Giving one last look at my father, who sat crouched down on the ground, holding a memento of my mother, I step into the darkness that invites me, leading the army to the battle ground.

The warriors joins me, roaring, howling the cries of our unity. And soon those turned Lycans appears from the greens, one after the other, hearing our shriek of affirmation to their barbarity.

Already in their Lycan self, they come charging towards us. Even though their numbers significantly reduced, they were still too many of them, but we were stronger, we were one.

"Rip all their heads off."

I seethe back as I lunge forward, jumping high, landing as I hold onto its throat and pull backward until I hear the soothing pop of the bone breaking. But I don't let go. Claws digging deep, and blood spilling down its throat, spurting out of its mouth alike, I rip its head off and toss it to the ground.

Letting out a deep growl, I march forward as the golden flame roars through the darkness, sharpening our vision, making up for our lost sense of smell. Their eyes shine in the light and we know exactly where to aim.

Unleashing their beasts, the warriors charge, ripping, biting their heads alike. Howling, growling, enjoying their screeching screams before their last moment. But none of us stop. Because we wanted blood.

I wanted blood.

More.

Much more.

I tear its arm apart, smiling as he roars in pain. "More."

Releasing only when its head gets detached from the rest of its body. "I will bathe in your blood." I bite the side of another's neck and pull a good chuck of meat off.

Hot red, boiling liquid pours out, spurting onto my face and the rich taste of metallic completely takes over the proximity of tongue and changes my perception of sweetness. I twist its neck until the head comes off, its dead eyes wide as I let it fall to the ground.

Why?

Why did you come to this land? I scream inside for no one to hear as I saw through them and shower in their defeat. Why?

If only you didn't show up, my mother would have been fine. She would have been here with me. My father would not have been an empty vessel of his soul, gone with my mother.

My sharp claws dig deeper into its chest as I hold its black orbs, waiting for its end. "Why?" And with the anger raining my eyes, my vision too turns red and I lunge forward for its throat, biting it off.

I don't know how long we fought. How much time passed. But before we even knew it, there were no more of them in the perimeter. I look around at the Lycans and wolves, heaving alike. But they were not tired. No, they were all thirsty. Their hunger yet to be sated.

The howl of the two Alphas proclaims our victory and is soon joined by the rest.

And like a present sent from hell, a part of the earth comes crumbling down, and in comes the small rays of the day, blooming outside and with it comes the hurricane of the turned Lycans like a tornado of savage animal who knew nothing but ravage, an utter destruction. Ours and their own.

But at this point, we were no different.

No, we were much more than those spiteful creatures. We were the beast released from the wild, our hungry heart left unsatisfied. And with another loud growl, we roll forward, advancing towards the incoming source of our ruin.

I am not weak. I am not powerless. I am not alone.

I chant as I speed to the front.

But Aries comes forth just as three of them jumps at me, at once and rips their heads off before they could even blink. "Mine." He growls back at their lifeless self and more comes surging his way.

There was no time to let the joy reach my heart, no time for celebration, as the army of the turned Lycans once again invade our land, staining our soil with their dirt.

The battle continues but their number increases as our defence falls. The once unpassable mountain was now filled with countless holes, its guard weakened, and they utilised this opportunity fully, breaking it further, tearing our iron wall down, causing the proud mountain itself to crumble.

And soon the full beam of light from the world outside shines upon us, brightening, touching the entire land once again with its presence and casting the darkness away, flourishing the land greener, redder rather than dull black. All my senses return with the scent of the earth slowly fading along with its walls.

The hard breeze of the angry ocean that once smelt of calm, peace, now had the thick scent of blood on them, the soiled land that once blossomed with laughter, now thrived with anger, hate, a war.

And at that moment, I smelt death.

I saw death.

All round me. Everywhere.

Then I truly saw the meaning of their 'outrageous number'.

I saw hundreds more, impatiently crawling their way in, waiting to indulge in a fight and who knows how many more amidst the ocean, in its raging waves. Their growls loud to my ears with our guard now completely torn down.

But I noticed something wrong in the way they moved, the way they swinged their arms. The void in their eyes.

They bared their canines with rage in their faces but their dark eyes vacant. They were just lifeless. Almost as if there was no man alive in their body as they breathe, strike aimlessly, attacked defenceless.

Despite their number and their attempt to destroy us, they were doing it all wrong. Ripping another body apart, I try to really look around me, at their empty eyes. Each, and every single one of them held no emotion. It was as if something pushed them to fight, raged a storm in their hearts and hold their soul captive.

Holding one immobile, I stare at its pitch-black eyes and try to force it to submission, but as I suspected there was nothing alive in that body to heed to my command, only struggling to be let free, movements more violent as the second pass.

So, I do the only thing that could stop it now. I bite its head off and another, anyone who comes my way. But none of it was enough to stop this war. No matter how many I kill, they will continue to attack until the very last one of them dies.

I had to find the one behind this war.

Hatred pilling in my heart at their sickening attempt to build an army for whatever their selfish reason was, I advance further away from Aries in search, no, in hunt for this monster, the one behind it all. The manipulator, the culprit, the cause of this war, the source of our downfall.

Getting deeper into the war, I try to trace a pair of eyes, one boiling with a strong emotion of anger and hate, similar to mine. I inhale deeply, locating the flow of abhorrence in the air, but all I see is the beast that my father was, rampaging through the crowd with the other Lycans who had decided to stay back from the chaos uprising the land. They waltz past obliterating the life in everything as they do so.

I follow their steps or rather the path they had opened up for my father, guiding towards the now red sand, soaking the life of people, the raging waves of the fierce ocean, sheltering the other half of their army.

And in the midst of all the chaos, stands a man with eyes dark as the shadows cast by the night sky, pure evil flaming off him, feeding the hatred in him.

His face twisted in loathing for the land. He stands there with heart filled only with bitterness, waiting for the doom of our land, hoping to see it cease with his own eyes. My father charges forward, towards him, growling a word, a name unknown to my ears.

But the forces of turned Lycans around him stands before my father, building a shield for him with their own life.

Detestable. Despicable. That man was.

And my hatred for him rises even more as I charge towards them, backing up my father, tearing each and everyone's head apart as I pray for their soul to find peace. There was nothing more that I could do for them. As there was nothing more for them in this land than the awaiting of their own destruction.

From the corner of my eye, I see my father raging his anger towards the man, his clawed hands swinging in the air to tear him apart, but the man was just as strong. Strong enough to fight my father one on one and still show no sign of loss. I knew that he was no ordinary Lycan.

"Dear Lucas, this is not how you greet me now, is it?" He laughs out loud. "We were like a family before, or have you forgotten about me along the century?"

Those dark eyes shine with a wicked glint to them and my father replies with a thunderous growl of his. The sky darkens and the waves becomes more violent, inching closer into the land, whilst swallowing the turned Lycans deep into itself.

"Now, now, Lucas. Don't use up all your strength on these futile little animals. Wait a little longer, I need you alive. I need you to watch your family fall one by one. I want to see what losing everything you love will turn you into." His eyes fall on mine, sending me a death glare.

"But don't you worry, I will stay beside you and watch you suffer as I have." The corner of his lip curves upward. "Afterall, I need someone to feel the same pain, remember the pain. I need someone other than me, tortured for eternity."

Slashing his sharp claws deep across my father's chest, he sends him flying a distance away.

"Now, now what do we have here?" He moves towards me, a smirk completing his horrendous look. "Looks like I don't have to search far. You have saved me plenty of time, little princess."

I snarl at him, my stance lower. "What do you want?"

He pauses for a second before he starts laughing like a maniac. "Sorry. I am so sorry." He inhales in between his laughter. "How bad of me to not have sensed your powers earlier? My condolences to you dear, although it brings me such pleasure to learn of your loss. But please do accept my heartfelt greetings to you, my naïve little Queen."

I lunge forward, swinging my arms forth, meaning to rip his tongue off. But he just grabs my wrist and stops me. I swing my other arm but all in vain as it too gets stopped just inches before I could claw his throat apart. He shakes his head without getting intimated. Like my action, my murderous glare meant nothing.

"You are just as foolish as your father, little Queen." Tightening his grip on my wrists, he forces me to take a step back.

"What do you want?" I repeat again, my own voice replicating his hate. Although not his evil glint.

He laughs again throwing his head back as if I had said the most hilarious joke. But when he was done immersing himself with joy, he leans forward, down, the darkness in his eyes challenging mine.

"I want my family back. I want my sister back." He seethes. "Can you give her back? Can you bring her back from the death? Can you?"

"I am no goddess. I don't hold anyone's life in the palm of my hand and even if I did hold such power, I assure you, you won't get nothing back." I look dead into his eyes and watch the hate resurface in them, but I don't stop there.

"If you truly did understand the importance of family, the grief of losing someone you love, you won't wish the same fate upon anybody else. You are not worthy of-"

I don't get to finish my sentence. His frees one of his hand and grabs the entirety of my throat and my own hand reaches for his, hoping to loosen the tightness, the suffocation.

"Grief?"

His heavy breathing fans across my face. "Poor child, you don't understand my grief. But I will make sure someone does. You will be the prey of my wrath. For your family was responsible for her death. Your mother murdered my sister in front of everyone as they just stood by and watched."

He shakes with such anger, poison in his thoughts. "The news of your mother's death somehow pleased my ears and calmed the raging hate. But she returns." He scoffs in anger, shaking his head along. "She returns alive and well. But what of my sister? What of her? If Raven can be alive, why not my sister?"

I could feel his claws digging further into my flesh, tearing my skin apart. "She must have been at fault." I squeeze the words out through the narrow pipe. "If mother ended her life, there must have-"

"Is it so wrong to desire power? Is it wrong to wish the happiness of the universe? Is it?" He hauls me, almost blocking the entire airway.

Finally separating the gaps of his finger, I dig my own claws into his palms. "No, it is not wrong to desire power nor the happiness. But if attaining that desire means causing harm to someone else, it is a sin."

I pull his hands off my throat and force it away. "And their only punishment is to rot in the depths of hell."

He growls ferociously as his other hand comes to claw my face. And soon I feel the hot liquid pouring out the side of my face and soon enough it too stops. "And you are guilty of such." I go for his throat and bite hard on it, but it wasn't deep enough.

He pushes me off him and jumps back, creating a distance between us, hand holding his now bloodied neck. "Let the last one standing be the ultimate judge of the sinner." His men or shall I say his puppets steps forward as I charge for him. But I was only filled with one desire now, one aim. To finish what he started. To execute a punishment.

But it wasn't out of rage or because I was blinded by hatred or the darkness taking control of my heart. For once, I fought because I was free of them all. A need to protect life. A need to preserve the land. But a greater need to free these poor souls for the sin its body was committing.

The parting of the turned Lycans as their body meets the sand, turning it a deeper, darker red, leads me to him. And there he stands, the same hatred in his eyes but with the corner of his lip pulled upward. "It wasn't made for you, but you leave me no choice, little Queen."

I look down on his hand just as he tightens his grip on something that looks like a knife. But it didn't look like any ordinary knife. It was painted dark red, its tip shooter sharp, like a dagger meant to destroy even the goddess. "This dagger is made from sacrifices of thousands of souls. It is meant to suck life out of anything and everything it pierces. It's a replica of the original, one meant to slay even the goddess."

A dozen of hands suddenly holds me back, holds me down. "Let's put it to test now, shall we?" He growls as he speeds forward and jumps high up in the sky, to pin my body to land. I watch him as he slowly brings his arm up, my eyes wide and motile, but my limbs immobile, I watch him as he hovers in the space right above me.

Ah, this is the end.

I think to myself as I await the piercing of my flesh. As I await death.

Giving up the hopes to live, I slowly close my eyes shut. But the moment I do, a piercing blue orb forces them right back open and I inhale a sharp breath.

Aries. My mate.

I just found him. I just met him. I couldn't be so cruel and just leave him all alone.

He would be lonely. He would be sad.

And as the time freezes, I go back in the past to listen to the story of the goddess and the wolf, whose ending I had yet to know. I see all these images in my head, of our first encounter, his messy hair, his tired eyes, dark circles, and the hard lines on his face. Tortured by life. I never want him to be like that again.

Willing everything in me to come forth, I try my best to break free, thinking of Aries before he met me. But many more clumps themselves to me and renders me helpless. Like a caged bird, I was prisoned, my feet on the sand and my eyes on the dagger, shining bright red with hunger.

And then I see my end again. But this time at least I tried.

I'm sorry Aries.

I truly wish there was a different ending. I wish we had met in a time when this land still bloomed with life and not the blood of end. I wish I had left this land a little earlier and searched for your eyes a little faster, a little harder.

I hope there will come a time when I can be in your arms without bloodbath and death in our way. I truly hope that there is a place in this universe where I can be yours, a place far from life and death, a place where no one can separate us, a place where we can be together.

As voices mutes forecasting my death, I flutter my eyes but just as I was about to close them, a blue light flashes across. And I immediately fling my eyes open to fall into his endless blue which holds a glimmer in them. That forever sweet curve of his lips that tasted like the fresh mint, felt like the softest rose petals.

A trail of blood slips out of a corner of that sweet lips.

"I made it in time."

He winces in pain, face lined as he struggles to hold that forever sweet reassuring smile on his lips.

"No..."

I whisper, eyes wider, lips trembling, and a pain in my heart so deep, so agonisingly blinding. I attempt to break free in futile hopes, my lungs although breathing, gasping in suffocation and my strength failing as if sucked away from me as was the dagger his.

"No..."

I whisper again and again, but I don't know when my voice too left me.

When I finally feel the hold on me loosen, I break free into his arms just as he does in mine. He falls forward and I fall along with him, meaning to take the fall but somehow, I end up being wrapped in his embrace, my head on his chest instead.

Pulling myself up, I pull his body along, and lay him across my leg, pillowing his head on the curve of my arm as I gently wipe the red off his chin. "You are alright." I whisper, eyes brimming with tears.

And his smile stretches further along his face, eyes weakly fluttering as if agreeing with me. "You are alright." He repeats my words and I shake my head. "I finally got to you this time around."

He chokes and coughs up angry red blood. And my pained heart finally lets the river in my eyes flow free, but I seal my lips shut with just occasional hiccups rising in my throat. He brings his large hand up and I hold them tight, placing it on my cheek as I lean on it.

"You know that I hate seeing tears in your eyes." He whispers trying to hide the pain in his voice. But I could hear it clear and feel it even more. "Althea, love, please don't cry."

But I do.

I cry aloud, sobs escaping the gaps of my lips, sealing my eyes shut. I shake my head wishing it all to be a bad, bad dream but his violent coughs tell me otherwise. Cupping his face with my worthless palm, I try my best to cure his pain, take it all away while wiping the red flowing from them. But what could the ungifted me do right now except to sit here helpless and watch her mate as he bleeds, as he suffers in pain.

"Help." I whisper as his eyes turns hazy and starts to flutter slowly.

"Someone, help."

I shout out in the midst of war. Eyes glued to his, hands caressing his cheeks, begging those now soft blue to remain open for me. "Help me." I beg for someone, anyone to hear as I shed the ocean from my eyes.

Voices surrounds me and a hand comes in front of his chest with a soft golden hue radiating off it. Finally tearing my eyes off him, I stare into the greens of Eve. "Please." I beg through my sobs, my trembling lips. "Please save him."

I look back down at Aries again. "Aries. Aries don't you dare close your eyes." Lightly stroking his cheeks, I beg him to stay alive. "Aries, I love you. I love you so much, please don't leave me Aries."

His heavy eyelids stay half open. "Do you hear me. I love you Aries Blackwood. You are mine and you cannot leave me. Do you hear that."

But with one last small smile, he closes his eyes completely and the soft thump of his heart comes to a full stop.

Evelyn retreats her hands and stands away from me, from us, whispering the word of her failure, of condolences, of words that I did not want to hear. But it cannot be true, right.

Aries was sleeping. Taking a rest. He was too tired, lost a little too much of his blood. I'll let him rest a little longer. He will eventually open those blue eyes of his that I love so much and hold me captive in them.

Right?

Gently caressing his face, I bring him closer to me.

And as I finally let the grief wash me, I hear the sound of the world. The howling of the wolves, the cries of their grief, their loss, their pain.

I hear the death of my soul floating, in the air.