Hades' Cursed Luna

Eve

Dr. Blackwood set down a worn leather case and began speaking, his voice carrying the weight of years of dedicated research. "My life's work has been consumed by a single, driving question. Since I was old enough to think rationally, I wondered: where did the vampires go after Malrik killed the Vampire Lord—or Prince, or whatever else you choose to call him?"

Dr. Blackwood's hazel eyes swept across the room, his expression both scholarly and haunted. "To understand what we're facing, you need to know the path that led me here." He opened his leather case, revealing yellowed documents and ancient texts. "I spent decades scouring museum archives, forgotten libraries, and private collections across three continents. Most scholars focus on the obvious—battle records, territorial disputes. I was looking for something else entirely."

He pulled out a map marked with red ink, locations scattered across continents. "The vampires didn't just disappear after Malrik's victory. A race can vanish, but their ideas, their knowledge, their very essence—that endures. It transforms."

Montague leaned forward, his weathered face creased with interest. "And what did you discover in these records?"

"That we've been thinking about this all wrong," Dr. Blackwood said, his voice gaining intensity. "We lycans pride ourselves on our wolf heritage, on Elysia's legacy. But we conveniently forget the other half of what we are." He gestured toward the council members. "Look at yourselves—really look. Your fangs aren't just for show. Your wolves are larger than our ancestors ever recorded. That subtle craving for blood that every lycan feels but rarely speaks of..."

The room grew uncomfortably quiet. Victoriana shifted in her seat, her honey-skinned features tightening.

"All of this," Dr. Blackwood continued, "courtesy of Vassir himself. We are as much vampire as we are wolf, whether we acknowledge it or not."

Victoriana's skeptical expression sharpened. "With all due respect, Dr. Blackwood, why do we need an academic rehashing our genealogy for a war council? How does this help us fight?"

I stepped forward before he could answer. "Because we need to understand what we're up against. This isn't just about battle strategies—it's about recognizing the true scope of our enemy's power."

My voice grew more urgent. "We're approaching a bloodmoon that will bring seventy-two hours without sun. Three days of darkness where these ancient powers will be at their strongest. If we don't understand what Darius has accessed, we won't just lose the war—we'll lose our very souls."

Dr. Blackwood nodded gravely. "I'm here to put into perspective exactly what you're facing: an Alpha who has somehow acquired a vampire Lord's chalyx."

Victoriana frowned. "What exactly is a chalyx?"

Dr. Blackwood's expression grew grim. "A specialized term from the old lore—the horns of vampire. Not decorative appendages, but conduits of pure vampiric power. Sources of the abilities that once allowed them to dominate entire civilizations through mind control, illusion, and dominion over the undead and death itself, in order to be immortal. Unshifted, no vampire had a physical chalyx, all except for the vampire lord but once shifted, they grew one.

The laboratory's sterile white walls seemed to pulse as we all took in the information. Silas's face had gone ashen. "You're saying Darius has access to that level of power?"

"During the bloodmoon," Dr. Blackwood confirmed, his voice dropping to barely above a whisper, "with a vampire Lord's chalyx, we're not just fighting Silverpine Pack. We're fighting the very essence of what made vampire Lords nearly unstoppable."

"If they were so unstoppable, how did Vassir lose to Malrik," Gallinti asked.

"Simple. The one weakness we inherited,"

"Silver," I said.

"That was exposed by Elysia, according to the archives, she had let it slip to her uncle, Malrik about her husbands only weakness during causal conversation, while other accounts say she was inebriated when she revealed it.

Being her reincarnation, guilt flooded my chest as I let him continue.

"But that was just one of the two factors that had Vassir defeated, the second facilitator was not unknowing like the first, his role is the demise of the vampire lord was intentional and born of malice and retaliation to what the few historians call a betrayal to the kin; vampires for loving, marrying and procreating with a werewolf."

"Who was that?" Silas asked, fascination colouring his tone.

Jonathan's gaze flickered to him, his expression growing darker. "A lesser known character in our arduous history, Vassir's younger brother, Orion. He revealed that his brother's chalyx—his horn—was a removable artifact. Not permanently fused to his being as most believed, but something that could be severed and retained its power even after separation from its host. While crippling thecl

The silence in the laboratory was deafening. I felt the blood drain from my face as the implications crashed over me like a tidal wave.

"Orion told Malrik exactly how to remove it," Dr. Blackwood continued, his voice heavy with the weight of ancient betrayal. "More importantly, he revealed that the chalyx would continue to channel vampiric power for whoever possessed it, even centuries after the vampire lord's death. It was the ultimate act of vengeance—not just ensuring his brother's defeat, but guaranteeing that the very power Vassir had used to unite the supernatural world could one day be turned against his legacy."

I spoke up. "Vassir told me before his demise that I needed to find his horn to raise an army and that without it we would lose."

Montague's weathered hands gripped the edge of the table. "You're telling us that this artifact—this chalyx—has been out there all this time?"

"Exactly. Transferred from the first Valmont generation to this current one.Dr. Blackwood's hazel eyes met mine with grim certainty, "Alpha Darius has it. We are just lucky that after the execution, only then did the rebels led by Elysia and Vassir's first child stormed the site, Malrik and his forces momentarily distracted by the violent release of flux from Vassir's body after Elysia was executed. They managed to take the body, and the other horn still attached, else Darius would have had the two horns." He explained. His face turned grim, "I always suspected that Alpha Darius had the horn, but until now..." he gestured to me. "Until the Luna told me of her visions about Vassir and what he revealed to her, it solidified what I suspected all along."