Dolos' Truth

18 December 423

Once the entire situation had calmed down, we ended up having a lengthy conversation about the current circumstance.

Echidna was once more restrained, this time by her fellow witches as they looked less interested in murdering their way into causing chaos within the world once more, and more into 'getting back to life' properly. I was confused by this explanation, but Minerva proceeded to be a bit more blunt about this whole instance.

"It's been too many years now. Everything has changed, and while the desire to resume our previous life is high, we decided it was best to be cautious about it."

Sekhmet yawned. "That and dying again sounds so boring."

"And stupid," Daphne concluded dryly. "I prefer life to death."

I couldn't exactly say I wouldn't think the same if put in the same situation, but it was still going to create some issues considering the full extent of the news would bring the moment it was turned to the public. The Witches of Sin were once more alive, and they weren't looking to cause any trouble. The people would stick their worries to the first half and forget about the second one. They would panic, they would react harshly and… cause trouble for themselves. Which wasn't ideal. But as I dreaded the instance, Shaula looked more intrigued by something else.

"Interesting. Typhon's authority has been deactivated," The guardian of the Watchtower mused, her words gaining the attention of the rest of the group. "I suppose that's your doing Echidna."

The Witch of Greed scoffed. "As if I knew how to do that. No, that's John."

Her response left Shaula perplexed.

"That shouldn't be possible. If we were going by the magic used by his grandfather-"

"It's different, dumbass," Echidna rebuked flatly, her abrasive attitude getting a scoff from Minerva. "And don't give me that. All of us can see it with our own eyes. John's magic is a counter to ours, but not to the way it extinguishes it. It 'changes' it. In fact, the ultimate proof is one and the same."

"And… that is?" I asked, wary of where the Greedy Witch was going with this topic.

"Why, trying to touch Daphne of course."

I was confused by the request, and outright worried by the ramifications of that move.

"W-Why is that a good test?" Emilia argued, still unsure of the restrained and blindfolded girl's authority.

Carmilla hummed shyly. "Daphne is the Witch of Gluttony. A single touch from another being would put them in a state of deadly hunger, sometimes even leading to self-cannibalization."

The half-elf paled at the implications, but I was really interested to try if Echidna was so certain it wouldn't do anything to me. Part of me was nervous about the possible issues coming from that kind of approach but… I decided to try it out.

Daphne hummed. "So, you're really going to do this. I'm… 'sorry' in advance for any issues."

"Hmm, you don't sound apologetic," I argued and she grinned, showing her sharp teeth.

"That's because I'm not."

Ignoring the amusement in that sentence, I finally got close enough to try this test and… Daphne tensed up. I decided to reach out with my hands, the palms carefully squeezing over her cheeks, cupping them as I felt heat rush up to them. There was a moment of uneasy silence… nothing more. No horrible hunger, nothing forcing me to devour myself, just… surprise.

"This- this is unusual," Daphne hummed, her previous behavior shifting to something 'weaker'. Her voice felt more frail. "I-Is it supposed to feel nice… this?"

I slowly nodded. "I suppose it is in your condition. You didn't get much affection of this kind before now, didn't you?"

I didn't need to see that the other witches shifted nervously at that comment, well-aware that compared to the rest, Daphne got one of the worst authority possible in terms of flaws. Unable to walk without being driven crazy by her hunger, unable to touch people, to look at them, to feel fullness and… to be thus forced to experience a very horrible form of loneliness due to this.

"Yes," She confessed quietly, yet convinced of it. Her face rubbed back at my hands. "I like it. You have soft hands."

I smiled. "And you have chubby cheeks."

Her lips twitched. "A-Are you saying my cheeks are fat?"

"I'm saying that they are quite round, but not big. In fact, I'm almost tempted to pinch them up."

Daphne huffed. "I will bite you if you do."

The threat was delivered out of playfulness rather than malicious intent, something that had me chuckle a bit much to her growing smile. Either that or she was really loving getting scratched under her ears.

"It's… it's impressive. The magic is actually suppressing her authority to the point where it doesn't influence you," Shaula hummed, her voice shifting to a more scientific-driven argumentation. "I would say that this is temporary despite the signs there… and yet this is optimal proof that something could be done with your blood due to magical effects tied to it."

I glanced back at the dark-haired girl. "So, my blood has the properties to actually-"

"It would stabilize the Witch Factor, yes. Of course, it would take some time, and the amount of blood required for the process would force this to take a few days to at least gain the proper quantity without endangering your life."

I slowly nodded at this, knowing that 'donating' too much blood at once would put me in some heavy life-threatening troubles. And just as I thought of this instance, our little meeting was interrupted by an unexpected visitor. Footsteps loud and quick rushed through the floor and stopped only as he arrived before us.

"Whoa! I didn't know there was a party here," A cocky voice exclaimed, swiftly conquering the spotlight as the man speaking smiled at all of us. "And you didn't tell me we had guests, lady."

The muscular man stood quite tall, slightly taller than me by roughly an inch or two. He had waist length, fiery red hair, sky blue eyes. At the moment he was half-wearing a crimson kimono, leaving the right side uncovered, a white sarashi around his body, and a black eye patch over his left eye.

"And no way I'm seeing this right, perhaps my right eye is going crazy too but… John, is that you, old fox?"

Ah?

Before I could have said anything, or rather 'anyone' could have said or done anything, I was suddenly subjected to a swift blitz that ended with me being lifted up by a laughing redhead that I already knew who it was. Reid Astrea, the founder of the Astra family and first holder of the Sword Saint lineage.

"T-That's actually my grandfather."

My words struck at the red-haired man, he gave me a surprised look and then a frown. "You serious?"

He placed me down. "Like, you look really similar to him."

"Well, you don't look that different from the current Sword Saint, Reid Astrea."

He smiled at the sharp rebuttal.

"Oh?"

"Red hair, that is."

He deflated. "Oh."

"Reid," Volcanica muttered. "I… Thou art here?"

"Always been, big one. How are you? Bones still groaning since last spar?" The swordsman asked mirthfully, adding some edge to it to show how his 'hunger' to kill dragons had never abated.

"...Yes. Yet… I think this is not the worst."

Volcanica's muzzle grew closer to me and… it sniffed me again. "I… see… I remember."

I blinked. "You remember… what?"

"Something… from the past. Thy body bears a clue to it. Thou met him. Thou know Dolos."

...Wait, who is Dolos?

Before I could ask, Shaula scoffed. "That's not possible. At this point, Dolos is either dead or hiding away from the rest of the world. His crimes-"

"Forgotten, perhaps," Reid interrupted, the redhead looking around and sparing a vicious look at a very annoyed Echidna. "Time passes, people focus on the present peace rather than the wars that happened a long time ago. As usual."

"Dolos is… the man that betrayed Flugel?" Ram asked, managing to hold her ground with surprise. "How could he still be alive?"

"Flugel knew of secrets that were stolen by him. One of those is… familiar to Echidna."

The Witch of Greed raised a surprised eyebrow. "Did that old fool really steal my reincarnations plan?"

"Steal is not the word. Learned of them, and improved them," Shaula defended her creator's motivations to do that. And as she did that, Volcanica spoke once more.

"Thou bear his heinous scent. The smell… and the trust. Misplaced," The dragon muttered cryptically, almost melancholic with its tone. "He shan't be forgotten nor forgiven. The guilty man behind so many horrible things. The cursed monster."

I frowned at the dragon's words, trying to fully grasp what he was saying.

"A-Are you saying that John actually met him?" Alice asked with newfound shock, mirroring the reaction everyone had on their faces.

"Yes."

"That makes no sense. I would have spotted someone so dangerously powerful."

"You probably did," Reid hummed, sparing me a cheeky grin. "But perhaps you didn't see him as a threat. Rather… a friend. It wouldn't be surprising since Dolos knew how to act as a good guy before crazy things happened."

Still, that didn't give me much to think about. I had to look back and think of someone that was powerful in his own right, but that I instantly gave him a positive glance. Someone that… I knew for a long time and that I… trusted. I looked back, and then… I found something, a pattern- a very bad pattern at that. One that slowly started to make sense as I looked back at it. Numerous pieces, fragments of the past, started to connect one with the others, each drawing more legitimacy to my theory, turning it from mere conjecture to outright possibility and…

The truth.

Those behaviors, this strange trust at times, that curiosity, that craving to see me in action- all of that which I saw as an old man trying to create a proper heir to aid the future king suddenly shifting to an ulterior motivation. Something worse and more sinister than just it. Something that left me shivering in dread at how long this lie had lasted. Years. So many years of deception...

"Honorable McMahon, the city of Erindor greets you."

"But what about its new Mayor?"

Calm, and yet curious. The elder rewarded me with a questioning look. Back then I thought it was just an attempt to decipher my intentions but-

"I- what?"

"You said 'Erindor' greets me, but is the same from the Mayor and-"

"Yes, the Mayor of Erindor greets you, Honorable Sage."

Delight, he could finally sense the pattern. The familiarity of the event. The familiarity between me and… him. The one he once knew and hated.

"That is good to know."

Then the lie exceeded that first introduction. It became a reason to set up a proper situation for the future. A cunning plan to keep me close- no, closer than anything possible.

"The prince has requested to stay in your manor for at least a week."

The old man had that unnerving smile even back then. I thought little of it, I saw it more as his own way to smile, not assuming that there was something greater than the reasoning he forwarded as to why Fourier was left behind to stay with me, to be further befriended.

"I found his plea acceptable because of yesterday's ordeal and... I think he would recover quickly by staying with someone familiar for a while."

Another test, another effort to confirm that possibility. No coincidence, and yet there were so many chances of me being an impostor. And many ways to weed out that possibility out of the scope of assumptions. He needed more data, more chances to prove my morality.

"The only thing that I can say for sure is that his Majesty wishes to test your logical reasoning with five precise questions."

Questions that he had given as a moderate effort to gauge not only my loyalty as he told the king about, but my capacity to 'rule'. To be in charge. To be able to stand where 'he' once did. There was a form of nostalgia, one that went amiss when I first spotted it in his eyes as I didn't think much of it.

"Prime Minister Miklotov is trustworthy, that I can tell, and I know that he is keeping a vigilant eye over those that come too close to what is left of the Royal Family."

I had ignored the signs, and taken all the good will forced through the interactions. I had prejudice towards him of being a good person, thus I never saw a reason to look deeper in this even more. I didn't see a reason to think less of what he showed himself being around others.

The way he reacted to everything else- Pandora, the truth about the Witch Cult, the way everything developed… it wasn't trust. It was awareness. Centuries of act manifested in the greatest act of lying I have ever been subjected to. No amount of reservations and paranoia could have spared me from that. I had been tricked so easily, so bluntly and… he was still there- he was still in the capital. And he definitely knew that his game was up the moment I reached the watchtower.

A moment to strike- to act and-

"I-I need to get back to the capital," I blurted out in a panic. "If this is true, then something bad might be happening there as we speak."

"You know who it is?" Beatrice inquired and I nodded grimly.

"Yes. He is- we need to get back quick," I replied nervously, my mind burning with many options to ponder about when it comes to get there as quickly as possible. Normal trips would take too long but- "Does the watchtower have a waypoint?"

Shaula blinked. "It does but-"

"I need to get back there quickly. If I don't there might be something worse than what happened with Satella. I need to be there now."

I think this was the first time I behaved this erratically, and it was doing a good job in putting everyone on the edge. I could tell that Miklotov- no, Dolos was going to try something. He wasn't going down without a fight or without ruining everything to make his death even more 'meaningful'.

"Y-Yes. I understand," The humanized mabeast replied nervously. Still, instead of leading us somewhere else, she retrieved a sphere from her bag and poured some mana in it. Soon a seal appeared under our feet, with the witches, Reid and Volcanica moving out of the way as magic started to cover us in a soft blanket and… pull us away from this place, and right back to actually an unfamiliar place. An old study, similar to the one where Alice and I had been pulled into Echidna's dream-like bubble. Another place I hadn't learned about? Another study once owned by Flugel?

"I think we are… here?" Shaula asked weakly, and I reached out as she looked ready to fall down on the ground. "I-I'm fine-"

"You're not," I replied flatly and I started to heal her body as it almost collapsed by being out of the watchtower. "I want you back in the watchtower, Bea and Alice will take care of this mess on this side."

The two girls nodded in acceptance for the burden, leaving Shaula relieved but still shaking in my arms.

"I-I'm sorry for… my body-"

"I will help you find a way. Don't… don't beat yourself over it, okay?"

A quiet but accepting hum later, and the girl was 'shifted' back to the watchtower while I took care of this whole mess.

"What about-" Ram quipped, trying to help around due to the horribly bad predicament we were stuck in.

"Considering the way you two were taken away from 'home', I would suggest you take care of Roswaal. That's another issue if it isn't addressed at once."

There was some reluctance from both, with Emilia feeling this the most as she felt part of this bigger mess but… both decided to comply with my response and so it was just me, Majima, and Pandora to take care of this whole affair. We had to act quickly before any nefarious plan unfolded and caused a mess beyond any form of repair.

I had a bastard to catch before he did something horrible, and I wasn't stopping until this disaster was prevented.

The guards were mostly oblivious of any happening, but the ones I found were surprised to learn I was somehow back without any announcement. They were even more surprised when I was quite furious and demanded from them where Miklotov was.

When I heard them saying that he was having a talk in my office with Fourier, I just didn't linger around and proceeded to bolt for my newest destination. Tension was running at an all high, with Majima keeping by my side as we both made our way through the halls of the royal castle until we arrived at the last obstacle between us and whatever was happening in my office. I slammed the doors open, and I stopped what was going on in there. Majima was quick to jump onto my desk, standing between the surprised prince and the intrigued sage.

"John… you are back," The old man muttered calmly. "And… you brought her."

Pandora didn't smile, rather glared at the man and showed genuine anger at him.

"Miklotov McMahon, you are under arrest for high treason and more severe causes."

"So… you now know the truth," Miklotov hummed with no surprise, angering me even more than I was. There was a sense of smug that I instantly picked as I was no longer treating his actions and reactions with velvet gloves. I was the one in charge of him, and he had no means to hold me from seeing the small hints regarding his real emotions on this matter. And none betrayed a complete acceptance of this development. He wasn't dreading this event, he was… welcoming it.

"John?" Fourier asked, confused by the mysterious accusation I was throwing at the former Prime Minister. "What is going on?"

"Fourier, this- this man- this is not an ally or a friend."

"Now, that's an exaggeration-"

"Shut up! How could you think that you would find any leniency for what you did, Dolos?!" I rebuked furiously, and the elder's smile widened.

"Ah yes, that old name of mine..."

"John-" Fourier spoke up again, clearly uneasy at the secrecy, so I gave him a direct but curt answer.

"Miklotov is not his real name. He was there, back when Satella was still free. He was behind the Great Calamity, the one that triggered it."

The blond finally stood up from his chair. "Th-That can't be. He is not-"

"He is not wrong, Prince Fourier," The elder interrupted jovially and his admission left the young man shocked. "But I'm quite surprised you came here before I could have planned a… better setting for this situation."

"Like a trap?"

Dolos scoffed at my accusation.

"Like a better setting. A trap would require having ill intentions aimed at you, and to go against my current plans."

My eyes narrowed at this response. "What do you mean?"

"It wouldn't help my plan if I hurt you or Fourier. Not when my goal is to 'fix' things."

…

"What?"

"Four hundred years. That's how long I have wandered this land. At first, there was ambition, then anger, and finally… submission to fate itself," He answered strongly. "It took me many 'lives' to understand how my first plans were unreachable. Flugel didn't seem to grasp the might of his potential, the discoveries he made being only given to himself, his clique and his family. The people? The teachings we have from him? Only crumbs of what he really knew. So many things kept to himself and nobody else."

"What are you talking about? Why would this-"

"I hated your grandfather for this. He was the one that left me with these doubts back then. I wanted to study and be a great reformer," Miklotov interrupted tensely. "He was the one that 'showed' me what kind of man Flugel was. Everyone praised him as a great man, as someone that would revolutionize the world… and then I learned of his real motivations. Of his selfishness and cruelty towards those that weren't part of his family."

He looked away, pensive about those times. "I was hopeful it was just a mistaken view of the truth. The more I studied under him, the more I learned from his wisdom, the more I saw his sins. He lacked kindness to those that should deserve it unconditionally. After all, you weren't cherished as his daughter, Pandora. That was John's grandfather."

Pandora's face sported a blank expression and I couldn't describe the endless clash of emotions within her blue-eyed gaze. Still, there was much to say and get through with.

"W-Why did you cause the Great Calamity? How would that help you with 'helping others'?!" Fourier demanded, beating back the surprise and allowing the anger born from this betrayal fill up his throat with fiery words.

"He needed a blank slate," I guessed, and Dolos nodded.

"That's correct. I needed to create a better system because the one that existed was rotten to the core. The kingdom managed to find prosperity only because Volcanica was willing to provide assistance against great threats, but before the time this was a Dragon Kingdom, Lugnica was a failing nation. Like it was for many centuries… until John's arrival."

"The end doesn't justify the means, Dolos."

"Which is why I don't seek to be pitied. I'm here to provide the truth, unbiased and devoid of any color to paint myself a hero. It wasn't my intention and… the way things happened after that decision, I can bear the burden in my soul and no longer feel horrified by it. It happened, and I have that blood in my hands."

"Then the others shall know what happened," I argued back. "You will be prosecuted. The truth shall be known to the rest of the world by your own admission."

"...No."

My eyes narrowed. "That's non-negotiable."

"Frankly speaking, John. There is something that can break any form of 'imposition'. Something not even you have control of and that I have long prepared for this occasion."

I thought he meant some last-ditch effort. Something so sudden that I couldn't react to and… I was mostly correct about it. Except the turn of events this situation took was way more different than anything I had expected. The old man slouched over his chair as he finished that sentence, his posture easing and his head tilting downward. We were all tense for a response, for a surprise attack but… nothing happened. It took me a few seconds of precautionary thinking before I decided to approach and see what was going on. Something about this 'reaction' felt immensely odd and I got confirmation of the truth as I reached for his right wrist.

No pulse. He wasn't breathing. His face was pale, no longer filled with life.

Dolos, for much time known to me as Miklotov McMahon, sat limply on my chair, his eyes closed, his heart silent, his life ceased on the spot.

The finale of this centuries-old madness coming to an end not by a legendary fight or a monumental battle of wits… but through an old man's despair closing with his planned demise. There was a numbing silence ensuing this news and soon… the world resumed to be, with life continuing, and yet radical changes coming out of this affair. Fourier knew it, I knew it, and I could tell from a glance as the news of the demise of 'Miklotov' left many either devastated, mourning or merely sad at this departure. They didn't know the truth, and while the temptation was strong and we had a right to proclaim what really happened, we decided to not do that. Not when it was clear this had been Dolos' plan all along.

Dolos stopped being, instead his puppet life as Miklotov was going to be the only thing he could latch his legacy on. Maybe it was 'beneficial' to him in the long run, but that still meant losing the rest of his existence for just a crumb of it. It was a frustrating choice, but too many factors played against us in case of picking Option B. I was baffled by this situation, with Dolos getting the last laugh despite our best efforts. It was infuriating but… not the worst possible. My pride was bruised, but the wound was so unimportant that I preferred to ignore it, focusing mostly on what was left for me to worry about.

Closing the Royal Elections, freeing Satella, settling the witches and aid the next king into a new era.

Sounds simple but… I could tell I was going to struggle a bit with each issue. At least, I had trustworthy people to rely on for the rest of my strange life in this different world, and that was enough for me to go forth and live long.

I had my peace, and now it was time to give it to others.