THE THRONE THAT HEAVEN FEARED

CHAPTER 6: THE PRICE OF STRENGTH

The lightning wasn’t just in my veins anymore; it was in my lungs. Every breath felt like inhaling ground glass. I leaned against the cold stone of the archive corridor, my chest heaving.

"You’re dying, boy. And you’re doing it very loudly."

The voice didn’t come from the hallway. It vibrated from the base of my skull, ancient and dripping with disdain.

"Who is that?" I gasped, clutching my chest.

[VOICE: THE FIRST OVERLORD. SEAL AUTHORITY: AWAKENED.]

"A name? I’m more of a consequence," the voice echoed, sounding like a man who had watched empires burn and found it mildly amusing. "That 'meal' you just ate? That Tier 4 shadow-scum? It’s sitting in your core like a lead weight. You’re a bucket with a hole in it, Cassian. If you don't fill yourself with high-grade Ether in the next hour, your new 'Void' is going to collapse and take your soul with it."

"How much Ether?" I gritted out.

"A tribute," the Overlord chuckled. "The kind they keep in the Main Spirit Vault. The kind that makes kings. Move, or start writing your will."

I looked at Luna, who was still staring at the dead assassin. "Luna, run. Go to your father. Tell him the Alliance is here. I have to go."

"Go where? Cassian, you’re glowing black!"

"To survive," I said, and I vanished into the ventilation shafts.

The Main Spirit Vault of Phoenix Academy was a fortress within a fortress. Triple-layered mana-dampening walls, kinetic sensors, and a grid of thermal lasers that could slice a fly into a dozen pieces. I moved through the vents, my skin tingling as the Overlord’s presence acted like a compass.

"Right at the junction," the Overlord commanded. "The laser grid is ahead. Step exactly where the shadows are thickest. My 'Void' will bend the light."

I dropped from the vent into the vault’s foyer. The red beams were a literal web of death.

"Are you sure about this?" I whispered.

"Stop whining. Walk."

I stepped through. The lasers hit my skin and simply… vanished. No alarm. No heat. The Void-Devouring Seal was drinking the light before it could bounce back to the sensors.

"Face-slapping the laws of physics," the Overlord muttered. "I like it. Now, the vault door."

I reached the massive, circular doors of the Spirit Vault. My father’s codes wouldn't work here; this was the Academy’s heart. But I didn't need codes. I pressed my palm to the reinforced steel.

"Eat," I commanded.

The metal groaned. The mana-lock inside the door shrieked as the Seal ripped the energy out of the mechanism. The gears spun backward, and the heavy bolts slid open with a hiss of depressurized air.

I stepped inside, expecting to see mountains of Ether crystals. Instead, I saw a blade at my throat.

"Don't move, kid. Or your head leaves your shoulders."

Three figures stood in the center of the vault. They weren't Academy guards. They wore high-tech infiltration suits and silver masks. They had already emptied half the shelves into specialized containment crates.

"A rival group?" I said, my voice cold despite the knife at my windpipe. "In my vault?"

"Your vault?" the lead thief, a tall man with a jagged scar across his mask’s eye-slit, laughed. "This is the Academy’s hoard, brat. And you just saved us the trouble of hacking the final lock. Thanks for the door service."

"Give me the Ether," I said. "I’m not in the mood for a conversation."

"The janitor thinks he’s a player," a female thief mocked, leveling a pulse-rifle at my chest. "Boss, should I put a hole in him?"

"Wait," the leader said, his eyes narrowing as he looked at my glowing black veins. "What are you? You don't have a pulse, but you’re radiating... nothingness."

"I'm the guy who’s going to let you live if you leave the crates," I said.

"Funny kid," the leader sneered. He pulled back his fist, glowing with reinforced kinetic energy, and slammed it into my jaw.

CRACK.

My head didn't move. His hand did. The sound of breaking finger bones echoed in the vault. He screamed, clutching his shattered hand.

"My turn," I said. I caught him by the throat and slammed him into the vault wall. "The Ether. Now."

"Kill him!" the leader choked out.

The girl pulled the trigger. Voom! A bolt of concentrated plasma roared toward my face.

I opened my mouth and swallowed it.

The silence that followed was absolute. The thieves froze. The Overlord laughed in my head. "A bit theatrical, don't you think?"

"Shut up," I muttered.

Suddenly, the entire vault shuddered. A siren blared—not the soft chirp of a local sensor, but the deep, bone-shaking roar of the High Elder’s personal alarm.

"You idiot!" the female thief screamed. "The door! You left the mana-lock drained! The system just triggered a total containment lockdown!"

The massive steel doors slammed shut with the force of a falling moon.

CLANG.

The room went dark, illuminated only by the red emergency strobes.

"Scan initiated," a cold, synthetic voice announced. "Unauthorized presence detected in Vault Alpha. Poison gas deployment in sixty seconds. Sentinel Squad Sigma approaching for execution."

I looked at the three elite thieves. They looked at me. We were trapped in a ten-by-ten reinforced box with enough Ether to power a city and enough poison gas to kill an army.

"Well," the leader hissed, drawing a second, vibrating blade. "If we’re dying in here, I’m taking you with me."

"You really don't get it," I said, the lightning finally beginning to arc off my skin in black bolts. "I'm not trapped in here with you. You're trapped in here with me."

From the other side of the door, I heard the heavy, synchronized boots of the Sentinel Squad.

"Open it!" a commander barked outside. "Kill everything inside!"

The Overlord’s voice turned dark and hungry. "The main course is almost here, Cassian. Are you ready to pay the price?"