The White Darkness

By Helbaworshipper

The Roland Kingdom Arc: The Historic Tragedies

Chris was born to be a great and powerful leader of the Lotis. His mother was a beautiful queen who was the gem of the royal family. His father was a political pro who could never lose on his own deals. The two of them knew who to trust and how to deal with any and all situation. If anything, the matter of his tutor was never a question. He would get the great tutor Eric and become the father's best.

Yet, right now, in the midst of the worst situation he could think of… He was confused. Two kingdom's had fallen without any real way to get the warning out effectively. One of the masters he hoped would help end it had lost all her lotis power. Her sister, that he had had an inkling of her situation, was still nowhere to be found outside of Roland Kingdom. Politically, the situation was almost too hard to figure out the actual solution.

"Thank you for being less forceful this time, your majesty." Chris looked at King Weilhausen's far less prideful expression. "I'll explain what I can to you, but this isn't going to be simple."

"What happened to Roland Kingdom?"

"Tough one first, huh..." He sighed mentally as he spoke. "My tutor, Eric, whom you know very well. He destroyed the sole figure that could maintain our barrier from the Maram."

"Are you the only survivor?" Silence as he could remember how it sounded. He did his best not to think about every detail of that day.

"Yes, the others who survived were shells of themselves. Not long after they either simply disappeared or died. The Maram attack took a toll on their minds. We were lucky to have survived enough to get out of the kingdom, much less not be mortally injured." His hand moved to the cup in front him. He couldn't expect that the King would expect that the aftermath was so quiet.

"Is it true that Princess Mayura's Lotis itself was removed?"

"Unfortunately we can only assume that as there is no sign it was ever in her body. Lotsuan has that ability, which we were unaware of even in Roland Kingdom."

"And how could Eric have known?"

"We have to assume that Lotsuan's knowledge that was in the Roland kingdom was well within his expertise." He brought the book out and opened to the page. "Unfortunately, Roland Kingdom was not informed of Darva and Lotsuan being in the same body."

"If we were to attack Roland Kingdom..."

"At this point we have to assume that Alice or Eric is in control of Roland Kingdom. Whether it's Lotsuan or Darva making the decisions."

"And if Alice is?"

"That's the problem," Chris spoke, looking a bit more wary. "Frei is set on the ideal that only two of them can effectively convince her from this camp."

"And those two?"

"Frei and Kyo Wakamiya."

"Does that mean we need to trust Wakamiya not to lead her astray?" The king looked like he was about to scream into the air. Perhaps the helplessness was one way to understand the lack of power they had in regards to what was in control. He took another sip of his tea as he tried to give what he knew of the last few battles they had managed to try and stop.

Picking up on the planning that Frei had at least given some approval of, Chris was now sitting in front of a far more accurate map. Certainly it would help to have Weilhausen plan to have some help in addition to Frei, but how many of them could be trusted? For all he knew, King Weilhausen's men could also have some spies from the maram masters. He moved another piece as he looked at the kingdom in front of them. What was the method to get in? Could he force himself in so he could control the narrative?

It wasn't until he realized that none of the people around him were reacting that he realized something was wrong. It was frozen in time, somehow. He himself felt a great amount of force holding him down. It wasn't exactly a matsu… but it felt like he was being sort of intimidated. He looked around and noticed two figures. One was the very familiar figure of Princess Alice Seno. Her gaze was not like at the party. Beside her was a figure with a mask that felt like it might be familiar.

"It seems quite pointless to keep going like this." The figure with the mask commented as it flowed through the frozen figures. "Unless you mean to reclaim your royal lineage?"

"I'm simply trying to end the war."

"Even if you end the war by killing all the maram masters," Alice spoke more heavily than he expected. She must have been quite strained by all she'd been through. "What do you expect the end to be?"

"Peace, like before-"

"No," The answer was almost a push of force. Not even an actual maram word, but it felt like hit had stabbed into his chest. He was alright, though. "Peace was not achieved, Lotsuan's memories and Darva's proved it. Even without these powers, this war will go on." She looked a bit winded, as if something was coming across her mind. In almost a flash, the masked figure was holding her up. "You cannot push any further into Roland kingdom until the decision is made."

"And what decision is that?"

"The future of power in this world."

"Like how you stole Mayura's?"

"I didn't steal it." The force was more gentle as he saw tears starting to form in her eyes. "Mayura's power wasn't meant for her to use in big battles. It was meant to protect me when the time to decide came." She moved away from the guardian slowly and was soon in front of him. He could see her tired, well worn gaze. What could she have memories of that made her look so much like this? "She wanted to return it, and so I let her without her death. Had Eric done what he wanted, she'd be in a bloody mess from the attack earlier."

"Alice… why not me?"

"If you don't understand, it's not needed to know." She put a hand gently to his face. "No one is meant to become a powerful Lotis master. However, if the one who is meant to be powerful is not chosen, then the power of Lotis will die. Yet, the world will live on and the words we all use will simply change to what they are meant to be." She smiled as a few tears moved down her cheeks. "For what it is worth, Lotsuan never wanted what happened to happen to your kingdom. It was Eric's interpretation of the sacrifice. Yet, I cannot blame him for choosing to push this decision up."

"Wait… why aren't you..." He felt something heavy coming over him. He slowly heard noises all around him as Alice and the masked figure left his vision. He could sense Billy's hold keeping him in place as they tried to figure out what had just happened. He slowly went to sleep, starting to forget some of the details despite trying to speak them out loud.

"You're saying Alice Seno is now able to reach out and do what she wants?" Mei Lin asked, sitting beside his bed in the tent. "That doesn't make sense if she wants to war to end. Why would she still willingly be there?"

"That's what confuses me," He still felt tired from the rather sudden power drain Alice had managed to do in the meeting. "She was making a lot of comments about the situation, but I couldn't keep all of them in memory. It's spotty what I can remember."

"Spotty, but it seems like she's got a reason." Mei Lin slowly helped him sit up in the bed and gave him a cup of tea. "The main issue is why she's so worried about this war. It would be one thing if it was a worry about her family."

"It seems we must make sure that Kyo and Frei are under our control." His voice was soft as he turned towards her. "The question is if what their decision will be is..." He took a sip of his tea as he tried to recall her words. He couldn't quite remember it. He just didn't want this war to lead to something worse.