CHAPTER 159: THE CRONE’S VISION

***AUTHOR’S NOTE: This is a Chapter that takes place in vision of the past with The Crone, Sorry about the delay, I was spending time with my family***

The Crone could feel the tethers of life pulling away from her.

Her time was nearing.

She knew tonight was her last night. She had told her sisters, and they had started planning the Rite, a preparation for the death of sister. A Rite for the coven leaders would be different because they would select a new Crone.

She dressed in a loose-fitting gown and walked into the forest that surrounded the coven and in a cavern that led underground was a spring, one they called the Pool of Mercy, where you go to die peacefully and feel the embrace of the gods.

Gliding into the pool she laid back and floated, soaking in the moonlight.

Her eyes felt heavy and the pull to other side felt stronger, but just as she was about to let go.

She was dragged into a vision of the past.

She saw them, the gods. In vast a white nothingness, they moved with grace, swirls of light and dark moved around. When clarity came through, she could see them weaving the swirls as strands. She knew them 3 of them instantly, but the forth one she inly learned after watching them weave life and death, working time.

The four gods were:

Goddess Artemis of the moon and hunt.

Goddess Apollo of the sky and living.

God Juniper of the earth and love.

God Cerberus of darkness and death.

She watched time move, lives start and end. The cycle repeating over and over.

The first inhabitants were fae. The Crone watched so many years of fae go by. She had no idea.

Until one cycle changed, they created more beings, they made humans, and the balance they maintained became disrupted when the worship practices became uneven. Humans were more fickle than the other creations. People ceased worshipping Cerberus and even altered his role in their creation stories.

This made Cerberus hate humans, he wanted to destroy them.

The Crone watched as an outsider looking in.

She saw the anger and jealousy began burning in Cerberus.

And when he decided to take matters into his own hands. He plotted and came up with a plan to end the human race, erasing them.

In a desperate claim for power and vengeance he created something new, doing something that had never been done.

The Crone witnessed the God Cerberus strip a piece of his soul, molding it into something horrid, and wicked.

He made a demon named Ezelreth, who was named Lucifer by his mother at birth. He was the first soul to human transfer, becoming a Primordial Demon that was created from that piece of Cerberus’s soul.

She watched Ezelreth grow up despised and feared. Never knowing who or what he truly was. Everyone he touched would faint and sleep for days. She saw a boy who should have been broken from all the abuse, just live indifferent and distant. Like he was disconnected from reality. Moving through life as if it was his only choice but to keep going. Void of feeling and purpose.

She watched the first time he killed a woman for the first and saw the sickening grin appear on his face. That’s when he felt something for the first time.

He realized then he didn’t just feed on people’s energy, he could feed on a person’s life force. And he learned he liked it.

Time sped by in flashes before her eyes, again, he aged, he grew in strength and power, eventually Cerberus, who waited patiently for his masterpiece to be ready, came forth to claim the life he created.

The Crone saw Cerberus come to the man, known as Lucifer, in a vision and when told of his purpose and his true name, Ezelreth.

Learning this, he felt fulfilled in a way he didn’t know was possible and immediately surrounded to the power of his creator. Ready to survive him, mind, body, and soul.

But then something happened, something no one could have expected.

Lilith.

The Crone saw a young defeated, hungry, and broken Lilith. Even starved and dirty she held an inhuman beauty about her. Her long pink hair and pink eyes, she was hypnotizing.

He fell in love with her at first sight.

Ezelreth introduced himself as Lucifer, the name mortals knew him by, he prayed on her vulnerability. Making her believe he was a mortal.

He broke down her walls by treating her kinder than life ever had.

Him and The Crone both learned that she was expelled from Eden by Adam. Adam then took Eve, her sister, as his wife and harbored resentment towards his daughter Valoria, who he had with Lilith.

When Lilith fell for the man she knew as Lucifer, he made her a deal, revealing his true identity as Ezelreth the King of the Damned, Lilith agreed to the deal and married him.

Becoming the Queen of the Damned, in exchange for her love and loyalty he would gift her immortality and the ability to shift into a dragon. She became as fierce and powerful as the spirit that lived in her and the heartbeat in her chest.

Her transformation. It was beautiful.

Together, Lilith and Ezelreth had two children, Vladimir and Vincent. Created not just in duty but in love. The Crone could see the happiness they felt.

Together they created people like them, people who thrived in the night. They were building their own world together.

The people he created he called them vampires. These vampires were granted immortality in return for loyalty.

Vladimir and Vincent were the first creation Lilith and him made together; they were the first vampires. Pureblooded, no mortal blood ran in their veins.

Ezelreth aimed to destroy the world with Lilith, in secret creating monsters he called the Turned

by feeding on mortals and draining them dry with no exchange of blood. He plotted the end of everything they built and so much more.

When Lilith found out, she was devasted by the betrayal.

The Crone could see the pain and hurt Lilith felt. She watched as Lilith stood in the center of her bed chamber and vowed to hate men for the rest of her life and to never love another. She changed, becoming bitter and unforgiving. She vanished. Without a word. Taking her children with her this time.

Ezelreth lost it, devastated by her absence, like his other half had been ripped from him, nothing was holding him back anymore. So, he put his plan into motion. He would destroy the humans for his god.

Another flash happened and it brought her back to the gods.

The Goddess Artemis couldn’t stand back and watch as her fellow god destroyed their world.

She had a soft spot for Cerberus, he was her other half, he was the god she loved most.

It had to be her that did something to stop him.

She took action, following the same steps Cerberus took, she stripped a piece of her soul and placed it in a pregnant girl.

That girl was Valoria. The same Valoria that was Lilith’s daughter.

The Crone’s vision flashed again where she witnessed Valoria give birth to a beautiful white haired girl, and named her Omara. She watched her bringing the girl into the world. Losing her life in the process. The Crones heart ached watching the history of their world unfold.

Omara, was the second energy vampire. Born into a dying world alone.

Meanwhile, she saw the discussion the other gods were having. And how the other gods refrained from interfering until it was finally necessary. With Ezelreth’s growing army and power they had to do something.

Although Juniper and Apollo declined to transfer souls the way Artemis had, they lent Artemis their power to create new beings.

She picked her most dedicated followers were transformed into shifters: taking the animal forms of wolves, large cats, and birds.

The Crone witnessed the birth of the first shifters.

The first shifter she gave life too was a wolf she named Onyx. He was a black wolf whose fur glistened with the gold of stardust, eyes that glowed like the sun. He was a tall, magnificent beast. His pack born under the blood moon, she cleverly named them the BloodMoon Pack, and they were the first wolf shifters.

She pick wolves because they were the most beloved animal to her Cerberus.Because the wolves she created were shared pieces of her direct power, they shared her a special connection with her, and as the first wolves, they would only reincarnate into the wolves of those descendants who were still born inside the pack.

The cat shifters she created, empowered by Juniper, formed the TerraJuniper Pack and controlled the earth. The land and sea became their domains.

Bird shifters, powered by the sky gods power, formed the LunarEclipse Pack with dominion over the skies.

All shifters were tasked with protecting their domains, while Onyx was specifically charged with safeguarding Omara, the Moonchild.

She flashed forward again.

Onyx searched for years on end, before finally finding Omara.

The girl had lived a hard life. The Crone saw the pain the child carried, the burden everyone told her she was.

She feared herself and her abilities. And so did those around her. A curse they labeled her.

But when Onyx found her, he made her feel seen. He became her first real friend. Their bond developed quickly. She became closely aligned with the all the shifters.

Onyx trained her and prepared her for what he knew was coming. She learned about herself and who and what she was.

She was a vampire, but different. She was the daughter of the moon.

The Crone watched with pride as the maiden strength and her prowess improved.

Omara met a man during a training session late at night and fell in love with him, he was a low born vampire. And because of this, not knowing her lineage she set out to make an alliance with the vampires, they had been reluctant to join the upcoming war since their queen had vanished. But with the information she had on the vampires, she was able to arrange a meeting.

The Crone saw the first allyship between vampires and shifters unfold.

Omara allied with Vlad secretly and made a deal carved in blood. Because Vlad could not produce a pureblooded heir and she was a pure blooded vampire, the moon goddess promised her all females descendants would be a maiden, like herself. With this she promised Vlad that her lineage would produce pureblooded Maidens, who would marry pure-blooded vampires. She would give him her first daughter. With the promise of an heir to Vlad, he agreed to back her in the upcoming war.

Vlad had no idea he would be betraying his own father.

Lilith had left to search for her daughter in hopes of seeing her would help sooth her aching heart. But found only a sad story.

However when she caught wind of her sons joining a war, she couldn’t stay away and let her children stand against this threat alone.

She knew what they were facing, and she was terrified.

Upon Lilith’s return, she was determined to aid in the fight against Ezelreth’s army.

And with her return and the secret deal Omara made with Vlad, she had the vampires now backing her.

Meeting with Omara, the Moonchild, a girl with long white hair like moonlight and eyes white like ice, she instantly felt the connection, recognizing not just her blood, but her familiarity as a pureblooded vampire, but somehow different. Lilith didn’t realize Omara was her Granddaughter at first.

The Crone could see the contributions Lilith put in for the planning.

She knew his weaknesses, his secrets. She knew the real him, the one he buried deep within him. She knew she could get them in. With combined forces of shifters, vampires, and witches, they triumphed.

The Crone was shocked when she watched Lilith lure Ezelreth from his castle. Leaving him vulnerable to attack. They used this opportunity to attack him.

But as a Primordial Demon they were no match for him and his.

The Crone watched as life after life perished under his claws. And at the hands of his army.

When Onyx and Omara arrived at the battle it was a bloody and violent scene.

Onyx destroyed Ezelreth’s body, and Omara bound his soul to a fallen star and buried it deep within the earth.

Because as a god his soul can’t truly die, it can only be contained.

After the war, Artemis blessed the shifters with the mate bond, splitting each wolf’s essence into another. Vampires received affinities and abilities they didn’t have before, and the witches gained the ability to wield elements. She wanted to reward their efforts in defeating her dearest one.

To prevent history from repeating itself, the gods blurred memories and erased this knowledge.

It was here The Crone realized the gods’ efforts to conceal these events and bury the truth, ultimately created the future conflicts between the shifters and vampires.

This erasure inadvertently caused a feud between shifters and vampires, rooted in forgotten losses.

History has a tendency to repeat itself.

The last thing she saw before she was sucked from the vision was Cerberus eyes staring into her.