Chapter 8: Tragedy

Many days had passed since Eliwood and his group had exited the Nabata Desert. Their mission now was to pass into Bern without notice and make their way to the capital. Under the guise of common travellers, they slipped through the border and started to make their way to their destination, the pressure of the mission weighing hard on each mind.

But ever since the debacle on Dread Isle, Eliwood and his comrades were targets of the Black Fang, a mercenary group that appeared to be under the control of Nergal himself. Ruthless killers who follow a severe code of conduct, they knew that if they encountered the Black Fang, they would have to fight for their lives. The group unknowingly knew that a tragedy was to befall them.

Moving through the mountains, the found themselves in a small village near the foot of an ever increasing hill. Eliwood called for the group to stop for a rest. The fog from the mountains continued to roll down thicker and thicker; so thick that it blocked the view of what was ahead. Merlinus brought the surplus torches out, distributing them between the different people in the group.

As they prepared themselves to move on, they were being watched.

"…Is that Eliwood and his group?"

"Aye, that it is"

"Well what are we waiting for? Let's attack them with all our might!"

"What, are you stupid? We'll draw far too much attention that way. We need to be somewhat discreet about this"

"I know you're confident in your abilities, but the numbers you have now won't cut it! We have the be careful, even if we can bury those fools"

"Linus, if you're so worried…go and petition for reinforcements. I'll attack with what I have now"

"Right…but I won't be long! Leave some for me, brother!"

And as quickly as that, the group was under attack by Lloyd Reed, the White Wolf of the Black Fang.

As the mercenaries came and fought, the group held their ground against the forces of wyverns that attacked from the mountains. A few members of the group split towards the east, where the gates to the village were. All the while, the rest held their ground until the numbers stopped advancing.

"Right…I think they've stopped coming" Eliwood panted, having just defended himself from the last fighter. "Let's take the fight to them now!"

At that moment, Priscilla rode up to Eliwood.

"Lord Eliwood, allow me to light the way for you!" she said, preparing her torch staff.

"Okay, but be careful!" Eliwood warned. "There's no telling who's waiting in the fog…"

Unfortunately, the warning went unheeded. Priscilla rode right up to the gates of one of the fortresses up in the distance before raising her staff to the air. A blinding light shot out of the torch, firing into the air before exploding, illuminating everything within a large radius of the fog. Lucius, who was busy preparing a torch of his own, was witness to what was about to happen. A tragedy would befall the group at that moment.

"Priscilla, watch out!'

Suddenly, from the fog, a figure appeared, sprinting right for Priscilla. The tails of his trench coat were flapping wildly behind him as he yelled, a long, thick sword in his hand. It was Lloyd.

Raven, who had just shouted out to Priscilla, started to run towards her, slowly covering the long distance between the two.

"Priscilla, come back here now!" he screamed. Priscilla saw Lloyd emerge from the fog and quickly went to turn away, but it was too late. The rest of the group quickly advanced in horror as they saw Lloyd leap right into the air, almost vanishing with the speed that he had leapt before striking Priscilla with his blade. There was a splatter of blood and as Lloyd landed on the floor with perfect balance. Priscilla fell off of her horse, utterly limp. Raven watched in horror as his sister fell to the ground, lying still afterwards.

"Priscilla!" he yelled, looking in utter shock and agony at the scene that had unfolded in front of him. Tears started to build in his eyes. "PRISCILLA!"

No response. The reality had dawned on Raven at that point. His sister had been slain.

"…That is the Black Fang's judgment" Lloyd said calmly, standing straight and looking towards Raven. "You are next"

Lloyd watched as Raven quickly unsheathed his blade, looking towards him. He was overflowing with fury. Every sense of judgement had been clouded by his rage, any sensibility that remained had long left him.

"I-I'll kill you!" Raven yelled, suddenly running at Lloyd. Eliwood, who was already stunned with sickly terror at what he saw, quickly snapped from his grief-induced trance and started to run at Lloyd and Raven.

"Raven, no!" he yelled. "He's too strong, he'll kill you!"

As Raven went to swing at Lloyd, Lloyd almost effortlessly dodged the strike, quickly slashing at Raven. The sword just missed Raven's abdomen, but it cut deeply into his arm, causing Raven to yell in pain, collapsing to the floor. His sword flung right out of his hand as his bicep was torn open, bleeding profusely.

"Lord Raymond!" Lucius yelled as he saw Raven fall down. He started to run towards Raven, attracting Lloyd's attention. Lloyd quickly pointed his sword at Lucius, a light beam firing out of it. Lucius charged towards Lloyd, the beam striking him, but causing no damage whatsoever. Lloyd looked in surprise as he saw Lucius charging towards him, reciting from his tome. As Lucius reached the climax of his chant, a light beam of his own fired up into the sky from his body before shooting down towards Lloyd. Lloyd quickly saw the beam and leapt to the side, the beam crashing down right next to him with a powerful force. Oswin suddenly appeared beside Lucius and thrust at Lloyd with his long spear, striking Lloyd by his shoulder. Lloyd yelled as the spear just pierced his flesh, but more importantly, caught onto his trench coat. With great force, Oswin lifted the spear and tossed Lloyd a great distance, causing him to land roughly. Quickly getting up, Lyn appeared. Lucius caught his breath as he watched the heated sword fight between Lyn and Lloyd, who were equally matched. Eliwood joined the fight, overwhelming Lloyd.

As Lloyd was struck on his arm, he fell to his knee in defeat, trying to stop the bleeding from his shoulder thanks to Oswin's spear strike. Lucius watched as the scene of defeat suddenly turned into another of consecutive horror as Lloyd sprung up and grabbed Eliwood from behind, brining his bloodied blade to Eliwood's throat.

Lucius couldn't home in on the conversation this time, but he could hear another voice mewling quietly behind him.

"Agh...L-Lucius…"

Gasping, Lucius quickly spun, recognizing the voice to be Raven's. He was lying on the floor, his face scrunched in suffering as he clutched his bleeding arm at tightly as he could. The grass around him was slowly soaking red with his blood.

"Lord Raymond!" Lucius yelled running down to his side, kneeling in his blood. He pulled his spare vulnerary from his satchel, releasing the oily contents before rubbing it on Raven's wound. Raven grunted in pain as Lucius attempted to heal the wound, but it was clear that Raven was in a lot of pain.

"Talk to me, Raymond" Lucius said quietly, scrapping the formality whilst trying to ignore the tense scene that was unfolding in the distance with Lloyd.

As Lucius tended to Raven's wound, he heard a sound that rent his own spirit. It was a sound that Lucius had never heard before, and upon hearing it, he felt tears forming in his eyes. It was a quiet sound, yet it had the power to completely ruin his sanity.

It's was Raven, crying. As he grimaced in pain, tears flowed from his eyes.

"P-Priscilla…." He sobbed. "Pri…Priscilla…aaahhhh….."

To avoid crying himself, Lucius turned his head away from Raven, clenching his eyes shut. He wasn't ready for this horror that unfolded around him. He felt blame creeping up on him; he knew how well he resisted Lloyd and his light brand. If only he had used his own torch instead of Priscilla, then none of this would have happened, he thought.

Looking back towards Eliwood's predicament, the strangest event had unfolded. He witnessed the injured Lloyd limping away into the fog, calling his troops away whilst the remainder of the group was rushing towards him and Priscilla, carrying the vain hope that she could be saved.

When they discovered the meter wide pool of blood that had gathered around her body, they feared the worst.

And when they saw her blank expression and the small trickle of blood dripping from her pale lips, the worst had been confirmed. Priscilla was dead.