The Renowned Star

Chapter 117: The City Filled With Corruption

The heroes made it to the ground and looked around the surrounding area for a brief moment. Before they suddenly came across the destruction. There were buildings crumbling, there was blood splattered in some areas, it was a hard scene to witness. The heroes all got off the magic circle and just stood together, watching the destruction.

Celica asked, "How... could we let something like this happen?" She touched the blood and sure enough it was fresh. It stained her fingers as she quickly cleaned it off. The heroes walked through the destroyed city. Some heroes just watched the buildings fall more and more apart. Others just looked around the area in silence.

Byleth grunted, "How could Erica continue to let Liberation destroy our entire planet?! We didn't do anything to him and here he is, harassing all of us so we can give up and fall underneath his hands. How pathetic can he possibly be..." He kept looking around the area with his spell but he just felt defeated. He walked through the city, each of his steps echoed through the city. There was no sign of life anywhere.

"There is just no way someone or something could live in a destruction like this..." Shez muttered as he grabbed some rubble from a building. Claude walked over and examined the building, it was a hospital. No doubt about it, there had to be people in there before the explosion occurred. Shez shivered at the thought of innocent people dying. The other heroes kept on searching around, seeing if there was anything to be salvaged.

Eula groaned, "Erica treated Dawn City as if it was her second home. How vile must she be to allow such a thing to happen to the city." Eula then felt blood streaming down from underneath the rubble. She walked backward as Prince Fluff used his yarn to move the rubble out of the way. There was a dead person underneath the rubble.

Prince Fluff muttered, "That's awful... these people had so much to live for..." Eula nodded in agreement, she wanted to check on the person for the possibility of them being alive but she knew deep down inside it wasn't going to be worth it. Celica and Marianne explored the section regarding the naturelife, it was still there but flowers were burned off. Alfred was tagging along with them, feeling distraught by everything.

"I couldn't possibly think of what the people were doing before their demise... what they thought or..." Celica sighed. She felt tears coming down as Marianne tried her best to comfort her and calm her down. Alfred tried helping Marianne, Lumine and Furina were exploring more of the city. Then they came across City hall which had crumbled to pieces.

Furina questioned, "Who is the mayor?"

"I can't recall, Luigi was fortunate to step down a couple years ago, but... I don't recall who's the new mayor. If they were here, may they rest in peace... but if they weren't! They need to be alive!" Lumine explained. Furina nodded in agreement and soon all the heroes gathered around each other. Ready to tell everyone about what they were able to find and what was unable to be salvaged.

Byleth sighed, "We can all agree to one thing, correct?" The heroes looked at each other before facing Byleth. "Whatever ended up happening, this is a horrible situation. How could our gods who are supposed to PROTECT US... go out of their way to kill innocent people who didn't know anything better?" Byleth looked down at himself as he tried to pull his mind together. But nothing worked, the thought of the people dying ruined him.

Tails walked over to Byleth and patted him on the back. "Look, we all wished that we had a chance to save the people. But whatever ended up happening, we weren't able to predict!" The heroes nodded in agreement. Chrom looked to the side, being reminded of his ability to look into the future. He could've helped everyone prevent the situation but he had completely forgotten about that ability.

Acadia replied, "I say, the most important thing we need to go out and find is that we put an end to what Lord Liberation is doing. Perhaps he's manipulating Erica to not do anything?"

"Erica is a disgusting being in general. I wouldn't be surprised if she was doing this on purpose," Sonic groaned as he crossed his arms. Some of the heroes nodded in agreement as others hesitated.

Celica announced, "I don't want to defend Erica's actions or anything but what if she was manipulated by Lord Liberation? He's out to kill us and I feel like something happened for Liberation to begin acting more and more hostile toward us."

"Did any of the rulers tell us anything about who Liberation was?" Elfilin asked as he landed on Byleth's head. The heroes all thought but none of them had a clue if the rulers told them anything or not.

Link responded, "The closest we got was King Solario, but he didn't go as far to explain much. Same with King Oceano who talked about him for a bit; based on what Chrom says." Chrom nodded in agreement as the heroes just looked at each other.

Byleth took a deep breath and clapped his hands together. The heroes were alerted as he stepped forward. "I don't want to ruin the moment of reflection but we need to no longer let ourselves get controlled by the gods of our world. Erica, Dawn, Liberation, Midnight, Michael... all of them have done nothing but destroy our land. They want to take the rights from us people and they want to keep us under a tranny ruling.

We've worked underneath the banner of Erica for far too long. All I can say to us all is that we cannot accept that this will continue on forever. If we take a step to destroy Liberation, that will be a massive step for the future generations of our families. Do we want to let the gods continue to control us? We are all human beings and we cannot allow these foul beings to control us no more. I'm done working for Erica. I want to save our planet, for the people. Not for the gods... So... WHO IS WITH ME?!" Byleth raised his sword into the air.

The heroes all looked at each other before turning back to Byleth. They all seemed like he was crazy. But then Chrom raised up his sword. "I agree with everything Byleth said. I had enough of the gods destroying us." Then more of the team members joined in by raising up their hand or their weapon. Some still hesitated about the whole idea but more and more were being convinced.

Byleth ordered, "I NEED YOU ALL TO STAND WITH ME! ARE YOU A DEFENDER OF THE PLANET OR ARE YOU A FIGHTER FOR THE TRANNY RULING!?" Then everyone soon raised up their hands. "THAT'S THE SPIRIT! WE'RE HEROES OF DAWN! WE ARE NOT SERVANTS OF ERICA! WE SERVE THE PEOPLE! NOT THE GODS!!!"