The man who carried the mantle of The Sun was aged beyond belief. His armor was more tattered than whole, yet it still held by the will of the bearer. His sword and shield weren’t even that, they were made of pure sunlight, closing the wounds just as quick as they made them. Or cleansing them.

Today is one of those days, one of the days when we could all die and not know how.

Today is the day we could lose our Sun. Some of us have seen countless days like these since we first took our mantle, since we first started our duty. Since we first became The Stars, the backdrop of the Sun.

We by luck or chance, by skill or [Skill], by courage or cowardice survived this long. We marched this far into time and stayed in the cursed place. So long that we don’t even remember how long, so long we lived that we don’t even know our names, so long we are only remembered by our titles.

It has been so long everything became a routine. Even death. Even suffering. Even words.

“May The Sun favour you today, Second star.” The Hero said like he always does.

“The only favour I ask is yours, First Star.” I answered, just like I always did.

The greeting started out as a joke, then it turned into the comfort of a known routine. Years passed and it turned into the only thing we know.

Recently I started to think about how sad that is. How far we have fallen, how long we have lived. It never should have been like this, but it somehow was. Is.

They still look at us the same, with awe, admiration, longing.

They do not know. They do not realise. We are not men anymore.

We lost that somewhere along the way. Chip by chip. Supernova by supernova. It wasn’t until recently that I even realised it myself. Does Sun know I wonder? Does it even care?

—--------------

I never found out. I never will.

It was midday when the sun was covered by an eclipse, it was midday when Sun faced Eclipse. It happened before, it should have happened again. It is a dance they battled many times over. It should have, but it didn’t. When the eclipse passed, Sun wasn’t left standing. Eclipse was gone, but with him, Sun fell. The greatest of heroes died.

Our hero, our guiding light, beacon of hope. Our Sun. It fell, it died, it was no more.

I was consumed by rage, The Stars blazed like never before. We tore through enemy ranks, we broke through them and scythed through their flank. We were unstoppable, we were burning as brightly as we could. We were burning with everything we could.

We were trying to do something before our light went out too.

And then the Sun went out, not that they knew.

It was no longer here. Something was missing, something was wrong. Fighting slowly stopped and soon it was no more. Everyone stood still. Something was wrong, deeply wrong. The darkness was rising, the air grew cold and harsh.

I am about to die, he realised. Everyone is, the living and the living dead. The heroes are dead, killed by each other's hands. Only lesser men fought on, for life and death if nothing else. But, now in this moment, no one cared.

Few people could think of glory when they see doom.

Now the light was no more and people looked up, searching for the Sun. Looking for the clouds or something else that hid it. But, nothing did.

The sky was clear, the stars were breathtakingly bright. But, there was no Sun. There was no Sun. It was midday, and there was no Sun.

“Oh. Gods above, below and in between have mercy on us. Oh, Gods of old spare us.” I prayed. I fell on my knees and bowed my head and prayed again.

I was not the only one. The whole battlefield took to the knee and prayed. Some simply fell over, others with trembling limbs. Soon the chanting started. A prayer to the gods, one thing which united us all. A prayer for help, for forgiveness. For …-

It did not matter. Blazing light hit the world blinding everyone, seared in their eyes was the image of the god restarting the Sun. A wave of divine heat passed them all, the whole battlefield.

They stood still and prayed. Soon the first person opened their eyes and saw the world, saw the Sun and cheered.

The others looked and saw it too.

There was no more fighting on that day, no more war or killing. On the day the Sun went out, the eternal battlefield knew peace for the first time. But, could it last?

The peace was interrupted, a conflict almost continued. Someone dared to throw oil into the blaze. A quest was issued.

[Quest: The Sun has fallen. Rise! Rise and take the mantle.]

[Reward: Title of The Sun, The Everlasting, The Source and Ender of Life, Beacon of Hope]