The blood moon rose without ceremony. No chants. No bells. No omens.
Just silence—thick and trembling—as the sky turned red and the stars seemed to retreat.
Lucian stood on the obsidian balcony of the old citadel, wind slicing through his dark robes. Below him, the forest bent—not from the storm, but from submission. Trees knelt. Shadows bowed. The very earth remembered who he was.
Behind him, Kyrell emerged from the silence, armor hugging his body like second skin, silver runes glowing faintly beneath his collarbone—Lucian's mark still freshly bruised against it.
"You're not afraid," Kyrell said.
Lucian turned, eyes glowing.
"I was born in fear. I've fed on it. I made a throne of it."
He stepped close, his lips brushing Kyrell's ear. "But you made me fearless."
---
(At the Temple Ruins – Council Gathering)
Renak slammed the scroll down on the council table. "It's confirmed. The blood-bond completed. He marked him with soulfire."
Gasps. Murmurs. The High Seer trembled.
"That bond hasn't been forged in centuries," one whispered. "If it's completed, he'll be able to summon the old gods. The real ones."
"And bend them," Renak added darkly. "That's what they fear. Not love. Power through love."
"We must act now."
But before they could speak again, a gust of wind snuffed the chamber's torches. The shadows convulsed—
—and Silas stepped from the dark, his eyes rimmed in gold.
"Too late," he said softly. "You waited too long. The boy is no longer just a hunter, and Lucian…" he smiled. "Lucian no longer needs your permission to burn the world."
---
(Meanwhile – Far from the Tower)
Damien stood atop the cliffs, blood coating his hands, his chest rising with ragged breath. His eyes burned with something new—something ancient.
He had gone beyond rage. Beyond jealousy.
What stood with him now wasn't human. A god's remnant, bound to him through sacrifice and despair.
The voice inside him was no longer his own.
"You will take the bond from them," it hissed. "You will break it. And you will replace it."
Damien smiled. "Gladly."
He stepped off the cliff—
And flew.
---
(Back in the Citadel)
Lucian pinned Kyrell against the stone wall, breath hot, his eyes wild with something unhinged and divine.
"They've declared war," Kyrell whispered.
Lucian's hand slid beneath his armor, fingers trailing the mark. "Then let them see what we are."
He kissed him like it was the last time, like it was also the first. Like their lips spoke a language the world had forgotten.
Kyrell moaned into his mouth as Lucian lifted him effortlessly, his power crackling beneath his skin.
The wind howled outside. The moon wept above.
And inside, bodies collided in perfect rhythm—
as if fate itself had been waiting for this sound.
---
( In the Depths of the Dead Garden)
A figure cloaked in white knelt at a blackened altar. Pale hands reached into the earth, pulling free something sealed long ago.
The voice that rose was neither man nor woman.
"They are awakening."
"The boy burns."
"The bond is holy again."
A pause.
Then—"Shall we begin again?"
---