Chapter 32. Vault of Echoes
The sea was deceptively calm above Dalseren. Beneath, the pressure could crush a ship, but what Elara and her team feared more was what waited at the vault.
Nova manned the helm of their stealth submersible, The Wraith, eyes fixed on flickering sonar screens. "We’re approaching the trench," she announced. "Coordinates align. Vault’s buried under seven layers of bedrock and electromagnetic interference. They really didn’t want this found."
Jeren exhaled, adjusting his neural visor. "Requiem isn’t just a weapon. It’s a truth they buried. We’re about to exhume history."
Damien glanced at Elara. "You ready to dig up your ghosts?"
"I don’t have a choice anymore," she whispered. "They left pieces of me down here. It’s time I retrieved them."
The Wraith reached the trench. Lights scanned jagged terrain, finally revealing a seamless obsidian structure, massive and humming with latent energy.
"There it is," Lyne said. "The Vault."
They donned their suits and emerged into the abyss, magnetic boots anchoring them to the vault’s surface.
As Nova deployed a pulse disruptor to disable the vault’s outer field, Elara’s HUD pinged. A name flickered across her display.
REQUIEM: ACCESS GRANTED
"I didn’t authorize—" she began.