Morgan noticed that the ten Risen fliers were simultaneously moving on their position. It looked like Gangrel wanted to overwhelm the army's defenses and brute force his way in.
"Mages, I need everyone to prepare an attack right now! We're going to fire a single, coordinated burst of wind magic at these fliers!" At least the Mad King had the intelligence to wait until his ground forces were close enough to hit at the same time. Good for him, maybe, but that would make their job harder.
"Chrom! I hope you have enough spaces in the dirt to bury all of your pathetic little Shepherds!" Gangrel was now close enough to be heard. A few more seconds, and the battle would begin in earnest. Chrom glared at the Plegian ruler and tightened his grip on his sword. This version of Gangrel was no better than the one in this timeline, and so deserved the same fate.
"You will be the only one buried today!" Chrom responded. He was standing in the middle of the front of the blockade, alongside Kellam and Sully.
"We're sending you straight back to hell!" Sully added, swinging her lance. Morgan watched from directly behind Chrom, next to Vaike and Stahl. The fliers were just about to strike the top, and the berserkers about to strike the front.
"Mages! On my mark!" She commanded. Five wyverns, five pegasi. All rushing at the wall, death the only thing on their minds – if they even had minds. She hoped that none of them would get through, that if any of them did, Sumia and Cordelia would stop them from going any further.
"Fire!" She shouted, and immediately after heard the sounds of metal clanking upon metal, bursts of magic immediately coming out of the air to supplement them. She dodged a cast of Arcthunder and responded by sending a blast of Bolganone at the mages that had grouped up on one side of the berserkers. The fireball hit, exploding and forcing the enemy mages to move back. Kellam had been able to deal with the axe-wielding Risen directly in front of him, but had taken multiple hits from the mages Morgan had managed to scatter. Chrom and Sully easily dispatched each mindless Risen that dared to swing an axe in their direction – neither of them taking any damage from the melee warriors.
"Begone, foul miscreation!" Morgan heard her mother shout as she launched a cruel gust of wind down at the mages that had fallen back after being hit by Bolganone. She only now noticed the bodies of the Risen fliers dissolving into purple smoke on the ground, and turned her head to watch Rexcalibur's gust literally shred Miriel's target into pieces, which dissolved out of existence before hitting the ground. This drew the aggression of the surviving mages, who all began to target her at once. Morgan was just slightly out of range to land another cast, and so focused her attention back to the right side mages, who were trying to pepper Chrom and Sully with attacks.
"Someone heal Kellam!" She shouted, noticing the knight was straining against the next berserker that had lined up to attack. Firing another blast of Bolganone at the mages, she noticed that they now outnumbered Gangrel's forces and so could move out of their protective blockade.
"Vaike! Get out there and attack the remaining mages! Stahl! Take Chrom's place. Chrom! Attack the mages on your right!" The warm, pleasant green aura of a Physic staff enveloped Kellam. Their own berserker happily obliged and charged at the left side mages, who were too busy trying to attack Miriel to get away from him in time. Stahl rode forward as Chrom's blade glowed with a golden aura, which was followed by the ruler leaping into the air and slicing one of the Risen in two, a green healing aura surrounding him after the blow. The second blow cut another mage in half, brilliant orange sparks flying from Chrom's sword.
"Sumia, I need a lift!" Hale called from behind Morgan. Some of the fliers must have survived the attack – there were only so many mages to attack them with. She noticed that Gangrel hadn't charged in alongside his army; he stood at a distance from the fighting, alone. He looked like a tempting target, but she remembered that the first assault on Plegia Castle had ended in the Mad King summoning an entire wave of Risen out of nowhere and killing Phila, the former commander of the pegasus knights. Hale and Chrom were beside themselves with guilt for letting their guard down at that moment, not to mention that Emmeryn had also died that day.
"Miriel! Come with me!" Cordelia flew onto the wall and quickly picked her up to chase the three fliers that hadn't been killed. Morgan moved forward and blasted one of the enemy mages with Thoron, opting not use Bolganone as Vaike was too close to its explosion radius. He was hit with Arcfire and Arcwind, but smiled through the pain and cut down the last of the left-side mages. Lissa rolled her eyes and healed him from a distance with Physic. Stahl took a hit from one of the berserkers, but he followed it up with a solid blow to its chest from his sword.
'We've got them on the ropes now.' Morgan thought, firing a cast of Thoron at one of the mages Chrom was too far away from to attack. The mage tried to fight back by launching a wave of Arcfire at her, which she deflected towards the wall, leaving a scorch mark. That had hurt a little bit, but it was no big deal.
"You must be having fun, I bet!" Gangrel cackled from his position away from the fighting. Chrom pulled his sword out of the dissolving Risen he had just killed and turned towards him, pointing his sword at the Mad King.
"Why have you come here? Do you not see that your Risen are falling left and right? What did you hope to accomplish, you dastard?" He would have loved to charge him and lop his head off with a sword, but previous experiences reminded him of how bad an idea that could be. The last time he had killed Gangrel, it was with the support of the entire army behind him – but at the moment, they were busy killing the remaining Risen. Going in alone would be unwise, at the very least.
"A mere test of skill, boy! Did you honestly think I would be so stupid as to risk my own life coming here? To your own capital? Pah! But now I know just how strong you and your Shepherds are." Chrom noticed that the remaining ground forces had just been finished off. He hadn't seen if any of the fliers had gotten through the blockade, but was sure that Sumia and Cordelia could take care of them.
"Chrom! Let's get him!" Morgan said, leading the Shepherds forward. The lord nodded and focused his attention on his sword, trying to let the energies of Aether flow through him and into his attacks. He felt the energy peak as he swung his sword at Gangrel, who dodged the Sol slash. The energy in Chrom's arms burned as he attacked again, the Luna slash ready to destroy its target.
"I don't think so!" Gangrel barely avoided the sword, leaping back a great distance. He took out a dark, purple ball from his shirt and crushed it in his hand, enveloping him in a purple mist. When the mist dissipated, he was sitting behind a Risen wyvern rider, who then began to take off.
"Your days are numbered, exalt! If you thought I was bad, just wait until the rest of us come back to you!" The Plegian ruler cackled again as the wyvern began to fly away. A gust of wind then blew in, rocking both riders and turning his boisterous laugh into a shriek of terror. He then knocked the Risen in the back of the head, shouting,
"Watch it, you brainless sack of filth! If you try to tip me over, I'll knock you down and fly this thing myself!" The Risen growled at him. The wyvern flew away, the rest of the Shepherds just now arriving at Chrom's position.
"Where are Sumia and Cordelia?" Chrom asked. Morgan looked back to the walls and saw only the mages that were still there. If they hadn't returned by now, there wasn't going to be much of a chance of them catching Gangrel.
"They must still be dealing with the fliers that got over the wall. There weren't that many. I'm sorry, Chrom. I don't think we'll be able to catch him. " She said, watching the wyvern fly off into the distance. Once again, Mina would've been great to have on the battlefield – someone capable of using a Brave Bow would've had a good chance of landing a shot on Gangrel or the wyvern.
"He'll return. If I heard what he said correctly, he isn't the only antagonist we've killed that will return. I imagine Aversa and Walhart will also appear at some point, as well as Validar. We're going to need to call on our friends once again to deal with this." Chrom sheathed his sword and turned back towards the walls of Ylisstol.
The last three fliers had decided to try and gang up on Sumia and Hale, which ended up being a terrible idea for them as the tactician's prowess in wind magic remained to where a single blast of Rexcalibur instantly felled the wyvern rider. Sumia deflected the attacks of the pegasus knights while Cordelia and Miriel flew in to help, Miriel expertly aiming Thoron such one of the enemy fliers was dazed by the shot, allowing Cordelia to finish it off.
"Let's finish this one off with Thunderstorm." Hale said to Miriel, winking. She smiled and switched to Arcthunder. As the last Risen flier charged at Sumia, Hale formed another gust of Rexcalibur.
"Now!" He shouted, letting the attack fly. At the same time, Miriel called down the bolts of Arcthunder right in front of the flier, hitting the wind magic instead and giving the green swirls of the attack a golden glow, with sparks arcing through it. The Risen even seemed to realize what was coming towards it and attempted to slow down, but was hit by the attack and exploded in a burst of dissolving purple bits, some of which hit Sumia in the face.
"Eww! That's so gross!" She shuddered, the pieces already having dissolved. Her pegasus neighed as if to laugh at her, making her frown.
"I don't think that was necessary, Hale." The tactician chuckled a bit.
"I'm sorry. I didn't think the impact would've been so explosive. It's the first time Miriel and I have utilized that attack in a real battle. She had theorized that a type of magic could be combined with another and needed some help testing those ideas. I adapted our findings to a more practical use."
"Your explanation has reminded me of our next set of trials. When the others have dispatched the remaining Risen, we should begin testing the effects of combining fire and thunder magic. Perhaps we will be able to extract another useful attack from our experiments." Miriel said to Hale, who nodded and turned back towards the walls.
"Yes. We should return to the rest of the army. They may still need our help." At his words, the two pegasus knights flew off, allowing a hooded figure to come out of its hiding place behind one of the nearby buildings. Those people had matched some of the descriptions that Katrina had given – especially the horribly-dressed man giving the orders.
"Quite impressive. I'll have to write that one down." He said to himself, taking out a pen and a notepad and scribbling a few notes about the attack he just witnessed. The hooded man then went over what he had so far: this was the city of Ylisstol, the capital of Ylisse.
It was ruled by a strong, fair, handsome blue-haired young man named Chrom, whose older sister Emmeryn died in a previous war with Plegia, a country that to this day was still not on the best of terms with Ylisse. He had a younger sister, Lissa, a proficient healer, and his best friend was also his tactician, Hale – the man responsible for slaying a god-like dragon named Grima. More minor notes about Chrom's fighting force called the Shepherds, and some more details about the city, like the fact that undead warriors called Risen were currently trying to get in. Nothing about taking in any refugees, though… then again, a man like Chrom probably wouldn't make that known, the hooded man thought.
"That's pretty good. Mina's not leaving these people. They're way too good to her. They've also probably bought whatever story she told them to make them think she was innocent. Don't think we can waltz in and tell them otherwise. I guess Tyler will have to call on those spiritual warriors, after all." He put away his pen and notepad and wandered back into the city, content with the amount of information he had gathered.
"I apologize for not getting to my point sooner." Mina said before Frederick, Chrom, Lissa, Hale, and Morgan in the castle's throne room. Chrom only ever used it as a meeting room for special guests, and never sat on the throne himself. Jasmine seemed to be getting more comfortable every day, although she still didn't like to leave Mina's side.
"Katrina and her group are after me because they consider me responsible for what happened to our world. I liked to do research on unusual creatures and phenomena – and I was part of a small group that studied the cloaking monsters that later attacked us. We were only ever able to pick up little tidbits – remains of animals that had been killed by them and broken weapons. We were fascinated about what kind of creature could make those kinds of marks in its prey, and why we were never able to observe one of them hunting. When they started going after people, our group was blamed for aggravating the monsters and causing their hunt of the human race. As far as I know, I'm the only one of us still alive."
"Even if that were the case, it sounds like there was no way you could have known that would happen. You knew so little about those monsters. Why would your group be targeted when your world needed all the information it could get? What gain was there in killing them?" Chrom asked. Mina sighed, looking at the ceiling.
"We didn't have that much to give that the world didn't already have. While our group wasn't given much attention before the attacks, all of our findings were thoroughly recorded and preserved. I've learned about what's taken place in your world from Frederick – our world was on the verge of a war like that between Ylisse and Plegia, with Katrina and I on opposing sides of it. Her group was going to come after us regardless. They already had the information we'd recorded, so they felt justified in attacking us."
"They have been through many worlds, attempting to evade her pursuers. She has stated that this is the safest one she's ever been in since her escape from her home." Frederick said.
"Chrom, you believe that Aversa, Walhart, and Validar are to return through the Outrealm Gate based off of what Gangrel said?" Hale asked. By the time he had returned to the front, the Mad King was a shrinking dot in the distance.
"He didn't mention them by name, but it's likely that the 'rest of us' is referring to at least one of them. I think we will need to ask for our friends' help once more. Mina, we will keep a guard for you and Jasmine for as long as you need, but we have to know: what do you plan on doing once Katrina and her group are no longer a threat to you?"
"Home." Jasmine's voice was sharp and loud, her eyes narrowing and her hands beginning to clench into fists. Mina leaned over and whispered to her, holding her hands and calming her down. Jasmine turned to her older self, her eyes still full of an anger Mina hadn't ever seen before.
"I won't run forever." She muttered, loud enough to be heard by everyone in the room.
"Do you want to stay here?" Mina asked. Jasmine closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
"Yes. And you?"
"I won't leave you by yourself. I know these people will take care of you, but… I want to be the one to teach you about growing up. Yes, I know I still have some of that left to do. You're all I have now, you know?" Morgan watched their conversation and immediately thought of when she had first met her father in this timeline. They had had a talk like this one, too. Well, after they had taken out all the Risen.
"Mm. Okay." Jasmine quietly replied, her anger dissipating. Mina let go of her hands and turned to the rest of the group.
"I guess that answers your question, Chrom. We want to live here, in your world. I'm sure I could find some work as a researcher – and since illusion magic isn't well-known here, I could even make a living teaching others the art. I'd find a way to support both of us."
"Then it's settled. I must ask, Mina: is there no way we can take the fight to Katrina? I would rather take the initiative in taking down her group than wait for her to attack you."
"I believe that since I've been here long enough, her group will have sent out a search party for me. It's likely they've already scouted Ylisstol and the surrounding areas trying to get an idea of my location. You saw that Katrina can warp herself away; I think she can use that to return any of her forces to the Outrealms once their business is through. They wouldn't have a camp here. I don't know where their base of operations is in the Outrealms. You already have another threat bearing down on you; I don't know if you can spend the resources searching them in order to find where they are." Morgan thought about how Mina had said she escaped her world once the monsters had overrun it. She couldn't remember how she had ended up in this timeline, and although the Shepherds were well-aware that Lucina and a large group of their children from the future had traveled back in time, no one had asked about the details concerning how they did it.
"Mina, I have a question. You went through the Outrealm Gate in your world to escape, right? How come the monsters didn't follow you through? Did the gate close behind you?" That was three questions, but she hoped Mina wouldn't mind.
"The Xenosoul Morgan explained to me that these Gates tend to open and close at various intervals depending on the worlds they connect. In my world, they would only remain open for a few minutes at a time before sharply closing – that's how we escaped without being followed. We never had a lasting Gate like yours. However, it is possible to close a Gate with the right magic, and even to keep them from opening from other realms."
"Do you know where the other me is right now?" Morgan quickly asked, jumping at the new info. The others began to look at each other, beginning to catch onto her train of thought.
"Somewhere in the Outrealms, that's all I know. Are you going to propose trying to find her in order to close the Gate to your world? You could prevent your old enemies from coming back that way and prevent Katrina's group from escaping once they enter. It sounds like a good idea, but I don't know where she is, Morgan. It may take years to find her. You might come back to Ylisse exactly as it is now, but how much of your life would you be willing to give up in the process?" Hale responded to her question.
"I think it is worth a shot. Think about it, everyone: we cannot control what comes out of the Outrealm Gate. We have been very fortunate to not have any external threats other than the Risen attack our world in the time it's been open. However, we can't rest assured that it will stay that way forever. We need a way to control that Gate. If finding the other Morgan is the only way we can achieve that, then it will be worth whatever time we may spend in the Outrealms." The tactician pondered the course of action for a moment before realizing another thing.
"Also, we may be able to find Katrina's base of operations in our search. That way, we can do what Chrom suggested – we can take the fight to her and stop her from trying to kill you. Chrom, what do you think?" The ruler hadn't particularly liked venturing into the Outrealms, even after learning that there was no time wasted from doing so. Calling on the former Shepherds to defend the world from their previous enemies would take some time, and would certainly involve pulling them from whatever pursuits they had chosen to take up since leaving. If he left and took years to return, that would subtract the time he had to guide the people of Ylisse.
"It is an action that carries much weight. Allow me to consider it, and I'll tell you what I think of it in the morning."
A/N: Was considering making this two separate chapters, but this is within my 5,000-word limit I talked about earlier. As always, leave your opinion in a review if you feel like telling me how good or bad I'm doing. I'll try to keep the updates coming at least once a week.