Rumble—!
The entire underground tomb began to sink deeper underground.
Hundreds of tons of rock, salt crystals, and ancient architectural debris pressed in from all directions. Twelve massive salt-crystal pillars shattered one after another, and crimson light gushed from the cracks like countless blood vessels growing madly through the darkness.
Selene raised her right hand. Dense darkness erupted from beneath her feet, forming an almost tangible dome of shadow that completely enveloped the area where she and Miles stood.
"Do you think you can trap me with something like this?"
"How naive!"
Darkness rapidly spread through the shattered salt layers around them, like countless slender tentacles boring into cracks in the rock walls, trying to forcibly tear open a path through the collapsing mountain toward the outside world.
Yet just as the shadows were about to pierce the rock layers above, a ring of blinding silver-white light suddenly flared.
Sizzle—!
The darkness Selene had unleashed seemed to touch a red-hot branding iron, and vast swathes of shadow instantly evaporated.
Her gaze darkened.
Deep within the collapsing rock layers, ancient runes that had been hidden within the salt crystals emerged one after another. Silver powder, holy oil, salt crystals, and black magic formed a complex circuit that rapidly sealed itself along the entire mountain, ultimately creating a colossal cage that covered several hundred meters underground.
Those materials repelled one another, yet they had been forcibly fused into a single whole under some even more ancient vampire covenant. Whoever had arranged it did not believe in the holiness those materials represented; they were merely exploiting their natural restraint against Selene's power.
"A second barrier?"
Selene sneered.
"Those parasites really did prepare quite a few things."
As she spoke, her eyes glowed dark red.
Countless ancient incantations rapidly arranged and reassembled themselves within