Oops, extra long chapter! Well, it’s the season finale. I adjusted the gatecracker battle, because the Garleans would be rank fools not to put cannons on top of their walls, just letting the Alliance waltz up unopposed except for a paltry handful of flying machines. (I’m sure part of that is game render limitations, so I’m just breaking the limit.)

Tidbit that didn’t make it into the story: I headcanon the Temple Knights were training with the Immortal Flames in Thanalan for a few months to acclimatize to the arid environment. Also they’re on double water rations so no one sweats to death. Even if Coerthas used to be warmer, it’s not like it was hot. It’s like Scandinavians going to the Mediterranean – you can’t just throw them in there and expect them to operate as normal.

For Zenos fight I had to rely on an old standby boss-fight-inspo song: Blue Skies and a Battle from FE3H (which I haven’t played because I don’t want to play such a sad game).

I would really love for Ala Mhigo to have a hub city zone (like Ul’dah or Kugane) using the dungeon tileset, those textures are PRETTY.

Chapter 63: Reunion

 

Chapter 64: For Ala Mhigo

Tam tried to take stock of the last hour. Fordola was in Alliance custody. Krile was safely behind friendly lines, with Urianger. Urianger speculated that Fordola had been given an artificial Echo through those experiments on Krile, and his device, inspired by Alisaie’s testimony, had been to disrupt it. Rinala had arrived and Raubahn sent her to give his sword Tizona to Pipin, and Tam had gone along to hang out. Now how did Tam get from Pipin to… wolfmen, again?

“If your claims were true, we would gladly sheathe our blades and embrace as brothers,” said the towering Lupin soldier wearing Garlean gear. “But since they must surely be false, we would be traitors to accept! Our lives and those of our loved ones, forfeit! Words are air! You will prove the truth of your tale on the battlefield, or die in dishonour!”

“If you would but hear my tale-” Alphinaud began desperately, but summoning his Obsidian Carbuncle anyway.

“I am the White. I am Hakuro!” howled the Lupin. “And I will be your opponent! Have at you!”

“Must we fight to prove that we need not fight?” Alphinaud asked in angry incredulity.

Tam jumped in, smacked the wolf around the head with the haft of his spear, and backflipped away again. “My stars, you can definitely tell he’s Doman. Pride up to the clouds, cherishing honour above life, and with a samurai’s inability to hear things they don’t want to.”

“Please don’t… insult our future allies!” Alphinaud replied, dodging a katana swing and casting a fairly mild Ruin back.

“I will stop when they stop being frustrating,” Tam said stubbornly. “Who uses a duel in place of logic?? The Domans and the Ishgardians, that’s who. I mean, if it’s not true, the Garleans will happily tell you so, and not get embarrassed and angry because they’re trying to cover it up.”

The two of them really should have been resting, but Pipin had gotten wind of the Garleans moving in reinforcements, and those reinforcements happened to be Doman in origin, and Alphinaud was determined to get them on the side of the Alliance to prevent further loss of life. Which was an excellent goal, and Tam was going to do everything in his power to help him fulfil it… while complaining about the stiffness of samurai the whole time.

It took a hefty beating, but eventually the Lupin conceded defeat. “Enough. You are every bit the warriors you claim to be. You fight with honour and restraint. You could have killed my men, and perhaps even me… but you did not. For this, I thank you.”

“You’re lucky you got me, the sworn pacifist, and not Vivienne,” Tam drawled. “She would have smacked you around after you surrendered just on principle.” Vivienne said when the battle was done, not her opponent.

“Warriors brave and true!” Hakuro went on hastily. “I pray you tell us of the battle for Doma’s liberation.”

Tam looked up at the moon. Someday he’d get the boy to rest. In the meantime, he wondered about the Echo while Alphinaud nattered away. Tam barely understood the power he had, for good or ill, convenient or inconvenient, innate or artificial. But it wasn’t innate for him, not until he’d opened his eyes in the Black Shroud for the first time and found his head spinning. From a creeping dark night filled with horror and madness, to a spring morning in the woods… He reached up to his right eye, where that maddening flicker persisted and was getting worse.

What had Hydaelyn done to him? For if she was this entire world, it was surely all her fault. In his homeland, he was quick, and clever, and stubborn. And that was all. Magic was the province solely of unicorns. But here he had some basic level of magic; he could Teleport, and jump like a kalma-sized flea – and wasn’t that a horrifying thought – and every thrust of his lance was impossibly fast and had sparkly lights that went along with it. And that was pretty minor magic, looking at every one of the other Warriors of Light.

He’d wondered if the dizziness had been blood loss, but he’d looked down – with two working eyes – and seen no blood – and he’d felt better in a few minutes anyway.

If it had just been that, he would have been wildly super-powered by the standards of his home, and on par with most other people here in Eorzea. But the Echo, the Echo… What caused it? Who got it? What was it supposed to do? What did the Ascians know about it?

And did it matter? No one could answer these questions, and he would do what he would do regardless.

Alphinaud bid farewell to the Lupin and turned back to Tam, slumping his shoulders and sighing. “I dream of a day when folk accept my words as truth without demanding that I prove them through feats of strength. But come, we must away.”

“Yes, it’s bedtime for you, young man,” Tam said. “If you want to be anywhere near the front lines tomorrow. Come on.” Before Alphinaud could figure out what he was doing, he’d scooped him up and set him on his shoulders. He could carry the boy, he wasn’t tired yet.

“Er… thanks,” Alphinaud said, a little awkwardly. “Do you suppose the Garleans really do have Omega in their possession?”

“Should’ve asked your new friends,” Tam said. “No idea. But I do note a lack of giant holes in or near the city, unless it landed in one of the lochs. Remember it blasted through that mountain back in the Fringes.”

“Which could simply mean they located it where it fell and brought it in using other means,” Alphinaud said, and was quiet a minute. “Perhaps we should ensure that Cid is nearby.”

“Sure, couldn’t hurt,” Tam said. “Although I thought Nero was the Omega expert?”

“He claimed to be the expert,” Alphinaud said. “I would believe either would do in terms of expertise, but I trust Cid far more. And I do not know where Nero might be found.”

“Sure. Why don’t you give him a call, then, while I walk us?”

 

They returned to camp to report to Pipin and tell him to tell everyone not to attack any wolves tomorrow, and then to get what sleep they could. They found Rinala back with Raubahn again, both with a mug in their hands. “Apologies for running off like that,” Alphinaud said. “I hope you have been well.”

Rinala smiled. “I’m doing okay. I was going to visit R’nyath’s family, but then I ran into my old conjury teacher and he wanted to help, so I’ve been in Gridania instead.”

“It seems to be working,” Alphinaud said approvingly, sitting with them. “Glad to see you back with us.” Tam went to lean on a wall nearby to listen. He wasn’t so sure. Nobody fixed long-standing health issues in a week.

Rinala turned back to Raubahn. “What will you do after the battle?”

“Hmm.” Raubahn was trying to decide how much to tell her. “I am sworn to serve Nanamo… Lyse is quickly becoming a capable leader. Ala Mhigo will be fine as long as she’s involved.”

“But you’d like to be involved yourself, wouldn’t you?” Alphinaud said.

“I would,” he admitted. “But I have no wish to leave our Sultana defenceless against the Monetarists. I hope she is managing in my absence.”

“Oh, that’s true,” Rinala said. “But we’ll all be friends and allies, and I’m sure she wouldn’t mind if you go back and forth a bit.”

“One cannot have divided loyalties, Rinala,” he said, a little sadly. “Not in a leadership position. But I will simply be glad to know my homeland is free.”

“Yes,” she said. “I know it’s a selfish thought, but… for me it would be strange for you not to be the General. You refounded the Immortal Flames and everything, you’ve been the General ever since. Though I guess that’s not really very long. But I’ve always thought we had the best Grand Company in all Eorzea because of you.”

Raubahn smiled a little. “Well… I’ve done the best I could. It hasn’t always been ideal… But we won’t be put to shame tomorrow, anyway.” Tam knew he was thinking of Roaille. “I’m glad we got to chat. It seems we hardly ever do. But ever since you helped recover the crown, you’ve been a shining light for Ul’dah yourself.”

Rinala blushed. “And then I had an Echo so hard that I fainted.”

Raubahn chuckled. “I recall you fainted at the celebration. Is that what occurred? But that was only once, and hardly in a critical moment. I think you’d be startled to know how many folk look up to you – even folk many years your senior.”

“Oh.” Rinala blushed more and hid her nose in her mug. “I mean…”

“You’ve earned such approbation,” Alphinaud said. “Healing in combat is one of the most intimidating tasks in the world, and you make it look simple. I have been striving to improve in that skill myself.”

“Th-thanks,” Rinala said. Tam hoped the honest praise would make an actual difference. “Well… I should go sleep. Tomorrow’s going to be really big, and we’re starting before dawn.”

“Aye, off with you young ‘uns,” Raubahn said, waving them away. “Sleep well.”

 

Cautiously, the Scions and a picked detachment of Ala Mhigan forces crept through the quiet streets. There was still half a bell to sunrise; all the world was dewy and silent, except for the murmur of sleepy pigeons in roosts all about. It was a tall order, keeping several hundred people as silent as possible, but everyone was doing their best; no one wanted to be the one to alert the Garleans. They slunk through the streets, and up onto the walls of the residential district.

Achiyo came to the unassuming door that connected the residential district defensive wall with the inner city’s much taller defensive wall, and nodded to Thancred. The rogue scanned the door, hummed thoughtfully, and got out some lockpicks. After a few moments, the lock clicked open, and he pushed the handle gingerly-

Vivienne yanked Thancred back. “Blackest Night!” The door exploded. Fire and debris washed off Achiyo’s shield, and the explosion resounded deafeningly in the morning silence. Some pigeons startled.

“Conjurer!” Kekeniro ordered. “Get that fire out!” An Ala Mhigan pushed past several Scions to cast Fluid Aura on the remains of the door, shattering a crate that had been wedged into the stairs behind.

Thancred picked himself up where he had been hurled to the ground and brushed himself off. “My thanks. That was one booby trap that got the better of me.”

“Heheh, booby,” Chuchupa said.

Achiyo looked at Vivienne. “It begins.”

“It does,” Vivienne. “Looks like they tried to hastily seal this passage with crates. And now they know we’re coming.”

“I got it,” Kekeniro said, his hands and grimoire glowing, and next thing Achiyo knew something that looked like a small Deathflare erupted from his carbuncle, aimed up the stairs. There were more explosions. “Should be clear now.”

“Go,” Achiyo said, and charged up the debris-choked stairs. At the top of the stairs, another door had been blown open, and she heard an alarm going off. The Imperials were coming.

No. The Imperials were scrambling. The Ala Mhigans were coming to take back their own.

She emerged onto the very top of the wall into a thicket of gunblades. She cast a defensive spell and hoped that Aentfryn would give her strong enough shields that she would make it among them- The gunblades volleyed, sharp reports almost in her face. She heard cries from behind her, some wounded, some stricken, but they had not broken her defences, and she charged on, among them, her blade whirring as she thrust and stabbed into weak points, ducking and dodging their counter-attacks. Arrows struck some of the enemies, Chuchupa was at her side, and then a real Deathflare went off – right before her nose, and she jumped back. Supposedly Kekeniro attuned his spells so that they did not harm his allies, but that was a lot of energy either way.

“The cannons!” Lyse cried, surging forward beside them. “Get the cannons! Second squad, guard our exit! Third squad, hold the city doors!”

They did not have to capture the entire wall. Only the part above the gates, to give the Alliance time to close with their own cannons. And right now, their momentum was unstoppable, cresting like a wave along the wall past the giant griffon statues. The Imperial soldiers and cannon crews were not as weary as Achiyo thought they might have been, just before dawn – but maybe the Garleans had doubled the shift schedule. It did not matter. They had not sufficient numbers to stop them.

For now. The Ala Mhigans and Scions were dreadfully exposed to counterattack in this place. In some aspects, it was like a small, very skinny castle, if they managed to hold the lower doors, but it would not be so hard to shoot at them from inside the city. Achiyo glanced to her left, out into the salt plain, and was relieved to see the dark, multi-coloured mass of the Alliance army moving up in their thousands. If all went well, the Ala Mhigans would prevent the Alliance from taking cannonfire as the Alliance broke down the gate, and the Alliance would make ingress in time to prevent the Ala Mhigans from being overwhelmed by counterattack. The rest of the Resistance troops, a thousand more, would break through the side gate into the inner city, and thence to join forces and storm the inner city and Royal Palace together.

“The tower!” Kekeniro said. “They’re turning their guns to fire on us!”

“Let’s see,” R’nyath said, bending his bow and sighting carefully. He loosed. “Harder to fire when you don’t have a crew…”

“They are sure to have reinforcements,” Thancred said. “Here, don’t destroy that cannon!” Some soldiers were pushing cannons off the walls, carried away in heady destruction. “Fire it at the tower!”

“Do it!” Lyse cried, clearly hoping somebody knew how to do that; several soldiers jumped to it. The cannons cracked. The top of the towers puffed with impact smoke. “Again! I don’t want those cannons firing at anyone!”

The top of the tower blew apart, sending masonry and cannon bores raining down to the garden below. Achiyo looked around. The wall was theirs, for now. Half the cannons had been destroyed in a fit of frenzied rage, and the other half were now being prepared to fire on anything that looked like it would threaten them. 

“Good job, everyone!” Lyse said. “Dig in, our ride will be here soon! Take the wounded back down to the residential district.” 

“It’s going to be a long day…” Thancred sighed, wiping and sheathing his oversized daggers.

They had accomplished their objective, and the Alliance was moving into position – just as the sun came over the palace to the East, shining gloriously upon them.

And rather in their eyes. The Alliance should be fine for a while longer, still in the shadow of the wall. There were the Immortal Flames, in the centre, by far the smallest in number yet the rowdiest of the lot; the Maelstrom on one side, impeccable in their red coats but hefting the most fearsome weapons; the Temple Knights in perfect, glittering ranks on the other side, not a single knight out of place; the Twin Adder behind them, in looser formation with their archers, lancers, and conjurers. Their cannons, both Lominsan and Ishgardian, were being rolled up, halted, blocks placed under their wheels. And in front of them all, the leaders – black, red, yellow, white, blue. And purple – there was Tam, and she saw Alphinaud and Rinala beside him.

“Aw yeah,” R’nyath said, a hand to his ear. “They’re playing the thing I wrote!”

“What?” Vivienne said.

“The bands wanted something inspiring they could all play together, so I wrote them a march based on local songs. Songs of Salt and Suffering, we called it, because of the lochs and because the Ala Mhigans have been through a lot. If that doesn’t inspire everyone to kick arse I don’t know what will. Damn! Listen to that solo trumpet floating over the others. He’s Ishgardian, I knew that would be a good line for him after I heard him do the solo in Stone and Steel at the inauguration thingy…”

Achiyo tuned him out. She was inspired, but in a different way. She turned to the west and took off her helmet, and raised her sword high so it glittered in the dawn. She called in a loud voice, to be heard by her companions on the wall… and even by the Alliance, if the wind was with her. “I wandered the world seeking a land free from fear. But every land should be free from fear. This day we rid Ala Mhigo of her oppressors!”

The Ala Mhigans cheered for her.

 

Aymeric heard Achiyo’s voice calling from above, and looked up to see her on the wall above the gates with her sword lifted to the heavens, with the wind blowing through her silver-green hair and the dawn’s light shining on her from behind. She looked like an avatar of the Fury herself, some divinity of war and beauty come to bless them.

“You could stand to look less like a flytrap,” Tam murmured to him, and Aymeric closed his mouth sharply.

He nodded to the three Scions with them instead. “Several times you defended our gates. Let us return the favour by demolishing theirs.”

“They are fine gates, no doubt,” Admiral Merlwyb commented. “And they will make fine slag.”

“Indeed,” he replied. “By the power of our cannons combined.”

Pipin Tarupin was shouting orders. “Thaumaturges, forward! Give me hellfire! Give me Ifrit’s bloody inferno! Now give me a Coerthan winter! Enough ice and snow to bury a behemoth!” Twin streams of magic struck against the gates, molten red and frigid blue, stressing the metal as it must expand and shrink rapidly, becoming weak and brittle. “All cannons, fire at will! Let no man say we neglected to knock!”

The cannons roared, the swift seafaring cannons of the Maelstrom’s fleet, and the heavier Ishgardian artillery, designed foremost for immobile defensive positions. This might be the first time they’d ever seen offensive action – these ones, anyway. They’d had to be flown in to Castrum Abania in specially reinforced airships, but it was looking to be worth the extra expense as the gates rattled and shook-

There was a distant mechanical buzzing sound, and suddenly Imperial flying armours burst out of the city, whizzing over the wall and aiming at the cannons. Some of them were struck, exploding in place and sending their crews scrambling for cover or flying as rag dolls. A couple machines strafed the Ala Mhigans on the wall above the gate, and screams rang out both from the wall and the Alliance. Surely not Achiyo – but he could not look for her, not when his own troops were equally in trouble.

“Archers- no, machinists, mages,” Pipin called, but what hope did they have of shooting down such fast little things? And Pipin was right, stray arrows would likely be more harm to their own side. “Damn that armour! We nearly had it! Keep firing, but watch the skies!”

Aymeric glared helplessly up at the magitek armours. If they should attack the leadership position, then he would be able to protect his comrades, especially Alphinaud and Rinala who were the most vulnerable, but while they were so far away…

Something swooped in from the sky to the south, something feathery and grey that was not mechanical. It flew straight for a machine, there was a metallic gleam, and the armour fell from the sky, divided cleanly into two exact halves.

“Is that-?” Alphinaud gasped.

It was a giant bird, with a yellow-robed man with a wild dark high ponytail standing on its back, a naked blade in his hand. He called out in a loud voice. “Bear witness, my Eorzean brothers and sisters! Doma is come to pay her debts!” A whole flock of giant birds, several dozen, appeared in the sky to the south, coming quickly. And each one had a black-clad person on its back.

“Lord Hien!” Alphinaud cried joyfully.

Aymeric was still processing. “By the Fury… Did that man just bring down flying armour with a single stroke in midair?”

“That’s Hien for ya,” Tam replied jauntily.

“He’s very cool,” Rinala said. “But that’s the coolest thing I’ve ever seen him do.”

“You do not think he would actually wait until the last…” Alphinaud mused. “No, no. Of course not. He’s no Vidofnir.”

“So that is Lord Hien,” Aymeric murmured to himself. The Scions thought well of him, he gathered, and of course he had read the summary of the Doman campaign. He looked forward to meeting him after this battle was over. Perhaps Achiyo could introduce them.

Hien called down again. “We will deal with the flying machines, my friends! For freedom and justice!” He wheeled off on his bird, questing after another armour. One made to follow him, but it was blindsided by another bird with a dark-haired Au Ra woman on its back – ah, Lady Yugiri was also here.

Pipin laughed with triumph. “You heard the man! All cannons, resume firing!”

“Hm, I really dislike that phrase,” Tam complained. “What if they didn’t hear him?”

“That’s why he reiterated the order,” Alphinaud explained.

“Then why didn’t he just say the order?”

“Because one must say cocky things like that to keep morale high,” Alphinaud said patiently. “You are an outlier in being demoralized by it.” Tam smirked.

“The door!” Rinala cried, pointing. Those thick steel gates had sundered, and one had slightly swung in, revealing a tall vertical slot, with a more irregular hole punched through near the bottom. The sun streamed out. And in but a moment, the Alliance would stream in.

“That did it!” Pipin called. “All forces, stand by! Immortal Flames, forward!”

Aymeric drew Naegling. Their turn to go would be right after the Flames. “The battle is joined! Give the order to advance!”

Lucia saluted crisply. “Yes, Lord Commander!” In this moment, there were no doubts between them, only their duty and their trust.

 

The city was quite beautiful, Achiyo thought as she ran through its broad streets with the Warriors of Light and the Ala Mhigans at her back, seeing it in the proper light of day for the first time. Many-coloured stone had been used to enhance its many arches, spires, and domes. There were little decorative fountains and pools, and planters filled with leafy desert plants. Even the streets themselves were paved with beautiful patterns in stone and tile; this city was wealthy. Or at least this part of it was. Markets were filled with colourful tents and stalls, though every remaining civilian was hunkering down today. 

But everywhere was plastered the white banner of Garlemald with its three diamonds, and their magitek cables, and defensive structures that looked like they’d been quite hastily set up – but they were set up everywhere. Before them in the distance, the palace rose into the sky, dominating the city in a similar manner to Ul’dah. That was their destination.

The Imperials seemed to have pulled back from the gates, giving them up for lost; resistance had been sporadic so far. All the better for Lyse’s force, to get off the walls safely and move into the city. The second squad was off to open the side gate to the residential district for the main Ala Mhigan force.

She heard a call from behind her, and saw Raubahn, Tam, Alphinaud, and Rinala, as well as Pipin and the Immortal Flames rushing through the streets behind. The Alliance was rising like a tide, swift and unstoppable. “A pleasure to meet you on the field of battle, General!”

“I’m not a General today,” he answered, puffing under his massive black helm. “Command of the Flames is in Pipin’s hands. Now I am a son of Ala Mhigo! Strike hard and fast like a raging bull!”

“Sounds good to me!” Lyse cried, and M’naago and Arenvald saluted. “To the Royal Palace! Let’s go before we get caught underfoot by our own forces!”

“Look there!” Raubahn roared, pointing with his sword. Imperial forces had finally showed up, having dug in around some of their defences. There were hundreds of soldiers behind barricades and on rooftops, and magitek armours of all makes, and… kami, no, more of those horrible tripodal sawblade monsters again! Rinala actually screamed aloud – she had not seen those, and perhaps no one had told her-!

“Clear the path! Clear the path!” Achiyo shouted to those behind her. Those things could move very fast, but only in a straight line. She would try and be the roadblock they broke upon, and Raubahn was steeling himself to be the same, but should they get past them the casualties would be severe even if they were quickly overwhelmed. But the army was densely packed in…

The monsters charged. The soldiers and armours opened fire. Raubahn roared and braced his blade, and one of the creatures impaled itself on his sword. He was sent skidding back several yalms, but the creature fell dead at his feet. Vivienne was struck by one as well, as she planted her greatsword into the street, but Achiyo braced her, and together the two of them brought theirs to a halt like it had struck a wall. Arenvald also tried to take one and was sent flying. And two or three others were not stopped at all, and shrieks rang out as people were run over. Despite all the conjurers’ and arcanists’ defensive and healing spells, soldiers were falling to the gunfire like wheat before hail.

Pipin was yelling orders, rearranging their lines to deal with this obstacle more effectively. Despite the incoming bullets, the sickening number of casualties, the Alliance could not be halted, only slowed momentarily. Mages cast, every element of black and white magic sizzling past to strike against the armours. A rain of arrows from Adder skirmishers began to pick off the soldiers on the rooftops, and suddenly there was a roar and a cheer as the red coats of the Maelstrom led by the Admiral herself fell upon the Imperial position from the flank.

Achiyo was actually conscious of very little of this. She had a horrible toothy creature in her face, and she was trying to keep it away from literally everything else as it swung its sawblades at her. Chuchupa screamed in rage, grabbed a loose spear someone had dropped, and jammed it through the thing’s back wheel. It screeched to a halt, swaying as it tried to rev its engine. Chuchupa jumped on it and began to yank its exhaust tubes out of its back, and then Rinala sent a rock through its skull.

She needed a moment. Maybe everyone needed a moment. This was much more intense than Doma Castle, in all the heat and noise and dust and blood. But there were no moments to be had. The army was sweeping them along, rather helplessly, like flotsam and jetsam. And if she wanted to get to Zenos first, she must take control of it. “Warriors of Light! With me!”

“We’re not taking Alphinaud?” R’nyath asked. Thancred had already disappeared among the sea of soldiers.

“I believe I will stay with Raubahn for now, if that’s all right,” Alphinaud said over the din. “Seeking Zenos is not my goal.”

“Perfectly all right,” Kekeniro said. “I think we should split into our usual teams and pick different roads to go down. It’s unlikely that we’ll meet anything requiring all eight of us before the throne room.”

“And the Alliance will back you up if that happens,” Lyse said. “Good hunting!”

“And to you!” R’nyath said, as they struggled to extricate themselves from the press of soldiers into a back alley that might prove faster than taking the main road. “Hey Rinala, welcome back!”

“Thanks!” Rinala said. “What were those things!?”

“The Garleans were up to their usual depravities,” Aentfryn said. “Their abominations are so horrific that even Tam will kill them.”

“Goodness,” Rinala said. “I hope those ones were all they had!”

She sounded a bit shaken, and her ears were laid back flat against her head, her tail poofed to full. “Are you well enough to continue?” Achiyo asked.

Rinala clutched her staff and nodded. “I’m not going to let you down today! I promise!”

“I believe you,” Achiyo said. “You’re with me, then.”

“Right, last one to Zenos is a rotten egg,” R’nyath sang.

“Then I’ve no time to lose,” Achiyo teased him, and turned to run, knowing that Tam, Chuchupa, and Rinala would be behind her. The sounds of war echoed through the streets – roars and shrieks, clangs and gunshots. Some Alliance folk, probably the Ala Mhigans, were singing a new hymn – “Storm of blood, born from blood of our fallen brothers.” Those who wielded instruments of music may have traded them now for instruments of war, but all could sing who had breath to. “Borne upon our hands, cradled in our arms, swelling in our hearts. Raise your weary head! Heed the call to arms ringing in your heart!”

It was stirring, and she ran up to the palace gates with determination in her heart. Though they were seen and shot at along the way, no bullets hit their mark, and the Imperials had enough to deal with as the Alliance caught up to them. The four of them were relatively unimportant compared to the raging hordes.

And then she paused in alarm, for awaiting them on the stone bridge that joined palace to city was a huge robot. It took her a moment to figure out what shape it was – but it had six scuttling feet, and a prehensile tail raised up – it could only be a scorpion.

How should they fight this? It was quite intimidating. But they’d fought giant robots before. “I will draw its attention. Disable that tail!” She did not know what weapons were on the tail, but there was sure to be at least one, from the way it was shaped. She cast Flash and ran to the side, hoping it would follow her when it regained its sight.

It did, and now she had to contend with two large rapidfire cannons that it had in place of a scorpion’s claws. Her heart thundered in her chest as she ducked and weaved and hid behind her shield. She could barely even see what the tail was doing from here. It began to power up with a whine – she should probably get out of the way.

Bullets erupted from the front end, and lasers from the back end. The machine seemed locked in place as it made its attack, which was a bit of a blessing. But they had to get through that thick plate armour. Well, that was the problem of the others, she just had to keep it from hurting them. Even as it ceased its powerful attack and turned to track Achiyo again, Tam picked up Chuchupa and threw her at the tail. There was a mighty whack and a flash of light, and the scorpion swayed. The tail was cracked and sticking at an unnatural angle. They still had to bring down the rest of the robot, but it could harm them less.

Suddenly Vivienne was at her side, black sword catching bullets. “All right, what’s the hold-up here?”

“It’s being a slight bother,” Achiyo said. “If I get close enough to stab it, it backs up to shoot me – backs up into the others.”

“This thing is designed to take out a battalion, not a little squad of adventurers,” Kekeniro called from the other side. “And definitely not… Bahamut!” Bahamut-egi roared, and blasted the robot. The scorpion slumped, sparking and smoking. It did not explode, but the Warriors of Light gave it a wide berth anyway as they gathered in front of the palace doors that just stood ajar.

“How many soldiers do you suppose still in the palace?” Achiyo asked.

“I’m guessing not many,” Aentfryn said. “It’s a fortified palace, not a castle – this dry moat notwithstanding. Not the most defensible structure I’ve ever seen. They’ll have been turned out to the city to man the defences there.”

Then there wouldn’t be too many of them to handle. “Let us not wait for others, then.”

Even then, there was a shout from behind. “We are the spear of the Fury and the shield of our brothers and sisters! Who are we!?”

“Ishgard!!” came a great cry, and she turned to see Aymeric, Lucia, and the Temple Knights storming to the gates.

“Ishgard!” she called back, raising her sword. He caught her eye and grinned, and she grinned back. But she did not wait for them, running into the open door.

The Imperials inside were panicked. “They destroyed the scorpion!?” “We have to hold them here!” “Kill her! Kill the leader of the eikon slayers!”

“Or you could surrender!” R’nyath told them. “We’re just here to see Zenos, he’s expecting us!”

“Not a chance, savages!”

But the defence was weak and scattered as they cut their way through the castle courtyard and gardens, even when the enemy released a pack of slavering hounds that Aentfryn refused to fight. They were also on the receiving end of small cannonfire, at least until the Temple Knights, busily engaged in capturing the walls, wrested the cannons away from their users.

Now they were inside the palace proper, and the temperature dropped dramatically. It was almost cold, and Achiyo shivered with relief. The corridors were dark, lit by austere blue Garlean lights that only hinted at the opulent colours and gilding that adorned every ilm of the interior. They had to keep moving upwards, and she did not know the layout of this castle. It was not like Zenos had left directions.

Some of the shadows were moving. At first she thought she was seeing things, but when they came across an Imperial patrol already lying dead, she knew who it was.

Her thoughts were confirmed when they reached the top floor, where there were many windows to break the darkness, and found one last defence set up against them – laser barricades, two colossi, and a squad of soldiers. This would be a difficult fight, she thought… until there was a crash of breaking glass, and Hien came soaring through one of the high windows. He managed not to splat on the floor, rolling and picking himself up smoothly. “Hello! That was a bit reckless, I’ll admit, but I couldn’t resist the jump from my yol.”

“Welcome to the party!” Chuchupa cackled, as a dozen ninja materialized out of nowhere, including Yugiri, and engaged the soldiers.

“Thank you!” Hien said politely, slashing gracefully at Imperials with his katana. “I will have to apologize to Lyse for breaking part of the castle. Just because I destroyed my own doesn’t mean I should make it a pattern!”

“We’ve broken a lot more than a window, so you probably shouldn’t worry about it,” R’nyath said. “Though if you keep it up I’m going to start calling you Lord Hien: Castle Crasher.”

Hien laughed. “I will accept. Come, my friends! Naught can stand against us in the East or in the West!”

 

All resistance in their path was dead, surrendered, or destroyed. She could still distantly hear sounds of conflict from the rest of the palace and the city, but it was faint and far away. All that was left was the throne room. Achiyo pushed open the door with both hands and walked in, her friends and companions behind her.

Zenos sat on the throne, lounging even, his chin on his hand. He looked up, saw her, smiled, and stood, walking slowly forward down the stairs of the royal dais to the middle of the hall. “Like a moth to the flame. But why else would you come, if not for this?”

She shook her head. “I fight because I must. It is not for pleasure that I challenge you, Prince Zenos. It is that I can risk no other life against you but mine.”

He drew one of his blades. “You are here all the same. Let us begin.”

She put up her hand with a little smile. If he felt about her the way Tam thought, there was no harm in asking. “If you don’t mind, Your Highness, I have just fought my way through your city and your palace, at the forefront of every skirmish. I suppose you have warmed up while awaiting me, but you are still fresh. Might I have a moment?”

He looked surprised at her audacity, then bowed graciously. “As you desire. I do not even care if more of your friends arrive. The more, the merrier, wouldn’t you say?”

“This is not their fight,” she said, sheathing her sword and taking her helmet off to get some air, fluffing her hair to cool her head. Vivienne, Chuchupa, even R’nyath and Kekeniro had volunteered – had gone so far as to demand to help. If he fights like a primal, we’ll kill him like a primal. But while she lived, she would not let another person come to harm by his hand. Y’shtola, Lyse, Pipin, Alisaie, Yugiri – they had all been injured in fighting him, Y’shtola nigh to death. “Our previous fights were at night, cloaked in darkness. Now I will fight you in the light of day, as I always should have done.”

His eyes were aglow with eagerness. “I cannot wait.”

They were both being polite ironically. Whatever his reasons, her reason was that she felt far more comfortable using the mask of aristocracy to deal with him.

Hien looked confused and anxious. “What, we are not going to engage him all together? Only you, alone?”

She fixed him with a very firm look. “Yes. Don’t get in my way.” She took a drink of water. “I have worked for this, remember.”

“Is this because I failed in Doma?” Yugiri cried. “I too have honed my skill since then-”

“If this is to appease your honour-” Hien began at the same time.

“It is not,” she assured both of them. She wanted it to be civilized, but honour was a secondary concern. And Zenos did not care about honour, she was sure. “I want to do this my way today.”

“You mean his way,” Vivienne growled. “It’s not too late to change the plan back to our original one. Nobody likes this arrangement except you and him. He wants to fight, we’ll fight him.”

Achiyo shook her head.  “Wait here for me. Remember when you allowed me to fight Ilberd one-on-one.”

“Ilberd weren’t a…” Chuchupa looked over at Zenos, who was staring creepily at Achiyo. “Psycho.”

“No,” Achiyo said. “He is far worse.” Ilberd, for all his faults, had still been a man. Zenos was… something else.

Zenos chuckled. “Admit it. You want to know if you can best me on your own. You are not so afraid for your comrades that you would deny them this fight out of some… love for them.”

She looked over at him, putting on an offended look. “Then you must be content to be wrong.” Or at least only half-right. Zenos could and would kill any of them. He moved so fast and so suddenly – even those who fought at range, like R’nyath or Kekeniro, would not be able to keep themselves safe. Once he got in range, he would cut them down instantly. And she might not be fast enough to always bar his way.

Vivienne, Tam, and Chuchupa would last longer, but Tam did not have the stomach for a fight to the death, Chuchupa did not have the discipline, and Vivienne… Vivienne might last for a while, and she had the power, but she did not have the speed to match him. And if she did not have a healer on hand to save her when she ‘died’, then she really would die. And the idea of Hien, or Yugiri, or Lyse, or Raubahn, or Aymeric against him… did not bear thinking about. And if she fell, they all would step up. More would die, and she could not guess who before he was finally stopped.

But… maybe there was an iota of truth in his words. She had not trained for an entire year only to not challenge him. On her own terms, this time, even. To involve her friends, to gang up on him, was… Zenos would not consider it ‘cheating’, or ‘dishonourable’, she thought. He would relish the challenge, even if he lost. Maybe especially if he lost, just for the novelty. But she didn’t want that. She wanted to defeat him fair and square by her own hand. To prove she was not pathetic, that she had not wasted her time in training for it. She’d drilled and redrilled everything ad nauseam, from the first basics to the niche manoeuvres Percival had only shown her once. Perhaps it was vanity, and it was definitely the less important reason. But it was there.

She had led them against the Ultima Weapon, against Bahamut, against Nidhogg twice. She was the only one who could do this. She put her helmet back on and drew her sword. Walked to the middle of the floor, and saluted him. He did not bother to salute back – already his patience for social niceties was gone – and as she charged in, he rushed to meet her. Their blades met as they both attacked, again and again. She was barely using her shield, preferring in this moment to dodge or parry; if she was forced to an active defence, it would be her undoing.

He was just as fast and strong as she remembered. Each of his swords did a different spell as he wielded them, and he switched them often. She could not make a single mistake here. She must fight perfectly.

She would hold nothing back. She could hold nothing back. She let go of everything – hope, fear, love, hate – and moved on well-trained instinct, parrying his blade into the floor, stabbing at any weak point that she spied, sliding swiftly across the floor to match him step for step, though she was so much smaller than he was. Their blades sang through the air, ringing with a rhythmic clangour as they struck at each other.

He was smiling, a wide, demented smile. “Let this moment last forever…”

Her gaze was stern and she had no interest in replying. They were fighting two different fights. Oh, they both wanted to kill each other, but he wanted to have fun doing it. She just wanted him to be dead.

His blows were increasing in intensity. She had shown she could take more punishment than their previous encounter, and so he was giving it. “Show me your all!” 

The condescension drove her to rage. She still had yet to touch him – though he had yet to touch her in turn. Her eyes flashed as she attacked again, faster, harder. Maybe he was manipulating her, maybe she was giving him what he wanted. It didn’t matter. As long as she did not let her perfect control slip, she could prevail. The floor tiles were beginning to crack under the weight of their steps, the force of their blows. She barely missed him with a magic-imbued sword thrust and chips of stone blew out of the wall opposite.

He drew all three of his swords, casting them carelessly to different parts of the room – he was going to cast all his spells at once. The observers scattered. “Have you the strength?” Zenos demanded of her. “The power to transcend…” He darted between one blade and the next, casting each spell as he seized them, and the effects surged at her.

Now that was no different from half a dozen primals she had fought, and she dodged two easily and caught the third on her shield, smashing through it with the force of her spirit, closing the distance to try and catch him off-guard as he dealt with his overabundance of weapons. She gritted her teeth, relentlessly slashing and stabbing, and he- jumped aside. She had made him dodge.

She sucked air into her lungs and stabbed again, hounding him as her sword shimmered nearly too fast to see, and he laughed, his eyes glowing in joy. “How glorious the violence within you!” He counterattacked and she had to side-step, but there was no question now as she wove around it and attacked again – she was no longer at a disadvantage. She forced him back again. They were equal – maybe she even-

He broke away, laughing. Laughing with a deep sincere exultation. She had not thought he was capable of laughing, but she was not surprised that it was a disturbing laugh. “Yes, yes! Such ferocity, such tenacity! I am loath to recall how disappointed I was when first we fought… but finally, finally, after bathing in the blood and offal of your enemies, finally you prove yourself worthy prey for the hunt!” His voice was rough and raw, a primal growl of ferocity.

“Ew, gross,” R’nyath put in.

She glared, chest heaving with exertion. “I am no prey. I have fought all my life to not be counted as prey.” Of course he still didn’t take her seriously. She had only scratched him once, in Doma. Even now, when she was starting to win, he still looked down on her.

He grinned maniacally. “It fills you even now, doesn’t it? The hunger. To bit down on my jugular, to feel the warmth fill your mouth and run over even as you drink deep.”

“I am not you,” she said coldly, but her sword was trembling in her grip. Why had he stopped? Was he not getting what he wanted?

He saw it. “Good, good! This is the beast I have longed to face! As you sharpened your claws, I too sought newfound strength! But this is no place for a final contest. Come! The heavens shall bear witness to our dance!” He turned and walked off.

What!? What was he doing?? She ran after him, and caught up just as they both stepped into the back garden behind the throne room, and there caught sight of a horror that froze her in her tracks without attacking him. “Sh-Shinryuu…”

There was a huge magical cage floating in the garden, constructed of small magitek devices and humming aether. Within it was curled a mass of scales and mane. Their guesses had been wrong. The Empire had not claimed Omega. The Empire had claimed the primal. And they no longer had Omega to call on.

Her friends had followed her, and halted in shock just the same way she had. “By the kami, what is that!?” Hien gasped. “That cannot be Shinryuu?” Well, at least she was gratified that she was not alone in seeing the resemblance.

“It’s a primal,” Kekeniro said quietly to him. “Go make sure everyone clears the area – this is for the Warriors of Light only. And if we fail… well, make sure they’re prepared for that too.”

Hien swallowed. They’d told him plenty about battling primals, during their days on the Steppe. They’d even told him about this one. “R-right. May the kami watch over you.” He gestured at Yugiri and the ninja to follow, and ran back inside.

Zenos swept an arm out to gesture around the garden. “Welcome to the Royal Menagerie. The King of Ruin built this place for his foreign queen. He kept it filled with familiar creatures from her homeland. They bored me all.” He sounded disgusted. Achiyo felt sorry for the animals.

He walked to stand beneath the primal’s cage and pointed up at it proudly. “This fine specimen, on the other hand, is simply… divine. Your fates are entwined, are they not, eikon-slayer? This dragon, this… embodiment of unbridled despair, born of a desperate man’s burning hatred for the Empire… How raw the raging tempest that churns within its breast. No myth made manifest this, but… a being of pure violence.”

He looked at them and laughed. “Mayhap you are the true architect of our design. You who fought the very soul of vengeance to the edge and watched him fall; you who let slip the Allagan hound to drive this eikon into my arms!” He sucked in a heady breath; he almost sounded drunk. 

“You’re way too happy about this,” Aentfryn said. “A primal is not a toy.”

Zenos grinned in delirious abandon. “Oh… my. Have I said too much? Forgive me, this… sensation is wholly unfamiliar to me. A question then – and I should like very much for you to speak from the heart. If I were to stand aside, what would you do to this eikon?”

Achiyo glared at him. What did he think they would do with it? What did he mean to do with this creature? If he wanted to fight it to test himself, why had he not already done so? “It is our duty to slay primals. No matter the danger, we will prevent it from harming anyone, or the land.”

He nodded. “Ah. As simple as that. But of course. You are the eikon-slayer. Such certainty is to be expected. A pity. There is another alternative. Or there would be… had you only mastered your abilities.”

She stared. What was he talking about? She had mastered the sword, even he had to admit that now…

He smirked at them. “I speak of the Echo, of course. Does it merely render you immune to eikonic influence? Or is it rather that your influence is far greater than theirs? Granted, these implications are of no moment to a savage, who thinks only of killing the beast before him… But when I read van Baelsar’s reports, I immediately saw the boundless potential of the Echo. I saw how it could be instrumental in binding an eikon to one’s will. Hence my research and the Resonant – and oh so much more!”

“Your ‘research’ is abhorrent,” Achiyo cried. “All those dead, and for what? Even if we do not fully understand it, I labour to believe that you do, with your machines and your torture!”

Zenos shrugged. “‘All eikons must be exterminated, without exception’. Such was the imperial mandate issued by my great-grandfather after he saw firsthand the destruction wrought by one such being. They are a blight upon this star, he felt, and so he began his great and just crusade. Pah! ‘Twas not justice which spurred his campaign, but fear! Fear of the eikons, fear of their power. Cowardice made them march forth to battle. Pathetic!” He turned to them with a feral, snarling smile. “Man should fight for the joy of it. To live, to eat, to breed – lesser beasts snap and howl at one another for this. Only man has the wisdom and the clarity to embrace violence for its own sake.” He reeled back, arms spread to encompass the world, eyes wide with madness. “For we who are born into this merciless, meaningless world, have but one candle of life to burn.”

He dropped the crazy expression, and his face, his voice, became almost… soft and tender as he walked towards her, stopping right in front of her. “I know you understand this. You and I are one and the same. Together, we could while away the quiet hours, as friend and confidant… if you will accept me.” He reached out a hand to her.

Achiyo blinked at him in bewilderment. “You no longer wish to kill me?” What, had she proven herself worthy of not being exterminated? No. He had already said she was now ‘worthy prey’. The abrupt change of mood was yet more proof of his insanity. ‘One candle of life to burn’… it sounded like the Dotharl philosophy, that souls burned brightest in battle. But the Dotharl knew how to live as well as fight and die. What did he count as ‘whiling away the quiet hours’? She frowned. “Do you… know what a ‘friend’ is?”

“Yeah, what if you joined us?” R’nyath said. “Would you be able to stop killing everything for five minutes and just learn to… hang out? Is that actually what you’re asking?”

“No, Achiyo is right,” Tam said. “He doesn’t define ‘friend’ the way that we do. I think he finds such a concept weak.”

“This is no question,” Vivienne said. “I know he’s only asking the question of you, Achiyo – you’re the only person he’s remotely taking seriously. But we are friends, she and I, and I will give you my answer, godsdammit! And that is – never! You kill and you kill and you never know the weight of the deaths you’ve wrought – you don’t know what it is like to grieve, to suffer the way that we suffer. I will never accept such a demon.”

“Wait, maybe he’s… never had a real friend?” Rinala said. “Raised in lonely privilege… I could feel sorry for him. But if we did say ‘yes, we’d be your friend’, you wouldn’t actually want what we gave you, would you? All you care about is fighting, isn’t it? And maybe you almost care about Achiyo… but it’s not as a friend, not now. Friends… don’t try to kill each other. That’s kind of basic. That’s, like, pre-friendship.”

“Ye know, I’ve made a friend or two through combat,” Chuchupa said. “A couple of ’em were even originally enemies. I get the obsession wi’ fightin’, I really do. But even I know there’s more to life than fightin’. Somehow I don’t see ye settin’ down to have an ale wi’ us.”

Aentfryn and Kekeniro were not really paying attention, studying the primal while the others talked. Achiyo did not disturb them. “Your Highness, if we were to be friends, there must be trust between us. Trust that you would not harm us, nor those we care about, trust that you are not using us for your own ends or entertainment. Trust, and goodwill. In this moment I can offer you neither. You have slain too many, caused too much grief in this world; I do not know how you would begin to make amends for it all, if you even wanted to. You say we are the same, but you do not know me or understand me. I enjoy fighting. I do not enjoy killing. We are not friends.”

He did not seem at all phased by their unilateral rejection. “Heh heh… and yet, by your answer, you prove me right. We are warriors. ‘Twas plain from the first how this would end. You live for these moments – when all hangs in the balance… when the difference between life and death is but a single stroke.” His attention was so intense upon her, like his entire world had narrowed to her eyes. She could not falter under this pressure and stood straight, holding his gaze defiantly.

Suddenly he turned away, then drew his sword and spun back to face them, pointing his blade at her dramatically. “I live for them too! This is who we are, my friend! This is all we are! Ala Mhigo and Doma and Garlemald be damned!” He slashed upwards, and a bolt of energy sliced cleanly through one of the binding devices. The cage exploded. Shinryu’s eyes cracked open, revealing a bright teal glow; it began to unfurl its wings and stretch. 

“We tower above the gods!” Zenos shouted. “You by your gift, I by my might!” His eyes- his eyes! Something was wrong with them in the same way that Fordola’s had been, but with both of them, not just one. He spread his arms and as the dragon inhaled to roar, perhaps to obliterate them all, Achiyo felt his aether pulse out in dense, overwhelming waves. How could he do that? The dragon’s breath was cut off before it began, and it writhed. “And before the Resonant the gods shall be made to kneel!”

He rose into the air towards the dragon, still looking down on them, and in that maelstrom of aether, man and primal seemed to blur. There was a brilliant flash of light, and when Achiyo could see again, there was only the dragon, hanging there in the air, magnificent and terrible… looking at her.

“An ending to mark a new beginning!” Zenos’s voice came from its mouth. The dragon’s tail flicked, and it flew towards the airship docks that stretched back from the menagerie.

Achiyo looked at her friends. They all looked back at her with determination on their faces. It was a primal, like they had faced a dozen times before. They knew what to do.

The Warriors of Light nodded at each other and set out down the long dock. 

 

Aymeric was leading Lucia and a squad of knights through the heart of the palace, heading for the throne room. Battle had been there before him, the halls and chambers silent with Imperial bodies, but he had seen Achiyo lead the Warriors of Light inside ahead of him. Still, there were more bodies than he had expected-

Running footsteps came around the corner, and Aymeric drew Naegling – but it was the yellow-robed man. Prince Hien, wasn’t it? “Prince Hien?” Lady Yugiri was at his side, and a dozen more Doman warriors.

“Aye, that’s me!” said the man. “You must be Ser Aymeric. I’ve heard much about you. The Warriors of Light sent me – there’s a primal in the Royal Menagerie.”

“What!?” Lucia exclaimed. “How? What of Zenos?”

“Zenos is there as well,” Prince Hien said. “But Kekeniro told me to clear the area – so they have room to fight, I suppose. And to prepare for if they should fail…”

“They will not fail,” Aymeric said, though his heart had just about tried to leap out of his body. “What primal was it? Did they give a name?” But he had a sickening suspicion. He turned about-face – though he would have gone running to Achiyo’s side that instant, that was not his duty, nor could he help her that way. He had to get back to the other Alliance leaders post-haste.

“It looked like a dragon of Eastern legend, that we call-” Hien began.

“Shinryu,” Aymeric said grimly. “Blast! We had a contingency plan for Omega, not…” What could they do? Shinryu had not been bothered by Omega’s Allagan firepower in that great duel over Gyr Abania, and that weapon was as far advanced from their cannons, that had so proudly battered down the gates, as his enchanted blade was advanced from a rock. If every spellcaster in the combined army could have a fair shot at it… no, he had doubts even then… “Lucia, call the Temple Knights back from the walls. No one is to enter the palace until Alliance Command issues further orders.” Oh gods, and the city full of civilians, right there…

“At once, ser!” she said, and gave further orders; knights ran off to execute them.

“Prince Hien, pray accompany me to find General Raubahn and Master Alphinaud,” Aymeric said. “The Warriors of Light are strong. But they shall not stand alone.”

 

The dragon was… frolicking. At least, that was how Achiyo chose to interpret its energetic swoops around the end of the airship dock. Zenos was simply too excited about fighting eight people at once.

“All right, let’s hit him hard before he can figure out how to be a primal,” Kekeniro said. “Aether’s gathering around his wings, so those are our primary targets.”

“Aren’t you happy, Chuchupa? You get to fight the dragon you always wanted,” Tam said.

“Fer sure! Lemme at ‘im!” Chuchupa said, shadowboxing the air until she could get close enough to hit the dragon.

Shinryu landed before them on the end of the dock, terrible and majestic. His head was a huge, spiky metallic maw with tiny green eyes and a flowing red mane; his wings were vast copper webs that beat slowly in the air. His tail was as long again as the rest of him, covered in silvery-black spiky scales. 

“The powers of the gods are mine to command!” he roared, and Kekeniro yelled for everyone to group up with him as a tsunami built on one side of the dock. It washed over them, nearly dragging Kekeniro away if Chuchupa hadn’t reached out and grabbed him.

“Thanks- spread out! Lightning aether coming in! Stay steady!”

Achiyo barely had time to attack the dragon as it crawled around the platform, casting spells willy-nilly; she was far too busy dodging spells and long wicked claws, and fighting as defensively as she could. Zenos had figured out how to be a primal far too quickly, and was enjoying having every elemental power at once. She slashed at its forelimbs, trying to get it to follow her, so it could not target her companions with earthen blasts, fireballs, or lightning bolts. And for a while it seemed to be working. Until he took off again, turning to face them from the sky, glowing a vibrant green tinged with shadow.

“Shields!” Kekeniro yelled. “All the shields! It’s the laser!”

The enormous beam that Omega had only barely countered, that had exploded and brought down both primal and robot… How would they survive this? Zenos was plainly determined to wipe them out as quickly as possible. “Get behind me!” She felt Aentfryn’s shields, Vivienne’s shield, Rinala casting spells to sustain them through the coming onslaught if at all possible, but she had now had a magical shield of her own as well, and one far less taxing than the aetherial wall she had manifested before.

Aethereal light erupted from her, sheltering the others behind in a gentle blue glow like wings as she crouched behind her physical shield. The beam crashed into them and she staggered under the impact, struggling to hold it steady. Aether washed over and around her, blistering waves of pure energy that would have evaporated any unprepared adventurer instantly.

She was certain the Fortemps crest had been burned off the front of her physical shield by the time Zenos ended his attack and came swooping back towards them. “This day we shall write a new legend, my friend!” he boomed. “This battle shall echo in eternity!”

“We’ve already fought legendary battles, and they’re frankly overrated,” Aentfryn rumbled. “Eyes up, he’s coming back around.”

There was a massive scorch mark on the stone deck, deflecting around where she had stood. She did not trust the integrity of the structure under the burn, but there was little help for it – fighting around the palace was sure to be even worse, and at least here they were away from the city and the civilians. Zenos landed before them, and Kekeniro summoned Bahamut-egi right in his face. “Hey, check out what a real dragon can do!”

“Don’t give him ideas!” Vivienne barked, closing in on the left. Achiyo went right.

Zenos grunted in pain as Bahamut-egi blasted him with Akh Morn. “Ah… interesting. So even the least among you are strong after a fashion.”

“Sod off!” Vivienne shouted. “Chuchupa – get his stupid eyes!”

“Ye got it!” Chuchupa said, clambering up a heavily-scaled leg. “Don’t mind if I do!”

They were getting cocky. “Watch out,” Achiyo called. “He is gathering aether again-!”

A great wind smashed across the platform, and she lost her footing, tumbling away – she was going to fall off the edge-!

“No you don’t!” Aentfryn called, and she felt a yank around her body as suddenly she was flying sideways, counter to the wind. She looked up and there was no time to react-

 

Rinala shrieked as Achiyo and Aentfryn were both impaled on the same three-yalm icicle. Achiyo soundlessly fell forward with a dull crunch of armour, her blood-stained helm rolling away, and Aentfryn coughed blood and collapsed to his knees first before crumpling in a heap. Eos shuddered and vanished. “No! No! You have to get up-”

“I’ve got Aentfryn,” Kekeniro called. “Don’t get distracted, just keep the rest of us alive.”

Everything was happening at once, and she was threatening to be overwhelmed by panic like she hadn’t been since Ifrit. R’nyath was shooting at the dragon’s eyes. Chuchupa was pummelling his neck. Vivienne had already invoked Living Dead to take a lightning bolt head-on, and Rinala had already cast Benediction on her to cure it. Tam was darting about with his lance, focusing on the left wing. Rinala took a deep, shuddering breath and cast more group heals, as she usually did when she didn’t know what to do. Shinryu’s tail whipped around and slapped on top of Kekeniro just before he finished casting Resurrection, and Ifrit-egi imploded.

Wait- wait- no! With the tactician down – and Aentfryn still wasn’t up! Rinala shakily began to cast Raise, but there were too many lethal spells going off, she didn’t know where she could stand long enough to finish her own!

“Come here, you rutting bastard!” Vivienne cried, hacking at the dragon, dark lights flickering around her and Cronus blazing like a golden brand.

Zenos walked past her. “You must think me an idiot. You are no more dangerous to me than any of your companions.” That made Vivienne more mad… but she couldn’t do anything about it.

Tam landed on a wing joint with a horrible crackling noise, and the wing went limp, with another cry of pain from Zenos. “We are all kind of dangerous.”

“Hmph.” Zenos shrugged, and Chuchupa was sent tumbling off from where she had been crushing his shoulder. R’nyath went running to catch her, and Zenos grinned with his gaping dragon jaws… and hit them with Akh Rhai. Neither of them got up.

“Hurry up and raise someone!” Vivienne yelled at Rinala. “I’ll put Blackest Night on you, you’ll be safe for a few seconds. Get it done!”

Rinala was hyperventilating, but the feeling of the shield on her gave her the security to begin trying again. Yet Vivienne had been weakened so much, could she make it in time!?

“Without your leader, you are… hopeless,” Zenos said. Tam was dodging, dancing backwards… and pinned under Zenos’s foot like a sparrow caught by a hawk. A fireball engulfed him. “What will you do now, I wonder?”

Vivienne let out a long series of curses. “Get Achiyo up instead-! I can’t hold him much longer…”

“No,” Zenos said. “You cannot.” Lightning struck, and Vivienne collapsed in front of her.

Rinala froze, her nearly-completed cast fizzling once again. All alone, she stared up at the dragon with tearful, frightened eyes with the corpses of her friends lying around her.

“What will you do now?” the dragon asked, sounding bored. “You, the least, the meekest of them all. Will you fight me alone? You are hardly worth the effort to kill.”

Rinala began to cry. She had the mana to raise Achiyo, and she had faith that her spirit was not irretrievably fled to the Lifestream. But what was the point? The two of them against… that? Maybe she could get Aentfryn or Kekeniro up after that, but she would soon be spent, and Zenos would not relent while there was someone to attack. “Why do you do these things? Why do you just want to hurt people?” Her words were hardly intelligible under her wails and sobs, and she buried her face in her hands, heedless of the danger. She didn’t care anymore.

If she didn’t care, it didn’t matter what she did. She could lie down, give up, and die, or she could… She could give everything so at least the others could do something.

Power surged through her. She wasn’t sure where it came from – Hydaelyn, the prayers of the Alliance, her own breaking heart… but it burst out of her in shimmering lights filled with white feathers softly wafting down. “Pulse of life!”

She opened her eyes. She had only said a fragment of the Padjal spell. But it had worked. Everyone was standing around her, no longer bloodied, no longer broken. Even she felt stronger. She could no longer cry, not now. Zenos stared. She had the feeling he had not expected that.

Achiyo picked up her sword and pointed it at the dragon. “That is why we are a team. That is why we are friends, and allies, and comrades.” Her hair was blowing free and she shook it impatiently from her face. “While one of us stands, we defy you!”

“For Doma and Ala Mhigo!” R’nyath cried. “Because we fight for more than ourselves!”

“Let’s go!” Chuchupa yelled. “Verse two, same’s the first, li’l bit louder’n a li’l bit worse!”

“No, not worse, godsdammit!” Vivienne said. “You watch your sodding arses this time or I won’t tell Rinala to Raise your worthless hides!” Rinala would raise them regardless. With their spirits fired up like this after recovering from death, and the euphoria in her own body from casting such a spell, how could she not give it her all, as the Warrior of Light she was?

The onslaught began again. Zenos was laughing in joy. “Once more unto the fray! Who now shall stand and who shall fall?”

“Tail incoming!” Kekeniro called. “Group up for fire! Then compass for lightning!”

They’d learned. The Warriors of Light fought fluidly around their arena, moving with swift precision and determination with the sun shining high above them and a new light in their eyes, their hearts beating strong. The dragon was slowly tearing apart under their attacks. He had not been holding back before by any means, but now he was going all out. He lashed out with his tail and his clawed fists, making the platform quake and shudder beneath their feet, but no one was flattened. He cast spell after spell, striking mercilessly, but they had seen them all.

There was still danger; Rinala’s heart was still thudding in her ears, and her breath was ragged as she dodged lightning and weathered wind blasts. Vivienne got clipped by an icicle and nearly lost her arm. And while Rinala was casting a healing spell, Zenos ducked his head and lunged at her. She screamed, even as she got the spell off, but Achiyo was right in front of her, casting Cover, blocking those massive jaws.

There was a huge boom – Chuchupa had punched a hole clean through the tail, and that was enough. Aether was pouring uncontrollably from the dragon’s form, and he jumped into the air to get away from them.

High and higher he soared, heading back over the palace, smoky green light shedding from his body as he clawed at the air… and the dragon shattered. A green aurora of loose aether spread across the sky, shimmering… and a dark shape fell from it.

“He has fallen,” Achiyo said. “But he may not be dead. Let us go.”

“‘E’s gonna land on ‘is head,” Chuchupa said. “Unless it’s made of mithril…”

“You can’t assume anything with that man,” Aentfryn said. “We go.”

 

He had landed so hard in a bed of flowers that pink petals were still dancing in the air as they ran up. Lyse and Alphinaud hurried from the palace at the same time.

“Are you all right!?” Lyse exclaimed on seeing them.

“We are fine,” Achiyo told her. As she had risen from death, the Echo had showed her nearly everyone also dying, one by one, until Rinala made her desperate move. She had no time to think about it now. Physically, they were whole.

“The Alliance is assembling to fight Shinryu,” Alphinaud said. “But there is no need now, is there?”

“No,” Achiyo said. There had better not be.

Lyse nodded back, and turned to the fallen body lying in the flowerbed. “Zenos…”

He moved. He was still alive. He pushed himself up, snatching his last sword, and lurched to his feet, gasping in air and coughing blood as he laughed low in his throat. “The hunter has indeed become the hunted.”

Achiyo drew her sword. If he wanted to go one more round, she could finally put an end to this nightmare.

“And yet, there is only joy,” he said, looking up at the blue sky. “Transcendent joy that I have never known. How invigorating, how… pure, this feeling.”

“Is that what this was all about!?” Lyse cried in fury. “All the meaningless death and destruction? So you could feel something!?”

He looked at her blankly. “Meaningless? Men die that others may live. Those who survive are stronger for it. Not that you could ever understand. To have stood upon this great stage of fools… to have played my part to perfection.” He smiled dreamily. “Oh, this… this moment… let it be enshrined in eternity. My heart… beating out of time… So clear, so vivid, so real… So real.” He raised his blade… to his own neck.

“Coward!” Alphinaud shouted, in a voice so enraged that Achiyo hardly recognized it.

“Stop!” Lyse cried, and launched herself forward.

Zenos smiled at Achiyo. “Farewell, my first friend. My enemy.” The sword flashed.

 

Aymeric waited, with Merlwyb and Kan-E-Senna and all their seconds, as Raubahn, Hien, and Pipin went to investigate the situation in the Royal Menagerie. They had all heard the roaring, the explosions, as they hastily reorganized their forces; he’d seen the dragon fly high up and breathe lasers down. He ought to be out there with her. But his command was worth more to the world than his individual blade. So they waited, in tense silence, for the word that Shinryu had defeated his friends, that he would have to order his soldiers into a suicidal last-ditch effort to contain the creature or let it loose upon the world-

There was a horn calling, joyful, triumphant. Every one of them let out a little sigh. Aymeric glanced at Lucia, smiling, and she smiled back, pure relief for both of them.

And now they still had to wait a little, where they stood on the walls of the palace – surely Raubahn would lead them over, and they could proclaim to the city the day was won.

There they were, a whole crowd of heroes, and all of the Warriors of Light were there, but he only had eyes for one. Small and straight and silver-clad, her head high as a queen – she was missing her helmet and her silver-green hair floated behind her. Her luminous eyes were weary and serene. Now that he saw her alive and well, he wished more that he had been able, if not to fight at her side, at least to see the battle! It must have been incredible, and he loved to see her fight.

The two groups approached each other, and he approached her, holding out his hand for hers. She gave it to him and he brought it up to kiss her plated knuckles. Her fingers were trembling; it must have been gruelling. He smiled reassuringly at her and she blushed.

Together they all walked to the part of the wall that overlooked the city most closely, her streets and squares, where the Alliance was watching and waiting, and many civilians had emerged from their homes, looking up. Purple flashed in his peripheral vision as Arenvald lifted a massive banner of Ala Mhigo. And Lyse began to sing, lifting her arm to the crowd in exultation.

The world was transformed in that moment. Every other Ala Mhigan joined in – hesitantly at first, quickly growing in confidence until every native on the wall or in the city was belting with full voice their national anthem. He could feel their pride palpably reaching to the skies as they sang the noble words that now they proclaimed with all their hearts. He heard a couple sniffles mixed in; some folk – some of them not even Ala Mhigan – were completely overcome with emotion.

He kept his gaze outward, proud to have aided in this mission of liberation, even if only a little, but he reached over to take Achiyo’s hand again. It wouldn’t be noticed, not in this crowd. She squeezed his hand, and he squeezed back.

 

There was so much to do with what was left of the day. The Alliance was largely returning to Porta Praetoria, except for the Ala Mhigan Resistance and token forces from the other Alliance nations, who were securing the city, arranging accommodations for all the Garlean forces taken prisoner, gathering the wounded and dead, putting out the fires of broken machines. The entire camp was awash in ecstatic noise – too much, to Achiyo’s weary ears, but she did not begrudge it of anyone as she made her way through the camp. There would be a celebration that evening, of course. But for a half-bell, it seemed everyone was free to mingle, to be joyful with their friends and companions who had survived.

It looked as though Hien had already become acquainted with the Alliance leaders, at some point in the battle, and she was glad to see him deep in discussion with Kan-E-Senna – and then an enormous Lupin came and knelt to Hien and he jumped in surprise. Over there, she saw R’nyath, hugging a tall Elezen and an Adder captain, and then being jumped on by a pair of red-headed Miqo’te women in Adder uniforms; in another place Aentfryn was listening to a bespectacled Lalafell with a large axe holding forth about something or other. Lyse and Alphinaud were shaking hands, and Arenvald and Raubahn did as well.

She caught sight of blue – but it was not Aymeric, it was Rinala, and she was stumbling through the crowd, looking desperate. Achiyo caught her; in this moment she was needed. “Rinala. You were amazing. I am eternally grateful to you…”

“Th-thanks,” Rinala said, and burst into tears. Achiyo felt for her; surely seeing everyone die around her was too great a burden on a sensitive, already-overtaxed heart, and now all this excitement-!

“Come, this is no place for you right now,” she said. “Let us go somewhere quiet. You are still supposed to be on medical leave, remember.”

“Y-yes,” Rinala whimpered, and clung to Achiyo’s arm. “I’m just… so tired… I can’t… I’m so tired…”

Instinctively, Achiyo looked around to see where Thancred was; he was near Lyse and Alphinaud, but a little apart, withdrawn into his own thoughts again. Was Minfilia not originally from Ala Mhigo herself? But she did not want to point that out to Rinala now. In fact, they had better ignore him altogether for the moment. “You will feel better with food and drink and rest. I would follow suit, only I… have folk to meet.”

She left Rinala in the tent that had been set aside for their use, with a flagon of water and a plate of fruit and bread nearby, and set off again to get to the upper battlements. It was slow going, for she had her own greetings to make, congratulations to give and receive, as she gradually made her way up to the top of the fortifications to where she knew he waited.

Chuchupa found her under the aetheryte, halted by an abundance of admirers. “What’re ye still doin’ here? Get yer arse up to the battlements!”

“I am attempting to do so,” Achiyo responded, smiling, “but I can’t simply leave, it would be rude.”

“Then let me be rude for ye. Go on, git!” She shooed Achiyo away with a smirk, and away she went gladly with Chuchupa scolding the well-wishers. “Hey, stop moanin’, ye lot! She’s a busy lady! Ain’t ye happy to see me too? I punched th’ dragon to death!”

Aymeric had returned to the exact spot he’d stood in before the battle, but she did not see Lucia. Syndael and Eldine grinned and cheered her with joy and affection, and she wondered if Eldine had figured it out yet. Well, they’d all know now, for as Aymeric turned to see her, face alight with heart-stoppingly beautiful love, she could not help herself. She did not care. They were announcing it imminently, and anyone who liked could gossip until then. 

He stepped to meet her as she ran to him and flung herself into his arms, burying her face carefully in his chest so as not to poke him with her horns. He was very sweaty and she didn’t care; so was she. He stood still a moment, then bent slightly and swept her into his arms, lifting her effortlessly from the ground like a child, armour and all. She wound her arms about his neck and laid her head on his shoulder, and felt herself begin to relax for the first time in weeks. She did not hear horrified gasps from anyone, and figured that she was fine where she was. 

“You’re safe,” he murmured, tender voice resonating through her down to her toes, and she felt all the tension drain out of her until she was limp. “I cannot imagine what you fought through, seeing that creature even from afar, empowered by the eyes I so foolishly ordered cast into the Sea of Clouds… but I give thanks that you came back.”

“As do I… To the kami, and to Rinala.”

“To Rinala?”

“We… almost weren’t strong enough. We died but for her.”

His arms tightened almost painfully around her. “You died?”

Suddenly she realized what she had done in her weariness, how badly she frightened him. “Ah, I- Gomen ne, I should not have told you, I’m sorry, I’m sorry…”

“…I do not wish to give you cause to fear or regret telling me anything,” he said. “And I know the danger is now passed. But to know that you were so close to being forever lost…”

“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I was thoughtless to say it so bluntly.” She didn’t want to cause him pain.

He let out a sigh that released his tension. “You have no need to apologize, dear one. You triumphed, and you returned, and what you endured to do so is testament to your indomitable will and your loyal friends. Let us not speak more of it now. Rest.”

How did he always know exactly what to say? “Thank you.” 

Kami, she was so weary. Too weary to move again, now that she was safe. If there was a feast, she did not want to go. Aymeric carefully lowered himself to sit on the ground with her in his lap, moving his sword awkwardly out of the way, leaning back against the battlements. Now that they were both relatively comfortable, she would fall asleep far too soon. It really was rather inappropriate for unwedded nobles, and she found that she was too tired to care. “I am going to fall asleep soon…”

“I don’t mind.”

“But-” 

She tried to rouse herself, felt his hand stroke the back of her head, soothing her back down. “I’ll carry you to your quarters, have no fear.”

“But…”

“I don’t care who sees. I would proclaim it to the world night and day if it would not embarrass you. And we are announcing it tonight anyway. Tonight? Tomorrow, you are weary. I will speak to Lyse.”

“I know.” She wondered something. “Will Lucia be all right, after this?”

“I… do not know. She has not spoken of it to me all year, not since I told her, not even when I mustered the courage to ask. I had thought she was coming to accept it, but the way she treated you yesterday makes me doubt again… She is strong, but to hold all her feelings inside… She feels very deeply, though she speaks of it little.”

“Perhaps I might speak to her on the morrow. I don’t know what I can do to help, but I would like to try.”

“Tomorrow. Rest now.” He kissed her ear, as it blocked him from kissing her cheek, and she lifted her head enough to gaze up sleepily at him – and hesitated. “It’s all right,” he whispered. “They’re not looking.”

She smiled – how had he known she was worried about his knights? – and kissed him softly, eyes closed.

Chapter 66: Dust Settles

 

Author’s note: I didn’t much like Revolutions when I first heard it, but it’s really grown on me. Still, I cannot help but go “Siiiiiiing a song of siiiiixpence, a poooocket full of ryyyye”, and that’s what makes this one still a bit of a miss for me.

Had an interesting discussion with my friends about the Immortal Flames’ army size, because it seems tiny. But it was pointed out to me that maybe they’re based off of the Persian Immortals, who were a relatively small army for their nation (as the lore says, most of Ul’dah’s ‘forces’ would be mercenaries, which was also the case for the Achaemenids, according to Wikipedia), and also obviously the Monetarists wouldn’t stand for this uppity independent Monarchist General having a really substantial force at his disposal.

Shinryu was my first end-game boss; I started playing just after 4.0 launched, made it to him before 4.1 came out (I still missed Raubahn: Extreme), and fighting Shinryu was still chaos because no one was overgeared yet. : )

One more chapter before I take a more extended break. Got some 4.0-epilogue-y stuff to do.