"My name... is Magical Girl Harmonia Lux. Please call me Lux."

  A snort from the back of the room caught my attention as a tall, lean boy with ice-blue hair and matg eyes strutted up to the front of the room, before crossing his arms and fshing me a grin.

  ", everyone here has only been a Knight for less than three weeks. Isn't it a bit presumptuous to call yourself a 'magical girl?' It's almost as bad as calling yourself a hero with no achievements to back it up. What a joke."

  There was a faint murmur of agreement and tension in the room, and my eyes widened in shod mortification.

  "Huh!?" I spluttered, suddenly feeling my face flush hot.

  "Now, now," Twilight Aster chided the boy with blue hair, "You of all people shouldn't assume what Lux went through that week during the Cataclysm. Her bravery in the face of danger made all the difference. Just because you have reservations about being a Knight doesn't mean you get to be rude and iive."

  The blue-haired boy's eyes fshed with amusement and arrogance. "Really? How iing. Tell me about it, then. If you're so proud, what did you aplish, Harmonia Lux?"

  He emphasized my name like it une, and I gred at him with a furious scowl.

  I didn't e here to be picked on by some asshole with a chip on his shoulder. I came here to learn and train, to be a part of something bigger than myself and make a differen the world.

  Unfortunately, that didn't seem to be the case for this jerk.

  "Tch. Wow, you must be fun at parties," an Afri-Ameri girl and braided bck hair with purple highlights mumbled under her breath. She was wearing a hi-tech visor and a jumpsuit that looked almost like a cross between a space suit and a superhero e.

  I caught her eye and raised an eyebrow, but she just shrugged in response.

  "Not here to kiss anyone's ass," she mouthed, before turnitention back to the blue-haired boy. "But everyone here was an Emergency tract, Mr. Full-of-himself. So if you want to air yrievaake it up with someone who gives a flying fuck. We're here to listen to Ms. Aster, so maybe save it for aime."

  Her voice was low and strong, and she held my gaze for a moment, her dark eyes searg mine as if looking for a on ground.

  I just looked dowhing and willing myself not to burst into tears or fly off the ha the guy.

  Why couldn't he leave me alone? What did I ever do to him?

  "Don't worry," the blue-haired boy smirked, nodding his head towards me. "I'm just pying around with her. Heck, I'm perfectly aware that I'm sed rate pared to the cream of the crop this year. She should know that she's stuck with us too."

  The girl o me looked exasperated, as if she were used to dealing with the likes of him.

  "Quit it," Twilight Aster snapped. "Anyone who signed an Emergency trad put their lives on the line deserves their right to be here. You should know that, Frostburn."

  The boy just shook his head, his bright blue eyes shining with pt. "Emergency tract? It's ridiculous," he muttered, "Sure, whatever kept my brother and me alive during the crisis. But she should know we're just a bunch of extras. It's just a fact."

  My throat tightened and I ched my fists ready to fly. Despite my best efforts, sparks e-red lightning began to fre up around me, leaving a tense air of static electricity in the room.

  Al always told me that my Italian temper would get me into trouble on a big stage someday, but I always mao keep it under trol when it mattered.

  But it seemed that day had e.

  "You fug asshole," I growled, approag him with my fists shaking. "What the hell is your problem?"

  But he didn't respond, his head tilted to the side as if he were waiting for me to snap.

  There was silen the room, and suddenly, I felt Twilight Aster grab my elbow. "That's enough, Lux. Let's not fight amongst ourselves."

  Frostburn just shrugged, folding his arms and shooting me a grin. "Ah, never mind. Sorry, I did go a bit far there. Still, aren't retty much the same, stuck here with the hinges off... with no idea what to do ? This is insane."

  There was a shift in his demeanor, and his eyes flickered with a familiar emotion I'd seen in my mother's eyes a thousand times.

  "Not me," I replied, trying to keep my voice steady and calm. "I'm ready for whatever es. It's why I'm here."

  Twilight Aster interjected, her voice raising slightly. "Alright, alright. We're all friends here. Please focus, a's get ba track. We have a lot to cover, and we don't have much time."

  There was a soft murmur of versation in the room, and I slumped bato the seat at the front with a sigh, my anger dissolving into frustration.

  "Don't let him get to you," the girl with the braids and purple highlights said softly, leaning towards me. "He's a total jackass and made it clear he doesn't want to be here. You probably showed him what for, though."

  I smiled, exhaling slowly aing my shoulders rex.

  There ple of excitement in the room, and I could feel a charge in the air as Twilight Aster settled in at the front of the room.

  She had a small whiteboard propped up on a le, with a series of graphs and diagrams that I didn't quite uand.

  "Here are some key dates as for your new reality as a Magical Knight. Now, I do uand most of you weren't pnning on this. You may have been ied in being a Knight at some point in your childhood and were unfortunately passed on by the Guardians. Or, you always had the potential but never demonstrated explicit i. Whatever your circumstances may be, you are now here with the rest of your peers and cohort in this room as students of Kaleidoscope Academy."

  I khis. I'd always dreamed of being a Knight, but unfortunately, I had never been approached.

  A bck cat — a Guardian of all things had approached me when Al had been bitten by a zombie while making our escape.

  I shook my head, trying to push back the memories of that night, and focused on Twilight Aster's words.

  "Now, in the inal System established by the Guardians, individuals now known as 'Vilins' were empowered and rewarded for chasing grandiose ambitions and goals. Simultaneously, Magical Knights were created and iivized to pursue aer these Vilins from wreaking too much havo the world. Why do you think this system was established?"

  The boy in the back - Frostburn, as I had learned - raised his hand zily. "It was inally a way to ensure order and bance," he yawned. "We call them vilins today, but that's just a matter of perspective. They were inally knoioneers' - where Paragons were aeemed subset of Pioneers."

  Twilight Aster nodded. "Yes, as a matter of fact. However, we now cssify individuals that harness magic or possess extraordinary powers for nefarious or unwful purposes as Vilins. It is specuted that the Guardiaablished the Pioneer system in ages past to guide mankind from dark times into the light of civilization. Unfortunately, during the period we refer to as the Middle Ages, humanity was abandoned by the Guardians and were left to their own devices. Left alone, human nature iably took over and those who were able to advance as Pioneers uhe System became querors, kings, and warlords. Although many individuals such as Euclid became prolific Paragons and formed the First Advent Magis to bat the power-hungry Pioneers, the damage was done and the chaos tinued."

  She paused, her eyes drifting to the window. "To skip aensive semester-long topic that will no doubt be covered in ylobal History course, the Guardians reappeared during the Early Modern period to establish the Magical Knights and curb the excesses of the Pioneers. Of course, this was much more successful, with the two groups eventually ing to a stable equilibrium. Thus we came to the existing system ioday. Or rather, the system that was."

  "The System that was?" the girl with the flower asked, tilting her head to the side. "What does that mean?"

  "It means that the Guardians have decided to make a ge," Twilight Aster smiled. "Now that there's a growing number of magical knights and new recruits, they've decided to try a neroach. As you may have heard, these rifts have tio open across the world, and we have reason to believe they will only tio grow in frequend severity. All asded Systems, including those of Pioneers, have been refigured to reward efforts at resisting the invasion."

  A murmur of approval swept through the room as anirl with curly red hair and fair skin stood up. Her uniform was impeccable, with a gleaming green tunid a plume of feathers in her hat.

  "So the time has e," she sighed. "I've been dreaming about this day my whole life. Well, minus the horrifying hellscape the world's been thrown into."

  Twilight Aster paused, and frowned. "Yes, unfortunately. That is exactly why we are here. I imagine many of you had a very different ception of Knighthood, but as, here we are."

  I shivered, thinking back to the glowing blue eyes and gnashih of the mohat had nearly killed us on the night of the Cataclysm. No amount of hero worship or passion could prepare anyone for that.

  Twilight Aster tinued, her eyes twinkling with and passion. "We are all going to be deployed into these flicts soon. This is not an annou, but a fact. The Guardian's will not deploy us unprepared. They will equip and outfit you with state-of-the-art ted gear to defend and protect yourself and your partners. You will all be permitted to form teams — up to a maximum of four, or to operate solo. Your skills and abilities will be taken into at and optimized for your personal growth."

  "Shit, no kidding?" I heard a girl with sparkling green hair whisper under her breath. "Getting through two days of hell was enough for one lifetime for me."

  "Who the fuck are they to say we have to keep fighting?" Frostburn hissed, his knuckles whitening against his knees. "Aren't we allowed to choose what we want to do?"

  Twilight Aster nodded, smiling at Frostburn sympathetically.

  "You are correct. The Guardians have historically only resded the pranted under extreme circumstances where a magical knight is judged under a panel of peers and psychiatrists who deem them no longer suitable for duty," Twilight Aster expined. "Unfortunately, due to the severity of the situation we have now faced, the Guardians are forced to implement emergency measures that viote their standard operating procedures."

  "How ve," Frostburn grumbled. "So we're a bunch of sacrificial mbs in that case."

  "Not necessarily," the girl o me piped up. "Something's been b me, Miss Aster. The Guardian who tracted me mentiohat she had dozens of targets on her list, but there are less than fifteen of us in this room. What happeo the rest?"

  Twilight Aster hesitated, her eyes shifting to the windows of the lecture hall. She sighed, walking over to the windoulling the curtains apart with her hand.

  Outside, a clear sky shoh the sun, and birds chirped happily irees. It was as if the world hadn't beeated only weeks ago.

  "There were millions of residents in Kaleidoscope City," Twilight Aster said, her voice dropping to a hush. "All of you were granted a short notice, ditional schorship here at Kaleidoscope Academy as students after the Cataclysm. There are nearly four thousand students who attend this academy, and that's a drop in the bucket pared to the popution of this city before the disaster."

  She paused, her lips curling in a grimace. "Everyone in this room is an Emergency tract. It was an initiative by the Guardians to tap into the tent magical abilities of individuals who either had i but cked potential, or potential with no i. We pushed the powers of the World System to the limit in two days of chaos and pandemonium, and by the end of it all, we had lost over a quarter of all recorded Magical Knights worldwide."

  Twilight Aster turo the girl o me. "S Dream, is it?"

  "R-right," the girl nodded, clearly shaken.

  "There were nearly five hundred emergency tracts mobilized for a in Kaleidoscope City during the two days of the attack," Twilight Aster said, her voice trembling. "Around two hundred of whom were eligible for admission to Kaleidoscope Academy post-fact."

  She paused, and I saw a mist of tears form in her eyes, which she promptly wiped away.

  "And just over half of the teens of age to attend the academy. Those who mao survive, I mean, are currently in this room."