World Of Revelations Part 4: Summoning For The Victory
Knowing the strength that the provisional leader of the kingdom of Nohr was capable of, both Alfonse and Raigh had to play their cards right if they wanted the situation to do not escalate into something many times worse.
"Uuuh..." Alfonse raised his index finger a little. "Could you please allow us to discuss our dueling strategy for a moment?" His teeth demonstrated his feeling of anxiety at the moment.
Raigh had to swallow hard. Luck was never going to be on his side given what he had seen in his life.
"Lady Camilla asks if that means you are accepting her proposition." Hinata translated, the princess herself had her arms crossed but one hand clearly gripped on her ax. Alfonse then bowed, placing his hand on his chest. "If it's the only way to avoid bloodletting the soil of these lands and throwing our soldiers' lives away, I'm sure both King Corrin and I will agree."
Indeed, Corrin nodded. This was no surprise to Camilla though, her little brother had always disliked having to fight to resolve conflicts.
Alfonse then shook his head. "But first I want to discuss a few details with my... spare summoner?"
Honestly, there was no perfect way to describe what Raigh was in the hierarchy of the order.
He was the right hand (or left one considering Kiran was left-handed at birth) of the summoner. That was clearer than the visibility of the stars on a moonless night, but exactly what else he was able to decide or command was still something not defined on paper.
Camilla, fortunately for them, decided to accept.
Once the two of them walked to a spot a little way up that hill, Raigh was the first to say a word. "First of all, and based on your reaction, I imagine we're so screwed that we don't have a single hero that you're really sure can fight her... right?"
Alfonse sighed, his face betraying his "confidence" in the situation just like Raigh had predicted "Indeed… maybe if Robin were here she could fight Camilla. The Robins are generally just as strong as the Corrins, that would mean a more or less assured victory… but everyone else we have…"
"Just our luck..." Raigh growled as he facepalmed.
Unfortunately, Corrin himself couldn't be chosen to fight since he wasn't a summoned hero. "Okay, I have an idea." Raigh tried to put into practice the logic he had been taught recently. "Heroes are able to fight multiple soldiers with no problem… so Camilla, who is a hero, is what you would define as "one-woman army" or whatever you want to call her… other heroes are that too, but overall she is more strong and effective, is that correct?"
Alfonse crossed his arms as he thought. "Yes." He nodded before pointing to something else that he realized. "Another problem is that, since this is a duel, I doubt we can convince her to fight a mage. It will have to be a fight with weapons. What's your idea then?"
"Perhaps we can tell her that she will fight two heroes at once. If she can sweep the ground with ordinary soldiers easily, two of them being able to defeat her will show that we have soldiers of superior strength and skill in general." Raigh was honestly trying his best and that was the most logical approach they had right now.
"That sounds a bit difficult…" the prince his fingers on his chin. "But perhaps if we appeal to her pride in her strength with flattery then perhaps she will allow it…" Alfonse then remembered a detail.
"Why don't you just show her how we summon a hero?"
"Remember that this just shows that we have the power to make people appear through portals," Raigh explained closing his eyes. "It doesn't prove by itself that they are heroes." Corrin had given them the benefit of the doubt, but that woman certainly wouldn't, and there were two big reasons for that…both the alliance they had with Embla and the simple fact of being strangers.
"Wait..." Alfonse snapped his fingers as the flame of ideas lit up in his brain.
"What?" Raigh raised an eyebrow as the prince pointed his index finger at his pocket.
"We have four orbs..." the prince's suggestion was obvious.
Raigh pulled out two orbs, one gray and one blue. He had them swap positions on his hand, toying with them, before speaking, "So you want to leave it to lady luck as that gambler from Magvel would say? Are you aware that the probability of summoning someone who can defeat her and also being able to convince said person to do this job for us is low…right?"
"Do we have any other options that would help avoid having to fight Nohr?" Alfonse asked.
Raigh considered it, before accepting the prince's point. "No, but if I understood correctly these were for emergencies only." Raigh began to play with the gray orb as he moved it to his left hand.
Alfonse nodded "I would say this counts as one, we can always make more. Listen, we'll have two heroes take her on… in the meantime do some summoning and hope for the best." Alfonse gave that order before he returned to where Camilla was.
Raigh swallowed hard.
The prince of Askr, once he had returned to be in presence of the king of Valla and the princess of Nohr, made a semi-bow before speaking again. "I would like to make a request." Alfonse cleared his throat and pondered his words carefully. "We are aware of Camilla's power, she is one of the ten strongest female heroes." Praising this warrior princess would be a good way to put her in a better mood.
Camilla took the news with the most natural reaction. She found it hard to believe. She didn't doubt that she was strong, but being able to claim she was in the top ten was certainly impressive… Camilla had to smile.
After Hinata explained that Camilla desired to know what the request was, in addition to asking her brother's place among the strongest heroes, Alfonse nodded. "The heroes among us don't precisely reach the top ten." It was at times like this that he wished at least one of the two Caedas had accompanied them. Maybe even Tiki. "Then how about if at least two of our heroes fight at the same time against you?" It was better not to tempt fate, if he asked for too many heroes she would probably change her mind. "Regarding Lord Corrin, he is the fifth strongest." Alfonse wasn't sure how the list would be altered considering the newly discovered new world Fodlan, but for now, that was the truth as far as he knew.
Camilla considered the proposal for several seconds…until she agreed.
All of the above was the reason why Cordelia and Minerva were together preparing their weapons.
Cordelia was inspecting said weapons. "Do you have knowledge of weapon maintenance?" The princess of Macedon asked the question as she lend the ax to Cordelia for a moment.
"They taught me a little about almost everything." Cordelia nodded as she polished the weapon as carefully as possible using a piece of tin. "Normally the weapon I am best at is a spear, but considering my opponent…" Cordelia pointed to a "silver" sword and shield she had in addition to her spear. "I think the combat style that I apparently inherited to my daughter is a better choice."
"That you apparently inherit to her? don't you remember training her?" Minerva had to admit that the derusting job her partner had done was quite competent.
It wasn't a wonder, like other blacksmiths she had access to as a princess could do, but her weapon certainly looked better.
"Well, we're in a different world and we've seen portals to different versions of the same ones. I think if I tell you I mean my daughter is from the future that won't sound impossible." Cordelia continued repairing her weapon.
Minerva made a confirming sound.
After having her ax back in her hands, she began to nod in satisfaction. "Usually this is the part where I tell you that you did a good job… but to be honest, I never liked receiving compliments and by extension, I didn't usually give them either… so I'm afraid I'm not good with words for this." Contrary to what princess Minerva expected, Cordelia smiled slightly at this. "Actually, I don't really like receiving them either. Before, even the slightest made me feel bad… It's a long story, my fellow Pegasus Knights used to say them to me in a somewhat sarcastic way." She rubbed the back of her head.
"I see." Minerva began to walk in the direction of the area where the duel would take place. "I still have my old Pegasus. While my wyvern is beautiful and my primary mount as a representative of my people, riding my pegasus makes me feel…younger. I don't know if you understand what I mean."
Cordelia was now polishing her sword as she answered and walked
"Well, when I was a child my mother made me sing, and singing always brings me back to those days so... I guess I can say I understand?" Luckily, the pegasus knight was very efficient at keeping her weapon clean and rust-free, so it didn't take her more than a minute and a half to get it ready. "By the way, did you say your name is Minerva?"
"Minerva Macedon, yes."
"I see." Cordelia thought that Cherche would have been very happy to meet the princess of Macedon.
"My full name is Cordelia Tiamo."
"Interesting. It's a pleasure to meet you."
"The pleasure is mine." Cordelia smiled.
Now if only she could get some free time to speak to Caeda... she would be the happiest fangirl ever.
Both decided to collide the bases of their weapons, almost as if they were two glasses of wine, as a means of "confirming" that they would be working as a team for their next battle.
Camilla had her ax in front of her, both of her hands resting on the shaft of it as she watched her two opponents.
Red hair and she a pegasus knight… although her hair was much longer. Still, Camilla couldn't help but think of Hinoka for a moment. Paying attention for a moment made her understand that her foe would be fighting with different weapons this time though.
Her other opponent, despite also having red hair, denoted being a wyvern knight given her type of armor and ax.
Had they decided it was best to send aerial warriors to fight her even though they wouldn't be using their mounts for this fight for some reason? Or was it really that these two were the strongest in their current group?
Raigh, not that far away from there, loaded the Breidablik pistol with the four orbs that had been created.
There was still room for another one, but just there wasn't enough energy and gems to create more at the moment.
Since Raigh, and by extension also his "stepfather", was unaware of the mechanics of the summoning process... he wasn't sure if pulling the trigger constantly would increase the chances of summoning heroes from the same world, or if it would affect the chances of getting a strong hero. It had already become clear with Azura and Amelia that it was perfectly possible that they wouldn't always summon a "hero", a mere civilian was not out from the reach of Breidablik and its luck factor.
Not to mention the youngest Macedonian princess... that reminded Raigh that they still had to discuss whether they would agree to return her to her world or try to convince her that her brother was a lost cause. After looking at a list of names of heroes that, according to the prince's information and that was given to him by Sharena, might be able to defeat Camilla without a problem, he decided to begin.
Raigh took a deep breath, aimed the pistol at the horizon, and then pulled the trigger.
The first orb completed its duplication process through time and space, then it began to glow.
As the portal ejected the person who touched it from the other side, Raigh noted that the woman in question was wearing a light blue dress, the same color as her hair in fact. As she began to look around, he could see that her eyes were red. The last detail that he ended up noticing was a very long and transparent piece of cloth... which was identical to the ones that some dancers had... yes… it seemed that he had summoned a civilian.
He placed his palm on his face as he strongly shook his head. Raigh even wondered if the fact that he wasn't the rightful owner of the "holy weapon" was affecting the summoning process. Some kind of safety mechanism that would prevent everyone but the legendary hero from being able to summon strong heroes.
Until he remembered that one of his summoned heroes had been Leif, so he dismissed the possibility.
Raigh cleared her throat to get his attention. "Sorry to bother you, lady, but I have the explanation why you're here so suddenly."
Cordelia held her shield in front of her.
Not only did her opponent have to use both hands to hold an ax like that, but she was also fighting alone. Theoretically, Cordelia would have an advantage using this combat style.
Camilla stood motionless, and so did the Pegasus Knight of Ylisse and the Princess of Macedon.
It was clearly a situation where all three fighters were aware that they wanted to wait for the other to start attacking to generate an opening that could be exploited.
Corrin and Alfonse watched the situation not that far away, while in the opposite direction from them the bodyguards of the princess of Nohr did the same.
"If they want to prove to me that they are heroes of great power, then they will have to do it now. My patience is not eternal." Camilla very suspiciously let her ax touch the ground.
Minerva, having circled around for at least three minutes, decided to move forward and attack.
Camilla, wasting no time, raised her ax and slammed her opponent's weapon mid-air, Minerva, being slightly exposed, quickly jumped back. Camilla herself had to step back when, from her left side, a thrust nearly damaged her arm as Cordelia had made her first attempt as well.
The princess of Nohr simply "answered" to what Minerva had done, to which she then strongly advanced with a bottom-up attack which Cordelia had to stop with her shield, which Camilla took advantage of to push her away using the full force of her weapon.
Cordelia realized almost immediately that, try as she might, pushing Camilla's weapon with her shield would be pointless. The Princess of Nohr's strength was too much and her shield simply didn't have enough matter to be able to generate the necessary force for such an action. Minerva held her ax upside down and then whispered to her mate. "I'll try to improve our defense, try to cut her."
Cordelia nodded.
Camilla, however, did not take long to understand what they were doing and reverse the situation, now also holding her ax in a defensive position once, after several sword attacks, Cordelia managed to hit one near her stomach.
Cordelia narrowed her eyes at her in frustration. The worst thing is that she knew that this was just the warm-up… Camilla, for her part, had to admit this was entertaining. It had been a long time since she had a fight where her objective was simply to defeat her opponent instead of killing them, this a duel where skill was not everything, there was also some honor as opposed to the more pragmatic style that had to be taken when fighting on a real battlefield. At war, survival is a priority.
The battle stopped for a moment as this was again one of those moments where the opponents just look at each other and try to strategize about their next move.
Alfonse rubbed his head, he tried to relax himself thinking that this was just the beginning... he needed to have some patience.
Camilla sped forward, forcing Minerva to block her opponent's ax by bringing her ax horizontally above her. The Princess of Nohr's speed did not allow her to react in time, however, when she kicked her forcing her back. At the same time, Camilla wasted no time and placed her weapon behind her, blocking Cordelia's attack towards her back. Camilla then performed a spin attack which Cordelia barely managed to dodge by doing a back somersault. The Ylisse warrior greatly appreciated that she had removed the heaviest pieces of her uniform, this made those maneuvers less complicated to perform.
Both Minerva and Cordelia attempted another assault against Camilla, but the princess of Nohr knew that in matters of one-on-two combat, being in the middle was just asking to be defeated, to which she simply ran to gain distance and have the two heroines in front of her again.
Cordelia and Minerva decided that they would now try to attack from different directions, sacrificing some defense for offense.
"I'm sorry but... I have to go." Ninian immediately shook her head as soon as this green-haired magician explained the situation to her, albeit in a very basic way. "I don't have much combat power, and my brother needs me!" The poor guy couldn't stand her disappearing as soon as she'd been saved.
"An understandable answer, you don't have to fight for our nation." Raigh nodded. Honestly, he would have sent her back with no buts… but he also had to follow the order he had been given to make them consider waiting a bit. Not necessarily to fight, but there was a certain factor at play. "And I guess you wouldn't believe me if I told you that by sending you back you'll be back at the same time you left." Ninian considered for a few seconds.
"Not really."
"All right." Although Raigh considered for a moment asking her if she wanted to wait at least a little while to perhaps receive a copy of the Encyclopedia, the book Kiran had been creating that would contain all of his knowledge, Raigh realized that she would have the same problem as his mother in case she returned home with said book.
She was being persecuted and therefore the book could fall into the wrong hands.
Raigh pressed that button on the weapon that was supposed to reverse Breidablik's power.
A certain sound coming from inside the relic made him know it was in "reverse" mode.
While Raigh couldn't tell that anything seemed to have changed from the exterior, the weapon's creator's journal indicated that this was how he unsummoned so Raigh had no reason to want to doubt it.
"It is a pity that your brother was not with you when you were summoned, we could have offered you asylum in this place." Raigh shrugged and pointed the relic at the woman. "Anyway, sorry for the inconvenience, and good luck in the future." Ninian felt strangely uncomfortable seeing that thing pointing in her direction, but after a few moments, she felt a strange sensation inside her. She then had some strange specks of light around her. Raigh could see that a portal had formed behind the woman… similar to the one he had brought to this woman minutes ago.
She was then "captured" by it and, as easily as she had arrived, so easily she left.
On the other side of the portal, Ninian realized that she was back in that hotel room that she and her brother had rented with some money given to them by the nobleman who had saved her.
She turned around quickly enough to see the portal closing.
The connection point between the two timelines closed once more... and this time for good.
"Ninian, are you ready?" she could hear her brother's voice behind the door.
"Eh yes." Then she remembered that she had barely finished dressing when she was summoned...
Summoned...
Had she not seen that portal, she could swear all of that must have been a very strange dream.
She opened the door.
What surprised her was that the magician wasn't lying.
When she asked Nils if it had been a long time since she entered that room, Nils was confused and assured that it had been 10 minutes at most... and she remembered having taken about the same time to get dressed.
Raigh pressed the button again so that Breidablik was in summon mode once more.
Kiran had instructed him to take great care of it since, not knowing the internal components of the relic, he feared that it could get damaged and rendered useless... and the disaster that would cause would be titanic. What he saw, once a new orb was ejected and generated the portal, was what appeared to be an ordinary soldier.
The armor had its style, of course, but at first glance, there was nothing about this person that made him stand out.
The first thing he said when his vision became clearer was the obvious questions the summoning process would cause due to its confusing nature.
Raigh rubbed his forehead in frustration since his success rate at getting good heroes was pretty good!
Although not easily discernible due to the fact that the man wore a helmet that fairly covered his eyes at all times, Raigh could tell that this man was quite confused
After he heard the whole explanation… there were only a few words to say. "I have to stop drinking…"
Raigh made his pupils roll from side to side. He could only hope that the next orb didn't miss...
Camilla decided that the warm-up was over.
She then started running at high speed with her ax over her head. Cordelia jumped to the left, getting out of the way of the weapon… only to see, to her horror, that Camilla managed to alter the trajectory of her weapon.
Instead of hitting the ground vertically, it began to descend diagonally. Cordelia barely prevented it from being able to cut her using her shield. However, paying too much attention to this made her fail to notice that Camilla would no longer just use her hands. Cordelia received a kick, forcing her back.
Immediately Camilla spun around as she moved away from her position since Minerva tried to attack her and she, once she did a complete flip, was already retaliating. Minerva failed to block one of the attacks for which she received a few injuries.
Cordelia tried to get up quickly to help.
Knowing that she would be caught between them, Camilla backed away, using all the speed of her legs. Cordelia and Minerva tried to approach once more, each one by a different direction, but Camilla would not allow them to do so.
Although they managed to block one of her attacks, suddenly the princess of Nohr placed her ax in a horizontal position and pushed them using said weapon. Camilla then kept attacking mercilessly.
Cordelia had to protect herself and Minerva.
Neither of them was sure where to find an opening in the Nohr princess's attack pattern.
In a moment of confusion for the two warriors, Camilla ended up leaping forward and landing a kick on Cordelia's stomach. Minerva almost managed to hit a downward vertical attack, but Camilla moved with "ballerina's" speed, and the princess of Nohr ended up hitting the princess of Macedon on the left side, under her arm.
The partners had to thank a lot for the fact clerics were near.
Before Cordelia could try to defend her partner, Minerva ended up getting hit enough times that she fell on the ground.
Alfonse had to grit his teeth when he saw what was happening.
Even King Corrin looked concerned… though also partially surprised that his sister had evolved that stronger.
It seems that Camilla would be the winner of this match.
Raigh could tell that he had summoned, for all practical purposes, another civilian since this soldier was little more than a guard.
The interesting thing was that when he asked to be returned to his world he didn't say anything about his family, a possible girlfriend, or anything else of the sort.
The only thing that truly seemed to interest him was to go back to guarding the gate he was meant to guard every day.
A simple man, apparently.
Raigh didn't even bother to look at the orb or hesitate to fire. He simply loaded the gun with its ammunition and fired.
The man who came out of the portal... had blue hair... clothes that seemed to be what a mercenary swordsman would wear.
The most particular thing, besides that cape... was that his sword was gigantic.
Raigh had seen two-handed swords before, but this was simply impressive.
Camilla was now sure that it was time to end this.
She was partially satisfied with a challenge, but this was not what she expected.
Camilla did not waste a single second as her attack speed began to increase to levels that even she herself was amazed at her new capabilities.
Since that day they defeated Anakos she swore to herself that she would become as strong as possible to do not allow anyone else to hurt her family.
And she could be proud of her hard work when, with a well-aimed hack, Cordelia ended up sprawled on the floor.
A back somersault allowed her to evade what Minerva tried to then defeat her in a matter of seconds. As she threatened the Madecon princess with her ax near her neck, the message conveyed was clear.
It's over.
Both defeated warriors weren't sure how to react to this.
Cordelia was certainly impressed. A part of her made her wonder if Camilla was as strong as the legends said about the strength of the wife of the hero-king Marth. Another detail was that... she sighed slightly happily. It was good to know that she still had goals to overcome. Minerva, on the other hand, shrugged and agreed that, given the infinite nature of the worlds, it was obvious that she was not the strongest wyvern knight even if the people of Askr had been more than honored to accept her into their ranks.
They both stood up, Camilla made a slight bow and said. "Good duel."
The two of them decided to replicate the action. Alfonse was on the verge of "sweating" from nervousness.
Corrin, on the other hand, had to sigh and rub his forehead as he shook his head.
It seems that things could never, indeed, be solved the easy way.
Camilla then walked towards the prince of Askr with her ax resting on her shoulders. Her imposing height, added to the situation, made the prince feel... too small...
"It has certainly been an interesting combat experience and I can respect the strength you have shown me today… but I feel that this is not enough for me to believe that these are heroes of legend, Prince Alfonse." Camilla shook her head and closed her eyes. Once Hinata translated her message for Alfonse, he had to grit his teeth harder.
"(God damn)"
Corrin tried to help him.
The translation of their dialogue for the story was this.
"We can still try to solve this in another way." Camilla, however, denied again. "What I want to know now is whether or not there is black magic in your mind." Her tone of voice was firm and clear.
And Corrin, despite being a legendary hero and king of a nation… he would never stop being Camilla's little brother… as a result, her mere presence made him feel weak once again.
Before Camilla could say anything else…
"Before you claim victory, you will have to face this me." Everyone turned to see the new contender quickly.
And Alfonse's eyes as well as his mouth expressed the greatest surprise of all.
Raigh just summoned… the strongest hero of them all?
Hoooooooly Shit...
When this year started, I was not expecting it to be this fucked up.
And no, I'm not talking about the war... I'm talking about SO MUCH FREAKING HOMEWORK AND PEOPLE ASKING ME TO DO STUFF! Geez... I barely had time to write, and when I actually had spare time I TRULY needed some relaxing time with videogames...
So... yeah... I can't really say anything to apologize for taking this long to give you another chapter.
However, as I once said: as long as I live I will keep writing this story until it's finished...
Then again... sometimes I wonder if people have already lost interest or the hype for this story... dunno, it's like me having lost all the hype I had for Advance Wars 1+2 Reboot Camp, that game can go, and die for all I care.
As some of you may remember, I did reference Chrom and Ephraim's fight in the Awakening chapters. This was the time for a reference to the second voting gauntlet. A shame Hinoka couldn't join the party of getting your ass handed over by Camilla. Granted, I did not want to humillate Cordelia and Minerva so bad like in the actual battle they had with votes so I made them fight together.
And yes... I guess suddenly summoning HIM is a luck factor that could be considered deux ex machina... but come on! who else would you expect to be able to defeat her? XD
I did want to show how unsummoning works after so much time. Ninian seemed like a coherent option. Because this Breidablik does not destroy the hero's will of its own and does not transform them into the Summoner's "slaves", I think she would be another one who wouldn't like to stay. Especially if you consider she does not trust she will be accepted by humans.
Also, am I the only one who thinks it's weird that, although Journey Through Pressure is such a masterpiece of a fanfic... the first fic to actually get a TvTropes page is L'Amour Detruit? I mean, yeah it's written by the same author but... dunno, why would they ignore the actual FEH story in favor of a Yandere fanfic? XD.
Anyway, time to answer some reviews:
ScientistXXXX:
Yeah... the thing is, he's playing pretend to be dumber than what he actually is. A certain thing he says to Alfonse in later chapters explains it. And yes, it will take a while before altering the minds of the heroes with his teachings but that's a loooong process.
