Chapter 12 - The Trap Beneath the Stone
The red glow pulsing from the iron bulkhead intensified, casting an eerie, demonic hue over the damp stone walls of the hidden chamber. The voices whispering from the rock grew louder, shifting from scattered murmurs into a unified, screeching chorus that vibrated inside Lucy’s skull like a struck bell.
“The bloodline is broken, but the vessel remains empty,” the walls shrieked. “Take the girl. Bind her to the stone. Let the kingdom bleed through her veins!”
A sharp, freezing wind whipped through the subterranean corridor, extinguishing Captain Marcus’s torch and plunging them into near-total darkness, save for the pulsating red light of the bulkhead.
"Get back!" William shouted, drawing his sword as the stone floor beneath their feet began to fracture in a spiderweb pattern. Jagged shards of rock shot upward like spears, forcing Marcus and William to leap backward to avoid being impaled.
Lucy stumbled, her foot catching on a raised glyph. As her palm slapped against the cold stone floor, a searing pain shot up her arm. The glowing red runes on the ground flared blindingly bright, wrapping around her wrists like invisible chains of fire.
"Lucy!" William cried out, lunging forward through the barrage of shifting stone. He grabbed her hands, trying to pull her away, but the magic locked them together with terrifying force. A jolt of dark energy surged through William’s touch, throwing him backward against the opposite wall with a heavy thud.
"Your Majesty!" Marcus roared, rushing to pull the king to his feet while swinging his sword at the ethereal hands rising from the floor.
Lucy strained against the binding magic, gasping for air as her vision swam. The bulkhead slowly creaked open an inch, revealing a bottomless pit of absolute blackness behind it, filled with floating, spectral chains.
“Offer the sacrifice,” the wall commanded, its voice echoing with absolute authority. “Seal the vault with a pure soul, and the kingdom shall prosper a thousand years.”
"No..." Lucy choked out, her strength fading as the magic began to drain her vitality. She remembered her first day in the palace, scrubbing the cold floors, pretending she couldn't hear the world around her. She had survived this long by refusing to be a victim of the castle's dark history. She wasn't going to let a dead Chancellor's ghost claim her now.
"Marcus, hold my belt!" William shouted, his voice cutting through the ringing in Lucy's ears.
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The king didn't hesitate. He grabbed a heavy iron spike from Marcus’s gear pack, ran toward the center of the glowing glyphs, and with a roar of pure defiance, drove the spike directly into the heart of the main rune.
A blinding flash of silver light erupted, clashing violently with the red glow of the bulkhead.
