A Luna for Alpha Kieran-Chapter 284: Faded

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Malrick worked for a few relentless minutes.

At first there was an illusion of stability...but then the air split.

Not cracked, not stirred...split...like the world itself was being peeled open.

The ancient sigils around Freya convulsed with light...white, gold, then searing blue.

Malrick staggered back, his hands shaking. "No...no, this isn’t supposed to..."

His words drowned under a shriek of raw power as the circle of runes erupted in a blinding cascade. The sigils turned inward, rebelling, their lines unraveling, devouring themselves.

Freya’s body rose from the floor, hair floating like she was submerged in light. Her eyes rolled white...her lips moved but no words came...only a sound.

A hum that wasn’t of this world.

Autumn’s breath hitched. "Freya!" Her voice tore from her throat. "Freya, look at me! Kieran!" She snapped at him. " I’m telling you, this doesn’t look good!"

Kieran was lost for words. He clearly didn’t know what to say or do.

Autumn’s celestial fire ignited on instinct. The furious blue curled from her arms like living serpents. The flames didn’t obey her...they surged towards Freya, desperate, protective...maternal instinct that would listen to no one... no logic.

Malrick slammed his hand down, voice cracking through the chaos. "Autumn! Don’t! I said you will only make it worse!"

"I can’t just watch her burn!" she screamed back. Her hands trembled, caught between the instinct to shield and the terror of losing control.

The blue fire brushed the golden edges of the sigils...and the world around them screamed.

The old runes convulsed, flaring brighter than the sun, as if Freya’s essence rejected everything...containment, protection, even the ancient tongue.

Malrick stumbled forward, his hands bleeding as he drew counter runes in midair. "She is rejecting the Balance itself...not good...not good at all..."

Autumn’s eyes flared white. "Then stop binding her!Let her go...I will...I will find a way..."

"You can’t.They are already trying the corruption on her.Your power is meant to annihilate all corruption and restore the balance.Your powers will for sure kill her. It will not be able to distinguish between your hated and loved ones. And I can’t stop either! She is not meant to exist in one form...she is..."

Before he could finish, a pulse exploded outward.

Kieran was thrown against the far wall.

He groaned, tried to rise, his veins glowing faintly...black and gold spiraling beneath his skin.

His breathing turned animalistic, his pupils slitting.His wolf howled like it was being ripped apart.

"Kieran...?!" Autumn began, but he roared back, voice distorted...half man, half beast... definitely not a normal transformation.

"Get away from her!" His claws erupted midair, teeth bared. Shadows curled around him, licking the floor, staining the light.

Freya’s hum turned into a cry...a child’s, breaking through the divine static.

Autumn turned towards her, torn in half. "Freya, listen to me...baby, you need to breathe...just breathe for me, please.Can you hear Mommy? I am here for you, my precious baby girl. "

Freya’s eyes snapped open.

For a heartbeat, they were not her eyes.

One glowed blue like Autumn’s flame.

The other bled gold like Kieran’s corruption.

"Foolish creatures," Freya whispered...or maybe it wasn’t her voice at all. "You can’t protect what’s meant to destroy you."

The words echoed...otherworldly definitely...like they came from deep within creation’s bones.

Autumn froze.

Tears streaked down her face, turning into steam where they met her fire. "That’s not you talking... something’s taking over my baby...I need to..."

Malrick fell to one knee, clutching his chest as the sigils began feeding on him now...his life force was rapidly being drawn into the spiraling maelstrom.

"Autumn! She is being used....they are channeling both of you...your flame, his corruption...it’s merging...Light and Old Magic and the Fallen ones..."

The floor cracked.

A spiderweb fracture split across the Blackmoon stronghold’s floors, racing outward until the walls themselves groaned and split.

Outside, the ground trembled.

The entire place began to quake, ancient walls shedding dust like tears. Wolves across the stronghold howled, confused, afraid... guards trying to take positions, unsure what to do.

Time seemed to slow.

Autumn fell to her knees, reaching out through the burning air. "Freya! Fight it! Don’t let it take you, my baby!"

Kieran staggered forward,snarling but he looked disoriented and his intentions unclear.

The darkness around him rippled...a monstrous shape flickered behind him...his wolf, almost rabid, clawing for release.

Freya’s body arched midair, caught between all three forces...

Celestial blue.

Primordial gold.

Fallen shadows. All fighting for a piece of her.

The collision tore through the chamber in a slow moving explosion... A storm of light and ash and thunder, swallowing everything.

For one suspended breath, there was silence.

No sound. No heartbeat. Just light.

Then Freya’s distant voice echoed from the blinding haze once more.

"Everything must break... before it can begin again."

The ground lurched...a deep, guttural groan rolled through.

Dust rained from the cracked ceiling. Stones trembled loose from the arches. The floor bucked once...twice...then shook so violently ,Autumn lost her footing.

Her knees hit the ground hard, her palm scraping the floor as she clawed for balance.

"Freya!" she cried out, voice swallowed by the rumble.

Kieran lunged towards her but the quake hurled him sideways too, slamming his shoulder against the wall. His claws burst out instinctively, gouging into the stone as he tried to steady himself.

"Autumn...hold on!" he barked through his teeth.

The air itself seemed to twist...a vibration like laughter crawling out of a crypt.

Then, without warning...the light vanished.

A thick, oily black miasma seeped into the room from the fractures in the floor, coiling upward like smoke from hell’s own lungs. The air turned cold, suffocating, metallic with the scent of blood and decay.

Autumn’s blue flames sputtered, hissed, then recoiled as if ineffective in that setting.

"What...what the fuck is this....NO....no way..."

Kieran’s head snapped up. His wolf snarled inside him, fur bristling beneath his skin. He could feel what was coming.

A shape moved in the fog.

A silhouette. Tall. Broad shouldered. Smirking...evil.

Then he stepped out of the dark...Karl... in all his charms.

That grin was the kind of thing nightmares borrowed...too wide, glinting under the faint flicker of dying light.

"Well, isn’t this touching," he drawled, spreading his arms. "Family reunion night, huh?"

"Karl?!" Autumn’s voice cracked, disbelief splitting it in half.

"You son of a...STAY THE HECK AWAY FROM MY DAUGHTER!! "

Before she could finish, Malrick’s voice boomed behind them, trembling with a thunderous roar.

"Get away from the child!"

Time fractured.

The old Alpha moved faster than anyone had seen him in years. Something clattered to the ground as he lunged forward, eyes burning bright with desperation

"You will not touch her!"

Karl’s grin twisted cruelly. "Touch her? Oh, my old man..."

He moved.

A single flash.

Steel and shadow gleamed together in one seamless motion.

The sound that followed was wet...thick. Like a blade sliding through meat.

Malrick’s body froze mid stride.

His mouth opened, but no sound came out. His eyes...still burning with defiance...went wide in sudden, silent agony.

Kieran’s roar tore through the air.

"NO!!!"

The old Alpha’s knees hit the floor with a hollow clang just as blood burst from his chest in a violent arc...scattering like rubies across the blackened stones.

Karl’s hand... black as tar, fingers edged in dark miasmic fire...had slashed right through him.

The world seemed to move frame by frame now...

Malrick’s eyes met Kieran’s one last time.

There was no fear in them. Only sorrow.

And a glimmer of... peace.

Then the impossible happened...the slash deepened. His body split clean down the middle.

Bone. Cloth. Flesh.

Everything opened, like parchment torn by the wind.

Autumn screamed, stumbling forward, hand outstretched.

"NO!"

But before she could reach him, Karl twisted his wrist and let go. The two halves of the Alpha fell apart soundlessly, hitting the floor with dull, wet thuds. Blood pooled beneath him, steam rising as it met Autumn’s blue fire.

Karl turned, unfazed, that evil grin still plastered across his face. He reached out with his other hand...fingers snapping like he was claiming something he already owned.

Freya...still suspended midair...drifted helplessly towards him, eyes blank, hair floating like a ghost’s halo.

"Don’t you dare touch her!" Kieran roared, his claws dragging sparks off the floor as he lunged...

But Karl only chuckled, his grip closing around the child.

"Nice to meet you too, Bro," he sneered, eyes gleaming with malice. "Now..."

His hand snapped, a shadow sigil flaring at his feet.

"Go. To. Hell."

And before anyone could understand, react, or even scream..

The miasma folded inward like a collapsing star...swallowing Karl and Freya along with him.

Then silence.

The quake stopped.

The air went still.

The blood still steamed where Malrick’s body lay.

Autumn fell to her knees, her mouth trembling open but no sound came out. Her hands glowed faint blue, trembling, reaching for the space where her daughter had just been.

Kieran stood frozen, eyes wide, chest heaving, his claws dripping with blood that was his father’s.

And in the middle of it all...the echo of Karl’s laughter still lingered,like a scar that wouldn’t just fade.