I adjusted a bit of dialogue that really didn't make sense. Future!Nick isn't fourty, but thirty-four. I was tired as hell and in a coffe-high at the same time and mis-wrote, but yeah. Sorry for the misunderstanding.

Chapter 13: Plegian beatdown

After a while of flying, I realized that there was no use in rushing. They probably took a while to get there, even on forced march, so I slowed Zephyr's full on gallop into a steady trot, much to his apparent annoyance. As my faithful (pff) steed slowed down, I started to analyze the events up from when I reached the Shepherd's garrison. I woke up in my bed, tied down, and Chrom, Lissa and Sully were acting like they usually do. No surprises there. Then Lissa forced another divination, this time while focusing on the future, and then she broke down crying for some reason. As is, I have no idea why, exactly. She must've seen something shocking that she decided to erase. Then everyone started acting weird around me. So, what might've happened that she told them to stay wary of me? I can only imagine that I killed someone important. Did I accidently kill a Shepherd or something? That's a horrifying thought.

I looked down at the ground. We were about 200 ft in the air, high enough that a fall would kill me. I have no idea if this is the maximum that Zephyr can go or if he's simply comfortable like this. We had passed Southtown a few minutes ago, so that meant that we should be nearing our destination soon. The plan would, likely, be to swoop in so that I can give Zephyr with my rescue staff to Maribelle and let her fly away with Ricken, so that she can later Rescue me while I fend off some plegians. While it would be nice, I doubt that they have kept her horse around, even though in the game they did. But it would honestly make no sense. And it would make even less sense if Ricken simply prepared a horse for her, since he was going for stealth. After that I'll just leave it to mah boi Robin to fix us with a good plan since he's the tactician and all (and since my earlier plans sucked)

I was brought out of my musings as the mountains of the border come into view. "Zephyr, could you go around the mountains so that we may pass unnoticed?" I ask the horse. He snorted before complying, going over the mountains as we went along them. Within minutes, the pass came into view.

It really wasn't anything impressive. Just a natural made tactical point that separated Plegia from Ylisse, going uphill. You'd think that with the previous Exalt razing Plegia to the ground he would've at least taken this point, but nope. Nuh-uh. This point belongs to Plegia.

In the distance, from my tactical point (which is about across the whole fucking map from where Maribelle is) I can see Gangrel and Emmeryn parleying about Maribelle's freedom. She tries to reason, he mocks her, blah blah blah, Oh! Fighters coming out of the fort! And Chrom has taken them down… Yup, there's Ricken coming to the rescue, and I should probably take off now, shouldn't I?

"Go! We gotta save them!" I shout. The plegian mage in front of us turns around, but there's little that he can do aside from shouting in surprise. I'm too high up in the air for him to do something. As I'm about to descend, I see Aversa vanishing, signalling the start of the map. She actually literally vanished. Like, zoom, and she's no longer there. Zephyr decides to take a nosedive onto the nearest plegian, who is just too shocked to do something other than stare at the incoming horsetrain. As Zephyr lands on him with his hooves knocking him unconscious, I wave to catch Ricken and Maribelle's attention. After a short moment of staring at me in disbelief as I dismount, their expressions turn to downright horrified as they stare at me. Or rather, behind me. As I take notice of the fact that a plegian snuck behind me, I feel the rush of the wind as Lon'qu's blade deflects the bandit's axe. I hesitate for a moment before smashing my lance's bladed tip into his skull, where it doesn't meet nearly any resistance. Holy fuck this weapon's amazing.

"I remember telling you that the battlefield's no place for kids." Lon'qu says, his annoyance so thick that it's almost visible on that poker face. "And I remember not giving a flying fuck." I snap at him before turning back towards the plegians. All the rage and bitterness that I felt towards the shepherds came back in full force, and damn if I don't need some plegians to direct it towards. To both my great relief and annoyance, a myrmidon and a fighter come out of the fort near us, answering my unspoken prayer. I dash towards the myrmidon, closing the gap between up as he tries to go in with a Iai technique that promptly meets my side. As he's went rather deep with his swords, I bash his face with my shield until he stops gripping his sword, that sadly remains in my side thanks to the jagged edge. I go in with a kick in the chest and he's out for the count. I honestly would like to kill the least amount possible of them, but I won't disillusion myself in thinking that I can fight in a war without killing people. But still. Hope for the best, prepare for the worst and all that. I turned to Lon'qu who was just done skewering a dark mage and a bandit, since for now the coast was clear in the fort we were stationed in.

"So, what's the plan Mr. I-hate-children?" I asked with an annoyed expression. "Robin told me to hold this fort and make sure that no enemies get this point." He replied, sheating his katana (killing edge? I have no idea) while not paying me any attention. I scowled and turned towards one of the four openings that the fort had, but as I did that I felt a rush of air and realised that I was no longer there. Instead, I was in the air again, looking north as a wyvern rider started circling around our location before engaging in an aerial brawl with Sumia, who avoided him with mastery by diving before going upwards and spearing the wyvern in the wing, causing it to fall to the ground and roll off the cliff towards us. Sadly, the rider was still alive and somehow awake, so Sumia had to go down to the ground to finish him off.

I looked at the rest of our squad while I try to ignore the slew of insults I receive from Maribelle for being so careless, and I see that Chrom was doing a fantastic job at following up the disruption caused by the two horsemen (Frederick, and Sully) entering and exiting continuously the enemy ranks and quickly making them into mincemeat. Lissa was working furiously on a wound Stahl had gotten himself not too far away from us, looking paler than yesterday. I saw Kellam just standing there while a mage inside a fort wondered why he couldn't fit through the door, before he simply punched him in the face with a clean knockout. Maribelle had dropped to the ground so that she could better heal me and was getting done with the wound, Ricken provided ground support, and Sumia was currently applying some vulnerary to her bleeding side.

"Oi, if you wanna stay here it's fine, but I'm heading out to help the others." I said, to which I received only a turned nose. Right, asshole. I rushed towards the others as the enemy commander blew a whistle and five wyvern riders popped out of the forts. Shit. "Marth, Roy, Assist me!" I shouted. I felt the gut wrenching sensation I felt the first time, and boy was I feeling weak. I must've been more drained than I thought before. As they rushed at Chrom's side, I was holding onto my lance for support while trying to fight the sensation of nausea as I felt my magic being tugged out of me forcefully. I focused and noticed that Marth was draining a lot more energy than Roy was. Most of it was going towards Chrom's falchion, who stopped as he noticed that his falchion started glowing. "This power…" He then turned towards the enemy boss who was currently looking very scared and like he wanted to be anywhere else entirely. Marth stood beside his descendant as they nodded to one another, and they both said "Your end has come!" And cut through him entirely.

I fell to my knees as the power cut from me and I had to retire Marth, but it was still enough to wrap the fightings up. Roy, together with Sumia, Chrom and Frederick finished the reimaining men and the rest retreated together with Gangrel. "Note to self… never, never use Marth in the presence of a Falchion user…" I said. I was not quite passing out, but my head was spinning and I really felt like my stomach wanted desperately to empty itself. I closed my eyes, and an indefinite amount of time passed before I felt a presence kneel before me. I opened my eyes to see it was Robin, whom I hadn't seen for the whole battle. Was he in the back giving orders?

"Heya." I said. He offered a hand to pull me to my feet. "Hey yourself." He said. "How are the others?" I asked. "Well…" and then he started recounting the others' status. To put it simply, Sumia was injured in the side from a scuffle with a wyvern rider who had nearly gotten her arm, Maribelle had simple motion sickness and said that she hated pegasi, my pride was wounded because I had made a big deal out of the starting units and severely underestimated Lon'qu's ability to close the gap between the Shepherds and ourselves, and both Ricken and Lissa were down with exhaustion, one from having ran from Ylisstol all the way here (I had to facepalm at this point, and the sentiment was reciprocated from him) and the other from healing too much despite her being already exhausted from the day before. Overall, we had gotten off pretty much scott free.

"Also, you're not being chewed out by Chrom just because he did not explicitly tell you not to come, even though that was the initial intention. That, and because he's too busy, what with speaking with the friend you brought with you and chewing out his sister and Ricken." Robin said casually. I sighed. "Yeah… by the way, do you have any idea WHY exactly everyone's being a fucking weirdo? I'm getting tired of their attitude." Night was drawing near, and everyone was setting camp. I had no idea how to do it anyways, so I wasn't. Not that I had brought anything with me. I'd probably rather be sleeping under the sky, anyways. While it sucks anyways, with all the ground crawlers and stuff, there'd probably be no rains (there weren't in the game anyways) and the only time I tried a tent I was having a claustrophobic attack. So yeah, no thanks.

As I focused on Robin again, I noticed that he was regarding me with an unreadable expression, carefully measuring his words, before he said "Did nobody tell you?" At the shake of my head, he continued with "Well… the divination said you would die at the hands of the Plegians. I guess nobody simply wanted to give you the bad news." I stared at Robin, my eyes shooting wide open. That made so much sense! Lissa crying on me despite never having been friends with me, all the shepherds avoiding me, Sumia not wanting me to go out, Lon'qu telling me to give up fighting… wait, that might've just been him being a dick, but the rest fit! And Lucina wasn't affected by this because she firmly believes that fate can be changed! Now I get it! But still…

"Well, that's a damn shame." I said to Robin, shrugging. "That's all? Your death got announced and all you're gonna say is "Well, that's a damn shame"?!" Robin shouts, looking like he wants to pull his hair out.

"Somewhere in the future I die, big deal. That kinda comes with the profession. We'll just have to plan in advance, right?" I said to Robin. I saw the gears in his head visibly turning before he snapped his fingers. "Right! Of course! How did this never occur to me!" before he storms off to make his tent while he mutters unintelligibly.

Well…

Now what? Everyone's putting down tents and stuff. Should I help someone? Nah. Everyone seems busy enough without me bothering them. I'm not naïve enough to think that I might actually be of some help, what with not knowing how to make a tent. I close my eyes, focusing on the mana thread that is currently still eating away at my mana, but not fast enough that I cannot replenish it if I don't do strenuous magical work. I follow it up to Chrom's tent, where I hear him basically making a basic bitch out of both Ricken and Lissa.

"How could you be so reckless, Ricken! You rushed behind enemy lines, unguarded! Imagine what would've happened if Nick and Lon'qu weren't there!" I snorted. Probably then it would be the canon 1st time. But I digress.

"Chrom aren't you maybe being a bit too harsh…?" Lissa quietly said, trying to appease her brother. "Oh, don't try to excuse him Lissa, you're at fault as well here!" Chrom barked. "In the condition you were in you shouldn't have come with us to begin with, let alone walk the battlefield!" While Chrom continues to chew out Lissa, I see Ricken quietly sneak out of the tent. "Sup." I say as I raise a hand in a greeting gesture before trying (and failing) to return them to my pockets, so I let them limp weirdly to the ground. He jumps in the air before looking at me with a pitying expression. "H-hello." He says. I sigh. "Relax, dude, I already know about my death sentence. But why should I, and most importantly, you, stress over it when something can be done instead?" He stares at me curiously for a second before sighing "You're right. Everyone's been taking this a bit out of hand. We all know that death is a possibility in our job, but…"

I place a hand on his shoulder. Which looks rather awkward because I'm slightly shorter than him, sitting at 5'2 to his 5'3 with the hat. But nevertheless. "Don't worry, I'm not gonna die. Now, how about we introduct ourselves properly?" I grin at him as he realizes that he doesn't even know my name.

I extend my hand towards him "My name's Nicholas, but you can call me Nick. Everyone does anyways." He takes my hand and shakes it. "Ricken."

And I've gone and made myself a new friend. Great. What will happen when (if) I go back to my old world? I'm basically dead to it. And even if I had a way to go, would I? I'm not even talking about the fight in the mind between these guys and my family, because if I could I would choose the latter in a heartbeat. Nothing would beat having my brother here. But…

Here I have mana. To put it simply, this shit is addictive. Aside from the simple knowledge that I can flip off the laws of physics (that's what magic is all about) this thing is allowing me to pull off inhuman feats of strength, speed and brain processing. I'm basically being made into a superman from the little that I had. So, if I went back home, would I have mana? Could I feel the comforting presence of it under my skin, protecting me against sickness and enemy magic? Would I be able to sense other people's presences around me? My world doesn't have mana. What if I experience withdrawal from it? For all I know, I could die a painful death if I step into a world that drains me of my mana. Yeah. It's best to stay here. Even if I can never meet my family ever again…

I hadn't even realized I started crying before Ricken placed a hand on my shoulder the same way I did before. Maybe things wouldn't be so bad if I just ignored everything. Yeah. Fake it till you make it, right?

I end up unconsciously severing the mana link from Roy as we head back for dinner. Since it was a hard battle (not in my opinion) we had Stahl cooking for us. At least I had something to look forward to.


After we conquered this position and enemies would no longer be able to pour into Ylisse, and after generic looking mooks came to take our place in defending the place, we decided to head back to Ylisstol acting as Emmeryn's guard, since the battlefield was no place for Emmeryn.

Lissa had gotten better and no longer looked like a stiff breeze could make her keel over, and after Robin talked some sense into the Shepherds (it was actually pretty awkward as I was standing off to the side and Robin pretty much forced the spotlight on me as he said that we were gonna change the future and Lucina started clapping while everyone else was just awkwardly saying sorry and stuff) she actually came up to me and told me that she was going to do anything in her power to prevent my death, and for anything I needed to count on her. I was like "Okay, sure" and that was that.

After my relations with the shepherds pretty much returned to the status quo (where I would occasionally hang with either Kellam, Sumia, occasionally Vaike and now Ricken while continuing "Magic 101 with Miriel" where Ricken would occasionally chime in and simplify some of the concepts on the fine art of telling reality to go screw itself) I was neared by Chrom and asked just what the hell was that with Roy and Marth, and I told them that I had become a summoner. And well… It's better if you see for yourself.

"Well… uhm…" I said to the entirety of the shepherds in the dining hall. Even Miriel had decided to dine with us since I had announced my grand reveal of the three entities.

Everyone was staring at me expectantly. Even Frederick and Lon'qu, who were doing their very best at looking uninterested, couldn't help but look. I sighed, before deciding 'Fuck it'. "You know what? It's best if I let them introduce themselves. Although, one by one, since I've learned that it's too draining to summon twice at once." I chuckled awkwardly as a book came sailing very close to my head while Miriel looked around innocently, even going as far as whistling. "So everyone, this is the other Einherjar that you haven't met, Hauteclere!" and then she came out of my pocket and next to me. She took a look at everyone before sighing and whispering "what have you gotten yourself into?" and I whispered back "Please play along." I chuckled awkwardly once again.

She sighed, before saying "So. I'm Hauteclere. 2034 years old. Probably the best blacksmith you have ever met and will ever meet." I had to use all of my willpower to keep myself from facepalming. Surprisingly though, Frederick strode onwards with a smug look on his face before saying "Really? Would you say that you can make a better weapon than the Falchion that milord has in his hands right now?" Oh Frederick. You don't know what you're talking about. She simply regarded him with an annoyed expression before saying "Already did. That piece of work that the kid is wearing and his lance already are better than that butter knife." Somehow I doubt that, but somehow, I don't. I have no idea if my lance is better than Falchion, since I don't know how strong Truesteel is when compared to Naga's fang. It sure is a lot less magic. Neverthless, "Nonsense! The divine Falchion was made from the fangs of Naga itself! Nothing can resist its power!"

The only thing that Hauteclere did however was snort and take the shield from me. "Well then. Want a demonstration? Come on blue, try to destroy this thing." Oh come on, now that was just unfair. Maybe the awakened Falchion would've had a chance, but this? This was just an exercise in futility.

Chrom got up and started hitting with Falchion the shield, who started glowing to try and withstand its power, and after a while he somersaulted back ("Showoff" I muttered under my breath) before shouting "Luna!" and dashing towards Hauteclere. The results were… Interesting. To be fair, the shield DID halt Chrom's momentum and didn't have a scratch on it.

On the other hand, Hauteclere herself…

"Shitbiscuits!" She shouted as she clutched her now broken arm and let the shield drop to the ground. "I'll hand it to ya blue, you're strong. Damn… this hurts like a bitch. Gonna go ahead and dismiss myself, kay?" and then she was gone. The room was silent as the only sound present was Stahl scarfing down the now 4th portion of food while everyone was wide eyed and looking at me.

"*cough cough* Riiight… for our second guest, Roy, the prince of Pherae!" I summoned him. I felt the familiar tug as the Einherjar invited himself over in our realm. Since she didn't get the chance earlier, Miriel jumped from her seat to go and analyze him. "Interesting… while being channelled through the card you make a mana construct capable of sentience… this is truly an amazing spell." She said, fixing the glasses on her nose before being pulled back by Ricken whom I gave a grateful nod towards.

"Hello. I am Roy, prince of Pherae." The whole place was mute. "Well? You asked for me to summon him, what do you want?!" I ground out. I was getting annoyed. They're using MY mana and wasting MY time here! Thankfully, Ricken decided to speak up. "How are you capable of remaining alive?" He asked Roy. I guess he was just being treated as a generic Einherjar since nobody here knew about Elibe. Luckily, he took no offense in it, and with a smile began explaining "Part of our spirit has been sealed away in the cards when we died, and we rely on our summoner's life force so that we may stay alive for however long it takes for us to do our tasks. Sadly, we are but shadows of our original selves."

Robin's question came next – "Do you retain your own will or are you forced to work for your master regardless of what they ask of you?" And woah Robin why are you glaring at me I did nothing wrong wow

"While we follow our master's orders, we will never do something that goes against our moral code. For example, unless attacked I would never harm Lilina, or any innocent to begin with." That explains his hesitation in the battle. It sadly cost him his life, but whatever. Robin gave a satisfied hum and sit back down. Did he think I actually used the Einherjars as slaves? I'm wounded.

"How did Nick get access to you?" Chrom asked. I guess he was worried about potential allies in battle, what with us being in a war.

"Well, it was a mere coincidence. An evil sorcerer named Aversa" here Chrom and Maribelle's faces turned angry, remembering the bitch that pretty much just started a war "Stole us Einherjar from our former guardian, and scattered us all around the world. I have no idea where the others are, but you may meet them randomly. The most of us are, however, unaware of our condition and believe to be real people." He finished with a frown.

"Any other questions?" I asked. When it turned to be negative, I simply decided to dismiss Roy. I felt the mana come back to me, before bellowing in a much higher voice "And now, ladies and gentlemen, the moment you were all waiting for! The cremè de la crop, the real star, or should I say lodestar? Prince Marth of Altea!" And after setting out all that hype, of course something had to go wrong. Namely, the fact that I had somehow managed to forget that summoning Marth in the presence of Chrom was not a good idea, so I keeled over as the blue headed prince started taking out ten times the mana he usually needed, just to channel it into Falchion, who transformed again in its temporary Awakened (roll credits) form. "G-go on. Ask a-a-away." I stammered out before dropping to the floor clutching my head. Lissa was rushing towards me, but I stretched out a hand and said "I'm fine. J-just make it quick, mkay?" I said. Then the magical burden lightened by a lot, and even though it still felt heavier than Roy's or Hauteclere, I still couldn't quite stand up without hurling, but it was better. I noticed Marth had dismissed his Falchion and was simply standing there.

After confirming that I was fine, Lucina went into fangirl mode. "Are you the real hero king? What did princess Caeda look like? May I see the Falchion? How did it change over the years? Can you autograph my sword?" All in one breath. I had noticed that Lucina felt a lot less "Bound by duty" than her canon self, and I wondered if it was because she didn't have to take a commanding position. It would certainly explain why she's so… Hyper, right now. Chrom and Lissa were too stunned to talk, while everyone else was muttering between themselves. However, one presence beat them all.

"Forgive the sudden entrance. It was not my intention to interrupt this moment, but perhaps a family reunion is in order?" The exalt herself said from the doorway. Still graceful as ever, walking towards where Marth was. Her aura of simple peace of mind and making people feel safe was downright intoxicating and I had to consciously fight to keep myself from falling asleep then and there from a mix of the aura and exhaustion caused by my summons. "I believe I've never had the pleasure of meeting you personally Your Grace. I would bow down, but yknow." I stared down at my body to get my point across. To be fair, all she did was chuckle at my lack of respect while everyone else was gaping. I'm experiencing mana withdrawal though, so I'm excused. Suck it up Freddie. At least emptying my magical tank like this, nearly every day is doing miracles for my coils. Now I could probably cast a basic wind spell without causing internal bleeding. Yay.

"If possible, Mr. Nick, may I borrow the card? I feel like there's so much that can be learned from the past." Emmeryn asked. I made a gesture of awkwardly shrugging because of my position on the ground, "If he's okay with it." I turned questioningly towards Marth, who simply nodded in response. "Eh, sure." I withdrew Marth who came back to my hand before getting up and handing him to Emmeryn. "Your Grace, if I may pass out now?" I asked. She simply regarded me with a curious expression.

"G'night everyone…" I said as I passed out. My days seemed to be filled with a lot of that lately.

Woo! 10k worth of words in one update! I'm gonna go ahead and pass out myself. (jk) So, we got chapter 5 out of the way, and even though the fight might be disappointing, keep track of the fact that I cannot play Lunatic for shiet so I can't quite measure enemy strength. I played on hard, and the enemies were easy as pie here. Things DO get a lot harder by the time the Walhart arc kicks in, so my story's gonna follow that. Fights won't be anticlimactic, but yknow. Can't lie to myself (or to you) and say the game was hard at this point. I get the feeling that the plegian army was simply enrolling random men, because I have NO DOUBT that they couldn't have trained soldiers like Ylisse does after the whole razing to the ground. Most of the reason the Plegia war dragged out was because Gangrel is a devil with a silver tongue, making people think that he's fighting the good fight and all. I have no doubt that some of the reason the war stopped was because of Emmeryn, but truly, it's like cutting a snake's head. They killed Gangrel, and the Plegian had no one to follow anymore. Emmeryn simply planted the seed of doubt, and she coulda done that alive no prob.

Also, for all of you Donnel fans out there, I'm really sorry to disappoint but he's not gonna play a great part in this war. While I don't doubt that his growth is immense, it's just unreasonable and an insult to storywriting that I can just pick a farmer off the ground and turn him into a man killing machine in less than a month. (*coff coff* Hypocrite *coff coff*) We are tough gonna see a lot of him in the Walhart arc, so don't worry! I won't forget about him.

That's all for these author notes, here's the updated stats, toodles!

Ninni51, out. *drops mic*

Nick

Lv 13 Exp 06

Class: Soldier

Hp: 12/27 65%

Str: 14 50%

Mag:13 55%

Skl: 15 60%

Spd: 17 60%

Lck: 8 45%

Def: 9 (+5) 30%

Res: 19 (+5) 65%

Skills:

-Riposte

-Toss

Items:

Uruz Mt 19 Hit 80 Rng 1 Crit 5% Skill Miracle+

Algiz Mt 8 Hit 65 Rng 1-2 Crit 0% +5 Def +5 Res when unequipped

Supports:

Miriel: B

Kellam: C

Marth: C

Roy: C

Ricken: C

Marth

Lodestar, Lv 18 Exp 00

Hp: 34

Str: 17

Mag: 3

Skl: 25

Spd: 23 60%

Lck: 23 70%

Def: 15 35%

Res: 11 20%

Skills:

-Gentle Blade

-Charm

Inventory:

-Phantom Falchion: Mt 8 Hit 85% Effective againt dragons. Holds only a fraction of its original power.

Supports:

Caeda: S

Nick: C

Roy

Lv 12 Exp 34

Class: Mercenary

Hp: 30 85%

Str: 14 55%

Mag:1 35%

Skl: 15 70%

Spd: 14 55%

Lck: 7 55%

Def: 8(+2) 40%

Res: 9 25%

Skills:

-Dual Strike+

-Aegis

-Patience

Inventory:

Roy's Blade: Mt 10 34/40 Hit 90% Bonus +2 to Defense

Vulnerary 3/3

Supports:

Nick: C

Lilina: S