CLAIMED BY FIVE ALPHAS

The Lunareth

The silver fire did not burn my skin. Instead, the temperature around me dropped to an absolute zero.

Time seemed to slow down. I could see the naked fear in the commander's eyes. His black horse let out a terrified cry and slowly backed away before throwing him onto the muddy ground.

The five glowing wings on my back spread wider, swallowing the entire night fog. I had no idea where this power came from. All I knew was that my chest felt tight, as if thousands of souls were crying inside me, demanding justice for what had been buried alive two thousand years ago.

With a trembling breath, I raised my hand. But I did not point it at the soldiers who stood frozen in fear. I pointed at the iron cart behind them. At the cursed black crystal that had stolen the power of my monstrous protectors.

"Destroy," I whispered.

Just one word. A spell no one had ever taught me slipped from my lips, as naturally as a command from a goddess of death. A silver beam shot from my palm, cutting through the ranks of the Silver Legion as if they were made of smoke. It struck the crystal of The Nullifier.

There was no explosion of fire. Only a faint cracking sound, like a mirror being struck with a sledgehammer. In the next second, the black crystal, as large as a human body, shattered into sparkling silver dust. The shockwave swept across the entire maze garden, throwing the Conclave's rear ranks away like dry leaves caught in a hurricane.

The painful ringing that had tormented the five Alphas stopped instantly. A brutal silence fell.

The commander who had been so arrogant moments ago now crawled backward across the bloodstained snow. His face was as pale as a corpse freshly pulled from the grave. "Lu... Lunareth," he stammered, his voice breaking with pure terror. "That monster... that bloodline was supposed to be extinct!"

"Pull back the troops!" he screamed hysterically, struggling to his feet before running away from his own soldiers. "Leave this place! Tell the Conclave that the apocalypse has awakened!"

The army that had seemed impossible to defeat was now broken. Soldiers ran in every direction, trampling one another and throwing away their weapons and silver arrows just to escape faster into the darkness.

I did not chase them. I simply stood there, watching them flee in panic as the glowing wings on my back slowly crumbled into silver ash, falling to the ground.

The moment the last fragment of light disappeared, something inside me snapped.

The divine power that had held me up vanished without a trace, leaving my human body empty and broken. A pain beyond anything I could describe tore through every cell in my body. Fresh blood poured from my nose and mouth. Suddenly, darkness swallowed my vision.

I fell forward like a puppet whose strings had been cut. But the frozen stone floor never struck my face.

Two arms covered in scars and blood caught me in midair. Theron. The wild monster pulled me against his broad chest, his breathing rough and frantic. At the same time, Aurevian knelt beside me, wiping the blood from my lips with trembling fingers. The Nullifier was gone. Their powers had returned. And now, the five rulers of this world stood around me, yet not one of them had murder in his eyes.

What I saw in the eyes of these five deadly men... was fanatical devotion. "You're bleeding," Aurevian whispered hoarsely. His golden eyes narrowed in pain as he looked at my ruined dress. The northern commander, a man who had spent his life taking others' lives, now held my jaw as if I were fragile glass that might shatter if he breathed too hard.

I coughed, and blood spilled onto Theron's shirt. "Are... are they gone?" "They're gone, Seraphina. All of them," Evren answered from behind Aurevian. The aristocrat lowered his head. His handsome face looked exhausted, yet there was something dangerously admiring in his eyes.

Evren knelt, took my left hand, and kissed my bloodstained palm. "We were taught to conquer the world with swords and lies," he whispered, looking straight into my eyes. "But you... you brought the world to its knees with a single breath. You protected the monsters who were supposed to protect you."

"I have always hated variables I cannot measure," Vaelric said hoarsely. He tossed his silver cane onto the ground without another thought, no longer caring about his prized weapon. He looked at me as if I were the only precious thing in the entire universe. "But watching you burn tonight... I finally understand. I would let my entire kingdom turn to ash, as long as I were allowed to die in your fire."

I shook my head weakly, my breathing growing shorter. "You're... all insane."

Theron laughed. It was a dark, desperate laugh, filled with wild longing. His rough fingers ran through my tangled hair. "This world is insane, sweetheart. We're just trying to survive long enough to deserve standing beside you."

Their voices rang in my ears like spells binding my soul. These were no longer possessive words meant to control me. They were the absolute devotion of the most savage creatures on earth, creatures I had just conquered without even meaning to.

But my victory did not last long. The heat that had disappeared suddenly returned. It was not the kind of heat that gave me power. It was a fire burning deep inside my bones.

I screamed. So loudly that the crows remaining in the maze trees scattered in panic.

I struggled in Theron's arms, clutching my own chest. It felt as if a poisoned dagger were slowly twisting inside my heart. The veins in my arms, which had glowed silver moments ago, turned pitch black. The darkness spread rapidly, crawling up my neck and choking my airways.

"What's happening?!" Aurevian roared, holding both my arms to keep me from hurting myself. "Why is her body rotting from the inside?!"

"Seraphina! Open your eyes!" Evren cried in panic, while Vaelric immediately tore off his sleeve to stop the blood suddenly seeping from the pores of my hands.

In the middle of the chaos, the night itself seemed to split apart.

Azrien stepped forward. The executioner stared at the black veins spreading across my neck with such horror that his face turned white as paper. He dropped to his knees and placed his hand against my chest. The cold from his palm eased the burning pain slightly, but it did nothing to stop the black poison from spreading.

"The tattoo on her nape," Azrien whispered, his voice trembling violently. "The full moon forced the Lunar Core to awaken before her human body was ready. Her vessel is cracking. The energy from two thousand years ago is eating her organs alive."

"How do we stop it, Noctyren?!" Theron snapped, his blood-red eyes blazing at Azrien. "Tell me how to save her, or I'll break your neck right now!"

Azrien ignored Theron's threat. His pitch-black eyes looked straight into mine as my vision began to blur. In his eyes, I saw an answer that made my courage crumble. An answer that made me wish his silver dagger had truly killed me a few minutes ago.

"She needs an anchor," Azrien said slowly. Each word fell like a death sentence.

"An anchor?" Vaelric repeated, his eyes widening as he realized something.

"Her power is wild because it has nowhere to settle," Azrien continued, looking at the four Alphas around him. The tension in his voice seemed to tear through the air. "Her human blood cannot purify the Lunar Core on its own. The only thing that can balance that pure energy... is the blood of an Alpha who rules a territory."

A suffocating silence fell over the garden.

Aurevian held his breath. "You mean..."

Azrien lowered his head, looking at my face, soaked in tears and black blood. "If one of us does not mix his blood with hers and claim her body completely tonight..." He swallowed hard, his voice breaking. "...she will not survive until dawn."