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Byleth, Dimitri and Hapi were on their horses, riding towards their destination, with a force of Kingdom soldiers marching behind them. They all had a mission to complete and had been traveling for hours to reach the destination where it would be carried out. The three of them and marched alongside Kingdom forces, deep in a forest, surrounded with trees that provided them shelter from the hot rays of the afternoon sun. It was not the best time of day to be traveling for so long, but the importance of the mission mattered more than that. Despite the scorching heat that bathed them, Byleth was distracted. He had a question lingering in his mind, which he expressed to Dimitri.
“Dimitri, help me understand one thing”, Byleth asked. “Given how crucial the success of this mission is, why is it just the 3 of us here? Why could we not ask for help from the Church or from our friends in the Kingdom? I’m sure they would have gladly lent us their help, and I believe it would have been very useful.”
“Believe me”, replied Dimitri. “I pondered asking for their help many times before embarking on this mission. However, I decided not to. You know how our enemy is: they could flee away from us in the blink of an eye if they sense too much danger. I want to prevent that from happening, especially now, and a smaller force like this is what we need. It is enough to mount an attack, but not enough for our enemy to run from.”
“I see…”, said Byleth. He understood Dimitri's reasoning for this particular problem, but had yet another worry. “I still have some concerns. We're marching toward an enemy that we know next to nothing about and plan to wipe them out once and for all, and with an army like this.” Byleth looks back at the army of soldiers accompanying them, which is not at all small, but it is not large enough to take on their foe. He then looks forward, and continues talking. “I’m sure some of our soldiers feel nervous given the circumstances this fight will take place in.”
Dimitri looked at his worried friend. “I understand, but that feeling the soldiers may have is exactly why I brought you here.” Byleth widened his eyes, confused at Dimitri's words. “…Me?”, he asked.
“Yes, you. I have heard anecdotes of soldiers, saying that they marched towards the battlefield with courage because they did it alongside you. Your leadership and tactics being on their side assure them that everything will be fine.” Dimitri turns his view forward, staying alert of his surroundings. “I am sure Hapi can attest to that.”
Hapi looked at Dimitri, annoyed, and her expression showed it. “Wow”, she said. “Way to put me in the spot like that, Didi.” Byleth looked towards Hapi, wondering what she and Dimitri were referring to. “I don’t think I understand”, he said. “What do you mean?”
Hapi was forced to explain herself, despite the embarassment she felt. “I asked Didi if you could come with us. Knowing where we're going, I won’t really be comfortable fighting there by myself.” She slightly tilted her head away from Byleth. “…I thought that having you come along would make me feel safer and less worried, that's all.”
Byleth felt worried hearing Hapi say those words, yet also pleased. He was deeply concerned for her well-being and would have liked for her to avoid feeling the discomfort she mentioned, but also pleased knowing that being by her side would help her. Thinking about this, he couldn’t help but smile. “Well, I am glad that you feel that way around me. It truly means a lot.” Hapi smiled, while still keeping her head and gaze turned away from him. However, even if he knew staying beside Hapi would make her feel better, Byleth wondered if she would have rathered stay home. “Though, I must ask: are you sure you want to accompany us? If this is too much to handle, you can go back if you'd like.”
Hapi thought about Byleth’s offer for a few seconds. Going back to a place that would remind her of all the suffering she had been through is something she would prefer not to do. She thought about it, and looked at Byleth in the eyes as she gave her answer. “I appreciate you worrying about me, but I can’t. Didi asked for my help with this, so I’ll give it to him. And besides, having suffered because of them for so long, it would be nice to take care of them myself.”
“If that is what you choose”, responded Byleth, “then I will assist you every step of the way.” Hapi felt grateful hearing those words, and smiled. “Thanks”, she said.
“I should give both of you my thanks as well”, said Dimitri. “If I was still my older self, I would have tackled this mission all on my own, and purely for the sake of revenge. Now, thanks to friends like you, that has changed. I march forth with allies by my side, and not in the name of vengeance, but so the people of my kingdom—and all of Fodlan—are safe from their clutches and puppetry. I have people like you to thank for that.”
Having heard this, Byleth thought about the past. He thought about the Dimitri he gave class to at the Officer's Academy. The Dimitri he saw in a tower, alone, surrounded by dozens of Imperial corpses, slain by his blade. He thought of their struggle against the Empire, and of the painful irony that filled Dimitri and Edelgard’s last encounter: once-siblings, one seeking revenge against the other, and yet having changed his motives, still was unable to reconcile. He looked back on all of it, and of how much everyone had grown due to the circumstances they’ve gone through. Byleth felt a sense of pride thinking about it. Dimitri noticed Byleth's silence and spoke to him. “Is everything alright?”
“Oh”, responded Byleth, surprised. “It's nothing. I am just thinking about memories of the past.”
“Well, try not to get too lost in them”, Dimitri advised. Being too caught up in one's past is something he's experienced for a very long time, and a trait that took him effort to leave behind. “We're here”, he said, as he gently pulled the reins of his horse so it stopped. Hapi and Byleth did the same. Hapi looked around her but could not find anything out of place; all she saw were groups of trees everywhere, and she could not tell where the forest ended. “Where is ‘here’, exactly?”, she asked Dimitri. He got down from his horse without answering, walked forward, and stopped after a few seconds. He was in a small area that lacked any sort of vegetation, as if there was something there. He kneeled and touched the grass, looking for something, until he found it. He grabbed it with both his hands and attempted to lift it. Byleth and Hapi could not make out what it was, so they got down from their horses to get a closer look. They walked close to Dimitri, and realized he was grabbing what looked like the edge of a wide door. A few knights headed towards Dimitri.
“Please, your Majesty, let us help.”
“That looks heavy, please allow us to assist you.”
“Thank you both”, said Dimitri to the knights. They lifted the door—which opened facing away from Dimitri—fully, until it did not budge another inch. It led to a dark passageway, illuminated only by two mysterious blue lights that continued beyond the gap of the door.
“Those lights…”, he told himself. “This is most certainly the place we were looking for.” He turned to a knight near him. “You, tie up the horses somewhere nearby.” Then he pointed to another two knights. “You two, stay here and watch the horses. Everyone else, follow me, and be prepared; this will be a long battle.” After giving these orders, Dimitri started walking down the stairs, Areadbhar in hand. His army of knights follow him, and Byleth is about to head down the stairs himself but paused. He turned to Hapi, who was standing still and looking at the door and passageway. She felt uneasy. For the first time in years, she felt fear; not of the unknown, but rather because she herself has met with lies beyond the door. Byleth approached her.
“Hapi…you don’t have to do this. You can stay behind and watch the horses, while we take care of everything. Don’t force yourself.” Hapi stared at the passageway, took a deep breath, and looked at Byleth. “…No”, she said. “I…I have to. I promised I would help, and I want to see this through to the end. These people have caused enough suffering to Fodlan.” Her fear slowly turned into determination as she said that last statement. Byleth wanted to insist on his initial claim, but realized that Hapi wanted to do this. She wanted to put an end to this, just like anyone else would. “Alright”, said Byleth. “I understand. We’ll do it together.” They stood in front of the dark passageway. Hapi discreetly held out her hand, an act that Byleth quickly noticed, and held it. She may be determined to help, but still needed support of her own. Byleth swore to himself that he would stay by her side for as long as the battle lasted, even if it would take days to finish it. Both started walking down the stairs, hands clasped together.
As they continued walking, they could feel the light behind them getting dimmer, dominated by the artificial blue colored lighting in the strange stairway. The lights were bright enough to illuminate the way, but left enough space for the darkness to occupy and overwhelm all the space the light could not. This continued for a while, until they passed the last step of the stairs, and the light from outside was no longer visible. Byleth and Hapi looked around them, and saw what looked like an underground city, supported by strange architecture and full of the blue lights they saw across the stairs. Everyone was left speechless by their surroundings, both in awe and unease. Hapi kept looking around, as memories of her past flooded her mind. All the pain and torture she endured at her hands, in her domain, made a test subject for her experiments. All Hapi could think of was...her. She tightly grasped Byleth’s hand, as a way to remind herself that this time, she was not alone. She had someone she loved supporting her. Someone she trusted. She pushed the memories away, and took a deep breath.
“Hapi?”, asked a worried Byleth. “How are you feeling?”
“Being here brings back so many bad memories…”, she said. “This is definitely the place.”
“That is good news, in a way”, said Dimitri in response to Hapi’s statement. Saying this, Dimitri noticed some dark mages walking around; they had not spotted him nor his army yet. He walked towards them, slowly, firmly grasping Areadbhar. As he was getting closer to them, the mages noticed him; one tried to shout but was cut down by Dimitri before he could utter a word. The other tried to do the same.
“I-Intrud--”, he attempted to say, before being slashed by Areadbhar, the same way that the other mage was. Another dark mage rushed over, saw Dimitri and his army, and yelled: “Intruders! Intruders!” Before long, the whole underground city was alerted of the attack, and everyone in it started running towards their battle positions. Byleth, Hapi and Dimitri heard a stampede of enemies running towards them.
“The battle has now begun”, shouted Dimitri. “it's time to end to this, once and for all. Onward, everyone!” Dimitri runs forward, and all the Kingdom soldiers follow him, determined to fight, and shouting. They ran towards the horde of enemies approaching them, until the armies met, and the sound of weapons clashing against each other resonated through the whole city. Kingdom soldiers kept rushing forward, cutting their enemies down, but many of them also fell in the midst of the encounter. Blood and bodies alike flew across the floor of the battlefield.
Byleth could not stand there and do nothing amidst the chaos. He unsheathed the Sword of the Creator, his battle-worn weapon given to him five years ago as he began teaching in Garreg Mach. Despite being such an old blade, it always cut down armies with ease. Having his weapon in hand, Byleth prepared to move forward. “Hapi”, he said, “stay behind me.”
“What?”, she responded. “No way! I said I was going to help in the fight and that’s what I’m going to do!”
“I’m just trying to protect you”, Byleth replied. “I swore to myself I would do so.”
“I know you want to, but you can do that while still letting me fight. We can protect each other, and that’s what I intend to do.”
“I--” Byleth said, before cutting himself off. He thought about it and realized Hapi was right. It is better if they both fight together. Besides, she was set on wanting to help; Byleth was not going to deny her that wish. Having thought for a moment, he spoke again. “I apologize. You’re right, but please stay close to me. That’s all I ask.”
“You don’t have to tell me twice”, Hapi responded, relieved that Byleth had understood how she felt. After this, they charge forward to help their allies. Byleth began cutting down foes from a distance using the Sword of the Creator’s whip attacks. All it took was one swing of his blade for groups of soldiers to instantly die. In doing so, however, Byleth called the attention towards himself.
“It’s the Archbishop!”, said one of the enemy dark mages that spotted him. “The Archbishop is fighting alongside them! Capture him and kill anyone that stands in your way!” Hearing this, a group of foes rush at Byleth, set on taking him down. Byleth prepared himself to fight against this horde, until Hapi pushed him aside. She shot small, concentrated balls of dark magic at the ground a few meters in front of her, covering a wide area, and waited for the enemy to get closer. “I’ve been practicing this a lot”, she told Byleth. “I hope it works.” The mages, still running towards them, started conjuring their spells to attack, and touched the area Hapi had shot at. Seeing this, she lifted her hands up, and the dark magic she had thrown exploded, launching the mages into the air. Afterwards, she ran below to the area where the mages were launched from, conjured wind magic with her hands, and as the mages started falling, she spun her body once and waved her hands in an arc, launching the wind magic all around her and slicing the foes it hit. The bodies landed in an area far from her; some even fell on top of enemies still fighting and disrupted their attacks. Hapi sighed in relief.
“Phew, it worked after all.” She turned to Byleth, who looked at her, amazed at the feat she had just done. “Come on, Chatterbox, let’s go.” Byleth shook his head lightly to regain his focus and followed Hapi’s direction. He was not just impressed at the attack Hapi did, but also at how willing she was to fight. She normally prefers to stay away from battle and the front lines, but not only was she leading Byleth forward right now, she had practiced a move to use in this battle. ‘She really is eager to do this’, Byleth thought to himself. He certainly recalled her saying that minutes earlier, but was still baffled at the sight he became witness of. Regardless, he put his mind back in the fight, as it was still far from over. They continued forth towards their left and fended off more foes there. Hapi send enemies flying left and right by attacking them with magic, and Byleth cut them down in groups with mere swings of his sword. They advanced again and repeated the pattern of fighting enemies and then advancing. After a while, they and a portion of their army following them reduced the enemy’s forces greatly, and then heard a commander giving orders in the distance.
“Launch a Titanus, now!” Following this order, the ground started rumbling. As the seconds passed, the rumbling became stronger and stronger, until Hapi, Dimitri and Byleth saw a giant mechanical soldier approaching them, wielding a sword a third of its size. Kingdom soldiers attempted to attack it, but barely put a scratch on them and were taken out with one swing. It was only one but were still a formidable obstacle. Dimitri quickly ran towards it, was noticed, and attacked by it, but he managed to jump over the sword swing. He landed on its arm, ran towards it, jumped, and stabbed the machine in its head. It started malfunctioning, and before long, it fell on its back. Having brought it down, the enemies prepared another attack.
“Prepare more Titanus!”, said an enemy general. “We need to drive them out, and NOW!”
Hearing this, Byleth had an idea. “Dimitri!”, he yelled, and Dimitri looked at him. “They must have a room where they keep those things! We need to split up and find it!”
“You may be right”, Dimitri replied. “I’ll go towards the right! You take the left!”. He then ran to the right side of the city, and many soldiers followed him. The remaining soldiers went with Hapi and Byleth to the left. As they ran, they had to take out many more foes, but after a while, they stopped appearing. It seemed they were occupied with Dimitri’s army, since he went through the center area, where most of the battle took place. After a minute, Byleth and Hapi reached a room at the end of the left hallway, which contained another five Titanus with mechanics operating them. They were quickly spotted and attacked.
“Hold them off!”, said one of the mechanics. “We need more time to get these going!”
“More time?”, said Hapi. “In your dreams. We’re ending this now!” She held her arms wide, conjuring a fire attack surrounding the enemies approaching them, and quickly folder her arms, launching the fire towards the enemy like gates closing around them.
“Let me help”, said Byleth, as his sword became a whip, swung to the left with it, and then up, launching the enemies into the air. Hapi took the opportunity to conjure a bolt of lightning, waited for the enemies to fall, and fired it towards them. The bolt hit every single body, and was the final blow needed to take them down. Having taken them down, Hapi launched attacks towards the mechanics operating the Titanus, killing them. She was prepared to finish the job and started conjuring a giant attack, before Byleth stopped her.
“Hold on! We don’t have time for this! We need to rendezvous with Dimitri!”
“What!?”, Hapi responded. “But these hunks of junk have to go! They might activate them later!”
“Don’t worry, I prepared for that!” He pointed at the soldiers behind them. “You! Find a way to destroy those machines!”
“We’ll do it, sir!”, shouted a soldier. “Leave it to us!”
“Come on”, Byleth told Hapi. “They will take care of them, don’t worry. Let’s go!” Hapi hesitated; she wanted to destroy the Titanus now and take that worry out of her head. It took her some seconds but decided to leave them be and trust Byleth. ‘He knows what he’s doing’, she thought to herself, and caught up with Byleth. They ran through the hallway they arrived from, approaching the center area to reach Dimitri. Just before they reached it, someone started materializing in front of them, and stopped in their tracks. Before them stood a familiar face, one they have fought before. He had white hair all over his face, black armor and dark red feathers on the armor surrounding his neck.
“So, we meet again, Fell Star”, said the mysterious man. “Or should I say, Archbishop?” Byleth and Hapi suddenly remembered him.
“Thales, was it?”, said Byleth, reaching for his sword. “It’s been a long time. What do you say we finish what we started last time?”
Thales confidently smirked. “But of course. It would be my pleasure to eradicate you from this world myself, like Solon should have done long ago.”
“No way you are”, said Hapi. “We are getting out of here alive, and you will stay here in the darkness.”
“Oh, really?”, said Thales, as he chuckled. “Fine. We’ll see which of us will see the light of day again.” After saying this, he conjured and launched a ball of dark magic at them with one hand; Byleth quickly stood in front of Hapi and sliced the ball in half. However, Thales threw another one with his other hand, and Byleth could not move fast enough to slice it or even reverse time; he ended up getting hit by it and fell to the ground, on top of Hapi.
“Really?”, said Thales. “Even one personally blessed by the goddess goes down that easily? How pathetic.” Byleth was frustrated that he was not able to avoid such a simple attack. Even so, he got up and continued fighting. “The goddess did not bless me by preventing me from falling”, he declared, “but by making sure that I always stood up afterwards.” As he says this, he slowly walks to his left, attempting to reach the hallway leading to the center area, as well as driving Thales’ attention away from Hapi. Instead of taking the offensive, he waits for Thales’ next attack.
“Is that right?”, Thales responds. “Then I suppose I should show you what living in the darkness for so long has taught me; maybe that will make sure you do not get up again.” Thales’ tome floated in the air, as he conjured multiple dark magic attacks, and launched them at Byleth, one by one. Byleth cut the first few but had to dodge the remaining ones. With every attack, he had to step back further, until he and Thales stood in the central area of the city. “Is that all?”, he said, taunting at Thales. “To me, it feels like you’re holding back.”
Thales grew angry at his statement. “You’re just like Sothis: a tiring and fastidious pest that can’t keep their mouth shut. You make me sick.”
“Really now? If I am such a pest, then why don’t you dispose of me already?”
“With pleasure!” Thales then begins summoning a strong attack. Byleth does not see anything appearing near him, and realizes the attack is being conjured from the ground below him. He thinks of rewinding time, but he has another idea, though one that requires another person to execute. Despite this, he trusts that person will arrive soon.
“I will rid this world of you once and for all, Fell Star!”, declares Thales, as he prepares to finish conjuring the spell, but just as he is ready to, a small explosion occurs behind him. He looks behind him, but there is nothing. Byleth is also confused, until he hears wind magic. He looks above him and sees Hapi, flying across the air, readying herself to launch powerful magic at Thales.
“Up here!”, shouted Hapi, right as she throws her attack at Thales, who is too slow to react, and is hit by the spell, causing his own to disappear. He falls to the ground, and Byleth takes the chance to strike. He lifts his whip-sword and brings it down like a 10-meter-long hatchet. Thales notices and rolls over to his right to avoid the attack, just as Byleth predicted. He swings the sword to his left and then upwards, throwing Thales into the air. As he’s airborne, Byleth sways the sword repeatedly and rapidly, not giving Thales’ body a chance to fall down, until Byleth swings downward, causing him to crash onto the ground. Thales is down, and Hapi slowly floats down until she touches the ground.
“Thank you, Hapi”, says Byleth. “Your ingenuity saved my life. I owe you one.”
“Ah, well”, she responded while smiling. “It’s the least I could do for you.” Byleth smiled and nodded at her and turns his attention to Thales. They walk over to him, and Byleth kneels. He is not dead but is in no state to fight. He sighs in relief, and suddenly hears someone running towards him. “Byleth! Hapi!”, a voice shouts. Byleth recognizes it; it’s Dimitri, followed by his army. “Are you two alright?”
“Yeah, we’re fine.”, replies Hapi. “We were able to take down Thales.”
“That’s good news. We finished up everything at our side. How about you?”
“We did as well”, Byleth responds. “We sent soldiers to destroy the machines, and given they have not shown up again, so it seems they succeeded.”
“Good to hear”, sighed Dimitri, relieved. We can declare this battle over, then.” Suddenly, they hear a weak chuckle coming from Thales. It seems he had more to share before his demise. “Fools…nothing has ended.” He lifted his face, wounded by Byleth’s attack. “Did you really think…that I came here alone? Your foolishness to not realize…will finally be your undoing.” He chuckled once more, before giving his last breath. Right after, a strong rumbling shakes the city, becoming gradually stronger by the second.
“Oh, come on”, said Hapi. Byleth soon realizes that he made a mistake in not letting Hapi burn down the Titanus. He had the option to go back and let her do so, but that could give Thales more time to sneak behind them; the risk was too much. A part of him wishes the rumbling comes from reinforcements, but he knows it is not that. After a few seconds, five Titanus overwhelm both the left and right sides of the central room. They are just as huge as the first one they fought, and seemingly, just as strong. Byleth realizes their forces are not enough to quickly take down five of them.
“We need to run”, said Byleth. “Now! Go!” He runs towards the exit from the central area that leads to outside; Dimitri, Hapi, and the Kingdom soldiers follow suit. They exit the center room, with the Titanus slowly following them, and they are about to reach the exit. Just before they do, Hapi stops running. An idea came to her, one that may not finish the job they had, but it would let them get out alive. Byleth quickly notices, pauses, and goes to her.
“Hapi, what is it? We need to leave now! We’re not enough to defeat them!”
“That's not true”, Hapi responds. “Technically, I am.” She looks down and takes off the marriage ring Byleth gave her, takes Byleth’s hand, and gives it to him. Byleth is left confused, but before he can say anything, Hapi gently grabs his face with her hands, and looks in his eyes. Hapi feels regretful. It is possible that she could leave in time, but as always, she prepared herself for the worst. “Whatever happens”, she says, “just know that I love you. More than I can express right now.” After saying this, she momentarily kisses Byleth’s lips, separates her lips from his, and lets go of his face. She turns around and slowly walks towards the approaching Titanus. It takes time for Byleth to understand what Hapi even meant. He looked at the ring he gifted Hapi, now in his hand. A ring that symbolizes their union in marriage, and one that Byleth had the resources to imbue with a monster-repelling spell.
“…No. She can't possibly...”
Byleth realized what she was doing. “Hapi, wait!”, he shouted, but then hesitated. Could her plan work? She does not have the ring anymore, but the spell should still be active. Byleth tried to recall if the spell only worked if the ring was worn by someone, but could not concentrate. He looked towards Hapi, standing in front of the approaching machines. Byleth ran towards her, put the ring in his pocket, and held his hand out. He had to stop her. He had to protect her. But Hapi was determined to carry out her plan. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and let out a long sigh. Byleth stops in his tracks and clenches his fist in regret. He unsheathes his sword, runs towards the base of the stairway and shouts.
“Dimitri! Watch out! There’s going to be a monster attack! Leave while you can!” He turns, looking out for any ambush, but there’s nothing. The only rumbling he feels is the one caused by the Titanus. Hapi looks around as well and finds nothing. She's left confused, not knowing how her plan did not work, but it was a failure she should have expected, she thought to herself. Hapi starts to slowly walk back.
“Oh, great”, she says. “The one time I…need it to…”. She bends her torso and hugs her stomach in pain. She starts to feel dizzy. Byleth wonders what is happening to her, and why no monsters appeared at all. Suddenly, Hapi groans and feels a pain in her head. Swinging her body weakly, she strongly grips her head. Byleth slowly walks toward her. “…Hapi? Are you okay?” Her groans grow stronger, and a light emerges from her. She lets out a scream, which becomes distorted as it goes on, and the light engulfs her, blinding Byleth and even the Titanus. Seconds pass, the light goes away, and Byleth can see again, but does not see Hapi anymore. He looks up and witnesses something he thought he would never see again: a monster.
It was a giant bird, not at all like the bird monsters Byleth has fought before. It had bright red feathers, enormous wings, black feathers across its neck, a black beak, and a small yellow pattern on its forehead that resembled a tiara. It let out a loud caw that was mixed with a human scream. The monster leaped towards a Titanus in front of it, making it collapse to the ground and pecked its head repeatedly, until it moved no more. Another Titanus to her left attempted to attack her, but the bird ducked to avoid the sword swing. Afterwards, it breathed in, as if preparing an attack, and launched a fireball from its mouth at the Titanus’ face. It left it blinded, letting the monster leap at it, biting its neck and pulling out its head. The beast turned, breathed in again, and launched a fireball, lighting the head in its mouth on fire, propelling it to another Titanus, which was pushed back due to the blast. The monster was suddenly hit by an upward swing of another Titanus, leaving its chest wounded. It flew at the Titanus, grabbed it with its claws, and started to spin. After a few spins, it threw the metal pile at the Titanus it hit with the head lit on fire, causing both to fall. One hit its body against the wall, damaging it. Only two remain.
One of the remaining Titanus was going to swing at the monster, but Byleth noticed it. “Don’t even think about it!”, he said, before swung his sword-whip at its back, distracting it. The Titanus turned and started approaching him. The monsters then flapped its wings at it, launching wind magic, cutting its body to pieces. The push of the wind made the Titanus fall towards Byleth, so he ran to the right to avoid it, until it fell next to him. Byleth was surprised that Hapi—or what he assumed was her—could still use magic. The bird noticed Byleth, and walked to him, curious. Byleth did not know how to talk to Hapi in the state she was in and felt confused. She did not attack him, though, she simply looked at him. Unfortunately, the remaining Titanus took this chance to attack, swung at her back, hurting her, and she cawed in pain. She turned towards her foe, who slowly swung at her again, which she managed to fly away from. Then, she shot dark magic from her mouth at the floor in front of the Titanus. Once it reached the area where the magic was planted, Hapi held her wings out and cawed, causing the magic to create a giant explosion, launching the Titanus upward, which made it break its neck after it hit the ground above the underground city.
The last of the Titanus had fallen, leaving Hapi standing alone in the center area. She walked forward, weak from her wounds, and let out a caw before falling. Byleth stood up, and slowly walked towards her, before being shaken by a rumbling happening all over the city. Byleth looked around and noticed it was collapsing on itself. He then noticed a light behind him, which quickly faded away, and did not see the monster anymore, only Hapi on the floor, unconscious. Byleth quickly ran towards her, carried her in his arms, and ran towards the exit. The walls around him kept falling. As he ran, he heard a weak groan coming from Hapi. 'Oh, thank you, Sothis', he thought to himself. Knowing she was still alive, he ran faster. The city nearly fell on top of him, but he managed to escape in time.
He finally exited the stairway, and reached the forest outside, surrounded by Dimitri and the Kingdom soldiers. They looked at him and the injured Hapi, wondering what had happened down there. Byleth looked at Hapi and saw her wounds. He quickly casted light magic on them. As the wounds began to slowly close, Hapi moved her head slowly and groaned. Byleth sighed in relief. “You'll be okay, you'll be okay”, he said, although he was not sure if he kept telling it to Hapi or himself. As the seconds passed, Hapi's wounds healed fully, and she weakly spoke as she finally regained consciousness.
“Hnnngh...wh...what happened?” She looked up at the man holding her in his arms. “...By...Byleth?”
“Thank the goddess”, Byleth sighed. He hugged Hapi tightly, thankful that she was still with him. Were he to have lost her in this battle, Byleth would not be able to recover for a long time. But that would not happen today.
Hapi was still waking up, and wondered where was she and why. “Where am I? I remember walking up to...something? Then I sighed, and then...then...”. As hard as she tried, she could not remember what had transpired.
“Don't worry about that. What matterss is that we won, thanks to you”.
“M...me? Why?”
“Yes, I wish to know too”, said Dimitri. Byleth turned towards him. “I heard something was going on dwon there, and you suddenly shouted at us about an attack. What happened?”
“I…”, Byleth said, but could not find the right words to say. How could he explain what he witnessed? He looked for the right words to tell them, but now was not the time to do so. “I’ll explain later, I promise.” Byleth suddenly realized he had forgotten something. “Oh, wait.” He reached for his pocket, grabbed the ring left there and put it on Hapi’s finger. “There”
“My…ring?”, asked Hapi, unclear of what was happening.
“I will tell you everything later, I swear. Now, let’s head home.” He helped Hapi up, walked towards a horse and helped her get on it. He then got on as well, sitting behind Hapi. Dimitri was confused as well, but trusted Byleth and left that issue for later. He climbed on his horse as well and spoke to his army.
“Rejoice, everyone! We have emerged victorious against this threat to Fodlan, thanks to all your efforts. Now we return home, as heroes, and living in a new era of peace!” The soldiers shouted in victory, celebrating their achievement. They had succeeded in eliminating one of the biggest threats to Fodlan’s peace once and for all. After their short celebration, they started to head back home. Byleth felt a great weight lifted off his shoulders. He took a deep breath and sighed in relief. He then gently kissed Hapi’s head; she slightly turned her head and smiled. They leaned against each other affectionately, forever grateful to have each other by their side.