RosyMiranto18: No no no no I meant the weapons they summon in FFXV when a battle begins, not the Summons like Ifrit and Shiva. Astrial Plane is something I invented so obviously you're not supposed to know much about it at the moment. Glad you got my reference to the Claude upside down meme. Yeah, there's a huge population increase in this story compared to Three Houses. Thanks a ton for the list, I appreciate it.
21st of Great Tree Moon, 1180
Edelgard and Hubert were ready, Crow was excited, Machias was trembling, Fie was more than prepared, Byleth scanned for a weak point.
The beast in front of them took a short step back before curling its neck back. Before they knew it, it shot out a torrent of fire from its mouth. Everyone jumped out of the way, briefly separating them into two groups of three.
Byleth wasted no time, and as soon as he sidestepped out of the way, he ran up to the beast's neck. He threw a quick slash at the neck in order to stress test the beast's physical resistance. The sword cut through the skin and left behind a three inch cut, but no blood was drawn. This told him that this demon, whatever it was supposed to be, had hide for armor and that it was a few inches deep. A fatal cut to the neck was the fastest way to deal with the creature. So he attempted to do so, craning his sword back to deal a heavier blow, but by then, the beast had stopped shooting fire and noticed him. It pulled its head away from the professor and attempted to ram one of its horns into him. Unable to deflect the blow in time, he jumped back several feet, dodging the horn.
Crow was suddenly next to him, and fired an explosive shot at the beast's face. The gargoyle's head jerked back from the impact. While staggered, Edelgard suddenly came in from the right, Aymr replica raised. The axe crashed down on the neck, but she missed the neck by a few inches and it cleaved where the neck ends and the shoulder begins. The beast screamed in pain. The princess quickly realized, however, that she put too much power into the blow. It sunk deep into the elbow, but too deep, making it difficult to pull out. She gripped her axe hard and attempted to pull it out, but the beast's attention was now on her.
It turned to face her, but its head was once again jerked the other direction due to a shotgun blast from Machias. This gave her more time to get her weapon out, but not enough time as the swatted her away with its arm knocking her back and sending her skidding, back against the ground.
"Lady Edelgard!" Hubert yelled as he saw what happened. Dark magic emanated from his dagger as it suddenly launched itself at the creature. It found a place and buried itself right under the demon's nose bone. It grunted in pain as the weapon drew blood. Hubert focused his mana on pulling the dagger out. After a second, the dagger broke free and made its way to Hubert, but was immediately intercepted by the beast's horn. The two collided, creating sparks as the dagger was knocked in some direction. He didn't bother trying to see where it landed and summoned a new one. He had plenty more.
As all of that happened, Fie stayed back and barraged its torso with bullets from her twin gunblades, only to stop and reload once every ten seconds. Her bullets, however, weren't doing much, only diving into its hide about two inches in, failing to reach any flesh to deal any real damage.
The beast suddenly stopped attacking and craned its tail to the left.
Byleth observed the odd movement and quickly drew a conclusion. "GET DOWN!" He yelled, voice sounding tense but still emotionless.
The demon turned around, tail sweeping across the room with a whoosh as it did so. Everyone did as their professor said and crouched as low as they could go. Everyone but Machias, who didn't hear. He was in the middle of reloading his weapon when the mace end of the beast's tail smashed against the side of his head, knocking him to several feet to the side as he nearly cartwheeled once before sliding on the stone floor.
After the attack passed, everyone stood up.
They fell for its trap.
The beast turned around again, tail whooshing by. Everyone just barely was able to dodge in time. Crow, on the other hand, didn't react in time and the tail knocked him in the temple. He dropped both of his guns. One slid only a few feet away, the other sliding underneath the beast. "Aw shit!" He said as he realized his situation. The blow to his head was nowhere near as severe as Machias's, only leaving a mere bruise. He quickly turned his head to the blue-haired man as he got up. "Cover me with that sword-whip thing as I get my bitches!"
He nodded as he switched his sword to whip form.
Fie immediately stopped firing at the beast. "Your what now?!"
"Ok, SHUT UP! I have a serious kink for guns and am currently seeing therapy every Wednesday!" He yelled, obviously faking his seriousness.
She unloaded a few more rounds. "How are you not in a mental asylum?!"
He shrugged, completely oblivious to the battle going on. "I bribed them with my sexy charm motherfucker!"
"Good to know!" Now she knew what to look for if she ever got her hands on his cellphone.
"Crow, could you please focus?!" Edelgard screamed as she pulled her axe out of the demon's shoulder, blood gushing out of the wound it made.
"It's hard to focus when I'm missing one of my boner-giving guns!" He said as he grabbed his incendiary pistol and fired once at their enemy.
The princess rolled her eyes as she brought down another blow upon the demon, this time at its back. It cut deep, but not deep enough to get stuck, leaving a nasty laceration. The gargoyle once again howled in pain.
As that happened, Machias' daze ended. He shook his head aggressively to ease the pain and reached for his glasses, which got knocked off, but he couldn't find them. He couldn't see five feet in front of him without his glasses, so he obviously started to panic as he frantically felt around for them, and the fact that the giant demon could attack him at any moment didn't help. Then he felt the familiar shape of a handle. It was his glasses. He quickly grabbed them but what he discovered next scared him half to death.
They were broken.
Both lenses have completely shattered, leaving glass spikes along the edges. He cursed to himself as he then started looking for his weapon. Not too far from him, he made out a vague silhouette of a shotgun, then grabbed it. He loaded a few more rounds then fired once at a blurry figure which he could only assume was the enemy, but stopped as he realized that he could potentially shoot his allies. That meant he had to do this the old fashion way: get close and shoot at point blank range.
"Why is it always me?!"
Once he got closer, Fie suddenly jumped on the creature's back, amazing everyone who saw with her acrobatic skills. She then proceeded to open fire whilst standing on it, creating more effective wounds to manipulate. The demon shook itself violently to get the small girl off, but she held on tight. The beast suddenly spread its wings and began to flap them. It began to ascend into the air, wildly shaking to get the flee known as Fie off its back, but she held on and continued to unleash her storm of bullets.
While in the air, everyone else was attacking the beast with whatever long ranged attack they knew. Crow noticed that he had an opportunity to go for his weapon and dashed for it. He grabbed it and grinned menacingly as he began unleashing a metal storm of bullets on it with Machias. Hubert continued throwing his dagger, Byleth continued slashing at it with his sword in whip form, and Edelgard, with no available ranged attack option, decided to start hurling a basic fire spell at the beast.
After several minutes of letting loose, the demon couldn't hold itself in the air any longer. It let out a blood curtailing roar as it crashed into the stone floor with a deafening crash, leaving gigantic cracks on the ground below it. Fie hopped off its back as it began writhing around in pain.
It was almost over!
"It's down!" Byleth yelled. "Attack it! Don't let the thing get up!"
"Right!" They yelled back.
The gargoyle looked nothing like it did before the fight. Its entire torso was covered in lacerations and bullet holes. Its elbow, specifically the right shoulder, was almost completely cut off due to Edelgard's blow from earlier. Its face was painted in cuts, its nose looked like it had been completely cut off, and half of its left horn went missing at some point during the fight.
Hubert continued throwing his dagger. Fie, Machias, and Crow continued shooting. The professor drove his sword into the beast's side.
Edelgard decided to try something different. The demon's tail was flying all over the place, smashing the ground on occasion. Its existence proved more harm than good, so removing it would prove to be the best option. So that's exactly what she did. She ran in, trying her best to dodge the frantic writing of the beast's body parts, and made it to the rear end where the beginning of the tail lied. She raised her axe into the air and brought it down with as much strength as she could apply. It crashes into the dock, cleaving its way through the flesh like a butcher's knife. It punctured a third of its way through the tail, stopping at the bone. The beast hissed. With some effort, she pulled it back out and crashed it into the dock again. She heard a bone snap. The beast roared loudly.
"Lady Edelgard!" She heard Hubert shout.
She saw something at the corner of her eye, but before she could process it, something round crashed into her chest, knocking all the air out of her and sending an incredible shockwave of pain throughout her body. She clutched her chest and fell to her knees, gasping for air.
The beast's tail had hit her, then collapsed lifelessly.
"It lost feeling in its tail!" Fie shouted.
Byleth nodded as he pulled his sword out of the demon's side. "Good work! Aim for the wings next!"
"We do not have time for that!" Hubert protested. "Lady Edelgard is injured!"
The professor was too busy attacking to look at the black-haired boy, but heard what he said loud and clear. "Get her out of there, heal her if you can!"
Hubert frantically ran over to Edelgard, who was just about to fall over, and grabbed. He threw her over his shoulder and booked it to the far corner of the arena. As he tried to set her down gently, she coughed out blood, splattering on his uniform. The vassal didn't care, all that mattered was saving Lady Edelgard. He quickly casted a healing spell and suspended it over the injury. Her eyes, which were half open the entire time, returned to life as broken bones snapped into place.
"Did my ribcage break?" She asked weakly.
"It appears so." He said, not looking up from his task. "Do not worry Lady Edelgard. You will be healed up in a moment."
"Where is my axe?"
"Stuck where you planted it; in the gargoyle's tail."
That was both good news and bad news. Good news because her attempt to remove the tail worked. Bad news because she now had to retrieve her weapon.
Back in the fight, the beast was beginning to gain his bearings again, despite the immense amount of pain Byleth could only imagine it was experiencing. It was terribly frustrating. He planned to put it into shock and then try to stab it in the abdomen, spilling its guts everywhere and effectively killing it. Going for the neck was an option, but too risky as both he and Edelgard were nearly incinerated or torn apart depending on what it decided to do.
The wings, fortunately, were an easy target for the ranged units they seemed to move around the least compared to the rest of its body. The holes that dotted the membrane of the wings made flight difficult or downright impossible as far as he knew about aerodynamics.
As Byleth plunged another stab into the torso, he decided to just target the neck anyway. He pulled his sword out and pursued the head, but only a second later, its head turned to him and the beast turned its body in his direction. Crow attempted to fire an explosive shot at its head to stagger it like earlier, but somehow it didn't work. The professor had a suspicion as to what it was about to do. Sure, it only did it once in the battle, which was at the very beginning, and it probably could only use it once every hour like most demons in Fódlan, but these 'ethreals' as Hubert called them were obviously capable of a couple things regular demons aren't able to do. And Byleth's paranoia bore fruits as a second later, it began doing exactly what he suspected it to do: breath fire.
The glands in its mouth began sparking as the professor raced his mind, trying to remember how to work a basic ward spell when suddenly, an ear piercing bang followed by an explosion of white caked his vision. His eyes burned badly and his ears ringed like the academy bells as he grunted in agony. The demon hissed wildly at the pain it was experiencing as well.
"Sorry." Fie said as she grabbed her professor's arm and pulled him away from the battle.
Edelgard, now fully healed, used the opportunity to once again pull her axe out from the demon. She did so, and used an unbelievable amount of strength to charge her swing as she brought it down upon the tail. It cut through the remaining flesh effortlessly, separating the tail from the beat. Blood gushed out and generated a small pool where she stood. The beast screamed in agony, this time breathing fire out of its control.
Now it was almost over!
Without any breaks, the princess clenched her axe tightly as she dashed for the head. It was still in pain from the injury, so she would have an easier time hitting her target. She craned her axe back and struck the neck, then pulled it back, hit again,
And again,
And again,
And again,
And again,
And again,
Edelgard fell on her butt, panting ferociously as she stared at the almost completely separated neck of the beast. Blood caked her entire body. She had been too high on bloodlust to even notice that it wasn't moving anymore.
It was dead.
She heard clapping nearby.
"Well done Lady Edelgard!" Hubert congratulated.
The princess wiped the blood off her as she got up. "T-Thanks Hubert."
She knew he was only congratulating her to keep her morale up, but she didn't care. She had never killed a demon this size before. Edelgard was proud of this accomplishment.
"Holy crap!" Crow said in awe. "It was like watching a little psycho killer go on a rampage!"
Machias clenches his stomach. "I think I'm gonna be sick..."
"How can you even see it?" Asked Fie, apathetically. "You're not wearing your glasses."
"I can imagine what it looks like, and it's not pretty."
Edelgard let out a breath she hadn't realized she was holding in until just now. "Where is the Profess—"
A menacing growl was heard as the beast suddenly was standing again, wounds completely healed.
Crow was the first to notice. "W-What the hell?!"
The beast prepared a fire breath, and before anyone else could react, it unleashed it upon the white-haired girl.
As the crimson flames grew towards her, she was suddenly pushed aside.
Byleth, out of nowhere, had intervened. He braced himself, as the flames—
The glass of time shattered as everything came to a screeching halt. The world around the blue-haired man faded, leaving only him. His body had unstiffened and he fell to his knees, panting.
"I'm dead." He told himself.
He felt immediate acceptance. His father had ordered him to protect the four house leaders and he died protecting one of them.
Byleth suddenly noticed the ground he was standing on white sand. He stood on his knees as he scooped a handful and watched as the dusty pebbles slipped between his fingers and pile underneath his hand. He slowly looked up and panned his environment. It was a barren wasteland by the look of it. There was a thick fog that covered the area and the sky was a grim black. Swords planted from the blade into the sand dotted the white desert, all shaded darkly.
"You idiot!" A young feminine voice said out of nowhere. "What were you hoping to accomplish with that little stunt! It's like you are trying to get me killed you fool!"
He turned around fully and couldn't believe what he saw next. A stone pyramid, with stairs leading up to a stone throne with a symbol etched onto the upper part of the backrest. Sitting on it was a small girl, wearing a blue dress, long green hair that reached all the way down to her feet, and puppy like green eyes.
She sighed. "That look on your face. You do not have a clue as to what is going on, do you?"
He couldn't think of a response.
"Yes, it does seem that I am correct." She stood up. "Since this is our first time meeting, I feel like it would be best for me to introduce myself." The girl bowed. "You can call me Sothis, but I am also known as The Beginning."
He choked in response. "H-Hello..."
Sothis stroked her chin with narrow eyes. "Hmm... I do not hear any gratitude from you. Perhaps I should unfreeze time and let the demon's inferno consume you, no?"
"Time? Frozen?"
She cleared her throat aggressively.
"Thank you." He said with a small bow.
The girl smiled warmly. "There, is gratitude so much to ask? I did deem you worth saving after all. Yes, time is frozen, for now. But it is...strange." She sat back down. "However did I manage that?"
"I have a question." Byleth announced.
"Yes, what is it?"
"What are you?"
It wasn't a question of who she is, it was a question of what she is. The girl understood his question immediately and thought about it.
"Huh? I-I am not sure."
"So you're not human?"
She nodded. "Correct, I am not human, but I cannot recall what I am."
"So you have amnesia?"
Sothis scowled. "I most certainly do not have amnesia! Did you not hear me recall my name earlier?! It would be best to focus on how to get you out of here, rather than asking me pointless questions."
"Right, I apologize."
"Now, about getting you out. Time is frozen, but..." She thought for a moment.
"Perhaps we could rewind time. Send me back to before the demon revived itself so I can save everyone."
She grunted. "What kind of request is that?! I'm sure every mortal knows that time manipulation is impossible unless—" The girl abruptly stopped. "Wait a minute, I can manipulate time!"
Byleth had no idea what was happening anymore.
An insignia, identical to the one on the throne, appeared in front of her, irradiating shiny gold energy. "Yes, it is definitely possible. You can be quite troublesome you know."
"So I can go back?"
"Of course you can. But please note that this power is a Faith spell, and it consumes a lot of blood to cast. Using it may result in major fatigue, passing out, or even death. If you ever need it, use it sparingly."
He nodded. "I will."
She smiled. "Rewinding time...now!" The insignia began spinning, becoming a yellow blur as it flung golden dust everywhere. The grim wasteland suddenly started fading into a white void as Sothis, The Beginning, spoke. "Now, go... Yes, you who bears the flames within. Drift through the flow of time to find the answers that you seek..." She then began to fade away herself, including the throne, as he was then left in a white void with a spinning insignia.
There was an explosion in Byleth's mind as he felt himself being ripped from the Astrial Plane and sewn back into reality.
There was the sound of glass shattering in reverse and then—
"Well done Lady Edelgard!" Hubert congratulated.
The princess wiped the blood off her as she got up. "T-Thanks Hubert."
She knew he was only congratulating her to keep her morale up, but she didn't care. She had never killed a demon this size before. Edelgard was proud of this accomplishment.
"Holy crap!" Crow said in awe. "It was like watching a little psycho killer go on a rampage!"
Machias clenches his stomach. "I think I'm gonna be sick..."
"How can you even see it?" Asked Fie, apathetically. "You're not wearing your glasses."
"I can imagine what it looks like, and it's not pretty."
Edelgard let out a breath she hadn't realized she was holding in until just now. "Where is the Profess—"
A menacing growl was heard as the beast suddenly was standing again, wounds completely healed.
Crow was the first to notice. "W-What the hell?!"
The beast prepared a fire breath—
Byleth intervened, running his sword into the throat. It cut through effortlessly, and blood squirted out its neck like a leaking pipe overflowing with water.
The beast sputtered once, then died, for good this time.
It began to disintegrate.
He breathed in, then out. "Are you okay?" He asked, directed to Edelgard.
She, as well as everyone else, stared. "U-Um, thanks."
Machias vomited.
Fie gave him a thumbs up.
Crow grinned.
Hubert bowed and thanked him.
It all seemed like background static to Byleth as he began to feel incredible nausea. He winced and clutched his to ease it but it only got worse. It felt like needles were piercing into his brain. He fell onto his knees.
"Professor?" Someone asked, but he couldn't tell who.
There was suddenly a sickening crack coming from the floor below them.
"Ugh, could our luck get any worse?!" Machias complained.
The Emerald Steeds, plus two other friends, have found themselves in another one of those rooms with the platforms and bridges with streams of sewage below. Nobody knew why this place had sewage in it, and nobody bothered asking why.
Then there was the sound of an extremely loud thud coming from the ceiling as cracks started forming in the center.
"Eep!" Squeaked Bernadetta. "What was that?!"
Elliot shuddered. "That was uncomfortably loud!"
"Where did that come from?" Asked Angelica.
"I don't know," Answered Gaius. "but it's coming from the ceiling."
Claude grinned. "Ceiling. Haha..."
Everyone just looked at him, disappointed.
Rean, on the other hand, was quiet. He could sense what was up there. Not exactly what, but he knew that whatever it was, it wasn't a friend. And it was weakened.
He drew his sword. "Get back." He ordered.
The Erebonian house leader tilted her head. "Huh? Why?"
The ceiling cracked again and a chunk of stone fell and shattered against the ground, followed by a few more.
"I said get back!"
There was a third crack, as jagged lines painted the ceiling above. Then the whole ceiling came down.
Rean's training when he was with the Knights of Seiros suddenly kicked in. "GET ON THE GROUND!" He ordered.
Everyone did as he said, getting on the ground stomach first and hands over heads as debris fell. Thundering crashes of boulders hit the ground until there was no ceiling left.
When the cave in cleared, Elliot was the first one to notice that it had ended. "We're clear!" He said.
Everyone got up (Except for Bernadetta). They were lucky. Really lucky. The part of the ceiling they were under did not collapse, but the part that did missed them by twenty feet. Everyone, Rean especially, took a sigh of relief.
Then someone climbed out of the rubble. "Hey Angie." He said cheekily.
Angelica grinned. "Whu'd up fuck boy."
"Right back at ya!" He said shooting her with his finger guns.
A couple more people climbed out.
"That was fun." Said the silver-haired girl.
The blue-haired boy sighed. "You can say that again."
Rean smiled and put a hand on his hip. "So that's where you two went."
Machias nodded. "Sorry Professor, but I refuse to be anywhere near that noble trash."
Another three people climbed out.
"Any injuries?" Byleth asked.
His students said 'no'.
Edelgard then noticed the small girl among the rival house. "Bernadetta, what are you doing with the Emerald Steeds?" She asked as kindly as possible
Bernadetta made an incomprehensible sound then one-eightied to the exit and ran.
"And what are you doing with the Emerald Steeds?" She asked, gaze falling on Claude.
He winked. "Reasons."
As the two houses engaged in banter, four figures watched them from the crater they created.
The one in the center was the woman herself, Archbishop Rhea.
To her right was a young man, with long golden blonde hair tied into a ponytail in the back and violet eyes. He wore a fancy looking red and gold outfit.
To her left was an older man, with a face bearing several scars, yellow eyes, blonde hair with gray hairs around the edges, and a scruffy beard. He wore an orange tunic with chainmail underneath, steel shoulder pads, steel gauntlets, and steel boots.
"That's my boy." He said, chuckling.
The violet eyed man was surprised to hear that. "That was your son who put up that fight?"
He nodded. "Yep, he learned from the best." He said, thumbing at himself.
"I guess they do not call you the Blade Breaker for no reason then. That was an impressive display."
Rhea joined the conversation. "They all fought well. I have high expectations for them this year." Her head turned to the violet eyed man. "And I'm sure they are capable of handling the shenanigans you have planned."
He laughed. "Too true!"
Off to the side, a man tall man with long brown hair mixed in with a few strands of gray and wearing a black suit stared at a specific person.
His lips curled into a smile as he recognized the individual as Rean.
An: Sorry if this chapter was bad, combat isn't my strong suit. Again, thank you to everyone who sent me a full list of FETH and ToCS noble titles (Even though the AN from last chapter is now deleted lol). That will help avoid some confusion in the future. Speaking of confusion, I'm gonna take a quick break to clean up any inconsistencies in the previous chapters (Example: changing the name of Byleth's sword from Lasso Sword to Whipsword). Expect me to do this at the end of every arc.
See you until then.