Black soul-fire danced across the obsidian pillars of Vault #2, casting long, twisted shadows against the damp granite walls.
At the center of the vast underground vault stood the Supreme Blood-Abacus.
Ten feet tall and carved from the fossilized spine of a primordial demon-whale, its bone beads rattled on heavy iron wires. Dark crimson blood dripped from the frame, sizzling as it hit the sacrificial stones below.
Ancestor Xue Qidan held her bleeding wrist over the altar. Her silver hair whipped wildly in a foul wind that smelled of fresh graves and stale copper.
“Three hundred centuries of accumulated interest!” Xue Qidan chanted, her raspy voice rising to a shrill shriek that scraped against the stone. “Five hundred outer galaxies! You signed your bloodlines into our vaults during the great star-famine! Every breath you take, every year you grow, belongs to Vault #2!”
She slammed her withered palm against the master clearing bar.
CLACK-CLACK-CLACK-CLACK!
A billion bone beads spun simultaneously.
