Epilogue: The Final Battle
Within the Asvelt Empire
The messenger brought the news that the imperial army had marched ten days after the Second Allied Legion entered imperial lands.
“Their forces are currently divided into two main groups. One of around forty thousand soldiers is advancing to detour around the Edan River. The other has around thirty thousand soldiers. They are all in blue armor, so there can be no doubt that these are the Azure Knights. The Azure Knights are marching toward us.”
A nervous look flashed across the faces of the officers. Blood pressed the cigarette he was smoking into the ashtray, silently holding out his empty other hand as he did so.
“Ser.” Lise handed him a map, which he took. The other key officers gathered around him in a ring.
“What do you think, Liv?” he asked.
“I doubt they’re planning any tricks. The course of the Azure Knights’ advance makes me think they plan on deploying here, don’t you think?”
Olivia pointed to the Tahner Plains on the map. Blood gave it a long stare from over her shoulder, then turned to Ashton.
“Any thoughts, Lieutenant Colonel Ashton?”
“I agree with Olivia. If I were to add anything, it would be that the force of forty thousand looks like it means to catch us in a vise.” He paused. “They’re being very obvious about it, though.”
Blood chuckled. “It’s bait for the Eighth Legion.”
He had no arguments with either of them, and so their course forward came together naturally. Blood, leading the Second Legion, and Amelia, leading the Winged Crusaders, would meet the army that appeared to be aiming to pincer them. Olivia’s Eighth Legion would meet the Azure Knights head-on, just as they had planned at the beginning. In other words, unlooked for, the purposes of the two armies had aligned.
“I know there’s no point telling you this now, Liv,” Blood said, “but these are the Azure Knights—the empire’s strongest—we’re facing. I can rely on you for this, can’t I?”
“You can,” Olivia replied. “I won’t know if I can win until I’m out there, but I’ll give it my best shot.”
She raised a confident fist, and no one could help but smile. Even now, she didn’t show a shred of nerves. She couldn’t have been any less Olivia.
Blood, however, looked grave as he said, “If you feel you’re in danger, you withdraw. No hesitation. Under no circumstances are you to push yourself too far.”
“You’ve got it!”
“Colonel Claudia, Lieutenant Colonel Ashton, I’m counting on you too.”
“Yes, ser!” the two of them chorused. Their faces were drawn as they saluted. Blood would have lent aid to the Eighth Legion if it were within his powers, but he knew the imperial army, when they came, would be unwavering in their resolve.
He turned to address everyone gathered there, and called out, “The battle has reached its final stage at last! I thank you all for your service that has brought us here and know without a doubt that here, you will fight even harder! This ends in our victory!”
There was a roar from the soldiers as they raised their fists high. After the string of victories that had led them to this point, their morale was burning hot.
As Blood looked out at them, Lise came up to stand beside him.
“Are you worried?” she asked.
“Do I look it?”
“Yes, ser. You do.” She smiled softly, and Blood scratched his cheek.
“Quit it with the roundabout allusions, would you?”
Lise chuckled evilly. “Your thoughts really do show on your face, you know, ser. Though I flatter myself that I am the only one who notices.”
“O-Oh, really.”
“Yes, really,” she replied, puffing her chest out. In his embarrassment, Blood’s eyes wandered, looking at everything but her.
“You don’t need to worry, though,” she went on. “We have an angel of battle on our side, after all.”
Her eyes went to Olivia, upon whom Gauss had bestowed this title. Surrounded by the others, her arms were spread wide, and she wore a beaming smile.
“I wouldn’t have expected such optimism from you at the final stage.”
“At times, ser, an optimistic outlook is more likely to produce a good result,” she replied, and Blood felt the anxiety he had been concealing melt away.
Women, he thought, they’re tough as nails, and not just Liv. Though with Liv, when all you see is that innocent smile of hers, you remember she’s still just a child... I’d better put everything I have to give into this, so that she can do the same without worrying about what lies behind her. And for all the soldiers who have given their lives so far. And for everyone who’ll lead us in the ages to come. Right. He pulled a fresh cigarette from his pocket and lit it. The final battle was about to begin.
Olivia and the thirty-five thousand soldiers of the Eighth Legion faced off against Felix and his thirty thousand Azure Knights on the Tahner Plains to the east of the imperial capital of Olsted. Plains they were in name only, however, as a look around revealed hills, forests, and marshland. It was a location that allowed for a wide variety of battle plans that would test a commander’s capabilities to their limit.
Azure Knights’ Command
“Our troops will soon all be in position, my lord.” Felix, clad in azure plate, nodded but did not reply to Teresa’s report. At his belt hung the longsword Elhazard, also known as “the Godslayer.” He was fully armed.
Far in the distance, the Eighth Legion advanced. In addition to the scarlet banners adorned with eight stars flew a great number of the black banners he’d heard of that bore the crest of the Death God, making their presence deeply felt.
A truly mighty formation, he thought. I suppose I should have expected no less from Death God Olivia. His gaze roved out to where Olivia’s command must be set up. It was exceedingly rare that a commander was able to cross swords with an enemy in battle, but this time, Felix was sure his blade would meet hers before the battle was through.
“My lord...” He looked back and saw Teresa’s anxious face peering at him. In a gesture of reassurance, he laid a hand on her shoulder.
“There is no cause for you to worry. I will put an end to Death God Olivia. No matter what.” Allowing the Royal Army to break through them here would be to allow them to invade the capital. It was obvious that the Eighth Legion’s object was to conquer the capital—in other words, they were after Emperor Ramza. Felix quietly clenched his fist. He had to stop Olivia, even if it meant putting his own life on the line.
Olivia Valedstorm, he thought. Let us end this.
Eighth Legion Command
“From what I can see, they’re entirely without weakness...” Ashton looked through his spyglass and gulped. Olivia twirled her new prototype spyglass, which she had nicknamed “Sasuke,” and put it back in its holster.
“I thought the same,” she said. “What about you, Claudia?”
“So did I. Honestly, I’m not sure how to attack...”
Which way the scales of victory tipped would depend on which side seized control in the early stages of the battle. As reflected by Claudia’s concerns, how they entered the battle would be extremely important.
Olivia cleared her throat once. “As such,” she said, “I’ll be joining the vanguard.”
“What’s ‘as such’ supposed to mean? You’re the supreme commander.”
“Am I not allowed to be in the vanguard, then? That’s not like you, Ashton.” Unlike Claudia, whose head was as hard as black glass, Ashton was more flexible in his decision-making, and so Olivia was more than a little thrown by this response.
“I’ve got more than a few opinions of my own.”
“Huh,” Olivia said lightly, staring at Ashton as he frowned.
“You’re bloody casual, considering we’re about to fight the final battle to decide the fate of Fernest,” Ashton said, then looked up at the sky and exhaled.
“When you say you’ll be in the vanguard,” Claudia said, eyes narrowed, “you’re not thinking of leading the charge, are you?”
“Bingo!” Olivia replied, smiling and clapping her hands exuberantly even as she felt a chill run down her spine.
“I knew it...” Claudia frowned more deeply than Olivia had ever seen before, but eventually her shoulders fell, and she let out a long sigh. It was only too obvious that she was against the idea, but Olivia wasn’t about to back down this time.
“Even if I stopped you here, you’d only do it anyway, wouldn’t you, ser?”
“Yep. We have to win this battle, no matter what. That means using whatever means we have available to us. I’ll lead the charge to sow as much disarray among the enemy as I can, then you wait for the right moment and send a heavy-hitting unit, either Ellis’s or Gile’s, in after me. I’ll leave command of the first stage of the battle to you two. I’ll send instructions if anything goes wrong, of course.” When Olivia was done with her orders, Ashton shrugged, and Claudia looked severe.
“All right,” Ashton said. “I trust you, so all I can do is follow you. In this battle and whatever comes after it.”
“Like General Blood said earlier, please at least make sure not to do anything reckless.”
“You got it!”
Ashton and Claudia nodded, then got straight to work hammering out their battle plan. Olivia watched them fondly, pressing her hands to her chest as she felt something warm filling it.
“Right!” she announced. “Ashton, make me one of those, you know the ones, to boost my spirits!”
“By those, you mean...that?”
“Yeah! It’ll give me even more energy.” Olivia held up both her arms and flexed.
“Well, if that’s all it takes to get you full of energy. Hold on a minute.” Ashton left the tent, then came back not long after with a basket dangling from his arm.
“Here, now. Just as ordered.”
“Thank you!” Olivia took her chicken sandwich, complete with Ashton’s special homemade mustard, and shoved the whole thing into her mouth, chewing happily.
“I’ll see you in a bit,” she said when she was done. Waving to Claudia and Ashton, she hooked a foot into her stirrup and leapt lightly up onto Comet’s back. The horse was clad in ebony armor largely the same as her own.
“Let’s go, Comet!” The horse reared up with a piercing neigh, then galloped away like a gale rushing toward the Azure Knights in the distance.
To Claudia, she looked like nothing so much as a hero out of a song.
The year was Tempus Fugit 1000, and the Ruby Moon rose. Two armies prepared for a clash upon which both of their fates rested, the battle in which each of their mightiest warriors would find themselves reunited. What future awaited them at the end of this battle, in that moment, neither of them had any way to know.
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