By In his castle, Zagato watches the Magic Knights but loses sight of them when they enter the Forest of Silence. Zagato’s minions are given assignments and Alcyone asks to go after the Knights. Zagato explains that you can’t use magic in the forest and it’s full of monsters, so there’s no need to go after them. The griffin drops the girls’ off at Presea’s place and disappears. The girls try to find a way inside and part of the wall disappears when Hikaru knocks on it. They head inside and unbeknownst to them, a monster follows after them. After searching for a bit they discover a creature named Mokona throwing papers around. A cage falls on them from the ceiling, and Master Smith Presea enters, thinking she’s captured Mokona. She sees she caught something else and wonders how to punish them. Fuu says they might be innocent of wrecking Presea’s study, but they did enter without permission. Umi says it’s not their fault because the wall opened on its own when Hikaru touched it. From that Presea realizes they’re the Magic Knights. The monster busts into the room and Presea opens the cage. Hikaru tries to use her Flame Arrow on it but nothing happens.
Before the monster can attack the girls, Presea cuts its head off. Presea tells them magic doesn’t work in the Forest of Silence. Hikaru explains why Clef couldn’t tell them much and Presea wonders if that’s why he left Mokona with her. She leads the girls out of the room and the monster shows signs of life. Presea shows them an armory and tells them to pick a weapon. She explains she’s only loaning them the weapons because she’s going to make new ones for them. But they have to go to the Spring of Eterna to get their own raw materials, an ore called escudo. Weapons made from escudo evolve based on their owner’s strength, and with them they can become the true Magic Knights. They are also needed to revive the Rune-Gods so they can fight Zagato. Presea says the Run-Gods are beings of immense power and that the Magic Knights will recognize them when they see them. The monster enters the room and Presea shoots it with a cannon before shutting the door. She tells the girls to hurry and pick weapons by closing their eyes and concentrating. They do so as the monster breaks in. Weapons fly off the wall and go to them, with Hikaru getting a sword, Umi getting a rapier, and Fuu getting a bow and arrow. The four of them seemingly beat the monster, but it revives again. Fuu notes that it’s like mud, so Hikaru suggests leading it to a lake. They run outside, with Hikaru grabbing a table cloth along the way, and lures the monster to the water. Hikaru throws the table cloth on it and knocks it into the lake, where it dissolves. After the battle their weapons disappear and go into the gems on their gloves. During the night, Umi and Fuu wonder how Hikaru can sleep after all that. They both agree that Hikaru is amazing. Presea sees the girls off the next day, telling them that Mokona has everything they need. As they leave, Presea prays for their safety.
The Knights make it to their first objective and are promptly given another one, but not before some introductions, getting their starter weapons, and having their first monster encounter. You can cross those things off the JRPG checklist. The girls themselves even compare their situation to a game. Here we meet Presea, who fills in some blanks Clef wasn’t able to and gives them their weapons, as well as Mokona, the… thing that’ll be our cute animal mascot for the series (and CLAMP in general, as it’s named after the group’s lead artist). A sudden monster attack gives Hikaru the chance to show her merit as a hero, using her head to beat the mud-like creature. Given Zagato’s attitude, they’ll probably run into much worse things on their way to the Spring of Eterna.
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