Author's Note: Welcome to chapter 13 or, as the more cynical might call it, part 2 of chapter 12!
Last month's chapter (chapter 11) wasn't very spooky, even though it was released on Halloween, so to make up for it here is a rather spooky chapter. After all, November is the real spooky month (the first person to figure out what this is a reference too gets a gold star and ten internet points) and what's spookier than the Death Knight?
Part One
White Clouds
The Reaper's Betrayal
The night Byleth and her class left for their mission was the day Those who Slither made their move. A group of four of their stealthiest members and the Death Knight crept through the halls of Garreg Mach. Obviously, they had not been made aware of the Knights of Seiros guarding Flayn's room, or they wouldn't have attempted this operation. Either that, or they were confident that they could take them out stealthily.
The group stopped when they reached a corner. One of them peeked around it and saw two Knights standing vigilantly. He swore in a language only the Agarthans could understand.
"They knew we were coming. How could they know we were coming?"
"Don't worry." Said another one. "It's only two of them. We just kill them fast and capture the girl."
The Death Knight nodded. "Yes… fast." Immediately, his scythe was out of its sheath and impaled through the chest of the first Agarthan. He wore an expression of terror on his face but he didn't say anything or cry out in surprise. How could he, he was dead.
"What the!" An Agarthan shouted. "You're supposed to be on our side!
The Death Knight removed the scythe from the Agarthan's chest. "I am not on anyone's "side."" He said. "I am only here for one reason: to kill." Though they couldn't see his face, the Agarthans were sure that he was glaring sadistically at them.
Effortlessly, he cut down the Agarthan who had questioned his loyalty (or lack thereof). One of the two remaining Agarthans drew his sword, let out a scream, and charged the Death Knight. Apparently, he wasn't chosen for his brains and the Death Knight had no trouble killing him.
The fourth and final Agarthan was smart. He turned to run, clearly liking his chances with the Knights of Seiros better than his chances with the Death Knight. For once, the Death Knight wasn't fast enough and instead of killing him, just sliced open his back, leaving a cut that wasn't deep enough to kill him (at least, not immediately) but definitely deep enough to hurt tremendously. The Agarthin cried out in pain and fell to the ground.
As the Death Knight moved in for a killing blow, the Knights of Seiros that were guarding Flayn's door turned the corner to see what the incredibly loud disturbance was.
"What's going on..." One of the Knights began to say authoritatively, before petering out as she took in the gruesome scene. "...here?"
The still alive Agarthan tried to cry for help but was in so much pain he couldn't get more than a scream out. The Death Knight paused, unsure how to act. He could kill these Knights, but that might complicate matters in ways he couldn't control. Besides, he had sworn to protect the girl and killing her guards wasn't exactly protecting.
Without saying a word, but growling angrily on the inside, the Death Knight turned and ran off.
"H-hey!" One of the Knights shouted, finally somewhat recovering. "Get back here!" He started to move but before he could take more than a step, the Death Knight disappeared into the shadows.
The Agarthan on the ground moaned. The Knights turned to look at him. He looked pretty bad.
"Go get a healer!" The female Knight said. "Quick! I'll watch over this guy until you get back!"
The male Knight nodded, looking like he was about to throw up. "R-right!"
"Man, that was a tough mission." Caspar said as the Black Eagles approached the main gate to Garreg Mach Monastery. He put his hands behind his head like he was reclining in a chair, even though he was walking.
The Black Eagles had returned from their mission relatively unharmed. Byleth's coat was once again the victim of a demonic beast's claws but she could get that fixed.
"Tough?" Bernadetta asked, trying her best to hide behind Petra which didn't work very well since they were walking. "That was terrifying!"
"Indeed." Hubert said, making Bernadetta flinch. "That mission was quite difficult. But at least the brave and noble Knights of Seiros were there to stand around and watch us do all the work."
"Hubie, you've used that one already." Dorothea said, rolling her eyes.
"Yes, but I feel that it bears repeating." Hubert replied.
When the group reached the gate, the Gatekeeper saluted. "Greetings Professor, nothing to report."
"Awesome!" Byleth said, giving him a thumbs up. "That's great to hear."
The Gatekeeper rubbed the back of his head. "Well, there is one thing to report. Lady Rhea wants to see you ASAP."
Byleth shivered. There were very few reasons why Rhea would want to speak with her at this point and all of them began with Flayn.
She turned to her students. "Guess we're not having that after battle party I promised. Sorry."
Without another word, she ran off as fast as she could to Rhea's audience chamber. Normally, she wouldn't be all that anxious to talk to Rhea, but she had to know if Flayn was okay. She bolted up the stairs and barged into the audience chamber. In addition to the usual Rhea and Seteth, Hanneman and Manuela were also there.
"Byleth." Rhea said as soon as she entered. Her tone was not pleasant and motherly like normal, but instead grave and serious. "Thank you for coming."
"What happened!?" Byleth shouted, not even bothering with formalities.
"It seems you were indeed right about an organization, including the Death Knight, being out to kidnap Flayn." Seteth said.
"Did they..?" Byleth asked, unable to finish her sentence.
Seteth shook his head. "No, Flayn is safe, thank the Goddess."
Byleth let out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding in. Jeritza had come through. Hopefully.
"Don't be too relieved." Manuela said. "The Death Knight still killed three people and severely injured one."
"What?" Byleth asked. "Who?"
"His own allies, if you can believe it." Hanneman answered.
Byleth could believe it. She was the one who'd enlisted Jeritza's help in the first place. "But that's good, isn't it?" She asked.
"It is, yes." Seteth said. "But it means we can't interrogate them."
"It also means that the Death Knight is potentially loose in the Monastery." Rhea added. "This is a grave matter. As such, all current and future missions will be put on hold until further notice. From now onwards your mission is to guard the Monastery and, if possible, capture or kill the Death Knight."
Byleth wasn't sure how to respond to this. On one hand, the Death Knight was a dangerous sociopath who needed to be put down. On the other hand, not only was he protecting Flayn, Byleth had promised to give him a battle to the death, meaning that if he was killed it had to be by her hand and she wasn't quite ready to give up one of her biggest advantages yet. There was also a third issue in that Byleth wasn't sure how people would react to her knowing who the Death Knight was. It had been risky enough telling Seteth, if anyone else found out the consequences could be disastrous.
Byleth took a deep breath. Worrying about it was doing nothing at the moment. She could adjust her plans later. For now, there were some more short term questions to have answered.
"So what about the other guy?" Byleth asked. "The one who the Death Knight injured?"
"Him?" Seteth asked. "He's chained to a bed in the infirmary until we decide what to do with him. We tried interrogating him but he wouldn't tell us anything beyond confirming our suspicions that he and his dead compatriots were out to kidnap Flayn."
"Yes, well, I would like it if you decide what to do with him soon so I can get him out of my infirmary." Manuela said, putting her hands on her hips.
"So we have no idea why they wanted to kidnap Flayn?" Byleth asked.
"None at all, unfortunately." Seteth said, shaking his head.
"I have a theory." Hanneman said. "Seteth, Flayn carries a Major Crest of Cethleann, correct?"
"How did you know that?" Seteth asked defensively.
"She told me." Hanneman explained simply.
Seteth scowled. "I am going to need to talk with her about her secret keeping abilities." He muttered. He cleared his throat and said in a normal voice. "Yes, that is correct."
"Here's what I think." Hanneman said. "Our mysterious enemy somehow figured out that Flayn has the Major Crest of Cethleann and wanted to kidnap her in order to use her blood for experiments."
"It wouldn't be hard." Byleth said. "Flayn can't keep a secret to save her life, as Hanneman just demonstrated."
"In this case, I'd say that keeping that secret would have saved her life." Hanneman joked. "If the Death Knight hadn't, that is." Seteth glared at him. He held up his hand in surrender. "Okay, fine, I'll admit that was in bad taste."
"Since you brought it up, it's quite strange that the Death Knight killed his own allies and saved Flayn." Manuela said.
"Not really." Byleth said.. "He's a sociopath who loves killing. He probably got impatient waiting to slaughter the Knights and slaughtered his "friends" instead." It was a believable, and completely in character, story and hopefully kept both Jeritza and Byleth's secrets safe.
"I suppose that does make sense." Manuela said, rubbing her chin.
"Regardless of what his motives are, the fact still stands that he is a dangerous individual who must be captured or killed at all costs. Preferably killed." Rhea said. The last time Byleth had seen her this serious was when Edelgard had assaulted the Monastery (which she supposed made this the first time she'd seen her this serious). "Understood?"
"Understood." The three professors said at once.
Solon was not happy. This wasn't really a surprise to anyone, since he was rarely happy. The only times he was happy usually involved torture, murder, and twisted science experiments. But in this particular instance, he was not happy for a reason. And that reason was why he called out an almost equally unhappy Flame Emperor to meet him.
"What do you want?" The Flame Emperor asked when she arrived at their agreed meeting spot, the forest just outside Garreg Mach. "I hope you know that I was busy."
"Hmph." Solon hmph'd. "You mean busy fooling around with your little friends?"
The Flame Emperor crossed her arms. "Just get to the point. Why did you call me here?"
Solon angrily slammed his staff against the ground. "I called you here because the Death Knight killed three of our men, injured one more, and ruined our plan. What's more, that injured man is now in the Church's custody."
"And I suppose you believe I'm responsible for this?" The Flame Emperor said.
"He is your subordinate." Solon said, pointing accusedly.
"I do not control the Death Knight." The Flame Emperor said. "I merely provide a direction for him to charge. I am no traitor."
"Ha!" Solon laughed. "If I tried to list all the people you have and will betray, we'd be here all day."
The Flame Emperor growled. "Be that as it may, I would not forfeit the advantages and resources this alliance affords me. Not yet, at the very least."
"None of this clears up why the Death Knight killed three of our stealthiest agents." Solon said.
"Could be any number of reasons." The Flame Emperor said. "Maybe he got bored, maybe one of your agents insulted him, who knows."
"How can you work with such an unstable individual?" Solon asked.
"Why are you talking about yourself in the third person." The Flame Emperor snarked.
"I would watch what I say if I were you." Solon hissed, his hand glowing purple.
"Is that a threat?" The Flame Emperor asked.
"Maybe." Solon said, extinguishing the glow.
"Don't make me laugh." The Flame Emperor said. "We both know that you need me."
"For now." Solon muttered.
"Now." The Flame Emperor said. "If you'll excuse me, I have much more important matters to attend to." And with that, she turned her back to Solon and walked off, effectively ending the conversation.
Author's Note: Hurray! Gatekeeper cameo!
So what do you think? Appropriately spooky, huh?
This is actually the toned down version of the chapter. The Death Knight's ruthless massacre of the Agarthan agents was originally much,
much more gruesome. But writing it made me extremely uncomfortable and was possibly pushing my rating ceiling (remember, I have to take into account three different sites when it comes to ratings) so I toned it down to what it is now. Maybe I'll release the original version of the chapter as some sort of bonus chapter.
Yeah, that's never happening.
Another change I made from the original version was having Hanneman do the whole "Those Who Slither want to kidnap Flayn in order to drain her blood" exposition. Originally, I had an entirely different scene not unlike the one back in Thought Route where the four main characters are trying to figure out Those who Slither's motives and Linhardt, who apparently fell asleep in the training area without anyone noticed because of course he did he's Linhardt, did the exposition instead. I decided to change it because it would be a waste to have Hanneman in the chapter and not have him do the exposition I was going to do anyways and because he barely does anything in the story.