The first cry of the eclipse echoed through the sky like a living storm.
Every star dimmed. Every creature across the empire lifted its gaze, sensing that the heavens had shifted.
From the highest balcony of the Celestial Palace, Aster watched as the moon bled into crimson. The light spilled across the city like liquid fire, turning the marble streets into rivers of red reflection.
Kael ran toward him, breathless.
"The sky—it's reacting to your power. You have to contain it before it spreads."
Aster's eyes glowed faint gold, but the darkness beneath his veins pulsed like ink.
"I'm not doing this," he said, his voice strained. "It's acting on its own."
The palace trembled. Statues cracked, and the banners of the empire burst into flames of starlight.
Aster's vision blurred, and for a heartbeat, he saw not the empire—but a sea of constellations screaming silently in the void.
Kael grabbed his arm. "Aster! Focus. Anchor yourself!"
"I'm trying," he whispered, falling to his knees. "But something inside me wants to be free."
Kael hesitated, then unsheathed his blade. "Then I'll help you contain it, even if it kills me."
Aster lifted his gaze. "Don't. If you strike me now, the starlight will devour you."
Kael clenched his jaw but lowered the sword. "Then tell me what to do."
Aster looked toward the blood-red moon, eyes full of grief. "Pray it ends before I lose control."
Deep beneath the palace, Lyra stood inside the Sanctum, clutching the crystal shard she had taken from the Chamber of Origin. The light within it pulsed in rhythm with the eclipse, as though alive.
Each beat of light resonated with Aster's heartbeat. She could feel his pain through it, sharp and burning.
The voice of the First Light whispered again in her mind.
"He is breaking. The blood within him can no longer obey."
Lyra shouted into the empty air, her voice echoing off the stone walls. "Then tell me how to stop it!"
"You cannot stop him. You can only guide him toward surrender."
Her hand tightened around the crystal. "And if he refuses?"
"Then the world will burn."
Lyra trembled, her breath shaking. "He won't. He can't. He's stronger than that."
"Love blinds the heart, child. Even the stars once loved, and they too fell."
Lyra closed her eyes. "Then let me be the one who doesn't."
She turned and began to run, her steps echoing through the corridors as the palace shuddered above her. Dust fell like ash.
The crimson glow spread through every hall, painting the world in light that felt too close to blood.
Outside the palace, across the capital, the eclipse reached its zenith. The sky cracked with silver lightning.
From the great temples to the distant towers, people fell to their knees, praying to gods that no longer answered.
In the courtyard, the elite guards of the Order of Solarius assembled. Their leader, Sir Elion, raised his blade toward the burning sky.
"By decree of the High Order, the Emperor is no longer mortal," he declared. "He is the Eclipse given form. Capture him alive, or die trying."
Hundreds of armored soldiers moved as one, their weapons glowing faint gold, designed to resist starlight.
They marched toward the palace gates as the wind howled and reality itself began to distort.
Inside the throne hall, Aster stood alone.
The great silver throne behind him had cracked from the pressure of his aura. The air shimmered with fragments of constellations, swirling like dying stars.
He could feel Lyra's presence somewhere below, faint but steady, like a voice calling through the void.
He whispered her name. "Lyra."
The sound of footsteps echoed.
The massive doors burst open, and Elion entered with his knights, their blades drawn and eyes burning with zeal.
"Elion," Aster said quietly. "You shouldn't be here."
Elion's voice was steady, but there was fear in it. "You are no longer the man we swore to serve. The eclipse has claimed your soul."
Aster smiled faintly. "Then perhaps my soul was never mine to begin with."
"Stand down," Elion warned. "We'll find a way to purify the corruption without bloodshed."
Aster looked up, the light in his eyes flickering between gold and black. "You still don't understand. This isn't corruption. It's evolution."
And with that, the room exploded with light.
Every knight was thrown backward, their armor seared by celestial fire.
Aster stood amidst the chaos, surrounded by fragments of floating glass and light that bent around him like orbiting stars.
Elion struggled to rise. "What have you become?"
Aster looked down at his hands, the veins of light crawling up his arms.
"Something the stars feared," he said softly. "Something they tried to erase."
Behind him, the moon's reflection filled the shattered window.
It was no longer red.
It was black.
And from its surface, a whisper reached every living soul across the empire.
"The Emperor has awakened."