Luna Nova Auditorium

Everyone tensed at the sound of the loud screech.

Those who have their wands, guns, or wand-guns out aimed at the shattered large window where the screech came from. Those who didn't took several steps back, fear written all over their face as the awaited the approaching horror.

Another screech erupted from the same direction. Those with weapons out carefully approached that direction poised for combat and with their weapons raised. Those without weapons stepped back and huddled close together.

The Green Coven assumed a combat stance in preparation of what's to come. At the same time, Hannah and Barbara are sweating bullets and frozen in place by fear, such that they completely forgot about Diana's condition.

Diana, her instinctual need to assume responsibility triggering, took her own wand out, knowing that she may have to defend everyone in the auditorium from whatever it is that caused the explosion earlier.

Soon, something flew in through the shattered large window, followed by another, and another...

The attackers turned out to be a swarm of human-sized dragons, as they began spitting fireballs at everything they can see.

Chaos ensued as all the armed people dodged the fireballs or conjured shields to block them before firing back at the dragons, with the unarmed students of both Luna Nova and Appleton panicked as they tried to escape from the auditorium. Those who couldn't escape have flipped over all the tables - spilling food all over the floor - to use as cover.

"What's going on?!"

"Are those dragons?!"

"Let's get out of here!"

"This ain't what I signed up for!"

"Someone call the police! Or the army!"

"Get all the VIPs out of here ASAP!"

Amidst the sound of spellcasting, gunfire, explosions and panicked screams that had filled the auditorium, the Red Coven and Mary-Ann are hunkered down behind an overturned table, flinching whenever a stray shot came near their position.

"Of all the things I expected to see in Luna Nova, this is definitely not one of them!" Akko shouted amidst all the noise.

"I agree!" Lotte shouted in response.

"This is not the kind of chaos I wanted." Sucy, somehow, remained calm in spite of the chaos happing all over the auditorium and merely expressed her annoyance at the turn of events.

"This is just like the sudden plot twist from Issue 44 of the Nightfall graphic novels!" Mary-Ann complained. "And I hated it!"

...

Meanwhile, Diana is shooting Murowa bolts at the dragons as best as she could, with the Green Coven providing cover fire for the ace student.

Jasminka managed to catch one of the dragons when it flew close to her. She proceed to snap its neck with her super strength before tossing its now dead corpse at another dragon hard enough to knock it out of the air.

"Just what the heck are these dragons attacking us for?!" Amanda cursed as she continued firing at the dragons.

...

At the same time, Bernadette is also blasting the dragons to the best of her ability as she tried to get to her daughter, but kept getting foiled by the dragons' somehow intelligent use of suppressive fire.

"Detta, we need to get to safety!" Daryl called out to her sister while keeping a shield raised around herself.

"I need to make sure Diana is safe!" Bernadette responded as she blasted a dragon in its face, sending it scurrying away from her position.

Another dragon suddenly swooped down in an attempt to grab at the WHO director with its claw. Thankfully, Daryl noticed it in time and blasted that dragon before it could do so. However, this caused her shield to fade away, leaving her unprotected...

Which another dragon tried to exploit by spitting a fireball at her, and unfortunately, it did hit near enough to Daryl to blow her off her feet.

"Daryl!" Bernadette cried out for her sister as she blasted the dragon. She then rushed to Daryl's side. "Are you alright?" She asked worriedly.

Thankfully, Daryl isn't injured. "I'm fine." She said with a cough. "But we need to get out of here!"

"But what about Diana?" Bernadette protested.

"Diana will be alright!" Daryl said as she pointed at Diana, who the Green Coven have just reached and are escorting out of the auditorium.

While Bernadette is glad that her daughter is safe, she was regretting not being by Diana's side when the chaos broke out. But for now, she'll have to save herself and her sister as well...

...

Of all the things Louis expected to see happen on Luna Nova's campus, getting attacked by a swarm of dragons wasn't one of them.

"Where did these bloody dragons come from?!" Louis complained as he crawled behind overturned tables in a bid to reach for the nearest exit. "And how is it that this so-called school of magic didn't have any magical defenses?!"

To further irritate the blonde boy, most of the student witches are panicking like cowards when they should be upholding the "witches should be feared" nonsense he's been hearing about them for many years...

...

"I really think we should do something about all of this!" Akko said while still hunkered down behind an overturned table alongside her Coven mates and Mary-Ann.

"I think we should get out of here instead!" Lotte countered.

One of the dragons crashed in front of the Red Coven's position after taking a hit that didn't knock it out. As the dragon righted itself, it noticed the Red Coven girls and their fourth companion, and decided to take the opportunity to attack them, as it prepared to shoot a fireball.

Akko quickly brought out her wand in preparation to shoot the dragon, but fumbled and allowed the wand to slip out of her hands. Lotte was too scared of the incoming attack to do anything, while Sucy was too slow to reach for her own wand.

Mary-Ann took her fountain pen out and randomly scribbled something in the air... which then magically turned solid just in time to shield herself and the Red Coven from the dragon's fireball.

The magically solidified scribble shattered like glass after taking a hit from the fireball.

Seeing that its attack has been blocked, the dragon reared its head back for a second attempt.

But the dragon was unable to even start preparing as a professor suddenly showed up and quite literally crushed it under her feet.

"Are you alright?" Professor Ursula asked the Red Coven. "And is this... Annabel Creme?" She then asked another question, referring to Mary-Ann.

"We're alright, professor!" Lotte is the one to respond. "And yes, she is Annabel! We'd explain later!"

Another dragon crashed through the Red Coven's makeshift cover. Though thankfully this one is already dead due to its head being no longer attached to its neck.

"You four need to get out of here!" Ursula told the girls as she fired a Murowa bolt at another dragon. "Follow me!"

...

Philosopher's Stone Tower

While most of the dragons are causing chaos at the auditorium, a small flock of them are instead headed toward the Philosopher's Stone that acted as Luna Nova's magic generator.

These dragons are carrying lengths of rope in their talons.

With swift and precise movements, the dragons assisted each other in wrapping the ropes around the Philosopher's Stone. Once they are done wrapping the Stone with the ropes, they tied the ropes together into knots to secure the Stone.

It didn't take much efforts for the small flock of dragons to pull the Stone out of its position and carry it off with them.

Down at ground level, a minotaur observed the dragons carrying the Stone away with them.

"Package secure." The minotaur spoke into a radio that he carried in his large hand.

"Excellent." Responded whoever is on the other side of the transmission. "Your work is done there. Return to my office and wait for that old crone, Holbrooke, to get my message."

...

Luna Nova Dormitories

The chaos lasted another half an hour before coming to an end with the dragons apparently deciding to cease their attacks and withdraw.

By that point, everyone who didn't stay behind to fight off the dragons (that being Professor Nelson and her old classmates who joined the US Military) have evacuated from the auditorium to the dormitories for safety.

While the professors of both Luna Nova and Appleton tended to their respective academies' students (with Dorlin being tended to by her bodyguards), everyone else wondered what the heck just happened, with some such as Avery livestreaming about it on social media.

"What the bloody hell...?!" That was all Diana could say about what she just got out of.

Hannah and Barbara were so shocked about the attack that they didn't say anything.

With the Green Coven, Amanda is spouting so much vulgarity in her complaint about the situation that Constanze and Jasminka had elected to tune her out.

As for the Red Coven...

"That is going to be a lot to take in..." Mary-Ann as she tried to jolt down the events on her notebook, and failing because her hands are still shaking. "My Magical Languages essay in my third semester was so much easier to compile in my mind compared to this..."

The lights in the dormitories suddenly flickered like the lights in the auditorium did shortly before the dragons attacked.

Except this time, the lights went out completely and didn't come back on.

Silence reigned as everyone and everything are plunged into darkness. Though it wasn't completely dark as some of the students had their smartphones out at the time, the screen of their devices providing minute illumination.

Then...

With a poof, the fancy dresses worn by the Red and Green Coven girls as well as Mary-Ann faded from existence due to the magic of the Cinderella Magic Set having worn out at the same time. The girls in questions found themselves back in whatever they were wearing when they first activated the Magic Set in the first place.

"Uh, what...?" Hannah finally recovered enough from her shock to utter at the sight of the Red and Green Coven girls suddenly being back in their school uniforms.

Hah! Not expecting me to adapt the subplot about the Philosopher's Stone getting stolen by dragons, eh? And no clues needed to guess who is calling the shots here...

Although how will the girls be solving this issue here is a story for the next few chapters.

Anyway, no excuses for putting this in such a long hiatus. I admit, at my most ashamed, that this time, the delayed update is just me having very horrid time management skills as well as a very deficit attention span (I did have some important things to deal with IRL a while ago, but that's not a good enough excuse this time). I can't guarantee this won't happen again, so I'm very sorry if you have to sit through such hiatuses again in the future.

Until next chapter, then, everyone!

"Just remember: a believing heart is your magic."

Afterword ends here.