Starlight

Prologue 9 - Close Call (Elysia POV)

The sounds of people being scraped against the concrete by the beast who killed Hana will probably never escape my mind... Hana, she risked her life to get me to safety but why?

Up ahead I notice a convenient corridor to try and escape into, surely the beast is too big to fit through and I don't think it could pummel through a whole strip of buildings. Unless it could. The very idea gives me shivers but I steady my resolve and take the path anyways. As I turn the corner sharply, the sound of the beasts heavy stomping come to a screeching halt before resuming in my direction again.

No way, it's really going to mow down this entire street?! Did I just condemn everyone around me to death?

I dare to peer back, the unhinged jaw of the centipede seems to grow larger with every second it thrashes closer. The buildings tumbling down around it don't seem to impede it's movement whatsoever, it's got to be invincible!

My legs are going to give out soon, I can't die here, not now. Not before seeing Mei again, I have to stay resilient and get out of this alive!

Suddenly a blur of blue buzzes down from atop one of the buildings ahead of me, blocking my path from escaping the beast hot on our trail.

"What are you doing!? We need to run!" I yell, looking back franticly to gauge how far away the beast is. "Come on, it's coming!" I step forward to push past the girl before being stopped in my tracks.

"Not so fast." She snaps, raising a katana to my throat.

"What are you!?!-" I examine the girl closer, her hair is a deep blue shade and put into many braids all over her head. Her skin is a warm dark honey color and her eyes are narrowed sharply in a way that makes her resemble a cat.

"Why is that thing following you? I've been watching since the attack on that high school and it's chased you all the way through the city. Why shouldn't I just toss you into that bastards mouth and stop it from killing more innocent people?" She says bluntly, shoving her blade further into my neck.

"I was attacked at school!... That thing! It... It ate my friend!" I scream back at her, my eyes begin welling up with tears as I recall Hana's demise. "I don't want to kill anyone! I just don't want to get eaten! If we don't go, it'll kill us both!" I yell, stepping into the edge of her katana further, the pressure alone nicks my skin and blood begins trickling down the shaft of her blade.

"Wish it were that easy kid." The mysterious blue haired girl lunges back whilst readying her blade before charging directly into me. I squint my eyes shut, ready to accept my fate. I'd rather be sliced clean than mauled by a giant demon monster, but why me? Why like this?

A flash of blinding yellow light deflects the girl's sword, the impact of the attack alone sends the girl flying back into the wall beside her. Before I have the chance to process what is even happening, a sparkly girl with silky black hair stands over my assailants collapsed body, in her left hand is a long ornately carved dagger, and in her right is a curved sickle formed of pure chartreuse light.

"Attacking scared high school girls during an invasion is despicable. Perhaps I should feed you to that creature and we make our escape while it's busy gnawing you to bits." She says calmly, much more calm than the average person would be in our situation.

"That thing is after her! She's leading it through the city and now it's killing hundreds of civilians!" The blue haired girl says, coughing up blood between words and struggling to get to her feet.

"You're a civilian yourself." The dark haired woman sneers, kneeling beside the girl to confiscate her katana. "Did you think you could chop through that monster with this? It might work on high school girls but not Twili... It perplexed me why a magical girl, someone forbade from harming humanity would attack an innocent girl but now I see. You're no magical girl, merely a cheap imitation."

The blue haired girl growls furiously as she holds herself up against the brick wall, she seems to be in pretty terrible shape...

"If you want to lead that monster through more civilian districts, be my guest. Their blood is on your hands."

The black haired girl laughs maniacally before steadying herself in the center of the corridor.

"What are you doing!? We can catch up later, we'll be crushed flat!" I yell, the monster has now nearly completely closed the gap, fragments of rock and cement fly past us as it charges directly our way.

"Stand back." She replies, kneeling down as yellow energy swells around her, as if empowering her next move, within the blink of an eye, the girl dashes through the monster, carving pieces of flesh from it's body rapidly. On impact, the monsters skin dematerializes and burns up, leaving hollow craters missing from it's body. The beast reels back letting out an ear shattering screech, that's the sound of an animal who is about to die...

"Let's wrap this up." The glimmering girl leaps into the air and prepares another strike, this time charging it until its a massive haze of golden light enveloping the alley. "Spectral Sickle!" She calls out, the invocation of her voice alone carries enough power to propel herself at the speed of light through the beasts face, blowing it clean to smithereens. Chunks of its flesh fly everywhere around us, slowly disintegrating into chaotic black dust.

The girl gradually and gracefully descends to the ground again, turning to me and the blue haired woman who mysteriously vanished during the blast, I was so amazed by what I'd just seen I didn't even notice she slipped away. "You should get home. It's too dangerous to be out in the streets like this. I'd get you home myself but I have more business to take care of." She says warmly before taking her leave, dashing up the buildings and jumping away between roof tops with ease. I stand there for a second still taking in everything that happened in the past hour... Who was that girl, She tried to kill me! And the 'magical girl' who just left... What did she mean by more business? Just how many monsters like that are wandering the city right now?! A-And Hana... Oh god Hana!

If I wasn't already convinced I was dreaming before, whatever just happened did not help my case. Twili... Magical girls?... Is that what she was? I gather myself, pushing the encounter with those two girls out of my mind and rush home as fast as I can. I don't have time to ponder what's going on, I just need to find Mei.