The portals of Regalia are breaking. Chaos is approaching to the human world. In order to stop Lahz, leader of the Dark Nation-by abducting children to be his disciple soldiers for the upcoming war and to seal the monsters inside, six star candidate...
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Ten years ago, after the meteors of the Dark Mother incinerated half of the city of Ozwin and left hundreds and thousands of scorched and unidentified remains of bodies on the ash-cobbled earth and let it rot, the place was branded as the City of the Burning Stars. Land of Fire and Embers. Home of the Divine Incineration.
Half of the city was ruined. Old temples and churches, black markets, barns, taverns, houses were burned like a piece of garbage when meteors hit and smashed the earth. The tongues of the celestial fire spread in every corners of the land while embers are flying in the air. An apocalypse incarnate. Lives were destroyed and taken. Only few survived.
Another explosion shook the earth, causing the stone bridge to collapse and killed another hundred of innocent people and set the city in full terror.
The elders said that it happened because mankind forgot to kneel and pray to their gods and thus they earned the wrath of Nemesis, the Dark Mother—Goddess of death and rebirth, queen of the fury and monsters. Some says that Divine Incineration was actually a prophecy, a fulfillment of a long-time promise. The Dark Mother's retribution to Deanna, Goddess of the moon and eternal bond.
In addition to her retribution, Dark Mother unleashed the beasts from her womb and night children were born. Monsters with various shapes and aspects. Some are winged, some are with talons and scales. They choose to dwell in the forests and in the other parts of the world to satisfy their bloodlust and lure humans to their death. Since then, nobody dared to go outside alone once darkness falls.
The search party was already on the move two hours ago to find Clyde Blackthorn, Rowyna Eidelweiss and the other missing children. Still, Lilean was worried about Clyde and for the others. Each of these missing children has a family that are worrying and keep on waiting for their return, hoping for their safety.
Clyde. Why him, of all the people? What really happened? She's still thinking and hoping that he's still alive. If she could turn back the time she last saw him, she would have not let Clyde go back in the woods just to look for the lost pendant he'd given her...
And these Sons of the Condemned, why they're lurking in their city? Are they real, flesh and bone with their silver-eyed gaze and magical tattoos? Why are they here? There was a lot of questions in her mind that need answers, and it making her sick. It was pain and agony, a total chaos in the mind.
Lilean closed her eyes and tried to take the sudden reality.
She set herself to sleep. She was hoping by tomorrow, she will wake up to a new morning with Clyde Blackthorn back in her arms again, and will never let go.
•••
People are gathered in shock in front of the justice building at the plaza of the village. Ten iron stakes were stood ready in front of a stone scaffold—they were built long ago after the Divine Incineration happened to punish every criminals, especially the ones who practice magic and sorcery—and it was not empty. Those stakes' sharp pointed ends glinted like stars in the daylight and were poised upward to the sky and threatening, always ready to impale every fallen angels.
In the middle of the heat of the morning sun and the whispers from the startled crowd, a lifeless body of a boy was impossibly hanging.
Blood was everywhere, spilled like an ink on a clean canvass of earth. The boy was cut in half, his lower body and innards were scattered on the dirty ground and useless.
News circulated on the village and Esme Delroy, always known as the bearer of the bad news, heard it and told this to her sister and her nieces. "The Blackthorn boy! He's dead! He was dead!"
Astrid turned to Lilean—now immediately leaving her chores. She ran.
No! Clyde can't be dead! They promised to each other. They have dreams—dreams that they need to fulfill. They have plans. Big plans. They talked about leaving Ozwin one day once they were old enough to do it and search for a new land where they can start a new life together. A promise of a new beginning. A land where they don't need to starve their stomachs and has no live executions. A land where they don't need to be afraid of the night killings and vindictive deities.
The crowd was in frenzy when she arrived at the justice building. The guards were already examining the severed body. She hold her breath while walking, slowly. Fists on both sides of her skirt. If the boy, by any chance was Clyde... She hook her head. She doesn't want to think about it. Clyde was still alive, she knows it. And he will come back for her.
She almost threw up when she tasted the metal blood filling the air, but kept herself walking towards the mutilated body. She needs to end this. Right now. She needs to prove to herself and everyone that Esme was wrong. That this body was not Clyde's.
Right under the sun flaring above the justice building, she search for a trademark on the corpse's hand. Just a little detail of proof is all she need—a wing tattoo inked on Clyde's left arm.
She was about to unveil the corpse, gathering all her will to still her shaking hand and to avoid her tears from falling when one of the villagers screamed, followed by a growl of some feral beast. It's cry tore the ether and made the entire village frantic. Everyone was shocked, and the man was still screaming.
