A Summoner's Journey
Paralogue 1: Family Bonds
Current Heroes: Alfonse, Sharena, Anna, Virion, Eliwood, Caeda, Odin, Niles, Maria, Robin, Chrom, Lyn, Olivia, Nino
After the liberation of the World of Binding, things were once again, quiet. The spies reported no activity from Embla, so I took the time to do other things with my heroes. I took the daily postcards for the Hero Battles and went to the Special Map courtyard that Alfonse mentioned a week ago. Arriving at the empty courtyard with Lyn, Chrom, Odin and Maria, I found a thin slot at the entrance to slide my postcard in. I fit the Sophia Hero Battle card into the slot and the entire courtyard rippled with energy, walls rising out from the ground to form a battlefield. Four soldiers warped into the field, along with Sophia herself. After a short and easy battle with Sophia's squad, we managed to recruit her into our ranks.
"Welcome to the Order of Heroes, Sophia!", I smiled as I checked her stats. Sophia had Flux, Ruin, Fenrir, Fenrir+, Warding Blow and Fortify Resistance. Unfortunately, she was a gray two star. As I pulled the steaming postcard from the slot, Robin found a copy of the same postcard nearby the courtyard, but it was glowing red.
"Must be the hard difficulty card", I murmured as I slid the card into the slot. After a slightly harder fight than the last, we managed to recruit a bronze three star version of Sophia.
"That's better", I said. Although, looking at the two gray stars above Sophia's title of Nabata Prophet made me think of something. How can I increase the stars that a hero had? That was something I had to ask Anna when we got back to Askr castle.
When we got back home, I asked Anna my question. She replied that I could increase the stars by using Hero Feathers and coloured badges that I could win in the Training Tower. So I went and did the training tower floors with Chrom, Robin, Nino and Olivia until I gathered a pile of coloured badges dropped from the heroes in the tower like RPG monsters. Heading back to Askr castle with a sack of badges, I asked the quest fountain how many badges and hero feathers I needed to upgrade a hero from two star to three star.
"You need 5 red badges and 200 hero feathers to upgrade a two star hero", the fountain said.
"200 feathers and five badges huh?" I said to myself, "What's the cost for upgrading a four star to five star?".
"20 000 hero feathers and 20 great badges"
"WHAT?! TWENTY THOUSAND FEATHERS?!", I nearly punched the fountain in rage, "That's absolutely ridiculous!".
"Rules of the world, boy. Rules of the world"
I sighed. On some days, the delivery system would send a box of glowing hero feathers, usually 100 or so. This meant that it only takes two days of daily delivery to upgrade a two star to three star, but it also meant that it'll take 200 days to upgrade a four star to five star. That is more than half a year to wait.
"Well, I have to materials to upgrade, so how do I do it?", I asked.
"Bring the feathers, badges and hero over to the summoning ruins", the fountain instructed, "Have the hero stand in between the badges and feathers laid on the ground and aim the Breidablik at them. When the light fades, the hero's level and stats will be reset and the amount of badges and feathers needed to upgrade him or her would vanish".
"Ahh, I see", I said as I pulled five glowing badges out from my sack, "Thanks Mr Fountain. Is there anymore requirements?".
"The hero needs to be at least level 20 in order to be upgraded", the fountain said, "That is all".
"Okay, thanks again", I said as I went to find Sharena and Alfonse. The siblings were sparing in the training yard. Sharena thrust her lance towards Alfonse's shoulder, who ducked and countered with his blade. Sharena stumbled back and Alfonse went for a jumping strike. He brought his Iron Sword down full force onto Sharena, but the Askr princess raised her Iron Lance and blocked the attack with the shaft. While Alfonse was pushing his sword onto his sister's lance, Sharena kneed Alfonse in the stomach, then delivered a swift punch to the face. I made a mental note not to get Sharena angry when she's disarmed. Alfonse landed on the ground, his nose bleeding.
"Practice is over! Someone get Maria to heal Alfonse!", Anna called in the corner. As a maid ran to grab Maria from the castle, I approached Sharena.
"A little rough of Alfonse, weren't you?", I smirked.
Sharena smiled nervously, "A punch to the face isn't going to kill him, right?".
I laughed, "As long as you didn't hit him too hard, then he should be fine".
"Oh, Lucian", Anna turned and noticed me, "There's something I wanted to show you".
The redhead pulled a postcard out from her pocket, similar to the Legendary Heroes and Deep Devotion ones. I took the card and examined it. Four heroes were depicted on the card. The first (and most noticeable) was a blue haired man with blue eyes and a blue, gold and white uniform. The next was a girl with light purple hair, purple eyes and wore a white and purple robe. The two at the bottom of the card looked strikingly similar, as if they were twins.
"Must be another case of Eliwood and Roy… except that they are siblings", I mused. The guy on the left had greenish-blue short hair and was dressed in the same coloured plate mail armor. The girl beside him was shorter, with long sky blue hair and wore regal red and gold armor, with a medium-length white skirt. Behind her was a large yellow cape.
"Who are these people?", I asked aloud.
"I don't know, but the postcard arrived in the mail today, along with our usual daily orbs and such", Anna replied, "I also got a report from the castle spies that Embla invaded another world".
"Which one?", Sharena asked.
"It's… an odd one. A mixture of two, to be honest", Anna said.
"Great", I grumbled, "How are we supposed to know which world to enter in order to stop them?".
"We could try entering the Sacred World or the World of Holy War", Anna thought aloud, "That's the mixture of two worlds I've been talking about".
"Well, let's hurry then. Since Alfonse is out of commission, I pick Chrom, Sharena, Robin and Nino to be my fighting squad", I said, glancing at Sharena beside me.
"Alright, I'll notify them to meet you in the lobby", Anna said and she ran back into the castle.
My four heroes gathered in the portal courtyard, where we were looking at which portal to take. The Sacred World was a glowing turquoise while the World of Holy War was a darkish brown gateway.
"Anna said that Embla invaded a mixture of the Sacred World and World of Holy War", Robin said, "So wouldn't entering either or be fine?".
"Yeah… but I'm wondering which one is safer", I said, "The Sacred World is currently at peace now, according to Anna, but I heard that it's filled with powerful monsters. The World of Holy War has many evil kingdoms and rulers, which means if we pop out of nowhere, we'll be arrested in the next minute".
"Pick the Sacred World then", Chrom suggested, "Risen I can handle, but a whole hostile kingdom? Definitely no".
"I agree with Chrom", Robin said, "Monsters are irrational and easy to trick. We can take them no problem".
"I just hope that we don't encounter any monsters", Nino prayed, "Zombies and walking skeletons give me the creeps!".
Sharena smiled and patted Nino's head, "It's alright Nino. If any monsters DO come by, I'll show them how sharp my lance is!".
"So we're all dead set on going into the Sacred World?", I asked, "Okay then. Team, follow me!".
We landed in a mountainous passage, just outside a large castle nearby. An Emblian Lance Cavalier, a Green Mage and the two twins I saw on the banner were waiting for us.
"Hmm… the Order of Heroes, I presume?", the man asked, "I take it as you wish to challenge me and Eirika? I'll warn you now: the family bond forged between us is stronger than steel".
The girl beside him blushed, "Ephraim, please. Such words don't suit you".
"Yeah, cough", I coughed into my fist, "Incest is wincest".
"Apologies for my brother", Eirika said, "My name is Eirika, princess of Renais. I do not wish to fight you, but our contract says to do just that. I pray that you forgive us".
"It's alright. We did this before", I smiled, "Ready guys? Let's do this!".
Both teams charged at each other. The Lance Cavalier stabbed his spear onto Chrom's shoulder. The prince grunted and retaliated with a heavy strike to the waist. Nino shot a giant wind sword and impaled the cavalier, taking him down. The Green Mage shot a twin strike of Elwind towards Robin. The tactician darted out of the way and cast Blarraven, swarming the mage with spiritual birds. While the mage was stunned, Sharena finished with a powerful stab to the stomach. Ephraim rushed towards Sharena, Steel Lance in hand. The prince of Renais thrust his lance with confidence and power towards Sharena. Sharena didn't raise her shield in time and took a hard stab to the stomach. Ephraim followed up with a swift blow to the head with the shaft of his spear, but Sharena ducked in time and dashed behind Robin, who launched a swarm of magical ravens at the lancer.
"Now Nino!", Robin yelled and Nino sent a rainstorm of wind blades down towards Ephraim. The swords fell into place around Ephraim, encasing him, then they exploded, sending the prince flying.
"Ephraim!", Eirika screamed as the lancer slammed into the ground with a loud thud, then faded like other defeated heroes. Eirika gritted her teeth and gripped her Steel Sword tightly. She lunged at Robin, who was approaching her and thrust her sword, only for the attack to be sidestepped and Eirika to be kicked in the back.
"Sorry about this, sister", Robin said and knocked Eirika to the ground with Blarraven. As the princess of Renais struggled to get up, Chrom delivered a finishing blow to the head with his Silver Sword. After the fight, Ephraim reappeared, although he was disarmed this time.
"I'll admit you did well here", Ephraim admitted, "Eirika and I will be taking our leave of you. She and I may lose a fight but never a war. This is why we are so strong together. Our bond has been tempered by difficult times. She and I will not lose the next time we meet", and the prince disappeared, just like the other leaders before.
Later, our group found ourselves in a plain with short hills nearby. At first, there was nobody here. Suddenly, a wormhole opened in the sky in front of them and two figures tumbled out behind a hill.
"Oof. Julia, are you alright?", a blue-haired man asked.
"Of-of course, Seliph. I'm fine", the purple haired girl replied, "B-but where are we?".
Seliph gazed around him, "I don't know, but this is certainly a realm different from Grannvale. If we want to return home, we have to fulfill the rules of this contract that black princess gave us".
He came out from the hillside and pointed at us, "The contact tells us to fight these people called the "Order of Heroes". Don't worry Julia, we'll go home one way or another!".
"Let's hope so", the mage smiled, "For now, I suppose we gotta fight". On cue, two Emblian soldiers appeared in the west and east side of the plain. The one on the left was an Emblian Axe Cavalier and the other was an Emblian Cleric.
"Here's another group to fight", I said, "Chrom, take out the Axe Cavalier in the west. Robin, Nino and Sharena, fight the blue haired dude, purple haired lady and the Cleric in the east. Go!".
The battle ensued, with my heroes clashing with the Emblian soldiers. The Axe Cavalier swung his Iron Axe down on Chrom's face, but the prince dodged and took the horseman down in one mighty swing. Seliph charged and delivered two quick slashes with his sword at Robin, but the tactician was barely fazed. He began to cast Blarraven, but Julia blasted a powerful Elwind at Robin, causing him to stagger back.
"Nino, get the purple haired mage!", Robin called as he dodged a quick Elwind by Julia. Nino shot down a powerful Gronnblade onto Julia, but Seliph wasn't going to let that happen.
"Not on my watch!", Seliph went in and swung his sword down onto Nino, but Sharena jumped in the way and blocked the blade with her shield. Julia cast Elwind towards Sharena, but the wind blade Nino summoned crashed at her feet and blew up, pushing her a far distance away.
"Alright, time to tip the scales!", Robin glowed with purple light and destroyed Seliph with a Glowing Ember-charged Blarraven. Julia was getting healed by the Emblian Cleric and began shooting more magic towards us. Chrom managed to catch up and use his weapon triangle advantage to evade or resist Julia's attacks. Nino called down another Gronnblade and two of them impaled the Cleric, easily defeating her. Just as Julia was about to cast another Elwind, Chrom destroyed her tome with his sword, then slashed her waist, taking down the powerful green mage.
"Phew, that was tougher than last time", Robin said, resting on the ground.
"Probably wasn't smart to bring two blue heroes, huh?", I said, "Oh well. We survived the fight. Let's rest and continue going". As we sat down to rest, Julia reappeared, smiling.
"Such warm light… coming from all of you and yet I feel that we are still bound to this place", Julia said, "Perhaps after the next battle, strength will… prevail… and we will be able to rerun home. Surely that's what the future holds for us. We'll see you again", and the mage disappeared in a flash of light.
We rested for a few minutes, eating some rations Nino brought in her bag. Later, we found ourselves in, yet again, another volcano.
"Volcanos must be common in these worlds", I said as four figures emerged from the darkness of the cave. Ephraim, Seliph, Julia and Eirika have banded together to fight as one.
"Here you are at last. We've been waiting for you", Ephraim welcomed, "It seems that your bonds and relationships are strong indeed. But it cannot be as strong as the one that binds Eirika and me. Ours is so strong that some fools dare spread lies about us. Disgusting".
"Yes… absolutely disgusting", I said with a dry smile.
"Ephraim, please. They want a fight, not to hear you rant", Eirika chided, "Apologies again. Now then, will you be able to break the binding contract? Let's find out".
"I hear that Julia gave you quite some trouble in the last fight. Let's see if you can handle all of us", Seliph drew his Steel Sword, "Are you ready?".
"Heck yeah, I am! Ready guys?", I looked at my heroes and they drew their weapons and grinned.
"Let's do it! GO!", I commanded. Nino sent a large wind sword down onto Ephraim, but Eirika jumped in the way and absorbed the magic shot well.
"Take this!", Robin sent a swarm of spirit birds crashing into Eirika and she tumbled like a sack of rocks. Nino began to cast Gronnblade again only to get hit in the face by Julia's Elwind.
"Watch me go!", Sharena charged into the fray and caught Julia in the leg. The mage stepped back and Sharena followed up with a strike to the shoulder.
"Sharena, behind you!", I called as Ephraim rose to stab Sharena in the back. The Askr princess stomped on Julia's foot and raised her shield to block Ephraim's spear.
"Gronnblade!", Nino summoned a large green glaive and sent it twirling through the enemy. Now to explain to you people who don't know what a glaive is: a glaive is a handle with two long blades attached on the ends, at least that's my seeing on it. Hey, the Glaive and Sapphire Fang weapons in Shadow Fight 2 looked like that. Don't attack me, weapon freaks. Anyways, the emerald glaive spun through the air and cut Ephraim in half through the waist. Nino was glad she closed to eyes to maintain the spell because the blood and gore would of made her throw up. The glaive hit Seliph, but he didn't take as much damage. Julia, already weakened by Sharena's attacks, was defeated by a single touch of the magic sword.
"Let's finish this!", Robin summoned a sea of spiritual ravens and defeated Seliph, ending the battle.
"Wow… could've given me some action there", Chrom said as the group took a minute to rest on the hard rocky floor. Our four opponents reappeared, this time without weapons.
"Defeated? I can't believe I was… I'm so sorry Eirika", Ephraim apologized, "I suppose pride got the best of me in the heat of battle".
Eirika patted her brother lightly on the back, "Ephraim, your pride may blind you from time to time, but it's my fault we lost. I'm not as skilled in battle as you are. For that, you had to make up for the lapses in the fight. I'm sorry".
"I'm your older brother! I'm supposed to watch over you. I've been doing that since you were born…", Ephraim began to ramble before Seliph interrupted, probably to save himself from a story that he never wanted to listen to.
"Pardon me, may we interrupt?", Seliph asked politely, "Order of Heroes, we must all thank you, for now we are finally free to return to our worlds".
"If we… ever meet again… let us repay your… kindness", Julia said slowly.
"Is Julia okay? She speaks rather slow", I pointed out.
"Julia is just winded from the fighting here", Seliph said, "But I think it also stems from her shyness and gentle nature".
"Now who's getting off-topic now?", Ephraim grumbled.
"Ah, sorry", Seliph apologized.
"Anyhow, if we do meet again, I want another chance to test my lance against you people", Ephraim glanced at his sister next to him, "Eirika, you and I are going to double our usual training as soon as we get home".
Eirika smiled warmly, "Oh, Ephraim. These good people will hopefully be our allies, not just your sparring partners. Now, good-bye to all of you. I do hope we meet again—and in the best of ways…", and the four heroes disappeared in a flash of light.
We made our way back to Askr castle, where Mr Fountain awarded us with three orbs.
"Now if you could do that again in the Hard and Lunatic difficulty… I could reward more orbs to you", the fountain intoned.
"Hey, that's a great idea!", I said, then I faced my heroes behind me, "Meet me back in the lobby in two hours. Take the time to rest while I find my Hard and Lunatic difficulty cards".
As my heroes dispersed towards the barracks to rest, I made my way up to my quarters, where I found the red and purple difficulty cards sitting on my desk. Sliding them in the pockets of my pants, I took the time to have a bath, have lunch at the cafe and relax for a while on my bed. I was reading a book about heroes in Askr, specifically the part about duplicate heroes and clone units.
"Wielders of the Breidablik are able to summon the same hero more than once. In this instance, the heroes are separate deities and thus, do not share memories or relationships with each other. A hero's past in their world may cause a change in the hero's stats upon summoning. For example, if one Palla has received more physical training than the other, it'll be summoned with up to three more points of Attack than the other Palla, who may have flown in the skies more. In the case of increasing stats (the term used is boon), there is also a price (which is called a bane). This same Palla that has taken in tons of physical training was trained in such a way that she fights with no regard for defense at , when she is summoned, this Palla will have up to three points less in Defense than a regular Palla. The boon and bane system of heroes is often called IVs, or individual values"
The book then went on to explain what IVs are, so I flipped to the next page, which detailed about clone units.
"In time, wielders of the Breidablik will characters of the same origin, looks and even personality, but in different clothing. These units are completely separate from each other, again with not the same memories or bonds. An example is the local Spring Festival held in the World of Awakening every April. During such a time, heroes wearing Spring clothing are summonable through the postcard sent and if you have, for example, a regular Lucina in your party, the Spring Lucina you can potentially summon has a completely different mind and memories from the standard Lucina. They may even have different skills and stat lines, separating them even further from each other besides looks. To give an example, a standard Chrom has Iron Sword, Steel Sword, Silver Sword, Falchion, Daylight, Sol, Aether, Defiant Defense and Spur Defense while Spring Chrom has Iron Axe, Steel Axe, Carrot Axe, Carrot Axe+, Shove, Attack and Defense +2 and Axe Experience. The differences in weapons, stats and skills make them so different that they may as well be different characters, except for the look"
"A Carrot Axe? Really?", I thought as I glanced at the time. It was 3:34 P.M already. I would have to go and meet my team in 26 minutes. I put down the pure white book on my nightstand and grabbed my sack of badges off of my desk. I went downstairs and found Sharena chatting with Eliwood. I focused my gaze on her to check her stats when someone talked behind me.
"So I see that you're checking out our little princess over there", Niles leaned casually on the stairwell railing, "You got the hots for her?".
I glared at the outlaw, "I'm just checking her level. I need to know that before I promote her".
"Well, you should find another way to examine those stats besides staring at them", Niles said, "Makes you look like me".
"Hmph", I crossed my arms, "What are you doing here anyways? The barracks are on the right side of the lobby".
"Oh, don't mind me. Just mingling around", Niles shrugged, "Got nothing to do right now".
"Oh well. It's not my responsibility to amuse you", I said, staring at Sharena and pulling up her stat screen.
"Welp, nice to see you Lucian. I'll be in the game room", and Niles went down the staircase. I scrolled through Sharena's stat screen until seeing that her level was 22.
"That training in the Training Tower really helped", I smiled. I went down to the storage room downstairs and took a wheelbarrow full of glowing Hero Feathers. I left it in the lobby and ran up to my room to grab the 20 orbs that were in my personal storage chest. Then I ran back down to throw them into the wheelbarrow.
"Sharena, come with me to the summoning ruins", I said, "I got a present for you".
"Is it something having to do with the tub of Hero Feathers and the sack tied to your belt?", the princess asked.
"Yeah, basically. Let's go", and I wheeled the wheelbarrow towards the summoning ruins.
"Okay, so Mr Fountain told me this morning how to do this", I placed 200 Hero Feathers on the left side of the ruins and five small, glowing blue badges on the right.
"Sharena, stand in between those two piles", I instructed as I unhooked the Breidablik from my waist.
"Alright, you ready?", I took aim at her. The Hero Feathers glowed even brighter and levitated into the air, along with the badges. White and blue tendrils of light bolted from the two piles and illuminated Sharena in a beautiful white and blue aura. A blinding flash filled the ruin with light and went it faded, Sharena's aura was gone, along with the Hero Feathers and badges.
"D-do you feel stronger?", I asked.
"To be honest, I feel weaker Lucian", Sharena replied, "But I sense more potential in me! Thanks Lucian!", and the princess hugged me tight.
"I read that promoting heroes also unlocks more skills and weapons for them", I said, "You only need to pay SP, also known as skill points to get them. Let's see…". I scrolled through Sharena's skill list and found that she had enough to buy a Silver Lance.
"Alright, let's click this and press okay…", I pressed the holographic screen and suddenly, Sharena's Iron Lance vanished and replaced itself with a longer, sharper and sturdier spear.
"Wow, this looks incredible! You're the best Lucian!", and Sharena hugged me again. I smiled,
"No problem. Now then, shall we get to summoning?".
"Sure!", Sharena stood back as I laid my 20 orbs on the floor of the ruin. I slid the Family Bonds postcard into the slot and put five orbs into my Breidablik. I took aim at the first red orb and searing light flared up.
When the glare faded, I was awestruck. Standing in front of me was a blue haired man wearing a blue, white and gold uniform. In his hand was a sword similarly looking to Falchion. This man was the man we just fought a couple hours ago. It was Seliph.
"Holy me, my luck is insane", I thought to myself as I shook hands with Seliph and exchanged words with him.
"I worry for my sister Julia. Is it possible for you to summon her?", Seliph asked.
"I'll do my best. In fact, let's go for the the green orb this time! Stand back Seliph", I aimed at the green orb and familiar searing light filled the room.
"Impossible. My luck isn't this good… right?", I thought as I covered my eyes. When the light went away, I was seriously considering buying a lottery ticket when I got home. The hero I summoned had fair skin, light purple hair and wore a light white and purple robe. In her hand was a beautifully designed tome, with a gold cross and light pink colour on the cover.
"My name is Julia, someone who has the ability to use the book of the divine dragon- Naga. Pleasure to be of service", Julia said. After a happy sibling reunion and welcome to the Order of Heroes, I continued on. Aiming at the blue, gray and second red orb, I got a four star Abel, a three star Serra and a four star Lon'qu. I gazed at the sun in the sky, slowly descending towards the horizon.
"It's almost nightfall. We won't have time to do the Hard and Lunatic difficulties today", I decided,
"Everyone, follow me to Askr castle. Ask Anna to assign you a barracks spot and meet me in the lobby in the morning. We're heading over to the Training Tower".
"Wait a minute… Anna is here?!", Lon'qu drew his Killing Edge, "That damn witch ripped me off!".
"Whoa, whoa, there buddy. Put the sword away", I waved my hands in a "calm down" motion, "This Anna is different from the one in your world. I'm sure they have different personality".
"Hmph", Lon'qu sheathed his sword.
"Seliph, Julia, Abel and Lon'qu, meet me in the lobby by… 10 in the morning", I said, "We're going to do…", I got an anime glint in my eye, "... a training montage"
To be continued...