The prison void shattered beneath the force of colliding power. Shockwaves of silver, gold, and black tore through the cavern, sending fragments of ancient stone spiraling into the darkness.
Nyra and Kael stood side by side, their auras entwined — moonlight wrapped in blazing Alpha fire. The bond between them pulsed visibly, forming a radiant tether of shared strength.
Across from them, the Hollow King towered in his condensed final form. His fractured crystal-shadow body glowed with unstable crimson fissures, leaking violent streams of corrupted soul energy.
The creature roared, shaking the entire prison structure.
You would defy eternity itself? the Hollow King thundered.
Nyra stepped forward, her Blood Moon halo blazing brighter behind her. Ancient runes flowed across her skin like living constellations.
"Eternity built on suffering is not existence," she said steadily. "It is imprisonment."
The Hollow King lunged.
The ground exploded as Kael met the charge head-on, shifting partially into his Alpha battle form — fur streaked with molten gold, eyes blazing like twin suns. He slammed into the Hollow King with bone-rattling force, driving the creature backward.
Shadow spikes erupted from the Hollow King's body, slicing through Kael's flank. Blood scattered across the void floor, but Kael held firm, teeth bared in savage defiance.
"Now, Nyra!" he roared.
Nyra lifted both arms, severance runes igniting across her palms. Silver chains of moonlight erupted outward, wrapping around the Hollow King's limbs like blazing serpents.
The creature howled as the chains burned into its corrupted form.
You cannot sever what is eternal! it shrieked.
Nyra's eyes glowed with ancestral fire. "You were never eternal. You were sustained by stolen souls."
She tightened the chains.
The Hollow King thrashed violently, dragging Kael and Nyra across the collapsing void. Pillars crumbled. Spirit-light storms spiraled around them as freed ancestral wolves appeared, forming a glowing circle around the battlefield.
Their howls rose in haunting harmony, feeding Nyra's power.
The Hollow King unleashed a catastrophic surge of shadow, blasting Kael backward. He crashed into fractured stone, struggling to rise as blood soaked his shoulder.
Nyra faltered as the severance chains flickered under the assault.
The Hollow King charged toward her with lethal speed, jaws opening wide enough to swallow her whole.
Kael forced himself upright, golden aura erupting wildly as he lunged across the battlefield. He slammed into Nyra, shoving her aside as the Hollow King's claws ripped across his chest instead.
Kael collapsed to one knee, breathing ragged.
Nyra's heart clenched.
"Kael—!"
"I'm still standing," he growled, forcing himself upright again. "Finish this."
Nyra stared at him, terror and love colliding inside her chest. The Blood Moon relic flared brighter in response to her emotions, ancestral voices whispering urgently through her power.
She understood.
To destroy the Hollow King completely… she needed more than severance.
She needed union.
Nyra stepped toward Kael, placing her glowing palm over his chest wound. Silver and gold energy intertwined violently between them, their bond blazing brighter than ever before.
"Trust me," she whispered.
Kael nodded without hesitation.
Their auras fused, creating a radiant eclipse of moonlight and Alpha fire that surged outward like a rising star.
Nyra turned toward the Hollow King, now stabilized but visibly weakening beneath the ancestral spirit circle.
"This is your final judgment," she declared.
The Hollow King roared, unleashing its last reservoir of corrupted souls in a devastating wave of shadow.
Nyra raised both hands, drawing every fragment of Blood Moon power, ancestral blessing, and Alpha bond into one final ritual.
The severance chains transformed into a massive lunar sigil beneath the Hollow King's feet — glowing with intricate runes older than the prison itself.
"By Blood Moon authority," Nyra cried, her voice echoing with layered ancestral resonance,
"By Shadowfang legacy—"
Kael stepped beside her, pressing his hand over hers, golden flames spiraling into the ritual.
"—and by Alpha oath," he growled.
"—I release the bound and end the corruption," Nyra finished.
The sigil detonated in blinding lunar radiance.
The Hollow King howled as its body fractured completely. Souls burst free in endless streams of glowing silver light, tearing through the creature's core.
Crimson fissures spread across its skull.
You destroy me… but darkness will always return… it hissed weakly.
Nyra stepped forward through the blinding light, her aura blazing like a living Blood Moon.
"Then Shadowfang will rise again," she said softly. "Every time."
She pressed her glowing palm against the Hollow King's fractured chest.
"Rest."
The severance ritual ignited fully.
The Hollow King's body exploded into cascading shards of shadow that dissolved into drifting dust. Freed souls spiraled upward in a radiant storm, their final howls transforming into peaceful echoes that faded into the void.
Silence fell.
The prison cavern began collapsing.
Kael grabbed Nyra's hand as the ground split beneath them.
"Time to go," he said breathlessly.
Nyra nodded, though exhaustion weighed heavily on her limbs. Together, they sprinted toward the collapsing spiral passage as stone crumbled and ancient magic unraveled around them.
Behind them, the prison of the Hollow King collapsed entirely, sealing centuries of darkness beneath falling ruins.
They burst from the prison entrance just as the cavern sealed itself with a final thunderous collapse.
Moonlight spilled across Shadowfang territory as they stumbled onto solid ground beneath the open night sky.
Nyra swayed, her power finally stabilizing as the Blood Moon relic dimmed to a steady, peaceful glow.
Kael caught her before she could fall, pulling her into his arms.
For a moment… neither of them spoke.
Above them, the Blood Moon faded slowly into a calm silver crescent.
The curse was broken.
The Hollow King was gone.
And Shadowfang's legacy had been reborn.