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Day 1 [color=734e66]◈[/color] [color=7ea7d8]Time:[/color] Night [color=734e66]◈[/color] [color=7ea7d8]Weather:[/color] Thunderstorms, with a 100% chance of Ni-Seraphi [color=734e66]◈[/color] [color=7ea7d8]Location:[/color] Harold's Academy, Main Ballroom [color=734e66]◈[/color] [color=7ea7d8]Participants:[/color] Raffaella Struna, Anastasia Arslan [@Ti][/center]
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	Raffaella, thoroughly elated by her successful dance with Tessa, bouncing on her feet and all smiles, excitedly scampered off to find Kaspaan. [color=palevioletred]"Okay! I'm gonna dance with Kass—oh, and Ana too!"[/color] she boldly announced, her newly discovered love of dance filling her with courage. Her excited proclamation would be cut off, however, and neither her jubilation nor her bravery were to last long, as a much more dire announcement echoed through the academy. It was then that Raffaella began to notice the song.

	It was a beautiful song, and yet, something about it unsettled Raffaella, though only just. She had never heard it before, herself, but somehow it was hauntingly familiar. She didn't need to have heard the song to feel the increasing sense of dread. It came from inside of her, irrevocably etched into the DNA of all mystics descended from those dreadful days of old. She, like many other first years, stood still and uncertain as some of the older students scattered about in anticipation of what was to come. Then, there was an explosion that rattled the entire school. Little Raffaella, dainty and frail as she was, was thrown off balance with ease, falling face-first on the ground with a short and high-pitched cry, quickly stifled by her impact with the floor. Students fell from above, landing all around the girl—who would narrowly escape a meaningless and terrible fate of being simply trampled to death by her panicking peers.

	[color=palevioletred]"ESP..?"[/color] Raffaella mumbled in a daze as she staggered to her feet, a single drop of blood running down her perpetually pale face. [color=palevioletred][i]What does extrasensory perception have to do with this?[/i][/color] wondered the woefully underprepared teen as bodies moved all around her, knocking her about like a weather-vane in the midst of a storm and threatening to knock her to her knees again. As the haze cleared from her eyes, and the ringing in her ears subsided, she saw them—and they saw her. Not only did they see her, they [i]stared[/i] at Raffaella—with [i]hungry eyes.[/i]

	[color=palevioletred][i]This... is a mistake! You can't see me! You [b]can't![/b][/i][/color] she thought desperately, tears welling in her eyes as she stood in place, frigid with fright, staring helplessly into the white voids of their eyes. Something unfathomably cruel yet beautiful was going to eat her—[i]alive,[/i] she would later learn. Her aeonheart began to race even faster, until eventually, it would stop, like some vengeful god of cruel and unusual punishment had decided to play a prank on the innocent child. [color=palevioletred]"N-No. No, please..! Not now..!"[/color] she whimpered, sobbing. [color=palevioletred]"Daddy..!"[/color] she exhaled, her voice hollow and devoid of any hope. No one could see her. No one would help her—and no one would remember. She shut her eyes tightly, shaking like the small and frightened animal she was, prepared to die, trembling with the overwhelming feeling of defeat.

	Then, something snapped her out of it. It was Ana.

	Raffaella gasped, as if Ana's very presence had forced the breath of life back into her already-departed lungs. Her aeonheart began to beat again, though laboriously. [color=palevioletred]"Ana..!"[/color] she cried, like a child who'd just woken up screaming from a scary dream. Raffaella clung to her arm, leaning on her like the pillar of strength she was as she barked orders to the others. Soon, her heart would settle just slightly, and she made the mistake of looking up. [color=palevioletred]"Ana!!"[/color] she cried out, terrified, tugging her arm and pointing up at the Ni-Seraphi as smaller, much more horrifying creatures poured out of their mouths like locusts.