The torchlight guttered as if afraid. The dungeon, so loud with groans and shifting stone moments ago, grew unnaturally quiet. Only the sound of deliberate footsteps echoed.
Kael's claws flexed unconsciously. The hunger inside him stirred with sudden violence, gnawing as if it recognized something in the approaching figure.
The woman emerged fully from the shadowed corridor, her movements elegant yet predatory, like a panther who had already chosen its prey. She wore no armor, only a flowing cloak of dark cloth that shimmered faintly with protective enchantments. At her hip rested no sword, no obvious weapon—yet the air around her pulsed with authority, heavy as iron.
Lyra instinctively moved to Kael's side, staff trembling in her grip. Moro's wolfen body lowered itself, ears pinned, a deep growl rumbling from his throat.
The woman's gaze swept the chamber once, dismissing the corpses and shattered stone as though they were nothing. Her eyes finally fixed on Kael, golden against golden—his burning feral light meeting hers, calm and calculating.
"Kael," she said again, her voice low and steady, like a verdict. "I thought the dungeon was exaggerating. But no… it truly is you."
Kael's lip curled. "You know my name."
"I know more than your name." The faintest smile touched her lips. "I know the chains you broke. The hunger you carry. The feral spark you refuse to extinguish."
Selene's illusions were gone. Yet Reina's words pierced deeper than chains.
"Who are you?" Lyra demanded, forcing her voice into strength she didn't feel. "And what do you want?"
The woman's gaze flicked to Lyra, then back to Kael, as though Lyra were merely background noise. "Names are fragile things. But if you need one…" She tilted her head slightly. "Reina will do."
Kael narrowed his eyes. "What do you want with me, Reina?"
At that, Reina stepped forward, slow and deliberate. The dungeon crystals glowed faintly brighter with each movement, as though the walls themselves bent toward her presence.
"I came," she said softly, "to see if the rumors were true. That the dungeon itself whispered of a beast who defied chains. That one had risen who might devour or unite what lies below." Her eyes flashed like steel. "I came to see if you were worth breaking."
The word breaking snapped tension through the chamber like a whip.
Kael's claws scraped stone. "Try it," he growled.
But Reina raised one hand—calm, dismissive. "No. Not here. Not now. I do not fight broken beasts. Only kings."
The hunger inside Kael twisted painfully. Something about her presence pulled at it, made it surge, like a tide drawn by the moon. His throat burned with the desire to lunge, to rip her apart, to prove her wrong. And yet—something deeper warned him that striking her would not end in victory.
"Why do you speak like the dungeon belongs to you?" Lyra's voice wavered.
Reina turned her gaze on her, eyes glinting. "Because I listened when others fled. I knelt where others burned. I let the dungeon whisper into me until its voice became mine."
Moro snarled louder, claws scratching the ground. "She reeks of it," he growled. "Not human. Not monster. Something between."
Kael felt it too. Selene had been chains and illusions, a manipulator. But Reina was something else entirely—raw, grounded, like she carried the dungeon's hunger but without the madness.
And then ..
Reina's cloak shifted. From its folds, she drew not a weapon—but a chain. The exact kind Selene wielded. Silver links, faintly glowing, alive with whispers.
Lyra gasped, stumbling back. "You—You're with her?!"
Reina let the chain dangle lazily from her hand, its weight striking the ground with a resonant clang. She smiled faintly. "Selene? No. She serves illusions. I deal in truths."
She snapped the chain—and it dissolved into smoke, vanishing completely.
"Her chains bind the mind," Reina said, her voice cold as iron. "Mine break the body. She wants you shackled, Kael. I want you sharpened. She whispers submission. I demand war."
Kael froze, the hunger inside him surging violently. A part of him wanted to reject both, to bare his fangs and tear down any chain in his path. But another part… another part was listening.
Reina stepped closer until she was just outside striking distance, her eyes locked to his. "The dungeon will not let you rest. Not me, not her, not any of us. You will starve until you take. You will suffer until you claim. I offer you this—fight beside me, not against me. Take the dungeon. Rule it."
The words cut like claws down his spine. The hunger inside him howled, recognizing the promise.
Lyra's voice broke the silence. "Don't listen! Kael, she's twisting you—just like Selene did!"
Reina ignored her, gaze never leaving Kael. "Tell me, beast. Do you want to starve forever? Or do you want to feast?"
Kael's claws trembled at his sides. His breath came ragged, every muscle tight. She was right—every kill, every victory left him emptier, hungrier. His feral awakening had brought power, but also a torment that no battle seemed to silence.
Was this the answer? Was she offering release—or another chain in disguise?
Moro stepped forward, bristling, his growl cutting the silence. "Kael. Careful. She is the kind who doesn't fight fair."
Reina finally smiled wider, tilting her head. "Oh, wolf. You mistake me. I am not here to fight him." Her eyes gleamed. "I am here to see if he will fight everything else."
The chamber pulsed then, as though the dungeon itself had reacted to her words.
Kael's golden eyes blazed, feral light cutting the shadows. His hunger screamed, torn between tearing her throat out and stepping into her offered shadow.
But before he could speak, the ground shook violently. From the cracked stone beneath them, new chains erupted—Selene's doing. Her laughter echoed faintly through the chamber walls.
Reina looked up calmly, her expression darkening. "So… she still watches."
The chamber filled with rattling steel as the two women's presences clashed—Selene's illusions pressing against Reina's grounded authority. Kael stood between them, feral, hungry, caught in the pull of two different chains.
For the first time, Kael realized something that chilled him more than hunger itself.
The dungeon wasn't testing him anymore.
It was choosing sides.