CLAIMED BY FIVE ALPHAS

Greed

Time seemed to freeze, yet the killing blow came faster than the blink of an eye.

The shadow creature lunged at me, its skeletal jaws gaping wide. The stench of thousands of burned corpses flooded my lungs, making me choke. Before its green-flaming bone claws could touch me, a broad-shouldered figure slammed into the monster from the side.

Aurevian.

The military commander didn't use a weapon. He used his own body as a shield, ramming the Soul Hound so hard that they crashed into a marble pillar.

But the creature wasn't made of flesh. Aurevian's black claws passed straight through the dense smoke of its body without leaving a scratch. In retaliation, the green flames surrounding the monster's bones licked across Aurevian's arm, burning his skin with a horrifying hiss.

Aurevian let out a muffled growl, his jaw muscles tightening, but he refused to release his grip on the creature's skeletal neck. "You'll have to step over my dead body before you touch my Queen, you filthy demon!" he roared, forcing the monster away from where I was hiding.

"Aurevian, get back! That thing feeds on souls, not flesh!" Azrien shouted in panic. The executioner chanted something in an ancient language, and black shadows shot out from beneath his feet, binding the monster's bony legs like iron chains.

But the green flames were too powerful. Azrien's shadows burned away within seconds.

Theron roared and hurled a marble table weighing hundreds of kilograms straight at the monster's back. The table melted into gray dust before it could even touch the Soul Hound's ribs.

"My ice magic can't freeze the fires of hell!" Evren gritted his teeth. Frost poured from his palms, only to evaporate into scorching steam the moment it collided with the creature's aura.

Vaelric darted forward with his silver sword, slashing through the air in a deadly arc. His blade managed to sever one of the creature's skeletal horns, but the monster's smoky tail whipped across Vaelric's chest. The ruler of the South was hurled into a wall with a sickening crack of breaking bones that turned my stomach.

"Vaelric!" I screamed.

The creature flung Aurevian aside like a rag doll. The undefeated commander crashed to the floor, the breath knocked from his lungs as the green flames continued devouring his shoulder.

Now, nothing stood between the monster and me.

The Soul Hound crawled toward me, its bones grinding together with a deafening clatter. Its empty eye sockets fixed on me. It had no vocal cords, yet inside my head, I could hear the thousands of souls sacrificed to create this creature screaming in agony, begging to be freed.

I was cornered behind the wreckage of the bar counter. My legs trembled as my back pressed against what remained of the marble wall.

Through my blood, I felt the panic of all five Alphas explode. Their voices screamed inside my head, ordering me to run, to hide. Their desperation—the desperation of men who had never known defeat—cut deep as they watched me stand helpless before the monster.

Don't let them in unless you're ready. Lock us out.

Evren's words echoed in my mind. But tonight, I didn't want to lock them out.

I closed my eyes and let my defenses crumble. I flung open the doors to my soul, allowing the five blood resonances to pour into the Lunar Core at the nape of my neck. I drew upon Aurevian's physical strength, Theron's wild courage, Evren's aristocratic composure, Vaelric's absolute strategic precision, and Azrien's embrace of shadows.

Everything fused into a single breath of my humanity. When I opened my eyes, fear no longer shrouded my world. I stepped out from behind the counter. I didn't crawl. I didn't run. I stood tall.

The shadow creature leaped at me, its jaws of green fire opening wide to swallow my head whole. I didn't dodge. I raised my right hand and pressed my palm directly against the center of its skeletal forehead.

Instantly, time stopped.

The deadly green flames struck my skin, but I felt no pain. Instead of burning me, the blood in my veins reacted. The five-phase moon tattoo at the nape of my neck blazed with dazzling blue-silver light, streaming down my arm before exploding from my palm.

"You're here to steal souls?" I whispered, my voice resonating with an authority that could freeze the blood of anyone who heard it. My brown eyes, now shimmering with a blend of gold and silver, stared straight into the creature's empty sockets. "Then swallow the soul of a god, and see if your vessel can contain it."

The silver light injected pure Lunar Core energy into the creature's skull. It wasn't an attack meant to destroy. It was purification on an overwhelming scale. Caelor Varyn's dark magic had never been designed to contain the energy of creation.

The creature convulsed violently in midair. Cracks of silver light spread across its skull, tearing through the black smoke and green flames enveloping its body.

With one ear-splitting shriek that shattered the windows of the buildings across the street, the Soul Hound exploded into thousands of ash crystals that drifted down like the first snow of winter.

I lowered my hand, my chest rising and falling slowly. Around me, the last remnants of green fire vanished without a trace.

An oppressive silence descended over the penthouse, now reduced to a wreck.

I turned around. All five Alphas were staring at me. Not one of them spoke. Their eyes held a mixture of horror, awe, and absolute reverence. I had just killed an intangible monster that even the swords of the world's most powerful rulers couldn't scratch—with a single touch.

A harsh cough broke the silence. Vaelric forced himself upright, clutching his broken ribs. Blood trickled from his temple, marring his otherwise flawless aristocratic features.

He glanced at his silver wristwatch, its screen now cracked.

"Remarkable," Vaelric gasped between ragged breaths. "You just saved all our lives. But that magical explosion of yours lit up the Conclave's radar like a giant firework. The Bloodhounds will reach this building's lobby in ninety seconds."

"The elevators have been cut off from the central system." Evren rose to his feet and helped Aurevian, whose injured shoulder was still smoking. "They'll come by air. We're trapped on the fiftieth floor."

"Then how are we supposed to get out?!" I demanded, my human panic taking over again. "We don't have wings!"

Vaelric gave a thin, crooked smile. It was the smile of a madman who had just wagered his entire fortune at a gambling table. "Who said we need wings?"

He reached into his trouser pocket, pulled out a small, jet-black remote, and pressed a button without hesitation.

The marble floor beneath our feet shook violently. The tremor came not from outside, but from the building's own structure. A mechanical seam appeared in the middle of the penthouse, splitting the floor into two sections that slowly opened like the jaws of a giant beast.

The freezing night wind rushed in, sucking the air out of the room. Beneath the opening floor, there was no other room. Only an endless darkness stretching down to the streets of Lunaria, hundreds of meters below.

A black mag-lev dropship hovered motionlessly beneath the opening. It was a stealth aircraft without propellers, its anti-gravity system glowing blue. The hatch on top of the craft stood open, waiting for us.

"Sometimes, being the richest man in the world has its perks," Vaelric chuckled, wiping the blood from his chin. "This aircraft can't be detected by any radar. Our flight path is already locked onto the northern border."

"Jump!" Theron shouted as gunfire erupted behind us, the shots tearing through the penthouse's main entrance.

One by one, they threw themselves into the darkness.

I stood at the edge of the gaping hole, the storm wind slapping my face. My body froze. The fear of heights tightened its grip around my throat.

"Seraphina!"

Aurevian stood at the edge of the opening, reaching out his hand. His golden eyes burned as they locked onto mine, anchoring me against my fear. "Jump. If you fall, I'll tear the sky apart to catch you."

I closed my eyes, drew a deep breath, and threw myself into the dark abyss.

The wind tore at my ears. The sensation of free fall made my stomach twist. But I didn't fall for long. A pair of arms as strong as steel caught me in midair, wrapping me in a thick military coat.

Aurevian held me so tightly that I could hear his wild heartbeat. The scent of blood and rain clinging to him enveloped me, offering an impossible sense of safety in the middle of our deadly escape. We landed hard inside the steel aircraft cabin, rolling across the metal floor before the hatch above us slammed shut, muffling the gunfire and the night wind.

The aircraft shuddered as it accelerated to supersonic speed, leaving the city of Veyrenth behind as it dwindled into a sea of lights.

I gasped for breath, lying against Aurevian's rising and falling chest. The military commander refused to let me go. His arm remained wrapped around my waist, unwilling to allow even a millimeter of space between us.

"We made it," I whispered hoarsely, looking at the five men around the cabin, all of whom were now slumped against the walls in exhaustion.

But when I raised my right hand—the hand I'd used to touch the Soul Hound—my breath caught in my throat.

Beneath the sleeve of my silk shirt, a glowing green vein was slowly creeping beneath the skin of my wrist, like snake venom spreading through my bloodstream. It didn't hurt. It felt cold. And what terrified me most was that, as my eyes focused on the green vein, I could no longer hear my own thoughts.

Instead, I heard a whisper that was elegant, cruel, and sharp as a thorn piercing my brain.

Chancellor Caelor Varyn's voice.

"You swallowed my magic so greedily, my Queen," his voice whispered inside my skull, accompanied by a soft laugh that turned my blood to ice. "Run as far as you like. Now... I can see through your eyes."