Rania grunted. "Just 5 more minutes, please", her eyes shut closed.

"Babe, wake up or you'll be late for work!" losing his patience in a cute way, he stood up, crossed his arms, and sighed. "I already prepared breakfast, your favorite, bacon and eggs."

Rania smiled and said, "You're the best, babe!"

"Come on, get up!"

"Yeah, coming…" Getting up, she rubbed her eyes gently.

"Finally, Snorlax got up!"

"No, I'm not Snorlax." she pouted.

"Hahaha! Yes you are!. Ooooh~ whatever will you without me, huh?"

Rania grinned. "Of course I can't live without you. That's why…."

"That's why…."

And finally opening her eyes, she barely finished her words.

"...that's...why...you should never leave me."

A moment of silence once more.

It took awhile for everything to sink back in to her. Waking up in a beautiful and elegant, yet unfamiliar room, she began to realize everything that happened was not a dream.

the Magi….

bloodbath in the hotel...

the death of Zeid….

Everything ...was not a dream.

Before she knew it, large droplets of tears fell from her swollen eyes once more. As if a whole night's tears was not enough to get rid of the pain, her heart writhed in agony, her mind went blank as a paper, her soul, vanquished in misery.

She cried and cried and cried.

After awhile, she stood up. Captivated by the sight of the window, she got closer. Once close, she opened it to welcome a balcony and a magnificent scenery of the morning dawn. Since her room was high above the ground, she can see the treetops from there with the birds singing "Tweet-tweet-tweet-tweet." She got closer to the railings and again, stared to nothingness.

Then, as if a lightning struck her, she thought of an idea.

Since she can't live without Zeid, and she don't want to be an instrument of pleasure for this sinful race of Magi who killed her beloved, why not…."Why not kill myself?"

"Yeah, what else is there to do? It's not like I can escape from this place. And it's not like Zeid will come back whatever I do. It's not like I'm gonna be happy in this place. There is no hope. There is nothing to be achieved. There is nothing to want and to think. There is nothing for me here. Yeah, this place is pretty high. If I jump from here, I'll surely...yes, I will be with Zeid again. We promised not to leave each other. And even death will not keep us apart."

Looking below she climbed up the railings and prepared herself to jump.

"It was a heck of a journey but…. Goodbye world. I'm not gonna play your games."

1…

2…

3…

Rania closed her eyes and…

THUD!

A loud dropping sound can be heard.

She opened her eyes and thought to herself. "Is this the other side? The afterlife?"

A visage of a crying girl can be seen on top of her, hugging her tightly. She was saying something but she can't hear her.

"No...no ...no! No!" Azalea cried aggressively. "What in the world were you thinking?!"

Rania looked around. She saw herself lying on the floor of her room's balcony. It seems like her suicide attempt was stopped by Azalea. After observing her surroundings, she looked back to Azalea.

"Why? Why did you stop me?" she said angrily.

Azalea frowned and answered her furiously. "If you think that this is the best solution then you are very wrong! very-!"

"If you didn't stop me, I may as well be with Zeid now."

"Oh, so you lost a loved one, huh? Well, welcome to the club! You're not the only one!," she continued with anger funneling in her heart. She breathed heavily. Inhale, exhale, her breathe goes on and on.. "But this…..this is not the solution! Tell me… how? How did he die?"

Rania was angered even more, "He - !!!!...."

"He died protecting you right?"

Staring blankly at her, she nodded.

"Then why?, why are you throwing your life away? Why are you throwing the life he sacrificed himself for you? The life that caused his very own life! Why?!"

Tears started swelling up on the corner of her eyes once more. Rania cried, and wailed, and shouted in agony. The girl was very broken, very frail, very weak. Azalea stayed with her, comforting her the best she could. But who can really comfort someone who've lost a dearly beloved? I believe no human can satisfy. We can all but leave it to time and for the heart to heal itself, for the mind to recover, and for the soul to be replenished.

A few weeks have pa.s.sed since then. The colonization of the Magi in our planet has succeeded with an enormous victory. For who can even fight these monsters? No weapon, no soldiers, no tricks or strategies worked on them. Humans tried very, very hard. Alliances between nations formed but to no avail did they lost the war. Every nation has given out their most dire secret of weapons and machinery in order to survive this tragedy and in the hope of somehow defeating them...but all is naught.

Magi, they can set up an impenetrable barrier to protect themselves. In a flick of a finger, they can cast out fire, water, lightning or create a storm. In a wave of a hand they can swipe a whole army of hundreds of thousands into disarray. In a stomp of their feet, they can set up an earthquake, break the grounds we walk in, and bury people alive. They can fly and target people from above. It's like fighting Superman ~ a bunch of them. Or if Superman was not enough, then the whole gang of Justice League, only this time, they don't fight for justice but for chaos instead ~ Chaos League. Or it may as well be Thanos from Marvel, after he collected all the infinity stones. Or worse, someone stronger than them. They were all really powerful. The green-haired girl didn't threaten for nothing. It was all as she said.

"Even the weakest of them is no match for a thousand, or even millions of us."

Then, what more of their king? What more of their most supreme ruler? What kind of terrible power does he have? Certainly, something stronger and maybe even our fickle minds would never be able to fathom.

Ooohh, how doomed we are! Is this the end of the world? Of our planet? Is there really no hope for us?

Meanwhile, as our world is fighting its war, the women in the inner courts of the Magi's palace is also fighting theirs - our poor women who have been captured by the enemy to be a slave of the king. The very next day after their capture, they were taught of the knowledge, culture and etiquette of the magi, training them to act their way, to think their way, and to live their way. Since the women left are reduced to a hundred, only 5 elite magi has been set to lead them into being the most suited wife of the king. Each of the elite magi was given 20 beautiful women to manage. And so, the division and compet.i.tion also rose up. Each elite magi are set to receive the favor of the king. And if the king's chosen queen is to be one amongst their group, surely, they will be rewarded and promoted on top of that.

Magi also have their own hierarchy. The king, who is of the royal bloodline and most powerful of all, governs everyone below him. Only the royal bloodline can be king due to the fact that their blood is the strongest amongst all magi and they have the blessings and ability to control "Guardians". There are 12 guardians in the magi beliefs and customs. They are sacred beasts as powerful as the king. But since they have formed an alliance and contract with the king's bloodline, only the king and his immediate family can control them.

Next in line of power are the royal magistrates also known as the "Judges". There are 4 judges that serves directly to the king. They are in charge of almost everything though most of the time, they don't meddle with political affairs. Their main duty is to protect the king ~ as if he's not powerful enough to wipe out anyone who goes against him. Aside from that, they also serve as adviser to the king in case he's too lazy to make decisions.

After them are the 12 "Generals", the magi in charge of war. Each of them inhibits the Guardian's spirit essence which makes them more powerful than the rest below them. Though holding their spirit essence, it doesn't necessarily mean that they can personally control the guardians. It only means that the guardians are lending their power to these magi according to the order of the king.

The rest of the hierarchy doesn't concern themselves in politics but are noteworthy themselves for they mostly consists of the best and powerful magi and mostly belongs to the n.o.ble families. They are ranked by how powerful they are. Mythics being the highest rank, followed by Legends, Epics, Grandmasters, Masters, Elites, and Warriors, respectively. Those governing the women chosen by the king belongs to the Elite cla.s.s.In order to advance to the next rank, they can either train themselves to be stronger or to gain the favor of the king and be promoted. So, even if they shouldn't be concerning themselves in politics, the compet.i.tion is great amongst them.

Another noteworthy magi are those who belongs to the n.o.ble families. There are many n.o.ble families and all of them do their own fair share in politics and power. Competing, plotting, killing each other to gain a higher position. Why do they do this? Its for power of course, and ranks, and pride and many other things to come.

Going back to our poor, captured women, they have been divided into groups named as follows; "Próta", led by the elite magus who favored beauty and therefore chose the most beautiful among the hundred women; "Défteros", led by the magus who preferred wisdom instead; "Trítos", for those who possess great talent useful enough to entertain the king; "Tétartos", which dwells the kind of heart and the group that Azalea belongs; and lastly, "Pémptos", the opposite of the prior, gathered in this group are those harboring a very wicked and evil heart since their leader enjoys malice, compet.i.tion, hatred, and all evilness - he enjoys watching the events unfold before his eyes. For what better entertainment than one's wickedness can bring? And this is the group that Rania belongs.

How were they chosen in their specific groups? Aside from beauty, how did their leaders identified which one is kind and evil? talented and not? knowledgeable and fool?

It was simple. All they needed was a dress.

Though not just any dress but a dress that holds spiritual energy capable of distinguis.h.i.+ng the deepest and darkest secrets of the mind. It judges the being wearing them and shows its answers by changing its color and design. Each color symbolizing the greatest trait the person has. And this dress is called "Pandora's Dress".

Upon Azalea wearing the dress, it turned into a baby pink color and the design went from a plain cream wrap dress to a beautiful baby pink princess dress. The same happened to her other group mates though the only difference was the shade of its pink and little difference in design but all shows to be a princess dress.

For the intelligent women, the dress became blue in color and a pouf dress design. The talented ones had yellow color in a halter dress, the beautiful ones, purple in a mini dress, and the wicked ones inhibited a green-toned telength dress, mostly in dark green or moss green.

Everyone seemed at home to their group as you watch their colors lurking each other. All save one - Rania. For amidst the colorful rainbow, she alone is tainted in pitch black. A black yet elegant trumpet dress.