The underground sanctum trembled, its crimson-lit walls pulsing with a heartbeat that wasn't Lucien's. The air was thick with the scent of blood and ancient magic, the runes etched into the stone glowing like embers as the stairway into the black void yawned open below. Lucien stood at the edge, his bare chest streaked with blood, the wound below his ribs now closed by a force not his own. His obsidian blade hummed in his grip, its edge still dripping from the slaughter of the assassins sent by the Elders. Elira and Sera flanked him, their bodies bruised but unyielding, their eyes glowing with the crimson light of the Bloodbind that tethered them to him.
The system interface flickered erratically, its crimson text glitching as it struggled to process the presence stirring below:
> **[WARNING: CRIMSON QUEEN AWAKENING]**
> **[Objective: Claim the True Blood Authority]**
> **[Source: The Primordial Chorus]**
