Wearing a dress completely dyed in crimson blood was a childish girl no older than fourteen. She coldly held out her hands towards the Shadow Emperor, who was being dragged into the earth. The Shadow Emperor’s massive mouth opened wide as he roared with fury as the giant chains pulled him back, “Damn you Magical Girl Quest! The world is mine! MINE!”

Quest smiled even though she was coughing up blood, “Shut up, even though I can’t kill you I’ll make sure to seal you away forever! You won’t be able to kill any more people!”

“You think this seal can hold me, child?! I swear! One day I shall escape from this place and kill everyone on the astral plane!”

His massive hands tore into the land, trying to escape the red-hot chains that dragged him ever closer to the large hole in the ground.

The Shadow Emperor snarled. As if he’d let this damned girl live after sealing him away!

Opening his mouth as wide as it would go, the Shadow Emperor shot a beam of pure mana at Magical Girl Quest. Fortunately for Quest, the Shadow Emperor had only managed to blow off her right arm, as the chains stopped him from delivering a killing blow. But the Shadow Emperor was satisfied, for he at least achieved his goal of worming his curse inside of the young girl. Magical Girl Quest would die before the end of the next day.

Despite her arm being blown off, Quest kept her spell going. Blood flowed from her eyes as the spell taxed her mind and the Shadow Emperor’s curse started eating at her, but thankfully the recoil of his beam attack pushed the Shadow Emperor into the hole. Though he was barely hanging onto the edge of it with his hands, refusing to go in.

Before being pulled into the abyss the Shadow Emperor played one last card to torment Quest in her final hours, “I CURSE THIS LAND TO SPAWN MY KIN FROM THE SHADOWS! APPEAR AND REAP THE LIVES OF THESE WORTHLESS HUMANS - GO FORTH MY KIN!”

A ball of mist flew from his mouth and shot into the sky, spreading across the globe in an instant and covering the land in darkness. Seeds of the shadows were planted across the land, sea, and air. Weakened from fighting for a full 40 days and 40 nights, Quest could not prevent the Emperor’s final card and watched in despair as the world was tainted.

The Shadow Emperor was finally dragged into the pit with a wicked smile still upon his face. Once he was fully inside Quest sealed the hole with a large magical mountain, burying the seal deep within the earth.

Quest coughed up more blood, but this time she used it to write magical symbols to reinforce the mountain seal. She placed one hundred and eight locks to strengthen the seal even further.

With a gesture of her hand, Quest sent the locks’ keys all over the world. This expense of energy caused the curse to eat away at her body faster, however. She doubled over in pain. Quest knew that by overextending herself she would shorten her lifespan, but did so anyway.

Abruptly, it dawned on her that she must spread her power far and wide since she was the only magical girl to have ever existed.

‘I need to die,’ Quest realized.

Ever since that rare encounter with the Celestial Bear and getting ‘Marked’ by it, she had gained these wonderful abilities. Now it was time to spread that gift. If the Shadow Emperor ever broke out of her seal, someone needed to stop that monster.

She pointed her remaining hand at the sky and gathered all of her remaining power, forming a ball of white light. Soon enough, the time came and her young, youthful body became wrinkled and reeked of decay. Her once brown hair turned completely white. The only color remaining on her body was on the dress that had been stained crimson with her blood. With the last bit of her power, Quest prepared to launch the magic into the air with every fiber of her being.

Yet as she was about to launch the ball into the air she noticed a strange black light inside, making her eyes widen in shock, ‘Oh no, I must stop it from firing!’

Alas, she didn’t have the strength nor the power to recall the tainted orb and could only helplessly watch as the ball floated into the sky. Once it had reached a suitable height, the ball exploded and spread countless beams of light all across the astral world.

Helpless, Magical Girl Quest laid on the ground, shriveled like a raisin as blood gushed out of her wounds. She could barely keep her eyes open as her last thoughts came to her mind, ‘Dear future magical girls, I wish to say… sorry that your senior has left you… with… such a burden…’

A tear rolled from Quest’s eye. With a final shuddering breath, Quest, the first magical girl, died.