The Dustbin

Day 39: No School Part 3

17th of Red Wolf Moon, Dawn

"Welcome back," Odesse greeted the old man with the orb helm nested around his shoulders, "how was the mission?"

"Awful," he replied, "apparently, even after taking precautions, I've underestimated the Dustbin and their resilience."

"How so?" asked the Dark Bishop, "and uh... since we're in somewhat the clear, may I refer to you by your given name?"

"Sage Solon, and nothing else," said the old man.

"So, uh, Sage Solon," spoke Odesse, "can you explain what made it so... uh, awful?"

Solon sighs before explaining himself. "I tried to give the Dustbin the fits that I gave to those villagers throughout this month," said the elderly man, "apparently, despite most of them meeting the parameters, they didn't go through the fits."

"How so?" asked Odesse, "... also, Sage Solon, can you tell me how these 'fits' work again?"

Solon sighs again before he began his rundown of the core of this operation. "As you know, I am using a new [Faith Magic]-adjacent spell that I've made myself from the ground up," he explained, "that spell is called [Berserk], which allows me to alter the ratio of a living being's brain chemical balance to drive them to a state that can be perceived as 'murderous madness', specifically by increasing their brains' natural output of serotonin and testosterone to its utmost limits, superseding all chemical balances that promote rational thought of calm and logic," the Sage pointed out, "however, the spell itself is incomplete due to how limited its parameters are. The first being that it only works on males in the age range of 16 to 25, the peak period of a male human's physical and psychological development. Females naturally don't have the appropriate amount of natural testosterones in themselves to achieve the desired result of murderous insanity, so while I'd love to use to have the Archbishop throw herself off of the ledge by driving her mad from afar, not only is that option impractical, but the the spell itself is still relatively untested to get that experimental."

"And the next requirement being?" asked the Dark Bishop while he sat backwards on Solon's work chair.

"The brain chemical balance itself, specifically, in laymen's terms, my [Berserk] spell doesn't work on people that have already gone completely insane," said Solon, "on my incursion today, I tried using the [Berserk] spell on Karna himself to kill the bartender on sight, but after hearing his story across Fodlan and beyond..." the old Sage then lets out an annoyed sigh, "... I've come to the conclusion that he's already gone insane-no, 'insane' is his default mental state."

"What about the other brats that are with him?" pointed out Odesse, "surely, they're not that maladjusted, right?"

Solon says nothing, letting the Dark Bishop to figure it out for himself.

"... And it wasn't even our fault," the Dark Bishop remarked at the revelation/confirmation of the Dustbin being a complete basket case of crazies, "wow, and they call us the bad guys, but apparently, the Church exploiting them to do their dirty work because of said maladjustment? That's just low, even for me."

"Thankfully, our plans haven't gone completely off-track," Solon claimed.

"Uh, yeah," Odesse remarked, "... the Church just sent the Blade Breaker's goons to act as a security detail for the whole village in case everyone goes cray cray because of you. In any case, we're in a gridlock."

Solon snorts in amusement before belching out a low cackle.

"... On the contrary, their involvement is a boon," the Sage pointed out, "remind me, how old are the majority of the Blade Breaker's men? And how many of them are biologically male?"

21st of Red Wolf Moon, Evening

"Lady Rhea," bowed Seteth as he came into the Archbishop's audience chambers.

"You may speak," she replied.

"Yes, about Karna's little 'vacation'..." he pointed out, "... you didn't send him to Remire Village in hopes of luring out who the culprit behind the 'fits' were, weren't you?"

The Archbishop sighs before answering. "Honestly, I only sent him there to keep tabs on him easier, given that misfortune and calamity happens wherever he goes," she pointed out, "but even I am wise enough to know that there is absolutely no correlation between Karna and the epidemic of fits that is happening as of now."

"So why make him stay lest he makes the situation worse?" asked Seteth.

"Seteth dear," she smiled sinisterly, "... you just answered your own question earlier."

The adherent was taken aback at her confirmation. "... You, you do realize that the villagers are going to be caught in the inevitable crossfire!" he rightfully pointed out, "Lady Rhea! Do you intend to turn the whole village into a battleground by using Karna as bait?!"

The Archbishop then looks at Seteth coldly. "... Sacrifices must be made for the greater good," she answered, "our true enemy will now show themselves, and I will make sure to make them pay for their insolence."

Seteth stands in silent disbelief before excusing himself out of her presence.

"She's now using him of all people to lure them out..." he muttered to himself as he walked down the halls, "... I know that they need to be dealt with sooner rather than later, but still, is this the right way?"

He knew from the look of Rhea's eyes that there was no way to convince her otherwise. As much as he hated to do it, he had no other choice but to go behind her back and come up with his own plans.

"Question is, who do I tell first?" he asked himself as he went into his study before writing up an anonymous letter tipping off Rhea's gambit instructing the reader to save the villagers from Karna's inadvertent calamity that he'll bring upon them, "... or rather, who do I send it to first? Someone who can keep to itself while being more than capable of holding her own and possibly, uncrunching this crunch?"

Only one person came to mind. Only one.

Seteth then lets out a groan and a sigh as he folds the letter shut before tying it up in a red cord and hiding it inside of his clothes. "... At the end of it all, she's the only I can rely on to get the job done."

He then heads towards the ground-level dorms while passing through the halls without raising attention towards himself. Up ahead, he spots Byleth entering her room before the doors closed shut. In one swift motion, Seteth then slips the folded letter into the gap between the door and the arch before giving her room's door a hard knock as he walked by.

"Yes?" answered the Professor as a folded letter drops to her feet, "huh, for me?"

She then goes back inside with the letter in hand as Seteth glanced back, confirming that she was tipped off about the Archbishop's potentially disastrous gambit.

I'll leave the rest to you, Professor Eisner, he remarked to himself while praying to the Goddess above to wish everyone well.

25th of Red Wolf Moon, Morning

"Ahh, GAH!" Karna shocked himself awake after he finds himself inside a dumpster full of rotting foodstuff and other garbage, "... how the hell did I end up here?"

The Professor then rolls himself out of the pile of refuse before landing onto the dirt floor. Gradually regaining his consciousness, he then finds himself in an alleyway between two buildings, looking out towards the now-barren dirt road across Remire Village.

Upon crawling out on his fours like an infant, he looks about the open, spotting naught a single soul about the village. "... Dammit, am I tripping?" he muttered to himself as he got up to his feet before noticing that he could see his own breath spewing from his mouth, "... winter's almost here. Maybe that's why people aren't out an about this early-"

A sound of something tipping over and fall was heard from afar from where the Professor stood. Before he could head towards where the sound came from, a Paladin wearing Jeralt's colors of dark-metallic gray and orange comes out, his armor and helmet covered in blood, his [Silver Lance] dragged behind him like a stick wielded by a primate rather than an intelligent human being, and from his other hand was a mutilated corpse of the very same bartender that had taken care of him since the beginning of this month.

"... Uh, I, uh, I..." he stuttered in shocked before the Paladin ran towards him, wildly and unskillfully swinging his polearm at Karna's direction as the latter began hopping and jumping back from the arcs of his swings.

"Kill... kill... kill..." groaned the disgraced Paladin as he then grabbed his weapon with both of his hands before swinging it down followed up with a thrust with his [Silver Lance], "KILL!"

"Whoa man! Calm down!" Karna plead as he then grabbed the weapon's spearhead and upper shaft, trying to wrestle away the thing from the madman's hands, "what the hell is going on here?!"

"KILL! KILL!" roared the Paladin as he then began dragging Karna out into the open as the two continued with their wrestling match, "KILL! KILL!"

Karna was himself, admittedly confused on what was happening. Sure, people hated enough to try and make attempts towards his life, but not to the degree where one would be this brazen, let alone crazed to go after him.

"... Waitaminute," he muttered to himself before he pulled the Paladin towards himself with his own lance before landing a dropkick to his stomach, causing him to let go upon contact and knock off his helmet that covered his whole head.

Upon being unmasked, Karna then sees that there were visible veins bulging around the Paladin's eyes while exhibiting exaggerated symptoms that the villagers had shown when they suffered the fits.

"Oh crap," the Professor then realized what was going on as the crazed Paladin then drew his [Silver Sword] from his hip while giggling and drooling to himself, "... you have the fits too, but you're a trained sellsword and not a village schmuck."

"KILL!" roared the maddened Paladin as he charged towards Karna as he swung his blade towards the latter.

Karna was then forced to defend himself while trying to figure out how to approach this situation. On one hand, he would be more than justified at him killing the man to put him out of his misery, but on the other hand, Karna never really prepared for his assailants to be brainwashed puppets deprived of their free will. So ultimately, the choice came down to if he's going to put him down for his own and everyone's own goods or have to deal with the consequences of directly killing a man who has no idea what he's doing.

As much as he hates Byleth for stealing his job, even he doesn't relish in revenge by proxy, especially if it came at the expense of someone who wasn't involved in his ire to begin with.

"Sorry pal," said Karna as he blocked the swings of the the Paladin's wild swings with the shaft of his [Silver Lance], "either you or me."

He then lets out a yell before parrying the next downward swing that sent the Paladin's sword flying out of his hands before Karna stabbed the tip of his weapon into the Paladin's throat, killing him as blood gushed out of his convulsing and cackling throat.

"... Sweet Seiros, what I've gotten myself into this time?!" growled Karna as he then made his way towards Jeralt's base camp he'd settled outside of the village, and as predicted, he found the whole camp completely descended into anarchy as fellow sellswords clashed against each other, and among the chaos were the other/remaining villagers being guarded by his Dustbin students, "... can someone, tell me!" he cried out as he fought his way through the mosh pit of blades and laughter, "WHAT THE ACTUAL HELL IS GOING ON RIGHT NOW?!"

"Well, for one thing," said Jeralt as he let out a sigh as he stabbed his own crazed men atop of horseback, "your brats aren't the ones causing this mess, I'll give you that much."

"Yeah, even we're not capable of pulling this off," Byron remarked as he fired his [Miasma Δ] towards a maddened Paladin, "... although I get the feeling that the others might still try to blame us for this crap afterwards!"

"And this all that's left of the villagers?!" Karna asked as he batted away a Paladin with his [Silver Lance]'s shaft.

"It's just de women and de kiddos!" Sorcha answered as she swung her [Claymore] while the Paladins that were suffering from this plague of madness simply walked into the arc and got chopped in two, "the crusty ol' farts and the ladies in Jeralt's company are de only ones who aren't goin' crazy! It's just the boys and the men goin' cuckoo!"

A wave of realization then hits Karna as he then noticed a pattern between those who suffered the fits for the past month. All of them were young men, including the one who shanked him with the carving knife.

"... ALL OF YOU!" Karna cried out as he looked towards his own students, "DO YOU BOYS FEEL ANY DIFFERENT?!"

"No, just plain peachy!" Cyrus remarked as he decapitated a mad Paladin with his [Killer Lance] from atop Darius whose hooves were soaked in blood and bones, "also, we kinda figured out how the fits work!"

"VIDAR STRONGER THAN FITS!" the feral boy roared out as he then lifted a Paladin over his head as he was being frozen solid from his [Baigujing] before slamming his back down onto his own knee, breaking the older man in half, "VIDAR THE STRONGEST!"

"Point being, we non-normal people are seemingly immune to this wave of insanity," stated Byron as he froze a crowd of crazies solid with his [Freeze] spell, "I'll say though, whoever is behind this state of mass hysteria, I really must think for allowing me to express myself without restraint!"

Byron then unleashes a loud screech empowered by magic that caused the coming crowd of insane Paladins to stop and reel in their tracks, allowing Selene to fire her [Crossbow] at the stunned madmen before Sorcha and Topaz cut them all down with their [Ne Zha] and [Wo Dao] respectively.

"... Was that a [Banshee Θ]?!" Karna remarked while he blocked an oncoming sword swing from another crazed Paladin before slashing his throat open.

"Trust us, we don't dawdle," Topaz pointed out as she cut down another Paladin with her new sword before grabbing her [Zulfiqar] from the back of her waist, "HEADS DOWN!"

The V-bladed sword from Sreng's master bladesmith was then thrown through several madmen while those who were sane quickly hit the deck as they saw their former comrades-in-arms had their heads lopped off of their necks en masse, finally stopping until after Topaz catches back the flying blade after it had returned to where she'd thrown it from.

"Kinda feelin' useless ere'," Selene sighed as she then swung her [Steel Lance] to fend off the coming Paladins, "by the way, Jeralt-man, how many did ye bring with you here?!"

"Well given that we're a sellsword company, I brought the new blood to gets some experience!" he remarked as he shattered a foot-bound Paladin's [Silver Sword] with his own [Silver Lance], "there's 200 of them in total, 50 of em are my old breed, rest of them are rookies."

"And how many of them are male and under the age of 25?!" Karna barked as he kicked a crazed man in his crotch only for the pain to not register for him as he kept attacking before he was then cut down.

"AT LEAST OVER A HUNDRED!" Jeralt answered as he fended off another horde, "THE GIRLS ARE HOLDING THEIR OWN BUT FOR FIRST MISSION STANDARDS, THIS IS WAY OVER THE HILL!"

"CAPTAIN!" a veteran Paladin cried out as he fended off the lunatic men of arms, "I THINK I SAW SOMETHING BIG MOVE IN THE FORESTS!"

"WE CAN'T DEAL WITH THAT NOW!" Jeralt rebuked as he cut down his former rookie, "FOCUS ON GETTING OURSELVES OUT OF THIS MESS!"

"PROFESSOR!" Selene then tosses his [Crescent Sickle] which then lands into a Paladin's laughing face as he fell dead onto the dirt, "figured you'd fight better with dat."

Karna grins as he then throws his [Silver Lance] towards Selene's direction, spearing through the Paladin's neck and out his throat. "Now we're even!"

"Sorry if we're butchering yer boyos Jeralt!" Sorcha pointed out as she batted all of them with her [Claymore] before setting them all on fire with her [Ne Zha]'s [Samadhi Fire] Combat Art, "or de fact dat we're enjoying it!"

"DIDN'T NEED TO KNOW THAT LAST PART! JUST MAKE SURE NO OTHER VILLAGERS DIE!" Jeralt then kicks his horse's side, causing the steed to buck forward to deliver a brutal kick with its hind legs that dislodged a cackling Paladin's lower jaw as he flew into the air, still laughing all the while before landing hard onto his neck with an audible snap.

The remaining ones that kept themselves sane (or too insane by default to be afflicted by the plague of madness), everyone stood their ground to put down those who were driven beyond the brink by an unknown and unseen force of pure malice.

Jeralt himself, despite his stoic appearance, took no pleasure of slaying his own unwilling boys. But he had to look at the bigger picture, and if he'd left to them to their own devices the way they are right now, innocents will die and he will be held responsible for it. All he can do now is pray that the boys' parents forgives him for what he'd brought them into.

The only thing he has to get angry about is that the Dustbin were having a ball killing his own crazed men. Granted, they were limiting themselves to slaying only the ones that have gone crazy and are generally cooperative when it came to their side's welfare, but the sight of them cackling at blood being spilled while utilizing esoteric methods of murder such as Topaz's V-bladed [Zulfiqar] being thrown across the air and through flesh and bone and Byron's own ice-adjacent Dark Magic spells being thrown everywhere made Jeralt question whether there was a difference between the Dustbin and his own men that have gone murderously insane.

Takes a bunch of crazies to fight a group of crazies, he mentally sighed as he kept fighting against his own men for their own good, the shouts and rants of the word "kill" being repeated over and over now tuned out for him, since when did the battlefield turn into a loony bin?

Still, he kept fighting, for Jeralt, no matter what occurs in his job, sees it through. Preferably if his men weren't the ones that he had to kill.

Eventually, the noise dies down to an absolute calm, with the villagers and the Dustbin now looking around to find themselves strewn in a collection of corpses that were once young hopefuls who'd joined Jeralt as followers of the Blade Breaker.

They sought to die as heroes of their own story, but instead, inglorious deaths of fools was their fate. Thankfully, no one else died as of this battle in particular.

"... Well, that was stupid," Karna spat to the side, "just what kind of a sick joke is it for people to be brainwashed into indiscriminate murder?"

"And dat many too," Sorcha grumbled as she looked at the smiling corpses.

"Dat shite is freaky," Selene poked at the Paladin's body with her [Steel Lance], "feels like somethin' out of a ghost story."

"What evil spirit is behind this?" asked Topaz while she prayed for the departed, "to walk towards death is that of one's own free will and choice. Not by bondage of the other!"

"No spirit I know is capable of this crap, that's for sure!" Cyrus remarked as he looted through the bodies for spare change, "seriously, I'm starting to think that this might be more or less shamanism rather than basic magic!"

"Wait, shamanism?" Byron remarked as he then checked the corpses' eyes and the veins bulging around it, "... yeah, this ain't no ordinary magic."

"... No... magic?" asked Vidar.

"Explain," said the female Paladin.

"Well, for one, these guys' eyes are actually showing similar signs of not harm, but rather, overhealing," said Byron as he pried open their eyelids to take a better look at their eyes, "back at my times at Faerghus' Mage Academy, I once heard a theory of what happens if someone already healthy had the [Heal] spell used on them, with the end result being effects similar to that of a steroid or in local cases, hallucinogenics," he pointed out, "contrary to popular belief, not all hallucinogenics are poison. In fact, I did a little digging on Duscurian culture, and I've found recipes on doping drugs that allow their Warriors to keep fighting even as their bodies are drained dry of blood and have their limbs hacked halfway, revealing to me that it's not the killing blow that kills a man, but rather the pain of death that causes him to black out before never waking back up."

"What does that have to do with what happened to them?!" said the old sellsword under Jeralt's command.

"Tell me sir," asked Byron, "during your illustrious career, have you had those moments where you body just suddenly started performing beyond its natural limits? he said as the intellectual leaned towards him, "you know, where in those life-or-death moments, suddenly your body moved on its own, something akin to a primal awakening of a survivor's instinct?"

"He's talking about adrenaline," said Karna as he looked at the corpse's eye himself, "... and yeah, there are signs. These guys look as if they've been doped to their very gills."

"Well, if it were through consumption, more people would've been dragged to the Church's sanatorium at a more spontaneous rate before this tinder box of today exploded," Byron pointed out, "but considering how selective the ones with the symptoms were... you know, Cyrus might have a point of this being the act of shamanism."

"And what kind of 'shamanism' is responsible for this?!" asked the villager, a young newlywed whose husband was dragged to the Church earlier this month, "is it from Almyra?!"

"No, Almyra kinda sucks at magic, you bigot," said Karna, "instead of 'shamanism', let's instead try thinking 'magic', as in the system of magic that we all use in Fodlan."

Jeralt racks his brain of trying to connect "magic" and the words that wouldn't sound out of place from Manuela's mouth whenever she was in her "work mode". Combined with that fact that only the young men below the age of 25 had been inflicted by the madness plaguing the whole village, a realization came to him like a speeding carriage rolling downhill and striking an unsuspecting man to his side. "... No," he shuddered in realization, "... [FAITH MAGIC]?!"

"Didn't know such school of sorcery can be used to such... debilitating effects," Karna sighed, "although it does make a degree of sense, given that it was their natural bodies going out of control ala doping, and [Faith Magic] is the only school of magic that targets the person's biology."

That last sentence catches Byron's interest before he looked around to see if anyone was looking at him. Seeing that no one was, he hastily plucks off a slain Paladin's eyeball before putting it away for future secret studies.

"... Well, that explains why all the people that went mad were young men," Tomas remarked as he came out of the crowd of evacuated villagers with his oaken cane in his hand as support for his tired legs, "... it's a miracle that not all of us has gone to the wayside. Thank you all for saving us."

"Thank us later," Jeralt replied as he got back onto his horse, "for now, we need to get out of here-"

Breaking through the treelines, a Giant Wolf comes out snarling and its maws snapping as it spotted its new prey.

"... Come to think of it," Karna said, "... one of you mentioned large objects in the woods, right-"

He was then swallowed whole by the Giant Wolf from behind before he could finish.

"PROFESSOR!" Byron exclaimed.

"HOLD YOUR GROUND!" ordered Jeralt as he rallied his men while trying to keep the villagers calm, "DON'T LET THAT THING THROUGH-"

Suddenly, the beast before them began to choke. Then, its stomach began to inflate and bloat as it stopped walking. And finally, upon being too sluggish to even move, its whole body began to glow purple before it exploded into a cloud of red viscera and scattered fur, drenching everyone within the blast radius in blood.

From epicenter of the explosion of gore was none other than Karna, heaving and snarling as he himself emerged from inside the monster covered in its filth.

"Rude mongrel cut me off before I could finish," he growled as his hands glowed with bright violet auras that emitted a threatening amounts of energy from each of them, "anyway, I suppose that's the rest of them-"

Three more then come out from the treelines behind him.

"WILL YOU ALL SHUT THE FUCK UP?!" he then blasted the three Giant Wolves into oblivion with a massive explosion of dark energy, "[HADES Ω]!"

The three beasts were then reduced to mulch that splattered the trees from where they came.

"Anyway, before I was rudely interrupted..." said Karna as he went back to his polite and academic tone, the dissonance between his personas of "depressed alcoholic" to "violent psychopath" and "poised man of science" freaking everyone else but the Dustbin out, "... one of you mentioned that the forest had something crawling about, right?"

"Uh, yeah," said the crusty old Paladin, "saw something big brushing about. I think the reason why the wolves went away is because the Demonic Beasts came here to play in their place."

"And how many of us are here now?" asked the Professor, "... aside from the ones we had to put down, that is."

"My girls and old guys are fine," Jeralt stated, "depending on how many Demonic Beasts there are, we should be able to hold out."

Everyone then looks towards Topaz to scout out the perimeters around the village.

"... Very well, for I am small and undetectable," sighed Topaz before she ran off into the woods.

As she hopped from treetop to treetop, her lithe frame allowing her to brush between the branches and leaves of the evergreen trees around Remire Village. It took her less than ten seconds to spot an entire horde of Demonic Beasts, both the Giant Wolves and the scaly, spike-backed Demonic Beasts (the individual classification, not the umbrella term; due to it being the first recorded species to be classified as a "Demonic Beast") sprawling all over the woods and completely surrounding the village.

She then runs back to inform everyone of the bad news.

"So we're trapped?!" said the old Paladin before the villagers began to panic upon hearing it.

"How many?" asked Jeralt.

"Too many," answered the little Hassashin, "our only saving grace is that there are no flying Demonic Beasts or we would be really screwed."

"What do we do?!" said the woman as she hugged her children, "at this rate, we'll all be eaten-"

Karna then blows a shrill whistle, catching everyone's attention from their collective panic.

"Everyone, shut up," he stated, "I have a plan, but it's going to involve all of your help."

He then nods at Cyrus before the latter began handing out the pilfered [Silver Lances] to the villagers.

"You're telling us to fight?!" said the female villager.

"We never fought something big as a Demonic Beast in our whole lives!" the middle-aged man with a beard pointed out, "the Knights of Seiros are usually the ones tasked to do such tasks!"

"Then best follow my instructions and the Blade Breaker's example if you all want to live," he replied, "for those too injured or old to pick up a weapon, watch our backs."

"What are you going on about this?!" Jeralt pointed out, "you're enlisting untrained villagers to fight?!"

"Got any better ideas, Blade Breaker?!" the Professor replied, to which he was met with silence, "exactly. And to be fair, I hardly see the difference between pitchforks and lances."

"Alright, what do we do?" asked one of Jeralt's men.

"Your lot's job is to finish off the beasts," he answered as he rested his [Crescent Sickle] over his shoulder, "you'll know when."

"What about the rest of us?" asked Byron with the rest of the Dustbin, "you know that this isn't our first time fighting these behemoths, right?"

"That's why you're all auxiliary," said the Professors, "be prepared to be switched out in case of unexpected circumstances," he pointed out as he then looked towards Cyrus and Jeralt, "you two, your jobs are to be live bait. The Demonic Beasts aren't going to come out by themselves on their own. Might as well give them a reason to."

"And what's stopping them from coming all at once?!" Jeralt pointed out before Karna then kicked over a barrel of harvested apples.

"Oh we're well ahead of that little issue," he smirked as he looked at Cyrus, causing him to groan in resignation before he was offered a sack of apples for his [Bowgun], "one at a time, alright?"

"Can't do much more," said Cyrus as everyone began getting into formation under Karna's instructions.

The armed villagers (mostly middle-aged men and young wives) lined up in a ten by ten formation of [Silver Lances], the elderly and the injured were watched over by the Dustbin as Jeralt's men organized the villagers and themselves, with even some now realizing that a [Silver Lance] were more suited for unskilled conscripts like villagers and those with polearms then began exchanging their own lances to the villagers who were with the [Silver Swords], picking up on their implied role as to be the ones to "cut down" the Demonic Beasts trapped in a bramble of spearheads.

Now all they had to do was wait for the first Demonic Beast to come out towards them. Everyone who had to wait were on their last nerve that was on the verge of snapping.

"First time?" Karna asked semi-sarcastically, "don't worry, after the first, the rest will feel easy."

From the treeline before them, both Jeralt and Cyrus manages to lure out one of the Giant Wolves come bursting out through the trees.

"FORM UP!" barked Karna, signaling the villagers to raise their lances up a 75-degree angle, "steady..."

Jeralt and Cyrus both exchange nods with each other as they rode side by side, their horses galloping as fast as they could away from the rampaging beast. Upon getting close enough towards the phalanx of spears, the two riders diverged in their respective sharp turns, with the pursing Giant Wolf itself now running too fast to stop.

"LANCES UP!" at Karna's call, the villagers raised their [Silver Lances] up into the air, causing the Demonic Beast to inadvertently belly-flop onto a bed of spikes, impaling it in several different places from its throat to its paws, "NOW CUT EM DOWN!"

Jeralt's [Silver Sword]-wielding Paladins then all stab and disembowel the beast as it remained stuck onto the bed of lances to properly react against the attack.

"And release," the villagers then pull out their lances from the Giant Wolf, now lying on its own spilled guts, "nice work, all of you!"

"Okay, there's gotta be a better way to do this," Jeralt pointed out, "at this rate, our horses will be too exhausted to run back and forth!"

"Not mine," Cyrus remarked confidently, "the Battu Steppe makes this whole continent feel like a courtyard in comparison!"

"You do it then," grumbled the Blade Breaker, "and how are the villagers?"

"Eh, a little shaky," heaved the middle-aged man, "never killed something that big before. Thought I was gonna die..."

"Alright, the villagers swap out with my class," ordered Karna, "this time, you guys watch how we do things our way."

Karna then hops atop of Darius' back as he and Cyrus rode back into the woods while the other five waited with their weapons drawn.

"Think they're gonna do the same thing again?" asked the female Paladin.

"Don't jinx it," chided Jeralt as he and his remaining men guarded the villagers.

"Hopefully, he will back up his claims with his deeds," Tomas sighed out before an explosion sound was heard from within the woods, followed up by several roars coming towards their way, "... oh Goddess."

Following the Battu Steppe King carrying the two on its back were a venerable stampede of Demonic Beasts chasing after the two.

"ARE YOU CRAZY?!" Jeralt barked out, "THERE'S NO WAY WE CAN TAKE ON THAT MANY-"

"[Hades Ω]," Karna them set the entire ground ablaze with an erupting earth that sent the entire horde flying into the air, with Selene using her hyperopia to blind them by shooting out their eyes with her [Crossbow] followed up with Sorcha unleashing her [Samhadi Fire] upon the stampede, burning them alive in the unquenchable flames of [Ne Zha].

Most of the stampede were quickly dispatched of, with the remaining being dealt with by Topaz throwing her [Zulfiqar] towards the Demonic Beasts with her [Crest of Gautier] activating as she drew her [Wo Dao] to perform her [Windsweep] technique, the two-pronged attack made short work of the Demonic Beast as its scales like stone across its head were carved through like hot knife through butter by Zoltan's masterpiece and its soft underbelly being filleted open before its pitch-black organs spilled out from below.

Vidar meanwhile, was riding atop a Giant Wolf's back as his icy [Baigujing] gauntlets dug through the beast's furry hide, slowly but surely freezing it from the inside out as the feral boy climbed up towards the beast's back. Upon reaching its neck, he then immediately wastes no time plunging its fist-daggers into the Giant Wolf's neck, freezing an entire collar of ice around its neck as the beast began tossing and bucking all over in an attempt to throw him off of its back.

Coming towards the bucking beast was now Cyrus and Karna, both riding atop the unstoppable Darius, with the former now standing on the horse's back, [Crescent Sickle] drawn and wound back for a big swing. The Giant Wolf notices the other riding towards itself and began charging towards the dual riders, maws open and snapping like incisors that will devour all three of them whole.

With a single exchange of nods, Cyrus then snaps Darius' bridles to have him go faster before leaping itself into the air and over the beast's chomping teeth. At that moment, Karna lets himself fall off of Darius' back and let his scythe blade fall right towards the beast's frozen neck, the sharp steel breaking through the brittled flesh and bone, decapitating the Giant Wolf as its headless body slid across the dirt before stopping still.

"... Good work," Byron gave a thumbs-up to Karna, the latter returning it to the former.

But as the Professor gave a thumbs-up, a half-smoldering Demonic Beast suddenly lunged at him, with its spiny teeth catching his weapon in-between the incisors as the two pulled onto each other in a bizarre tug-of-war.

"HANDS... OFF!" Karna then blasts the half-dead Demonic Beast completely dead with a point-blank [Hades Ω] to its face, the explosion both killing the monster and sending Karna flying into Jeralt's arms, almost toppling him off of his own horse.

Within a couple of minutes, an entire stampede of Demonic Beasts were quelled by no more than seven people. Seven, ludicrously powerful and particularly insane people, with one being carried like a princess in the hands of a sellsword company leader.

"Good Goddess..." said the old Paladin as he and the others looked at the Dustbin in awe, "... I cannot tell are the real monsters anymore!"

"You're welcome, by the way!" Karna exclaimed as he now looked at his again-wrecked [Crescent Sickle], its shaft snapped in two as its bladed half was now melted into slag between the dead beast's fangs, "... not again."

"You're pretty dumb for firing that powerful of a spell that close!" Jeralt pointed out, "are you trying to get yourself killed?!"

"If I said 'yes', would you judge me any different?" Karna was then dropped onto the dirt from atop horseback, "... point made."

Topaz rolled her eyes as she pulled out her [Zulfiqar] planted into the dirt all way to its hilt.

"... Anyway," sighed the Blade Breaker as everyone present reconvened, "that showing off aside... good job," he grumbled, "I can see why the Archbishop sends you lot out on jobs that even we're not allowed to take."

"You can't pay me an entire kingdom's worth of gold to solo a whole stampede of Demonic Beasts!" said the young female Paladin, "we're sellswords, not freaks of nature!"

"Den git gud," sneered Sorcha, "or git wasted-"

Another choir of howls was now heard all over, indicating another coming horde of Demonic Beasts.

"Again?!" Jeralt exclaimed in frustration.

"Welcome to my world, Blade Breaker," Karna smirked, "for that was only the first wave, I reckon."

"Here," Selene then throws her [Gradivus] towards Karna's direction before he caught it midair, "you'd use dat better dan me."

"Here they come!" Byron cried out as the next wave introduced themselves by breaking through the treeline before them and snapping entire trees under their collective feet.

Still, everyone in the village stood firm, for escape was now impossible and all that is left to do is fight.

"Dig in," growled Karna as he then twirled his [Gradivus] before pointing it towards the second stampede of monsters encroaching towards them, "winter's coming and we're not the ones on the menu!"

Elsewhere Around Near Remire...

"This all feels... too convenient," remarked the Death Knight as he rode with his own battalion of Cavaliers armed with [Crescent Sickles], "we are tipped off of an opportunity by our 'sponsors' and around the same time, Demonic Beast come in to wear them down."

A hiss followed next to him, riding alongside the morose Dark Knight retrain being none other than what they call the Plaguebearer , behind his column being his own band of masked Brigands armed with [Half-Moon Halberds]. Among the 's upgrades, his armor now scaled down from a Fortress Knight's to that of a Great Knight's, the tank and hoses bolted around his armor now reinforced with stronger metal that cannot be punctured or cut respectively, his shield, while still in need of a support of a sub-arm to even hold it up, was now sleeker in design, and in lieu of the many barbs and spikes on its surface, a sharpened point at the the bottom of the shield was added as an offensive option, dubbed the [Stinger Shield], and in holding up his [Axe of Abaddon] was a new variant of his arm, now packing a hidden single-shot cannon designed after the functionalities of the Almyran flintlock, only instead of using black powder as propellent, it uses hydraulic gas pressure to fire its one-use projectile, a grapeshot shell containing small caltrops in its payload. And the most bizarre of all was the horse that he was riding on, or rather, a clockwork imitation of a horse with exposed cogs and valves spewing out fresh steam, since a real horse would most likely croak, either from the noxious fumes (but not his Astaroth, he was stronger than most) or from the sheer weight of its rider (even scaled down, the Plaguebearer was heavy to carry around).

Overall, the Plaguebearer was an improvement with lessons learned from two months back in mind. A fact that even befuddled the Death Knight himself. Since when did "learning" became part of their mental lexicon?

"Hey..." said the Plaguebearer, "... doesn't matter, does it? ... You get to do what you like now, right?"

"I'd prefer if I did it on my own terms, Miklan," replied the Death Knight, mentally noting that the upgrades had allowed the former cartel leader to speak without pausing after every word, "I'm no one's puppet."

"And I'm a dead man..." the former bandit's voice hissed through his respirator, "... but who's the real dead one, Ritz?"

The Death Knight points his [Scythe of Sariel] at the Plaguebearer's face as he kept riding without facing him.

"Do not, call me, by that name," he snarled without raising so much as an octave of anger.

"... Likewise," taunted the Plaguebearer as the two kept on riding towards the village before stopping, "... something the matter?"

"... I sense her," said the Death Knight, "... the one with the [Sword of the Creator]... she comes."

"... You're suggesting..." said the Plaguebearer, "... divide and conquer?"

The Death Knight and the Plaguebringer look at each other for a moment. To the surprise of everyone following them, they both set their weapons aside before playing a single round of rock-paper-scissors.

Death Knight loses with his scissor losing against the Plaguebearer's rock. "... Enjoy the sloppy seconds."

The Death Knight belts out a roar of fury before his sickle cut down a tree next to him in an offhand motion as the Plaguebearer and his band of masked Brigands marched towards where the road towards Remire Village and the path towards Garreg Mach met.

From afar, Odesse with his pair of binoculars, was observing the whole farce take place before he switched his attention towards the village itself, where to his surprise, the residents, the remnants of Jeralt's band of sellswords and the Dustbin were fending off hordes of Demonic Beasts that he'd sent to "disrupt" them.

"Huh, guess takes crazy leading them to fight off more crazies," he shrugged as he saw the Death Knight and his battalion head towards Remire Village while the Plaguebearer and his pack of Brigands marched towards the road leading to the former to intercept the reinforcements, "... wonder where the Flame Emperor is at right now..."

"The moment he shows up, it'll be his last," Dolofonos remarked as he cleaned his flintlock rifle to keep it up in working order, "if I fail, oh well, might as well not tell that little out loud."

"Who knew lying was so easy?" the Dark Bishop remarked as he kept observing.

"Just keep the note moving and we'll be in the clear," said the Assassin as he began screwing back the scope onto his musket, "remember, lies are only convincing when it's used sparingly."

"I know, I know," he waved back as he kept his magnified eyes on the Death Knight now approaching the villager, slaughtering his way through the horde of Demonic Beasts and Giant Wolves that he'd unleashed (under Solon's orders), "which is why it's a good thing that no one else is here listening on us."

Back at Remire Village, the chaos kept coming, with what the Demonic Beasts now stamping over what houses and buildings left standing in the village while the people remaining held their ground, [Silver Lances] in hand, aided by Jeralt's Paladins, and having their kills stolen by the Dustbin.

"You know, a terrifying thought just came over me," said Byron as he fired his [Freeze] spell towards a Demonic Beast's mouth to seal it shut, "a whole pack of Demonic Beasts, working together, akin to wolves."

"You mean like what's happening right now?!" Cyrus pointed out as he dragged his [Killer Lance] across a Giant Wolf's rib as Darius rode like the wind.

"Well, realistically speaking, things cannot get worse than this!" Jeralt stated as he swung his [Silver Lance] across the Giant Wolf's throat.

But right on cue, a rumbling cloud of dust was heading towards their direction.

"What's that?" Tomas pointed out.

"It must be reinforcements!" said the female Paladin, "they must've noticed us that we're in trouble!"

"Un guys?" Selene remarked as she used her hyperopia to get a closer look towards the coming cloud of riders, "... I don't think those are reinforcements."

Emerging from the haze was none other than the Death Knight, leading a charge of scythe-wielding Cavaliers into the village in chaos to finish the job.

"YEP! THAT'S NOT THE GUY I SAW AT CHURCH!" exclaimed Jeralt.

"Focus on the Demonic Beasts," ordered Karna as he then walked towards the charging stampede as his hands crackled with Dark Magic, "those guys are mine."

An array of spikes of dark magic formed around Karna before they were all fired towards the charging calvary regimen, fired at where they were galloping towards, with the resulting explosion sending the entire front and middle column of the cavalry charge flying off of their mounts, with the remainder forced to scatter in different directions where they were then confronted by the other Dustbin students, leaving Karna to pick up where the mess had been left off.

"Hey tall, dark and gruesome," smirked the Professor as he twirled his [Gradivus], "how's the weather?"

The Death Knights lets out a low growl as Karna began shooting at the remaining Cavilers who were still recovering from the blast from his [Dark Spikes T] crippling their charge. As his men died next to him, the skull-armored marauder then noticed a rather ornate-looking held by his object of ire. "... Where... did you get that?" he asked, "... one of the Three Regalia of Fodlan... HOW?!"

"Oh. Miklan had it," said Karna as he shot the last Cavalier dead with his [Miasma Δ] spells, "found it in his treasury all rusted and stuff."

"... That idiot," he snarled as he finally got up, only for his face to be blasted with a [Miasma Δ], knocking him back onto his flat.

"Yeah..." Karna then raised his [Gradivus] up into the air, "... be sure to warm his seat by the time he gets there, alright?"

"DO THAT YOURSELF!" the Death Knight's [Scythe of Sariel] and Karna's [Gradivus] clashed against each other before both soldiers knocked each other away with a double-parry.

Upon the two now evenly-spaced out from each other, they began staring each other down before their inevitable resumption of their combat.

"Come on, buddy," taunted Karna as he and the Death Knight circled around each other, "I thought you liked fighting for fun. Stronger they are, the better they come for you, don't you agree?"

"No matter what, I will never acknowledge you or your pack of mongrels that you call your students," said the Death Knight, "you bring nothing but shame and farce onto the battlefield."

"Hey, don't judge," replied the Professor, "we fight to win. Also your armor is stupid."

The two then stop as their weapons are raised.

"Then die."

Karna and the Death Knight begin their duel amidst the wreckage of Remire Village as everyone clashed with their respective foes in this harrowing struggle for their rights to live.

To Be Continued...

Author's Notes: This whole chapter is just one giant clusterfuck ala "Ghost Stories". I think I'm slowly coming back to my groove as school starts again, only this time, it's going to be my final year.

So as revealed by both sides of this planned clusterfuck, the whole canon "The Flame in the Darkness" is one giant clash between two gambit roulettes that coincidently revolve around Karna being there. For the bad guys, their aim is to lure out the Flame Emperor and take out Karna at the same time, using Remire Village as ground zeros for an unethical experiment as a pretense to get the former two to come out and hide the mess in the ensuing chaos, with the Demonic Beasts as a plausible cover story. If that doesn't work, then simply send the Death Knight or the Plaguebringer to deal with them and if it's the former, then hope that the anarchy kills three birds with one stone. On the church's side, they're using Karna as bait and exploited his calamitous misfortune to purposefully turn Remire Village into ground zero. That way, whenever Karna isn't dying anytime soon (Rhea herself counts on Karna and the Dustbin's cockroach-levels of tenacity), the enemy has to come out and do the job themselves. That way, she can set up an ambush around the village and encircle the trapped enemy to not only kill them, but to feel up their potential for future confrontations.

However, there are two flaws for both sides. One is that they both rely on Karna messing up one side over the other, when in reality, it ended up messing with both. Karna himself is not only hard to kill, but exploiting him tends to backfire given that using him is basically playing with fire, since they both underestimate his tenacity despite being aware of such thing. Another key flaw is their plans failed to notice each others' contexts that result in both sides' plans failing. Rhea made the mistake of sending Jeralt's men to the village as ambushes but failed to notice that the fits from [Berserk] only afflict young males between he ages of 16-25, resulting in her own plans imploding and losing over half of her forces for nothing, and if it weren't for Seteth going behind her back, let's just say that the Dustbin and Jeralt's remnants are going to have to fight an uphill battle. On the other hand, Solon whole plan counted on using said chaos to lure out the Flame Emperor into the open through this blatant atrocity, but failed to take into account that not all chaos is exploitative and thanks to the Dustbin and their interference beforehand, their forces stretched way too thin and cannot be at all places all at once, resulting in the Flame Emperor not showing up at an expected time not because of any awareness of their plans, but the complete opposite. End result, both sides suffer due to "poor communication kills" trope, despite trying to exploit said trope in the first place.

In fact, if weren't for the Dustbin being there in the first place, the whole plans would've worked as planned, and the canon "The Flame in the Darkness" would've occurred. Instead, everyone is now trying to unscramble this hot mess that they both found themselves into.

Also, no matter what, the Death Knight will never acknowledge the Dustbin as anything more than annoyances. Because of their combat pragmatist natures and insulting his costume (no matter how extra it is, he worked hard on making it).

And regarding Solon trying to use [Berserk] on Karna... just pretend that Solon mistook Karna for being younger than he is, okay? Either he looks good for someone in his thirties or he looks as haggard as the villagers in Remire (they work hard, as a farmer or a hunter would be doing, line between twenties and thirties are blurred). Also, what do you guys think behind the in-universe explanation of the [Berserk] spell? Let me know in the reviews section.

References:

- The [Berserk] spell used in the Fire Emblem titles since Genealogy of the Holy War is now being used in this fic's iteration of the villagers going insane through those "fits", along with it being tied to an explanation behind its "Berserk" aliment being a targeted unbalancing of the target's brain chemicals, alluding to how Dark Magic in the canon Fire Emblem Three Houses is related to science rather than magic.

- Jeralt's initial rebuttal of being informed of there being Giant Wolves and Demonic Beasts in amidst is a reference to Ultra Magnus' line from The Transformers: The Movie.

- Karna's tantrum as three Giant Wolves come at him from behind is based off of Sypha's "I'M FUCKING TALKING HERE!"-line from Castlevania Season 4, Episode 1 "Murder Wakes It Up".

- The collaboration with the Villagers of Remire, remnants of Jeralt's company and the Dustbin against the horde of Demonic Beasts and Giant Wolves is a reference to Castlevania (2017) Season 1, Episode 4 "Monument". The villagers' formation is based off the "pike square/crowd" anti-calvary formation invented by the Swiss Confederation's footmen in 1477 against a numerically superior force of horsemen.

- The Death Knight cutting down the tree in rage is a reference to RWBY Volume 1, Episode 6-7 "The Emerald Forest".