s eyes narrowed.

The woman sobbed.

"I can hear it inside my head."

The foreign entity laughed through the others.

"Some vessels are empty."

"Some aren’t."

Amon looked around.

The trap was obvious.

Force him to hesitate.

The commander lowered his sword slightly.

Amon did not.

"System."

[Master.]

"Can you distinguish living hosts from dead vessels?"

[Scanning.]

The gate shook again.

[Opening progress: 38%.]

[Analysis complete.]

[Living consciousness detected in 11 vessels.]

[22 vessels contain no surviving original consciousness.]

Amon’s eyes moved across the room.

The system marked them.

Good.

"Eleven alive."

Theron looked at him sharply.

"You can tell?"

"Yes."

"Which?"

Amon pointed.

"Those."

The commander moved immediately.

He attacked one of the unmarked bodies.

The vessel tried to defend.

Too slow.

Its head fell.

Theron began forming seals around the living hosts.

Amon attacked the rest.

The entity screamed.

Not in pain.

Rage.

"You think you can separate us?"

Amon cut through two more anchors.

"Already am."

[Gate opening progress: 31%.]

Something changed.

The living vessels began convulsing.

Theron shouted.

"It’s killing the hosts!"

Amon stopped.

Black veins spread across their faces.

The system flashed.

[Foreign entity initiating forced vessel collapse.]

Amon’s expression hardened.

"Prison Law Fragment."

[Available functions: Suppression. Binding. Seal Recognition.]

"Bind the foreign signatures."

[Insufficient compatibility for complete network binding.]

"Bind what you can."

The fragment activated.

Black chains appeared.

Not physically.

Amon saw them through fate perception.

They wrapped around the eleven living hosts.

The foreign threads froze.

The entity screamed.

"What did you steal from the prison?"

Amon ignored it.

Theron stared at the suddenly stabilized bodies.

"What did you do?"

"Keep working."

Amon rushed forward.

The remaining empty vessels moved to intercept him.

Azrael became a continuous black arc.

Bodies fell.

Anchors shattered.

The gate percentage dropped.

27%.

24%.

21%.

The creature’s voice became frantic.

"You don’t understand what you’re stopping."

Amon drove Azrael through another skull.

"Then explain while I kill you."

"That gate is the only reason this kingdom still exists!"

Amon stopped for less than a second.

The entity laughed.

There.

The hesitation it wanted.

"The prison is feeding your barriers."

Amon looked toward Theron.

The formation master had gone still.

"That’s possible."

Amon’s eyes narrowed.

Theron continued.

"If the gate is connected to the capital formations..."

The entity smiled.

"Close it completely and your precious walls begin dying."

The commander looked horrified.

Amon stared at the gate.

The opening progress remained at 19%.

One choice.

Stop the gate.

Risk collapsing the kingdom’s defenses.

Or allow something imprisoned beyond it to enter.

The creature spoke softly through the remaining vessels.

"Now you understand."

Amon looked at the black surface.

Another impact struck from the other side.

BOOM!

The gate bent.

A massive silhouette appeared behind the darkness.

Then the system flashed.

[Special Sign-In available.]

Amon’s eyes sharpened.

Of course.

He had nearly forgotten.

The entire reason the system had drawn him here.

Amon stepped toward the gate.

The entity noticed.

"What are you doing?"

Amon placed one hand against the black frame.

The foreign creature screamed.

"No!"

Amon smiled faintly.

"Sign in."

The entire chamber went silent.

[Special Sign-In successful.]

[Location: Ancient Prison Transfer Gate.]

[Extreme fate convergence detected.]

[Reward quality undergoing forced elevation.]

The gate stopped moving.

Even the thing on the other side stopped striking.

Then a notification appeared.

[Congratulations.]

[You have obtained: Gatekeeper Authority Fragment.]

The Prison Law Fragment reacted immediately.

The two powers collided inside Amon.

Then merged.

[Authority synergy detected.]

[New function unlocked.]

[Gate Control.]

Amon looked at the entity.

Every vessel had gone completely still.

For the first time since entering the chamber, the foreign creature sounded afraid.

"You can’t have that."

Amon raised his hand toward the gate.

Silver symbols changed direction.

The opening percentage began falling.

18%.

15%.

11%.

The creature screamed.

The silhouette behind the gate slammed forward.

BOOM!

Amon’s eyes remained cold.

"Close."

[Gate Control activated.]

[Gate closing.]

9%.

6%.

3%.

The massive shape on the other side suddenly moved closer.

For one instant, a face appeared through the shrinking darkness.

Not human.

Not anything Amon recognized.

Hundreds of eyes opened.

All of them focused on him.

Then a voice entered his mind.

"Gatekeeper."

The gate reached zero.

The darkness vanished.

Silence.

Every remaining vessel collapsed.

Amon lowered his hand.

The system flashed one final warning.

[Ancient Prison Transfer Gate sealed.]

[Barrier energy supply interrupted.]

Amon’s expression changed.

Above them, somewhere hundreds of meters away, alarms began screaming across the capital.

Theron looked upward.

His face turned pale.

"The barrier."

Amon felt it too.

The enormous protective formation surrounding the kingdom’s capital had begun to weaken.