A Decision For Life

With each and every person that came in, the Queen stayed perfectly calm as she looked at all of them. "Weak." She had checked their strength's multiple times over the course of all of the events and that was the conclusion she came to. These were the people she was going to use to declare war against everyone else. They all held some sort of importance as representatives of their respective Clans though and that's where they became useful. "Time to stomp all over them." With each person that walked inside Felli's heartbeat increased in speed while her nerves spiked. "All these people?" Looking at them Felli felt her heart sink as she saw their strengths.

If it was just one or two, maybe she could do it without a problem. There were over fifty people in this room and that made her feel a bit hopeless. "Calm down and take a deep breath." The second she thought that she saw Xilo and Tearia walk inside completely ruining any hope of her calming down. "....I knew they'd show up." She knew they were a part of the winners however some part of her badly hoped for some kind of silly miracle where they just didn't show up. She was desperately grabbing at anything she could to try and run away from this feeling and in the end it failed. "Tearia...Xilo." Seeing those two faces again after so long froze her body and thoughts.

Eyeing Felli from the side the Queen followed her gaze with a small smile once she saw who she was looking at. Entering the throne room Xilo felt a gloomy air fill his lungs throwing him a bit off guard. He figured it would have been a more cheery occasion until he turned and saw a girl with long black hair covering most of her face standing beside the Queen at the throne. "Felli..." His heart sank to his stomach as he tried his best to stop his body or mouth from doing anything stupid. The thing he was worried about the most had now happened and he never realised how little he was prepared for it. Turning his head quickly he glanced at Tearia to see how she was.

"Fe-..elli..."

A small whimper slipped out as Tearia's body shook slightly. "Stay strong." Sliding over a bit he grabbed her hand to try and calm her down. Tearia was a lot closer with Felli so it probably hurt a lot more for her. In the end they didn't move and managed to hold themselves together. Once everyone had gotten inside the few maids who stuck around silently shut the doors leaving them all alone. There were only a few pillars near the entrance of the room and a few windows that were currently sealed off. A long blue carpet covered most of the floor with a few statues of past rulers in the room. Behind the throne stood one giant statue of the original ruler who had long passed away.

"Welcome once again everyone, as the Queen of Ukel it's a pleasure to meet you all for such a great event. It's been almost a year since I've met some of you so I hope you're still doing well."

With a soft calming voice like a Mother the Queen slightly smiled at everyone. The guests who had been here before nodded their heads or waved hello while all the competitors stayed quiet. For most of them this was a new experience that none of them wanted to mess up. Seeing all of them being nervous the Queen laughed as she shook her head as she introduced her daughter to everyone. Felli had a hard time saying anything though, to her they were all bodies waiting to be put into a grave. "This is my choice....my will." Behind all of her silky black hair her eyes darted around in panic. A graveyard was in front of her and she couldn't even give them a peaceful send off.

"Sorry about her, she's a bit too shy. Something that definitely needs to be worked on in years to come but she's happy to see you all and even quite impressed with some of your accomplishments these past couple days."

Locking eyes with Xilo the Queen smiled devilishly causing Xilo to shiver in fear for a second.

"I'm sure you all don't want to stand around here listening to me ramble about things. There's a big show soon and other places to be after all. I'm sure some of you want to start heading back early as well. So I won't bother with any of the small talk or the likes. I'll just get straight to the point, congratulations on all getting as far as you did today. That competition has been a long tradition of this country and one of the most important ones we hold each year. This year I wanted to make it especially special as well. So your rewards will even be better than usual."

Watching everyone get excited as they talked with each other the Queen even noticed the special guests she invited get surprised. She had invited people from each country to come and join them this year, even making sure all of them showed up personally. Some years some had skipped out and not shown up but this year was different. The Queen of Ukel had gone all out and it had really shown the past couple of days. So to hear there was even more coming was a pleasant surprise especially since Ukel was home to some very unique materials that were very hard to get a hold of typically and some of the guests had already snagged a few of the winners for themselves meaning they would receive them as well. The Queen's voice began to swap from pleasant and soft as she talked to flat and monotone as she stared at everyone like they didn't exist.

"Your reward this year is a choice on whether you live or die."

The room went quiet as everyone thought they heard wrong for a second, looking at the Queen one of the people spoke up with some fear.

"I'm sorry...can you repeat that?"

"Choose. Do you want to live or die?"

All of the Queen's little games were over, it was time for them to decide. Sadly for some of them they were too cowardly to even face such a reality. A few of the younger people shouted out loud in fright and ran for the exit as pressure washed over them stopping them in their tracks. Freezing them place she called them back as she looked at everyone here when someone finally decided to speak up. The representative from Dracal who was a younger woman looked at the Queen as she chose her words carefully. She didn't know what was happening but any mistake could lead to her death or others.

"What is going on here, why are you asking them to make that kind of choice? Explain yourself before I disregard the rules and fight you myself."

Tilting her head the Queen looked at the Dracal woman with a blank expression.

"Haaa....very well I suppose I should let the show begin then. Pay attention closely and listen to each and every single word I say. This is far from a joke and it's something you should think about. I'll give you a minute to think about it.

*Rrrrrrrrr*

The ground shook as all the energy the Queen stored up started to move with her will. Outside the Windows a giant cannon filled with hundreds of thousands of peoples Astral Energy appeared at aimed itself into the distance. A pressure strong enough to suffocate the entire city washed over everyone as they all looked to where it was coming from. Confusion crossed everyone's faces as a large monitor appeared in the sky showing the Queen's throne room. With a monotone voice the Queen announced the start of the fireworks show.

"Hello everyone, don't be alarmed that Canon is just the special show I've prepared for this year's festival. It holds an entire country's worth of energy and can very easily wipe an entire one out if I'm not careful. Over the past year I've collected enough energy from all of you for one sole purpose. I'm going to blow up each and every single Astral Zone in existence with zero exceptions with this ancient weapon."

Shining in a deep blue lustre the Canon was the size of the entire Castle. With a giant energy tank under it, liquid swirled around pumping itself into the twin barrel launcher on it with large inscriptions all over it from when it was first created. It hummed to life as all the citizen's started to panic listening to the Queen's broadcast. No one knew what was going on and a large panic was being spread but most of them couldn't even move. Fear locked them down in place along with such powerful Astral Energy.

"To you Astral Zones are something that gives you rewards and help's people get stronger, that's been spread through the world for years to fool you though. They are weapons that threaten to destroy this world used by other people to shackle us and keep us at bay. They are nothing but a plague that will spread all over the world until they consume us all and because of that I will destroy them."

More power fueled the cannon as the guests inside looked at the Queen like she was crazy, The Dracal woman once again forced herself to speak up.

"You can't honestly be serious. Are you really trying to start a war against every single country?"

Glancing at the woman the Queen merely nodded.

"Precisely, just watch."

Tapping a button she was holding she showed the entire city the largest firework show they would ever see. In a second The cannon roared to life as energy grew rapidly unstable. A giant glowing ball full of every colour possible filled the air like a giant sun blocking out any of their vision. Swirling unstably, the ball lingered there for a few seconds as massive shockwaves were sent across the world. Looking up at the power pulsing through the sky a man sighed as he made his way towards the source. "You really did it this time..." Some people got knocked out by the energy alone and others passed out from the fear. Some people tried to struggle to move but nothing worked. In front of such power they were all paralyzed, forced to do nothing but watch as a ball of destruction shot across the sky towards another Country.

Seeing that ball of power take off the Dracal woman lost her cool completely as she charged straight at the Queen trying to stop her.

"If you think I'll let you!"

Appearing in front of the Queen she took out a sword and tried to slice her into pieces.

"I see you made your choice...."

Within a moment the Dracal woman stopped moving as she arrived in front of the Queen, everyone watched as she paused mid attack while her head fell to the ground in a mere second.

*Thunnkkk*

Smashing into the ground the head cracked into pieces leaking blood everywhere while the Queen glared at everyone else.

"It's time for you all to make your decision now as well."