Chapter 7, here we go! Remember, everyone lives on the same planet, but since no one else had the tech to survive the harsh oceans, they thought that the other continents were other worlds. Plus, portals are a thing, so shortcuts, I guess.

Also, ballistae are implied to have engines in the Archanean games. The Japanese narration of Shadow Dragon Chapter 13 states that "metal boxes started making noise" which could only mean motor engines. Plus, in Kris and Beck's support in FE12, Beck specifically mentions that the ballista fruit thingy was used as fuel for the ballistae, but the fruit went extinct in Archanea after the events of Shadow Dragon.

Act VII: Ballistae and Boats

Day 2, 9 AM, Squares Moved: ~14, Squares Remaining: ~36

The ship had a compartment for ballistae for some reason, so King Ephraim decided to bring one along in case it was needed. At the moment, he was showing it to Captain Matthew, who examined the machinery. "Hmm, this seems on par with Archanean standards, although four wheels give it more mobility than the two-wheeled Archanean model. Tell me, King Ephraim, how does this machine move?"

The aged king thought for a while, then responded. "Well, there's a compartment for fueling the machine, a box that could hold at least 50 liters of fluid. Using a strange contraption, the oil of a certain fruit is stored in the container and is pumped into a device called the engine. It allows the machine to move with some input from the ballistician, who propels it forward using the energy from the engine."

"I'm sure that fruit will fetch a pretty price in Archanea, as the fruit had gone extinct there" Matthew mused, "So how is it fired?"

"There's a special lever that could be moved in any direction which is used to control the position of the projectile, then another lever is used to launch the payload. Why do you ask?"

"So it seems to be compatible with Archanea-series ammunition..." The boy mused, "Hold on, I'll be back." The captain then rushed to his lab where Canas and Forde were working on some sort of potion with Erk as their poor test subject. Matthew went to his prototype portal and inscribed some numbers and letters onto a nearby clay tablet magically connected to the whole thing. He focused his magical energy and the portal fizzed to life. If he input the correct combination, he'd end up in the nation of Macedon in Archanea, at the only armory to ever stock ballista ammunition in the entire Outrealms. Seriously. He shrugged and jumped in, hoping that his calculations were correct.

To make a long story short, his calculations were off.

WAY off.

In fact, he didn't arrive in Archanea, he didn't even arrive in another world. Instead, he somehow ended up in another CONTINUITY, in an extremely bizarre version of Magvel.

"Whoa, where am I?" Matthew asked himself. Just then, a coalition of soldiers passed by.

"Is this the place, sister?" A seemingly younger version of Ephraim asked a seemingly younger version of Lyn.

"I'm not sure, Gary Stu, let's ask Wolt." She turned to a boy who was riding a ballista. "Wolt, dear, is this the right way?"

"Of course, milady. You seem tired though, Princess. Would you like to ride with me?" He asked as he gave Lyn a wink and offered his hand. Lyn took it and sat in the spare seat of the siege engine, giving Wolt a small peck on the cheek.

Matthew turned to the rest of the weird crew. There was King Joshua's wife Marisa, although she was wearing dancer's attire, and conversing with some dark-haired young man wearing a white suit with a necktie. A red-haired woman with braided hair was next to them, wearing what were supposed to be Marisa's regular clothes.

Then there came some loud bickering, coming from a blonde woman on a horse with a dagger strapped to her side, and a guy wearing blue wielding a blade that was somehow leaking ink.

"Percy, let's face it, you're such an idiot!" The blonde woman nagged. The guy named Percy just rolled his eyes. "Annabeth, I'm not an idiot! If anyone's an idiot, that Kyle dude over there is."

"Hey!" Protested Kyle, who was wearing orange armor for some reason. He was next to an alternate version of Governor Duessel, who had dark green armor and was chugging down some black fluid from a red container.

"Roy, please do not imitate General Diesel." This time, a younger version of Eliwood was scolding his son, who just finished a similar container and just burped in reply, accidentally burning his father's hair.

Canas was part of their group too, discussing magic with a more powerful version of Lute. Artur was nearby, equipped with the gear of a Hero, and a hooded blonde bishop was nearby, but she was gleefully casting a Nosferatu spell on some brown-haired muscular guy with an awesome mustache and an axe. There was also a man in a blue longcoat riding a wyvern, singing something about not throwing away his shot as he swiftly tossed his spear four times in one turn, and three women on pegasi (one of them looked awfully similar to Princess Tana of Frelia) calling themselves "Angelica", "Eliza", "And Peggy". Seriously, the third one was literally named "And Peggy". There was also a horse-mounted version of Erk wearing brown clothes and stealing from his fellows, with a bow-wielding Serra close by. Somehow, the fabled Altean armor knight Draug was also there, choking points even though there were no points to choke.

There was also a small boy with red hair and tomes of each type of magic, and he was calling out to someone behind him. "Teacher, hurry up!" The aforementioned person was the one who surprised Matthew the most.

It was an alternate version of him, with a silver bow strapped to his back and no draconic features whatsoever, and a special spell tome which emanated cold energy so powerful that he felt it.

Matthew, as in the one who's in this story, decided to look around if there were any unique weapons in this strange world. To his surprise, there were ballistae of both Archanea-series (the Arrowspate and Hoistflamme) and unknown origin (ballistae which shot magic fire, sleet and frost, quick lightning, and even armor-piercing axes), and the fabled Pugi axe of Jugdral, which was sold in shops as a common weapon for only 600 gold.

He made sure to buy at least ten of each unique ballista, five of each Archanea-series ballista, and around twelve copies of the Pugi. Since he was the main character of his ship, the convoy was with him, so he stored it in the 200-slot storage, which was the Archanean standard, compared to the Elibian and Magvel standards, which only had 100 slots. He also bought some strange blades which were really heavy, but somehow could shoot arrows at range.

After around three days of constructing a jury-rigged portal, he transported himself back to his ship.

Day 5, 9 PM, Squares Moved: ~46, Squares Remaining: ~4

"Guys, I'm back!" The captain announced as he stepped out of the portal. Erk, who was on watch duty in case he returned, let out a sigh of relief. "Captain, where have you been? You were missing for at least three days!"

"It's a long story, Erk. Please announce a crew meeting tomorrow before we weigh anchor in Pherae." He replied. Erk nodded and went off to announce it to everyone, who all somehow heard it in their sleep.

Day 6, 5:30 AM, Journey Complete

"Now, you may all be wondering, why did I call this meeting?" Matthew started, and since he was kinda short, he had to stand on a crate so everyone could see him. "I tested my portal, and I tell you, I've seen some weird stuff. Very weird stuff." He then started pointing to Lyn. "You were there, with some guy named Wolt."
Then he pointed to King Ephraim. "You were there, and Lyn referred to you as Gary Stu." The king of Renais looked outraged at this revelation.
Next, the dragon boy pointed to Erk and Serra. "You were there, Erk, and you were stealing everyone's stuff while Serra had a bow for some reason." Erk had a look of denial on his face while everyone visibly shuddered at the thought of Serra using a bow. "Oh, and Kyle wore orange armor for some reason. Eliwood and Roy were somehow there too. Lute seemed more powerful, and Artur was a Hero instead of a clergyman for some reason."

"On a completely unrelated note, I managed to stock up on some ballista ammunition. Wil, may you do the honors of testing out the weird ones I bought?" Wil perked up immediately. He loved riding ballistae, as nothing else could emulate that feeling of riding a fully automated vehicle with siege weapons attached. Or at least, not yet. "Sure thing, sir!"

"Alright then," The captain replied, "Let's move out!" As soon as they got down from the ship, the villagers in Pherae started panicking. "The dragon's come back to kill us all!" They screamed, and ran around like headless chickens. Thankfully, Eliwood happened to pass by and notice the group. "Oh, who are you, good sir?" He asked Ephraim.

"I am Ephraim, King of Renais, from the faraway continent of Magvel." Gary Stu- I mean, Ephraim replied. "I wish to establish an alliance between you Elibians and us Magvelians. Oh, and that kid named Nils over there had a vision that my son was getting married."

"Don't forget that Roy's getting married too!" Nils shouted from the sidelines. Eliwood blinked. "What? Never mind. Let us discuss the alliance first, shall we?" And so the King of Renais and Marquess of Pherae went off to the castle, skipping arm-in-arm like two schoolkids as everyone else just shrugged at the strange sight before them. "So your wife's a dragon too? Let's discuss our 'dragon-fighting techniques', shall we?" Lyn, Nils, and Myrrh facepalmed at that statement.

Then the crew decided to follow them in case they were needed. Who knows what could happen?

That's all for now! Be sure to check out the Selective FE8 PME on Serenes Forest! It has everything in bizarro-Magvel and more! Also, I may have gone too overboard with the meta-jokes there...

This is Vanillite the Dragonslayer, signing off.