DISCLAIMER: I don't own the Kingdom Hearts nor Fire Emblem Three Houses characters, Square Enix, Nintendo, and Disney are the owners.
CHAPTER 41: Black Eagles Strike Force rises
SOMEWHERE IN THE MONASTERY (SAFEHOUSE)
After hell broke loose with Dimitri swearing vengeance against Edelgard and the whole Black Eagle team by joining the recently resurrected Neo-Organization XIII, Sora met the hardest opponent from the opposite gang, Rhea, who had transformed into the white dragon: The Immaculate One.
Everyone ran for their lives as they barely escaped her flames torching the place to the ground, it was a miracle that they had made it out alive without burning themselves and they went to a safe zone within the monastery.
They had to figure out to deal with their new enemy mobs and put them in their place once and for all.
"We somehow managed to escape." Edelgard was panting just like everyone else…
"This is one of the Imperial army's provisional camps." Hubert mentioned the group. "Here we can organize our forces."
And then Edelgard came to make a question which made question their morality…
"Before we go any further, I want all of you ask yourselves if you're certain you wish to join us." She asked them if they wanted to build an alliance with her and the Empire. "Sora? I know that I shouldn't be askin' this after all of this… bullshit I did behind your backs, and I'm not willing to make either of you to join our army. So, if anyone is going to back down, you're free to do so."
"Edelgard, we have met new enemies and they won't get a rest until they beat us down all." Roxas stepped in the front with a serious but determined attitude. "What it let me down was not what you did, but what Xehanort did to Dimitri… and what Rhea is willing to do to keep this pseudo-status quo. I have no doubt that they may even get more members to join their ranks."
"He's correct. That mission you carry on your shoulders is way too heavy to handle this by yourself, I'm in." Sora accepted his willingness to join her, which took the emperor aback.
"And me. Xehanort, Dimitri, and Rhea are the most dangerous foes we must be careful of." Roxas seconded accepting his role as an Imperial soldier.
"No wonder that those guys can spread the chaos and make our lives in hell, I'm in." Celica agreed just like the others.
"Like Roxas said, I'm not even mad at you for what you did back in the tomb, but it broke my heart seeing how things turned out. I think Seteth and I would be safe with you than rather running away only to be found by those people." Flayn expressed her willingness to join the army out of safety.
"Flayn! Oh, that's right, if we ever try to run away, those people would surely find us and do horrible things to us both. We don't have a choice but to join you, but only because she asked for it… and for our safety." Seteth tried to protest but then he knew that this is the only way to keep themselves safe from Xehanort's grasps.
"We never had thought that this would get off our hands." Said Byleth thinking about the huge problem they had themselves got into.
"When I saw our professor running off, I ran about as fast as I could to catch up." Caspar said out of intrigue.
"Caspar. Death finds those who run without thinking. You gave no thought to the war fog." Petra lectured him speaking bad English like always but gave an important mention about her family. "My grandfather was the leader of Brigid, and I hope for us to be allies with the Empire. I will be staying."
"W-was this a good idea?" Bernadetta looked skeptic but then changed her mind. "Did I make the right choice? Oh, but my family is part of the Empire, and Sora and our professor is here…"
"You're fine here with us, Bernie. Though it's true that certain houses, especially that certain heir to being the king, were against the Imperial princess." Caspar cheered her up mentioning the Blue Lions, not really no one, but Dimitri.
"I'm assuming you are referring to my family." Ferdinand said solemnly, he was very concerned about his parents. "I must believe that the conclusion I came to was the correct one. You are the emperor now… I am the only one left who is qualified to guide you at this point."
"I'm only here because I know it would be troublesome to stand against you." Linhardt spoke as he… he himself was accepting his role as Edelgard's soldier.
"I'm not just here for you, Edie." Dorothea said right before flirting with Sora. "I'm here to follow our dear Byleth, and our dear mercenary Sora."
Okay, that struck Sora's heart, was it an indirect message from her friend? An indirect kiss onto his cheek?
"Of course, I don't have any territory to offer… so Hubie may not even want me here." Dorothea joked.
"The greater our numbers, the better. Your reasons for being here are of no consequences." Hubert was willing to accept any help they all would receive.
"I think I understand where you're coming from." The emperor comprehended their words. "But now, I wish to hear of your resolve."
Just as each member was about speak their minds, a voice whom they recognized immediately was heard through their safehouse. "Wait up!"
"Ingrid?!" Sora came to notice her entering the safehouse in a hurried state, not only that, she was visibly frightened and shocked. "Felix?! What are all of you doing here?"
Ingrid came among Felix, Mercedes, Annette, Hilda, Leonie, Raphael, Ignatz, Lorentz, who was rather creeped out, Lysithea, Claude and finally… Jeralt, who had just been recovered from his wound.
"Sorry for the interruption, but we need a safe place. The whole monastery is crawling up with monsters and lots of dark creatures, and what's worse? That boar prince is in charge with them." Felix stated, raising the tension with their former class leader.
"Dimitri what?!" Sylvain was disappointed upon hearing his warning.
"We tried to reason with him but he just doesn't listen." Mercedes in a melancholic voice.
"Byleth! Guys! Are you all okay?" Jeralt talked to them.
"Yes, we are fine, dad." She replied letting him know she was all fine and safe.
"Look, we didn't come here to look for trouble, all right? Rhea became mad and threatened us if we didn't adhere to her non-sense rules. Then she became into a mad white dragon as you all saw the pic!" Claude said out of amusement, much to Seteth's dismay.
"That white dragon…" Seteth acknowledged his words as he made a facepalm. "I should have been faster to keep secrets to everyone… but it doesn't matter anymore. Rhea is The Immaculate One, guys… we must be cautious with her and those guys who are trying to mess us all."
"I knew you'd say that." Claude praised him for saying the correct name. "I think you all might be interested in Rhea's true name I happened to figure out, that might be the best bet if you ever come to face her. Her name's Seiros, guys."
"Seiros?!" everyone gasped in unison.
"Where did you get this info from?" Edelgard interrogated him suspiciously.
"Well, Edelgard, given that you're the emperor now, I'll tell you… I had been investigating this whole church of Seiros stuff stealthy while nobody was looking, aside of making sure that this guy didn't catch me, there's too many questions I'd like to ask her." Claude spilled it out while pointing at Seteth, who was more than cringed at his petty attitude. "But anyways, things got ugly and the worst thing to happen is that Dedue sided with those ugly assholes and tried to cut me down."
"Damn…" Edelgard replied in disbelief. "Alright… we're gonna need some help to figure this big problem we all have now. Ingrid… Hilda… guys… Do you all want to join us to stop this madness?"
"Edelgard… Yes! We will!" Lysithea accepted her offer.
"Count on me, I wanna kick the boar prince's ass so he will listen to us." Felix seconded telling his motives: to stop his friend from going into a bloody rampage.
"I came to realize how worthless the culture I come from is… how toxic it is; besides, I would like to learn how to stand up by myself instead of accepting death as a last resort." Ingrid also expressed her willingness to join the Imperial army. "I'm in."
"Good. We are the ones who can stop this indomitable enemy that has plagued our world for ages." Edelgard gave a big motivational speech to her people like a true emperor she was. "We fight for humanity! We fight for Fódlan! If you dare walk this path with me, take your first step. It's not or never!"
And then each and every single one of them joined the Empire with one objective in mind: to put an end to the madness imposed by the Neo-Organization XIII and free Fódlan.
"Thank you, my friends. We are the true face of the Empire, and we will triumph!" Edelgard was happy with their choice, after all, they gained new allies who would aid them from now on.
Each and every one of the black eagle members decided to prepare themselves for the upcoming fight against the Neo-Organization XIII. It would be a hard fight; they could tell that by their serious behavior written on their faces and Sora knew it.
"Sora, Byleth…" Edelgard said as she approached them for a talk. "May I have a word with you?"
"Of course." Byleth nodded alongside with her student.
"Do you need something?" Sora asked her.
"I appreciate it, guys…" Edelgard spoke showing sadness on her face and bowed her head down… "I…"
"What's wrong, Edelgard? Are you OK?" Sora was worried, he didn't like watching her girl like this in a long time since he first enrolled in the academy.
"I'm just… anxious. Sora." Edelgard tried to hide her real feelings. But she knew she couldn't hide it any longer. "It feels like the weight of this burden is crushing me. At this very moment, on my orders, I'm starting a war."
"El… Rhea, I mean Seiros started that war with us when she tried to kill Sora and showed her true colors… I already knew that this battle was eventually going to break up but never thought that it would be so soon." Byleth stated recognizing the huge hazard everybody was going to face when ready to engage.
"Looks like our actions altered our calculations we all had earlier. An army far larger than the one that attacked the Holy Tomb few minutes earlier will soon be locked in battle." Edelgard said the action she was willing to take later.
"Looks like we are pushing ourselves in a dangerous situation." Sora acknowledged the huge problem they all were getting into.
"Long-devised strategies are unfolding across Fódlan. Leaders are deciding their royalties and preparing to fight…" Edelgard agreed with him. "So many generals and soldiers will die. It's inevitable that civilians will get caught up in the chaos as well. There will be countless casualties. With a single command, the flames of war will rage across all corners of this realm. And I'm the one who is giving the order."
"We'll do everything to get those civilians out of this! No innocent has to die like that." Sora expressed his will to save as much innocent people's lives as he could. "Right, Byleth?"
"It won't be an easy task, I'm not lying. But we won't lose anything trying to protect innocent people." Byleth replied showing concern but willing to take that risk. "So, Edelgard… This is the path you've chosen, isn't it?"
"That's right. There's no turning back now." Edelgard replied being firmer to her initiative. "No matter how much blood flows at my feet, at our hands… I will not relent. And neither you should if we all want to defend our lives and our friends' too. We must break the bonds that the depraved church and Thales and the others have placed on Fódlan. The sacrifices will allow us to create a future where we never need sacrifice again. It may seem contradictor, but that the only way."
"We don't have to sacrifice anyone, you know?" Sora suggested another way to change the course of the war.
"It won't be easy to let a comrade of us die… but I want to think we may be able to have each other's back." Edelgard wanted him to keep a promise to keep themselves alive.
"We will, I promise." Sora promised her.
"Leave it to us, Edelgard." Byleth seconded making up her mind.
"Guys…" Edelgard was rather astonished by their willingness to carry out the hardest task. "Listen to me. I made up my mind long time ago. Yet here I am, seeking your approval. Tell me the truth, Sora, Byleth. Are you happy with your decision to stay by my side? Unlike me, you can still walk away from all of this. I mean, you don't have to get involved if you guys don't want to."
"What do you mean, Edelgard?" Sora asked her to clarify her statement.
"This path leads to the either defeat or death of the archbishop and the servants of the church and neo-organization XIII. Can you live with that?" Edelgard explained the grave consequences if they choose to follow her.
Of course, that path implicated having to either defeat or kill Rhea and the neo-organization XIII if there was no choice when it came to self-defense fight. Killing in self-defense is not the same as murdering somebody, and everyone aside of Sora knew that…
"We chose this path too." Sora accepted, just like his teacher nodded in the same response. Much to the empress's surprise. "Whatever you have to do, you have my support, El…"
"Sora… I never thought…" Edelgard was blushing and stunned at what he said to her, and felt a sort of butterflies dancing inside her stomach. "Since you showed up at the night we met, I had big doubts about you, but as the time transpired, I came to realize that I had to make things right and your sole presence helped me to figure out what having you more than as a friend and a partner in arms meant. Sora… I… I love you."
"Edelgard…" Sora was surprised aside of blushing his cheeks, it was the first time that a girl told him those words. And he came to realize that he had fallen in love with the Flame Emperor. "I love you too."
But… the cute teacher stepped in the middle and said something that surprised the pair…
"I suppose you two are in love with each other…" she talked as she hugged Sora from behind, trying to get her jealous playfully. "Then let me confess that I… love him too. And I want you both to know that whatever you plan to do, you have my support."
"Byleth… so you fell for him too?" Edelgard was surprised by her words but also content as she smiled. "If so, I wouldn't mind if we shared the same man."
Edelgard kissed him in the mouth just as Byleth kissed his cheek, leaving him stunned for a second.
"Girls…" Sora said recovering himself from THAT love confession.
"I believe in you, Sora, and you, Byleth." Edelgard spoke with determination on her face, she was more than ready for their incoming battle. "And you both believed in me. With that knowledge, I have the strength to keep fighting. Let's go… there's something I need to say to Hubert."
[SUPPORT LEVEL BETWEEN SORA AND EDELGARD REACHED S LEVEL]
[SUPPORT LEVEL BETWEEN SORA AND BYLETH REACHED S LEVEL]
/
According to Hubert, the main imperial army were advancing as planned by the team aside of preparing for their manifesto to other houses which belonged to the Adrestian Empire.
"Manifesto?" Byleth asked.
"We will be distributing our manifesto to every lord within Fódlan." Edelgard explained. "Even thou our comrades from the other houses already know what's up within the church, the lords from the Kingdom and the Alliance don't.
"What if those lords don't believe us?" Sora was intrigued about their replies.
"Then… I wouldn't doubt, nor be surprised that Xehanort probably washed their brains." Byleth presented a very high possibility.
"That's the worst part. And I hope we are all wrong on your statement, Byleth." Edelgard gave her a point. "Claude will make his best to open people's eyes to the truth and ask them to relinquish any remaining conviction to unite against the Empire. We already have the blue lions and the golden deer at our side so there shouldn't be any problems."
"Yes, there are other nobles who oppose the church. We will condemn who deserves he condemnation and forgive who deserve the forgiveness." Said Hubert with a raw and direct statement. "We have already knocked down some of the Imperial nobles who are morally rotten. My father was among them… How unfortunate…"
"Sorry, Hubert…" Sora expressed his sorry for what had happened to them.
"At least they are still alive, mister Sora, don't worry." Hubert chuckled a little to ease that tension.
"Rhea… Or I should say Seiros will try invade and take Garreg Mach away from us." Edelgard reminded them their upcoming battle. "Our main army has already departed the Imperial capital. They will arrive at the monastery within two hours. There, we will join forces with them. As for us, I'd like your opinion on how we should be positioned within the army."
"It's a good question…" Sora knew this was a hard choice so he turned to his dear teacher. "What do you say, Byleth?"
"Well…" Byleth began analyzing her students' feats but especially the ones who had been standing out for a long time. "Sora, you are one of the excellent attackers who always go jump onto the battlefield in the front lines, that same goes for Felix, Caspar, Petra, Dorothea, Celica, Roxas, Edelgard and me. This will make things handy. Therefore… We. Are. The. Imperial sword."
"The Imperial Sword…!" Sora was amazed by that big codename they were just given themselves, that sounded cool!
"Your majesty intends to fight alongside the man and professor, correct?" Hubert asked if they made a good choice. "In that case, you will not be incorporated into the Empire's main army."
"It's alright, Hubert. We can make this workout somehow." Sora assured him with a high optimism on his face.
"That's Sora for you." Hubert said as he kept giving instructions. "Your squad can move freely about the battlefield under supervision of the Imperial forces… That would be most prudent."
"Nice idea, Hubert. We can't let it slip that I'm following your command in battle, Byleth." Edelgard accepted his suggestion in order to keep their army in check.
"I don't like the motion of fighting on the front lines, it is too dangerous." Hubert objected considering it too reckless.
"Hubert, someone has to shield our comrades and attack on the front lines at the same time. We've already discussed this." Edelgard replied making him see there was no other choice.
"My apologizes, I overstepped." Hubert apologized.
"Now that everything it's settled… it's time to come up with a name for ourselves." Edelgard suggested.
"A name for ourselves?" Sora was quite curious.
"That's right, Sora. And you all gonna like it." Edelgard let out a chuckle as she continued. "In honor at our time at the academy, how about we call ourselves the Black Eagles Strike Force?"
"Black Eagles Strike Force?!" Sora expressed surprise and enthusiasm after hearing that name, to think that he would take part of an elite army inside of a big army such Adrestia's. "It's like we are part of a squad team!"
"It's a cool name! I Love it." Byleth was also enthusiastic with the name for their squad.
"Sora, Byleth. I'm glad you said that!" Edelgard was happy to hear their answers. "I must confess that I spent all night thinking about it."
"We will live up to our names, we promise." Sora expressed his will to carry on his role.
"I know we all will." Edelgard said showing trust at each other. "Byleth, will you prepare the Black Eagles Strike Force for our incoming battle?"
"I'm on it." Byleth replied more showing determination to defend Garreg Mach. "Meanwhile, I think we all should chill out for fifteen minutes, just like we took breaks every day at our academy. When the time comes, I'll call you all and we will set our positions at Garreg Mach and contain the Neo-Organization XIII. Okay?"
"Got it." Sora replied understanding his teacher's indications.
Meanwhile, the rest of the Black Eagles were spending their break time before their toughest battle they all had faced before, this was not a mock battle, it was real.
"What I'm angry at is not what they did to my father and brother… that's the first part… What I'm upset with is what this church has become." Ashe said with a high disgust on his face.
"Don't let the anger get the best of you." Roxas calmed him down, recalling his memories of being also like that long time ago. "We'll make them pay together. For what you have mentioned, it reminds me of you when I was also like this when I found out I was being used by Xemnas and other members from Organization XIII. Our best bet is not to focus on revenge, but our survival.
"It's easier to say than done." Ashe replied clenching his fists, it was hard to let go that anger.
"Byleth wouldn't like it if she saw you like this, I can't blame you for being angry with these guys, but being like this can lead you to a loss. I went though it once… believe me… You don't have an idea how painful is this."
"Thank you, Roxas. You're the first person to understand how I feel." Ashe felt relieved after listening to him.
Sora and Felix were sparring with swordplay to warm up before their incoming battle. The two seemingly matched each other because Felix had been training intensely and this sparring demonstrated that.
The keyblade wielder and Felix clashed their respective weapons exchanging intense glares at each other before putting distance.
"I never thought you'd come to defy the system." The blue-haired man said.
"Me neither." Sora replied. "Until I figured out what kind of person Rhea was."
"Then we have a huge enemy in common…" Felix understood what he meant. "That Xehanort guy who manipulated Dimitri… We'll make him get back to his senses somewhat."
"We will. Just leave it me." Sora was determined to pull Dimitri out of Xehanort's grasps by any means.
Each and every one warmed up taking their time to prepare themselves for the incoming battle against their biggest foe they had never faced before.
"We are going to have biggest foes." Celica exercising her swordplay skills just like everybody else.
"And many obstacles to get through this." Ingrid replied training with her lance, focusing on preparing herself for survival. "Celica, are you aware that what we are about to do will be a huge betrayal to the church and the kingdom I come from, right?"
"Yeah… I'm aware of that. But as long as the place you come from becomes quite questionable and starts treating you like trash… I don't see it as a betrayal. You fight for your freedom. For your life! And for your friends!"
"For my freedom… That's nice to hear of you!" Ingrid was inspired by her friend's speech.
And then… the break time was over as Byleth noticed her students… "Okay guys… Are you all prepared?"
"Yes, Byleth." Roxas replied. "I am ready for the battle."
"I have no doubt that Seiros is willing to put us down for defying her system." Seteth said showing remorse for having to face the one whom he considered as a family. "I'd rather try to reason with her if we could."
"I don't think she wants to have a word with us… but we don't lose anything if we try to have a chat with her." Byleth acknowledged the difficulties of having her talking.
"If I was more attentive of her actions… If only I had known that this guy in black would come to screw the church status quo... and brainwash Seiros…" Seteth expressed remorse of not being more careful.
"We will try to talk to her." Sora assured him… even thou he was well aware of her true colors she had shown up moments ago. "It will be difficult to reach her, I can't lie."
And then, someone noticed something that put everybody alert… "Everyone! The Neo-Organization XIII soldiers are coming!" Ferdinand warned them.
"What?!" Roxas gasped right before checking on that direction their rivals were coming from, his classmate wasn't wrong. "Crap… They are coming for us!"
Everyone, including Sora, gasped at their partner's warning as they all came to notice Rhea, or Seiros, Dimitri, Xehanort and their whole gang filled with soldiers and a bunch of dark creatures among them.
But there were some more people among the opposite team.
"Cyril? Catherine?!" Sora said in shock upon recognizing them both but then he realized that they were too devoted to Rhea and the twisted church system.
Not only that, Gilbert was also seen in the opposing army with yellow eyes like everyone else aside of Dimitri, who shot a pure grudge-filled rage glare against Edelgard, eager to take her head.
The keyblade wielder and the team were met with hostile glare shot by Rhea and the enemy army.
"Annette! What are you doing here with those evil bastards?!"
"Father! Please! I don't want to fight you!" Annette pleaded. "Put your weapon down! We can talk abou-AH!" She dodged out of the way as he threw his tomahawk at her. The large ax soared over her head and came flying back to Gilbert, who caught it.
"Annette? You turned yourself against the kingdom? Against the church? Then I have no choice but to kill you." Gilbert said expressing his remorse but also his will to murder her own daughter, much to her disappointment and shock.
"What?! I'm your daughter! You can't do this to me!" Annette tried to reason with him with no avail.
"Annette, you die here." He sentenced as he charged towards her in an attempt to strike down her own daughter, only to be blocked by Celica, who shot an intense glare.
"Get out of my way, you fool!" he snarled angrily. "I must punish her for defying the goddess!"
"I won't let you lay a finger on her!" she shouted back sending him few meters off them. "Look at your eyes, you're being manipulated by Xehanort! And you dare to hurt your own daughter 'cause of your 'goddess' orders?! Don't be ridiculous!"
"That's blasphemy! You know nothing!" Gilbert became enraged by her words as he tried to swing his ax on the redhead girl, who was guarding herself and Annette. "Nobody insults the church and the Goddess! Whoever does this heresy, must be eliminated, and my daughter is not an exception! I thought I raised you better, Annette!"
"Better?!" Annette shouted, making Celica flinch in surprise at her angry voice. It was rare to see her angry like this, and for a very good reason. "You were never there for me in the beginning, you never cared about mom! And me! All you cared about is to lick Dimitri's and that fucked up kingdom's feet! So don't every say you raised me better, because you didn't…" she clutched onto her magic warp to summon an Excalibur and blasted his father lots of meters away from the girls and crushing against the wall.
Gilbert tried to get up but collapsed due to the weight of his armor and decided to leave.
"In my master's name… I cannot fall here… I must withdraw." He said before being rescued by a warp spell, but not before shooting a death glare at Celica and Annette.
Celica checked on her friend, and much to her shock, she saw her on verge of tears.
"Annette… Are you okay?"
"Celica…! Sorry…" Annette replied in a sobbing voice. "Im sorry you had to witness this!"
"It's alright, I'm not angry." Celica comforted her caressing her shoulder showing her that there was nothing to be sorry about her actions against her own father.
"I spent years… Lots of years trying to get to Garreg Mach so I could meet my father and convince him to come home! After all effort. All the sleepless nights to try to keep my grades up… he ignores me, and then, when I make a choice of my own, he doesn't even try to consider and immediately tries to kill his own daughter!"
Then, a swarm of nobodies and heartless emerged from the ground making the duo be in attack/defense stance.
"Let's save this talk for later, Annette." Celica suggested her to let it go and focus on the fight.
"Yeah, there will be a time to confront him sooner or later." Annette replied in serious voice, ready to attack.
Elsewhere, Cyril and Claude were having an arrow fight with each other.
"You have to stop, Cyril! I don't want to hurt you!" the Golden Deer leader pleaded.
"Never!" Cyril yelled expressing his blind zealousness. "You betrayed Lady Rhea! Her enemies are my enemies! And you are one!"
"Rhea is the enemy! Xehanort is manipulating you!" Claude tried to reason with him but this was to no avail.
"Shut up, you bastard!" Cyril screamed as he shot another arrow that flew over the yellow house head, which he barely dodged out of his way. "I'll fuckin' kill you, asshole!"
"Cyril…" Claude was disheartened seeing him like that, he set his bow up as he was dodging the rain of arrows flying over him to take cover using a tree and finally shoot an arrow, which finally hit Cyril on an arm, making him yell in pain on the ground.
"You fucker! You will regret insulting Lady Rhea's orders!" he screamed as he left the battlefield.
Roxas and Dimitri had been clashing each other's weapons in an intense level, but because of Xehanort's influence, the future ruler of Faerghus expressed a mad and twisted personality like a wild boar bear trying to kill a prey.
"Step away, you bastard! I gotta get this bitch's head!" he roared shooting him a murderous glare.
"You gotta get pass my dead body, Xehanort is controlling your mind! Snap it out!" Roxas tried to talk to him.
"SNAP IT OUT MY ASS!" Dimitri shouted uncontrollably letting the grudge-filled rage get the better of him, he was slowly descending into the madness. "EDELGARD MURDERED MY FAMILY! AND YOU ALL FUCKERS ARE JUST HER LAPDOGS!"
"Dimitri… This isn't you! Your heart has been consumed by the darkness!" Roxas glared at him with disappointment. "Your mind is twisted up, I can feel it! You can't keep on saying that she killed your family if you don't have any proof of that!"
"DON'T FUCKING LIE ON MY FACE! IT MUST ME HER!" Dimtri roared as he charged against Roxas clashing with their respective weapons in a brutal level, reaching to the point of almost fatally and diagonally slashing him with such an animalistic, and deadly speed, which Roxas barely blocked and dodged.
Dimitri was wearing out and becoming tired, he had used his crest power to try to crash Roxas's body, but he witnessed his rival's power to keep up with him and not die unlike the normal men he had killed, this was frustrating him and he decided to withdraw, but not before shooting him a grudge-filled murderous hatred…
"The next time I come here… I will kill all of you… Edelgard… Professor… and that dickhead nobody asshole…"
"That dickead nobody…?" Roxas murmured getting upset at his insult towards his friend. "Sora… he really hates not only us, but he hates Sora and Edelgard more. I have to warn them."
Sora and Edelgard on the other hand, had been fighting Thales and Xehanort respectively while Byleth was dealing with Rhea aside of slaying the dark creatures they got on their way.
"You… how dare you betray me!" Rhea snarled as she clashed her sword against her enemy's.
"I never betrayed you, Rhea… Or Seiros." Byleth replied as she glared at her intensely. "I knew how dangerous you are… going as far as killing people who challenged your twisted up system… and mostly stabbing Sora in the back!"
"You WORTHLESS piece of shit! No heretic rebellious heart should be in motion with the church and our believes! No one shall escape our judgment! I will punish you myself!" Rhea screamed as the two kept clashing each other's weapons.
Edelgard didn't have an easy battle with Thales, as Sora had a tough time with Xehanort, who gave them a very hard and tough battle.
Xehanort shot a dark wave and blasted the keyblade wielder against the wall, but he wouldn't give up that easily.
"How come you won't perish?" Xehanort questioned incredulous.
"You still don't get it, do you?" Sora retorted pointing his keyblade at him. "I will do whatever it takes to take you out!"
Sora triggered his double form summoning his two Oathkeeper and Oblivion keyblade and engaged an fierce swordfight between each other. There was no way Xehanort and Neo-Organization XIII could get away with this.
Edelgard could barely keep up with Thales's highspeed defending herself from his attacks, it looked like that his evil uncle was getting an upper hand on his own niece.
Suddenly, Thales grabbed Edelgard by her throat upwards… willing to hang her.
"Do you really think you could keep betraying us like that, stupid girl?" Thales made fun of her in a cruel voice.
"You… bastard…" Edelgard could barely speak trying to break free from his strong grasps, but not avail. "Let… go… of… me!"
"This is what happens to anyone who betray and deceive us… you useless piece of garbage." Said Thales tightening his grasps even more to the point of willing to kill her.
Edelgard was feeling her oxygen leaving her… she couldn't breathe and her life was about to end when a keyblade hit Thales harder and broke her free.
Edelgard fell to the ground and felt the breath comeback to her, and then she turned to see the person, no, these two persons show up from nowhere.
"Kronya… Vanitas…" Edelgard was surprised by their presences. "How did you get here?"
"This motherfucker was about to kill you, princess." Kronya replied in foul language. "I won't rest until these assholes are gone!"
"They stabbed us in the back, so it makes sense to have our revenge as of now." Vanitas said expressing his will to tear the organization apart.
"Thank you, guys… If you didn't show up… I wouldn't have survived Thales's evil grasp." Edelgard thanked them.
"You bastards!" Thales yelled at them as he got back up. "You are going to regret of what you have done!
"You are the one who's gonna regret what you did to us, motherfucker!" Vanitas pointed his keyblade against him. "Go, Flame Emperor! Kyonya and I will deal with this bitch!"
"You have things to do with Sora, don't you?" Kronya asked her to move on.
"Okay, be careful with him." Edelgard said before running to where her team was to help.
Dorothea, Sora, and the other Black Eagles were fighting the countless heartless, nobodies and unversed creatures. It was a high-risk battle, until somebody showed up and wrecked tons of these creatures with his scythe.
"Death knight! What the hell?!" Thales was shocked by his betrayal.
"You see? There's some people who refuse to follow your stupid orders." Vanitas made fun of him as he was clashing each other's weapons.
"Quiet!" Thales snarled trying to lay a hit on the black-haired boy, who dodged the sword attack and landed a hit on his arm.
"This is what you're gonna get for fucking with us!" Kronya double slashed Thales across his body, even thou he did survive, as expected from a tough enemy.
"You may have won this battle, but the war goes on." Thales said before withdrawing from the battle with a warp spell.
Meanwhile, Sora and the others were stunned to see Death Knight turn on the Neo-Organization XIII, he seemingly was working for them but it was strange for everyone to betray them.
"Death knight?! What's he doing?" Sora was rather surprised for his actions.
"Don't get me wrong, keyblade wielder." Death Knight spoke making him realize that he was not willing to be friends with him. "I'm not here to be friends with everyone, I'm just sick from these fools over there. And I just follow orders from the Emperor."
"I asked him for help, he's on our side." Edelgard explained.
"I see, but still. The enemy of our enemies is our friend." Sora was rather optimistic as he kept clashing with Xehanort. Who was rather displeased by Death Knight's actions.
While the dark knight was dealing with most of the remaining henchmen from the enemy army, Rhea stepped forward with a cold, but also murderous glare at the team… Catherine also showed up with the same stance against her lady's enemies.
"I trusted you. Lady Rhea trusted you." Catherine said with a dangerous, cold voice unyielding her thunderbolt sword. "I won't let you and your stupid folks live after what you have done!"
"Catherine! Stop!" Seteth tried to reason with her in a defense/attack stance starting to channel his magic to use if necessary.
"Stay out of this, you stupid traitor!" Catherine used lighting spell trying to blast him.
"Seteth, watch out!" Flayn cried out as his brother was about to be hit by her magic.
Seteth summoned a magic shield to protect himself from the attack, it was a miracle that he wasn't hit but that technique was pretty strong that he barely managed to keep up.
"Are you okay?" Caspar asked in worry.
"Yeah… I'm fine… I'm fine."
"So you're still alive, huh? Then I shall take you down for betraying the church!" Catherine was about to strike Seteth down when she was blocked by Byleth's sword.
"You bitch! You will regret for siding with these stupid people!"
"I won't let you do as you please, Catherine! You killed Ashe's father and brother! All because you blindly follow her hazardous orders!" Byleth berated her in an angry voice as she was holding her enemy's murderous rampage, much to her anger.
"Shut your trap, asshole!" Catherine screamed, who began the swordplay brawl between each other with the intend to take her life. "Nobody should disturb the church and defy the goddess's doctrines! And you fools have done it, that stupid girl is guilty! She's guilty that your students and even these two traitors turned against us!"
"Seteth and Flayn already knew something was wrong with Rhea! We have had a talk about that and they agreed to join us." Byleth explained the real reason for their deferring to the Empire.
"Enough with this nonsense!" Catherine was sick of hearing anymore excuses as her eyes turned yellow and was sent flying few meters away due to successful slash onto her torso by Byleth. "Damn you all…!"
"You can rest well, Catherine… Now I will eliminate these bugs so I will get Garreg Mach back and I shall keep Fodlan under my orders." Rhea walked towards Sora, Roxas, Celica and Edelgard, who had their weapons ready.
Rhea charged at Sora and the others engaging a fierce battle between them, as Jeralt had warned him, Rhea showcased dangerous swordplay and martial arts skills as she kicked Roxas's torso, and punched Celica's face.
Edelgard narrowly dodged Rhea's sword doing a backflip while Sora landed to hit on the Immaculate One, but she perfectly shielded herself with ease and countered the attack by brushing him off with a strong swing, sending him flying to the wall...
Despite quite outnumbered, Rhea was indeed a formidable and hard rival to defeat, but nonetheless… Sora, Roxas, Celica and Edelgard were not willing to give up that easily and let her get away with this. Fodlan were at their hands, they had to do whatever it takes to defend Garreg Mach against her, Xehanort and the newly revived Neo-Organization XIII!
"You dare to not give up, huh?!" Rhea snarled at them getting more pissed off. "How come you still defy the punishment I'm sending you, fools?!"
"Because you are harming people's lives, Rhea." Roxas said glaring at her intensely.
"It's true that I did bad things, but to kill anybody who doesn't agree with your twisted up system? This is going too far." Edelgard seconded standing up alongside the others.
"I have no intention to take your life, boss." Sora glared at him with a challenging attitude, pointing his keyblade at her. "But if you are willing to screw people's lives, then I will be here to stop you!"
"You won't get away with this, Rhea!" Edelgard expressed her will to stop her.
Sora triggered his Limit form, Roxas and Celica did the same with Double Form and Lila's form respectively.
They charged at each other and clashed each other in a fierce pace, even thou Rhea could barely block every attack and having more than three attackers was beginning to be like a huge headache for her and right after blocking Edelgard's incoming attack, Rhea left herself open and was hit by Celica's successful slash combo.
"Give it up, Rhea. You did a lot of harm to your own people." Celica pleaded pointing her keyblade at her.
"Don't you dare to give me moral lessons!" Rhea spat right before roaring at an alarming rate… she finally transformed back to her dragon form.
This transformation created a powerful and frightening wave that sent everyone flying away except for Sora who could barely hold on the ground. And he couldn't get up either due to the dragon's and the earth itself shaky nature.
"Sora! Run!" Dorothea shouted at him to get away as soon as possible from that beast.
But it was impossible to escape… as the Immaculate One opened her mouth to charge fire…
"You will not be forgiven!" she said in a monstruous voice.
"Sora, NO!" Edelgard shouted in despair.
"SORA!" Byleth came to the scene shielding him with her body as the dragon blasted them both with fire, making the two fall off the hill to the void and then everything went black.
"PROFESSOR!" the rest of the black eagles shouted her name in unison out of shock.
/
The two apparently disappeared from the earth… everyone seemed distraught because of this, especially Edelgard, who was mourning him in verge of tears due to her loss, she lost Sora! Her love!
"YOU! You WILL pay for this, you son of a bitch!" she yelled at the culprit, as she was being tightly restrained by few of his partners, especially Ferdinand, who seemed upset by their apparent loss.
"Whine however you want… your dear keyblade wielder and professor won't return. We will take our leave… but we will reclaim our land, and you won't anything to avoid it… Good bye…" Rhea gave them a heavy and threatening warning before leaving with the group through a corridor of darkness…
However, there were some people who were not convinced that Sora and Byleth had died, of course not!
"Wait a minute…" Celica asked them to be quiet… as she was feeling something like a link with both. "Don't you feel the same thing as I do?"
"Ye-yeah! I can feel Byleth's and Sora's hearts still resounding." Roxas replied her showing relieve.
"Wha-what?!" Edelgard looked rather puzzled but somewhat hopeful.
"I feel that Sora is still alive, and so is Byleth." Roxas assured her. "They must be somewhere, I guess."
"You have to be joking, right?!" Caspar was hopeful too. "Without him, facing the Neo-Organization XIII will be impossible!"
"Look, we don't know their whereabouts, but I can tell that they are not dead by their beating hearts we have just heard. Our hearts are connected to the two… we see them again, that's for sure." Celica smiled at them declaring that their return shouldn't take too long.
"In that case… we all should prepare themselves to give them a warm welcome when Sora and Byleth come back. Until then… we must train and get ourselves ready should we ever face Rhea, or Seiros again.
It was a matter of time before the war in Fodlan took a different course in this medieval fantasy history…
END OF CHAPTER 41
A/N:
Okay, you all must be wondering why I was away for so long, okay, there's a lot of things I need get off my chest. First of all, I had been doing a lot of things and I didn't have time to write this chapter you have just read.
Second, I had been playing a lot of games on my jailbroken Nintendo switch like xenoblade chronicles 2, 3 and Metroid Prime Remastered.
Third and last thing is that due to the mentioned stuff above, I have a writer's block and believe me, it sucks so much that I have no inspiration to continue writing this story. If you want to know why this one took so much time, it's because of this. So im sorry for this looong hiatus.
I may not publish chapters as frequently as I used to but I promise I will deliver you the simple but entertaining and epic episodes as the story goes on, especially when we will finally timeskip to the war phase.
To all my followers, thank you for waiting this long-requested chapter. And if you want, and have a chance, check out my Kingdom Hearts X Super Sentai first game adaptation, you're gonna love it. Especially if you are into tokusatsu genre.
Peace out!