As the heroes went with the Shepherds back to Yillistol, night was soon coming up.
"Nightfall. We should stop and make camp here for the night." Chrom said.
"Alright, let's get set up." Eijiro said.
As the group set up camp, David was keeping watch in the area.
"You okay?" Simon asked.
"Yeah… I'm fine." David said.
"If you don't want to talk about it. I understand." Simon said as he was looking over Ember.
"I'm just… I'm just a little at unease." David said.
"About the Royal Knights?" Simon said.
David nods. "Yeah. I mean, we had all just accepted them as our friends. I… I don't want them to die like that again. So when Cap charged ahead like he did… I kind of lost it."
"I understand, but I promise you that we will prevent the Knights from sealing themselves away and stop Ogudomon." Simon said.
"I hope so… No, I know we will. We have to." David said before rustling can be heard. "Did you hear that?"
"Yeah. Stay quiet." Simon said pulling out Riptide. "Dark Magic reeks the air." he said before seeing the ground beginning to crack.
"Oh no...is this.." David said as corpses of dead warriors began to rise from the ground. "Zombies!"
"Here they come! LEVITHMONG!" Simon called jump kicking one into an Iron Maiden as it closed on the corpse, leaving only smoke.
David was shooting the other zombies that were coming at him. "Damn it, no matter how many we take down, more just take their place. We need to run. It's not safe here."
"Right! Go go go!" Simon called as the two ran with him shooting at the corpses before he continued running. "We need to get the others!"
One of them tried to slash the two before a warrior in a mask with a sword blocked it. "Go. Run." they said.
"Right, come on, Simon! Move it!" David said as they continued running.
"Whatever those things are, they were definitely brought to life by dark magic!" Simon said.
Simon and David then regrouped with the others as they were bunched up with hordes of undead warriors closing in.
"What are these things?!" Hagakure panicked.
"We've faced them before. They're called Risen. They're undead warriors." Kirito said.
"They can still be cut down like normal soldiers, so don't hold back!" Hope said.
"BAHAL!" Simon called as he crouched and turned away as a large tombstone fell onto a few Risen and crushed them.
"You guys need a hand?" A voice asked as a lance struck one of the hordes. Riding up was a woman with short red hair and in red armor.
"Sully!" Lissa said.
"Hang on guys, I'm comin!" Sully said hacking through the Risen. "...Agh, I knew I shouldn'ta left 'em. All right, you ash-faced freaks! Which one of ya wants to try my lance on for size first? I know just the spot for it: shoved right up your—"
"Hold, Milady!" a male voice called as a well good looking man in fancy armor arrived with a bow at his side.
"Who is that?" Lacy asked.
"My name is Virion, a former duke of Roseanne!" he said. "As well as an archer."
"Archers... their long ranged attacks could work well here." David said.
"So, how shall we clear this field?"
"Chrom and Sully, you take a force through the north wing. Sir Robin and Frederick, you take the south. Virion, Vera, Teba and Kentaurosmon will stay in the back and provide cover fire. Jexi and Hope, you take a force and go straight through the middle." David said.
"Way ahead of ya." Jexi said.
"We're coming with!" Dawn said.
"No...you stay behind with the others." Mayumi said.
"Aw…" Dawn said.
"Hope, time to put that training you've been doing into practice." Jexi said.
"Show us what you've learned." Vargas said.
"Alright. You guys are gonna be impressed." Hope said. "Spectral Fire: Meteor Blaster!" he said uppercutting a row of risen and charging through them midair in a fireball before landing. "Spectral Blizzard: Frigid Cirque!" he then sent cutting waves through a group on the ground that froze and sliced the risen in half.
A group tried to gang up on him, but Hope rolled out of the way. "Spectral Thunder: Discharge Burst!" he said throwing a thunder javelin and blasting lighting at it, making it explode and chain through the Risen.
"Well done." Selena said. "Seems the training we gave you has payed off greatly."
"Yeah, that was incredible!" Jexi said.
"Thanks, Jexi!" Hope said punching another risen in the face. "I've been training with the Six Heroes to expand my arsenal of Elemental attacks for my Spectral style. They wanted to help me get better at my style, and it's definitely paying off."
"So Hope's getting stronger huh? Nice." Gemini said.
"Okay...I think that was the last of them." Teba said hitting the last one.
"There's still that masked warrior, are they okay?" Simon asked.
"We don't know, there's no sign of him." Hope said.
"An excellent display. You really are as good as I have heard." a voice said as the masked warrior came into view. "I didn't think you'd have the power to change fate."
"Ah it's you. Thank you for helping us earlier." Simon said.
"Think nothing of it. I was just doing what I can in the state of things." the masked warrior said.
"Who… are you?" Sachiko asked.
"My name is something I cannot tell you right now, but for now...you may call me Marth." the masked warrior said.
"Marth… okay." Shoji said.
"Now, I must take my leave. I hope we meet again." they said before disappearing.
"That Marth guy is so mysterious. And what exactly did he mean by changing fate?" Ventus asked.
"Maybe he came here from the future to stop something. But who knows." Vashyron said.
"Marth...the hero king? Could that really have been?" Chrom pondered.