All-Out Melee

Dead silence.

The air seemed to freeze.

The entire hall had fallen into deathly stillness.

Every noble, every foreign prince and princess, held their breath.

"What are you doing?"

The King rose to his feet in fury.

"Why? Why?! I invited you to this grand banquet and treated you to a lavish feast! Yet you cursed Princess Aurora—cursed my kingdom?"

The King shouted to the Soldiers around him, "Seize her! Seize this ungrateful Black Witch!"

The Soldiers raised their sharp weapons and surrounded the Black Witch.

The other 12 Witches also looked solemn as they raised their Magic Wands, warily aiming them at the Witch.

"Ha ha ha ha!"

The Black Witch clutched her stomach and laughed wildly, her posture utterly disheveled.

"Yes, my esteemed Majesty. You invited me to the feast and gave me a lavish dinner. Am I not repaying you with my finest blessing?"

Crack!

With a flick of her fingertip, the Black Witch sent a bolt of lightning into the table, shattering the golden plate upon it.

It was the golden plate she had eaten from earlier.

The ornately engraved gold plate shattered, revealing the silvery-white hue of cheap metal beneath. "Your Majesty, I knew it. Just like everyone else in this kingdom, you were unwilling to grant me treatment equal to that of the other 12 Witches!

"The truth is, I never needed your acknowledgment. So what if you are the ruler of a kingdom? The combined armies of your entire kingdom are nothing more than insects to me!"

The King stared blankly at the shattered plate on the floor.

The next second, he understood why.

"No, this is a misunderstanding! The craftsmen passed off inferior goods as quality ones. This plate was supposed to be pure gold."

The Black Witch continued laughing. "So what if it was a misunderstanding? Ha ha ha, what a perfect misunderstanding.

"I have wanted to do this for a long time!"

The Black Witch's cold gaze swept over the twelve Witches standing ready before her.

"I am clearly the most powerful of all Witches, stronger than all of them combined.

"But you fear me, dread me, and slander me behind my back, all because I am superior—because I can command darker powers beyond their reach!

"Now, before I leave this kingdom, I offer my final gift.

"The curse has been cast. Unless I die, it can never be lifted!"

Rhine watched the Black Witch's twisted face and mad laughter and could not help sighing.

She was completely a neurotic, hypersensitive madwoman!

Even if the gold plate had not been flawed, some other tiny detail might have provoked her.

The 12 Witches could no longer endure the Black Witch's arrogance.

"Do not think you are the only one who can use magic. No matter how powerful you are, you are only one person!"

Violet Fairy, their leader, pointed her Magic Wand at the Black Witch and loudly pronounced:

"If your death can lift the curse, then you will atone for your sins here!"

The King also directed the Soldiers around them to encircle the Black Witch.

Facing the 12 Witches and the large force of Soldiers rushing into the ceremony, the Black Witch showed no fear.

"Feel honored. You will have the chance to witness my most powerful form with your own eyes!"

As her words fell, ghastly green flames rose from her black cloak.

The woman's thin, pallid body rapidly swelled and burst apart.

Rumble.

In an instant, the Black Witch transformed into a colossal Black Dragon.

The dragon's head struck the ceiling. Each beat of its wings made the entire palace tremble, sending dust and fragments of stone raining down.

The foreign guests and nobles screamed.

Some scattered in panic, while others hid beneath the tables in the great hall.

Without hesitation, Rhine hurried before the terrified King and Queen.

"Danger! Fall back at once! Leave this to me!"

The Soldiers fired at the evil dragon. Their arrows struck the black scales like eggs hitting steel and were easily deflected.

The 12 Witches each began casting the magic they excelled at.

Some took out bright mirrors and held them toward the Black Dragon; their surfaces could steal the souls of enemies who looked directly into them. Some pointed their Magic Wands at the Black Dragon, seeking to turn Maleficent into a toad. Others began singing eerie songs, hoping to warp and enchant Maleficent's mind.

All those efforts were futile.

The giant dragon merely shrugged its shoulders, effortlessly resisting the magic trying to affect it.

The Witches' faces turned pale, their lips twitching slightly as they felt a heartfelt, overwhelming despair.

Only then did the Witches understand that, though they were collectively known as the kingdom's thirteen Witches, an uncrossable abyss lay between them and this colleague.

The Maleficent before them was a true legendary master of magic, a terrifying being who could destroy a kingdom on a whim! The Black Dragon spewed ghastly green flames, sweeping through the hall in an instant.

Great numbers of Soldiers turned to ash before they could even scream.

The 12 Good Witches barely protected themselves with magic. They staggered back in misery, their faces blackened with soot, utterly stripped of their earlier noble elegance and unfathomable poise.

"My dear Majesty, did you truly think this rabble under your command could so much as harm a single hair on me?"

The Black Dragon that Maleficent had become laughed arrogantly.

"Foolish King, you could have obediently accepted your fate and lived another dozen years until the curse took effect. Since you refuse to wait, you may as well become my food now."

The next moment, the Black Dragon beat its wings with tremendous force and lunged at the throne where the King and Queen stood, breathing ghastly green flames once more.

"This is bad!"

Violet Fairy, leader of the 12 Witches, went pale with shock as she watched the Black Dragon's flames surge toward the throne.

She could almost see the King, the Queen, and the handsome young man beside them being swallowed by the blazing fire in the next instant.

The Queen was nearly unconscious with terror.

Looking at the green flames about to engulf him, even the usually composed Old King turned pale and could not help closing his eyes.

Yet the scorching heat that seemed poised to devour him never came.