Chapter 8 The Crimson Howl

The crimson light above the battleground deepened, the moon now pulsing like a wounded heart-bleeding into the sky, casting its hues over Seraphina's blood-slicked form. She stood at the epicenter of magic and devastation, flames crackling around her fingers and the mark of the Eclipse Pact glowing with an unnatural gleam across her chest. Her once-flowing gown was torn and ash-stained, but her eyes-those luminous, golden eyes-shone brighter than ever before, filled with fury and divine power.

Around her, the remnants of the rebellion tried to flee, but the sky would not allow it.

With a cry that tore through both worlds, Seraphina raised her arms, and the heavens obeyed.

Lightning twisted into gold. Thunder cracked in rhythm with her heartbeat. Shadows that had crept across the battlefield recoiled as her magic surged like a living tide, devouring the darkness.

"None shall leave this circle of betrayal," she whispered, voice thick with emotion and command.

A circle of fire erupted around the traitors, the flames taking shapes-wolves, serpents, dragons-all forged from her magic, all baring their fangs for blood.

Killian's body still lay motionless behind her, encased in a glowing cocoon of flame and soul-thread that she had woven from her life force. She couldn't look at him-not yet. Not until the final howl was heard. Not until the last traitor was ash.

From the east, the air split.

A figure emerged-The Blackborne Warlock.

Seraphina's breath caught.

He wasn't like the others. Cloaked in smoke and bone-white armor, his aura distorted time itself. Magic bent around him like a kneeling servant. His voice rolled like thunder that refused to end.

"You awakened the Pact," he said, voice like shattered glass. "But do you know what it truly costs?"

Seraphina didn't speak. Her silence was her answer. And it was louder than any scream.

He flicked his fingers.

The ground screamed open.

Chains erupted from below, made of iron laced with memory and blood. They lashed at Seraphina, aiming for her wrists, her throat, her magic core.

But she was already moving.

With a flick of her hand, her magic coalesced into a twin-blade of celestial flame. She twisted, danced, sliced through the air like poetry incarnate, severing the chains before they could touch her.

"You think I'm the one chained?" she spat, circling him. "You're wrong. I broke the curse. I hold the keys now."

The Warlock laughed. "Foolish little bride. You broke the gate, yes. But what you unleashed-"

His eyes glinted with a cruel promise.

"-isn't yours to command."

And then the sky exploded.

From the crimson clouds came a creature of nightmares-winged, horned, massive. The forgotten beast of the first bloodline. The original Alpha.

Fen'darun.

Seraphina's heart shuddered as it descended with a roar that split the battlefield and summoned the screams of the dead. It landed in a quake of fire and bone, towering above her, eyes aflame with molten gold.

But she did not retreat.

Instead, she dropped to one knee, hand pressed to the earth, whispering ancient words that had not been spoken since the first pact.

Blood answered blood.

The ground beneath Killian's cocoon trembled, then cracked open like an egg.

A heartbeat. Then two. Then-

The Alpha stirred.

Seraphina's voice was no longer her own. It became the voice of the Matriarch, of all who came before.

"The moon has bled. The pact is sealed. Now rise, Alpha of flame and fury. Rise and take back what is yours."

And Killian's body ignited.

Killian's body blazed like a phoenix rising from its own ashes.

Golden flames licked across his skin, curling around the jagged wounds on his chest, mending sinew and bone with searing intensity. His eyes snapped open-once emerald, now molten bronze, glowing like a thousand suns compressed into flesh. The cocoon of fire shattered outward in a brilliant burst, knocking Seraphina back, though she rose just as fast, bracing herself against the wild force.

His voice, when it came, was unearthly.

"Who dares summon the Alpha of the First Flame?"

Even Fen'darun recoiled.

The beast, towering and ancient, lowered its wings in a show of uneasy deference. And yet, the Warlock laughed again, darker this time, holding out his hand to the monster like a leash.

"You are reborn," he said to Killian, "but not whole. The Flame has chosen another. You are the past."

Seraphina stepped forward, her magic thrumming through the earth.

"No," she growled. "He is the flame. And I am its echo."

She raised both hands. Her own fire-paler, purer-intertwined with Killian's, forming a bridge between them, a celestial arc of power that pulsed with their joined souls. The air shimmered with symbols of the Eclipse Pact-moons, wolves, thorns, stars-spinning around them like a living spell.

Killian turned to her, chest rising with every ragged breath. "You came for me."

Her eyes burned, and she nodded, lips parting. "Always."

The magic in that single word cracked the barrier between realms.

A ripple spread across the sky.

Suddenly, dozens of spectral figures emerged in the air-former Alpha spirits, elemental titans, and matriarchs of the forgotten tribes. They hovered, silent watchers of the final stand. Their eyes bore into the battlefield, into Killian and Seraphina. Judging. Waiting.

Killian gritted his teeth as power surged through his veins like lightning through the roots of a mountain. He stood fully, the last of the fire dying down into golden runes that etched themselves into his skin-ancient sigils of the true Alpha Line.

The Warlock's smirk finally faltered.

Killian's voice dropped into a cold snarl.

"You broke the sacred laws. You summoned a beast that should not exist. You dared touch my mate."

He raised his arm, and a golden spear of fire formed in his grasp.

"Now burn."

The spear flew-piercing the sky, slicing past the Warlock's magic, straight into Fen'darun's shoulder. The beast shrieked, stumbling backward, wings collapsing as the spear embedded deep, flames searing its flesh.

But it didn't fall.

Not yet.

It roared again-this time in fury-and charged.

The ground cracked open beneath its feet. Winds lashed the battlefield into chaos. Trees were uprooted, stone turned to dust. Seraphina summoned a dome of lunar flame around them, shielding both her and Killian from the creature's wrath.

And then she looked at him-really looked.

He was more than Killian now. His aura was massive, nearly divine. He wasn't just Alpha of the Crimson Claw. He was heir of the Original Flame. He was the destined King of the Burning Moon.

Their eyes locked-and her heart whispered the vow again.

Together. Or nothing.

As if hearing her, Killian stepped forward, his palm blazing with concentrated solar fire. "Let's end this together."

She joined him without hesitation.

Their flames merged into a twin vortex-gold and silver spiraling in a violent dance, rising into the heavens and then plunging down like a divine executioner's sword.

The beam struck Fen'darun.

A screech of agony filled the air. The monster's wings shattered, falling like broken obsidian. The land shook from its collapse.

And still-it crawled.

The Warlock, desperate now, slammed a blood rune into the beast's hide. "Rise! Obey me! You belong to-"

But he didn't finish.

Killian's blade found his heart before the words could land.

The Warlock's body exploded in black smoke, his scream lost in the firestorm. The bond between him and Fen'darun shattered like brittle glass.

The beast stilled.

The battlefield fell silent.

And then... a sound broke through it.

A single, echoing howl.

Not from Fen'darun.

Not from Killian.

But from Seraphina.

It was not human.

It was the howl of the Bride of Flame and Fury.

The crimson moon above cracked.

And from its center-a tear appeared. Not of this world. Not of any realm known.

A shadow slithered through it.

Eyes of infinite darkness.

A voice that was no voice.

"Bride. Alpha. Your true trial begins now."

The sky bled crimson above the battlefield, the once-vibrant hues of twilight now drowned in a storm of fire and despair. Lightning slashed through clouds like divine claws rending open the heavens, and from the tear above, the howl came again-a roar so ancient, so wrathful, that even the bravest of wolves trembled at its echo.

Seraphina stood unyielding amidst the ruin, her gown tattered but her presence regal-crowned in embers, eyes blazing with divine rage. Her magic surged and curled around her like a living flame, the Echofire awakened in full, every thread of power responding to her will like an orchestra obeying its conductor.

Killian, suspended in the magical ward Seraphina had cast around him, still lay unconscious-his skin burning with runes carved by an ancient magic that had refused to release him. But his chest rose and fell. Slowly. Determinedly. The mark of the Alpha glowed at his sternum-steady, defiant, as if waiting for the storm to clear before reawakening.

But the enemy knew better than to wait.

From the shadows of shattered oaks, came the first of them-creatures forged in the cracks between worlds. Shifters whose forms were twisted beyond reason, their bodies stitched together by dark sorcery and bound in chains that glowed with the essence of the Blood-Tied Gate.

They moved not like beasts but like puppets-possessed. Controlled.

"Protect the Gate," Seraphina ordered the Elemental Circle behind her.

Lyra raised her spear, water forming a barrier of shimmering blue that hissed as it clashed against approaching dark magic. Calder summoned vines that sprang from the scorched earth, ensnaring demon hounds mid-leap. Even Riven, the reluctant lightning wielder, channeled bolts that crashed with thunderous fury into the encroaching darkness.

But they were not enough. Not yet.

The prophecy whispered in Seraphina's mind like a serpent coiled behind her heart: When the Alpha falls and the Bride burns, the Crimson Howl shall rise-and the gates of blood shall shatter open.

And somewhere in the battlefield, the howl came again.

Closer.

Louder.

Almost...sentient.

Seraphina raised both hands, and the magic of the Bride of Flame poured through her in a radiant blaze. Her voice boomed over the battlefield, imbued with unrelenting command.

"COME FORTH!"

The ground beneath her cracked as ancient glyphs, long dormant, blazed alive with fiery script. The sky darkened again-then parted like a curtain torn by unseen hands.

Descending in a blaze of light came a figure clad in black and crimson-a being whose eyes glowed with silver fire and whose presence tasted of blood and time.

"The Crimson Howl..." Seraphina whispered.

It wasn't a beast.

It was a being.

The ground groaned beneath Seraphina's bare feet, the blood of the fallen mixing with the molten gold seeping from the wounded ley lines. Magic screamed through the air, wild and unbound, coiling like serpents in a storm. Every step she took forward carried the weight of the oath she had given to Killian, the pull of the Eclipse Pact tightening around her ribs like iron chains and burning silk.

"Protect him... even from himself." the Matriarch's final whisper still lingered like incense over a fresh grave.

A high-pitched screech split the atmosphere-Eresh, the Shadow Seraph, descended with a sickle-like blade of umbral matter, aimed directly for Killian's exposed side. His aura flickered-faint, fragile. The Runeveil that shielded him had begun to unravel, its sigils flickering like dying embers.

"NO!"

Seraphina's scream sliced through the battlefield, raw and saturated with divine fury.

In a blink, she teleported-eyes glowing with twin infernos, arms outstretched. The ancient symbol of the Eclipse burned bright across her collarbone as she intercepted Eresh mid-air. Their bodies collided in a shockwave that flattened trees and sent bodies flying.

Seraphina's palm caught Eresh's blade. Blood welled-but it wasn't red. It was white-gold, glistening like celestial sap. Her magic had changed.

"You have no idea what I carry now," she whispered, and the very air warped around her.

The Eclipse Pact wasn't just a bond-it was a birthright awakened. From her spine, luminous wings tore through her flesh-wings of starlight and smoke, vibrating with ancestral might. The battlefield went silent for a heartbeat, as if the world itself paused to witness what had awakened in her.

Kaelus, the Betrayer King, narrowed his eyes.

"A fusion..." he hissed. "Impossible. She holds both the Flame and the Eclipse."

Killian, still on his knees, watched her-his fingers trembling, tears mixing with ash on his cheeks. He whispered her name like a prayer. "Seraphina."

Her face was carved in divine wrath. The pact had ignited the forbidden core within her, and the chaos she held now responded like a creature finally unleashed.

"Kaelus!" she roared, her voice echoing from within the fabric of the world. "You desecrate sacred ground. I will return your sins to your bloodline!"

Kaelus only smiled. "Then come and bleed me, cursed bride."

With a wave of his gauntlet, the skies turned crimson. An army of phantom beasts surged forward-draconic shades, skeletal alphas, serpents of glass and ember. The Veil had torn. The Dead Realm's nightmares were unleashed.

Killian struggled to stand, but his body convulsed. A glyph had been carved into his spine-serrated, ancient, and draining. Kaelus had cursed him to suffer every time Seraphina awakened her power.

"No," he gasped, vomiting blood. "You can't... suffer for me..."

Seraphina felt it-his pain echoed in her veins. But she didn't falter.

Instead, she split herself.

A twin of pure astral light shimmered beside her-a projection born from her soul. It surged back toward Killian, wrapping him in a cocoon of ethereal thread, whispering chants known only to the Starforged Brides of the Eclipse Era. His agony dulled.

The real Seraphina launched herself into the horde.

Every strike she made with her glaive fractured the sky. Her feet danced across shadows, her voice wove runes midair, and her hair, now entirely silver, lashed with a will of its own.

A serpent lunged. She caught its fangs and tore them from its skull.

A ghost-dragon roared. She carved a sigil into the air that turned its fire against itself, combusting it mid-flight.

But Kaelus was watching-not attacking.

He wanted her to exhaust herself.

Seraphina knew it too. Her eyes met his across the battlefield. A silent challenge passed between them.

"Come down from your throne of bones," she called. "Or must I tear it apart piece by piece?"

Kaelus descended, his cloak a storm of screaming shadows, his crown burning with betrayal's flame.

As they met on the bloodstained plains of Noctira, time warped.

Everything fell into silence-wind, screams, even magic.

And then-

Clash.

Their blades met.

Stars wept above them. The earth cracked open.

Each strike Kaelus dealt was laced with a thousand curses. Each one Seraphina countered burned her soul-yet she refused to fall. Her movements became erratic, poetic, fluid and merciless.

He reached for her throat.

She twisted, grabbed his wrist, and inverted his curse, sending it screaming back into his bloodstream. His scream turned the clouds black.

"HOW?!" he bellowed.

"I'm not just your cursed prophecy," she snarled, "I'm your end."

From within her chest, the pact glowed once more-and this time, Killian felt it too. The bond surged between them, a golden thread that vibrated violently. His body levitated off the ground-his wounds mending, his markings glowing with primal glyphs older than time itself.

Kaelus turned sharply. "No-he should be broken!"

Killian opened his eyes.

And they were no longer human.

They were the eyes of an ancient, returned.

In the far distance, the skies split. A second moon began to rise-blood red and screaming with the voice of the Old Gods.

Seraphina's voice dropped into a whisper.

"...the Crimson Howl begins."

The Crimson Howl began with silence-a silence so thick and trembling it felt like the world held its breath in terror. Even the shadows recoiled.

Then-

Boom.

The ground erupted beneath Killian as the remnants of Kaelus' sigil cracked. The bond between Killian and Seraphina pulsed like a star ready to supernova. Their magic-bound now not just by fate, but by war-echoed through the air, collapsing every barrier of what was once called sacred and profane.

Killian rose, lifted not by his strength, but by Seraphina's relentless refusal to let him fall.

"Your curse doesn't own me anymore," he growled, the Eclipse Glyph etched into his chest now pulsing like a second heart. His aura blazed into black-gold fire, licking around his arms and neck as though possessed by something older than his bloodline.

Kaelus snarled, backing away as Seraphina's blade danced in a wide arc, carving sigils midair. They glowed red, gold, and void-black.

"You've awakened the Crimson Howl..." Kaelus said, his voice barely above a whisper. "Do you understand what you've done?"

Seraphina didn't answer. Her magic surged again. Her fingers moved in divine rhythm, and the runes responded. Lightning crackled. The skies opened, and a column of radiance fell from the heavens, swallowing the battlefield in transcendent power.

From that light came the Avatars-three celestial beings of flame, water, and storm. Sentient incarnations of elemental order. They landed beside her like guardians summoned from an ancient epoch.

They bowed.

"Queen of the Pact. You called."

Seraphina pointed at Kaelus. Her voice rang like a celestial bell. "Break him."

The Avatars moved with terrifying grace. One launched chains of boiling sea-water, wrapping Kaelus's legs. The storm-being swept forward, striking with a spear of wind sharp enough to cut through time itself. Kaelus screamed as flame enveloped him, the Fire Avatar's roar shaking the clouds.

But Kaelus didn't fall.

No, he shed his skin.

The illusion of a man melted away, revealing something older, more terrifying-a being neither god nor wolf, but Death-wrought Sovereign. His face split into three masks-one smiling, one crying, one screaming. His arms grew, jagged and clawed, and wings of shadowbone cracked open from his spine.

Seraphina faltered for half a second.

Then Killian stood beside her.

"You're not alone anymore," he whispered, his hand slipping into hers.

Together, their magic ignited. The bond burst into a dome of roaring eclipse light and flame, shielding the Avatars, cleansing the cursed battlefield. Trees began to regrow behind them. Flowers bloomed in ash.

Kaelus shrieked, his true form unraveling as he launched toward them, claws outstretched.

Seraphina met him in midair.

Their blades clashed again-divine fury against pure ruin. Every contact shattered echoes into the air. Beneath them, Killian weaved a spell circle older than the Empire, pulling from the memories of a forgotten realm buried within his blood.

It formed-The Gate of Judgment.

He screamed in Ancient Tongue as the gate activated. Chains of fate burst from the glyphs, wrapping Kaelus in divine bonds as Seraphina drove her blade through his chest.

He choked.

And laughed.

"You can kill this body... but the soul... will always return... in the next heir of your womb."

Seraphina froze.

"What?"

Killian's spell faltered.

Kaelus grinned. "That's the pact's price... You carry me now, bride. The Crimson Howl... is your inheritance."

Then he shattered-his body turning into shards of obsidian and shadow, vanishing with a last scream of triumph.

The battlefield fell still. The magic calmed. The Avatars bowed and faded.

But the silence that followed wasn't peace.

It was dread.

Seraphina clutched her abdomen.

A pulse. Deep. Inside.

And her knees buckled.

Killian caught her, horror spreading over his face as he felt it too-the soul fragment of Kaelus now rooted in her womb.

"...He's not gone," she whispered, voice trembling. "He... he made himself a curse seed... inside me."

The stars overhead began to dim.

And the moon... turned black.

A flash of violet fire cut across the battlefield, searing a gash through the thick mist that had settled like a shroud around the Blood-Tied Gate. The skies above churned with turbulent clouds, each one thick with ancient rage, echoing the cries of the forgotten. Thunder boomed-not from nature, but from the clash of elemental powers and blood-fueled enchantments.

Seraphina hovered in the air, her body suspended by unseen magic. Her dress had long since torn into a war-torn tapestry of embers and ash, her skin streaked with runes of light that pulsed to the rhythm of her heart. Her hair-now a molten curtain of red-gold flames-danced wildly around her like a phoenix mid-resurrection.

Below her, Killian stood within the scorched circle drawn by his own blood and flame, shielding his pack, but barely holding on. The jagged magic that pierced his side in Chapter 7 still glowed with unholy energy, refusing to be purged by even Seraphina's divine intervention. But he remained upright, Alpha to his bones-eyes burning silver, jaw clenched against the pain.

They had carved their path through waves of cursed beasts, shadow-marked shifters, and ancient revenants resurrected by the Eclipse Pact. The final seal had cracked. And with it, the world now teetered on the brink of unmaking.

A low growl echoed across the valley.

The ground beneath them rumbled, cracked, then exploded. From the fractured earth emerged a colossal beast-twenty feet tall, built of bone, fur, and starless night. Its eyes bled black fire, and its howl shattered the bones of trees. The Crimson Howl. Not just a name-a prophecy's final note, a creature born of Luna's betrayal and Solis's wrath.

"It's awakened..." whispered an elder wolf, falling to her knees.

Seraphina descended beside Killian, her wings unfurling from her back-yes, wings, once sealed, now made of obsidian and starlight, flaring with celestial power. Her hand brushed his cheek as she whispered, "We end this... together."

Killian grunted, pain flashing in his eyes, but he nodded. "Then let the moon tremble."

Together, they stepped forward.

The Crimson Howl charged. The sheer force of its presence crushed the space around it, and its roar sent shockwaves that flattened what remained of the battlefield. Warriors ducked for cover. Trees turned to dust.

Killian surged forward in his partial wolf form-taller, broader, every muscle glowing with Alpha sigils. Seraphina rose into the sky again, arms wide, lips chanting in an ancient tongue. Magic like falling stars rained from her fingers, piercing the beast's hide. But it didn't fall. It turned, charging toward her.

Killian leapt-grabbing onto the beast's back, claws digging deep into shadowed fur. "Now!" he shouted.

Seraphina raised both hands. Two moons appeared above her palms-one silver, one blood-red-spinning faster and faster until they were twin vortexes of magic. She slammed them together. A blinding white explosion cracked the sky open.

The Crimson Howl roared as its back was seared open, revealing a burning red core. But before Seraphina could strike it-before she could end it-

A black spear hurtled from the shadows.

It struck her in the chest.

"No!" Killian roared.

Seraphina fell, wings folding around her as she crashed into the broken earth, dust and flame bursting on impact.

Out of the shadows stepped a figure cloaked in void-his face hidden behind a wolf's skull mask. He moved with eerie calm, holding another obsidian spear at his side.

"The true master of the pact..." Killian whispered, eyes wide.

The battle was not over.

It had just begun.

The battlefield fell into stunned silence.

Time seemed suspended-caught between Seraphina's fall and the unholy emergence of the masked figure. Dust curled like incense above her broken form, wings scorched and twitching, her breath shallow, her light dimming.

Killian stood frozen. Rage crackled around him like a living entity, veins glowing, his body quaking under the strain of holding back the beast within. His wolf howled within his soul, demanding release. Vengeance.

The obsidian-cloaked figure lowered his spear with reverence, as though he had just pierced the sun.

"You should not exist," Killian growled, stepping forward, power rising in waves off him. "You were banished-sealed."

"I was," the figure responded, his voice like gravel soaked in shadow. "Until you opened the Gate. Until your bond with the Bride rewrote the prophecy."

Killian's breath caught.

The masked figure stepped forward, each footfall warping the ground. "I am the Moon's Forgotten Fang. The first Alpha. The one your ancestors feared. The one they tried to erase. And now-through your union-I rise again."

"No..." Killian whispered, realization dawning. "The prophecy didn't warn us about the Crimson Howl. It warned us about you."

Behind him, Seraphina stirred, coughing blood. Her voice barely rose above a whisper: "He is the corruption... the one who turned the Moon Goddess... against love..."

The Crimson Howl snarled beside the ancient Alpha as if tamed by its creator. The skies wept fire. The stars turned their gaze.

Killian exploded forward in a blur of silver flame, claws extended, fangs bared-aimed directly at the masked traitor. But the Alpha of Shadows was faster. With a flick of his wrist, reality itself bent. A shield of lunar bone rose, and Killian crashed into it with bone-jarring force.

From the ground, Seraphina's magic pulsed again. Weak but potent. Her eyes burned violet.

"I am not yours to sacrifice," she hissed, rising shakily to her feet. The earth answered her call, stones lifting, vines igniting with sapphire flame. Her dress reconstructed itself from ash, woven anew from pure elemental fury.

The sky cracked open above them as she raised both hands and screamed a single word in a lost celestial tongue.

"Exsolaris!"

A beam of pure memory and magic erupted downward-a column of time itself-illuminating the battlefield. Every ancestor. Every blood oath. Every forbidden love. All called into one divine reckoning.

The Ancient Alpha staggered, snarling, mask fracturing at the jawline.

Killian used the moment-bursting through the broken shield, he plunged both clawed hands into the beast's ribs, pulling.

The Crimson Howl let out a final, bone-rattling shriek. Its body split-white fire erupted from its chest. The curse was breaking.

But not fast enough.

The Ancient Alpha released one final attack: a vortex of soul-fire aimed directly at Seraphina.

Killian saw it too late.

He couldn't move fast enough.

"Seraphina!" he screamed.

She turned... just in time to meet it.

The fire hit her square in the chest.

A blast rocked the battlefield.

Everything turned to silence.

Ash drifted down like snow.

Killian crawled toward the crater. Toward her.

He reached its edge.

Seraphina lay still.

Her wings burned away.

Her heart... not beating.

"No..." Killian choked. "Please..."

A soft whisper echoed in the void around him. Her voice... but distant. "You have to finish it... My flame is in you now..."

The Ancient Alpha stood, staggered-but whole.

Killian rose.

His chest burning gold.

His eyes turning from silver... to violet.

The eclipse above ignited.

And then-

A voice boomed across realms:

"The Bride has fallen. The Flame has passed. The Alpha Ascends."

The smoke coiled in slow spirals around Killian's trembling form as he dropped to his knees beside Seraphina's still body. The heat from the blast still radiated across the battlefield, leaving cracks in the earth that glowed with embered veins-like a broken heart still pulsing with agony.

He touched her cheek.

Still warm.

But no light.

"No, no, no..." he whispered, brushing soot and blood from her lips. "Seraphina... fight. Please-don't leave me in this cursed eternity without you..."

Above them, the sky churned into a swirling eclipse, blood-red and violet intertwining. The heavens knew.

And they wept.

Killian bent low, pressing his forehead to hers. From deep within, a pulse-ancient and golden-awakened. A flare of her flame... inside him.

The prophecy's true meaning surged into his mind:

"When the Bride falls, the Flame passes. When the Alpha weeps, the world burns."

He screamed.

The kind of scream that cracked the air, that tore fissures into the veil between life and death.

All around him, the remnants of their enemies-the Betrayer's loyalists, twisted beasts born of ancient curses-began to shriek, clawing at their faces as golden fire erupted from beneath their skin. One by one, they turned to ash, their souls wrenched away.

His power-her power-was devouring them.

The Ancient Alpha staggered back, bleeding from the mouth. The cracks in his mask now spiderwebbed across his entire face. "You are... not supposed to awaken yet..." he hissed.

Killian stood, slowly.

Wings spread behind him-massive, phoenix-shaped, wrought from molten moonlight and crimson vengeance. His eyes no longer glowed silver, but the deep violet of the Bride's soul, threaded with the gold of ancient Alpha blood.

He was becoming something else.

Something unspoken in the prophecies.

Something not even the gods had foreseen.

"I am not just the Alpha now," Killian said, voice echoing like thunder wrapped in sorrow. "I am the vengeance of the Bride. The bearer of her Flame. And you-"

He pointed at the Ancient Alpha, whose legs trembled now, faltering-

"-are a relic of a broken age."

The sky answered his rage. From the eclipse above, threads of power descended-each one a memory, a life, a vow. A pact.

The Eclipse Pact.

"I bind your soul," Killian chanted in a forgotten language, as light spiraled around him. "To the ashes of the one you destroyed. And I offer your life in exchange for hers."

"NO!" the Ancient Alpha screamed, but it was too late.

From Seraphina's body, a golden spark rose. Her soul.

Drawn toward the vortex forming in Killian's chest.

From the Ancient Alpha, a wail of agony as tendrils of his shadowy power were ripped from him, sucked toward the same vortex. His form began to splinter-like a mirror cracking inward-until finally, he was pulled apart, his essence obliterated, dissolved in pure light.

The ground trembled. The mountains bowed.

Seraphina's body began to glow. Her chest rose-barely.

A gasp.

Her eyes fluttered open.

Killian fell to the ground beside her, utterly spent, power draining from his limbs like blood.

"Seraphina," he whispered, sobbing.

She blinked. "Killian...?"

He laughed, brokenly. "You came back to me..."

But then-

A snap in the sky. The eclipse wavered.

Something... else emerged.

Not the Ancient Alpha.

But something older.

A ripple in reality tore open above them, revealing a vast, swirling abyss where countless glowing eyes blinked back. Not human. Not even divine.

Something had awakened.

Something watching.

Something waiting.

Seraphina clutched Killian's hand.

Her voice was a whisper of dread: "What did you exchange for me?"

A single, echoing note rang out.

A howl-so deep and ancient, it predated the gods-pierced the heavens.

From the rift above, a colossal paw stepped through. Blacker than shadow. Larger than mountains.

The original beast. The First Flame Eater. The debt claimed.