Surrender To Us, Our Luna (One Luna, Four Alphas)

Clementine:

The way Ian started running in that direction, I had already realized that he had taken matters into his own hands, even when we had decided that we would do everything together.

"No!" I screamed at Ian as he grabbed a large sword left behind by the warriors among the scattered weapons.

He drove the sword into the expanding cavity of its face.

The monster’s arms swung, but instead of retreating, Ian lurched forward and drove the sword completely into the slit.

The vibration intensified. I saw the slit begin to glitch, and the monster’s entire body trembled unnaturally.

Its body shook violently.

The people around us gasped and cried as they watched.

The pressure from the resonance pushed Ian back.

I could see the strain forming across his skin and in his pulse.

I glanced around and noticed another sword lying on the ground.

I ran to it and picked it up, but as I charged toward the monster, the growing resonance made it difficult to keep my footing.

The air felt heavy and dense, like an invisible force trying to shove me back.

I pushed through it anyway and drove the blade into the slit, standing beside Ian with our weapons buried deep.

The moment I did, I saw Ian’s flesh begin to tear from the vibration ripping through him.

He had been too close to the monster for too long.

If he did not step away now, his skin would peel off.

I looked at Ian and said in my mouth, "I’m sorry."

I wanted to communicate with him, but people had already started turning back into their overhuman forms.

As I spoke quietly, I watched Ian stare at me in confusion, probably wondering why I was looking at him instead of focusing on the monster.

Before he could react, I kicked him away from it, forcing him to lose his grip so he would be thrown back instead of torn apart.

He hit the ground and rolled across the pavement while I climbed higher, refusing to let myself transition into my human form.

I gripped the monster’s massive shoulders, climbed onto its neck, and wrapped my legs around it, barely able to hold on.

The resonance screamed through the air, and the hollow slit widened fully as a vibration glitched through its body.

My skin began to burn from the heat the Hollow Man gave off.

With all my strength, I drove the sword from behind straight into the slit, forcing both blades deeper into its core.

I held them there, my hands wrapped around its head.

The monster convulsed violently.

I could still feel the pressure against my body, my skin burning from the contact, but the resonance struck harder toward the front.

The monster started to shift and turn, making it obvious that it was in immense pain.

I felt the ribs snap under the pressure, cracks spreading across its torso as the hollow cavity tore sideways.

Another blast collapsed into its chest.

I felt it all. I felt every fucking thing, and then...then something big happened.

The monster finally stopped and began to fall, staggering forward before crashing to the ground and shaking it beneath us.

I quickly pulled my hands free and rolled over its head the moment it collapsed.

The entire area around me trembled from a blast.

For the first few seconds after I landed and started transitioning back into my human form, all I heard was silence.

The loud resonance made my ears ring.

Then I heard cheers erupt into the air.

The people who had been watching us began jumping up and down.

My eyes lifted to Ian as he rushed toward me in his human form and hugged me tightly.

We were in nothing but our undergarments, and it was getting cold.

Haiden was the first to reach us, wrapping a cloth around our shoulders.

Everyone began gathering around the monster, checking it.

It had finally been killed.

"Look how scary he looks," a woman commented, slowly moving forward while making sure she held on to her mate’s hand.

Everybody started getting closer. Examining it.

"And it’s so big. Did you see how he moved?" another woman added.

They kept nodding, stepping closer and closer, but were quick to jump back if that thing tried to get up.

"Wow, how the hell did these youngsters fight such a big monster?" a man remarked, pouting at his mate.

"I know, right? I feel bad too. Look at us. We are grown adults, and we didn’t do anything," she replied, turning to her mate as he pulled her into a hug, trying to comfort her.

Honestly, for a moment, even I wondered if we would ever be able to fight that thing. He was big and very stubborn.

Then I saw a certain kind of passion in Ian’s eyes, and it definitely came from the fact that he had taken revenge for his brother and father’s deaths.

But I couldn’t help asking myself, who could be behind this monster?

Monsters were definitely made from ordinary people.

So who was it that they had turned into this creature?

Such a strange monster.

It was the kind that couldn’t even move with other monsters.

It usually stayed alone.

In fact, to the point that it barely ever got visitors because it was on the dark side.

I kept staring at him, thinking about all those people in my life who had been left alone.

The crusaders, especially those who died without ever knowing if they had survived, maybe life for them would have changed too.

All sorts of emotions started hitting me at once.

The last monster was dead now.

The others were trapped in the north, probably waiting for their end as well.

The others were busy examining the monster.

Troy, Leysa, Haiden, and Fauna had taken authority.

They were calming everyone down and moving them away from the monster because it was releasing strange gases from its face.

A filthy, unsettling noise was coming from pieces of its body.

The smell was unbearable.

While they remained occupied there, Ian and I were looking into each other’s eyes.

"Everything will be fine now," Ian whispered, gently touching my cheeks.

"I hope so," I replied, resting my head against his chest.

I knew we had lost a lot during this time, but we had gained a lot as well.

Among it were honest friends, mates, friendships, and relationships.

"I don’t know how to thank you," a woman said, stepping toward me, her face filled with guilt.

"I know we should have been the ones to support you, to help you all, but instead we just sat in our homes, waiting for our turn while our kids were sent out to fight the monsters," she continued.

The tears in her eyes were a clear sign that she deeply regretted never being able to help us properly.

"My wife is right," her husband stepped forward. "We cannot thank you enough, even after we called you a monster and..."

He paused, closing his eyes, probably remembering what else they had done to us.

The way they had shoved us into the North.

It was practically the leaders’ decision, but they could have avoided it by standing firm with us.

"They are right. We owe you this life, this freedom," another man shouted, and everyone started nodding their heads.

"True, you two saved us over and over again, and you fought the monsters for us. We owe you big time," another man added.

Everyone nodded happily now, agreeing openly.

After that, Leysa approached us first.

"Come on. I’ll take you both toward the academy. You can change your clothes there," she whispered to me.

We were both wrapped in a single sheet. Ian took off the sheet, leaving it for me while he wore only shorts.

Nodding my head, Ian and I started walking away from there.

After everything that had happened, silence had settled over all of us.

There were many things we needed to talk about, many memories we had to revisit, and still so much left that we needed to sort out.

North was gone, but our friends were gone as well.

The weight of it all was bound to fall on us eventually.

And those who had sent their own children to the North and actively participated in creating poisons and brutality still had their reckoning waiting.

But before that, we had to prepare ourselves.

As we approached the academy and stopped, silence fell over all of us.

Ian, Haiden, Troy, and I looked at each other.

There were tears in our eyes.

We had come here once before like this, but back then we had been brought here by force.

Today, there were no lurkers, no Headmaster, no ring leaders. We were standing here alone, waiting, and no one was there to stop us.

The academy was now our playground.

Ian held my hand and began guiding me inside.

He knew I was getting emotional.

The weather had turned bad as well.

Haiden and Troy had started making calls, trying to check on their loved ones.

Basically, they were calling their mothers.

Troy had reached his mother, and Haiden was trying to get in contact with Fauna’s mother.

I sensed something was wrong at that very moment, from the anxious way Haiden and Fauna were looking at each other.