With only a sliver of the darkness still apparent within it, the nearly full moon shone above hundreds of footprints, trailing on for hundreds of feet in the desert.
If someone looked at the sheer number of footprints...they would assume an army had passed by.
And, unfortunately, they were right.
Amidst the darkness, hundreds of soldiers equipped with a chainmail chestplate and weapons marched through the desert, toward Free's village.
It wouldn't be an understatement to say that the number of soldiers in the army was greater than the village's entire population.
However, something was common among every soldier.
All of them had star-shaped pupils that sat in their eyelids, seemingly observing every direction at once.
At the front of the army stood a familiar figure.
With a velvet-red cloak, marked with a white star, dragging behind him, Lunite Zekrom strolled forward with a red sword, covered in beast blood.
Suddenly halting, sending his cloak flying, Zekrom turned around to face his army, his electric-yellow star-shaped pupils meeting every soldier's gaze.
Within seconds, the entire hundred-soldier formation had come to a halt as their general opened his mouth.
"As you all know, I will be drawn into the Origin Realm in a few seconds as a Lunite. But my return will be swift."
"Anyone roaming the desert at this time is an enemy and must be eliminated."
"That includes yourselves. None of you here is authorized to touch an end crystal. If one is found, report it immediatly...and an envoy will come to claim and defend it."
"In the meantime, do not let a soul near it."
"At the end of the moon, you may either die peacefully under the moon or end yourselves."
"From the moment you chose to join this squadron, your death was certain."
Pausing and taking a step backward, Zekrom gazed up as the moon's surface slowly began to take on a red color.
"Please recall that your families will suffer the consequences...or profit from the nobleness of your actions."
"That is why all of you have come here today, knowing your death is certain. Your mother...father....perhaps sibling are relying on you, today, to save them."
Before any more words could be exchanged, Lunite Zekrom's body suddenly began disintegrating.
His body split into millions of different colored particles and flew up into the sky, just like the beast that Dawn had slayed hours earlier.
However, this time, a DNA double-helix structure wasn't formed...instead, a glowing star-shape formed as Zekrom's particles drifted up to the moon.
When a chicken is decapitated, it is said to run around frantically, headless, for a few minutes before dropping to the ground lifeless.
Yet, lit up by the star-shaped light, Zekrom's army...remained perfectly still.
Their star-shaped pupils remained lifelessly still in their eyelids, locked onto the moon above their head.
In the next moment, the last remaining dark sliver in the fourth quadrant of the moon suddenly glowed a light yellow.
...
...
...
Standing below the most lit-up sky since the last full moon, two figures could be seen hunched over below a windowsill.
As a gust of wind suddenly rushed forward, their blonde and snow-white hair brushed against the sandstone of the orphanage's wall.
Below the girls, buried by sand, a large wooden bow lay comfortably, resting like a bear in hibernation.
Gazing up at the yellow moon above them, Dawn paused before shifting her attention to Evangel.
"Are you sure...you want to miss this?"
Nodding her head, Evangel grasped the bottom of the windowsill, ready to pull it up.
"I've been waiting so long for a colored moon that the thought of receiving a normal dream...feels revolting."
Opening the windowsill and staring backward into the familiar classroom, Evangel smiled, her light-blue eyes sparkling under the full moon.
"I'd rather wait for the ice-blue moon and hopefully gather a fragment then."
Hiding her face and gazing down at the sand, Dawn responded, her voice barely audible.
"I won't be able to help you find an end crystal at that time...the Origin Realm will suck me in. What if s-something hap-"
Boosting herself off the ground and sliding through the window, Evangel tilted her head, trying to get a glance at Dawn's expression.
"Are you seriously worried about me right now? You're about to go into a desert filled with enemies to find one. What I have to do will be nothing compared to that."
Shaking her head and not allowing Dawn to respond, Evangel chuckled and fell into the classroom, letting the windowsill close behind her as she said her final words.
"Become a Lunite and help find a fragment, alright? I have my own challenge waiting for me inside..."
*SLAM!*
As the sound of the windowsill slamming shut echoed throughout the orphanage, the lights of the classroom suddenly flickered on, revealing the frantic figure of Olivia in the doorway.
With her dark eyebags on her face and tattered clothes, as if she had been kneeling and running around constantly, Olivia rushed toward Evangel, spreading her arms out to trap her.
"DON'T MOVE!"
Panting like a marathon runner, Olivia gazed up at the yellow moon for a moment, letting out a sigh of relief, before slamming the shutters behind the window shut.
Finally, turning her gaze downward to the motionless Evangel before her, Olivia muttered in between short breaths.
"You… trouble… never… outside…"
However, a moment later, her attitude suddenly shifted as her eyebrows raised in shock while staring at Evangel's side.
"w-where's he!?"
Confusedly glancing to her left, where Olivia was pointing, Evangel paused before managing to reply despite her teacher's pressuring gaze.
"w-who!?"
"FREE!"
Confused, Evangel glanced around the teacher and into the hallway before asking.
"Have you looked around? Are you sure he's not here...?"
Not skipping a beat, Olivia's urgent voice immediatly sounded.
"HE'S NOT HERE!"
"H-he's not?"
Evangel's head immediatly twisted 360 degrees as she turned to gaze out the window...but all she could see was the metal cover behind the window.
Suddenly, the familiar loud and harsh voice of the orphanage owner sounded from behind the two girls.
"THE LUNITES HAVEN'T FOUND HIM!"
*BANG*