LONGXING TEMPLE, HEBEI
The incense hall was a cavern of flickering shadows, lit by a hundred flames that sent coils of smoke rising like pale spirits toward the ancient rafters.
Massive stone pillars, carved with dragons whose eyes had been worn smooth by centuries of devotion, loomed in the half-dark.
At the altar stood a woman wrapped in black silk, the fabric lined with a thread of crimson that looked like dried blood. Her presence was a physical weight -quiet, suffocating, and absolute.
"A ship has stopped in the Bohai Sea," she said, her voice a calm, measured chime that didn't require her to turn.
"From the signs, it carries a vampire… and something else"
She turned away from the altar, her footsteps making no sound against the cold stone. "Bring them to me."
From the darkness behind a pillar, a shadow detached itself and dropped into a low bow. "Yes, Mother."
THE FOREST, HEBEI PROVINCE
The forest was a place where sound went to die. Towering pines crowded the sky, choking out the moonlight, while mist clung to the gnarled roots like damp breath. Every step stirred the heavy scent of wet soil and decay. High above, the ancient branches creaked with a slow, deliberate weight, as if the trees themselves were shifting to watch them pass.
Tony, unable to bear the oppressive silence, finally spoke. "Come to think of it, Sophia," he said, his voice cracking slightly as he forced a casual tone. "I've been meaning to ask… about your clothes."
Sophia didn't break her stride.
"How is it that you change outfits instantly?" Tony pressed, gesturing vaguely at her. "Do you… store them inside yourself or something?"
She spared him a glance, her eyes unreadable in the gloom. "You were terrified a minute ago," she said flatly. "And now you're asking pointless questions."
Tony exhaled sharply, a puff of nervous air. "I need to keep my mind off things. It helps me stay calm. Besides, we're walking toward something I'm not sure we can kill. If that demon Abaddon couldn't finish it off, then what chance do we have?"
They pressed deeper, the forest floor becoming a labyrinth of roots that looked like the bones of buried giants. The temperature plummeted.
"Think of my skin as camouflage, you can feel and see the cloth textures, but they are not real " Sophia said suddenly.
Tony stopped dead in his tracks. A mix of horror and a very misplaced, manic excitement lit up his face. "…Are you saying you've been naked this whole time, and I just can't see it?, I've been walking with a naked lady "
Sophia let out a weary sigh. "Don't think about it too much. Because we're here."
She pointed ahead. The trees thinned abruptly, revealing the jagged, weeping mouth of a cave carved into the mountainside.
Dark stains ,some old and blackened, others fresh marred the stone. A foul, humid heat leaked from the entrance, carrying the unmistakable metallic stench of a slaughterhouse.
"Deep inside that cave," Sophia whispered, the sound of her claws sliding from her fingertips clicking like a switchblade, "is the monster we came to kill."
From the black depths, a low, wet growl vibrated through the earth. Tony's smile vanished instantly.
"What are you two doing here at night?"
The voice hissed from the canopy, carried on a sudden, freezing wind.
A figure dropped silently from the heights, landing like a shadow that refused to break. The woman who emerged was draped in tattered robes of deep violet and black, her long hair threaded with feathers and bone charms that rattled as she moved. Her eyes glowed a faint, predatory gold, and her fingers were heavy with rings etched with writhing sigils. She smelled of bitter herbs and fresh ash.
"Hey, Amara," Tony called out, retreating a step. "I... I can explain."
Amara's gaze snapped to him, sharp as a guillotine. "Tony, You set foot here again, after what you did? You were sentenced to death. You escaped… and yet you return?"
"No! I swear!" Tony's shoulders slumped in genuine desperation.
"I never intended to come back! I would have stayed away forever, but this young lady dragged me here. She's searching for Dracula, and the only one who could tell us where he is… is your mother. I'm dead if I stay, dead if I leave. I made the wrong vampire very angry back in New Jersey."
"You can die for all I care," Amara spat, her eyes narrowing into golden slits.
Sophia stepped between them, her presence cold and commanding.
"I know you need catching up, but we can't talk now. We're in the middle of a hunt. I know you want to kill him, trust me everyone does, but he is with me for now. I won't let you, Once I get what I want, you'll be free to act."
Amara's lips curled in a snarl. "And who the hell are you to order me around?"
Before the tension could snap, the cave itself seemed to shudder.
The mutant erupted from the darkness with a roar that split the night. It was a writhing mass of black spikes, its limbs shooting outward like telescopic spears, slicing through the surrounding pines as if they were paper. Tony threw himself onto the dirt, covering his head as branches rained down.
Amara's hands flashed with fire and steel as she parried the spikes with enchanted blades, but one stray spire grazed Sophia's arm, leaving a thin red line.
"Each of my spires," the mutant hissed, its voice a rattling, wet mess, "has enough poison to make anyone die in their sleep… one scratch, and it's all over!"
Sophia looked at the scratch, her eyes turning a deep, demonic red in the moonlight. A cold, dangerous smile touched her lips.
"Why won't you die already?!" the monster screamed, sensing her lack of fear.
"Because I don't sleep, you fool," Sophia whispered.
She lunged. The monster released a thick, choking spray of toxic gas, but Sophia was a blur, moving through the fog without a cough.
"It has no effect on her!" the monster shrieked, recoiling in terror. "Her presence... it's just like him, Like the doctor!"
As the creature turned to flee, Amara rose into the air, her voice chanting a guttural, ancient tongue: "Kha'rula zeynoth, fira'kan delthu, nahrim estha viroth!"
A violent gust of wind shredded the toxic fog, and a ring of supernatural fire slammed down around the mutant, locking it in a cage of heat. It thrashed, its spikes sparking against the magical barrier.
"What… what is this?!" it screamed.
"It's just a simple barrier," Amara said calmly from the air. "To contain you."
In an instant, Sophia appeared inside the circle of fire.
Amara froze. "How did she get through? It's impossible to pass through that seal."
Inside the barrier, the air turned to blood and steel. Sophia's claws flashed in a rhythmic, brutality.
She tore through the monster's legs and torso, sending sprays of green ichor into the dirt.
She slashed upward, severing the toxic spikes like they were made of fragile glass.
With a final, savage lunge, she drove her claws through its skull and down its spine.
The mutant's roar ended in a wet, gurgling sob. It collapsed, twitched once, and went still.
The forest fell silent, save for the steady drip-drip of green blood. Sophia rose slowly, her chest heaving, her skin smeared with the monster's remains. She turned to Amara, her red eyes gleaming with a terrifying triumph.
"Let's move," she said, her voice low and deadly. "There's more to talk about ."