When the black moon rises, the Earth will fall...
Since time immemorial, the Moon has fascinated, inspired, and frightened humanity with its unnerving otherworldly beauty. But Earth's neighbor is far more than it appears, and one of its emissaries s...
The Kotobuki City Weather Service has issued a warning for a meteorological event. Citizens are strongly advised not to observe this event with the naked eye. This warning is effective immediately and will continue until sunrise.
FOR YOUR SAFETY REMAIN INDOORS
DO NOT LOOK AT THE NIGHT SKY
THE BLACK MOON IS RISING
JANUARY 31ST, 1999
Something was very wrong. The final night of the year was the date Suguru and I determined that Sariel would awaken, based on all our lunar observations. I could sense the foul aura in the air, heightened by the little one inside me. They could feel it as well. Ever since I began carrying this child, my senses had sharpened to an unnatural degree. It felt as though they were trying to warn me of something evil. I placed a hand over my lower belly, wincing as my insides rippled and shifted. I wasn't very far along yet, but their presence could not be denied.
Suguru and I decided to spend the final night before the new year in a hotel room in downtown Kotobuki City, in the middle of the sprawling metropolis. When the emergency alerts began to broadcast, I shuddered. Someone else besides us knew what was happening, or at least had some idea of what was to come, even if they didn't know exactly. A mysterious meteorological event involving the Moon, one that the citizens of the city were warned not to observe. However, not many heeded the warnings. Thousands of people chose to go skywatching, gazing in awe at the pale, milky white Moon that dominated the cloudless night sky.
Before tonight, when I looked up at the Moon, I could feel something strange, but I couldn't exactly tell what or why. But now...everyone could see it with their own eyes. As Suguru and I watched from the balcony overlooking the city, we too could do little more than gaze helplessly. The Moon looked less like a full celestial body and more like a ragged, hollowed-out husk of its former self. Rather than being far away in the night sky, it appeared drastically closer, its darkening haze swallowing up nearly half of the visible heavens.
Large swaths of the white surface appeared torn up and shredded, exposing the Moon's dark innards like open wounds. Immense ravines existed where there were once none, as though the Moon's crust was beginning to split. They looked like vicious, jagged cracks, and mist oozed from them. The closest example it resembled would be like a cracked egg, moments away from hatching and spilling its contents.
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I stared in horror. "Suguru...what is this?"
"The Moon has been eaten from the inside-out," he replied. "Sariel's hunger must have become too much to bear, and he began devouring everything around him."
