Early Evening - Late Spring : Kingdom of Kaelallan

Slowly opening his eyes, Oliver realized he was laying in his bed.

-Huh.. what?-

Feeling something on his chest he looked down and saw Lucy asleep.

-Was she.. crying?-

Shifting around in his bed, *Groan*

He reached up and grabbed his head as he felt an incredible pain there when he tried to move too much.

Hearing Oliver wake up made Lucy wake up. "You're awake!"

"I'm sorry I worried you.." Oliver just embraced her for a bit to let her just cry it out.

After simply comforting her as she cried, he tried to sit up.

"Ugh.." Trying to sit up in the bed, he grimaced in pain.

Seeing her father in pain, Lucy quickly wiped away the tears. "Please just lay down father, you're hurt.."

Complying with her demands, he just laid back down. "Where is Helen?"

"Mother is doing some work. She was one of the first to wake up."

"What happened?"

"Well.. all I know is that it has to do with some kind of mana suction within the palace. When I finally managed to get back to the palace, there were still people unconscious everywhere, but their injuries were all minimal."

"Mana suction made a bunch of people pass out?" Oliver was simply lost as he couldn't remember anything about the situation.

"The suction was pulling mana out of people making everyone pass out of mana exhaustion. I'll go get mother, just stay still. You hurt your head pretty bad."

"Alright.. thank you sweetheart."

Managing to put on a warm smile Lucy went to get Helen.

With some time to himself, Oliver tried his best to figure everything out.

-Mana suction being so strong it pulls it out of people.. it's unheard of. Unless maybe.. a dragon?- That was the moment he remembered a few extremely important connections.

-OH HELL, WHAT ABOUT THE TOWER?!- He suddenly remembered the situation involving the Kingdom of Zan and how Vasilias was going to stop the 12 nation ranks on his own.

-Right.. then I called Lawton and Ms. Coletti to my office..- He slowly started remembering what happened up until the moment of disaster when Helen walked in.

"How are you feeling?" Helen wore a face of concern.

"Alright. Could be better."

"Phew.. thank goodness you're alright.." She walked up and hugged Oliver.

"That aside, what's the condition of everyone? I need to talk to Lawton and Ms Coletti."

"They aren't great.. Coletti is.. not in a great state. We think it might be more than just mana exhaustion for her."

"What do you mean?"

"She is still super pale and she hasn't said anything since she woke up."

"Uh oh.. what about Lawton?"

"He is alright, but he is definitely not in peak condition." Seeing her husband's face pale she felt a little panic, "Why do you look so worried.. Are you hurting somewhere?"

"No.. it's not that.."

"So why.."

Realizing there was no need to hide it, he explained the whole situation regarding the towers ‘under the table’ moves and Vasilias.

"I remember calling Lawton and Ms Coletti to my office to give them a plan to help Vasilias in the shadows, but I can't remember what happened after that."

Helens face was pale. She thought of several different possibilities, and only one of them was even remotely a win. That was if Vasilias won the fight cleanly without being heavily injured or killed, it would be a miracle but the chances were too slim. "Vasilias is too young to fight that many nation ranks no matter how much of a freak he is.." Helen walked over and laid down next to Oliver on the bed because she started to get light headed.

"I know.. I don't know how I’m going to face Osto when he gets back.."

Hearing him say that, Helen got an idea, "what if we asked that halfie in the plaza for help?"

"Ah.. you didn't see them fight did you? It wasn't even a fight, and Vasilias was never even in his dragon form.."

"Well.. maybe he will be alright then.."

"All we can do is hope and pray that Osto can get back in time.."

-

After quite a long flight, Osto had finally made it back to Kaelallan.

It was nearly sunset and he was both happy and nervous.

He was happy because he believed he would get to see Vasilias for the first time in a while, but he was also nervous because he wasn't entirely sure how to handle the whole situation with the tower and the halfies.

Coming up to the gate, he noticed something odd. Everyone's auras were abnormally weak.

Figuring he was just imagining things, he quickly worked his way into the city.

In the lower district, mostly everything seemed normal but the knights were all frantically running around with medics.

-Just what happened..-

After finally making it to the palace, his concern grew.

"We can't let you in sir."

"Why not? I'm Osto Whyte, I used to adventure with the Kaelallan family." He held up his ID.

"We were told not to let anyone in, sir. It was an order."

"Then how about you send someone in to tell the royal family that I'm here." Osto was getting agitated because the knights lack of compliance when he was in a rush. -I need to figure out what happened..-

A short moment later, a young maid came to the gate, "please follow me sir Whyte."

On the inside of the palace, there were maids and butlers rushing around everywhere, some carrying huge stacks of papers and others carrying sorting or calculation artifacts.

After a short while, the maid finally stopped in front of a bedroom door. "Your Majesty, Sir Whyte has arrived."

"Please come in.."

Opening up the door revealed Olver and Helen laying on the bed.

"What.. happened.." Osto was at a loss for words.

"Haah.. it's a long story and I'd recommend you sit down for it.."

The concern and worry in Oliver's voice made Osto instinctively comply.

"Hooh.. where should I start.."

During the lengthy explanation, Oliver left out certain parts regarding Vasilias.

"So.. what about Vasilias?"

"He.. left to go fight the 12 nation ranks alone.."

Osto froze, "..."

"I was getting Lawton and the grandmaster together to go help him, but the mana suction I talked about earlier happened."

With the worry that his son might die, Osto didnt think anything about what the source of the suction was. His eyes filled with bloodlust, "You said the kingdom of Zan right?"

"Yes.."

Before leaving the room, Osto gave Helen and Oliver a look of fury.

They quickly paled as Osto ran as fast as possible to the garden.

-There's no time..-

A blinding light filled the garden as Osto used light magic to hide himself.

*Fwoosh*

With a strong flap of his wings, he began to fly as fast as he could to the Kingdom of Zan.

-Please hold on until I can get there!-