The sky split apart in violet fury.

Selene's scream tore through the battlefield — raw, distorted, and inhuman. Her once-obsidian wings had fractured into shards of light and shadow, their edges dripping with black Shinrei that burned the ground beneath her. The Dark Core pulsed from within her chest, each beat warping her aura further until even the Voidborn hesitated to approach.

Her eyes, once cold yet human, now glowed crimson veins of darkness crawling across her skin.

"S-Selene!" Ceyla cried, shielding her face as the shockwave flared outward. The very air screamed as Selene's Shinrei energy twisted the world around her. Trees were uprooted, stones shattered, and even light itself seemed to bend under her presence.

Khael staggered back, his dragon's essence roaring in resistance. He gritted his teeth, his mind racing. The woman before him, she wasn't Selene anymore. She was becoming something else.

Something the Hollow Nine would call a hollow voidborn

Khael's eyes hardened. He saw Alaric, bloodied and unconscious, lying among the debris, his body barely breathing. His twin sister was now a storm on the edge of oblivion.

He clenched his sword and shouted through the chaos:

"Selene! Look at me!"

No response only a shriek of rage as black Shinrei erupted around her, tendrils lashing like serpents.

He took a step forward, planting his sword into the ground to anchor himself against the wind.

"Selene… fight the Void!!" he roared.

But the words seemed to vanish in the storm.

Selene's wings unfurled, spanning wider than ever before a corrupted angel of despair. Her Shinrei gathered at her palms, condensing into a black sun, pulsing with annihilation.

Ceyla's eyes widened. "She's going to self-detonate her core!"

"Not if I stop it first." Khael said, his voice steady despite the weight pressing against his chest. His dragon aura surged, golden flames swirling around him. The earth trembled beneath his feet.

He dashed forward.

Selene's energy wave struck a torrent of corruption but Khael met it head-on. His dragon scales shimmered across his arm as he raised his blade, roaring,

"Radiant Fang!"

The clash split the battlefield in half.

Golden light met shadow, tearing through the storm. The explosion rippled outward, flattening the remaining Voidborn, and for an instant just an instant Khael saw her face behind the darkness.

Her lips trembled. Her eyes flickered with the faintest glint of recognition.

"…Dragon Knight…Khael…?" she whispered.

That single word was enough.

He reached through the collapsing maelstrom, his hand closing around her wrist firm, grounding, human.

"You're still here," he said, voice low but fierce. "Don't let that bastard control you."

The Dark Core pulsed violently, rejecting his touch but Khael didn't pull back. His dragon aura coiled around her, golden flames trying to smother the black.

Selene's breath hitched. Her hands shook. The black light began to fracture.

In the distance, Ceyla, Juno, Matthew, and Andromeda fought off the remaining Voidborn, holding the line, each of them watching in silence, praying.

Khael's voice cut through the roar one last time not as a knight, not as a hero, but as someone who refused to give up.

"You're not alone, Selene. You never were."

Selene shouted, "AURH!!"

Her voice cracked through the air not in rage, but in anguish. Her body convulsed, veins of black and violet light crawling across her skin. The Dark Core fought back, screaming to consume her, to drown her in its endless hunger.

Khael's hand tightened around her wrist. "Selene—!"

But she jerked away, trembling. Her thoughts were chaos, the darkness whispering inside her mind yet beneath it, the faint echo of her heart still called out.

(Don't come closer, Dragon Knight… you'll burn with me…)

Her knees buckled as memories bled into the storm. The battlefield faded from her sight — replaced by another time, another world.

Years ago.

The smell of sunlight and ash. The sound of laughter under a broken sky.

A small village, quiet and warm. Two children sat by the edge of a dried-up fountain, a boy with bright, messy hair and a grin too wide for his face, and a girl clutching a wooden pendant shaped like a lion.

Alaric. Selene.

They were happy once.

"Selene," the boy said, holding out a flower a rare thing in their barren land. "When I become strong, I'll protect you. No one will ever hurt us again."

She giggled, the wind catching in her hair. "You always say that, Alaric."

"I mean it this time!" He puffed his chest. "You'll see, I'll be the greatest Veinwalker ever."

She smiled, small and shy. "Then I'll be your first disciple."

The sun glowed, warm and gentle, painting their small hands in gold.

But that peace was short-lived.

The sky that once glowed with light would soon burn crimson.

Flames consumed their village men in black armor tearing through their homes, bearing the crest of those who worshiped power above kin.

Their parents screamed.

Their bloodline the Cursed Heirs had been branded by those same families who sought to wield them as weapons. Their veins, infused with forbidden Shinrei, became their prison.

Selene remembered the cold hands dragging her and Alaric away. His voice shouting her name as fire devoured their world.

"Selene! Don't let them—!"

She never saw him as innocent brother again that night. Only the smoke, the pain, and the whisper of the Hollow Nine, offering salvation in exchange for servitude.

"You were born to destroy… not to be saved."

Her heart clenched.

Back in the present, tears streamed down her face, though her eyes still glowed red with corruption.

(Alaric… I just wanted to live. I didn't want this power. I didn't want this curse…)

Khael took another step forward, his golden aura wrapping around her like a shield.

"Selene! Whatever you've done, whatever they made you into, you're still human! You can fight it!"

Her breath hitched, her voice breaking between sobs and screams.

"You don't understand! I can't fight it, it's all I am!!"

The Dark Core pulsed, bursting outward in black flame.

Khael gritted his teeth and rushed in, letting the fire wash over him. His dragon aura flared, scales forming across his arm as he reached for her once more.

"Then let me carry that curse with you!" he shouted. "Even if it burns me, I won't let you fall!"

Selene's pupils widened for the first time, the shadow receded just a little.

And deep within the storm of her mind, she saw it again — her brother's smile, their laughter, that golden afternoon.

Her trembling hand rose, touching Khael's arm.

(Brother… Dragon Knight… I… don't want to disappear.)

The Dark Core cracked.

Black light scattered into the air like glass dust.

And as her body gave way, she whispered faint, almost peaceful

"Alaric… I'm sorry."

Khael caught her as she collapsed, her heartbeat faint but steady. The storm began to calm, leaving only the echo of her sobs carried by the wind.

Above them, the clouds parted, and the first morning light broke through washing the battlefield in gold.

To be continue