Twelve Stars

It was that time of day once more. Only, something incredibly terrible was going on—orders had been issued by the headmaster of La Pucelle to have each team to meet up at the main hall. The hall was fabulously decorated; a crimson carpet extended from the stairs. It was totally grand inside; it had many long corridors with arched ceilings and lamps to light the way and staircases. The corridors also had round windows looking out onto the school grounds.

Tsuruko Sejren, Gary Straights, Kaguya Kobayashi, Aeris Lugonis, Deen Lhant, and Giselle Mercury; Team Daybreak as a whole had gathered in a single row of seats, waiting for the headmaster to appear on stage. When they were least expecting it, a plain-looking man with a moustache and black robes stepped up to the podium, coughing before beginning to speak.

"Greetings, my students. I have gathered you here today to speak about a dire matter. Yesterday, it seemed that there was a demon attack in the middle of town—and even worse, it turned out that the demon was masquerading in the guise of a human. It appears that nobody is safe—anyone and everyone could be one of the enemy. Trust nobody outside of La Pucelle."

Deen and Tsuruko immediately became alert. By the demon playing as a human, he surely meant that Sion Kenzaki woman. In a way, they were indirectly responsible for this whole mess.

"So, for that, I hereby declare—"

All of a sudden, the lights of the hall flickered on and off violently—the ground shook underneath them as a horrid shriek echoed throughout the halls. There were only flickering lights providing illumination. Of course, that wasn't all—the raven clouds lingering in the night began to glow viciously, before emitting a crimson burst of light, from which descended from the heavens, heralding the arrival of an overwhelming foe beyond comprehension. Right behind the headmaster, a flat screen manifested, with six figures clad in black cloaks standing ominously.

Their faces obscured by the shadows, the center figure tossed their cloak off...only to reveal a humanoid longhorn beetle; with a heavily armoured body that had numerous golden pieces of armour which add to its menacing look. Its face was covered by a golden visor, from which its blank, white eyes shone through as it possessed razor-sharp fangs. Overall, with numerous spikes of doom and a generally menacing appearance, this being struck fear into the hearts of others.

"Greetings, humans. Welcome to a new age…the Era of transhumans! God helps those who help themselves. That is not only a very pious phrase, but a very just one. For one cannot assume that the higher beings exists to help people who are too cowardly and too lazy to help themselves and think that a higher beings exists only to make up for the weakness of mankind. They do not exist for that purpose. They have always, at all times, blessed only those who were prepared to fight their own battles...And I am that higher being."

On the day that Earth Land was united under the Magic Council's rule I recalled that you once gained immense victories. Then you became ungrateful, disunited, sinned against yourselves; it's essentially in your nature to be self-destructive. You all deserve your current state. If you forget yourselves again, if you think that you can shake off all honour and all good faith, I can do nothing but teach you all a hard and bitter lesson. But even at that time you were convinced that once you found yourselves again, once you again became industrious and honourable, once each individual being stood up for your dimension first and not for yourselves, once you placed the interests of your world above your own personal interests, once Earth Land again pursued a great ideal, once you were prepared to stake everything for this ideal, the hour would come when I would put an end to you.

If you did not know, the legendary Phoenix Knight from eons ago is hailed as Earth Land's saviour. And if he were here, he would tell you that 'heroes' bring balance to the world. But, he is wrong. The only thing these 'heroes' have brought to the world, is suffering. It has been the cause of every war in every era; the source of the cycle of despair from continuing to spin. But that is about to change. Since the beginning of time, the Lunarians have acted as guardians of Earth Land, and they have spoken to me. They say that such 'heroes' have failed you all. That is why the higher ones have chosen me to usher in a new era of stability. They have granted me a power that will make my rule a true utopia. The power to take a person's magical powers away. Permanently.

Today I will be a prophet: While you live in the bliss of ignorance, bringing you happiness, hand in hand with happiness are the sins of sloth and corruption. No one knows what true pain is and those that do are shunned. They are treated as nothing more than trash. When you're precious peace and equality are gone there will be nothing left to consul you demonic people. I aim for an ideal nation of symbiotes only. I'm eliminating filth like the humans for that. I am Joker, and we...are the Zodiac Knights. I have the fate of this world gripped within my hand. I will be the one to free you poor denizens of this miniature garden. The time has come to cleanse this world."

And just like that, the transmission had ended. It seemed that the effect of it...really didn't do wonders for those watching. Instantly, the students flew in a panic; while they were indeed talented, a bunch of young adults were not used to clashing with a highly competent terrorist cell.

The headmaster slammed his cane upon the ground, providing silence for a moment, at least for a few moments. "Listen up, La Pucelle. We, along with the Magic Council...as much as I hate to admit it, but we must cooperate with the council if we are going to properly combat the Zodiac Knights. From here on out, our main mission is to defeat the Zodiac Knights and return Earth Land to a state of stability."

Tsuruko sighed in depression. "The war... There's no escaping it."

FIN