The castle never slept.
Monsters roamed the halls like loyal shadows of Vladis Mortis, keeping watch with snarling eyes and twisted blades. But Rey—he was done being watched.
His wrists bled where the enchanted chains bound him to the stone bed, but pain no longer meant anything. Pain was fuel. It kept him grounded. Awake.
His eyes hadn't closed since Fianna's warning.
"Don't eat the fruit."
He hadn't. The bowl sat untouched. Rotting slightly. He noticed how the glowing fruit began to pulse slower with time. Was it alive? Was it laced with poison? Sleep spell?
Rey didn't care.
He had one goal now: escape.
The bat-winged woman hadn't returned. Nor had Vladis. But Rey knew that silence meant nothing good in this world.
Suddenly, a faint sound echoed through the stone walls — a metallic clang, distant but rhythmic. Like someone forging… or a ritual beginning.
He listened carefully, sharpening his senses.
Then he felt it.
A strange warmth at his chest.
He glanced down. The scar over his heart — the one he got when he first entered the Abyss — was glowing faint red.
His breath caught.
"What is this…?"
He focused on the warmth. Slowly, he felt a whisper stir within his veins. Something old. Dormant.
His blood was changing.
He closed his eyes.
Images flashed before him — a golden temple, his mother's soft voice, his father's embrace, and then… a bloodied battlefield.
A roar.
His own voice, older. Angry. Powerful.
He snapped his eyes open, sweat trickling down his forehead.
"What… is happening to me?"
The chains glowed as if reacting to his pulse.
Then he remembered Fianna's words: "Vladis said you carry a cursed bloodline."
A cursed bloodline…?
Or was it divine?
Suddenly, the chains cracked. Just barely. But enough to jolt Rey's spirit.
He pulled.
The chain resisted, biting deep.
He pulled harder.
His muscles screamed. His skin tore.
And with a snap of raw force—the left shackle shattered.
Gasping, he collapsed onto his side, hand free and dripping with blood.
One down.
He didn't celebrate.
He couldn't.
Not until he was free, and she—
No. He stopped himself.
Fianna wasn't his ally anymore. But maybe… maybe she wasn't his enemy either.
He gritted his teeth and began working on the other chain.
He had no magic. No weapon. No help.
But he had something none of these monsters understood.
Human will.
The same will that had kept him alive through two years in the Abyss. The same will that would burn Vladis Mortis and every rotten bloodsucker in this place to ashes.
Hours passed—or maybe just minutes. But finally, with a painful twist, the second chain cracked.
Rey collapsed to the cold floor.
Free.
Barely able to stand, he crawled toward the door, breathing raggedly.
But before he could reach it, the door opened.
Fianna stood there, cloaked in darkness.
Their eyes met.
She stared at the broken chains, at the blood on his hands, and then… at the fire in his eyes.
She said nothing.
He said nothing.
But they both knew—
The real war had just begun.
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