Chapter 576: The Vault Beneath
Leon fitted the three Tower Keys into the central gate, one after another, and let it take them.
Each key slid into its hole and locked, and he felt the mechanism draw them deeper, claiming them. When he tested his grip on the last one out of habit, it wouldn't come free. They'd done what they were made to do, and the gate had no intention of giving them back.
[Tower Keys Accepted]
[Central Gate Unsealed]
The great doors ground apart down their center, and beyond them the dark stirred with a presence — heavy, patient, large enough that his awareness pressed against it and found no edge.
The Gatekeeper.
He knew what it carried; the Tower had told him plainly enough that it held Spatial Resistance and Technique Mimicry. The presence itself offered nothing so precise. Only weight, and the sense of something settled in for a long wait. He didn't step toward it.
