After Leaving the great hall, King Leon, Alice and Mathias were guided by a servant to their rooms.
However, on their way, the Beast Emperor intercepted them.
"You know why I'm here. Leave the woman behind for the night, and what happened today will be forgotten."
Stunned by this situation, Alice looked at King Leon with puppy eyes. She couldn't believe the laughter she couldn't hold back would put her in trouble.
"Mhhh, no?" King Leon answered curtly, sighing while looking at Alice.
"I won't let her disrespect and lack of decorum slide. She needs to be disciplined!" replied the Beast Emperor with an ugly face. It looked like her laughing in a hall filled with other royals stung his ego pretty severely.
"How about a match to decide it? We all brought with us two councillors. She will fight one of yours. If she loses, you can discipline her." After pondering for a few seconds and knowing that this situation couldn't be peacefully resolved, King Leon came up with that idea.
Knowing the man's tendencies, he predicted his pride wouldn't allow him to back down.
"Interesting idea. Let's do this. Servant, bring us to an open area." Beast Emperor showed a smile full of malevolence, already imagining the torments he would inflict on Alice.
This new development attracted attention. Other royals slowly joined them on their way outside to spectate the duel. Soon, a mage proficient in earth magic created a makeshift arena and benches for the spectators in the garden.
"Mara, you go. Educate her about the cost of disrespecting me." Beast Emperor looked straight into Mara's eyes with a devious smile, making him understand that he should humiliate her to avenge him.
"Understood, your Highness." Mara, a two-meter-tall, tanned giant with muscles so thick that they appeared to be about to burst out of his skin, said while walking towards the arena.
On the other side of the arena, King Leon and Mathias scolded Alice.
"You reap what you sowed. You don't miss any chance to embarrass us." King Leon sighed while Mathias looked at her with a gloating smile. She almost could hear him think, 'Serves you right. I hope you lose.'
Pissed by this stupid development and the unfairness of the situation, she said menacingly, "You want a fight? I will give you an execution," as she strode toward the arena with purpose.
Mara, not wanting to disappoint his lord, hyped the public with a dramatic voice,
"Your Highnesses, ladies and gentlemen, let me show you today why our country is called the Beast Empire. Let me show you how we conquered three-quarters of the southern continent. Behold our empire's unique magic."
After his declarations, Mara's body swelled, growing from two meters to four, and his tanned skin became black. Brown fur grew from his torso and arms as his teeth became razor sharp, and his nose turned into a snout.
After his transformation, the man looked more like a bear than a human.
With a loud roar, he charged, his speed reaching 50km/h, at the stupid woman standing a hundred meters from him, ready to punish her for her disrespectful behavior.
"So that's the empire's unique transformation magic, impressive".
"If every one of their mages can become that ferocious, I understand how they could conquer so much territory."
"From what I've heard, transforming into an animal is only the basics of their magic."
"Is that little girl seriously supposed to fight that four-meter-tall abomination?"
The spectators enjoyed the show. Since most of them didn't live on the southern continent, they didn't have many occasions to witness the empire's transformation magic.
"Are you done transforming into a giant teddy bear? Can we start?" Alice asked, unfazed by the charging monstrosity and even more annoyed after hearing the public's comments.
"Behold my magic." She exclaimed, imitating Mara's dramatic tone, her voice tinged with a hint of mockery before firmly saying, "Verdant Ensnarement."
Her spell manifested as thick vines grew from the arena's rocky ground and bound Mara's powerful legs, halting his charge for a second.
"Do you think you can hold me down with mere vines?" Mara said, his voice a hideous mix between a human's and a beast's before biting the vines with his formidable jaw, shredding them and resuming his charge.
His swift and massive figure looked like a speeding carriage, ready to collide with Alice's frail body as she opened her mouth.
"No, I don't think mere vines can hold you down, but buy me enough time for my next spell? Certainly." She said in disdain before adding, "Well of corruption."
As her words lingered in the air, a magic circle covered in mysterious symbols and larger than Mara appeared right before his charging figure. The moment he walked on it, it exploded in a disgusting mist of corrupted energy.
Vile energy blinded and engulfed Mara's body, attempting to devour him, causing his mighty muscles to wither and his tall figure to lose mass.
He hurriedly jumped back in panic, attempting to distance himself from the dreadful trap before gazing at Alice in fear.
He changed his tactics, choosing to approach her more cautiously to avoid any traps while destroying a portion of the arena with his paw. He planned to use the rubles to activate the mine-like spell, ensuring the path was safe before moving forward.
Alas, would Alice give him enough time? After all, she was a true mage in the fourth tier!
"Next spell, Ice coffin." Her voice resonated mysteriously in the air as she called mana to form a giant ice coffin around Mara's body, immobilising him.
Then, she continued. "Curse of dusk... And the final touch, draining roses."
The image of a setting sun hung above the bear as if announcing that his life would be extinguished with its descent.
Subsequently, white roses sprouted from his body, turning redder with each passing second.
The cold ice coffin drained his vitality. The curse attacked his soul, and the roses drained his blood as Mara's eyes became empty.
He died peacefully in his sleep. More or less...
"Combination spell, dusk burial." She said, her tone firm before re-assuming her playful demeanour. "So much for that mighty empire's magic. What's next? Are you going to make me fight a kitty? Hahahahaha."
King Leon watched her as she laughed like some demented psycho, facepalming in disbelief. "Mathias, are you sure she is from my kingdom? How did I wake up one day and decide to make her the captain of the royal mages?"
"Sadly, Your Highness..." Mathias couldn't find any words to placate his king. This sight was just too embarrassing for them.
"I guess we are done here. I'm sorry for your councillor's death and hope you won't hold a grudge over this matter. After all, we won fair and square."Turning to the Beast Emperor, King Leon said.
"I guess so. I'm feeling unwell and will take my leave." The Beast Emperor clenched his fists, his anger palpable, as he ground his teeth so hard that King Leon could almost hear them crack. Knowing that he would only humiliate himself further, he rose abruptly from his seat, his departure swift and decisive, his mind already plotting the retribution he would deliver to the Academy of Transformation's dean in his territory after this shameful spectacle.
"Sadly for Mara, it looks like she countered him quite heavily by bypassing his mighty physique."
"That was a nice fight, though. We don't see a triple affinity mage often."
"Right! It's even more surprising to see one with three rare elements."
"Indeed, her skills are commendable. Mastery over three schools of magic is a rare achievement. She looks a bit demented, though..."
The spectators commented heatedly after the grandiose display of magic Alice offered.
"Mathias, call her back, and please, for the love of god, make her stop laughing like that." King Leon hurriedly left the garden, too ashamed to face the other royals' gaze despite winning the duel.
A strange idea bloomed in his mind as he reached his room. Maybe he should have let the Beast Emperor discipline her a bit.
The rest of the night went by uneventfully, except for a particular emperor's room, which was found in shambles by the servants the next day.
****
Next morning...
The kings and emperors returned to the great hall.
They had to either agree with Elisabeth's plan to summon warriors to help them survive the mysterious upcoming war or refuse and try to come up with an alternative solution.
"I hope you all had a good night's rest. Let's begin with the votes. We have forty-six Rulers assembled here. If you agree to my proposal, please raise your hand," Elisabeth said earnestly, hoping they would make the right choice.
Following her demand, the rulers started to slowly, one by one, raise their hands.
After two minutes, she counted twenty-two raised hands, her eyes alight with excitement.
They only needed two more to have the majority.
She tried to convince them again, her voice filled with righteousness, "This plan is truly our best chance to survive this disaster. Please don't doom our world because of your mistrust or pride."
After thinking for a few moments, one more ruler raised his hand. One more. That's all she needed to, maybe, save the world.
"My king, won't you vote in favor?" Mathias asked King Leon, who was pondering deeply, his eyes closed.
"It's a hard decision to make. If we agree to it but the plan somehow fails, we would have lost half our world's life force, which is equal to losing half our firepower, and we have no guarantee it would have recovered when the war starts. On the other hand, if the plan succeeds, we will win millions of powerful warriors to compensate for the loss. Honestly, I don't know. I feel like we are gambling our fate on unknown odds."
"But do we have a better choice?" Mathias looked straight into his king's eyes and said, "Between gambling on unknown odds or losing by default, I would rather gamble."
"That is also true. For better or worse, let's agree to that crazy plan." Raising his hand, he added, "Oh, you can fetch Alice now that we are done with the serious thinking."
"Twenty-four are in favor. The world's majority approved the plan. We will proceed with it without delay," Elisabeth said excitedly, shocking everyone present.
It seemed that she had been ready and was only waiting for the green light to start the summoning ritual. A servant swiftly approached, offering her a magic staff adorned with a floating sky-blue gem the size of a fist.
After seizing it, she hit the ground twice, causing the massive table to be swallowed by the floor. Then, a huge magic circle appeared, composed of millions of ancient, forgotten symbols.
Subsequently, she spun her staff in the air, causing mana to tremble in its wake as she recited an old incantation in a long-forgotten language.
At that moment, Mathias returned with Alice, who gazed at the spectacle doubtfully. "What did I miss? Don't tell me she got scammed, and instead of summing warriors, she is summoning a dark entity that will burn our world to the ground."
Upon hearing her, the nearby nobles trembled in panic, cold sweat forming on their forehead as King Leon facepalmed for the umpteenth time since the start of this meeting.
"Mathias, get her out of here before her tongue curses us all to death." He said in frustration.
"I'm missing the whole ritual because of her..." Mathias muttered. "How do you even do that without it being intentional?" He asked while dragging Alice out of the hall.
"I don't know. It's a talent of mine. Want me to teach you?" She replied, pulling her tongue mockingly.
Elisabeth, still performing the ritual, finally used understandable words. "I call upon you, the souls of a dying world, to rescue our own from becoming like yours."
With that concluding sentence, the magic circle glowed a bright red light, blinding everyone in the hall as it absorbed more and more of the world's life force to fuel its magic.
Eventually, the light receded, but nothing seemed to have changed.
"Did it work ?"
"How come we feel no difference except the decrease in the world's life force?"
"At least we didn't summon a dark entity..."
The last one was seated close to King Leon and passed the whole ritual trembling because of Alice's sharp tongue.
"Do not worry, the ritual worked. I suggest you to hurry back to your kingdoms to find and nurture the summoned before they turn thirteen."
After hearing Elisabeth's words, the rulers excused themselves and hurried to return to their countries. After all, who wouldn't want to recruit an army of talented and fast-progressing aliens?