Thread:MMYP999/@comment-27033016-20190629211851/@comment-27416494-20190703224819

They're the closest friends of their respective main characters with ambitious dreams of becoming great heroes. In practice, however, both of them came off more as overly idealistic heroic wannabes (which is literally Almaz's in-game title at first) who were way in over their heads in the grand scheme of things, and would go on to make several poor decisions that would do more harm to themselves than anything else. To further this point, they're commonly seen as the weakest members of their respective groups, at least via proxy, though they can still keep up with their allies with their unique ability to magically summon swords out of thin air.

In addition, both of them have been in love with two of their childhood friends for as long as they could remember, yet refused to act on their feelings due to their own emotional insecurities. This eventually ended up working out just fine for Almaz, but Sayaka wasn't nearly as lucky. On top of that, the two of them were also struck with an incurable curse/ailment that would slowly turn them into a demon and a witch respectively. This would lead to their untimely deaths at a later point in their stories, which would throw their friends into a fit of grief and despair in response. All of this may have been undone later on when they were brought back to life due to varying means, but even still, their deaths still served as a dark turning point for their respective stories.