Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn Part #71 - (Endgame, Map 5) Requiem for a Goddess

Part 71: (Endgame, Map 5) Requiem for a Goddess

Order and chaos, you are one being, comprising both parts. The one must naturally affect the other.

Even so, I will not return Yune to this body. She is unstable, and I must be perfect in order to protect this world. It is as I have said, Yune must be destroyed.

Ashera, you mustn't! You cannot survive without your opposite. Please, you must not do this. Your world still needs you.

For the next thousand years, I shall sleep as well. When I wake again, I hope it is to a world of peace and order, where all prosper as equals.

If I do, then I will know that you have advised me well. I will reward your counsel. I will also allow Yune to return to me. I will once again be the goddess of creation, whole and complete.

I will know that you have strayed from your path, and I will punish your failure as I would reward your success. And then you will know my judgment. You will pay for your sins, each of you to the last.

So pledge Altina of the beorc, Dheginsea of the dragon tribes, Soan of the beast tribes, and I, Lehran, of the bird tribes.

If you believe during this thousand years that you have created a world that has outgrown the atrocities of war... Or if you feel the world has fallen beyond hope of redemption, you may sing the galdr of release and awaken us both. Your heirs will possess that ability as well... Sing to awaken us, and tell us your tale. Tell us of the world your two kinds have built in our absence. We will listen, and will judge fairly and impartially. This is our covenant with you.

---

welp

It's her...

Ashera.

This imperfect world has passed beyond control. Now, I shall pass my final judgment.

Wait! You can't violate the terms of the covenant, Ashera! One thousand years still hasn't passed. We were woken by galdr, not by mankind's war.

It doesn't matter.

Time will pass as always, but nothing can change the destiny of mankind.

You have to look deeper! The first judgment didn't turn everyone to stone, and I'll tell you why. Because these people are not "people" as we know them. Ashera, these people have become something new!

Animals evolved to become Zunanma, who then became laguz and beorc. That evolution continues today!

They are still very few in number, but if allowed to flourish, mankind might become anything! If the two races continue to evolve, I'm sure something wonderful will emerge! You can't just bring that to a halt.

Do not claim certainty of anything. The children of this world are born of chaos, and nothing could be more uncertain. The world does not require the evolution of man. My responsibility is to protect order, the balance of all life-forms.

Yune, do not be absurd... You cannot overthrow me, just as I cannot overthrow you.

Defeat Ashera, or everyone you love will be a statue forever!

These people, they carry your blessing, Yune... You mean to fight me?

You make it sound as if we're some sort of filthy creatures that just decided to settle down here and cause trouble.

Ike! Don't say it like that.

We're not perfect. Sometimes our brains tell us one thing, while our emotions tell us another. And war... The more we try to avoid it, the worse it is when it comes to us.

But... Somehow you're also the most endearing. It's your imperfections that make you so interesting... Imperfections very similar to ours.

We know that we've messed up. We'll do our best to avoid more war and to make peace our highest priority. Ashera, just give us one more chance. All we ask for is one more chance.

You expect me to reverse my judgment? The goddess of order cannot be so...mercurial. My decision is final.

So that's how it's going to be, huh?

In every battle that mattered in my life, I've always been the one left standing, no matter how slim my chances. This battle means more than any of the others, because it's for the life of every person that I've ever cared about.

Oh boy!

Like Deghinsea and Sephiran before her, Ashera is content to stand around while we administrate our guys for the last time.

In particular...

There is a conversation to view.

This is pretty much the most secret conversation ever. In order to see it, you must complete Path of Radiance and attain an A-support between Ike and Soren, import that data into Radiant Dawn, and get A-support between Ike and Soren again. We also must fulfil the requirements for a second secret thing, which we'll be seeing shortly. If you do all that, you get to see this conversation.

---

Well, sorta. It was a long time ago.

How could you forget?

Ike...

Mother had gone shopping with Mist that day. I was wandering around the village all alone. I walked to the edge of the forest, looking for a stick I could pretend was a sword. There was a raven-haired boy lying on the ground.

I remember the huge oak tree by the clearing... I'd been sleeping in the hollow by the roots.

He looked like he was my age. He was as skinny as a twig, wearing rags and covered in dirt. He looked like he was near death. I took out my lunch and I handed it to him. He made a noise like a scared animal and shied away.

I didn't have anything else to feed him, so I told him to come to my house. But he kept shaking his head no.

I was afraid you were going to trick me. Afraid that you were going to chase me away after taunting me with food, just for a laugh...

I told the boy that I'd bring him some food the next day at the same time and place. He finally nodded when I said that. It made me happy. I felt like I was doing something right, helping this boy. Like I was the only one who'd do that.

So I went back to the village again the next day. I was scared of the other villagers and their rocks and sticks, but I still went back.

That's right. That was Gallia back then. The beorc abused and tormented the Branded because the laguz shunned them. They wanted to avoid upsetting the laguz.

The villagers threw stones at me, called me an animal and a devil.

It was my dad. He went crazy when the spirit of chaos in the medallion touched him.

I walked through the empty streets, checking bodies to see if you were dead. But I couldn't find you. I decided that you had to be alive. I took money and food from the village and headed for Crimea, a land of beorcs.

Soren...

On my way to Crimea, I kept seeing laguz from the beast tribe. They were terrifying, but after a while I realized something. They never attacked me. They all seemed to notice something about me, and then pretend they couldn't see me. That look was burned into my mind, and it was always the same. They'd scowl, then walk away like they'd never noticed me. In a way, that left me feeling older and more alone than if they'd attacked me. Hate... That I could understand. This was denial. They made me feel like I wasn't supposed to exist at all. That my simply being alive was an affront to the world.

...

When I reached Crimea, I took refuge in a church along the way. They took my brand to be a sign that I had been trained in the arcane arts. They took good care of me, and taught me things. Once I had learned to speak and behave like other people, I wandered Crimea for several years. Then I finally found you.

But I'd...

Yes. You'd forgotten that day in Gallia. But I didn't care. My only wish was to see you again. I just wanted to see the only boy who had held out a warm hand when I had nothing.

Soren... Don't cry.

Soren, you're smart, but you're no good when it comes to your emotions. Come over here.

D-don't treat me like I'm a child! I'm not that--

Come on.

Shut up! Shut up...

Then I'll come over to you.

---

Speaking of supports, we kick ours up another notch. Jill and Fiona make A-rank, for +2 Def, +30 Avoid (for all that good that's going to do here), Rolf and Volke hit B-rank (+10 Hit/Avoid), and Pelleas and Elincia hit A-rank (+2 Atk/Def, +27 Hit).

One last look at our records. Happy memories.

Then, there's the requisite handing around of our last stash of BEXP. Zihark uses his share to cap strength.

Normally I'd consider it a waste, but Fiona only needed 1 point of EXP to get this level, so I'm happy.

Stop Press: Micaiah Caps Speed, Skill

Ike caps strength and speed with remarkable timing.

Now, it's time to engage in that grandest of Fire Emblem traditions: ploughing through all our accumulated stat boosters!

We chuck Nolan a Seraph Robe, because he's still 10 HP below his cap and now he's 3.

We throw Energy Drops to Elincia (who caps strength) and Gareth (who doesn't).

We give Ena two Spirit Dusts, because she's the only one with any real use for more magic at this point (it brings her to 19 -> 38 magic, and she has Imbue).

Fiona gets a Secret Book, not because she needs it but because it means she has now capped all eight stats.

Speedwings go to Elincia (cap (35)) and Gareth, because Gareth is the slowest motherfucker on our team. Funfact: If you have less than 28 speed in this mission, life is going to be hard. The speedwing doesn't exactly help Gareth, but there really wasn't much else to do with it.

Ashera Icons go to Nasir and Gareth, because dragons have characteristically shit luck.

Finally, our Dracoshield goes to Nasir, so he can maybe take a physical hit sometime. Trust me, it's important.

We have leftover BEXP, so Elincia gets some more stats.

Ike also gets levelled to 20. Seems fitting. He hits his skill cap too.

The dregs we have left are just barely enough to get Rolf to Lv 20, too.

So. How about that final battle, then?

Note the eight... things... around Ashera. Needless to say, we need to go through them to get to her. Needful to say, we have to kill all of them before she even becomes available as a target.

Also note the floor. It's a mess of Cover, Wardwood and Healcover (+15 avoid, 20%/turn HP recovery) tiles. The eight auras are standing on either Cover or Wardwood tiles, and Ashera is on a Healcover.

Here is your final boss. Ashera is not quite as much of a brick wall as Deghinsea, but she can fuck you up really quickly, and that 40 speed and 40 luck (and +15 avoid from terrain, and +25 from her 5* authority bonus) makes her hard as hell to actually hit. Her Judge weapon counts as light magic, but don't think too hard about that, because she can do lots of other bullshit with that.

Note, actually, that she's being slowed down by her weapon. This works in our favour, of course.

Seriously, Ashera is one of those bosses where I would unironically advise anyone playing the game for the first time to read a guide and look up the mechanics of the shit she does. My first time through I had to restart like 5 times due to being unable to keep the dragons safe, and in the end I just did it without them. We'll be bringing them all this time, however.

Yes, she really does have 6 SS weapon ranks.

And if you think that just because she has nothing other than Mantle means she doesn't bullshit you then you have another think coming.

The eight auras surrounding her have slightly lesser stats - although, of course, they each get +10 to either defence or resistance, depending on their position. Note also that they aren't being weighed down, so we'll need to muster up 39 AS to double them (compared to 36 to double Ashera herself).

Having no weapons, these things can't attack, but they *do* have the Aurora skill. Aurora is basically Counter with a 100% activation rate; it will send half of all damage they take back to you. It is annoying as fuck. For this reason, you'll want to equip your four Nihil scrolls (Parity also works fine, since these guys can't attack you on their turn) on your strongest guys, or whichever guys you think will be attacking most often.

I gave my Nihil scrolls to Nolan (already has one), Zihark, Rolf and Kurth, and Parity to Ike.

Well then. Let's go get our deicide on.

Hmm?

This is another Secret Thing. This one's easier, but a little arbitrary. You must be on a second playthrough, you must deploy the Black Knight in Part 1's endgame, and you must make Ike and the Black Knight fight in Part 3 Chapter 7 (and both must survive (like there's any chance of killing the Black Knight at that point)). Doing this will allow you to see that one memory scene (in which Sephiran wipes Ike's memory), and then you'll get to save Sephiran after defeating him. And then he shows up here.

Lehran...

Everything I've done was a mistake. This is all a result of my weakness. The changes were unbearable to watch, too frightening to understand. It grew painful to accept change, and with that my heart filled with cowardice. I was overwhelmed by the pain, and could think of nothing but soothing it. As long as I suffered, I was blind to anything else, even to the beautiful things of the world. I can see it now... The people deserve compassion. They deserve to have their lives back!

No. You were always too flexible, too inconstant. You cannot sway me any further.

Ashera... My goddess... Please.

Be silent now and watch as I erase these things that confuse your simple heart.

...

In order to reach Ashera, we must first destroy the aura protecting her. Got it? Attack the aura.

~~Sephiran~~ Lehran is almost exactly the same as we left him, except he seems to have picked up a few points in speed. Well, we won't complain. Only problem is, though, he doesn't bring us a weapon. What he does bring us is the Ashera Staff, which will completely heal and cure the conditions of all allied units (and, apparently, partner units as well, although there aren't any here). He can use SS-rank light and dark tomes, however, so it's not a bad idea to hand him Rexaura or Balberith (Balberith will slow him down to 36 AS but has 3 extra Mt).

Oh, and these spirits? Another layer of bullshit. They can kill themselves in order to revive a single aura to max HP. Failing that, they attack you. So it's worth dedicating one or two units to Spirit Patrol, since more will appear every turn.

Elincia, having no blessed weapon but being flying and high speed, is a great candidate.

Now, let's get started on the auras.

Kurth gets a nice boost from Gareth and does some respectable damage.

Rolf stands between Ena and Nasir and proceeds to murder the shit out of the bottom middle aura.

Micaiah does not have Nihil, and suffers the consequences.

A combined follow-up effort from Nolan, Zihark and Soren finishes bottom-right.

The nice thing about only having one stat left to cap is that you're guaranteed to get "perfect" levels, since the game always gives you at least one stat.

Jill and Nephenee make a start on middle-right, but only get 50 HP damage done. Since these things all have 40 luck, they get 40 HP back per turn. That's annoying.

Now, lots of our guys have taken damage, and there's some scary shit approaching. What to do?

Why, we bust out the Fortify staff, of course! Pelleas' 39 magic means basically full health for everyone, since this map isn't really that big.

Then I remember I forgot to attack with Ike. Fortunately, he has Parity, so he doesn't get hurt.

Parity is actually better than Nihil for dealing with the auras, because it allows you to negate their terrain benefits as well as their skills, basically meaning a free +10 damage. Not too shabby.

End of the first turn.

Middle-right promptly restores most of its health.

Then...

This will hardly be a battle at all. Simply an end. Perish, flawed one.

Ashera's first party trick is this AoE physical attack, rated at 52 base Mt (added to Ashera's 8 strength for 60 Atk), and losing 3 Mt per square of range. This is her least dangerous trick.

It hurts.

Though not equally. The most damage taken was 32 by Soren.

Then two more Spirits appear, and it's back to our turn.

After about a minute in which all our various Imbue/Renweal/Staff-wielding health regen resolves itself...

Lehran sidles over to Micaiah and takes her Rexaura tome.

He then uses it to double the bottom-left aura. He still has his Mantle skill, so he doesn't get affected by Aurora. Plus he gets the health regen.

Don't underestimate Nasir. He's got buckets of magic and a strong "weapon" (in fact, his base Atk is higher than Kurth's), and if you park him next to Gareth or Ena, the skill boost can help him hit home. He does so.

Bottom-left is finished by Soren.

Kurth and Nolan bring centre-left down to 14 HP.

Rolf and Volke have a "moment"... then Rolf and Ike take out centre-right.

Reyson keeps the party going with one of his four-way chants.

Lehran starts work on top-left, leaving middle-left to Fiona to kill.

Nasir gets off another lucky shot...

...and top left goes down to Nephenee. A little detail that helps in this fight is that Aurora only activates if the aura actually survives the attack. So if you kill them, you don't take any damage. Neat!

Nolan, Zihark and Volke make some progress on top-right.

Finally, Jill and Elincia take out the Spirits, Elincia gaining a level and capping luck.

Another Fortify makes it as though none of this ever happened.

Well, to us, anyway. Those six auras aren't coming back.

Anyway. End of the second turn.

Oh boy.

This is a 50 Mt (so, 65 Atk) light magic attack.

This is a second 50 Mt (so, 65 Atk) light magic attack. Yes, it can double.

This one right here is probably the reset point for most people who don't know about Ashera's bullshit in advance. This also why bringing dragons besides Kurth can be a liability. In fact, anyone who does not have both sky-high defence and resistance is potentially at risk, unless you know what attacks are coming when and park units on cover/wardwood tiles as appropriate.

The thing is, Ashera has her pick out of any unit on the map. There is literally nothing you can do to keep a given person safe. Skills like Shade/Stillness and Provoke just do not come into it. If the AI detects a one-round kill is possible, nothing will dissuade it from pursuing it. Nasir and Gareth (and Ena to an extent) have stats that just barely toe that terrifying line where +10 def or res will actually make a difference to whether or not [2x (65 - [def/res]) > HP], and the AI is better at maths than you. Having Kurth around helps... a little. But really, you need to keep an extremely close eye on the terrain and placement in this fight, and you need to know in advance what attacks are coming.

And two more Spirits.

Nasir manages to land another hit. But really, the only reason he's up here...

...is so Lehran can stand next to him and cast double Rexaura.

Lovely.

Rolf, too. Sadly, one of his shots misses, but the other reduces top-middle to 35 HP.

Nolan plus speed can be very scary. He takes out top-middle.

He's 1 HP away from the cap now.

Top-right falls to Soren.

Excellent. Now we can finish this.

...

Jill gets the first hit in on Ashera herself. Ashera doesn't have Aurora, but she can counterattack, which is actually a lot worse.

I don't know if Ashera actually cheats at dodging attacks, but it sure feels like it. It might just be a psychological thing due to not being able to get 95-100% odds on her like we could with nearly every other enemy ever.

Also she has an appropriately flashy attack.

Ow.

Nephenee fares a little better.

Kurth finally gets around to having a chat with Lehran.

Prince Kurthnaga... How you've grown.

You know who I am?

I resided in Goldoa for more than seven hundred years.

I... I had no idea.

That's because I was kept in hiding. But I did meet you several times, when you were just an infant.

I remember a...a mysterious man with black wings. Was that you? I always thought it was a dream...

...

I was always so fascinated by that man and his songs... I remember him well, and fondly.

Kurth has probably the highest possible damage output out of all the guys we have. Well, technically Gareth is stronger, but Gareth gets hit odds of like 5% vs Ashera.

Volke helps too.

Reyson helps out again.

Why, yes, Rolf can outrange the Goddess in battle.

And here's Nolan.

And we win!

Our fighting is finally done. Now the people...

Now the people should all turn back to normal.

Yes!

Huh?!

That's right, folks. If all the other bullshit in this fight - the Auras, the Aurora, the insane health regen, the counterattacks, the AoE attacks, and being able to assassinate your dragons if you don't park them on the correct terrain - isn't enough, Ashera also happens to actually be immortal.

Well, fuck.

...

What... What's going on? This is insane! We defeated her...

You defeated nothing. This is nothing at all out of the ordinary. Mortals cannot defeat the divine. It is not possible.

But... We won... General Ike... We have to fight one more time! The people out there need our help!

You can try as many times as you like. The result will always be the same. There is no way for you to win.

I can't believe that! General Ike, you can do it! Forge a new destiny for us! Ike, please... You've got to!

I don't need encouragement. I'd fight to the end no matter what. Ashera, you can't stop me. It doesn't matter if you're a goddess. It doesn't matter if I have no way to win. Fighting defines me, and I will not lose.

When will you tiresome gnats surrender?

Well, since we're still here, I guess we're still doing Sprit Patrol.

Believe it or not, Ike is one of the least suited people for attacking Ashera. Ragnell is actually the least accurate of all the SS-rank weapons (save for Balberith) at 85 hit, and Ashera's got sky high avoid. We can add 15% hit chance by using Parity, but if we do that, then we don't get to take advantage of Blood Tide or Ike and Soren's support.

Also, he's got his trademark low resistance, so Ashera's counterattacks really ruin his shit.

Seriously, how is it that Urvan has more accuracy than this damn sword?

Also, Ashera is, according to the script, supposed to have battle dialog, but I've never seen it play. What's up with that? Is this an EU translation thing? Here's Ike's.

It is tragic that you are too limited to see how hopeless this is. You cannot hope to defeat the divine.

You're right. We can't hope to defeat you.

Then why continue?

You haven't left us much choice. I'd rather die like this instead of being turned into some mindless statue.

Simpleminded fool...

Fortunately, Pelleas is still on standby, and can make everyone's damage disappear.

End of the third turn.

Here we go again. This one is a 50 Mt (65 Atk, -3 per 1 range) AoE light magic attack. This hurts a bit more than her physical AoE, but shouldn't be fatal to anyone on full health. Your physical guys all have really high HP, and everyone with low HP is probably a mage with like 40 resistance.

A Thunder Spirit appears. You can also see the team's health bars here. As you probably imagined, Gareth and Ike were hurt the most.

Spirit goes down.

AAAAAAAARRRRGGHH

It turns out that Balberith is not the best choice for taking on Ashera, mostly due to its shit accuracy, and the fact that its 3 Mt advantage over Rexaura gets partially eaten by the fact that Judge counts as light magic, and so not only becomes only a 2 Mt advantage but also makes the spell even less accurate than usual.

Lehran, you have joined my enemies?

My goddess... Never before have I defied you in even the least thing. But I have seen the error of my ways and wish to save the people whom I once desired to destroy. I am one man, and my life is precious. How much more precious are the lives of the countless multitudes?

Also, did you notice? Ashera won't attack Lehran. Does the Goddess of Order have an irrational emotional attachment?

Nasir gets in a shot, and doesn't mind being doubled in return due to his massive resistance and HP.

Pictured: Kurth, surrounded by Ena, Gareth, and Nasir. Besides the +10 strength and enough speed to double Ashera, he's also getting an extra +1 from his support with Ena, and the +10 skill that comes with the +10 strength represents a massively increased chance to actually land all this damage. The four dragons plus Reyson could quite conceivably end Ashera in a single turn. The only reason it doesn't happen often is because the dragons are more usefully employed to spread their bonuses around so lots of units can attack the auras. Oh, and that whole thing where being reduced to zero health doesn't seem to actually kill her. But since we're here, we might as well show this off.

Result.

Now, we could end this battle on this turn, but we have some unfinished business. So we're stalling for one more turn.

Nephenee has Provoke on. Thing is, Provoke, by design, will only distract the AI when no units are available to one-round-KO. Still though, this means we positioned everyone correctly and kept Ena and Nasir and Reyson protected from this single target, 50 Mt (58 Atk, -3/range) physical attack.

And spirits.

A few potshots on Ashera...

A good hit from Nolan...

Fiona brings Ashera down to 6 HP.

Now...

Mmm hmm...

Yes!

Eight capped stats on Nolan, motherfuckers.

I missed it earlier, and there isn't enough (interesting) dialogue in this mission to warrant a Bonus Update, so here's the conversation Micaiah can have with Lehran.

Um...

Yes?

You're Lehran, aren't you?

Yes.

You... Forgive me for asking, but... Aren't you my--

Can we talk about this later?

What? Oh, I mean, of course... Sorry to bother you...

Child, you couldn't possibly bother me. It's just, the talk you and I must have is going to take a long time. I don't think Ashera would wait for us to finish.

Oh... Very well.

What is it?

Oh, nothing... Never mind.

Micaiah?

Y-yes?

Looks like you could use some backup. I'm good with a staff, too, you know.

Th-thank you.

And, since we can't see it, here's Sanaki's... enlightening... conversation:

You finally made it, Sephiran.

Sanaki, I...

I was starting to wonder how I would punish you.

I'm sorry?

You are my subordinate, after all. I have decided that leaving one's empress to die is punishable by drowning in a pool of rancid butter.

Of course it is, my empress.

I hope you're a strong swimmer.

Right, now we can end this.

If you want to do this properly...

You have to do it yourself.

(And you have to use Ragnell. No other weapon, even blessed, will do.)

This isn't hinted at anywhere in the game, and although it seems... appropriate? ...in retrospect, you'd think that this would be hinted at somewhere in the battle, or at least in the dialogue you get if Ashera revives herself.

Anyway, when you command Ike to perform the fatal hit on Ashera (and if and only if the RNG determines that said hit will connect)...

We have to put an end to this. Take all the power I have.

Thank you. I'll use it well.

What of you? Are you leaving?

I am. But I believe it's for the best. This world does not need gods. We have always failed you. We've made you weak. That's why we must...go.

You don't have to leave.

Hm?

It's true, we don't have much use for gods. But, well... You show us what we should aspire to. We need inspiration. You give us a reason to grow. To become more than we are. And if we don't have that, Yune, we're nothing more than... statues. See?