The chains screamed.
Silver links burst from the cracked stone like veins of molten iron, hissing with spectral whispers. They slithered through the air like serpents, wrapping around shattered pillars, snapping toward Kael with the hunger of a thousand unseen hands.
Selene stepped from the fractures in reality itself, her body shimmering in veils of half-light. Her illusions coiled around her like living shadows, her face calm and sharp as a blade.
"Kael," she whispered, her voice carrying through the dungeon like a hymn. "Still you resist me… even after all I've shown you."
Reina stood unmoving, cloak unfurled, her presence like iron pressed into the heart of the chamber. She didn't flinch as Selene's chains writhed across the floor. Her golden eyes narrowed, her tone like a verdict.
"You should have stayed buried in your illusions."
The two women's power collided. Selene's illusions swelled, painting the dungeon with ghostly afterimages—Kael bound, Lyra burning, Moro torn apart. Reality wavered like water under her command. But where her power sought to bind, Reina's presence burned through. Her authority rooted everything in place, chains cracking as her grounded aura pressed outward.
Kael staggered under the weight of it. Hunger gnawed at his bones, his claws digging furrows into the stone. Selene's whispers coiled around him like silk, urging surrender, while Reina's voice thundered like a war drum, demanding he rise.
"Choose, Kael," Selene murmured, her hand outstretched. Her golden eyes softened for a fleeting moment. "I can take the hunger from you. I can make it bearable. Come back to me."
But Reina stepped forward, voice like a blade cutting silk. "No. Do not listen to her lies. She would soften your fangs, dull your claws. I would see them sharpened until the world itself bled. Stand beside me, Kael. Rule with me—or starve against me."
The hunger inside him screamed. He felt Lyra's hand press weakly against his arm, her voice trembling. "Kael… please. Don't let either of them take you."
But there was no escape anymore. The dungeon was not asking. It was forcing him.
Chains lashed toward Reina. She snapped her hand outward, her own conjured chain bursting forth—thick, jagged links that gleamed like fractured obsidian. They clashed mid-air with Selene's silver, the sound like steel on steel, sparks of shadow and light raining down.
Moro roared and leapt, intercepting a coil of silver that tried to snare Lyra, his claws tearing sparks across the dungeon floor. Lyra raised her staff, channeling bursts of light to keep Selene's illusions from swallowing them whole.
But the real fight—the one that mattered—was between Reina and Selene.
Selene moved like a phantom, her chains flowing as extensions of her body, striking from angles no human eyes could follow. Reina countered each with brutal precision, her authority hammering reality back into place whenever Selene sought to warp it.
Kael stood trembling, watching, caught between predator and predator. His hunger no longer whispered—it roared, demanding blood, demanding choice. His golden eyes flicked from one woman to the other, his claws flexing.
Then he moved.
Not toward Selene.
Toward Reina.
With a feral roar, Kael tore through the barrage of silver chains that tried to catch him, claws sparking against their links. He landed beside Reina, his body blazing with golden fire, his hunger unleashed. His claws raked through Selene's illusions, shattering them like glass.
Selene's eyes widened—not in fear, but in something deeper. Pain.
"You…" Her voice cracked, raw with something unguarded. "You would side with her?"
Kael's fangs bared, breath ragged. "I'll never wear your chains again."
Selene's illusions faltered, her control breaking under the weight of his rejection. Reina's eyes blazed triumph as she snapped her obsidian chain forward, smashing through Selene's defenses. The silver links shattered, fragments scattering like dying stars.
Selene staggered, cloak torn, blood running down her arm. Yet still she stood, her expression no longer calm. Her golden eyes burned—not with victory, but with wounded fury.
"You've made your choice, Kael," she whispered, her voice shaking. "But remember this—hunger never loves you back."
Her body dissolved into light, chains snapping away into smoke. The echo of her laughter lingered, brittle and breaking, as she vanished from the dungeon.
Silence fell.
The dungeon groaned around them, as though exhaling after a held breath. For the first time, Selene's presence was gone. Kael stood panting, his hunger still howling but strangely quieter, as if it had been fed by the choice itself.
Reina turned to him, her cloak rippling. For a moment, Kael thought he saw approval in her eyes. But then her gaze fell to Lyra and Moro, who had taken their place beside him. Her expression hardened, her lips curling in disdain.
"You made the right choice," she said coldly. "But you taint it with weakness. You surround yourself with sheep when you could run with wolves."
Lyra flinched under the weight of her glare, but stood her ground. Moro snarled softly, refusing to bow.
Reina stepped closer to Kael, her presence pressing against him like a blade at his throat. "I will not share chains with children clinging to hope. If you wish to stand beside me, you will learn this truth—they will break you before you ever break the dungeon."
Her words sank like knives into the silence.
Kael's claws flexed, his hunger stirring again. He glanced at Lyra, at Moro, at the fragile defiance in their faces. Then back at Reina, unyielding and terrible in her authority.
The dungeon rumbled, cracks spreading along the chamber walls, as though it waited for his answer.
But Kael gave none.
The act was not about answers. It was about chains—and the breaking of them.
And in that silence, with one enemy driven away and another ally turned blade, Kael understood the truth.
The descent had only begun
ARC 2 : Chains Of The Warden
ACT 1 : THE DESCENT OF CHAINS
END .