A Summoner's Journey
Chapter 5: Return to Mystery
Current Heroes: Alfonse, Sharena, Anna, Virion, Eliwood, Caeda, Odin, Niles, Maria, Robin, Chrom, Lyn, Olivia, Nino, Seliph, Julia, Abel, Serra and Lon'qu
I woke up early in the morning, when the sun was just starting to peek over the horizon. I made my way out of my quarters, feeling sticky from not taking a shower and sleeping in my robes. Lazily, I went downstairs towards the mess hall to eat breakfast. The mess hall was emptier than usual. No surprise considering that it was 4 in the morning right now. The cooks were already preparing a buffet of breakfast for the servants, heroes and of course the royalty.
"Hey there Lucian. Up early today?', one of the cooks, Puston, said as I grabbed a plate.
"Yeah, went to bed early last night. So, what you got for us here?", I asked.
"The usual. Bacon, buttered toast, hard boiled eggs, blueberry and chocolate waffles, pancakes and the like. You know, standard breakfast food", Puston said.
"I see. Well, nice talking to you Puston. I'm going to dig in", I said, licking my lips in hunger.
"See ya later Lucian. Good luck on your expedition today", the cook smiled.
I went around and filled my plate with some waffles, pancakes, muffins, sausages and eggs. I filled up a glass with orange juice and sat down at the nearest table. Sooner than I expected, Robin came into the mess hall, grabbed a plate of food and sat across from me, eyeing me with a smile.
"You're up early", I said as I poked my fork into a sausage.
"Yeah well, I taught Nino reading last night and read a few books. I was tired from our fight in the World of Awakening, so I went to sleep early", Robin replied.
"Speaking of which, is your head okay?", I winced at the memory, "Cordelia speared your skull pretty hard".
"It feels better. In my world, an injury like that would've killed me", Robin said.
"No duh", I muttered.
"But here, it seems like we feel pain, but never die. Don't you find that fascinating?", the tactician said.
"I'm find it kinda tortuous actually…", I said, but decided not to continue. We ate in silence for a few minutes before I spoke again, "We met your sister in the World of Awakening".
"Really? How was she?", Robin asked curiously.
"I'd rather not say, but she was possessed by some being Chrom called "Grima"", I said, "It made her glow with a dark purple aura and she had blood red eyes".
"Ah…", Robin stared solemnly out the window, "I was afraid that would happen. You see, we were just fighting Grima before you summoned me. Embla's armies teleported onto the battlefield we were fighting and destroyed our forces, forcing the Chrom you fought yesterday to seal Grima away instead of kill him".
"And sealing Grima away allowed your sister to stay alive", I said, remembering what the enemy Chrom told us yesterday, "But she still had a fragment of Grima's soul, allowing him to possess her again".
"Yeah… it's been a problem since we were both born", Robin said distantly, passively picking at his pancakes with his fork, "Our father, the high priest of the Grima church in Plegia, Validar married a woman from the working class, our mother, Adaline. He married her in hope that one of his children will possess the Heart of Grima to be the vessal for the soul of the fell dragon. When we were born, I didn't have the heart, but my sister did. Adaline, fearing that Validar will sacrifice me to Grima and corrupt my sister, attempted to run away and take us with her. But Validar managed to take back my sister and twist her to become the vessel for Grima".
Robin paused, then looked at me, "Sorry, you must find this a bit too much to swallow".
"I'm already swallowing much", I said, gulping down my waffles, "But please continue Robin, your story is interesting".
"Very well. While on the run from Plegian Dark Mages, my mother ran all the way to Ylisse, where she pleaded for help. The current king accepted to give her aid and hired mercenaries to rout the Dark Mages pursuing my mother. She hid herself and me in a village and raised me as any mother would raise their child. However, many years later, a Plegian assassin killed my mother and Validar personally visited my village to ransack it. He found me and sealed my memories away, reaching out to pick me up and corrupt me the same way as my sister. Fortunately, an especially skilled mercenary snuck behind Validar and dealt a heavy blow to the Sorcerer's body, nearly cutting him in half. Validar fought back, but the mercenary ran through attack after attack, eventually forcing Validar to retreat. After Validar left, the mercenary collapsed in the dirt, surrounded by the burning fires of my home. I remember looking over him, crying. This man defended me to the bitter end, sacrificing his life for my survival. I wanted to know who he was, so then I can always remember his name, but he died before I could even open my mouth to ask. The pain of my hero dying made me collapse as well".
Robin stopped, tears welling up in his eyes.
"Robin… if you don't want to, you don't need to tell me", I said, reaching out to pat his shoulder.
"I'd rather not leave this story unfinished. Please forgive me", Robin sniffed and cleared his throat, "When I woke up, there was man and girl standing over me. The man said, "There are better places to take a nap than on the ground, you know", and he helped me up. I looked around. The village I lived and grew up in was no more. All the buildings were charred away and nothing was left but burned grass and the smoking remains of trees".
"Who was the man and girl? Do you remember?", I asked.
"The girl was named Lissa and the man…", Robin said, "... was Chrom".
"Cue gasp from me", I muttered, half jokingly, "But after Chrom found you, what happened?".
"He took me in as a tactician for his company called the Shepherds", Robin said, "Our adventures eventually took us to Plegia, where Validar was getting ready to infuse the soul of Grima into my sister. We launched a surprise attack at him and managed to rescue my sister. The Grima cultists followed us, bent on retrieving Robin back and Validar personally led the charge. Within our ranks, he awakened the soul of Grima inside Robin's body and resurrected the fell dragon with the help of the Binding Shield".
"Wait a second", I scratched my chin, "You call it the "Binding Shield". How does something with the word "bind" in it help raise a demonic dragon?".
"It's a double-ended effect", Robin explained, "The Binding Shield, with all the ancient orbs fused into it, can allow the wielder to perform the Awakening Ritual in order to increase the power of the legendary Falchion. On the other hand, it can be sacrificed to awaken god-like deities. It's that powerful".
"Whoa", I said, "So what happened after?".
"We killed Validar, then made our way to fight Grima", Robin said, "But without the power of the Binding Shield to power up Chrom's Falchion, it was difficult to slay my sister. We retreated to the nearest Naga shrine in Ylisse and prayed to the gods for help. Naga heard our prayer and blessed Chrom's Falchion to become the Exalted Falchion, granting it the power to defeat Grima".
"That sounds like the result of bad storytelling and translation", I said, "What was the point of the Binding Shield if you could just pray to Naga to bless your weapon? Why didn't Grima destroy all the Naga shrines so then nobody could do the Awakening Ritual or pray to him? Seriously, if this was video game or a book, the developers must be terrible at writing stories".
Robin looked at me, dumbfounded, "But it DID happen".
"I know it did, but it's still odd to me. There's so many plotholes", I pointed out as I finished my sausage, "So after Grima let you get away scot free, what happened after?".
"Naga transported us onto Grima's back and-"
"And you're telling me that Grima didn't just like, flip over, to kill you guys?!"
"Robin was on his back as well and barrel-rolling would kill Grima's host"
I sighed, "Still stupid. Could he just let you guys fall, then catch Robin as well?".
"You forgot this is real life. All of us are glad that Grima isn't smart"
"Whatever. Continue"
"So Naga teleported us onto Grima's back and with the power of the Exalted Falchion, we managed to defeat Grima", Robin said, "But at the last second before we could kill him, Embla's armies descended onto the battlefield and defeated each and one of us, turning us into slaves. I managed to hold my own, but Veronica forced Chrom to seal Grima into the Falchion instead of killing him, sparing my sister's life. Before the Embla soldiers could finish me, you summoned me here".
"Wow… that's quite a life story", I said, finishing up my breakfast just as more people began to trickle into the mess hall.
"Yeah, it was pretty intense. I hope to be able to reunite with my sister one day", Robin said distantly, not even touching his food anymore.
"Uhh Robin, your food's getting cold", I pointed out.
"Hm? Oh, right", Robin laughed and continued to eat as I dropped my plate off at the bar counter for cleaning. I made my way to the library to read a book before assembling my heroes for the expedition back to the World of Mystery.
Anna was checking the mail delivered by Hedwig, who was renamed to Feh. Why it was renamed, I got no idea. Anna dropped vague hints to why Hedwig was renamed. Something about a channel apparently. Anyways, Anna checked the mail was usual, sorting through the boxes of Hero Feathers and the sack of orbs. She opened an envelope and pulled out a postcard, similar to the summoning focus banners. This card shown a man with blond hair and was wearing a strange maroon uniform along with a purple cape. He was riding a wyvern with a large double-bladed axe in his hand that had a gleaming emerald in the center. His name, in golden letters, was written on the bottom right. Narcian, the Wyvern General of Bern. Anna flipped to the back of card and instructions were written in elegant black pen.
"Take this card through the portal to the World of Binding and be prepared for a hard fight. Remember this: if a single hero falls while in this brawl, the enemy hero and battlefield will fade away, leaving you with nothing. You will have the opportunity to restart as many times as you like, but know this: you can only attempt this challenge for a select amount of days. Best of luck to you"
Anna glanced at the top of the card and the deadline was written in the same handwriting: 7 days after you receive this card, it'll vanish and you'll be unable to complete this challenge until you get another one. Be quick and careful with this Grand Hero Battle.
"Ooh, a Grand Hero Battle huh?", Anna smiled with interest, "That sounds fun. I'll go tell Lucian about this".
The redhead made her way towards the library and showed me the card.
"I think this is similar to the regular Hero Battle postcards we get", Anna said, "So if you beat Narcian in the World of Binding, we might be able to recruit him as an ally".
"That's nice, but could we wait a little later?", I asked, "Embla's attack on the World of Mystery needs to be dealt with right away".
"So why are you reading a book right now?", Anna asked skeptically.
"I'm waiting for Julia, Lon'qu and Maria to finish breakfast, then we're heading out", I said, "Just leave the card in my quarters, alright?".
An hour later, my heroes assembled in the lobby, ready to attack the World of Mystery. We leapt through the portal and ended up in a dreary mountainside. Two run down fortresses stood out in the clearing. All around us were peaks shaped like spears. There were four people waiting for us, two Emblian thieves, a old-looking priest and a man clad in dark red robes and had long brown hair. In his hand was a sharp katana.
"You're here, as expected", the man said. His voice was deep and as sharp as his blade, "Nothing against you, but I've been hired to do a job. So now, you'll die", and the man charged us.
"Robin, Lon'qu, attack the right side with the swordsman! Julia, hit the left and Maria, heal Julia when necessary. Go!", I commanded. The battle quickly escalated into chaos. The red swordsman, Navarre slashed Robin's body just as fast as Lon'qu did back in the World of Awakening. Robin took the hits better than last time and countered back with a strong Blarraven. While Navarre was stunned by the flock of blue ravens, Lon'qu cut at the swordsman's body twice, then stabbed him through the stomach with his Killing Edge. As Navarre collapsed to the ground, the thief dashed forward with inhuman speed and stabbed Lon'qu in the chest with a kunai-shaped knife. Lon'qu growled in pain and retaliated, slashing the thief away with his sword and allowing Robin to follow up with a swarm of ravens, smashing the thief to the ground. Without hesitation, Lon'qu grabbed the hilt of the kunai dagger and yanked it out from his chest, expelling a large cloud of blood.
"Holy Naga- mmph!", Robin held his mouth as if he was going to throw up.
"Holy hell, Lon'qu!", I stepped back in shock as Lon'qu threw the bloody dagger to the ground without any sign of pain, "Go get Maria. Just go get her. Like oh my god, there's a giant bloody hole through your chest".
Julia was just finished defeating the second thief and the old man named Wrys when Lon'qu came over to there side. Maria screamed and Julia looked behind her, nearly fainting at the sight.
"Heal me. Right now", Lon'qu said nonchalantly, as if an impalement through the chest was just a normal cut. Maria swallowed and rose her Mend staff, "Imbue!", and the hole in Lon'qu chest closed up, leaving only a hole in Lon'qu's ripped vest.
"We're done here. Let's continue on", the Feroxi swordsman said.
I shivered, trying to erase the memory of Lon'qu ripping the kunai out from his chest, "Y-yeah. Let's go".
We continued onwards until we found a large fortress in a clearing of a mountain range.
"According to Archanean history, this is Castle Deil, where Princess Maria of Macedon was held hostage for King Michalis to gain leverage over the famous Whitewing sister trio and Princess Minerva", Robin said, pointing to the fortress in front of them.
"I remember this place", Maria said, looking at the castle with curiosity rather than anger, "Michalis told me to stay put in this castle and locked me up so then I wouldn't be harmed in the war".
"Err… yeah. That totally happened", Robin smiled, "But anyways, Prince Marth and his army eventually marched into the castle, freed Maria, recruited Princess Minerva into their ranks along with the Whitewing sisters and killed Grustian general Zharov, who was tasked with guarding the castle".
"Prince Marth was so dashing when he unlocked my cell", Maria said dreamily, "He was like a glowing holy knight from my storybooks!".
"Right… so is there anybody here? The place looks barren", I said.
"It should be barren, since nobody used it since the War of Shadows", Robin said, "But something feels odd here. I can hear the sound of dragon wings flapping in the distance…".
Julia cocked her ear towards the castle, "I hear it too… the sound of wings… someone might be in there".
"Let's test it just to be sure", Robin let loose his storm of spirit ravens over a castle wall. A sharp, female voice grunted in alarm, but seem to have taken the attack just fine.
"There ARE people in there", I said, "But they are waiting for us to go in for them to ambush".
"When all else fails, blow the place apart. Julia?", Robin looked at the mage next to him.
"S-sir Robin… I'd rather not destroy buildings with Naga's power if we don't need to", Julia said softly.
"We just need you to break that part of the wall over there", Robin pointed to a part of the castle wall with a long crack down the center, "By breaking it, we'll be able to expose the enemy and take them down easier. So please Julia. I don't think magical birds can make a dent in such a fortified defense".
"Oh alright", Julia's Naga tome glowed with golden light, "Divine Dragon king Naga, show us your fury!". The familiar ghostly white dragon leaped off the pages of Julia's tome like a breaching whale. A ball of light and electricity gathered in it's mouth and shot it at the cracked wall, exploding the barrier into pieces. Julia dodged the incoming shrapnel as the ghost dragon returned to Julia's book. From the dust of the ruined castle wall stood four figures, an Emblian Sword Knight, an Emblian archer, a woman clad head to toe in red armor riding a dragon and a red haired cleric that looked exactly like Maria.
"So you found us out. Excellent tactic, breaking the wall to expose us like that", Minerva heaved her Silver Axe, "But now we must get to what we were told to do: kill you".
Minerva turned to the Sword Knight and bowman beside her, "You there! Move to the broken part of the castle wall and choke the point. Archer, stay behind the knight and snipe at anyone that gets close. I'll guard the entrance alone".
Without any reaction, the Emblian soldiers moved to guard the busted wall while Minerva flew to the entrance and blocked the whole part with her dragon, "Try to get by us now scoundrels".
"Lon'qu, distract Minerva at the entrance. Robin, engage the Sword Knight and bowman. Julia, assist Lon'qu and Maria, heal anybody when necessary. Let's go!", I issued my orders and everybody scattered. Lon'qu slashed at Minerva's waist, then stepped back as his Killing Edge glowed with purple light.
"Glimmer!", Lon'qu shouted and he leaped into the air. Minerva couldn't fly away fast enough and got triple-cut by Lon'qu's swift and powerful strikes. The princess of Macedon retaliated with a strong axe swing, but Lon'qu rolled out of the way into a pillar. Minerva's dragon swung it's tail in Lon'qu's direction and smashed the pillar in half, just as the swordsman was jumping out from it. Lon'qu brought his blade onto the dragon's wing, slicing it off. Blood gushed from the wound and the dragon roared in pain. Minerva was having trouble controlling it when it reared back, throwing it's rider off. The dragon went completely berserk, smashing castle walls and pillars into dust. Julia tried to cast Naga to kill it before it could surprise attack Robin, but Lon'qu did it for her. While Minerva was disoriented from being thrown off her mount, Lon'qu rushed up and stabbed her through the stomach, making her and her dragon fade into light.
Meanwhile, Robin was handling the Sword Knight and Archer just fine by himself. The archer's arrows bounced off him and the Sword Knight's strikes were slow and did marginal damage due to Robin's triangle advantage. The tactician unleashed a storm of ravens, smashing the knight to the floor and blinding the archer. Robin then glowed with orange light, "Bonfire!", and sent a flood of spirit ravens wreathed in orange flames towards the Emblian soldier, burning him to ash. We decided to spare the enemy Maria, as she couldn't fight and continued on.
Next, we arrived at a long cobblestone bridge spanning over a rushing river the size of a football field. Three islands were connected by this bridge and we were in the middle. A blond haired archer wielding a Silver Bow and an Emblian Lance Knight were waiting on the island on the North while a burly man with a Brave Axe and a Emblian archer guarded the Southern island. We were already surrounded before we even begun the fight.
"Barst", the blond archer called, "charge onto the bridge with this Lance Knight and force these invaders to stay on the middle island. Meanwhile, me and the Emblian archer will rain arrows on them from the sidelines".
"Wish Captain Ogma, Bord or Cord were with us right now", Barst said, heaving his Brave Axe, "I don't trust these Emblian knights one bit Jeorge".
"We don't have time to talk any longer. Go! Go before these ruffians cross Chiasmir", Jeorge said, nocking an arrow into his Silver Bow, poised to strike us. Barst and the knight charged onto the bridge to trap us.
"Julia, take out the Lance Knight, but watch out for Jeorge. Lon'qu, take down Barst. Robin, lure out both of the archers and take them down. Maria, stay away from the fight until both archers are defeated. Those are your orders. Go!", I commanded. My heroes rushed into position just as Barst and the Lance Knight made it towards our island. Lon'qu slammed his Killing Edge onto Barst's face, but the fighter managed to survive the hit and attack back, slashing Lon'qu twice with his Brave Axe. Julia was getting ready to cast Naga when Jeorge shot his arrow towards her, but Robin jumped in front of the mage and deflected the arrow with his Blarraven. The Lance Knight came marching onto our island and Julia blasted it full force with godly dragon magic. But as the knight burned to ash, Barst knocked back Lon'qu with his axe and charged towards Julia. The mage didn't notice until Barst slashed his axe over Julia twice, knocking her to the ground in a pool of blood.
"Futile. Give up!", Lon'qu lunged with blinding speed and stabbed Barst in the stomach with his Killing Edge, then slashed upwards and then over his shoulder. While Barst staggered away, Lon'qu unleashed his Glimmer attack and killed the axe fighter. Another arrow sailed towards Lon'qu, but a flock of ravens from Robin blocked them and rushed towards the archers on both sides, defeating them simultaneously. The battle was over, but Julia wasn't looking too good.
"Julia! Julia, are you alright?", Robin, Maria and I tried to patch up and heal Julia's wounds, but blood was pouring everywhere, giving her light indigo dress an ominous blood red hue.
"I-I'm… sorry…", Julia said weakly, then she faded into light, similar to the defeated heroes we just fought. I rose, my hands shaking and covered in wet blood.
"Well… I guess we continue on. We'll give Embla more time by going back", I said. Everyone nodded solemnly and we marched across Chiasmir bridge to our next destination. Next, we arrived on an open field surrounded by trees and mountains.
"According to the book, "Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon", this is Macedon, the place where King Michalis, Princess Minerva and Princess Maria are from. Specifically, this is the place where Chapter 21 of the book, "Clash in Macedon", takes place", Robin said.
"Lots of space, plenty of room for soldiers and no place to take cover or choke a point", I said, looking around the empty field, "It'll be hard to fight in this place without casualties".
We were about to leave since there were no enemies, but Lon'qu stared intently at the fortress ahead.
"Lon'qu? Is there something wrong?", Maria asked.
"I hear… flapping. Flapping of a pegasus. There are three of them", Lon'qu mused, then he drew his sword.
Three pegasus knights flew out from the fort, with a fearsome Axe Knight tromping behind them. One of them was a swordswoman with long green hair wielding a sword with a red ruby set in the crossguard. The second was a woman with short blue hair wielding a Killer Lance and the third was a smaller girl with short pink hair that held a jousting sort of lance. I recognized the swordswoman and the blue-haired girl from before.
"You're Palla and Catria. You attacked us back at Askr!", I cried.
"And here you are again, invading our world this time", Palla said with a stern tone, "Back then we weren't able to defeat you, but the Whitewings together can beat down any foe. Ready Catria, Est?".
"I'd like a little payback for you defeating Lady Minerva twice", Catria's Killer Lance gleamed sharply in the afternoon sunlight.
"Palla and Catria may have lost to you, but when we are all together, no one can beat us. We'll show you the power of our Triangle Attack!", Est cheered, raising her jousting spear.
Palla pointed her Ruby Sword at us, "Whitewings, attack!".
The three pegasus knights charged towards our group. Palla was dueling with Lon'qu while Robin dealt with Catria and Est. The loss of Julia really hurt as both Est and Catria were lance wielders, which meant Julia could of had a field day here. Now, Robin was slowly wearing down the pegasus sisters with his magic while Maria stayed back and healed with her Physic staff. While Est charged and stabbed Robin through the gut with her spear, Catria flew higher up and glowed with faint purple light, ready to unleash a special attack.
"New Moon!", Catria charged full speed while a vision of a dark sky burned into the air. Catria struck Robin hard, leaving a gaping, bleeding wound on his chest.
"Here's how it's done!", Robin's tome was lit ablaze by magical orange flames, "Bonfire!". A flood of spirit birds wreathed in fire swarmed Est and knocked her off her pegasus, defeating her. While Robin was dealing with Est however, Catria lunged with her Killer Lance towards his face. Robin was fortunately able to dodge and Maria topped him off with a Imbue-powered Physic. Meanwhile, the duel between Lon'qu and Palla was equal on both sides. Both had specials attacks and both were blazing fast. Palla urged her pegasus to fly back a bit.
"Moonbow!", she shouted and she lunged with her Ruby Sword towards Lon'qu in a sweeping motion, slicing the grass before her and piercing Lon'qu's defense, who attempted to parry the attack with his own sword.
"Glimmer!", Lon'qu lunged towards Palla and launched three powerful strikes with his blade. Palla screamed in pain, but managed to smack the flat of her Ruby Sword onto Lon'qu's head. The swordsman stumbled back, clutching his head with his hand and Palla rushed in to stab Lon'qu with her sword when a flock of ravens smashed her off her pegasus. While Palla was flying in the air, Lon'qu jumped and cut her body in half, spilling a ton of blood and dropping the broken carcass of Palla onto the ground with a chilling thud. Maria shut her eyes tightly as she raised her Physic to heal Lon'qu and Robin. Palla's body and her pegasus faded afterwards. All that was left was the Axe Knight, but the combination of Lon'qu's sword and Robin's magic brought the knight down easily. With all the enemies gone, we continued onwards.
Finally, we found ourselves in a large valley with a towering black castle in the distance. The air felt tense and somewhat unnatural, as if an unreal substance was in the area.
"Looks like we're in the country of Dolhr, the nation of Manaketes", Robin said, looking around the old forts and dead grass, "This is the setting for Chapter 24 of Shadow Dragon, "Dragonkin Realm".
The place looked barren until a little girl ran up to us. She had light green hair tied up in a ponytail, was dressed in a short pink dress and had a large yellow crown shaped like a dragon's head on her head.
"Are you the bad people Veronica warned us about?", the girl asked.
"No, no, we aren't bad people. Veronica's the evil one here", I said gently.
"YOU!", Minerva flew over the mountainside and nearly decapitated me with her Hauteclere, but Lon'qu blocked the axe with his sword at the last second.
"Tiki, don't listen to them, they are lying!", Minerva shoved Lon'qu back with powerful force and tossed her axe in the air, "Moonbow!".
Minerva caught her axe, then smashed it onto Lon'qu's head, defeating him instantly.
"They are the ones invading our world. We must defeat them!", the princess cried, her axe dripping with Lon'qu blood.
"No! You're wrong!", I shouted back, "Veronica twisted you. She's using you to fight us! We're here to free you from Embla's grasp!".
"Be quiet, or I'll make you be so", Minerva growled, "Tiki, will you help me drive the invaders away?".
"B-but I can't control myself if I have to fight. All I'll do is kill. I don't want that!", Tiki pleaded, her bright green eyes shining in the sunlight with tears, "I'm sure we can resolve this without fighting".
"I've had enough of this", Robin cast Blarraven and knocked back Minerva, "The only way to free you guys from Embla's contract is to defeat you in battle. So let's go already!".
Minerva smiled, "Impatient aren't you?".
"Yeah, we've been here for over 5 hours already. I'm starting to really tire. Now, Blarraven!", a swarm of blue ravens burst out from Robin's tome, but Minerva plowed through the attack and defeated Robin in a single hit. I quickly realized that I only had Maria left to fight and Minerva just defeated Lon'qu and Robin in a single strike.
"Maria, follow me! We gotta get out of here!", I shouted and the cleric nodded and raced behind me.
"Not so fast!", Minerva flew by on her dragon and slashed her Hauteclere at Maria's back, defeating her instantly, despite Maria being her younger sister.
"Now it's your turn", Minerva's dragon loomed over me, her axe stained with the blood of my heroes. I stared in dread and horror when a portal opened behind me. Minerva's glowering expression turned to shock as Seliph leaped into the air and smashed his Tyrfing full force onto her. Minerva retreated back a little, with a giant gash on her waist and on her dragon. I looked behind me in shock. The portal shown the Askr portal courtyard and around me were Seliph, Nino, Abel and Sharena.
"What the- How did you get here?", I asked, surprised.
"You were gone for longer than we thought, so we came to check on you", Sharena winked at me, "So we went into the portal for the World of Mystery and we found you here! Good thing we came right?".
"Thank you all for coming to my aid", I said, glad that my heroes saved my life, "Alright, let's defeat the enemy and liberate the World of Mystery for good!".
Everyone cheered and Minerva gritted her teeth.
"Tiki, no more games. We have to fight", the wyvern rider said.
"Oh alright. If you insist", Tiki pulled out a gleaming blue dragonstone and bright light enveloped her. All my heroes stopped to star as a large gray dragon took the little manakete's place.
"RROOARRR!", Dragon Tiki expelled a gigantic plume of fire and everyone darted out of the way to dodge it. The flames burned the grass into ash and charred the back of my robe. Seliph charged and slashed his Tyrfing over Tiki's body. The legendary blade managed to make a sharp cut in Tiki's draconic skin, but the manakete shown no reaction. It gathered a large fireball in it's mouth and blasted it towards Seliph. Seliph dived out of the way as the fireball made a huge explosion when it hit the ground. Seliph landed on the ground rough, but he got up instantly once he saw Minerva charging at him with her Hauteclere. Seliph assumed a defensive stance with his sword across his face when Minerva smashed into him at 30 miles an hour like a speeding car. Tiki looked to aim another fireball towards Seliph, so Abel charged and stabbed Tiki twice with his Brave Lance, then retreated. Tiki blew a plume of flames towards Abel and the cavalier rose his shield in defense.
"Holy Vestments!", he shouted and his shield illuminated with blue light. The flames crashed into the metal shield, but it managed to hold together and not melt under the heat. Meanwhile, Minerva and Seliph were dueling, sword to axe near a mountainside, but Seliph was quickly losing.
"Moonbow!", Minerva charged towards Seliph and shattered his defensive position. Seliph fell to the ground, but quickly got up, blood coming out from his mouth and waist. Minerva went for another attack, but Seliph's Tyrfing formed a shield around him and Minerva's axe bounced off. Seliph took the opportunity and dealt a heavy blow to Minerva's chest. Nino had to help out before Seliph was overpowered. She opened her tome and raised her hand into the air.
"Gronnblade!", a shower of giant wind blades came falling from the sky like an avalanche on top of Minerva. The swords surrounded Minerva in a circle, then exploded, sending the wyvern rider crashing into a mountain. Minerva and her dragon slid down the cliffside and laid in a heap, then faded away into light. Seliph wiped a drop of sweat from his forehead, then ran to help Abel and Sharena.
Sharena and Abel were using hit-and-run tactics against Tiki. They would attack first, then quickly run back before Tiki could shoot more of those explosive fireballs. Problem was, whenever Tiki attacked, a thin orange shield would surround her body, blocking some of Abel and Sharena's counterattacks. Seliph stopped next to Abel, panting and rose his Tyrfing.
"Rally Speed!", a thin pulse of blue energy expelled from the Tyrfing surrounded Abel and made him go faster. He galloped towards Tiki and stabbed her four times in a row with his lance. Tiki groaned under the pressure and began to attack and move slower.
"Found your weak spot!", Sharena pivoted on one foot and slashed her lance upwards like a halberd at the dragon's neck, then stabbed downwards onto Tiki's stomach. Tiki roared and tried to strike with another fireball, but Seliph struck with a decisive stab to the chest with his Tyrfing. The dragon roared in pain and collapsed onto the ground, turning back into a little human girl. Then, she faded into golden light.
"Finally… it's over", Seliph breathed a sigh of relief and flopped onto the ground. Everyone else did the same after.
"I can't believe it. That was the hardest fight we have ever experienced so far", I mused, looking around the scorched grass and mountain sides stained with blood. We rested for a while until Minerva and Tiki appeared to us in a flash of light, without weapons as usual.
"You beat me? Thanks to you, I'm back to my normal self! Even better—now I don't need to fight anymore!", Tiki said cheerfully, smiling at Minerva, who wasn't glaring at us anymore.
"Yes. I would like to thank you for freeing the World of Mystery", Minerva bowed, "Veronica took my greatest trait - pride - and turned it into something that drives me to unnecessary hostility and revenge. For that, I am sorry to have almost killed you".
"Hey, no problem. We all managed to live in the end", I smiled, "We gotta leave now. I hope to see you again. It would be great for a warrior of your power to be on our side".
Minerva gave me a faint smile, "One day, it might happen. Farewell, Order of Heroes".
We left the World of Mystery and ended up back in the Askr portal courtyard, where everyone was waiting for us. When we emerged from the portal, they exploded in cheer.
"Thanks the gods you're back and safe", Alfonse grinned at me, "You had all of us worried when Robin, Julia, Maria and Lon'qu appeared in the lobby".
We all went into the castle and had a victory feast, congratulating Seliph, Abel, Sharena and Nino for their bravery. I approached Anna, Alfonse and Sharena during the feast.
"You know, why don't we just guard the gateways to the other worlds? We already had to go and liberate like, five worlds and Embla can always go back and conquer it more", I said.
"We try to guard the gateways, but there are too many of them to guard and far too many Embla soldiers to hold off", Sharena replied, then sighed, "I wish that Askr royals can close the gateways"
"The royal powers to open and close the portals are meant to work together. If we had the power to close the gateways, the advantage will simply shift to Embla. And we'll still be stuck in this struggle", Alfonse pointed out.
Sharena gasped, "That'll be EVEN worse! We'll have to check ALL the gates, not just the ones we opened!".
"You can say we got the advantage with being able to open gateways and summon heroes, but this war will go on for eternity until both powers learn to cooperate together. Unfortunately, cooperation isn't one of Veronica's traits", Anna said.
"Who knows if the attack on the World of Mystery was a diversion? Embla could be planning anything right now", Alfonse said, "We need to find out what's going on. Fast"
To be continued...