LOGINAria felt it—the bond, a deep ancient recognition of one’s fated mate.Her heartbeat and his in the same rhythm, like two halves locked in the same body.
She stumbled back.“No…not him”
The look on Dax’s face changed, switching from shock to anger.“Impossible, no it can’t be.”
Elias looked at both of them confused.“What is going on?”
Dax staggered to his feet, breathing heavily.The energy around her still shimmered.
He could feel her— her fear, her strength and her pain.
“Stay away from me," she said, crawling away from him.
He clenched his fist, jaw tightened.“You dare use moonfire against me?”
“I warned you.”
“How are you able to do that when the council stripped your mark?”
“I don’t care what the council did.I did not kill Kael!”
Something in her voice cracked, and in a heartbeat, Dax Riven hesitated.The pain in her eyes said it all.
She was not a murderer like the council said.
He shook the thought off.
“Tell your lies to the council, not me.”
He lunged at her.
She dodged swiftly, but he caught her wrist.The touch burned both of them, a spark flaring between their palms.
The bond was clear now.
Aria gasped.“What are you?”
He stared at her equally puzzled.“I could ask you the same.”
Elias rushed forward and tackled Dax to the ground while he was unaware.The two men rolled in the mud, punches flying.Dax quickly overpowered him, pressing a blade to his throat.
“Enough!” Aria screamed.Her voice thundered with something scary.The trees trembled, the forest went silent and the two men froze.
Dax looked up at her, breathing heavily, he realized something about her.Her power wasn’t ordinary Luna power, it was something else— something ancient.
Dax stepped up, putting his weapon back in place.
“You can run Luna, but you can never hide.And I will find you every time.”
“Then be ready because I won’t run forever,”Aria replied firmly.
He turned away and vanished into the forest.
Elias staggered back to his feet, bleeding from the nose and lip.
“Aria, are you crazy?That is Dax Riven—he will not stop until his target is dead.
She stood staring at the trees where Dax had Vanished, her heart pounding with that undeniable pull.
“He is not just a hunter Elias.”
“Then what is he.” Elias frowned.
“He is my mate.” She whispered to herself.
Dax ran faster than he ever had in his entire life.
He stopped at the ridge, bracing his hand against a tree and panting restlessly.
His wolf went wild beneath his skin.
My mate.
He had spent his entire life believing that fate was a lie and that the goddess had forsaken him after his whole bloodline was cursed.But here he was with a mark burning faintly in his chest and his fated mate in the same forest with him.
Who would have thought that the council’s prisoner—the killer Luna whom he was sent to execute—was his fated mate.
He tightened his fist and clenched his jaw, forcing down the anger burning in him.
“This is impossible,” he grunted.
But even as these words left his mouth, he could still feel her delicate heartbeat echoing faintly through his.
Miles away, Elias and Aria reached a narrow cave at the foot of the mountains by dawn.There, they lit no fire.
Elias guarded the entrance while Aria sat in a corner of the cave pressing her hand to her chest.She felt that strange rhythm that wasn’t hers alone.
She could still feel him there although distant, but he was there.
For the first time after the death of Kael, she felt something aside fear.
Something far dangerous.
The sky was calm once again.And for the first time in what felt like an eternity, the sky bore no wound. The hungry shadows waiting at the other side were gone. The world was free from the threat of an invasion. There was only silence.Only the battlefield.Only the survivors facing the last two monsters that were left behind.The Tyrant stood motionless with its single humongous eye fixed on Aria.The shaper stood beside it with a look of disdain on its face.The two monsters did not move or speak. They both stared at Aria. They no longer stared at her with uncertainty like before.They now stared with hot fury. They had reached a final conclusion—Aria was a threat to their mission. The shaper spoke first. “Probability Recalculated.”It’s heavy voice sweat across the whole valley.“Source of threat identified.”The Tyrant’s enormous eye was still fixed on Aria. “Eliminate source now!” The Tyrant screamed.Dax quickly jumped infront of Aria. “No,” he said in a defensive tone.
Around them, the world stayed still while the Tyrant and the Shaper critically observed.And high above them, the great tear stretched across the heavens like a permanent scar.It pulsed in a slow but steady and hungry way.Behind the tear, the countless shadows stared. Quietly waiting and searching for a way through.Aria could feel their burning desire to cross over. There were thousands of them. Maybe more.Countless ancient presences standing behind the barrier to a world that was not theirs. Every single hungry pulse from the tear showed their intent.Their curiosity.Their hunger.And now, it was all clear to Aria.The Tyrant and the Shaper had never been the true invasion. They had simply been the door-openers.The ones sent first to turn the world into a place where these ancient creatures could be comfortable in. They were literally builders.Dax followed Aria’s gaze up into the sky and saw it too. His expression quickly darkened.“They’re still there,” he said. “Yes,” Ari
Everyone stayed still. No one was able to move. Not Aria.Not Dax.Not even the strange beings that had started to reshape the world.It seemed the entire battlefield was held upon some fragile balance. On the surface everything seemed still. But Aria knew better.She was on her knees with both her hands wrapped protectively around her stomach. Although her breathing remained unstable, this time it was steadier than before. She could still feel the presence of the child inside her. It had not faded.This time, it had completely settled. It was quietly watching.Aware of everything going on around it.Protective of not just its mother, but its father and the entire world.Dax stood a few steps in front of her, his muscles tense, every fiber of his being seeming ready to react. But deep down, even he could feel it—the sudden shift on the battlefield.“This changes everything,” he said quietly.Aria swallowed. “Yes. It does.”Slowly, she lifted her eyes in the direction of both beings—
The shaper made another cage instantly.The new cage tightened around Aria with a quiet, but inevitable precision.Each line of the Shaper’s construct slid into place around Aria, locking her movement, her breath, her power into something measurable… controllable.Her anchor flickered as it strained under the control of the Shaper.It slowed and suddenly straightened.Straightened.“No…” she whispered, panic rising. “It’s… fixing it…”The Shaper stepped closer with a calm and focused gaze.“Instability will be corrected.”Out of desperation, Dax slammed into the barrier again.Nothing happened. He struck harder with all his might.Still, the barrier did not break.“Get away from her!” he roared.The ground surged upward once more, holding not just his legs, but his torso as well. This time, the structure didn’t just lock him in place—it adapted to his strength, squeezing him with every movement he made.He couldn’t break Not like this.Aria gasped as her anchor bent further to the
The sky didn’t only widen.It gave a response.The opening tear in the horizon pulsed as though it was a living wound, the fractured light hardening into something far more stable and intentional. The Tyrant’s conduit blazed brighter, its branching limb still fused into the tear like an enchanted root feeding on another world.Suddenly, something else pushed through.This new presence didn’t just emerge all at once.It first came with a distortion. Almost like heat rippling across the surface of glass.Then a silhouette.Smaller as compared to the Tyrant.But this was far more defined.Aria felt it before she saw it.A presence that didn’t overwhelm the world but rather, slid effortlessly into it.It was controlling and intentional.Wrong, but in a different way.Dax’s grip tightened around her as he pushed himself to stand again.“…That’s new.”Aria’s voice was faint. “It’s not like the Tyrant.”“No,” Dax said, eyes narrowing.“It’s even worse.”The second being entered the world.
The sky did not hold.It opened a way.The tear now stretched from horizon to horizon, a deep wound of blinding white with a pitch black background. What had initially been a small tear was now wide, stable, and impossibly deep.And behind it were hasty movements.Shapes could be seen.Countless shapes.Dax’s gaze was stuck upwards, his chest heaving.“Aria…”She couldn’t answer.Because she could feel the presence of every single one of them.Although not fully present yet, she could sense their awareness, their pressing presence and wait.Aria realized something chilling.The First Tyrant had done more than just breaking through.It had intentionally created a path for other beings like itself.With a loud roar, the ground beneath them suddenly split again, but this time it didn’t just collapse.It reshaped itself with clear purpose.Large chunks of stone rose above the ground. The whole valley rapidly twisted into unfamiliar terrain—spires, ridges, and unnatural plateaus began fo
The ground did not stop shaking. Aria could feel the vibration through her palms even as she knelt over Dax’s still body. Her hands were slick with his blood and dust, her heart hammering so hard it almost hurt. “Dax… please,” she whispered while sobbing. She pressed her forehead to his chest.
Night quickly spread over the valley like a disease.Fires burned low, their light exposing cracked earth and frightened faces. No one could sleep. Even the wolves who managed to lay down kept their ears pricked, bodies tense, as if the ground itself might crack open again. Aria sat wrapped up in
The cave did not feel safe.It felt like a temporary hideout before disaster struck.Aria lay on a bed of cloaks and moss, sweat slick on her skin, breath coming in shallow, shaking gasps. The child still surged violently against her ribs, restless, powerful, held back only by the Abyss King’s temp
The land began to scream the very moment the Abyss King set foot on it.Trees started bowing as if crushed by some by invisible hands. Rivers reversed their flow. The sky darkened into a bruised violet, lightning cracking across clouds that were not in existence seconds before.Every single wolf i







