Features Radu Cinamars first trip into the mysterious Third Tunnel located beneath the Romanian Sphinx in the Bucegi Mountains. On a specific mission to visit the underground chamber beneath Iraq, Radu and his team recover a powerful crystal that exists in another dimension but is housed in a container in this one. It becomes the basis for a new project to design a chair to facilitate out- of-the-body experiences in order for Radu to see beyond the veils of ordinary reality and to penetrate different dimensions. Based upon Radus intuition as a result of the expedition to the Third Tunnel, the project is initially started privately by Radu and his mentor, Cezar Brad. When they run into financial blocks, they are unexpectedly embraced by Elinor, the enigmatic and wealthy alchemist who befriended Radu in Transylvanian Moonrise and facilitated his meeting with Repa Sundhi, the Tibetan lama who precipitated the entire series of discoveries of the Inner Earth revealed in the Tran- sylvania Series. Through his role as Dr. Xien, a recognized ad- viser and representative of the Chinese government, the lama was loaned to the Romanian government in order to set up Department Zero, a secret branch of Romanian Intelligence dedicated to investigating and utilizing the paranormal. Playing a significant role in this new endeavor, Elinor helps Cezar and Radu take the project to another level.

The Inner Earth city of Apellos also offers their help with this project, and a whole new system and spirit of cooperation is set up between Department Zero and the Council of Apellos. Radus mentor from Apellos, Mentia, comes to the surface world to meet Elinor in order to begin a collaboration that is designed to bring humanity back to a state of health and to raise the consciousness of Mankind.