Paris, France 

Thunder rolled across the night sky with force that’ll quake the strongest man. Schala and Remilia Claymore, practically connected at the hip since they were both born, stood amid a grand castle that crumbled around them. It felt like if they stepped wrong and lively, they’d fall clear through the ground. 

Schala, bespectacled with long lavender hair that swept the middle of her back and braided on her left side, brandished a rapier as white as paper in front of her face. 

“Oh, the prince has been kidnapped!” she said in French, her voice presenting a dramatic flair as she did her best to look heroic. 

Remilia, with hair of sapphire combed into dreadlocks, drew a katana and flung it into the air. Without warning she jumped and caught it, posing next to her sister. 

“Then we must save my husband,” Remilia said dramatically, “for we are Magic Knights of Rothegal! Everything falls to us!” 

The skies twisted and converted, coloring itself into a putrid, stomach-churning green. The twins stood firm underneath a moon that shone an ominous light down. Around the castle, the ground crumbled away, and angry waves of water thrashed at the structure walls. 

The twins, at the top of the castle, saw ash flitter up and surround them; the ash sparked a thick ring of fire that encircled the girls. 

To add sight to scorched air and wind, a deep rumbling approached the twins, thump-thump-thumping closer by the second with the cadence of a heartbeat. 

A reptilian face the length of a boat’s underside lurched from the top of the castle, its long neck whipping it to and fro. It glared at the twins with sharp emerald eyes. 

Schala exhaled. Remilia shivered and said, “Just follow my lead!” 

“What about our plan?” 

“We need to be proactive! You plan on boring it into submission?” 

The Dragon vomited fire at the two, who yelped in fear and dove left, quickly evading its attack. The dragon’s harsh heat scorched the air around the twins; they coughed and gasped for breath. 

“We need to put it down before we’re honey roasted!” Schala snapped her fingers and instantly, a grimoire with worn leather appeared in front of her, levitating above her grasp. 

Remilia touched the stone behind her; a spear-length scepter as blue as her dreadlocks emerged from the rock, glowing with readied light. 

“After you,” Remilia stated. 

Schala arose in an instant and gestured with her palm; a thick wall of white paper bonded together as the dragon unleashed a new volley of flame. The fire bowled into the paper, consuming most of it but keeping the twins safe. 

The Dragon burped up another fireball, and Schala’s incanted paper whipped around the energy like a storm of white feathers, swallowing the fire. The dragon, seeing this, belched a plume of flame at the twins. 

Remilia spun out of the way, threw her katana past the dragon, and clenched her palms together. The sword morphed itself, contorting and converting, until it became a large barn owl with a wide wingspan. It swooped and dove toward the dragon, ramming its wide face into the beast’s side like a cannonball. 

The dragon’s eyes went wide in pain. Schala moved her arms quickly like a snake’s strike and her control of paper obliged, swirling around the dragon like an angry sphere of wind. Remilia threw a couple of knives near the owl, and they converted into two owls lesser in size but larger than a human. 

In unison, the twins shouted, “Now!” as a bolt of lightning crackled across the sky. 

The two owls slammed into the dragon on each side as more lightning bounced off the wave of paper, redirecting into the dragon’s chest. 

The infernal beast howled in agony and thrashed about, but it craned its neck over the girls, rage burning in its eyes. 

“Thing doesn’t know when to quit!” Remilia cried as she held her scepter, repositioning the owls to continue their assault. 

Schala’s book hovered in front of her, the pages shining like a magic treasure. “We’d be done with this if you’d followed my plan!” 

Remilia let loose a stream of fake tears and playfully rubbed her eyes. “I’m sorry, sis, but Magic Knights are a lot more stylish than that!” 

“Not from what I read!” Schala rolled her eyes. 

The dragon made a grand leap at the twins, its shadow eclipsing them. Schala and Remilia flipped backward onto a broken stone pillar as the dragon recovered, swept its tail, and knocked them down. 

Schala was first on her feet. She raised her hand, bent her middle and ring fingers inward, and incanted, “Laissez Le Sol Terra!” 

The ground convulsed and cracked open, swallowing the dragon. Its infernal howl echoed off the castle walls as it fell into infinite darkness, belching fire in futility. Remilia looked pleased at the spell’s effects. 

“I wish that was a spell we could use in real life,” Remilia commented. “It actually worked?” 

“It would’ve worked sooner if you weren’t showing off,” Schala snapped back. 

Remilia rolled her eyes. “Um, we beat it, right? 

“Remi, we need to be in sync, especially with what Tauntine taught us. Our lives might depend on it.” 

Remilia stifled a laugh. “You’ve been reading way too much. When was the last time any of us fought anybody?” 

“I’d rather have it and not need it, than need it and not have it,” Schala retorted. 

Remilia patted her sister on the shoulder. “I think we’ll be fine.” 

“Yeah, you say that now.” 

Schala snapped her fingers and her grimoire flipped open to a blank page while a fountain pen materialized in her grip. 

“And so,” Schala spoke, her voice echoing like an epic fantasy film, “it came to pass that we, the sisters of Claymore, did lay siege to the Dread Dragon Maling. For a moment, to rescue the dear love of fair warrior Remilia, it did seem that the dragon’s power was greater than their enchantments could defeat. Batting nary an eyelash as the foul beast struck—” 

The sound of clapping interrupted Schala, and the twins looked around for the source. A dark-skinned woman with short hair like strawberry bled into view like a watercolor painting behind the twins. 

The twins whirled to see their aunt smiling. “Tauntine!” they said together.