Out in the streets on a Saturday morning, the sun rises over the horizon, painting the skies with pink and vermillion. The clouds slowly becoming golden as the light from the sun hit them.
The city was bustling with life, and while the chilly winds had them all shiver, the prospects of playing out in the snow made them ignore the freezing chills.
But before all that, a little cleaning up was to be done. Parents and their children came out their homes, fully dressed in warm winter garb. Handling shovels to clear out the snow manually.
Although laborious, at the end of all their work they were rewarded with a warm, hearty breakfast. With a cup of hot beverages on the side; and whether it may be coffee or hot chocolate, they all drank it happily.
Satisfied with the feeling of warmth surging through their bodies.
But on his street, only Jesse's family was the outlier. For Jesse himself never did any of the work. Nor was he invited to breakfast.
He did everything he could do alone, waking up an hour earlier at 6:00 just to prepare his own breakfast. Clear out the trash. Clean his own dishes. Take a bath and more.
From 6:00 to 7:00, he managed to complete what he could for the day. Only returning to his room to place on more comfortable and warm clothes, before attending to his desk and watching YouTube for the next few minutes to an hour.
For good measure, he set up an alarm that would alert him through vibration so that he knew when to stop watching and take a break.
Of course, in reality he didn't even need it as he had done this so many times that it was a habit by now. In fact, he could do set up his computer, log in, set the alarm and enter YouTube or Twitch with his closed if he so desired. All because he has committed the routine to muscle memory.
A testament not only to his memory, but to the amount of times he had done the same monotonous thing over and over again.
And quite frankly, he was tired of it. He even wanted to stop doing it and try out something new, but Jesse himself had no idea what he could even do besides it as he never really felt like changing his life around.
It felt too tedious of him. But, to him, even thinking about it was a good enough step. If he had the chance to change his routine. He would gladly take it any day.
But for now, it was fine for him to just watch a charity livestream and relax for a while. After all, he could just think about it later.
——
Underneath a starless sky, a man in red robes with black accents lay hyperventilating underneath an azalea tree. He was a stoutly built man, with sunken eyes and an ashen face as well as a bald head with a wound that bled at the side. He wore accessories of various kinds, ranging from necklaces, bracelets and even sunglasses to pocket watches.
A shroud of blue light emitted from his body, coalescing to form a miniature entity the size of a tennis ball. It was a red serpentine creature with a yellow underside and two golden whiskers. It had golden eyes and snake-like pupils that expressed concern.
Its lips were lined with black, and as it parted one could see it exhume spouts of flame from its mouth.
Unlike serpents however, this creature had clawed limbs, with its feet having three toes. It had red horns apparent upon the sides of its head, slightly curved, reminiscent of the shape of a curved teardrop. The horns were spiralled with black and pulsed with golden light in its lining.
The colour scheme of the creature was strikingly similar to that of the attire of the old man, which had disappeared as soon as the creature appeared. Now the robes were replaced with a pure white robe with a black undergarment, the robe was tied around with a piece of navy blue cloth.
"Ah!.. Long. I do not think I can hold on any longer... That creature will be the end of us all, I am sorry what you and your brethren have to go through. But the stars must not be extinguished tonight! Please, you must make sure our legacy endures! Find new masters! Make sure the world they have left for us has not gone to waste!" Despite the injuries he has suffered, the man still attempted to stand. Struggling to make his final moments worth it.
"No! Master, you must not give up! We can escape from here and recuperate to fight once more in the future!" The creature named Long disagreed with the man it called its Master, encouraging him to retreat from the fight. And attempt to defeat their enemy once more another day.
"What's the point? It was my fault that Beast got to us, now I must pay for the price with my life. I must defeat it! With or without the powers of a Celestial!" In between his pained speech, he took off the various accessories on him.
Leaving them lying on the ground, flashing lights occurred as he did so. Reverting the accessories into their most primitive forms: round jewels enclosed in a spiral of gold and silver. Each and every one of them having their own colours.
"No! Please! Let me help you! The power of the Dragon can aid you in your fight!" Long was now begging desperately for his master to not renounce him. Wishing that none of this occurred in the first place.
"My apologies, Long. Old friend. This is goodbye." The man closed his eyes, holding up a red signet ring in between his index and thumb. "Return to your Receptacle. I relinquish you." In resignation, the man turned away from the scene of Long transforming into particulates of red light, shrouding the ring before eventually turning into a crimson marble with three spiralling strands of metal consisting of gold, silver and an unknown black metal around it.
The moment he finally decided to sacrifice his own life, was the time when a towering beast of shadow and flesh trudged towards him. Its imposing figure highlighted by the moonlight.
"Oh, Divine Celestials, I hand down to you our knowledge. Our legacy. And responsibility of power to gift to future generations. I command you all Celestials, to find your new owners! And let our legacy live on!"
All of a sudden, as the beast of shadows roared and suddenly sprinted. Hundreds, if not thousands of the round jewels suddenly floated up high in the sky. Gathering in groups of a maximum of twenty.
Light blue light materialised around the groups, surrounding them with blue-white glass-like panels. Boxing them all up into large cubes. Which them promptly disappeared the moment the panels connected to form the cubes.
As that went on, the man was then trapped in a daze. Performing a ritualistic dance that caused energy to surge across his system. Extending to even outside of his body.
As the last group of jewels finally warped away. The bald man finally spoke his last. "Supernova."
The word lingered for a bit, and silence overlook the area. Not even the roars of the beast made of shadows could be heard.
All of a sudden, with the man as the epicentre, a seemingly infinite expanding purple light blazed across the area.
Decimating everything as if something or someone had just taken an eraser and deleted everything in the space that once was filled with life. But now left a gaping hole of molten rock.
In his final moments, the man finally did as he wished to do. Defeat the enemy that ended the work of his cherished Temple, where thousands of peoples were protecting, being guardians to things unworthy people should not know of.
His mistake, was now rectified. But he regretted having brought death upon all the disciples of the temples. His final hope was that his legacy endured. And that the Celestials could keep on protecting their most important items of all.
——
After two hours of having had locked himself up in his room, Jesse finally decided to go outside.
As he descended down the stairs, he realised that his family had already gone to town without him.
Sighing despondently, he placed on his scarf and boots on to traverse alone in the cold. Without the solace of warmth.
In the spirit of Christmas, his entire neighbourhood had decked their houses with red and green decor. But in Matthew's mind, he was feeling sad for those with protan colourblindness and unable to properly see the red and green decor as they are.
But in spite of that fact, he was humming to himself Christmas songs to get in the mood. Strolling past along his neighbours whom were shovelling out snow from their driveway.
As he was about to cross over the road, he noticed something by the walk button pole. Peeking out of the snow was a shiny dark blue item; glimmering in his eyes.
Catching his attention. He exhaled a wispy breath of cold air, he felt that the chill of the weather was messing with him. After all, he did not function under cold weather well most of the time.
But, this time, Jesse knew it was real. Curious, he decided to pick it up. He brought it close up to his eyes and exclaimed in astonishment over its beauty.
A crimson marble, with different metals tied around it. In a different angle in the light, the deep crimson would shift into scarlet. Which Jesse saw as beautiful.
Feeling happy, Jesse decided to return home and properly admire it and possibly scour the internet for something similar to gift his family. After all, it was too beautiful not to share. But he did not want to give them the one he discovered. So, his best option was to find another one and give it to them.
But unbeknownst to Jesse, what he had discovered was unique. And imitations of it would absolutely pale in comparison to it...