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Closure

The roaring sounds as the Akaneian League's forces collided with the forces of Gra echoed throughout the grasslands outside of Gra Bastion. Weapons clashed and it took little time for the green beneath the soldiers' feet to be painted with red as soldiers on both sides were cut down.

The fight itself had spread across much of the open plain—in fact, it had been so widespread that Marth had to make the difficult decision to split his forces into three as they not only combated their enemies, but also ensured the safety of the surrounding villages. Though the villagers were technically citizens of Gra, Marth swore to keep them just as safe as if they were his own people. This certainly won the villagers' favors, and one particularly interesting individual claiming to know Prince Nyna even gave him a tome of great importance.

"I find it strange how that man said that the Bishop's tome just found its way into his hands. Especially if Volzhin had been the one holding onto it initially…" muttered Abel to the prince. Marth certainly agreed but knew that now was not the time to dwell on the specifics—they were lucky enough to have been given something so important in the first place.

"Regardless of the reasoning, we have it now. If anything, I am more curious as to who that man was…" Marth responded before he shook his head, "But now certainly is not the time to try to figure it out. We have far more important matters immediately at hand."

Yes, far more important, the prince thought to himself as he led his troop back out into the fields. Gra Bastion was in the near distance, and he was bound and determined to make it there as quickly as possible.

From what he knew of King Jiol, the man was a complete coward; not only had he backstabbed Marth's father when he had least expected it, he also sent all of his own men out into the fields to fight without him, choosing instead to keep himself more or less holed up in his castle. While the survival of the King was obviously important, the fact that he would not even attempt to step foot on the battlefield when the war was going on right outside of his doorstep simply showed Marth that Jiol was clearly not fit for his role as a leader. One must lead by example, especially in times of war.

It only made his soul burn hotter in his frustration. How such a man could be the one responsible for killing Cornelius and setting the stage for the fall of Altea…

With a sharp inhale, Marth clenched his hand around the hilt of his rapier. With each moment and each felled enemy soldier, they came closer to the walls of Gra Bastion.

"My lord."

With slow footsteps, Gharnef approached the throne of Medeus. He stopped near the base of the stairs and put a wrinkled hand to his chest before bowing slightly. Narrowed eyes considered him as the dark pontifex straightened his back.

"Gharnef. You are here far sooner than I anticipated," came Medeus' indifferent voice. "What is it that has you at my feet?"

Gharnef's expression soured. "It is about that whelp prince, Lord Medeus," he began. "He is already at the doorstep of Gra. It will be little time before he arrives in Altea."

The implication of Gra's imminent demise drew a humored huff from the earth dragon. "Gra has yet to fall and yet you spell that coward king's death."

With pursed lips, Gharnef shook his head. "We both know it is only a matter of time. He was simply a pawn for your use."

Medeus laughed darkly at Gharnef's choice of words. "A pawn he is. And he will die like one—unceremoniously."

The Dragon King put his hands on the arm rests of his throne and hoisted himself up slowly. "We will simply keep an eye on how the situation unfolds, as always. I wholly expect the child to overthrow Gra. Thankfully, that has no negative effect on my greater plan. Actually… one might say it's even for the better. Tell me, you had fetched the Falchion from the coward before the Akaneian League got there, did you not?"

With a nod, the dark mage smiled sinisterly. "Of course. So even after the king is overthrown, it will be for naught, as the Falchion is far away from there now…"

"Then for now, we have no reason to worry," Medeus said. "This is all a distraction to simply buy me more time."

After a moment, the Dragon King put his knuckle to his chin. "Speaking of time… tell me, what have you found out about that mage? The one that Zharov sent word of before he was killed."

At the mention of Fafnir, Gharnef grinned. "Ah, yes. That one. He is quite interesting. I met with him in Thaubes, as requested."

There was a glint in Medeus' eyes as he squinted them. "And? Out with it. Your grin begets interest."

"It seems he is a manakete, my lord," Gharnef said. At that, the Dragon King's brow raised.

"Is that so," he responded, his tone remaining flat.

"Yes. He claims to have come from quite far to meet with you, specifically. I told him that I would express his interest to you, and you would entertain him only when you were ready," Gharnef explained. "Whether or not you wish to respond to his request…"

"I am interested," Medeus interrupted. "Find him and bring him here. I will test him for myself."

"What do you mean the Pegasus knights turned on us?!" Jiol shouted as he gripped the breastplate of his messenger. The messenger panicked and waved his arms, trying to allay his King's obvious anger.

"I… I am not sure, sire, I just received word from the front lines—well, what remains that is—that the Pegasus knights that were sent to us were found cutting down our own men…!"

With an agitated growl, Jiol tossed the messenger to the side, and the poor man collapsed onto the floor ungracefully.

"That is enough of this! I will simply go out there myself! This has gone on long enough," the King shouted as he finally grabbed his own weapon.

With heavy footsteps, he left the great hall in search of the Altean prince, unaware of just how close Marth was to simply finding him on his own.

Jagen rode his horse ahead towards the castle gatehouse, his lance outstretched. He caught an enemy archer with his spearhead before the man could let loose his arrow, and the path was cleared enough for the prince and his troupe to make it safely through.

"Prince Marth, now is the best chance to…" he started, but Marth ran past him before he could even finish. The paladin only shook his head and mumbled something about the folly of youth as he kept the way clear for his allies—consisting of Hardin, Midia, Cain, Roy, Merric, and a few others—to get through.

"We're almost there," Marth whispered between grit teeth.

"Prince! Enemy reinforcements coming from the barracks!" Midia shouted.

"Don't worry about them," Hardin cut in. "We'll handle them. Prince Marth, go on ahead!"

With a quick nod, Marth thanked him before turning his attention to the two red heads in the group. "Cain… Roy, can you two come with me?"

"You needn't ask twice," Cain responded with a smirk. "We've got your back!"

"You've got it," Roy agreed. "Though the final blow goes to you."

The comment caught the prince off guard and elicited a much-needed chuckle from him. "Yes, certainly."

Without further discussion, the trio broke off from the remainder of the group and proceeded to push their way through the corridors of the gatehouse. Thankfully their quick advance meant that they had been able to outpace the reinforcements, and they had little trouble finding the exit. Upon breaking through the gate they found themselves in the castle courtyard, though they were not alone: directly across from them stood a row of ten to fifteen enemies, all wielding a variety of bows and lances.

Directly behind them stood Marth's target: King Jiol.

The prince's blood practically boiled at the sight of his father's murderer.

"You…" he managed to mumble, and Jiol snarled.

"Altean rabble," Jiol spat. "You would have the gall to trespass here and challenge me… you've proven to be a bigger hassle than you're worth! I should have killed you years ago when I had the chance!"

Both Cain and Roy set their jaws. The cavalier scanned the line of enemies before them. The lancers all had their spears readied at their sides, and every archer had their bows nocked with arrows trained on Marth.

"This is tricky," Cain muttered. He glanced to his right to look at Marth and then trained his eyes on Roy, who was on Marth's other side. Roy had been side-eyeing him as well and their gazes caught. With narrowed eyes, the mercenary nodded curtly to Cain, which made the corner of the cavalier's mouth tug upwards in a smirk.

Go figure—they were on the same wavelength, Cain thought. Perfect—that would make this easy, though it might give the prince a bit of an unexpected scare…

A small price to pay for victory.

"Here goes nothing!" the cavalier shouted suddenly, drawing the attentions of everyone but Roy, who had been expecting the outburst. His horse reared before taking off in a beeline directly towards the line of foes, obviously taking them off guard by how they stumbled every which way as they clamored to aim their weapons towards him.

During the confusion, Marth felt a sudden grip on his forearm, and he quickly whipped his head to the side. Roy was holding onto his arm and staring directly at him with determination and a hint of playfulness in his eyes.

"We'll keep the other guys distracted. Now's your chance," he said as he shot Marth a confident smile. Roy quickly let go of Marth's arm before ran off after Cain.

Though the shock stuck with him for a moment, the prince quickly shook himself out of it. "You two…" he muttered before he pulled his rapier in close. "Thank you."

"I have always wanted to try this…" Cain murmured to himself as he weaved his horse out of the way of an enemy arrow. He quickly pulled himself up to crouch on the saddle of his horse with his javelin pointed out at his side. With one swift movement, he jumped high off his horse with his javelin readied above his head.

"Mess with The Bull of Altea and you'll catch his horns!" he shouted, grinning from ear to ear as he plummeted his javelin into the group of footsoldiers.

"You sound completely absurd," Roy said with a smirk as he joined the fray, cutting down a lancer in his wake. Between the two of them, Jiol's backup had been thoroughly distracted- giving Marth an easy path right to the enemy king.

The prince sprinted towards king Jiol, rapier readied, and Jiol hissed with disdain as he clutched his spear with a wavering grip.

"You are just as much of a fool as your father was! What do you expect to gain by going against Doluna? You will end up a sacrifice for Medeus, just like the rest of your family!" Jiol shouted as he swung his lance at Marth.

"I will not stand idly by and watch as our world is consumed by hate," Marth responded as he avoided Jiol's weapon. "Medeus will only bring forth suffering, and you are an accomplice."

Their weapons met with a metallic clang, though the weight of Jiol's spear was far greater than Marth's rapier. The prince slipped out from under the king's spear and swiped at him for a second time, cutting through Jiol's bicep.

The coward king hissed in pain as he took a step back. His expression was contorted in anger and his nostrils were flared.

"It's not my fault I can see the clear winner of this war," he shot back, "It would have been foolish of me to stay on your father's side when the rest of the world was losing or turning against him for Doluna!"

Marth shook his head. "If that is how you feel, then show me your resolve here. But know that I will not fall to you—for my father and for my people, I will strike you down!"

With a cry, Jiol came at Marth with his weapon at the ready once again, and the prince met him with his own. There was an inferno burning in Marth's chest as he thought back to the devastation that befell his family and his homeland those years ago when the very man before him betrayed them all.

It was as if his father's spirit had come from the heavens to lend Marth his strength as a surge of adrenaline coursed through the prince's veins. Spotting an opening, he pulled his weapon back, practically pressing it to his cheek as he focused on his target.

"This ends here!" Marth shouted as he thrust his rapier forward.

As metal met flesh, it was as if the sky split open and light was finally cast on the darkness of the past, dispelling the demons that had been lurking in the depths of his heart.

With Jiol's final breath, closure had finally come at last.