The night was aflame.
Thick pillars of smoke rose and became smoldering clouds, and flashes of hellfire lit up the dark. People were fleeing from a large factory engulfed by flames. Screams issued from within—the laughter of chaos, of those who would see order fall.
As the fire turned a whole stretch of the city into ash, another sound rang out in the streets. The unmistakable clash of blades. This was the war cry of order, the melody of justice fighting to retake the day.
“Gwaaah?!”
A bladed boomerang whirled through the night, ripping through those who stood on evil’s side. Its victims slumped to the ground that was already slick with their blood. The boomerang returned to the hand of its prum wielder.
“Alize!” she shouted. “Warehouse number three is clear!”
“Move on to number four!” came the reply. “Lyra, take Iska and Maryu and clear out the next section!”
Flames and sparks continued to spill from the factory windows as smoke billowed from every door. Yet the brave and nimble footsteps never once broke stride.
“Sure thing. Your orders?” asked Lyra.
“Use ice to freeze the enemies and the flames! Stop both of them at once! Go, go, go!”
The marching beat of justice was unstoppable. Glinting steel vanquished their foes, while a fierce blizzard extinguished the fires. With silvery blue flashes all around them, the fighters descended deeper into the heart of the factory.
The scarlet-haired girl giving the orders raised her eyes as a smile sprang to her lips.
“Kaguya, Leon! Take care of the enemy’s main force!”
A pair of footsteps echoed off the floor. The first belonged to a raven-haired human wearing a scarlet kimono, an odd sight this far west. Beside her ran a blond-haired elf in a cloak and mask.
“Our captain really loves working us to the bone,” muttered the first. “Make sure you don’t fall behind, elf.”
“Enough talk, Kaguya. We move.”
Their speed took their opponents completely by surprise. Despite their slender physiques, the two girls were instantly in the enemy ranks, slashing wildly.
Their weapons flew with meticulous precision, like the choreography of a delicate dance. The foes in their milk-white robes struggled to survive, much less fight back. Their swords and spears left openings, their axes moved too slowly, and even their shields broke apart under the unrelenting assault. The only thing left to decide was whether they’d be cut to ribbons by Kaguya’s blade or broken by Lyu’s wooden sword.
The men had strength in numbers, but it availed them naught. The two girls tore through the band in an instant like a whirlwind. It was a ballet of violence played out against a complex backdrop of fire and blood.
“Gyaaagh?!”
Soon, the final enemy fell to Lyu’s wooden sword. Beside her, the girl in the kimono raised a hand to her cheek and let out a despondent sigh.
“How disappointing,” she said. “It beggars belief how these hideous weaklings can cause so much misery and pain.”
Behind her feigned smile lurked a smoldering anger, as unruly as the flames themselves.
It was then that a man, concealing himself for an opening, finally emerged from his hiding place and attacked.
“Diiiiiiie!!”
In a last-ditch attempt to go out in a blaze of glory, the man swung the enchanted crimson sword in his hands. A blossom of fire erupted from its tip. This was clearly the weapon responsible for the inferno.
“An explosion?! It’s an ambush!” cried Lyu.
“It came from…Oh no! Alize!” said Lyra, the color draining from her face as she realized where the fireball had wrought its merciless destruction.
The man watched on with glee, his shoulders heaving with every breath. But just as he was about to raise his voice in victorious laughter…time stopped.
The fires parted, and a figure emerged from the sea of flames, unharmed.
“B-but how?! Impossible!” the man stuttered, shuddering with fear. Before him, the girl combed her fingers through her long red ponytail.
“Next time you fling a fireball, make sure your target isn’t Scarlett Harnell!” she jeered, wearing the smuggest grin in the world. “The flames of evildoers leave no marks on my fair and beautiful skin! He-hem!”
“Alize, your clothes are on fire!” yelled the prum girl. “Put it out, or we’re gonna see that fair skin sooner than later!”
The girl, startled, noticed the flames at her back and dashed to and fro until the speed of her movements extinguished them.
“Phew,” she said once the fire was out. “Well, these things happen! Failure is the mother of success! Now I’m one step closer to perfection!”
Lyra looked at her in disbelief. “That’s a lotta words to avoid saying you made a mistake…”
“It must be lovely to smother all those inconvenient truths with optimism,” Kaguya added. “Perhaps we should all take a leaf out of the captain’s book.”
“I won’t hear another bad word against Alize,” said Lyu. “She’s just a little…you know.”
“At least try to come up with somethin’,” came Lyra’s incredulous retort.
“Y-you, it can’t be…” said the man, breaking the comedic atmosphere. He raised a trembling finger at the scarlet-haired girl.
“Oh, you’ve heard of us?” replied Alize with a beaming smile. “Should we do our introduction, then?”
The girl raised her voice theatrically, as though she had been patiently waiting for this exact moment. She was fearless, unflinching, even in the face of the very evil she swore to destroy.
“Protectors to the weak!” she declared. “Confounders of the strong! And sometimes, vice versa! Arbiters unfettered and unchained, weighing all atop the impartial scales of truth and law!”
Their leader, Alize Lovell, was flanked by her ten compatriots. Elves, humans, and prum, all young girls, and yet the light of justice burned within each and every one of them.
“Our wish is order, our every dream a smile! Our backs and our hearts shine with the sword and wings of justice!”
Their emblem sat conspicuously on the girls’ cloaks and clothing. Four sets of wings, and a sword that resembled a set of scales. It was the symbol of justice and synonymous with their lady’s name.
“We are Astrea Familia!!”
Zeus and Hera’s defeat at the hands of the Black Dragon was the harbinger of the Age of Darkness. Evil thrived, order devolved into chaos, and blood was washed away with more blood. Villains reigned supreme while the innocent suffered.
These are the chronicles of a certain family and their efforts to change the darkest chapter in Orario’s history.