Part 1: White Clouds

Monster vs Alien

"Ggh…. You're a lot stronger this way…" Lord Slug managed to strain out as the mighty Oozaru roared in his face, pushing him back even more as despite it missing an arm from it's regular form, it was still able to vastly overpower the Namekian. It pushed Lord Slug to make him stumble before it used it's one remaining arm to grab him by the throat and slam him into the side of the cliff and charged a mouth beam in it's mouth. But Lord Slug used his stretchy arms to wrap them around it's snout to cancel out the attack before head butting the Oozaru causing it to reel back, holding its face in pain before shaking it's head and roared in his direction again.

"Amazing… she's a lot more organised this time around." Jeralt said from his spot as he saw Seteth lead the reinforcements to battle the remaining forces around the two behemoth's fighting.

"The bigger question is, how? Perhaps she finally got a grasp on it?" Shamir theorised, but Jeralt shook his head.

"Nah, that can't be it. From what Sitri told me, when you have control over the Oozaru form, you act like your normal self. She's still mindless, but she has a target. So something must be happening in her mind. Maybe a battle between her two halves to see who gets control over the body."

"Maybe. Should we intervene? Help her out?"

"No. Not yet anyway. Save your strength just in case. If anything, the kid is on the advantage."

"I never thought I'd be able to actually get a moment to rest." Dimitri said, collapsing onto one knee.

"Do you think that the Moon Beast is strong enough to beat him? I mean I know it's tough but…" Annette started to say but Claude then waved a hand at her.

"Ah, I think that it is a lot more stronger than you think."

The ones who did know shared a knowing look… but Annette looked between them all and puffed her cheeks.

"Hey! What's with the secrets?! I don't like being left in the dark here!"

"How's Lysithea?" Hilda then asked Linhardt who was checking her vitals.

"The silly girl over exerted herself again. It's the same case with Edelgard where if she does too much, then her body can't keep up and she ends up collapsing."

"Lysithea…" Leonie whispered, placing a hand on her forehead to check her temperature but Linhardt just shook his head.

"From what I can see, she just needs rest. Though can you ask her to keep the blood coughing to a minimum? It makes me feel queasy."

"Yeah, we'll get right on that, your Highness." Hilda rolled her eyes as Linhardt moved onto the next batch of wounded soldiers. Despite a good number of them being healed by Marianne and her use of Ki, there was still plenty more to heal and the Golden Deer healer had all but run herself dry. She only barely had enough stamina to heal up Byleth back at the forest.

"It's strange." Petra spoke up as she was staring up at the ball in the sky. "That ball is like our own moon. But it is feeling like a mixture of Ki. Whoever was doing this seemed to know what calls the Moon Beast."

Edelgard nodded as she also stared up at the fake moon. 'That technique took a lot of my own Ki away from me. This better work because I don't know if I can handle another round with Lord Slug. Please, my Teacher. You must win.'

"Can you stop fighting me for two seconds? You're so infuriating!" Sothis yelled at Byleth in her enraged state as she was thrashing back and forth with the spirit trying to keep her in place so her actual body could keep fighting Lord Slug.

"I shouldn't be surprised, you always find a way to give me a headache- OW! Did you just bite me?!" She yelled again at Byleth nursing her arm which had a noticeable bite mark as she suddenly realised that her hands weren't on Byleth anymore who growled and stared at her.

"Oh no…. I need to get you back under control!"

"What the heck? What's wrong with you?" Lord Slug said as the Oozaru roared and fired a Ki blast into the ground tearing up the earth around it and battered it's chest as Lord Slug growled and stretched his arms to wrap around its throat as it roared and flailed about wildly firing multiple energy beams into the sky in an attempt to get to Lord Slug. But he just clenched it's throat tighter to cut off the Ki attack and with a loud grunt, slammed the Oozaru into the ground before stomping on it's head in an attempt to knock it out… but it then used it's one remaining arm to grab his foot and despite Lord Slug trying to crush its head, it's strength overpowered the Namekian and caused him to slip and fall into the ground as the Oozaru managed to get up and despite stumbling, straightened itself and shook its head… before narrowing its eyes at Lord Slug.

"Ah, ya finally got your head straightened again? Good, I hate it when I'm fighting mindless beasts, takes the fun out of it."

"I swear you are a handful!" Sothis yelled after managing to use magic to bind Byleth in place and continued channeling more magic into her fingers to help ease Byleth's frenzied state.

"Okay, get him!"

The Oozaru growled again and jumped to the side to avoid a stretched out arm coming it's way and grabbed onto it as it passed by before tugging hard and pulled Lord Slug towards it and slammed its head onto his own causing a sickening CRACK to sound throughout the area which made everyone cringe.

"Oh, now I felt that." Hilda shuddered.

But that's when Lord Slug jabbed the Oozaru straight in the face causing it to roar and stumble backwards again before he wrapped his arm around it and threw it in the air before launching a volley of Ki blasts from his hands which kept causing a great deal of damage. It's roars of pain were heard everywhere as Edelgard let out a gasp.

"Professor!"

The words slipped out of her mouth… but everyone around heard it as Annette slowly turned to her with wide eyes.

"W-What did you just say?"

And like that, the penny dropped for the entirety of 141 as they slowly looked up at the Oozaru wrestling with Lord Slug.

The tail.

The powerful strength.

…The missing arm.

There was no doubt about it. Byleth, their own Professor, was the Moon Beast.

But that's when the Oozaru grunted loudly and shook its head before they all heard a gruff voice and their eyes widened at who it was.

"NO… TIME… NEED… HELP… CAN'T… HOLD IT…"

"Wait, did she just talk?" Edelgard whispered in shock.

"You heard her though, she needs our help." Claude said, before turning to his fellow House Leaders. "What's the plan?"

That's when Leonie ran up to Ashe and Bernadetta and looked at the two of them. "I have an idea. Let's bust out that attack we practiced."

"What? But we're nowhere near ready with that move!"

"Ashe, it's life or death! We need to do it now! We need to help the Moo- I mean, the Professor." Leonie yelled at the Blue Lion, grabbing him by the shoulders and shaking him.

"Okay! Okay! Stop shaking me!"

"D-Do we have to? M-Maybe the Professor can beat him…" Bernadetta whimpered out, clutching her bow with a death grip and almost splintering the wood, but Leonie gave her a look.

"You heard her, Bernadetta. She can't hold out long enough, we need to do our part. Now come on, just like we practiced!"

Both Ashe and Bernadetta looked at each other still looking unsure… but nodded when they realised that Leonie was right. So they went into their formation as the giant behemoths stood in front of them while they drew their bows and charged up a bunch of Ki arrows.

"So you can actually talk after all, huh? Guess you aren't a mindless beast after all." Lord Slug said as he saw the Oozaru's face twist and contort, desperately trying to stay in control as it jumped backwards away from a swipe from the Namekian before it charged forward and clamped it's jaws down on his shoulder to keep him in place before pushing him while landing body shot after body shot after body shot making him groan in pain.

"You're getting annoying! GET OUT OF HERE!" He tried to hit the Oozaru back but the vice like grip on his shoulder made it difficult for him to land any shots as it then shoved Lord Slug back and spun around using its massive tail to slap him in the face before then charging another mouth beam directly at his chest.

But this time, Lord Slug dodged to the side and stretched his arm out to grab the Oozaru by the face and dragged it towards him.

"I hope this works…." Bernadetta managed to whisper out as she had five Ki arrows charging power on her bow whilst Ashe also had five of his own charging.

"It's too soon… we haven't even managed to come up with a cool name for this move yet."

"We can worry about that later, the move will work! Trust me!"

As she summoned a Ki lance and held a hand out in front of her and narrowed her eyes to help focus her shot. She had a target in mind, Lord Slugs legs. As Ashe and Bernadetta charged their arrows more and more, they turned from a normal looking yellow to a fierce blue as they gritted their teeth trying to focus on keeping the attack stable.

"Steady…." Leonie muttered, seeing Lord Slug stay in one place as she tightened her grip on the lance.

"Steady…" Just needed to find the right moment.

That's when her eyes widened when she saw the opportunity and yelled at her fellow 141 members.

"NOW!"

Heeding the signal, both the archers unleashed their attack as two sets of five arrows each exploded out of their bows and collected together to form an intense attack as Leonie threw her own lance into the centre of the attack, fusing all three together and making a large blue projectile hurtling at full speed towards its intended target. As the Oozaru grunted when it saw the attack approaching and kicked Lord Slug to make him stumble back to distract him long enough for the attack to pierce him in the back as he roared in pain.

"GAAAAAHHHHHH!"

That's when he felt another pain in his back as Shamir and Jeralt both fired powerful Ki blasts into the same spot making him fall to his knees as the Oozaru growled while looming over him.

"This is it! Just a little more! Come on, you can do it!"

"This doesn't make a lick of sense! You're not supposed to transform without the moon! HOW ARE YOU DOING THIS?!"

That's when his eyes drifted to the ball in the sky and he slowly grinned and giggled in glee. "Ah, I see now. You sly little foxes. So seems this isn't such a backwater planet like I thought."

Edelgard's eyes widened. "Oh no…"

"But unfortunately for you."

"No, no, no!"

"That won't be enough!"

"Stop him!" Edelgard went to reach out, but it was too late as Lord Slug fired Ki beams from his eyes directly at the fake moon, destroying it completely.

"NO!" Edelgard gripped her hair tightly.

"Dammit, we were so close!" Jeralt clenched his fists and looked up at the Oozaru.

"NO, NO, NO!" Sothis screamed looking at Byleth as her fangs slowly disappeared and her eyes went from blood red to their normal blue.

"Hehehehehehe, well well well, look how the tables have turned." Lord Slug grinned slowly standing up as the Oozaru slowly shrunk down… but now before he kicked it high in the air and fired another Ki blast… aimed directly at the tail.

Jeralt's eyes widened as he powered up. "NO! NOT ON MY WATCH!"

As he soared high in the air as Byleth shrunk down more and more with Jeralt grabbing onto her and taking the full brunt of the attack on his back as he grunted loudly in pain before the two of them fell to the ground with nasty burn marks on his back. That's when Jeralt felt the effects of magic around him and realised they got teleported somewhere else, away from the action. Before he could ask questions, Shamir flew in with a fresh change of clothes for Byleth.

"Well that didn't work." She bluntly stated as Byleth slowly came to, groaning and holding her head.

"Yes Shamir, I noticed that." Jeralt said.

But that's when Byleth took the clothes and started getting dressed with Jeralt turning his back while Sothis appeared next to her.

'We were so close… now we lost our edge.'

'Not quite…'

'What do you mean? Wait… are you saying…'

'I think I can. But there's only one way to test it out.'

"What's up Byleth? Do you have a plan?" Shamir asked as she saw her friend in deep thought before she adjusted her coat and looked at the two.

"I do… but you're not going to like it."

"Why does something always happen?! We had it! Victory was in our grasp!" Edelgard was ready to tear her hair out in frustration. It was all for nothing! And what's worse, is that the fake moon cut her Ki directly in half so she was completely exhausted. Dimitri gripped his weapon tightly and looked up at the towering Lord Slug laughing over his victory.

"Are we truly out of options?" Dimitri said to himself, and narrowed his eyes at the Namekian. "Then this may be the end of Fódlan…"

"Yeah. I'm out of ideas." Claude grunted, before joining Dimitri by his side and readied his bow.

"Then if this is really the end… we go out with a bang." Edelgard finished, picking herself up with her axe and charged whatever Ki she had left into her weapon. "141! Are you ready? This is the grand finale! We may lose our home… but we won't back down!"

The others all looked at one another… before nodding and rallying next to their House Leaders staring up at Lord Slug who grinned at them.

"Lambs to the slaughter, eh? I can get behind that. Rather than curl up and die, you're choosing to go out with dignity. Props to you, not many people can do that."

"Just… get it over with." Felix growled, gripping his sword with an iron grip.

"Know what? How about this? I'll give you each one more shot. Anywhere on the body, see if you can take me out. But be careful, if you waste that shot, then you won't see the light of day anymore."

As Lord Slug let his guard down and challenged the leftovers of 141 to strike at him. Taking the bait, Felix went rushing towards him as Dimitri held out a hand.

"Felix no!"

"Stay out of this, Boar! If I'm dying here, then I die a warrior!" As Felix charged Ki into his sword and slashed across the Namekian's chest, leaving a noticeable scratch… but an evil chuckle was the only reaction he got.

"Awwww, cute. It's a shame, really. You were so sure of yourself." But then Lord Slug grabbed Felix, making him drop the sword as Annette gasped.

"NO!" She opened her tome and channeled Ki into it before aiming it at the ground beneath Lord Slug and unleashed the strongest wind spell she had. While it did make him drop Felix, he glared at Annette and grabbed a large boulder and hurled it towards her. She tried to unleash the wind spell again, but to her horror, her tome had run out of its reserved charges. So instead, she tossed it to the side and held her hands out, grabbing the boulder head on and grunted loudly, feeling the overbearing weight making her muscles scream in pain. But suddenly, a blast coming from behind her shattered the boulder into a thousand pieces and she looked behind to see Petra there with her hand extended.

"Oh, thanks Petra! You really saved me!"

"I appreciate your gratitude. Now, let's keep on trying to wear him down." Petra said, as she backflipped over a massive hand trying to grab her and she landed on his arm before running up it, her tattoos started glowing as three wolves were charging alongside her as each one pounced on Lord Slugs face and biting down on various parts. And as one wolf pried his mouth open, she jumped forward with her sword pointed straight at his open mouth… but suddenly, he clamped down hard and shattered her sword in two before exploding his Ki, destroying the wolves on his face and the force of the explosion sent Petra straight into the ground before a shadow loomed over her and she looked up to see his foot ready to stamp her, but just as she was getting ready to dodge, Caspar came and charged a lot of Ki into his fist and slammed it into the foot of Lord Slug making him lose balance, and during that moment Caspar grabbed Petra and carried her away.

"You okay?"

"I am now. My gratitude is vast, Caspar." Petra nodded to him, wiping mud off of her face. But then her face dropped when she looked up at the recovering Lord Slug. "This isn't working though…"

"Yeah, all our attacks are doing nothing. We were so close with the Moon- I mean, Professor Byleth!"

That's when they all felt a tingling in their heads and heard Shamir's voice.

'Guys, we need a sit rep. Who's still able to fight?'

'…I am tapped out.' Leonie chimed in. 'Me, Bernadetta and Ashe are all done. That attack we pulled off earlier took out the last of our reserves. Can't even get Bernadetta to sit up, her legs have completely given up on her.'

'Lysithea is out as well as Flayn.' Hilda said. 'And honestly… I'm the same. I'm done.'

As more and more members of 141 chimed in saying that they're unable to fight anymore and Shamir clicked her tongue before looking at Byleth and Jeralt.

"We're the only fighters left. It's now or never Byleth. Are you ready?"

"Guess we will find out." Byleth replied rotating her shoulder to stretch out the aches from the last fight as Shamir deadpanned.

"…That isn't the kind of thing you should say as literally the last line of defence."

"Yeah, but it's true. If I don't get this form unlocked, then we're dead. Simple as that."

"You're surprisingly calm about this."

"What else can I do at this point?"

"…Fair point. Alright, go get him. Really hope you know what you're doing."

"Good luck, kid." Jeralt grunted and Byleth nodded.

"I will most certainly need it."

With that, she flew off towards the direction of Lord Slug once again as Sothis appeared next to her.

'So if this doesn't work, we're dead.'

"Yup."

'And you're just okay with that?'

"Like I said, Sothis. We've done everything we could do, if this doesn't work then we can at least die knowing that we tried."

'…I'm not even going to dignify that with a response.'

As Byleth touched down in front of Lord Slug still in his giant form. She looked around at the various fallen warriors of 141 and then back up at the Namekian before slowly walking forward.

"What's she doing?"

"She just lost her advantage!"

"Hang on, maybe she has a plan."

Those were the voices that she was hearing. To be fair, they weren't exactly wrong. She was betting it all on this one chance. But… that moment where Sothis helped her mind be clear during that transformation… she felt that power. Maybe, just maybe…

"Hah! You've come back for more?" Lord Slug's voice boomed. "Somehow when I beat you to a pulp, it gets funnier every single time!"

Byleth said nothing. Instead, she closed her eyes and focused her breathing to slow and steady and remembered back to when her mind was clear whilst an Oozaru.

"What? Nothing left to say? You're just going to kneel over and die? Well, that's no fun but if you insist."

The rage… the pulsating rage that was inside her during that time. It was always inside her, always out of reach. But now… now she knew.

As a shadow loomed over her with Lord Slug raising his foot ready to squash her into a pile of goo. The students all exclaimed in horror as his foot slammed down on top of her and they all felt her Ki drop down.

"No… Professor…" Edelgard whispered, collapsing to her knees.

"We failed?" Claude gritted his teeth.

"We failed…" Dimitri confirmed with a sorrowful mumble. As everyone else mourned the apparent loss of their Professor and only line of defence, Lord Slug laughed loudly.

"Now that she is gone, I am gonna take my time with each and every one of you- huh?!"

He felt his balance start to shift as 141 all felt a power start to skyrocket. Their shocker expressions slowly faded into those of relief as well as grins knowing what is to come.

"Should've known she wouldn't go out like that. What a fool I was to think otherwise." Felix smirked, pushing his wet hair out of his face.

"Now we are able to see the real power of our dear Professor." Petra added.

"Heh… she keeps surprising me every time." Claude said with a grin.

As Edelgard realised… she did it. What Byleth was trying to do all this time, she finally managed to do it as her eyes caught traces of a green aura beneath the foot of Lord Slug."

"…Here she comes."

A yell erupted out from beneath Lord Slugs foot as he was completely thrown off balance before looking down to see Byleth standing there… with a green aura encasing her and her eyes were closed before slowly opening them to reveal that they were no longer her usual blue. Instead, they were… yellow?

*Song: Undefeatable (Sonic Frontiers)*

"What the hell? This is different… what happened to your eyes? Why do you look… so angry?"

As Byleth was trembling from the sheer amount of power that was coursing through her, as well as the overwhelming emotion that was running through her mind.

Rage.

With her fists clenched, she looked up at Lord Slug… and before she could even blink, she heard a cry of pain and to her shock, she saw her fist was embedded directly into his stomach. And to everyone else, they didn't even see her move from her spot. Just one moment she was there, the next moment she wasn't.

"Woah… she's so fast." Claude whispered.

"And it looks like she wounded him greatly." Dimitri added in.

"Is… is this it? Can we finally win?" Edelgard said to herself.

Lord Slug roared in pain and stumbled back once more, clutching his stomach and used his other hand to try and slap Byleth away but to his horror, she stuck her hand out to the side and caught the giant hand that was intended to hurt her, not taking her eyes off him for a moment. She then yelled loudly, charging up Ki and grabbed onto his hand before yanking really hard and tore his arm clean off, causing purple blood to splatter everywhere as Lord Slug fell to his knees, snarling at Byleth who just casually tossed it to the ground in front of him.

"You dropped this." She said with a cold tone.

"You forget… I can easily regenerate another one…" He panted, still reeling from the earlier punch to his stomach before Byleth zoomed forward at blinding speeds once again and slammed her knee into his face before charging an Ashen Blast right at his skull.

"Let's see how much you can regenerate then."

With that, she unleashed the attack right at his face and while he was distracted, flew to above his head and took out the Sword of the Creator and activated the whip function before wrapping it around his neck and started pulling up, causing him to gag and grunt in pain as not only was he being choked but the burning sensation of the Relic was causing him even more pain.

"Stop! It!"

"No." Byleth simply replied, instead lifting her arm to tighten the noose around his neck before using an insane amount of strength that has never been displayed before and to everyone's shock, she used the Relic to start throwing Lord Slug around like a rag doll, before tossing him straight into the air and threw the whip like function once again, this time it stabbed him straight into his stomach and she pulled back, making him fall into the ground at a much more rapid pace.

Meanwhile, everyone was looking in shock… and a tinge of fear.

"She's… completely different from before." Leonie said, looking at her shaking hands.

"Could this be… what she was trying to attain all this time? The power of the Oozaru thingy?" Hilda asked Claude who scratched his head.

"I think it is. She managed to keep the power of it but kept the disadvantage of the giant size and losing her mind."

That's when he turned to Edelgard and Dimitri. "She is still in control right?"

"She is… but she's REALLY angry." Bernadetta whimpered, answering for the leaders.

"Well considering he took her arm, flooded our home and has caused immense damage to Fódlan, I think she has every right to be angry." Felix said. But Bernadetta shook her head.

"No I mean… REALLY angry. Like Professor Byleth has never been like this before!"

"She has a point…" Edelgard muttered, rubbing her chin in thought watching her Professor beat this foe into the ground. "While it's true that she has barely shown emotion before, this is different. Maybe it's a side effect of the power?"

"You might be onto something." Shamir spoke up after landing next to her. "But all I know is, is that if Byleth doesn't finish this soon then we're in trouble."

As she said that, Byleth flew straight into Lord Slugs chest to throw him back straight into his ship and fell directly on top of the machine that was responsible for making the weather turn bad, and everyone brightened up when they saw that. He grunted and looked around in horror as the machine was breaking down and stopping it's actions.

"No… NO!"

"Good. It's gone. Now I don't need to worry about ending you too quickly." Byleth said and wrapped the whip around his arm pulling him up and charged forward, slamming both feet into his chin before flying to the left as he tried to squash her into the ground.

"Really? Throwing a tantrum? Have some honour in defeat, for crying out loud."

"I WILL END YOU!"

He threw a punch, but Byleth just blocked it and glared, her yellow eyes burning with fury. "No. It's over."

As she charged up her Ki and stuck her one hand out before charging at blinding speeds, and slammed directly into his stomach once more… but this time, to everyone's horror and disgust, she went straight through Lord Slug and in a horrific display of purple blood, emerged from the other side as he fell to his knees clutching the hole in his stomach.

"You… you…" He struggled to get the words out and snarled. "So this is the power… of a Saiyan… that Frieza was right to exterminate you lot… you're all monsters."

"No. Not a monster." Byleth stuck her hand out and charged up a powerful Ashen Blast and looked at him with the coldest stare.

"A Demon."

With those final words, she unleashed the attack as it had a wide radius which completely engulfed Lord Slug as he screamed loudly, feeling his body start to disintegrate from the sheer power that came from Byleth as the explosion went bigger and bigger before…. It subsided. No more Lord Slug, no more ship, no more army…

It was over.

As the machine was destroyed, the clouds slowly started to part and go back to their natural formation as before, revealing the sunlight and everyone felt the heat of the sun bask upon them.

"Is… is it over?" Edelgard managed to choke out, barely able to keep her legs from collapsing underneath. The hope building up in her chest was too much for her to handle… and Claude slowly grinned and started chuckling.

"WE DID IT!" He cheered loudly, pumping his fists in the air before groaning and falling backwards on the mud, not caring about being covered in the stuff. And he wasn't alone, Edelgard finally let herself fall too as did Dimitri as the three laid on the ground, panting heavily as the battle took its toll.

"I haven't felt like this… in a long time…" Dimitri panted. "In a way I'm thankful… it's not just Professor Byleth that can push me to greater heights."

"Wait… Professor!" Edelgard suddenly shot up and looked at Byleth who was still in her transformation and gritting her teeth, clenching her fists and trying to get a bearing on her surroundings.

"Come on… come on…" Byleth whispered, trying to ignore the burning feeling of anger that was invading her very being. That's when Sothis came in and shook her head.

'We got lucky… but you did well, child. Let me help you ease the rage within you.'

With that, she touched Byleth's shoulder and green magic pulsed onto her body… before the fiery aura dissipated and her eyes returned to their normal blue as she let out a long breath… and collapsed to the ground, looking up at the now clear sky.

"We did it… we won."

'Indeed. Rest well, Byleth. You did it. But… not without a few losses along the way.'

Byleth looked over to her missing arm and looked down at her knees. "It's okay."

'Not okay?! You lost one of your arms! How can you be fine with it!'

"Because I get to live. I know there are some cases where I could've gotten out with much, much worse. I can live without an arm. It'll be difficult yes but… I can manage."

'I suppose that you're right… just please make sure that you take care of yourself.'

Before Byleth could respond, she felt a hand on her shoulder and looked up to see Jeralt smiling down at her. "So. You managed to access that power. How does it feel?"

"It feels… scary."

"Scary? How so?"

As she tried to explain herself and Jeralt nodded to show that he was listening. "It's like… a wild inferno. If I wasn't careful, I could've easily lost control. And in a stronger state, that would've been bad news."

"Yeah, you're already a pain to deal with in that state as is. Would've been harder if you weren't as big as a mountain anymore."

But then Jeralt helped her up and smiled. "But hey, now that you can actually access it at will, that's a good start.. and we can train you up, to make sure you don't lose control. It's an incredible display of power."

"But also a little concerning how easily you took down Lord Slug." Shamir chimed in with her arms crossed. "I mean, we were all struggling. Even you were. And yet, when you managed to use that power… it was like he couldn't even touch you."

"It's very overwhelming. But I think dad is right. Now that I can finally access it, we can work towards training-"

"PROFESSOOOOOOOOOR!"

As Byleth was suddenly tackled by Annette as she laughed loudly in triumph. "That was amazing! You were so cool! I couldn't see you half the time! And then before, when you turned into the big scary beast monster! That was cool as well!"

"You used to be scared of the Moon Beast." Felix pointed as the rest of the students joined up and Annette puffed her cheeks.

"Well, now that I know that it was the Professor, I'm no longer scared!"

"I'm a little scared still." Bernadetta whispered before waving her hands in front of her. "N-No offence Professor! You're just a little too big and scary like that!"

Byleth just laughed softly and shook her head. "It's okay, Bernadetta. I admit, I find myself scary sometimes."

"Oh… well, I guess that's okay."

She then looked over at the various members of 141 and smiled again. "I'm glad all of you are okay. Wait, where's Flayn and Lysithea?"

Sensing that she was fearing the worst, Edelgard shook her head. "They're okay, my teacher. Flayn got the worst of the damage from Lord Slug, but she's recovering. And Lysithea ran her reserves dry and couldn't go on. I admit, I was close to it myself."

"Good… that's good-"

"More importantly, I can't believe that YOU were the Moon Beast!" Leonie exclaimed. "But then again, now that I think about it, I guess that I makes sense."

"Why did you attack us though? Back when we were looking for Flayn?" Ashe asked.

But before Byleth could answer, Dimitri spoke up. "It's a form that is unique to the… Saiyan's? I believe that's what it was called. The form itself is called the Oozaru. And she unfortunately wasn't able to control it. Edelgard, Claude and myself saw her transform that night and barely made it out with our bodies intact."

"Yeah, and when we went down to Abyss, she almost transformed again." Hilda shivered remembering how panicked Claude looked. "Thankfully, we were able to stop it."

"Wait, so YOU knew?!" Leonie asked pointing at Hilda and she in return folded her arms.

"Hey, it's not my place to tell people other people's secrets!"

"This would've been valuable information to have!"

"Alright, alright, settle down." Jeralt stepped in. "It doesn't matter who knew what. The most important thing is that we're all alive and kicking. Now… for the hardest part."

That's when they all looked around and saw the amount of destruction that was left behind.

"Something tells me that this will take a lot longer than last time." Caspar said, rubbing the back of his head.

"Perhaps. But we will manage. But for now, we should try and get some rest. You have all been doing nothing but fighting all day."

They were all about to argue… when they all suddenly yawned, exhaustion taking over every single one of them.

"Perhaps… rest would actually be really helpful right now." Dimitri muttered, but then a thought struck him. "How did we manage to receive reinforcements? When I wrote to Rodrigue he said they wouldn't be able to get to us in time."

"Yes, that is most peculiar…" Edelgard furrowed her brow and came to one possible conclusion…. But then felt a hand on her shoulder and saw Claude nodding.

"Let's get some rest, then we can figure out how this all came to be. Who knows? Maybe the Goddess was looking down on us."

"Claude, be reasonable."

"Do you have a better theory."

"I will… after a good nights sleep."

As the students all departed, Byketh walked over to the wreckage of Lord Slugs ship and kicked a piece of metal. Or at least, what was left of it. "Completely destroyed. Only a couple bits of metal, it's a shame. I would've liked to see how this kind of stuff worked."

"Maybe it's for the best." Shamir said, walking beside her. "In case something bad happened."

"There you are! I've been looking all over for you!"

She turned to see Catherine with Thunderbrand on her shoulder as she sported a huge grin. "Well! That was fun, wasn't it?"

"We almost died."

"But we didn't!"

"…Yeah, I can't exactly argue with that."

That's when Byleth looked around and then spotted Jeralt going into the forest and nodded to Shamir. "I'll be right back. Need to see what's going on with dad."

"Got it. I'll help clean up the mess."

"I'm impressed that she actually did it. This woman just keeps on blowing my expectations out of the water." Hubert mused, whilst pacing back and forth as Seteth stood there next to him.

"I thank you for your assistance."

"There's no need for thanks. I simply am doing my duty for Lady Edelgard. Nothing more."

"I had a feeling that whole planning to kill her schtick was a load of horse crap."

They both turned to see Jeralt walking up to them as he shook his head. "Didn't make a lick of sense. I saw how you interacted with her, then all of a sudden you wanted to kill her? You're many things, Hubert. But selling yourself out? That ain't one of those things."

"…You're more observant than I give you credit for."

"I'm just curious as to why." Seteth chimed in. "You gave up your reputation, any future role in the Empire, and for what?"

Huberts eyes shifted to the side before he sighed. "I'm afraid I can't disclose that information. Just know this, I have my reasons.

Jeralt crossed his arms and hummed in acknowledgment. "I don't know where your mission is taking you. But I have a feeling that this isn't the end, and that our paths will cross again."

"….Heh. I expect the same thing, Bladebreaker."

With that, Hubert vanished in a dark spell just as Byleth walked into view. "Did I miss something?"

"Nah kid. Just someone leaving without saying goodbye."

"Your bold nature astounds me sometimes." Thales mentioned as Hubert appeared back at the base.

"It was the most logical outcome." Hubert simply replied. "If I didn't provide them with reinforcements or help out Miss Byleth then this world would've been reduced to ruins. I have to admit however, she did make me feel nervous at times. I wasn't entirely sure if she would achieve victory."

"Hmph. A calculated move that paid off in the end. Yes, that is precisely why I let you bring reinforcements with you."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Child, I could've easily have just said no and nobody would join you. However, I agreed with your outcome. The Fell Star… as much as I hate to admit it, was the only one who could have defeated that… Lord Slug."

That's when he stood up and Hubert frowned in confusion. "Where are you going?"

A simple smirk was the only expression Thales had shown. "I didn't like helping out the vermin. We were weak, there is no other way to say it. However, someone in the Kingdom caught my eye. I'm going to… employ her services."

"VICTORY FOR THE EMPIRE!" Leopold roared raising his axe in the air as in the Adrestian Empire, they all saw the clouds dissipate as the last of the forces of Lord Slug were decimated. The cheers of the remaining army sounded throughout the city as Ladislava leaned on the edge of a wall and sighed heavily.

"Thank goodness… I genuinely thought we were goners. Randolph, you okay?"

"Yeah… I'm okay." Randolph panted, sitting down with his back against the wall as he grunted while holding his arm. "The dastards got a good hit on me, but it's nothing I can't handle. Just going to hurt like hell for the next week. I just hope that Fleche is safe."

"We managed to evacuate the city safely, I'm sure that she's fine. Which reminds me, we should sound the bell to let them know it's safe."

"…"

"What's wrong?"

Randolph shook his head and managed to pick himself up before looking in the direction of Garreg Mach Monastery. "I saw things over there… it was hard to see, but I did see it. I wonder if Lady Edelgard had a much worse time than we did. If that's even possible."

"You may be right- THE EMPEROR!"

The two of them looked at each other in a panic and took off towards the throne room to make sure that the Emperor was okay. And when they saw that he was still in the same spot, they breathed a sigh of relief and fixed themselves to be a lot more presentable before slowly walking up to him and knelt.

"Your Majesty, we bring good news. We have emerged victorious."

"…And do you bring news from Garreg Mach?" Ionius asked, slowly craning his head up to address the two.

"We do not have any confirmation yet, but we can assume that they have also emerged victorious. The vast majority of the battle took place over there."

A weak smile emerged from the Emperors face as he leaned back, closing his eyes and nodding. "My daughter… yes, that is… very good news."

"LADY JUDITH! THAT'S THE LAST OF THEM! WE WON!"

"Oh thank the Goddess…." Judith sighed in relief, collapsing to her knees and dropping her sword as she smiled hearing the cheers coming from those around her. And for good reason, there were times that they were sure that they weren't going to make it. If it wasn't for that weird green blur…

But she then shook her head and picked herself up before looking in the direction of Garreg Mach and nodded to herself.

"I hope you're alive still, kid… you were at the centre of it all."

"It appears that we have achieved victory, Rodrigue." Gilbert said, cleaning his axe of blood as Rodrigues nodded to himself looking at the cheering soldiers.

"It seems that the Goddess favoured us today. I thank her for her blessing. And even better news, the rain is letting up." He continued, holding out his palm to feel any remnants of rain only to find nothing.

"Here's something that is confusing me, however." Gilbert mused, rubbing his chin in thought. "There was not a single cloud in the sky. Yet suddenly, we were almost over when storms. What could've possibly caused it? No magic spell in existence has the ability to fully manipulate the weather."

"Perhaps we can ask his Highness when he eventually returns. I have a feeling that whatever was going on, Garreg Mach was at the centre of it all. I'm just glad we avoided minimal casualties and that we evacuated early…"

"You… want… some more?!"

Shez was panting hard, looking at the sea of dead bodies around her as she then came out of her weird form that she was using and collapsed onto her back, still trying to catch her breath.

'My partner, you're in the mud…'

"Don't care… tired… what even was all of that?"

'I don't know…' Arval paused and thought to himself. 'You certainly didn't leave much behind for us to investigate. Even so, I've never seen anything like this before. Or maybe I did? Ugh… my head. Wait, someone's coming! Look presentable!'

That caused Shez to snap back into reality and sat upright, despite mud coating her hair as she tilted her head at the person who seemed… unbothered by the gore around him.

"Impressive… very impressive…"

"Uh… can I help you?"

"You are Shez…"

Shez felt uneasy at the presence of this guy who eyed her with such curiosity as she kept a grip on her sword. "I am… who are you?"

"Oh, where are my manners? I forgot to introduce myself. I am Lord Arundel of the Adrestian Empire. I was passing through and saw how you managed to take on all of these… things by yourself. You must have a knack for combat."

This actually caused pride to swell up in her chest as she puffed steam out her nose and nodded, smiling. "Yup! Number one Merc is what they call me! Or at least… that's what they will call me when I get to the Kingdom and start my contract."

"Interesting… why not work with me instead?"

"Huh?"

"We could use someone of your talents in the Empire. We would be able to gain you access to higher ups, best training facilities, all that you want."

But Shez just shook her head, and turned around walking away. "Thanks, but no thanks. You'll have to wait in line, as I already have this one lined up."

"Even the ability to defeat… The Ashen Demon."

That's what made Shez stop in her tracks as under his disguise, Thales grinned, knowing that he pushed the right button. Seems that this girl has a grudge against the Fell Star. And with that kind of power… she might be able to kill her. Shez slowly turned around and gave a serious look.

"Go on."

"Of course, come with with me. We have… much to discuss." He slowly extended out a hand and Shez looked at it for a few moments… and to Thales it almost looked like she was thinking to herself… what was this girl doing?

'I think you should go with him.' Arval said in her mind. 'I feel a connection with him. Maybe I get to recover my memories, and you get to train to beat the Ashen Demon. It's a win win!'

'Well, when you put it like that… still, I feel bad for the person who hired me in the Kingdom.'

'Ah, there's plenty of Mercenaries around, they can find another. Take his hand!'

As soon she blinked and slowly took his hand and shook it. "It's a deal!"

"Excellent. Most excellent."

*Song: DBZ Ending Theme*

At long last, after many hardships and struggles, Lord Slug has finally been defeated. But evil never rests as Thales makes his move. But who is Shez? And what can she possibly do to help Thales and his crew? Find out next time on, The Ashen Saiyan!

Sorry for the wait, everyone. Work was crazy and I was just dealing with insane burnout, but hey, at least I managed to finish it! So yeah, just a small epilogue chapter and the Lord Slug arc is finished! It took a really long time to do, and while there are some parts I wish I could do more of, I'm happy with it overall.

So yeah, Byleth managed to unlock the Ikari form. It's honestly one of my favourite forms as it managed to modernise the Oozaru form. And of course, had to use Sonic Frontiers music.

We will be going back to canon events after this arc, which will be the Battle of the Eagle and Lion. Do you guys have an idea on who could win between the Three Houses? Keep in mind Byleth isn't participating.

But anyway, thank you all for watching and I'll see you all for the epilogue.

Catch you later!