Chapter 180: The Unsealing
The days that followed their arrival on Thal'Ryn passed with a deceptive, almost dreamlike normality. For Lisa, Moon, and Kai, it was a period of forced patience, a quiet interlude in a mission that thrummed with unspoken urgency.
They settled into the rhythm of the underground facility. Lisa, ever the professional, spent her hours in scheduled meetings with Dr. Voss's administrative team, reviewing data-streams and financial projections related to the planet's ecological research. Her demeanor was one of polished interest, but her mind was always on the vault, on the prize they had come to collect.
Moon and Kai wore their casual clothes—simple full-sleeved t-shirts and trousers—but it was a disguise as thin as silk.
Four Days Later
A soft chime echoed in Lisa's private quarters. On the screen was Dr. Voss, his aged face crinkled in a serene smile. "Ms. Mingrui," he said, his voice calm. "A small update. The Red Diamond Crown has been successfully unsealed. We will now re-seal it for transport. It should only take a few more hours, and then it will be ready for you to take possession of."
Lisa, who had been reviewing a document, looked up, confused. "I'm sorry, Dr. Voss? Unsealed? I thought it was already sealed when we arrived."
Dr. Voss gave a patient, almost paternal chuckle. "Ms. Mingrui, artifacts, treasures... think of them like an expensive cutlery set. I believe you will understand this example well, given your... humble background."
Lisa's eyes narrowed slightly at the condescension, but she kept her face neutral.
He continued, "When a VIP guest comes to dinner, your mother brings out the expensive, good cutlery set. The guest eats with it, and afterwards, it is carefully washed, dried, and packed away again for the next special occasion. It is the same here. The crown was 'used'—studied—in its unsealed state. To put it back in the box for travel, we must re-apply the seal. This is usually done by machine, a very quick process. But for this extraction, we had to remove it from the machine's chamber, so the re-sealing had to be done manually. Hence, the additional delay."
"I see," Lisa said, though her tone indicated she was still only partially following the technical explanation. "A little confusing, but I understand there's a process." She decided to let the matter drop. The specifics of essence-lock mechanics were not her concern; the result was.
"Excellent. We will notify you when it is ready for the final handover." Dr. Voss's image flickered away.
The moment the call ended, Lisa immediately sent a tight-beamed, encrypted message to Moon and Kai. Crown unsealed. Re-sealing in progress. Move in a few hours. Be ready.
In their room, the message was received on a discreet wrist-comm. Kai gave a single, sharp nod to Moon. Without a word, they moved.
The casual, anonymous t-shirts and trousers were shed, folded neatly, and placed aside. In their place, they donned their signature outfit . Moon in his uniform of shadow: black shirt, black trousers, stark white shoes. Kai in his inverse signature: crisp white shirt, black pants, black shoes.
A short while later, they stood flanking Lisa at the entrance to a high-security chamber deep within the facility. The air here was different—colder, humming with a concentrated energy that made the fine hairs on their arms stand up.
The door hissed open, revealing a sterile, circular room. In its center, on a pedestal, sat the Red Diamond Crown.
The crown was a single, jagged shard of raw crimson crystal. Its bloody light pulsed with a ravenous, maddening hunger.
Around the pedestal, a team of three technicians in protective suits were carefully inscribing glowing, golden runes in the air around the crown. With each rune completed, the radiant aura of the crown dimmed slightly, its wild energy being forced back into a dormant, stable state. This was the manual re-sealing process Dr. Voss had described.
Dr. Voss himself stood to the side, watching the procedure with a proud, avuncular smile. "You see, Ms. Mingrui?" he said, gesturing towards the crown. "A magnificent piece, is it not? Just a few more runic sequences, and it will be perfectly safe for travel. Your bank's asset will be secure."
Lisa nodded, her professional mask firmly in place, but her heart was pounding. They were so close.
Moon and Kai, however, did not look at the crown with wonder. Their eyes were scanners, taking in every detail of the room. The number of technicians. The position of Dr. Voss. The single, armored guard by the door. The pattern of the sealing runes. They stood perfectly still.
The final, shimmering rune settled over the Red Diamond Crown, its fiery red glow dimming to a deep, dormant crimson as the last of its radiant power was locked away. The hum in the room faded, replaced by the relieved sighs of the exhausted technicians.
Dr. Voss let out a long breath he didn't realize he'd been holding. "There," he said, turning to Lisa with a triumphant, though weary, smile. "Sealed, stable, and secure. Your asset is ready for transport, Ms. Mingrui."
He then glanced past her, his eyes briefly falling upon Moon and Kai, who stood as silent, vigilant sentinels. Lisa, following his gaze, also turned to look at them. But the look she gave Kai was not the familiar, flirtatious glint he might have expected. It was pure, unadulterated professionalism—the cool, assessing gaze of a principal confirming her security detail was in position. The mission was at its most critical juncture, and there was no room for anything else.
They stood there for a moment, a silent tableau in the sterile room. Dr. Voss was about to say something, perhaps to instruct his team to place the crown in its transport case, when the world exploded into chaos.
It started not with a sound, but with a light—a violent, flashing red light that bathed the entire underground complex in a bloody hue. A split second later, a deafening, pulsating alarm screeched through the corridors, so loud it felt physical.
BWOOOP! BWOOOP! BWOOOP!
Kai and Moon, who had been mildly confused by the initial proceedings, snapped into a state of hyper-awareness, their bodies coiling like springs. But Dr. Voss's reaction was far more visceral. All color drained from his face. His eyes widened in pure, unadulterated terror.
"No..." he whispered, the word a desperate plea. "Not again. Not this time!"
"Dr. Voss? What is happening?" Lisa demanded, her voice sharp, cutting through the siren's wail.
Before he could answer, a concussive BOOM echoed from somewhere deeper in the facility, followed by a shockwave that rattled the very floor beneath their feet. Instantly, Moon and Kai moved as one, closing the space around Lisa. They positioned themselves back-to-back with her in the center, their bodies forming a living shield, their eyes scanning for the threat in the now-strobing red light.
This was followed by a rapid series of three more explosions—CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!—the distinct, sharp reports of energy weapons fire. Screams of panic and shouts of command echoed down the hallways. The automated security systems whirred to life, heavy alloy blast doors slamming down to section off corridors.
Then, it happened in their room. With a sudden hiss, ventilation grates spewed not air, but a thick, opaque, grey smoke. In seconds, the chamber was filled with an impenetrable fog, reducing visibility to zero.
"Stay down!" Moon barked at Lisa, his voice a low growl.
Through the smoke and the blaring alarm, a new sound pierced the chaos—a man's guttural, pain-wracked scream. It was the technician who had been performing the final seal on the crown.
As the smoke began to thin, sucked away by the facility's overworked filtration systems, Dr. Voss didn't hesitate. He lunged through the fading haze towards the source of the scream, his scientific curiosity overridden by a desperate need to know.
Lisa, Moon, and Kai, though utterly bewildered, moved as one unit, following closely behind him.
The scene they came upon was gruesome. The technician was on his knees, clutching his abdomen. There was a hole—a perfectly circular, horrifically clean puncture straight through his torso, from his stomach to his lower back. It looked as if a colossal, industrial needle had been driven clean through him. His hands were empty.
The Crown was gone.
"Hold on, hold on!" Voss frantically muttered, fumbling with a simple silver band on his finger. A shimmer of light manifested in his palm, resolving into a small, crystalline vial filled with a glowing green liquid. He uncorked it and poured it into the wounded man's mouth. The man gasped as the potent healing potion took immediate effect, the bleeding stopping and the raw edges of the wound beginning to knit together at an accelerated rate.
"Tuk, can you hear me?" Voss asked, his voice urgent. "Was it her? Was it ?"
The technician, Tuk, nodded weakly, his eyes wide with a mixture of pain and fear. "Y-yes... she was here... so fast... a ghost... she attacked me... took the crown..."
Just then, one of the security team, his helmet displaying a flickering data-stream, shouted over the alarm. "Sir! We have her on the peripheral cameras! She's already on the surface! Running towards the violet jungles! Same escape vector as last time!"
"Wait! Wait! Wait!" Lisa interjected, her voice rising in frustration and confusion. She stepped forward, grabbing Voss's arm. "Tell me what you are all even talking about! Who is 'she'? And why was our asset not secured against a known threat? I don't understand any of this!"
Dr. Voss slowly turned to look at her. The terror was gone from his face, replaced by a look of profound exhaustion and deep, sincere apology. He looked like a man whose most shameful secret had just been exposed.
"Actually, Ms. Mingrui..." he began, his voice heavy with regret. "There is something I... failed to disclose..."
To be continued…