The air reeked of sulfur, stinging like struck matches, and a heavy veil of dust hung over a ruined city. A towering Black Dragon, nearly a hundred meters long, looked down on the shattered skyline. Its cold, crimson eyes swept past human specks cowering in broken walls and crumbled stone.

It spread its Abyss-like jaws and let loose a low, deafening roar, a sound that flaunted its boundless might.

With a single enraged bellow, it spewed a fireball swathed in Black Flame, and hurled it at the ravaged city.

Boom!

A sky-splitting blast rolled across the streets, and firelight drowned the ruins. Those hiding in rubble were swallowed by a sea of flame; their shrieks rose sharp, then vanished under the thunder of the blast.

The Black Flame thinned. What remained was scorched earth breathing heat, toppled walls and sinking streets, ruin and silence without a ghost of life.

A wild wind tore through, lifting ash and dust like gray wings.

“Damn you! It ends here, monster!”

A crimson figure fell like a meteor and slammed onto the dragon’s scales. The hard, pitch-black plates cracked like a spiderweb, and its black Blood tumbled from the sky like boulders, punching pits into the uneven ground.

Excitement flickered in the dragon’s cold eyes. It had waited for this—humans at the peak of this world, those self-styled Magic Maidens in uncanny garb.

The Black Dragon twisted its massive body. Bulky as it was, it moved with brutal speed. Its heavy tail lashed, and the crimson girl was sent flying, smashed into the earth, and buried deep as dust plumes rose in rings.

“Crimson!”

The wind shooed the dust aside.

At the center of the crater, a figure red as flame stood tall. Her fists were clenched, her eyes closed, and a thin red mist curled around her like breath.

She was Crimson.

“Not bad, Mr. Black Dragon! Is that all?”

Crimson gripped her Wand and rose into the air. Fire blazed from her special attire, and she stood like a deity against the sky. The Wand’s crimson Magic Stone pulsed with fine, near-imperceptible waves, and Mana gathered around it like a tide.

Two figures—one in yellow, one in blue—appeared behind her. One poured in power; one mended Crimson’s wounds.

The Black Dragon’s face hardened. It had underestimated these girls. The force on Crimson’s Wand could break its scales and carve a wound that wouldn’t heal.

But power that strong was hard to steer. The strike would be easy to dodge. It could pounce and tear them apart before they finished charging.

It made its choice, spread its wings, and surged upward.

As it climbed, a blood-red pillar of light fell from the heavens.

Startled, it spat dragonfire to block the beam, and felt its scales crawl at the pillar’s strength. The light swallowed both wings, and, crippled, the dragon pitched out of the sky.

A voice rang out, crisp and cold as a bell over the scorched earth.

“Order, Seal!”

With that clear, melodious command, pure white feathers knit into light chains. Feathers struck feathers with a bright, metallic clink. The dragon lifted its blood-stained claws to smash them.

The chains floated, uncanny and light. They slipped around the claws, threaded through wounds Crimson had made, pierced the ground, and bound the Black Dragon fast to the earth.

It roared in fury, but the chains held.

Feather-chain scraped scale with a shriek; sparks spat out like fireflies. The links tightened, and the dragon howled in pain.

Above, the Magic Cannon formed by three powers was ready.

Three forces, utterly different yet thick as tar, braided together. Space tore and warped around them. Behind the three, a faint silver silhouette appeared, hand on a wooden scepter, a slender arm pushing the gathered force forward.

“Multi-Element Saturation Barrage! Go! Dash!”

“So be it!”

The Black Dragon gritted its fangs. Its heart hammered like a pump, ramming power into the fire sac in its throat. Black Flame seeped through its teeth, and the leaking heat lit the air; a scorching wind scoured the girls’ faces.

The silver-haired girl keeping the chains was still icy-faced, but now bloodless pale. A cloud-white bracelet of Magic Stone on her wrist burned with thick light.

The dragon threw back its head and roared. Black Flame gushed out and draped its whole body. The heat swallowed the chains, and a jet-black pillar of flame smashed head-on into the tri-colored Magic Cannon.

The dragon’s body shuddered. The burst from flame and cannon was too much even for its iron bones. Its crimson pupils pinched tight. It poured on more fire. Those human girls would falter first.

The Magic Cannon’s power thinned fast. Space around them pocked with holes where the two forces tore it open.

The dragon’s lips curled in mockery.

It had won.

The human maidens couldn’t reverse fate.

The cannon vanished. The three girls’ clothes hung in tatters; their bodies, washed thin by Black Flame, could no longer hold.

A lilting song drifted down and softened into a cloud, catching the three as they plummeted. Clear raindrops broke the dust; the battlefield came into clean focus.

A vast pressure rose behind the Black Dragon. Blood-red and silver-white fused into a Holy Lance that ran through the sky. Night ripped. Stars trembled like beads on a string.

“Judgment!”

The song cut clean. The long spear turned into a streak and speared between heaven and earth. A silver-red lightning tore the night, ruin in its wake, and shot straight for the dragon.

Boom!

The heavens shuddered. Wind howled. The world itself seemed to vibrate.

Blood dyed the moonlight red. Silver burst into a thousand stars.

On the scorched earth, the Black Dragon was gone.

Only shredded flesh remained, and pools of black Blood, seething with Black Flame.

The Magic Maidens fought the Calamity Dragon to the last breath; in the end, they slew the Black Dragon and led the world toward peace.

It was the first film on earth shot entirely with Mana.

The credits rolled. Lingchen Yao switched off the old TV and gazed at the six statues rising in the city’s heart.

Ten years ago, the world had marched forward, steady as always.

People waited, necks craned, for the easy miracles of a new age of technology.

Until the Calamity Black Dragon dyed the sky with Black Flame.

Until the girls who fought in shadow stepped into the light.

Everything changed.

Mana and tech joined hands, opening a new age—and a new unrest.

After the Magic Maidens’ victory, the government raised statues to honor their gift to the world. They became the symbols of peace’s guardians. Because of the Black Dragon, humanity learned how strategically vital Magic Maidens were.

Then the Order Maiden reached an accord with the government and laid down Order. Centered on the six core maidens, they built three high pillars: the Tower of Order, the Hidden Tower, and the Aid Association. The nation split into twenty-four parts—the Twenty-Four Districts.

The Tower of Order trained Order Keepers. They guarded, patrolled, handled cases, hunted crime, and crushed unrest. Every District had a branch. You could see their fierce silhouettes everywhere, girls with frightening combat strength.

The Hidden Tower belonged to the Seekers. They researched Mana, Magic Stone, and every Magic Tool. It was an armory and a lab. Only a few key regions had branches. Those girls had sharp minds and wisdom’s favor.

The Aid Association, as its name said, helped the troubled, lifted the weak, rebuilt after disaster. They often worked with charities and insurers. Funds were thin; their numbers were few. They didn’t have a fixed badge like Order Keeper or Seeker.

With these three towers rising, and with the promise of rapid growth the Magic Maidens brought, girls who once fought in the dark could walk under sunlight and soak in the crowd’s cheers. Many families hoped their daughters would enter a Magic Maiden high school and make a name.

Boys didn’t lose their place entirely. Order offered those talented but unable to become Magic Maidens a path: pass the assessment and you could become a Magic Maiden’s agent, handling everyday matters for solid pay.

The old dream—great sons and shining daughters—shifted into a new one: “son as an agent, daughter as a Magic Maiden,” strange yet perfectly sensible.

Knock, knock—

The old wooden door thumped. Lingchen Yao, tired and thin-skinned with sleep, pulled on his light pajamas and opened it. A petite girl in deep green stood outside. She set a package as big as herself into his hands. The Magic Stone at her waist flashed, and she blew away in a puff of blue smoke, leaving a chirp in the air:

“This is Flash-Delivery~ Remember to give five stars, dear~”

“Even the courier’s a Magic Maiden…”

The thought pricked first; he frowned and sighed as he opened the package. Inside lay rasps of every size and a set of scrap wood blocks.

“I’ll carve tomorrow…”

He set the box aside and looked over the scatter of wooden carvings on his table. At the center sat one with a face he still couldn’t shape. A bitter smile tugged at his mouth.

“Good night…”

The last line on his phone’s news said the Twelfth District was peaceful today.

In his dream, his mother spread her wings and soared into the ninth heaven. His father stood in thick dust, holding a pitch-black tablet, speaking to someone he couldn’t see.

A sudden beam cannon swallowed them both.

Silent.