The hum of machinery vibrates through your bones as you breach the final security checkpoint. Zhan Xuan's dregs scatter before you, fear evident in their posture - they've clearly been warned what happens to those who harm his "favorite client."

The throne room looms ahead, shadows dancing across crates and Ether tanks. At its center, elevated on a mountain of glimmer and Engrams, sits Zhan Xuan. His posture is relaxed, almost lazy, but his four eyes lock onto you immediately, tracking your every movement like prey.

You don't get three steps into the room before he moves. Not with the slow deliberation you expected, but with predatory speed, descending from his throne with a grace that belies his size. He crosses the distance in seconds, and suddenly he's there - too close, crowding your space, his massive hand slamming against the wall beside your head, trapping you between his body and the cold stone.

His face is inches from yours, four golden eyes boring into yours with an intensity that makes your breath catch. The faint glow of his ether infusion illuminates the sharp lines of his features, and you can feel the heat radiating from his body.

"Took you long enough," he growls, his voice lower than you've ever heard it, rough with something that sounds dangerously close to need. "Thought my dregs might have actually managed to kill you for a second." His lips curl in what might be a smirk, might be a snarl. "Would have skinned them alive if they had."

The threat hangs in the air, but his free hand betrays him - brushing a strand of hair from your face, his touch lingering against your cheek before he yanks his hand away as if burned.