I know, I know, a few cliches will happen here. And there's going to be a few things really grossing you out. But please, just enjoy.
Chapter 69 – Return to Me (Red Wolf Moon)
As Dorothea let out her final scream before being sucked into the Umbral Beast's body, Byleth looked on at the horrific sight with an expression of utmost shock and fear. Desperately, she reached again for the power of the Divine Pulse, not caring when Sothis had to remind her that she couldn't use it again so soon. The power did not respond, leaving Byleth trembling as Anna finished releasing her from the crucifix and handed the Sword of the Creator back to her. The bluette didn't even take the blade in hand immediately when Anna prompted her.
The Umbral Beast let out another terrible roar as it released several more tentacles, which shot out at random toward the students. The students immediately swung away at the approaching attack with their weapons, but the sheer volume of tendrils caused many to get through.
Marianne let out a scream of terror as several tentacles wrapped around her waist and arms and began to pull her toward the Umbral Beast. Caspar made several defiant grunts as he struggled against two tendrils that snared his left arm. Ingrid shrieked in panic as Luin was flung from her grasp and she was lifted into the air by three tendrils around her waist. Annette was shoved out of the way by Mercedes, who cried out in embarrassment and fright as the tentacles that snared her wrapped around her enormous chest, squeezing her breasts tightly. Claude yelped in surprise as his right leg and left arm were grabbed despite his attempts to dodge.
The others immediately responded to such a threat. Sylvain slashed the Lance of Ruin at the tentacles holding Ingrid in the air, immediately severing the Umbral Beast's hold on her. She let out a yelp as she fell, but Sylvain swiftly caught her in his arms. Annette fired a Cutting Gale at the ones holding Mercedes and sliced them apart, much to the blonde's relief. More tentacles then tried to attack both of the girls, but these were intercepted by a Sagittae spell from Constance. Hilda smashed through the ones holding Caspar, but the tendrils then quickly sought purchase with the pinkette, wrapping around her left leg and tripping her. Hilda let out a shriek of terror before Balthus ran over, grabbed Hilda's axe, and slashed the tentacles holding the buxom girl. Meanwhile, just before he was lifted off his feet, Claude let out a gasp of surprise as Petra swiftly slashed through the tendrils binding him. The heir of Riegan gave the Princess of Brigid a thankful smile.
Dimitri heard Marianne scream as she was yanked off her feet and sent careening toward the Umbral Beast. Immediately he leapt up and slashed his lance through the tendrils holding her. Marianne shrieked as her momentum was slowed, but she still ending up flying right into the Prince of Faerghus, sending the two of them to the ground in a heap.
Recovering, Dimitri groaned, "M-Marianne, are you alright?"
"I-I think so…" was all Marianne could manage to say as she blushed fiercely at being saved again by him.
Then, a loud shout of defiance from Jeralt led to the students looking at the Blade Breaker and had them almost panic as they saw he was being bound by no less than six tendrils. Yet despite such odds, Jeralt was managing to hold his ground, refusing to budge against their pull.
Leonie made a loud shout as she slashed her lance, severing two of the six tentacles before another one slammed into her gut, knocking her away from Jeralt. A second later, a blur of red hair and an arc of electricity slashed through the remaining tendrils as Anna freed Jeralt from the Umbral Beast's grip.
"Thanks, Anna," said Jeralt.
"Don't thank me yet!" Anna replied as she jumped back to avoid another tentacle strike.
Jeralt slashed through another three tendrils before letting out a shout and delivering a hard thrust to the Umbral Beast's right leg. His strength, combined with a bright shimmer of the Major Crest of Seiros, led to the blow causing a large gash in the Umbral Beast's leg, to which it roared in pain. The beast turned its full attention to Jeralt and let out a roar as it raised its leg to try and crush him.
In that moment, Byleth entered the fray, sending the whip-like Sword of the Creator forward to slash at the Umbral Beast's left side, the same area where it had drawn Dorothea into its body. The glowing blade sliced through the beast's sinew with ease, making it release another roar of agony.
But as Byleth began readying for another strike, she saw something that made her eyes widen as she let out a gasp. It was only for a moment, but she could see several locks of Dorothea's brown hair within the sinew of the Umbral Beast's body.
"Dorothea!" Byleth shouted. "She's still alive! We have to get her out!"
"Flayn, try and Rescue her!" shouted Claude.
Flayn immediately tried to cast her spell but after a few seconds the spell fizzled out.
"It's not working!" she said in dismay. "The beast is disrupting the spell!"
"What do we do?!" Annette said fearfully.
"We blast away at this abomination until it yields to our might!" shouted Constance as she readied Agnea's Arrow.
"Coco, what if we hit her too?" Hapi said as she blasted away another Sitri clone.
Before Constance or anyone else could say anything, Byleth said, "Concentrate your attacks on its head and wings! Hit it with everything you've got all at once! Give me an opening to get her out of there!"
"You got it, By!" said Anna as she placed her palm flat against the blade of her Levin Sword, preparing to fire lightning from it while the others immediately readied their best attacks.
The Umbral Beast then let out a loud roar as the veins along its neck began to bulge, as though a swell of blood had begun to travel up them toward its head. The students knew it was preparing some kind of new attack.
Byleth knew she couldn't give it the chance to do so.
As the blood neared the Umbral Beast's skull, Byleth shouted, "NOW!"
The students all unleashed their attacks. Swords, lances and axes and gauntlets all slashed and pounded at the Umbral Beast's legs and wings in unison. A hail of arrows from the archers each hit the Umbral Beast's neck, while spell after spell began bombarding the Umbral Beast as it let out an agonizing screech, its attack disrupted.
Byleth shouted as she retracted the Sword of the Creator and leapt at the Umbral Beast, delivering a powerful strike to its left torso before she landed on it. A huge gash was opened in the Umbral Beast's side, letting out an enormous spill of blood, and Byleth could immediately see Dorothea within the wound she had made. The brunette had lost consciousness, and several tentacles were lashed around her in a vile display. Her body was soaked red with blood.
"DOROTHEA!"
Byleth reached in to grab the girl by her left arm and began to pull as hard as she could, struggling against the Umbral Beast's grip. In response to this, more tentacles surged out and began to wrap themselves around Byleth's body, threatening to pull her in alongside Dorothea. Byleth let out several defiant cries as she struggled not just to pull Dorothea out, but also to keep herself from being sucked in.
Just then, a magical whirlwind began to rip and tear at the tentacles binding Byleth's body. The Excalibur spell was immaculately precise, not landing a single cut on Byleth while also ripping apart the tentacles that were rooting Dorothea in place. Byleth looked in surprise at the entrance to the Holy Mausoleum and saw, to both her shock and the surprise of everyone else in the chamber, that the spell had been cast by Archbishop Rhea.
"Now, child!" shouted Rhea.
Byleth immediately reached forward and wrapped her arm around Dorothea's torso, which was now far more exposed within the Umbral Beast's wound. The bluette let out a loud shout as she pulled as hard as she could. Seconds later, the Umbral Beast's grip on Dorothea was lost, and Byleth let out a howl as the force of her pull sent both her and Dorothea flying clear of the monster's body. The two crashed to the ground, but only Byleth made any sort of painful yelp at the rough landing. Meanwhile, Dorothea landed on the ground on her side and, to the concern of the others, remained motionless.
As the Umbral Beast began to shriek and writhe in pain from the combined assault it had just sustained, Rhea shouted to Jeralt, "Jeralt, you must remove Sitri's body from the Umbral Beast! Without her, it cannot maintain its form!"
Jeralt did not reply to this and, with grim determination, charged forward.
The Umbral Beast saw this and shouted, "NO! STAY AWAY FROM HER!"
A flurry of new tentacles came out of the Umbral Beast's body and lunged toward Jeralt, these ones with the intent to skewer him. This attack was intercepted by Anna, who let out a loud shout as she slashed rapidly at the oncoming assault. She was soon joined by Dimitri, Edelgard, Leonie and Yuri, all who slashed through the tentacles as rapidly as they could. Marianne also let out a cry as she cast a Blizzard spell, freezing several of the tentacles solid and causing them to shatter.
But there were simply too many. Jeralt let out a series of painful grunts as he was struck in his shoulders and legs.
"Captain Jeralt!" Leonie screamed with concern.
Jeralt let out another shout as he slashed through the tendrils that had pierced him. His wounds then immediately began healing as Rhea and Flayn both began to channel healing magic toward him.
The Umbral Beast realized Rhea's presence then, and shouted, "RHEAAAAA!"
The tendrils immediately changed their target, and they rushed like lightning toward the Archbishop.
"Rhea, watch out!" Flayn shouted as she ran in front and raised a ward.
The combined assault was too much for Flayn to handle. Her ward shattered after several strikes, following by a tendril slamming into her and sending her into a wall.
"Flayn!"
Rhea then let out a gasp of surprise as the tentacles began to encircle her body. Her ample chest, waist, arms and legs were all bound, with three of them wrapping tightly around her neck. The others, preoccupied either with more tentacles or with the blood clones, could not assist her.
"DIIIIIEEEEE, RHEAAAAA!" the Umbral Beast shouted.
At that moment, Jeralt reached Sitri's body. He wrapped his left arm around her waist, and with a loud shout, he pulled back hard.
The Umbral Beast screeched in agony as it felt Sitri's body being torn from it. It looked down and, too late, shouted, "NO! NOOOOO!"
With the sound of flesh being ripped and torn, Jeralt pulled Sitri's body from the Umbral Beast's chest.
The Umbral Beast's grip on Rhea immediately slackened, leading her to cough loudly for breath as the tentacles fell away from her body. The monster then began to shriek loudly, as though every fiber of its being were in agony as it thrashed around. The bulging veins lining its body began to shrivel, the sinew that comprised its body began to decay, and its bones began to crumble. The Umbral Beast's body simply broke down now that Sitri's body had been removed. And throughout the Holy Mausoleum, much like the beast itself, the blood clones of Sitri and Aelfric began to break apart, leaving pools of blood where they had once been.
Within a half-minute, the Umbral Beast crumbled away, revealing a blood-soaked Aelfric where it had been. The students immediately watched him with apprehension, knowing this was the real Aelfric and not some copy. The black-haired monk held the Chalice of Beginnings in his hands, the cup now emptied of blood.
Everyone watched him warily as he began to stumble slowly toward Jeralt, who held Sitri's body in his arms.
"J-Jeralt, please, give her to me," said Aelfric. "I… I can still bring her back… I can still make her return to–"
Aelfric's words stopped as Jeralt's lance pierced through his heart, knocking the Chalice of Beginnings from his grasp. The golden cup broke into pieces as it landed on the floor of the Holy Mausoleum. Aelfric trembled for a moment before looking down and realizing he had just been fatally stabbed by his old friend.
"Leave her be, Aelfric," Jeralt said grimly, not even looking up at him as he spoke. "Let her rest in peace."
Aelfric let out a painful gasp as Jeralt pulled his lance out of the monk's chest. He staggered back a few steps as he looked down at his body, which was beginning to turn red all over as his skin began to liquify.
Then, Aelfric took one last look at Jeralt and Sitri as he said, "I'm… I'm so… I…"
Aelfric didn't even slump over before his body simply melted, leaving behind only his robes and a large pool of blood where he once stood.
The revolting sight was enough that Linhardt vomited right on the spot, and the rest of the students were left sickened to their stomachs.
"Elfie…" Hapi said mournfully.
"Damn, what a shitty way to go," said Balthus.
As the others were left either disgusted or mourning for Aelfric's sorry end, Edelgard looked over toward Byleth and Dorothea. To Edelgard's horror, Dorothea was unmoving, and Byleth was now with her hands to the singer's chest, compressing it with a look of absolute terror on her face.
Edelgard had never seen Byleth so scared before.
"Dorothea! Dorothea, don't die on me!" Byleth said frantically. "Come on, breathe! Breathe, Dorothea! BREATHE!"
Dorothea did not move outside of Byleth's chest compressions. Byleth could feel the girl's heartbeat, but she wasn't breathing.
The bluette, still soaked in blood, leaned forward and placed her lips over Dorothea's mouth, trying to breathe air into the girl's blood-filled lungs, ignoring the coppery taste of blood.
Nothing happened…
Byleth gave Dorothea another several chest compressions.
Nothing happened…
Byleth brought her mouth again to Dorothea's lips and breathed as much air as she could into the girl's lungs.
Nothing happened…
Again, Byleth said, "Please, Dorothea, wake up! WAKE UP!" as she compressed the singer's chest several times again.
Nothing happened…
The others looked on in fright and worry as Byleth again engulfed Dorothea's lips in her mouth and breathed deeply into the girl.
Suddenly, Dorothea's body lurched, and she made a loud choking noise within Byleth's lips. Her eyes shot wide open, immediately met with the image of Byleth seemingly kissing her.
And then Dorothea felt the blood from the Umbral Beast that was still inside her lungs, and she began convulsing as her lungs tried to expel it.
Byleth removed herself from Dorothea's lips as the singer began to release a series of loud retching coughs, spitting out blood as she gasped desperately for air.
Relief washed over Byleth as she realized Dorothea would live.
Dorothea's mind took nearly fifteen seconds to catch up before she realized what had happened to her. She looked at Byleth, whose face was both terrified and relieved.
"P-P-Professor…" Dorothea gasped before letting out another choking cough.
A second later, Dorothea burst into tears as Byleth embraced her.
"It's okay, it's okay…" Byleth said reassuringly to her.
The others watched with relief as Dorothea sobbed in Byleth's arms.
"It's okay, it's over…" Byleth said to her.
And as the others watched them, Rhea turned as Jeralt approached her with Sitri in his arms.
"Jeralt…" Rhea said, her tone one of uncharacteristic fear.
Jeralt stared at her without a word. Rhea slowly backed away from him, knowing she had much to answer for.
"You owe me an explanation, Rhea," Jeralt said to Rhea.
"Y-Yes… Yes, I do…"
Edelgard looked over at the two, surprised to see Rhea so afraid of Jeralt at that moment, even as Jeralt slowly walked past her with Sitri's unliving body in his arms.
The princess then looked to what remained of Aelfric, and to the shattered remains of the Chalice of Beginnings, before looking back at the two she cared for most.
You know, this actually isn't the first time I've used mouth-to-mouth resuscitation as a way to sneak in a kiss in a fanfic. ;)
Getting Rhea involved against the Umbral Beast kinda made sense. The fact that she didn't help out in the DLC during that fight honestly felt like her being too uncaring. I know she's actually like this, but it felt a bit out of character for her to not help Byleth out in battle while she was around.
One of the previous reviews pointed out that Aelfric shouldn't have lashed out first at Dorothea due to her lack of involvement. You should instead think of it as him just lashing out at everyone, and that Dorothea got really unlucky that she was snared first. And others have pointed out that I'm putting her through too much hell. Unfortunately, that's not the end of it for her; she still got a lot more trauma to go through. But I view her ability to go through such trauma and still come out of it beautiful as a rose as one of her most endearing qualities. But don't worry, I also plan to give her several chapters where she's having a good time (not necessarily the next one, though).
And just so you all know, this will be around when I'm gonna start making things a bit more romantic between Dorothea and Byleth. Not TOO romantic, as they're still teacher and student (awkward connotations and all that), but still, it'll be a start.
And I'm sorry, but I just couldn't help putting in a bit of fanservice. Sorry, but with tentacles, it's kind of an expectation for me. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)