Chapter 87: Logan’s Surprise {Mass Release}
Darkness swallowed them almost immediately the moment they entered.
The hidden passage behind them sealed shut soundlessly, leaving only a faint strip of silver light running across the ceiling overhead.
For a brief moment, neither of them spoke.
The atmosphere inside the treasury felt completely different from outside.
Colder.
Heavier.
Even the air itself carried a strange metallic scent, like oxidized steel trapped underground for too long.
Luna unconsciously moved slightly closer toward Logan.
"This place seriously feels cursed."
Logan didn’t disagree.
The academy treasury wasn’t simply a storage facility.
It was where the academy hid things too dangerous, valuable, or unstable to leave elsewhere.
Some items inside were harmless.
Others...
not so much.
The narrow corridor stretched deeper underground in complete silence while faint mechanical echoes occasionally bled through the walls, distant and irregular, like something shifting behind sealed stone.
Logan continued moving forward calmly, though inwardly his thoughts remained sharply focused.
The maintenance route would only bypass the outer surveillance layers.
After this point, the real problem began.
Luna glanced toward him while walking.
"You’ve been here before."
It wasn’t phrased like a question.
Logan’s steps paused for the slightest moment before continuing again.
"Why do you think that?"
"Because you know this place too well."
Her eyes narrowed slightly.
"You even knew where the hidden route was."
Logan remained silent for several seconds.
Then finally.
"I’ve seen records."
"Records?"
"Yes."
It was vague.
Intentionally so.
Luna clearly noticed that, but surprisingly, she didn’t push further.
Somehow she already understood that Logan carried secrets far bigger than he allowed others to see.
And right now...
those secrets were the only reason they had made it this far alive.
The corridor eventually split into two separate paths ahead.
Logan slowed slightly.
Left route.
Right route.
His eyes quietly observed both sides.
Then he frowned faintly.
Something was wrong.
Luna noticed it immediately.
"What happened?"
Logan didn’t answer at first.
His gaze remained fixed ahead while his thoughts accelerated rapidly.
The layout had changed.
In the future, the right path led toward the lower storage sectors.
But now...
the energy fluctuations coming from that direction felt far too strong.
Which meant the academy had modified part of the treasury earlier than expected.
Annoying.
Very annoying.
"What do we do?" Luna asked quietly.
Logan’s eyes shifted toward the left corridor.
"We improvise."
That answer honestly didn’t reassure her at all.
Still, they moved left together.
The deeper they traveled underground, the quieter everything became.
No patrol sounds.
No machinery.
Nothing.
At some point, even their footsteps seemed unnaturally muted by the metallic floors beneath them, as if the ground itself was swallowing sound.
Then suddenly.
Logan stopped.
Luna nearly bumped into him.
"What—"
He raised one hand slightly.
Silence.
At first, Luna heard nothing.
Then.
tick.
tick.
tick.
A soft mechanical rhythm echoed faintly ahead, precise and deliberate, like a clock counting down in a sealed room.
Logan’s eyes narrowed instantly.
Trap.
He slowly crouched near the floor before lightly touching the metallic surface.
Almost immediately, faint blue lines surfaced beneath the ground.
A formation array.
And not a weak one either.
Luna’s expression changed slightly.
"You can see formation patterns too?"
"A little."
That answer almost made her roll her eyes.
Everything with him was apparently "a little."
Logan carefully observed the array in silence.
Pressure-triggered.
The moment someone stepped into its activation zone, the entire corridor would likely seal instantly.
Then the defense system would eliminate the intruders before security even arrived.
Simple.
Efficient.
Deadly.
Luna lowered her voice.
"Can your spatial ability bypass it?"
"No."
The answer came immediately.
Formation arrays anchored directly into physical space itself.
Even spatial movement would trigger distortions across the structure.
For several moments, Logan simply stared at the floor.
Thinking.
Then slowly.
His gaze shifted upward.
The ceiling.
A faint smile appeared on his face.
Luna noticed it instantly.
"You found something."
"The array only covers the ground."
"...you’re joking."
Logan stepped backward slightly before suddenly jumping upward.
His hand caught a metallic beam running across the ceiling.
Then he pulled himself up smoothly.
Luna stared at him blankly for a second.
"You can’t seriously expect me to—"
Logan extended one hand toward her calmly.
"Hurry."
Luna clicked her tongue softly before taking his hand.
The moment he pulled her upward, she nearly lost balance entirely.
The beam itself was barely wide enough to stand on properly.
Several meters below them, the formation array continued pulsing faintly across the floor, waiting without awareness, perfectly patient.
Luna carefully steadied herself before whispering,
"If I fall, I’m blaming you."
"You won’t fall."
"You sound very confident about that."
Logan glanced toward her briefly.
"I won’t let you."
For some reason...
that answer made Luna suddenly go quiet.
The two carefully moved across the narrow ceiling beams while the deadly formation remained active directly beneath them.
One wrong movement here...
and everything would end instantly.
Yet strangely, Logan’s movements remained steady the entire time.
Precise.
Controlled.
As though pressure itself barely affected him anymore.
Luna quietly watched him from behind while they moved.
Honestly...
the more she learned about him, the less she understood him.
A freshman shouldn’t possess this level of awareness.
Or composure.
Or experience.
Even now, infiltrating one of the most dangerous places within the academy...
he still looked calmer than most people during ordinary classes.
Who exactly are you...
Luna soon shook the thought from her mind. She had to focus on their current situation.
The two carefully climbed down from the ceiling beams once the corridor ahead became clear again.
The moment Logan’s feet touched the ground, he immediately continued moving.
Faster this time.
Luna quickly followed beside him.
"You’re speeding up."
"We lost time."
His voice remained calm, but Luna could still feel the slight urgency hidden beneath it now.
The timer inside Logan’s vision continued ticking relentlessly downward.
[01:42:33]
Less than two hours remained.
And somehow...
his instincts kept warning him something was wrong.
The mission itself felt too sudden.
Too rushed.
Almost as though the system specifically wanted him to enter the treasury tonight.
That alone bothered him more than the danger itself.
Astra had also been acting strange earlier.
And now Rael appearing here at this exact time...
Too many coincidences.
None of it felt natural.
The corridor eventually opened into a massive underground chamber.
Luna’s steps unconsciously slowed the moment she saw it.
"...wow."
Rows upon rows of black metallic shelves stretched endlessly across the enormous room.
Ancient weapons.
Origin crystals.
Sealed artifacts.
Strange glowing containers.
Some objects radiated terrifying fluctuations even while sealed behind multiple barriers.
The pressure inside the chamber alone was enough to make ordinary students collapse.
"This is only the outer vault," Logan said quietly.
Luna looked toward him in disbelief.
"Only?"
Logan’s gaze swept across the chamber quickly.
The academy categorized its treasury into layers.
Outer vault.
Inner vault.
Restricted vault.
And finally...
the sealed core.
The S-rank space technique should be located somewhere within the restricted section.
At least...
according to the future records he remembered.
Luna carefully walked past one shelf before suddenly pausing.
A crimson dagger sealed behind transparent glass emitted faint waves of heat into the surroundings.
"What exactly are these things?"
"Dangerous."
"That doesn’t narrow it down."
Logan’s eyes briefly landed on the dagger.
"That artifact killed three Origin users before the academy sealed it."
Luna immediately stepped away from it.
"...you could’ve mentioned that earlier."
A faint smile tugged at Logan’s lips before disappearing again.
Then suddenly.
His expression froze.
Wait.
Something was wrong.
Very wrong.
His gaze slowly shifted toward the center of the chamber.
Empty.
The defensive guardians should have been stationed here.
But now...
nothing.
No patrols.
No automated defenses.
No security drones.
The entire vault was unnaturally quiet.
Luna noticed the shift in his expression almost immediately.
"What happened?"
Logan didn’t answer right away.
His instincts were screaming now.
This wasn’t normal.
The treasury should never be this unguarded.
Not even at night.
Then.
All the shadows in the room twisted unnaturally.
Slowly at first.
Then violently.
As if something inside them had just opened its eyes.
The darkness across the shelves began crawling inward, folding into itself, pulling toward a single point in the center of the chamber.
Luna’s expression changed instantly.
"...Logan."
"I see it."
The shadows surged at once.
They collapsed into the center of the vault like a tidal wave of darkness reversing direction, condensing rapidly until they formed a single shape.
A shadow.
Standing where nothing had been before.
No sound followed its arrival.
No warning.
Just presence.
Logan’s eyes narrowed instantly.
Luna instinctively stepped back.
The shadow tilted its head slightly.
Then.
A voice echoed softly through the chamber.
"...you finally arrived."
