[Now... Don’t be like that... Look at him… So fragile… Like… Glass…]

“… Another vision”.

The star woke up, which was strange, for stars never sleep. The only time they sleep is when they are fading, when their light is dying, but that’s unconfirmed – most of them just vanish into thin air. He always waked up in that white room, a pure white that almost covered everything but a black door.

His mask seemed like broken pieces of ice put together, with a small blood colored bubble at the upper part that descended in a frozen stream, forming deep roots. His white colored hair had pointy ends that pulled themselves forward, spears that vibrated every second. It was so long that it almost completely covered his thin frame and its gentle bluish gleam was incomparably beautiful. The star got up, walked to the door and rotated the doorknob.

The white room disappeared.

“… Strange. I always went forth, now i’m back at the starting point. What does it mean…?”

He knew he was back home, but he didn’t recognize it at all. There were multiple strange spheres up in the sky, various stars walking and flying by, strange individuals made by rock, lava, ice, and some even had a light so intense that a star could never match up to it. Large columns, strange buildings, glowing plants of unknown hues. It was all unfamiliar.

He crouched, touched the bland soil and felt the world turn pale. His vision blurred and his motions slowed down, as if he was falling into a deep slumber. That moment of ecstasy got crushed by a sharp, intense pain, pulsating as if a tumor just grew inside his head and would continue to grow beyond control, devouring his mask and erasing his existence. He felt like dying. A red liquid oozed out of the tiny bubble in his mask, creating a new line when it streamed down.

The pain was gone.

“… I see. Things have changed that much” On a single moment, he absorbed multiple memories regarding the land he was in. He didn’t go back to the starting point, quite the opposite, he was reaching the end of his journey. He took a moment to think about when it all started, then continued to talk to himself.

“The beginning… Of the end”. He felt sadness for the first time, but didn’t quite understand the feeling, dismissing it as a side effect of his power. He needed to recover the lost energy, his light was so low that he could disappear at any moment. He learned, before, about the glowing plants that could restore his energy and also their location. Still in touch with the terrain, he sucked up their energy from afar, being overrun by a nurturing feeling.

“Now… It’s time to look for it… Guide me on this trial”

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

His mind went into a blank state. His consciousness was lost.

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“Please, go back to reality, I’m begging you!”

“If you really worry about my safety, then be quiet. I don’t need anyone hoarding shadows”

Saturn felt disturbed, to the point of doubting his own actions. That girl, she never concurred with him, always making a fuss about his decisions, always worried about his wellbeing, always telling him to stop. Why did she act like that? He didn’t really care, but if he did care, he would feel unsettled by it and ask those same questions.

He ignored his own doubts and kept pressing on.

The Shadow World changed everything. When he walked, he warped through multiple frames, leaving behind nothing but afterimages. At the same time, his stance remained almost still, it was like gliding through the ground. Whenever Saturn encountered a group of shadows, he would silently distance himself as to not face them, but he sensed something out of place.

“… Something feels wrong”.

“For the first time in a long while we agree!” replied the girl, gleefully.

“That’s not it… There are too few shadows”

“Would you rather face more of them? Have you finally lost it?”

“You keep on screaming… Yet it doesn’t attract them… She knows about it”.

Saturn stopped on his tracks at the sight of a huge shadow. Before it could do anything, his twin serrated blades slid from his sleeves and in a sweeping motion he took the legs off. He then sent the creature flying and danced in the air like a lotus, making cuts and bruises that made it into minced meat in a matter of seconds. The blades slid back like a fan, drawing an uneven umbrella pattern into the gray background. Instead of finishing the shadow, he just left its disabled corpse on the ground where a huge explosion followed, blowing it to pieces.

“... You've done it now” Saturn fell into silence while looking at the disgusting piece of rotten, burnt flesh. Venus surprised him by discovering about the Shadow World, now she was forcing him to awaken.

“… You leave me no choice... Guide me on this trial”