The night was drenched in silver light, but the air reeked of blood.
Lucian Draegor stood among the ruin of the pack he had slaughtered, his hands dripping red, his black eyes glinting with triumph. The earth groaned beneath the weight of the dead, and the forest itself seemed to recoil from him.
Above him, the Moon swelled until it swallowed the sky.
And from its glow, she descended.
The Moon Goddess.
Her light was cold, her beauty terrible. She walked barefoot over the corpses, her silver gown trailing starlight, her gaze fixed on him as if she peered into the marrow of his soul.
Lucian smirked. "Come to admire my work, Goddess?"
Her voice was the chime of bells in a frozen wasteland.
"You asked for power, Lucian Draegor. And I granted it. But you have wielded it without honor, without mercy, and without restraint. You have slaughtered not to protect, but to feed your pride. You have drunk deep from the well of darkness, and now you shall live in it forever."
Lucian's smirk deepened. "Power is all that matters. And now it is mine."
The Goddess stepped closer, her glow brushing against his skin like ice.
"Then power shall be your prison."
She raised her hand, and the air howled.
Her words wove themselves into the fabric of the night, each one a chain, each one a blade.
"You shall walk this earth for all eternity, unloved, untouched, unwanted.
Your heart shall know no peace, for I strip from you the gentleness of the wolf and leave you only the beast.
Blood shall be your hunger. Rage shall be your breath. Lust shall burn in you until it devours all you touch, and yet nothing shall ever satisfy you.
The world will call you a demon, and even the wolves will bow in fear before your shadow.
You will be feared, Lucian Draegor…. but never loved.
You will be desired… but never cherished.
You will be powerful… but forever alone."
The silver part of her eyes darkened to black.
"And only when the blood on your hands is stilled by a mortal's touch, only when your heart kneels where your pride will not, will the chains shatter."
The ground splitted at his feet. His veins burned with fire and ice. The moon's glow poured into him like poison, until he roared, a dark loud monstrous cry of pain as the curse engraved itself into his very soul
When it was done, the Goddess turned her back on him.
Her final words drifted like frost in the wind,
"You wanted power, Lucian Draegor. Now it is all you will ever have."