Part Two: Jade Tides
Great Tree Moon
Chapter Sixteen: Keeping Promises
After creating the Fodlan Coalition and holding the Holy Army off Finn sends his army back to Kapena while he goes to meet with Johan and Constance to discuss the next course of action. The Holy Army, led by Demeter, was able to take Arianrhod. Unsure of how the council will proceed Johan asks for reinforcements but an attack from the Empire means that the Abyssal Congregation doesn't have any soldiers to spare. But Finn decides to send troops to help secure Arianrhod.
"What did the council decide?" Lawe asked as Finn started the war council.
"Due to the development in the south Constance was unable to send anyone to help Johan. So I volunteered to send the Emerald Shark Squadron to assist him and retake Arianrhod." Finn explained.
"We are going to defend the Kingdom? Why?" Malosi asked.
"The point of the Fodlan Coalition is that we all cooperate for peace. So now since there has been an attack on our lands, we have to band together and protect it." Finn told them.
"You certainly took all of us by surprise with this Fodlan Coalition thing." Hukai said.
"Yeah, Johan looked pretty shocked too. I don't think anyone was expecting that." Penina told Finn.
"I know you all have your opinions on what I have done, but I assure you this is the best course of action for all of Fodlan." Finn tried to convince them.
"I must agree with Finn. It was a smart move. Pretty soon the council will have to vote on what to do with the Empire too. The more friends we have the better." Atamai agreed with Finn.
"If Atamai is agreeing with Finn then it has to be a good idea!" Fiafia cheered.
"You could have told us about what you were thinking." Malosi said bitterly.
"We probably would've supported you Finn." Fetu added.
"You are right about that. I should have been more forward but in the end I made a decision. I just hope you are all comfortable with that." Finn said.
"Finn, we would follow you anywhere. We all trust and believe in you." Penina told him.
"Don't get too sappy, Penina." Fetu started to get misty-eyed.
"Thank you for that. Unfortunately there is an additional matter we must discuss." Finn said.
"Demeter. Her presence in the last battle was almost too much. And if we are forced to kill her then that could mean war with the Holy Church State." Keola chimed in.
"Yes, as Oceania said before this war is far from over." Finn agreed.
"If the Holy Church State wants to come at us then let them. Abyss would take the brunt of it anyways. I hear that they weren't able to secure the Bridge of Myrddin permanently." Oceania added.
"I don't want to force anything on Abyss." Finn gave Oceania a questioning look.
"Our first goal is to be diplomatic, see if Demeter would be comfortable joining the Fodlan Coalition. If she persists then we are left with no choice." Atamai played with dark magic at his fingertips.
"Hopefully we can get her to back down." Fiafia said. "I would hate for this war to go on any longer."
"I agree. If we can squash the Holy Army without incurring war then we can hopefully force the Empire into submission." Finn agreed.
"How is the Abyssal Congregation holding with the Empire's advances?" Maira asked.
"They are fairing about as well as the southern regions are. We can hold the line, but if the Empire musters more forces then we will be in serious trouble." Olaga reported.
"We owe a lot to the southern generals. I think I speak for all of us when I say thank you." Lawe told Penina, Malosi, and Olaga.
"Unfortunately thanks won't get us farther." Malosi responded.
"Don't be rude Malosi." Keola chided him.
"I know, I apologize. It is just that I am under a lot of pressure right now." Malosi apologized.
"I understand, don't worry." Lawe told him.
"I must apologize Malosi. As soon as we finish this fighting in the Kingdom I should be able to secure some Kingdom troops to help preserve our borders." Finn told him.
"Then I really should be thanking you." Malosi told him.
"We have to win first. We will depart as soon as we can." Finn told everyone.
"Your Holyness, Arianrhod is now completely under control, the troops are awaiting your orders." a soldier informed Demeter.
"Thank you, has the Kingdom sent anyone yet?" Demeter asked.
"No my Lady. Though rumor is there are soldiers marching from Fhirdiad."
"It's no matter, all we have to do is hold a little longer for reinforcements." Demeter told him.
"Yes my Lady. I will see to it that no one breaks through." the soldier rushed off.
"You lied to him. There are no reinforcements." Shamir and Catherine stepped towards Demeter.
"Shamir!" Catherine gave Shamir a look. "I am sure that Her Holyness has a way out of this."
"Thank you Catherine but I fear Shamir is right. I thought the other side could hold the Bridge but the Alliance rallied. I fear we may have to surrender, no more souls should be sacrificed to the Goddess for a fruitless endeavor." Demeter sighed.
"My Lady, Rhea should be leading an army herself by now to come rescue us. All we have to do is sit tight, we can't surrender to these people, Charon territory will harbor us if we can make it." Catherine told Demeter.
"We can hold out. I promise you that we will fight to the bitter end. But if we surrender then your dream of bringing this land under the rays of the Goddess dies." Shamir told her.
"You are right, both of you. We will hold until Count Charon comes to rescue us. Until then we can not let this place fall." Demeter announced.
"Are we sure we can trust the Meritocracy to send troops?" Dimitri asked his son.
"I am not sure. But I have to see if he will hold up his end of the bargain. It was his idea to create the Fodlan Coalition." Johan said.
"If it was his idea then it could be a trap." Dimitri argued.
"You would love for it to be a trap, then you would have the excuse you need to go in there and slaughter all of them." Johan yelled at his father.
"Johan, I am sorry that you had to see that, but the people were in danger!"
"No! They weren't, you just kill before you think! Why do you think I didn't send you out to confront Edelgard! I need to do this my way, I have to trust Finn. He is a man of his word, as am I, and as I hope you were once." Johan finished the conversation before turning away.
"Your tongue hurts me more than Felix's once did."
"If he spared Ingrid and the rest of them, then we can trust him to do the same now."
Because of his duty as part of the Fodlan Coalition, Finn mobilizes the Emerald Shark Squadron and marches to meet Johan at Arianrhod where together they hope to bring an end to the Holy Church State's invasion of their lands.
"So you have come." Johan shook Finn's hand when they met outside the gates of Arianrhod.
"Don't sound so surprised Johan. What's mine is yours." Finn smiled.
"Arianrhod will not be easy to capture. Especially not with Demeter here." Johan reminded Finn.
"We will see if we can get Demeter to surrender and join the Fodlan Coalition. Maybe she will succumb to reason." Finn suggested.
"And if she doesn't?" Johan asked.
"Then she will either have to fall to your lance or my staff." Finn said firmly.
"I hear Catherine and Shamir are a part of their ranks, they are quite formidable." Johan informed Finn.
"So was Hubert, but my Squadron handled him. If we can knock them and Demeter out or get Demeter to surrender, then we can call it a day." Finn said.
"I don't want Demeter clashing with my soldiers if it comes to it. Would you accept my invitation to strike at her head on?" Johan asked.
"I thought you would never ask. Lead the way." Finn gestured as Johan led the troops through a secret entrance.
"Your Holyness, Kingdom and Meritocracy troops have made their way into the fortress!" a soldier frantically informed Demeter.
"What are you going to do? If we can repel them it will be but a few days before Count Charon comes to rescue us." Catherine told Demeter.
"We will not back down." Demeter decided. "Fight and repel the enemy. We will not fall here and we will not join their ranks!"
"Catherine! This could lead to the deaths of everyone here!" Shamir warned Catherine.
"So what?" Catherine responded with a smirk. "Come on, we have work to do."
As soon as they emerged the two armies were locked in battle. Finn and Johan rushed away as the Emerald Shark Squadron fanned out and engaged with the Holy Army in the middle of the fortress. Their real job was to locate and defeat Shamir and Catherine. So they split up and searched throughout the fortress while subduing any enemies they came across. But eventually a few of the Emerald Sharks did meet the enemy commanders.
Keola and Lawe soared through the air on their wyverns trying to spot either Catherine or Shamir. But they were spotted first. Lawe heard the whistling of arrows before Keola and saw a flurry of arrows coming right towards the wyverns. To protect the two of them Lawe cast Swarm Ζ, before them a flurry of locusts gathered and formed a sort of protective wall to shield them from the arrows.
"There!" Keola pointed to Shamir while she was on top of a horse riding away.
Both of them dove down to fight her but had a hard time dodging the incoming arrows.
"We will never be able to take her down like this." Lawe yelled while narrowly avoiding an arrow to the face by pulling her wyvern upwards.
"Just hold on. I am going to try something." Keola said. He pulled his wyvern up into the air. Since they weren't grouped together Shamir decided to focus on Lawe, only sending the occasional arrow at Keola. This allowed Keola enough time to pull out his javelin and throw it at Shamir, it hit her horse in the side and sent it crashing into a wall. Shamir leaped off the horse and rolled. She tried to run down a narrow alley but Lawe summoned Death Ι to block her escape with spiky dark magic. Lawe and Keola both dismounted their wyverns to not give Shamir the advantage and charged together.
Keola brought his axe down on Shamir but she deflected it calmly with her bow and spun away while pulling an arrow from her quiver and shooting it at Lawe's head. But Lawe slid and came up with her axe only to be blocked by Shamir's bow again but Shamir didn't have quite enough time to completely dodge Keola's hand axe and it grazed her shoulder. Shamir stumbled back and Lawe used the opportunity to use Kraken Κ. Shamir's eyes rolled back into her head as the monstrous tentacle went inside her body and sucked out her life essence, killing her.
"Nice job!" Keola put his hand up for a high-five.
"This is largely inappropriate." Lawe chided him. But she eventually agreed to give him a high-five.
"Will you just give up!" Fetu complained while he and Hukai faced Catherine.
"Never! This will be your grave!" Catherine screamed while charging at the two.
"I'll hold her off as long as I can. You just make sure I don't die." Hukai ordered Fetu.
"Ugh! As if I wasn't already doing that." Fetu yelled.
The two of them had dismounted and left their apukohai to tear apart any soldiers coming to interfere. Catherine started with a lunge which Hukai deflected with his sword. They circled each other before Hukai slashed again but Catherine blocked the swing and kicked Hukai in the stomach forcing him to stumble backwards as she attacked. Fetu cast Nosferatu and the blinding light made Catherine miss and gave Hukai time to recover. Catherine turned to Fetu and would've charged if not for the three light arrows coming from Fetu's Sagittae. Catherine slashed the first two away but the third one hit her in the leg making her scream in pain. Hukai had gotten back up and disarmed Catherine as a large fiery boulder fell from the sky and created a blistering inferno around her as it exploded. This was courtesy of Fetu's Meteor spell. But somehow Catherine wasn't dead. She got back up and her body shuddered as something emerged from Catherine's body. The body fell as another woman emerged. She resembled a mage that had attacked Maira and the Sharks when they went to get her. The mage disappeared before Hukai and Fetu had a chance to question her.
"Don't you even want to consider surrendering?" Finn asked as he knocked away one of Demeter's fists with his staff.
"Nope." Demeter said as she leaped and kicked Johan off the horse he was riding. "The Holy Church State will not bow down to the likes of you."
Finn cast Excalibur as Demeter leaped up to use Dragon Fang. This time Demeter expected the midair attack and hovered with her large white wings before coming down. Finn rolled to the side before Demeter created a crater where he used to be standing. Finn recovered and spun around to unleash the power of Griovalr through Riptide. The blast barreled towards Demeter but she knocked it away with a swipe powered by her relic Pata. This gave Johan the opening to come in and lodge Gungnir into her shoulder from behind. Demeter erupted into a roar, one that echoed throughout the fortress. But it wasn't long because Finn hit her in the face with Griovalr and knocked her to the floor. He summoned a spell sigil and brought Bolting down from the sky keeping Demeter on the floor.
"Yield Demeter. We don't want to fight with you." Johan told her.
"I won't rest until the Western Church is reclaimed by us. It has a history with us." Demeter grunted.
"And we recognize that. We don't want to belittle its cultural significance to you. But you are invading land of the Fodlan Coalition." Finn informed her.
"You think your Coalition will last? You really are fools." Demeter laughed.
"You could join us. Give this up and you will have access to the Western Church. It won't be yours but shared. That is our final offer. Do you really want all of the people here to die for nothing?" Finn begged.
Demeter was really struggling to hold onto life. The lightning was really taking a toll on her.
"What will it be?" Johan asked.
"I yield." Demeter gasped.
Finn released her and she struggled to get to her feet. When she did she didn't last very long. Her eyes lost all life as she dropped to her knees and fell forward. There was a simple silver knife protruding from her back and behind her stood the mage that had controlled Catherine. She snapped her fingers and disappeared before Johan and Finn could comprehend what had just happened.