The Unbelievable Truth About the Legendary Magic Knights!
Princess Emeraude's word had been shattered. Zagato had been slain by the Magic Knights, and she had been powerless to stop it. "Zagato!" She wailed in grief, her agony and heartbreak finally manifesting, a beam of light engulfing her and shattering the prison around her. When it cleared, the young Pillar of Cephiro had been replaced by a grown woman, like an adult version of the princess, still glad in the same flowing white gown, yet now adorned with a black, red, and purple set of armor across her chest, abdomen and waist in a sort of corset, black and purple pauldrons flowed down, ending at her wrists. Upon her forehead sat a small tiara with three large emeralds upon it.
"Legendary Magic Knights..." The new Emeraude muttered, staring ahead with a look of resignation and determination...
"Well, you guys. I guess this means we'll finally get to grant Princess Emeraude's wish." Hikaru realized, looking up slightly at the clear, albeit still dark skies of Cephiro.
"About damn time if you ask me." Logan sighed, leaning back and lounging out in the air, Excelsus mimicking his movements. "I mean, we've got everything on our proverbial checklist, right? We revived the Rune Gods, defeated Zagato, and once we bust Princess Emeraude out, Cephiro will be saved, and we can finally go back home!"
Hikaru then looked down slightly, closing her eyes as if she was about to have another introspection. Spoiler alert: She was. "I wanna tell you something... Umi, Fuu, Logan... I'm really... I'm really..." She trailed, tripping over her words as the other three Magic Knights turned to listen. "What I'm trying to say is that I'm really glad I was summoned here to Cephiro with the three of you, my best friends. If I was alone in this place, I know I wouldn't have made it as far as we have together."
"I know what you mean, because I feel the exact same way, Hikaru." Umi agreed. "If I was alone here, I'm sure I would've totally panicked. And I would've been some monster's dinner that very first night in the Forest of Silence."
"I as well." Fuu conceded. "I'm sure I would've been completely disoriented and frightened if I had come to this strange world all by myself."
"Surprising nobody, I've got the same feeling." Logan admitted. "God knows if I was here alone, I'd have definitely died likely some point in the Forest of Silence. Granted, I still died. But hey, I got better, and ultimately got a cute girlfriend and three unbreakable bonds out of this whole experience. So it's a win in my book."
Hikaru smiled, bowing her head again before turning her gaze towards the floating crystal formation that was Zagato's former lair. "Alright, Magic Knights! Let's go!" She commanded, and the four heroes shot off in their respective Rune Gods towards the place that their journey would end.
"How do you suppose we enter?" Umi wondered, staring down at the gleaming crystals below.
"It appears to be a crystal formation." Fuu noted.
"So where's the entrance, then?" Hikaru asked.
"This is the barrier that protects the castle." Rayearth suddenly declared.
"That must be the voice of Rayearth!" Hikaru realized. "But Zagato isn't here anymore..."
"This castle belongs to Princess Emeraude."
"Selece?" Umi muttered
"The barrier protecting this castle was created within Princess Emeraude's heart."
"Windam?!" Fuu exclaimed, hearing her Rune God speak out.
"Thou can't breach the barrier with thy magic."
"But Princess Emeraude is in there, right Excelsus?" Logan asked.
"The Pillar of Cephiro lies within."
"Let's do this!" Umi called.
"Right!" Hikaru agreed.
"Yes!" Fuu continued.
"Hell yeah!" Logan shouted.
"Children of another world."Rayearth stated, catching the four heroes' attention. "The true enemy of the Magic Knights is immensely stronger than anyone thou hast encountered thus far. Be warned."
"Great, just when I thought I'd gotten away from not being told shit until ten minutes prior..." Logan muttered.
"What do you mean by that?" Umi pondered.
"I thought the battle was finally over..." Fuu sighed.
"Let's go!" Hikaru said, already raising her hand to perform a spell. "Flame Arrow!"
"Water Dragon!"
"Emerald Typhoon!"
"Crackling Thunder!"
As each spell fired off, the beams all connected to form a beacon of pure white light, slamming into the crystal barrier and breaking it apart in a giant explosion. Once it cleared, the castle containing Princess Emeraude was open, ready for the Magic Knights to proceed inside. And proceed they did, flying straight through the entrance and down the main hall completely unimpeded, coming to a halt in the waterfall room, the same room where Zagato had once met with his minions. Yet now, only one person was in sight.
As the Rune Gods released their respective pilots, the four Magic Knights ran forward, stopping a few feet away from the blonde woman standing in the center of the room.
"Uh... Who are you?" Hikaru asked.
"...It is I. Emeraude of Cephiro." The woman revealed, although her words didn't quite add up.
"Princess Emeraude...?" Hikaru wondered. "But how can that be? Princess Emeraude was so much..."
"When she appeared to help us inside the Spring of Eterna..." Umi added.
"Princess Emeraude looked unmistakably like a little girl." Fuu remembered.
"Is it really possible that you could be Princess Emeraude?" Logan questioned.
"I am the one known as Emeraude." Emeraude continued.
"She does look an awful lot like the girl we saw in the Spring of Eterna..." Umi admitted.
"Her beautiful blonde hair, and the color of her eyes are the exact same." Fuu noted.
"Princess Emeraude." Hikaru declared, stepping towards the woman. "We are the ones you summoned from another world to become the Magic Knights. We followed Master Mage Clef's guidance, and Master Smith Presea made weapons especially for each of us. Mokona led us on our journey. And we revived the four Rune Gods. Clef kept his promise to you by watching over us faithfully and guiding us every step of the way and helping us to ultimately become the Magic Knights! He was turned to stone by Zagato... But then-!"
"But then we kicked Zagato's ass, and now we're here to rescue you!" Logan concluded.
"Zagato..." Emeraude muttered, the hazy look in her eyes clearing up as they widened in surprise.
"Did I say something wrong...?" Logan wondered, scratching his chin awkwardly with his metallic claw, watching as the woman claiming to be Princess Emeraude began to glow with a bright yellow light.
"Is something the matter?" Hikaru asked. "Princess Emeraude!?"
"You defeated Zagato..." Princess Emeraude growled, her fury beginning to permeate the room.
"Is everything alright? She's acting kinda strange..." Umi noted, making the understatement of the century.
"You killed Zagato..." Princess Emeraude muttered, furious tears streaming down her face. "You murdered him... It was you... You're the ones that murdered the man I loved!" She shouted, sending out a gust of wind that nearly knocked the Magic Knights off their feet. From behind her, a gigantic blue, white and yellow beast rose up from underneath the waterfall, it's mere arrival tearing the room apart, the debris nearly crushing the Magic Knights until their Rune Gods brought them safely back into their grasp.
"Where are we now!?" Umi wondered.
"We are back inside the Rune Gods..." Fuu realized.
"We can count ourselves fortunate, then." Logan finished, allowing him to get a good look at the behemoth that had risen from the dust and debris. And within was a horrifying sight.
Blue joints and white plating, spiky pauldrons and a horned crown. Princess Emeraude's own Rune God looked vastly different from the previous five, appearing almost feminine and nude instead of masculine and armored. "You will not escape!" Emeraude declared as the Rune God sucked her inside.
"The castle's crumbling! We gotta get out of here!" Hikaru shouted, taking off towards the exit, followed swiftly by her three friends. "What happened!? Maybe that wasn't really Princess Emeraude!" She tried to reason as she flew back through the main hall.
"That was indeed the Pillar of Cephiro." Rayearth countered.
"No way!" Umi denied. "I thought we were summoned to Cephiro by Princess Emeraude in the first place!"
"Yes." Selece confirmed. "Only the Pillar of Cephiro is able to use the spell that summons those from another world."
"Then how do you explain why we were just being attacked by the Princess earlier!?" Fuu demanded.
"That is the one that the Magic Knights are destined to confront."Windam clarified.
"Wait a minute... So the true enemy of the Magic Knights is...!" Logan realized, just in time for Princess Emeraude to fly out of the growing cloud of dust, chasing the Magic Knights back out into the sky high above Cephiro. And as she herself made her exit, coming to a stop on the desolate and destroyed lawn of the castle, she noticed something sticking from the rocky ground, a black blade, with a red guard and black handle.
"This is... This is Zagato's sword..." Emeraude muttered, picking the sword up and rubbing it against her cheek, the last vestige of her lover. "The Magic Knights murdered my Zagato... Now they must pay!" She declared, turning her gaze to the four Rune Gods floating above her. "I will kill them, with Zagato's sword!" She shouted, pointing her lover's sword out towards them, challenging them to the true final battle. "Now you will pay dearly, Magic Knights!" She bellowed, launching up into the sky and holding the sword out, firing a golden beam straight down in an attempt to eviscerate them.
Through quick thinking and quicker reaction time, the four teens managed to fly out of the way just in time, the beacon of light slamming into the castle, kicking up plenty of dust before exploding in a bright flash of light, and once it cleared, nothing remained of the castle.
"Oh, wow..." Umi trailed with a look of shock and horror.
"T- The princess just destroyed the entire castle with only one attack!" Fuu realized, her eyes widening at the Pillar's sheer power.
"W- What... T- The hell...?" Logan stammered.
Hikaru, meanwhile, had been stunned into pure silence, staring at where the castle one was. But then she looked back towards the attacking Rune God, refusing to believe what she was seeing. "There's no way you can really be Princess Emeraude!"
"I am." Emeraude confirmed. "I am Emeraude... Of Cephiro!" The Pillar bellowed, firing another beam from her fallen lover's weapon, once again narrowly missing the Magic Knights.
"But weren't you the one who summoned us four here to Cephiro?!" Hikaru asked. "So why...? Why are you attacking us!?"
Yet as she finished her sentence, a familiar vision flashed in front of Emeraude and her Rune God. One of a little girl with the same flowing blonde hair and blue eyes that the so-called Emeraude before them had. It was a brief glimpse of the Princess Emeraude they had expected, and the one who saved them from the Spring of Eterna's trap.
"Hey, did you guys see what I just saw?" Umi wondered. Yet Emeraude wouldn't give them a chance to respond to each other, firing a beam while their guards were down. However, in a split-second response to save the lives of her and her friends, Fuu got into the path of the beam, holding her hands out and shouting "Winds of Protection!"
The defensive spell, while effective against monsters, was pathetic in comparison to Emeraude's unrivaled power. But it was still enough. Instead of disintegrating the Magic Knights and the Rune Gods, the beam merely threw them into a piece of debris, lying prone and open to another attack. Emeraude descended in her Rune God, preparing to finish off the very children she had summoned to save the land she had once loved so dearly. But before she could, another vision of the true Princess Emeraude appeared "Magic Knights..."
"Princess Emeraude..." Hikaru muttered, picking herself up slightly.
"Yeah, that's her..." Logan agreed. "That's the voice we heard in the Spring of Eterna..."
"That is the voice of Princess Emeraude that I remember hearing." Fuu added.
"So it really isn't her inside that Rune God after all!" Umi concluded. "Which means the real Princess Emeraude must still be held prisoner somewhere!"
"Princess Emeraude!" Hikaru called. "Where are you!? We're here to save you!"
The image of Princess Emeraude merely shook her head, denying a location. "No... She is me. I am her."
"I don't understand..." Umi trailed.
"The one who is inside that Rune God... Is me. It is I who made the foolish decision to live for the man I love, rather than living for my position as the Pillar of Cephiro..."
"The man... You love?" Fuu repeated, not confident she had heard the Pillar correctly.
"What do you mean by that!?" Hikaru demanded. "You were the one who summoned us here to Cephiro from Tokyo, weren't you?"
"I heard you clearly that day at Tokyo Tower!" Umi recalled. "You said to save this world!"
"Please, save this world!" Fuu quoted.
"O, Legendary Magic Knights!" Logan finished.
"Yes. It is true that I summoned the Legendary Magic Knights from another world to save this world, Cephiro." Princess Emeraude confirmed.
"I thought that Cephiro would be saved once we defeated Zagato!" Hikaru countered. "I thought that, because you were held prisoner by Zagato, you were unable to continue your prayers for peace! And that's why Cephiro became an unstable, crumbling wasteland where monsters freely roam!"
"That is incorrect!" Princess Emeraude wept. "You have it all wrong! It was not Zagato's fault! It was all... It was all my fault! Cephiro is a world where the power of one's heart determines all. And the Pillar of this land supports peace and order with the strength of her will and the pureness of her heart.. It is essential that the Pillar only pray for Cephiro's stability continuously and without interruption... And yet... And yet I... Zagato... The one who was my High Priest... I fell in love with him!" Princess Emeraude revealed, eliciting a gasp of shock from all four Magic Knights.
Yet the battle wasn't over. Something snapped in Emeraude, and she once again resumed her assault, holding her hands out and launching a gust of wind so powerful it knocked them back off her feet. Lightning tore through the ground thousands of feet below, and the remaining residents of Cephiro all watched on, assuming their final hour had come.
"After I fell in love with Zagato, he began to fill my thoughts more often than any thoughts for Cephiro. And soon he had filled my heart as well. I had forgotten my duties as the Pillar of Cephiro... My cares were only for Zagato. If he was happy, then all was right. I started to think such horrible thoughts..."
"Well in that case, why would High Priest Zagato want to kidnap you and imprison you the way he did?" Hikaru asked.
"He realized... How I felt about him..." Princess Emeraude explained. "About the feelings that I wanted to hide from him... And then I realized... That Zagato loved me back just as much." The Pillar revealed, earning another quadruple gasp. "But unfortunately, our love for one another could never be allowed to bloom. As the Pillar of Cephiro, it is impossible for me to be with any one man. I tried to forget about him, but it didn't work! I couldn't stop thinking about him no matter how hard I tried... I couldn't stop myself!"
"Then that means that the multitudes of monsters that started to appear throughout Cephiro..." Fuu muttered.
"None of that was Zagato's fault either, was it?" Logan questioned.
"Cephiro is a land of the will. As long as there is a heart to pray, peace and stability in all the lands can be prayed for from anywhere no matter what happens to stand in the way."
"Then tell us why the four of us were summoned here to Cephiro!" Hikaru demanded.
"The reason I summoned the Magic Knights from another world to Cephiro..." Princess Emeraude trailed, bowing her head slightly. "Was because I... Was because I wanted you to kill me!"
The revelation stopped the hearts of all four Magic Knights. The one they thought they were destined to save, they actually were working to kill. And it took until now for it all to come forth. "T- To kill y- you...?" Hikaru stammered, unwilling to believe her ears.
"Under no circumstances is the Pillar able to take her own life. And nothing can change the fact that nobody in Cephiro is capable of causing the Pillar bodily harm in any way. That is why the Pillar alone possesses the summoning spell that no one else can use. A spell that summons outsiders to Cephiro, Magic Knights from another world, whose destiny it is to put the Pillar to rest..."
"S- so the reason Zagato tried so hard to stop us from becoming the Magic Knights... Was so that we couldn't fulfill that destiny?" Logan asked.
"I wonder if that's what Ferio meant when he told us the legend that one time..." Umi said to herself, recalling the swordsman's words.
"When Cephiro faces the time of crisis, Magic Knights are summoned from another world. They revive the four Rune Gods, and become the Magic Knights." Ferio's voice rang in Umi (and Fuu's, once her ears picked up his name)'s heads.
"I am afraid I have turned my grief from losing Zagato into hatred, and created this monster!" Princess Emeraude wailed, referring to the Rune God she was still preventing from finishing the four heroes off.
"It seems that the true reason it is imperative for the Magic Knights to don Rune Gods is that they cannot possibly hope to defeat the Pillar with just their flesh and blood..." Fuu realized, her eyes still wide.
"The true enemy of the Magic Knights is immensely stronger than anyone thou hast encountered thus far. Be warned." Rayearth's warning echoed within Hikaru's mind.
"So this is what Rayearth meant..." Hikaru muttered, watching in horror as the enemy Rune God before them began to glow with a golden light, brandishing the sword of the man she had loved so dearly.
"You murdered my dear Zagato..." Emeraude growled. "Now I'll kill you! With Zagato's sword!" She declared, only for the image of the true Emeraude to appear before the Magic Knights, shielding them one last time.
"Please! I'm about to disappear! Soon my heart will be filled with hatred and murderous vengeance! And if that happens, I will surely pray for the complete destruction and annihilation of Cephiro!" The Pillar warned, the conditions on the ground getting worse, townsfolk gathered in refugee centers, hoping that somehow, their world could still be saved. "Oh, Legendary Magic Knights!" Princess Emeraude begged. "Please! Kill me! Kill me, and save Cephiro!"
"But... But how!?" Hikaru wondered, only for Emeraude to charge forth, brandishing Zagato's sword. And before she could react, she felt a piercing, agonizing feeling in her shoulder as the Pillar stabbed her, piercing Rayearth's and her own armor.
"Hikaru!" The remaining three Magic Knights called, hearing their friend's screams echo across the battlefield as the crazed and vengeful Pillar withdrew the weapon, allowing Hikaru to collapse to her knees.
"Oh, you did that to spite me! DIDN'T YOU!?" Logan screamed, readying his sword and shield, attempting to charge forward only to be stopped by Umi and Fuu.
"Magic Knights..." A familiar voice called wihtin their minds, a voice they had never expected to hear again.
"Shortstack...?"
Unbeknownst to the Magic Knights, Zagato's defeat had freed Clef from his stone prison, leaving him to be found by Lafarga and Presea, the three of them trying to witness the battle between the Magic Knights and the Pillar of Cephiro. "So you knew all about this?" Umi asked. "About Princess Emeraude's true feelings!?"
"Yes, I did." Clef confirmed.
"Mr. Clef, is there nothing we can do to help her?" Fuu wondered. "Is there any way that Princess Emeraude does not have to die?!"
"There's none." Clef explained with a downtrodden look. "Unless the current Pillar dies, a new Pillar cannot be born to take her place. We must wait for the birth of a new Pillar to restore peace and order in Cephiro..."
"But the only thing she did was happen to fall in love with someone!" Hikaru argued. "Why does Princess Emeraude have to die!?"
"That is the promise that binds Cephiro." Clef sighed.
"That's bullshit!" Logan shouted, even though he figured Clef wouldn't dignify such a response with one of his own. Meanwhile, across Cephiro, Ascot, Caldina, and Ferio were each looking towards the heavens, towards their last hope of survival: The Magic Knights.
"Magic Knights. You must grant Princess Emeraude her one, last, true wish." Clef instructed.
"Her... One last... True wish?" Hikaru questioned.
"Please, Magic Knights! Please grant me this one last wish!" Princess Emeraude pleaded. "Please, let me be with my beloved Zagato..." She requested, eliciting a gasp from the four heroes. "Please help me, so I will finally be able to think only of my Zagato... So I can be with my beloved for all eternity... Magic Knights, I beseech you! Please, you must grant me my only selfish and final wish!"
The Magic Knights looked on at the hostile Rune God before them. And it became clear what had to be done. As much as they regretted it, it was what they had to do. In order to save Cephiro, in order to restore peace and order to the land they'd fought so hard to protect... They would have to kill Princess Emeraude. As they rose to their feet, a white aura began to surround them. And then Hikaru let out a determined battle cry, rushing forward with her friends as they and their Rune Gods melted into wisps of pure light. Red, green, blue, yellow. They fused high in the sky into a creature with four large wings, a whip-like tail, a horned crown, adorned in armor representing the colors of the four Magic Knights now controlling it in unison.
Emeraude flew forward, partially knowing what was to come. Yet she still brandished her weapon, prepared to run the ultimate deity before her through. Yet they simply held their arm back, creating a blade of pure energy, compromised of the Master Sword and the evolving swords forged of Escudo that had brought the four teens this far. Solemn tears flowed from their eyes as they charged forth, meeting Emeraude head on, the blade of the latter's fallen lover shattering against their armor, yet their own piercing the Pillar like a needle. The final blow had been dealt.
"Zagato... Finally, I am yours... And only yours, my darling..." Princess Emeraude's voice echoed as beacons of light shot out from her Rune God, her life fading quickly. A bright flash of light sent the Pillar of Cephiro off, and as the Magic Knights felt themselves going weightless in the void, they could hear the voice of Princess Emeraude one final time. "Thank you... Magic Knights..."
As the light faded, the visitors of Tokyo Tower glanced around in confusion. They had no clue what had happened. Despite the Magic Knights having spent weeks on their quest, barely half a minute had passed back in their world.
"That was such a bright flash of light..." Hikaru's brown-haired friend from what felt like an eternity ago muttered.
"What do you think it was?" Another student questioned, turning to look away from the sunlight streaming through the windows. "Hikaru?"
Yet the sight she found shocked and confused her, and several other visitors. Hikaru, Umi, Fuu and Logan, all in one comforting, reassuring, yet solemn group hug. "It wasn't a dream..." Hikaru insisted. "It wasn't a dream..."
"Hikaru..." Logan whispered, completely unashamed even as the hot tears fell from his eyes.
"Princess Emeraude..." Hikaru mumbled, picturing the little girl that, in a different life, they had set off to save in that strange and beautiful land of Cephiro. "I wanna go back to Cephiro together again... I wanna go back and do everything we can to help all those people return their world to the beautiful land that Princess Emeraude nurtured so lovingly..."
While there was no audible response, Hikaru could take solace in feeling the movements of her friends' heads up and down against her own, the four of them vowing to return to Cephiro, no matter what, and ensure its safety and stability, to repay Princess Emeraude for everything she had done for the land. An unbreakable bond, unknown to onlookers. Hikaru, Umi, Fuu, Logan. The Magic Knights, together no matter what. No matter the time or distance, they would never forget each other, nor their incredible journey through the land of Cephiro...
Word Count: 4,247
IIIIIIITTTTTSSS OVVVEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
is what i would say if there wasn't a second season ;D
yeah sorry for not uploading on the weekend like i said i would. i got an xbox series x and was fucking obsessing over sonic unleashed and completely forgot, sorry. anyway i'm probably gonna write a few short intermission chapters kinda like horrior did just to kind of pass some time between seasons 1 and 2. and i guess i should mention that even though apparently only a week passed between the two arcs, i'm changing it to three months for plot convenience.
anyways imma probably do kh3 critical on level 1 because i like suffering byeeeeee-