Looking back on the past twenty-four hours, today had been the most eventful, insane day Lissa had ever experienced. It had started normally enough, with her waking up early to go patrolling with Chrom and Frederick, as a new member of the Shepherds. A bit too early for her sake, to be honest. She really preferred to sleep in, but Chrom had been insistent that she wake up on time.

It had been a beautiful Spring Day, not too hot, not too cold. It had seemed like today would be a normal one, and Lissa was completely fine with that. Normal was good.

However, fate had other plans, as the day would soon take a zany turn. It all started with a strange group of people arriving on the scene in a rushed frenzy, in a fit about their prized invisible warthogs getting loose—or so they said.

The strange group had gotten right to work in directing the flow of battle to defeat these "invisible warthogs", with Chrom and Frederick doing their best to keep up. Unfortunately, fighting the invisible foe proved difficult for both of them, not accustomed to their foe's quirks.

During down time of the battle, Lissa had briefly spoken with a few of the members of this group. A pair of them continued to leave an impact on her, for some specific reason she couldn't peg down. She couldn't help but recall the interesting man, who had such an amazingly heroic name, as well as the girl who had described Lissa as "sparkles and pow".

The strange group had fought off these ethereal foes quite efficiently, before leaving in the same rush they had appeared with. In all honesty, Lissa would have thought she had merely imagined the whole experience if not for Chrom mentioning it afterwards.

Getting back on the road after the detour, Lissa had thought that this day could not get any wackier. For about half an hour of walking, the day looked to be normalizing again.

While humming to herself in high spirits, a beautiful batch of sunflowers in the middle of a field had made itself noticed. Sunflowers were simply just her favorite! She just had to go and pick one for herself. As she started to hastily dash over to them, she had been bewildered when she had suddenly tripped and fallen forward due to uneven ground below.

A man was unconscious in the sunflower field, sprawled on his back. And Lissa had landed right on top of him, resulting in a loud thud noise. For a moment, Lissa didn't know how to react as she laid on top of him. Because of their close proximity, Lissa had gotten a little flustered, though she was more relieved to feel that he still had a heartbeat when she took his pulse by putting her fingers to his neck.

Getting back into a standing position, she had called Chrom to her, alerting him of what she had found. She wanted to do something to help this man, but she had no idea what to do. All she knew was that she couldn't just leave this person to fend for themselves.

This was precisely when the man woke up, and boy, did he seem out of it. To add even more strangeness to the day, he was an amnesiac! After some time, and very interesting facial expressions, he managed to recall his own name: Lunearc.

Lissa's first thought was that it was a very unique name, and heroic sounding. Did that name mean something in another tongue, perhaps? In any case, it seemed she'd been meeting a lot of people with awesome names today.

And then, just as they were all traveling to Southtown, it was under attack by bandits! The Shepherds went to help, only for her to be attacked and then subsequently rescued by Lunearc.

Then, Lunearc showed off his tactical prowess by coming up with a plan on the spot. And he delivered it with full confidence, a stark departure from the complete confusion he had been displaying about nearly every concept when first meeting the Shepherds. Lissa didn't really understand tactics herself; she'd never been interested in it. But when listening to Lunearc, she felt as though his plans were easy to place her trust in. Chrom seemed to have shared that sentiment as well, judging by the fact he propositioned him to be their tactician on the spot. Unfortunately, there was still no progress on the front of getting him to accept.

The events after the fighting ended had been more mentally exhausting than surprising, with Frederick being insistent on camping in the middle of the bug infested wilderness and Chrom going hunting for bear of all things.

Though, seeing Lunearc's shocked face as he fell into the water was invigorating and hilarious.

Overall, this day had been an eventful one, from start to finish.

So, when she stirred from sleep to see her brother on high alert, she thought to herself: "This day cannot get any crazier, right?"

Still groggy from her interrupted sleep, she drowsily turned to Chrom.

"What's wrong, Big Brother? You look serious." Lissa yawned nonchalantly, completely unaware of why he seemed so on edge.

"Forgive me. I didn't mean to wake you, but… Something is amiss… I can feel it in the air." Chrom stated vaguely, clutching his arm near to his sword's scabbard.

Whatever Chrom was sensing, it didn't sound good. Lissa was beginning to worry.

"Define "something."" Lissa asked nervously, beginning to move her head from side to side to keep awareness of her surroundings high. Everything looked fine, but… the night did seem a tad more sinister than usual. It was like if a spooky ghost campfire story took a tangible form.

"I'm not sure what it is… I think I'll have a look around in the woods." Chrom commented, as he turned towards the woods.

Oh no. She was absolutely not letting him go out into the dark forest by himself. In the ghost stories she'd heard, the person who goes it alone is always the first victim claimed by the vengeful spirits.

"Not alone, you won't! I'm coming too." Lissa raised her voice moderately, as if to scold her brother for wishing to attempt something so hardheadedly risky alone.

"Thanks, Lissa." Chrom instantly accepted, clearly happy to have her by his side in this uncertain situation.

Sticking close to each other, the two siblings ventured into the outskirts of the woods. Something that immediately seemed strange was the lack of noise, with the area completely silent aside from the gentle crunching of the leaves and brush they trod upon. No birds were chirping, no animals rustling in the bushes, nothing. The eeriness was so stifling that Lissa would have been relieved to see a bear appear, because at least that would be something normal.

Keeping their guards up, they continued to march forwards. And that was when they felt it. A sickening rumbling beneath their feet, quickly accompanied by a terrible cracking of trees as they fell. The aftershocks of the earthquakes and surprise caused by them were nearly enough to knock Lissa flat on her butt, but she had managed to remain upright by extending her arms outwards to stabilize herself.

"Aaah! Chrom!" Lissa yelled out to Chrom in an almost reflexive manner, who also seemed to have been completely blindsided by the tectonic shifting beneath them.

"Gods, what— what is this madness?!" Chrom yelled out, before composing himself enough to move close to Lissa to shield her and give her an important direction, "Lissa, stay close!".

The two siblings stood huddled together for a moment, praying that the earth's quaking would subside. Chrom kept his eyes staring straight forwards with a wary expression, while Lissa buried her face into his chest, attempting to remain standing as her legs wobbled due to fright.

But the quaking didn't stop. In fact… was it growing louder?

Vision still facing the direction of the quakes, Chrom's expression turned dim. He was noticing the increasing resounding disturbance as well, and whatever he was currently seeing was not pleasing.

"Lissa, run." Chrom commanded, a hint of desperation audible in his voice. Lissa paused for a moment to look with mortification at her brother, fear paralyzing her from processing his order instantly.

Her mind was telling her to obey her brother's command and run away as fast as her feet could take her. But her body would not comply, and she felt heavy; it was as though she had weighed one hundred times what her legs could bear.

With Lissa not moving an inch, Chrom once more reiterated his previous statement. "I mean it, go!" he exclaimed, pushing her up by the shoulders to give her a running start before turning his back on the otherworldly natural disaster to run beside her.

Lissa was sprinting at a speed she had not known herself capable of before today, her brother's propulsion giving her body the spark it needed to get moving. Behind her, it sounded as if the ground was shattering, accompanied by the nauseating sound of chunks of earth rolling down a rapidly emerging cliffside created by the shifting quakes.

And then, a boisterous roaring tone originated from the location of the shattered ground. Taking a brief glance behind her as she ran, she observed what could only be called a tidal wave of magma erupt from the splintered landscape, instantly setting fire to all flammable objects it encountered as it spilled out onto the surface. The smoke bellowing from the burning debris could almost be tasted in her gasping lungs as she ran from the seemingly endless danger.

"Hey, this way!" Chrom, now caught up to her, had called out, swiping his right arm across his body to gesture for a turn to the left.

By this point, the entire area of the forest had been covered in flames, leaving only a few narrow paths set not in a blaze. Chrom's suggestion was likely the only safe path forward.

Lissa motioned her body to the left to follow the turn Chrom had directed, but a few mere feet behind her a flaming boulder of debris came smashing down with a deafening crash, causing aftershocks which pushed her body forward at a rate her feet could not keep up with. She flew off balance, desperately thrashing her arms far from her body in a reflexive survival instinct to keep herself upright, and away from the flaming brush directly ahead of her.

To make the situation even more precarious, multiple more, yet smaller flaming debris chunks could be heard booming as they collided with the forest's floor behind Lissa. Thankfully, it had been far enough away that they had not hit her, nor had she been massively affected by their aftershocks.

Finally regaining a semblance of balance, Lissa managed to turn away from the burning brush in the nick of time and continue running behind Chrom, who was now running towards a ledge and preparing to jump off it. With a grunt, he exerted his body over the ledge and onto the great mysterious beyond.

Always a few feet behind, Lissa had taken to completely copying her brother's movements and prepared her body to also jump over the very same ledge he had. Was this action safe? Absolutely not, but the alternative was far worse than a few broken bones.

However, just as she began to jump, the fuming forest bared its fangs at her once more. A giant flaming ball of debris – larger than any that had fallen so far – smashed into the ground just a foot behind her. Had Lissa been a footstep slower, she'd have been crushed underneath the newly formed flaming rubble.

Feet already off the ground from her tentative leap of faith, the explosion sent her lurching towards the ground past the ledge, with little control of her momentum and direction as she toppled downwards. Bracing for impact, all she can do was hope for the best.

She hit the ground with a heart-wrenching thud and rolled on her side down the safer side of the ledge. She felt strain on her shoulders and back as they banged against the ground as she rolled. The cage at her legs protected her bottom half but caused increased stress on her upper body during the fall.

Ultimately slowing in rotation as the girl in motion becomes a girl at rest, Lissa took a moment to assess herself as she made to attempt to pry herself off the floor of the forest. Getting up gingerly, she felt beaten and battered from her ungraceful fall, as well as woozy enough to puke from the spinning. Thankfully, no broken bones, which was truly a miracle.

Jerking herself onward, Lissa willed herself to rush to safety. Security. Sanctuary. Shelter. Any place that's not currently burning down will do, truly.

Chrom had slowed after hearing Lissa crash into the ground but looked relieved when she stood on her feet. "Good, you're okay. We're almost out of the worst of it, please bear with the pain until we can get to somewhere safe." Chrom stated, still on guard of his surroundings as he scanned around.

Chrom's eyes settled on a path, and once more beckoned Lissa to follow. The two ran for about a minute more, with the surrounding clearings becoming less and less charred as they raced through the forest.

Once at a location that seemed to be clear of enkindled lumber, Chrom slowed to a walking pace, allowing Lissa to regain the distance she had lost between them. As he waited, he monitored the scale of the aflame nature from afar with a tentative stare.

As quickly as she could, Lissa arrived to where Chrom was standing, before putting her hands on her knees and gasping for breath from the debilitating encounter.

Once more, the day had shown to Lissa that it could become even more off the walls insane. But she was safe now. And surely, this was as crazy as it would get… right? It's all got to even out at SOME point.

That was Lissa's train of thought, as she raised herself up after breathing heavily for a few moments. Looking into the sky, she saw a strange formation begin to appear. It was… otherworldly. One could call it eerie, bizarre, or supernatural. But it certainly didn't bode well for the rest of today being normal.

"Chrom, what is that?!" Lissa alarmed, pointing to the anomaly with her right hand to make him aware of it.

Chrom immediately jerked his head to view the unexpected intrusion, gaping his mouth open in disbelief as he processed it. The view above was an absolutely shocking sight, and one that defied all logic.

Specks of bright, white light across the sky coalesced inwards into a spherical shape, quickly taking the form of a more intricate design as the specks of light imploded within themselves.

After a short blast of red from the mysterious formation, it almost seemed to suck in monochrome grey energy giving way to the arrangement becoming a pitch black, circular void. Next came a golden, continual ring of symbols which encircled the void, and rotated clockwise. Looking closely, Lissa could see twelve prominent symbols, and they were ones that she could recognize: Zodiac signs. What was the reason for the signs that divided the year into twelve parts to appear?

Lissa was not able to think on this for long, as a crystalline structure generated immediately from inside the pitch darkness, and then began to open much like an eye would. The similarities to an eye did not begin and end there, however. When fully open, there was an almost beautiful azure blue color inside of the crystalline circle, reminiscent of an iris. And in the very center, a black circle, much like a pupil.

The eye began to glow, before letting out a pair of solid tears, which then plummeted to the ground in the clearing directly ahead of Lissa and her brother. Unsettlingly, the excreted substances began to rise by their own power. From a distance, the shadowy outlines of the two figures looked as though they were humanlike.

Maybe they're friendly? Please, be friendly…

Lissa's hope of peaceful relations with the interloping figures was short lived, because once their eyes began to glow an atrocious red, the rest of their body was illuminated. What could be seen were humanlike figures that looked completely dead and devoid of soul… yet somehow still moved as though there was some sort of unseen force rising them to their feet to roam the earth once more.

A loathsome metal helmet enveloped their faces, with the only areas unobstructed being the eyes, nose, and mouth. They had a large chunk of metal around their upper collarbone and neck area, seemingly held together by cast iron chains. In their right arms they both wielded rusted iron axes, and by the looks of them, the weapons were nearly in disrepair, much like their owners. Sometimes looks could be deceiving, but there was absolutely no way these "living" specters would buck the trend for the better. They were most certainly not lining up for a peaceful teatime.

Lissa was mortified by the sight before her, and had taken to hiding behind Chrom, her arms lightly clutched to his cape.

"Lissa, you better stand back." Chrom cautioned to Lissa, as he unsheathed his sword and positioned it forwards into a fighting stance. All Lissa could do was give a timid nod and whimper as she scurried backwards.

Drifting forwards, a risen axe wielder set its sight on Chrom and forced out a calamitous scream of challenge, black essence seeping from its mouth as it does so. It then rocketed forward, sprinting without an ounce of caution nor tact before jumping high in the air, axe at the ready.

Chrom reacted by dishing out a level horizontal slice at the abdomen of the demonic monster, managing to deal a strong blow against it. A moment passed with the two opponents having their backs to each other, but the foe somehow remained on its feet, reacting as though the gash on its abdomen had always been there.

The undead monster's neck popped and cracked unnaturally as it turned its head nearly one hundred and eighty degrees to glare dead faced at Chrom, who gave an unsettled look at the inhumanness displayed. The risen then swung its axe horizontally in an outward motion, putting Chrom into a defensive position, sword close to his body as he blocked the incoming attack. The two weapons made contact, and a physical wrest for control began as Chrom grunted in an act of exertion to push the axe away.

With a sudden upwards swing, Chrom manages to disarm the zombified foe, pushing it to the forest floor in the process. With an aerial swing, Chrom stakes his sword into the grounded enemy's backside, and it moaned a guttural noise as it disappears, purple smoke steaming from its body as it evaporated.

Lissa was relieved to see that one enemy had been taken down, but her field of view was quickly cut off by a far more disturbing sight. One of the risen had snuck around Chrom, instead choosing her as its target. As it traipsed toward her, Lissa's mind went blank as she let out a petrified scream.

Shuddering in fear, Lissa felt helpless as she unwittingly backed herself into a large rock, gripping her staff in front of her in a vain and desperate attempt to shield herself from the hack of the axe she knew was coming. Her eyes widened in realization as she began to snivel meekly, the space between the axe wielder and her growing ever narrower. The zombified being raised its axe into the air, emitting a noxious howl as it readied to commit a murderous act.

It paused in this stance for a moment, as if it planned to lengthen Lissa's torment. Lissa had been in this exact predicament earlier in the day, and the situation felt just as dire as then, if not even more so. Chrom was too far out of range to protect her, and Frederick and Lunearc weren't nearby. What hope could she hold on to in this position?

The risen coerced one more giant gasp of miasma out of the dank cavity that was likely once a mouth as it winded up a strike, before bringing down the axe in a heartless act. Lissa cowered and shut her eyes, her aghast outlook keeping her feet locked to their current location.

She could hear the axe as it sliced downwards through the still air, only to be interrupted by the clamoring of metal on metal. The light clashing could be heard for another moment accompanied by a light grunting, yet Lissa felt no pain inflicted upon herself. Apprehensively raising her head while gradually widening her left eye, she attempted to discern what had just occurred.

A masked person – very much alive, thank goodness – had blocked the strike and was now facing Lissa as they resisted the axe's movement with their sword. For the second time today, Lissa had been protected from imminent harm by an axe. The person defending Lissa had short blue hair, the color reminiscent of her brother's. The shade and texture seemed to be an exact match, as well.

"Help!" the masked swordsman strained a plea to Chrom, having turned their head towards him.

For a moment, Chrom stood dumbstruck as he processed the sudden envoy and their grand appearance. After a few moments, his duty to protect his sister would override his momentary lapse, and he jolted forward. He had his sword at the ready as he sprinted, and he was almost audibly roaring.

Startled by the sudden burst of noise from behind, the zombified meanie stood up and turned its head to find the source. In the process, it had released its axe from where the masked man's sword had been. Big mistake. These foes were terrifying, but they certainly were not very intelligent. The masked man had noticed their foe's bungle instantly and pushed their body upwards and backwards to send the enemy off balance and further away from Lissa.

With an upward movement of their arm and a flick of their wrist, the masked swordsman mailed a delivery to the ghoulish foe in the form of a slice to the abdomen. During this time, the risen attempted to return the gift to sender with its own axe but was cut short when Chrom sent a merciless hack into its back.

Both blue haired swordsmen had delivered their packages to the same recipient in sync. The ghastly specter stood prone for a second before folding as though it were a puppet whose strings had been cut, and promptly evaporated into purple smoke.

With the foe eviscerated, Lissa could finally take a deep breath and calm herself. Glancing at the swordsman, she attempted to ascertain more of their behavior. Not much for words, the aloof savior continued to scan their surroundings, taking off at a sprint when they viewed more risen in sight.

Wait, more risen? Now?! This is going to be a long night…

….….….….….….

Lunearc had been sleeping peacefully after filling his stomach to the brim full of tasty bear meat. He'd never eaten anything so delicious before, though perhaps that was just the starvation talking. Or maybe it was just the fact that he did not have any frame of reference for other delicacies, being a complete amnesiac and all.

So, to say he was a bit cranky when his rest ended abruptly in the middle of the night was the understatement of the week. This wasn't your every day run of the mill wake up call, either. Had he been awoken by a Shepherd tapping him on the shoulder, he wouldn't have minded it so much.

What he very much did mind, however, was being shook awake by an earthquake. A loud one. And when one makes a bed of leaves their pillow, any disturbance to the ground will magnify their effect on an unaware napper.

Lunearc jumped off the ground in a stupor, grabbing on to the hilt of his sword out of defensive reflex. A useless defense against an earthquake.

Taking a breather as the quakes died down, Lunearc surveyed the campground he had called home over the course of the night. Looking to his right, he saw Frederick, who seemed to have been stirred by the quakes as well. For some reason beyond the quakes, he looked mightily agitated.

Looking to his left, Lunearc decided to check in on how Chrom and Lissa had reacted.

…Oh. That must be why Frederick looked so disturbed. They aren't there.

"Lunearc! Have you seen milord and milady?!" the knight quickly asked, his speech pattern seeming as though he had reached the worst possible conclusion.

"No, I haven't! I swear, I didn't do anything. I've been asleep until those quakes a moment ago!" Lunearc denied, instantly rejecting any notion that he had played a part in their disappearance.

"The campground here shows no sign of a struggle, so I'll choose to believe your account." Frederick stated, thinking to himself before continuing, "The quakes seem to be concentrated in the forest. If milord and milady went into there during nightfall… I need to get there swiftly!"

Hopping onto his armored horse, Frederick hurriedly rode into an open path in the forest to make his way nearer to the commotion.

And I'm all alone again. This is only the second time, but it still is beginning to feel like a running joke.

This time, however, Lunearc placed no hesitation in his choice to jump right into the action as well. Into the forest he ran, not particularly conscious of where to even begin on his search.

Seeing smoke rising into the air, Lunearc thought that the source may lead him to discover what was going on, and perhaps find the missing Shepherds in the process.

Moving there, he is bemused to find pools of molten hot magma littering the environment that was once a lush forest. There were also scorching segments of rock scattered in many of the paths, making navigation very difficult. It was nearly unrecognizable from when he had been here hunting with Chrom only a few hours ago, the very ground terraformed into a volcanic state. If there had been a single bright spot, it'd be that the magma had stopped spreading further into the forest.

No leads to finding Chrom and Lissa here… I can only hope they weren't caught up on the other side of the magma cavern—or worse, right over the disaster zone.

In any case, it'd do him no good to stay here and gawk at mother nature's wrath. Turning away from the bubbling pool of flame, Lunearc could have sworn he had seen movement out of the corner of his eye.

Taking a second, cautionary glance, his suspicion is confirmed. A man with an axe was running straight at him, an amicable chat clearly not on tonight's menu.

Before Lunearc could react, the discourteous axe wielder was within two paces of him, prepared to serve an entrée best served cold. It'd be far too risky to unholster his blade on such short notice, and near impossible to also be able to block the attack in that same motion, for a swordsman as inexperienced as he.

So, to avoid being impaled upon the axe's edge, he rolled to the right, and then maneuvered backwards as quickly as he could to distance himself. To his relief, his attacker's axe had hit nothing but air as it sliced down.

With the foe still recovering their balance from the missed strike, Lunearc unholstered his entirely diamond sword and put himself into a defensive stance. With his foe a few feet away, he could now recognize that it possessed a woeful visage, far different than the brigands he had been fighting during the day. He was facing off against a zombie, of all things. Or at least something that could be classified as an "undead" creature.

And now, Lunearc had been herded into a corner by it. He could feel the blazing convection on his back, the magma behind him acting as an unnavigable hazard. The only point of escape was blocked by the baleful specimen in front of him.

Groaning a guttural moan filled to the brim with malice, the specter once more advanced to attack Lunearc, axe prepared to strike.

But this time, Lunearc was prepared, and had a plan to defeat his aggressor. Successfully blocking the incoming iron axe with his diamond blade, he gritted his teeth to brace for the clashing of blades to come. Thanks to his superior physical strength, Lunearc's blade easily gained ground against his foe. However, the spectral foe put its center of balance forwards to exert more force, and had begun to regain distance in the clash of weapons.

Instead of putting more of his own strength into the clash, Lunearc decided to do something wholly unexpected. Lunearc opted to take a quick sidestep to the right, disconnecting the clash. Having put all force forward, the risen foe lost its balance as it tumbled, passing Lunearc without causing any damage. Lunearc took advantage by delivering a swift push to the back to the off-balance, shambling undead.

The push caused the risen to be knocked even further in that direction, and it was now completely unable to avoid the destiny Lunearc had planned for it: a magma bath. Tripping over itself, the risen could not stop stumbling as its momentum dropped it directly into a pool of liquid lava. Writhing unnaturally, it began to melt as it contacted the molten magma face first.

Lunearc observed the cremation of the undead creature, satisfied by the finality of his foe's defeat. There was no way this undead abomination would be able to resurrect after being burnt to a crisp.

Taking no time to rest after disassembling the errant corpse, Lunearc investigated the area for a possible source of the zombie's creation, the new threat making him increasingly concerned for his new acquaintances' safety.

They probably didn't come from the lava, seeing as how they weren't immune to it… Maybe they came from the ground somewhere...?

Pondering the current working theory for a few more moments, Lunearc quickly realized that the real resolution to his mental quandary was simultaneously far simpler, yet stranger than anything he could have come up with.

For you see, the answer to all of this lied in the sky. Lunearc could barely repress the urge to facepalm as he looked into the air and saw an entity that had no business being there in any normal environment.

…Well, looks like that portal in the air is a good place to start.

Running in the general direction of the portal, Lunearc hoped that he'd be able to find the Shepherds still alive and breathing, and not in the undead-alive sense.

….….….….….….

(12/6/2022) Chapter 4 complete, thanks for reading and interacting!

It's December now, which means it's the holiday season. It's the most wonderful time of the year, though perhaps a bit too cold for my liking.

Merry Christmas/Happy Hanukkah in advance!

I'll actually be ice skating in a couple of days for the first time ever, so... fingers crossed it goes well? Anyone have fond memories of ice skating out here that would be willing to give a few pointers? :D

Oh, and hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

I had a fun one where I ate a ton of food (I have a huge appetite), though the next week was rough due to catching the flu. (A certain someone at the party had seemed to have decided by himself that coughing on others purposefully was "funny", resulting in half the attendants catching the flu a couple days later. Is it connected? Yeah, definitely.). I got very little done during that time, and I wasn't able to work out at all (RIP Gains). The combo of eating tons of food followed by getting sick and unable to burn it off is not one I would recommend, but at least it's just temporary.

I've been replaying Sacred Stones as of late (Eirika route), this time determined to finally beat the game without losing any of my units. You won't take Franz from me this time, Fomortiis! Last time I didn't know that I NEEDED S rank weapon knowledge to beat the game easily, but this time I do!