The Crest trials
Fire Emblem - Three houses (silver ending)
CH: 1 A hard defeat
It was a harsh two weeks for the empire to say the least, the Dukedom has taken back by kingdom forces, the attempted spear head to the alliance capital was crushed by both the Kingdom and Alliance forces. It felt like imperial forces were on the retreat, some even speculated that some imperial territory will be occupied before the end of the month. the imperial army was scrambling whatever forces they can to fort Arianrhod, also called "the silver maiden", and here Hanneman, and Manuela was put in the citadel to be in charge and protecting the wounded, and commander Bolus was in charge of everything, he told the imperial army to stand firm for the black eagles strike force to reinforce them lead by Hubert himself, so they had to hold Arianrhod.
Hanneman was drilling the mages, and making sure that everyone was in their positions, he then noticed a mage who was readying a fire ball and looked ready to fire it anything that came over the horizon. "Son if you keep that fire up all day, you won't have enough strength to fire any more at anything else when the time comes" the mage looking at him then extinguished it spoke with a squeaky preteen voice "oh um sorry mr… sir". Hanneman looked at the mage then asked, "what is your name… and how old are you?" the mage took his mask off and revealed a young boy "my name is Hans and I'll be 12 this week" Hanneman shocked "what is a child your age doing here?" the boy put his mask back on "Bolus drafted me and a couple hundred like for the Empire and all that, plus now I can put some food on my family's table", Hanneman only sighed he wanted a share a strong word with Bolus with his recruitment practices. But seeing that was going to have to wait patted the boy's shoulder "ok son just remember to serve your …" but before he could finish the sound of horns could be heard and soon enough the Kingdom army could be seen from a distance and Hanneman alerted everyone. "get to your positions" and scores of solders went into the drained moat now being used as a trench with spears, and wooden pikes to fortify it. "Secure the entrances!" and the gates were closed and draw bridges were raised. Hanneman was looking at the kingdom army who was just holding their positions about a mile away and then he saw some objects flying over the horizon that looked like clay pots up in the air and being a full moon night he could see smoke emitting from them and he knew what they were and tried to shout shouted to the men in the moat but couldn't do so soon enough and the smoking objects hit the moat and wall and bursting into flaming tar on to the imperial solders bunning many and starting panic in the rest, and with that the battle of the silver maiden has begun.
The siege has been going for almost a week now and the kingdom army's artillery continued to barrage the fort now with stones for now. The main body of the army was now advancing to the wall using the smoke and cover of night, with their armored knights advancing in a turtle formation. Hanneman looked at the knights and though they were moving kind of oddly but the smoke from the fires were thick and thought his eyes were playing tricks on him and with his battalion of mages got in a ready position "rain fire, ice, lighting and whatever else you can summon!" and they bombarded the knights with all sorts of magic, then Hanneman saw the knights where just standing still, so he cried "hold!" and they stopped and he looked and saw that most of them were just armored scarecrows being controlled by a couple of guys and Hanneman blood ran cold "Oh no…" and before he could look up a valley of arrows was raining on his mage battalion and panic spread with many abandoning their positions to search for cover and before he could rally them Pegasus knights started to swoop in and pick off any stragglers and quickly flew away before their archers could retaliate. "Get in formations, form ranks along the walls" then another valley came but the mages were better prepared and took minimal losses, Hanneman saw Hans with his now mask on now and in a state of panic "its ok son, on your feet and ready your fire", Hans stood up and lit up a fire ball "ok Professor, lets fight".
Then the sound clanking noises on the walls and they could see the tops of ladders and hook ropes and Hanneman knew what to do "Close formations" and the mages formed four lines and as kingdom grapplers and brawlers came over the walls, and many were brought down by shots of magic but there was way too few of them and the brawlers closed the gap very quickly. It seemed that with the solders and mages in a decent formation, they were holding their own against the bawlers but then another onslaught of Pegasus knights quickly swooped in and helped the kingdom brawlers break the imperial formations and were being pushed off battle tower, Hanneman looked over the wall and now he could see that kingdom knights were now attacking the gate with a batting ram, and could see it did not have much time left "fall back to the citadel!" and he looked and saw Hans being held against a battlement by a brawler and he quickly shot a Thoron shot in the brawler's back killing him, Hanneman quickly went up to Hans and helped him to his feet "Hans get to.." but before he could finish a grappler was about kill him and Hans quickly got in the way as he fired a fire ball stunning the grappler and Hanneman quickly finished him off. Turning to Hans who was now bleeding on the floor, wasting no time Hanneman used a light healing spell to slow the bleeding and picked him up and made a run for the citadel, once he got down the tower, he pulled a lever to activate the traps in that area to slow the kingdom forces down and he used a thoron to destroy the lever and he along with a couple dozen mages and solders made it into the citadel before the main gate was breached.
Every imperial solder and mage, under the command of Bolus was working to keep the gate to the citadel secure, the doors were being rammed by kingdom soldiers ram, the mages would seal any damaged areas with ice, but their efforts would not last. Hanneman made his way to the dining hall, that was being used as a makeshift infirmary. looking for Manuela and he found her tending to Hans, she singing a gentle song to him, upon closer inspection Hanneman could see that Hans was having difficulties breathing but Manuela continued to sing that gentle lullaby and gave him a tonic and quickly he fell asleep and she checked his pulse and sighed with relief then kissed his forehead like a mother would kiss an infant and then informed Hanneman "he is still alive, but he has a ruptured diaphragm and a pierced lung… I don't think he'll ever fully recover" then Hanneman saw a tear role down her cheek and a mad look in her eyes "so help me, I'm not going to say good night to another child today", Hanneman looked and could see dozens of bodies with blankets covering them head to toe, halve of them by their size were probably the a similar age as Hans, many of them were being hauled away, most likely for mas-cremation and Hanneman didn't care to oversee that and found an unoccupied corner and took some rest.
Early the next morning an earth shattering bang could be heard waking Hanneman and Manuela up, fearing the worst Hanneman went to the gate with Manuela in tow, "get back to the infirmary" Hanneman cried and Manuela replied "your men need my help too" they then turned the corner and they could see Kingdom solders and armored knights climbing over the now destroyed gate house to the citadel, the imperial soldiers and mages were being overrun and the both of them joined the fight. Hanneman then asked one of the soldiers "where is captain Bolus?" the soldier bloodied and exhausted relied "dead sir, head crushed by a hammer wilding brigand" Hanneman shocked was now in charge of the Silver maiden then told the soldiers to pull back and secure the halls leading to the infirmary.
The Imperial forces were being pushed deeper into the keep to now that now the only thing between the injured and the Kingdom soldiers was a wooden door, in the chaos a brigand wielding a hammer mad his way to the door and smash it a couple of times until it was splinters. Manuela used a fire spell to defeat the brigand and Hanneman with his soldiers came into the infirmary and fortified their position, then Manuela saw that the second door to the infirmary was being chopped from the other side and Manuela rushed to the door and after the door was destroyed a couple of fortress knights came in and she tried to fire any magic she had left but only sparks came out, after seeing she was out of magic the advanced to her, she pulled out a steel sword and shouted "you will not hurt these children!" and she charged at the knights but her blade only bounced of the armor and the knight bashed her with his shield knocking her back a few feet, Hanneman went to attend Manuela he could see that Kingdom knights, solders, brawlers, ext. were now pouring into into the infirmary and looking in front of him he could see a warrior with a large axe in hand approaching, Hanneman tried to fire a thoron but it only sparked a little in his hand, the Warrior smirked "I see you are out of magic" and raised his axe, and all the former professor could do wait for his demise.
"HAULT!" Hanneman opened his eyes and the warrior, and every other kingdom solder was standing, and Imperial solders were also standing still weapons in hand as two people came into the infirmary that he thought he would never see again. Dimitri and Byleth both came into the room and looked around and Dimitri spoke "solders of the empire, you have fought with determination and honor far beyond the call of duty, even now you stand here protecting your wounded brethren to your last breath when you could have easily abandoned them. let me implore you, don't through away your lives. surrender here and now, and I will make sure you will live to see your families again" Hanneman was about to walk over to Dimitri but he was but still attending to Manuela, "here let me help" and an imperial soldier stayed with Manuela and Hanneman made his way to Dimitri, and to say Dimitri and Byleth were Stunned "Hanneman, by the goddess it's been too long" Dimitri said with joy, but then Byleth told him "Dimitri, were are still in battle" and Dimitri regained his composer "oh ok, um well… Profes… um officer…" and Hanneman spoke "its captain now, my prince… King? Anyway, I have some questions considering our surrender" and Dimitri smiled warmly "ok what are your questions?" and Hanneman cleared his throat "what is it you plan to do with us?" and Dimitri put on a serious face "you and your fellow soldiers will be taken as prisoners of war with everything that comes with it, work and strict schedules and so on, your accommodations will not be luxurious or spacious but it will be warm, clean and a bed for everyone, your injured will be attended to by the same healers as our injured, and you will not starve". Hanneman looked around the room and beckoned an imperial solder to come to him and he took his lance and turned to Dimitri "I have your word?" and Dimitri replied "for what it's worth, yes" and Hanneman kneeled down and with both hands offed it to Dimitri "I accept your terms of our surrender your highness" and Dimitri took it and all of the imperial solders handed their weapons to the kingdom solders, then they took their armour off and the kingdom soldiers began to escort them outside.
