Near Ferox-Plegia Border, 8:25 AM.
The sounds of footsteps resounded as a heavily armored man walked the snow path, behind him a group of 5 walked at the same leisure, none of them reacting to the snow falling around them or blocking their path, whatever happened before them, they just kept walking.
"Eins, what are our orders again?" one of the 5 asked the armored man, her horse dutifully marching along while she read a tome on her hands, her attire showing that she was a Dark Knight, interested in seeing how much has magic changed since her last life, on the hand holding a tome a mark could be seen reading "Sechs", "To reduce this country to ashes, we do not have a time limit but as we all know, not all orders of our master are completely there".
"I agree, I thought he would finish me off due to my slip up. I'm honestly impressed we managed to live for another day, what do you think Neun?" answered another one, the mark on his arm reading "Fünf", while looking to the other woman on their group who just shrugged at the question, "He wouldn't kill us, not the real him, the puppet could try but our master would never let him for we are the only "humans" he trusts" Neun answered without a shred of doubt, believing entirely on her lord.
"Even so, it's interesting the situation he is on, i have never heard of someone holding two souls on one body, let alone fighting to be on control" another one answered as he fixed his cloak yet again due to the strong wind, the mark on his face reading "Zwölf", "Unfortunately none of us dabble on that field, maybe Acht would have some insight on this?" he wondered out loud thinking about his companions that haven't returned yet.
"Maybe, maybe not, Acht knows about magical theory and that's it, he probably had as much knowledge of this as we do" the last one answered, the same way as Eins no mark could be seen on their body, his armor being lighter than Eins but heavier than the rest, the ax on his belt and the shield on his left arm showing his profession, his blue hair moving along the wind as he stopped in his tracks, Eins doing the same along with rest of their group, a massive wall standing before them, it's impressive size dwarfing all of them and yet none seemed even surprised.
"So that's the Feroxian Wall, i expected it to be more impressive if i'm honest!" sounded a new voice, on an instant Zwölf was behind them with his sword about to penetrate their neck while Neun aimed hers at their heart, the rest looking slightly impressed and more so annoyed, "Drei? How are you here? I thought our lord couldn't find a good enough material for you to be back on" the blue haired Hero asked the new arrival, who was holding a large sack over his shoulder, curious as to why he was here.
"Oh that?, apparently a group of our soldiers had secured the corpse of a warrior that was said to be the strongest of this continent, problem was that his corpse was across the sea for some reason" the newly named Drei answered, his arms relaxing when the two swords were pulled away from him, taking a small breath, his eyes lighted up remembering the sack on his back, "Ah i almost forgot, our lord gave me this for you, he said that it was to ensure our complete annihilation of this land" he exclaimed with a smile while opening the sack.
"For Neun, we have this!" he exclaimed while pulling a curved sword from it, the blade had a beautiful design, silver gleaned at the few light around them and the blue gem on the handle shone with intensity, Neun eyes lighted up in recognition and took the sword, did a quick strike towards Zwölf who blocked with his sword, only for it to crack on impact leaving everyone but Neun amazed, "It's name is Balmung, apparently it was used by some of the best Swordmasters ever known" Drei continued as he pulled another sword from the sack.
"This one is for Zwölf" he said as Zwölf took it and immediately fell to his knees, the blade's red gem shining as it started to judge it's bearer who just laughed at the pain, before standing up again as his laugh resounded across the small clearing before the gem changed its intensity, the red gem going back to it's past gleam, "That one's Mystletainn, it's said that it rivals Balmung on terms of strength, but while Balmung it's for speed that one is for skill and the ones that don't mind death" Drei continued casually as he ignored the display of power from the blade before pulling a golden bow this time.
"Fünf this one's yours" he throwed the bow at the Sniper who catched it midair and with a spin aimed at one of the many trees and shot at it, destroying the wood entirely on a single impact, he put down his bow and saw the damage on its entirety, smiling at the power of his new weapon, "Well this isn't something i ever expected a bow being able to do, our master truly got ahold of some interesting weapons" he said with a chuckle before putting the bow on his back beside the quiver and his nos backup bow.
Drei for his part walked towards Sechs and gave her a tome, "Our master said that you shouldn't use this with allies closeby, apparently it's some strong-ass fire magic that can make anything little more than charcoal so do keep that in mind" Sechs took the tome from his hand and stuffed It on her saddle, not wanting to break her master's command, "Oh yeah it's name is Valflame, just so you know" he said before turning to the last two members and with a smile he put out two weapons, a sword and a lance.
The sword had a regal look to it, sleek design along with a gem on the handle as well, it's crimson color reflecting on the blue haired man's face as he took it, he twirled on his hand a bit before nodding and putting it inside the shield on his arm, the lance on the other hand looked plain, almost as any steel lance would look, but Eins knew better, his master would never give him a piece of trash instead of a weapon, so he took it without a single doubt.
"Those are Tyrfing and Gungnir, the strongest sword of the trio and one the lance of those that govern with might respectively, befitting of our two leaders if you ask me" he said turning around and unfolded the massive ax on his back, it's size being almost the same as Drei himself who easily put it on his shoulders before looking at his companions, "And this one's mine, Helswath, this bad boy can crush and cut anything on my way, that is all Lord Grima wanted me to tell you" he said with a smile while putting the ax back on his back.
"This is all we need, the fact he gave us these gifts explains the situation loud and clear, "Exterminate those pests, and do it fast" and to that I say we comply with his demands!" and with those words he started marching towards the wall, his shield raised along with Gungnir ready to destroy all on his path, the rest of the Deadlords brandishing their weapons and walking towards the border.
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Wall of Ferox, 8:51 AM.
At the top of the wall Raimi stood watch over the snowy fields, a bored expression on her face until she saw a group of seven walking towards her, "Halt!, You are about to enter as an unwanted visitor, turn around or we'll use deadly force on you" she screamed at the group, said group just kept walking ahead until they reached the gate, "Zwölf, bring down that gate now" the assassin nodded and jumped on the wall, using the same trick that in Ylisse he reached the top on seconds, seeing this a soldier tried to spear his back.
Zwölf ducked and let the soldier lose his balance, when he fell Zwölf stepped on his neck and broke it, before starting to run towards the mechanism, meanwhile the Archers and Knights atop the wall made a hail of proyectiles towards the group, Sechs seeing this pulled a tome from her coat, "Arcfire" she muttered as the torrent of flames burned every arrow or javelin going their way, Zwölf for his part reached the mechanism and pulled the chain, opening the door in a matter of seconds leaving everyone impressed at the Inhuman strength before he smiled and drew Mystletainn, the rest of the soldier raising their lances to fight the menace.
Seeing this the rest of the Deadlords started to run inside with the exception of Eins and the Hero, both deciding to stand back and see how strong were their comrades this time around, Neun ran towards the medics of this battalion but before she could reach them a group of Knights stood before her, all of them rising their shields and lances to meet her face to face, but instead of accepting the challenge she used them as a stool and reached the unguarded medics, unsheathing Balmung she went at them while they tried to escape in vain.
The Knights tried to go back and aid but before they could advance much a gigantic ax impacted one of them breaking his armor into smithereens in a single blow, Drei gave a roar and continued to casually demolish the group of armors, one of them managed to sneak behind him and tried to skewer him from the back, Drei saw this and dropped the ax entirely, using the new agility he turned and punched the helmet of the Knight stunning him momentarily, in that moment Drei picked up his weapon and smashed it into the Knight killing in him instantly.
The Archers for their part started to take aim at Neun, before a single arrow flew by, cutting the string of all their bows, with a smile Fünf saw Sechs take notice of said Archers and started to prepare another shot, looking after his comrades back's, Raimi saw him and shot a spear at him Fünf seeing that shot the spear out of the sky and then readied an arrow and shot it at Raimi who blocked with her shield and started to advance towards him, Fünf realized that she wasn't like the rest of the rabble and reached for Yewfelle on his back, but instead of drawing it he smiled confusing Raimi who looked around and realized her situation.
Nobody else remained, the Warrior had taken care of all her Knights, the Dark Knight along with the Sniper killed all of her Archers, the soldiers guarding the gate's mechanism had been finished off by the Assassin and lastly all of the clerics assigned to keep her troops alive were on the floor, the Swordmaster having killed them all, so with a grim determination she ran towards her spear and raised it doing a mad dash towards the two that haven't moved, intending to take what seemed to be the leaders head, she aimed her lance at the neck of the General.
"Pointless!" Was the last thing she heard before her spear broke, looking down she saw her armor pierced completely by a sword, the Hero took Tyrfing out of her chest and let the General fall to the floor, without anything else to say to the woman before them the two deadlords began to walk ahead, reuniting with the rest of their group.
"You know she's still alive right?" Zwölf asked the Hero who just nodded, "It's more hurtful to leave her alive and stew on her own shame, besides she is not a threat to us" at that Zwölf laughed agreeing with that train of thought, "Yeah you are right, hey Sechs how far are we from the Dueling Grounds?" he asked with mirth, all of the blood around them making him giddy, "Three to four days of walking, maybe even five if the roads are impossible to travel, it's said that Feroxian winters are rough for everyone after all" she said after a few seconds of thinking.
"Let's move then" Eins ordered as they all began their march anew, leaving the once proud guards of the gate in shambles, Zwölf stopped turned around and walked towards the door mechanism, he pulled his cracked sword out and struck the chain, breaking both it and his sword, "Just in case some were on patrol, that way we don't need to deal with more rabble" he said with a cocky smile throwing the unusable sword away, he walked to his companions and let the silence continue.
And so they kept marching, as the heralds of despair they were, there was no reason to hurry for no one could escape death.
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Training Grounds, 8:54 AM
A man stood on the practice range, his brown hair tied on a braid so it doesn't get on the way, the uniform he had on showed some form of decorum along with a certain rank that seemed above the rest of soldiers training there, this man was Commander Lionel, leader of the Archery Division of Ylisse and the only Bow Knight on it's ranks, he took a calming breath and let the arrow fly, hitting the target on the center, he shot again hitting the same arrow.
With a smile at his skills he turned around and looked towards his subordinates all of them hard at work trying to improve their skills, men and women hard at work to be able to serve their country, he was proud of them, looking to the side he saw a little girl looking at the Archers with a mesmerized look on her eyes, he smiled and walked towards her, seeing him the girl turned around and ran away, with a frown he decided to let it go and walked back towards his subordinates.
But before he could he heard the sound of heels clacking on the floor so he turned around and saw something unexpected, "You are Commander Lionel correct?" the witch asked him, while he didn't exactly trust her she seemed to have the good of Ylisstol in mind so he nodded, "Good, i was wondering if there was space for new members on your platoon" she said while keeping an expression of confidence, "With all due respect miss, i doubt your physical capability is enough, you seem to be more inclined towards magic than anything" to that he heard the woman chuckle.
"I didn't mean me, i meant this little one" she said motioning the little girl from before, he was so focused on the Plegian he didn't notice her at all, "She seemed to be interested in archery but apparently didn't have the confidence to act on it, so i decided to ask in her stead" to that Lionel was confused, he knew about the rumors surrounding this woman, about how she would kill anyone in the name of her love, how she seemed to hex people without a single shred of mercy, so why? Why was she worried about a random girl?, But he supposed that it didn't matter.
"If she's willing to join then she will be welcomed" he answered curtly, trying to play the serious leader he was supposed to be, to that the woman smiled and turned around leaving the scene just as quickly as she arrived, the little girl stood there looking to where the woman left from with a complicated expression, "Is something wrong little one?" he asked in a gentle tone, to that the girl seemed to break from her trance, "No, it's nothing" and walked after Lionel who proceeded to give her a practice bow and present her to the rest of his soldiers.
Tharja watched as her daughter tried to use the bow with a smile before turning around and walking away, "Who knew you had that kindness on you Sunshine?" the annoying voice from the thief sounded beside her, "Just doing what seems right, Noire has shown some interest in archery lately, as a mother i just decided to give her a hand in pursuing that interest, even if it is so she can survive" she said while walking away, trying to end this conversation as quickly as possible.
"Hey Tharja" hearing the thief use her name instead of her usual nickname made her stop on her tracks, "Libra would be proud of you" with those words the thief walked away, leaving Tharja alone on that hallway, "I hope so as well" she said with a somber voice, Libra died believing that above all, she needed to fix her relationship with her daughter, so that the history that he lived with his own parents didn't happen to the family he build.
But she didn't know how to do that, how to reconcile with the daughter she left to one of her friends until not so long ago, the daughter that saw the pink haired dancer as a mother more than her, but for the man she loved, even if she only saw it when it was too late, she would do her absolute best, she won't let Noire live the same life Libra had, hating his existence and wondering year after year, why did they hate him?.
Feeling dampness on her cheeks she put her hand on them and saw a singular tear running down, seeing this she hurried to her room, not wanting anyone to see her weakness, only two persons were allowed to and one of them wasn't alive anymore, the other one, she would try to reconnect with.
For Libra, and for Noire.