Countless stars were all drowned out by that brilliant, dazzling radiance. A brand-new sun seemed to have materialized in the night sky, its magnificence blazing forth without restraint, tracing its predetermined path across the heavens without a care.
Sensing something, Brook emerged from his "Electromagnetic Kingdom" and stood in a study on the thirty-fourth floor of the Allence Arcane Tower, gazing up at the starry sky with a somewhat dazed expression.
"This isn't the birth of a real star..."
"Its orbit is far too close. If it truly were a star, it would collide catastrophically with the world and annihilate everything..."
"What on earth is this?"
"How can such an unimaginably tremendous force exist?"
As a Grand Archanist, and moreover a legendary mage who had grown up under Douglas—a master of force fields, celestial mechanics, and light and darkness—Brook could calculate the approximate orbital range in his head simply by estimating the brightness, size, and other parameters at a glance. It wasn't precise, but it was enough to determine how close the object was to the world.
And precisely because of that, he had gone slightly blank. If this really were the birth of a star, he wouldn't have felt nearly this much shock and confusion. His first thought would have been to prepare the appropriate arcane magic for careful observation and study of the phenomenon, to explore the mysteries of the world.
…………
In the Kingdom of Briana, inside an arcane tower that pierced the clouds.
A certain high-ranking astrologer had been using the trajectory of fate reflected in his crystal ball—based on the movements of the stars—to divine something, but now he sat with his mouth slightly agape, his expression blank as he stared at the sky. He had never seen a star so bright, so exaggerated in appearance, and one that emerged so abruptly and without any forewarning!
This was even more inconceivable than the Crimson Moon from a while ago!
"What kind of star is this, exactly?"
Only after a long moment did he mutter to himself. Then, suddenly, he came to his senses and looked down at the crystal ball in his hands. The trajectory of fate within it had already changed without his noticing. With a mix of vexation and dejection, he said: "I'll have to start all over again... The birth of a star is bound to bring enormous changes to the River of Fate..."
Several dozen minutes later, he abruptly looked up, staring at the sky in astonishment:
"Why is there no reflection in the River of Fate?"
"Is this actually a star or not?"
…………
On the edge of the Dark Mountains, at an adventurer's camp.
Stanis, the Nightmare King, who enjoyed mingling among crowds, observing the shifting of human hearts, and collecting all manner of dreams, was savoring a leisurely afternoon tea inside his small wooden cabin when suddenly the white-glazed porcelain teacup in his hand slipped from his grasp. It traced an elegant arc to the floor, shattering with a crisp sound into countless shards.
Stanis paid it no mind whatsoever. With a flicker-teleport, he arrived at the window, looking upward toward the east.
There, on the distant horizon, a resplendent, blinding star had abruptly materialized from nothingness, illuminating half the sky and rivaling the sun in brilliance—utterly extravagant.
"Is something wrong with my cognitive world? Have I been affected by my own dreams or illusions?"
Stanis glanced at the setting sun in the west, then turned back without flinching against the glare to look at the brand-new star, watching it trace its orbit naturally.
"If this is a dream—this newly born star, this terrifying celestial body that can compete with the sun for brightness—what does it represent in terms of my psychological projections?"
"And if it isn't a dream, then who created it?"
"Such a feat is absolutely beyond what any 'mortal' could accomplish..."
…………
In Luntar, on a street unadorned with arc-light lamps, the darkness was cold, with only a scattering of starlight to illuminate the way.
Thanks to the growing number of alchemical workshops and the improvements alchemists had made to textile machinery, ordinary citizens of Luntar found themselves working overtime more and more often. At this hour, scattered late-night returnees hurried along under the stars, bundled against the biting, howling wind. After a full day of toil, all they wanted was to get back to the warmth of home as quickly as possible.
As they walked, they suddenly noticed the road ahead had turned bright, without the slightest trace of darkness—as if it were daytime.
In their astonishment, they instinctively looked up at the sky and were struck speechless. When had a dazzling new star—completely different from the silver moon—appeared overhead? It hung in the night sky, blazing and conspicuous, slowly rotating with passionate intensity.
Was this a miracle?
"Great God of Truth..."
"Truth alone endures..."
After a long moment of stunned silence, these ordinary citizens assumed it was the God of Truth manifesting a divine sign. One after another, they dropped to their knees in fervent, devout prayer, heedless of the slushy mud forming as the snowflakes melted around them.
…………
In Altor, Natasha, dressed in hunting attire, was galloping on horseback through a sparse forest.
She suddenly drew her bow and nocked an arrow. The long shaft, wreathed in phantom fractures around its tip, vanished in a flash and reappeared before a massive tree hundreds of meters away. Then, like a hot knife through butter, it punched through dozens of trees in succession and struck a gray-white rabbit that had just burst from the underbrush. It pierced clean through the creature's pelt and pinned it, still alive, to the ground.
All those dozens of trees had been transformed into something like a pencil sketch, as though someone had taken an eraser and carved out a hollow in the middle while leaving the rest completely untouched.
Yet Natasha paid no attention to this shot she was so proud of. Instead, she turned her head with a slight start toward the east, where she saw the resplendent, blinding star leap into existence as though breaking free from captivity.
This celestial anomaly immediately reminded her of the Crimson Moon from a while ago. Knowing the cause behind that event, she murmured in a low voice: "Could it be him again?"