Author's Note: Welcome back. After four supports, we return to the main story. There's actually a reference to one of those supports in here. Try to spot it.

Also, related to supports, on two of the supports I created some Fire Emblem: Three Houses What If..?s after I watched Marvel's What If..? And since quite a few of you don't read the supports I figured I'd also feature them here. Behold:

What If… Edelgard Won? I know what you're thinking: Isn't this just the Crimson Flower route? But it's not. When I say "Edelgard Won" I mean that straight up villain Edelgard (no, we're not arguing this right now) from the other three routes wins. She trumps the Kingdom, Alliance, and Church and takes over Fodlan.

What If… Claude Became the Hegemon? In other words, what if Claude took Edelgard's place as the main antagonist. Basically, somewhere along the line Claude decides that the best way to End Racism is if he takes control of everything. So we get to see how scarily competent Claude would be as a bad guy. Obviously, he'd have great strategy because, you know, Master Schemer, but also he'd weaken the other sides by outright stealing troops from them. Because evil or not he's still Claude. He isn't fighting to defeat one specific group or blaming one specific group for all the oppression. He just thinks that taking over everything is a faster way to change things than working with the system (which is basically Edelgard's doctrine but she purely blames the Church for all this bull). And a lot of people will think that he makes good points and decide that, yeah, they'll join this guy.

In fact, the points he makes will be so good that they might even make the audience question who the bad guy is (it's still him) which I think is something they tried to do with Edelgard (she is right, Crests are an issue) but she also caused way more bloodshed and joined up with Those Who Slither so it's kind of moot. Claude, obviously, won't use Demonic Beasts because he's just as against Those Who Slither as he is as a good guy but he might use Golems he reverse engineered from the Church.

Because of how scarily competent he is this will actually force the other three sides to team up for realsies to fight him and Those Who Slither might join in too as a third party (though nobody will actively help them because, you know, they're Those Who Slither, and in gameplay terms it would function like the battle of grondor field) because Claude is a way bigger threat to them since he's not only actively hunting them along with everyone else but their main base is in Alliance territory. Man, I really put a lot of thought into this one. Also, Hegemon doesn't mean he'll be turning into Fallen Claude or some such thing, just that he's the bad guy in this scenario.

What If… Byleth Never Came to Garreg Mach Monastery? This one's simple. Something happened that caused Byleth to simply… not come to the Monastery. Or maybe they did and they just kind of left.

What If… Byleth Woke Up Too Late? Basically, Byleth falls off a cliff as usual but by the time they wake up the war's over. However, it didn't end in anyone's favor, possibly due to Those Who Slither or just because Byleth was kind of a lynch pin, so Fodlan is s lawless post-apocalyptic waste land. We could have all sorts of cool post-apocalypse versions of the characters. Like a version of Lorenz who has decided that even though his noble house has fallen, that's no reason not to act like a noble and do heroic things and try to make the future a little brighter (sorry, but Ferdie's dead in this universe so he can't take that role). Or a version of Ashe who's gone dark after one dead friend too many.

What If… Sitri Survived? This one's also simple. The method by which Sitri survives could be any number of things. Maybe Baby Byleth dies before they can perform the operation or maybe the birth just goes smoothly. Who knows.

What If… Sothis Bonded to Edelgard? This one's an interesting one. Maybe even more interesting than Hegemon Claude. So, somehow Sothis bonds to Edelgard instead of Byleth. Maybe instead of doing blood experiments Those Who Slither just straight up stole Sothis' crest stone somehow (which unfortunately means neither Byleth nor Sitri can show up in this story) and for reasons that are probably similar to why their main timeline (for a certain sense of the word) experiment worked on her the Crest Stone takes and now she has Sothis in her head. Sothis probably first emerges sometime around when she first emerged for Byleth, maybe during the same confrontation with Kostis. This allows Edelgard time to develop her anti-Church and anti-Crest views. So now she has this being who may or may not be the Goddess in her head (since she's not ignorant of Fodlan's religion and politics like Byleth she immediately recognizes the significance of Sothis' name) who's also really abrasive towards her and that would obviously affect her character arc in a significant way as at first she probably searches for a way to get rid of Sothis and Sothis isn't all that fond of Edelgard either for obvious reasons but the two slowly warm up to each other and who knows what happens then. Also, since we need a third teacher and Byleth isn't available, I say we use a retired Jeralt who would also have changed quite a bit due to a lack of Sitri (or possibly, even more heartbreaking, Those Who Slither straight up ripping Sitri or Byleth's hearts from their chests).

What If… Rhea's Plan Worked? I don't have much to say on this one. The results of Rhea's plan are so painfully ambiguous I don't know how this would go.

What If… There were Two Byleths? This is based off a fanfic idea I had a while back and I'm sure plenty of people have already done this. Basically, instead of one singular Byleth there are two twin Byleths, one female and one male. I've named these two Blythe and Theo respectively because why not. Both Byleths would be quiet and reserved like in canon but for different reasons. Blythe would be the brooding, serious one who hides a fiery temper and is fiercely protective of Theo and views herself as his older sister, despite being twins, while Theo would be more nervous and a bit of a shrinking violet, though better with people than Blythe. Each one would also represent a different part of canon Byleth's skill set, differentiating them from each other more. Blythe takes on Byleth's combat skills, being terrifying on the battlefield and channeling all that repressed anger into her fighting. Meanwhile, Theo takes on Byleth's tactical skills, more at home poring over a battle map then on the battlefield himself (though he is by no means incompetent when it comes to battle, just not quite as good as Blythe) and he almost seems a different person when planning, always keeping a level head and giving orders without hesitation. Yeah, I put a lot of thought into this. As a consequence of this, Sitri actually possibly survives since it's basically impossible for her to have surviving twins if she doesn't.

What If… Byleth Met Byleth? This is literally just a Fire Emblem Heroes fanfic. And technically possible in Fifth Path since we know Three Houses Anna met Heroes Anna. Though if I did write that it would be non-canon to the fic.

What If… Kostas Killed Edelgard? Surprised I didn't think of this before. It's such an obvious question.

What If… Edelgard went Feral? It's common fan speak (or, at least, it's common BackSet speak) to refer to Post-Timeskip Dimitri as Feral Dimitri. But what if instead of Feral Dimitri we got Feral Edelgard. I don't know how this would happen but it's a question.

What If… Fodlan Lost its Rulers? Or, in other words, what if Claude, Dimitri, and Edelgard died before Edelgard got a chance to start her war. Probably more war.

What if… The Old Gods Came Back? Remember all those saints we kept running into who were guarding ancient weapons as monsters and whatnot? What if they decided "screw it, let's get back into the world" for some reason. Maybe due to the war, maybe due to boredom. Who knows.

What if… Fodlan had an Infinity War? No, this isn't a Marvel crossover. Well, not technically. The only Marvel thing in this would be the Infinity Stones which, instead of everyone racing to stop Thanos from getting the Stones it's instead everyone racing to get the Stones themselves. More specifically, it's Edelgard vs. Rhea vs. Those Who Slither in the Dark. Edelgard wants the Stones to make her perfect world, Rhea wants the Stones to bring her mother back, and Those Who Slither in the Dark want the Stones to get revenge. What are the Kingdom and Alliance doing during all this, you might ask? Trying to avoid getting steam rolled, of course.

What if… Fire Emblem: Three Houses IN SPACE!? Yeah, I've got nothing. I just want to see the Three Houses characters in space.

What if… Everyone had Mechs? Again, I just want to see mech battles with Three Houses characters. Like, Dimitri could have a big bulky mech with good armor and a lion theme. Meanwhile, Claude could have a quick and nimble mech with poor armor but good range and, obviously, a deer theme. And Edelgard's mech could have high fire power and the ability to fly with an eagle theme to fit.

What If… Fire Emblem: Three Houses Took Place a Long Time Ago in a Galaxy Far, Far Away? Okay, this one is basically a Star Wars crossover. But I have so many ideas! Like I figure maybe Byleth and Jeralt can be Mandalorians who lack a clan and have cool custom armor. And Sothis is either some sort of droid attached to that ship (why doesn't Star Wars have organic piloted ships with Droid AI (vulture bombers don't count they don't have organic pilots)? Kind of weird, if you ask me) or some weird force thing. And Felix, Sylvain, Ingrid, and Dimitri can all be Jedi Padawans. Felix is the one who has trouble keeping his emotions in check and is always teetering on the edge of the Dark Side and may even use it sometimes (which actually isn't unusual, some Jedi do use minor Dark Side abilities). Ingrid can be the serious one that's always trying to get the other to focus. Sylvain can be kind of like Anakin just without secretly being crazy. And Dimitri can look like a golden boy but is secretly even closer to the Dark Side than Felix.

These are all free ideas, obviously, since I can't legally copyright these but if you are inspired to write a story based off of one of these ideas after reading them at the very least do me a favor and shoot me a link to it so I know you were inspired by me. Though if you don't it's probably on me since I'm iffy on opening my account up to pms on FF Dot Net. But I do have PMs open on my Bulbagarden, ZU, and TV Tropes accounts so if you're on there you can send me it that way or I suppose tell me via a review on this story.

Now, onwards to the story.

Part One

White Clouds

The Rite of Rising

After stopping by the Ashen Wolves' headquarters to grab Linhardt and Hilda, much to the two's displeasure, the Best Friend Squad wasted no time getting to the surface. Because of whatever weird time dilation thing Abyss had going on, midnight was approaching fast and they had to hurry. Upon reaching the surface they immediately ran into Dedue and Hubert, for some reason sopping wet and covered in dirt.

"Lady Edelgard!" Hubert cried.

"Your Highness!" Dedue shouted at the same time.

"Hubert, what happened to you?" Edelgard asked, surprised.

"We've been looking everywhere for you!" Hubert said.

"No time to talk." Byleth said hurriedly. She grabbed Hilda, who let out a yelp, and shoved her into Hubert's arms. "Here, take Hilda to the infirmary. Maybe find Rhea. Tell her to meet us at the Holy Mausoleum and to send a detachment of Knights to the old cathedral to pick up a package we left for them. And forget to tell her that it's urgent."

"Wait, wha-" Hubert stuttered, almost as blindsighted as when Byleth gave him detention at the beginning of the year.

Hubert's confused spluttering was never answered as the Best Friend Squad were gone as soon as Hilda was passed off to him. Time was of the essence. On the bright side, they knew exactly where they were going and all the shortcuts to get there. It would quite frankly be rather embarrassing if they didn't.

The group arrived exactly at midnight which was signaled by… bells chiming? That was odd. But they could wonder about that later. It didn't really matter. They stood outside the doors, ready to enter.

"Alright, on my mark." Byleth said. "One… two… go!"

Apparently, Aelfric had left the doors unlocked since they had no trouble barging in. They entered, weapons ready, just as Yuri had finished up giving some exposition. At the four corners of the room were vortexes siphoning blood from the Ashen Wolves, who were free and fighting Dark Mages but slowly losing strength as a result of the blood loss. Linhardt's stomach tried to rebel against him but all he could manage was dry heaves.

The blood of the Ashen Wolves was all being siphoned straight into the Chalice of Beginnings which was situated on the back altar (formerly the resting place of the Sword of the Creator) in front of the body of a woman.

"What!" Aelfric shouted in surprise from his spot next to the altar. "What are you doing here!?"

"What does it look like?" Claude asked rhetorically. "We're here to rescue our friends and stop… whatever it is you're doing!"

"Stop me?" Aelfric asked. "Why would you want to do that? I am about to commit the greatest act known to the world: resurrection!"

"What!?" Edelgard shouted. "That's impossible! You told us yourself!"

"I'm afraid I lied." Aelfric said, sounding genuinely remorseful. "I'm truly sorry for that."

"This is a really nice conversation but we could use some help over here!" Yuri shouted, dodging a Dark Mage's magic blast.

"Oh, right." Byleth said, whacking her head with her free hand. "Let's go guys!" She cried, leaping into battle. The others followed suit.

Byleth fought her way through the mages and over to Yuri who was putting up a valiant fight for someone slowly being drained of his blood. Nevertheless, he was running out of steam and starting to struggle.

"You owe us an explanation." She said to him, cutting down a mage he was struggling against.

"I'd love to." Yuri said semi-sarcastically. "But it'll have to wait. It's a really long story and I'll probably pass out from blood loss halfway through."

"Fair enough." Byleth said. As much as she'd love to force the story out of him right then and there, he had a point about the blood loss thing. "Speaking of, is there anything we can do to rectify that situation?"

Yuri nodded. "See those vortexes?" He asked, pointing to one of the aforementioned vortexes.

"Hard not to." Byleth replied.

"You probably guessed they're draining our blood but they're also providing Aelfric with protection. If you want to stop him and, you know, rescue us then you need to plug them." He said. "Then they'll dissipate. Just standing in them will do."

"Byleth nodded. "Alright." She raised her voice to shout orders at her students. "Everyone listen up! We need to plug those vortexes to save the Ashen Wolves! Edelgard, Dimitri, Claude, and Ashe!" She pointed at each student. "You'll each take a vortex! All you need to do is stand in them! Linhardt, take care of the Ashen Wolves once they're free! Meanwhile, me and Jeralt will keep these mages off of you! Now go!"

The vortex plugging squad nodded and each ran towards a vortex. Aelfric ordered the mages to protect the vortex but Byleth and Jeralt did exactly what Byleth said they would, slicing into the Dark Mages and doing her best to keep them away from the students and the Ashen Wolves.

The first of the Ashen Wolves to be set free was Balthus, with Claude stepping into the vortex connected to him and causing it to dissipate. Balthus' wound automatically closed, cutting off one of the Chalice's blood streams.

Balthus fist pumped. "All right, the Undeniable King of Grappling is back! Let's go!" He attempted to move forward but stumbled. "Or not." He said woozily.

"You're still suffering from blood loss." Linhardt said, running over. "You need to lie down."

"You're kidding, right?" Balthus asked. "There's a fight going on, I can't just find a corner and lie down."

"I'm sorry, who's the doctor here?" Linhardt asked, putting his hands on his hips.

"Last I checked, not you." Balthus replied. "You're just a student, aren't you?"

"Right now I am the only person on this battlefield who specializes in healing magic." Linhardt said definitively. "Therefore, I qualify as a field medic and doctor until such time as someone more qualified comes along, something that does not seem to be happening anytime soon, and I am ordering you to go and lie down!" He gave Balthus a glare to rival Byleth's and pointed violently at the ground.

"Yes sir." Balthus said, thoroughly cowed. He immediately, with Linhardt's assistance, began heading off to an out of sight corner of the battlefield where he could rest and be treated to the best of Linhardt's ability.

The Unassailable King of Grappling was more than a little surprised by how Linhardt was acting, seeing as how he'd taken him for more of the cowardly sort. However, his surprise was nothing compared to Linhardt's own as though he did not personally consider himself the cowardly sort, instead seeing himself as more pragmatic than anything, he did consider himself to be quite lazy. As such, the fact that over the past few days(?) he had taken his duties as a healer far more seriously than he had in his entire time at the Officer's Academy. While he could have possibly justified treating Hilda's concussion as a simple excuse to stay out of the fight he had no idea why he was taking Balthus' blood loss so seriously.

He was jostled from his thoughts by another cry of misplaced confidence, this time by Constance who had been freed by Edelgard, cutting off another stream of blood and inspiring Constance to attempt to leap into battle despite the fact that for all her quirks she was a competent enough mage that she should know that closing up the wound would not fix her blood loss immediately. If Linhardt had to guess this breach of common sense was, ironically, likely caused by her blood loss. As such, he immediately hurried over to deal with her after giving Balthus another Death Glare and an order not to leave his spot unless he was actively in danger.

It didn't take long to free the other Ashen Wolves thanks to Byleth and Jeralt keeping most resistance off of the students' backs. Both Hapi and Yuri, freed by Dimitri and Ashe respectively, were significantly easier for Linhardt to work with compared to Balthus and Constance, both understanding the dangers of blood loss far better than their friends.

"No!" Aelfric shouted. "Dammit! No!"

"It's over, Aelfric." Byleth said, advancing towards him. "Call off what few of your minions are left standing and give up."

"Minion?" One of the mashes muttered offendedly. Everyone ignored him.

Aelfric sighed. "Very well. All of you, cease attacking."

The mages did as he said except for one guy who got whacked by the blunt end of Jeralt's spear for his trouble.

Everyone who wasn't an Ashen Wolf, as Linhardt was absolutely insistent they lie down, gathered around Aelfric, weapons ready.

"Alright, time for an explanation." Byleth said, pointing her sword threateningly. "The Ashen Wolves trusted you. Jeralt trusted you. And you betrayed that trust. Why?"

"I told you." Aelfric replied. "I was trying to preform a resurrection."

"You said resurrection was impossible." Edelgard pointed out. "You said the last time someone tried it ended in disaster."

"Yes, I did." Aelfric said, moving slowly to the left. Byleth kept her sword trained on him. "But I think I've finally figured it out. I know where Seiros went wrong. I can finish the ritual and bring her back to life."

"And who is her?" Byleth asked.

Aelfric never got a chance to answer. Instead, Jeralt answered for him. "Sitri." He whispered, finally getting a clear view of the perfectly pristine body.

"Wait… What!" Byleth shouted. She gestured at the body. "My mother has been dead for…" Byleth paused as she remembered she had absolutely no idea how long ago her mother had died. Presumably it had been the same amount of years as her age but she didn't know her age. Eventually, she settled on a simple answer. "A long time! There's no way her body could possibly be in this pristine condition!"

"But it is her." Aelfric said with certainty. "It's unmistakable. Wouldn't you agree, Jeralt."

"He's right." Jeralt said solemnly. "It's her, no question."

"I found her while exploring the underground tunnels of Abyss." Aelfric explained. "She was just… floating there in a cave in perfect condition, 21 years later." Aelfric smiled in a mix of sadness and madness. "So, Jeralt, Byleth. Do you really want to stop me? When I succeed, and I will succeed, Sitri will have returned to life. Jeralt, you and she can be together again. And Byleth, you can get to meet the mother you never had."

For a worrying moment, it looked like Jeralt was genuinely considering it. Then he looked straight into Aelfric eyes. "What would it cost?" He gestured to the Ashen Wolves. "The lives of those kids?" He gestured around them. "The lives of everyone in this room?" His voice turned to a growl. "What would it cost, Aelfric!?"

"Who cares!" Aelfric shouted, looking more deranged by the minute. "All that matters is that I can bring her back!"

"Sitri would have cared." Jeralt said, somehow managing to sound angry despite keeping his voice even "Don't you understand? In your delusional quest to bring her back, you've gone against everything she stood for."

"I…" Aelfric stuttered. He sighed. "Y-you're right. When I bring her back, she'll be appalled with me." A thought struck him. "But-but you can still be together."

"Aelfric." Jeralt said. "Please… please just stop."

"I can't." Aelfric said. "I've come so far."

Suddenly, the doors of the Mausoleum burst open. Standing in the doorway was Rhea, flanked by three Knights of Seiros, one of which was Alois. The two Knights who weren't Alois went and arrested the mages. Rhea was wearing a significantly different outfit than usual, a simple white knee length dress that was more appropriate for battle than her usual outfit (though still impractical if you asked Byleth). At her side was a leven sword.

"Halt, Aelfric!" She shouted.

"You!" Aelfric shouted, pointing at Rhea angrily. "You are responsible for all this! You are the one who killed her! Tell me what you've done! Why does her body remain while her spirit does not!"

Rhea approached the group. "I owe you no words on the matter." She said sternly. "But I will tell you this: her death was her own choice. She chose to die so that her child may live."

"You "owe me no words?"" Aelfric scoffed. He let out a bitter laugh. "And what of her daughter?" He gestured to Byleth. "Do you "owe no words" to her as well?"

"I hate to agree with the guy who was preforming blood sacrifices, but he has a point." Byleth interjected. "I know you've been lying to not only me but all of Fodlan. And quite personally, I'm rather tired of it."

"I agree." Edelgard piped up, crossing her arms.

"Every lie I have ever told was for the good of those I told it too." Rhea said evenly.

Aelfric barked another bitter laugh. "Are you all listening to this drivel? Pathetic! Why should I believe a word you say!"

"Aelfric, please." Rhea said. "You know that I saw Sitri as my own child. I would never do anything she didn't want. And the same is true of you. So please, stop what you're doing and hand over the Chalice."

"No!" Aelfric shouted. "I'm so close! I will complete the ritual! You can not stop me!" He warped away, taking Sitri's body and the Chalice with him.

"Dammit!" Byleth swore. She pointed at Rhea. "This is your fault, you know?"

"How, exactly, is this my fault?" Rhea asked coldly.

"We, or rather, Jeralt was this close to talking him down before you showed up." Byleth said.

Jeralt shook his head. "No. There was no talking him down. He was going to do this anyways. Rhea just caused everything to go faster."

"Excuse me." Alois interrupted. "But what exactly is going on here?"

"I don't know." Byleth said. "Perhaps somebody can tell us." Her annoyed gaze looked between Yuri and Rhea, unable to decide who she was more mad at. Finally, she settled on Rhea.

"Rhea, how much are you willing to tell us?" She asked.

"That depends on the question." Rhea replied.

Byleth found this annoying but, admittedly, fair. "Why did Aelfric need the Ashen Wolves?" She asked.

"I wasn't entirely sure at first." Rhea admitted. "But after some research I realized that the Ashen Wolves were descended from the Four Apostles, the ones whose blood was used in the original Rite of Rising."

"Of course!" Linhardt shouted, slapping his forehead with the palm of his hand. "The crests that appeared on the rock! I knew I'd seen them before!"

"Where?" Rhea asked, sounding slightly surprised. "Any books surrounding the Rite of Rising were lost in the fire 21 years ago."

"It's a personal book." Linhardt explained. "An encyclopedia of crests. It didn't mention the Rite by name but it did feature the crests of the Apostles and implied some sort of disaster befell them." He thought for a second and then added. "And no, you cannot have it."

"So what about Yuri's triple cross?" Byleth asked before the conversation could get any more off the rails. "Did you know about that?"

"Yes." Rhea said simply. "Yuri has been working for me from the beginning."

"Working with you." Yuri corrected. He and the rest of the Ashen Wolves had somehow managed to join the group without anyone noticing. "Rhea was on to Aelfric from the start. She asked me to keep an eye on him. Unfortunately, Aelfric had the people I love most hostage, not to mention he had the rest of the Wolves pretty much on a leash, so my options were limited."

"On a leash!?" Constance shouted, offended. "What-"

"What else would you call that adoration he cultivated in you?" Yuri interrupted. "Regardless, Rhea promised she'd help me rescue my mom and my allies, that was what those bells you heard signified, so I agreed. Today was the only day in which Aelfric would pull back almost all his forces, including the ones guarding my people."

"And why couldn't you tell us this?" Claude asked. "We had no personal connection to Aelfric."

"I didn't trust you." Yuri said. "I'm sure you can understand why."

The Best Friend Squad all nodded understandingly.

Suddenly, there was a loud boom from above them.

"Alright, question time's over!" Jeralt said quickly. "We've gotta stop Aelfric before he blows this place up or something."

"That is an accurate summation of what would most likely happen." Rhea agreed.

Balthus slammed his fist into his palm. "All right, time to get that son of a bitch!"

"Oh no." Linhardt said. "You are not doing anything of the sort. You will lie down and rest like I told you too."

"Sorry, Doc, no can do." Balthus said. "I've rested enough and I'm not about to let a little blood loss keep me from the fight."

"I'm with Balthus." Yuri said. "If anything, I feel lighter and more agile without all that blood weighing me down."

Linhardt massaged his temples. "You are terrible patients." He muttered. "And I am a terrible doctor." He raised his voice to a normal level. "Fine, you're free to go."

"All right!" Balthus shouted. "Oh, and one more thing, Yuri?"

"Yes?" Yuri replied.

In one swift motion, Balthus grabbed Yuri by the shoulders and kneed him in the crotch, causing him to double over. Everyone in the party, both male and female, winced at that.

"That's for lying to us and pulling dirty tricks." Balthus said, arms crossed.

"Okay, okay, I get it." Yuri squeaked. He took a breath before slowly straightening back up. "I'm sorry." He said, voice returning to normal. "I was a fool. I'm sorry for using you. Truth is, I need you. You've always been there for me and here I am betraying your trust."

"Glad you get the picture." Balthus said, smiling. "Because if you ever use us like that again you'll be getting way more than a knee to the crotch."

"Like a face full of fire." Constance said, briefly igniting her hand as an example before extinguishing it.

"Bottom line, don't involve us in a scheme without asking." Hapi said.

Yuri held his hands up in surrender. "I said I get it. Now are we going after Aelfric or not?"

"You bet we are." Balthus said. He turned to Byleth, Jeralt, and the Students. "You coming?"

"Well duh." Byleth said.

"Let's go!" Claude shouted, raising his now in the air. "Best Friend Squad… to battle!"

"We're still not calling ourselves that!" Byleth, Dimitri, and Edelgard chorused.

The group had zero issue finding Aelfric. As they had deduced from the boom, Aelfric was in the Cathedral above them. It turned out he'd damaged a part of the floor with a spell. If Byleth remembered correctly, there had been a mural of Seiros there.

"So, you followed me!" Aelfric shouted. "You should have left me alone!"

"Aelfric!" Rhea shouted. "How dare you damage the Cathedral! It took many years to build this holy place and since it's construction it has never once needed repairs!"

"In that case, I think it might be a little overdue for some remodeling." Edelgard mused.

"Rhea, Edelgard, focus." Jeralt said sternly. At the moment, he became the only person in history who gave both the Archbishop of the Church of Seiros and the Princess of the Empire of Adrestia orders at the same time and be heeded. Even Byleth, who had managed to give orders to all three of Fodlan's future rulers, would never be able to achieve that.

Jeralt turned to Aelfric. "Aelfric! I'll ask you one more time: please stop! I don't want to kill you but if it comes down to it, I will!"

Aelfric pointed violently at Rhea. "So you're taking her side, then!"

"I'm not taking any sides, Aelfric." Jeralt said.

"Hmph." Aelfric hmph'd. "It doesn't matter! You're too late! The ritual cannot be stopped! The cup is almost filled! If I must, I shall use my own blood!"

He took out a knife and raised it to his hand. He sliced the blade across the tip of his finger and a single drop of blood fell from the wound. As the drop fell, time seemed to slow. But time couldn't slow forever and the drop eventually landed in the Chalice. Nothing happened.

"What!" Aelfric shouted. "I don't understand! It should have worked! It should have-"

Suddenly, both he and Sitri's body began to glow. They rose into the air and as they did so the glow grew brighter until they could no longer be seen. Aelfric's let out a scream of pain that echoed around the Cathedral.

The bright light slowly changed color from white to black and red. Not only did it changed color but it appeared to completely changed into a black and red sludge. The sludge elongated and as it did so, four sinewy limbs emerged. At the end of each limb was a three clawed foot. Atop the sludge form, two massive, torn, wyvern-esque wings formed. Finally, a head, bearing the skull of a beast none of them had ever seen, emerged from the sludge and the sludge fell away. The beast that used to be Aelfric landed with a boom, destroying more of the Cathedral's floor, and let out a mighty roar.

"Di immortales." Claude breathed.

"Sothis' Beard." Byleth breathed at the same time.

Author's Note: This was kind of a winging it chapter despite the fact that it's basically a retelling of "Return to Me." I suppose that was largely due to the character moments, specifically Linhardt. I have no idea why he's suddenly so into actually doing his job which is worrying because I'm the author. Should I really be confessing this? Oh well. Also, I figure I'd let you know that, yes, that is a leven sword Rhea has and not the Goddess Sword (or whatever it's called) being mistaken for a leven sword.

By the way, did you spot the support reference? If you did, you win 10 internet points. They don't really do anything but they create a sense of pride and accomplishment. I think.

Welp, that's all I've got to say. Goodbye. And remember, if you make a story based off my What If..? ideas, please send it my way.