The ground split beneath his feet as the voices inside him clawed for dominance. His body was the battlefield — light surging in waves, shadow constricting like chains.
Choose… or be chosen.
Clem's voice trembled but did not falter: "Alaric! You're not theirs. You're ours. Fight it!"
For a heartbeat, the golden light flared brighter, holding the shadows at bay. Alaric gritted his teeth, clutching the amber stone as pain ripped through him.
Then something inside snapped.
A wave of eclipse energy exploded outward — not fully light, not fully shadow, but both twisted together. It tore across the courtyard like a storm. Stone shattered, trees warped into blackened husks, and every torch sputtered out in a single breath.
The Hollow Ones screamed as the eclipse power consumed them, their bodies unraveling into dust and ash. Yet the same wave lashed out toward the students and instructors, striking the protective wards with such force that cracks split across their glowing surface.
Master Kael's eyes widened. "By the gods…"
Alaric hovered above the ground, his face pale, eyes no longer his own — one burning like a miniature sun, the other a depthless abyss. Shadows writhed beneath his skin while beams of light pierced through, as though his body were breaking apart from within.
"Alaric!" Clem shouted again, but her voice was drowned beneath the roar of power.
A single tendril of eclipse energy lashed out, striking the statue at the center of the courtyard. The marble figure — a guardian of the Academy — split down the middle, the halves collapsing in opposite directions. The courtyard fell into stunned silence, broken only by the faint echo of whispers that seemed to linger in the cracked stone.
Alaric gasped, the energy ebbing at last. His body crashed to the ground, trembling. The Hollow Ones were gone, but so were the last traces of moonlight.
He lay there, staring at his hands, horrified by what he had unleashed. His friends did not dare step closer. Even Clem stood frozen, torn between fear and faith.
Only Master Kael spoke, his voice low and dangerous.
"Now I see it," he murmured. "The power of an eclipse… The power that could unmake or remake the world."
Alaric's chest heaved. He had survived the Blood Moon, but in doing so, he had revealed something far more terrifying — not just to his enemies, but to everyone around him.
And in the silence that followed, one truth became clear:
He was no longer feared only by beasts.
He was feared by his own.