Bloodlines - Bathory and Thorne

Elizabeth launches from her guarded stance. Her clawed hands rake across Erzsebet’s torso, tearing two dark wounds through the ancient clothing as black aura flares around her.

Erzsebet stumbles backward across the crimson carpet, one hand pressed to the wounds. She remains standing, wide-eyed at her daughter’s betrayal, while Thadeus stays among the broken marble with Peacebringer raised.

The surprise drains from Erzsebet’s face and leaves fury behind. Dark blood threads between her fingers as the blood-red moon flashes across her widening smile.

Elizabeth holds herself between Thadeus and her mother, claws extended, the black aura burning like smoke-fed flame. Her breathing is ragged, but her stance does not yield.

Erzsebet lunges at Elizabeth, enormous claws carving through the smoky air. Elizabeth blurs aside, pivots, and rakes back, but Erzsebet twists away from the counterstrike.

The two women circle beneath the blood-red moon, claws flashing and black aura streaming from their bodies. Their collision sends a violent pressure through the ballroom.

Thadeus gets to his feet and moves toward the ballroom entrance, keeping Peacebringer close as the floor shudders beneath the duel. He drops to one knee beside the doorway.

He examines the wound across his chest. Blood darkens his clothing, but the injury is not life-threatening. His breathing is heavy, and his strength is visibly ebbing.

A hard metallic commotion rises behind Thadeus. He glances toward the stairwell leading to the clock tower, but the steps and landing remain empty.

Several feet away, Elizabeth and Erzsebet circle beneath the red moon, claws cutting through smoke. Each evades cleanly; neither woman lands a visible blow.

Erzsebet suddenly extends both hands toward Elizabeth. A concentrated burst erupts outward, swelling across the ballroom as Erzsebet keeps her attention fixed on subduing her daughter.

Elizabeth blinks out of sight and reappears beyond the expanding wave. Thadeus drops face first onto the carpet, and the blast tears overhead by inches.

The shockwave destroys the remaining glass high above, filling the ballroom with glittering fragments and wind. The metal stairwell door remains intact behind him.

Dust skims across Thadeus’s back. As the pressure passes, it clears the doorway’s threshold completely, leaving the route to the clock tower plainly visible and unobstructed.

Thadeus gathers himself and pushes through the intact stairwell doorway into the clock tower. Wind funnels through the shattered ballroom behind him, carrying dust and glass.

From the landing, he looks down toward the lower entrance. The two blue-armored axe guardians are gone, leaving the stairwell open beneath the turning mechanisms.

Elias, Marcus, and Sally stand below, looking up. Marcus supports Sally beneath one arm, while her pale, exhausted face shows how heavily the castle has worn her down.

Thadeus raises one hand and waves them toward him. The gesture is clear through the tower’s wind, directing them to climb to the landing.

He lowers himself to one knee beside the stairwell, Peacebringer tight in his grasp. Pain intensifies across his chest, forcing each breath shorter than the last.

Elias, Marcus, and Sally race up the winding stairs. Elias reaches the landing first, with Marcus supporting Sally as the tower trembles around them.

Thadeus grimaces and nods. Blood has spread across his shirt beneath the claw marks, and each breath pulls painfully at the wound.

Thadeus raises one hand, stopping Elias before he can reach him. Below, the clockwork mechanisms grind while distant impacts shudder through the tower.