A man in spiritual ruins stare into the dark, blank space in the opposite corner of the cell where rats and flies have made nests and left their feces in their absents. While doing so, he wonders the exact state of his beliefs, personality, sanity, and humanity. There has been an increased aggression from his father towards this country, his family, and those that lives in general. Had this not been true, the prince would not even be sitting in this smelly cell that not even an undead can bare to be trapped in.
Just who would throw their son that possesses the mark of a goddess on the right thumb of his nail in a prison to rot? Surely, he is born for something great, yet he knew his father wants him dead at this point. The same man being power hungry enough to force the resources grew by farmers from their possession and using it to empower his army. This man, who had been the symbol of light when marrying into the royal family, plunges Ylisse into darkness, taking any form of creativity, poetry, happiness, or any right to speak back. This king knows that a man's word is powerful, and has punished all those who has broken the Ylissean new citizenship law.
This law has been in place to prevent those with wits from speaking to the public and rousing them. The people here are not able to say more than the basic forms of any languages. The law has eliminated the use of vocabulary and it's victims are monitored by town soldiers to listen to their every topic.
The man in the cell, Balis, is particularly disgusted with the banning of education of anything besides agriculture and common sense. When hearing these laws, Balis knew he is trying to dumb the people down so he can do whatever he wants to them. The inmate has made the fatal mistake that he had learn from forever. As a man in love with creativity, he spoke against his father.
Because he is a tactician, Balis does not really like showing his emotions unless he can do something with it. Right now, the situation has him destined to decay away, so he does not even bother to feel angry, just confused and disappointed. He is a little sad as well, not being able to see sunlight again. His emotions are downed of his inability to help against the upcoming war. Apparently, there has been a group of attacks coming from rebellions in Ylisse.
But then again, who is it in the right here?
Between the way the rebels goes about things and how King Eddrick has been treating his own people, Balis don't know which side to fight. It was his hesitation to pull a diabolical plan of massive sacrifice that got him into this darkness.
There are other tacticians throughout the castle, but they were all taught by the prince and is not as good at decision making as him, himself. In fact, Balis believes that they are actually quite stupid and would be executed for their lackluster tactics. The prince knows that this can't be the end. Were there actually any purpose for him baring the mark or was this some type of fluke, a joke that the goddess found funny? Not by fate's word. Not by a long shot. What happens after Balis thinks about these tacticians proves so.
"Hell," He laughs, "because of their incompetence, this castle might get invaded in any second now..."
*BOOOOM!
...
Slowly, a smirk spreads across the the prince's face as he close his eyes and faces the deeper regions of the cells. Screams, sounds, and explosions of battles echos from the entrance. The Guard of this dungeon has left to contribute to the castle's defense. Balis almost retrains himself from laughing at the sound of him being gutted immediately after he has opened the entrance doors.
"Let's loot this place while the boss is still on his rampage!" A scrawny voice laughs as the sounds of his small footsteps quickly invades the perimeter of this jail.
Another person is heard stomping his way towards the entrance. "Still as excited as ever, bro! I take whatever this poor bastard haves. You go loot his office."
"Sounds great to me!"
Balis acts quickly, reaching in his underwear and pulling out a gold coin he hid behind his royal jewels. Quickly, he slides the coin to the edge of the cell, making it barely visible.
The younger barbarian does not see the man cloaked in royal black and walks to the cell, spotting the gold coin."Oi!?"
"Well, looky here, looky here! I got myself a tip from the god of war!"
Just as his hand grips the contaminated coin, a hand grabs him in his neck, pulling with such force, the greedy fool of a bandit has his skull broken from the impact of the bars. What's better for the prince is the fact that this guy is a mage, like Balis himself technically. In a hurry to do this before the invader's partner rushes towards the location, he grabs the thunder tome, and retreats back into the shadows.
"Benicle! Benicle? What's up!?"
The much larger enemy stops before the mess on the ground, starting at his partner that has the nastiest lump on his head.
"Is the lad really that clumsy!?"
The man spots a flashing light of gold and glowing, floating runes not a single second later. Before he could reach for the sword inappropriately tucked under his belt, his entire body stops moving as it now haves a missing arm. The lightning crackled and sparked within his organs upon the stump and the victim collapses, passing out from trauma and shock.
The prince lowers his spell hand in hesitation as he blankly gaze at the bodies laid before him. One with a concussion, and another who would have definitely died if the bloody socket of his arm was not burnt closed. A strange sensation starts to gather in his stomach and chest. He tries his best to keep it down, to compress and restrain it, to ignore or control it, but it just builds more and more to the point Balis rests his head on his hand.
As the emotion reaches towards a point beyond restraint, he slowly chuckles as the butterflies and tickling sensations grows more and more violent. He attempts to tone down his calm laughter, however he instead laughs louder and louder to the point he is cackling, pushing his arm on his stomach so his roaring guffaw would not exhaust him to the point of pain.
While this episode occurs he questions himself once again. He asks questions like:
"Why is this amusing?"
"What is wrong with me?"
"Why does this feel natural?"
"Am I okay?"
Balis shakes his head, none of that matters right now. Right now is the matter of escaping and praying to every god and goddess possible that King Eddrick will be dead by the time this whole event dies down. Summoning the runes of ancient language once more, he blasts a big enough hole in the cell for him to walk through and faces the exit of this dungeon, a light he has only been able to see from an angle.
With a small smile and calm composure ,he walks towards the light that seems like a gateway out of hell. The area around him blinds him from being now unfamiliar to new light his eyes have to adjust to. When his eyes re-calibrates themselves, he witnesses a small skirmish between a Ylissian soldier and another rebellion within this hallway towards the previous room. The soldier releases racial slurs from his mouth, insulting the rebellion's home nation and belittling him, going has far to dehumanizing the man. This happens as the soldier with much more training easily wear down the rebellion. The sword to lance disadvantage does not help the struggling unit either.
Balis's eyes turns from it's light grey color to a dark blue, stony texture as his stalks up to the soldier. Unable to notice him, the soldier does not know what happens next as the kill was too quick for him to register it. The rebellion fighter watches in awe and horror as the Prince grabs the soldier's helmet and electrifies it to the point his face has exploded, spreading out and painting the halls and spectator with it's face meat and blood.
The faceless soldier drops to the floor, not moving an inch anymore or ever again. Again, Balis leaves himself a little confused on which emotion should he be feeling at this moment after the murder.
"Scram." The prince says to the rebellion.
"B-but, my lord! That was amazing! Just the type of power-"
"That you have no business with. Just because I murder one of my own, does not mean I am joining your causes, motives, and goals. I merely cannot stand the aura of arrogance he was displaying. As soon as I get out of here, I'm never being heard of again."
Careful, the rebellion slowly regains his footing. "H-however, the main reason we've came here was for you!"
"For me? You've certainly have gained my interest. What is it about me that has added towards your motives?"
"We heard of the jailing of the of the prince once he stood up to the corrupted king!"
"So just because we have a common enemy makes you believe that I would share my strength with barbarians like you? Look, I want to get out of here ASAP and if you don't move now..."
"W-we are not barbarians! We are those who resisted the insane laws that is placed by-"
"But the way you go about it is completely unorthodox! Listen to that!" Balis points to the general direction of the fighting. "So you say that to restore the peace this country had before, you decide to raid villages, murder people, and viciously attack castles?"
"We had to take drastic measures and those rumors about us are not true! There are bandits all over yonder in this kingdom who poses as us."
"I don't by it. Don't get into my way of escape."
Before he can turn his back on the desperate fighter, a feminine voice is heard yelling. "Baako!"
From the very direction Balis was about to travel, a small girl with a healing staff larger than her dashes into the scene. Upon seeing this situation between the prince and invader, she smiles broadly, trying her best to ignore the body on the floor.
"Baako! I see you have recruited the person we came for!"
"No he has not." Balis interrupts, "I'm leaving this army, I'm leaving this life of war, and I am not joining you or your group of pointless militia men. How do you even know who I am anyway?"
She laughs, "It's hard not to! According to the paintings, you a mirror refection of your ancestor and tactician who defeated Grima one thousand three hundred years ago."
Baako gathers enough courage to rest his hand on the shoulder of this decedent of greatness itself. "Plus, we are far from a pointless group of militia men. You know the amount of men we have and the amount of them that is dying right this second as you refuse to join us?"
"That's your fault for making that decision and trying to invade here! If I actually trained the other tacticians around here to be good at their job, you would have been spotted and executed faster than you can trip and stab each other by accident."
"Who goes there!? Friend or foe! State your name now or we are attacking!"
Silence*
Shaking. Am I shaking? No, I will not panic now! My wits will overcome anyone and get me out of here!
"You hear that? What they about to do now is attempt execution because you wasted too much time trying to convince a prince that wants nothing to do with you." He knows this procedure because he taught it. The knights will fill the halls in a row with their shields up as more knights and archers comes directly behind them, shooting their arrows and flinging their javelins.
Balis calms down, and smiles once again with his grey eyes twinkling in a way it disturbs the healer and Baako.
"Come and get me! You assholes!"
Baako and his friend turns towards the tactician to see rather he his still sane or not. However, the only thing they see is a beam of thunder that crashes into the knights who came rushing into the area. The prince himself is seen retreating inside the dungeons he came from. Not having much option or any plan, they follow after him.
The healer screams at what she finds, causing the rebellion to chase after her in concern. "Ubon!"
"What did you do to them!?" She retrieve the burnt arm of one enemy and wraps it around her waist with a type of rope. Balis would watch this interesting procedure, but he has problems with the foes that is coming to corner the entire group. Keeping his focus locked, he stare down the band of executors and soldiers that blocks the entrance. Upon seeing him and realizing who he is, the lead knight forms a menacing grin, erasing it as quickly as he got it and glaring at the prince and rebels.
"There's no words for this situation. If he had found out you had escape, you father would have thanked me for doing my job. Men!"
He backs up, allowing the ranged fighters to take his place. "Prince Balis! Born thirteen twenty A.G.F and today will be slain thirteen forty four! Goodbye. Commit the kill!"
Balis could hear the pathetic sounds of Ubon and Baako screaming at their ends. If not holding his focus to the point of sweating, he would have been cracking up. Unknowing to everyone else, he had shot and frozen a rain of thunderbolts towards the unnecessarily high ceiling that rests above the dungeon entrance. With the action of clenching his fist and intensifying his mind, he brings the hail of thunder spells upon the group. Most are knights and is killed easily. A majority of the archers is horribly injured and would not be able to fight ever again without the help of healing staves.
The only person only mildly effected by this is the commander that does nothing but wear a blank face. "Balis..."
"Whoops!" The prince interrupts, flinging another spell at his face, knocking him down, and shocking him just enough for the prince to escape. To make a quick celebration of his exit, he even performs a somersault above the fallen general and sprints his mary way out of here with his arms at the side of his figure like a plane.
"Prince, wait!" Baako yells, refusing to leave his injured friends that is now being healed. The defenseless mage has came about, groaning a bit before standing once more. The inexperienced, armless swords men has regain his consciousness as well, trying not to freak out at the sight of his severed arm on Ubon's side.
"Such a shame to have the prince escape..." The commander stands, ignoring the occasional shock from his steaming armor. "No matter, I guess I just have four more heads to present to lord Eddrick!"
"Don't try it! We can kill you if you come any closer!" Baako yells in desperation. He glances back at the other two fighters, trying to keep his panic in check.
Father, I will not fail you! This land will NOT continue to be stripped of it's spirit and will! God's, Goddesses... I beg of you! Give me one last miracle!
A sigh.
"Camero... Benicle, I know this is a tough situation and very sudden, but I need you to be ready to defend not only yourselves, but Ubon as as well."
Shaking his head a few more times to make sure he is back and ready once more, Benicle grabs his fire tome since his favorite one was stolen. "Yes, pal. I'm in a war after all. Should've been more focused on our objective instead of looting."
Camero pounds the ground with his single arm. "I may have lost an arm, but that does not mean I'll be bested once more!" He points straight at the amused commander in silver. "Demonstrate your capabilities! I hope your skills is as shiny as your armor and bald head!"
"Strangely, I take pride in my ability to ignore my dignity. The only reason I even let you finish your little re-stabilization is because I was quite entertained by how much the prince royally screwed you all over!"
The entire cornered group gasps in shock of the glowing, massive, silver spear that the man seemingly materializes out of nowhere. He raises the lance as it sparks a blue type of lightning and swings it downwards.
"Now, goodb-"
Before the sentence is finished, a much more crude, rusted lance slams into the general's side, knocking him down once more. Everyone is peaking their eyes at this time, so they can only notice that this savior is a friend by the all too familiar obnoxious laugh that sounds like a motorcycle chugging down glue.
With the biggest grin he has ever sported this entire day, Baako screams the name of the only man crazy enough to ride horseback in doors. "Darnell!"
The Paladin rides a horse that looks more like a starving camel, uses armor with obvious cracks and age upon it, and holds up his prize of the day. "By the goddess of my horse's bowels, the objective has been obtained!"
The good news to everyone stacks in quality as they notice that the person being held in the air by his collar (and is thrashing about to escape) is none other than prince Balis.