I took the time to look back on some of my chapters. I was able to find the many mistakes in most of those chapters (especially chapter 19) and fixed them. I also plan to fix the rest of those chapters in the future.
By the by, college starts for me again Tuesday and my schedule in now hell itself x(. Can't promise a chapter every Sunday anymore, but just look out for Thursdays and Sundays. If I DO post the next chapter, it will be on one of those days.
Chapter 28 Revelations part 3
"Why did you do that?!" Morgan yelled at the now unconscious woman in her arms. The blonde saw that the woman was no longer holding her gaping wound and put her injured hand over it to stop the bleeding. Morgan looked to her father with desperation and said, "Father, you have to help her!"
Matthew quickly snapped back into action and reached into his pocket to pull out whatever substance he had. His face grimaced when he pulled out a brown waterskin. "I-I only have a Vulnerary." Matthew said in solemn tone. "This won't be enough to heal her."
"It's enough!" Morgan exclaimed and snatched the medicine out of her father's hand. Morgan gently laid the woman on the ground and placed her head on her knees. She uncapped the medicine and held it to the sweating woman's lips. Much to Morgan's dismay, the liquid she poured into the silver haired woman's mouth only spilled out of her mouth. "Drink already!" Morgan commanded to the unconscious woman.
"She's unconscious, Morgan." Matthew stated the obvious. "The only way she could drink it is from mouth to mout-"
"You should honor her wishes and let that winch die."
Morgan, Matthew and Emmeryn looked around to find the dark voice that echoed throughout the temple. They all turned to the altar and saw none other than Matthew's doppelganger hovering in the air. "You!" Matthew growled at his double and instinct kicked in for him to pull Morgan, along with Aversa, behind him.
"You may have altered the course of history, but not its destination." The doppelganger stated in a matter-a-fact tone.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Morgan asked the demon hovering, but it ignored her completely and continued his stare at his look alike.
"It is still written that these friends of yours still die at your hands. Or, to be more precise, MINE." At this point, Matthew was now glaring at the hovering man.
"I'll kill you before I let that happen." Matthew stated and began to slowly unsheathe his sword.
"You can try, but you do not hold the power to slay me, Matthew." The man said with a growing smirk as he looked to the blonde hiding behind the brunette. "It's nice to see you again, Emm."
"Don't you DARE speak her name!" Matthew yelled, his sword now out and ready to attack.
"Why not?" The man smirked. "I was once married to the same woman before she, so tragically, met her end. But she did give birth to two of my children…well, a genius and a failure to be exact."
"W-What are you talking about?" Morgan asked hesitantly, wishing that the answer to the question was not what she wanted it to be. "W-
The floating man sighed heavily before putting hand to his face and massaging the base of his nose. "I swear my own children can be so daft at times. I AM Matthew. We are one and the same. The only thing different between the two of us is the choices we've made. I chose to become a God, while you chose to stick with these frail humans. When this "Marth" came back to the past, I followed her. I tried to take over his mind before he could meet these…"friends", but his will was stronger than I thought and all I ended up doing was wiping his memory clean. The dreams Matthew now has, the ringing in his head, they were nothing more than my memories trying to force their way back into his mind."
"As far as MY children are concerned, just like Validar, I have the power to control them at will. As I expected, it proved difficult to control Morgan due to her extraordinary talents and will power. Naomi on the other hand," The floating man looked over to his unconscious daughter before shake his head in disappointment. "As expected of a failure. She is worth absolutely nothing in my eyes. But I guess she had her uses to some extent. Still, once a failure, always a failure."
"STOP CALLING NAOMI A FAILURE!" Morgan finally cracked at the floating figure. "She is a lot stronger than you will EVER be! No one can best her a wielding magic, she works harder than anyone I know, AND she has the heart of an amazing person! I will not sit here and let you degrade her any longer! You are definitely NOT our father! Our father would never say anything like that about us OR mother! If anything, YOU are the true failure."
A smile emerged on the blonde's face from finally seeing the floating figure's cocky smile drop.
"You failed to take over Naomi and my mind completely, you failed to stop us from giving you enough sacrifices for your ritual, and you failed to kill any of the Shepherds! If anyone's a failure, then you are the biggest one in this whole world!" The floating figure didn't say a word after the blonde finished speaking. He just stared at her with a blank stare that did not waver the tactician in training's cocky smile.
"…It would seem that I should have disciplined you more back in the future… No matter. If you no longer fear me, then I will show you once again what fear really is!" The floating man raised his hands till they were outstretched to his sides with palms up. Everyone in the temple was alarmed when the building began to shake profoundly and debris began to fall from the ceiling. "I will make sure you all know fear!"
"Matthew!" The tactician turned around to the sound of his name as he tried to keep himself and wife from falling to the ground from the earth rumbling beneath them.
"Chrom!" Matthew called back to the man who was having just as much trouble as him.
"We must leave immediately! This place is going to fall!"
"You think?!" Matthew yelled back as he ran toward the altar and yanked the fire emblem off. He turned around and saw that Morgan and Emmeryn was trying to walk with the unconscious woman on their arms, but could not keep their balance. He rushed over and picked up the woman into his arms and while handing the Fire Emblem to his wife. "Don't worry, I'll carry her! You guys make sure you get out of here!"
The two did not argue and did what they were told. Matthew looked around to confirm that everyone was safely. Relief filled his body to see Basilio carrying Naomi out and everyone heading for the exit; the either dead or unconscious Grimleal bodies left behind.
…
When safely outside the temple, everyone had to take a minute to observe the chaos that was happening before them. The wind blew power gust that carried sand around the desert and made it impossible to see 10 yards in front of you, the Shepherds and soldiers were falling all over the place from the unbalanced ground, and lightning was striking against the ground; Chrom had to literally tackle Lucina before she would be struck by Mother Nature.
Matthew was deemed speechless when he saw the colossal being hovering above the Dragon's Table. The sheer size of the creature could easily break even the bravest of warriors and made Walhart look like an ant in comparison.
"G-Grima has revived." Lucina said in horror as she looked to the sky and at the colossal purple dragon. "I-It's all over."
"How does any even begin to fight a thing that size!?" Basilio exclaimed in utter shock at the creature.
"Now is not the time to falter!" Chrom got everyone's attention away from the dragon and to him. "Matthew, please tell me you got the Fire Emblem?" The Exalt asked the tactician who nodded in reply and immediately sent a wave of relief through the blue head. "Then there is no time to waste! We can ask Naga for her blessing. It's said that the first Exalt paid tribute to Naga at a sight on Mount Prism. If we want to still have a world to protect, then we must head there NOW!"
Everyone was in a complete jumble of mess. The soldiers were trying their best to find their way back to the camp through the sandstorm, the medical tent were having trouble taking down the tents and carefully carrying out the injured to the nearby forts, and the Shepherds were trying their best to keep everyone in order. No one had time to mourn for the lost or take notice to the colossal being in the sky. The only thing that was most likely going through most of their human minds was the instinct to live. If they didn't get out of the sand storm, then it was a high possibility that sand could completely fill their unprepared throats, or they could get lost and ever find their way back.
Matthew, Chrom and Basilio did their best to guide the disordered soldiers to the nearby forts and out of the sandstorm. It took hours to make sure that no one was still in the sandstorm, but once no one else could be seen from the scouts at the top of the fort, the search was off and everyone settled down until the storm subsided.
The last to be found were Tharja and Gangrel; who were completely covered head to toe with sand, but held satisfying smiles on their faces as if the storm was nothing in their eyes. The second the tactician had everyone account for, he set out to look for his family. If his memory was correct, Morgan and Naomi should be in the infirmary and Emmeryn should be going around making sure everyone was well. Since he had a slim chance in running into his wife, the brunette decided to first visit his daughters. As the tactician pasted the halls, he could see the terrified faces of the soldiers as if they had just seen the devil. Most of their minds were most likely wrapped around the mighty dragon they witnessed floating in the sky. But who could blame them for their fear and confusion? Anyone from afar would think the same thing if they saw what these soldiers saw up close and personal, and to think that this thing once moved around freely in Lucina's world? How could someone actually live with that…thing, looking down on the world from the heavens?
"Why won't you heal her?!" Matthew stopped and looked up to the familiar sound of his daughter Morgan's voice. Matthew poked his head into the now medical room to see what all the commotion was. Morgan's face was twisted into anger with gritted teeth as she looked to the many healers that eyed her down.
"Madam, do you not know who this woman is?" The healer wearing an all-white cleric garb right in front of the blond asked. "She's Grimleal! Not to mention she is the right hand woman for Validar! Who knows what she will do if she regains her strength. Rather than healing her, it would be better to let her breathe her last breath and pass on.
"I don't care what she once was!" Morgan lashed at the healer. "She saved my life and I have to repay that debt to her! I refuse to let her die!"
"We understand your determination to save this woman, we really do, but you are still just a child. You do not understand the danger that you are putting everyone here in by keeping this woman alive. As a healer, I would gladly help this woman before death finds her, but as a maiden of my country, I simply cannot let such a dangerous person roam free amongst our people! You should at least understand THAT much!"
Matthew knew Morgan was at a lost for when since she didn't seem to answer back to the healer. Matthew knew that every word the woman was saying was true and it would be better to let such a dangerous member fall to death. In their eyes, this was best tactical precaution they could come to. It was logical, but that didn't make it was right. Seeing that his daughter no longer had words to speak, Matthew stepped into the room.
Well, he would have if a green blur didn't calmly walk in before him. He stood in the doorway and watched as every healer quickly stiffened and bowed to the former Exalt who stopped behind her daughter. "Y-Your Grace!"
"Mom?" Morgan said looking up to her mother who didn't look back to her. Instead, her calm gaze was fixed on the dark flier who had was unconscious on a cot behind the healers. She looked back to the healers in front of her and took a bow.
"Please, you must heal that woman." Emmeryn said and instantly caused all the healers to go wide eyed.
"B-But your-"
"I've already heard your conversation. I believe you have every right to not want to heal that woman because of what she use to stand for, but that was the past."
"But Your Grace!" The lead woman called out. "If you heard us, then you know why we can't heal that woman!"
Emmeryn stared at the woman before saying, "This woman has given me food when I was hungry in my cell and has saved my life from Validar, but it has nothing to do with that. Death is nothing more than the easy way out. I have not seen her wrong doings, so I cannot say that this woman is pure at heart, but if there is a chance for her to repent for her actions, then there would be no better way than to have her do it throughout her final days and not pay for them in the afterlife."
The healers didn't say anything. All they did was stare at their former Exalt with their mouths half agape and their will to continue the argument shattered.
Then Emmeryn bowed and asked again, "Please, save her." The healers all looked to each other with anxious looks. Even though it was their own Queen who had asked for them to complete such a simple task, they still could not bring themselves to go through with it.
"I-I'm sorry, Your Grace," The leader of the pack spoke up for everyone who did not seem to have the words to. "But my brothers and sisters cannot bring ourselves to heal that woman. I-If death is the punishment that we must suffer for disobeying orders, then please allow me to take it all alone." Instead of a disappointed face the healers expected to see when the Exalt lifted her head, they were met with an understanding smile.
"I see," Emmeryn said calmly, then walked pass the healers and grabbed a healing staff from the many that sat in a barrel at the far end of the room. The Exalt turned back around and walked to the healers that was blocking her way to the dark flier. "Then at least allow me to heal her myself." Emmeryn asked and was replied with even more shocked looks from the healers. "I truly understand why you cannot bring yourself to help her, if I simply let someone die when I have the power to save them, then I believe I am in the wrong. If we don't heal her, then we would be no better than the Grimleal. If we are going to show that we are different than how they think, then we must show it with our actions and not our grudges."
The room went so silent that all that could be heard was the low voices of the soldiers down the hall. Matthew looked at Emmeryn in amazement. Never in the few months that he had his wife back did he ever think she would be able to give a speech like she did. Her radiant glow she once had before she lost her memories were once again glowing around her. They were still hesitant, but the healers lowered their heads in shame before clearing the way for the former Exalt to walk through; Morgan following closely behind. Emmeryn let out a short "thank you" before walking over to the woman who breathed short, heavy breathes. Aversa's skin was slightly lighter than her usual tan skin and it looked like she could meet death at any minute. Emmeryn let out a breath of air before hold the healing staff above the pale woman's abdomen and began chanting.
…
Matthew waited patiently for Emmeryn to finish everything. 10 minutes after her chanting was complete, Emmeryn wiped away any sweat she had on her forehead and turned to bow to the healers in the room before heading for the exit. "You did good, Emm." The tactician said to his wife as she approached him. Instead of stopping to speak to her husband, Emmeryn walked right pass him and speed-walked down the hallway.
Worry filled the tactician as he feared there might be something wrong with his wife. "Emm!" Matthew called out to his wife who didn't seem to stop, but quicken her paste. When he finally caught up to her, they were on the opposite side of the fort and at a dead end with no one in sight. The tactician slowly walked up to his wife who still had her back turned to him. "You alright Emm?"
Matthew was replied with the former Exalt turning around and burying her face in her husband's chest, wrapping her arms around him. "Hold me." She said plainly. Matthew calms abided to her request and wrapped his arms around her, being a little at ease since he didn't hear any cracks in her voice.
"I…have also bared scars from the Grimleal." Emmeryn revealed to her husband who did not say a word. Instead, he let her continue with whatever she was about to say next. "Every time I even thought about them, it would send chills up my spine and fear quickly took over. The healers, I can truly understand their hate toward the Grimleal and Aversa. I also tried to hate them, trust me I did, but some part of me disapproved of the word "hate". It was as if the very word was a sin to my tongue."
"But I met you." Emmeryn said, tightening the hold on her husband and a smile emerging on her face. "With you, I began to think less and less about the Grimleal. My fear was quickly subsiding the longer I stayed by your side, and soon, I couldn't even think about them anymore. If not for you, then I'm sure I would have fell into the same hate as they did. That's why..." Emmeryn pushed herself away and looked up into the brown orbs of her husband. "Thank you, Matthew. I can't thank you enough for all you have down for me."
Matthew smiled before inching closer to Emmeryn's lips. "And thank you for being with me, Emm." Then their lips met and they shared a long, passionate kiss that lasted far longer than they cared for in that empty hallway.
The sandstorm subsided faster than Chrom and Matthew thought. When they could finally see, Chrom called for a 1 day rest to get everyone ready to move toward Mount Prism to the east. He would have given more time, but there was no telling what would have happened if they didn't hurry to their destination. Grima was still amongst them and, with Lucina's warning, came more Risen.
Her warning gave the Shepherds the upper hand when they encountered Risen as they moved through the desert, but unlike the other Risen, these were a lot smart and seemed to adapt quickly to situations. Every day that passed as they made their way out of the desert, they would walk into a stronger and much larger force of Risen (most likely Grima's way of exhausting her food before she went in for the kill).
It would have taken the Shepherds to travel only 3 days from their previous location to get out of the desert, but because of their constant stopping, they were delayed and was now only three-fourths the way out 5 days later. There were still hard glares going toward Walhart and Yen'fey, who now walked amongst the army. Matthew was sure they received their fair share of threats from the army, they were the two Valmese men either had a heart of steel, or were the best actors in the world since they didn't even flinch at the daggers coming their way. Aversa was also on others thoughts, but she had yet to awaken and Morgan, Walhart and Yen'fey stayed by her side so no one would "accidently" slit her throat in the middle of the night.
Much to the Shepherds bad fortune, they ran into yet another pack of Risen, but this time, it wasn't them that they were attacking. Instead, in the distance they could see 4 figures being heavily outnumbered by over 20 undead creatures. Seeing that it wasn't many Risen, Matthew decided the best plan of action was to take only a small group of Shepherds to surprise attack the Risen from behind.
Now the team of Matthew, Chrom, Nah, Tharja, Lucina, Flavia, Sumia, Cynthia, Cherche, Gaius, and Yen'fey all set out to deal with the undead creatures. The surprise attack was a complete success. The Risen that were attacking did not even have time to react as the Shepherds stabbed them in the back with their blades and magic and continued to push forward. The fight wasn't even much of a fight since the Risen didn't seem to be able to defend themselves from the frontal attack from the four figures and the back attack from the Shepherds. In the end, it was a complete one side massacre
"That's all of them." Matthew said as he sheathed his swords and walked over to Chrom who did the same. "You feeling alright, Chrom?"
"Never better." Chrom said nonchalantly and looked to the four warriors that sheathed their blades; a redhead head and two blue head males, and a green haired woman. "I don't know who they are, but they must be strong if they were able to hold off such a large number of Risen on their own." The blue head commented.
"Yea," Matthew replied simply and said, "We should go make sure that they haven't suffered any injuries." The Exalt nodded in agreement and walked over to one of the figures. It was a man about Chrom's height with blue hair and wore a hero's garb similar to Priam's, but had a red cape around his neck and a green bandana wrapped around his forehead.
"Are you guys alright?" Matthew asked the man and waited for a reply, but did not receive one. All he received was a blank stare from the man. Matthew scratched the back of his head before asking again. "Are you guys from around here?" Still nothing.
"Not one for I guess." Said Chrom, and the man now looked towards him with the same blank stare that he was just giving the tactician. There was something he noticed something about the figure. You could barely see it if you were not close enough, but a blue aura could be seen illuminating from the figures and all their soulless eyes were the exact same color; sky blue.
"Something feels…off about them." The tactician said as he observed the figures that looked to them with their soulless eyes. Chrom's eyes landed on one that was just a few yards away from the one currently in front of them. He also had blue hair, but what stood out was the familiar blue garb he was wearing that was far too similar to the garb Lucina wore. Who exactly were these people?
As he was thinking, Matthew and Chrom looked up to see an old man in a priest uniform literally appeared out of thin air and began walking toward them. "Hail travelers!" The old man said and stopped next to the blue head in front of the tactician and Exalt.
"H-Hello good sir." Matthew said, shaking himself out of what he just saw and bowed to the man; Chrom following suit.
"Thank you very much for assisting my servants. I'd feared that this would be their final stand against those dreadful creatures, yet they still stand tall to defend the village!"
Chrom and Matthew looked to each other before looking back to the grateful old man. "Village?" They both said in unison.
"Certainly!" The old man said gleefully at the confused men before realizing the reason for their confusion. "Oh that's right, you can't see the village, can you?" The old man said and put the two men into an even more confused state. "Well that is very understandable. The villages around here are incognito thanks to the magic that surrounds these parts. Without it, our village would suffer from constant attack from the bandits."
"That's amazing!" Lissa screeched from behind the two swordsmen, who turned around in surprise to see the princess eavesdropping on the conversation. The old man however, didn't seem so surprised and continued as if he wasn't interrupted.
"It is indeed! We have lived in fear of the constant attacks from the bandits and the Grimleal. We are home to many mages, but our numbers have decreased due to them. Getting rid of even a small portion of them has really lifted some weight off of our people's shoulders! If there is anything we can reward you for, then please don't hesitate to ask!"
"It was no problem at all."Chrom replied and did short bow to the priest once again. "You said that you wanted to reward us, correct? If so, would you have rooms in your village to have our injured sleep in a comfortable bed?"
"Oh indeed, m'lord!" The man replied cheerfully. "We have more than enough room in our village to house your soldiers! We can even prepare food if you like!"
"Food AND a nice bed? We'll take it!" Lissa answered before her brothers could deny the "food" part. Chrom didn't want to take food from the villagers, but they were actually low in the food department, so he had no choice but to accept the priest generous offer.
"Thank you very much. I will be sure to repay your kindness in the future." Chrom bowed again to the priest who shook his hands in front of him from the amount of respect he was given from the Exalt.
"No no no! You shouldn't continue to bow to me, sir. Getting rid of those undead creatures was payment enough-" The old man stopped when he when he got a closer look at the man next to the Exalt. Chrom raised his eyebrows at the old man's newly found curiosity of his tactician.
"Is there a problem, sir?"
"Not so much as a "problem", sir. It's just…I feel like I've seen this man before, but my memory can't seem to place a finger on where." The old man said as he massaged his chin in thought. "Hmmmm…do you mind if I get a closer look at your face, sir?" Matthew didn't see any reason why not, so he nodded and the old man slowly walked over to him. The tactician watched as the old man squinted and observed the his face. After about 10 seconds of his observation, a switch went off in his head and his face turned into pure joy. "Dear Naga! The Gods has shined their light back on us!"
Chrom and Lissa all looked to the old man in confusion. "Does he know Matthew or something?" Lissa asked her brother should shrugged his shoulders lightly.
"Please! We must hurry back to the village! The people will be overjoyed to see Master Robin again!" The old man didn't say another word as he turned and walked away from the trio. Meanwhile, Lissa and Chrom looked to the confused Matthew with raised brows.
Robin?
Sugioxxx: Tight Née-San?! XD I'm going to assume you mean the robed sister and leave it at that. As for the loll, yep. I may not be a lolicon (seriously, I'm not) but it's interesting to me to see a quiet person actually change and show emotion whether it's embarrassment or anger. I guess it's just how I am :P
Erebus13: I actually had a hug debate on whether or not to let Aversa live or not. To be honest, I never really planned for her to make any interaction with Walhart back in Valm and she would have died when the Shepherds fought her at the end of the fight with the warlords. Then I really thought about it. If Emmeryn was found earlier on in the story instead of later, then there would be no way that other events wouldn't have changed.
It would actually be possible for Aversa to also travel to the Wellsprings of Life earlier in the game (for whatever reason) and find the truth about herself. Seeing how strong Validar is, she would definitely seek help from someone, and, no other than, Walhart. There was also no way she would have missed Yen'fay since it was so close.
Anyways, back to the debate. Since I did let Aversa live, I wanted her to get her revenge before her "death", but the only reason I wanted to kill her off was because I couldn't find where she would actually fit in this story. So, I asked 10 of my trusted friends, who knew nothing about the story so they wouldn't just give me feedback about what they would actually want in the story instead of what would actually sound logical, and asked them what I should do. It was 7-3 with Aversa living, so I did...kinda anti-climactic if you ask me :/
THE CREATOR: ...I Hope this chapter was to your liking? I'm sure I don't even have to tell you who the people are who is standing guard. In fact, your long long ago your review gave me an idea of-OOPS!
Can't say any more than that till the next chapter I'm afraid ^_^.
As for my reactions to your videos I sadly haven't gotten around to watching them (mainly because I get easily distracted), but I will definitely get around to it and will gladly give you my feed back next chapter!
Anyways, thank you for the reviews, favs and follows and hope to see you all next time!