First Intergalactic Emperor: Starting With The Ancient Goddess-Chapter 442: The Interference

Power rerouted again with the kind of low structural shift that told Xavier this place was reacting instead of panicking. Lights dimmed in one sector and brightened in another. Panels along the walls slid a few centimeters, just enough to expose maintenance seams that hadn’t been touched in years.

Arlen finally moved, stepping around the broken bodies without looking at them twice. "That unit wasn’t here to secure the relay," she said. "They were mapping responses. Seeing what you’d do."

Xavier nodded, already walking. "Which means whoever sent them just learned something they didn’t like."

They followed the corridor that had powered up after the fight, the floor plates subtly guiding them left instead of straight, like the structure itself was nudging them away from something. Halfway down, the air pressure changed. Old mining systems waking up, rebalancing load.

Arlen tapped her comm again, more force this time. "Rin. Klatos. If you can hear this, respond."

Static answered first. Then Rin’s voice cut through, rough and fast. "Yeah. We hear you. Barely."

The feed flickered into existence against the wall, distorted but usable. Rin was crouched behind a slanted bulkhead, blade resting across his knee. Klatos was just behind him, scanning something off-frame.

"You moved something," Rin said. "The whole section rerouted power. Turrets went dead, but now we’ve got doors closing behind us instead of opening."

"Good," Xavier replied. "That means you’re moving the right way."

Klatos leaned into view. "This place isn’t symmetrical anymore. It’s... prioritizing."

Xavier glanced at the exposed seams along the wall beside him. "It’s adapting. Bull didn’t leave one path. He left a system that shifts based on who survives long enough to touch it."

Rin swore quietly. "We just tripped another defense. Fortunately, it wasn’t weapons this time. But this gravity force and spikes are painful to endure."

Arlen’s eyes snapped up. "Can you hold?"

"For now," Rin said. "But whatever’s down here is deciding whether we’re useful."

Xavier stopped walking. The floor under his boots hummed, like it was waiting for permission. "Listen carefully," he said. "Don’t force anything. If something blocks you, stop. The relay doesn’t punish hesitation. It punishes brute force."

Klatos tilted his head slightly, like he was listening to something no one else could hear. "He’s right. The structure here isn’t hostile. It’s... judging."

Arlen muttered, "I really hate places that do that."

Before Xavier could respond, the feed glitched hard. Not static this time. Interference. A third signal tried to cut in, weak but persistent, scraping against the connection like someone knocking from the wrong side of a wall.

Xavier’s eyes narrowed. "That’s not them."

Arlen’s fingers were already moving. "It’s piggybacking on the relay handshake. Whoever sent Graveward didn’t stop at watching. They’re trying to listen."

The corridor ahead of them split without warning, one path dropping down into darkness, the other sloping upward into a section.

Xavier looked at the split, then back at the flickering feed of Rin and Klatos. "They’re being pushed down," he said. "We’re being offered a choice."

Arlen met his gaze. "You’re thinking Bull planned this?"

"I think this is more of a safety protocol type of thing."

The third signal surged again, trying to force its way into the channel.

Xavier reached out and severed it mid-attempt, the connection snapping shut like a door slammed in someone’s face. The relay pulsed once in response, approving or acknowledging, he couldn’t tell which.

He turned toward the downward path. "They’re under pressure. We are moving now."

Arlen checked her weapon, then glanced at him. "And if this sends us straight into whatever’s coordinating all this."

Xavier started forward. "Then at least we stop reacting and start interfering."

The downward path tightened fast, ceiling dropping, walls pulling closer like the structure was funneling them on purpose. The vibration underfoot shifted pitch every few seconds. Arlen slowed instinctively, hand brushing the wall as if expecting it to move.

"Tell me this isn’t alive," she muttered.

Xavier didn’t answer. He was watching the seams, the way light bled through them in uneven lines, how some panels reacted to their presence and others didn’t. The place wasn’t hostile, but it wasn’t neutral either. It felt selective.

Rin’s voice cut in again, clearer this time. "You’re close. I can feel it. Pressure’s easing on our end."

A few steps later, the corridor opened sideways without warning. The wall simply slid apart, revealing Rin and Klatos on the other side, both breathing hard, both looking like they’d been arguing with the architecture itself for a while.

Xavier stepped past them, eyes already locked on what sat at the center of the newly revealed chamber.

The space was circular, carved deeper than the rest, with older stone layered under newer alloy. No guards. No turrets. No obvious power lines. Just a single structure embedded into the far wall like it had grown there instead of being installed.

A vault.

It didn’t look impressive. No glowing seals, no heavy plating, no visible locking mechanisms. The surface was smooth, matte, almost boring, like it didn’t need to intimidate anyone. That alone made it worse.

Arlen scanned it out of habit. "No readings. No energy flow. No signal. It’s dead."

Klatos shook his head slowly. "It’s not dead. It’s quiet."

Rin stepped closer and rapped his knuckles against it. The sound came back dull, swallowed immediately. "So what, we blow it open." 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

Xavier grabbed his wrist before he could pull back for a strike. "No."

Rin frowned. "Why not?"

"Because this isn’t something you force," Xavier said. "Getting here wasn’t actually that hard, which means the one who had hired the Graveward Corps already knew about this palace and vault. And he couldn’t get this to open, so no matter what we do, it’s useless effort."

They circled the vault, trying anyway. Blades scraped. Kinetic charges fizzled and died. Arlen fired once out of frustration and the shot vanished against the surface without leaving a mark, not even a scorch.

Then the screen lit up.

No animation. No flourish. Just a flat interface, old and physical, with raised buttons instead of holograms. At the center, a simple line of text.

ENTER PASSWORD

Below it, another line, smaller.

ONE ATTEMPT ONLY

Rin stared at it. "That’s it."

Klatos swallowed. "This is a judgment."

Arlen looked at Xavier. "If we get this wrong..."

"It locks forever," Xavier said. "Or it does something worse."

He stepped closer to the panel, eyes scanning the worn edges of the buttons, the subtle discoloration from hands that had touched it long ago.

"Something tells me there were more than one attempt before..." Arlen muttered.

"Any idea what the password could be?" Klatos asked curiously.