Once the stage of sharing their gifts to Henry was finished, it was time for the final stage. Dancing.
Immediately, several noble women, some belonging to his age while others older than even his mother, quickly flocked towards him like a bunch of chicks to their mother hen.
Thankfully, before they could fully surround him, three saviors, Elsa, Ariel, and Rapunzel, they surrounded him like the three Musketeers.
Perhaps it was because of Elsa's terrifying expression, or maybe Ariel's scary hulking father, or perhaps it was Rapunzel's unnaturally long braided hair that made everyone back away, even those whose intentions weren't even to dance with Henry.
Ariel and Rapunzel looked at each other before a tacit understanding was formed. They shifted their attention to Elsa and spoke in unison, "He's all yours." Before leaving the scene amidst everyone's surprised gazes.
They were expecting to see the three fight amongst themselves now that they've successfully thwarted everyone else's attempts but instead the opposite happened.
At first Elsa was surprised but then she understood their intention and mentally scoffed. She's not falling for that, though she wouldn't mind taking their gracious offer.
With a raised chin, she stepped forward and intertwined her arm around his. She pulled him out of his seat and dragged him to the dance floor.
The pianist then started tapping on his keys, a series of melodies, pleasing to the ears rang throughout the ballroom. Of course, they weren't the only one who wanted to dance, some others have their own partners who wanted to join the dance floor too, it's just that it is courtesy for the King and Queen to grace the dance floor with their presence first before everybody else.
Maximus is aware of this of course, and he's not gonna let them down.
"May I offer this beautiful lady a dance?" Maximus stood from his chair and offered his hand for his wife to take, his body slightly bent and his other hand positioned on his back.
Olivia giggled, recalling the old times before taking his hand and letting herself get pulled to the dance floor.
That was the cue for everyone to finally join. Husbands with their wives, fiancées with their betrothed, mothers with their sons, and even the furry friends joined the dance.
"This is so cool! Everyone is dancing!" Gub-Gub the pig jumped up and down, almost colliding and tripping everyone in his way. Chee-Chee the gorilla knew about his size, so he decided to just take the corner of the ballroom, his head bobbing up and down to match the rhythm of the pianist.
"Milady, allow this lowly man to have a dance with a beauty such as you." Flynn noticed the expression on Isabella's face and copied the others.
Isabella's reaction was the same as any other woman being offered a dance, a giggle before taking the hand.
The same scene kept happening throughout the ballroom, some women wanted to play hard to get, while men were dense and failed to notice what their partners wanted.
Eventually, the center of the ballroom was now filled to the brim, but it was Henry and Elsa who had truly taken the inner center of the stage, the people around them even distanced themselves from the two, giving them a makeshift spotlight for everyone to see.
Meanwhile, Henry and Elsa ignored everyone around them, instead they were having a chat, or rather it was Henry who was trying to.
"Are you still angry?" He asked. Elsa was still quiet; instead of staring into his eyes as dancing is supposed to be, her head was bowed.
Henry mentally sighed, but he still kept trying, "I'm not gonna say it's not my fault, because that would be a lie. But I just need you to understand, that's all. I don't want to hurt them when I'm the one at fault in the first place."
Seeing that she was still quiet, he continued, "You will always be my priority, I want you to know that. If you want to punish me, punch me, or kick me, you're welcome to do so."
Finally, she spoke, however her voice was just a mere squeak, if it wasn't for his sharp hearing, he might've missed what she said, "I don't want to hurt you."
"…I know. And even if you want to, I'm not the type of guy that gets easily hurt. Look, can I at least say that I'm sorry?"
"…okay" Another squeak.
Henry mentally sighed in relief, he wanted to press further and see if she would finally accept Ariel and Rapunzel but his gut was telling him that something bad was going to happen if he tried to do so.
"Then, can I ask about that letter you g—"
It was instant. The moment his danger senses flared, it had already happened. The entire ballroom was submerged in darkness as every source of light in the room was vanquished.
Henry quickly pulled Elsa along with her just in time as a vague figure covered by the darkness landed beside them, a dagger that glinted under the moonlight flashed where Henry was previously.
Everything happened so suddenly that Henry wasn't given enough time to worry about his little sister, Lily, or any other loved ones of his.
Despite the darkness, his sharp eyes faintly allowed him to see what was happening under the blanket of the brightless night. He could hear screams as all the guests were blindly bumping into each other.
Henry noticed that several more figures were landing in the ballroom, each making their way towards him, while others made their way in another direction that he recalled where his parents were.
He raised his hand and a huge ball of flame erupted from the tip of his fingertips. The ball expanded until it resembled a miniature sun that finally gave light to the previously dark room.
Everyone sighed in relief, all except Henry who quickly dodged just in time as a crackle of lightning sizzled past his cheek. This scene made everyone panic once again but this time, they could see everything and quickly tried to dash out of the ballroom through the main door.
This however, caused a massive stampede, people fell on the ground while the others barelt showed a care, stepping on their backs and faces. In their minds, as long as they got out of the ballroom, they would be safe from whatever was happening.
They're aware enough about assassinations and in their minds, this is a carefully planned and well-invested one, considering there is a wizard involved.
Several patrol knights, especially the royal knights quickly heard the commotion and wanted to help but were unable to due to the nobles and merchants who abandoned everything to save their own skins.
Meanwhile, Elsa also reacted in time and sent an icy blast to one of the cloaked figures, instantly freezing the figure from the chest and then spreading to their head and feet.
On the other side of the ballroom, Ariel summoned a ball of water using Ember, using it to blast each intruder in the face. While she managed to hit a few, most of them were able to dodge and counter-attack with a blast of wind that nearly knocked her off.
"How dare you hurt my daughter!" She heard her father shout in anger, when she turned her head to him, she was surprised to see him surrounded by three cloaked figures.
What made them different was the color of their cloaks. While the rest were dark and black, the ones around her father wore red cloaks. And something inside her was telling her that these three were not just different in the color of their cloaks but also in their strength.
And that was immediately proven a few seconds later when they stretched their hands towards his father who was just about to make his move. All of a sudden, a golden rope appeared out of nowhere, it was glowing, thick, and long.
The golden rope instantly wrapped itself around her father and she watched in horror as he fell to his knees, his golden crown tumbling across the floor.
"Arrgh!" He grunted in pain. King Triton tried to use his godly powers, to blast these mere mortals to smithereens, only for him to quickly find out that he could no longer access his powers.
Not only that but even his strength was waning. What should've been a pair of arms that could smash a mountain into a pulp was slowly weakening, he could feel it.
"What have you done! Do you know who I am!?" King Triton shouted, his shivering arms indicating that he was still trying to snap the golden ropes with his sheer strength.
Finally, one of the red cloaks, more specifically the one in the middle, spoke, "We do not wish to harm you, King Triton. Just stay put and let us do what we came here to do."
When Ariel heard those words, she was confused at first until she realized something and quickly snapped her head to Henry's position.
There, he was surrounded by a bunch of black cloaks, their hands shimmering in different magic spells. Some were using winds, some used water, others used lightning, and a few of them were even using weapons such as a sword.
It was as if they refrained from using flame magic, knowing full well that their target was a master of such.
All of it instantly clicked into her mind as she now knew that their target all this time was Henry.
———
"Who are you?" Henry frowned while looking at the black-cloaked figures around him. He counted them and there were twenty of them.
'Each of them is a magic user. This would be a bit troublesome. The question is, how did they bypass the traps that Master Elias set?'
"The Coven sends their regards." One of the black cloaks spoke, and by their soft and alluring voice, it was a woman and the tone of her voice was one of smug pride.
'The Coven huh? Did Master Elias see this? Or is this just one of his tests for me? Either way, I'll let them experience the nightmare for disturbing my birthday night.'
A pair of flames quickly coated his entire arm and he swung them in an arc around him, one arc swung in the front while the other on the back, creating a circle of flames that threatens to burn everything in its path.
Of course, they wouldn't technically burn everything. Just those he wanted to burn.
Some used their magic spells to block his attack, whereas a few of them failed and got hit while the others swiftly jumped out of the way, letting the flame fly past them without harm.
Henry didn't stay idle of course. The moment he unleashed his first attack, he followed it up with a second one. This time he focused on those who managed to react faster than the others, assuming that they're more capable and hence, more dangerous.
He didn't just conjured a simple ball of blue flames. Instead, he snapped his fingers and several tiny motes of flames—the size of a mosquito, appeared all around him, reaching more than fifty in count.
Don't underestimate their size. Henry simply compressed each of them to their current size. Their true size was half as big as the lingering miniature sun he conjured earlier.
Henry gave them a smirk and lifted his index finger. That was the signal for his next move.
Before everyone's eyes, these tiny motes of flames moved faster than their eyes can see. At first, there was a blur and then several of the black cloaks quickly lit up in flames.
"Grarrrgghh!"
"Aahhhhh!"
Several high-pitched shrills pierced across the ballroom. Each clearly belonging to that of a woman.
Back to the blue cloaks, the instant they heard those screams, they all sighed in unison.
"Whose idea was it to send newbies after the prince?"
"Doesn't matter. Send the others in, we're going all out. It's now or never."