A Luna for Alpha Kieran-Chapter 48: Faces

( Meanwhile... some place else)

The air in this place was thick.

Like coagulated smoke slithering between realms. It was too dense to be breathable and too suffocating. There was no ground, no sky, only a vast, endless void where the black fog clung to every breath.

Crimson lightning flickered through the haze...sharp but eerily silent, as if sound had no permission there.

From the gloom, a figure emerged...A demon blade glistening in his hand...which still had droplets of Kieran’s blood, fossilized on it’s surface...intentionally.

The figure moved slowly, as though wading through invisible waters. His long cloak dragged behind him as he gradually lowered his hood.

As soon as his skin came in contact with the dark mist, it visibly started to peel. Subtly. His eyes changed to stormy gray. His features sharpened gradually to match that of the Blackmoon Alpha.

He stepped into the center of the void and then drove the blade into the ground.

The blade met the ground with a soundless impact.

The fog stirred.

A tremor tore through the stillness...The earth trembled violently, a silent quake rippled outward. The blackened clouds cracked.

A sarcophagus like stone tablet, etched with forgotten glyphs, erupted upward with seismic force, towering toward the unseen sky.

Karl took a step back.

And then...BOOM.

A voice unlike any a mortal ear could ever have heard, rumbled, as if thousands of echoes were speaking through an ancient tomb. It was muffled, layered, too vast to come from one throat. It was a chorus of dread.

"WHAT IS THE MEANING... OF THIS AUDACITY?WHY DO YOU RETURN OUR GIFT? "

Karl raised his head. Slowly.His face was pale, hollowed by shame." Because I am unworthy.I failed! " His eyes burned with dangerous regret.

"He sacrificed our entire bloodline for her," he continued, his voice cracking. "There was nothing I could do!"

The thunderous voice recoiled...there was panic, disbelief, and fury layered into one.

"What... do you mean? Speak clearly. "

Karl’s jaw clenched.

"When I stabbed Kieran with the demon blade, I thought the game was half won," he said bitterly. "I thought... we had broken the chain.I rejoiced too early." After a pause,he added. " Autumn healed him.She had no idea what she was doing... her power acted on its own."

"How did you let that happen?" the voice snarled like ten wolves behind a mountain.

"Yes," Karl whispered. "It was a setback... a devastating one.But I knew I could compensate for that after getting the girl."

"Then why did you not take her?Where is she?!"

Karl exhaled slowly. Shadows pooled around his knees like ink in water.

"She suddenly got too close to Kieran.Too fast.Unexpectedly." he hesitated. "Their bond grew so strong,I feared they might claim each other. "

A violent crack echoed as a deep fracture split the massive stone. Crimson light poured from it like blood.

"WHAT CHANGED?If they claimed each other, it would have been for the better!!!"

"Autumn disappeared," Karl answered, eyes flicking to the fissures above. "Vanished without a trace. And in her absence...Kieran announced his marriage...to Autumn’s half sister. Brought back from the dead! "

The stone snarled...yes, snarled and its rage echoed through every thunderous groan it gave off.

"It was a distraction...a ploy. By the time I realized, it was too late.Kieran was ahead of us."

More rumbling.

"Then...Autumn returned. But she was... different." Karl’s voice faltered in shame. "Her power... it was sealed. Gone. Not dormant...but empty.I could no longer feel anything anymore."

A howl echoed like a thousand spirits screamed from inside the stone.

"Impossible.No force could seal her without... a sacrifice."

Karl scoffed.Then nodded, almost reverently.

" You are right. We found the site. The Hive of Consciousness of the Blackmoon pack...our ancestral vault. It’s gone. All of it. Drained.Standing there in ruins. Crumbling."

Silence fell like a blade.

" Apparently Kieran knew," Karl continued, hollowly. "And here I was thinking I had him this time. He was always ahead of us all. That fucking bastard didn’t even flinch before sacrificing the entire Hive to bind Autumn. Every spirit of our forefathers, every trace of sentience, wiped out.He used the ancient rites...used the bloodline that had slumbered for centuries.The magic that shielded the place from the world... gone.Nothing left but dust and... silence.So much for the ideal heir...I had no idea he could reach this low...that merciless,ruthless traitor.Did he not even think about Father? He was part of the Hive too...wasn’t he the ’better son’ for Father? " His voice was almost like a lament.

A deep groan vibrated from the stone, like an ancient god waking from centuries of sleep.

Karl continued. "He gave up the last of his kin...for his mate...."

"And you failed to stop him."

"Yes."

The stone pulsed, and cracks rippled across its surface like veins of rage.

"What do you command?I came here to submit.I am ready for my damnation." Karl asked, his head hanging low, eyes closed.

The crimson intensified all around him for a moment that stretched too far. He braced himself for what was to come... but it never came... instead...

"Watch her. Even sealed, she is dangerous. The flame in her blood remembers what she does not. When the moon bleeds again... you might have another chance...you must strike. This time, there must be no mistake."

Karl bowed, face pale, lips bloodless... still in shock that he was spared.

"Th...thank you."

" Do not thank us. It was fate that spared you today. Someone dared to use fragments of the Dark Mirror on your brother... he still is tied to you... you are still useful...we do not deal in mercy... but opportunity. You got one. Luck was on your side! "

Karl nodded, " I understand! "

" Open your arms. Let us replenish your soul! "

Karl hesitated only a second. Then he rose onto his knees, back straightening as he slowly spread his arms out wide...like a man submitting to divine judgment...or crucifixion.

At first...nothing.

The void was dead still.

Until...the massive sarcophagus groaned again...a slow, creak like the ribs of a long dead beast shifting in its tomb.

The cracks across its stone surface pulsed crimson, then black, then crimson again...as though something inside were breathing. Or waking.

Then the shadows moved.

From the base of the sarcophagus, black tendrils began to spill...like oil mixed with blood. They slithered through the fog, hungry...wrapping around Karl’s limbs, sliding across his chest and throat like serpents marking their claim.

Then they pierced.

Not his skin...but soul.

Karl did not scream...but his body buckled. His back arched so violently it looked physiologically impossible, as if his spine might snap.

Darkness flooded him.

Not simple shadows...but corruption.

Not just power...but ruin.

The memories of the forsaken. The grief of the lost souls. The rage of things buried beneath.

It did not enter like a gift. It invaded.

His veins lit black beneath his skin.His eyes rolled back...but not in weakness. He was changing.

The mist around him howled.

Then...suddenly...it stopped.

Karl dropped, gasping like a man pulled from a grave. Smoke rose off his skin. His body steamed in the dead air.

The skin on his face was different...no longer the sharp, noble features mirroring that of Kieran’s.

When his eyes finally opened...they were no longer gray.

They were ink dark with a sickly red ring and an unknown face full of smugness.

A true Revenant!

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