Chapter 678: Who Are You Going To Choose?

The name hit the room like a stone dropped into still water.

“Even if I sent that video to every network in every realm.” Maria continued. “None of you would dare touch me. Because I’m still Mika’s closest friend. And before you do anything to me, you’d have to ask him first.”

Her smile sharpened.

“And if Mika ever found out something bad happened to me, something caused by one of you—well. You can only imagine how he’d react.”

The three sisters exchanged glances.

And immediately Astrid’s aura flickered and died. Charlotte’s face lost some of its color. Even Anya’s smile faded, replaced by a thoughtful frown.

Because she was right.

Provoking Mika’s anger, especially over something like this was not a path any of them wanted to walk. Not ever.

The memories of what happened in the past were still too fresh, too vivid.

Nuri, oblivious to the tension, beamed up at Maria.

“Maria! You’re so cool! You don’t even have a blessing, but you just beat all three Battle Angel daughters at once! Imagine how strong you’d be if you actually had one!”

Maria considered this. “Actually, I do have a blessing.”

Four heads turned toward her.

“Really?” Nuri gasped. “What is it?!”

Maria struck a pose.

“Beauty. And brains. Bestowed upon me at birth in quantities the rest of you can only dream of.” She flipped her hair. “If that’s not a blessing, what is?”

The three sisters deflated simultaneously.

“God, she’s insufferable.” Astrid muttered.

“I want to throw her off the mountain.” Charlotte added.

Anya’s eye twitched.

Nuri, meanwhile, was too busy being impressed to notice.

“She’s right though. You’re so pretty, Maria. And so smart. I wish I had your blessing.”

“Don’t encourage her.” Charlotte groaned.

But then Nuri’s expression shifted, and she looked around at the three sisters with genuine confusion.

“Why are you all so mean to Maria, anyway? She’s nice. She gives good massages. She’s my friend.”

She looked at Astrid.

“You said we could all be friends together. But you don’t seem to like her at all.”

Astrid opened her mouth. Closed it. For once, she had no answer.

But Anya provided it for her.

“Because…the girl sitting in front of you has been depriving all of us of Mika’s time for years. Every time we try to reach him, she’s already there. Every moment we want with him, she’s already claimed it.”

Her voice grew colder. “She’s a leech, Nuri. Clinging to Mika at all times. Refusing to let go.”

“Exactly!” Charlotte nodded vigorously. “Everyone calls me a succubus, but she’s the real succubus! She has him wrapped around her fingers. I swear she’s put some kind of mind control spell on him.”

Maria scoffed.

“Let me tell you what’s really going on.” She looked at each of them in turn. “You’re all angry because you can’t intimidate me. Every other girl who got near Mika, you scared away with a single look. But me?”

She smiled. “I’m still here. And that drives you insane.”

It struck home. Because it was true. In the past, any rival could be dispatched with a cold stare and a flash of aura.

But Maria had never once flinched. Never once backed down. She simply…stayed.

And now she was going on the offensive.

“Besides.” She said, leaning back with a smile. “You’re all pointing your weapons at the wrong enemy. The biggest threat to you three isn’t me…”

“…it’s actually between all of you.”

The room went still.

“What do you mean?” Astrid asked carefully.

“All three of you have the same goal, right? The same life’s purpose?”

Maria looked at them one by one.

“To win Mika’s love.”

“Of course!” Charlotte said instantly. “I’d give up everything—my beauty, my brains, my blessing—all of it, just for Mika.”

“Mika is my life.” Anya agreed. “Without him, there’s no point in living.”

“I’ll definitely make my little brother mine.” Astrid added.

“Exactly.” Maria’s voice dropped. “All three of you, completely devoted. All three of you, wanting the same thing. But there’s only one Mika.”

She paused, letting the words settle in their minds.

“So who gets him? Who wins his love? Who stands at his side when it’s all over?”

The temperature in the room dropped.

It was the question none of them had ever spoken

Because the truth was simple: if Mika truly chose, permanently, the others would not be able to hold back.

All the composure, all the open-mindedness, all the careful sharing of his attention—it would shatter in an instant.

Their blessings would go haywire. And no matter how much their mothers tried to intervene, the result would be war.

Not a squabble. Not a fight.

War.

The three sisters looked at each other. The air grew thick.

Astrid’s tails began to rise, bristling.

Charlotte’s pink eyes flickered with something dangerous.

Anya’s smile had vanished entirely, replaced by a stillness that was somehow more frightening than fury.

Maria watched with quiet satisfaction.

Nuri, sensing the shift, looked around in growing panic.

“Mika! Mika, where are you?! I don’t know how to handle this! Something bad is happening! Mika, come quick!”

And her prayers were answered.

“Maria…”

The voice cut through the tension like a blade.

“Would you stop trying to incite a war? I just spent three days building unity between all of you, and here you are, tearing it apart with a few words.”

Every head in the room snapped toward the doorway.

Mika stood there, leaning against the frame, a tired smile on his face.

He looked as exhausted as the rest of them, maybe more. But there was a warmth in his eyes that immediately began to dissolve the tension.

“Mika!” The name came from four mouths at once.

The sisters’ auras, which had been building toward something catastrophic, flickered and died.

Astrid’s tails dropped. Charlotte’s eyes softened. Anya’s shoulders relaxed.

It was always like this. One look at him, and the fire went out.

Mika walked over to where Maria was sitting with Nuri in her lap. He reached out and pushed Maria’s head backward, forcing her to look up at him upside down.

“What exactly do you think you’re doing?” He asked.

Maria clicked her tongue. “They started it.”

“They made a comment, and you escalated to mutual annihilation.”

“I simply told the truth. You know I always tell the truth.” Her smile returned, slow and knowing. “One day, Mika, you’re going to have to choose. And when the choice falls on one of them—”

She tilted her head toward the sisters.

“—the other two aren’t going to take it lying down.”

Mika released her and shrugged.

“Fine. Here’s my answer. If choosing any one woman is going to start a war that destroys the world, then I’ll simply stay single for the rest of my life.”

The reaction was immediate.

“No!” Charlotte lunged forward. “Mika, you can’t do that!”

“Little brother, no!” Astrid’s tails lashed. “That’s not—you can’t just—”

“Don’t even joke about that.” Anya said, her voice tight.

But Mika had already settled onto the sofa beside

Maria, one arm draped casually over her shoulders.

Maria, naturally, looked insufferably pleased. Nuri on the other hand immediately scrambled off Maria’s lap and repositioned herself onto Mika’s instead.

“It’s okay.” Mika said solemnly, wrapping an arm around Nuri. “For the sake of world peace, I’ll make this noble sacrifice. I’ll remain alone forever. It’s what I must do.”

Before the sisters could mount a proper protest, a small, indignant voice cut straight through the noise.

“No, Mika, you can’t do that!”

Nuri had scrambled upright in his lap, her red eyes blazing with the full fury of a princess whose future was being threatened.

“You’re supposed to marry me! We’re supposed to have a whole bunch of little dragon babies that look just like me in the future!”

“I absolutely will not allow you to be single!”

The room went very, very quiet.

Nuri realising what she has said froze. Her wings drooped. The words she’d just shouted echoed in her head like a funeral bell. Slowly, she turned her head.

Charlotte and Anya was staring at her and neither of them was smiling in a way that suggested they found this the least bit cute.

“Wow.” Charlotte said, and her voice was sweet as poisoned honey. “Who would have thought the little dragon princess would join the game too?”

She tilted her head, eyes glittering.

“I thought I only had to fend off my sisters and a whole army of older women. But now I have to put up a fight against my very own childhood friend as well?”

Anya’s smile had not reached her eyes, it had stopped somewhere around her cheekbones and died there.

“I never expected an enemy to be so…close.”

She chuckled, and the sound was like ice cracking.

“But it’s all right. An enemy is an enemy, no matter how cute and adorable she is.” She let the pause stretch, savoring it. “I’ll go through everyone to get what I need. I don’t care who they are.”

The air around the two of them shimmered. Auras, faint but unmistakable, began to bleed into the room like ink into water.

Astrid sighed and rubbed her forehead. She’d known about Nuri’s feelings for Mika, so this scene wasn’t exactly a shock.

But that didn’t mean she knew how to handle it. Her best friend on one side, her sisters on the other, and her own complicated feelings standing squarely in the middle.

Meanwhile, Nuri had entered full panic mode. The two scariest sisters in the known multiverse were staring at her like she was a mouse that had wandered into a cat convention.

“Mama!” she shrieked, scrambling off Mika’s lap. “Mama, save me! These two are going to eat me alive! They’re going to cut off my tail and turn it into a delicacy! MAMA!”

And, as if summoned by the sheer force of her daughter’s desperation, a voice drifted into the room—warm, amused, and carrying the weight of absolute authority.

“My, my. It seems like all of you are bullying my daughter a little too much.”

Charlotte’s and Anya’s auras evaporated on the spot. Instinct, pure and ancient, told them exactly who was speaking and while they could have stood their ground, they had no desire to.

Not because the voice belonged to one of the most powerful beings in existence, though that was certainly part of it.

No, it was because the voice belonged to someone they genuinely, deeply respected.

Korra, the Queen of the Black Dragon Race, was famous across every realm. But not for her power, though her power was considerable.

She was famous for her heart.

When disasters struck, she was always the first to give. When famines ravaged distant kingdoms, her caravans arrived before the dust had settled.

When orphanages needed funding, hospitals needed equipment, refugees needed shelter—Korra’s name topped every ledger, every time, without fail or fanfare.

Dragons were supposed to hoard their wealth, to sit on mountains of gold and worship it. Korra had taken one look at that tradition and decided to give it all away instead.

The record for the most charity given by a single individual in the history of the known realms belonged to her, and it wasn’t even close.

So yes—the sisters respected her. From the bottom of their hearts, even if she hadn’t been the mother of their childhood friend.

Everyone turned toward the door, expecting to see the majestic, elegant, Dragon Queen sweep into the room like a storm made beautiful.

What they saw instead made their faces fall.