Part 40: (Part Three, Chapter 10) In which Elincia gains our respect and then makes us hate her just one turn later

The Begnion Central Army crosses the border once more, but Crimea makes no move to march against it. Valtome sees this inaction as a sign of Crimea's capitulation to Begnion's demands.





The news that Gallia's ally, Crimea, has allowed Begnion to travel through its lands comes as a great blow to the Laguz Alliance.





According to our scouts, the enemy has split into two forces. One is east of the Ertz Mountains. The other is approaching from the north, by crossing through Crimea.

So, they plan on flanking Gallia from the north and east. If we don't stop them, this is gonna hurt.



At last, we meet Caineghis, the Lion King of Gallia. He is awesome. Just look at him.

From what the scouts have said, nothing at all. I'm guessing they're waiting to see how everything pans out.

---

Crimea let Begnion pass without a fight?! What about their alliance with Gallia?



A suza-what? Someone explain to me what that means.

Hmm, how can I explain... All right, how's this? Begnion still holds political power over countries that won independence from them. Anything you want to add, Ike?



No argument here.

Never mind what it means. Has Crimea broken its treaty with us?

Not...as such. I didn't say it was right, just that it was complicated...

It's not complicated at all! Crimea has betrayed Gallia! We cannot let this pass! How da--

Control yourself, Skrimir. You're acting like a fool.



I doubt that Crimea has sided with Begnion. Queen Elincia is very clever, and I will not stop trusting her judgment just yet. She most likely allowed the Imperial Army to pass through her lands in order to avoid a slaughter.



Oh, this is where you've been hiding.

...wonder what they've done with Tormod and co?

She is a delightful woman, both in manner and in reign. Her late father, King Ramon, and I forged an alliance between beorc and laguz. We sought to bring our peoples closer. She has taken her father's ideals as her own and strives to create a country where anyone, beorc or laguz, can live free and in peace.

How times have changed... I never could have dreamed of a time where such a beorc ruler would exist. I must admit, I still have doubts.



It's like a big reunion!

As you can see, both Leanne and I have many beorc friends. Queen Elincia of Crimea is one of them.

Both the king and Reyson speak well of this woman! Is she truly so special?

She truly is. But right now, that's beside the point. The most important thing is, Elincia will never betray her allies in Gallia.



All right. Let's assume for now that Crimea will not aid the empire in any military fashion during this conflict. Hawk King, let's hear your thoughts.

Well, if Crimea won't make a move, then I see no reason to wait until the empire reaches Gallia. I'd prefer to take an army up north and end this mess for good.

Very well. Ike, do the Greil Mercenaries have anything to add?



I'm pretty sure that General Zelgius will be there, though. We'd better be careful.

Very well. Hawk King, may I ask that your forces protect the eastern border? While they do that, I would like you to lead our strike force to the northern border. Take Ranulf with you, as well.

Send me too, Your Majesty! Please, let me reclaim my honor! I beg you.

I second that, Your Majesty. Skrimir is perfect for this mission.

Ranulf?

...Very well. Will you look after him, Hawk King?



Hmph. He's all yours, then. Now, everyone. Prepare to leave before daybreak. We are all depending on you.



Well then.

There's only one conversation to do here:



This is Giffca, the Lion King's Shadow. He's... well, we don't really know much about him other than that he kicks all kinds of ass in battle.

Giffca. Apologies for worrying you.

You persevered through many difficult battles. We are glad to have you back in one piece.

Each and every soldier in the army helped me. I couldn't do anything by myself. Alone, I was powerless.

That's good. If that's what you learned from this campaign, then it wasn't a wasted effort for Gallia. Good work, Ranulf.

Thank you, sir.

Skrimir, come here. I have something from the king.

What is this?

It's a satori sign. It is said to bring out the hidden power of the laguz.

Amazing!

Here, it's yours.

Ranulf. You should take it.

What? Why? The king said it was for you!

Yes, but you've been looking after me. It's... a sign of my appreciation.

Skrimir...

Very well. Ranulf. This is yours to keep.

A-all right. Thank you, sir.

Skrimir, you reply to his thanks.

Um, yes. You're welcome. I am grateful for your continued support.

Of course, General.

[Received a Satori Sign!]

That's cool, I guess? I'll just stick this in the pile with the others.

Well, I guess I'd better come clean about what these things do. Since laguz units don't promote like beorc do, there's no obvious manner for them to learn their various mastery skills. So instead of promotion items like Master Crowns, laguz get Satori Signs, which will teach the appropriate mastery skill to any laguz of Lv 30 or greater who uses it. Of course, training laguz is quite difficult, and on top of that, every laguz who joins you already at Lv 30 invariably already has their mastery skill. So, yeah. It's entirely feasible for players to go the entire game and never use these. It's a damn shame you can't sell them, because there are just so many of the damn things kicking around...



Why Aimee doesn't just stock Olivi Grass as a regular item is completely beyond me. Stop crowding out the damn bargains!



This is Nephenee's last bonus level and it is glorious. She's now capped everything except strength and luck.



Sure, whatever.



Just lovely.



Yes, yes, yes! One more point of strength and we can do this thing without wasting any items!



Oh, sod it. We have no Master Crowns and I'm an impatient man, and this way Soren will get a ton of unnecessary defence too.

Summary:

HP +3
Str +1 (cap!)
Lck +3
Def +2

Oh, and,









Very swish. I like the way the tome clips through his sleeves. Very classy.



Third tier promotion gains vary only according to type (i.e. magical or physical units) and very slightly according to gender (female units always get 1 additional point of strength and defence over male units). In general, units will get +2 to everything except luck, constitution and move, and +4 in strength and defence for magical units, and magic and resistance for physical units.

Related; Soren now has 19 strength. This is not a fact without implicit benefits.



Arch Sages get Flare as their mastery skill. It doesn't boost power - though it does nullify enemy resistance, representing a nice increase in damage - but more importantly, it allows the user to heal themselves according to damage dealt. Very handy. Its activation rate is [skill]%.

Also, Arch Sages get to use staves and begin at rank E - so, just Heal then. That said, with such high magic, Heal will be obscenely handy to have as a backup.



Our spare Wildheart scroll goes to Ulki. The two things you have to remember about Wildheart are (contrary to everything you learned from Volug):

1) You can use it to Halfshift whenever you want, or not use it and transform regularly
2) When you use it, you are boosted to full TP, but will lose it all when you revert

This makes Wildheart situationally quite handy.



Why the hell not? Rolf likes hiding behind other units, and Reyson likes hiding further back still, and Rolf gets a stat boost he actually has a use for.



Leftovers. The problem with Radiant Dawn's support system is that you can't mix and match supports with multiple characters; it's mutually exclusive pairs or GTFO.



Nothing better to do with these two. +10 avoid is nice, but... well, we're not going to be getting much use out of this support on this map, let's just say.



Let's-a-go.

---







A beorc army is approaching from the hill to the left! That flag... It's the Crimean army!





Very good question. Alternatively; what is she thinking? Alternatively, is she thinking?



Took them long enough. I suppose when you have the brain of a gnat, these things take some time to sink in.

I am Queen Elincia of Crimea. I have a message for the commanders of both armies! I am here to declare the will of Crimea and its people! Crimea has been ruled under the ideals of peace and equality since the reign of my father, King Ramon. As such, I cannot and will not allow you to spill blood upon our land! Therefore...

I demand that both the Laguz Alliance and the Imperial Army leave Crimea at once!

Withdraw our troops?! You foolish girl! We will not be ordered about by the proclamations of a peasant like you! Puppet rulers such as yourself should stay inside their pretty castles and play dress-up. Begnion's patience has worn out. After we finish slaughtering the sub-humans, we'll be coming for you in Melior.

Commander of the Laguz Alliance. How do you respond?

...You have some serious guts, jumping into the middle of a battlefield all by yourself. But your high-and-mighty beliefs don't change the fact that Begnion must answer for its crimes. Step aside.

...Very well. I've heard from both commanders. Then--



Oh, no... no, no no!



We will not use force. But we are willing to do whatever it takes to end this here and now.

What?! Have you lost your mind?

Heh...

...

...Ha... Hahahahaha! Ike, I thought you were the craziest beorc I'd ever met, but you have some serious competition! Crimea's queen is one tough woman... Your Majesty, I like your style! Skrimir! I can't let such a pretty woman down. Let's get out of here.

Of course. The beast tribe will not use our claws against unarmed beorc. Soldiers, back to the forest!

Thank you, King Tibarn.

This is only temporary. The war between the Laguz Alliance and Begnion isn't finished yet.

Yes, I understand that. Even so, I want you all to know where Crimea stands in this.

...Hey, you and I should get together and chat sometime. I'll be seeing you again soon.

Is Tibarn hitting on Elincia? Riiight.



No. We will withdraw.

Are you certain, General?

Could you cast aside your weapon while surrounded by armed soldiers?

I don't know, sir... No, probably not.

Queen Elincia has done something that even I would be hard pressed to do. For that, we must show our respect.



Please forgive my audacity. However, we are withdrawing. Every battle ebbs and flows. To go against these tides is unwise. Please understand, Senator.

You self-righteous fool... You'll understand something else, once we're through with this battle.



It has been a long time since we last saw Queen Elincia. We should at least say hello.

Sure, sounds great to me. There's probably not much time for small talk, but we'll see.



You see, Elincia?! Do you see what happens when you try and play the honour game with Begnion Senators?

Whoa, this isn't good! The Imperial Army is on the move. They're after Queen Elincia!

So much for imperial honor. Greil Mercenaries! Looks like we have our old job back! Protect Queen Elincia!

Tch! I knew it! Follow me, my knights! We shall protect Her Majesty!

Kill every living thing that stands in our way! Show them that I--no, the senate--controls this pathetic land!

Of course, Senator Valtome! I'd be happy to kill the wench.

Say it with me, children.

Begnion Senators. Assholes.



This mission appears, at first glance, to be a simple, straightforward, Fire Emblem High Level Unit Parading Combat Clusterfuck™. Don't be fooled! It certainly is a clusterfuck, but not in a good way.

See the green army in the top left? Those are the Crimean Knights. They're as competent as they were when we left them last, and are accompanied by generics who can fairly fight when they want to. Of course, they have no regard at all for the sanctity of the precious gear you left them with; Calill's first two actions will doubtless be to waste the two remaining uses of her Meteor tome, and Marcia will gleefully waste her Brave Lance against targets she could kill with a Steel Lance (though at least she'll most frequently default to her Short Spear, but those don't exactly grow on trees either). But enough about them. They're just a minor annoyance.

See that green unit in the middle there? That's Elincia. Elincia, who only moments ago, threw down her sword and then forgot to pick it up when the fighting started. She's unarmed for this mission, and while the rest of the Crimean Knights will retreat when they "die", Elincia's death results in an instant Game Over. So she's gonna retreat, right? I mean, the core of the enemy army is a group of about six archers, including the boss in the very top right. She won't go anywhere near them, right?

...right?

Welcome to Chapter 10, folks.



At the very least, this chapter has really awesome music. This isn't the first time this music has been the BGM for a mission - it's been around for a few chapters now - but this seems as good a time as any to showcase it. This theme was also included in Super Smash Bros. Brawl as "Ike's Theme", which is kinda sorta appropriate but not really.



Only potential nasty surprise is this guy here, who has a Purge tome - the long range light spell. It's not very powerful, but some of our guys are characteristically lacking in resistance...



Well, let's get this over with as quickly as possible.



The adventures of backfiring generic dialog continue.



Here's the plan. Haar and Gatrie are going to wander into the middle of the battlefield (near Elincia). Gatrie is going to unequip his weapon and lure as many enemies as possible into the middle - to stall the Royal Knights. They, along with Elincia, will charge at the nearest enemies, and when the middle is clear, they'll all (Elincia included) charge the boss. If that happens, we're fucked. Therefore, Gatrie will try to slow them down. Meanwhile, Haar will pre-emptively charge the enemy and assassinate any and all archers, so that if Elincia does fly too close, at least she won't get one-shotted.

Meanwhile, everyone else is going to charge south, clearing out the units down there and attempting to at least get to the boss as or before Elincia does. If all goes well, we should just be wrapping up our rout by the time she arrives.



Haar picks Gatrie up, and, using a Reyson provided second turn, carts him to the middle of the map.



With some help from Rolf and Soren, we punch through and await the inevitable glut of paladins and generals. End of turn 1.



The enemy immediately gets to work on Elincia. Fortunately, only this one hits.



Mistifyingly, a few enemies ignore Gatrie and go for Haar.



A couple of paladins ride up and have a go at Rolf.



Of course, he's Rolf, so they both miss.



There is generally much charging in our direction.



Well, that's one more use of Meteor left. Silly AI. The Crimeans generally tear up some enemies, though only a little. It usually takes three of four of them to kill an enemy.



They have two priests with them, of which one apparently has no survival instincts.

---

General Zelgius! Senator Valtome is about to run down the queen of Crimea!



The Crimean army and a part of the Laguz Alliance have joined battle in order to rescue the queen. They are fighting Senator Valtome. Shall we assist the senator?

Prepare to leave. We are not fighting.

But, General... That would mean that we abandoned Duke Culbert's force...

I will take all responsibility for this. Make my command clear to all of the men. I will not accept more units joining this fight!

Glad someone's trying to keep the assholes in check.



Back to murder.



And back to great Blossom-fueled levels! I don't care if I have to force feed one of these per chapter to Oscar; we are compensating for all those goddamn luck/resistance levels earlier. He's also capped skill now, and is close to speed and resistance. One more good level like this and some BEXP and we'll be onto something.



While the bulk of our forces smash through the south, Haar stops briefly to murder a guy before heading off for his mission.



End of turn 2.



Again, two guys attack Elincia, though only one of them hits.



The idiot priest who doesn't understand the concept of "long range healing" is Crimea's first  and only  casualty this battle.



Some guys go for Gatrie too.



He's even able to draw in some cavaliers from the east. This is good. More fodder for Crimea.



A few geniuses try to attack Ike.



It ends poorly.



The four (!) priests over here will mean annoyance if we can't break through in one round.

...oh, what am I saying. We have Rolf, Mia, Ike, Soren and maybe Ulki if he halfshifts.



Purge is, if nothing else, flashy. It also hurts Ike because Ike's resistance is kinda like a big weak point for him.



For their part, the Crimeans kill a few guys, but not without WASTING MY GODDAMN BRAVE LANCE USES goddamnit Marcia...



Two generics ride ahead to try and deal with the guys near Gatrie. Both miss. This is actually to our advantage - we're trying to stall them, remember? The Crimeans are, for the most part, survivable but weak; which is brilliant, as far as we're concerned.



Some reinforcements try to flank us. Given the people attending our flank right now, I don't think this is a problem. Anyway, this makes it our turn again.



Heather is about able to survive a few priests casting light magic at her, so she goes around pinching their stuff instead. Mend staves will go in our stockpile, and if she steals any Ellight tomes, those can be sold for reasonable profit.



Soren crush puny mind.



We need some quick mobile damage output, so we Halfshift Ulki. Ulki's offence and defence won't be all that brilliant, but he can still dodge, and he still has his arbitrary +20 avoid. Also, he's going after the priests.



Priests don't require much strength to kill.



I know I mention every damn time he does something how unreasonably powerful Rolf has gotten, but... damn, Rolf has gotten unreasonably powerful.



Let's give our trueblade a chance to show off. Biorhythm is quite important for trueblades, since Astrum's activation rate is so low (especially pre-skill-cap) that you need all the help you can get to maximise the amount of activ-



Nevermind.



Astrum has its own startup pose.







...aaand of course the fatal hit is a disarm.

It's a shame that you'll basically never see the full Astrum combo unless you're deliberately using a very weak weapon against a very hardy opponent - there's basically nothing in the game that can survive five straight-up hits from a trueblade  and doesn't have Nihil  - because it's quite a showy combo animation. It has a backflip and everything.



If Rolf is the king of unnecessary crits, Nephenee is certainly the queen. She gets extra kudos for her habit of managing to trigger said crits on very long odds - Rolf frequently has 10-15%, while Nephenee makes do with just 2-3%.



Good thing we have a spare! Why are they still calling it "the" Ettard?



Nephenee gets a second turn and uses it well.



Before Haar can get to any of the archers, he has to get through this line. All the enemies over here are amazingly stoic; they just stay put until you get right next to them, then they suddenly spring into action. The line of generals here won't budge even as we slaughter one of them.



End of turn 3.



Thanks to the magic of Canto, eight enemies attack Gatrie. Five of them miss or deal no damage, three deal 2 damage each.



Heather gets to dodging.



Light magic is a bit harder to dodge (given that its whole thing is being very accurate) but not very damaging (given that its whole thing is being not very damaging).



Of course, Heather dodges some of it anyway. Note, by the way, that she's employing a different dodge animation here; she's ducking away from the spell rather than backflipping. One of those little curiosities, I guess.



Shine man goes after Ranulf.



They just never learn, do they?



The Royal Knights deal with the last guy in their vicinity, and otherwise stay put. This means we're officially running out of time; next turn they're going to start charging, and it's down to Gatrie and his pet enemies to stall them while we deal with the boss and the archers.



Reyson takes some Olivi Grass. We'll want him at full chanting efficiency for the next few turns.



Rolf finally gets a dud level up. I guess it had to happen eventually.



I had hoped to convince Purge-man to try and attack Heather with Ellight, but he just had to go after Ranulf. So now we steal his Ellight tome instead. It's good money, I suppose, and it is unused.



Also, we Ike him.







Staves are a very useful qualification for archsages like Soren here to have. Their already high magic means that even with a lowly heal staff they can restore hells of HP, and given how quickly you can get from E to C rank in staves, especially with Discipline equipped, you can get them flinging Physics around in no time. Soren's endgame utility is a little dependant on luck, but if you've got him Physicing as a backup, he goes from merely OK to unquestionably useful.



Haar finally gets to kill an archer. Gatrie is also moving to try and draw out some of the enemies here. They'll either go for him or kill themselves on Haar. Either is just fine.



End of turn 4.



The next few actions are basically this, over and over again.



Eventually, so many enemies crowd around Gatrie that the remainder go for Haar.



This plan doesn't go as well for them as it could have.



Dragonlord stun is exactly the same as the pegasus version, complete with too-fast-to-screncap movement, but it looks a lot more badass due to the whole roaring animation thing they have going.



Haar gets a little more invincible.



The easternmost group of paladins moves on Gatrie. One of them has a Killing Edge, so we should watch out for them.

Meanwhile, down south, someone reckons he can smack Soren around. Only a mage, right? Easy target, right?



Wrong.





To drive this point home, Soren bats him with his healing staff until he goes away.

You have now witnessed a mage dealing damage with a stave.



The Crimeans charge blindly at the central foes. Note that Elincia is completely exposed at the edge of their formation, and there are archers about.



Some quick pilfering, and now it's time to make our move.



Haar continues assassinating behind enemy lines. He also positions himself next to the two generals, hoping to get them to attack him.



After charging right on ahead, Reyson chants to Ike, Mia, Soren and Nephenee. Pictured: the situation before...



And after. Oh, and...



I don't even care anymore. Note that this means Ike will be mostly hanging back now - he can't promote until later, so any EXP he gets will be wasted until then.

Anyway, that was turn 5.



The traditional round of nothing happening to Gatrie follows.



I think the irony of this is lost on him.



Sadly, the Crimeans do quite well this turn. There's no one left between them and the last group of enemies. We'd better get a move on...

Our turn.



Another archer goes down. Each one felled represents an exponential increase in our chances of not failing the mission.



Reyson is an immense help in the covering of ground.



Of course, Soren doesn't need to use thunder magic to waste dracoknights, but using effective weapons for mega-overkill is always nice and cathartic.



See what I mean about Nephenee and crits?



Ike and Nephenee will form a little wall to stop enemies from getting too close to us, and everyone else will help mop up leftovers. Ike and Nephenee will be able to reach the enemy on their own next turn, and anyone else who wants to can get some extra movement off Reyson.



Picuted: Gatrie shrugging off five turns of being continuously attacked by enemies. His wall operation will hopefully put some more troops in between Elincia and the boss.



End of turn 6.



This guy deals respectable damage to Gatrie. But that's about the only thing that happens. The other enemies all stay put.



Goddamn Elincia flies right up to the enemy. Stupid fool. The rest of the army crowd around her, so that's something, at least. We'll have to pull out all the stops this turn...



Janaff and Ulki doubleteam the remaining dracoknight.



Soren blows away the last remaining generic archer...



...and it looks like they've finally noticed us! Yes, Valtome has been standing just outside the battlefield this entire time.

Even our strike force cannot keep the enemy at bay! Please, you must escape!

I've been defeated? Me? By worthless rabble like this?! Ugh, blast that Zelgius! How dare he not assist me! I'll have his pompous head for this!



Coward.



Ike gets us started on the boss.



Mercenaries! You know how war works. You know that Begnion can pay--

Save your breath. The Greil Mercenaries choose our employers. All the wealth in the senate couldn't buy us. Lay down your bow and surrender.

What?! Wretched fool! You'll rot in the ground next to that treacherous girl.



Needless to say, he isn't as good at hurting Ike as Ike is at hurting him.



And here's Mia with the kill.

Fools! How dare you fight my master? He is Senator Valtome, duke of Culbert! Die in his name!

It's funny because someone's going to be dying in his name...



In traditional overkilltacular style.



With excess.



Yup.

You may notice, by the way, that Mia has 26% crit (after factoring enemy dodge) with just a regular Steel Blade. This is a trueblade thing. A Killing Edge can boost this to >50%. So, yeah.





He drops his bow. That's nice of him.



Now for the leftovers.



This was supposed to be the last two uses of the Green Giant, except Rolf decided to crit the guy instead, so now it's left at one use.



Oscar has a two-use-left Steel Greatlance which he breaks over the head of the last remaining guy...



And Haar takes the kill.



At the end of turn 7, only the enemy priest remains. I'd like to see Elincia get herself killed now.



Of course, he goes for Gatrie.

I'd really like him to survive this turn, because now Heather can pinch his Physic staff.



Of course, this would require the AI to not be a complete dick, and even in our complete and total victory, it's not going to pass up this final chance to screw us over.

Fuck you, AI.



Please. We could have done this even without Crimea's help.

Tell me about it. But we did get some good information out of all this. Now we know for certain that there are serious leadership problems in the Imperial Army. I'm glad General Zelgius was honorable enough to withdraw. If the full strength of the two armies had clashed, Elincia's effort would've been wasted.



Geoffrey. I'm really surprised you let Elincia do such a dangerous thing. You must be more relaxed these days.

It wasn't easy for me, as you could guess. But I can never really say no to Queen Elincia. What choice did we have, anyway?

You didn't have any, and you all did what needed to be done. I'm really impressed. Crimea's become quite strong.

Don't talk like such a stranger. The Greil Mercenaries are also from Crimea. You're part of that strength.

True. I'm very proud of my homeland.

Let's go see Her Majesty. You do have time to speak with her, right?

---



Meanwhile, in the enemy camp...



General Zelgius! Do you have anything to say? I would hear your pleas now.

...I am prepared to face the consequences of my actions.

Quite an admirable sentiment, General. Although I imagine you should have thought about the consequences before you abandoned your allies!









To execute a man of General Zelgius's caliber without a trial... It's madness! It's horrible!

Levail, are you questioning a senator? A senator holds the right to punish a prisoner however he sees fit! Oh, I'll make sure to tell our people that the general was cut down in battle after felling hundreds of sub-humans. That way, the people will not trouble themselves over details that they couldn't possibly understand.

You would bury the truth?! Do you think the apostle is as easily fooled by your lies?!

Oh, I sincerely doubt the apostle will ever get to hear them. ...All right, I've waited long enough. Your wait is over as well, Zelgius. Execute him!



Don't worry, Zelgius. I'll make sure that your lands are looked after. They'll be mine, of course. Uwee hee hee!



Well, fuck. He's actually gonna do it, isn't he?



...

...

...lessons from Radiant Dawn: if you're gonna hold an execution, sweep for archers.



Silence, Valtome! All soldiers loyal to Begnion are to stand down immediately!



You...! You're one of the Holy Guards!

The apostle will be here shortly! Soldiers, sheathe your weapons and kneel before the apostle!

What?! No... It's impossible!

Ah! It's her! There's no doubt about it!



Alright! Finally, the apostle is here to lay down the law!



*cheering*

I am here today to explain things, and to bring you news from home that is of the utmost importance. My soldiers, listen to me carefully. I never wished for this war. It was started by those who wanted me dead. It was spurred on by their desire to rule Begnion for themselves.



Everyone, act surprised!

The senate wished harm upon the apostle?!

No... Impossible! How can that be?

...Lies! She lies! Do not be tricked, proud soldiers of Begnion! She is not the true apostle!



Sigrun's here too, by the way.

N-no! This is a farce! You cannot trick us! You are using a fake apostle to disable the senate and take over Begnion! Men, we must act! That vile Sephiran is their leader! The fact that he's been put in chains is our proof!



How can anyone not love Zelgius?



One more syllable and I shall snap your neck, Valtome.





Thank you, General Zelgius. You and I have much to discuss.

*cheering*

Well. Things're looking up, aren't they?





The turn limit here is 10 turns. Good luck even lasting 10 turns without Elincia killing herself on an archer or something. And if you rush the enemy like you're supposed to, you'll also have most of the Crimeans survive, too, so that's another nice chunk. Even the "Other units' experience" bonus is a little bit substantial this time around.

Next time: Like returning characters from Path of Radiance? How about an entire returning chapter?