Today was the day she had worked towards the whole last year. Today was the day she would shake the church's very foundation and dethrone them as the main seat of power in Fódlan. Edelgard would take over the monastery and begin her inevitable way to victory. She couldn't fail this attack. This had to work. She made all her preparations for this day, even selling her very soul to a demon.

That demon deal was a huge risk, but a risk that had already paid itself off. One week ago Byleth had saved her life and that was not an exaggeration. Edelgard wouldn't have bested the bandit with only her small dagger. Byleth had appeared suddenly out of nowhere and disarmed and killed Kostas with ease. She couldn't let this happen again. She couldn't make such mistakes ever again. She couldn't die yet.

But that was in the past and going through all the what ifs scenarios wasn't going to help her. Edelgard had to focus on the here and now. And right now she had a monastery to conquer.

Her main troops were already attacking the front of Garreg Mach Monastery and were drawing the attention of all the church's forces - hopefully. Meanwhile Edelgard and her Black Eagle Strike Force supported by a few troops were sneaking through the outer walls of the monastery. Hubert had found a weak spot in the wall while scouting the area beforehand. So it was relatively easy to blast a hole in the wall as discreetly as possible using specific spells and sneak through it with their small team.

The next step in her plan was the inner wall of the monastery. While she hadn't had an unobtrusive plot to go through the next stone wall, she was sure they would still have the advantage of surprise on their side.

On her sign Linhardt casted the spell Bolganone. It forcefully opened a crack in the earth and triggered an eruption of lava. A part of the wall crumbled in on itself due to the crack and the heat of the lava. It was rather loud, but Edelgard was counting on a sparse staffing of guards, while their main forces were fighting her army.

They acted quickly after this. The few knights they attracted were quickly disposed of - mainly by the demon. She had sliced them as easily as a hot knife through butter.

Since Edelgard had studied the blueprints of the monastery thoroughly, she knew that they were next to the greenhouse and inner lake. Her ideal goal was to capture the archbishop in addition to conquering the monastery. If she accomplished this, then she would have removed one of her main opponents. Then she could work on changing this world and all its corrupted systems.

The church wasn't using their power to help and protect the devoted and unfortunate ones as they always reassured. Instead they supported the already rich and noble ones and withheld fundamental information from them all. They were all corrupted by greed and power and Edelgard would put an end to it.

And archbishop Rhea was the head figure of them. The one who gave all the orders, who had the last word in every decision and who had lived a far more extended life than any mortal ever had. Her father had shared this secret with his final breath with her on his deathbed. Since the founding of the Adrestian Empire the archbishop had lived under the name Seiros back then. The same Seiros who founded and named the church.

It could have been only nonsense her father spoke in his delirium. But he sounded so earnest, that Edelgard couldn't just ignore it. She had searched the library for clues with her ever faithful retainer Hubert by her side. He hadn't even uttered a single word of protest against her questionable quest. Instead he had helped her with all his support.

They had found odd facts about the church. How there were different names and reign periods for each archbishop, but they lacked any backstory and death dates. There was no known birth date or place, no explanation why she was chosen by the goddess and not even one drawing of one of them.

She didn't fully understand what was going on with the church and the archbishop, but she had a theory about the expanded or even immortal life span of the archbishop. Now that she knew through Byleth that angels also made blood contracts like demons and that the church was famous for using them, she couldn't shake the feeling that it was all connected - somehow.

If she could capture the archbishop today, then she would be closer to the truth and she would expose their lies to the whole world. But for that could happen, Edelgard had to achieve a clear victory today.

The pale haired woman let her elite army through halls and stairways. Only a few guards were here and there, which were defeated in no time. They reached the audience chamber on the second floor. It was one of the three spots Edelgard and Hubert suspected Rhea would be right now.

Only a single knight stood watch there, though he didn't look ordinary. He was tall as a tree and spouted a golden tattoo on his right hand crawling up his arm and shoulder and ended at the corner of his eye. It reminded Edelgard of the strange markings during her blood contract. Did this mean …?

But before she could truly formulate the thought in her mind, the guard dramatically unsheathed his broadsword.

"You little snakes dare to invade this holy place?! You will be judged by the holy force itself! All heretics burn for all eternity in hell!"

"That's not exactly how hell…", but Byleth couldn't end her objection. Even though it would have been hilarious how she would have tried to have a rational discussion with this religious fanatic.

The knights tattoos began to glow in a blinding white and with a high pitched sound and a whoosh of wing flapping an imposing figure immaterialized out of the blinding light.

The first thing Edelgard noticed were the large white feathered wings and the glowing blue eyes. It had the figure of a heavily muscled man with strange gold glittering tattoos all over his body. In one hand he wielded a long halberd which was pulsing like it had a heartbeat. In his other hand he held a large shield decorated with strange glowing runes which was large enough to hide his whole form.

Byleth drew her sword, which began glowing in its strange red hue.

"Ferdinand, Caspar, Hubert, Bernadetta and Linhardt you will take care of the guards. The rest will help me fight the Angel."

The demon ordered with a calm and collected voice that startled Edelgard. She hadn't even noticed the additional knights or where they had come from. The others, especially Hubert, were waiting for her agreement. She nodded in approval and they all made themselves battle ready.

"A vile demon here on holy ground, I can't believe it. You and your summoner disgust me. Though you do not look like much, demon, I will still cleanse this realm from your damnable existenz!"

The voice of this … emangle/em- Edelgard couldn't still really believe it - was such a powerful instrument. It boomed through the whole room - maybe even through the whole building. Edelgard had to suppress the urge to cover her ears.

Byleth was surprisingly still calm and collected as if it was just another day. Maybe it actually was for her, she had already told them that she fought angels before.

The angel held his shield before him, protecting his entire form. His halberd was aimed to strike in a small gap of his shield at its left edge. He looked like an unbreachable deadly wall. But what he couldn't protect was his back!

Edelgard locked her eyes first with Dorothea then with Petra and gave them a silent command. They nodded and creeped behind the warrior angel. He did not seem to notice anything as he attacked the demon quick as a flash. Luckily Byleth could keep up with the pace, while Edelgard had problems even seeing some of their movements.

Still she prepared herself to attack him from the side to further distract him from the looming danger behind him. She waited until his weapon struck forward again to attack. Quickly she swung her axe at his unprotected side, but the angel reacted instantly and shifted his shield to meet her axe. It bounced off with a clear metallic chime and did not even leave a dent in the shield despite all the force Edelgard put behind this attack.

Byleth used his inattention to make a counterattack herself at his other side, now unprotected. However the angel responded again so fast Edelgard only saw a streak of color as he knocked Byleth's strange sword off its path with his shield.

Suddenly Byleth's sword unfolded at the broken lines into segments on a long chain. It curved behind the impact with the shield and slithered towards the angel. He couldn't react in time and the sword left a deep ripped wound at his right side.

The angel let out a surprised and pained cry, loud enough that Edelgard's ears rang again.

"What is this?! It can not be that sword! Where did you get that sword vile demon?! Are you mocking me?"

Edelgard could feel the sheer anger vibrating all through her body. Also Dorothea and Petra who were just about to strike were frozen from the shock. Only Byleth kept her calm. She just tilted her head to the side as if she didn't know what he was talking about. In the next second the two beings clashed again with a loud bang.

Dorothea and Petra finally started to attack the angel's back, but it was like he had eyes on his backhead. He always parried with his shield or halberd and sometimes he even just dodged the attacks without even looking. But their attacks were not completely in vain.

Each time he had to counter or dodge their assault, Byleth used his inattentiveness to do as much damage as possible. It didn't take long for his entire body to be littered by smaller and bigger wounds. Most of them came by Byleth's hand, but Edelgard and the others had also managed to harm the celestial being.

The angel let out a furious scream that resonated in a huge shockwave, which threw back all four women.

"NO! I will not be defeated by a filthy demon and some lowly humans! I will destroy you all!"

With his last shout, the runes of his shield began to glow in a blinding white light. It was so bright that Edelgard had to shield her eyes with her hand. When the light subsided, the massive form of the angle had changed. His skin was covered by his shield or more precisely his shield was molten to his skin even at his back and face. The angel looked monstrous and no longer like an celestial being. He now wielded his halberd with two hands and immediately went on the offensive. The angel and demon were both only blurs before her eyes. She could not make out where one began and the other ended.

Because Edelgard hadn't any hope in intervening this fight, she took notice of the remaining fight around her. Most of the knights were already taken care of. Only the man in contract with the angle and a handful others were still there.

Swiftly they finished them off, besides the angel bound man. Edelgard ordered her men to take him prisoner so she could question him later. She had a lot of questions about these angel contracts. On the other hand, she would have to kill him to ban the angel from this realm. But she had the uttermost trust in her demon's strength to defeat him.

Speaking of the two beings, Edelgard turned her attention to their battle. They had taken a break from attacking each other and to Edelgard's discontent Byleth spotted a couple of wounds. They seemed superficial, but they were still there, while the angel's strange metallic skin was unharmed.

Both seemed a bit winded as they panted softly and glared at each other. Well the glaring came mostly from the angel. Byleth had the same passive look as always.

The demon tilted her hand to the side.

"I need to use more force to defeat you."

She seemed to focus some kind of energy into her weapon. Her hair and coat blew outwards and a strange dark light formed around her sword.

"I will not let you desecrate a holy artifact!"

His assault forward was halted by a rain of arrows. Bernadetta and her division of arches were hindering him from interrupting Byleth. The meek archer quicked in fear as the hateful glowing eyes of the angel swept over her. But she stood her ground and her hands were steady as she put the next arrow in her bow.

In the next moment Byleth unleashed with an uncharacteristic loud cry a furry of lashes with the chain mode of her sword. The sword shimmered in a gloomy aura as it whirled left and right.

The winged beast cried out in pain and tried to block the attack with his arms. As the assault subsided, Edelgard spotted multiple cuts across him, but mostly on his arms. They were basically mangled. It was a wonder he could still wield his weapon in both hands.

"I will not… I can't… It can't end like this!"

With the last of his strength the angle threw his halberd at the demon in his desperation. She easily flicked it to the side, readied her still dark glowing sword and thrusted it with a mighty push through his chest out of his back.

It was followed by a loud cracking sound and a barely audible wheezing. All was still and no one dared to breathe. Then the body of the angel bursted into a big cloud of gold glittering dust. Byleth was covered from head to toe in it.

It looked rather comical, not appropriated to the tragic scene moments before. Byleth also acted strange. Her normally blank face was contorted. Was she disgusted?

No - she only started to sneeze violently. It was all so surreal and absurdly funny, Edelgard couldn't stop the laugh bubbling out of her.

Most looked at her in surprise, but after a short while many joined her even Hubert let out a sardonic chuckle.

Finally done getting all the angel dust out of her nose, Byleth noticed all the Black Eagles laughing.

"What is so funny?"

"Don't worry about it. I am just glad we dealt with this."

Edelgard reassured the demon.

"Let's look if the archbishop is in her audience chamber. Be prepared for the next possible fight."

She led her group through the imposing stone walled hall. There were many artfully crafted stone statues and a huge ormanted window. To the left was a heavy wooden double door, which spotted beautiful cravings.

Two of her guards heaved the double door open and Edelgard readied her axe. But to her disappointment the room behind it was empty.

Just as the lilac eyed woman was about to order her force to the next location, one of the guards she had left outside against possible ambush attacks ran inside.

"Your Majesty, a message bird had arrived and stated that the church's army is retreating back to the kingdom's land. Also some of the guards reported movement at the gates. The knights of Seiros seem to evacuate Garreg Mach."

"We need to act quickly! We need to capture as many church members alive as possible. We will split into three groups to intercept them in different locations. Dorothea and Petra come with me to the gate. Hubert you will lead the group to the church's bridge and cut of their exit. Ferdinand and Bernadetta will help you. Byleth you will guard with Caspar and Linhardt the stairs to the third floor."

Edelgard may have won the battle for Garreg Mach, but she couldn't breathe easily yet. They had to capture as many important church figures as possible. Maybe they would even get the archbishop herself, although she hadn't much hope in that regard. Rhea had probably already retreated to King Dimitri's land, like a coward.

All in all today was a successful victory and it was one step closer to her goal.