[Location: Dungeon—Vampire King's Castle]
"Tell me, anomaly," Alexios continued, stepping forward, his polished shoes clicking softly against fractured stone. "Does your will come from borrowed divinity… or from a delusion so deep even death pities you?"
Alexios's eyes lingered on me as though he were dissecting the concept of my existence itself.
His question was not meant to be answered.
It was meant to measure.
Silence stretched.
Dust drifted, turning the corridor into a pale, suffocating haze. My breath came shallow, every inhale clawing like broken glass, my arms heavy as though the very marrow had been leeched. The echo of Divine Departure still thundered faintly in my bones, the backlash of forcing Conqueror's Will through a body that should never have contained it screaming in protest.
I didn't reply.
Not with words.
Because anything I said would be a lie anyway.
