The city of London was much bleaker than normal on this night of nights. The shadows crept a bit longer, the air was just a bit colder, and the skies changed from the golden glow of afternoon into the misty pastels of evening. It wasn’t long before darkness overtook the land; and yet, despite that fact, the world below remained illuminated in light. The mark of civilization continued to act as a candle among the night, mass city life thriving and throbbing. The usual denizens came and went as they did, the average Londoner none the wiser.

But there were darker creatures at play. A whiff of magic sifted the air to guide anyone who would lend an ear away from the harsh lights of night life buildings. A hard day of work meant a hard evening of little solace after all. The magic tainted its path like a whisper of honeyed doom addled into the ears of the weary, of the abandoned, and the distrodden. The darkness moved with them as one by one, those citizens who made easy prey and had negativity in their hearts were corralled by the magical lure. They all gathered towards the outskirts of the city, at an abandoned construction site. Steel and dirt were their gates to enter their “kingdom”.

The enchanted citizens shambled like reanimated corpses, though only a handful in comparison to London’s population. They were to be the fuel for the monsters that placed such a curse on them. Only foul creatures who hailed from the shadows of history and the darkness of all stories could be responsible for the mass feast ready to begin. The Pageless.



They crawled along the steel beams of the construction site like an infestation of bugs. Red eyes lit up the otherwise pitch-dark setting. They bored down and leered at their new prey. Sharpened claws rended and tore through their metal perches with eager desire. This was the Pageless’ true nature, to feed and to consume all the stories of the land; and what better story is held by a human life? The enchanted citizens remained trapped in their stupor. Some even wore dopey smiles as they awaited their fate….

And yet there was a new breeze to be found in the night. The call of magic was met in force, by more magic. The presence of light and magical stories was caught aware by the Pageless. Many of them paused in their bristling, the swarm set alert to the appearance of their sworn enemies: Magical Girls and the Grimoires they carried. Naturally, the Grand Ministry had already caught wind of the situation and sent what resources they had available to counter the dark threat.

More importantly, there was another factor at play. The Magical Girls who would heed the Grand Ministry’s call were aware of this, three objectives listed off to them in their mission: Destroy the Pageless, protect the citizens, and above all else, find the new magical energy that was blossoming somewhere in the construction site. For tonight, a new Magical Girl would be born, by choice or chance.

---

If mankind was made in the Lord's image, then surely these dark abominations were spawned after the Devil, the eternal enemy of all that's good in the world. Therefore as guardians of humanity, it was the duty of every magical girl to banish these abominations back into the shadowy depths where they came from. Yes, everyone including herself, for she took an oath, once to save her mother from certain death, and now to save those who couldn't save themselves.

Standing atop a high rooftop of a nearby skyscraper was a white-haired young girl appearing no older than fifteen winters, but the solemn look of her icy blue eyes betrayed something deeper. She had seen this before, experienced this phenomenon many times throughout the decades, and by no accident either, she was deliberately here to answer the call of duty. Even as the cold night winds swayed her silver locks and uniform, she remained calm as she clasped the small golden pendant resting on her sternum then simply leaned forward, letting gravity embraced her as she fell off the roof.

Her lips enunciated...



A brilliant golden light shone from her as her uniform disintegrated into golden particles, leaving the girl clad in nothing but the skin she was born with, then it was immediately followed by swirls of light embracing her body as they materialized into magical fabric. A pure white bridal gown manifested on her torso, armgloves and thighighs of the same color covered her arms and legs respectively, then an angelic halo encircled her scalp before it solidified into a veiled golden crown while at the same time, metallic gold accents lined her dress, gloves, and stockings.

She opened her eyes, her blue irises now noticeably lightened to the point of being almost white and the dark spots of her pupils shone in a similar color. The girl was no longer falling now as supernatural powers kept her afloat. She spread her arms to her sides as eight golden obelisks - each around a meter long - materialized behind her, spread in a pair of four pieces each in the formation of an angel's wings.

Magical Girl Lumière, Seraphic Guardian of Jehovah, here to purify the legions of evil.

She swiftly soared through the sky, trailing brilliant golden-white light behind her like a comet as she beelined toward the abandoned construction site. Once there, she floated in place, high above the air as she eyed the shadowy filth crawling on the steel beams. There was no hesitation in her steely gaze as she extended one arm forward, and without delay, her wings responded as they zipped through the air, firing auric beams of searing light to vaporize the Pageless horde or zipping in close to slice and dice them with luminous blades.

She didn't expect to be entirely alone in this endeavor, but if she could soften the swarm up first to make her comrades' jobs as safe as possible, then she would do so in a heartbeat.

London was foggy and dreary, the lights carrying a fuzzy quality as they failed to pierce the gloom of the dark. It was something that made stepping out at night so much more threatening then it did in her home city, what few times Suzuya dared to stray from her routine to experiment with her Grimoire. Her hand snaked across her chest and gripped an arm hanging at her side, a tight grip as she buried her nose into a thick scarf.

She thumped the Grimoire at her hip, a feeling like sparks racing across her skin. Again, a rhythm building. The beating of a heart, building in strength as life surged in her breast. Her eyes closed and the heart grew strong, till the pulse continued long after her fingers stilled.

I don't know anyone here. This isn't my town, these aren't even my people, and what I do will go unheeded and unthanked. I could die and my family will have to put a tombstone over an empty grave. Her thoughts were heavy with worry, doubts gripping her in their bony clutches as the Grimoire turned to liquid fire, sweeping up her arm and-

---

Burned the doubt away. Burning Heart lifted her head, two fluffy ears sprouting from the crown of her head while nine tails of impossible volume sprung naturally from the base of her spine. Her boots are sensible and her clothes familiar to her regen, yet her arms, stomach, and legs were exposed to the air in a brazen display lacking any modesty. Youthful yet powerful, a visage Suzuya would be hard pressed to attempt outside her current state.

With a smile on her face she turned towards the darkness, the Pageless a stark contrast to her own radiance. She was on street level and could see the pinpricks of distant figures shuffling drawn to the construction sight. With a motion tha flowed with ease, the tip of her tail came to her outstretched hand, and a longbow of laquered wood settled in her grasp. Standing a head taller then she was, Burning Heart took it by the string, drew back, and bounded forward.

The cool of night didn't matter any longer. It went unfelt, unheeded, lost in the haze of heat wafting from her. Between one step and the next her breath stilled and she loosed an arrow of flame, each arcing upwards, hanging like a sun set to fall upon the darkness of night before coming down.

Thunk. Thunk. Thunk. The sounds of arrows striking compacted earth, hitting not the pageless but creating a cordon around the people they lured. Even the most delerious, spellbound people couldn't overcome the primal response to fire, a fear so deeply ingrained in human history it was a story all its own.

Advancing by leaps and bounds, the bow fell away into a windswept tail as another pushed forward, the long handle of a naginata coming loose just as her foot struck the fence, propelling her into the land of gurders and prowling pageless just as an angel descended. A star from the heavens and a sun from the streets launching forward, tails darting out to launch her upwards from a girder, right into the maws of creeping Pageless that found it's end with a decapitating slash.

Coming out of a spin upon the very rafters populated by creatures who fed on life, Burning Heart shimmered with rising heat as the first of many pageless tasted her steel.

"Come and meet me, meet your overdue demise!" She barked, crisp and clear in her accented Japanese.

"Woah! So many magical girls on the scene already? This must be a big deal." Lilac Shimmer surveyed the situation, hanging from a lightpole to get an elevated view. Her field of view was already full of brilliant flames and wings alight with justice. Taking her hand from her eyes and gripping the lightpole tight, Lilac built up momentum like gymnast, rotating around the steel. She launched herself forward, spiraling post Burning Heart, giving her a tip of the hat as she passed, "Keen thinking, fair fox!"

She landed next to a great pile of steel beams. "Time for some fortifications, for what king leaves their people without a castle to guard them! With such a fine moat of flame already, I know just the spot!" Lilac picked up one of the beams, hefting it like a child may pick up a stout stick when playing. A skulking pageless creeped over the pile towards her back, but was sent flying as Lilac then twirled the steel beam over her head.

Leaping effortlessly over Burning Heart's flames, Lilac set about planting the beams into the ground and bending them into walls to ward away any Pageless that might brave the fire to hurt the enraptured folks. Moving swiftly back and forth to gain more beams, it seemed Lilac had no concerns about property damage, figuring the construction site was a complete write off. Still, as long as Burning Heart's flames kept the civilians corralled for now, they would soon have walls of steel to shield them even further.

Night. A time ripe for trickery, deceit and villainous acts, or at least so fiction would like you to believe. For the cover of darkness obscures the deeds most foul, most dreadful, including those of the supernatural kind. Like the Pageless for example. Bloodthirsty monsters with nothing but the destruction of humanity's stories in mind, in all forms that they could find. It seemed that this time, their approach would be to target the very authors of stories themselves, devouring human souls so that not only the fiction they wished to write would come to an end, but their lives' tales would also annihilate in an unraveling of flesh.

None should suffer such a cruel, terrifying fate.

"Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name." A prayer rung out within the darkness. Several of the Pageless turned their heads as they sensed one of their enemies most foul: Magic. But unfortunately for them, their hands filled with the sounds of their own screams as pillars of light rained from above and a wall of fire separated their victims from their ill intent.

"Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven." The familiar prayer continued. Small, yet strong hands pressed against each other as light blossomed between fingers no older than sixteen summers. Gold, white and embracing red surrounded her form with great splendor.

"Forgive me my foolishness, for I have lead my men astray." It became unfamiliar, yet warm. The gentle voice of an old captain lamenting the consequences for their actions while winds threatened to rend their ship.

"I ask of you but one thing: deliver safety unto them so they may live another day." The light became greater. It spilled from between Wilhelmina's fingers like a hallowed liquid, following the contours of her form; the force of an old legend coating her body.

"For this, I shall pay any named price. Amen." With an explosion of riotous color that dominated the night for a split second, Wilhelmina finished her transformation. Her knuckles no longer white and her grip on her own fingers not deathly anymore, she found confidence in the soft sea breeze that materialised around her for a second, filling her lungs with a deep breath of air. She would not confide this in her allies, but she recited the full prayer of her transformation not because it sounded badass, but rather, because she felt herself squirm at the mere sight of these... creatures.

She still was not used to them.

Captain Goodhope shook her head to clear it before raising her hand towards the skies.

"Lumiére! Lilac! It is nice to see you again~" she called out in a loud voice to the two girls she recognised. There had to be another one here based on the flaming spears, but they were too fast for Goodhope to recognise. "Your oaths for this battle, please!" Magic gathered and swelled in her hands as she prepared to cast her blessing upon her comrades-in-arms, waiting for them to swear upon an objective.

Out of the darkness came forth the light. The Magical Girls of London entered the scene swiftly and powerfully. The Pageless were blindsided by the sudden assault, beginning with Lumière’s arrival. Several of them fell victim to her slashes and blasts as if divine wrath was given by an angel up high. Those slain dissipated into a spurse of darkness and blackened pages, dissolving away into the night air back to the recessions of history. Those that weren’t soon turned their anger and inhuman hunger towards the Magical Girls, crawling, leaping, and throwing themselves at whoever they could find with claws and evil intent.

There were some Pageless still fueled by instinct and ignored their hatred of Magical Girls to feed themselves upon the enchanted humans.
No sooner did they prey closer to their targets did bolts of fire come between them. Startled, they sensed magic emanating from the makeshift barriers, eyes glowing a blood red to match the fire and sending them into a frenzy. They clawed and smashed their way through Burning Heart’s grounded arrows, sensing the hesitance and fear coming off the humans. Burning Heart’s deterrent worked in making even the entranced civilians back away, though not for long as the Pageless came closer….

A large whistle sung through the air before the first ready to consume their targets were sent flying and abroad. More steel beams smashed through the Pageless as none other than Lilac Shimmer arrived. With great strength on her part, the flames were further buffeted by a cage of steel beams to protect the humans. The Pageless now turned all their rage to the Magical Girls. They sprinted towards Lilac and Burning Heart, a deep pressure surrounding their claws as they pulsed with darkness and power. Soon they’d be swinging to and fro to rend the girls apart, leaping atop one another in maddened desire.

Some of the Pageless however, began to turn away once they sensed a fourth Magical Girl arrive on the scene. Although Captain Goodhope hadn’t cast a spell, her magic was enough counter to the negativity that had since filled the area before from the Pageless. Hissing an inhuman screech, a good dozen of the Pageless turned tail away from the horde, eyes glowing in the night. Whether they were fleeing on instinct who knew, but there was something else that drew their attention. It felt very familiar to a Magical Girl….no, a Grimoire. A fresh Grimoire entered the world.

The split off Pageless leapt further into the construction site to hunt down their new target. While the others could try and fail to feast or slay Magical Girls, the call of a Grimoire was much too great. Indeed, so great was it that more and more Pageless who finally noticed the magical presence started to ignore Magical Girl and civilian alike and followed the scent of a new story.

---

While the magical girls rushed towards the conflict as fast as they could, One moved with all the tardiness of an inmate on death row. She could see the construction site, the humans in peril, and the peril itself. Lumière bombarded the pageless with her spells, some weeb with a bow shot arrows at them, Lilac erected some barriers with some of the most tired one liners to ever be conceived by a chuuni, and Captain "even-better-than-normal-hope" radiated enough positivity to make her want to vomit.

It was interesting to think that several years ago, such a sight might have struck her with awe. The idea of a tiny angel woman floating over head while a knight, archer, and captain fought beneath her would have brought her wonder. But all she could feel was apathy in this moment. A mundane human might find the spectacle to be unbelievable, but it was the same drudgery that "Stripes" had seen for years now. Oh, how dull such things had become.

It was a pretty routine event. The Grand Ministry caught wind of some pageless gathering, and they flung more magical girls than were really necessary to deal with it. Human lives were at stake, but that was only more reason to keep a few girls in reserve in case more cropped up somewhere else, she reasoned. Come to think of it, it was pretty strange how they just seemed to know exactly where these things would show up. Even if special magics were involved, it didn't make things look any less strange. But sure, trust the Grand Ministry.

Though misgivings about the organization she worked for aside, she just wasn't very practical for this type of fighting. Were she by herself she could probably do a number on the pageless present. If there were one or two other girls, her powers would be syphoned off into them. It was bothersome, but at least they would be far more formidable than normal. But with so many magical girls present, her power would be divided among them and herself. Not only would this make her even weaker, but the amount of power each girl received from her would be even weaker than before. And only more magical girls were going to arrive as time went on. It got to the point where most wouldn't even notice they were becoming stronger, and Stripes would be little more than a liability in such a situation.

Though her fortune was changing, if just for the moment. It seemed as though some of the pageless were retreating, distancing themselves from the other magical girls. Stripes stood by her initial thoughts that she was wasted on a task like this, but maybe she could do something useful before the rest of the girls showed up.

In an instant, her body twisted and contorted, orange and black hair pushed out of all of her pores, and before long she was a thousand or so pound Bengal tiger. One with a witch's hat, but otherwise very similar looking to the real deal. The other magical girls might of had time to grandstand and such, but that wasn't Stripes style. She dove into the metal jungle and gave chase. Tigers were ambush predators by nature and were more than capable of slaying a fleeing opponent. The frail creatures were eviscerated in a single swipe, turning into tar and cloth on her claws.

But slaying the pageless was not her primary goal. The other magical girls could pick off any stragglers, so there was little reason to worry about them. She pushed ahead, hoping to get to whatever the pageless were after before they did.

It didn't take long for the rest of the group to arrive in quick succession, Magical Girls they were called, but more specifically, Merlin's Daughters as all of them were associated with the Marrywell Academy. For Lumiere, it just so happened that the girls tonight were all buds, flowers which had yet to fully mature, none of them had been in service to the light for more than a few years at best. This fact just behooved the century-old angel to make sure that all of them would go home safe and sound tonight.

As her wings raged down below, slicing and searing Pageless into motes of black dust, Lumiere's blue eyes noticed that some of the creatures made a beeline toward the enraptured civilians. Just as she was thinking of erecting a barrier to shield them, Burning Heart made her arrival, a "mahou shoujo" in the most culturally-accurate sense of the word. Her blazing arrows burned a streak through the air before they landed around the innocent victims, creating a literal ring of fire, protecting them from the Pageless' dark claws. The kitsune then charged forward, brandishing an exotic weapon from the Orient, a distant cousin of the halberd. The enchanted weapon decapitating clawed Pageless like hot knife through butter.

"..." Lumierre's glowing white pupils approved of the smart maneuver, however, would it be enough? What was stopping the agile monsters from just jumping over the fire? However, she needed not fret because the answer came in the form of an elegant shimmering lilac. The royal magical girl's first move on the scene being to lift literal steel beams - a feat impossible even for the strongest of men - and position said beams into a makeshift cage, ensuring the safety of its occupants up several notches.

However, all of these measures were only useful for delaying the Pageless, the surest way to ensure the safety was slaying the snake instead of simply warding them. That's where the good captain's boons would help. Goodhope was someone Lumiere personally considered as a friend and the white-haired veteran knew how beneficial her powers were. With but a declaration, her allies would find their spirits lifted, their resolve hardened. That's precisely what she'd do.

"Au nom de Dieu, que notre lumière bannisse les ténèbres!" Lumiere enunciated in her native French, but Wilhelmina's magic wasn't hindered by language barriers, for the thing most important was the recipient's conviction into their oath. As such, as the waves of the good captain washed over her, the seraph and her wings became faster and stronger, surer in the purpose.

Lumiere zipped through the air as four of her wings gathered near her, they formed a golden semi-transparent barrier in front of her as two Pageless leapt at her, trying to pounce the angel into the ground, only to be repelled back by the barrier as if it was a knight's shield bashing them away. Then, nigh-instantly after they bounced off, the very same four wings disengaged the barrier to direct their points at the monstrous pair, firing off four auric beams, disintegrating them.

Then, moments into the engagement, the Pageless horde started... retreating, turning their tails and scattering deeper into the abandoned construction plot. Why? One might wonder, perhaps twas' to regroup and plan their next move, perhaps simply out of primal fear of annihilation, or perhaps... something else entirely. Fortunately for the daughters of Merlin, they needed not to wonder for they could feel it too, this spike of arcane presence, the unmistakable signs of a Grimoire's birth into the world. For all of their differences, they - Pageless and Magical Girls both - were looking for the same thing...

The white-clad angel shaped four wings near the enraptured civilians and another four right beside her, the pair then spawned a light portal each that allowed their mistress to traverse instantly between the two. As a result, Lumiere was now floating just above the steel cage that Lilac constructed earlier. After arriving, she spotted a gigantic tabby cat with a witch hat out of the corner of her eyes, peculiar, but she had something more important to do.

"Filles!" She addressed every magical girl in the vicinity, at least those who could hear her voice, "We must not let the Pageless destroy the Grimoire!" It was just as important as protecting the innocent as a Grimoire meant another potential ally to push back against their vile influence, it'd be a huge blow to their efforts if their enemy could manage to pluck the magical flower before it could blossom.

She saw an ominous red glow on the horizon, like a blood red flame burning the construction site. A sinister flame only Tesni could see it as the feeling of smoke stung her eyes.

“I’m not sure what’s more of a slave to cliché, the Pageless or us. The monsters emerge in the dead of night, the radiant heroes arrive to save the day, all the while in an isolated area where little real damage can be done… can’t say I’m not thankful though, hurray for clichés making my job easier!” arriving at the outskirts of the construction site, Tesni let the red haze fade from her vision and the cool night air soothe her eyes. Taking a deep breath, she reached behind her ear and dropped what looked like a toothpick at her feet. Casually stepping on it, suddenly an enormous golden pillar appeared, carrying her into the sky. She held the top of the golden pillar as if she had climbed a flagpole to survey the scenario the Pageless were writing. Watching the swarming mass writhe deeper into the construction site, the walls and protections of her fellow magical girls she briefly wondered how they expected to destroy all the Pageless and not take all night… before remembering that the Ministry had sent Tesni for a reason.

"Jeez I'm an idiot sometimes, thinking this isn't my problem." chuckling, she shrunk her staff to half its height and tilted it forward, altering the angle towards the head of the swarm, and rapidly expanding it once more using it like a pogo stick.

Launched through the air Tesni brought the staff with her by shrinking it towards her instead of growing it away from her, carrying it as a relatively normal sized bo staff. The staff twirled and spun as she fell through the air, making it appear as if a golden comet was falling… and with an impact, landed in the middle of the swarm, cleanly blasting some away and leaving the swarm split into two packs, those still running towards the birth of a new story and those who couldn’t anymore thanks to an annoyingly physical magical girl. As the dust was forcibly cleared with a swing of her staff, there was a steely glint in Tesni’s eye, she knew her role.

“Damnnit! Undershot it!... Uh, Hi! Lovely to see you all! Now I don’t want to put a damper on all ‘ya good work but correct me if I’m… wrong!” she thrust her staff out like a spear behind her,

"Don’t all three missions have the same solution, really? Destroy Pageless, protect civilians, and find the grimoire… person. Destroying the Pageless-” swinging the staff back over her head down to the ground like an axe, flattening the middle of the pack of Pageless as it tried to swarm her.

“Will make the other two so much easier, right? No Pageless, no threat to the people!” she swung her staff in an arc swatting the creatures closest to her back before shrinking it again.

“No Pageless, no threat to little miss grimoire, letting us search for her in our own time! C’mon, tell me I’m wrong~” Tesni wasn’t really suited to protecting civilians, nor was she suited to locating whatever new Grimoire was being born. She was an idiot with a heavy metal stick and didn’t need to be anything more than that. Or frankly, was incapable of being more than that. She had no faith in herself that if the civilians were left in her care that an errant swing wouldn’t… break something. So she let others cover that particular weak point of hers.

And so, by choice or chance, here she was.

After yet another university interview that she’d only had half of her heart in, Nessie had decided to vent her silent frustrations by walking back to her hotel instead of taking the tube. The air was bitingly chilly, but not freezing, and the streets were a uniform grey and white, with varying shades in between, a dull setting that allowed the young redhead to stay within her thoughts. It was bitter weather, not unlike Nessie herself, who was yet again confused and annoyed at her own dissatisfaction.

She had moved to London in search of a path she could see herself happily taking to move on into her future, or at least an indication towards it. But so far it was fairing no better than her previous home in Edinburgh. It just felt as though something was missing, a craving for something that she hadn’t found behind any of the doors of options available. And there were many options. After all, she had fairly outstanding grades in a wide variety of subjects, enough so that almost any university would froth at the mouth to have her apply. But nothing they could offer, nor anything she could think of herself, could rouse or convince her. There was still something missing.

Perhaps it was her? Maybe she was expecting too much from the choices she had before her, or her desires were simply just out of anyone and anything’s reach, including her own. Perhaps it was just time to re-evaluate, to get real. After all, what if there was no end to this if she didn’t change? She didn’t want to be considering this sort of thing into her twenties, she hadn’t worked hard in school just to end up nowhere-

Speaking of ending up nowhere, where was she?

It turns out that trekking through a large city like London on foot with barely any navigational reference, other than a surface level understanding of the London Underground, is not the most practical idea, especially while in thought.

So, with the sky having darkened without her noticing, Nessie found herself standing by a large construction site. A fence that was fairly tall, but easy to clamber over, separated the outside world from the site, which was filled with its own structures: cranes that waved to the skyscrapers that they rivalled in height, scaffolding that lined most of the site itself, supported by an array of planks and beams that served as the foundation from which the builders themselves worked off of. Not to mention the vehicles and the soil on which they stood. What the site was for, the girl wasn’t sure, but that didn’t take away from the feeling that what laid beyond the fence was a small world unlike anything else.

That was when a shadow out of the corner of Nessie’s eye broke her out of her train of thought once again. And then another shadow. And another. Every time just out of sight, always flashing past before she could get a proper look at whatever it was, her bright green eyes always a split second behind. Funnily enough, this was becoming quite a regular occurrence for the young lady, at least it had been ever since she’d moved to London a few weeks before. Every so often she would catch a patch of darkness teasing at her peripheral vision wherever she went: in the street, on the train, even in some of the university campuses she’d visited. A shadow that followed her wherever she went. But every time she turned to see what it was, she was met with nothing. A blank space that teased her even more with its innocence than the shadow itself. It had gotten to a point where she’d begun to ignore it. Perhaps she needed to get her eyes tested or something.

Today though, of all days, she wasn’t having any of it. Her frustrations from earlier became a surrogate for her fury, triggered by those damned shadows that wouldn’t leave her alone. And she was well aware that a young woman like herself was a prime target for any perverted stalker that might get their kicks from persecuting and irritating her like this.

“Oi! Stay away! Whoever you are! I’m fed up with this!”

Her accented voice rang out harshly in the evening air, though it seemed like there was no one to hear it given the silence she was met with in response. Just stillness for a few seconds... until another shadow whistled past her eye once again, this time as though it were moving over the fence into the construction site.

At that point she considered just walking away. Whatever or whoever this was, they were clearly playing with her. Walking away would just end their fun, for now at least. But Nessie was still angry, and with anger comes a tendency to act on impulse. And so that’s what she did.

“Oh, sod this...”

The girl sighed before throwing herself at the fence, launching her lithe body on top of it just barely and then finally lowering herself down to the earthy ground on the other side.

After gathering her bearings, the first thing the young Scotswoman noticed was just how large of a plot this construction side covered. Mounds of dirt like miniature hills prevented her from seeing to the other side of the site at all, essentially enclosing her unless she went over them, but she wasn’t about to get a good set of clothes dirty. What she could see though were multiple and various flashes of light that shone over the reach of the hills, almost like silent fireworks. In fact, if she really listened, she could perhaps even hear voices emanating from roughly the same place as where those flashes of light were popping up, but soon enough Nessie would have other things to pay attention to.

She almost dismissed it at first; another stupid shadow in the corner of her eye that would be gone within a second. Until she realised two things. It wasn’t in the corner of her eye at all, in fact it was dead centre, just on top of one of the dirt mounds. And it wasn’t moving, at least not in the same way the shadows had before. It took its time, and headed straight for her.

“Hello...?” A nervous attempt at getting a response from who or what was approaching her came out strained and quiet. And even if it had heard her, the shadow kept on with its approach. And now it wasn’t alone.

More shadows, roughly of the same shape and size, came up over the hills of soil at varying degrees of haste. But it wasn’t just their speeds of approach that concerned Nessie as they got closer to her. It was their features, which she now could just about distinguish in the low levels of light. A dark blue alien figure featuring sharp, sickle-like red eyes with even sharper claws at the ends of each arm, and a twisted heart-like symbol on their chests. But there was nothing to love about these creatures.

Confused but with no time to question Nessie tensed up in panic, beginning to back away towards the fence with wide eyes fixed on the monsters before her.

“Oh... oh shit...”

She gasped as she felt the cold steel of the fence tingle against her neck, a frosty hand holding her in place as she was left powerless to do anything but watch as her impending doom slowly closed in on her.

“Fuck, just... Just fuck off! All of you! Just fuck off!”

Fear was mostly substituted for anger as Nessie sensed her last moments coming, a slew of yelled out curse words against her multiplying assailants. Well, if she was going to go out, she’d go out fighting. A true Scot to the last second.

If one were to look in just the right direction, at just the right moment, they might perhaps catch a glimpse of a horrific monstrosity as it leapt across the London skyline. And if said hypothetical viewer were granted a closer look, they would no doubt notice that the creature held in its grasp an attractive young woman with flowing, blonde hair and wearing a very elegant gown. Such a viewer, especially if they were a Magical Girl, would be forgiven for thinking that this was obviously a Pageless, racing off into the night with its latest victim. But, were they to look even closer, they would likely be shocked to discover that, instead of keeping its captive restrained, the nightmarish beast was actually cradling the beauty gently, and that said beauty seemed to be enjoying herself a great deal…

“Isn’t this exciting, darling?!” Olivia inquired, her voice filled with exhilaration as her long golden tresses fluttered behind her. “Our first night in London, and already we have an assignment from the Grand Ministry! They must really think highly of us to send us out before we’ve even gone through orientation!”

Perhaps, my sweet Rose, Xolys replied, his calm and polite voice echoing in her mind. Then again, the Pageless seem to be growing ever more restless of late. It may well be that the Ministry has deigned to alert every Magical Girl in the area as a means of effectively curtailing this latest threat, before it grows too strong.

“Hmm…” Olivia mused. “I suppose that does make more sense… Oh, you’re just so smart, darling!” she told her monstrous companion, while nuzzling him affectionately. “And if that’s the case, then we’re sure to meet some other Magical Girls when we get there! Finally, I’ll have a chance to make friends with people just like me!” she gushed, before giving voice to a delighted giggle. “Oh, I simply cannot wait!”

The unlikely pair had been chatting in Olivia’s (otherwise unoccupied) dorm room, when they’d received the Ministry’s alert. Not wasting a moment, Xolys had scooped his fair maiden up and darted off towards the construction site at which a worrying number of Pageless were said to be gathering. Now that they were almost there, Olivia could see that a battle was already in progress, with no less than five Magical Girls facing off against a far more numerous swarm of Pageless. Although, now that she took a closer look, said Pageless appeared to be on the losing end of the engagement, with the monsters perishing by the dozen at the hands of the Magical Girls, while their would-be victims were guarded by barriers of both flame and steel. Not only that, but a fair number of the dark creatures appeared to be in full flight, sprinting away from the battle and deeper into the construction site as fast as their misshapen legs could carry them.

Olivia couldn’t help but be enthralled by the sight. During their relatively short time together, she and Xolys had only encountered mere handfuls of Pageless, and to see such vast numbers falling before the might of her fellow Magical Girls brought great joy to the fair maiden’s heart. The only question now was, how best to assist them? The Ministry’s alert had listed three main objectives: Find the new Grimoire that had appeared nearby, protect the civilians present, and, of course, destroy all the Pageless. Olivia knew she and Xolys weren’t particularly suited to searching for things, and it seemed that the civilians were already fairly well protected, which left…

It appears that no one has yet noticed that cluster of fleeing Pageless, Xolys observed as they descended upon the construction site. Shall I attend to them, dearest?

“Yes, darling,” Olivia nodded. “Please do.”

Dropping out of the sky above above the unsuspecting Pageless, the terrifying monstrosity spun it lower tentacles like a blender, the spiked appendages slicing several Pageless to ribbons before even reaching the ground. Once he had finally landed in their midst, Xolys employed the scythed talons of his other limbs to cut down several more. Meanwhile, Olivia was gently lowered to the ground, where she stood back to admire her companion’s prowess. However, despite her love for watching Xolys work, the fair maiden’s attention couldn’t help but be drawn to the other Magical Girls present, each of whom were dealing with the Pageless in their own unique, but no less impressive, way.

“Greetings, fellow maidens!” Olivia called out to her allies. “May we join you this fair evening?”

Blood-soaked Lotus

---

A Magical Girl of eight months, unofficially a student of Marrywell Academy for half of that time, and a London resident for only a few days, the young girl named Karen finally arrived at the scene of battle between her fellow Magical Girls and their sworn foes the Pageless. Hesitant to enter her transformed state, she had travelled on foot as a normal girl to the construction site. When she did finally arrive her heart soared and she found herself nearly swooning upon seeing the other girls in action. The angel of light Lumière being the first she saw, her unusual wings acting as both ranged and close combat weapons that made Karen alight with joy at the sight. Meanwhile there was a blur of gold which, in the flashes of visibility she had of it, appeared to be masterfully handling a naginata as it sliced through Pageless with ease. Then there was the girl in the center of the Pageless who was swinging around a pole of some kind that would warrant further investigation at another time.

On a more boring side of things, there was a Magical Girl working hard to defend the humans that appeared to have been charmed by the Pageless by planting a shield of metal around them, and there was another who seemed to be praying. Normally Karen would feel somewhat upset at the sight of someone standing aside, but she had herself gained a sympathy for those who can't fight directly as she's learned more of her own grimoire. Not to mention that as a Magical Girl it was entirely possible that their prayers were actually a conduit for their magic. However, her thoughts on this were interrupted when she noticed another girl next to what seemed to be a powerful beast. Could she have charmed a Pageless to her side? Or was this a result of the girl's own grimoire, the beast a weapon in its own right? The thought excited her.

But ultimately, she was here for three reasons and unfortunately, admiring the other Magical Girls was not one of them. Her first task was to protect the humans, a goal that seemed to be well covered by the golden fox-girl and the girl with multi-color hair. The second task was to destroy the Pageless, which was being attended to by the other four. That left the third and final task to find the grimoire as the most understaffed. So she found herself tearing her eyes away from the others, jumping the fence, and running through the construction site to find any hint of it.

It only took a few moments before she thought she heard something in the distance, something that sounded like a human voice. If there was a straggler, and the other girls didn't notice... She sighed inwardly and began running toward the sound, her red scarf billowing behind her. She'd wait until she learned the situation before risking transforming, and she hoped with all her might that this detour wouldn't cost them the grimoire.

In a place far, far away from the commotion bred by the clash between the defenders of the light and their mortal nemesis, a certain silver-haired magician had just finished brewing a cup of tea for herself.

"I gotta say, I one-upped myself this time. This must be the best tea I had in a long while," Lilian said as she walked to an old reading chair. She left the cup on a nearby table, beside a tray of sweets and—after perusing the shelves that packed the walls around her—picked an ominous-looking book.

Before she went back to her chair, Lilian took a long look at the night sky outside the stained glass windows of the old chapel that served as the Grand Ministry's Hall, almost as if she were trying to peer off into the distance separating her from her beloved magical girls.

"Percival and the Quest for the Holy Grail, huh? Very interesting. Very interesting indeed," She said to herself in a curious tone.


Meanwhile, the battle at the construction site raged on. The magical girls and the thralls of darkness clashed against one another in a desperate effort to rid the world of each other.

That said, some of the Pageless cared more to find ways to feast on the civilians, ignoring the threats of magical girls defending them and rushing at their prey with wild abandon.

If fighting against what seemed like an endless tide of darkness crashing upon them wasn't hard enough, the magical girls also had to deal with the Pageless that seemed to flee the battle and converged upon a helpless girl that had been forsaken by the goddess of luck.

With every moment that passed, the number of Pageless drawn to Nessie grew. Would help come in time or would her story end before it even began?

---

The man eater continued to swipe and bite it's way through the heartpageless before it, prioritizing the location of the grimiore above all else. In truth, this was not really a good job for Stripes. She worked better as an assassin slinking to the back lines to ambush important targets. if the one holding the grimoire were to become a magical girl, Stripes's power would be shared between the fresh magical girl and herself. While she wasn't a huge fan of working with others, she was less keen on sharing her strength with a total rookie. Perhaps the other magical girls would locate her before getting too caught up crushing the pageless into tar.

Before long, her target was in sight. A foul mouthed brat who could swear like a sailor. How unfortunate she couldn't just freeze in terror. Though if she was in such dismay, she probably wasn't in any position to suddenly transform on her. Her being a magical girl wasn't even a sure thing. But this was also bad news for Stripes, because it meant that the grimoire was still out there somewhere. Though even if some considered Stripes a misanthropist, she wasn't the sort to leave a civilian to her fate.

With a single chomp, three pageless were crushed between her jaws. Black tar oozed out of the tiger's mouth as it made eye contact with the Scottish girl. Normals were so bothersome, especially the mouthy ones. She didn't have time to explain what the world of magic was like. Well, she could give her a chance.

"Did you see a book?" The tiger with a witch hat asked.

But the girl wasn't out of the woods yet. Stripes noticed she was still being held in place with frigged hands. She should probably help with that.

The tiger's claws cut through the fence with ease, and did a number on the pageless holding the swearing sailor in place. Cold black blood was splashed on the back of her clothes. It would eventually evaporate into nothing, but Stripes remembered the first time she had been splashed with a pageless's innards. She didn't freak out too bad, but it was a little unsettling.

"Do not be alarmed. I'll keep you safe."

Ultimately, she didn't trust the girl to run around by herself. She ignored any protests the girl might have made and bit down on the back of her shirt. Then Stripes carried her off to continue to search for the grimoire before it was destroyed.

"Oath? Ah-" Lilac hesitated for a moment, only to be pounced on and knocked down by a Pageless. It's sharp claws slashing for her face, barely held at bay by the steel beam she carried. But after the surprise wore off, she began pushing the bar up like so much exercise, "-I remember.. Captain Goodhope was it?" More Pageless leaped on, attempting to press down upon her as a group, and even her prodigious strength struggled against so many. "By Joyeuse, I shall not let you beasts lay a hand on any human!"

But resolved with the power of Goodhope's Oath, her strength prevailed and with one last exertion, she flung the Pageless into the air. "Lumiere, it seems Queen and Rose have given chase to the Pageless pursuing the Grimoire. I would be honored to have my senior's aide in vanquishing the foe before us." The Pageless now slowly beginning to fall about her, Lilac held her hand aloft and shouted, "Joyeuse!" A radiant light coalesced within in her hand, the kingly blade Joyeuse taking form once more.

Blade now in hand, she stepped forward to face the recovering foes, and cleanly sliced down the 'face' of the lead Pageless, rainbow colored light spraying from the wound like samurai movie blood. As its hands naturally flew up in shock to cover the painful but ultimately shallow wound, she pressed in and pierced what passed for heart among its ill begotten kind, following up with a kick to both free her blade and send the dying Pageless flying into the foes rushing to take its place to prevent them from mobbing her.

And so she continued the fight, a remarkably brutal and straightforward style, accentuated with extravagant displays of light.

Though the numbers of Magical Girls swelled in a short time frame, and not an iota of reinforcement had arrived for the Pageless, their desperation only drove them to new heights of ferocity. She'd barely alighted on a girder before they rose, clambering upon one another in a rising tide of claws to snatch the last page of her own personal story. With a look of cold contempt she slashed and leapt, the fires of her heart burning brighter as she culled the tides crashing around her.

A girl with her hands folded in prayer commanded a moment of her attention, first for the brazen display of her own defenselessness in the face of so many foes, and second for the boon she offered. Burning Heart smiled then, her heel alighting upon a vertical beam and launching her downwards to the ground amidst a thick knot of Pageless not yet crushed by the whalloping of a Monkey or the lasers of an Angel.

"I do promise to burn like the brightest star in the sky!" Suzuya consummated her oath pulling a heavy mace wrapped in bands of studded iron from her tail, smashing it to the ground to pulp the darkness into a murky paste. When oath met actions her flames tripled in their intensity, including the arrow wall still burning amidst the steel girders. A light to banish the dark, refusing to smothered even by weight of Pageless perishing atop them.

Taking a second to admire the display brought her focus upon Lilac struggling, herself positioned as the seeming last direct line of defense between the bewitched people and their would-be-executioners. Her mace was left with nary a glance and she bounded back to the perimeter they'd built, finding the air delightful hot after a night of misty gloom, with Lilac being pushed to draw her sword in a vicious melee with the angel hovered above them.

"You fight well." Her greeting preceeded her arriving in a flurry of motion, drawing a fresh Naginata in a spinning slash that brought her to Lilac's side in a mess of Pageless ichor. The many tails of gold and fire brushed the other girl's back without harm, their softness almost ticklish before Suzuya moved to her side with a fierce, excited expression. "But we will fight better together."

Feeling Lumiére's pull on her magic, Wilhelmina let the blessing connect while her eyes surveyed the battlefield. Indeed, the Pageless were swarming - luckily, her allies kept her from being attacked - in unusual numbers, with some of them fleeing... or perhaps seeking out another target? As soon as her ally mentioned it, she could also feel it: the faint pull of a Grimoire in the distance. A new story that wished to be born with the power of magic. No wonder then that their enemies felt it necessary to gather so much force as the Pageless wished nothing more than to destroy valuable stories. Just like when they attacked the library.

The situation rapidly devolved into chaos, with a massive iron pole smashing into the midst of the Pageless while a horrendous monstrosity tore into their ranks, sending shivers down the girl's spine. That... what the hell was that?! It looked like an abomination, a chimera born from the most twisted experiment and her eyes hurt while she looked at what could not possibly be real, a shadow that held itself against reality, an unknowable terror that struck a chord within her heart looking to eviscerate her down to the bo-

No! Focus, Wilhelmina!

She managed to realign herself just in time to give her blessing to Lilac and then the unknown magical girl who tore through her enemies like thin paper. The battlefield, after all, did not wait for sick girls and with her blessings stretched thin, she could feel her magic pulse, draining at a steady rate to supply more for her allies. Yet, her job was not done.

"Sailors! Stand as One!" Wilhelmina announced and three ghostly figures materialised around her. Dressed in the fine livery of the dutch navy of old, they immediately summoned muskets before diving into the Pageless, elbowing, riflebutting and dashing their way towards the rough direction of the Grimoire. Even with so many Magical Girls present, Wilhelmina was the most suited for this task as she could cover much more ground at once than her allies. Spreading her attention to so many different places left her vulnerable though; her allies would have to protect her and she could barely afford to spend a moment to reply to the azure girl landing not far away.

"I'm really sorry! I didn't hear you and I have to focus!" she told Ethereal Rose as she tracked her allies and sailors across the battlefield, seeing if she could aid someone.

Nessie's eyes were shut tightly as she anticipated the end, arms raised over her chest and face, more to comfort her than for any real defensive reason. But, to her surprise, no pain befell her within the subsequent seconds, seconds that passed at a snail's pace in her perspective. Instead, a thunderous and fast-approaching thudding sped towards her from the same direction those monsters had come from, beast-like footfalls that encouraged her eyes to snap wide open.

The abnormality of the events that had taken place so far was very telling, by the fact that a large tiger in a witch's hat suddenly appearing to her rescue was only the second strangest thing she'd seen that day. That didn't mean Nessie wasn't standing in utter awe however, as tooth and claw tore through the alien attackers with bewildering ease, a whole wave shredded to pieces within mere seconds before her. Black blood sprayed onto her as a result, startling her until it would eventually shimmer and vanish completely, as though it had never stained her in the first place. And after all of that, as if things couldn't get any weirder for the poor redhead, the tiger began speaking to her in a clearly feminine voice as though it were the most normal thing in the world.

"Eh...?"

The girl questioned and raised an eyebrow, not because she misheard, but mostly in utter confusion at what exactly was going on. She didn't exactly have a choice to accept the reality in front of her or not though, as she noticed more of those monsters coming over the dirt mounds in pursuit of her and her new... acquaintance.

"N-no! No book, haven't seen one! But what are tho- ahh!"

Nessie interrupted herself mid-sentence with a yelp that was probably a little too loud as, with barely any warning, the hat-wearing tiger had her lifted by the back of her shirt like a cub. Suspended in the air by its mouth, she experienced those heavy, resonant footfalls from before first hand, only mere inches away from a pair of lethal front paws that bore into the ground with every step.

But where was it taking her to, and who was it? Or she, as the voice from earlier had suggested.

"Who are you?!"

The redhead cried out, echoing one of those questions in her mind, trying to be heard above the noise the tiger and the pursuing assailants were making around them.

While it was true the Pageless behaved sporadically, almost more feral than usual, this did not dissuade the Magical Girls. If anything, their revamped threat pushed the girls to strike back twice as hard, the area rife with magic in the air so much that it sparked and felt dense. This sensation was normal for those denizens of the light but for someone like Nessie it pressed down on her chest and squeezed her body in different invisible directions. Forces of darkness and light clashed with the darkness fading away into nothingness, leaving the pressure of the Magical Girls around Nessie to nearly swallow her whole.

There was only one inkling of relief that would fester in Nessie’s chest and it got stronger in certain directions Stripes directed her.
The tiger-like Magical Girl would feel it too, as would everyone in the area. With the Pageless being slain one by one, the new Grimoire’s presence beat brighter like a pulsing heart. Despite their best efforts and instinctual hunger, the Pageless attacking the humans were destroyed one by one. By now the civilians simply walked in place and in circles, left in their deluded magical stupor as the darkness faded. The first objective of protecting the people was complete; all that remained was finding the Grimoire and hunting the last straggling Pageless.

But for every light, there was to be a shadow cast. No matter how powerful it was, the darkness these rays left behind always deepened in response. As the Grimoire pulsed harder, calling out to Nessie, goading her to find its birth place among the construction site’s rubble, the Pageless in turn grew restless. They screeched and snarled, clawed and hissed. Their bodies festered into one another, twisting and contorting and melding with the steel structures of the construction site around them until at long last they formed into a single Pageless, one whose visage was a mockery of their environment.



The new Pageless clamored somewhere high at the construction site’s peak. It swung loosely like a rusty bar before plopping itself suddenly in the middle of the clearing. Sand and dirt were swept into the wind and sent everywhere as the loomingly tall Pageless gave a mechanical whir. The humans may no longer be its target, but the area was still far from safe for the civilians. Spinning its massive wheel and gears, the Pageless crawled with reckless abandon in a single direction.

Somewhere at the base of the steel towers, in the direction Captain Goodhope’s legions followed, was the Grimoire. The Pageless smashed anything that got in its path, be it Magical Girl or more lingering construction work. The closer it got, the brighter the Grimoire beamed. It was the brightest of course for Nessie, all but screaming at the ginger lass to abandon all caution and pursue it at any cost.

---

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Olivia’s friendly greeting was drowned out by the din of battle, thus no reply was immediately forthcoming, and when one was offered, it was simply the girl in question apologizing for not having heard her. “Oh, that’s quite all right!” Olivia called back. “A battlefield probably isn’t the best place to hold a conversation, after all!” she added with a giggle. She was about to turn her attention back to Xolys, when she noticed the spectral sailors the nautical-themed Magical Girl had conjured. “My goodness!” Olivia gasped in amazement. “Those ghosts of yours are simply fascinating! Pardon my asking, but are you perhaps a necromancer, of some sort?” Although she had heard the girl say that she needed to concentrate, Olivia simply couldn’t help herself. She just had to know more about this girl’s abilities! Were the sailors simply magical constructs, or were they summoned, semi-corporeal supernatural entities, or maybe even the actual spirits of deceased individuals? And was she just limited to sailors, or could she also conjure other maritime aid, such as a ship’s cannon, for instance?

As all these myriad possibilities swirled around her brain, Olivia was still cognizant enough to realize that her nautical-themed ally appeared rather vulnerable to attacks from the swarming Pageless, especially with her trio of ghostly sailors seemingly heading off on their own mission. Thankfully, this was a problem the enchanting beauty knew she could assist with. Moving to stand beside the maritime maiden, Olivia placed a reassuring hand on the girl’s epauletted shoulder. “There, now we can converse without fear of being rudely interrupted,” she explained with a smile, her voice serene and soothing. Meanwhile, Xolys continued to slaughter all the Pageless within a roughly fifteen meter radius of his consort, making a special effort to clear a path for Captain Goodhope’s spectral sailors. Looming up behind the ghostly trio, the horrific monstrosity lashed out with two of its largest spiked tentacles, plunging them deep into the tide of Pageless, before spreading the writhing mass apart like some nightmarish Moses at the Red Sea. However, if Captain Goodhope wished to focus, she would regrettably find that to be rather impossible with Olivia in such close proximity…

“Isn’t he just the sweetest~?” Olivia sighed as she watched her consort with dreamy eyes. A moment later, the beautiful maiden’s reverie was shattered as a shocking revelation occurred to her. “Goodness me!” she exclaimed, whirling around to stand in front of her new friend. “I’ve been so dreadfully rude! After all this time, I have yet to introduce myself! Magical Maiden Ethereal Rose, at your service,” she announced with an elegant curtsy. “And that handsome creature,” she added, gesturing to the massive monstrosity that had caused the maritime maiden such mental anguish, “is my consort, Thyerg’Xolys, Master of Xhar’doth. It is a most sincere pleasure to make your acquaintance, and I truly hope we can become the closest of friends!”