[Location: Dungeon—Vampire King's Castle]
Her hands started making weird signs, from which a blood-red magic circle came into being.
It wasn't a normal spell circle.
It spun in reverse.
It pulsed like a heart.
And with every rotation, the temperature dropped—not cold, not frost, but a vacuum. A hollowing of heat, sound, even the room's pressure, like the circle was swallowing every vibration before they existed.
Mana's fingers moved faster.
Her smile widened.
Her blood—a thin thread at first—lifted from the wounds Erebus had carved in her throat and coiled into the circle like a crimson filament. Each droplet was devoured by the spinning sigil until the light inside shifted from red… to a deep, ancient violet.
The hall trembled.
The nobles who had survived the shockwaves began screaming silently, hands on their heads, but no sound came out.
Space was compressing. Or blood was expanding.
I wasn't sure.
