27th of Lone Moon, Imperial Year 1184
Elibe and Valm border
Between the Northernmost point of the continent of Elibe and the Southernmost point of the continent of Valm is the Hauteclere Strait, named after the axe of legend. This strait is rarely traveled, as the Northern point of Elibe is part of Ilia, a snowy and inhospitable region. However, it is also the strait that divides the relatively calm waters of the Eastern Dragon Sea from the rough and deadly Westward Sea of Ghosts.
Today, near the end of an Imperial Year however, a single ship traverses the strait from Elibe towards the Emblem Crossing. The small sea that separates Valm from Ylisse. On the ship are Lyn, Heath, Roy, Lugh, Wolt, Fir, Idunn, Melady, Echidna and Lilina. After hearing about an invading force coming from a new landmass in the Sea of Ghosts, this brave band aims to inform the Allied Council in Ylisse about the danger.
They do not yet know that they aren't alone.
Wolt is the first to spot the approaching vessel, "Ship ahead! It's flying Valmese colors!"
Lyn looks upwards to Wolt in the crow's nest of the ship before looking over the bow of the ship to spot the foreign vessel approaching from the mist, "Hail them. It's not safe here!"
Fir nods in agreement and blows into a horn to hail the approaching ship for communication. However, the other ship does not respond.
Roy looks to Lyn, "They definitely should be able to hear us. What's going on, do you suppose?"
Melady steps up, "They haven't gone mad like others, have they?"
Lyn thinks on this, "It's possible, prepare everyone for-"
The sound of a horn reaches their ears. This was not a simple hailing signal though… This was a war horn, and it came from an Ylissean ship exiting the fog.
The Valmese and Ylissean ships are joined by additional ships from Plegia, Regna Ferox, Roseanne and Chon'sin. A naval battle was about to begin…
On the Plegian capital ship, Gangrel stewed in resentment. Someone had tipped off the Ylisseans, and the fact he couldn't contact his Dark Council meant they had likely defected back to the Ylisseans.
Gangrel smirked, it hardly mattered at this point anyways. Plegia was the premiere naval power in the world, they couldn't be matched in open sea warfare, "Prepare to ram the enemy vessels!"
Lyn watches on as the Plegian and Valmese ships attack the combined forces of Ylisse, Chon'sin, Regna Ferox and Roseanne, "Wh-what do we do?"
Heath looks to the horizon, "The ghost pirates could arrive any day now. We have to end this battle as soon as possible, or these soldiers and ships are doomed."
Lyn thinks on this, "Rowers! Get us to the Ylissean capital ship! I'll speak with their leader!"
Walhart watches Lyn's ship from the bridge of his capital Valmese ship. These were wild card players of some sort, and he didn't like the idea of them interfering. However, a single ship was not likely to change the course of the battle. Those strange towers on the Ylissean and Feroxian ships… That was a cause for concern, "What is that meddlesome tactician up to now..?"
What Robin, on the capital Ylissean ship with Lucina, had planned was unleashed when the Plegian ships got close enough.
The newly minted towers, which Robin called 'swivel gangways', fell onto the enemy vessels as they approached and lodged into the vessels with a massive metal spike on the tower's top. These gangways then created bridges that allowed the Ferox and Ylissean troops to turn naval battles into army battles.
This was an evolution of a tactic Robin himself had used to defeat the superior Valmese calvary during the last war, but the simple planks and hooks used now became an engineering masterstroke.
Walhart is frankly, astounded by the continuing evolution of tactics, and also realizes swiftly that this was bad news for his and Gangrel's forces. His superior calvary can't do an effective job at sea, and Gangrel's tactics of ramming vessels were now rendered useless.
Blades clash as the troops encounter one another, and the first battle of a new war is fought in the strait. Echidna takes the helm of the Elibean ship, navigating through the dense clash of naval vessels as men are cut down, arrows fly, and magic rips through wood and flesh alike. Nah, Gerome, Owain, Inigo, Severa, Noire and Yarne, the youngest soldiers of the Ylissean forces, join the fray as well.
"Cover me Noire!" Owain shouts as he boards a Valmese vessel and leaps over the side.
Noire quickly gets her bow and clutches the amulet that gives her courage, "I-I've got you, Owain… Blood and thunder!" Her nervous expression changes on a dime as her bowstring is pulled back and she fires an arrow that lodges in the forehead of a knight aiming for Owain with his lance.
Owain then finds himself face to face with an enemy general he knew… Ignatius. A deceptively cruel man, "By the honor of my bloodline… I'll stop your invasion here!"
Ignatius sneers, "Traitor! You and your parents turn on your homeland as if we were mere dung! This is the second, and last time that Plegia will harbor your poison! Draw your weapon and die!" Vasto brings out a silver lance that cuts through the morning mist with its glow.
Owain considers drawing his axe, but a closer look reveals that this was no ordinary silver lance. Ignatius held an axereaver, a lance designed specifically to counter the advantages an axe would have over a lance. Instead, Owain draws a dark tome from behind him, "Fine, but don't say I didn't warn you… For Owain Dark, shall now unleash the full might of his fell blood upon you!" Dark magic circles around the tome and Owain's feet as he channels the magic of ruin. Owain was no longer a mere mercenary, he was a Dread Fighter, skilled in the use of magic as well as axes and swords, and extensive training with his father, Henry, had given him access to the dark magic gift in his blood. Noire watches him from a distance, her bow at the ready. Together, they'd take this ship for their friends and family.
In the skies above, Gerome rides his wyvern, Minerva, through the hail of spells and arrows flying through. He weaves past a javelin thrown at him and, with his poleaxe, cuts through an opposing wyvern rider's armor, sending the soldier hurtling into the sea below. Though he is then intercepted by another wyvern which forces him to halt. On the wyvern was Vasto, a Plegian general who had once been a good and honest man, but swiftly turned cruel when joining Gangrel's forces, "Well well, the black dragon of Roseanne shows himself. Gerome, we never had a chance to face one another during the war, but I heard tales of the ferocity of your mother and her wyvern… The one you now ride. Michalis here has been eager for a chance to tear her apart!" His wyvern growls, salivating at the battle to come as Vasto draws an axe dripping with poison.
Gerome merely glares at the man through his onyx mask, "You're a cruel man. Your wyvern suffers under your care. Minerva and I will never let a savage such as yourself defeat us!" Minerva roars at the opposing wyvern and Gerome draws a sword. Unusual on a wyvern lord, but not unheard of, as Gerome had read ancient text speaking of warriors from the era of the crusaders who could wield blades on wyvern backs, and had spent much time practicing with his father to learn all he could of the blade. With weapons ready, Gerome charges at Vasto, who responds in turn as the aerial battle begins.
Severa lands on the deck of the Plegian flagship, lance ready as she swiftly moves to strike a knight charging for her down. Her heavy lance easily pierces the dense armor of the enemy and is pulled out as the deck runs red with blood, "Scum," Severa mutters coldly under her breath. Normally, she'd be mounted for an encounter like this, but knowing that calvary was not effective on ships, had dismounted for this assault.
Quickly joining her side was Inigo, wielding an armorslayer sword, "Come now, let's take the head of this snake and be done with this war before it begins. Perhaps then we could enjoy some tea?" He offers in his flirtatious way.
Severa scoffs, but tellingly doesn't decline the offer as the two continue along the deck, only to be met by the powerful thud of a man twice their height landing. The conqueror's red armor gleams like fresh blood as he strides the deck, idly chopping enemy soldiers down with his axe without even glancing at them. Walhart had entered the battle, and any hope for an easy victory died with his steps.
In the midst of this chaos, the Elibean ship stops at the center of the melee, right in front of the Ylissean capital ship. Lyn looks over the side to hail them, when their eyes meet.
Robin, standing next to the helm, locks eyes with the flowing green hair and beautiful blue robes that tug at his memory. He couldn't place it, but he knew this woman now standing on another ship.
For Lyn, she was briefly worried she had the wrong man when she saw Robin's black hair from a distance, but the tactician's robes, his gentle eyes and face, the book of lightning magic he held as he practiced his arts. Lyn knew at that moment that she had found him. She leaps from her ship with the grace of a blademaster of Sacae, and quickly runs past all the confused crewmembers. Robin barely has time to blink before she ascends the steps and launches at him, hugging him tightly.
Robin blinks in shock as this woman wraps around him in the middle of a pitched battle. But as her green ponytail whips past his vision, a name manifests in his mind. A name attached to a much younger version of this woman.
"L-lyn? Is that you? Lady Lyn?" He asks in a daze.
Lyn's heart leaps at this, "You remember me. I can't believe you're alive, after so long."
Robin holds his head, a headache wracking his thoughts, "Argh… I-I can't remember everything, but Lyn… I made you a promise… I broke that promise, didn't I? I'm so sorry…"
Lyn smiles, tears in her eyes as she strokes his cheek, "It's alright, we're here now. I've finally found you. And I can finally do something I've been meaning to do for a long time now," with that, she grabs his face and pulls him into a kiss.
As Lucina gasps in surprise, Robin feels something lodged in his memory finally give way. Eliwood, Hector, Ninian, Nils, the war in Elibe that taught him tactics, the Black Fang assassins led by the sorcerer, Nergal… And a promise made on the plains of Sacae as Lyn helped him find his way in the world. And why he had forgotten it all. His future self, Grima, comes to twist and distort his desires and prevent the future children of his allies from undoing him. The failed unison had left him on the Ylissean plains without the memories of his Elibean allies.
Robin finally feels a void in his heart fill, the reason he couldn't connect with another woman, why he had initially felt so distant from the Shepherds and turned against them in another timeline… He had been missing the woman who kept him grounded, who he loved with all his heart. He holds Lyn close as Robin finally completes his missing memories, and his thoughts turn to ending this battle as soon as possible, "Lyn, can I ask for your help here? A friend is desperately ill and can't lead his people from this attack."
Lyn nods, "Of course Robin. As we did years ago, point me at an enemy, and I shall ensure they do not touch a single one of our comrades."
Roy quickly climbs up the stairs, having chased Lyn, "Wait, is that him..? The tactician who fought alongside my father?"
Robin turns as he looks at the young boy and another memory comes to him, "Roy? Roy, is that you?"
Roy blinks, "I… Yes, did we meet?" He asks, stunned.
Robin gives a smile, "Not in any way you'd remember… Your father asked me to name you."
Roy's eyes widened. He never knew that Eliwood had asked his tactician friend to name him. Lucina also looks flabbergasted, "Okay, someone explain what's going on!"
Robin turns to the irate princess, "Later, once this battle is settled. Luckily, I think we have them beat."
Lyn shakes her head, "No, it's not that simple. Robin, this is dangerous, we need to negotiate, something horrible is heading this way."
Robin looks at Lyn, "You mean Gangrel's pirate allies?"
Lyn steps back, "You knew? No, you couldn't. Robin, they aren't ordinary pirates, they're-"
The sound of thunder breaks through the clash of blades and sounds of falling galleons. From the mists of the Sea of Ghosts emerge dozens of ships. Ships larger than the ones fielding this battle, ships that nonetheless look ancient by comparison, with rotting planks, torn sails and battered metal fillings.
Ships that sail flags marked by the skull and crossbones.
The ghost ships charge through the strait and turn, strange black iron tubes line the sides of the ships. For a moment, the battle goes calm. But then, Cervantes de Leon, dread pirate captain of the Adrian, steps onto the railing.
Heath looks at Cervantes with horror, his burning yellow eyes searing into Heath as the dread captain smiles, "Heh, I warned him that he had my mark of death. No one escapes Cervantes for long. Men! Fire the broadside batteries!" He shouts as he aims his blade at the battle.
The cannons are loaded with black powder, an alien substance to this world, and the cannonballs launch and tear through both allied and enemy ships in a display of raw power only matched by magic. Industrial might has just torn through a majority of this entire world's naval capacity.
Bodies fly through the air as the power of the Adrian and its sister ships rip through the hulls of these vessels like paper. The gangways are shredded, sending men on both sides plunging into the ocean. Bodies fall from the sides as shrapnel tears through everyone with equal force.
Another volley launches, and Robin watches in horror as a nearby allied vessel is reduced to smoke and pieces almost instantly, body parts of comrades being sent as mere chum for the waters below. Cervantes laughs all the while as the airborne fighters can only look on at the carnage below.
Dead men walking litter the decks of the four titanic ships. Corpses of men killed at sea now shamble as the crews of these galleons. Harpoons launch from specialized cannons and lodge into the ships below as the dead join the battle in a macabre assault.
"Good war!" One shouts as it lands on a Plegian soldier and rips the screaming man's arm off with its bare hands. Many others join it as they grab the thundersticks that Heath had warned of and turn them on the charging soldiers. More ear-piercing explosions are heard as men on both sides are gunned down.
"Good war!" Another chants as the hordes of zombie pirates attack with the energy of men who still clearly lived.
Walhart grimaces at this. This had not been in the agreement Gangrel had promised. For a moment, he searches the seas for Gangrel, only to find his flagship nowhere in sight. Gangrel's flagship had been the first to be decimated in the opening salvo, with the Plegian generals already fleeing the battle when they saw what had happened. Walhart roars with rage, "Cowards! All of you! Cowards! If I must slay every last one of you, so be it! The Conqueror will not fall now, or ever!"
"Really? Well mister conqueror, ye'll have ta take that up with me first!" Cervantes shouts as he lands on the deck.
Walhart turns to face his adversary, his previous opponents, Severa and Inigo, backing away to watch this encounter, "You… You must be Gangrel's mystery ally."
Cervantes scowls, "I ally with no man but myself. There's but one creed that Captain Cervantes de Leon follows. Steal and then murder! Hahahaha!" He launches at Walhart with all his unholy fury. Twin blades, Acheron and Nirvana, clash against Walhart's black and red axe, the Wolf Berg.
Walhart was not on his steed, but nonetheless, he was still the man who once subjugated an entire continent with sheer force of will. His axe meets Cervantes's blades blow for blow. There was nothing fancy about his attacks, he struck with might and accuracy.
Cervantes could match the man in power, but he also has techniques and magic that allows him to teleport around Walhart's blows with ease. He floats in midair as he spins his blades in front of him and rushes like a saw blade out of hell. However, Walhart had guessed this maneuver and swung once with Wolf Berg, cleaving into the dread pirate and sending his form sprawling on the deck. Walhart scoffs, "No honor, and no might. Thus, no victory for you," but when he goes to clean his axe, he finds that it is not stained with blood.
And a single shot pierces his armor as Cervantes stands, his smaller sword, Nirvana, smoking at the hilt. A gunblade had just pierced the Conqueror's seemingly indestructible hide, "Hah! I agree, strength is everything in a fair fight… But I never aimed for a fair fight. Now, come with me to Hell!" Cervantes shouts as he grabs his larger blade, rushes forward and slashes once.
The Conqueror's head falls to the deck as blood drenches Cervantes. He licks the blood from his blade in a macabre depiction of brutality. The unstoppable Walhart was well and truly dead, his hulking body crashing into the deck. Cervantes's unholy yellow eyes turn to Inigo and Severa, both of whom held their weapons defensively as the dread captain crept ever closer to them. Murder in his eyes and heart.
But that's when the cry of a wyvern grabs the pirate's attention, as Melady flies in, scooping up the Wolf Berg now discarded to the side and ramming it into Cervantes with such force that he flies over the side of the ship and drops into the ocean below. Melady lands by Inigo and Severa, "Get on! We're being ordered into a full retreat!"
The two didn't need to be told twice as they hop on Melady's mount and ride back to the Elibean Capital ship. Everyone still alive migrates to it, regardless of affiliation, as the zombie pirates, without their leader, are left confused and staggered. With that, Robin turns to Echidna, "Get us out of here!"
The ship quickly dashes out of the carnage of the strait and makes for Ylisstol's coast.
Cervantes floats out of the ocean via magic and ends up back on The Adrian, as the helmsman comes forward to ask to pursue the vessel, Cervantes simply holds up a hand to shush him, "Let it go, our first objective is Valm. We can deal with the others later. They aren't a threat anyways. Heheh… Hahahaha!"
Heath sees Cervantes laughing from the back of the small ship as it speeds away, knowing full well that Cervantes would come for him eventually…
It was only a matter of time.
To Be Continued…