"The manor... it's...!"
"Dear Goddess, what is the meaning of this?! Are there still not people inside...?!"Flayn exclaimed in horror, frozen in shock alongside the surrounding guards and servants at the sight of the Varley manor going up in flames. "Oh no... did I have any part in this...?"
"I don't think that bomb of yours had anything to do with this, Flayn. From the looks of it, I think this fire must have started from inside..." Ignatz anxiously reassured the frightened priestess, unsure what to make of the situation himself. "The only question is how...?"
"I think you'd be better off asking who..." Claude uneasily muttered, his mind frantically racing to put the pieces of this night's events together as he turned his attention to a distraught Bernadetta. "Hey now, don't get any bright ideas about rushing in there!"
"B- but mom's still in there, and we're housing so many other people inside...!"
"And you won't be able to help them if you end up burning yourself alive first! Come on, we've gotta regroup with the others right away!" the Alliance heir urgently commanded, nearly having to yank his distressed classmate by the arm to unroot her from her spot. "Oy, Lysithea! Do you have any idea what's going on with Monica there?!"
Upon hearing the Black Eagle's name, Bernadetta was alarmed to find the girl collapsed on her knees with a single hand tightly clutching her heart, barely managing to support herself as her entire body began to unnaturally convulse. Fearing her unlikely friend may have been injured during their earlier battle, the violet haired student rushed over to join Lysithea, who had bent down next to Monica in an effort to cautiously inspect her condition.
Unfortunately, her plans were swiftly dashed by the emergence of yet another earthquake, the force of which was strong enough that everyone in the vicinity struggled to remain on their feet. While this tremor hardly seemed to be any different than the ones preceding it, the initial shockwave that came with it seemed to send a spark through Bernadetta's mind, dulling all her senses except for the sharp pain that suddenly flared up in her head, deafening the girl to her own screams as she clutched her head with both hands in a futile effort to make it all stop.
When pain subsided and she finally opened her eyes again, what the frightened student laid eyes on next- or rather, what she couldn't see, left the young Varley more aghast than ever.
"Ah, that was horrible... are the rest of you guys al... right...?" Bernadetta fearfully whimpered, her eyes darting around in confusion. Much to the girl's bewilderment, the surrounding area lacked any traces of the fierce battle that just took place moments ago, and even more inexplicably, the flames engulfing the Varley manor seemed to have vanished without a trace as well.
"H- hello... anybody?" she rose her voice in the vain hopes of receiving any sort of response. "Now would be a good time to tell me to get ahold of myself, Sothis..."
A stifling silence continued to linger in the air.
"Come on, please, just give me a sign... If anyone can hear me, please say something! Anything!"
Still no reply.
"No, th- this is all in my head, I'm sure of it... I don't know if you can hear me, Lilith, but you're not making a fool out of me again!" Bernadetta gathered what confidence she could and defiantly shouted to the sky at the top of her lungs.
The continued silence proved awkward, but her show of defiance was just the morale booster the lost seeress needed to break out of her frightened stupor. Faced with few other options, she cautiously set out to investigate the strange vision of reality she found herself in. The grounds of the estate seemed every bit as a peaceful as they were before the beast raid that descended upon it- perhaps too peaceful for comfort, even.
Bernadetta could only shudder in anticipation at what laid in wait in the manor's courtyard, yet much like the rest of the scene, it was completely devoid of any signs of activity. The girl breathed a sigh of relief, having half expected to find the dead bodies of her friends- or worse, her beloved professor- strewn about the area.
"Gah, don't even think like that, Bernie!" the disoriented seeress scolded herself, shaking her head wildly to take her mind off the worst case scenario. "There has to be a reason I'm seeing all this- but why now of all times?" she asked to nobody in particular as she warily set foot in the empty courtyard.
Instinctively, Bernadetta readied her crossbow, expecting any manner of eldritch creatures to leap out from the shadows at a moment's notice, and yet none came. It really was as if everybody she'd ever known had vanished from the world without a trace, leaving herself as the only person around. If she had fallen into this situation when she was any younger, the reclusive girl would have welcomed it with open arms, yet with so much at stake now, she knew there was little time to waste in this world of solitude.
Finally, the uncanny silence was broken by the sound of the estate's front door loudly shutting. Ever on high alert, Bernadetta instantly unleashed a volley of arrows in the direction of the manor, only succeeding in piercing through the wood of the door as her intended target had already disappeared inside.
"Lilith, I know this has to be you're doing! Get me out of here right now!" the now thoroughly annoyed seeress demanded, bolting over to the manor at full speed, though much to her chagrin, she quickly found the front door to be thoroughly locked tight.
"Come on, please... if you're trying to show me something, you might as well get it over with now!"
Bernadetta would come to regret saying that in a manner of seconds.
The emergence of yet another earthquake caught the girl off guard, nearly sending her tumbling to the ground as she clumsily stumbled away from the manor's entrance.
What came next was nothing short of horrifying. Enormous cracks began to form along the ground, blanketing the horizon as far as the eye could see. The sight of this strange phenomenon was enough to stop the young noble's heart in its tracks a dozen times over. Too scared to even let out a small gasp, Bernadetta's legs began to act on their own, putting as much distance between her and her family's manor as possible. She had half a mind to flee the scene as quickly as possible, but at the same time, the girl dreaded what would happen if she even lightly skimmed by any of the newly formed cracks.
Bernadetta's eyes widened in terror as the cracks in the ground were set ablaze with a blinding purple glow. The girl could practically feel her soul leaving her body as the cracks in the ground grew even wider, and the earth's trembling returned in full force. With a frightened yelp, the young Varley instinctively leaped away, and just in time too, as the patch of ground she was just standing on subsequently crumbled into the unknown depths below.
"Ah- Somebody please help me... I don't know what's going on anymore...!"
Bernadetta's cried out for help, having made a less graceful landing, yet her words went unanswered as the cracks in the ground quickly grew to encircle the entirety of the manor, and within moments, horrified scream escaped the seeress's lips, who could only look on in dread as her childhood home rapidly sunk into the earth.
"This is... this isn't happening...! Sothis, we have go back right now!" she desperately pleaded to the Goddess in her mind, but to no avail. "H- hey, come on, this is serious! If we don't try to stop this, everybody's going to die horribly because of me...!"
The girl's thoughts quickly turned to her own safety as the ground she laid on began to follow in the wake of the collapsing manor. Falling back on instinct and more scared for her life than ever, Bernadetta hastily scrambled back to her feet and took off in the opposite direction as more of her surroundings crumbled into the depths in turn. Bernadetta shuddered to imagine the catastrophe that would unfold if her friends were present on the scene as well, her mind flooding with dreadful images of everyone she ever cared about forcefully being consumed by the murky depths below.
The frightened student could only run on pure adrenaline as those around her gradually disappeared into the hollow earth below. Her best efforts could only get her so far, however, as her foot eventually slipped into a narrow opening, twisting her ankle with an audible snap. Crying out in pain, the girl was left woefully unable to outrun the crumbling ground chasing after her. With a terrified scream, she futilely stretched her hand up towards the sky, hoping for anyone to save her as she was helplessly dragged into the abyss, her vision rapidly fading to darkness along the way.
"Oh, thank goodness, you're finally-"
"Agh- GYAAAAAAHHH!" Bernadetta suddenly rose up in a panic, fully believing that she was falling to her death.
"Bah, for the love of... has everybody finally gone mad?!" the voice of Lysithea sorely complained, casting an annoyed look towards her hysterical classmate, who was still desperately stretching out her arm for any pillar of support she could find.
"Please, compose yourself! I know not what caused this panic, but I assure you, you are in safe hands now!" the voice of Flayn urgently called out, firmly grasping the terrified Varley's arms before she could inadvertently lash out at one of her classmates.
Confused, the distressed student quickly gathered her senses to find herself lying in a patch of grass behind the manor, which was miraculously still standing, albeit still ablaze with a fierce inferno. Stranger still, the land around her showed no signs of damage from the horrible tremors that brought the entire area crumbling into the earth; it was almost as if she had imagined the apocalyptic situation altogether.
"Wha- I'm... I'm not dead...?"
"Uh, yeah, last I checked, you didn't turn into some sort of flesh eating zombie." Claude quipped, awkwardly reassuring his bewildered classmate with a wave of his hand.
"Claude... Flayn? Th- that's impossible, I just saw..." Bernadetta muttered, looking around to find the concerned faces of her fellow students surrounding her, all completely unharmed, albeit with one noticeable absence. "Oh goddess, the entire estate's about to... and where's Monica?!"
"I think we ought to be more concerned about you right now. You just started spacing out all of a sudden, and before we knew it, you just collapsed to the ground and started screaming your head off!" Ignatz explained, looking just as confused as the newly awoken seeress. "And what are you even rambling about? Were you having a nightmare just now?"
"I- Really...? Look, I'm totally fine now, but listen, we're all in grave danger-"
"Please, do yourself a favor and say no more on this subject. You are only succeeding in making yourself look like a demented fool."
"Sothis... you saw all that too, didn't you? That disaster felt so unimaginably real..."
"I did, at least this time. We should consider it fortunate that you did not mindlessly wander off in the midst of your trance, and it seems the injuries you suffered did not transfer over to reality either..." the goddess's voice explained, sounding just as shaken up by the recent chain of events as her host. "You'd do well to remember that your friends do not share the same capabilities. Stranger still, you seemed to be unable to hear my voice again, no matter how loudly I called out to you... I believe we may have just witnessed another one of your visions. Or perhaps even a warning of some sort..."
"Yeah, that has to be it... It's strange, I wasn't even trying to-"
"Why is it that whenever somebody claims to be fine, they are anything but in actuality?" Flayn suddenly spoke up, breaking the confused seeress out of her train of thought. "You seem to be spacing out again, Bernadetta. This is most concerning, to say the least."
"That's just one of the many oddities of human nature, Flayn. I applaud you for having a sharp eye, but most folks aren't exactly willing to give up their secrets." Claude calmly explained, placing a friendly hand on the curious priestess's shoulder as he slowly adopted a more serious expression. "It's not really my style to try and take them by force, but this sure as hell isn't the time to hide crucial details from your friends either... What did you just see, Bernie?"
"I didn't- I mean I did, but-" the seeress stammered, unsure of whether she should reveal the events of her premonition, knowing full well that her surrounding schoolmates were beginning to see her as a raving lunatic.
"Listen, our lives could depend on-"
"Alright already, we've had enough distractions tonight as it is! I don't know what you were dreaming about back there, but the world's not about to fall apart beneath our feet, you hear me? That's the kind of thing you only hear in ancient myths; now if you're feeling well enough to walk, I'll remind you that we still have some urgent business to attend to." Lysithea impatiently reminded, stamping her foot on the ground to direct everyone's attention to the still burning building. "And if you're wondering where your annoying friend went off to, she just dove headfirst into that window shortly after you started freaking out."
"She did what?!" Bernadetta exclaimed in shock, instinctively taking a single step towards the window in question before Claude took her by the arm.
"Don't even think about it. Do you want to get yourself burned to a crisp?"
"But I..." the conflicted seeress quietly protested, her gaze uncontrollably drawn towards her infernal childhood home. "Monica's trying to tell me something...I just know it!"
"Yes, but you could consider how much trust you're putting in that girl. If that vision was any indication, this entire area could collapse at a moment's notice; and you do not want to be stuck inside the manor when that happens."
"I know, but that's just a chance I'll have to take... Apologies in advance, Claude." Bernadetta loudly sighed, taking a few moments to mentally steel herself before forcibly struggling out of her house leader's grasp.
"Hey, wait...!" Claude warned in vain as his determined classmate promptly disappeared through the broken window left behind by Monica without a moment's hesitation. "Well, at least it looks like my instincts were right on the money this time..."
Bernadetta couldn't help but feel a tinge of regret upon entering the blazing manor though, as the smoke filling the air was already beginning to offend her senses. Regardless, she resolved to charge through the halls as fast as she could, while also taking care to avoid making direct contact with any of the surrounding flames. The lack of visibility amidst the smoke proved to be a hindrance, however, as it greatly obscured the various twists and turns in her path.
Even worse, she was left blind to a hidden assailant lying in wait further ahead; in the blink of an eye, a scimitar wielding soldier dropped down from the ceiling and slashed the unaware student across the chest, forcing her to turn back time to save herself from certain death. More annoyed than anything, Bernadetta fired a single arrow up at the ceiling where her would-be attacker lied in wait, causing the man to unceremoniously collapse to the floor.
Upon closer examination, the fallen soldier bore a strikingly close resemblance to the unknown soldiers that had attacked Gaspard, only with verdant green armor as opposed to crimson; a chilling sign to be sure.
"How did an assassin manage to- wait a second, aren't these the colors of Almyra? Why would they come all the way here to..."
"Did that man even look Almyran to you?" an annoyed Sothis cut into her companion's train of thought.
"Ah- no, I guess not..."
"Precisely. Anybody could wear such a uniform and pass as a member of another army."
"Maybe. It should be nigh impossible for any Almyran invaders to slip by the Locket... which just makes this mystery man sneaking into the manor undetected even more concerning. Though I can already think of one suspect..." Bernadetta reasoned, cautiously bending down to remove her fallen foe's face concealing helmet, only to be met with surprise as she was greeted by the visage of an ordinary human as opposed to the deathly pale skin tone of a disguised Agarthan.
"No luck on that end. How vexing..."
"I don't like where this is going...We should just move on before another one of these guys shows up and stabs me in the back." Bernadetta muttered, unsure what to make of the night's events as she took off further down the hall, wary of future ambushes along the way. After fending off a handful of would-be attackers, the girl finally made her way into the manor's entrance hall, where she spotted Lorenz and Leonie escorting a pair of injured children out the front door.
The hall itself was strewn with the bodies of the same hostile soldiers Bernadetta had encountered earlier, and it seemed to be mostly unscathed by the ongoing blaze well, as evidenced by the efforts of Marianne, who was hard at work putting out whatever traces of fire she could find with a stream of ice magic alongside a small squadron of allied mages. Leading the defense of the entrance hall was Alois and his personal battalion of knights; the former of whom was quick to notice the young Varley's arrival as he struck down another hostile soldier with a single swing of his axe.
"Bernadetta?! What in the Goddess's name are you doing in here?"
"Look, there's no time to explain...! Have you seen-" Bernadetta started, only for her explanation to be cut off by the impact of another body hitting the floor behind her. Startled, the girl quickly turned around to find Claude flashing a grin at her with an arrow tightly gripped in his offhand. Lying in between them was the corpse of yet another green clad soldier with an arrow sticking out of his back. As much as he tried to hide it, Bernadetta couldn't help but notice a look of disdain on her house leader's face as he stared down upon the false Almyran soldier he'd just shot down.
"Damn those Almyrans! How could they stoop so low?!" one of Alois's knights cursed in frustration, a sentiment that Claude begrudgingly restrained himself from rebuking in return. Considering the house leader's past, the source of his barely concealed irritation was all too apparent to Bernadetta.
"It's nice to see you've got everything under control here." the Golden Deer archer casually greeted.
"Claude, I-"
"There's no need to apologize for anything. As long as we're here, we might as well help clean house on these lowlifes." the Golden Deer leader let out a dismayed sigh before quietly muttering to himself. "As if my lofty dreams weren't challenging enough as they were..."
"I suppose we'll need all the help we can get if we're to protect the manor's refugees and those unable to fight." Alois reluctantly looked past the students' unexpected intrusion.
"Where are we supposed to take these people if there are still beasts attacking outside?!" Bernadetta urgently asked, feeling no shortage of distress for the chaos enveloping every corner of her former home.
"I don't think we have nearly enough people on hand to tackle an assault on two different fronts, let alone a full scale evacuation!" Claude chimed in as well.
"I'm afraid we have no other options on our hands! While it's far from ideal, the refugees will be far safer in the chill of the night than the interior of a burning building!" Alois regretfully informed, bringing his axe down on the head of another disguised soldier. "At the very least, the Goddess has given us a small blessing, as the beast horde's numbers seemed to have thinned somewhat! Just take care to avoid any areas where the fire is most concentrated! We're to save as many lives as possible, but we can't do that if either of you were to lose yours in the process!"
As the two archers nodded in agreement, Raphael hurriedly emerged from one of the doors to the side, carrying two passed out villagers over his shoulders. Noticing the vulnerable blonde, a soldier armed with a sizeable battleaxe subsequently leaped down from the upper balcony, hoping to strike at the student while his back was turned. A short volley of arrows to the head and throat were enough to put an end to the assailant's plans before he could even make another move.
Soon afterwards, a loud commotion from the upper balcony caught Bernadetta's attention, prompting her to step further out into the hall to find Sir Rowan and one of the manor's maids facing off against a trio of assailants on the second floor, chief among them being an Agarthan Dark Mage clad in one of their signature bird masks. Scoffing at the body of a longbow wielding soldier lying at his feet with a dagger sticking out of his chest, the mage attempted to summon a pillar of dark flames beneath the aging butler's feet.
As Rowan deftly avoided the attack, the frontmost soldier charged at him with a pair of clawed gauntlets, hoping to get the jump on his opponent, where he was promptly met with an immobilizing jab to the gut in retaliation. Adding further insult to injury, Rowan held his hapless opponent in place as his two allies stepped in to lend their aid. The man second in line was kept at bay by a frozen dagger from the maid accompanying Rowan while the Dark Mage conjured up another pillar of darkness beneath his target's feet. Recognizing this, the head butler imbued one of his knives with electricity, jammed it into his victim's back, and leaped away at the last second, leaving the poor soul to be incinerated by his own ally's attack.
"That fighting style... yes, I've only heard stories from Captain Jeralt, yet I knew I recognized that fighting style from somewhere!" Alois excitedly spoke up as if he had suddenly come to an epiphany.
"You noticed too, eh? I figured there was more to this 'humble servant' than meets the eye."
"Wait, what are you two talking about? Is Rowan supposed to be famous or something?" Bernadetta asked, looking quite confused as her two servants closed in on their remaining foes at blinding speeds. The enemy Dark Mage was visibly shocked to find that his remaining ally had been reduced to an unmoving statue; his heart having been pierced by the maid's frozen dagger.
"You mean to tell me you had no idea you've been living under the care of the Reginald Curtiss all this time?" Alois exclaimed in disbelief.
"Well no, that's news to me! I've never even heard of that name before!"
"I couldn't believe it myself, but the evidence matches up." Claude added, intently analyzing the calculated movements of the two servants as the cornered Dark Mage unknowingly backed up into a hidden tripwire; one flick of the wrist from the maid accompanying Rowan later, and the foe's heels were sliced to ribbons, leaving him at the mercy of the manor's dutiful servants. "According to the records, he was a legendary tactician who gave his life to ensure the completion of Fódlan's Throat around the turn of the century. And I think it's safe to say the other servants of your estate probably learned a thing or two from him as well."
"Wait, seriously?! But if that's true, Sir Rowan must be positively ancient by now...!"
"I'll have you know it's quite rude to gossip about an old man behind his back." the elderly butler in question warned from atop the balcony as he turned to relay orders to his allied maid. "Flora, I'll leave the East Wing to your care. Be sure to show our uninvited guests the way out."
"So, Captain Curtiss, eh? That sure has a nice ring to it. What made a bonafide war hero like you give up on the army and live out your days as an unassuming butler?"
"Your deductive skills are admirable, Sir Riegan, but I'm sure you must have more pressing matters to attend to than interrogating an old failure like myself." Rowan humbly deflected the Golden Deer's words of praise. He then turned to address Bernadetta, but as if on cue, the old man's response was immediately followed by a flash of crimson light shining down on the center of the entrance hall. In its wake, another Dark Mage emerged, surrounded by a fierce quartet of disguised soldiers.
"Good heavens, that's it! This entire attack has been nothing more than an elaborate cover for those despicable serpents to rescue the hostage we've taken!"
Upon hearing Alois's sudden realization, Bernadetta's eyes were instinctively drawn towards a secluded doorway tucked underneath the stairway to the upper balcony she never had the chance to go in on her own. It was all too clear that this door led down to the manor's depths where Odesse was being held captive. The passage was, unfortunately, blocked off by a wall of flames, and Marianne's group had long since dispersed to tend to the other corners of the manor. The seeress wisely chose to distance herself from the ensuing skirmish, pondering more on how she could sneak away to the manor's basement.
"Milady, your parents were last seen descending to the dungeons shortly before the inferno started! Make haste, we have little time to spare!" Rowan urgently called out from above, grunting in frustration as his attention was taken up by another pair of marauders barging in from a nearby doorway.
"Really? That has to be the most unsafe direction they could go at a time like this- unless...!" a spark of realization formed in Bernadetta's mind as she pondered over her butler's report, as well as a dawning sense of dread when she finally finished weighing her options in the matter. "Gah, this is such a stupid idea!"
"Are quite sure about this?"
"If you have any better ideas, I'm all ears!"
"...You had best be quick about this."
"Oh, great. I just hope this doesn't hurt too much..."
"Hey, what are you- has all the smoke in the air gotten to your head?!" was Claude's bewildered reaction as when his classmate made a beeline for the wall of flames blanketing the basement, silently cursing himself as he found himself occupied locking blades with an enemy's steel axe.
Shielding her face in anticipation, Bernadetta let out an apprehensive yelp as she dove headfirst into the flames shielding the way to her destination. It was a decision she immediately regretted when her entire body subsequently flared up in pain.
"When I told you to keep away from where the flames are most concentrated, I did not mean you should baptize yourself in them!" Alois loudly chastised the violet haired archer, looking utterly perplexed as the girl in question struggled to get back to her feet.
"O- ow- I'm totally fine, see?" Bernadetta blatantly lied, her face still grimacing in pain as she glanced over to the basement door. "Look, I'm really sorry about this! I swear I'll make this up to you guys when this is all over, okay?" she hastily apologized, ignoring the protests of her nearby companions as she disappeared into the passage below.
"This entire night has been a real handful so far..." Claude audibly sighed, fully intent on following after his secretive classmate, yet as if on cue, the stairway above the basement passage loudly collapsed, completely sealing off the route before the Alliance heir could make a move. "Are you kidding me?!"
"I understand your concerns, Sir Riegan, but I'm afraid we have much more pressing matters on our hands!" Rowan called out from the upper balcony, still locked in conflict with his respective assailants as another wave of enemies came flooding into the entry hall.
Realizing where his assistance was more vital, Claude grit his teeth in frustration as he notched an arrow in his bow, his sights set on the exposed neck of another impostor who dared to slander the name of his homeland.
The dead bodies of numerous Almyran impersonators were strewn all about the passage to the manor's dungeons; a sure sign that Monica had indeed been through the area recently. Curiously, these bodies were even more mutilated than Monica's usual victims, almost as if the redhead were taking out some personal anger on them, but Bernadetta felt no sympathy for any of the departed souls as she hurriedly rushed past the trail of corpses, more desperate than ever to discover the whereabouts of her parents. Miraculously enough, the blaze enveloping the manor seemed to leave the entire corridor unscathed, no doubt on account of the stone tiles lining the area.
Before long, the adrenaline driven seeress arrived at what appeared to be a series of crudely constructed jail cells, all conspicuously devoid of any actual prisoners, and more pressingly, the captive that was supposed to be locked up here was nowhere to be seen either.
"There's no sign of anyone breaking in our out of these cells by force... This can only mean- that unforgivable bastard!" Bernadetta's thoughts immediately went to her father in the midst of her contemplation, a startling realization having sparked in her mind. "Why- how could he do this?! This manor and everyone who's ever served him... they represent everything he dedicated his life to building up, and now he's throwing it all away like trash?! That vision I saw earlier- he must have been conspiring with Odesse to cover up his tracks... I can't-"
"I share your disgust wholeheartedly, but if we are to catch up with the escaping Count, and your ailing mother if I might add, then we cannot afford to waste time dawdling."
"You're right... you're right..." Bernadetta took in a few deep breaths in response to her divine companion's pressing reminder. "My friends' lives are at stake here. I have to do something, anything...!"
In a desperate bid to discover her father's escape route, the girl frantically ran her hands all over the stone wall at the tail end of the hall, hoping to find another out of place brick she could press to reveal a secret passageway of some sorts. As luck would have it, she didn't have to search for long, as a peculiar scratch on the wall quickly caught her eye. By all indications, the mark must have been left there intentionally by a blade of sorts, and quite recently to boot.
The elevated position of the mark took some effort to reach, but with a single well timed jump, Bernadetta felt one of the tiles sink further into the wall. Just like before, a loud rumble echoed throughout the area was the apparent dead end in front of her opened up to reveal a familiar dimly lit stairwell extending behind it.
The frantic student's mind ran wild with numerous thoughts as she began her descent. What Allocer planned to accomplish by having his own home ransacked was beyond her, but deep down, the Count's daughter could already tell she would not like the answer in the slightest.
"I'm really starting to hate stairs after all this!" Bernadetta mentally grumbled, having quickly grown impatient of the seemingly endless corridor stretching out below her.
"Do take care not to lose your footing here. These stairs are likely only the beginning of our troubles."
"Of course they are..." the anxiety ridden noble could only concede with her companion's advice, deeply dreading whatever surprises awaited her at the bottom.
The girl's previous visit to the underground echoed in her mind once again when the stairwell finally came to an end, revealing another fork in the road lying just beyond it. The choice of where to go was made obvious this time, as all but one the possible routes were blocked off by piles of rubble, likely because of the rampant earthquakes ravaging the area. Bernadetta's thoughts instinctively drifted to her mother's safety as she took off down the sole possible path.
Bernadetta tightly shut her eyes in an effort to ease her nerves, yet something felt when she began to open them again. She felt... taller, it suddenly became more difficult to breath, and perhaps most tellingly, she was being led down the underground corridor by her father.
She was involuntarily viewing the memories of her ailing mother as she ran down this exact same hall, likely only an hour at most before Bernadetta herself arrived here. Rather strikingly, the walls, floor, and ceiling of this corridor were all coated with a familiar purple ooze that appeared to be seeping out of every possible crevasse it could find.
"Allocer! Allocer, stop this madness right now!"
"I haven't the time to explain, Theresa! We need to get as much distance from the manor as humanly possible!"
"You can at least explain why you led those filthy subhumans back to me! I recognize these corridors all too well- did I not warn you of the vileness of those animals when I first met you!?"
"You did. I am painfully aware of that much."
"Then why?! How long have you sold out your soul to those animals behind my back...?! I placed my utmost trust in you after I lost everything dear to me!"
"You can still believe in me, Theresa! I know of a way we can be free of their grasp forever, but this will be our only chance to do so!"
"And what about our daughter-"
"STOP. CALLING. HER. THAT! That parasite is one of them too- and she poses a far greater threat to our future than you could possibly know!"
"No... no..." Theresa weakly muttered in the midst of her argument, her vision abruptly turning red as she collapsed to the ground with a grief filled shriek.
Allocer's words of concern grew deaf to his wife's ears as the Countess's vision twisted into a much more gruesome memory. All of a sudden, the noblewoman's hands were stained with blood and tears uncontrollably poured down her face as a little girl who couldn't be any older than four years old magically manifested in her arms.
Much to the observing Bernadetta's discomfort, this girl bore a striking resemblance to herself, albeit with a brighter shade of purple hair and brown eyes as opposed to silver. What was especially disturbing was the broken arrow protruding from the girl's back, the improper removal of which only seemed to make the girl's blood seep from her body uncontrollably.
"Mommy... it hurts..." the child weakly muttered, visibly struggling to keep her eyes open as Theresa tightly held onto her fragile body.
"Lucy, please... stay with me..." Theresa sorrowfully begged, trying in vain to stop the bleeding from the grievous wound in the young girl's back as she called out a desperate prayer to the sky. "Please, if there is a Goddess out there, you have to save my daughter!"
"Please... she is all I have left..."
"For crying out loud, cease your sleepwalking and pay attention!"
Bernadetta was abruptly thrown out of her vision by an urgent warning from her divine companion. Left utterly dazed by the sudden transition from dream to reality, the seeress failed to notice an eerie crimson glow emanating from further down the corridor. Within moments, a beam of pure energy zipped across the ground at blinding speeds, only coming to a halt just after passing Bernadetta's feet.
Now thoroughly shocked back to reality, the wayward girl only had a few scant moments to register the situation before the floor she stood on violently exploded. The full brunt of the blast proved too much for her to handle, forcing her to turn back the clock to avoid suffering an untimely death.
"Th- that came out of nowhere! What even was that?!"
"I haven't the slightest idea, but I'd imagine the perpetrator of the attack is still lying in wait."
With the upcoming threat in mind, Bernadetta wasted no time drawing her crossbow and fired off a quick volley of shots down the hall in the hopes of gaining a preemptive attack on her hidden assailant. Her heart subsequently skipped a few beats upon hearing a distinct clinking sound, indicating that her arrows had harmlessly struck a metallic object of sorts.
"I- I didn't just hit a wall there, did I...?"
"You had best start running immediately." Sothis stoically pointed out as the crimson glow from before emerged again, much to her host's sheer dread.
The ill prepared archer didn't hesitate to bolt off in the opposite direction before her companion could even finish her warning, and not a moment too soon, as the beam of energy that nearly killed her moments before was hot on her trail in a matter of seconds. Fortunately, she had managed to gain enough distance ahead of time to outrun the beam by the time it dissipated behind her; unfortunately, there was nothing she could do to prevent the ensuing explosion, which instantly caused the floor she stood on to give way, sending the girl hurtling into the unseen depths in a manner eerily similar to the vision she'd seen outside the manor.
"Oh no, oh no, oh noooooo!" Bernadetta screamed in an absolute panic as she found herself helplessly tumbling through the air. "Please let this be another vision, please let this be another vision...!"
"I am afraid this is all quite real! But before you fall back on my powers again, look upon our surroundings!"
"I'm about to die horribly here, what do you want me to- Dear Goddess, what is all this?!" the distressed seeress reluctantly opened her eyes to find an unexpectedly familiar sight awaiting her below: a sprawling underground city that stretched out as far as the eye could see, not unlike the stronghold of Shambhala she visited in her own timeline, yet this city seemed to be in a far worse state in comparison.
"What could have happened here...?!"
"I haven't the slightest idea, but this stronghold's very presence here is truly concerning..."
It was as if the city had been targeted by a devastating attack of sorts. Many of the buildings were severely damaged or reduced to rubble altogether, and it lacked the neon blue lights that lit up Shambhala so brightly, with the few it did have weakly flickering on and off on a constant loop. Instead, the main source of light, or rather what little there was, came from the strange purple ooze seeping from nearly every possible crevasse.
Most inexplicably, Bernadetta's rapid fall had magically slowed by a significant margin, giving the disoriented student ample time to regain her bearings.
"Sothis, are you doing this...?" the girl asked, breathing a sigh of relief that her life was no longer in mortal danger, if only for a few short lived moments.
"If I knew I had this power, do you not think I would have informed you earlier?"
"I- I guess not... but then who would out of their way to lead me into an obvious death trap only to take away the death part at the last second?"
Bernadetta had little time to reflect on her musings, as the unknown force keeping her aloft disappeared without warning, resuming her rapid descent once more, prompting another panicked scream from the girl in turn. As luck would have it, her fall was miraculously broken by a sizeable pile of rubble waiting below, which while agonizingly painful, at least prevented the impact from being lethal.
"Aaahhh, that was a disaster... everything hurts... everything hurts so much..."
"I suppose it would be redundant to ask if you are alright, but are you at least able to stand?"
"Can't I just lay here for a bit...?"
"Must I remind you that we have little precious time to spare on our hands?"
"Alright, alright, I'll get a move on... eugh, I can't believe I'm still alive after that..." the weary seeress begrudgingly complied with Sothis's demands, audibly struggling to rise back to her feet without accidentally tumbling down the mound of rubble she'd landed on. With a strained effort, she managed to safely reach ground level without any further injuries, yet this only highlighted another issue that would surely plague her throughout her exploration of the concealed city.
Save for the faint illumination provided by the purple ooze, visibility was exceedingly poor, to the point where Bernadetta struggled to see any further than arm's reach. Fully expecting to run into more assailants lurking in the shadows like her recent attacker, the archer instinctively drew her crossbow as she cautiously advanced into the looming darkness ahead. Taking extra caution to minimize the noise she made for fear of attracting any unwanted attention, she eventually arrived at a two way split in the road, with zero indication of where either path would lead.
"I'm going to be so lost here..." Bernadetta worriedly thought to herself as she stepped between the two paths to survey her options.
The moment she veered her head to the right, a thunderous stomp boomed from the opposite direction, turning what focus she'd mustered into sheer panic as she turned around to find a crescent shaped projectile of brightest crimson speeding towards her, leaving her with deficient time to take evasive action before the attack struck her with full force.
Once again realizing she was no condition to survive such an attack, Bernadetta frantically turned back time to the point before she was spotted.
"What am I supposed to do?! Everything's out to kill me down here, and I can't see where any of it is coming from...!" the endangered seeress lamented as the stress of the situation caused her to hyperventilate.
"Please remember to maintain your composure, especially at a time like this."
"I'd like to see how you'd handle this mess! Your power can only save me so many times before- GYAH!"
The distracted archer's train of thought came to an abrupt halt when a rusted sword unexpectedly pierced her from behind, leaving her utterly mortified when she looked down to see the sharp end of the blade sticking out of her torso.
One Divine Pulse later, Bernadetta wasted no time turning around to face her would-be ambusher, the sight of which managed to prove even more horrifying than the gruesome fate she'd just avoided. What may have appeared to be a human being while it was still draped in shadows quickly turned out to be something far worse when it stepped into the light.
If anything, the attacker more closely resembled an incomplete Demonic Beast, with much of the unfortunate soul's body enveloped by thick, tar-like substance that extended all the way up to his neck. Whether the man inside was still alive could be put into question, but his face appeared to be permanently contorted in pain, with close to half of it being coated in the aforementioned black substance.
"AAAAGHHHH! WHAT EVEN IS THAT THING?!"
"A repugnant affront to life itself...! Kill it! Kill it at once!"
Bernadetta showed little hesitation as she attempted to put the demonized man out of his misery with a full volley of arrows to the exposed sections of his body. Much to the archer's horror, while her target briefly recoiled back as a result of being turned into a makeshift pincushion, the inhuman abomination hardly seemed to be bothered otherwise. Her fears were only further compounded by the emergence of two more enemies from the shadows.
"Nuh uh! No way! I can't do this!" the terrified seeress broke out into a panic as her unscathed opponent readied its rusted blade for another attack, prompting Bernadetta to turn tail and flee the scene as quickly as possible though not without sneaking in one last potshot in the hopes of slowing her assailant down.
"Hold just a moment! Do you not remember what lies in wait at the end of-" Sothis frantically attempted to warn her distressed companion, but to no avail, as the same crescent shaped projectile from earlier launched from the shadows at full force. This time, the escaping seeress at least had the foresight to duck for cover as the blade of energy sailed right over her head, speeding further along the corridor until it was stopped in its tracks by an overturned building, which crumbled to pieces upon impact.
Bernadetta didn't even bother look back at the source of the devastating strike as she hurriedly rose back to her feet and continued her escape. Another wave of dismay overcame the terrified seeress when she came upon a veritable horde of demonized abominations barring her path, all of varying shapes and sizes with a surprising variety of different weapons on hand.
Sothis and Bernadetta alike were at a loss for words, feeling thoroughly unsettled as they observed the shambling movements of the demonic horde. A great many of them visibly struggled to stand up straight, let alone lift their weapons any higher than ground level. Luckily enough, an alternative route presented itself off to the left, but just as the frightened archer set off on her chosen course, the wall to her right was struck by an unseen force, shattering it to pieces and subsequently burying the unfortunate girl under the resulting rubble.
Another leap back in time expended. Bernadetta was in grave danger of running out of lifelines at this rate, and the very thought of it deeply tormented her.
This time, she veered further left to avoid being buried alive and immediately dove into the alternate route to bypass the horde of abominations lying in wait on the other path. Her troubles only further compounded when portions of the fallen buildings lining both sides of the corridor continually collapsed, one after the other, as if a duo of unseen predators were chasing her down from both ends.
"I can't take this anymore! Someone please help me!" Bernadetta's psyche further cracked under the mounting pressure. Her weary legs carried her as fast as they could take her down the rapidly collapsing corridor, narrowly avoiding death at every turn. Another predicament reared its ugly head when she neared the end of the hall, which revealed yet another split path lying just ahead. At this point, the odds of life and death were practically a coin flip.
"Sothis, do you want to pick the route for me this time?"
"I haven't the ability to predict the future if that is what you ask of me!"
"That would be seriously useful right about now!"
"Oh, very well... take the right path this time!"
Trusting in her companion's judgment, Bernadetta swiftly set off towards her chosen path, but in the process, she veered a little too close to the rightmost wall mere seconds before it exploded. This misstep actually managed to work in her favor, as she was only caught in the tail end of the explosion, the force of which was just strong enough to land her in the middle of the upcoming junction. Her crossbow and her entire stash of arrows, on the other hand, weren't nearly as lucky, as she had unfortunately dropped the lot of them in the path of the crumbling building as a result of her unwanted fall.
"Oh, this is too much!" Bernadetta audibly panicked over the loss of her ranged weaponry. It took only a few brief seconds of internal debate for the girl to cut her losses and scramble back to her feet to continue her desperate flight. Spotting a lone demonized figure up ahead, the frightened student drew the single blade she still had available and threw herself at the creature before it could even turn to face her. Wanting to make absolutely sure her target stayed dead, for lack of a better word, she proceeded to repeatedly thrust her blade into the abomination's throat while it was still down, frantically shouting with each bloody stab until its head was severed clean off.
With scarce little time to catch her breath, the violet haired seeress promptly continued her flight down the darkened corridor in the hopes of escaping any potential pursuers. The lack of any divergent paths in this corridor seemed to be a promising sign that Bernadetta was finally heading somewhere important, yet all her hopes were completely crushed when she came upon an overturned building blocking her only way forward.
"No... no, no, no, this can't be happening!" Bernadetta collapsed to her knees in despair as she laid her eyes on the insurmountable wall standing before her.
"What is the matter with you?! What would your professor have to say if he caught you giving up at a moment like this?!"
"Oh, sure, I'll just slice right through this building with this flimsy steel sword of mine!" Bernadetta sarcastically lashed out at her companion's scoldings as she threw her blade to the ground in frustration.
"Is this truly the best time for us to quarrel amongst ourselves? Unless you honestly wish for your story to end here, I would suggest against throwing away what hope you have."
"It's not like I WANT to die... you know that. It's just- ...Did you just hear that?"
A renewed sense of dread formed in the despairing seeress's heart when a loud series of footsteps began to echo from further down the darkened corridor. Each step taken was loud and intentional enough that whoever the source was clearly wanted Bernadetta to know that it was approaching.
"Oh no, I'm really in over my head now...!" the panicked student frantically rushed to retrieve her discarded sword and pressed back up against the dead end of the corridor. "Alright, fine. If this is it for me, I won't just sit back and take it!" she resolved in spite of her admittedly shaky grip on her blade.
The approaching footsteps grew louder with each passing second, increasing the tension on the awaiting seeress with every agonizing moment.
"They've always said a cornered animal is the most dangerous beast of all..." Bernadetta closed her eyes, steeling herself to lunge out at her would be killer the moment it came within range. "Let's get this over with!"
...
"Good evening to you, Bernie Bear. I take it your visit to Gladsheim is going well so far?" an all too recognizable mocking voice called out from the shadows.
"No way, not now...!" an overwhelming sense of dread came over the cornered student as her eyes snapped open to find the very same cloaked figure she first encountered in Weiler staring down at her. Something about her appearance felt rather off this time, however. She felt... oddly shorter than Bernadetta remembered, and the cloak she wore seemed to be different as well, though the young Varley couldn't quite put her finger on it. Perhaps most strikingly, the enigmatic figure's face was completely concealed by a peculiar white mask, as pale as snow, that left no trace of her skin or hair visible underneath.
"I can sense her this time..."
"Wait, what?!"
"Lilith... the strange voice that has crept into your head... I could not perceive her presence before, yet I can see her as clear as day now!"
"B- but how... I- if you can see her, then- Oh dear, she must be here to kill me now!" Bernadetta's sense of panic went into overdrive when she noticed the bow Lilith carried in her arms, but not just any average bow; it was a Hero's Relic, one that close resembled Claude's Failnaught, and much like other weapons of its kind, it emitted a faint blood red glow as Lilith tightly gripped the relic in her hands.
"G- get away from me! I- I know you're the one that brought me into this mess-"
"Oh please, put that glorified stick of yours down. I've come here only to help-"
"Help me?! Do you really think I'll believe an obvious lie like that?!" Bernadetta adamantly refused to loosen the grip on her blade.
"I'm about to save your life..." Lilith spun the bow in her hand like a pinwheel before pulling back on the string. "From that."
Bernadetta screamed in terror as an arrow of pure energy sailed right over her head and pierced right through the building behind her at blinding speeds. The loud rumbling that followed caused the girl to stumble forward in surprise as the body of an enormous mechanical golem of sorts collapsed through the overturned building behind her. The massive plated shield the golem carried in its right hand was instantly recognizable to the wayward time traveler, who had previously encountered a great number of these so called "Titanus" units during her original excursion to Shambhala.
"I trust this proof will suffice?"
"I- you're- that Hero's Relic is real...!" Berandetta stammered, her eyes rapidly darting back and forth between her unlikely savior and the fallen Titanus, the latter barely supporting its weight with its shield as the arrow that caused its fall prominently protruded from its chest.
"And an effective piece of handiwork too. Well, go on, it's not dead just yet." Lilith proudly exclaimed as she unceremoniously forced the relic into Bernadetta's hands.
"Wh- what am I supposed to do with this?!"
"It's a bow, you dimwit. Don't tell me all those blows to your head erased all the years of training you've accumulated too."
"I- I know how to use it, it's just, I don't have any arrows, and-"
"Look, it's so simple, even a drooling toddler could do it." Lilith's patience quickly eroded, prompting her to forcibly take the confused archer by the arms as if she were controlling a wooden puppet.
"O- ow, not so hard...!"
"You turn around, pull back on the string..." Lilith proceeded with her unorthodox demonstration, and much to Bernadetta's surprise, a bolt of pure energy formed on the bowstring without needing to physically notch an arrow onto it. "Now aim carefully, and release."
The makeshift arrow struck true, piercing through the Titanus's chest a second time, causing the neon blue lights coating its body to turn off as its functions finally ceased for good.
"Whoa..." Bernadetta looked on in awe at the sheer power of the weapon she'd been gifted with.
"Come along now, we still have a long way to go." Lilith nonchalantly ordered, walking past her astounded companion with a questionably sincere pat to her shoulder before climbing up the body of the fallen Titanus.
"W- wait, can't you at least explain what's going on... here..." Bernadetta was quick to protest, but the moment Lilith turned her back on her, the young Varley's eyes began to see red when she spotted the prolific white emblem on the back of Lilith's cloak.
"Where did you get that coat? There's no way..." the violet haired archer instinctively turned her bow on its former owner as she shakily asked.
The sudden inquiry seemed to give the masked figure pause, as she declined to even face her accuser when she coldly responded. "This is not the hill you want to die on, Bernie."
"Answer my question, damn you! If you did anything... anything at all to hurt Byleth, I will-" Bernadetta hardly had the time to finish her threat before Lilith spontaneously appeared in front of her and grabbed the girl by the collar, reaching just far enough to nudge up against her exposed throat as well.
"Don't you dare insult me like that again..." Lilith angrily snarled, her voice dripping with venom even from behind her mask.
"I- I didn't-"
"I did not steal this off of anyone, if that's the tale your feeble mind conjured up. I stitched it together myself, if you must know. It's very dear to me..."
"O- okay... I'm sorry... I'm sorry...! I won't jump to conclusions again!"
Lilith released her grasp on the terrified seeress with a disgusted sneer before she resumed her climb up the fallen Titanus. "You came down here with a specific purpose, did you not? I suppose we could continue to waste time chatting it up until the entirety of the Varley estate topples into the abyss if you'd prefer. I'm sure your friends will thank you for allowing them to die horribly."
"This should go without saying, but you had best avoid pressing this topic any further." Sothis concernedly spoke up as her host followed after the advancing Lilith. "For now, we simply observe our new 'friend's' actions carefully. There is no predicting how this woman will lash out if you deign to anger her again."
"Alright, I understand... There's still a lot more I need to know, but... that's not a good sign..." Bernadetta reluctantly complied with Sothis and Lilith's advice as she followed the latter up the Titanus. Upon reaching the top, the violet haired seeress was dismayed to find the largest horde of demonic foes she'd encountered yet lying in wait just beyond the broken barrier.
"It was really nice of you to give me your weapon and all, but what are you going to do to-"
Lilith merely gave the violet haired archer an amused chuckle as she seemingly thrust her hand forward into thin air. Inexplicably, what can only be described as a gaping hole in the fabric of reality materialized in front of her, from which she pulled out the handle of a most unusual spear, and one which, like the bow Bernadetta was given, greatly resembled a Hero's Relic as well.
"What in the world?!"
"Gah!" Sothis unexpectedly cried out in pain the moment Lilith retrieved her new weapon from the void.
"H- hey, are you alright? Do you recognize that spear from somewhere?"
"N- no, it's not that... there is something dreadfully wrong with that spear... as if its very existence violates the laws of our reality...!"
Thoroughly bewildered, Bernadetta carefully examined the spear and pinpointed two unusual details about it: for one, the end of the handle appeared to be partially broken, though the jagged shards left behind looked like they could still inflict some serious damage if its wielder so wished. What stood out even more, however, was the ebon black coloration of the spear's tip, which brought painful memories of the Dark Creator Sword wielded by Nemesis to mind.
"Yeah, I don't think I like the vibes this gives off either..."
"I cannot explain why for the life of me, but whatever happens, you must not allow that spear to wound you under any circumstances!" Sothis grimly warned, her breaths growing concerningly strained as Lilith took a few moments to dramatically twirl the relic in her hands.
"Well, are you quite prepared?"
Bernadetta reluctantly nodded as she formed an arrow in her bow. Even though her face was concealed behind a mask, she could still feel a crazed grin flash across Lilith's lips as the latter leapt from the top of the Titanus like a hellion out for blood, skewering the nearest foe she could find through its heart, assuming it still had a functioning one to begin with. In turn, Bernadetta was amazed to find that the first shot she fired easily pierced through five different targets at once, only stopping when it hit the ground behind the fifth.
Throwing her first victim off the tip of her spear with relative ease, Lilith broke out into a frenzied series of swings that carved through the demons in her path as if they were made of butter. For her part, Bernadetta quickly learned that the arrows her bow created shined more brightly the longer she pulled back on the string; the moment her next arrow struck its target, a sizeable explosion of brilliant crimson formed on impact, taking out a solid chunk of the surrounding foes in the process.
With only a scant few foes remaining in the distance, Lilith scraped her spear across the ground three times in rapid succession, creating three crimson sparks that quickly set off in multiple directions before they all converged on the surviving foes, annihilating them in one last burst of energy.
"Whoa, I've never felt this powerful before..." Bernadetta muttered in wonder at the sheer ease she'd defeated the seemingly overwhelming horde of incomplete demons.
Impatiently staring up on the violet haired archer who opted to remain on higher ground, Lilith beckoned for the girl to join her down below. "Hm. Your performance has been acceptable so far, but your potential will be put to waste if you don't use it to its fullest."
"Potential? What potential could I possibly have?" the burgeoning seeress silently wondered to herself, remaining particularly wary of her newfound ally as she descended the fallen Titanus.