"What does it feel like to drown?"
Your hands claw through the water in wild, desperate motions, stretching toward a wavering light, your only reason to keep struggling.
As the unforgiving depths reclaim you inch by inch, hope slips beyond your reach, and every instinct screaming at you to survive finally falls silent.
The battle was fierce, but it was hopeless. You lost.
And as darkness closes in, your mind offers one final mercy:
Memories.
***
"Our Eclipsion Kingdom has stood unshaken since the dawn of time, blessed by the Black Sun Shards. Through them, our bloodline has endured, and our dominion has remained eternal."
The commanding voice of a man adorned in regal black vestments echoed throughout the grand palace hall.
A crown of polished obsidian, shaped in the likeness of an eclipsed sun, rested upon his head, while an ornate throne stood behind him.
Beside him stood two women of breathtaking beauty, their regal bearing making their identities unmistakable.
"Today, each of you shall undergo the Eclipse Ritual, where the Black Sun itself will reveal how many shards have been bestowed upon your soul."
His proud gaze swept across the gathering below.
Noble families and commoners alike filled the hall, though every eye was drawn to the fifty teenage boys and girls.
Raising both hands before him, the king summoned a surge of pitch-black astral energy.
It spiraled outward before condensing into a miniature Black Sun, from whose surface five jagged shards slowly separated and hovered in the air.
"From Shadow to Void. From the Divine Black Sun to Umbrasol. Bless Your own and place their destinies within Your hands."
The moment the final words of the incantation resonated through the palace, the miniature Black Sun drifted into the air, stopping directly above the children.
Veins of pitch-black astral energy unfurled from its surface like living tendrils, descending before coiling gently around each of the fifty participants.
A dim obsidian radiance engulfed them, lifting them from the ground as their consciousness slipped away into an enchanted slumber.
The palace fell silent as no one dared speak.
All eyes remained fixed upon the hovering children, anticipation tightening every chest as anxious hands clasped together.
Then...
A halo appeared.
Then another.
Soon, halos crowned every child.
Runic patterns slowly emerged upon their foreheads, gradually forming Black Sun crests, each crowned by a single obsidian shard that shimmered with a faint astral radiance.
Several moments passed, and at once twenty-five children gently descended back to the floor.
Each bore a crest marked with a single shard.
A ripple of disappointment spread through both the children and their families.
Although one shard was enough to walk the path of cultivation, it represented the lowest blessing the Black Sun could bestow.
Three minutes passed, and the remaining twenty-five continued to float.
Then, all at once, fifteen more drifted back to the ground, all bearing two shards.
This time, the reactions were far warmer, with smiles replacing sighs.
While not extraordinary, two shards at least promised a respectable future.
Five more minutes slipped by, and only ten children remained suspended beneath the miniature Black Sun.
Soon, five of them descended together, each possessing three shards.
Cheers erupted throughout the palace.
Three-shard blessings were rare enough to earn admiration wherever one went, and the joy on the faces of those families was impossible to hide.
Only five children remained, and not long afterward, four more were gently lowered to the ground, each possessing four shards.
The Black Sun crests adorning their foreheads shone with a brilliance far surpassing the others, four jagged obsidian shards orbiting each crest in perfect harmony, drawing gasps from every corner of the hall.
To possess four shards was to be counted among the greatest talents of the kingdom.
"...There’s still one."
The whisper spread through the crowd and every gaze turned toward the lone figure still suspended beneath the miniature Black Sun.
All at once, the halo surrounding the child flared, its light growing brighter until his entire body glowed with pitch-black astral radiance.
Ten minutes...
...thirty minutes
Forty-five...
The palace watched in stunned silence, and even the king slowly rose from his throne, disbelief flickering across his face.
"Can it be..."
At last, the light began to fade, and he slowly descended to the floor.
He was a young man with striking midnight-violet hair, but everyone’s gaze was already locked onto the Black Sun crest adorning his forehead.
"This..."
A villager’s voice trembled.
"This can’t be. Nine shards!"
"He has been blessed with... nine Black Sun Shards."
Silence swallowed the hall, then, all at once,
CHEERS.
Thunderous cheers erupted throughout the palace.
For the first time in decades, the king abandoned all semblance of royal composure.
Descending from the dais with hurried steps, he crossed the hall and stopped before the young man.
His hands trembled ever so slightly as he placed them upon the child’s shoulders, his face filled with both pride and disbelief.
"The Black Sun has blessed our Eclipsion Kingdom with one who carries its complete inheritance. And that child is none other than my son, Arlo!"
"GLORY TO THE BLACK SUN!"
_____
There was a grand celebration, with wine flowing without restraint, tables overflowing with roasted meats, and music echoing from every corner of the palace until late into the night.
On that fateful day, within one of the Three Great Kingdoms of Umbrasol, a being was born with a talent destined to stand alongside the gods themselves.
***
And as the freezing depths continued to pull him farther into their endless embrace, while the last traces of warmth slipped from his body and consciousness slowly faded into darkness, that memory refused to leave him.
It clung stubbornly to his heart, replaying itself again and again, as though some unseen force desperately wished for him to witness it one final time.
The memory that changed everything and turned his entire world upside down:
_____
"Come, Orion. Let us carve into these fool’s souls the true meaning of war."