Wait, Zephiel's the bad guy? Let's Play Fire Emblem: Sword of Seals!

Sweet screenshot!

These Wendy & OJ supports sure are exciting!

Yeah, I know. :/

...Well, anyway. Welcome back. Last time, we drove Bern's forces from the Etrurian capitol city of Aquleia and killed Narshen dead.

At the request of King Mordred, Roy headed for the Tower of the Saint on the outskirts of Aquleia.



...worship for Saint Elimine, one of the Eight Heroes, and in the tower lay various holy object relating to her. However, this sacred tower was now under the control of Bishop Windam, who had rebelled against the Elimine Church by Roartz's order.

Join us now as we fight back and win...

Chapter 16x: The Pinnacle of Light





Windam: ...who turned against the Church and took over this tower?

Soldier: Sir, Lord Roartz's message is that he 'doesn't want to waste time dealing with useless bishops who cannot even tame the Elimine Church.'

Windam: That is because that damned Yodel got in my way...

Soldier: Well yes... But even if you tell me about it...

Man, these messengers are getting snarkier with every chapter.

Windam: ... All right, fine... Then this is our last mission. If we are to die, then the Lycia Alliance Army is going down with us! Prepare the 'Heavenly Arrows!'

Soldier: Please wait! If we use that, it will hit our allies as well.

Windam: Quiet! I do the ordering around here! ...I shall show them... hehehe...!



Douglas: ...Aureola Spell book, lies here.

Roy: Thank you, Lord Douglas. You are helping us, who were your enemies just a while earlier.

Douglas: You do not have to thank me. The king ordered me to help you. Do not worry about it.

Roy: ......

Douglas: Besides, you are saviors of Etruria. It is an honor to be able to fight alongside you.

Roy: Lord Douglas...



This chapter was pretty much borrowed whole-cloth for The Sacred Stones (the top floor of the Tower of Vaini, if you want to be specific) so if you've already played through that map then feel free to skip this part.

Anyway, this map isn't too difficult, but it's a pain in the ass nonetheless. A lot of the enemies here are wielding long-range staves and spellbooks like Bolting and Silence, so you'll want to bring along a few mages to wear them down with safety. If you've already promoted your mages and gave them a bunch of staves, this isn't too hard of a task, but the difficulty of the map increases dramatically if you're lacking any healing.

Also, the 'Heavenly Arrows' Windam mentioned will shoot down a random column of tiles each turn, dealing 10 damage to whomever it strikes. As such, you'll want to move carefully and try to avoid them - the columns which have enemies starting on them are safe, so try and move to those spots as you make your way to the top.

The biggest danger is the fact that Windam is holding a Berserk staff, so make sure you've got a few Restore staves on hand. Or, failing that, a mage with decent Res and someone to use the Barrier staff on him.



Douglas will be joining us from this chapter on, and what can I say? He's got good strength and great defense, but he's so s l o w. If you've got a few speedwings you could make him useful, but otherwise there are better options out there.



He works well with the other Etrurian generals, as well as Elphin and his daughter Lalum. Not much variety, but I wouldn't count them out just yet.



Roy/Lilina activated sometime last chapter, so let's bring it up to an A-rank before we move forward...

Roy: The other day?

Lilina: I was on some nostalgia trip, remember? We're in a war... Of course things won't be the same...

Roy: Well, some things will.

Lilina: Like what?

Roy: I'll be at your side, and you'll be at mine.

Roy: Master of the Eliwood style of the romantic arts.

Lilina: Huh...

Roy: We can't go back to the past, but we can shape the future. Then we should work to make a future the same as, or even better than the psat, right?

Lilina: *laughs*

Roy: ?

Lilina: Roy, you're showing off...

Roy: D-Do you think so? Yeah, I was thinking that didn't sound like me...

Lilina: But...

Roy: ?

Lilina: Thanks...

Roy: Lilina...

Lilina: We'll always be together... Right?

Roy: ... Of course.



This is a shitty shot of it, but anyway. The Heavenly Arrows shoot past pretty quickly, so it's hard to catch a glimpse of where they come from before it's too late.



They can pile on the damage if you're not careful, so make sure to bring healing so things don't escalate too quickly.

Anyway, the two mages approaching our position are ready for battle, but a quick shot from Wendy and Lance are enough to deal with them.



Next, Ray and Lilina heal up the damage taken from the Heavenly Arrows.



Hey, Roy/Wolt activated this turn.

Wolt: Master Roy, that conversation was settled. More importantly, this is a battlefield. You never know where enemies are hiding. Please be sure to keep on your guard.

Roy: Wolt... You're starting to sound like Merlinus and Marcus.

Wolt: Am I? Thank you! That is such praise. My goal is to become a loyal servant like them.

Roy: ...Are you serious?

Roy took the words right out of my mouth.

Wolt: Of course!

Roy: I see.

Wolt: Master Roy? Is something wrong?

Roy: Nothing. Leave me alone for a while, will you?

Wolt: Master Roy...?



In the final chapter of the support, Wolt confronts Roy and asks him wants on his mind. Roy then confides to Wolt, mentioning that he's been a bit frustrated with how someone (i.e. Wolt) has been acting around him. With the grievances aired, the two set off for battle again, but after the fact Wolt realizes that the person Roy was talking about was himself, and hilarity ensues.



Also note that, once you've maxed out a units supports, they'll glow green like so...



Lance and Alan begin their assault on the main towers, though a Bolting-wielding sage in the center takes a chunk out of the latter's HP.



Tate, Ray and Saul begin damage-control, taking out the rest of the enemies in the area...



And Lilina takes aim at the sage and fires back.

As I mentioned, Oujay/Lilina is easily one of the better supports in the game, so I'll be taking it up to B-rank...

Oujay: L-Lady Lilina!

Lilina: Oh, don't act so tense like that... I just wanted to talk to some people from Ostia.

Oujay: Um... all right.

Lilina: Talk to me. Let's see... Tell me about your hometown.

Oujay: My hometown? well... It was just an ordinary village. We were poor... The reason I came all the way out to the city was to make money to feed my younger brothers...

Lilina: You have brothers? How nice. Do you have any sisters?

Oujay: ... I have one sister who's a little younger than me.

Lilina: Really? What's she like? Is she cute? Does she look like you?

Oujay: I... I was still young, so I don't really remember. But I remember holding her hand. Her hand... it was so small and delicate.

Lilina: That's so sweet... I've always wanted a younger sister, too.



Anyway, the enemy's ranged attacks fire off again, though only the Bolting manages to connect.



This is what I mean by you having to be careful. A stray Heavenly Arrow managed to run its way through our soldiers on the stairway, hitting all five for 10 damage. It's nothing much, but if any of them were wounded from the Bolting it could've killed them.



Speaking of which, Lilina fires another volley and takes out the sage, levelling up.



Ray and Saul heal up our guys a bit more from the damage...



Though even still, another mage gets into position and fires off a shot, hitting Lance. He levels up, however...

This is looking to become a problem, so Lilina and Ray team up a bit to wither the tome down.



Saul, meanwhile, erects a barrier around Ray, for a more important task...



A mercenary moves up to Tate and slashes at her for four damage...



While the mage fires again at Lance, though this time he misses.



Lilina's luck must be in the shitter this time, since not only does she get silenced but she gets nailed by a Heavenly Arrow, too.



Thankfully, we've prepared for just an occasion...



Windam: All of you! Everything shall be destroyed!

Man, this guy's got issues.



As mentioned earlier, Windam's equipped with a Berserk staff, which is far and away the most annoying status ailment in the history of everything, ever. A berserked enemy will strike at the nearest target, friend or foe, so you could wind up losing a character through no fault of your own. Thankfully, the blast misses here.



On the east side, Wendy lures over a cavalier by accident and shrugs off his Javelin.



Tate and Alan, meanwhile, are busy impaling some others on the west side of the tower with Javelins of their own.



The Heavenly Arrows work to our benefit this time! Though it does manage to hit Wendy on its way through...

Oh well, we can always heal up.



Normally, this would be cause for alarm, but the Delphi Shield we stole last chapter means that Tate can regularly engage archers without fear of reprisal. Hooray!



Lance and Alan pull out their axes to deal with a nearby Paladin.



Remember that barrier we put around Ray? With it up, his Res is high enough that Windam doesn't have a shot at berserking him. By far, the easiest way to wear down that staff of his.



A few more cavaliers charge Alan on the west side, but run into some pretty bad luck.



Wendy, meanwhile, throws an axe into a paladin's side...



And Oujay draws his Light Brand to finish him off, leveling up.



With two Bolting users down, Lilina decides to use the weapon's last few usages to indescriminately kill any surrounding enemies. Here, she takes aim at the mage that silenced her.



Lance pulls his axe out here to deal with a surviving Cavalier...

And Tate takes out the other.



In the center, Ray dodges the last shot of Berserk thrown at him, meaning that we can now move in relative safety.



The generals unite to take out a few more enemies here.



Lilina, meanwhile, shoots a cavalier in the face.



Tate ends the turn by killing off the cavalier she attacked last turn.



A mercenary attacks Oujay during the enemy phase. Though he managed to dodge, the strain was too much for Oujay's weapon, resulting in it snapping.



As such, this attack from a cavalier goes unanswered... for now.



Lilina uses up her last shot of Bolting in a pre-emptive strike on this mage here.



And Wendy and Saul kill off a few more enemies on the eastern side.



Wolt takes another hit from those damn arrows.



This is how things stand with Douglas's group, by the by. There are a few more enemies to their north that they'll lure in to deal with first.

Like so.



Oujay and Wendy take a pair of hits here from another arrow...



Wolt, meanwhile, gets healed up by Lilina.



At this point, Ray moves ahead of the group to deal with the remaining mage on the east side. He deals with it easily enough.



The big reason why Ray's moving ahead and the others aren't is because of this bishop here. He's wielding a Purge tome, so we'll want to either wear it down or lure him in to kill.



For now, we'll go the wear down route.



Lilina gets hit from another arrow (damn those things) but she's the only healer on that side. Thus, she'll have to grin and bear it for now.



The others move out of the bishop's range while Ray takes another hit...



Wendy gets healed up and Ray dodges again. Ho-hum.



However, that last shot was enough to put the bishop in Ray's range, leaving him open to attack.

Yep.



With the bishop dealt with, the others begin moving north while Ray starts lightning rodding down the final mage.



A bishop holding a Silence staff spawns in the north, but Ray moves into position to block him off.



On the west side, our mounted units enact a more aggressive strategy, using their superior move to rush the bishop.



Alan takes a hit from the bishop's tome though...



As does Ray, though he at least gets a level up out of it.



We really go to town on the magic users here, Ray dodges a shot of Bolting while draining the new bishop while Alan takes aim at the bishop.

Oops. Oujay's been limping for the past while and I forgot to heal him. Saul rectifies this right away, leveling up from it.



A few more long-range spells go off next turn...



Alan rushes to the center, taking out a sage for a level up.



Tate, meanwhile, finishes off the bishop before he can try anything funny.



Lance tries to follow suit with a kill of his own, but he misses both swings. Not that he could kill the sniper anyway, but still.



Ray has secretly developed into one of our best characters. I'm... I'm so proud. :')

The sniper fires a shot at Tate, but the Long Bow's inaccuracy coupled with Tate's new shield make it no problem.



Oujay and Saul attack one sniper on the east side...



And Lance, Alan and Tate take out the other.



Ray moves to rejoin the group after his bishop-killing antics.



Douglas dodges the final shot of Bolting while Saul kills a knight.



Our healers pull out their healing staves one last time...



And Wendy takes out the last enemy on the map.



And that's all of them, I think. Barring any reinforcements, we've only got Windam left to deal with.



And those Heavenly Arrows...

Bishop fight go!



Ray takes the time to heal Lilina up, since she's been hurting pretty bad for a while now.



Wolt joins in on the fighting and lucks into a critical, taking Windam out once and for all.



Might as well get in a little bit more healing before the fight ends.



Ah, now here's a better shot of those damn blasted arrows we've been dealing with before we go.



Yep.

Soldier: Master Roy, I think we found the spell book.

Roy: Lord Douglas, is this...?



Douglas: ...the Aureola spell book, Saint Elimine's weapon.

Roy: May we use it?

Douglas: The king said to use anything in the tower that you found useful. And the Elimine Church is on our side as well. If we still have trouble, then I can negotiate.

Roy: All right. Thank you, Lord Douglas.

Woo, another one down!



Guinevere: ... Is it that we must attack Bern as well after Etruria?

Roy: ! Did someone inform you?

Guinevere: No. ...But I knew that it would happen eventually.

Roy: ... We cannot leave Bern running around freely any longer. I am sure that it would be hard to see your nation invaded, but...

Guinevere: ... Roy, I will give this to you.

Roy: What is this?

Guinevere: It is Bern's greatest treasure... the Fire Emblem.

Roy: What!?

Guinevere: In the south of Bern lies a temple called the Cave of Seals. In it lies the sword that our founder, Hartmut, used.

Roy: Is it... one of the Divine Weapons?

Guinevere: It is said to be so. However, the sword was so immensely powerful because it was made to slay the 'Dark Dragon', the leader of the Dragons during the Dragon Human wars. Therefore, after the war, the sword was sealed in the cave. The Fire Emblem is the key to open the door to it.

Roy: The key...

Guinevere: My brother... is trying to force the world into submission with military strength. That is something that is not forgivable, no matter what the reason.

Roy: ......

Guinevere: To stop him, all we can do is defeat the Dragons that are by his side.

Roy: Princess Guinevere...

Guinevere: ... My name shall be stained in history, as the one who betrayed her nation.

Roy: No...

Guinevere: I shall be hated all my life as a traitor. Roy, promise me one thing. When we invade Bern, please do not harm the Civilians...

Roy: I will not. Please trust me.

Guinevere: ... Thank you.



Before we go, we pick up the Aureola tome, which will go to Saul once he's ready. And so...



Next time: And now we're off to... Sacae? Oh God damn it.

Having characters named Roy and Ray really throws me off sometimes... Roy and his tomes, Ray and his swords... @_@

It's a good thing Raven isn't in this game either, otherwise the confusion would just get worse. :s

Also: Upon further playing, it seems I stand corrected! It looks like we're going to Ilia after all. Ignore my earlier comments.

Welcome back to Let's Play Fire Emblem Sword of Seals. Last we left off, we just finished polishing off the Etrurian Capitol and took the Pinnacle of Light, Aureola, for ourselves to use against Bern.



...forcing out the Coup d'etat Militia. Roartz and Arcard were driven out of Etruria and fled north to Ilia, which was under Bern's control. Ilia, or the Frozen Highlands, is a land with short summers and long winters. With little arable land, the nation's main source of income was sending out mercenaries to fight for pay.

The now free Kingdom of Etruria joined its forces with the Lycia Alliance Army. Now a joint force under the name of the Etrurian Army, their first mission was to enter Ilia to finish off the Coup d'etat Forces. After that, they would launch direct attacks on Bern. Roy, nominated as leader of the Etrurian Army, had the powerful support of the Elimine Church, getting the people on his side.

However, Roy had to face the freezing Cold of Ilia, as well as the elite troops under General Murdock, the leader of the 3 Dragon Lords. In addition, some of the powerful Ilian Knights had turned to Bern's side. As a start, Roy headed for Castle Raemy, located on the Ilian border.

Join us today, as we march into Ilia through...

Chapter 17: The Path Through the Ocean



(The translator futzed up the chapter names here, I presume - The Bishop's Teachings should be the title of the first chapter on the other route...)



And how!

Gale: Yes. Lord Murdock, did we really not have to aid him?

Murdock: Those were the king's orders. Besides, the Bern army has no use for a man who cannot clean up his own mess.



And cue the two useless lords from Etruria.

Murdock: Lord Arcard, I will entrust this land of Raemy to you. Lord Roartz, I will have you take the land of Edessa. Please make preparations to retaliate.

Arcard: What!> Raemy is right on the border! The enemy will arrive in no time!

Murdock: True. But this position also allows us to easily launch an attack on Etruria. Make sure this castle does not fall.

Roartz: Edessa... It is in the outer wastelands of Ilia...

Murdock: You would have plenty of time to prepare your defenses, would you not?

Arcard: ... You... could not take back Etruria for us?

Murdock: It is possible. But when we win, Etruria will go under Bern's rule.

Roartz: No! That will not do.

Murdock: Then I suggest that you find a way to deal with the situation yourself. Excuse us.

Arcard: ......



Murdock: Don't worry. Berns code says that every individual must be able to deal with his own consequences... The enemy leader, was his name Roy?

Gale: Yes.

Murdock: I must admit, he has done a superb job rebuilding the Alliance Army even after we crushed it so... If I have the chance, I would like to have the honor of fighting him, one on one.



Roy: Bishop Yodel, I thank you for everything. Thanks to the church, we were able to proceed thus far with ease.

Yodel: Please. IF you had not captured Aquleia, we would be suffering from prosecution under Bern. This is nothing in comparison for what you did for us.

Roy: I am glad that I could be of use to you.

Yodel: Now... May I ask a very important favour?

Roy: Yes, anything that I am capable of.

Yodel: If you find out anything else about the Dragons...

Roy: I understand. If I discover anything new, I will report to you immediately.

Yodel: Thank you! ...Oh yes, I must tell you something. At a certain time of day, the sea level drops, exposing a sand bar that can be crossed.

Roy: A sand bar?

No, a salad bar.

Yodel: Yes. If you were to go all the way around to attack the castle, it would take much time. However, if the sand bar were crossed, it would not take as long.

Roy: I see.

Yodel: But please be careful. Rushing is not always the best tactic to win a war.

Roy: Yes. Thank you for your advice.

Yodel: Ofcourse. Then, may Saint Elimine bless the Etrurian Army!



This map is ridiculously easy, especially since we've already promoted our units. There are few promoted enemies on the map, the village, armory and colossem are available right from the start, and a decent formation is all that's needed to wait out all of the reinforcements. As Yodel said, the sand dune will rise partway through the battle and will shorten the trip to Arcard dramatically, so once you've finished off the aggressive units on this map you can use it to cross over and take the fight to the castle. All in all, nothing too bad, and the first map since... chapter 6, I believe, that I was able to get on nearly the first try.

One thing to note is that this is the last battle where we can take advantage of the colosseum freely - there's only one more after this and using it would mean sacrificing the chance at acquiring the Divine Weapon on this route. If you haven't promoted any of your units yet, or want to bring a few underleveled recruits up to par to use them, then be sure to take advantage of this opportunity.

On that note, I crunched the numbers, and it seems like we'll have an open spot in the 18-unit chapter as a thief isn't needed there. As such, I'll bow to the masses and bring Fir along to level up, so you guys can quit grumbling about that. I also brought Sophia, Hugh and Cath along as well, with the intention of one of the former two replacing Elphin for said chapter while Cath can benefit from a slight increase in sturdiness from the levels. Since I was already set on arena abusing this chapter, I figured, why not a few more?

This is the first chapter on a split path, by the way. If Thany's and Tate's collective gained EXP is greater than Sue's and Shin's, you're on this route. If it's the other way around, you'll be heading for Sacae, which is significantly trickier from what I've heard.



The chapter opens with a bang, with Gonzales and Geese criticalling the fuck out of the two cavaliers to the north. Talk about overkill...



Wendy takes a chunk out of the paladin as well, though it's only when he goes after Geese that he falls.



A ballista archer to the east takes a shot at Gonzales, but he's meaty enough that he can shrug it off.



Next turn, Oujay draws his sword to take out the mage to the north.



Rutger, meanwhile, nonchalantly dodges a bolt fired at him.



In the south, Saul begins firing away at the cavaliers approaching from the south.

Lilina takes a break from the fighting to drop by the village, picking up Tina's Staff. It's the third of the Hasha no Tsurugi cameo weapons, and acts as an intermediary between the Heal and Mend staves with a base heal of 15 HP.



Roy, on the other hand, drops by the armory to check what's in stock. Ooh, it's got Killer weapons - once we've bolstered our funds a bit from the colosseum, we'll pick up a bunch to bring with us.



The battle's easy enough that we can spare a few units to start arena abusing right now in the middle of the fighting - with our melee fighters guarding the east and our mages the south, we're pretty much well-insulated from any incoming attack.



Wendy's in range of the ballista, and begins syphoning away its usages with her immense defenses.



Saul, meanwhile, continues blasting away, targeting the mages and bishop approaching from the south side.



A few turns in, and the sand bar appears. It's just like magic!



Arcard: What!?

Soldier: Well... according to the locals, the tide pulls out at this time of day...

Arcard: What! You didn't know about this!

Soldier: But, sir, we are not from these parts! We are not familiar with the geography of this land!

Excuses, excuses.

Arcard: Damn! Charge! Prevent the enemy from crossing that path!



Roy: Did the path in the sea appear?

Merlinus: Yes. Bishop Yodel was right about this.

Roy: Did the enemy know about this?

Merlinus: Actually, they seem to be in a panicked state.

Roy: All right, then let's not miss this chance! Charge!

Don't listen to Roy here - reinforcements will start spawning from the fortresses in a few turns and it's far safer to just seal yourself up in the corner and wait them out.



Down near the bottom, Saul attacks the Purger and softens him up, and on the counter he comes into contact with an anima tome we haven't seen yet. Fimbulvetr is the second strongest anima tome in the game just under Forblaze. We won't be able to get a tome of our own though, as it's pretty much entirely enemy-only.

Anyway, Saul levels up after picking the mage's bones clean, but I missed the shot. It was a magic-only level up, from what I can remember.



Seems everyone's out to get Saul here, huh.



Up back in the north, Gonzales, Geese, Wendy and Oujay have completely blocked off the sandbar to prevent any of the enemies from passing through it. Geese criticals an approaching paladin with his axe, leveling up.



Stupid Purger sneaked out of range, resulting in him getting off another shot. The ballista archer also gets off a shot, annoyingly enough.



The enemy's reinforcements spawn, a pair of cavaliers and archers, spawn this turn and will for the next four. In addition, a pair of pegasus knights (!) will spawn in the southern fortresses, which we'll lure away by moving Wolt and Rutger further south and into their range.



Later on, the cavaliers charge Geese on the sandbar and get cut down ruthlessly by his axe.



Saul, meanwhile, finishes off the Purge-using bishop, raising his Light rank to B in the proces. Two more to go!

Geese continues being absurd here...



...While Wolt and Rutger get to work on the pegasus knights.



Yep.



It's odd that they would single out Geese from the four, but hey! Free kills.



The pegasus knight gets sassy by attacking Rutger up-close, but she ends up paying for it when he criticals her right back.



During his waltz with the cavaliers, Geese levels up. It's a good one, too.



Anyway...

As far as difficulty goes, I think we can safely say that we're over the hump now.



Doesn't mean we can't keep growing, as Wolt is eager to remind me.



Our north team wipes out the last of the cavalier reinforcements.



And now for the exciting conclusion of the Wendy/Oujay support...

Oujay: How are you doing, Wendy?

Wendy: I'm doing well, of course. I can't be complaining if I want to be a strong Armor Knight.

Oujay: Yes, me too. If I want to be a powerful mercenary.

Wendy: ...Oujay, thank you.

Oujay: Wh-What?

Wendy: I've been able to keep trying because I'm competing with you. If I didn't have you with me, I probably would have given up, saying: "It wouldn't have been possible for a girl anyway."

Oujay: ...I feel the same way. I've been able to come this far thanks to you. We're even.

Wendy: Yes. But I still won't allow myself to lose to you.

Oujay: I'll throw those words right back at you, Wendy!



The pegasus knights head straight for Wolt, since he's unable to attack at close range.



Not that it matters, but still.



Though the reinforcements are gone, it seems like Gonzales (or is it Geese?) tipped off the remaining cavaliers to the east and lured them to the group.



They just keep coming, don't they...

Gonzales and Geese kill every single one of these guys here - berserkers don't mess around.



The last one manages to survive just barely when Geese's Killer Axe breaks...



However, Wendy, powered by her support with Oujay, is more than capable of bringing him down.



The last few pegasus knights make a run at Saul, but he ends up killing them on the counter. And with them gone, it's time for another rousing rendition of the colosseum.

If you don't particularly care about the level ups, just keep scrolling downwards until you get to the large red X.

As you can imagine, this took a really Goddamn long time, but most of it was spent in front of a TV watching movies so it wasn't all bad. We also ended up with an absurd amount of money, as well - in fact, a couple more thousand and we could very well have paid Eliwood's way to the Dread Isles in FE7...



During the grind, the Ray/Sophia support activated so we'll be taking that one a bit further...

Sophia: ......

Ray: Hey! Can you not hear me, are you just ignoring me?

Sophia: ...Uh... ...Me?

Ray: Is there anyone else here? Geez, are you deaf, or just plain stupid?

Sophia: ......

Ray: Anyway, I heard you use ancient dark magic. Is it true?

Sophia: ......

Ray: Let me see your spell books. I don't think I've ever seen... Ow! What the... Did you just do that?

Sophia: ...Please ...don't touch... me...

Ray: ...Well well... You dare stand up to me?

Sophia: ......

Ray: Ah, fine. I'll leave you alone for now. But you're showing me that spell book next time we meet!

Sophia: ......



More importantly, it's time we promote our underleveled units (Hugh will have to go without for now, but we'll be getting a Guiding Ring in the next chapter or so so it won't be long until he gets his due.)



First off the promotion block is Fir, gaining a sizeable boost in stats as well as the wonderful crit bonus Rutger and the berserkers have. The big weakness of the female swordmaster is her strength cap (22 instead of the male's 24) but she's still quite powerful nevertheless.

Sophia promotes just after Fir, and she too gains a nice boost in stats. Her magic is turning out particularly beastly, being several points above what it should be at this point. Five more level ups in the stat and she'll have maxed it out.



With that finally done (seriously, the things I do for you guys), we start to make our way across the sand dune.



Annoyingly enough, Geese gets knocked out by a blast from a Sleep staff, courtesy of the bishop to the east.



Thankfully, Gonzales alone is more than enough to sweep the map.



During the scuffle, he pulls in another level up.



Fir and Gonzales dodge a few attacks thrown their way, though it's the sleep staff that finally does the former in.

A few more attacks bring the bodyguards surrounding Arcard in.



Gah, that stupid sleep spell from earlier made it so that Fir's under constant fir from the ballista. Lousy, little...



...Well, anyway.



The fight with Arcard starts off strong, with Sophia nailing him with a blast from her Flux tome.



Afterwards, Lilina and Oujay follow up with their own attacks, bringing the lord down for good.



Arcard: ... noble! I must not... die... here... Guh!



Booya.



Long but easy... I'm not sure whether or not I should love this chapter or despise it. Anyway, time to move on.

Merlinus: What a pathetic ending for one who became so powerful.

Roy: Well, last year I didn't think I would be doing this either. Maybe fate can turn out in the most unlikely way... And that might be true for Bern, too.

Merlinus: ...? Master Roy, what is that you are holding in your hand?

Roy: Oh, this? This is the Fire Emblem.

Merlinus: Oh... So this tiny gem is...

Roy: Princess Guinevere wanted me to keep it. It seemed... difficult for her to give it to me... She must have been hoping to end the war peacefully until there was no hope left...

Merlinus: Hm... Trust between siblings? It didn't seem likely on the outside.

Roy: Why not?

Merlinus: Because the enemy is Zephiel, the king of Bern! It is said that he murdered his own fahter, so I didn't think that he would be moved by family trust...

Roy: What!? He killed his own father?

Merlinus: Didn't you know, Master Roy? Zephiel took the throne because the former king had died. But because the former king's death had been so sudden, there are many rumors going around.

Roy: And one of them is...

Merlinus: ... That Zephiel assassinated him.

Roy: ... Does Princess Guinevere know about this?

Merlinus: She must know something about it, if not all.

Roy: ......

Hmm...



Next time: Yeah, you might as well ignore the next few chapter titles.

Go Sophie! Go Sophie! Go!

You have my permission to ditch Fir.

Is Ray always this much of an asshole?

If so, I vote for replacing him with Sophia.

Nah, he's just putting on airs at the moment so Sophia won't notice how much she caught him off guard. This becomes more apparent later on in the support, as we'll soon see.