After agreeing to become the newest professor of Garreg Mach, Rhea and Seteth excused themselves from the room to fetch the other two professors Byleth would be working with for the year, leaving her and Jeralt as the only two people in the room—two out of three if one were to count the little girl.

"Why didn't you tell me you worked for the Church?" Byleth asked after a few minutes had gone by.

"Let's talk about this later, kid," Jeralt said.

"Okay." One second later, it was later. "Why didn't you tell me you worked for the Church?"

"Did you do that on purpose?" the little girl asked as she floated overhead.

"Look, let's just say that I had a hell of a bad time and leave it at that, okay?" Jeralt asked.

"So why are we still here? We can just leave, can't we?" Byleth asked.

"As I said before, now that they know I'm still alive, that won't be so easy." Byleth didn't know why that would be the case when they just had to get on their horses and leave. She wanted to point that out to him, but before she had the chance to, the door to the Archbishop's chamber opened up and two people stepped through it: a woman with a white cape and a green dress that showed a lot of skin and a man with a gray beard and mustache and a monocle against his eye.

"So you're the new professor, then. My, how stern and handsome you are!" the woman said to Jeralt, for some reason. Byleth would have corrected her, but she was now standing very close to Jeralt, meaning there was a chance she'd do the same to her, and that would be unpleasant.

"That would be her, actually," Jeralt said as he backed away from her. A clear act of betrayal, that was.

"Oh, my mistake. She's not so bad, either, though." Byleth did see herself as a good person, overall.

"Okay, you gonna be okay, kid?" Jeralt asked. Byleth nodded her head. "Good. I'll get going then; that Seteth guy needs me to fill out some paperwork before I'm officially reinstated; there's another reason I didn't want to come back here." Byleth said her goodbyes as Jeralt headed for the door. However, before he left the room, he stopped next to Byleth and whispered to her, "Watch out for Lady Rhea. Stay on your guard around her at all costs." It seemed odd for her father to go out of his way to tell her to be on guard around people, but it probably had to do with whatever it was he wasn't telling her. Something to think about for later.

"Now that your father is gone, let us introduce ourselves. I'm Manuela Casagrande. In addition to being a professor, I'm also a talented physician, the beautiful woman formerly known as the Divine Songstress of the Mittelfrank Opera Company, and happily available for the right person," the woman said, punctuating her sentence with a wink.

"I don't feel like having sex with you," Byleth said. From up in the air, the little girl started laughing like a madwoman.

"I—It was mostly a joke, but—So quick to—Hanneman, you say something. I need to sit in a corner for a while." Manuela walked off to the edge of the room, muttering random things under her breath as she sat down in a corner and hugged her knees.

"That's not a comfortable way to sit." The little girl was still laughing.

"Yes, well, moving on. I am Hanneman von Essar. My primary field of study is Crestology, but I would still like to study that Persona of yours if you have the spare time," Hanneman said.

"You know about that?"

"But of course! Lady Rhea has had word of it spread throughout the entire monastery. I swear, I've never seen her so enthusiastic about anything before, and I'd be lying if I said that none of it rubbed off on myself."

"Ah." Byleth didn't have much of an opinion on that, but his mention of being a Crest Scholar brought something to mind. "What's this Crest?" Byleth put out her hand and projected the image of what was apparently her Crest.

Hanneman's monocle fell off of his face as his mouth fell agape. The little girl kept laughing.

"Wh-What in the world is this?!"

"My Crest."

"Yes, but what is it?! By the Goddess, in all my years of study, I've never seen a Crest that resembled this one before!"

"Can I get a second opinion, then?"

"It's not because I'm bad at my job!" The little girl kept laughing.

"By the way, what's mine?" Hanneman mumbled something before putting his monocle back in place.

"Right, I suppose we should get to that. Lady Rhea has hired you to be a professor at the Officers Academy this year, and what that means is that you will be in charge of the education of one of three houses: the Black Eagles of the Adrestian Empire, the Blue Lions of the Holy Kingdom of Faerghus, or the Golden Deers of the Leicester Alliance. Coincidentally, the leaders of each house this year are the same students you saved earlier today."

"Which one is mine?"

"That has yet to be determined. Which professor goes to which house isn't decided until the day before classes begin, which is tomorrow. Lady Rhea set up this meeting mostly so Manuela and I could get to know you, though that might not have gone the way she had hoped." Hanneman said the last part while looking at Manuela, still sitting in a corner doing whatever it was she was doing. "Nevertheless, please return here tomorrow morning for further instructions from the Archbishop."

Byleth agreed to that, but it wasn't as if there was a reason not to. Hanneman, with a good deal of struggle, dragged Manuela back onto her feet and out of the chamber, all the while talking about how he needed to get to his books; Byleth couldn't help but wonder what sort of stories he was into.

"Oh man, that was great!" The little girl said, no longer laughing as she floated down to Byleth.

"It was a successful meeting," Byleth said. "Why were you laughing so much?"

"You wouldn't get it." That was probably true, Byleth thought. "If we're done here, those three are waiting for us. I believe we agreed to meet at the dining hall."

Byleth was happy that that was the location.

Upon exiting the audience chamber and returning to the stables, Byleth realized that she had no idea how to get where she needed to go. Fortunately, she ran into a gatekeeper who was able to point her in the right direction with a smile on his face, and from there, it only took a minute to find the dining hall. It was smaller than she had imagined, but there was a pleasant aroma filling the air, either way. She could work with this.

"That must be the new professor, the alleged daughter of the Blade Breaker," Byleth heard a girl wearing a necklace emblazoned with a seashell say as she made her way to the counter.

"She's supposed to have some sort of supernatural ability that puts her above the average warrior. How intriguing," Byleth heard a boy with crows feet in the middle of sharpening his sword say as she ordered two large-sized pizzas from the chef.

"She's certainly easy on the eyes, that's for sure," Byleth heard a girl wearing a fashionable hat say while she waited for her order to be completed; another girl with blonde hair done in a large braid said something in response to that in a tone Byleth didn't assume to be happy, but she was too focused on waiting for her food to fully listen. Byleth kept hearing various comments of that nature all the way up until her order was complete, and it continued as she looked for a table to sit at.

"Byleth, over here!" Fortunately, Claude was there to direct her to one being occupied by Edelgard, Dimitri, and himself.

"Hello," Byleth said before sitting down. Everyone grabbed a slice of pizza and started eating; Byleth wasn't aware that she was getting food for everyone, but it wasn't worth making a scene. "People are talking about me."

"Yes, Lady Rhea wasted no time having word about you spread across the monastery. Well, I guess it's good to get the gossip out of the way early on," Edelgard said. "Tell me, did she know what a Persona was before you told her?"

"I'm going to change the world with Freydis."

"That's certainly a unique way for her to react. Don't you agree, Professor?"

"My name is Byleth."

"Yes, but since you'll be teaching here now, it makes sense to address you with something more formal, doesn't it?"

"Does it? I don't think we need to talk to Byleth like that after what we've been through," Dimitri said.

"Here, here!" Claude said. "If you ask me, getting thrown into another world filled with monsters means you can be on a first-name basis with someone."

"You can do that if you want, but I'll feel more comfortable like this. This won't be an issue, will it, Professor?" Edelgard asked. Byleth didn't see why it would be, but she also didn't fully understand why she felt the need to do that. Byleth wouldn't be surprised if something was going over her head, but if comfort was an issue, then she could at least understand that, so she told Edelgard that it was fine. "Thank you. How was the meeting, by the way?"

"The Archbishop is weird," Byleth said.

"You think so? Why is that?"

"I don't know. She just is."

"Are you really one to talk about that?" the little girl asked as she materialized above the table. "I guess it's not as if you're wrong, though. She certainly acts matronly, but something about that woman feels a little off to me."

"You're imagining things. Lady Rhea is an exemplary woman," Dimitri said.

"Professor Hanneman doesn't know what my Crest is," Byleth said.

"You should have seen his face when Byleth showed it to him. It was priceless," the little girl said.

"I can imagine. The guy eats, sleeps, and breathes Crestology, after all," Claude said.

"Also, Manuela wants to have sex with me," Byleth said. Edelgard started choking on her pizza, so Byleth reached across the table and struck her in the stomach to make her cough it up.

"You are a woman of complete and utter tact," the little girl said.

"Thank you."

"That's not—What do you mean by that?" Edelgard asked in-between coughs.

"Sex is when two or more people—"

"I meant why! Why was that something that happened?!"

"I mean, the why's kinda obvious, isn't it?" the little girl asked.

"You're not wrong," Claude said.

"I abstain from commenting," Dimitri said, going out of his way to not look in Byleth's direction, for some reason. Edelgard just went back to the pizza.

"Kids these days. I swear, finding ones who don't get awkward around a pretty face is harder than…" the little girl trailed off as the look on her face changed from a humorous one to a startled one. "Wait, have you three been able to hear me this entire time?"

"Yes? Have other people not been able to?" Edelgard asked.

"No! No one could! No one except her!" The little girl pointed at Byleth as she finished eating two slices of pizza at once.

"So you can't be perceived by anyone except the four of us?" Dimitri asked.

"Must be because we all went into Yggdrasil with Byleth. Pretty weird, but it's probably the sanest thing to happen today," Claude said.

"Whatever it is, it's fantastic! Now I can talk to people who actually know how to hold a conversation! No offense," the little girl said.

"For what?" Byleth asked.

"Never mind." Even if something was going over her head, Byleth was happy that the little girl would have other people to talk to, and those other people seemed happy to talk to her. "Speaking of Yggdrasil, I take it that the original purpose of this meeting was related to that, yes?"

"I guess we did get off track here," Edelgard said. "I'll be blunt with you, Professor: the next time you venture into that other world, we want you to take us with you."

"Okay," Byleth said.

"Just like that?"

"Do you want me to say no?" Byleth was honestly curious.

"No, but don't you at least want to hear why?" Byleth shrugged her shoulders. "Well, as dangerous as that other world might be, there's something suspicious going on there, and I'd like to know what it is."

"I feel the same," Dimitri said. "That man in black was clearly up to no good. Plus, if my theory about what we saw is correct, then letting him roam free would be completely unforgivable." Dimitri's expression seemed to darken with his last statement. He hadn't eaten much pizza, so Byleth assumed he was just hungry.

"I don't really have a big speech that can top either of those, but I definitely want to know more about that place, so I'm going, too," Claude said.

"Looks like you've all got a bit of guts in you. As expected of the future leaders of this land," the little girl said. "For the record, Byleth, I'd be tagging along even if we weren't attached at the hip. I don't know for sure if Alfheim is my home, but I still like it there, so if someone's causing trouble, I want to put a stop to it."

"Let's go," Byleth said as she stood up from the table.

"Wait, now?" the little girl asked.

"There's no more food, so it's a good time for it."

"You definitely showed that pizza who's boss, but aren't you tired after all the stuff we did?" Byleth shrugged her shoulders. "Don't lie. I'm in your head, so I know that you're feeling winded."

"I can stand, and that means I can fight."

"Professor, we don't need to leave right this second. If you're not completely up to it, then please don't force yourself on our behalf," Edelgard said. It wasn't as if Byleth was doing anything like that. She was curious about the other world, as well, and the fact that she wasn't too tired to move meant that she had enough strength to fight. At the same time, she had already agreed to go back with the others, so if they thought it wasn't a good idea for them to go right now, then it would be hard to change their opinion on the matter.

"We can go tomorrow."

"Excellent. Let's meet in the yard behind this building at ten. The sooner we head back, the better," Dimitri said. Byleth nodded her head.

"Alrighty, then. Talk to you all tomorrow," Claude said. The specific mention of talking got the little girl excited as they all left the dining hall; she still didn't fully understand the appeal of being able to talk to people, but if she liked it, then good for her.

"I'm bored now," Byleth said.

"Bored eh? Then I guess you won't mind if I choose what we do now?" the little girl asked.

"What is it?"

"The sauna. Let's go!"

"Why?"

"Don't give me that after you promised to do what I wanted without question." She didn't say that. "We're going to the sauna because it's a sauna! Just think about what that might entail!"

"Steam?"

"You truly do lack imagination and excitement. Don't overthink it, let's just go, go, go!"

Byleth did end up going to the sauna as the little girl had asked. The staff member in charge handed her a brown shirt and shorts combo for her to wear inside and instructed her to return them once she was finished. It was all rather sensible, so Byleth didn't understand why the little girl looked as if she were going to vomit the entire time she was getting changed, especially since she couldn't eat food.

"This is terrible. We might as well leave right now," the little girl said as they made their way into the steam room. Byleth was blasted with a burst of steam and her head was wet in mere seconds.

"Didn't you want to be here?" Byleth asked.

"Not like this! What's the point of a sauna if they make everyone keep their clothes on?! How do they expect people to properly enjoy the ruggedness of man or the curvature of women when they have to keep their clothes on?!"

"Are people only attractive when they're naked?"

"Of course not, but different settings call for different methods of showing off your charm! Most of the time, it's fine to just get by with good looks and clever wit, but there are circumstances where less is more, and this is one of them!"

"The less being clothes."

"Exactly! If not fully nude, then at least a towel would have been enough! At least a towel!" The towel must have been important if she had to say it twice, Byleth mused.

"Will you please shut up, already? Your rambling is getting on my nerves." It appeared that they weren't alone. Byleth wiped some steam out of her face and saw a light-haired man with a white mask sitting down on the bench.

"Was I rambling? People usually say that I talk too little," Byleth said.

"I heard more than enough. Any amount of talking will get on one's nerves when they're trying to relax, don't you agree?" the man asked. Byleth shrugged her shoulders, and he then proceeded to start staring at her, or at least in her general area. She really hoped he wouldn't try to touch her. "You're the new professor with the mysterious power, aren't you?"

"Byleth Eisner."

"I am Jeritza von Hrym. I teach fencing and other forms of swordplay at the Officers Academy. I was in the running to be a house professor this year, but some unforeseen circumstances prevented that from happening."

"That's too bad."

"It's you. You're the unforeseen circumstances," the little girl said. Jeritza's glare seemed to intensify.

"There's always next year."

"Assuming anything will matter by then," Jeritza said.

"Why wouldn't it?"

"Never mind. I'll be taking my leave now. See you in class, I suppose." Byleth nodded her head and Jeritza left the sauna after throwing one last look in her direction.

"First Rhea, now this guy? This school is just chock full of weirdos. I guess it's perfect for you, then," the little girl said.

"The food is good," Byleth said.

"Right, right." The little girl let out a hum. "That Jeritza guy. Now that I think about it, he sort of reminds me of you."

"Why?"

"I'm—I'm not sure. Just a feeling, or something. You didn't feel any sort of kinship?" Byleth shook her head. "Weird. Well, I'm gonna rest now. See you when I see you." The little girl vanished into her head and Byleth was left alone in the sauna. The little girl was the one who wanted to come here, but Byleth was already there, so there was no point in not staying, especially since she was alone.

Some time later, Byleth exited the sauna feeling hot and wet, but at the same time refreshed. The experience left her feeling slightly more exhausted, but she couldn't help but feel like it made her a little gutsier.

Day 21 of the Great Tree Moon, 1180

After she was done with the sauna, the kindly gatekeeper found her and escorted her to where her room would be: the first floor dormitories. With a few exceptions due to space issues, the first floor was reserved for students not of noble lineage, and while she was given a room there because it was the only one available, it was still appropriate. The gatekeeper also brought her to her father's quarters—he seemed excited to do so, for some reason—but he brushed off her attempts to talk to him by saying that he was still busy filling out Seteth's paperwork and that they could talk tomorrow. The open flask on his desk made her question the validity of that, but she retired to her room, regardless.

Eventually, Byleth fell asleep, and her dreams were nothing of the sort that she had been having recently; it was hard to even call what she had that night "dreams", at all. Upon waking, Byleth returned to Rhea's chamber and was instructed to talk with all of the students in order to make an informed decision about which house she would teach for the year. It was only nine in the morning when she was told that, so there was plenty of time for her to get that done before she was due to return to the World Tree, but that still meant she would be talking to random people for an entire hour.

Byleth spent an hour sitting on a bench behind the dining hall before Edelgard, Dimitri and Claude showed up. She made her way through a dozen plates of bacon and eggs before she received her first greeting.

"Will someone come for this?" Byleth asked, pointing to the stack of plates left on the ground.

"Even if no one does, there are more important things for us to worry about," Edelgard said. Byleth supposed she had a point.

"So, we all ready to go? Everyone has what they need, 'cause I sure do," Claude said. "Got a quiver full of arrows, some rope, some vulneraries, a few smoke bombs in case we need to run away, and a few other nifty surprises, just in case."

"What sort of—forget it. The less I know, the better," Dimitri said. "Little girl, whenever you're ready."

"I'm ready right now. Let's go!" The little girl pointed her hands out in front of her just as she did the previous day. Unlike the previous day, however, the Bifrost didn't emerge. "Okay, now!" Nothing happened. "Now!" Nothing happened. "Now, please?" Nothing happened.

"Don't feel too bad. Who among us hasn't had performance anxiety, every now and then?" Claude asked.

"Now is not the time for that, Claude," Dimitri said.

"I don't get it! It should be working, so why isn't anything happening?" the little girl asked. "Wait, let me try something." The little girl vanished from sight, though Byleth could tell that she didn't retreat into the confines of her mind. There was silence for a few seconds before she returned to them. "Okay, I've identified the problem. I was just in Alfheim, and I was able to summon the Bifrost just fine. Therefore, summoning the Bifrost must require someone to possess a physical form, which I notably lack in this world."

"That's a problem," Byleth stated.

"Can't you simply bring us to Yggdrasil from Yggdrasil?" Edelgard asked.

"No, it doesn't work like that. The Bifrost can only take people into the world that's opposite of the one it was summoned in; that's something I just remembered I forgot," the little girl said.

"Well, we're boned," Claude said.

"We can't give up without even trying!" Dimitri said. "Byleth, you summoned the Bifrost before, you should be able to do it again."

"I did?" Byleth asked.

"Who else could have done it?" Byleth shrugged her shoulders, but Dimitri did have a point. She was the one with the Persona, she was the one going in the Velvet Room, so it stood to reason that she was capable of summoning the Bifrost.

"How did I do that?"

"That's what we want to know," the little girl said. Therein lied the problem: Byleth had no idea what brought forth the Bifrost, and no matter how much she thought about it, nothing useful came to mind.

"Professor, is it possible that something you said triggered it?" Edelgard asked.

"What do you mean?" Byleth asked.

"Exactly what I said. It wasn't a lot, but you were talking just before we were sent to Yggdrasil, so it might be possible that something you said called the Bifrost forth."

"Come to think of it, it would make sense for it to be something like that," Dimitri said.

"Well, Byleth? What do you think the magic word is?" Claude asked.

She had no idea what it could have been, so she needed to think back to that moment the best she could to try and remember. She had just sent the bandit leader running after cutting off some of his fingers in her attempt to protect Edelgard. Edelgard thanked her, then Claude commented on her brutality, with her responding that she did what she had to do.

No. What were my exact words? Byleth asked herself. Remembering exactly what she said would be the key, so she did. Her exact words at that time were, "I'm always as brutal as I need to be." After that, she felt a tingling sensation before the four of them were sucked into the Bifrost. The tingling sensation had to be indicative of the trigger, but as she thought about it, the sensation didn't start at the end of her sentence, but somewhere in the middle. Going further, it started in the middle of a word, "Brutal". Yes, the first half of that was when the tingling sensation first got going, but it wasn't just there. There was another part where the sensation first started to form before coming at her in full force: when she said the word, "As".

"Asbru." It started with "As" and ended with "Bru—", so the trigger word had to be their combination, "Asbru."

"Asbru," Edelgard parroted.

"Is that the trigger word? But nothing's happen—" Before Dimitri could finish, a familiar bright light enveloped the five of them filled with familiar traces of blue, green, and purple.

After that, a familiarly giant rainbow shot down from the sky and swallowed them whole.

Once again, Byleth and her companions were treated to the sight of a massive, draconic tree floating in a field of ethereal blue. Once again, the Bifrost carried them towards the sphere on the bottom left that contained Alfheim. Once again, they all crash-landed into the dirt without receiving even a single bruise.

"We gotta work on our landings," Claude said.

"So we're really back in this world. It's just as bizarre as it was the first time around," Dimitri said.

"Let's go," Byleth said before proceeding to walk down the river.

"Yeah, before those Shadows notice we're here!" the little girl said as she floated above Byleth.

"At least wait for us!" Dimitri said.

"It's fine, isn't it? I mean, Byleth is going to be doing all the work.

"That's not true!"

"It's not?" Byleth asked. Dimitri let out a groan.

"Come on man, I know we all got our gear all spruced up for this, but it's more of a morale thing, isn't it?" Claude asked. "Weapons don't do anything to those Shadow things without a Persona, as Byleth has so cooly shown, and magic can stun them a bit, but it can't kill them. Same with your Crest, and I'm betting Edelgard would be the same."

"That's a good point," Edelgard said. "Both Dimitri's Crest of Blaiddyd and my Crest of Seiros can provide a momentary boost in physical strength, so if Dimitri couldn't kill a Shadow with his, the result would probably be the same for me. I don't wish to be dead weight for the Professor, but still…"

"It's fine," Byleth said. "You said you wanted to be here, so you have a right to be here, and you won't die. I wouldn't like it if you died." That was true for reasons she did understand and reasons she didn't understand.

As soon as she said that, a Shadow materialized in front of them.

"I told you we needed to get a move on!" the little girl said. "Well, I guess now you have a chance to put your money where your mouth is."

"Persona." Byleth drew her Crest in the air and summoned Freydis. At the same time, the Shadow exploded into a puddle of dark goo that reformed into a massive green blob with red eyes. The blob lunged at Freydis, but she jumped out of the way and slashed it in the back with her sword. It was a shallow hit, and the blob monster took advantage of that to jump on top of Freydis and knock her to the ground. Byleth felt a twinge of pain, but she ignored it as she summoned the cannon-like object to her hand and fired it at the blob monster. It recoiled from the pain and fell off of Freydis, allowing her to get in a deeper slash that cut it in two and made it vanish into nothing.

"That was an excellent fight, Byleth," Dimitri said.

"I'll say," Claude said. "You sure showed that thing who's boss, especially when you pulled out that weird little thing again."

"The Bang Bang Boomer," Byleth said.

"The what?" Claude asked after everyone was silent for several seconds.

"It goes, "Bang! Bang!" like a cannon, and it makes enemies go, "Boom!" Also like a cannon. It's the Bang Bang Boomer."

"I-Is that right?" Dimitri asked. She wouldn't have claimed the idea as her own otherwise, so she didn't understand what he was asking.

"I already knew about this, but it's still so—Oh my Goddess," the little girl said.

"Professor, I think what everyone is getting at is that calling that weapon the 'Bang Bang Boomer' isn't exactly the best way you could have proceeded," Edelgard said.

"Exactly!" Claude said.

"Yes, for something like this, I think the name 'The Doombringer' would be more appropriate."

"And we're back where we started!"

"My name is better," Byleth said.

"I'm not so sure about that," Edelgard said.

"Let's table this discussion and move on," Dimitri said.

"Yes, please!" the little girl said. Byleth thought that was a good idea, so she nodded her head and everyone headed down the river.

Her name was still a good one, though.

"Quick, hide!" After half an hour of walking, the little girl suddenly yelled that at them, so they all jumped behind a metal tree. Byleth didn't know why they were hiding, but then it made sense when she saw a shadow hovering a little off the ground and moving back and forth.

"This is because of yesterday, no doubt. Now that they know there can be intruders, they're going to have their rank and file keeping watch in different places to attack us," the little girl said.

"In that case, we should just strike now and get it over with," Edelgard said.

"Perhaps, or perhaps not. After all, there is a much better way to fight Shadows than a full-frontal assault."

"Is this another thing you're only now remembering?" Dimitri asked.

"That's beside the point! Byleth, when that Shadow turns its back to us again, run up to it and hit it with your sword."

"It's not transformed," Byleth said.

"That's the point. Shadows can transform into their true forms at will, but the slightest damage from an outside force can force a transformation. If that happens, they'll be momentarily stunned, and you can use that time to attack them without worrying about them fighting back."

"Okay." The second the Shadow's back was turned, Byleth jumped out, ran up to it, and slashed it across the back. The Shadow exploded into dark goo and reformed into a dark-skinned girl dressed in white with pointed ears, a bone necklace, and a head of unkempt blue hair. Byleth summoned Freydis and had her slash at the girl; it was a clean hit, but her form remained. Blood dripped out of her torso, but a second later, she was bathed in a pale light and the injuries faded.

"It can heal itself? Just great," Claude said. Byleth didn't know what was great about it, but she still had Freydis attack the girl in white, either way. The girl in white dodged the attack with ease and fired a gust of wind at Byleth. Byleth countered with a fireball, and the clash of magics created a small burst of smoke. The second it cleared, the girl in white ran in, kicked Byleth in the face, and blew a raspberry at her.

Byleth snorted out a bit of blood before kicking the girl in white away and had Freydis blast her with a beam of light from her sword. The girl in white screamed before she fell to the ground with singed clothes, and Byleth took that chance to stab her in the chest and put her down for good.

"A little tougher than the last one, but you still managed to pull through. Nice work," the little girl said.

"Is it just me, or did that Shadow seem to have a rather strong reaction to Byleth's attack?" Dimitri asked.

"Hey, yeah! The same thing happened with those rat things from yesterday," Claude said. Edelgard glared at him, for some reason.

"She was weak to light," Byleth said.

"Yes, that must be it; some Shadows must be more susceptible to certain attacks than others," Edelgard said. "We can use that going forward, but we should also be cautious of it, Professor. If your little friend here is telling the truth about how Shadows and Personas are connected, then your Freydis is most likely weak to certain attacks, as well."

"I'll be careful."

"Well, even if you're not, we can work around that," the little girl said with a smile.

"What do you mean?"

"I'll tell you when you're in mortal peril, okay?"

"Okay." Edelgard, Dimitri, and Claude seemed to question why that was okay, even though it was obviously okay because she had a plan for dealing with it.

Whether or not the plan could be put into action would end up being tested rather quickly as the group soon ran into another Shadow, the Shadow transforming into an armored knight wielding a large sword. Byleth had Freydis fire a beam of light at it, but the knight merely shrugged it off and charged at her; if Shadows could be weak to certain attacks, then Byleth supposed it made sense that they could also resist certain attacks.

Freydis and the knight locked swords, but Freydis was slowly being pushed back. Byleth launched a fireball at the knight that knocked it away, but it quickly recovered and slashed Freydis with a sword clad in darkness. Freydis was forced to the ground and Byleth felt a large surge of pain running through her body. Dark magic appeared to be Freydis' weakness, but she would have preferred to find out a different way.

"As would I, but this was the best way to sell the importance of what will happen next," the little girl said. The knight came down on Freydis with its sword; its speed, combined with how stunned Byleth felt, made it hard to imagine her being able to dodge it.

Then it stopped; it didn't stop the attack, it stopped moving entirely. Byleth could see her companions trying to run towards her, but they suddenly stopped, as well. Even the river had suddenly come to a standstill, a completely unnatural one.

"Everything's frozen," Byleth said.

"That's right. This is a special power of mine I recently discovered called the Divine Pulse. Pretty great, don't you think?" the little girl asked. Byleth nodded her head. "But wait, there's more. You can't move in frozen time, either, so simply unfreezing everything wouldn't help you. In that regard, the Divine Pulse isn't the most useful ability, or at least that would be the case if freezing time was the only thing it was capable of."

The little girl snapped her fingers, and everything started moving backward. Attacks were rescinded, positions were restored, even the pain Byleth was feeling faded away into nothing. The effect kept going until everything returned to when Freydis and the knight were locking swords. Once again, Byleth knocked it back with a fireball, but when it came at Freydis with a sword clad in darkness, Byleth had Freydis duck underneath and stab her sword through its torso. Byleth fired her Bang Bang Boomer at it thrice for good measure, and the knight dissolved into nothing, a sign of its defeat.

"You can turn back time," Byleth said.

"She can do what now?" Dimitri asked.

"It's just as she said. I am one who can bend the fabric of time to my whim… to a certain extent, anyway," the little girl said. "I can only turn back time a small amount a few times a day, and there's a bit of a lag between uses, but my Divine Pulse is still quite the power, don't you think?"

"Quite the power, indeed," Edelgard said.

"Man, between that, Byleth's Persona, and these Shadow things, there's just too much crazy stuff going on in the world to keep track of," Claude said. "Oh, the Draugr, too, but I guess they don't have anything to do with this."

"Except for the fact that they're created from Shadows," the little girl said.

Byleth looked around at the group. Everyone looked as confused as she felt.

"What did you just say?" Dimitri asked.

"Huh? Oh, right! That was the thing I was trying to remember yesterday, but I kept forgetting what it was. To think it would just slip out so naturally. What is going on with my head, right?"

"That's not what I want to hear! What do you mean that Draugr are born from Shadows?!"

"Right, right. Yggdrasil, you see, is a world that serves as a bridge between the souls of humanity and the souls of, well, the demonic, for lack of a better term. The two normally exist on separate planes of reality, and while it's not impossible for them to intersect, the average human soul can't handle the stress of something so at odds with itself forcing its way inside. In order to cope with that, the human soul forces the body to undergo a sort of metamorphosis into a form that can handle that abnormality, but the end result is something that's no longer human and never will be again. That's the truth behind the thing you call a Draugr."

"You've got to be kidding me. That's insane!" Claude said.

"It was obvious that the victims of the plague suffered as they transformed, but I can't even imagine how it must feel to have your very soul corrupted," Edelgard said.

"That's not important," Dimitri said.

"Not important? How can you—"

"The details of the process aren't what we need to mull over!" Dimitri turned back to the little girl. "That man in black—he had to have been sending these things out to corrupt someone. Are you not only telling me that Shadows are the ones who create Draugr, but the entire act is something being controlled by others?"

"Yes, that's right," the little girl said. Dimitri let out a laugh before slamming his fist against a metal tree.

"Are you kidding me?!" Dimitri then started punching the tree over and over again. "How dare they?! How could there be people who would be so sadistic?! How?!"

"Dimitri, calm down," Claude said. He tried to put a hand on his shoulder, but Dimitri swatted it away.

"I'm too angry, am I? Aren't you all too calm? We all heard the same insanity, so why am I the only one having any sort of reaction?"

"Hey, I'm with you on it being messed up, but what's flying off the handle and punching a tree going to do about it?"

"No one's saying that you can't feel hatred for the ones responsible, but you can't just get angry at the drop of a hat. You need to be able to choose the right time to be emotional," Edelgard said.

"Is that right? I barely know you, Claude, so I can't respond to you, but that answer is so typical of you, Edelgard. Of course someone who doesn't know the meaning of suffering would be able to give such an ideal rebuttal," Dimitri said.

"Watch your mouth, Dimitri." Edelgard's eyes seemed to darken as she spoke.

"Calm down," Byleth told everyone.

"Even you, Byleth? You've been silent through all of this. Why, though? What's your reason for not caring?" Dimitri asked.

"I don't know if I don't care, but I'm not angry because I wasn't there when your friends and family were killed by Draugr."

Everyone except the little girl started giving her a weird look. It was the truth, though. The Tragedy of Duscur was where the previous king of Faerghus and many of his associates were killed by Draugr. That was a fact, and she was just stating it.

"Fine, then. If we're all truly of different minds, then I'll be going at my own pace and kill these bastards all on my own!" Dimitri's body shone with the power of his Crest as he ran off, his increased strength giving him a burst of speed that made it impossible for anyone to grab him before he was well away from the group.

"Did I say something wrong?"

"I think we all might have, to a certain degree," Edelgard said.

"What? I didn't do anything!" Claude said.

"Yes, but don't you think that can be a problem, in and of itself?" Claude didn't look willing to respond to that. "No, now's not the time to fight. We need to go after Dimitri before he gets himself in trouble."

"Let's get to it, then!" the little girl said before flying off. Byleth, Edelgard, and Claude followed after her, and the entire time, Byleth didn't understand what she had done wrong.

It didn't take long for Byleth's group to find Dimitri, the area of his discovery being the same place they got to last time, and the circumstances were as poor as she had feared they might be. Dimitri was down on the ground looking worse for wear, and a gaggle of Shadows was surrounding him ready to pounce.

"Oh, his friends really are here." What was unaccounted for was the presence of a person who wasn't the man in black. The man who was talking while simultaneously digging his heel into Dimitri's face was a man with large, brown sideburns dressed like a thief who looked at them all with disdain. "Nice to meet you all. My name's Pallordo, the King of Thieves." He certainly didn't look like a king. "Before you ask, I like to introduce myself to people before I kill them."

"Get off of him," Byleth said.

"No can do, Missy," Pallordo said. He increased the pressure on Dimitri's head and forced a yell out of him.

"That wasn't a request, you know," Claude said as he drew his bow. "By the way, I prefer your old outfit."

"My old—oh, that? No, that was a different guy, and he's dead now. The higher-ups didn't like him letting you guys get away, so they killed him without skipping a beat."

"How unfortunate," Edelgard said with some sort of inflection.

"It really is! Thanks to that, they made me come over and keep watch of everything, but I'm not supposed to be doing that! I'm not meant for any of this high profile nonsense, yet here I am, so thanks for that!"

"You're welcome," Byleth said.

"Don't make fun of me!" She didn't get why he'd think that.

"Hey, if you don't want to do this, then just let our friend go and we'll pretend we never saw each other," the little girl said.

"No can do, kid. My orders are to guard what we've got at the end of this realm, and as much as I don't want to do that, I fear getting on my bosses' bad sides way too much to not do it." Pallordo's face then shifted from an exasperated frown to a wicked smile. "Plus, I'd be lying if I said I didn't get a thrill from having a chance to gut some noble brats in over their heads."

"Looks like we have our answer," Claude said, firing off an arrow towards Pallordo that was easily blocked by a Shadow.

"Hey, that could have killed me, you brat! I have better things to do than be killed in this Goddessforsaken world, you know! This is why I didn't want to be here! Being with these people is one thing, but I don't need to die for them! Kill them for me, already!"

The Shadows all broke apart and reformed into new appearances. One turned into a woman with braided pigtails and a pot of fire on her head; another turned into a being with a muscular, metallic body, horse legs for limbs, and two horse heads in place of where a head normally would have gone; four Shadows merged together to create a large figure that looked to be a man wearing the flesh of a bull as clothing, the flesh of the bull's head being stretched so close to the man's head that his skull was poking through.

"N-No!" The remaining Shadows turned into three of the metal rats from the day before, and just as she did then, Edelgard dropped her axe and hid behind a tree.

"I didn't expect you to help, but still! Come on!" the little girl said.

"Persona," Byleth said, summoning Freydis. The two of them charged at the rats, but the man bull jumped in and pounded the ground so hard that the resulting shockwave knocked them back. The horse man shot a large block of ice at Byleth, but Byleth melted it with a fireball. At the same time, Freydis fired a beam of light at the flaming woman, but she dodged and left herself open to being shot in the leg by one of the rats. Both Byleth and Freydis stumbled to the ground, allowing the man bull to charge at them and knock them to the ground with a lariat to each of their throats.

Byleth wished that hadn't happened.

"Byleth!" Dimitri called out, which led to Pallordo applying more force to his head.

"Damn you!" Claude said. He fired off another arrow at Pallordo, but the flaming woman burned it to ash and the horse man hit Claude in the chest with its ice, the force of the attack knocking—and freezing—him to the ground. Byleth tried to launch a fireball at Claude to free him, but one of the rats tackled her back to the ground before she got the chance.

"You know what? I think I was wrong to stress out over you guys," Pallordo said. "The only Persona user among you is a complete novice, and all she has for hangers-on are some weird kid, a Duke's brat who's worth starts and ends at his name, a prince who's too angry to make a difference anywhere, and a weak little princess who likes to act tough, but the second she falls, she falls hard."

"They're doing it again," Edelgard said. "Why are they doing it again? I'm doing everything I'm supposed to be doing, yet they won't stop showing up? This isn't fair. It's not fair."

"See?! This is great! Kills without any hassle are the best, so you all truly have my gratitude!" Pallordo let out a laugh as Dimitri stayed under his foot, Claude remained trapped in ice, and Edelgard kept shaking.

Byleth didn't enjoy any of that.

"Come on, Edelgard, pull yourself together!" the little girl said as she tried to break the ice covering Claude with a rock. "I still can't use my powers right now, so we all have to do what we can to be strong for Byleth!"

"Run away," Byleth said. It was a natural conclusion to arrive at, yet everyone looked at her strangely.

"What?" Edelgard asked, breaking a little out of her state.

"Run away. Use the Bifrost to return to Garreg Mach. I'll stay and finish things here."

"But that's—Why wouldn't you come with us?!"

"If I can't win now, then I'd never be able to win. I can still stand, so I can still fight."

"Works for me," Pallordo said. The man bull charged at Byleth once more. Freydis fired a beam of light at it, but the horse man intercepted it with its body without issue, freeing the man bull to tackle Byleth back to the ground.

"That's right. I need to free Dimitri before you can all go."

"Stop telling us to do that!" Claude said.

"Yeah! What do you think happens to me in this scenario?!" the little girl asked.

"I don't know, but at the very least, I don't want them to die." Byleth's motivations then were the same as they were the previous day: for whatever reason, above all else, she didn't want those three to die. She didn't know why that was, but either way, that was all there was to it. It was some kind of feeling, but she wasn't good with those, so she certainly wouldn't be able to put a name to it.

"How intoxicatingly heroic. Well, help her out, you guys." Pallordo wouldn't give her the time to contemplate, either. The flaming woman launched fireballs that Byleth and Freydis managed to dodge, but Freydis was hit in the arm by ice from the horse man. Byleth felt a chill run through her as the rats tackled her back to the ground, and she felt a new surge of pain as the man bull kicked Freydis into a tree. None of it was anything she couldn't handle so long as she got a second to catch her breath, but as the rats started to move their teeth towards her face, she started to feel like she wouldn't get the time she needed.

She felt that way right up until Edelgard lodged her axe into one of their skulls.

"Hey, hey, what the hell is this? Aren't these things supposed to scare the crap outta you?" Pallordo asked.

"That hasn't stopped in the slightest; just looking at these things makes want to vomit everything I've eaten in the past month," Edelgard said. Her hands were still shaking as she spoke, but when she looked down at Byleth, the shaking seemed to die down. "But so what? This woman can so easily put her life on the line again and again like this, yet I lose my resolve at the sight of a mere rodent. How pathetic. It's truly pathetic, but no more!" Edelgard stomped down on her axe handle, causing it to tear right through the rat's head and split it in two, causing the other two to back away from her. "I can't afford to die now, not until my dreams are realized, but if I allow myself to be so weak that a rat can break me, then those dreams were never worth having, and that's the farthest from the truth!"

"Wait, is it dead? Are you really—" Pallordo was cut off by Dimitri throwing him off of his head and making him fall flat on his face.

"You're not the only one who hates this, you know, and you're sure as hell not the only one who wants to fight!" Dimitri said. "I rushed into things and got us all in trouble, sure, but my feelings haven't changed—no, they have, but it's more as if they've been refined." Dimitri grabbed his spear and pointed it at Pallordo. "I want to destroy this man and his ilk, that hasn't changed, but above all else, I refuse to keep watching people die while being powerless to stop it!" At that time, the man bull grabbed Dimitri and started squeezing him, but Dimitri stabbed him in the foot, forcing him to let him go and allowing him to run to Byleth's side.

"No way! Are you also—"

"Don't forget about me, now!" Claude said as he took the little girl's rock from her. "You really told me to run? That's fine. I've had to do a lot of running to get to where I am today, so I'm used to it by now. But just because I'm used to it doesn't mean that I like it. So telling me to run while someone else takes all the hits I didn't have it in me to take? Like hell I can justify that!" Claude smashed the rock against the ice and shattered it in one blow. He then jumped up on his feet and quickly fired an arrow at the horse man, and when it tried to swat it away, the arrow went straight through its arm.

"Come on! All three of them?!" Pallordo shouted as he stood back up.

"Well? Is he right?" the little girl asked.

"Let's find out," Dimitri said. As Byleth stood up behind them, the three of them ran their fingers through the air until a pale green image of their Crests appeared in front of each of them, the same as what Byleth did to summon Freydis. It was obvious what was coming next.

""Persona!"" The three of them were unified as they slammed their hands against the images of their Crests. A pillar of green fire appeared behind each of them, and out from the fire emerged their Personas.

Behind Edelgard was a woman with the head of a cat with eyes as brown as its fur, a figure clad in red armor with golden hearts attached to the legs and chest, a black spear and a bushy tail, each with a tip that was bent to look like a heart, and a pair of giant black eagle wings floating behind her head while pointing down toward the ground.

Behind Dimitri was a man whose entire face was obscured by a boar's head, save for a bushy blonde beard. His torso was bare and covered in scars, his hands were grasped tightly around a chipped zweihander, his legs were armored with silver plating, and tied around his waist was the mane of a blue lion.

Behind Claude was an archer whose body was obscured by a green coat, save for a pair of dark, muscular arms holding a bow made of golden light. The archer sat atop a large horse with a skeletal head, and the only thing that poked through the hood of the coat was a pair of golden deer antlers.

"Seriously?! All three of them?! Like hell I'm sticking around for this!" Pallordo jumped across the river and started fleeing the scene. Byleth would have liked to go after him, but she knew that the fight here was the more important one.

"Strike them down, Brynhildr!" Edelgard said; her Persona charged forward with her spear and hit the horse man with enough force to knock it into the ground and leave a small crater.

"End this battle, Gunnar!" Dimitri said; his Persona jumped up and swung his sword onto the flaming woman, failing to kill her, but succeeding in chopping off an arm.

"Let's dance, Orvar-Oddr!" Claude said; his Persona ran over to the rats and swatted them away with his bow before they had a chance to react.

Byleth didn't have anything clever to say, so she just jumped at the man bull and stabbed it in the head. It reached up to try and grab her, but when Byleth threw a fireball at its hand, it was completely unfazed and proceeded to wrap its hand around her neck. Immediately after, its movements were thrown into reverse, a clear sign that the little girl was able to use—and had used—her Divine Pulse again. The second time around, Byleth had Freydis simply stab the man bull's hand before dislodging herself from him; at the same time, her Crest activated and healed some of her injuries.

"Yeah, now this is more—look out!" The little girl's cry brought Byleth's attention to the horse man firing a block of ice at her. Byleth was ready to counter it, but before she could, the ice shattered and the horse man fell back.

"Sorry to steal your thunder there, but when you got a shot, you gotta take it," Claude said. To Byleth's surprise, in his hands was what looked like her Bang Bang Boomer, but it was much longer and looked like it could be slung over his shoulders. At the same time, Dimitri summoned his own Bang Bang Boomer and shot the man bull with it; his was also elongated, and if Byleth was looking at it right, there appeared to be two points of exit for the tiny cannonballs.

"Edelgard, behind you!" Dimitri said. One of the rats had gotten behind Edelgard while Gunnar did battle with the other one. The rat pointed its cannon-like weapon at her, ready to attack, but without words, Edelgard summoned forth a Bang Bang Boomer far larger than all of theirs combined and jammed it so hard into its head that it was pushed into the dirt.

"Mine is bigger than yours," Edelgard said. She pressed down on the metal bit and fired onto the rat, the attack tearing through its skull with ease and causing it to be reduced to nothing.

"Let's end this," Byleth said.

"Right!" Dimitri said. Gunnar took a hand away from his sword and shot a stream of water at the flaming woman, dousing her flames and forcing her to the ground. "Claude!" For some reason, Dimitri high-fived him.

"Let's go!" Claude said. Orvar-Oddr drew his bow, summoned forth an ethereal arrow, and fired it at the horse man. It was a direct hit against its chest that left it riddled with cracks as it fell to the ground. "Edelgard!" For some reason, Claude high-fived her.

"Ravage them!" Edelgard said. A ball of fire formed where Brynhildr's mouth would normally be that was immediately launched at the last remaining rat, knocking it back and melting away some of its armor. "Professor!" For some reason, Edelgard high-fived her, and for some reason, she didn't hate it. It even felt like it was supposed to happen.

"Freydis," Byleth said. Freydis flew at the man bull, dodged underneath a powerful punch before it could hit her, and blasted it in the jaw with a beam of light that broke some of the bull flesh around its head before forcing it to the ground.

"Now, you guys! Hit them with everything you've got!" the little girl said. All at once, the four of them charged at the fallen Shadows with their weapons, assaulting them with rapid timing and precision. No one wasted a move, no one missed their mark, everyone managed to hit someone with something until they were all destroyed.

At long last, the battle was over.

"We did it! We actually did it!" Claude shouted as everyone recalled their Personas.

"Yes, we certainly did. Though I must say, as happy as I am for it, I didn't expect all of us to gain Personas like the Professor did," Edelgard said.

"I definitely did, and even if it wasn't all of us at once, we all would have gotten them eventually. That's how these kinds of stories go, after all."

"This is reality," Byleth said. Claude just shrugged his shoulders.

"Everyone, please allow me to apologize for how I acted before! I allowed my anger to get the better of me, and because of that, you all ended up in dire straits. Please forgive my foolishness!" Dimitri said, bowing his head low to the ground.

"It's fine. Apparently, I could have been nicer, so sorry for that," Byleth said.

"Plus, it's not like something like this wouldn't have happened anyway, so forget about it," Claude said.

"As I said before, there's no harm in being angry with people, you just need to understand that there's no merit in being angry all the time," Edelgard said. "If there are people you hate so much that you want them to die, you need to contain yourself until you're able to fight them, and only then should you unleash all of your rage."

"I, well, I don't know about all of that, but you're right about controlling myself. I need to save my feelings for the ones responsible for the plague, not some random foliage, and certainly not any of you."

"Apology happily accepted," the little girl said. "We had a bit of a rough start, but I must say, this is one good looking team we've got here. You've even got your own little maneuver, despite working together for only two seconds."

"The high-fives," Byleth said, looking down at her hand. Edelgard, Dimitri and Claude were all doing the same thing.

"Yeah, what was up with that, anyway?"

"If I'm being honest, I'm not sure. All of a sudden, I just felt like it was something I needed to do," Dimitri said.

"Same here. It was like I was moving on instinct, and at the same time, it felt kind of familiar. Like I'd done it before. Is that weird?" Claude asked.

"I don't think so. I got the same feeling as well. What about you, Professor?" Edelgard asked. Byleth nodded her head. It was hardly the first time those three invoked a sense of nostalgia, after all.

"Well, I believe we should put a pin in this for now and move onto a more pressing matter."

"Like what?" Byleth asked. Edelgard reached into her pocket and pulled out a piece of paper that was quickly unfolded.

"We need to decide on a team name."

"We do?" Dimitri asked.

"Of course. If we're all going to be working together, then having a collective name for ourselves can emphasize our unity and improve our teamwork. There are many studies to support this," Edelgard said.

"When did you even make that list?" Claude asked.

"I was up all night writing it."

"Why?" Byleth also wanted an answer to that.

"Look, I'll just read what I have and you can all say something when you hear something you like, okay?" It was likely that Edelgard would do that regardless of whether or not they opposed it. "This is what I have: the Persona Strike Force; the Masked Circle; the New World Order; the Specialized Nobility Execution Squad, or 'S.N.E.S.' for short; the Investigation Team; the Phantom Strikers; the Shadow Knights; the Garreg Mach Four; Byleth Eisner and the Garreg Mach Three—"

"You can't be serious," Dimitri said.

"Okay, what about the Garreg Mach Two?" Byleth didn't think Dimitri liked that one, either.

"Hey, isn't the math wrong on all of those? I'm not included in the tally!" the little girl said.

"Hm? Oh. I guess I forgot to include you because you don't have a Persona."

"You didn't have one when you came up with these!"

"Do you have an idea?" Byleth asked.

"Are-Are mine no good?" Edelgard asked.

"Everyone should have a turn." Edelgard eventually conceded to that.

"Do I have an idea? Of course, I have an idea," the little girl said. "There's no way I wouldn't have an idea. If Edelgard can spend all night coming up with ideas, then I can spend a few seconds coming up with them. That's the kind of girl I probably am."

"You're stalling."

"Stalling? Me? Please. This isn't stalling. By the time I'm done here, you'll all wish I was—wait, it just hit me. The perfect name for our team is the Nibelungs!"

"The Nibelungs?" Edelgard asked.

"What's a Nibelung?" Dimitri asked.

"It's a name given to a hero of ancient times, that's what it is," the little girl said.

"How do you know that? I've never heard of this, so how do you know about it?" Claude asked.

"I don't know! It's a real thing though, I swear!"

"I like it. Let's use this one," Byleth said.

"Really?" Edelgard asked.

"It's nice, and this way, everyone gets to add something."

"I suppose that's fair."

"I have no complaints," Dimitri said.

"Me, neither!" Claude said.

"Yes! My thing wins!" the little girl cheered.

"I also had the idea of us adopting monikers to use," Edelgard said. "The Professor can stay as Professor, I can be Ember, Dimitri can be—"

"I don't want to do that," Byleth cut in. Edelgard looked at her for a second before tearing up the page and scattering the pieces around.

"Don't do that! Littering is not allowed here, probably!" the little girl said.

"I mean, if you don't even know for sure, how bad is it?" Claude asked.

"He's not wrong," Dimitri said. There was more back and forth like that that Byleth didn't participate in, and she was fine with that. The main point was that they were a team, they were the Nibelungs, and they were in this together. When Igor told her that new Persona users would emerge around her, she thought that it might be those three, and if she couldn't help but feel happy that it ended up playing out that way.

I am thou, thou art I. Thou hast acquired a new vow. It shall use the turmoils of the past to gather strength in the present for moving forward into the future. Such is the gift the Fool Arcana bestows upon thee.

Byleth Eisner has established the Fool Confidant with the Nibelungs. Byleth will receive an Arcana Burst when fusing Personas of the Fool Arcana.

Byleth didn't know what that was, and she didn't understand any of it.

Guns in this chapter:

Edelgard: Anti-tank rifle

Dimitri: Double barrel shotgun

Claude: Carbine

By the way, Orvar-Oddr's spells are Force/Zan- skills. In the Shin Megami Tensei franchise, Force is used interchangeably with Wind, but I decided to give it a more unique appearance.