February 2nd, 3078
Sitting on the rooftop of a large house was a boy of 17 years. His body was lithe, tight muscles pressing against his black shirt. His hair was a chaotic, windswept mop of obsidian black. It was the kind of dark that felt heavy, absorbing the light around it. Resting on his sharp face were a pair of startling, translucent silver eyes. He was dressed in his best formal wear—a high-collared suit of dark charcoal that had belonged to his father.
While most boys his age spent their nights dreaming of becoming famous Rankers or watching highlights of dungeon raids on the network, Caelum spent his time on the roof.
The shingles were slate-grey and slippery with the evening mist, angled steeply enough to be dangerous, but the view from the Solace Estate was worth the risk.
From here, the Capital city of Astrea was a sprawling haze of light, patches of people so large that he could see them from here. But Caelum wasn't looking at the city. He was looking up.
"You're so bright tonight," he murmured, his breath fogging in the chilly air.
He was speaking to Sirius, the Dog Star.
The star in question hung in the southern sky, a piercing diamond of blue-white light. It was the brightest thing in the sky, dominating the lesser lights in an almost arrogant manner.
Taking in the sight of the rest of the stars, Caelum sighed in content. The universe was a thing of cold, beautiful indifference, and Caelum loved it.
He checked his watch. It was time. Standing up and stretching with a groan, Caelum walked back inside of the house, his mind busy as he headed to his car.
Today was the Awakening ceremony. The day the Gods decided if you were a hammer or a nail.
"Mom, Dad," he said to the empty house as he walked out the door. "Wish me luck."
Of course, his parents couldn't respond. They were SS-Rankers and generals of the Nightshade Kingdom. 7 years ago, they were lost in a rift that the royal family simply labeled as 'The Grey Drift.' Everyone said they were dead, lost forever in a closed gate. Caelum could feel it, though. They were just… stuck. Somehow.
As he stepped into the backseat of the car, he pressed his head against the window, watching the house fade away as the car started moving to the church.
________________________________________
About half an hour later, Cealum stepped out of his car, his butler and driver, Atrium at his side as he gazed up at the church.
"It's quite big, isn't it?" he said with a frown.
"Of course, young master. The Cathedral of the Sky was designed to make humans feel small. To remind them that no matter how high they climb and no matter what rank they reach, they will never be able to reach the gods. A bit humbling, really."
As they walked into the cathedral, Caelum studied it with mild interest. Vaulted ceilings stretched up into the shadows, supported by pillars of white marble, thick and tall. Stained glass windows depicted the three gods of this church: The Sun God, The Moon Goddess, and the Star Beast.
The air smelled of ozone and incense. Three hundred eighteen-year-olds stood in orderly rows, each either filled with worry or full of confidence.
Ahead of us, priests were shepherding people up to a podium where a statue was holding an orb in its hands.
See, awakening in this world can be both a natural and artificial process. Most people awaken using a crystal, a type of artifact that forces the latent power of your core to move through your mana circuit, essentially working to jump start your core's mana production and your circulation of said mana. The other way to awaken involves one of three things: Intense trauma that forces your core to awaken, longtime exposure to high levels of mana, or by assimilation with a legacy.
As the line moved and slowly dwindled down, there were a few who stood out.
There was Kaden Drake. Affinities are often tied to your bloodline, with the variations coming from you as a person, so it was no surprise when he awakened fire affinity. What was a surprise was that he awakened Phoenix Flames, a combination of fire and light affinity.
Another one was an elf girl. She was tall with pale skin. Her hair was white and had silver eyes so cold that they seemed to freeze whatever they froze upon. Elara Moonglow. Her family immigrated here from the homeland of the elves, Thyria. The women of her family have always awakened the Moon affinity without fail, so nobody was shocked when she did the same.
Eventually, his line ended and it was just him left.
"Caelum Solaris." The priest called out, his eyes flashing with recognition as the others who had already finished their awakening started to whisper. It's to be expected, considering how important his parents were.
Caelum kept his chin up as he walked up the stairs to the crystal. It doesn't matter what I get, he told himself. Fire, water, wind. I'll take anything.
The High Priest, a man with eyes like polished flint, gestured to the clear crystal sphere.
"Place your hand," the Priest said, bored.
Caelum took a breath. He reached out.
His palm made contact with the cold glass.
For a second, nothing happened. Then, the reaction came.
There wasn't a burst of red flames like with Kaden. There wasn't a burst of green light. What there was though was darkness. The sphere suddenly filled with inky darkness, the kind so black that it seems like it swallows all light. And in the center of that darkness, tiny, sharp pinpricks of silver light ignited, glowing like embers in the abyss. These pinpricks didn't glow warmly; they pierced the eye. They were cold, distant, and incredibly sharp.
At that moment, the system interface, something that emerged with the appearance of mana a few hundred years ago, opened in front of me.
[
Name- Caelum Solace
Race- Human
Rank- E
Bloodline: None
Traits- Stella Fortuna
Affinity- Star
Talent- Undetermined]
The gathered crowd had fallen silent at this point, confusion.
"Star Affinity," the Priest announced, his voice impressed. He furiously scribbled something on his parchment as the crowd was filled with gasps and light mummering. "There hasn't been a star affinity recorded since Saint Stella. You're going to be especially famous when this reaches the castle, boy."
Caelum wasn't paying attention to the crowd anymore, though. He was fixated on the orb, watching the last of those silver embers fade back into the glass.
Star Affinity.
A slow, disbelieving grin crawled onto his face. He knew the stories—everyone did. Saint Stella hadn't just been a hero; she had been a force of nature. It was said that when she clashed with the Saint of Night from the demon continent, the sheer collision of their souls had carved a wound into the earth that never healed. To this day, that forbidden zone burned with unending silver flames, a luminous scar visible even from the upper atmosphere.
And now, he held that same spark.
"And now for the Talent test," the Priest commanded, gesturing toward the Talent Orb he now held.
Caelum turned his gaze to the jagged piece of quartz. This was the final hurdle. Everybody has at least one Affinity that determines the 'flavor' of a person's power. But Talent was chef. It was a unique manifestation of an individual's soul, shaped by their experiences, their mindset, and the very essence of their soul. Not everybody has one, though. A talent is also one of the things required to ascend to S-Rank later on, as you either need a Soul affinity or a talent in order to sense your soul and start shedding your mortality fully.
Caelum stepped toward the Talent orb, his heart pounding like a drum.
The air in the Cathedral had changed. The bored silence was gone, replaced by a low, electric hum of whispers. Saint Stella. The name hung in the air like a ghost. The priest was leaning forward now, his eyes wide, gripping his quill so hard in anticipation that the wood groaned. After a hundred years, the star affinity had appeared again. In the son of two of the most famous SS-Rankers of the last generation, no less.
Caelum reached out. His fingers trembled slightly as they touched the rough surface of the orb.
Give me something, he pleaded internally. I already have the affinity. Give me something, anything. I'll make it work.
He closed his eyes, waiting for the surge. He waited for the System to sound, to give him a notification again. To tell him what talent he awakened.
One second passed. The orb was cold.
Three seconds. The murmuring of the crowd began to die down, replaced by a suffocating, expectant silence.
Five seconds. Caelum probed inside of himself, using his memory of his father's descriptions of mana circulation to push mana into the stone, his eyes sharpening in concentration as he manages to make it start flowing inside. He poured every drop of his mana he could into the orb, internally begging for anything.
Ten seconds passed.
The orb remained a dull, lethargic grey. It didn't glow. It didn't hum. It sat there, a dead piece of rock.
The silence in the Cathedral shifted from expectant to awkward, and then to something sharper—pity.
"No reaction," the Priest whispered, the excitement draining from his face like water from a cracked bowl. He looked at the orb, then at Caelum, then back at the orb. He tapped the quartz with his quill as if checking to see if it was broken. It wasn't.
"Talent Assessment..." the Priest paused, clearing his throat. The "castle" he had mentioned moments ago seemed to vanish from his mind. "Talentless."
Caelum's hand stayed on the stone. He felt a cold hollow opening up in his chest, a vacuum that swallowed the grin he had been wearing moments before. It felt like falling in a dream—that sudden, heart-stopping lurch when the ground disappears.
"Talentless?" Caelum asked, his voice sounding small in the vast hall. "I can't be null… I just… Fuck…"
The Priest sighed, the excitement in his eyes replaced by disappointment. He waved a hand toward the exit, already looking toward the next student in line.
"I'm sorry, boy. Looks like you'll have to buy or find an artifact to unlock your talent. It'll be hard but… good luck."
Caelum withdrew his hand. The orb felt even colder than before. He looked at the crowd; the gasps had turned into disappointed head-shakes.
"Right," Caelum muttered, forcing a stiff, awkward nod. "Thank you. Have a good day."
He turned and walked down the marble steps, his boots echoing in the sudden, lonely space of the hall. He kept his head up, even as his heart felt like the weight of the sky was suddenly thrust onto his shoulders.
________________________________________
Back at the house, it was quiet. It was always quiet, but tonight, the silence felt aggressive.
Caelum sat at the long mahogany dining table, a single plate of stew in front of him. The other eleven chairs were empty. The chandelier above him slowly brightened, the mana crystals inside adjusting to the light level outside.
"Just me and the ghosts," he joked softly, spooning a piece of potato into his mouth. His eyes flicker up to Atrium. "Well, me and you."
"Yes, young master. Always me and you."
He had spent a few hours afternoon registering at the Guild. The Guild was essentially the safe space for all awakened, offering missions and having locations spanning 6 of the 7 continents.
He had activated his System Interface a dozen times on the ride home, hoping it had been a glitch.
Unfortunately for Caelum, the text didn't change.
He finished his meal and left. He walked through the mansion's library, running his hand along the spines of books his father had read to him. He stopped at the window, looking out at the dark grounds.
He couldn't stay inside. The walls were just a bit too suffocating tonight.
________________________________________
Caelum climbed the stairs to the attic, pushed open the hatch, and stepped out onto the roof.
The night air was biting, cold and familiar. The wind howled through the eaves of the estate, carrying a strange electrical charge that made the hairs on his arms stand up.
He sat in his usual spot, near the main living room's chimney. He pulled his knees to his chest and looked up.
"Well," Caelum said, his voice cracking slightly. "That didn't go according to plan."
He looked for Sirius. The star was there, exactly where it should be. Burning. Bright. Uncaring.
"You're laughing, aren't you?" Caelum let out a dry chuckle. "Go ahead. It is kind of funny. All that time watching you, and I get your affinity, I get a chance to be truly strong, only for my limit to be A-Rank."
He sat there for a long time, watching the lights of Astrea flicker one by one. But Caelum didn't move. He let the cold seep into his bones. It was better than feeling the disappointment.
He checked his watch. Midnight.
"Happy awakening day, Caelum." he whispered.
He sighed, slapping his knees. "Alright. Moping time is over. Tomorrow, I apply for the Academy. Even if I can't make it past A-Rank, they'll accept me because of my affinity."
He stood up, balancing on the slanted tiles. He reached for the handle of the attic door.
Ding.
Caelum froze, his hand hovering over the brass handle. He frowned. He knew that sound. Everyone knew that sound. It was the System.
"A late notification?" he muttered.
He focused, willing the interface to appear. The blue screen materialized, glowing softly against the darkness of the shingles.
[Candidate Found. Examining soul…]
[Star affinity detected.]
[No Talent detected.]
[The Exiled have chosen you.]
Caelum's heart skipped a beat. He stared at the text, reading it twice to make sure he wasn't hallucinating from the cold.
"Candidate? Exiles?" he breathed. "Is this thing broken?"
[Since no Talent is detected, your location will be the impact zone of an Exile or Artifact.]
[The Exiles are discussing…]
[The Exiles have decided. You shall receive Ensis, the Starlight Blade.]
[The Exiles have sent a final message]
[Find us. Use us. Avenge us.]
"Avenge?" Caelum stepped back from the interface, confused. "What do you mean, avenge? And isn't Ensis Orion's sword?"
That's when he saw it.
It was a movement in the corner of his eye. A twitch. Not on the screen, but behind it.
Caelum turned slowly, looking up at the sky he knew better than his own face.
The sky... flickered.
It wasn't a cloud passing over the moon. It was the stars themselves. The Great Hunter, Orion, flickered rapidly, vibrating violently against the black velvet of space. Soon, some of the other constellations all across the world started flashing, sending waves of beautiful light pulsing across the earth.
Caelum rubbed his eyes. "I'm losing it. I'm actually losing my mind."
But when he opened his eyes, the sky shattered.
It happened in total silence, which made it infinitely worse. The tapestry of the night tore open. High above, points of light that had been fixed for millennia detached themselves from their constellations.
One. Two. Five visible from Caelum's position.
"No way," Caelum whispered, taking a stumbling step back.
They fell.
They didn't drift like feathers. They streaked down with terrifying, apocalyptic speed. Great ribbons of blinding silver fire tore through the atmosphere, igniting the clouds.
BOOM!
The sound caught up a second later—a thunderclap that shook the tiles beneath his feet, sending in stumbling into the chimney.
Far, far in the distance, to the north, a pillar of light slammed into the earth. The horizon lit up in a flash of blue daylight. Then another impact, hundreds, if not thousands miles to the west, turning the ocean into a boiling cauldron of steam.
It all across the world, in 13 places to be specific, the stars fell, eradicating anything near where they landed and sending blinding rays of light into the sky and across the horizon.
'What is happening?!' Caelum thought. Then air pressure plummeted, making his ears pop. The peaceful night had turned into a war zone in seconds.
He scrambled for the door, panic finally piercing his shock. He had to get inside. He had to get to the basement for some form of protection.
He grabbed the handle.
Screeeech.
The sound was like a tea kettle screaming through a megaphone. Caelum looked up, and his blood turned to ice.
The fourteenth and last star wasn't hitting the horizon. It wasn't hitting the ocean.
It was directly above him.
It grew larger with every heartbeat—a sphere of oscillating mana, swirling with blues, silvers, and a terrifying violet core. It was beautiful. It was death, streaking directly at him like an arrow from God.
Caelum couldn't move. The sheer pressure of the descending object locked his muscles. The gravity around the estate warped, pressing him down against the roof tiles and snapping the trees around him. The shingles cracked under his boots. The only reason he wasn't dead and the house wasn't destroyed is because his body became stronger after awakening and the estate made with mana reinforced materials.
"I-I… Fuck…" he choked out, the air inside of his lungs being pressed out by the pressure.
Then star arrived. It slammed into him with monstrous force, sending him flying off of the room and slamming him into the pavement below.
There was no pain. Pain was a something your body creates to signal you of danger. Of a risk to your health. How could it create pain for something it can't even register?
The roof vanished. The attic vanished. Caelum felt his body dissolving, his skin unravelling into particles of dust, his bones turning to glass and his eyes bulging in his sockets from the stress. His body began to heat up, letting off steam and boiling the grass around him with searing hot blood from his pores. That's when he knew.
He was dying.
But within the white-hot oblivion, something rushed into him. It wasn't just energy. It felt like somebody took a hammer and chisel, forcingibly carving something into his soul.
This time, he felt it.
Caelum screamed in agony as his consciousness flickered, holding on by a thread of sheer stubbornness. He floated in a void of blinding radiance.
Then, the System chimed again. The sound was distorted, heavy, buzzing with static.
[Your power is overflowing!]
[You are being strengthened!]
There was a moment of excruciating agony that seemed to stretch infinitely as his body finished dissolving, only to rapidly reassemble itself.
Then, a new notification.
[Excess energy detected. Redirecting energy into appropriate form.]
[You have gained a new Trait, Star Brand.]
[Your talent, Nocturne's Boon, has been awakened.]
Then,
[You have gained the Legacy Artifact: The Sword of Starlight, Ensis.]
[New section available in menu: Legacies.]
[Ensis' information will now be available for viewing in the Legacies section.]
Caelum felt a slight weight in his right hand. A phantom weight. Looking over, he saw it- a marking of a silver star on his palm, with a sword piercing through it. On the swords pommel what appeared to to the outline of 13 stars.
"What the fu-" Suddenly, Caelum was hit with a wave of nausea, causing him to heave up his dinner.
His vision began to fade, the darkness of unconsciousness rushing in to claim him before he could experience anything more. But just before the world went black, one final notification floated in the abyss, pulsing with a gentle, golden hue that was different from the rest.
[Nocturne's boon is resignation with Star Brand. Searching soul...]
[The active ability of Nocturne's Boon will now be activated with remaining energy.]
[Your heart's greatest desire will now be granted.]
Then, Caelum fell into the dark as the sky burned.