"Luminary Bolt: Rapid Fire!" I shouted, firing a barrage of golden bolts at the Dark Princess.

  She smirked, summoning a red barrier of crag energy that blocked my shots.

  I clicked my tongue in frustration, dug as she suddenly dropped the barrier and hurled a bolt of red lightning at me.

  With a sharp twist, I spun to the side, using the momentum to aim another volley of shots at her.

  Eris jumped into the air, cartwheeling as she dahrough the air.

  "Nyeh heh heh heh! You 't touch me, little firecracker!"

  I bit my lip, watg her movements closely as she nded on a nearby tree branch. She was quite a bit mile than I was, and I had a feeliing her get close would be a bad idea.

  She spun her hands, summoning a dark orb of energy between her palms and firing another shot, which I ducked under, wing as it smmed into a wall behind me.

  Eris followed up immediately with a series of bsts that left me scrambling for cover behind a nearby decorative boulder, gritting my teeth as I took a deep breath.

  Fuck, that was close.

  She jumped high into the sky and summoned a massive bolt of lightning that crackled with energy.

  "Sonic Drive: Ignition!"

  The lightning ed around her body in a sizzling bst of energy, and she bsted off into the air, rocketing towards me.

  I narrowed my eyes and sprung out from behind the rock, sending another burst of shots straight at her as she rocketed towards me.

  She's fast!

  A wave of electricity dahrough the air, and my shots went wide as she weaved past my attacks.

  "Time to end this!" she cried.

  With a triumphant shriek, Eris smmed heel-first into my chest, sending me flying backwards and tumbling across the ground.

  Or she would have.

  Instead, a resounding explosion echoed through the air, and cloud of dust and debris filling the air.

  "Tch," she spit in frustration as she left a smoking crater in the spot where she expected to see my mangled body.

  "Get back here, you sneaky little bastard," she growled while standing beside my mirage. A perfect copy of me stood there in a crouch, staring up in shock.

  She looked around with a frown, stompiiletto heel on the crete and folding her arms across her chest as I stayed quiet, hidden behind a nearby tree.

  Focus, Sienna. Breathe.

  The sed I exhaled, she twisted, ung a bolt of lightning that smmed into the tree a afme with a crad boom.

  I reacted immediately, throwing up a luminary barrier and dove to the right, rolling into a croud firing a barrage of shots at her.

  With a snap of her fingers, a wave of crimson energy exploded out from her, bsting me off my feet and knog the breath out of me. I flipped in mid-air and nded gracefully on my feet, croug as I lowered my head, shaking off the body shot.

  She was fast - but she wasn't as fast as the absolute monster I'd fought during the Refuge Zeta i.

  She ughed, her eyes sparkling with mischief. "I like you. It's not every day you meet a cadet who keep up with the Dark Princess of Chaos. So tell me —"

  She was cut off as I promptly fired a Luminary Beam at her, f her to step back with a hastily-raised a shield.

  "You're annoying. Like really annoying," I snapped as the beam petered out, leaving Eris seething and grumbling.

  "The nerve of some people. Really..."

  Wait for it Sienna...

  She unched another bst of red lightning ialiation, and I caught in my left hand, immediately verting it into a golden beam of my own.

  "What the—"

  That was my opening.

  She threw up a barrier out of reflex as I pushed my hand forward, additay own. I fired the purified mana directly back at her torso, shattering her barrier.

  The force of the hit was devastating. Her aura fshed a bright... pink?

  And her body went skidding across the ground.

  I stalked over towards her, aiming an orb of light in my hand as she struggled to get up, wing.

  "Oi, that hurt..." Eris pined as she rubbed her ribs.

  "Get up."

  She g me, her expression somewhere between curious and frustrated. Then she snorted.

  "Oooookaaaaaaayyyyyy," she sighed. "Guess I uimated you. Good job, Harmonia Lux. You might actually have what it takes to be a real threat to m—"

  She was injured, but I wasn't about to give her an inch. I fired a bolt of energy as she took her eyes off me for a sed, smming her into a nearby tree.

  "Luminary Barrier!" I shouted, using the vocalized spell tthen the barrier that I formed around her body.

  I didn't trust her for a sed. I knew I had to take any real opening she gave me.

  "Sheesh, you really py hardball, don't you?" she wheezed.

  As I approached, I couldn't help but feel a tugging in the bay mind. There was something strange about the aura radiating off her, and there were too many things about this that weren't adding up here.

  Her aura was back to a sm bd red, and I had no idea what had ged to make it light up and pink for a split sed.

  I cautiously raised my palm, stepping forward as she grinned mischievously, rexing against my bindings.

  "Why are you here all the way from Pewterstoy?" I asked.

  She ughed. "Oh, you know. This and that. Causing mayhem and pandemonium is more a state of being than a destination."

  "ing all the way to Kaleidoscope Academy out of all pces while there are gas shes all over the pce," I scoffed. "Don't py games with me, Eris. Why did you e here?"

  Her face went serious for a moment, and her aura fluctuated once more.

  Theuck her to like a toddler.

  "It's a secret! 't have you stealing my thunder or whatever. Get it?"

  Something definitely isn't adding up.

  She wasn't answering my questions, and I was growing increasingly suspicious.

  She sighed. "You'll see soon enough."

  She suddenly sprung up, and I gasped in surprise as she yawned, shattering the barrier I'd bound her in as she stretched her shoulders.

  "Let me tell you a secret. You see, I happen to specialize in barriers. Runs in the family, I suppose," Eris giggled, shooting a wink at me. "No matter how strong they are or what magical properties they possess, they 't hold a dle to my own."

  She held out a hand, and a bck orb crackled with red lightniween her palms.

  "Now. Let's get serious, shall we? You're eaining and all, but I've got pces to be, people to pester," she muttered.

  Without a hint of warning, she unched into me with blinding speed, pnting her feet into the ground and throwing a palm strike that sent me flying through the air.

  "! Show me what you got, Luxy!"

  The way she'd said my artled me, and I raised my arms defensively as she stepped closer. "You're pretty good at range. Why don't we test your hand-to-hand some more?"

  She threw anhtning bolt that caught me in the shoulder, and I stumbled back, hissing as a numbness shot down my arm.

  She charged in, her eyes glittering with mischief. Her fists began to glow red as she pulled one arm bad I hastily threw up a Luminary Barrier between us.

  A white hot punch shattered it as if it was made of gss, sending me skidding backward into a bush. She stepped forward, and I hastily left a mirage e behind as I bent the light around me.

  Just as she raised her hand, I watched as her aura began to fluctuate again. This time, it flickered with pink and bck, befoing back to red and bck.

  She turhrowing a spinning back kick where I'd stepped off cloaked to the side. I barely mao brace myself, stumbling as her aura fluctuated and her foot smmed into my stomach with incredible force.

  A pulse of energy exploded out from the impact, and I was bsted back through the air, hitting the ground with a wheezing grunt.

  "HAH! Your instincts are passable, I suppose." Eris snorted as she marched over to my stunned form. "But you're no mate."

  I groaned, rolling to the side and gring up at her as I huffed, struggling to recover my breath. I'd just had the wind pletely knocked out of me, and I was desperately fighting an urge to vomit.

  Her aura fluctuated and flickered with pink again, and it was driving me up a fug wall.

  What the hell was she pying at?

  "Hmm. Why do I get the sense you still have some tricks up your sleeves, hmm? Something to hide?" She smirked. "Tell me, Luxy, are you holding out on me?"

  She slowly lifted her hand up to throw a ball of crag bck lightning that glowed with menace, her aura fring brightly again as she raised an eyebrow in anticipation.

  Then, everything seemed to stop for a moment as she grinned and u at me.

  I watched it grow bigger and brighter as it came closer and closer, my mind rag.

  "Hopeful Heart Alchemy.... activate!" I cried, activating my trump card. "Shadow Art — Shadow Dance!"

  Her lightning raced towards my unprotected form, and I blurred to the side.

  Then, I dashed forward into a run, bending the shadows of the space around me and traveling with such blinding speed that it seemed like the bolt was moving through mosses.

  As I reappeared o Eris, her eyes widened as the shadows ging to my clothes faded, and she froze.

  "You have to be shittihe hell? Is that move—"

  My eyes sparkled with a radiant golden light as the shadowy feathers radiating off my back matched Eclipse's own. "Harmonizing Art: Eclipse Wave!"

  A cresdo of magic burst from my fist, rippling with shadows as it collided with Eris. The swirl e and bergy bsting her backward as she went rolling to the ground.

  A cloud of dirt and sand flew up around her, and she slowly got to her knees, rubbing the back of her head with a rueful grin.

  "I uimated you, Luxy. Good job!" Eris wheezed. "You're full of surprises, aren't you?"

  I grimaced as my strength gave way, and my Shadow Dance dissipated.

  I'd learhrough experimentation after the Cataclysm that... however it worked — using Hopeful Heart Alchemy to 'borrow' Arts without the partner in proximity was a massive drain on my mana, and it left me feeling pletely spent afterward.

  Fuck it. Might as well py the role.

  I smirked, standing with my arms crossed and a sly grin on my lips as the energy faded around my hands and aura.

  She wiped her mouth and stumbled to her feet. I casually dusted myself off, looking back up at her. "Something like that. Are you done here?"

  Eris shook her head with a smile. "Not quite. I have to say, this little sparring match of ours was serendipitous. It made all the trouble of ing down here worthwhile. More than worthwhile, in fact."

  She settled into a fighting stance again, and I grimaced, knowing I didn't have muergy left to throw down.

  Still, there was something about this girl that I was fixated on, and her aura still had that odd, off-color tio it that was b me.

  Well, it couldn't hurt to try something.

  I held my right hand out with an annoyed smirk. "Alright. Fuck this. Time to see what you're hiding, Eris. Luminary version: Hopeful Heart Alchemy!"

  My Signature Talent. The ability my Magical Knight powers revolved around was my Luminary version. The ability to gather and transmute stagnant mana. It didn't quite work as well for active mana like those used of anic user. However, Twilight Aster and I did discover that it could create small disruptions in active abilities.

  A beam of pink energy shot out from my hand, smming into the front of her chest, and her eyes shot open as her hair flickered a bright raspberry deep pink.

  She reacted immediately, frantically fog her aura inward. As quickly as it had happened, it vanished, and her hair was back to its inal midnight bd crimson highlights.

  She sighed, closing her eyes in tration. Her expression was unreadable, and I stepped back, unsure of what to expect as her shoulders went sck.

  Then she huffed, snapping her eyes open with a serious expression.

  What happened had me sck jawed.

  An all-too familiar feathered wand with a heart-shaped tip was materialized in her right hand, and a soft, muted fsh of red sparkled all around her. It wasly a match, but the source of inspiration for that wand would be obvious to anyone.

  The smell of roses and lic filled my nostrils, and I narrowed my eyes.

  "Love's Call...." Eris growled almost inaudibly as a bright red energy surrouhe tip of her wand.

  My eyes widened in reition as I reized the iic stance, and intation.

  Anyone who'd ever seen the world's most popur anime would have reized it in an instant.

  "Love's Call," Eris repeated. "Heartfelt Bloom!"

  An expanding red, rose-shaped web of energy shot towards me. I reacted instinctively, tapping into its famous natural ter.

  "Shadow Art: Silent Fall of Dusk!!" I hissed quietly, causing a vortex of shadows to spin around me and disie the attack with a deafening boom.

  I huffed, shaking off the effects of using Hopeful Heart Alchemy again as she stood there, huffing and puffing as her body went sck. The two of us stood there for a long moment, fag off silently as we struggled tain our breaths.

  Then, she sniffled, wiping her cheek with her hand. "So. It really is true."

  Wait, what's this all about?

  A deep rumbling chuckle echoed out of her, and she shook her head. "Hahahaha! No wonder someone half my level was able to make me stop sandbagging."

  She smiled, and the warmth in her expression was surprisingly genuine.

  Then she snorted and started crag up, falling to one knee as she started cag again. "Pwahahahaa! Oh, man! You got me good, Magical Girl Harmonia Lux."

  I stared at her bizarre behavior, dumbfounded, and shook my head as she grinned and looked at the horizon. I followed her gaze, and saw streaks of light in the distance rapidly approag campus.

  "Alright. Looks like the fuzz is ing. Time to make like a tree and bounyeh he heheeheeeeeh!"

  She suddenly somersaulted away, and I felt a shiver down my spine as I broke into a run.

  "Wait! Stop!!"

  I'd e down here out of anger. Frankly, for somethiy. To show Albert that I could protect myself now, a my revenge on Eris for ruining my afternoon.

  But iermath of everything, as I stumbled forward, exhausted and fused, I khat something had happened here that I couldn't let slip away. My brain couldn't make the e, but I had a feeling it was imperative I figure it out.

  "Eris! Who the fuck are you?!"

  She gnced over her shoulder as she bounded away, winking at me as the shadows lengthened and she shot off in a bolt of red lightning, gohin moments.

  I shivered as the st of her cag reached me, and a creeping suspi tickled the bay neck.

  There was something she was hiding.

  Something important.

  But in the moment, all I could do was colpse onto the ground, wheezing and heaving and utterly drained. I exhaled sharply as I felt a sense of tranquility wash over me.

  "That girl's... something else."

  I bit my lip, feeling ainess i of my stomach. I had no idea what had just happened, but the tug in my mind that had begun a while ago had now fully formed into a nagging and annoyiion that refused to go away.

  And of course, there was one more thing.

  That bitch still owed me a new pair of shoes.