Lucia and I had made some incredible progress after a few weeks of implementing the Mercy System. I still remember how she came to the tavern the other day to thank me and talk about her stats. She even bought me a meal! I'd never seen her look so happy before, and it honestly warmed my heart to see that my efforts were appreciated. In summary, our stats looked like this: 

I gained 20 levels, while Lucia gained 25! My strength and physical defense were still subpar, but my Dex and Speed stats made up for that. Lately, I'd been activating [Precision Strike] more often, too, so I could probably hold my own in a fight now. Hooray! But Lucia was something else. 222 magic at level 46?! I was no prophet, but I knew she was definitely going to max out her magic stat. Her speed, magical defense, and dexterity were also decent, so she was shaping up to be a real killer. The only downside was that her HP and physical defense were still shit, but maybe that was the price that mages had to pay for their awesomeness. How I wish I were a mage!

I'd also been buying ranged weapons and grinding up Matilda's staff level. Once her staff level rose to A, I bought her an Aura staff and told her not to use it. I did these and many other things behind the scenes to ensure that my plan would go off without a hitch, and it was finally time for us to act. 

"Daphne!" Lucia rushed into the tavern, a frantic look in her eyes as she looked everywhere for me. Eventually, she found me relaxing on my seat, drinking some orange juice, so she came up to me and said, "A Cyclops invaded our hunting grounds!" But I was not fazed. In fact, it was all according to plan.

"I know. We're going to show that Cyclops the meaning of hell," I said with an ominous smile. "Rejoice, Lucia! You'll finally get your revenge!"

"W-what do you mean?" She asked, probably flustered by my lack of concern. 

"It's simple. I arranged for it to go there."

"B-but how? And why?! Why would you put us in such danger?!" 

"I'm not putting anyone in danger. And as for how I did it, you'll find out once we get there."

It was a silent journey to the hunting grounds. Lucia was probably judging me in her mind, but I was not bothered by it, as I knew the party would be rejoicing before long. Eventually, we got to the hunting grounds just in time to see the spectacle unfold. The rest of the party was there, watching in shock as the Cyclops swung its great axe about like it was fighting an imaginary opponent. It had slaughtered several monsters, and several more were fleeing before its rampage.

"Are those... royal mages?!" Lucia asked, barely believing her eyes. 

"Yes, they agreed to help us for a fixed sum." A quite expensive one at that, I thought to myself as I watched them work their magic, the main reason I wanted to buy their services. 

"T-they're erecting a barrier," Phildina remarked. I couldn't have gotten this idea without her, so I was quite grateful. Maybe I'll let her promote first, I thought to myself as I remembered her words: "The kingdom erected a magic barrier to prevent pegasi from leaving." This meant that the royal mages must have been proficient with barrier magic, which was why I wanted to reach out to them, but they proved to be more competent than I had imagined. 

"I didn't expect them to be so good with status magic," I voiced my thoughts honestly.

"What do you mean?" Lucia asked.

"They spotted it from afar, cast a Confuse spell on it, and led it all the way here," I gave a summary of what happened, but it was really incredible when you thought about it. These men were toying with a boss-class monster as if it were nothing. It almost made me wonder whether they were actually Dhampir as I watched them erect the barrier in their hooded robes. With what I know about Camelia, that could actually be the case...

Once they had finished erecting the barrier, one came to me and said, "We normally don't sell our services, but Marquis Dartinius arranged for a special exception to be made." He was responsible for this?! Ugh... I didn't want to be further indebted to that monster, but we needed the EXP, and the deed had already been done, so what could I do? After the royal mages left, we got down to business.

"Okay, everyone," I began, "That barrier you see there will only last for three days, so we need to kill it before it breaks free." But there was a catch to this, and it was like they could all sense it. Oh, my children are starting to read me! How exciting! "Except, we won't truly be killing it, not until most of us reach level 50."

"What do you mean?" Kimmel asked. He was always trying to feel me out and understand my motives as the leader, and it honestly made me glad. I didn't want brainless bozos, after all. 

"We'll be torturing this thing." They were all flabbergasted, but I continued anyway, "We'll be hitting it with ranged weapons from here until it looks like it's about to die. Then, Matilda will heal it with her Aura staff, and we'll repeat the process until most of us are at level 50!" I felt like I was standing on a stage, presenting a revolutionary idea, and in a way, it kind of was. I mean, I hadn't seen anyone try this because of how dangerous bosses could be, but it would work in an isolated system like this. 

"Wouldn't the barrier interfere with our attacks?" Batti asked with a hand on his chin.

"Not really. The barrier prevents the Cyclops from getting out, but it allows things to pass through it," I answered while probably looking smug as hell. 

"I see," He remarked with an understanding look on his face. The plan could work because EXP gained from bosses worked differently. Normally, you'd only get EXP from a kill, but a successful attack on a boss could net you the same amount, and a kill was practically a free level-up or more, depending on the boss monster's level. Everything was looking good, but that was when Matilda started protesting,

"I took up this role to save people afflicted by monsters. I'd never heal them!" She was practically the cornerstone of the plan, so I would be lying if I said her response didn't tick me off. With a heavy sigh, I approached her and asked,

"What good would you do for any of those people if you were dead?" She gazed deeply into my eyes, and I gazed back into hers. The intensity in her eyes was unlike anything I'd ever seen before, almost like she were telling me she wouldn't back down no matter what, but I loved such challenges, so I leaned in and whispered,

"If you couldn't even save Arturia, how can you expect to save anybody as weak as you are?"

"H-how did you—"

"Shh," I said while placing a finger on her lips. Mentioning that name had a noticeable effect on her. I could see the feelings of guilt bubble up in her shaking eyes, so I went in for the kill, "There's no use for healing once a person dies, y'know? Do you want to gain the strength to prevent that, or will you go about allowing the same tragedies to repeat themselves for the rest of your life? Choose for yourself, Matilda."

At this, she fell to her knees and said, "Y-you're evil."

"I'm doing this for your good," I answered back with a smile. It was underhanded, but I would never pass up this chance, not after all the work I put in. Matilda slowly and wordlessly got up, nodded, and got herself into position, which served as the signal for us to begin.

"Hraaahh!" Batti shouted as he threw a hatchet at it, which only managed to bounce off its skin, doing no damage at all. How thick was its skin?! He quickly reevaluated the situation and grabbed a tomahawk instead. The others followed suit, arming themselves with the best, ranged weapons they could find from the stash I prepared beforehand. Kimmel, Sarde, and Phildina took spears, Kathryn picked up an Ice Sword, Hertz grabbed a few throwing knives, Lucia started chanting, and I readied my bow. Like that, the torture began.

"ROOOOAAAAAGHHHRR!" The Cyclops cried out in pain after an hour of nonstop attacks. It took practically everything we had to bring it to this point, which spoke volumes about the sheer resilience it possessed. I turned to Matilda and signaled with my eyes. She quickly cast Aura, healing it fully and allowing us to resume our barrage. After several hours, we were exhausted, so we called it a day and left the hunting grounds.

We came back the next day and repeated the same procedure. Other monsters were around, but they didn't approach us for fear of the Cyclops, allowing us to focus our full attention on dishing out as much pain as possible. Lucia was especially keen on this. Every time I saw her, she almost looked like she was getting off to the whole thing, which was worrying, but I could get where she was coming from.

"Lightning!" She screamed with a ferocious glint in her eyes, and the bolt struck, dealing heavy damage to the already wounded giant. Uh-oh, it looks like it's about to die!

"Matilda!"

"Aura!" She quickly cast a spell on the Cyclops, healing it completely and giving us more time to torture it. At this point, I almost felt bad for it, but when I thought about what it would do once it was free... Naw, ain't no way! I thought as I released another arrow. As I reached for another, I felt the sharpening of my sight and the tingling of my arms. Whenever this happened, I could tell a [Precision Strike] was coming, so I shot the arrow and watched as it dug deep into the Cyclops' body. That must have hurt, I thought to myself as I turned to look at how the others were doing. We were starting to run out of ranged weapons, so I wanted to have a meeting with them right after this. 

Noticing my intent, Kimmel called for a break, and we all huddled up close like a football team.

"So, we're starting to run out of weapons," I started. "I wanted to know if any of you have reached level 50." 

"I have," Phildina said proudly. 

"M-me too," Kathryn said while raising her hand. I was at level 49, and I was guessing the others were similarly close. So, we'd go for one final push before finally killing it. We were playing with fire at the end of the day. I wasn't even going to deceive myself about that. If it broke out before the projected time at full health, we'd never win, so we had to rush things a bit. 

In her way, Matilda was gaining a considerable amount of EXP from all this. Healing the Cyclops over and over again would give her some good EXP, but it wouldn't be enough to get her all the way to level 50. And Hertz was at level 40 before this all started, so though he would come close, I didn't think he would get to level 50. I mentally apologized to the two of them before concluding the brief meeting and resuming the attack, which persisted until we had completely run out of weapons. 

"Lucia! Do it!" I screamed, and she was on it, quickly beginning to incant a spell. The tome she was holding on to glowed brightly, and a magical circle appeared beneath her. Her eyes were closed, and her long, purple hair swayed in the wind. I was really impressed with the theatrics! 

"...Fall on my enemies and destroy them! Lightning Storm!" As soon as she said this, four enormous lightning bolts converged on the Cyclops, frying it to ash in mere seconds. I and everyone who watched were stunned into silence. Wasn't that a B-rank lightning spell? Has she been holding back this entire time? At that moment, I could tell she was going to be one of our most powerful units, which made me feel proud of my investment as a tactician. I have an eye for this, after all! I thought to myself with a smile as I witnessed her fall to the ground in exhaustion. 

"Are you okay?" I went up to her and asked.

"I finally did it," She muttered in a barely audible voice.

"What was that?" 

"I've finally avenged you, Arturia," She said with tears streaming down her cheeks. I felt it was best to leave her alone, so I went up to Phildina and said,

"Phildina, I grant you the honor of promoting first!"

"R-really?" She said as her eyes lit up in excitement. 

"Yes, you deserve it," I answered as I handed a Limit Break to her. In Everlast Dynasty, promotions would drastically increase your stats, but as I didn't know how much our stats would increase here, I would use her as a test. She wore the ring like a little kid who couldn't wait to get her hands on it, and that was when a bright glow emanated from her. It was so bright that we had to shield our eyes for a few moments, but when she came out, she looked like... actually, she looked the same as always, but I could tell something had changed within her.

"I can use magic now! Woohoo!" She rejoiced while jumping around, almost beside herself with joy.

"So, you went for a Pegasus Mage Knight?" I asked.

"Yes! Now, I can beat even a General!" She replied while boxing the air.

"I wouldn't go that far, but... oh, well, whatever makes you happy. I guess."

"And my stats are incredible! I almost can't believe it, Daphne!" She kept shoving it in our faces so much I was starting to regret it, but it would be worth hearing her out, so I asked her about it, only to be shocked at what I learned:

I didn't know what her stats were like before, but it seemed to me that she had seen a drastic improvement in all her stats! I couldn't wait to try it myself, but one rule I could never forget from my days playing Everlast Dynasty was that you generally shouldn't rush into a promotion. 

"Phildina was a special case because I originally got this idea from something she told me a while back. That's why I'm letting her promote like this, but I'll be treating you guys differently. We'll talk about your promotion options first before deciding on which to choose. Once that's done, I'll hand out the Limit Breaks."

They all reluctantly agreed, and on the way back to the town, I wondered, Should I go with a Sniper or Ranger? Snipers were known for their [Killing Intuition] skill, which drastically increased their critical hit rate, but they also shared the same weaknesses as archers. Rangers, on the other hand, could ride on horses and attack at close range with swords! Both options just seemed so good I didn't know which one to pick.

"What's that smell?" Phildina spoke as she pinched her nose. It was like smoke from a fire mixed with something else that stunk to the high heavens. I pinched my nose, too, getting an ominous premonition as we inched closer and closer to the town. Finally arriving at the entrance, we all froze at the sight.

"No..." Matilda said as tears welled up in her eyes.

"H-how can this be?" Kimmel looked up to the sky with a dejected expression on his face. The town was up in flames, with impaled corpses everywhere acting as human torches. It was a horrible scene, one that almost made me want to puke. A paper carried by the wind swayed back and forth, eventually landing at my feet, so I picked it up and read what was written.

"W-what's wrong?" Phildina asked with concern written all over her face. "I've never seen you look this pale before." I wordlessly showed them the contents of the message, and they all adopted the same looks of horror. 

THE EMPIRE DECLARES WAR.