Chains sawed into wristbones amidst energy storm howls. Crucified atop the spire, Alyssa's exposed spinal gears clicked Wolf Mother's death-morse in moonlight. Below, retreating Silverfang torches snaked bloodlines mirroring the execution pyre procession three centuries past.
"Watch your kin flee in formation." Layne's hologram flickered in the storm eye, mechanical fingers toying with her singed nerve fibers. "Just like your mother's..."
Moonflare hatchling burned through Alyssa's ravaged throat, vocal cord shards spraying with her roar: "Let them taste mother's gift!"
The curse erupted from shattered molars. Each syllable shook azurite tiles loose. When the seventh forbidden proto-wolf syllable detonated, three front-rider's breastplates glowed her collarbone brand's eclipse sigils—they fell writhing.
"Finally earnest." Layne's true form oozed up the crucifix, fangs piercing her ankle chains. "Know why this spire? Wolf Mother's..."
"Final speech podium." Alyssa snapped her left pinky, sketching inverted runes with bone rot-blood. "Think I missed the construction logs?"
The castle quaked. Runes flowed down chains into the spire's core, shedding outer walls to reveal embryo specimens—each umbilical-chained to silver rings. Howling Silverfang soldiers collapsed en masse, their cries weaving Wolf Mother's requiem.
Layne's gear-cog pupils projected Alyssa's multiverse deaths: "Eternal desire-prisons? Creative, but..."
Moonflare breached critical mass. Flame hawks rocketed from her spinal holes clutching micro-rings. Upon impact, soldiers' eyes sprouted mechanical roses—dew droplets mirroring their deepest cravings.
"Seeds planted." Alyssa coughed gear-studded black clots laced with mother's hair. "Harvest time."
Kane's arrow pierced the storm. This shaft carried shredded lab logs detailing fetal vampire-cultivation. When arrowhead kissed the crucifix, Alyssa's chains hurled her skyward.
Weightless, her blood crystallized into ravens with ring-shard eyes. Their formation mapped retreat routes. Layne's heart-core overloaded, blast shearing the spire flat to reveal cloning shafts plunging to Earth's core—
Countless Alyssa clones synchronized screams inside, brands forming curse arrays. The deepest pod burst, umbilical-wrapped infant clone crawling out with charred "Mad King" crest.
"Cycle..." Layne's remnants sucked into the shaft, fingers brushing fetal clone's vernix. "...unbroken."
Falling, Alyssa tore open her sternum brand, inserting Moonflare's core chip into Kane's arrow. When it struck the immortal forge, clone fluids vaporized—steam revealing Silverfang lords' faces wearing Layne's signature pocket watches.
"This curse," she mouthed toward fleeing torchlight, storm amplifying words into thunder, "forever—"
The castle imploded, entombing the oath in magma. On the final falling spire shard, Wolf Mother's claw-print oozed azurite-blood amalgam, crystallizing into a crescent moon.