The Dustbin
Day 53: Extracurricular Activity Part 2
30th of Guardian Moon, Evening
Rhea sighs upon finishing reading the paper that was mailed to her about a few hours prior she'd returned to her office.
"... It's happening again," she winced as the Archbishop crumpled the letter held in her hand, "but this time, he of all people had to be in the middle of all this."
Seteth then enters into her audience chambers. "I heard your sigh coming through the doors from the other side of the halls, is Karna up to something again-"
Rhea promptly shoves the letter into her adherent's face to let him figure out what was happening without telling him herself. Upon finishing skimming through the writ, Seteth the furiously crumples the paper into a ball before throwing it onto the ground.
"Of all the audacious lunacy... WHY?!" he cried out. "HE DELIBERATLELY KEPT US IN THE DARK OF THIS LITTLE DETAIL OF AEFRIC BEING THE MAIN PERPETRATIOR BEHIND THIS WILD GOOSE CHASE THAT HAS BEEN HAPPENING THROUGHOUT THIS MONTH UNTIL NOW?!"
"And he specifically requested Jeralt and his company to act as his reinforcements..." the Archbishop shuddered in dread. "... I told him about the truth of the Goddess in good faith. And then he pulls this kind of nonsense."
"Normally, I'd be more than happy to let the Dustbin and that conniving worm that we let in charge of the Abyss for the past ten year to rot together in the depths after we brick up the exits, weren't for the fact that he took the three House leaders, two additional students per house, some of which are children of prominent nobles, and the Professor entrusted with the [Sword of the Creator] with him and his band of hellions!" Seteth vented before he stopped himself from literally punching a hole into the hall's walls. After letting loose his rage in an appropriate of a manner as possible, he finally calms down as he took a deep breath. "... Shall I inform Jeralt and his company of an emergency deployment?"
"At once," ordered Rhea, causing Seteth to run out of the doors like an escaped madman set about to the winds.
Normally, she'd send Catherine and/or Shamir to deal with this, but their investigations into the last of Miklan's remnants has proven to be even more tumultuous upon the revelation of that the remnants were absorbed into the Adrestian Empire-based Death God Bandits, turning the latter group from a moderately-sized band of marauders and highwaymen into the second coming of their leader's fallen cartel, with their sudden influx of revenue and traffic of illicit goods. As a result, their previously-gathered information about the Death God Bandits were scrapped, forcing the two of them to start their investigation over in case if they were fed false information, and possibilities of the Flame Emperor's influence being a possibility.
Not only that. but Alois and Gilbert were still missing after their rescue mission to extract the embassies in Morfis went completely dark. It was a safe enough assumption that both the emissaries and the two Knights of Seiros are now dead or sold into foreign slavery, but if Rhea were to disclose said information, then the probable PR nightmare would be something that not even she would inflict onto Karna to deal with (only because it would be the legal equivalent of throwing a powder keg into a housefire). That and well, there's no concrete evidence of the fact that they're dead, if at all.
"... I'm seriously starting to doubt why I didn't just invade Almyra back then," Rhea grimaced before correcting herself. "... No, no, you're not as young as you're used to be. That and no one likes a megalomaniac for a cultural leader... I'm already on thin ice as is..."
Seteth then returns to the audience chambers. "Lady Rhea, Jeralt and his men are ready for deployment."
"One more thing, let me join in on this march as well," Rhea spoke, surprising Seteth.
"... Surely, you jest!" he replied as the Archbishop walked past Seteth.
"It's not just about Karna, the students, the Professor, or the Four Apostles and their legacy anymore!" she pointed out. "If we fail, then this whole monastery shall become the second Valley of Torment!"
Upon hearing those last three words, Seteth relents before making a statement of his own. "... V-Very well," he replied. "What shall I do in this situation?"
"Make sure nothing, not even a fucking breath about this potential chaos is leaked to the public," ordered the Archbishop. "Kill some blabbermouths if you must, just be sure to hide the bodies afterwards. Oh, and of course, make sure to fabricate a convincing cover story just in case."
"Daunting, but doable," nodded Seteth. "... Shall I go get your sword?"
"Just in case."
Down Below at the Lost Mausoleum...
"FEKIN' SHITE!" Sorcha cursed up a storm as she swung her disproportionately-sized [Adharma] blade through the crowd of earthen Fortress Knights and Warriors. "CAN'T WE JUST FIGHT SUMTHIN' DAT BLEEDS FOR A SECOND?!"
"There's an obsessive romantic of our Professor waiting atop of the ziggurat," deadpanned Hubert as he shot his [Miasma Δ] towards a Warlock that was about to cast [Ragnarok]. "If you wish to see blood, be my guest."
"Wat de ye think we're doin', huh?!" Selene pointed out as she shot an enemy Sniper construct with her [Crossbow]. "These fekers are densely packed, dat's wat!"
"Fewer in number, but seemingly less likely to blindly charge in," Topaz pointed out. "I suspect those Aelfric replicas share the original's intellect, hence their relative elusiveness compared to those found at the chasm."
"That's the plan, then," Claude then shot an arrow from his [Silver Bow] towards one of the Aelfric-constructs, only for a Warlock to intercept the shot with its own body. "... Figured as much."
Edelgard buckled back for a brief moment before pushing back with her shield and counterattacking with her [Silver Axe]. "Good thing that I'm not a Wyvern Lord, otherwise I've might've been an easy target in this cramped space..." she muttered to herself before blocking another arrow and [Ragnarok] with her shield, sending her flying back upon impact and allowing Dimitri to take her place.
"YURI!" he called out as he swung his [Silver Lance] through the crowd of constructs. "WHERE ARE YOU?!"
"RIGHT HERE!" the Trickster cried back as he and the other three of the Ashen Wolves were being corralled away from everyone else by the Fortress Knights pushing them back with their shields and the Snipers and Warlocks strategically firing their shots to get them to move into certain positions and to make sure that Yuri doesn't get the smart idea of simply jumping on top of the constructs heads to bypass the barricade.
"HANG ON YURI! I'M COMING!" Balthus then attempts to bulldoze his way through the constructs only for him to be met with a barrage of [Ragnarok] spells that exploded before his face, knocking him out of the fight.
"WHY YOU-!" before Constance could do anything, the Aelfric replica casts [Silence] onto her and Hapi, depriving of their ability to speak a word right before both of them were knocked out with a pommel blow delivered to their back of their heads by the Assassin constructs.
"I'm sorry," spoke Aelfric and his construct replicas in unison. "But it must be done. Now, with that said..."
He then shoots a glare towards where Karna was at, with [Scythe of Sariel] being swung through the earthen horde in one hand while carrying Byleth over his other shoulder like a sack of potatoes.
"KILL THAT SON OF A BITCH AND PRY THE GRAIL FROM HIS COLD, DEAD HANDS!" ordered the disgraced Cardinal, causing every single one of the constructs to begin coalescing towards where the two Professors were at.
"EVERYONE! THEIR BACKS ARE TURNED!" Cyrus roared out as Darius bucked back in readiness. "TRAMPLE OVER THEM!"
"Less work for me..." mumbled Linhardt as he casted [Excalibur] upon the horde's rear, sending several of their Snipers and Assassins flying into the air before they all came crashing down like dropped pottery.
The rest of the students then all attack the now-disorganized constructs towards their turned backs, causing the initial grab for the two Professors to be put on partial hold to deal with this sudden retaliation.
"Oh goodie," Karna semi-sarcastically remarked with a deranged smile as he reveled in the carnage that was about to get a lot worse in the next second or so. "It must be my popular phase!"
I do not want to know what is even going on inside that brain of his... groaned Sothis as Karna's wicked cackle echoed off of the stone walls of the Lost Mausoleum. That said... BYLETH! YOU NEED TO WAKE UP AND FIGHT!
She wouldn't respond. Her eyes were that of a lifeless corpse as she'd come to discover about her past. Upon learning that she wasn't even alive to begin with, Byleth took the notion of the fact that she was born as a corpse and adopted it as her whole being.
... What's the point? she replied, her voice devoid of all life. ... I'm better off dead.
"You're better off dead', that's what you think, ainnit?" spoke Karna before Sothis could. As the former continued to fight against the raging tide of enemies all by himself with one arm occupied before throwing Byleth into the air to cast [Expiration Δ+] to melt the Fortress Knights surrounding him where they stood. Byleth is then caught back on her way down, plopping onto Karna's shoulder as the latter resumed his fighting. "But here's the thing, do you really think that you have the right to tell me, of all people, that your life is over, just because I was sandbagging a dead body this whole?!"
... Insults aside, is he also a mind reader?! Sothis commented. ... Nah, it couldn't be... she then recalls the time when he might've been able to resist her Divine Pulse, which allowed he and his Dustbin to get to the outer ruins on time to sav Jeralt. ... Could it?
"... You're happy, aren't you?" Byleth muttered before she was then tossed up into the sky as another [Expiration Δ+] before being caught back on her way down.
"Over the moon, sweetie," Karna answered bluntly before dropkicking an Assassin into a crowd of Snipers and Warlocks and casting [Gravity H+] to crush them all back into fine powder. But just as one of the Aelfric clones tried to cast [Silence] onto Karna, he instead throws Byleth herself towards said special construct, causing it to relent and save Byleth, only for Karna to reach it first and smash its head in with a vicious headbutt and be the one to catch the flying Mortal Savant from the air. "... Now, that feeling has run its course."
Both Byleth and Sothis blink incredulously. ... What.
"Bottom line, I saw and laughed at you at your lowest," stated Karna right before he delivered a deadly roundhouse kick to a charging Warrior before hooking it back and splitting it across its waist, "now I desire to break you at your strongest. So, if you're going to just lie down there and die before I can do it myself, then missus, you've got another thing coming. I refuse to let a person who've wronged me by taking my job just because I was a few days late end like this! Especially at the whims of some horndog trying to cuck your own mother's corpse!"
"I AM NOT TRYING CUCK SITRI FROM JERALT!" Aelfric cried out.
"Oh sure, and bringing his missus back from the dead using human sacrifice and without the mister's consent is doing you any favors!" Karna pointed out as he then tossed Byleth's limp body across where Yuri was at, causing enough of a commotion to disrupt their formation to save her, allowing Yuri to slip past the group and intersect with Karna's running path, as the two then performed a crossroads slash with their [Scythe of Sariel] and [Levin Sword] respectively, breaking apart the constructs as Yuri sped off to rescue Constance and Hapi. "Look, I hate the guy as much as his brat that I'm slugging around, but even I wouldn't subject him to that special kind of microaggression of a torment!"
"Bringing a loved one back to the world of the living is what you consider a sin?!" the Cardinal rebuked.
"No, the ethics of necromancy is so fucked up that Jeralt might as well be committing necrophilia while you watch!" Karna accused back at him as he retrieved Byleth from the floor. "Keep your sick fetishes to yourself, buddy. She's dead, and better off so."
Aelfric's facade of that of a tempered man of the cloth is then shattered to reveal a wrathful man fueled by misguided love after one too many barbs from Karna. "I HAVE HAD ENOUGH OF YOU!" he roared as the Cardinal and his clones began casting [Meteor] aimed towards Karna. "DIE A THOUSAND DEATHS AND MORE!"
Karna simply smirked as the burning ball of rock and fire descended towards his head. Without worry, he then splits the [Meteor] in twain with an uppercut slash with his [Scythe of Sariel] before it could land on top of him. The burning halves then instead land on top of the surrounding Fortress Knights, devouring them all in a double explosion going off around Karna's ears.
The Professor rolled his eyes back in an orgasmic bliss. "... The sounds of carnage never get old," licking his chops, he then casts [Gravity H+] around himself to send the remaining surrounding foes into the air before casing [Expiration Δ+] to melt them all into a rain of mud. "Got anything else, pal?"
"KILL HIM!" ordered Aeflric as he then summoned more constructs to his side. "MY OTHERS! GUIDE YOUR SUBORDINATES'S ARMS INTO THAT BASTARD'S BLACK HEART!"
"Alright kiddos! You know the plan!" Karna cried out as he swung his scythe through the mob closing in around him and Byleth. "Rescue the Ashen Wolves from their sacrificial alters with Yuri, while I keep this lovesick man of the cloth on a leash."
"Are you sure you can handle it by yourself-" Dimitri's concern is then promptly negated upon seeing a dark violet explosion send several of the constructs flying while the rest were blown back like leaves in the wind.
"Ask a stupid question, and this is your answer," smirked Byron. "I'll go save my distant cousin from a horrible death. Anyone come with?"
"Let me," Edelgard volunteered. "Hubert, watch my back."
He nods back, knowing her intentions to observe Byron to see if he knows too much or not.
"Let me come..." Vidar droned as he wrenched his [Geri Beil] out of a partially-frozen construct's head. "... Byron is friend... family of friend... also friend."
And Edelgard's plans immediately go down the outhouse's shitter upon this feral War Master's involvement, much to both their dismay.
"I'll go to save Balthus," Topaz raised her hand. "I'll need someone else to carry him back, since I'll be busy fending off the horde."
"Looks like its a job for Hilda," Claude wryly smirked.
"No way!" the sassy War Monk protested. "Why not let Dimitri or Dedue handle it?!"
"Because they're busy holding the defensive line!" Cyrus pointed out. "Look, if you're going to bitch about using your innate gifts to save a person's life, then I'll come with you! It'll lighten the load!"
"... I'll come with you two just to make sure that you two don't end up murdering each other in the chaos," Claude worryingly remarked before turning back to Marianne. "You and Linhardt, make sure to keep us and the guys at the front lines topped off. Is that okay with you?"
"I'll do my best," she nodded with confidence. "Linhardt, get your [Physic] spells at the ready."
"Great, more work..." the narcoleptic Holy Knight groaned before he readied his spells. "... Just don't splash blood onto me-"
Sorcha lets loose a pained yell as blood spurted from her chest wound, landing onto the verdant-haired student's face. "... I'm okay! I think!" the Hero then bashed her head into the Assassin that nicked her before severing it and its compatriots in two with her massive [Adharma] blade. "... Actually, I'm not okay. Someone heal me. Please."
Linhardt winces as he then casted [Heal] onto the deranged Brigidian. "... I prefer Petra over you, and she's the one dragging me out to physical training every time."
"De fact dat yer closin' me wounds is de only reason why I haven't driven yer head into de floor," growled Sorcha as her chest wound began to close under the green light of [Heal].
"Agree to disagree, got it," sighed Linhardt as Selene provided covering fire to defend the medics with her [Crossbow].
"Wat are ye lot waitin' for?!" the Sniper pointed out. "GIT!"
The allotted rescue groups then proceed to make their way towards their respective targets while Dimitri and Dedue held the line while Ashe and Selene provided rear support to protect Marianne and Linhardt, the latter of whom was still busy healing Sorcha.
In the middle of the circle, surrounded from all sides, Karna and Byleth spot Yuri sneaking his way towards where they were at, the Trickster effortlessly dodging the swings of the Warrior constructs's [Silver Axes] while wasting them with his [Wind] and [Cutting Gale] spells in retaliation.
"What are you doing here?!" Karna asked as he backhanded an Assassin with the blunt side of his scythe before tossing Byleth up into the air to deliver a Dark Magic-enhanced two-handed swing from his weapon towards the charging Fortress Knights. Upon finishing, he catches the despondent Mortal Savant on her way down before resuming to do what he was doing prior. "... Let me guess, I'm in the way where Hapi is at, correct?"
"Right on the money," the Trickster confirmed before zapping a Sniper aimed at them from afar with his [Thunder] spell from his [Levin Sword]. "Wanna come with? Better than standing surrounded on all sides with one arm short."
"Then you got a way to punch an opening?" asked Karna as he then proceeded to use Byleth as an impromptu shield against a Fortress Knight's thrust of its [Silver Lance], causing Aelfric to command it to cease its attack long enough for Karna to deliver a one-two straight high-kick and axe-kick combo that shattered its head into pieces.
"On my mark," Yuri remarked as he then readied his spell while he then readied his spell in midst of fending off and Assassin.
"Right behind you," Karna replied as he did the same while slugging Byleth over his left shoulder, starting to feel numb after carrying her for about an extended period of time. "... And lady, consider going on a diet, because you're murder on my shoulder."
Sothis in all her ethereal glory, double-flips him off. Not everyone is happy being thin as a skeleton like you.
"In the end, like all birds of prey, you'll turn on your master as easily as you'd turn on your victims," spoke a nearby Aelfric-clone, attempting to admonish his charge of his tutelage. "And I thought you changed for the better after I took you under my wing."
"Nothing and nobody can shackle me but my friends," spat back Yuri, completely brushing off his tutelage's shaming, "for a caged bird never sings under a traitor's command."
"Huh, that's why you're called 'Yuri-bird' by Hapi?" commented Karna as he headbutted an Assassin's head into bits. "Also, hold this."
As Karna handed Byleth to Yuri, the Professor then sprints towards the Aelfric-clone before dropkicking him into its own subordinates, causing them to all pile up like a stack of fallen rocks.
"Pretty rich coming from the likes of you, lover-boy," sneered Karna as he rolled back up to his feet instantaneously. "At least I admit my everyday actions being morally wrong, and you don't see me agonize over it under the guise 'true love'."
"I have no words for scum like you," the real Aelfric growled from atop the ziggurat. "KILL HIM!"
Karna smirked as the horde of earthen Fortress Knights rampaged towards him and Yuri. His trash-talking had bought enough time for him and Yuri to charge up their most powerful spells available.
"Thank you for lining up single-file like a bunch of schmucks," the Professor grinned as he and Yuri then let loose their spells. "[Hades Ω]."
"Smile for me, if you can," Yuri then unleashed a bluster of shredding gale unto the horde in tandem with Karna's otherworldly blast. "[Excalibur]!"
The combined blast then destroys the Aelfric-clone alongside with a decent segment of the surrounding constructs, with the real Aelfric adopting an expression akin to a mix of shock and disgust at the two working seamlessly together.
"Alright, time to go and save your friend," Karna remarked as he ran ahead.
"Wait, what about her?" Yuri pointed out towards the still-despondent Byleth.
"Forget her," the Professor spat in disgust. "She's a lost cause. That and well, it would look really bad if Aelfric went and killed his love's own daughter, now would it?"
"... Geez, and people called me unscrupulous," sighed the Trickster as he then reluctantly left the Mortal Savant behind to save Hapi from becoming a sacrifice.
As predicted, Aelfric telepathically orders the constructs to go after both Yuri and Karna and the armed earthen sentries flat-out ignore Byleth as they ran around her and towards the other two that left her behind. With no one else around her, she sat on the cold stone floor, utterly defeated and lifeless.
"Professor!" Dimitri cried out before he was stopped by a Warrior's axe swing.
"I'll go git 'er," Sorcha growled as she got up from her treatment. "Ye two try not to die in de meantime, alright?"
"Just who do you think you're talking to?" Dedue replied before smashing a downed Assassin's head in with the bottom rim of his greatshield. "Worry not about us, and go."
Sorcha rolled her eyes as she then ran towards where Byleth was laid at. "Come on, up 'nd at em!" she remarked as she proceeded to drag Byleth by her shoulders.
"... Please," she begged pitifully as her heels dragged themselves before her, "just leave me here to die."
"Fek, no," Sorcha rebuked. "De others are fightin' tooth 'nd nail just trying to stop dat priest boyo from shaggin' yer mum's corpse. Dun't think ye can take de easy way out!"
Sorcha successfully drops off the lackadaisical Mortal Savant off near where Linhardt and Marianne were before rejoining the fray.
"Ye two do sumthin' about 'er!" the Hero requested as she then swung her giant [Adharma] to unleash another slash projectile towards the coming constructs. "I ain't no brain docta!"
"Neither are we..." Linhardt sighed as he looked at the utterly-lifeless Byleth laid between him and Marianne. "... Wow. She did not take being 'born dead' revaluation very well, didn't she?"
Marianne smacks her compatriot across his head. "... Not now," she hissed.
"Just giving it to her straight, like a good doctor should," defended Linhardt.
On the other end of the Lost Mausoleum, both groups led by Byron and Topaz respectively spotted both Balthus being surrounded by Fortress Knights and Warriors alike, alongside with both Constance and Hapi being carried off to one of the four torchlit altars surrounding the main ziggurat.
"Oh that is just peachy," groaned Byron as his tone adopted the most caustic of sarcasm imaginable. "Aelfric is trying to paint himself as a good guy, but those altars are basically screaming 'I'm a bad guy that has no qualms sacrificing minors to bring back a dead MILF; please kick my ass bloody red to next week'."
Hubert looked at Edelgard. "... And people call me pedantic."
"Hubert, what is a 'MILF'?" asked the heiress.
"Another time, milady," Hubert's response was then met with a slight snort coming from both Claude and Topaz of all people.
"Huh, didn't know you had a sense of humor," commented the (horseless) Bow Knight.
"Let us never speak of this lapse of focus again," Topaz briskly remarked before she began to split from the rest of the group. "Everyone, good luck."
Byron and his nod back as his and Topaz's make their way towards their respective targets.
"Cyrus, boost Hilda to the front," ordered Topaz. "She and I will make an opening!"
"Wait a minute!" said the War Monk as she was then picked up by the hem of her clothing. "I didn't consent to this-! AND YOU'RE STRETCHING MY CLOTHES-!"
"Aw shaddup, just go pay your servants extra to stitch you a new one," the Battuian Bow Knight remarked. "On my mark!"
"[Apocalyptic Flame] or die horribly, Goneril," warned the mutant Swordmaster.
Hilda then looked towards Claude with pleading eyes.
"... Sorry, don't have any better ideas," spoke the Golden Leader.
"CLAUDE YOU MOTHERFUCKER-!"
"NOW!" upon Cyrus's cue, he then threw the pink-haired War Monk as hard as he could in tandem with Topaz's burst of speed that left visible cracks on the stone tiles as she and the flying Hilda closed in onto the horde of earthen Fortress Knights and Warriors surrounding Balthus like a pair of angry cannonballs.
"-I HATE YOU SO MUCH!" Hilda cried out as her [Freikugel]'s ax blade began to glow with a demonic heat.
"Then use that hatred to fuel that fire, Goneril!" Topaz responded as she then jutted out her [Blutgang] from her mutant left arm in tandem with her drawn [Zulfiqar] boomerang sword.
Balthus first senses two murderous intents heading towards his direction coming from behind the horde of constructs that he was currently surrounded by, then he glimpses at the sight of Hilda's enraged expression akin to Holst's when he himself saw him one time get furious when someone slighted his baby sister.
"... Huh, like brother like sister," the gigantic War Monk commented as the ball of rage closed in on him. "TIME TO BAIL!"
He then leaps out of the way of the impact at the exact moment when Hilda's [Apocalyptic Flame] makes landfall, devouring the majority horde in a volcanic eruption of pure ire. Then emerging from the bright afterglow came Topaz, both her blades wound back before she then swung them across everyone's ankles, sweeping the constructs and Balthus off of their collective feet with her [Windsweep] Combat Art.
Just as everyone then came back down, Balthus was then caught by both Hilda and Cyrus as the rest of the constructs shattered upon where they've all landed. "See, told you I'd lighten your load, princess."
"Uh huh," Hilda crinkled her nose in annoyance. "Rub in me, why don't you..."
"Hey guys," Claude ran up towards the rescued War Monk. "How's them breaks?"
"Almost died a few times, but I can go for more," Balthus smiled dauntlessly.
"Save the talk for later," Topaz called out. "Enemy reinforcements in sight!"
On her cue, the enemy constructs regroup into a semi-organized horde led by another one of Aelfric's clones as the five of them readied to stand their ground.
"Have you no shame, backstabbing me as such?" spoke the Aelfric-clone trying to shame his former protectorate.
"I owe you a lot but not my life," spoke the burly War Monk. "Not an even trade in my book. And accusing me of backstabbing? Coming from you, that's rich."
"I feel some remorse over what I will require of you," confessed the Aelfric-clone. "But take it, I must. I will not shrink away from what is necessary."
"That a fact?" Cyrus then spat to the side (and inadvertently onto Hilda's shoe, much to her disgust) as Darius snorted in anticipation for the next battle. "Then I guess a fight was all but inevitable. Not that I'd have it any other way."
The construct clone of Aelfric hisses out a seething sigh directed towards the two Dustbin students/penal war dogs of the Archbishop (on paper). "Ever the brutish thug and the mutant freak," the clone spoke out Aelfirc's thoughts with genuine contempt. "In your next life Mister Balthus von Albrecht, I genuinely hope that you find better friends."
With a snap of its finger, the constructs then attack the five as their fight for survival truly begins.
Further end of the Lost Mausoleum, Byron, Vidar, Edelgard, and Hubert gave chase to the Assassins carrying away both Constance and Hapi to their respective altars as the former group were being harassed by Snipers's fired arrows and Warlocks's [Ragnarok] spells raining hell from above and around them.
"SWEET SEIROS! THIS IS NOT WHAT HAD IN MIND!" Byron cried out as he swung around his chain-axe [Perun] over their heads to act as an umbrella to cover their heads from the incoming projectiles.
"History has been made," deadpanned Hubert as he then casted [Miasma Δ] towards one of the many Snipers perched around them. "The smartest student of Garreg Mach, now stumped for the very first time."
"... We thought... we going to be greeted... by foot enemy," Vidar pointed out before he batted back a [Ragnarok] spell with the width of his [Geri Beil].
"To be fair, it's very easy to predict your next move through what your Professor called 'pattern recognition'," taunted the Aelfric-clone. "You may have the knowledge, but wisdom is sorely lacking, Mister Amadeus Noa."
"Keep your wits about yourselves!" cautioned Edelgard as she blocked another volley of arrows with her greatshield. "One misstep and we'll be the ones accompanying Constance to the afterlife!"
"... Ugh, can't ask for a better company," muttered the real Aelfric as he oversaw that Constance was then chained securely onto her appointed altar top. "Alright, keep her steady and maintain [Silence] over her so that she doesn't try and escape on her own. I can't start the ritual after the four are on their altars and the [Chalice of Beginnings] is in my possession... no, happy thoughts happy thoughts. If the road taken towards happiness feels too easy, then it's the wrong way taken."
Byron coincidently overhears this little tidbit through the chaos as he then beings connecting the dots from there. "... Of course, it was obvious from the beginning," he muttered. "Guess I'm not as smart as I like to be..."
"Figured something out?" Hubert asked.
"Akin to a freebee, yes," he replied as he then casted [Freeze] towards a Sniper to freeze it in its place. "Constance may have been captured, but she won't die until all four of the Ashen Wolves and the [Chalice of Beginnings] are in their designated places."
"Meaning that we still have wiggle room to work with," said Edelgard as she kept her guard up. "But pray tell, how did you pick up on this?"
"My ears are trained to pick up footsteps in the dense snow of of Faerghus's winters from about a few hundred feet away," explained Byron. "Saved my life about a couple times before I met Vidar."
Pity, thought both Edelgard and Hubert upon hearing this reveal. You would've made a great asset to our cause.
For now, their collective survival took precedent over all else. "So, need time to make a plan?" asked Hubert.
"Already done," Byron smirked as he began charging his most powerful of spells in his arsenal thus far. "Hubert, do you happen to know the spell [Banshee Θ]?"
"Yes, and its murder on my throat," replied the (horseless) Dark Knight.
"Then be prepared to have a frog up your throat for a whole week," replied the brainiac as icy-cold air began to stir around the four of them, "because I need you to sing like if your life depended on it. VIDAR!"
The feral War Master grunts in acknowledgement as he then brings out his [Baigujing] gauntlets in tandem with his [Geri Beil], using the former to power the latter's inherent cryokinetic powers that can only be activated upon the acknowledgement of the user bearing the [Crest of Aubin], allowing the Crest-less Vidar to jailbreak that exclusive feature and letting him use cyrokinesis with two different weapons.
Letting out a loud roar, Vidar then slams both weapons onto the floor in tandem with Byron's casting of his strongest spell available, [Fimbulvetr]. The cyclone of cold winter wind then begins to grow shards of solid ice in its turbulence, polished to perfect sheens from the rippling current brushing throughout the surface area of the ice.
"OKAY HUBERT!" Byron yelled through the storm. "SING!"
He then let out a sigh before inhaling a deep breath and then letting loose the loudest [Banshee Θ] that he'd ever screeched out in his life.
The arcane scream then echoes around the wind funnels carrying the ice sheets, bouncing around the sound until it exits the storm's eye, unleashing its compounded resonance throughout the whole mausoleum, causing it to tremble in its entirety.
Said enhanced scream was so loud that literally everyone within the mausoleum weren't spared from this ear rape. Not even the Agarthans hiding from above.
"FUCK BRO!" Myson thrashed around in complete agony. "HOW THE FUCK IS THAT EVEN POSSIBLE?!"
"What?!" Solon replied, now having gone (temporarily) deaf. "Speak up boy! I can't hear you!"
"WE ALL CAN'T HEAR SHIT, YOU OLD FART!" Kronya screamed out as she and everyone else around her save for the unseen Conquistador (who was wearing earplugs underneath its helmet) thrashed about in cacophonous agony.
Back below, Edelgard herself was on the verge of ripping her own ears off of her head to spare herself from this torment. "IS THIS PART OF YOUR PLAN?!"
"NOPE!" Byron gleefully replied. "THIS IS!"
He the swells up his own spiral before letting Hubert's [Banshee Θ] take charge of the compound spell's internal momentum. As the latter half continued to grow more powerful and louder in tandem to Hubert's own throat being put through the wringer, the ice shards riding around the storm were being further polished, now into sharpened ice shards that were large and sharp and Sorcha's own [Adharma] blade.
The spell then reaches its crescendo right before Hubert then lets out a final yell, to which then Byron then let the spell itself explode outwards, sending forth a myriad of sharpened ice blades around its prior epicenter and towards all directions. As the blades flew towards their intended marks, one construct after another were then struck from where they stood sentry at, rendering them all unfunctional as per their destruction, even forcing the one watching over Aelfric to flee lest it loses all function.
Save for everyone's ears ringing like church bells rung by a madman (including the hidden Agarthans), the four find themselves now home free, to which they then waste no time gunning towards the bound Constance.
Hubert tried to speak, only to realize that he's now completely mute, causing Edelgard to speak on his behalf. "Byron, how in the hell did you come up with that idea?"
"It was either that or snipe one long range enemy at a time," he answered, partially dodging the question. "So don't at me, your highness."
The four of them reach the chained Constance, who was now foaming at the mouth and completely knocked out by Hubert's enhanced screaming.
"... She fine," Vidar then breaks the chains holding the Valkyrie down before slapping her awake.
"... Ugh, my poor ears and face," she winced upon seeing Vidar unblinking eyes staring into her face. "Personal space, please."
Vidar backs off as Constance removes herself from her altar. At same time, the Aelfric-clone returns to where he was supposed to keep watch over, now with a regrouped horde of constructs behind itself.
"... If you only had stayed put," the replicant Aelfric commented with hidden contempt. "Miss von Nuvelle, I thought you were better than that."
"After such horrible accommodations for the sake of a dead woman? No thank you," snapped the Valkyrie. "The bill has come due for your misdeeds, Aelfric. Time for you to pay in full."
"It matters not," the Aelfric-clone refuted. "She is all that matters. She alone."
"Simpleminded buffoon..." Byron rolled his eyes. "Seriously bro, go see a therapist. You can afford one with your salary."
"That man is beyond all reason," Edelgard pointed out before awkwardly turning her head back towards Vidar. "... Present company excluded."
Vidar shrugs before grunting. "... If this... love... then it's... a crime."
"What do you know of love, you animal?!" roared the genuine Aelfric. "I'm half-certain that you think that its something that you can eat!"
"Ahaha! Then if words shall not sway you, let us proceed to actions!" Constance boldly declared as she and the other four stood their ground.
At where the Assassin was carrying Hapi towards, Karna and Yuri were running towards the same altar where the Aelfric-clone and the other constructs were waiting guard at.
"Hurry! Before those two intercept!" the clone cried out, prompting the Assassin to run faster. "Rest of you! Intercept them-!"
"Yuri, cover your mouth and nose," warned Karna as he then let loose another jet of black vapors of his [Expiration Δ+] towards the charging horde, melting them all instantly.
Both the clone and the real Aelfric growled in seething fury. "Why..." he hissed as he beckoned forth more awaiting constructs from the walls that they were summoned from, "WHY DO YOU INSIST ON GETTING IN MY WAY?!"
"Three reasons specifically," answered Karna as he kicked aside an eroded Fortress Knight's head. "One, I like watching you squirm. Two, scummy as I am, I don't paint my actions under a 'greater good'-bullshit that you cleric types love to espouse, which to be honest, has been a constant pet peeve during my employment. And while I can file a complaint, the fact that my employers are one those people that just happens to be loudest of the lot, 'awkward' is practically sugarcoating it. The only reason I put up with this bullshit is that I can have a roof over my head and I've grown kinda attached to my students during the time I've spent with them."
"... Yep, checks out," coughed Yuri as he tried to sneak towards Yuri under the haze.
"And three!" Karna then raised his hand with three of his fingers held up in the air. "... Legit, I'm trying to stop you from doing something monumentally stupid. The Four Apostles failed, so what makes you, an out-of-depth disgruntled clergyman, assume that you have a snowball's chance in Hell of accomplishing what the four failed?"
"... You know better than everyone else that the Archbishop cannot be trusted," growled Aelfric.
"Eh, I trust people as much as I can resist the urge to not kill them on the spot, why?" asked Karna before figuring out the immaculate condition of Sitri's corpse. "... Ohohohoho! Oh my goddess! That's brilliant!"
The disgraced Cardinal then raised an eyebrow until figuring out what Karna had figured out. "... You looked at the Abyss's forbidden library and took some of its contents for yourself, didn't you?"
"Since day one," he confessed as he then revealed the battered texts from underneath his hooded robe. "I have to admit, Loog only succeeding in his little war because of outside help... not that surprising why today's Faerghusians have their collective heads shoved so far up their own asses that they can't even smell their shit anymore."
"I know, it's infuriating to talk to the Western Church members without them getting extremely confrontational," groaned Aelfric. "And that was before they sprang their insurrection."
"And the whole linage of the Church of Seiros's leaders," Karna tried not to burst out laughing, "seriously, they all have green hair. Same consistent shades to boot!"
"... Now do you understand how I felt when I discovered Sitri's corpse ten years ago?" said the Cardinal. "The Church, lied to me. They lied, to everyone. What reason do I have left to trust anything that those bastards have to say or even think?!"
"Pot calling the kettle black there, Aelfric," Yuri pointed out as he returned with Hapi slung over her shoulder, the cut manacle chains still dangling from her wrists. "Just because someone else lied to you first doesn't give you the right to lie to us."
"People fuck up sometimes," Hapi remarked. "I know what they did to you was utter crap, but what you're about to do... you sure you can call yourself as some sort of a hotshot hero?"
The real Aelfric raised an eyebrow upon her still-subdued tone of voice, moreso then the fact that she'd escaped her captivity. "You're not as angry as I'd have expected, Hapi."
"I guess I'm used to betrayals by now," the Dark Flier shrugged. "But that doesn't mean I'm going to sit on my hands and let you gut me and my friends for some dead person."
"Fair enough," the Cardinal shrugged before revealing the [Chalice of Beginnings] in his possession. "Check."
Karna then pats himself all over only to realize that the grail in his possession now gone. "WHAT THE-?!" he then immediately figures out that the treasure was stolen during when he was by himself, the Assassin construct used his own [Expiration Δ+]'s haze to stealthily retrieve the grail while when Karna was egging Aelfric, the latter egged him back to distract the former. "... You crafty sunnuvabitch."
"I admit, as much as I hate your guts, you and I are eerily similar," noted Aelfric as he placed the grail on top of Sitri's sarcophagus. "But hypotheticals asides, it's time for you and your accompanying interlopers to die. Except for Byleth of course. I would never kill Sitri's child that she gave her life to save, failure notwithstanding."
The constructs then all charge towards the three of them in hopes of retrieving Hapi and Yuri while hopefully killing Karna in the process. But in a surprising twist, the Professor then issues the following orders.
"EVERYONE RETREAT!" shouted Karna as Hapi and Yuri followed from behind. "AELFRIC'S GOT THE GRAIL! I REPEAT! AELFRIC'S GOT THE FUCKING GRAIL!"
"WHAT?!" Dimitri remarked before he was pushed back by a Warrior construct before he shattered it in retaliation.
"He had one job, and fucked it up," growled Dedue as he blocked incoming Sniper fire with his shield.
"MARI! WE NEED A RALLYING SIGNAL!" Sorcha cried out. "WE NEED TO REORGINIZE!"
"R-right!" the Holy Knight then shoots an [Aura] wave towards the air right Sorcha then swung her [Adharma] blade into the casted spell, causing it to explode into an aurora-like explosion that caught everyone's attention.
"What the hell is that?!" Cyrus remarked as Darius stomped an Assassin's head in dust.
"Something real bad I suppose," Claude remarked as he nocked another arrow before shooting it towards an earthen Warlock.
The other group further up ahead sees the light and began to have troubled thoughts.
Constance then looks towards atop of the ziggurat and sees a golden light shining from atop of its peak. "... Oh brilliant," she sighed, "your Professor has doomed us all."
"Not the first time nor will it be our last," sighed Byron as he casted [Freeze] towards a Sniper perched from afar. "Vidar!"
The feral War Master then slaps on his [Baigujing] gauntlets as the pair then emitted a surge of cold energy coming from each of them. "I... clear way!" he cried out as he slammed the floor with his bladed fists. "Everyone... protect Constance!"
One [Bingshan Diyu] Combat Art later, the whole nearby area was turned into a field of frozen spires that shattered the constructs around them, allowing the others to escape to where the other group was waiting at, with Vidar following shortly after.
"Balthus, Aelfric's in possession of the grail!" Constance warned.
"Aw crudmuffins," the War Monk shook his head in disappointment before lariating a Fortress Knight's head into pieces. "So we can't stay here and fight?"
"It's either that or be one step closer to a checkmate," Byron pointed out. "Hubert, how's your throat?"
The Dark Knight then flipped him off as he gagged.
"... More work for me then," Byron shrugged as he then casted another [Fimbulvetr] towards another crowd of constructs. "Someone else wrap it up, I'm out of uses for that spell."
"Allow me," Constance then readied her strongest spell that she can use. "[Agena's Arrow]!"
A giant arrow of light struck the constructs from above, shattering the ice into an explosion of frozen shrapnel, shredding the remaining constructs that were spared from the initial spell. With the grounds cleared, the two groups then hastily make their way back towards the main line held by Dimitri, Dedue, Sorcha, with Ashe and Selene providing covering fire.
"Shit, of all times for the situation to go all belly-up..." groaned Linhardt before leaving behind his Professor. "Sorry, but the others need me."
Marianne looked at the despondent Byleth before reluctantly turning her back towards her, but not before uttering the following words.
"... Please, we need you," she quietly plead. "The students, your mother's memory... you... need you."
As the Mortal Savant was left on her own, only Sothis remained to be in her host's company.
... So, spoke the ethereal goddess, ...you're just going to let it end like this? Doing nothing while the ones before us are fighting tooth and nail to prevent a crime against nature from happening in the first place?
... I don't care anymore, thought Byleth. ... Why? Why was I even born in the first place? Why did the mother I never met had to die just so that she can fail to save me? Was everything up to this point... even worth it? The lives I taken with an expression of a corpse... The time I spent with people, unable to laugh or cry for and with them at their time needed... and all the while, completely ignorant to why the others called me a "Demon"...
... Does being a "Demon" make you less human in your eyes? asked the Goddess. Does being a walking corpse powered by my presence make you an affront to nature? Well, yes, but really, it didn't stop you from living, now did it?
This time, Byleth had no answer to give. But rather being speechless out of despair, it was out of shock at the realization of her life being not as worthless as it seems.
... Three things, spoke Sothis. Name three things that proves why you deserve to exist.
Her glazed eyes then look ahead and see the following.
One, there were her students. From her Black Eagles class to the other two classes of Blue Lions and the Golden Deer, even the Dustbin were fighting with their very lives on the line, when they had little to no reason to get involved with her. Yet, despite the dangers, they still chose to come down here with her, each for their own reasons, but none of them were selfish enough to ever think of retreating.
Two, the time that she'd spent with her students, her prior mercenary company, and her father, were all real. In spite of everything about her being corpse-like, the feelings behind her past were very real. Every battle fought, every mistake made, every meal that she'd devoured, and every day's end where she'd hop into her bed in full armor, all of those feelings, they were real. They meant something to her, because it mattered to her.
And three, the people that she'd met and known, from her father and mercenary band who've all accompanied her to her new employment without hesitation, to her students and fellow staff that helped her fit into an unfamiliar environment, and even the times when Karna persistently and continuously finds different ways to haze and prank her out of resentment of her taking his desired job, those little thing that made her who she is up to this point, mattered.
She matters. Those three proofs were enough for her to self-acknowledge that Byleth herself mattered as a person and not as some zombie whose existence is nothing short of heresy.
... Looking better already, complimented Sothis. Those look in your eyes... I suspect that you know what you're going to do next, correct?
The Mortal Savant smiles as she picked up both her [Sword of the Creator] and herself back up. "... Something like that."
At the general area between the Lost Mausoleum's entrance and the central ziggurat, both sides of this prolonged confrontation now entered into a state of mutual deadlock. Neither side budged an inch, with the expedition group covering all angles from all possible sides with their arms and bodies of any Assassin trying to infiltrate their internal ranks along with any Sniper or Warlock trying to take a cheap shot at their formation with their arrows and spells respectively. Aelfric's legion of humanoid constructs commanded by his remaining earthen clones simply refused to relent, with the genuine article himself pumping mana throughout the whole ruins overtime trying to maintain the density of his forces.
"Sweet Seiros, you're one turd that just refuses to be shit out properly, doncha?!" Karna remarked as he smashed in an Assassin's head with the blunt side of his [Scythe of Sariel].
"... I concur," heaved Aelfric as his vast reserves of his own mana is starting to take its toll on his prolonged maintenance of his own forces of constructs. "... You will not... get in the way... of her resurrection!"
The Professor then growls as he then puts away his scythe and began reloading his dual flintlock pistols before brandishing them in full view. "Hope you got another casket, buddy," Karna then let out a cackle hinting his madness that was about to be unleashed upon them in full view. "You're about to join her, ONE WAY OR THE OTHER!"
"I WOULDN'T HAVE IT ANY OTHER WAY!" Aelfric roared out as he then lit both his hands ablaze with a pair of [Ragnarok] spells at the ready. "KILL THEM ALL! SORT OUT THE BLOOD OF THE FOUR APOLSTLES AFTERWARDS!"
"DO THE SAME THING, BUT TO HIM!" ordered Karna as he aimed his guns towards the Cardinal.
"Sanity is dead, isn't it?" commented Edelgard.
"Which one? The Dustbin's Teach or a person who's in love with your Teach's dead mother?" asked Claude.
"Not helping," Dimitri sighed before everyone then charged towards the coming horde of constructs for one final offensive push.
"Hey, it's the Abyss," Yuri shrugged as he drew his [Levin Sword]. "Everyone goes a little mad down here. Some more than others."
But just before the two sides can clash upon meeting at the middle, Byleth then jumps from above as descends like a falling meteorite, swinging down her [Sword of the Creator] in its splendid brilliance as it crashed between the two sides, sending them all reeling back from the arc's point of landing that had left a searing gash onto the stone floor.
"Enough," Byleth firmly spoke. "This whole fight is stupid-no, it's beyond asinine!"
"Uh, would you mind moving your ass?" asked Karna. "I got a wannabe clergyman that I need to make a few inches shorter-"
"YOU, SHUT YOUR FUCKING HOLE," snarled the Mortal Savant, startling the Professor enough to relent his snide comments and attempts of murder momentarily. She then shoved her way through the constructs, stomping her way up the stairs before she comes face-to-face with a man who dared to claim that he loved her mother so much to pull this kind of crap.
"Please... stay back," plead Aelfric. "I do not wish to harm you, as you are her child-"
Byleth then proceeds to kick the Cardinal in his balls to shut him up, with the latter now crumpling before her into a ball of compressed male agony and foaming mouth.
"STOP, TALKING," she snarled. "... Would it have killed you to leave my mother alone?! I don't care if the Church lied to you or if they made her out of pieces of different people! YOU JUST DON'T GO AROUND DESECRATING BODIES LIKE THAT! YOU JUST CAN'T!"
Aelfric shuddered upon seeing the one who bore a face not so dissimilar to Sitri's exude this kind of unholy rage akin to that of the Archbishop's fully-unleashed wrath upon those whom she declared as heretics. "... You don't... wish to see your mother alive and well?"
"If my mother knew that she came back to life by the hands of a murderer, then yes," answered Byleth, utterly furious at this pathetic worm's display of "love."
"Please..." Aelfric began crying, crawling up towards Sitri's stone casket and staring at where the [Chalice of Beginnings] was laid on. "... I just want to see her again. ... Is this selfishness of mine... to bring an innocent life back... such grave of a sin?!"
"Actually, it bears repeating, because you refuse to listen to reason, but yes," spoke Karna as he suddenly appeared before Byleth and Aelfric. "And before you ask, you two were busy talking, so stuff it."
The two stare awkwardly at Karna cleared his throat before he began speaking.
"Now, you may be asking, why does me, of all people, know the ethics behind the practice of necromancy?" he spoke. "To wit, I say, that an unabridged version of my entire repertoire of knowledge of the forbidden arts would take entire days explaining, so I'll keep it brief by telling you a story I heard from my time in the Almyran slave markets as a product."
Everyone then listened, in spite of a vast majority of them (the constructs under Aelfric's control) having every reason to rip this insufferable man to shreds.
"There was once a person who'd lost a loved one," began Karna. "That person had lost a loved one that mean a lot to said person. The grief was so great and painful that they sought ways to remedy their agony of loss. So great that they began chasing ghosts. Rumors, as one may describe them. Then, they hit pay dirt."
"You know, I get the feeling that this might be the Professor's own ghost story that he would've shared if he was also invited along with Flayn during that time," Byron remarked as everyone continued to listen closely.
"There were rumors of a certain haunted burial grounds," continued the Professor. "A place where local children head to bury their dead pets and where bandits go to hide their bodies. Said grounds, when certain instructions are followed to the letter, can bring a person back from the dead. Rule one: that person or living being must be held in great affection to the one digging prior to the recipient's death. Rule two: the body must be buried under the full moon, at midnight, and with no one else around. And rule three: the body must be in relatively-fresh condition."
"... What would happen if one of those rules are broken?" asked Hilda, admittedly both curious and scared of receiving her answer.
"That's entirely missing the point, since anyone can follow those rules to the letter," the Professor answered, the vagueness seemingly terrifying the War Monk even more. "So said person buries the body at the haunted grounds, and the next morning, their beloved comes back, as if nothing had ever happened. Past tense, that is."
"Wait, it's that easy?" commented Balthus. "... Talk about anticlimactic."
"The person and their beloved spent their days in bliss," spoke Karna, "that is, until one day, a dead dog was served as the person's lunch, and both them and their loved one ate it like if it were mere game meat."
Constance gagged at the imagery. "... Ye goddess, save my soul."
"The whole abode began smelling of dead animals and rotting meat," he continued. "Then in the stench, the person's darkest secrets that they've never told to anyone, not even their most beloved, were revealed to them. Knowledge of the things that no one should've ever known. Sins too grave to let anyone know. Heresy so vile to the original perpetrator, that they end up murdering their love, once again."
"... Oh gods," gasped Marianne. "They killed their loved one and brought it back to life only to kill it again?!"
"Yep," nodded Sorcha. "All sorts of feked up."
"The love is then buried in the exact same place where it was buried prior," Karna spoke. "Then in the next morning, someone knocks at the door, they open it, and find their love waiting for them at the other side, giving them a hug so tight and ironbound that they end up snapping them in two before dragging their body into the same hole where the love came back from. Then the next night, two bodies were spotted in the moonlight. Then three, then five, and eventually, the whole local village."
Everyone falls dead silent at the story's morose ending of a person's attempt to bring back a loved one going horrifically wrong.
"Moral of the story kiddos! Sometimes dead is better," the Professor professed before he turned to face Aelfric. "... My goddess my man, you're more of a woman than the strumpet next to ya and the dead bitch inside combined!"
"... It'll be different, I promise!" begged Aelfric. "I know Sitri! She's the kindest, most gentle of maidens I've ever known-!"
"Kindness and gentle nature doesn't necessarily exclude a person from becoming cruel and viscous at their worst," Karna refuted. "The ex-sellsword has a point, what would happen if Sitri learned that you murdered people to bring her back to life?"
Aelfric tried to come up with an answer, only for Karna to cut in before he could utter a world.
"Sitri's perception of life itself will become nihilistic, and the concept of life itself will gradually lose all meaning to her," the Professor explained. "She'll first murder you for making her feel that way, then murder Byleth and Jeralt as her way of making sense of this contradiction, and then murder everyone she sees before offing herself! Everyone has one life for a good reason, so stop playing god, Aelfric! The Four Apostles fucked around and found out the hard way. Do you wanna be remembered as the man who doomed Fodlan just for one person that might not be worth it in the end? Assuming if there will be anyone left that'll remember it?!"
The Cardinal then begins to break down crying. "... It's not fair," he sobbed onto Sitri's casket. "... It's not fair!"
"Yeah, life can be a real bitch sometimes."
Between the three of them, a skull-masked Warlock suddenly made himself known before grabbing Karna by the face and casting [Warp] to teleport him off of the ziggurat.
Then before anyone could react, Solon and a masked Bishop dressed in gray and black appeared behind Byron and Topaz before snatching them from behind and teleporting them to the altars bearing the Crests of [Noa] and [Chevalier] respectively.
"WHAT THE-?!" just before Dimitri could react, a set of arrows with lit cyclical canisters containing gunpower staked themselves into a row before his and everyone else's feet.
Sorcha smacked her lips before heaving out a loud sigh. "... Third time in de row, eh?"
Everyone was then blown back by the compound explosion as Byleth and Aelfirc looked around in panic before a metal canister rolled up to their feet. Before the two can even speak, let alone react, a bright flash blinds their eyes before Kronya appears behind the casket and kicks the two of them off of the ziggurat, sending them tumbling down upon each step of the cubical pyramid.
"I GOT THE GRAIL!" the Agarthan Assassin called out cheerfully.
"... Sothis," groaned Byleth as her body ached all over. "... Reset."
Can't, the spirit groggily confessed. ... My powers only work if you could see what happened before than... the flash must've interrupted our sense of cognitive continuity!
Without a single word, Aelfric then picks up Byleth and carries her away to safety as the Agarthans began their "Operation: Penumbra."
"Status report," Solon spoke through his earpiece. "How are our captives?"
The mutant freak's a nightmare to keep it at bay even with [Berserk] at maximum output! spoke the Agarthan Bishop who was trying to interfere with Topaz's mind to make her too dumb to even move. I need assistance or else my arm is the first thing's that's gonna go, over!
I have ten other guys chaining down this string bean, and two of them got kneecapped! informed Myson from the other side.
Solon sighed in annoyance before driving the tip of his cane into Byron's chest, pinning him down onto the altar top. "Stop flailing," ordered the elderly Sage. "It's unsightly."
The Dark Mages then surrounded him to witness the sacrifice, with one them drawing a knife from his belt. "So uh, do we go across the throat or just nick him?"
"Former," ordered Solon. "And make it quick-"
"Not quick enough!" Byron then grabs the cane with his prosthetic arm before casting [Freeze] around it, trapping Solon and his [Staff of Circe] onto the altar as he freed himself with the help of his automated [Perun] chain-axe knocking away the Dark Mages surrounding him.
In a blind desperation, one of the Dark Mages then swings his knife across Byron's open palm, the unseen laceration splattering blood onto the altar top, causing it and its engraved [Crest of Noa] to glow.
"So the amount of blood doesn't matter," noted Solon as he freed himself from the ice by casting [Miasma Δ] through his cane. "Let him go. Inform the others to not waste time-"
Screams were heard coming from where the altar of [Chevalier] was at, prompting a sigh from the wizened Sage.
"... Conquistador, prepare to intercept," he ordered.
From afar, the obscured Sniper then took aim with its [Bow of Bael] as an arrow was nocked onto its string. Upon lining up the shot, Conquistador then shoots its arrow towards Topaz's head.
The Swordmaster takes notice and dodges just in time for the arrow to not go through her head, only nicking her cheek before she continued running towards where Karna was being chained up at.
"FUCKING SHIT!" stamped the masked Agarthan Bishop as the mutant Swordmaster got away, behind him being the slain Dark Mages and Dark Bishops left in the latter's escape. "... Sage Solon, we lost one."
Did you at least draw blood? he asked.
The Bishop then finds an arrow with a blood-crusted tip. "Will this be enough?"
Just dab and watch. The Bishop then did as he was instructed, with the blood from the mutant causing the [Crest of Chevalier] engraved onto the altar to grow. See? Nothing to worry over as long as we have the blood.
Hey old man, what do I do?! Kronya's voice buzzed over the comms.
"Stay there and keep the grail from falling into the enemy's hands," ordered the old Sage before switching channels to where the [Timotheos] altar was at. "Status report-"
Various screams of struggle of the back and forth between Karna and the Dark Mages under Myson's orders buzzed into the old Sage's earpiece in an unpleasant of a manner as possible. After a few groans, the comms buzz back to life, with Myson on the other side.
... Don't worry. I stabbed the bastard in the leg and got the blood running on the stone, informed the Warlock. The penultimate phase is ready.
Solon nods before contacting their last key player. "Anacharsis."
The mountless Wyvern Rider then makes her way towards the altar of [Aubin] with a drawn [Wo Dao] in her hands. As she walked towards her final destination, she recites a poem that she'd come up the top of her head.
"My own death haiku," muttered Anacharsis. "Agartha, home that I die for."
As soon as she knelt on top of the altar top, the Agarthan then purges her upper armor exposing her whole nude torso that was pale as chalk and riddled with surgical scars from her Chrome containing the [Ice Dragon Sign] within, right as she then places the tip of her drawn sword against her belly.
"... I shall... be the light."
Her last act is then to drive her own sword through herself, giving it a good twist to make sure that the final blow was decisive, painfully ending her life, and the crimson ichor spilling through the exposed Crest stone, slumping over triumphantly as the altar beneath her knees glowed in a bright light.
All four lights coming from the surrounding altars converged towards the central ziggurat, causing the grail in Kronya's hand to begin resonating with the coming energies.
"H-HEY OLD MAN!" the Assassin nervously remarked over her comms. "... I DON'T THINK THIS IS SAFE! LIKE, AT ALL!"
"Do not move," Solon firmly replied as he then flicked up the pommel of his [Staff of Circe] to reveal a button underneath the clam-shell covering. "... This is the most important part."
The old man's thumb then presses the button, triggering something with Kronya's body that causes her own [Thorn Dragon Sign]'s [Crest of Ernest] to begin resonating with the [Chalice of Beginning] empowered by the blood of the Four Apostles and their corresponding Crests.
"... Old man..." groaned Kronya as this sudden influx of power began to well within her body. "... Why...? ... Why does... it hurt so... much?"
The comms then cut off by themselves, with Solon on the other side hanging up, leaving the Assassin to die.
"... You can't do this to me..." sobbed the Agarthan Assassin as her pale skin began to crack like volcanic fissures. "... You... YOU CAN'T-!"
Her words were painfully cut off as her body melted and swelled like a bulging pus, absorbing Sitri's body into her inflated form as it quickly adapted itself to handle the surge of abundant mana and the power of the Goddess itself.
"... No," Aelfric shuddered in horror as his work and beloved Sitri transformed into something truly nightmarish and abominable for any eyes to bear witness to. "... WHAT HAVE THEY DONE?!"
Everyone below the ziggurat was completely lost for words as they witnessed this affront to nature happening before them.
During the visual chaos distracting everyone else, Karna stumbles towards where Byron and Topaz were converging their running paths towards. "Well, kiddos," the Professor nervously chuckled as he and the others saw a person inflate like an empty goatskin bottle. "... No bones about it. We're fucked."
The flesh blob that was once Kronya and Sitri then began taking more coherent shape. Out came a set of claws, followed by a pair of tattered, bat-like wings the size of ship's sails, a long, winding tail long as a pine tree, its slithering form dripping black liquid to reveal rusted-red colored veins snaking all over its misshapen body vaguely resembling a quadruped, and from where the neck should be, a horned skull akin to that of a dragon's erupted out, its wavy, fiery-orange mane combining features of a human beard and a the Agarthan Assassin's messy redhead mop being the only bright color shown in this abomination's dull, semi-monochromatic form.
From its body, the Crests of [Aubin], [Noa], [Timotheos], and [Chevalier] shone behind from its back, with the corresponding marks of "XII", "XIX", "V", and "XVII" etched onto its veiny skin. And on its chest glowed the [Crest of Ernest], its central placement indicating a raised importance compared to the Crests of the Four Apostles that spurred this abomination's conception, with a "0" carved into its reverse scale acting as its chest armoring. With all five Crests shining in their full glory, this unholy beast then lets out an ear-shattering roar that caused the earth around them to tremor.
... I think I'm going to be sick, gagged Sothis as she adverted her eyes from such abomination made by her own powers presented before all of them.
Solon simply smiles slightly at the results. "Success," he declared as he then turned towards the group of students before the ziggurat. "... Now then, it's time to put you through the paces, Vritra. ... Kill them all."
At Solon's command, the named monster then crawled its way down towards the ziggurat's base, opening its skull like mouth to then unleash a surge of umbral might upon those that stood before it.
"PROFESSOR!" Byron reached out towards Karna's hand.
The monster exhales its infernal payload onto the surrounding earth, consuming everything standing in its way into its massive deluge of pulsating darkness brought forth by the most heinous of the arcane arts.
To Be Continued...
Author's Notes: The Agarthans have now gained control of the Umbral Beast using Kronya's sacrifice as a bridge. Run.
So, this chapter is loaded, and it's only a transitionary into the greater Abyss Arc's climax.
Aelfric in this iteration is kinda of a deconstruction of a sympathetic antagonist-adjacent tropes along with a one-two punch of "Love Makes You Evil" and "Love Makes You Crazy", in that he tries to make his cake and eat it (bringing back Sitri and be happy from it), only for him to be so blind in his own pursuit of "love" that it not only makes him out more of a nutjob then he should be, but also makes him really easy to egg on and screw around with. As a result, by the time Byleth was easily able to walk past his goons just to slap/kick him in the nuts some sense into him, the battle that he'd instigated was revealed for the pointless farce that it is.
And for Byleth's "Heroic BSOD" prominent throughout this whole chapter, this is my very first serious attempt, and I wish I could do better.
So with that, that's all there's to it until next time. Support Conversations will be coming as well. And IRL, I almost got baited into a paid subscription for a supposed "free" register of a certain job site, which I aborted in time before the first runaround.
References:
- Linhardt references his B-Support with Petra when he's healing Sorcha.
- Aelfric's line when he secures Constance onto her designated altar is a reference to Luffy's line from One Piece (2023): "If the path you're taking feels too easy, then it's the wrong path."
- Vidar clumsily paraphrases Sigurd's line from Fire Emblem Engage ("If this love is a crime..."), which in itself is a mythology gag to his debut game, Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War, where Sigurd's love confession to Deirdre was the unabashed melodramatic purple prose of all purple proses throughout the whole Fire Emblem franchise.
- Sothis's "three things" speech is partially inspired by Yusaku's own "three things" mantra from Yu-Gi-Oh VRAINS.
- Byleth's act of ceasing the fight between Karna's and Aelfric's sides is a small reference to a scene in Part 3 of Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn, where Elincia puts her proverbial foot (and sword) down between two armies that are about to clash in order to ensure Crimea's neutrality.
- Karna when talking down Aelfric gives an abridged plot of Stephen King's Pet Semetary horror novel when bringing up why resurrecting Sitri is a bad idea in all aspects, going far as to quote the book's iconic line: "Sometimes, dead is better."
- Kronya's body horror upon being consumed by the [Chalice of Beginnings] is based of the scene from Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works route, where Gilgamesh forcibly turns Shinji Matou into a Grail Vessel by implanting Illya's heart into his human body.
- Solon's last words to the sacrificial Kronya are from the webcomic, "Everything is Fine."
- The Umbral Beast when under the Agarthan's control is named Vritra, whose name means "enveloper" in Sanskrit, and is the dragon/Naga personification of drought in Hindu Mythology, who has kept the world's water supply under his hostage until it was slain by Indra with his famed Vajra/thunderbolt.