Part 20: (Endgame, Continued)
Our first act is to send Nailah as far up as she can get. She's been equipped with Celerity and Pass and she has a job to do next turn.
For laughs, we try to petrify this soldier. It doesn't work. Glare has a quite low success rate, for obvious reasons.
Aran's speed, while good, is not spectacular, and we'll be finding more use for him as a wall than as a strike unit.
Zihark, on the other hand…
Our other pertinent issue right now is Nolan's skill. We need him to actually be hitting stuff in order to succeed; he doesn't have the defense to survive drawn out encounters. All in good time.
For his part, the Black Knight makes an incredible armoured distraction unit. Even if anything were able to damage him, he'd shrug it all off with his Imbue skill. As it is, nothing on this map save maybe Nailah even has enough Atk to do a single point of damage to him.
Rafiel is very useful to have around; four units being able to take a second turn is quite, quite, handy. Jill uses hers to rush forward and deal a hefty amount of damage to the one remaining soldier on the ground floor; everyone else just hangs back…
…and talks amongst themselves.
(Volug says: "Oh, hello. I don't know why I'm speaking. I'm sure you can't understand me anyway.")
And on that note, we End.
Not a great deal happens in the enemy turn; there's the expected "no damage" against Nailah, an archer comes down and deals a few damage to Jill, and the soldier she violence'd runs away.
…then she almost gets killed by an enemy knight. Careless me. Jill at least is able to double him in response; her strength gains since recruitment have been quite decent, and she can now wield Iron Poleaxes without trouble.
Reinforcements arrive, and with them we are introduced to another New Irritating Thing; enemy thieves.
Enemy thieves will not engage your units in combat unless your units are standing between them and treasure chests. They will use all of their not-inconsiderable movement range to move directly to any chests on the map and will proceed to loot them. The most recent thing they stole can be reclaimed by killing them (if you can catch them), everything other than that is lost to you forever unless you can steal it back. Once all the chests on the map are looted, the thieves will run away and take all the loot with them. You don't want that to happen.
(This does raise the question of why the enemy tolerates thieves; presumably all this stuff is enemy property, so… oh, who cares. Videogames.)
Anyway, the problem is that there are a lot of units between us and the thieves, and we need to kill them quickly. We're going to have to fight our way thr-
-oh, no, wait a minute, we gave Nailah Celerity and Pass, didn't we?
Never mind, then. On maps like this with a lot of cramped spaces and chokepoints, Pass might as well be Eclipse. If there's one unit in a mess of enemies that you really, really need to die, then Pass will get you right to them. It's great.
So anyway, Nailah effortlessly swats the first thief aside.
The units who came down to attack Jill are up next on our hitlist. Jill deals with the knight by using her newfound ability to wield Lances to gain a Weapon Triangle advantage on him, and thus surviving on 1 HP when his counterattack hits in between her two attacks. We should probably heal her. In the meantime, Aran dispenses with most of the archer's HP.
There we go. Once this is done, Laura heals Micaiah back up to full. Nolan moves to finish off the archer, but misses.
For some reason, we move Fiona into the enemy mrymidon's range.
With a little help from Rafiel, the Black Knight moves up to the ledge. This is one thing the Black Knight is good for in this map; clearing ledges. He has enough skill that, even with the Ledge Disadvantage, he's still likely to take out the guard.
He does just that.
We also position Zihark in such a way that the enemy archer down below has no way to attack any of our units. Sothe moves towards the ledge; it's almost time for him to begin his rounds of the maps chests. We end turn.
The enemy thief runs ahead, heedless of Nailah, although everyone else in the vicinity is going to fruitlessly attempt to murder her - even the myrmidon who ran away earlier. Why he chooses to target Nailah instead of, say, Fiona - who he could probably OHKO - is beyond me.
Even this longbowman on the ledge above has a shot - and misses despite having a height advantage. All in all, 5 units tried, of which one died because he was stupid enough to attack Nailah at melee range.
Goddamnit. Reinforcements-in-the-starting-position is a common Fire Emblem trick and I always forget about it. No matter.
Our turn.
For probably the first time in his long and distinguished career, the Black Knight does not get results.
Well, let's deal with these reinforcements.
Micaiah is able to immediately get into attack range, though she takes some damage in the process. Meanwhile…
It's Fiona's first combat!
Go Fiona!
…wow, we've got our work cut out.
Anyway.
By complete coincidence, our attempts to get in range to attack the reinforcements have resulted in four units forming a perfect circle around Rafiel. We take advantage. Each of the four units picks a reinforcement and proceeds to swiftly murder them; Micaiah takes the guy she already weakened with her magic, and Jill, Nolan and Aran each OHKO one of the squishy mages. Laura heals Micaiah up and…
…gains three useless stat-ups along with some magic.
Meanwhile, our thief-seeking Nailah Bomb finds its second target.
And that's the end of our turn. During the enemy turn, lots of units feebly try to harm Nailah (and one dies), and the trapped archer on the ground floor tries to shoot Zihark from below a ledge, with predictable results.
Now, we could have the Black Knight try to attack up a ledge again, but Nailah's in the perfect position to come up behind the guard and take him out. This enables the Black Knight to go back to being a giant armoured distraction.
Meanwhile, something incredible is happening…
Fiona gets a kill!
And a level! It's not the worlds greatest level, but it's given her strength and speed - two of her biggest problem areas at recruitment (the third being defense). As we discussed much earlier, Fiona's growths are pretty much average and even across the board, so we can expect all of this to even out before too long - RNG gods willing.
With the ground floor and first ledge cleared, we begin our charge in earnest. Zihark, Nailah and the Black Knight are going to attack up the ledge while everyone else takes the stairs. Sothe is going after the chest.
End turn.
Of course, we don't have to go to them, because the enemy is quite willing to come to us. Suits me fine. That said, there are some Venin Axes amongst the attackers here and that could get annoying. This guy poisons Jill but is killed for his trouble.
Jill will never say no to more speed and skill, and a point in resistance is very welcome.
A barrage of javelins and magic assaults our ledge team from above - Sothe takes rather a nasty hit but he'll be out of range next turn, and Zihark is only hit for two more HP than he'll be able to recover with Imbue next turn, so that's alright.
When our turn rolls around, Sothe goes for the nearest chest.
Magic Cards are… well, kinda needless. What they do is allow non-magical units to use a magical attack with a given Mt value depending on the card you have. They're… only kinda useful, because non-magical units tend to have crap magic stats, so unless you're fighting an enemy with little to no resistance, you're better off just attacking normally. Of course, this does give you an option, and options are nice, but… well, I usually sell mine.
I don't want to use Nailah for combat any more than I already have, but I really need this ledge cleared, and she's more likely to do it than the Black Knight is (and besides, I want him doing his distraction thing up there). So she takes care of the guard.
Zihark follows and quickly takes care of this mage.
Meanwhile, on the stairs, Jill deals with the enemy fighter, but she's left with low health and poisoned. We should probably fix that.
Aran charges ahead and starts dealing with the knight at the top of the stairs.
As well as healing, Sacrifice also cures Jill's poison. It's a very useful skill!
We advance up the stairs, and…
More conversation.
(Volug says: "...Hey. You ever wonder what would happen if I just ate everyone we fought? Would the rest keep fighting?")
Say what you will about the support dialog generally; Volug's is great. He's probably the only character who shows more of his character in his support conversations than he does elsewhere. And in this game, that's saying something.
End turn.
This is the only thing of import that happens in the enemy phase; Zihark takes a bit of damage. Of course, with his Imbue, his survivability while away from healers is massively increased, but still, you don't want him to be taking too many hits like this. He is, after all, not a tanking class.
Now, did anyone notice the priest hanging around near the stairs to the left? He's going to be the centerpiece of Operation Make Fiona Not Terrible.
He's wielding a Physic staff - a new staff we'll find out about much later - and has a Heal staff going spare, which Sothe happily relieves him of since it's been a while since Sothe stole anything.
Then, we send in Nailah to Glare at him. The ~30% chance hits, and he is turned to stone for the rest of the mission.
While this is going on, Zihark murders a mage and Aran and Nolan take care of the last guard on the right stairs, everyone moves up and Rafiel gains a level;
Herons don't really have any need of any stats save for magic (which affects their Blessing skill), but they do have a use for levels, as we'll see. If your heron is seeing direct combat, chances are you've already failed the mission, since they have low HP and speed, but having more defense and resistance never hurts - especially since they can transform and thus double all of their stats. While transformed, Herons are actually somewhat survivable, and can actually tank against mages. Not that you should be doing that, but just saying.
We end turn.
"Oh, it's just an axe neatly splitting my spine in half. I'll walk it off."
This is more of a worry. If not for Imbue Zihark would be dead by now. We're cutting this closer than I'd like.
…aaaaaand of course some asshole reinforcements. We're not going to do these guys the courtesy of going to them; we're going to camp atop the stairs and ledges (and do a much better job than the enemy did) and let them kill themselves on us.
Zihark is now on sufficiently now health that he's now using the Brave Sword as a precaution.
To protect our low-health frontliners, we plant the Black Knight in a chokepoint...
…and everyone moves up along the ledge in perfect single file so as to avoid the pesky Longbow archer.
Enemy turn.
The two myrmidons on the stairs can't resist targeting the unarmed Black Knight. Then-
Ah, shit… it turns out the Longbowman isn't averse to jumping down to us after all, and of course he makes directly for Fiona. Well, time to rese-
-oh, thank God. Her support with Volug paid off, it seems.
But this is what I meant about Fiona being actually, objectively terrible - she joins you at such a low level that she can barely scratch the enemies in the first mission in which she's usable, sits out the mission after that, and doesn't come back until now, and her stats are so low that even a goddamn Longbow has a base ~75% chance of killing her in two successive hits. Save for feeding her all of your bonus EXP there is literally no way to have her not be a goddamn liability for the duration of her training. To make her viable, we have to resort to what is essentially a reimagining of Boss Abuse. Why couldn't they have had her join at a level somewhat on par with the rest of the Dawn Brigade?
(we might say the same of Meg, too, though Meg's sole saving grace is that her bases aren't bad for her level, and her problem is that her growths don't jive with her purpose)
Anyway. Our turn.
With Fiona safely not-dead, Jill quickly disposes of the archer. Or, at least, she tries to, and misses, and Nolan has to finish the job.
We recall the Black Knight and send Zihark to deal with the two myrmidons. He takes a beating, but don't worry, I double-checked the numbers and the other guy can't do enough damage to kill him.
(I've said it before, and it's kind of a truism at this point, but the defining awesome thing about Fire Emblem is that all the numbers are right there, above board, and you can browse them at your leisure at any time, and plan as far ahead (or not) as you care to. Because the system is so simple, you can easily check an enemy's offense against an ally's defense and establish the enemy's threat level without any need for in-depth mechanics guides, as opposed to SRPGs in the Final Fantasy vein, in which being able to see the enemy's attack power is of little use even before you account for all the random factors in each attack.)
Fiona and Sothe get healed and we end the turn.
It looks like the reinforcements are splitting up as we did - two are taking the stairs and two are climbing. Fine by me.
I like to think that Wind Edge "miss"es aren't the attack missing its target but rather the user failing to form the wind into a coherent blade and instead sending a strong but ultimately harmless gust at the enemy. It might explain the screenshot above.
In any case, our turn comes and Zihark promptly kills the Wind Edge guy. More importantly…
Operation Fiona begins in earnest.
What's going to happen is that Fiona is going to spend every spare turn we get (and a good deal of spare turns we give ourselves) beating this statue of a priest with her lance. Because the priest is petrified, he gets +10 defense, and because he still has his Physic staff equipped, he'll recover 20 HP each turn and thus remain alive to be beaten on some more. Because she's such a low level, she'll be getting 10-15 EXP a go, and with Rafiel's help she can double that. This training regime will continue until I say it can stop, which will be either when Fiona gains so many levels that she promotes, or when she caps two stats. Whichever comes first. One way or another, we are going to get Fiona on par with the rest of the team. Rafiel will also gain a lot of levels out of this, which is something.
We begin the preliminary stages of our next charge. Jill takes some potshots at the next priest (of which only one hits), and the Black Knight resumes his distraction routine.
We also prepare to receive our visitors from the south. Nolan equips his Hand Axe and stands in range of an enemy mage. End turn.
It's just like that guy from War Games said…
You can teach a computer anything except futility. The AI simply does not grasp that attacking up a ledge against someone who can counter back down is a really bad idea.
A soldier attacks the Black Knight, but no other enemies are in ra-
-WHAT THE SHITFUCK-
-where the hell did that come from?
Not only that, we're also being attacked from behind again.
Oh, you sly motherfucker.
Each school of magic has one tome like this, characterized by
a) Insane range
b) Moderate power and
c) Being heavy as fuck and thus statistically guaranteed to never double anything ever
Having so much range allows the AI to freely choose between a large number of targets at once, and, of course, it's most likely to pick the ones to which it is most likely to do the most damage. Basically, you want to kill these guys quickly. We'll come up with a plan for that in just a second, but first;
The intruders. Nolan is quite able to guard the staircase from the southern guys, so the guys actually on our floor take priority. Unfortunately, this one also poisons Nolan, which kinda nullifies his Renewal skill. Despite 50% odds, Aran deals a crippling blow to the other guy.
We dispatch Nailah to deal with the Meteor guy. We can't kill him this turn, so someone - probably Jill - is going to take another hit.
Coming within a certain distance of Jarod also triggers three more guys to show up to the north. Splendid.
Idea! We retreat Jill from Meteor-range and send the Black Knight to stand there instead. He also takes this opportunity to deal with this soldier who might jump down and double Fiona. He drops a Chest Key. You might also notice that Sothe has jumped up and is nearing the next set of chests. On this note, we end the turn.
A Hand Axe and an Elwind spell come flying at Nolan to only slight effect; the mage was forced to attack at melee range and was consequently killed.
Laura is attacked from below; but due to her resistance she can actually take magic hits, so she's fine. Aran is attacked by the soldier he weakened, but the odds don't work out this time round and he not only misses but gets poisoned for his trouble.
Up north;
I never ceased to be amazed by the fact that the AI thinks that this is a worthwhile idea. Four soldiers in all attack her, and Meteor guy also chooses her as his target.
Our turn, and Nailah promptly avenges herself. Sothe moves for the next chest.
Score! Speedwings are, shockingly, the stat-up item for speed.
Jill has another shot at the priest. Note that his Physic staff has a 13% crit chance. It's just… why? Annoyingly, she still can't quite finish him.
Over in the rear guard, everyone's shuffling around. Micaiah takes care of the guy who was fighting Aran, Aran takes care of the guy fighting Nolan, and Nolan deals with the guy who attacked Laura. Micaiah and Nolan kill their marks, Aran merely gets in the way of his. Also;
Lovely.
Enemy turn. The usual useless barrage of attacks against Nailah continues, and-
-ah, damnit, another Longbowman. You're now on my list, mate. The one remaining soldier from the earlier reinforcements continues trying to kill Aran, which works about as well as you'd expect it to.
When our turn rolls around again, Micaiah heals Aran back up to full and Aran decides he's sick of this soldier's bullshit.
In the course of healing Nolan, Laura gets the biggest waste of a good level-up I've seen.
At the same time, Operation Fiona is beginning to bear fruit!
More loot! Unlock is a staff that allows the wielder to open doors and chests as though they were a thief (or had a key). It has two other uses; it provides +3 Spd and +1 Def when equipped, so there's that, or, more usefully, you can sell it. Your call.
Shockingly, Zihark manages to activate Cancel in a situation where it isn't redundant! Jill finally manages to kill that goddamn priest, and…
…gets a mediocre level.
The Black Knight and Zihark team up to see what can't be done about the glut of enemies above. Turn ends.
An enemy knight obliges and jumps down. Once we murder him, there'll be a gap to charge through. Shockingly little else happens.
Nailah runs to deal with this guy because I suspect he may be able to murder Sothe.
Zihark gets right onto opening that gap, though he can't quite finish the knight and his skills don't activate. Fortunately, Nolan comes to help.
This is a shockingly good idea.
What I'm going for with Nolan and Zihark is a pair of high damage yet highly survivable and independent units (that is, they're dependent on eachother for the massive evasion bonus but otherwise can operate outside the main group). Both of them have self-healing skills, which will only become more potent as the game progresses, meaning that they can evade most hits and recover from any that do get through. I have high hopes for these two.
In any case, Nolan gladly dispatches the knight with a thrown axe. The Black Knight stays put. End turn.
Even with a ledge advantage, this archer can't hit Zihark. God, I love Earth Pairs.
Y'know, if the enemy bothered to charge us we'd be lucky to survive. As it is, they just sit there and do nothing with their turns. As they do now.
"I get the impression you're being a little bit interpretive with the teachings there."
"Well… why do you think it is that priests can counterattack now?"
"…your 'goddess' probably finds it funny to watch priests try to inflict damage with 2 strength and 0 Mt weapons. As do I."
The ledge is crowded again, so the Black Knight does what he can to open the gap.
Nolan charges into the breach… and misses one of his attacks, infuriating me.
Nolan really needs some points in skill. Well, that's all we can do with this turn.
On the enemy turn, the archer once again fails to touch Zihark, but...
Nolan is taking a worrying amount of beating. Fortunately…
He is able to dodge what would have otherwise have been a fatal hit. See; earlier sentiment about cutting this closer than I'd like. Note also that without that Earth support this would've been a 90% chance to die. Aren't you glad we're favouring Zihark instead of Edward?
Our turn. Nolan retreats to heal and Zihark ascends the ledge instead. His first action is to dispose of that pesky archer. His second action…
…is to gain an astoundingly good level. We plant the Black Knight next to him to stop more enemies from jumping down.
Sothe's pockets are getting full, so he hands off his loot to Volug.
We're going to ponderously make our way towards Jarod now. We could have people climb up the ledge (where Zihark is now), or have Sothe open this door, but it's easier just to have Nailah beat it down instead. Turn ends.
Another spectacular play by the AI. The gist of this turn is, a lot of people attack Zihark and the ones that don't die in the attempt all miss.
Back on our turn, Operation Fiona continues! HP, strength, speed, defense; everything a Fiona needs to not fail at everything. No, but seriously, a few more of these kinds of levels - even amongst some crap ones - and I'll be very happy.
Rafiel too! He's almost survivable!
Since Nolan's dealing with knights, he breaks out the Hammer. Everyone loves the Hammer. He and Zihark murder a guy each, and the northwest is free of enemies. The Black Knight wanders into the vicinity of Jarod, and we end turn.
The resulting nothing confirms that both Jarod and the mages flanking him will remain rooted in place until removed by murder. Fine by me.
We move up. Aran and the Black Knight will deal with the enemies on the right.
The three enemies up there all go after Aran - one at melee range, missing, and two with Javelins, dealing one damage each. Aran has come far in his tanking ability.
By
Aside from his "ready" pose, it's much the same as it is with a sword; he winds up and then hits 'em with it. Really, really, hard.
Aran can also hit people with lances.
Silver weapons, as a rule, look really, really good. Also, halberdiers have really flashy animations and poses. It's a combination that works really, really well.
Another very Aran level.
The third guy is disposed of by Nolan and Zihark, the former once again missing one of his hits.
Well, we've stalled and generally taken our time, but if we want Operation Fiona to continue, this is where it gets ridiculous. Fortunately, you guys don't have to sit through it like I did.
The following takes place over… several turns.
Parity is… well, not that great a skill, except in a few needlessly specific conditions. It allows you to initiate combat with one opponent where neither you or they get any benefits from terrain, skills, supports, affinities or authority bonuses. The problem is, nine times out of ten, this will hurt you more than them. It could be worthwhile against the odd boss, however.
Hell yeah. Vantage is a skill that grants a unit a [speed stat]% chance of attacking first when attacked by an enemy. On its own, it's not so useful unless the guy attacking is susceptible to a one-hit kill, but when you combine it with other skills, or with Brave weapons… it produces results. I can imagine this going straight to Zihark and never looking back. We'll see, though.
Damn.
While we wait, let's do something about these mages.
That's better.
We'll also see what Jarod has to say to the Black Knight now that we've beaten a path to his door.
*sigh*
A thing about laguz units; since they don't promote, and thus can't do things like double their skill point capacity when they promote. So instead, they just gain additional capacity when they reach certain levels. This is why Nailah has 100 skill points. The more you know!
What inspired you to slooooowly clank your way up out of your grave?
My purpose is not for you to know. Oh. I feel so rejected. Must I crack that helm open and ask your ugly, naked face directly!? I have to take vengeance for Alder's death, after all! This is how you meet your death? Sad. Come at me, then, and join your friend.
As another side effect of having reached Lv 15, Rafiel has learned a new Galdr. Bliss instantly raises the biorhythm of adjacent allies to "Best". It's pretty nifty… except that using it requires you to not use Vigor, and why the hell would you not use Vigor? But that's not the best part…
The best part is that he also learns Sorrow at the same time. Sorrow will lower an enemy's biorhythm to "Worst". Why you would ever use this is completely beyond me; it's not only that you're using an offensive option whose sole effect is to reduce hit and evasion by 10-20% or even the fact that, again, you have to not use Vigor to use this, but more the fact that you necessarily have to bring your Heron to the front lines in order to use it, you stupid fool. Seriously. Why does this ability exist? Is there ever any justifiable reason to use it? Even in theory?
More Jarod chatter:
That face...I remember you. The kid who's always with that little wench.
Sothe, of the Dawn Brigade. The Dawn Brigade, hm? Oh, how I despise your ilk. The thought of draining the life from your body... It makes me tingle all over. Ditto.
Continuing on with… wow. That's pretty good.
Can always use more of these in later chapters. Concoctions are like Vulneraries except they heal 40 HP instead of 20. Pretty useful.
The Black Knight rescues Sothe so he doesn't get murdered by Jarod.
Fiona, meanwhile, is now strong enough to damage the priest statue using a Bronze Lance! Good thing, too, her Steel one is almost broken.
Pretty good.
Less good. But it's a Heron so who cares.
Here's what Jarod says to Nailah and Volug:
You're one, aren't you? One of those odd sub-humans that witch brought... You'll make a nice rug!(anyone care as to enlighten as to what the hell he's talking about? I don't remember any witch…)
Jesus. Have you guys been sacrificing in my name? You guys LPing other Fire Emblem games experiencing unusually bad luck?
Fiona is also now fast enough to double the statue, so we're burning through these lances with quite some efficiency.
The guys up top are getting bored. Micaiah and the Black Knight start chatting.
Pardon, Sir Knight. I wanted to thank you. Thank you for fighting beside us. No thanks are needed. I do nothing more than fulfill my duty. When our fighting is done...will you remain in Daein? ... Never mind. It's none of my business. It's only... If you were here with us, we could take heart in-- I may...take leave of Daein. Oh! But why? More than this, I cannot say. Forgive me.
Well, that's Resistance capped.
Everything a Heron doesn't need.
Maiden, take no risks upon yourself. You are the heart of this army, the soul that inspires us. We must not lose you. Leave this battle to me, and stay back. Thank you for your concern, Sir Knight. But I am going to fight. You and everyone else are putting your lives on the line. I will not shirk my duty. You...are much...like her. What? ...Nothing. ..."…" is correct. What's this about?
…aaaand that's speed and resistance capped. Well, this has certainly been a fun thirty or so turns. Let's give Jarod a hand for being such a great spectator. He's just sat there this whole time with nothing to do but throw Short Spears at the Black Knight. Well, let's give him the death he's so eager for.
So it's you...little girl. General Jarod, the battle is over. Surely you can see it. You never believed Daein could do it, did you? But here you stand, broken, defeated by my countrymen and friends. Have I really, I wonder? Didn't I tell you? With you dead, there is no "Liberation Army." This is my golden opportunity... One blow is all it takes to turn defeat to victory. Such a lovely thought. I will not lose to you. More importantly, the people of Daein will not lose to you!
On the way up, Rafiel gets another level.
Zihark begins the proceedings.
Before I die, I will see each of you dead before me.Spoiler: He won't.
Well, I think we all know there's only one way we can justify ending this mission after all the crap we've just sat through:
GO FIONA!
She misses.
The short version of what happens after this is, we spend another three turns trying to get someone to harm Jarod. The guy has an insane lucky streak, and he's standing on an objective, which allows him to recover HP each turn, so every turn we can't get people to damage him he recovers a little more. Now I know how Nailah made all those guys feel.
Nolan eventually manages to leave the guy on 9 HP.
Let's try this again.
GO FIONA!
Yeeeeeeaaah!
……one more attack on the priest statue would've done it…
Gh-ghuahh... I am...sorry for nothing. I regret...nothing. Because I did it my way... You win, Priestess. You must be delighted. Enjoy it while you can... Because...sooner or later...you...
We are so finished with this mission.
I didn't do it alone. We did it--everyone fighting together.
Well, you didn't hurt the effort! I'd hazard a guess that Daein's reconstruction would have only been a dream without you. I regret I have no other way to show my gratitude, but... I want to officially name you Supreme Commander of the armies of Daein. ...I see. And I accept. It is with great honor that I assume this office. This battle may be over, but the fight to return Daein to its former glory will take time and effort. If my support can be of service, then I am honored to assist. I'm glad. Well then, I'll perform the simple ceremony... Will you kneel? In the name of the king of Daein, I dub thee, Micaiah, Supreme Commander of Daein and grant thee the authority and responsibility pertaining thereto.
Sweet! Is that +3 defense? I think that's +3 defense.
You wear it well. Won't you join me, as I champion Daein to a great new era? I'm counting on you.
I will.---
---
Nothing I can say will convince you to break bread with Lord Izuka?
Well, there is that. But honestly... If we stick around too long, the soldiers are gonna start giving us dirty looks. It's kind of awkward. What do you mean? Most Daeins still loathe laguz. Getting rid of that hatred... Let's just say you have your work cut out for you. Look, we don't want to ruin everyone's party. It's been great, but we'll just quietly slip away. That's terrible! I can't believe I never noticed. Tormod, I'm so sorry. Ah! Don't cry! I hate it when girls cry! Um...take care of yourselves. It's, you know, good...that you came to help us. So...um... Thanks. Whoa! You're thanking me? Better get ahold of yourself, Sothe. You're gonna make ME get all weepy. You little...---
I just want to thank you. Thank you for not telling anyone about my brand.
No thanks are needed. It's rude of me to ask, but do you know anything about the circumstances of your birth? No. I know nothing of my parents. But just before she died, the old woman who raised me told me what the brand was and what it meant.
And so, I am anathema to both. She told me never to let anyone see it, and to be always on my guard. Wise advice... I've avoided people most of my life to conceal my brand...and my powers. But there's no way to hide how very slowly I age. I just keep moving through Daein. The same holds true now... I won't be able to stay in this army long. Even so... As long as little Sothe is by your side, I think that you can overcome any difficulty. Yes... Just as you have Tormod. Yes.
Muarim, Boss, I know you don't want to go, but at this rate, we'll be standing here all night. Vika! My thanks go to you too. Sothe and I will visit you in the desert. I'll be there...but I won't be waiting. Waiting for people who never come is...hard. Vika, I said I'll come, and I will. ...OK, then.
What? Aren't you going to Gallia? Yeah. We're taking them. C'mon, neither of you can leave Daein for a little while, right? Don't worry, we can handle it.
Once the battle ended, it seemed time to move on. I'm sorry to change our plans, but this is better for all of us. That's awful... I can't believe you're all leaving us at once.
Micaiah... Fate brought us together, you and I, guided by the same voice. Our paths are fated to cross again someday... I am sure of it.
…
Sothe, we freed our country from tyranny together. But it's not over yet. We'll have to work hard for a long time to return Daein to its former grandeur. I know it won't be easy, but if I have you two with me, I know we can do it.
Coming up n- oh, wait, I don't even need to write my own one of these, the game has one already made for us!
While Daein celebrates its rebirth, rebellion spreads across neighboring Crimea.
The young queen, Elincia, holds the throne, but her nation is in turmoil.
She begins to doubt her ability to rule. What will become of her country?
Part Two: Of Countries and Kings…
