"You deceived ."
Zareth’s voice echoed through the abyss, his rage thick, vibrating through the air like a brewing storm.
Lightning split the sky above him, but there was no thunder.
Only silence.
And then...
"You promised I would have the power to conquer all!"
The darkness stirred.
A gust of wind tore through the lifeless expanse, yet the figures before him did not move.
They lood above him....three colossal forms, faceless, shrouded in nothing but eternal night. Their cloaks did not ripple with the wind; they remained as they always were....unchanging, unfeeling.
"We warned you," they spoke in unison, their voices weaving together like a thousand storms whispering at once.
Zareth’s breath was ragged, his body still weak, aching from his battle with Haelyn. His fingers curled into fists, nails digging into his palms.
"You never warned about this." His teeth clenched. "You never told she would co back through the body of my greatest enemy!"
A pause.
Then....
"We did."
His eyes burned with fury.
"I gave you everything!" He took a step forward, his power crackling around him like raw energy barely contained. "I sacrificed my Luna for this! And now she stands before , laughing through another’s face...."
"You shall carry your cross alone, Zareth," the Sisters intoned, their voices sinking into the very air like an undeniable decree. "You knew the price. The consequences were always yours to bear."
Their words struck him harder than any blade ever could.
Zareth’s breath ca in ragged gasps, his body trembling....not from weakness, but from the festering rage inside of him.
"Then tell this." His voice dropped, low and venomous. "Is there a way to undo what you have done?"
The Sisters remained still, unmoving, silent.
Then, as though speaking from the heavens and the pits of the underworld at the sa ti, their voices layered into one:
"There is only one solution."
Zareth’s entire body tensed.
"Tell ."
A heavy pause.
Then....
"You must strip the power from both the girl and the entity within her. As long as their souls are in sync, they share strength. Break them apart. Drain them both. And then, and only then, will you be able to defeat them."
"But to be able to do this..." the continued " you must sacrifice your daughter Nyx"
Zareth’s breathing slowed.
His mind churned, dissecting their words.
"And if I do this?" he asked, his voice quieter now.
A heavy stillness settled between them.
Then the Sisters whispered, voices curling like smoke.
"Rember this, Zareth."
The air around him darkened.
"You are not immortal. Your ti is always running."
His heart pounded.
The shadows around him stretched.
And then....
They were gone.
Vanished into the void.
Leaving him alone.
The storm inside him raged as he turned away, his mind a battlefield of strategy and hatred.
"Strip them of their power...."
Sacrifice his daughter?....
He stord off into the darkness, the weight of their words pressing into his very soul.
His jaw clenched.
His eyes glead.
"Then that’s exactly what I’ll do."
"You look at with regret now?"
The words slithered through the air like venom, chilling and razor-sharp.
Keres stood in the center of the grand hall, the thick, black liquid pooling at her bare feet, dripping in slow, deliberate rhythm. Each droplet echoed through the chamber like a heartbeat....slow, foreboding.
The Wolf King remained seated on his throne, his powerful figure rigid, but his eyes....his silver eyes, so much like hers....betrayed sothing deeper.
Guilt.
Pain.
"Do you finally see it?" Keres whispered, her voice laced with bitter amusent. "The weight of your choices? The ruin of what you left behind?"
She took a single step forward, and the Faceless Wraiths shrieked in unison, their hollow forms flickering with anticipation.
The council mbers sat in stunned silence, watching as the very fabric of reality seed to bend around her.
"I begged you," Keres continued, her voice trembling with sothing raw, sothing twisted in agony. "I fell to my knees and begged my father not to cast away."
The air thickened.
The shadows writhed.
The Wolf King’s fingers clenched around the arms of his throne.
"Keres..."
She laughed.
The sound was like the wail of a thousand restless spirits, a sound that did not belong in the land of the living.
"And my mother?" Her tone dropped, lower now, a whisper of sorrow wrapped in fury. "Did you know she died of heartbreak? Of grief?"
The Wolf King’s throat bobbed, his jaw tightening.
"She withered because of you. Because of what you did to ."
The weight of her words slamd into him like a physical force.
And yet, he didn’t deny it.
The truth was carved into the very lines of his face.
Guilt.
Regret.
Loss.
He moved, his hand lifting slightly, fingers reaching,
But before he could touch her...
A guttural snarl ripped through the room.
The Faceless Wraiths launched forward, fangs bared, their hollow mouths screeching.
The Wolf King stilled.
His hand fell to his side.
"You lost that," Keres murmured, her voice filled with an ancient ache. "You lost the right to look at with those eyes. To touch like a father."
The room seed to darken, the temperature plumting.
"I do not have love left in ," she whispered, and for the first ti, there was sothing unbearably broken in her tone. "It died with . And now, I am here for vengeance."
She turned.
Her gaze locked onto Nyx, who stood cloaked in the shadows, watching everything unfold.
With effortless grace, Keres floated toward her, her bare feet never touching the ground.
Nyx stiffened as Keres’s fingers ghosted across her cheek.
"And you," Keres purred. "You are the product of my suffering. The daughter he chose over ."
Nyx remained still, her body rigid, but Keres only smiled.
"Be careful, little one," she whispered, the words laced with sothing far darker. "Fathers have a habit of betraying their daughters."
And then,
She turned back to the King.
Her expression had shifted.
The sorrow in her eyes vanished.
In its place....
Pure, seething rage.
She lifted her arms slightly, as if cradling sothing unseen.
Her lips trembled.
"I was supposed to be a mother."
The words barely left her lips before the weight of them suffocated the room.
A chilling wail escaped her lips, a sound so mournful it felt like it was bleeding from another world.
Her body curled inward, her hands pressing to her stomach as though she were holding a child.....
A child that never was.
A mother that never could be.
The room watched in stunned silence as she wept.
Soft, broken cries,
Like a ghost singing a lullaby to a child that would never be born.
The storm outside the palace howled.
The walls trembled.
And then.....
Her weeping stopped.
Her body straightened.
And her eyes....
Burned.
"You have no right to seek vengeance on all of us," one of the council mbers dared to speak, voice shaking. "The one who wronged you is still here. Face him."
Keres smiled.
It was slow.
It was terrible.
"Dirty little wolf n," she cooed. "No right?"
A blur of movent,
Faster than the eye could follow....
And suddenly, a council mber was airborne, flung across the room.
His body slamd into the center of the chamber, right where the black liquid had pooled at her feet.
He tried to rise.
Tried to snarl, to shift.
But he couldn’t move.
"You kill without consequence," Keres whispered. "You all killed ,you let die."
She stepped forward, lowering herself onto one knee beside him.
Her fingers reached out,
And with a single movent....
She plunged her hand into his chest.
A guttural scream ripped through the room.
Fire erupted from within him, bursting through his veins, burning him from the inside out.
His body spasd violently.
His lips moved, trying to form a plea, a prayer....
But there was no salvation for him.
His body turned black.
Turned to nothing.
And in Keres’s palm,
A withered, shriveled heart.
She crushed it effortlessly between her fingers.
Ash rained to the floor.
The remaining council mbers were silent.
Paralyzed.
Their fear tangible.
She lifted her gaze, scanning the room, eyes flickering from one trembling figure to the next.
"All of you," she murmured.
Her fingers traced the air, pointing at them, one by one.
"Are as responsible for my death as your King."
The silence was deafening.
Then....
Her gaze locked onto Marius.
Onto Arthur.
Onto every single wolf that had orchestrated Lunara’s execution.
"You killed Lunara with false claims."
Arthur stiffened.
"And now you intend to kill her daughter, too."
Her smile sharpened.
"I am the wrath that has co to pay evil n a visit."
The ground trembled beneath her feet.
And then,
The storm began.
It was unlike anything they had ever seen.
It coiled around her like a living thing, twisting, snarling, hungry.
Seven feet tall.
A tail of pure, seething energy that danced with the force of a hurricane.
The wind howled.
The palace trembled.
"You have to stop this madness!" The King’s voice was a command. A plea.
Keres only smiled.
"This isn’t like the last ti, Wolf King."
She spread her arms wide.
"I ca straight from hell to drag all of you down with ."
The storm expanded.....
Spiraling, consuming.
Bodies were lifted into the air, their screams swallowed by the howling wind.
So tried to run.
Tried to flee.
But it was too late.
The storm had already chosen its prey.
And Keres,
Was only getting started.
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