Prologue
It was
over. All of it was over. Kenshiro stared up at the sky. He and Raeya had stared up at those stars
together how many times? He couldn't
remember anymore, and at this point, it was rather pointless to think about
such things. The young man paused, and
blinked away a tear from his ice-blue eyes.
The Moon
Kingdom was falling, with more territory lost to Beryl every day. Things were rapidly going downhill, and the
leaders had only recognized that recently--far too late....
*Moron!!* Kenshiro cursed silently. *You
swore an OATH to those leaders! not to
mention one of them's your sister, and you're MARRIED to another!* He grinned silently for a second, as he
glanced down at the wedding band on his right hand. No, even with all of the crap that had
happened lately, he would gladly live his whole life over again. It had all been worth it, in the end.
Then,
Kenshiro looked out across the horizon.
There was an army of youma out there, faintly visible as a blur in the
distance. The demons were draining the
very life essence of his adopted planet as they moved forward at a brisk pace,
leaving behind only a barren landscape and corpses. The stolen life energy was then being used to
free Metal'ia, an entity whose evil was beyond comprehension. Kenshiro knew that he was among the Kingdom's
10 best warriors, and was a Diamondrank mage.
He also knew that Metal'ia could destroy him utterly without expending
the slightest effort. With that pleasant
thought in mind, he looked around him.
With him were a small group of soldiers, men and women trained in
combat. They were all that were left of
Mercury's defenders. Battle-hardened
warriors all, they were looking to him as their leader.
They were
all quite aware that this was suicide.
There was no way that a few dozen humans, no matter how good, could
defeat a full army of energy-draining youma.
But they all were equally certain that it was preferable to go down
fighting, not passively. Kenshiro nodded
to them. He straightened up, and with a
gesture, generated the armor that was unique to the Knights of the Moon
Kingdom. Reaching out, Mercury Knight
pulled his naginata out of thin air. Then,
with a wave of the polearm, the battle was joined.
The Knight
seemed to be everywhere at once during the fighting. One second, his naginata was a blur of silver
as a youma fell, stabbed in a dozen places;
the next, he was launching a blast of blue magical energy that ripped
through the enemy's ranks. But even so,
for every youma the defenders slew, three more seemed to take their place. Eventually, the bleeding and battered Knight
was the last human left standing. He
leapt back several meters, putting some breathing room between him and his
inhuman adversaries. Then, he smiled
sadly. There weren't many options at
this point. And, unfortuately, all of
them involved his death.
*Raeya....koishii....I'm sorry that it ended
like this.* He silently prayed as he began casting his spell. *But I
promise you--our love is too strong to be stopped by death! We WILL be together again someday, I
promise. And that time, we'll have our
happy ending....* He took a deep
breath, then screamed out "MANA STORM!!!!!" Instantly, his body was engulfed by a column
of firey, blue, raw magic. Then, the
column expanded outwards, absorbing the first few youma. As it absorbed the energy-collecting demons,
the spell used that energy to fuel its own expansion. After a few moments, the entire youma army
had been engulfed by the magical storm.
Soon
enough, though, the storm died out, fading away into a bluish haze. As the haze cleared, all that was left was
bare rock. Mercury, in that small area,
had been stripped clean of all life, including those of its defenders.
The rest of
the story was better known. The Moon
Kingdom had fallen, only to be reborn 10,000 years later by Queen Serenity's
dying wish. After many challenges, the
road to Crystal Tokyo and the rebirth of the Moon Kingdom seemed clear and safe
at long last. However, there can always
be unforeseen circumstances. And those
random occurences can be both good or bad...
