The cavern trembled as Leonis staggered forward, his boots sinking into
the pulsing flesh of the Bloodchamber floor. The air reeked of iron and ozone, thick with the scent of Celias spilled bloodher moonmark still leaking silver light like an unfiltered wound.
The Eclipse Gate's collapse had left the chamber unstable, its walls breathing like a living thing, veins of corrupted shadowglass writhing beneath the surface.
Fenrir crouched beside Thoren, his golden eyes reflecting the dim glow of the Lunar Shard. The scientist's hands trembled as he traced the shard's
fractured edges.
*"The original's memories are in here,"* he muttered. *"But theyre... changing her."*
Leonis didnt need the warning. He could see it in the way Celia held herselfrigid, her fingers twitching toward the scar that was no longer just a mark, but a *conduit*. The originals voice slithered through the chamber, though her body had dissolved into the Gate's wreckage:
*"You think youve won, little shadow? Youve only opened the door.'*
Celia's head snapped up, her pupils dilating until the irises were swallowed by black.
*"She's not gone,"* she whispered.
*'She's in the shard. In me."*
A notification seared across Leonis's vision:
*Purge the originals presence from the Lunar Shard. Warning: Hostile integration detected.*
Leonis reached for her, but Fenrir's claws clamped around his wrist. *"Dont,"* the wolf-prince growled.
*"Thats not just Celia anymore."*
Celia's laugh was wrongteo sharp, too cold.
*"Oh, but I am. Just... more."* She lifted the shard, and the light twisted, forming a holographic tableau: rows of glass pods, each holding a silver-haired woman in stasis.
*'The Sovereigns army. And I'm the key to waking them."*
Leonis's shadow-arm spasmed, tendrils lashing at the air. *"That's not your voice."*
*"Isnt it?"* Celiasno, the *originals*smirk curled her lips. *"We were always meant to merge. A perfect vessel for the Sovereign's will."*
Thoren lunged, snatching the shard from her grip. The moment his fingers made contact, his body convulsed, veins bulging black beneath his skin.
*"It' s a trap!"* he choked out. *
'The shard isnt a weaponit's a *transmitter*!"*
The chamber "screamed*.
The walls split open, disgorging half-formed figuresEelia's copies, their
bodies stitched together from shadow and broken code. Their movements
were jerky, unfinished, but their blades gleamed with lethal intent.
Fenrir snarled, unsheathing his claws. *"Time to die. Again."*
Leonis barely had time to react before the first copy was on him. Its sword arced toward his throat, moonlight magic humming along the edge. He barely dodged, his shadow-arm surging up to blockbut the blade *passed through*, severing the darkness like smoke.
*"They can hurt you,"* the originals voice purred through Celia's mouth.*"But you cant hurt them."*
Leonis gritted his teeth. *Watch me."
He *yanked* on the Duskblade Convergence, forcing shadow and flame into unstable harmony. Pain detonated in his arms as the energies collided, but he didnt stophe *pushed*, until the fusion erupted in a shockwave of violet fire. The blast tore through the nearest copy, its form unraveling into static.
*"Clever,"* Celiano, the originalmurmured. *"But youre burning yourself alive."*
She was right. His arms were blistering, the skin cracking to reveal glowing fissures beneath. The system's warnings flashed crimson in his vision:
**[Bloodline Instability:87%]**
*Warning: Catastrophic meltdown imminent.*
Fenrir fought like a beast possessed, his claws shredding through copies, but for every one he felled, two more emerged from the walls. Thoren crouched behind a shattered altar, his fingers flying over the shard's surface in a desperate attempt to rewrite its code.
*"Leonis!"* he shouted. *'I can reverse the signalbut I need *her*!"*
Her. Celia. Not the originals puppet, but the woman whod stood beside him in the ruins, whod whispered *I remember you* like a prayer,
Leonis met her eyesone still hers, the other drowning in black.
*"Fight her,"* he growled.
Celia's hands flew to her head, her scream splitting the air.
*"Get "out*!"*
For a heartbeat, the originals control faltered. The copies staggered forms flickering."Now.*
Leonis lunged, slamming his palm against Celia's moonmark. The contact sent a jolt through them bothhis shadow-arm surging into her scar, her stolen moonlight flooding his veins. The originals shriek echoed through the bond:
*"You *dare*
Then the world *fractured*.
...
Leonis stood in a void betweenconsciousness, where Celia's mindscape unfolded like a shattered mirror. Each fragment held a memory:
- *A lab, the originals hands pressing a needle to her temple."
- *A battlefield, Leonis kneeling in chains as she raised her blade.* - *A whisper in the dark: "Find him. Break him."*
And beneath it all, a single thread of defiance*his* name, spoken not as a command, but as a lifeline.
Leonis seized it. *"Youre not her."*
The originals presence recoiled. *"She was *made* from me!"*
*"Then she's an upgrade."*
With a roar, he *pulled*, tearing the original's consciousness from Celia's mind like a parasite from a wound. The backlash hurled him back into reality, his body skidding across the chamber floor.
Celia collapsed, gasping, the moonmark on her scar now a livid *brand*but her eyes were hers again.
Thoren didnt hesitate. He slammed the shard into the ground, its light erupting in a reverse cascade, "unmaking* the copies one by one. The originals final scream faded into static, her presence scrubbed from the shard's code.
Silence.
Then the Bloodchamber *moved*.
The walls convulsed, the fleshy tissue blackening as the Sovereign's influence withdrew. The chamber was rejecting themor collapsing.
Fenrir hauled Thoren up. *"Move!"*
Leonis grabbed Celia, his arms screaming in protest as he dragged her toward the exit. She was limp, her breath shallow, but her fingers curled weakly around his wrist.
*"Did we... win?"* she whispered,
Leonis looked back at the disintegrating chamber, at the shardnow dark, its surface webbed with cracks.
*"No,"* he said. *'We just pissed it off."*
The ground gave way beneath them.
---
*"Bloodchamber Purged. Lunar Shard Neutralized. New Objective: Reach the Heartforge before the Sovereigns avatar fully manifests."*
As they fell through the crumbling floor, Leonis caught one last glimpse of the skyor what passed for it in this nightmare. The blood moon hung low, its surface pulsing like a heartbeat.
And something *stirred* within it.