Chapter I – Twelfth

Darkness pulses. Actually, it would be more so correct to say that the darkness of the insides of your eyelids seems to pulse. Especially when you're in pain. However, this is a problem that needs to be dispelled. Immediately.

With that thought, I force open my eyes to see the slowly approaching Dragon's Table, the air buffeting me as I fall. However, unlike any of the previous times I've fought my way towards this place, and now as I fall towards the barrier, I am completely sure of myself. This time, I know my way.

How many times have I repeated the same conversations with these characters? How many times have I heard their oversaid death quotes? Despite each and every pass through the same unchanging plotline, I have never seen success. I have been bound to an endless loop. Had I ever acted "out-of-line", as He would phrase it, He would mercilessly reset the entire timeline, forcing me to once more find my way through the labyrinth that was once my favorite game.

Fire Emblem Awakening. One would think that I would have taken Robin's place. Fine. I'm not the tactician. In that case, one would expect me to influence the story via my own methods, just not as the strategist. But no. Of course not. That is not the case with me: I am to act according to orders. I cannot make my own decisions. I am simply "just another unit", nothing more, and possibly even less. Either I act to orders, or someone would die.

He toyed with me. He killed my beloved characters before my eyes. I was forced to watch as they fell to the ground either dead or dying. I was forced to watch the horror on their faces as they realized they had made a perilous mistake. I was forced to watch their terror as they realized they were about to die. I was forced to watch as Robin, cold fear and regret in his or her eyes, saw "inevitable" losses. He forced me to act simply a controllable unit, not a player in his sick game. And, should He have seen fit, He forced me to die. And if I, Chrom, or Robin died, or if something happened that didn't fit with His "Story", then the timeline would reset.

Chapter 23. For the fourth time, in the twelfth loop, I have, once more and finally, found my way here. And still, despite everything, I am not yet insane. Even after surviving more than twenty years in this "game of life". I have aged mentally, if never physically. I have lost my love for this "game" that I used to call "Fire Emblem Awakening". In the place of what used to be called "love", there now exists only "hatred", "fear", "anxiety", "anguish". What other descriptors need I add? Oh yes. "A World of Torture." Oh wait, that doesn't describe how I feel about the game. Does it matter?

Once more, I am here at the Dragon's Table. I defy Robin's commands for the first time in this loop. I throw Sumia off of her Falcon, much to her and, not to mention, the entire remaining company's surprise, and rode and directed it as it flew up into the air. I've ridden them before, something that they somehow seem to understand and know, despite the timeline resets. I flew high above the battlefield, watching as units from both sides fight and die, and over the energy field separating Validar, Chrom, and Robin from everyone else. Seeing the next few moments in my mind, I prepare my Blade-Lance. Just as I expected, before I jump, I find both myself and the falcon blasted by a explosion of wind, the source of which is an Excalibur tome.

For a moment I closed my eyes as an instinctive reaction to the pain of being hit by such a powerful blast of magic. Darkness pulses. Or, at least, the insides of my eyelids pulse. Especially considering the pain that accompanies it. However, the pain was naught in comparison to my sheer desire to finally put my attempt at an escape into action. It is nothing a momentary obstacle that will be dispelled immediately. And so I force open my eyes. The time for reminiscing is over. The time to enter the final loop, on the other hand, is now.

As I quickly approach the barrier, I can hear Him yell, "Whatever are you trying to do, Chalys?!"

He says it in His ever-laughing way of speaking, and it is all I can do to control my anger and focus myself on my objective. As I dive towards the barrier, He suddenly jumps up and into my line of dive in order to bar my path, grasping His sword, Chronic, with both of His hands. As time seems to slow for me, and as my target seemingly highlights Himself in my vision, I delink the two halves of my Blade-Lance and angle both swords in my preparation to launch my strike.

As I close on Him, He smirks and taunts, "You can't kill me as you are, Chalys."

I mentally scoff at His taunt and grip my blades' handles tighter."Never planned to."

With a quiet three words, I use the limits of my strength and dexterity to launch my blades into a hyper-velocity slash. Just as I expect, He blocks the attack, which is exactly what I wanted Him to do. The moment the blades impact on His Chronic, we both stop in midair, suspended.

The fiery light in His eyes seem to laugh, "Is this a joke?"

However, despite what He may have believed, the situation at hand is FAR from any joke. Instantly, I change my grip on my blades and force the blades to move just as rapidly as before, sending Him flying towards the barrier. The impact is completely silent, but the force of the fall is apparent on His face, not to mention the accompanying almost invisible cracks appearing in the barrier. With a flaring pain behind me, I suddenly reaccelerate into a dive at my target, and I can't help but scream at him, "PAY FOR YOUR SIN."

A quick regrasping, reangling, redirectioning, and I launch a cross-slash at my grounded target, shattering the barrier completely and sending Him into the ground. An explosion of rock and dust crests from where He lands, and I glare at it as I fall to the ground myself, as I land, instead, on my feet.

Three voices. Robin's and Chrom's to my left, and Validar's to my right. Each of them sound out at once. Their words, by order of stated name, are "Chalysane?!", "What…?", and "You…".

I turn my head and glare at Validar to my right. He gathers energy at his open palm, the tome "Grima's Truth" enclosed in his other. He grins cruelly as he fires the blast at me, yelling proudly, "This is all written!" As the pulse of dark energy flies at me, I simply slash it, which should have been a critical hit, into oblivion with my right-ward blade. As the explosion of darkened flame obscures my movement, I dash at him and quickly bisect him with my left-ward blade, as I coldly mutter, "I don't have time for you." He falls to the ground, disappearing as a violet flame consumes his body.

Before Robin or Chrom can react to anything, however, His laughing voice sounds out yet again. "Ah-ah-ah! That's not part of the story, is it? It has to be Robin and Chrom, not you."

I turn my attention to him, who's now appearing from within the cloud of debris. This was the moment I was waiting for. The moment that he stabs Chronic into ground.

"Looks like we'll just have to restart."

Just as He stabs Chronic into the ground, reversing the hourglass embedded into its crossguard, I slash straight across dividing line between the crossguard and the blade, removing the bottom of the hourglass. A look of a mixture of horror and rage flies across His face as the sands of time run out from the bottom and onto the ground, disappearing in a cloud of blue smoke. His screams of rage drown out my words, but never succeed in deadening my grim satisfaction.

"Just one more pass, alright?"

Authors Note:

Edit: Changed "hilt" to "crossguard" when referring to where the hourglass is on Chronic.
Edit: Changed "hilt" to "crossguard" when referring to the dividing line between the crossguard and the blade.
Edit: Added "Removing the bottom of the hourglass" to specify the result of the action of slashing across the dividing line.