10/30 Wyvern moon
After leaving behind the lands of the monastery they followed the roads that the merchants used to follow in their trips to the monastery.
"The conditions of these roads had always been good. I guess that despite the rivalry between the different houses the Leicester Alliance values trade above everything else" commented his father, which was riding next to him.
"More than trade what they value is the money they can gain from it" Raphael laughed.
"You have a good point there Raphael. We are always competing against each other. If we could get along everything would go smoother" sighed Claude. "But don´t tell the little Princess. I don´t want her to lecture me about ruling a country" he said as he looked to the sky.
As he did during their trip to the north he had sent Edelgard, Petra and Ingrid to patrol the areas surrounding them. His own Pegasus wanted to join them, but he wanted to be in contact with the rest of the group and his father. "You will fly later" he promised him, caressing its neck.
"Do you like animals?" asked a voice behind him, almost a whisper. When he looked behind him he saw Marianne, the Golden Deer student that had almost no chance to speak with.
"Sorry, I didn´t want to disturb you" she quickly apologized.
"You don´t disturb me, I like them. I´ve seen you taking care of the horses back in the monastery"
"They are always a nice company" she shyly smiled, before her face darkened again. "You shouldn't speak with me. I only attract misfortune" and before he could say anything else she rode in a different direction.
"What is wrong with that girl?" asked Sothis, inside his head. "She looks so pessimistic"
"She might have some hidden story behind her"
"Don´t worry Professor. Marianne is not a person that likes to talk, but I can assure you that she is very nice" Hilda said approaching him.
"I hope she is ok"
"I´m sure she will be happy to hear that from you. By the way Professor, when we battle don´t put me in the frontline. I´m frail and I don´t want to get hurt. I´m sure I will be a greater asset for our battles if I remain far away from the battlefront, cheering up the rest of the students"
"What are you saying Hilda?" Claude laughed. "You are very strong. The only thing I fear more than your axe is the little Princess´s one"
"That´s not the thing I want to be praised about. You barely help me, despite asking for your help"
"You are too lazy for your own good"
Leaving them to their small quarrel, Byleth checked all of his students. Lysithea was eating sweets, but every time she put them in her mouth she made sure that no one was looking at her. Flayn was doing the same, but wasn´t really worried about her surroundings and Linhardt was almost sleeping on his horse. Ferdinand and Lorenz were lively talking between them. Raphael, Caspar and Ignatz were riding together, the first two almost shouting to each other as if that were the normal way they talked to each other. Bernadetta and Dorothea were also riding together, but what caught his attention were Hubert and Monica. They were riding next to each other, but Hubert was clearly looking displeased by her presence, a sinister aura emanating from him.
"I´ve never seen him like that. He must reserve that look to those who hates the most." Sothis said.
He knew that Monica used to be by the side of Edelgard too often, but he had the feeling that there was more to it than that.
"Byleth, do you want to join us? You look like a sergeant, making sure that everyone is alright" Shamir said.
Alois and Shamir were at the rearguard of their column. By the look of Shamir eyes he knew that she had had enough of Alois´s tasteless jokes.
"Of course"
"Oh Byleth. It´s a pleasure to take part in an expedition with you and Jeralt. I feel like I was young once again."
"How did you meet my father?"
"Jeralt came to my village with his group of soldiers and helped us getting rid of a group of bandits. I was impressed by his leading aura and when he bestowed his eyes upon me and decided to train me I left everything to be part of his group. It was really an incredible experience. Thanks to him I entered the knights of Seiros and here you see me now. The protector of the monastery" he said laughing.
"I wonder if Jeralt left the knights of Seiros to get rid of you"
"That´s too harsh Shamir! Forgive her Byleth. Her lack of sense of humor is what causes her behavior. If you want I can tell some jokes to improve the mood of our advance through the Alliance territories" he said as he started to search his compilation of jokes.
"There is no need to do it now; you can reserve it for…later"
"I will give my best when that time comes"
He remained with them chatting for a bit, although the one that was talking the most was Alois, since Shamir and him weren´t that used to long conversations. After a while he excused himself and decided to make his way to the front of the column.
"Professor, there is no need to check everything around us like that. I´m sure that if she spotted something suspicious Edie would quickly come to report it to us"
"You may be right about that, but I don´t want to see any of you getting in trouble"
"Thank you Professor. Thanks to you I can be at peace even if I´m not inside my room"
"I couldn´t forgive anyone who could hurt such a cute thing like you Bernie." Dorothea said smiling to Bernadetta, making her blush. "By the way Professor, do you have any plans for the next month?"
"Since we are taking three different expeditions I think we have everything settled for next month. Apart from that I haven´t thought about anything in particular"
"You really don´t have any plans?" Dorothea asked with a surprised look on her face, before quickly changing to a mischievous face. "Then I will take it as an opportunity" she said as she looked at him and at the skies.
Wondering about the meaning of Dorothea´s words Byleth continued his path to the front of the column.
"I can´t wait to see your skills in action, master Jeralt"
"You can just call me Jeralt, Leonie. It´s been a while since the last time I trained you"
"Even if it's true I will always consider you my master. You taught me a lot back in the day" She then looked at Byleth, when she noticed he was approaching them.
"It doesn´t matter if you are Jeralt´s son. I will show you that I´m well prepared for battle"
"Reserve that energy for our enemies." Jeralt laughed. "I´m sure we will be busy shortly. I recall this area from my last expedition. If we follow this route we will be arriving there by tomorrow. We will have to be careful from now on. We will use that place as a camp" he said pointing to a group of large stones that were in the distance. The rocks will act as a cover and there are streams nearby so we won´t have any problems to establish a camp."
"I agree with you, father. Besides, we will have a greater view of our surroundings and there are no forests nearby so our enemies will be spotted if they dare to attack us there"
"You are starting to talk like a tactician Teach. I like that"
The sun was starting to descend in the horizon when they arrived to their future camp. "Good job everyone. We will prepare our camp here; help us getting it ready before it gets dark"
After everyone headed to their respective duties, he waited for his three Pegasus riders to arrive. The first one to arrive was Petra, closely followed by Ingrid and Edelgard.
"Any new findings?"
"The area is clear. We haven´t seen any signs of beasts or merchants around"
"You have all done a great job. My father suspects we will be shortly meet them by tomorrow, rest well and stay alert"
"To rest well we need to eat well, don´t you think Professor?" Petra asked him.
"I agree with her. A good meal would do wonders for me after spending most of the time flying"
"I must agree on that matter too, my Teacher. May I ask who is going to make the meal tonight?"
He was about to say he didn´t know who was going to prepare it when some of his students voices reached them.
"This looks so tasty!"
"Caspar, what are you doing?"
"I´m preparing the meal for today Linhardt. Raphael is helping me"
"Helping? Both of you are eating every last one of them. That´s not fair game. Who chose you, by the way?"
"I did, they looked as interested in making dinner as I did so I thought they could lend me a hand" he could hear Alois´s voice.
"My Teacher, we should go, before we end with our stomachs empty" Edelgard sighed.
In the end he prepared the dinner with the help of Flayn and Lysithea. Lysithea was focused on preparing some sweet dishes as she told him and Flayn was happy to lend a hand with everything she could and her smile grew wider when he told her they were having fish for dinner. After a while they had everything prepared.
"Dinner is ready"
As he said it everyone started to take their sit around the fire. He sat next to his father, which was already taking his ration.
"You´ve always had a good hand with cooking son." He said as he rubbed his hair.
"He isn´t the only one that helped, the sweets are delicious, right Edelgard?"
"I couldn´t agree more with you, Lysithea" Edelgard said with a gentle smile.
"Is there something you can´t do Teach?"
"Telling jokes. You can´t know if he is telling the truth or he is just messing with us" Linhardt sighed.
"Talking about jokes, my time has arrived. I will show…agh!" Alois was about to speak when Shamir put a fish into his mouth.
"If you don´t stop talking dinner is going to get cold, Alois. I´m doing this for your own good"
"Even if we are here to fight I´m happy to be with everyone. I don´t usually cook since my brother is already very good at cooking, but I´m happy to have lent a hand. Professor, you should take a taste of my brother´s food. He is quite good"
"I will….consider it. Thank you Flayn" It was a fact that Seteth trusted him more than before, but asking him to prepare something for him was asking too much.
They spent the rest of the time eating and chatting. He made sure that everyone was enjoying their time, although his eyes were inexplicably attracted to Edelgard. She was sitting next to Hubert, who appeared to be acting as a wall between her and Monica.
"I wonder what kind of problem they have over there" He thought. He was tempted to ask, but he didn´t want to endanger their teamwork, not before a battle at least.
…..
"It´s time to rest, we will resume our march tomorrow at dawn. Make sure that you are well prepared since it is highly possible that we face our enemy before the end of the day" he then looked to Alois and Shamir. "Alois, I leave you in charge of the boys, Shamir, the same with the girls. I will prepare our strategy for tomorrow with my father"
"Leave it to my Byleth. I won´t disappoint you"
"You have already heard him, it´s time to get some rest"
After dispatching both of them and the rest of the students he entered the tent he was sharing with his father. They had three big tents prepared, two for the students and one for him and his father. Since it was highly probable they would face their enemies tomorrow he couldn´t allow his students to chat until late, even if he wanted them to enjoy their time together.
"Here is the map of our surroundings." Jeralt explained to him as he entered the tent. This area is highly used by merchants that head to the territories of Riegan. Since those are the ones that are attacked the most it is highly probable that an attack is going to happen there."
"How about these bridges?"
"Several rivers and streams cross this area and there are some forests as well so this area is well suited for ambushes. The enemy surely knows about it, but we could use the terrain to our own benefit as well"
"We could use the bridges as bottlenecks. We have plenty of mages and archers as well as flying units. If we use distance as our fighting method and defend the area of the bridges we could stop our enemy even if they had the numbers"
"The only problem is going to be the wolves. They have quite the size, but they are not invincible. A well-aimed attack will do short work of them."
"That´s what we will be doing then"
"I´m looking forward to our fight. I want to see with my own eyes the training you have given to your students"
"They won´t disappoint you, father" he promised with a smile on his face. He then looked to the relic he had received from Lorenz in their last expedition to the Leicester Alliance. "A magic user could do a great use of it" he thought, the image of a young girl coming to his mind.
…..
"We have finally arrived. And the situation doesn´t look fine" he said as he saw a group of soldiers and wolves chasing panicking merchants. "The bridges are in control of our enemies, if we don´t act quickly they are going to be slaughtered." He then looked to his students. "Archers block the nearest bridge to our side. Mages accompany the advance of our infantry to the south. We need to arrive to the bridge as soon as possible"
"I can buy some time warping you there" Lysithea said, holding the relic he had given her the very same morning.
"Do it! Make them regret the day they were born!" he shouted to all of them. "I give you the control of the ground troops, father"
"Hell yeah!" shouted Caspar.
The students around him disappeared as he appeared on the group of warriors guarding one of the bridges.
"What?!"
They didn´t have time to react as they were swiftly decapitated by the Sword of the Creator. Cutting the ropes of the bridge it started to descend, but he didn´t have time to check the advance of his father and the rest of the students. He had to save the merchants.
"Over here!" he shouted as they were running away from one of the wolves. "We are here to rescue you"
"Thank Goodness, kill that beast before it kills all of us!" cried one of them.
The giant wolf suddenly stopped the moment he saw him ridding his Pegasus. It then charged at him with the mouth wide open.
In a split of a second he changed the direction of his flight, avoiding the beast´s attack. He then counterattacked cutting the tendons of the hind legs of the beast.
With a horrifying howl the beast cried the moment his sword bit its flesh. It tried to throw him a tree, but it was suddenly attacked by Edelgard and Petra. Edelgard released a brutal attack with her axe to the beast´s head and it was no more.
"Good job Edelgard, Petra" he shouted. He then looked to the merchants. "Take my Pegasus to arrive to safety". Edelgard, Petra, each one of you pick a merchant and leave them in a safe place.
"Understood!"
After making sure they were flying to a safe place a howl made him look to the front. More wolves were starting to appear accompanied by more soldiers.
"They are fighting together. Are they trained to act like that?"
One of the cavaliers was charging at him, but he was brutally stopped by the lance of his father. He wasn´t his only reinforcement. After securing the bridge, most of his students were taking positions in the other side.
The magic of his mages were causing havoc between the enemy lines, especially the spells of Lysithea, which had an impressive reach. "It must be the power of the relic". He also saw Monica mercilessly killing the foes that stood at her path with a short blade. "She is really good"
His thoughts were interrupted when one brigand came charging at him, but he wasn´t a worthy opponent to his sword. They were doing short work of the human enemies, but the wolves were coming closer.
"They got me!" he could hear Monica´s voice. He rushed to her position as soon as possible. Monica was trapped by one of the beasts, which was slowly opening his mouth to shallow her.
"Look over here!" he shouted as he released the whip form of the Sword of the Creator to the beast. The attack impacted in one of the beast eyes making it cry an inhuman howl. Focusing on him, the beast charged at him. When it was about to hit him he jumped to one of the sides and then used the whip again to climb the beast´s back. The giant wolf was in a frenzy state trying to get rid of it, but it couldn´t. Climbing to its head he started to cut through it. The beast blindly charged against the enemy´s army, impacting with one of the wolves. The impact was so brutal that both of them fell to the river next to them.
Byleth felt the hit of the cold water as he tried to arrive to the bank of the river. Both beasts were trying to do the same, but the half-blinded one was in a berserk like state and was attacking the other one.
"Only a bit more" he thought.
He was already getting up when he received an impact from a rock. The impact sent him to the ground again. He felt an intense pain in the area of his ribs. "I must have broken a pair of them at least" he thought. Coughing a bit of blood he crawled to the Sword of the Creator, which shined with renewed energy the moment he touched it with his bloodied hand. He then got up, but he wasn´t in the bank of the river anymore, but in Gronder.
"Press forward! This is the time we have been waiting for! I will make death rain upon them as they did to our brethren." Macuil shouted next to him casting giant meteors that were falling on the ground.
"Why they have an army of such a size?" complained Indech, shooting arrows at an inhuman speed.
"The argarthans must be aiding them." said Cichol, which was flying above them, riding a wyvern of a magnificent size.
"They will fall as well. Don´t let them escape!" he ordered. "I will recover you mother. I won´t let them escape unscathed of the crime they have committed" he said as he cut his path through the enemy lines using his holy sword. Human or argarthan it didn´t matter, his sword cut through them as if they were made of butter. He then looked to the top of a hill a few meters from him. He was there, wielding the Sword of the Creator, accompanied by two mages that appeared to be agarthans"
"Come here Nemesis, you will pay for your crimes here and now! I will have my revenge!"
"You are a fool if you think you can defeat me when I have the power of a god." Nemesis said, he then looked to the mages around him. "Destroy her, made her rot in hell"
A tempest of fire and lightning fell upon him, but he didn´t back down. He continued slaying enemies using his immense strength. "Is this the power of a god?" he laughed. "I will crush all of you like the unworthy bugs you are" he then directly looked at Nemesis into the eye. "And you will pay the most for it. When I lay my hands on you, you will pray for your death. Your suffering has just begun!"
He was within reach. He was about to attack him, when a shadow stabbed him in the back, making him momentarily lose all of his strength.
"You are a fool Seiros, we know the weakness of your kind. You will pay your insolence trying to face us" said a pale man with a sinister smile on his face, which was wielding a sword with strange glyphs on it. "Kill her and fulfill your destiny, king of liberation"
"It will be a pleasure" Nemesis said as he approached.
"It cannot end like this" he thought, closing his eyes.
"I´m sorry Nemesis, but I can´t allow myself to be on the losing side"
"Wilhelm, you traitor!"
"I have an empire to fight for. I will do anything to fulfill my own dreams"
Wilhelm had stopped the attack aimed to him; regaining his lost strength he attacked the argarthans surrounding both of them, slaughtering them like the animals they were. He was about to face Nemesis once again when he disappeared in a purple cloud.
"Don´t run away coward!" he shouted, but it was already too late.
Seeing the disappearance of its leader, the enemy army was running away in disarray.
"We have won an important battle" Wilhelm said next to him.
"It isn´t enough until they disappear from this world" He then looked to Macuil. "Macuil cast a real hell upon them, don´t lend any of them survive"
"It will be a pleasure" Macuil said with a sadistic smile on his face, he extended his arms and a few seconds later a real inferno unfolded in front of them, the cries of people being burned alive filling their ears, the smell of burning flesh everywhere.
"Such a waste of resources. Some of them could have fought for our cause" Wilhelm commented, although he was more curious than displeased by the massacre happening in front of him.
"Those who fight against our creator don´t deserve a second opportunity. Don´t question my methods." He then looked to his own reflection on his shield. The determination filling his green eyes were irradiating an energy rivaling the sun itself.
"My Teacher!"
Edelgard was next to him, an axe in her hand. "There are too many of them!"
The pack of wolves had grown into an impressive size. His father and the rest of students were trying to repel them, but their numbers were just increasing. If he wanted to save everyone he didn´t have any other option, but to fight back.
"We don´t have time to run away. I will use the power of the Sword and my crest to its maximum power" he said, although his blood was feeling like it was boiling.
"But you are injured."
"Don´t worry Edelgard, I will get through this. For you, for the rest of my students" he said smiling to her despite his pain, he then charged to the enemy wolves.
Letting the power of the crest of flames extending through his body he accumulated his energy on the sword, which was shining as the sun itself and released it at once using his sword as a whip. Each time that the sword impacted against an enemy it released potent explosions that also damaged the surroundings. When the sword returned to its original form he could see the devastation he has caused. All of the wolves were death and most of the soldiers too, but it came with a price. He was completely exhausted and he had to grasp the sword to avoid collapsing from exhaustion.
"What the hell had just happened?" said an armored knight looking at its surroundings, he then looked at him. If I kill you I´m sure I will receive a generous reward" he said, as he charged at him with his lance.
He was almost on him when he heard the clash of iron against iron. When he looked again he could see a familiar back in front of him.
"You must be the leader of the assaulters. I won´t let you lay your hands on him!" Edelgard said as she was blocking the attack. She then released a brutal blow to the knight that fell to the ground never to move again.
"It´s over" he thought.
Edelgard approached him and helped him to get up again. "My Teacher, you look completely exhausted. Even though the use of the Sword was decisive for this battle I hope you don´t have to use it more anytime soon. I wish I could do something more for you"
"I hope that as well. You don´t have to worry Edelgard. You have fulfilled your role as well as I expected"
They reunited with the rest of the group. Most of them were exhausted, but none was particularly injured.
"Impressive show of force, Professor" said an unusually awakened Linhardt. "I never thought your body could have so much power" he said as he applied the physic spell on him.
"We also did our part, Linhardt!" shouted Caspar "Although it is true that the Professor is really strong"
"You have earned a good rest Teach. That was a good show"
"Where are the merchants?"
"They are over there."Claude said pointing a place where the merchants were talking with Ignatz and Raphael.
"I will go to meet them"
"My Teacher you should rest for a bit"
"Thank you for worrying about me, Edelgard, but after receiving Linhardt´s magic I´m confident I can walk a bit on my own."
He left the rest of the group and headed to the small hill where the merchants were chatting.
"Thank you so much. We´re safe and is all due to your efforts! I don´t dare to imagine what would have been of us if you hadn´t appeared." One of the merchants said.
"A happy ending for everyone" Raphael said with a smile.
"Were you heading to the Riegan Dukedom?" Ignatz asked.
"We were, I´ve heard rumors about the dangers of the route, but I never expected to see a horde of wolves like that. Ignoring the capital is impossible in terms of profit. I don´t understand what Count Gloucester is thinking"
"This is the Count´s doing?" he asked remembering the time they have spent at Gloucester.
"Looks that way. He may be displeased by the trade routes contributing to the wealth of House Riegan. It seems like he has been at odds with them forever. They say even the previous Duke Riegan´s death…"
"It cannot be…" said a surprised Raphael.
"It´s only a rumor but I think there is some truth behind it. He invited the duke to his estate to strike a deal on some valuable art pieces. The Duke accepted and was accompanied by other two merchants, but a misfortune happened and they all died, although the circumstances surrounding their deaths remain unclear" he then looked to Byleth. "I will generous reward you for saving our lives. Since you came from Garreg Mach I will send your reward to that place. Now if you excuse me" he said as he left, accompanied by the rest of the merchants.
"I´m sorry Raphael"
"You didn´t kill them, you don´t have to feel sorry about it" Raphael said, he then looked to Byleth. "Those merchants were my parents."
"My parents were the ones supposed to accompany the Duke, but a more urgent matter appeared and they recommended Raphael´s parents. And now the son of Count Gloucester is among us…"
"Stop there Ignatz. Lorenz has nothing to do with this! Even if his father was responsible of the death of my parents I will never use that as a reason to hate him" Raphael shouted.
"But, if they hadn´t gone…"
"My parents died because of a tragic attack. There is no denying about that. But that doesn´t mean we have to be fighting each other about our past. This battle has made me hungry. I wonder what we will have to celebrate" he said as he left both of them alone.
"Raphael is a very nice guy" Byleth had to admit.
"He really is. Despite all his suffering he has a smile on his face. I wish I could be as stronger as him"
"You have your own strength Ignatz. I´m sure about that"
"I feel honored by your words, Professor. Let´s follow him. I´m sure we will hold a big celebration" Ignatz said with a gentle genuine smile. "And thank you for saving them. If it weren´t for you things could have ended badly.
He accompanied him. He was completely exhausted, but at the same time happy that he could use the power within it for a good cause. "Even if I keep having these visions about a past long ago forgotten I won´t allow them to shape me. I´m Byleth Eisner and I will cut my own path"
"I´m happy to hear that" Sothis said, sitting on her stone throne. "Don´t ever forget what you are. Don´t let the Sword of the Creator change you. You are perfect as you are. But take some rest I don´t want your poor students to get worried about your wellbeing."
"Taking a nap from time to time could be great"
"Great minds think the same" Sothis said, smiling to him as he approached his dear students.
The attack that Byleth uses against the beasts is Ruptured Heaven. Also don´t confuse Seiros with Rhea. They are two sides of the same coin.