Title: Predicted Havoc

Summary: When I was five, my dreams were filled with fire, screams, and pain. I witnessed unending carnage every night. The nightmare would change, but the results were the same. Death would come to all. The end was nigh, and there was but one thing to do. Train. Train and fight until the end, for I refused to become another meaningless blip.

"Hey, Balcus. It's been some time since I last saw you around our parts."

Looking up from my drink, I saw the Baron of the territory. He was also an old buddy from the Academy.

"Felix? How have you been?"

"Aside from the increase in pirates, not too bad. I feel I should be asking you, though. You weren't one for drinking last I recall," he said while looking at my table.

Looking back, I saw I had more than a few drinks. It made sense why he was concerned. Even if I had taken up casual drinking, the number of empty pints would have raised a few eyebrows.

"Err... It's been a tad difficult at home lately."

"Zola?"

"For once, no. It's one of my sons. You remember Leon?"

"Luce's youngest?"

"Third youngest," I instantly corrected.

"Congratulations, but back to Leon."

"Ever since his fever, he's... changed..." I mused as I tried to muster the words to describe the situation.

"Go on."

"He's taking his training seriously now. Luce and I would be over the moon, but we don't like why he's so motivated."

"I'm hoping it's because he found a fair maiden to woo," he jested.

"He's six, and if only he found a girl," I deadpanned before sighing. I continued with, "He's afraid."

"You said he's six? Six-year-olds get scared all the time. Probably saw a monster eat one of the livestock. I know that would have traumatized me as a child."

"He's afraid that Fanoss will invade again. He even thinks they'll bring about the Beast of the Sea and Sky," I scoffed.

"Aside from the mythical beasts, he seems to be pretty on the nose. The bastards are always pillaging the border territories. And you mentioned a fever before? He probably just read some old fantasy book and got his history and fiction mixed up during it," Felix said as he tried to justify everything as a normal response.

"But you don't understand! He seems so terrified. He's stopped acting his age. He only ever trains, studies, and eats. Leon's stopped doing anything unrelated to preparing himself," I snapped.

"... Now that is concerning."

"Nothing Luce or I say seems to connect. He can't seem to stop. It terrifies us, and we don't know what to do. It's so unbearably painful as a father to watch my son destroy himself," I said miserably as I drained my remaining drink.

"Have you considered just letting it run its course?"

"It's been going on for a year, and there has been no sign of slowing down. If anything, he seems to be getting worse."

"Worse? How could it be getting worse?"

"Ever since he heard that the Principality has two princesses, he's been pushing himself harder."

"... How would that convince him to push himself?"

"He said the Principality now has a sacrifice."

"... Shit..."

"That's understating it."

"Not shit as in your son is off his rocker, but shit as in I think he might be on to something."

"What? Not you too!"

"You were never one to learn the intricacy of Lost Magic, but there are always two general types. You either have something with limited uses or something requiring a sacrifice. The second type shouldn't exactly be common knowledge for the lad. It may be a long shot, but we should give the lad the benefit of the doubt."

"Are you seriously taking my son's fever dream as fact?!"

"No, of course not. It probably is just childish ravings, but there is enough evidence to make me pause. Enough that I'm upping my boys' training after this."

"I don't believe this! Has everyone lost their senses?"

"Look, I get it. This is difficult for you, but let's look at this logically. Either your son is living a waking nightmare, which he will hopefully grow out of when Fanoss inevitably invades but without the legendary monsters, or he is right. Now the way I see it, if I were to prepare for the end-all-be-all war, my boys and I would probably live to see the end of said war or do our duty. If your boy is wrong, we're still better off with the extra training. Saintess knows we'd be better at dispatching pirates if we were more trained."

"And feed into my boy's delusions?! I'm trying to make him come to his senses, not justify his terror!"

"... I don't know what to tell you, Balcus. I've never had a son. But I have been a son before. All I can tell you is what I wished for as a child."

"..."

"... As unpleasant as the topic was, I'm glad we got the chance to talk," Felix said before leaving the tavern.

As I sat alone, I began to think about my childhood. I scoffed as I couldn't recall a moment when I was terrified of anything like Leon was. Something my father beat into me was that fear was unbecoming of a noble. Holfort was founded on adventuring, and to be anything less than fearless was disgraceful. As much as I loved my old man, I resented him for it specifically. His 'wisdom' got my elder brothers killed. And he scoffed, saying they weren't real nobles for dying the way they did.

It wasn't until I graduated from the Academy did I have the real lesson he was trying to hammer into my head. There was nothing wrong with fear, only refusing to act out of fear. The old bastard didn't communicate it well, but he wanted to ensure I would be a man of action. He didn't want me freezing and dying like my brothers. He had enough of his sons dying.

In one of his drunken stupors, I found out he was only 'ashamed' of my brothers because they died screaming for help while not doing anything to save themselves. They were terrified but did nothing. Even before their only sortie, they feared dying but sat on their asses until the day. They expected Dad to come swooping in to save them.

"Dad would have been proud of you, Leon," I mumbled as I realized Leon was doing his damnedest to deal with his fears.

It wasn't healthy, but Leon was not sitting on his ass to be saved. He was going to fight and claw his way to the end. Who was I to stop that? From my experience, there was only one outcome if he stopped training.

I refused to see my boy die.

Insert multiple chapters to expand on the lore of border territories

"Go, Bro!" Collin cheered excitedly as I entered the ring. His voice was nearly drowned out by the cheers raised for my opponent.

Entering from the other side, I stared down one of the heirs of the founding families. Despite the aloof character he presented, I could tell he was nervous. After years of training under my father and the nearby lords, I was more than familiar with reading my opponent's body language. He was not walking with the fluidity of someone in his element.

"Welcome to the first round of the 50th Redgrave Under 13 Circuit! For our opening match, we have an exciting one. In one corner, we have the son of the Sword Saint, who has shown prodigious skill with the blade. Let me introduce you to Chris Fia Arclight! In the other corner, we have the son of Balcus Fou Bartfort, who slain pirates and monsters alike before he reached an age in the double digits. I present Leon Fou Bartfort!" the referee said excitedly in the center of the ring with the aid of magic to reach the audience.

"You okay?" I asked Chris before the match officially started.

"..."

"You should loosen up a bit. Being too nervous will make it difficult for you to fight."

He stared at me with a bewildered expression. Otherwise, he did not respond.

"Suit yourself," I said lazily as I formulated how to approach the fight.

"I will read the rules for both the audience and our participants. Rule number one stepping out of the ring will lead to immediate disqualification. Rule number two fatalities lead to disqualification. Rule number three a match ends when it is called. Rule number four the fighters scheduled are the only fighters that may enter the ring. Rule number five outside interference, even those to save a life, will lead to immediate forfeiture of the benefitting party. The fighter using the potentially fatal attack will be judged accordingly. Rule number six the fight ends when the protective vests reach zero. Attempting to continue after will lead to disqualification. Likewise, attacking someone after they have hit zero will also lead to disqualification. Do both contestants understand?"

"Yes," I said while keeping my eyes on the quiet boy.

"Yes," he responded for the first time.

The referee then began a countdown as his platform floated away.

As we heard zero, Chris immediately dashed toward me to close the distance. He intended to engage me in close quarters. He had no other means of dealing with me, or if he did, his father would never have allowed him to use anything but his sword.

I was under no restriction.

I mustered a significant amount of the aether from the air into the palm of my hand and molded it to create electricity before slamming it into the ground. This caused the electricity to explode into the surrounding area. The bolts danced around me as the electric potential of my body was too high from channeling the spell. It effectively created a sphere that Chris had to avoid.

Not expecting to see such a move, he slammed his foot into the ground, trying to slow down. This left him in an awkward position since he had no steady footing, and his blade wasn't where it was supposed to be due to me interrupting his attack.

Without hesitation, I extended my magic with my free hand to affect the air around Chris. It formed a claw-like shape before snapping around Chris and dragging him into my field of electricity.

I cut off the electric spell and switched to earth magic as the boy entered my perimeter. Because I had cut off my electricity, Chris was shocked only briefly. Brief but painful, given how much electricity coursed through him in the milliseconds he experienced it.

Though he must have been disoriented from being displaced and shocked, he drew his blade on me now that he was so close. It spoke well of the amount of training he had done for him to be able to fight back.

Unfortunately for him, I did not take chances. I propelled myself upwards by using a pillar to erupt beneath me using earth magic. Surprisingly, Chris's blade cleanly cut through the rock. Additionally, he managed to maneuver his body in mid-air to prevent himself from crashing into the pillar.

I still used this against him by turning the section I was riding on into a club. Grasping it and spinning it in the air, I took the slab of rock and slammed it into Chris's head. He immediately dropped to the ground.

Landing a distance away, I drew my blade and quickly turned to brace myself for the assault next assault.

"Eh?"

He was still on the ground.

"That's it?" I blurted out in surprise.

My dad palmed his face after hearing that.

The referee checked and called the match in my favor, and I was greeted with silence. Well, except for my family, who were cheering excitedly. Everyone else had a vaguely pissed-off look. It looks like a lot of people lost their bets.

"Satisfied?" my old man asked me.

The fights after the first were a joke. I barely had to exert effort to deal with each. Chris had been the most challenging, and he only managed to attack once.

"No."

"Leon, you won the circuit. You are the best your generation has to offer. You even bested a candidate for the Sword Saint. Isn't that proof enough that you've trained enough?"

My dad pleaded. He wasn't asking me to stop training. He wanted to know if I was still terrified of what was to come. Unfortunately, this tournament did nothing for me. If anything, it terrified me more to see how weak Holfort was.

"Please, they are just children. They expected a simple spar, while I came expecting..."

"A war?"

"Yeah," I muttered as I realized how stupid it sounded. This was supposed to be a competition for kids. I don't understand why I got my hopes up when I heard I was competing against Chris. He was still just a child as well. Even if he's a prodigy, he wouldn't be anywhere near the level he would be at when Fanoss would invade.

"Can you at least be happy you did well enough for this? That your performance wasn't lacking?"

"I can accept praise, old man."

"Enough to eat something nice? We did get tickets for..."

"Ah, so this is where our young champion has gone off to," an austere voice sounded behind us.

Looking back, we saw a man with long grey hair dressed in a dark red coat approach us.

"Lord Redgrave, to what do we owe the honor," Dad stammered as he forced me into a bow.

"Now, none of that. This is one of my family's tournaments. Vince shall do for today. I wanted to meet this year's champion."

"Yes, of course," my dad said quickly. I didn't blame him. Lord Redgrave was terrifying even when he was being genial. He was a man who could erase us on a whim.

"Now then. Leon, was it? How did you find the tournament?"

"Honestly?"

"You shan't be punished for speaking your mind."

"Disappointing."

"I'd like to claim otherwise, but I can hardly argue with you about the results. Your method of fighting was far more refined than... your competitors'."

"They expected a spar. I expected more."

"Quite. Though I must say, I doubt most people would ever consider enveloping themselves in lightning would be something a sane person could do. How ever did you come up with that? It must have been devilishly tricky not shocking yourself."

"Oh, that? That was something anyone could do."

"So there is a trick."

"Not a trick so much as an interesting side effect of charging electricity."

"Do explain."

"What do you understand about electric magic?"

"From my understanding, you gather aether into a point, transform it, and then use magic to guide the spell in the general direction you want."

"But do you know why you need to guide the magic?"

"Other than electricity notoriously splashing everywhere, no."

"The most basic way to explain it is that it wants to go where it isn't. It is untameable energy and will seek to fill where it is absent. By charging the spell, we depleted the area of its aether, and the electricity will try to fill the void. Additionally, you need guidance for you to be able to strike any target with any meaningful distance beyond the area you pulled the aether from."

"While that explains the spell needing guidance, how does that explain the quirk of you not being shocked?"

"Because drawing the electricity to my palm has the odd effect of making the spell think I am filled with that same energy. I'm unsure of the exact details of why it occurs, but only the general gist of what is happening. Perhaps the nature of the charging is that my aether shields me from getting shocked immediately, or charging it close to my hand tricks the spell into seeing my internal aether as another high-level source of electricity."

"Fascinating. Though I must ask, why did you ever come up with such an idea?"

My fingers sparked, ignited, and then swirled with the wind with no magical seal appearing.

"Can't defend yourself from what you can't see."

"That's a rather formidable mastery of magic."

"Thank you. Merely a parlor trick, but makes for an excellent exercise in control."

"So you do have much more in your repertoire. I confess I am rather curious about the extent of your skills," Lord Redgrave said as he pulled out an envelope.

"Sir?"

"My family and I were enamored by your skill but disappointed with how quickly your matches ended. I was hoping you would participate in the Under 18 Circuit."

"... I might be amenable to the idea if you could do me a favor."

"Leon," my dad whispered angrily.

"Mighty bold of you to ask something of me," Lord Redgrave said with a quirked eyebrow. Rather than take offense, he seemed more interested in what I had to ask. Perhaps my displays of magic and explanations were interesting enough that he was willing to look over my rudeness. Either that, or he was amused by what he must think was child brashness.

"You are asking me to fight for your entertainment and against people who will have had experienced delving into dungeons. I feel that asking for something in return would only be standard practice."

"Fair enough. I'll hear you out at the very least."

"I want access to an armored unit."

"That is a bold demand. What do you plan to do with one?"

"Need one to practice handling in general. Dad won't lend me one out of fear that I would break it."

"From your experiments? The one you showed me was rather unorthodox."

"In my defense, I've yet to blow myself up."

"Amusing... How about we make a wager? If you win the tournament, I'll commission a custom armor and pay for maintenance. If you lose, however, you must tutor my daughter in fire magic. The safer ones, if you would."

"Deal," I greedily stated, much to my dad's horror.

"Balcus, I'm surprised you aren't celebrating with your family. Your son did place third in the tournament."

"Lord... Vince. I should be happy, but Leon is not."

"I suppose he wouldn't be. Custom armors are a rather glorious prize. I was almost sweating from the thought of him winning one off me. Thankfully the lad didn't know how to pace himself."

"He doesn't care about the armor... except for not having the opportunity to run one through its paces. No, he's going to be insufferable. He's going to have nightmares again."

"Nightmares?"

"Leon... he's only so strong because he is afraid."

"Of what, might I ask?"

"Fanoss invading with legendary beasts. He's scared he'll get wrapped up in the whole affair and die an inglorious death, that the end of days will come, and the world will end as monsters flood the world."

"Intriguing. I thought the lad had a good head."

I also grew worried for my daughter. I did have the boy promise to tutor her in magic. Perhaps it would be better to call off the arrangement. I would not risk my daughter's safety.

"He does, or at least enough to fit in. It's the fact that he is so affected... that's what scares me... and because others seem to believe after talking with him. He convinced a few of my men and border Barons that he might not be so off on his thoughts. They say when he speaks, they can feel how real it is. They have difficulty believing it is the product of some fever dream."

"What exactly convinces your son and men? It must be compelling."

"It's a rather long list."

"Tell me."

Balcus then spent the next hour detailing what must have been years of ravings. He talked about sacrificial magic connected with Fanoss, the birth of an heir and sacrifice, the death of the rulers of Fanoss, the weakening of the border territories, etc. The more he spoke, the more everything began to fall into place. If these were the ravings of a madman, I would not be able to tell. It contained details a child should not care for. It coincided with the Royal Court's attempts to destabilize the border territories. What's more, the previous rulers of Fanoss died after initiating talks about peace which was not well-known information. It was frightening that a child was painting the inevitable conclusion.

"But you don't believe him?" I queried as I tried to understand how the man couldn't see what his son saw. I wanted something to tell me that his son was wrong.

"Doesn't matter if I do. He's my son. I just... I don't want to see him so afraid. The only thing I could come up with to help soothe him is to give him what he wants. I've trained him into the ground, and it's just never enough."

Denial. That was the only thing preventing this man from seeing the truth. He wanted what was best for his children, and he could not see the truth in his son's words, for believing in them meant he would have to accept that his children were destined for war. A horrific war.

Yet he was at an impasse. The only method to soothe his son was to entertain his delusions/prophecy. I could only pity the man.

"I'll have the boy trained in piloting," I said evenly.

"Vince?"

"I'm a father. I understand doing everything I can for my children, and your boy needs this."

"... Thank you."

"Besides, I am interested in what he can do with one. If he is half as prodigious with piloting as he is with magic, I can expect great things from him."

"I apologize in advance."

I merely laughed.

"I'll be her champion," a familiar voice rang out from the entrance.

Looking toward him, I saw my old tutor dressed in his training uniform. He looked completely out of place, which made sense since he wasn't a student. He had opted to earn accolades by cleaning up the kingdom. He claimed the Academy would be a waste of time for him. I agreed with the man who taught me to fly using flame magic. There was no class here that could improve his practical skills.

"Leon? What are you doing here?"

"Hey, Princess. Your dad grounded me after I went too wild on today's border training hunt. He officially enrolled me starting next semester as punishment, hoping I would learn some etiquette. Thankfully it's only for the next semester. That being said, whose the child?"

"Marie Fou Lafan... Also, you've been enrolled in the general classes?"

"Advanced. Your dad got me promoted to Count."

"You're a Count now? How did that happen? You were just knighted when we last met."

"Cited something about spoils of war from today's hunt. Your dad knows how to stick the knife in."

"Excuse me, but who is this?" my fiance asked angrily.

"Just a concerned tutor."

"This is highly irregular. We can't allow you to act as Angelica's champion. To use one's influence to acquire outside aid would be taboo," Jilk said accurately.

"Technicalities. If you were paying attention to the conversation, you would know I'll be a student next semester. This semester is already over as well. Also, outside influence? I'm an old friend. I already know Angie did nothing wrong and would have fought in her honor if I had been here last semester."

"Be that as it may, you are clearly under the Duke's employ. This is undoubtedly outside interference."

"Ah yes, somehow old Vince decided to interfere in this duel by having me enrolled into the school to volunteer myself as champion in the thirty seconds since this duel was issued. Let's conveniently ignore how Angie is just as surprised as you to see me here, indicating that she did not communicate her intentions to the family prior. Do you realize how ridiculous it is to consider that old Vince could have interfered?"

"... You call Angelica's father old Vince?" Julius said incredulously.

"And I call your mother by Mylene. By the way, she's annoyed you didn't watch over the scholarship student."

"What?"

I was baffled at the thought he called the Queen by name. I always knew my father tolerated Leon's lack of decorum due to spending so much time on our estate as a child, but to be able to speak of the Queen in such familiar terms. What has Leon been getting up to whenever he wasn't training?

"Olivia Gardenia, the commoner? She's a sweet girl. She's also unfamiliar with noble etiquette, which you were supposed to address as her student guide. One of the other reasons why I am here."

The prince winced. He must have recalled he was asked to do as Leon stated.

"Regardless, I shall be acting as Angie's champion. I'm the same age as you, part of this school (unfortunately), and doing this because I think you are a piece of shit and not because old Vince has precognitive abilities."

"Before you declare yourself her champion, you should be aware that we five are going to be your opponent," Jilk said again to convince Leon to drop out. The boy didn't know Leon actively sought out means to measure himself.

"I don't mind. But I do have one person to address. Brad Fou Field."

"Yes?" the boy said warily.

"You aren't engaged anymore. Congratulations, if you want to thank me, you can step down. No one is trying to separate you from... Marie."

"What?"

"The Offreys? Traitors, the lot of them. You're a free man. I don't care if you join the duel, but I don't feel like wasting my time doing extra work if I don't have to."

Leon lied as naturally as he breathed. He wanted to take all five on but gave at least one of them an out to appear as though he was bargaining. If the boys truly wanted Marie, they would have jumped on any advantage.

Wait...

He just mentioned the Offrey family... Did he take on an entire territory? No, not even he was that insane. No matter how skilled of a warrior he was, fighting the county must be beyond him. He mentioned something about a border training hunt. He likely dragged a Barony on his crusade. This was something to speak of later.

"It would be shameful of me not to step up when my friends have."

"Your call. So the five of you?"

"Yes. As the challenger, you have the right to choose the method for the duel."

"Armored duel?"

"That is acceptable, though we can't afford to have you switch machines between bouts. It would be prohibitively expensive and time-consuming otherwise. We'll allow you up to a week to find other champions to fill the remaining four positions to even up the numbers," Chris said calmly.

"My, my. You're certainly confident and talking now. So is it safe to assume you've improved quite a bit since the U-13?"

"You!" Chris said with widened eyes.

"You've met him before?" Greg asked.

"He's the boy who won the U-13 and placed third in the U-18 the next day. Leon Fou Bartfort," Chris said with narrowed eyes.

"The one who bodied you? Well, isn't that great! You can finally have your grudge match!"

"I've been wondering if I would ever face you again."

"Didn't realize I made such an impression on you."

"I've never been so humiliated in my life."

"What a pampered life you must lead. In case you have forgotten or ignored in the interest of wallowing by your lonesome, you were the only one in the tournament able to do anything against me."

"Why you..."

"Let's put a pin in this for now. Let's discuss the terms of the duel."

"Right. All I want is for..." I said before Leon tugged my sleeve to give me a pointed stare. It was something he did whenever he wanted me to stop and think. Taking a deep breath, I thought about what I wanted.

In the end, I wanted Julius to separate from Marie. It's what I wanted, but what would the inevitable outcome be? Either Julius did or didn't follow the demands. Considering how willing he was to toss me aside, I had no doubts Julius wouldn't honor his words. Even if he did, he would resent me for separating him from the girl. As it stood, the duel didn't matter. This marriage would not work. The very thought broke my heart.

Tears began to well up in my eyes as reality sat in.

"Angelica?" Julius asked hesitantly with a note of concern for once.

"Do you hate me?" I asked without a thought.

"Where is this coming from?"

"Please, I just need to know."

"No... Angelica. I don't... Truthfully, you didn't do anything wrong."

"Then why? Why cast me aside so crudely?"

"... Because... Marie saw me for the real me. I never wanted to be the crown prince. It was a responsibility put upon me at birth, and I had no choice but to play my part. I believe you must have experienced something similar?"

"Being the daughter of a Duke and raised to be the future Queen... I can understand some of what you went through, but I embraced my role because I thought I would have you by my side. Knowing you would be there with me made me believe I could endure it."

"For a time, I thought that too. I felt a kindred spirit with you, but while you embraced your destiny, I saw myself as a puppet with my strings being pulled. It wasn't until I met Marie did I experience a world in which I could be myself. It was such an intoxicating feeling. Having tasted such freedom, how could I not fight for more?"

"And the hostility? You treated me so coarsely as of late. You've even tarnished my family's name by spreading the rumor that I was responsible for tormenting Marie."

"I have no excuse for that. I was upset, and you were a convenient target. You represented everything I wanted to escape from. It wasn't you personally but the life associated with you. I'm sorry for hurting you so much. If I could take back my actions, I would. I messed up. I never wanted to hurt you."

"But you can't imagine a life without Marie?"

"No."

The one word stabbed my heart. There was no hope for me then. Despite the pain, I felt all my problems fade away. Months of worrying disappeared. It did not end the way I wished, but somehow the end made everything drift away at the moment.

A hand was placed on my shoulder. Looking at the owner, I saw Leon giving me an encouraging look. He would be there for me. Somehow, I felt everything was going to be okay.

"I see. Then might I change the nature of this duel? Rather than have my honor duel with Marie, I should be directing the challenge to you."

"Angelica?"

"While Marie was the catalyst, you were the one to tarnish my family's and my reputation. You were the one to hurt me so. It's only right I challenge the person who personally humiliated me so."

"... You're right. I accept the change to this duel. What is it you wish for should your champion win this duel?"

"Step down as the crown prince and make amends to my family for failing your duty to me."

"I would have done so regardless of the outcome," Julius said.

"I know," I said sadly but with a smile. It was the best way for us to part.

"If we both agree with what must be done and that I am at fault, then we need not continue this duel."

"And deny me the satisfaction of having my champion extract the pound of flesh I'm owed?"

"Angelica?"

"The terms were meant to appease my family. I want retribution for the personal harm you did me. You won't deny me the means to rid myself of these ugly emotions now, would you?"

Julius paled at my smile.

AN:

1) Weird mix of ideas that has no direction. I might use the challenge scene in another fic if it fits.

2) For the combat scene, I based a lot of it on FFXVI because I've been a bit addicted to it lately.

3) Thank you babaga he who laughs at anime for the title. I rather liked it and the explanation you gave.