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In the decades after the end of the war Byleth came to realize just how much Edelgard meant to her, and that Edelgard’s actions were really a cry out for help.
"If I must fall...let it be by your hand."
She remembered how the blade weighted heavily in her hands, her knuckles turning white as she gripped it tightly, while she was listening to Edelgard’s last request.
"I wanted...to walk with you.."
She had no choice but to honor the other woman’s last request. As Byleth stepped up for that final strike, she had a tear roll down her face as she swung the sword.
It all began when in a moment of indiscretion, Byleth turned down Edelgard’s request to accompany her to the Imperial Capital where she had something that she had to do there. Byleth was extremely busy preparing for the revelation ceremony in the holy tomb, and was worried about what would happen since Sothis the goddess herself had merged with her.
Edelgard left with an expression on her face that Byleth years later came to realize, at Edelgard’s death, as disappointment and regret.
Byleth was as surprised as her students at Edelgard’s apparent betrayal in the holy tomb when the imperial forces appeared. At that moment Edelgard also declared herself to be the flame emperor who was behind all of those atrocities that they had faced earlier in the year.
After a lengthy battle, in which the imperial forces were defeated, Byleth had herself struck the weapon out of Edelgard’s hands, and Edelgard was kneeling there defenseless. Byleth begun to speak to Edelgard when Rhea came up, and after a very short exchange, that Byleth remembers to this day word for word, Rhea shouted.
“Professor, kill Edelgard at once. She is a danger to all of Fódlan. Such a rebellious heart cannot be allowed to keep beating.”
In Byleth’s moment of shocked silence Edelgard said that she was going to withdraw and then vanished along with Hubert.
In the days after the battle in the holy tomb Byleth realized that Edelgard was really asking her to accompany her to the capital to witness her coronation as the empress. Along with the fact that she had declined that invitation.
One night Byleth sneaked into Edelgard quarters in the monastery, which was under guard, to search for additional clues or anything on what drove Edelgard to do all of this. For someone as through as Edelgard, Byleth doubted there would be much left but she hoped nevertheless.
Below one of the hidden panels in one of the drawer in Edelgard’s desk Byleth found a couple sheets of drawing of herself. Along with some half finished letters that begun with “Professor …” with couple of scratched out lines. She collected these drawings and letters, and hide them from the Knights of Seiros when they later discovered that she had sneaked into the room.
Edelgard dead. Her own students of the Black Lion house dead. Countless lives destroyed all for nothing. In the end Hubert and Edelgard saved them all in the form of a letter.
After they destroyed those who slithers in the darkness, even Rhea herself fell. She was fatally wounded in the battle, and in the following days Byleth finally found the truth about her origin and past. Edelgard was right; in her manifest that she had declared when her ascension to the throne was made public.
In the years after the war despite being the new archbishop, Byleth was seen in the public less and less till one day she vanished along with the sword of the creator. Despite frantic searching for her by the knights of Seiros, and other survivors of the war, no one ever did find her again.
In the decades after, the church would often find their supply lines cut. There was rarely survivors of the attacks but if there was, they often spoke of an ashen demon with brilliant green hair blowing in the wind. The church would often send out search and suppression forces but they never found the former archbishop, and from there the legends keep on growing.
Crest powered relics and replicas would often be lost in mysterious circumstances. Over time their existence became legends. Those who researched into crests would often find their work, and notes destroyed along with a warning to not continue the research. Anyone who dared broach the line between crest research and blood experiments would often be found dead.
Noble houses who had heirs who poses crests would often under mysterious circumstances have the inheritance pass on to the crestless heirs. Over time the crest bloodlines vanished and they became myths.
In the centuries after, the crest system, the church of Seiros, and most of the nobility had ceased to exist. Fódlan was entering a period of rapid industrialization. There were often rumors of a young women with brilliant green hair who would haunt the old ruins of Garreg Mach monastery.
On one such night Byleth was laying under the stars on her bedding near by the ruined goddess tower. She was staring out at the countless upon countless stars out there in the night sky and saw the Fell Star rising in the night sky. She then took out an ancient scrap of paper with her best attempt of a drawing of Edelgard as she remembered her; along with the drawing of herself that Edelgard had drawn all of these years ago. She unfolded the paper, and a tear ran down her face as she whispered “Forgive me Edelgard…”
Byleth’s long years of work has finally came to an end, and it was time for her to embrace her long sleep. Along with all of the relics, and crest stones that she had collected over all of these long years. The bones, and souls of these descendants of Sothis will long at last be at rest.
Byleth patted one of her breast pocket, reassured that the ring that her father had given to her all of those years ago was still there, and then reached for the device on the ground next to her that she had finally restored. She had salvaged it from one of the ruins of those who slithers in the darkness. She then pressed the button on the device.
Moments later the night sky lit up as a brilliant column descended from the heavens.
Byleth then kissed the drawing. Her final words on her lips were “You were right my beloved…”