Scarlett's grip immobilized Kael with contemptuous ease. Every strained muscle, every spark of magic fizzled against her vampiric dominance. Resignation flickered through him—briefly—before fury reignited. To perish here, ambitions unfulfilled…
The countess savored his defiance, fangs descending toward his pulsing jugular. "Such fire," she murmured against his skin. "Let's see if it flavors your blood."
Amelia's choked protest mingled with Yuri's hissed curses as fangs pierced flesh. Scarlet rivulets traced Kael's collarbone. Scarlett sighed, crimson eyes fluttering shut—until the mage's sudden convulsion broke her trance.
Kael arched backward, not in pain but revelation. His spatial ring burned against fingerbone as death's chill receded before an emerging glow. The artifact he'd dismissed as mere meditation aid—the Lunar Eclipse orb—now floated between combatants, its pearlescent radiance shredding Scarlett's gravitational vortex like mist under noon sun.
Moonlight made manifest cascaded from the hovering crystal, patterns within its depths swirling like galaxies born. Scarlett recoiled, hissing as her flawless skin blistered under the spectral beams. Kael collapsed gasping, fingers closing around the orb now thrumming with primordial resonance.
Amelia staggered free first, qi flaring in protective arcs. Yuri scrambled backward, torn between awe and renewed plotting. None comprehended the relic's awakening—least of all Kael, whose blood still dripped down the orb's surface, absorbed into its luminous core like ink on parchment.
Scarlett's wings beat frantic retreat, aristocratic composure cracking. "What parlor trick is this?!" Her shriek carried genuine alarm now, centuries of predatory certainty unraveling before this unforeseen variable.
The Lunar Eclipse pulsed once—a silent thunderclap etching frost patterns across the clearing. Where its light fell, Scarlett's domain crumbled like ancient parchment.
Kael blinked through fading dizziness as the Lunar Eclipse orb's glow reinvigorated his senses. Scarlett's reaction eclipsed all logic—the imperious vampire now cowered like a whipped cur, wings quivering as she backpedaled.
"Impossible!" Her shriek cracked mid-syllable. "That relic… it was destroyed centuries—" The orb pulsed in rebuttal, its argent light etching smoking trails across her gray wings.
Daniel gaped at Sebastian. Both recognized true terror when they saw it—this wasn't strategy, but primal dread. The artifact's resonance deepened, humming with frequencies that vibrated teeth and bone.
Scarlett's retreat became flight. She tore through the clearing at blurring speeds, yet the orb matched her effortlessly. It struck her wingjoint in a flash of coruscating light. The countess plummeted, impact cratering frost-hardened earth. Her agonized wail tapered into whimpers as the orb hovered above her, its glow now surgical in intensity.
Kael's fingers tingled where blood still seeped against the relic. Scarlett's exposed skin blistered where moonlight fell—no, not moonlight. The orb's radiance carried darker harmonics, ancient and alien.
Yuri edged toward tree cover, calculations warring with survival instinct. Amelia stood transfixed, blade half-raised in forgotten readiness. None dared breathe as the orb's light constricted around Scarlett like a living web.
"Mercy…" The plea emerged strangled. The vampire noble clawed at her throat where luminous filaments tightened. "I yield to the Eclipse's heir!"
Kael stepped forward, orb pulsing in sync with his heartbeat. Questions would come later—what inheritance, what pact his blood had awakened. For now, predator and prey roles had inverted.
The Lunar Eclipse flared once—a soundless detonation bleaching color from the world. When vision returned, Scarlett knelt motionless, head bowed to the frost in perfect supplication.
Scarlett's screams dissolved into static as the Lunar Eclipse's radiance intensified. Her form flickered—translucent, then spectral—before imploding into motes of ashless void. The orb dimmed, its crystalline surface now streaked with venous crimson as though infused with vampiric essence.
Kael stared, disbelief warring with visceral relief. The relic settled into his palm, thrumming with unstable potency that prickled his skin. He shoved it into his spatial ring before its alien hunger could resonate further.
Silence gripped the clearing until metallic clinks broke the spell—the glacial relic rolled to a stop against Kael's boot. Instinct overrode caution; he snatched the frost-veined orb and swallowed it whole before rationality intervened.
Arctic fire detonated in his gut.
Vitality erupted through meridians and magic circuits alike, a supernova contained within flesh. Kael staggered as his veins lit with cerulean luminescence, skin cracking under the strain of containment. Yet ecstasy outweighed agony—this was power incarnate, raw and purifying.
Yuri's snarl shattered the moment. "Thieving bastard!" A necrotic bolt lanced toward Kael's unprotected back—only to meet Amelia's blade mid-arc. Steel sheared through corruption as the warrior interposed herself, combat qi flaring ninefold.
"Touch him," Amelia growled, "and we finish our duel here."
The necromancer retreated with venomous grace, staff crackling with aborted spells. Let the fool choke on stolen treasures—surviving this glacial surge seemed punishment enough.
Kael scarcely registered their standoff. The relic's energy was rewriting him, scouring channels clean with glacial precision. Each labored breath frosted the air, yet internal conflagration demanded release. His hands clenched—frostfire erupted from his palms in twin geysers, sculpting the clearing into a glassine wasteland.
Somewhere through the maelstrom, Amelia's steadying grip anchored him. "Breathe. Control it." Her qi seeped into his storm, a tether against dissolution.
Control, yes. This power was his now—to master or be consumed by. Teeth gritted, Kael began the torturous alchemy of turning stolen frost into strength.