Part 45: (Part Three, Chapter 13) A cold Daein hell

It is all Apostle Sanaki can do to allay her remaining troops' burning desire for revenge.



However, she cannot move forward while danger follows at her back. This dilemma weighs heavily on the apostle's troops, crushing their morale.



Micaiah, unable to explain her mission to her soldiers, keeps Daein's army together through sheer force of will.







Yes. The empire has been thrown into chaos since General Zelgius freed Prime Minister Sephiran. They've incited the peasants by asking, "Who should you believe in? The senate, or the apostle?"

And the people have chosen the apostle, correct?

Yes. They're rioting in the capital day and night, demanding answers. The senate is busy trying to quell the masses.

This is great news! If we were to forge and alliance between Daein and the apostle's supporters in Begnion--

That is not a wise choice.



Defeating the senate doesn't guarantee the curse will be broken either. In fact, it may ensure it can never be broken. In which case, Daein's destruction will come more slowly, but it will come nonetheless.

So, we can't attack the senate, and we can't ask for help. The only thing we can do is search for a way to get rid of the curse. This is driving me crazy...

If we could only contact the apostle... But if the senate heard a word of it, they'd destroy us. Our hands are tied.



Where is Micaiah? Please bring her here.

You discovered how to break the blood pact?! I'll get her right away.

---



Oh, I don't like where this is going. Not one bit.

But, I am. Don't you see?! This is the way to save Daein! The information was in a book hidden away in a secret room. I think it is reliable.

I must ask you to reconsider, my king. There has to be another way. There must be!

We can't afford to wait for another solution to present itself. We have to try.



Micaiah, the life of every single person in Daein depends on this! If it works, we can stop fighting this absurd war. It will be all right. I know this will work! Please do this for me, Micaiah.

I can't! I thought I made up my mind... I thought I'd do anything for Daein! But then I saw Sothe taken from me, and I saw him fall... I was powerless to do anything! I'd taken so many lives as a general, and yet, when I thought of Sothe dead...

Even if it hadn't been Sothe in front of you, you would have reacted the same way. That's the kind of person you are.



If that life is someone dear, the burden is even worse. It's only human. Isn't that true?

Micaiah. It's your caring soul that I admire. That's why I want it to be you.



Welp, that's just great.

No, I can't! I can't do it! Don't make me do this, please!

"The blood pact breaks when the pact-maker is killed by a third party." That is exactly how it's written. This is the only way to save Daein.

Please! Please don't ask me to do such a horrible thing.

This is my duty as king, Micaiah! If you won't do it, I must ask someone else!

---

And suddenly, a popup appears! With choices!

Since this is pretty much the only chance we're going to get to do this, I'm going to show the outcomes of every possible choice (insofar as they differ), but we're actually only going to go with one option, of course.

The first option is to Obey his command.



Thank you, Micaiah.

General Tauroneo. Please look after the people of Daein.

Yes...Your Majesty.

Sothe. I'm sorry for all that I put you and Micaiah through, including this. Please forgive me.

Don't worry about that now, Pelleas.

Micaiah. Please give this ring to my mother. Tell her that I loved her dearly.

...I will, Your Majesty.

...



Of course, the game gives us a dramatic discretion whitescreen to spare us the horrific sight of Micaiah knifing Pelleas, despite the fact that we've seen (almost) literally the exact same thing happen, in cutscenes, with dramatic weight, several times before.





Pelleas! My dear Pelleas!

Who did this?! Who killed my son?! Was it you?! I know who it was... YOU! You killed my Pelleas!



It was an honorable end for a king. Thanks to his noble sacrifice, Daein has been saved.

Fools! Is that what you think?! Daein has not been saved!

Wh-what do you mean, my queen?!

Take a good look.





And from there we would head to the Base.

The alternative is to Pass the burden to another.



I see... That is all right, Micaiah. I know it's a terrible thing to ask.

...General Tauroneo. It is your duty.

Your Majesty... Is this necessary?

This is your king's order, General. You must obey.

Such will, at so young an age! ...As you wish, Your Majesty.



Of some note is that they actually animate Pelleas handing Micaiah/Tauroneo a knife, which is... neat, I guess. If horribly inconsistent with the game mechanics.







And from here, it's pretty much the same thing, except...



Almedha still rounds on Micaiah, but Tauroneo owns up. And then they do the whole "it was all for naught" dance, and we go to the Base menu.

As you can see, neither of these choices has much effect on anything meaningful. Pelleas gets killed (for nothing, evidently), everyone is sad, and then the mission happens. The matter of who actually did the deed is completely irrelevant to later plot events and it is never referenced, even in passing, again.

BUT!

We are on a Second Playthrough™!



We have an Actual Meaningful Alternative™!

This version goes exactly the same as having Tauroneo do it, except, right at the decisive moment...







Micaiah?!



What did you do?!

I...I'm all right. I...

Fetch a healer! Now!

No, I'm fine, really. I'm just confused... Is the goddess telling me that I'm not worthy to become a martyr for Daein?

Or maybe she is saying that you're just too important to lose... But this is my fault! It was all because I signed that blood pact! I can only amend my mistake by giving my life!

You must stop running, Your Majesty.

Wha--!

But what if your information is incorrect, Your Majesty? I couldn't live with myself if I'd let you give up your life in vain. There MUST be another way! We'll look for it together. There is... I... I can see...

Micaiah! Hey, Micaiah! Wake up!

I will call a healer right away!



...and Pelleas lives!

Yes, this is pretty much the defining digression of the Second Playthrough. There's a lot of other hidden stuff, but most of it is based on this. Obviously, saving Pelleas here will result in a large amount of dialogue changes later on in the game; of course, it will be very obvious what these are, because Pelleas will be there (or people will be talking about him being not-dead). Where meaningful information is imparted in the alternate conversations (or where they're just worth pointing out) I will be pointing these out, but otherwise, it's fairly safe to assume that when you see Pelleas talking, the alternative is someone else talking about basically the same stuff.



Anyway, here we are in the Base! We have only a few conversations this time round.



AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA...

...oh, that's just precious.

Yeah, I guess so. The war of emancipation, the war against the Laguz Alliance, and now against the apostle's army. One after another, just like that.

The world can't always be like this. These wars seem so pointless. All I want is to be able to live in Daein, peacefully and in freedom.

Yeah. The military is a pretty strange place. Hey, I have an idea! Once this battle is over, I'll quit the army and go home.

What about Micaiah and the others? Are you going to abandon them?

What? No way! I'll just have to talk them into leaving with me! And if that catches on, all the soldiers will leave, and then there can't be a war. And then Daein will have peace again!

You know, I don't think it's that simple. But your plan sounds good to me, Edward.

See? You know it's smart. First, you and I will leave. Together, we can tackle any obstacle!

We'll have to survive the next battle, first. This should help. Here. Look what I got you.

Oh! This sword is amazing! Where did you get this!?

I've been saving up. Micaiah chipped in, too.

You got this for me?

Yeah. Since you're always fighting so recklessly, I thought this sword would be a good match for you.

Thanks, Leonardo! You're the best friend I could have!

I know. We're each other's best friend and family.

[Received a Tempest Blade!]



The Tempest Blade is the highest tier of ranged sword. It is equal in might to Ragnell and Alondite, though noticeably less accurate. It is a viable endgame weapon for a trueblade... among others. With this, Leonardo has officially outlived his usefulness. Unless you're training him, in which case...

...AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA...



Oh! Ah. Thank you, Aran.

You've been carrying a lot of things lately.

Yes, I suppose so. Many people are injured. I wanted to help heal as many of them as I can.

That's admirable. Is there anything I can do to help?

Yes, of course!

First, hand me all of your things. I'll carry them for you.

That would be great. Here you go. Say...

Hmm?

That staff you picked up earlier... It doesn't belong to me.

Really? It was right at your feet, so I'd assumed that it was yours.

I've never seen a staff like this. I wonder what effect it has?

Hey, be careful. It might be dangerous or something. Let's throw it away.

Well, maybe if I shake it like this... And then... Whoa!

Wuh!

What did you say, Aran?

Zzz... Zzz...

Oh, Aran. You're such a clown. How do you fall asleep on your feet? I guess you must be really tired. Why don't I just leave you be? Let me just take my things back.



[Received a Sleep!]

Sleep is a nifty little staff that... well, y'know... puts people to sleep. Unlike what this cutscene would have you believe, it is not in fact a contact weapon; it has a range of 1-Mg/2, like Physic. It also has a success rate based on the wielder's magic and the target's resistance - normally around 70%. Used at the opportune moment, it can be extremely effective against particularly tough opponents. Sleep in Fire Emblem is not your typical JRPG Sleep status where any old thing can wake you up and get you right back to murdering; in Fire Emblem, a sleeping character will sit there, getting wailed on by any and all comers, for Five. Turns. or until woken up by Restore or whatever (the Sleep staff itself will cure the wielder of Sleep every turn, so that's something). You do not want to get put to Sleep in Fire Emblem.



Fiona and Volug are now operating at full power. That's great.





Today's bargains. Note the Silver Longbow - the strongest non-unique bow in the game, rendered near-useless by its terrible terrible accuracy, and the Stiletto, a pretty nice but not-really-worth-it dagger that has a somewhat higher crit rate than most daggers. There's also Tornado, the S-rank wind magic tome. But the real winners this time are Blizzard, the long-range wind tome, and the Physic staff. About time we start being able to buy these! Sadly, we don't have anyone who can actually use Blizzard, but... well.



Pictured: the problem with using BEXP on laguz units. Laguz have their awesome stat-doubling ability balanced by problematically low growths. This is somewhat necessary because a +1 here really translates to a +2 when the unit is actually fighting. However, because HP and luck don't double, they have regular growth rates. And because the three stats awarded by BEXP levels are chosen by a system weighted according to growth rates... you're going to get a lot of HP and luck levels. And since laguz only have one tier of stat caps (the highest)... you're not going to be capping those anytime soon.



Guess what?



Aran's capped strength, skill and defence! Shocking, right?





This means he's in his BEXP prime.



Fiona gets four BEXP levels. She now has capped resistance as well as speed and defence. Whoa.



The time has come for skill assignment. Nolan gets Beastfoe. Oh, boy, does Nolan ever get Beastfoe. Some other people also get some other things.



And that's all from the Base.

---



They're holed up in this big castle to the east. I'd say ten thousand soldiers, give or take. They're looking pretty desperate.

To the east, eh? It's just like Soren said. Nox is the next battlefield.

---



Ten thousand my ass.

Daein should know about the rebellion in the empire by now. We should speak with them. They have nothing to gain by siding with the senate. Why continue the fighting?

We can't afford to lose any more troops or time here, either. We should be at the senate's doorstep by now.

Agreed. Sephiran has earned some time for us. We can't afford to lose that advantage. We must press on. Let us win this battle quickly and continue on our way!

---



Shouldn't you be watching over the medallion with your brother and sister? Is it really a good idea for you to be away?

They can manage without me for a while. I am here because I must see Micaiah. I want to save her. I can reason with her. I know it.

If we can talk to her face-to-face, maybe she will understand. It's also for our own peace of mind.

All right. Come with us. I'll tell my men to avoid firing at Micaiah. Sound good?

Thank you, Ike.

Oh crap. Nailah's gonna be there.

...

...wait a minute.

"Join you"?

Ike's going to be fighting?

...

...

...



---



Here they come.

...It all ends here.



Well, fuck. He's here. He's accompanied by Soren, and a metric fuckton of cats, tigers and hawks.



In the name of King Pelleas, fight for Daein!

---



What idiot keeps letting these two back in my goddamn team? GET OUT!

We're going to need all hands on deck for this one, but seriously, Leonardo and Meg aren't going to be doing much besides dying.



In case you haven't already figured out how fucked we are, here's the guy at the other end of the battlefield.

Now, you can completely cheese Ike by exploiting the fact that characters not on the player team don't get to change up equipment between battles, and have Ike finish the previous mission wielding a Bronze Sword (he's carrying one here because I was keeping it around in case we needed to cripple people with Ike and not kill them). You could also not level Ike up much, but that would really screw you over later. Even then, Ike can't not be carrying Ragnell, so if you let him initiate combat with you, he will equip it, and bam, 18 Mt and +5 defence. If you do this, and hit him with Sleep, and rush him with your best units (who must be really good or overlevelled), you can kill him and end the battle instantly. However, it is, for all intents and purposes, impossible to kill Ike here. Especially if you're playing "fair".

Fortunately, Ike is on the other end of the battlefield, and is an optional objective. The headliner is, simply, to defend for 12 turns. Ike will stay put until the very, very, last minute, and if you've got any brains at all, you'll be faaaaaar away by that time.

 I cannot guarantee sense on my part 



See the glowy green line? That's "the line". If any enemy unit crosses the line, we lose instantly. Additionally, Micaiah cannot move outside the line. This means she can't really contribute much offensively, though she does get given a free Purge tome (that's the long range light magic, remember?) on the first turn. Notably, Purge can deal somewhat heavy damage to Ike, but it's not going to help us, since the line will prevent Micaiah from getting within purging range of Ike.

Note the spaces to the top and left and bottom and right of the screenshot above. Particularly the top left one. It's easy to lose sight of that little area in the chaos of the battle, and when three transformed laguz appear there at the end of turn 7 it can seriously screw you up; especially when you consider that a cat can get from there to the line in two turns.



This is commonly asserted to be the hardest mission in the game, and not entirely without cause.

Here goes.