Loading prevents encounter with Ali

(yes, I am going to call her that lol)

All jokes aside, I saved my game early on, then reloaded it a bit later, after making a couple of mistakes, and when I reloaded my save from before the encounter I immediately went to the magic circle and summoned her, but the scene was skipped completely and the button changed from 0 cost to 500 cost, and I didn't get my 800 Mana like I was supposed to.

Not sure if you knew about this, but I hope it helps!