Nightreign

Looking up, Free saw a...massive clock, made of millions of familiar particles, slowly floating up to the moon.

The clock's two hands marked exactly midnight, pointing straight up at the crimson moon above it.

Did he die...like the beast?

While Free was inwardly relieved at the sight, he didn't dare make any sudden moves or celebrations, recalling very vividly what had just happened the last time.

Pushing his palms against the sand, Free attempted to get up, but the searing pain of the rough sand rubbing against his damaged skin immediatly caused him to collapse.

Just from lying downward, his bruised and burned stomach against the sand, Free felt his entire body tingling with pain.

Not a single part of his body was spared from the vicious fire.

His bones and limbs were visible through his leathery skin; his exposed knuckles, jagged elbows, and shinbones peeked out.

Crawling forward like a slug, Free inched closer and closer to the shining blood-red crystal, each movement feeling as if his body was covered by fire.

There was only one thought within his chaotic mind...one goal that he had to achieve.

Touch the crystal.

Killing that fucking bastard can come next.

Crawling amidst the sound of the flames rampaging around him and under the blood-red moon, highlighting his burned body an even darker red, he felt reality slowly fall apart.

His eyes closed, unable to open under his dreary and burned eyelids, and his mind shut off, staying pitch-silent.

If one were to see him in this state, they would believe Free resembled more of a darkness monster than a human, eternally struggling before the gates of death.

Yet, every so often, like the snail, his body moved, pulled forward by his two moving arms surging ahead and embedding themself in the sand before him.

*CLANG*

*BANG*

*CLANG*

Finally, as the distant sound of metal ringing around him sounded through the ring of fire, Free found himself before the crystal...only an inch apart.

His right hand, devoid of any fingernails and covered with scorching burn marks, leaped forward from his lifeless body.

As his bony index finger made contact with the crystal, Free's entire body began shining a crimson-red, the same shade as the moon.

And...in the next moment, his body disappeared.

No particles appeared from his body and flew up to the sky...Free's entire figure simply vanished without a trace.

Yet...the same could not be said for the crystal.

As a beacon of light, the transparent end crystal remained standing strong, reflecting the moon into the area.

...

...

...

Only a few miles away from the ring of fire, a sole figure with a shining sword sprinted forward at a speed more than twice Free's maximum.

As her celestial snow-white hair flew backward, tracing behind her, Dawn raced ahead with her silver sword equipped in her right palm.

In the distance, she saw countless faint shadows, all heading in the same direction as her, toward the shining red light.

The fact that an end crystal had even appeared in this small part of the world was already extremely rare, but unfortunately, Dawn had been on the opposite side of the desert, near the garden.

Had someone already reached the crystal?

Was it all over for her?

Dawn did not know, but she continued forward, hoping that she would live to see the next day's... dawn.

Pausing inwardly, she recalled the moment, only three weeks ago, when she had originally discovered a blood-red fragment, cementing her fate.

Originally, Dawn planned to wait until the ice-blue moon, believing the extra preparation time would come in handy, but...then she met Evangel.

~

"What are you doing?"

Ignoring the blond-haired girl to her side, Dawn continued swinging her sword at the hay dummy before her.

At this point, Dawn believed that every single child within the village had asked her that same question.

While Dawn could have simply answered the question, avoiding the constant pestering, she didn't...because she didn't have an answer.

Of course, her short-term goal as an Eclipser was simply to touch an end crystal under a full moon and fulfill the mystery of her dream, becoming a Lunite.

But what after that?

What would she do with her newfound power?

Sighing, the training Dawn lazily dismissed her relic, watching it turn into thousands of separate particles and float toward her body.

How long had it been?

Recalling her tenth birthday ceremony, she shuddered as the image of a man with a grey beard and a grim expression on a throne appeared.

In each eye, the man's pupil was surrounded by three rings, like the planet Saturn.

The rings closest to the pupil were red, and the farthest one was yellow, resulting in an orange hue for the middle ring.

Medieval-style stone-brick walls encapsulated the ten-year-old Dawn, with a single fiery chandelier hanging above her.

In front of her lay a crimson carpet that led to the orange throne.

Surrounding the carpet were countless soldiers dressed in dull black suits, and in each of their eyes lay the same Saturn-shaped pupils.

Though their ring colors were much less vivid.

As the man on the throne stood up, his pitch-black cloak with a Saturn emblem falling behind him, all the soldiers in the room took a knee and gazed down at the stone ground.

Making eye contact with the ten-year-old Dawn, the Saturn Sentinel gazed straight down the carpet at her and calmly said, his cheek muscles tensing as if he were frightened.

"Have you received your eyes?"

Finally, Dawn gazed upward, and within each of her eyes... lay a different image.

There, in her eyes, lay two... normal pupils.

The mark of her father had not been passed down.

No more words were exchanged.

Staring at the Sentinel... no, her father before her, Dawn could see was...an emotionless face, but behind that mask, only she could see was a tinge...of sadness.

Within moments, she was led to the king's room and out of the castle, escorted by a squadron of soldiers.