7/17 Blue sea moon
The days were passing with nothing remarkable to tell. Byleth noticed that Edelgard was more relaxed than usual and Hubert gave him scorned gazes every time their eyes met at class, but he didn´t mind that.
The vigilance of the monastery was increasing as the celebration was approaching. His father was also taking part in the guards and their interactions were reduced to the brief times they could chatter in the morning and the night.
"So much vigilance and nothing suspicious had been found. Are they really going to do something?" complained Sothis
"The purpose of patrolling is to avoid the apparition of problems. They may have given up in their objectives, whatever they are."
"It sounds like a waste of time though. You could use your free day to leave the monastery. I would like to go to the place where you went fishing before"
"Professor Byleth"
Byleth turned his gaze to the student that was calling from him. It was Felix, a member of the Blue Lions house, who was high skilled with his sword.
"Hello Felix. Do you want something from me?"
"I want to train with you. I think that fighting against strong rivals is the only way to improve my skills and I want to test your sword skills"
"I don´t mind fighting with you"
"And so it ends my free day" lamented Sothis.
Felix looked satisfied by Byleth´s response.
"Finally I have a chance to fight against you. Prepare yourself" he said unsheathing his iron sword.
Byleth did the same and so their combat began.
Felix was fast and he hit hard and Byleth was forced to take a defensive position. Block after block he tried to counterattack, but Felix stopped all of his attacks.
"You aren´t bad"
"That´s not enough until I defeat you" said Felix when his crest activated. A strange symbol appeared on his sword hand and the following hit was of an unprecedented strength. Byleth stopped the attack by the skin of his teeth, but he could feel the pain of his right arm. The crest activated again with the following attack. He had to end the combat quickly if he wanted to defeat him. He jumped backwards and charged to him. Felix did the same, but in the last second Byleth avoided his sword attack and hit Felix´s chest, cutting his breath.
"Ugh"
Felix had lost the positioning, but he was still standing, grinning to Byleth.
"I´m not done yet. I´m just getting started!" True to his word he continued to fight for the next 10 minutes, but the crest didn´t activate anymore and eventually was defeated by Byleth. "As Hanneman said, it is true that the activation of crests could be done with enough concentration and willpower, but it can´t be trusted to win a battle" Byleth thought.
"You did well" Byleth said offering his hand to help Felix, but he got up by his own.
"Your style of combat is completely different to the knights. My interest has just increased. I can´t wait to have a fight with you again"
"Me too. Fighting with someone is a way to discover them"
"I know that you brought Dimitri and Ashe with you in your last´s month mission. I would like to take part in a real battle alongside you"
Byleth looked at him directly in the eyes. "He has a decisive glare and he is strong. He may be a good asset in the battles to come" he thought
"I will consider it"
"That´s enough for me now, see you soon Professor" he said as he left.
"Enough for today wouldn´t you say? You have made a new friend"
"He is just a student"
"With your training obsession you are going to be good friends with him. Everyone is doing their best for their objectives and I´m happy to see that. However, what are you training for?"
"To protect my students"
"An honorable justification, but in a world with so different opinions and ideologies it would be difficult to protect everyone"
"If they all get along there won´t be any problems"
"As you said "if" they get along. You could say for certain that dawn will come after a long night, but you can´t completely predict how a person could react giving a set of circumstances"
"What do you want to say?"
"What I want to say is that humans are really difficult to understand. As a Professor and as a human being you want to protect them all, but you might have to choose one day"
"It won´t be an easy decision"
"Don´t worry too much about it, being inside your head allows too much free time and I end up thinking lots of things. Now that you have ended your training with that student please bring me outside. I want to feel the nature around me, even if it is through you"
He couldn´t deny such request and he also wanted to feel free for a moment.
"Of course Sothis, let´s go"
…..
7/29
Byleth summoned his class. After patrolling every imaginable place in the monastery he had suspicions about the objective of the plotters.
"Hello Professor. If our thoughts are the same I suspect that you have found out the most vulnerable spot of the monastery" Edelgard was accompanied by Hubert, who looked more serene than the last time he had spoken with him.
"The Holy Mausoleum"
Edelgard nodded at his response.
"I share the same suspicions. When we first patrolled the area it was only guarded by Alois and the upper levels were relatively easy to access. It is perfectly plausible to consider it the objective of the plotters."
"I´m glad that all this patrolling wasn´t in vain" grinned Hubert.
They waited for the rest of the students to come.
"I have summoned all of you here to explain you our objective during the ceremony"
"Have you discovered their objectives Professor?" asked Dorothea.
"It´s obvious Dorothea. They wrote that assassination plot of Rhea to make us think they didn´t plan to kill her, but in reality they are planning to kill her" Caspar said in a confident tone.
"That would be too dumb" yawned Linhardt
"We will be heading tonight to the Holy Mausoleum, since it is the most vulnerable place within the monastery and it is highly possible that it's the real objective of the plotters"
"You see Caspar? You were just an idiot. Professor´s explanation makes more sense" Pointed out Linhardt.
"At least I tried to contribute, not like you Linhardt"
"Calm down Caspar. Should we tell the Church about the findings?" asked Ferdinand.
"It would be inadvisable, since they may stop their plan if they know that we are after them. I want to catch the true responsible behind these two month´s events."
"I agree, patrolling it´s too boring" Linhardt pointed out.
"We have a few hours before the sun sets. We will meet at the cathedral, bring your equipment with you and don´t be late, that includes you Linhardt"
"Yes Professor"
Everyone left to prepare and Byleth did the same heading to his room. He was sharpening his sword with a whetstone when he heard a knock on his door.
"Come in"
It was his father, he was wearing his usual armor and he was holding a silver lance.
"Hello son, I see that you are preparing too"
"We will be protecting the monastery in case that something happens"
"Everyone is alert and prepared for battle. I wouldn´t mind if they come. Patrolling is too boring for me" he laughed. "I know that you are well prepared but just in case I wanted to give you this" he said giving him a pair of bottles. "It is holy water; it will raise your resistance against magic. I´ve never liked mages and their dirty tricks and I always bring a handful of them"
"Thank you father. I will share it too with my students"
"You have really grown fond of them." he smiled. "Seeing that side of you makes me feel happy. I will join the knights now, we will talk later"
"Good luck father"
Wavering his hand, his father left and Byleth reassumed his own preparations.
….
Byleth arrived to the cathedral and short after Edelgard and Hubert arrived.
"The rite of rebirth is about to begin, we will find out soon if our deductions were correct" commented Hubert.
"Hello Professor" Seteth approached him accompanied by Flayn. "I see that you have summoned your students too. We will be vulnerable since the rite begins. You have to protect the monastery while we attend the ceremony. We are relying on you"
"May I let you on in something Professor? My brother can be a bit callous. He told me that he was concerned about you, and hinted that, perhaps you would be better off patrolling a coffin" said Flayn with a mischievous smile on her face.
"That was just a joke Flayn. Please just remain by my side and don´t cause any more trouble" said Seteth, that looked like he was in a bit of trouble. "We will be heading to the ceremony good luck to all of you"
As they left Hubert was slightly chuckling.
"A coffin, sounds interesting"
When the rest of the students arrived, Byleth looked at them and explained their battle strategy.
"There is only an entrance so we will be cutting their retreat in case they are already there. We will use our usual battle formation. Edelgard, Ferdinand, Petra and Caspar in the front lines, Linhardt in the middle and Dorothea, Hubert and Bernadetta in the rearguard."
They started to descend the stairs that led to the Holy Mausoleum. After they passed the first floors, the stairs started to get narrower, only allowing them to continue in a single line. They were in complete silent and Byleth could hear Edelgard´s breath behind him. He could smell her scent coming from her too. After a few minutes they arrived to what appeared to be a giant crypt, but they weren´t the only ones there. A big group of soldiers and mages were already there, wearing what appeared to be the church´s uniform.
"How is this possible?" wondered Byleth, but his attention was immediately drawn by the dangerous aura emanating from a black knight, mounting an armored horse, wearing a giant scythe.
Noticing them, a mage that was in front of a tomb at the bottom of the mausoleum started to give orders to their troops.
"The central Church sends students to fight for them. Kill them like dogs for being the executioners of the central Church´s will"
"Our enemy appears to be searching Seiro´s remains. I don´t understand the reasons but we must stop them my Teacher"
Byleth analyzed the situation. There were three paths to the tomb where Seiro´s remains were located. The sides to the right and the left were more heavily guarded than the path through the center, but he sensed that the black knight in front of him wasn´t an ordinary enemy.
"We should avoid that one" Edelgard said looking at him. He looks too strong.
The enemies were preparing battle formations against them, but the mysterious knight didn´t seem interested in those commands. "Could it be that there is someone else interested in the tomb raid?" Byleth wondered. There wasn´t time to waste.
"Ferdinand, Caspar, Linhardt and Bernadetta to the left! Edelgard, Petra, Hubert and Dorothea to the right. I will take the middle"
"My teacher…" when Byleth looked at her he sensed fear in Edelgard´s eyes. It was the first time he had seen something like that.
"Don´t worry. Follow my command and we will meet at the other side" he reassured her.
One of the church members came rushing to him, but Byleth did a quick job of him, spilling the first blood.
The Tomb was quickly engulfed in battle cries and screams, although fortunately he couldn't hear any painful screams coming from his students.
As Byleth approached the knight he could sense an ominous aura emanating from him. His enemy was completely covered in armor, but the most unnerving feature was his helm. Two red orbs in a face with a metal smile. "The death itself" Byleth thought.
There were still a few meters of separation between them when Byleth heard his metallic voice.
"As moths to flame"
He charged at him, Byleth released a fire spell, but the Death Knight destroyed it with his scythe. He was already on him and Byleth was forced to jump to a side.
"Your death is inevitable. You should have chosen another path"
"If you are so sure about that come and kill me"
Hearing his response the Death Knight laughed, his laugh was distorted by the armor he was wearing, but Byleth felt a faint sense of familiarity. His enemy was preparing another charge. Byleth knew that he needed to dismount him if he wanted to have any chance of winning. "I´m sorry about what I´m going to do"
The Death Knight was already charging at him, his scythe emanating a dangerous light. Byleth ran at him and barely evading the scythe´s trajectory he cut one of the horses leg off.
Losing control of his mount, the Death Knight fell to the ground. The area was filled by the cries of the fallen beast, until he was brutally silenced by his former rider.
"Interesting, try to do the same to me" he said charging at Byleth.
With his sword Byleth stopped the hit that was aiming to his head. The scythe had an incredible reach and Byleth was unable to get closer to his enemy. Swing after swing Byleth was avoiding death itself. He knew that his silver sword was strong, but it wouldn´t resist for too long at this rate. Feigning an attack with his scythe the Dark Knight used thunder magic against him. The close distance made it impossible to avoid it. The discharge travelled around his body sending him flying to a column.
Byleth got up splitting blood. The Death Knight was quickly approaching him, the red orbs of his face completely focused on him. Byleth prepared himself. If he wanted an opportunity he had to use all of his strength. He closed his eyes.
"I won´t die today"
When he opened his eyes, he felt a familiar itching in his right hand. He had succeeded at activating his crest at his will.
The sword met the scythe with reinvigorated force, the impact between them sending red sparks.
The Death Knight was laughing.
"You are not holding back, this is what I was waiting for. Allow me to reciprocate"
Imbuing his scythe with the power of his thunder spell the dark scythe started to emit a cyan light. Red and blue sparks start to escape with each blow. No one of them was relenting, but both of them knew that it would probably end with the death of one of them.
…..
"Their soldiers are weak, they didn´t expect us" said Petra while she avoided a spell directed at her as she killed another archer.
"They are no rival to us" Edelgard smiled. Their forces were advancing on both sides, but the path of the middle was the witness of a brutal battle between Byleth and the Death Knight. Her heart almost stopped when she saw her teacher splitting blood, but despair turned into relieve when he saw him standing again against his foe.
"We must continue, the Professor is holding the biggest threat, we have to reciprocate"
"Of course Edie" Dorothea said while she released a powerful thunder spell.
"It would be bad manners if we didn´t" chuckled Hubert mercilessly killing an armored soldier with his magic.
Edelgard looked to her left. Ferdinand and the rest of his group were quickly advancing, sending his foes in disarray. "Only a bit more and this will end" she thought.
"Enemy reinforcements!" shouted Petra.
A group of enemies had appeared at the entrance of the room.
"We don´t have enough time to fight against them. Press forward!" she ordered
…..
Byleth was accumulating his energy in his sword that had started to glow red.
"Are you preparing a little ruse? It has no use your life will end here now, it´s your fate"
The Death Knight attacked with his scythe using a monstrous strength. Byleth stopped the hit but part of the lightning pierced through him. He was bleeding. Catching his breath he could sense the presence of enemies approaching them from the entrance.
"Reinforcements" he thought.
A swordsman was charging at him, but was sliced in half by the Death Knight.
"Don´t disturb us. He is mine"
Seeing an opening Byleth tried to thrust him, but the Death Knight quickly stopped his attack and counterattacked.
They were both reaching their limits.
"You are a tough nut to crack, but it´s time to end this. Accept your fate and die"
Their weapons kissed again, but this time a violent explosion happened. The scythe was sent flying and the sword shattered. The Death Knight lost his balanced and was kicked to the ground by Byleth. He unsheathed Edelgard´s dagger.
"I don´t believe in fate. I build my own path"
He quickly stabbed him in the junctures of the armor. The Death Knight´s armor was a solid defense, but the explosion had weakened parts of it. He tried to finish him with a stab to his chest, but he didn´t pierce his heart.
The Death Knight hit him with his helm in retaliation sending him to the ground.
"You are…interesting" he said, blood slowly dripping from the places where his armor was severely damaged. "We will meet again" he said while picking his scythe.
He tried to charge at him, but the Death Knight quickly disappeared in a purple cloud.
"Teleporting magic" he thought
"My Teacher, are you ok?"
Edelgard was approaching him, a worried look in his face.
"Don´t worry about me, keep pressing forward"
He suddenly felt a strange feeling of warmth around his body.
"You are making me work too hard today Professor" complained Linhardt.
"Thank you Linhardt" Byleth slightly smiled to him. "With me! One more push!"
The final defenses of the church forces were getting overwhelmed by the attack of Byleth and his students. In a matter of minutes the remaining enemy forces were dead or out of combat.
"Fools! It is too late. I have already broken the seal. Now I will take… a sword?"
The leader of the incursion was holding a sword that had an unusual design. The center of the base of the sword bore a circular hole, as if something had been taken from it. Before the mage could make use of it Byleth hit him and took it.
The moment his hand touched it the sword started to shine with such intensity that it looked as if the sun had descended to the mausoleum. The mage tried to use a dark spell against him, but Byleth destroyed it with a swing of his sword.
"Impossible" murmured his enemy.
…..
The light emanating from the sword was incredible. "The sword of the Creator has accepted my Teacher. How can it be?" Edelgard thought when she saw that the crest stone was missing.
The mage was desperately using magic against him, but it was a futile struggle.
"The sword of the King of Liberation, could it be that he…?" Edelgard was fascinated and scared at the same time, but she couldn´t stop watching the magnificence of the newly alive sword.
"Impossible" she could hear the mage murmur.
…
The mage was trying to create a magic barrier around him. Byleth pressed forward and use his newly acquired sword to break through the barrier. As cracks started to appear around the barrier, his enemy started to panic. When it finally broke he was effortlessly impaled by Byleth. When he separated his sword from the corpse the fresh blood on it quickly disappeared.
"It's thirsty" he thought. The brightness of the sword was enough to blind someone but it was extremely cold to the tact. "It is as if I were touching a corpse"
He looked to the tomb that the mage had opened, but it was empty.
His students started to approach him; Edelgard being the first of them.
"This sword, why is it here?"
"The tomb was empty. I don´t know either"
"Professor, you are holding a relic" Hubert said in a surprised tone.
"The sword of the creator" completed Edelgard
"Sword of the Creator?" he hadn´t heard about it, yet it felt familiar to him. "It´s a relic like Catherine´s Thunderbrand then"
"It is the weapon that wielded Nemesis until he was slain by Seiros in the war of heroes" said a completely awake Linhardt. "The sword between your hands is a complete legend"
"That happened 1000 years ago, yet here it is." Edelgard was watching him with a distinct aura to her usual self.
"Intruders! We have to stop them!" Catherine had just arrived with a group of soldiers when she saw the rests of the battlefield in front of her. When she saw the Professor and the students, she laughed. "You have been quite busy Professor; I thank you sincerely for protecting this place. Take the survivors and bring them to Lady Rhea. We will take care of the corpses later." When she was approaching Byleth she suddenly stopped. "The sword of the Creator, how could you? Bring the blade to Lady Rhea. We must inform her about this."
They left the Holy Mausoleum in complete silence, the swords glow had diminished, but Byleth could sense a strange power beneath its surface.
When they arrived to the to the audience room Rhea was protected by a group of elite knights that included his father. When he approached them the shock and disbelief in his father and Seteth´s face was evident, but Rhea looked strangely pleased.
"You have done a great job protecting the Holy Tomb Professor and it seems that the sword has recognized you as a worth user of its strength" she said looking at the glowing blade.
"I can´t believe my eyes" Seteth muttered.
"I beg you to give us the sword until we decide its future"
Byleth felt a strange feeling of repulse to returning the sword, but he handed it to Catherine. The moment it left its hand the sword lost all his brightness.
"Now bring the traitors"
A group of soldiers entered bringing the survivors of the battle. They wore the same clothes of their counterparts.
"The amount of crimes you have committed is unforgivable" Seteth declared with a serious expression on his face. "Inciting a rebellion, plotting against the archbishop and assaulting a holy place"
"Such amount of crimes cannot be ignored" continued Rhea. "Your very existence is corrupted. May death purify the souls of these sinners"
"We were tricked! This wasn´t supposed to happen!" cried someone of them.
"It doesn´t matter what you say, the crime is the same" Shamir said.
"I will pray for the purification of your souls. May your spirits meet with our creator"
"Such judgment couldn´t praise the Goddess at all!" cried one of the prisoners.
"Cursed Bitch (see note), I beg you have killed a lot of our brethren with such corrupt methods"
"Brethren" thought Byleth "Is he implying that she isn´t human?"
"Bring them to their fate" Rhea simply declared.
As the church soldiers brought the prisoners to their execution place, Byleth looked at Edelgard, who was standing next to him. Her eyes were completely focused on Rhea´s figure, but he couldn´t decipher the emotions hiding under her eyes.
"Are you ok Edelgard?"
Edelgard was surprised as if she were lost in thought.
"Forgive me, I was thinking about the events that have brought us here. I would like to talk about it with you, but this is not the place"
They left the audience room accompanied by the rest of the students. Everyone was in complete silence. Byleth couldn´t blame them, since they have just witnessed the judgment from the archbishop. When they arrived to their classroom Caspar was the first to talk.
"Rhea is scary. She has just sent those guys to their death without blinking."
"If we offend her we can get ourselves killed too!" cried Bernadetta
"Professor, do you think that Rhea´s decision was correct?" asked a serious Dorothea.
"Even if they are guilty of their crimes they should have at least questioned them. I think that we don´t know all the truth"
"I agree with you" Edelgard said. "The execution of all the plotters without a second thinking just makes me feel suspicious about the central church proceedings"
"The central church doesn´t mind to crush dissidents when it falls to their convenience." Hubert chuckled. "We may be witnessing the end of the Western Church"
"Western Church?" asked Byleth.
"I forgot that you haven´t been in contact with the Church until now Professor. The Church is divided in various institutions, each one controlling a part of Fódlan."
"The West Church holds control of the west of Fódlan as its name says" Hubert continued Edelgard´s explanation. "Lord Lonato territories are located within it, but with the death of him and the plotters we may never know the reasons under their uprising and the assault to the Holy tomb"
"The central Church will surely destroy the rest of the western church. If they employ us we may be able to learn more about their hidden motives"
"For the time being we can just wait" Byleth declared. "You did a good job, all of you. You deserve a good rest. I will give you tomorrow as a free day. Make good use of it"
"One by one they started to leave the room, Hubert was waiting for Edelgard, but an exchange of looks made him leave without looking back.
"Professor, did you feel something strange the moment you touch the sword?"
"I sensed an incredible power beneath its surface, yet it was cold as ice to the contact."
"That light means that the sword has recognized you, but it doesn´t make sense. It seems that the legends of the past are returning to our present. By the way, I´m pleased to have heard your opinion about the Church´s methods. Executions without further investigations seems like a waste of resources to me."
"Me too. There are a lots of things that don´t make sense. The Death Knight was taking part in the raid, yet he did nothing to help the rest of the church members and even killed one of their reinforcements. I suspect that there are more people implied in all of this"
"It may be, but we can only make now suppositions. I´m glad that you have defeated it, but you shouldn´t risk your life like that"
"You don´t have to worry like that" he said patting her head "I thought it would be better if he fought against me than with the rest of you"
"Even in that case you should take more care of your life" said a slightly blushed Edelgard.
"Take a rest Edelgard. You did great today"
"You too Professor"
When Edelgard left Sothis voice came to his mind.
"You are right, there is something strange happening here and that sword… I saw how it absorbed the blood of the mage you killed. It has a tremendous power, but I can´t stop feeling that something sinister is hiding beneath its surface. Besides, it feels incomplete"
"You are right. There was an empty space at the base of the weapon and a lot of people were shocked by my ability wielding it. I should ask Hanneman about it"
"I have the same opinion, but you should wait until tomorrow. You have used a lot of energy during your last battle and even if they have used white magic to heal you, you shouldn´t abuse the strength of your body"
"I know"
When he entered his bed, he thought about the events that had happened during the night. He had the feeling that they were facing something bigger than it appeared to be. With that feeling hovering around him, Byleth fell to sleep exhausted.
女狐 means bitch in Japanese, but it is mostly used in cinematic settings or in novels and with an emphasis on the isn´t usually used as a sexual slang, at least in this case is not. You could consider it an old way of being disrespectful against women. In the English version is changed to "monster" if I´m not mistaken and you also have the famous "dastards". I think that kind of changes don´t make much sense. A similar change happens in Edelgard´s support, but that one is justifiable, since it is a strictly Japanese element, with an historical base. I may use an approximation to the term that was used in the support or simply write an explanation here when the time comes.
See you next chapter!