The Blood Moon pulsed above them like a beating heart.
Each throb sent waves of red lightning through the broken sky.
Shards of light and darkness collided and rained down in sparks.
The Umbral—once a swirling ritual realm—was now collapsing.
Fragments of the high school's bell tower hung midair like broken glass.
Desks, books, and flickering classroom walls floated through the crimson void, fragments of reality bleeding into the ritual space.
Daniela stood trembling on a cracked platform, her hands glowing faintly with light.
The air burned her skin.
She was exhausted, her voice raw from screaming—but she didn't back down.
Across from her, Emiliano stood in silence.
His black eyes were glowing faintly.
His entire body shimmered with shadow energy that curled and pulsed around him, like living smoke obeying its master.
El Oscuro loomed above them.
His massive wings tore through the void, shadow-dripping feathers scattering across the ruins.
His form wasn't solid anymore—he flickered between a demon, a man, and a thousand screaming spirits all fused together.
He wasn't just losing control.
He was becoming the ritual itself.
1. The Bell Rings Once More
From far below, the old bronze bell in the half-collapsed tower began to swing on its own.
Its echo rippled through the Umbral.
DOOOONG…
DOOOONG…
Ixchel looked up from her shattered perch.
"Oh no… the bell! It's calling the final phase of the ritual!"
Daniela's eyes widened.
"The final phase?"
"Yes! The BLOOD MOON SACRIFICE! If it rings thirteen times, the worlds will merge and everything—every soul—will belong to El Oscuro!"
DOOOONG…
Third ring.
Daniela turned toward Emiliano.
"We have to stop him before it finishes!"
Emiliano nodded once. "We will."
He looked back at El Oscuro, who now floated in the air like a god.
Red veins of energy pulsed from the Blood Moon into his body.
El Oscuro's voice cracked through the air like thunder:
"TÚ ROMPISTE EL SELLO…"
You broke the seal…
"PERO NO PUEDES ROMPERME A MÍ."
But you cannot break me.
Emiliano's jaw clenched.
He took a slow step forward.
"Watch me."
He launched forward—faster than a bullet.
The air around him exploded into shockwaves as his shadow surged.
El Oscuro swung one massive claw—
Emiliano ducked under it, his shadow following like a second body.
He countered with a blast of shadow energy that slammed into the demon's chest.
BOOOOOOM—!!
The void cracked open.
El Oscuro howled and backhanded Emiliano, sending him spinning through the air.
Emiliano flipped midair, landing on a floating piece of the school rooftop.
Daniela extended her arm and unleashed a wave of light toward El Oscuro's side, forcing him to stagger.
Her power sliced through several tendrils of darkness that shot toward her.
But every time she used her light, she grew weaker.
Her knees shook.
Her breathing quickened.
Her nose began to bleed.
Emiliano saw it.
"Dani! Stop using too much! You're burning yourself out!"
"I can't stop now!" she shouted, her voice trembling with desperation.
"If we lose this, no one goes home alive!"
DOOOONG…
Sixth ring.
The Blood Moon's glow deepened, staining the entire void red.
El Oscuro raised both hands.
"MIREN—EL MUNDO YA ES MÍO."
Look—the world is already mine.
The cracks of red opened wider.
Through them, the high school's courtyard appeared—students frozen mid-scream, shadows crawling up their legs.
The living world was being devoured.
Daniela covered her mouth in horror. "No… it's spreading…"
Emiliano's voice hardened.
"Then we end this NOW."
2. Shadow vs. Darkness
Emiliano sprinted toward El Oscuro, his eyes burning.
His shadow-beast roared behind him, mimicking every movement.
He leapt—his fist surrounded by swirling shadow—and punched straight through one of the demon's wings.
The explosion blew apart half of El Oscuro's body into black mist.
But the mist reformed instantly.
El Oscuro laughed.
"SOY ETERNO."
I am eternal.
Emiliano smirked grimly.
"Then I'll erase eternity."
He summoned hundreds of shadow blades, surrounding El Oscuro in a black storm.
The demon spread his arms wide and unleashed a counterburst of red lightning.
The two forces collided—
BOOOOOOOOOOM—!!
A shockwave ripped across the void, throwing Daniela and Ixchel backward.
Daniela slid to the edge of a floating platform, barely catching herself.
The world spun around her, filled with lightning, dust, and screams.
When the explosion cleared—
El Oscuro stood panting, his form flickering, unstable.
Cracks of white light glowed along his chest like fractures in glass.
Emiliano, standing on the opposite side, was bleeding from his mouth—but smiling faintly.
"You're breaking."
El Oscuro roared and lunged again.
The two collided midair—
fists, claws, shadows, and flames tearing through the fabric of the Umbral.
Each strike echoed like thunder.
Each scream shook the Blood Moon above.
Daniela stood, clutching her heart.
"They're destroying everything…"
Ixchel shouted over the chaos:
"If Emiliano kills him without sealing the ritual, the whole world could collapse!"
Daniela's breath caught.
"Then what do we do?"
"Find the core!" Ixchel shouted. "The moon's heart—its source—is somewhere in this realm! That's the only way to end it safely!"
Daniela nodded, summoning a faint light in her palm.
She looked up at the Blood Moon.
Its surface was splitting open—
a red crystal heart pulsing at its center.
"That must be it…"
She turned to Ixchel.
"Keep the spirits back. I'm going up there."
Ixchel's eyes widened.
"Daniela, you'll burn out—!"
Daniela's voice trembled, but her eyes were firm.
"I'd rather burn than watch everyone die."
She lifted her hands—
and light wings burst from her back.
3. Daniela's Flight
She soared upward, dodging collapsing debris and streaks of shadow.
Her vision blurred, her body trembling.
Each beat of her wings drained more of her strength.
Below, Emiliano fought for his life—
his body covered in blood and ash, his mark blazing black fire.
"DANI—DON'T—!" he shouted as she flew higher.
But she was already gone.
El Oscuro turned his head toward her.
His rage shifted.
His gaze locked onto her rising form.
"NO ESCAPARÁS, HIJA DE LUZ."
You will not escape, child of light.
He tore away from Emiliano and shot into the sky after her.
Emiliano screamed in fury and launched himself after them both.
The three of them spiraled upward through the shattered Umbral—
light chasing shadow, shadow chasing darkness.
The Blood Moon loomed overhead like a bleeding wound.
4. The Heart of the Moon
Daniela reached the crystal heart.
It pulsed rhythmically—each throb echoing with whispers.
"Tócame…"
"Libérame…"
Touch me… free me…
She hovered inches away, tears in her eyes.
"Is this… the real source?"
Ixchel's voice echoed faintly below:
"Be careful! It's alive—it feeds on souls!"
Before Daniela could react, El Oscuro appeared behind her in a flash of red smoke.
His claws struck through her side.
She screamed, blood spraying across the air.
Emiliano roared and slammed into the demon from behind, tackling him through the void.
Daniela clutched her wound, gasping.
Her vision doubled.
Her light flickered.
But she refused to let go of consciousness.
She pressed one trembling hand to the glowing crystal.
"Please… if you're alive… listen to me…"
The crystal pulsed brighter.
Flashes of memories flooded her mind—
students screaming, teachers vanishing, shadows flooding classrooms, Valeria's final tears.
Daniela sobbed.
"You've caused so much pain… so much death… please… let them rest…"
Her tears hit the surface of the crystal.
For the first time, the light inside it softened—
from blood-red to faint white.
5. The Thirteenth Bell
DOOOONG…
DOOOONG…
The bell rang again—faster, louder.
Emiliano punched El Oscuro across the face—
the demon countered with a claw through his chest.
Emiliano coughed blood but refused to fall.
DOOOONG…
DOOOONG…
The bell reached its twelfth ring.
Daniela's voice echoed weakly through the void:
"Emi… the thirteenth ring… we have to end it before the thirteenth…"
Emiliano gritted his teeth and drove his hand into the demon's chest.
El Oscuro shrieked, half his body turning to ash.
"YOU… ARE NOTHING…" the demon roared.
Emiliano smiled faintly.
"Maybe. But I'm enough."
He looked up at Daniela, who was clutching the moon's heart.
"Dani… NOW!"
The bell began its final swing.
DOOOOOOOOOONG—!!
Daniela screamed as she poured every last drop of her power into the crystal.
The moon erupted in light.
The Umbral exploded.
The world split apart.
The Blood Moon shattered like glass.
A blinding white light burst through the Umbral realm, swallowing every trace of red and black.
The screams of spirits and monsters turned to dust in the radiance.
For a single heartbeat, everything was silent—
as if the world itself had stopped breathing.
Then the silence broke.
Reality cracked apart, folding in on itself.
1. The Price of Light
Daniela fell.
Her wings disintegrated into ash as she plummeted through the collapsing sky.
Below her, the world of shadows and the real world were colliding—
classrooms melting into the void, streets twisting into endless corridors of bone and smoke.
Emiliano's voice echoed faintly, distant but desperate.
"DANI! HOLD ON—!"
She couldn't answer.
Her body was drained, her blood painting the air.
All she could see was light consuming everything… then darkness again.
Suddenly, strong arms caught her mid-fall.
Emiliano's grip.
He was burned, bleeding, his uniform shredded—but still holding her as if nothing else mattered.
Daniela's eyes fluttered open weakly. "You… you caught me…"
Emiliano grinned through his blood. "Of course I did. You think I'd let you fall now?"
But before she could smile back—
a deep growl rumbled through the void.
From the fading fragments of the Blood Moon, something was still moving.
A shadow—thicker than smoke, darker than night—was reforming.
El Oscuro was still alive.
2. El Oscuro Reborn
The remains of the moon's heart pulsed black.
From within it, El Oscuro's voice returned, distorted and furious:
"NO MERE MORTAL CAN UNMAKE ME."
His form reappeared, monstrous and skeletal—his body no longer human or demonic, but something entirely new.
An amalgamation of every cursed soul from the ritual: teachers, students, priests—all screaming in one voice.
The Blood Moon's ashes gathered around him, forming a colossal shape—
a titan of shadows that towered over the collapsing world.
Daniela trembled. "It's not over… oh God—it's not over!"
Emiliano placed her gently on a floating fragment of the school's courtyard.
He turned to face the towering darkness.
"Then it ends right now."
He summoned the last of his shadow energy.
The mark on his chest blazed brighter than ever before, veins of black lightning spreading across his skin.
His shadow—once humanoid—grew gigantic, matching the titan's form.
Two dark gods facing each other in the dying realm.
3. Duel of the Abyss
When they collided, the world broke.
Each strike sent out shockwaves that ripped through dimensions—
flashes of classrooms, graveyards, and broken mirrors appearing midair.
Students' voices echoed from nowhere, their laughter twisting into cries.
Daniela clutched her wound and crawled toward the edge of the platform, watching in horror.
Every time Emiliano hit the monster, the shadows screamed louder.
Every time El Oscuro retaliated, reality itself bent.
Lightning cracked red and black.
El Oscuro grabbed Emiliano's giant shadow arm and slammed him through the floating debris.
Emiliano coughed blood, but his eyes burned with fire.
"You want a vessel?" he roared.
"Then take me!"
He absorbed his own shadow completely—fusing with it.
His body turned pure black flame.
Now he wasn't human at all.
He had become the living embodiment of darkness itself—
but his soul still fought for the light.
4. Daniela's Prayer
Daniela looked up at the monstrous duel, her vision blurred by tears.
"Please… please let him survive…"
Ixchel appeared beside her, barely holding herself upright.
Her eyes glowed faintly, her spirit flickering.
"Child… if he keeps using that power, he'll burn his soul away."
Daniela shook her head, crying.
"I know… but there's no other way, is there?"
Ixchel's silence was answer enough.
Daniela took a deep breath, pressing her hand to her heart.
"Then I'll give him mine."
She stood, summoning the last light within her.
Her body glowed faintly, trembling.
Ixchel's eyes widened.
"You'll die!"
Daniela smiled weakly.
"Not die. Just… disappear."
5. The Final Fusion
As Emiliano and El Oscuro clashed again, Daniela's light pierced through the chaos.
"Emi!" she shouted. "Take it! Take my light!"
He turned in midair—his eyes widening.
Before he could protest, her soul split open into light.
The rays streamed into him, fusing with his burning shadow.
For a moment, everything was white and black at once.
Light and darkness twisting into one.
El Oscuro screamed in rage.
"TRAICIÓN… LUZ Y SOMBRA NO PUEDEN SER UNO…"
Betrayal… light and shadow cannot be one…
But Emiliano's voice echoed over him:
"They already are."
He thrust his arm forward, his hand now glowing half white, half black—
and drove it straight through the heart of El Oscuro.
The world exploded.
6. Collapse
The Umbral disintegrated.
The Blood Moon shattered into dust.
The high school's bell fell from the sky and smashed into the courtyard.
Daniela's body—now faint and transparent—floated in the aftermath, smiling softly as the light engulfed her.
Emiliano reached for her, his own body flickering between light and shadow.
"Dani… stay with me…"
She touched his cheek, her hand glowing faintly.
"You did it… you stopped him…"
"I can't lose you," he whispered.
She smiled, her voice breaking.
"You didn't. I'll always be with you… in the shadow, in the light…"
Her body began to fade completely, scattering into tiny motes of gold.
Emiliano screamed her name as the last piece of her disappeared into the wind.
Then—darkness.
7. One Year Later
The high school was rebuilt.
The news called it "The Great Fire of October."
No one ever explained what caused it.
No one remembered the Blood Moon, or the shadows, or the screams.
But some nights, when the moon turned faintly red, students swore they could hear the bell ring once—
softly, in the distance.
In the back of the rebuilt art classroom, a new student sat quietly.
He had dark eyes and a faint scar across his hand shaped like a crescent.
His name tag read "Emiliano R."
During class, he looked out the window toward the courtyard.
For just a second, he saw a flicker of golden light—a silhouette of a girl smiling back at him.
And then, the wind carried a whisper:
"La hora aún no ha terminado…"
The hour is not over yet.