Chapter 36: Project 616
Beneath the earth’s crust lie places mankind has long forgotten — if they ever knew them at all.
Forgotten citadels swallowed by time, buried artifacts, tombs of long-lost civilizations.
But none rival Subterrane 616 — a cathedral beneath the world, where science weds heresy, where faith becomes torture, and angels are reduced to raw material.
Behind doors sealed with triple crypt-locks, light filtered dimly through a metallic ceiling laced with a mesh of cables.
There was no oxygen here — none was needed. Those who entered did not require it to live.
A corridor stretched forward, flanked by towering vats of reinforced glass.
Inside each tank floated a winged being, suspended in golden fluid, eyes closed, golden tears streaming from shut lids.
Their broken wings sometimes twitched in spasms of despair.
At the end of the corridor, a figure advanced — regal, unhurried.
He wore white robes embroidered with inverted crosses, a papal vestment reinforced with plates of silver.
A hood cast a soft shadow over hair that shimmered like sunlit gold.