Chapter 28: The Time of Retaliation

Goetia had only just disappeared in a flash of light before Rhea had even realised what had actually happened. She had been sensing the gradual increase in magical energy for some time. It had been primarily a background nuisance initially, similar to whenever she presumed the man would use his magic for some simple purpose.

However, it had sharply risen in intensity within a few minutes prior to her arrival. She had initially thought he was to attempt something now that everyone of major skill was out of the Church, but when she barged into the library to see the broken table and his unusually still form, she suspected something was wrong.

Then when he turned to face her, she only caught a glimpse of it before he spoke and vanished. It was barely restrained but she knew what it was.

Anger.

She knew the emotion well enough to recognise the sight of it, however who it was aimed at wasn't clear.

She hadn't had enough time to question him on it either. She knew teleportation spells which could take a person great distances, she had used them herself on many occasion. This was not one of those. It eclipsed it.

Goetia had teleported somewhere in a fit of rage, and she suspected it wouldn't be long before she found out quite where.

Anger like that tended to leave a large impact on something and especially from someone of the magical power of her newest librarian. She frowned in thought.

'Just this once.' She thought to herself in minor puzzlement 'Such an odd thing to say.'

Although the only answer to it she could think of was…

Her features flattened out, save the slight curling of her lip. It appears he might have gotten involved in the end. She had no doubt it had nothing to do with the Goddess, however.

But…

There had been a feeling, for some time. An odd sense of deja vu which repeatedly struck her whenever she found herself sitting down in her room. As if she had been repeating the gesture before without realising it.

Her lips pursed.

Something was going on that she wasn't entirely aware of.

And she was going to find out what it was.

The back of his fist slammed into the charging knights breastplate, a spurt of blood escaped the breaths of his visor as his steel armour caved inwards from the blow, the knight was instantly slammed onto his back and went limp.

The other knights balked at the display, Lemegeton scoffed before turning back to the focus of his-

Something clipped off the back of his head, a frown came to his face as he heard a clink of metal hitting the ground. He turned and looked down, seeing the dented arrowhead of the projectile before looking up at the Cliffside, his eyes scanned the many Archer's lining the rock face, they landed on the woman who was dressed differently.

Short cut indigo hair, the woman locked eyes with him although she didn't look perturbed at him suffering no injuries from the arrow.

Indeed, having seen him cave a man's armour in with his bare hands, Shamir couldn't exactly say she was surprised that he was able to shrug off an arrow to the back. Although that didn't do much to alleviate her growing apprehension when he slowly raised his hand in her direction.

When the tips of his fingers glowed bright red and crimson lightning crackled between them, she knew she was in trouble.

"Down!" She cried out to the other archer's while jumping away from her original position, in hopes of avoiding his attack.

Lemegeton grunted when another tower knight barrelled into him, slamming their shield into his chest and causing him to stumble backwards slightly. The spell shot forth from his fingers and went wide, the beam of energy arced upwards. Completely missing the woman but still cleaving through the rock face, the areas upon impact glowed a brilliant orange from the intense heat before they crumbled and sections of the cliff face collapsed onto the main road.

Unfortunate that they collapsed onto the column of militia but he wasn't going to grieve for them. Not completely. He had already anticipated that sacrifices would have to be made, therefore he could accept the deaths as long as his goal was met in the end.

It didn't let him distract himself from his current condition. His hand which had been stretched slammed down into the top of the knights shoulder, the sickening crack and screaming of steel indicated the damage which had been done.

The man dropped to one knee, shield and spear falling from his grip as he cradled his left arm, hanging limply from his shoulder. The pauldron had been dented so far inwards that it had curved upwards like a crooked smile, no doubt his injuries were quite severe.

Not that he would have to worry about them.

Lemegeton backhanded the man, sending him face first into the ground before clamping his right hand around the back of the armour and his left hand around the man's right thigh. The cloaked man raised the knight into the air, the man flailing wildly before he rocketed him downwards.

Directly onto his waiting knee.

Several knights recoiled in shock as the screams went silent, completely overshadowed by the cry as steel was bent in ways it should never have been. To say nothing for the man's spine. The disposal of his body was no more glamorous. As he returned to his feet, still holding the body of the knight, he released a grunt as he hurled the corpse away from him. The full plate suite of heavy armour which would have weighed more than three men was tossed through the air as if it were a sack of potatoes before disappearing over the edge of the cliff and vanishing into the fog below.

Lemegeton brought their hands up and began to dust down their cloak with a disturbing amount of casualness. "Hmm…" they hummed for a few moments "I do not recall being this brutal before...must be a sign of growth." they muttered before turning their attention back to the two that mattered.

Jeralt was nursing his side, still breathing heavily from where he had been punched hard enough to break several ribs. Seteth was faring no better, while he was still standing, his face was covered in bruises and left leg was shaking slightly.

Alois was face down on the ground, he's received a kick to the chest and hadn't gotten up since.

"It is best I put an end to this charad-" The figure boasted, taking a single step forwards before they paused. Their head snapped behind them so fast it was a miracle they didn't tear their own body apart. "...What?" they spoke in a hushed tone, a degree of surprise in their voice which slowly bled into worry.

Their hands disappeared back beneath their cloak, sending one final glance towards Seteth and Jeralt. They growled in annoyance before their red eyes glowed contemptuously on the former "To think such a thing…"

He couldn't remain. He wasn't sure what had just appeared on the opposite end of the battlefield, near Lonato, but he could tell it was powerful.

Not as powerful as they were, but it was still far too early for a confrontation. There was a nagging whisper in the back of their mind at the familiarity of this feeling, but he couldn't tell if it was the Host body or his own instincts that were warning him of this.

For all he knew 'The Immaculate one' had come herself to deal with this insurrection. It wouldn't be within her expected behaviour, but he wasn't going to take that risk. Not yet.

They remained silent for a few more moments before they released a snarl, soon vanishing in a sudden burst of light. Seteth blinked in shock as the battle raged on around them, now firmly within the Knights advantage.

While the chaos had obscured them from proper co-ordination, the removal of the fog meant they could now receive proper support from their archers and their wyvern riders. Although Seteth figured that his time on this particular battlefield was over, he fell onto his good knee and panted, sending a glance over to Alois.

Concern flooded his body as he dragged himself over to the man, gripping his armour and flipping him over. His hands went to his neck to check for a pulse, for a few moments he felt dread creep through his system before he could feel the faint pulse of their life. He allowed himself a breath of relief "Get him to the healers!" he barked out at the closest knights, who weren't currently marching against the berserker's "Now!"

He wasn't sure why the man had left so suddenly, he could only feel as though it spelt bad news for them in the future. But for now, he was glad he wasn't going to have to continue fighting them.

Lysithea felt her vision weaken as she stared at the sword embedded in her chest, her hands weakly moved towards it with what little strength they could muster. They clasped themselves around the blade and she promptly winced as she felt it cut into her fingers.

She could vaguely hear muffled shouts, her eyes sliding to her side as she watched Ashe struggle with Lonato for a few moments before the lord flipped the boy onto his back, soon kneeling atop him and raining blows onto his body.

The man was shouting words she couldn't quite make out…

When was it becoming so hard to keep her eyes open? It wasn't always like that?

Then she released, if she had been able, a bitter snort. It made sense, she was dying. She had always imagine it would happen when she was young but not this young. She had accepted her short life…

But that didn't make her any less afraid.

She wasn't going to be able to graduate from the Officers academy.

She'd never be able to prove that she had earned her place through sheer hard work rather than crests.

Although…

'Having you die such a simple death after investing my time in you would be a pity.'

She found herself more fearful that she'd let her Teacher down. She'd never be able to prove to him that she was just as capable of learning his advanced magic as anyone else form his home…

And here she was, about to die on a mountain top because she was careless.

She could imagine his disappointment in her when he found out.

She didn't have to imagine hard, apparently, because she could just about make out his face in front of her. His sole hand reaching towards her.

Fitting that she should see his disappointment before she died.

Darkness consumed her.

While Lysithea was experiencing her, presumed final moments, Ashe kept hold of Lonato's waist. The boy clung to him for dear life as he attempted to tackle the man over, although it was met with little success.

The air escaped his lungs violently in a bloodied cough when Lonato slammed his knee upwards into his ribs, his leather armour doing virtually nothing to stop the impact which took him off his feet for a second. His grip weakened and Lonato capitalised on this, grabbing Ashe by his sides and throwing him onto his back.

Ashe heaved as his body painfully collided with the stone path, he attempted to get back up only to have Lonato's fist slam into his chin, his head cracked against the ground from the impact.

"I take you and your siblings in-"

The fist struck again.

"-I treat you as my own-"

And again.

"-Christophe treats you as his own!"

And again.

"And this is how you repay me!?"

And again.

"How you repay Christophe's memory!?"

His bloodied gauntlet slammed into Ashe's face again, his already broken nose exploded and left a string of blood leading from the boys face to his fist. He cocked it back again, his expression torn between rage and genuine pain "And you still defend the Church!?"

"F-fath…" Ashe attempted to feebly free himself of Lonato's grip with one hand while his other shakily reached towards the older man. Lonato stared at the outstretched limb for a few moments, his expression faltering for a split second before it hardened.

He slapped the hand away and then slammed his fist into Ashe's face, the boy's head jerking to the side as he spat out several teeth and a small puddle of blood "You made your choice Ashe." he coldly remarked, drawing his fist back again.

"L-Lonato!" A pained gasp reached his ears, he paused mid-punch and slowly looked up to see Catherine staring at him "Stop! I'm the one who turned Christophe over to the Church!" she hissed out in pain as she nursed her shoulder "Just stop!"

Lonato snarled at her "It wasn't enough that you take one son from me, but two!?" his expression warped into one of fury "Turning him against me...were you that desperate to hurt me so badly?"

"Christophe made his choice…" Catherine replied in a cold tone, parroting his earlier words "And you're making yours to beat your own son to death."

"...You killed my son and stole another from me." Lonato replied icily "I've already mourned one son...I can mourn one more."

"That I was forced to come here myself truly angered me."

Lonato paused at the voice before something seemingly gripped his body and he found himself sailing through the air. Roughly crashed face first into the ground with enough force to blast the air out of his lungs, he coughed heavily as he tried to rise.

"I had expected something greater than this, its pathetic on every conceivable level!"

"Its so far beneath my notice that I should not have been required to come here at all!"

"So why? Why!?"

A flash of light appeared next to Lysithea.

Combat between the knights and Lonato's sane rebels died down at the sudden appearance, standing above the injured girl was a man in a long brown robe, tanned skin and hair which seemed to glisten like the stars.

He stared down at her, almost trembling before he leaned down towards her with his single arm outstretched. His hand gripped the hilt of the sword and ripped it clean from her body, tossing it away before he placed his palm on the wound. His hand glowed for several seconds before he withdrew it.

"Why am I even here?" The man spoke, although his voice had dropped several octaves into a menacing echo which barely sounded human. The blue lions, those who were conscious, gulped in recognition of the tone. Goetia had used it during their training, but only as an announcement. There was no emotion in it at the time…

This was different.

Dimitri knew anger, he knew murderous rage better than most, or so he felt. Felix knew the signs too, he had seen it in the boar prince.

Which was why the pair of them agreed that Goetia's anger seemed to outclass the Princes.

"I invested a great deal of effort in these children. My students." Goetia growled out, soon turning around to face the group in front of him. His eyes burning a brilliant red "I even agreed to remain out of the conflict with the full intention of abiding by that agreement...that I am here now means you have made a liar of me."

Goetia's feet slowly left the ground as he floated into the sky, hand clenching repeatedly "So I had expected something worth this price I paid...yet I don't find a single aspect threatening about any of you...You thought you could challenge the Church with this!? That you could upheave Fodlan's central social pillar with this!? You would have required an army…" His burning red eyes fell away from the mob and towards Lonato, the Lord found himself frozen under the intense glare "But you couldn't even manage that could you? The best you could assemble was a pathetic band of swine herds and apple pickers, arm them with trinkets and throw them away like trash? This was your grand plan for revenge?"

Goetia exhaled "Pitiful. You've merely thrown them to their own graves."

"Lord Lonato!" The knights who had been fighting the Church and students broke away from them and rushed to the defence of their Lord, none made a move to stop them. Still rooted in spot from the sheer presence that Goetia exuded, their instincts telling them that not doing anything was the safest things for you.

"That's right! This pathetic display has always been the staple of you humans!" Goetia sneered down disdainfully at them "Even in the most desperate of situations you still ignorantly march on with that fear of death!" his hand reached out towards them and clenched.

A sudden blade of wind burst from his fist, shooting vertically towards the closest knight and striking him head on, where it continued through him and split him in half before carving a line through the ground.

The other knights froze as the remains of their comrade fell to the ground.

"Lord Lonato of the Gaspard Region!" Goetia called out "Your rebellion has been most amusing! You fought all this way to claim justice for your son, and it will all be rendered worthless!" his expression changed into a monstrous grin "Your end will be utterly pathetic!"

He snapped his fingers, a ring of glowing golden orbs came into existence just behind his body. They soon started to spin, eventually moving so fast that it became a ring of light behind him "I thank you...this emotion of genuine rage is most invigorating! Allow me to demonstrate my appreciation!" the golden beams of light soon bean to shoot forth from the ring, striking down the knights instantly and carving burning lines through the ground.

Men screamed and attempted to protect themselves with their shields, not that it did them much good. The superheated beams of magical energy sliced through their shields as easily as it did their armour, their bodies carved into burning chunks all the while avoiding the Church soldiers and the students.

One thing became perfectly apparent to them, however, Goetia had entirely missed Lord Lonato. Although there was the general feeling that it wasn't done by mistake.

Byleth found herself staring at the brief and brutal carnage with a growing degree of concern, Goetia appeared to be taking far too much joy out of it. More than that, his sudden appearance was a great shock to her as well. Sothis had also gone quiet the moment he had arrived, further testament that something was wrong.

When the final beam split the last man in half, Goetia gradually lowered himself to the ground. His grin fading away into a sneer before he turned his head to stare at Lonato "Anger such as this...this purity of it is a new emotion for me. I've felt it before but never this intense...so I will release this feeling as best I can." his next words chilled everyone to the bone "So I'm going to beat you to death."

That seemed to spur Lonato into action, if only for the man to shoot to his feet and level an accusatory finger in Goetia's direction, his expression fearful as he stared at the man "D-demon!"

Goetia stared at the man for scarcely a few seconds before he released an amused scoff, then accelerated towards him. Lonato raised his arms to guard his head, only for Goetia's first punch to fracture the bones in them, forcing his back to slam into the rock face.

The one armed man pulled his fist back before launching another punch towards him, Lonato ducked low as the punch collided with the rock, and his glowing first promptly punched a hole through the space where his head had been. Goetia's red eyes flicked down to him and he pulled his hand downwards, ripping it free of the ride of the mountain and slamming it into Lonato's cheek.

The old man was knocked to the ground, heavily dazed but soon scrambling to get up.

Goetia kicked him in the gut with enough force to dent his armour inwards, Lonato was launched back into the cliff face where Goetia loomed over him, pulling his fist back and readying his next punch. The man was still coughing from the impact when Goetia landed a savage haymaker, instantly shattering his nose and breaking his front teeth.

The man was knocked onto his side when Goetia landed another punch on his face, the smile on his face never fading as he pummelled away. The sounds of the fist striking against the man's face soon stopped sounding like beating a solid object and quickly dissolved into a far more disturbing wet sound. Goetia continued on, regardless.

This burning rage he felt was mostly directed at himself for even being here at the first place, but also towards this man. Goetia had dismissed him as virtually irrelevant, he was supposed to have been dealt with easily. So who was he to cause him this level of annoyance?

The moment he had seen the state Lysithea was in, he had fallen into genuine anger. It was liberating almost. He had this freedom. It wasn't anger born of pity or arrogance...it was just pure anger.

He was going to kill Lonato purely for the satisfaction it would bring him. He was fairly certain the man was dead already, considering he barely looked human anymore. His face was unrecognisable and he'd long since stopped moving. That didn't stop him though, he continued to punch the man a few more times before he stopped.

Pulling his crimson soaked fist away from the remains of the man's head, Goetia stared at it for a few moments. Breathing heavily as he stared at it and then back at the corpse. The smile which had been on his face slowly disappeared, being replaced with his trademark impassive look as he got to his feet.

He flicked his hand, sending the bits of Lonato's face stuck to his knuckles to the floor. He inhaled and then exhaled calmly before turning away from the corpse and moving over to where Lysithea was, he crouched down in front of her, staring at her for a few moments.

The wound had healed and she would recover. Soon as well.

His eyes moved away from her and towards the body near her, oddly enough they were still breathing, despite the mess they were in. He recognised the mop of dirty blue hair as belonging to the Blue Lion boy...Ashe.

Goetia sighed. He had already healed Lysithea...he might as well while he was here.

"възстановявам" He muttered, swiping his hand over the boys face. His skin ever so slowly righting itself as the spell went to work fixing the damage to him. It wouldn't regrow his teeth though, but there were other spells which could do that. Regardless, the Ashe boy would live as well.

Slowly straightening themselves out, Goetia turned his gaze onto the remaining humans before him.

Their eyes all held a degree of fear in them, most being openly disturbed by his display. He looked at the bodies and then to the remains of Lonato before back to them. He looked down at Catherine, the woman staring up at him with wide eyes, clearly unsure what to make of him.

Goetia looked past her towards Byleth.

The pair stared at eachother for a few moments, he noticed Sothis wasn't there with her but dismissed it. Clenching his jaw, he slowly began to walk forwards, the way that Byleth flinched ever so slightly gave him pause. It clearly wasn't out of fear, more of an instinctive reaction.

But that wasn't stopping the small flicker of...something that went through his body in response to that.

"...Gather up the remainder of the children, ensure they aren't wounded. I will work my way back to the lines of the Church and deal with the remainder of the rebels." He spoke, his voice emotionless, then began walking. Briefly waving his hand in Byleth's direction, the woman felt relief spread through her side as the wound she had been dealt healed over in seconds.

As he walked, the students gave him a wide birth as he made his way back up the path, his casual pace continued as he moved past the students and knights. As he did so, he briefly locked eyes with Dimitri.

Unlike the others, Dimitri was regarding him with a strange expression. It wasn't one of fear...more intrigue.

Moving past the leader of the Blue Lions, he made eye contact with Claude.

Claude...Claude was the most difficult to discern. The boy held a blank expression as Goetia walked past him, he could still feel the boys eyes on his back as he made his way up the path.

They watched Goetia casually stroll away from them in complete silence for a few moments.

"...Holy shit." Sylvain whispered out, eyes darting over to Lonato's unmoving body and then to the corpses of the knights "...that's what he's like when he's angry?"

"It...would appear so." Dimitri muttered under his breath, then turned to look back at his teacher "Professor!" he called out in worry as he rushed over to the woman "Are you alright? How bad?"

"Fine…" she pulled her hand away to reveal the blood, but lack of a wound. Dimitri stared at it in amazement before he let out a small chuckle.

"It would appear Goetia is full of surprises."

"Yes...who knew we'd have a Demonic Boar to contend with as well." Came Felix's dry comment, earning a frown from everyone near him, but none contested it. It as difficult to, considering the display they had just been party too.

"Ashe!" A worried cry brought Dimitri and Byleths attention to the boy in question and were surprised to see Petra kneeling over him in concern "The wounds are doing a heal...I mean healing." she muttered then nodded "It appears that Ashe will be recover."

"Recovering." Claude corrected, although he lacked any brevity in his tone as he quickly moved to Lysithea, placing his hand on her neck before letting out a sigh of relief "Seems that Lysithea will be doing some of that as well…" he looked over his shoulder towards Lonato "...I'm going to assume he's dead."

"I'd say so." Catherine replied, still nursing her shoulder "Wish he'd healed me but I've had injuries like this before…" her eyes fell on Lonato's unmoving form "...Not how I'd thought he'd go." she sniffed, then shook her head "Anyone else wounded?" she asked out loud.

"Raph took a hit." Ignatz called out, pointing towards the large boy with a large gash in his shirt "Although the bleeding has slowed down...it doesn't look that deep either but I can't tell."

"Hey kid!" Catherine called out to the larger boy "Can you still see?"

"Y-yeah?" Raphael called back, slightly confused.

"You'll probably be fine then." Catherine grunted "Anyone know healing magic?"

"I do." Marianne raised her hand, quickly gathering the meaning behind Catherine request "Ah! I'll get right on it…"

"Make sure everyone can walk...Then we'll follow after the mage." She grunted as she got to her feet, sending one final glance towards Lonato's body before she grimaced "Just...prepare your stomachs just in case."

The warning was well received, judging by the grim nods she got in return.

Goetia barely looked in their directions as they were cut down, beams of golden power lanced through their bodies with ease.

It was easy.

It was also pathetic...wasteful.

All these lives put to an end for some pitiful reason that would have mattered for barely twenty more years. But apparently it wasn't good enough for them. So now he was here.

He was here...cleaning up the mess of humanity. The pathetic existence of this rebellion which wasn't to do with bettering the country. It was an act of vengeance which would claim the lives of a majority of the Gaspard population. It wasn't worth it. It didn't make sense to him, even now.

He could empathise the with decision, of course. A meaningless battle fought for some petty reason. But that didn't mean it made sense to him. It was insane, it was vexing…

It was so very human.

Maybe that's what troubled him the most. Not because of their actions, they were well within line of what he should have been expecting them to do. Lonato fighting for vengeance against the death of his son was somewhat understandable. But even if he won, it would have been a pyrrhic victory. He must have known that…

He would have called it an act of stupidity…

Except he had just beaten the man to death with his bare hand...and he wasn't sure what had motivated him to do that. He could probably tell on some basic level, but the reason currently illuded him.

He had gone because he wouldn't be like Solomon. Apathetic in the face of suffering he was aware of...he wouldn't be like that man. So he had already determined himself to kill Lonato's rebels.

However the second he had seen Lysithea...he just felt something wash over him. That anger.

He was aggrieved, of course. He had invested a great deal of effort into her teaching and for her to die like that would have been a pity. So yes, he had eventually saved her.

But it didn't explain his reaction...He wasn't sure how the possibility of Lysithea's death could have incensed that display from him. He'd known anger before, but not like that. There was something refreshing about the new sensation.

But why?

Seteth had been expecting a great many things by the end of this day, but what he hadn't been expecting was Goetia's sudden appearance. The man had carved a bloody swathe through the remnants of Lonato's forces as he had made his way towards them.

What had disturbed Seteth was how non pulsed the man looked, although he supposed he might have been good at hiding his emotions. It would have been an odd trait for a mage to have but somehow he could see Goetia doing something like that.

Although he did notice the blood splatters on the man's robe and on his single hand.

And when an injured Catherine and students came up the same path as Goetia, all looking equally grim faced. He imagined something must have happened. Especially considering the state some of them were in.

He'd immediately called for the healers, but Catherine had assured him that Goetia had already seen to Lysithea, Ashe's and the Professor's injuries. Although she seemed a little irritated he hadn't done the same for her.

"So when did he arrive?" Seteth eventually asked, the woman paused and stared at him in slight confusion.

"The mage?"

"Yes, Goetia." Seteth nodded, his voice inquisitive.

"Well he-" The cracking sound was soon followed by the woman letting out a gasp of pain as Seteth snapped her shoulder back into place. The woman hissed, clutching her arm before glaring at him "Really!?"

"It is best if you were relaxed, I needed to distract you so I could-"

"I know how it works!" She snapped at him, still wincing at the injury "Could have waited until after I told you the stupid story!"

"I don't know." Shamirs dry voice came from the entrance to the tent "I'd say it worked out well enough."

"Easy for you to say." Catherine grumbled "Fine...wasn't long after Lonato stabbed the white haired girl...started...wailing on Ashe."

Seteth frowned "Lonato did?"

"...Hm." Catherine nodded "...Didn't think he'd do that...he was...he was actually gonna do it too? He was gonna beat his own kid to death…" she released a bitter laugh "He was saying it was all Ashe's fault this was happening too. Blaming his own kid for his treason...then he started blaming the Church again."

"And...the Goetia showed up?" Seteth inquired, the woman grimaced.

"Yeah then he showed up." She replied "Was some disembodied voice at first. Then Lonato goes flying into the side of the path. Then he just appears in a flash of light...heals up Lysithea and turns around to face the rebels." she shivered "He just...I don't know...he was just insulting them one moment." she swallowed and then shrugged "Next moment he's cutting them all down with spells...laughing the whole time too."

"It would explain...Lonato's shape." Catherine released a snort at that, causing Seteth and Shamir to look at her oddly "What?" they had both seen the state the body had been in, if it hadn't been for the students saying they'd seen Goetia kill him they wouldn't have been able to identify it.

"Oh he used magic on Lonato all right." She shook her head "The magic of anger and your fists...well, in his case his fist."

Seteth blinked at her before her words set in "He...he beat Lonato to death?"

"And then some. I think he was dead after the first few punches to his face, then well...guess the mage had some anger issues or something."

That was putting it lightly.

"So how'd you get banged up." Catherine asked "Lonato had some fancy magic sword and some armour, you encounter something like that too?"

Seteth grimaced "No...in truth we don't even know who he is. They left the battle for some purpose. Although they never pulled a weapon on us."

"Not like he needed one." Shamir commented "Caved in someone's helmet with a single punch."

Catherine's eyes went wide in shock "You're kidding!"

"I'm afraid not." The green haired man grimly responded "We lost nearly a dozen knights to him."

"Any idea who he was?"

"I sent men to see if they could track down Lonato's supplies. With luck, there will be some information there which may yet shed light on this mysterious individual."

"No offence...but I've had my fill of magically powered freaks for one day."

Seteth's lip curled.

He had as well.

AN: Goetia is scary when he gets angry. And he once again demonstrates his punching magecraft.

By beating a man to death in full view of everyone.

Anyway…

Onto the next Omake!

Omake: Matchmaker

Goetia stared at the board blankly. His eyes trailed away from it and towards Sothis. The Goddess shared his impassive expression before they both turned to the board again.

Byleth remained pointing at it for a few moments before she frowned and lowered her hand "What?"

"I think he is simply recovering from the shock of seeing...whatever this is." Sothis gestured to the chalk board "In truth, I still find it shocking myself."

Byleth frowned "Its not that weird."

"Yes...it really is." Sothis cringed "It's really not normal, even I know this and I have not seen such a thing in...however long it has been since I was alive."

"I'm looking out for my students well-being."

"You're being meddlesome and a little creepy."

"Why are you promoting racial tension in your classroom?" Goetia asked quizzically. Byleth and Sothis blinked and then looked to him in confusion.

"What?"

"You've assigned Ingrid to be continually paired with Dedue in class activities." He frowned "Do you enjoy seeing the man suffer from discrimination?"

"I'm helping Ingrid get over her prejudice."

Sothis snorted "It could rain tomorrow and the girl would find a way to blame the poor boy for her clothes getting wet."

"Still helps."

"I do not believe it does." Goetia frowned, then looked back at the board "...Why Sylvain and Flayn?"

"...Their names rhyme?"

"So you wish to see her guardian lynch the boy then." Goetia deduced, somewhat surprised at her brutality. Sothis sagely nodded at his side. Byleth frowned in response.

"Teach him maturity?"

The equally deadpan looks she received told her all she needed to know.

"More importantly, Ashe is much better off with Ingrid" Goetia pointed at the board "From what I have learned they boy have a fascination with Knights and Ashe would not so easily dismiss her own dreams of becoming one."

"Ingrid?" Sothis frowned "I see him more with the young Brigid girl."

"Brigid?" Goetia scoffed "She's the heir to the nation, Ashe is a the adoptive son of a minor region in the Kingdom and holds no political value."

"Love isn't about political value." Sothis retorted "It's about following the heart."

"Following the heart led to the fall of Camelot." He supplied, although neither Byleth nor Sothis had any idea what he was talking about "Any marriage of individuals of power will always be political, you cannot marry for love."

"I think they look cute together." Sothis huffed.

"However attractive they look, you cannot have the future ruler of a nation married to a common purse snatcher."

"I think he would go better with Catherine…" Byleth muttered, then blinked as she received equal looks of incredulity from the pair.

"Catherine." Sothis stared at her.

"Yes…"

"The Zealot?" Goetia carried on.

"She's a knight...he likes knights…"

"She also participated in the death of his adoptive older brother and adoptive father." Sothis grimaced "And you want to set him up...with her."

"…"

"My understanding of human emotions is limited." Goetia frowned "But it is my knowledge that courting victims of your zealotry is not common practice."

Byleth fidgeted on the spot and looked away slightly. Goetia and Sothis sighed and went back to the list.

"...What about Hanneman and Manuela?"

"…"

"That...might work." Sothis muttered under her breath "They counter eachother well…"

Goetia also nodded as well, elsewhere in the academy the entire student body and faculty felt a chill run down their spines.

As if someone was deciding an important aspect of their lives.