The moonlight poured down like molten mercury, sizzling as it seared into Garret's fur.
"Fuck! What the hell is this—" His roar twisted into something inhuman, his spine cracking as blackened draconic horns burst through his flesh like grotesque thorns. His claws were no longer wolfish—they had morphed into something reptilian, hooked and dripping with a corrosive slime that burned craters into the ground.
Raine's scales fluoresced sickly under the tainted light, every seam between them weeping blood. His grip on the Dragonheart Blade trembled, the weapon's draconic eye spinning wildly, as if resisting what was to come.
"The Citadel activated the 'Pale Moon.'" Serena's voice drifted from above, her four wings gleaming like polished metal, the tar-like substance in her eyes now bleeding into the whites. "They weaponized moonlight. It's not just light anymore—it's poison."
Ellen crouched behind a slab of shattered concrete, her starlit scales almost entirely shed, exposing the flickering surveillance signals along her mechanical spine. Her fingers clawed into the dirt, her nails oozing not blue-gold blood, but something thick and reeking of machine oil.
"Garret..." Her voice caught, strangled.
Cassandra's form flickered in and out of existence, her robes whipping in the wind, blood still dripping from her wrist onto a crude sigil drawn in the dirt. Her lips moved, but her voice exploded inside Raine's skull:
"Now. Pierce his spine—or he'll tear through everyone."
Garret's growl rumbled from deep within, his body now twice its normal size, horns splitting through flesh, his corrosive slime eating trenches into the earth. His eyes—if they could still be called that—were entirely swallowed by black ooze, only two pinpricks of crimson light flickering in the depths.
"Raine..." His voice scraped up from the abyss. "Kill... me..."
The Dragonheart Blade's tip wavered, Raine's muscles locked to the breaking point, veins bulging beneath his scales. Every breath burned like swallowing glass.
"I..."
Garret lunged without warning, his draconic forelimb smashing through a ruined clocktower. The shockwave hurled Raine backward, slamming him into a broken wall, his lungs emptying in a brutal rush.
Cassandra's sigil flared crimson in the pooling blood, her voice detonating in Raine's mind again:
"No more time! His mind is being consumed!"
Serena dove from above, her wingtips slicing the air like blades, her black dress fluttering like crow feathers in the moonlight. Her fingers brushed Garret's spine, skimming the base of his horns—
A single drop of black ooze fell into the crystal vial in her palm.
"Do your job, hatchling," she purred, her voice laced with something darkly amused. "Or I'll do it for you."
The edges of Raine's vision darkened. The Blade's eye split into twin pupils.
He moved.
The moment the sword pierced Garret's spine, the world seemed to freeze.
The silver restraint device shattered under the Blade's edge, black ooze gushing from the broken metal like a living thing, writhing, trying to crawl up Raine's arm. The Blade's eye contracted violently, a searing golden light erupting from the steel, burning the ooze to ash.
Garret stiffened—then collapsed to his knees. His horns shriveled, his mutated bones grinding back into place with a sound like rusted hinges forced shut.
His eyes—finally their natural amber again—stared blankly at Raine.
"...Thanks."
Then he pitched forward, unconscious.
The moonlight still fell, cold and uncaring, but something had shifted—the air itself held its breath, the world waiting in eerie silence.
Serena tilted the crystal vial in her hand, watching the black ooze squirm. Her lips curled.
"What an interesting little gift..."
Far above, the Night Citadel's floating fortress rose, the core of the Pale Moon glowing at its base like a pitiless eye.
Cassandra's sigil dimmed, her form fading.
"They're... not done..." Her voice was a dying ember. "You're... next..."
Then she was gone.
Ellen's spine emitted a shrill alarm, the surveillance signals spiking. Her pupils shrank to pinpricks, her lips trembling around two words:
"They found us."