Chapter 33
Chrono Dragon
"Zaman?" I was very surprised to see this... person enter my mind. How is it possible? "Why do you visit me out of all people?"
Zaman stayed silent and simply pointed at my eye.
"My eye?"
"You are branded too."
"Branded?" I looked at my right hand. My other mark is still there.
"Chrom is branded by Naga, the Divine Dragon. You are branded by Grima, and me."
"Grima? You?" I was confused as to how I was branded by two dragons.
"You have the blood of the Felldragon within, Alec," Zaman said, "If it weren't for your bloodline, you wouldn't have been fully obliterated by the vacuum of the Outrealm."
"Vacuum?" I noted.
"The Outrealm Gate is an entrance to a dimension linking to many worlds. To keep humans of great ambition from traversing the dimensions, we have placed guides and guardians to assist the visitor in their journey."
"So, basically those Annas are the guardians of time and space?" I said after noticing a somewhat obligatory Anna presence in other realms.
"Yes. I've granted Annas my blood as to prevent them from being obliterated by the vacuum of time and space. They can create a special barrier that allows the traveler or travelers to make it to their path safe. Old Hubba is a special person; the man who watches over the Einherjar."
"Interesting," I said, "Now, what does all of this have to do with me?"
"You are a special case, Alec," He put his finger on my chest, "You are a special kind of Chronoblood in two ways."
"Special..." I wondered what he meant by that, so I listened intently to what he was about to say.
"One, you are of Fell and Chrono blood, and two, because of the future events about to happen, you have the power to "absorb" time."
"How do I exactly 'absorb' time?" I asked with a raised eyebrow.
"To absorb time is to gather the "time" of other people from parallel worlds, whether it be you, or those blood related."
"So it's basically killing them, since I'm stealing their time to live," I said.
"No, that's stealing time. When you absorb time, you absorb the past memories of your parallel selves," Zaman replied, "Can you tell me where you think you got those visions?"
I realized it now. The visions of me dying were actually me dying.
"Though, absorbing time means that you must also experience the pain and sorrow you've experienced from that memory. You had no control of it, but your power was inadvertently through your sleep, yet you slowly gained more control of your powers, far from seeing visions in your sleep" He looked at the door, prompting me to look at it too, "Because of this, you've gained the tactical insight of many tacticians in parallel dimensions. Not only you, but others as well."
"Others?"
"Yes, but later on, you relied mostly on the strength you've trained hard for rather than relying too much on this new power. "
"Uh-huh."
"The door is a key to being bathed in Chronofire. It is similar to the Awakening, except you need to go through a much more painful procedure to prove your worth," Zaman said, "But that's for later. In any case, do you know of Grima?"
"Obviously," I replied casually.
"With you having the blood of two dragons, Grima's genes have changed, allowing him to be Fellchrono like yourself."
"Oh gods, that's horrifying," Grima has the powers of time too, but who caused all of this?
"Grima is a dragon, and dragons are able to go through the Outrealm vacuum with no harm done," Zaman said, "Grima's hybrid blood has made him not only stronger, but allowed him to have a stronger link with other Grimas. This means that no matter how many times the Exalt has slew the dragon, another Grima -maybe more- will just re-enter."
"Is there a way to kill him once and for all?" I asked, scared of Grima's presence even more.
"I've used a good amount of my power to ward another Grima from coming at your time," Zaman said, "There's a special hybrid who has a similar power like yours: The power to destroy Time."
Destroying time sounded like ending the universe. Am I trying to look for a person who can destroy the world just to destroy Grima?
"Imperiled, you seem, Alec. When I mean destroy time, I mean the creature has the ability to wipe out all evidence of existence of a living being, therefore, destroying their time."
"So, if the Time Eraser person uses their power on someone, people who are related to the victim will lose memories of that person?"
"Yes. The person is wiped out of existence entirely. Only those with the Chrono blood can remember them. The fabric of time will remold the timelines to fit a world without that person."
"That sounds scary..."
"Yes, but until then..." Zaman opened a giant door behind him and entered through it, "It may feel good to have many yous help you, but not all of the yous are you..."
"Are you saying that I'm connected to anyone of my blood from other dimensions?"
Zaman nodded.
"Before I go," A green orb formed in his hand and he placed it on my head gently. The orb disintegrated into my head, "Grima's presence is growing stronger, so I must suppress your visions of the future temporarily."
"Hey!" I said, "How am I going to win this war against Valm? How am I gonna win against Grima if he were to revive?"
Zaman smiled and shook his head.
"It's been two years, Alec," Zaman replied, "I can sense you using your powers, due to us being connected by blood. Of all those two years, you've trained hard and fought more and more with your own strength. Your powers will be activated sometime in the future. But if you were to use these powers more, Grima will have more access to your time energy."
"What's going to happen?" I asked, "In fact, if you revived me while I was in the Outrealm, how come you chose me out of all people?"
"I cannot tell you what happens in the future, Alec," he said, "I know many possibilities, but it's your future to decide. As for my decision for you being revived; you'll see what I mean in the future."
Reality
I woke up from my bed with my wife, Sumia. She woke up the same time as me and we both looked at each other awkwardly.
"Good morning, Alec," Sumia said with a smile, "Let's pack up our tent. We've got a Conqueror to bring down."
I smiled and nodded to her as we both got up and put down the tent. I saw Nate packing up his tent with the manakete daughter, Nah helping him. As Nate lifted the folded tent, Nah was petting Cugar lovingly, causing the latter to purr lowly. After everything was loaded up, we continued our march to Castle Valm. Sumia and I walked beside each other, holding hands lovingly.
"Sumia, I had another weird dream again," I said to her.
"Is it about one of us dying?" she asked with concern.
"No, I was visited by a dragon named Zaman," I said.
"Zaman? I've never heard of that dragon before," she said, "I'm not so sure if you can just trust a random creature who talked to you in your dreams..."
"He had great insight of time and space, but I think he made a grave mistake..."
"...?" Sumia's head tilted in confusion.
"... I'm not so sure, it's a long story, but I've gotta agree to be skeptical about him," I was a bit nervous, and what I said was a bit blurted out.
"What did he exactly tell you?" she asked with vehement skepticism.
"... No not yet, I feel like the truth is too much to handle," I answered, "It's not about you, it's mostly about what might happen in the future."
Grima would come back any time by now if what Zaman said was right. But, how come another Grima hasn't came to our dimension. Other Grimas would do that even before the original Grima hasn't been resurrected. Is Zaman trying his hardest to guard the Grimas from other realms from entering?
"But all I can say is that Grima will be harder to stop than expected..."
"What do you mean, Alec?!" She questioned me, "Grima is long gone. Why are you worrying about someone who's dead? Did you see him in one of your dreams?"
"..." I kept silent for a while, "No. But there was a dream..."
I told her about the dream where Chrom and I confronted Validar in some sort of temple. After we slew the Sorcerer, I was possessed by some evil spirit and impaled my comrade with a lightning spear.
"Goodness," her look showed fear and disgust, "Did you tell Chrom about it?"
"Yeah, I did," I replied, "We're not sure if Validar is to be trusted or not, but the chances of that dream becoming a reality is likely."
Sumia raised her brow.
"If that's the case, how will Validar draw us to him?"
"I'm not so sure," I said with a lack of confidence, "Zaman suppressed my visions. I can now only fight with my own power."
"Visions or not, you're still our master tactician, Alec," Sumia was now optimistic, "You've been through two years of mercenary work after the Gangrel War, so I have full faith in you, always."
Hearing this from my wife made me feel warm inside. I shared that warm feeling with her through a quick kiss on her lips. She was a dumbfounded from my action, causing me to giggle from her reaction.
"I love you so much, Sumia."
Entrance to the Palace
The palace is huge. It had been two days ever since, and all that walking -with frequent rests- rewarded us with making it to the castle. Strangely, the Valmese soldiers aren't present in guarding the outer area around the palace. Could this final stand be desperate?
"Shepherds, we will make our preparations here," Chrom ordered, "Alec and I will discuss strategy while-"
Suddenly, a Bow Knight in imposing armor trotted in with a posse of his own. He looked very different for a Bow Knight; his armor was more lightweight than the ordinary Bow Knight. His armor was also mostly composed of leather, and his bow was made of some sort of teal colored steel, molded into an intricate frame. Say'ri's eyes widened and quickly hovered her hand over her sheathed blade.
"Ju'Dei, are you gambling to pincer attack us? Yen'fey has fallen, and you still pledge loyalty to the Conqueror?" she glared at the Bow Knight, who exchanged it with a stoic stare, "I'll slice you down immediately if you dare move one step!"
"Say'ri, how can you kill me when I have many people at my disposal?"
A large group of various soldiers suddenly revealed themselves. Paladins and other horseback warriors joined him, foot soldiers swarmed like ants from an anthill, and pegasus knights and wyvern riders suddenly appeared from the clouds as if they were exiled from the heavens.
"The Southern Dynasts?!"
"No, it can't be," Chrom said with surprise, "What do you want?!"
I unsheathed my sword, urging the others to brandish their weapons.
"Say'ri, heed my call," Ju'Dei said calmly, "I've heard what that purple-haired snake said. I pledged my loyalty to Yen'fay, but his will was always to protect you."
"We know that, Ju'Dei," I said, "Are you with us or against us?"
The man still didn't prepare his weapon.
"As soldiers of Yen'fay, we all share his will," he said as he turned to the army, "We, Yen'fay's army, the army serving the true king carry out his will! What is our will?!"
"END THE REIGN! RESTORE THE MOTHERLAND!"
He turned to us again, now with a friendly gentle smile.
"We questioned Yen'fay's service to the Conqueror, but we still stood loyal to his command," Ju'Dei said.
"But how about the ones we killed at Demon's Ingle?" I asked, feeling a bit of shame from killing his men.
"Aye. I pray our forces didn't fight ye that time. We still stood loyal to what our master ordered, but it was all stemming from the fear of the Valmese killing his sister," he replied, "But I forgive thee. Despite a good amount of number losses, Yen'fay's death had opened our eyes and the Southern Dynasts were automatically under my control. My first command of action..."
"USURP THE THRONE!"
"Chrom, Exalt of Ylisse," he announced as he hopped off his horse and walked to him, "I, Ju'Dei Shibotaka, pledge the Southern Dynasts as allies to the Shepherds."
He extended his hand toward Chrom and he responded with a handshake.
I felt relieved from hearing this. The Southern Dynasts, one of Walhart's largest forces, is now on our side. Ju'Dei looked at me with a stern stare and nodded.
"It is high time we discuss tactics, Grandmaster." Ju'Dei said with a serious tone.
I nodded and beckoned him to the tactics tent. I never knew this was about to happen, though I did send scouts. Gaius and his daughter, Noire -who has become an assassin like her father- acted as one of the spies and gave me the scoop on what they were doing. The forces were gathered toward Valm Palace, preparing for one last stand.
Despite their smaller numbers, their army was still larger than ours, and all I intended to do was lead a group and kill them one by one, utilizing the interior's smaller corridors and rooms as assassination places. Now that Ju'Dei is on our side, my strategy shifted from a sneak attack to a full blown siege.
Author's Note
A bit shorter than before, but just a bit of a break from writing over 3k words; most of them involving action scenes. The reason why I made this a bit shorter is because the focus wasn't on action, but mostly on Alec learning something new.
His Chronoblood doesn't give him access to visions, but something more entirely.
As for the surname Shibotaka, it's based on the Kanji Taka, meaning Hawk, and Shi, meaning death. So his last name basically means Death Hawk, a reference to memorable Nomadic Trooper, Uhai.
8-5-14-18-25 9-19 1 20-18-1-9-20-15-18... 23-8-15 4-15-5-19 8-5 2-5-20-18-1-25?