NOVEL NEXT Recap: Part 1
Alright, Lux here. Or Sienna, whatever.
It's been a wild ride, that's for sure.
If your brain's anything like mine, it's probably still trying to process everything that's happened.
So, before we jump back into the thick of it, a quick rundown felt necessary. Consider this your crash course on all the chaos, revelations, and general weirdness I've stumbled into since this whole magical girl thing started.
Before all this, life was... normal.
Or, as normal as it gets when you're a girl from Pewterstone City, raised by a single mom who worked herself ragged with a bit of a drinking problem. My best friend, Albert and I were thick as two peas in a pod. He was the goofy, big-hearted anchor in my life, always there, always had my back. We dreamed of getting into Kaleidoscope High, hoping it'd be our ticket to something more.
I was aiming for the logistics track just looking to put food on the table; he was all about becoming a glorified sidekick for a Magical Knight. We were just... us.
Things started to get weird a few weeks before school. Al and I were at an arcade when some guy with creepy blue eyes bit a woman.
Aaaannnnd... she turned into a zombie.
It was a localized outbreak, blamed on some long-dead supervillain named Professor Lunatrix. But it was terrifying and we hid through it. Didn't think much of it at the time. It was just the usual shenanigans in this crazy world.
Orientation day at Kaleidoscope High. Supposed to be a fresh start. Instead, portals just started popping open everywhere.
Monsters. Full-blown zombie apocalypse. Yeah.
Al and I were trying to get to orientation, and suddenly, the auditorium was swarming with raptor-like creatures. We ran, obviously.
Of course, Albert being Albert, got himself bit trying to protect me with a pipe In a moment that felt straight out of a bad horror movie. Even choking away his big crocodile tears as he told me to run. But this is a story about a magical girl, of course. So a black cat that'd been shadowing us showed up and offered me a contract.
No time to think, just act. That's how I became a fledgling knight trying to figure out my powers on my own.
I barely survived those two days. Seriously. I found myself on the run, trying to get Al to Refuge Zeta, a massive shelter meant to protect civilians from large-scale supervillain attacks. But the monsters were everywhere. I got separated from Al while trying to help a little girl named Abby.
That's when I ran into a "faceless imposter" — a horrifying creature that looked human but wasn't, and it could mimic people. It was terrifying.
Just when I thought I was screwed, a stupidly handsome, dark-haired teenager showed up. He was quick, brutal, and used knives.
He called himself Black Star, and he was... well, he still is a sarcastic jerk, but he could fight. He told me he was an "intern" for Red Masque, the city's crime lord. He made it clear he wasn't interested in heroics, just survival.
But we were stuck together that night. We fought through hordes of zombies, with him snarking the whole way.
I used my new powers—Luminary Bolt, Luminary Beam, Luminary Shield—and even managed to level up a few times. He'd jab at me and call me "hero girl" or "Sparkle Princess," but he had my back. We eventually found a senior Knight, Twilight Aster, badly injured, and we managed to get her to a fire station. We got her patched up after a terrifying run to retrieve some medical supplies, and she recovered just enough to get herself back into fighting shape.
She was a proper Magical Knight, calm and strong, even when she was half-dead.
While Twilight Aster recovered, we heard that Refuge Zeta, where Al was, had been compromised. It was a "no-go zone." I refused to leave Al and the other civilians there. Black Star, surprisingly, agreed to help, though he tried to play it off as just being bored. He's got a cynical wit, but I could tell he cared, even if he wouldn't admit it.
So, we headed back to Refuge Zeta. The place was a warzone. Understatement of the century. It was completely overrun by the monsters above the surface.
We found a way into the maintenance tunnels, a dark, winding labyrinth. We encountered a massive moth-like monster down there, and later, more of those "faceless imposters" again and all kinds of things that went bump in the night. It was a terrifying adventure, but we managed to get past them.
We reached the central hub of the refuge, hoping to send a distress signal. But the place was empty, save for a chilling message left by Al: "DO NOT OPEN. DEATH INSIDE." Turns out, he'd been there, trying to send a signal, and had run into... something.
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The monster, a "Judicator" as our System called it, was a terrifying entity that pulled its victims into "Gossamer Echoes" — alternate realities where everything went wrong. It was trying to break Al's mind, but he'd somehow resisted.
My presence there, and my growing power, seemed to disrupt it. I managed to banish it, but not before it dropped me into some weird pocket dimension.
I was alone. Again.
I found Al's hoodie, a comforting reminder of him, and followed a trail of blood back to Shelter 4, where he'd been. The place was deserted, but I found his flashlight. He'd been there, but he was gone. Well, I found him alright. He was in a dilapidated, surreal version of Shelter 4, recovering from injuries. He was shaken, traumatized by the "Gossamer Echoes" and the constant shifting realities.
He even pointed a gun at me, thinking I was another imposter. But a stranger intervened and stopped his shot. And he disappeared. And he may or may not have been Albert from a failed timeline.
Yeah. It was rough. But we talked, and Al eventually believed me.
Then, the universe decided to play another cruel joke. A crack in reality opened, and Al vanished. I didn't hesitate. I jumped into the crack, determined to find him. I ended up in some surreal, stylized forest that looked like it was an anime, where I met a mysterious girl named Alice.
She seemed to know everything, even my name, and told me Al had been pulled back into our world. She gave me a golden staircase to follow, a path to find him, and well, I came back home.
So, after that bizarre encounter with a living anime girl, I returned to reality, somehow winding up in a completely different part of the underground area. Then I regrouped with Black Star and Twilight Aster. We found ourselves in Refuge Zeta's main hall, where Twilight Aster nearly got herself killed protecting me from a giant moth monster. Just when I thought I was screwed, her teammates, Dawn Lily and Midnight Blossom, arrived to help like a pair of streaking comets.
We defeated the moth-like monster, but quickly found ourselves pressed by a monster the System called the 'Juggernaut.' That thing? Well, it was borderline unkillable.
Then, Red Masque, the city's crime lord of all people, showed up. He was a terrifying force, capable of bisecting the Juggernaut with a single move. But then, he turned his knives on me. He wanted to kill me. He said I was the "anchor" for the monster invasion, a loophole Mortifera Nox used to pierce our reality. He genuinely believed my existence was causing all this.
I was outmatched, bleeding out, and terrified. He had me dead to rights. I was on the verge of collapsing, my vision blurring, when Abby's stuffed cat, Mr. Fluffles, suddenly came to life. It floated in the air, glowing pink. A new voice, lively and confident, spoke through it – calling herself Aunt Jinny.
Aunt Jinny started talking to my mother, Nightingale Eclipse, who was watching remotely, paralyzed by her own trauma and fear. Whoever, this Aunt Jinny was — she gave my mom a pep talk, urging her to stop hiding and act.
My mother, Nightingale Eclipse, then intervened remotely, flooding me with her mana. I fully transformed into Harmonia Lux, and somehow managed to channel her powers and combine them with my own. Powers I'd only seen on live dramas and anime adaptations of her story. It was a lot to take in, especially with the knives I had to yank out of my back.
I managed to hold off Red Masque to a stalemate, despite the massive disadvantage. He was fast, brutal, and clearly wanted me dead, but I managed to keep him at bay.
But then, the Juggernaut he'd bisected earlier suddenly revived. It took Red Masque by surprise, absorbing him transforming into a shadowy mockery of Red Masque, and it immediately tried to hunt Albert down in the Refuge. I didn't know why it was after Albert, but my instincts were screaming that he was in grave danger.
I confronted it on the rooftop, burning myself out defending Albert. I threw everything I had at it, but it was far stronger than anything I'd run into so far. Albert was nearly killed after being impaled through the chest, and I was completely out of mana.
And just when I thought it was over, five ridiculously handsome Magical Knights came out of nowhere, riding on a tidal wave riding sharks, and rescued us.
Yes, you read that right. Sharks. On a tidal wave. In a city.
It was the most absurd, over-the-top thing I'd ever seen, and honestly, a small part of me wanted to laugh hysterically even as I was on the verge of passing out.
These guys, Kraken, Griffon, Sphinx, Kitsune, were loud, dramatic, and utterly absurd. But they were also incredible. Kitsune even healed Albert's wounds.
Kitsune then whisked Albert and me away from the battle, soaring through the sky towards Kaleidoscope Academy. It was a surreal flight, watching the city burn below us, but the sight of dozens of other Knights converging on the battle, their auras lighting up the night sky, just… filled me with hope. Albert, despite his life-threatening injuries, even managed to crack a few jokes.
We finally reached the Academy, safe within its protective barriers. I was exhausted, battered, and bruised, but Albert was alive, and we were safe. The last thing I remembered before passing out was Kitsune's comforting words, telling me I'd done my part.
So, I woke up in a hospital room, two days later. The world was still a mess, with news reports detailing global casualties and economic collapse, but at least the portals were mostly closed.
Albert was recovering in the next room, and I still thank all the gods in the sky today that he was okay. He even showed me a viral video of my "Prismatic Radiant Requiem" attack, which apparently leveled half a warehouse district. It looked eerily similar to Arcadia Vox's ultimate move, which was both flattering and terrifying.
To my relief, Twilight Aster visited me as 'Lucina' - all hale and hearty and devoid of any life-threatening injuries. She explained that she was my official chaperone and sponsor at the Academy.
Albert and I spent the rest of the night catching up. He even helped me brainstorm a new Magical Knight name: Harmonia Lux, a nod to Arcadia Vox's "voice of utopia" theme, but with my own spin.
I also received gifts from Jacob and his family, the refugees at Refuge Zeta, and even Black Star, who sent a letter with a polaroid of Red Masque's cracked mask on an improvised gravestone.
It was a bittersweet moment for certain.
I ended up getting a new stuffed cat doll, almost identical to Mr. Fluffles, but this one was dressed as a Magical Girl. It was a gift from Abby, and it sat on my windowsill, twinkling in the moonlight. I figured it was a good reminder of everything that had happened, and the new life I was stepping into.
So, that's where the first chapter of my new crazy life ended.
It was a wild, terrifying, and utterly absurd introduction to my new life as a Magical Girl.
The next part of the story?
Well, that's where things got really weird.