I always joke that I can never match Iturbide's speed at writing, but I'm proud to say I got close! While I wrote this in a week, a lot of it was finished in a tea-fuelled allnighter that gave me some of the worst bags under my eyes that I've ever seen.
Many thanks to Iturbide and newmrsdewinter for their betaing and their chat sessions, because I don't know what I or this story would do without them.
"Noam!"
He turned from his bookshelf at Robin's childish little shriek. His eyesight had begun to steadily decline from this point in his life, and his beard had not yet reached its prodigious length.
She, however, had not completely mastered self control and manners—but why should she? She was revered as the Vessel, Grima's living Avatar, and the worship and adulation she was raised with removed any consideration of such topics from the minds of her sycophants. It was a horridly restrictive environment, to be sure, yet the praise lavished upon her turned her into a screaming, willful brat when she was not caged within silence and confusion. There was hardly an inbetween.
"What is it, child?" he said patiently.
"What's a Risen?"
A long, uncomfortably pregnant pause filled the cramped classroom. Even with her relative lack of self-awareness due to her age, Robin recognised his fear.
"Who told you about that?" he asked slowly. Cautiously.
Robin chewed her lip thoughtfully. "Hennutawy said that if I didn't finish my food like I was supposed to, then a Risen would do it for me. And then it would eat me."
Noam expelled a hard, shaky breath as he climbed down from the rolling ladder—organising his books and scrolls could wait. His bare feet made a raspy, leathery noise on the dried oxblood flooring as he drew a stool to take a seat next to her. Robin had been slacking off on her arithmetic in favour of scrawling inane doodles in the margins of her papyri, but he graciously chose to ignore that.
"What's a Risen?" she pressed.
"A folk tale. Something old crones threaten children with when they feel they are misbehaving."
"Was not," Robin pouted petulantly. "But you're lying to me."
"How so?" Noam tried to play it off a little too innocently.
Robin could not quite articulate the reasons why she could spot his lie; as she grew older she came to understand it as another property of her Eyes (albeit a skill that was only unintentionally activated, and rather infrequently, too), one that let her home in on the subtle way his body froze at the use of the word. The way his lips hitched on a breath as he tried to form a suitable response. Sometimes, she could even catch snippets of his thoughts. "I just know," she shrugged.
"As our Vessel, of course you do." Noam patted her hair as he usually did when they were alone. But there was no warmth in the gesture. It was done absentmindedly as he mulled over her latest questioning. "But why do you want to know about them?"
"If she thought they're scary enough to say they'll eat me, then what are they?"
Noam had always told her that even as a toddler, she displayed an unnaturally clear understanding of some things. She often delighted him with the simple, innocently pointed questions she would bring up.
He said that she had always possessed a lovely mind—but that, sometimes, he was afraid of peering into its depths and shining a light inside.
"Stay here," he said.
The solemnity of his tone awed her. She nodded obediently, watching from her seat as he stood with a great groaning and creaking of his old bones and shuffled off to a side room. He returned with an ominously ancient tome: dusty, decrepit, and practically falling apart at the seams. It would not have been an exaggeration to say a worm or two crawled out of the moth-eaten pages.
"You have to promise me that you will not mention this conversation to Validar. And should you ever mention anything related to the subject at all…be extremely careful."
"I promise."
Noam's eyes never left hers even as he turned the fragile pages, evidently having memorised the location of the relevant entry.
Thinking back on it, Robin was not entirely sure she wanted to know why.
He finally opened on a well-thumbed section. It showed a two page spread featuring a crudely drawn humanoid at the very centre, surrounded by a complex and nigh incomprehensible web of diagramming, formulae that had been bleached by time, and notes in differently coloured ink squeezed into what little remaining space there was.
Though she understood none of it…something dark stirred inside her.
It felt awful.
"Risen—" Noam's tongue was hesitant to form the phrase—"supposedly are named so because they have risen from the dead."
In spite of the fire blazing in the hearth and the braziers stationed in the corners, the room was cold. Or was it just her imagination? She could not tell. She simply wanted to know out of genuine curiosity. Now it felt like she had made a terrible mistake of some sort.
"Grima—" hereNoam raised his eyes to the ceiling and stuck his thumb between his forefinger and middle finger and thumped his chest with his fist "—was said to have used them in His armies. Either stitched together from different bodies, or using the deceased—"
"What's 'deceased?'"
"It is another way to say 'dead.'"
Robin mulled over his explanation very thoughtfully. What he was saying not only sounded frightful—the hairs on the back of her neck rose as spoke.
Noam sighed quietly. "They were made to keep His armies everlasting: should one fall, He could simply bring them back, over and over again. Relentless, undaunted, there to do Grima's bidding as He pleased."
The only sound that could be heard was the fire crackling; Robin realised she had held her breath unintentionally and released it in a heavy exhalation. Biting her lip, she reached out tentatively towards the book, skimming the brittle page's worm-bitten edge with her finger. "But why dead people?"
"What do you mean?"
She shrugged again. "Why not just…keep on healing people who're already alive? Why do they have to be dead?"
Noam's brow furrowed deeply as he reached out to stroke her hair. There was something… sad about the gesture. "I do not know myself, child."
The thing before them was human, once. Its armour was in surprisingly good condition for having been buried; it wore trousers, boots, and carried an axe as though it were a common footsoldier. It must have been at least somewhat recently deceased (or at least remarkably well preserved), for its gray skin still showed defined muscle tone and relatively little decay.
Robin wondered vaguely if it had a family still awaiting its return home.
But the awful stench rolling off it and the jerky, lurching movements it made as it stared them down from behind its mask provoked such an instinctually deep fear, such a visceral disgust, that it was instantaneously clear that it had lost its humanity a long time ago.
The man who had summoned it lost his composure immediately; he evidently had no idea what he had been roped into in the first place and tried to flee, but it was all in vain as the thing snatched him up, lightning quick, and tore savagely into his soft flesh. He did not even have time to so much as scream—all that was left was a fine red mist and his shredded clothes tossed to the side.
The Risen's eyes glowed a hellish red from the eye sockets in its mask, matching the blood around its mouth, as it threw its head back and roared.
"Are such horrific creatures commonplace in these lands?" One of the prisoners cowered as Frederick and the soldiers closed ranks on them in a protective ring. The horses snorted and stamped in terror, yet thankfully held their ground as their riders readied their shields and arms against the three Risen.
"They're not from Ylisse, I promise you that." Frederick hefted his heavy silver lance to point directly at the monsters. His horse was not so easily spooked and pawed at the ground defiantly.
And thus a long and terrifying game of keep-away began. The Risen circled the encampment slowly and deliberately, cocking their heads at unnatural angles as they assessed their enemies and searched for an opening they could exploit. Occasionally they would take experimental jabs, retreating just as quickly when their strikes were parried, and they were back to their stalking once more. But no one was fooled; their weapons seemed to have little effect against the Risen, and there was a lot of force behind their hits, meaning it was only a matter of time before they put their full strength into a devastating blow.
The tension running through Robin's body almost felt like static, crackling and sparking as she swept her eyes over the Risen with her tome at the ready. They were lucky to be in the company of trained soldiers, but they were fighting a threat no one in their group had ever prepared for; uncertainty in combat could lead to costly mistakes.
Thankfully for them, she at least had an idea of what they were up against.
"Everyone," she kept her voice low, her eyes never leaving the Risen. "Be very careful. You didn't notice, but as they kept circling, they managed to press us into a tighter ball to make it more difficult to move once they pounce. Put a little space between yourselves."
Frederick was wise to match her tone. "With all due respect, we have to keep the prisoners and the dogs safe. We cannot afford to let them slip through."
Robin shook her head slowly. "Look closely." She pointed to the magma that had broken through the earth: it bubbled ferociously, thick and deadly like a witch's brew ready to be served from its cauldron. The heat from it was intense and a great swathe of forest had already started to burn.
Frederick's eyes widened in realisation. "They're staying away from it."
"Because they're vulnerable to fire."
He nodded. "Understood." He straightened up in the saddle and turned to address the soldiers. "Everyone! Be mindful of the flames—though they pose a danger to us, they can also be of great help. Spread out and try to push these abominations towards the fire!"
The Risen acted immediately on his words and rushed forward, with more of that dense, syrupy black mist streaming from their bodies as their blades met the soldiers'. Guttural growls rattled forth from the open mouths on their masks as they strained against the humans. The fact that over ten soldiers spread out across three monsters were struggling attested to the creatures' unnaturally high strength.
Worse still was the sudden, terrible feeling that overcame Robin as she stole a brief glance at the zodiac circle hovering in the sky, the large golden eye at is centre staring them down.
She immediately knew that Validar was watching them from it.
A loud blast from a horn rallied the soldiers as they manoeuvred deftly out of the Risen's reach, blocking their attempts at grabbing the prisoners as the dogs barked furiously and nipped at the monsters' heels. Unfortunately, the heat from the fire was beginning to take its toll on the humans, with the Risen completely uncaring so long as no stray ember managed to burn them.
"Robby!" Henry yelled for her.
She ran to his defense at once, blasting the Risen with a faceful of lightning as Henry, Neferi, and the prisoners behind him scrambled to the safety of a large pine. She saw what he meant: the magic, though enough to push the creature back, did not even manage to damage it significantly as its grey skin knitted itself back together.
Pegasus dung.
Frederick, in a jaw-dropping feat of strength, came to their rescue; he kicked his horse into a gallop, ripped a burning branch off the tree, and thrust it so deeply into the Risen's exposed chest that the flaming wood burst out the other side in a shower of sparks.
The Risen screamed, clawing fruitlessly at itself, until the fire spread throughout the rest of its body and dissolved it into a puddle of black mist. They all watched with bated breath as it faded into the smoky night air.
"Don't breathe it in!" Robin warned them. Any loose spores could travel into their bodies and attempt a takeover of them as a new host to use.
Henry stared up, awestruck, at the brave figure Frederick cut astride his massive steed. Power seemed to exude from his very pores as he stared down the remaining two Risen brazenly, defiantly, challenging them to try their luck with him. Incredibly enough, they hung back uncertainly. Cheers erupted at the sight.
"Wow!" Henry breathed.
Their sense of victory, unfortunately, was short-lived.
The zodiac circle pulsed and began to shine ominously. The eye, previously nothing but a silent, stationary sentinel, blinked—and as it opened once more, a glistening, jewel-bright tear dripped down to earth.
Robin saw too late what it really was.
"Don't let it touch the soil!" She barreled forth in an attempt to catch it. The tear burst into shimmering water as it reached the ground, freeing the emerald beetle trapped within. The insect scurried away into the safety of the burning brush with a loud screech.
No! she and the robe thought simultaneously.
The zodiac circle pulsed once more. A deeply unsettling vibration filled the air and echoed down to her bones.
Horrifyingly enough, the Risen seemed to make chuckling noises as the earth next to them churned and cracked—a grey hand stuck out and patted around until it was satisfied with what it felt, pulling the rest of its torso up. This latest Risen bore no mask. The demonic red glow of its eyes lit up its smooth, young face as it hoisted its quiver higher up on its back and began to string its bow.
More of that terrifying noise came from behind the burning treeline. Robin spied another swordsman and an axeman to replace the one Frederick killed circling the fire, looking for an opening they could use to cross over and join their ghoulish brethren.
They already had enough difficulty slaying one, let alone the two left over.
"Hey Freddie? I don't suppose you could shish-kebab those other ones like you did the last?" Henry clutched Neferi closer to him as the foolishly brave little dog barked and slavered all over his cast.
"Unless some of your friend's magical prowess extends to making copies of others, then I'm sorry to admit that it will be rather difficult," he replied without taking his eyes off the Risen.
"We have to get to higher ground," Robin muttered. "Call everyone back!"
Frederick blew his horn loudly. "Fall back! We need to reach higher ground! Secure the prisoners!"
Henry used his tome of Mire to split a flaming tree, bringing the burning structure down in a tumble of embers and creating a barrier of fiery debris between them and the Risen. The creatures howled in indignation as their attempts to break the burning branches failed, leaving them with scalded palms and no currently discernible way of reaching their targets.
"Hurry!" Robin urged as she hoisted Henry and their dog behind Frederick on the saddle. "We can't hold them off for long!"
The horn sounded off on a long, drawn out note as some of the prisoners were put on horseback, and the rest made to go on foot with the rest of the soldiers as they abandoned camp.
Crossing the forest was like a scene out of one of her nightmares: a flaming hellscape filled with smoke that choked their lungs and ash that stung their eyes. Flying embers burned exposed skin as they raced past smouldering trees and charred earth. The passage itself was extremely dangerous in its own right, with the rich mantle of undergrowth and dead leaf litter making for excellent kindling to stoke the flames. The fire roared in their ears as loudly as the blood rushing through, but to her horror, she realised that she also heard the not too distant sound of Risen; they had somehow found a way around the flames and were gaining on them.
"You said they were vulnerable to fire, but I don't see them having too much trouble managing themselves around it!" Frederick shouted over the whooshing sound of the air being sucked out of the atmosphere. "Tell me that something else can kill these wretched beasts!"
"Extremely powerful magic!" Robin tried to shout back, the sooty air blocking her windpipe. "But our best hope are holy weapons, so I'm really hoping you've got one of those on hand, or at least have an ordained priest close by to bless a stick or something!"
He gave her a strange look over his shoulder in response.
Their legs soon began to fail them as the noxious air, coupled with the oppressive heat, sapped their strength greatly. They had at least managed to venture into a somewhat safer and greener part of the forest, but it would not remain so for long given the rapid spread of the fire and the terrifying tenacity displayed by their undead pursuers.
"Look! Are those—" A soldier pointed to somewhere behind the treeline.
Robin squinted through the haze. She could make out the vague silhouette of what appeared to be a building of some sort.
"Yes, abandoned forts!" the company cheered in exhausted relief.
"Then we should all take shelter in them! Everyone inside, quickly!" Robin cried.
The prisoners were marched inside first, and, discovering the multi-leveled interior, were sealed into the cellar to keep them out of harm's reach. Those with bows on hand were stationed on the roofs and made to gather fuel and use their rations of ale to fashion flaming arrows. The infantry and cavalry rested briefly, catching their breath away from the toxic atmosphere outside before taking up battle positions around the two forts. They wrapped rags around their weapons in preparation to set them on fire. The horses were rubbed down as quickly as possible and doused in what little water they had before they were mounted once more.
But something was wrong. The Risen's freakish, metallic groans and shrieks where nowhere to be heard; in fact, other than the roar of the fire encroaching upon their position, no trace of the foul creatures was to be found.
They're still out there, somewhere. Robin's gut told her so, as did the robe's subtle vibrations running along her body. They're hiding. They're trying to pop out from behind somewhere and scare us.
Then try to See where.
Who—what?
You know what I mean, the robe said.
Robin was unnerved. Did its access to her mind mean it knew how her Sight worked?
Nevermind. It did raise an important point—one that Robin felt embarrassed that she did not think of it sooner.
Just as she was opening her Eyes, a soldier screamed. "Incoming!"
The eye in the sky had followed them and was staring at them from above the trees. An otherworldly moan issued forth as it blinked again, and when it opened, its asymmetrical iris had gone from an eerie blue to a furious, bloody red.
Robin scrambled inside the fort. "Everyone, duck!"
Enormous flaming meteors began to rain down from the sky, mercilessly pummelling the ground below and deeply cratering the soil. More trees fell to the fiery onslaught, filling the air with ash and smoke as they splintered and crashed around the forts, terrifying the horses and choking the men as they struggled to gulp in breaths.
"Henry!" Robin called to him and pulled him inside just as an ancient oak crashed outside the entrance. Loose dirt and soot rushed into the fort.
"Wait!" Frederick coughed as he assessed the damage. "Sound off! Is anyone hurt?"
A chorus of no echoed and bounced off the stone walls, and the call was carried up to the rooftop where the worst injury was from a fallen branch scratching a man's face. So far, so good. No one had died and everyone seemed to be in one piece.
So then what had been the point of such a terrifying display?
Robin stuck her head out tentatively. The landscape was absolutely devastated: fire towered above them as the trees burned in the infernal heat; large swathes of once tall and proud pines and oaks now lay scattered, dead, and in pieces before them. The sky was lit up by a bright orange-gray glow as the fire beyond them raged and consumed the rest of the forest.
It truly seemed as though hell was now a place in heaven and earth.
But the meteors themselves had left the forts unscathed. They were marked with soot and dirt, yet they bore no damage from the fiery projectiles like the ground now did, cratered and smoking. It seemed like an awful lot of effort taken simply for the purpose of scaring them.
No, Robin thought as a terrible chill raced down her spine, an awful contrast to the blazing heat. Validar likes to draw things out and…savour them. This wasn't just to spook us, she realised.
She had believed that the forts would afford them a measure of safety and a tactical advantage against the undead, that it could help shore their defenses up a relentless, implacable enemy. And she was right. But Validar had seen right through it and turned it around in his favour. By felling the trees around them, he had effectively kettled them inside their own defenses, and they now had no visible way of escaping; he was going to take his time and watch as they were torn to pieces, like letting cats loose in a warehouse full of caged birds.
The eerie grins of the Risen's masks greeted them as the the ring of fire died down to let them inside before the flames sprung back to life, trapping the humans in with the undead.
"Naga save us!" a man began to sob at the sight.
Robin could not breathe. All she could do was watch as the Risen advanced slowly, casually, relishing their fear. All that she could focus on was the way her limbs locked up in seeming defeat. She felt completely powerless—useless, even.
Is this how am going to die? she thought.
Not today!
The robe's sudden vehemence, the viciousness of its tone, surprised her. Wha—
You heard me. Don't give up.
I don't know how much magic I can use up against them, Robin argued. I can't even breathe! The odds are not in my favour, no matter how much I try to pretend.
If the robe had a head to shake, she pictured it doing so. Not helpless, it insisted. Not useless. Just stuck.
Alright then, Robin snapped. Tell me, if you're so convinced that a pep talk will help me kill these things, then what am I missing? What am I not thinking of?
Friends to help. Not alone.
We're all just human, she wanted to cry. We've already tried fighting them and only brought one down. And now we're fighting five!
You have twenty two. Lots of fire all around to use!
We tried that already!
THEN TRY AGAIN!
She wanted to rip her hair out and scream. They were not at a crossroads where they could comfortably pick and choose between multiple paths—they were up against a stone wall and waiting for a large rock to crush them. How on earth did the robe think they could simply "try again?"
Well, Robin thought, I don't want to die. I want to live.
In spite of her fear, the resolve hardening her heart gave her a drop of courage.
"Men!" she yelled over the fire. "I know this looks very bad—but we can't give up just yet!"
"How?" the soldier who had cried to Naga looked up at her through his teary eyes. "We're surrounded by fire, with no way to escape, and those—those things are nigh impossible to hurt!"
"Difficult, yes, but not impossible! You all saw what Frederick did back there with the branch!"
"But he's a monster to begin with!" Laughter erupted throughout, strengthening with Frederick's customary scowl in response.
The mood suddenly felt a tonne lighter after the burst of lightheartedness. And the fear and the heat were no longer as oppressive as before. They were facing unholy abominations—but they were not facing them alone.
Maybe there was some truth to the robe's words.
"If we do die," Robin said, a little more softly, "then we die with each other. I really don't know any of you…but I can say that it has been a pleasure so far."
Henry hugged her tightly. The soldiers, a little awestruck at her words, returned the gesture with small nods. She turned to the beasts lumbering before them, waiting, mocking them with their seeming patience, and tightened her gloved hand over her tome.
"Five men each to the axes," Robin ordered. "Three to the archer. And the nine left to the two swordsmen. Frederick will go with the latter team while Henry and I accompany the first ones. The goal is not to try to pierce them; we've seen that doesn't work. The best we can aim for is to push them towards the flames and keep them there. Tell the archers to aim for their heads and their necks. And remember: watch each other's backs. We're all we've got at the moment."
The weeping man nodded, wiped his tears, and stood up, drawing his sword. "Godspeed, tactician." He ran back inside to carry out her command.
Having lined up in formation, it seemed like an eternity as the humans met the Risen's red-eyed gazes. But where there used to be overwhelming terror in the face of unknown foes, there was now a sense of resolve to at least kill as many of them as possible.
"Remember!" Robin called out. "Though the flames hurt us, they can also help! We can use them on our own arms to pierce through their defenses!"
"Aye!" the company shouted in response.
They fanned out in their assigned groups to meet the Risen head on, ducking and weaving under their long reaches to try and corral them against the ring of fire; for if there was a silver lining to being pitted against creatures whose size had been magically augmented, it was that they could at least gauge some of their attacks, even if their speed was also supernaturally high. A roar of triumph sounded as a man managed to swipe his lance across a Risen axeman's face, making it stumble right into a flaming pit left behind by a crater.
Unfortunately for them, the thing was not so easily defeated: it managed to grab the lancer's comrade and rip his hand off before it was consumed by the fire.
"Get him back inside!" Robin grunted as she sidestepped a Risen sword.
Henry seemed to be holding up rather well in spite of his broken arm, using his Mire to create long, acid green feelers to strike from afar. The creatures, confused that dark magic was being employed against them rather than in their aid, circled them nervously, giving the soldiers ample enough terrain from which to start pushing them back.
A volley of flaming arrows whistled past from the rooftops. One managed to strike a Risen right in the eye socket, and the wretched thing screamed as it only managed to break off the shaft but not pull out the arrowhead.
Robin cheered internally. Yes! Only three to go!
Told you! the robe spurred her on.
Though their early victories provided a much needed boost to their morale, there was only so much effort they could give. Their flight from camp earlier, coupled with the agonising heat, began to slow them down more than ever.
Robin hailed Frederick from where he had stopped to gather dry twigs to wrap around his lance. "Call them closer to the forts! We need to bring them closer to the archers' range!"
"And if we risk bringing them too close?" he shouted back.
"Then I'm counting on you to use that monstrous strength of yours to stop them!"
He blew his horn to signal the change in position to their forces, and they began to fall back accordingly.
"Robby!" Henry shrieked. "Watch out!"
When she turned, it was like time had slowed down. A Risen had somehow run up to her without her noticing and was bringing his blade down on her head.
Oh, she thought vaguely. Her gaze followed the decorative grooves running from the corner of its upper lip to behind where its ears should be. They were stylised much in the way of how stitching looked, perhaps a callback to the creature's nature as a corpse soldier. The teeth were eight rectangular insets with a lot of space between them and gave the mouth a jagged look. I guess that means I will die today.
The robe yelled at her to run, but she was completely rooted to the spot.
But, as if through a miracle, a piercing blue light burst from behind the Risen just when its sword nearly finished its descent. She dropped to her knees and brought her sleeve up to shield her face from the flash.
As the light subsided, Chrom was revealed: he stood, soaked in sweat, heaving long, laboured breaths, as his sword shone that lustrous blue. The robe and her brand began to thrum in a now comfortingly familiar rhythm.
Well. So they have holy weapons with them, after all.
"Are you alright?" Chrom asked after catching his breath.
"You saved my life," was the only thing Robin could say, rather dumbly.
A crooked smile lit up his face. "Ha! More like I was just returning your favours from Southtown."
"Your sword though…"
He glanced down at the blade; it was still ablaze in that beautiful colour, rather like the sky on a very sunny day. "I've no idea what's going on with it, though: it's the first time I've seen it do anything like this," he confessed.
Frederick rode up to them, visibly relieved. "Milord! Milady! Are you hurt?"
"Frederick! Robin!" Lissa sprinted to them, just as winded as her brother. The bottom tip of her staff had been broken off and hastily sharpened into a point. "W-we're alright."
"No one is injured then? Thank the gods…"
"Thank Vaike for rescuing me! If it wasn't for him, I'd be…hey, where did he go?" Lissa's blonde pigtails bounced as she swivelled her head to and fro in search of the eponymous character.
Frederick audibly groaned. "We can worry about him later, AFTER we put these...things...to the blade. Eyes open, now. We know very little about this enemy," he turned to face Robin with an almost accusing stare, "though it seems our mystery companion has an idea of what these things are."
Chrom raised an eyebrow. "…Right."
Robin gulped at the attentioned focused on her. "They're weak against fire," she explained, feeling sheepish under their eyes. "Strong magic also works. But holy weapons are the best things against them," she nodded towards Chrom's sword, "and apparently you've got one."
A strange look came over the sibling's faces, and they stole a quick glance at one another.
"Look closely," Robin pointed out. "They fear it."
It was true. The Risen's attention had been caught by the light; when they saw its source, they elected to hang back, the hateful, hungry look in their eyes still present, yet they dared not approach the humans with the blade in their midst. The robe had not been able to keep quiet ever since Chrom and his sword turned upon the scene, for that matter, flooding her mind with a constant, garbled stream of chatter.
"There are only two left now," she continued. "Having you around is a great help against them."
"You say that strong magic works, yet I haven't seen you do much more than shock them," Frederick criticised.
"Not now," Chrom warned him. His eyes softened when he turned to Robin again. "I'm sorry we got separated; I promise it wasn't intentional." He knelt beside her and pulled out a vulnerary from his convoy pouch. "Doubly for taking the vulneraries with me instead of leaving some behind for you all."
"Milord, there is nothing wrong with you carrying—" Frederick attempted to interrupt.
Robin gulped the potion down gratefully. "Thank you."
"Don't mention it. Anyone would be exhausted after directing others through their paces in battle, not to mention the heat. I'm pretty well-cooked myself," Chrom tried to joke, and he grinned when Robin cracked a tiny smile. "Now: what are your orders?"
She shook her head. "Whatever it is you did back there, keep on with it!"
A loud crash stole their attention back to the battlefield. They had foolishly allowed their attention to stray from the Risen, and the foul things, capitalising on their distraction, had taken advantage of it to corral three soldiers between them. The noise was from the bang their breastplates made against one another as they cowered in a huddle below the Risen's grasp.
A terrific whoop pulled the monster's crimson gazes away as a pure white horse barreled straight into one of them. The rider who initiated such a brave (and dangerous) manoeuvre was a woman who seemed to blend into the fiery background: everything about her, from her armour to her shock of wild curls and even her eyes, was a bright red. She swung a lance at the Risen with savage vigour.
"All right, you ash-faced freaks! Which one of ya wants to try my lance on for size first? I know just the spot for it: shoved right up your—"
"SULLY!" Frederick was scandalised even in the literal heat of battle.
"Huh? OH! Captain Chrom! Wait! I'm coming!" She turned and spotted them just as she plunged her lance into a Risen. In a magnificent display of strength, she bent backwards over her saddle, using the creature's weight against it to throw it to the fire. She crowed victoriously over its dying shrieks.
The soldiers gratefully took their chance to escape.
Robin sized the newcomer up nervously as her horse cantered to them. Though short, she was incredibly muscular and well-built. This was not a woman to trifle with, even jokingly.
"You had me worried for a moment when we lost sight of you!" Chrom sighed in relief as she approached.
"You know me, Captain; I'm too tough to die!" Her laughter was clear and strong, even through the smoke. To Robin, her tone was far more critical; suspicious, even. "I'm Sully. I'm a Shepherd. You must be the new gal Chrom was talking about."
"I'm Robin," she said, feeling suddenly very small and shy.
"Hm. Nice to meet ya." Sully's tone sounded the complete opposite of her words.
"Robin's been a fantastic asset to us ever since we found her," Chrom raved. The heat of Robin's blush felt worse in the fire, but the flash of annoyance she detected from Sully's thoughts was even less gratifying. Something told her that the cavalier was not going to make it very easy to get along with…
Lissa's abrupt gasp interrupted them. "Hey, Sully! What happened to Vaike? Wasn't he with you?"
Sully groaned in annoyance. "Agh, I knew I shouldn'ta left 'im! The idiot forgot where he left his axe. Again!"
"Sounds like Vaike!" Lissa tittered.
"Nevermind that!" Frederick snapped. "We still have one left to kill!"
The remaining Risen was the archer, bereft of a bow and slowly succumbing to the fire surrounding it. Robin could at least credit it for some show of bravery, or at least dedication to Validar's orders, as it stood its ground and met their gazes evenly.
Chrom's jaw clenched determinedly. "You said these…things are afraid of Falchion, right?"
Robin snuck a glance at it. When her eyes fell upon the blade, her Mark pulsed. Chrom seemed to notice it as well. "Yes."
"Then leave this one to me."
He hefted the large sword in his gloved hands and took off with a running start. Its glow gained strength as Chrom approached the Risen.
The archer instantly leaped high into the air, using Chrom's head as a springboard just as he began to swing the sword at its face, twisting into a neat landing before launching itself at their group. Numerous soldiers attempted to stop it in its path, but the undead creature, as though suddenly seized by a new sense of life, slipped past them like an eel in a riverbed.
Frederick and Sully poised themselves to strike, but they too missed it, their lances crossing with sharp clangs.
The Risen tackled Robin and the pair rolled to a painful stop some metres away. She realised, too late, that it was Validar powering it from the eye; she was his true target, after all.
"Robin!" Chrom shouted. He picked himself up from where he had lain, stunned, and rushed to her aid.
She was fighting hard to keep it from biting her face with the horrendous fangs its afterlife seemed to have bestowed upon it. Robin's knuckles were white as her fists held the thing's wrists and strained as she kept its clawed hands away from her. She drove her knee into its gut but did little to actually wind it when there was no breath in its lungs in the first place.
Worse was the sinking feeling in her gut when a light shone from below them—a warp circle was being opened directly beneath.
Should have used Sight before! the robe scolded in a panic. Get us out of sticky situations faster!
Do you have any idea how taxing it is to See? I can't use it continuously! And if I'd have used it during the worst of the battle, then the heat would have gotten to me faster!
How have you not died before?!
Wish I knew! Robin grunted and twisted, quickly tiring from the exertion of keeping the Risen away from her face and her belly. The alarm she shared with the robe grew unbearably feverish as the warp circle was nearly completed.
Now is good time to use it, the robe suddenly took on a very solemn tone. I will lend you my power.
A wonderful cooling sensation flowed into her back, up her neck, and into the rest of her limbs, clearing her mind and allowing her to better assess the situation at hand. Amazement and gratitude was conveyed to the robe before she closed her eyes and Opened them again.
What she Saw revealed quite a lot of the true nature of Risen: they had no real heart or brain to speak of. In the place of where their organs should have been, a mass of dark magical energy was collected, which explained why magic, fire, and holy weapons worked where traditional weapons were ineffective. By keeping them alive through dark magic, their "organs" could simply move out of the way or even around an enemy strike and then repair themselves; but with the former three, there was no stopping the spread of any damage incurred.
With that knowledge in mind, Robin closed her fingers tightly together to make a spade shape, and plunged a handful of lightning right where its "heart" was located.
The archer's scream was dreadfully high-pitched. It rang uncomfortably in Robin's ear as the beast was finally destroyed, and she clapped a hand over her mouth and nose to prevent any stray mist from attempting to use her own body as a host. She launched herself out of the warp circle, safe from Validar's grasp once more.
"Robin!" Chrom shouted once more, reaching for her. "Oh gods, you're alright!"
He gasped when she laid her gaze upon him. Robin was suddenly hyper-aware of the way she must have looked in that moment, with her glowing red eyes showing through the shadow of the robe's hood.
Nevermind him, the robe chided. Remember who is left to fight!
The eye in the sky, robbed of its earlier grasps at victory, began to echo with horrible metallic shrieks and moans. Everyone's relief at finally having defeated all the Risen turned to palpable dread as they attempted to discern what this latest threat was.
They would soon find out as it began to call its last chess piece.
The ground shook. The remaining trees quaked in place. An enormous, shadowy silhouette was revealed through the smoky haze as it stalked closer, and closer, and closer.
Robin, naturally, Saw it before everyone else, though it did little to quell her fears. The Risen Chief was a monstrously large beast, towering above them all with a height that nearly rivalled that of the forts. Its skin was not grey, but a decaying, ashen black; it wore no clothes save for a tattered loincloth draped over its groin; a huge flowing mass of wild black hair trailed behind it; it carried no weapons either, as it did not need anything beyond its obvious strength and wickedly long talons. The emerald beetle from before was nested right in the centre of the mask. It shone a dark red in her Sight, for it was from there that Validar could use its eyes from the mask to spy on them at a closer level.
Her knees would have buckled had it not been for the robe.
Courage, was all it said. But it sufficed.
"Everyone," Robin announced. "That thing's weak spot is right in the middle of the mask. Striking anywhere else would be useless."
"If you got any idea on how to actually get up to the damn thing, that'd be great!" Sully's sarcasm did little to disguise her obvious trepidation.
Robin ran another analysis on the Risen Chief. Yes, it had no other "organs" save for that single red spot the beetle represented in her Sight. And its power was distributed evenly throughout its body, which would mean that toppling it through more conventional means would be more than difficult.
But not impossible
"We attack with magic," Robin concluded. "Henry and I will take this one from here."
"Robin," Chrom spoke up. "You struggled badly with that last one." He placed his hand on her shoulder. "Please. Don't fight this one alone."
His heartfelt sincerity and concern touched Robin deeply. She felt like embracing him right then and there, but refrained. "Don't worry," she smiled. "We know what to do."
"Milord," Frederick said. "I think it best for us if we stayed back."
An expectant hush fell over the battleground as the two mages strode forth to meet their enemy. The soldiers who had taken refuge in the forts peeked out uncertainly at the latest development. Lissa covered her face with her hands in fright as the lumbering beast took two loud steps and growled.
They stood, stony-faced, with nothing but the roar of the forest fire to be heard.
"Henry," Robin whispered. "Remember how we used to practice for bear attacks with Mustafa?"
"Yeah."
"Let's try that. Only you run defense for me this time. Sound good?"
"…Ok." Henry shifted his tome in his free arm. The book was clearly going to break and become completely unusable after this fight. "Robby?"
"Yes?"
He gave her a smile in reassurance. "Try not to die on me. I'd rather die on you."
"No one is going to die today except that thing. I promise."
The Risen bellowed, spitting a cloud of acidic black mist in their faces, before taking a lightning fast swipe at them.
Henry raised a wave of Mire to trap its fist in place while Robin shot lightning bolts at its face; unlike a bear, which would have been stunned or killed by a faceful of electricity, the damned thing did not so much as blink. Robin attributed its supernatural resistance to its puppet master. The mages jumped back as another swipe barely missed slicing them open.
Robin gulped—its talons shone wetly with what looked to be a poisonous substance. Or at least some kind of dark magic she did not care to become acquainted with.
"Next move!" Henry yelled.
Robin threw more magic at its face, then feinted to the right and moved directly in front of it as Henry dove between its legs to emerge from behind it. He summoned two clouds of Mire around its legs and feet, stopping it in its tracks and prompting a cheer from their audience.
"Oh my gods Henry! Be more careful!" Lissa screamed.
Robin, taking advantage of the fact that it was trapped by Mire, ran up to it and slapped her palm to its skin, forcing a large bolt to race up against its body and into its mask with a sharp bang. She kept up her barrage of lightning with her other hand.
"Next!" Henry grunted when he saw it was beginning to break free from him.
They switched positions and rolled to dodge another swipe, with Robin now firing a web of electricity to paralyse its head, while Henry wrapped Mire around its hands. The screams and whoops of encouragement from the forts invigorated their efforts and pushed them to fire faster and faster at their enemy.
But it was not enough: the cursed creature kept breaking free from their restraints and seemed to shake off their strikes almost casually. It bellowed contemptibly of them, bringing down its fist in a sharp blow that shattered the ground beneath it.
"So, what next?" Henry panted as he regrouped with Robin. "Nothing we try seems to be work much."
"Hold on a second," Robin wheezed back. "Let me try to See."
She Saw that powerful magic on Validar's part was keeping the mask protected; not through a barrier, but rather because the power behind their attacks was being siphoned off to the eye before it could even really reach the mask. So that meant—
"—we have to close the eye to kill it," she concluded.
"I hope you've got some pegasi hidden somewhere so we can fly up to it!" Henry cackled. "Wow! We look like total goners here!"
She groaned. "That's very helpful of you."
The crowd watching gasped as they performed a series of hair-raising jumps to avoid the Risen's rapid-fire claw attacks. Robin tackled Henry to the ground and rolled them out of the way just before their previous location was pounded into a deep crater, and he grunted in pain as his broken arm was pressed firmly between their bodies. She shot a bolt as high up as she could, but it petered out just as it reached the middle of a tree's trunk. She tried again twice, three times to no effect.
"Ok, so you're saying it's the eye making our job difficult!" Henry coughed from the soot. "I can't reach it with Mire. I feel like it's just being sucked away before the hit can connect. Like if it's stealing our power for itself or something instead of actually shielding Mr. Big over here."
An admittedly half-baked idea, but still an idea, bloomed within Robin's mind. "So we've established that the eye is sucking away our attacks, yes?"
"Yeah!"
"I have two theories: either it's stealing our power for itself to build up for an attack or shore up its own defenses…or because Validar is getting tired and needs to in order to keep the eye open. How do we test them?" They had to roll again to avoid being skewered by the Risen's deadly, sword-length claws.
"I say we stop attacking Tiny Tim and send our regards to Daddy Fearest instead!" Henry giggled. "A little present for him since I didn't get him any last time."
But how? Robin thought desperately. Henry's already pointed out the obvious—that we can't touch the thing because it's in the sky. What attack could we possibly use that can reach an airborne target that's so high up?
Henry clapped to regain her attention. "Let's play a game!"
"Oh? What kind of game?"
"Let's see how far we stretch and see if anything touches Blinky, of course! Let's take turns distracting Magnum, too."
Well…it's better than nothing.
"Hey!" she screamed and waved her arms. "Over here!"
The behemoth seemed to become increasingly annoyed with the stalemate the opposing parties had essentially reached, and its swings became sloppier and less coordinated as a result. Though Robin's Sight allowed her to predict its movements all the better for it, the power behind its jabs increased, and thus so did the danger. Behind it, Henry kept trying and failing to extend his Mire more than a few metres off the ground.
Robin saw their crew watching from the sidelines with heightened desperation and worry. Chrom's face caught her eye in particular, lit up by his sword's azure glow.
Her distraction nearly cost her her stomach as the Risen's talons barely grazed it.
PAY ATTENTION! the robe snapped.
I'm trying, but nothing we do seems to have any effect on the blasted thing! she retorted. And we don't have anything that can reach the eye all the way up!
Yes you do! Don't be stupid!
What on earth are you talking about?!
Lightning! Obviously!
Robin gasped as Henry's Mire finally broke in a burst of green sparks, rendering him defenseless before the beast. She threw him bodily to the side just as its fist came down to try and grab him. I've already tried that! The most I can stretch it to is a couple metres, hardly anything able to reach the sky!
Don't be silly! Done that before!
I what?
Literally days! Two days ago!
It was referring to the strike she called down from the heavens to free herself from the bandit horde at the border crossing. The acrid stench of burning flesh and ozone came to mind, unbidden, as did the awful memory of them being surrounded by bloodthirsty brigands when they were still very hungry and weak. But…that was completely involuntary. I have no clue how I did it, she confessed meekly.
I show you how.
Robin's breath hitched in her throat. Something about its wording felt different now. It sounded…deep. Ancient.
Open yourself to me.
She accepted.
Her vision went black. It was soothing, almost. Like the darkness before slipping off into a deep, well deserved sleep. Though incorporeal, the robe's presence could be felt extremely closely, as though she was still wearing it.
The robe peeled back the darkness. Look closely.
It was amazing. Robin peered down into a bottomless chasm that stretched on infinitely; but instead of inspiring fear, she found herself basking in an endless eddy of warm, golden light. Motes of glitter flickered brightly around her as she watched the river run its course to a destination far beyond her sight.
All yours, the robe said.
Really?
Yes. Don't know how to use yet, but fear not. I will show you. First you need to call it.
Like this? She stretched her hand out to the light, a little uncertainly.
In her mind, it seemed to shrug. Works fine. Now get feel for it.
What do you mean?
You need to feel it inside. Need to internalise it. Need to feel like when you cast tomeless, but that all this is really yours. Dip deeper inside than you have before.
Robin took several long breaths, and stretched her mind out to the shining river. To her amazement and delight, it brushed hazily against her, only to retreat. She was suddenly aware of how exhausted her physical body was at the moment.
I'm sorry, she apologised. I can't do much right now…I'm so tired.
Forgot how annoying bodies are, the robe replied. Its amusement had a tinge of sympathy to it. No worry. I will help you now. The teaching can come later.
What felt like a massive pair of callused hands attached to leathery, muscular arms took her hands from behind and pushed them into the river. A dizzying rush of energy soaked her body like a plant's roots drinking water, electrifying her senses and flooding her being with raw power.
Tell it what you want to do.
I call the Heavens to do my bidding, she thought in a voice that was hers yet not hers at the same time, reciting a spell that she did not know yet had apparently memorised. I call the sky and the clouds and the rain to send me a pillar to smite my foes and dazzle them with Light. May the gods guide this vengeful hammer of mine, and may my enemies fear my might.
Robin suddenly snapped back to her physical body. Her arms were stretched high above her head in supplication. Her allies had huddled into a tight ball, shouting, pointing at the sky above them incredulously. A massive bank of black thunderclouds had formed, churning and rolling above them, growling, snarling. Their calls were loud enough to drown out the eye's furious screams.
Her eyes filled with light. Mjölnir, she mouthed.
And heaven came crashing down to earth in a column of thunder and lightning.
For a very long second, there was total silence. There was nothing to be seen except a flat screen of pure white. And just as immediately as it happened, so too did it end.
The first thing she noticed was that there was no trace of the Risen Chief to be seen. Not even a circle of ash with its imprint, or even anything else to indicate it had ever existed. But the biggest relief was seeing that the eye in the sky was finally gone.
I did it, she thought giddily, prodding mentally at the robe. I mean…We did it. I couldn't have without you.
She received no response. Her magic, or whatever that was, had triggered a massive downpour that drenched her from head to toe instantly, dousing the forest fire's flames and turning the ground to thick, soupy mud as the scorched earth drank in the rain gratefully.
Robin registered Chrom's shouts vaguely, yet she did not quite understand them as her hearing and eyesight began to fade. She was exhausted. She wanted nothing more than to just curl up and sleep for a year. Maybe even two.
So she did, smiling at the young man who was somehow closer to her position than he was before, and the last thing she saw before giving in to the darkness was a blurry impression of his face.
This world teeters at the brink of a horrible calamity, an unknown woman's voice echoed before Robin's hearing dimmed as well. Though her tone was calm, even soothing, her words spoke of dire things to come. What you saw tonight was but a prelude. You have been warned.
You guys have NO idea how satisfying it felt to have two betas yell about Frederick in the editing stage, but I'm just saying the truth! The team's Jagen unit is always the best bet when you're still levelling everyone else up.
As for the mystery voice? I'm sure it won't be difficult to find out :)