Before I start this chapter, I wanted to say that it's dedicated to my real life friend Mimi. She started reading this story recently and suggested I include more fight scenes to play with different character dynamics under pressure.

Considering the source material is a strategy war game... It was kinda hard to argue with the logic of adding more battles.

So even though I was going to skip over this section of the plot before, now you all get a bit more content! And I'd expect to find a few more action-oriented scenes slipped in between all the slow-burn fluff as we get further in.

But also, while I'm at it, thanks to everyone else who's been reading this! All the favorites and views and comments have really encouraged me to keep this up. Seriously, the response has been awesome.

Now without further adieu...

Part 1 — Blue Sea Moon

Throughout the month of the Blue Sea Moon, Byleth and Dimitri talked to a number of figures across the Monastery in hopes of seeing just what might be worth taking while everyone is distracted from the Archbishop's Rite of Rebirth. Eventually their investigation bore fruit with the discovery that the Holy Mausoleum would be open to the public on the day of the ceremony. There were no guarantees that their suspicions would be confirmed, but Byleth made sure to prepare his students for battle just in case.

The ceremony would be held on the last Friday of the month, two weeks after Saint Cethleann Day. The four Saints who served alongside Seiros centuries prior are inextricably linked to the holy days now recognized by the Church of Seiros, and statues depicting their visages sit in the back corner of the Cathedral opposite the entrance to the Holy Mausoleum.

While Archbishop Rhea attended to her duties the night of the Rite of Rebirth, students of the Officers Academy were scattered across Monastery grounds to keep watch for suspicious activity.

However, anyone seeking out the Blue Lions would find them all absent from their posts.

Within the Cathedral at the far end of Garreg Mach, a few students mulled around in dim candlelight. The usual patrons were off attending the ceremony, which left the large place of worship eerily quiet and haunting.

Or it would have, if not for the rhythmic bang that echoed from entryway as Claude, house leader for the Golden Deer, bounced a ball off the floor so it would come back to him after hitting the Cathedral's large double doors.

"A-Are you… Sure that's okay, Claude?" Asks Marianne, who sat respectfully in the second-row church pew on the right side of the room.

"It's not like anyone is around to hear it," calls back a panting, teal-haired Caspar from further in the chamber. He was shadowboxing with iron gauntlets in the open space between the left and right entrances, which were similarly sealed off.

Claude catches the ball and whirls around to flash Marianne a smile.

"I don't think the Goddess will be too upset Marianne. If anything, she'll probably thank me for breaking up the usual monotony with such a cool beat. Don'tcha think?"

Marianne nibbles at her thumb and briefly looks over the back of the pew in front of her to see Hilda lying across the wooden bench. She was completely checked out; focused solely on playing with her two stringy, pink ponytails.

"I suppose…"

Truthfully, everyone found the sound of Claude's ball to be annoying. But there was so little to do that they were reluctant to cut off that meager bit of stimulation.

Then the rightmost door at the main entrance begins to creak open.

Claude gasps and reaches for the glistening steel bow attached to his back. Caspar, Marianne and Hilda all jolt to attention as well and look to the doors.

However, when they see Byleth slipping through the opening, Claude relaxes.

"Oh. Hey there, Teach."

If Byleth showed much emotion, he would clearly be surprised by the loud voice. The professor's posture tensed up to suggest Claude had given him a brief fright, which brought a grin to the green-eyed student as he ran a hand through his scruffy black hair.

In the background, Hilda's head disappears behind the back of her seat as she slumps down again. Caspar runs over to join Claude in the candlelight just as Dimitri slips into the room to stand by Byleth's side.

"Didn't realize faculty were allowed to skip out on the big ceremony tonight," the house leader with a golden shoulder cape remarks. "But you brought your whole crew by the looks of things, so there must be something going down."

Claude laughs seeing the Blue Lion class gathered rank and file behind them.

"Good to see you unharmed," Dimitri says with a nod before shaking his contemporary's hand.

"Yeah." Claude responds, now unable to take his suspicious gaze off the heavily armored group. "Likewise."

While Caspar looks confused at this whole ordeal, scratching at his short-cut hair, Marianne ducks further behind the back of her wooden pew. Byleth notices her apprehension and glances at Dimitri, but the boy is focused on the business at hand.

"Tell me, Claude. Have you or the others seen any sort of activity around here?"

Claude snorts before crossing his arms, bending his body to look at the floor and closing his eyes.

"Have we?" He asks with a dramatic, clearly false sense of curiosity. "I don't know about that. As far as I can tell this posting has been a little…"

He raises his right hand to circle his fingers in the air, trying to get his 'gears turning' so to speak.

"Oh, what's the word?" He trails off, clicking his tongue.

Right on cue, as though the whole thing had been pre-planned, the pink-haired girl again sits up.

"Boring and pointless!" They'd hear her call out before she lies back down. Her words echo throughout the huge, empty space.

Claude snaps his fingers and straightens out with a grin.

"That's it!" He looks back at the church pew. "Thanks, Hilda."

Then he turns his attention back to the Blue Lions, this time letting his goofy, happy-go-lucky exterior fade. He looks pretty exhausted.

"Yeah, but seriously. This place sucks at night and we haven't seen anything."

Byleth and Dimitri look at one another. They pass knowing nods before turning their attention to Claude.

"Well even so," Byleth begins with a slow, monotonous voice. Some might even argue he seemed worried about saying too much. "We have reason to believe there might be some activity in the Holy Mausoleum."

"No way!" Caspar chimes in, incensed by what he perceived to be an accusation. "Nobody could have gotten in, we've had this place on lock for hours! Edelgard even sent Linhardt and I over here because she knew these guys might need extra help."

The professor is confused at the mention of Linhardt, but it doesn't take long to spot the Black Eagles' boy sprawled out on pew across from Hilda and Marianne.

"He fell asleep a while ago," Marianne mutters as she sees Byleth looking around. "I wish I could too, honestly… He makes it look so easy."

"Nonetheless." Dimitri speaks up again, which makes Marianne squeak and try to hide away even more.

Ingrid steps forward, clutching a lance tight.

"We'd still like to investigate if it's all the same," she says.

Byleth nods.

"You all would be welcome to come along. Though there could be trouble."

Claude takes a moment to rub his chin and think it over.

But he's not the first to speak.

"I'm in!" Hilda calls out again, drawing everyone's attention — and surprise.

As soon as she catches on to everyone staring at her for that uncharacteristic eagerness, she scoffs and flips one of her ponytails over her shoulder. "Even fighting would be better than sitting around in the dark doing nothing."

From the line of Blue Lions, Felix snorts.

"Never thought I'd say this, but for once I agree with Goneril there."

Hilda audibly gasps hearing this and then blows the black-haired boy a kiss, giggling. The gesture makes him roll his eyes, clearly regretting speaking up.

"Let's just get going already," Felix grumbles, bending his left hand to his hip.

Claude casually shrugs.

"Yeah. I'm in." He looks back at Caspar, then Marianne. "How about you guys?"

Caspar agrees with a nodding grin, but Marianne takes longer to weigh her options over twiddling fingers. Eventually she laments under what felt like the gaze of a hundred eyes and agrees.

"Perfect!" Claude deftly twirls around on his heels and starts walking toward the back of the Cathedral in one fluid motion. "Let's go on a road trip!"

As the makeshift gang of Golden Deer and Black Eagles students gather together, Claude and Hilda high-five. The full armada of Blue Lions follows along close behind.

When they pass by the front row of pews, however, Annette pauses and looks down at the slumbering Lindhardt.

"Um… Should we really just leave him here?" The small girl asks.

"He can stand guard," Dedue answers with a blunt, clinical assurance as he passes beside her.

Annette doesn't seem entirely satisfied by the answer, but she only looks between the sleeping man and her departing classmates for so long before scampering off.

"He won't really be 'standing' guard Dedue!" She fruitlessly rebuts, getting no argument in return.

Just before they've all disappeared into the back room, Lindhardt snores and curls more of his fluffy green hair into his crossed uniform sleeves.

The small army of students found trouble afoot as soon as they entered the Holy Mausoleum.

Strange mages were scattered across the forebodingly large burial chamber, which had its high ceiling held up by a number of ornately carved pillars. Some of the masked figures were obscured by the looming shadows those pillars cast when hit by the harsh and hellish orange light that saturated the room via magically burning torches.

At the far end of the chamber, one mage standing over a sealed casket began to bark orders. Byleth immediately recognized him to be the leader and mobilized his forces across three avenues to try and reach the far end as quickly as possible.

Straight down the middle, Caspar leads the charge. He knocks away the forward guards so Ashe and Claude could follow along and begin firing off volleys of arrows to the left and right sides.

That distraction would give their allies a chance to advance without taking fire.

On the left avenue, Ingrid leads the charge. She deftly skates around fireballs thanks to her lithe, agile build and manages to down an opponent with one swift jab.

Another mage threatens to scald the blonde girl while she pulls her lance free, but Annette runs in to cover for her.

"Cutting Gale!" The young mage cries before swiping her arm out like a sword.

She cuts horizontally from left to right, and a thick concentration of air flies out toward their opponent. The gale slices his fireball in half and makes it immediately dissipate before it knocks the mage back with a concussive bang.

"Nice work," Ingrid says as she frees her weapon with a heartier tug. Dedue grunts in agreement as he runs past the two so he can continue the push.

"Thanks!" Annette answers excitedly while pumping her arms. "You've got this too, Ingrid. We can persevere!"

The lance-wielder nods and steels herself thanks to her friend's encouragement. She runs off to join Dedue.

On the right avenue, Sylvain leads the charge. He makes himself known to their opponents by letting out a rallying cry before careening the tip of his lance into a mage. That enemy perishes when the redhead impales him into the side of a pillar.

"Hah. This should be a piece of cake," Sylvain mutters.

His cockiness seemed to get the better of him as a swordsman runs out from the shadows along the side of the room, ready to kill.

However the Goddess was on Sylvain's side. Or, more aptly, Felix was. The black-haired boy easily deflects a lethal strike with his sword before sucker-punching the brute with a gauntlet around his left hand.

The daggers along the gauntlet's knuckles quickly do their work, as evidenced by the groaning swordsman falling limp over Felix's arm. But that doesn't stop Felix from ensuring the job was done by slicing the man's neck before pushing him to the ground.

All of the aggressive energy in his snarl is immediately thrown to Sylvain.

"Maybe try to watch your back for once."

Though Sylvain is briefly stunned at the prospect of almost getting stabbed, he quickly brings a happy-go-lucky smile back.

"Why should I? Clearly you're always watching it for me, Felix."

Felix's orange eyes widen with anger and glint in the light, giving him a malicious look that Sylvain shies away from.

"I won't always be, idiot. You just got lucky that I was going this way."

"Come on you don't mean that." Sylvain spins his lance to a vertical position, and then bangs the base onto the floor. "You'll always be there for me and you know it, Felix. I'll obviously do the same for you!"

Felix scoffs with disgust and rolls his eyes.

"I think I'd rather have literally anyone else looking to protect me over you. Dying because you got distracted by some floozy sounds like the worst possible end."

"How coarse of you!" Sylvain puts a hand to his heart. "I would never get distracted in a life-or-death situation."

"All you do is get distracted, Sylvain. If it weren't for the rest of us you'd—"

The inevitable insult is cut off as Hilda runs up and flips into the air between the bickering boys with an assertive grunt. As she comes down she kicks a second swordsman to the ground, and then plunge her axe into his chest with the follow-through as she lands on her feet.

She looks back at the gawking pair while pulling her weapon free of its victim and flips a ponytail over her shoulder with her free hand.

"Are you two really going to let me do all the work out here?" She asks with a bit of an intentionally naïve-sounding twang to her voice.

Sylvain lets out a bemused scoff.

"Only if you're going to keep looking that good while you do it, Hilda."

When she starts giggling at the compliment, Felix returns to his neutral state of general annoyance and begins to make his way further into the mausoleum.

"What did I say?" He grumbles, his sword tip shrilly grinding against the ground.

Back in the central avenue, Dimitri and Byleth stayed a few paces behind the pair of archers alongside Mercedes and Marianne. They directed the clerics on who to heal with their Physic magic from a distance, that way the army could stay in tip-top shape.

"Professor!"

Byleth looks out toward the battlefield to find a panicked Annette racing back.

As the other three look up to find her skidding to an exhausted, breathless halt, Mercedes frowns.

"Annie? What's the matter?"

"We… We've got… Trouble…" She says, labored with her hands on her knees.

Just as she brings up the matter, a spine-tingling whinny reverberates all around the mausoleum; as though a beast was rising up from the fires of hell to meet them.

To be honest, that was not too far off.

A cavalier was racing down the middle avenue at break-neck speed, threatening to immediately smash the front line Caspar had secured. But to simply call the approaching figure a cavalier was not doing him justice. The stocky rider was wrapped in a cocoon of pitch-black metal and spikes, with a skull-shaped, devil-horned mask that betrayed no hint of humanity existing underneath. The only open piece of the outfit was its eye sockets, but those only betrayed voids that glorified the malignant red glint of his pupils.

"The Death Knight…" Mercedes mutters, frozen with fearful wide-eyes.

Byleth looks to her curiously, while Dimitri is quick to raise his lance.

"I've heard rumors of this 'Death Knight,'" the prince remarks with a snarl. "A reaper that's been wreaking havoc and kidnapping young girls."

Byleth is surprised that such rumors have thus far evaded his ears.

The Death Knight's horse is armored in the same material as its rider, but it did not appear to be weighed down in the slightest. Its speed was great, even though each heavy gallop sounds like it could break through the tile flooring at any moment.

His steed also wears a mask with two spiked horns jutting out the back while two more bend in front of its mouth like a pair of insect's mandibles —perfect for goring any opponent. When the Death Knight spurs the animal it cries out again, and another demonic call rings out over the battlefield. All of the metal around the horse's head left its sounds muffled with a metallic edge, but at the same time Byleth could tell something was amplifying the noise so it would resonate further.

Caspar runs off to the left to hide with Dedue and Ingrid, while Ashe races back toward the group helmed by Dimitri and Byleth.

But Claude is bolder. He stands his ground and nocks another arrow, letting it loose with hopes of knocking the imposing rider off his steed.

The arrow bounces harmlessly against the Death Knight's helmet.

After Claude's arrowhead twangs against the metal, the Death Knight laughs. His voice is raspy and warped to an inhuman level; his laugh is hearty and full.

Instead of ramming into Claude, the Death Knight slows and then stops his charge by rearing his horse onto its hind legs; after which it lands its forelegs with an intensity that does crack the ground. The Death Knight's bisected scarlet cape, which looked like fire as he raced forward, settles onto his back.

"Like moths to a flame." The Death Knight growls, his voice also amplified to chill his opponent's spines.

He raises his weapon — a large black scythe — and it lights up with ghastly purple and pink flames. The energy is blasted out in a flash as he thrusts the pointed tip of the scythe's shaft toward Claude.

Claude just manages to dodge out of danger, his yellow cape singed.

"I'm getting a really disturbing vibe from that guy…" He says. "No one go near the evil-looking knight, OK?"

"I agree," Byleth remarks before looking at Annette. "You're our heaviest long-range hitter. Knock him down to size."

The orange-haired girl smiles at the compliment and nods.

"Don't worry Professor, I won't let you down!"

She runs out toward the Death Knight, passing by Ashe on the way. Taking a strong stance, she throws out a pair of Cutting Gales.

The pitch-black cavalier raises his free arm and easily blocks the wind magic. Each gale clangs against his armor more effectively than Claude's arrows, but dissipates without any serious damage done.

Then he raises his scythe, and it starts burning with darkened pastel flames.

"Annette, look out!" Ashe cries.

But Annette is frozen in fear, the sickle of fire reflecting in her large blue eyes. The Death Knight launches his counterattack, and his energy blast strikes her right in the chest, sending the small girl flying back with a pained yelp.

Ashe tries to catch Annette and is knocked to the floor. He cushions her fall, but she writhes in his arms and repeatedly cries out as the magical flames cling to her chest.

"Annie!" Mercedes squeals as she and Marianne run to Annette.

The grey-haired boy shifts to his knees so he can hold up the girl's head as the two clerics quickly get to work extinguishing the flames and healing her wound.

"Don't worry Annette, we've got you." Ashe mutters.

The Death Knight laughs and rears back on his horse again.

"You will all face judgment for your insolence," he says. Each word slithers out to claw into his opponents and drag them to hell.

Byleth snarls and draws his steel sword.

"Damnit… Forget the one-off attacks. Swarm him!"

Dimitri readily agrees and starts rushing toward the Death Knight, but Claude is the first to attack — even though he sounds less than pleased.

"What did I just say? Evil-looking knight? C'mon."

The archer starts trading projectiles with the Death Knight. Arrows continue to bounce harmlessly off of his armor, but Claude is a good enough shot that his attacks are a distracting nuisance. The Death Knight launches all of his counterattacks at the Golden Deer's house leader, as if trying to swat a fly.

That gives Dimitri the chance to get a solid stab at the cavalier, who quickly doubles back and swipes his scythe to knock the new combatant away.

Dimitri manages to catch the curved blade by pushing his weapon into the crevice where the scythe connects to its shaft. The Death Knight raises his head, clearly surprised by the strength this lanky blond boy exuded.

"You monster!" Dimitri hisses.

The Death Knight scoffs, ignoring the arrows that continue to pelt his helmet.

"It seems you're the one concealing a monster, boy."

Before Dimitri can respond, Caspar runs up from behind the Death Knight and leaps onto one of the chinks in his horse's armor. The shorthaired boy wraps one arm around the Death Knight's stomach and starts punching his back with his right hand.

"How do you like that?" Caspar yells as his gauntlet clangs against the armor.

"Pesky children…" The Death Knight looks over his shoulder and tries to grab Caspar with his free hand, all while Dimitri keeps his weapon locked in place.

Dedue soon joins in on the assault, slamming his axe into the horse's armor. Even though the animal whines uncomfortably, it doesn't move without its owner's say.

"Your training has been wasted if it takes so many whelps to even begin to immobilize me," the Death Knight remarks with a malicious chuckle. "It would do you well to submit to my culling. Eliminating the weak links will strengthen your herd."

Dimitri winces as he feels the Death Knight pushing hard against him, the sickled blade coming ever closer to his scalp.

He looks back at the group around Annette and calls out:

"Marianne!"

She yelps and scrambles to her feet, tense while at attention.

"We need your magic to sap his strength!"

Marianne's eyes widen and her hands start to shake as she realizes the fate of her allies was in the balance — and she was the only one who could tip the scales.

"Do it," Mercedes says. Marianne looks to her. "I've got Annie, don't worry."

The nervous girl swallows hard before meekly nodding.

She scampers away from the fallen mage and holds out both hands.

"Nosferatu…" She mutters under her breath.

A thin green aura condenses around the cavalier. It starts to siphon away from him in long, wispy strands that sink into her palms. The Death Knight snarls as he feels his energy drain away, and that dynamic shift is evident as Dimitri begins pushing back.

Having let his students lock down the demonic foe, Byleth finally joins the fray. He runs to the pile of bodies and leaps up the horse's armor much like Caspar did, but on the opposite side. The instructor stands on the saddle behind its rider so he can plunge his blade into the Death Knight's shoulder.

Byleth angles his attack perfectly so that it slips through a chink in the armor. The Death Knight cries out as his flesh underneath is pierced.

The villain's glinting red glare meets Byleth's emotionless stare. For just a moment, there was nobody else in the room.

Byleth hardly notices as a fuzzy purple aura begins to encapsulate his armor.

By the time he does notice, the Death Knight puffs out his chest and looses a wild roar. The aura around his armor expands out rapidly. Every individual piled up around him is knocked away, suffering scrapes and bruises as they tumble across the floor.

Once he's free of assailants, the Death Knight looks at the sword hilt jutting out of his shoulder. Without a word he grasps the blade and pulls it free. It clatters against the floor when he tosses it aside, leaving a splattering of blood behind.

There was a human underneath the armor. Now everyone knew it.

"I didn't expect to encounter someone like you," the Death Knight hisses, his eyes glaring down at Byleth.

"How fortunate."

He rears back and turns his horse toward the crypt at the end of the mausoleum.

The ghastly rider only gallops so far before he and his steed disappear in a cloud of black mist. When it dissipates, all that was left behind is a talisman charged with dark magic. It was as though the figure were an apparition all along.

Byleth slowly rises to his hands and knees, and then looks around to ensure his students were okay. Though almost everyone involved with the scuffle against the Death Knight was groaning as they tried to rise, nobody seemed to be in critical condition.

"Professor?"

He hears Mercedes' soft voice call to him and gives her his attention.

Annette appeared to be through the worst of it. She was passed out in Ashe's arms, but there was no indication she was still in pain.

Mercedes knelt beside her with her hands folded in prayer as she looked to Byleth for guidance.

"What now?" She asks, looking a bit apprehensive.

As the instructor glances around the room again, he finds everyone back on their feet. Dimitri approaches with the discarded steel sword, which he presents lay across both hands as though it were a national treasure.

"We are awaiting your orders, Professor."

It takes Byleth a moment to get his thoughts together. His strategy had not been perfect. Annette was injured, and so many others took a heavy hit trying to bog down the Death Knight. Yet… Everyone still looked to him for guidance.

It was… Comforting.

Byleth offers the Blue Lions house leader a slight smile before standing up and taking his weapon back.

"Mercedes, Ashe. You two get Annette back out to the infirmary," he begins. They agree and bring the small girl over their shoulders to drag her out.

"Everyone else, march on the leader. Let's put an end to this."