Lucien suddenly emerged from the darkness, fear and apprehension like smoke shrouding his face—a silent hint of impending doom.
"Seraphina, don't touch that… there are things that, once awakened, never rest."
Lucien stood beside her, his hand firmly on her shoulder.
"Do you know what that is?" Lucien asked, his voice low. "It's not just a dagger. It's a key between the world and nightmare. A weapon that gives life and takes it away. And a mark that, once opened, can never be closed."
Seraphina looked into Lucien's eyes, and within them was a secret fear.
"If you remove that, you will awaken a being long chained to the blood of our lineage."
She picked up the dagger from the floor.
As Seraphina lifted the dagger, the air grew heavy. And the moment she removed it from under the veil, the entire room changed.
The candles died—not because of the wind, but because of the presence that arrived.
The shadows merged, becoming one—and the room was consumed by darkness with its own scream.
The walls vanished in an instant—replaced by a darkness that not only embraced the surroundings, but seeped into every breath, every memory, every soul.
In the midst of the darkness, a ferocious growl greeted them.
The sound of a monster awakened from a long slumber.
"Seraphina! The real test has begun!"
Lucien shouted, holding her hand tightly.
"This is not the end... this is the beginning of your destruction!"
Seraphina clung to Lucien's arm, her fingers trembling. She couldn't move—as if her body, and her memories, were drenched in ice. She stiffened, not from the cold of the wind, but from the nightmare of the truth awakened once more.
The monster appeared—skin like burned flesh, eyes pure white, and breath like the smoke of a nightmare.
She heard a whisper in the wind—faint, fragmented—like the voice of a ghost long imprisoned between life and death.
Love forged the chain… but betrayal will break it.
Her neck went cold.
And from the darkness, two eyes opened.
It wasn't a monster that awakened…
but the part of themselves they desperately buried—and now, ready to collect.