Lyon had never really believed in any kind of afterlife, and he certainly didn't think that he would see it even if there was one, not after what happened to him.
If my body is dead, and my soul was supposedly destroyed, then what part of me could be left?
Or maybe I'm not dead. Maybe this is all a nightmare. Maybe something's wrong with my memory. Maybe my magic went awry somehow.
He made a face. Stop doing that, Lyon, he told himself. Maybe I'll wake up, and everything will be okay again. Maybe nothing was ever my fault. Maybe I didn't destroy everything that ever mattered to me. All this speculation is nothing but denial. And denial is where I went wrong in the first place, pretending that all I ever wanted was the greater good. What a fool I was, to trust the Demon King. And now it is my turn to pay for my foolishness.
I wonder if Eirika and Ephraim are okay. I hope they aren't upset that I died. Not that they would be. But I also kind of wish that they were. It would be nice, if someone missed me. If I was remembered as a friend, and not just as Lyon the Mad, last emperor of Grado, or whatever else the historians call me.
Lyon wondered if it was only because he was thinking about Eirika that he could see her.
He saw her, along with Ephraim and Princess Tana, striking down the Demon King's true form. He felt Ephraim's heart break, as Tana fell from her pegasus in a shower of blood. He saw his friends eventually pick themselves up, gather their surviving allies, and begin the long walk back to Castle Rausten.
He saw the funerals of Tana, General Seth, and Marisa. He saw Innes, in his grief, accuse Ephraim of leading Tana to her death, and challenge the younger prince to a duel. He watched as Ephraim managed to end the fight in a draw by breaking both their weapons, rather than injure his rival.
He saw Eirika's baby son sleeping peacefully, and wondered with a flash of jealousy who the father was.
He saw Grado wracked by earthquakes, each one worse than the last. He saw an adolescent girl crushed by falling debris, and recognized her as the girl he had saved in Serafew, long ago. There would be no one to give back her life this time.
He saw Knoll sitting cross-legged on the shuddering ground with a Heal staff in his lap, chanting, as buildings collapsed around him. He felt the older shaman's desperation as his magic failed to stop the quakes, and his acceptance as, when he finally faltered, the dark magic he wielded began to consume him.
Lyon felt like crying, but couldn't, not anymore. But there would be tears enough, he knew.
He saw Renais citizens coming to the aid of Grado, saw Eirika and Ephraim, and young Prince Lyon of Renais, working in the streets alongside the peasants. Lyon wanted to cry again, but in joy this time, knowing Eirika had named her son after him.
He saw Frelia fall into turmoil, and eventually ruin, after King Hayden's brother murdered both him and Innes, and took the throne.
He saw the ambitious Republic of Carcino declare war on Rausten, and realized how much the world must have changed since his death when the theocracy was routed time and time again. L'Arachel's last stand was inspiring, but doomed nonetheless.
He saw the last Sacred Stone destroyed by another misguided fool, so much like himself, and though the Demon King was gone forever, the lesser fiends were not. He saw the mighty Renais Empire, consisting of Renais and the lands that had once been Frelia and Grado, fall to the monsters.
Lyon knew that if he wanted to, he could shut out the visions, and let himself go. But his debt to humanity required him to at least witness its slow death, a death he had brought about.
He saw mankind eventually adapt to a world filled with horrors and nightmares, and one day take back Magvel.
Only then did Lyon let go of his last tie to life, his obligation fulfilled. There was no reason to linger; everything from the life he knew was gone.
Even so, as the former prince of Grado faded away into death, he felt only peace.