The chamber shook like the end of the world.
The floor split wider, glowing cracks racing across the stone, spitting out fire and ash. The roar from the abyss below rattled bones, deafened ears, and clawed through hearts.
Aria clutched Nico and Nino so tight their small bodies trembled against her chest. Tears streaked her dirt-stained face as she screamed over the thunder. "Luca! Get away from there!"
But Luca couldn't move fast enough. His hand was pressed to his bleeding side, blood pouring hot and fast through his fingers. His grey eyes, fierce even through the haze of pain, were locked on the edge of the abyss where the thing was rising.
A massive hand, black as burnt stone, clawed at the broken floor. Chains still bound its wrist, glowing red with molten fire, but the beast pulled harder, dragging itself upward. Another hand followed, then a horned head with eyes like twin furnaces.
The creature roared, a sound so deep it rattled the walls and made the ceiling rain dust.
The twins screamed. Aria bent over them, her arms sheltering them as if she could keep the monster's fury away.
Enzo fired his rifle, bullets sparking uselessly against the beast's armored hide. Matteo threw a grenade, the explosion lighting the chamber white-hot but the creature only growled, shaking off the flames.
"It's not stopping!" Matteo shouted, his voice raw. "Nothing's working!"
"It's chained!" Enzo yelled back, firing again. "The chains hold it, keep it down!"
But even as he said it, one of the glowing chains cracked. The sound was like a scream of metal, echoing deep inside the earth.
Luca staggered forward, every step agony. His voice was a growl torn from his soul. "Keep it away from them!"
Aria's heart twisted. He was bleeding out. Every drop fed the glowing symbols beneath their feet.
She wanted to run to him, to press her hands over his wound, to hold him together but the boys sobbed against her, and the monster's shadow swallowed the room.
Adrian's last words echoed in her head. The king's blood seals the door.
Her stomach clenched with fear. If Luca bled too much, if the ritual fed on him fully, the beast might break free forever.
"No," she whispered, more to herself than anyone else. "I won't let it happen."
She kissed her sons' heads, then pulled them close to Enzo. "Protect them. No matter what."
Enzo's eyes widened. "Aria.., don't!"
But she was already moving.
She ran across the shaking floor, dodging falling stone, heat burning her lungs. Luca turned, his face pale, his body swaying. "Aria, no! Stay back!"
She didn't listen. She caught his arm, slipping under it to brace his weight. His blood soaked her dress instantly, hot and terrifying, but she didn't care.
"I'm not letting you stand alone," she whispered, fierce through her tears. "If this is the end, we face it together."
His chest shuddered. For a moment, his lips pressed against her hair. Then he shoved her back, his voice breaking. "I won't let you die for me. Not you. Not them."
The beast pulled again, the floor splitting wider. One of the chains snapped completely, the broken end whipping across the chamber and crushing a guard into the wall. The monster's roar shook the fortress to its foundations.
"Papa!" Nico cried, his voice high and panicked. "Papa, don't!"
Luca's head turned at the sound. His son's voice cut through the roar, through the blood, through the fire. His knees nearly buckled, but his will burned hotter.
He would not leave them fatherless. He would not let Aria's tears be for his grave.
Luca raised his gun again, blood dripping from his wrist, and fired. The bullet struck one of the glowing chains. The beast roared louder as sparks flew.
"Enzo!" Luca barked, his voice raw. "The chains! Break them or bind them, don't let it rise!"
Enzo understood instantly. He signaled Matteo, and together they focused their fire on the glowing bindings. Each crack weakened the hold, but it was a gamble: too many chains breaking, the beast would rise; but if they aimed right, they could trap it halfway, stuck between worlds.
The chamber became chaos. Bullets sparked, fire raged, and the monster clawed higher, its massive head turning toward Aria and the twins.
Its furnace eyes locked on them.
Aria's breath hitched. She shoved Luca behind her instinctively, as if her body could shield him, too. "No," she whispered, her voice breaking. "You will not touch them."
The beast roared, a blast of fire bursting from its mouth.
Luca dove. He slammed into Aria and the boys, dragging them to the floor as fire scorched over their heads. The heat seared skin and hair, the air filled with smoke.
The family huddled together, coughing, choking, alive only by inches.
Luca's hand cupped Aria's cheek, his touch trembling. "If I don't make it..."
Her hand slapped his bloodstained lips. "Don't you dare. Don't you dare say goodbye. Not to me. Not to them."
Their foreheads pressed together, sweat and blood mingling. The twins clung to their parents, sobbing.
The world shook harder. Another chain cracked. The monster rose higher, its claw reaching toward them.
Then came the moment that tore everything apart.
Adrian's laugh echoed from the abyss, faint but triumphant. His voice rode on the fire like a ghost. "The king's blood feeds the seal! Let him die, and the door closes forever!"
Aria froze. Her eyes widened. If Luca dies, the beast dies with him.
It was the impossible choice.
Save him, and risk the beast escaping.
Or let him die, and seal it forever.
Her heart split in two. Tears blurred her sight. She looked at him, the man she had hated, loved, fought, forgiven. The father of her sons. The only man who ever made her soul burn.
He met her gaze, grey eyes steady even as his blood soaked the stones. "Aria," he whispered, his voice almost gone. "If it's me or them… save them."
Her body shook. Her scream tore the air. "No!"
The monster pulled free another chain. The fortress shook so violently the ceiling collapsed in parts, crushing men beneath stone. Flames poured higher, the abyss swallowing everything.
Enzo and Matteo fought desperately, shouting, firing, trying to bind the creature with explosives and iron, but it wasn't enough.
Aria held Luca against her chest, sobbing into his hair as his body weakened.
The twins' small voices broke through the chaos, trembling but clear.
"Papa," Nino whispered, clutching his father's bloodied hand. "Don't leave."
"We need you," Nico sobbed. "Please stay."
Their voices reached deeper than any bullet, deeper than any prayer.
Luca's chest shuddered. His grey eyes flickered open again, burning through the haze of death. He saw them, his sons, his love, his reason.
And he refused to die.
With the last of his strength, he pushed Aria and the twins back. He stood, swaying, blood pouring, and raised his gun one final time.
"Then I'll kill it myself," he rasped.
The beast roared, fire surging from its chest.
Luca fired into the chain closest to the monster's neck. The bullet struck the weak point Enzo had already burned. The chain shattered with an ear-splitting crack.
But instead of freeing the beast, its own weight pulled the chain across its body, snapping into place like a collar. The monster howled as the broken iron looped tighter, binding its head down.
For a heartbeat, it worked.
But Luca collapsed, his gun falling from his hand, blood spilling across the stone. His body hit the floor hard, his chest barely rising.
Aria screamed, dragging him into her arms, her tears falling onto his pale face.
"Stay with me! Please, Luca, stay with me!"
The twins cried, clinging to their father's arms, shaking him. "Papa! Wake up!"
But his eyes fluttered shut, his body going limp.
The monster roared again, tearing against the chains, the chamber splitting wider.
And as the firestorm raged, Aria held Luca's lifeless body against her, her scream breaking through the roar.
"LUCA!"