Crack. Crack. Crack.
It was a grotesque symphony of splintering bone and twisting sinew.
Right before their eyes, Niklaus' broken neck began to realign. Vertebrae snapped back into place. Muscles stitched themselves together like rewinding time.
A moment later, his eyes snapped open, glowing with rage.
"Do you have any idea what you've just done?"
His voice was low, shaking with fury. A snarl twisted his features into something feral—something inhuman.
"I swear, I'll tear you apart limb by limb. You're dea—urk!"
The threat died in his throat.
Zzzzt!
Twin beams of molten light erupted from Alex's eyes—thin, blistering rays of superheated energy that burned white-hot.
They carved through Niklaus' neck in a split-second flash, cauterizing as they cut.
Schlunk.
Niklaus' head tumbled from his shoulders, hitting the ground with a muted thud, eyes still frozen wide in shock.
His body collapsed backward like a puppet with its strings severed.
Alex didn't blink.
"Let's see you come back from that."
His voice was quiet. Cold. Indifferent.
Like he'd just stepped on a roach.
---
The air in the hall turned heavy, almost suffocating.
You could hear it in the strained, stuttering breaths of the vampires present—even those who didn't technically need to breathe. Their instincts screamed that something unnatural stood among them.
Something even older blood couldn't comprehend.
A silence more terrifying than screams settled over the gathering.
Niklaus—the so-called Strongest Supreme—was dead.
Dead.
Killed in full view of the world's most powerful immortals.
Slain like a disobedient hound.
And by whom?
A mortal.
Or so they thought.
How had it come to this?
A minor disruption. A petty insult. A bit of ego clashing—normal things among Supremes.
But this?
This was madness.
He'd provoked not just a fight, but a blood feud.
The Originals would never let this go.
And those laser eyes—what in the name of all ancient bloodlines was that?
No vampire had that ability.
No hybrid either.
Had Alex… evolved? Was this some forbidden power?
---
What they didn't know was that Alex had already made his decision the moment Niklaus stepped out of line.
He hadn't seen a rival.
He'd seen a nuisance.
One that needed to be removed—completely.
The only reason Niklaus had survived the first blow was because Alex hadn't understood hybrid regeneration.
But now?
Now he knew better.
And he wasn't about to give Niklaus a third chance.
---
"YOU KILLED NIKLAUS?!"
The shriek tore through the silence like a thunderclap.
A black blur shot across the floor.
Elijah.
He moved like a shadow unbound, faster than most could perceive. His coat billowed behind him like wings of vengeance.
His right arm morphed into a vicious claw, fingers curved like daggers.
He was going for Alex's heart.
Black Tiger Rips the Heart.
A savage execution technique developed by the Mikaelsons—legendary among vampire clans.
(The Volturi preferred decapitation, for the poetic flair.)
To most observers, Elijah simply vanished.
But—
Snap.
His forward momentum halted—abruptly, violently.
Gasps rang out.
Elijah hung in the air, legs kicking wildly, his throat clamped in Alex's vice-like grip.
Lifted one-handed. Like a kitten being scolded.
The hall gawked in horror.
This wasn't strength.
This was domination.
---
"Elijah!"
Rebekah's scream cut through the silence, raw and panicked.
She lurched forward on instinct—but her feet didn't move.
Terror rooted her in place.
What… what kind of monster was this?
Two of her brothers—two of the most feared beings on earth—had been reduced to playthings in this man's grasp.
She couldn't believe it.
No—she refused to believe it.
But the truth was undeniable.
---
"Supreme Alex, please!" she begged, voice cracking. "This is a misunderstanding! You don't have to—"
CRUNCH.
Her words were drowned by the sound of tearing flesh and snapping bone.
Alex didn't listen.
He simply grabbed Elijah's head with both hands—
—and twisted.
Thud.
Elijah's head hit the floor, rolling to a stop with his eyes still open.
Thump.
His lifeless body crumpled beside Niklaus', forming a grotesque tableau of power reversed.
---
Silence returned.
But this time, it wasn't from shock.
It was fear.
Deafening, soul-crushing fear.
Hearts pounded like war drums. Even the oldest vampires felt a phantom weight in their chests—a primal warning to run.
Two Originals.
Dead.
In under a minute.
---
"T-Too… terrifying."
Carlisle Cullen's voice was little more than breath, but everyone heard him.
Though vampires didn't sweat, he could feel phantom chills crawling down his spine—like a cold sweat running through bones that hadn't aged in centuries.
He turned toward Alice, whose face was unreadable, gaze locked on Alex like she were watching a god descend from the heavens.
Was this the future she had foreseen?
The one that made her shiver earlier?
---
"Gulp."
Edward's throat moved on instinct.
His jaw clenched. He couldn't even look directly at Alex now.
He had mocked him.
Mocked this.
He'd practically danced on a landmine with a blindfold on—and somehow survived.
But the memory alone made his spine itch with dread.
Alice had been right.
Humiliating Niklaus really was just the beginning.
Alex wasn't a Supreme.
He wasn't a vampire.
He was a demon in human skin.
---
"What…?"
"How is he… this strong?!"
Even the Volturi—Aro, Eric, and Jane—sat frozen.
They had watched calmly as Alex defied them earlier, assuming him arrogant. Reckless.
But now?
Even Aro's eyes, always veiled in amusement, widened ever so slightly.
The immortal who had seen the rise and fall of dynasties…
...now felt the chill of actual fear.
---
"Elijah!"
Rebekah's voice cracked again—rage and grief tangled in her throat.
But deeper than both was terror.
She stared at Alex as if she were seeing the end of the world.
And for the first time in her centuries of existence—
She didn't dare fight back.
She couldn't.
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