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Welcome back! It's time for the last chapter of the game's first act. Exciting, isn't it?
Orson leads Eirika and Seth into the castle, and somehow re-found his horse on the way in because now he's a Mage Knight. I've come to expect characters in cutscenes re-randomizing after the fact, but I really thought Orson would consistently be a Swordmaster given he's playable. Lord knows what he'll actually be once we run into him as a boss.
Speaking of characters in cutscenes, guess who didn't change? Gorgons are never pleasant to deal with, and now I get to deal with one that's parked on a throne!
Then Orson turns red and fucks off, and Tirado blows the bridge so we're stuck inside, so straight to the prep screen with us.
We're down a deployment slot, so Garcia is sitting this one out. I don't know if he'll come back off the bench, we'll see what future axe-wielders are in store for us (if any).
On account of not having a Thief for this chapter, I also had to do some pre-mission shopping, picking up 2 Door Keys and 3 Chest Keys. I originally bought just the one, and then had to reset halfway through because I forgot chest keys are only one use in Sacred Stones instead of five. 
I also decided to throw Moulder the Goddess Icon that Joshua picked up earlier. He and Gilliam both have shit luck, but Moulder would probably benefit more from it given he'll be doing way more fighting. Still don't know who the Swiftsole should go to, though...
Oh well, that's a conversation for another chapter. To the map!
Vanessa starts us off with a bang. My plan here is to have Eirika, Neimi, Gilliam, Vanessa and Moulder go up here, with everyone else going left and linking up with Ephraim. The other group not having a healer won't be a problem given Kyle (and I guess Forde too) shows up next turn.
I will never not be 
at how ridiculous Artur is.
This is, what, the fifth hit on 30-45% accuracy she's made in the past 3 chapters?
That looks... strong. Neimi being on a pillar only helps so much with dodging, but it doesn't save her from this hit.
Then the Mogall next to the fighter that Artur killed tries to get some vengeance. Fun fact: When I initially went to check on this chapter at the end of Chapter 7, this was a Pupil with Bolting instead.
Right on schedule, there they are.
Joshua clears the Mogall out of the way. It's a damn good thing the iron axe is so accurate, otherwise Joshua wouldn't be nearly as good of a "delete enemy" button as is.
Ephraim's Celerity lets him pick off this Troubadour on his first move, but it also leaves his Javelin with 1 use, which is... unfortunate. Lute needs to get down there ASAP.
Ephraim almost has as much skill as he does HP, and that's kind of funny.
Neimi takes care of the merc. The dude had Swift Stance, which meant that he would have been able to double anyone other than Eirika on the counterattack, and Neimi needs the experience anyway.
Lute will be able to get to Ephraim next turn, but in the meantime, this merc has just enough HP to survive anything she throws at him. 
Rather predictably, he goes for Artur on the enemy phase, but dodges the killing blow.
Ephraim makes the Javelin's last use count.
A Pegasus Knight also tries her luck, but Ephraim doubles and that's the end of that.
On turn 3, Eirika pops open the treasure room. As tempting as it is to rush in, I'd rather bait out these guards one by one, because some of them have pretty scary weapons, plus there's three mercenaries in the room that all have Swift Stance so fighting them on my turn is a Bad Idea.
Gilliam stands next to her to provide moral support (and Solidarity). Everyone else kind of clumps up behind her.
Lute fixes up Ephraim's inventory, giving him the fresh Javelin and the Iron Lance in exchange for his Slim Lance.
I'd rather use my dancer for, well, dancing, but this guy was proving to be surprisingly hard to hit. Joshua probably could have taken him down too, but there's not really anything pressing for this group to get to now.
Forde makes himself useful, too.
Yes, guy with an Axereaver, throw yourself at someone with a sword, that'll work out great. Unfortunately, Eirika doesn't crit, which slows things down by a bit.
Gilliam steps out of the way so Moulder can finish him. Eirika loses the Solidarity boost, but it doesn't matter too much.
Meanwhile, the other half of the party is in absolutely no danger.
Absolutely no danger. Except for the part where reinforcements show up right after this, but still.
This dude manages to hit Eirika, but it's the last thing he does.
This joker tries it too, but Eirika misses him twice. 
Everything turns out okay, though. Then Neimi steps up to bring the mercenary out to her.
Remember the very first update, where I pointed out how bad the Halberd sucks? Because... Yeah.
uh. forget i said anything, then
Ross gets Joshua in there to bail him out.
He can only reach this one, but I'm more concerned about her anyway given she has a poison weapon.
Neimi fights the last treasure room merc for a shit level.
Not everyone can land weapon tosses with low accuracy, thankfully.
Ephraim gets the hell out so Kyle can heal him...
...and Joshua keeps on Joshing.
Isn't it sad that my unit with the highest defense other than Seth also effectively has -1 defense thanks to his skillset?
This is kind of a gamble, but I'd rather kill this guy this turn so I can get at that treasure chest at some point this decade.
Eirika runs into the room and Gilliam hides in the corner to heal him. The knight can't hit him where he is, which is good because he'd probably die if the knight shot him a dirty look.
Joshua is just out of reach of Ross, but he heads over there anyway, in case there's more reinforcements I forgot about (there isn't).
Ow.
I trade-chain the chest key from Moulder to Eirika to get... a sword that isn't normally in the game! Well, it exists in the game, just unused.
This would be good if it wasn't for the accuracy.
Then Neimi steps in right here to bring the Pegasus Knight in for the kill.
Meanwhile, everyone else finally makes their way towards what's left of the action for this map.
Again: Ow. Steel lances hurt, man. She crits in response, at least.
God, the ballista is so tempting to use with perfect accuracy. If it wasn't for the fact that Tirado would heal it back by the time we get there (as well as... another thing we'll see in a bit), I'd use it to get some potshots for free experience.
Have I mentioned steel lances hurt? I probably should have lead with Lute here... Artur manages to kill him, at least, but he runs back for healing.
This guy has a Swordreaver, but he also has another axe in his inventory. Neimi could have baited him out, but I'd rather not have him switch.
On the enemy phase, this innocuous myrmidon spawns, and...
...she has hawkeye and swift stance... 
While I process that, Ephraim's posse pushes further up.
I wanted to have Moulder one-round this guy, but he dodges. Oh well.
Neimi is tasked with bringing out the Hawkeye.
The soldier at the end of the hallway ended up stepping to Moulder first, giving him an okay level and a skill.
Neimi barely survives her encounter and gets an even worse level than the one she got before.
This guy manages to nail a 39% hit chance. 
Moulder takes the Swordreaver off his hands when he's done.
This seed is pretty biased towards lances, if you haven't noticed yet 
Here's the skills that got picked up last turn. I guess Moulder's makes up for him not having Shove to begin with...? And Neimi's skill sure would have been nice to have last turn.
I'll take every penny I can get, really.
Vanessa picks off this silly myrmidon trying to infringe on her perfect accuracy skills.
Artur's getting close to level 10. I wonder if his next skill will make him even better than he already is...?
Nothing happens on the enemy phase beyond one (1) soldier moving towards Eirika's group.
Hmm, this guy also has a swordreaver. As much as I want Artur to get more experience, I'd really rather not get screwed over by Provoke, so...
Lute flies over here as a distraction.
We're close to the end, here. Moulder takes out this knight, and Neimi is able to one-round the soldier thanks to Chivalry.
Well, wishful thinking.
Lute takes this guy out...
...so Artur can open up the other treasure room.
A dance from Ross gets Joshua the first treasure. Vanessa will appreciate this.
I appreciate that they let you show mercy to walls.
The other chest isn't as inspiring.
The only combat-capable unit besides Tirado left is this Brigand, who..
...Ah. Hmm. Okay, then. So, anyone who fights Brigands get cursed with a Devil effect. Also, Duelist's Blow, so getting hits in on the enemy phase will probably not happen. Good to know! 
Vanessa takes out one of the healers to get the one stat that doesn't matter for her, plus a pretty decent skill.
Let's have Artur fight this guy, what's the worst that could happen?
Oh my god, he actually managed to kill him without getting deviled.
Be-autiful. Now, what's his prize for hitting Level 10?
Oh.
...Oh.
Everyone flocks to the throne room, and Lute hits level 10. The only people in the active party who haven't gotten new skills yet are Joshua and Kyle.
Tirado is easily the most challenging boss yet. He hits fairly hard even without Stone (as funny as that would be to actually run into, for whatever reason he lost it between my chapter preview and now), has scary good accuracy, and his resistance means Ross and Moulder won't be doing jack or shit against him even with Seal Resistance. He himself has Seal Attack, which means I'll have to be strategic and not just throw the same people at him repeatedly.
Joshua gets things started by putting a decent dent in him.
Wow, that palette goes really well with the sprite. He looks like a Castlevania boss.
Then Ross gets him the fuck out of there. That leaves him in range of Tirado, but that's fine - he'll live.
Kyle and Gilliam heal him, and Gilliam gets a Good Level out of it.
Ross barely pulls through, and Kyle gets more magic out of healing him up.
This is risky, but it'll be worth it if he lands a crit.
Nope. 
He at least hits the other time, but come on.
Vanessa steps up and almost finishes him off. All that's left is for someone to come in to deal the finishing blow.
Thus, I go against my own advice and bring Joshua back in for the kill.
That sure was worth it. He also got Seal Skill.
As Kyle runs around and heals the wounded, Ross dances for him to cap Magic. As nice as it is that Dancers can attack at all, I kind of wish their caps were adjusted for it...
Phew, that was really long. But we're finally done!
The siblings have their heartful reunion.
Oh, hi, Myrrh! Can't wait to see what you randomized into in 8 chapters' time.
But I suppose I'll be finding out about Tana pretty soon.
Caellach goes to attack the Tower of Valni but can't even scratch this random knight 
But he makes it to the top, to have this other knight throw an unexpectedly fitting insult at him.
Hayden gives us more allowance, and we finally come to the route split...
...which I will leave to a vote. This post is running long, so I'll instead the vote to the body of my actual forum post. Thanks for reading this far. 