572 CHPT 572: Lights…. Illumination.

He'd seen him a million times in his nightmares.

Dolion.

He'd played even more scenarios in his head about how they'd meet again. How he'd tear out his limbs and squeeze the life from his throat with so much vigor and excess that his own hands would fold in on themselves and break.

He'd ran it all over.

He knew it was a possibility.

An event that was unavoidable with Samuel's failure and death.

His tormentors had made it to The Sunlands. As a result, his shot at avenging his father was no more than a few hundred feet away from him. Just as stunned as he was— yet too stubborn to let it be known.

The memory of fighting Jack only briefly kept his natural fears in the backseat. The throwing of spears— the slaughter of enemy Lupines, centered him. It made the Phantom imagery of Lupines of Remus grounded. They could be fought. Even in all their smiles and snarls and numbers….

"They bleed….." Claude couldn't stop shaking.

"Claude... you've grown." Dolion's smugness held him— but only in the face. Only where Claude was drawn. The smiles from his nightmares translated so well to reality.

They smiled.

"[Claude. Remember the gameplan. Surprise is our greatest asset. And we must take it before they do anything to better their odds here. Let them be confident to a fault. But also let yourself be focused. Anything can happen now. You are at the precipice of two options. A second apocalypse….. and your own death— your packs death and enslavement. The world is demanding change right here…. Pay attention.]"

"Jack told me you hit harder now. I was right you know, I said you'd be a great Lupine. I know strength….. my mother tells me. But when I look at you, that strength is sullied. The only Potential you have is to witness your own death. And the only Potential you will meet is just that, Mongrel Beast of Romulus."

The students, Heroes and Magister below looked to Claude, now understanding he too wasn't human despite his appearance.

The world really was changing.

The hiding game with Ronin, The Red Knight and the Detectives didn't matter anymore.

Only Remus.

"Do you still have no control over your transformation?" Claude yelled across the stadium.

Dolion's eyes widened.

The smell of anger infected the air for a flash of time. As if Claude was momentarily teleported into a burning house.

He held up his hands, only transforming the fingers before slowly letting it spread across his arms and up to his face with a shivering growl. Then, he was back to normal.

"I'm not who you fought half a year ago—"

"Quiet!" Dolion stomped his foot and sent splinter fractures down the entirety of his side of the stadium. "You think we can't smell your fear?"

"I know you can. I want you to. Come get me, Dolion. Find out what I'm really afraid of….." Shadows twisted around Claudes fingers like abyssal vines.

Dolion snarled before jumping off the stands and landing on the main floor where all the students and heroes watched.

The second his bare feet hit the floor, so did Claude's, driven by each others Prey Drive and mutually shared hate, they moved as if they were the same.

They were nearly nose to nose. Exact same height. Similar build. Many similarities, even. But one monumental difference.

"You bastards think we're just spectators ?-" The RedKnight moved to attack them. Claude's armor burned and melted on his left side even from a hundred feet away before Aiko, the silent black Lupine overtook him, severing four of his fingers as she tackled him off the platform. They ran through and killed four students before the others got moving.

Both on the Lupine and human side.

Dier, Jack and Bengal all charged the remaining heroes and Magister, leaving Claude and Dolion alone on the platform as chaos surged around them.

"It's been a while."

Claude's restraint slipped like feet on ice. His skin steamed and his muscles bubbled turbulently beneath his skin. WHY was he smiling?!

"Why did you do it? Why did you forcibly change and kill my father?" Claude asked in a hushed whisper. Still holding the enemy Alpha's gaze.

Dolion blinked. Seemingly putting pieces together in his head for the very first time.

And then his smile widened. As if to further agitate Claude.

"He wasn't supposed to die. I almost lost my seat as Alpha for his actions to save you…. But now it makes sense. That was your father. Well, ask yourself. Why did my mother request him?"

"I don't give a damn about your mother, why..." Claude trailed off. Remembering. Putting together pieces to a puzzle that felt like it had been scattered and slowly forming for years on end.

"Your mother is a Midnight Warden?" A shot in the dark guided by a single flash of light. A series of flashing lights.

Aeron. Another Tangent Biologist. Guided and shifted by the Midnight Wardens. Only he'd become a WereWolf.

Gil Grey suffered the same fate. Almost to a tee.

"…..She could be one of the Wardens. Maybe that's how they spoke to the Silver Cursed Tangent boss in Aeron's journal. Maybe they all were Lupines of Remus. A new sect or something…" Claude thought.

"[It's possible. With Remus' absence for so long maybe certain packs have strayed.]"

Dolion raised a knowing eyebrow to him. "The Scorn of Remus has allies in many high places."

"I'm going to kill you all. All of you, all your allies. All your fans."

"You haven't changed muc—"

Claude front kicked Dolion before he could finish speaking with all the power he could muster. Muscles expanded, shift progressing, hatred blossoming like flowers in spring.

KBOOM!

Dolion blocked the blow, sliding over the sandstone platform with a snarl as the sweat was knocked clean off his bronze skin.

He came to a stop and roared. Bones snapping and skin tearing before he regained control.

"Tell me why you killed my father!"

"Consult the source of his demise, you wretch!" Dolion slapped his palms together. Vibrant red strands of magic splattered from the collision like smashed fruits. Immediately he began knitting the substance similarly to HexBlades and opened a portal.

"[Brace yourself.]"

He couldn't have.

A women stepped out into the light.

He'd never seen anyone like her before. He'd never smelled anyone like her. If he was anywhere else, he wouldn't have known she was a Lupine of Remus.

She was tall. Seven feet at least. Human skin completely exposed in her naked form. She stood savagely. But there was a grace to it. Just barely.

Under the Sunlandian sun, her skin glistened with a blood paste that made its rich brown darkness more vibrant. It made her wide hips and capped shoulders feel larger.

Her hair was curly. Combed back against her skull and left to twist and tangle at her back and around her chest.

Black as night. Just like his own.

Despite being in her human form, she held the raised heels of the Lupine and padded palms. As if she always was suited for quadrapedal movement.

That's when he noticed.

She was walking.

It's just that every step she took forward, he took back.

Even Fenrir didn't have such a feeling.

"Who the hell is this?!"

"[Shes new. Very new. I have no idea who this is. I'm assuming Dolion's whole family line is recent. Powerful, but recent. Now we know how.]"

The barely contained violence leaked from every one of her blood soaked pores.

When she moved it felt like a rabid wolf on a leash as weak as silk. She was unbound.

Claude was flinching at her breaths.

"No." He planted his feet.

She stopped and looked past him to the chaos around them.

"Now we've got the real leader." Mr Basilisk left his battle and moved in a blur straight for her.

As if he'd exacerbated everything to this level. All this death and terror just to get the head of the sna—

She caught him by the shoulders and pulled him close, kissing him deeply.

She was so tall the man's feet dangled in their embrace.

The action was so shocking Claude couldn't speak.

Which made Mr Basilisks muffled screams easier to hear.

They disconnected with an agonized tearing sound.

The woman groaned in satisfaction and lifted Mr Basilisk up over her head, ripping him in half as she chewed on his tongue like it was bubblegum.

"AHHHHGU—"

SHRRRIP!

All the blood and giblets and flesh rained down on her naked form. She reveled in it. She ran her clawed hands through her hair and licked her lips psychotically.

Behind her, Dolion freed Samuel.

WOOSH!

Suddenly he was off the ground, seconds from his windpipe being crushed.

At the same time, such an excess of nature exploded from the grounds outside the Stadium that it blotted out the sun.

Gil spit green flames from Claude's chest, surrounding her face in vibrant heat for seconds.

When it ended she stood the same, now steaming.

"You shouldn't exist." Her voice was icky. Dripping with contempt and hate for every inch of him.

"Neither should you." Claude ran his foot across her legs.

A small cut opened.

With (Second Frenzy) active, another cut opened at the back of her knee, sending her to the ground.

The second Claude's feet hit the earth, he brought his knee to her jaw.

At the same time, he pulled down a spike of nature from the skies, aiming to skewer her skull on the spot.

CRACK!

She blocked the blow and caught the spike, breaking it off to stab into Claude's arm.

The two disconnected in a burst of wind. Returning to their starting positions. One clearly more injured than the other.

But still.

"They can bleed…."

[85% HP Remaining…]

Claude's bulked muscles in his left arm shrank back to normal size and the wooden spike fell. No real damage taken thanks to his godly skill.

He had the world at his finger tips.

Dolion. Jack. Samuel. Their leader. Who arranged his fathers end.

"This is it." Nothing else ma—

"Mother Reyla." Dolion grabbed her attention from behind. "The Mongrel wishes to know why we arranged to have his father forcibly changed…. The one that turned against me. The one I had to kill. The one you took from the Midnight Wardens."

Reyla Scorn.

Slowly, her eyes turned in her head as she looked from Dolion to Claude.

Dolion looked like a dog caught doing something wrong. So did Samuel.

She turned back to Claude. The oddest expression on her face. With her long nose and full lips and bushy eyebrows.

"What did you say your name was?"

"Claude Grey. You killed my father. ALL of you killed my father, Gil Grey. We don't have shit else to talk about. Fight." His blood was on fire. "Fight..."

Her fingers shook.

She didn't look so horrifying.

She looked….. weak.

"He changed your names. He knew more than he let on….. the spineless fuck."

"[I have the worst feeling…..]"

Reyla looked up at Claude, "When you were born, we called you Codrin...Codrin Greyarch. Son of Reyla S. Greyarch, and Gilligan Greyarch."

Dolion looked up and fell out of his kneeling position in a flash, "Mother….. what are you saying???"

Claude's stomach sank to his feet. His breaths fell short. His psyche cracked like pressurized glass.

Tears fell down Reyla's face. The other Lupines amidst their battle, took the time to join her in mourning as if Claude was already a corpse.

She raised a shaking hand and pointed, "You've become even…. Weaker, in your fathers death. You're both so….. so weak."

The words echoed and transformed as they fell on his ears.

"YOURE WEAK! AND SO IS THAT SNIVELLING LITTLE BRAT!"

Claude laughed…..

He laughed loud….