Korrina and the Black Eagles
Chapter 15: Day of Defiance
Korrina was relatively surprised to learn that the Black Eagle Strike Force would not be staying at the Great Bridge of Myrddin. After all, they spent the better half of the day and multiple Divine Pulses taking that thing, and she figured that the team best equipped to hold that location were the ones who just got done taking it. However, Edelgard's explanation made sense. The Great Bridge of Myrddin was a bridge and defensive outpost, but Garreg Mach was a defensive outpost, former university, center of commerce, and potential living space for multiple people. In Edelgard's eyes, Garreg Mach would provide a far greater area to rest, restock, train and plan than the Great Bridge of Myrddin. Besides, it's not like Edelgard was leaving the Great Bridge of Myrddin unguarded. Another military division headed by Lord Bergliez would be using that area as their personal quarters. Even if they couldn't hold it, Garreg Mach was close enough for a reasonable counterattack should the worst happen. With that in mind, the Black Eagle Strike Force returned to Garreg Mach for the time being.
A few days later, Edelgard called Korrina into Rhea's former chamber for a meeting. Korrina wasn't sure what Edelgard wanted to speak about, since every report they received indicated that the invasion of Leicester was going smoothly. However, it soon became apparent that Edelgard wanted to talk more about Claude. She wanted to know Korrina's impression of the lad first and foremost. Korrina thought for a moment, then responded by saying, "To be honest, it was always difficult to get a good read on Claude. Sometimes, he seemed like a complete buffoon that never took anything seriously. Other times, it seemed like he was the smartest guy in the room." Thankfully, this indecisive answer was enough to please Edelgard. She said to her sister and co-empress that Claude was always able to pull off the impossible, either in spite of him acting like a fool or because of it. Korrina understood that part, but she didn't quite know what her sister and co-empress Edelgard meant when she said that it was as true now as ever. Thus, Edelgard explained that Claude was able to protect the Leicester Alliance with his cunning alone, continuously intermediating, negotiating and conceding between opposing houses all for the sake of preserving the image of a united Leicester. So long as Claude maintains this path, the Adestrian Empire would always fail to recruit anyone from there. Korrina seemed to understand now, and replied with, "I see. So that's why you are so insistent on taking out Claude. You think he has some last-minute trick up his sleeve that he would use to wipe us out when we least expect it." Hubert surprised the co-empresses by coming in to confirm that fear. He came to deliver a report that Claude has completely sealed off the city of Derdriu. Even the people living there can't enter or leave the city without going though a few hoops. Hubert took this to mean that Claude was preparing for something big, and even though the co-empresses did not go as far as Hubert, they did agree that Claude was plotting something. With this in mind, Edelgard gave the order to launch an invasion of Leicester from the Great Bridge of Myrddin, and Korrina reluctantly followed suit. Hubert picked up on Korrina's hesitation and reassured the co-empress by saying, "If you're still worried about political backlash, don't be. All the alliance lords who oppose the empire will be fighting alongside Claude that day. Once Claude is dead, everyone else will see the folly of opposing us and rush to our side like moths to a flame." Korrina then waited until after Hubert left the room, then quietly asked Edelgard if death was really the only way. Surprisingly, Edelgard agreed. She wished that it could all be over before the fighting began and didn't see the point of raising a weapon in the first place if you're just going to eventually throw it down anyway. Korrina responded by saying, "People fight for various reasons. One of the most prominent is to defend themselves from a greater enemy. Even if the odds are close to impossible, it's often better to die defending what you believe in than stand by and allow others to trample over that thing. That's why I was originally opposed to invading Leicester. From their point of view, we may be that greater enemy." Edelgard didn't seem to agree with Korrina's closing statement, but she saw that continuing to argue about this would get them nowhere. Thus, the co-empresses agreed to just hope that invading Leicester would eventually yield positive results.
Since the Black Eagle Strike Force still had a few days before they could safely commence an attack on Derdriu without having to worry about outside interference. Korrina thought this as good a time as ever to check in on her old colleague Hanneman. They had some small conversations last month, but never enough time for a full-on visit like they could 5 years ago. It turned out that some of Hanneman's work was destroyed in the attack on Garreg Mach, but it was nothing he couldn't recover from. At the moment, Hanneman was more interested in why Korrina was unconscious for so long. The only answer Korrina had was that she used up entirely too much power fighting Catherine and Rhea back to back and was thrown quite a distance by Rhea's final attack. Even someone with a healthy heart would have difficulty recovering from all that without a long "hibernation" period. This caused Hanneman to say, "Perhaps I've been looking at this from the wrong angle, then. Maybe the more appropriate question is, 'how did you survive that encounter?' After all, most ordinary people would die from an experience like that." Korrina then hypothesized that it could have something to do with the God Ki she received a few months prior to that. Hanneman believed that Korrina's hypothesis could be correct, but he still wanted to test it out. Thankfully, Lord Arundel was able to give him technology that allowed him to look inside a person's body without cutting them open first. Morally reprehensible as Arundel was, he did at the very least help give the Adestrian Empire a medical and technological revolution with all his equipment. Korrina relented to letting Hanneman use that device on her, and what they found was quite shocking. Despite being able to function like a normal human being, Korrina's heart almost did not beat at all. If it wasn't for the God Ki that Korrina received 5 years ago, she likely would have died fighting Rhea. In that sense, Korrina could almost be considered a zombie. With her heart effectively compromised, God Ki was the only thing left that kept Korrina functioning. If she dispelled too much of it at once, Korrina would die for real. Before leaving, Korrina had one more question she wanted to ask Hanneman. She said, "Why did you stay with Edelgard for so long? Your main field is crest studies, and she wants to abolish the crest system entirely. Wouldn't that put you out of a job?" Hanneman understood and said with an odd amount of seriousness, "I see. You believe my alliance with Edelgard makes me a hypocrite due to our opposing views on crests. I won't deny that is how things would appear at first, but the reality is that Edelgard and I are not so different." This spiked Korrina's interest, but Hanneman turned unusually somber as he recounted his story to her. Hanneman said with pauses, "My father was born with a major crest. I was born with a minor crest, but my sister was born with no crests at all. Some nobles saw potential in my sister, so she was married off in hopes that her children would bear my crest instead. However, my sister could never produce a child with a crest, and that in turn caused her husband to despise her. My sister…died around your age. They blamed it on a lot of things, but deep inside, I knew that our society and its priority of crests were to blame for her passing. That is why I committed to being a crest scholar in the first place: to ensure that the powers and gifts of having a crest can become readily available to anyone that desires them. Maybe then, my sister can finally rest in peace…" Korrina finally understood what Hanneman stood for and decided to let him mourn in peace for the day.
The day before the attack on Derdriu was set to commence, Edelgard came to give one last warning about Claude. Korrina had already heard about what a supposed schemer Claude was supposed to be, but even if she were able to outsmart him, Claude still had one last weapon: a Relic called Failnaught. Although this was meant to be a warning, however, Korrina couldn't help but find the name Failnaught hilarious. This then prompted Edelgard to say: "This isn't a laughing matter, sis. Failnaught is just like Claude: unassuming on the outside but dangerous on the inside." While Edelgard was talking about the relics to her sister and co-empress, she decided that now would be as good a time as ever to tell Korrina the true story of the 10 Relics. Apparently, all 10 of the Relics were actually man made, but taken by Seiros after she killed each of their original owners. She also manipulated the people of the world into thinking that Nemesis was completely evil before killing him and maintained that false history for a millennium. Korrina accepted most of this version, but there was still one thing she didn't understand. If the 10 relics were truly man-made, then why do they only work when the right person wields it and transform everyone else into monsters? Why did they specifically need Crest Stones to work, and were the Crest Stones artificially created too? If so then what sort of strange technology did their ancestors truly have? Unfortunately, Edelgard didn't know the answers to those questions. This knowledge was spread orally from emperor to emperor, and it was clear that some crucial details were lost along the way. Even if Edelgard did have full knowledge of what exactly happened between Seiros and Nemesis, though, she was only concerned with overthrowing Rhea at the moment anyhow. Korrina was too, but she was also determined to learn the full truth about that time. However, the main concern at that moment was finishing Claude and hopefully gaining some more allies from this.
Not too much about Derdriu had changed from the last time Korrina was there. The port still had the exact same layout that it had when Korrina defended the place from pirates, but now she was the one attacking the city, and her enemies the ones defending it. Thankfully, Edelgard and Hubert devised a solid plan. For now, the main goal of the Black Eagle Strike Force was to secure the port area. Once that happened, the rest of Derdriu would simply be a sitting duck. There was just one problem, though. Lysithea was the one that Claude chose to meet them at the gates, and it was clear that her magic had gotten even stronger than it was 5 years ago. If she wasn't taken out quickly, Lysithea could have easily vaporized the entire Black Eagle Strike Force with just 2 spells. Thus, Korrina had everyone else fall back while she rushed her former friend and sliced her with the Sword of the Creator before she could finish her dark magic. Lysithea seemed to accept her fate, but Korrina had other plans. Instead of finishing off Lysithea, Korrina instead gave her former friend the chance to join the Black Eagle Strike Force. Not only was Lysithea still just a teenager, but her house (Ordelia) was essentially being forced into this battle against her will. For those two reasons, Korrina took pity on Lysithea and decided to show her mercy instead. Most of the Black Eagle Strike Force thought that Korrina had lost her mind recruiting a former enemy just like that, but Lysithea was grateful enough for the second chance that they eventually relented.
Soon afterwards, the Almyran Navy showed up to help Claude in his time of need. This wasn't just a band of pirate pretenders anymore-the Black Eagle Strike Force would now have to deal with the real Almyran Navy. In a masterful maneuver that could only have been thought up by Claude, one of the Almyran ships docked right behind where the Black Eagle Strike Force was entering Derdriu and multiple warriors came down for a sneak attack while dracoknights flew from the rest of the ships and surrounded the Black Eagle Strike Force. What started as a perfectly manageable situation was now beginning to spiral out of control. If Korrina didn't think of something quick, this would have been the end of the line. Seeing the dracoknights beginning to close their circle, Korrina looked to Bernadetta and placed her in charge of taking out the dracoknights while everyone else tried to press on into Derdriu. Shamir would be there to help out Bernadetta, but there were too many of those dracoknights for a stationary archer to take on alone. It had to be a horseback archer like Bernadetta that lead the counteroffensive. For the rest of the Black Eagle Strike Force, all the frail units like Lindhardt, Dorothea, Hanneman and Manuela were forced into the middle where it would be harder to get them while the stronger units like Ferdinand, Caspar and Silvain defended against the initial wave of warriors. Most of the warriors were dealt with easily enough, but the dracoknights were too slippery for a few archers alone to be able to take them all. Dorothea and Hanneman decided to lend a hand in this counteroffensive and start using their strongest lightning magic to severely limit the number of places the dracoknights could fly in. After all, a single one of those thunderbolts was strong enough to down even the most resilient of dracoknights with a single touch. Once this happened, it was easy for Bernadetta and Shamir to finish the counteroffensive. The invasion of Derdriu was back on.
The Almyran Navy was down, but not completely out (otherwise, their general would have sounded the retreat). Korrina knew this, so she sent a second, smaller unit led by Petra to board the Almyran ships and finish the job. The rest of the Black Eagle Strike Force entered Derdriu and moved on to phase 2 of their invasion. Edelgard was quick to notice the 3 port entrances being guarded by 3 of Claude's strongest generals. She accurately assumed that Claude was going to use those entrances to call in reinforcements from inside the city. Thus, Edelgard concluded that if the Black Eagle Strike Force could kill those generals and close the gates to Derdriu, then the Black Eagle Strike Force will just need to focus their efforts on Claude and stand a higher chance at victory. Since Korrina herself was the Black Eagle Strike Force's strongest warrior, she decided to take it upon herself to complete this task while the remaining members of the Black Eagle Strike Force took on the militia Claude sent to guard the city. Most of the militia was easily dealt with, but there were two small problems. The first was that there were still a few Almyran Dracoknights trying to ambush the Black Eagle Strike Force while they accomplished this task. The second was the fact that Hilda was placed in charge of this militia. Hilda was already deceptively strong to begin with, but now she was armed with a relic called the Freikugel: a snail shaped axe that packed a massive punch. It didn't seem to matter who was sent to take care of Hilda; she easily killed every one of the Black Eagle Strike Force with a single hit each. Korrina used Divine Pulse. It finally got to the point where Korrina herself had to put her own task on hold and step in. She hid in a place where Hilda could not see her, waited for Hilda to run out to attack one of her men, then turned the Sword of the Creator into its whip form and wrapped it around Hilda. From there, Korrina used the Sword of the Creator to literally squeeze the life out of Hilda. It only took a minute for the screaming to stop, but for Korrina, it felt like an hour. Once Hilda was down, the Black Eagle Strike Force was clear to close the gates and fully occupy the port. However, Hilda's death scream would never truly leave Korrina's ears.
After another hour passed, Petra was eventually able to defeat the leader of the Almyran Navy and force them to flee. It was a tough battle where Petra could have died a few times, but she had the situation under control and Lindhardt had gotten good at long range healing, so there was nothing to truly worry about. Now all that remained was Claude himself. He was waiting for the Black Eagle Strike Force at the northernmost dock, sitting atop a dragon of his own. Once the Black Eagle Strike Force found Claude and closed the distance, however, Claude took off on his dragon. Korrina tried to clip his dragon's wings with the Sword of the Creator, but Claude was flying just out of reach. Meanwhile, Claude reached for the Failnaught and let loose arrow after arrow. Their speed combined with how far away Claude was firing them made it impossible to dodge them all. It took whatever Divine Pulses Korrina had left at that moment to fully dodge the Failnaught's arrow barrage. Thankfully, there was one variable that Claude had failed to consider. While he was busy raining arrows upon Korrina's forces, Petra flew up behind him for a sneak attack of her own. For the first time in years, Claude was caught off guard. Before he had a chance to change tactics, Petra raised her axe and "slashed him down". Both Claude and his dragon were now in a state of free fall, and Bernadetta used this chance to snipe him on the way down with a few arrows of his own. Even if Claude miraculously survived all that, it didn't matter. Nearly everyone in Derdriu saw Claude falling from the sky. For the Leicester Alliance, the war was lost.
As Korrina and the rest of the Black Eagle Strike Force closed in on Claude, most of them were surprised to find him still alive after all that. Despite that, Claude was smart enough to know he lost and surrendered without any further resistance. Edelgard and some of the others wanted to finish Claude and ensure that the Alliance won't be tempted to rise again, but Korrina had other ideas. Claude was still a very revered person within the alliance, and Korrina felt that her side had already been villainized enough without her making a martyr out of Claude. Thus, Korrina deliberately ignored her sister and co-empress and reached out to pull Claude on his feet. Korrina then looked to Lindhardt and said, "Heal Claude's wounds. We'll need him in top shape when it's time to negotiate his surrender." Edelgard demanded to know what her sister and co-empress was doing, to which Korrina responded by saying, "You said it yourself, Edelgard. Claude is extraordinarily popular in the alliance. Kill him and we can kiss any chance of a positive relationship with Leicester goodbye. Besides, we need SOMEONE to represent Leicester during the surrender negotiations, and what better person than Claude himself?" Claude appreciated the sentiment, but as usual, he had other plans. Claude believed that the Leicester Alliance would never fully support Edelgard so long as he was in charge, so he decided to leave it all in her hands and leave the continent forever. Many of the Black Eagle Strike Force agreed with this decision as a compromise (even if some of them still thought that killing Claude was the superior alternative), so they decided to let him go. Claude thanked Korrina for sparing his life then gave Edelgard his support for her future endeavors before sailing towards his real home: Almyra. As the rest of the Black Eagle Strike Force started back towards Garreg Mach in preparation for a full-scale invasion of Faerghus, Korrina couldn't help but gaze in the direction that Claude left in one last time. Encountering Claude again after all these years and seeing the type of man he became admittedly made Korrina wonder how things would have turned out if she chose the Golden Deer instead. She heard Claude mumbling something about wanting to unify the continent himself, and she was rather curious about how he would have gone about doing that. It couldn't be helped now though. Korrina was co-empress of Adestria now. There was no such thing as going back from that. All Korrina could do now was look to the future and come up with a way to defeat Rhea and Dimitri.