"Chrom!" Raven shouted, rushing towards her husband. She barreled into Chrom and wrapped him in a tight hug. Chrom managed to catch his tactician in time, and smiled when she reached him.

"Hello dear. I'm sorry it took us so long to find you, but you didn't make it easy on us." Chrom replied.

Ephraim looked relieved at Chrom's sudden appearance. "You have no idea how good it is to see you your majesty. I cannot stress just how much your presence means to us."

Chrom raised an eyebrow. "I heard things were bad with Grado, but surely you would have handled it by now? I'd heard of the capital's fall."

Innes was the one who shook his head. "Unfortunately, we have much worse problems than Grado right now. We're facing a being from the legends of our people, the Demon King. We have figured out a way to seal him away again, but… Well, we have… Other problems that require your assistance."

Chrom narrowed his eyes in questioning. "What do you mean?" He felt Raven suddenly stiffen in his arms, but disregarded that for the moment.

Innes and Ephraim looked at each other, and Ephraim sighed sadly. "I think it's best if you come see for yourself…" Ephraim said, waving Chrom to follow him.

Curious, Chrom separated himself from Raven, but not before giving his wife a small peck on the forehead. She smiled back at her husband, but Chrom could tell that it wasn't completely genuine. Something was upsetting Raven, and he would ask her what it was at a later moment in time.

Following Ephraim, Chrom eventually came to a courtyard. What he saw there made him freeze. It wasn't the field of corpses on the other side, no. It was the two people in the middle of it. A man with shocking white hair like his wife's, and a woman with the same hair color and sword as Morgan. He didn't expect to see Robin here so soon, but he especially didn't expect to meet Morgan's mother.

He heard footsteps approaching from behind, and saw Raven walk up to him.

"Raven, is that…?" He asked.

Raven nodded. "Yes. Morgan's parents." She said, confirming both of Chrom's questions at the same time. She looked at her husband with sad eyes. "He knows. And he acted accordingly, unfortunately."

Chrom simply nodded. He knew that Raven had come over to Magvel to find Robin in the first place, and after Raven had explained all of Robin's actions, he had agreed to follow her, but he could not leave with her at first, since he needed to assign a regent in his place. While Lissa might have been the first suggestion for most, he knew that she wouldn't have accepted it. Eventually, they managed to find a suitable regent that took his place while he assisted his wife. Of course when this happened, the rest of the shepherds demanded to know what was going on, and what Robin had really done, which made everyone feel immensely guilty, so they followed Chrom.

This included the blue-haired daughter of the tactician, but she was luckily not in the palace right now.

"Raven, would you mind explaining the situation to me? I feel like I need to be brought up to speed." Chrom asked.

Eirika watched as the newcomers came into the courtyard, still cradling Robin's head in her lap, having not wanted to move him. Joshua had appeared by her side with Marisa only a few moments ago, but they too had been focused on the group that had just appeared.

"Who are they?" Eirika asked her brother as he approached.

Ephraim looked back and saw that Chrom was now talking with Raven, so he would have to do the introductions.

"That… Is Exalt Chrom of Ylisse… And his shepherds." Ephraim explained.

Eirika held Robin's head closer to his chest and glared in the direction of the shepherds. Robin had told her how they had treated him, and while Robin didn't hold anything against them, she certainly did. It was the same situation with Raven, really. On top of that… Eirika could see a sword sheathed on Chrom's belt, and could only assume that the Exalt had brought Falchion with him.

They were going to kill Robin.

Joshua actually growled in the direction of the shepherds, and even Marisa narrowed her eyes, which surprised everyone there. While Marisa was wary of Robin, she still greatly respected him as a warrior and as a man that had gone through too much in his lifetime.

"They're here to kill him… Aren't they?" Eirika asked.

Ephraim was silent for a few moments. He had obviously heard Robin's tale as well, but knew that he couldn't afford to turn away allies when they needed them so desperately at this moment.

"I don't think so. From what Chrom said, I think they were just following Raven. I don't think they even knew that Grima was alive. But now that they're here, I fear that they will have to." Ephraim said solemnly.

Eirika started sobbing. "I don't want him to go…" She started. "I still haven't told him… How much he means to me."

Ephraim flinched at Eirika's words. He knew what Eirika wanted to do, but he didn't know how to tell her about Morgan's existence. He knew that Eirika would ignore the implications of Morgan's existence and convince Robin to do the same, but was that a good idea? They didn't know if they had fixed the problem in Morgan's timeline, so they had to assume that they hadn't. It was hard to keep his niece's existence a secret from his own sister, but he knew that he had to for the sake of the world.

No one had any words to say in response to Eirika's statement. They simply moved Robin's unconscious body to a bed. Eirika obviously refused to leave him, and both Joshua and Marisa were making sure that Robin wouldn't get killed while he was sleeping. They both understood that Robin would have to die in order to prevent Grima from taking over the world, but they at least wanted to say goodbye to him before that happened.

Eventually, the door opened again, and a man and a woman stepped through. The man had the same white hair that Robin himself possessed, and the woman had bright pink hair. It was obvious that the man was some form of dark mage, but the woman was dressed similar to Gerik's wife Tethys.

"It's really him…" The woman said, her voice barely above a whisper. She was obviously greatly affected seeing Robin again, but the mage put an arm around her shoulder and gave a large smile.

"Nya ha ha! Of course Robin's alive! I told you, didn't I?" The man asked.

The woman nodded in response, and Eirika had had enough of them being there. Honestly, she just wanted them to leave. "Excuse me, but who are you?" Eirika asked.

The man with white hair looked at Eirika, and his smile twitched down slightly for a second, before going back to an ear-splitting grin.

"Hi there! The name's Henry, and this here is my wife Olivia! It's great to meet you guys! I mean, I knew that Robin wasn't dead, but seeing him fight zombies again, and without me?! You guys must be pretty special to replace little old me!"

Olivia shook her head. "What he means is that he's pleased to meet you, and that he appreciates you all looking out for Robin when we couldn't." Olivia explained.

Joshua's eyes narrowed in anger. "From how Robin explained it, you two abandoned him after Validar took control of him. I don't know about you, but that doesn't count as 'best friend material' in my book." Joshua said, keeping a hand on the hilt of his sword.

Olivia started crying at Joshua's words, and Henry's smile faded a bit.

"Heh heh… Guess we did kind of mess up, huh?" Henry pondered.

"What happened?" Eirika asked. "I know that you and Robin were very close. Surely you knew that he wasn't what everyone else thought he was?"

Olivia wiped a tear from her eye. "It's… Because of Inigo, our son from the future. The other future children didn't like how close to Robin we were, and there were a few who were going as far as to make him choose between us and his friends. We couldn't force him to make that decision, so we stayed away from Robin for his sake."

Henry chuckled. "Yeah… Rock, hard place, you know how it is."

"Yes, I think I do Henry." Robin said.

Everyone spun to look at Robin now that he was awake. "Robin!" Everyone shouted. Except Marisa, she just stared.

"Hey everyone. Sorry about that, but we were in a bad situation there and I needed to break one of the last curse slots to deal with it." Robin explained.

"We know Robin. You did what you had to do. We'll go tell the others that you're awake." Joshua said, walking out the door, with Marisa following behind him, though not before nodding at Robin.

Robin chuckled. "I think that means that Marisa approves of me."

Eirika smiled at Robin's attempt to lighten the mood. She looked at the other two occupants of the room, Robin's old friends, and saw that they didn't want to leave. Unfortunately, she had something that she really needed to tell Robin, and she didn't want to do it in front of strangers.

"Would you two mind giving us some privacy for a moment? We won't need too long." Eirika requested.

Henry and Olivia looked at Robin, who looked confused for a brief moment before suddenly catching on to what Robin was doing. His eyes widened in panic, and he tried to subtly shake his head while staring at the two, but they knew their hands were tied. Not only was Eirika in charge of the army and royalty, but from what they had heard from Raven, she was also Robin's closest companion after he died against Grima. Raven even said that he loved her, which was something that Henry and Olivia had assumed would never happen, even with the existence of Morgan.

Olivia sighed, and sent Robin an apologetic look. "Alright, we'll be just outside, but we'll give you some privacy. Just let us know when you're done." She said, as she walked out the door.

Henry lingered behind for a few seconds, his constant smile having disappeared. He wanted to stick around, to prevent his buddy from having to go through what he knew could potentially break the tactician mentally. However, Olivia physically dragged Henry out of the room and closed the door behind them.

Robin squeezed his eyes shut and took a deep breath.

"Robin?" Eirika asked. "Are you alright?" Her voice was laced with so much concern that Robin felt he had no choice but to tell her that he was alright.

He opened his eyes, and wished that he hadn't. Eirika's face was mere inches away from his own, and the concern that had laced her voice was startlingly evident in her light blue eyes.

Robin gave her a weak smile. "I'm just fine, Eirika. Don't worry about me."

Eirika shook her head. "I will always worry about you Robin…" She started. She took a calming breath of her own, and then decided that it was now or never. "Robin… There's something that I need to tell you…"

Robin froze. He knew that she was likely to talk about when she asked for privacy, but that didn't mean he was any more ready for the conversation that he knew was approaching.

Please no. Robin thought to himself.

"I…" Eirika continued, unaware of Robin's growing trepidation.

Don't do this, please for the love of all the gods in the cosmos, don't do this.

"I… Have always thought of you as my greatest friend."

If there is a divine being out there, please don't let this happen, I beg of you.

"But for a while now… My feelings for you have grown."

No.

"Robin… I love you." Eirika finished.

There was silence in the room for a few moments, and Robin was silently cursing any gods that he could deem to remember at the time.

"... Robin?" Eirika asked, somewhat hurt that he hadn't said or done anything yet.

"Eirika… I…" Robin started.

I love you too.

It took me so long to realize, but you are what has kept me going for so long.

You are my dream.

You are why I fight.

You are my ultimate goal.

We have a child.

She is beautiful, just like yourself.

She is an angel, just like yourself.

And she cares far too much about me considering what I am...

Just like yourself.

That was what he wanted to say, but what he ended up saying hurt both of them far more than anything else they had felt.

"Eirika… I'm sorry…" Robin said.

Eirika's heart broke, and her mind almost shut down. She hadn't expected Robin to refuse her. How could she? All the signs were there! Her mind grabbed onto an idea. Maybe… Maybe he was just saving her from heartbreak! Yes, that must be it. Robin was selfless like that, he probably just didn't want her to feel sad when he passed away!

"Robin, I don't care if you're going to die soon! I'm going to feel sad no matter what, so I want to enjoy what time I have left with you as much as I can!" She exclaimed.

Robin took a shuddering breath, and prepared to do the cruelest thing he had done in his entire life…

"Eirika, that's not the problem… I just… Don't feel that way about you." Robin said.

He had done it. He had lied to Eirika. Eirika, the woman he loved, the woman he had promised his life to, the woman that he would have had a child with, in another life. The woman who he would have gladly grown old with, if it wasn't for the machinations of higher powers. He had never lied to her before, and now he had to do it in order to keep her and the rest of the world alive.

Internally, his emotional side argued that there was very little chance that being with Eirika would actually end in the destruction of the world, and the fact that Morgan came back in the first place might have changed enough. Robin almost listened to that side of himself, embraced Eirika and apologized, but his logical side argued back that they were dealing with the fate of the entire world, and couldn't afford even the smallest of chances. Unfortunately, the logical side won, since it argued that Eirika would also die if the world was destroyed, and that only served to strengthen Robin's resolve.

"No…" Eirika whispered. Her eyes started tearing up. "You're lying! Stop lying to me Robin!" She shouted. "S-stop… Stop lying…." She said, her voice cracking halfway through her sentence.

When Robin kept a stoic expression on his face, Eirika burst into tears and rushed out of the room, throwing the door open and running down the corridor.

As soon as Robin was sure she left, his own tears started falling down his face, he sat up and dangled his legs off the side of the breath. He took a deep breath to try to calm himself, but it didn't accomplish anything.

"Gods DAMMIT!" He shouted, punching the wall by his headrest, accidentally punching straight through the wood and to the other side.

Tears fell from the eyes of the warmaster. He hunched over and grabbed the sides of his head, sobbing uncontrollably. All the stress had finally become too much for Robin, and he broke down for the first time in his life.

It was at that moment that the door opened again, and Henry and Olivia stepped through. Olivia immediately rushed to Robin's side and hugged him tightly as he cried his eyes out.

Henry stared at Robin for a few moments. While normally very happy, he couldn't bear to see his best friend like this. Robin was normally so strong mentally, physically, and emotionally. To see him… Broken like this… Henry just didn't have the words to describe it.

Henry knew that Olivia would be all the comfort that Robin needed, and Henry would be of more use preventing other people from seeing Robin like this. Henry grinned at the thought of people trying to enter without Robin agreeing.

Oh yes… There would be blood.

Joshua was leading Ephraim, Innes, Raven and Chrom to Robin's room so that they could determine what their next course of action was. When they were about to get close however, they heard a pair of voices.

"Let me through! I will see him answer for what he's done!" One voice, who Joshua immediately identified as Seth's, said.

"Well, I want to see how the walls look like when they've got your blood coating it! But hey, we can't always get what we want, right? Nya ha ha!" Another voice, that Joshua recognized as Henry, replied.

The sound of a sword unsheathing filled the hallways, causing the small group to pick up their pace.

"Let me through now, or you will share his fate!" Seth roared.

As they rounded the corner, they could see Henry enveloped in dark energy, but his smile was still plastered on his face.

"Wanna die? Please? It'd make me happy!"

"ENOUGH!" Ephraim shouted. "Stand down, BOTH OF YOU!"

The two of them looked at the King of Renais. Seth sheathed his sword, and Henry simply sent a shrug Ephraim's way, but the dark energy didn't disappear.

"Henry, please stand down." Raven asked.

Henry's smile looked a little bit more forced now, but he shook his head.

"No can do, boss lady. My buddy's not… Doing great right now. Soooo… Because I haven't been the best bud I could have been, I'm making up for it now!" The energy around Henry intensified, and his smile widened. "Anyone want to try to get past me? Come on, just one! The walls aren't even red yet! It's not natural."

Before Henry could continue ranting, they all heard a voice from inside the room.

"Henry… It's alright. Let them in."

Henry froze. His smile faded, and a look of genuine concern replaced it. He turned towards the door. "Are you sure Rob?"

"Yeah Henry, I'm sure."

Henry sighed. "Aw man. I reeeeally wanted to show Robin how great a bud I was…"

He turned to the rest of them. "Well, guess I'll have to do that later. Let's go in." Henry said, opening the door and walking into the room.

After a few exchanged glances, the group walked in after Henry, though Marisa and Seth kept their hands on the hilt of their swords.

As soon as they walked into the room, they saw Olivia sitting next to Robin on the bed. She was still hugging him tightly, but Robin looked significantly worse than when Joshua had last seen him not even five minutes ago.

His eyes were burning red, and there was a trail of mostly-dried tears coming out of both of them. However, that wasn't what caught Joshua's attention the most. No, that was Robin's posture. Normally Robin kept his back straight, and even when sitting down, you knew that he wasn't the type to just let the world roll over him without a fight.

Now, with his shoulders slumped and his back hunched, it looked like Robin had given up that fight. Like all he wanted to do was just roll over so that the world would stop doing it to him.

"Robin… What happened man?" Joshua asked.

Robin looked up at Joshua. His eyes looked exceptionally tired, more so than Joshua could ever truly remember seeing the tactician. Robin didn't say anything though, he simply looked at Raven, who sighed.

"You rejected Eirika, didn't you?" Raven asked.

"WHAT?!" Joshua and Innes shouted. And while she didn't speak up, Marisa's eyes widened to impossible levels because of the shock.

However, no one else in the room reacted in any way to this, which caused Joshua to immediately get suspicious.

"Alright, what's going on here? Anyone with half a brain can see how much Eirika means to Robin…" Robin choked back a sob at that. "... So why is no one surprised that he rejected her?"

Raven looked at her brother for a while, who simply turned his head to look at the ground.

"Because of Morgan." Raven said simply, which brought confused looks from not only Joshua and Marisa, but Seth and Innes as well.

"Who's Morgan?" Joshua asked.

Raven sighed. "Morgan… Is Robin and Eirika's daughter from the future." She let the shock settle in on the four in their group who hadn't been made aware of that situation. "She came from a different future than the rest of the shepherd's children, but doesn't remember anything. From what little we know of time travel, we know that her future must have been even worse than the rest of the children's… But we didn't know anything that happened… Except for one thing."

Ephraim nodded. "Robin and Eirika had a child together."

Joshua snapped his attention to Ephraim. "You knew this?!" He shouted.

Ephraim nodded. "Raven told me last night… Right after we lost the Sacred Stone of Renais. We didn't want the news spreading back to Eirika, so I didn't tell anyone."

Seth narrowed his eyes. "Why wouldn't we tell the princess that she has a daughter?" He asked.

Raven was the one who answered Seth's question. "We plan to tell the princess after we defeat Grima and the Demon King. Unfortunately, Robin believed that if Eirika knew what the problem really was, she would be able to convince him to be with her anyways, which would be us throwing away the only possible thing we can do to avoid Morgan's future."

As they absorbed the information, Robin turned his head up to face Chrom. "Are you here to kill me Chrom?"

Chrom looked torn. There was a time when he and Robin had been friends, and while he had tried to salvage that after the Plegian war, the war for Valm shattered any hope that Chrom had of reforging their friendship.

He sighed. "While that wasn't the reason we came here, that does seem to be the plan now, yes." He admitted.

Robin nodded. "Unfortunately, the situation's a little trickier than than." Robin responded. "You see, Grima put a powerful curse on me to prevent me from killing myself. That includes getting into situations where I'm certain I'll die." He looked up at Chrom. "That means that, if you were to try to shove Falchion through my chest, the last curse I placed on Grima's power would break and he would kill you."

That caused the room to go silent. Robin lowered his head again to stare at the floor.

"So what do we do?" Innes asked in frustration.

Robin shrugged. "Well, while I suppose it would be possible for you to surprise me, the curse will prevent me from sleeping tonight, so that solution's out. Realistically, the best chance would be during the middle of a battle, when I least expect it. Alternatively, stab me as soon as I start to turn into Grima. Whatever your plan is, I can't be made aware of it, or else Grima will take control and rampage around."

The other leaders exchanged glances for a few moments, before Ephraim nodded. "Very well. We'll come up with a plan Robin. We'll let you know what it is later." He said.

While Joshua and Raven both wanted to stay, they knew that they needed to help with the planning. Robin waved them off.

"Go on. I just… Want to be alone for now." Robin said. He glanced at Henry, and then looked at Olivia. "Thank you both for helping me, but… Like I said… I'd just like to be alone for now."

Although sad that Robin didn't want them around, they understood that he needed some space right now.

"Alright buddy, you just find me if you need anything, alright?" Henry said.

Olivia nodded her head. "You don't need to be alone if you don't want to be Robin. Just remember that we're here for you."

Robin merely nodded at the two, as they left along with the rest. Raven and Joshua lingered for a few moments longer, but eventually relented and let him be.

Ephraim rubbed his forehead in frustration. "Just when we thought that this was all over…" He said.

Raven sighed. "As much as I hate to admit it, we should try to use this to our advantage. Having Robin help us in the final battle against the Demon King would help immensely."

"Are you sure? Wouldn't there be a chance that the Demon King could break Grima free?" Chrom asked.

Raven shook her head. "While that's certainly possible, Robin mentioned that something fought Grima for control of Robin's body, and Robin believes that the Demon King is not only the one that brought him back to life, but did so to try and absorb Grima's power. We face good odds that the two will fight each other. However, if we don't fight the Demon King or Grima at the same time, odds are good that the other one will come by and pick us off anyways. If we go after the Demon King and keep Robin back, his last curse will only be able to keep Grima at bay at best two days, and Grima will simply escape. If we attempt to kill Robin now and he catches on, the Demon King will teleport over here and wait for us to get tired during the fight with Grima and pick us off. However, if Robin were able to use a small amount of Grima's power against the Demon King, we at least will have an easier time sealing it away. Then we can worry about Grima. Should the worst come to worst and Robin loses control while we're still fighting the Demon King, we'll just have to deal with it. Hopefully between all of our forces we'll be able to guide Chrom to Grima and kill him quickly."

"Are there no other options?" Innes asked.

"Not really. We're talking about fighting two beings of incredible power that only have one known weakness each. If we kill one, there's better than good chances that the other will absorb the released dark magic of the other and become more powerful anyways. We need to kill both Grima and the Demon King together or we'll just end up making this worse for ourselves anyways."

"So we're going to have Robin fight for us in the final battle?" Joshua asked.

Raven nodded. "Seems like our best bet. The more Robin can help us before Grima takes over, the better. However, keeping Chrom or Lucina near Robin at all times would probably be good, just to hedge our bets."

Joshua folded his arms. "I don't like this. I know it's inevitable, but we're talking about using our friend as a suicide bomb against the enemy."

Raven frowned at the analogy. "I know. I… Wish there was another way, but we are encountering two enemies who have the potential to end the world at the same time, and if we can pit their powers against each other, we might stand a chance."

Ephraim looked around and read the mood of the room. While Chrom's presence had certainly given them some hope that they might all be okay, between the revelation of Morgan as well as Robin's ever-approaching demise only depressed everyone again.

"I'll organize our movements tomorrow with Chrom, everyone else get some rest… We'll need it tomorrow." Ephraim said.

At that, the others nodded and walked to their rooms. They knew that tomorrow would be the day that their conflict ended, one way or another.

The next morning, a solemn silence fell over the entire army. They had been informed of the situation. They knew that today they would fight not only the Demon King, but Grima. They knew that Robin, the man that half thought had already died for them, and the other half knew had helped get them to where they were today, was going to die.

But they also knew that there was nothing anyone could do about it.

It was very obvious that Robin didn't want anyone near him, and Ephraim and Chrom had given the order to not approach him. Robin had actually applied a tiny repulsion curse to himself that simply made people not want to approach him. He really didn't want to talk to anyone. For one thing, he was still feeling the effects of his rejection of Eirika's feelings last night. He couldn't talk to his daughter, since that would defeat the entire point of rejecting Eirika. Morgan had apparently so far been able to stay outside of Eirika's vision, but her cloak was still identical to Robin's.

Speaking of Robin's cloaks, Eirika was no longer wearing the green one that Robin had been gifted by King Fado. While Eirika normally took the cloak off during a fight anyways, the fact that she was no longer wearing it outside of combat had symbolism that didn't escape Robin.

When they arrived in Darkling Woods, they were immediately set upon by the Demon King's monsters. There was no real time to plan, they simply reacted.

Raven had started maneuvering everyone around, desperately trying to defend against the oncoming horde. Unfortunately, Robin was unable to use expiration in such close quarters and with the foliage as dense as it was. Expiration was only able to be cast at targets in line of sight, and was not developed with allies in mind. Grima created the spell with absolute devastation as the priority, and the spell would not be able to distinguish who Robin did or did not want to kill.

That being said, Robin was hardly idle. Because of his newfound power, he barely used any warp powder when teleporting, and was able to switch between weapons seamlessly. Raven had Robin skirting the outside of the battlefield, chasing down hit-and-run monsters as well as some of the skeletons and magical monsters that were keeping them pinned down.

The small army eventually reached a small clearing with a temple in the middle, unfortunately, this area was absolutely swarming with Grado dark mages and monsters of the Demon King, as well as what looked to be an undead dragon guarding the temple proper.

Raven wanted to save their trump card, Robin, for the encounter against the Demon King proper, and not against his minions, so kept Robin's role to be a teleporting supporter of their main forces. The rest of the army then split their army off, attempting to surround their enemy.

Eirika had been fighting on the front line for quite some time, but the enemy's forces did not appear to be dwindling. She was fighting ferociously, obviously still angered by the events of the night prior. It most certainly didn't help that the Demon King was manipulating the emotions of everyone on the entire battlefield to make the army even angrier than they actually were, in the hopes that they wouldn't fight as effectively.

However, when she heard the sound of Robin teleporting behind her, and then the sound of metal hitting metal, she turned around. Robin had just deflected an arrow that was about to hit her.

The subject of her anger before her, Eirika stormed towards the white-haired tactician in order to give him a piece of her mind.

"Why are you still here?!" She exclaimed.

Robin scowled at Eirika. "I'm sorry, Princess, but all I'm doing is my job. Since you're obviously not focusing enough on watching your back, I have to do that for you." The anger amplification had been wearing on Robin, especially after what he had been forced to do last night. The fact that Eirika seemed angry at him didn't make it any better.

Eirika gritted her teeth at Robin, completely abandoning the front line, only for the gap to immediately be filled.

"Why are we fighting them anyways?! The whole reason why you're here is because you can just wipe them out!"

Robin shook his head in frustration. "No, I'm saving my strength for the Demon King, you know, that guy who you GAVE THE SACRED STONE TO?!" He shouted.

"Oh, of course! Now it's MY fault that we're in this situation. Well maybe if mister dark god incarnate had done a better job killing himself, we wouldn't be in this mess in the first place!" Eirika retorted. She acknowledged that there was a voice in her mind that was saying that this was wrong, that she shouldn't be yelling these words at Robin, that she didn't really believe what she was saying. Unfortunately, all Eirika could really perceive was a red haze of anger, and Robin just so happened to be centered around it.

Robin growled at Eirika. "Oh, I'm sorry. I was under the impression that you NEEDED me. I WANTED to find a way to end this all, but you wouldn't let me, remember?"

"Well maybe if I had realized just how USELESS you were, I would never have bothered!" Eirika responded. "Ever since you entered my life, everything has just gotten worse and worse!"

And then came the words.

Even years later, Eirika always regretted the next words that came out of her mouth.

Many would console her, and say that it was because of the Demon King's influence that she said those words, but Eirika never agreed.

"I HATE YOU ROBIN!" Eirika shouted.

While it didn't actually happen, Eirika felt as if time itself had frozen. As if all other noises had simply died. Robin's eyes widened in shock, and then his entire expression twisted into a snarl of rage. Eirika immediately wanted to take her words back. Even in her anger, Eirika knew that she had gone too far. She barely became aware of a dark purple glow surround Robin's body for a moment, and immediately knew that his last curse holding back Grima's power had faded.

Robin reared his fist back as if to strike Eirika, and Eirika stood there frozen. Robin wouldn't… Hit her, would he? She closed her eyes to brace herself anyways. After what she said, she couldn't blame Robin if he decided to retaliate for her remark.

However, the expected blow never came. Tentatively opening an eye, she looked at Robin, only to see that his gaze was fixed on something behind her. Turning around, Eirika tried to follow his gaze, only to see a figure clad with the same robes that Robin currently wore, only with the hood obscuring their face and hair. When she turned to look back on Robin, it seemed as if he had just reached some kind of shocking truth.

"Robin… Who's that?" Eirika asked.

Robin looked down at Eirika, his shocked expression staying that way for a few moments, before he gave the princess of Renais a sad smile while lowering his arm. "Never mind Eirika. I'll do what you ask. It's high time I did something anyways."

As Robin walked towards their foes, Eirika started to panic. She didn't mean to say to Robin what she actually said, she just had been so distraught after last night, and the tension that Robin would die today, and the final confrontation with the Demon King she had just let loose on Robin.

"Robin, it's okay! You don't have to prove anything to me!" Eirika shouted, quickly trying to fix the problem. However, Robin didn't even turn back. He wasn't teleporting anywhere, he simply walked towards the temple in the middle of the clearing.

Eirika was about to pursue, when she heard the sound of running feet behind her. "What is he DOING?!" Raven shouted.

Eirika looked panicked as she turned to look at Raven. "I-I… I was so angry that I just… Exploded at him. I called him useless and then he-"

The air froze. It felt as if raw power flowed through the entire air, piercing their very bodies and shutting down the thought process of everyone on the battlefield, including the Demon King's monsters. Then the voice came.

"Perish." A simple word, and yet, what happened next was anything but simple. All around the battlefield, the dark spikes of expiration skewered the Demon King's forces. One moment, they were all still fighting fiercely against their human foes, and the next, they were dead.

Every head in the clearing turned to face the temple, where Robin had his hand held to the head of the undead dragon, who had multiple spikes skewering it. Moments later, the dragon faded to dust, and Robin lowered his hand.

Barely looking over his shoulder, Robin spoke. "Chrom." The man in question snapped out of his stunned gaze. "Stay behind me. If I turn around, if I reach for warp powder, if I ready a spell, skewer me immediately."

Although Robin's voice had distorted, it was very clearly not the same as when Grima was talking. When Grima's voice spoke through his body, it was a deep pitch, what one would associate with some form of demonic entity. Robin's simply sounded like it was coming from every direction at once, as if his mere voice was powerful enough to echo indefinitely through the air.

Chrom merely nodded at Robin's instructions, and others followed Chrom towards Robin. It took Eirika and Raven a few moments to unfreeze, but when they did, they followed the others. Eirika was desperately trying to shove her way to the front, but Chrom, Robin, and Ephraim had already made their way into the temple.

Eirika eventually caught up to the trio, but the moment she did, she froze at what she saw. There, at the other end of an empty room, stood Lyon.

"Welcome mortals." The Demon King said. "I would be impressed with you for having made this far… But it was hardly your efforts that led you here, was it?"

Chrom's eyes never left Robin's back, clearly understanding what was important for him to focus on. However, when Robin took a step forwards, Chrom found himself unable to move. Startled, Chrom looked at his feet, and it was in that moment that Grima struck.

Having taken over not long after Robin's words to Chrom, Grima had no choice originally but to bide his time and wait. However, the Demon King, for whatever reason, had frozen the mortals still, likely so that he could monologue before killing them. Not that he could necessarily blame the Demon King, monologuing was a lost art that most mortals simply didn't appreciate anymore.

Grima quickly stepped out of Chrom's reach and teleported away.

"No!" Chrom shouted, realizing too late what had happened.

Grima appeared next to the Demon King and gave him a stare of utter contempt. "So you are the one who fought for what's rightfully mine. Because of your actions, I spent three years silent in my vessel's body, completely incapable."

The Demon King chuckled in response. "Ungrateful lizard. You were to be my finest creation, the ultimate tool at my disposal to-urk!"

The Demon King was cut off as Grima sped forwards faster than he could track and grabbed the Demon King by the neck, squeezing it so that Lyon's body could barely breath.

Grima snarled at the Demon King. "Foolish creature. I am NO ONE'S tool. I should kill you for your insolence!"

The Demon King managed to find enough strength to chuckle at Grima's words. "Ah… But then… Would you survive for long? Your enemies managed to kill you last time… And now, there are more."

Grima glanced at the still-frozen forms of Eirika, Chrom, Ephraim, and the rest of the small army and snarled. He turned back to face the Demon King. "It was because of my vessel that I lost! He is gone now, it will not happen again!"

Eirika let out a choked sob at Grima's words, but the Demon King responded heedless of her. "Oh? From what little I know of him, your vessel… He was very clever. Are you sure he didn't leave you any… Surprises?"

Grima was about to respond that he was absolutely certain, mostly on reflex, but then paused. His vessel was who he was for a reason. He was clever. Far too clever. Clever enough to kill him once, and he wouldn't put it past the man to have figured out another way to do so. He would need to think beyond Robin's expectations, and if that meant temporarily holding off on killing the old bat, then so be it.

"Fine." Grima snarled, causing the entire army to pale in horror. "But if I must have an ally, I refuse for them to be fighting at anything but their strongest." He brought his other hand over Lyon's forehead and pulled. The Demon King's screams filled the chamber, and Grima launched something down a hallway. He followed after it, the sounds of footsteps echoing around the entire temple.

Moments later, Robin's old allies regained their ability to move. Eirika and Ephraim instantly shot towards Lyon's body, hoping against all odds that their childhood friend was alright.

"Lyon?! Lyon!" They shouted, trying to wake him up.

For a few moments, nothing happened, and they were afraid that their Lyon was well and truly dead.

However, a groan soon echoed from the presumed corpse. Ephraim and Eirika shot up and unsheathed their weapons, ready to run him through if he had been animated as a zombie.

His eyes fluttered open. They darted around, checking to see if everything was safe. Hey focused briefly on Ephraim, and then landed on Eirika.

"... Ephraim? Eirika?" He questioned. "Is it really you?"

Eirika, with tears in her eyes, pulled Lyon off the ground and hugged him with a death grip. Ephraim soon joined in, wanting proof that his friend that he thought he would have to kill was really okay.

"I… Didn't think I'd actually make it. I thought I'd died… But Robin pulled me back." Lyon whispered. "He was the one who realized I could still come back to you."

Eirika stiffened at that. She wasn't aware that Robin had helped Lyon come back to her, though in hindsight, given that Robin had been the one who had told everyone else that Lyon was still alive, she supposed that made some sense.

While everyone could see that this was a very happy reunion, Raven knew that she had to interrupt it. "I'm sorry you three, but we need to keep moving. Lyon, any insight you can provide on how the Sacred Stone works would be invaluable, but we need to follow after Grima now before they can consolidate."

Immediately sobering up, the three separated.

"Of course. Let's go." Ephraim said, leading the way. Eirika was right behind him, intent on ending this once and for all. She was slightly torn about Robin's death, but she knew that he would want her to hold off on grieving until after her fight was over. Any emotion that she displayed now could and would be used against her by the Demon King.

Lyon started running alongside Raven. "Unfortunately, I only tinkered around with the Sacred Stone of Grado to try and extract power from it. I have limited ideas about how to put said power back in. However, the Sacred Stones are incredibly magical in nature. They should react to the Demon King's presence automatically, and when he is weak enough, it should seal him away. If we can weaken the Demon King enough, our jobs will be done for us."

Raven grimaced. "Easier said than done. We're going to be facing two godly beings who can create their own armies from thin air. Chrom needs to make it to and beat Grima, while the Demon King is breathing down our necks. Grima is likely the more powerful given that recent display, so we'll devote more resources to ending him."

Lyon and Chrom nodded at Raven's plan. They kept running down the hall, hoping that they weren't too late to stop the Demon King from reaching his 'true strength' that Grima had alluded to earlier.

As they saw the end of the hallway, the group heard a ear-splitting roar that caused them all to collapse to their knees while covering their ears. After the loud noise ended, the group looked at each other nervously. They knew that whatever that noise was couldn't possibly be good for them.

After a moment to recover, and once confirming that none of them had gone deaf from the noise, they hurried down the hallway once again, taking off as fast as they could.

Once in the room, the group looked around, desperately trying to find out where their adversaries were.

Evidentially, someone found out the answer, as they shouted "Above!"

Sure enough, upon looking above, their fears were confirmed when Robin's body grinned evilly down at them before giving the group a small little wave.

"Expiration." Grima intoned, obviously trying to end the conflict as quickly as possible.

Everyone in the army flinched, but knew there was little they could do to dodge Grima's signature attack. However, while the spikes did appear, none of the spikes actually skewered anyone.

Grima frowned. "It appears my vessel was more cunning than I thought…" He mused. "Now… What was the pesky key to that curse?" He asked himself, before he adopted an expression of realization and grinned cruelly yet again.

"Oh that's right… The life of their most beloved." He finished.

Before anyone could react to that statement, both Grima and Eirika disappeared in a flash of light, and reappeared on the other side of the room, surrounded by a barrier of dark purple flames.

"Oh, this is much better, don't you think? Watch closely Robin… I'll pry your greatest joy from you with your own two hands." Grima taunted.

Eirika scarcely had any time to pull her sword from its sheathe before Grima was simply in front of her. She blocked Grima's initial strike with Robin's sword, and prepared herself for the toughest battle of her life.

Meanwhile, the rest of the army had been confronted by the Demon King's twisted true form and the combined armies of the Demon King's monsters and Grima's risen. Ephraim had been momentarily shocked when Eirika had been taken away from him, and had fought like a man possessed towards her location.

Henry had decided to follow the aforementioned prince, mostly because he enjoyed describing curses to people, and Ephraim obviously wanted to know what the hell was happening.

"Wow! I didn't realize that Robin had used THAT curse on himself!" Henry started, attempting to intrigue Ephraim.

It worked. Ephraim briefly turned to face Henry. "What curse?" He grunted.

Henry casually cast a ruin spell at a nearby risen, impaling it quickly. "Well, one really nasty dark mage decided that he reaaaaally didn't like this other dark mage… So he stopped the other guy from being able to kill people! Didn't matter what the other dark mage used, magic, swords, fists, you name it, he just couldn't finish the job! Only catch was that the spell had a way out, because that first dark mage was a real dastard! If the second dark mage killed the person he loved most… He'd be allowed to kill again!"

Ephraim furrowed his brows. "Why doesn't everyone just use that spell and nothing else?"

"Only really works on mages. Even then, you have to be way more powerful than the other guy if you want it to work. The best part is, Robin used it on himself! That way, he didn't have to be super-powerful, it just worked!"

Ephraim nodded. "I suppose that makes it better for us. While we clear a path to Grima, the others can deal with the Demon King. Unfortunately, I refuse to let my sister die, so we need to find a way through that barrier."

"Nyahaha! No problemo, prince guy! I've been making a counter to that barrier since we fought Grima the first time! You're just gonna have to buy me some time. Those things do NOT like to come down."

Ephraim nodded. "Good. I'll buy you the time you need once we get there."

Raven was directing her own portion of the forces against the Demon King himself. She was having a difficult time however, as Eirika was the one who had the Sacred Stone, and so the Demon King was able to simply run through their forces. While not quite invincible like Grima's dragon form, the Demon King was truly a formidable opponent. Because of his powers over emotion, Raven's forces weren't fighting as well as they should have been, and the Demon King was truly a force to be reckoned with, whether it be by magic or brute force, he was making mincemeat of the well-trained forces that Raven commanded. While there had been no casualties yet, it was close. Stahl and Frederick had been forced to dismount after their steeds had been slain, and Donnel had been knocked unconscious, and had yet to be awakened.

It didn't help that many of the best in the army had immediately ran off towards Grima. Chrom, Ephraim, Henry, Olivia, and especially Morgan, had all gone out of position to clear a path to Eirika.

Raven just hoped that they would make it in time. She wasn't sure how long her own forces would be able to last, but she'd buy the others every second that she could.

Eirika had been right. This was easily the hardest fight of her life. While Eirika's new style almost seemed custom-built to fight Robin's, since she knew how to counter all of his weapons, switching between tactics as quickly as Grima switched weapons was just not possible, especially when he switched mid-strike.

Currently, she was trying to deal with Grima's latest tactic, which was to cycle through weapons extremely quickly while teleporting around Eirika, leaving Eirika unable to predict when he would strike and how, so she would have barely any time to counter.

A flash to her left caused Eirika to jump back and bring her sword up to barely deflect a thrust from Grima's lance. Grima himself was smiling widely, clearly amused by the current situation.

He was toying with her. He could simply eviscerate her with one of his more powerful spells, but where was the fun in that? Hearing Robin's screams from deep within himself made Grima smile. He was tormenting the man who had tormented him for a year, and getting rid of a major annoyance in the process.

However, he enjoyed Robin's screams a little too much, and didn't even notice that Eirika had followed up her deflection with a swift slash at Grima. Surprised at her course of action, Grima instinctively teleported away, but wasn't fast enough to completely escape Eirika's attack.

Pain. Grima had forgotten what pain felt like. He had been imprisoned in Robin for three whole years, and now he was experiencing the world again, he had forgotten what it felt like to be hurt. Even when he had fully ascended, he had made himself completely indestructible. Before Robin had ran him through, it had been millennia since he had experienced the feeling. Therefore, what would have been a minor annoyance to a normal fighter felt as if he had been shot in the shoulder with an arrow.

"Gah!" Grima exclaimed, holding the small cut. He looked down at the wound, and then snarled at Eirika, who stared back at the dragon god, completely baffled by what she just saw. "Enough!" He shouted, thrusting an arm out at Eirika.

Grima's spell forced Eirika off the ground, and then shoved her towards the back of the wall with so much force that she left a crater where she landed. She landed onto the ground with a thud, her sword clattering away from her grip as she sat limply.

Ephraim, outside of the barrier, watched what was happening and turned to Henry. "Hurry!" He shouted.

"I'm going as fast as I can! Stop yelling!" Henry replied.

Ephraim turned to L'Arachel, who was currently healing Olivia. "L'Arachel, the moment that this barrier drops, I need you to get to Eirika immediately. Understand?"

"Hmph! For a lady of my station, the least you could do was ask! ...But, if it is for Eirika… I suppose I could let you by this one time." The princess of Rausten responded.

Eirika noticed a flash of light, and looked up at Grima. Her gaze hardened, and even though she knew this was her end, she made sure that Grima would know how much he hated her in her final moments.

"Well, isn't this a pleasant sight? The princess of Renais, her life mine for the taking. I would toy with you some more, dear princess, but alas, I must admit that I cannot allow you to live much longer."

Eirika grinned up at Grima. "Taunt me all you want Grima, but know before I die that you gave me something that I would never have gotten without you." At Grima's confused expression, Eirika smiled defiantly.

"With your actions, I can die at least knowing that Robin really did love me. Robin, if you can hear me, I forgive you for lying to me. I don't know why you did, but I'm sure there was a reason for it."

Grima almost looked amused at Eirika's words. "I believe that is an acceptable trade. Farewell princess. In the end, you couldn't save your loved ones."

Ephraim was screaming, banging against the barrier to try to bring it down. Henry's brow was coated in sweat, as he was also desperately trying to bring down the barrier as quickly as possible.

Grima's blade descended towards Eirika's stomach, and Grima smiled. Robin had been clever, training the one he cared for most enough that she would actually be able to hurt him, but it was not enough.

Then Grima's movement stopped. This confused Grima, yet he could tell that Robin felt oddly… Victorious? A chill went down Grima's spine. Had he fallen for one of Robin's traps? No, he couldn't have. Robin had not placed any more curses on his person. There was no residual magic on Grima's body. There couldn't be!

Meanwhile, everyone else could see that Grima was suddenly enveloped in a bright white light. Eirika felt something pull at her chest, and a tendril of the same white light shot out of Grima and towards Eirika.

Grima was immediately pulled into a dark void. Looking around, his eyes narrowed at Robin, who was smirking cockily at the Dragon God. Grima snarled at Robin.

"What have you DONE TO ME?!" Grima demanded his vessel.

Robin grinned. "Oh, I've been sitting on this one for a while. Had to erase my own memory of it so that you wouldn't remember either. When I first learned about light magic, I immediately wondered if I could make curses with light magic."

"That's impossible. Curses are the act of infecting a being's magic with your own dark magic. Light magic is the magic of the world. It cannot remain in a person's body."

"Oh, I know. So I had to change some things." His grin got even wider. "Instead I created something… More like a promise. A restriction placed on me monitored by light magic. Want to guess when I did that?"

Grima narrowed his eyes at Robin for a few moments, before they widened in realization and then expanded even further in horror. "No. NO!"

"Oh yes, Grima. When I returned to Eirika. You thought I was just being fancy, didn't you? But that was how I placed the promise on myself. The restriction that I would never hurt Eirika, or else I would experience horrible, horrible pain."

His smile turned sad. "That was what must have happened in Morgan's timeline. RIght after the last curse was broken, I would hit Eirika and trigger this promise. But I managed to figure it out just in time when I saw Morgan just before it actually happened."

Robin grinned ferally at Grima. "You seem unused to pain Grima… I hope you enjoy what I have planned for you then. I'll make sure this is a memory you NEVER forget."

In the outside world, Grima's eyes suddenly widened as he stood over Eirika, his sword still pointing at her heart.

Without any warning, Grima's hands shot up to both sides of his head, and then the completely unexpected happened.

Grima, arguably the most powerful being in existence, one who managed to completely annihilate the world, including all of its armies, civilians, and governments… Was screaming.

His scream echoed throughout the chamber, as he kept clutching his head and writhing on the ground in pain. His screams of pain ceased all combat in the room, all heads turned to look at the dragon god on the floor, his hands holding his head and his back arched in immense pain,

Then, as suddenly as it had started… It stopped. Grima was on the ground in front of Eirika, panting heavily, obviously out of breath. The combat outside of the barrier resumed soon after, the Demon King being confident that Grima was still alive resumed hostilities against Raven's forces.

Eirika shakily stood up and grabbed her sword from the ground, slowly, Eirika advanced on Grima's body, wary of any tricks that he might pull. Grima lifted his head up and stared at Eirika for a few moments… Before smiling.

"Eirika…" he said.

Eirika's expression changed to one of utter shock. "R-Robin?! No, it can't be!"

Robin's grin stayed on his face. He slowly stood up, almost losing his balance and falling as he did so. "I can understand why you'd think that." He said with a chuckle. He smiled at Eirika, and she could tell that it didn't quite meet his eyes. "I don't have much time. One of my traps got Grima pretty good, but he'll be back soon. I need to end this Eirika, and I think I know how."

Eirika was still suspicious of this turning into one of Grima's traps, and kept her sword at the ready.

Even though he saw this, Robin's smile didn't falter. "I'll have this all done soon, but… I just want to say some things before… I go." He trailed off. Robin quickly shook himself out of his depressing thoughts. Now was not the time. Grima was unconscious now because of the pain, but Robin didn't know how long that would last.

"Eirika. I need to tell you… How sorry I am for what I said to you. Today and last night. I love you Eirika. I have for a while now, but I couldn't let you know that. You mean so much to me, and breaking your heart like I did… It hurt me. I can't put into words how much you mean to me." He held her gaze for a few moments, and it was then that Eirika knew that this was real. Robin had bested Grima, and was saying goodbye to her. Before he could finish his thoughts, Eirika rushed forwards, dropping her sword in the process.

Robin's eyes widened in surprise momentarily, before he felt a set of lips on his own. Robin was completely unprepared for this turn of events, and it took a moment before he started to respond to Eirika.

In that one moment, the two of them managed to convey to each other how they felt. It was a kiss that spoke of the unfairness of the situation, the desperation shared between the two to make the moment last forever, to burn that moment into their memories for as long as they lived.

But they both knew that the moment they shared had to end, and Robin was the one who eventually backed away. He smiled brilliantly at Eirika.

"Thank you. Thank you for letting me experience something I thought I never would." He reached into his pocket to pull out some warp powder.

"Robin, wait! Please, you don't need to do this!" Eirika protested, quickly grabbing Robin's hand.

Robin shook his head. "I'm sorry Eirika. I really am, but I have to go now. The peace that we both fought so hard for is right there. All I have to do is take it for us. Please… You need to let me do this."

Eirika was torn, she wanted this war over. She wanted people to stop dying. She wanted to help her brother rebuild her country. She wanted to make her father proud…

But she also wanted Robin. She wanted the man who had helped her throughout her entire journey, the one who always believed in her, the one who treated her like Eirika and not the princess of Renais. The one who could always make her laugh, the one who always comforted her, the one who always understood her.

… The one who showed her what love was.

But Eirika had always been a selfless person. So with great reluctance, Eirika let go of Robin, and wiped her eyes of the tears that had started falling from them. She felt a hand brush a few of her tears away, and saw that it was Robin's hand.

He smiled at her. "Thank you Eirika. I know that this will be hard for you, but I'm sure you'll make it through. You're the strongest person I know after all." As he was about to teleport away from her, he paused, a thought hitting him. "After I'm gone… Ask Raven about Morgan. That should answer some questions and help you through what follows."

Before Eirika could question Robin any further, he vanished in a flash of light, dropping the barrier of flames as he did so.

Ephraim rushed up to his sister, obviously concerned for her safety.

"Eirika! Are you alright?!" He shouted.

Eirika nodded numbly. "Y-yes… Robin, he… He tricked Grima. He took control back… And he said he was going to end this."

Ephraim's eyes widened in shock. "Are you sure? Eirika, how do you know he wasn't tricking you?"

Eirika shook her head. "All he did… Was say goodbye and leave. I couldn't fight him anymore if I tried, and he didn't finish me off…"

Henry started laughing. "Oh man, that's great! Robin got ol' grimy good AGAIN! Man, he's gonna be mad about that one!"

Ephraim and Eirika smiled in amusement at Henry's words. Before they could respond however, an explosion rocked the entire room. Quickly turning around, they were shocked by what they saw.

Robin was sending spell after spell at the Demon King, staggering it and forcing it back. The Demon King sent its own spells back at Robin, but even though they seemed to be damaging Robin, he didn't falter.

"What is he DOING?!" Ephraim shouted, shielding the front of his face with his arms to prevent debris from blinding him.

"Nyahaha! He's got Grima's power! He's beating the crap out of batsy!" Henry responded.

The explosions got more and more intense, to the point where everyone in the room was blown off their feet from the shockwaves. Eventually, Robin finally brought out the big guns.

"EXPIRATION!" Robin shouted.

As soon as he shouted the name of the spell, spikes skewered the Demon King from every direction.

"GAAAAAAH!" The Demon King screamed in pain.

Before the Demon King could respond with a spell of his own, Robin guided the dark spikes to pin the Demon King to the wall of the temple, temporarily immobilizing him.

Ephraim grinned. "Great! Now all that's left is to get Eirika over there and-"

"Ephraim! The stone is gone!" Eirika shouted.

"What?!" Ephraim shouted in panic, spinning to face his sister. "What do you mean it's gone?!"

"Found it~!" Henry sang, pointing at Robin.

Robin had just pulled out the Sacred Stone. This was it. His final moment. His last spell. He had studied the Sacred Stone of Renais when he worked back for King Fado and again briefly when they had recovered it a few weeks prior. What he had in mind should work.

He closed his eyes and exhaled. There was no going back from this. He was going to have to use an art that very few dark mages ever managed to use. Many had fallen to the thrall of power that it promised, but he would be using it for only the best of reasons.

He smiled. At least he had gotten to wrap things up with Eirika. Hopefully she and Morgan will be able to comfort each other through his death.

Shocking everyone, Robin what did next, no one expected, not even the Demon King.

He shattered the Sacred Stone.

Shocked silence filled the air, but Robin was not done. He was gathering power around himself, and the shards of the Sacred Stone seemed to be reacting to his power. They hovered around his body in the air and glowed a brilliant white light. After a few moments, the light seemed to be sucked into Robin's body, and the shards of the stone vanished.

Robin flinched as the light of the Sacred Stone entered his body. It hurt, but he had to power through the pain. Distantly, Robin heard the sound of running approaching him, but he couldn't afford to distract himself by turning around.

This was the part that he was worried about. He absorbed the power of the Sacred Stone into his life energy. His Quintessence. Quintessence was vital to the most powerful dark magic ritual, but manipulating one's own Quintessence was extremely dangerous. Luckily, Robin didn't need it to last very long.

As soon as Robin felt that power fully merge with his life's energy, he grabbed it. Powering a spell with Quintessence made it ridiculously more powerful, which is why many of Grima's spells involved sacrifice. However, very few dark mages who could manipulate Quintessence used their own, for one simple reason: it killed them.

While one person's Quintessence was normally not enough to create a spell powerful enough to slay the Demon King, Robin wasn't just one person. He was a very powerful mage that had been through a lot, making his Quintessence more powerful than a normal man's. On top of that, he was the vessel for a millennia-old dragon god, who himself had been resurrected through the sacrifice of thousands of loyal followers, making Grima's Quintessence possibly the most potent in all of existence.

And he was completely unconscious, with no way of resisting Robin tapping into his life energy.

Robin grinned madly at the Demon King. "I suppose this time it'll really all be over… Well… Nothing else to it then I guess." He muttered to himself.

Robin thrust both his hands forwards, and a small beam of dark energy shot out of them and approached the Demon King. It gradually grew larger and larger, until it eventually expanded to the point where it was as large as the Demon King himself, but the spell just kept growing.

At the point of impact however, it was a different story. The dark energy surrounded the Demon King in a ball of pure Dark Magic, which didn't expand like the beam did, rather, it seemed to get darker, denser.

Robin did not name the spell at first, for it wasn't truly a spell. Or at least, not one that could never be replicated. Even if an entity as powerful as Grima managed to live several millennia, sacrifice thousands of lives, and then absorb a similarly powerful holy artifact… The odds that they would give up their life, their life force, to kill one being… Was zero. A being with that much power simply did not end their own lives, it made no sense. So why bother naming a spell if it will never be used again?

It was created to kill what couldn't be killed.

It was made to ended what could never end.

Make the undying die.

It was a…

"Paradox." Robin muttered.

And then the sphere imploded. Violently.

Air rushed out of the room, violently sweeping everyone off their feet. The sphere continuously imploded on itself, getting lighter and lighter each time it imploded. Robin was the only one who seemed completely unaffected by the pull of the sphere, though it was obviously costing him. His teeth were gritted, and his legs were shaking from the exhaustion. His arms, which were still stretched out in front of him, were weak and also shaking from the effort, but he kept pressing on with his spell.

Eirika managed to get up and find her balance. She kept running towards Robin's position, stumbling occasionally on the way. The spell's pulls were getting weaker and weaker, and she knew that it was going to end soon.

As she raced towards Robin, she noticed someone had caught up and was running besides her, glancing quickly at the person, she assumed it was her brother, since the person had the same shade of hair as him and herself.

Moments before she reached RObin though, the Demon King let out one final roar in his death throes.

"NOOOOO! I AM FORMORIIS! I AM ETERNAL! I AM FOREVER! I CANNOT DIE!" He shouted, still enveloped by the spell that Robin had used.

However, regardless of the Demon King's protests, the spell that was designed specifically for the Demon King in mind was obviously ending its immortal life.

"NOOOOOOOOOO!"

And, impossibly, the Demon King vanished. No longer sealed in a Sacred Stone, instead, killed. The impossible had been achieved. As the Demon King's monsters started to evaporate into mist, all eyes in the room stared at Robin's form, which was teetering back and forth, already starting to dissolve into the same mist that it had when Grima had died.

As Robin started to fall, Eirika zoomed forwards and wrapped the tactician in her arms. She looked down at his expression and her heart shattered. He just looked so… Done. His eyes were half closed, and eyebrows and mouth were formed in a way that showed that Robin was in colossal amounts of pain.

"Eirika…" Robin whimpered, a truly pitiable sound coming from the once-strong tactician. "I'm… So tired… Can I… Rest now? Please… Can I finally stop now?"

Eirika's eyes were so filled with tears her vision became blurry, but she kept staring at the face of the man she loved. "Of course Robin… It's all over now. We can both rest now! Please, just… Don't leave me!"

Robin gave Eirika a shaky smile, and Eirika felt Robin's weight decrease a little bit. Looking down, she realized why that was. Robin's lower half had already disappeared. Robin turned his head to look at the other person next to Eirika.

"M-Morgan…" Robin said in shock. He looked utterly devastated, so Eirika turned to look at the person in question. She froze upon seeing the girl before her for the first time. Though dressed in Robin's current cloak, she obviously had her hair. If that wasn't enough to indicate who she was, the sword at her side certainly helped. It was her own sword, Sieglinde, which was one of the two sacred twins of Renais. There were no others.

"Our daughter…" Eirika muttered in shock.

"Morgan… C-can y-you forgive me? F-for not s-speaking to you… Before today?" Robin managed to get out.

Morgan gave her father a shaky smile, obviously upset at seeing him die again. "Of… Of course Dad! You're the best dad in the whole world after all…" She trailed off, and Eirika started to notice the trail of tears streaming down her face. "I mean… At least I got to enjoy being a whole family… For a little bit, right?"

Robin could only close his eyes in response. "I… Am so sorry Morgan…" He whispered. His torso had already half-faded, and it was only a matter of time before the rest of himself faded as well.

He smiled at the two of them. "C-Could… the two of you do one last f-favor… For me?" Robin asked. "C-Could you both… Look out for each other? I… Would hate to th-think that you were both alone…. Without me."

Eirika and Morgan nodded. "Of course I'll look after m-mom dad…" Morgan trailed off.

"I'm glad…." Robin trailed off.

He looked straight up, his eyes focusing on the ceiling of the temple.

"It's finally all over… No more games to play… No more people to lose… No more fights left… I can rest… At last."

His eyes focused on Eirika before he faded from view. "Eirika… I love you…" He said, only moments before he had completely vanished into thin air.

Eirika clenched her hands, realizing that she was holding nothing but air and choked back a sob. She felt a hand on her arm and saw that Morgan was the one who had grabbed her for comfort.

She embraced her daughter and they both started letting out soul-rending sobs. To the two of them, even though they had saved the world, they had both lost one of, if not the most important thing in it for the two of them.

For Eirika's army, they had witnessed the man who many had come to know as their pillar of strength and stability sacrifice himself to rid the world of two threats forever. None would ever have to worry about the Demon King or Grima ever again… But most of them felt as if the cost may have been too high.

The Shepherds watched in amazement as Robin finally mastered Grima's power and used it to eliminate the Demon King, a threat that they had been assured could not ever be killed. They were even more shocked when Robin had simply vanished into thin air in the same manner that Raven had when Robin had slain Grima originally. Many of the Shepherds had not gotten over their bias towards Robin, but his actions that day made all of them feel guilty about their treatment in the past towards the late tactician.

Lyon stood frozen, not knowing what to do. The amount of power thrown around in the final confrontation against the Demon King was absolutely insane, and Lyon knew that he would never be able to use paradox, as Robin had called it. Lyon looked at Eirika's sobbing form. At one point, Lyon loved Eirika. But she had found a better man than he. Lyon had unleashed a terror upon Magvel and the rest of the world, and Robin had not only stopped it, but had given up his own life to stop it permanently. Not only that, but Lyon had Robin to thank for gaining his life back. He owed Robin big time, and he would make sure that Eirika and Morgan were well taken care of. He would never pursue Eirika though, for that would dishonor the memory of the greatest man he had the chance of meeting.

Chrom stood near the site where Robin had just evaporated. Seeing Raven and Morgan embrace each other brought back flashbacks from when Raven had died. He put his own arm around Raven and pulled her into a soothing embrace of his own. His old friend had died. He couldn't help but feel guilty that there had been nothing he could do to help Robin. The man had given so much, and Chrom had played a huge part in making Robin's life miserable. He just wished that he had been able to make it all better… But he couldn't.

Henry and Olivia were silently watching the spot where Robin had just disappeared. Their best friend had given up his life yet again for the greater good. While on the inside, Henry hated Robin for leaving everyone behind again, he knew that there was no choice. If it had been for Olivia and Inigo, Henry knew that he would be forced to lay down his own life, and Henry didn't doubt for a moment that Morgan and Eirika had been his primary concerns when he confronted the Demon King.

Marisa had a hand on Joshua's shoulder in comfort, as the gambling prince of Jehanna stared blankly where Robin had once been. He was gone. Robin, the one who had convinced him to join this wild adventure in the first place, the one who had helped him improve at a person and always took the time to help him through things when the world seemed to be getting too crazy… Was just gone. One second there, the next second not. His best friend… Just… Joshua couldn't even believe it. He had known, realistically, that Robin had to die for Grima to die, but Robin had just seemed so strong, so unstoppable, so absolutely brilliant, that Joshua was still half-expecting him to appear out of thin air like nothing had happened.

Raven was distraught. She had been putting on a strong front for her brother for quite some time, knowing that he wouldn't want her to mourn him before he was even dead, but now it was all coming out. She was supposed to be Robin's family, and yet she couldn't ever seem to help him. His life had always been so horrible, and yet no matter how hard Raven tried, she could never seem to make anything better. She had come to Magvel in the hope of helping her brother live a fulfilling life, experiencing everything that he never had the chance to with the Shepherds.

Morgan was numb. She had found out her dad was alive only a day ago, but to hear that he was about to die anyways was a massive blow for her. To then be told that she couldn't talk to him because it might tip off her mother to her existence hurt even more, but she understood. She was sure that her dad's most recent death would hit her eventually, but right now, it just didn't seem real.

Eirika was obviously the most broken by Robin's death out of all of them. Robin loved her. She knew that now. She knew that, in another life, they had been together and had a wonderful daughter. Maybe they had managed to defeat the Demon King, maybe not, but they had died happy, since they had obviously loved each other very much. She just wanted Robin back. She wanted the man who had always been at her side, the one who wasn't afraid to say what was on his mind, the one who had been her personal pillar of strength since her father died, the man who saved her and her friends time and time again…

Her love, who had given everything he had for the rest of the world, including his own chance at love and happiness.

The most selfless, kind, and caring man that she had ever met, and would ever met…

Was gone.

And the world seemed so much worse off because of it.

Robin's eyes opened. Blackness. Thick, never-ending blackness surrounded him on all sides.

Robin sighed. "I thought this was just purgatory, the in-between, but I guess this is the afterlife after all…" Robin muttered to himself.

"It's not the afterlife." Another voice said from behind him.

"No idea what the afterlife is like, but this isn't it." Another said.

Robin spun around. He saw two figures, both male. One looked remarkably similar to himself, though with… Pointed ears?

Then it clicked. "Grima." Robin snarled.

Grima rolled his eyes. "Oh, get over yourself, fool. I'm not your foe." Grima said.

"How do I know you're telling the truth?" Robin asked.

Grima stared at Robin for a moment, before talking. "Let me tell you my story, so you understand me a bit better. Long ago, I was a normal manakete, of the Earth Dragon tribe. We were one of the two smaller, but more powerful, tribes of manaketes. We had lived alongside man peacefully for centuries, but we realized something about ourselves that we could no longer ignore. Our eldest were turning mad in their late age, no longer thinking rationally and simply killing anything that crossed their path. At first we thought it was some kind of illness, but we eventually figured out that that was false. As manaketes aged, we eventually were overtaken by bloodlust and killed anything that moved. However, a divine dragon, whom you know as Naga, found a solution: a dragon stone, which sealed away a considerable amount of our power and made us human permanently, only able to release our powers in times of conflict. I, as well as most of my people, protested the dragonstone, stating that we did not want to become human, we did not want to pretend to be something that we were not, that being a human would be too large of a change. So we fought the divine dragons and the humans, who both insisted that all manaketes use the dragon stones, for we had no alternatives. We were losing badly when I decided that I needed more power. I knew, thanks to practice, many ways to achieve said power, but I was unsure if I could contain it, but I had to try anyway. The power… Was too much for me. I became trapped, a prisoner in my own body as I watched it commit atrocities across the globe, and have been dormant ever since."

Robin's expression softened, but he turned to the other man standing next to Grima. "And who are you?" Robin asked, already having a pretty good guess.

The old man, who was bald with a long flowing beard, chuckled. "I once went by Formortiis, but was eventually known as the Demon King. I was the greatest mage of my time, and wanted to try to experiment with the effect light magic had on neutralizing Dark Magic's poison on the body. My tests on myself were promising, and I believed that with enough time and practice, I could achieve limitless power without my psyche breaking. I had been increasing my own power for decades using this method before one of my enemies managed to cast a curse on me with his last dying breath, infusing me with all of his own dark magic and breaking my mind in the process. The madness claimed me, and I was turned into the monstrosity that you know today."

Robin looked between the two. "Not that I don't appreciate the history lesson, but why are the two of you here? Shouldn't you both still be affected by the madness?"

Grima shook his head. "No. The madness only affected our physical bodies, which can now never manifest in the world again. Thanks for that, by the way." Grima explained, genuinely thankful that he would never have to watch his body attempt to destroy the entire world ever again.

"And besides." Formortiis said, smiling slightly behind his beard. "There is one last good deed that we can do… To try and thank you for all that you did for us."

Robin looked exceptionally confused at Formortiis' words. He knew what the ex-Demon King was implying, but… Surely, they couldn't do THAT, could they?

Grima rolled his eyes. "We still have our power even if we don't have our bodies, human. You're the one who released us both from our living hells. The least we can do is give you something that you should have had in the first place."

Robin's jaw dropped in shock. "So… You're really going to-"

"Resurrect you? Yes. Your time should never have come this soon." Formortiis responded. "We are quite interested in seeing what you will do next, after all."

Robin raised an eyebrow. "Just like that? No strings attached. No time limits for how long I have to live?"

Grima and Formortiis looked at each other. Finally, after silently communicating with each other for a few moments, Grima looked back at Robin and spoke up. "Well… No time limits, but strings… Let's just say you prevent anyone from doing what we did and we'll call it a deal. You don't have to go hunting for anyone, just go if you hear about something suspicious."

Robin nodded in agreement immediately. "Deal. Send me back NOW." Robin commanded.

Formortiis chuckled. "So impatient. Surely you can-"

"NOW." Robin said, his magic starting to manifest around himself.

Grima merely laughed hard, before he and Formortiis both started glowing as well.

"Brace yourself. This will hurt." Grima said.

And then everything went white.

Eirika's group and the Shepherds had decided to hold Robin's funeral at Renais. They had all immediately gone there from the final battle, and were resting for a few days before the event itself.

Eirika was solemnly showing Morgan around the castle. The two had hardly said anything since arriving in Renais, but neither could blame the other for it. They both knew why they weren't in the mood for talking, and they were just giving each other time and space to recover.

However, their tour was soon to be interrupted.

"EIRIKA! GET IN HERE NOW!" Ephraim shouted.

Eirika rushed towards the sound of Ephraim's voice, her hand on the hilt of her sword. She ran down the hallways with Morgan by her side, when she reached Ephraim, she noticed that he had the biggest grin on his face, which was a bizarre turn from the depressed expression that everyone had worn the past few days. What was it that had cheered her brother so?

And then Morgan gasped, and Eirika looked into the room next to her brother. Her mind went blank when she saw a familiar mop of white hair sitting in one of the medical beds, surrounded by his best friends, both old and new. Eirika immediately rushed to his side, even though he was clearly still unconscious.

"Robin?" Eirika whispered, gently caressing Robin's cheek.

Robin mumbled something, startling everyone. They had expected Robin to be horribly injured, but it almost looked like he was just waking up!

As if to answer the silent question being broadcasted throughout the room, Robin's eyes fluttered open before he shielded them with his hands.

"He wasn't joking when he said it would hurt…" Robin muttered under his breath, though everyone clearly heard it.

"Robin?" Eirika asked, a little louder this time, but her voice was still shaky with disbelief.

Robin immediately moved his hands and opened his eyes in the direction of Eirika's voice.

"... Eirika?"

Eirika immediately enveloped Robin in a death grip of a hug, refusing to let go. Morgan soon joined her, followed by Raven and Robin's best friends.

Once the news had spread throughout the Shepherds and Eirika's forces, the day that was originally meant to be a funeral was turned into a massive party.

Robin of course, wasn't aware of that, since Eirika refused to let him leave the room.

But he didn't mind. He was happy. He was content. And most importantly, for now at least, his work was done.

He could rest. With his friends, with his family…

And with his princess.

The King's Tactician and The Restoration Queen

Soon after the war, Robin and Eirika were wed. After reuniting with their daughter, the family of three settled down in the royal palace of Renais. While often visited by Raven, Henry, and Olivia, Eirika refused to set foot in Ylisse for many years, refusing to visit even for diplomatic purposes.

While Robin was somewhat involved in the training of new troops, he never stopped training himself. When others asked why he was training in a time of peace, Robin always replied "I'm training so that the peace we fought for lasts."

A/N:

…

It's actually done. I didn't think I'd actually be able to finish it, but I did. A year and a half into this thing, and I'm actually pretty proud of what's come out of it.

So, I waffled back and forth with this one, especially on how to kill the Demon King. Hopefully you guys like how I did it, but I understand if you thought this was a bit rushed.

… I genuinely don't know what to say here, it's just a big blank.

Thank you all for joining me on this adventure, and I hope you all had a great time. I'll probably come back to this eventually for some one-shots, but not for a while.

A Chance to Matter will be updated by Christmas.

I initially had an idea for a sequel, but I just don't think I'd enjoy writing it. If this story ever gets enough follows or favorites to put it in the top twenty Fire Emblem fanfictions, then I'll consider writing it, but I'd probably make it pretty short.

Also, I'd suggest listening to "Flight of The Silverbird" by Two Steps from Hell. I've decided that that's the theme for Robin, I listened to it on repeat while writing this last chapter.

So… Until next time… Thank you for reading, and see you all around.