A very firm knocking sound jolted me awake. After quickly fixing my slightly messed up hair, I opened the door to see that familiar handsome face. "Are we leaving soon?" I asked stupidly.

"Relatively," Ike said. "Most of us are done with our training and just need to mentally prepare."

I rubbed my eyes tiredly and yawned. "What should I do, sir?"

Ike raised an eyebrow. "You're coming to the boardroom with me."

"For what?"

"You'll see."

Luckily, the boardroom wasn't very far from my room, so we didn't have to walk much to get there. And thankfully, there weren't masses of people in there like I (for some dumb reason) expected, so it was just the two of us still.

Once I had entered the room, Ike closed the door behind us and then took a seat across from me at the long table in the middle.

"You'll need this," he said, handing me some food wrapped crudely in cloth.

I kindly thanked him before ravenously digging into it. But as I bit into a juicy apple, Ike started to talk, so I made sure to chew as quietly as possible so I could listen.

He reminded me that I was going to be partnered with him for today's battle since both of our partners were still too weak to fight. As such, there was a desperate need for us to discuss our strategy before the first wave of Daein soldiers arrived. Thanks to the pressure of time and our strategic minds, we were able to come up with a viable course of action in just a few minutes of brainstorming. It all started with Ike mentioning something about how my fighting style was similar to Soren's, so I figured we wouldn't actually have to change much at all. Thus, our master plan was to fight like normal, except I would have to work extra hard to follow his direction and stay close by; something that had greatly challenged me up until that point.

After making sure we both understood what was expected of us, we were as ready as we could be, and we exited the boardroom.

Upon exiting the small fort, the bright light of the morning nearly blinded me, but I made sure that I didn't lose track of Ike as I followed him through the masses of people around us. Some were still eating, some were laughing, but most were clearly focused on the impending battle. Their faces were stone cold beneath their gleaming white and gold helmets, and their strong and valiant postures masked their overpowering fears.

Finally, we positioned ourselves in front of a pathway that passed through the trees, and the rest of the soldiers gathered behind us. Everything felt so pleasant and serene, it was almost unbelievable that an army of enemy soldiers was just around the corner from where we were. Just thinking about it was enough to make me tremble a little.

Ranulf's confidence and cheerfulness would have helped me out so much, but thinking of him only made me feel worse. And...oh shoot, how could I forget that I was about to partake in a battle that would decide the fate of an entire country and all its people? And I was going to be in the frontlines of all places, alongside THE General Ike, probably the greatest general in all of Tellius.

How the hell did this happen? I thought to myself with wide eyes staring straight ahead.

As I continued to lose myself in my own head, Titania and some other semi-familiar people joined us near the front and stood at attention. Then, Ike turned around to face them all and addressed them in an authoritative tone, commanding the attention of everyone, including my very distracted self.

"Alright, everyone," he shouted. "This is it! Let's give it all we've got and bring us to victory, together!"

The army cheered fiercely just like they did earlier that morning, and they raised their weapons in the air.

"Crimean Army, move out!" Ike commanded before whipping around and beginning the grand march up the trail.

I tried to match Ike's pace, but it felt so...unnatural being up there with him, like I didn't belong there. I wanted to talk to Ike to perhaps calm myself down a little bit, but my nerves got the best of me, so I opted to remain totally silent. I noticed that Ike seemed caught up in his thoughts for a while, too, so I didn't feel like bothering him. As we pushed onward through the dense trees of the forest, however, it was almost impossible for us to resist saying something to each other.

"Hey, Serena," Ike said suddenly.

Snapping out of my trance, I turned to face him. "Huh?"

"You know...there's not much time left before we meet the Daein army."

Ok? I thought. I already knew that, so I just gave him a confused look as I didn't know how else to respond.

Picking up on that, he continued. "This is probably the last chance we have to talk until afterward...whenever that may be."

"Oh shoot, you're right," I said stiffly. Oh shoot, the realization hit me. "What if there is no afterward?"

Sighing deeply, Ike directed his eyes toward the shady ground below. "Don't think like that," he said. "There's going to be an afterward. I'll make sure of it."

Unfortunately, his words didn't quite quell my worries. "Don't die," I whispered.

"Listen," he clenched his jaw. "If I die, it won't be in vain. But I'm not worried about that."

"Are you worried about anything?" I asked.

"Yeah. I am," he replied promptly. "It's no use talking about it now though. Just...let's just make this fight count."

Ike's attention shifted almost immediately once we cleared the forest and exited into a wide expanse of grassland. And when I lifted my eyes, I saw exactly why.

Holy hell, I thought.

A massive sea of glistening black armor completely coated the area in the distance, and they were all headed our way. Fast. If I was correct, we only had about twenty minutes until weapons would clash and soak the earth with blood.

"Everyone, prepare yourselves!" Ike yelled. "The Daein Army is about to be upon us!"

"Ahhh I'm not ready," I cried instinctively as I gawked at the insane amount of fighters ahead of us.

Instantly, Ike faced me. "Yes you are," he retorted. "You're more ready than you've ever been, and you know that."

"How...how can you be so confident?" I asked, nearly tripping on a wad of grass. "Are you not even a little bit nervous?"

Ike's expression was stone cold now. "No. Not anymore. Now that they're in front of us, I can just focus on defeating them. Nothing else seems to matter."

I glanced at the approaching soldiers that were now only about a mile away from us, then back at Ike with wide, disbelieving eyes. "That's very admirable, but...are you blind?"

Ike shook his head. "I'm not denying this looks tough, and we'll probably face many casualties. But...we're going to win this," he said, drawing Ragnell.

The threat of the once distant army grew exponentially as they marched ever closer, and once they were only about a half mile from us, the sheer size of their forces fully sunk in.

"Alright everyone! The time has come!" Ike yelled out and pointed his shining blade at the opposing army. "This ends today!"

Upon our general's shout, the enemy soldiers riled themselves up, and thousands of their screams shook the air. They picked up their speed from a fast-paced walk up to a full charge ahead, and before I knew it, the first moments of the final battle were underway.

Ike smashed his blade against the sword of the leading soldier with incredible force as other Dain soldiers around us targeted the rest of our men. "Come on, Serena! Stay behind me!" he yelled over the incredible noise of metal and shouts, and dashed forward, effortlessly cutting through countless more soldiers.

Hearing his command, I sprinted up behind him, making sure to never stray more than a few feet away. Being so close to him then, I realized that I never got the chance to observe him fighting at his full potential before, and my god. The boy was just an unstoppable god of war; a killing machine, mercilessly plowing through his enemies. Armored knights, soldiers, laguz, everything fell if they stood in his path. I bet he could have taken on the entire Daein army by himself, he was that fearsome.

It also quickly became apparent to me that we fought so well together. Don't get me wrong, Ranulf and I had made a pretty good team, but alongside the general, everything just seemed to flow naturally. Our fighting styles were complementary, and we were perfectly in sync with each other's movements. We covered each other's weak points, saw things that the other missed, and it was like...somehow...we were connected on a mental level.

As we continued our onslaught, however, both of us came to realize that we were able to wipe out such a large number of Daein soldiers more easily than we anticipated. And that was the thing: it was a little too easy. We knew we weren't that much stronger than them.

"Ike," I grunted as I cast an earth spell at a group of soldiers off in the distance. "Where's the King? Where are the generals? This can't be it!"

We had made it over halfway through the field of fighters, but we had yet to encounter a real challenge. They had nothing more than the weakest of weaponry, the weakest of armor, and skill sets far below our own.

"This isn't it," Ike snarled as he sliced open a few more enemies. "These are clearly just Ashnard's pawns!"

My heart sank. After already wiping through thousands of soldiers single handedly and casting hundreds of my spells, I was beginning to feel exhaustion build up. Knowing that we weren't even close to the end just made everything worse.

"We just need to...nghh...get through this wave," Ike said, preemptively shielding me from the attack of a spearman. "Once we do, we can get to Castle Crimea and I'm certain they'll all be there."

I groaned, continuing to stick by Ike for safety.

"Bear with me, Serena," he glanced at me through the glaring sunlight with care in his eyes. "Don't cast as many spells, I want you to save your strength until we really need it."

"But—"

"I'll cover for you!" he raised his voice as he pulled me in even closer to save me from the downstroke of an iron sword.

Soon enough, we were able to cut through the ocean of weaklings with few casualties, and the castle appeared on the horizon. There were no more soldiers in between us and our destination, so we knew that once we arrived, the worst of the battle would soon follow. It was daunting, but there was no turning back. We'd have to use whatever energy we had left to take down whoever, or whatever was waiting for us.

As we neared the Crimean Royal Palace, a few guards at the gate tried to stop us, but they were quickly vanquished by Ike. And in a last-ditch effort before meeting their untimely demise, the dying soldiers yelled out to the rest of the Daein army to alert them of our arrival.

So when we all poured in through the massive gates, our new enemies all stared at us with no amount of surprise or fear in their frigid eyes. They stood motionless in their places, like statues, and that alone was frightening. It was like they knew, or at least thought, they could crush us in the blink of an eye and were just entertaining our idea that we even had a chance.

As scary as our opponents were, however, our new battlefield was probably one of the prettiest places I've ever been to. There were square gardens decorating the area out front, two on each side of a stone enclosure in the middle containing a beautiful fountain, still flowing with crystal clear water. Further back, there were three sets of stairs leading up to the front entrance of the palace, with rectangular gardens on either side of the central staircase.

We walked up to the courtyard, returning our enemies' glares, and it was now clear that Daein had saved their best men for last after wearing us down for the entire morning. They were all dressed in fearsome armor and fancy clothes with powerful weapons to match. By their stances, you could tell straight away that they were far more skilled than the grunts from earlier.

And at the very back of the arena, I caught sight of the most fearsome man I have ever seen in my life. He wore black armor that appeared to glow, and his royal blue hair was slicked back, with thin sideburns hugging his face. And, ohh his face, it was the definition of terror. He had this unforgettable, sinister grin that chilled me to the bone. He was the embodiment of evil. Then, I noticed the thing he was perched on. It didn't look like any mount I'd seen before. It was a large, black, spikey dragon with blood-red accents, and just looking at it made my head twinge.

For a brief moment, there was silence. Nobody was making a move, but it was obvious to us that if we didn't do anything, this battle would amount to nothing more than a staring contest. So, Ike did the honors by pointing his sword at the man on the dragon and hurled out words to provoke the other side.

"Daein, your time has come!" he yelled furiously. "The Crimean Army will show no mercy, and you will all fall at our hands!" His voice echoed through the courtyard and bounced off the palace, ringing through the ears of the entire army in front of us.

The man in the back sneered, but he did not move an inch.

However, some of the enemy warriors started to glow upon hearing our general's shouts. Brilliant white light engulfed their figures as they morphed into enormous red dragons that towered over everyone.

"Oh goddess," I whispered, gawking at the newly transformed dragon laguz.

Then, the other Daein soldiers shifted their positions. Their once blank expressions turned into deep scowls, and they bore their savage teeth at us. Their arms twitched, and suddenly, without any orders from their leader, their entire bodies sprang to life as they charged forth, beginning the second wave of the battle.

This time, our enemies were a force to be reckoned with. It felt about ten times more difficult to fend them off, and both of us were already starting to work up a minor sweat. Even worse was that more of our allies were succumbing to their injuries, and I never knew if I would be one of them.

This is no joke, I thought as I dodged three separate fire spells that were hurtling in my direction.

I locked my sights on the three fire mages responsible for the attack, but something else stole my focus. Five something elses, to be precise. I squinted in the sunlight to make sure my eyes weren't deceiving me, and unfortunately, they weren't.

"Ike!" I gasped, pointing as he decapitated about four Daein soldiers.

"What is it?" he grunted, still facing ahead.

There I saw Arvid, Branson, Ylva, Torvald, and Helga: five of the other six Masters. They stood side by side within the enemy's forces and began to attack our allies. Where was Solfrid? But more importantly, what on earth were the five of them doing there?

Torvald raised his arms to the sky, causing dark clouds to quickly move in. Flashes of light began cracking through the sky, producing low rumbles of thunder that shook the battlefield. Seconds after that, torrential rain poured down on the scene, and terrifying bolts of electricity began obliterating Crimean soldiers left and right.

"Torvald!" I tried shouting over the chaotic battle cries and crashes of thunder. The mage heard me, and so did the other four by his side, but none of them responded. In fact, they didn't even seem to remember who I was.

"Serena, what's going on?" Ike yelled, shifting his eyes to where I was looking. He spotted the mages just in time to witness Ylva morph and grow into a fierce, red serpentine dragon, flying high and striking down anybody within her reach. Then, he saw the others casting spells that neither him nor his allies had ever seen before. If they weren't stopped, the unexpected nature of their attacks would put everyone on our side at a great disadvantage.

"Those five!" I pointed at the Masters again. "Don't kill them, Ike! Please!" I cried out, practically begging the boy as we rushed in toward them.

"Why not?" He sounded surprised. "They're taking down our men!"

Ike was still unaware of the role they played in my life. They were the main reason I was as strong as I had become. They were like a long lost family to me. But the middle of an important battle was the absolute worst time to explain something like that, so I failed to answer his question. I figured there had to be another way to save them from certain death, and at the same time, save our allies from their wrath.

I thought I could maybe reach them and try to talk some sense into them, but that quickly became an impossibility. Arvid had noticed our presence and took control of a nearby tree, sending its tall, thick trunk toppling down in front of them. Other Daein soldiers blocked our path around the tree, so we couldn't get any closer.

Damn, there must be a way around! Or perhaps over! I thought.

Suddenly, the bark and foliage of the fallen tree became encased in a thick, impenetrable wall of ice, as did the ground around it.

Oh shoot, I know that technique! Helga had frozen the tree, and I knew that Arvid would usually hurl it forward to not only steamroll everyone in front of it, but also leave behind a trail of super cold ice that would freeze anyone who was dumb enough to walk over it. I had to prevent that devastation somehow!

"Ike watch out!" I screamed before summoning a rippling wave of rock spikes through the frozen tree, sending pointy shards of ice and plant matter flying in all directions. Reacting to my sudden command, Ike shielded himself and me from the shrapnel. Some of our allies followed suit, but others weren't so lucky. The sharp debris impaled a bunch of people within range, comrades and enemies alike.

After the glittering powder from the tree's destruction had cleared, it was apparent that the Masters were some of the unlucky ones. Since they were so close to the attack, ice shards had embedded themselves in various parts of their bodies. My heart sank when I realized that only four of them were left standing after the frosty explosion.

Branson, the bringer of death, was ironically the only Master to suffer fatal wounds. There was a massive shard of bark embedded in his skull, and his face was no longer recognizable.

I'm sorry, Branson. I didn't mean to, I averted my eyes and tried holding back tears.

Unfortunately, I had no time to grieve the death of my former comrade, as a bellowing roar sounded from above. It was Ylva screaming and writhing in pain after numerous pieces of tree bark had lodged themselves in her underbelly and legs. It was then that I noticed the all too familiar black anklet from when we were first captured, still hugging her hind leg.

I gasped. That's the ticket. "Aim for the ankles!" I said, tapping on Ike's shoulder.

The cobalt haired general looked up at the clawed serpent as he shielded his eyes from the rain, then at the other strange mages. "I see. I'll do the best I can," he nodded, readying Ragnell.

"Be careful," I lowered the tone of my voice. "They're strong." I looked at the general with worried eyes.

But he didn't seem worried at all. Instead, he glanced back at me with a stoic expression and said, "We'll see about that."

Just then, Ylva snarled, bearing her vicious dragon fangs as she dove down toward us.

"Get ready!" I shouted.

Then, right at the crucial moment before impact, time seemed to slow down as Ike sidestepped, pulling me along with him.

The dragon flew by, and her shining red scales sparkled in the rain and reflected distorted versions of our faces back at us. And just when Ylva's hind leg was within reach, Ike slashed his blade forward. Not only did he cut through the beast's tough thigh, but he also successfully snapped her anklet in two, causing the girl to immediately revert back to her humanoid form in midair. She nearly crashed into a couple other soldiers on the way down and ended up skidding to a stop on the muddy ground below, somewhere where neither of us could see her.

"You there!" Ike said, pointing at a random pair of Crimean halberdiers. "Take the fallen girl and keep her back until the fight is over!" he commanded.

The soldiers looked confused and frightened, but they obeyed his orders without question, hauling the now unconscious purple-haired mage away from the battlefield.

There were still three Masters left, but how would we get to them before they attacked us?

I've got it! I smiled. I had a plan, but the other mages didn't look too pleased.

Torvald in particular had a fierce glint in his lifeless eyes. He raised his arm up toward the sky and prepared to strike us down with lightning, but I knew all of his little tricks. In a flash, I summoned rock spikes in a circle around Ike and me, and they all jutted up to form a pointed roof over our heads.

"Ike. When this cover disappears, we're going to approach them from behind more of my spikes. When the time is right, you're going to jump out from behind them and cut as many anklets as you can," I said while breathing heavily, awaiting the inevitable lightning bolt.

"Good plan," he nodded, tightly gripping his sword.

BOOM! A blinding flash of light accompanied an ear shattering noise that shook the ground. Seconds later, the rocky cone around us quickly crumbled apart into fine grains of dust, allowing the downpour to fall upon our heads once more.

This was my cue to summon row after row of rock spikes as we neared the mages. But as we continued on our path, the downpour steadily became cold and painful.

Helga is freezing the rain! I realized. "We have to hurry or this is going to get much worse," I told Ike, feeling sharp needles of ice begin piercing my flesh.

Once the last rock barrier was summoned, the general sprang out from behind the collapsing wall of soil and ambushed the three mages. Before they could anticipate our next move, Ike swept low with his blade and cut through Torvald and Arvid's anklets, but Helga was able to jump out of the way in the nick of time.

As Torvald fell unconscious, the dark storm clouds above us quickly faded into blue skies, and the tumultuous thunder finally quieted. The end of the storm also meant the end of the razor rains, thankfully.

Now, the sun shined brightly overhead, and the battlefield glistened beautifully in contrast with the chaos of the war.

Ike ordered more soldiers to capture the two mages that were defeated, but Helga still remained. And with everything covered in water, I already knew the horrors that could befall us. I could already see her glossy eyes fill with rage as she watched her comrades get dragged away.

The ice mage looked at me and hissed. "You foolisshhh cretins!" The woman opened her powerful tome, Hrímþurs, and started chanting sinister words, almost sounding like a snake when she did it.

Frost began spreading outwards from her being, and now it was impossible to step any closer to her unless we wanted to become statues and die of hypothermia.

What do we do!? I panicked as both Crimean and Daein soldiers alike became stuck in the ever expanding circle of ice. But looking over at Ike, I saw that he was the exact opposite of scared.

He was so focused on Helga, seemingly calculating something, but I didn't know what it was. He inhaled deeply and narrowed his ocean blue eyes. Then, he threw his valuable and one-of-a-kind sword at the woman like a madman. It rapidly spun in the air until it sliced clean through her anklet.

Witnessing the display, I had to do a double take, even a triple take, just to make sure I didn't imagine it. He did not just do that, he did not just do that, he...how the hell? I blinked.

The pieces of the black looplet then dropped onto the icy floor, as did Helga. With her collapse, the frost ceased to expand and lost its super-freezing capabilities.

"They weren't that strong," Ike stated calmly before running ahead to grab his blade that was lodged in the soil.

I swear, this man continues to surprise me. And scare me. Thank god I'm not his enemy.