Author's Note: Why hello my fine friends. Sorry I took practically forever to get this chapter out. There was a lot of rewriting and procrastination going on. I was planning on getting this out in, like, January and February. I even had a joke about leftover eggnog prepared. But I can't do that anymore.

Whatever. Anyways, recently we hit 50 followers on (I'm combining both the main fic and Supports but I only count people following both once) and are now over that number (we might have hit 50 followers earlier but one follower was a bot linking to… unsavory content so I didn't count that).

Now, obviously I have to do something to celebrate that. Obviously that whole Q&A thing was a bust so I had to come up with something else. So I said to myself "You know how I'm always talking about that TV Tropes page. Why don't I just make it myself." And so I did. You can find it by going to TV Tropes and searching Fire Emblem: Three Houses: Fifth Path.

That's all for now. Hope you at least enjoyed the drinking game. See you below.

Yuri dramatically raised his arms to the ceiling and spread them wide. "This is Abyss!"

The students and their teacher gazed around the cave in awe. Even the most stoic of their group were amazed.

"Woah." Hilda and Ashe breathed at the same time.

"I concur." Dimitri said, as the group began walking again. "Woah."

"To think something this massive lay just beneath our feet and we were unaware of it." Edelgard said. "Truly incredible."

"There is no way we're still under Garreg Mach." Claude said, as the group began walking again. "This place is just way too big."

"It is odd, isn't it." Yuri answered. "We didn't travel far so we're obviously still under Garreg Mach Monastery, but Abyss is much larger than it should logically be."

"I am certain there is some sort of magic involved." Constance added. "I have been trying to figure it out since I arrived here, among other projects, but my efforts have yet to bear fruit."

As they journeyed through the Abyss, the residents of Garret Mach attracted strange looks. Some were fearful, some were curious, and some were angry with just a tinge of murderousness. Nobody approached them, likely because they were traveling with the Ashen Wolves, but the overall feeling they got was one of unwelcomeness.

"So where do we go from here?" Byleth asked.

"We need to plan our next move." Yuri said. "So we're going to head to our main base of operations."

"Ooh. Sounds fancy." Hilda said.

"Not really." Happi replied

Hapi was right, their main base of operations was not at all fancy. After about 20 minutes of walking they went down a small and dingey side tunnel and entered a rather depressing looking room. A rat scurried by, causing Edelgard to flinch. Luckily, nobody noticed.

"Here we are, our base of operations." Yuri said, stretching his arms wide, though less grandiose this time.

"Di immortales, you're right, this place is depressing." Claude said, looking around.

"Told you." Hapi replied.

"Alright, what's our plan?" Edelgard asked, leaning on a table.

"Straight to business." Yuri said, smirking. "I like that."

"The sooner we take care of the problem the sooner we leave here." Edelgard said, not letting any emotion slip into her voice. "I have a feeling that we are not wanted here."

"You wound me." Yuri said overdramatically, placing his hand on his heart. "Don't worry, they'll warm up to you."

"No they won't." Hapi said bluntly.

"Okay, no they won't." Yuri admitted. He pulled out a map, possibly the largest map Byleth had ever seen, and laid it on a table. "We've recently captured one of the mercenaries. We couldn't get much out of him, we don't think he knew all that much to begin with, but from what we've gathered they're looking for something in Abyss. Something powerful."

Hapi looked like she was suppressing the urge to sigh. "That doesn't really tell us much. There are about five million different powerful relics and artifacts just lying around Abyss."

"True." Yuri said. "But I think I've found the location of what they're looking for, at least." He pointed at the map. "This is a map of Abyss. Of course, Abyss is so large that mapping the entire place would take an eternity, but we're still trying." He pointed to a circle on the map. "Anyways, based off the locations of the incidents, we've managed to triangulate a general area in which the mercs are searching."

"Impressive." Edelgard said, arms crossed.

"That's not all." Yuri said. "We think we've managed to pinpoint the location of the item they're after, the only location they haven't searched." He pointed to a spot in the center of the circle. It was completely blank with no detail of any kind. "Right here."

"Why is it blank?" Hilda asked.

"Because we have no idea what's there." Yuri said.

"Oh great." Linhardt said sarcastically. "Not only are we going somewhere that is likely highly dangerous, we don't even know what we might run into."

Dimitri rubbed his chin. "If only we knew what artifact they're after. Then we might have an idea of what we're walking into."

"We do have one lead." Hapi said. "Remember."

"Oh right." Yuri said. "One of the mercs said they were after a cup of some sort."

"Like the Holy Grail?" Ashe asked, stars in his eyes.

"Ashe, you do realize the Holy Grail isn't real." Edelgard pointed out.

"The Professor wields a sword more powerful than almost any other weapon in existence and you think the Holy Grail is fake?" Ashe retorted.

"Ashe is right." Byleth said, laying a hand on the Sword of the Creator. "Some stories are more real than we think." She winked.

"Still." Edelgard said. "I doubt they're after the Holy Grail. So what are they after."

"The Chalice of Beginnings." A voice said from the doorway.

Everyone turned to see who had spoken. Standing in the door was a kindly, if tired looking, man with red robes. He looked strangely familiar.

"Aelfric!" Constance exclaimed. "How lovely to see you!" She paused. "Though I must ask, what are you doing here?"

"I was just passing through when I overheard your conversation." The man explained.

"Uh, excuse me but who are you?" Dimitri asked.

"Yes, some introductions would be nice." Edelgard added.

"Oh, my apologies." The man said. He bowed. "My name is Aelfric, I am an important figure within the Church of Seiros."

"I thought Abyssians didn't like the Church." Dimitri said.

"We don't." Hapi said. "Elfie is an exception."

"It was his idea to establish the Ashen Wolves." Constance explained.

"You know, I feel like I've heard the name Aelfric before." Byleth said, rubbing her chin. "Not to mention you look awfully familiar."

"You look quite familiar yourself." Aelfric replied.

From within Byleth's head, Sothis sighed. "He's Jeralt's friend. Remember. The one who thought you were Leonie."

Byleth snapped her fingers. "That's right! I remember now! You're Jeralt's friend!"

"You remember?" Sothis snarked.

(What do you want me to do, tell them the 8 year old who lives in my head reminded me.) Byleth pointed out.

"I'm 9 and a half." Sothis protested as if it mattered.

"Oh, yes, I remember now too." Aelfric said. "You're Jeralt's daughter. Uh… what was your name again?"

"My name is Byleth." Byleth answered. She gestured to her students. "And these are my students: Ashe, Claude, Dimitri, Edelgard, Hilda, and Linhardt."

Aelfric nodded. "Nice to meet all of you. Especially you, Byleth. I was good friends with your parents."

Before Byleth could respond to this, Edelgard cut in.

"So, you were saying something about a chalice." She said.

"Ah, right." Aelfric said. "Like I said, I overheard your conversation and I think the mercenaries you were fighting are looking for the Chalice of Beginnings. According to what little is known about it, the Chalice of Beginnings was an artifact used by Saint Seiros in an attempt to bring about the rebirth of the Goddess."

Byleth's eyes widened and she jerked back. She didn't know it, but in her head Sothis did the same.

"What did he just say!" The goddess herself shouted.

"Rebirth?" Byleth asked. "As in, they were trying to bring Sothis back to life?"

"Yes, that's right, though I have to ask you not to say the Goddess' name in vain." Aelfric said. "Very few people know this, but the Chalice of Beginnings actually served as the inspiration for the story of the Holy Grail. So in a way, your friend was right." He gestured to Ashe who smiled proudly.

"But that's ridiculous!" Edelgard protested. "You can't bring the dead back to life!"

"Well, yes, that would be why the Goddess is still dead and we are standing here talking about it." Aelfric pointed out. "The ritual failed. Catastrophically. Afterwards the Chalice was hidden away in the Chasm of the Unbound."

"So whoever the mercs are working for wants to raise the dead." Yuri said, stroking his chin.

"Hold on a second." Byleth interjected. "How do you know all this?"

"Being one of the higher ups in the Church has its advantages." Aelfric said, a twinkle in his eye. "Technically, I shouldn't really be telling you about this, but if someone is after it for potentially malevolent purposes, you need to know."

Everyone nodded in understanding.

"So what now?" Claude asked.

"Isn't it obvious." Yuri said. "We find the Chalice before the mercs do and destroy it."

"Destroy it!?" Constance shouted, throwing her arms in the air. "But an artifact of such power deserves to be studied! This could be my chance to regain my house's noble status!"

"I agree with Yuri." Edelgard said. "Whether this Chalice can raise the dead or not it's obviously too dangerous to continue existing."

Linhardt raised his finger. "While I completely understand where you're coming from, I agree with Constance that the Chalice has to be studied. Besides, the odds of recreating whatever catastrophe happened when the Chalice was first used are exponentially low."

"You don't know that." Edelgard countered.

"Well, I highly doubt we're going to attempt to raise the dead any time soon." Linhardt pointed out.

"I can name a few people in Garreg Mach who might try." Claude said.

"Same with Abyss." Yuri added.

"This is interesting." Sothis said. "So Seiros tried to resurrect me."

(But she failed, meaning you should be dead.) Byleth said.

"So someone must have tried to resurrect me again and succeeded." Sothis concluded.

(For a certain definition of the word.) Byleth said. (They kind of forgot to give you your own body.)

"Yes, that's true." Sothis said. "Somehow I wound up sharing a spot in your body."

(Now the question is who, or what, tried to resurrect you.) Byleth said.

"That is a very good question." Sothis agreed. "But we don't have time for that right now."

Byleth nodded. (Right.) Out loud she said. "We can decide what to do with the Chalice once we get it. But first we need to get it. Especially before those mercs do."

"Byleth is right." Yuri said. "Ashen Wolves, gear up. We leave immediately."

"Black Eagles, Blue Lions, Golden Deer, you do likewise." Byleth added.

The Ashen Wolves and Garreg Mach students affirmed their understanding and began preparing for their departure. Except for Linhardt and Hilda who were asleep and just lazy respectively.

"Well, I'd best leave you all to it." Aelfric said, turning to leave. "Nice to meet all of you."

Before Aelfric could leave, Byleth put a hand on his shoulder. "Hold on a second. Earlier you said you knew my parents. Plural. Does that mean you knew my mom."

Aelfric turned around. "Well, yes. But I don't see what that has to do with-"

"I need you to tell me everything you know about her!" Byleth said, cutting him off.

"I don't see how that's relevant to-" Aelfric began before being cut off by Byleth again.

"It's relevant to me!" She insisted.

Aelfric shook his head and sighed. "Jeralt's going to kill me for this."

"Jeralt should be involved with this too." Byleth said. "I'm sure there's a lot he's not telling me."

"Not to criticize your teaching skills." Yuri said from behind her. "But isn't it a bit irresponsible to leave your students alone to go on a dangerous mission without supervision."

"He's right, you know." Sothis agreed. Inside Byleth's head she was crossing her arms.

Byleth turned around and sighed. She knew it was true but "This is very important to me." She said in response to both Yuri and her brain squatter. "And I know my students. They can take care of themselves." She pointed at the three house leaders. "Claude, Edelgard, Dimitri. You're in charge. Maybe try to work on your teamwork while I'm gone."

"You can count on us, Teach." Claude said, bumping his fist against his chest.

Byleth smiled cheerily and waved. "Well, I'm off to learn about my past. Be good while I'm gone."

And with that, she and Aelfric left the room before warping to Abyss' entrance.

"So this is the Chasm of the Unbound." Yuri said, looking out across the rocky field.

It had taken a while to get to the Chasm. Abyss was twisty and hard to navigate even by a native with a map. Still, they had made it there eventually.

Claude glanced upwards. Spanning the Chasm was the bridge from the Monastery to the Cathedral. Despite this, the field was still bathed in sunlight. "Seriously? This was right below us the whole time? I mean, I get that Abyss was hidden, secret passages and all, but you'd think somebody would have flown down here to take a look."

"It must be some sort of magic." Constance suggested, raising her finger. "I propose we study it."

"Later." Yuri said. "We still have a magic chalice to find."

"Of course." Constance said.

"So where is the chalice?" Balthus asked.

"Well, I would say that large glowing rock is a good place to start looking." Edelgard suggested, pointing to the opposite side of the field where there was indeed a large glowing rock.

"Yeah, that's a pretty good guess." Yuri agreed. He stepped forward. "Let's go."

Constance put her hand up. "Hold for a moment, Yuri. Could I perhaps remain here?"

"Hm, why?" Yuri asked. He glanced across the field and realized the problem. "Oh."

"Oh? What is oh?" Edelgard asked.

"It is of no importance." Constance insisted.

"It seems pretty important if it takes someone who I assume is one of our most powerful players off the board." Claude responded.

"I agree with Claude." Edelgard said. "Again." She added, sounding annoyed.

"Fine!" Constance said, crossing her arms. "If you insist, I shall step into the sunlight." She stepped forward.

"Coco, nobody's insisting anything." Hapi said, though she didn't sigh it was definitely implied.

Constance ignored her. She stepped into the sunlight and immediately slouched over. "Oh, I am so sorry." She said, sounding much more depressed. "I was very rude. You all probably hate me now."

"I… huh?" Hilda huh'd, confused. Constance's personality had done a complete 180.

"When Coco is in the sun, she gets depressed like this." Hapi explained. "It's why she lives underground."

"Come on Constance, enough with the self doubt, yeah." Balthus said stepping into the sun and patting Constance's back, causing her to stumble slightly. "Just put one foot in front of the other and everything will be fine."

"I request that you not do that." Constance said sullenly. "You'll dirty your hands from touching my filthy back."

"Di immortales, she's really down on herself." Claude said.

"Is there anything we can do to help?" Dimitri asked.

"Not really." Yuri said. "All we can really do until she gets back in the shade is make sure she keeps going forward." He beckoned to the others. "Now come on."

The group approached the glowing rock. As they did so, a sense of unease fell over them. Some of them recognized the source of the unease immediately: this was too easy. And they were right.

When they got about halfway to the rock, the ground started shaking. Magic swirled around the rock and formed into spectral warriors brandishing wicked swords and sturdy shields.

"Well that's not good." Hilda said, stating the obvious.

"These guys don't look too tough." Balthus said, slamming his hand into his fist. "This should be no problem, yeah."

Unfortunately, the magic wasn't done. It continued swirling, creating two bigger, more intimidating figures. They had spindly arms and seemed to be wearing dresses which could have been comical if their movements and face didn't cause them to slam dunk into the Uncanny Valley.

"Di immortales." Claude breathed, staring up at the monsters.

"On second thought, this might be a problem." Balthus amended.

"Can we go now?" Hilda asked, preparing to bolt.

One of the massive figures threw a rock at the group. They dodged it, some of them just barely, and took refuge back at the entrance to the Chasm. Immediately, the spectral warriors and giant… things stopped attacking.

"Interesting." Linhardt said, rubbing his chin. "Those warriors must only attack those within the Chasm."

"So that means we can go, right?" Hilda asked.

"Absolutely not!" Constance shouted, startling Hilda. She appeared to have recovered from her sun induced funk. "We must get that Chalice! All we need is a plan!" She slammed her fist into her hand in a very Balthus-like manner.

"Like what?" Hapi asked. "Face it Coco, we're pretty outmatched here."

"Why not utilize your abilities?" Constance asked Hapi. "Or, in Yuri's words, "do your thing?""

"I can't." Hapi said. "Something is keeping any living non-human creature from coming anywhere near this place." Linhardt opened his mouth to ask about Hapi's "abilities" but Hapi just held her hand up. "Not the time."

"So we're screwed." Yuri said.

Suddenly, Edelgard had an idea. She thought back to the first mission she and the Black Eagles had ever been on with Byleth. "Actually, I may have a solution." She said. "Do any of you have any rope?"

On Edelgard's signal, the 10 of them leaped into action. Dimitri pole vaulted over the rock and let loose on the spectral knights, closely followed by Balthus and Edelgard as well as Constance who did not follow so closely. It didn't take long to turn into a body count contest. The three were pretty evenly matched but Edelgard had a slight edge over the other two because of her axe and her speed. Constance, now in a sun induced funk, did not join in.

While they took care of the warriors, Hilda had a different task: distracting one of the big doll things.

"Why do I have to be the bait!" She cried as she dodged the puppet thing's swinging hand. She got no answer.

The thing was surprisingly fast for its size. And judging by the large crater where Hilda had been a few seconds ago, it was really strong too.

No matter. All she had to do was follow the plan and she'd be fine, right? She immediately discarded that train of thought. There was no way she'd be fine.

As if to demonstrate this, the doll swung again, nearly decapitating her. While it didn't, it did manage to barely graze her head which in giant doll terms translates to giving her a good whack, which caused her to stumble forward. Thankfully, she quickly regained her bearings but she was definitely going to have a massive, concussion induced headache once the adrenalin keeping her going wore off.

Lucky for Hilda, her days of bait-ness would soon come to an end for the time being as she reached the spot, a wide area between two bushes, she was leading the puppet too, meeting up with Yuri, who was being bait for the other puppet.

"Nice to see you." Yuri quipped.

Hilda didn't even deign that with a response. Instead she just gave him a death glare, which wasn't particularly effective.

The two dolls approached at high speeds, finally reaching the point Hilda and Yuri had been leading them too.

"Now!" Yuri shouted.

Out of the bushes shot two arrows with ropes attached. Each arrow split in two, revealing an extremely large rope that wrapped around the dolls, causing them to trip and fall, almost crushing Hilda before Yuri managed to pull her away.

"Hapi!" Yuri shouted.

Hapi jumped out of another bush and brought down two dark spikes straight through the dolls' necks, severing their heads from their bodies. As soon as the heads were severed, the spectral warriors all collapsed and Claude and Ashe popped out of the bushes.

"I have to admit, I wasn't entirely sure that would work." Ashe said.

Claude walked over and inspected the rope tied around the doll. "Neither did I." He admitted. "These modified bolo arrows were a real rush job."

"If you didn't think it would work, why did we go along with it?" Hilda shouted, frustrated. She winced at how loud she sounded and rubbed her forehead. Seemed like that concussion was finally kicking in. "I'm going to sit down now." She stated and promptly did just that.

"We went along with it," Claude explained in a lowered voice. "Because nobody had any better ideas."

"What matters is it worked." Edelgard said, walking over and putting her hands on her hips. "We have defeated… whatever these are and their spectral soldiers."

Hilda simply groaned.

"If you lot are done talking, we should grab the Chalice and get out of here." Yuri called from over by the stone.

"Ah, yes, right." Edelgard said.

Everyone except Hilda and Linhardt, who was attempting to at the very least ease the pain of Hilda's concussion, crowded around the stone. It seemed to be a normal stone except for the magical glow.

"I don't see a Chalice." Hapi said.

"Perhaps we have the wrong place." Constance stated glumly. "I can only assume that it was my fault."

Yuri placed his hand on the rock. "No, I'm pretty sure this is the right place."

Suddenly, the stone lit up brighter and an image of Yuri's crest appeared both on the rock and on Yuri's chest. Then, one by one three more crests appeared on the stone as well as on the chests of the three other Ashen Wolves. Just as quickly, the images dissipated and the stone cracked open revealing the Chalice of Beginnings.

Yuri gingerly took the Chalice out of the rock and held it so that everyone could see it.

"Huh." Hapi said. "I was expecting it to be more impressive."

"What do you mean?" Claude asked. "It's pretty fancy, isn't it?"

"Well yeah." Hapi replied. "But I was sort of expecting it to glow with magic power or something."

"Enough." Edelgard said. "We have the Chalice, let us leave before something else goes wrong."

Of course, at that moment, something else went wrong. All the parts from the spectral warriors and the doll things lifted into the air and began swirling around the group. They began to connect to each other in order to build something. And that something turned out to be a giant doll thing twice the size of both previous doll things combined.

"Oh come on!" Hilda shouted.

Author's Note: I was not expecting Hilda to be as prominent in this arc as she has been. Seriously she's gotten a lot of lines in both this and the previous chapter. She's also probably out of character, all things considered. But whatever. Hope you enjoyed this chapter that took god knows how long to complete. I won't jinx it by saying the next one will be out sooner but we can definitely hope.

And… that's about all I've got to say. Adios.