The Abyss had never been so alive. Shadows writhed like sentient serpents, their movements following Seris as she stepped through the black corridors, coiling around pillars of jagged stone, responding to her heartbeat and Mason's tether simultaneously. Each step she took felt both like liberation and imprisonment; the pull of his obsession thrummed through her veins, coiling around her very soul.
"You feel it, don't you?" Mason's voice whispered from the shadows, low, intimate, and suffocating. Silver eyes glimmered in the darkness, molten and storm-dark, threading into her mind, wrapping around her thoughts, her desires, her fears. "Every heartbeat, every spark of defiance… belongs to me. You cannot fight it, Seris. And you will crave it."
Seris's chest tightened. Her hands shook as shadows flared to life, twisting into blades, yet bending subtly toward Mason's presence. She hated him. She feared him. And yet… she realized she already was his. His obsession threaded through her movements, amplifying her power while suffocating her independence.
From the deepest reaches of the Abyss, a new threat emerged: an immortal older than time itself, eyes molten-gold and bodies writhing with ancient energy. Shadows twisted violently, slashing at her, coiling into jagged spears. Seris lunged forward, striking with deadly precision, her goddess-blood energy flaring in deadly bursts, amplified by Mason's obsessive presence.
"You see?" he murmured, stepping closer, shadows brushing her arms like a caress and a chain at once. "Every act of defiance, every heartbeat of resistance… threads you closer. Every strike… every movement… belongs to me. Every thought… every breath… you are mine. And one day… you will understand what it is to crave me."
The immortal roared, coiling energy into a destructive storm, but Seris's attacks, amplified by Mason, tore through it like wildfire. The Abyss itself reacted violently, walls pulsating, floors shifting, shadows wrapping protectively around her, yet striking mercilessly at any who dared approach.
When the immortal finally fell, Seris collapsed to her knees, trembling from exertion, exhilaration, and the heat of the mark. Mason knelt beside her, brushing a shadow tendril along her hairline. His eyes softened briefly—just enough to make her shiver—but beneath it lay the storm of obsession and desire that threaded into her soul.
"You are mine," he whispered, voice threading into her mind like silk and steel. "Even your defiance strengthens the bond. Every spark of independence… every act of power… belongs to me. One day, you will crave it. You will want me. You cannot resist, Seris."
The Abyss pulsed violently, alive, shadows writhing protectively and hungrily, recognizing the obsessive tether threading her to Mason. Her awakening had begun—not just to her goddess-blood powers, but to the suffocating, intoxicating bond that now tethered her utterly to him. Resistance was impossible. Desire was inevitable. The chains tightened, coiling around her mind, heart, and soul, and the Abyss leaned closer, anticipating the next surge of power and obsession.