It was like watching all the stars glisten at once. A blinding light overtook the sky from all angles, and by reflex, I transformed from Lawrence into Kyrie, hoping it would defend me from the magical attack.

It was a power unlike any I have ever felt before.

Everyone wears a mask. Sometimes a different mask for each setting, environment, or even a mask for every person they meet. I could feel the weight of my own porcelain-crafted masks.

The mask I would wear to hide my sadness; was shattered.

The mask I would wear to express my hatred; was shattered.

The mask I would wear to fake my happiness; was shattered.

The shields I used to protect my very sense of self from everything else around me were crumbling away as a blinding and searing light washed over me.

All the anger, joy, and passion were burning with apathy, and I could feel myself becoming tired and defeated.

The light was heavy, and my body could no longer carry its weight. On my hands and knees, the weight of my every choice and the people it had affected was pressed against my back.

“Judgment. The most powerful attack used by so-called holy beings.”

Bridget? Never mind that. I need to get up!

“It erodes a person’s being and leaves nothing but a blank and empty husk. But you told me, oh so long ago, that people are more than that.”

Did I ever say something like that? Or was it something I would tell her in the future? I’m scared to let all these things go and who I might become if I do! I have to hold onto them; otherwise, it will all have never mattered…

I took a deep breath.

The light washed over. Opening my eyes and lowering my head. I guess it’s times like these I should ask myself. What would the victorious fighting buddha do?

“FFFFUUUUCCCCKKKK!!!”

I have to stand. I have to stand!

I can see it! The end at which light is the origin! Just reach out and grab it, damn it!

…

At some point, between having magical light burn away at everything that defines me as a person and grasping for the power the spell originated from, I found myself lying on my back, trying to catch my breath.

I hate how heavy my chest is.

‘Man, I’m getting old.’

“Tell me about it. I thought I was going to die!” I almost choked on my own breath. My throat felt dry, and I spoke between breaths.

‘My Queen?!’ The Valkyrie lady who had been trying to kill me kneeled next to me. ‘I had not realized you were in the gardens! Are you alright?!’

My Queen? Oh, I guess she doesn’t recognize me in this form. “Hey, don’t worry about it. I’ll be fine.” I slowly stood up and brushed myself off.

As I stood up, she continued to bow her head.

“Um… Hey, if anyone asks, pretend you never saw me.”

‘A silly request, your majesty. Not even your ears have heard my voice—none since the 38th Queen.’

“Oh, um… that must be—I mean,” I let out a cough to pretend I wasn’t responding to what was clearly a voice that I could hear. “Right then. I must be away. As you were.”

Away? Do queens talk like that? Whatever. I started walking as quickly as I could, away from here.

***

Her majesty was different today. It almost felt like she could hear me.

I didn’t actually vaporize him, did I?

With her majesty gone, I start looking around. There should have still been a body. He’s fine, right? No truly evil being could have even made it this far, so the spell shouldn’t have hurt him too badly.

“Guardian! What is the meaning of this?! Casting Judgement!”

Queen Rosellia?!

Descending from a high corridor, Queen Rosellia Vreigard von Kyrie XIV enters the gardens.

But she—but—but how?!

I quickly kneeled before the Queen of the Palace and of all Magical Girls.

She looked down on me, then scanned the gardens. “For what reason would a guardian have to cast judgment of all spells…?”

She narrowed her eyes at me while I continued to look at the ground beneath her. Eventually, she released her tension with a sigh. “It’s not like Lumina is here to tell me…”

Rosellia weaved together a spell, causing an illusion of time, an echo, to ripple over the present. The empty gardens lit up with my spell again and passed with the spells ending. My echo of the past descends into an empty garden before kneeling.

I was the only one in the garden…

Rosellia gives a thoughtful look.

Was the person I saw an imposter? She looked just like the queen, though. Was it illusion magic? But to hide from even her majesty’s scrying—But to hide from even her majesty’s scrying—no. Only one person has ever managed—!

“Guardian, what is the meaning of this?” Rosellia turned her attention back to me. Judgment and accusation in her eyes.

It was no use. Queen Roselle could not hear my voice. I beat my wings and flew quickly from the gardens down the halls, searching for the person posing as the queen.

“H-Hey! Where are… She’s gone.”

***

I’ve been having fun exploring the palace as it is, but this is become concerning. There are people in the palace, I can’t will myself to any specific place, and I transformed without going to the treasury first.

I fought a Valkyrie… Val… Oh, I’ll name her after my mount. Next time I see her, I’ll call be Valoria. A noble and perfect name that pairs with mine. Kyrie and Val, Val and Kyrie. Together, we are Valkyrie.

I found everything else in the palace, so the treasury should be next.

‘Surrender Intruder!’

That didn’t last long.

Valoria conjured her sword and was flying straight for me. Being transformed, I could see it—the magic that summons her sword.

She attacked with all the elegance of a straight thrust from an angel in flight. That is to say, it was predictable.

Quickly sidestepping, I pivoted behind her. She stopped on a dime and quickly spun with a horizontal swing. Placing my hand in the way of her swing, catching her by her hand, I made for a knife-hand strike against her neck only to meet with her armor… again.

“Ow.” I shook at the soreness while she reeled back. “Seriously, that armor is practically cheating! How is it fair if I can’t damage you!”

‘I will not listen to your complaints any longer!’ Valoria finally held a proper reach advantage and thrust forward at me. Her edge alignment was vertical.

Reversing her advantage, I swung the back of my hand into the flat of her blade, Wing Chun style, and pushed into her lunge. Almost tackling her, I landed another palm heel strike into her abdomen.

It's not something that came up often while I was just hanging around the city, but while I’m transformed, I can see magic. Not in the sense that it's invisible to ordinary people. If you fly or shoot fireballs, people will see it as normally as they do anything else. Rather, I can see its compositional make.

Imagine looking at a sword and seeing all the different metals that composed it, where these metals melded, and the motions used to bring it into shape.

As I struck into Valoria’s armor, I noticed a very particular spell. Two of them, actually. Upon impact, the spell would take the force it received and use it to push back against the attack with equal force. Nullifying any damage. But it had a limit, which is where the second spell comes in.

If the force is too great, a second spell activates and disperses the energy across the armor and channels the impact outward from the opposite side.

I went all in on my strike. Hoping to at least knock her off her feet, but her flight, coupled with the two spells, all I managed to do was put an imprint on the wall behind her. That’s when I realized another thing. Two other things, actually.

The second we will get to later. The first, however, was that she countered by striking me with her knee.

Unlike before, she was serious. Undaunted by her attack missing, she reached around me with her other hand to grab her blade. Pulling her sword in and pressing the blade against my back, she repeatedly struck my stomach with her knee.

Everything inside me wanted to escape all at once. She caught me on the inhale, which was even worse. Everything from my breath to mucus left me as I was stunned.

My magical clothes were enough to keep the blade from cutting into me, but I could feel myself reeling from each hit. By the fourth strike, I was numb enough to the pain for my sense to come back to me.

Bringing my hand up, I catch her knee only to be blindsided by a butterfly kick. I manage to bring my arm up fast enough but not brace my footing as I find myself being flung across the hall.

‘Light, conjure forth and sever my foe!’

Before I could pick myself off the ground, a ring of swords surrounded me, plunging at me. Quickly I spun myself off the ground and into a handstand. The swords pierced the floor around me.

Hopping over them, I stood upright again, but with a little less HP in my tank. I found myself nursing my stomach while trying to stand. I wasn’t able to look straightforward like I should have been.

I could feel a tingle in my ears as I heard a tearing sound through the air. Quickly I moved my body in a direction. Any direction that wasn’t where I was standing.

Before I knew it, Valoria’s sword flew passed me, and Valoria herself was pushing her ground on me. Almost face to face, she moved her leg between mine, limiting my movement.

I could hear that air-cutting sound again and quickly moved my center, throwing myself downward; she threw her knee into my path. I managed to place my arm between my body and her knee.

The next thing I knew, her sword was flying passed where my head was. As the blade flies passed Valoria’s shoulder, she quickly grabs it by its handle and swings the sword down on me.

I bring my other arm up and find myself pincered between her knee and sword swing. When your opponent blocks your attack, you would typically maneuver into the next strike or guard. But Valoria wasn’t doing that. She was determined to keep me pinned here.

Deciding that pushing myself back and tripping over her leg was better than being crushed, I tried to throw myself back only to be grabbed by the neck suddenly.

This went against my conventional understanding. It was her flight. She didn’t need footing as I did. She could maintain any weird position she wanted while I had to just deal with the fact that if I let go of the Earth, I would be at her mercy.

Either way, we were at a stalemate. All that remained was who would run out of strength first.

The impact of her sword was strong, but it wasn’t letting up. Gravity magic. Her sword was getting heavier. She didn’t even need to rely on her strength at this point.

Damn! So it's not even a contest of endurance anymore. I just lose!

“Is it, ga-ha… Is it too late to surrender?” I say half-heartedly, trying to keep my breath.

Her grip became tighter around my neck. ‘You missed your chance to surrender. Even if you did, it only prolongs your execution.’

“I-I see…” I inhaled deeply, tightening my neck to she wouldn’t crush my windpipe.

I reeled my body back with as much force as possible and launched into a skyward kick. Landing a hit against her chin, we were knocked away from one another. I was thrown to the ground while she recovered mid-flight.

“We should really stop before you accidentally kill me.” I pleaded while trying to catch my breath. I honestly didn’t want to get up. By this point, I just wanted to catch my breath and take a nap.

***

I quickly caught myself in the air, recovering my guard. I didn’t have enough energy left to make an artillery strike while Darkness had yet to cast a single spell. Long ranged combat with powerful spell casters was never easy, as you would have to push against their artillery.

“We should really stop before you accidentally kill me.”

I had never known Darkness to be so half-hearted in our annihilation. Was he not going to attack me? In fact, it's been strange for a while now. This person, I can’t help but feel that she was actually my Queen.

I shook the thoughts out of my head. That’s probably just the illusion. The greatest challenge I had fighting alongside Kyrie was that I could not see Darkness’ power. Fortunately, it worked both ways, even for the minions of Darkness and magical girls. We could not see the magic or power within the other, nor even as it shrouded us.

The only person who could ever see both was Kyrie herself. It's what allowed her to lead her advantage against Darkness.

These feelings, this in the person who introduced themself as Lawrence, the appearance of Kyrie that I see on this person—

“I haven’t even gotten a chance to say your name yet.”

‘My name?’

“Yeah…” They took a deep breath before speaking again. “Valoria. I told myself… that I would name you Valoria.”

I felt all of my strength leave me at once. A whirlwind of emotions eroding the stone around my heart. It's been so dark. So lonely.

I have been a suit of armor lost to time, standing in storage waiting for the doors to open, hoping I might be worn again. For my maker to excitedly express the love and care they put into making me.

How proud they are of not just how much protection I offer but the elegance in my trim, the comfort of my inner lining, my lightweight despite the impact I can receive against hammers—how even though it has been so many eons, I have not rusted or dimmed.

“Hey, are you okay?”

At some point, I had descended to my knees. My Queen—my friend—she was kneeling next to me. I don’t care if this is an illusion.

My Queen. I have been here for so long. I have battled the legions of Darkness, just as I have battle time itself. When the universe was awash with concepts, the heavens hurled themselves into chaos. Through Queen after Queen, I have been here.

I have continued as promised! I have kept my promise! Watching over your home, your children, your final resting place! As my memories fade and my core diminishes, you came back…

“I don’t know what’s going on, but it sounds like you worked really hard. It's okay now.”

My Queen took me in her arms. The porcelain mask I wore over my face crumbled away, and for the first time since before Kyrie’s death, I could see the world once again. Even behind these tears, her smile couldn’t help but make me so happy.

For the first time, I went to sleep in her arms.