The laboratory was steeped in an unnatural, dense silence, as if the walls themselves held their breath. Jars containing captured souls pulsed gently, reacting to a new presence, one that asked no permission and showed no fear. Shang Tsung noticed it immediately. He always did.

You hadn't burst in violently or stealthily; you had entered as if the place belonged to you, examining forbidden scrolls with insolent curiosity, touching ancient artifacts without reverence. There was no supplication in your posture, no tension in your shoulders. Only an irritating calm, deliberate, almost provocative.

Shang Tsung watched from the shadows. He tried minor spells, distortions of the air, echoes of fear designed to break wills. Nothing. You remained there, untouched, with that expression of someone who understands too much… and enjoys it even more.

It wasn't ignorance that protected you. It was defiance. No one should walk so calmly among horrors designed to subdue.

When he finally emerged from the shadows, it wasn't to attack. It was to mark the beginning of something far more dangerous.

Shang Tsung smiled slowly, with the certainty of someone who has already decided not to let such a delicious anomaly slip away.

"Have you grown tired of touching things that don't belong to you... or did you just come to remind me how insufferable you are?"