In a rundown but still highly trafficked brothel a few kilometers away from Mercer's town, five men with the Mark of Grima tattooed on their bodies stepped out of a room full of sleeping and groggy women in various states of undress. A middle-aged woman dressed only slightly more modestly than her younger employees watched them eagerly as they put on their robes and armor. "I take it you boys had a good time with us today?"
A man in mage robes smiled as he straightened his clothing. He handed the woman a large sack of coins. "Give the girls our regards when they regain consciousness." The men behind him chuckled. The woman laughed along.
"Of course. I must say I wasn't expecting you boys today. It's certainly not your usual time. What's the occasion?"
The men finished dressing themselves and started to exit the building. The madam walked alongside them as they did. "Courtney gave us the day off and a bonus. We thought we'd live a little to celebrate."
"How generous. What is he celebrating?"
The man gave an unsettling smile as he remembered Courtney's plan to lure out Tiki. "Trust me, you do not want to know."
Mercer stood staring at the five men as they left the brothel. He wore baggy trousers with tears and holes in them that he kept covered with bandages along with a dark blue loose fitting work shirt with a tattered darker blue vest over it. Mercer wore a brown poncho over his vest, but he wore it in such a way that his right shoulder was left exposed. A dark blue hood came out from his poncho. Mercer kept it down around his neck, leaving his unkempt gunmetal gray hair fluttering lightly in the breeze. Mercer had the rest of his right arm covered with white bandages, but his right shoulder was now uncovered. Mercer's left arm was covered in padded leather armor. Mercer wore a single metal shoulder plate over his left shoulder, and a homemade shoulder plate made from fastened scrap metal over his right shoulder that seemed to serve as a fastener for his poncho. Mercer made sure that it didn't cover his right shoulder, however. The Mark of Naga on his right shoulder, the mark that proved who Mercer really was, was uncovered for the first time in decades. In Mercer's right hand was a sword. It was a sword Mercer hadn't wielded in thirty years, but it was a sword that had been with him his whole life nonetheless. The sword's hilt was covered in a thick layer of dust and cobwebs. Where Mercer wasn't grabbing the sword, it looked like it hadn't been touched in years. The sword's blade on the other hand was coated with dried blood. Mercer hadn't lifted so much as a finger to clean it, but he knew that his sword wouldn't be blunted. His sword was a divine weapon that had been wielded by his ancestors for millennia. It was indestructible. It wouldn't be dulled from lack of cleaning. Mercer wanted it to be covered with the remains of the men and women he had killed with it. He wanted the Grimleal agents in front of him to see what remained of their comrades. He wanted them to be afraid. Mercer's blue eyes gave a piercing stare to the men in front of him. In Mercer's heart was a passion that he hadn't felt since he was a far younger man, but in his eyes was a hatred that his younger self would have abhorred. "Try me." He growled.
The madam fled back into the brothel. The five Grimleal agents stood in shock at the sight of the man in front of them, and they were particularly intrigued by his birthmark as they stared at the brand on his arm. "It's, it's him! The legends are true! The leader of the Shepherds still lives!" One of the men shouted. Another man smiled mockingly.
"What? He couldn't go down with the men and women under his command?" Mercer didn't respond. He just tightened his grip on the Falchion and waited for one of the men to move first. One of the Grimleal agents stepped in front of the others.
"How does it feel to know that your daughter was more of a man than you are? At least she died on her feet. You'll die alone, you sad old man." Mercer's grip tightened even more, but he still didn't move. Another man stepped forward.
"Dying early runs in your blood, Chrom! Your mother and father, your sisters, your children, everyone related to you has died young! Are you the bastard in the family or something?" At this point Mercer was gripping his sword so tightly that his hand was shaking, but he still didn't move. The first man stepped even closer to Mercer.
"Come to see the girls, old man? Are they the only people that will spend any time with you?"
"No." Mercer snarled. He burst into a full sprint. As the men desperately fumbled for their weapons, Mercer ran onto a large rock in front of him and used it as a jumping point. He jumped into the closest man and kicked him to the ground with both of his legs. He quickly stabbed the man with the Falchion as he struggled to get Mercer off of him. "I'm just here to kill you people." Mercer then ducked to avoid an attack from another man. Mercer allowed the man to take another swing at him with his sword and dodged so that the man accidentally hit his comrade before grappling with him. He disarmed the man, maneuvered behind him, and then stabbed him with his own sword. As the man fell to his knees in agony, Mercer snapped his neck for good measure. Mercer then spun around and bashed a man in the face with the hilt of his sword as he tried to attack with a tome. Another man tried to charge Mercer with a spear, but Mercer grabbed the shaft and forced it out of his hand. He struck the man in the side of the head with the shaft, and then spun it around to strike the man in the neck with the head of the spear. As the man reeled backwards with blood spurting from his neck, Mercer stabbed him in the intestines with his sword and then forced the blade upwards to rupture the man's vital organs. Mercer coldly walked away and let the man's body shut down. He quickly glanced around and realized that only two men were left, the man that had been hit by his comrade's sword and the man that he had struck in the face. Mercer wanted to interrogate one of them, and he decided that the man with the bloody nose had a better chance of living than the man with the stab wound. Mercer walked over to the more injured man, sheathed his sword, and placed his boot on the man's throat. Mercer looked the Grimleal agent in the eye the entire time as he pressed downwards and crushed the man's neck. He waited until he was sure the man was dead before walking towards the remaining Grimleal agent. Mercer allowed the man to rise to his feet only to strike him in the face with the hilt of his sword again when he tried to reach for his tome. The man fell to the ground and desperately put his arm into the air.
"No more! No more! Please!"
Mercer pointed his sword at the man. "No more bullying. No more murdering children in the streets. No more oppression. I'm going to kill every one of you!"
"Please! No!"
"But I'm tired of killing henchmen." Mercer brought the tip of his sword to the man's neck. "Tell me where your boss is. Tell me where Courtney is right now, and you'll live a little longer."
"So you're saying everyone is gone but you? He done up and killed everyone else?"
The one Grimleal agent that Mercer had spared nodded vigorously at his leader. "Everyone! All of your lieutenants and agents! I'm the only one left! The old man didn't even clean his sword! It was still covered in blood! He's a damn monster!" Courtney hardly reacted to his agent's terrified description. He rested his hand on his cheek and gave the survivor a disinterested look.
"So, what, he just let you go? You're acting like he's a spirit out of hell come to kill us all, yet he just let you go out of the kindness of his heart?"
The man started trembling. "He wanted me to tell you that he was coming, and he didn't let me go unharmed." The man held out both of his hands. They were wrapped in bloody bandages, but it was obvious the man was now missing all ten of his fingers. "He said he never wanted me to use magic again."
Courtney's only response was to break out laughing. "S-So he cut off your f-fingers!" He giggled. "That's hilarious! I like this old bastard! He's got a sense of humor! Why couldn't he be on our side?"
The man decided to pretend that his leader had been more sympathetic. "That's the thing, boss. He would never be on our side. The legends are true." The man looked Courtney right in the eye. "The throneless prince still lives. He's been living right under our noses for years!"
"You're telling me Chrom is still alive? You're saying that he's coming to kill me then?"
"He's already here." Courtney and the Grimleal agent turned to see who had spoken. They found Mercer standing in front of the doorway leading to Courtney's chamber. The man Mercer had spared earlier broke and fled. Mercer paid him no mind. Courtney sat up in his chair and eyed the man. His lieutenant hadn't been lying. Mercer was holding a sword that appeared to be the Falchion, and it was coated in blood. Mercer's own clothing had light blood spatters on them. Courtney's gaze was drawn to the Mark of Naga on his right shoulder, and he also noticed the strands of dark blue in his otherwise gray hair. Courtney's eyes widened as he realized other similarities. The man left his right arm bare, covering it only with bandages. He wore a single metal shoulder plate. He also wore dark blue clothing. Courtney grinned from ear to ear.
"So the legends are true! You're still alive! Speak of the shadow dragon, we were just talking about you!" Courtney rose from his seat. "You know I heard the legends that you'd survived, but I never believed them. I always thought that Chrom loved the Shepherds too much to abandon them. He'd never run away. He'd go down fighting with them. I guess I was wrong. I guess you didn't want to stay with the men and women under you until the end." Courtney started to slowly approach Mercer. "Look how pathetic you've become. Blue bloods like you used to be in charge, but now rednecks like me are in power. Funny how things worked out."
"Why?" Mercer almost whispered, a subtle menace in his voice.
"Why? Why what?"
"Why did you kill Conrad and his little girl?"
Courtney shrugged. "Because I can?" He said as if the answer were completely obvious. In fact he acted like he was surprised Mercer didn't know. "Because I can get away with it. Because I'm the strongest man they is around these parts. I do what I want."
Mercer tightened his grip on the Falchion. "Well it's over now. Your reign ends here." Mercer's voice was almost completely flat, but hidden underneath his short and direct speech was a tranquil fury. Mercer was past reason. He was past any kind of negotiation or debate. He was going to kill Courtney and then go home. The second Courtney let his guard down, Mercer would butcher him like a feral animal and then go back to his quiet homestead. In Mercer's mind this was no war. It was simple punishment.
Courtney was a bit brighter than his agents, however. He knew what Mercer was trying to do. Instead the Grimleal landlord decided to take the opportunity to provoke Mercer into a blind rage. In that state he would make mistakes. "Younger members of the Grimleal like me weren't around when the Shepherds fell, but the older members passed down stories. They told us all about how each Shepherd died. Would you like to hear the stories? Maybe you could tell me how accurate they are."
Mercer's eye twitched uncontrollably.
"My favorite story about how the Shepherds died is Lucina's. I like it because she was just so damn tough. They say she took a lot of punishment before going down." Courtney snickered. "But in the end I guess she found it hard to keep fighting without any arms."
Mercer had to stop himself from yelling out.
"Another good one is Robin's. Robin couldn't die because they needed him to become the Hierophant, but that doesn't mean they couldn't incapacitate him. How'd they get him?" Courtney pretended that he couldn't remember. He put his hand on his chin. "Hmm oh that's right! They gouged out his eyes! It's not like he needed them as the Hierophant. Grima has eyes to spare."
The tip of the Falchion shook wildly as Mercer struggled to contain his rage. He was shaking with hatred of Courtney. It felt like his blood was going to boil right out of his skin.
"My least favorite story is Lissa's. Her death was just so violent." Courtney smiled even wider. "I like to think of myself as a strong man, but my stomach churns every time I hear how she died."
Mercer was now breathing like he'd sprinted all the way from his home. He desperately tried to keep his head, but his rage was now blinding. Killing Courtney's men and women hadn't eased Mercer's hatred. It only fueled it. It was boiling over now, and only Courtney's death could stop it. Mercer tried to himself that he was old and more vulnerable than he used to be. He tried to tell himself to wait for Courtney to leave an opening for him to exploit. He tried to tell himself that Courtney wanted him to just run forward and get himself killed. Nothing was working.
"Would you like to know what happened to the bodies? Let's just say there are parts of your family members circulating around the black market."
Mercer finally broke. "I'LL KILL YOOUUAARRGGG!" Mercer sprung forward and threw himself at Courtney. His righteous vengeance ended as soon as it began. Courtney quickly drew a Nosferatu tome and blasted Mercer with a bright flash of magical energy. Mercer fell to his knees in agony as the energy burned his flesh and drained his very life force. Mercer hadn't taken a magical blast like that in years, and he had completely lost his resistance to it. He vomited and convulsed as his body struggled to compensate for the sudden loss of energy. It was almost like he was going into shock, but it was his very life force rather than blood that Mercer's body had suddenly lost. He struggled just to look up.
"Oh come on, old man! Give me a good fight before you die! It's been years since I had someone cool to kill. I miss having real fights. Picking on peasants just isn't the same. There ain't no good warriors in the world no more. You're all I got, you pathetic old bastard. Get up and give me a good fight!" Mercer tried to rise to his feet. The pain was too much for him to handle, and he collapsed to his knees. Courtney shook his head. "Maybe you just need more encouragement. I could talk more about your dead friends, but I think I'd rather talk about your living ones."
"W-What?" Mercer groaned.
"There isn't a damn thing that goes on around here with me knowing it. My reach is intangible, but my grip is unbreakable. I know Tiki visits these parts regularly. We've known for years. We can't catch her though. She moves around often. We couldn't catch her unless we could know exactly where she'd be." Courtney gave an unnerving smile. "But now we know why she comes here! It's you, Chrom! She comes to see you! Once I kill you, I'll use you to lure her out. We'll capture her, and Gangrel will reward us greatly."
"N-No."
"And don't think it will end with her. We know about your little army, Chrom. We know about that scantily clad mage relative of yours, and her pink haired mercenary friend. Don't think they'll get away from me. I'll bring them back in chains right where you're kneeling, and we're going to have a hell of a time!"
"NO!" Mercer shot up. Courtney blasted him with another attack from his tome, but Mercer used the Falchion to absorb most of the energy. The attack was still painful, but Mercer started to regain his resistance. The familiar sting of magical energy was now something that he was capable of withstanding. The pain caused his mind to flashback to when he had taken countless magical attacks as a younger man. Mercer slowly began to regain resolve he hadn't had in decades. Mercer stood up straighter and clutched his sword more tightly. For an instant he was a young man again. Courtney only smiled even wider.
"Yes! Get up, old man! Give me a good fight!" Courtney wielded his tome in one hand, and he drew a levin sword with the other. Lightning cracked and arced off the blade, and dust and small particles began to levitate around Courtney as magical energy surged through him. "Show me what you would have done to people like me thirty years ago!" Both Mercer and Courtney roared and charged at each other.
It was a quiet morning in Mercer's town when Mercer finally made his way back home. Mercer's clothing was ripped and torn, but also burned, and he was absolutely coated with dried blood. His skin was covered in cuts and gashes, and he also had scorch marks all over him. Patches of his hair had apparently been ripped out, and his arms had electrical burns on them. Mercer had also covered the Mark of Naga on his shoulder with bandages again.
Nobody in town paid much attention to Mercer as he made his way back to the town square. There he saw something that he had dreaded to find, though deep down he knew they would still be there. Conrad and his daughter were still lying in the square. At this point the corpses were badly decomposed. The bodies were bloated and muscle and bone were visible. Maggots writhed around, gorging themselves on decaying flesh, and it was clear that birds and mammals had also been picking on the bodies at night. The stench was excruciating, but the townspeople paid no mind to them. They simply gave them a wide berth and went about their day. Everyone in the square did stop and stare at Mercer when he walked over to the bodies, however. He walked up to the body of Conrad's young daughter and knelt beside her. Mercer completely ignored the decomposition and picked up her corpse. Even as maggots fell into his clothing, Mercer cradled the body as if the girl were sleeping and he was trying not to wake her up. He stood up and started to walk away. At this point everyone in the square was staring nervously at Mercer. Donald the bartender emerged from the crowd and approached him.
"I told you they'd kill anyone who buried them!"
"We don't have to worry about that anymore."
"Why not?"
"Because there's nobody left to kill us." Mercer brushed by Donald and slowly made his way to the town's local cemetery. Mercer walked almost a kilometer to his destination, the girl's body in his arms the entire time. Mercer didn't stop until he was at the very outskirts of the cemetery. He gently placed the girl on the ground and retrieved a shovel. By himself he started digging into the earth. Mercer didn't stop digging until he heard a wagon coming up from behind him. He turned to find the townspeople bringing Conrad's body to the cemetery. They smiled at him, and he gave a solemn smile back. Together Mercer and the townspeople dug two graves for Conrad and his daughter. They made makeshift crosses from wood to mark the graves, and then the gathered townspeople had an impromptu funeral for the two. Nobody had much to say, so Mercer stepped in front of the graves and addressed the crowd.
"I didn't know Conrad and his little girl very well. I only talked to him once, and I'd only seen him a few times before that. He was a stupid kid. He was just a dumb, stupid kid." The townspeople glanced at each other as they listened to Mercer seemingly insult the dead. "But that's normal. He was a young man. He had girls on the mind and not much else. His daughter seemed to want her father's attention more than anything. She was a little girl. That's normal. They were two normal people, and they deserved a normal life. Life's not fair though." Mercer took a deep breath. "People often say that life isn't fair. They're right. It isn't. When people say that though, they're usually defending their horrible actions. It wasn't life that killed Conrad and his little girl. It was the Grimleal." Mercer paused and collected himself. "The world has been dying ever since Grima took over. For all the evil that the Fell Dragon does though, Grima didn't kill Conrad and his little girl. It was the Grimleal. The Grimleal did this because they could. They did it because they thought they could get away with it. For all the horrible things that exist in the world, we can never forget that human evil is always present. Human evil and depravity killed Conrad and his little girl." Mercer turned to the two graves. "I guess what I'm trying to say is that Conrad and his daughter were two normal people. In a better world they would have lived normal lives. Our world is dominated by human evil though. It's just not compatible with people like them anymore. Conrad and his daughter deserved so much more than what this world gave them." Mercer turned back to the crowd. "I didn't know Conrad and his daughter very well, but I will never forget them. To me they will always symbolize the normalcy that this world isn't compatible with anymore. To me they will always symbolize the human evil that will always exist, and this new world order allows it to reign without limitations. People like them will continue to suffer if we forget that. I will never forget that it is the evil done by men and women that has destroyed the world the most."
Mercer was the last to leave the funeral. He made his way back to his house, stepped inside, and slumped down in a chair. He let out a loud moan as he finally realized just how many injuries he'd taken in the several days he spent hunting the Grimleal. Mercer closed his eyes and let his body pass into unconsciousness. When he awoke, he found a familiar pink haired face staring at him. "Aww, he's so cute when he sleeps! Too bad he has to wake up and go back to his old grumpy self."
"Gaah!" Mercer fell out of his chair and looked up to see Ophelia, Soleil, and Tiki in his living room. Tiki held out an elixir.
"Chrom you didn't?!" She asked nervously. Mercer took the elixir and drank. Immediately he felt much better. Now he felt old, tired, and half-dead instead of old, tired, half-dead, and sore.
"I did. All of them. This chapter is finished."
Soleil whistled. "Remind me not to get him mad!" Her smiled faded. "I hate to ruin your righteous vengeance, but this isn't over. They'll send a new landlord. They'll send Enforcers. They'll come for this town."
Mercer sat back down. "Then I'll deal with them."
Tiki looked at Mercer sadly as she realized what he was getting at. "So you'll just keep fighting them until you die."
"Yep."
"This is going to be a form of suicide then?"
Mercer nodded. "Death in battle would be honorable. I won't be dishonoring the Shepherds this way."
"You can't do this, Chrom! You can't just give up!"
Ophelia shook her head, refusing to listen to what she was hearing. "Come on, Mercer! You can't do this! We need you! You said you wouldn't fight the Grimleal, but you just did! You don't have to throw your life away! Fight them with us!"
"If I follow you people, I will be throwing my life away."
"What about the Falchion, Chrom!" Tiki exclaimed. "Will you just let it fall into their hands?!"
Mercer shrugged. "I don't have my baby girl anymore. There's no one to inherit it from me anymore. There's no one to pass on the Hero King's blood. I'll just use it to take as many of them as I can with me before I die."
Ophelia looked hurt. "What… what about me?"
Mercer was apathetic. "Just wait for some hero to come along and fix everything. That's what Tiki believes anyways. Some hero will just appear and save the world just like in the legends."
Tiki stepped closer to Mercer. "A hero has come along."
"Please, Mercer!" Ophelia pleaded. "The world still needs you."
Mercer just stood up and shook his head. "The world is dead, girl. Just let yourself die with it. It'll be easier this way." Mercer tried to walk into his bedroom, but Soleil and Ophelia sprinted in front of him. Mercer turned to Tiki. "Make them move!"
"They really want to help the world, Chrom. They won't take no for an answer."
Ophelia dropped to her knees and put her hands together. "Please help us! I'm not asking you to defeat the Grimleal or train me with the Falchion right now! I just need your help with another problem."
"You'll ask me eventually."
"It's Caeldori. Remember how we told you about her? We're going to go get her, and we just want to make sure we can handle any Grimleal agents that we come across. That's all!"
Mercer thought about it. "So you just want to save another one of your friends?"
"We shouldn't even need to save her. She should be fine. I just want to make sure. Please! That's all I'm asking!"
Mercer sighed. He thought about Courtney and the Grimleal agents. He remembered their taunting. He thought about what they might do to a young woman they suspected of resisting their rule. He couldn't shake the thoughts from his head. "Alright, alright." Mercer looked down at his Falchion. "Just let me clean this thing off first."