Sorry about the massive delay. I wanted to update sooner but I had to put this on hold due the amount of work I've had recently. I'll hopefully be able to work on this more often now but at the same time I have exams coming up. Thank you for your patience.
As the castle was finally abandoned, Marth and the knights continued their trek through the fields in the Altean countryside. They had been travelling for a while now, although all of them were unable to keep track of how long they had been travelling and were now looking forward to the chance to stop and rest, but Jagen was not prepared to take any chances, knowing that the enemy could be anywhere. The others remained silent as they went, trying to draw as little attention as possible, but also lost in their own thoughts. Like many others, they believed that the war would never reach Altea, but it hardly took any time for this to come crashing down. They had heard many times about the devastation caused by Doluna in the previous war, how the rule of Doluna seemed to so many like the end of the world. Was this what the future held for Altea? Would everything that they had known all their lives be reduced to ashes? While they all worried about their homes and their loved ones, Marth was especially worried, struggling with the unanswered question of whether his mother and Elice could possibly escape, as well as the news he had yet to hear about his father.
By now it was early in the morning, and the kingdom was just starting to wake up. Those who were not yet aware of what had happened would find bands of soldiers from Gra, who were meant to be protecting the kingdom, now looting and ransacking everything they could find before the reinforcements arrived to take over. While, Marth and his company had avoided any more enemy encounters since they left the castle, they had to be aware at all times as the enemy, having abandoned their posts, could have been anywhere. Only Jagen knew where they were actually going and all the others knew was that they were heading towards the forest beyond Lake Barr. In order to get there, they had to cross a number of rivers that branched off from the lake, which were used in the region as waterways and as a power source for the many mills along their banks. While there were risks in going along this road, it was preferable to delaying to go on a longer route, only to get captured by the incoming reinforcements. Eventually, after they had crossed the first bridge, Jagen stopped his horse, took off his helmet and raised his hand, gesturing for the others to stop.
"We can rest here for a short while," he said while climbing off his horse. "Cain, how are you doing?" he asked.
To most people, Cain looked like he should have died long before he even reached Altea, yet he kept going, determined to see his mission through.
"It'll take more than these scratches to bring me down," he said while struggling off his horse, somehow still able to stand, but quickly sitting down, leaning against a nearby tree. He then turned towards Marth saying, "Anyway, it's about time I fulfilled my orders. Sir, I have come here to deliver the king's... last words."
Marth paused, wondering if he had really heard what he thought he did, "You mean..." he started but was unable to finish, instead struggling with the pain he was in at the news he had suspected all along, yet continually denied to himself. The other knights also could not believe what they had heard and were at first unsure of how to react.
"You have my condolences sir," Cain continued, "I saw the king fight valiantly to the end, only to be struck from behind by that traitorous coward Jiol, who then took Falchion from his hand and left him to die," his voice filling with more hatred the more he spoke. With any hope he had left for his father now shattered, Marth broke down and was overcome by grief and despair. As Frey heard the news, he loudly cursed the name of Jiol. Even the normally strong Jagen now grieved for not only his king, but a true friend.
When Marth had calmed down slightly from the initial shock, Cain spoke again: "His last words were as follows: 'Tell my son that I leave the future of Altea and of all Akaneia in his hands. Where I have fallen, he must rise and continue the fight in my place. He was born into greatness and he must now be great'", repeating the king's exact words.
"Father... I will not fail you," Marth whispered to himself, although loud enough for the others to hear.
"Now that I have done my duty, I can no longer bear this indignity. I had to flee like a coward as the king lay dying, as my comrades, my own brothers were cut down and whoever was left broken and scattered. I am no longer worthy to live," said Cain.
Frey then spoke, "You did well Cain, and your duty is not over yet. We cannot save our comrades but we can still avenge the fallen."
"You're right," said Cain, looking up slightly. "I will not rest until that bastard Jiol is in the lowest circle of hell."
"You speak for all of us," said Marth "One day I will take back this kingdom and punish Gra for this betrayal."
The earlier fighting, the lack of food and sleep, the hours of walking, and now the news of the king's death had left the company completely exhausted, but even after all this there would be no time to recover. Abel had briefly wandered off to check the road ahead and he soon came back with more bad news.
"Sir," he said, struggling to catch his breath as he had just ran back. "There is some smoke coming up from that building up ahead, and I think I saw some armed men nearby."
"Dammit," said Jagen, as he looked at the road ahead. "We can't stop now. We need to get to the woods and clear the road ahead if the queen and the princess have any chance of escaping."
He quickly mounted his horse and put his helmet back on while the other knights lowered their visors and picked up their weapons. As Cain got back on his horse, his anger at what he had just heard driving him forward, he followed Jagen ahead, forgetting about his injuries, while Marth, Frey and Abel followed behind them on foot, as ready as they could be under the circumstances for yet another fight.
To many soldiers of Gra stationed in Altea, it would have appeared that they had got the short end of the stick, being there only for the sake of appearance, and even now despite being able to plunder as they pleased, really being made to stay out of the way of their superiors. This was done with good reason, as the most competent troops that Gra could call up had been sent to Fort Mennedy with the main army. Any competent soldiers who were left in Altea were now busy attempting to disarm any resistance from the remaining Altean soldiers, and rounding up prisoners in preparation for the arrival of the main army in a few days. For the vast majority of Gra soldiers in Altea however, they were simply left to their own devices, being forced to terrorise the population as many of them had already been doing on a smaller scale in Gra before they were sent here to become, from the point of view of the Gra commanders, someone else's problem.
This was certainly true for the soldiers who had been stationed at Lake Barr, who during the night had been busy raping and slaughtering in isolated homes and mills, stealing anything of value which in the end was not much. The nearby blade mill had nothing but farming tools although one of the soldiers did find a newly sharpened knife that was big enough to be a sword, which he now brandished with pride. Half the places they went did not survive afterwards as the group included two magical tome-wielding pyromaniacs who could not resist a chance to burn people to death but would often end up burning everything in sight. Having been up all night, they were now exhausted and five of them were now resting at the south bridge, while the others had spread out to keep an eye on the surrounding area. It was not long ago that a scout had ordered them to be on the lookout for Prince Marth who had somehow escaped the castle. While the reward for his capture sounded very tempting, the three who were at the bridge were quick to realise that even in the unlikely event that the prince came this way, they had no way of actually recognising him.
As they were too tired to pay attention and preoccupied with stolen food and ale, it took them a while to spot Jagen and the others slowly coming towards them in the distance. As they came closer, it became clear to the knights who the men on the bridge were, given the symbol that they all wore, and what they had been up to. Their guilt was confirmed when they finally noticed Jagen approaching slowly and picked up their weapons, getting ready to attack. Seeing this, Jagen charged forward, knowing that his horse alone would be enough to scatter them and put them in further disarray. The others followed, and there was little time before Jagen smashed through them, managing to skewer one of the soldiers and knocking down one more. While this happened, the archer of the group fired an arrow which completely missed its target, and before he could fire another, he was decapitated by Cain, who had fallen slightly behind on his slow farm horse. Abel and Frey, quickly rushed in and stabbed the two men that Jagen had knocked down with their spears. Seeing his comrades reduced to corpses by the superior skill and arms of the Altean knights, the fifth soldier attempted to run but was forced to bring down his axe only to be caught by Marth's sword. Not wasting this opening, Marth stepped in and struck his opponent in the face with the pommel, and before either of them could continue, Frey stabbed the Gra soldier's throat with his spear, causing him to collapse and die, almost drowning in his own blood.
"More over there," shouted Cain, pointing to two more soldiers who had heard their comrades calling for backup and ran back only to see them slaughtered. Now they had the Altean knights coming towards them, and it was certainly an intimidating sight. In their armour they looked barely human, more like angels of death coming to punish them for their crimes. By now there was no escape and it did not take long for Jagen to run one of them down while Frey engaged the other in a brief fight which he easily won using the superior reach of his spear against his opponent' short axe.
Just as Marth thought the fight was won, Abel shouted "Look out," as another soldier fired his crossbow in Marth's direction. Cain, who was nearby put himself between Marth and the soldier just in time and the bolt hit Cain's horse causing him to fall off, but despite the state he was in, he still managed to turn in mid air and land on his side into the mud before rolling onto his front and standing up again, completely unharmed. To Marth, Abel and even the Gra soldier, it looked very impressive, but it what had happened also made Marth realised how vulnerable he was, as he had come close to being hit by a crossbow bolt and he had spent all this time fighting without even a helmet. Abel charged at the Gra soldier before he could have a chance to draw his crossbow again but he was beaten there by Jagen. While the soldier dropped his crossbow and lever and instead drew his stolen knife, it ultimately proved futile as he was trampled by the charging destrier. When this was done, Jagen looked ahead over the next bridge where there were more burned out buildings, some with charred corpses outside before he realised what had happened. As the others caught up with him, Cain having borrowed Freys' spear to use for support, Jagen took off his helmet and spoke one word: "mages."
As the others, seeing the devastation around them, saw what he meant, Jagen continued, "I think there's only one, maybe two or three. Let me go ahead and scout the area. Follow me and keep an eye on everything."
As the others raised their visors, knowing that they were no use against mages and would only impair their vision, while Jagen, lacking a visor, passed his helmet to Abel saying, "Leave it here. I'll pick it up when this is done." Abel nodded and left the great helm on the bridge. Before anyone could say a word, Jagen rode off while the others followed, barely able to keep up, looking in all directions for the mages who could try to ambush them from anywhere. As they came further down the road, Jagen spotted one of the mages further down and rushed towards him before he could get the chance to launch another fireball. As he did so, another mage, who had been hiding at the side of the road, came out of his hiding spot and attempted to burn Marth and the other knights, who were in a close formation and made an easy target. As they scattered, Abel threw his dagger at the mage, which ended up simply hitting him in the head by the grip rather than the blade, as the dagger was meant for close combat rather than throwing. This however, did delay the mage for about a second, which was enough time for Marth to run forward and swing out with his sword, cutting off the mage's outstretched hand. The mage screamed out in pain as blood poured from where his hand used to be, before he was finished off by Marth, who ran him through with his sword.
While this was happening, Jagen had charged at the other mage as fast as possible, managing to dodge one fireball that was thrown at him, and finally as the mage was about to throw another, Jagen knew he could not stop it and instead thrust his lance into the tome, before retreating. With his destroyed tome, the mage could no longer control the fire that he had summoned and was now burning alive, his robes only helping the fire to spread faster. Jagen had been a knight for a long time and had seen some horrific deaths but it was not often he saw someone burning alive, making a futile effort to run as if that would get them away from the flames. He was just glad that Marth was not there to see this on top of everything else that he had been through. The mage soon collapsed, and was reduced to a charred corpse just like he and his comrade had sadistically done to their earlier victims.
Scanning the area, around, Jagen could not see anyone else in the surrounding area, although he did see the body of the mage who had attempted to kill the others. After rushing back to them, he was relieved to find that they were all unharmed, aside from Marth being covered in a little more fresh blood, not that any of them looked much better.
"It should be safe now," said Jagen. "Take any provisions they have on them. It'll take about three days to get to our destination, so we'll have to pick up anything we can get on the way. "
"Right," said Abel, handing Jagen back his helmet.
"Get me one of their shields," said Cain to Abel and Frey before they went to the previous bridge to pick up any food or supplies that could be useful through their journey. To both of them, it felt very strange to be looting bodies, even if they themselves were starving, but given the circumstances it was all part of their duty. It was made even stranger that what they were looting had already been previously looted, although they supposed the previous owners of these stolen goods wouldn't mind now. After picking up some fruit, dark rye bread, a few ale flasks and a shield. It was then that Abel spoke, "Perhaps we should bring Marth back a shield and a helmet," realising that they had to do something about the fact that the one they were supposed to be protecting was the least protected.
"Why didn't we think of that earlier?" wondered Frey aloud. Taking this as approval, Abel picked up another shield and removed a kettle hat from one of the dead soldiers. Leaving behind food that was covered in blood, they went back to the other bridge where Frey handed a shield over to Cain while Abel gave Marth the other shield and the helmet. "Let's hope you don't need them, but we'd better not take any chances.
"Thanks," said Marth weakly, feeling relieved after what had happened earlier with the crossbow bolt, although he could barely keep his mind on anything that was currently going on. The fall of Altea, the loss of his father, Gra's betrayal and the surrounding devastation were at the forefront of his mind the whole time. Nevertheless, he put on the helmet, knowing that although it was a kettle hat of a common soldier, rather than his bascinet, it would do for now. The shield was also a round shield, which was different to what he was used to, but again, it was certainly better than nothing.
"Let's keep going and we can wait at the meeting point," said Jagen before turning off to lead the company further. As they kept going, Marth remembered that after all he had lost today, he still had one ray of hope left: that Elice and his mother would escape and meet up with them. After a few minutes of walking, when they had stopped in front of a barely visible trail into the woods, the sound of a horse coming in the company's direction from behind them was enough for him to think that his hopes had not been in vain, although the fact that it was only one horse was concerning. The knights remained cautious, knowing that it could easily be a Gra scout. In the end however, as the rider crossed the bridge, it turned out to be Malledus, riding a palfrey from the castle, obviously in a hurry to catch them.
"Your Royal Highness, I..." he spoke after he stopped, before he was interrupted by Marth.
"Where are my mother and Elice?" he asked, knowing Malledus appearing without them could not be good news, but still desperate to hold onto his only ray hope. solemn look on Malledus' face however, only confirmed what Marth dreaded.
"Princess Elice has chosen to stay at the castle to buy time for your escape." he said.
"Then we have to go back," said Marth without any hesitation. The knights however did not share Marth's determination, knowing that the castle was lost and that going back would only mean the death of Altea's last hope.
"Marth," snapped Malledus. "Calm down. I know how hard this must be for you but please reconsider. Elice sacrificed herself, so that you could escape. She knows that if the worst has happened to your father, then you alone are capable of wielding Falchion and defeating Medeus."
"I'm afraid the king is dead," said Jagen to Malledus. "Cain here was sent from Fort Mennedy to give this grave news," he finished.
"Heaven have mercy on us," muttered Malledus as he heard this.
As he heard what Malledus had said to him, Marth was now finally understood the meaning of his father's last words. With his father now dead, only he alone could save Altea and all of Akaneia. Elice knew this and she lied to him because she knew that he would not understand if she had simply told him what she was doing. The peaceful life that he had led until now was over and now it was time for him to become the man who lived up to his father and to the legacy of Anri.
"I understand," he finally said after a long pause. "Both my father and Elice were counting on me to be the future of the kingdom. I will not fail them," he continued before asking Malledus, "Do you know what happened to my mother?"
Malledus answered reluctantly, "We never did find out where she was... While there might still be hope, it is... very unlikely that she wasn't captured if she did not come this way."
"I see," Marth answered, more calmly than anyone who was there expected.
"We must keep going then," said Jagen, dismounting from his horse. "We'll have to set our horse free. We'll be on foot from here," he said to Malledus, who seeing the almost non-existent trail ahead, could see why. Malledus dismounted and both of them took the reins and saddles and in Jagen's case the caparison, off their horses, throwing them in a ditch, and turned their horses away.
"We can have some food and rest soon once we get to the planned meeting point. I'll explain where we're going once we get there," said Jagen to the entire company, who almost all breathed sighs of relief. With nothing left to be said, they all followed Jagen into the woods and to whatever they had to face next.
Once again, reviews and feedback are much appreciated. I'm not sure when the next update will be, but I'll try to get done as soon as I have the time. The next chapter will be a milestone as it will not only be the end of the in-game prologue, but it's where I will begin to use larger forces than what you see in the game. Thanks for reading.
