*some twenty minutes prior to the last scene*
"What the hell is _that_?!" Headmistress Kruger voiced the thoughts of pretty much everyone present as the screening faded away to reveal ... well, what was supposed to have been the reconstructed palace of Windbloom.
Frankly, if that was the way the palace designs had looked when they'd gone past the Queen and her advisors, she'd eat her hat.
"The sound of my bloody bonus going down the drain, it looks like," she heard and was turning to glare at Schrdinger, only to be nearly taken off her feet as the odd construct at the summit of what would have been Windbloom palace's central tower flared with energy, and sent a beam of focused power out over the city. Despite the explosion of its impact being a bit beyond the horizon from where they were standing, the onslaught of light and sound was enough to stagger everyone in the arena.
A moment later, the flare came again. Smaller, though ...
... unfortunately, directed at a far closer target as well.
The Meister Otome barely had enough time to curse as the lance of light slammed into the arena, and everything went white ... only to fade to a featureless and blank blackness with an impact of some sort that knocked the air out of her and knocked her head against something very very solid.
-Griever
When tact is required, use brute force. When force is required, use greater force.
When the greatest force is required, use your head. Surprise is everything. - The Book of Cataclysm