The Shepherds gave it their all fighting against the Plegian army, everyone pushing together to drive back the forces bearing down on their backs.
But the small band of fighters inside the dusty palace kept on going deeper. Footsteps racing across century old stone, in search of the heart of the castle where the king of the army lay. Some of them with him were his closest friends, some of them his strongest fighters.
A final confrontation against a squad of dark mages began, the group having hidden away should the palace be breached. Their enemy's numbers were dwindling as the fight dragged on, and their own would only grow if time allowed for the next wave behind them to reach. But the risk of leaving them unchecked couldn't be afforded to them.
So Vaike and Lon'qu did what they knew best, and fought the last squad head on to allow their comrade to press on.
Leaving Chrom to swing open the doors of the ancient palace, stepping foot on a timelost red carpet. Frozen in time, the marble pillars lining the walls and the royal red banners draped over with their insignia of a tree emblazoned upon them seemed as if they had all been untouched by the world beyond. But the truth was anything but close to that. Stained glass shattered into dozens of pieces at the end from where they stood, scattering across the ground as light refracted against their miraculous colors. Hanging above the fractured glass was a portrait that far surpassed even the throne in size. Its gold frame had refused to tarnish the entire time, but the same couldn't be said for the painting within.
The painting of a young man in his prime. Hair as blue as the prince staring before him, sword pointing left and above. A deep claw left the face of the man unrecognizable, as well as the rest of his body. Torn from this world to become ash on the wind, the only thing left to see was the white fang of his sword, the dragon's crown on his head, and the red of the underside of his cape fluttering in the breeze.
And staring at the faceless painting was the red haired and yellow-wearing thief from before. He turned his head to the prince behind him, cracking a light smile.
Gangrel's golden eyes flared, his grin turned fanged. "I was starting to bore waiting for you after your little pity session, but it seems you finally showed up!"
"Give it up, Gangrel!" Chrom stepped down the hall, the holy sword sliding out from its sheath. "You're losing this battle, and you'll lose this war. I say this one last time: surrender."
"Ugh, such rote drivel!" Gangrel's cape blew with his grip as he threw both it and his clawed hand in front of him. "Save the spiel for that dead sister of yours in whatever afterlife you believe in! I don't care to hear it!"
"My sister would be the one who would hear it. She's the one who laid her life down to spare our lands from further chaos. And now, you seek to return us to a fractured past so long as you stand." He stood in front of the base of the steps, and the sword at his side pointed to his back.
"Oh, believe me, I know well enough the kind of woman she was. But it's not her who was the problem, little hero." Gangrel circled his eyes around, looking down. He then threw his cape above and behind him, hand stretched out.
"You're the problem. Your father was a problem. And once I beat you, maybe I'll go scavenge what's left of my plans to put some damn countries back in the right place!"
Gangrel turned away from the prince, walking over to the part of wall before the balcony. Then he sat himself on the throne of the palace, looking back at the one staring at him.
"Let me make it clear: I don't like you." The ruler propped his chin against the wrist of the elbow resting on the chair. "Your sister? Now she's a girl who maybe I could work with. But you? Never have I met another person with a dickbrick for a head who bowled right into Plegia and single handedly ripped-a-new-one into its orifices for defecation. We-hell, not including daddy dearest of course."
"You're wrong."
Chrom wasn't alone. Beside him was a long, once lost, and childhood friend. Someone who chose to stand by his side since the minute she saw him open the first gates.
"You had a chance for peace and you refused to take it. Your people are turning against you because you won't stop this charade. Chrom is nothing like the man who brought our countries to ruin. And he's nothing like you, who has only taken lives and ripped them away from this world. And for what? Power, Gangrel? Revenge? Because there's no peace to be had where you're going." Cordelia readied her own sword, pointing it up at the crowned thief for the same reasons as her comrade.
Gangrel stared down at the red knight with eyes creasing tight. And then, they cracked fully wide open.
"You're right, then this isn't peace at all!" Gangrel shot up from his chair and threw a hand down. "This is war, this is vengeance! This is blood for all the blood you've spilt in the name of Ylisse! For all you will spill because of what you've done!"
Gangrel swung his axe up and around from its tip to its head, catching it swift as he stamped it against the ground. He then gripped the heavy greataxe ready, steadying it behind him as he ran over to his foes.
"Don't come telling me you know a damned thing about peace! You and your band of fuck-ups can go take your platitudes and shove it up your own asses! I know what I'm doing, and you're the obstacles in my way!"
He smashed the godaxe into the ground, taking all force gathered to vault high over the stairs. the Helswath twice in giant revolutions, he roared to the base of the throne room, driving it forth into the ground before the two.
And forth came Gangrel, Prince of Thieves.
"Have enough words been said? Is the trite performance over?" Gangrel turned his grin up, rocks flying all around his axe. "Because if so, I'd like to lop a head off like it's the Plegian Revolution!"
He spun around violently, splitting the two away from each other with one giant sweep of his axe's blade. He shot after the evading prince on his left, driving his axe into the ground again. And again. And again.
And with each strike of the earth, the thief vaulted faster and faster. Until he matched him, metal axe slamming against the holy white blade.
"Come on, Prince! Give me a fight better than your father, or die where you stand!" Silver sparks flew from the almighty axe grinding against the unbreakable sword, grazing Chrom by a thread of hair as he slipped out of the way of the downward strike. The floor shattered against the weight of the Helswath once more, Gangrel whipping around to smash it again upon the blade that rose to block it. Arms raised and sword pointed to the earth, Chrom braced his feet and pushed against it with all he had. But its sheer strength and speed sent him flying from the blow, sliding against the ground only to hit his back against the pillar.
"Gh—!" Chrom's head smashed against the hard stone, the sharp edge of its corner under him piercing against his lower back.
"Chrom!" Racing over to her friend, Cordelia poised to strike with her rapier, thrusting her blade at the man turned with his axe readied against the fallen prince.
"And who the hell are you?" Gangrel put his axe on his back to swap for his book, putting one hand on the cover, and causing cobalt lightning to spark in the tips of the other. He dodged with the rapier sliding between his elbow and his chest, returning with a claw of thunder firing off at point blank.
Her eyes shooting open, Cordelia ducked underneath the spell midblast, bringing her offhand out to quickly call forth a gale of wind upwards to protect herself. The two spells clashed as they met each other, wind barely beating out lightning as both flew into the sky, shooting out from the cracked ceiling above.
And the two that fired them off were pushed back from another. Enough for Chrom to get up off the ground by propping up his blade, shooting over from the ground to Gangrel's side.
He was met with a sword the moment he thrusted upwards.
"Damn you, man!" Gangrel struck back with his old rapier, having turned and pulled the blade from his sheath when he caught Chrom rising. "Think I wouldn't have a sidearm for a big ass weapon? Gryyyah—!" He threw Chrom back, running at the prince with the third of his weapons.
"How are you this strong to carry that many weapons!"
"Strength growths, bitch! Gotta love that Holy Blood!" Gangrel came headlong at the prince running back at him, but when they met, Chrom sweeped, and he jumped. Vaulting overhead, his feet pressed against the pillar above the prince as he sheathed his blade to grab his metal Relic again, flipping down with a quick shattering strike.
"Huh—!" Chrom looked above just in time for it to smash down against him. It sent him flying, spinning him out and dragging his face against the ground.
Sliding across the floor, he pressed his hands against it, a quick burst of energy released. He shot back the way he came just as he would whenever he jumped, countering with a kick straight into Gangrel's chest.
"Gyah—!" Gangrel coughed and gagged as he drove into his stomach. Chrom got down on his hands and feet, driving his kick once again as he vaulted away from him. Somersaulting into the air from the rebound strike, the prince landed beside his partner with his sword drawn.
Hand covered in blood from the gash in his stomach. Ripped from the strike that sent him down in the first place.
"Here, I got this!" The red knight called forth a healing light, placing against his chest to mend his wound.
Gangrel rose off the wall, reaching for the axe strewn at his feet.
"Oh no you don't!" Gangrel lifted it off the ground with a rapid spin. The ton-weighing axe felt like nothing in his hands as he gained immense momentum with each cycle, spinning a dozen times in one go before striking at the pillar beside him. The entire thing collapsed into shattered chunks of rock, and Gangrel kept spinning as fast as a blur, slamming against every piece that broke off in the direction of his enemies.
"Enjoy the head caving you'll get from this!" Gangrel hit his axe against the ground, cackling as rock fired off like missiles.
Cordelia gasped as she acted on her feet, bringing both hands out to form Wind spells as quick as she could. She threw one and the other, before making more and firing them both. Each wind blade shattered the rock they hit into dust that scattered into the air, but the final two, larger cracks of stone smashed through the next pair of blades effortlessly.
Without a second to think, Cordelia pushed Chrom to the wayside and ducked under the rock at the same time, bringing her rapier up to bounce the speeding stone just enough to slide it off-angle and crash it into the pillars behind her.
But that didn't keep her safe from the final strike. Having jumped overhead as the last rock shot by, Gangrel came down with the Helswath held high, bitter grin showing itself wide and wild.
"Is there anything you can't do, Little Miss Genius? Well I know just what we need to fix that!"
It was Chrom who got up from the ground just in time, pushing Cordelia out of the way before the axe came down. Leaving him right in the path in place of her.
Then Chrom's foot connected with the ground, allowing him to blast a short distance back. He planted his feet right as the axe fell to the end of its swing, allowing him to scale to the sky, blade shining white under the sunlight clouds.
"Aether!"
Chrom came down spinning like a sonic whirlwind, spinning thrice over with his sword roaring down.
Gangrel dropped his axe quicker than Chrom could shoot down to draw his sword even quicker than that. His rapier and Chrom's longsword grazed against each other right as they hit, but the angle Chrom struck at ensured his would slip against it.
Chrom pulled away before Gangrel could stop to think. Feet hitting the ground, he shot backwards, pulling his shining sword behind his head.
Then he rushed right in with his blade, uppercutting the thief's chest from below, before jumping back again, striking straight through him and cutting his side.
"Damn it all!" Gangrel held his chest, a cross slashed over it, leaving little of it able to be covered. "And damn you!"
"Had enough, Gangrel?" Cordelia readied her blade, hands steadied at her chest and her rapier pointed forward. She ran across the hall, ready to drive it through.
Chrom turned around and gripped his longsword, readying it in two hands and holding it at his side. He ran at the same time as her, following her lead as both moved to strike.
"Enough!" Gangrel spun around, waves of lightning shooting out from him. The two of them had to dodge, jumping back from the threads that would fry them if they didn't.
"Enough of this two-on-one business! I'll make sure to kill one first to take down the other."
Gangrel lifted his hand and pulled out a new trick, the cobalt lightning shifting away as he brought out a new spell. A white flow of magic.
Gangrel then put his hand against the cross slash on his chest, being touched by the only person he'd trust to heal him: Himself. The wound sealed up just enough to stop bleeding, but it didn't stop any of the pain.
He hit against his wound, putting the axe back onto his back and his sword into his sheath. Then he grabbed his second relic from a forgotten time: The Mjolnir tome.
Threads of lightning crackled in full in the fingertips of his hands, the Prince of Thieves drawing out dozens of them that flew like the cape on his back.
"Come on then! I'll show you how quickly your paltry ties disintegrate!" His threads swung across the hall, smashing row after row of pillars in Cordelia's direction. The knight ran from the collapsing floor above caving-in on itself, dodge-rolling under the whips flying by. They pulled back to their owner as he raced at her, every whip coiling together into the shape of a sphere.
"Beg for your life!" Gangrel threw his hands forth, pushing the sphere chained to his fingertips into the air at her. And once again, she dodged, jumping back with a wind spell readied as a shield against the incoming attack.
"Now! Detonate!" Gangrel gripped a handful of the threads he commanded, yanking them all back. The dense sphere of lightning unraveled into each individual thread, exploding into a buckshot of lightning streams all at once, weaving towards the knight in the spider's nest. They even snapped around the wind shield in her hand, aiming straight for the arm that created it.
And Chrom screamed. Having blazed to her side to protect his friend once more, he kicked her out of the way of harm, arms and chest frying as thunder wrapped around him. Ripping through him. Electrocuting him.
He couldn't just stand still and let another person get hurt. And paid for it. He fell down to the ground, struggling to stay up.
"All according to plan."
Gangrel breathed hard, hunching over as Mjolnir's threads were being pulled back to his fist. His own wound reopened in the middle of his fight, bleeding harder than before.
Gangrel's eyes were wide as he struggled to regain his breath. "I can do it… I can still fix this!" He bit through the pain, sealing his wound shut again with his magic. Hand at his chest as he got back on one knee.
"Either that friend was going bye-bye, or you were! But of course, I'll take my chances with the guy with the sword of the man I killed!" Gangrel breathed again, pulling himself as he turned to the red knight behind Chrom. The glove he commanded his threads in was shredded enough to reveal the burnt skin behind it, bleeding as he made Chrom bleed.
He reached for his rapier, holding it in his ruined glove as he kept his other on his tome at the ready. He set his sights on the knight now at the base of the staircase, staring hauntedly back at him.
"See what following saviors like him gets you? You're next!" Gangrel raised his sword and came swinging, swiping and thrusting furiously. She blocked as deftly as she could, but each hit pushed her up the steps, forcing her further from the prince bleeding out.
Though the bleeding prince still reached for his sword. Still choosing to fight, he grabbed the Queensfang and held it in his fried fingers, the shining blade pointed down as its tip rested upon the earth.
He got back up.
"Gangrrelll!"
The thief prince lunged, eyes darting back to the staircase his opponent rushed from below in one single leap. The prince's eyes carried that same dark stare as before, a kick ready to smash his head in.
Gangrel ducked as the sweep came, bringing his blade's hilt back around, and bashed Chrom's head in with his own pommel, sending him to his feet.
"Look at you. In what way did you think that could kill me?"
Gangrel bashed his head in again with his knuckle, kneeing him through the stomach. Then he smashed both fist and pommel down on him. The trio of strikes were enough to send Chrom back to the ground for good. And with that, Gangrel put down his sword and pulled the great axe off his back.
A silver coat began to radiate around where his hands lay, the thief bearing down on him. The silver sheen of will sparked as he pulled the axe behind him, the metal of Helswath radiating in the palace.
"It's a shame you don't have a plan to get out of this, like how you snuck into my country to fuck shit up! Oh well! I guess your bloodline dies with you!" Gangrel cackled his loudest under the sky and his own rage, swinging the axe overhead, but a sword went right through him. A rapier, catching his elbow.
"Don't think you can just take the life of my prince so easily, Gangrel—you haven't faced a Pegasus Knight in a duel before!" Cordelia yanked her sword back with enough fury to drag his arm back down, keeping him from finishing the job.
Gangrel looked back at the knight that'd stabbed him. He didn't even care about the wound left in his arm.
Because all he saw was the obstacle getting in his way.
Gangrel put his hand on his tome just long enough to draw out a surge of lightning once more around his fist, the air snapping from just the threads flowing from his silver-coated glove.
"And I'll be proud to kill one of the last!"
Gangrel rammed his palm against her joint between her other arm and her chest, lightning shredding through both. When the shock was over, Cordelia collapsed herself. Still standing, well, kneeling, but static still rolled over her, causing her to cough and choke for breath.
"My my, how the holy have fallen! A line of countless heroes and crusaders, backed by their ever loyal winged knights, and what do you have to show for it! A miserable bloodbath a decade after the grander one!" Gangrel picked his axe up once more. Even as he coughed red into his black sleeve, he readied the godly metal axe, raising it overhead once more to roll Chrom's off of his body.
"There's no miracle to save you today, Prince! No justice in the world that's going to put you on top, Knight! And certainly no backup plan to get you out of this!"
It's true, Chrom didn't have a miracle he could wish for. And clearly, whatever hope or justice that may have lurked in their hearts wasn't enough on its own to keep them alive.
...But Chrom did have one thing. It wasn't so much a backup plan, though, so much as a wild shot in the dark.
Chrom snapped his finger, bringing it up as a frolicking flame burned.
And it grew. A dark combustion of smoky ash and flames sparked at his fingertip, explosions popping and snapping in the air before them.
"What the—!" Gangrel lurched back. "Damn iiiit!"
The violent bang crackled as it fired off, exploding in a burst of black and blue flames that erupted. And it took the three of them with it, blasting them all ensnared in its flames.
Gangrel smashed his head into the throne before the balcony. Cordelia tumbled right into a pillar her back smashed against. And Chrom crashed down the staircase that led up to the throne.
And the weapons they were holding scattered with them as well, firing off in wildly different directions. The Helswath went flying over the staircase in the other direction from Chrom, clanging as it cracked the very ground. The Queensfang spun straight into the portrait above them where it stabbed itself into the piece that remained of the man's shield, lodging itself into it.
Cordelia's rapier, however, spun right into the hands of the girl. The first of the three to get back up, struggling in her knees, unable to hold down her chest, but still rising.
"What the fuck?" Gangrel reached for an armrest behind him, biting his teeth down. "Don't tell me that just happened! What is with you people!"
Cordelia readied her rapier in her one good hand and came at Gangrel once more. The thief quickly got up and drew his sword once more. But the wounds he sustained were far too much. He collapsed to his bleeding stomach where he held the cross-shaped wound that just wouldn't stay closed. As if he even had a chance at stopping it shut, the arm of the hand he'd been using to cast his spells was completely out of commission. Just the same could be said about said hand, glove burned away in the explosion as his hand dripped red.
Backed to a corner, down an arm and down his weapons, Gangrel was stabbed in the right side of his gut by the redhead with an anxiety disorder.
"Maybe it'll take more than wishes and justice, but we'll do what we must to protect our world." Cordelia turned her head back down the stairs. "Chrom, now!"
In some ways, Chrom could say he was grateful he didn't learn how to fix that. If only because it bought him enough time to get them out of this mess. Although he was down a weapon, now, and it didn't seem like the Helswath was much of an option the way he was either.
But he did have... one weapon on him.
With the Flavia in his head shouting at him for numerous reasons, he pulled the wooden blade he kept with him as a memento from his mother. And he came rushing up the steps straight after Gangrel, one last jump scaling to the golden sky above.
"Aetherrr!" he shouted, driving his blade one last time. And listening to his call, the flame burned, unbound to the sword that always called upon it. He shot back to the ground with his sword in his hand, one last strike piercing through his foe.
"...So it ends for Mad King Gangrel."
The sword reached him. Fast enough to pierce through where his heart would be. Like kindle being lit under dragon blue flames, the white wooden sword stayed burning in the left side of Gangrel's chest.
"Keheh… Kehehehe…" Gangrel started to cackle in front of the both of them. "What an end. What a bullshit end. Stabbed in the left side of my chest with a wooden sword of all things."
Gangrel turned his head up and stepped away from the balcony, arms stretched out as he looked to the sky. "Keh-he-heh-he-heh-heh-heh!"
He dropped his head back down, smiling. "Alright. You've won your duel, in spite of the shit you've pulled this whole time. But do you think you've won the war?"
Gangrel looked them in the eyes. Flame burning around his heart. Silver and thunder shining around each wrist.
And he kept on smiling.
"Listen here, you little hero. You've won. So have fun for the next two years or something. Get that headpat from your sister. But don't think for a second you've done the right thing."
Gangrel started to stumble back, golden eyes glaring at Chrom's own ones.
"You heroes are all the same, you know that? You fight and conquer and say that your war is justice in the end. You persecute those you please and demonize them as wicked villains deserving of rot. And I'm not talking about just me, but I know it because I saw it happen. You think I just woke up one day and chose to execute your sister? Your father committed wanton slaughter of my people and paraded about as a savior."
"...And would doing the same to our people now quell your rage, Gangrel?" Chrom looked him back in the eye, a calm, blue stare meeting his angered one.
"...No. It wouldn't. But here we are now." Gangrel panted as his wounds worsened, turning his head down, then looking at Cordelia.
"Even we wish to fix what's wrong with our countries, none of us excuse what the last Exalt did. Our Exalt, and our friend, knew that the best." Cordelia brought her hand forward, nothing but a look as sincere as the words in her voice.
"Yes. I suppose so." Gangrel breathed, stumbling further back along the floor. "...I suppose it's settled then. There's no place in the world for the kind of man I am."
Gangrel cackled again, then coughed blood. But then cackled, lifting his head.
Then he climbed up onto the ledge of the balcony, ready to fall, but ready to shout.
"I must say, my performance has been a fun one! If nothing else. To stand on the stage, to do as I pleased, to fight as I have. All that burns brighter than to have burned as short as I have."
The white wood burned bright like a candle disintegrating into black ash. Gone was the relic of the beloved past.
And Gangrel bowed, one hand on the right of his chest as he lifted an eye and flashed a grin. "Stay up with one eye closed, Hero and Knight. And when the sea comes blowing its horns, keep it pointing at the dark staring in front of it."
Gangrel chose for himself to fall over the edge, flying to the ground, stretching his hand out to the two above.
"And the rest will Fall… To… You…"
And there he laid in the ditch. Rolled onto his stomach.
The Prince of Thieves. The Mad King. Who knew only one thing.
He would die as he lived.
Alone.
Act 1, Finale 1, The Dead Prince's Lament