Corrin and the others reunited with the army soon enough, and the trek across the wind tribe continued. There were no dangers, and Hoshido was not bold enough to dare follow them into neutral territory. However, the heavy winds around the country were difficult for messenger birds to easily go through, and only the sturdiest riders could easily cross the wind wall, and since Hoshido was still potentially dangerous for a lone rider to fly above, since a lone archer could attempt to shoot them down, the troop received a bit less information than usual. At a rather crucial point of the war too, since Nohr was apparently spreading fast amongst the countryside.

Apparently, various Hoshidan towns and even smaller forts were being conquered all of a sudden, allowing the Nohrian troops to easily advance across the green plains without needing to be distracted. Who exactly was behind those captures, they didn't really know, though Iago told them that they were on their side and that the soldiers had some more pressing matters to attend to. With the forts now in Nohr's hands, and the towns already taken care of as well, the order had been given to head towards Fort Jinya, but also Fort Sakiya, Fort Chiyo and others strongholds. All those places would require to be taken to perform an optimum invasion, though Jinya was, by far, the most important. As a result, many theorized that Garon was heading there in person.

However, it hadn't been confirmed yet. Garon, perhaps deducing that ninjas would catch the letters, kept his exact route a secret. It wasn't hard to assess that the King of Nohr would rejoin with his sons and daughters, but perhaps praises still needed to be given to the Nohrian high command for at least not leaking secrets? Regardless, the war was now going Nohr's way. Breaking past the forts would grant them a way towards the wall of Suzanoh and the capital of Hoshido itself.

As a result, Hoshido was calling back its available military and gathering its strength to defend for now. The shock between the two nations would, without a doubt, be heavy in losses. None of the Hoshidan defenders were about to win (indeed, the people at Fort Jinya perhaps expected the Royals to head for them), but every enemy that fell by their blades would make for one less Nohrian attacking the Wall or the capital, which could help them repel the assault, perhaps, and gather the strength to strike back. Not like their odds of victory were increasing anyway. Garon was a mighty warrior, and most Nohrians treated his arrival as the last nail in Hoshido's coffin.

Regardless, the Royals were going to be partaking in an intense fight as soon as they would be out of the Wind Country. Thus, the ambiance was fairly serious. The soldiers gathered were sober and properly disciplined, all ready to stand firm, cross the Infinite Stairway and access Hoshido to storm its gates. All were thinking about the fight that was coming ahead of them, and making their final goodbyes, or simply relishing the opportunity to partake in yet another battle that would shake the continent and mark history.

Corrin, though, was thinking of other things. While he was taking the battle seriously, his sense of confidence made him think that it would be easier than it was hyped up to be. After all, was he not here, along with the entire royal family? The people of Hoshido were mighty, but there would be no royal on the enemy side while all of Nohr's royal family was present for the fight. He wasn't dismissing the fight, but he was sure that he'd be able to handle it pretty much.

What concerned him were the news that had been delivered to him. Learning that his mother had wielded Yato once wasn't as shocking as it would've been to him a few months ago, since he knew from Azura that she was a skilled songstress capable of raising a mighty country-wide shield, but the truth of what happened against Samael, the dreaded lord of Qliphoth, had shaken him. In Nohr's retelling of the event, he was mighty, but was ultimately defeated in an intense fight, after summoning his entire army to battle Garon, in a fight so wide, so catastrophic even, that it burned all of the land he ruled over and resulted in his death. He was also beheaded, and no mention of transformations were mentioned. In hindsight, it made sense that they would keep Mikoto out of the retelling, considering her role.

But regardless… He couldn't help but think of Garon's odd blob form that he had taken at the casino. That utterly revolting form of his had truly shaken the young man back then, and while he hid it well, Fuga and Gunter's retelling of Samael's gruesome transformation brought back those particular memories pretty hard. And now he wondered if there truly was a common point between those two forms. Samael had taken it, but could he perhaps change his form? Could Garon be some kind of blob monster taking human form? The idea sounded ridiculous, and Corrin struggled to contain a scoff before he realized that it'd make sense. Azura's song caused whatever power he used to keep his form to weaken, and he almost transformed in full view of the entire theater… But did Azura especially know that she was weakened? Did Mikoto tell her about this specifically?

He hadn't taken the time to question her yet, since she was often along with Elise and the young blonde rarely understood that her older siblings would need to talk together once or time (in fairness, since Xander, Camilla and Leo were off strategizing as well, she had no one in her bloodlines to really turn to) and he figured that it didn't change much. They had agreed that Garon had become evil and twisted after all, and perhaps she didn't know that he was actually under that form.

"You seem pensive, brother." Corrin pulled himself out of his reverie and turned around to stare at Leo, the young man having decided to join him. "I hope that nothing else has happened during the course of your encounter with the wind tribe leader, we were already quite shocked to see some fresh scars."

"It's nothing, don't worry." Corrin reflexively caressed his own cheek, feeling the scar. It had healed on its own, yes, but not fast enough not to worry the others. Xander had been quite angered by the reveal that Fuga intended to fight Corrin, but had higher priorities to take care of and as such, could not tell the bald man what he truly had in mind over what he did to Corrin. His anger had calmed though, with the reveal that Corrin wasn't truly wounded nor troubled by what had transpired and the fact that Fuga had revealed how to unlock Yato's second form was seen as an acceptable trade-off, though the siblings were still ashamed of their carelessness with sending their beloved brother off to fight the powerful leader of the tribe.

"You and Xander should be closer." Said Leo. "You apparently need to prove your trust to one another to truly transform Yato. And I would rather have this power available to us early on rather than have you awaken it in the middle of the last fight. Well, I guess that it would still be good for us in a way." He tapped his head.

"I understand, Leo." Said Corrin. "But I think that our trust will come in the midst of a battle or after some important event, like… Our trust is already really high because we grew up together and I chose Nohr instead of Hoshido, right? It only transformed after you went out of your way to help me and risked Garon's wrath." The young man tapped on the pommel of his sword. "I think that it'll come down to something similar, where we show that we're ready to defy authority together and do what's right. I don't think that it's just a matter of talking to one another until we deepen our relationship enough." Said Corrin. "Gaining power from hanging out with someone else does sounds nice though."

"Well then. You know what the sword does, so I'll leave it up to you." He said. "Regardless, we are to be heading into the Infinite Stairway soon. There will certainly be Hoshidan soldiers waiting for us in there, so we will need to be ready to face heavy resistance. Let's meet up with the others."

"Huh? Wouldn't taking the Stairway cause us a safer passage to Hoshido though?" Said Corrin, as Jagen walked alongside Leo's horse, Freiga. "I knew that they would defend it but…"

"Hoshido and the Wind Tribe share that stairway in a sense. The bottom half belong to Fuga, the upper half is under Yukimura's supervision. It is fairly lightly guarded usually, but with the war, and its proximity to Fort Jinya, there will certainly be more soldiers than usual." Leo glanced at Corrin. "You do know that they share it, right?"

"Erm." Corrin blushed and scratched the back of his head. "Oops, looks like I wasn't paying attention when it was taught to me, erm… W-what is it about?"

Leo sighed. "Long ago, the rebel leader Shinya rose up against King Suzanoh. Aware of his inferior power in comparison to the King, he used unusual tactics to fend off the army, like hiding in the wood and striking out against the weaker parts of the squads sent his way, deliberately attacking civilians to spark mistrust and loss of morale and other tactics. Eventually though, Suzanoh managed to trap him by luring him into making an attack on a village." The prince held up his finger. "A village that had his population switched out with ninjas overnight. Shinya fled while his group was torn to shred and reunited with some of his soldiers to flee in the Wind Tribe, where, they thought, they would be safe from being followed. However, Suzanoh had deduced that he would make such a move, and made an off-the-book deal with the current leader of the Wind Tribe. In exchange for increased trading, he would hunt Shinya and bring him back to justice."

"Huh, was Shinya really such a threat? He sounded like an evil man, certainly, but…"

"Suzanoh, as a king, based his politic on intimidation. He truly wanted to make Hoshido a mighty country." Said Leo. "He couldn't allow some rebel leader to make him look weak, so that's why he went to such great lengths to defeat him. And that's why he personally chased after him. Sandwiched between two armies, Shinya and his men surrendered and Suzanoh agreed to let him walk free… But first, he ordered them to build a stairway between Hoshido and the Wind Country. There were ways to access the country already, but the stairway would be freed from the wind's howling. Outnumbered, and kept just barely healthy enough to carve through the stone, Shinya and his gang were made to work on the Infinite Stairway, taking years off their life to accomplish the feat of making a durable way between the two countries. Of course, he tried to cheat at times, but they would simply continue their work and magic would be used to repair whatever weak point they'd attempt to create. Once they had done it, the leader of the tribe then forced Shinya and the survivors to walk on their edifice, to, going by their own words, admire it." Leo frowned. "Shinya was already exhausted but he managed to barely get atop. Just in time to crumble at Suzanoh's feet, and die from exhaustion.

"That's sinister." Corrin frowned. "He was a nasty piece of work but it would've been easier to just execute him instead of dragging it out for years! And what kind of king would attempt to build such a fearful country?"

"Hoshido has had some civil issues before Suzanoh emerged, while Nohr was thriving." Said Leo. "Hoshido had given away some grounds and was seen as weak and less decisive than Nohr, to the point where many criminals from that country decided to escape to the other, believing that they would be safe from Nohrian justice, or any justice at all, if they managed to hide underneath its sun. The two previous monarchs failed to get rid of them, and eventually, Shinya rose out of all that built-up confidence, with dreams of potentially taking over and acquiring the tools of legend for himself. As such, Suzanoh had to do his best to enforce that his country was still the second most powerful in the continent, and he did so by beheading all the Nohrian criminals before rolling their heads at the feet of the Nohrian Queen, over the course of a otherwise quite unmemorable diplomatic dinner." He explained. "And he later built the wall that we will soon be breaking through, along with a lot of the sturdier forts around here. A lot of the military might that is facing us was created by him in some part."

"That's impressive." Admitted Corrin. "Terrible, but impressive… Hey, do you think that we will have an impact like his later on? I mean, we're set to change Nohr in a major way if we succeed." Said Corrin. "Do you think that in the span of a century, Nohr will have changed again? Or will it remain the same?"

"I do not know. If I were honest, I do not think that we can do something like entirely changing it." Said Leo. "But we can certainly make life better for everyone and ensure that future generations will have an easier time changing everything."

Corrin frowned slightly. Would they be working to undo this even in their grey years? He had knew all along that it'd take time, but not that much… Or, well, he had been deluding himself for a bit. Either way, he found himself more and more hesitant to actually go forward and fix his mess now. Instead, he yearned to just be able to go back and find himself a home somewhere in the countryside to settle down unto. But if he did that, would he be any better than the people who ruined the country to start with? Just running away and shunning his responsibilities after he took so many lives? True, it wasn't really his fault if the war had started, but blood was still on his hands and he was a prince of Nohr, the invading country. Not doing anything to help the repair would be selfish, because he was still one of the leaders of Nohr, technically, and practically the one leading the blood invasion. His hands weren't exactly clean and even someone with his naivety knew that "I was just following orders" was hardly a good excuse to make.

Yet, he couldn't help but be sick of the war and yearn to break free from it. He saw his premise of fixing everything as a burden that he added to himself, as if having to conquer Hoshido in itself wasn't painful enough. And as if having to basically pay for the mess caused by everyone else wasn't already enough work… Why did Xander and the others need to carry the burden of Garon's decision? Why did the mad king decide to kill his friend and basically worsen the situation when he had a good shot at ending all that misery before it could happen?

Perhaps Fuga and Gunter had been lying, but the latter had promised fairness and depicted Hoshido as in the wrong to put these taxes on Nohr, so he wasn't siding too much with the country either. His portrayal of Hoshido's fallen king was admittedly a little too positive, with his worst crime being naivety, but Gunter never objected to any of his points and was too loyal to Nohr to speak ill of his own nation… So that was the truth. Or the closest thing to the truth that he could obtain, coming off someone who had less stakes in the matter than anyone else.

But it just wanted him to turn around and defeat Garon instead of conquering Hoshido, and the more time he spent contemplating the issue, the more he realized that all these deaths and destruction on the scale of Dreiz could've been avoided if it weren't for Garon's betrayal. Just why would he do so? He seemed cheery according to Gunter's account. Did Sumeragi bring some men of his own and Garon, made paranoid by the concubine wars and the noble attacks, mistook this for an attack? It'd make sense for Sumeragi to bring his personal guard, even for a diplomatic matter (and especially since apparently he took Corrin and Ryoma himself), but even a paranoid Garon would know better than to attack on sight based on that, since he'd be aware that no king, even one as trusting and powerful as Sumeragi, would go anywhere, especially a neutral country well away from home. But then, what other excuse did he have? And why, especially, would he even want to continue the combat when he presumably loved Nohr or, at least, his children? Why would he attack and ruin his chance at healing it?

Was Garon… Was he Samael in disguise, having somehow survived Mikoto's attack? Or a crony of his, with similar powers, who switched places with the old king of Nohr and plot to do what his king failed to do by at least destroying Hoshido? But how could he so easily assassinate him and take his place, considering Garon's strength and status? And he would have needed to be able to imitate him perfectly too, enough not to get his children suspicious. If Ryoma was to be trusted, Garon was already a weird monster about more than a decade ago, when he survived having Raijinto pierce his throat, but he could still at least procreate a child so it likely happened after Elise's conception at the very least…

Fuga mentioned that the spells of Qliphoth were shared across the countries. Did Nohr get the spell that allows one to become some sort of grotesque empty vessel? Surely this could've taken outside help, so did Iago know? Or at least some mage? He never really learned how the spell worked, beside that it was probably hard. Garon was actually knowledgeable of magic, to a level where he could perform potent spells even without the use of a tome to channel it, an act that few magicians in Nohr could even accomplish, so learning the spell alone and managing to copy it was not out of the cards. He had probably mastered it even more than Samael if he could take some form of copied form, even… But still, Corrin was convinced that some form of help was needed, or some ambitious magic user of Qliphoth would've done it long ago. Perhaps he'd ask Nyx? While she was never mentioned by Gunter or Fuga, she was definitely old enough to have participated and she knew more about magic than anyone else on the continent, so she could give him some pointers.

Regardless, Corrin had to interrupt his train of thoughts for now. The Infinite Stairway, as it was called, was currently coming up! However, it was hard to see from their spot, since it was inside a black mountain that lead to Hoshido. In the distance, he could even see a cliff of a sort, with trees and others on top of it. No wonder the Stairway had to be created: Going to the Wind Tribe from Hoshido and vice-versa would involve climbing this huge cliff alone! Of course, it could've been done in a manner that would not involve the unnecessary demise of several men, bandits or not, but still. He could, at least, admit that Suzanoh had a pretty intense vision of things.

"Alright." Tello held his hand out. "The Hoshidans are going to be protecting that, so I want the mages to form a really solid magical screen in preparation for any boulders that may come across our path. It's a very narrow path, so the archers and free mages will pour their firepower forwards and open up a path for the rest of us to charge across. They have the advantage of preparing the terrain, but we have our discipline and firepower. Don't ever walk back after taking a single step and don't let up once we've got them beaten! Every inch of territory that we gain is a victory in itself!"

"Also." Leo coughed. "Do not let your guard down after our victory. There will certainly be more guards close to the entrance. Those of you who break through should not run off." He said. "So as to avoid being cut off from the others in the middle of enemy territory, but do not, under any circumstance, let your guard down."

"I don't get it though." Said Elise. "Why can't Hoshido just go kablooey on the bridge?" She looked up to Camilla and Azura, her neighbors of a sort. "Like, they could just get us on the bridge and make it go boom! It wouldn't be much of a loss to them." She admitted. "I mean, I know I must be getting all Leony with me being scared like that.."

"How Leony? Just how CUTE can you get, my dear little Elise!" Camilla actually pinched her cheeks, though lightly. "Yes, those evil Hoshidans will likely attempt to spell our doom, but the wind tribe would not allow them to just destroy that stairwy like that apparently." She said. "And we have all those skilled mages who can tell when explosives are afoot! And you either need really big ones or a lot of them to blow up the bridge, so don't worry, things are going pretty excellently! We're just going to need to be careful to check before we make any decision! After all, who knows, the Hoshidans sure are good at hiding their own little secrets!"

"Haha, you've hung out with Leo a bit too much indeed!" Said Xander. "But it is fine. We will check ahead for traps and our wizards are competent. Furthermore, we will be able to progress relatively safely early on. Half of the stairwy belong to the wind tribe so Hoshido will not mount any attack. We will need to be careful, though. Those rats might decide to throw their so-called "honor" away now that we are nearby. I recommend you to be careful, but do not be panicked, as we ascend the first half. The second one, however, will be a different sto…"

"Lord Xander!" A scout ran directly to them."Wind tribes natives are approaching us! They appear to be non hostile!" The Nohrian scout was offered water by another and downed his canteen in one gulp, handing the empty content back to the generous soldier who gave it away. The good Samaritan now found himself a bit embarrassed, mournfully staring at the empty container, but the scout cared little for his water-related plight. "Should we assume that this is a trap? They appear to be running away from something!"

"What sight could send the likes of these soldiers running? Alright, allow them in." Xanderheld his hands out. "It is highly suspicious that these men would end up running away from danger though. I recommend you all to be vigilant. Hoshido may be more desperate than we first thought."

Corrin grabbed the hilt of his sword, but fortunately, the wind tribe guards who ran up to them had broken weapons on them, making it impossible for them to be a threat even if they wanted to. More eerily though, they all looked as if they saw death itself, sometimes glancing at their back (or, more accurately, the entrance to the stairs) in fear. Had Hoshido done something to try to prevent Nohr from entering? Would they be even that desperate?

"Milord! The… The abominations! Faceless!" Barely managed to stammer out the "leader" of the guards. "Why would you send them here, milord? Surely we aren't obstacles for you!"

"What Faceless?" Said Xander, getting down from his horse to help the man recover. "This is neutral territory, we wouldn't send Faceless, and I doubt that those vulgar beasts would've been able to progress into your territory without being spotted. They're barely intelligent around to even go from one point to another."

"No no." The guard shook his head. "The monsters! The beasts! G-grotesque shapes, walking into the cave. W-we attack them, but they just broke our weapons." He made the motion of breaking a spear. "But the Hoshidans above… the Hoshidan above, they… they tore them apart! Limb from limb! And they laughed! I could hear them laughing…" The panicked individual nervously scratched the top of his head. "D-degenerate monsters! Why would you send them in, prince of Nohr? Why would you allow our land's soil to be fouled by those corpses animated by dark magic?" Noticing that the man was getting a little over-dramatic by the end, and now aware that he had a diplomatic accident in his hands, Xander moved to put his hand on the man's shoulder, in a gesture that was meant to be both reassuring yet firm.

"I know not what these beasts are doing here, but know that I would never unleash one of these monsters upon your land." Said Xander. "The royal family will fix its own mistake, and will ensure that these beings will no longer dwell within your lands." The prince then searched for an explanation. "They have been sent to Hoshido, and may have crossed the border at some random point. Either way, their careless owners will receive a thorough punishment and I will promptly warn our wizards to keep these abominations in Hoshido… Though I would rather not have these atrocities be deployed on the battlefield."

"W-w-wwell, yes, you better." The guard found back some of his Wind Tribe insolence. "We-we will head out to get some new weapons, and we better not have to waste them on these creatures upon returning."

"Watch who you're speaking to." Said Leo. "Xander is the crown prince soon to be king, and you're a guard who fled from his post. Though we are sympathetic to your plight, and will work on solving it, do not imagine that you are allowed to speak to him in such a casual tone." The guard grunted but understood enough. His posse didn't speak out, but they did shoot some nasty looks at the Nohrians as they left. Xander sighed upon seeing this, but only shook his head.

"This will not help Nohr's reputation. Fuga will be furious to hear that those atrocious things have been sent ahead." He said. "I will have Iago's head for this, for either sending those beasts ahead of us or for not keeping a tighter leash on them."

"Dear brother, I think that we ought to look at a detail." Said Camilla. "This crass man said that the Faceless broke his group's weapons but spared them before moving to kill the Hoshidans guards up ahead, right? Isn't that odd? Even if they do prioritize Hoshidans, the Faceless will kill the closest living beings regardless, and there was… quite some distance between them and the closest Hoshidans available. How can he and his goons still be alive when they seemingly attracted their attention?"

"That's a good point." Said Leo. "We'll have to see for ourselves. Come."

The ambiance fell a little as the army began to head for the Infinite Stairway. If the Hoshidans had been slaughtered, then they would only need to kill the Faceless. However, fighting them was easier than fighting more trained soldiers from the perspective of Corrin and the other royals. Strong as they were, the Faceless could be engaged from a distance and killed before their prodigious speed could close the distance if given enough distance, and the leading royals had the strength and reflexes to match it. Instead of having to fight through those projectiles, they'd just use some of their own to murder the oncoming horde. Hell, Corrin could always transform into a dragon and plow right through them if he wished to.

But the prospective of fighting those awful monsters wasn't reassuring to all, and their odd intelligence worried Xander and the others.

"I'm not hearing any sound." Said Corrin, once they got close to the Stairway's entrance. It was suitably massive, big enough to fit an entire army. "I think that they're done with the Hoshidans. I can't hear the Faceless though, they're not making any noise."

"How?" Said Elise. "They're always pretty noisy."

"What's even happening?" An irritated Leo questioned. "The Faceless were never that smart or quiet before. Has Iago done something to them?"

"We're going to find out. Get in position."

Usually, there was a outpost in front of the stairway to keep things simple, but it had, naturally, been emptied after its occupants ran away. As a result, there was only really Xander and the others. Corrin got off his horse and took a few steps forth to look up, both to see incoming enemies and to behold the Stairway itself. It was… quite large, to put it in light terms. Even with his enhanced eyes, he could only barely see the light at the very top of it, leading to Hoshido. He could, however, see the numerous corpses strewn along the path. Some were simply torn apart but a few had been outright stabbed into a nearby spike, prompting the young man to back away in shock. Obviously, there were no survivors. Seemingly, all the soldiers posted there had died, and their own killers were nowhere to be found. Did they run off into Hoshido itself to kill off some more soldiers?

A voice emanated out of the darkness. "Masters." Spoke the voice, though there was something wrong in it. They could all hear and recognize what was being said, of course, but it's like they were told by something that could not speak and yet had some vocal cords in its throat. All twisted, wrong and able to send a chill through Corrin's spine. He immediately drew his sword and held it out, being soon joined by the Royals and Tello. Seeing this, the beasts that beckoned emerged forth out of the shadows as well, intending to clear up the confusion. Their mere appearance though, was very nearly enough to drive an attack.

They could see that they were dealing with Faceless, but they were wrong. None of the flesh golems that stood before them looked… normal. There already wasn't much normality about the giants, but at least their body shape, through grotesque, was still vaguely human. Two arms, two legs and one head that had a heavy mask protecting it. All made out of necrotic flesh of course, but at the very least the Faceless was somewhat familiar.

There was nothing familiar with those beasts though. They all looked wrong, in a way that the royals would take too much time describing. The only thing that they shared with the regular Faceless were the green, decomposing flesh, as well as a certain height. But otherwise, they were mockeries of living beings. Odd writhing mountains of flesh with limbs sticking out of parts of their bodies. At least one looked like a massive spider, with massive fangs and six overlong long arms that it used to support its body.

Another had three heads poking out of its neck, though about two were emerging out of the first one's neck, and it had four massive arms and four legs, giving the impression of being a bizarre centaur. Its face was all wrong. It has features, but it was almost like they were stretching out of its head in a way. The eyes, the nose, the mouth and others were visible but below the skin for some reason, not that this seemed to bother the undead, who was able to easily slaughter a troop worth of Hoshidans even with its handicap.

The leader was the less grotesque but he still had exposed muscles there and there and a hood of a sort to mask its head… With the hood itself being an handing pick of its own neck. It also had a muscular frame and body: That Pegasus that it was holding in its massive hands looked like a pony in comparison, and it threw it into the abyss with casual ease, stepping forth before kneeling to its "masters". The beast's companions imitated it, with varying degrees of success since not all of them had knees.

"We…" The leader sounded as if he was almost permanently recovering breath between each word. "Have defeated… the enemy… Lord Xander…"

"W-w-what are you?!" Questioned the Crown Prince. "Explain yourself at once!"

The beast peeked up at Xander. The glowing eye hinted at confusion. "Milord… We were sent to help you… The letter must have been lost but… express no anger nor worry." The being said, almost fearfully. "We are here to help. Proof…" It swept at the scene of the slaughter with its massive hand. "We have killed… the enemy… Do you like it?"

"Y-yes." Said Leo, raising his hand to take command. "We appreciate your help. I take it that you are here to help us with the matter of Fort Jinya?"

"Yes… We were sent in… To help… Sorry if we frightened you…" The being coughed. "The others… cannot speak but all strive to serve you… and we did so accurately…" It brought up a finger. "Is that the good word?"

"Yes." Assured Leo. Once more, he calmed any protest with a knowing nod. Having those grotesque beings in sight was revolting, and they've obviously done wrong, but at the same time they were allies it seemed. And it would be most foolish to remove said allies when they were about to engage in a tough battle against Fort Jinya. And if those… things could so casually kill off the soldiers that were posted there, to the point of badly freaking out the otherwise stone-faced members of the wind tribe, well then.

"Good… I'm sorry, we haven't been taught… language all of us… I speak for the others because that is my purpose."

"What purpose bring you here? Are you a Faceless?"

The being clutched its hood a bit. "Yes." It said. "We were made to… help you. If you chase us away, then what will we do?"

"We won't chase you." Said Leo. "You did your work."

"Leo." Whispered Xander.

"What can I say? While it's true that they've done their work gruesomely, they still cleared the path for us, and it's not like we would've done any better considering how Hoshidans fight to their last breath." He said. "Yes, I understand that you are hesitant, but in a war, one cannot be picky with what they're given. And from a moral stand-point, it is easier to take them along with us and rein them instead of abandoning them somewhere and letting them roam freely." He pointed out. "And fighting them would be pointless. We have an opportunity to go through the Stairway without wasting lives or weapons, we should take it."

Xander contemplated Leo's point and glanced at Corrin, who simply stared at the abominations. He was angry at them, on one hand, but he couldn't feel actual malice out of its voice. It was more akin to a child that couldn't comprehend what it was doing. A child the size of an elephant, with a deformed body built for killing, that already showed its ability to decimate a troop with only a few of its kind for backup, but nonetheless, it seemed to be almost confused at the horrified faces.

"Have we done anything wrong? Have… we missed a soldier?"

"You clearly haven't." Said Xander. "Faceless soldiers, I appreciate your duty to Nohr. You have done well to-" The Faceless chortled and their muscle masses writhed as they basked in the praise. He didn't know if they understood it or were doing something unrelated. Likely the former, he hoped, since the Faceless could at least understand human commands. "To clear the path ahead of us. I thank you. And yes, you will be taken to help with the attack on Fort Jinya." He said. "But there may be some orders you will need to follow. For one, you will strive to avoid taking lives once the battle is over and after the enemy has surrendered." Leo raised his arms above his head. "If the enemy is holding their arms up and dropping their weapons, you are not to kill them. They are no longer a threat to you or the Nohrian kingdom, and it becomes our duty to ensure that they must be taken prisoners."

"Prisoners?" The Faceless asked this as if Leo spoke in some new language that it couldn't decipher, and even leaned forward, putting a large bloody hand on its head as if it was trying to figure it out. "Taught to… kill… only…"

"If so, then you must let the other soldiers capture the people who surrender." Said Leo. "I do not know why you seem to be so… strongly insistent on killing, but know that we need to keep things straight in this army, and the captured soldiers can always inform us about the Hoshidan high command's plans and others."

"Yes if… someone surrenders, we move away… Good…" The other Faceless beings decided to grunt, as if expressing approval, and Leo turned to gaze upwards. "Well, let's head out, shall we?"

…

The trip upwards wasn't particularly hard. The Nohrians were well trained and the cave's cold wind was something of a refresher after spending so many days underneath the sun. But even the Nohrian soldiers couldn't help but glance at the Faceless with something akin to suspicion in their eyes. They were large deformed monsters, after all, and they didn't trust these beasts not to decide to attack them all of a sudden, like their weaker counterparts. Corrin couldn't blame these soldiers, since the artificial beings did cause quite the rampage. He shuddered, in fact, to think of what would happen if they were left unchecked to go rampage across the fort. Sure, they would need to do victims here, but he wondered just how many Hoshidans would even get the time to surrender before these mountains of necrotic flesh would start going to town on them.

"You are troubled." Azura voice rung from the side and he looked to the right to notice her walking along him. "Those Faceless are causing you to ask yourself questions, am I right?"

"Y-yeah." He admitted. "I hope that we'll be able to get them to surrender in time…"

The songstress knew that they would never surrender. Jinya was an essential spot for Nohr to spring the rest of their invasion forth, and Hoshido would rather see it destroyed than taken. The soldiers would either blow it up or would fight to the last against the overwhelming forces deployed against them, so she shook her head. "Hoshido is not a country that back off." She admitted. "You will need to do a lot of damage for that… But the victims are expected in a war. All that suffering won't be worth anything if we give up." She tried to sound like old Gunter, who was hanging in the back. "I'm sorry, Corrin."

"It's… fine." He said. "I know what need to be done." He frowned. "After Jinya, we should have Suzanoh left and then it should be a path to Shirasagi castle. There are other cities but they will be captured in advance. And I can only hope that they will be caught by the people who believe in us."

"On the brighter side, we're not close to the end of the war." She said. "Once we've taken Shirasagi, Hoshido will surrender and…" She looked around. No point about talking about what'd need to be done with Garon. The old king was definitely not giving up his crown that easily or he was looking to trick them. Either way, he needed to be taken care of. And that would mean perhaps going through Iago and Hans. He contemplated on what he heard Shura say back when they saved Mozu, about the inevitability of a civil war. If they got Garon, then the scumbags who stuck with him would also try to rise up to keep the power that they've managed to worm their way into.

Not that he was particularly fearful or even apprehensive. Well, he would rather not have brothers and sisters fight to the death, but he'd very much enjoy beating Hans into a whimpering pulp, or even splitting Garon in half with a sword swing. And while he knew that those were bad thoughts to have, fueled by anger and resentment, he actually didn't mind these violent images or the violent voice that accompanied them. If he were honest, he's been thinking about sending Hans straight to hell ever since last year, when the brutish man attacked those Hoshidans at the canyon and sent Gunter to the bottom of it. And while the older man had survived, Corrin's anger at Hans for that particular act hadn't dropped one bit. He still came close to killing him after all.

The next time he'd see him though, he'd challenge him according to old Nohrian rules and would beat the crap out of him. This would teach him a lesson first and foremost, and it would allow Corrin to be able to beat him to his heart's desires without risking anything. Of course, the bald man would refuse, but he was too stupid, too arrogant too, to consider himself threatened by the younger man. Corrin would've continued to think about how much he hated that hairless ape of a Nohrian, but the sun ahead revealed that they were close to crossing out into Hoshido again. Leo turned towards the Faceless, who were walking/hobbling/crawling along next to them and gestured at the horizon, prompting the beasts to move ahead and out of the stairway to check for any potential defense, in the hope that they would be able to overcome it in time… Or die trying. Not that this particular scenario bothered Corrin nor Leo. The group left the Stairway, and set their sights on the green land in front of them now, with a cool, soft wind blowing forth instead of a battering gale. A particularly nostalgic soldier even took off his helmet. "Heh." He said. "I can feel the wind without it smacking me in the face." He said. And there was truth to his word, in that the wind definitely didn't smack him in the face. The hand of the Berserker next to him, however, definitely did.

"Put your helmet back, you shit! We're back in hostile territory!"

"Easy boys." Said Tello. "You're right, but we should keep our actual blows against the enemy. Speaking of that." Tello swept his eyes across the horizon and managed to spot Fort Jinya in the distance, thanks to the immense tower present on its center, just like he could see a lot of Hoshidans being torn apart and killed by the Faceless nearby, their guardposts being quickly reduced to rubbles by the Faceless's mighty charges was probably demoralizing, on one hand. On the other, though, they'd lose the advantage of surprise. Not like they really had it, given their size and proximity to the guards, but Tello at least hoped that he could get into position.

"Alright… Set up the balistas and other devices." He said. "A few of you will stay behind and guard the structures. You'll use this position to batter away at the fort from afar and weaken the place for the attack." He ordered. "Avoid the tower, it's where the civilians are at and those guys don't have weapons or, at least, won't have the skill to use it. Just kill everything with an uniform that isn't ours though, simple?"

"It would be good if we could get the fort in proper condition but don't hesitate to cause some damage. Anything that could help us fight our way through will help greatly!" Advised Camilla, before approaching the rest of the siblings. "The Malig Squad is prepared, but we're going to need to remove those pesky archers before we can attack the Fort from the inside. And there's bound to be plenty of them."

"We're going to beat the squad positioned in front of the fort." Said Xander. "We'll use the nearby dragon vein to force the door open and then enter in. Once the Archers are disrupted enough, you and the other flies will move in and provide aerial support. Some of you may also consider picking up the slower units and placing them in the fort itself."

"Of course." Suggested Camilla. "But we will need to fight their own flying squadrons first. And we may need some help. I think that you should send in the close-combat units to the fort itself, but keep those capable of long range fighting outside! That way, they will be able to better provide support against the flying squads. Once we've got enough leeway, we'll then bring them in the fort itself. That way, there'll be more spaces for them to count on."

"Yes. In the fort itself, the mages will need the support of the other fighters to avoid having to confront Hoshido's mighty samurais in their preferred range." Leo nodded. "But we will need to protect them. Ninjas can easily get to them and spark heavy damage if they manage to stick in. I suggest that we offer the Faceless to protect them against those ninjas. Half of them should be enough to quickly dispatch them, and the rest will help in the fort. That way, it should be easier to contain them."

"Good idea."

Corrin was listening to their quiet conversation from the very edge of the hill they stood on, observing the fort. It was an important spot, and another turning point to the war, so… was a royal there, perhaps? It wasn't likely, since Fort Jinya was facing overwhelming odds and the soldiers inside were set to die while taking down as many Nohrians as they could, but at the same time, Hoshido likely had something up their sleeve. Why, perhaps the entire Hoshidan fraternity was actually hidden away beneath the white walls, ready to wage the ultimate battle? Hm… On one hand, that was outlandish, on the other, fate had done well in bringing him with his siblings in multiple occasions, even when he wasn't excepting them.

"You shouldn't miss the reunion." Chided the approaching Beruka, standing behind Corrin. "They will need to explain everything to you again."

"I-I know, sorry!" He smiled and scratched the back of his head. "Just thinking of if there are royals or not here. Heh… What do you think?"

Beruka raised an eyebrow and looked at the fort below. "Hm. They'd die." She admitted. "Fort Jinya will fall to us. The King is heading there, after all. They would need to be really stupid or unlucky to allow a member of their royal bloodline to stay there." Beruka shrugged. "… Are you okay?" She asked.

"Y-yeah, I'll be." He said. "I'm… I might just have to do a weird request, though."

"Of what nature?"

…

The entire Nohrian Army had ran down the hill to gather in front of the Fort, in a manner that was quite hasty yet efficient enough to get them all to stand down at the end of the structure. The Hoshidans supposed to stop them laid dead at their feet, thanks to the towering monstrosities that stood behind the royals, all of whom were on horse. All of whom except Corrin, who had insisted to go in barefoot. The request would be insane for anyone else, but Xander approved it, since Corrin has the physical competencies to actually make his demand work.

"Nohrians!" Xander concluded his speech. "We have defeated the Hoshidans at Goemon's trap, and we will defeat them again here!" He rose Siegfried above his head. "And dealt an important blow to Hoshido! But yet, they dismissed this is a lucky stroke! They see our advance as fate smiling down on us! Let us prove them wrong for good! Let us defeat them, right here and now! And see if they blame this crushing defeat on the tides of destiny!"

The Nohrians roared right as the Hoshidans decided to attack with a storm of spells, though most of those were thankfully quickly countered by a similarly-massive spellstorm from the dark mages. The projectiles began to fly overhead as one massive army budged forward towards the other, forming a massive charge that could knock down a massive mountain! And, facing this mighty stampede, there stood Hoshido's finest, spears deployed and shields raised, forming a defense that could stalemate a raging hurricane! More projectiles ran all over the sky, forming various lines that crashed against each other for the more parts, though explosions could be seen on the ground, hitting unlucky soldiers. The figureheads though, managed to survive the onslaught and Corrin began to run alongside Xander and the others.

Slowly though, instead of running alongside, he overtook, and soon, began to run way past Xander and the others, easily outpatcing the entire army with his legs alone. This stunned the others, but caused them to quicken the pace, almost inspired. Seeing the approaching traitors, the Hoshidans tightened their defenses further, but Corrin remembered how Yato worked. He grasped his sword and got rid of his doubts and pain. He forgot who he was fighting, and for whom, and focused purely on his current situation. His current fight against overwhelming odds…

The young man leapt, screaming, and slammed Yato into the army… And a pillar of purple energy answered his call.

…

N/A: Well I kinda lied! But there's action at the end!

Introducing more differences. Smart Faceless! They're inspired by a special character in My Hero Academia but are different. I hope you'll like 'em!

Few Beruka this chapter but this is fine, I hope. You'll see more of her in the final fight for sure!

See ya later!