"Baaa!" the little sheep whined, annoyed as its tiny feet trudged on.
"Come on! Come on!" The young boy tapped its butt with the butt of his sword and pushed it along.
"Dang ol' sheepies! Getting out of the barn, being sheepies 'n' stuff." The boy pushed the tip of his broadsword against the hat on his head. A cowboy hat. Supposedly, because in actuality it was a white cap that matched the white mage's hood he wore. And a little torn at the back of it where a bit of hair stuck out.
"And in the rain too," Cordie held her head up as she tugged on the hood she wore as part of a matching little cleric's outfit for trainees. "Do we really gotta do this now of all times?"
"We gotta! Yep-yep!" Chrom rose his sword and swung it horizontally pointing upwards. "And do you know why?"
"...We're the Sheepie-Keepies," Cordie answered dryly as she lowered her head.
"We're the Sheepie-Keepies!" Chrom swept her into his arms by the waist and pressed their cheeks together. "We herd sheep! And the Sheepie-Keepies gotta herd the Sheep even in a rain episode!"
"I suppose this is an episode of rain isn't it?" Cordie held her hood up with both hands and looked around. "It's been dribbling since four days, but it hasn't even came down hard yet. And I'm worried about Sumia and the others."
"Aww, I'm sure they'll be fine, my Cordie. So don't be such a Bordie. Cordie-Bordie." Chrom let go of her and walked up to the little white sheep who had now stopped to graze beneath a tree.
"Up ya go, Sheepie!" he said as he scooped her up.
"Baaaa!"
"You'll get sick if you stay out in the rain!" Chrom kept the whiny sheep close, looking around as he brought it to his chest like a mother to her baby, making ready to get back to shelter.
"Are you sure we needed to bring our swords for this Chrom?" Cordie said.
"Yeah? Why wouldn't we?" Chrom turned around. "Swords make the best Shepherd crooks! Don't you know that? Aren't you reading Tales of the Faith War with me?"
"...Well I find your argument compelling," she responded.
"Exactly!" he agreed. "So come help me get little Natasha home!"
"Alright… On go?" Cordie asked.
"On go!" Chrom agreed, as both bent their knees.
"One! Two! Three!"
The two kids ran out of the forest, leaving the trees and rushing through the grass as drops of water fell on them. Not much water rained down, though it still struck at their faces as grass rustled with their run. The clouds above blanketed the sky in nothing but gray. No light broke through in neither gentle nor harsh rays. Just the gray skyborn mist, raining lightly over the heads of the duo.
"Sheepies-Keepied!" Patting the sheep by her fluffy tail, Chrom scooted the little troublemaker back into her pen and closed the hatch. "We did it! And Sumia's dad is going to happy about getting all the sheep back!"
"Ya-ay..." Cordie breathed out right at the barn entrance, gripping her chest whilst she dropped her head and pressed her elbow against the barn door. "Hah, ha-ah... It's not fair, though. You're faster and you don't even get tired."
"Yeppie-yep!" Chrom hopped twice and swung one fist after the other. "I'll be the fastest thing alive! I'll go all out all the time and no one can stop me!"
"You didn't even say go, though…" Cordie put on a slightly crooked smirk, until she had to drop it to grab for more air. She moved from the barn door towards the upstairs shelter area, hanging onto the sides of the steel steps and climbing up.
"Careful with the ladder!" Chrom minded.
"Step-ladder!" Cordie chided, grumbling. "That's proper terminology." She got upstairs, and Chrom followed after with just a jump, landing behind her. The Sheep Herds' shelter had more than enough for the group in terms of seats, games, and books, though not much in the way of snacks since the last restock fifteen days ago. Still, at a time like this, a shelter was a shelter. Although it would've been a hideout if Chrom had his way, but then Sumia went and pointed out that it couldn't be secret since everyone knew where it was. Still, Cordie went to one of the round chairs while Chrom swung open the window doors in the middle of the barn, staring up at the ashen sky as the windy rain poured.
It had been a few years since those kids arrived that day, and made fast friends who would eventually become lifelong comrades and allies. In some ways they changed, in some ways they hadn't at all. They were still who they were in the end. And now as light strikes of rain beat down upon the barn's rooftop, the two children who once crashed into each other's lives and butted heads were now sitting side by side, one in a low chair soft enough to sink into, and the other sitting on a bag of barley grain serving as a makeshift beanbag.
And the two held one end each of the book they shared between them, reading chapter through chapter while only exchanging words gentle enough to get lost in the waves of wind and water. Chrom turned the page, and then his friend read for a while, then they would switch. That was all they wanted. To finish an old book of theirs. A favorite of Sumia's about an epic from a long, long time ago, and one to be a favorite of theirs.
"...Gimme a sec," Cordie said. A twitch turned a red head of hair and broke her attention off from the book in her hand. So she got up from her seat and left Chrom hanging, walking to the edge and jumping from the shelter.
"Hyup!" she called out when she dropped to the barn floor.
"Huh?" Chrom looked down over the edge. "Cordie, whatcha doin?"
"It's alright, I just need to check something." The red-haired girl looked back at him, only to look back ahead. Then, she bursted ahead nearly fast enough to rival her partner. And grabbed the side of the barn door, hanging onto it as she leaned out of the barn on one foot, hand on her hood.
When all that she felt was nothing more than the unbreaking call of the wind and rain, and the huff of one of Sumia's horses watching her, she pulled back inside, walking back up steps without a word.
"Sorry about that," she said, "Book, please?"
"Here you go, now let's keep reading. We're almost halfway done!" Chrom passed over the other half of the book as the two continued where they left off. But Chrom only managed to get through the next two pages when Cordie suddenly abandoned the book with another jump and dash to the barn door.
She was still checking outside. Was it the rain? The wind? Another missing sheep? What it could've possibly been though, Chrom didn't know, and was concerned for that fact.
"What's wrong, Cordie? You've barely touched your barley." Chrom patted a bag of barley feed behind him on his left. "And you're not even reading Sumia's book with me. Come on, let's find out where the Tyrfing is!"
"I'm still calling that its hiding spot is in a secret corner of the palace!" Cordie blurted out indignantly. "There's always a secret corridor or something that can only be opened with a key in a circlet or like a bracelet."
"Nooo wayyy," Chrom said. "That's silly. You're silly. It's in the mausoleum, silly-billy."
It took longer for Cordie to pull herself away, however. She climbed back up once more, and they started reading again finally. And then, she started pricking her nails against each other. Clicking, clicking, clicking and clicking.
"Sorry, I need to—" Cordie didn't finish her words as she jumped back down for a third time. With the rate she bolted back to the doors, one would think she was trying to set a new record.
"What is going on…" A mumbling Chrom snaked his way down the ladder, seeing what the mess was for himself. When he got to the girl fixated on what was ahead of her, he managed to get right behind her, tapping her swiftly.
"Aie!" Cordie shrieked as she whipped around into his face.
"Gyah—!" Chrom fumbled and hobbled backwards. "Cordie, what's wrong?"
"Ah! Ah-h!" Cordie had been caught in a heavy state of breathing, grasping at her heart as her panic only quickened.
"I, I… I don't know!" She tried to control her hard gasps and exhales, eyes scrambling around as they tried to focus on Chrom. "Something feels wrong! Nothing feels right!"
"Nothing feels right?" What was happening to his Cordie? Did something happen?
"What feels wrong, Cordie?" he asked her.
"Everything feels wrong! Don't you feel it? Don't you hear it?" Cordie grabbed at her ears and plugged them up, still frenziedly breathing in and out all at once. And he knew a thing or two about what this meant from his parents.
"Cordie, you need to breathe slower! Please do that for me?"
"I, I-can't!" Cordie tried to stop her breathing cold, but she couldn't for long, her fears dominating her actions.
"Then let me try to help!" he said.
"How are you—gyah!"
Cordie was swept into the arms of the boy beside her.
"Stay with me, Cordie," he asked of her. "One. Two. Three. Four. One. Two. Three. Four. That's how long you need to breathe in, before breathing out."
Scared and shocked, the girl stared still as the boy lifted his arms to her back.
One. Two. Three. Four.
One. Two. Three…
Four. That was how long he counted, and how long he heard her breathe.
It was his job to look after people, just like he promised his mother. So he continued to count, breathing with her to help her keep in tune.
"What's got you so worried, Cordie? You've been running up and down the whole barn like the chickens are loose."
"...My brain keeps thinking things. Bad things," she revealed to him. "Like something's going to happen to us and everyone, and it's right around the corner."
"Do you know what's causing you to think them?" he asked.
"No!" she shrieked without even thinking. "It's like, flashes in my head. They keep coming and I don't want them to happen!"
Chrom continued to hold her as time continued to pass, waiting.
"...Are they gone now?" he asked her.
"No," she answered. Still breathing, still quivering. "And I'm worried I'll…"
She swallowed saliva, hugging him back in her own arms. "But… I suppose they're calmer now."
"Then I'll be here till you calm all the way," he answered back.
They stayed that way for some time. A friend looking after another when their anxiety rose from being buried under the surface.
...If only those worries solely existed as just that though, worries. Out from under the shadows of gray, a running man came holding his head in a frenzied state of distress.
"Kids! Kids!" The man breathed hard and fast, charging across the field with more than enough power to roll over a wall of knights.
"Ah-Louis!" Suddenly Chrom found himself red as a beet as he let go of the other red one.
"Don't say that, it's pronounced Al—! Urk—!" The man bit himself on the thumb. "Wait, nevermind that! Kids, I'm glad you're safe!" Sumia's father skidded across the ground just from stopping himself, reaching the duo fast.
"Kids, you guys need to start getting out of the village here and now! We'll take you to Cassie, she'll get ready to aid the rest of us!"
"What's happening?" asked Chrom.
"Look over there," he told him. "Fire, and not an accidental one."
Louis pointed back to the village over and away from the barn and ranch. And the smoke rising from it. And what's worse, in between the gusts blowing around past the trio standing in front of the barn, clashes of weapons and screams of people could be heard.
"Oh no." Chrom looked on in horror, recognizing what that meant.
Out from the direction of the village came shouting his mother, "Where's Lissa! And Emm!" The young woman sped along the plain. And behind her were, thankfully, three kids she already rescued.
"Looks like you guys are safe!" Sully was the first to say to Chrom, dragging along both the green girl and brown boy to quicken them all out of danger. "We were worried for a moment, but luckily you weren't hit by this mess yet!"
"We're not finding any of the others, though! Have you seen them?" asked the girl behind her.
It was Cordie who answered, shaking her head. "No. We-we've been here since the start of the day. What's going on?"
Instead of giving an answer to her, Freddy thumped the side of his thigh and cursed in a whisper. "I should have been with them to begin with, instead of being here with nothing to show for."
"You couldn't have known, so don't go blaming yourself for something out of your control. What matters is that we find them," Chrom's mother told him.
In the silence in between, where Sumia's father headed into the barn shelter and Iris looked both after the kids with her and over the rising smokestacks, Cordie broke through her weak voice and mental cage just to speak.
"Are we in danger?"
Iris lifted herself and looked back at the girl. "Yes, and not just any danger dearie. This isn't like a hunting trip gone wrong. The village is under attack by bad people. People who want to hurt you all. Those people who always show up at the beginning of those bedtime stories we always read together? These are those people. But we're not the ones who can fight them and save the day. We're just the villagers, and you're just kids. You all need to get out of here before they start looking for you."
It was her child who spoke in response, "But why do we have to run away, mom? The two of us can go and—"
"Out of the question!"
Chrom's eyes shot like a flare. All while his mother was still staring at the village, and the growing smoke reaching the airborne ocean smothered by gray.
"I am a not-even-twenty-five-year-old mother, Chrom, do you think I don't know what my son's thinking?" she responded. "You're about to go in there, and you're going to go in swinging with that sword of yours. Don't tell me you won't, because I know you twice as good as I know myself."
When Iris shot her head back, her eyes were strained, damp, and glaring down on him. "I'm only going to say this once. It's not your place, Chrom. Someday might be your time to shine, but that's not today."
Chrom's right arm shivered just from the chill in her words. But he tightened his fist to get a grip on himself. And then, Sully stepped up and stomped her foot down.
"Hang on though, there's nothing saying we can't also go in there and beat some punks into the ground. You think these assholes are just gonna send us running to the hills? Are you forgetting how much effort and work we've put in since these kids showed up? Just give me a sword! I'll show em' what comes when you strike at us!" The girl raised her fist and brought it out, demanding a weapon be put in her hand this instant.
"And all of us together would be more efficient than if you were to go alone. It's not like we haven't been trained, Lady Iris." Frederick stepped up alongside her, ready to pull the silver-colored lance he'd kept with him long since he found the village.
"It's not a matter of whether you've trained or not," Iris said with a hint of frustration, and a hint of anger. "Go find Cassie in the next town. She should still be in Asterius's castle not far from here."
"Listen to his mother please, everyone."
With some clanking of metal doors and metal thwacking metal, out came Louis from beneath the shelter under the barn with a handful of sharp weapons for ready use. "You know, you guys shouldn't have to be risking your lives this way when you're so young. That probably sounds rich coming from me, given what I've been through. I may have been as young as you when I picked up my first sword though, but that doesn't mean I want the same for you."
"What if they have a point though, everyone?" the girl in green offered. "We don't even know where to begin, or who's missing, or how many people are fighting. We may need to get help first."
"But our friends are out there!" Chrom said as he pointed at her. "What if they get hurt because of us! What if we could've done something to save them when none of us chose to!"
"That's not your decision to make!"
For the second time of the day, Iris shouted at her child. Her voice was hoarse, and dry, and stiff, and yet still she brought her hand out to him and the others.
"This isn't some game you can just play, Chrom, this is life and death and you know it! And I know it because I've had to play games when I was young. Games I didn't have a choice in just for some respect of an old man and a woman who didn't even see me as more than a sack of gold and a good conversation piece at a ballroom. And I don't want to see the kids I love be thrown into anything like that, even if it's fighting instead of what I know!"
As her voice became drier, so did the force behind it wane. Until it was weaker and frailer than those who she had been trying to scold may have ever been.
"I, I can't be like this right now. I shouldn't be like this right now." She covered her face with her hands and turned away again, hiding it from her own son.
In spite of his words, Sumia's father gave a sword, lance, and an axe to the green, brown, and red horse riders, respectively. But not to Chrom and Cordelia.
"I'm going in," Iris said, bringing her hands back down. "Sol, run ahead to find Cassie and tell her to bring anyone who can fight. Sully, Freddy, help Luis find and lead any remaining kids and people you find to safety. But don't engage. I don't want to see any of you hurt on my watch."
Iris gave one last look to her friend. "Luis, keep them close to you. Don't let them out of your sight."
"Aye-Aye, Milady!" Luis cracked a soft chuckle in fond reminiscence, but let go of it swiftly as he buckled a handaxe onto his holster and a jet-black warhammer onto his back. "Come on kids, get your horses! We're going to ferry some kids and civilians out of here!"
"Fine," Sully said, who dug her nails into the sleeves of her shirt. "But don't think for a second I won't take down a bandit if one comes swingin'."
"Don't go looking for fights that'll drag longer than you want them to," Luis immediately remarked. "They outnumber us, Sully. We can't choose what'll go down, so stay with me."
"...I suppose these are acceptable parameters." A dejected Frederick huffed a breath, but went along with it anyway. "So long as we save the others, that's all that matters."
The four riders went inside to get their horses ready to run, Iris staring on ahead at the smoke growing into embers in front of her. And the boy clenching his teeth threw his fist up and let it all out.
"I won't let you go in there yourself!"
"I said no Chrom!" Iris shouted for the last time, a blaze of gold flowing over her head. Her flames had reached their limit, but the gold girl still stared in front of herself.
"Going in there will be the death of you. You'll be alone, outnumbered, and outmatched! You don't even have a proper sword. They'll just kill you and be done with it."
His mother looked back at him, the blue-eyed girl crying silently. "Is that what you want? Is that what you think being a hero is about?"
Staring at his mother and everything she carried with her, Chrom only mustered enough look back without a word.
"I'm going now," she told him, her gentle fury receding.
She got into a runner's position, then shot into the air as she kicked a stone slab out of the ground. The slab of stone carved its way through the surface as she landed on top of it and weaved ahead, a combination of her speed and her magic propelling her.
"Grounded Wave!" She threw her hands backwards as the earth rumbled at her fingertips, breaking a path as she surfed straight into the heart of the village.
And she was gone.
And while the setting up of the horses by the four riders was happening behind him, a boy was left alone. Left by his mother.
"I… I don't..."
The young boy sniffled, trying to breathe through his nose as water drops fell off his face.
Even as fearful as she was before, Cordie put her hand on him, kneeling forward to look at his eyes. "Chrom, it's okay. We should listen to your mom, and…"
"Of… Of course that's not what I want," He said right then and there, throwing his head up to the village. "I want to help you so that you don't die and nobody dies! Why would I bother if I didn't want you to live! Huh?! Momma! Momma!"
Chrom grit his teeth, stifling back himself as he punched the ground. "Just let me protect them too! I know I can do it!"
Cordie reeled back beside the quivering, enraged boy, kneeling back down with him. Or she would have, had he not stopped her with a cold answer, void completely of emotion.
"I'm going in. I'm gonna save her. I'll save them."
Chrom rose back up like a deathly, empty corpse, taking a step.
"I'll save Emmy. I'll save Liz. I'll save anyone who's coming my way. I won't let a single bandit stop me." His voice was as harrowed and empty as his movements, a stark change from the boy he was five seconds ago.
For as cold as his words were, his voice, and his outward expression, inside his heart flickered a flame. One that would only roar as more rage swelled in him. More of that desire burned within him.
"I'm going now," he repeated.
...Right as he said that, two arcs of light shot up from the village into the air. They hovered and swirled together in the sky, beaming sound and light to their ears and eyes as they entangled around one another in circles, growing to blind the sun.
With a whirr, the blinding light shot higher before smashing back down, blasting the center of the town into skyward rubble, rain beginning to fall in full force.
"IIIIII-RIIS!" Louis screamed from where he was. "Come on kids, we need to hurry to safety!"
"Already on it!" Sol whipped the reins of her horse and blasted off to the west, ready to be the one to call for aid.
"Come on, you two! We need to hurry out! Climb on back and hold on tight!"
Whatever Louis was doing, Chrom wasn't watching. Whatever Louis was saying, Chrom wasn't listening.
"I'm going now," Chrom repeated loudly. A command to will the world to bend to his very own soul. He took his white little Shepherd's cloak off and threw it to the wind, hitting Luis and covering his face before he could do anything about it.
"Ah—!"
It took that one hit to make Chrom run, breaking off from the others without anyone to stop him.
"Chrom, no!" Cordie shouted, chasing after in a heartbeat.
"Wait, kids!" Louis called out with his hand stretched towards them. "Oh no! Imagine if the captain saw this! Oh, why does he have to go wandering off to run more bars?"
And so that was that. A boy running off of his own, speeding across plains of grass under a sky that longed for so long to fall. In search of his family, his friends, and his mother. Armed with only a sword. No, not just that. The finest practice blade a swordmaster could make. Otherwise known as a child's plaything.
He ran and ran deeper into Daybreak, until finally he reached an alleyway between buildings that brought him into the village proper. Sword in hand and carrying with him nothing but his wits and his guts, the young Chrom looked around. Dust and debris scattered around, tearing chunks of wood and stone away even this far from the impact. And the burning flames created a crackling heartbeat against the rain's own, painting Daybreak in red against gray.
He closed his eyes, trying to sense for any sound or changes amidst the chaos. Some kind of sound, that could draw him to someone to fight or to rescue—
"...elp."
Chrom gasped as he heard someone call out. A quiet call. So quiet, he may never have heard it if he wasn't focused upon it.
A very, tiny whisper, muffled as if under something.
Under the rubble itself…
Without another thought, and checking only to see if any threats were arriving, Chrom got to work digging in this corner of the village. It wasn't that near from the center, but with a blast strong enough to level the town square, anyone could've been trapped if they were hit and had smashed into something that had been destroyed on impact. Eventually after looking and looking, Chrom pulled away the dust and wood next to a beaten down store that had its top part come down.
He found a small hand about his size under the rubble where the voice came from. Digging and digging without another word, eventually the light behind him gave way to the owner, still breathing.
"Miri," Pheros said, blinking from the sudden shift out of darkness. "...Is Miri safe?"
"Pheros," Chrom said. "You're alive."
"Hi Chrom, thanks for finding me." Pheros coughed the dust out from her throat. She was battered and beat thoroughly from being caught in the blast. But the girl whose eye peeked out from her bangs looked up at him with a weak smile.
"No problem," he answered. "We're friends aren't we?" The rage in his heart quieted down enough for him to take care of his friend. It only had enough strength to do just that.
"Always," she answered gently as always. They hadn't known each other for as long as Cordie and him, or even Miriel and him, but a friend's a friend. But a friend in bad shape was a friend who needed help.
"Are you okay? Can you still walk?" Chrom already got to work carrying her out of the rubble, lifting her arm over his shoulder as she spoke wistfully and breathlessly.
"Just… give me some time…"
Pheros brought her hand to her leg as a tiny ringing pulsed in their ears. Little white ripples of healing magic poured out from her hand as they coated over her leg. The bruises cleared up to a lighter shade, although they would take some time before she could start to move.
A rush of breath came in from behind, a red-haired girl running out from the alleyway. "There you are, Chrom! You ran off on your own!"
"We found Pheros," he said, looking back at her with half-empty, half-furious eyes. The look was enough to make Cordelia cower back for just a moment.
"Are you okay, Ferri?" she asked, looking to the injured girl. "Come, let's get you out of here!" The redhead moved to take her from Chrom, but the injured girl raised her free hand and shook it in denial.
"Please, we need to find the others. That's more important than my own injuries. I can heal them and myself while we do. Just give me time." Pheros nodded weakly, bringing her ringing light to her head as to ease the pain against it.
"It's our best shot at making sure everyone gets out of this," Chrom told her.
"I… Okay." Without another objection, Cordie stayed beside the mage in white. Just to keep her from any further injuries. With only a wooden sword in hand, she wasn't much for direct fighting regardless. But the boy with half-dark eyes poised his sword low towards the ground. It wasn't a stance he was versed in at all. In fact he never trained in it, or even trained long enough to learn a stance. He was going off the subconscious image of what such a stance would look like.
"Well .. Well… Well! Do my eyes deceive me?"
From the rundown street stepped in a man in white priestly robes, his face covered by his hood. But Chrom could tell he was old.
"Are those friends of yours, young Prince? Perhaps you'd like to invite them once you come with us!" The old man smiled as rotten as the pit in his heart, a pit that had since lost any sense of compassion in place of his selfish, weaseled desires. His regal cane shone as another blight of magic willed into existence, readied for what would happen if the answer was no.
"Keep Pheros with you," Chrom ordered Cordelia.
"What about Miriel, though?" the whispering girl asked.
"We'll find her soon enough," he said. "Just hang back and let me do the work."
Cordelia wordlessly pulled back with Pheros in tow into the alleyway. Now it was just the two of them. Chrom, and the man smiling at him. The man who ordered the attack.
"You've forced my hand since long ago, child!" The priestly man fired from the cane in his hand, shooting a beam that would fry Chrom's stomach into ash had he not swiftly rushed around his opponent, narrowing the gap between them. Running across broken glass and shattered stone, Chrom kicked up the pace, sword behind him as the man fired and fired.
"Divine light, bring forth the gods' will!" Another bolt fired from his cane that Chrom jumped clean over, the surging light shattering the rooftop of the building behind him. From that jump, Chrom landed feet first against the wall of another store, kicking against it as he got right into the man's face.
"Huh—?" The man's eyes bugged out when the sudden rushdown led to him getting smacked in the chin, Chrom's sword driving against it as wood cut clean against his face. The old man shot back and slid across the ground, grabbing his jaw as he readied a divine arrow and fired again.
"Take this!"
Chrom weaved like a wolf hunting its prey as the arrow of light pierced past the space between his lower back and upper back, the boy then bending forward as he drove his sword against the chest of the old man targeting him. He bashed him in the nose with his fist, then wailed him in the skull with his elbow, sending the man spinning further from where he came.
The man rolled and rolled until he could force himself on his feet. "Damn brat! Why couldn't he'd been trained to be an easy target!" He put his two hands together as if in prayer, white-gold light surging from within them.
"Naga's will! Grant me thy strength to capture my opponent, Arcpulse!"
A light wave surged from beneath the ground, shining between the gaps of the stone road. The light rolled across from him to everywhere in front of him until it coalesced upon the first target it hit: Chrom himself.
A blast of destruction roared out from the ground, shattering the earth as Chrom was caught in it. The sheer force of pure light energy forced Chrom to take the brunt of the attack with his arms head on, thrown back by the wave of energy.
When the dust settled and the light gave out, what was left was the entire floor leveled to the dirt underneath, the alleyway streaked and whited out by light rays, and the boy's arms blackened and scorched at his side.
When Chrom went to raise his sword to strike, that's when the old man grinned.
"Bind!" he shouted, calling forth a single ring of yellow light to ensnare his sword hand before he could land another blow.
"I'm impressed, young Lowell! You sure are a stubborn one! You'd think you'd be weaker after your false demise!" The old man started to laugh, as if all compulsion had left him now that Chrom was restrained and down an arm.
He started to cast another scorching ray of light between one raised hand. "Unfortunately, stubbornness will only bring more stubbornness. That won't do, so say goodnight!"
Before the light could come out of his palm though, Chrom swung his foot high to kick the man across his face, striking his jaw once again and sending him howling. Swinging up using another kick and his own restraint that trapped him, the boy put his feet down on the top side of the binding ring like it was no harder than tree climbing. Swapping hands for his sword from his main to his off-hand, he readied it downwards in order to attack the man below from his crouching position.
"You damn little!" The old man clutched his face and readied his silver staff again. "Elpulse!" Out came a tendril of light, snaking its way towards the boy only for him to swing back down under and throw his blade at the neck of the old man. A clean hit, making the blade bounce right off as the man choked on his breath. And with it, so did the ring come undone, allowing the boy to take charge and follow up with a palm strike, sending the man flying into the ruined plaza, smashing his head into the destroyed fountain in the center. And Chrom grabbed his sword once more.
"Oh come on! Don't tell me you're getting your ass beat, old timer."
Looking down the man slumped over the ground was a man clad head-to-toe in bulky white armor. His face shadowed by a mythril-silver grill, a large green plume of hair flowed out in a ponytail from behind it. And at his sides, a duo of asymmetrical axes. And on his back, more.
"You decide to level the town when we weren't ordered to do anything less but secure and capture the three royal kids, and you're still getting whooped in a head-on battle? That's pathetic, heinous, and cowardly." He spoke with a metallic voice, obscuring who he was as much as his appearance did.
The man stepping in put his hand on the destroyed fountain statue of an ever growing tree, his head turning to the shadow coming at him.
"Hang on, child violence," the axe wielder said, lowering his hand down.
The boy stepped in to confront the man standing against the fountain, sword readied under the rain.
"Your reputation, well, I guess it doesn't precede you or anything. But you seem like a decent fighter for a kid your age if you're kicking this coward's brains to the curb." The knight in white scratched his green hair as rain filled the waterpool beneath his feet.
"I take it you're here to get revenge on the guy who trashed your town?" he asked. "Unfortunately, I'm not the one. Well, I am a part of the group, so I guess I am on technicality. But this guy's the one who ordered all the chaos behind my back, so if you wanna keep going to town on him, go ahead. Hate these types." He pointed to the man struggling to keep his eyes open, seemingly slipping in and out of it.
"Unfortunately for you, however…"
The metallic man dropped down with a crack of the ground, standing up straight. A giant of a man, towering over him with two heavy, metal arms. Arms raised against the boy readied with his sword.
"I can't let you leave. Though I'm not gonna kill you. Boss's orders, and I'm paid by the bullion for this. So if you're gonna come in swingin', do it now, and save us the trouble of having to wreck the place further."
His hands raised, and Chrom's sword lowered, the rain fell against the both of them as the next round began. Chrom drew his sword and ran against puddles of mud and water before he shot right into the air, sword raised in an imperfect version of another technique.
"Super jumps, huh?" the metal knight said as he raised his hand. "How about no thank you?" He got ready to grab the boy's leg, but when he did so, the boy fell swinging under him, ripping out from the hold. Chrom hit his hands against the ground and bounced right back onto his feet, skidding two legs and a hand as he raised his blade against his opponent.
"Whoops." The knight looked at his gauntlet denied of child violence, crackling his fingers with a chuckle at his own attempt at gallows humor. "Huh, good one kid."
Chrom rushed back in and sliced at the man, only for his opponent to be the one weaving through attacks as he stopped Chrom short with a grab of his other wrist.
"Now, if I were a holy man, I would beat you senseless," he pointed out, yanking his arm back. "I'm not that, so I'll just beat you sensibly."
The knight chopped Chrom in the side of his throat, forcing him to bend down on his knees. He did, however, strike him again against his back, this time sending him back to the pavement.
The man brought his foot down and his arm against his knee. "You've got guts kid. Maybe less wit, and a lot more guts. But neither of those are gonna save you in a real fight. You'll slip up and get yourself killed."
The raging boy struggled to get back up, biting against his tongue. Boring down on the helmeted knight, his eyes turned to his holster. And the axe resting in it.
"Grahh!" Chrom pushed off the ground and stole the axe right from under his nose. A foul axe, fit for two hands but carrying the strength that required five to match. Black and red with a white blade and a devil's wing.
Make no mistake. This was a powerful, yet fundamentally wicked and destructive axe.
"Hey, hang on kid, you don't want to play around with that," said the knight who now stuck his hand out at the kid, as if he was not beating him up five seconds ago.
The boy jumped back with the axe raised, blitzing from one side of the knight to the other as he narrowed the gap, dark eyes centered on him.
"Okay then," the axe knight said through his metal-coated voice. "Now I have to actually condone child violence. Still a little hilarious if you ask me."
Chrom rushed in on the second dash, swinging at him as the knight buckled back from the axe coming straight for his neck. He fought back with a chop aimed at his side, but the boy dodged back before jumping into the air.
"This again…" the man said. Bracing his arms once again, this time he pulled a feint and ducked under when the Devil Axe came down.
"Just get downed already!" The man shot forth and shoved his fist against Chrom from below, knocking him back with his stomach in his hands.
"Don't you realize you're gonna die if you keep fighting?" he remarked, getting up and rolling his arms in-sync once. "I'm sorry, but even I don't think this is worth it. Just give up and come clean."
The boy crumbled, grunting with shivers against the rainfall pouring down on them. But the knight prepared his arms again, looking for an opening to grapple either the boy or his axe out of his hands and into his.
The boy forced himself up, growling as he ran across the rain once more. An unearthly weapon driving itself forth again and again, the knight dodging swings left after right. Backing up onto the fountain filling with water, he took out a handaxe and hooked the Devil Axe by the underside, keeping him from landing a hit.
The knight did rip it away, only for the boy to rush in with a rebound strike. Dodges of metal turned into clashes of metal against metal, darkness clanging against steel. Their ears were trapped in a chaos of the two blades clashing, rain smashing, and frolicking embers dying. But still they kept on swinging at the other, slicing from one side and striking from the next until the man jumped back and tossed his axe up. It went spinning through the rain, blasting water around like a hovering fan, but the real trick was right in front of the boy.
A simple maneuver, really, as the knight lunged forward and brought out the next one and struck. A silver warhammer, bashing against the demon's axe in Chrom's hands.
"Now!" the knight dropped his axe and struck his palm against the boy's chest. The opening created when the axe recoiled allowed him to push through and send him hitting the stone. But no time was given to recover the axe.
"Chrom! ...Chrom!" called out the two girls behind him. First the redhead racing onto the scene, and then the blonde one limping on her own.
"Oh good, come for the show?" The knight grabbed his head, pointing his index and middle finger to the two arriving. "Stay where you are and you won't get hurt! This is a damn mess as it is."
The knight then saw the young boy grab his axe again, and huffed in frustrated exhaustion. "All I'm doing is stalling. The other targets may as well be gone at this rate." He slumped his shoulders but not his guard, looking around the town center.
"Where the hell is that woman…"
He turned to the priestly man flayed over the fountain ring. "Hey old man! You still awake, you damn bastard? Go take care of the woman we're looking for if you can!"
But the priest didn't respond, lying down with his eyes shut.
"Great…"
The knight turned to his opponent. "You ready to be done with this as much as I am? Then let's finish this."
The boy came running at him for the final duel, and this time the armored knight came rushing to meet him. Whether it was hatred. Whether it was impatience, or some desire not to see him off himself. Neither soul knew, But the boy attacked just as before, high enough to scale the heavens.
The knight dodged to the left this time as the Devil Axe came bearing down, ready to knock him out only for a white cut to slash the other way. Drawing faster than him in that one strike, the boy cleaved through the armor protecting his arm, the chunk of mythril metal flying away into the water.
He carved right through that arm with his own dash, a gash streaking out from the attack.
"Nice one, kiddo," the knight said. His left arm fell limp, dyeing the rain around him red as drops and drops pooled to the watery floor.
Chrom looked back at the knight, approaching with his demonic axe in his hand pointed to the earth. And then, he shot to the air over the knight's other arm, ready to end it in the next strike.
"Never make a Devil Axe your plaything," the knight told him, staring him dead in the eye.
Chrom found that out when the blade touched the flesh of the masked knight. Although the axe indeed had cut across his other arm, the damage wasn't on him.
A hellish flare burned from the axe's head, flowing down from the dark steel back into the hilt and through Chrom's hand. It creeped up his light-scorched arm until it reached the crest on his shoulder, subsuming it in its wicked red light.
Dark, flaring explosions blasted all the way up his entire arm, burning the boy violently in its rampant blasts.
"GAA-AH—!" Chrom howled out through the rain, the droplets of water exploding outwards from the blast.
The Devil Axe clanged to the ground as the hellish energy receded back into it. And Chrom's own arm fell limp, bleeding worse than his enemy. His sleeve and band had now tore in two, his glowing mark showing itself.
"And you rolled the damn dice wrong…" The knight sighed again as he grit his teeth. "What are we gonna tell the king now? Sorry, your son bled out because he stole an axe which just happened to be cursed to strike back one in thirty times or something. I did warn you not to play with it, heads up. Still, we can still fix a hit like that if we're quick enough."
Chrom didn't stop standing after a backfire like that. He didn't even bother to flinch once the initial pain was over, even as he bled.
"Are you made of adamantite or something? Sheesh, after that incident I'd hire you on the spot if we weren't beating the other's ass." The axe knight chuckled as he pressed his shoulder tight to force the wound shut, pointing with the index finger of his free hand. "There are better places to bleed out than standing in the rain, you know. Here, give me your hand."
He used his hand to lift his limp one by the wrist, but Chrom was having none of it, jumping back to break open the gap between them.
"Don't tell me you're still looking to scrap. You already shredded your own arm because of your little bit of kleptomancy," the knight said as he threw his hand over his head.
Chrom didn't say another word, tightening his mirrored wound. But it wasn't him who reacted. Instead, it was the girl behind him, Pheros.
"Chrom! Here…!" The whispering girl ran through her injuries to get to the boy. Stumbling from an injured leg, all her heart told her was to get over there to heal a friend in danger.
But only one person took advantage of that fact. The old man opening his eyes in that space between moments. After having feigned his loss of consciousness, the man lunged forward right then and there, a light having been charged from him to his staff.
"Elpulse!" That light snaked once more, zipping through the rain at his target.
"Huh—!" the masked knight gasped.
"Pheros!" Cordelia shouted, crying out for her friend.
Without another word, the light raced passed a terror-filled Chrom who could only do one thing. He jumped in front of the girl, pushing her out of the way as the wicked light struck him head-on, coursing through him and shredding him within the shining blaze.
The soft-spoken girl looked on in horror, staring at the silent boy and his arms stretched out. His head hung down as his arms held up to guard her, steam and smoke rising off his back from the evaporating water and scorched skin.
"Dude, what are you doing, old timer!" the masked knight chewed him out. "This wasn't in the deal!"
But the old man wasn't bothering with him anymore, for he already brought his hands down with his cane. Holding it ahead of him, he whispered a spell that sent a white wave out from his feet, pulsing four times in front of him before it rolled back to his body with that same spaced count.
And that was all that he needed to know before he smiled.
"From the will of the Savior-King, who carries the blood of the Holy Dragon before us! Let this hallowed light claim the deceiver, once and true!"
The priest's cane shone from the long end of the staff. A small light whirring before him, but the power behind it was incredible. The light beam no bigger than a thread snakily making its way up the boy standing guard in front of his friends, before steadying right upon his chest as their dark eyes met.
"Purge!" the priest shouted, vindication swelling in his voice.
The light bolt fired in an instant. Chrom didn't even have time to dodge.
Had he moved, Pheros would've been shot dead. Had they both moved, there was a good chance Cordelia would've also been shot dead. There was nothing they could do themselves to save all three of them.
"Bl… blink." Iris coughed out, having appeared out of brilliantly white light to protect her son. The spell was something she studied through letters to a friend, something she only just recently managed to learn.
Falling in front of him, Iris laid her arms around her child.
"I'm sorry, Chrom," she said. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry."
The darkness in Chrom's eyes receded at the sight of his mother in the rain. "...Momma?"
The girl was crying so hard, she couldn't even see the kid she protected. "Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry…"
"I'm sorry. I'm…" She tried to stop herself from choking. "I'm sorry I dragged you into this… For what I've said… For what I've done to you…"
"Mommy, what's wrong?" he asked. "Are you okay? What happened?"
Iris swallowed the water running down her face, brushing her hand against his face. "I love you, Chrom. I love all of you. You, your sisters, and your aunty. Everyone. Never forget that."
His mother held him as tight as she could. "I'm… sorry…"
Iris fell down to the ground, water running down her body as it flowed into the sea beneath.
"Mommy? Momma? What happened, Mommy?"
Chrom looked down at his mother. And only saw the emptiness where her love and life escaped from her.
"Mommy!" He grabbed her and shook her. "Mommy, wake up!" He held her close, eyes tightening against him.
"Mooooooooooooooom!"
He cried out to the world. And then he went silent. The bruised boy, down an arm and scorched to no end looked down at his mother. The only two who would truly witness it looking down at him and the one he carried with no words to say, but endless pain within them.
"Now look at what you've done!" the knight called out. "We were supposed to recover the damn woman, too. And our healers aren't in the area, if we're even lucky to resuscitate her! Just great..."
The knight turned his head to the one holding his head down under his hood, stomping his foot in an unexpected fit. "Aren't you gonna say something! I didn't sign up for this!"
The hooded man blew a breath, then he let out a snicker. Small sounds left him as he chuckled louder and louder.
"It was all according to Naga's will!" he told him as stretched his hands out and upwards in prayer. "Hwah-hah-hah-hah-hah-haaaaaah!"
The saintly man smiled back the knight. "...The king will not care so much if that woman is dead! What matters is the return of his two children! It was his truth! It was his Judgement! AH-HWAH-HAH-HAH!"
"Oh yeah? Guess who else he won't care about in the next five seconds!"
Water rippled at the axe knight's feet as his one good fist clenched. And then the other hand tightened in spite of his injuries. For as faceless as he was, steam and thunder sparked between his fists as the currents entangled the weapons at his feet.
Storm, dust and thunder levitated the black devil axe and the steel handaxe into the air. Raging lightning carried the silver hammer, blue heroic axe, and the black killer axe off his back. All five weapons rode the currents of the lightning-gathering storm. Each a hand to make up for the ones in no condition to use.
"You think you know what your god wants? I'll show you what Naga would damn think about it! Come here and—!"
The world went white before the knight could attack.
He moved so fast as if to become untracked by sight.
"What the—?"
The boy pulled his hand out of the knight, armor and all. In the shadow of the storm, his soaked hand ran free with the will of his heart. A flame burning black and blue, just like the darkness-covered eyes.
The man turned to and held his chest, the boy having appeared behind him from nowhere. Shadowed by the light.
"...Swell job, kid," the knight told him, letting out a very weak chuckle. "You've got a powerful future ahead of you. I can respect that, at least… I don't blame you though. I knew I deserved it… someday."
The axe-wielding knight fell to his knees. And the weapons that would've killed the saint fell down with him into the water. "Kick some ass for me when you're older… I like a good challenge…"
He fell to the water, the next to sink into the flood of rain that day, just weakly laughing at the circumstances. "...I wonder what happens… when you die in this world… Do you go to… the stars? Or…"
The axe-wielding man went cold.
Chrom didn't stare at the wicked flames around him. Flames filled with nothing but misery and hate. The same flames that blew everything away from him, carving away the rain and dirt and storm as they willed themselves to roar towards the sky.
Chrom didn't know what was happening, nor recognized it. No, it was safe to say he had stopped thinking entirely. All he thought was to set his sights on the center of attention for blackened, blue flames.
The priestly man who's smile faded as he saw the flames again.
But what's worse, but nowhere near as worse than all that happened that day, that man recognized what that meant for him. Like a worm refusing to die, a person only interested in himself only knew one thing to do in this situation. It wasn't to serve his liege and kingdom, or aid and guide the next line of royalty. Not even a higher power was enough for him.
It was all an excuse at this point.
That person had stopped caring about anything less than his own survival.
So he ran. Before the flames could snatch him up again. Flames that swelled with willful rage.
...From there, the rain bore down on the village, crackling continuously by the millions of raindrops falling.
"Chrom! Iris! Iri—!"
Lucina, the retainer to a mother and her children whom she loved as they were her own, arrived on the scene of the ruined fountain beaten down by overflowing water. Her huntress's bow in hand, she stomped through splashing water to reach whomever was there.
She found the two girls, barely conscious as they held onto the beat and worn child and shook both his shoulders.
She found the knight, who seemed to have held some heart enough to turn on his employers a little too late.
She found the mother, beloved and forever in their hearts, having left behind the ones she loved.
And she found the boy, smoldering flame in the hand burning limp yet unending under the rain.
…There were some other things that day.
The mother and her allies were able to rescue most, if not all, of the innocents of the village that day.
And Pheros was able to be saved thanks to the help of her son and the best friend of his.
The priestly man who had vanished had soon reappeared sometime after. Presenting himself as a kind, gentle man, he would continue living as part of the lives of the trio of kids. It was all a farce, of course. The only reason he had survived since then was that he was able to keep himself unrecognizable to the ones who saw him that day. And he kept extra careful to avoid the one who had nearly took his life and would've if the connection was ever made. He went so far as to avoid his magic techniques, just to keep from being caught by the familiar sights. Even when war was to come to him.
And Chrom and his family was taken from the village, gone from their friends, their family, and their mother.
Made to be the daughters and son of the Hallowed Savior.
...And as the young man, who was only really a teenager that just reached his own adulthood, slept in a palace that wasn't his home, in a bed that wasn't his bed, the rain fell down against the window, light rumbles whirring against the ground outside.
As the boy laid his head down in the empty, dim room, one light shined over him.
Just one star-like light. The light of one who could really only be described with love and regret peered out from the window.
Sitting down on the table beside the bed, the star's light stared down at him. Together in the empty room.