The Dustbin

by LoneTaker

The actual professor that was supposed to teach at the Officer's Academy before being replaced by a mercenary of all people, due to the former's unforeseen absence, now finds himself teaching/leading the worst class in Garreg Mach, comprised of the academy's worst students, as their sole Professor. Things cannot get any worse from there, right? Right?

45. Day 45: Pomp & Circumstance Part Final

The Dustbin

Day 45: Pomp & Circumstance Part Final

---

26th of Ethereal Moon, Morning

---

"Come on, guys!" spoke Monica as she led a few of her own classmates from the Black Eagles House into the middle of the woods, "you gotta help me look for something!"

"And how did you lose your father's memento here of all places?" one student pointed out. "We're practically in the middle of nowhere!"

"That itself is an exaggeration," said the other student, "for these grounds that we are arriving at used to be a part of Garreg Mach Monastery in its genesis."

"What for?" asked the student.

"A chapel," answered the other, "specifically, it was Garreg Mach's very first church building. Rumors even dictate that this area is where the Monastery itself first made landfall and the complex that is supplanted on the plateau that Garreg Mach is currently at was an expansion."

"Sweet," Monica commented, "so what happened to this place that I lost my dad's trinket at? Got attacked by Demonic Beasts too many times during service?"

"That was one of the reasons," said the student, "the other was logistical. It was later speculated that the 'church building number zero' as they called it got abandoned since it was more practical to hold service up there rather than down here. Helped keep consistency with the foot traffic too."

"Okay, that's enough of your history lessons," said the student behind the pack. "Sooner we help out Monica find her father's memento, the better we're off. Just because the sun's out doesn't mean that we can have a picnic out here. It's still winter, so keeping warm is in our best interest."

"Yeah, I know," Monica commented. "... You know what, maybe I'll treat you all with some hot cocoa when we get back. Gotta pay you guys back for dragging you all out here because I just had to sneak in some training here a few months ago."

"So that's how you lost the trinket..." grumbled one student. "... Ah what the hell, you better throw in some desserts on my way too."

The four students then find themselves situated in the forest's clearing, with it at the center being the ruins of the speculated-upon the first chapel of Garreg Mach.

"So," asked one student, "where were you at last time you were here?"

"Masonry," answered Monica, "needed to work on maintaining balance on uneven terrain in case I have to."

They then began searching around the ruins for anything that wasn't made of stone or eroded wood. As they peeked behind every piece of the old edifice and turned over every rock that they can find, one of the students asked the following question.

"If you needed to look for something," said the student, "then why didn't you submit a request on the bulletin board?"

"Sorry," Monica apologized meekly. "Kinda slipped my mind, with all the crazy stuff that happened last month."

"Yeah, the entirety of Remire Village having to be evacuated..." remarked one student. "... Doesn't feel the same to not have a place to go outside near the Monastery to just, you know, hang out?"

"They'll be back soon," said one student. "Although given that the Dustbin of all people were ones who nearly caught the perpetrators before they escaped, I'd say some credit is due for those hooligans..."

"They got lucky," said one student as he flipped over a rock. "They're like roaches in terms of survivability."

"But they're kind of scary..." said the third as he crawled on his fours. "I mean, have you seen them up close?! They look like as if they belong in a world that is a never-ending war!"

"They're fine," Monica remarked, "I mean, past their scary looks and bloodlust, they're surprisingly social when me and Tomas talked-hey guys!" she cries out as she then saw something glowing on the ground, "I think I found it! It's stuck between the cracks!"

The four then gather around the turquoise-color glow that shone like a gemstone coming from the crack before them.

"So," one student asked, "how are we to proceed?"

"Lucky I brought this!" said the other student as he then pulled out a [Javelin] before shoving the tip into the crevice. But as the compact polearm breached into the gap, the glow suddenly intensified, shining brighter and brighter until the light explodes into a geyser of pure magical energy that touched past the sky. This sudden blast of light from the ground caused the student with the weapon to snap his [Javelin]'s tip in two, rendering it unusable.

"... Oh Goddess," one student gasped.

"What have we found?" said the other.

"We should now leave," a student pointed out, "maybe if we come back fast enough, the Church may allow us to explain ourselves-"

From afar, a menacing howl was heard past the trees.

"Uh, guys?" said Monica as another howl was heard in reply to the first. "... I think we might be in way bigger trouble."

Breaking and snapping through the trees, a Giant Wolf had appeared, teeth bared out, drooling for the meat that it saw in its reflective eyes as the students all ran for their lives into separate directions.

---

Elsewhere...

---

"Sir," a female Paladin spoke to Jeralt, to which the latter winced.

"... Don't call me 'sir," the Blade Breaker sighed before facing back to his subordinate. "Just call me 'boss' like you always do."

"... R-right," she stammered, "sorry boss."

The moody Blade Breaker sighs before turning towards his subordinate. "So, what is it?"

"We've received a report from our morning patrol that there is a pocket of Demonic Beast activity near the Monastery," she reported. "We've submitted a report to the higher-ups just now, and we are now waiting for our next marching orders."

"Of freaking course... damn bureaucracy..." he grumbled to himself as he shut his eyes in frustration at the non-negotiable terms that his status as a reinstated member of the Knight of Seiros, one of which being the nulling of his prior condition to have his own band act as a semi-irregular force outside the central chain of command to better weed out potential troubles ahead of time.

Now that he's an "official" member of the Knights of Seiros order, when the Archbishop says "jump," the only reply that he's legally allowed to say is "how high?" A fact that Jeralt himself thinks that it was a way for Rhea to keep a shorter and tighter leash on him due to their shared history being the source of their mutual friction.

"... Boss," spoke the female Paladin, "I miss the old days."

"Yeah, well," he shrugged as he took a sip of brandy from his flask, "... can I be honest with you for a moment? I knew that this would inevitably come to us. The day we become 'officiated' as a part of the Knights of Seiros, and at least for the price of our own freedom, I thought that I could at least increase the benefits so that you guys can retire with a hefty nest egg and a boatload of stories for your kids and grandkids to tell. Now look at us. Half of us are gone, our pay still the same, and the worst of all, I failed all of you as your superior. I promised you all a life of adventure and power, and I instead drove you all headfirst into a pile of dung shoveled up by the Archbishop herself."

The female Paladin shrugs. "We been through much worse, boss," she pointed out. "Remember that job that had us face against Berling's Mercenaries two years ago? I legitimately thought that I was going to die on my first night, with her forces outnumbering our own ten to one. But we pulled through, and it's all thanks to you and your kid."

"Yeah," Jeralt remarked, recalling his hardest paid job in recent memory. "... You know, I lost my son on that day."

"No way," she replied, "you had a son along with Byleth?!"

"Specifically, her twin brother, Belial," he explained. "Just as stone-faced and hard to read as his sister... raised em both on my own after their mother passed away from the strain." Jeralt then takes another nip from his flask before resuming. "Tell me, you know how Byleth earned the name 'The Ashen Demon'?"

"No, I really haven't given much thought," said the Paladin.

Jeralt remembered the look on Byleth's face on that day, where a demon wearing human clothing was born because Berling had to just kill her twin brother in the most horrific way possible.

"She saw Belial get burnt alive by a company of enemy Warlocks," he answered, "something broke inside of her at that moment. By the time I managed to regroup towards where her group and Belial's were positioned at, I saw her. Byleth literally forced Berling to eat her own sword, with said blade on fire, while said area was consumed in flames and surrounded with corpses of Berling's own men."

The Paladin began also remembering that night much more clearly upon retrospect. A fresh-faced greenhorn's first trip into Hell that she'd blocked off because she knew what happened next.

She clearly recalled after Byleth had done the deed, she walked back to Belial's charred body and to everyone's horror and surprise, the coal-black body moved for one last time, rubbing his blackened hand across his sister's cheek before expiring. The ashes of her own twin brother that she was covered in, coupled that with the light in her eyes simply being snuffed out like mere candles in the wind was how the "Ashen Demon" came to be.

"... From the looks of it, you're starting to remember it," Jeralt pointed out. "Can't blame you. It was a shitty night."

"... Yeah," she nodded, trying not to cry in both fear and sympathy for the so-called "Demon" that the others called her.

"It's moments like those why I wonder why I think that forming a mercenary band was a good idea," Jeralt pointed out, "but then I realized that life outside of contract killings ain't that much different, so might as well ride the wave rather than swim against it. Least I can do is to make sure that the guys under my wing don't get swept off overboard."

But just before the two can continue with their discussion, they hear a bellowing howl coming from the forests close to where they were stationed at.

"They're that close?!" the Paladin remarked in surprise.

But just as the two can digest the situation that they're about to grapple with, the grizzled old Paladin rides towards them. "BOSS!" barked the veteran from afar. "OUR MARCHING ORDERS ARE A GO! WE'RE HEADING TO THAT PLACE WHERE THE DEMONIC BEASTS HAVE GATHERED!"

"Relay another message," Jeralt spoke to the female Paladin as he grabbed his [Silver Lance] and his [Silver Shield] (the one that Karna dropped last month), "tell the higher-ups that they're already here!"

---

Deeper in the Surrounding Forests...

---

"Hurry up with the next one," the Face of Truth ordered the numerous Dark Mages dressed in white carrying syringes in their gloved hands then poked the captured and starved wolves onto their necks, injecting them with excess mana that slowly morphed them into mass-produced Demonic Beasts.

As soon as the wolf was successfully jabbed, it was then released from its cage and back out into the wild, where upon gaining a distance away from where they were released from, their lupine bodies grew larger than houses as their noses then picked up the leaking mana coming from the Dragon's Vein found at the forest's clearing.

"Man, I hate to be whoever's in the forest right now," Odesse commented with a snicker as he peered through his pair of binoculars that saw the Giant Wolf stride off away from them. "Thank our fucking stars that our formula to turn living beings into Demonic Beasts finally finished thanks to Sage Solon's efforts!"

"But it still leaves the matter in that we cannot directly control them," Dolofonos commented. "But if it requires dumb beasts to kill other beasts, then I suppose this crude method will suffice for now."

"Yes, no reason to stop at this point," said the Face of Truth. "Speaking of, you there, did we bring any other samples?"

"That was our last wolf we released from captivity, sir," the Dark Mage pointed out before he figured out what his superior was inferring. "... Are you suggesting that we use one of our prisoners as a proof of concept?"

"If it came up," the masked Sage replied casually. "... Please tell me we have one right now-"

"Found one," spoke a black-armored Great Knight with a rusty, full-face helmet with round vents organized themselves into a neat grill, riding atop a behemoth of a horse made of iron and clockwork. In one hand held his trusty [Bolt Axe] that he killed a Leicester Wyvern Lord (who was a massive enough of an idiot to stand before an active rockslide) over it, and in another hand was him lifting a red-haired girl dressed in rags and filth and grime covering every inch of her body by her metal collar welded around her neck.

"Ah, Faceless!" greeted the Face of Truth. "You found one! Efficient as always!"

"Damn wench escaped from our secret mines two months ago," said Faceless as he dropped the girl onto the before his metal horse stepped onto her leg, its wrought-iron hoof breaking it in half as the Dark Mages around her cast [Silence] onto her so that her screams of agony don't give away their location while her body and face twisted and contorted from the unimaginable agony. "Thankfully, she was up at the northernmost tip at Faerghus prior to her flight. She didn't get far while my men were on her tail."

"Excellent," the Face of Truth then watched in anticipation as one of the Dark Mages then approaches the crippled girl with a syringe in hand while the rest physically restrained the struggling girl. "Our first subject."

As soon as her neck was jabbed with the syringe of concentrated mana, she began to lose her sense of reason and her memories as a human being. Then, her limbs stretched out and inflated into grotesque and monster like appendages, her body and mind turning into that of a mere beast's.

She couldn't feel anything. She was no more as the world around her went completely black. Upon seeing her metamorphosis, the Dark Mages then let go of her before she took off towards the Dragon Vein shooting up towards the sky.

"A smashing success," said the Dark Mage as the human-turned-Demonic Beast was lured towards the breached Dragon's Vein while completely ignoring or forgetting them. "Well sir, that's one more thing to scratch off the bucket list."

"The rest of the Sages will be pleased with this month's results," said Faceless as he then fried the severed human leg with his [Bolt Axe]'s [Thunder] spell, charring it black, destroying the evidence of outsiders. "How shall we proceed from hereon, Lord Face of Truth?"

The masked Sage chuckles to himself evilly. "We wait," he ordered, "either the Blade Breaker, the Fell Star, or the damned interloper! One of them shall show themselves! If all three show, then all the better!"

"I'll notify Anaximandros," stated Faceless as he begun to ride off deeper into the forest. "Just signal us when you're ready."

"Noted," answered the Face of Truth before he turned towards Odesse and Dolofonos. "You two, scout the epicenter. I want an update as soon as another player enters the battlefield. Understood?"

"You're the boss," Odesse remarked.

"One more thing," Dolofonos remarked, "what about him?"

He pointed towards the faux-bush partially covered in snow, which was hiding a giant metal coffin with Warlord currently in stasis inside.

"Warlord shall be released when ready," said the Face of Truth as his hand laid steady onto his sheathed [Ridill]'s pommel. "For now, he'll be our hidden ace. Doctors, keep an eye out for his condition and make sure that it remains stable."

"Yes sir," saluted the white-clad Dark Mages before they dragged out the container carrying their recent prototype after the Plaguebearer.

As much as the masked Sage wished to laugh in triumph, he refrained himself from doing so. After all, if he'd learned anything from that interloper who'd been an active thorn on their side for the past near-year, is that their own hubris now has consequences.

In fact, the only good thing that he'd go so far as to say about the hooded stranger was that it gave them a reason to no longer be complacent. In fact, it's because of him specifically that the Seven Sages unanimously voted to have the Flame Emperor and company to be the next ones on the chopping block if one of the three (the two ex-sellswords or that half-hooded Professor) meet with their end by the end of today.

---

At Garreg Mach Monastery...

---

Hey, spoke Sothis as Byleth tossed and turned in her sleep, hey!

"Five more minutes..." she grumbled, wrapping herself around with a blanket.

IT'S DAYTIME, YOU DINGUS! the disembodied spirit screamed directly into her ear, causing her host to flail blindly before falling out of her bed.

"Ow..." she grumbled as Byleth then unwrapped herself from the tangle that she'd made herself unconsciously. "... Oh, morning."

Sothis runs her hand down across her etherial face as she floated about in exasperation. Remind me why do you sleep in your armor?

"Gotta be prepared for a scrap anytime," answered the ex-sellsword as she tightened her bootlaces, "... and I don't own any other clothes."

Never change, you sloppy... whatever that daft dastard Karna would say, groaned Sothis. ... Dammit, I'm being influenced by him!

But as she opened her room's front/only door, the Gatekeeper Janus was standing before her. "Greetings Professor!" he greeted with his usual cheer, "I have something to report!"

"What is it?" she asked back, subconsciously grabbing her [Sword of the Creator], expecting a fight to come up.

"Demonic Beasts have been spotted near the monastery grounds," he reported, "also, it's at the exact same spot is right where a few of the students in your house has been spotted heading towards earlier this morning."

"Wait, my house?!" she barked out in surprise right before grabbing and lifting up Janus by her shoulders before shaking him. "Who?! Who are out there right now?!"

"Uh..." he then scrambled to reach for his received report, "... Monica von Ochs was the only one confirmed. Rest were minor noblemen's children whose names weren't confirmed as of this moment."

"Phew, no one from my class then," Byleth sighed in relief. "... Still, I take that we're being deployed as of now?"

The Gatekeeper nods before then he was then dropped onto the floor upon being let go as she then sped out of her dorm room and towards where the front gates were at.

Along the way, she saw Byron being rolled into the sauna by Vidar, Sorcha paying the smith for a commission, Cyrus training Selene how to ride her pegasus, and Topaz just watching her from above like one of those winged creature-things that she sees perched on the stone columns in every fancy building throughout the Adrestian Empire. Karna himself was nowhere to be found, but he might be nearby, doing his own thing.

Just waiting outside of the gates, her Black Eagles class were waiting outside, in their battle dresses and weapons at hand.

"Sorry for the wait," said Byleth. "Kinda overslept and missed breakfast to boot."

"You're getting way too comfortable during this time of the year," commented Hubert. "I'm assuming that you're starting to lose your edge."

"She's fine," Edelgard defended her Professor. "Regardless, we have a mission to accomplish."

"And once again, heading into another bloodbath..." sighed Linhardt. "Honestly, at least the Professor and I agree on one thing as of right now."

"Come on," Caspar ribbed his semi-narcoleptic friend, "it'll be a quick in and out. Just a few beasts while the Professor's dad and his men are having all the fun."

"Even such paltry task shall be completed with the utmost of perfection!" declared Ferdinand. "For I am Ferdinand von Aegir! And perfection is my standard!"

"Yes," nodded Petra. "We fight and save students from our house."

"Hurry up and get this over with..." whimpered Bernadetta, "I miss my room already."

Dorothea however, looked rather passive.

"... You okay?" asked Byleth.

"No no, it's fine," she shook her head, "other than I still have a long way to go..."

"You're fine, Dorothea," reassured the Professor, knowing of what happened to her during the White Heron Cup. "He literally can't hurt you right now. I saw him being rolled into the sauna in a ball of clothes."

The aspiring songstress's mood slightly brightens at her frank eyewitness of her object of bane.

"That is kind of funny," she chuckled to herself.

"Alright, nice jib and all," said Edelgard as she pointed her [Silver Axe] towards the pillar of light coming out of the forest near them, "but it's about time we made tracks."

"Follow me!" Ferdinand then rode ahead of everyone else as they made their way towards the pillar of light coming from the forest.

---

At the Demonic Beast Incursion Point...

---

"HEADS DOWN! HEADS DOWN!" ordered Jeralt as he led his group against the Demonic Beasts gathered before them.

Several Paladins rode circles around the winding Giant Wolves emerging from the trees, slashing and dragging their [Silver Lances] across the monsters's hides while evading their snapping maws and stamping paws that spelled a messy death for anyone who got caught in them.

Thankfully, with the Dustbin not around to muck up the operations and no civilians to take into account as possible collateral damage, their current state of affairs was much more easier than last month's.

"Boss!" said the female Paladin as she came riding back to him. "Scouts confirmed one more Demonic Beast heading towards that shining light coming from the forest! We're too far off to intercept it!"

"DAMMIT!" Jeralt cursed before another Demonic Beast burst out of the treelines behind him and his subordinate. "FOR NOW, FOCUS ON THINNING THEIR NUMBERS! THE LAST THING THAT NEEDS TO HAPPEN OVER WHERE THE KIDS ARE IS A FEEDING FRENZY!"

The Giant Wolf raised its paw over the two's head, both of which then rode parallel away from each other, with Jeralt slashing across one of the monster's tendons with his weapon, causing it to buckle down a little.

"And the day just keeps getting better..." he grumbled as he continued riding across the battlefield, trying to coordinate his men among the pack of Giant Wolves that they now find themselves surrounded by. "... DON'T BREAK FORMATION! WATCH YOUR BACKS AND KEEP AN EYE OUT FOR ANY MORE MONSTERS COMING OUR WAY!"

"BOSS!" a veteran Paladin and his group of scouts came towards the main encirclement. "Sorry for the wait. Me and my boys rode through the woods. Know what that does with our horses."

I'm aware," he replied. "So, think there are more coming?"

"Not likely," answered the aged Paladin as his scouts joined in on the fray, "another weird thing, these puppers are coming behind the walls stationed around these lands."

"Not the first time," Jeralt pointed out. "... Think there might be some wackjobs are somehow making these things beneath our noses?"

"Checked the walls and everything," said the veteran. "No breaches, the border guards told me. Wouldn't be surprised if there's some freaky magic hogwash happening behind our backs."

"Hooray," the leader deadpanned as he and his veteran subordinate joined the front lines. "DON'T LET ANY OF THESE BEASTS GO! IF THEY ROAM FREE, IT'LL BE LIKE LAST MONTH ALL OVER AGAIN!"

---

Back at Garreg Mach...

---

"Sumthin' goin' on outside?" Sorcha remarked as she looked up towards the sky where a small beacon of light was seeing coming up from the forest near the plateau.

"Well, given that the wench and her chickadees are about due to recent marching orders..." Karna rolled his eyes as the two of them loitered in front of the blacksmith's shop, "... I figure something big is happening."

"Ainnit?" the Brigidian girl smirked before she sniffed the air around her, picking up a faint scent of fur wafting through the winter air. "... Well it stopped snowin', so I figured sum of de animals would start fekin' about... but it's too soon."

"It's Demonic Beasts from last month..." the half-hooded Professor groaned as he ran his gloved hand down across his face before shrugging dismissively. "Guess we missed a few."

"Please tell me we're heading out," begged Sorcha. "I need to kill somethin' already or I'll turn into Byron!"

"If you're going to talk," said the blacksmith as she hammered her commission from Sorcha onto her anvil, "take it elsewhere. This place ain't a tavern."

The two then heads towards where Byron himself was situated at, behind them, Topaz jumping down from the walls of the monastery.

"Activity inbound," said Topaz as she followed behind the two walking towards the Sauna. "The Black Eagles have been moved towards where the pillar of light was coming from, while the Blue Lions and the Golden Deer are sent to supplement Jeralt's perimeters to spread out the Demonic Beasts from turning it into a stampede."

"And what of Catherine and Shamir?" asked Karna.

"Currently away," answered the Haassashin. "They're investigating the reason why there is an uptick of bandit activity near Brionic Plateau. Probably more of Miklan's remnants that refuse to die off."

"Stubborn as that man as he is a piece of human garbage," Karna rolled his eyes. "And Gilbert and Alois are still missing?"

"Worst case scenario, they might as well be dead," shrugged Topaz.

"Eh, those two are bozos, but dey don't go down dat easily," commented Sorcha.

"Well, normally, we would be a bunch of rulebreakers and go engage the enemy ourselves..." mused Karna before he knocked on the Sauna doors three times. "But it's the holiday season. Might as well enjoy ourselves for the time being."

"... Yer rite," Sorcha shrugged, now starting to feel a little fatigued herself. "So, wat are we gunna do?"

"For now, I am going to relax," said Karna as from inside, Vidar opened the doors, letting Karna in. "You two have fun in the meantime, alright?"

The doors then shut before them, leaving the two girls alone with little else to do.

"... Wanna go see if me sis is doin' alright?" asked Sorcha.

"It would be rather amusing to see her progression," answered Topaz, "or at the very least, catch her in case if she falls."

The two then head towards the training grounds where the training took place. At the currently-occupied grounds, the two bear witness to Cyrus watching over Selene handling low-level flight.

"Yo," greeted Topaz, "how's me sister doin'?"

"Surprisingly well, all things considered," answered Cyrus as the three watched her handle the winged mount with relative calmness. "In hindsight, handling a pegasus is a lot like handling a horse, but airborne. I mean, if my tribesmen got their hands on some of these, then our raids would be much more plentiful!"

"I think her prowess has come from the [- Seals]," Topaz pointed out.

"Eh, really?" wondered Topaz. "Ye really think that gittin' zapped with magic is wat made us experts in an instant?"

"I speak from personal observation and hindsight," spoke Topaz as she looked at her bandaged arms hiding their Demonic Beast-like traits. "For instance, if I had promoted into an Assassin rather than a Swordmaster, then I would've noticed nothing too drastic. But upon adopting a class that focuses on open fighting rather than covert fighting, my mind suddenly feels like it knows how to confront my opponents head on without having to compromise most of my agility. With that said, I wouldn't claim that using [- Seals] makes one an immediate expert. Rather, it just imparts knowledge on how this new power works onto the anointed."

"So while me sis knows how to handle a pegasus..." Sorcha observed her sister now flying at a higher altitude.

"She never actually learned how to fight on horseback, didn't she?" Cyrus remarked Topaz nodded. "Which means-!"

All of the sudden, the three then look up to see Selene slip off from her saddles as she began plummeting down towards the earth's merciless and invisible downward pull. Acting fast, Topaz immediately runs towards the rafters of the training grounds, hops onto the highest point of the platform before leaping towards the direction where Selene was falling towards. Upon collision, Topaz then imposes her own body before Selene's, cushioning the latter's fall with the former's warped physiology taking the bruising akin to how a normal human would treat a scraped knee.

"HOLY SHITE!" Sorcha then ran towards her twin sister. "SELENE! TOPAZ! YE TWO ALRIGHT?!"

"She's fine," Topaz remarked as she picked herself and Selene up. "Although she's a little rattled."

"Well, congratulations on surviving a fall that height," Cyrus commented as he then gave a whistle towards the airborne pegasus, commanding it to come down. "... You're alright. That's the only thing that matters."

"Y-yeh," she stuttered as her whole body trembled, "thought I was being too cocky back 'dere. Sorry. Me bad."

"Hey, even I fell off my first horse," confessed the Battuian. "Knowing is different from doing. So while learning the 'doing,' how about we stick to low-altitude flights for safety's sake? Even the Pegasus Knights that we fought back at Rhodos Coast came down low to fight."

Selene nods, realizing that she might as not be well adept at a different methodology of combat as she initially thought. "I gotta learn first. But is me [Crossbow] still 'dere?"

"It's 'dere," said Sorcha as she picked out the weapon from here twin sister's saddle, "still intact too."

"Good," she sighed in relief, "... dat's one less thing to pay the smith for."

"Alright, that's enough training for one day," Cyrus sighed out. "Take five. We all need a break after all that's happened during this past month."

"Speaking of..." Sorcha then looked towards the direction where the beacon of light was breaching past the clouds. "Wonder wat's happenin' out 'dere."

"Other than just probably attracting a pack of crazed wolves each the size of barn houses?" Topaz commented. "Someone wanted this to happen on purpose."

"Not our monkeys, not our Shangri-La circus company," Cyrus shrugged. "I'm gonna head to the sauna, just to check on Byron so he doesn't turn himself into a roll of twice-cooked pork."

"Same sum room me and sis," Sorcha tagged along. "Never been in 'dere before. And ye boys better not peep, got it?"

"I only perv on girls that don't resist, you know!" Cyrus protested. "You two are not my type!"

"So I am?" deadpanned Topaz.

"I'm... curious," Cyrus commented as he stared at her bandaged arms hiding Demonic Beast limbs. "Wonder if your children can inherit your acquired traits."

"Ah, so less out of lechery and more inclined towards eugenics," the little Hassashin commented. "I can see breeding a strong next generation together. If the elders back at my commune approve of such union."

"Dat's kinda cute..." Selene smiled in joy before wincing slightly. "... But de way ye two talk about it just sounds fekin' wrong. In both ways."

---

At the Thick of the Forest...

---

"Lord Face of Truth, the Fell Star and her gaggle of brats have arrived at the designated point and are engaging with the Demonic Beasts," spoke Odesse through the masked Sage's earpiece.

"Keep watch and do not engage unless I give the say so," he ordered. "Also, how are baits doing?"

"Still alive, albeit running themselves ragged," the Dark Bishop replied from the side. "... Wait, Dolofonos just spotted one them climbing up atop of a tree-oh wait, branch just snapped and now she's running for it."

"It's her then," he grinned underneath his mask, "keep an eye out on her. And turn on your devices given to you by Sage Solon."

"Turning it on as spoken," replied Odesse. "... So mind telling us what these things do?"

The Face of Truth chuckles to himself as subdued of manner as possible. "If my fellow Sages' theories are correct, then the device should tick a number."

"Number of exactly what, sir?" asked the Dark Bishop.

"I'll explain it all afterwards for convenience's sake," spoke the Face of Truth. "For now, resume with the observation as planned. I'll inform you of any changes to the plans when it comes up."

"Copy. Over and out," the masked Sage's earpiece buzzed back into silence.

As he turned his back towards the doctors watching the container carrying Warlord in stasis, he then looks through the glass pane with his masked face in partial view between the fogged lenses and several breathing apparatuses planted onto him.

"Doctors, his condition," spoke the Face of Truth.

"Stable," one replied. "Although we fear that the prolonged spill from the exposed Dragon's Vein might present with deviations that can throw our currents off by a significant margin."

"Noted," he replied. "Just in case, be sure to siphon any excess mana from Warlord lest he wakes up prematurely. He needs to be properly rested before we unleash him unto our enemies."

"Siphoning now," said the other doctor Dark Mage as he then adjusted one of the knobs on the coffin to activate its decontamination feature. "Condition stabilizing."

---

At the Forest's Clearing...

---

"What in the Goddess's name is that?!" exclaimed Ferdinand as they saw the pillar of light shining towards the heavens coming from the ruins at the center.

"Something that is going to make it real hard for me to sleep because of the damned glare," grumbled Linhardt as he squinted his eyes at the pillar of light. "Though I take this is why the Demonic Beasts have come to this place of all times. Anyone sane would've done the same!"

"It is bright," agreed Petra. "We need to make it dark."

"Alright, you know the drill," Byleth remarked as she drew her [Sword of the Creator]. "Edelgard, Ferdinand and Casper, take the front. Edelgard will act as bait since she's a Fortress Knight while the other two will have to relieve her the pressure if she gets overwhelmed while slowly whittling down the distracted monsters. Linhardt, Hubert and I will supplement the frontline. Linhardt will heal the frontliners while Hubert and I keep the Demonic Beasts at arm's reach and help out wearing down the monsters being kept at bay. That leaves the rest of you to rearguard. Bernadetta and Dorothea will provide long-range supporting fire with their arrows and spells respectively. While Petra's is to ensure that the former two don't die from a sneak attack. Everyone clear?"

"Crystal," Edelgard nodded as she lifted up her shield with her axe.

"Godspeed!" Ferdinand rode off towards the front with his [Silver Lance] in hand.

"Catch you all on the flip side!" Casper then followed the Fortress Knight and the Paladin.

"I will make sure that they are alive," the Brigidian Assassin reassured.

"A supporting role? If you insist," the theatrical Warlock agreed.

"W-wish you all the best of luck!" the jittery Sniper then runs off towards the opposite end, with Petra and Dorothea following after her.

"Our lives are in your hands," the Dark Bishop pointed out. "Don't fail us."

"Geez, lay off the pressure, Hubert," Linhardt protested. "She and I are already had enough of this."

"Enough," Byleth ordered, "let's go."

Towards the front, Edelgard throws her [Short Axe] towards the Demonic Beast to catch its attention. Upon drawing aggro, she then hunkers down to block the beast's savage swipes with her shield while sneaking in a few swings with her primary [Silver Axe].

"That's it," she grinned slightly as she and the monster stared each other down. "Good boy."

While was kept busy, Caspar and Ferdinand were about to flank the distracted beast, the former hears the cries of the other students trapped in the forest.

"Help us!" one cried out. "The beasts... they're... they're coming-OH SHI-!"

"We have to help them!" Caspar pointed out as the pleas for help devolved into frightful screams.

Ferdinand looks at Edelgard before turning back towards where the cries are coming from. "... Right," he nodded. "I believe that my rival can handle one mere mongrel."

"There might be others!" the Grappler pointed out. "I'll go after the one I heard! You're faster than me, so you ride around to see if you can find the others!"

"Hi-ho, Silver!" Ferdinand called to his horse as the mount brayed before taking off elsewhere as Caspar sprinted towards where the cries were coming from.

Upon breaking through the foliage, he spots a wounded student being cornered by a Giant Wolf. Quickly, he then picks up a stone before tossing it towards the monster to catch its attention.

"HEY DOGGY!" taunted the cyan-haired Grappler. "FRESH MEAT'S RIGHT HERE! COME AND GET IT!"

The monster then stamps its paws and lunges its open maw to kill the boy right then and there, only for him to nimbly dodge the beast's attacks as he made his way towards the injured student. Upon reaching him, Casper wastes no time picking him up before slinging his whole body over his shoulder and running away from the beast. His short yet hardy constitution did little to impede his solo rescue operations, although doing it on foot proved to be a risk on its own.

"Need to get this thing off of my back..." he grumbled to himself before coming up with an idea. "Hey you!" he spoke to the rescued student. "Better hold on! It's gonna be a bumpy ride!"

Picking up speed, Casper breaks through the foliage as he spotted the Professor's group with the Giant Wolf hot on his heels.

"HEY PROFESSOR!" he called out towards Byleth as loud as he could, catching her attention towards him and the monster after him. "THINK FAST!"

She nods before swinging her [Sword of the Creator]'s blade whip across the beast's eyes, with the swing being dodged by Casper as he slid under the arc with the rescued student was carried across his arms like a bridesmaid. The beast was now blinded completely, causing it to veer off course of its pursuit before tumbling down onto its side sliding the ground. Seeing an opening, both the Professor and Hubert finish it off with a giant swing from her Relic blade and a close-range [Dark Spikes T], mutilating the monster into giblets.

"Made it," heaved Caspar before he faced his Bishop friend. "Hey Linhardt, got a wounded. He needs treatment."

"One [Heal] coming right up," he then casted his Faith Magic spell onto the injured student's injuries. "Tell me, were there others with you?"

"There are," confirmed the student under treatment, "... three of them not counting me."

"Ferdinand's covering ground as we speak," Caspar pointed out. "I'll go help Edelgard! You three try to establish a checkpoint for the missing students to gather at! That way we can better coordinate our battle tactics rather than risk them being ambushed on their way back!"

"... Hm," Hubert remarked at the Grappler's sudden boost in intellect, "that's remarkably well-thought out from you of all people."

"People are in danger and that's what you say?!" Casper exclaimed before he then ran towards where Edelgard was at, unleashing his sudden spike of anger into the punch that torqued the Demonic Beast's head to the side, much to everyone's surprise.

"... He's got this," said Linhardt. "You wanna tell the others about the sudden shift in plans?"

"Hubert, you go," ordered Byleth as she saw another Demonic Beast coming out of the woods. "I got your back."

The Dark Bishop then hurries towards the rearguard while the Professor fends off the newly arrived beast while at the same time, Dorothea is dropping a [Meteor] spell onto the monster near Edelgard to finish it off while Bernadetta sticks arrows into the new Demonic Beast with her [Silver Bow].

"Hubie!" remarked the Warlock as she saw her gloomy compatriot come towards her way. "Is there a problem?"

"Students are confirmed to be here," he answered. "The one we rescued implies that they're scattered. One of us needs to scour woods to retrieve them."

"Let me," said Petra. "It's like hunting, but I don't kill them, yes?"

"Exactly," Hubert pointed out. "Find and link up with Ferdinand. The rest of you, come to the center point. We're establishing a defensive line there."

They then separate, with Petra running through the snowy woods while Hubert, Dorothea and Bernadetta head towards where Linhardt and the rescued student is at.

As her feet broke through the ankle-deep facade of white, her ears began to pick up faint voices all over the woods while the snarls and groans of Giant Wolves were mixed in-between.

"... Somebody help me..."

"You stupid beasts!"

"D-don't come any closer!"

The one nearest her said the first. Sharply turning towards her right, where the sun would be setting towards, Petra finds one of the students being chased after a Giant Wolf. She quickly clasps her [Killing Edge] between her teeth before nocking a barbed arrow onto her [Killer Bow] and firing it directly into the monster's eye, catching its attention.

"I'm right here!" she called out as Petra held her sword's blade from her teeth as she taunts the beast. "You! Stay put and don't lose me!"

The Black Eagles and their Professor faced off against the pack being drawn towards the beacon shining from the earth. Unbeknownst to them, a pair of shadows watched their every move from afar, taking note of every step and action that the Professor and her students had taken with each passing moment.

---

Back at Garreg Mach...

---

"Where is the Professor?!" barked Seteth.

"Which one?" asked the guard.

"Karna Yuga!" he pointed out. "Where is he?! Normally, he and his band of crazies should be chomping at the seams during times like this!"

"I saw all of them go into the sauna," answered the guard. "They haven't come out ever since."

With a growl, Seteth then storms out of his study and headed towards the sauna house with the guard following after him. "Of all times, now they go into vacation mode?!"

"To be fair, you did work them to the bone throughout the past month," the guard pointed out. "But I do have to agree that they should be itching for a good fight. Not like them to be this relaxed."

"That's not the point!" barked the adherent. "The point is that they're one failed assignment away from being declared as freeloaders! If it came so, I will run them out of the monastery as common bandits, Archbishop's words be damned!"

Seteth then grabs onto the sauna door's handle before ripping said door off of its hinges, causing the buildup of steam from the inside to erupt out from within, blasting back both him and the guard all the way downstairs from the sheer force of the scalding blast.

"Damn! Hell's fire I am good!" Karna's voice hollered out in joy as he emerged from the steam fully-dressed. He then looks down towards the bottom of the stairs, only to find Seteth and the guard on their backs and their hindquarters pointing up. "Oh hey, how's it going?"

Seteth sputters his next few words before his rage erupted with a yell followed up by him stomping upstairs before grabbing Karna by his half-hood and pulling him to his eye level. "DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT IS GOING ON OUT THERE?!"

"To be fair, we didn't receive any marching orders," Karna pointed out, unfazed by the spit scattered onto his smug face. "Come on, what's the magic word?"

Seteth scowl lightened slightly, but it was no less scornful. "Do it, or else."

"That's more like it," smirked Karna before he turned back towards the exploded sauna. "Alright kiddos! We just got ourselves a new job!"

Our of the steam, the rest of the Dustbin comes out of the smoke of vapors, also fully dressed in their battle dresses.

"It was inevitable," Topaz commented, "given how ill-prepared our so-called peers are for the thick of battle compared to us."

"I ain't complaining," smirked Cyrus. "A nice relaxation before a thrilling raid. Now that's a way to live."

"Oi Selene, think the nasties are gud enough targets for ye?" Sorcha asked her twin in a semi-concerned manner. "Ye know dat yer gunna have to fly high and fast to not git eaten."

"I'll manage," answered Selene as she readied her [Crossbow]. "We all learn better during crisis."

Vidar snarls and growls with his bandages now sopped with patches of his own blood seeping through his very wrappings, making him look more like a vengeful spirit back from the dead rather than a feral boy with a talent for murder.

And finally Byron, whose passive and depressed disposition was now cleared off from his face. Replacing it was now a emotion of calm masking a hidden Demon that was on the verge of cackling like a monster risen from the deepest of the black pits of Hell.

"You know, a lot has changed while 'I' was away, for this whole month," spoke Byron, referring to his "winter self" as another person entirely. "New Fodlan, new rules, and even a new battle. But now I am tanned, I'm rested, and I'm ready to give this continent a wedgie again!"

"Welcome back," greeted Karna before he turned back to Seteth, whose furious expression now gave away to that one of regret and slight fear of what he's about to unleash. "... So, the marching orders? Ya throwing us into the fray or not?"

Seteth sighs in defeat as he let the Professor go. "Whenever you're ready, head to the pillar of light you see. There you'll supplement the Black Eagles in their efforts. Take the cart outside. Rest is up to you afterwards."

"Say no more," replied the Professor as the Dustbin headed towards their part of the stables to prepare for their upcoming fight.

"You know that I was a bit out of it while it was snowing, right?" said Byron as he wrapped [Perun]'s chain around his arm while sheathing the attached ax-blade into the leather scabbard attached to the side of his hip. "Can you all catch me up to speed? In case if I missed something important?"

"Well, we were fighting in Rhodos Coast against Duscurian insurgents and the Western Church before the former helped us out due to Vidar being their previous chieftain's son," Cyrus pointed out as he packed his [Gradivus] and [Bowgun] along with a sack of river stones onto Darius's saddle. "In exchange for helping them escape to Albinea, they let us keep their artifact."

"Interesting," he mused to himself as he saw Vidar strap on his [Baigujing] gauntlets around his arms while sheathing his [Devil Axe] behind his back. "Anything else?"

"Den we went monster hunting all de way to Edmund Region in Leicester Alliance's territory," Sorcha remarked as she wrapped her [Claymore]'s blade with a roll of bandages acting as a temporary sheathe while holstering her [Ne Zha] gauntlets around her hips. "Killed something called de 'Wandering Beast' and Topaz took its sword and shoved it up into 'er own arm!"

Topaz demonstrates her new function partially as the bandages around her left arm bulged a little. "My prowess as a killer grows steadily with each successful kill."

"Neat," replied Byron as he sheathed his emergency [Hand Axe] and [Mace] around his thigh. "Anything else?"

"Ye filled in for Alois during de White Heron Cup," said Selene as she packed her quiver full of arrows along with her crank-operated [Crossbow] along with her brand-new [Steel Lance]. "Ye made Felix de winna and made Dorothea run out de doors cryin'."

"Oh, that I remember," Byron pointed out, "and it was worth it!"

"Okay, enough," Karna calmed everyone down. "Now, our current assignment is to assist the Black Eagles in their battle near that beacon of light coming from that way. Which looks a lot like the ones found underneath the monastery's underground passages that I blew up a few months back."

"Think the whole place is built upon those things that made the warp panels work in the first place?" Cyrus pointed out as he also noticed the similar light-mint coloration from the light from the beacon and the lines that ran through some panels underground. "... Why doesn't the Church use them when it's so potent?"

"So dat it doesn't blow up in der faces like wat our Professor did?" Sorcha gave a rhetorical question for an answer that caused everyone present to snicker at such thought.

"Theories for after the fight!" Karna realigned his students back to reality with him banging the ground with the pommel tip of his [Scythe of Sariel]. "Alright, everyone ready?"

"Weapons, check," confirmed Cyrus.

"[Vulnerary] and [Concoctions], check," confirmed Topaz as she opened and closed the bag.

"[Pure Water], check," Byron pointed out as he revealed the vials of said liquid strapped around his belt underneath his cloak.

"And [Silver Shield]..." Karna then looks around the stables for it, only to realize that he'd dropped it back at Remire Village last month. "... Bollocks. To hell with it!"

The entirety of the Dustbin gather before the front gates, with Darius pulling a cart carrying Byron, Vidar, Sorcha and Topaz, with Cyrus at the helm, while Selene's pegasus (name still pending) was now carrying Karna behind the rider as a backseat passenger.

"ALRIGHT BITCHES! LET'S DANCE!" Karna called out from above. "DUSTBIN! MOVE OUT!"

They then rode towards the beacon of light like the winter wind, merciless and relentless towards all that stood before them. Snow broke under hoof and wheel while the white wings above beat furiously across the brisk sky.

---

Back at the Incursion Point...

---

Sothis, reset!

The spirit, once again, invokes her Divine Pulse to reset time back towards where it had came before. Just before the Giant Wolf could pitch up Dorothea from behind with his snout and devour her whole, Byleth lashes out her [Sword of the Creator] to pull her Warlock student away from the monster's reach, averting her preeminent demise.

She'd already used up three charges before. Once when Edelgard got flanked by two Demonic Beasts at once, another when one of the rescued students tried to help only to die three seconds in, and the third being Hubert being crushed into paste by a Giant Wolf stepping on top of him a little too hard.

"Nice save," Dorothea remarked before blasting a [Sagittae] spell towards the Demonic Beast in tandem with Hubert's [Miasma Δ], killing the monster in the process. "Thanks."

"No problem," answered back the Professor. Only around five charges left. Can't afford to fail at this juncture.

She then quickly glances around the battlefield, trying to assess the overall situation. Edelgard and Hubert were defending Caspar's rescue of another student carried over his shoulder, Linhardt was healing the one that Petra had rescued, Dorothea joined with Bernadetta in their efforts of providing covering fire, and Ferdinand was nowhere to be found, still in the woods searching for someone.

"And that makes three!" Caspar declared as he laid down the haggard student for treatment. "Hey, where's the last one?! And who is he or she?!"

"Monica..." coughed the rescued student, "... saw her... run off towards... that way."

"Behind that wolf then," commented Byleth as she glanced at the Demonic Beast fended off by her class's Fortress Knight and Dark Bishop. "Alright, you stay put while Linhardt takes care of you. Caspar, guard the area with Petra. I'm linking up with Hubert and Edelgard so we can make our final push."

"Kick that monster's ass, Professor!" Caspar wished her well as she sprinted towards where the two Black Eagles were at.

"EDELGARD! HUBERT!" Byleth called out as she ran while her [Sword of the Creator] unfurled its blade whip form. "NEW PLAN! WE NEED TO CLEAR THE WAY FOR FERDINAND! I'LL HELP YOU GUYS OUT FINISH THAT PUPPER!"

"Appreciated," said Hubert as he continued blasting the Demonic Beast with his [Miasma Δ] spells while his liege kept the monster's attention solely towards her, taking advantage of her bulk to walk off the blows undeterred. "Milady, is it time."

"Indeed," she nodded as she bashed her shield against the monster's bruised and discolored snout before bringing down her [Silver Axe] right through its median, causing the Demonic Beast's face to spray blood all over Edelgard before Byleth herself jumped into action.

Her whip sword then straightened back into its default blade form as she planted her Relic into the Giant Wolf's skull, burying the whole blade into its head, staking its final moments of its life.

"Excellent work," spoke Hubert.

"Follow me," said Byleth, "we need to help out Ferdinand."

"Right behind you," acknowledged Edelgard as she and her subordinate followed their Professor towards the furthest end of the surrounding woods. Breaking through the snow-laden earth and frost-tipped branches, the three hurried across the woods towards where the last missing student was at.

"I see a clearing!" Byleth spoke out as she then began to smell blood. "... Oh no. FERDINAND!"

She then runs faster, breaking through the brushes and arriving at the blood-soaked clearing, where a red-furred Giant Wolf with a single, spiral-like horn akin to that of a unicorn's grew out of its forehead, was currently feasting on the remains of both of Ferdinand and his horse. Splayed across the snowy clearing was a female student's body, albeit missing her whole head along with both of her shoulders.

"Oh gods..." Edelgard gasped as she and Hubert saw the display of carnage before them.

"That is no ordinary Giant Wolf," Hubert pointed out as the unicorn-horned Demonic Beast turned its blooded maw with Ferdinand's half-eaten body stuck out its teeth towards them. "... An Alpha perhaps?!"

Just as the abnormal beast lunged towards them, Sothis then activates her Divine Pulse to bring time to a standstill once again.

Alright, I admit, not even I saw this coming, said the disembodied spirit.

"We were too slow dealing with that Demonic Beast outside," Byleth pointed out as she thought of a way to prevent this catastrophe from ever happening. "Sothis, during the present, you can see what I normally can't see, like some sort of situational awareness greater than mine?"

If you're inferring to the fact that there are no other Demonic Beasts than those two, then yes, Sothis answered. If you're worried, I think that boy can assist in your place while you rescue that unfortunate lad.

"Given how much of an abnormality that the Demonic Beast is, we might need extra help," Byleth pointed out. "If you say that there are no other Demonic Beasts, then maybe Petra can come with me."

I doubt the narcoleptic Bishop's bedside manner would be enough to keep his patients out of danger, Sothis pointed out.

"Then I will force him to do so," she firmly answered. "Sothis, reset back to the point where Caspar brought in the third student. No one is dying under my watch."

Good luck, said the spirit as Sothis wound back the temporal reality of this world rewinded back to her host's desired point. Only three charges left.

"Got it," upon opening her eyes, Byleth then finds herself back to where she wanted. Quickly, she then goes up towards Linhardt and grabs him by his face before dragging him closer to her scowl. "Linhardt, listen well. I better not see you get caught napping on your job unless you want to sleep forever and never wake up ever again, you got it?!"

"Y-yes ma'am," the sleepy Bishop then went into full alert at the Professor's order.

"Professor?" spoke Petra. "Is something afoot?"

"There's one more Demonic Beast we need to deal with and I need your help," Byleth explained as Caspar laid the third student down. "Caspar! Go help Edelgard and Hubert! Petra and I will look for Ferdinand!"

"What about the patients?!" the Grappler pointed out.

"They'll be fine!" Byleth reassured as she and the Brigidian Assassin ran towards the furthest end of the forest's clearing. "I'm counting on him!"

Caspar then looks back at his friend to see no signs of sleepiness coming from Linhardt. "... Counting on ya, pal," said Caspar before he ran towards where Edelgard and Hubert were at.

As both Byleth and Petra ran through the snowy woods, the two then hear the sounds of a horse's hoofbeats drumming across the ground from a distance.

"FERDINAND!" Byleth called out towards him.

"PROFESSOR!" the Paladin called back as he rode up towards the two with the red-haired Monica in tow. "Thank the Goddess that you're here!"

"We need to get out of here, now!" the Professor exclaimed. "Follow me! Questions later!"

"What do you mean?" Ferdinand remarked before he then followed Byleth and Petra. But just as he took a couple paces with his horse, Silver, a crimson-furred Giant Wolf with a unicorn horn on its forehead suddenly burst out of the treelines and began chasing after the three. "NEVERMIND! STEP ON IT, SILVER!"

The horse neighs as it then picked up speed, riding past both Byleth and Petra and running out towards the clearing, where upon glancing to his side, saw Edelgard, Hubert and Caspar finish off their own Demonic Beast.

"EVERYONE!" Ferdinand cried out as he rode like the wind to get Monica safely away as possible. "THERE'S ANOTHER ONE COMING!"

Upon everyone seeing both Byleth and Petra run out towards the central clearing, their sense of confusion quickly dissipated upon seeing the red-furred, horned Giant Wolf come out of the treelines like a hellhound unleashed by the Devil himself.

"THAT'S NEW!" Caspar exclaimed.

"Milady," Hubert spoke, "this beast looks more aggressive than our usual fare. I advise caution."

"Noted," nodded Edelgard as she then barked out her next orders. "EVERYONE! DON'T LET THAT THING GET CLOSE TO THE SURVIVORS!"

"WHY IS IT ONLY AFTER ME?!" Ferdinand asked out loud as this particular Demonic Beast focused its pursuit only on the Paladin carrying the last survivor, completely ignoring the ones shooting spells and arrows at it. As for Byleth, Edelgard and Caspar trying to close in onto it, the beast simply emitted red bolts of electricity from its singular horn, creating a defensive barrier of voltage around itself to deter any melee attackers.

---

Deeper in the Woods...

---

"Sir, our human-turned Demonic Beast seems to be focusing on the guy carrying our covert agent," spoke Odesse as he and Dolofonos observed from the other side. "Also, recent development, it appears that said Demonic Beast has gone through a slight mutation."

"Elaborate," spoke the Face of Truth.

"Well, aside from not being olive-green in fur coloration, it appears to be shooting bolts of lightning from its horn that it grew on its forehead," reported the Dark Bishop. "Also, it's choosing to ignore it's attackers firing arrows and spells at it in favor of the aforementioned guy carrying one of our coverts."

"Write it down, write it down," the masked Sage ordered his Dark Mage doctors to take notes of their field experiment. "Also, the device I gave to you and Dolofonos, what number is it displaying?"

"Uhh..."the Dark Bishop then took a moment of silence for himself, checking on his and his Assassin partner's devices to see if they are depicting any number. "... It's showing the number '5' sir."

"Keep ahold of that device and don't lose it," the Face of Truth ordered his subordinates through his earpiece before another call came in.

"Lord Face of Truth," spoke Faceless from his end, "the Blade Breaker and company have cleared the horde Demonic Beasts gathered at the designated chokepoint. They're on their way towards where the exposed Dragon's Vein is at."

"Understood. Send Anaximandros and his men ahead. Get ready to intervene at my command," the Face of Truth then turned towards his doctoral staff. "Prepare Warlord. We are about to make our move."

"Yes sir," the doctors then began prepping their special unit for deployment as the Face of Truth himself got ready for his own engagement towards his own battlefield before walking into the woods by himself.

Deep within the thicket, he spots Anaximandros waiting for him next to his horse, both standing between the tangle of trees at a distance.

"Took you long enough," said the surly Dark Knight as he got back onto his horse while picking up his planted [Horseslayer] lance from the ground. "Thought I had to leave you behind for keeping me waiting for this long."

"You and your japes, my pupil," chucked the Face of Truth as he then got behind him on his saddle. "Head towards the exposed Dragon's Vein. Our fated confrontation awaits."

"Whatever," Anaximandros then snaps his horse's bridles as they made their way towards the beacon of light.

---

Back at the Clearing...

---

This sudden turn of events for the worse has now made their operations even more difficult.

Unlike the other Giant Wolves that had shown up today, this particular Demonic Beast fought differently from the rest of its ilk. Proficient at both melee and range akin to the wild Demonic Beasts (the names "Giant Wolf" and "Giant Bird" are more or less descriptions compared to the name classification of "Demonic Beasts" being at first used to describe those scaled monsters that breath purple flames before it became a catch-all term to define the giant monsters found throughout Fodlan), and worst of all, it held a degree of focus that couldn't be torn away from Ferdinand in particular, prioritizing him over everyone else.

This "Giant Hellhound" as Byleth and Linhardt came to call it, wasn't a typical Demonic Beast. It was something else entirely, and if it were to remain loose, the thought of what sort of destruction that it can cause if left alone disturbs all those who were sane.

"FERDINAND!" Byleth called out towards the fleeing Paladin pursed by this deviant Demonic Beast as she lashed her [Sword of the Creator]'s bladed whip form. "TRY LEADING IT TOWARDS US! WE CAN'T AFFORD TO KEEP CHASING IT AROUND FOR TOO LONG!"

"EASY FOR YOU TO SAY!" he cried back as the Giant Hellhound fired a spray of red lightning from its horn towards the redheaded Paladin, the missed bolts causing the ground around his horse to explode. "YOU HAVE A PLAN?!"

Yes, do you? sassed Sothis.

"I'M THINKING!" she cried out as she saw the Giant Hellhound lunge itself closer towards Ferdinand and Monica, attempting to eat the latter whole.

But in a close shave, a combined spell of Hubert's [Dark Spikes T], Dorothea's [Agnea's Arrow] and Linhardt's [Excalibur] struck the side of the beast's head, knocking it over to its side and causing its bite to miss the two escapees.

"Thank you for the save!" Ferdinand remarked. "Also, apologizes for my lackluster performance!"

"The alternative was having to see you get eaten alive," commented Hubert. "I'm cleaning up after you regardless."

"Ease up," Dorothea remarked, "none of us were ready for this kind of thing."

"Definitely gonna be in my nightmares tonight..." grumbled Linhardt.

"It's down," Edelgard pointed out. "Take it down before it gets back up!"

As Edelgard, Petra and Caspar all charged towards the downed Demonic Beast to lay in the finishing blows, it suddenly springs back up in tandem with its horn blasting an explosion of electricity that engulfed its surrounding, sending the three flying back from being caught in the massive shockwave.

The Giant Hellhound finally gets up, only for its face to be half-charred and mauled from taking the brunt of the three spellcasters' spells all at once. It was the closest they've gotten to inflicting a grave injury onto the monster, but now, it's manic focus has now switched from Ferdinand and towards the three specifically.

"Oh no," gasped Byleth as she saw the tides of battle turn for the worse. "RUN!"

The three tried to escape, and the first to go was Linhardt, his entire upper half of his body bitten off from behind.

Seeing that her initial plan came to a complete wash, Byleth had no other choice. No one is dying under her watch.

"SOTHIS, RESET!"

With her call, time around her grinds to a halt as the spirit makes herself known before her host.

Okay, we're in quite a pickle here, she remarked with a sigh upon looking at the carnage displayed around her. The armored scion is dead from the shock and so is that narcoleptic Bishop... Normally, the realistic solution would be to sacrifice one of them to take them down, but I suppose you couldn't, no?

"Yeah," Byleth nodded. "I thought that the Giant Hellhound would solely be focused on Ferdinand but I guess anyone would get mad from having half of their entire face blown off, huh?"

Sothis scratches her head as she and her host looked towards the deviant Demonic Beast. ... Your words may hold some merit. It may not be fixated towards that overcompensating Paladin as we've initially thought.

"What? You saying that it's after the Ochs girl that he's carrying?" Byleth pointed out before realizing that what she'd just said might be the truth. "... Oh gods, it might be the case."

The kill order from one of our averted loops! said Sothis. Remember that the monster was seen eating him and not the girl?

"Implying that she was the initial priority target, not Ferdinand!" the ex-sellsword reached the conclusion. "In any case, it doesn't change the fact that our job is to protect her and everyone else!"

One more thing, said the spirit, that wolf knows some degree of magic. A modified [Thunder] spell that it can use both offensively and defensively. Getting too close will result in one of us getting lethally shocked, while getting too far, it'll start sniping us from afar with its horn. That boy was lucky for to dodge its spells for that long, but I suppose that's one advantage of having a horse.

"But it can't run forever," Byleth pointed out as she then racked her head for a proper battle plan. "I got a plan. It's risky, but longer we draw this fight out, the more likely everyone, including us, will die."

Which time would you like to return to? asked Sothis.

"Take me back to the time before Hubert, Dorothea and Linhardt fired their spells at the monster," she requested. "Instead of brute-forcing it, we're going to control how it maintains its focus."

With a snap of her finger, Sothis then transports Byleth back to the moment where Ferdinand was still being chased by the Giant Hellhound. Only this time, she now knew that Monica von Ochs was the real target, not Ferdinand von Aegir.

"FERDINAND!" Byleth cried out. "GIVE ME THE GIRL! THE MONSTER'S AFTER HER SPECIFICALLY!"

"Wait, WHAT?!" the Paladin cried out. "HOW DO I DROP HER OFF WITHOUT ENDANGERING ONE OF YOU?! I'M THE ONLY ONE WHO CAN MATCH ITS PACING!"

"Bernadetta," the Professor then turned towards the nervous Sniper, "I need you to aim for the horn as soon as I get the girl off of his hands."

"W-wh-what do you mean?!" she skittered. "I-I-I HAVE TO D-DO THAT?!"

"Just pretend that it won't go after you," Byleth reassured as she then walked towards the three spellcasters. "You three, whatever you do, don't engage unless I give you the say so."

"Given your sudden supposed-revelation that we are unaware of," Hubert commented, "I supposed we're in no place to protest."

"Less work for me at the moment," Linhardt yawned before being bopped awake by Dorothea.

"No napping until we get back home alive!" she scolded.

"Thank you," said Byleth as she then walked towards Edelgard, Petra and Caspar. "You three, as soon as Bernadetta shoots at the horn, I need you three to try and hack it off. The horn is the most dangerous asset for the Giant Hellhound, so we need to take away its greatest strength to fight it on an even ground."

"But it shoots electricity," Petra pointed out. "Won't we get shocked?"

"Not if our reach isn't direct," Edelgard then gestured to her [Short Axe]. "Caspar, you're the only one without a ranged option while being the fastest runner among us while carrying another person. Are you up for another sprint?"

"No prob," the young Grappler nodded. "I'll let Ferdinand know."

"Good," Byleth nodded as Ferdinand and Monica on top of the former's horse came running towards them, "because time's of the essence."

"I CAN'T SHAKE IT OFF FOR MUCH LONGER!" Ferdinand cried out as he rode towards them with the Giant Hellhound closing in from behind.

"FERDINAAAND!" Caspar cried out as he then ran towards him. "THROW HER OVER TO ME AS SOON AS WE CROSS! JUST TRUST ME!"

The Paladin then looks back at his passenger for consent. "Whatever works!" she agreed.

In a risky maneuver, Monica is then shoved off of Silver's back as Caspar caught her mid-fall while he then broke from his sprint and slid himself across the snow, sliding right underneath the beast's belly during the interim moment when the Giant Hellhound suddenly lost sight of its target before finding Monica once again. But just before it could turn itself around and go after her and the girl's new protector, Bernadetta and Petra shoot their arrows from their respective bows, both quills flying towards the Demonic Beast's horn as it crackled with electricity. But just before it could let loose its innate magic, the struck arrows disturbs the flow of mana generated from the horn, causing it to fizzle out of control before shorting itself out, causing it to remain momentarily stunned from its sudden outage of power.

With this opening, Edelgard then throws her [Short Axe] right across the monster's horn, its blade buried in halfway across the shaft upon contact. Byleth then finishes the job by lashing her [Sword of the Creator]'s blade-whip form to cleave across the indentation created by Edelgard's thrown axe weapon, successfully cutting off the Giant Hellhound's magical conduit, and stripping it of its greatest offensive and defensive asset.

"It's weak!" Byleth pointed out. "FINISH HIM OFF!"

Hubert, Dorothea and Linhardt all fire their spells at once towards the crippled Demonic Beast, the combined explosion from [Dark Spikes T], [Agnea's Arrow] and [Excalibur] completely engulfs the beast's head, forcing it to keel sideways before falling over dead from the compounded trauma of having its brain short-circuit and its face eating three A-ranked Spells all at once. Nevertheless, Ferdinand and Byleth makes sure that its dead, with the former stabbing his [Silver Lance] into where its heart was located at and the latter decapitating the monster's head off of its neck with a downwards slash brought down by her Relic's blade in hand.

"And that's the last of them," sighed Byleth as she fell onto her butt, crumpling the snow beneath her. "... Now my butt is cold. Why in the world didn't I buy pants?"

"Come to think of it, I think none of saw you wear anything else besides what you wore since you've arrived here," said Ferdinand. "How did you handle winter jobs as a sword for hire?"

"I think during winter seasons, my dad avoids areas towards the north and focus our jobs near the southern coasts of Fodlan for that reason," she recalled just now, mentally beating herself up over that long-missed tidbit. "The Aegir Region's pretty temperate all year long, correct?"

"Morfis is only a voyage away, so that might explain a few things," shrugged the Paladin. "That said, we were this close to all of us sharing the same grave."

Byleth nods, knowing that the boy's words held more truth than he'd ever realized. And she's not going to even bother thinking of what would happen if she suddenly told him (let alone, anyone) that she had the ability to turn back time for limited amounts per day.

For now, all she can think is that she's grateful to be alive. And that no one else are in danger of being killed. From afar, she can hear a horse's neigh followed by its hooves drumming across the snowy ground.

"You kids alright?" Jeralt spoke as he came into the clearing. He then glanced towards the slain red-furred Demonic Beast across from them. "... Not bad, kids."

"That was close one..." one rescued student remarked.

"You saved us!" said the other. "Thank you!"

"I was so scared..." the third spoke to Byleth, "... I'll find a way to replay you all. I promise!"

"Run along now," said Jeralt as he pointed towards the group of riders behind him. "My boys will take you all back to the monastery safely."

As the rescued students left, one of the students stayed behind as she approached Jeralt. "Hey mister," asked Monica, "can you help me look for something? I kinda came here in the first place for that reason."

"Uh, sure, I can spare a few minutes," he replied as Jeralt then turned around to look around the area for something. "So what are you looking for-"

Jeralt then feels something sharp and cold being embedded into his back. He then turns around, only to see Monica von Ochs stab him with a dagger that she had hidden on her person.

"You're just a pathetic old man," she taunted, her voice now dripping with venom. "How dare you get in the way of our brilliant plan... you old dog."

Monica then wrenches the knife out of the Blade Breaker's back as the latter falls dead and bleeding before Byleth's feet.

She couldn't even think, let alone speak at what had just transpired before, only that the girl that she and class had rescued was merely a snake in the grass that had been waiting for them.

Without saying anything, Byleth immediately jumps back in time before such treachery can take place. At first, the scene plays out as it did before, only this time, she immediately draws her [Sword of the Creator] and lashed out its bladed whip towards the girl before she can do the dastardly deed.

"I think not."

But teleporting between her and Byleth, a black-armored masked man appeared before them, parrying her blow with his own drawn sword.

"You must survive," spoke the Face of Truth to Monica as she did her deed again due to the former's interference. "There is another role that I need you to fulfill."

"You got it, boss," spoke Monica before she flashed a devilish smirk towards Byleth's direction.

However, as Byleth tried to make heads and tails of what she can do to avert this crisis, she then checks on her spirit companion for the following. Sothis, how many charges we have left for the Divine Pulse?

We're down to our last one! she answered. Like you said before, no one is dying on your watch! I will make sure that this treachery never occurs!

Take me back, Byleth requested, back to the moment before where she is alone!

Last reset for the day, Sothis pointed out as the hands of time wound back, make it count!

Time returns back to the state before the tragedy, with Byleth now ready for what's to come.

First, she draws her [Sword of the Creator]. But rather than lash out from a distance, she opts to close onto the covert assailant before she can draw her dagger.

Then, just as the masked man showed himself between Byleth and Monica, the former immediately pivoting around the latter and continue making her way towards the treacherous Monica.

"GET THE HELL AWAY FROM MY DAD, YOU BITCH!" roared Byleth as she then lashed out her blade-whip towards the girl with the drawn knife.

But just before the Relic can butcher the girl behind all of this tragedy, her swing arch suddenly deviated from its initial trajectory upon being parried by something.

It was Dolofonos, his scoped musket shooting at the bladed whip itself from afar to make that the Fell Star's attack missed their covert operative by an inch.

"You owe me one." he muttered to himself as he blew the trailing smoke off of his barrel.

Byleth was now out of second chances. The tragedy was about to occur again.

The enemy were prepared for every possible outcome... Sothis commented in horror of how her temporal powers could be defied so throughly. ... I'm sorry. I can't change fate!

No... not like this! Byleth thought as her head flashed back to the ambush two years ago that ended in flames. She could not remember who it was, only for the feeling to be the same as she was about to lose a family member. It hurt. It was about hurt. It was going to hurt much worse, now that despite everything that she could've done, Byleth now had a front-row seat to the tragedy that she couldn't stop.

"DAAAAD!" she cried out just as the knife was about enter Jeralt's back.

"GERONIMOOOOOOO!" from above, Karna's voice was heard from above right before he dropped directly onto Monica's head elbow-first and tackling her to the ground. The knife misses, instead, undoing Jeralt's belt and causing the knife to instead pantse the Blade Breaker from behind.

"WHAT THE HELL?!" barked the Face of Truth before he dodged an arrow shot from above, coming from Selene as she wound back her [Crossbow] from her pegasus.

"Didn't see that one coming," Dolofonos remarked as he put his rifle away before he drew his [Killing Edge]. "Alright, might as well be ready to engage-"

From behind, the Assassin was then pounced from behind by a bandaged Warrior, tackling him out of the forest and rolling into the clearing. From another side, a cart pulled by Cyrus's monster of a horse broke through the foliage and its dispatched passengers immediately surrounded the perimeter with their weapons drawn.

"DID YOU GUYS SEE THAT?!" Karna cackled out in triumph. "HOW'S THAT FOR THE PEOPLE'S ELBOW-"

"GET OFF OF ME!" Monica then threw Karna off of herself before she then tried to finish the job that she was about to do, only for her dagger to be shot out of her hand by a slung rock from Cyrus's [Bowgun], breaking at least two of her fingers upon impact.

"Not so fast sister," the Battuian Paladin smirked from atop of Darius's back before he turned towards the rest of the Black Eagles, who all just stood completely dumbstruck at this rapid sequence of events. "... What are you guys still doing here?! GET THE OLD MAN AND HIS KID OUT OF HERE!"

"NOT ON MY WATCH!" the Face of Truth then alerts his subordinates through his earpiece. "ALL OPERATORS! ENGAGE IMMEDIATELY! PLAN A HAS BEEN COMPROMISED! I REPEAT, PLAN A HAS BEEN COMPROMISED-"

Karna then whacks the masked man across his head with the shaft of his [Scythe of Sariel], knocking him off of his feet and landing across the snow. "And people tell me to shut my trap." deadpanned the Professor. "You heard him. Run along unless you want a second round. And given that all of you are completely exhausted from the last romp... even I wouldn't push my luck at your state."

He has a point, said Sothis, referring to the fact that now she can no longer use her Divine Pulses for today.

"... Alright," Byleth then picks up her dad over her shoulder, the latter now holding his pants around his waist. "Everyone, let's get out here!"

"Works for me," Linhardt and everyone else quickly followed her out of the clearing.

As the Dustbin and the mysterious assailants were left by themselves, the two groups stared each other down.

"Alright, who are you bozos?" Karna asked. "Given last month, I'm assuming you're with Solon."

The Face of Truth chuckles to himself as he laid his hands around his mask. "Truly, you are indeed amusing."

From the removed facade was revealed a long-haired man with a neatly trimmed beard and mustache.

"Greetings, Dustbin," said the hooded, unmasked man, "I am Duke Volkhard von Arundel, the Adrestian Empire's representative to Garreg Mach and current Chairman of the Continental Board of Education. I am also the one of the donors to this month's Grand Ball and advisor to Emperor Ionius von Hresvelg IX. A pleasure to make your acquaintance."

Everyone from the Dustbin begins laughing at him and his superfluous claims.

"Yeah... no," Karna shook his head in disapproval. "Duke Volkhard von Arundel my behind. And just like 'Tomas' of last month, I'm assuming that you two are really just cosplaying?"

The fake Lord Volkhard von Arundel and Monica von Ochs both laughed wickedly. "I'll give your ilk some credit for intelligence."

"Smarter than the rest of those putzes, that's for sure!" Monica remarked as both she and the armored man were both engulfed in dark flames before revealing their true selves.

Both people were placid in complexion, their skin bordering chalk-white with a slight violet tint. The false Lord Arundel was revealed to be an older-looking man with a scruffier white beard and shorter hair, with his eyes having no color at all, simply being a pair of milky white spheres that embedded themselves into his skull's eye holes. Monica's facade gave away to a redheaded girl with shoulder-length hair, a distinct black makeup slightly resembling that of a court jester's, and ripping herself out of her school uniform was a skintight leotard with an opening exposing lower parts of her bust and her navel, with three stinger-like protrusions colored orange and black coming out from her lower back of her garment.

"Know this, Dustbin," said the white-eyed man as he took off his hood, fully revealing himself to the world, "for you have earned the privilege of knowing my true form! I am Thales of the Seven Sages!"

"And Monica von Ochs really did exist, but as of this moment, she is currently unavailable," taunted the girl. "After playing her for so long, I am finally glad to introduce myself as Kronya, the wrecker of your shits. Looking forward to killing you all!"

"Boss, do we have to introduce ourselves now?" asked Dolofonos as he came up towards the two.

"They've earned their right to do so," Thales pointed out. "Don't be shy, my boy. Think of it as a rehearsal for the real thing."

The black cloaked Assassin sighs before he removed his hood and cloth mask to reveal a red-eyed bald man with equally-pale skin and a beak-like nose. "Dolofonos, my name literally means 'Assassin.' Introduction over."

"Eh, 'A' for effort," Kronya shrugged before she drew her black-bladed dagger and short sword. "Alright, so what do we do with these trash?"

"I take offense to that!" Karna cried out as the rest of the Dustbin gathered around him. "Dealing with unwanted trash is our job."

"Please, there's no need for this meaningless fight," Thales objected as he sheathed back his sword, much to both Kronya and Dolofonos's surprise. "Rather, I'm here to make an offer."

"Really, now?" Byron smirked in amusement. "Alright, we're ears."

"I've noticed that the Church, our greatest enemy, and by extension, Fodlan, has treated you lot less than kindly," the Sage spoke. "Low pay, low job satisfaction, and low prospects of having a roof over your heads despite your many, many talents that others would kill for," he pointed out. "Join me, and I will ensure that not only you will have a stable work and board under us, but I will give you all ample opportunities to take revenge on this continent that has done no good to you all."

"Oh really?" said Sorcha with a raised eyebrow. "Wat about dat Flame Emperor-fek buddy of yers? Dun tell me dat we're gunna 'ave to fight alongside 'im."

"Worry not," Thales reassured. "I will see to them that they along with their associates, are to be disposed of upon your integration into our circle. If of course, the Professor and/or her father dies today, but in any case, that arrogant punk and fellow revolutionary friends have outlived their usefulness. In fact, I'll give you all the honors of disposing them personally, as a bonus if you join, of course."

"And what about all of your own guys that we might've killed?" Cyrus pointed out. "Something tells me that you're going to try and avenge them."

"They knew the risks," Thales sighed as he shook his head. "A loss is something that we've learned to overcome. Something that you all had to deal with, unlike the spoiled lot of Fodlan."

"Professor," Selene asked as she kept her loaded [Crossbow] pointed towards the three enigmas. "Ye really thinkin' of joining these bastards? I dun trust em."

The Professor ponders over Thales' offer of allegiance over their current engagement.

"As much as I like what you have offered..." Karna begun his answer, "... I'm afraid to say that it's a solid 'no."

Kronya tries to lash out, only for her to be stopped by Thales. "And pray tell, what is your reason?"

"Your whole 'enemy of my enemy is my friend' approach is indeed solid, but there's one thing that you guys missed on about us," Karna explained. "You guys think we're that desperate, aren't you?"

"Desperate enough to be disposable fodder?" Byron remarked. "Bro, that's not so different from our current arrangement. I don't trade shit for more shit!"

"Not to mention, ye guys tried to kill us, like several times," Sorcha pointed out as she counted down the number of places where they were caught in the mysterious faction's crosshairs. "First Rowe, den Hyrm, and finally Remire jus last munth. Ye sods wanna be bosom buddies after ye fekers tried to waste us several times?! Git real!"

"Not to mention, everyone on this continent hates us," Cyrus remarked as he pointed his [Gradivus] lance towards Thales. "You're from this continent, so you hate us all the same. Hate Fodlan like us? Ha! We ain't from here and we're trapped on this godforsaken continent against our wills! Of course our hatred for this patch of land is justified!"

"Oh and you guys killed the dog that I befriended back at the village around several months prior that led to me falling off of a cliff!" said Karna as he recalled to their very first Demonic Beast that they had to fight and bury afterwards during their accidental stumble into the Abyss. "That alone was easily the worst thing you could've ever done."

"Ungrateful beasts!" Kronya snarled as the grip around her weapons tightened. "So the likes of you are proud to remain as common crooks targeted by everybody, including us?!"

"You've answered your own question," Topaz pointed out. "For your words have already revealed that you already look down on us, just like the rest of Fodlan."

"Who wouldn't?" Dolofonos pointed out. "I had to keep tabs on your asses for the past several months, and conclusion: I prefer to work under the psycho-bitch Kronya for the rest of my life than watch you guys for fun!"

"I'll take that as a compliment," said the female Assassin with a slight snarl.

"Cry me a fekin' river," Selene grumbled with her eyes rolled. "Ye got nunthin' on or for us."

"So you all reject my offer?" Thales spoke, his voice genuinely sounding disappointed and enraged. "You dare to make us your enemies, along with the rest of Fodlan?!"

Karna smirks at the Sage's point before flipping him off. "All of you can go jump into the same hole for all I care."

Thales then draws his sword as a horde of skull-face masked Paladins all wielding [Arrow of Indra] lances comes out into the clearing, ready to assist their allies.

"We will make you regret your decision," Thales snarled as his [Ridill]'s small sawtooth blades began to rev up around their edges as he pointed towards the Dustbin. "KILL THOSE BEASTS!"

The enemy cavalry all stampede towards the Dustbin at the Sage's command.

"... We... are... beasts... to you..." growled Vidar as he drew his [Baigujing] gauntlets from his hips, "... but we will... show you... how we beasts... RIP OUT YOUR FUCKING THROATS!"

The feral Warrior then embeds the magical gauntlets into the snow, unleashing a cold wave of giant ice spikes that sent the majority of the black-armored Paladins flying off of their horses with his [Bīngshān Dìyù] combat art.

"Like Vidar said," Karna chuckled as then then wound back his scythe, "RIP OUT THEIR FUCKING THROATS!"

The Dustbin and Thales's faction begin their violent engagement across the snowy clearing that was about to become a lot redder.

---

At the Forested Path...

---

"Professor," spoke Edelgard as the Black Eagles and their Professor during their flight, "is it wise to leave them?"

"I concur," Hubert agreed, "it would've been in our best interest if we joined forces as a united front."

"And get you guys all killed?" said the Professor. "Trust me, just because you have numbers doesn't mean an automatic advantage. I mean, two years ago, my company got outnumbered ten to one by a rival group. The rival group aren't around anymore."

"I agree," said Ferdinand, still shaken at the fact that the girl that he'd rescued has revealed herself to be that much of a snake. "Let the trash take each other out for all I care."

Even Dorothea felt bad for Ferdinand, for even she didn't see such act of deception coming. "To think that she'd attempt to take the Professor's father's life..." she muttered in disbelief, "... if it weren't for them."

"Yeah, a funeral would be really bad right after a holiday season," Caspar pointed out.

"Hey, don't talk like if I'm not here!" said Jeralt as he rode on his horse with the rim of his pants drooping over. "Just focus on not dying-"

A scream was heard coming from the side followed up by a butchered corpse of one of the students that they'd rescued was tossed onto the road before them.

"WHAT THE-!" Bernadetta shrieked as everyone came to a stop.

"Hey Hubert," Byleth deadpanned as she drew her [Sword of the Creator] for the upcoming battle, "guess your wish is about to come true."

From the adjacent forest came out a red-armored person wielding a wide-bladed sword on one hand and dragging a bloodied [Silver Sword] behind him in the other. Out came Warlord, ready to unleash hell upon those standing before him.

"Hey, where are the rest of my guys?!" Jeralt pointed out. "Don't tell me that this prick killed them all!"

Warlord wordlessly raises its dual blades as it then took a fighting stance.

"Not much of a talker," Byleth remarked as she took her own fighting stance. "Alright, let's dance."

Warlord moves first, sprinting towards Byleth with both its swords raised over his head as he leapt into the fray. Byleth first lashes out her [Sword of the Creator]'s blade whip form to keep her distance from this mysterious assailant, only for her attack to be met prematurely as the armored man parries the extended swing with his [Moplah of Mesphisto] while throwing his [Silver Sword] towards Byleth herself during the clash as his way of sneaking in a lethal blow.

However, the thrown sword is then parried by Linhardt's [Wind] spell, sending the tossed weapon aside at the same time Warlord had landed. "That was a stupid move," the Bishop commented. "Now he's down one weapon-"

From its free hand, Warlord fires a [Miasma ∆] spell towards the students, forcing Linhardt to cast [Ward] to block the spell before the armored man ran back towards Byleth and swung his [Moplah of Mesphistpo] towards her, forcing the two into a blade lock.

"Okay, it knows spells on top of swordplay," said the Bishop before Edelgard charged towards Warlord to bash him with her shield, only for her to be blasted back with another [Miasma ∆] before the armored man delivered a swift kick into Byleth's stomach to knock her away. Upon her back sliding across the snow, Warlord then pounces onto Byleth with his blade raised over its head to plant his weapon into her body.

But Jeralt rides in between the two fighters before parrying the swordsman's incoming deathblow with the swing of his [Silver Lance]. "Kid, you alright?!"

"Thanks dad," answered the Professor as she got up before Warlord picked himself back up. "So, what are we facing?"

"Given its swordplay and magic, I'm guessing that we're facing a Mortal Savant," Linhardt pointed out. "But I don't recall normal Mortal Savants being this aggressive or having the capacity to wield two swords at once!"

"Remind you of a certain someone?" Hubert remarked as he remembered the Plaugebearer from last month. "Feels like we're fighting another one of his ilk."

"I don't wanna know if there are an entire lineup of those freaks!" Bernadetta groaned at the dreadful thought. "One was already enough..."

"Normally, I'd tell you guys to run for it and leave this to us..." Byleth grimaced at their worsening situation before she blocking another one of Warlord's swift strikes from his blade, "... but I don't think it's planning to let us go anytime soon!"

"Not to mention!" Petra remarked as she swung her [Killing Edge] to break the blade lock and allowing Dorothea and Hubert to shoot their spells towards the backpedalling Warlord. "We do not know what lies ahead. Best if we stick together and deal with it together than fight alone and weak!"

Warlord lunges its blade towards Byleth, only for Edelgard to intercept the thrust with her shield, only for said shield to be punctured through before the sheer force of the stab knocked her back several feet before she was then caught by Ferdinand at the cost of knocking him off of his horse. Not hesitating, Byleth immediately follows up with a sneak attack from her [Sword of the Creator] as Warlord's view was obscured by the same shield that he'd pierced through.

Warlord immediately sees the hidden stab coming, only for him not to be fast enough to get out of the way, but still close enough to miss his vitals.

It however, knocks off Warlord's helmet, revealing his face for everyone to see. It was that of a youngish-somewhere-around-18-or-older with paled skin (implying that he never spent much time outside of said full body-concealing armor) with bright violet hair and the sides of his head completely shaved off, with only a messy mop running down from the middle of his scalp. His mouth and nose were cloistered in a mask connected with a pair of tubes that connected into his armor and towards a hidden apparatus.

"What's the matter?" the purple-haired man who didn't look that much older to the Black Eagles's student body taunted at Byleth specifically. "Looks as if you've just seen a ghost."

"Uh... who are you?" asked Byleth, to which in response the unmasked Warlord swung down his [Moplah of Mesphisto] in snarling fury against the Professor's [Sword of the Creator], forcing the two again into another blade lock.

"TWO YEARS AFTER CUTTING MY HEAD OFF AND THE FIRST THING YOU ASK ME IS WHO AM I?!" screamed the manic Mortal Savant as he then began to hammer his blade against Byleth's own Relic, forcing the latter to on the defensive if she doesn't want her head split open like a melon.

"To be fair!" she protested as she continued to fend off Warlord's vicious flurry of overhead swings from his wide-bladed sword that generated sparks with each clash against her bone-like sword. "I can't exactly remember everyone that I have killed as a sellsword. If you're some dumbass kid that just happened to get in my way in one of my jobs, then tough shit, quit bitching, because I ain't in the business anymore, pal!"

"THEN I'LL MAKE YOU REMEMBER ME!" Warlord screamed with rising anger as his overhead swings became faster and deadlier, forcing Byleth to take a knee from the sheer collective weight of his attack. "I AM SHEZ! ONCE OF THE ACE OF BERLING'S MERCENARIES, NOW BACK FROM THE DEAD AS WARLORD, SERVING UNDER THE BANNER OF THE SEVEN SAGES! I'LL MAKE SURE YOU DIE SCREAMING LIKE A BITCH JUST LIKE I DID TO YOUR BROTHER TWO YEARS AGO, BYLEEEEETH!"

Byleth then suddenly swings against the falling blade that knocked his [Moplah of Mephisto] out of his hands before driving the pommel of her Relic into Warlord/Shez's armored chest, knocking him back across the snow, with his blade staking next to where his head was laid.

"... Ah, now I remember," Byleth remarked, still calm and stone-faced as ever. "And just like that, you pissed me off."

She then turns back towards her class standing behind her.

"All of you, stay back," she ordered as now-revealed Shez stood back up before her. "You'll just get in the way."

"... Touched a nerve?" Shez smirked from underneath his mask. "That little jog down the memory lane was all it took for you to remember my name?"

"Yeah, and the clusterfuck that happened two years ago," snarled Byleth as she readied her [Sword of the Creator].

Her mind clearly recalled the day where she found herself surrounded in flames and corpses.

It was a day from Hell that only occurred because of a business deal between two shady merchants gone horribly wrong in the Ordelia Region.

Berling's men outnumbered her father's company ten to one in terms of sheer manpower.

She saw her twin brother, who while she cannot remember his name, now knew what his face was like (a male version of hers, as expected of a twin sibling), get burnt alive by Berling's company of Warlocks shooting their [Fire] spells at him all at once until he was nothing more than a charred silhouette.

And leading that attack order was none other than some 16-year old hotshot Myrmidon who thinks he's won the entire battle after wiping out just one company.

Byleth remembered simply decapitating everything that stood in her way on that day. Everything else after that, she couldn't remember at all, including those who she have murdered.

... Until now. It wasn't anything special.

"... You know, funny story about today," Byleth spoke as she and Shez sized each other down. "I nearly saw my dad die in front of me just a couple minutes ago, and then you show up, somehow having survived a decapitation, and one of the first things you say to my face is to mock about a death of my close family member that had happened two years ago."

"You mad?" Shez taunted again, his internal engines flaring up with both the [Crest of Cethleann] and [Crest of Maurice] planted within him.

"LIVID," Byleth then makes the first move as Shez responds with an attack of his own as her own [Crest of Flames] flares up behind her.

Outside of this duel against the phantom, everyone from the Black Eagles along with Jeralt just watched in awe of what was currently happening before them.

"... Hey," Bernadetta spoke, "you think who ever is behind that Plaguebearer mask might also be another dead person brought back to life?"

"I ain't getting paid to solve your little theories, kiddo," Jeralt answered. "... So in the meantime, you all watch for any outsiders trying to snipe us."

The Black Eagles then all get into overwatch positions while Byleth and Shez continue with their fated duel.

---

Back at the Clearing...

---

"KARNAAAA!" Thales roared as he swung down his revving [Ridill].

"THALESSS!" Karna answered back as he then swung his [Scythe of Sariel] towards the Sage's sword.

The two weapons clash violently against each other, with the spinning blade teeth running across Thale's sword powered by his innate mana grounding against the finely-crafted blade of Karna's stolen sickle, sparking cascading between the two as neither refused to submit.

Seeing to break the deadlock, both then casted [Miasma Δ] towards each other at point-blank range, the compound blast of purple sending them both flying out of the cloud of explosive gas and tumbling across the snow.

"Dark Magic too," Thales smirked as he kept his motorized blade steady in his grip. "If I weren't mistaken, I'd assumed you are one of us."

"Flattery will get you nowhere," Karna grimaced and smirked at the same time as he kept his scythe pointed towards his foe. "So shut the fuck up and fight."

"I couldn't have said it better myself," Thales then ran towards the Professor as the two continued their duel.

Elsewhere throughout the field of carnage, Vidar and Sorcha were mowing through the roving remnants of the black-armored Paladins riding around them, with the former lifting up the unoccupied carriage before tossing the whole thing across the battlefield, landing on an entire segment of cavalry as it then broke itself into splinters upon impact, while the latter's [Claymore] cut through the horse's legs, sending their riders either flying off of their saddles from the sudden torque or stumbling onto the ground for a few seconds before they were picked off by Selene's [Crossbow] from above.

"SOME BITCH IS SHOOTING AT US!" barked one of the masked Paladins before he was then swatted off the top of his horse by Cyrus's hit and run sweep with his [Gradivus] before he landed on his head and breaking his neck upon landing.

"DAMMIT! KILL THAT BATTUIAN FUCK!" one Paladin then rallied his fellows as they all then charged towards the lone Paladin with their [Arrows of Indra] pointed towards him.

But before even one of them could reach him, all of their heads were cut off all at once, as well as their horses, leaving only behind trails of spilled blood and severed head in its whistle.

"I swear, she's going to outperform all us at this rate," Cyrus shook his head as he saw the thrown [Zulfiqar] return back to its diminutive owner's hand. He then looked down at one of the fallen [Arrow of Indra] lances before picking it off the ground and loading the entire lance onto his [Bowgun]. "It is called an 'arrow,' right?"

He then pulls the trigger of the loaded [Bowgun], the shot lance striking one of the horse's chest, causing it to keel over in pain and throw off its rider in the process.

"Dammit, string's not strong enough," he sighed in disappointment, his prior shot meant for the rider himself. "I'll come back for em later. Until then, UUKHAI!"

Cyrus resumes his rampage across the cavalrymen sent on his way, sending them all flying off of both the ground and their steeds with the swings of his mighty lance and Darius being a head taller than all of Fodlan's horses, making ramming other horses down being a viable option.

But one of the riders, a Dark Knight, enters the fray before clashing his weapon against Cyrus's own, keeping each other at an even keel.

"Are all you Battu horsemen chronically insane?" asked Anaximandros as his [Horseslayer] lance kept Cyrus's [Gradivus] at a lock as the two kept riding adjacent towards each other. "Roided up horse aside, of course."

"Out of all the horsemen I had the displeasure of facing, you might be a possible exception," Cyrus smirked as he then subtly took control of the blade lock instigated by this Dark Knight. "What do you say pal? How about a game of chicken?!"

"Yep, cuckoo," deadpanned the Dark Knight as he tried to break engagement to recalibrate his next attack, only for his lance to still remain locked against the [Gradivus]'s barbs composed in its spearhead. "... I hate my job."

The two horsemen continue their game as elsewhere throughout the battlefield, a lone Dark Bishop ran across the snow, looking for someone.

"DOLOFONOS YOU MOTHERFUCKER! WHERE ARE YOU?!" Odesse called out to his partner.

And speaking of the devil, the titular Assassin rolled up towards him from behind. "You don't have to shout, I'm right here," he pointed out as he scrambled back up to his feet.

"How did you end up here?" asked the Dark Bishop. "Us covert operatives are not cut out for direct engagement! That's Anaximandros's job!"

Before his question could be answered, Dolofonos shoves Odesse out of the way before parrying a chained ax-head coming from afar, shattering his [Killing Edge] into pieces upon impact. "Take a wild guess."

From the same direction where the ax-blade had been thrown from came out Byron and Vidar, both eyeing towards the pair with predatory intent.

"Lookie here," Byron smirked as his [Perun]'s chains floated and slithered around him like a flying snake, "two spies peeking at us since a few months back."

"He's... he's that guy," Vidar pointed his [Baigujing] towards the Assassin and the Dark Bishop, "the-the one... who has been... watching us... and the one... smells like... Topaz's guns!"

Dolofonos sighs in disbelief as he then tosses aside his broken sword and takes out a sheathed sword similar to form as the [Wo Dao]. However, the blade itself was radiating with cursed energy akin to Dark Magic.

"Odesse, fight like you mean it," said the Assassin as he slowly drew the malignant blade from its scabbard while his skin began to glow with turquoise lines from his magical implants, generally called the [Agarthan Technology]. "We're not dealing with Fodlaners. We're dealing with legitimate crazy people."

"I would normally disagree..." sighed the Dark Bishop before his gloved hands crackled with [Miasma Δ], "... but I can tell from that guys eyes alone. He's looking down on us like we do to them. Yeah, gonna make him die screaming."

Dolofonos then tosses the sheathe aside as his [Cursed Ashiya Sword] was now fully drawn. "Come on," he growled, "just try and kill us if you can!"

First, the Assassin immediately lunges towards Vidar as he then brought out his [Devil Axe] to counter the cursed blade's malignant energy. Then, the Dark Bishop then casts [Miasma Δ] towards Byron, only for the spell to bounce off of the spirits manifesting from the chains that surrounded him before he and the floating ax-head attacked in tandem. The chain axe was first dodged by the Dark Bishop before he was then forced to erect a [Ward] spell to block Byron's own [Miasma Δ].

"All that bravado and you still can't hit me!" taunted the Dark Bishop.

"Who said that was supposed to hit you?" Byron replied as the Odesse turned around to find that the ax-blade of [Perun] was returning towards his head. In a near-miss, the ax-head rips through his beaked mask on its return journey back to Byron's orbit. "Finally getting used to this thing..."

Odesse then rips his damaged mask off of his face with a snarl, tearing away the torn beaked face covering to reveal a bookish-looking male with pale skin and glasses, looking as if he were in his early-to-mid twenties. "YOU BASTARD!" he snarled as his face then began to glow with the same lines coming from Dolofonos. "THAT WAS MY FAVORITE!"

"Boo-hoo, my condolences," smirked Byron before he threw his [Perun] at Odesse again as the latter casted [Mire B] towards him as retaliation.

From the treetops, Topaz continued throwing her [Zulfiqar] around the battlefield like a bladed boomerang, chopping off heads of anyone unfortunate enough to get in its way. But from the corner of her eye, she spots a thrown dagger aimed at her before she dodged it, sticking into the tree trunk behind her.

"Huh, props," said the disdainful voice, revealing herself to be Kronya. "Usually, I'd be super-pissed if I can't kill my targets in one go, but you? That's genuine skill and honed instinct right there."

"You compliment me?" answered Topaz as she drew her [Wo Dao] from her hip. "You don't strike me as the type."

"Believe me, it's weird even for me," Kronya pointed out as she drew her [Athame] short sword along with several more throwing knife-versions of the former. "... You're not from around here, are you?"

"Was it that obvious?" Topaz deadpanned. "None of us are exactly welcome here."

"So why did you reject my boss's offer?" Kronya pointed out.

"Like I said," Topaz rebuffed, "you look down on us. Joining your side wouldn't change anything."

"Fair enough," Kronya shrugged before she then threw her knives at the Hassashin as an opening barrage.

Topaz parries all of the thrown blades before clashing against the Assassin's [Athame], the black blade gleaming against her curved sword. During their lock, the tree branch that both of them stood on snapped under their feet, causing them to both fall back to the ground.

Topaz gracefully lands on her feet while Kronya tried to do the same, but trips over a tree-root upon landing, causing her to twist her ankle and the sudden unbalance making her land on her butt.

"High heels? Really?" she deadpanned as she saw Kronya forcibly snap her sprained ankle back into place. "How do you even walk in those? At least I have the decency to wear no shoes!"

Before Kronya can retaliate, her raised [Athame] short sword is then suddenly cut into two by Topaz's passing Zulfiqar. "I... how... why?" she croaked as Topaz walked up towards her. She then activates her [Agarthan Technology] to melee her with her enhanced strength, only for both of her arms to be grabbed by Topaz's bandaged arms before her elbows were forcibly bent the other way, as indicated by her joints making snapping sounds like a stepped on-twig.

Kronya shrieks in both fear and agony compounded onto her shattered ego as she rolled onto the ground, now completely helpless. "Oh would you look at that," Topaz smirked slightly as she looked down at her despite her height only barely coming past Kronya's waistline, "now I'm the one looking down at you."

"Who are you..." muttered Kronya as for the first time in her life, she felt the cold grip of fear choke her very heart as she couldn't take her eyes away from this thing that only looked like the other dumb beasts, discovering that even with her superior enhancements implanted throughout her body, she somehow managed to break her limbs with her bare hands. "WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU?!"

"I am Death," Topaz answered bluntly as the bandages around her left arm began to bulge during her approach towards the gaudy Assassin, with each step being accentuated from creaks sounding like trees being felled from a distance. "And I don't mean it metaphorically, or rhetorically, or poetically, or theoretically, or any other fanciful way."

The bandages around her left arm ripped themselves open to reveal the implanted [Blutgang] Relic coming out from between her exposed sinews and bone like a mantid's claw. The way this warping of the body was arranged in a way that a mechanical contraption would be like, only instead of being made of metal, wires and cogs, the exposed bone acted like the pistons and the stretched sinews and muscles acted like wires that pulled apart the arm itself.

Kronya then nearly vomits in both fear and disgust at the sight of this meat and bone-made augmentation that was Topaz's left arm resembling that of a Demonic Beast.

It was made blatantly clear to her now. What stood before Kronya could not be classified as a human being.

"I AM DEATH, STRAIGHT UP," she declared as her flying [Zulfiqar] was then caught onto her right hand, with Kronya seeing a "XIII" engraved into one of the scales peeking out from her bandages as the trees that the blade had flown threw fell from their severed stumps around them. "And I have come for your soul, Kronya, the alleged-'wrecker of my shit."

Suddenly, a bolt of lightning strikes across Toapz's Demonic Beast-like arms, sending her flying back into the clearing. Kronya looks behind herself, and spots Faceless, or his true name, Chilon of the Seven Sages, ride towards her atop of his clockwork horse, his signature [Bolt Axe] crackling with residual magic.

"We'll discuss your underperformance later," the Great Knight stated as he then pulled out a small burlap sack of [Warp Powder] from his armor before throwing it onto her, whisking her away elsewhere. With her gone, Chilon rides into the clearing, spotting a glance at Topaz, who was still alive after his surprise attack.

Suddenly, from behind and above, Sorcha and Selene ambushed the Great Knight. "YER GONNA HAVE TO GET PAST US-"

Both were then shocked by the Great Knight's [Bolt Axe]'s [Thunder] spell surrounding him. "Not today," he stated. "I have other priorities."

He then spots Anaximandros facing off against Cyrus. Quickly, he separates the two with a swing of his [Bolt Axe] before he then rams Cyrus and Darius aside with his mechanical horse, successfully separating the Battuian from the Dark Knight, with the former now having to fend off the remaining Paladins that flanked Cyrus, pushing him away from the Dark Knight even further.

"Never thought he was ever gonna leave me," Anaximandros remarked as he rode with the Great Knight. "So what are you doing here?"

"Reinforcements from the nearby regions have been spotted, being spearheaded by the Archbishop's aide," said Chilon. "Prepare to coordinate a retreat."

"Can't you just broadcast the damn order?" the Dark Knight pointed out.

"Can't," the Great Knight replied. "Communicators are on a fritz. The breached Dragon Vein is mucking up the works. We're going to have to coordinate our way out the old fashioned way."

"I'll go tell boss, you try to get the rest of my guys on the same page!" Anaximandros remarked as he rode away from his superior officer.

"Godspeed," the two riders then began executing their escape plan.

Elsewhere in the chaos, Dolofonos and Vidar were continuing their melee, both of their cursed weapons clashing against each other while it pained them with each connected hit made against each other.

Damn bastard! How the hell is he so calm while I'm feeling like I'm already setting one foot into my own grave?! cursed Dolofonos as his own [Agarthan Technology] barely held up against the mounting pain inflicted upon his prolonged use of his [Cursed Ashiya Sword] that he stole from a Dagdan merchant. Compared to him, Vidar acted as if he didn't feel anything coming from his prolonged use of his own cursed [Devil Axe]. "HURRY UP AND DIE ALREADY!"

The sword and axe clash once again, the agony mounting onto the Assassin while Vidar remained unfazed even as his body began breaking apart from the curse. "... I... won't... die... just yet," growled Vidar, the bandages around his body seeping with patches of red coming from within, "... I will... keep fighting... until... you break!"

The Warrior then pushes back the Assassin before throwing the axe onto Dolofonos's face before equipping his [Baigujing] gauntlets. Having had enough of this, Dolofonos makes one final swing as he pushed past his pain to finish the fight with one fatal swing.

Vidar catches the cursed blade between his teeth, biting down like a clamp before he drove his bladed fist into Dolofonos's stomach with a low blow. This last blow then causes him to let go of his blade before he was then launched off of his feet before the Assassin was then juggled in the air by Vidar's flurry of frozen punches and jabs, with each blow freezing him solid bit by bit.

"I... WILL... BREAK YOOOOU!" With one final uppercut to Dolofono's now-frozen body, the now-completely frozen Dolofonos was shattered into many pieces of broken meat and metal by Vidar's fists.

"DOLOFONOS!" Odesse cried out before he then felt the chains of [Perun] being wrapped around his neck.

"Eyes towards the enemy, dumbass," smirked Byron.

Odesse then fires his [Dark Spikes T] towards him only for him to counter it with [Banshee Θ], the screech blowing away the dark barbs from their initial trajectory.

"YOU PIECE OF SHIT!" the Dark Bishop then overclocks his activated enhancements to try and throw Byron off of the ground. However, Byron then casts [Freeze] around Odesse's feet, encasing ice around the snow that he's walking in. "IT'LL TAKE MORE THAN THAT TO KEEP ME STILL!"

"That's the point, dumbass!" Byron then casts [Blizzard] and [Miasma Δ] at the same time against each other to emit a blinding fog from the opposing reactions. He could've removed the chain around his neck, but he kept it on just to keep track of where Byron was.

As soon as Odesse finally kicks off the frost covering his feet, he then looks around the emitted fog to look for Byron, with his hand kept grasping onto the chain to pull him into his range the moment he spots his shadow. "... Piece of shit, fogging up my glasses," he grumbled to himself as he wiped his lenses with his sleeve. "Why I outta-!"

The chain around his neck suddenly tightens, choking him as the sudden uptick of force then lifted his feet off the ground. Outside of the fog, Byron had rigged one end of [Perun]'s chain onto one of the horses left behind by a dead Paladin while affixing the blade into a tree trunk reinforced by his [Freeze] spell keeping the jammed blade frozen in the ice and the wood. With his magic, Byron then began to shorten the variable length chain of his weapon, causing the horse to panic from the sudden pull and began pulling away from the other pull, tightening the noose that he'd set up prior.

The result was him garroting the Dark Bishop to his slow death without him actually doing the work.

"Shame," he smirked as he appeared before the dying Odesse within the fog that he was trapped in, "if you only had let go."

As he chains asphyxiated the Dark Bishop while still keeping him in the air, flailing about like a fish out of water, Byron's wicked smirk being the very last thing he'd ever see as his vision began to fail completely.

With one last tug, Byron then hears the bones of the bespectacled Dark Bishop's neck snap, severing Odesse's last mortal tether to this world. With the job done, Byron then recalled his [Perun] back into his hand with the fog disappearing and the released horse fleeing elsewhere, leaving behind the dead body to drop onto the snow like a stone in a pond.

"Byron!" Vidar groaned out as he came running towards him with the [Cursed Ashiya Blade] in his hands.

"Took care of things on your end?" said the brainiac, to which Vidar nodded. "Good, because the day's not over yet."

More black-armored Paladins rode towards them with their [Arrow of Indra] lances pointed outwards like jousts.

"BREAK THEM!" Vidar was then about to plunge his [Baigujing] into the snow, only for the charging Paladins to have their heads chopped off, and with one of them having his chest impaled from behind with a blade that looked as if it were made of bone.

Said blade then proceeds to suck the man dry until his own armor and clothes fell off of his now-husklike body. "Sup losers," Topaz smirked as the tiny Swordmaster jumped off the now-empty horse before her assimilated [Blutgang] retracted back into her left arm, "how did things go on your end?"

Vidar points towards his stolen [Cursed Ashiya Blade]. "... Trophy."

"I strangled mine to death," Byron proudly remarked. "How about you? Given that your arms are open and free, methinks that someone got the better of you."

"It was a lucky shot at best," she defended herself while throwing her [Zulfiqar] behind to kill another Paladin before the blade returned to her hand on its way back.

"Oi!" shouted Sorcha's voice as she and Selene came towards them, both of them covered in the blood of their enemies and themselves.

"... Ye guys alright?!" Selene cried out before she landed her pegasus before falling off from her saddle, completely spend.

"She needs treatment!" said Byron as he began casting [Heal] onto her wounds before noticing Sorcha's own. "You too! Everyone else, defend the area!"

A loud bray was heard from afar followed up by several Paladins flying off of their horses. Behind the scattered horde was a one man and horse hurricane named Cyrus and Darius.

"Hey guys!" he waved before them while the other Paladins made a hasty retreat from this freak of nature. "You guys alive?! Because I'm having a blast!"

"Only you find fighting a bunch of horsemen fun," Byron rolled his eyes. "... Although I admit, this day is quite fun."

"Not for me," pouted Topaz, "I failed to kill my target because I just had to play with my food."

"Another time," Cyrus remarked as he turned back towards the battlefield with his [Gradivus] in hand. "Any of you randy? We still have to unburden the Professor."

Vidar and Topaz steps up while Byron, Selene and Sorcha remain behind to get patched up. "Go nuts, you guys."

As their reengagement began, Karna and Thales were still stuck in their duel, with both still clashing both arms and magic against one another without mercy.

"You know, for a geriatric old fart, you sure know how to keep pace with me," Karna taunted as his [Scythe of Sariel] pressed against Thales's [Ridill]. "Have to say, like the cut of your jib."

"Agartha's finest craftsmanship and engineering," the Sage boasted as he kept circulating his own mana into his motorized sword, keeping the spinning row of blades running and grinding against the scythe's blade with neither faltering. "Including that weapon of yours that we'd gifted to that morose rider before you took it for yourself. I must say, my men outdone themselves to have it last this long!"

"Yeah, even being stepped on a Demonic Beast couldn't bend it even slightly," Karna pointed out. "Shame that we're enemies, since with all the good talk we're making. Attempted murder aside."

"It's still not too late," Thales persuaded.

"Sorry, but I forgot to mention one more thing on why I can't join," Karna protested. "I prioritize the well being of my students over short-term benefits, and you seem just about trustworthy as a fox in a chicken coop, which begs to wonder on why people would even join you in the first place other than the most shortsighted and desperate kind of people!"

Thales cackles at Karna's statement, especially given the latter part. "You're not exactly wrong!"

The two then break off from their weapon lock. But just before they could reengage, a Dark Knight rides up towards them from afar.

"BOSS! ENEMY REINFORCEMENTS ARE COMING!" Anaximandros cried out as he rode across the battlefield. "WE NEED TO FUCKING BOUNCE!"

Thales then shoots one last glare towards Karna, to which the latter shrugs. "Another time?" the Professor remarked. "Because you guys are the most fun fight I've ever had. And it's the holidays, so we all need a break. We'll save this for next year, okay?"

Thales chuckles at the Professor's audacious remark. "Very well," he remarked as he then dabbed his hand into a bag of powder before casting a [Miasma Δ] into the air with the same hand, sending a red-colored flare towards the sky, signaling the remaining black-armored Paladins to retreat. "Enjoy the rest of this year, my old friend."

Karna flips him off as Thales flipped him off back while using [Warp] to retreat. Throughout the battlefield, the fallen snow now mired with red and corpses of man and beast alike, the enemy Paladins that were still alive after this carnage pulled out their sacks of [Warp Powders] to escape and fight another day.

"So much for Thales's plan working," Anaximandros snarked at his boss's expense before he noticed the Dustbin glaring at them while he pulled out his [Warp Powder].

Selene tries to shoot the sack out of his hands, only for the fired bolt to be intercepted by Chilon's [Bolt Axe]'s [Thunder] spell, and allowing the Dark Knight to escape.

"Another time, Dusbtin," said the Great Knight as he rode off into the woods with his clockwork horse.

Breaking through the trees and forcing his way through the foliage, Chilon rides into where the Fell star and Warlord, the latter missing his helmet, were still fighting.

"What the-" Linhardt's words were then interrupted by the swing of his [Bolt Axe] conjuring an arc of lightning, forcing everyone to cover themselves from the blast.

Distracted, Shez tries to sneak in a blow to his hated rival, only for him to be snatched off of the ground by his collar before being plopped in front of the Great Knight. "HEY! I WASN'T FINISHED-"

Against his protests, Chilon throws down a sack of [Warp Powder] onto the ground, teleporting out of the battlefield, with Warlord only leaving behind his helmet.

Upon Seteth's arrival with the reinforcements, the battle had already ended with the following results:

The missing students that were recused got killed shortly after.

Jeralt lost at least 26% of his own company.

And the perpetrators behind this incident successfully escaped with moderate-to-high casualties.

The only good news is that Jeralt Eisner, the Blade Breaker, wasn't killed on this day.

However, the Dustbin, while not fully blamed for the failure, were still ordered to clean up after the mess left behind.

Cyrus was happy to keep all the stolen [Arrow of Indra] lances to himself for his upcoming project that he had in mind.

Karna meanwhile pocketed a secret device that he'd picked up from a headless Dark Bishop and sees a number "8" printed on the pocket watch-like contraption before said number faded away. Nevertheless, he keeps the gizmo to himself for future reference.

---

31st of Ethereal Moon, Morning

---

"Good morning everyone!" Karna greeted cheerfully. "I hope you all got your presents, because today is the day for our own gift exchange! Because screw the sods that didn't invite us to the Winter Festival party!"

The student body of just six all applauded.

"So amidst those 4-5 days after that clusterfuck, I presume that you had your gifts ready?" said the Professor as he took his own wrapped gift out. "Because I am!"

"We're ready Professor," said Byron as he and everyone took out their presents of different shapes and sizes.

"Alright!" he then set his gift onto the center of the stables as everyone did the same. "Remember, no choosing our own gifts, alright?"

Everyone agrees as Karna then takes out a jar with slips of paper with everyone's names written on it. He then reaches his hand into it and pulls out a paper before reading it.

"Huh, guess I'm first," shrugged Karna as he then reached out towards Topaz's gift. "And what do I got here?!"

He then unwraps the package and finds a pair of flintlock pistols, handcrafted cleaning tools, a small sack of leaden balls size of marbles, and a horn full of black powder.

"I won't be needing those anymore, given that I have these," said Topaz as she gestured to her now-rebandaged mutant arms. "Use them well, Professor. They look at home with you."

Karna then mocks him shooting both of his pistols at once while sounding "pew-pew" at him mock-firing before putting them away onto his person. "Alright, let's see who's next!"

He then reached into the jar and pulls out Byron's name written on the slip of paper.

"I'll take this one," he remarked as he grabbed Sorcha's package. He then unwraps it to reveal a golden band disconnected on one side and the groove ran down the semi-ring in a spiral-like manner. "What's this?"

"It's a torc," she answered. "De men back at Brigid wore em around der necks to show dat they mean business."

"How do you put it on?" he asked. "The opening's too small for my neck to squeeze through.

Sorcha then comes towards him before she then pulled apart the prong that made up the neck band before fitting it around Byron's neck and snapping back into its default shape. "Der ye go! Already lookin' like a big deal!"

Byron chuckles at her compliment. "Thanks."

"Alright!" Karna spoke as he reached into the jar, "and the next one up is... Selene!"

The wing-tattooed girl then reaches for Karna's package and opens it up to find a black book inside.

"It's my copied notes from the Abyss several months back," the Professor explained. "It has all the juicy details that Fodlan doesn't want seen and I even did a few sketches of the pictures during my times off!"

Selene lets out a nervous chuckle as she hid the notebook away, knowing that if she got caught with it, then having it burnt is the least of her worries. "Can we move on?"

Karna then reaches into the jar and pulls out another paper. "Alright Sorcha, you're up."

Sorcha then takes Byron's gift and opens up to find an old rusted [Hand Axe].

"My very first weapon," said Byron. "I cooked my meat on it, I killed animals and chopped wood with it. Even after 10 years of use, and it never broke on me. Not even once."

"Huh," said the Brigidian Hero as she looked at the old weapon, still skeptical at the Bishop's claims as she observed the chipped edges of the axe. "Well, I'll use it."

Karna then reaches into the jar and pulls out Topaz's name.

"Alright, let's see..." she then picks out Vidar's crudely wrapped present, unraveling upon being tugged ever so slightly.

Underneath the wrappings revealed itself to be an immaculately-sewn trapper's hat made of silky game fur.

"I hunt... Honey Badger... spotted... up north... at monastery..." said Vidar.

"You mean one of the most dangerous animals in Fodlan roughly the size of a housecat?!" Cyrus remarked. "I saw one literally kill a horse! Even I almost died when I ran into one!"

"Correction," stated Byron. "Vidar is the most dangerous animal in all of Fodlan. He makes Honey Badgers viable prey."

Topaz tries on the hat. "... I love the smell of death coming from both the animal and Vidar's handiwork," she smiled at Vidar. "Thank you."

The bandaged Warrior nods in approval.

"Alright, only two people left..." Karna then reaches into the jar and pulls out Vidar's name. "Alright, you're up Vidar."

He then reaches towards a long-looking package from Cyrus before tearing open its wrappings. In it, Vidar finds a fiddle-like object complete with a bow.

"It's a replica of a morin khuur horsehead fiddle," the Battuian Paladin explained as the bandaged Warrior observed the instrument. "Normally, it's made of horse bones and clipped mane, but since the monastery wouldn't allow me to use said material, I had to compromise with wood as the frame."

"Strings..." Vidar sniffed the strings that ran across the instrument's leg, "... smell like... Darius."

"Yeah, I kinda used Darius's clippings that I had with me since I was a kid and wove it into strings," said Cyrus. "It was a good luck charm that I received from my tribesmen when I first set out outside Battu alongside with a few other guys from the community. We had a few good raids there and there, found work at Almyra, took out a couple bandits and trespassers, and that's how I ended up in Fodlan. Good luck ran out, so might as well turn my old shame into something that can soothe the soul. I'll teach you how to play it later, okay?"

"Waitaminute, ye know how to play a fiddle?" Sorcha pointed out. "And ye know how to do carpentry? Since when?"

"People Battu either learn how to do things or get wasted," he pointed out. "I was a quick learner."

"Alright Cyrus, you're up," said Karna as he signaled him to receive the only present remaining.

He then takes Selene's gift before unwrapping it, revealing a giant bottle or gourd made of bronze, with its carrying handle made of rope tied around the hoops welding onto the sides of the bottle and the cap being linked to a chain melded onto the bottle's side.

"It's a basse yutz flagon drinking gourd," explained Selene, "I commissioned the design to the blacksmith. Ye mentioned dat ye drink fermented horse milk booze, right? Thought ye might need something to carry yer favorite drink in 'dere. Also, I had it tested, and dat thin' can stop a sword swing. A bit heavy for me, but yer a big guy, rite?"

"Eh, light enough," Cyrus grinned as he carried the drinking gourd. "I like it! Thanks."

The Dustbin were all sharing their own slice of the holiday spirit, regardless of how minuscule it was.

"Everyone," Karna clapped his hands to get everyone's attention, "I have an announcement to make!"

---

In the Abyss...

---

"You guys..." Yuri sighed as he looked at the paper that he was reading before looking back up at the Dustbin standing before him, all of whom packed their bags and brought their two steeds with them, "... are seriously thinking about bunking down here?"

"Only until winter ends!" Karna pointed out. "Byron almost died of hypothermia and depression a few days prior, and with the Sauna blown up and currently under repairs, we have no choice but to get away from the snow."

"It's not any warmer down here than up there, you know," the Ashen Wolves leader pointed out.

"I'll take my chances with the barrel fires and the dark damp cold than the snow above," said Byron. "At least that way, there might be a chance where my mind might be able to trick myself to into thinking that it's not cold. At least, in terms of object association of for me snow equalling death."

"Desperate much?" deadpanned Yuri. "... Then again, it's not we're any better off nowadays..."

"Something happened?" asked Topaz.

"Something like that," he answered. "People down here are either going missing or being found later dead. Everyone down here are kinda stepping on eggshells since last week."

The Dustbin look at each other before silently agreeing on one thing.

"Well," sighed Karna as he and his class walked deeper in, "can't get much worse than this."

---

At Byleth's Dorm Room...

---

Within the Professor's living quarters, after those five days being spent with Jeralt reminiscing old memories of their twin brother and mother respectively and spending her time with her students in gratitude that none of them died in front of her, Byleth herself decided to sleep in for the whole day until midnight comes around.

As she currently sawed logs both in her dreams and in real life, her spirit companion Sothis, who was currently doing her best to ignore said "sawing," was deep in thought about what had transpired five days prior.

My Divine Pulse has the ability to turn the hands of time back, albeit for a limited amount of times per day, she thought. As my host grows stronger and matures in spirit, the amount of times that I can turn back time to undo erroneous events increases ever so slightly.

As her ethereal form, unseen by everyone but her host, floated around the room, Sothis continued to contemplate on her own.

My memories are still foggy at best, but that's not my biggest concern.

During those last three times that she'd turned back time, she noticed something being off.

The distance between the monastery and where the battle took place was fairly lengthy, she recalled. But Karna and his group weren't even fazed upon entering the fray with such... she then sighs to herself as she recalled Karna elbow-dropping onto the treacherous Monica from above.

Their state wasn't the issue. Rather, it was how they appeared before them during their arrival post-battle.

I might be blindly panicking, but I can't ignore it anymore!

Compared to several months prior when Karna and Byleth first met, Sothis noticed that there was a slight lag between the time that her Divine Pulse took effect and time around Karna coming to a complete halt before the reset took place.

I think...

If Karna has this capability, and it grew in conjunction with his strength just like how her power over time grows with her host's maturation, then the implications were borderline catastrophic.

... I think Karna Yuga has the ability to resist my Divine Pulse.

---

To Be Continued...

---

Support Conversations:

---

- Karna and Vidar (B):

Karna: Alright, just gotta check on Vidar and the cat... *yawn* ... No rest for the wicked I suppose-wait a minute.

*spots several people armed with wooden clubs surrounding where Vidar and the kitten were situated at*

Karna: HEY! WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU BOZOS ARE DOING HERE?!

Vidar: ...

Karna: ... Vidar?

Vidar: ...

*Karna spots the kitten that Vidar was holding being dead in his arms*

Karna: ... Oh no.

Vidar: I'LL KILL YOU ALL!

*intense fight breaks out with Vidar attacking the armed perpetrators with his bear fists, and winning despite being outnumbered*

Karna: I better step in.

*casts [Flux H] to have everyone float in the air*

Karna: Alright, who killed the cat and why?

Student A: Seeing him like that pissed us off.

Student B: Yeah, you guys get to kill people and like it, so why shouldn't we?!

Student C: That freak was asking for it.

Karna: You know that despite everything, I can simply report you all to the administration and have all of you expelled, right? Or alternatively, I can have Vidar here hunt you down like animals that you are.

Student A: Ha! Jokes on you, my parents are Adrestian Empire noblemen!

Student B: You better think twice if you, a mere teaching staff, can out us without consequences!

Student C: You're all trash. You exist to be kicked around.

Seteth: But what about the Archbishop's right hand?

*everyone turns towards Seteth glaring at them*

Seteth: I'll see you three in my office. If you fail to show up or even run away now, I'll have Charming hunt you all down later on. And don't think you can elude his sense of smell. Karna, put them down.

*Karna undos [Flux H] as everyone falls back to the ground*

Seteth: As for you two... do what needs to be done. At least show that you care for the little one by burying it properly.

*two are left alone as Seteth takes the three troublemakers to his study*

Karna: ... I'm sorry.

*Vidar starts crying for the little life lost held in his arms*

---

- Sorcha and Karna (B):

Karna: How are your studies going?

Sorcha: Weird. Like super-weird. I'm actually noticin' a few thins' about the Fodlan language.

Karna: How so? Explain.

*Sorcha raises the book of Fodlan dictionary*

Sorcha: I saw de word "limerick" and dat word is de exact same as de one back at Brigid. Our warriors and heroes composed limerick poems to git a few laughs across the drinkin' tables. Den I saw other words like "slogan" and "phony" being written on der. De way der spelled 'nd spoken... der just Brigidian words used in Fodlan!

Karna: I figured that you would find it eventually. Tell me Sorcha, have you ever heard of the term "cultural appropriation?"

Sorcha: Nah, but I git de feelin' dat it has somethin' to do with me finding words dat I know being used in Fodlan.

Karna: Not all culture is built from the ground up. In fact, nearby cultures take bits and pieces of other local cultures and add it to their own. Fodlan is a weird case, given that their language has origins tracing back to a number of several outside cultures from Brigid, Dagda, Albinea, Almyra and Morfis. It's an amalgam, or a mix of different lexicons put into being.

Sorcha: Den der ripoffs.

Karna: Same can be said for other cultures, including yours, but it doesn't have to be a bad thing.

Sorcha: Meanin'?

Karna: Sorcha, I'm just saying that you can be proud of being a Brigidian. Even through you are in Fodlan and that the Adrestian Empire has humiliated your people and practically colonized your nation, I'm saying that doesn't make you any less of who you are. Cultures are meant to be explored and learned from just like languages.

*Sorcha then accidentally flips to the page with the word "anthropology" written on it*

Sorcha: ... Ye might have a point. I think I was just bitchin' about de fact that we were looked down on even though we're born stronger. I guess when other words from other lands start buggin' me and folks 'round 'ere kept tellin' me to "speak rite" or "don't say it like dat," it bothered me a lot. I saw Petra conforming, 'nd I fekin' hated it. Maybe I just wanna find somethin' else to look down on meself. Heh... guess dat makes me no different from me oppressors.

Karna: Eh, life is cruel like that. Our milage may vary. I mean, I got kidnapped and got sold as a slave before I escaped. And just about every culture has their own bad eggs.

Sorcha: ... Is it possible to make me own culture?

Karna: Dreaming big, aren't you?

Sorcha: *snort* Ye can say dat.

---

- Selene and Karna (B):

Selene: Professor, I gotta ask somethin'.

Karna: What is it?

Selene: Why are we at a crowded marketplace?

Karna: Just wanted you to get used to people. And there's also something I gotta buy at an auction.

Selene: A barker? ... Dun tell me!

Karna: You're the one bidding for me.

*hands her 30,000 gold*

Karna: Won all of this at your sister's underground pit fight. Now, there's an old staff belonging to an ancient alchemist that is about to be auctioned off, and I want you to outbid these other guys at my stead. When you're bidding, you better say it out loud and you better stand out. It's sink or swim, okay?

*Selene incoherently makes sounds from her half-shut mouth*

Karna: Alright! Don't forget to have fun!

*Selene enters the auction house filled to the brim with people*

Auctioneer: ALRIGHT FOLKS, THE AUCTION IS OPEN! TODAY'S OFFER IS A STAFF! ONCE BELONGING TO AN OLD ALCHEMIST WHO HAS FOUNDED FAERGHUS'S MAGE ACADEMY 500 YEARS AGO!

*reveals a [Healing Staff] from underneath the curtain*

Auctioneer: Normally, this is only worth 2,000 gold, but given its prior owner and confirmed modifications that allows its user to heal several people at once, the price for this ancient staff is thrice the amount! OUR OFFER START AT 6,000 gold!

*people start making bids like crazy*

Auctioneer: Our current bid is 10,000 gold! Any takers?!

Selene: 15,000!

*more people then began raising their bids*

Auctioneer: We are at 26,000! Any takers?!

Person A: 29,000.

Auctioneer: 29,000 gold! Any takers?!

Selene: 30,000!

Auctioneer: We are at 30 grand! Any takers?!"

*people go silent*

Auctioneer: Going once... going twice!

*Auctioneer slams the gavel*

Auctioneer: SOLD! FOR 30 GRAND! COME AND GET YOUR PRIZE!

*Selene walks out of the Auction House with the modified [Healing Staff]*

Selene: I got it!

Karna: Good job! Now let me see that thing.

*Karna then takes the [Healing Staff] before observing it up close*

Karna: ... I knew it. This is a fake.

Selene: Wait... FAKE?! YE HAD ME SPEND THIRTY-THOUSAND FOR A PIECE OF WORTHLESS JUNK?!

Karna: A few words I heard claimed that the auctioneer running that place is a prolific con artist. Now that you have the receipt and the bought goods, we can now report him to the authorities and earn even more money!

Selene: And ye used me?!

Karna: I saw you from within. You didn't lose your cool in there, didn't you?

Selene: ... Huh. I really didn't.

Karna: Progress is progress. So, after we turn him in and get our reward, want me to buy you something? As an apology, of course.

Selene: Apologize first den!

---

- Karna and Cyrus (B):

Karna: Hey, how are you doing in there?

Cyrus: Could be better. But why the library of all places?!

Karna: You can read in here if you want.

Cyrus: That's not the point! I mean, why am I stuck in cleaning duty in one of the most horizontally-cramped rooms in all of Garreg Mach?!

Karna: That's the point. Now chop chop, the library ain't gonna clean itself.

*Cyrus cleans the library while Karna reads all of the piled books that need to go on their shelves*

Karna: Good! That wasn't so bad, wasn't it?

Cyrus: No, it was awful. There were mice up at the counters.

Karna: Yet I didn't hear screaming.

Cyrus: They're small, so why should I be afraid of them?!

Karna: To you maybe. But to the mice, you're the big one.

Cyrus: Pardon?

Karna: Cyrus, the world cannot be solely defined the binary of "small" or "big." Rather, everything we see how big or small the world is can only be put into perspective. To you, civilizations are "small" because you lived in the steppe throughout your whole life, right?

Cyrus: Nothing was getting in the way, that's for sure.

Karna: I think it's wonderful that people can live just about anywhere around the world when they put their minds to it. But in turn, no one can comprehend living on the other side because they know nothing. It's a self-imposed myopia that we humans have just to make sense in a world which chaos is the natural order. Not everyone nor everywhere is like you. People adapt to simply not die, just like how your ancestors adapted to living in the steppe.

Cyrus: ... For which I will never understand. If people can easily be divided just by where they live, then why bother understanding? If misunderstandings make enemies, then the best option is to kill them.

Karna: So why haven't you killed us when you had the chance?

Cyrus: Maybe... maybe you guys remind me of the people I would be around back at Battu. Aside from Darius, I don't have anything that tethers me back home, and the longer I stay in Fodlan, the more chances that these schemers will have trying to cut the only knot that I have left and forcibly make me join them instead! I don't have a problem with where I am! I have a problem with the people that shove their values to my face!

Karna: ... Damn. Guess fear is your strongest motivator, ain't it?

Cyrus: It helps me remember who I am. I'm Battuian. I'm no one else.

Karna: Think whatever that makes you content.

---

- Karna and Topaz (B):

Karna: Hm, never thought I'd find you here at the Abbey of all places.

Topaz: Mere curiosity. Nothing more.

*Karna then sits down on the pew next to Topaz*

Karna: So, I suspect your people doesn't have temples akin to this place?

Topaz: Our god needs no monument. He only brings death and balance to the world. Azrāʾīl only demands work and respect from his faithful. No need for such... frivolous idolatry.

Karna: Hm, so your belief prefers to keep things simple? I can understand. Harder for it to destroy a religion if there is no central temple to burn down or where all of its worshippers are congregated. Tell me, does Azrāʾīl have an appearance?

Topaz: He does not. He only exists before our lives are snuffed out. He needs no form. Only that he continues the cycle of life through death. Compared to that, what does this continent's Goddess stand for?

*two then stand up and walk up towards the Goddess Statue enshrined in the service room*

Karna: Going off schematics alone, it is stated that as the "Mother of all Stars," the Goddess has created all life on Fodlan after creating all of the world and its laws. It is stated that the efforts of maintaining her own creations that span beyond this world alone caused her to be in need of rest, and to this day, she sleeps at the bed of stars, with her people waiting for her return.

Topaz: So she's nothing more than an overglorified architect that has grown lazy. Pathetic. For us, Azrāʾīl existed as the world has existed. It wasn't created, it was simply there this whole time. Creation is man's work. Destruction is the work of the divine.

Karna: So your people don't believe in creation myths? Do your people care of where they might've come from or how the world came to be?

Topaz: We don't need to ask those things. It is not of our concern, and to those that do, all they're doing is daring Azrāʾīl to wipe them out. It's not a case of "if" but "when."

Karna: I think there's a reason why religions build in the first place. They think that by building something from this world that they came to be, including their supposed origin stories, it'll please their god that they're making something for the canvas of creation that had come to be. To show that their work wasn't in vain, and that through creation, they will accomplish in their god's stead and further his work.

Topaz: Why create when it's only going to be destroyed? Why cling to life knowing that we'll all die?

Karna: I don't know, why are you alive?

Topaz: Because it is not our time.

Karna: Exactly. That's what they think too.

Topaz: They run. My people have already accepted the truth.

Karna: For me, I think it's the worshippers trying to please their god as much they can, not wanting to die when they can do so much more for their god's sake. Your people and this religion are not so different.

Topaz: From these cowards? How so?

Karna: Well for one, both of your religions killed a lot of people not falling in line within their line of thought. Humans need to believe in something lest we all shrivel up and die faster than we normally do. But it is in belief itself that drives people to do things. Anything, no matter how much it goes against the "truth."

Topaz: ... Are you insinuating that my people's beliefs are invalid?

Karna: Eh, they did something. For one, they survived living in the deserts and canyons where only the most hardened and stoic people can survive, let alone, survive for generations. And the fact that they accepted Zoltan's people and his kids means that they might be compassionate to other people to some degree.

Topaz: ... We're more than willing to accept if my people die off. But even after our deaths, our god will continue existing without us.

Karna: So detached from life itself that you're willing to go that far... Well, I won't stop you. But just keep this mind: no belief is invalid if it did something.

Topaz: ... I'll keep that in mind.

---

Author's Notes: This was easily the longest chapter I've ever written. Oh well, at least it'll be something to enjoy for the next four-five months of me being AFK. This is almost 2 full chapters' worth of content in one package so that you readers have something to savor on during my time off. After that, I'm switching to weekly uploads once I graduate, since then I'll be needing to find a job and prepare for the real world/get into serious writing and publishing.

First off, yes, I spared Jeralt. I have my reasons, but only that I still need him around for my future chapters for my fic. But consequently, Byleth's not getting her hair color changed nor she will have the opportunity to kill off Solon because now she has no reason or incentive to.

Second, regarding the TWISTD (Those Who Slither In The Dark), I gave them an "Adaptational Nice Guy" treatment for two reasons. One, their canon characterization is flat as a rolled out pizza dough and have no reason behind their malevolence except for entitlement (I'll give them a full-blown origin story chapter of their own later on). And two, it makes writing them more bearable, while showing that beyond their agenda to plunge Fodlan into chaos for their benefit, off the clock, they behave like normal people and are relatively friendly towards each other. Also, they're a bit more pragmatic than their canonical versions, knowing when to retreat and actually use the people that they impersonate as slave labor for logistics (this one I got out of learning more about the Orcs during my Tolkien class, they spare some humans to work in their mines). It is only when they try to make a run for it that when they're disposed of.

... Except for Kronya, to which in the next arc adapting the latter half of the "Cindered Shadows" DLC chapters is going to elaborate on why she's the "Unfavorite." Even then, there will be a reason (that is tied to their upcoming origin story).

And after the battle, the Dusbin and everyone else get their own days off before the New Year's. The Dustbin do their own gift exchange as a bonding moment/Karna finishing all of his students' support conversations up to B-rank, and to have them transition into the Abyss to not only avoid the cold, but also inadvertently run into trouble and throw several monkey wrenches into everyone's plots. But don't worry, they're still going to be called out for surface jobs regarding the Parent-Student Conference coming up, for which is going to be an ordeal of itself.

Also, Sothis has finally met her match. And for reference, when she used her Divine Pulse, the Dustbin as they made their way towards the battlefield, weren't affected.

And now, to address some things asked to me:

Yes, the Dragon's Vein was mentioned earlier in the "Ghost Stories" arc, where it is defined as a catch-all term for any pools of mana that flow throughout the land, and it was the very thing powering the warp and buff panels where the rescue took place and why said place blew up (because Karna just had to tamper with the Fire Emblem's equivalent of exposed electrical wires).

Yes, the real Monica von Ochs was captured, her face and identity got copyrighted, made a slave before attempting to escape through the Faerghusian wilderness (during Fall and Winter seasons), gets caught again, and turns into the Giant Hellhound Demonic Beast and going after the one wearing her face before being unknowingly killed by her own liege that she can no longer remember.

Yes, Warlord is revealed to be the now-resurrected Shez. I moved back their confrontation from six-months before the start of Garreg Mach storyline to 2 years because I was this far into the writing to make that much of a drastic change, and given that Three Hopes is an AU of itself, I think I can get away of having Berling's death and Shez's romp in the sellsword market happen much earlier as the alleged "canon." Now that we have three out of Four Riders checked out, I think our "Conquest" representative will show up soon.

Also, I just realized that Plaguebearer/Miklan is meant to represent "Pestilence" but the truth is that he should be "Famine," but I had two reasons. One, I couldn't come up with a cool name for a "Famine"-related Rider. And two, I was reading "Four Knights of Apocalypse" and I just realized that there was no "Conquest," only to learn later on that "Conquest" and "Pestilence" are interchangeable. Food for thought.

And yes, Karna and Thales literally shared a laugh at the Flame Emperor's expense. I get the whole "the enemy of my enemy is my friend logic" along with "keep your friends close and your enemies closer," but if both sides are that strapped for manpower and influence, why didn't they show it outright? Also, yes, Thales literally calling Karna an "old friend" WASN'T a hyperbole.

With all that said, that is all I have until May of this year/2023. See you all around then, and wish me luck on me actually graduating my final college year.

References:

- Byleth's OC twin brother, Belial, is named after one of the 72 Demons of Ars Goetia, whose name means "worthless" in Hebrew, and is the name I chose for my second playthrough for Fire Emblem Three Houses for the Blue Lions path (that I never finished because I had to go on Maddening and real life getting in the way). I named my first male avatar Barbatos during my Golden Deer path, whose name also comes from Ars Goetia.

- Chilon/Faceless is a multi-reference. First, his disguise/codename is based off of the Faceless undead monsters from Fire Emblem Fates, right down to his mask being the same ones that all of the Faceless units wear. Second, the reference to his [Bolt Axe] being stolen from a Wyvern Lord who stood in front of a rockslide is a reference to Gromell the Wyvern Lord from Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance (who is a bit of a meme on the Japanese side of the Fire Emblem fanbase).

- Topaz's note of the [- Seals] in them granting knowledge to those anointed by its bolt of magic is a reference to Bravely Default and how their Asterisks worked, albeit with a downplayed case on the "Instant Expert" trope for the former in comparison to the latter example.

- The device that Odesse and Dolofonos have on them is a reference to a JoJo's Bizarre Adventure X Persona 5 fusion fic, "Vanishing Act," where Lynott used a counter clicker to keep count how many times he had to reset time with his own stand [Time in a Bottle] when trying to kill the main character Shizuka Jostar and later Ryuji Sakamoto.

- The scene where the sauna explodes from the excess buildup of steam within is a reference to a scene from Yakuza Dead Souls, where Majima did the same thing to detox after getting bitten by a zombie (which was an old man in dentures, meaning that he wasn't infected to begin with).

- Byron's returning speech is based off of the Joker's from Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker.

- The Giant Hellhound is based off of Ranga design from That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime.

- Dolofono's revealed face is partially based off The Riddler from Harley Quinn (2019) and The Vulture from Spider-Man.

- Anaximandros's squadron of Paladins all wear the "Jailer Mask" accessories from Fire Emblem Fates in tandem with Paladin helmets based off of the Fire Emblem Awakening and Fates's take on the Paladins design-wise.

- The activation for [Agarthan Technology] ability is based off the activation of magic circuits from Fate/Stay Night, as demonstrated by Dolofonos himself.

- Odesse's face is based off Laurent's from Fire Emblem Awakening and partially off of Oneirio's "Ashen Demon Route" design for Odesse that I sort of ran into on Twitter (said post is like 2-3 years old at this point, given that said content creator moved onto Granblue Fantasy-related artwork). AND NO, I DO NOT OWN HIS ARTWORK AND CONCEPT. The "Ashen Demon" AU and all associated artwork is Oneirio's.

- Topaz's declaration towards Kronya during their fight is ripped from the Wolf/Death's speech to Puss in Boots during their encounter in the Cave of Lost Souls in Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (FTR, I fucking LOVE that movie).

- Both of Sorcha and Selene McCarthy's gifts are actual ancient Gaelic relics.

- Topaz's line during her support with Karna quotes Kefka from Final Fantasy 6.