temp storage for private fate notes
by @King_QWERTY

Aight, I was planning to end it here and write the first book, but I have ideas I'm gonna forget and I'm gonna put 'em down.

From that point on, they are on the run. They can go into towns if they're disguised, but as public enemies nos. 1-4, it's kinda hard to lay low. They make a plan to return home, since Garret probably doesn't know where they live and they trust everyone in town. On their way there, they camp at a shrine and all have a dream/vision of Azmuth, the God of Light. He tells them to believe in him, then puts the rest back into normal sleep. He then tells Cloud privately that he is Azmuth's Champion, and that they are the ones who will defeat Garret and repel Mystic, the Goddess of Evil. He tells him various things he needs to do to defeat Garret and wakes him. They begin travel for the day and midway Cloud asks them if they had a dream, which they all say yes to. Their mission instantly changes from one of survival to accomplishing the goals Azmuth has set out.

Other interesting parts:

So basically, as the climax of one book, Cloud gets run straight through the abdomen. In a display of his Determinator spirit, he gets up again, limps forward, and holds off a group of soldiers while marching towards the Captain. Cloud takes him out then collapses, bleeding out. Afterwards, Cloud has a chat with Azmuth in what appears to be Heaven. He is astounded about the fact that Cloud is actually, somehow, alive. He is amazed at Cloud's connection to the world and
  • Cloud fucking dies (again) and Garret fucking dies (not again), or, The Climax of the Series
Okay, so they don't actually die, but they come within an inch of it due to a two-sided No-Holds-Barred Beatdown. In the very end of the series, a purple vortex has appeared in the sky, and I'm talking 'it's on the horizon and half the sky is purple' kinda size. Cloud is on a rooftop with Garret and both of them are beating the shit out of each other. I'm talking both of them are barely standing kinda injuries. Cloud tells him what he has wrought upon them, but Garret claims he can fix it. Cloud slaps him and tells him to look up. Garret finally realises how far he has gone in his hubris, and leaves Cloud to repel the vortex. He takes aim with plot arrows and witnesses in awe and pure terror as Mystic emerges from the vortex.
"No...How do we defeat that?"

"Mystic," Cloud breathed. He shook his head. "We can do this. Just need to think..."

"This is what I've brought. God, I never meant this..."

"What do you mean? You have to have expected this would happen. How could you have committed mass murder and thought everything would be good?"

"I knew shit would go down, but I didn't think it would come from her!" He gestured wildly at Mystic. "Yeah, I knew what I was doing, and I knew I'd never be king after this, but how was anyone to know that this would summon fucking Mystic?"

"Look, you can complain or you can shut up and let me think about how to fix what you've done. Or, even better, actually fucking help!"

"Well, I'm not gonna be king much longer, let's be a damn fine one for my last few minutes. This was all about being remembered, after all." He held out his hand.

"Together, yes?"

"Let's go kill a god."

Lots of people dying. Anyway, border skirmish

Breath of Life - Florence + The Machine

Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh

Garret marches down on a royal parade. His arms crossed behind his back, his face of resignation. He refuses to look up, at the people he knows he will hurt. He clutches the amulet.

I was looking for a breath of life

The second the music shifts takes us back, to a bedroom. Garret sits on the bed, weary. He stares downwards.

A little touch of heavenly light

A tear forms.

But all the choirs in my head sang no, oh, oh, oh

He brushes it away, looking at the amulet from his parents on his neck..

To get a dream of a life again

He clasps the amulet. On the two beats, first his mother's face, then his father's. Then his.

A little vision of the start and the end

Downwards shot of Garret, looking up, at Azmuth. Zooms out while rotating on one, two.