Rhea drew breath in short, trembling gasps. Blood pounded in her ears. She could feel the beat of her heart as it accelerated, faster and faster, desperately trying to power her limbs as they tried to move, to push her up and face the attack. Her hand stretched out, trying to grasp something, anything, but her fingers alway closed before she could touch anything. She tried to move her legs. They did not not budge.
Through her struggling, Rhea barely managed to make out the sounds of the distant forest fire as it crackled in the air. Someone else was shouting something- no, there were two voices. Or maybe more? Perhaps she knew them. Perhaps they were strangers.
But every sound Rhea could hear, no matter how loud, faded into nothingness as the heavy crunch of boots scraped against the stone, slowly. Deliberately. Each footfall grew louder, harsher, ringing in Rhea's ears.
The steps came to an end when one final step smashed into the earth next to Rhea's head. What little background noise seemed to fade away, leaving only a dreadful, heavy quiet that worked to smother what little air was left to her.
Rhea took one long shuddered breath, and gripped the stone beneath her hands. She pushed against the earth, pressing herself upward, desperate to face her attacker.
She collapsed. A barking, cruel, long-dead laugh rang out. The same awful sound that had haunted Rhea for a thousand years.
"Don't keep me waiting, Seiros." The man she had destroyed so long ago said. "A millennia of peace couldn't have made you this pitiful."
Hate. Rage. Desperation. All these things and a thousand more flowed through Rhea's veins. Slowly, she raised her head up to face the monster in a human's flesh.
He crouched in front of her, an impossibly pleased smile on his lips. His armor of metal and bone gleamed in the darkness His eyes were glowing red, shining through the darkness. A blade tapped against his shoulder, unmistakably his affront to Sothis, save for an eerie red glow matching his new hideous, unmistakable eyes. The king of liberation, long dead, was once again doing whatever he could to take everything from her.
"Nemesis…" Rhea choked. "H-how-"
"Oh, Seiros. Believe me when I say…" Nemesis reached out and grabbed her neck. "It has been far…" Rhea gasped out a strangled breath as he lifted her up into the air. "...Far too long."
Nemesis snapped his wrist. In an instant, Rhea was flying backwards. In another second, she slammed against a stone pillar. Her world exploded into pain, and a scream ripped itself out of her lungs.
Through a daze of agony, Rhea almost lost sight of Nemesis as he slowly approached her, chuckling all the way.
"Don't worry." He reached over her shoulder and slapped her on the back. His fingers dug into the open wound. It took every bit of willpower Rhea had left to only give him the satisfaction of a pitiful hiss. "We have plenty of time for nostalgia."
The fingers digging into her bloody back dragged themselves out of Rhea. She coughed out blood. Nemesis smiled, and turned around. "You two. Heal Thales. He still has his part to play tonight."
Two figures in black robes shuffled out to where Thales was struggling to stand.
Nemesis glanced back at Rhea. "Don't fear for your life just yet. You have a short, painful existence to look forward to."
"H-how…" Rhea choked. "H-how are you alive, monster?"
"Our old friends are to thank for that." Nemesis gestured back to the Agarthans.
"Just a few minutes until he recovers, King Nemesis." One of the men attending Thales shouted.
"Excellent." Nemesis said. "I expect the ritual to be performed immediately afterwards."
Rhea tried to raise her hand. She failed. "W-what…ritual…?"
"Fear not, Seiros. I'll make sure you're awake for the show." Nemesis beckoned to someone to his right. "After the living hell you caused me, I simply must return the favor."
Another Agarthan stepped into view. Byleth rested in his arms, unconscious.
Hate surged again. Rhea surged to her feet. Magic burst to life in her hands. The Agarthan's eyes widened, and he began stumbling back. "LET GO OF HER, YOU-" Nemesis had not moved from where he stood. "YOU-" Rhea's legs wobbled. "You-"
She collapsed onto the ground, what little strength that had just flown through her veins escaping out of the wound in her back.
"Inhuman. Monster." Nemesis chuckled. "Reptile. Do you know what this place is? Do you know the significance of where we stand?"
Rhea hissed.
"I thought not. You would have destroyed this altar long ago if you did. Allow me to regale you with the story." His arms stretched out towards the violet fires burning atop the pillars. "More than a thousand years ago, after smiting her enemies and slaughtering every human that got in her way, the great Goddess Sothis thought to take a nap for a few decades. This would have been the perfect time for any of her foes that survived to strike her dead. But she had her loyal children to stand guard over her resting place. She had nothing to fear."
Rhea stared up at Nemesis. "What are you…"
He continued. "She was correct, of course. The Agarthans had survived. They demanded vengeance. But instead of fighting directly, they thought up a plan. They crafted a poison that would render the goddess helpless. Then, instead of using one of their own agents, who her foolish children were practiced in detecting, they hired a common bandit to administer the potion."
"Why are you telling me this?" Rhea grounded out. Nemesis just smiled.
"But the Agarthans were a superstitious bunch. What would happen after the poison took its course? Surely the goddess would simply rise up again, as she always did whenever they struck her, no? So they devised a plan to send her to a place where she could never return from. Another world, devoid of light. A prison of stone and darkness. They built this altar hidden in the forest, close enough to the goddess' resting place so that their agent could walk back after doing the deed."
Rhea's eyes narrowed. "I don't care what happens, demon. Wherever you send Byleth, I will find her. It doesn't matter what you plan-"
Nemesis' smile grew feral. "Until that bandit had an even better idea." His hand outstretched, and the Crest of Flames burst to life. A strange hum suddenly snapped into existence. An odd glow caught the corner of Rhea's eye- she forced herself to turn, and saw a marble smooth rock, floating just beyond the altar. On the stone glowed the Crest of Flames.
"Through a conversation that isn't worth repeating, the clever bandit realized that the same energy that would be used to lock the goddess away could also be used to turn her power against itself. To turn her blood into liquid victory and forge her bones into a blade." His expression preened. "And if it could work on the goddess, surely her children's flesh would be just as useful, no?"
What little blood remained in Rhea's face vanished. "Y-you…you can't…"
"Oh, but I can. And I will." Nemesis grabbed Rhea by her hair, hoisting her up off the ground. "Your little accident is just as Nabataen as you, Flesh…" Nemesis reached under Rhea's hair and pulled her long, pointed ear. "Bone..." Nemesis reached back, and his fist slammed into Rhea's ribs, forcing her to hack out whatever had been pooling in the back of her throat. "And Blood. Not to mention…" His fist pounded his chest, mimicking a beat. "The key to making my sword work."
"You...I…no matter…wh…" Rhea sputtered and coughed. "Destroy…you…again…"
"As I said, I have no plan to kill you tonight. Or tomorrow." Nemesis' words oozed out of his lips. "In fact, I plan to keep you alive for a very, very long time. Would you like me to tell you why?"
Rhea tried to spit in his face. More blood dribbled down her chin.
"Because you and your progeny have made me suffer an endless, tortious eternity inside an infernal steel cage. Waking up to my sword impaling my gut. Again. And again. And again."
Rhea's eyes widened. "Y-you…can remember…the…"
"All I know is that for the past millennia," Nemesis' voice became a guttural growl. "I have had to endure the agony of waking up, unable to move. Unable to speak. Unable to sleep. And no matter how early I force my way out of that hell, your precious brat always makes sure her face is the last thing I see."
Nemesis twisted Rhea's head, forcing her to watch the Agarthans swarming around her, preparing their magic. "But this time was different. This time, I won. And do you want to know why?"
He twisted her head again. Edelgard stared back, sealed away in her magical prison.
"Princess Edelgard von Hresvelg, heiress to the Adrestian throne. All I had to do was offer her your head on a platter, and she brought me more prizes then I could have dreamed of." Nemesis' laugh was a cruel dirge. "Fear not, princess! I will make sure you and yours are most richly rewarded for this bounty!"
Edelgard pounded against the barrier. "Don't do this! You swore that you were going to seal Byleth away, not kill her like…" She swallowed." Like…"
"You…did…this…?" Rhea's body was trembling.
"I did, didn't I?" Nemesis' smile remained. He gave a mocking nod to Edelgard. "If you feel my use of little white lies is a bridge too far, I can respect that. I'll even allow you to ask her-" Nemesis raised Rhea higher. "-For forgiveness. What do you say, Seiros? Feeling merciful?"
"I-I-I…This affront…to…" Rhea's very being shook with a hate she had not felt in a thousand years. "My…family…W-will kill…you-"
Nemesis promptly dropped Rhea to the ground in an undignified heap. The chanting was growing louder. Edelgard was beating her fists against her prison, shouting something over the chaos.
"Isn't that funny. Wilhelm's line. Not just turned against you, but in my service. The irony is delicious." He chuckled.
"I've had a lot of time to think about what I will inflict on you for taking my kingdom. Would you like to know?" Nemesis ran his finger down his blade. "Indech. Macuil. Cichol. Cethleann. I know they're alive." Rhea's heart burned. "I'm going to find them all. And then, with you watching, I'm going to rip them apart, piece by piece. I'll drain them of every last drop of blood, and watch as that ichor turns the people you swore to protect into flesh hungry monsters. I'll grind their bones into powder to fuel my conquest." The sword slammed into the earth, a hair's width from Rhea's eye. "And once i've burnt your church to the ground wherever it stands, once I've turned your very name into a curse, I'll drag you before a cheering nation and burn you at the stake like the witch you are."
Nemesis' tone was impossibly pleased with itself. "And finally, to answer what you asked me last time we met,"
Rhea slammed Nemesis against the grounds of Tailtean, dagger drawn at his neck. "Tell me, Nemesis. Do you remember the Red Canyon?"
He leaned down and dragged Rhea up by the back of her neck. "I do remember Zanado. I remember every warrior who fell by my sword. I remember every mewling child that tried to stop me." Nemesis dropped her into a heap of limbs. "And I remember the coward, hiding under the blood and filth of those who had the courage to fight, too worthless to fall to anyone's blade."
Nemesis stood, looming over Rhea's broken body. "And I see her now."
Rhea was trembling, hiding away in mud and death like the frightened child she was as Nemesis and his band descended onto Zando, slaughtering everyone who stood before them, dragging screaming children and elders away by their slashed ankles, piling the bodies atop carriages, and she was still too weak to do anything-
In the distance were Fraldarius and Charon, wielding all that remained of her brethren, of her family, reduced to mere tools of war, weapons to aid Nemesis' conquest of Fódlan, held aloft by jeering, arrogant murders, pilagining their way through town and city-
Her Wilhelm, cut to pieces by half a dozen relics to save her, falling apart as she desperately tried to heal him-
Wasting away from the wounds inflicted by the Sword of the Creator, Lycaon, her- her-
And In the distance, Rhea could see Byleth rising up off the ground as Thales weaved a dark magic.
A scream had been forming in Rhea. Growing. Building itself. For minutes? Years? Centuries? It didn't matter. In her pitiful state, all Rhea could do was unleash it, let her wail ring out to the heavens.
The Agarthans paused their ritual. Edelgard stopped beating her fists against her prison. The crackle of fire seemed to fade.
Nemesis threw back his head and laughed.
"Nem…es…" Rhea choked out blood. She tried to lean up but collapsed back to the ground.
"What was that? I can't hear you."
Rhea remained on the ground, face down. Her voice was barely a whisper. "You…I…" A wet, phlegmy sound escaped her.
Nemesis' expression could only be described as delightedly sadistic. He leaned over Rhea's bloodied body, grabbing her by the scalp and lifting the broken woman up to face him. Her expression was delirious and her arms hung limply. A groan oozed out of her lips.
"Speak, Nabatean."
Rhea's expression snapped back into focus. Her pupils were reptilian slits. Her eyes were not glowing, but raging a deep, ethereal green. "BURN."
White fire billowed.
The air ignited.
And the sky erupted.
As always, thanks to Dox for beta reading!
We've passed 100,000 views. Almost 350 favorites. Over a year writing. I'd just like to thank everyone who keeps reading along, and I'll keep trying to exceed your expectations, and a happy various winter holidays to all.
