A Summoner's Journey

Grand Hero Battle: Zephiel

Team for this chapter: Nino, Olivia, Robin and Minerva

Zephiel

One of the strongest warriors fought during the "Grand Hero Battle: Emblians" as Odin called it. Now we were able to face him and recruit him into our ranks. Unlike the other Grand Hero Battles before this, I had to make sure that the plan would succeed. Looking over the battle layout on the back of the postcard, I noticed that the enemies were positioned in a such a way that if you enter their sight, you'll be greeted by two attacks. That meant I had to have a unit capable of deflecting physical and magical attacks. Sadly, nobody in my army could do that. I decided that going full offense was the only option. The knights and Zephiel were clearly the biggest problems, so I chose Robin and Nino to be my mages. Jeorge suggested Olivia for dance support, as when she did a dance for Jeorge earlier in the morning, he suddenly felt newly invigorated and energetic.

"I think Olivia will really help you out in this fight" Jeorge said "Robin and Nino are going to get tired quickly, casting their spells. Olivia can help pull them out of enemy range by restoring their energy"

I had no idea how it worked, but I decided to take Jeorge's word for it. I didn't watch Olivia dance in full yet, so I had no first-hand experience of this "energy restoration" effect. I recently inherited the assist skill Reposition onto Minerva from a stray 3 star Barst, so I brought her along to help pull my mages out of enemy fire. After allowing my heroes a quick rest from their morning activities, me and my team set out into the World of Binding at noon.

We landed in Castle Bern's throne room, where Zephiel was on his throne, an Axe Knight and Lance Knight duo guarding him. A blue mage and a red mage stood on the side.

Zephiel rose from his throne, then spoke in a rough, yet commanding voice "I am Zephiel, king of Bern…"

The king of Bern slammed his tall scepter onto the ground and it mechanically morphed into a giant blade glowing with yellow light. Zephiel swung the massive sword like it was a stick and got into battle stance "... I hope you aren't one of those types who spout nonsense about hope for humanity"

None of my heroes replied to Zephiel, including me. They just got into formation like we planned and prepared to fight.

"Hmph, so you planned on how to take on this battle? Very well" Zephiel's grip on his legendary sword, Eckesachs steeled "Knights of Bern! Intercept the enemy and protect the throne! Bern mages, stand behind the knights and pound the intruders with magic!"

The Bern troops got into formation like they've been training their whole life for this. I made my first move.

"Nino! Attack the Axe Knight!" I called and the mage scrambled towards the knight, preparing to cast Gronnblade. Olivia's Hone Attack C skill seemed to have made Nino's magic much more powerful.

"Gronnblade!" Nino fired down a storm of magical swords from the ceiling and pounded the axe knight with strong wind magic. When the dust settled, the Axe Knight was somehow several feet away from his original position, forcing Nino to move closer to continue her attack. But the Lance Knight and especially Zephiel were close by, so Nino had to withdraw. The blue mage launched a bolt of Thoron+ at the retreating Nino, but the green mage took the hit easily and countered with a hailstorm of Gronnblade. Once the blade hit the floor, it exploded, sending the blue mage sailing towards the wall. Nino willed another Gronnblade to appear and fired it at the mage, pinning him on the wall. But while this was happening, the knights got uncomfortably close to us, with Zephiel standing in the back, waiting for his knights to weaken us down for him to finish.

"Blarraven!" Robin cast his spell onto the Lance Knight, being able to counter Wary Fighter with Lancebreaker from an extra Narcian I had. The spiritual ravens bombarded the Lance Knight backwards and Robin unleashed another stream, crippling the knight. The red mage spoke a incarnation and the ground rumbled, a fiery explosion erupting under Robin's feet. Triangle Adept and Robin's thunder magic advantage lessened the damage from Bolganone significantly, but Robin still gritted his teeth from the lava's heat. He countered with a swift blast of Blarraven, blasting the mage backwards, but Robin wasn't fast enough to make a follow up attack. Meanwhile, the knights continued to move closer to us, reaching within striking distance of their weapons. Nino avoided the Axe Knight's first Brave Axe strike, but got hit by the second, knocking her to the ground.

"Nino!" I yelled as the knight's Brave Axe went straight for Nino's head, but Olivia came to the rescue, blocking the axe with her Silver Sword.

"Can't… hold… much... " Olivia gasped, trying to push back the knight's axe. Luckily, Minerva charged in to help, slamming her Hauteclere hard onto the knight's head and body. One particular swing of her weapon knocked the Axe Knight away from Olivia and Nino, allowing Minerva to perform a Moonbow follow up attack.

"I will end this swiftly!" a silver crescent moon blazed into the air and Minerva slammed her axe onto the knight, melting away his defenses with Moonbow. The Axe Knight stumbled, a huge dent in his chest plate, then fell to the ground, dropping his Brave Axe.

"Minerva, look out!" Robin yelled as Minerva turned, seeing the red mage already chanting the spell of Bolganone. The ground began to rumble and Minerva got away as fast she could on her wyvern to escape the blazing inferno. Olivia slashed the mage's head off while he was mid-cast of his magic. Robin finished off the Lance Knight with another cast of Blarraven. Now only Zephiel was left.

"You will not bar my path" Zephiel held the Eckesachs high into the air, a lightning bolt from the ceiling striking it. He then swept the royal sword above the ground, preparing to launch a shockwave. My eyes went wide.

"Nino! Get out of the way!" I commanded and Nino scurried away behind Minerva as Zephiel shot his shockwave towards her, tearing a column in half. The building began to rumble, threatening to collapse if we didn't finish Zephiel quickly.

"Here's how it's done!" Robin glowed with the strong orange flames of Ignis, his Blarraven tome made of bright fire. A blue ring of magic circled around the tactician briefly, then he blasted a stream of flaming spirit ravens at Zephiel. Zephiel took extremely heavy damage from the attack, barely able to hold up his sword anymore.

"I… won't let you win!" Zephiel's blood on his royal robes and armor glowed with Reprisal and his Eckesachs glowed with another shockwave incoming.

"He's going to try and cut down the columns and collapse the building on us! We have to kill him, then leave quickly!" I called and Robin prepared another spell.

"You won't get in my way!" Zephiel launched another shockwave towards us, cleaving several more columns of his throne room in half, causing them to collapse. Soon, the entire throne room would be on top of us and I didn't want to die. We managed to evade the Reprisal-ed shockwave as it carved another hole in the wall behind us. Robin cast Blarraven again and finally defeated Zephiel. The king of Bern fell to his knees, dropping the Eckesachs. He faded into light. At last, the battle was over.

"We have to leave! The throne room is going to collapse!" Minerva shouted and we hurried towards the portal. We just managed to jump in as the throne room of Castle Bern fell.

We managed to come back to Askr unscathed and Zephiel appeared in our castle lobby. I had Anna assign him a barracks room and I headed up to my quarters to write to Saria. Lingering in the hallways though, some of my heroes had more than a few things to say to Zephiel...

Eliwood was just walking down the hallway, bringing ingredients for Caeda's cooking when he bumped into Zephiel.

"Oh, I'm sorry. You are…" Eliwood suddenly paused, staring at the tall figure standing over him. He looked familiar. An older version of someone he knew… "Prince Zephiel?"

"King Zephiel now Marquess Pherae" Zephiel said gruffly "Though you are yet not a marquess, looking at you like this"

"I came to this world just after my fight with the sorcerer Nergal and your younger self's rescue" Eliwood replied calmly "With Marquess Elbert dead, I am technically the Marquess of Pherae"

"Hmph, very well then" Zephiel crossed his arms "I for one was summoned before your thorn of a son, Roy, entered Bern Castle with his army"

"If I recall, you are conquering every state in Elibe to give it back to dragons" Eliwood said quietly "May I perhaps hear your reasoning later in the day?"

"Hmm, you aren't vengeful or angry at my actions" Zephiel replied "I could see how my younger self could trust you"

"Everybody has their reasons for doing something. You must know what that reason is before assuming action" Eliwood said "So I'm guessing that's a yes?"

"Very well. Meet me in the the castle gardens not long after dinner. I am particularly fond of that place"

Eliwood smiled "Someone as rough as you taking a liking to gardens? I'm surprised"

"The place calms me" Zephiel muttered "Nothing to do with "liking it""

Eliwood stiffened "I'll see you later then"

"Goodbye"

Zephiel continued walking down the hallway towards his room in the barracks. Why did these barracks had to be so infernally huge? Castle Bern wasn't nearly this large.

"King Zephiel!" Zephiel turned and saw Narcian running towards him.

"Narcian. Odd to see you here" Zephiel said absently.

"My lord, were you defeated by the Askrians too?" Narcian asked.

Zephiel gritted his teeth "Defeated yes, but being pulled here is worse. They interrupted me just as Roy's army entered Bern castle. Now I'm here, not even defending the throne or covering Idoun's escape"

"My king… I am so very sorry for being unable to stop Roy's army at Etruria" Narcian hung his head in shame "Those little whelps… they'll pay for this now that I'm alive again"

"Hmph. The only people you'll be able to take vengeance on is Marquess Pherae, father of Roy or Klein, the Archer General of Etruria" Zephiel raised an eyebrow "Or perhaps Mage General Cecilia of Etruria. She gave me a gasp of shock in the hallway"

"Cecilia… yes I remember" Narcian licked his lips "She humiliated me in front of Ostia castle with all my troops around me! I must take personal revenge!"

"Hmph, I won't stand in your way then" Zephiel stared forward distantly "I have no purpose here other than slaying my enemies and finding out how to return to my world. You on the other hand, benefit here by taking personal grudges and revenge. Narcissistic AND vengeful to the end"

"You wound me milord" Narcian bowed "Surely those qualities aren't bad"

"If they don't impede you in combat or performing your duty, such "qualities" don't matter" Zephiel replied, then stared at the ground beneath him "Emotions… all utterless pointless. Yet one of my general's drives IS emotion. What man have I hired…?"

"What was that milord?"

"Nothing. I'm going to rest"

Later into the night…

"So the reason you were targeted by Black Fang assassins… is because your father wanted to remove you from the throne?" Eliwood was sitting right across Zephiel in a gazebo in the castle gardens, uneasy about the king's story.

"Hmph. My father's a despicable man. Only out for himself and driven by jealousy and hate towards his own son" Zephiel's voice dropped to a sharp growl when he spoke of his late father "Humans… it's only their emotions that drive them to do despicable things"

"I see now" Eliwood put his hand onto his chin "The reason you want to hand the world of Elibe to dragonkind is because you believe that human emotion like jealousy, hate and anger leads the world to tragedy?"

"Ha, you read my mind like a book Marquess Pherae" Zephiel said "But yes, that is my only goal. My only purpose as King of Bern. To liberate the world of human emotion"

"Is there anyway I can convince you otherwise?" Eliwood asked.

"None. I am already set and no reasoning will stop me" Zephiel stood up "I must be leaving now. I have training to do. This world… drained me of so much of my strength"

"Very well then. I won't stay around to argue with you, King Zephiel" Eliwood stood up from his chair "But if you and I return to our worlds, I WILL do what I can to stop you"

"Ha, you can try" Zephiel scoffed "But for now, we're allies. Let us drive away petty emotions of revenge and anger"

"So I will" Eliwood held out his hand and shook it with Zephiel "Had we not been enemies in our worlds, I feel like we could of been good friends"

"Hmph. Perhaps" Zephiel let go of Eliwood's hand and trudged back into the castle, his armor clanking as he walked. Eliwood stayed a while longer in the garden, before heading back inside to sleep. He was glad to be summoned into Askr. Being able to see wars in other people's perspective was very interested. Now, he understood why Zephiel began his conquest across Elibe. But that never meant it was right.

If he returned to his world, he would stop at nothing to stop Zephiel.

And there is the Grand Hero Battle against Zephiel along with some conversations between him and Eliwood and Narcian. Coming up next is Chapter 11 of the main story: World of Radiance (finally, something interesting for once) along with the legendary Hero Fest banner. Thank you all for the favorites, follows and reviews. Until next time summoners!