Lineage

Rex’s breaths came in ragged gasps, his chest caving in each breath. His head quaking as he tried to gather the thoughts of what had just happened, the name Icarus still resounding in his head.

He didn’t know how much time had passed, but it couldn’t have been long. The full moon was still in the distant sky and the smell of blood permeating his lungs was fresh.

‘What happened?’ Rex thought to himself. He could still remember the sensation of the soldiers piercing his lower thigh and stomach with their spears as they closed in on him, yet even though it looked like no time had passed, he was surrounded by puddles of blood and they soldiers were gone, nowhere to be seen. 

‘Was this because of Astrael?’ That was the only thing that would make sense. After all, if the flash that took him to her domain could heal someone; who said it wouldn't be able to hurt someone too. 

Rex took this time to gather his thoughts of what had happened, after all it seemed as if he was safe, for now at least. The blood might have washed off the soldiers, but not the memory. It brought him back to the beginning, the place where all of this started. The past years of his life could only be described by hell. The Reguim he was born in was the greatest one of all and his family had expected their legacy to be carried on through their blood, but Rex was a special case.

Names were pre chosen in this world and he was given one to represent royalty, Rex Coaster. Yet when he was born it was as if from the moment he had opened his eyes he was predetermined to fail in such a place. He was a child with moon-drenched hair, yellow eyes, and an ashen tone. Those features by themselves were enough to make his family get disgusted by the sight of him. And there was more to come. 

Throughout his life he had always found solace in the moon and at night, his eyes would shine brightly and his dark blue hair would grow deeper in the presence of moonlight, his skin reflecting the surface of the moon. As if he was born from the moon itself.

Rex was brought before a massive statue of the goddess during a full moon ritual. The rest of his siblings succeeded in manifesting sparks of divine power. But when it was his turn,nothing. His parents didn't look sad. They looked ashamed. His family was one that lived as the greatest of them all, and to them Rex was simply a stain on the legacy that was built upon generations

Rex remembered the arena, a memory he tried to shove down deep in his conscience. It was hell, his older brother had invited him for “training”, but the whole thing was just a facade. Valen needed a reason to keep down, and that's what it was. Valen didn’t just strike him; he humiliated him, made a spectacle of his weakness. The crowd didn’t cheer. They watched in silence as he bled. And when he looked up, all he saw were their backs. No one stayed. Not even his father. That day he may have left the arena, but the arena never left him. 

That night, alone in his room, he stared out the window. The moon was full, hanging heavy in the sky like it had been watching the whole time. He remembered whispering a question into the night, not even sure what it meant.

‘Why did you make me like this?’

And the moonlight... flickered. Not bright, not loud. Just enough. A soft shimmer that kissed his skin, and soothed the ache in his bruised ribs. No one saw it but him.

He tried to run away before in the past when he was younger, but the fruits of his hard work never came to fruition. Rex was caught and punished for his actions, on that day Rex cried, and in his pain he saw a shooting star, his first sign of Astrael, and he whispered a wish he didn't think anyone heard. However he felt a pulse, as if the star responded to him saying his wish would come true

Shaking himself back into reality; Rex remembered, he remembered the pain. He remembered the shame. But most of all, he remembered the silence—the way they looked through him like he was already dead.

And in a way he was. 

Rex was gone. He had died with the old world. What remained... was something new. Icarus.

In his full realization Rex stood up, no Icarus did. This time, he would not fall. He would rise—and the stars would rise with him