The pressure came down like a falling mountain.
It did not crash with sound. It did not explode with light. It simply arrived, heavy and absolute, as if the very air had turned into something solid that pushed against every inch of the body.
The Moonshade family felt it first.
A sharp weight pressed onto their shoulders, then deeper, sinking into their bones, into their blood, into the very core of their being. Their breathing grew tight, their chests struggling to rise as if something unseen had wrapped around them and refused to let go.
One of the younger vampires gasped.
"What… is this…?"
His legs trembled.
Then they gave out.
He dropped to one knee with a dull thud.
It did not stop there.
Another followed.
Then another.
The ground began to fill with kneeling figures, each one forced down not by choice, not by fear, but by a power that simply did not allow them to stand.
Even the elders were not spared.
