Reala's "Rise"

Doom returns to the castle in a feigned panic. He bursts into the hall. "King Reala! Leraje has gone insane! She's slaughtering your forces. I barely escaped I did my best to fight her and I think I managed to injure her, but..." he explains allowing in a subtle explanation for Leraje's injuries and nudity. Reala's eyes widen.

"What? You're lying," she says standing up, but right on time more soldiers arrive corroborating the story of Leraje's attacks. Reala struggles to believe it, but everyone is reporting the same thing.

"It's true then. She really was betraying me," Reala mutters and the cold despair in her heart is overtaken by rage. The doors slam open as Leraje enters. Guards move to stop her, but she kills them with a burst of lightning. She approaches the throne. Internally she's screaming.

"Reala please! I don't want to! He's making me!" she wants to scream, but she can't and instead the words that leave her mouth are a declaration of her betrayal.

"I have spent so long taking care of your messes. You're a joke of a king! Without me you'd fall within an hour!" she declares, "and so... I'm going to take my rightful place on the throne. For all of the Darkness to have a truly worthy leader!" she says and Reala swallows and stands.

"You were my friend. My best friend! How could you?!" she screams and Doom can see the tears of anger in her eyes.

"It was a hard choice, but the truth is, I simply chose what was right over friendship," Leraje says and then Doom steps forward.

"My lady, King Reala. I know I am a new member of your court, but I can see you are in pain. I would not have you strike down your friend. Let me fight her in your stead," he requests.

Reala looks at Doom and then steels herself and turns back to Leraje. "I appreciate your gesture, but I am King. I will do what must be done," she says and steps down from her throne. Pushing Doom aside who steps out of the way with an internal smile on his face.

"Everything is going perfectly," he thinks to himself as he steps aside.

"Make it look good," is the order that Leraje receives and she shrieks in despair as she watches herself raise her hand and cast a bolt of deadly **** at her best friend.

Reala barely manages to block it with a magical shield which shatters immediately after and realizing she has no chance if Leraje gets off another shot she brings all her own power to bear. The resulting burst of power blows the front of the castle away. A torrent of dark magic so powerful that it disintegrates all it hits and it engulfs Leraje entirely.

Reala drops to one knee after using so much magic and Doom quickly moves to her side, placing a hand carefully on her shoulder. "My king are you alright?" he asks.

"I just killed my best friend," she answers in a broken sob, but then freezes as Leraje speaks.

"Don't be sad, my King, you barely managed to hurt me," Leraje responds standing unharmed. Her own magic easily letting her protect herself from the blow. Reala looks terrified and Leraje creates a ball of flame and chucks it at Reala, "Die... False king!" she yells. Doom squeezes Reala's shoulder and tosses her aside. Taking the blow for her. The fireball hits and then explodes engufing him entirely. He is of course unharmed, but he plays up the injury. As the fire ends he stands there. His ethereal shell gone, just a charred skeleton and he collapses to the ground. Reala hit the ground hard and gets back to her knees, turning to see Doom's seeming corpse and Leraje approaching him. To everyone's surprise except of course Leraje and Doom's own. Doom stirs and manages to get up into a kneeling position, continuing to act as though gravely injured.

"Well well... I've never seen an undead who was so resilient," Leraje compliments him as she forms a second fireball in her hand seemingly preparing to strike the final blow.

Reala grits her teeth and slings the last of her power. It's a simple bolt of darkness. Under normal circumstances it shouldn't do anything to Leraje, but Doom makes sure that Leraje makes no attempt to defend herself. Feigning being caught by surprise the bolt hits her in the chest as she turns. It pierces right through and Leraje, with wide eyes, her self returned to her for just a moment collapses onto her ass. She sees Reala staring at her with a mixture of hatred and sadness and with all the despair in her own heart she speaks her final words.

"My king... I'm sorry I wasn't... Good enough," she says as she collapses backwards dead on the ground.

Reala rushes over and cradles her dead friend's body, feelings warring inside of her. Doom stands, his ethereal form being allowed to return and cover him again as he approaches Reala and again places his hand on her shoulder.

"Kings must make such terrible choices," he says feigning sympathy and she lets out a choked sob, before quickly trying to regain her composure and standing up pushing his hand off her shoulder.

"You live?" she asks.

"Yes I am already healing. I was gifted with... An unusual amount of resilience for my kind," he says trying to sound humble. Indeed around him he can hear the other members of the court whispering.

"An undead survived a direct fire attack... From Leraje of all people!" one says.

"He must be incredibly powerful," another says.

"It's a good thing none of these people have something like God's eye," Doom thinks to himself.

Reala looks down at Leraje and then speaks quickly. "Someone dispose of this corpse," she says, forcing herself to feign disinterest. Now more than ever she needs to show strength. Without Leraje her rule rests on sand and any mistake could topple it. She needs a new pillar, something... strong and resilient. Her eyes turn to Doom as soldiers grab Leraje and drag her corpse away.

"Would you accompany me. I feel we should talk... In private," Reala says to Doom and he bows.

"Whatever you desire, my King," he says, as internally his grin could split his face in half.