The sanctuary spire pierced the blood moon, casting shadows like nails impaling a beast. Serena's black hem brushed corroded bronze hinges, her tongue catching a blood bead oozing through the door.
"Ninety-seven corpses." She smeared bloody fingers on Raine's eyelids. "Fresh—two hours dead."
Raine stepped back, his scaled arm rippling. "Any less... visceral recon methods?"
Garret crouched by a stone gargoyle, wolf claws picking at a severed finger in the door crack. "Church dogs eating their own? This nail's gilded—bishop-grade meat."
Ceramics shattered below. Ellen stumbled through rotten doors, crushing prayer candles. "The crypt altar... something's breathing."
Serena's wings engulfed them. Darkness reeked of rotting roses—a vampire's teleportation always brought death-garden mirages.
Afterimage They materialized under ribbed vaults. Moonlight through stained glass revealed a bronze altar carved with a dragon skeleton—mirroring Raine's scales.
"Welcome to the abattoir." Serena traced blood-filled grooves. "Where Herman plays god-maker."
Garret kicked a mitre crusted with brains. "Smashing twelve bishops' heads makes gods?"
"Requires filthier ingredients." Serena dragged a mutilated vampire thrall—eyeless sockets weeping blood. "Like peeping toms."
Her fingers plunged into its skull. Memory visions erupted:
Secret Trial Herman's scaled face flickered in candlelight. The Dragonheart Blade pierced a silver-haired woman's chest, drinking gold-red blood. Raine's nails drew blood—his mother's face, serene as sleep.
"The vessel needs royal dragon despair." Herman twisted the blade, the corpse desiccating. "Fortunately, Lady Serena provided perfect samples centuries ago."
The vision shifted. The Dragonheart Diadem hovered over a blood pool. Twelve bisected bishops knelt, brains flowing into a pulsating black tumor.
"Dreadlord embryo..." Serena's laugh clanged metallic. "The old glutton."
Raine seized her wrist. "You knew about the Blade."
"I know enough to fill morgues." She shook him off, the thrall crumbling to dust. "Including why your mother smiled dying."
Ellen dropped a potion bottle. Garret's half-formed fangs froze—gears ground beneath the blood pool.
"Surprise party!" Serena's wings ignited cobalt. "Puppy—care to test new fangs?"
The pool boiled. Chained corpses climbed out, chests embedded with sacred engines, spines bristling blade replicas. Raine's wings erupted uncontrollably, scales resonating with counterfeit blades.
"Don't get cut!" Ellen hurled vials emitting corrosive mist. "Those blades carry soulmold!"
Serena whispered through chaos: "Now see? Herman needs your rage to awaken..."
Raine's dragonfire vaporized three corpses. Smoke revealed his mother's death—phantom overlapping reality as Herman's voice shook the sanctum:
"The vessel is ready." "Hail the Dreadlord's advent."