(A/N – This chapter is going to have three songs in it so I recommend you pull up YouTube now and be ready to enter certain pieces from it. These ones I will be presenting to you are some of my favorite music pieces that I love to hear. Just picking a few out of many hundreds was really tough but I think these were the best picks. Anyway I hope you enjoy this long ass chapter.)
To Saito, the previous night went on for an eternity but nonetheless he was able to get what little sleep he could. He stood on the castles roof alone, thinking of what will transpire in the coming hour. He knew this would be the last time that he and his holiness met and it would be met by the edge of his blade. The sun began to rise over the horizon and it was a crimson red, symbolizing to Saito that blood has been spilt already and more will be soon; he just hoped that it would be his enemies.
"Idiot." Saito did not move his head, knowing that only one person would greet someone like that.
"Morning to you two Louise." Saito said as the woman walked over to his right side.
"Mind telling me why you are out here, you may catch a cold."
"I appreciate the concern, although it worries me that you are so."
"I can't let my partner get sick on me now."
"Temporary." Saito simply moved his left hand and presented the ring on his finger. Louise just chuckled.
"Like it really matters, you may very well get it chopped off."
"Then my right hand will have a new piece of jewelry on it."
"You have become a stubborn husband."
"And proud of it."
The two of them looked out at the rising sun and images of Saito's homeland entered into his mind with the thought of the red sun. He withheld his tears, knowing that this was his home but could never let it go. Louise glanced at the man and noticed he was trying to hold back his emotion.
"Japan is call something like the rising sun right, red sun and all?"
"Wait, how did you-"
"When you told me stories about your homeland ten years ago, I actually was listening. When I arrived in France, I asked a historian of the city I was in to tell me if the place you said was real. He told me it was called Japan and showed me a small, but very well documented section of it's history."
"Paris?"
"Exactly."
"Very interesting, wouldn't have though Japanese culture would have a section in a Paris library."
"I can take you back after this war is over for a family vacation." Louise offered.
"Alright, you obviously are doing this for a reason."
"Think of it as the last gift in an apology I am giving." Louise turned and held her right hand out to the King of Tristain. "After everything is settled, let the three of us work together to rebuild a broken world to a brighter future."
Saito noticed it and did not know whether it was a trap or if it a genuine. Saito looked at Louise and the image of them as children resurfaced once more, him as an eighteen year old slave to a sixteen year old stubborn noble.
"Getting poetic I see?"
"You wouldn't know the first thing about the art of poetry if it nailed you in the face."
"True…" Saito turned around and shook the hand of her once master, enemy and now reunited friend. "Let's finish this together." Louise nodded. She broke the shake and went to the door but not before giving him a warm smile.
"Together…" Saito faced the sun and remembered the words Sasha said to him about her void master and how he shouldn't trust Louise. "I will be the bridge that supports this world and the next."
Saito said to himself and followed Louise's example of leaving the roof of his home. The man spent the next couple of minutes walking towards his shared bedroom. When he reached it, he saw Agnes standing next to it.
"She is still asleep Saito."
"I know, I would like to say goodbye to her before she wakes up so I don't have to worry about any resistance from her."
"You have always regretted arguing with her because she has a much better way with words comparatively speaking."
"Remember who pay's you Agnes." Saito joked with the woman who just brushed it off. He entered the room and found his wife was still fast asleep in her purple nightgown.
"I hope you are sleeping well dear…" Saito softly said and walked over to her bedside and sat in a chair beside her. "I have been a terrible father these past few weeks and I hope you are able to stand it for one more day."
Saito got up and kissed her on the forehead. "Because I swear on my life, it will be the last day." He began to move away from the bed, each step feeling like a lifetime with him having to leave her behind again. He got to the door and quickly but quietly closed it behind him to not wake her up. He just looked at Agnes and she understood what he was telling her as he began walking to the armory to equip himself for the final battle.
The only thing one Saito's mind was the encounter with the army he met ten years ago. Just the thought of it made the guy at the age of twenty-eight feel old already. Saito was leaning against the railing of the fleet deck, waiting for Louise to show up.
"You sure you got yourself ready to take on an army, and win this time?" Louise popped from the left of the man who did not jump. "Dang…"
"More ready than I will ever be. Derf check, katana check, that's all I need." Saito patted the hand of his sword to show he was there and the katana was hanging on his right side of his waist.
Louise just face palmed herself at hearing such a statement. "Now I am beginning to remember why I whipped you so much. Oh well, let's get going."
Louise began walking past the king towards the edge of the flight deck as Saito ran up to the woman. She took one step forward and let the rest take motion as she let herself fall. The male in the duo just sighed and began to float from the edge and hovered over the air that Louise purposely fell from. He looked down and sure enough saw that girl floating there as if she was saying 'To hell with physics, I got magic.'
"You done, we have a far bit to travel Louise?"
"Fine, let's get this over with then." Louise simple said and began to move at Mach One speeds towards the location she pointed on the map. She turned her head and didn't see the man.
"What, do you really think I am that slow?" Louise looked up and saw Saito flying upside down with his hands crossed. She got closer and slapped the man in the face. "Oww, what was that for!?"
"For being cocky. Now, can we please focus on the task at hand and who get's who?"
"Well, considering it is two swordsmen and two void mages dueling it out, I think the answer is plain as day."
"Forget I asked then."
"Meh, all that matters is that we take care of this little mess now."
"Derf, any signs?" Saito asked as the sword remained silent. To Saito and Louise, the silence was very worrisome.
"Partner, there is not just one trace of void energy by many."
"Wait, what do you mean by many, only five void mages can exist at a time in the world." Louise threw in a piece of information Saito did not know about.
"I am saying there are anywhere from one hundred to three hundred traces of energy that are in the same location Louise."
Hearing such news forced the two participants to land on the edge of a forest that was next to the location of the void mage. Both adults looked at each other as Saito pull out Derflinger and stabbed the sword into ground in front of them.
"Alright, start talking Derf." Saito said as the blade began speaking.
"I am picking up-"
"We already know, I mean other stuff."
"Whatever it is, it feels as identical to the next. It is making me very worrisome."
"Well Louise, I vote we go in now before the numbers increase."
"Agreed, anything else you want to say?"
"Although there are a very large amount of them, their individual levels are very weak compared to Lousie's."
"You know…this is really starting to sound like a hell lot like an cloned army of the Pope.
"Clone?" Louise tilted her head at hearing the word.
"Basically, someone is ability to make an identical come of themselves. Only flaw is it splits that the energy of that person in half. I imagine the Pope did this but did not know about the side affect."
"Sorry to butt in but I don't think that is the case. I sense a very high level of void magic in the center so I do not think that happened to him."
"Dang it, and here I thought it would be easy." Saito pulled Derf from the ground and placed him in the scabbard. "Ready to rain hell?"
"After you." The two began to float again as a bolt of lightning soared past Saito's head who calmly gave a sigh.
(A/N – And the first one is Kingdom Hearts 3 OST - Alius Futurum - and by the way this is fan-made.)
"Why it is always me they target and lightning that is the first spell, either that or fire…"
Saito muttered and shot himself into the air faster than Louise could blink. The Gandalfr was overlooking the area and indeed to what his eyes could tell there were about three hundred clones of Vittorio, surrounded by thousands of soldiers. He slowly pulled out his sword but got nailed by a bolt of lightning for his troubles.
"ALWAYS FUCKING LIGHTNING!" Saito shouted and pulled the rest of the blade out. He dove straight down towards the ground but unknown to anyone but he, the blade was beginning to be surrounded by electricity. "I'll show you lightning, ARGHHHH!"
Saito gained so much speed that Louise could not see his body as she rose to the sky. Saito at the very last second slammed the blade into the ground sending massive currents of electrical energy, destroying the conductor known as earth in the surrounding area in the process. Huge waves of white electricity shout everywhere touching any who was wearing armor and got fried inside of it as a result.
The fighter quickly pulled the blade from the ground and dashed forward. Up above he saw everything that considered an air force in this world got blown the hell up in concentrated explosions. Saito saw one knight who was coming in for a charging overhand as Saito used a quick right cut to sever the man in half. He kicked the upper torso towards a group of knights and snapped his fingers, causing an explosion in the radius of the upper body.
"Look out!" Louise shouted at Saito who looked up and saw a burning dragon falling towards him. He dove forward and threw himself up into the air once more.
"Fiery Explosion!" Saito shouted and slammed Derflinger onto the green earth once more up in the chopping motion. The immediate explosion was so massive that Louise was forced to throw up a quick barrier to protect herself. As the explosion settled, the remaining knights who were between Saito and his prize saw nothing but fire in the location he was in. this thought was quickly discarded as a body rose from the ground with a sword in its right hand and the only features that could be distinguished from the thing since the since was facing the opposite direction are the navy blue eyes and a set of runes on its left hand that shined bright than the sun itself. Whatever this thing was, it had the power of the Gods themselves.
Saito disappeared from sight of the enemy only to reappear before the leading officer and get the blade thrusted into his gut. Blood poured out of the mouth of the officer as the other men charged the devil who attacked their leader. Saito gripped Derlinger with his right hand and used wind magic to sharpen the blade and with a sideways 360 slash straight through the steel like armor like a hot knife on butter like nothing.
Louise meanwhile was dealing with any aerial forces with her mastery of Void magic. One dragon knight came at her from behind trying to get a one up. Louise simply widen her eyes and a small explosion hit the pilot of the dragon, forcing both the dead idiot and anyone who was dumb enough to fight her to rethink their position right now. She looked down and saw that Saito was just carving a patch straight towards the leader himself but some of the side units were beginning to regain organization and close a circle around the king.
"Oh I don't think so." Louise simply said but noticed she was having problems of her own. "Can't you tell I'm busy idiots!?"
Louise shouted and made a series of three explosions at the fleet of warships in front of her. A small smile formed on her face remembering the last time she did something like that. Her smile was quickly destroyed by hundreds of tiny explosions closing in on her. Louise flew herself backwards and saw many more coming behind her. The Void witch dove down and saw that the clones of Vittorio were the culprits behind the attack.
"Saito, take out the clones so I can provide support!" Louise shouted and took a random shot at where she believed the fake Void mages were, nearly hitting Saito in the process.
"Working on it."
Saito simple said and chopped off the leg of one knight and kicked him into a group of the remaining ones. He thrusted Derflinger into the ground and raised both hands up. At his command two stone halves of a circle came from the ground on both sides of the knights. Saito clasped both hands together into a fist sign and the two halves joined together, flatting the trooping there.
"Behind you partner!" Derflinger commented as Saito pour water magic onto the surface of his left hand and grabbed the blade that was coming for him. The knight was shocked that his motion was completely stopped but Saito knew that that water slowed it down enough to be able to grab it. He forced the blade down to the ground and with electricity flowing in his right hand, back handed the knight.
(And now we have Radiant Historia OST - An Earnest Desire of Grey)
Saito looked up and saw Louise was getting attacked by multiple explosions which only meant that the clones were focusing on her since she was doing most of the area of effect spells. He switched Derflinger into a reverse handgrip and drew his second blade with his left hand.
He dashed towards the mash pit of where the clones were located and the front ones noticed that Saito was coming. Three fired a stream of explosions at him which stopped his advance. All the clones saw was a crater left. Suddenly a spinning sword came flying at them and cut up a few mages.
"Up there!" One clone shouted and pointed up to the sky but couldn't see him because the sun was behind Saito. Said person called upon lightning into the palm of his right hand and shot a bolt directly at the spinning Derflinger. Touching the blade, currents of miniature blades formed around the legendary sword and dispersed across the pit of Vittorio fakes. Saito called back his sword and in an instant Derflinger was back in his hands but in a standard gripping.
"You have been holding out on me partner."
"Actually I'm making this up as I GO!" Saito slashed at on clone with his katana and shoved it out-of-the-way.
Up above Louise noticed that the rows of explosions have greatly decreased on her. She looked down and saw that everything the wannabe void mages had was being thrown at Saito who was, to put it lightly, destroying everything that was in his path. She turned her head to what as up ahead of them and saw a floating island with one building on it in the center of an armada of warships. Louise concluded that as where the asshole was located and got closed to Saito.
"Saito, look up."
Saito indeed did as he was told after chopping a clone with Derfligner, turned his head and saw a floating island with hundreds of warships surrounding.
"There's our prize, give me a moment."
Saito said and stomped his foot on the ground, creating monstrous shockwaves in the area followed by the earth swallowing the clones that were delaying him from finishing this. Saito was floating so the spell would not backfire on him as he closed the mouth of the earth and looked at the next problem.
"Alright, first problem down, next is a crap ton of ships."
"How are your magic reserves holding up?"
"Let me show you."
Saito sheathed Derflinger and his katana and held his hands above him. Clouds began to form around him as the warships were closing into range. One ship fire a fireball but Louise called upon a barrier spell to protect the two. The clouds began to become grey and then black with hints of thunder in them. Never the less, the ships continued their way towards the mage and warrior.
"From me to you!"
And with that, he threw his hands down furiously and in a split second, thunder rained down on everything in the air except for Saito and Louise. Burning ships began to fall to the ground as crew members were making to magical life rafts but continual thunder destroyed any that tried to escape. Louise looked at Saito and could not believe he had so much power at his disposal, even if the reports she obtained said so.
The two fighters flew to the island where they did not run into any resistance on it. Both landed in unison and knew exactly why no one was firing any shots. Saito and Louise stood side by side was the leader of Romalia sat in a very lavish yellow seat with jewels surrounding the outside of it with his familiar standing across from him.
"Congratulations on destroying my armies and fleet of warships." Vittorio went to clap but his right cheek got cut upon his hands coming together. Saito had used his index figure to control where the cut would go.
"Save it, let's just get this over with Vittorio." Saito said, anger of the images of his captain still fresh in his mind. Vittorio simply rose from his chair and grabbed his papal staff.
(Easily the hardest of all the themes to pick but I chose Tales of Symphonia – Final Destination (Remix) by PacoChanV2 – And no, we are not talking about Super Smash Brothers Brawl here, two completely different series; Although I would love to see Lloyd in the next brawl.)
"Then let us." Vittorio simple said as Julio drew his sword and held it in front of him.
At this point, Saito was just saying to hell with reason. He began to grinded his teeth and charged at the swordsmen, causing the opposing familiar to go defensive. Steel on steel clashed as Saito pulled his katana out and went in to stab the man. Julio jumped away from the swordsmen but the king pursued him, leaving the two mages alone.
Vittorio was the first to act with a blade of wind summon from right in front of the man. The blade went sailing at Louise who used her wand and shattered the spell with it. Slightly surprised by the move, he continued to throw spells out at the female who showed that in the last ten years she had been practicing her magical craft well.
Saito went in for a slashing with the katana which was better suited to the job that Derflinger. Julio swerved to the right and chopped down to hit Saito's left blade. The force of the impact, coupled by Saito positioning the katana the wrong angle, caused his newest toy to shatter in half. Seeing a moment in Julio's offense, Saito stabbed the remains of the blade into the stomach of his enemy and twisted the blade to inflict more damage.
A hand was felt on Saito's own as he looked up and saw Julio smiling and pulled the broken weapon out and swiftly cut from the right elbow sideways on the Gandalfr's torso. Saito used a blast of wind to force some space between the two as Julio closed the gap once more.
Louise was fairing much better with the Pope, easily countering every move he made and proceeding to harm him at ever opportune moment. With a flick of her wrist, Louise casted an explosion at the Pope's right hand, disarming him from his staff. Louise looked up and saw a falling body come crashing down into the ground. Upon closer examination she saw it was Julio who seemed to have his pretty boy features smacked around.
"And that's for breaking my katana!"
Saito shouted as he leaped over to Louise's said as Julio spit out a tooth and Vittorio called forth his staff back, only to find it cut in half. Vittorio looked at it and saw Saito smiling at his handy work. The Pope threw his staff away and held his hands out in front of him as a orb a black magic began to form.
"We end this-" The mage began but his breath was silenced.
"Agreed…"
Vittorio looked down and saw Derflinger stabbed into his stomach. With a twist of the blade, Saito thrusted it out and chopped off the head of the leader, shocking the other two fighters in the process. The head continued to roll until I fell off the edge of the floating island as Louise and Saito turned to face Julio.
"Your move…"
"Then I'm done." Julio said and threw his blade on the ground, confusing Louise and getting a skeptical look from Saito. "Why should I die over something that is over now, I have better things to do than that."
The point he was making was he showed once more his opportunistic side of being ability to use any situation to his advantage. Saito looked at his right hand and saws the runes were still there.
"Now what?"
"Simple, we end this war." Saito said as he looked at Julio. "I imagine you will not protest."
"I have no reason too, my side has lost." Julio said and turned to the leave the two alone.
"And now we head home…"
Saito said, not happen about having to fly back to the castle which took forever. Reality then hit Saito as he remembered the wounds he was inflicted by Julio were still there. He looked down and saw that the wound already sealed up. He just decided to leave it be and not question it.
"Let's go." Louise said and opened a portal that showed the interior of the castle, surprising Saito.
"Are you telling me we could have gone through a portal to get here?"
"Yup."
"THEN WHY THE HELL DID WE FLY HERE!?" Saito shouted as Louise did not react to his yelling.
"Bonding time."
"Whatever… let's just get back to I can say something."
Both fighters walked up to the portal and went through it, reappearing in the castle itself. Louise turned and closed it behind her to prevent anyone coming through. The first thing the two heard were the voices of a old man, a male child and-
"Come on Peggy!" Saito recognized the voice being his daughters as he began to walk towards it, followed by Louise. Both reached a door and knocked on it, getting the Queen herself to open it.
"Hey." Saito only said as Henrietta looked down and saw the huge wound on his body and nearly feel over form the shock. Her husband grabbed her and lifted her back up to her feet.
"Daddy!" Marie shouted and jumped onto her father's body, causing great pain which he forced himself form yelling out.
"H-Hello Marie." Saito said on the floor with his daughter hugging him.
"Welcome back Saito." Guiche said to his friend who was next to his son.
"Yes, welcome back your majesty." Edouard said happy to see that the king was not killed in battle.
"Alright everyone, give the man some room."
Another voice said as Saito looked and saw his captain leaning against the wall without an arm cast. Imrahil grabbed the princess and got her off her father and next to him. Guiche walked up to the man and helped him to his feet.
"We have something to talk about… brother-in-law." Guiche grinned as Saito was wondering what he was talking about.
"What do you mean by that?"
"Simple, look at our children." Guiche pointed at Marie and Edouard which the female was hugging the boy so tightly that he could hardly breath. "Welcome to the family Saito!"
"Joyous day… I feel old now. Wait, they're only children."
"Young love then boy, young love." Guiche patted him on the back and began to laugh. Saito then felt even older thinking that Guiche was going to be his brother-in-law if they indeed got married if the children married.
So from then on, everything seem like clockwork, the two countries declared a state of peace and Romalia paid for war damages to Tristain. Saito, Henrietta and Marie took a little trip to Japan thanks to the offer Louise and Saito made and things turned out as they should be to the King who was dealing with his newest problem.
Brothers by marriage.
Author's Notes – 4.6K words… … that's it… I hope. I have gotten A LOT of messages asking if this will be the last ZnT story I do and the answer is no, I love this series so much that it's my favorite anime. Overall the project feels okay at best, could have been better at some points but I lack experience in stories past ten chapters so I think inexperience was my reason for that. In all honesty, I did not expect I would finish this story on Valentine 's Day of all days… weird.
Special mention to… I know I'm going to misspell this somewhere… sUbSoNiCSoundwave for creating Eduoard.
Anyway, here is a list of songs that almost made the cut but didn't for those of you wonder.
Marvel vs Capcom 3 - Theme of Akuma
Devil May Cry 3 OST - Vergil Battle Theme 1
Tales of Vesperia -A Once-in-a-Lifetime Duel
Tales of Xillia -Battle for a Future to Believe In
Magi the Labyrinth of Magic - Enfin Apparu!
Ao No Exorcist – X
Anyway, thank you for reading and see ya.