Magical Girl Overtime [Second Arc Complete!]

Father Winter’s Embrace, 5736

“Can you tell us the story again, mother?”

Lilieth and her sister Ayriel were neatly tucked into bed, with their mother sitting by their bedside. The High Enchantress, the benevolent ruler of all the elves looked down at them with adoring eyes, running her fingers through Lilieth’s golden hair, then Ayriel’s black locks.

The two girls in bed were as different as they could be, with one of them fair, with striking blue eyes, while the other’s complexion was purple, and her eyes were entirely without iris. And yet, they were sisters, even if they called two different king consorts their fathers.

“Again? You really can’t get enough of this tale in particular, can you?” their mother spoke with a conspiratorial smile. She pondered a while, then she recounted the tale for her two darling daughters again.

“Sometime three hundred years ago, I found myself in a strange forest. It was a little darker than the ones we are used to, but it was beautiful, nonetheless. There were a lot of foreign animals, and I felt a spiritual presence permeating the air and earth around me. I soon realized that I was in another world entirely.”

“Weren’t you scared, mother? Alone in a strange, foreign world?” Ayriel asked quietly, pulling the blanket almost all the way up to her nose as if to hide from the foreign spirits that their mother mentioned.

“Oh, I was certainly nervous. But as you know, I returned. It was all a matter of finding the place where I slipped through and going the other way. You only need to listen to the voices of the world.”

Lilieth nodded, looking expectantly at her mother as she smiled and continued her story.

“I came across a spring and, seeing how I was enjoying my walk already, I decided to bathe. And just then, I heard the approach of another person. It was a young woman, holding a lyre.”

“A human, right? And you’re still certain that she was one?” Ayriel asked with some skepticism in her voice, and their mother chuckled.

“Oh, don’t underestimate humans, my girls. They may be short-lived, impatient, and way-too-often outright violent. But more of them than you’d think have an abundance of bravery, and so much joy to share with the world, if given the opportunity.”

Ayriel let out a ‘hmm’, then she buried herself under her blanket again to keep listening.

“The human girl was… awestruck it appeared to me. But once I requested her to play a song, she worked her lyre and played the most beautiful song for me, so I awarded her a lock of my hair, that she might make harp strings from it and carry the joy she brought me to the rest of her world. And soon after… I found my way back here.”

“What if she does something bad with your hair? That much magic in the hand of a human…” Ayriel mumbled, but their mother shook her head.

“I made her promise to play music with it. She looked like an honest enough girl, and I had the feeling that I could entrust it to her.”

“I want to visit other worlds, too! One day…!” Lilieth exclaimed, and her mother showed her a warm smile.

“You’ll get the opportunity soon enough, I’m sure. Our world is a vast, magical place… and paths to other places open every so often. We will explore one of these worlds together one day, my child.”

Lilieth giggled and turned to the side, hugging her pillow tight as her imagination ran wild. She hoped that her mother was right – that one day, they would explore the vastness of this beautiful world together.

***

Glory of the Moon Matron, 6293

“My condolences, my ladies. The High Enchantress was ever our guiding star. A light we could rally around during even the hardest times, and that she would be called to the ancestors so early into her life, robbing us of her wise counsel just when this dreadful drought is devastating our fields this year… it is truly an utterly incomprehensible tragedy.”

The priest wiped sweat off his forehead with a damp cloth as he gave his condolences to the sisters. The marbled halls of the temple were tinted in rainbow light, filtered through the stained-glass windows, all of which showed a former High Enchanter or High Enchantress. The masons had already added another window to the structure, currently covered by a curtain to hide the newest addition to the pantheon of passed leaders.

Hooded men and women approached the body of the High Enchantress, each and every one leaving a quiet prayer with her, spoken in a language their proud people had already forgotten.

“Now, as per our traditions… you two are to discuss the best interests of the realm and devise a plan to overcome the current hardships befalling our people. Upon mutual agreement, or by contest, the winner shall be named the new High Enchantress…”

“For goodness’ sake, give them time to grieve!” Taenya spoke with some bite in her voice, making the priest flinch back. Lilieth’s younger cousin, born in the Silent Forest, had been introduced to her two hundred years ago, and ever since, she had been the most loyal bodyguard and friend.

“It’s alright, Taenya,” Lilieth spoke quietly and put a hand on her cousin’s shoulder.

“The realm is suffering, and we need a solution. Our food stores will only last so long…”

She sought eye contact with Ayriel, but her sister only stared at their mother’s lifeless body.

“…we’ll talk about it tomorrow,” Lilieth spoke quietly.

***

Glory of the Sun Patron, 6295

They had made little progress in the past two years. The sisters worked as a pair to revitalize the soil, even to bring in water from neighboring realms that was said to be able to bring life back to any barren field.

They purchased seeds from traveling merchants, but soon they realized that whatever affliction was poisoning the earth was in the air as well: nothing would grow, and upon further inspection, the seeds would rot from the inside out the moment they were brought into their country.

Merchants were called in and tried for fraud. Each and every one of them professed their innocence before the gods, even as the prized seeds in their confiscated wagons turned to dust.

Soon after reports came in that seeds were rotting everywhere, not just in the capital. Animals migrated away, reducing the amount of wild game available for hunts, and soon the first deaths from starvation happened as the shortages grew more severe.

It was then that the Emissary revealed herself. A traveler from another world of godlike beings, offering them power to pursue the only solution left to procure what they needed: conquest.

They would need a plan to raise an army, even with their population weakened as it was. Ayriel’s suggestion to use potent poisons to turn them into berserkers didn’t sit well with Lilieth, and conversely, Ayriel objected to Lilieth’s plan to share the Enchantresses’ powers with their soldiers.

Their contest would be a proxy war between their chosen methods of empowerment, and the Emissary directed them to a world to use as their game board.

It turned out to be a deadly game for Ayriel. What felt like a victory over a rotten sister quickly became hollow, as the Emissary made Lilieth combine the sisters’ methods regardless.

***

Father Winter’s Embrace, 6310

Lilieth was torn out of her reminiscence. She stood on the balcony of the throne room, taking in the eerie, dead silence of the nearly depopulated capital. She saw figures sneaking around. Her cousin Caelon, Taenya’s father. And next to him…

Her fingers clenched around the marble handrails as she recognized three of the four women accompanying him. The Dream Empress, as well as the two girls she used to test her powers. The Celestial Sisters. Murderers of her beloved cousin and bodyguard, Taenya.

Rage welled up in her. What was Caelon doing? Didn’t he know that these women killed his daughter? And why was the Dream Empress here, allying with them? Didn’t she want revenge?

Lilieth stepped back from the balcony’s railing and back into the throne room, past the giant machines within. Sacks of the strange grains Taenya lost her life over were in glass tubes, surrounded by strange lights which fed into a larger structure, filling the room with an eerie glow.

A machine stabilizing the foreign food, to keep it rooted in this world and prevent it from rotting, or so the Emissary told her. She would protect it with her life.

She would be the last line of defense. She couldn’t possibly involve her people in this final stand, brainwashed or not.

The hallway towards the palace was eerily quiet, with only statues of past rulers, dignitaries and artists silently watching the trio advance.

Seika felt the unease in her partners’ demeanor, especially as they left the corridor and found themselves on a mezzanine floor overlooking a giant central hall, with large spiral staircases leading to similar floors above and all the way to the top. There were some helmeted guards who didn’t notice them yet, and Seika immediately took the lead, approaching one of the staircases as the idols followed her.

“Paisen…” Momo started, but before Seika could answer, she heard a rattle. About two dozen brainwashed elves had gathered and approached the staircase to follow them up. For now, Seika kept walking.

“Is it important?” Seika asked, and Momo gave her a nod.

“Let’s go, like, upstairs first,” she spoke and the trio kept climbing, transforming halfway to fend off their pursuers. Athena strategically placed a phantasmal defender with a large tower shield every hundred steps, slowing down the advance of the brainwashed soldiers without hurting them. The ascent was grueling to the point that it made Athena wonder if the High Enchantress had a less arduous path to the top, or if elves were just born with triple the stamina of humans, even discounting the fact that they were in a hurry. The trio simply decided to fly the rest of the way.

Once they cleared the staircase, they were in a wide, open hall, with an enormous double-winged door greeting them. Athena could already feel the strange, distorting energies of the machine behind the doors, as well as a single, powerful presence.

“Right, Paisen,” Luna spoke while Athena sent a few more defenders down the stairs.

“I want ya to let us handle this,” she continued, exchanging a look with Sol. Athena looked directly at Luna, letting her explain further.

“She, like, gave us these powers. She may have used us, and attacked us, but… if she’s been, like, fooled by that Fames, then I hope that we can come to, like, an understanding.”

The idol took a small break to gather her thoughts, then she slipped right back into her role of a proper Magical Girl.

“I want to save her, if possible.”

Athena smiled, stepping in and giving Luna a short hug, then Sol, too, even if the idol looked a little hesitant.

“I expected nothing else from you two. You are true Magical Girls, after all.”

***

Athena closed the heavy doors again once the two idols had passed through. She couldn’t deny that part of her was disappointed by the fact that she wasn’t involved in a great, final battle, but deep down she understood that this was an important event for her two protégées. The most important in fact, so they could find closure after everything they had been put through thanks to the High Enchantress.

She would make sure that they had all the privacy they needed and would only step in if there was truly no other way.

She wouldn’t get bored, either way, as the first elven soldiers reached the top of the stairs and took formation. The goddess in front of them let Arachne’s enchanted cloth billow behind her as it glowed in a rainbow light, and before long, half a dozen soldiers of Capitolium flanked her, spears pointed towards their foes.

“You’ll have to do as entertainment while my students are taking care of your queen.”

Luna and Sol entered the throne room, and the heavy doors slammed shut behind them. A large, glowing contraption dominated most of the hall, taking the place where a throne used to stand. Black tubes fueled a spinning steel contraption, and blue lights danced on the marble, illuminating a single figure which stood in front of the pair, holding a simple rapier.

The High Enchantress wasn’t acting the way Luna expected her to. Instead of her sneering, supremacist attitude, she looked tired, and sorrowful on top. She slowly walked past a few potted plants that framed the way to the throne, each containing a different foreign flower, though they all looked weak and on the verge of dying, likely affected by the same drought that had destroyed the realm.

“So, you’ve come. After killing my Taenya, you’ve come to take revenge for the invasion,” the High Enchantress addressed them, though it didn’t sound like a question.

Luna clenched her fists and summoned her lunar bow into one of her hands, with Sol following suit with her spear.

“We’re only here to destroy that machine,” Sol spoke and the High Enchantress scoffed, turning her head towards the humming contraption.

“It’s the only thing that’s keeping my people fed right now,” she responded and raised her rapier, pointing it at the duo in front of her.

Luna’s eyelid twitched with anger. She stepped forward to speak.

“That’s not true! The one starving your people right now is-”

“Silence! I will not have the killers of my cousin speak to me like this!” the Enchantress shouted and manifested a spell in her hand. A fiery orb, bright as the sun appeared, then a dark orb, which merged and created a sphere of energy reminiscent of a full solar eclipse. Her feet left the ground, and she floated above the pair of idols, giving them a stern look.

“I will protect my people! I will ensure that they won’t succumb to hunger any longer! And I will avenge my cousin!”

Luna cursed quietly under her breath and exchanged a look with Sol. Her partner entered a combat stance, laser-focusing the High Enchantress with her eyes, then Luna followed suit, nocking an arrow on her bow and taking aim.

“Then we’ll make you see sense!”

***

Athena danced through the approaching soldiers, which she assumed to be the last remnants of the High Enchantresses’ forces. The spiral staircase turned into a hindrance for the approaching forces, making it all the easier for the Magical Girl and her summoned soldiers to yank the helmets off their heads and toss the confused elves aside. Spears were thrust her way and she nimbly danced aside, though some of her summoned soldiers weren’t as lucky or skilled.

One was run through with a spear, another shot in the chest by an arrow, and they both dissipated into glowing little orbs of mana which quickly rushed towards Athena to rejoin the magic fabric on her helmet.

She used her spear like a lever, thrusting and stopping just before the elves’ necks, then yanking it upwards to fling the helmets off their faces. Some she needed to pacify with a light shock of her lightning magic; others she sent stumbling back with her wind spells while she dashed in to pull the elves freed from their helmets to the side.

Confused shouts mixed with the sounds of battle as more soldiers of Capitolium fell to the assault of the brainwashed soldiers and rejoined the magic flowing through Athena’s enchanted cloth. They were promptly replaced with her trusty ethereal owl companion, who flew through the ranks of the attacking elves and grabbed their helmets one by one, letting them fall to the ground with a noisy clatter.

Some black-robed elves appeared, channeling magic in their hands and tossing it at Athena. Fireballs, icicles and lightning mixed as the Magical Girl took off the ground and avoided their attacks by flying a zigzag pattern under the ceiling, though she instantly flew towards the huddled group of freed elves and erected a barrier to protect them from debris as the spells carved holes into the marbled walls.

“Are you alright?” She quickly asked, summoning another duo of soldiers from Capitolium as the malnourished looking elves looked on in fear.

“Who… who are you? Oh, by the ancestors, what did we do…?”

Athena turned towards the elves while keeping up her barrier and sending out her projected soldiers to pull more elves without helmets under her protection. She gave them a smile.

“You weren’t yourselves. You are safe now.”

“And the High Enchantress? S-she… she put these helmets on us, and…”

“She wasn’t herself, either. But don’t worry; she’s in good hands.”

***

Luna sprinted out of the way as one of the High Enchantresses’ magic projectiles shot her direction. The dark orb had a white glowing aura and appeared to possess its own gravity as well, the way it tore marble tiles out of the ground and scattered them behind itself as the small magic projectile moved across the hall.

She managed to dash behind a pillar before the projectile hit her and instead annihilated the marble, leaving a disconnected ceiling and floor piece of the pillar behind as Luna let out a little curse.

“She’s not playin’, Miyu-pyon!” she shouted, abandoning the idol kayfabe in the heat of the moment, while the High Enchantress dashed towards Sol, landing on the ground and thrusting her rapier at the Magical Girl with ferocity behind every move.

“You think?!” her partner responded with a sarcastic tone while Luna cursed and took aim with one of her magic arrows. With a thought, the arrow tip was engulfed in flames, and soon after the projectile soared through the air, right towards the High Enchantress, who gracefully stepped out of the way without even looking at them.

“Damn you, just stand down and listen to us!” Sol pleaded, but just as fast as the elven woman had dodged the arrow, she lunged back towards the spear-wielding idol. It was like a replay of their fight against Taenya in the warehouse some months ago, but this time, their opponent had not only elven agility on her side, but magic as well.

“Listen to you, so you may ram a dagger into my heart as well?!” the High Enchantress shouted and sidestepped Sol’s spear, then she closed in with a thrust towards Sol’s torso, and as the idol dodged that attack in turn, the elf channeled another spell in her left hand.

Sol’s eyes widened as the High Enchantress threw an uppercut with the spell in front of her fist, which collided with a hastily erected barrier that Luna managed to conjure just in time. Sol jumped back as the chaotic magics of sun and moon intermingled, expanding in a localized explosion that ripped a crater into the tiled floor, but left the Enchantress unharmed.

“Yes, she died from a dagger in her heart! But that wasn’t us!” Luna shouted, channeling her own magic. She pointed her finger at the elf and a bright beam of silvery light shot out, which burst the stained-glass window behind the Enchantress as she dodged the attack. Luna didn’t expect it to hit her, but it did just what she wanted: it built distance between the powerful woman and Sol.

“Lies and lies again! You had plenty of motivation to kill her! I sent her to keep you occupied, so that the Emissary’s puppet may kill the strongest defenders of Earth!”

“Well now you’re just looking down on us…!”

Luna grimaced and dismissed her bow, bracing herself and shooting fireballs in rapid succession using both hands. As expected, the High Enchantress dashed across the hall like a blur, letting the fireballs uselessly shatter against the walls – until one nearly struck the strange machine. The Enchantress threw herself in the way of the attack and erected a barrier, a shimmering net of magical strings, connected by ethereal stars. The fireball was caught in the net and absorbed, with the Enchantress grimacing as she strained a little.

Sol didn’t give her any rest; while she was still absorbing the fireball, the sun-aligned idol rushed towards the machine to thrust her spear into one of the chambers containing the stolen rice, though she soon hit a golden barrier; the same kind that the Enchantress used those years ago before she took away their powers.

“You are just imitations!” the elf shouted now.

“You wield the powers that I gifted you in the first place! What makes you think that you can overwhelm me?!”

“I know that!” Luna shouted now, bringing her bow back into her hands and letting loose on the machine. Dozens of arrows soared through the throne room, and the Enchantresses’ face contorted as she stretched herself thin to deflect Luna’s attacks from multiple angles.

Sol took the chance to close in on the Enchantress herself, swinging her spear’s shaft towards the elf’s head in an attempt to incapacitate her nonlethally.

The Enchantress, however, held on to her defiance. She moved out of the way – barely – and the idol’s strike flung the crown off her head. The elven woman let out a scream, guttural and utterly in contrast to the melodic voice she had used whenever she talked to the pair of Magical Girls. Her rapier slashed across Sol’s chest, and Luna worried for a moment that her partner got injured, letting out a sigh of relief as she saw that it was just a surface cut through the outfit’s fabric.

The Enchantress followed up with another one of the strange orbs of gravity. She flung it Luna’s way this time, making her dodge out of the way as she kept harassing Sol with her rapier’s strikes, demonstrating her otherworldly agility as she jumped over one of Sol’s spear thrusts and grabbed the shaft with one hand to twist around and kick her in the face, making her stumble back.

Luna let out a curse as she noticed that the orb that came her way was tracking her this time. The mass of solar and lunar energies tore a crater into the ground, and even as she put a pillar between herself and the orb it didn’t stop – in fact, it appeared to grow larger with every bit of mass it consumed.

She took off the ground and flew, with the orb following her close by, all while the Enchantress put Sol on the defensive.

“Crap, Miyu-pyon, I can’t help you!” she shouted, but Sol didn’t respond, focusing entirely on keeping the elven woman at bay.

“Well, if it’s followin’ me anyway, then I’m givin’ ya a special delivery!” Luna shouted, accelerating towards the giant machine, leading the orb of destruction.

The High Enchantress was too busy with Sol at first, but as the sounds of destruction came ever closer, her eyes went wide. She snapped her fingers to make her magic vanish, but it already ripped through parts of the machinery, taking out multiple of the containers filled with stolen rice.

An eerie silence filled the hall as all participants waited with bated breath for what would happen, and the answer came in the form of sparks and flames shooting out of the cut-off parts.

“No! What have I done?!” the Enchantress shouted, running towards the machinery. Luna didn’t like the looks of it, as the whirring sound it made shifted to a higher pitch and the light it emitted flickered. She had a hunch what might happen next, so she immediately rushed towards the desperate elf and grabbed her – and just in time, as a fireball engulfed them both.

About forty elves sat huddled next to the large doors of the throne room. Some looked like they would have jumped up any minute and pushed the doors open, especially given the sounds of combat that came from the other side, but none dared. Their savior told them to sit still and wait for the combat inside to end, so they did.

Said savior was now flying down the stairwell, and then through the corridors of the palace. With Miyu and Momo’s privacy with the High Enchantress being ensured, she wanted to check on Maria and Fames.

She had a feeling how things might have ended, but she wouldn’t get rid of that nagging feeling at the back of her head until she checked on the situation herself.

The statues of actors, actresses and High Enchanters passed her by as she reached the loge, and from there, looked down at the stage. Maria was lying in a pool of her own blood, and next to her, stood not Fames, but someone unfamiliar. A man with wings, wearing a suit specifically tailored to accommodate them. He wore shades, obscuring his eyes, and his hair glowed in a soft night-blue hue. He knelt next to the dead woman, collecting the shards of a white gemstone, and, finally, the scythe.

“Don’t you dare!” she shouted and vaulted over the railing, flying towards the stranger. She summoned Pallas into her hands and accelerated straight towards the man who looked at her – and his surprise was clear, even with his shades.

He used his wingspan to fly out of the way of her thrust, holding both the shattered crystal and the scythe close. Athena followed him and stabbed his way multiple times, which he dodged nimbly, using his powerful wings to rapidly alter his course, before he landed on the ground again, circling around Maria’s body as he eyed Athena up and down.

“The princess, I see. Forgive me for not crossing blades with you, but physical confrontation isn’t my forte. I prefer to do battles of the mind and soul instead.”

“Morpheus. He can invade the dreams of anyone less powerful than a Deogemma,” Pallas informed her, and Athena nodded.

“Drop the scythe and you can leave,” she offered him, channeling lightning in her left hand. She could see beads of sweat on the man’s forehead as he pondered his options, but just as it looked like he wanted to say something, a sudden tremor went through the building, making Athena stumble. And as she found her footing again, she looked up, only to see Morpheus stepping through a freshly cleaved hole in reality.

“That was the sound of us losing, I believe. Forgive me, kin, but I will leave, now!” he sneered, and Athena quickly rushed his way. The tear closed before she could reach him, and she didn’t dare to put her hand through the closing dimensional portal.

All that was left in the theater was rubble, the dried-out corpses of a few elves, and Maria. Athena turned around to face her, kneeling down next to her.

She’s smiling.

She inspected the lifeless face of the villainess, the woman who was shaped by the constant use and abuse of a young, innocent girl who only dreamed of becoming an actress.

“May the life after this one be kinder to you,” she whispered, slowly closing Maria’s eyes.

***

“Why did you shield me?” the High Enchantress demanded to know, cradled in Luna’s arms. The idol’s dress was scorched and torn in several places but luckily, a magical barrier that Sol hastily erected took the brunt of the explosion.

Luna’s body ached all over, but she didn’t complain. She gave the High Enchantress a little smile instead.

“It’s because, like, Caelon asked us to save you, Lilieth.”

“What worth is my life if I couldn’t protect my people…? The Emissary said that without the machine…!”

“To hell with what the ‘Emissary’ said!” Luna shouted now, startling the elf. She put the woman down and grabbed her shoulders, shaking her as she looked her in the eyes.

“You could have, like, talked to us! You were our benefactor, even if it was all a lie! We could have found the true cause of the drought, together! And if we had ever caught a whiff of that ‘Emissary’, that goddess of hunger and famine, we would have told you!”

“You’re saying the Emissary is…?”

“One of us stayed behind to deal with her,” Sol confirmed from the side, then she looked around the ruined throne room before she smiled.

“I think she succeeded.”

Luna and the Emissary both turned their heads towards where Sol was pointing. The throne room was in ruins, with crushed marble tiles everywhere, torn apart by the Enchantresses’ strange gravity magic. The flowerpots displaying the fauna from every corner of the elvish kingdom were smashed, their contents scattered, except one.

A flower, not unlike a rose, which was still a dried-out husk when the pair entered, was now in full bloom. A single ray of light came from the damaged ceiling, giving its red petals an ethereal shine.

The High Enchantress, no, Lilieth, fell on her knees, and started to sob audibly. For all the lives needlessly lost in the drought, for all the lives thrown away in conflict, and, finally, there were sobs of a woman who found hope after she believed that all of it was lost.

Luna simply put a hand on her shoulder and looked at the flower, before Sol joined and hugged her side. She closed her eyes and let the heavy weight of the past decade fall off her shoulders.

I’m finally a little bit more like you, Paisen.