"Perhaps later you should get your new Crests examined by Professor Hanneman," Seteth recommended to Edelgard and Lysithea. "Best to make sure they're properly studied and documented in case of any future side effects." In truth, Rhea suspected he had an ulterior motive; he likely wanted to know more about Edelgard and Lysithea's fused Crests himself. She did as well.
"Maybe later," Lysithea said.
Seteth nodded and motioned for them to continue.
The three of them followed Maz Koshia out or the Shrine. He hadn't been exaggerating; there was a huge army of Malice-covered monsters. The count included three Malice Guardians, a Malice Hinox, a Malice Talus, and two Malice Lynels, one male, one female. Likely they had been a mated pair before they had been infected. And, of course, many Blins and some Lizalfos.
Maz Koshia didn't seem to be daunted by the numbers. He charged straight for the Talus, dodging attacks and slicing through the smaller monsters as he approached.
The Talus attempted to slam its arm down on Maz Koshia, but the monk dodged out of the way, then jumped on top of the Talus and trisected its crystalline brain, causing it to fall to pieces.
The Malice Guardians tried to blast Maz Koshia, but he easily dodged their blasts and stabbed the nearest one in the eye with both lances, then sliced outward, breaking it in half.
The Malice Hinox tried attacking him, but he stabbed it in the eye, and then did a spinning attack that left many slashes on its throat. It fell over, dead.
Maz Koshia then abruptly grew to a gigantic size, and crushed the two remaining Guardians under his foot. However, the Malice Lynels hit him with their Malice breath blasts, and he shrank back to his normal size.
Slashing through the last of the smaller monsters, Maz Koshia reached the Lynels. His lances were a blur as he scored hit after hit on the Lynels, while taking none himself. Finally, he ended it by stabbing both Lynels through their heads at once.
And then, as his lances were occupied, a beam of dark energy hit him.
"Maz Koshia!" Lysithea shouted.
They saw Wizzro appear near Maz Koshia. A giant hand reached out of Wizzro's robes and caught him, and squeezed.
Link rushed to Maz Koshia's aid, followed by Edelgard and Lysithea. Wizzro saw the Master Sword in Link's hand. "That's my cue to leave." He summoned half a dozen Poes to keep them busy, and once they had cut through them, Wizzro was gone.
They looked down at Maz Koshia. The ancient monk's voice spoke once more. "Do not...let the light...be extinguished. Farewell." With that, the ancient monk died.
The three of them took the time to bury him. "We'll have a gravestone made for him later," Link said, as he planted an arming sword by the grave.
"It almost didn't seem real that Maz Koshia could have been killed by such a cheap shot," Lysithea admitted.
"He seemed like a truly great warrior," Byleth said.
"He was," Link said. "Even when I was in my prime, I don't think I could have beaten him even with all four Champions backing me up."
"To be honest, I'm not sure he didn't take that hit intentionally," Edelgard said.
"Why would he do that?" Byleth asked.
"As a lesson to us," Edelgard said. "To not think that being stronger than most makes us invincible. That even the strongest among us can still be beaten if we're caught by surprise."
"Well, maybe not Hubert and me," Mercedes said.
"I didn't think that might have been intentional until that same lesson saved Link's life," Edelgard said. "But that happened much later."
"A story for another day, then," Rhea said.
"After the three of them got back, we started making our way to the Gerudo Desert," Dimitri said. "For once, our journey was relatively unimpeded. Still, we did have a few interesting conversations on the way…"