Severa's Tale: Act II

Section B

A Funeral of Flowers

Part XXI

Author's note: I recommend listening to God Shattering Star from Fire Emblem: Three Houses when you see one * mark, From the Heavens from Final Fantasy XIV when you see two ** marks, and All of those Star Allies are with Me! from Kirby: Star Allies when you see three *** marks.


When Lucina returned to the front of the refinery, the mist, Walhart, Severa, and the clones of her mother were gone. The whirlings and clanks of the machinery had stopped as well, leaving naught but uneasy silence in their wake. All Lucina could find was Severa's sword stuck in the steel ground with a note tied to its hilt.

"Take the elevator and face your destiny. Signed: Your Executioner." This was not Severa's handwriting. Hers was crude, but not this crude. A cursory glance to her left showed a raised bridge to an elevator that was not here before.

Lucina walked past the sword, intending to grab the hilt and keep moving to keep her steady momentum. But as she grabbed the hilt when she walked past, she was yanked backward as she tried to tug it out. The sword was so firmly stuck in the ground that it wouldn't budge, no matter how hard she pulled with her arm.

She grabbed the hilt with both hands now. The sword was still stuck. She put her foot against the blade and tried to pry it out. But as she gave one last tug, she was knocked back from the strength of her pulling as the hilt slipped out of her grasp. As she was thrown back onto her rear, she looked up and saw the sword still lodged into the floor, a monument to her lack of upper arm strength.

A sigh left her lips as she shook her head, stood up, and walked back to the sword. She gave one last tug, but it was just as immovable as before. Another sigh was uttered and Lucina went to the elevator and pressed the only button on the panel, watching as the doors slid shut. She could get Severa to pull out the sword later.

Or they could both die to the hands of some crazed ghost her father left for her. Both were valid options.


Rather than pace back and forth in the room he was in, Walhart was content to just stand directly in the center and stare down the elevator. The walls and floor were made of the same holographic material as the room he encountered his nemesis in. Severa's unconscious body was next to the wall behind him, covered with a net that Grima had supplied to him.

But when he snapped his fingers, the material changed to resemble an outdoor field. Bright grass stretched out across the false horizon, giving the room an illusion of depth.

This was a special place for Walhart. It was the site where he had died. And now, he would correct the mistakes of the past. The other party was in custody, his opponent's spirit was broken, and his weapon was freshly honed. As he stood in the middle of this room, with an artificial wind blowing his cape behind him, he continued to stand and wait.

During this pause, he pushed his shield onto his lance. With a few whirrs and clanks, his lance transformed the bulk of his shield into the blade of an axe. With the familiar Wolf Berg in his grasp, he waited some more. A stray thought crossed his mind: what if the girl was too scared to face him? What if she was still blabbering in a corner, crying about her mother? Although it was an amusing scene, Walhart hardly considered it a satisfying end to her story.

But the elevator dinged and out walked his prey. Lucina stared him down from across the field, and so did he in turn.

"So, you have a spine after all." He bellowed in the same voice he had practiced for more than a decade. "I had thought you were still whining for your mother down there. Funny, isn't it? So many clones of your mother running around, and not a single one cares for you." His axe was planted in the ground with his hands on its end. The same pose he used a decade ago.

*"Dust settles around the throne room. Sunlight glitters in from a nearby window, shining on the man standing before the Exalt." Lucina spoke without a single crack in her voice or a jumbled word.

"What the hell are you doin-"

"His crime? Violating the image of the Exalt's mother. A heinous, unforgivable crime that has only one punishment: to be put to the sword." Her voice overpowered his own, something he did not appreciate. Walhart held his tongue. "What say the guilty party?"

"That I have no further desire to hear you read poetry. Now draw your sword and face me."

"Then it is with a heavy heart that the Exalt casts her judgment. May the gods find forgiveness in you, for I cannot." She drew her blade, using a stance that Walhart recognized from a man of Chon'sin. A pose very unlike her father's.

"Your gods are dead." Walhart lifted up his axe in kind.

The wind blew at their backs as they waited for the first move. Walhart, normally composed enough to wait for the first blow, could feel his hands quaking on the hilt of his axe. Here stood his nemesis, his mortal foe, the curse that had plagued him for a decade, yet her focus wasn't on him. Instead, she kept shifting glances to the girl behind him.

Flattening her under his heel might get her attention. And so his back began to hum, expelling a large flame that propelled him forward faster than an enraged risen. But as Lucina stared down the behemoth clad in armor barreling towards her, her mind thought back to the night Grima took her mother from her. How his jaws lunged at her, and how she aimed her sword directly at him.

Instead of shutting her eyes, Lucina stood her ground as she aimed her sword at Walhart, timing how long until he would flatten her. When he was just about to reach her, she felt her resolve flare within her chest.

The familiar blade of light shot from her blade, traveling directly into Walhart's chest and piercing his armor. As the light surged from her blade and pushed Walhart back, he appeared to be stunned. His charge was halted just from the sheer force pushing him back. "A cheap… parlor trick, and nothing more." He coughed as he threw his axe behind him and grabbed onto Lucina's sword with both hands, pulling himself closer and closer with every second.

His visor was inches from Lucina's face. She stared back into the soulless mask as it loomed over her, holding onto her blade as he tried to rip it from her grasp. But after a few seconds of staring each other down, Walhart was thrown back by the power of Lucina's blade. He planted both of his boots down as he skidded along the floor. picking up his axe along the way.

Lucina's furious gaze was all he could focus on as he brought his axe above his head and began to charge, screaming all the while. He swung down on her, only for her to dodge and slice at his knee with her blinding sword. His leg stung from the blow, a similar sensation to the hole in his chest. Is this what pain felt like? How long had it been since he had felt the glory of a wound won in battle?

As he fell to his knees, Lucina capitalized on his fall and aimed a slash at his back, only for him to raise his axe behind him and block the blow with the shaft of his axe. He jerked his injured leg back, kicking her square in the chest and sending her flying backward. But instead of tumbling to her feet, she planted her now-dim sword in the ground to catch herself from flying any further. "Fall, damn you!" Walhart belted out in rage.

"No!" Lucina replied back as she quickly rose upright. She charged this time, watching as Walhart charged in turn. His weapon morphed from an axe to a sword and shield, with the blade of the axe becoming the shield. Their swords clashed, causing the grass around them to ripple from the impact. And again their blades clashed, over and over. Walhart had only ever seen a handful of men repel his steel. So as Lucina's repeated matching of his blows carried on, he felt his posture weaken. All of his energy was being put into offense, but Lucina matched it every time.

With a slip of his foot, Lucina aimed her blade directly at her target: the blue crystal in the center of his armor. The heart connecting him to the world of the living. Walhart desperately tried to block the blow, only for Lucina's blade to explode with a familiar blast of light when she thrusted her sword.

They both closed their eyes from the burst of light, and what they found when they opened their eyes was Lucina's sword had broken through his shield and directly into his chest. The crystal was pierced, and Walhart staggered backward from the blow. During his stumble, he watched as shards of the crystal powering his armor flew out of his chest.

He buckled over and stood on one knee, panting for breath. His armor grew heavier and heavier, and he could feel his grip on this world loosening. Lucina, meanwhile, ran back to Severa and began to untie her from her bond.

She began to shake Severa's head, desperately trying to wake her up until Severa began to slowly open her eyes.

"Huhhh…? Wha time ish it?" Severa asked with a groggy voice. Her eyes eventually focused on Lucina, then to the sun shining behind her. "Is it afternoon already?"

"Sorry for abandoning you." Lucina quietly mumbled as she wrapped Severa in a hug. Severa's cheeks flared in response as she paused, then hugged Lucina back.

"Don't sweat it." She replied, only to notice Walhart in the distance. Severa quickly stood up with Lucina following her lead.

"No…" Walhart roared as he looked up, facing the two girls ahead of him. "Not yet… NOT. YET!" He grabbed his blade and hurled it at the wall next to them, shattering the illusion of the field they were in. But then, he pounded his fist on the ground. Again and again he slammed the ground like a toddler throwing a tantrum, until he began to pry a chunk of the artificial flooring off. "I will NOT be defeated by you! I did not survive death itself just to be sent back at your disgusting, Ylissean hands!"

With the flooring removed, a red button was now visible. Walhart slammed it with his fist as he fell to both of his knees. A metallic tube protruded from the ceiling, which changed from a blue sky to a…

The entire appearance of the room had now shifted to a jumbled, chaotic mess of flashing images, shapes and colors. Lucina and Severa averted their eyes from the bright colors, but still could see the tube latch onto Walhart's back. Two containers descended from the ceiling; one full of purple scales that Severa recognized, and the other filled with purple goo that Lucina recognized. Both were emptied from the container and traveled through the tube into Walhart, who got to his feet.

His armor began to warp from the inside and eventually burst as goo erupted out of it. Thinking quickly, Severa grabbed the sword that Walhart had thrown at the wall and returned to Lucina's side. The goo had enveloped Walhart's armor entirely and left a large blob in its wake.

**The appearance of the room changed again, now a black void that Severa, Lucina, and the blob stood in. Six large hands erupted from the blob, prying the goo away as though it was shedding skin. A head rose, then a torso. Severa's upper body.

"Behold!" The thing spoke, mimicking Severa's voice and flashing a threatening smile. "Your true power, spawn of Grima!"

"What the hell did you do?" Severa yelled back as she gripped her new blade. More of this thing's body climbed out of the blob until it was fully revealed. What now floated before them was part-Severa and part-Grima. The upper torso of Severa with six arms, each brandishing a sword pointed at them. And the lower half of Grima's dragon form, trailing behind like a kite as this monster floated above the ground. Its entire purple body dripped with goo.

"I borrowed some of your organic material, mixed with the essence of Grima, and created a new body using the product of this refinery. It is everything your bloodline can achieve, but given physical form. It is everything that you can never hope to become while you limit yourself! And it shall be the last thing you ever see!"

Severa paused, taken aback by the monstrosity standing before her. Her mind pondered if this was how she appeared whenever she lost control to her fell powers. But as she felt a hand placed on her shoulder, she turned and saw Lucina standing next to her. One reassuring look from her eyes was all she needed to come to her senses. This was not a crazed ghost bent on revenge. This was not some twisted reflection of herself. This was a battle started by her parents that needed to be ended by them.

They both began their charge against the abomination, each flanking a different side. And the abomination replied by blocking both of their strikes in harmony with three swords on each side. Severa dodged out of the way of a vertical slice, only to be battered by the side of another sword.

With one combatant thrown to the ground, the abomination turned to face the one left. Lucina gripped her blade as she watched all six blades point at her. The explosion of light returned as Lucina thrusted her blade, only to watch as the abomination caught her sword with the tips of its six arms, forming a circle of artificial steel that ensnared her bright blade.

With a careless motion, the abomination removed Lucina's blade from her grasp and tossed it aside, then quickly caught her between the sides of two blades. Lucina was lifted off the ground and stared face-to-face with her foe, trying to maintain her composure while she squirmed to break free. "I want you to look at my face as I kill you. I want the last thing you see to be your companion ending your miserable life. I want-" The abomination's speech was halted as it let out an ear-piercing screech and quickly snapped its torso behind, locking onto whatever was stabbing its back.

Severa had clambered onto the back of this beast and impaled its gooey hide with her sword. Purple scales erupted out of the wound, along with more goo that squirted onto Severa's face. But a surge of power made the hairs on her arms stand on edge, the same power that had time and time again almost taken control of her. But as she ripped her claws into the beast's flesh, she felt nothing but a resolve to stay in control.

Lucina was dropped to the floor as the beast turned its swords towards Severa, trying to pry her off the wound. Severa instead ripped the wound open even further before jamming her blade into the hole, then jumping off the beast with her blade still in her grasp. She slid down its hide, opening more and more of its purple flesh as she slid down. The abomination howled in anguish as it began swinging wildly at Severa, desperate to land any hit.

***In the chaos, Lucina darted for her blade and lifted it off the ground, once again protruding the sword of light. Taking advantage of the situation, Lucina stabbed the chest of the beast with the bright sword, impaling it on her sword. "Nngghh!" The beast moaned, grabbing onto Lucina's blade just like Walhart had before. "I will not be so easily defeated…" It began to slide along her blade like Walhart did, but much faster than he had. Within mere seconds it was already bearing down on her.

The familiar form of Grima brought back the memories of that night where he bore down on her. Only now instead of courage in her chest, there was fear in her mind as she shut her eyes. It wasn't until she felt a pair of hands wrap around her own that she opened her eyes and discovered Severa standing next to her, grabbing onto Falchion as well.

"And neither will we!" Severa yelled in response, gripping Falchion and Lucina's hands with all the strength she could muster. The abomination laughed in response as it prepared its six swords to skewer Lucina and Severa, only to pause. The infernal light pulsating from the blade felt different, somehow.

With a bright flash, both Severa's red eyes and Lucina's brand gave off a bright glow, and the light from the blade grew in intensity. Around the blade was a flowing edge of darkness, giving it a defined, purple outline as Lucina and Severa continued to drive the blade into the monster, both screaming in unison.

"What is this? No… No no no!" The monster screamed as the new power from Falchion squirmed inside it, eating away at its body from the inside. With a foul scream, both light and darkness exploded out of the beast's mouth. The two elements danced together in a swirl as they flew into the air before disappearing.

The void-like decor of the room changed as the beast slumped over, eyes devoid of life. Lucina and Severa were back in the white and black tiled room from before, only now a large corpse filled most of it. They removed Falchion from the abomination, still taken aback by the darkness dancing with the light on the blade. As Severa pulled her hands back, the purple outline disappeared. And when Lucina sheathed her sword, the light was gone.

A churning noise filled the room as the corpse of the monster began to shrink. It continued to shrink until it was nothing more than a puddle of purple goo, and out of that goo burst a translucent, blue hand. Another hand followed, and a ghostly figure clad in armor pulled himself out. A few seconds later, the blue crystal floated to the surface; its cracks sealed together with the goo.

Panting for breath, Walhart focused his gaze on Lucina and Severa, who both appeared to be exhausted. With his visor gone, Lucina could see his expression for the first time. But where she expected to find seething rage, she instead found something else.

"Well done…" Walhart spoke, his voice still booming but with a softer tone. "You two have surpassed my expectations… and bested me in combat." With his armor gone, Severa realized that he really was as hulking as his armor made him out to be. "As our blades crossed on the battlefield of the stars, I felt something. Something I had not felt in a very, very long time. The thrill of battle. You felt it too, did you not?"

Severa and Lucina made no response. They simply drew their weapons again, expecting a trap. "Take my blade, by the way. You earned that spoil of war." He pointed to the sword Severa brandished, which Severa finally took the time to inspect. She quite liked the red outline it had, although she wished the shield wasn't broken.

Walhart's form began to fade. "Ah… To die a good death. This is what I yearned for, and I thank you for granting it to me." He paused. "Is there anything you'd like to say?"

In the blink of an eye, Lucina went from Severa's side to behind Walhart with her sword drawn. A long cut has been drawn across Walhart's chest; he doubled over and belted out a laugh as she sheathed her blade. "A true warrior's answer. Your father would be proud of you."

As his form faded out, he placed a hand on her shoulder. She did not turn to face him. "When you fight your way to your mother, tell her that I forgive her."

And with a flash of light, the crystal at his feet shattered. Walhart disappeared along with it, leaving Severa and Lucina in an empty room. Lucina motioned to the elevator and mumbled that the train was probably at the end of the ground floor, although she found it hard to speak through all the adrenaline pumping in her veins. Severa came to her side, and they both placed their arms over each other's shoulders as they walked to the elevator.