Byleth's Sorrow

An Unexpected Twist

Hey guys, sorry for the, uh...

Very long wait.

Anyways, here's a new chapter I guess. Randomly found the motivation to write again.

--Line Break--

Byleth reacted to the distant screams instantly, grabbing his fire and turning back to Rhea.

"Can you get back to the monastery quickly?" Byleth asked. "It sounds urgent."

Rhea nodded. "I can do better than that. I'll warp us all back."

Byleth shook his head. "I've something to grab first. I might need it, if this is what I think it is."

Rhea's gaze sharpened, but she nodded again and started casting the warp.

Byleth quickly cast his own warp as well. He arrived in the Holy Mausoleum, right in front of the central coffin, and with a small shove and some practical application of his strange and godlike power, sent the lid flying off. Seeing the Sword of the Creator laying inside, he reverently picked it up and whispered an apology.

"Sorry about this, Sothis."

His next warp landed him directly in front of a rampaging Demonic Beast.

—Line Break—

Edelgard was not happy.

What were they thinking? Did those who slither in the dark really think that they could create Demonic Beasts in the middle of the monastery and get away with it? What kind of power did they have that would allow them to be so bold?

She was forced to stop thinking about it as the Demonic Beast she was facing bashed her aside with an incredibly powerful swipe. She stayed on her feet, gritting her teeth against the brutal strength of the massive monster. She raised her shield as the monster bore down on her again, bashing into her from above and sending her to her knees. As the monster growled, Edelgard felt a moment of doubt. Her allies, suspicious as they were, surely wouldn't let her die, right?

"Your Highness!" Shouted Ferdinand from across the courtyard. Edelgard rose to her feet again, struggling with the weight of her armor, when she saw a familiar figure standing in front of her.

The Ashen Demon raised the flaming Sword of the Creator and, with one blow, shattered the monster's shielded scales. The monster roared in pain, desperately trying to get away from the terrifying warrior in front of it. Edelgard gaped as the enigmatic man beheaded the creature with seemingly little difficulty.

The Ashen Demon turned to her and narrowed his- (were they glowing?) Green eyes. He walked towards her, and she instinctively backed up, trying to get out of his way.

He strode past her and stalked towards... Monica? What was he-

Oh. Oh no.

Edelgard tried to shout a warning as the Ashen Demon grabbed Monica by the shoulder, but her voice failed. Monica smiled up at the strange man before freezing and throwing her self out of the way of the massive magical blaze that engulfed the immediate area. She snarled, pulling out a knife, but the Ashen Demon simply drew back his sword and-

—Line Break—

Byleth let Kronya's now-grey-and-orange body fall to the ground, bisected by the Sword of the Creator.

The surroundings were quiet as the nearby students and professors saw... whatever that was. Rhea, having been busy with a Demonic Beast, didn't see what had happened until after Kronya had transformed back, so all she saw was Byleth standing over the body of one of her long-extinct enemies.

The remaining Demonic Beasts began falling back, somehow sensing that the odds were very much not in their favor.

Byleth turned to check on the students as an ingrained reaction, but froze when he saw Jeralt barreling towards him.

The sound of shattering glass filled his ears as time began to rewind.

Byleth shook his head. He hadn't even meant to use a Divine Pulse there. He really needed to get his head on straight during combat. Time settled, and Byleth saw Kronya dodge out of the way of his Ragnarok spell, barely avoiding the massive explosion. He sighed and drew back the Sword of the Creator, and-

Something was behind him. Something big.

Byleth immediately turned, sword out in a defensive position as a massive force smashed into him, sending him flying into the far wall.

Gasping and shaking his head to clear it, he looked up to see a horribly familiar sight.

A massive human-like figure, seemingly made of shadow and dark magic, stalked slowly towards Byleth. Something was wrong about it, Byleth could tell. Something about the way the figure moved, or way it dragged its familiar sword across the cobbled path, or-

The figure swung its sword, and the blade extended into dozens of segmented, dark blades as it flew towards Byleth at inhuman speeds.

Rhea jumped in front of Byleth and parried the blow with the Shield of Seiros, staggering a little from the force of the blow.

Rhea- no, this was Seiros, with bared teeth and hatred etched in every line in her face- snarled.

"Nemesis!"

The shadowy version of Nemesis seemed to grin before preparing another attack. The Dark Creator Sword, trailing black energy as it barreled towards Seiros, was barely deflected as she managed to parry it once, twice, three times-

And then Byleth smashed the flailing sword away and stood in front of Seiros.

"Go." Byleth ordered.

Seiros snarled again. "I will gut this man like-"

"Seiros." She flinched, seemingly surprised at the sound of her given name. "Go help fight off the beasts and Kronya. I swear..." Byleth tightened his grip on the Sword of the Creator.

"I'll slaughter this thing for you."

Seiros hesitated, then nodded, sprinting towards the now-untransformed Kronya as the Agarthan dueled Jeralt in the background.

Shadow-Nemesis swung his sword, and the fight began. Byleth dodged and snuck attacks in, occasionally using his almost godlike power to push the dead man walking back.

After a particularly favorable engagement where Byleth managed to severely injure one of Shadows-Nemesis' legs, causing him to fall to one knee, the dark figure growled. Byleth strode forward to deliver the final blow-

And the sound of glass shattering filled his ears as everything stopped. Byleth blinked as time began to rewind without his consent.

Shadow-Nemesis was using a Divine Pulse.

Byleth grit his teeth. How dare he.

Byleth pushed against the Divine Pulse as hard as he could, and felt something shift.

Shadow-Nemesis, now uninjured, stumbled a little and glanced around. Everything was frozen in time, seemingly stuck in place. The dark figure looked at Byleth and saw the man striding towards him, holding the Sword of the Creator in an offensive stance.

"You're playing with powers you don't understand." Byleth snarled.

"But if it's the power of a God you want..."

Byleth raised the blazing sword above his head.

"I'll give it to you."