CHAPTER 015Matteo paced back and forth in the dimly lit room, the silence so thick and suffocating that it could be cut with a knife. He glared at the floor, his fingers clenched into fists at his sides. The tension inside of him started to swell, growing tighter and tighter in his chest with every hour. His home had never seemed so closed in. It weighed down on him, the situation, and no matter how many people he surrounded himself with, he knew he was fighting this alone.Lucia. She had always been a source of irritation, but now, following everything that had transpired, she had become more than just that. She posed a dangerous threat. It was a threat that grew steadily to the point of building momentum. Before he had downplayed her, now she was making him pay for it.The image of her face wouldn’t leave his mind. How she had looked at him when they first met in this life was so cold and distant. That look was gone now, replaced by something much worse. Defiance. Determination. Th
CHAPTER 016Her fingers clenched the edges of the old map lying before her in the dimly lit room. Lucia sat alone. She gave in to the pressure, the weight of it all, the unease in her stomach, the tightness in her chest. This was it, all of it. Now, everything she’d walked, everything she’d sacrificed, led to one inevitable confrontation. Matteo. It was all because of him. The betrayals. The pain. The darkness. It was time for him to pay.She looked at the map, but something was on her mind. A feeling. It was a nagging, uncomfortable feeling that had slowly grown inside her for days. She didn’t know what it was, but she knew something was off. And her gut could feel it—the feeling that someone was against her, that she was being watched. Although she had exercised caution, she now found herself in a precarious situation, unable to shake the paranoia that she was losing her footing and risking slipping through the gaps.She breathed deeply and tried to ignore the feeling. She had a pla
CHAPTER 017Lucia walked back and forth in a small, dimly lit room. She couldn’t stop her thoughts racing, each one swiftly worsening the one before. She was aware of the impending moment, when everything would shift and she would have to face a person who had always seemed enigmatic to her, yet simultaneously felt a deep connection with her.Dante.For weeks now, he had been following her. Either he'd made it unclear what his intentions were or more confusing had been his actions. Or at least, she had tried to trust him. Standing on the edge of uncertainty, however, I reached out for answers. She couldn’t continue on with him in the shadows. She had to know where he was at. She had to know why he was really here.She stopped pacing and looked up. The door creaked open, and there he was, standing in the doorway, his tall frame blocking most of the light from the hallway. She could, however, see his posture tense, his face unreadable. He had come for this. For her."Followed you? Why?"
CHAPTER 018Dante and Lucia found a small, quiet place to catch their breath; Lucia could still feel the adrenaline pumping through her veins. The alley they had ducked into was a vast contrast to the chaos of the ambush. Her body ached, and the bruises and cuts from the fight were still fresh, but relief that she had survived was short-lived. Too much were the words of Nero spoken earlier, the constant tension between her and Dante, and the memory of the forces of Matteo closing in.His face grim, Dante sat on the ground, back against the wall. Neither Lucia nor he spoke right away. The silence, the both searched, stretched ever longer than either me wanted.Lucia broke it, her voice steady even in her head. 'Dante, we need to figure this stuff out.' The prophecy, the Blood Moon—it’s all connected. We’ve done everything we’ve done, taken every step we’ve taken, to get here. We can’t keep running blind.”Dante turned his eyes towards her, and they weren’t their usual hardness; they we
CHAPTER 019The moon was rising. It was in her bones—the pull of the blood moon, the push of the sky itself—preparing for the final act. She was on edge, every nerve in her body. She had seen it before. She had felt the other cold hand of betrayal clamp down on her heart yet again. This time, she was determined it wouldn’t happen. Not again. She wouldn’t let it.Even now, however, with the moon staring like a silver eye in the sky, she knew a thing was coming. The end of the cycle. The final confrontation. And there was a gnawing feeling in her gut that things were going to change.Standing inside the dimly lit room of the mansion, her brain was in a mass of fury and heartbreak. She had heard the prophecy from Nero. All of it. The curse of the Blood Moon. Her destiny. All that had been set in motion long before her first death, long before the life she now lived. It was no less real, but hearing it from him had made it so. No less terrifying.She clutched the cold edge of the windowsi
CHAPTER 020His decisions weighed heavily on him, threatening to overwhelm him. He stood in front of Matteo. He was consumed by a multitude of thoughts, including the overwhelming sense of duty and the profound transformation of his mind since meeting Lucia. She was strong, but she was resilient, and the truth of it all kept gnawing at him. The prophecy, the Blood Moon, through the bloodline that had been cursed many generations before they were ever born. This wasn’t supposed to end like this. This shouldn’t have happened.Matteo smirked as he leaned in his chair, staring at Dante. He had always known how to make people do what he wanted, how to make them believe what he said. Brought up within the folds of power, deceit, and betrayal was his father’s legacy. Dante was caught now in the middle of it all."Matteo said low, almost comforting, 'Dante'."You've always been loyal to me. You’ve always known what was expected. Why are you hesitating now, then?”The anger bubbled up inside of
CHAPTER 021A mass of crimson showcasing the Blood Moon flooded the battlefield with chaos. Ash thickened the air, mixed with screams, steel against steel clanging across the land. In it's heart, Lucia stood; her breath was ragged as wave upon wave of power passed through her body. Her blood had been hybrid, and it was untamed and awakened; it blazed like a flame, pushing to consume her entire body. Her vision was darkening at the edges, but she struggled to maintain control of her hands, which were trembling.“Lucia, focus!” The noise of the tavern tried to drown him out, but Nero’s voice was sharp, and the order cut through the din. His tone was desperate, and he was somewhere behind her. Her focus was slipping, and her body shuddered as it eroded under the weight of her own power.Matteo was advancing. His eyes locked onto her intently, and his blade caught the moonlight; it gleamed. He strode confidently, as if he had already secured victory. The earth itself seemed to shudder ben
CHAPTER 022There was no noise but the fading rustle of leaves in the breeze, unnervingly quiet woods. The air was incredible, sharp against his skin; Dante crouched low behind a towering oak tree. He stared directly at the figure in front of him; it moved with the agile speed of a predator. She wasn’t like the others he’d tailed before—no hesitation, no clumsy missteps. She moved deliberately, precisely like she was testing him to keep up.Lucia.And that unnerved him most: she didn’t look like a typical target. When Leo from the Vulpin mafia approached him, the deal seemed straightforward: They kidnapped Nero’s cousin, delivered her to their bosses, and got a life-changing sum of money. Days passed, and he observed her from the shadows and why she was just about ransom and leverage; he knew it wasn't. He hated how little he knew, and the mafia wanted her for something else, something more significant.The soft buzz broke the silence of his earpiece. Dante’s day was interrupted by Le
Chapter 178Alessandro stood in the center of the ancient chamber, his arms raised high, fingers trembling as dark energy swirled around him like a living thing.He could feel the ritual pulling at him, drawing every ounce of his being into the abyss.The Heart of Lunaria glowed at his feet, its radiant light contrasting sharply against the creeping darkness that now surrounded him."This is it," he whispered to himself, the words heavy with a strange mix of excitement and fear. "No more pretending to be human. No more limits."The air crackled, thick with the power he was awakening. His heart raced as the energy surged through him, filling every pore, every fiber of his being. He could sense the power of a god, pulsating within his fingertips.The ritual, long and agonizing, had finally reached its peak. He could hear the whispers of ancient beings calling to him, their voices a chorus in his mind.But this power— it was not just power. It was a dark promise, a gift that demanded sac
Chapter 171With his boots digging a little into the charred ground, Dante stood at the edge of the battleground. The last remnants of moonlight were sucked up by the heavy clouds that rolled like a brewing storm, causing the sky above to churn with an unnatural darkness.The once-bright light flickered, struggling to stay in place as the Celestial Nexus shook under the weight of the impending chaos.It was this. This was his last stand.A gust of wind blew through, carrying the smell of burning ozone and something worse—the stench of decay, of the darkness edging closer.Dante's fists clenched, Though he knew the truth deep down, every nerve in his body begged for action. He couldn't abandon this battle."Dante!" The sound of distant thunder was broken by Lucia's voice. She showed up next to him, her eyes burning with desperation, her silver hair whipping wildly. "This is not necessary for you to do! We can figure out another way—""There isn't another option." His heart thumped like
Chapter 170Under Valeria's feet, the ground shook and the ancient stone floor cracked. The smell of burning magic permeated the air, the traces of Eldrin's cosmic anarchy still hanging there.Her vision faded, and she staggered backward, clutching the edge of a broken pillar. Every breath seemed to be her inhalation of fire."Lucia!?" Her voice hardly reached the howling winds whirling with unadulterated intensity. She could hear Nero yelling, his voice strained and urgent, some distance away.Her attention then turned to the impossible view before her—a rippling distortion in the air, shifting like liquid glass, opening and closing like a wound in reality itself.Her mind slithered with a deep voice."Do you, child, feel it? Is the ability dormant in your blood?She held her head, a sharp pain cutting across her skull. The voice was not emanating from beyond. She knew it inside her. There was something ancient and deeply ingrained within her. Her pulse throbbed again through her rib
Chapter 169Eldrin gazed out over the wide-open space of the darkened sky from the edge of the temple's magnificent balcony.The stars above, once constant and predictable, now fluctuated, flickering like dying embers from a storm.His fingers twitched in anticipation as he grinned to himself. It was this—his time. Everything Lucia and her allies had painstakingly built collapsed with the start of the gambit."Everything is aligning perfectly," Eldrin muttered to himself, his voice hardly audible above the roaring wind that blew through the open areas of the temple.The power crackled all around him, a cosmic force that was both thrilling and terrifying.The unraveling was intensifying, encroaching on reality itself like a sickness.He had meticulously woven the delicate thread of the celestial event he had triggered over centuries, but now it was falling apart, and there was no turning back.His surroundings were starting to change, first slowly, like a ripple in the air, and then mo
Chapter 168Every breath Sophia took served as a small reminder of the power coursing through her as her body lay in the shadows of the dimly lit room.The magic within her erupted like a wild storm, hungry and uncontrollable, despite the fact that her resurrection had been partial and brittle. She was more than just the Sophia Roselli they were familiar with.But she was more than that. It wouldn't take long for Lucia and the other people standing beside her to realize she was a formidable opponent.Her eyes opened slowly; in the dim light, the slight glow of her irises almost seems unnatural. The air around her was heavy with the weight of her new life.Her body ached as if it were separating from the inside, but each painful movement was a reminder that she was alive living in a way she had never experienced before. The black, twisted magic inside her was undeniably powerful.She stood up, her movements startlingly silent, like a predator preparing to strike, She ran her hand over
Chapter 167The air in the concealed room was dense with the scent of smoke and plants, the walls throbbing with the gentle hum of dark energy.Kalyndria stood in the middle, her fingers tracing the complex glyphs engraved into the floor under her feet.The room appeared to shrink, the shadows moving closer, pushing in on her as if the very power she was about to unleash was alive, ready to take form.Eldrin loomed behind her, his presence towering, quiet, but his dark power palpable.She could feel the weight of the deal in her chest, like a big stone lying on her heart. This was no ordinary partnership.What she was going to do would alter everything. Powering this immense came at a price, but she was eager to pay it. No, she needed to pay it. The expense would be worth the outcome. The ritual was set. Eldrin's voice shattered the silence, its tone harsh and low, as if he were speaking through the very air itself. “You are certain, Kalyndria? Once we unleash the magic we summon, th
Chapter 166The acrid smell of dust and ancient power was carried by the wind as it howled down the chilly stone hallways.Alessandro stood in front of the altar, his angular features shadowed by the faint flicker of lighting.With each long, steady breath, he reminded himself of the weight he was carrying—the weight of the sinister ritual he was going to carry out. The only sound to break the stillness in the room was the gentle rustling of his coat on the chilly stone floor.There was a noticeable tension in the air, as if the chamber's walls knew about the evil powers Alessandro was about to unleash. He would transcend tonight. Above all, he would ascend and assert the authority that had escaped him for ages.He could approach the item that had been missing for so long—the Heart of Lunaria. A tingle ran through his veins at the notion. The ceremony was nearly complete,The incantation was the last thing he needed.The ancient relics that rested on the stone altar, each steeped in
Chapter 165Dante stood at the edge of the dark, swirling portal, his heart pounding in his chest. The air around him hummed with the energy of it, an unnatural pull that made his skin crawl.His fingers gripped the hilt of his dagger, the metal cold against his skin. He wasn't sure what haunted him more—the portal's power or the darkness it seemed to call to."You’ve come this far, but are you really ready?" a voice whispered inside his mind, familiar and cruel. "Do you think you can just undo the things you’ve done? Do you think you can really save anyone? Even you?"Dante ignored the voice, clenching his jaw. He knew it wasn’t real, not in the way a person was.It was the darkness that lived inside him, always trying to pull him down, to remind him of the past he couldn’t escape. But he wasn’t going to let it win now.He stepped forward, the ground beneath him trembling. The portal pulsed, a deep, resonating hum filling the air, and he felt it—every inch of it—a hunger that wanted
Chapter 164The air inside the temple was thick with the scent of burning incense and something else—something bitter, electric. Shadows flickered along the stone walls, shifting like living things.Valeria pressed a trembling hand to her temple, feeling the weight of the prophecy humming beneath her skin. It was coming. She could sense its pulsing presence, yearning for a voice.But so could they.Dark figures loomed at the entrance, their presence seething with an energy that made the candles shudder and flicker wildly.The enemy had come for her sight— for the truth woven into her bones. Should they taint her visions, the prophecy would perish irrevocably. Lucia would be lost forever.She could not allow it.Lucia’s voice rang out behind her, sharp with urgency. “Valeria, we have to leave! Now!”Valeria’s lips parted, but no words came. Her vision blurred, splitting into two realities—the present, where her body trembled with exhaustion, and the near future, where blood painted the