"Finally, the day has come" Edelgard muttered next to him. Soldiers were leaving their tents, searching for their weapons and extinguishing fires as the sound of battle horns filled the air around them. The siege weapons that had been finished by now had already started to move, enormous armored oxen moving them while some mages were preparing their magic tomes while talking with each other. He was used to such situation, the need to make a last check to everything before going to battle, the small talk with comrades that might not survive and the increasing feeling that they were being observed to the other side of the battlefield. Such was the atmosphere in the current camp.

"Are you nervous?" he asked as he checked the weapons that he was going to bring to the battlefield, a pair of silver swords. On his back was the Sword of the Creator, but he wasn´t planning to use it. He had come to distrust the weapon, even though it appeared to be an emptied vessel.

"Of course, I am. No matter how much time we spend developing different strategies, something that we haven´t taken into account could take place. This will be the first real contact between the armies of the Empire and the Alliance. Until now only small acts of sabotage have taken place, but now a real conflict will start between both of us. We´ll need to finish this campaign quickly before the Holy Kingdom and the Church have an opportunity to take advantage of the situation. It is a risky bet, but I´m confident that we´ll overcome the difficulties that are awaiting us"

"The distraction you plan to do with the boats is really interesting. If they separate forces to counterattack our advance through the river their attention on the main forces will be diluted. However, the risk of being trapped in a bottleneck is still too real. The Leicester Alliance is specialized in the use of bows, they will probably greet us with a rain of arrows"

"Let them use their bows against our shields, our heavy units will take most of the impacts as we advance and when our mages get closer, they will greet them back" Edelgard said with a confident look as she observed the troops. He could see the Imperial sigil of the Adrestian Empire in some of the flags among them as the sound of war drums resonated in his ears.

…..

"The great bridge was developed hundreds of years ago to unite two great lands. Thanks to it, commerce flourished and many treaties and alliances were born. The conquest of the bridge will mark the beginning of the end of this war. The Alliance Army won´t stop us and in a moon we´ll be at the Alliance´s heart. Come with me, fight and turn into reality what we have been fighting for!" she shouted to her troops. Among them she could see the Black Eagles Strike Forces. She had battled alongside them during years, but every time they went to battle, she made sure that all of them were fine. Looking at their faces, she could see that some of them were a bit nervous, but she was as well. However, she couldn´t see any fear on their faces. With a quick nod in their direction, she approached the soldiers that were carrying her weapons of choice for the current offensive; a heavy shield, a pair of axes and the relic that had been granted to her. Touching the relic, she could sense an electrifying feeling run through her body. She knew the power of such relic since she had already used it in battle

The great bridge was in front of them, waiting for them as they approached under the enemy fire. Arrows were fired at them, but the heavy shields of the vanguard were diminishing the losses they were suffering while the archers of their side fired back under the cover of the armored warriors. To the west, the first boats were starting to cross the river, the attention of the fortress on them.

"Let´s see what is your strategy to win this battle, Claude" she thought as she used her own shield to stop some of the arrows. The battle for the control of the great bridge had already begun.

….

The defenses of the Alliance were strong, their armies having placed many barriers on the bridge while their infantry units were trying to slow them down while the archers were trying to kill them.

He was advancing through the main area when he felt an arrow coming to them. Cutting it in half, he could see that the archer was standing a few meters away from me, his light green hair and glasses making him realize who was standing in front of him.

"Ignatz…"

"Don´t talk with me, lapdog of the Empire!" Ignatz shouted, an intense anger released from his eyes. "Why are you siding with the enemy, you of all people! It´s something that to this day I´m unable to understand" he said as he released another arrow.

"Calm down, I´m not your enemy Ignatz, you are misjudging things. It´s true that I´m fighting for the Empire, but you don´t know the reasons why I´m doing it!"

"It´s obvious! The Empire has always longed to reunite the whole of Fódlan under its command. The Emperor just wants to take the whole of Fódlan under her control. And you are her right hand in all this process! Don´t you have shame? How could you betray the Church, the monastery? I thought that you would be fighting by our side, why…why?"

"Ignatz, you are confusing many things. If you had seen…"

"I refuse to hear any word coming from you. Professor…I´ll kill you here and now" Ignatz said as he aimed his bow at him while he was quickly approaching him. His technique with the bow was something to admire. He had improved since the first time they had met. As he avoided the arrows aimed at him, he couldn´t avoid feeling proud yet sad about their situation.

He was just a couple of meters away from him as he used his last arrow against him, he was trying to prepare his bow again, but he was already on him. He tried to defend himself with a small dagger, but he had the strength on his side. Around them the Imperial troops were advancing, the group of archers from the Leicester Alliance starting to disband. Using a magic spell, he made Ignatz fell unconscious. He knew he was angered with him, but he wanted to have at least a chance to talk with him before his former student made a decision about his own fate.

They had already advanced through the middle of the bridge, but the battle was far from over. The sound of a war horn made him realize that some of the Leicester Alliance´s reinforcements have already arrived. Looking to the other side of the bridge he could see new flags of the Leicester Alliance, the disbanded troops reuniting under the new banners.

"Judith is over there" Edelgard said as she approached him. Her shield had the marks of many attacks and some of them had already impacted on her sturdy armor, but fortunately enough she wasn´t injured.

"If we defeat her, the rest of the troops will lose their morale. We need to keep pushing them, the worst part has already ended"

"Sure, but we mustn´t let our guard down" In front of them, the troops of the Leicester Alliance had already reorganized, their cavalry quickly approaching them as the archers were preparing their barriers to defend themselves.

"Shields!" Edelgard´s voice roared, preparing her own shield as their heavy infantry raised their shields with their two arms while their lancers were preparing their weapons behind the giant iron walls. Behind them, the mages were preparing their spells as well, the power of magic accumulating in the air. The mass of knights was already on them, their weapons ready to crush them when they impacted with their frontline. In the distance she could see the famous general of the Leicester Alliance, she was in the middle of the enemy army, shouting commands as her troops charged at them like a furious wave impacting into the rocks of the coast.

Using her strength, she was able to defeat the enemies that were trying to attack her as she approached the enemy general. It didn´t take much time until the pride of the Leicester Alliance approached her, ready for combat.

"Huh, so you the Emperor of the Adrestian Empire. The Empire must be short in troops if the Emperor is in the frontlines" Judith, said. She had a smile on her face, but her eyes were cautious and calculating. They were the eyes of a veteran of the battlefield, observing every movement, every opportunity to strike, every weakness.

"An Emperor that hides behind the troops would be a sign of weakness I cannot afford. My ideals are strong and such ideals are the source of inspiration to the rest of the troops. The same cannot be said about your Lord, I guess"

"I´m not going to fall under such low effort provocation. It´s true that the little boy isn´t quite fond of the battlefield, but his ideals have completely convinced me…But I must admit that you have the guts, little girl. May I know your name"

"My name is Edelgard, Emperor of the Adrestian Empire and I´m willing to change this world with my actions. The time of standing still is gone for good"

"That would have been the wisest option, but I guess that not everyone is so talented like the little boy. Your ideals will come to an end here. This will be the day that the Leicester defeated the Imperial army and with it the ambitions of its emperor" Judith said as she quickly moved her rapier. The movement was fast as the wind, but it met her shield.

"She is strong" she thought as she tried to counterattack with her axe, but she simply jumped back, eluding her reach.

"You move really fast, even though you are covered in heavy armor"

"I have been wearing heavy equipment since I have the use of memory. I must admit that you are quite fit as well, how about you come a bit closer?"

"To be crushed by that giant axe of yours? No thanks. I prefer being alive, I´ll only attack when I see an opportunity" she said as her legs suddenly moved, her rapier following her sight as she tried to hit her in the neck, but her reflexes were fast enough to avoid the piercing attack. Around them, the battle continued, the forces of the Leicester Alliance and Empire in a mortal embrace.

Judith was keeping herself out of reach of her axe as she hit her on the shield and armor. Her armor was sturdy enough, but she knew that a little mistake could mean the difference between life and death. Her axe was making the ground tremble with each impact, the road beneath them crumbling apart with her potent blows as Judith tried to avoid her attacks.

"What kind of power you have, little girl? I must admit that I´ve never seen something like that"

"This is the power that has been conferred to me and it is a power that I will use to create a better world"

"Ignoring the will of others? That sounds like a selfish world which I´m not interested in taking part" she said as she unsheathed another rapier. "Until now you have been resisting my attacks with just one rapier. I must admit that that is something to recognize. However, now I´ll be serious with you. The world you are fighting for will never turn into reality. Your world is just an ideal that will remain an unfinished dream" Judith simply said as her blades tried to hit the joints of her armor, but she wasn´t the only one with a hidden trick. The moment she approached she was welcomed by an electric discharge coming from her axe. Judith jumped back to avoid the rest of the attack, but one of her arms was already injured, blood slowly flowing from the open wounds.

"Magic, as someone would expect from the Empire. You won´t be able to face me in a fair combat without these little tricks. Magic empoisons the world of fighting, its users undeserving of any respect"

"Underestimating the possibilities of magic isn´t a wise thing to do" she said as she approached her. She had infused one of her axes with the power of lightning, its blade shining with fury. She was tempted to use her own relic, but using all her assets on the first battle could be a waste of resources. Around them the forces of the Leicester Alliance were still fighting, but the frontline was starting to crumble. In the river, dozens of small boats were arriving to the other side of the shore, the fighting expanding through all kind of terrains. She wasn't the only one realizing the battle situation.

"Tsk, the situation is getting worse than expected" Judith muttered as she looked at her. "But if you think that this battle will be the ending of the war, you are a fool!" she shouted as she approached her with the speed of lightning. Her axe met the rapier as a brutal discharge was released from within. She felt a slight pain as she released the full power of the magic stored in the axe, throwing the mighty general to the ground. Looking at her armor she could see a fragment of one of the rapiers piercing it, a small flower of blood starting to spread, but the injury wasn´t life threatening, her heavy armor saving her life. The same couldn´t be said about Judith, she was a few meters in front of her, a small pool of blood starting to form beneath her. The smell of burned flesh was filling her nose as she approached the body of the general.

"I´m not…done yet" Judith muttered as she used her broken rapier to stand up. "I´m a general of the Alliance, I´ll fight to my last breath"

"With your heavy injuries? The battle is over, you overcommitted and you paid the price for it. It would be wise to surrender, given the circumstances"

"You might be right; in normal circumstances this battle will be lost for good. The little boy told me to run away if the defeat was inevitable, but before leaving I needed to make some time, time so all of you tried to reach the other side of this great river"

"What do you mean?"

"You´ll soon understand" Judith said with a smile covered in blood. It wasn´t a smile filled with despair, but a smile filled with resolution, the smile of a warrior that hasn´t given up, the pride of a true warrior.

…

"Victory is on our side" he thought. The frontline of the Leicester Alliance was crumbling and he could see that Judith was heavily wounded. To the other side of the river some of their soldiers were starting to attack the rearguard at the bridge. If the Leicester Alliance didn´t run away, given the circumstances they would lose many soldiers. However, there was still something that was bothering his mind. Many divisions of the Leicester Alliance were miles away from the battlefield, standing idle as if they weren´t willing to assist the troops at the bridge. Were they really confident that the troops at the bridge would be enough to stop the invasion? Was it just a miscalculation?

The bridge was filled with many small fortifications, weapons and heavy barrels placed in them. The Leicester had fully prepared to face an invasion, the loses they were suffering the living proof of it. He was advancing when he felt something behind him. Avoiding the arrow in the last second, he could see that Ignatz had surprisingly recovered from his unconsciousness, his eyes still filled with anger.

He was preparing to fire again, when an armored soldier nearby, without any visible heralds, pushed him to the ground.

"Ignatz!" roared a voice he hadn´t heard in years.

"Raphael? What are you doing here? Are you allied with the enemy?" Ignatz said, his eyes filled with distrust. Even though he had always been on good terms with Raphael, he appeared to be unable to trust him.

"What the hell are you saying? I´m just here to pick you up from this mess. You have changed after all these years, Ignatz. You have turned into a harsher man. Where is the sweet boy that enjoy his time drawing things while I was eating some sticks"?

"That boy is death, now I´m a man and I´m defending the Alliance from its invaders. You preferred to not take part in the war, even though of everything that had happened, why now would you come here, to the middle of the battlefield?"

"To take you away from this, you are like family to me. I´ve been protecting my sister all this time, but losing you in a silly war would something I would regret for the rest of my life" he said as he noticed Byleth. "Professor, help me convince him. I know you are a good man, you´ll let him leave, right?"

Hubert, which was next to him, was about to say something, but he interrupted him with his hand. "I told you I wanted to have some time to talk to you. You are taking some things for granted, but killing my former students it´s not something that I would willfully do"

"I tried to kill you, you should hate me because of that. Does it mean that I´m such insignificant being that you don´t really care about my attacks? Am I that weak?"

"Ignatz…"

"Silence! I know deep within me I don´t have the qualities to be a great warrior. Even though I was trying to kill you right now, you didn´t consider me a menace. You were my Professor and you taught me many things, but if I let you pass it would mean the end of many things, some of them part of what I am…The monastery was a place of great memories to me, but it was ravaged by the flames of war, a war that you are supporting right now. That day I promised myself that no matter what I will fight against the Empire…even if that meant sacrificing my life" Ignatz continued his eyes calm yet filled with determination. "During all these years I´ve been wondering what I wanted to do with my life. My real passion was to be a painter, not a knight, but through war I´ve come to understand many things and now I know what I want to be…

Professor, I want to be a hero and this bridge will be my final drawing, a beautiful dawn" he said as he quickly put an arrow on his bow, which ignited the moment in came in contact with its surface.

Out of reflexes he erected a magic barrier as Raphael tried to stop his former companion.

"NO!"

But it was already late as the arrow pierced one of the barrels.

"Fire" was the only thing that came to his mind as he saw the world around him devoured by flames. The cries of those engulfed in fires were piercing his ears as debris fell on the ground, among large blocks of parts of the bridge.

"The bridge is falling apart" he realized as he checked behind him. His students had fallen on the ground but were still breathing thanks to the magic barrier he had erected out of instinct, but they were covered in dust and some of them were breathing with difficulty. He was trying to approach them when he felt how the ground beneath him was trembling violently.

"Retreat! The bridge is about to collapse!" he shouted as he jumped to avoid falling to the river. Flames were appearing everywhere as large rocks were falling into the river, and with them many soldiers. The frontlines had received the worst of the impact, but the forces of the Alliance had faced a similar fate.

The following moments were filled with confusion many soldiers trying to save their lives running to the entrances of the bridge. Suddenly the heralds and nations were insignificant, surviving was the only thing that mattered to those soldiers that were trying to get away from a living hell.

"Evacuate the bridge!" shouted a voice as he ran to the place where Edelgard had been fighting against the general of the Leicester Army. Advancing through the bridge was proving to be difficult, the floor beneath him coming apart, the sounds of flames and sissing water even stronger.

He found her coughing, but alive. Embracing her he made sure that she didn´t have any injuries.

"Can you stand by your own?"

"Y-Yes" she coughed as they started advancing.

"We need to leave this place before it completely crumbles" The bridge was a complete chaos, those who had survived the initial blast were trying to reach one of the sides of the river. He could hear the sound of war horns behind him. Looking back, he could see that new troops of the Leicester Alliance had arrived to make a short work of those imperial troops that had chosen to go to the Alliance´s side of the river.

"That´s why they were away from this mess, they were waiting their opportunity to counterattack" he thought as the bridge violently trembled again. Great fissures were appearing on the pillars under the bridge. The fire and the explosions that were still happening were attacking the structure of the bridge. The time they had to escape was too limited. The smoke was dense but he could see the other side of the river, even though there was still a considerable distance he could see the members of the Black Eagles Strike Force, injured but somehow alive.

"Just a bit more" he thought when the floor beneath him collapsed. He was about to fall to the river when he felt her hand.

"That was close" Edelgard muttered as she helped him to stand up again. He was feeling a sharp pain in one of his legs, but now it wasn´t the time to check possible wounds. Their time was running out after all.

With their last energies they arrived to the Empire controlled area of the river. At the same time, a thunderous sound reverbed behind them as if the bridge was crying out of pain as the central pillars collapsed, incapable of resisting the giant mass over them. They fell into the water as giants that had been stroked down by lightning, flames and people falling with them as the rest of the structure started to collapse as well. In a few seconds, the entire structure was collapsing into the river, giant waves hitting the shores as a consequence of the fall of the ancient giants of stone.

"The bridge…"

"It´s no more" he said, not focused on the muttering voice but on the disaster before him. The most ancient bridge of the entire Fódlan had met its end in a violent explosion, the head of their forces as well as a part of the Leicester Alliance buried with it.

"An interesting strategy, with it, the main entrance to the Alliance had been destroyed, but the battle is far from won" Hubert said as he looked to the other shore. Some of the ships that had been deployed as a bait had successfully arrived to the other side, attacking the remaining forces of the Alliance from the rearguard. "Right now, the Alliance has the advantage with its reinforcements but if we send flying troops to the other side, we´ll be able to keep the pressure"

"Hubert is right, their side has suffered loses as well since many of the troops were still on the bridge. This is not the time to lose our fighting will. The enemy has already showed its cards, now it is the time that we do the same" Edelgard´s eyes weren´t filled with despair but with resolution. There were many things that he will need to confront, but all of them after their current battle had ended. Looking at the ruins of the greatest bridge of Fódlan he couldn´t avoid remembering his words.

"The last drawing of a painter…a beautiful dawn, yet it seems like a desolated sunset"