When faced with a conflict between an unwavering commitment to justice and the profound pull of personal affection, where does true allegiance lie? If one was a social justice warrior, they would prioritize the impartial protection of the innocent, upholding a universal moral imperative. But for affectionate people, does the weight of a long-standing, deeply personal bond with an adversary redefine the boundaries of right and wrong?
Near the cliffs, a flower garden shone its full bloom, roses and lilacs swaying with the breeze from the ocean. Waves gently overlap with the clear-white sand at the bottom. A bamboo hut stood at the cliff's top, overlooking the sunrise at the horizon.
Peaceful, it is... until the trees oscillated chaotically from a magnitude five earthquake, the ground partly cracking. A giant octopus emerged from the waters, its tentacles oversized the hut that it squashed in one pound. Its roar formed a shockwave that emitted a deafening frequency through the entire forest.
One of its eyes gazed down at the two people standing on the edge of the cliff, both wearing vivid clothing, each in hues of green and blue. The blue one held an ancient bow made of carved Cervianium, a scarce wood as durable as Orichalcum. The other summoned a crystalline hammer with a hook-like shape on its edge.
Celestrina aimed her bow at the eyes of the enemy, pulling the string back with supreme force.
After releasing her grip, the spinning arrow flew in a bent trajectory, like it followed a hidden orbit through the octopus's eye. Soon, the arrow self-destructed, forming a green explosion accompanied by a deafening screech. The ground shook intensely, partnered with a loud low roar of vibrative bass, far more lawless than before. The enemy stood still, its eyes regenerating for every second.
Disappointment painted the girls' tightly pressed lips. Their glares stayed as they gasped and flinched back. Usually, no normal person would survive that explosion. But as they expected that they did massive damage to the enemy, its huge wound regenerated and stitched itself.
Celestrina, keeping her cool, clacked her tongue and complained, "That's spectacularly insulting. Mirielle, will your hammer be able to pierce through its body? It might have a hidden core that keeps that monster regenerating."
"I-I can, but... we need to find the core first."
"Technically, no one in us has X-ray vision. We need to shred its skin first and find the glow of its core. What's keeping Stellara so late?"
"So late? Who?" A voice behind them made their head turn back. Appearing in an aesthetically flexible pink magic suit, Stellara landed down the ground from above, standing, holding her staff. Grinning, she commented, "I've seen its eyes explode. What happened?"
"Look at this smug," Celestrina uttered, her eyes narrowing. Her reaction to insults was Stellara's breakfast. "Where did you go? We need you to peel its skin."
"I'm not your peeler, Celeste. But I can shred it more than skin it."
After a long sigh, Celestrina bowed and resigned. "Do anything helpful."
Smirking, she spun her staff and prepared her stance. "Then... Mirielle, ready your hammer."
"I'm ready, Stellara!"
With her wand, she traced the monster's outline from afar like a painter dancing with her wide strokes. Her wand glowed yellow, and at the same time, the monster's skin radiated from the inside.
"Angelo perforatore!" Celestrina hovered her palm over her slanted bow and chanted a prayer to summon hundreds of magic arrows floating and spaced equally in the air.
Mirielle stepped at the very edge of the cliff and pulled her hammer, reserving her energy for a full force hit. Stellara pointed the endpiece of her staff at the monster's eye while holding its lower grip part. Stellara grinned, blinked on her left eye, and softly whispered,
"Botto scintillante!" Her staff recoiled back, like a 40 caliber sniper rifle. In an instant, all of the monster's skin detonated, like it was showered with acid.
"Colpo pesante!" That split second gave Mirielle the opportunity to smash her hammer forward, hitting an invisible wall. At the same time of the hit, all of the arrows' nock was swiftly pushed by a magical circle. These arrows pierced all of the monster's possible hidden spots like rain and thunder.
The monster let out its enormous roar again, but this time, it was accompanied by a loud cracking of glass. It appeared that there was only a minimal crack that was made through the core since the monster is still moving, but due to the reverberations, Mirielle located the exact location of the monster's core. That same spot glowed blue, an ability Mirielle had to mark targets.
"Nice job, Mirielle! Let's try again, but with accuracy!" Stellara boasted, spinning her wand and dancing around, as a magic circle summoned before her.
"Colpo Finale!" With a swift swipe of Stellara's arm to the right, she pierced a hole onto the monster's stomach in a blink, leaving only the glass core floating in the air. "I will be the star of the afternoon!" Shouting, Stellara ran and jumped off the cliff and straight to the core, holding her staff like a hammer.
"You're messing this up, clout!" Celestrina shouted, her nerves popping out her forehead.
"No worries! The mysterious magic girl will be the hero again-" Mid-air, it felt like time stopped for Stellara, her mouth hanging open and her clothes reverting to her school uniform. All of this happened in a few milliseconds. Her pupils slowly turned to a cave containing a family of cavemen. Then as she later realized, she thought, This sucks.
A huge tentacle's swipe hit Stellara flying across and down the ocean. The water ate her, and her weight pulled her down. The other magic girls bulged their eyes from the scene.
"STELLARA!" Mirielle exclaimed, rushing and diving off the cliff.
"Unnecessarily stupid," Celestrina sighed while gritting her teeth. She noticed that the monster's stomach rapidly regenerated, covering the hole and hiding the core.
"If she hit a solid wall, she'd be dead... Better focus on the job. In three or more seconds, this opportunity will never be perfectly rendered." Before Stellara jumped off the cliff, Celestrina already pulled her bow, preparing to pierce the monster's core.
One second, she aimed. Due to its rapid regeneration, she needs to calculate the exact point where the hole still shows the core. If she hits flesh, the core won't break.
"Fuoco di Cupido!" Two seconds later, she released the arrow with a grin, maybe out of pure confidence or a blessing of luck. The arrow shrank thinner like a needle, travelling in a bent trajectory and glowing dazzlingly bright. The light around it bent, a product of maximum thermal emission, and a touch of it could cause third-degree burns.
Before it reached three seconds, the sounds of shattered glass echoed beyond the horizon. The arrow pierced through a hole with a 5-millimeter diameter, hitting a bullseye! A deafening scream of agony followed, soon softened into nothingness as the monster slowly turned into a red powdered pepper.
"Oh, thank God! It hit!" Celestrina uttered, her noodle-limbed arm losing the grip of her bow as she knelt on the ground, catching her breath. That one shot exhausted all her stamina in her body, and if she missed, she would depend on her teammates to defeat the monster.
Mirielle climbed up the wall, carrying Stellara on her shoulder. Stellara's clothes and body were all wet, far different from Mirielle who only had wet hair. Mirielle should be performing CPR to her, but Stellara already coughed out the water in her lungs.
Mirielle gasped and covered her wide-open mouth with her hands, exclaiming, "What timing! Are you alright?" She assisted the coughing Stelara to sit straight.
After regaining her composure, Stellara stood up and transformed back to her magic girl form. She narrowed her eyes towards Celestrina and asked, "Did you just call me unnecessary and stupid?"
Celestrina stood up and argued while holding her chin high, "Your hearing is perfect, your memory isn't. A mere Colpo Finale can flatten the core, but you didn't. Talk about being flashy."
"Flashy this and that, but you only sighed and prayed to cupid that your shot hits! And I thought that all citizens had been evacuated. Heck, you should've considered that tribes don't respond to modern text alerts! I nearly died!"
"S-Stop fighting! There's no point for us to oppose ourselves. We're allies," Mirielle mediated between the two, her legs trembling.
Even with Mirielle's open palm pointing at them, Celestrina continued, "Don't stop me, Mirielle. This nuthead should crack her skull open and realize we're only concerned with her safety. These arguments wouldn't have happened if she just did her job-"
"I did my job!" Stellara screamed, suddenly undoing her transformation at her own will. Tears gathered and crawled down her eyes as she put her fist before her heart. While catching her breath, she cried, "I did my job, my way... I have my way... way of doing things... I'm just an imaginary member, a girl with undeserving powers... No one knows who I really am, no matter what I do... Even if I wanted to, no one would know... Even if I die... No one would notice me.
"What's even my point if I'm non-existent?"
***
Broadcasting on public television, a massive crowd of standing media men surrounded the three podiums, microphones pointing at them. Inside the small media room, countless shutter clicks, along with the noise of never-ending questions, bombarded the ears of two girls being interrogated.
"Was it true that you're a three-man team? Celestrina, Mirielle... Who was the other one?"
"Was she the reason why the broadcasts were shut down while you guys were fighting?"
"The next attack of the Void Order might come sooner! When will we be able to see her?"
"Does she possess the power of invisibility? Or she was already there, but we're not noticing her?"
On the right podium, Mirielle curled her shoulders, her clasping shaky hands hidden from the public. Her green outfit might have sparked elegance, complementing her short ash brown hair, but it shouted experience from multiple battles of life and death. Behind it, she had difficulty breathing due to the current circumstance, unable to express her thoughts.
The girl in the middle podium, Celestrina, tapped her shoulder and smiled, bowing a slight nod that it was alright. She wore the same outfit as her, but in a shade of sky blue, complementing her dark blue hair. With shoulders back and chin high, she pointed the podium microphone near her mouth and spoke with a firm voice.
"Mic test... Celestrina speaking. Before I utter my thoughts, I would like to request everyone's silence and ears, not cutting and giving them to me. Your listening will give you the answers you need."
One of the press asked in the middle of the sudden silence. "Then... Will you tell us more about the third magic girl?"
"Being a magic girl is like trying to juggle stardust while riding a unicycle on a tightrope made of moonlight. You think this-," Celestrina gestured with her hand to the lingering wisps of void energy dissipating in the air beyond, "is a walk in the park? Power enough to shatter warships, yes. But," her voice dropped slightly, a hint of weariness invading her tone, "don't forget the fine print. The universe, it seems, delights in keeping us humble. A lingering glance of the public, for Stellara, would withdraw her magic transformation."
"But how will you prove it? The citizens couldn't even see her contribution in fighting against the Void Order!"
"This confirmation is my only assistance for her existence, totally undeserving of how much she contributed," Celestrina uttered, gazing up at the floating magic powder sparkling like stars. "Moreso, she wanted to become a public heroine, and when she will be showcased is up to the strict divinity.
"I could only hope I'll be able to witness this curse vanishing."