The night after the clash was not silent.
The sky still wept light shards of silver and gold falling like dying stars.
The ocean burned crimson under the reflection of the broken moons, and the world whispered a single truth:
"The seal has cracked."
✦ The Wounded Sky
Arka awoke on the shores of the northern continent, half-buried in sand and salt.
His body trembled with energy that was not his own wild, unstable, and sharp.
"He left his mark on you," the wolf murmured inside his mind.
"Kael's essence lingers in your veins."
Arka clenched his fist. Silver sparks flared, then turned gold, flickering violently before fading.
He exhaled slowly.
"I can still feel his power pulsing within me.
It's like the world itself is trying to tear me apart."
The wolf materialized beside him, its form flickering between corporeal and ethereal.
"That's because your battle broke the Lunar Vein the artery of magic connecting moon and earth."
Arka looked up.
The smaller moon Yuen was bleeding.
Rivers of crimson light streamed down into the sky like veins of molten sorrow.
"The Blood of the Moon…" Arka whispered.
"Then the world has begun to decay."
✦ The Decay of Magic
Across the kingdoms, chaos spread.
Spells faltered, beasts went mad, and the elements themselves turned violent.
In the city of Lorian, floating towers began to fall from the sky.
Mages screamed as their enchantments collapsed, drawing upon corrupted mana that devoured their minds.
In the forests of Arvenwood, the once-holy trees turned black, whispering the names of forgotten gods.
Rivers reversed their flow, and time inside them moved backward.
And in the southern deserts where Kael had vanished
a false sun rose once more, its light devouring every shadow until even the stars dimmed.
✦ Liora's Resolve
Aboard the Starship Fenrir, Liora stared at the collapsing horizon.
Her hands shook as she traced the star map.
"All ley lines are bleeding," she muttered.
"The Blood of the Moon has infected the entire grid. If this continues, we'll lose the soul of the world."
"Then we heal it," Arka said, walking into the command chamber, his silver eyes faintly golden.
Liora turned sharply.
"You shouldn't be awake. Your body hasn't stabilized."
"The world doesn't wait for recovery."
Arka's tone was quiet but heavy.
"If the Lunar Vein is broken, I must go where it began the Abyss beneath the First Moon."
Liora froze.
"That place… it's forbidden. Even the gods sealed it away."
Arka met her gaze, unwavering.
"And that's where Kael will go next."
✦ The Abyss Beneath the First Moon
Legends spoke of a hidden world below the lunar crust
a place where divine beasts slept, their dreams shaping the constellations.
It was said that the First Beast was born there
not as a god, but as a dream given form by the universe itself.
As Arka descended into meditation, the wolf revealed fragments of a memory long buried.
"You were never merely human, Arka," the spirit whispered.
"You were a vessel chosen to carry the dormant soul of the First Beast's successor."
Arka's breath caught.
"Then Kael…"
"Kael was born from the echo that was left behind the hunger, the jealousy, the defiance that the First Beast cast away to ascend."
Silence fell.
The truth hit him harder than any blade.
He and Kael were not enemies born by chance.
They were two halves of one origin creation and rejection, light and shadow, soul and echo.
✦ The Crimson Rain
Outside, the Blood of the Moon began to fall.
It rained across the continents red, shimmering, corrosive.
Every drop burned through metal and bone alike.
Arka stepped outside the ship, letting the red rain fall upon him.
Each drop hissed against his skin, forming runes of power and pain.
"The moon weeps because the world remembers," the wolf said.
"It remembers what it lost when the First Beast died."
Arka lifted his gaze to the heavens.
Half the sky glowed red; the other half black.
"Then I'll remind it what it means to live again."
✦ The Awakening of the Beasts
As the red rain spread, something extraordinary began to happen.
Beasts across the lands small and great began to glow from within.
Their forms shimmered, merging with traces of starlight.
The Ancient Bonds connections between beast and human reignited.
Arka felt the pulse of a thousand spirits answer his call.
Silver and gold light intertwined across the rain-soaked sky, forming an aurora that split the night.
Liora gasped.
"The beasts… they're awakening!"
"No," Arka whispered.
"They're remembering who they were fragments of the First Beast's dream."
✦ The Vision
In the heart of the aurora, Arka saw it:
a colossal figure coiled around the moon, its eyes like dying suns.
The First Beast not dead, but chained, sleeping beneath layers of divine seals.
It spoke only one word through the dream:
"Return."
Arka fell to his knees, clutching his head.
Visions of his past, his birth, and Kael's creation flooded his mind.
He saw the First Beast tear itself in two
one half ascending as Arka's lineage,
the other descending as Kael's curse.
And in the center of it all
a voice called from the darkness:
"To restore balance… one half must die."
✦ The Omen of the Next War
When Arka awoke, dawn had come.
The Blood of the Moon had stopped, but its mark remained on every living thing.
The world was no longer the same.
Liora approached quietly.
"You saw something, didn't you?"
"Yes," Arka replied.
"The First Beast lives… and it wants me to choose."
"Choose?"
"Between being human… or becoming god."
He looked at the sky where two suns and two moons now hung, bleeding into one another.
"Because only one of us Kael or I was meant to exist."