Arc 1:

*The Darker One*

Chapter 1:

*Gods Among Us*

The bell's chimes echoed through the village. dozens of the villagers, men and women, children to elderly, all of them gathered with their oranged cloaks under the Sun's blinding lights in front of a small altar at the center of the village. Said altar had a wooden table with a small book over it, and the chiming bell on the other side.

Standing in the altar was a tall man, with around thirty years and a very well trained body, full of muscles. His face couldn't be seen under the hood, but once he grabs the book on the table and open it, he began to talk:

"My friends... We're back here once more to send our prayers to the glorious one, He who is the center of our entire galaxy; the Sun." He read off from the book's lines, reciting loud enough for all to hear. "For today is no common day. Today is the day our ancestor's prophecy predicted the Sun will come from far above the skies and grace us with His celestial flames!"

The crowd, then kneeling down, gets up and raises their arms high above their heads once the speech is finished. The man on the altar turns around doing the same right after pulling the cord to ring the bell once more.

"Oh, glorious Sun! Grace us with Your majestic fire!" The followers kept repeating this nonstop while the bell rang. Then, when it stops, everyone stays silent, leaving only a complete silence through the entire place. They wait, and wait, and wait. They kept waiting for a signal from the Sun, any signal, but nothing happened.

With a voice full of confusion and disappointment, the leader whispered to himself; "I don't understand... It was supposed to be today..."

But while they waited, a couple of seconds later something... weird happened. The bell rang again, however no one pulled it's cord. The leader was already out of range to do it, so how did this happen...? It's like the bell gained life. The followers just watched, both shocked and unbelieving.

Then they saw it, a mysterious object flying through the skies with a loud bang drawing their attention. As it approached, it became clear it was a huge fireball leaving a trail of fire all the way from the Sun and coming to the village's direction very fast. All of them ran for their lives, scared of the impact of it land directly in here. However, something even weirder happened soon after: the fireball accelerated and fell right behind the bell's altar without causing any sort of damage to the place or to the ground.

Curious and worried, the leader go around the altar to look at the crash and see what exactly is that. There, he sees two living beings; one adult and one newborn baby, neither of them human.

"Who... are you?" He asks while cautiously approaching. For each step closer, he could see better what they were.

The adult one is a creature very similar to a werewolf, covered by purple fur, though only his head was uncloaked, with his raises ears. The cloak that covered him was weird, mythical even. It's like looking at the night sky, with many shining stars, but the cloak's stars could actually move. It was simply a design, it's some kind of magic projection.

The werewolf turned around, watching the man's movements with his glowing blue eyes before showing a large smile. "The Sun heard your call, so... here She is." He extends his arms, in which he held the baby, who had a similar appearance to that of an adorable and fluffy moth.

Though reluctant, he took the child into his own arms. The man looked at this "Sun", seeing her soft white fur, the yellow exoskeleton on her forearms and legs, and her beautiful eyes, blue like the sky, while slowly massaging her feather-like yellow antennas. Then, at last, her small wings, also yellow and shining, with black borders.

"Her name is Sundaze. She's not daughter of the Sun, nor it's creator. She IS the Sun in person. And now, I'm trusting her growth and care to you, leader of the solaris clan. Do you accept such responsibility?"

He thinks for a moment, switching between looking at the child and the wolf. If what'd he just hear was true, then right now he's holding a true Goddess and was expected to raise Her like a daughter. The weight of the responsibility is huge, too heavy for any human.

"I... accept." The leader confidently gave his answer.

"How perfect. Take a very good care of Her, ok?" The wolf walked away, creating a mythical looking portal , through which he was entering when he heard the human calling with a simple question; "Who are you?"

He laughed a bit before calming down to answer him "I guess you can say I'm the father of this universe." and proceeding through the portal, closing it right after.

[•••]

On that same day, late at night...

[Lunaris village]

There was no one out this late in the night. Not a sound echoing through the village, no cicada, no grasshopper, nor any other animal, nothing. Just a complete and cold silence.

Just like the solaris, this village belonged to a clan that follows cosmic entities. In their case, they're faithful believers of the Moon. Both clans were born and lived around an enormous mountain located on a distant island, built along it's exterior sides and being considered touristic points as part of one of Terramar's oldest cultures.

Though they're in opposite sides of the mountain, named Mt. Fijan, both clans live in peace with each other. Their beliefs easily partake in the same religion, having only chosen a different cosmic entity to follow.

But now, while the people were in their houses, enjoying a deep sleep on their comfortable beds, none of them knew that a mysterious guest arrived, holding a baby in their arms, also sleeping peacefully.

While walking down the street, the newcomer sang a lullaby to the baby. Each step was leaving behind a footstep made of light that was growing and covering everything. The intense light emanated from it managed to invade all houses through the windows, and because of that many people woke up.

Those who got up went outside while in a state of somnolence. Because of that, some of them took a few seconds to fully comprehend what was happening, and others just assumed this is all a dream. Eventually the crowd expands, surround the visitant in the middle of the village.

"Oh, hello, humans." The visitant said, with a melodious feminine voice, like that of an angel. She takes one of her hands to her hood, lowering it until her face is exposed to all present. It's finally revealed that she and her baby are both lizard-like creatures with dark blue scales, with the adult also having a pair of long horns on her head and beautiful white glowing eyes.

Everyone just stared at her, questioning if it's real or some hallucination, but also mesmerized by her beauty. All of them whispered to one another, asking if they weren't the only ones seeing this non-human creature talking and using some kind of luminous magic.

"Do you, lunarians, want to know who we are?" She asks, looking around them. "For I am Luna, and I bring the one you follow: the moon herself, Alamuna!" She lifted the baby over her head, allowing all humans to see. Alamuna, as she was called, remained in her sleep, curled up in her blanket.

[•••]

Today is a cold day, with a nice breeze circulating through the villages, going into people's faces. It's also a very calm day, with no noises to disturb the peace. A perfect time to go out and do some group activities like playing sports or just walking around.

And that's basically what everybody is doing at the moment throughout the two villages, not worrying about any pending work or issues, specially those who decided to walk on the trails of mount Fijan, either alone or accompanied.

Right now a young couple was passing through said trail with a pair of bicycles, planning to cross the mountain and go from one village to the other while enjoying the view and wind on their faces. After that, they entered the lunarian village's streets, home of the girl.

"So, what about that seafood restaurant for lunch?" The boy asks, follow his girlfriend on the road.

"Sounds like a great idea, I'm famished right now." She replied with a laugh.

Soon they charge direction, going to the next right they see, when suddenly their bicycles stopped moving, stuck to the ground and forcing both of them to get out and verify what happened. They saw not a hole on the wheels, like they expected, but the rubber of the wheels completely melted and glued to the asphalt.

"How did this happen?" They ask themselves, trying to move it together, without success. The wheels were really stuck and wouldn't be let free so soon.

But not very far from there, coming from inside an alley, there was a bunch of quiet laughter, sounding like it's coming from children. And there they were, a small group of five kids hiding behind the wall, spying on the couple's situation and their attempts to free the bicycles.

Three of these kids are well-known troublemakers in the villages for making a lot of pranks on random people, but the other two... Well, they're not human, they're a humanoid scaly creature and moth, and both of them were laughing just like the others. The moth's hands emanated a strong heat wave, which she used to melt the wheel's rubber.

"Their faces are so funny!" She said between her quiet laughs.

"Daisy, your powers are so useful for our pranks!" One of the boys declared, referring to Sundaze and tapping her back. "But what about you, what are your powers, Muna?" He turned to the lizard girl, who was almost completely covered in a dark cloak.

She smiles, looking back at the couple and whispering "Watch." to him.

The kids kept watch, paying attention to what she was gonna do when they see a house's shadow moving closer to the two. Suddenly, a shadowy tentacle emerged from there, crawling along the ground to remain unseen. The moment the girl was going around the bicycles, she tripped on the tentacle and almost fell, but her boyfriend was quick to grab and hold her by the arm.

Once again the children start laughing, mainly Alamuna who seemed very content with her prank. After letting their happiness overflow for a while they left the alley, Alamuna only leaving after covering herself with her hood.

"What are we gonna do now, guys?" Sundaze asked enthusiastically while following them.

"Let's mess with those bullies from school! That annoying Dennis must be trying to take other's lunch money at the playground."

"Argh, I can't stand him, he's always taking my pencils!

"Yeah! I wanna see him dancing with his feet on fire!"

The three boys kept going on about their plans to prank the bullies using the girls's incredible powers, however they were both too confused to understand, since none of them knew this Dennis they were talking about. Being non-human creatures – and most important, goddesses – the two of them were homeschooled all of their lifes, both to protect the children from her powers and to protect them from possible abusive kids, such as the bullies.

However, Sundaze had no father or mother to raise and care for her, to teach her about this world, about humans, or about anything, since the day she arrived in the solarian village, so her only real caretaker is the man to whom she was trusted as a baby. The man in question is also the now leader of the solaris clan, known as Father Antares with his fourty years.

On the other side, Alamuna gad the most luck upon arriving Terramar with an adult figure to do all of these things for her. It was the one who came inside the village with her ten years ago, who also became the clan's leader: the celestial being now called Mother Luna.

Both leaders are very loving caretakers of the goddesses, being cold and rigid when necessary, but also playful friends to them on a normal basis. But of course, they shared their responsibilities with the two's growth: Father Antares being responsible for their education while Mother Luna taught them how to use their powers properly.

But even so, Sundaze, nicknamed has Daisy by her friends, and Alamuna, nicknamed Muna, had the freedom to walk around the two clan's villages. After all, there is absolutely nothing in the human world that could cause minimal harm to celestial beings, just like it goes for demons and angels.

While walking along the sidewalk, Alamuna accidentally stepped on part of her cloak, and because of that she tripped and fell on the solid rock floor, with her hood coming off. Suddenly, she feels an intense pain all over her head, like she was being burned alive in the hottest of flames. Trying to not scream, the Moon's personification just moaned in pain while Sundaze hurried to lift the cloak's hood and protect her friend from the Sun's light.

Well, seems like there is actually one way to harm at least one of them. Alamuna, being a celestial being that lives in shadows, is harshly burned when exposed to the Sun's light for more than three seconds, causing that horrible and agonizing sensation. Why that didn't apply to Sundaze's direct lights nobody knew, but it's theorized that it's because Sundaze is light in a physical, concentrated form, instead of radiant.

"Muna, are you alright!?" The moth goddess asked visibly scared, helping her friend to getting up and holding her hands, full of worry.

She nods her head, moaning a bit more. "Still burns... But I'll be fine."

"Oh, thank the cosmos!" She hugged the lizard goddess tightly and gently rubbed her cheek on Alamuna's. "Come, I'll take you home. Sorry guys, we can't continue the pranks for today."

"It's okay... We go after him next time!" The trio of boys waves goodbye while distancing themselves, with the girls going in the opposite direction.

The entire time Sundaze was supporting her friend on her shoulder, since Alamuna was still dizzy with the burning sensation that it'd be dangerous to let her walk by herself. They walked together until they arrived at the entrance of a considerably bigger house than the rest of them.

The house had two floors and a square shape, like it was made out of many individual squares and rectangles. For the garden, it had a small artificial pond on the left, from which some small birds were drinking, but they all flew away when the two came closer, going to the door and knocking a few times.

Soon the door opens to reveal Mother Luna on the other side, looking worried after seeing them. "Goodness, what happened!?" She asked when holding Alamuna by the shoulders. Quickly, Sundaze explained what had happened while coming inside.

After setting both of them on the couch, the leader hurried to bring a bag of ice and holding it over the Moon goddess's head, right where she was exposed and burned. She stayed very quiet, leaning against her mother figure for comfort.

Sundaze was also there, asking the same question over and over if she'd be alright, and always receiving answer from Luna; "Don't you worry, my dear. You helped her before she could be seriously harmed."

"Okay..." But she remained worried and scared, sitting on the other side of the couch and gripping her knees.

"You just need to rest now. Stay here, watch some television." She planted a small kiss on her cheeks before getting up and looking at the Sun goddess. "Call me if she needs anything, yes?" And after she nodded, Luna walked away, disappearing from their field of vision behind a wall to another room.

Since they were now alone, the moth could ask Alamuna directly how she felt, to which she replied saying she's just a little dizzy. "I'm sorry... It's my light that did this to you..."

"It's not your fault, Daisy. Neither of us can control our powers completely." She turned to her friend, now being the one holding the bag, and gave her a content smile, hoping to help her relax a little.

"You're right..." She whispered to herself, feeling just a little down, but better than before nonetheless.

But Alamuna noticed this, so she extending her arm to hold Sundaze's hands. The moth, confused, just stared at their hands together, wondering what she's doing. "Let's make a promise; you'll learn to make you light not burn me and we'll be inseparable friends for life!"

Her open wide, surprised with this proposition. Though, being honest with herself, it's impossible to say 'no' to it. They shake their hands and hug each other immediately.

"I promise, Muna."