Note: I listened to "Apex of the World" on loop while writing this chapter. If you want to relive this chapter of Crimson Flower (with some non-canon twists), I'd recommend doing the same while you read it. Hope you like the chapter! :)
Catherine charges first. I let loose with a Fallen Star shot from Failnaught, and the arrow takes her in the shoulder. Dark wisps float up and merge with the smoke as she continues to barrel forward. We don't have anyone to stand in front and absorb her assault, do we? Fuck.
I dive to the side as Catherine lashes out at me with sword strokes as fast as greased lightning. Thunderbrand glows with sparks as she swings it to the side and sneers at me.
"Never took you for a coward, Claude."
"Keep telling yourself anyone who can dodge an attack is running away from you, Catherine," I say. "I'd hate to break your fragile ego."
She takes a deep breath, eyes alight with rage. But instead of distracting her and setting her off-tilt, she looks like she's drinking in the anger and using it to fuel her. Her grin is one I've seen on the faces of other soldiers who get lost in the rhythm of battle. The adrenaline rush, the here and now where all stress and anxiety fades away. I'd be lying if I said that I didn't appreciate those moments for what they are when I'm fighting, but Catherine looks utterly battlecrazed.
No Byleth to save me this time. Is this how I die?
"Excalibur!"
A vortex of wind rises from the ground beneath Catherine, and she's tossed against a nearby building. Score one for Annette. Catherine is bleeding from half a dozen places on her body, and the snow beneath her armor is stained red. She lets out a booming laugh and darts away into an alley, pulling out what I recognize as an elixir. That means she'll be back in the action with her wounds healed soon. I need to make the most of this time.
I whip around to see Ashe surrounded by a group of foot soldiers belonging to the Knights of Seiros while Gilbert advances in his heavy armor. Ashe already has several cuts across his body and gets another when he tries to draw his bow in melee range. I switch weapons to the Iron Bow Byleth gave me, which is lighter and allows me to fire shots in rapid succession. I take out some of the soldiers around Ashe and he's able to back up and finish the rest with the help of a fire blast from Annette.
Gilbert continues to approach, with several Knights surrounding him. Time to slow him down. I switch to my Killer Bow and take aim, looking for a spot in Gilbert's armor to punch through. I let loose with an Encloser combat art. The arrow I fire lands right in his knee in a chink between his armor. Critical hit. More importantly, it sends him stumbling and leaves him unable to advance. Time to clean up this rabble, then. Too bad I don't have my battalion with me right now, or I could have them black out the sky with arrows and rain projectiles down on the Knights of Seiros. "Ashes and Dust" is a fitting name indeed.
Instead, I take a blade from one of the downed Knights and brace myself for the Knights' charge. When they get close, I lunge first, sweeping my sword against a large group of them. Most of them manage to evade the blow, but that's okay. All I need to do is keep them at bay. Sur enough, when they leap away from my attack, more blasts of magic from Annette and more arrows from Ashe drop most of the front line.
"You sure you want to keep this going?" I say, pointing my blade at the Knights.
I can see their hesitation. A magical Cutting Gale from Annette that slices through an entire line of soldiers is the motivation they need to turn and run. Gilbert continues to drag himself forward.
"Faithless, all of them," he says. "This is how I atone for my sins and bask in the light of the goddess."
"By killing your own daughter?" I say. "This is a parent-child situation I know how to deal with."
I lunge at Gilbert with my blade. I can't find a way through his armor and my sword bounces off without leaving so much as a dent, and Gilbert wastes no time before swinging his axe in a wide arc. I manage to mostly leap out of the way, but the blade catches a part of my upper left arm. From where the pain is, I can tell me that it's not that deep, but I'll need to be careful taking any more attacks like that.
A few arrows fly through the air and slam into Gilbert's side, bouncing off his armor. He doesn't seem to notice them. The easiest way to break through solid armor like this is to use magic, which means I need to buy time for Annette to let loose with some spells. I dance around Gilbert, circling counter-clockwise to stay away from his axe arm. When I don't attack and focus on dodging, I'm able to predict his movements enough to leap out of the way. I picked up the skill while learning to fly a wyvern, since you have to be extra aware of your surroundings when you're in the air atop a large beast.
A shout of alarm sounds behind me. I leap back and risk a glance over my shoulder to see Catherine sprinting towards Ashe and Annette. Thunderbrand glows orange as Catherine drags it through the snow, leaving a melted path of bare ground behind the blade. I hear Gilbert's armor clanking closer and closer to me. Who do I go after?
I grit my teeth and swap to my Iron Bow, firing another Encloser shot at Catherine. It catches her in the leg and stops her charge for a second. I hear the woosh of Gilbert's axe swinging through the air a second too late. Pain lights up across my back as the weapon slams into me. I can't tell if the pain makes my mind fuzzy or I'm actually launched into the air, because it feels like I'm flying. I slam into the cold, wet ground.
If I stay still, I die.
I push through the throbbing and bring myself to my feet in time to step back from Gilbert's overhead axe swing. I can tell that my wound is bad, but for now my endorphins are keeping me alert and capable of fighting. Before long I'll need healing magic, but I can worry about that after I make sure Catherine doesn't cleave through all of us like I heard stories of her doing with Lonato's soldiers.
I dart away from Gilbert, trusting in myself to outrun him with my relative lack of armor. I switch to my blade and intercept Catherine right as she's about to drive Thunderbrand into Ashe. Our two swords lock, and her eyes narrow at me.
"We could have defeated the Empire together, Claude," she says, "But you chose to stand alone with the Alliance. Look where that got you."
The more time she spends talking, the less time she spends killing. I grunt and dislodge my sword from hers, swinging it at her in an arc. She stabs first, and I have to adjust my swing so I can knock hers out of the way. Because of the spikes on the side of Thunderbrand's blade, our swords get entangled again. An arrow catches Catherine in the side, and she blinks in response. Fucking blinks.
She resumes her lightning-fast attacks. The speed of Thunderbrand slicing through the air is almost superhuman, and I'm sent reeling back after a few attacks. Ashe's cover fire is the only thing keeping me from getting torn to shreds within seconds. Annette had better be making herself useful, because I don't see her doing anything to help me deal with the battlecrazed berserker over here.
"Father," Annette says. "Stand back. I'll blast you aside if I must."
"This is my punishment from the goddess," Gilbert says. "What a fitting one. I am sorry I must kill you, Annette."
I keep dodging around Catherine, but I'm not sure how much longer I can last. I'm tiring out, and Catherine hasn't slowed down at all since her initial charge. This woman is a rhino.
"Excalibur." Annette's somber voice cuts through the shouts and clangs of the battlefield like a knife.
Only when I hear Gilbert gasp and armor clanging to the ground do I risk a look. I know it's stupid, since the battle isn't going to change with my knowledge of what happened to Gilbert and I need to focus my attention on Catherine, but I can't help myself. Gilbert is lying on the ground, motionless and bleeding out into the snow. I can see tear streaks on Annette's face that are partially frozen from the cold. Her hands shake as she turns towards me and Catherine. She fires a blast of wind over my shoulder, and I turn back to see Catherine dodge it. A follow-up Sagittate spell slams into Catherine's torso, and when the light orbs burst she stumbles back. Ashe fires another arrow that takes her in the chest. That's what happens when your boob plate slopes inwards to direct attacks straight to the center of your chest where your heart is.
Catherine looks back and forth between the three of us.
"I never thought…" She coughs up blood. "Well played. Looks like we trained you well."
She raises her blade and I brace myself for her to charge again. Then she bolts away into a nearby alley. I'm not going to let her come back and fight us for a third time. I run after her and draw my iron bow, readying an encloser shot. Once I lock her down, I can switch to Failnaught and deliver the finishing blow with a Fallen Star. As I bolt forward, I feel a refreshing sensation around my back and the pain fades. It takes me a moment to register that Annette healed me. I mentally thank her, since I need to save my oxygen.
I follow into the alley and see her continuing to sprint away rather than healing up and returning for more. Huh. I fire an encloser shot, but she's able to take cover behind a crate and my shot goes wide. She bolts out of the alley onto the larger street on the other side. She looks me in the eye, throws Thunderbrand in one direction, and then runs off in the other.
The motion is surprising enough that it takes me a second to register what she did. It's not a bad ploy in the name of self-preservation. If I keep chasing after her, I might lose access to a powerful relic weapon for the rest of the fight. But I never expected it to come from Catherine.
What did she say about doing anything for Rhea, again? There was one thing she wouldn't do. When the truth dawns on me, I let out a dry laugh. She was willing to burn down the capital city of the land where she grew up at the whims of Rhea, but she wasn't willing to give her own life for the cause. What a spineless creature she turned out to be in the end.
I run out into the main street where Catherine fled and see Thunderbrand lying in a spot where it burned through the snow. No sign of the swordswoman herself. I'm itching to chase her down and ensure that she can't hurt anyone else, but Thunderbrand is the bigger catch. I jog over and pick up the blade, balancing it in my hands. It's surprisingly light, and like Failnaught has the same consistency as bone. Which is a bit creepy, so I'm not going to linger on that too long. I know that people without the Crest of Charon won't be able to unlock the full power of Thunderbrand and could suffer side effects, but it won't be nearly as bad as if I didn't have a crest at all. I can count on not turning into a Demonic Beast like Miklan did… I think.
I return to see Annette healing up Ashe. After a few seconds, the last of his wounds disappear.
"Wow," Ashe says, looking at Thunderbrand. "Did you manage to…"
"Not kill her. She tossed this away hoping I'd go after it instead of her. I hope I made the right choice."
"I've always wondered what it's like to be able to use a relic weapon," Ashe says. "I suppose right now is no time for daydreaming. I must return to Gwendal and report that the Knights of Seiros are responsible for these fires."
"I need to make sure my students are okay," Annette says. "Oh my gosh they must be so scared. I have to go now."
"I'll go with you," I say. "And I might have a faster way of getting us there."
I put my fingers in my mouth and let out my loudest whistle. A few moments later, Omar emerges from atop one of the burning buildings and flies down to greet me. I run a hand over the scales on his face. It might have been helpful to call him for the fight, but I'm not sure I had the time to mount him and it's hard to consider every angle when I'm in the middle of a life or death struggle.
"Hop on, Annette," I say. "We'll be across town in no time."
"Good luck," Ashe says. "You had better not die on me, all right?"
"Same to you," I say. "More lives are tied to yours then you realize."
He nods, which I think means he's not in the mood to decipher my vague language. Fair enough. I help Annette up onto Omar and then hop on myself. I tell her to wrap her arms around my stomach to make sure she stays on the wyvern. She squeezes a little hard and I can feel her arms shaking. Adrenaline, fear, I don't know why, and I don't have time to interrogate her about it. We're off into the air and flying over Fhirdiad.
It's only then that I realize how bad the fires are. The Knights of Seiros weren't trying to only torch the valuable parts of Fhirdiad and leave. The entire town is ablaze. At this rate, they'll burn entire city down to ashes and cinders. At the end of the day, Rhea can fly over a city of ruin in dragon form while smiling at Byleth's and Edelgard's charred corpses. Nothing else matters to her.
It doesn't take us long to reach the gardens where I first saw Annette. I hop off Omar and help Annette down, and while I'm doing that I instruct Omar to stay close. It's too bad that he can't hover right above the buildings because that's where the smoke is rising, so he has to either fight on the ground where he's less maneuverable or retreat to the upper skies where he won't be as useful. But I trust his animal instincts to take care of this one.
Annette runs under the main gateway of the university. Even the buildings here are burning, and the flames get worse the further in we go. Before long, I start to inhale smoke, and I end up coughing as we run. Annette skids to a halt in what looks like one of the main courtyards of the school where some Knights of Seiros have rounded up a group of teenagers in cadet uniforms similar to those we wore at the Officers Academy. At the head of the group is Shamir, who surveys the burning buildings around them with a neutral expression.
"We can wait all day until this city burns down and you fall with it," Shamir says, "Or you can be good little kids and help us accelerate the process. Rhea's going to have this city reduced to ashes either way, and this way you have a chance of getting your friends and family out while you fan the flames."
"If this is truly inevitable," one of the people in front says, "Then why does Rhea need our help? The fact that you're intimidating us shows that our resistance is having real effects."
"You know," Shamir says, "Some people are too smart for their own good."
She nocks an arrow and fires at the student who spoke. The shaft takes them in the throat, and they fall to the ground while the rest of the nearby students back away.
"Oh, you've made a mistake," Annette says.
I can feel the passive wind magic raiding off her, ruffling my hair and sending chills through my clothing. Annette darts forward, and I follow to provide cover fire. When Shamir sees Annette, she and a group of archers ready their bows and point them at the students.
"I dare you to let loose," Shamir says.
"You…" Sparks fly off Annette's fingertips.
"Nice to see you again, Shamir," I say.
She responds with a thin smile. "Glad to see you're not as easy to kill as I thought. How were the sights down at Gronder Field?"
"Warmer. And I don't think it's in your best interest to be following Rhea, Shamir."
Her eyes narrow. She's not the type of person to be caught off guard by something like this, so I'm guessing she was considering this line of logic herself.
"You know that Byleth and Edelgard are coming," I say. "Why else would she want to torch this city? And you know what Byleth means. You were there when they attacked Garreg Mach."
"Thunderbrand," Shamir says. "What happened to Catherine?"
"She's still alive. Gilbert wasn't so lucky."
"Hmph. That man was a fool. Not that Catherine is much different."
"And you have a survival instinct if you've made it this long as a mercenary. Byleth is going to win this war. If you don't want to join them, at least get out while you can."
"We can't let her go," Annette says. "Don't you see what she just did to one of the students?"
"Like Claude himself hasn't killed poor little adolescents who got drafted into the war," Shamir says. "We're all monsters, Annette. The difference is who's strong enough to admit it."
"If we fight, we're risking more civilian casualties," I say. "We need to let them go." To Shamir, "If you're willing to leave this behind you, that is."
Shamir takes a second to glance around at the smoke and flames. "You know, I'm interested to see how this plays out without me getting distracted by orders. Knights, we're falling back. Time to abandon Fhirdiad."
"But…" one of the knights says, "Lady Rhea said-"
"Rhea has lost her sanity. You either stand with me, you run back to her like a crying toddler, or you resist and I draw a red smile on your neck. Your choice."
One of the knights reaches for their blade, but Shamir is faster. She draws an axe and buries it in the knight's throat. I'll need to keep her in mind for later. Effective, ruthless, and switches sides a little too easily.
Most of the Knights break and run away from Shamir, likely regrouping in a place that's more advantageous. Shamir's personal battalion of archers stays at her side. The students start to fan out. One of them raises a hand and a flame appears. As they're about to throw it at Shamir, she nocks an arrow and points it at them. The fire in their hand vanishes, and Shamir lowers her bow an inch at a time.
"Close one there, kid," Shamir says. "Looks like I'm out. Make things interesting for me, Claude."
She backs away, still facing us and the students until she disappears around a corner. The students approach me and Annette, most of them looking terrified and following the group while a few at the front stare at her with determination in their eyes.
"Thank you for saving us, Professor Dominic," one of the students says. "Are you fighting the church to save Fhirdiad? We want to help you."
"You are absolutely not getting involved," Annette says. "You need to stay out of danger."
"Everywhere here is in danger. The only way Fhirdiad can know peace is if we drive Rhea out."
Rhea… it's her fault that we were all forced into the roles of child soldiers to begin with. She insisted that we stand by Garreg Mach even when we didn't have the resources to defend it, which cost Marianne's life. Then the Knights of Seiros spent the five long years leading up to Byleth's reawakening searching for her instead of defending the realm. They didn't care when Dimitri was trumped up on false charges and executed. They didn't care when Cornelia ushered in an age of poverty and totalitarianism. They didn't care when the Empire invaded my lands and killed the people I hold dear.
So far as I'm concerned, they can all burn in the eternal flames.
"I think you should take them up on it," I say. "Stay in the front and let them provide cover fire. But ultimately it's up to you. You're the authority here, so I'm going to head back and check up on Ashe."
"Keep him alive for me, okay?" Annette says.
"I'll do my best."
I whistle again and Omar flies down into the field. As I mount him and fly away, I see Annette leading the students away from the burning buildings. Sound idea to get away from the fire first and then make a plan from there.
"Sorry I'm so needy today, buddy," I say, patting Omar on the shoulder. "But as you can probably tell, it's a big day today."
He doesn't respond, but I'm sure he gets it. I don't deserve his loyalty after abandoning him at Gronder Field a month and a half ago, but if it helps me bring this war to an end then I won't question it.
I have Omar swoop down when I see Ashe. He and a group of knights with house Gaspard crests on their armor are surrounded by House Rowe soldiers, led by Gwendal. Ashe is looking around at the wall of knights in front of him with his bow in hand. I fly overhead and point an arrow at Gwendal.
"Someone care to explain to me why it looks like you're about to kill each other?" I say.
"He's still working with the Knights of Seiros," Ashe says.
"You see what they do to your city and you still bow to them?" I tell Gwendal. "There's a better way to do this, you know."
"Ah, to be young with that fire in my heart," Gwendal says. "Being a knight is about obeying orders, even if we don't like them."
"That's not why I became a knight," Ashe says. "King Loog trained his knights to protect the people, and look at what we're doing."
"If you're strong enough to resist me, then try," Gwendal says. "Do you think you have it in you, Ashe?"
"That's not fair. We're outnumbered and-"
The Rowe knights advance closer to Ashe and his Gaspard soldiers. One of them lunges for the first lance strike and the skirmish breaks off in full. I have Omar swerve through the skies and fire off shots with Failnaught. I need all the strength I can get behind each arrow to punch through Gwendal's armor. Where's Annette where you need her?
Gwendal charges through the lines of Gaspard soldiers on his horse, sending an entire line of soldiers stumbling and falling with a swing of his axe. It doesn't take a genius to see that Ashe's forces are losing badly. He fires off shots and hits each one, but even with both of us it's not nearly enough arrows to stop the advance.
"I think this is it, Claude," Ashe says. "We're going to need a miracle."
"No. I'm not adding you to the list of names. We'll find some way."
Ashe takes a deep breath and steps forward towards Gwendal.
"I'm the one you want," Ashe says. "Kill me and spare the others."
"Not going to surrender?" Gwendal says.
"After this battle, I don't know if the world will need knights. I'll go down protecting the people of Fhirdiad from you and Rhea."
Gwendal chuckles and raises his axe. Ashe closes his eyes. I let out a scream.
"Dark Spikes T," comes a voice from behind me.
A circle of dark bolts appear around Gwendal. They glow with an eerie light. He looks around in confusion and the bolts slam into him from all directions, creating an explosion that reminds me of a cartoon grenade. Ashe blinks his eyes open and is sent flying back. The next moment, Gwendal is on the ground, coughing.
"Thank you… whoever you are… for giving me this rest."
Gwendal closes his eyes.
I look around and my eyes lock on a single mage dressed in official robes. But it's not Annette. A group of soldiers charge at her, and another explosion of darkness erupts with the snap of her fingers. Knocked out or dead, none of them are moving.
"Hey, Claude," Lysithea says. "Thanks for telling me to surrender and help take down Cornelia. Look at the mess we found ourselves in."
Petra flies in on a wyvern, cleaving through the Rowe soldiers with an axe. Blasts of lightning arc across the field from another direction, and I glance over to see Dorothea approaching with a steely look on her face. She has a levin sword attached at one side of her hip and a wilted rose at the other.
And then it happens. Byleth arrives on the scene, slicing through entire ranks of soldiers within seconds like an anime villain. They wield a curved sword that looks like it came from China, which I think is called a Wo Dao in this world. It always seems to find the weak spots and slice through armor like nothing was there.
Soon after Byleth starts tearing up the skirmish, the House Rowe soldiers retreat. Byleth walks up to Ashe, who scrambles away from them in fear.
"I'm not going to hurt you," they say, "At least, unless you try to hurt me."
"He's on your side now," I tell Byleth. "We both are, after seeing what Rhea did. Let's kill her together."
Byleth places a hand on Ashe, and a green light appears between their fingers. The next moment, the cuts on Ashe's face vanish. When did Byleth pick up healing magic?
"I'm afraid killing Rhea outright may not be an option," Byleth says.
I frown, and I also see Lysithea and Dorothea blinking at them in surprise.
"Claude," Byleth says. "I know what's coming. A nuclear weapon from the sky."
"An… atom bomb?"
No fucking way. There's absolutely no way that a world stuck in medieval technology has nukes.
"A what?" Ashe says. "What is this and why is it so distressing?"
"I misspoke," Byleth says. "There's multiple of them, actually. Rhea can potentially destroy them in the air as a dragon, but we need to get through to her thick skull that everything on Fhirdiad is about to be wiped out. I think they're being sent by Those who Slither in the Dark, and we need to convince her of that."
Dorothea and Petra exchange a glance. I can tell that they don't quite buy the scope of the destruction a single weapon can cause, but if something worries Byleth they know it's serious.
"Right," I say. "How many tries do we have?"
Byleth grips the Sword of the Creator tighter. Their cheeks are red from the cold but their knuckles are white. Speaking of which, aren't they cold with that belly button window, impractical sleeves, and dumb leggings?
"We only have one," Byleth says. "No more miracles this time."
"Okay," Ashe says, "Does anyeone else know what they're talking about."
Head shakes from Lysithea, Petra, and Dorothea. I don't know how we'll explain this to them if we live through this, but right now that's not the important part. Byleth is out of Divine Pulse uses, which means…
I look down at Failnaught in my hands. I imagine myself drawing an arrow, aiming, loosing. So easy. The revenge I've chased after for five years could be mine. One shot, one kill, and the person who sent my life into chaos will never bother anyone else again.
It takes all my willpower to sling Failnaught over my back. This battle is bigger than me. The flames rage on around us, and I have Omar land on the ground so that we stop breathing in so much of the smoke. Petra follows my lead, which I'm sure doesn't mean anything but still surprises me. I remember the day five years ago when I told all the Black Eagles students that their best chance was with Byleth and the Empire. So far it's worked out for them. I wonder if they would have stayed if I had told them to. Why they seemed to lend any credence at all to my words, I have no idea.
"Petra and I should check out what's going on with Rhea," I say.
Byleth hesitates. "I can't cover for you if something happens."
"We don't have much time to stop the nukes, right? Ashe, Dorothea, Lysithea, follow us and provide cover fire if you can. Byleth, I think you know the best way to gather the others."
"Do what he says," Byleth commands, and then runs off.
Great. So now I'm in charge of the lives of my other classmates. And if they die, Byleth can't use Divine Pulse to bring them back to life. I wonder how many times Byleth watched nuclear Armageddon fall onto Fhirdiad to rewind and watch it happen again with different strategies. How many times did they have this exact conversation with me?
This brings up another point. I can feel when Byleth uses Divine Pulse, but I guess not when they're too far away from me. That explanation makes the most sense, since I've never felt it randomly and I know they've used that ability when I'm not around. That must mean they weren't close when rewinding time, or else I would remember it.
I direct Omar up to the skies, and Petra flies next to me. We rise above the smoke and look down at Fhirdiad below. Still ablaze, burning like a pot of oil. Rhea… how could someone care so little about the people around them?
"I must do the apologizing," Petra says. "When we were fighting before, I was assuming that you were… an enemy."
"Well, I was."
"Yes, but…" She shakes her head. "You were never the one we should have been doing the fighting against."
A smile comes to my face. "I appreciate it, Petra. Let's teach Rhea a lesson and see if we can save what's left of this city."
I dive towards the pearl-white dragon I see in the northmost part of town. The Immaculate One. Rhea. I remind myself that our job is to convince her to fight Those Who Slither in the Dark and their nukes instead of trying to burn her own people in one last inferno. It's always the powerful who get to negotiate while the regular people who are left pleading to the goddess as they go up in flames.
I do my best to stay along a path that Ashe, Dorothea, and Lysithea can follow. I expect them to encounter ground-based resistance soon. It's fine if they have to deal with that, since I wasn't expecting them to make it all the way to Rhea and we haven't encountered any air force as of-
"Watch out!"
Petra's voice cuts through the air. I swerve Omar to the side in time as a lance passes by my leg as a Pegasus dives beneath me. The Pegasus rider rises in a gradual arc until she faces me and Petra. Ingrid.
"I thought you died at Gronder," Ingrid says, "But it looks like you suffered a worse fate by becoming another one of Edelgard's dogs. Allow me to fix that for you."
She flies towards me, and Petra meets her charge. Petra's axe draws blood as it passes by Ingrid's side, but Ingrid doesn't react.
"Wait," I say. "Ingrid, Rhea's the one who ordered this city burned."
"Is this supposed to be a revelation to me?" she says. "My duty is to follow my lord."
"Even if you're burning down the city you call home?"
Ingrid glances down at Fhirdiad below, and then she glares at me. "You won't fool me with these games any longer, Claude. I see this is what Dimitri meant when he called you a schemer."
Two on one. How does she think she can win this? Ingrid charges again, and I nock an arrow and wait. Ingrid swerves around Petra's axe again, and I take that opportunity to fire off an shot from Failnaught that takes her straight in the chest. She clutches the arrow, gasps, and directs her Pegasus to dive. The winged horse heads back towards Rhea. I loose another shot. My aim is a bit off, but I hit the Pegasus and it starts to plummet. Poor creature. I look over at Petra and nod. We don't have time to be worrying about her, whether that be trying to save her life or finish the job.
I fly into the northern square where Rhea stands, flanked by a pair of large, golem-like automatons wielding large lances made out of light. South of Rhea stands Dimitri with his lance Areadbhar, plus Sylvain with the Lance of Ruin and Felix with the Aegis Shield. Three crested nobles, three relics. Plus a dragon and two constructs designed to kill. I don't like our odds here.
Felix sees us and starts firing off arrows from a bow he whips out. I manage to swerve around them, but his aim is good and if one of the hits Omar we're going to be in trouble. I have Omar descend and I dismount right before he touches the ground. I land in the snow, which softens my landing somewhat, but I still have to fight through the pain. Petra follows me and lands in a Zelda-style roll that looks far more graceful than what I put up.
"So you managed to evade death," Dimitri says, approaching us. "But it always catches up to you eventually."
I glance over at Rhea in the background. She doesn't make any move to approach us, which is good because if she did I don't think we'd stand a sliver of a chance. At least Omar and Petra's wyverns are out of the way, so if we die they won't go down with us. Felix follows behind Dimitri with a bow still in hand and Sylvain trots up on his horse.
"Tell me," I say, "Was it your idea to burn down Fhirdiad?"
"This city was already like this when I arrived," Dimitri says. "Though what we're doing to this city is no worse than what the city did to me. You can pretend that you're better than this if you want, Claude. It will only mean that you're the first to die."
"Do I have a choice?"
"Hand over that girl." Dimitri gestures to Petra, "And I'll consider it."
"Absolutely not. How long are you going to follow Rhea? She doesn't care about you."
"Of course she doesn't. Nobody cares about me, and I don't care about anyone." He bares his teeth at me in what I'm not sure is a threat or a smile. "Unless you count me wanting to destroy the person responsible for all of this. I do care about Edelgard quite a lot in that way."
"This is how you're going to live the rest of your life?" I say.
"Who's going to stop me, Claude?"
I glance over at Sylvain, and then Felix. I get that Dimitri's their childhood friend, but following him when he committed war crimes while carving a path of destruction towards Gronder Field and will lead them into death is plain stupid. Why don't they see that?
"When is this over?" I say. "What's your end game here?"
"I kill until I can hang Edelgard's head from the gates of Enbarr," Dimitri says, "And then I die. Nothing else matters."
And is everyone else in your group on board with this plan?
Dimitri laughs. "I can tell what you're thinking, Claude. They don't have the guts to resist me."
Felix raises an eyebrow. Then he draws a blade and rams it into Dimitri's side. The motion is so sudden that I freeze, as well as Sylvain and Petra. For a second, the world is quiet. Dimitri exhales and turns to face Felix.
"I've had enough of this, boar prince," Felix says. "You promised we could make the Empire pay, but all you've done is prey on your own people. I'm sick of your lies."
Dimitri lets out a roar and slams Areadbhar into Felix. The lance glows as it travels, and I recognize the motion from my studies as the combat art Atrocity. Felix raises his Aegis Shield and a silver aura appears around him, slowing the lance. Dimitri's attack still connects with Felix's head and sends him staggering back while bleeding, but it doesn't kill him outright like it looked like it was going to beforehand.
"A little help?" Felix says.
Sylvain, Petra, and I burst into action at the same time. I draw Thunderbrand and slice at Dimitri. I aim for the legs to incapacitate rather than kill, and I'm surprised at how quickly my slashes come out. Dimitri shifts his focus to me and lashes out with his spear. I manage to leap back in time to see Sylvain and Petra fighting. Sylvain has the advantage because of his mount, but right now I only need her to hold on.
Dimitri fights like a man possessed, but he can't fend off me and Felix at the same time. Plus, Felix is one of the best swordsmen I've ever seen and I have an unfair advantage in the rapid attacks Thunderbrand can give me. While Catherine was certainly skilled, I see how much of her power came from this weapon. Dimitri grunts and dives back into a corner where it's harder for us to both approach.
I take the opportunity to focus my attention onto Sylvain. He smirks when I look up at him, and combined with his ruffled hair he looks just as much like a classic fuckboi as I remember.
"Shame it had to come to this, huh?" Sylvain says. "Hope you don't hate me for killing you."
I'm not going to give him the chance. I lunge at him with Thunderbrand and deliver a flurry of four attacks while he only gets in one as a reply, which misses as I dart away. Lucky? Maybe, but I'll take it. After only a few seconds in combat, he's scuffed up and bleeding from multiple locations on his body.
"Dimitri," Sylvain says. "We have to get out of here."
"Edelgard is in the city," I say. "Why don't you leave us and fight her instead?"
"That sounds like an excellent idea," Sylvain says. "Come on, Dimitri. Let's get us out of here."
Dimitri slides out of the corner with Felix still pointing his blade at Dimitri's face. Sylvain trots his horse over to Dimitri and hoists him up onto the back of the mouth. Sylvain gives us a cheesy smile before riding off into one of the smaller streets.
"I assume you have a good reason for letting them go," Felix says. "Because if not…"
"Byleth is convinced that this city is about to explode in a few minutes," I say, "And only Rhea can stop it. Let's see if we can talk some sense into her. Do you need medical attention?"
"What?" Felix looks incredulous. "I'm fine."
The blood running down his faces makes it look as if his head is about to crack open like an egg, but I don't push it.
As the three of us approach Rhea, one of the constructs glides towards us. With stiff motions, it rotates around like a baseball-pitching machine and throws a lance of light at Felix. He manages to leap out of the way, but it looks close for comfort.
"The professor did the explaining of how to defeat these machines," Petra says. "We must do the breaking of armor on all sides."
Right, same principle as fighting Demonic Beasts. There are two basic strategies. We can either break down the armor on one part and attack the weak spot, or whittle the entire armor down slowly so it can't repair the most hurt area and eventually break all the armor so it stuns the automaton. We take the latter approach, and we each work to distract it by breaking armor when it's focused on someone else to limit the amount of time that it spends attacking us. A Black Eagle, Blue Lion, and Golden Deer all working together, and it blends together naturally. We each get some scratches from the light lances, but we're able to keep the construct at bay. Wielding Thunderbrand feels like playing an action video game with how smoothly I can transition one strike to the next. I can see why fighting is so fun for Catherine if she gets to swing this thing around all day.
When the armor breaks and the automaton is stunned, I stand in place and let loose with as many attacks as I can manage. Felix tosses his Aegis shield on the ground for the extra maneuverability and slices at the machine with a silver sword. Petra switches to a killer axe and aims for critical hits, which she scores reliably when the construct is weakened and has more of its mechanical insides exposed. Right as the automaton is about to recover from being stunned, she lands the killing blow and it falls to the ground.
"How are we all doing?" I say.
"Don't waste your breath," Felix replies, picking up the Aegis shield. "Come on."
He walks in Rhea's direction with blade in hand, and I follow him. As we approach, we see Byleth fighting the other automaton on their own. They're wielding bladed gauntlets that I recognize as killer knuckles—like Petra's killer axe, they're also designed for exploiting weak spots to land critical hits. By the time that we make it to them, they've already scrapped the construct on their own. They take a deep breath and enter what looks like a meditative state, and I see their wounds close.
"Cool trick with the healing," I say.
"Learn brawling and they teach you the healing focus combat art," Byleth says. "Useful for situations like this. I have backup coming, so let's see if we can stall this out. But not too long, or otherwise…"
Felix examines his own blade. "I am not certain we are on the same side here."
"Stick with us until Rhea's gone, okay?" I say. "We'll resolve everything after that."
At this point, we've finally caught Rhea's attention. I don't know if she didn't see us before or didn't care, but now she's lumbering towards us. Each step she takes sends vibrations through the ground and up my spine like a metal concert.
"Felix, why don't we take the lead?" I say.
"I don't take orders from you."
Fine, I'll talk to her on my own. I approach Rhea, but keep what I think is enough distance so that she can't immediately attack me. It's basically impossible to read her expression when she's in dragon form like this, so I have no idea how likely my words are to have any impact.
"Rhea," I say, raising my arms to show the lack of weapons. "There's something we need to discuss."
"Traitor. You are an apostate to the church. And you have the one who consumed my mother with you."
As before, her voice is simultaneously medium-high pitched and deep enough to cause a rumble in the ground. Consumed her mother? Rhea isn't making any sense. Unless they mean Byleth assimilating Sothis' power into them, but the goddess left the world over a millennium ago so Rhea can't be her child.
"If we do nothing, our enemies will win," I say. "The allies of Solon and Kronya. Those Who Slither in the Dark. They are planning to unleash a terrible weapon on this city."
"You lie. Give me back my mother!"
Byleth pulls me away as Rhea unleashes a frost breath attack that fills the area I stood in moments before with sparkling white particles that burst seconds later.
"Looks like we need to knock some sense into her," Byleth says. "We made a bit more progress the one time we got her stunned by breaking through all of her armor."
"Armor? Like those constructs and the Demonic Beasts?"
Byleth nods. "I'm able to see the state of the armor better than most other people. Think of it as a third eye of sorts."
Not the weirdest power they have.
"Everyone, follow my lead and make sure to get attacks in from all sides," Byleth says.
They walk up and heals each of us with white magic. Rhea advances, letting out a roar.
"Why should I listen to you?" Felix says.
"You want to die instead?" Byleth says. "There's no time to talk."
Byleth and Petra run forward. I motion for Felix to follow and dart after them. We attack Rhea in the same way that we surrounded and strafed around the automaton, only this time Byleth gives us all specific orders. Now that I have extra brain space I don't need to use for coordinating other people, I'm able to focus more on my form and dodging Rhea's claw strikes and breath weapons.
Without realizing it, I find my thoughts drifting. I have to admit that there's a good chance I'm not making it out of this one alive. No Divine Pulses, nukes descending from the sky… if Byleth doesn't get us out of here in time, we're all going to die. That is, unless I decide to peace out and activate my Falchion charm when I see the nukes start to fall, in which case all of us will die except for me. It feels bad abandoning my friends, but me dying with them doesn't help anyone. Normally I wouldn't care much about preserving my own life, but now I have a family to go back to. I will see Lucina's smile again. I swear it. Which is terrifying, because any of Rhea's stray attacks could sink my chance of seeing her, Morgan, or Robin ever again. Nobody told me that having the will to live was so stressful.
"Now!" Byleth shouts.
I snap out of my line of thinking. What is that supposed to mean? What do I do? That's when I hear what sounds like a small army behind us. I leap back and risk a glance behind me to see Annette leading the School of Sorcery students from earlier. Annette runs up to Rhea and raises a hand to the sky. The students follow her lead. A rain of fire descends from the skies, landing all over Rhea. Thanks to Byleth's guidance, Rhea's defenses are weakened all over, and Annette's gambit breaks through the last of her amor. She staggers back, stunned.
"This was the backup you had in mind?" I say. "A bunch of kids?"
"The Fódlan classic," Byleth says. "We need to escort them back to safety for when she regains herself. Hopefully she'll be in a clearer state of mind. It will help if I'm not around to aggravate her, so I'll take the rear as Annette leads them out. Ready to go, Professor Dominic?"
I tune Annette and Byleth out. What do I say to Rhea when she comes to her senses and I have to persuade her to not kill us and instead focus on a threat she may not believe exists? And after we attacked her, too. I rack my brain, but I can't come up with anything.
Then a terrible little idea enters my head. I glance around, seeing that Byleth and Annette have already disappeared from sight with the students.
"You might want to stay back," I tell Felix and Petra.
I circle around to Rhea's back and run up her tail until I'm on her back. She's much larger than Omar to the point that I can stand comfortably on her back, which is itself about the size of the dorm room I had back at school on Earth. I walk forward until I reach the back of her neck. This can't be too different from riding a wyvern, right?
"You're crazier than the Boar Prince," Felix says. "If this is the best you've got, I should have killed you instead of attacking Dimitri."
"Don't knock it 'til you try it," I say. "I could be the next military genius with this strategy."
At that point, Rhea rumbles back to consciousness. I hold Thunderbrand up to her neck. Too scaly for me to get an instant kill, of course, but the message is there. I can only hope it doesn't make me look even more ridiculous.
"What are you doing?" Rhea says. "Do you think you can threaten me?"
"I'm trying to show that I'm worth listening to. Those who Slither in the Dark are about to unleash a weapon on this city unlike any other."
"A weapon?" Rhea says.
Okay, well Byleth was right about Rhea being less crazed once we give her a chance to mental reset by stunning her. And turns out that by reaching into the deepest depths of my idiocy, I was able to leave her so flabbergasted that she hasn't even tried to kill me yet. I see this as an absolute win.
"It's… like a metal bucket, but closed on the top, and longer and skinner," I say. "And when it hits the ground, it will grind the city to dust."
"The same weapon… Ailell… Mother…"
Ailell? The Valley of Torment is an area on the border between the Kingdom and the Alliance, and legends say it was desolated long ago. Whatever nuclear weapon Those Who Slither in the Dark have up their sleeve could have been responsible for that.
"Yes," I say. "And the only way to stop that now is to fly up to the skies and destroy those missiles before they reach Fhirdiad. Do you think you can do that?"
"Claude," Petra says, pointing up at the sky. "I am seeing something do the falling. Is the weapon you are speaking of?"
"Now, Rhea," I say. "Please."
"They took my mother away from me," Rhea says. "Nemesis… The Red Canyon… I'll kill him again if I must."
Nemesis? Didn't he live almost a thousand years ago? Though in games like Dungeons and Dragons, dragons can live to be thousands of years old but can appear any age they want when they take human form. So if the dragon rules are the same here, Rhea could have lived back then, and she implied that she was the one who killed Nemesis. Assuming that she didn't have delusions about the event, that meant she was…
"Seiros," I say. "You're Saint Seiros."
"I have not been called that in a long time. Zanado… My home… Mother…"
"I don't know what happened to Zanado," I say, "But Fhirdiad will be ground to ash if you don't act here. And it sounds like you know what that feels like."
"I…"
Rhea's wings flap. I manage to hop off her just in time as she takes off towards the skies. At this point, the grey nuclear warheads are drawing closer. I did it, I guess. Somehow.
"Quick," I say. "We need to find shelter. Get inside."
"Why?" Felix says.
"Don't ask stupid questions. We have to move."
I run towards the closest set of burning buildings to the south. I hear an explosion from above and look up while I'm running to see one of the warheads detonate safely above the city. A draconic figure flies away, barely outpacing the explosion.
Today is the craziest fucking day. I started thinking I was going to defend civilians from Byleth, then got Byleth's help in defending civilians from Rhea, and now I'm getting Rhea's help in defending civilians from Those Who Slither in the Dark.
We arrive at an open door of a building that's burning on the inside. Shit. Do we trust Rhea to take out all the nuclear bombs and not risk the flaming building, or do we take whatever shelter we can at this point?
"I'm not going in there," Felix says.
More explosions from above. I grit my teeth.
"Try to get out of here," I say. "Find shelter that looks safe enough, or see if you can make it out of the city. I'm sorry I don't have anything else."
Felix smirks. "I've always liked going solo."
He runs off without saying another word. I mouth a prayer for his safety, but I'm not sure who it's directed at.
"What are you going to be doing, Claude?" Petra says.
"I have my own special abilities, just like Byleth," I say. "I'll be fine. Please, take care of yourself."
I grab my Falchion pendant as I finish the sentence. Petra nods and runs off towards her wyvern. Because the pendant takes a minute to transport me, I walk back to the center of the plaza where Rhea stood. I stare up at her as she destroys atom bomb after atom bomb. With each one, she seems weaker. Before long, she detonates one that sends her falling out of the sky. I glance around to see if there are others, and find one remaining nuclear warhead plummeting towards the ground. All I can do is watch as Rhea and the bomb both descend. It feels so… distant. Cold. I know that this means hundreds, maybe thousands of people are about to be erased from the world in an instant, and yet I couldn't panic even if I wanted to. Why am I so calm?
Rhea regains control of herself and starts flapping her wings, breaking into a soar before she hits the ground. She flies up and blasts the final atom bomb with a beam attack from her mouth. It detonates right above the city, expanding and blotting out light. It's not a stereotypical mushroom cloud nuke I see on black and white TV, so there must be a bit of magical spice in there as well. The light blinds me, and then the world around me turns to white. At first I think I'm dying, but then it dawns on me that because I'm not feeling any pain, it's more likely that my Falchion pendant went off.
Back to Earth… I close my eyes.
#
When I regain my senses, I'm lying facedown in the dirt. That doesn't happen, right? It shouldn't. I rise to a sitting position and look around at the trees. Based on the time differences… ah, I don't have the brainpower for this shit right now. It feels like I woke up from a nap, so I bet I was sleeping and didn't remember passing out the moment I arrived on Earth in the middle of the woods back in upstate New York.
I pull my phone out of my pocket and check the news. It doesn't take me long to find the Earth equivalent for the battle that took place today. Earth Edelgard, Earth Rhea, Earth Dimitri, and Earth Those Who Slither in the Dark were all involved. The fact that there's reporting means I must have sleped for at least an hour or two. I see an article title talking about two deaths that came about because of the struggle, and I read further. I scan the article for names, but it only takes me until the second paragraph.
Felix Hugo Fraldarius. Petra Macneary.
After they both walked into the raging firestorm to stand against Rhea, neither of them escaped the explosion in time. I press my phone to my chest, hoping for it to be warm, but it's as cold as my fingers. I want to cry for them, but I'm too tired. It feels like I'll never be able to move from this spot for the rest of my life.
All I know is that I have two more names to add to the list that I recite to myself each night before going to sleep.
End of Part 2
Fun fact: I wrote this entire chapter today, and it's the most I've ever written in a single day in my six years of writing fanfic (whoa why has it been so long?). Claude being exhausted at the end is partially just me being exhausted lol.
Also, sorry to all five Cyril fans out there because he's not going to be in this fic lol. I never mentioned him before so I felt like doing it now would be weird. Plus if I did I probably would have killed him off so maybe he's better off going unmentioned.
Okay, important note here that we still have a good deal of fic left. Three houses is split into two parts, but I plotted this story to be split into three. We're going to have some more interludes and then a final arc, where we drift a bit closer to canon actually.
Notes:
-Thunderbrand is described as having rapid attacks because it has the "brave" property, doubling the amount of attacks it makes when the wielder initiates the attack
-Encloser is a combat art that stops the target from moving the following turn if it hits. Cool art that I never used because my Claude kept oneshotting everything
-Excalibur is Annette's strongest spell
-In Catherine's B support with Ingrid, she says that she'll do anything for Rhea except die for her. It's a nice contract with Ingrid who glorifies dying in the line of duty.
-There's a battalion in game called "School of Sorcery Soldiers" that have a gambit that rains fire down from above (I think). I had Annette effectively use this battalion by leading the students into battle.
-The "breaking the armor" thing is based off the Three Houses mechanic where you break through the yellow squares on large creatures with attacks and gambits to stun them and get materials.