Serena's wings grazed stone steps, her fingers painting gold trails in weeping blood. "Welcome to the family latrine," she sneered at the shadows. "Three centuries of menstrual stash here."
Garret crushed a bone throne underfoot, his silver fur rusted crimson by mist. "Bullshit! Even rats get pickled here."
Ellen's boots sank into pulsing flesh-floor, starlit scales humming. She gripped Raine's wrist: "Left wall... breach in seven."
The carved wall split as predicted, spewing fetid blood. Raine's vambraces sizzled on contact.
"Night Citadel's special brew." Serena tasted the fluid with a wingtip. "Abyssal slug mucus—dragonbane."
Garret's curses drowned in collapsing stone. Corridors narrowed, veins bulging on walls. Ellen touched the stone—her scales screeched against bloody patterns.
Memory Shard (Garret's POV) His mother crucified on the village square. Herman's saw-blade cutting her spine as teen Garret tore his sister's throat. "Behold perfection!"
Real-world Garret smashed through walls, claws digging into his temples. "Shut up! All of you!"
Raine cleaved blood tides, the Blade's eye locking on Ellen. "You foresee traps?"
"Not foresee..." Her scales oozed blue-gold, syncing with subterranean veins. "...sync."
Serena yanked Ellen close, fangs against her scales. "Let's see... whose filth runs in you?"
Gears clanged deep below. Twelve coffin-born elders awoke, sacred crystals in their sockets, mechatendrils plunging into the churning Blood Font—where Dracula's visage coalesced.
"Pet," the phantom leered at Serena. "Your toys grow delicious."
Raine severed mechatendrils, black blood spraying Ellen. Her scales mutated, converting toxins to azure mist. Dracula inhaled deeply: "Ah... Voidwatcher's scent..."
Fully transformed Garret flung elders aside, but froze at the Font's edge—his reflection showed lab-rat horrors. His roar shattered Ellen's starlit shield.
"Move!" Raine sliced open floor grates. "It's rewriting reality!"
Serena retreated with Garret, but tendrils ensnared Ellen. Her scales touched sacred crystals—the labyrinth collapsed. Dracula's image solidified.
"The game continues." "I await in the abyss..."