Chapter 33: The Corridor of shattered Souls

 

The interior of the Crimson Spire was a architectural nightmare. It was as if a Victorian cathedral had crashed into an ancient Taoist temple. Stained glass windows depicting biblical saints were covered in yellow paper talismans, and the air smelled of expensive cologne mixed with the metallic tang of alchemical mercury.

Valerius led them up a spiraling staircase made of human bones fused together with red jade. He moved with a fluid, unnatural grace, his flute tapping a silent rhythm against his thigh.

"You are deteriorating, Subject 001," Valerius noted without looking back. "I can hear your nanobots screaming. They are trying to rewrite your neural pathways to accept the 'Chimera' state. If you don't stabilize soon, you won't be a King. You'll be a bomb."

Caleb gritted his teeth, his hand gripping the railing until the bone cracked. His vision was glitching—flashes of silver binary code overlaying the real world. Every time he looked at Valerius, a red target box appeared over the vampire’s heart.

“Target Locked. Probability of Kill: 88%.” The AI whispered in his skull.

"Get out of my head," Caleb growled, his voice a distorted rasp.

Scarlett walked beside him, her hand hovering near his back, pouring a steady stream of calming spiritual energy into him. "Ignore the numbers, Caleb. Focus on my voice. Valerius, where is the cure?"

They reached the top of the stairs, arriving at a massive set of double doors made of polished obsidian. Valerius stopped and turned, a cruel, amused smile playing on his pale lips.

"The Beta Strain isn't a pill you swallow, little weaver. It is a Resonance Frequency," Valerius explained. "My blood carries the code for stability. To transfer it, I must perform the Blood-Binding Ritual. But I do not waste my blood on broken tools."

He pushed the doors open.

Beyond lay a long, narrow corridor lined with hundreds of mirrors. But they weren't normal mirrors. The glass rippled like water, and the reflections inside moved independently of the people standing before them.

"The Corridor of Shattered Souls," Valerius announced. "These mirrors reflect your sub-routines. Your fears. Your programming. If you walk through this hall and lose control—if you let the 'Weapon' take over for even a microsecond—the mirrors will shatter, and the shards will flay the flesh from your bones."

He leaned in close to Caleb, his red eyes glowing. "Prove to me that you are a sentient being worthy of salvation, and not just a glitch in the Matrix. Walk to the other side without breaking a single mirror."

Caleb looked at the corridor. It was only fifty meters long, but it felt like miles.

"And if I fail?" Caleb asked.

"Then I will harvest your Alpha core and sell the rest of you for scrap," Valerius shrugged.

"I'll go with him," Scarlett stepped forward.

"No," Valerius blocked her path with his flute. The bamboo instrument hummed with a terrifying invisible pressure. "This is a system diagnostic. External interference will corrupt the data. He walks alone."

Caleb took a deep breath. The air in his lungs felt cold. "Stay here, Scarlett. If I turn... if the mirrors break... run."

"You won't turn," Scarlett said fiercely, her eyes locking onto his. "You are the King. You command the weapon. It doesn't command you."

Caleb nodded once, then stepped into the corridor.

The moment his boot touched the floor, the mirrors came alive.

The reflection on his left didn't show Caleb. It showed the Wolf—a mindless, drooling beast tearing through a village of innocent humans.

“This is what you are,” the reflection whispered.

The reflection on his right showed the Machine—Caleb with silver skin and dead eyes, standing over Scarlett’s broken body, his hands dripping with her blood.

“This is what you will do,” the machine-reflection intoned. “You are designed to kill her. It is inevitable.”

Caleb flinched. His heart rate spiked.

“Warning: Stress levels critical. Engaging Combat Mode,” the AI in his head screamed. “Threat detected: Mirrors. Recommendation: Destroy.”

His arm began to transform. Silver fur burst through his skin, claws lengthening into daggers. He wanted to smash the glass. He wanted to silence the voices.

CRACK.

The first mirror on his left developed a hairline fracture. A shard of glass flew out, slicing Caleb’s cheek. He didn't bleed red; he bled blue fluid.

"Caleb!" Scarlett’s voice echoed from the entrance, filled with terror.

The sound of her voice was like a bucket of ice water. Caleb froze. He looked at the reflection of the machine killing Scarlett.

"No," he whispered.

He forced his claws to retract. It was agonizing, like pushing knives back into his own flesh. He closed his eyes, shutting out the visual data. He didn't focus on the reflections. He focused on the memory of the snow in the North. The smell of Scarlett’s hair. The warmth of her hand on his chest in the medical bay.

"I am... Caleb Blackwood," he gritted out, taking another step.

“You are Subject 001!” The mirrors screamed. “Kill! Maim! Burn!”

"I... am... her... mate," Caleb roared, forcing his foot forward.

The nanobots in his blood fought him. They tried to seize his muscles, to force him into a frenzy. But Caleb’s will was forged in a thousand years of solitude. He treated the AI’s commands like background noise, isolating the signal and crushing it under the weight of his own desire.

He walked. Step by agonizing step. The mirrors showed him every atrocity he had ever committed, every failure, every nightmare.

But he didn't break them. He accepted them.

"Yes, I am a monster," he said to the final mirror, which showed him sitting on a throne of skulls. "But I am her monster."

He took the final step, crossing the threshold to where Valerius stood.

Caleb collapsed to one knees, gasping for air. His sweat was blue, and his body was trembling violently, but his eyes... his eyes were pure, molten gold.

Valerius looked at him, then at the intact mirrors. For the first time, the boredom vanished from the Vampire Lord’s face, replaced by a look of genuine scientific fascination.

"Extraordinary," Valerius murmured. "You overwrote the core programming with a logic loop based on... affection? Emotional attachment as a firewall. The creators didn't anticipate that."

He looked back at Scarlett, who had rushed past him to kneel beside Caleb.

"He passed," Scarlett snapped, checking Caleb’s pulse. "Now give us the cure."

Valerius tapped his flute against his palm. "I will uphold my end of the bargain. But first, a question for the Navigator."

He pointed his flute at the jade brush hanging from Scarlett’s waist.

"That brush," Valerius said softly. "It utilizes the Five-Element Star Array. I haven't seen that specific technique since I left the Kunlun Sect three thousand years ago."

Scarlett froze. Kunlun Sect. That was the name of her sect in the original world.

"You..." Scarlett whispered, standing up slowly. "You're not just a genetic experiment. You're a transmigrator."

Valerius smiled, revealing fangs that looked more like jade daggers than bone. "Transmigrator? No, my dear. I was the first one summoned. And the man who summoned you... Master Xuan... was my apprentice."

The revelation hit the room like a bomb. The villain of her past, the ghost haunting the void, was the student of the Vampire Lord standing before her.

"So," Valerius’s eyes glowed with a dangerous, ancient light. "Did Xuan send you to kill me? Or did he send you to finish the weapon so we could finally open the Gate home?"