It was clear to Lysithea that something had gone terribly wrong the second she had heard the cries of some Demonic Beast in the distance. It was a primal roar, loud enough to shake the very foundation of the tower and to send most of the remaining bandits in the tower running. She could only imagine what the sort of monster that would make a sound like that or to cause these people run with such unprecedented fear on their faces.

She needed to get the Professor quick, but she was hardly much of a runner, even with her sword training. It didn't take long for her to be exhausted from running and for both Leonie and Gilbert to get ahead of her.

"Go on!" Lysithea shouted to them when they paused for a moment to let her catch up. "I'll be there soon!"

"Stay safe alright," Leonie shouted back before she and Gilbert ran to reinforce the rest of the class.

It was frustrating at times how slow on her feet she really was compared to the rest of the class and how little stamina she actually had when it mattered.

After several frustrating minutes of light jogging through the hallways and a few flights of stairs, Lysithea would finally see the beast that the Golden Deer were fighting. It was a bit, ugly, and loud thing. Its skin seemed to be made of rock or bone which only made it surprisingly resilient to the blows that her class was able to deal it.

Leonie and Gilbert had already joined in the fighting with the latter working to hold the attention of the beast. Raphael who had received some heavy wounds, likely due to his tendency to protect his classmates at the expense of himself, was off to the side being healed by both Lindhart and Marianne.

"Hey Sis," Raphael greeted her wearily upon seeing her as if he wasn't at risk of bleeding to death on the floor. "We got this."

"You most certainly do," Lysithea replied as she gripped her fist and stomped her way over to the beast, fully intent on repaying it some of the damage it did to him.

"I think she's mad," Raphael commented.

"Stay still. It makes it harder to heal you if you move around," Lindhart complained.

She made her way over to Lorenz who had just finished casting a fire spell with his relic and grabbed Thyrsus out of his hand.

"Lysithea what are you-," his eyes then widened as she pointed the relic and began to channel her magic through. "Oh, no. No, no, no! Get out of the way!"

At least three of the Golden Deer would look back having heard Lorenz's cries. Their eyes would widen at the sight of Lysithea with Thyrsus before doing as Lorenz said.

Good now she had a clear line of sight.

The Crest of Gloucester would manifest, and she would release Seraphim. It was an offensive faith magic suited for killing beasts, creatures, or monsters. It would fly through the air, hit the beast in its chest, and rip off a chunk of its armor.

This, along with the numerous blows her class had dealt, disoriented the beast and left it open to being attacked by the rest of the class. It was a chance that neither she nor her Professor was willing to waste.

"Strike it with all you have!" the Professor demanded.

The entirety of Golden Deer would blast, stab, strike, and shoot at the beast with everything that they had.

Claude and Ignatz would shoot at it with arrow after arrow, Leonie, Sylvain, and Lorenz would continue stabbing at its joints with their spears, Hilda and Gilbert would cleave its body with their axes, the Professor would slice through its skin like butter with his relic, and even Marianne had taken a break from healing the stable Raphael to throw a blizzard into the exposed hide.

What would finish it though was another Seraphim that Lysithea would cast through Thyrsus. The spell would slam into the side of its head and cause it to scream in pain before finally toppling over to the side.

Lysithea lowered the staff once the beast was down.

"When did you learn Seraphim, Lysithea?" Lindhart was the first to ask after the entire class took a moment to catch their deaths and process what had just happened.

"A few days ago," Lysithea informed him. "I didn't tell the Professor because I wasn't sure if I could cast it yet." Somewhat like Dark Spikes, Seraphim was meant to deliver devastation to a certain type of enemy which that Demonic Beast happened to be. It was quite fortunate that she decided to learn the spell when she did.

"Was that your first time casting it?"

"Yes," she admitted.

"That was rather reckless of you."

It was actually. Even if it was faith magic trying to cast a spell like that without much practice was dangerous, especially with the extra power that Thyrsus granted to her. "It's fine I was quite confident in my capabilities," she said as walked over to Lorenz and put his relic back in his hands.

"Lysithea are you alright?" Lorenz asked as he took his relic back. "Have you not overexerted yourself?"

"I've only had to use Gloucester a few times thanks to you and Raphael. I can assure that I've hardly pushed myself this time."

"I'm quite glad to hear that," Lorenz sighed.

In the end she had done her part in the mission and she hadn't had to use her Crests much. Her next fit probably wouldn't be as intense as the previous two thanks to them, and she had to be grateful for that in a way.

Lysithea made her way to where the beast laid prone on the ground. "Where did this thing even come from?" she asked.

It really didn't make sense. It was much too big and much too loud for the thieves to have hidden it in the tower without them noticing. You also had to be a real monster or perhaps a madman to try and tame one of these.

"Its… was my brother," Sylvain informed her.

"What?"

This thing was Sylvain's brother? A bit difficult to see the resemblance.

"The relic, the Lance of Ruin, it turned him into this thing."

"Are you saying that using a Heroes Relic could turn us into these things!?" Lysithea pointed to the beast. She looked in horror at the staff in Lorenz's hands and the sword in the Professor's.

"Sylvain, your brother never had a Crest, right?" Claude would be the one to ask.

"Reason why he was lost the right to be heir when I was born," Sylvain confirmed.

"So, I think it's safe to assume that he turned into this… thing because he didn't have the Crest to wield the relic. We would probably be hearing a lot more reports of people getting turned into monsters if the relics were capable of transforming people with the right Crests… that is assuming the Church isn't covering it up."

"If the Church is covering up the fact the Relics can turn people into monsters then we should move cautiously in the future," Lysithea commented.

Claude's theory made sense, but she couldn't help but still feel uncomfortable. Mostly because she refused to consider anyways that her two Crests might actually be helpful.

"It'll still be our best bet to do some research on Relics then if only to ensure that this doesn't happen again," Lysithea continued as she walked up to peer into its mouth. It was disgusting thing, with a large tongue and mouth filled with drool. As if it was still hungering for something even after its death.

"Professor what do you thi- Ah!" Lysithea barely had to time to let out a yelp as the Professor suddenly lunged forward to grab her arm and throw her to the side. He then raised his blade and slashed the beast across the eye as it tried to bite her from where she had been standing.

The Professor tried to swing again, only to be knocked aside by a swing of its arm. It then craned its neck and lunged its head toward Lysithea with an open mouth.

Lysithea took out her blade and pointed it at the beast in a futile attempt to stop it. The Crest of Charon manifested, and she felt her magic being pumped into her sword giving it a red glow. Her body moved without thinking. Perhaps it was instinct or perhaps it was desperation born out of deep-seated fear of death, but she forced herself to move forward and thrust her blade into the beast's open mouth.

She closed her eyes and screamed in pain as the beast's teeth raked her arms. She expected it to bite down, to tear her arms off before proceeding to rip into the rest of her bodies. The bite never came though. In fact, she could feel blood that was clearly not her own pour down onto her arms and body.

Lysithea opened her eyes and found herself staring into two red eyes filled with anger or perhaps hunger. She looked down and saw that its mouth hung open.

Hilda was the first to react by running over and pulling her away from the beast's mouth. Lysithea's blade would come out with only a hilt and a jagged shard of steel remaining on it. The rest of the blade she realized had broken off and part of it could now be seen protruding out of the top of beast's mouth.

The beast finally collapsed to the ground and its suddenly melt away into a black glop. The glop would melt into the air and disappear leaving behind the Lance of Ruin on the ground and blackened desecrated corpse that Lysithea could only assume was once Miklan.

"Looks like those sword lessons paid off," Hilda commented once they caught their breath.

"They did."

Hilda gasped. "Lysithea. Your arms!"

Lysithea looked down and saw the gashes that had gone through her sleeves and raked across her arms. They were deep, red, covered in that beast's blood, and if she looked closely she swore that she could see some bone. "Oh," was all she could let out as a wave of nausea hit her and she felt the strength leave her legs. Whether it was from blood loss or the stress of what had just happened, she had collapsed and would've hit the ground had Hilda not kept a tight grip on her body.

"Marianne!"

The blue haired healer would come running at the sound of Hilda's plea and immediately begin working on Lysithea's arms. Hilda kept her sitting up as ripped off the remains of the sleeves. Lysithea trembled as Marianne healed her bare arms.

"Do you have a vulnerary?" Marianne asked Hilda.

"I have one!" Leonie shouted as she ran over with the familiar glass bottle in her hands. She popped it open and then angled the tip into Lysithea's mouth so that she could drink.

The familiar chilling, yet somehow refreshing, liquid of the healing potion would go down her throat and helped to revitalize her body. Lysithea could feel the wounds on her arms closing at a faster pace as Marianne continued healing her under the potion's effects.

After a few minutes the wounds would close up, though the skin underneath was still red and throbbing. "I'm afraid they'll leave behind some scars," Marianne informed her as she finished her healing.

"Well I'm sure that after some makeup and a bit of conditioning that you'll still be as pretty as ever," Hilda told Lysithea.

"Marianne do you have any more healing left?"

"A little bit why?"

"We should probably take off her shirt then. It's covered in that monster's blood. She could have cuts under there that would get infected if we left it on."

Lysithea's eyes widened and she immediately tried to move away. Trying to get out of Hilda's arms though was like trying to squeeze herself through a pair of steel bars.

She tried to look for help but the rest of the Golden Deer had already turned around to look away or simply left the area altogether.

"Don't be shy Lysithea we just need to check for wounds and get you a nice new shirt." Hilda commented as she kept a firm grim on her arms as Leonie began to tug on the end of her shirt.

"No!" Lysithea shouted too late as Leonie pulled it up and revealed her back to the two of them. They all froze and Lysithea immediately took that as a chance to pull her shirt back down and move away from them.

A few seconds passed in tense silence as the girls of the Golden Deer looked at her.

"Those are some… nasty scars you have under there," Leonie was the first to comment.

"Lysithea. What happened to you?" Hilda asked.

"It's nothing," she immediately replied. "It's from a long time ago." There were scars, many of them across her back and body. They had faded somewhat as she grew but they were still there and very much visible underneath her clothes.

"Those are very old. You would've been very young to…" Marianne voice faded off.

"What happened to you when you were a kid?" Leonie asked as she tightened a fist. "Who did this to you?"

Out of all the people Lysithea knew, the Professor had been the only one she ever trusted with all her secrets. Yet somehow, one way or another, they would be revealed to the people around despite everything that she did to keep them. First Lindhart and Hanneman. Then Seteth. Then Raphael and Lorenz. And now finally the three of them in front of her.

She could run. That was always an option. But they'd eventually catch up to her. Lying wouldn't work either. Now with how much their other classmates also knew they'd easily know she was hiding something, and one slip of the mouth was all it would take. One way or another it would all come out to them. Just like everyone else before them…

"I wasn't born with two Crests." Lysithea's voice was weary as she spoke. There was no point in hiding now, too many people knew. And honestly, she was just tired. She was just tired of it all. "It's impossible to be born with two."

"Then how did you get them?" Leonie asked.

Marianne gasped. "Lindhart was talking to me about Crests and how they could be given to people."

"What does that have to do with your scars?" Hilda asked. She was confused at first but that confusion soon turned into horror as she slowly began to realize what Lysithea had meant.

"A group of mages once invaded House Ordelia's territory. These scars are the results of their experiments."

"They cut into you and put those Crests in you? Why would they do that?" Leonie asked.

"Its Crests. It's always about Crests. People call them that they're gifts of the Goddess, but they aren't a gift. They're a curse."

"I… can understand that," Marianne replied.

"And your parents let that happen to you?" Leonie asked.

"They didn't have a choice!" Lysithea shouted. She wouldn't let anyone insult her parents. Not when they were all she had left. "House Ordelia was being controlled by the Empire. They couldn't do anything as those mages experimented on me, my siblings, and every single child in the household."

"Lysithea… I thought you were an only child?" Hilda asked tentatively.

"I was the only one that survived."

She watched their reactions in silence. The way Hilda gasped, the way Marianne began to pray, and the way Leonie gripped her shaking fist in anger.

"Who did this to you?" Leonie was the one to ask.

"You've seen one of them already. Mages with beak like masks and skin pale as death."

"That's why you were so mad back then," Hilda replied.

"It was the first time I had seen them since they had finished with their experiments. They just left after they got the results they needed."

"So, they threw you away after they succeeded," Leonie said with grit teeth.

"No, I was a failure too. My body can't handle the strain of having two Crests. Ten more years at most. Perhaps less." The horror that dawned on all of their faces and the pity that showed in their eyes, it was hard to look at it all. The only one that hadn't given her that look was the Professor and it was why she had been able to tell him. It was what she had wished to avoid for the longest time, to be seen as fragile and vulnerable. It was just frustrating to be seen as a weak child.

"Lysithea," Leonie was the first to step forward. Her voice was shaky as she reached her hand out. "Is there any way that I… we could help you? There has to be a way to fix this right?"

Lysithea pushed Leonie's hand away before she could touch her shoulder. "The Professor already said that he'll try to find a way to help me."

"The Professor knows?"

"Most of the class does at this point. Apart from Ignatz and Claude, though Claude's going to learn about it sooner or later if he hasn't yet"

"Then that's… great." Leonie tried to sound confident but there was too much hesitation in her words to inspire it. "I'm sure that Captain Jeralt's kid or even Jeralt himself could find a way to save you."

"I'm trying to believe in him, but I have to assume that I don't have long left to live. If you want to help then just… don't get in my way I guess."

"You shouldn't be pushing yourself so much then," Hilda argued. "I'm a delicate maiden but you're… even more. You should have the Professor let you stay back from now on."

"I am not delicate, I am not weak, and I am not a child," Lysithea bit back. "I am perfectly capable of fighting like the rest of you."

"That isn't the issue though," Leone argued. "If your Crests are the reason, you're dying then you shouldn't be using them. You should be staying back and resting as much as you can."

"What could I possibly learn from staying back!?" Lysithea grew angry.

"The Professor has been teaching you tactics, hasn't he? You could learn a lot just by watching."

"I'm not going to stand aside while the rest of you fight."

"Well I can't stand by and watch you kill yourself!"

"I'm well aware of what my body can handle."

"You're only going to end up wasting what little time you have left!"

"It's because I have so precious little time remaining that I can't afford to stay back and wait. If you want to help, then just stay out of my way!"

Marianne flinched at her words. "Lysithea you should-"

"Just leave me alone!" she shouted one last time before turning around and stomping away from them.

She didn't care how much they worried. She didn't care how much she hurt them. She just didn't care. She had other more important things to worry about after all.

Lysithea shot pass the confused looks of the rest of her class as she quickly walked past them and made her way out of the tower.

So… why were her tears threatening to come out? Why was it so hard for her not to cry?

She didn't get that answer even as she stepped out of entrance, even as she collapsed to the ground and began sobbing.

Why did it have to hurt so much?