"I’ve been waiting for you."
The voice cut through the thick mountain air, low and nacing, like a whisper of death.
Haelyn turned sharply, her golden eyes locking onto the figure standing atop the jagged rocks.
A woman...tall, wrapped in shadows, her dark skin gleaming under the moonlight. Her presence alone made the air feel heavier, suffocating. Behind her, an army of rogue wolves, their eyes glowing like embers in the darkness, awaited her command.
Nesis.
The na alone sent a chill through Haelyn’s bones.
But she refused to let it show.
Haelyn straightened, eting Nesis’s gaze head-on. "Who are you?"
Nesis smirked, her lips curving in amusent. "You carry her power, yet you don’t even know ?" She descended from the rocks, her movents slow, deliberate. "How disappointing."
Archer stepped forward instinctively, his body tense. "Stay back, Haelyn."
Haelyn didn’t move. "You ca all this way just to talk? Or are you here to die?"
A sharp laugh burst from Nesis. "Bold. I like that. But no, little Luna... I ca to take what is mine."
She snapped her fingers.
A deafening growl erupted from behind her as her rogue wolves lunged forward.
Artemis and Xander were the first to react, shifting mid-air as they collided with the enemy.
Rowena’s daggers flashed under the moonlight as she took down two rogues in a single strike.
Ravi summoned fire from the earth, engulfing the charging wolves in flas.
But Haelyn...Haelyn stayed still.
Nesis watched her with a tilted head. "Not going to fight?"
Haelyn flexed her fingers. The air around her humd with energy.
"I don’t need to fight," she said. "I just need to end you."
Lightning crackled around her hands as she raised them.
But Nesis moved faster.
With a flick of her wrist, dark tendrils shot from her fingers, snaking toward Haelyn like living shadows.
Haelyn dodged, barely. The ground where she’d stood cracked and blackened.
"Impressive," Nesis mused. "But let’s see how long you last."
She vanished...then reappeared behind Haelyn in a blink.
"Too slow."
Her hand wrapped around Haelyn’s throat, lifting her off the ground.
Archer roared in rage, lunging forward, but Nesis flicked her wrist, sending him flying backward.
Haelyn gasped, struggling against the inhuman grip. "You... won’t... win."
Nesis leaned in, her voice a whisper against Haelyn’s ear.
"I already have."
Darkness exploded from Nesis’s body, engulfing them both.
The last thing Haelyn saw was Archer screaming her na...before everything turned black.
"Struggle all you want, little Luna. You are already mine."
Nesis’s voice echoed in the abyss as Haelyn gasped for breath.
Darkness wrapped around her like a vice, pulling her into an unknown void. She could feel the weight of it, suffocating, pressing against her ribs, threatening to crush her very existence.
Nesis stood over her, a twisted smile on her lips. "You should have never been born. You were never ant to hold such power."
Haelyn clenched her fists, her vision swimming. Archer’s voice was a distant echo now. She couldn’t see him, couldn’t feel anything but the cold grip of shadows around her.
Her body was failing.
Her strength was fading.
No.
A voice...low, ancient, dangerous...whispered through her mind.
You are not weak. You are not prey. You are death itself.
Haelyn’s body jerked. Her golden eyes flickered...then burned white.
Sothing else had awakened.
Nesis barely had ti to react before Haelyn’s entire body exploded with power.
A shockwave sent Nesis hurtling backward, her feet skidding across the unseen ground. She braced herself, eyes narrowing. "What the..."
Haelyn...no, Keres...lifted her head.
Her golden hair whipped wildly as raw energy coiled around her form like a living entity. Her face was the sa, but her aura was entirely different...sothing darker, sothing unrelenting.
"You talk too much."
Keres’s voice was Haelyn’s, yet it wasn’t. It was deeper, colder.
Nesis gritted her teeth. "You think so borrowed strength can stop ?"
She lunged.
Keres didn’t move.
Nesis’s claws slashed through the air...only to be caught mid-swing.
Keres held her wrist effortlessly, fingers like iron around her bones.
Nesis’s eyes widened.
Impossible.
Before she could react, Keres twisted...SNAP.
Nesis howled as her wrist broke like brittle glass.
"You’re nothing," Keres sneered. "Just another fool who thought she could play god."
Nesis scread in rage, her free hand summoning tendrils of darkness, striking Keres in the chest...but they dissolved on impact.
Keres didn’t even flinch.
She tilted her head, amused. "Pathetic."
Then she moved...faster than light, faster than thought.
One mont she stood still. The next, she was behind Nesis, gripping her by the throat and slamming her into the ground with such force the very air cracked.
Nesis choked, struggling against the crushing grip.
"You were saying?" Keres taunted, her eyes glowing like two burning stars.
Nesis’s power surged...she tried to claw at Keres, tried to break free, but nothing worked. It was like trying to fight a nightmare, sothing far beyond mortal understanding.
She wasn’t winning anymore.
She was losing.
For the first ti in centuries, Nesis felt fear.
Nesis’s army...watching from a distance...began to falter. Their queen was being destroyed.
"No," Nesis snarled, forcing herself to move despite the pain wracking her body. "I am not done!"
Keres only smirked. "You already are."
Her grip tightened...Nesis’s body convulsed.
It was over.
Until....
A shadow tore through the void, wrapping around Nesis and yanking her away in an instant.
Keres’s fingers closed around empty air.
Her white-hot gaze flickered up, watching as the remnants of Nesis’s power disappeared into the darkness.
She had escaped.
For now.
Keres exhaled sharply, and for the first ti, Haelyn felt her mind push back.
"Enough," she gasped. "Let ... let take back control."
For a mont, there was silence.
Then, the power surrounding her receded.
Keres was gone.
And Haelyn...breathing heavily, trembling...stood alone in the vast emptiness.
But sothing had changed.
She could feel it.
It was like she could now control multiple powers,take on multiple souls in one body and she was conscious of it.
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