Lysithea took a deep breath as she looked at the desecrated corpse of the man that had tried to strike her through the fog. She, along with the rest of the Golden Deer and Blue Lions, had been separated and split up into small groups as they slowly made their way through it. Though she was more than capable in her own right, she had to be thankful to Rapheal in front of her. Despite the insufferable oaf that he was, he had served as a sufficient wall between her and their enemies. That had allowed to fight without restraint and if she was being honest, he was probably the reason she was left relatively untouched.
Honestly anything that could've went wrong in this joint mission to suppress Lord Lonato's rebellion had probably went wrong. Bandits were one thing, but to take the force of an entire rebelling army led by a minor Lord was beyond anything they had faced before. It was a life and death situation and she very much preferred to live with limited time that she had left.
The fog that surrounded them dissipated, likely due to the mage summoning having been dispatched, and Lysithea could finally see the state of the rest of the class. It was quite a miracle that they hadn't been wiped out, though the Professor could probably be attributed to that.
In addition to being an effective professor and leader on the battlefield, the Professor had also shown how he had earned the moniker of the Ashen Demon. He fought like a demon unleashed, cutting through swathes of enemies one after another as they rushed at him through the fog. His face was stoic and impassive as it usually was. For his students it was familiar if not somewhat not a comforting sight. For his enemies though it likely a nightmare for them having to fight a being, no a monster, with no emotions.
Lysithea respected him, no she admired him even, but even she had to be a bit unsettled sometimes over how little emotion he showed on his face. She could never tell what he was thinking yet he always seemed to know everything about her whenever they interacted.
Alongside her professor was Catherine. In contrast to his impassive face and calculating sword style, she fought like a beast unleashed. With a face filled with ferocity and determination the wielder of Thunderbrand cleaved through every enemy in her path. Any that stood in her way were struck down quickly by the powerful and unhinged sweeps of the Heroes relic.
As the two cut their way through the main force the rest of the students rallied up and followed them through the path they made.
"Teach really is impressive, keeping up with a Heroes Relic," Claude commented as he and Dimitri joined them. The leader of the Golden Deer knocked his bow and fired his arrow straight into the heart of a charging axeman.
"Indeed," Dimitri replied. "It is almost awe inspiring to see the two fight on the battlefield. If only we didn't have to fight these people, misguided as they are."
Lysithea glanced at Ashe who raced alongside the rest of them. Despite everything, despite the pain and fear etched on his face, he was still doing his best to fight alongside them. He continued fighting even as he shot arrow after arrow against people's whose faces he had clearly recognized. He was much stronger than he looked, but even the strongest could collapse with enough pressure. She could only hope he would get the help he needed once this was over.
No one should ever be allowed to suffer alone aft. If it wasn't for her parents, she would've never had the will to survive after the experiments that had been done to her.
Rapheal suddenly stepped forward and pushed her back. Lysithea bristled ready to shout when an arrow flew through the air and and embedded itself in his shoulder. She didn't waste anytime to raze the area that the arrow came from. Cover wasn't much use when you simply destroyed everything around it.
"You ok there?" Rapheal asked as he ripped the arrow out of his shoulder without missing a beat.
"Thanks for that," Lysithea reluctantly said as she worked to repair the wound on his shoulder. She was hardly much of a healer but thankfully the armor he wore around there had stopped the arrow from going too deep.
"No problem your big br- er I've got your back"
Lysithea sighed. She was probably going to regret this. "You can call me whatever you like Rapheal."
"Really? Thanks sis."
Oh, she was going to regret this. Too late to back out now.
They continued on their where the rest of the students were fighting the remnants of the rebellion and their professor fought alongside Catherine against Lonato.
The noble was impressive, being able to hold his against their combined but eventually his age began to show. He tired as the two quickly chipped away as his defenses and he was soon dismounted by a javelin that through overhead, courtesy of Sylvian.
With the rest of the rebellion routed or killed and their leader on the ground, Lysithea along with a few others made their way toward Catherine who stood in front of Lonato with Thunderbrand at the ready.
"Surrender now Lonato. And face the justice of the church," Catherine demanded.
"Lonato," Ashe said.
The Lord glanced at his adoptive son. Lonato's face softened for a brief moment at the sight of him, but in the end he still picked himself off the ground with his lance his hand. "I will never surrender. Not until the church pays, not until you pay for the death of my son."
Lonato reached within his armor and pulled out a black orb. Lysithea immediately recognized the presence of magic and quickly casted a counter spell to protect herself as everyone else around was knocked off their feet by the resulting shockwave.
She was the only one left on her feet. Even Catherine had been flung backwards, being the closest to the shockwave. Her weapon had flown out of her hands and landed a short distance away from where Lysithea stood.
The orb itself didn't do much damage judging by how everyone that had been hit by it were already starting to pick themselves up, but it had been enough distraction at the Lord as he charged at the unarmed Catherine.
Lysithea was the first to move, she was the only one that could move to stop the Lord at that moment. She stepped in to intercept the charging Lord and fired a Miasma at him. In a surprising display of agility the Lord leaped over the low aimed spell. Before she could fire another one, he promptly bat her aside with the back of his spear. She was knocked onto the ground next to where Thunderbrand had fallen and a sharp pain came from where her ribs would be.
"A child has no place on the battlefield," Lonato shouted as he continued charging at Catherine.
What he had just called her!?
Lysithea screamed in frustration as she summoned a swarm from off the ground to intercept him. He immediately bat the spell away with his spear only to find that the weapon was now just a jagged stick.
"Try to do something with that," she practically dared him as she smiled. It was a bit considering that that had been the last of her spell reserves. If he actually charged her at that moment, she would be dead.
The Lord looked at her in anger which was distraction enough for Catherine to get up from off the ground and walk up to him. She tapped his shoulder, smiled as he turned to look at her, and proceeded to sucker punch him in the face. Even without Thunderbrand the woman was still perfectly capable of brawling with her fists.
Lonata glared at Catherine, spit out a tooth, and then proceeded to reply with his own punch in kind.
As the two brawled, Lysithea forced herself to get up in order to pick up Thunderbrand which had fallen near her. She had the intention of returning it to its intended wielder.
Catherine got gotten the upper hand for the moment as she blocked a strike with one arm and backhanded Lonato in the stomach with the other. However, the Lord had one more trick up his sleeve as he pulled out a knife and attempted to stab at her from above. Catherine was able to grab the hand that held the knife and stopped the blade from embedding itself into her face. However, the combined weight of the Lord's body and armor, along with an inconveniently placed rock on the ground behind her, caused her to trip backwards with Lonato still on top of her. She struggled to push back as the knife inched closer and closer to her eye.
Seeing this, Lysithea charged and held Thunderbrand over her head. The relic answered her call, the crest of Charon activated, and Lysithea cleaved through Lonato's armor with a single swipe of the blade. The man collapsed, his body giving out on top of Catherine as he bled out on top of her. Catherine pushed shoved him off and quickly got up.
"Thanks kid."
Lysithea had barely heard it along with Ashe's screaming. She was too busy trying to catch her breath and processing what had just happened to worry about that.
That feeling that that orb had given upon release. She immediately recognized it as the same magical signature as the people that had experimented on her all those years ago. Was the lord working with them, or was he simply being manipulated? She needed answers but she had just struck down the one man that could've given them to her.
She then realized that that wasn't the worst of her problems. In a fit of panic, she had taken a Heroes Relic out of a Knight of Seiros's hands, activated its power, and revealed her second crest to anyone who saw. Only those with a crest Charon could make the blade glow as it did in her hands right now.
Lysithea quickly dropped the blade and glanced behind her to see the majority of the Golden Deer and several of the Blue Lions look at her in shock. Felix in particular gave her look that was a mixture of surprise, curiosity, and even interest.
"Lysithea," Catherine walked up to the mage.
Lysithea finally realized how disrespectful it was to throw a Heroes Relic onto the floor and kneeled to pick it up. She quickly handed it back to Catherine. "I apologize for that."
"No apologies are necessary. If anything, you probably saved my life." Catherine took Thunderbrand in her hands and inspected it carefully. "That was the crest of Charon you just used?"
This was bad. This was really bad. Of course, Catherine would recognize the same crest that she had. It would be disastrous to lie to her about that.
"Yes, it was," Lysithea had no choice but to finally admit it.
"Don't you have the crest Gloucester though? Pretty sure I saw it a few times during the fight."
No point lying about that one either, not with Lorenz nearby looking absolutely flabbergasted at her. Before Lysithea was forced to answer though, she felt someone place a hand on her shoulder. She looked and saw the Professor standing next to her.
"Perhaps this is a discussion we can have at another time," he said while pointedly looking at Lonato's body.
"You're right," Catherine admitted as she surveyed the remains of the battlefield. "Let's talk back at the Monastery."
Lysithea was quite grateful to her professor, he had always respected her privacy and never pried until she wished to speak, but he was only just delaying the inevitable at this point.