'Heh, the War itself is one way, but my knowledge must increase. How much can I improve by slaughtering the enemy? How far can I push this body of mine?' Hector clenched and unclenched his hands in anticipation. "Is my stress so low because I am not home, or is it something about being here with these soldiers?"
"Are you sure he is not one of your cousins?" Queen Liza asked Elice. She eyed Hector as she made her assessment of him. From his bearing and overwhelming power while relaxing he gave off the feeling of previous leaders of Altean Nobility. "I he not from your late Great Granduncle's Faction? Are you sure he is not just playing weapons and is mostly a magic practitioner?"
"Mother I am sure of only what he told us. But I scarcely had time to find out more. He does want access to the Archives for some reason." Elice was not surprised her mother did not know if Hector was from another family or from a branch considering her doting on Marth the last few years. 'Our family's needs to do better at keeping check of everyone in the Royal line. But mother should be able to uncover something about him with her socializing. At least I hope so, for the sake of the soldiers gathered.'
Elice had noticed the glares from the soldiers who barely held their contempt they had for her. The fact she healed the captured soldiers more than them was not understandable as they were putting their lives on the line under such terrible numbers. The captives may have been close to death but that is no excuse when those loyal to you are in pain!
Marth and company continued to move forward towards escaping the outer area of town that circled the castle. The last hour had been extremely easy as the enemy seemed to be moving elsewhere with the occasional arrow fired for support and a spell bolt of dark magic fired from the castle. They stopped to take a little break and received grave news from a friendly source.
Sir Jagen and company were worse for wear, but just the fact that they were okay brought the morale up. Even Cain, a promising young knight, was alive, but his crestfallen look made Marth's stomach churn.
*Twak!* An arrow sailed through the air, hitting Cain in the shoulder. For the young knight's credit, he didn't cry out and just saw to his shoulder. Sir Jagen and the other mounted knights moved to engage the enemy.
"Cain, pass the message along, we will deal with this!" Sir Jagen took charge as he couldn't let any more Altean knights fall. Not after the last battle they had. "If this turns for the worse, make sure to get the Prince out of here!"
Sir Jagen had the look of a man resigned to his fate. He no longer has thoughts of hope that the Princess or Queen or in good condition.
"Cain, how are your wounds?" Marth moved over with concern as another soldier tended to the knight. Despite the protess toward the knight to not move, he just couldn't stop and fretted to speak, despite the increasing pain. "You should rest."
"These scratches? It's my pride you're wounding sire." He put on a brave front for just a moment. "…Anyway, we must talk. Sire, I am…I am to deliver to you His Majesty's last words."
"Last words?" Marth took a few steps back as those with him hung their heads low. "You don't mean…Father…"
"My condolences, sire. The king died valiantly on the fields of Gra. The traitors took from him the divine blade Falchion and gave no quarter to those of our soldiers who remained…" Biting back his anger as the vulnerary was applied to his wounds before getting wrapped up tight. "Grr! Sir Jagen and most of the veteran knights cut a path for us to escape to here!"
"I…I see…So they're all dead. Father, too…" Marth started to retreat further into himself as his emotions were running rampant.
"His last words were as follows: "Tell my son that I leave the future of Altea and our continent in his hands. He must rise now where I have fallen." Cain's voice was heavy and carried a confidence he himself didn't truly understand. "As Falchion's rightful heir, he has been born into greatness… Now…he must be great."
"…Father. I will try…" Marth looked up with a firmness that did not fit his character.
"…Sire, I…I cannot bear this! Failing to protect His Majesty…then leaving my brothers to die, slinking away like some coward…This indignity is too much to bear!" Cain cried out in anger as he ignored his wounds. "One day, I will repay them in kind. I will avenge the fallen…I swear it!"
"Cain, you speak for us both. When that day comes, we will punish them together:" Marth grabbed his rapier as he knew he had to change to be better for his people. "Gra, Doluna…all of them!"
Those with Marth dared to hope that this was the turning point, but the situation still needed to be resolved. Marth surprised them as he ordered everyone to help Sir Jagen.
.
Castle-
.
Hector and company had cleaned the castle out of so many soldiers that the echoes of their movement were the only thing that could be heard in the place. The Enthralled soldiers even had the chance to Class Change due to the number of enemies they killed and with the items provided by Hector. Even the Princess and Queen had gotten their hands dirty and cut down former allies, which earned the respect of their soldiers.
They had no choice as the soldiers fought under Hector's orders and guidance, leaving them open to attack if they did not fight back. Which preservation of their own life and the fact that they knew Marth would need them caused the two to fight back and finally swallow their overwhelming kindness.
"Humph!" Hector scoffed as he watched Princess Elice cut down an actual knight with a sword. Attacking in a small opening with her weapon was the best she could after the oppent was vastly weakened. "You sure you shouldn't be wielding Falchion with that sword arm of yours? Seriously, you have a knack for it as far as I see."
"Ha.. ha.. It's not for me to wield." Princess Elice stepped away and moved closer to her mother. "Falchion is always wielded by a male member of the family. It won't work for me."
"Bah, the sword, if it even has a will of its own, will work for you." Hector shook his head on this matter for the last time he hoped. "I have seen it work in the hands of a female before. But forget it, this kingdom is doomed with people like you at the helm. Prime for being taken over just to save the lives of the people."
Lucina weilded the blasted thing in the other Subsidary Dimension that id based off this one. So it is really not a gender thing. Then again they defvloped the "brands" or "seals" by that time.
"That is not for you to decide." Queen Liza said firmly. Her eyes caught the slight tenseness of the soldiers. Only a small portion of them looked ready to defend her as well as her daughter. "With the troops gathered here, you can help us reclaim the outer castle. Surely you will do the just thing and do so."
"Just thing?" Hector shook his head as he moved toward the inner castle corridor. "Instruct the troops to sweep the entire castle and barricade the place for now to keep them from getting a foothold once more. The castle has been reclaimed, and only those outside need to be dealt with. I will help a little further before I go to your Archives to check something."
Following behind with some protests, the Princess and Queen tried to convince Hector to help them more.Only partially trying to prevent him form going to the Archives. They didn't know why he wantd to go but caution was needed.
As they moved, the soldiers had dispersed from them to carry out the tasks needed. Leaving only 5 soldiers for both the Princess and the Queen as protection.
At the ledge, Hector looked out at the coming forces and smiled. The castle repelling the invaders caused Gra to redistribute their soldiers to take the castle back, which was the aim as it lessened the enemy soldiers' ransackingof the area and brought them to him.
"So many, yet I just don't have the troops to fight against all of them at once. Oh, how fun it would be to jump down there and fight all of them!" He raised his hand up and focused his power on his Dark Magic. Thinking of the overwhelming power taken from the Legendary Weapons so far, he puttered it down to help fuel the spell he practiced with Richard and the others to blend technquines of multiple fields. "Extinction Attack!"
*Pew!* Black darts poured out in almost a stream of magic that shook the walls near him from the intensity. The spell couldn't tell the difference more than Hector could in its target, but that was fine. 'This should slow the enemy down enough or cause a big wig to come out anyway!'
"AAAHHH!" Cries of alarm rang out in the city as several soldiers were blasted off their feet with one or two bolts of magic. The heavier troops were lifted two feet into the air before landing on their backs.
Those on mounts found themselves knocked off and sent into the air or slammed into the ground. The surviving members tried to scramble to safety, but another wave of the darts came out and didn't care about buildings or cart coverage.
The power was not high, but the volume continued to increase as Hector kept on with the spell to reduce the Gra soldiers or injure them long enough for the Altean troops to make their.
Whenever it looked as if he was going to stop, he took a small breath, unclenched his fists, and fired another barrage of darts out. The speed of the darts increases as well as the accuracy of hitting in center mass. The damage, however, did not change, which was fine.
Queen Liza and Princess Elice watched on in awe and fear.
"Lord Hector," Princess Elice took a tentative step while addressing him. She received a raised eyebrow signaling he was paying attention to her at least. "How steeped are you in Dark Magic? I have never seen this spell or heard of any cast like it in succession."
"As of recently, it has become the magic I am looking into the most and is my highest, but my Light, Stave, and Anima are two Tiers behind it. Which is.. troubling for now on a personal front. Anima magic is a lot better at changing terrain and messing with weather phenomena to help the land."
"Anima magic that can reshape the land? That shouldn't be possible by any human." Princess Elice was shocked at such a revelation. "How many casters do you know that can do that?"
"Hmm, a few off the top of my head, of course, more can do i,t they just are not aware or lack the drive to do so. The fools who follow the corpse Goddess Naga might be able to do it easily. Then again, most of the left over Divine Dragons are trash across the Realm. There is the heiress Tiki, who is asleep, I suppose but.. well she.. is better off dead. In my opinion, anyway."
"The Dragon King Naga left a child behind?" Queen Liza furrowed her brows in disbelief. "Not just a Legend about the Divine Dragons..." Bracing herself she stepped forward and could see the sweat go down Hector's face as he fired another barrage of darts. ".. so Anri going to the temple was really true."
"You speak as if you did not believe it mother?" Princess turned and asked her shocked mother.
"The proof was not enough besides the words of those in Nobility within Alttea..."
"Do not speak stupidly, your highness." Hector spoke coldly as he berated her when turning to her. "Not really a Legend as it was only a handful of generations ago from his death. There are actually several people who are alive since then and have valid records of what took place. Yet so far the people of this foolish nation have forgotten everything. Hell, considering how stupid Anri was.."