SS Chapter 19 Eirika: The Queen's Guiding Light

Time to go to the final castle in Rausten.

...All right, all right, I'm on it.

And also the lack of a white line to follow on the map.

So let's grab ourselves the final Sacred Stone and figure out which of our party members is most immune to Lyon's bag of tricks. I'm thinking L'Arachel herself this time, or perhaps Myrrh.

At least someone's cheerful...

Welcome to fun.

The Pontifex is L'Arachel's uncle, but that General is a generic. I feel like he should have had a face, at least, even if it's far too late for a new recruit.

Say hello to Pontifex Mansel, L'Arachel's primary caregiver.

L'Arachel has inherited more than a few of her traits, like her massive ego and flowery flourishes, from him. Probably more of a nurture thing, but it's not like we know much about what her parents were like.

Eirika and Ephraim do introduce themselves, and this is one heck of an opening line to begin the exposition.

...Oh yeah, we're emissaries of Frelia, technically. I'm sure there's a bigger deal we could be making.

And yes, we do a fade-to-black exposition here.

Mansel doesn't really want to believe us, but he's pretty sure he's got proof we're telling the truth, so he'll accept it.

And he hands over the Sacred Stone without complaint. I wonder if we told him what happened to the last one.

Well, OK, Mansel does have one objection to us just walking in and taking the Sacred Stone.

L'Arachel's done so much for the continent, we need to take a moment to stop and regroup.

L'Arachel, being at least somewhat aware they have paid no attention to Rausten throughout this plot, doesn't even entirely know if it's still safe. You'd think Grado would have mentioned it if they smashed it, but still.

...This does also make losing Renais's stone more reckless, since if they did quietly smash Rausten, that's us snuffed.

L'Arachel looks at the party and changes her mind on one thought.

She decides to accept the rest time.

She looked at the girl she has a crush on and went "yeah, we need to give her a night to sleep by any means necessary."

Speaking of, Eirika continues to be absolutely heartbroken.

And L'Arachel is the one to come in to comfort her. This is an interesting development in the context of what this scene is on Ephraim route.

I kinda don't want to say why here, but short version, this scene can be used as evidence for the Eirika/L'Arachel ship.

This scene is the emotional recovery scene to follow up the emotional breakdown of Chapter 18. Angst without payoff is just cruel, and this is where the game picks up on that.

Eirika's conflict, of course, is about how Lyon is gone for good.

That's the rub. Lyon is too far gone to save now. He must die, for the good of the world, no matter what he might truly be on the inside.

As much as it will hurt us.

Not only can L'Arachel not understand Eirika's perspective because she doesn't know the man they lost, she also doesn't have experience with having a friend to lose. Even Dozla feels slightly impersonal on some level- he's still her closest friend, but the fact he's hired help does kind of get in the way.

L'Arachel does have one idea to help Eirika come to terms with what she would do.

Lyon- the real Lyon- would want Eirika to be true to herself: exactly the girl he fell in love with. And that girl is the woman who stands up for what's right.

Cry all you need, Eirika.

And when you're done, then you can start being strong again.

Also helpful. Mansel's probably organising a banquet.

Eirika's eyes have perked up. Excellent omen.

Meanwhile, outside the castle halls...

That laugh sounds familiar.

...There's two of them now, spark me.

I'm not entirely sure how he's doing that, and I think that scares me more.

I fully believe he has that sort of power, though.

Hello, Riev.

Looks like it's time for more Remnants.

Whatever it is Lyon is doing to advance the Demon King's powers, it seems to be working for Riev, too.

So I guess it's our job to go do something about that?

Interesting, but not surprising, that Eirika and Ephraim are in the room. What even is this room, then? I suppose it's supposed to be where we're eating, considering how L'Arachel ended the last conversation.

Whatever magic powers they have have been working well. Despite this, however, reinforcements only really appear from three positions.

Numbers and stats. You thought the dramatic rescue in Hamill Canyon meant Rausten was competent?

...OK, apparently all the competent guys are someplace else. So much for the "imperial guard".

At least it's apparently the first time that's happened.

We'll deal with this, Mansel, you stay on your throne and continue to be a non-offensive class.

Everyone...

And Eirika.

Ephraim tells Seth to put down his chauvinism and let Eirika do the right thing.

She seems ready to give it one last push.

Now then, time for Chapter 19. We start with a lot more than 12 open deployment spaces, and four of them are over in a far corner.

This is what the map looks like. Fog of war, incidentally.

This hallway will be filled with Heroes and Snipers, chiefly, and any units in the top-left box will be dedicated to stopping these guys.

There are a bunch of enemies in this fog, but very few reinforcements, and only at the very end. I always send more people than I need down here.

This will be where the most serious fighting takes place. I say reinforcements appear from three positions, but this one has two spawners and they spawn a lot of enemies. In addition to all the enemies already present, you have to fight your way through Swordmasters and Great Knights on the right, Rangers and Mage Knights on the left.

Two treasure caches, which is why Rennac is here. Also that dead end in the north-east is very Secret Shop looking.

This staircase feels more important than it is. I don't think any difficulty includes someone who uses it. Maybe a thief tries to leave using it.

Here's Pontifex Mansel. He's picked up a lot of Luck- not that any genetic predisposition towards the stat saved L'Arachel's parents- but nothing else that would benefit him here. He could do a good job of smiting his enemies if he had weapons, or if his class could even use them. If an enemy is attacking him, you've basically lost anyway.

Here's his friend, and wow is he not much better. Exchanging Luck for Defence means he's probably going to survive one round of combat against weapons, but after that, he's not worth much. Again, he'll stay beside Mansel and not do anything.

These guys are the real important elements of the Other Army. There are eight of them, and if four of them are alive at the end of the map (I'm a little confused on the number and whether Mansel and his friend count, so assume six), we get a prize. Even if the prize didn't suck, it wouldn't really be worth babysitting these idiots: I have, no exaggeration, seen one get attacked by a Druid, dodge both hits, and then proceed to kill itself by attempting to attack it on his turn. They do possess basic survival skills if they happen to be injured, but they will melt if faced with the business end of a weapon.

Some of them have Vulneraries. The only thing they're good for is an excuse for them to burn turns- they are incredibly lucky if they're allowed to use them.

Riev may have done absolutely nothing about Rausten until now, but now we're here, too, he'll be glad to finally get his revenge on the place.

And yes, just as Caellach has his gripes with Jehanna, Riev has his own with Rausten.

And he is enjoying every minute of being on the giving end of this siege.

As far as I can tell, Riev's crimes are no more elaborated "worshipping the Demon King"- hardly the worst reason to excommunicate a man. Whether this worship involved arcane rituals with steps that involve crimes (like human sacrifices) is less clear. Riev in general seems to be all business and very little evil, other than the evil he is busy facilitating.

Eirika also gets a pre-battle speech, but it's more of a self-rallying cry than an army-rallying one.

She is ready to take L'Arachel's advice and act as Lyon would have wanted rather than wallow in the regret of not being able to ask him directly.

We'll make you proud.

Oh yeah, good to mention, this is a Defend mission. It'll be a really difficult Defend mission, though.

I see a lack of enemies up here, so I can advance relatively freely turn 1. Not that I can see that far.

There's some Druids behind these Mercs, though. Those two Knights are Dead and Super Dead.

That doesn't mean we can't do anything to help.

At this rate, they might just survive. We can't get much more of a chokehold on druid movement, though.

Oh, and by the way, there they are. Even if they were stationary, Super Dead could walk up to one and take a swing.

Amelia, Neimi and Natasha are taking this side.

Ephraim's going Secret Shopping.

Vanessa found some enemies up here. They are about as pathetic as the Rausten guys.

Eirika breaks out her Rapier one last time to have some fun with the Generals in the first wave, and then some of the horses we're dealing with later.

That Brave Lance didn't do him much good.

I will gladly take both.

Some Fighters in here for Natasha.

That could've been scary.

So yeah, Super Dead is dead.

A druid was hiding in here. It's interesting that Natasha can only just kill him.

Dead survived his round with a Druid, but repaid the favour by dying horribly.

These two have actual chances, since the first wave of enemies are physical unpromoteds, but still.

Oh hey, there's the Swordmaster assault we're going to suffer later.

Let's start with these guys.

Scouting report...

...Where's the onslaught?

I guess that's time to clean up here.

Eirika and L'Arachel get started on forming the front line against this massive blockade.

And we've got coversage for this part of our defence.

This company is good at smashing.

And gets better.

Myrrh has to prey on the weak, annoyingly.

I wish we could do more to save the Raustens, but I only had so many sword arms.

Amelia and Neimi press on, but there's not many enemies around. They only show up near the end of the mission- sending people to kill them and save those two Rausten knights takes them out of the fight. The thing is the main front has limited room anyway.

Time to go shopping!

...Nothing new. This is a good time to top up on Physic staves (it will be your last chance, and this time you have the Silver Card), but otherwise, there's nothing here.

In the Japanese version, this shop sold, on top of some nice weapons, Angelic Robes, Energy Rings, Secret Books, Speedwings, Goddess Icons and Dracoshields. My understanding is that the differences between shops during battles and shops on the field that differ in inventory is actually the localisers' doing: they changed some of the shops, but only during battle, leaving the map inventories alone.

So long, Rausten knight.

There's Mr. Brave Sword.

And we say goodbye to a lovely weapon. Ah well. It served its purpose.

Cute I get a sword in replacement.

...I still had the second Rapier? Well then, CHARGE!

...Aw.

There goes the other one.

Myrrh dodges a super-effective archer hit, although it didn't scare her that much for a super-effective hit.

One of the survivors runs away to heal. We probably won't be allowing him to find any enemies to kill.

Marisa opens the door. Interestingly, when opening a door, the Thief's vision is reduced to 0. It only applies during the animation, though.

Nothing hiding in here. We are the defending army.

This is where you're supposed to get a Runesword. Funny you get one from a chest on this map in particular.

(As a reminder, this sword is treated as Nosferatu in both 1-2 range, hitting Res, being Dark in the magic triangle, and healing the user for damage dealt.)

Natasha uses a Torch staff to make sure there's nothing in range.

Rennac will pick up these chests.

Myrrh smash!

Now that's a level.

Vanessa stands here, which basically makes the wall stopping enemies marching on the throne complete.

...There are Warriors up here.

You know, this guy is technically the bigger threat, the myrmidon will kill himself on his turn.

He's just a pile of ashes and two eyeballs now.

...Turns out he had a buddy, and this one has a bow. Myrrh shivers.

L'Arachel charges into danger, Eirika plugging the hole in the wall.

Tana finds enemies to bump into.

Syrene starts on fighting them, although this is risky for her. Especially with the axes.

Aw. This must have been a deadly turn.

Any questions why?

Clearly not this guy.

This is technically the better fight for weapon triangle purposes, in terms of choosing between Tana and Syrene. But statistically, one of them won't kill him reliably, and he might get to do some damage.

As is this. Kinda annoying, I want Syrene to get EXP. And also to not die.

Lute continues one-shotting promoted enemies.

Eirika's also oneshotting, but because of the super-effective damage.

Thankfully, Vanessa is also scared of bows, but far less so compared to Myrrh.

This guy should not be allowed near either flier. Why did I even send a flier team up here? Switching Amelia/Neimi and Vanessa/Lute is a sensible decision.

EXP is EXP, though.

Last Brave weapon acquired.

So many Snipers that could've hit Vanessa...

You call those enemies?

Please don't come closer.

Complicated setup to get Syrene in range foe some extra fights, and Tana gets this neat level to show off for it.

The idea is that there shouldn't be much that can walk around Syrene to hit Tana.

Downside being now Syrene has to take more hits.

If you couldn't nab Lyon's copy, this is where you get Fenrir. Not ultimately worse, you just can't use it in Mt. Nerelas- and really, not on this map either.

The time for the statups is nigh. I usually use them before this map.

...I honestly just forgot this run.

Right, you need to go.

Safety first! I think.

Rennac is behind the defensive line, said no one ever.

This is a defensive line.

There's a one-tile chokepoint to take advantage of here, and Eirika is standing in it. These weird diagonal stairs can make those.

L'Arachel won't be going forward. I'd like to be standing where Eirika is already, although the space in front is just as good while allowing two spaces for melee combat.

Ephraim's going to wait with Mansel. Ideally, no enemies go there anyway, so...

There's plenty of Warriors to kill down here, apparently.

More Avoid for me, then.

Syrene can handle the Swordmasters pretty well, all things considered.

And her stats are getting closer to "below-average"!

The problem is these guys. Syrene can't even kill them!

That's not to say these guys are negligible, though.

Lots of horses over with Eirika.

There's no way around dealing with two shooting at range, annoyingly.

Fortify heals all allies within Mag/2 squares of the caster, making it an excellent high-ranked staff.

Lute went looking for trouble. Maybe I should've sent Myrrh first- sure, it feels more dangerous, but she could've got the vision and Lute could've zapped a fool.

I got one of them, at least.

Seriously why would I take that chance? Yeah, Lute probably survives, but...

Marisa moves on to more productive pastures.

Syrene uses a Vulnerary.

There's reinforcements to worry about.

Eirika moves forward to take a Mage Knight.

And L'Arachel, in stepping forward, kills his friend.

Natasha's heading over for some staff support over for the front side. Amelia and Neimi don't need her.

There are the Heroes.

Vanessa is starting to turn back to normal. Nothing will really replace that obscene Defence, though.

Syrene's getting better at dealing with these guys, it turns out.

Although that's no excuse for slacking off.

Excellent! Not even a oneshot, either.

Thief! Thieves appear here and over on the west side (and over there in an inconvenient position). This one is fodder for the people waiting for the real reinforcements, though.

Her HP is a little high for this, but Natasha throws a Physic at Syrene. Here's the animation: sparkles fly out of the healer, the camera pans over, and the sparkles float down into the healing circle.

If you Physic too close, the two units are actually on screen together, but the animation still follows this logic.

Pew.

Tethys sends Marisa back, and finds out there's a Thief over here, too.

Standing in this position also reveals Riev, the boss, hiding in the south-west corner. He's a fairly standard boss: He can take serious punishment, his Avoid is fairly solid (although without a gate or throne, it's not that much better than, say, Lyon in practice). His Magic is a little low, but his tome Aura is critty enough to make up the difference on anything with a Resistance stat to write home about.

The Aura tome, incidentally, is the A Rank Light spell in Magvel, and defeating Riev here in Chapter 19 is the only way to acquire a copy in the main story. Like Excalibur, this was a Regalia weapon in Archanea, reappearing in FE4 and 7-8 before becoming just a normal (but powerful) spell starting in SoV.

If Eirika used her Runesword, she could make some ground here, but it's not that worth it.

Also, as a bit of an annoying point, Riev's position means that he can attack any square further than Eirika already is. So my options for dealing with these guys short of "make L'Arachel the leader instead" are pretty meagre.

I think the ability of Myrrh to oneshot a promoted unit is more an indictment of the promoted unit than praise of her.

Although with every stat point she gets, she gets more obscene.

I always send Lute in first...

At least this is a chokepoint now.

...Yay? Mansel really likes 5000 Gold.

Well, that guy gets to live another turn.

Don't be surprised if Eirika's sitting on some caps later.

...Ow.

That's starting to get scary. I think Tana/Syrene Support gives some Avoid?

There's never going to be a shortage of people to melee.

It was this or melee-ing Eirika, since her ranged spots are occupied.

Despite WTA, it didn't work out in his favour.

Well, that guy had better things to do with his life.

The thief attacks Marisa, since she's too fast to steal from. Didn't work out. Maybe he should've gone for the chest.

Speaking of, Rennac's about to open the last chest, so we'd better kill these guys proactively.

Else they'll run away on spawn.

Now this is necessary.

Bolting tome! You have less to use it on, but it's easier to get. Lute's Bolting will hit harder than Purge from L'Arachel, but L'Arachel has the mobility.

...OK, the Sniper was somewhat reasonable. Less sure on this guy.

Not technically a perfect level up (no +2 in Defence), but considering her cap for Def, it might as well be.

This feels like a wasted feed.

Although Vanessa appreciates a chance to use her lances.

Marisa comes in to illuminate this part of the field. This is what Eirika and L'Arachel have been valiantly battling.

And Eirika's barely got dents to show for it.

This front is a little lighter and Syrene is still cautious.

At least it's doing her well.

Yeah, that's what I expect out of Lute.

OK, that could've been a kill. High Def, Low HP builds are surprisingly risky.

Even if L'Arachel doesn't oneshot, she don't care.

And a point for a stat she hasn't been building much recently, as a treat.

This still frame looks great even if it's not doing much. For either of us.

The reinforcement wave is continuing, but it's due to die down soon. If you can't handle these guys, or set your wall in the chokepoint where Tethys is, this is easily the hardest part of the game, or at least the most lethal, and for the complete opposite reason to Phantom Ship.

Electrocuted with extreme prejudice.

It's funny to think how much further Lute has to go.

Myrrh, meanwhile, only gets 8 more of these.

Vanessa will choke this point!

(What do you mean, she's not on a chokepoint anymore? Roll with it!)

Marisa's helping!

Although Eirika's fishing her out.

L'Arachel, take point!

Tana is needed for these Great Knights.

Syrene has been lancing enough to get a Rank. I assume this is S Rank.

Natasha will get close enough eventually. By which time the fighting is probably over.

Too little too late, but a valiant effort nonetheless. Her stats are actually erring better than Syrene's bases, but only slightly- and I think Lances might be the better weapon than Light magic practically. Natasha is leaning on Slayer.

Perhaps I shouldn't disparage Light too loudly.

Apparently Syrene has gotten so good that Swordmasters are trying their luck with Tana now. She is the favourable matchup with WTA...

L'Arachel doesn't oneshot these ones.

But it is good Light rank nonetheless.

And some targeting of the rearguard.

Back to L'Arachel, she's got some more Magic and Skill, and also capped Luck.

I think those are all reinforcements, the one in front of L'Arachel should be the only one who could attack someone who wasn't shooting back.

Amelia and Neimi have friends!

...Little tough going for Neimi, but Amelia can get the kill.

Strength up, that should make the next one easy going!

I wish this was a modern FE and this was giving the two Support points. Although I think they are A Rank anyway.

We're out of enemies over on that side, so Syrene joins in over here.

This formation is a mess because I can't get Riev to move somewhere less inconvenient.

Marisa takes point this time.

And this part is just a mess.

Lute gets in some healing on all that HP Myrrh got from level ups.

The difference between a Silencer and a Crit is the colour of the flash, and also Silencer has a slightly more flourish-y animation. Unfortunately, I seem to have caught a frame that doesn't show it off- if Marisa is about to Silencer, she'll split into three while spinning her knives.

Silencer actually gives bonus EXP.

Not that Marisa is doing much with it.

Another guy to kill there, and...

Warriors for this crew.

That was much easier.

Lute uses up the last Heal use.

And... we're running out of things to do over here.

Might as well finish these guys.

And fish them out.

From the sounds of things, the victory music is playing: Riev's our last man.

Well, until next turn's reinforcements.

That leaves nobody over here, then.

Natasha is going to stand here and keep up vision.

Little more...

Plus some stats for Amelia...

Last turn, all the reinforcements are gone, we're done here. Time to kill Riev.

Ew, that's a lot of crit for such a high hit rate. Riev can kill on a crit.

Riev is looking forward to this. I also love, incidentally, that Riev is still a Bishop after all is said and done. He has been excommunicated, but he hasn't turned to elder magic and joined the Druids. He is more of a templar character than a cult one.

He may be the Demon King's man, but he's still no better than Valter.

No matter what game it's in, Aura involves these rings of light descending on the target. I like that, if they're bringing the spell back randomly, they at least bring the animation with it.

For what it's worth, bosses are categorically immune to Silencer. Mostly.

One of these days...

Eirika, to prove that she's overcome her lacking confidence, secures the kill.

Or, well, the retreat. Riev makes sure he is able to exit stage left.

If the map ends by timeout, he says the same thing.

...Are you sure that's what you meant to say?

Hell yeah.

L'Arachel's gonna love this.

Time to pat ourselves on the back.

And Eirika assures L'Arachel that she is prepared to face Lyon with her head held high.

Thanks to her.

L'Arachel starts giggling like a schoolgirl. This is another of those things I have no idea what the non-gay explanation for is.

She tries to change the subject, and this is a genuinely valid concern- who knows what Riev was doing while we were distracted!

Eirika is not distracted. Even ignoring the gay explanation, this might be cause for alarm in itself.

Don't worry, it's not sickness, L'Arachel is just super in love with you right now and needs to cool down before we proceed.

And we move on to pick this up. Possibly after L'Arachel had time to regather her senses.

Although considering her reaction to acquiring it is to point out how beautiful she is, maybe not...

Ephraim is not distracted. We're here to win.

...Good call. We know they're waiting for something, so we have time, but more time is better than less time.

Myrrh reinforces that call with another allusion to whatever it is Myrrh's tapped into that we're not.

We already kinda knew where we were going, but...

Now it's time to leave, and Mansel sees us off.

He's gonna miss his niece. The one downside of shipping L'Arachel with most of her pairings is that most of them are wanted/needed in the countries they come from, leaving L'Arachel to abandon Rausten and Mansel. Well, OK, she'd never do this, but it makes life difficult, to accomodate Rausten and whichever country she's now also Queen of.

L'Arachel's parents, choosing this calling, went to Darkling Woods and died. Both L'Arachel and Mansel are aware of this and are talking around what it means that L'Arachel is following their example. Possibly because only Eirika Support reveals this about her.

L'Arachel assures Mansel there is no chance she's going to die, Eirika is here to protect her. Also Ephraim, Tana, and a whole assortment of cool people, but Eirika's the main one.

The feels. It's a very "behind the scenes" sort of feels, though.

Of course we are. L'Arachel, the peerless princess of light and justice. Who wouldn't want her in the party?

"And then I want to talk to you about my wife..."

Mansel realises we haven't actually grabbed the Twins yet, and quickly tacks that on to the end of this heart-wrenching farewell.

Even Eirika seems a little perplexed. This happens to Ephraim, too, but I'd joke this is Mansel getting started early on treating her as family.

The last of the set.

Oh gosh the double blink frame's adorable.

The Light tome and the Staff are usually used by the same types of unit, and it turns out Latona himself had both. We have to choose one or the other.

There's also another cash injection, although this can only be spent in map shops: we're done with mid-battle armouries.

Glorious Light, Ivaldi enjoys a 5 Might/Weight advantage over Aura in exchange for 10 crit, but has one unfortunate downside: Remember how I said Sacred Twins deal double Might to monsters? Slayer gives triple Might. Aura does more damage to monsters, although the +5 Def bonus has its uses against some opponents. There are classes other than Bishop that can use Ivaldi, but the only one that might bother is Valkyrie... and the only Valkyrie that can't be a Bishop is L'Arachel. Funny to think she's got dibs on her ancestral weapon because the other Light users found something better.

The Saint's Staff, Latona, is the ultimate healing magic: Three charges, but on use, it heals all allies on the field except the caster to full HP and removes any status conditions to boot. This has one use in particular, but otherwise, Fortify and dodge chances serve just as well. Plus, if you have S Ranked Staves, you lose the +5 Hit/Crit for S Ranking a weapon you hit people with.

Pay raise!

L'Arachel seems to be the only one questioning whether we should use these old relics.

And Mansel, in turn, offers another good bite of lore about what the Sacred Twins do in-universe. They play a part in the ceremony in which Mansel (and one day L'Arachel) is made Pontifex of Rausten. And possibly some other important ceremonies, but they'd have to be on that level- L'Arachel's wedding and the birth of her children are the only other things that come to mind.

This seems like a good excuse to ignore that and focus on getting things done.

Of course, since they're important to Rausten, Mansel wants them back.

Eirika is happy to promise that. I can't promise they'll be free from scratches, though: L'Arachel has a few people in mind whom she'd love to show the power of Rausten.

Again, L'Arachel's parents died in there, she may be processing some amount of trauma to steel herself to follow them.

We'll be prepared.

We spared enough of Rausten's knights for the reward! I never feel like I earned this. I always lose all the ones that are in actual danger.

Considering L'Arachel fought monsters with nothing but a staff, I can see why she believes this.

Rausten in general just seems to have spent a bit too long without anything to compare itself to.

They give us a reward to wish us well with.

"Now into the convoy with this!"

L'Arachel is emboldened by the expression of courage, and tells these guys to stay out of danger by holding down the fort.

I feel so bad about you lot being on a battlefield at all.

This seems to be the only place to find a Light Brand including the post-game. Which is completely insane, because this weapon is far, far inferior to the Runesword. While it is treated as a normal sword at one range, it's Lightning at two range, half the user's Strength, can't crit. The Runesword is just better in every way that matters.

Next time: L'Arachel faces her fear.