Byleth paced around the meeting room in Bowser's castle. The motion helped his thoughts flow. Standing around looking at uniform dark stone walls had a tendency to slow his thinking down. "I'm confused about something," Bowser said. "I thought your world was frozen in time while you were gone." An unfortunate side effect of Byleth and Bel escaping from the void had been the rest of Fódlan being stuck in that exact moment, according to Sothis it had something to do with the Divine Pulse when combined with Master Hand's power. Until the effect wore off it had been assumed nobody could enter that world.
"So did I," Byleth said. "There must be someone with powers like the Hands who disrupted things. Whoever that is probably tricked Edelgard into taking Soul Edge. Or maybe they're working with Those Who Slither In The Dark. They could have had the Flame Emperor force Soul Edge onto Edelgard." According to Master Hand the time freeze was still in effect for Fódlan, but someone had still been able to enter and leave it. Thankfully the rest of the Black Eagles were still accounted for. For them and everyone else in Fódlan they'd have no idea about the time stop once it was over.
"It's not long until your world finally breaks out of that weird time stop thing, right? Maybe some overly complicated time travel thing is involved," Bowser said. Kamek nodded from his corner of the room, clearly only pretending to follow the conversation.
"Maybe," Byleth said. "For now all we can do is free Edelgard from Soul Edge and hope she'll be able to give us some more information. The person responsible could even be hiding in plain sight." Akasha and Siegfried walked into the room. Byleth had been told about the relationship between Soul Edge and Soul Caliber, Siegfried having Soul Calibur with him was already a point in their favor.
"We were told about what happened," Siegfried said.
"I've already used my powers to locate Soul Edge. It appears to be in the same dimension that Master Hand and Crazy Hand originally came from, the one they've taken data from for some of their simulations," Akasha said.
"Then we should prepare ourselves and get going as soon as possible. We'll need some way to cut off that rift opening power to stop Soul Edge from escaping. And I think I know somebody who can do that," Byleth said.
"On my own that would have been too much to ask, but I've picked up some new skills of my own since coming here." Sothis said. She wasn't in the room, and nobody else could hear her. Though Sothis had never been a secret amongst the Smashers. Sometimes Byleth had been pushed into sharing some of her stronger opinions with the Smashers. Despite dwelling on a supposed 'higher plane of existence' she seemed rather content with commenting on the plane Byleth was stuck on.
"How excellent. Unfortunately I will not be able to accompany you, I came to examine some things to help with the research back at Wuhu," Akasha said.
"I don't trust her," Sothis commented. "She reminds me of both bacon and betrayal. And only one is because of her hair." Byleth sighed.
"How is Ulti doing over there?" Bowser asked.
"Leaf is taking good care of him. He remains quite curious about the world around him, almost like he's seeking something," Akasha said. A koopa offered to show her to the library, Akasha went with them.
"Kamek go call Master Hand and tell him we need a portal for one of our ships, and get the ship ready too," Bowser said. Byleth and Siegfried followed Bowser out of the room. With the long red carpets and torches the hallway barely looked any different from the meeting room. Byleth made a note to introduce Bowser to the concept of interior decorating.
"Where are we going?" Siegfried asked.
"To the study. Junior and Ludwig are coming with us," Bowser said. "Also Byleth, the person you're thinking of is that small goddess who lives in your head right?" Byleth nodded. Siegfried raised an eyebrow but made no comment.
"For an oversized turtle he's somewhat clever," Sothis said. Bowser shoved open the doors to the study. It was a tall, wide room. A few windows offered a view of the ash and magma outside the castle. Bowser Junior was seated by himself at a desk at the other side of the room, struggling with some assignments that Byleth had given him. Byleth made a mental note to tone down the difficulty after observing how stressed Junior looked. Ludwig had taken a seat next to a bookshelf and was leafing through a book on music.
"Ludwig, you can study your music after you finish your assignments. The two of you are coming with us on a mission," Bowser said.
"Yes sir." Ludwig groaned and put a bookmark in the book before returning it to the bookshelf. Junior jumped out of his chair and ran over to Bowser.
"Hey who's the guy with the big sword, he's cool. Where did you get that cool crystal sword?" Junior asked.
"My name is Siegfried." He seemed thrown off by Junior's enthusiasm. "Are you sure about having them accompany us? Soul Edge isn't to be underestimated."
"Whoever Soul Edge is I can handle them. I'm probably a lot smarter than them," Ludwig said.
"I'm not so sure about that," Sothis commented.
"Sothis ease up," Byleth mentally reprimanded. He hoped he hadn't given anything away with his face.
"Byleth has been teaching them, and he can do a better job teaching them how to fight once he sees them in a real battle. Now we're going to the airship. Follow me," Bowser ordered.
By the time they arrived at the airship Master Hand still needed some time to open up the portal. Junior and Ludwig were in the lower deck while Byleth, Bowser, and Siegfried stood at the bow. "Your kids seem energetic," Siegfried said.
"Junior is my only kid. Ludwig is just a general," Bowser said. Byleth and Sothis were both in agreement that Bowser certainly didn't treat any of the Koopalings like mere underlings.
"Doesn't he seem a little… childish for a general."
"Well he is still a kid. People here are so beaten down that ambitious kids were the only ones I could get to be generals. With the state of our kingdom it's hard to blame them. When all the soil is infertile and there's barely anything to hunt it's hard to get invested in the state of a country."
"Was it always like this?" Siegfried asked.
"Back in the day we used to have it as good as the Mushroom Kingdom. But their king hated us koopas, so he cursed the entire country. That was generations ago. Naturally plenty of people jumped ship when nobody could figure out how to break the spell. My army is practically all that's left of the country. I had to spark up some hatred of the Mushroom Kingdom just to give people a sense of purpose," Bowser said. Bowser looked out at his kingdom. It was hard for Byleth to imagine such a desolate place being anything else.
"I see," Siegfried said.
"And now of course Bowser realized what happens when you encourage hatred of an enemy instead of doing things to improve the country, especially when most aren't even interested in the former," Byleth said. Sothis offered her approval to Byleth.
"I can understand how easy it is to fall into that mindset. Hating someone else is much easier than admitting your own faults. Even if you need to invent someone to hate," Siegfried said.
"Screws you up later though," Bowser said.
"It certainly does," Siegfried said. He tightened his grip on Soul Calibur. The portal finally opened. Byleth and Siegfried struggled to maintain their footing as the airship began to move forward and ascend at once. Bowser grabbed Byleth to stop him from falling, Siegfried grabbed the railing.
"I thought you were the one I hired to keep me grounded," Bowser said.
"Well we aren't on the ground right now, are we?" Byleth responded. Siegfried laughed, unknown to him Sothis joined in. The group went down to the lower deck as the airship drew closer to the portal. Junior and Ludwig had already taken seats by the windows. Currently there was only an empty void on the other side of the windows, and it would stay that way until the airship arrived at its destination. Junior ran over to Siegfried.
"Are you going to tell me where you got your sword now?" Junior asked.
"I'd rather not." Siegfried clutched his left hand and turned to look at the walls.
"You're no fun."
"You shouldn't pry into someone else's past if they don't want to talk about it Junior. Not everyone is comfortable talking about what they've been through, you should try to remember that in the future," Byleth said. He tried to speak as gently as he could. Dealing with young children was not on the list of things he was used to, though he was steadily gaining more experience.
"You're a lot nicer about this stuff than Dad." Bowser stepped back when he heard those words. Byleth found the shocked expression on his face a little cute.
"Bowser needs a lot of work on realizing what others think of him," Sothis said.
"Well, anyway, as the strategist here Byleth will be the one giving orders once we start to fight. So listen to him or you'll have a long lecture waiting for you when we get back. And you've already slacked off once today Ludwig so you're on thin ice."
"Yes sir," Ludwig said. He didn't look Bowser in the eyes, instead looking down at the floor with his head tucked a bit closer to his shell.
"You should have a talk with Bowser about lighting up a little with those kids," Sothis said.
"I will. And I need to talk to Bowser about finding someone who can actually teach Ludwig how to play music," Byleth responded in his own head. Part of him felt bad for having that kind of discussion right in front of the people in question. But in his defense, the discussion was literally all in his head.
"We are now leaving the interdimensional space, passengers are allowed back on the deck now," a voice announced over the intercom system. Presumably it was the koopa in charge of piloting the ship. Junior scampered towards the deck immediately. The rest of the group followed him at a slower pace.
Blue skies and white clouds surrounded the airship. Floating islands were off in the horizon, all at different heights. There were also islands seated on the water, and a few larger landmasses. The ocean dropped down after a certain point, turning into a wide waterfall. The bottom of the waterfall couldn't be seen. Every island had a building on it that took up almost all of the island's space, almost as if the islands had been created to house the buildings. Large blue crystals leapt out of the water and hung beneath the floating islands. It was a far cry from the landscape of the Koopa Kingdom.
"So this is what they based the current version of Battlefield on," Byleth said.
"Is it just me, or does this world seem… empty?" Siegfried asked. Byleth looked around. He couldn't see even a single bird in the sky. Plants were the only living thing that could be seen.
"He's right. Fortunately that's how this world is supposed to be. Even this much is more than there should be here. I'll save the explanation for Master Hand, he most likely knows what happened but has simply neglected to let anyone know vital information yet again," Sothis said.
"Sothis says it's supposed to be empty, but she's refusing to explain what she means because she wants to make Master Hand do it instead and loves being cryptic."
"Hey don't talk about me like that. I don't tell the people in the Velvet Room about that time you got us trapped in the void."
"That was one time."
"Well someone had to build all those buildings," Bowser said. Byleth shook his head to break himself from the mental argument. "Now that we're here I can sense Soul Edge, it's got to be that source of black magic over there." Bowser pointed to one of the floating islands. The pilot of the ship steered it towards the island. Junior went back inside to fetch the koopa clown car, he came back riding it. Ludwig twirled his magic wand.
"You can sense black magic?" Siegfried asked.
"Can't break a curse if you don't know anything about curses." Siegfried raised an eyebrow. "Look I put my 'curse the Mushroom Kingdom the same way they cursed us' phase behind me, I don't need a reminder every time I break out the magic myself instead of having Kamek do it instead."
"Sorry. I'm just hesitant around certain powers now after I made the mistake of taking Soul Edge for myself."
"Eh back in the day I would have tried to get my claws on that thing too." The ship came to a halt right next to the floating island, this time everyone held their ground. A large castle took up most of the island. There was no sign of decay, nor was there any sign that it was inhabited. Despite looking like it had only recently been built, something about it felt ancient. Then the sounds of fighting burst out from within the castle.
"Someone must have already engaged Edelgard in battle. We need to hurry, but stay cautious. I'll take point," Byleth said. He led the way into the castle, pushing open the large doors. Inside was a large hall with no furniture or decorations. Byleth continued onward, looking around him for any sign of a trap or previous visitor while trying not to be too slow.
"Byleth, be careful. Whatever is up ahead is completely negating the Divine Pulse. We won't be able to use it for this battle. I don't even think they're doing it on purpose," Sothis warned. Byleth thought back to the last time the Divine Pulse had failed him. That failure still stung. After losing his father Byleth wasn't going to let himself lose anyone else.
"Someone else is using dark powers. I don't know why, but the powers feel familiar. I was never too good at this magic stuff anyway," Bowser said. Byleth considered bringing up what Sothis mentioned, there was a chance it could lower morale. He already knew they were going to be on guard, hyping up the enemy would be pointless.
The sounds of battle had grown even louder. Among them were the roar of flames, a howl of pure battle lust, and a gun being shot. Ludwig was clearly struggling not to cover his ears. The propeller of the Koopa Clown Car could barely be heard over the other noises. Byleth was certain that the door in front of him would lead to the battle. Combat had been slowly losing its appeal to him, but he had no reason to hesitate for this fight.
Four people were in the large throne room. Edelgard had repaired her armor since the last battle, but she no longer wore the helmet. Soul Edge remained in her grasp. A warrior dressed in red stood against her, Byleth recognized him as Volga from the reports. Hovering in the sky was a bizarre almost cobra like creature. Five stalks stood out from the closest thing it had to face, forming a star shape. Closer inspection revealed the stalks were the eyes, and the mouth they surrounded opened up to reveal numerous teeth. And standing closest to Byleth's group was another face Byleth recognized from the reports of other Smashers.
"Well hello there friends, mind lending me a hand? Starface over there has somewhat of a grudge against me," Lincoln said. Starface sent a shard of ice at Lincoln, who jumped out of the way. Volga and Edelgard continued to clash weapons.
"Of course. Siegfried, find an opening to disarm Edelgard and attack Soul Edge directly. Everyone else attack Starface." Siegfried moved towards Edelgard while Ludwig and Junior rushed towards Starface. Bowser followed behind them. Byleth gripped his Sword of the Creator, it transformed into a copy of Failnaught. He took aim at Starface, pulled back, and shot an arrow.
Then Ridley charged through the window. He spat a fireball at Edelgard. It ended up colliding with Starface instead. "Oh excuse me, I didn't realize I was crashing a party," Ridley said. The mocking tone in his voice was almost as irritating to Byleth as the sudden intrusion.
"I'm surprised you even know what a party is," Bowser said.
"Party, fight, same thing. If you want to be defeated then come at me," Volga said. He blocked a swing from Siegfried and thrusted his spear at Edelgard.
"I sincerely hope nobody has made the error of inviting him to a party," Sothis commented. Byleth smirked at that and sent an arrow at Ridley. Starface shrieked and three orbs of light appeared in the area. Byleth recognized the technique, that was one of the attacks Galeem had used. The orbs were spread out too far to destroy any of them before they could detonate.
"Those are Galeem bombs. Evade!" In a flash everyone moved to a safe zone as quickly as they could. The bombs detonated in a bright explosion. Ridley tried to knock Bowser into it and got a punch to the gut in return.
"Why does Starface have some of Galeem's powers?!" Bowser shouted. A dark aura manifested around Volga. Black thorn like tentacles shot from Volga's body at both Edelgard and Starface. Tentacles that looked identical to the ones that Dharkon had used. Ridley switched focus and dove at Volga, then pulled back just in time to dodge a hammer made of black tentacles. That prompted Ridley to switch focus to sending fireballs down while he stayed well above the battle. Starface sent several shards of ice towards Ridley, while dark portals appeared around Ridley to shoot out more tentacles.
Ludwig hopped around the arena, shooting trios of fireballs from his wand at Starface. Byleth noted that while Ludwig had been able to dodge the attacks from Starface, the accuracy of Starface's attacks were only improving. Meanwhile Junior was throwing as many Mechakoopas as he could at Starface, set to detonate in mid air. The more immediate threats had taken all the heat away from Lincoln. His gun let out a click instead of a bullet.
"This isn't good, I'm out of ammo," Lincoln said.
"How good are you at hand to hand combat?" Byleth asked.
"No experience against swords, but I can try to apply my wrestling experience."
"Help Siegfried. I'll keep covering you." With that Byleth continued loosing arrows at Ridley and Starface. A blue orb appeared above Byleth, then it divided itself into six copies that flew at him. Byleth ran. A similar orb appeared behind Junior. Junior also tried to evade them. Ridley swooped down and grabbed the Clown Kart, dragging it along the ground. That immediately drew Bowser's attention, allowing a shard of ice to strike him. Starface followed up by summoning two copes of Galeem's wings. They spun down towards Bowser like drills. Bowser retreated into his shell. A hideous screech came from the collision of shell and wing.
"Weren't we friends?!" Junior shouted.
"Smash mansion is gone, I don't need to play by those rules any longer. At least now I know how fun betrayal is. I hope there are more gullible idiots like you I can betray," Ridley said. He prepared a fireball in his mouth. Byleth shifted his weapon to take Aymr's form and leapt.
"Get away from him monster!" The axe went down on Ridley. Somehow Ridley endured the hit. He released his grip and tried to fly back. Byleth returned the Sword of the Creator to its original form. It reached out and grabbed Ridley by the tail. While Ridley was locked into place Ludwig leapt up and sent out fireballs of his own. Junior got the Clown Lart upright again and prepared its cannon. The cannonball struck Ridley in the stomach. Byleth dug his feet into the ground, keeping Ridley from escaping. Bowser ran over to Byleth.
"Let's take a page from Mario's book." Bowser grabbed Byleth and held him up. He swung Byleth around him in a circle, and Byleth dragged Ridley with him. Resisting the urge to throw up was almost as hard for Byleth as holding onto Ridley. Once they built up enough momentum Byleth released Ridley. "So long Ridley." Ridley crashed into the wall and formed a hole in it.
"What did you just say?" Byleth asked.
"So long Ridley. I was trying to copy Mario's accent."
"It sounded like you were saying something else." Somehow Ridley was still conscious. Then Junior charged the Clown Lart towards Ridley and fired another cannonball. Ridley was finally down for the count.
Edelgard turned towards Ridley. Soul Edge hungered for more souls. Starface swung its tail and fired a purple laser towards Volga. Volga leapt up towards Starface to counterattack. With all enemies distracted Lincoln and Siegfried seized the opening. Lincoln ran in front of Edelgard while Siegfried approached from behind. The two unleashed their drop kicks at the same time. The impact made Edelgard's grip loosen. Soul Edge fell from her hands. Edelgard collapsed to the ground.
"Destroy it now!" Byleth shouted. He and Bowser placed themselves between Soul Edge and the other combatants. Ludwig continued to leap around, his fireballs demanding attention from both Volga and Starface. Starface seemed more interested in preventing Volga from reaching Soul Edge than getting closer to it.
Siegfried lifted up Soul Calibur and aimed the tip at Soul Edge's eye. A purple glow came from Soul Edge. The space around it began to distort, a rift in space began to open. Time stopped. Byleth was still aware, and he could still move. He ran towards Soul Edge. Sothis channeled her power through him, the spatial distortion around Soul Edge vanished. Time was still frozen. Sothis wasn't the one who had stopped time.
A masked man appeared next to Soul Edge. His mask was made of gold and shaped like the sun. He wore a white robe decorated with a line of red diamond designs that transitioned into a chain around his waist, the pattern was also present on the left, right, and back of the robe. "Even destroying this abomination is too risky, it could merge with a certain other abomination and become even more powerful. Permit me to dispose of this." He grabbed Soul Edge and plucked a purple shard from the sword. Then he crushed it in his hands. The masked man summoned a bright portal in the side of the room, and hurled Soul Edge into it. It closed with Soul Edge sealed on the other side. He summoned another portal behind Starface, the next second he had leapt through it. Time resumed. Starface flew into the portal, almost as if he had expected it to appear. The portal closed behind him.
"What happened?" Siegfried asked.
"Hmph, time manipulation, what a cowardly technique. I'd continue fighting you, but certain people will yell my ear off if I do," Volga said.
"How about you tell us what you're doing with Dharkon's powers then," Bowser said.
"No." A dark portal appeared beneath Volga's feet and swallowed him. It closed immediately afterwards.
"Wait I'm confused. Did we win or not?" Junior asked. Byleth and Bowser looked at each other, then Byleth looked towards Edelgard. Siegfried was already lifting her up in his arms.
"Well without that cursed sword this young lady seems a lot less violent. Thanks for your help," Lincoln said.
"You're the guy who helped Leaf and Ulti deal with that Ultra Beast, right?" Byleth asked.
"Ah so you're some of their friends, good to know. Hopefully this time we can talk a bit before I'm forced to go through another portal." Edelgard let out a groan. Her eyes slowly opened.
"Professor? What happened? I feel like I've been in a long dream," Edelgard said. Her voice was groggy.
"It's a long story. I'm just glad you're safe. Edelgard, what's the last thing you can remember?" Byleth asked.
"Everything had just stopped moving. And then this strange woman approached me, she told me that she had with her the sword of the salvation. I took it in my hands, and then I… I don't remember. I heard voices I think, voices of people who couldn't possibly be there."
"That's one of Soul Edge's ways of manipulating its victims. That woman tricked you, it's no sword of salvation," Siegfried said. He helped Edelgard get back on her feet. She stumbled at first before regaining her balance.
"We need something that actually narrows it down. Give us more information," Bowser said.
"Bowser, calm down. I don't think she's fully recovered," Byleth said.
"No, I can't permit anything to let me falter. Some details are coming back to me. She had long red hair, her clothing was rather peculiar, especially her headdress. She gave me her name, but I'm struggling to recall it. The first letter was a, the last one was too. Akasha! That was her name."
"Akasha?" Siegfried asked. "That can't be, she was helping us."
"Who is this Akasha?" Lincoln asked.
"Huh, the reports said she helped you out in fighting that Ultra Beast," Byleth said.
"I don't recall anyone with that name." Lincoln scratched his head.
"I told you so Byleth," Sothis said. Byleth tried to process the information. Akasha had most likely been manipulating them. Which meant she had to have some sort of plan she currently carrying out, and there was no way she'd help expose it if she felt it could be still be stopped. Whatever her objective was could have already been carried out.
"Let's go find Akasha and see what she has to say about this," Byleth said. Bowser took out his phone.
"Kamek where's Akasha?!" Bowser shouted.
"She left the castle a while ago sire. Is she alright? We got along quite well, we talked about our favorite plays. She said she was fond of this one play called The King in Yellow that sounded quite-" Bowser hung up.
"The King in Yellow? That play is cursed, nobody can read the script and keep their sanity," Lincoln said. Edelgard looked at Byleth. The confusion was obvious. Byleth took out his own phone and tried to call Leaf. With how close she had been to Akasha she was the most likely to know where Akasha was. An error message popped up, informing Byleth that Wuhu Island could not be reached at the moment. Another message took over the screen, one directly from Master Hand.
Go to these coordinates ASAP. Something is happening on Wuhu Island. I'll meet you at the ship and explain on the way.
"What are those devices?" Edelgard asked. Lincoln shrugged.
"I'll explain everything to you later. Right now we need to get going, you can stay here if you need to rest," Byleth said.
"I understand enough to know that I owe everyone here for my safety, I can fight at your side," Edelgard said. With that Byleth led the charge back out of the castle.
"Ludwig, Junior, you both did great. Just wanted to say that before I forgot," Bowser said. Junior still seemed downcast. Byleth wished he had the time for a serious conversation. But at the very least they needed to rendezvous with Master Hand first. Byleth wondered what exactly was waiting for them at the set location.
Alarms blared all over Wuhu Island. Invaders from another world had been detected. Leaf was looking over the defense plan for the island. The King in Yellow remained in its sealed container. Akasha gave a small chuckle, quiet enough for nobody else to hear. Leaf was too absorbed in preparations to notice anything else. Akasha reached for her knife.
A/N: And at last several plot threads built up through the FP1 arc are properly showing themselves. Next chapter will be the second interlude, following up on the cliffhanger here. I haven't played Three Houses so I hope I was able to portray the elements from it faithfully. Also yes, Byleth did hear that sentence as 'so long gay Ridley.' Sorry to people who couldn't read the last chapter when it was posted, FFN broke down. If it happens again I suggest checking out the A03 version. Shout out to SmashBrosOdyssey for giving this chapter a quick look over, if you want a space to work with other fanfic authors like that you should check out the discord server Super Smash Prose, join code is gDK48ua.