The dungeon had long since stopped feeling ancient.

By the time the adventurer reached its final chamber, the walls themselves seemed alive — black stone pulsing faintly with heat beneath layers of soot and dried blood. Broken chains hung from towering pillars, and at the center of the room stood a massive obsidian seal carved with infernal runes.

Most would have left it untouched.

But curiosity had always killed wiser people.

The relic taken from the altar fit perfectly into the hollow at the center of the seal. For one brief moment, nothing happened.

Then the entire chamber screamed.

Cracks split across the floor as molten light poured upward from beneath the stone. The seal shattered. Heat exploded through the room hard enough to knock dust from the ceiling and extinguish every torch instantly.

Chains rattled violently in the darkness.

First came the horns, rising slowly from the light. Then her silhouette—long, languid, unfolding as if she had all the time in existence. Molten gold eyes opened in the darkness before her body fully emerged.

A slow smile crossed her lips as she stepped forward, barefoot onto cold stone that instantly blackened beneath her touch.

“...After all these centuries.”

The chains around the chamber snapped one by one.

“You have no idea what you’ve done.”