Aura

  ***

  Even with the pain shooting through my body, I couldn’t help but look up at that voice. With all the destruction around us, I was surprised to see the kid alive. Standing there defiantly, surrounded by demons, Evelyn stood in dirtied clothes. How is she not dead? Rather, she’s almost uninjured. Given our current situation, I couldn’t help but wonder if this kid was lucky or unlucky.

  “WhAT iS tHIs?” The demon holding Bke down asked. “A ChIcK FrESh FrOm THe EGg?”

  “I don’t know what that means, but leave them alone!” Evelyn shouted.

  “Or WhAT?” The demon snarled. “BeFOre ThE PoWer Of OUr lOrd YOu Are nOtHInG.”

  “Yeah, well you look like a poopy butt!” She said.

  Where is she finding this confidence? Even knights in full armor couldn’t speak with a demon, let alone try to taunt it.

  “YoUR SpeCiES PuTS geNiTAls In ThEIr moUThs FoR rEcREatIon.” The demon said.

  “That sounds gross.” She stepped away. “You’re lying! You’re just mad that you’re ugly!”

  “...” The demon somehow looked angrier. “I’m GOinG tO FuCk YoUr COrPsE wHen I’M DonE.”

  She's five, so I'm sure she has no idea what that means.

  “As if!” She said defiantly.

  “LiTtLe cHiCk TaKE fIrsT MOvE.” The demon taunted.

  A common tactic for demons to do. Offer the first hit to someone they know can’t harm them only to show them how weak they were. Part of my pride was gd that I wasn’t given the offer. That being said, Evelyn obviously had no chance against them.

  “You’re going to regret that!” Evelyn said, before reaching up to the sky with a single hand. “By the Moonlight Blossoms glow!”

  Eh? Something changed. It wasn’t only me who felt that. Bke, who was beside me, also felt it. Not only us, but the others who were being held down, and the demons themselves seemed to feel it. Flinching at some unseen force.

  “All evil surrender to the keeper of justice!” Evelyn continued as a pale light began to illuminate the area. “Magical Girl Charming Melody, awaken!”

  A torrent of pale light engulfed her body and almost blew the demons near her away. The stars in the sky rearranged themselves and the three moons were dwarfed by something new. A massive pale moon appeared, filling the night sky. With that, the dark of the night was banished and even the demons shrieked away if it was the sun. From the light appeared Evelyn- No. It was someone else. In a white and gold dress with light brown twin-tails on either side of her head that almost reached the floor, was some sort of lunar princess. In her outstretched hand was a staff, which matched her dress, with a crystal ball, holding a miniature pale moon, at the tip. As everyone stared on in silence, she opened her eyes and gave a confident smile that put me to ease.

  “Magical Girl Charming Melody has arrived!” Melody triumphantly called out.

  Thinking back to it, Melody was one of the names that she called herself. Is this some sort of guardian angel? A servant of the goddess? Or could this be the saint who is to banish the Demon Lord? No, it couldn’t be the st one. Every single saint has had golden hair. She- Melody was someone else entirely.

  “YoU…” The demon growled. “WHo ArE You?”

  “Just an ordinary neighborhood girl!” Melody smiled.

  “““BULLSHIT.””” I and everyone couldn’t help but retort.

  Even the demons seemed to agree that there was nothing ordinary about her! And what neighborhood is she talking about!? We are in the middle of The Dark Forest! You’d have to travel a hundred miles to find anything close to a neighborhood!

  “One who wants to spread peace and justice through the light of the moon!” She struck a pose, all but ignoring us.

  Okay, I have to be dead. None of this is real. I got killed and this is some sort of delusional dream before my soul leaves my body. I look at my husband, and he too can’t seem to decide if we’re dead or not.

  “CHilDiSh DelUSiOnS.” The demon growled.

  “We’ll see about-!” Melody started.

  From behind, a demon jumped at her. What happened next defied all logic. Turning around, Melody pointed her staff at it, and the demon impaled itself on it. With a single hand, she swung it over her head and smmed it on the floor, at her feet.

  “Well, that was rude of you.” Melody said, her smile somewhat faltering.

  The demon tried to get up, but was pinned under her moon themed boot. Regaining her smile, Melody looked at the demon.

  “So, I get the first hit, right?” She asked.

  “KiLL hEr.” The demon ordered.

  The demons that were holding me and my husband down left us and jumped at Melody, as did many others. With a pyful smile, Melody raised her staff.

  “Evil!” She started, staff glowing with a golden light, before she brought it down on the demon still under her foot. “Be gone!”

  A fsh of light followed by a shock wave threw back the demons with many of them crying out in pain as they turned into ash. With a twinkle in her eye, her gaze remained on the demon in command. For the first time, he showed something other than arrogance but I, like many others, couldn’t help but be focused on Melody herself.

  “So, about that first hit?” She asked.

  “YoU-” The demon started.

  Melody kicked off the floor and appeared in front of the demon before it could react. Once more, her staff started to glow.

  “First-” She shouted as she thrust it into the demon. “Strike!”

  With incredible speed, the demon was thrown high into the air and out of sight. With my mouth on the floor, I couldn’t comprehend what had just happened. How did this five year old just kill, not just this demon, but all the others that turned to ash? What about the demons that remained? Well, they didn’t st long. Turning to face them Melody, I think, winked and shouted.

  “By the power of the pale moon.” She raised her staff once more. “Evil be gone!”

  A continuous torrent of white light shot out from it and every demon that it touched cried out as they turned to ash. Not only that, but she continued into a twirl.

  “Healing light!” She waved her staff over the area.

  With that, my body began to glow and the pain in my body faded away. The bones which were threatening to break out of my skin moved back into pce. I was curious as to what it looked like, but the light was too bright. Soon enough however, it faded and my body was spotless. Even as I was face down in the dirt, there wasn’t even a speck of dirt on me. Like many others, I looked at Melody in amazement and wondered. With such an absurd event that just happened, with that massive moon, the stars themselves moving, and the demons turning to ash, which not even saints of old could do, I couldn't help but wonder... What just happened?

  Melody

  ***

  With everyone healed and almost all the demons defeated, I looked up into the sky. Soon enough, its cries of terror reached me. The demon in charge was rapidly plummeting towards us. Not wanting to see what may happen if it were to hit the floor at that speed, I prepared my final attack. Pointing the tip of my staff at, I gathered magical energy.

  “Moon beam!” I shouted.

  A white and gold stream of energy shot out of my staff and tore through the sky. My aim was true and the demon’s cries were silenced once and for all. After a three second bst, my beam was done and I lowered my staff. Not even ash remained of him. Alright! Good job me! I saved- no. Looking around, I couldn’t help but see the bodies of those I couldn’t save. I shouldn’t be so cheerful. People are still dead. Transforming back to Evelyn, I walked towards the nearest body.

  Taking off his helmet, I saw the face of Logan. This guy always offered me extra bacon when Aura wasn’t looking. Even though he was dead, he still looked at me in pain. Please don’t look at me like that. I tried my best.

  “I’m sorry…” I said I closed his eyes.

  My healing magic only fixed the body, so I can still see the blood around him and the tears in his clothes where the demons got him. Taking his dagger from his belt I put it in his hands and id them on his chest. I moved to the next body- Ah? It’s Reani, the doctor who took care of me. She was face down in the dirt. I can see blood on the floor by her mouth. I’m gd that her eyes were closed. I don’t want her to see me cry.

  Lna

  ***

  Finally! Two weeks of travel and now we can finally rest! Sitting at a picnic table that was set up for us, I looked at the servants who were unloading the carriages. As much as I like carriages, I can’t help but miss cars. Paved roads as well. Although it wasn’t as bad as I first expected, there were more bumps and jolts than I would have liked. They were so bad, that a few of them almost threw me from my seat. Maybe I should invent seat belts… No, that's too much work.

  Compints about travel aside, we found ourselves in the south east portion of the empire in one of the many managed forests. Not only that, but we are by one of the many trade routes to the kingdoms to the south. Admittedly it is a smaller one given the close proximity to “The Dark Woods” which is said to hold demons in it. Given the fact that we are in a game world, I’m half expecting us to be attacked on this trip, because why won’t we? Although, we should be safe given the fact that we have a rge number of guards. Not only that, but me and Lloyd are main characters, so we should survive up until the midpoint of the game. I say midpoint because the game has multiple endings and we die in some of them. Let’s do our best to avoid them!

  …

  Once I’m properly rested from the trip, I decide to explore the camp just a bit. That being said, since I’m essentially a princess and one of two heirs, I’m not alone. At my side wasn’t Lloyd, but rather my personal maid and attendant Noelle. Don’t tell anyone, but I suspect that she’s a battle maid! If she wasn't, why did she have so many knives on her? Anyway, with her holding my hand, I was able to explore as I pleased!

  Firstly, I walked to where we would be served food in the future. They were still setting up the tent, but they already had the fires ready and there was even an earthen oven. As grateful as I was to have fresh baked bread, I wondered if we really needed that. I suppose that this is one of the perks of being royalty. Well, we aren’t actually a royal family, but you get what I mean. Given that things were still being set up, there was obviously no bread ready. We still had to rely on travel rations for a few more hours.

  Having my fill of the camp being set up, I walked as close as I could to the edge of our camp to get a look at the forest. For an evil forest full of demons, it doesn't look too special. Rather, it looks like any ordinary set of trees and shrubs. I suppose part of it’s danger is how unassuming it is… I am SO going to run in there ter.

  …

  Walking towards Mom and Dad’s tent in the search of Lloyd, I saw a group of unusual looking guards preparing a carriage. It didn’t look like the usual transports, this one seemed a lot bulkier. It kind of looked like those armored cars back on Earth. The ones that carried money or something. I wonder what that’s about. Gncing at Noelle, I saw that she didn’t take any particur notice of it. According to her reaction, it wasn’t suspicious but it certainly was out of pce. Looking at it again, I saw several people that I didn't recognize. I can’t remember every st servant and guard we have, but these people in particur weren’t familiar at all.

  “There you are.” Lloyd’s voice called out to me.

  Turning around, I saw Lloyd waving at me. I noticed that despite me having an attendant, Lloyd had none. Why is that? Well, maybe it’s because of his skill with a sword. I heard that even some teachers have trouble going up against him.

  “Whatcha doing?” I asked.

  “My Lady.” Noelle cleared her throat. A sign that I should watch my manners.

  “I could ask you the same thing.” Lloyd said, not particurly caring for my tone. “What have you been doing?”

  “Just walking around.” I said, before pointing to the carriage. “Do you know what that’s for?”

  “Um…” Lloyd paused, looking at both it and the guards surrounding it.

  After a moment of deep thought, he slowly nodded.

  “I think I’ve seen it before.” He said. “But I’m not sure what it’s doing here.”

  “Well, it’s probably carrying some jewels or something for mom.” I concluded. After all, Dad really liked to spoil mom. “Hey, I’m hungry. Let’s get food.”

  “It’s a bit early for dinner, don’t you think?” He sighed.

  “I can fit ten dinners in my stomach!” I bragged.

  “That’s how you get fat.” He shook his head.

  “Those are fighting words!” I put my fists up.

  “Wait no stop, I'm sorry!” He said, running off before he even finished.

  “Get back here coward!” I gave chase.

  “My Lady!” Noelle followed, already scolding me.

  Grayburne