The air in the sanctuary's undercroft clung like boiled blood. Garret's claws scraped stone, packed with bone fragments.
"Herman brewing sewage down here?" He spat a bloody glob. "Smells like rotten meat and sulfur."
Serena's wing brushed Raine's back, scales scraping sparks. "The Dragonheart Blade's on the third altar," she murmured, as if fearing to wake the dark. "Currently lodged in some poor bastard's chest."
Ellen's fingertip traced the bronze wall. Starlit blood seeped into carvings, illuminating the passage. The reliefs stirred—dragonblood wraiths pointed their swords downward.
"Energy levels critical." Ellen's pupils contracted, her scales flickering blue. "It's breathing."
Raine's right arm spasmed, scales oozing blood. He stared at his trembling hand, as if fire slept in his bones.
Memory: His mother impaled by the Blade.
"No time for daydreams." Serena's nails bit his shoulder. "Butcher them now, or become Dreadlord chow."
Garret had already kicked down the rusted gate.
The third level was a slaughterhouse.
Twelve bisected bishops were nailed to pillars, their chest cavities sprouting black veins that fed the central altar—where a greatsword burned with dark gold flames, skewering a twitching corpse.
"Buffet style." Garret's fangs fully extended.
The demonic guards emerged. They were abominations—holy armor stuffed with abyssal rot, sacred crystals for eyes, wielding crude Blade replicas.
"Don't get hit!" Ellen hurled vials that exploded into acid mist. "Their blades consume souls!"
Serena's wings shredded two guards' throats. More surged forward, their swords grazing her wings, leaving smoking gashes.
"Annoying." She licked her fangs. "Garret. Entertain me."
The werewolf lunged. His claws tore open a guard's chestplate, exposing a pulsating black mass—it burst, spraying pus. Garret's left cheek corroded to bone.
"Fuck! What the—"
Raine didn't let him finish.
His right arm ignited. A single punch melted a guard's helmet, its contents shrieking as they dissolved. More blades swung at him.
The Dragonheart Blade trembled on the altar.
Raine's gaze locked onto it.
His mother's blood had once soaked its edge.
Now, it would drink the enemy's.
He charged.
A replica blade pierced his side, but he didn't stop. His fingers closed around the Blade's hilt—
Agony.
Fire devoured his arm, flesh charring. The serrated grip bit to the bone, thirsting for marrow.
Serena's pupils dilated.
She didn't see Raine—but another dragonblood warrior three centuries past. His fate had been ashes and betrayal.
Raine didn't let go.
His blood dripped down the Blade. The flames turned molten red.
"Claimed?" Garret spat a broken fang. "Lucky bastard."
The Blade's true form unfolded—a greatsword now, its edge scaled like a dragon's hide, a crimson eye opening along its spine.
Raine swung.
First strike: The pillars shattered.
Second: The replicas melted like wax.
Third: The altar split, revealing the pulsating Dreadlord embryo.
The Blade hovered an inch above it.
Raine's arm was near charcoal, but he hesitated.
"Wait!" Ellen shouted. "It's recording energy signatures!"
Serena's wings flung everyone back.
"Clever girl." The vampire eyed Ellen's fully manifested starlight scales. "Whose observer are you?"
The embryo convulsed.
Herman's voice oozed from the depths:
"The vessel awakens."
"Hail the Dreadlord's—"
Raine's Blade fell.
Darkness swallowed everything.