Time passed, and it was now the day of the King’s birthday. Two celebrations were planned for the day. One in the morning to afternoon for the common folk and any traveler, and one at night at the palace for nobles, wealthy people, and honorable knights and mages.
"Today’s the day! Today’s the day! Today’s the day!" Crystal couldn’t keep calm and paced around her room until Zia had to physically stop her from moving.
"Calm down, princess."
"I’m sorry, Zia, but I can’t. Today is the big day. The war starts today! I’m so excited! Before Zion, I used to dread this day because no one would back me up. But now, since my reign is guaranteed, I’m so freaking excited! Zion already has people ready to replace every person working in the Castle, so there won’t be anyone with loyalty to another party once I’m Queen."
Zia sighed, but had a smile on her face. She, too, understood how Crystal felt, after all, she had been with her since the beginning and only wanted to see her succeed. It pained her to see Crystal almost lose hope when nothing went her way, but now, everything that was currently happening was like a dream come true.
"I get it, I get it. Just don’t make too much of a scene, okay? Let’s just relax, meet up with Zion, and wait for tonight."
Crystal finished changing her clothes and walked to the door. "I know, but I just can’t stop smiling. The anticipation is killing me." She opened the door, and instead of being able to leave freely, her sister, Amber, was waiting for her.
"Oh, hey sis, fancy meeting you here."
Crystal scoffed, her mood now killed from locking eyes with her sister. "I don’t have time for you today, leave me alone." She walked past her, not even waiting to hear what Amber had to say.
"Wow, someone is in a rush today. But I guess that makes sense, after all, you won’t be welcomed back here anymore."
Crystal froze, turning around to face her sister, who was still at the bedroom door. "What do you mean by that?"
"Oh, nothing. Just the grown-up in me talking. But let me give you some advice, sister to sister." Amber closed the gap between them, standing shoulder to shoulder while her face was in Crystal’s ear. "The moment you step foot out of this castle, never come back. Unless you want to die, that is."
It took everything Crystal had not to smile or laugh at Amber’s ’sisterly advice’.
’Bitch, you’re the one who will beg me to save your life after all this is done. Heh, I should find a fracture full of orcs and send you there so you can become their cumdumb breeding slut....Oh god, I’m hanging out with Zion too much.’
Amber, taking Crystal’s quietness as fear, grinned widely. She patted Crystal on the back and walked away, leaving her to deal with the ’emotional turmoil’ going on in her head.
"Princess?" Zia called out to Crystal after Amber left.
"Zia? Did you see that? Did you see how confident she acted?" Crystal started grinning so hard that her facial muscles got sore quickly.
"You’re having too much fun right now. Let’s go to Zion’s home."
"Hahahaha! This is so exciting! I can’t wait to tell Mom!"
"Please! Stop! Oh god! Watch out, you almost hit me!" Zion was frantically running around the place trying to stop his mother and aunt from destroying their house.
After reaching the Mystic Stage, Raven took some time to get accustomed to her power before challenging her sister in a rematch.
She tried to one-up her by surprising Zaleena with her new spirit companion, but she was in shock when Zaleena herself also had a spirit by her side, both Divine Spirits like Aryah, but less powerful since they were Nymphs, not Spirit Queens/Kings. That spot was already taken.
"How dare you go behind my back you bitch?!" Raven shot a massive wave of magical energy that shattered the defenses put in place to avoid causing serious damage to the training hall and their home. But since they were now astronomically more powerful than their previous selves, the defenses were like trying to stop a missile with a piece of paper.
"Fuck off! Don’t act like you’re the victim! You’re the one who tried to go behind my back when you made a contract with that spirit!" Zaleena yelled, slicing the wave of magical energy in half, which only caused more damage to their surroundings.
"Ahh!! Stop fighting! You’re driving me insane!" But even after yelling at them, they didn’t hear Zion’s plea and kept destroying the place.
Seeing no other choice, Zion sighed, hoping it wouldn’t come to this moment. "Tessa, activate it."
[Are you sure? They might get upset with you.]
"At this point, I genuinely don’t care. Just do it."
[Alright. Activating neural pulse.]
As soon as she said those words, a pulse of electrical energy shocked Raven and Zaleena’s brainstem directly, causing them to lose their focus, balance, and temporarily get knocked out.
"Hmph. No matter how strong the outside of your body is, the inside will always be weaker, even after Body Transformation." Zion was proud of his work
He placed fail-safes on the neural link in case his people went rogue. There’s a shock feature that can increase in voltage, and a self-destruct feature that would blow up the person’s head.
"That’s what you two get, acting like a fool and all," Zion said, standing above his mom and aunt.
"Did you do that?" Zaleena asked
"That’s right." He explained his fail-safe in the neural link chip.
"That’s....That’s dangerous. You could have killed us!" Raven exclaimed, her bloodlust slightly creeping out of her body.
"You wouldn’t even die if your head blew up. The healing body would just regenerate you. Besides, with how strong you are, I doubt your head would even explode. The inside of your body would probably just suffer severe damage, at most. Not least, most."
While Zaleena understood what he was saying, she still didn’t like that he used the fail-saif on them. "Still, that wasn’t a pleasant experience."
"Then don’t go around acting crazy, and this won’t happen again. You almost destroyed our house! Now, get ready, we have to prepare for a party tonight."