"Everyone listen up" the elite magus, also known as "Malum", who lead the group of evil women, started.

The girls who were just bickering and smirking at each other now gathered towards Malum.

"Tomorrow night, a banquet will be held at the king's palace." he continued. "This is your first time attending our banquet since you needed to be trained prior to properly meeting and socializing with the king. I do certainly hope that all the things I taught you remained in that little brain of yours."

At this remark, some girls rolled their eyes.

"Also, be ready to entertain the king and of course, gain his favor if you don't want to be given away to some old, stinking n.o.ble or experts. As I mentioned before, the king only needs at least 20 concubines or less and a puppet queen to serve him in bed. Since you humans, are not that beautiful, it may as well be 10 or less concubines and a queen, instead. So be sure to do your best in seducing him."

Everyone murmured and started thinking.

"...Oh! Right.. Before I forgot. I prepared a little present to each of you. I've placed it in your room, be sure to use it if you want to be ahead amongst the others. And pleeeease, do something about that cunning Aza~lea? Or whoever she is. She definitely used her wits to gain herself the favor of the king last time." and after a pause, "Again, if they can't be your p.a.w.n ~..."

" - get rid of them." everyone chorused.

"And if they block your paths.."

" - get rid of them."

"And if they - "

"Yeah, yeah, we get it, old fart." someone interrupted. It was none other than a long-legged, alluring girl in her 20's with a long and smooth purple hair and captivating pink eyes. Her voice, soft yet commanding and very s.e.xy. And her name was "Selena".

Malum smirked and raised his right eyebrow.

"Instead of you spouting nonsense over and over again, why don't you just do something about this dress we're wearing? It's like, duh! My hair is purple and I'm wearing dark green? How eggplanty~ can I be? I definitely won't be able to seduce the king in this rate.", she babbled nonstop.

"Your straightforwardness always amuses me, Selena." Malum said smiling. "But of course, I also prepared beautiful gowns for each of you, and don't worry, it's not a pandora dress so it won't change color and design once you wear it. You can also find it in your rooms."

"But aren't we not allowed to dress differently aside from the pandora's dress?" asked the curious one amongst them.

"Oh darling, you're not new here. We never follow orders anyway, so why bother?" Selena answered.

"Yeah, let's just use this to our advantage." answered the other.

"Alrighty~, juuusst asking."

"And what of our very own Odile?", Selena turned to Rania who was staring at the big window, watching the falling leaves outside.

She then turned around to Selena for us to welcome a Rania who lost her glow and brilliance. She now reflects a face of a lifeless, bewitching doll.

After a moment of silence, she only said two words. "Not interested".

With that, Malum was enthralled and got excited of what's to come of tomorrow's banquet.

And so, tomorrow came. Early in the morning, each palace did their best in preparing for the banquet. Everyone prepared their own gifts for the king since this banquet was to celebrate humanity's utter failure in subduing their kind. Trítos and Tétartos palaces were preparing rather reluctantly knowing the reason of the banquet. Défteros and Próta palaces were also reluctant at the beginning but their will to survive was greater, and so they did their best in preparing their gifts. But woe to those in Pémptos who're taking delight in this event. With no kindness in their hearts, they care not of what happened to their own planet - completely accustomed themselves in the world of Magi.

With all the preparations, it didn't took that long for evening to come and for the banquet to commence. The palace of the king was decorated so extravagantly that night. It was filled with red and gold all over. The floor was covered with golden carpet embroidered with white gold roses and other flowers, though the middle of the hall was topped with bright red velvet carpet. The large victorian windows were covered with golden velvet drapes with white gold designs at the seams and ends of each curtain. And what are we to say about the chandeliers? They were simply magnificent and blindingly luminous. They were made of golden gems and crystals supported by white gold metal, very large in appearance but the distance from the floor to the ceiling makes them look a little smaller in size. The marble tables and soft upholstered chairs that looks like mini couches were of very high quality as well. The table was set formally with all the human cutlery, plates, and goblets. There were also musicians prepared at the top right corner of the hall. The king's throne was set in the middle and elevated amongst the rest. Behind the throne was a very large and white crystal - too big it reaches the ceiling of the palace. It was the most extravagant area in the whole banquet and the red carpet leads to him. One level below him are 4 smaller thrones, 2 on each of his sides, for his Judges and one level below them are 12 other magnificent seats, six in each of his sides reserved for the Generals.

Judging on human standards, the whole palace decoration seems like how a normal human would decorate the royal palace if it weren't for those small floating orbs of light surrounding the crystal behind the king's throne. There were 12 of them and each radiates a different color - red, blue, green, yellow, white, black, turquoise, purple, pink, brown, light brown, orange.

After a little while, everyone gathered. The judges and generals sat on their a.s.signed seats, the mythics and legends in the front row near the king, the n.o.bles on the next, and the others, scattered about. The music began to play as they await for the king. None started a thing without him.

Dun-dun-dun-dun!

The mellow music suddenly changed to an upbeat one. In this signal, everyone rose up to welcome the arrival of the king. Again, he flashed from above, carried by a blinding white light and descended to his throne.

"Everyone greets your highness and congratulate you for leading our victory" said by one of the mythics. He was the same guy who summoned the king way back on the night of the women's capture. It seems he serves as a personal attendant of some sort. His name, "Servus".

As he spoke, everyone chorused in congratulating the king and bowed their heads.

The king raised his hand ordering for them to halt, "No need for formalities. Quick, start the celebration right away."

"As you wish, your highness." he replied. Turning back and facing Malum and the rest elites leading the concubine's palaces, he continued, "May we all present the concubines to entertain the king?"

"With pleasure" they answered.

"Which group will start?"

"We, from Trítos, volunteers" answered by a dark blonde haired woman who leads the group. She was beautiful and wore long yellow gown with golden sparkles. Her name was "Magna".

"Then it shall, Magna" agreed Servus.

Immediately, every member of Trítos performed as a group. Some were dancing, some were singing and some were playing instruments. They performed Tchaikovsky's "Swan Lake". The quality of the music was amazing - the piano, violin, cello, trumpet, and others were all played with excellence. It was accompanied by sweet and angelic voices and the dance itself was just astonis.h.i.+ng. Every movement, every leap, every bend and curve was just flawless. Its as if you're watching how professionals perform in London's theatre - really marvelous.

"Splendid. This is how it should be. The very first performer always sets the standards and the judges will compare everything from the first performer. Are they better? Or are they worse? And since our group is the best and most talented of all, none of them will be able to pull a better performance than us. Which means by the end of their performances, the king will be dismayed and remember us more. And if lucky, one of my girls may just catch his attention" Magna mumbled to herself smiling. "I am so brilliant!"

Watching their performance, Satis, the leader of the beautiful Próta grunted."Hmf. I've always known the reason why she picked the talented ones." She has a dark violet hair and wore a violet gown similar to the color of the group she supports.

"Prudens", the leader of the wise Défteros, in blue clothing, and "Genus", the leader of the kind Tétartos, in dark pink clothing, both looked apathetic to the performance. They too, have long guessed what Magna planned. On the other hand, Malum remained relaxed and simply enjoyed his cup of coffee.

After a few minutes, the group performance ended and everyone enjoyed the show. They all clapped their hands and the other stood up to congratulate them.

"That was a great performance, Trítos. You entertained me", the king happily commented. "Great job, Magna. It seems I didn't made the wrong decision of letting you lead them."

"The pleasure is all mine, your highness," she answered as her grin cannot be hidden from her face.

Next up, was the wise Défteros. Before they started, Prudens asked permission from the king if they could turn off the light. The king agreed and so the lights all went dim.

The girls of Défteros may not be as talented as Trítos but surely, they use their wits. The reason they turned off the light was for them to pull of a "light performance". It was a short musical play with lights as their accessory. They were doing basic dance steps yet the coordination and balance of colorful lights were very pleasing to the eyes. Their dance also showed a bit of a story - they depicted the victory of the king. The blinking of each light, the position, the timing, all was perfect. And by the end of the show, everyone was highly entertained as well. It was modern and a complete contrast of the cla.s.sic Swan Lake of Trítos. If this was a talent show, even the judges will have a hard time deciding which one was better.

The king was again pleased and commended Défteros for their performance. Prudens was delighted with the king's remarks and Magna grew angry. They bickered at each other not long afterwards.

The performances continued and the king was pleased with everything. The beautiful Próta performed a sword dance also depicting the victory of the king. Then, the kind Tétartos showcased their honed beautiful and angelic voices in a choir. Lastly was Pémptos who performed a very s.e.xy and modern dance.

"Great job to all the house leaders. All the performances were very entertaining." the king said happily. The crowd smiled with him. But then, as if a bad wind blew by, his face s.h.i.+fted from happy to angry in a blink of an eye.

The whole crowd was startled.

"Yes, it was all great..BUT…" after a short pause, "Why are they missing one?"

The crowd was confused and started questioning each other.

"Malum", the king continued. "Aside from your group not abiding in wearing the Pandora's dress, I see you've neglected yet another rule. That - everyone, every concubine, should be performing for me tonight. Yet, where is that girl? I recall one of your members wore a pitch black dress. A color so strange, the news reached me." And with the final blow, he asked in a commanding voice, "Where is she?"

"Ah, alas!, your majesty asked." Malum answered in delight, as if he was expecting Rania to not join the performance. "But do not be angered your highness, for we simply reserved the best for last." With that, he gestured his hands towards Rania who was sitting quietly at the very end row of seats near the window. "My Odile, come. The king looks forward to your performance."

Azalea who has been looking for Rania the entire night, looked at the direction of Malum's hands and finally, there she saw her dressed in black with eyes so dark it didn't reflect any light. She got more worried for her now and frowned in anxiousness.

Rania stared for a whole minute to Malum thinking if she should go or just blew it all up since she's not the least interested in this gathering. But then, she remembered Azalea's words.

"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?!"

If she didn't perform for the king tonight, she may as well be dead since the king will be angry and may kill her on the spot. Then, she thought, "Hmm. what should I perform? I didn't practice anything." She then looked around to see what she could use. The piano caught her eyes. Finally, she stood up and headed towards the piano.

Malum who was a bit anxious a moment ago, calmed down a bit and grew excited and curious of what Rania's gonna do. The whole crowd as well grew expectant. For what kind of performance will be better than the rest?

Rania sat in front of the piano and prepared her hands to play. Thinking of what she should play, she suddenly remembered Zeid.

Flashback.

"Babe, I really don't know how to play the piano!", Zeid said.

"Oh come on… Pleeeease, for me? You can sing but you can't play? How the h.e.l.l did that happen?"

Dun...dun...dun

The piano began to play.

"Am I doing this right?"

"Yes! Yes, you are." Rania chuckled.

End of flashback.

Again, tears started swelling in Rania's eyes. She then closed her eyes as she reminisced Zeid and their moments together. She began playing and singing at the same time in the melody of "Can't Help Falling in Love" - the song Zeid played on the day he proposed to her.

~ Wise men say...

Only fools rush in…

But I can't help…

Falling in love with you…~

Aahhh ...her voice was so soothing to the ears and so...captivating and romantic. You could feel the love in her as she sang the rest of the song.

~ Shall I stay?

Would it be a sin

If I can't help falling in love with you?

Like a river flows surely to the sea

Darling so it goes

Some things are meant to be

Take my hand, take my whole life too

For I can't help falling in love with you~

As she began to sing the climax of the song, sparkling lights started to surround her. Why? Its her dress! Her dress was changing its color!

~Like a river flows surely to the sea

Darling so it goes

Some things are meant to be~

From the bottom of her dress, it began changing. Up and up it went until her whole pandora dress was s.h.i.+ning in bright light.

~Take my hand, take my whole life too

For I can't help falling in love with you

For I can't help falling in love with you~

A moment of silence.

With tears in her eyes, Rania's performance ended. Her once pitch black trumpet dress is now a very pure and delicate gown made of flowing fabric topped with chiffon. Decorated with laces and diamonds, it was really beautiful. And alas, its color now reflects a very bright and vibrant "white".

Everyone including the king was astonished. Some stood up their seats, some gasped in astonishment, some cannot believe their eyes.

Flashback.

"Your highness, one of the candidates was found to have an utterly evil heart. Her pandora dress turned to pitch black when she wore it.", a servant reported to the king.

"Pitch black, you say?" asked the king.

"Yes, your highness."

"And what does pitch black means?" the king asked turning to one of his Judges.

A handsome man in light blue hair answered. "It means many things your highness, depending on the level of its blackness."

"And what are those?"

"A grayish black means utter evilness and wish of death; dark black means death itself, either the wearer saw death, experienced it, or killed someone; and pitch black means void - a feeling of nothingness. It also means abyss, and a wish for everything to end. But.."

"But what?"

"It can also mean the opposite, you highness."

"Opposite?"

"Yes." After a short pause, he continued. "It also means, the end, and the start of new beginnings."

End of flashback.

As the crowd continued to be astonished of what just happened, Rania stood up on her seat. She wiped her tears and slowly, very slowly ...smiled.

She whispered to herself, "Thank you, Zeid."

And there she stood up in front of the crowd, a brand new Rania. Not forgetting, but moving on the past, and welcoming the battles ahead, with her head held high and a smile on her face.