Location: Tavara – En Route to the Alps
The private jet soared over European skies, its engines a low hum beneath the growing tension in the cabin.
Damien sat at the head of the table, eyes locked on the tablet screen. Nora sat beside him, scrolling through the decrypted portions of the Codex V files.
"These codes weren't just for power plays," she said. "They were safeguards. Warnings left by your ancestors... against each other."
Elira stepped in from the cockpit. "We're landing in forty minutes. Victor's team arrived last night. He's waiting."
Damien exhaled, his fingers tapping against the polished wood.
"I'm not here to start a war with him," he muttered. "But I won't leave that place empty-handed."
Nora reached for his hand. "And if it's a trap?"
He looked at her with the calm resolve of a man who had stared down fate too many times.
"Then I'll trigger every bomb and burn the entire legacy to ash."
---
Location: The Alps – Glacier Vault Complex
The entrance was a marvel of ancient and modern engineering—a steel doorway embedded into solid ice, its façade marked with twin family sigils: the Kane crest on the left, the De Vries emblem on the right.
Victor stood ahead, cloaked in a dark wool trench, flanked by two trusted lieutenants. His eyes met Damien's as the latter emerged from the chopper.
"Still wearing that same stoic mask," Victor said.
"And you're still hiding a viper's smile beneath your charm," Damien returned calmly.
They stepped toward the biometric panel.
"Together then?" Victor said, placing his hand on his side of the scanner.
Damien nodded. "Together."
A moment later, the vault hissed and unsealed.
---
Location: Inner Vault – Chamber of Concord
The air inside was ancient—untouched by time. Shelves lined with ledgers, old technology, and a central platform bathed in pale blue light. A single console waited.
On it: a device connected to global data streams, dormant but capable of awakening systems that could manipulate economies, defense protocols, even royal successions.
Nora stepped forward. "This is it. The real throne."
Victor stared at the interface, then at Damien. "We were born to fight over this."
"No," Damien said, stepping up beside him. "We were born to change it."
For a long moment, the chamber held its breath.
Then they placed their hands together on the final key.
The system hummed to life.