A song once sang that stars in the night sometimes scattered gold. If you wished to find it, you had to travel far alone and face unknown dangers.
Ever since Durandal entered the Ether Anchor in the Sea of Quanta at the age of twelve, the power of the bubble universe had remained hidden within her body. It was also during that journey that she forged bonds with her friends and found the gold scattered by the stars.
After becoming the Valkyrie Durandal, Dea Anchora, the girl found herself in a void. There was nothing here but darkness and a motionless surface of water beneath her feet, smooth as a mirror.
"Where is this?"
Durandal was somewhat confused and could not remember how she had suddenly arrived in such a place. Yet she was not afraid in the slightest, only puzzled.
It was not until she lowered her head and looked at the water beneath her feet that she saw the reflection of a familiar little girl.
The little girl looked to be twelve or thirteen. She wore a new summer outfit, with a black bow hair ornament. Her long hair was tied into two bunches, fastened with pink bows trimmed in black lace.
A pocket watch bearing an eight-pointed star hung around her neck. She wore a gray strapless top with white ruffles, exposing her collarbones and shoulders. The sleeves also had white ruffles, while pink bows decorated the cuffs.
She wore a brown belt with a small brown pouch hanging at her hip. Below it was a cute pink plaid skirt.
Looking closely, this was what Durandal had looked like as a child. More precisely... when she was twelve years old.
As Durandal watched her twelve-year-old self, everything around her suddenly changed again. From a third-person perspective, she