Ch. 9
Dark shadows seeped out of the closed tomb as if it was a viscous liquid. It permeated the surrounding area and the Phantom Thieves jumped away, wary of the darkness it emitted.
"Shit I touched it!" Ryuji exclaimed as he jumped back another step, pulling his leg away quickly.
"Wait," Rhea said as she was held in the arms of Akira as she was snatched away from the dark shadows. "I don't think it's harmful though. Even though it's dark, I believe the Professor is trying to contain the darkness and make sure it doesn't hurt us."
"He never wanted to hurt any of his students…" Ann muttered as she stopped jumping back and let the shadows surround her legs like a mist. "He's definitely in there. Let's go and face him head-on. We have to take his treasure."
"Don't. Please… don't." A voice reverberated inside the tomb. "I can't let you take it. Please just go and leave us alone."
"Professor… is that you?" Futaba asked while inching forward. "I know that you feel chained and suffocated by your trauma. I know that you feel guilty. I know how that feels. But you need to move on. Please let us help you," she pleaded.
"No." Byleth's saddened voice rang out. "I can't let you help me. I need to protect her. I need to save her this time."
The darkness suddenly reached out toward Futaba's arms, forcing her immobile. She screamed at the sudden binds and her friends quickly rushed forward. Yusuke swung his katana, severing the shadow for a moment, but more started to now lunge toward him, causing him to hack at the
"The Professor owes me his life for taking all of mine. You cannot save him from his past sins," a distorted voice rang out and the tomb started to crack. The shadows stopped moving and Ryuji grabbed Futaba while Morgana swung his sword to sever the shadows that were still bound to her arms.
"His past sins are the sins of his past life. He can't change his past but he can change the future." Akira said with an angry tone.
"He already had multiple chances to change the past. He had multiple chances to change the entire story but he failed every single time." The tomb broke, exposing Byleth's shadow protecting the demon-looking Edelgard behind him.
"This is my retribution. I can't let you hurt her. I can't let her get hurt again due to my failures!" The shadow cried out.
"Yes, professor. Give up your soul for me. This is your way to repent for your sins against me."
Byleth's cognition lunged at Yusuke, tears flowing down his cheeks, and swung his sword at the fox masked teen. The Inari jumped back and parried the Sword of the Creator with his own.
"Why do you protect her?! You killed her to stop her from becoming a malevolent dictator. How can you keep protecting her when you made the decision to stop her from harming others?" Makoto asked while she jumped forward to close the distance between her and the Professor's cognition.
She called forth her persona to use a nuclear attack but it did nothing to stop the professor from swinging his sword again.
"Please, sensei," Akira cried out as he shot a bullet at his teacher. "We just want to help you move past your guilt. We want to help you realize that your guilt is something that you shouldn't keep when you've been reincarnated. In this life, you have changed our lives and made it better. Why do you keep blaming yourself?"
"Because…" Byleth furrowed his brows and closed his eyes sorrowfully, as though he remembered something too painful in his memories and trying to reach out to that box he tried to lock and hide deeply within his mind.
And when Byleth looked up and his eyes met Rhea's green orbs, the key in his mind twisted slightly and unlocked itself enough for the memories to escape.
"Because…"
His breath hitched and he looked down at his hands terrifyingly.
"I've killed her so many times. This route I chose was supposed to be the one where she lives but I still killed her in the end."
"…what? What are you saying, Professor?" Makoto asked as she dropped her fists from a fighting stance.
"I can't remember it clearly. But I know it's real now. If you defeat me, then I'll remember everything. I'll remember when I sided with Dimitri to kill Edelgard. I'll remember when I sided with Claude to kill Edelgard. I'll remember when I sided with Rhea to kill Edelgard. But this time… in this route… I was supposed to protect her. Why did she have to die by my hands again? Why does every route lead to her death? What went wrong? I don't want to find out…" and Byleth crumbled down to the ground, clutching his chest as if he was barely holding onto his heart tearing out from his body. "Please just leave me be…"
Hearing the lifeless and dejected tone come out of Byleth's voice, the teens all stood stiffly with a dismayed tone.
"He went through every route? And he knows that? But Rhea doesn't have any memories of that, doesn't she?" Ann questioned as she looked at Rhea.
The green-haired girl shook her head while frowning with a concerned look. "I don't know how reincarnations work. However… hearing that the Professor has gone through multiple routes makes sense as I had died yet in the Professor's route, I did not.
"I know that I was forgetting something and it was locked until I saw you, Seiros."
Rhea gasped softly as she saw her mother that she looked so hard for to materialize in front of her willingly.
"Mother…" she whispered.
Sothis gazed sadly into Rhea's eyes. "If you didn't show up, Byleth's memories would have been locked, forever thinking that each route was merely a dream. If you defeat him… then he'll remember what happened in every route. He'll remember each time he killed Edelgard with his own hands. I locked my memories along with Byleth to make sure that he doesn't remember. This route was supposed to be the route where Edelgard lived… but it went terribly wrong. And he committed suicide and reincarnated into this world."
Rhea looked into her mother's eyes with horrification.
"Then… I really shouldn't have been born again, right? I should have died when the professor killed me. It was my fault for reminding him of his pain when he could have locked it away," Rhea clutched her chest tightly and fell to the ground.
"Rhea!" Futaba exclaimed angrily. "You can't say that. No one deserves to have never been born. Don't torment yourself with the same struggles that I felt myself.
"I shouldn't have been born. I'm not supposed to be here."
"SHUT UP! STOP SAYING THAT!" Ryuji yelled, seething ferociously between his clenched teeth. "You can't say that you have no right to live because you did something bad. Because you're alive right now, aren't you?"
"There is a purpose for you to be here… and I think it is so that you can unlock his memories," Akira said as he picked her back up gently.
"But it'll only bring him more pain…" Rhea shuddered softly at the
"ARRG!" Ryuji grabbed his head between his hands. "You need to move on like we're trying to convince Eisner-sensei to do!"
"But… Is it really better that he moves on?" Ann asked sadly with a frown, feeling conflicted that her teacher would feel even more pain and guilt than he was facing before. "Is it truly better that we choose to make him remember all the routes and all the guilt he tried to repress?"
"Do you remember… when we chose to accept this reality? Where we each had to sacrifice the things we wanted the most?" Haru interjected with a soft, mellow tone.
The group went silent.
"Maruki-sensei's world was flawed because people's misfortunes could come from someone else's wishes. Eisner-sensei's guilt doesn't cause misfortune to others, but it keeps harming himself. We need to change his heart for him to accept the reality that things need to pass. He needs to remember and accept it." Haru said as she looked into Byleth's eyes with determination.
Byleth's cognition, who stood idly while looking at the argument between the teens and the young girl with confusion, jumped back. "No! Don't take away my feeling of guilt. I'm not a criminal nor am I hurting other people. I'm not harming anyone except myself, so let me repent for my sins by protecting Edelgard for sure this time!" He cried out with a painful expression. "I feel so guilty but at the same time I am scared of what is in that box I locked away when I am defeated by you."
Futaba looked at her Professor with concern. "Professor…. We respect you so much. We're so thankful to have you as a teacher." She took in a big breath. "But we're the villains; we steal hearts without asking because we're the Phantom Thieves. But we don't do it without reason. Many people asked us to change your heart."
"Many… people?" The azure haired professor asked.
"Sothis. Rhea. And your cognition cries out for our help. Why can you not accept that you want to move on?! We chose to change the cognitions of people who were harming others, so why can't we change your cognition when you're harming yourself? Why should we leave you alone when you're only going to get worse and worse?!"
"I'm afraid. I know I've killed Edelgard time after time, and I don't want to remember it."
"But sensei, this is not Fodlan. You understand, right? You are not Edelgard's professor anymore but rather a high school teacher at Shujin Academy teaching mathematics. We need you—we need you to come back to lead us just like you have done at Garreg Mach. Please, sensei." Akira stepped forward. "Accept that you are not Professor Byleth anymore but rather Eisner-sensei who we need back at Shujin."
Byleth's shadow looked at a loss as he felt the stares of the teens and the young girl who looked at him expectantly.
The determined eyes of each of the Phantom Thieves looked so similar to his precious students and it hit him—these children were his precious students too. They were the students that he would mentor, teach, and lead just like how he did as a Professor at Garreg Mach.
The azure haired professor looked down at the Sword of the Creator in his hand, remembering the accursed sword that he used to bring down Edelgard. It was a weapon that both saved and killed and he felt so disgusted at himself for using it to hurt the person he loved.
But he did it to save other people he loved.
Was it really right to move past the fact that he killed his precious student multiple times? Was it really right to remember all of the guilt he repressed and move past it?
The professor replied to his own question with a sob.
He didn't want to accept it, but he knew the answer to it too well.
Byleth's cognition looked back at the group of students and nodded slowly.
"I understand."
Immediately, Edelgard's demon shadow disintegrated with an inhumane scream.
Akira nodded back. "Do you mind giving us your treasure, sensei?" he asked while looking at the Sword of the Creator in Byleth's hand.
Byleth sheathed his sword. "It's not the Sword of the Creator," he said while reaching for his heart and grabbed something not visible. He threw it gently, making it hover in the air, turning whist shining brightly.
The treasure was so brightly that the leader of the Phantom Thieves couldn't tell what it was until he snatched it from the air and felt that it was a spherical stone of some sort.
Akira looked at the object in his hand and grinned.
"This is it. His treasure was the Crest Stone in his heart. Futaba, you were correct; this Crest Stone has haunted him his whole life and thus was already manifested before he needed to wake up from his coma. How appropriate."
A rumble rang out throughout the Holy Mausoleum.
"That's great but this is NOT the appropriate time to muse about the treasure. Let's GO!" Morgana exclaimed and turned into his cat bus as the Monastery ruins started crumbling down.
Rhea was snatched up in Akira's arms but she looked over his shoulder to see the Professor looking back into her eyes with a soft smile.
A tear dropped down her cheeks.
.
When Rhea's view became hazy and the world around her distorted, she felt the pain pulsating with her heart already. It was somewhat comfortable. It reminded her of her past deeds.
But when the world settled back into the Professor's hospital room, she screamed.
Pain overwhelmed her small body, permeating from her blood to her bones. Her skin burned like she was standing inside a burning closet. She couldn't manage the pain. Her vision became blurry and dark as she could no longer focus on seeing. Her legs gave out on her and she didn't even notice that she was falling until a pair of arms caught her. Where her skin touched the arms of the helper, it burned. Still screaming, her body became stiff even as parts of her trembled and twitched uncontrollably.
"…pain…happening…painful…"
"…Rhea?"
"Medication…"
"…Rhea?"
She could barely hear the words.
"No!" She painfully shouted out even though she just wanted to continue screaming. "No… medication. No medication. No medication." She cried out like a mantra even as her body was stiff as could barely get the words out. But it was the only thing she could think of.
The owner of the arms engulfed her within their chest.
"Penance. Penance. Penance. Penance." She breathed out and then she blacked out.
.
When she woke up again, she didn't know how much time has passed. She saw that a nebulizer was over her face and she tore it off without a care.
"Rhea…" someone in the room said to her but she ignored it.
She put a hand on her chest. Again, the pain subsided to the comfortable, dull, pulsating beat against her heart. And then she noticed the IV in her arm. Her eyes followed up the tubing and she saw a bag of saline and a bag of IV codeine hanging on the IV pole.
When she saw it, her eyes became dark. She banged her fists against the bed rails.
"Rhea!" the person called out to her again.
"No… medication…" Rhea spat out as tears fell. She clutched her fists even harder and she glared at the IV needle protruding from her arm. She should rip this out too.
How would dulling her pain that she deserved to help her atone for her sins? She needed the pain to remind her of what she did—of what she was.
"Why do you make yourself go through the pain? You don't deserve to die. You don't deserve the pain!" A voice that sounded like Ryuji's voice rang out next to her but Rhea didn't look at the speaker.
"I deserve the pain. I deserve to die. I don't deserve this second chance at life because I am the horrific Archbishop who sentenced 10,000 people's death in a single night. And the Professor killed me to stop me from going further."
The only sound that echoed throughout the room was the beeping of the PulseOx monitor attached to the finger attachment that was haphazardly tossed to the ground.
"Guys, do you mind if I talk to Rhea alone?" Akira's voice rang out and Rhea looked up slightly to see the other teens nodding their heads and slowly walking out of Rhea's hospital room as if they expected it.
.
After the teens left the room, Akira sat down on the seat next to Rhea's bed and put his hands together and his elbows on his thighs.
"Do you remember what I said to you before in the Mausoleum? That you remind me of my friend?" Akira asked softly.
"I do…" Rhea looked up at the leader of the Phantom Thieves with a little confusion. "Why are you asking me this? Are you planning on introducing me to him?"
Akira had a bittersweet look on his face as he clenched his fists tightly. "I can't. He passed away."
"Oh…" Rhea bit her lip. "I'm so sorry for asking." She looked down, embarrassed.
"I brought it up. It's okay. But the reason I brought him up was to say that he was an evil piece of shit."
This time, the green-haired girl flicked her head up to look at the black haired teen with an incredulous expression.
"I thought it was part of the Japanese culture to not speak ill of the dead? And are you implying that I'm the same as him?!" Rhea didn't know if she should be affronted or not.
The teen chuckled lightly.
"I'm not saying that you're evil. But what I said is the truth. He killed so many people. Innocent, evil—it didn't matter. He had a shitty childhood and an even shittier father that manipulated him to kill more people. Actually, he even technically killed me."
Rhea's brows raised with concern.
"How are you still alive then?"
"Ah, well, we knew he was a traitor long before we became friends. But I couldn't help but get close to him even though I knew that. And although he betrayed us, he used his life to save all of us. He used his life to help us bring down his father that was behind all the mental shutdowns the past few years. I just… really wish that I was able to meet him before he was ever left astray down the path he took. If only I met him sooner—if only I could have stopped him earlier—he would still be living"
The archbishop looked down at her tiny, childish hands.
"…But I wasn't led astray. I picked that path for myself. I don't have the excuse of being young and naive, even though I acted like I was. I lived longer than any humans could. I chose to experiment on innocent people. I chose to kill people in my way. I chose to sacrifice countless numbers of civilians just so I could bring down one man."
"See, this is why you're so similar to him. You and Eisner-sensei are both so blinded by revenge and hurt that you push others away and bring yourself down with the guilt and suffering. Let me tell you this. I don't like to talk about myself so much. I don't even like to talk that much, period."
"Yet you seem very talkative right now. What is different today?"
"Well, this is just something my friends have noticed and told me. Eisner-sensei and I are similar. Too similar sometimes—we like to listen, we easily make people talk about their personal lives, but we put a barrier on ourselves to only have things come in and hardly ever out. But my friend—he's the first person that I was able to bring down my barrier and my façade. Eisner-sensei is the same. You two need each other. You two need to support one another to make it through this awful, disgusting world."
"But… he's left me once before already." She looked down and bit her lip. "That's what made me so blinded by rage. I think… I loved him. I think I truly loved him." The young green haired girl widened her eyes at the realization of what she just said.
"You… loved him?
"I… I think I did. I thought that whatever happens, he would choose me over anyone else. But he didn't. I was so hurt, so jaded, and so angry that I channeled it into causing pain and suffering to other innocent people."
Akira stared determinedly at Rhea's saddened face and hunched shoulders.
"Don't worry Rhea. We will help you to move past this guilt just like we did for Eisner-sensei."
.
The teens visited back the next day, all of them with smiles on their faces as if they have come to a great consensus.
"Here. This is for you, Rhea. Take it." The leader of the Phantom Thieves said as he held out his hand to show her the purple Crest Stone of Seiros.
Rhea looked at the orb with wide eyes. And then she shook her head
"I… can't take this." She pushed the Crest Stone back to Akira.
But Akira didn't pull back his hand.
"Why? You would stop feeling pain. You would be able to experience another new world with your own eyes now."
'I wasn't killed by this Professor who is still sleeping in his hospital room. I was killed by a different Professor who lived happily ever with Edelgard—a different Professor Byleth who stopped me from killing more than the 10,000 innocent lives that died by the fire in Fhirdiad that I ordered. I told Catherine to sacrifice as many lives as possible to take back this stone that's worthless in the end."
"Worthless? It can save your life, Rhea!" Ryuji exclaimed. "You need to take it!"
"I can't. I don't know why the Professor's memories are different from my own. But in my timeline, the Professor and Edelgard never fought a final battle on Gronder Field. They working together to defeat me in Fhirdiad, but the Professor who is in front of me was a different Byleth that saved Fodlan from an Emperor who was corrupted by Those Who Slither in the Dark. When I saw the demon form of Edelgard, I knew that the parallel world this Professor Byleth was in did not follow the same path as my own did. I can't accept this Crest Stone because this pain is my punishment for my disregard of human life.
On the day I died, I killed over 10,000 men, women, and children in Fhirdiad because I was consumed by madness and rage. I didn't even care about the people in the city, just that the Professor could burn alongside them. But it wasn't only that day either. I've killed so many people in order to make people become containers for my mother's heart. I've killed people when I realized that they wouldn't have the ability to awaken my mother within themselves. I was so selfish and blinded by greed.
When my mother sacrificed herself, that was the end of her life. She was a goddess, but even immortal beings have a beginning and an end. My mother lived her life to raise my brothers and sisters and me. I never moved on past her death. When all of them died as well, I was always stuck on getting Mother back. But she might have never even wanted to be revived. I don't know if she lived her life fully, but she lived a long life that the humans I killed could never enjoy because I cut it short. They could have been living a happy life if I hadn't ended it."
Akira put a hand on her shoulder and pushed the hand that held the Crest Stone back to Rhea.
"Sothis told me this. Or rather, she told Eisner-sensei this. Eisner-sensei had the power to turn back time to the past a certain amount of times. But even with this power, Eisner-sensei couldn't save his father. No matter how many times he tried, he couldn't save his students that died. They died because some things cannot be changed."
"You said it yourself, Rhea. Humans die. Everyone dies." Ann gave a small smile to Rhea. "We will have all to die sometime and if they died on that day, then we let them rest. We can't change the past but we can impact the future, so let's keep you alive and you can do something to help others now."
"You already suffered enough pain during these past 10 years of your life here. You lived a life of loneliness. Think of it this way, Rhea. You were reborn with your memories of your past life intact; doesn't it mean that there was a purpose to it? You, the Archbishop of one route, and a Professor of another route. I think you two, who are from different parallel universes, were meant to be here and live out your second life." Makoto put a hand on Rhea's other shoulder.
"If Akechi-kun were alive… he would have chosen to repent his sins by going to jail. Since your sins cannot be repented by similar means, why can you not use your life to help other people?" Haru said with a bright smile.
"Artistically put. I believe wholeheartedly that people can repent for their sins and can be forgiven by various means." Yusuke said as he put his hands against his chin and nodded slowly.
"I've learned myself—there is no person in the world who didn't deserve to live. There are evil people in the world, but even these people lived for a reason. Even though you are plagued by guilt, you can move past it." Futaba exclaimed with determination.
"Anyways, you're a part of us now. The Phantom Thieves. We split the treasure and rewards. You helped with stealing the Professor's heart as a Phantom Thief so it's fitting that you get your share of the reward as well." Ryuji smirked as he patted the green-haired girl's back.
With all the words that her teenage friends said to her, tears flowed out of the former archbishop's eyes. She wiped them quickly but they kept flowing out so she hid her face behind her arm.
Rhea laughed softly. "It's ironic. I'm over a thousand years old, I could turn into a dragon, and I was reborn with my memories of a different world. But you kids who are not even adults yet console me and help me and Professor Byleth move past our mistakes and guilt."
She wiped away some more tears and lowered her arm, but her watery eyes and red, puffy skin underneath her eyes still betrayed that she cried just a few seconds prior.
"Thank you, everyone. You have stolen my heart and given me a new one."
The young green-haired girl cupped her hands together to coddle the Crest Stone within her palms and pushed the stone to her chest. As soon as the stone met her chest, it lit up the whole room with a brilliant light.
Author's Note:
I'm so sorry for not uploading within a week as I said in the previous chapter;;; I was moving in and uni started and omg it was a hectic 2 weeks. I'm so overwhelmed with this one stupid 3 class that feels like a 6 credit class right now but I finished writing the chapter during my online class (yay).
I know I was terrible at writing the fighting scene as basically the Demon Edelgard was stationary for the whole confrontation and I know it's not something that's normal in battle, but I hope it flowed well at least...
The epilogue/final chapter will probably be up in less than a week. Thank you guys so much for reading! I really appreciate it:)))