Feast of Apollo

Spoiler Alert: This article/section contains details about future plotlines of LOTM: Sword of Kings described. Do not proceed unless you want to be spoiled.

Heptagram representing the shape of the Second Feast of Apollo

The Feast of Apollo was an important event in LOTM: Witnesses of Sleepy Hollow - Harvest Saga. It was a ritual performed by the Lord Helio on the day of a solar eclipse. The ritual involved the gathering of many Shines, humans with magical potential, which were forced into deep despair, becoming the Mages of Flourish.

Origins

After this outcome of losing his beloved adopted daughter, who was shot by Phyllis Peach (with almost little to no Witnesses other than a hidden Helene Hawthorn) Lord Helio went insane and fused the Stone of Wisdom with a part of Hestia's soul (mainly her talents and magic power, instead of her emotions and humanity) and attempted to use it to revive Hestia via using the Stone of Wisdom, starting the first Feast of Apollo. Selina Strawberry, who had took the place of the leader in the Star Spangled Society, was obliged to host the Feast of Apollo alongside the rest of the Order. Selina did so in an attempt to bring her beloved benefactor back to life. However, the Feast of Apollo failed, and the effect of this was both unexpected and tremendous to the Star Spangled Society.

The first Feast of Apollo

Unbeknowest to Lord Helio and Selina, because of the Light Lord's over-confidence, the soul part he took was lacked of Hestia's emotions and humanity. Had Lord Helio succeeded in the Feast of Apollo the revived Hestia would resulted in the "return" of an emotionless and cold doll, instead of the warm and kind-hearted Hestia whom Selina knew and love. However, the Feast of Apollo failed due to not containing a complete soul of Hestia. Another part of Hestia's soul was reincarnated in the form of Zoe Benson.

The Feast of Apollo also made many citizens of Sleepy Hollow became minor Shines, while the original Shines of Flourish fell into despair by seeing their worst fears in their illusions. Most of the original shines became drastically different people and accepted their new self while having their memory maintained.

Notable victims and survivors

Order Members

• Lord Helio: The reminding of Hestia's death event as well as the failure of reviving her altogether were enough to push Lord Helio towards deeper pit of insanity. He went deeper to the dark side, even to the point of working with Moloch in order to revive his daughter and make her fully resurrected again, even with the sacrifise of the entire world.
• Selina Strawberry: As a noteworthy example, Selina was effected by the outcome of the Feast, reminded of the horrid events in her past like the rest of her collegues. In Selina's case, she was reminded of the death of Hestia Hawthorn and turned into a mindlessly loyal servant of Lord Helio due to the despair she suffered. Selina became mindless loyal to her master, and she just ignored the error of his way. Even so, her humanity still remained in a positive way and for many outside the Order, Selina remained as helpful and respected as usual.
• Gregory Grape: Gregory was reminded of the death of his best friend, Dragonia Dragonfruit, whom he thought he was guilty of it. He turned into a emotionless sociopath who cared about nothing but his own gain, being utterly cynical in the core.
• Blaze Banana: Having his own memory of being betrayed by his girlfriend remided and turned despair, making him an utterly repulsive mysoginist who would hurt ladies while thinking women are inferior.
• Orlando Orange: Having his personal past of being a beggar who desired money reminded, alongside the reminding of him being beaten after found stealing. At first, Orlando joined the Order in order repent his crimes, but he also felt grudge due to not being paid to his standard after he did all his work, though he was far from being insane and evil. His hidden monster of greed inside him had consumed him after he was turned by the Feast of Apollo.

Survivors

• Calvin Riggs: One of the Shines who was sacrificed was Calvin Riggs, a journalist, but he survived thanks to the promise he made as a child to his parents, when they were on their deathbed after a car accident, to keep happiness alive in his heart. He rejected becoming a Mage of the Order in order live in normal life. In the aftermath of the first ritual, Calvin was attacked by a demon but was saved by the White Wizard, who entrusted Zoe Benson, who was thought to be another survivor from the ritual but lost her memories, to the journalist while giving him the route to Sleepy Hollow, where his brothers lived and worked.
• Helene Hawthorn: She remained her humanity intact due to being absent in the scene. She was hidden under the ground as a recluse due to her deformity.
• Harold Honeydew: Absent due to being sick and called a day off to recover, luckily missing the effects.
• Leonard Lemon: Absent due to sleptover and missed the schedule of the ritual, lucily missing the effects.

Special Case - Phyllis Peach

Phyllis Peach (picture above was her time before the Feast) is the only one who was both affected and remained her personality unchanged after the Feast of Apollo, since she was already insane before the Feast made her even worse.

As a matter of irony, Phyllis, who was the true cause of the Feast for being the murderer of Phyllis, was also the only one who had her former self's basic personality fully remained even being succubbed to the effect and gained greater power.

During the Feast, Phyllis was reminded by the troubled past of her being rejected by her late ex-boyfriend, D.A. Dragonia Dragonfruit, but that did not mattered to her at all. It did not help in driving Phyllis insane, either, since she was already insane even before the first Feast of Apollo had ever happened, while the rest of her collegues remained normal after their trauma and before being reminded by the Feast.

Perhaps, the only "changes" of Phyllis were within her thirst of blood and her sociopathic trait, which turned even worse than before. Her evil and inhumane personality had already demonstrated even when she was a child, due to the psychological illness she suffered.

Therefore, Phyllis was already a monster before she was effected by the Feast of Apollo. Make it short, the Feast of Apollo only made Phyllis even worse and nothing more. Her personality remained the same, and that caused her to see through the entire Feast of Apollo with what she called "[her] survived sanity", fueling her desire of getting the Stone of Wisdom and instigating the ultimate downfall of Lord Helio.

Second Feast of Apollo

The new eclipse upon the town of Sleepy Hollow

Several months later, Lord Helio reveals that in order to execute the Feast of Apollo on a non-solar eclipse day, he must gather vast amounts of mana which are emitted by Zoadic Demons transformed via Mages and Shines. Also, the Feast's true purpose was not in creating more Zodiac Demons but rather the action itself causes the creation of more Zodiac Demons as a side effect.

After Lord Helio's identity was revealed to be Carmichael Clearness, aka the White Wizard & the Wiseman, being a double agent, he continues to kidnap three Rookie Wizards (namely Kristen Kiwifruit, Richard Raspberry and Baccarat Blueberry), Two Witnesses (Ichabod Crane and Abbie Mills) and two Coven Leaders (Katrina Crane and Cordelia Foxx) - seven people in all - in order to recreate the Feast of Apollo. Selina Strawberry and Calvin Cranberry will be the hosts of the Second Feast.

As stated earlier however, the purpose of the Feast not creating Zodiac Demons, it is for Carmichael to fully revive his daughter Helene, who died of an unknown reason before the first Sabbath, through the Stone of Wisdom. Through the birth of Zodiac Black Demons from Shines, a large amounts of magic power would be released, Helio then feeds this magic into his daughter's completed soul in the hopes of reviving her. Therefore, due to the failure of the first Feast, Helio recalculated his research and planned a second, much larger Feast, one that would use everyone in Sleepy Hollow.

Then, Selina Strawberry finds out that would turn all potential Shines into Croats while also killing everyone else, so she and Calvin both turn against Helio, forcing him to host the Second Feast by himself. Selina tells Pandora to stop Helio, betraying him due to seeing errors of his ways at last. Pandora arrived where the White Wizard is and fought him, however he is too powerful for the witch. As Pandora is about to be finished, she steals White Wizard's Hamel Cane, which she stabs the lock of Chimera, freeing it. Chimera flies over Sleepy Hollow consuming the mana which stops the Feast.

Trivia

• All of the members in the Order (excluding direct Team Witness members) who participated the second Feast had codenames of berries, including Strawberry, Cranberry, Kiwifruit (aka Chinese Gooseberry), Blueberry and Raspberry.