The moment Elara's skin brushed against the Shard of Envy, the world as she knew it simply stopped. The green, sickly light that had been poisoning the glade didn't just vanish, it turned into a pure, blinding white that felt like a scream and a lullaby all at once. The "human" wall she had built around her mind acted like a filter. It sucked in the darkness, cleaned it, and sent it back out as pure energy.
The vision returned, but this time it wasn't a grainy memory. It was high-definition reality.
She was standing in the center of the Great Temple before it fell. The air smelled of jasmine and ozone. Two men stood before the massive, glowing Moonstone. One was a towering warrior with Lyraki's obsidian-black hair and eyes like molten lava, the First Alpha King. Beside him was a man with the same sharp features but with hair as white as frost and eyes like a winter sky. He looked exactly like Kaelen, the Silver-Slayer.
They weren't fighting. They were crying.
"We cannot let the Void take it, brother," the white-haired man said, his voice trembling.
"If we break it, we break ourselves," the First Alpha replied. "Our bloodlines will never be the same. We will become monsters."
"Better to be monsters who remember the light than shadows that serve the dark," the brother whispered.
Together, they struck the stone. As it shattered, a wave of black smoke—the Elder God of the Void—was sucked into the shards, trapping it. But the price was immediate. The Alpha King's eyes turned a permanent, bloodthirsty red. The brother's skin turned cold and metallic. The war between Lycan and Slayer wasn't born from hate; it was born from the trauma of that moment.
Elara felt the weight of their sacrifice pressing down on her chest. She realized the "Feral Madness" wasn't a disease. It was the trapped pieces of the Void trying to get out through the Lycan bloodline.
Suddenly, a cold wind blew through the vision. A pair of eyes, larger than the moons and darker than space, opened in the sky above the temple.
"I see you, Little Echo," a voice boomed, vibrating in her very marrow. "The bridge is built. I am coming home."
Elara gasped, her eyes snapping open. She was back in the muddy, blood-stained dirt of the Whispering Glade. Her hand was still pressed against the shard, but it was no longer green. It was a beautiful, deep purple that hummed with a quiet power.
Beside her, Lyraki was on his knees. He was gasping for air, his face drenched in sweat. The terrifying, mindless hunger that had almost made him kill her was gone. His eyes were human again, tired, scared, and deeply regretful.
"Elara," he choked out, his voice cracking. He looked at his hands, then at her bruised neck where his teeth had grazed her. "I... I almost..."
"It wasn't you," she said, her voice shaking as she pulled him up. "It was the shard. It feeds on what we're afraid of. It showed you a version of yourself that only knows how to take."
He looked at the purple shard, then at her. "You purified it. How?"
"I didn't fight it," she explained simply. "I just reminded it what it used to be."
But as she spoke, the ground beneath them groaned. The gray trees of the glade began to bleed a thick, oily black sap. The birds fell silent. From the deep distance, a horn sounded, a low, hollow blast that felt like a funeral bell for the entire world.
"The Silver-Slayers?" Lyraki asked, reaching for his sword, his body instantly back into combat mode.
"No," Elara whispered, clutching her chest where the violet light was still glowing beneath her skin. "Something much older. The thing that was inside the stone... it knows I'm here. It knows I can put the pieces back together."
Lyraki wrapped a protective arm around her, pulling her against his chest. The heat of his body was the only thing keeping her from shivering. "Then we don't have much time. If the Void is waking up, the other Kings will be desperate. They won't just want the shards; they'll want the one who can touch them without dying."
He looked at her, his gaze intense and unwavering. "You are the most dangerous person in the world right now, Elara. And I am the only one crazy enough to keep you."
Elara looked into his eyes and saw the truth. The prophecy wasn't just about mending a stone. It was about mending the man standing in front of her.
"Then let's go," she said, her voice turning firm. "We have more shards to find before the lights go out."
He looked at her, his gaze intense and unwavering. "You are the most dangerous person in the world right now, Elara. And I am the only one crazy enough to keep you."
Elara looked into his eyes and saw the truth. The prophecy wasn't just about mending a stone. It was about mending the man standing in front of her.
"Then let's go," she said, her voice turning firm. "We have more shards to find before the lights go out."