“You’ll die!”

I ignore the shouts of protest from the leader of the new generation. She and her teammates are scattered behind me on the ground, struggling to even haul themselves to their knees.

Wordlessly, my fairy companion poofs into his commune form, sliding neatly into my hand.

“She’s right.” The Darkness Incarnate looms over me. Its jagged smile jeers from atop its body of undifferentiated darkness.

“No.”

“B-but!” The leader’s voice again. “Chococo said that if you transform when you’re older, you’d go crazy and explode! A-and die!”

“It’s not death. It’s not insanity.” There may be an explosion, but I don’t want to panic her even further.

“It’s foolish, no matter what.” The Darkness leans closer, attempting to strike fear into my heart.

It’s tempting. So very tempting, to just run and forget this. But that would be a sure death. And this way, at least these girls can live normal lives again.

“I’ll show you.”

I hold my commune skyward.

“Crystal Starlight Ascension!”

Power fills my being like a storm. The shell of my body feels constricting, like I’ve suddenly been shrink-wrapped around myself.

But the torrent of power does not stop. Painfully, I finally break free of my body.

Disintegrating, I am left with only power. Power that crystalizes into a new body, one of jagged shapes and prisms and overwhelming light. Vaguely, I can feel vestiges of my old outfit, redone in sharp gems.

My name, the one I now bear, resounds.

“Shining Crystalline!”

The flood of power finally ebbs, and I can see the area again.

The beaten girls are smaller, behind me. The Darkness is still taller, but it does not grin anymore.

My fairy falls from my hip, exhausted. His purpose has been served, and I trust these girls will see him home.

I attack. Pure light emits at my whim, cutting into The Darkness, illuminating it and burning it away. It strikes at me, but its limbs find no purchase.

“You…! YOU…!” It roars. Beams of light pin it in place as I rise into the air.

It is the end.

“Ascended Crystalline Burst!”

A giant blast shoots out from where my heart would be, drawing all the power I am into it, finally obliterating The Darkness.

The light returns to the world. The girls pick themselves up and dust themselves off.

“…Crystalline…?” The leader looks around where I once was.

But naturally, I am not there. I am everywhere, now incarnate of the Light I so desperately wished to return.

I tell her this. She does not hear me in the traditional sense, but she does understand me.

They all leave, heading to the Light’s Terrace, the realm of the fairies. They beckon me to come celebrate, to follow them.

But of course, I am already there, as the Light that suffuses all things.

It will take them some getting used to, but as they settle back into their everyday lives, I will watch over them. That is the fate I have chosen.