Emory bowed her head slightly, "Yes, sir, I accept. Thank you for the opportunity." The others clapped their hands while Boyle gave Emory a pat on the back.
"Wonderful! There is one more piece of business we must take care of," Shepherd cheerfully said, "Betty, has the Council responded to our request yet? We need to start planning troop movements."
"They have, sir. The Council has agreed to defend Earth while we move our forces to the other outposts in the system. They have requested, in return, access to the RRS on Earth, so they can stay in constant communication with us," Betty responded.
"It will be done," Shepherd affirmed, "Should we take it as a good or bad sign that they were convinced so easily?"
Betty giggled, "A good sign, sir. We all want the same thing: peace."
"I suppose you're right. Well, that's all for tonight. Enjoy the ambience as long as you want tonight!" Shepherd roared as the chairs returned to the floor. A tray of drinks appeared on a nearby table which caused most of them to head straight towards it. Emory, though, excused herself and headed for a restroom.
Boyle's eyebrows tilted, "Do you want me to come with you?"
"No, no, I just need to get some air for a moment," Emory emphatically replied. She strode quickly to the secluded restrooms and locked herself in a stall. After taking a few breaths to calm her nerves, she carefully pulled the crumpled note from her pocket.
"Greetings from the Council, Aurelias child. Please expect a visit from us tomorrow."
Emory huffed, "Why is everyone trying to meet me? It's getting annoying." She balled the note back up, threw it in the toilet, and flushed it away. Before returning to the penthouse, she caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror and stopped. Her long red curls hung over her shoulders, messy as usual, yet what had caught her gaze was a golden tint she had never seen before in her eyes. Just a sliver of gold lingered along the bottom of her iris that shrank with every passing moment. "I guess Serah Boyle was right. That note must have riled me up more than I thought," she mumbled.
When she rejoined the party, she tried to do so quietly, slinking into the back of the clump circling Shepherd. Yet as soon as he spotted her, he bellowed, "Emory, come closer! Now that our business has concluded, we have a lot to talk about." Her eyes narrowed as she walked through the group to the front. "Liza here tells me you beat her in single combat," he began, "Is that true?"
"Yes, sir. Though I can't tell you how much effort she put into it, I will say she was an incredible opponent," Emory blushed.
"She told me she even used her Meta Form," Shepherd commented, "If that's true, you are powerful indeed. How did you get so strong at such a young age?"
Emory shrugged, "I've been practicing every day since I was seven or eight. My Arcane sphere has a long way to go."
"So humble!" Shepherd roared, "Say, what about a demonstration? I know it's probably been a long day for you, but most of the people here haven't seen the Arcane up close before." The suggestion brought a smile to Emory's face since gambling was her hidden vice.
"I have an idea. I can make a shield that I haven't seen anyone break yet. I'll cast this shield, and then each person here will take a turn trying to break it. It is important to know the strength of your commanders, right?" Emory persuaded them. At first, the group paused as they considered what to do. Sure, they had just made her a leader, but in many of their eyes, she was still just a child. Shepherd's roaring laughter broke the tension as even his armor rattled with his voice.
"She's Marty's daughter after all!" Shepherd roared, "Go over there in the open space and we'll take your challenge. We seniors can't afford such a brash question of our strength." Emory smirked and bowed as she nearly skipped to an open area of the penthouse. Slowly, the other leaders formed a line a few feet away in front of her. Unsurprisingly, the line seemed to progress in order of predicted strength with the more clerical leaders up front and Betty, Boyle, and Shepherd finishing out the line. While they were lining up, Emory drew in significant amounts of magik and slowed her breathing.
"Are you ready, Emory?" Shepherd called from the back of the line. Then a wave of energy pulsed through the air, and a shimmering bubble enveloped Emory. She opened her eyes and stared at the group with two sapphire eyes, yet the left one seemed to have a small gold sliver in it.
Emory smiled and nodded, "I'm ready. Give it your best shot. But let me warn you, if you can't break it, the shield will reflect your attack back at you." The first person in line, a shrimpy man not much older than Emory, gathered a blue magik around his arm and walked up to the shield. He pulled back the arm and shot it forward like a palm strike. But when it touched the shield, he felt like he had tried to shove a brick wall. Even worse, a pulse rumbled through the shield and launched the man back so far Shepherd had stop him from sliding any farther back. Everyone's eyes widened as they stared at the smiling red-haired girl who stood there, peacefully and unmoved. The next four people were no different than the first, though they employed an array of opposing strategies. Some tried running to gain extra momentum while others attempted to use a ranged attack, yet they all failed at even cracking the shield.
"It's a good thing I'm on your side," Emory mocked them, "I make a much better ally than enemy." Betty's eyebrow twitched as a green magik covered her whole body, and her skin turned black.
Betty smiled, "Very well. You've shown us we cannot hold back and still expect to overpower you. Let us see how you deal with this." In an instant, a hundred small tree needles appeared above head, pointing at Emory. With a single clean assault, Betty surged forward and struck the shield with her fist and all the pine needles simultaneously. The shield wobbled as it took in over a hundred points of contact at the same time and even began to glow green with impact, or so everyone thought.
"You're the best one yet," Emory smirked, "But I can bolster my inexperience with my massive mana pool. I'm sure you can sense it now." Betty trembled as she felt the magik beginning to rebound from the shield. A singular beam with the strength of all her individual attacks pushed her back, and even though she didn't fly back like the others, she still dropped to her knees when the beam had finished. Whispers began to build as none of them had expected Emory to do this well. Then Boyle stepped forward and helped Betty off the ground before returning to face Emory.
"We already did this once today; I guess it's time to see how real the simulation was," Boyle commented. Emory understood that Boyle would need a minute to enter her Meta Form as the teacher had in the test, so she used the time to reinforce her shield. Though Emory hadn't used the Arcane Shield like this during the test, Boyle had smashed through the temporary barriers she had created then. When Boyle had completely covered her body in the purple magik again, she raced towards the shield and delivered a resounding kick to the seemingly impenetrable wall. The sound echoed throughout the suite, shaking even the windows. Cracks appeared on the shield with a distinct spiderwebbing pattern. Everyone froze and held their breath as they waited for the shield to shatter, but the most astounding thing happened instead. Before their very eyes, what looked like liquid magik began filling in the cracks and pulsing with every passing moment. Boyle hopped back and erected a purple guard wall in front of her, though unlike Emory's, she had to keep her hand pressed against it. About ten seconds later, a blue shockwave vibrated out of the shield and shattered the purple wall. Pressure from the explosion ruffled the people's hair as the room exploded with a light show resembling fireworks. When the dust settled and the lights dimmed, Emory's shield remained intact though her lips were now straight.
Shepherd spoke as he walked forward sternly, "So Liza wasn't lying when she said you beat her in single combat? You are certainly strong, Emory. I'm glad we asked you to join us. Take a moment to prepare yourself because I will break that shield." He drew a large black greatsword from his back, and sparks ran down his arms to start covering the ebony blade. Then it looked like his body became blurry or superimposed copies of himself over himself while the lightning continued to grow. Emory recognized the blur as an enhanced form of the Multiplication sphere, a type of magik that made weaker copies of the caster. She dug deep and focused on drawing forth as much of her pool as she could. Like in the assessment, her eye changed from a hint of gold to a flood of copper, though the golden streak remained, as the shield began to shake as well.
"Time to show you the power of the Supreme Commander," Shepherd commented as he dashed forward. He swung from above with a slash that screeched as it tore through the air. When it collided with the shield, a loud thunderclap rang so forcefully that every window in the penthouse shattered. The rest of the group covered their heads and huddled down while the waves of power shook the air around them. Up close, Emory could hardly see due to the lightning, yet the sound of cracking began to reverberate inside the bubble. She raised her hands to focus better on the spot where the sword had collided which slowed the crack but didn't stop it. After a minute of violent waves pushing outwards, a loud bang like the biggest balloon created a final shockwave followed by singular clap. Those not involved in this contest of strength slowly rose to an amazing sight: a eighteen-year-old girl was holding the Supreme Commander's blade in place with her bare hands. Then after a moment, both pulled away from each other but continued to stare at each other. The onlookers broke the silence by applauding both duelists who in turn bowed to each other.
Emory wheezed, "You broke through, sir. I clearly have some more growing to do."
"Nonsense," Shepherd coughed, "It took all my power to pierce your shield. I am more confident than ever that our mission will succeed with you at the helm." The pair rejoined the rest of the people as little robots had appeared from the walls to begin cleaning up the debris. Initially, several of the leaders swarmed Emory, asking her about her training routine and harnessing techniques. Of course, Emory didn't trust them enough to explain that her Hexblood heritage was the true secret to her strength, but she freely imparted the same routines that she and her friends did to them. Boyle and Betty congratulated Emory on blocking their attacks, but Betty quickly excused herself from the party afterwards. The party continued for a few hours with everyone celebrating and playing virtual games. Finally, at midnight Emory was tired and left the party to return to her room. To her surprise, all three of her roommates were still clinging to consciousness when she made it; in fact, it was as if Emory's opening of the door had caused them all to spring back to the waking world.
Sam was the first to hop off her bed and ask, "What happened? Are you in trouble? You were gone for a long time."
"I'm not in trouble," Emory yawned, "It was a lot of good news." She explained that she had scored the highest in the assessment, higher than the High Collective thought possible, so they had offered her a post as commander over the upcoming mission. After explaining what the mission and job entailed, she claimed that they had just talked about general topics of conversation.
"If you all only chatted after the formal meeting, why are the palms of your hands swollen?" Tana chided.
"Well, we did have a little competition," Emory blushed, "I let them take turns trying to break my shimmering shield."
Sam squealed, "You what? All of them? Even the Supreme Commander? How did it go?"
"No one broke through except the Supreme Commander himself," Emory grinned, "But I stopped his sword with my bare hands which is why my hands are all beat up."
"You stopped an attack from the Supreme Commander? I mean, I know you're strong, but that sounds a little far-fetched. Was he really using his full strength," Tethys baulked.
Emory shrugged, "He used his Meta Form at the very least. Honestly, most of them were weaker than any of us. I highly suspect that's why they selected several of us to go on this mission." Her roommates gasped when she mentioned Meta Form; they all knew that the ability to combine two spheres increased the strength of attacks exponentially. Furthermore, they all knew how large her mana pool, the amount of magik a person could harness at a given time, was which could fuel her powers for a long time or endure an incredible attack.
And yet, a month ago, Emory didn't even realize she had a sphere; a week ago, she didn't have a shield. Every day it seemed like her magik grew by leaps and bounds. While the combined training regime they had crafted was effective, this growth was inhuman, and the rate of progression wasn't shared by the rest of her friends. Combined with the superior nature of the Arcane sphere and her deep mana pool, she could duel an incredibly powerful opponent on equal footing. Still, she wasn't accustomed to using this much stamina and didn't feel the effects on her body until this very moment.
"I think I need to lie down," Emory mumbled as her eyes fluttered. Her body collapsed, though Tana was fast enough to leap off her bed and catch Emory before the latter's body hit the ground. Gently, she placed the ginger on the right bed and covered her up as everyone else did the same. After all, parents' day awaited them tomorrow.