Part 52: (Part Four, Chapter 1) More like "Disciples of Murdered"

Also with him are Nailah, Queen of Hatari, the heron prince Rafiel, Prince Kurthnaga of Goldoa, and his loyal subject Ena. Having received a warning from Micaiah about the Disciples of Order, Ike and company stay alert and wary as they cross into Seliora.





And yet the other plants and animals seem completely unaffected. The only creatures turned to stone were laguz and beorc... A miracle of the goddess, indeed.

My sister just sent a warning about some "Disciples of Order." Ashera has freed them from stone to fight for her. She's also blessed their weapons and armor. They'll only get stronger as we approach the tower. They nearly beat Leanne's team.



All right, we'll break here. Everyone, be sure to keep your weapons and supplies in reach tonight.



And with that, it's Base time. It's nice when our team isn't constantly at eachother's throats, isn't it?

Let's check in with everyone:





...No. I am all right. Thank you, though.

...You're a real puzzle, you know that?

Why do you say that?

You look a lot like your brother Reyson, but you're nothing like him. Reyson looks delicate, but on the inside he's all iron. You, on the other hand... I don't know. I worry that I might kill you if I shout too loud or something.

...I'm sorry.

See? That's exactly what I mean! You should get mad at me for saying that, not say "I'm sorry." I mean, come on!

I-I apologize.

There you go again! What I mean is that--



Those are words people use to describe herons, and he fits all three.

Yeah, well... None of those words fit Reyson.

True. Maybe Princess Leanne is only so innocent and sweet because she was asleep for twenty years. Prince Reyson certainly doesn't seem to have any of the characteristics herons are known for.

King Tibarn did mention that "real" herons are more like Prince Rafiel.

Prince Reyson spent a long time in the care of the hawk tribe. No doubt he's picked up all sorts of quirks. Thank goodness Reyson hasn't picked up Tibarn's speech or mannerisms, though. It would be completely ridiculous. Can you imagine a man with Reyson's looks, talking and acting like Tibarn? I don't think I could help but laugh at him.

Well, he told me he wanted to be just like King Tibarn. He admires Tibarn a great deal.

Reyson said that?

Yeah. What about you?

Well... Sure, it'd be nice to be a bit more like Tibarn, I suppose.

Well, it looks like you guys really are brothers after all.

Ike, be quiet. You're a bad influence! I won't allow Rafiel to be tainted like that.

...

Right.

---



What is it, Mist?

Take a look at this!

How odd. Looks like a holy crown.

I had the strangest vision just now. There were these places on the ground which were shining. One was close, so I went to take a look, and here it was!

Stop it. You sound like Yune when you talk like that. The enemy could attack at any time, so don't go wandering around alone.

All right. You're the boss!

[Received a Holy Crown!]

The Holy Crown is a promotion item... for Mist. And only for Mist. Why does Mist get her own exclusive promotion item? Who knows? If you use her regularly, it's not actually out of the question for her to promote normally, but there you go. It's a nice bonus, in any case, given how useful Mist can be post promotion. We'll be using this in short order.

---

Finally...



Hello, Aimee.

Would you do me a favor? Take this and give it to little Soren. It's an extremely rare item. We don't know what we'll run into out there. He'll be ready for anything with a powerful tome like this.

What, you can't give it to him yourself?

Oh, no way! I'm trying to get YOUR attention. So I'd much rather give it to you.

That's very direct of you.

Because you can be so thick sometimes! I swear, you wouldn't know how I felt if I didn't tell you outright.

Even if I did, I wouldn't do anything about it.

That's fine. I understand. You still have things you want to do, places you want to explore. That's why you don't want to be tied down by a relationship. I know how you are.

Uh...

But someday, you'll be ready to settle down. When you are, maybe you'll think of me. That's why I'm starting work on you now! Don't worry about it... for now.

But it DOES worry me!

See? You're already under my spell! Well, good night! Sleep well, my hero.



[Received a Rexcalibur!]

Aimee may have issues with reality, but she certainly doesn't have issues with her supply chain. Rexcalibur is the SS-rank wind tome, and while Soren isn't quite ready to use it yet, it's kinda overkill for now anyway, and besides, it only has so many uses. But it's gonna be extremely handy in the Endgame, don't you worry.



Mist is practically on the verge of levelling up anyway, so we push her over the edge with BEXP and get a level that does not contain magic.



Unless you've got big endgame plans for Mist, there's absolutely no sense in not immediately using this. And besides, it's not like you can save this for anyone else.



Mist's promotion is one of the most jarring in the game. Suddenly...



Horse out of nowhere! And some actual combat-appropriate clothing, too!



Now, arguably, if you were raising Mist properly, this promotion would probably seal her effectiveness as a combat unit as well as a solid healer. Seriously, +5 strength, and she's got the Florete, which, might I remind you, is actually one of the more powerful swords in the game. We, however, only want her for the heals and for the horse. The horse, and the +2 move that comes with it (making Mist the only unit that gets a movement boost in third tier) is the real prize here; it allows Mist to heal units on the front lines and then retreat to safety, meaning we get mid-range heals without having to waste Physic uses. So that's great!

If you're wondering, Mist gets Sol as her mastery skill. Which is actually pretty hilarious. If only you could activate it with a staff...



Now it's time to BEXP the hell out of Aran. Pictured: the stats before...



And after. Beeeautiful.



He gets a Master Crown, since we have a good few of the things kicking around.





That is quite a shield.



He's not quite as blindingly fast as Nephenee, but he'll certainly do. Wow, it's looking like our endgame votes might actually be a contest!



Heather, too. We might as well, really.





Longcoat and scarf! Our guys really like their flappy things.



If you're going for a Bolting tome and Heather isn't at 20 strength in Part 3 Endgame, then throwing her a Master Crown is a pretty great way to catch her up. Really, there's not much to say here. The extra speed and defence sure makes her a bit more dodgy (and thus survivable), but you really shouldn't be using Heather as a frontliner. The really nice thing is how much better she is than Sothe... except for the fact that Sothe is mandatory to bring to the Endgame, which kinda kills Heather's chances of putting all these stats to good use.



Here's the Whisper's mastery skill, Bane. It's... kinda... "ehh", especially compared to other mastery skills that're basically "enemy dies now". The only way you can really get any use out of this is if it activates against an enemy with obscene defence (in which case why are you even attacking with Heather?), or, more usefully, if it activates on the first hit of a double, in which case, it is a free kill. But really, Heather should stick to thief stuff and stay away from combat.



Aran is going to be our Paragon bearer for this mission.



There was a small contingent of people requesting that I show off how ridiculous Rolf+Adept can be. This one's for you, guys.

In other skill news, we take Celerity and Pass off of Nailah (finally!). Celerity goes to Rafiel because he can really use the extra move. Pass goes to the Convoy.



Today's bargains. Mia's Wyrmslayer is still in pretty great condition, so we'll leave this be.



We buy Arcthunder and Arcwind tomes for Soren for him to go along with his tricked out Fire tome. These will have the added benefit of massively boosting the rate at which he gains weapon ranks.



I'm experimenting with supports again, and this time round, it's Gatrie and Mia. Y'know, because they're not powerful enough already.



And that's all the Base for today.



Not good. He keeps staring into space, he won't say anything, and he hasn't touched a bite of his food.

I'm sorry to hear that. I wanted to ask him some questions, but it can wait.



What?! That's impossible!

I don't know. There was no sign or scent of their approach... I wonder if they simply materialized?

Ena, stay here! Protect Kurthnaga's tent at all costs!

Understood.

Everyone, watch the perimeter! There are a lot of them, but just focus on one enemy at a time!





What a coincidence! There are just enough spaces on our team to accommodate all our best guys! (plus Titania). Note that only Ike is mandatory here, so that's something.



Here's the battlefield. It's a fog of war map, but the objective is to rout, which leaves the way open for all sorts of AI dick moves involving enemies hidden in shadows. And there're plenty of Asshole Reinforcements.



And here's a better look at our formation. Ike, Mia and Gatrie are going to push south. It's a fairly straight path down to where the boss is, so they should be able to defend by murder without much trouble. Rolf and Soren are going to use bow and spells to repel the guys coming from the west - note the sandbags in that little alcove are actually destructible, so it's in our interests to keep them intact - by murdering everyone. Aran is going to take the right side by himself - there's only one space there, although there's another destructible sandbag, so we should watch out for that. Ena is going to just stand there in front of the tent and not move. Heather and Nailah are just going to stand around and maybe help out of anyone gets overwhelmed. Rafiel is going to do the usual heron thing, of course.



Here's a thing I never really noticed about Ena. I guess this is the game acknowledging that she's kinda an odd example of a Red Dragon, so that's nice. It doesn't excuse her stats, however.



Anyway, let's get this show on the road. I quite enjoy this mission.



As is appropriate, the honour of the first kill goes to Ike.



The second kill goes to Mia.



Aran moves to defend the right side.



He does an exceptional job.



Rolf makes good use of all his range. One of the really nice things about the Silencer is that it's so accurate that there's little to no penalty for attacking at maximum range. Unlike a goddamn longbow.



Rolf wastes absolutely no time busting out as much overkill as he can muster.



No time at all.



Rolf is awesome.



Soren's new tomes are good for much murder. And also for instantly levelling him up to S-rank in thunder magic.



Here's why promoted Mist is useful. She wanders over to Mia, heals her...



And wanders away, out of the trouble zone. It's quite handy.



And then Rafiel lets them do it all again.



This is certainly a heron level.



Ike softens up an enemy general...



And Mia and Gatrie share some inane chatter before killing a guy each.



Heather and Titania conspire to get Rafiel out of the murder zone.



Wow! That was only the first turn, and already we've killed like six guys!



The enemy immediately gets goaded into attacking Gatrie.



The assault on Aran begins. Some of them have ranged weapons, which might slow him down a little.



A mage gets the really bright idea of attacking Rolf.





What, was that two Adept-Crits in a row? Oh, Rolf.



And now he's even stronger.



I will never get tired of seeing this and hearing that "tink" sound. It's a beautiful sound. Needless to say, Ike fucks this guy up pretty bad.



A foolish general attacks Aran at melee range, so Aran pokes him until he drops his sword. There's also something wrong with the screenshot there; you'll notice that the weapon displays aren't showing the flashing up/down arrows that normally appear when the Weapon Triangle is in effect. I'm not sure whether this is a random glitch or a side effect of the RNG determining that Disarm is going to activate in a fight, but there you go. It's odd, in any case.



This guy also tries his luck.



He turns out not to have any.



You can't always see it, but Aran has a weird armadillo-like armour attachment on the back of his helmet. Not entirely sure what this is supposed to accomplish (or how it even fits together), but damn if it doesn't look unnecessarily cool. I don't think Nephenee has it.



The Paragon scroll is already getting results. And Aran is getting stronger again.



Dick move #1: Pegasus knights in the shadows. Watch out for them.



Can't touch Rolf though.



There are pegasus knights in the southern area, too. One jumps out at Ike.



This was a mistake on her part.



A big mistake.





The first hit of Aether is the same famous throw-sword-then-somersault-slash introduced in Path of Radiance and meme-fied by Super Smash Bros. Brawl. This is the bit that heals Ike.



The second hit is just Ike's regular crit animation.



Do not fuck with Ike. He's self-healing now.



And now he can activate Aether an additional one of two hundred times.



One annoying thing is that the enemy has a bunch of Physic priests hanging around, so you'd better be killing guys efficiently, or you'll just be wasting time.



Another neat thing (for us) about the Disciples of Order is that when reinforcements arrive outside your vision range, you can see them warping in - so long as the camera is already looking at that area. Failing that, they make a very distinctive sound when they teleport, so one way or another, you're always warned that reinforcements have arrived.

Anyway, this makes it our turn.





OK, I don't want to be busting out Aqqar just yet, but I just felt I had to point out the absurd damage it does to flyers.



In any case, Rolf can one shot this one with a regular Steel Bow. He does so.



With gusto.



With no enemies in sight to the west, Soren comes over to help with the southern front.



Mia continues cleaning up and gets this pretty great level.



Found you, asshole!



Gatrie charges into the south.



Aran continues holding his little line.



And that's turn 2.



Well, this was scary. I forget that Titania is just barely still able to defend stuff, especially against fast, critty enemies. She survives, anyhow.



Lots of guys come after Gatrie.



To his profit, of course.



Lots...



And lots...



And lots...



Know what? Starting to get worried now.



Aran is besieged too, but he's holding up admirably. And his speed is going up and up!



He takes some hits...



But he returns them fourfold.



The guy who teleported in last turn starts going after the sandbags. We should probably take care of that. We don't want Ena getting attacked.



Physic priests = really annoying.



And someone warps in over to the east. Our turn.



This certainly will take care of him.



The third tier of spells is, of course, appropriately flashier than the second.



And Soren's hilariously lopsided growths strike again.



Janaff is halfshifted, but more than a match for a priest.



Rolf attempts to dispense with this swordmaster using the Killer Bow, but, incredibly, neither Adepts nor Crits. Goddamnit.



So Heather gets to deal with him instead.



Mia, meanwhile, is getting great mileage our of her old friend.



Really great mileage.



Gatrie gets an impeccably timed level in HP and defence. He is then healed up to full by Mist.



It seems Ike has a bit of a problem with Horseslayers. They seem to be drawn to him. Sadly, he's not quite able to kill this guy, so there's probably going to be some Physicing on the next enemy phase.



Despite the high likelihood of Physicing, Aran starts chipping at the general near him. If we're lucky, he might try and attack Aran back next turn, triggering a counter-kill.



And in the meantime, Aran gets even more strength and skill.



And there goes turn 3.



Two separate guys Physic this general. He must have good friends.



Success!



Just couldn't leave well enough alone, could you?



Oh. This might conceivably be trouble.



Dark magic, you might recall, hits quite hard, and Ike is still relatively lacking in resistance, although his promotion got him something resembling help with that.



Fortunately, it's also quite inaccurate, so Ike has no trouble dodging it.



Additionally, ever since Ike got Ragnell, mages were no longer safe from his counterattacks, as this Druid learns too late.



Another one! This one has the Carreau tome, which is more powerful than Worm, but also less accurate.





It, too, is dodged, and its wielder murdered.



The irony is that he was the student of dark magic, and yet we are the ones who are made stronger by his death. More strength and speed for Ike!



And thanks to that level, we can now counter-kill Horseslayer-guy!



OH COME ON



Aran has his share of fun, too, and he cripples another guy.







Oh, boy. Here's the obligatory Asshole Reinforcement. Alright. Our turn again.



This is about as Aran a level as you can get.



Rolf has another go at the Killer Bow challenge.



Alri-



Aww.



Alright!



I will never, ever get tired of seeing the Deadeye animation.





That's a beautiful snapshot, right there.



Ike continues doing his thing.



Gatrie reduces Horseslayer-guy to minimal health...



And Heather comes in to finish the job.



WHY WON'T YOU DIE?!



Aha! Found another one.



This has been turn 4. We're making remarkable progress.



Two different Physic-priests restore Horseslayer-guy to full health.



He then goes after Gatrie.



Gatrie is annoyed.



Survive this, asshole.



He doesn't.



A mage with Arcfire comes after Ike. You see what I mean about spells and suspension of disbelief? This doesn't look like something that should "miss". Ike ruins his shit accordingly.



Rolf is hit, but he has tons of defence for some reason, so he's OK.



More worryingly, two guys have somehow gotten in range of our sandbag wall and have managed to destroy it.



Four guys of some description warp in.



Rolf kicks off our next turn by murdering the guy who axed him.







Some encouragement from Rafiel, and...



Now it's time to break out the Aqqar.



Mmm-hmm.



Satisfied his work guarding the east side is done, Aran moves south.



Turns out we missed one.





Heather and Mia go on priest-cleanup duty.





Gatrie and Ike are on regular murder duty.



Make that awesome murder duty.







Ike decides he's not nearly broken enough and claims himself even more stats.



Hey, look what we found!



Catalena isn't really much of a threat to our A-teamers. The only thing is, she's quite fast, and has a pegasus and a throwing weapon, so you have to be really careful about who you send south. The counter thing to this is that she seems somewhat temperamental as to whether or not she's going to move off her spot, so there you go.



The other thing about Catalena is that she's using one of the odd Biorhythms that only enemies seem to be able to use. Her biorhythm is almost completely flat, and never moves off of Normal.



Soren cleans up the guy Aran missed.



And that's Rank SS in wind! Soren's now maxed out all of his weapon ranks except Fire, and he has a forged Fire tome that's more powerful than the S-rank one anyway.



Turn 5 complete.



The enemies sensibly decide that they'd rather go for a 1% chance of hitting Nailah with magic than going a round with Rolf. Wise decision.



Not that it does them much good, though.



Gatrie is less lucky.



The other sandbags start taking a beating. We kinda want this chokepoint to remain a chokepoint, otherwise we'll have to recall some of our front liners to hold the gap. Or just use Nailah. But, experience!



This wise guy reckons he can take Gatrie on at melee range.



He can't.



And with that, karma is rebalanced.



The boss decides not to move, but I heard reinforcements arrive... somewhere. Our turn!



Rolf does his thing.



Then he does his thing a second time. Cheers, Rafiel!



The nice thing about crossbows is, of course, the fact that they can counter at melee range. This way, anyone who wants to attack Rolf is gonna get a surprise.



I mean, damn, have you ever seen someone hold a crossbow so casually?



For all Catalena's speed, Ike's ridiculous levels this chapter mean he can effortlessly murder her.



I suppose talking it over is out of the question?





Well, I hope the knowledge that you accomplished nothing in your meaningless existence eases the pain of your impending death.



Not.











Heather and Gatrie skewer a mage between them.



And Mia goes scouting southwest.



Turn 6, done.



Both enemy generals down here attack Ike.



It goes about as well as you'd expect.



Since I don't think I've properly pointed out how fast Ike's critical animation (second Aether hit) is, here's a frame-by-frame.











The events pictured above transpire over 1/12 of a second. It's fast.



I don't know why these people even bother.



The western guys finally break the second set of sandbags. We're ready for them, though.



A swordmaster runs through the gap and hits Janaff in his weak state. He does get in one good kick, though.



Pegasus knight comes for Mia.



No.



Denied.



I guess I'll take it.

...I'm doing that thing where I get complacent about levels because I've been spoiled again, aren't I?



And yet more reinforcements show up.



Janaff immediately halfshifts again and takes out a mage.



Rolf takes out the Asshole swordmaster...



Rolf = god, etc, yes...



And then Rolf is helped by Rafiel to take out this halberdier, too.



Also, this.



Soren,



Mia,



Aran,



Gatrie,



...and Ike all get their murder on.





And Heather has business with this priest.



Sweet. There's not much to steal in most of part 4, mostly because of the lack of guarantee of any given group having a thief. IS took the not-asshole path of having all the amazing stuff be gotten by means other than stealing, but there are still a few goodies here and there.



And that's turn 7. As far as I can see, these are the last two enemies.



One immediately kills himself on Mia.



OH COME ON



Well, this guy has outlived his usefulness.



Sweet!



While the others rush to her aid, Mia gets the murder started early.



That's... well, it's speed.



With any luck, these guys will kill themselves in the enemy phase.



Well, not the mage.



Sadly, the other guy turns out to be survivable.



ARE YOU SHITTING ME?!



Well, at least he's away from Ena. Hmm...



I know!











Asshole. Teleport into my camp, will you?



Rolf uses his last redundant Adept activation of the mission to dispense with the second-last guy.



And Mia uses one too to clear out the last.

This was a really fun mission, despite the assholes. It's fast, frantic, has a hell of a lot of murder, still presents some actual danger, and... yeah. I like it.



---



...hey! Good point!

I didn't want Prince Kurthnaga to be frightened, so I tried to hold them off in this shape. He hates blood...

This can't go on. I'm going to talk to him.

---





What's wrong? Don't you remember me?

...Aughhh...that smell... The blood...on your sword...

The prince of dragons, ladies and gents.

What, this? No problem. I'll go drop it over there.

Hey, look... No sword. Are you OK now?



Good. I wanted to talk to you a little. Do you remember who I am?

...Yes. We met once... Three years ago in Goldoa.

That's right. You do remember. You helped us when our ship ran aground... And you gave us food and water.

Yes... You were the first beorc I had ever met.

---

I'm glad our paths have crossed again. We didn't have much time to talk back then... I didn't even get to introduce myself. I'm Ike, of the Greil Mercenaries. Thanks to you, we completed our voyage safely. I've been wanting to thank you for three years. So... Thank you.

No, it was nothing at all. Actually, it was quite an experience... I had only read of beorc in books, so meeting one was a rare privilege. I wasn't really myself, so I hope I didn't say or do anything rude. It's embarrassing when I think about it now. I'm sorry.

No, if anything, I was the rude one. I was just an ignorant hothead with no manners or gratitude at all. But you just laughed and forgave me. I'm really grateful for that.

I'm glad that I could be of some help. It seems like it's been a while since I've had that chance.

---

Prince Kurthnaga... There's something I have to ask you. Before Yune's awakening, why did you side with the Daein army to fight against us and the apostle's army? The dragon tribes are neutral, and known for their hatred of blood and war. As their prince, I can't see why you would do it.

I suppose I owe you an explanation for that. First of all, the dragon tribes had nothing to do with any of this. I... I disobeyed my father, and the laws of Goldoa. I joined the battle against all my training, of my own free will. Ena just saw me leaving, or I wouldn't have brought her into this. I just wanted... I just wanted to help my sister.

Sister? You have a sister in Daein?

Yes... A sister and a brother, actually.

Sometimes, in stories with perspective shifts, it's easy to forget that some people don't know some things. Although Ike knows about the brother already, he has no idea of Almedha's existence.

---



Mad King Ashnard was married to a princess of Goldoa?



Rajaion? Wasn't he the dragon that was warped and used by the Mad King? Wasn't Ena supposed to marry him?

Yes. That savage Ashnard held his own baby hostage...the baby born of my sister, Almedha. Then he took my brother, Rajaion...and warped him in order to use him as a mount like a common wyvern.

I'm sorry. I didn't know...

...Ike, you were there at my brother's last hour. I'm sorry to ask you, but when my brother died... Did he die peacefully?

...Yes, he did.



Rajaion passed on in Ena's arms, with a contented smile, as if he were sleeping peacefully.

Thank you... It's a tremendous relief to know that.

---

My sister was tangled in Ashnard's schemes, our brother was killed, and her son taken away... She was unable to return to Goldoa and unable to consult our father... My sister has suffered so much. I wanted to help her.

So that's why you came to Daein... I'm sure that was difficult for you to tell me. Thank you.

Actually, it makes me feel a little better just talking about it.

I won't repeat a word of anything you just told me. I swear on my father's grave.

---



Something about that country always draws me back to it...

---



You'd better believe we got the maximum turn bonus.

Next Time: What do you think happens when you mix an Earth Pair with a +25% hit/avoid authority bonus?