Dracula's claw traced the throat of Ellen's sister, suspended three inches above the churning blood pool. Her chest cavity—transparent and mechanical—pulsed with a starlit heart amidst ticking gears. "Now," the vampire lord's fangs kissed glassy skin, "let the revels begin."
The pool erupted with screaming faces. Raine's scales curled black upon contact. "First round," Dracula's voice spider-crawled across their necks, "retrieve the Mirror of Truth."
Act I: Boiling Lies Raine's arm plunged into the pool, flesh carbonizing. Bone fingers groped through magma-thick fluid, brushing a mirror frame as a rotted saint statue—with Serena's face—rose from the depths.
"Your mother's last words were engraved here," Dracula licked his goblet. "Pity a certain bat crushed it."
Garret's claws sparked against the barrier. "Fight me you leech fuck!"
The mirror shard emerged. Its reflection showed Serena three centuries prior—kneeling, swallowing Dracula's blood, her pupils fracturing into spiderwebs.
"Tasted like rancid honey, dear?" Dracula flicked the crimson web on Serena's collarbone. "Your timekeeping service needs renewal."
Act II: Shadow Dance The pool solidified into obsidian. Raine's doppelgänger rose wielding the Blade, its draconic eye split into twins. Steel clashed as the shadow aimed solely for Serena's vitals.
"You should've killed her," the shadow breathed in Raine's ear. "Like she slew your father."
Raine's reversed scale sprayed blood. The Blade veered toward his own throat as the shadow morphed into Ellen's sister, edge against her birthmark. "Strike, savior."
Serena's wings swept debris. "Fool! It's illu—"
The Blade diverted, shearing a lock of the girl's hair. The shadow dissipated laughing. Raine collapsed coughing viscera, left flank scales charred.
Finale: Heartrot Serena hung chained above the altar. Dracula traced an inverted pentagram on her chest. "Miss by a hair..." He snapped fingers. Acid flooded the girl's heart chamber.
The Blade trembled, bloody tears oozing from twin eyes. Serena smirked crimson. "Half-inch left... where his cursed blood festers."
The thrust pierced. Serena's pupils slithered—not in fear, but ecstasy. As the Blade impaled her heart, Dracula's throne crumbled.
"Cheater!" The vampire lord shrieked amidst collapse. "Using my own pact against..."
Garret caught Ellen's sister mid-fall, her eyes now bearing the Citadel's gears. Serena wrenched the Blade free, black blood corroding stone. "Secret... I let him turn me..."
Raine's right eye fully slitted. Veins sprouted from the Blade's fissures, burrowing into his bones. Chains snapped in the abyss's depths.
"The game continues." Dracula's specter reformed in gore-mist. "When moon devours sun... I collect my toys."