There was not much time left now.
At any given moment, Sety's life would be snuffed out.
For years, he had been possessed by the dragon who had given him his powers. That dragon was indeed Forseti of the Wind.
After the death of Loptyr, Sety founded Silesse; however, it was at that moment when, because he used the Forseti tome, that the dragon of the same name had possessed him.
He made him do horrible things to the kingdom. If it weren't for the fact that the people of Silesse had faith in future rulers, since these rulers were seemingly opposed to Sety's doings, the bloodline would've died then and there.
Because of his absolute hatred for the dragon, Sety managed to break out of his possession, at least for some time. This was the only chance he would ever have to prevent his descendants from meeting the same fate; he needed to think of something quick.
Forseti was slowly killing the Crusader, that was why he was on such a time-sensitive objective. Sety cut his finger slightly to draw something with some of his blood and with the help of magic he imbued it onto a piece of paper. After that, the brand of Forseti showed up on it, a blue wind symbol, glowing a bright jade green.
There, that was one thing done…
He looked around now; it was much harder to find things in such a panic like that. "Where is that pen? I need to write a message... I don't want my descendants to suffer the same as I did. I do not want my bloodline to be diminished entirely."
He could feel himself growing weaker by the minute and by the time he found the pen, he was shaking and sweating. But he had to keep going, he needed to. He kept repeating the same words to himself, to make sure he could remember: 'tell them everything, tell them everything, tell them everything.'
He wrote as much as he could fit; he had to make sure the message was as clear as possible.
And then, once that was done, with his last words being exactly what he wrote down….
"To the descendants who find this. If at any point Forseti takes hold of your body, use this scroll, it contains power far greater than most would expect. My wish is that someday Forseti will be eradicated from the world, and Silesse can be finally at peace…
Those are my final words, my children. Please get rid of this cursed god.
-Sety."
Ced folded the scroll lengthwise and sighed after he had read aloud the message that Sety had left. "So Forseti has been doing this for so long now…"
"It seems so...agh! I have never felt so fooled in my entire life!" Arthur exclaimed, crossing his arms. "I was merely an object brought into the world! That stupid dragon, I need to murder that bitch."
"We all were just pawns in his game. Well, at least I was," Ced replied, shaking his head in frustration. "Forseti, he...he told me he forced my father to marry another woman and have me...apparently he didn't want Fee to even exist..."
"That horrible monster!" Fee cried, she was heartbroken over this truth.
"It's painful to know...Fee and I were nothing more than objects for Forseti to use! We shouldn't even be here!" Ced said and then suddenly paused. "I did get to see our father, though, only for a small time, but we did talk…"
"You did? What happened?" Tinni and Arthur both asked.
"He was full of regret...he blames Forseti for everything. Even if I wasn't truly his child, he still cared for me, even if he never raised me as his own..." Ced said with evident sadness.
Everyone was at a loss for words, it was just...sad...they all were here together, all being children of Lewyn. They all thought their father ruined their lives, but they were all wrong.
Arthur found the silence to be unbearable for him and decided to ask, "Now the question is, how are we going to, you know, defeat Forseti? He's a god, and a powerful one at that."
"Well the same way we got rid of Loptyr, no?" Fee chimed in.
Arthur sighed. "Yes but unlike Loptyr we simply do not know any of Forseti's weaknesses, maybe the Sety Scroll but I feel like that isn't enough."
"Hmmm…" Ced stroked his chin in thought. "I don't think he will be gone forever, but perhaps there's a way to prevent him from invading this world. Or...I am unsure, but we need to find something."
"Well we managed to kick his ass before, we can do it again still can we not?" Fee asked her brother.
"Yes, you do have a point there, but it's just confusing I suppose."
"It is, but we're descendants of Sety! We can take down this evil dragon god!" Tinni exclaimed, she really had gotten more chipper over the course of the adventure hadn't she?
Arthur nodded. "Yeah! I believe in us, plus we got you on our side now, Ced!" He nudged Ced's arm teasingly.
"I suppose I can be of some help, heh." Ced...laughed! "Now the one thing we need to plan is, how are we going to get to Silesse?"
"Well, there's always riding my pegasus!" Fee suggested, before realizing the downside in that answer. "Though, I think she can only handle one person besides me. But still."
"I could warp everyone there, but that requires a lot of tedium. Though if it means to get us there safely, then I'll do what I must," The sage offered.
"Cedsy! Don't overwork yourself again!" His sister scolded. "I can take you to Silesse with me while you take Arthur and Tinni there with a Warp Staff. Easy peasy!"
"I suppose you do have a point, Fee. But we should inform Lord Seliph of this first," Ced said. "We do not want to simply leave out of nowhere."
"That would make sense yeah, heh." Fee laughed. "Plus, we can go see Julia! You don't want her to leave her all worried, do you?"
"I do not know what you are talking about," Ced said, doing whatever he could to brush off his sister's comment.
"You know exactly what I'm talking about," The falcon knight countered, grinning widely.
'Now wasn't the time for any sort of romance!' Ced thought, but decided to ignore what his sister just said and immediately changed the topic. "Anyway, let us go back to the others, we don't have time to waste!"
"You're all ready to head to Silesse, correct? The last thing I'd want is to leave you unprepared..." Nanna said to Arthur while he returned from the blacksmith to repair his moonlight-imbued Thoron tome.
"I think I'm all good to go, yeah, just gotta wait for my special tome to be restored," Arthur replied.
"Riiiight, Thoron is the tome you like to use most, I've noticed."
"Right you are. It was my mother's tome, she wanted me to use it to protect everyone. Ever since then I've been using it-well actually I learned to conjure the magic out of my hands like this." He paused for a moment to demonstrate that exact technique he just mentioned. "But the tome itself got casted with some cool magic and now it has much more power than before!"
"That is quite interesting, yeah. But are you certain it will be useful against wind magic? I wouldn't know myself but the logic of magi-"
Arthur cut her off unintentionally as he knew the basics of magic already. "I know, and Silesse is known for its powerful wind magic; however, I do have an advantage. You see, the power of the Thoron tome now has the ability to negate any instance of resistance power. And with my experience with thunder magic, I think I can handle a couple of mages in Silesse."
"I don't know if I can trust you on that one, please don't underestimate your enemies...I wouldn't want you to end up getting hurt. I won't be there to aid you, you know?"
"I suppose that is true. I'm unsure if even my magic can take everything down, but I feel confident enough in myself. But you know, my siblings are going to be by my side the whole time. Even so...it was nice when you helped me out when the war was still going on."
Nanna nodded, but still felt a little glum about all of this. "Yeah, and you've grown a lot as a person since I met you. Even so, I just cannot help but worry. But I suppose you have Tinni, she's been getting experience in staff magic I have noticed."
"Yeah, I am proud of her for that...I think she mentioned that she learned by watching you, it's really impressive, really."
"R-Really? That's sweet, I'm really honored!" Nanna giggled, a blush shown on her face.
"Y-Yeah…" That was all Arthur could say, he found himself staring at her too much, hopefully, she didn't notice. But even he had to admit that what he just saw was really cute, but he kept it to himself. "Hey, I'll come back to see you when this is all done, yeah?"
"Y-Yeah! I'll be waiting for you, Arthur! Please take care!" Nanna said, the blush on her face was an even brighter red now.
"...And that's why I want you to look after Friege for Tinni and I."
"Haha hey! So you do want me to rule House Friege, yeah?" Amid said, after Arthur had explained the situation.
Linda, meanwhile, sighed at her brother's overconfident question. "Amid! He didn't mention that!"
"Hey, I'm just saying if he's going to be King of Silesse or whatever, shouldn't I take over Friege? Sure Tinni could be next in line but I'm more than likely older than her."
"I am sorry Amid, but we do not know anything yet," Tinni said as calmly as she could, to which Amid sighed.
"Alright alright, sorry."
After that whole dilemma, Arthur continued. "Anyway, I can trust you two, you're my cousins plus you both dealt with my bullshit so it all works out."
"That is implying that dealing with you has the same level of difficulty as ruling a dukedom," Amid replied, frowning.
"I...whatever, you get the idea!" The mage knight shouted in annoyance, crossing his arms. "Anyway, I wish you two luck."
"Oh don't worry, we'll do great. So long as I am here to keep Amid in check," Linda assured, giggling at her brother's insistence otherwise.
"Please never let him decide important matters by himself," Tinni told her cousin and then got closer to her. "I trust you more than him for this, please take care of Amid and Friege!" She whispered. "Anyway, Arthur, we should get going, Ced and Fee are waiting for us."
"Best of luck to you two!" Linda and Amid waved at their cousins once they made their way to reunite with Ced and Fee.
Meanwhile, Ced and Fee went to go and see Julia; she had passed out during the battle with Forseti and they both worried for her wellbeing. According to Seliph, she was in one of the tents around the forest.
They had made it to the main place where the camp was set up before the final fight with Julius. It didn't take them long enough to notice Seliph waving at them from the outside of one of the tents, which they assumed was the one Julia was in.
"I see you made it back safe, thankfully Sir Ced seems to be himself again!" Seliph exclaimed once they had arrived.
"Y-Yeah, I am...alright I think. How is Julia, though?"
"She's alright, fortunately, the blow didn't severely wound her. She is still recovering though."
"Thank Naga, I thought she would end up injured by my magic…" Ced said.
"You two can see her now, though," Seliph replied, trying not to make Ced feel too bad about what happened.
"Well, I'm going in!" Fee said and zoomed into the tent to see her friend, who was laying down, not sleeping though.
"O-Oh, Fee! I'm glad everything seems to be solved!" Julia exclaimed.
"Julia! You're alive!" Fee beamed and sat on the floor next to her and suddenly started fixing her messy hair a bit. "Don't mind me, just making sure you look good enough!" Fee said with a giggle.
Julia looked confused but only said, "O-Okay!"
Just then, Ced came in, to which Fee quickly got off Julia and sat on the floor again. To which Ced was only feeling awkward facing Julia once more. "I...Julia-"
However, whatever he was going to speak was immediately cut off by Julia who exclaimed, "Ced!"
Taken aback by her sudden excitement, Ced found himself unsure of what to say. "Julia, I-I'm sorry I did this…"
"What are you saying? I know it wasn't your fault! I'm just glad you're here with us again...I was worried sick about you…"
"You w-were…hah, I thought you would have thought…I thought you would hate me."
"No, I don't hate you, Ced! What matters is that you're here, as yourself."
"Sorry to leave early but I really need to check up on Mahnya!" Fee suddenly said, giving a wink to both Ced and Julia separately. "Have fun!" she said and dashed away from the tent, leaving them both alone.
'…Fee was definitely hinting at something,' Ced thought, her whole vibe the entire way through was really strange. But was he going to protest? Not really, no, because honestly she was correct about him liking Julia. It was strange, sure, but still…
"Well, there goes Fee again…" Ced sighed. You know what, he was just going to get to the point at hand. "Anyway, I had a lot of thoughts about my life when I was...possessed...by Forseti. I needed to ask you something in particular." Another pause, he needed to make sure his words were as clear as possible. "You see, learning my life was a lie, was...not the best thing to find out. It broke me! It made me terrified of trusting others! Then...when I obtained the Book of Forseti, all hell broke loose. I talked to Forseti. He was the one behind everything; he was going to use me to take over Jugdral. I was terrified to do anything, I was put in such a place where I couldn't do anything to break out of his control. Had it not been for Fee, Arthur, and Tinni...I wouldn't be here today."
"Oh...I had no idea…" Julia said, worried about Ced.
"I haven't mentioned this yet, but when my father is defeated, I want to learn about the world. I want to leave Jugdral...what my father-what Forseti did was...unforgivable. If I were to go back and rule Silesse, it wouldn't be right...I do not want to be royalty, not when I was born to be nothing more than an object. I don't want to be 'Ced, King of Silesse.' I just want to be Ced. I want to be Ced the Brave." He took a breath and continued. "If I were to leave alone though...I don't know if I could bear it. It would mean leaving you. Because, I love you Julia, I don't want to leave without you here. And that's why I just…When this is all over, would you...would you like to come with me? Come with me to...travel to different continents?"
Julia was taken aback by the last part of Ced's monologue, but in a good way as her eyes showed tears, apparently joyful tears. "C-Ced...I'm so happy! I thought I would never be able to tell you how I felt before you left, but you came and did it yourself! I love you too, so much!" She said, cleaning her tears.
"S-So you will come with me?"
"Of course! I will always be at your side, no matter what!" Julia said and suddenly pulled Ced into a hug, despite it hurting her.
"Awwww!" They both suddenly heard a voice from someone who left a few moments ago, or so they thought. It was Fee.
"Aaaah!" Ced, slightly shaken up from the voice, turned back to the entrance of the tent. "Fee? You've been..? Oh, of course you have, you silly girl!"
"Oh, that girl!" Julia giggled with a hand on her mouth.
"I'm sorry! I just couldn't miss this moment!" Fee laughed. "You were so sweet! You've never said things like that to me, I was very surprised! But you nailed it, congratulations you two!"
"I was simply telling her my feelings, I had to improvise a little. You know I have a hard time with feelings," Ced protested, grunting in fake-annoyance.
"Still, I knew this would happen! Since the very beginning!" The falcon knight clapped her hands in glee.
Ced and Julia merely laughed. Julia was leaning her head on Ced's chest; Ced wrapped his arm around her shoulders and pulled her closer. And for once in his life...in both of their lives even, they were happy. Happier than they could ever ask for.