Under the silver moonlight, the world seemed to have just stepped out of a page of legend.
Fireflies twinkled around them with a dreamy lightness, drawing small circles of light, and the stars hung in the sky as if they were diamonds scattered especially for the night of their meeting.
Everything was still... except for their hearts.
He approached with slow steps, his eyes gleaming with the moon's reflection. He reached out his hand towards her as if grasping something fragile from the night's glow. When his fingers touched her hand, a warm tremor ran through the air, and the fireflies bent closer as if listening.
He gently pulled her towards him, until their breaths merged like a single melody. He slowly raised his hand, tucking a few strands of her stray hair behind her ear, and in that touch, their souls met without words.
He whispered in a low voice, as if playing a promise from the heavens:
"I... and you, we will never part."
Her lips trembled with a shy smile, and the light reflected on her rosy cheeks. She whispered with a dreamy shyness as she raised her eyes to him:
"Yes... we will never part."
Under the silver moonlight, the garden breathed its stillness, and the Datura flowers slowly opened as if waking from an ancient dream. A little girl ran with playful steps, her hair swaying with every jump, then threw herself into the arms of her older sister, clinging to her with the passion of childhood.
Lilly (her voice full of innocence): "My sister, Aurel... When I grow up, I'll become an Earth Fairy like you, strong, you Mist tenderness."
Aurel smiled. Her smile was a mixture of affection and a secret she didn't want to reveal yet.
She replied with a gentle calm: "Of course."
The Datura flowers opened under the moonlight, their petals swallowing the light and reflecting it as small tongues of flame. Aurel reached out her hand towards a fresh flower, touching it as if consecrating an ancient covenant.
Aurel (her voice becoming more serious, like a whisper piercing the night): "This... is for Volforst."
A childish surprise dawned on Lilly's face: "Volforst? Who is he?"
Aurel looked towards the horizon, then returned with eyes carrying the glint of a hidden vengeance:
"A detestable creature... we must kill him. We must take revenge for our lineage."
The wind fell silent for a few seconds, as if hearing a pact uttered for the first time. More gleaming stars revealed themselves in the sky, and the Datura whispered with its petals as if witnessing a new promise.
That night was the beginning of everything.
Raith's pupils suddenly dilated until they looked like ashes scattered by the wind, pale, fractured between life and death. His breath came in ragged gasps as he raised his trembling hand to grip the blade plunged into his chest, his fingers slipping on the cold metal and stained by his warm blood that flowed like a red stream over his body. His voice trembled as he barely audible whispered:
"Aurel..."
Aurel's gaze froze upon him like sharpened swords digging deep into his heart. Her grey eyes burned like a deadly vortex, but tears betrayed her, silently streaming down her cheeks, contradicting her rigidity. She approached him slowly, as if time had slowed, and extended her shaking hand to wipe the blood from his face. Her fingers caressed his cheek, then pushed back the light grey strands mixed with blue that fell across his forehead and the sides of his face.
In a voice mixing tenderness with betrayal, she spoke, trying to hide the tremor in her throat:
"Volforst... you will be the last of your lineage, Raith."
At that moment, the blade embedded in his chest glowed, burning with a stark black color, like the glow of an abyss absorbing light. The cryptic runes inscribed on its edge began to dance as if echoing a hymn of annihilation.
Aurel tightened her grip on the hilt, and raised her head to face him with eyes drowned between pain and resolve. She changed her tone to a sharp, powerful scream, as if announcing the fall of an entire dynasty:
"I am... Aurel, the last of the Fairies' lineage!"
Then she advanced one step, as if the earth trembled beneath her feet, and her voice merged with the screech of the burning blade:
"Hear me well... I will crush your heart, and sing the song of doom!"
The crowd's cries rose in the circus stands, applause, shouts, and cheers that shook the walls of the great tent. Lights moved rapidly, swaying like fiery arrows, then gathered in the center of the arena. An elegant man appeared, holding a long cane and a broad hat, which he raised in a theatrical salute as he bowed to the audience, then straightened, shouting in a booming voice filled with enthusiasm:
"Ladies and Gentlemen! Now... the moment the entire world has been waiting for! The moment that will be recorded in history! You are about to witness the Living Legend... The Being who is bound by neither time nor space... It is Volforst!"
The tent shook with cheers, making it seem as if the canvas stretched on the poles would tear from the force of the sounds.
But away from the lights, in the dark backstage corridor, a row of metal cages stained with rust and blood extended. Thousands of wild animals were crammed into those narrow cells, their bodies weighed down by wounds, their eyes gleaming with a desperate plea that no one heard.
The same man approached, his features shifting from enthusiasm to a cruel gleam in his eyes, and he forcefully struck one of the cages with his cane. The iron trembled, and inside the darkness, a young man slowly raised his head.
He was pale, shackled with heavy black chains that bled dark energy. His eyes were half-open, but they were enough to instill terror in the heart of any human:
The right eye was clear like glacial crystal, cold to the point of death.
As for the left, it was burning red like an infernal ember, flickering as if warning of destruction.
The man involuntarily took a small step back, then regained his composure and laughed sarcastically, resuming striking the bars with his cane.
"Do you know, Volforst... what the price of your pain is?"
He leaned closer, approaching his face until his hot breath touched the cold air inside the cage.
"What is the price of having your freedom torn from your veins, of having your soul buried under these shackles?!"
The sound of the chains echoed as if they were a living creature moaning. The studded stones on them pulsed with a faint light, slowly absorbing something from his blood, as if they were gently devouring what remained of his life.
The young man remained silent, cold, his eyes carrying no emotion, as if all his feelings had died long ago.
The man smiled maliciously, then said, striking the cane on the ground:
"How did you return to this world after thousands of years?! What secret are you hiding, you enigmatic one?! Show me your true form... I want to see the beast before which legends themselves tremble!"
A heavy moment of silence fell, in which only the faint sound of the legendary creature's breath could be heard, and the sound of the chains moaning as if they would break at any moment...
The massive cage slid across the rough floor, creating a mournful screech that pierced through the noise of the cheers. The iron chains grated against each other, while the shackled young man's body was dragged like a dead puppet, weighed down by the restraints that bowed his back.
The audience in the stands cheered, clapping warmly and shouting enthusiastically, as if celebrating the demise of another soul, oblivious to what was happening behind the bars.
Darkness reigned inside the cage, a blackness that swallowed his screams and pain, while the bright lights painted a false theatrical halo around him.
His differing pupils suddenly widened. He glanced towards the audience, the lights reflecting in his eyes, making them appear to carry a faint glint, a vanishing illusion of hope. Then he lowered his head slightly, his hair strands covering his eyes, leaving a dark shadow that concealed them, before he formed a cold, side-smile.
He whispered in a low voice, barely audible even to himself:
"Your humanity? A crazy, murderous devil...
Damn... whoever trusted you one day."
With a small gesture of his hand, the man signaled to one of his assistants behind the curtain. The sound of a metal machine rose, and then dark energy was suddenly released through the chains. Black waves infiltrated his body, then exploded inside him like a thunderbolt.
His body violently shuddered, his limbs shaking as if his bones were about to break from the inside. Smoke rose from his burning skin, and the acrid smell filled the place.
His heart pounded wildly, as if its beats would shatter his skull from the inside.
Yet... a suspicious smile formed on his lips, the smile of madness of one who tastes his own hell. Suddenly he revealed his sharp fangs, gleaming like the claws of death.
Then the transformation began...
A flaming tail ignited behind him, resembling a hellish torch writhing in the air. Four horns sprouted from the sides of his head, dark and terrifying, reflecting the lights as if they were heated iron.
His eyes, one like a glacial storm, the other like volcanic magma, met in a single gaze that shattered the manufactured serenity in the tent.
The man retreated two steps... three... until his feet stumbled, and he fell seated on the ground. His eyes widened until they almost burst from terror, like someone who had looked directly into hell.
And suddenly... silence fell.
The audience, which had been screaming moments before, froze in their places. The frightening silence spread like a plague, until their panicked breaths could be clearly heard.
Only a faint roar remained, escaping from the creature's body, a mixture between rage and re-emergence... and the birth of a monster that no one could ignore anymore.
Amidst the stunned audience who froze in silence before the horror of what they were witnessing...
A single girl remained sitting in her seat, her features still as water, her pure grey eyes not trembling, but reflecting a cold light similar to the moon's glow. Her long black hair draped over her shoulders, its ends fading into a pale grey, like smoke.
She smiled calmly, a delicate smile that had no place in the atmosphere of terror that reigned.
Then she rose.
She lightly leaped from her seat, crossing the steps one after the other, heedless of the screams that erupted around her:
"Get away!"
"Are you crazy?!"
"He will tear you apart!"
But she didn't turn around. Her steps were confident, every movement calculated, as if she knew exactly where she was going.
When she reached the cage, she slowly put her hand into her coat pocket, then bent down slightly and approached closer, her slender fingers touching the cold iron.
The encounter was inevitable...
Her grey eyes met his burning eyes, a gaze carrying the calm of a pure moon collided with a storm of ice and fire.
Volforst roared, his bellowing piercing the air, coming so close that his hot breath touched her skin, as if he were about to prey upon her. Yet, she did not tremble. She did not back away.
And as their breaths met in a moment charged with electricity and darkness, he whispered in a broken, deep voice, as if emerging from the depths of a forgotten hell:
"You..."