The air grew cold, thick with power. Every candle in the chamber flickered wildly, their flames bending toward Arka.
Shirra stood before him, her silver eyes burning with focus. She drove her crystal staff into the floor, expanding the runic circle beneath him. The lines glowed a deep, blood-red hue, pulsing like veins beneath living skin.
"Do not move," she warned. "No matter what you hear, no matter what it shows you do not answer."
Arka nodded once, breath ragged.
Shirra began to chant. The words were not of this world harsh, ancient syllables that vibrated through bone and blood. The circle beneath him flared to life, and from its center, a black shadow rose a wolf-shaped silhouette with hollow eyes.
Lysander tensed. "That… thing is that it?"
"The echo of his own soul," Shirra replied. "Half human, half abyss. If we fail to seal it, he will be gone within minutes."
The shadow howled, shaking the walls. Arka groaned in agony, clutching his chest. Cracks of darkness spread across his skin, glowing faintly, as if his body was splitting open to reveal the void inside.
"You called me," the voice whispered again, louder, clearer.
"And now you wish to cast me away? You know this world will never accept your power. Let me take control I will make you eternal."
Arka's vision blurred. Memories rushed before him the night his mother was killed, the helplessness, the vow he made under the bleeding moon. The voice twisted those memories, turning pain into temptation.
But then, he heard another voice. Gentle. Familiar.
His mother's.
"You don't need to fight alone, Arka. Strength is not about rejecting the darkness. It's about mastering it."
His eyes snapped open, silver light blazing within.
"If I can't reject the Abyss…" he growled, "then I'll make it bow to me."
A surge of blue energy burst from his body, colliding with the shadow. The wolf howled, its form shattering, while Shirra shifted her chant into a sealing incantation.
The circle spun faster, morphing into a seven-pointed star. The crystal atop Shirra's staff cracked, flooding the room with light.
And then silence.
The shadow was gone. The black mark on Arka's arm transformed into a spinning sigil of silver light.
Shirra fell to her knees, pale and trembling. "You've succeeded… but listen well, Star Wolf. The Abyss isn't gone. It sleeps within you. One day, it will awaken and it will demand its price."
Arka looked down at his hand. The sigil shimmered softly, neither light nor darkness. Something in between.
Lysander helped Shirra to her feet. "How long will the seal hold?"
"As long as he still has a reason to remain himself," she whispered.
Outside, the rain began to fall. Clouds parted, revealing a single star shining brighter than the rest the Star Wolf's mark in the heavens.
Arka stared at it, silent.
He knew this was only the beginning.