'The bloodline could not accept?'
[Correct,] the system answered, tone unusually serious.
[The previous holder… he wasn't just misguided. He was dangerous.]
Ethan's expression sharpened. 'Because of how he used the power?'
[No,] the system said.
[Because of how he thought about it.]
[He believed the bloodline made him better than everything else. That the world should bend to his will simply because he carried it.]
'That's… insane.'
[It was worse than insane.]
[He treated everything—people, planets, knowledge—as things he was entitled to. Not to learn from. Not to respect. To own.]
Ethan's eyes narrowed. 'Was he the one who built the Vault?'
[Yes.]
[But don't let the place fool you.]
[He didn't build it to protect knowledge.]
[He built it to hoard it.]
Ethan looked around again. The ancient silence. The impossible scale. The beauty of it all.
And underneath it… Something colder.