"Alexis!" Annalise shouted in panic and fear, her son quickly rushed to meet her, he hugged her gently and called his lovers and sister...
"Mother, what is it?" Alexis asked her worriedly as she sobbed on his chest.
Sophia, Florestine and Irene gathered around the duo as Alexis turned to Irene demanding an answer.
"what happened?" He asked softly as Irene tearily explained that Aurelius collapsed on the throne a while ago...
"What?!" He shouted and comforted his mother and left to the Imperial Palace that was in chaos.
He rushed to his father's room which was heavily guarded, the guards seeing him, respectfully opened the doors to his father's chambers...
"Father..." He walked upto Aurelius who was pale and looked frail, he was lying on his bed while maids and doctors alike tended to him.
"...Alexis... is that you?" He croaked and rolled his eyes towards his son who kneeled down to his level.
"Yeah..." Alexis answered softly and held onto his hand gently.
"it's good to see you... I wanted to inform you that you will be acting-Emperor from now on... you will be coronated once I recover..." Aurelius smirked and coughed roughly.
The doctors quickly helped ease the symptoms and turned to Alexis who sighed and left the room, not before taking away the Emperor's Moon seal, proof of his authority, the key to his throne...
-●-●-●-
"Your highness, the Republic has sent a division of it's forces to the border of the Kingdom!" An Imperial guard informed Alexis who was seated on the majestic golden throne...
They worked under him now, Aurelius was unable to continue reigning over the Empire as he was suddenly disease stricken.
Alexis was therefore the acting-Emperor until Aurelius was cured of his illness or until he was coronated and was made the Emperor...
"You may leave..." He sighed, the paperwork wasn't necessarily straining his body as he was a Divine Duke as of now...
But it does get repetitive and thus, boring.
"Marcus." Alexis called out as a shadow jumped down from the pillars in the room and kneeled infront of him.
"Your highness!" He greeted as Alexis groaned with a shake of his head.
"Any new information from the other three?" He asked his right hand man.
"Nothing, your highness! They have been very quiet... even the Republic which is known for being very active..." Marcus reported.
'...what?' He thought, then it clicked him!
"Marcus, your operatives... are they able to gather information?" He asked carefully.
When Marcus shook his head negatively, he sighed.
"There is a barrier of some sort... it prevents our spies from entering, since we could not get any classified information, we got the runes of making such barriers instead..." Marcus explained as Alexis nodded and let him go...
-●-●-●-
Three weeks prior to the conversation held between Alexis and Marcus, when Aurelius was still ruling, the leaders of the other three great nations gathered at a secret location...
The first to arrive was King Rivel and his party, a few minutes later, the council of the Republic arrived.
"You!" The council glared at King Rivel who was seated on his chair, he looked up and smiled wryly.
"Greetings, members of the Republic..." He said and nodded in acknowledgement of their presences.
"Grrr... You royalist dogs!" A council man insulted as the party from the Kingdom frowned at them and clenched their fists angrily.
"How dare you?! commoner!" A female guard shouted and reached for her sword but was stopped by her officer in charge who glared at her.
"Hoh? A mere insect from the Royal Elite Unit dares to bark infront of the Tokushu-Butai?" A man wearing a white military uniform asked her mockingly.
"Takeshi, stop it... such behaviour is not befitting of our unit!" Yamato chided and turned to his superiors waiting for an order.
"Please, calm down..." They heard a feminine voice as Amelia, Gron and Charlotte walked into the room.
"Might you be the leader of the rebel force?" Rivel asked the beautiful woman infront of him politely.
Amelia nodded and turned to all the persons in the room.
"Greetings, leaders of the Republic!" She lowered her head slightly as a sign of Greeting common in Namu culture.
"Greetings, leader of the rebel army..." They greeted back with bow of their own, they already liked her.
"Please be seated..." She motioned the council of the Republic to their chairs as they nodded.
Once all the groups were seated and waited in silence, Amelia opened her mouth to speak.
"I will start first, my name is Amelia, leader of the Rebel army of Satellia... the reason why I have called the respective leaders of both nations is because my wish is to bring peace to the continent..." She spoke, only to be snorted at by the female guard from the Kingdom.
Amelia turned to her and glanced at her with pity.
"An admirable goal, but how will you achieve such a thing? Especially with two arch enemies?" An old man from the Kingdom asked her curiously.
"I request both parties to cease all conflicts!" She stated.
"Huh?! Go back to your country you rebel scum!" The female guard shouted angrily which made the entire crowd including Amelia herself to frown.
"Silence!" Rivel noticed this and shouted at his guard who disrespected the leader of an army that rivals his own!
"Shut up... when we get back, you will be stripped off of all your titles!" He growled at the female guard that tried to speak back.
She paled, couldn't utter a word in shock, her officer took her away immediately, he was shamed by the behaviour of his subordinate...
"Now that, that problem is done with, does anyone in the room know who will benefit from all of this fighting at the very end? The one who will get the last laugh?" She asked them honestly.
"If I'm not wrong, according to you... it would be the Empire..." Rivel answered as Amelia smiled.
"Wait... how would the Empire benefit from our war?" An old councilman from the Republic asked, he felt dreadful when other two were conversing as if it were no big deal...
"Councilman, have you gotten too old?" The king of Ritzburg snickered which made the old man glare at him, demanding an answer.
"The Empire is observing your nations carefully because, once you people have destroyed each other, the Empire can just march into your countries and conquer them..." Amelia sighed.
"My goodness... I never thought of that! But Emperor Aurelius would never do such dishonourable acts!" The council argued to which Rivel laughed.
"You old fools, who said that Aurelius would do such a thing? His son is the reason behind all of this..." He stated.
"I see..." The old councilman sighed solemnly.
"Does that mean... our leader was killed by the Empire aswell?" He asked sadly while gritting his teeth in anger.
"I swear upon my Kingdom, my forces and I have never wanted war... we did not assassinate your president! We are not sure who exactly did that, but only the Empire is the main suspect..." Rivel answered.
"How do we know we won't be betrayed?" The council asked them carefully after contemplating the words of noth leaders.
"You don't... but! If the Kingdom betrays your country, the rebel forces will aid you and defend you! The same goes to the Republic, if you betray the Kingdom... we will attack you! If we betrayed anyone, you can team up against us..." Amelia shrugged.
"What if we betray you?" Rivel asked her in amusement.
"Then I can only hope that you will be able to defend against the Empire..." She smirked and turned to the party from the Republic.
"We are people of honour! The Republic does not betray it's allies unlike..." A councilman then rolled his eyes at the Kingdom, this made Amelia snicker.
"If you are betrayed by the kingdom, we will attack them! Hopefully we can defeat them for once and for all by then!" the council laughed at that comment.
"Oh? We will do the same then!" Rivel declared angrily.
"We will start sending informants to the smaller nations, every soldier is important! The continent will need to be united to balance the power..." She spoke passionately.
"While it maybe hard for your people to unite against a common enemy, it must be done! With every bond we make is another defeat for the Empire! When the day we defeat the Empire comes, I hope we can unify the continent and bring about a peace that will last for centuries to come..." Amelia then smiled brightly illuminating the room, making Rivel go into daze and send the council members into a reverie...
"Very well... the first step is the hardest but it must be taken! I would like to sincerely apologise for the mistakes of the past and the present..." Rivel then bowed towards the council, many of whom smiled amicably.
"We would like to apologise for our mistakes aswell then, King Rivel. We hope to bring about an era of peace for the betterment of both nations... and bring pride and honour not with war but with friendship, goodwill and amity!" The old councilman said and bowed back.
"Wonderful! I hope that we will keep continuing our unity even after the Empire is defeated... otherwise it would only shame the fallen of the coming war!" Amelia spoke earnestly.
She felt their emotions, knowing her talks have worked on them, she felt closer and closer to obtaining peace...
"We will now discuss about our plans!" Rivel states with a smile as everyone agreed and sat down to discuss with their newly formed alliance.
-●-●-●-
"We will be able to overrun the enemy... if we take into consideration of all the small nations and us combined, we will have a total military force of over two hundred million!" Rivel stated.
"We need to leave now and order our troops to back down, then the masses will be convinced to let go of the hate and turn it on the Empire..." the council said.
"We need a name now..." Amelia said and turned to Rivel.
"I have no idea" He shrugged and turned to the council of the Republic.
"How about... The Trium Axis?" A councilman asked them shyly.
"I don't mind" Amelia smiled at him which gave a positive impression for the Republic which went unnoticed by the Kingdom.
"Our main goal is to bring peace to the world so that it will never have to go through what will be happening in a few months!" The council voiced which elicited a few nods from the other two parties.
-●-●-●-
"Your highness, urgent news!" Marcus shouted and hurriedly kneeled infront of the throne.
"Speak!" Alexis spoke, he was worried.
"The Operation failed... the Republic, Kingdom and the Rebel force have allied to put up with our might! They are inviting smaller nations to join their group..." Marcus reported as he panicked.
"...what?!" Alexis shouted in shock.
'This wasn't how it was supposed to go... Amelia, you bastard!' He grit his teeth angrily.
"Copy what they are doing! They probably plan on over running us with a massive army!" Alexis stood up.
"I need details!" Marcus exclaimed, he was dreading at the situation at hand!
"Call it the... fuck it! call it the 'Eagle Alliance'... promise the nations power once the war is over, they only have to supply us with resources and soldiers!" He explained.
"They will naturally be repaid for their services and lives, they are also allowed to take over the land of the enemies once they are defeated..." He sighed as Marcus nodded.
For the first time in his life, Alexis' plan failed!
He was upset! Very very very upset!