A Test of Your Character
Guardian Moon
The enemies in their immediate vicinity fell under the breath-taking efficiency the Ashen Demon was known for. Byleth then sent Raoul and two others south to connect with the students on the west-most path and ordered Sanderson to take the rest north to engage the Demonic Beast there and hold the stairs against reinforcements.
She did not want any interference.
On the eastern side of the stone platform, the rest of the Golden Deer house were fighting off the forces that held the ground between the line of the forest and the stairs leading up towards Solon and the Cardinal, with Kronya taunting them all the while. It seemed like she was about to move off and engage them when the sound of Byleth's heels on the stone caused her to turn around.
It was a moment before she recognised her.
"Facing me alone? You're a fool to be so brazen. You'll never avenge your father at this rate."
Byleth's response was to raise her sword and slide into stance. Kronya shrugged "Well, I did warn you."
The girl was fast, striking twice in quick succession and whirling away before Byleth could turn her parries into counters, the strange tails of Kronya's outfit were patterned to be confusing and mesmerising but Jeralt had trained his daughter better than to fall for a trick like that; she kept her eyes focused on the assassin's feet and blade.
Byleth put some force behind her next parry, and the next. On the third their blades locked and in the test of strength Byleth came out comfortably ahead, opening a line across Kronya's collarbone as she was tumbled back, off balance, when the mercenary broke the lock. Byleth advanced, but the girl was quick to recover, rolling to a crouch and pushing off like lightning, scoring a gash on Byleth's bicep as they exchanged positions, turning quickly to not leave their backs exposed to each other.
A roar from the west let her know Sanderson and the others had felled the Beast there and were dealing with the other forces. Pressing forward on the wings of her troop's victory, the mercenary led the next exchange, forcing Kronya to dodge and counter heavy swings; the girl's arms and the blade Athame trembled when Byleth's sword crashed into them.
"Kronya!" Solon called out from above them "The ward holds; time to depart."
"I'd be delighted to join you Solon, just as soon as I finish with my guest!" She called back in a sing-song voice before dropping low to try and sweep Byleth's feet from under her.
Byleth jumped the leg sweep, falling back. Solon muttered something guttural in another tongue and the Cardinal started to gasp and scream. From the racket in the east she judged that the students had engaged the Beast on that side in their effort to rescue her. Kronya redoubled her attack, but Byleth did not allow herself to be pushed back any further. Her face remained a blank slate as she countered each swipe and swing Kronya levelled at her.
Athame was an odd knife, the thickness was on par with a sword, but dark runes had been carved along the blade, altering the depth in strange places. Kronya was evidently practised with it, and well used to the balance and heft, however as the fight progressed it became obvious that she favoured the assassin's quick strike and could not keep up against the conditioned endurance of the mercenary. Byleth's sword crashed heavily against the knife again and again and the assassin began to fall into stances and moves better suited to a shorter blade; something more like a dagger. Athame was too heavy to transition between these forms as gracefully, and Byleth saw her opportunity; catching the edge with her cross-guard she wrenched it aside and swung across Kronya's midsection.
It was only speed that saved her, tumbling back Kronya prevented the wound from being fatal, but Byleth's sword had still bit deep into her side.
"How could I really lose, to a lowly creature like you?" She spat, pressing her free hand against the wound. She readjusted her grip on the hilt, preparing to spring forth once more.
Hoofbeats.
Raoul had joined up with the students in the south, clearing Leonie's path for her. The would-be mercenary hadn't hesitated, her horse thundered up the path, spear pointed directly at Kronya with a war-cry spilling from her mouth.
Several things happened all at once; the Cardinal's screams intensified as she writhed in mid-air, Solon disappeared and reappeared at the edge of the stone platform a dark mist forming in the palm of his hand and trailing down from it like smoke as he approached towards them, the last Demonic Beast called out a death-knell, Byleth started to charge…
Kronya turned her attention to Leonie, and with a speed that defied her wound, ducked to one side driving her blade deep into the mass of the horse. The creature died almost instantly, falling to the ground with Leonie's leg caught beneath it, a sharp yell of pain covering the sound of breaking bone.
Kronya ducked under Byleth's heavy swing and stumbled back towards Solon. Her eyes darted between Byleth's advance and Leonie's open form.
She lifted her blade and threw it at Leonie.
There wasn't a measure of time small enough to describe the moment Byleth had to make her decision in. Attack or defend. Kronya was open, but Leonie was prone. She had a clear shot to the girl's heart, but Solon was almost upon them. Her blade was at the ready to go either direction, the Cardinal was screaming, her opening to take revenge was slipping away.
It wasn't a decision in the end, really. It was simply her honest reaction.
She swung her sword and Athame clattered flat to the ground. Solon gripped Kronya's shoulder and they disappeared into the ether.
~o~*~o~
The dark mist Solon had conjured crept outward along the ground, gaining speed as it spread until it covered the northern portion of the battleground. For a moment, nothing happened, it only lingered around their ankles, harmless.
Then the dead rose and attacked in a red-eyed fury.
Then the Cardinal, with one last cry, transformed into a White Beast.
~o~*~o~
Byleth decapitated the risen creature that had once been Leonie's horse before it could crush or trample the girl further. It began to dissolve into black ash as the dark power that had animated it left, and she scanned around, taking stock of the battlefield once more.
Sothis was furious. She didn't speak, still thinking better than to distract Byleth in battle, but the sight of the undead had riled her like nothing ever had. Even the sense of Wrong they exuded paled before the Goddess's derision. Byleth was careful not to lean on their connection; Sothis's anger burned like the sun, a far cry from any chastisement that had ever been directed at her.
Her troop and the Golden Deer were occupied with the dead rising around them, she and Leonie were alone on the platform. Manuela and Marianne were a ways off, beset by enemies they had just killed, and Byleth's own healing magic was at best still rudimentary. Perhaps she could heal the bruising to Leonie's side and back, but the shattered leg? –Leonie wouldn't be moving any time soon.
And they were right in front of the White Beast, which glowered at them from the rise it perched on. A terrible scream pierced through them, and it's wings expanded to block even the dim light that filtered down into the forest, casting them into shadow.
Byleth took two firm steps in front of Leonie and swung her sword up into a double-handed grasp, awaiting her opportunity.
~o~*~o~
Lysithea was shaking from the sudden appearance of the undead –and worse, of undead who had once been part of her own battalion. Faced with it himself, Claude did not blame her. He stayed as close by as he could, calling out reassurances to her over the steady thrum of his bowstring.
Hubert was pulling his own weight, observing with a sort of fascination as his targets disintegrated in the wake of his magic. His dark chuckles filled the air. And yeah –between the two Claude thought Lysithea was having the better reaction.
He couldn't think about his own reaction just yet. He was absolutely sure he'd have one, but there was too much else to focus on at the moment. His thoughts flowed freely as his body fell into the steady pattern of aim, draw, release. Was Leonie alright? Was Byleth really fighting the Cardinal alone? He would need to switch to an axe or start pulling arrows from the ground soon. Why hadn't the Demonic Beasts resurrected? –Not that he wasn't thankful they hadn't. What sort of spell was this? Manuela was calling him to move up and cover Hilda and Marianne as they advanced towards Leonie. What had happened to the Cardinal? Why did it (she?) look so much like that single image of the Immaculate One he'd found? What had Solon been trying to do with her? What did Rhea want with Byleth?
Was he going follow orders? To try and bring her back to the monastery for answers?
His eyes met her lapis gaze for a split second as she dodged the creature's attack; a blue fire it spat at her like a bolt of Thoron. She had grounded it; broken one of its wings, and it chased her figure about the stone platform as she weaved before it –turning it away from Leonie, Hilda and Marianne!
She backed towards the pillars at the far corner of the platform, and caught his eye again deliberately, raising a brow, head tilting just a fraction back over her shoulder.
He may as well have read her mind for how quickly her plan, her request, snapped into clarity for him. He didn't hesitate in carrying it out; calling up all the archers under his command, including Ignatz and his battalion, to aim and draw…
The tip of Byleth's sword traced figure-eights in the air, keeping the beast's attention. She sliced the clawed edge of a wing that swiped at her, and jumped away from the following back-swing.
Claude's arms strained with the tension of keeping his bow at the ready.
The Beast that had been the Cardinal drew up, preparing another breath attack. Byleth ducked behind a pillar.
"Release!" He commanded and two flights of arrows shrilled through the air to thunder down upon it's back, piercing through skin and shredding the membrane of its wings, the ground around it blooming in a flowerbed of fletching.
It's death-throes were loud but mercifully brief as the white ligaments that made it unravelled and flowed away into nothingness. The ruined body of the Cardinal fell to the ground, surrounded by arrows in the outline of a much larger form.
~o~*~o~
Manuela's voice rang out as she called for the Golden Deer to account for themselves as the last of the undead disintegrated, and Byleth moved over to the edge of the stone platform where her own men had started gathering to check on them. There were a number of burns and gashes in Sanderson's group that she was just capable of healing enough that they would no longer be considered wounds. Raoul and company arrived and he waved her off with a scowl ("Not a scratch on us Demon, looks like all the fun was up here") then the group fell silent. Byleth turned to find Leonie, leaning on Hilda and staring intently at the ground between them, her expression remorseful.
"I'm sorry."
In hindsight, Leonie could see that Byleth had been in control of the duel with Kronya. Had been winning, even. Her intervention hadn't been assistance, she'd charged up without thinking and cost Byleth her vengeance; cost them both their vengeance.
Byleth and the rest of the mercenaries were silent. Leonie tensed like one expecting a blow.
"Next time." Leonie looked up, Byleth's eyes were a shade softer than absolute neutrality, but only that and no more "Next time, together."
Leonie nodded and faced the ground again as Byleth swept past without a second glance.
~o~*~o~
"Did you notice?" Sothis asked as Byleth began making her way towards the centre of the platform, Manuela and Claude approaching from the other side to meet in the middle. "Though the Cardinal was transformed, she did not feel to me as the Demonic Beasts do. The sensation was not… right, I know in my heart that transformation should never have taken place… and yet it felt familiar too."
"I hadn't noticed." Byleth admitted "But…" she trailed off and a tangled weave of thought flowed between them; Rhea had altered her heart somehow, the Cardinals were kept secret, where had Rhea learned to do whatever had been done to Byleth, would she transform like that as well under the right circumstances, what part had Solon's magic played, how was Sothis's consciousness tied to it all?
"I see your point" Sothis agreed after a moment to parse through it all and draw her own conclusions "Little though I like admitting a gap in our knowledge to anyone else, if you will be pursuing these… wicked ones, who appear to be enemies of the Church, it would be best to know all that Rhea does. About them, and about yourself… Promise me, whatever we learn, swear that you will cut a path that is your own. I trust in you –I must, I have little enough choice in in the matter. And yet… I am glad it is you to whom my fate is bound."
Something glinted in the corner of her eye and Byleth paused her stride to look down at Kronya's blade. She lifted it from the ground and resumed her pace. "You may be assured; I will keep hunting them. Her. And… I promise to walk my own path."
Manuela had paused perhaps a yard or so from the exact centre of the platform, Claude at her elbow, but Byleth crossed the unspoken line without hesitation, holding the blade out for the doctor to take.
"Can you teach me to heal the wounds these weapons leave?"
Manuela held the knife carefully, her eyes roving across the edge and flicking up to the gash on Byleth's arm; only now beginning to turn tacky, and not yet scabbed over. She lifted a glowing palm to it and eased it through the healing process. When she removed her hand, there was not even a mark to show the wound had been there.
"Yes, I suppose I can. If you'd let me keep this, I can start teaching everyone." Byleth nodded "But, Byleth… You would have to return to Garreg Mach with us and…"
"…What our dear Professor is trying to say, is that Rhea, sorry, Lady Rhea, ordered your return." Claude added, when it seemed that Manuela had lost her words "You should at least be aware that you may be walking into a cage."
"I expected as much" she sighed, then met his eyes directly "Thank you, by the way. I appreciate the assist earlier."
Claude laced his hands behind his head and dropped a wink "Well, following your command kept me alive before. I don't see any reason to stop now, Milady Mercenary."
Byleth smiled briefly then turned back to Manuela "Please inform the Archbishop that I'll attend her tomorrow morning, after the troop and I have rested."
~o~*~o~
There was a little confusion when they reached the town and Jeralt's Mercenaries separated from the students who were returning to the Monastery proper. In the commotion, there was room for one exchange to go unnoticed;
Byleth stood before him, and Hubert felt uneasy under her steady gaze. He did his best not to show it, to maintain eye contact and after a moment she inclined her head slightly.
"You did your part." She acknowledged.