Part 22: The Glorious Ascension or, Lol Aureola

So before we do anything else I just want to say I went back to an earlier save and bought a Guiding Ring instead of one of the robes I got from the secret shop in case I actually want to use Hugh or something, but the only thing else that changed is that Dorothy didn't get HP for killing Narcian and maybe a couple of weapon uses saved/used but nothing really important.


The Saint's Tower was once a place of worship for Saint Elimine. In the tower lay numerous sacred relics relating to her. However, this sacred tower is now under the control of the revolutionaries.

Sadly, the previous paragraph has very little to do with the actual map, because space is yet again very limited, so we won't be bringing Hugh. In retrospect, I probably should have though, since he'd benefit more from it than all these promoted units.



Bishop Windbag is such a bit character I can't even be arsed to come up with something to replace his face with. It's simply not worth the effort.



As said, reduced party size. Even then, it's more than we'll need to finish the map - it's honestly nothing really special.



Of course there's a throne in the tower, why wouldn't there be a throne in the tower?


What of me?! I betrayed the church and took over this tower for him!

You're gonna die.

That's all there's to it.

Lord Roartz's message said that he considers your work a failure. He says that because you couldn't bend the church, he has no use for you.

Sadly, the pilot episode for Windham: The Last Churchbender did not sway the jaded hearts of the production company.

This is all Yoder's fault. If he hadn't meddled in my affairs...

I agree... but there's nothing to be done about that now...

...Very well... Then this is our last mission. If we are to die, then the Lycian Army shall fall along with us! Prepare the Heavenly Arrows!

But if we use those, we'll hit our own men as well!

Mostly your own men, actually.





Annnnd nope.



Meanwhile, at the bottom of the tower, Douglas is here to remind us that we didn't kill him for EXP last chapter.

Saint Elimine's weapon, the Aureola spell tome, lies within.

"Stop giggling. It's a holy relic, damn it!"

Thank you, Sir Douglas. Although we were enemies earlier, I appreciate your help.

I have no need for thanks. I do as the king orders. Do not concern yourself.

Secretly, Douglas resents Roy for being able to grow such a rad 'stache at his tender age. Douglas was in his thirties by the time he managed to grow his, and it still isn't as good as Roy's.

......

You saved Eturia. It is an honor to fight alongside you.

Sir Douglas...



And here's the map. Windbag is in the top middle, and a whole bunch of casters are hanging around with Physic staves and ranged tomes. Some of them have status staves as well.


A bishop of the St. Elimine Church who turned against his order.

Most annoying of all,



Windbag has a Berserk staff,



...and this is his effective range with it. Well, technically about three tiles less, since he won't move off his throne - but as I'm sure you can imagine, climbing the tower will be a huge hassle with him free to snipe at us from across the entire map. Even worse, my only decent staff user is Saul, who has a much lower magic score, so we can't even pull any dirty tricks on him in return. I am sad.


The Great General of Eturia. A respected veteran.

Now that he's on our side, Douglas has both the growths and bases you'd expect of a prepromote (the former being HP 60, Str 30, Skl 30, Spd 30, Lck 20, Def 30, Red 5) and will be getting benched as soon I have a choice in the matter, beard or no beard. 19 Str and 20 Def isn't bad, as such, but on a level 20/8 character with single-digit speed it sure as hell isn't very impressive either.



I could mess around with the longbow, but two shots at 67% isn't worth it. We'll hit this guy with something less unique a few rounds from now instead.



Also at the end of every round these arrows randomly shoot down across the map. Anyone they hit takes 10 damage, I guess it counts as a gimmick or something?



Well, we can't sit around and wait all day, so let's get crackin'. Schwarth doesn't kill this guy, but that wasn't the point.



Candygram for Mongo!



fuck you Saul



Pictured: Fir with a killing edge. That 68% crit rate


Everything to ash!

You don't even have a fire tome, what the fuck is wrong with you.



Oh, someone is really going to regret that decision.



Apparently being berserked turns off animations. Anyway, as you can probably imagine, Schwarth does to these guys what a berserked promoted unit with a killing lance usually does to unpromoted wastes of space.

(And of course I gave Schwarth the delphi shield, you think I'm gonna waste it on fucking Shanna or something?)



Most of the enemies on this map are not very threatening.



Even the ones who would actually deal damage if they could hit.



...Well, okay, so the Bolting guys shit all over Douglas, but I don't know what you were expecting.



Go be useless someplace else.



This is even more obnoxious. Noah gets silenced.



This is worth two shots from the longbow.



Feeding Bartre those speedwings paid off, he doubles and kills this guy with the second swing



Let's fix that little problem. Oh yeah, that's what the Restore staff does, the Recover staff is a 1-range full heal.



...Why did you fly all the way down here when there's a nice juicy mage right next to where you were standing?



...This is somewhat problematic, though.



Wolt could probably murder my entire party if he really wanted to. Saul fixes this as soon as he's able.



Purge is back!

Purge still can't hit worth shit!



Again?!



...

You know, I can't decide if that was the smartest or the dumbest thing you could have done. Sure, that's my one good staff user out of the picture. But he has no weapons because I've loaded him with five different utility staves, so now he'll run around glaring menacingly at my other units while they slaughter the rest of the opposition. That was the last use of the Berserk staff.



You guys are really bad at this.



Your levels are still high enough to let Fae get like 80 exp per kill though, so that's nice!







It's okay I guess. Schwarth status: Three levels under Douglas, better in six out of eight stats.



These guys are really not good at aiming.


Where are you, my daughter?

To be honest, this is probably the most interesting thing that happens this level.

F-Father... There's no need to shout so loudly...

I've been hearing some troubling rumors, Fir. I hear that another man in the army is secretly seeing you.

Oh...

Is it true, my daughter? If so, fear not! I will crush anyone who would hurt you!

N-no, it's nothing like that! He's helping me with my training. That's all.

Oho, so you merely wanted a training partner. Have no worries, my daughter. Your father is here to train you!



Um... I appreciate it, but I need someone who can use a sword...

......

I'm sorry, father...


Take care of yourself, my daughter.

Poor Bartre, he's trying so hard, but she's just at that age.



Douglas gets hit by an arrow.

Serves him right.



Schwarth's berserk status runs out, so now it's business as usual. Hm, come to think of it, this guy actually stands a pretty good chance of being painful! Guess I've been lucky she survived this long all by herself.



'Course, she crits him before he can try anything.



The rest is just mopping up.



Some reinforcements show up after a while. They're high-level bishops, so very good experience for just about anyone on the team. Though, they also have Lightning tomes and Physic staves, and sometimes also Silence staves, so they can be obnoxious.



Well fuck me, a Purge actually hit. Oh well, Schwarth has vulneraries.



Almost done.



Somewhere along the way, Noah masters anima magic. Eeeexcellent.



Having healed up, Schwarth takes on the boss. That's a pretty nifty looking spell.

Hahaha! Haha... ha...

Boring to the end.



Holy shit Fae.



That's actually a kinda bad level, as Fae levels go.



We've dealt with all the enemies, so -



Oh, come on!



God damn!



anyway it's just 10 HP per arrow, so it's just an annoyance. I don't even care to farm some exp by healing it up.

Sir Douglas, is this it...?


This is the Glorious Ascension, Aureola, Saint Elimine's weapon.

May we make use of it?

The king said to take anything in the tower that may be of use.

With the tome in hand, we have literally taken everything in the tower that could be of use. Damn stingy tower.

The St. Elimine Church is on our side as well. If any oppose our use of it, then I will negotiate.

"By 'negotiate' I mean I will bludgeon the bastard over the head with this tome until they stop complaining."

"That should solve the problem quite handily, yes."

All right. Thank you, Sir Douglas.

And scene change.



...The attack on Bern will begin after we finish in Eturia.

Did someone tell you already?

No... I simply knew that it would come to this eventually.

...We cannot leave Bern unopposed any longer. I know it will be painful to see your homeland invaded, but...

"...tough shit, everyone else on the team had to deal with it at some point so I'm sure you can too."





Bern's greatest treasure... the Fire Emblem.

What?!


Within it lies the sword of Hartmut, founder of Bern.

Is it... a legendary weapon?

Yes. The most powerful of them all, in fact. It was made to slay the leader of the dragons in the Scouring. Its power was so immense that it had to be sealed away after the war. The Fire Emblem is the key to accessing it once more.

The key...

My brother... is forcing the world into submission with military might. I cannot forgive him, no matter his reasons.

......

All we must do to stop him is defeat the dragons he commands.

Princess Guinivere...

"You do realize he's going to be a boss at some point, right? Parked on a throne on a map with a seize-the-throne-to-win objective...?"



No...

The people will resent me for the rest of my days. Roy, promise me this one thing. When we invade Bern, do not harm any civilians...

I will not. I promise you.

...Thank you.



I'm not sure I'll ever get to use this; at first I was planning to make Noah my light-caster type, but then I decided to save the tomes for Saul once he got close to promotion, but he's still spending most of his time staffbotting, so he will probably never reach that S-rank. Oh well, I'm sure there are other legendary weapons for us to play around with. Fir was actually carrying the Durandal around on this map, but nothing we fought warranted using it.

Either way, Roy's inventory isn't full, so we won't get to look at it until next map.



And that's it for this side mission. Next up... I hope for something a little more interesting, personally.