August 7th
Zeke stood next to the grove of trees and stretched out his back. Sleeping on the ground had been uncomfortable, not that he had gotten much sleep. He was too nervous about the confrontation that was coming today.
After Zeke left, the regiment continued preparing for the attack on Grimm's Lament, but hadn't made any move against him personally. That told the captain everything he needed to know. Just as he had suspected, his father was coming to deal with him, and the attack would happen as soon as he was removed as an obstacle.
A glance at the sun told Zeke that it was just before noon. His father would likely be arriving soon.
He looked back at the camp and was surprised to see Major Ovid walking towards him. He stopped twenty feet from Zeke, and the two officers stared at each other for a second.
"The general will be here within the hour," began the major.
"Yeah, I figured," replied Zeke.
"He's bringing a regiment with him. Once we take the fortress we'll dig in there and wait for the Valean reinforcements."
His father was going to attack a fortified enemy, then immediately use the captured fortress to defend against a superior enemy force that he could have retreated from. No one would ever accuse the general of being afraid to take risks.
General Pantheon was known for demanding the impossible of his men, and for making them more afraid of failure than death. He was also known for throwing himself into the same impossible situations he put them in and coming out covered in other people's blood. Zeke had heard that the Valeans called his father the Souleater, both for the vast numbers of men that he had killed in battle, and the way his own soldiers fought as if they had no fear. Zeke wondered if it was also supposed to be a reference to the general's Semblance.
When he didn't respond, Major Ovid continued.
"It's going to be one hell of a battle. We could use your help."
"I am helping you," answered Zeke. "That battle is never going to happen."
"You're really sure about this?" asked the major.
Zeke thought of the broken window within Grimm's Lament.
"I've seen what's going to happen if we win. I'm ending this war, no matter what it takes."
The major reached into his pack and took out a ration pack and a canteen. He tossed them both to the captain. Zeke's stomach growled. He had pocketed some food and water before leaving the camp, but he'd finished all of it last night.
"Thank you," he said, surprised by the offer.
"Eh, I didn't want to see you die with an empty stomach," muttered Ovid. He turned and began walking back to the camp before Zeke could reply.
Am I going to die? As he scarfed down the food, Zeke considered the coming confrontation. He would try to talk to his father, but he had no illusions about how that was going to go. He had to be ready for a fight.
The question was whether or not he had a chance of winning. His father was a legendary general, the victor of countless battles. Allies and enemies alike feared him. He had also been the one who taught Zeke how to fight.
Well, that last part's not entirely true. Zeke had been taught by several combat instructors besides the general, not the least of which were the Valeans he'd killed in battle.
And he'd been recognized for his skill with the rank of captain. Some people had claimed that it was his father's influence that allowed him to rise through the ranks, but Zeke knew that he had worked to be where he was.
I am strong. My father forced me to be. The war forced me to be.
Fear and confidence warred within Zeke as he waited for the general's arrival. He wasn't sure how long it was before he began to notice movement in the camp. Soldiers were arriving, seemingly from the northeast. It quickly became obvious that his father's regiment had arrived.
Zeke rose from where he had been sitting. A lone figure strode towards him from the camp while the rest of the soldiers gathered to watch from a distance.
General Kronos Pantheon was a giant of a man, almost seven feet tall with broad shoulders and arms like tree trunks. Like his son, he had dark, straight hair and clear, blue eyes, but his face was broader and more angular than Zeke's. He wore a navy cape over his blue uniform, the mark of a general. Clipped to his belt was his weapon, a one-handed sword with a curved protrusion near the tip of the blade. It was known as a harpe, and the sharpened projection allowed it to be used as both a sword and a sickle.
On his belt, alongside the harpe, was his other weapon, a set of small bags containing different kinds of Dust. The buttons holding them shut were magnetic, allowing the general to reach their contents quickly while still preventing the Dust from falling out as he moved around. The bags didn't look like they contained very much, but Zeke knew that his father had all he needed.
Kronos stopped twenty yards away from his son, and the two men stared at each other for a few seconds, hands near their weapons.
"I had to hear this for myself," began the general. "What do you think you're doing, Zeke?" His voice was calm, just as it always was when he passed judgement on his subordinates.
"Something that should have been done a long time ago," he answered, putting as much force as he could into his voice. "I'm ending this war, Father."
"This war will end when we are victorious."
"I've seen what victory looks like, and I don't want it!" shouted Zeke, loud enough for the men watching from the camp to hear him. "We're supposed to be soldiers, but our orders are to sweep across this land like bandits, destroying artwork and taking slaves. It goes against everything that I know is right. It's not worth risking our lives for!"
As Zeke finished speaking, he tried to gauge his father's reaction, but the general's face betrayed no emotion. He simply waited for his son to finish before speaking.
"Do you think that I won't kill you just because you are my son?" asked Kronos, his voice still impassive. He drew his harpe from his belt and pointed it at Zeke. "This is treason, and you will be given the same punishment as any other traitor."
"I don't want to fight you, Father," whispered Zeke as he drew his sword.
"You brought this upon yourself."
As Kronos spoke those last words, he dipped his hand into one of the pouches on his belt and removed a pinch of Dust. He then brought the hand to his lips, placed the Dust in his mouth, and swallowed.
He's using it right away. I guess he wants to end this quickly.
The change was immediate. The general's skin took on a dark gray color and a rough, craggy texture. He seemed to grow slightly, his clothing becoming tight on his body. His muscles made a low cracking sound when he moved.
Kronos launched himself into a run, charging towards Zeke like an angry Boarbatusk. His speed was incredible for having a body made of stone. When he had covered half the distance, he threw himself into the air and raised his harpe.
As Zeke watched his father hurtle towards him like a meteor, doubt overcame him for a moment. Can I win this? Then a string of images flashed before his eyes.
Zeke was eight years old the first time he sparred with his father. He had already been practicing footwork and blade drills for more than a year, but this was the first time he fought with a real opponent.
They faced off in the backyard of the family's manor in Mistral. Each carried a blunted wooden sword, with Zeke's being half the length of his father's.
Kronos came at his son right away with a couple of quick feints. Zeke batted these away without putting himself too far out of position. Kronos followed up with a huge downward chop. Zeke raised his sword to block the attack, only to be knocked over by the force of the blow.
"You should have been able to block that," grunted Kronos.
"You were too strong for me," protested Zeke.
"If you had done the block properly, you would have had enough leverage to stop me," his father scolded. "Now back on your feet."
Kronos knocked his son over a hundred more times before he decided that they were done for the day. Zeke went inside covered in bruises and utterly humiliated.
The general was away from home more often than not, especially after the war started. Zeke had half a dozen combat tutors over the next ten years, working him for hours each day. But every time Kronos came home, they would spar, and every time Zeke would come a bit closer to winning.
The last time they had sparred was five years ago, just before Zeke joined the military.
Kronos crashed into the ground and brought his harpe down in a crushing blow of unbelievable strength. It would be impossible to stop the cut, so Zeke didn't try. He raised his sword at an angle with the guard above the tip, and his father's strike slid along the blade and missed its target completely.
Zeke immediately launched a riposte, swinging his blade around in a circle to strike his father's shoulder. The blow barely chipped at the general's stone skin, but it staggered him and forced him half a step back.
All my life I've lived in your shadow.
Kronos swiped his blade back up at Zeke's face, but the captain spun away from the cut and leveled a slash of his own at his father's eyes, forcing him further back.
Whenever people thought of me, it was always in the context of you.
Zeke chased after his father, attacking with quick, controlled blows that forced the general into a defensive stance.
Even you saw me as little more than an extension of yourself.
Kronos raised his stony arm to catch the next attack and swung his harpe in a horizontal slash. But Zeke pulled his blow and ducked beneath the counterattack.
Maybe that's why you never realized…
Zeke sprang back up and stabbed his sword towards his father's chest. He focused on the Dust crystal set into the pommel, and the blade became charged with electricity.
…how strong I am!
The thrust found its mark and lightning surged through Kronos' body. The general cried out in pain, his stone body doing nothing to protect him from the electricity. He staggered away from Zeke, and his skin returned to its ordinary complexion.
That was the limitation of his Semblance. A small amount of Dust could empower the general for several minutes, but only if his Aura remained undamaged. He'd return to normal as soon as his opponent got a solid blow in.
Kronos glared up at his son, anger finally showing on his face.
"You dare attack me, your superior? Your father? This isn't a fight, it's an execution!"
On the third day of training, Zeke and the other officer cadets were given free access to the sparring hall. Everyone immediately wanted to challenge Zeke, or more specifically the son of General Pantheon.
None of them had the same level of training that Zeke did. He broke their Auras one by one, his superior technique letting him win even when the others were bigger, stronger, or had more powerful Semblances.
But after beating the fifth opponent, he was at his limit. His movements were becoming increasingly sluggish, and his Aura was almost completely drained. He was visibly panting, but a sixth cadet stepped into the ring, smirking at his exhaustion. Zeke wanted to refuse the match, but he imagined what his father would say if he gave up.
The fight didn't last long. Zeke was far too tired to defend properly. A single blow from the other boy finished off his Aura and sent him sprawling on the ground.
"Aw, I thought the general's son could do better than that," his opponent sneered.
"Oh come on, Kenji," called a cadet who had been watching the fight. "He just beat five of you guys in a row. If you gave him half an hour to rest I bet he could kick your ass too!"
"Shut it, Tai," snapped Kenji. "Everyone saw, I beat him fair and square."
Tai scoffed and went to help Zeke to his feet.
The next day Zeke beat Kenji without taking a single blow. Still, the other officer cadets never stopped ganging up on him like that. By the end of training, Zeke could defeat twelve of them in a row without resting.
"You want to execute me?" demanded Zeke. "You have to beat me first."
Kronos grabbed some Dust from another one of the bags on his belt and ate it before Zeke could react. Lightning arced from the general's body. It crackled around his limbs and weapon, surging in power as he moved. Kronos lowered himself into a fighting crouch. Then, with a sound like a thunderclap, he disappeared.
Acting without conscious thought, Zeke swung his sword in a rising parry. His blade caught the general's an instant before the strike would have reached his throat. The force of the colliding weapons unleashed a shockwave that flattened the grass for twenty yards around the combatants. Father and son locked eyes for a moment.
Kronos recovered quickly and launched into a flurry of vicious slashes. Empowered by lightning, the general moved faster than the eye could follow, but Zeke had trained to block bullets with his sword, and he was able to parry every strike. Even as the attacks started coming faster and faster, Zeke drew on his Aura and was able to keep up.
Then, in a flash of electricity, Kronos disappeared again. Zeke immediately swept his sword behind himself, turning aside his father's backstab. He spun around as quickly as he could, but Kronos continued moving to circle him, raining down cuts from every direction.
Zeke's mind went blank as instinct and training took over. He spun in place to follow his father, his sword moving in tightly controlled circles to deflect attacks that were too quick to see. Blades clashed and electricity arced in all directions. To the soldiers watching from afar it looked like the captain was dancing with a thunderstorm.
After a minute of this, Kronos broke off and dashed a few feet away from Zeke. He turned and pointed his harpe at his son, and the electricity surrounding his body formed into a bolt of lightning that flew from the blade.
Focusing on the Dust crystal in his sword, Zeke raised the weapon and caught the bolt of lightning on his sword, absorbing the electricity harmlessly. At the same time, he charged forward, closing the distance while his father recovered from launching the powerful attack.
Kronos realized what was happening an instant too late. Zeke slashed his blade across his father's chest, knocking him away from Zeke and causing his Aura to flash. A second later the lightning surrounding the general died down.
As Kronos recovered from the blow and backed off, his face twisted with rage.
"Who the hell do you think you are?" he shouted. "You think you have a chance of winning? I've killed men who would make you look like an insect!"
Zeke sprinted through the moonlit forest, coming to a stop behind a fallen tree. He could hear the sound of bullets whizzing through the air all around him. He peered past his cover into the darkness, looking for muzzle flashes to mark the enemy's position.
Then he spotted the glint of moonlight on steel above him. Two of the Vacuan officers had leapt over his position, using Wind Dust to lift themselves. They were easy to miss in the darkness, but once Zeke knew where to look he saw them clearly enough. He watched as they landed on a hill behind him, and he immediately sprinted towards them, his Semblance making him invisible to the enemy soldiers.
Zeke caught up to the Vacuans as they were descending on one of his fire teams. He saw the three men in the team, Cho, Hori, and Petrakis, trying to bring their guns to bear. The three soldiers were from different parts of Mistral, but all three had heard of General Pantheon, and all three had decided that Zeke was only their lieutenant because of his father's influence.
The Vacuan in the lead raised his falchion to strike down Hori. Zeke appeared from the darkness just in time to block the attack. He knocked the enemy's weapon away and smashed him in the face with his pommel. The officer's Aura flashed, saving him from a broken nose.
Zeke raised his sword and fired a bolt of lightning at the other attacker, knocking him to the ground. He then brought his blade back to parry an attack from the first Vacuan. He quickly riposted with a jab to the man's face. Zeke continued to batter down the enemy officer before finally breaking his Aura and stabbing him through the chest.
When he turned back to the other Vacuan, Cho, Hori, and Petrakis were pointing guns in the prone man's face. The officer graciously surrendered.
When they returned from the battle having captured one Vacuan officer and killed another, Zeke was promoted to captain. None of his men questioned if he deserved the rank this time.
"You're still underestimating me?" demanded Zeke. "You were the one who drilled it into me that I had to be strong. But you never imagined that I would surpass you, did you?"
Kronos snarled. Then he dipped a hand towards the pouches on his belt. Zeke sprinted towards his father, sword raised. Crap, I should have stayed closer to him. The general grabbed a pinch of Dust and swallowed it a second before his son reached him.
An explosion threw Zeke backwards off his feet. As he sprang back up, he saw that his father's body was wreathed in fire. The flames danced around his arms and head before growing into a towering inferno with the general at the center. Only his precise control of his Aura kept his clothing from being incinerated. Even twenty feet away the heat was sweltering.
"I'll turn you to ash," growled Kronos.
The general thrust his harpe at Zeke, and a ball of fire launched from it. The captain dived out of the way, but a second fireball was close behind the first. He threw himself away from the blast, avoiding it by mere inches, but the heat still battered at his Aura.
Recovering from the dodge, Zeke cast a glance at his father to find the general barreling towards him like a fiery comet. The heat increased with his approach until it felt like Zeke was standing in an oven. Kronos swung his blazing harpe in a huge overhead slash. Zeke parried the blade easily, but the fire still flowed around his sword to strike him. He cried out in pain as his Aura struggled to protect him from the flames.
Zeke backed away from his father, but the general pursued with another slash and another rush of fire. Knowing that he couldn't block the flames, Zeke was forced to keep retreating. At ten feet away, he raised his sword and shot a bolt of lightning at his father. Kronos side-stepped the bolt, and, with a flick of his wrist, he sent out a wave of fire that Zeke had to scramble to avoid.
I can't touch him, and he's burning through my Aura with every second. Zeke knew that he couldn't win just on skill, he needed a plan. He began to look for a way to break the engagement and give himself time to think.
My Semblance would be able to help me hide if we weren't in an open field. There's too much light and not enough cover! That was when Zeke remembered the one bit of cover he did have, and inspiration struck.
Zeke dodged around another blast of fire, and then sprinted for the grove of trees behind him. As soon as he was in the shade, he activated his Semblance and surrounded himself in shadow.
Kronos scoffed at the vain attempt to hide. He raised both of his arms and a huge ball of flame coalesced between them. Most of the fire that surrounded him was drained off to fuel this attack. The general thrust his hands forward and launched the blast at his son's hiding spot.
That's my dad. Give him a bigger target, and he'll just use a bigger attack.
Zeke broke into a sprint directly towards the wave of fire. As he was about to reach it, he launched himself into the air and soared over the blast, landing on the other side and continuing his dash towards his father.
He heard a rush of air when the fire hit the grove of trees, erupting into a conflagration as it suddenly found fuel. As Zeke charged at his father, his Semblance turned him into a speck of darkness against a blinding field of light.
Drained of fire from his last attack and unable to see, Kronos couldn't defend himself as Zeke stepped in with a vicious upward slash. He staggered backwards as his Aura took the blow, but Zeke didn't let up. As he brought his sword down for another cut, he charged it with electricity. The blade hit Kronos' shoulder, and the general's body seized from the surge of current.
Zeke brought his sword back, and then stepped forward with a two-handed slash that shattered his father's Aura and split open his stomach. The general dropped his weapon and collapsed to the ground, beaten.
This is where I step out of your shadow.
Zeke straightened out of his fighting stance and looked over the stunned faces of the spectators. Then he walked forward until he was close enough to be heard.
"You know what I believe!" he shouted. "And now you know that I'm willing to fight for it! I'll fight for what's right, no matter who's standing in my way! I'm willing to die to end the Suppression Act." He paused for a moment, sweeping his eyes over his audience, letting each soldier think he was looking at them. "Would any of you die to preserve it?"
There was a moment of silence that stretched on for several seconds. Not a soul moved.
"No one?" demanded Zeke. "Then I guess this war's over. Somebody check on the general. We're going home."
Author's Note: I've had the basic idea for Zeke's story since volume 2. That was pretty much why I wrote this fic, I was disappointed by what the World of Remnant told us about the Great War.
The funny thing about that is that in spite of how long I'd been considering this story, a lot of the best parts of it didn't come to me until I started writing them. Zeke's story went through a lot of evolution, and I know that I made a number of mistakes with it. Even so, I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.
And with that, we've reached the end of the main storyline. There will be two more chapters to wrap things up. Thank you all for reading.