Chapter 460: Beneath the Mountain

The black military vehicle had been driving away from the Academy for almost forty minutes.

Lian was sitting in the back seat and looking outside through the dark window.

For the past twenty minutes, even his phone had lost all signs of connection, and the route the driver had chosen had been far away from any public road for a long time.

He did not ask the driver where they were going.

Gareth had personally sent people to pick him up, and that alone was enough to show that their destination was not a place whose coordinates they would give to just anyone.

The narrow road turned between two rocky slopes, and a few minutes later, the view in front of them almost filled his entire field of vision.

It was a mountain, there were no buildings around it, no watchtowers, no fences, not even a single guard, but only a huge wall of gray stone that rose hundreds of meters into the sky.

The vehicle moved directly toward it without slowing down.

He raised an eyebrow, the distance became smaller.

One hundred meters.

Seventy meters.

Fifty meters.

And right at that moment, he felt something, the flow of Mana inside his body became heavy for a moment.

Lian sat a little straighter and looked through the mountain rocks, nothing could be seen with his eyes, but his senses were telling him something else.

Hundreds of Arrays were layered across the entire mountain, some of them were on the surface, some were deep inside, and some were so thin and wide that even finding their borders was not easy.

Resistance Arrays that strengthened the entire structure of the mountain, defensive Arrays, concealment Arrays, and Arrays that redirected Mana and did not allow anyone outside to feel the amount of energy inside the mountain.

And among all of them, the Mana Suppression Arrays caught his attention more than the others.

He had not even entered yet, but he could already feel his Mana moving a little slower than normal, and the closer the vehicle got, the stronger the pressure became.

He gave the driver a short look, the man did not react at all.

It was clear that this was not his first time.

If someone did not know the exact coordinates of this place, even if they flew directly over the mountain, they would probably see nothing more than a normal mountain range.

Even a powerful Awakened would easily pass by it if they were not intentionally looking for a sign.

But what was hidden inside was not normal, this was without a doubt one of the safest places in the entire country.

The vehicle was only twenty meters away from the wall when very thin lines of light suddenly appeared on the stone.

Hundreds of lines connected to each other in a fraction of a second, and a large part of the wall moved inward without making any mechanical sound.

The mountain itself had moved aside, and a dark tunnel appeared in front of them, the vehicle entered, and three seconds later, the lines of light behind them disappeared and the stone returned to its original position.

Natural light completely disappeared, and white lights on the ceiling of the tunnel turned on one after another.

Lian looked behind him, there was no sign of the entrance anymore.

"Very well hidden." He said quietly.

"It is not supposed to be found, Mr. Vorhelm." The driver answered for the first time since they left.

Lian gave a faint smile.

"With this many Arrays, I think even if someone finds it, getting inside would be the harder part."

The driver did not answer this time....perhaps because he did not disagree.

The tunnel continued for almost five hundred meters, and then the first checkpoint appeared.

Black metal walls completely blocked the path, and they only moved aside after several white beams passed over the vehicle.

[Vehicle Identity Confirmed.]

[Passengers Confirmed.]

[Checking.]

[Unregistered Living Being: Not Found.]

[External Hidden Space: Not Found.]

Lian kept his eyes on one of the notifications, the system was even checking for hidden storage spaces or hidden living beings.

This made him unconsciously think about his own Colony Space, more precisely, about One, the creature that was somehow inside him.

Could the mountain’s defense system detect her?

But there was no reaction, apparently, what was connected to his own existence was not detected as a normal external space.

The first gate opened.

Then the second.

The third.

At the fourth checkpoint, the Mana Suppression suddenly doubled, and he frowned for a moment.

In this area, the flow of Mana had not stopped and it was not completely suppressed either, but it clearly felt heavy.

If someone tried to suddenly activate a powerful skill, several Arrays would probably react at the same moment.

The farther they went, the clearer it became that the security of this place did not depend on one wall or one guard.

Layer after layer, and if someone passed through one, ten more were waiting for them....

After the final gate, the tunnel suddenly ended.

And the space in front of them opened up.

The young Vorhelm said nothing for a few seconds, the inside of the mountain had been almost completely hollowed out, and a huge space, with a height that easily reached several hundred meters, had been built inside the stone.

Dozens of metal floors had been built along the inner walls, and narrow and wide bridges connected them to each other.

Vertical elevators moved up and down along the central pillars.

There were separate paths for vehicles.

On the higher floors, glass observation rooms watched over the entire facility like silent eyes.

Hundreds of security and military forces were moving through different areas, and several-meter-wide doors opened into unknown hallways.

Blue lines of energy passed through the ceiling, floor, and walls, and the entire structure worked calmly and in an organized way like a living thing.

Even so, there was no chaos, everyone knew where they needed to be and what they needed to do.

He looked around through the window, this place was not just a prison, its scale was much larger than that.

Some areas were clearly built for holding prisoners, and in some floors, research equipment could be seen behind glass.

And several paths also led to areas where, even from this distance, he could feel the heavy protective Arrays around them.

They were probably keeping objects, creatures, or people there that the Federation was not even willing to allow in a normal facility.

"So this is the place...."

The vehicle moved through the inner paths for a few more minutes and finally stopped in front of a metal platform, the driver got out and opened the back door.

"We’re here, Mr. Vorhelm."

Lian got out of the vehicle, the Mana pressure was stronger here, but it was still not painful, although he was sure that the moment he used Mana, something interesting would happen.

Even the security of the Vorhelm family was not at this level, although his family was so proud and arrogant that they believed no one would dare to enter their territory.

And they were not completely wrong, at least until today, no one had dared to.

Several people were waiting in front of the vehicle.

They were wearing official security uniforms, and each of them looked at least more dangerous than their appearance suggested.

But his eyes quickly stopped on a woman at the front of the group, he knew her.

Rina.

Gareth’s deputy, the same serious attitude, the same cold eyes, and almost the same expression that made it seem like smiling was an unnecessary part of life.

The woman took one step forward.

"Mr. Vorhelm, welcome. The Commander is waiting for you." She greeted him with a short nod.

"Ms. Rina. It has been a while." Lian also lowered his head slightly.

"Yes, anyway, the Commander is waiting for you on the third underground floor."

He looked around once more while walking with them.

"This is a lot of security for someone who is only supposed to talk to a prisoner."

"His prisoner is not normal." Rina did not even turn her head.

The young Vorhelm said nothing this time, she was right, they were talking about a creature whose existence in this world should not even be possible.

The elevator was large enough for almost twenty people to stand inside comfortably.

The woman placed her identification on the screen.

The doors closed.

[Access Level Confirmed.]

[Destination: Underground Floor Three.]

The elevator started moving down, and the numbers changed.

Zero.

Minus one.

Lian felt the Mana Suppression pressure increase.

Minus two.

More.

The flow of Mana in his body was still under control, but now it felt like it was moving through a thick liquid.

If the higher floors were designed to control normal people, this place was built for those who had no meaning for the word "normal."

Minus three.

Click.

The doors opened.

Gareth was standing directly behind the doors, and when he saw him, he gave a short smile.

"I’m glad you could come."

"Commander, I hope you didn’t have to wait long."

"Not too long." Gareth gave Rina and the others a short look. "Thank you. I’ll take him from here. You can go back."

"Yes, Commander." His deputy nodded without asking any questions.

The group entered the elevator again, the doors closed, and the two of them were left alone.

The Commander started walking toward one of the long hallways, and Lian walked beside him.

The walls of this floor were almost completely black, and at regular distances, heavy doors could be seen on both sides of the hallway.

There were no names on any of them, only numbers, the two walked in silence for a few moments until the man finally looked at the young man.

"To be honest, I’d really like to sit down with you one day and hear about your adventures myself."

Lian raised an eyebrow.

"Every time your name reaches my ears, there’s always some strange report attached to it, when I first saw you in that fallen border city, I already knew a bright future was waiting for you....but you’ve surprised me, and you’ve gone far beyond what I expected."