Italics = Thought

I do not own Fire Emblem.

Cross published on A03

"GANGLARI, GUIDE MY BLOWS!"

With that, Morrison leapt into battle, aiming her blade to strike at the centre of the group, sending them scattering. She swung wildly towards Leo and Corrin, those she saw as the greatest traitors, barely paying attention to the Royal Blades and Niles.

Raijinto crashed against the cursed blade, sending sparks flying all over. Leo blasted at the demon-woman with his tome, and inspiration struck Corrin. A cruel, vicious thought that could work in his favour. What's more, it was so deliciously Nohrian.

"Morrison!" Corrin thundered. "I challenge you, in the sight of the Dusk Dragon, to Single Combat!"

"Honourless heathens!" Came the spat response. "Why the hell would I trust trash like you to keep your word?!"

"Simple. Because even I have some honour left. One on one. Gives you a better chance than if you took on all of us…"

"Corrin!" Leo hissed. "What the hell are you doing?!"

"The right thing. Something few people remember these days."

"Fine!" She roared. "But if anyone else interferes, all bets are off!"

The Havenite King grinned. "Agreed." He turned to face the others. "Back off, do not interfere."

"Yes, Your Majesty!" Came the instant reply, at least from his own entourage.

"You're a lunatic, Corrin." Leo sighed. "But I'm clever enough to know not to try to stop you."

"Ready, Grand Marshal?"

"Ready, traitor?"

Corrin rolled his eyes, arced his arm back, and launched it forward. Now lance-like, the arm pierced her armour above one of her lungs.

"B….Bastard! Dishonourable bastard!"

"In war.." Corrin smiled as he threw Morrison's own rhetoric back at her. "There are no rules."

Morrison howled with rage, and hurtled toward the man who'd just brazenly assaulted her. Without missing a beat, Corrin swung his blade, driving it deep into one of her knees.

"Honour means nothing if it leads to defeat." Corrin smirked as he kept up quoting her. "The only honour worth fighting for is the honour of victory."

"SILENCE!"

"Honour is not an excuse for defeat." He quoted his last, and used his whip-like arm to cause the woman to tumble.

"….Im…possible.."

Arya. The voice, long since her only companion since taking up Ganglari, entered her head now. You lost..

"No…No…I can still fix this!" The elder warrior's tone was desperate. "I SWEAR!"

You failed. The voice said cruelly. And that means…..

Arya Morrison let out a bloodcurdling scream, and was promptly torn apart by Ganglari's curse. Her corrupted veins all but exploding in a spray of inky black blood. Her armour tumbled down the stairs, splattering yet more fouled lifeblood as it went. When it landed at the bottom, the armour was empty, save for whatever blood remained inside. Her bones were gone, little more than ash washed away by the black tide.

"Bloody hell."

Leo rolled his eyes. "Really Niles? That's the best you can come up with?"

The one eyed archer grinned. "Eh, it seemed fitting."

Morgan grinned. "I like him."

Corrin merely smiled as his brother protested at his retainer, crept up behind him, and crashed Raijinto's hilt down upon Leo's head. As the Nohrian Prince crumpled to the ground, Corrin bent down, and pulled Brynhildr from his grip.

"Sorry, brother." Corrin murmured. "….Tricked you." He turned to face his brother's retainer. "Niles, was it?"

The archer regarded the Havenite's leader with the same, near bored expression he had kept on his face for the entire fight. "Yes?"

"Get Leo out of here. We'll deal with Skald."

"What about your kid?" Niles scowled. "Don't you want to know where she is?"

"Does he truly know where she is?"

Niles's eye narrowed, before he let out a quiet chuckle. "'course not. He's trying to trick you."

"Honesty? How refreshing."

"No point in lying." Niles offered with a shrug. "People get killed that way."

Corrin inclined his head in (almost) genuine respect as he, and his forces marched up the stairs. "Wise policy."

Corrin and his forces were at the doors, when Niles' voice stopped him.

"Hinoka."

The King stopped dead in his tracks, and glanced backward. "What?"

"Cana was with Hinoka last we knew. It ain't much, but I hope it's something."

"Thank you."

Corrin's voice was little more than a murmur, but it didn't matter. Niles heard him. He watched as the group entered the Cathedral, and soon, hauled his Lord up, and carried him down the stairs.

"…Where the hell is Odin?"

Lilith was struggling at her chains. She could hear the distant sounds of battle overhead, and she needed to be free. She'd be damned if her brother could be smug because he rescued her.

With one last, almighty tug, the chains broke. The Havenite Princess was free. Some chain remained on her cuffs, but it didn't matter.

She was free.

"Hey! What's all that noise?!"

It was one of the acolytes. The woman's eyes widened as she realised that Lilith was loose. She drew her long knife, and went to enter the cell.

It was her last mistake.

Meanwhile, Skald was losing whatever remained of his sanity. It was dawning on him that his time was almost up.

"Corrin is here…" He hissed. "The traitorous filth…and the honourless, faithless scum who follow him….Oh, Dusk Dragon...why must you test us so?! Have we not been loyal?"

The Dragon Statue stand proudly over the altar offered no reply. The Head Priest let out a frustrated sigh, and stalked toward the doors.

"If you assumed Corrin was the only danger." Came an amused voice behind him. Now sat brazenly on the altar, smirking broadly, was his now former prisoner. "You are sadly mistaken."

"You? How-…GET OFF OF THE ALTAR, HEATHEN!" Skald all but exploded with rage.

Lilith merely allow her smirk to grow. "No. It's comfortable."

The Head Priest of the Dusk Dragon stalked down the main aisle, steadily picking up his speed so that, by the time he was halfway to the dragon woman, he was all but bolting as fast as his legs could go. He raised his gauntleted fist, to pummel at Lilith..

Only for the dragon woman to vault over the giant of a man, and looped what remained of her chain around his throat, and pulled him to his knees.

"Now, that's better, isn't it?" Lilith taunted. "I can no longer hear your irritating voice."

"Holy One!" Elise's voice, desperate and almost child-like, shattered the silence. Her hands gripped the hilt of what had once been her brother sword, Siegfried.

"Sister Elise! Kill the creature! NOW!" Skald roared, only for Lilith to silence him with a sharp tug of her chain.

"I….I…..I'LL KILL YOU!" Elise roared, and dashed madly toward Lilith, struggling a little to raise her blade up to the correct height to strike. "N-NO ONE HARMS HIS HOLINESS!"

"I did." Lilith taunted.

"DIIIIE!"

Elise swung the blade with all her might, only for an almighty CLANG to ring out around the Cathedral.

"That's enough, Elise." Came Corrin's calm voice, Raijinto halting Siegfried's deadly progress. "It's over."

"No….NO NO!" Elise screeched. "I-It can't be! We are the righteous! The Faithful! We should….MUST SUCCEED!"

Corrin's following backhand threw her to the ground, sending Siegfried slipping from her grip.

Whimpering, Princess Elise allowed herself to cry, curled up into a ball, her wails filled the halls, chilling the blood of those acolytes in the lower floors. Corrin had to force himself to maintain composure, and not try to help her. Thankfully, his loyal Knight offered a reprieve.

"What should we do with him?" Silas spat, allowing contempt to all but drown his voice. "What should we do with Skald?

Corrin regarded Skald, still at his sisters' mercy, for a few moments. "Lilith?" He said at last. "She was the one he captured and made suffer."

"Give him to Dorian." The Dread Fighter said after some mental debate. "See what he can make from him."

"Daaang. That's vicious, even for you, Lily." Morgan grinned.

"And Elise?" Molin asked as his King retrieved Siegfried.

Corrin let out a sigh as he walked toward the doors. "Leave her be."

"…My King?"

"…We've done enough to her."

Alright, I'm going to have to admit something to you all.

I am, frankly, hitting a writer's block, at least when it comes to Darkhearts. Whilst I have no intent to stop writing Into The Darkness, I'm probably going to start working on a secondary project, if only to keep myself going and writing.

So! Since I'm an indecisive bastard, I'll let you guys choose which you'd prefer.

The two options are:

Absence: As a single twist of fate leaves two families shattered, a long forgotten threat rears its head. But what happens when the world's fated hero lies dead?

This would essentially be based in a world where Corrin died instead of Mikoto, and the fallout from said event.

The other is:

The Long Way Round: Hell-bent to save his family, Corrin gets creative, if he cannot save the world now, he'll save it in the past. No matter how far back he has to go.

In essence, this would have Corrin, after a Birthright and a Conquest run, use a deeprealm gate to travel back to either the Concubine Wars, or to the incident in Cheve (haven't really figured that one out yet, maybe even both.) and try and prevent the rise/empowerment of Anankos.

I'll be running this via Strawpoll, link will be on my Profile page.

EDIT: Okay, since Strawpoll seems to hate me, I've set up a poll on my FFNet Profile page. Said poll will be open for two weeks, so will close on the 24th of January (2017)