The trek across Regna Ferox was a tough one, but the Shepherds were now on their way to investigate the rumors of a dishonorable sage who has been slaughtering hundred under fake pretenses of fair play, but Alex's eyes came to rest on Sully, feeling her energy in the distance and frowned as he suspected who the next victum will be if they were not able to get there in time.

Of course, they spotting the said sorcerer and leading a female Knight into a set of ruins was one of the things to suspect as Chrom arrived next to him and asked the young Exalt his thoughts. "What do you make of this, Chrom?"

"I hope she knows what she's getting into." But that was not the case as the maiden that was there ran for them and exclaimed.

"Sir! Please! You have to do something!"

"What's the matter?"

"It's my friend, sir. I fear she's walking into a terrible trap! That scoundrel Cassius would never fight an honest duel. My husband took a similar stand against his tyranny not long ago. The brute took a girl hostage and then cut my husband down as he lowered his weapon!" She sniffled as she pleaded. "I can't let her suffer the same fate... I'd die, I would!" Chrom nodded as he spoke.

"All right. We'll see what we can do." With that, the Shepherds followed to save the young knight from a bad fate as Sully strode beside Alex and spoke with a smirk.

"You think my girl is going to go down so easily?"

"If she possesses the same resistance to magic like you and your Paladin gear possess, then no, but backup is always expected."

"That's what I am liking, giving them hell for trying to muscle their way in!" With that, the party soon made their speed double to do so.

It wasn't hard to hear the exclaims as the Knight shouted. "Coward! You promised me a duel, you soulless blackheart!"

"Indeed I did. Consider all these men my seconds, heh. Still, I'm not a monster. I'll spare your life if you get on your knees and beg." The Knight hissed back as she moved into stance.

"I'd sooner die!"

"Well, we can arrange that, too. Have at her, boys!" The Knight knew her trouble as the side passages were filled with blackguards and she would be overwhelmed if she...

"ARCFIRE!" Two bursts of magic tore through the passages as the blackguards screamed as the Knight looked to find two... familiar magic users as they stood in the blaze of their power, the hooded male speaking with authority that demanded absolute loyalty. "If any of you are smart, you will leave these ruins RIGHT NOW, else you will perish in your boss's greed!" The resounding sound of rushing ran out, but the Knight watched as the blackguards just ran for it, some even reeking of something foul as they dropped their weapons and tools, the Knight turning back to find that a redhead firebrand trotted over upon a steed of white and armored like those trust-worth paladins as she spoke.

"Hey. You got a second?" She couldn't help herself as she yelped and the woman spoke in confusion. "What? I got something on my face?"

"N-no, you just... remind me of someone." She shook herself free as she spoke. "Forgive me. I have no time to talk."

"Don't worry. It won't take long." Whatever was stopping her, it was real as the paladin spoke. "So listen. These lowlifes have no honour. You know that, right?" She nodded as a few blackguards lingered, but were swiftly taken down like they were actually nothing. "If you meet 'em head-on, you'll just end up with a sword in your back."

"Head-on is how I live."

"...Ooh, I like you. And that's all the more reason I can't let you charge off on your own."

"Don't try to stop me!"

"I'm not stopping you. I'm coming with you. You just focus on finishing your duel, and I'll kill any idiot who gets in the way."

"R-right!" She headed off as Alex joined Sully as she spoke.

"She is one hell of a clip off my shoulder, I like her, really got her act together."

"Then let's KEEP her alive to see the next dawn, she would like to know who is going to keep her butt from getting too reckless." She laughed as they hurried through the flames and followed her into the back room as the sorcerer started to monologue.

"If you believe in gods, you'd better pray to them now!"

"My, my. Aren't we confident?"

"I don't fear you, coward!"

"Aye, I suppose not. Most fools assume that liars and sneaks like me are weak. They want us to be weak, see? They NEED it. It lets them hold on to the fantasy that right prevails in the end. Heh... They can think what they want. A cocky fool is an easy target. Truth is, in the end, it's the clever ones who always survive." The Knight hissed in anger as she spoke.

"A man who takes hostages in order to win a duel has no claim to cleverness. Even an animal would not stoop so low! But enough. I've no more words to waste on the likes of you. My master will have vengeance!"

"Wrong, girl. Your master will have COMPANY!" Alex huffed as another series of dark magic riddled the Knight, but she was truly her mother's daughter in holding out before he spoke, adjusting his gloves.

"Her master will be at peace with your end, sorcerer, you will not take her life like the cheapskate you are, real men need not tricks and traps to greet the dawn, they need true heart, if they cannot, then they are indeed weak, in both body and spirit."

"Spare me your word, whelp, I am stronger than I seem and you will learn the truth!"

"Then it is time you knew what facing a god is like..." Alex looked up and four more eyes formed on his shaded face before all flashed violet, a wave of pure malice surged through the room at the sorcerer, he losing the battle as he paled out of color and slumped in kneeling down with a battered look on his face as Alex huffed with his other eyes fading as he walking to the fool. "You are weak, for every sin in your skin, for every soul you have claimed in your greed and hunger, you will never know the meaning of a peaceful rest."

"Th-this... can't..."

"Yes, it is, you buffoon." The sorcerer made to rouse himself to blast Alex before something was tossed at him and he caught it and drew it through him, he glancing to find the spear of the whelp's master protruding from his torso as Alex finished. "To leave you alive is to give you more chances of bloodshed, so by the spear of her master, you are now sentenced by the hand of doom, to suffer each and every immeasurable thing that you have cast upon them." He opened his mouth to scream, but no sound came as he died, slumped like that as Alex huffed again and spoke as the duel disgraced was done with the dishonorable dead.

"Dramatic little moron, such a load of weakness, I am weak, but I am strong at the same time, what is really wrong with being seen as truly weak, but being strong enough to lift mountains...?"

"Maybe because you are a dramatic little guy yourself."

"...That's fair..." How Sully or the Knight didn't hear him and his 'one-sided' chat with Amirg was weird, but Alex didn't push it for now as they duel was done, the foe slain before them...

The maiden thanked the Knight, her name Kjelle, from coming back alive and giving her a piece of an emblem which was an old heirloom of the former master, Alex actually surprised as the symbol on the ruined piece was not easy to figure out, but he had seen it once, it was the emblem of Daein, a land far away and was mentioned briefly in both Ylisse and Plegia, so that was interesting as he withdrew to let things go on, but it seemed that his role was not yet done as Sully's voice rang out in the camp, where Kjelle was. "Looks like the good guys won after all. Ain't that a kick in the teeth?" Kjelle bowed as she spoke.

"Thank you for your help, but I fear other tasks yet lie ahead of me." She shoulder her lance as she nearly headed on out to the search. "I still have to find my parents."

"Aw, hell. Your parents are missing? That's rough, kid. Any idea where they might have gone?"

"I have a ring my father gave my mother, but precious little else to go on." Alex facepalmed as Sully just asked, was Kjelle just that dense or was it something else...? Something else to be honest as Sully played along.

"Mind if I take a look?"

"No, of course not." From the breastplate, Kjelle pulled out the ring and handed it to Sully who took a moment to look it over before she spoke with a smirk.

"Well, I'll be damned... Kid? This is MY ring." Kjelle took a surprised look as she exclaimed.

"Your ring? But then..." Sully laughed as she pulled off her left gauntlet and revealed that, on her finger was the same match of the ring as she spoke, Alex not going to think about that pairing for now.

"Hah! I get it. You're one of the kids who came back with Lucina, yeah? Which means...I've got a new lead for you on the parent front, kiddo. ...I'm your mom."

"Y-you?!"

"You expecting someone prettier?"

"N-no! Of course not!" Kjelle recovered as she spoke. "I mean... You look as beautiful now as when I knew you."

"Har! So I'm not all wrinkled or missing a hand or anything? That's a relief."

"You were a beautiful and vibrant woman, despite the ill times we lived in. You taught me how to be strong. You taught me to survive." Sully beamed as she spoke with taking a seat on a nearby bench.

"All right, kid, sit down. I want to know every last detail about the future."

"You bet!" Sully raised a brow that that statement before she asked.

"...Is that how you address your mother?"

"I mean, y-yes! Yes ma'am!"

"Much better." Kjelle chuckled as she mused with taking the seat.

"Hee hee. You always were tough on me."

"That's right. Any child of mine is gonna have to learn to respect their elders!"

"...It's good to see you, Mother." Alex decided to leave now as he turned away and headed off, the horse glared at him in catching in close by, but it jumped when he patted its snort and calmly got it to listen.

"Your master is a great woman and her daughter seems to carry that fire, know that and keep them well, I was only here to see how things turned out." The horse didn't move for a good minute as Alex left and returned to his tent, going through the documents before it started to slow, rubbing his temples and massaging them before it was clear that something else was affecting him, something magical as he focused for the answer and found it... there was a great power emitting from the Shrine to Naga in the West, Amirg commenting in confusion.

"That feels similar to the other children we have found..." He surged out of the mark and simmered in the tent with golden essence. "...But it also feels like the same power that has cleared our mind of any memories that we once had..."

"Then what does...?"

"Father!" Noire came bursting in and ignored Amirg as she shouted with tears in her eyes. "It's Mother, she's fallen ill and it is very powerful, like death was set upon her...!"