BloodMoon: Captivated by the Forbidden Lycan Alpha
Chapter 284: ASHANAI HAS AWAKENED

Chapter 284: ASHANAI HAS AWAKENED

{"Darkness isn’t the absence of light—it is her will, stretched across the sky like a second skin."}

We stepped out of the secret haven, after the moon goddess left, the stone door groaning behind us as it sealed again. We all moved towards the beaches of Hanka Island. A chill immediately crept over my skin, the air outside was thick with shadow, the sky choked by roiling, blackened clouds. The sun, if it still existed, had long since vanished. What once was the breathtaking beach of Hanka Island, kissed by tides and breeze, now looked like a battlefield drenched in despair. The trees bent unnaturally, as if whispering secrets to one another. Even the sand looked darker, tainted by the storm that had swallowed the island.

Tor stepped beside me, his posture rigid, his senses sharp. Rou and Elle flanked us, both silent, both ready. Gerod emerged last, his immense form casting a golden glow that fought the gloom, but even his light could not push back the darkness entirely.

She stepped forward, a pulse echoed through the ground, through the air, through our bones, and out of the void between tides and smoke.

Ashanai.

Her beauty was haunting, ethereal, and wrong in ways I could not name. Pale silver eyes glowed with malice. Her gown was made of ocean mist and ink black tendrils that shimmered like oil on water. Her long hair floated around her like she was underwater, even though she stood on solid ground.

"Welcome to my rebirth," she said, her voice dripping with power and venom. "Did you truly believe you could seal me away again?"

Tor growled low in his throat, his fingers twitching at his sides. I stepped forward slightly, placing myself between Ashanai and the others. My heart thundered in my chest, not from fear but from recognition. I had seen gods fall, and I had seen shadows crawl from beneath mountains and tides churn with the blood of the forgotten. But nothing prepared me for the moment she stepped through the veil of darkness, and there she was, Ashanai.

The air changed the second she arrived. It thickened like the breath of the ocean just before a storm rips the sky open. I felt Tor tense beside me, his claws itching at the ground, his instincts screaming.

Her skin glowed faintly like moonlight filtered through frost, but it was not pure it pulsed with streaks of shadow, veins of moving ink that writhed beneath the surface. Like the darkness in her was trying to escape or worse, consume her from within. Her eyes were silver pools without bottom, without warmth. Looking into them was like staring into eternity and finding nothing waiting on the other side. No compassion. No hope. Just a hunger that chilled the soul.

Her voice, when it came, slid into my ears like smoke. "So... you came to protect what was never yours to begin with."

Tor growled low beside me. I did not move. I could not. Her presence pressed down on us, not just on our bodies, but on our minds. It made me question if this fight was even worth it. If anything was.

That is her true power, not just the darkness she commands but the despair she plants in you. Her robes danced like shadows given form, stitched from threads of night and soaked in the sorrow of centuries. They did not follow the wind; they moved at her will. Like her very aura was alive. I could feel the magic in her, heavy, ancient, and corrupted. The scent of the ocean clung to her, but it was wrong. It was not salt and breeze. It was rotten. Death pulled from the deep.

"Ashanai," I finally said, my voice rough in my throat. "Why take what does not belong to you? The realm is not your playground."

She smiled. "Then it was never meant for me, was it?" They gave life to others and cursed me with silence, and I will not be denied again."

She took a step forward, and the earth beneath her feet blackened. Flowers shrivelled in an instant; the grass turned brittle. I watched the tide behind her boil as if the ocean itself feared her presence.

She was not just darkness, she was the loss that was twisted, bitter, and endless.

"You’re wrong," I said. "You’re not the cure to a curse. You are the curse now." Tor growled.

But even as he spoke, I knew this would take more than power. She came to consume and to corrupt. And if we did not stop her here, everything and everyone would burn under a moonless sky. Ashanai’s lips curled into a sneer, her eyes shimmering with cruel amusement as the tides churned behind her. Darkness slithered at her feet like obedient vipers, and the sky above Hanka Island grew heavier with every breath she took.

"Come out, dear sister," she hissed into the stillness, her voice laced with venom and longing. "You watch from your precious haven in the heavens, but today, you will answer me. Show yourself!"

For a moment, the wind froze and even the sea held its breath. My heart hammered, not with fear, but with the weight of whatever was about to unfold, and then a laugh rose, deep, thunderous laughter that cracked across the island like a lightning strike.

Gerod and he emerged from behind us, a colossal figure cloaked in ancient fire and scaled majesty. His dragon form towered above the ruins, golden eyes glowing with defiance. The heat of his presence beat against my skin like the breath of the sun.

"You think you can summon the moon with your tantrums, Ashanai?" Gerod’s voice rolled across the island, shaking trees and stone alike. "You are but a scar on her memory."

Ashanai’s expression darkened. "Careful, beast," she said slowly, "mockery from your kind has cost realms before."

Gerod stepped forward, fire trailing in his wake, his claws scorching the already wounded earth. "I do not mock, witch," he growled, wings flaring. "I state the truth. You will never get what you want."

She bared her teeth, and the shadows behind her snarled like wolves called to war. "You’re wrong, dragon," she snapped. "The Omega power will be mine. The Moon has hidden it long enough. Her choice will fall. Her gates will break another silence will end."

I stepped beside Tor, fists clenched, as the energy between them mounted like a brewing storm, but realized that Gerod was not moved, and he stood tall, fire flaring from his jaws, ancient and unyielding.

"You were cast aside for a reason, Ashanai," he said with a voice like the crack of fate. "And no matter how far your poison reaches, it will never touch the heart of this real, and not while the realm stands against you."

She raised a hand, and the ocean roared louder behind her. A rumble echoed from the depths of the sea, a sound so unnatural it rattled in my bones. Behind Ashanai, the ocean responded like an obedient beast. The waves surged upward, towering high like watery monoliths, crashing against the jagged rocks of Hanka Island and swallowing the shores in their fury.

From those cursed tides, the creatures rose, twisted, vile, and hundreds of them crawling out of the foaming surf, their forms slick with seaweed and decay. Some skittered like spiders, others lumbered with grotesque limbs and soulless eyes. All of them bore the same dark magic that churned in Ashanai’s presence, Rogourau abominations, corrupted and reborn.

Tor stepped beside me, his body tensing, fangs sharp beneath his lip.

"Shit," he muttered, voice low and tight. "This is worse than before."

Elle growled deep in her throat, drawing her twin blades, the sound pure fury. Rou stepped forward with a snarl that erupted into a full Rogourau roar, the sound echoing through the cliffs and lighting fire to the ancient air around us.

Ashanai laughed, and the sound of breaking minds and broken promises. It cut through our fury like glass.

"Do you see now?" she purred, her voice laced with madness. "This island will drown beneath me. All your power, all your sacred bloodlines, all your gods and guardians today, I take them all."

The creatures behind her shrieked in agreement, clawing at the ground, snarling and screeching as they surged closer, and she raised her arms like a queen before her kingdom. "Today," she cried, "is the day I drink from the marrow of your strength and devour every last drop of power you hold!"

The darkness thickened. The wind carried her fury across the trees and over the stone. "We hold," I said quietly, my breath steady. "No matter what comes. We hold."

Because if this was the day Ashanai wanted to end the world, then it would also be the day we showed her what we were willing to burn to save it. The earth cried, and I felt it through the soles of my boots, through the marrow of my bones. Hanka Island, ancient and sacred, groaned in agony as Ashanai’s darkness unfurled like ink through water. The trees bowed, not from wind, but from grief. Leaves shrivelled, blackening at the edges before curling into ash. The grass underfoot turned brittle, then broke apart with every step we took.

The ground itself was weeping, and the skies dimmed, not with clouds, but something thicker, suffocating. A black veil was draped over the sun, and the warmth of light began to vanish from the island, and she was killing Hanka Island.

Tor clenched his fists beside me, his jaw locked tight. His wolf was barely contained beneath his skin. "She’s choking the life out of it," he said, voice raw with fury.

Elle knelt, fingers grazing the withered earth, her eyes glimmering with tears. Rou stood as still as stone, his entire body trembling not with fear, but with rage barely restrained.

But Ashanai was unfazed as she laughed, a deep, echoing, guttural laugh that made my stomach twist. "Look at your precious island," she mocked, arms outstretched as though she were embracing death itself. "Feel it die. Slowly. Painfully. And know that not even your gods can save you now."

"We can’t let her win," I said under my breath, stepping forward. "We don’t let this end here."

Ashanai tilted her head toward me, her lips curled in mockery. "And what will you do, little vampire?" she sneered. "Bleed for it? Die for it?"

"If I must," I said, steady. "But I won’t let you desecrate this land and walk away."

Around me, Tor shifted, Rou followed, and finally, Elle was the last as they all stood in their shifter forms, and then we attacked.

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