In response to the guest reviewer who said Cyril x Rhea is a potentially good pairing: NO. Byleth and Rhea are not blood-related, but while I could see them having a grandmother-grandchild relationship in an alternate universe where Jeralt and Byleth never leave the monastery, in canon no such relationship exists, and she's effectively a stranger to him until Jeralt's mercenaries rescue the house leaders. Cyril, however, was more or less raised by Rhea for a good bit of his life. Any romantic relationship between them would carry seriously uncomfortable groomer overtones. Your opinion is bad. Offense meant.
On an aside note, did you know that if you talk to Rodrigue in battle at the Valley of Torment, you get a Sacred Weapon for Felix? And that there is no other way to get this weapon if you miss it? Because I didn't. Now I'm upset.
Lord Gwendal led the charge against Prince Dimitri's forces. Finding out that he had survived had been a shock to much of Faerghus, but while many of the pro-Imperial faction (which nowadays was largely just House Rowe and House Kleiman; most of the other pro-Empire nobles were dead or had abandoned the Empire) saw the Prince's survival as a disaster, Gwendal welcomed the challenge. The idea of facing the Prince made him giddy with excitement!
Despite taking losses, he managed to break through the Prince's personal battalion. However, instead of Prince Dimitri, he saw Ingrid Galatea waiting for him. "Where is Prince Dimitri?" he demanded.
The Galatea girl laughed. "You think he would waste his time fighting you? He's with the strike force, probably retaking Fhirdiad right now while your forces are occupied here. This entire army? It's a distraction." She raised Lúin. "But you don't need to worry about that, because you're about to die."
Gwendal snarled. "Very well. If the Prince is not here, you will have to do. Try to provide me with a challenge, at least."
"Funny. I was about to say the same thing," Ingrid said with a smirk.
Gwendal charged at Ingrid with a roar, his axe swinging. However, Ingrid returned the charge, plunging Lúin through Gwendal's chest.
"Disappointing," Ingrid said dismissively.
Ashe walked through the gatehouse, having stolen a guard's uniform. He noticed that there were only two guards keeping watch over the switch that controlled the city gate. Perfect.
He had listened in on a conversation between the two guards, and was ready. "Jory. The Captain wants to speak with you."
"Me? What did I do?" Jory asked, upset.
"He didn't say," Ashe told the guard. "I'll cover your post 'til you get back."
"Fine," Jory groaned, walking to the door.
The other guard snickered. "Well, I wouldn't want to be him right now."
Ashe waited for about thirty seconds. "Yes, you would." He quickly covered the man's mouth and slashed his throat. He then used the switch to open the gate, before breaking the switch with an axe to ensure it stayed open. With his job done, he quickly climbed out the window and down the city wall. By the time the guards realized what had happened, it was too late to catch him.
"Excellent work, Ashe," Gilbert–no, Gustave–commended. He had volunteered to aid the Blue Lions in taking back Fhirdiad, partially out of duty and partially out of a desire to protect his daughter. "I lost sight of what is truly important," he had told Rhea. "In my desire to erase my shame, I only served to bring more shame upon myself when I left my family." Rhea had understood and had encouraged his choice to leave the Knights of Seiros and return home.
The Blue Lions and their troops charged through the now-open gate, cutting down foes who got in their way.
Dimitri announced, "Cornelia and Viscount Kleiman shall perish this day! Surrender and live, or stand in our way and die with them!"
"This is a disaster," Viscount Kleiman panicked. "I'm going to end up like Lord Martritz." Of all the assassinated nobles (for a given definition of "noble" considering that Martritz had lost his lands), Lord Martritz had been killed most brutally. His remains had only barely even been identifiable as the remains of a human.
"Calm yourself," Cornelia assured. "The Prince and his loyalists may be dangerous, but I have no lack of secret weapons. I will use every single one of them if I must."
"Secret weapons," Kleiman said. "I assume you mean the Fiends." The Fiends had been a gang of bandits who had been captured and slated for execution. Instead, Cornelia had experimented on them, turning them into human weapons.
"Among others," Cornelia confirmed. "The Fiends are but one of my three secret weapons. The second is a project headed by myself. A weapon more advanced than any other in the history of the continent!"
"I like the sound of that," Kleiman said cautiously. "And the third?"
"In case the second weapon proves insufficient to defeat Prince Dimitri, I have one far more personal to him," Cornelia promised. One of her scientists brought her a dead dog.
She opened the door to her third secret weapon. "Rufus. Feeding time!" She tossed the dead dog to the wretched creature that had once been Dimitri's uncle. Rufus's emaciated arm reached out and grabbed it, and Cornelia and Viscount Kleiman watched as Rufus devoured the animal.
"Satisfied?" Cornelia asked. Kleiman merely nodded. He wasn't, but given the choice between facing Prince Dimitri or crossing Cornelia, he'd rather face the Prince's entire army by himself a thousand times over.
The Blue Lions had cut their way through the soldiers who had opposed them, and had almost reached the palace. However, a small group of thugs were blocking their entry to the palace.
"Well, look what we have here," one of them mocked, an overweight woman with a small army of dogs at her side. "Them high-borns we was told to kill. Looks like payday's here, boys!"
Another one, a bearded man, chuckled. "I always did want to taste noble flesh. Looks like it's my lucky day!" Even the other thugs seemed to be disturbed by that statement, sans one in mixed-and-matched heavy armor who didn't visibly react. Instead, he seemed to be eyeing Gustave's fortress knight armor enviously.
"I will give you one chance," Dimitri said. "Pick a direction and run."
The thugs simply laughed and attacked. The fat woman whistled, and the dogs transformed into lupine Demonic Beasts, the bearded man burst into flame, and a young-looking man disappeared into a cloud of toxic gas. The armored man and a man with no shirt merely raised axes, but it was likely they had similar powers that weren't immediately obvious. "I'll try an' make this quick," the shirtless man promised.
Dimitri immediately went for the Demonic dogs, ramming Areadbhar through one's skull. A second one went for his shoulder, but it met a blast of Miasma to the face, courtesy of Hapi. "This is a normal Thursday for me," Hapi taunted. "Do better." The two of them continued to dismantle the Beasts.
The others weren't doing as well. Gustave tried taking the armored man's head, but his axe didn't seem to affect the man at all. Neither did magic, as a Thoron spell from Felix was no more effective. For whatever reason, he just didn't seem to die.
Sylvain had decided to face the flaming man, but he wasn't doing much better. Attempting to impale him with a lance only resulted in a melted lance, and heat-related magic was useless. All he could do was use Sagittae frequently, as it was his only attack that seemed to have an effect, and even then it wasn't much.
Hanneman and Annette tried to go up against the poison mist man, but they couldn't get close enough to see him, and hitting him without seeing him was nearly impossible. Meanwhile, the man tossed Dark Magic spells at them with impunity. "Eat this, cocksuckers!"
And finally, Dedue tried to fight the shirtless man, but his axe simply went through him like a ghost. The man couldn't do much to Dedue either because of his heavy armor, but Dedue knew he would eventually get lucky.
Mercedes, meanwhile, healed her teammates as needed, and Ashe protected her as best he could. But Ashe knew they would be in trouble if any of the thugs realized that killing the healer would make things easier. Then again, it was possible they weren't trying because dragging out the fight was more fun.
Hanneman suddenly had an idea. "Annette, do you remember your lessons on transmutation?"
Annette's eyes lit up. "That could work!" Transmutation was exceedingly difficult, and only a few permutations of it existed. But one of those permutations affected Venin (in fact, it was the basis for Restore), and Venin was clearly the base of the toxic mist.
Transmuted Venin was harmless within one's bloodstream, except in very large amounts. It still wasn't breathable, though. Thankfully, that wasn't the point. A side effect of transmuted Venin was that it conducted electricity. As a result, when Annette's transmutation took effect and Hanneman cast Thunder, the Fiend in the mist was charred to the bone.
Meanwhile, Sylvain had an idea. Taking the axe off of his belt, he slashed at the burning man's face. The only weapon the man had actually tried to avoid was the Lance of Ruin, and Sylvain guessed this would be no different. Sure enough, the man simply decided to let the axe melt instead of dodging. Unfortunately for him, even being unaffected by the heat, liquid steel in the eyes was an unpleasant experience, and the burning man was blinded. While Sylvain had the chance, he stabbed the man with the Lance of Ruin, and unlike his other weapons, the Lance did not melt.
Dedue had an idea for dealing with the man who could phase through objects. He realized the man couldn't render only part of himself tangible, it was all or nothing. The thug, as a result, only remained tangible for brief moments in which he struck. In order to get the better of him, Dedue waited for the right moment, then interposed his shield just as his opponent became tangible. The axe head fused with the shield, and the brigand was momentarily too surprised to react. Dedue took advantage by punching the man before he could react, and the man went down in one hit. Dedue picked up his axe, which he had dropped to throw the punch, and split the unconscious man's skull.
The man in scrounged armor, meanwhile, was proving a huge threat. However, Felix had an idea. Slicing at the man with the Sword of Moralta, he ensured the man could see it. Sure enough, the bandit was tempted by the prize. Felix made sure to stay out of the man's reach as he backed over to the castle moat. Once his enemy was close enough, Felix ducked under his swing. At the same time, Gustave hit him as hard as he could from behind with a war hammer.
The hammer itself did no damage. But the armored Fiend was already off-balance, and he fell into the moat. Weighed down by his armor, he sank. And he must not have been immune to drowning, because he never surfaced.
The fat woman, meanwhile, belatedly realized she had no more dogs to sic on the Lions. Belatedly, she took out a bow and made a grab for an arrow, but Dimitri sliced off her head before she got the chance. Picking up the bow, he recognized it as the Tathlum Bow. "Mercedes, I think this is yours."
Mercedes took the bow. "That could have gone worse."
No sooner had she said that than a massive metal giant emerged from the palace gate. "I should not have said that."
"Take this, rust bucket!" Hapi shouted, blasting the metal abomination with Hades Ω. It wasn't ineffective, but the titan was still standing.
The Blue Lions had no shortage of magic users. Of the nine of them, five were proficient with magic. Six, counting Professor Hanneman. And it was clear that the six of them were going to be the only ones to do damage to the machine. Still, Dimitri was loath to leave his friends in danger.
Fortunately, reinforcements arrived. Lord Rodrigue cast Abraxas against the Titanus, and several other magic users bombarded the machine with magic.
"What took you so long, old man?" Felix sneered as he cast a Thoron spell.
Rodrigue ignored him. "Go, Your Majesty! We will destroy this menace!"
Dimitri nodded and ran past the Titanus, the other Lions following. Some of the castle guards attacked them, but were quickly killed. Others seemed to be willing to ignore them, clearly deciding discretion was the better part of valor.
"Kill Dimitri," Cornelia ordered Rufus. Rufus bowed. "Yes, Mistress." He then went after Dimitri.
"He'll be enough, right? He'll kill all of them?" Kleiman asked, desperately.
"I'm afraid not," Cornelia admitted. "Hopefully, he will put an end to the Prince. But Fhirdiad is lost. I should be returning to Shambhala about now."
Kleiman's eyes widened. "You can't just leave me! I'll be killed! Please, take me with you!"
"I'm afraid I can't," Cornelia told him. However, she handed him a dagger with a black stone in the pommel. "This might be able to save your life, though. If you can call on its power, you will become far stronger than them."
Kleiman's heart jumped into his throat as he realized what he was holding, and Cornelia teleported away while he was distracted. He quickly realized what had happened. "No! Don't leave me behind! Please!"
Dimitri charged to the office of the king, where he was sure Cornelia and Kleiman were hiding. He was so focused that he only barely managed to dodge the arm that came close to grabbing him. Upon seeing who it belonged to, Dimitri gasped. "Rufus?"
"Kill Dimitri," Rufus said. "Kill Dimitri, kill Dimitri, kill Dimitri." He was definitely Rufus, though he looked like a corpse.
Dimitri, seeing no alternative, stabbed Rufus through the chest. However, it didn't seem to faze Rufus, who continued trying to reach him.
Dedue swung his axe at Rufus's head, but Rufus caught it. In his hand, the axe rusted until it shattered. Ashe then shot an arrow through Rufus's head, but the wound quickly closed. Within seconds, it was as if it hadn't even been there. "Kill Dimitri, kill Dimitri!"
Mercedes had an idea. "Dimitri, cut off his head!"
Dimitri sighed and obliged. Tearing Areadbhar out of Rufus's chest, he beheaded him before he could recover. Rufus caught his head, seemingly about to put it back on, but before he could, Mercedes cast Physic, causing the wound in Rufus's neck to close before he could replace his head. As he tried in vain to replace his head, Rufus suffocated and finally died, his corpse decaying in seconds.
With that, Dimitri threw open the door, and Viscount Kleiman pointed the dagger at him. "Stay back! If I use this dagger, I become a Demonic Beast and destroy the city! I don't want to do it, but unless you let me leave the city freely, I will!"
Ashe didn't even give him a moment, instead putting an arrow in the arm holding the dagger. Shocked, Kleiman dropped it, but before he could get it back, Sylvain and Gustave grabbed him and restrained him.
"Where is Cornelia?" Dimitri demanded.
"Shambhala!" Kleiman said desperately. "That's where she said she was going before she warped away!"
"I'm too late then," Dimitri mused. "No matter. Shambhala will fall before long. For now, I'll deal with you.
"As the rightful King of Faerghus, I, Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd, sentence you to die for treason and for your crimes against the people of Duscur. Dedue, take his head."
"With pleasure," Dedue said, grinning wolfishly. Within seconds, Dedue's axe fell, and Kleiman's screams died as his head fell off his shoulders.
I meant to release both the retaking of Fhirdiad and what is happening in the Alliance as one chapter, but that didn't pan out. Next chapter should be ready in a week or so.