This place is gonna be filled with Light Arrow traps isn't it? A tall tower filled with staircases leading towards a central throne is just too much like the final floor of Valni, and they haven't used this trick yet... Gonna be a real pain reaching The Pinnacle of Light...
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At the request of King Mordred, Roy heads for the Tower of the Saint, a sacred tower in honor of Saint Elimine. However, it has been taken over by Windam, who rebelled against the church on the orders of Roartz.
So it appears that I have, alongside the inevitable Light Arrows, a grand total of five siege tome users, two bishops at the top, two mages near Windam, and a sage sequestered in a little box (yet again reachable via longbow, which I yet again don't have). Not to mention, the boss has a Berserk staff. Gonna be a long climb...
As for preparations, I make sure both Clarine and Ellen have restore staves, as well as giving Ellen the hammerne. I deck out Dieck with an inventory of axes, since his sword rank is S, and he wants S rank axes as well. Lugh gets a Bolting, and I sadly leave Percival behind, because Geese needs training, in spite of his low resilience. Hopefully the newfound berserker won't actually live up to his name, because that just isn't fun. Let's get the pain train a-rollin'!
Windam speaks with a soldier, who explains that Roartz has fled the castle, stating that he "doesn't want to deal with useless bishops who can't even tame the Elimine Church". Windam decides to take us with him, telling the soldier to prepare the "Heavenly Arrows" (dammit I knew it), and ignores the soldiers protests of possible threat to their own men.
Now with Roy, Douglas appears to tell Roy about the tower. The Aureola tome, wielded by Saint Elimine, lies at rest here. After Roy thanks Douglas for his assistance despite their precarious situation before, he thinks nothing of it, saying that he is honored to help the saviors of Etruria. Douglas, now a member of the party, is a level 8 general with some solid stats, likely the best armored unit in the game, save possibly Wendy. He has great strength, defense and health, solid skill and luck, but fairly low resilience and just outright bad speed. He's a general through and through, though I won't be using him.
Now, to start, I have Roy, Lugh, Ellen, Lance, and Sue head towards the western staircase, while Dieck, Rutger, Clarine, Geese, and Miledy head towards the eastern stairs. Lugh takes the time to fry the nearest Bolting user, incinerating him before he can cause any trouble, with Lance running past to guard him from enemies. Douglas remains near the beginning, since his low resilience and speed make him nothing more than target practice for all of the mages here. Only a couple of mages move, and a heavenly arrow zips by harmlessly, hitting no one at all.
Lugh, Sue, and Lance clear away the enemies awaiting them on their side, while Geese, Miledy and Rutger do the same for theirs. A sage successfully silences Lugh, while another arrow falls and misses all targets. Ellen restores Lugh, and he incinerates another bolting user with his own tome. The rest of the party moves slowly around the turns, making sure to keep everyone (namely Clarine and Ellen) nearby so that they can be healed at a moments notice. Geese kills two javelin cavaliers who attack him from across a wall with his hand axe, but otherwise nothing happened, although two arrows fell. Geese and Dieck then block off the passage of the enemies, letting them come to us so as not to leave anyone open, while Roy's group does the same with Sue and Lance, awaiting their paladin and his troop in their entirety. As they take on the enemies, a light arrow comes down and rips through Lance and the archer in front of him. Lugh heals Lance, having avoided the second and third attempts at silencing from the sage, and Sue kills the archer, Lance doing the same to the paladin, as they try to draw out more people. Ellen heals Sue of her wounds from the paladin, and Roy stays close by. Dieck kills their groups paladin, while Geese kills an archer after being healed by Clarine, and Miledy helps herself to a mercenary.
Dieck's group advances, having taken care of all nearby foes, while Roy's group follows suit, dealing with their group of cavaliers with ease. Both groups take down a couple foes who drew near, and have now rounded the bend towards the long incline towards the throne area. Lance gets hit by another light arrow, and Lugh heals him once again, while the rest of the party on both sides just climbs further up the tower, Dieck's group taking the lead. The nearest purge bishop steps forward to blast her, hitting her hard, but also entering into her range. Three light arrows also fall, and afterwards, Clarine heals Miledy, and she flies over to stick the purge bishop with a javelin. Sadly, this puts her in range of Windam and his damned berserk staff, and he effortlessly enrages her. Before Miledy causes any trouble, I have Clarine snap her out of her rage, and the group advances, Dieck in the lead. The purge bishop near Roy's group attempts to blast Roy, but he dodges the attempt and Lance splits the mans skull in two with his axe. Lugh kills a nearby sage, the same one who had tried to silence him earlier, and Roy and Sue stick close by.
Windam does as he did last turn, this time to Geese (how fitting), and a light arrow strikes Lugh. Clarine calms Geese down, and Miledy flies back over to take down a bishop who appeared out of nowhere. Roy's group advances quickly towards Windam, pushing through the small pathway an into the area where he resides, now even with Dieck's group. Geese is yet again berserked, and yet again restored by Clarine. Lugh blitzes the final bolting mage with his own tome, and it then gets Hammerne'd by Ellen for later use, while Lance, Sue, and Roy charge in, mirroring Dieck's group as they pile into Windam's chamber. Three light arrows fall, one hitting Lance, another missing completely, and the final hitting both Geese and Dieck, as Lugh, Clarine, and Ellen patch up their wounds in preparation for the fight with Windam.
Windam is a tough one. He's got a blinding 20 magic, okay speed and skill, enough luck to prevent casual criticals from non-swordmaster or berserker units, and a fairly solid defense stat. His resilience is surprisingly low for a bishop, at a measly 8. His avoid is boosted by the throne, making him a hard one to hit, and his defenses are pushed higher, giving him some normal bulk. Since he hasn't done much, I have Rutger run over with his killing edge (the same one since I got him), and let him slice the crazed bishop into ribbons. Roy then takes the throne.
A soldier finds the tome, and Roy is handed Aureola, the Pinnacle of Light, Douglas confirming its authenticity. After Roy wonders if it's okay to use such an artifact, Douglas explains that he has the support of all important parties, and takes the book gladly.
He then goes to speak with Guinevere, explaining that he will now need to invade Bern to stop it's warpath across Elibe. Guinevere is saddened by the need for this, but gives Roy the Fire Emblem, Bern's national treasure. Guinevere then tells Roy of the Cave of Seals, where Hartmut, mightiest of heroes laid to rest one of his divine weapons, a blade crafted to slay the "Dark Dragon" leader of the dragons and thus immensely powerful even in comparison to other divine weapons. The Fire Emblem is the key to the door leading into the cave where the sword was sealed. Guinevere explains that, though her brothers hostile takeover of the continent is unforgivable, she shall still be remembered by history as the one who betrayed her nation and brother. She only asks that, when Roy invades Bern, that he will not harm the civilians, which Roy agrees to instantly. We then receive the Aureola tome.
Aureola: S rank light tome, 15 mt, 90 hit, 5 crit, 9 wt, and grants 5 more resilience to its wielder.
Honestly, the chapter wasn't as hard as I had expected, since I prepared in advance, but it would be horrid without the proper tools, and Lugh's countersniping was quite helpful.
