When you read this chapter, try listening to "Mezame", a track from Mai-Hime by Yuki Kajiura. You'll thank me later.
Chapter 96 – Hatred (Guardian Moon)
"You look surprised, Pro-fess-or~" Kronya said teasingly. "Are you perhaps stunned by my beauty? I don't blame you if you are. Few ever witness such perfection, after all."
Byleth said nothing as she took a stance.
"Oh. You want to fight me?" Kronya then started laughing as she said, "You're a fool to be so brazen. Just like all those people who came with that idiot next to you. They actually thought they could avenge your old man. But alas, there's only one fix for stupidity."
Kronya drew her blade across her neck as she said this, making a gesture of slitting one's throat.
Byleth could not believe the girl's cruelty. It was as though she cared nothing for all the lives she and her ilk had ended!
No, it was worse than that. Byleth could see it in Kronya's red eyes.
She had enjoyed slaughtering them.
"You bitch…" Byleth hissed.
"Ooh, language, Professor~" Kronya taunted. "You're supposed to be setting an example for those brats of yours, after all."
Byleth had had enough. She shouted as she rushed toward Kronya, swinging her whip sword at the assassin, who laughed as she leapt acrobatically away from the strike. Byleth immediately followed up by throwing a fireball at Kronya. The assassin crouched down, her body moving with catlike flexibility as she avoided the spell.
"You'll have to do better than THAT!" Kronya shouted as she leapt back and swung her left hand to throw a trio of black dart-like knives at Byleth.
Byleth retracted her blade and struck the knives out of the air. Kronya threw another set of knives, with Byleth again deflecting them. The assassin drew a third trio of knives and flung them at Byleth.
As Byleth blocked the first two knives in the salvo, she immediately realized her mistake as she saw one fly past her.
She didn't even turn around to see the knife flying at Anna before time froze.
The third set of knives flew back a short distance in the air before Byleth released her grip on the flow of time. She had only wound back two seconds. She knew she was going to need the Divine Pulse as much as possible for this fight, and the longer she rewound time, the longer it would take for the power to return.
Byleth blocked the knives again, this time ensuring she got all three.
Kronya, seeing the knife she'd intended for Anna being blocked, frowned and said, "Phooey. I was hoping you'd miss that one. I wanted to see how you'd react to that stupid redhead dying on you."
"You leave her out of this!" Byleth shouted as she flung a Thunder spell at Kronya.
Kronya smirked as her three coattails moved, stabbing into the ground and launching her into the air. The Thunder spell passed harmlessly beneath the assassin as she landed on a thick tree branch with all the grace of a feline.
"Wow, Professor, your aim sucks!" Kronya taunted. "You'll never avenge your father at this rate!"
Byleth let out a loud snarl as she lashed the Sword of the Creator up at the branch Kronya stood on, slashing through its base. Both Kronya and the branch began to fall, but the assassin kicked off the tree and landed on another branch. Byleth was quick to lash at her again and again, but Kronya kept avoiding every strike, jumping from tree to tree.
"Are you trying to bore me? If this takes too long, I might be forced to escape. Oh, or do you simply intend to let me go? How accommodating of you!"
Kronya turned around on the branch she stood on and stepped forward. As gravity pulled on her, her coattails wrapped themselves around the branch and she swung herself to look at Byleth while hanging upside-down. The assassin's large breasts touched her chin as Kronya winked at Byleth and blew her a kiss.
"You look so much cuter when your frown's upside-down," Kronya said flirtatiously. "That is, for a lowly mongrel."
"Shut up!" Byleth shouted as she released another fireball.
Kronya's tails released their grip on the tree branch, allowing her to fall past the fireball. But then, to her surprise, she saw another fireball flying where she was falling.
The orange-haired assassin vanished just before the fireball would've hit her. Milliseconds later, Kronya reappeared above another tree branch. She fell again, using her tails to grab the branch and swing her so she landed on the ground after an aerial flip.
Kronya spun around after landing to see Byleth charging at her. The bluette let out a yell as she swung her blade at Kronya, who deflected the strike with Athame. However, Kronya was forced to stumble a bit from the sheer force of the blow. Irked at this, Kronya swung one of her bladed tails at Byleth, who deflected the strike with her left bracer. Kronya tried stabbing with a second tail from above, but her strike was blocked by the Sword of the Creator. Byleth then countered with a swift slash, only for the third tail to block her counterattack.
The two began a rapid clash of blades as Kronya kept using her tails to try and hit Byleth from unexpected angles. Byleth, however, was not only countering each of Kronya's blows, but significantly outpowered the assassin, forcing her to deflect rather than block. Neither of them could get a serious edge over the other.
Their clash carried them further and further away from Anna as the redhead lay on the ground, trying to recover her strength.
Anna cursed herself as she lost sight of Byleth. She hadn't meant for things to turn out like this.
"Anna!" shouted Dorothea as she rushed over to the wounded merchant.
"D-Dorothea…"
"Hang on, I'll get you good as new!" Dorothea immediately began channeling her power to heal Anna.
"Don't… don't waste too much on me."
"Huh? What? Anna–"
"Listen, Dorothea, Byleth's in over her head. She went after Monica – no, Kronya, she went after her alone. You gotta help her."
"I'll do that after I heal you!"
"I've got an Elixir in my pouch. Left side. Just get that for me, alright?"
Dorothea stopped channeling her spell as she reached for Anna's belt, finding the potion and uncorking it. She then turned Anna over, seeing the various wounds on the redhead's body, before helping the merchant drink the blue tonic. Despite the horrid taste, Anna swallowed it all, and her wounds began to close.
As she finished, Anna said, "Ugh, I hate that taste." She then looked back at Dorothea as the singer propped her up against a tree stump.
"We were all so worried about you, Anna!" said Dorothea. "Why did you do this?!"
"I… didn't want Byleth to get hurt, so I thought to take out Monica for her. But we… we never stood a chance. I got so many people killed…"
Anna grimaced as she thought of the many shopkeepers who had followed in her quest for vengeance. She wasn't especially close to any of them, but they had all been good people. Now, thanks to her impatience, they were gone forever.
Knowing she had to set things right, the merchant tried to stand.
"I can't – Nngh! – I can't let B-Byleth – Aagh!"
Anna's body, still wracked by pain, could not support her, and she fell back against the tree stump.
"Anna, save your strength!" Dorothea said with worry.
"I'm sorry, Dorothea… I really screwed up. But listen, you have to warn By. Kronya, she's–"
"Kronya?"
"She's the one who killed Jeralt. She was somehow impersonating the real Monica von Ochs. Kronya, she's got some kind of weird power. I've never seen anything like it."
"Weird power?"
"Listen, you gotta tell Byleth what I'm gonna tell you."
Dorothea nodded as she listened to Anna's warning.
…
Byleth let out a yelp as one of Kronya's tails managed to deliver a shallow cut to her right shoulder, while the other two darted over her shoulders and slashed through the material of her cloak. Kronya began laughing as she leapt away from Byleth's counterstrike, now standing a good twenty meters away.
Byleth caught her breath and shed her ruined cloak as Kronya brought her tail to her lips and, with a sultry smile, began licking the blood on it.
"Mmm, you're so tasty, Professor~" said Kronya. "It's so good when it's fresh from the wound." Watching Byleth as the teacher looked scornfully at her, Kronya then said, "Have you ever felt something when you killed someone? I get that all the time. Anytime I kill someone, it feels sooo good. Ending someone's life, their story, denying them their future… It's like a rush of pleasure that I never want to end!"
Byleth could not believe what she was hearing. This went beyond mere sadism. She knew full well what killing someone meant, and she enjoyed it that much?!
"So, you know, when I killed your old man…"
Kronya took this moment to begin stroking her body with her left hand. She gave her right breast a firm grope before moving it down her side, stroking her waist before caressing her hip. She then moved her hand to the inside of her left thigh, letting out a very sexual gasp as she touched herself between her legs with her index finger.
"When I killed Jeralt… when my blade was ripping through his guts… I was feeling positively orgasmic! Snuffing out such a long history… I'd do it all over just to feel that again~!"
Byleth was practically shaking where she stood. To hear Kronya talk of her father's murder as something that pleased her was the last straw.
"You…"
Kronya watched with glee as Byleth clenched her teeth in fury and then bit the right side of her lower lip so hard that it began bleeding.
"Oh? Did you have something to say, Pro-fess-or~?" Kronya asked in a singsong tone.
"I'M GOING TO RIP YOUR DAMN HEAD OFF, KRONYA!"
Byleth lost herself as she rushed at the assassin, taking a reckless hard swing at her that Kronya easily avoided. She made another swing, this one without any of her usual practiced skill. Kronya had no difficulty avoiding such a clumsy strike.
As she swung again and again, Byleth shouted, "I'M GOING TO TEAR YOU LIMB FROM LIMB! I'LL RIP YOUR HEART FROM YOUR CHEST AND MAKE YOU WATCH WHEN IT STOPS BEATING! DO YOU HEAR ME?!"
Byleth then extended her blade and made a series of slashes at Kronya, who kept avoiding each strike or deflecting with her tails. Kronya continued to laugh as she dodged and weaved through Byleth's unchecked assault. The assassin was having the time of her life, knowing she had driven Byleth over the edge.
"YOU'LL PAY FOR WHAT YOU DID TO MY FATHER!"
Byleth then made a lightning-fast swing with the Sword of the Creator, so quick that even Kronya could not avoid it in time. Instead, the assassin raised her three tails as the whip blade began to wrap itself around her. The tails prevented the segments of the blade from ripping her to pieces, but now Kronya's arms were pinned to her sides, and her tails were struggling to keep the Sword of the Creator from eviscerating her.
For a second, Kronya had a look of shock and terror on her face as she stared back at Byleth, whose expression could only be interpreted in one way: hatred.
Kronya then smirked loudly, and then she vanished. The Sword of the Creator's segments slashed apart the air where the assassin had once been.
"Fooled you~"
Byleth, her mind so clouded by rage, could not make out where Kronya was. The assassin's voice was echoing through the trees, laughing at the teacher.
The sound of footsteps made Byleth whip around, swinging her blade at the source.
Her face widened in shock as she almost hit Dorothea, who had reacted just in time to deflect the Sword of the Creator. The whip blade's edge narrowly missed the diva's left shoulder before returning to its normal state.
"Professor…!"
"Made you look~"
Byleth had only an instant to widen her eyes in shock before she felt Athame's blade pierce into the left side of her back, making the bluette release a gasp of agony.
"I win~"
"BYLETH!" Dorothea screamed.
Kronya was about to start laughing again when time froze.
"You utter fool!" Sothis said angrily. "This is entirely your fault, you realize!"
Byleth was stunned to hear such a thing. How could Sothis even imply this was her fault?! Kronya deserved to die! She had her right where she wanted, with nowhere to go, and somehow the assassin had slipped through her fingers!
But then her mind focused on Dorothea's horrified expression.
She had almost killed her. In her rage, her hate, she had almost killed Dorothea.
Sothis was right. Byleth was to blame for this mistake.
Time wound itself back as Athame exited Byleth's back. Kronya's distorted voice spoke in reverse before the assassin vanished back to wherever she had been hiding before.
Time resumed its flow, and Kronya again appeared behind Byleth.
"Made you look~"
Kronya stabbed Athame at Byleth, but to her shock, the teacher managed to catch the side of the wicked dagger between the jagged rear edge of the Sword of the Creator. Byleth's arm had moved so that her hand was over her right shoulder, as if she were drawing the blade from her back.
But the quick block had not been totally successful. Athame's blade, though not in its entirety, still pierced a shallow wound into Byleth's back.
"BYLETH!" Dorothea screamed as she raised her hand and readied a Sagittae spell.
Realizing how exposed she was to the diva, Kronya scowled as she leapt back, ripping Athame's edge from Byleth's back and clear of the Sword of the Creator. Byleth let out a loud yelp as the phantom pain from being stabbed in the same spot hit her again. The bluette was now kneeling on her right knee as Dorothea released her spell. Kronya dashed away from the magical projectiles as they pursued her into the trees. The assassin weaved through several trees, causing the magical missiles to collide with the forest until the spell was spent.
"Professor!" Dorothea said in terror as she ran over to check the wound on Byleth's back.
To the singer's relief, the wound hadn't been very deep. It hadn't gotten through Byleth's ribcage, so none of her internal organs were damaged. Still, she was bleeding badly from the wound. Dorothea immediately began healing the bluette.
"D-Dorothea… I…"
"Professor, it's okay. It's not that bad. I–"
"No, no… I… I almost killed you…"
Dorothea looked at Byleth sympathetically as she said, "Well, it's a good thing you got Felix to teach me swordplay."
Byleth was stunned at hearing this and could only manage to give Dorothea a relieved smile as the singer healed her wound.
"Professor, I know you want revenge, but please, don't go overboard, alright? We… I don't want to lose you too."
"Dorothea… Thank you…"
"Well, aren't you two just the sappiest things I've seen all week?" said Kronya as she emerged from the trees. "And here we've got all these trees, too."
"Monica…" Dorothea said icily.
"Ugh, don't call me by that fake name, you worm! I am not Monica! I am Kronya!"
"I don't give a damn what you're called. You hurt our Professor, you killed so many people from the monastery, and now you're going to pay!"
Kronya was silent for a moment, and then started laughing hysterically.
"Y-You?! You think you can stop me? Oh, puh-lease! My powers are beyond your comprehension, you stupid singing whore!"
"Are they? Anna was able to figure out your little trick."
Kronya's eyes widened briefly in concern as she stopped laughing.
"You just make people think you're super-fast, but that's not what you can do. You're able to teleport short distances without the use of a Warp or Rescue spell. You can't do it too often, though, and you can't go too far with each one. That's how you got out of the Sword of the Creator's grip. Am I right?"
Dorothea gave Kronya a smug smirk as the assassin growled.
"I knew I should've killed that redhead!" Kronya scowled. "Oh well, she'll be next after I get rid of the two of you!"
With that, Kronya renewed her attack as Dorothea and Byleth readied their blades.
Making Kronya a deadly threat was honestly quite satisfying. Considering she got shafted so quickly in the game, she deserved better.
The idea of Kronya having a Blink power could've been really interesting to have in the game. I'd have it as follows: The first attack you make against her in a turn is negated, and whenever combat resolves, Kronya teleports to a semi-random tile a short distance away, regardless of the outcome (unless she's defeated). This could've made her a lot more annoying to pin down, even if you Gambit her, and make her an actual threat (she's pretty easy even on Maddening).
On to Byleth, though. Having her give in to hate and then see what it could've wrought was definitely a big thing for her. She needs to learn these things to keep developing as a character. And who better to snap her out of her anger than her future wife? ;)
I've come to a decision regarding Kronya's fate, but you'll have to wait and see how it turns out. I will say this, though: she's going to be around for a good while longer.