The fog screamed.
Not with sound,but with pressure.
It surged outward as if the forest itself had inhaled too deeply and could no longer contain what it had swallowed. Roots cracked. Branches bowed. The ground pulsed beneath Liora's feet like something alive and panicking.
The Nightbeast burst through the trees.
It was closer than it should have been.
Closer than logic allowed.
Serin swore and spun, loosing an arrow without hesitation. The shaft vanished into the fog and struck something solid with a wet, echoing thud.
The Nightbeast didn't slow.
Its massive silhouette tore through the mist, spines scraping bark, eyes burning like twin furnaces fixed on Kael.
Every step it took sent pain lancing through Liora's chest,sharp, mirrored agony that stole her breath.
She gasped and stumbled.
Aldric caught her just in time. "It's accelerating the link," he snapped. It's forcing synchronization.
Kael cried out, dropping to one knee as black veins surged up his throat. His claws tore into the soil, anchoring him as his body tried to twist into something larger, sharper, wrong.
"Kael!" Liora screamed.
The Nightbeast roared in answer.
Serin fired again,twice, three times in rapid succession. Arrows struck its shoulder, its flank, its chest. Each impact made the beast snarl,but it didn't stop.
Kael screamed too.
Blood burst from his side, blooming through torn fabric in perfect, horrifying symmetry with the beast's wounds.
Serin froze. "Damn it,"
"STOP!" Aldric shouted. You're feeding the loop!
Serin skidded to a halt, breath ragged.
Then what do we do?!
The Nightbeast lunged.
Kael surged upward with a roar that wasn't entirely human and slammed into it mid-charge. The collision was violent enough to throw Liora backward into a tree trunk, the air punched from her lungs.
She slid to the ground, gasping.
Through blurred vision, she saw Kael and the Nightbeast locked together,claws buried in flesh, jaws snapping inches apart.
They moved like mirrors, like reflections twisted just enough to be wrong.
Every blow Kael landed echoed in his own
body.
Every wound he suffered made the Nightbeast stronger.
This isn't a fight, Aldric whispered in horror.
It's convergence.
Liora pushed herself upright, ignoring the pain screaming through her ribs.
"Kael!" she shouted.
Look at me!
His human eye flicked toward her,
Just for a second.
The Nightbeast hesitated.
Its claws faltered. Its head snapped sideways as if confused by a command it hadn't meant to hear.
Liora felt something tighten violently in her chest.
A thread.
A cord.
Pulled too hard.
Kael cried out as the black mark on his chest flared like a brand pressed into flesh. He staggered, and the Nightbeast seized the opening.
Its tail lashed out, striking Kael across the ribs with a sickening crack. He flew through the air and slammed into the earth, skidding to a stop at Liora's feet.
KAEL!
She dropped beside him, hands trembling as she pressed them to his chest. His skin was burning far too hot as if something inside him was trying to claw its way out.
"Stay with me," she begged. Please!
His breath hitched. Liora… I can't,
A shadow loomed.
Serin shouted, MOVE!
The Nightbeast raised a claw over them both, its spines bristling, eyes blazing with triumph.
Kael's voice broke into a beast's roar. NO!
He surged upward with impossible speed, slamming into the Nightbeast mid-strike. They crashed together, rolling through dirt and splintered roots, tearing into each other in a storm of claws and blood.
Trees shattered.
The forest screamed.
Liora scrambled backward, heart hammering, watching in horror as Kael fought with everything he had,and lost ground with every breath.
For every strike he landed, the Nightbeast landed three.
It was older. Stronger. Carved from nightmares that predated memory.
And it knew him now.
The synchronization deepened.
They moved almost as one.
Every wound Kael inflicted, the Nightbeast returned.
Every weakness the beast exploited, Kael felt echo through his own bones.
This is bad,Serin muttered,
circling desperately, bow raised but useless.
He's being overwritten.
Aldric's face had gone ashen. The curse is asserting dominance.
Kael staggered again.
The Nightbeast seized him by the throat and hurled him through the air like broken prey. He hit the ground hard enough to leave a shallow crater,and didn't rise.
"KAEL!" Liora screamed.
The Nightbeast turned toward her.
Not because she moved.
But because Kael's fading heartbeat flared with terror at the thought of her dying.
Aldric's breath hitched.
The link is pulling them together. If he dies while synchronized,
His gaze snapped to Liora.
the curse may choose you as the next host.
Serin swore sharply. "Over my dead body."
The Nightbeast stalked forward, fog swirling around its massive frame.
When it reached Liora…
…it lowered its head.
Sniffing her.
Recognizing her.
Claiming her.
Liora's hands shook violently, but she didn't back away. "I'm not afraid of you."
Her voice was a lie.
Her pulse thundered like a trapped bird.
But the Nightbeast paused.
Because Kael's heart paused.
He rose.
Slowly.
Painfully.
Bleeding from wounds that should have killed him twice over.
With every breath he took, the gold in his eye dimmed and brightened in irregular flashes,like a candle guttering in a storm.
"Liora…" he whispered. Don't… look away.
She turned toward him.
The Nightbeast turned too.
The link snapped taut, a cord pulled so tight it screamed.
Kael straightened, fists clenched, claws growing longer as if the beast half of him was forcing the transformation through sheer desperation.
I'm ending this, he whispered.
The Nightbeast lunged first.
Kael met it head-on.
The impact echoed across the forest like thunder.
They crashed together, claws buried in flesh, jaws clashing, blood splattering roots and fog.
The synchronization surged violently, ripping through Kael's body like fire through dry grass.
They moved as one.
A perfect, terrible mirror.
Until Liora screamed his name.
"KAEL!"
Something in him shattered.
He wrenched the Nightbeast's arm aside, twisted, and drove his claws deep beneath its ribcage,searching, tearing, shaking.
The Nightbeast shrieked, spine arching in agony.
Aldric shouted, "THE HEART, KAEL! THE HEART!"
Kael plunged deeper.
He found it.
A pulsing, corrupted organ beating in rhythms that didn't belong to any living thing.
The Nightbeast roared and bit into Kael's shoulder, tearing flesh. Kael screamed,but didn't let go.
Serin grabbed Liora as she tried to run toward him.
"HE HAS TO DO IT ALONE!
Kael locked eyes with Liora.
Then he crushed the Nightbeast's heart.
The world went silent.
Fog froze mid-swirl.
The Nightbeast convulsed, its body collapsing inward as shadows tore free in shrieking ribbons. Spines retracted. Limbs twisted.
The monstrous frame shrank and cracked until it dissolved into black dust.
Kael fell to his knees.
His claws retracted.
His breath steadied.
For one impossible moment,
He was human.
Liora tore free and sprinted to him, dropping to her knees and cradling his face.
You did it. You're free,
"Liora…" Kael whispered. Step back.
She froze.
Aldric staggered backward.
Serin's eyes widened. Why?
Kael's pupils dilated.
His skin blistered.
A black symbol bloomed across his chest, spreading like cracking ink beneath the skin.
Aldric whispered in horror, "No… the curse should be dead.
Kael gagged violently.
A sound rose from his throat.
Not a growl.
Not a scream.
A whisper.
Made of many voices.
Liora crawled closer. "Kael,what's happening to you?!"
His eyes snapped open.
Both of them went pitch black.
The temperature dropped so sharply frost formed on Liora's fingertips.
Aldric breathed, "The Nightbeast wasn't a creature."
Serin whispered, Then what was it?
"A vessel," Aldric said.
A cage.
Kael arched violently as shadows poured out of him.
"THE CAGE HAS BROKEN."
Lantern flames died.
Mist surged upward.
Roots cracked.
Kael collapsed forward, whispering, "Liora… run…"
She didn't.
The voices spoke through him.
"WE ARE RELEASED."
Aldric swallowed.
This… is not a curse anymore
Serin whispered, Then what is it?
Aldric answered, voice shaking.
"An awakening."
Something ancient opened its eyes inside Kael.