"Alright, we got everything all set up, correct?" Ced asked his siblings after everyone had returned and gotten everything ready.
Arthur did a quick double-check of his items and nodded. "Yep, all good to go."
"Same here," Tinni replied, holding her newly restored Elthunder tome in her hands.
"I know I am! And Mahnya is all ready to go too!" Fee finished off. "I think we are all ready Cedsy. But what about you, don't want you to forget anything either."
Ced sighed at his sister's concern. "I have everything prepared, Fee. I already know what to do."
"Really? Well if you say so, I believe you." Fee laughed.
"Alright, now you three must be prepared, I do not know where exactly this warp staff will take you. Somewhere in Silesse is all I know, but I will do my best," Ced said once everyone was seemingly ready. "I would advise you to stay back a bit, I don't want you to end up getting caught in the spell: I don't want to walk all the way to Silesse," Ced told Fee.
"Don't worry, I'm not that dumb." Fee laughed and moved behind her brother.
Ced took out the warp staff and concentrated on the task at hand. He knew how to handle it by now, but, even so, he didn't want to accidentally put them in a really bad position. With the image of Silesse in his mind, he whispered a spell, and the staff began to glow. And just like that, they were gone.
"Whew, now then, we should get going as soon as possible, we don't want them to be in danger! Mahnya is already raring to go too, so let's hurry!" Fee said after a bit of time.
"Yes, of course." Ced nodded, and then they went on Fee's pegasus and quickly took off towards Silesse.
It didn't take them too long to get into the skies of the border between Grannvale and Silesse, that same place where Fee found Julia and all of this started. The field was still covered with snow, but significantly less than that winter a few years ago.
Ced sighed as he looked down at the Silesian landscape. He never would've thought he would set foot in such a hectic kingdom again. He just wished to leave, but this was his final task here; he just had to wait a bit longer.
"Cedsy, you look sad again. Tell me, what's on your mind?" Fee said once she noticed her brother's state.
"Oh, nothing just…not looking forward to coming back here I guess," Ced replied, looking up at his sister.
"Well, if I'm being honest, I never wanted to come back here either. But I guess we have to in order to make it a better place."
"Oh really now? I suppose we're in the same boat with that. But I've been thinking and really, leaving Silesse in the hands of Arthur might be a good option, don't you think?"
Fee perked up at that final part specifically. "Ahhh yeah, I heard that part too...but I was too distracted with you confessing your feelings and I didn't wish to ruin the mood, so I just kept silent."
"I see, well, yeah...I suppose you wish to do the same?"
"No, not really, but I do have something in mind...but I'm not sure if it'll work 100%, heh," Fee said with a nervous laugh.
"Interesting, so you do have someone on your mind too! And here you tease me for that same thing!" Ced laughed.
"Oh hush, you're the one who was never one for the idea of romance!"
"Alright, if you say so." The sage continued to laugh at her flusteredness. Before realizing something. "Hm...I realized something...I am going to miss having you around…"
"Yeah me too...I will also miss Julia a lot. I'm happy for you both but I'm sad that you are taking her from me!" Fee said jokingly.
"Awwww, do not worry, if you'll miss her that much then I can try and come back to Jugdral once in a while."
"I would appreciate that! Just promise me you will take care of her. And I suppose you take care as well; without you, Julia would be very sad."
"I promise you I will take care of her. But don't get all worked up over her leaving, you've done that a few times already."
"Alright, alright, I just worry."
"I know you do." Another laugh from Ced, it was nice to talk with his sister again more than ever. Then, after a few moments of silence, Fee ordered Mahnya to go faster.
Meanwhile, Arthur and Tinni had landed somewhere in Silesse. While it was indeed the summertime, the coldness of Silesse was still present, much to Arthur's annoyance.
"It's so cold! If I'd known this would be the case I would've gotten a little more prepared," Arthur said, wrapping his arms around him to try and get some heat.
"Well, Arthur, Silesse is a cold place, you should know that!" Tinni said, but she was in a similar situation as her brother, but at least she could somewhat hide it.
"But it's summer! Also, I haven't been to Silesse ever before so-"
"That's not the point! Anyways, we should be careful, we don't know where we are and Fee and Ced might take a while to get here. We should find a place to camp until they find us," Tinni said, looking around the snow-covered area. "We should find a place where they would easily spot us, with all this snow it shouldn't be too hard. I doubt the enemy knows we are coming so we should be safe anywhere."
"Then let's get on with this. I hate being here," Arthur demanded.
"Well, yeah, we should be quick before we freeze to our deaths here!" Tinni said, then she pointed in a random direction. "There, we will go there!" She said and started walking towards the mountains she had pointed at.
Arthur didn't say a word and only followed his sister.
It was a few hours that passed and the sun was already setting, but they finally found a good enough spot to set up camp.
"Okay, we should be fine here." Tinni said with a sigh of relief, "We just need to make a fire and we will finally be able to rest!"
"Well, I don't know much about fire magic, do you know how?" Arthur asked as he sat on one of the trunks.
"I was hoping you at least learned some basic fire spells during the war!" Tinni said.
"Well I never said I would, how are we going to make a fire now!? Are we really gonna die here?" Arthur asked, anxious.
"There has to be something we can do! Um...I read we can start a fire with a tree branch and a rock! That might help," Tinni suggested.
The mage knight still protested at his sister's suggestions. "What? That's not reliable! We are gonna be here forever if you try that!"
"Then how are we gonna make it?!"
"Easy! Like this," Arthur said and suddenly cast a blast of one of his thunder spells at the pile of branches. The sudden lightning caused Tinni to jump and fall to the ground, but thankfully it worked and fire appeared.
"Ahh! That scared me, you should tell me before you do things like that! I could've gotten hit!" Tinni shouted to her brother as soon as she got up.
"You know I'm impatient with that kind of thing, and besides, we need to be prepared. You never know when someone could see us and attack us."
"You are right on that...I remember Fee told me that the pegasus knights often go scouting around the inhabited areas. We should take turns at night, we don't want to get ambushed while we sleep."
"Yeah, that can work actually. If anyone tries to take us off guard they'll die where they stand!"
Unfortunately, as Arthur said that, he was suddenly met with a small group of pegasus. knights approaching from above; they must have heard the two siblings shouting and followed the noise. Well that was a bust; they had no choice but to defend themselves now.
"What do you two think you are doing around these parts of Silesse? Are you trying to escape, are you? Or perhaps you are outsiders? You should know those aren't allowed here!" The leader of the group said, lance firm in her hand.
"Why does it matter? There's something important we must take care of!" Arthur snapped back with a glare.
"Silessian borders are closed! I assumed it would be common knowledge by now. The border must be protected at all costs. King Lewyn demands it!"
Arthur scoffed. "King Lewyn, eh? Yeah I don't think we will leave, we're trying to find 'King Lewyn.'"
"I cannot allow you to! He gave me direct orders to not let anyone through!" The pegasus knight said, readying herself for battle.
"You really think I'm going to listen to you? A simple 'you can't' is not going to stop me," Arthur replied, readying his tome as well.
Tinni sighed. "Arthur…"
Being stubborn as he is, Arthur ignored his sister's annoyance and began to cast a Thoron spell at one of the pegasus knights. However the pegasus knight avoided the attack and right after that, another pegasus knight approached from above, separate from the group. She was accompanied by someone else on the pegasus, which gave them an idea to whom it might be. It wasn't an enemy, thankfully.
"Incoming!" Fee shouted as she quickly went down and knocked down the pegasus knight's lance as fast as lightning.
Immediately after seeing who it was, the opposing pegasus knight gawked. "Princess Fee? Is that you?"
"Oh, hi Femina! I didn't realize it was you," Fee said and then laughed nervously, "I'm back, I guess…"
"You left so suddenly, yeah. But, what are you doing here?
"Well, it's kinda hard to explain...but we came here to speak with our father."
"I-I see…"
Just then, Ced came into the conversation. "It is a long story and we have no time to tell. But we are trying to take down our father. These two mages here are our siblings, and we're teaming up to take him down."
Femina stammered on her words. "I am...unsure of what to say, I do not know how King Lewyn would feel about this. But I will take your word for it; he has been...not alright…"
Ced nodded. "So much more than 'not alright…'" He thought to himself out loud. "Now, as a final order from your prince, I command you to let us inside Silesse Palace."
"Yes, of course, Prince Ced," Femina said and quickly obeyed the orders she was given and commanded her group of pegasus knights to stand down.
Then, each of them got on a pegasus and they were led to Silesse's castle.
It didn't take long until they could see the castle from a distance, to which Ced ordered the pegasus knight group to land near the entrance. Once they had made it close enough, Ced looked at his siblings, urging them on to follow him as they quietly made their way into the palace.
Ced looked at his siblings again, as though needing to be absolutely sure that everyone was ready for this. This was going to be tough; Ced in particular was a little terrified to confront Forseti again, but at least he had his siblings on his side and someone to fight for. Everyone nodded, which indicated that it was finally time to go.
Once they entered, darkness immediately covered their vision. This could mean that Forseti was aware that they were planning to seek vengeance. But even so, they used the darkness to their advantage to move through quietly.
Tinni lit up the room with her torch staff, not too brightly though as that would put them at a disadvantage.
"We have reached the place of our final objective," Ced whispered. "Now that we are here, we will have to find where exactly Fa-Forseti is. I will go on my own for now, I can handle this myself. Arthur, you are in charge. I will come back soon."
Arthur gave him a skeptical look. "Are you sure? I mean, you did just kind of, you know, recover from being possessed and shit? Are you sure you will be able to handle yourself?"
"I will be fine, I am not going to let myself get taken down again." Ced sighed, looking down the long dark hallway. "Plus, there's something I would like to see along the way…"
"Alright...just make it quick," Arthur said before looking at Fee and Tinni. "Let's find out where the hell that dragon is." The two nodded then the three went off.
Ced sighed, still oddly drawn to that dark hallway, as though something in particular was urging him to go. He could feel that something was over there, yet his mind was confused and could not figure out what. Feeling a sense of obligation, he quietly walked towards it.
Gods, walking through this gave him such a sense of familiarity; this was his old home, after all. But the memories...so overwhelming. When mother died, he felt terrified. He closed himself off. After that...he couldn't remember, hadn't it been two years since he got sent out to Thracia? Or perhaps less than that? And how long had he blindly obeyed Forseti before he realized things? His whole life, most likely. Then after that, he could recall the day Fee found Julia, and how Forseti noticed her. He remembered how it all just unfolded all at once, with no time for him to react until he was sent out to Thracia. Nothing about this palace changed at all! He didn't like it!
But he would be leaving soon…
Just as he snapped out of his thoughts, he saw his old room.
He stood outside the door frame as every emotion hit his heart all at once; so this must've been what he was drawn to this whole time. Walking into the room now, he looked around and found his old desk. Ah, he remembered his old desk, he could recall many times where he would stay inside his room and do nothing but read books and write about his feelings.
He cast a small spell from his Light tome, getting a better look at the old desk; Looking closer now, he found a book. Curiouser now, he opened the book, and with the help of the light spell, he could read bits and pieces. It had to be from years ago, his handwriting was barely legible. Moving through the pages again, he found something that caught his eye in particular.
Year 774, Winter
'Stupid Father! Why did he do this again? Ever since Mother died he has been much more aggressive around me. Sometimes I wonder if he even likes me. All he cares about is my magic abilities, but my twin sister? He could care less. Today in particular, though, he told me that I should keep training my magic, even though he knows I have his major blood; I can cast magic unarmed for Sety's sake! I am tired of him forcing me to stay in Silesse, I can hardly even talk to the citizens of Silesse without being on some sort of time limit. What am I going to do?'
Ced sighed, shaking his head at the writing. He flipped through the pages again, finding a later entry, one from three months after the last one.
Year 775, Early Spring
'I attempted to visit the village near the palace today, but I failed. The villagers gave me odd looks, it made me feel scared. Maybe Father is right, maybe I should just not interact with others. I should just hide in my room. I suppose that is why I am here writing this after all. I should just obey Father's wishes...what else am I to do besides that?'
Ahhh, why was it always about him?
Growing annoyed by his own writing and complaints, he looked over at the last page, before he left Silesse.
Year 776, Late Winter
'Fee brought this girl back here to the palace, apparently her name is Julia, I was concerned about her being here. But Father allowed her to stay here...it is quite odd, given his usual antics. Though at least he has some sort of regard for others. Regardless, I feel like my life might get more interesting, something about this 'Julia' girl fascinates me…'
Ced slammed the book shut and he took a deep breath, trying not to let his emotions get to him.
He still had some unfinished business to do with that dragon.
All he could feel was anger. He wanted to finish this once and for all. He must head back. Throwing the book onto the bed, he stood up and dashed off, not even trying to look back at his old room.
"What exactly are you looking for, Fee?" Arthur asked, trying to make sure he wasn't too loud during all of this.
"This castle...something about it...the memories return to me. I've spent my entire life here you know? But knowing I have made it this far...it's a strange feeling," Fee replied.
"And you are letting yourself get emotional over that?" Arthur asked yet again.
"Yes, it's just...I need to find my old room, I don't think Forseti would've done anything to it."
Arthur said nothing, only sighed as he and Tinni began to follow Fee through yet another hallway. He was still on his guard. Something about this did not feel right whatsoever; the castle felt so empty. He looked toward Tinni, she seemed to be on her guard too. Arthur felt like he was going to break out of his constant silence at any moment, the fear was getting to him.
After what felt like hours, they had made it to where Fee's room supposedly was. Fee immediately ran inside, in a more panicked way than normal. She looked through the room, this time, looking out the window, seeing the moonlight reflecting the snow to form a bright light throughout the room, just as she often did with Julia all that time ago.
Lewyn never allowed anything flashy in her room, so it looked more plain than what she truly wanted. There were green walls at least, so it wasn't just a simple white. Yet, even so, she wished she could've had that freedom so long ago. The only thing she could recall that was good, necessarily, was when she found Julia in Silesse, but that only went for about a week before Julia had to be sent away. Why did everything have to be taken away from her? Ced was not very talkative to her after mother had died, and Lewyn never bothered to speak to her.
But why was she dwelling on such things? That was over a year ago!
She turned away from the window and sighed, she shouldn't get sad now! She was about to leave, however, she heard running footsteps from outside the room.
"Arthur, Tinni, there you are. Where's Fee?" 'Oh, it seems Ced has returned,' Fee thought.
"She's in this room, she should be coming back here soon," Tinni replied.
Ced, hearing that, looked inside that room and upon seeing Fee, he shouted, "Fee, we need to hurry, get out of there!"
"Yes, yes, I will." Fee nodded as she left her room, as she did so she saw the fear in Ced's eyes, he must've noticed something off as well.
Arthur let out an exhausted sigh. "We have done enough moving around, where is Forseti? He's not anywhere, everything just feels so empty…"
'Trying to be sneaky are we?'
Suddenly, as this voice echoed through the halls of the castle, there was a sudden blast of powerful wind magic directed at the group. Damnit, that wasn't part of the plan! Fortunately, everyone managed to dodge the blast.
"Blizzard…" Ced muttered under his breath seeing the type of wind magic that it was. "What the hell is he doing…?"
'I grow bored of your antics, why don't you come out and actually fight me?'
"Then show yourself!" Arthur shouted, casting a Thoron spell from his hands. "I am going to beat you to death!"
'Alriiiight...if you are so eager to get yourselves killed.'
After that echo, a sudden bright green light appeared throughout the hallway. Once it died down, Forseti finally appeared in the form of Lewyn, their father. Upon seeing him, Arthur took the chance to launch an attack. Unfortunately, due to his lack of focus, he ended up missing, at which Forseti only grinned and grabbed Arthur by the arm and pushed him away towards the wall.
"Arthur!" Tinni shouted before she cast a spell from her Elthunder tome, but to no one's surprise, it did nothing.
"Oh you poor thing, always trying to be a good sister for your brother." Forseti laughed, blasting a shot of wind at her, which caused Tinni to fall to the ground; thankfully the hit was nothing lethal. "Your brother has almost died far too many times, what would happen if he actually does? Wouldn't that be sad?"
Tinni was set off from that and she got up off the ground and shouted while she prepared another spell. "He's NOT going to do that again!" Then she blasted the spell at the dragon, twice this time, to which one of them actually hit him.
The dragon laughed again, using his wind to make her fall again. "Oh, get out of here!"
Before any other damage could be done, Ced and Fee used their own power of the wind to attack Forseti from behind. From both of their powers combined, they landed a critical hit which left Forseti in a rough position.
"You really think you can take me down don't you?" Forseti sarcastically asked, casting even more wind in the building, causing some bits of the walls to fall down. "You don't know who you are messing with. Ced might have been too powerful, but you're dealing with ME. I've had experience with this body for YEARS now. You cannot stop me!"
"AAAAAAAH!" Arthur screamed. He was still injured from Forseti throwing him at the wall, but he had enough energy to cast a big Thoron blast from his hands, landing a critical hit on Forseti again. "I have WAITED for this day to finally kill you! You're the one who left my mother to DIE! I WILL MAKE YOU PAY FOR WHAT YOU DID!"
While the blow was quite powerful, Forseti did nothing to retaliate. Instead his previous injuries, though small, started to disappear. "I told you, didn't I? You can't defeat me in this form."
"Wh-what are we supposed to do now? He can heal himself! We took so long to at least do a bit of damage, how are we gonna do this!?" Fee exclaimed, raising her hands in the air.
Casting a small bit of magic from his light tome, Ced replied, "I think I have an idea, remember what you used to restore me? We'll use that!"
Forseti, meanwhile, launched a blast of wind magic at Ced while this vulnerability was present. Though, Ced had the strength to keep going after that. "Thinking of using that scroll on me, are you? When will you learn, children, that your father had died long ago? What use would it be?"
Arthur felt his rage intensify more so as he blasted another Thoron spell out of nothing but anger. "When will YOU learn that we do not care? We're going to take you down anyway!"
"And we will succeed in doing so!" Ced followed up on Arthur's counter, blasting a spell of wind before taking out the Sety Scroll. The bright green glow appeared again once the scroll was unfolded, which caused Forseti to react, but he was trying his best to hold it in.
Arthur and Tinni took the momentum the Scroll gave them to launch a combined Thoron-Elthunder attack, meanwhile Fee charged against Forseti to attack him with her wind sword. Ced, on the other hand, prepared a powerful wind spell to finish off their attack. Forseti was hit with the sibling's combined attack and received massive damage, causing him to flinch thanks to the power of the scroll. The siblings took the chance to deal consecutive attacks to deal as much damage as they possibly could.
After many attacks, Forseti was heavily weakened, but suddenly a powerful wind gust was released by Forseti, which blew everyone away. "Aghhh, this stupid body! I am tired of this! I've had enough of these mortal antics!" Forseti shouted as a massive flow of energy surrounded his body, strong winds flew around the castle, causing the walls to show cracks and small debris to fall to the floor.
"What is happening? Did we do it?" Tinni asked, finally showing signs of fear.
"I-I don't know, but it looks dangerous. We should get out of here!" Fee said, signaling everyone to follow her.
"I don't like this! I don't like thiiiiis!" Arthur panicked, looking over at Ced who was still weakened from the Sety Scroll. "Ced! Get out of here! This castle is tumbling down!"
"Wh-What?" Ced snapped out of his tiredness, looking around the area. "Oh gods! How did-"
"I don't have time for thiiiiis!" Arthur, running under adrenaline, took Ced's hand and ran as fast as he could to follow Fee and Tinni. It felt like he was running for hours until he found the entrance, thankfully the walls had broken down enough to let a bit of light inside the previously dark castle. Then he made it out, feeling the cold air around him as he looked back at Ced, who was as out of breath as he was.
Then, they heard a loud noise, which caused them to look back. The castle was completely destroyed and a giant green dragon was in its place, it had the same bright green as the Sety Scroll's glow. Well fuck, how was this going to be solved?
"AAAAAAH!" Fee screamed, shaking. "WHAT IS THAT?"
"That's...that's a dragon!" Ced said with the little breath he had. "I-I...that must be his true form!"
"How are we going to beat that thing? We don't have any special weapons like Julia and the others!" Fee exclaimed with a shaky voice.
Arthur shook his head, trying to figure out something. "This isn't Loptyr, though. Which puts us at a better position than before, however, he's still a god!"
"The Sety Scroll could still work, wouldn't it?" Tinni asked.
Ced looked down at the Sety Scroll, which was worn out. "I doubt it, it only works when Forseti is using someone. Not on Forseti himself…especially in that form."
"Then I guess we got no choice but to take him down!" Arthur exclaimed, grabbing his special Thoron now. "Plus I can take advantage of this tome in particular rather than just my own hands!"
"But how are we gonna approach him in the first place?" Tinni asked.
"I have an idea," Fee said. "I could take Arthur on my pegasus to approach him. He could attack him from up high to distract him while you two approach him. Then Ced and Arthur could try their fancy combined attack! I think it could work."
"That does sound like a swell idea, Fee. It just might work if executed well!" Arthur exclaimed.
"Alright! Then hop on and let's do this!" Fee said, getting on top of her pegasus; Arthur followed her and did the same. They took off, immediately grabbing Forseti's attention. A powerful beam of wind was shot from the dragon, but thankfully Fee was skilled enough to avoid the attack with ease.
Arthur responded by using his upgraded Thoron tome to attack Forseti, a bright blue aura surrounded the lightning; though it didn't do much damage to Forseti, it was certainly doing something as the dragon almost tripped from the blow.
The battle between Forseti, Fee and Arthur looked almost like a light show from a distance; Ced and Tinni were carefully approaching the scene by foot, hoping the plan would work, both of them holding their Light and Elthunder tomes respectively. Once they were close enough to the castle's ruins, Tinni used her Elthunder to do a bit of damage to the dragon, while Ced looked for a good position to prepare his attack.
Ced activated his Light tome once he found the right spot, which was cast with the sunlight skill, to which Forseti shifted his attention to and prepared another beam.
Arthur knew this was his cue to attack once more now that Forseti was distracted; the powerful Lunar lighting from his Thoron tome stopped the dragon from his attack, to which Ced followed with his Solar light magic directly at the dragon's head. The clash of both magic spells created an explosion that certainly had to have dealt great damage to Forseti.
It was finally time to end this once and for all. Ced prepared the most powerful light attack he could possibly cast and Arthur jumped from Fee's pegasus as he casted his own attack. Once the smoke from the previous explosion had faded, they launched their attacks in perfect synchrony. An immense blow of a mix of light and lightning flew in the air, surrounded by a light orange aura thanks to the Lunar-Solar energy from the attacks, causing yet another giant explosion on the wind dragon.
The explosion faded as Ced dropped to the ground. Arthur almost fell, luckily Fee was there to catch him before anything bad happened. Tinni, meanwhile, just stood in silence. Regardless, everyone was worn out. But it was finally done.
When Fee and Arthur landed to the ground, and when the smoke had faded away, Forseti could be seen, albeit in a different form now;; his human form. He was lying on the ground, weakened.
"Ughhh...stupid, pitiful humans! They really bested me didn't they? I suppose I should try my luck in another world... "
Arthur, who was decently far away from the scene, said, "No, no I don't think you will." He then used his mother's Thoron tome to put an end to the Wind God.
Then, it was silent once more...
Ced looked down at the now-defeated Forseti. "It is...It is over…"
Fee looked toward Ced. "It is, isn't it…?"
"Y-Yeah…" Tinni agreed.
"Silesse is now free...after all of these years…" Ced looked up at the sky. Tears of happiness filled his eyes.
Fee noticed her brother's joyful state, to which she approached him and hugged him; she felt happy too. It was finally over. Arthur and Tinni joined the hug, sharing their siblings' happiness.
Forseti of the Wind was gone, forever, and his kids were finally free.