Prologue

"Regret is the one thing that has been long-forgotten to me Ariel, wherever you go I will follow. Whatever fortress you build I'll destroy it. No matter what you do, I will be there, I am your desolation." A towering man in black proclaimed as he waved his hands in greeting to the sky as he berated the man lying in a broken pile at his feet.

 Kneeling, he lowered his back to the broken man in front of him. Stopping when he finally reached parallel to his ear he spoke slowly as he relished each word. 

 "What do you have to say?" He asked as his face formed into a perfect crescent-shaped smile. 

The wind carried the whispered echoes of the man's proclamation as if the very air bore witness to the gravity of his words. The defeated figure on the ground, Ariel, battered and broken, raised his head to meet the eyes of his tormentor. Deep, stormy orbs glared back defiantly, a flicker of unwavering spirit amid the ruins.

Ariel's voice, though strained, held a raw edge of resilience. "Regret may be a forgotten companion for you, but redemption is a path I have yet to abandon." His words, barely audible, lingered in the tense air like a promise, a vow unbroken.

The towering man's crescent smile widened, a dark amusement playing in his eyes. "Redemption?" he scoffed. "There is no salvation for the forsaken. You, Ariel, are a mere shadow of what you once were. A puppet tangled in the strings of your own undoing."

Ariel's gaze remained unwavering, his spirit unyielding. "Desolation may be your companion, but I carry the weight of my choices willingly. I will forge a path from the fragments you've left behind. Regret may be long-forgotten to you, but the echoes of my redemption will reverberate through the annals of time."

The towering man chuckled, a sound that echoed through the desolate landscape. "Bold words from a broken man. We shall see how resolute you remain when the shadows of your own choices envelop you."

"I'm sorry to have abandoned you on such a path old friend." Whispering words that held no meaning and yet all the meaning in the word, a hundred voices rose from him in a spiral. As his words reached the stars the light of each one dimmed as he continued. 

"What are you doing!" The tall man yelled as he pulled Ariel by the cuff of his shirt. "Cease it! I command you!" His shouting turned more hateful and demanding with each statement.

As the voices rose in a haunting chorus, the towering man's attempts to command and control faltered. His eyes widened with a mixture of disbelief and growing dread. The spiraling voices, a symphony of remorse and redemption, intertwined with the echoes of the wind, creating an otherworldly melody that resonated through the desolate landscape.

The tall man, once so assured in his dominance, now found himself caught in a force beyond his control. The air shimmered with ethereal energy as the voices reached the stars, each glimmer fading into the vastness of the night sky.

"What have you done?" The towering man's voice trembled with a mixture of fear and anger. He released his grip on Ariel, stumbling backward, unable to comprehend the unseen forces at play.

Ariel, rising from the dust, stood with an air of quiet determination. The echoes subsided, leaving an eerie silence in their wake. "I have reclaimed my choices, my destiny," he declared, his stormy gaze fixing upon the bewildered figure before him.

Lifting a hand in ominous foreboding the world stood still for all to hold for even the stars of the night seemed to hold their breath in bated silence.

"Fall." 

At the single word, a thousand voices escaped from Ariel in a cacophony of sounds as the storm within his eyes raged like never before and the sky beneath opened up in a wide embrace. 

"No! Ariel, you can't!" Taking a step forward he stopped as the world's embrace opened up from underneath him. Unable to resist the grasp the world had on him he fell into the abyss that Ariel had commanded. The once towering man in black, now stripped of his arrogance and control, plummeted into the darkness below, his shouts of protest swallowed by the void.

Ariel, with the weight of his choices now lifting, gazed into the starry expanse above. The wind whispered through the desolate landscape, carrying with it the echoes of his redemption. The broken piles of regret and desolation lay scattered on the ground, remnants of a confrontation that transcended the physical and delved into the realms of the metaphysical.

As the abyss sealed itself, closing the chapter on the towering man's dark influence, Ariel turned away from the edge. His gaze shifted toward the horizon, where the eternal starry night continued as it did for centuries. 

In the quiet aftermath, Ariel's voice, now free from the chains of torment, murmured a quiet promise to the winds, "I will forge a new path, not just for myself, but for those who have been ensnared in the shadows. Redemption will be the legacy that rises from the remnants of despair."

The winds carried his words, dispersing them like seeds in the vast desert. Ariel, standing amidst the whispers of the wind, began the journey of healing, rebuilding, and redeeming—a journey that would echo through the annals of time, a testament to the resilience of the human spirit against the tides of regret and desolation. 

The years to come would know this event as the Night of the Final Stars where the world quaked with each fist thrown and each kick blocked as a family fought and killed one another where they had once lived and loved. 

Looking towards the horizon in hope of the future he began to walk, he walked amidst the desolate battlefield finding friends and foes, lovers of new and old among the wreckage of wills. He continued until he reached the pile of bodies both man and beast strewn in a mountain of blood.

Climbing up the mountain of death, tears wept from his eyes. He continued in pain as his broken body was still unhealed from before, it groaned and wept with him at every movement. As he continued his hand which missed fingers from a more perilous time slipped on the slick crimson covering the ground.

Finding his strength he gathered himself and kept moving upwards until reaching the peak. Upon reaching his destination he did not find what he hoped to. Picking up his brother's and sister's dead bodies he sobbed, sobbed as if he were a newborn baby just come into this cruel world. 

Looking up to the heavens he screamed for help, voided of all dignity and pride he begged the stars who had cursed them with this gift to save them. His cries were unheard. 

After what felt like an eternity of mourning, his body went dry. After no moisture was in his body he stopped. "Holding his sibling's hands, even in death, he closed his eyes. Feeling the power gifted to him he found his redemption and a path to bring their family together once more. 

Tightening his body he brought into the eternal dark world light, the first light that any had seen, the first of its kind. He created the sun from the blood of his people, infusing it with the collective essence of their souls. The once lifeless void now shimmered with the radiant glow of a newfound star, a celestial beacon born from sacrifice and redemption.

As the light expanded, it wove through the fabric of the cosmos, breathing life into the desolate corners of the eternal dark world. The power he found within himself from his fallen kin manifested in the creation of a star bigger than any other, a sanctuary that echoed whispers of shared memories and laughter of a family torn asunder. 

The siblings, hands still intertwined, did not open their eyes to witness the birth of the sun. The rays painted with an infinite expanse of unseen hues, casting warmth and illumination upon a realm that had only known shadows. Although unable to witness, the spirits of his people were reborn within the brilliance of the celestial orb, dancing in eternal joy. 

Ariel, the redeemer, The One, stood at the center of this cosmic transformation. As the architect of a realm where the darkness of their past is not eclipsed by the brilliance of unity. The sun, a testament to the resilience of his fractured family, pulsed with the heartbeat of their collective souls.

The cosmic tapestry, once void of light, now bore the tapestry of a family's journey. The sun hung as a symbol of their sacrifice, a reminder that from the darkest moments, the power to illuminate the cosmos could be born. In this celestial sanctuary, time seemed to stand still for Ariel, hand in hand with his kin, he accepted his fate to be a spectator to the new world for eternity.

And so, in the eternally dark world, a new light shone-the light of redemption, unity, and the undying love that transcended even death. The family, bound by a celestial bond, left behind a legacy that echoed through the infinite reaches of space and time.