Chapter 36: The Second Vault
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The tunnel trembled.
Ancient stone groaned as crimson light leaked through the opening beneath the city.
Neither Rasheed nor Omar moved.
Neither took their eyes off Mr. Vale.
He stood between them with his hands folded behind his back.
Perfectly calm.
“You’ve both already realized it, haven’t you?” he said.
“This city isn’t built on concrete.”
“It’s built on secrets.”
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The ground shook again.
A chunk of stone crashed from the ceiling.
Rasheed reacted first.
Red lightning flashed.
He caught the falling slab before it crushed a group of maintenance workers fleeing the tunnels.
Omar didn’t hesitate either.
Blue lightning surged.
He guided the workers toward the emergency exit.
No words.
No coordination.
Just instinct.
Mr. Vale watched with quiet amusement.
“Exactly as I expected.”
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The ancient door continued opening.
Only another few inches.
But that was enough.
A pulse of crimson energy burst into the chamber.
It washed over everyone.
For a split second…
Time fractured.
The falling dust froze in midair.
The dripping water stopped.
Even the echoes fell silent.
Only the three men remained able to move.
Rasheed stared upward.
“…What is this?”
The Librarian’s voice echoed in his memory.
“Chrona is not just energy.
It is possibility.”
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Then time snapped back.
Everything crashed down at once.
Dust.
Noise.
Gravity.
Mr. Vale adjusted his cufflinks.
“You felt it.”
Omar narrowed his eyes.
“What are you trying to open?”
Vale smiled.
“The wrong question.”
He glanced at the glowing doorway.
“You should be asking…”
“What was someone trying so desperately to keep closed?”
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Without warning…
Three masked operatives emerged from the shadows.
Each wore dark armor lined with faint silver circuitry.
Not Syndicate smugglers.
Professionals.
Vale’s personal guard.
“Delay them.”
They nodded silently.
Vale stepped toward the opening.
He had no intention of fighting.
He was already winning.
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The first operative lunged.
His gauntlets crackled with unstable Chrona energy.
Rasheed intercepted him.
Their collision sent sparks across the tunnel wall.
The second charged Omar.
Blue lightning erupted as Omar redirected the man’s momentum into a stone pillar.
The third operative…
Ignored both heroes.
Instead, he sprinted straight toward the ancient door carrying a compact metallic device.
Rasheed saw it.
“So that’s the real target.”
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He accelerated.
Everything blurred.
One heartbeat.
Two.
The operative reached the threshold.
Rasheed reached him a fraction of a second later.
Their hands touched the device simultaneously.
It activated.
A sphere of crimson light exploded around them.
The world disappeared.
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Rasheed found himself standing alone.
The tunnel was gone.
Instead…
He stood inside an impossibly vast laboratory.
Bright.
Silent.
Untouched.
Scientists hurried between enormous machines.
Young David Adewale laughed with two colleagues.
One was unmistakably the Librarian.
The third…
Still had his face.
Rasheed couldn’t see it clearly.
But something about the man’s posture…
Felt familiar.
Then—
The vision flickered.
The smiling scientist turned.
His expression twisted into fear.
Alarms screamed.
A brilliant column of crimson light erupted through the center of the laboratory.
Glass shattered.
Machines exploded.
Someone shouted—
“Close the gate!”
The memory shattered into fragments.
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Rasheed gasped.
He was back in the tunnel.
Only a second had passed.
The operative lay unconscious at his feet.
The device had melted into slag.
Across the chamber…
Omar looked equally shaken.
“You saw something…”
Rasheed whispered.
Omar met his eyes.
“I saw…”
He stopped himself.
“…nothing.”
It was a lie.
And they both knew it.
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Mr. Vale reached the doorway.
He placed his hand against the ancient stone.
The compass inside his coat began to glow.
The massive door slowly sealed itself shut.
The crimson light faded.
The tremors stopped.
Silence returned.
Rasheed frowned.
“You…”
“…closed it?”
Vale looked over his shoulder.
His smile carried no triumph.
Only certainty.
“I never intended to open the Second Vault.”
The words echoed through the chamber.
“I only needed to know…”
“…whether it would answer to David’s son.”
Rasheed’s blood ran cold.
Mr. Vale knew.
Not everything.
But enough.
Vale inclined his head once more.
“Our next meeting will be far less polite.”
With that, smoke capsules erupted across the tunnel.
By the time they cleared…
He was gone.
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Later that night…
The Librarian listened without interrupting.
When Rasheed finished describing the vision…
The old man’s face had turned pale.
“You saw the day Project Chrona failed.”
“So it was real?”
“Yes.”
“And the third scientist?”
The Librarian closed his eyes.
“He was once our friend.”
Rasheed waited.
“What happened to him?”
The old man stared toward the rain tapping softly against the bookstore windows.
“That…”
“…is the story of how Kronis was born.”
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