Chapter 29: Fraud Prince

“… Petoro?” I raise my voice in caution and doubt. The child in front of me is, in fact, Musashibou Petoro, but the way he’s acting at the moment seems to show nothing but that emotional kid. And my doubts are soon proven to be true, as the boy takes a glance at me and licks his lips while letting out a sinister grin:

“Asmodai’s vessel, isn’t it? I can tell from that heat coming from you… A fine woman you got there, dragon of flame.”

“Allow me to formally introduce myself.” “Petoro” continues without letting me so much a chance to react to his previous actions. “My name is Byleth, the Demon that governs the wind. As you may be aware, my consciousness is present within my cross, and I’m currently borrowing the body of this pitiful child. Although… I believe he would still be happy wielding this kind of power in his hands.”

“Why did you kill Ushiwaka?” I ask, readying my spears to attack at any given moment.

“You mean this man, don’t you?” Byleth raises the head forward, and, in an unexpected move, tosses it across the room towards me. Instinctively, I dodge away, and the severed head lands on Katsu instead. Finally shaken by the turns of events, the boy finally opens his eyes, and as the lifeless open eyes of his dead father stare directly at him, Katsu lets out a terrified scream and passes out in an instant.

The Demon standing opposite to me, on the other hand, is laughing cynically at the scene:

“Kehehe… A nice sound he makes, isn’t it? Don’t you find that lovely?”

“You sicken me, Demon.” Gripping my spear tightly, I grunt. “Are human lives just toys for you to play with?”

“As a matter of fact, you hit the nail right in the head!” Raising his arms forward in a triumphant manner, as if embracing the idea of chaos itself onto him, Byleth lets out a satisfying scream. “Us Demons have lost our way. We’re not supposed to be all buddy-buddy with you guys. We exist to find joy in ourselves, to revel in the sweet sound of despair. We thrive in your suffering, but somehow, I’m the ‘bad guy’ whenever I bring it up among us. Well, now that there’s no one standing in my way anymore, I’ll make sure to show you humans what hell really is!”

I’ve had enough of this creep. There’s nothing salvageable about him anymore. But the problem is, he’s not in his own body, and I can’t risk killing Petoro along with him. Think, Petra. There must be a way to only kill that abomination… Wait, what if I destroy the cross right now? His consciousness is still in there, right? It’s hard, but if I stay focused and control my spear to precisely hit it…

However, I’m back within the burning city in my dreams, and in front of me is once again a portal leading to the outside world.

“Hey, what gives, stupid dragon?” I shout in anger, raising my fist towards the sky. Replying to me is Asmodai’s voice echoing in the air:

“Calm down. I only want to talk to him for a bit. I still agree that he’s a dangerous force right now, and if worst comes to worst, we will have to kill him.”

On the outside, however, Asmodai is still calmly striking a conversation using my body:

“Long time no see, Byleth.”

“So, you finally show yourself.” The Demon’s creepy grin stretches out to the edges of his face, long passing the boundaries of a normal human being. “What brings you here, old friend? Do you want to catch up on the good old times, or are you here to disappear forever into the void?”

“I don’t plan to do any of the two.”. Asmodai answers. “But I do have some questions for you, Byleth. The first one being… the war you caused some thousands of years ago, here in this very land.”

“You mean the Sengoku era?” Byleth raises his eyebrows in doubt. “It’s an old story, Asmodai. Why bring it up now?”

“Because it’s the bloodiest and most brutal Trial anyone of us has ever produced. Tell me, Byleth, why did you do it? Why did you instigate a war that destroyed all good candidates for our potential partners?”

“Because the whole system is wrong, that’s why.” Gone is his usual annoying grin, the Demon, for the first time since I’ve seen him, answers with a dead-serious expression on his face. “Tell me, Asmodai, aren’t you… no, aren’t anyone of you concerned about what would happen to us once we’ve accomplished our fates?”

“We all knew about it, Byleth. And we all chose to accept it.” Asmodai answers, still in a calm demeanor. “You were the only one that had a change of heart.”

“I had a change of heart, that is true. But this change is what you all needed!” Byleth then shows a fit of anger unknown to any of us before, as he screams out loud and swings his arms to the side, knocking away another vase nearby onto the floor, making ceramic pieces fly away in all directions in the progress. “Think for yourselves for once, Asmodai! Are you going to just accept that you’re bound to disappear into nothing one day? Why would you continue to walk on this path, when it’s bound to kill all of us?”

“Heh.” Asmodai, to my surprise, lets out a smirk. “You’re starting to sound like your first partner.”

“Ironic, isn’t it? He was the one to abandon me first, but only afterwards did I realize he’s actually in the right all along.” Byleth’s mouth forms a bitter smile as he shakes his head in regret. “And now I’m done hesitating. I will resist this accursed fate of ours, and I will be the one to have the last laugh!”

As the final words leave his mouth, from Byleth’s back sprouts an enormous pair of wings made out of pure, condensed air pressure, like a miniature storm raging inside the house, sucking up every sort of broken furniture it could get its hands on. The storm wings then grow to an unimaginable scale, breaking the entire house itself, and freeing the Demon in the process. Now high up in the sky, Byleth raises his hands upward and shouts:

“You have two choices, Asmodai! Leave me alone, or get crushed under my wind!”

“Heh.” The fire dragon lets out another smirk, licking up the wound bleeding in the corner of his mouth. “All these years, and still that same bratty personality. I wanted to talk things out peacefully, but if you’re going as far as to threaten me, Byleth, then I’ll have to remind you why we’re still considered equals in strength.”

The moment Asmodai finishes his sentences is also the moment when the two tornadoes drill down upon us, carrying all of its deadly projectiles consisting of wooden planks and rocks along in an attempt to tear our bodies to shreds. Asmodai, however, isn’t fazed in the slightest, and, raising his flag spear forward, his voice echoes within this imaginary world I’m in:

“Watch closely. This is the true potential you can achieve.”

Asmodai plants the flag on the ground with all his might. Immediately afterwards, massive walls of flame burst open from the ground up, erecting themselves to cover the space around us. However, the walls don’t just feel like lifeless flames flickering in the wind, but rather they have a sturdy feel to them, like actual walls of a fortress ready to intercept any attack coming their way. And, as a matter of fact, the walls start to take a clearer form as time goes by, completely transforming into a genuine flaming castle as the winds of destruction finally make their way to us. But that’s not all: from the ground now spawn countless soldiers of flame, all holding a shield that burns brightly even in the roughest of storms, and, with a unified cry of battle, the army of flaming soldiers raise their shields to form a defensive formation in front of the stronghold, protecting the castle until their final breath.

“Forteresse Éternelle.” Asmodai’s voice echoes through the burning city as the fortress of fire stands tall under the raging wind. “Like a candle shining its brightest light in the direst moment, this is a defensive wall that burns stronger the more powerful its opposing force is.”

“A defensive technique, huh… Not really my style, but still damn impressive.” I let out a smirk, to which the Demon’s voice echoes once more:

“There are times when needlessly rushing yourself to attack wouldn’t do you any good. It’s best for you to keep it in mind. Now… I’ll leave the rest to you.”

“Wait, what do you mean ‘leave the rest to me? I thought you were going to teach that stupid Demon who’s boss?” I shout in confusion and nervousness as I slowly realize that the scenery around me is starting to change.

“I did. Now it’s your job. Take a look at him and see for yourself.”

As I finally regain my body, my eyes immediately direct towards the cause of all this trouble. Still floating in the air is Byleth with his two tornadoes on his back, but his face does experience a major change. On the left half of his face is the same crazed look, but now with a dash of anger, while on his right now is a gentle, kind expression, while also showing signs of uncontrollable fear. As the Demon utters, a sign of hope shines down onto me, as I can perfectly hear the voices of two entirely different people sounding at once, and the content of his words only adds to my suspicion:

“Petra-nee… Nii-san… Help… me…”

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“Shut up, fool! Just sit there quietly!”

I instantly form a spear in my hand. Petoro has finally taken some control back. Every fiber of my being tells me that this is the best chance I have to bring him back. And to do that, I need to hit the best spear in my life.

My target is one and only. The emerald cross on the boy’s neck, still shining even after all of the fighting that ensued. For it to work, I need extreme precision. Enough accuracy to hit that small cross all the way from down here. Just enough power to destroy the cross, but not enough to pierce through his flesh.

I take a deep breath. This is it. It’s now or never.

“Let. The kid. GO!”

The spear leaves my grip like an arrow being fired, shredding through the air like a flash of lightning. However, the Demon, while weakened, still has enough control left to maneuver himself, letting out a crazed shout in the process:

“Don’t underestimate me!”

As if ripping himself off the place he’s floating, Byleth dodges just as the spear was about to pierce through the cross. However, I don’t plan to let him have the last laugh.

With a wave of my hand, the spear’s path makes a sharp turn, instantly making its way back to the Demon while his guard is at his lowest.

It’s a hit.

The force from the spear crushes the cross on his neck, shattering it into glittering dust under the sun, while the spear itself bursts into flames as soon as the cross is shattered, leaving not a single wound on Petoro’s body, no matter how small. The Demon, meanwhile, has his eyes turn into a lifeless white, and finally, after a brief moment of nonsense uttering, closes his eyes, leaving Petoro’s body to float down unharmed.

“Hah… It’s over.” Breathing out a sigh of relief, I gaze towards the sunny sky. I can’t believe I actually did it. Now, there won’t be any threat that can bring forth tragedy anymore.

Just as the thought appears in my mind, however, reality has already shown that I spoke too soon.

From Petoro’s body, a giant portal spawns, larger than any other I’ve seen. A portal this big is definitely enough to fit a person in. And, as if confirming my suspicion, from within the portal, an unimaginable force of wind attempts to suck up everything around it.

“What the heck… is this?” I grit my teeth and plant my flag down as soon as the wind starts to suck me in. However, the spear I threw just now was everything that I could muster at that moment, and now I’m left with almost no strength left to fight against this bottomless hole of doom.

“Must… resist…”

Planting even my heels down in an attempt to fight back as much as possible, I utter. But alas, the result is too painfully obvious, as the portal soon sucks up both me, Petoro, and an unconscious Katsu into it.

 

As I come to, what surprises me the most is surprisingly not that the scenery has changed so drastically. In fact, it’s more of the opposite: I still find myself in the middle of the usual town that I see every day, with people going about doing their own things once more. However, after another glance, I can already see how wrong I am. None of the destruction from that fight just now is present any more, and the people around me don’t show any interest in us whatsoever, as if they don’t see any of us in the first place.

As if perfectly syncing with my thoughts, the sky turns into deep darkness in an instant, and before I even notice it, the people around have all disappeared into thin air, leaving not a trace remains. The town, now with no one else around, gives out a feeling of dread more than ever. And, to make matters worse, up in the sky now descends a giant black steed with a pair of wings in the same pitch-black tone as the sky itself, spreading out its dominance as if showing that it is the one and only ruler of this space.

The creature lands on the ground, shaking up the trees and buildings around in the process. Damn it, now that I get to see up close, this thing is a lot bigger than I thought. Its hooves are about as big as a cart, while its body is already standing as tall as the watchtower in the local school. As our eyes make contact with each other, the beast then lets out an unnerving grin, showing its flat, white teeth like vengeful spirits trying to claim our lives. Then, defying all my expectations, it starts to cackle a deafening neigh, the sound of which stings my ears like a thousand needles:

“Foolish girl! You thought by destroying the cross, you can get rid of me? My consciousness has already planted its roots into the boy long before you even showed up! In fact, once you destroyed it, that moment became the perfect chance for me to fully inhabit him as my new vessel! No matter what you do, I will stay alive!”

This jerk… all that work, and for nothing? And not to mention, if the words he said were true, then what happened to Petoro? Is he trapped inside that damn horse now? I need to attack if I want to find out, but every fiber of my being is screaming at me to not charge in. Damn it! Move, my body! I need to get going, or else…

“Ugh…” A familiar voice sounds from behind me, interrupting my thoughts. As I turn around towards its direction, a sense of relief fills my soul as I see a young boy scratching his head in confusion while his eyes are barely open as if he’s only woken up from a long slumber:

“Petra-nee, is that you?... Where am I?”

“You’re in your consciousness, boy. Or rather, my consciousness!” The horse lets out an annoying neigh before I could answer, which immediately shocks Petoro into fully awake and responding, as he instantly jumps back and clenches his fist in anger:

“You… You! You’re the one that did this to me!”

“Did what to you, boy?” As if waiting for such a reaction from the start, Byleth grins, showing his eerie teeth yet again.

“You… You’re the one that made me… made me…” Petoro can only utter as much, for when he recalls the events that have transpired, the boy soon breaks down into tears, holding his head as a sign of disbelief and guilt erects from his mind:

“No… No… What have I done…” The young boy sobs uncontrollably as he looks down onto his shaking hands. “It was me… It was all my fault…”

“Yes! Yes! It is you! It is all on you!” On the other hand, the Demon laughs in glee, doing everything he can to further put salt into the wound of the immature boy. “You were the one who desired power, so you ignored their warnings and got your hands on me! You were pathetically weak, so much that you let yourself be consumed by me! And the result of all that is the blood of your own father, caused by none other than yourself! If you can blame it onto anyone, blame it onto you, and you alone! Wallow in despair, as you’re only capable of doing such a thing!”

“S… Stop it!” Another voice then lets out a shout, like a ray of sunshine gleaming down after the rain. However, I know all too well who the owner of the voice is, and it seems that this ray of sunshine is less likely to carve a path of hope for us, but rather be swallowed up by the thunderclouds.

As I turn around, Katsu is standing, but his entire body is trembling in fear, so much that I have to question what exactly is keeping him standing in the first place. Nevertheless, even when everything would suggest otherwise, he still stands up and gives out what probably is the biggest shout of his life.

“Oh? What do we have here?” Byleth, contrary to my expectations, doesn’t immediately mock the young man. Instead, the Demon squints his horsey eyes and takes a good, long look at the pitiful human standing in front of him, as if judging something, or maybe remembering an event in the past that has something to do with him. After a long silence, Byleth then bursts out into uncontrollable laughter, even louder and more unhinged than when he was pocking Petoro a while ago. As I look at both of them with a confused look on my face, the Demon’s next few words have already answered my questions before I could ask them myself:

“Well, well, turns out it’s none other than the kid Otsuya was taking care of! Or should I say… the fool of a crowned prince, a loser with no future that discarded his own identity... o’ Lord Oda Petoro?”

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