My wi-fi is back up!
...It still took a while to get this chapter out even after the wi-fi got fixed. Hopefully it won't be too bad; there are only about five or six more chapters left after this one, but hopefully I can get them out in a timely manner.
If the Eagles and Lions had expected the Ailell crossing to be easy when they realized Nemesis was not there, they were currently disappointed. The advance soldiers had been let by General Randolph, and they had been attacked by what seemed to be bandits and mercenaries, albeit with a few Agarthan soldiers who seemed to be in command. Ordinarily, they wouldn't be a threat.
Except that the human enemies just wouldn't die. Mortal wounds would kill them eventually, but the bandits would keep fighting as if they didn't even feel them. And these bandits were strong. They were overpowering even seasoned knights by sheer physical strength. Randolph had been forced to retreat, but he had lost many of his men in the attack.
As a result, the war council had regrouped to figure out their plan. "I know who we are facing here," Jeritza claimed. "The Agarthan unit holding this crossing are the Knights of Styx. There are only thirty-actually, twenty-eight now-but they are all highly skilled and dangerous, and have powerful weapons created to be on the level of the Heroes' Relics."
"Have you fought them?" Byleth asked.
"I was one of them," Jeritza informed them. "Their leader, Nicodemus, is both cruel and cunning, and he does not ascribe to many of the ideals common among Those Who Slither In The Dark. The phenomenon with the foes who do not feel pain is one of his calling cards. Nicodemus is able to create drugs that cause those under their influence to be unable to feel fear or pain. The drugs also remove the natural limits of one's body, allowing the affected access to their full strength uninhibited by something as simple as 'pain' or 'exhaustion.' He recruits common bandits and mercenaries and doses them, causing them to feel invincible, despite being likely to burn themselves out quickly. They die like any other man. But any wound that would not be quickly fatal will not stop them. Then there are the Knights themselves. They are highly trained fighters, and most of them are versed in Dark Faith Magic."
"Dark Faith Magic?" Rodrigue asked. "I've never heard of that."
"It's not taught. Not by the Church, and not by anyone else," Seteth said. "Dark Reason Magic is dangerous enough, but it can be used for good. Dark Faith Magic, however, cannot. It requires extremely poisonous beliefs, and generally involves calling on beings that should not be called upon. It is also highly dangerous. Dark Faith Mages are usually dealt with by the Knights of Seiros, often without reporting the nature of their practices."
"The thralls are the least of our worries, however. Even the Knights are secondary. The force here is a distraction," Jeritza continued.
"What makes you say that?" Edelgard asked.
"I know how Nicodemus thinks," Jeritza answered. "One of the Knights, Johanon, is an extremely powerful Earth Magic user. He will have set up a ritual while we are distracted by the main force. Once our main force descends into the volcano to meet them in battle, Johanon will activate his ritual, and the Knights will warp away, leaving us to die in the resulting eruption. The eruption likely will not leave the bowl of the volcano, but it will not matter, because we will not be able to escape."
"Then we'll kill Johanon before he can activate his ritual," Dimitri said.
"It's not that simple," Gilbert pointed out. "Johanon will likely have taken up a position difficult to reach. Either a hidden position or a heavily defended one, that would require us to attack with most of our forces."
"If it is a hidden position, I will find him," Macuil stated. "While the energy produced by the volcano would serve almost any other purpose, it cannot be used to cause the eruption of the volcano unless the volcano is due to erupt on its own. Therefore, I should be able to detect the energy being used. Especially as the only possible way to fuel such a ritual would be using human sacrifice, and such magic is an abomination, a perversion of what magic was meant for."
"Let's assume a fortified position, then," Byleth decided. "We have to break through without committing enough of our forces to get Nicodemus to make his move."
"And we can't take part in this battle ourselves," Rhea pointed out. Byleth went to protest, but Rhea elaborated. "You and I are the only ones with a reasonable chance of overcoming Nemesis. If we enter the caldera, Nicodemus might decide to eliminate us even if it means a low death toll among our forces."
"I don't like this," Byleth said, frustrated.
"Believe me, I would much rather have the two of you down there with me as well," Edelgard said. "Dimitri and I will lead our forces against the enemy. Macuil, if Johanon is hidden, find him. If he is exposed, find a way to counter him."
"You do not give me commands. I am not your servant," Macuil spat. "I will deal with this Johanon, but I will do so because I choose to."
Hubert gave Macuil a death glare, but Edelgard simply rolled her eyes.
The strike force marched down one of the comparatively safe paths into the Valley of Torment. "Remember, Nicodemus is a highly dangerous opponent," Jeritza reminded Edelgard as they approached the enemy. "He is a highly skilled sorcerer, and a master swordsman. But his most dangerous weapon is his voice."
"I am hardly likely to believe anything he says," Edelgard pointed out, but Jeritza shook his head. "He does not need you to believe his words. He will not try to deceive you. He will goad you, use your emotions to make you careless. He has killed many opponents this way. Deceit is his weapon for people like me."
He averted his gaze. "After I killed my father, when I wanted nothing more than to cut the world until it bled, Nicodemus gave me the power to do just that. He found me when I was susceptible to his lies, and turned me into his weapon. But you showed me that I could use my rage for a purpose other than mindless bloodshed. You showed me that my life could yet have purpose."
He fixed his eyes on her. "Thank you."
Edelgard remained silent for a moment. She didn't meet his gaze.
"Your Majesty," a soldier caught the attention of both of them. "Enemy advancing."
"Then let us fight," Jeritza stated, donning his helmet.
Edelgard drew the borrowed Sword of Seiros, which Rhea had lent her for the battle. This, at least, she could do with iron certainty.
The initial clash had been far from decisive. The troops chosen to attack the enemy position were among the best among the Imperial, Kingdom, and Church forces, but the thralls just wouldn't break.
Eventually, the thralls began to be spread too thin near where Edelgard and Dimitri were. The remainder of the battle ended when Macuil cast several Cutting Gale spells at once, slicing them all in half. "The sorcerer is that way," Macuil pointed. "I need to set up a counterspell to hold his ritual back. You will have to take him out yourselves."
"With pleasure," Dimitri growled. "Lions, keep the enemy off of Macuil." He then charged at the enemy. Edelgard ordered Jeritza to help them before charging after him, with the Black Eagles at her heels.
About three-quarters of the way to where Johanan had set up his ritual, three Agarthan warriors intercepted the Eagles. The apparent leader told his subordinates, short bald warrior with a lance and an enormous man in full armor with an immense claymore which he held in one hand, "Cassius, Lanius, deal with the subordinates. I will deal with these two."
"Nicodemus, I presume?" Edelgard asked.
"So you've heard of me," Nicodemus said, seemingly amused.
Nicodemus was fairly boring-looking, compared to the other Agarthan leaders Edelgard had met. He was a thin man with hollow cheeks and short, teal hair that was just beginning to recede. He was tall but not exceptionally so, and he wore rather generic leather armor. Edelgard caught the implication that he didn't need metal armor. He wasn't particularly flashy, unlike the far more ostentatious Agarthan leaders she had encountered such as Thales, Solon, and Myson. However, she instinctively knew that he was more dangerous than he seemed, as he had nothing to prove to her.
Dimitri, however, didn't seem to be impressed. "Stand aside, or I will tear you in half."
"Prince Dimitri," Nicodemus mused. "I remember you. You were only a child when I saw you last. My, how you've grown."
Dimitri's full body went rigid. "Duscur. You were there, weren't you?"
"I was," Nicodemus nodded. "I can't take full credit for the Tragedy of Duscur. It wasn't my brainchild. But it was my idea to have Duscur take the fall for the murder of King Lambert. It wouldn't have done much good to kick off the war between Adrestia and Faerghus before we were ready. And the slaughter of the Duscuri was one-sided. A perfect breeding ground for the sort of resentment that would lead men and women to sell their souls for power, in order to strike back at their tormentors. And I was there to give them that power, for the small, small price of swearing fealty to me."
Dimitri's voice trembled with rage. "I will destroy you. By the time I am finished with you, you will be begging for death."
"I have heard that threat many times before," Nicodemus said, unimpressed. "Somehow, it becomes less frightening each time."
Dimitri snarled and charged at him, calling on the power of Areadbhar as he swung at Nicodemus. Nicodemus, however, dodged with seemingly little effort. "Is that the best you can do?"
Dimitri kept pressing his attack, continuing to put his lance's power behind his attacks, but each one was either dodged by Nicodemus or deflected by his black shortsword. However, Nicodemus never attempted to counterattack. Edelgard joined in the fight, striking out with both the Sword of Seiros and the occasional spell, but while Nicodemus did attack her in earnest, he never attacked Dimitri with more than the occasional small cut. "Why is he not attacking...oh. Oh no."
"Dimitri, he's baiting you!" Edelgard shouted. "Johanon is a distraction! He's trying to get you to overuse Areadbhar, so you turn into a Demonic Beast!"
Nicodemus's concentration faltered for a moment. Only for a moment, but it was enough. Dimitri's next strike sheared off half of his head...
...only for it to regrow from where it had been removed. "What the hell?"
"I'm very sorry, but it won't be that easy," Nicodemus informed him. Using his own sword, he cut his chest open to reveal a Crest Stone where his heart should be. And while the Agarthans had Crest Stones of their own, it was clear to both royals that this one was no imitation.
"But how? Rhea said that the Agarthans only had three that they were able to keep," Edelgard questioned.
"Yes, Thales's, the one Corvis stole, and mine," Nicodemus said. "Who did you think had the third?"
So it hadn't been Solon who had the third Crest Stone. "As for how," Nicodemus continued, "I simply tore it out of a Nabatean's chest and placed it in my own. Mikhael let me do it, even, just as long as I spared the lives of his granddaughter and Darius Hevring. He actually thought I would honor the agreement! Darius fought hard to defend the girl, and she escaped from me that night, but poor Darius..." he trailed off.
"Liar," another voice came from behind Nicodemus. "Darius Hevring attacked you first, and he sent you running for your life. If Ryman Gloucester hadn't interfered, you would have died."
"Johanon, I was trying to be imposing," Nicodemus grumbled. With his left hand, he conjured a shadowy tendril, with a bladed end. "Very well, if words will not motivate you to fight, I will do it this way." The tendril leapt forward and slashed out Dimitri's right eye.
"No!" Edelgard saw Dimitri snarl and prepare to charge Nicodemus, prepared to remove his spine from his body...and likely forgo his humanity in the process. She body-slammed him, sending him sprawling into the ground, then looked up to see Nicodemus's sword coming down at her. Then, before she knew it, the three of them were enveloped by wraiths.
Wraiths were one of the comparatively safer powers for Dark Mages to call upon, but the key word was "comparatively." They had a tendency to wreak destruction upon everything in their path, including a sorcerer who summoned them too often. With an unskilled sorcerer directing them, the wraiths would have torn all three of them apart. However, every wraith there attacked Nicodemus, leaving Edelgard and Dimitri alone.
All three turned to face Hubert. "Get away from her, you bastard."
"Ah, Her Majesty's loyal dog," Nicodemus grinned. "The fearless wielder of Dark Magic. But would you be so fearless if you were not shielded from its corruption?" Another shadowy tendril went for Hubert's neck. Hubert dodged, but the tendril had never been aimed at his throat. Instead, it tore his silver amulet from his neck and launched it into the lava.
Edelgard tried to use the opening Nicodemus had seemingly left to cut the Crest Stone out of his chest, but she couldn't move her arms. To her dismay, she and Dimitri had both partially sunk into the ground.
"Now, you have a choice, hound," Nicodemus continued. "You can watch me kill your Emperor. You can fight me and lose. Or you can call upon power that you are not prepared to handle, and become a monster worse than me."
Hubert took a deep breath. "I am nothing without Her Majesty. If I must become a monster to kill you, then so be it." He raised his right hand to the sky. "Hear my―"
He was cut off by the arrow that struck between Nicodemus's eyes. Nicodemus recovered in time to get struck by a Meteor spell. Then Ferdinand ran to Hubert's side, and a blast of lightning arced from the point of the lance in Ferdinand's hand to the Agarthan warrior.
"The Arrow of Indra," Nicodemus realized. "How did you defeat Cassius?"
"We had a good teacher," Ferdinand answered. Behind him, Bernadetta readied another arrow, while Linhardt, Dorothea, and Flayn readied spells to hurl at Nicodemus. Yuri brandished his sword, as did Caspar with the claymore he had claimed from Lanius.
Nicodemus ran the numbers in his head, and decided they didn't favor him. "Knights of Styx, retreat!" he shouted in a voice that carried across the battlefield, likely with arcane power carrying it so far. "Johanon, let's...Johnanon!" He saw that Johanon had fallen, Petra having stabbed him through the back. "You will pay for that. You will all pay!" With that, Nicodemus vanished.
"Someone, get Lady Edelgard and Prince Dimitri out of the ground before they roast alive," Hubert insisted. While Linhardt and Flayn worked on that, Petra walked briskly to her teammates. "I am being a good assassin, yes?"
"A very good assassin," Caspar agreed. "Hubert, are you all right?"
"No," Hubert told him. "I expect we are all becoming hot and dehydrated. We should get out of this damned place."