The Holy Mausoleum was bathed in an eerie glow, the flickering torchlight casting long shadows across the ancient stone walls. The air was thick with the metallic scent of blood and the echoing clang of steel against steel. Byleth's heart pounded as she and her students moved swiftly, their senses on high alert for any sign of the enemy.
As they navigated through the winding corridors, they encountered more of the cloaked figures, their movements swift and deadly. Byleth and her students engaged them in battle. While the figures clearly had some training, it had evidently fell short of how much Byleth pushed her own students.
It was little wonder that these people had come in the numbers that they did, knowing just how unmatched they were in single combat.
Quantity over quality.
Just like Lonato.
Dimitri fought with a ferocity that was usually absent from the prince. It seemed that attacking the Mausoleum had galvanized the blonde to a degree that Byleth had thought impossible for him.
Felix, not wanting to be left behind by his supposed rival, fought with as much vigor. His blade caught man after man, each strike as lethal as they could be.
The amount of bodies piling up was beginning to leave a stench throughout the room. Rotting, disgusting. And judging by the faces of her students, they hadn't expected it.
This wasn't the first time that they had to leave this many bodies out for the smell to be unbearable. However, that first time, the actions of the Archer were more eye-catching and as such, the smell became more of a background thing.
This time? Confined within the tight spaces of the Mausoleum?
It would be a miracle if her students got out of this without puking.
"How many?" She asked one of the nameless knights, one of the few still left standing after she managed to break into the lines.
"Three more injured, one more dead." The man gave a shuddering breath, "Only myself and six others are left standing, with one of us already tending to the wounded."
Left unsaid was the question on whether or not they'd live through this.
Byleth couldn't say.
Their enemies were pouring in more and more. Where they were doing so was a question for later. The main thing that mattered was putting a stop to it. Putting a stop to whatever they were doing to the crypt of the Saint.
Indeed, throughout this entire debacle, they'd been forced to one side of the room - the wrong side that is. In doing so, these people had started breaking away at the protections placed on the grave. To what end, she didn't know.
Surely, these people knew that the moment they opened that, the entirety of the Church of Seiros would stop at nothing to have each and every single one of them executed?
Time was both on their side and not. The longer this goes on, the higher the chance that her other students, and the other Houses, would come busting in through the door. Conversely, this gave more time for them to open the casket.
Not only that, but the imposing figure wielding a scythe that hadn't moved were watching them closely.
There were two reasons that these people were willing to be as passive as they were. One, they knew there was no getting out of this, and thus, this was a literal suicide mission. Not likely, Byleth would admit, but it was still a possibility,
The second reason was that they were supremely confident in getting out after retrieving whatever was left in the casket.
Neither option was good.
"Hold the line!" Byleth shouted to the knights, her voice cutting through the chaos. "We can't let them open the crypt!"
Byleth's eyes darted to the imposing figure wielding the scythe. The figure had yet to make a move, watching the battle with an unsettling calmness. There was an air of authority around them, and Byleth couldn't shake the feeling that this person was the true threat.
She wanted to fight him, to strike down at the one that could only be these people's leader.
She couldn't. Or rather, wouldn't.
Not when there was still that single figure doing their damndest to open the casket.
"We can't let them open that casket." she called to Dimitri and Felix. "We'll punch through them as much as we can, and form a perimeter around it." As much as she hated to do so without more backup, they needed to end this fast.
Dimitri nodded, his expression grim but determined. "Understood, Professor. Let's finish this."
…
"Byleth, you can't keep this up."
'I know.'
There were just too many of them. Despite their efforts, with only the three of them trying to break through, it was just a matter of time before they slipped up. Had her other students been there, then they wouldn't have had any issues.
That was not where they found themselves in.
She could only assume that they were held up by the rest of the Western Church forces - which she found out after overhearing the grumbles from the one closest to the casket about 'the Central Church'.
Really, how had they kept quiet about this for the entirety of their planning if they couldn't keep quiet now?
"Your left!"
Byleth shook off her more or less delirious thoughts as she pulled herself to the right, dodging the arrow that would have right her shoulder in the process.
She had been fighting for well over fifteen minutes now, trying to get to the front of the mob, to no avail. It had gotten to the point of Sothis, normally keeping to herself to not distract Byleth from combat, becoming a second set of eyes that she sorely needed.
"Dammit, where the hell is that Archer?! He's supposed to be defending this place from bandits!"
Yet another question that Byleth had to forego an answer to, despite wanting one herself.
The Archer was nowhere to be found. She hadn't seen him since her last conversation with him, when he'd given her the letter from Lonato.
He had been a constant presence within the monastery, for better or for worse, and yet, when he was sorely needed, he was just gone?
An uneasy feeling in her gut formed.
Was she wrong? In giving even a small modicum of trust towards the man? The Western Church moved too well, too easily for them to not have some spies that knew the layout of the monastery.
What better spy than a man that could disappear at will?
"You have so little faith that it's disgusting to hear."
Her eyes snapped wide open, more than they already were, trying to find where that bastard was. She had to ignore Sothis yelling out expletives as she focused on the mental link with the Archer.
"Oh, I'm nowhere near there. I'm outside, if you'd believe it. The air is nice and cool, you should try it."
'Get in here and help us already!'
"How about…no?"
White hot fury coursed through Byleth at his flippant refusal. She couldn't afford to be distracted by his mocking tone. She needed to focus on the task at hand.
"Felix, Dimitri, keep pushing forward!"
'That's it, isn't it? This entire fucking time, you've been working with them!'
Honestly, she could have seen that coming. It was just the faint bit of trust that prevented her from doing so. Thinking that he really did owe her his life back when they'd first met. Back when that mark on her hand first appeared.
Jeralt would be furious. Not at her, but at the Archer. He would more likely be disappointed that she didn't take his warnings seriously.
The bastard will pay, she swore it.
"No, I'm not."
'You just admitted it!' She roared mentally, 'You have no right to be poking in my head, traitor, now GET OUT!'
"How could a traitor be one when they were never loyal to begin with?" The Archer blatantly ignored her demand, "Besides, I believe you're misunderstanding something. I never told you I wouldn't fight them. Just that I wouldn't fight them now."
'What difference does it make?'
She paused her sprint to the side as she heard a commotion behind her. Familiar voices. Footsteps and battlecries. Byleth gave a feral smile as the rest of the Blue Lions finally pushed their way inside the Mausoleum.
They looked like they were through hell and back, with tattered uniforms and sweat caking their forms. Nevertheless, they rushed towards Bylet, determined to do their job. Byleth had to stop from laughing out loud at seeing Dedue of all people being the fastest, placing himself at Dimitri's side.
"Everything."
She motioned for Dimitri to take the left side of the room, Felix to the right, and her own smaller retinue to the center. The cloaked figure was hurrying now, doing whatever it was that he needed to in order to unlock the casket at nearly double the speed he had started with.
"You understand that they won't stop, do you not? This entire operation of theirs, should it fail, will only make them think of how the next one shouldn't. They will keep doing this, over and over again, and eventually, whatever defenses you put into place will break."
With one last wary glance at the motionless Death Knight in the middle, she strode forward, Ingrid and Ashe flanking her.
"Fanatics will only ever stop when they're dead. To try and move them away from that fate is a fool's errand - you can't stop a duck from waddling in the water, after all."
Just a bit more now. They'd gotten past the last line of full knights. There were only archers and mages left now. Ones that Byleth could easily beat down with a few swings of her sword.
"Therefore, I won't stop them. Instead, I will let the ducks swim, satisfy themselves within the pond, while I look for the source of water and cut it off from there."
'What, and you letting them do this helps in that, how?' The more he spoke, the more that Byleth's rage simmered into something more manageable.
"They have to bring the bones somewhere. And when they do, I'll be waiting to cut down the head of the hydra. No more bandits. No more attacks. No more spies within your own academy. Do you understand now? That this is the simplest solution if we want to find the real culprits and not just some lackeys. All you have to do is. Let. Them. Win."
'Fuck you! I'm not going to let the Western Church steal what I'm meant to protect!'
An amused laugh, "Suit yourself then. I've already gotten what I wanted."
'What?'
"You're too late!" A blast of energy knocked them back from the casket, "Death Knight, prepare to-what is this?" The sudden switch from triumphant to genuine confusion caught them off guard. Instead of bones, or even anything resembling a corpse, the cloaked man pulled out…a sword?
No matter.
Byleth charged at him, her own sword raised high. The Western Church member, not a knight, clearly not a knight, was not trained in anything other than magic, it seemed. It was painfully obvious with how clumsy his stance was, letting Byleth disarm him easily enough.
The sword flew high.
One turn.
Two turns.
More.
Before landing squarely into her hand. The moment she touched it, a shock of power coursed through her. Three gasps. One from her, and the others, only heard in her head.
"What…what did you do?!"
"Byleth, what was that?!"
She had to ignore them for now. There was still the matter of the Western Church now charging up a fireball.
Instinctively, she used the sword to bat away the fire, registering too late that that was a mistake.
Only, the flames dissipated the moment they hit the blade.
She didn't have time to appreciate it. The mage was still charging up more magic. The sword met each and every one, the glow that had previously been faint growing brighter and brighter.
She plunged the sword forward, letting her desperate opponent try and defend against it. Despite her not even pushing that hard, she felt the sword respond to her, a blast of energy pulsing into the man, knocking him back, right into the cold stone floor.
Byleth could only stare in abject wonder at the sword.
…
Commissioned by: FireRogueWolf25
A/N: If you like what I do and want to support me, check out my P-atreon at P-atreon•com(slash)Almistyor.
And a special thanks to: FireRogueWolf25, brutalcrab and Tassimo.