Chapter 14: What Lies at the End
The outer fields of Castle Altea, The Kingdom of Altea, Archanea
Arch. Year 609
Alm didn't know much about Altea. Most of his knowledge came from the fond memories shared by his Archanean allies, the occasional discussion on international politics with the Valentian royal council, and the many tales he had heard in passing of the brave Altean prince who had risked everything to save the world not once, but twice, in the span of only a few years. Despite being only a small island nation, Altea had begun to build quite the reputation for itself.
But all the stories and political meetings had neglected to mention one important detail: Altea was a kingdom of many, many sources of water. Rivers, lakes, an ocean wrapped completely around Altea's shores-water everywhere for as far as the eye could see.
In most circumstances, that would be considered a blessing. But for Alm and his allies, it was a nightmare.
A terrible, dangerous nightmare.
"Incoming from the west!"
Alm's head snapped to the side at Clair's call, his eyes sweeping the length of a rushing river less than a quarter mile away. The raging storm had caused it to flood into the surrounding fields, giving rise to dozens of flickering purple bodies along the water's edge. Dozens more soldiers soon to join the hundreds already pursuing them from the port.
Alm grit his teeth. The heavy downpour had soaked the fields so thoroughly that the soil had turned to sludge, making their boots and hooves and dragon claws sink into the ground as they tried to flee from the enemy at their backs. Alm's legs and lungs burned with every step, but he forced himself to push through the muck, chasing the vague outline of a castle forming in the distance. To safety, to help, if they could just outrun them for a little longer.
"Push them back!" he shouted as another bout of thunder cracked through the air.
"On it!"
Green gales danced atop Boey's palms at Alm's command. With a quick swipe of his arms he flung the wind magic along the riverbank, launching the newly-formed invisible soldiers back into the river's roaring current. Annette summoned a gust of her own to sweep up the pursuers closing in on them from behind. A small chunk of the advancing army was thrown across the fields by the blast, but it wasn't nearly enough—they still had hundreds of flickering bodies following right at their heels.
"I-I'm…out…" Annette panted, speaking through harsh, ragged breaths. "No more…wind spells…"
Boey didn't say anything, but it was clear from the grimace on his face that he was in a similar state as her and everyone else. The storm, the terrain, the endless fighting and running had left them all sluggish and exhausted. Even Kana in his dragon form was starting to struggle, stumbling through the slippery soil on unsteady legs like a newborn fawn.
"We're almost there!" Anna called out, pointing forward with her crossbow. "Just a little farther!"
Alm could see it clearly now. A castle of white stones and towering spires, sitting on a small piece of land just beyond the edge of the field. By some divine miracle, it appeared to be untouched by the storm and the hordes of invisible soldiers that plagued the rest of the nation. All they had to do was cross the bridge standing over the castle's moat, then they would be at the front gates.
That was all. Simple. They could manage that—
Something sharp and heavy fell from the sky. Alm slid to an abrupt stop as it pierced the earth right in front of his feet, blasting his face with mud and rainwater. He coughed to keep the muck from going down his throat and scrubbed the rest out of his eyes. When his vision cleared, he found a giant bolt sticking out of the ground. A bolt too big for any normal bow or crossbow to fire.
"No…" Anna whispered, voice quivering and eyes wide with horror. Alm followed her gaze, gasping for breath. A line of flickering ballistae rolled toward them, crackling with the same purple energy as the rest of the army. Anna was staring at the ballistician in the center, a man with dark spiky hair and soulless pink eyes, one hand on his contraption's lever.
Her knees buckled and hit the mud.
"No…Jake, no…"
"Anna, we have to keep moving!" Alm grabbed her arm and yanked her back onto her feet. "We have to—"
"Incoming!"
Byleth's hoarse warning came just seconds before another wave of ballista bolts were fired in their direction. His blade separated into segmented fragments and whipped across the sky to intercept them, tearing through as many of the flickering projectiles as it could in a single sweep. Kana destroyed the ones Byleth missed with a blast of torrential water from his gullet, then swiped at two more with his claws. He successfully knocked the first one to the ground, but the second…
The dragon emitted a piercing wail as the bolt ripped through his black-scaled palm. Kana reeled back and slipped on the wet earth, toppling over into the mud. A quick, dim light flashed around the dragon's body as he hit the ground, leaving a young boy behind in its place. A boy gasping for air, tears clearing a path through the muck splattered on his cheeks, cradling a bleeding hand close to his chest.
"Kana!" Sophie cried out. She raised herself off her saddle, but Celica held up a hand to stop her from jumping off.
"I've got him." She dropped to Kana's side and cast Recover over the injury, wincing as the spell drained the last of her magic. "The rest of you need to keep going!"
"Don't think that's an option anymore…" Byleth muttered, wiping away a trail of blood streaming from his nose. Concern for him, for Kana, for all of his exhausted friends pricked at the back of Alm's throat, a concern that quickly tightened into dread, squeezing his lungs and stealing his breath.
They were completely surrounded. Flickering archers, lancers, the ballisticians were all closing in on them from every direction, blocking off their only path to the castle and their only means of escape.
"Shit," Gray said under a dry, resigned laugh. Alm just nodded, unsheathing Falchion as Gray pulled a brave sword from his back, both preparing to fight an army they knew they couldn't beat.
Yeah, shit sounded about right.
The ballisticians fired upon them again, joined by a volley of arrows from the enemy archers. Alm raised his shield to provide cover for as many of his allies as he could. Byleth's sword pulsed red in the corner of his right eye, ready to strike the sky again, while three quick flashes of light from the castle shone in his left.
Wait, light from the castle?
Before he could process what that meant, the same light flashed directly in front of them in three bursts. And in the next moment—
"Excalibur!"
Green blades of wind shot out around them, slicing through the incoming projectiles and the enemy line all at once. The air roared in Alm's ears as the magic blades converged together into a swirling vortex, swallowing up the transparent bodies and hurling them away from Alm's group. Then, as quickly as it had appeared, the magic returned to its source:
A man wrapped in blue robes standing just a few paces away. His green strands of hair fluttered as the wind settled, then fell back around his face when he slammed the equally green tome in his hands shut.
Alm blinked at him, completely and utterly speechless. He had seen strong wind magic before, but that…it was like the mage had been able to control the air itself. A million questions flooded his mind, but before he could pick one to ask…
"Celica, is that you?!"
A new, but familiar, voice called out above his head. He craned his neck back, spotting a pink-haired pegasus rider squinting down at them. "What are you doing here?!"
"Est! You're okay!" Celica looked up at her with a relieved smile. She was still kneeling beside Kana, helping the boy find his feet after his hard tumble. A man with dark blue hair and a silver broadsword strapped to his back—another man Alm did not recognize—lifted Kana onto Sophie's horse as soon as the boy was able to keep himself upright.
Celica thanked him and pushed herself up. "Where did you all—"
"The princess warped us here with her staff," the swordsman said quickly. "We can talk at the castle. Those things won't stay down for long."
As though taking his words as a challenge, more bodies began to take shape in the rain.
"We enchanted the walls to keep them out. Once you're inside, they won't be able to follow," the mage added. He replaced his green tome for one with a light blue binding. "Go, I'll cover your back!"
Without waiting for any affirmation, the mage waved his hand over the new tome then thrust his arm forward. Clumps of thick icicles burst from the puddles of mud and rainwater around the field, stabbing through the silhouettes solidifying within the storm.
"Follow us!" Est yelled, brandishing a spear. "We just need to get across the bridge!"
She soared ahead of the group, diving down to pick at any soldiers forming between them and the castle, while the swordsman led the charge on foot. His broadsword carved through the bodies she missed, working alongside Alm and the others to clear a path to the foot of the bridge.
(Alm could have sworn that the swordsman was keeping a particular eye on him and Falchion, but if he had anything to say he was keeping it to himself)
The castle gate loomed just on the other side. Several flickering bodies began to emerge from the castle's moat, flinging themselves onto the bridge in a last-ditch effort to keep them from reaching the entrance.
But Byleth, despite his weary state, was faster. An orange symbol flashed over his head like a burst of raging flames. With one last powerful swing, his whip-sword lashed through the invisible soldiers until nothing but purple mist remained, destroying their final obstacles to the castle.
Byleth collapsed to one knee, a fresh trail of blood leaking from his nose and the corner of his mouth—though the rain was quick to wash it away. Alm moved to help him, but the blue-haired swordsman beat him to it. He threw Byleth's arm over his shoulder and heaved him off the ground, supporting the bulk of Byleth's weight as they staggered through the castle gates. The others were quick to follow, everyone except…
"Wait!" Alm said, glancing back to the field where the mage was still casting his ice spells at the remaining ballisticians. "What about—"
"The princess will get him," the swordsman grunted. As soon as the words left his mouth, a spiral of white light enveloped the mage, whisking him away from the battle in one second and dropping him by the swordsman's side in the next.
"Come on, come on…" A woman—the princess of the castle, Alm presumed, with her ivory dress and golden staff—ushered them into the grand entrance hall, then ordered, "Raise the drawbridge!"
Immediately on her command, the chains of the drawbridge were pulled back, both wood and metal creaking against each other as they worked to lift the wooden platform off the moat. Translucent figures continued to form out of the rain but made no effort to stop the drawbridge's slow ascent.
Instead, they just stood perfectly still, their blank pink gazes trained on the boy clinging to Sophie's back. She moved a protective arm in front of him, trying to shield him as much as possible from their view.
"The Silent Dragon awaits…child," the figures drawled in unison. The words hit the air like ice cracking over a frozen lake. Kana shrunk behind his sister even further.
"The Silent Dragon awaits…"
They turned their soulless eyes onto Byleth, translucent faces contorting into sneers.
"…Sothis."
The drawbridge clicked shut, leaving the castle in complete silence.
Alm swallowed a thick lump nestled deep in his throat. Had the invisible soldiers just shown…an actual emotion? For some reason, the thought was more chilling than the cold water soaking his clothes.
"Were those things talking to you?" the blue-haired swordsman asked, carefully lowering Byleth off his shoulder.
Byleth slid into a seated position against the stone walls, wiping the remaining blood off his face. His eyes were wide, lips pulled into a tight line. He appeared to be just as shaken as Alm was.
"…Probably," was all Byleth had to say.
"Is anyone in need of healing?" the princess asked, grabbing another staff from a long line of healing items propped against the wall. She motioned for the mage in blue robes to take one as well. "Merric, it'll go faster if we both—"
"Celica!" Est practically jumped off her pegasus into Celica's arms, squeezing her in a tight embrace. "I can't believe it! You're alive! I thought…I thought…oh!" Her arm shot out to pull Mae and Boey into the hug. "Mae, Boey! Thank the gods you're all okay!"
"You know us, Est," Mae laughed, though it was much more subdued than normal, "tough as nails, especially when you and your sisters are there to watch our backs like you did today. You basically saved our butts out there."
At the mention of her sisters, Est's entire body stiffened. Her nose wrinkled as she tried, unsuccessfully, to hold back tears.
Oh no.
"Palla…and Catria…?" Celica asked slowly. Est buried her face into Celica's shoulder, sniffling and choking on her words.
"They're gone," the swordsman said for her, staring at the ground with distant eyes. "We're the only ones left."
Oh no.
"The…only ones? Of what?" The question slipped out of his mouth, even though he already knew the answer.
The princess stepped forward regardless, drawing in a long breath before speaking.
"We are the last of Altea's defenses." She nodded to her companions, her long blue hair spilling over her shoulders. "Merric, Kris, and Est here, along with a few other Archanean soldiers and generals who have joined with us…they are what is left of the Altean army. They serve under my command." Delicate hands lifted her skirts as she lowered herself into a curtsy. "Princess Elice of House Lowell."
Alm bowed his head, both out of respect for her station and her kingdom's losses.
"You can't be serious!" Anna shouted before he could form a proper response for the princess. Her voice echoed through the near-empty halls around them. "It's not just Jake, but everyone…everyone is gone? What about the Archanean League?" The merchant drew closer to Elice, her desperate, scarlet eyes meeting the princess's despondent blue. "What about the Hero-King? Surely he—"
The Alteans shook their heads. Elice wiped at the corner of her eye.
"The Archanean League is no more…and my brother…the Hero-King…he's…"
The princess folded her hands in front of her, knuckles white under her long sleeves.
"The Hero-King is dead."
Character Bios:
Elice: Bishop
-Princess of Altea and descendant of Anri the Great. A level-headed and compassionate woman who always puts the safety of her people and her family above her own. It was her sacrifice during Dolhr's invasion of Altea before the War of Shadows that allowed her younger brother to escape the enemy's clutches and, eventually, to rise as one of the greatest heroes Archanea has ever known.
-Wielder of the Aum Staff
-Relations: Daughter of Cornelius and Liza (both deceased). Sister of Marth (deceased). Lover of Merric.
Est: Falcon Knight
-Youngest of the Whitewing Sisters, a group of talented pegasus knights who serve under the command of Queen Minerva of Macedon. A spirited and chatty soul who, despite her tendency to get captured, has dedicated much of her life fighting to protect both Archanea and Valentia from malevolent forces.
-Relations: Sister of Palla and Catria (both deceased). Lover of Abel (deceased).
Kris: Hero
-Royal knight of Altea and leader of Altea's 7th Platoon. An ambitious young man from the town of Sera who trained rigorously under the tutelage of his grandfather and the Altean knight Cain. One would be hard pressed to find a person as dedicated to their responsibilities as Kris, though his culinary and navigation skills leave much to be desired.
-Relations: Grandson of MacLear (deceased).
Merric: Sage
-Top student of magic at Khadein and childhood friend of Marth and Elice. A studious mage who fought alongside the Hero-King in the War of Shadows and the War of Heroes. Because of his great proficiency in the magical arts and work ethic, he was gifted the powerful wind tome Excalibur by the Sage of Khadein before leaving to aid Marth on his quest to save Archanea.
-Wielder of Excalibur
-Relations: Lover of Elice. Former student of Wendell (deceased).
Unlocked: New Mystery - Bad Ending
Remember to mind the tags and my warnings from the first chapter. These are high stakes scenarios, and some groups of characters/worlds will be (or have already been) hit harder than others…and unfortunately, it's possible that not all our heroes will come out unscathed, or alive.
I will also be modifying my upload schedule to every other week, as it gives me more breathing room and editing time before posting these chapters. Trying to go for every week has been a fun challenge, but I can see myself burning out quickly if I continue that for too much longer. I hope that's okay!
Next chapter: Altea mourns the loss of their heroes.