Astar Lucero - Synopsis

The writing is a bit messy, rushed and unfinished, as well as included some of Caelus’ story but I will revisit and fix it up later.

## Backstory

### Part 1

She was born in the kingdom of Navellia, into an average family along with her elder twin brother, Caelus. Her hair was at first black, but turned to a mixture of lilac and dark purple upon reaching the age of three. Her parents went to consult an elder, and the elder told them that it was due to awakening of numen energy, which may occasionally cause physical changes to them as they age. Caelus also awakened his energy, but received no physical changes, and remained unaware of it for years to come. But due to her hair colour Astar was often picked on and bullied for looking weird. This caused Astar to become more self-conscious and shy.

Their father was a miner, and their mother was a maths teacher. Astar and Caelus were very close. They both wholeheartedly shared their goals and aspirations with each other. Astar wanted to become an astronomer, while Caelus wanted to build his own jet boat and travel the skies. Caelus was a lot more outgoing with others, while Astar was a bit more shy, so she often hangs out with Caelus and his friends. However, at the age of 12, Caelus was forced to drop his education and go help his father in the mines full-time, as the family has faced a financial struggle as Navellia has received a sudden economic shock. Astar was now alone. She stopped hanging out and went to the public library to study about stars, space, and astronomy to pass the time, as well as mechanical engineering to hopefully one day teach Caelus on how to build a jet boat, or even build one for him. Caelus on the other hand, spent time underground digging up metal and gems. One day, he found a hidden crawl space that led him to an area filled with nodes of unknown material. Caelus’ first thought was to tell someone, but decided against it later. Perhaps he could sneak away at short notice to the crawl space, mine this material himself and sell it for lots of money. But there were too many nodes, that it would take years for someone to mine and collect all that himself.

Years passed by. With the help of her mother, Astar graduated and wanted to continue studying at a university in astronomy and mechanical engineering. She enrolled at a boarding university. However, it wasn’t without conflict, as the influence of the Demigods have reached Navellia once more after a span of security from them. Her father and Caelus were both forced to go fight in the war. Astar, for her security, was forced to stay in the university grounds at all times, leaving her with only one form of contact being through letters she could send to only her mother. She had lost contact with her father and Caelus entirely.

Life in university was rough. Astar found herself fall behind on many of her classes, her research project, as well as failing a number tests. Her communication skills and socializing skills were also not good, so she was shy of reaching out for help. Day by day, stress builds up for her, as she slowly realizes that she was not that smart, and doubted her dreams whether they were achievable at all.

### Part 2

In the war, Caelus and his father fought fiercely. Unfortunately, his father fell on the battlefield, and Caelus was gravely injured, and the glaive he wielded was broken. He was one of the few people in his company that managed to survive, and those people have either deserted the army and ran away on their own, or fell back into the kingdom. Being chased by creatures summoned by the Demigods, Caelus ran into the mines he used to work in, clinging onto what was left of his glaive. He tried to fight back one more time with a giant pair of pliers, but it proved inefficient. He went through the crawl space where the unknown material was in hope of hiding from the creatures, but they saw him and tried to crawl through. He threw away what was left of his glaive and the pliers that he was using earlier in fear and despair. The pliers broke of a chunk of material hanging from the wall, and they crushed the tools he threw away and pieces of the material broken scattered around them. He then suddenly remembered that Astar had numen energy, and maybe, just maybe, he could control it too. He concentrated, tried controlling his breathing, but fell back. He crawled backwards, and as soon his hands reached for what was left of the tools, something amazing happened. His tools along with the broken pieces of the unknown material glowed, came together, and transfused into one giant, multicoloured blade. With the remaining strength he had left, he swung his new weapon at the creatures that were crawling through the crawl space. He had made it out alive, but barely.

By the time Caelus got out of the mines, the kingdom was being invaded. Caelus immediately ran into the city with the only thought on his mind was to find his sister and mother, and save them, despite being incredibly injured. Astar was attacked when working on analyzing a sample of liquified stardust. However, she was quick to put the sample away in a container box with loads of other samples, grabbed it, and ran. She had to keep it safe because stardust is rare, as it comes from only deep space, and she cannot waste it. She was surrounded by the creatures on a balcony, and the only chance of her survival was to leap onto a nearby tree, so she did. However, she broke her right ankle in the process, and bruised multiple parts of her body. She desperately hobbled on her left foot to get out of the university campus, but the creatures were catching up to her. Astar saw her life flash before her eyes. Her mind settled on a memory that was about her parents consulting an elder. She was very young, so she could not remember what it was about, but it had something related to her hair. Suddenly, she finally remembered. She had numen. She could control it and fight back. With one hand clinging onto her liquid stardust container, she reached out another hand to hopefully do something, which created something extraordinary. She was releasing a heat wave hot enough to hurt the creatures and scare them off. That was her numen energy. However, as she has never used it in combat before, her numen resonance was not strong.

Astar continued hobbling through the city with her liquid stardust container, until she bumped into a bloody figure with broken armour. Her first instinct was to run, but then she heard a familiar voice call out to her. She turned around, and it was Caelus. She did not recognize him at first because of how much he had grown, as well as how roughed up he looked. They both hugged in relief, and caught up shortly. Caelus told Astar about her father’s death, his near-death experience, and the miraculous creation of his new weapon. Upon hearing about her father’s death, her sadness and grief combined with her work stress and her physical injuries, Astar finally gave in, collapsed onto the ground and broke down into tears. Caelus carried her on his shoulders, and told her that he would be here for her, no matter what.

Astar continued sobbing silently, her whole body feeling fatigued and weak until Caelus stopped at an empty infirmary. He laid Astar on one of the beds, put his weapon and Astar’s stardust container down and rummaged through the cupboards for something to treat his and her wounds. Caelus disinfected his wounds and bandaged himself up quickly before putting ice on Astar’s bruises. However, he was not experienced enough to fix up her broken ankle, and she may have to remain like that for a while. Astar ended up crying herself to sleep. Realizing that he was exhausted and injured, Caelus too, collapsed. He was tired, but he still needed to find his mother, and get out of the Kingdom for safety. He finally gave in to exhaustion and fell asleep as well, still half-armored as well as on the floor.

While they sleep, they were both found and taken in by the Assassin Syndicate, but the stardust container was not taken. They were tricked into believing that the Assassin Syndicate also kidnapped their mother, and the only way for them to see their mother again is to serve under the syndicate. The mysterious leader of the syndicate had seen Astar’s large numen deposits, as well as Caelus’ talent in battle, they demanded both to be trained a part of the Rapid Response Division. During their years of training, they both endured harsh training that pushed their bodies and minds to their limits. But they cannot fail, otherwise failure in training likely resulted in death. Eventually, they completed their training, and became full-fledged assassins. This training was the start of Astar’s lifelong burnout.

After six years of serving as the Rapid Response Division of the Assassin Syndicate, they soon found out that the syndicate never had their mother with them. Despite swearing loyalty to the syndicate, they went rogue and started destroying the syndicate inside out, and none can match their skills, except for some of the other Rapid Response Division. Eventually, they left the syndicate in shambles of what it once was, as well as exposing them, making it an easy target for the Defenders of the Light to detect and wipe them out.

Astar and Caelus returned to Navellia, where the two found out their mother indeed was dead from the creature invasion years ago. Despite that, they continued working towards their goals. Caelus eventually revealed to Astar about how he got his weapon, and showed her the vein of the strange material. The two worked together in restoring Navellia for some years, before Caelus has died due to his untimely encounter with Luka Odayaka. This left Astar with nobody else to be with her, and made the decision to join the Defenders of the Light.