The more Jack looked at the Ashborn Colossus, the more wrong it looked.

Bits of architecture poked out of its ashen flesh, and its glowing blue eyes, mouth, and nostrils only seemed to become brighter the more time passed. It moved forward, and the army retreated.

"How are we going to fight that thing!?" Alfred asked, his voice shaking as they retreated into a nearby pine forest. "How are we going to fight a mountain!?"

"I don't know," Alear answered, "we need to find someplace where we can fight it and it can't simply crush us - even in my dragon form I don't think I'd survive a direct hit!"

Jack was quiet even as they made their way into an empty mesa, overlooking one of the valleys. The monster's footsteps could still be heard, but they were distant - even as Jack was certain it knew where they were, and was getting closer. Jack had no idea where such a thing could even come from, but the screams it let out gave him a solid clue; they were the mashed together remains of Ashbron and maybe the Corrupted. It would explain the lack of them the army had found in the port town, as well as all the discarded items.

That realization just made it worse, and Jack stood around as the leaders of the army bickered among themselves, unhearing. After a while, however, the Ashborn Colossus arrived, in all of its ashen glory. The mesa allowed for it to look all of them in the eye, and it slammed its hands down and let out a scream that nearly made Jack go deaf. There was no choice but to fight.

But how did one fight a mountain? Apparently, Alear was going to try as he was consumed in a flash of light, before his dragon form unfurled its wings and roared right back at the Ashborn Colossus. Corrupted came from the pine woods, wielding spears and axes and snarling like rabid animals. There were no Ashborn, though, and Jack counted his blessings with that being the case.

A battle broke out upon that empty, barren mesa, with Corrupted on both sides and Alear's army pinched between them. An unenviable position to be in, assuredly. Still, Jack did everything in his power to slay as many Corrupted that crossed his path as he could. He struck them down with his silver sword over and over again, cutting them apart with finesse and strength. Ivy was nearby, sending fire and lightning down upon the Corrupted with a tome that seemed to blink in and out of existence. With both of them together, they covered each other's weaknesses; Jack killed any Corrupted that came close, while Ivy sundered them from afar with her magic.

In the background, Jack caught flashes of Alear distracting and fighting the Ashborn Colossus. Every time he looked at it, the uglier it seemed to be. Its mouth opened wide and the brilliant blue light shined like a spotlight. A beam of pure energy, the likes of which Jack had never before seen, shot out from the Colossus' mouth, and it was as if the world grew darker around it as it just narrowly avoided Alear's dragon form and shot into the sky. When it finally ran its course, it exploded, so violently that a shockwave from it nearly took Jack and the others off their feet. A moment later, and Jack could see a cloud ascending into the sky - in the shape of a mushroom.

All color left Jack's face after that.

Alear didn't take that lying down, however, and he buried his claws into the Colossus' flesh, tearing into the ash that made up its body and splashing muck onto the ground. The Colossus groaned before slamming its fist where it thought Alear might be, only to hit several Corrupted and Elusian soldiers that were fighting each other.

"This is bad!" Jack barked out.

Alfred stabbed a Corrupted through the eye socket as Sigurd helped to deflect a blow from behind. "Tell me something I don't know! If that thing turns that magic on us-"

"We must signal for everyone to retreat into the forest again, or scatter into the surrounding countryside, and pray that the Divine One can finish this fight!" Ivy shouted, a fan of flame roasting several Corrupted into stains on the ground.

Her point was proven as the Colossus swiped at the mesa with its right hand, sweeping away anyone caught in its path as if they were nothing but streaks of water on a windshield. Alear was trying his best to divert its attention, but any blow against the Colossus would result in a serious injury, and that wasn't even getting into what it would do if it used its beam attack again.

"Into the forest! Into the forest!" Jack shouted. "Spread the word! Into the forest!"

Ivy and Alfred echoed Jack's words, and it spread like wildfire through the remaining ranks. As Jack and the others made their way to the border of the forest, a big shadow covered him. He looked up to see Queen Lumera in all her draconic glory fly through the air to assist Alear. He heard the sound of claws tearing into the ashen flesh of the Colossus before he and other others retreated into the forest, pursued by Corrupted.

Veyle stood atop a lonely mountain, leaving the leadership of her part of the army to Mauvier and Marni. She needed to do something, but for all of her gifts in magic and in using her Misericorde, she looked upon the Ashborn Colossus and Alear and Queen Lumera, she knew she had no place in that fight. Even as she saw Alear take a glancing blow and slam into a cliff face, she wanted to reach out and help him - but without some type of dragon form, she knew all she could do would amount to mosquito bites or bee stings to the Colossus.

"We could still help," Alm said, appearing by her side. "We could help the others retreat, or ensure that the other battalions don't fall into the same trap."

Claude floated on Veyle's other side, balancing an arrow between the fingers of his left hand. "Ah, but that'd leave her brother and adoptive mother to die. We can't do that."

Edelgard was next, directly behind Veyle.

"Better to fight it anyway than to sit by the sidelines waiting for things to go either way," she supplied.

Dimitri appeared last, beside Alm. "And then do what? Sacrifice herself? What would be the point unless she had some trump card? Something that could-?"

"Am I to believe that you would throw yourself into the fire and only hope for small burns rather than be completely engulfed?"

Veyle's violet eyes widened as she looked around wildly for the source of the voice. The three Lords looked around confusedly as well; only Alm stood in place, completely nonplussed.

"I knew you weren't truly gone," Alm said, "Something has felt strange about my new home ever since I was placed within."

Veyle finally turned her attention to the crystal at the head of her staff. With every word that came from it, it enunciated it by glowing in patterns, such that looking at it for too long gave her a headache.

"What is dead may never die. I heard that once, though I cannot place from where. But fear not, for I have been watchful. This sorcery - that creature - has the energy of the Enemy written upon it in vibrant, blue ink. It is the work of another world, and it must be vanquished before it leaks into our own. Look upon me, young Veyle. Do you realize what this stone is?"

"I…" Veyle said, taking a deep breath even as her heart refused to calm down. "I think it might be a… dragon stone. It's a dragon stone. I threw mine away because I didn't want to be a monster, but you…"

"A monster? Do you still believe that you are a monster? Fell Dragon or not - whatever that may mean - you and I are kin, blood of blood, and I will not hear such slander to your name. You have used this staff well, and have given a lost hero a new purpose in life. So, I bequeath onto you my power, if only briefly. I will not force you to use it, but look upon your brothers and sisters fighting below, and know that to forsake them is to forsake all."

Veyle saw as Queen Lumera was nearly bisected by another beam of blue light that cut clear through some of the mountain, exploding somewhere in the far distance in a mushroom cloud like the one seen before. If it hit anything important, it was nothing but rubble. Veyle clutched the staff tightly as she took one last deep breath.

"I will do it," Veyle said. "I will save them all, like they saved me."

Lionel had become more adept at keeping things under control, or so he thought. That did not mean he had a handle on what boiled beneath the surface, however, and in those moments after the rest of the army had retreated into the woods, he stayed, looking at the massive battle that played out before him like a movie. Movies were such strange things, like books with moving pictures that kept moving even when they weren't being looked at. If you turned away for just a moment, you'd lose out on a dozen different small things, or perhaps even one big thing. A plot twist or some such that completely recontextualizes everything, and you missed it because you were distracted by something in the corner.

And it was for that reason that Lionel had enough.

He couldn't beat it. Even with Tiki's and Seadall's and Jack's help, he couldn't beat them. He was done, well and truly. They had no idea. He had done a good job at keeping them in the dark after the second battle of Lythos, but that didn't mean that it was gone, and it would never go away. Not even pills, now amount of medicine would make him feel better. It was time to go.

Lionel had the perfect way, too, to ensure that he died in a way that mattered, in a way that let his loved ones know that he did it of his own volition, to save them. The energy that ejected from Brianna and Natalie when they died was powerful - perhaps not as powerful as the nuclear explosions the Ashborn Colossus vomited out of its mouth at almost every opportunity, but enough to do some serious damage to it. Perhaps cut off a limb or kill it outright. It bored its ways through what could've been miles of solid rock; it could kill a giant.

To that end, he needed Tiki's help.

"We need to help," Lionel said, "they're going to be slaughtered."

Tiki appeared beside him. The Corrupted had chased the others into the woods, so there was nothing to attack them out in the open - the only beings that remained were himself, Queen Lumera, Alear, and the Colossus.

"Are you sure?" Tiki asked, giving an aside glance to the battle happening before them. "You haven't mastered the power of my Bracelet. It might overpower you even if you-"

"I can't just leave them," Lionel interrupted, "they took me in, all of them - I won't leave that debt unpaid."

"Debt? You think-" Tiki shook her head. "I won't stop you. Just… just be careful. You've been really fun to talk to! I'd really, really hate it if you went away like everyone else…"

Lionel nodded. "I'm not going anywhere. I just need to help."

Lying through his teeth was easier than Lionel had anticipated. Then again, perhaps it was the weight of living about to be lifted off his shoulders that made it seem easier.

This is what you deserve. You're a burden.

Jack nearly died as a beam of magic from the Colossus cut straight through the mountains, severing what must've been dozens of miles of solid rock before coming to a stop in a wide arc some distance away, exploding with such force that the shockwave nearly sent him off his feet. That seemed to happen a lot.

The cloud that the explosion made filled him with dread, making his limbs feel small and weak and his heart thumping in his chest and throat. It was like looking at the end of the world. Nonetheless, Jack was able to make it to a clearing that provided an ample view of the carnage that was unfolding. The others had scattered, no doubt seeking shelter farther away from the action, but Jack couldn't follow them - he had lost them in the woods. Thankfully, it didn't seem as if the Corrupted had followed him either. He saw the Colossus, towering over the mountains, and he felt himself shiver.

"I have not felt this way since we saw Grima appear over the Dragon's Table…" Robin said, appearing beside Jack. "Such power. Where could it have come from?"

"The Ashborn," Jack replied, bile at the back of his throat. "It came from the Ashborn. Those are the same kind of explosions that nuclear bombs would've produced in my world."

Robin's eyes widened as he turned to Jack. "Doesn't that mean we have to look out for the… the fallout? This 'radiation' you spoke of? Will it not affect you?"

"I don't feel any pins and needles on my skin right now, but you're right. This fucking thing could be salting the earth and damning us all to an early death," Jack spat. "What a disaster. And Alear and Lumera are gonna get slaughtered out there and I can't do a goddamn thing-! What the-!?"

Similar to when the two dragons faced Sombron, a third dragon appeared from nearby, from the thought-to-be empty mesa. Jack recognized it instantly as Tiki's dragon form, and the person who had Tiki-

"Lio!?" Jack squawked. "What the hell is he doing!?"

Robin gave Jack a wary glance. "I would not recommend going out there to fight. As you are, you would only be crushed."

"Easy for you to say, that's not your friend out there!" Jack snapped. "I gotta- What is he doing? Why's he leading it to-?"

A horrific realization hit Jack like a freight train. Even as he saw Lionel duck into a small crevice relative to his draconic body, and the Colossus leaned over it as if to see where he had gone, he felt like shouting out, like doing anything. But he knew he couldn't. He was too far away, too slow to reach what was looking to be Lionel's final action. Even Alear and Queen Lumera were out of reach, their bodies spent as they attempted to reach the Colossus.

Of course, Jack couldn't have realized that not everything was as it seemed. There was another roar. Out of all the roars Jack had heard that day, it was distinct. Ethereal, as if from a distant place yet right in front of him. A great shadow passed over him, far outstripping the one Queen Lumera had created earlier. He turned, and his jaw dropped straight to the floor.

"What…"

Lionel's engaged form quickly dissipated as he found himself between a rock and a hard place. He looked up to see the brilliant blue eyes of the Colossus staring down at him. Despite what it had done, he could not feel any intelligence from it, as if they were the eyes of a dumb baby, barely able to string two words together. The hard rock beneath him was a terrible companion for what he was about to do, but there was no other way. He would no longer be a burden, no longer bring pain to his friends and family. He would be able to do something that mattered.

"I'm sorry, Tiki," Lionel said, drawing out a knife from his belt, and aiming the tip of its blade at his throat. "But don't try to stop me."

Tiki appeared beside him, reaching for the knife, but it was too late. Lionel began to plunge and-

The earth around him shook as the knife was knocked from his hands. Not by Tiki, but by something above. It was as if the earth came alive for a second time, and a light shone through the small crevice, far more radiant than the light cast by the Colossus' eyes and mouth.

"What-!"

What Jack saw was something both beautiful and terrifying. It was like looking at a god, with how bright it was. Azure scales trailed along its outer body, while its underbelly was a pristine white. Jack half–expected to see a regular dragon head, but it was the same, snake-like head that Alear and Sombron shared, and the amount of people who had the capability to turn into a dragon like that could be counted on one hand.

"Veyle?"

The name left his mouth with so little gravitas it felt as if he should've said it differently, but after that, he was silent. Robin still floated beside him, just as spellbound as he was as the azure dragon ripped an arm off of the Colossus, causing it to scream. It was a terrible, ear-splitting sound that made Jack want to curl up into a ball and cover his ears, and yet, he stayed, looking at the battle that unfolded.

The Colossus responded to the loss of its arm by putting everything into its next attack. It rammed itself forward, using its remaining arm to punch and slash at the dragon's underbelly. While blood fell to the ground, the dragon made no indication that it was in any pain. Its mouth remained shut until it lunged forward and bit into the Colossus' neck. That action caused Jack to wince, but only because of the grinding sound it made, and of the piercing shout that echoed across the mountain valleys.

"Jack!"

He knew that voice, and sure enough, Ivy arrived on her wyvern just a few seconds later, flanked on one side by Chloé riding a griffon - that made sense, Jack supposed, as she was the only one who would be able to keep up with Ivy on her wyvern.

"Before you ask," Jack began, "I got lost up here by accident. And, well, look…"

"Lost? The forest could not have been that thick, could it?" Chloé asked.

Jack shrugged. "You weren't there."

Just as Ivy was about to say something, the Colossus landed in a heap nearby, though that didn't mean that the battle was over. It got up using its good arm and continued to fight the god-like dragon. Ivy's jaw practically unhinged before she spoke.

"T-that cannot be the-!"

"There's only one person it could be, unless there's some other dragon we don't know about," Jack replied.

"Such power…" Chloé remarked. "It's as if their battle is reshaping the land itself."

"That may not be terribly far from the case…" Ivy said, before turning to look at Jack. "We need to leave this place before the battle gets any more severe. Climb on - you were the last one unaccounted for."

"There's another," Jack shook his head, pointing to the nearby crevice. "Lionel's in there."

"What? How?" Ivy asked.

"Probably stayed behind. Tried to sacrifice himself. I ought to give him a piece of my fucking mind-!" Jack shook his head. "No, need to keep a level head. Can you take me to him? He needs to be rescued, and since there's been no pillar of light out of there, he has to be still alive."

Ivy's lips thinned as she warily looked upon the battle raging nearby, before turning to Chloé, who nodded.

"I will help. It's a knight's duty to look after the people, after all," she said.

Ivy sighed. "Very well. Jack, as I said, climb on. We will save him."

Lionel looked up at the empty entrance to the crevice, his mind mercifully blank for the first time in a long, long time. He was aware that Tiki was panicking right by his side, urging him to get up, but Lionel didn't feel like it. Lionel didn't feel like doing anything, really. He hoped that simply laying there in the dark and the dirt would have him fade completely into nothingness. A sweet, blissful nothingness. If that was what laid beyond death, then it would be a mercy. A beautiful mercy.

But that wasn't granted to him.

Did you really think you could escape that easily?

Perhaps that was his folly. He thought he could escape the hell that had become his life but he was wrong. He was wrong. Perhaps he was wrong about everything, and he just didn't know it, or maybe he was correct, but the world was wrong. It was hard to tell sometimes.

Lionel began screaming and banging his fists against his head, while Tiki floated a few steps back.

"Lio! Lio!"

Lionel stopped as someone grasped him by the shoulders and hoisted him to his feet. It was Jack, obviously, flanked by two women. One was the knight from Firene, and the other was Jack's princess girlfriend. Lionel liked men more but he had to admit that Jack had done well for himself. Seadall was all Lionel needed, though. The things that man could do were-

"Oh," Lionel said. "Hi, Jack."

"'Hi, Jack'!?" Jack echoed, "Is that really all you have to say after the stunt you pulled?"

Lionel shrugged. "It didn't happen. I failed. You saw."

"I saw, yeah, I saw, fucking-" Jack rubbed his temples as he walked in a small circle before looking back to Lionel. "We've already lost so much to get to this point. Brianna and Natalie are dead, and if you died, I'd be the-"

"I'm done, Jack," Lionel said.

Jack blinked. "Done? What do you mean you're 'done'?"

Lionel shrugged. "I'm done. I want it to be over. This is not going to get better. It's just gonna be a constant hell for the rest of my life. And if I could've ended it doing something good, then it would've been worth it. A win win. Instead, there's something outside fighting that ash freak, and I'm still here. We're both still here, Jack, and for what? You don't get it, Jack. You'll never understand."

"You're right, for fuck's sake, but does that mean you just give up!?" Jack shouted. "Don't just give up! Seadall's out there right now waiting for you! I would've been waiting for you! Your parents would've been waiting for you back home! And you just wanted to give up!?"

"Give up?" Lionel replied, his voice almost devoid of emotion as he looked at Jack impassively. "Is that what you think? Fine. Yeah, I wanted to give up, no matter what. Anything would've been better than this. Seadall would've found someone else. Someone who isn't fucked in the head. He's a strong guy. And you wouldn't be the only one. You have Connor, and you have Ivy to help make more of us, if you want."

"Lio… Lio, what the hell? We're getting outta here," Jack said, turning to Ivy who had a luminescent blush on her face. "He didn't mean that. He needs to get outta here. Tiki? Are you there?"

Tiki sheepishly appeared before Jack, looking up at him like a child that had just gotten in trouble.

"If I'd known he would have done this, I would have stopped him, but it was almost too late! I-!"

"It's not your fault," Jack said, moving to pat her shoulder before stopping himself. "Just… just help me get him outta here. Chloé?"

"I think we're all ready. Princess Ivy?"

"Yes, get me out of here. This dark place is… disquieting," Ivy said, looking around as the walls shook. The battle outside must've been nearing a conclusion. A conclusion that didn't involve Lionel.

He hated that last part.

Jack saw the last part of the fight between the azure dragon and the Ashborn Colossus from afar, while on Ivy's wyvern. The wind swept past him and tousled his hair, and he saw Chloé and Lionel nearby, doing the same thing. The mountains and cliffs were wrecked beyond recognition - what was once a showcase of nature's beauty had become nothing more than a terrible, shattered wasteland, with rubble and ash coating the area. Nonetheless, the Colossus fought hard against the onslaught of the giant azure dragon, but before long, something would certainly have to give.

That something came in the form of the dragon grasping the still working arm of the Colossus, and then it began to ascend high into the air, past the clouds and past the skyline, until they were almost nothing but a dot in the sky, like a reverse star. And then the dragon dropped the Colossus.

Jack didn't know how high up they were - certainly beyond anything he could count, but he saw well enough the Colossus' descent. Ash and debris from its body floated into the air as its back began to glow. Still, it wasn't done as it sent out one last beam of glowing energy from its mouth. It missed the dragon by what looked like a hair, and it responded with an attack of its own. The dragon's breath attack slammed into the Colossus, sending it to the ground even faster. And when it landed-

Ivy's wyvern was nearly sent falling from the sky as a shockwave rocked the world, and Jack was nearly blinded by the light. It was like looking at the surface of the sun. If the explosions from the world merely made the mountains and cliffs shudder, then the impact of the Colossus into the stone made it disintegrate.

Smoke rose from the crater as the dust cleared, and Jack could see the remains of the Colossus, just barely, hiding in soot and rubble. The only thing that remained that was recognizable was the massive shape of its skull, no longer bursting with terrible blue energy.

The azure dragon landed, and raised its head, letting out a lasting roar that echoed across the remnants of the valleys and mountains, as it soon vanished into thin air.

Jack wiped his forehead as he hugged Ivy from behind. She leaned into his touch.

"I'm tired," Jack said.

"So am I…" Ivy replied quietly.

Lionel was slated to die this Chapter, but fate had other plans. And by faith, I mean a friend of mine who convinced me not to. Thank her, for she has made me see the light.

Also, updates will probably start coming out a bit more slowly than they have been. And they'll probably stop entirely once Starfield comes out lol. Of course, once I've finished the game I'll come back, but once it drops, I'll be going radio silent everywhere except Discord, probably. So, hopefully I can finish the current arc, but if not, the 'exciting' conclusion will have to wait.

Here's a link to our Discord server: discord. gg/u89gs745fn

See you guys next time!