About a week had passed since the liberation of Chalphy, Edda, and Dozel. It was in the span of that week in particular that Arthur was being a little more serious with his training, though not too much as he did not wish to worry Nanna or Tinni. Regardless, he had to tell himself that this was it, this would be the day where he would take down Aunt Hilda and avenge his family.
But despite his confidence, even he would be lying if he said he didn't fear what was to come. That was why he tried to master the ability of his special Thoron tome, it might come in handy when the fight actually happens.
It was going well, at least it was until he heard a voice behind him mid spell. "Hello there, cousin."
Startled at the sudden voice Arthur turned around, causing him to accidentally release the spell. "Hi Amid," He then said bluntly.
Fortunately, Amid didn't actually get hit, he only looked at the spell and saw the little aftermath that was small lightning bolts. "Gee Arthur, as feisty as ever I see?"
"Oh shut up, you're the one who startled me!" Arthur exclaimed and huffed a breath. "Is there something you need?"
"Something I need? Well, I wouldn't say that...but I would mention that you should be mindful of your attacks." Amid joked once more, by Naga he was always so snarky wasn't he? "Alright, alright, the point I was trying to say was that, you're hyping yourself to defeat Aunt Hilda, is that right?"
Arthur nodded, looking down at his still open tome. "That is what I am planning. Unless you have something to say about it?"
"No no, it's nothing bad. I just hope you know what you are doing this time, yeah? Trust me I don't think I could make a dent on her, I'm only a simple wind-thunder mage after all."
"I'm also a wind-thunder mage," The mage knight countered.
"Yeah I know, but you're better at magic."
"Well, of course I am! But you're acting like you can't do anything with magic, I've seen you fight!"
Amid shook his head. "You're getting off course, cus. Anyway, I am just advising you to be careful, I suppose. I don't want to see Tinni so terrified like she was back in Alster."
"Ohhh, I see now. Well, thanks…?" Arthur replied, hopefully understanding his cousin's remark.
"Now, when the time comes, get yourself out there and take her down for good, yeah? Then our mothers can finally be avenged!"
Well...it was finally time to venture toward Friege, luckily he had some people to help him, his sister and also Lord Seliph. There was another group that was currently dealing with some archers from the south, everything seemed to be going smoothly, at least that was what he thought until they saw an army of tough armor knights approaching them from the north.
Fortunately, Arthur had the upper hand and before they went off, he grabbed his wind tome in case of any emergencies such as this. He prepared himself for the fight to come.
Once they made it close enough the enemies began to attack, they were wielding two different types of weapons, lances and thunder tomes. Thankfully, they were slow, so everyone had time to attack them quickly before they could get hit. Arthur used his Wind tome to take down the knights in about two or three blows; being fast had its benefits, he thought to himself with a smirk shown on his face.
It didn't take long for him to run into the person that has been in his mind ever since they arrived at Grannvale, Hilda. As soon as he saw her, chills ran through his spine. It was truly her, the moment he had been waiting for ever since his mother died was finally here. Why was he so scared? He couldn't let the same thing that happened in Alster happen again. He would make sure that history would not repeat itself.
But feelings were pointless now, if he wanted to fulfill his wishes he needed to move forward. He readied himself for the battle ahead, changing back to his Thoron tome.
"That hair...don't tell me you are one of Tailtiu's brats! Came here to kill me and avenge her, am I wrong?" Hilda said upon noticing Arthur, followed with a cackle.
"No no, nothing like-of course I am! You've ruined my family's life and you will pay for that!"
"Don't get too ahead of yourself, boy, or you will end up the same as your poor mother!"
"I will not...I'll make sure to kill you first!" Arthur shouted and used the power of Thoron to deal the first blow on his "aunt." Thanks to his power to negate defenses, he dealt a good amount of damage on his first hit.
"Don't think you can get rid of me that easily vile wench." Hilda laughed as she began to cast Bolganone. A volcanic explosion erupted from the ground.
The mage knight did his best to dodge the eruption. He had never experienced the wrath of fire magic like this before. But even so, he had the advantage thanks to his Thoron tome. Thankfully, he avoided the blow by just the edge of the hole that had formed in the ground.
His horse meanwhile was shaken up at the powerful blow, but Arthur was sure he would be alright.
Hilda showed a second of vulnerability, it was the perfect opportunity to attack; Arthur cast another blow of Thoron, and this time the tome glowed a bright blue color. Then, with all of his might, he opened his eyes and launched the blow at Hilda. A critical hit! Finally something actually worked in his favor! And Hilda fell to the ground.
"Gaaah, you traitors…" Hilda groaned, unable to get up off of the ground. Arthur walked up towards her, an evil grin on his face.
"I'll take that!" Arthur said, taking Bolganone from her, leaving her absolutely defenseless. He couldn't actually use the tome but he needed it to be away from his aunt as soon as possible. And with that done, he used his magic, this time conjuring Thoron from his hands. "Now why don't you die now?" Then, within one or two strikes of Arthur's thunder magic, Hilda was gone for good.
"I…I did it!" Arthur then said after a few moments of silence.
Just then, Tinni, who had fought off one of the armor knights, went up and hugged her brother tightly. "You did it Arthur!"
Arthur was shaking a little at this wonderful realization. "I…I really did, huh? I thought I would've…"
"It's alright, what matters is that it's done...wish we could celebrate but...I'm worried about Ishtar…"
"Ishtar…I had almost forgotten about her, she'll be here soon won't she?"
"Most likely...I fear what will happen soon."
"Well we gotta prepare for something like that, yeah? I keep getting the feeling she'll be nearing us soon," Arthur said, looking back toward the trail that led to Belhalla. "Perhaps we can find a way to convince her to stand down."
"You might be right on that, Arthur, but-" Then she looked to where Arthur was looking, oh gods there were people heading there already? They just got done with Aunt Hilda and now this too? This was going to be a hell of a fight.
"Well shit, guess we gotta fight again, huh?" Arthur said before he took out his Thoron again. "Well let me at them!"
Fortunately more troops had arrived after the Jungby ambush was taken care of. And so they fought as well as they could to defend Friege from the incoming army, where Ishtar would definitely come. Seliph made sure to motivate everyone when possible during the battle, as the war would soon be finished, but Tinni and Arthur couldn't help but worry about their cousin.
Just when they thought they took care of everyone, three pegasus knights came swooping down, they looked dangerous since even the archers were struggling to land a hit on them. Fortunately the flier's attacks were easy to dodge, but when they did hit, they were very lethal.
Arthur was currently trying to take one of them down, as he trusted himself that he could do it on his own. But to his surprise, it was a very tough battle, none of them could touch the other. That was until he managed to get a lucky hit. While it didn't kill, it was enough to do some damage. However he was unlucky as he was trying to land another hit but kept missing. And just before he was about to get hit again, a voice was present from up in the air.
"TAKE THIS!"
It was Fee, swooping down with her Wind Sword and finally taking down the opposing pegasus knight. Well that was one pegasus knight down at least.
"Fee, thanks for saving me back there!" Arthur said, before turning back, trying to find a way to fall back a little. He didn't want to take advantage of his injuries this time around.
"Don't want you to get hurt now do ya? Be careful next time! I'm not always gonna be paying attention to you all the time!"
"Y-Yeah, of course!" Arthur replied.
Fortunately, Julia had found her way to Arthur and noticed his wounds. In a panic she used her Recover staff to heal him up fully, one bright glow was enough to get Arthur back up and moving again.
But as he was ready to fight again, he realized that everything was mostly empty, since the other two pegasus knights were cleared out thanks to others' holy weapons.
With enough time, the enemy army was mostly defeated, leaving only one person standing, Ishtar. Who, as soon as she saw her two cousins standing there, froze up in fear.
"ISHTAR!" Tinni shouted as she carefully approached her, only for Arthur to panic and keep her out of harm's way.
Ishtar's eyes darted around the landscape, unsure of what to do. "T-Tinni I-" She said.
Arthur decided to jump into the conversation too. "Ishtar! Please fall back! I don't want to kill you."
"Arthur…you too…I…" For a moment it looked like she was trying to stop her magic.
"Please, Ishtar...the war is almost over, we can end this without conflict!" Tinni shouted, tears were starting to form under her eyes.
"But Lord Julius he-"
"Prince 'Julius' is not human. He is already lost, there is nothing we can do to save him!" Said Arthur.
"He…he is but…"
"Then why the hell are you just standing there? Fall back and let us put an end to this war!"
Ishtar looked back behind her, where Belhalla was, then looked back at Arthur and Tinni. Silence was present for a while. "I-I understand...I'll fall back," Ishtar said and put her Mjolnir tome down. Arthur and Tinni's eyes shone as their cousin approached them.
But unfortunately that hint of happiness was quickly broken by a sudden gust of wind, which had caught them off guard. Arthur in particular turned around and immediately knew who it was. Ced.
Wind howled like hell, followed by a big magic blow. The Friege siblings were fortunate enough to avoid the powerful gust, however their cousin was not as lucky; she didn't get enough time to react at the extreme speeds of the magic at her, unfortunately she got hit and got weakened instantly.
Arthur and Tinni were…frozen in place at that point. Did he just kill her? That couldn't be…no…
Arthur gripped his tome again, feeling the tears stream down his face.
Then…all hell broke loose.
"CEEEEEEEEEED!" Arthur shouted at the top of his lungs. Not even threatening him this time, he attacked Ced with no hesitation, to which Ced easily avoided the attack and the multiple spells that followed.
Tinni remained in shock, unable to let out any words she could only watch as Arthur used his thunder magic at Ced.
"CED! HOW COULD YOU? I HATE YOU, I HATE YOU, I HATE YOU, I HATE YOU!"
"Arthur!" Tinni shouted, trying to get Arthur out of his rampage.
"CEDSY!" Fee shouted, though, all of it was useless. Ced only laughed as he ignored his siblings.
"Get out of my way…" 'Ced' finally spoke, his eyes glowing a bright green, with a little flash of red there too.
While still under the effects of his own emotions, Arthur had taken note ofCed's voice. It was most definitely not Ced's voice. It was mystical, and it sounded more…draconic in a way. "Wait a-"
"Cedsy…" Fee tried to talk to her brother, but to no avail.
The death of Ishtar had been too much for Arthur…and yet he felt confused. "Ced…what are you planning!?" He asked the man in front of him.
"Hahahaha…"
"Well? Give me an answer or I'll beat you to death!" Arthur balled his hand into a fist as his Thoron spell was cast.
No response.
The mage knight's anger only increased at that. "What. Are. You. Planning?"
"When the dark god is gone, all will be revealed," 'Ced' responded. "Why don't we defeat the dark god now? He is waiting for us."
"Aaaagh you are not making any sense! Why did you have to kill Ishtar!? She was willing to stop fighting, she could've helped us defeat Julius!"
"Arthur…" Tinni said, trying to get him to calm down.
"She was standing in my way…" 'Ced' replied once more, before looking around. "Now where's the heiress of Naga?"
The group fell silent after that, even Fee.
"S-She…" Fee tried to speak, but only to fall silent once more.
"No matter, no matter, I'll find her. Ghh! I can't wait much longer." 'Ced' then ran off toward Friege, looking for Julia.
Once he was gone, Fee went into a complete panic. "Wh-what just happened? That was not Cedsy...he would never-"
Tinni nodded and interrupted her. "There is definitely something wrong...his voice, everything really was off-putting..."
"Off-putting is an understatement here," Arthur bluntly stated and turned to Fee. "We need to find Julia and get that Sety Scroll ready, now!"