DISCLAIMER: I don't own the Kingdom Hearts nor Fire Emblem: Shadows of Valentia characters, Square Enix, Nintendo, and Disney are the owners.
Antex-The Legendary Zoroark: I'm glad you enjoy it.
CHAPTER 9 – LIBERATION OF THE TEMPLE OF MILA.
Valley Approach
After successfully rescuing Est from Grieth's stronghold, Roxas and the others headed to the valley approach in order to reach to the Temple of Mila to try to discover many things and more.
"At last, the valley approach." Celica said as they were walking through the valley. "Cross this, and we'll finally reach the Earth Mother's temple. Take heart, everyone. We're nearly there."
"Are you sure we're almost there, your highness?" Mathilda wanted to make sure they were going through the correct direction.
"We are, something tells me this is the direction towards the temple." Celica reassured her question.
Suddenly, the whole team, especially Mathilda met Berkut and his henchmen with shock and awe. "What the…? Fernand! What the hell do you think you're doing here?!"
"Mathilda... So you came out alive by those guys, I must say I'm impressed by your survival." Fernand replied nonchalantly and he gazed at Roxas. "So that kid with that black coat saved you from your execution, didn't he?"
"What the hell is the Rigelian army here?!" Kamui questioned gazing at the army.
The silent filled the whole place for a few moments until…
"Yes, I did flee her from the cell." Roxas affirmed him. "I couldn't just let her die."
"As I live and breathe… You guys don't look like you all are from The Deliverance, but it doesn't matter!" Berkut addressed the team showing arrogance and visible ambition. "Well, this is simply delightful."
"Who are you?" Roxas interrogated him, not showing any respect towards him.
"My name is Berkut." He introduced himself. "I am nephew to His Majesty Emperor Rudolf."
"Nephew to Rudolf… so you guys are relative…" Roxas said as he figured out a new Intel regarding his family.
"Roxas, was it?" Berkut smirked with evilness. "I must say, I was most impressed by the way you killed a lot of pirates on your way here. I nearly mistook that motley band of rustics you were leading for an army."
"What are you doing here? Your main force has retreated." Mathilda tried to call them out, but the two ignored her.
"Lord Berkut longs for sport and wishes to test your might, kiddo." Fernand dared Roxas for a one-on-one fight.
"A fight?" Celica said out of intrigue. "Roxas…"
"I've gone too long without fighting and I felt I needed a spot of practice." Berkut expressed his wishes to fight him. "Now then… do try to make this little exercise worth my time!"
It was at the moment when Berkut charged at Roxas, who managed to dodge at the last minute and avoid being run over.
"Fuck! This man looks vicious!" Saber snarled after fully dodging the charge.
"Hah! What's the matter, edgelord?" Berkut taunted Roxas after seeing him leap above and dodge his blows. "Afraid you won't land a single blow?" he mocked him as he tried to thrust him but then, Roxas leapt above avoiding the blow.
"My name's Roxas… not "edgelord."" he spoke with determination as he stood up.
"Oh, my mistake." Berkut replied trying to openly mock and underestimate Roxas, but then, he saw him summon his two keyblades in shock. "Wait a second… those huge keys… where did those come from?"
"What do you care?!" Roxas called him out pointing his keyblade. "Are you gonna fight or what?!"
"No… I already had an idea that you had those key-like weapons, but not at this size…" Berkut was still in awe upon seeing the Roxas's keyblades. "You don't have enough strength to wield such weapons, just like that fucking asshole of Alm with that fake bearing mark!"
"Hey! Don't ever talk to him like that!" Celica shouted out of offense pointing her fingers at him.
"Milady, calm down!" Boey calmed her down, nobody could blame her for being upset upon hearing anyone insult his childhood friend or any dear friend to hers.
[INFORMATION: Defeat Berkut!]
[Final Fantasy VII Remake BGM: Mako Reactor 1 – Battle edit]
Berkut and Roxas charged at each other and clashed their respective weapons creating a huge wave around the valley, the keyblade wielder saw the insane side of his enemy taking over by the time they were clashing each other.
Berkut tried to slash Roxas's head off but he was quick to dodge-roll aside and launch a strike raid and throw him off the horse for everyone's surprise, especially Fernand.
"Lord Berkut! You bastard!" Fernand shouted in anger before the latter spoke. "Don't interfere! This is between him and me!"
Fernand didn't have a choice but to take orders, even as having to see Roxas as his enemy, because anyone who is Berkut's enemy, is his enemy…
Berkut and Roxas delivered an intense swordfight across the field in front of everyone's expectations, especially Celica. The two weren't holding back as they slashed each other, but Roxas retaliated by jumping onto a tree through flowmotion and performing the fast-paced Ars Arcanium technique on Berkut, who couldn't believe how stronger his rival turned out to be.
In other words, Berkut underestimated his rivals, and one of them was Roxas, who had emerged victorious. "He's stronger than I thought…" he clenched his teeth in defeat, but he wasn't willing to give up his bout on his enemy. "But no… I came here to be entertained, not to give up my life. We'll met again, kiddo, mark my words… that I will prove my superiority to my uncle by wiping you all… I will become the emperor of Rigel and everyone will get down on your knees!"
Berkut expressed a lot of insane and dark desires to become the emperor of Rigel to probably subdue as many people around Valentia.
After giving the message, Berkut, Fernand and their henchmen left the place making Roxas and the others wonder what did the Rigelian general meant by that.
[Music stops]
"That guy's insane, I hope he didn't mean to subdue Valentia under his tyranny?" Saber was intrigued by Berkut's statements, giving really strong statements of having Valentia under his control.
"No wonder he saw Roxas as such a sport entertainment." Kamui also expressed the same concern on the subject.
"And more importantly, what does Berkut have to do with Alm? He mentioned it once before we clashed our weapons." Roxas brought out a very good question.
"Eeer… I honestly have no idea what's up between those two…" Mathilda expressed her opinion. "But I do think something's up with them, and Rudolf, and there's a high possibility that Berkut might turn his attention to you."
"Roxas, I don't know if you're gonna believe this, but I sensed some kind of darkness slowly eating his heart away." Celica gave a warning about Berkut's behavior.
"What is that supposed to mean, milady?" Atlas asked her out of concern about Berkut's behavior.
"It means that Berkut is slowly descending to the darkness, we saw already who he is, and how he behaves, he wants to be at the top of everybody so he can force everyone to be on his knees and make use of his evil desires." Celica let out a clear answer using the language that everybody could understand.
"Are you telling us that he's very hungry for power, huh?" Leon intuited her words becoming aware of his insane side of the nephew of the emperor Rudolf.
"Basically." Roxas coincided with everyone. "We must be careful with Berkut and his henchmen, I don't doubt that he could come to summon the heartless or even nobodies, so is best to stay sharp and focus."
"Yes, no wonder he could be capable of something like this, come on, let's hurry to the temple." Celica suggested to resume their quest towards their desired destination.
/
TEMPLE OF MILA
At last, Celica's and Roxas's band had reached the Temple of Mila. But what they found there was no the grand splendor of yore, but instead a twisted shadow of it.
"That's… the Rigelian Army!" Celica pointed at the said soldiers who had stormed the temple, wielding some cannons and all. "Has the temple already fallen to these guys?"
"We will get it back." Roxas assured her looking at the soldiers.
"What have they done to the Mother?" Boey showed a big concern towards Mila, something may have happened to the goddess. "You don't think…"
"We need to confirm her safety immediately." Celica suggested to make sure Mila was safe, even though that would prove to be difficult, if not impossible… "Everyone, infiltrate the temple as quickly as possible! Roxas, you will co-lead our comrades with me."
Roxas and the others proceeded to infiltrate the temple scanning every corner and slaying every Rigelian soldier they saw, until they came to meet a creepy-looking cantor upstairs, who let out an evil laugh. "Who are you?" Celica interrogated him with a stern voice.
"I am Mikhail, cantor of the Duma Faithful." He introduced himself before stating further intentions. "I have come to teach Duma's greatness to the fools who cling to Mila's lies. Now, rue your ignorance from inside the belies of my gargoyles!"
"Take care, everyone." Celica warned the party. "He's a cantor—he's likely to summon forth some manner of terrible beast. Stick close and watch each other's backs above all else."
"Don't worry, I can take on the arcanists." Sonya stated preparing herself to fight. "I take that you can take down a cantor, don't you, Roxas?"
"Yes." He affirmed her question putting out his keyblades.
"Good, in that case, go face Mikhail, we will deal with the rest of them." Celica indicated him.
[INFORMATION: Defeat Mikhail!]
[Final Fantasy VII Advent Children BGM: Those Who Fight]
"Don't think you can slaughter me down with those toys you have!" Mikhail dared Roxas as he launched black magic ball on him, but Roxas came to swiftly toss the ball aside and leapt through the rail steps via flowmotion and jumped surging against Mikhail to successfully land a hit on the cantor.
Mikhail retaliated summoning a huge black ball to throw it at Roxas, who barely dodged the attack and came to thrust the cantor with Sonic Blade technique, giving him no time to react and counter his attack, Mikhail became infuriated with the results of the combat that he knew he had no choice but to summon a huge heartless, The Dark Side…
"What the…?" Roxas said out of shock. "Did you just summon a heartless?!"
"Yeah, motherfucker!" Mikhail let out a loud evil laugh placing himself at the top of the heartless's head thinking he had won. "There's nothing you can do to take out my precious beast, now you will embrace your death by our own hands!"
However, Roxas wasn't frightened by the situation… he already has face many dangerous enemies before, Riku, his friend Axel, Saix, and some tough men from Valentia.
"Say what you want! Because those words will be the last!" Roxas shouted as he leapt towards the Dark Side's abdomen and gave strong diagonal swings, really strong enough to make Mikhail almost lose his balance and fall to his death.
"Nail this cocksucker!" Mikhail yelled out of angry insanity wanting to kill Roxas so badly.
The keyblade wielder climbed through the giant heartless's arm via flowmotion while dodging the punches and came to successfully slash its head five consecutive times finally destroy the monster once and for all, and not only that, Roxas came to kill not only one bird but two as while he was giving one final but critical blow, he also fatally wounded Mikhail and made him fall to the ground and lie on his own pool of purple blood.
Roxas successfully landed on the ground to see Mikhail and listen to his dying words… "Killing me changes not your fate… it changes… nothing…. He he heeeh…"
"I will make sure of Celica's safety…" Roxas wasn't willing to believe his words as he saw Mikhail die, and then he came to hear lots of yelling and grunts of struggle on the other side. "I gotta hurry!"
On the other side, Celica and the whole party were having a hard time dealing not only with the a few Rigelian soldiers, but some arcanists as well.
Mathilda, Celica, Mae and Boey struggled to keep up with the enemies just like Saber and the others.
"Damn it… I'm getting tired…!" Sonya panted as she began wearing down due to much use of her magic.
"Don't give up! We will win!" Mathilda told her to keep fighting, they were trying to make sure of their own survival, but this was a hard and impossible task.
Everything seemed like the temple would become their grave until Roxas showed up and quickly performed a brutal Sonic Blade against lots of Rigelian soldiers and archanists to help the team to clear the area, much to everyone's relieve. "Thank you for saving our asses, man." Saber smirked on him showing his gratitude. "If not for you, we wouldn't have been able to make it out alive."
[MUSIC STOPS]
"Those guys were tough!" Boey seconded expressing relieve for surviving their incoming demise.
"I'm sorry I'm late." Roxas apologized for taking so long.
"It's alright, you must have had a hard time with Mikhail, right?" Celica stated there was no need for him to apologize.
"Yeah, he even came to summon a huge heartless I had to defeat." The keyblade wielder filled her the news making Celica sigh in surprise.
"A huge heartless?" Celica asked him out of curiosity.
"Yeah."
"Well then, we've won. …Somehow." Celica assured the team of their victory with a seriousness in her voice, the temple was a huge mess.
"Yeah, but look at the temple. It's in shambles!" Mae spoke in frustration looking at the place tore apart. "I always thought it would be crazy beautiful, you know? I mean, Mila can't ACTUALLY live in a place like this, right?"
"I don't know. Let's go see for ourselves." Celica was determined to find out what had actually happened there. "We must discover exactly what came to pass in this place."
The team investigated the whole temple's every corner, few columns were either collapsed or tore apart, it looked like a huge conflict took place there and destroyed many parts of the temple, something that made Celica's and the others' suspicion grow big.
They finally reached the entrance of the ground force of the temple, a step away from Celica's desired place, Mila's chamber.
"This is completely collapsed…" Celica said after checking out some tore apart portion of the room. "What happened there?"
"I don't know, Celica, but I can tell that something horrible must have happened here." Roxas admitted not knowing the events, but he was certain that something really bad broke out there.
"I have no doubts about that… anyway, beyond that door lies Mila's chamber, guys, are you ready to salute Mila?" Celica asked the whole party if they were prepared for what they are about to see.
"Ready when you are." Roxas gave her an 'OK' answer nodding his head along with the others.
"Very well, let's go see her." Celica spoke as she opened the door, unaware of what they would come to find out…
/
MILA'S CHAMBER
Roxas and the others stepped inside the chamber in hopes of meeting Mila, but, what they found out is that Mila wasn't there sitting on her chair, actually there was nobody there.
"… There's no one here…" Roxas said in confusion after realizing of Mila's absence. "I wonder what happened to her."
"I don't understand…" Celica said in disbelieve as well. "Why isn't she here? She's supposed to be here!"
Everyone was confused at the Mother's absence, there HAD to be a reason for her to disappear like that and not receive Celica and the others. Did the Rigelian army have something to do with her disappearance? That would be very likely since they stormed the temple and looted everything at their sight. And possibly…
"Princess Anthiese!" Irma came to them running as fast as she could.
"Irma! Tell me what happened." Celica demanded to know what happened to Mila.
"I beg forgiveness, Your Highness." Irma apologized for the mess. "I had no idea the temple fell to the empire while I was prisoner. They took Mila…and Your Highness's circlet as well."
"They did what?" Roxas asked starting to realize of Rigelian army's evil actions.
"It's unthinkable. They're no knights—only blasphemers and thieves!" Irma stated in sadness in her face.
"The Rigelians hold Mila captive?!" Celica was upset of hearing the disheartening news of the woman. "You're certain of this?"
"I am, Your Highness." Irma affirmed her question, there was no wonder that empire could do such cruel thing at the temple. "Emperor Rudolf led the charge himself. Sealed her powers and took her away. To where, I fear I know not."
"So this guy did it… what a cruel thing for a mad emperor like himself…" Roxas said in disgust towards Rudolf.
"Rudolf himself…" Celica seconded sharing the same thinking, they didn't wonder that the emperor had done a lot of evil things.
/
FLASHBACK
Rudolf led his charge on his army and began storming the temple looting everywhere, and scaring Mila's circlets as well in the process.
"Quickly!" one of Mila's clerics asked the others to run away from the hostile men breaching the door to the chamber. "Mother Mila! Intruders!"
Rudolf was walking giving a lot of creepy and threatening vibes towards Mila, he looked very bloodthirsty as he came closer to murder Mila there and now.
"Mother Mila! You must save us!" one of the clerics begged her to save their lives one way or another. "Mother please!"
"This is Sofian soil. The Rigelian Emperor would do well to state his intentions." Said Mila in a dried but rather threatening voice, and then she came to have an eye on that weapon Rudolf was wielding… "The Kingsfang…"
"The mother may deduce my intentions from this blade." The emperor praised her for having an excellent eye through his cruel intentions. "You know what it signifies."
"Indeed…" Mila understood what he meant by his words, letting the madness and rage get better of her. "It means, you are in violation of the Accord!" she angrily stated his worse crime as breaking her apple by her own hand in rage.
It was at this moment when Mila became furious and began unleashing a devastating power around the chamber as she screamed at the top of her lungs: "DAAAM YOU, DUMAAAAA!"
The battle began as Rudolf surged against Mila, without getting an exact outcome of their deadly fight, but it's presumed that Rudolf did seal her powers by impaling her on the stomach… or something…
/
BACK TO THE PRESENT
Many people couldn't believe what had happen to Mila and her clerics, to think Rudolf would come to incapacitate Mila easily just because of the mighty weapon he wielded… That means he was overpowered and defeated her easily, no doubt. A huge loss for every Mila's follower, including Celica.
"Now, hold on just a tick…" Saber said showing some doubts towards Celica. "We get to the temple and everything's taken care of. That was the deal."
"We don't have time for this, Saber." Roxas reproached him for his greed for money. "We have more important problems than this."
"Unfortunately, none of us expected the Mother to have stepped out." Boey thought about the incident placing his fingers under his chin. "Nothing like this has ever happened before."
"Well, I guess now we know why the soil's gone barren." Mae knew how bad was the situation between Mila and Rudolf. "It's been cut off from Mila's bounty.
"What do we do now, milady?" Boey asked her for their next move.
"The only thing we can." Celica gave one of the biggest mission ever to her team. "We find the Mother and bring her back."
"Wait a second, Celica! Are you out of your mind?" Roxas expressed surprise about her daring statement. "How exactly do we "bring her back"?"
"And from where!?" Boey seconded questioning her in the same manner.
"I don't know." Celica admitted not having a plan to retrieve Mila back, aside of suspecting of her whereabouts. "But if the Rigelian Army took her, she'll be somewhere in the empire. And since we've already come to the border… Well, we might as well continue into Rigel."
"Hold on just a moment." Boey didn't look pleased with her plan. "You're saying we INVADE Rigel? This isn't a motley band of pirates or thieves—it's an entire empire of them! We should all take a step back and consider our opti—"
"Whatever we think or see will change the situation right now, Boey." Roxas interrupted him showing his support to Celica's actions. "There's no turning back right now as we have overcome a lot of dangerous odds and made it so far."
"He's right, Boey." Celica agreed with his bodyguard. "This isn't the first time we've faced hopeless odds. And when people told us to give up, did we run? We need to trust in our abilities. We've come this far for a reason. And that reason is restoring Mila to her rightful place. She's still the only one who can save the world from this… chaos. Roxas have aid us all along and thanks to him we have survived so far, and we'll continue doing it."
"Nay, she isn't." a familiar voice was heard throughout the chamber as the steps grew closer and closer until they came to realize who he was.
"It's the masked knight!" Boey exclaimed upon see him show himself out of nowhere like always.
"Well? Go on. Don't leave us in suspense." Celica asked him to talk.
"Mila cannot save this world." The masked man leaded her to understand that she didn't have that capacity to do such thing. "But you can… Princess Anthiese."
Ok, this was unexpected from the masked man to know Celica's true name, how the heck did he know her name? Was he a sibling to her or something? "Ah! How did you—" Celica tried to interrogate him when he interrupted her showing her a beautiful white-golden circlet. "I bear you a gift."
"Lady Liprica's circlet!" Irma came to identify the said item, it was from Celica's mother's.
"What?" Celica was filled with amusement and curiosity. "How is it that you possess this?"
"A question for another time." The masked man refused to answer her question. "Are you prepared to accept it, princess?"
"How do you mean?" the girl felt rather intrigued by her own birthright.
"This is no mere memento of your mother, it is a crown—and accepting it is a kind of coronation." The masked man told her what the said object was all about. "As princess of Sofia, are you prepared to wear this and ascend the throne?"
"I… I'm afraid I know little of kingdoms or scope of rule." Celica was overwhelmed by the sudden chance to accept the crown. "But I have people I wish to protect. Both here and elsewhere. I wish for this by my will alone. For my own happiness. Is that resolve enough?"
"It is indeed." The masked man affirmed her with a subtle smile as he placed the crown at the top of her head. "Princess Anthiese, this crown is now yours to bear."
"I accept it willingly." Celica said as she was accepting the crown, her mother's crown proceeding with the coronation.
[Celica's class changed to Princess!]
Everyone was on their knees receiving the newly crowned royal princess of Sofia with amusement and amazement for Celica.
"Wow, Celica…" Mae's face was written in happiness upon seeing her friend become a true princess. "You look so beautiful!"
"It's not Celica anymore, dummy." Boey tried to correct her name. "Isn't that right, Princess Anthiese? Er, Your Highness?! …Uh, ma'am?"
"Hee hee. Celica is just fine, you two." Celica gave them green light to keep being called by her usual name if they want. "Though from this day on, I will no longer conceal my identity. I expect that will bring even more hardship than we've faced till now But I hope I can still count on you all."
"My royalty belongs to you, Celica, for now and forever." Roxas declared his royalty willing to follow her wherever they would go.
"Yeah, all right. Guess I'll go along and swear featly." Saber also agreed to remain at her side. "It suits you, lass. Or should I say "Princess Anthiese." Anyway, our royalty belongs to you, for now and always.
"Thank you all. Truly." Celica thanked her band for their royalty.
At this very precise time, the masked man let out a hugely clue about Mila's whereabouts… and important intel for Roxas. "Mila was taken by Jedah, priest of the Duma Faithful. They're keeping her in Duma Tower, the seat of their foul cult."
"Then that's where we must go." Celica stated her will to risk her life and the others to retrieve the Mother back.
"If you're headed into Rigel, seek a man called Halcyon in Sage's Hamlet." The masked man gave her an important advice for her upcoming dangerous journey. "He is an able soul, and will mostlike assist you however he can."
"I will seek him out. Thank you." Celica understood his words.
The masked man sighed as he left the place, something was off with him, nobody knew why he acted like that leaving the temple.
"Surprisingly enough, I think I'm starting to get used to him." Boey said showing kind of satisfaction with his presence.
"He's not a bad sort—and he clearly cares about my well-being." Celica assured him about the masked man's behavior expressing curiosity. "I can't really ask for more in such times. And yet, he's not without his mystery… I get strange sense of nostalgia when I'm near him, though I've no clue why."
A female saint came to tell the team something: "Rudolf used the Divine Falchion to seal Mila's powers before taking her. A treasure given him by the wicked god Duma, no doubt."
"Falchion?" Roxas asked with intrigue by Rudolf's wicked actions.
"Aye, Falchion is a powerful sword which is only wielded a person with a strong will and good capacity of fighting, like Rudolf himself." The saint girl explained. "Finding Mila may just be a matter of reaching Duma Tower. But Duma himself can only be slain by Falchion's edge."
"I see, thank you for telling us." Roxas thanked her for the info they needed.
/
BASEMENT
Celica and the others headed down the basement to make one last exploration before heading to Rigel, and there, they found an old timer, who looked surprised at Celica.
"By the Mother! That circlet! Symbol of the Sofian throne, it is!" the man was surprised by her presence after noticing the said crown. "Then you must be the missing Princess Anthiese! I thought I'd never have the pleasure Your Highness. You must have come to inquire about this here sluice gate, eh? …Well, of COURSE I can open it! All is as Your Highness desires."
And then, the old timer tried to open the whole gate but, they ran into a little trouble. "Er, one small issue, Your Highness. Openin' this here gate isn't enough to let water flow freely. You also have to open the western gate."
"The western sluice gate, you say?" Celica sensed his words, and she knew exactly what would happen on the other side… "That won't be a problem."
"Oh? Then you've news from the west?" the Old Timer asked her about the news.
"Not exactly." Celica admitted not having any knowledge from the west. "But I can't imagine Alm would let this situation continue. He'll see the gate opened. I'm sure of it. Won't you Alm?"
Unbeknownst to everybody, the mysterious hooded woman had been following everyone's steps without being seen, by the time she heard Celica head to Duma Tower, she began growing concerned about her well-being, which means the hooded woman seemed to know something, she wanted to warn Celica about the fatal consequences and prevent her from making a huge mistake that could put everybody's lives in danger.
"Celica… whatever you do… be careful…" she whispered to herself in a very low voice making sure that nobody noticed her presence, as she continued following the group without being seen…
END OF CHAPTER 9
A/N:
So, this is the end of the War of Deliverance arc from The Valentian Cold War saga. We enter the Land of Sorrow arc, but instead, we will call it as "The Backlash" Arc, which will have huge plot differences from SoV and Gaiden combined.
Also, I have seen a lot of people addressing how sexist and misogynic the game was due to many women that had to be rescued, and especially Celica which she was poorly written there, so, I have come to the decision that I want, and I will try to fix a lot of these flaws as much as possible, so any idea of yours is welcome. Because I want to see Celica save the world by her own hands, with Roxas's and everyone's support or course.
Anyway, see you next chapter. Peace out!