The castle shook again.
A deep vibration ran through the walls of Darkheart.
Stone cracked.
Dust rained from the ceiling.
Far away, alarm bells began ringing.
Their sound echoed throughout the fortress.
Servants screamed.
Soldiers rushed through corridors.
Nobles woke from their chambers in confusion.
Something was happening.
Something that had not happened in centuries.
And everyone felt it.
Damian stood frozen.
Not because of fear.
Because of the voice.
The voice still echoed inside his mind.
"Come to me."
It felt wrong.
Ancient.
Older than language itself.
And yet...
somehow familiar.
Like hearing the voice of a forgotten relative.
Or remembering a dream from childhood.
His heart pounded.
Again.
"Come to me."
The words returned.
Stronger this time.
Scarlett immediately grabbed his shoulders.
"Damian."
He blinked.
"What?"
The queen's face had turned pale.
Very pale.
"Don't listen."
The prince frowned.
"What are you talking about?"
"You heard it."
It wasn't a question.
She knew.
Damian looked at her silently.
That was enough.
Scarlett closed her eyes.
For a moment she looked exhausted.
As though a nightmare she had spent eighteen years avoiding had finally arrived.
The prince grabbed her wrist.
"Mother."
She looked up.
"What is beneath this castle?"
The queen hesitated.
Then another explosion shook the fortress.
BOOM!
This time the entire room trembled.
A crack spread across one of the walls.
The castle itself seemed to groan.
As if something beneath it was struggling to rise.
Damian's instincts screamed danger.
But another feeling was present too.
Curiosity.
An overwhelming curiosity.
The kind that dragged people into forbidden places.
The kind that killed kings and heroes.
The prince hated that feeling.
Yet he could not ignore it.
Far below...
something wanted him.
Specifically him.
Not Fenrir.
Not Scarlett.
Not Sirius.
Him.
And that terrified him.
Because he didn't know why.
"Stay here."
Scarlett's voice was firm.
Damian almost laughed.
"Mother."
"No."
Her eyes hardened.
"For once in your life, listen."
The prince stared at her.
Then slowly shook his head.
"I can't."
Before she could answer...
the chamber doors burst open.
Sirius entered.
His usually calm expression was gone.
For the first time Damian saw genuine urgency in the executioner's eyes.
"Your Majesty."
Scarlett turned.
"What happened?"
"The Seventh Seal cracked."
Silence.
Absolute silence.
Even Damian felt cold hearing those words.
Because Scarlett looked horrified.
Not worried.
Not concerned.
Horrified.
"The Seventh Seal?"
Sirius nodded.
"King Fenrir already descended."
The queen cursed under her breath.
Damian's eyebrows rose.
He had never heard his mother curse before.
That alone showed how serious this situation was.
"What seal?" Damian demanded.
Nobody answered.
Again.
The prince clenched his fists.
"I am tired of this."
His voice echoed through the room.
The air became heavy.
The temperature dropped.
A faint crimson aura leaked from his body.
The result of his awakening.
The result of his anger.
"I keep asking questions."
"No one answers."
"Everyone talks around the truth."
His eyes shifted toward Sirius.
Then Scarlett.
"Enough."
The room became silent.
Damian's breathing slowed.
Then he spoke again.
"What is beneath Darkheart?"
Scarlett looked at Sirius.
Sirius looked at Scarlett.
Both knew.
Both understood.
The truth could no longer remain hidden.
Not after tonight.
Not after the Blood Eater.
Not after the voice.
Not after the Seventh Seal.
The queen finally sighed.
A long.
Tired sigh.
Then she spoke.
"There is a prison beneath Darkheart."
Damian remained silent.
Listening.
Scarlett continued.
"It existed long before vampires built this castle."
"Long before kingdoms."
"Long before history."
The prince frowned.
"Who built it?"
The queen slowly shook her head.
"We don't know."
That answer shocked him.
Vampires hated ignorance.
Especially his family.
Yet even they didn't know.
That was unsettling.
Very unsettling.
Sirius stepped forward.
"The prison was already ancient when the first Vampire King discovered it."
"He spent fifty years studying it."
"Then ordered Darkheart Castle built above it."
Damian listened carefully.
Every word increased his unease.
"The prison contains something."
The prince narrowed his eyes.
"What?"
Neither answered immediately.
Then Sirius finally spoke.
"A god."
The room became silent.
Damian stared.
Then laughed.
A short laugh.
Disbelieving.
"A god?"
"No."
Sirius answered.
"Something worse."
The laughter vanished.
Slowly.
The executioner had many qualities.
One thing he never did...
was joke.
If Sirius said something was worse than a god...
then it probably was.
A chill crawled down Damian's spine.
The prince suddenly remembered the giant crimson eye from his vision.
The chains.
The hatred.
The smile.
And for the first time...
he realized it might not have been a dream.
Another tremor shook the castle.
BOOM!
The floor cracked.
Servants screamed outside.
This time everyone felt it.
Whatever was imprisoned below...
was waking up.
Suddenly...
a wave of power exploded upward.
An invisible force.
Ancient.
Terrifying.
The chamber windows shattered completely.
Every candle died instantly.
Darkness swallowed the room.
For one brief second...
Damian saw something.
Not with his eyes.
Inside his mind.
A vision.
A throne.
A black throne made from bones.
Mountains of corpses.
Rivers of blood.
Countless armies kneeling.
Gods chained.
Entire worlds burning.
And sitting upon that throne...
was a figure.
A giant.
A king.
A monster.
Its face remained hidden beneath darkness.
But its eyes...
Its eyes were crimson.
Exactly like Damian's.
The vision vanished.
The prince staggered backward.
His breathing became ragged.
Sweat covered his forehead.
"Damian!"
Scarlett rushed toward him.
But he barely heard her.
Because another voice echoed inside his head.
Much clearer than before.
Much closer.
"My prince."
Damian froze.
The voice sounded pleased.
Happy.
As if it had finally found something precious.
"At last."
The prince felt cold.
Very cold.
Because deep inside...
a terrifying realization had begun forming.
The creature beneath Darkheart wasn't trying to kill him.
It wasn't hunting him.
It wasn't threatening him.
It was waiting for him.
For eighteen years.
The same way the Blood Eater had recognized him.
The same way the prophecy seemed connected to him.
The same way everything pointed toward him.
And Damian was beginning to fear the answer to a question he had asked all his life.
"What am I?"
Far below Darkheart...
Miles beneath stone.
Beneath ruins.
Beneath forgotten tunnels.
The giant crimson eye opened wider.
Ancient chains trembled.
One of them snapped.
CRACK.
The sound echoed endlessly through the darkness.
And for the first time in thousands of years...
the creature laughed.
A deep.
Monstrous.
Triumphant laugh.
Because after centuries of waiting...
the heir had finally awakened.