Celestial Equinox

The night sky was a dark and gloomy purple. The heavens were lit up by a countless constellation of stars. Hidden between them were the dim glow of Desdemona, the binary planet pair that co-orbited around the sun along with the home world Ariel.

Two moons had a profoundly complex spiral orbit spiraling around the two twin planets of Desdemona and Ariel like a mobius strip. This caused the phases of the moons on Ariel to be extremely complicated. There would be times when only one of the moons would appear in the night sky and there would be times when both appeared, but in different phases.

At the same time, due to this complicated astronomy, one of the moons, Oberon, often showed up as a distinctively blood colored moon on most occassions, with a rare occasion when the full phase of the moon would have a purple hue. The other moon, Cressida, had a similar phenomenon, where it mostly appeared with a deep blue colored hue, however, once in a blue moon, Cressida would have a grey color. Despite being night, the grey colored moon would be brightly visible on Ariel. It would make for a truly stunning sight.

Once in millennia, this complicated planetary motion causes an extremely rare astronomical event on Ariel. This event was known as the Celestial Equinox, when the two moons would simultaneously appear as full moons and at the same appear in the purple and grey forms at the same time.

The night of the Celestial Equinox was a legendary festival on Ariel, particularly because of the legendary history associated with the event. Ariel had a famous cultural myth, commonly told to children all over the world as the Tales of the Mage.

It spoke of the legend of a woman called Pandora. Once upon a time, there were no twin planets, nor were there two moons. There was simply the planet Ariel and a single white moon. However, one day Pandora, a wandering woman who was famous as an explorer, discovered a mysterious box.

Thinking it was a treasure, she tried to open it, however, she began seeing visions of a mysterious smoke telling it to stop, for opening the box would lead to the death of the world. However, in her greed, she opened the box anyway. At that moment, a beautiful woman came out of the box. Her beauty was indescribable, and every move of hers oozed grace and power.

The woman called herself Desdemona. She looked at Pandora and smiled, saying that she would give Pandora a gift for releasing her. Then she flew into the sky, becoming the twin planet of Ariel. The single white moon split apart and formed two moons, Oberon and Cressida.

Pandora wondered what her gift was, for she couldn't discover anything and doubted Desdemona. However, the next day the Celestial Equinox occured and Pandora discovered that Ariel was changing. Mana was born.

The festival of the Celestial Equinox, which would appear almost two millennia apart at the least, was held on the day this unique astronomical phenomenon presented itself, to celebrate the birth of Mana on the planet, changing the world forever.

Today, was the day of the Celestial Equinox. The Confederate Academy of Magic at Piccadilly City was brightly lit up with all kinds of magical lamps and lighting as possible. The festive mood was palpable, as the people in flashy robes, suits and brilliant ball gowns were excitedly rushing into the Academy for the festival celebrations.

A large party was being held within the Academy's halls and all kinds of big shots from all over the Kingdom of Roses had made their way to the best magic academy in the country, in preparation for a grand event that would mark the end of an era and the beginning of a new one.

Luke Vinson was anxiously pacing around the the hall, clearly appearing patient. Since the past month, he had been led around on a wild goose chase in search of a meaning. Who ever was leading him on, knew him so well it scared him. They knew his behavior, how he would react and were able to anticipate his every move.

Luke was an ordinary person from a humble background. His talent in magic was ordinary, but he was a hard worker and despite the difficulties of a commoner in becoming a mage, through hard work, he was able to join the Confederate Academy, the best magic university in the county. However, this creepy person who was leading him around to various corners had given him much worry and fear of the person's peculiar interest in him.

The final letter he received told him to come to a classroom at precisely five minutes before midnight, the prime hour of the Celestial Equinox. In worry, anger and anxiousness, Luke didn't even dare participate in the party. His mind had been employed in the fantasies of his confrontation of his stalker.

He constantly kept looking at his watch as he quietly sat at the make shift bar, drinking a glass of beer. When he saw time coming up, he quickly left the party and made his way through the now dark and empty halls to the empty class room. The time was exactly five minutes to midnight.

Luke found a person wearing a red hood sitting on a chair in the classroom, waiting for him. Their face was covered by a shadow as dark as the night itself and Luke couldn't make out their appearance. Luke could feel a terrifying chill emanate from the hooded person.

"We finally meet." A voice that constantly modulated itself, changing frequencies, pitch and timbre, making it impossible to identify if it was a man or a woman... or something else, emanated from behind the shadow.

"...Why have you been stalking me?" Luke asked, gulping down his fear and looking at the hooded figure with a determination to find the truth. "You've been blackmailing me to go around all these places, for what reason?"

The hooded person laughed, but it sounded eery because of the voice modulations. Inhuman even. He looked at his pocket watch. "Any time now." He said nonchalantly.

At that moment, a terrifying earthquake struck. The earth parted apart to form deep and formless cracks. The foundation of the Confederate Academy burst apart and the building began to crumble. Luke saw that a gigantic skeleton hand began to appear out of the earth. It was so large that it struck fear in his heart. The hand came out of the dark cracks and covered the entire sky, trying to grab the moon!

In shock, Luke saw that the world was falling apart. He looked towards the red hooded person, who to his shock had suddenly appeared right in front of him, an old gun pointed on Luke's face.

"What's going on?" Luke asked in a daze of shock, fear and incredulity.

"The apocalypse. Now... you must die." The Red hooded individual shot the gun right on Luke's neck, piercing his head apart like a watermelon, causing Luke to fall backwards onto the wooden mezzanine floor. However, he still hadn't died yet. His eyes were blurry, as his vision was slowly turning dark and he couldn't see anything anymore. Blood gushed from the hole the pierced his neck and exploding out of his skull.

"Remember this feeling. Don't die again." Luke heard a whisper of an eery voice... before everything turned black