A battle against Kronya, and a retry

"Don't let the girl escape, or Kronya will make us wish we were dead!" One of the strange mages shouted out. 'She's the leader here, then.' Byleth mused. 'Sounds feminine, think it's the pale woman?'

"Definitely." Sothis agreed. "I'll keep an eye on her." She left to keep tabs on them, While Byleth and the rest of the class moved to protect Monica. Given the first mage that saw her made a beeline for her as he blasted at Edelgard in front of her, this was a very good decision.

"Sorry I'm slowing you down - the world is still a bit wobbly right now." Monica apologized as Hubert defeated the foe with his own dark magic. Byleth merely shook his head. "Don't worry, Monica. You just got freed from a cell. And don't worry, the Black Eagles are ready for this." He thought he saw something like a blush on the redhead's face, but he was preoccupied by slaying a leftover bandit.

After a bit, the group managed to reach the center of the fortress. Monica looked around to take a deep breath. "OK, we should be safe here. I mean, I hope we are, at least."

"Oh, she should watch what she says." Sothis appeared right next to Byleth, and pointed to a pale skinned woman with orange hair that popped up. "All right, who came in here and trashed my beautiful stronghold?!" The woman looked at the group and grinned widely, calling a few of the mages they'd been fighting as she gestured with a pair of large daggers. "Hi there! I'm Kronya, but you can just call me 'the lady that's about to **** you.' Or, you know. Don't."

Unnoticed by Byleth or his secret genie, Edelgard breathed a sigh of relief at seeing the assassin. While fighting her was definitely going to be annoying, that confirmed she hadn't replaced Monica yet. She had lost too many people to their order's machinations. "If you truly are Kronya, then it is you who will die this day." She moved forward to attack her. Hubert merely grinned as he countered the enemy's dark magic with his own. "Then we can proceed as planned." He muttered to himself.

Kronya was definitely skilled, dodging almost every swing that Edelgard had. Just when Edelgard looked like she was about to score an important hit, a massive surge of magic came from an angle, knocking the Empress ****. Before Kronya could stab her in the neck, however, time suddenly froze, save for three people.

"Professor?" Dorothea looked up at Byleth, who was quickly surveying the battlefield. Apart from Edelgard being about to be shanked, he spotted some reinforcing soldiers coming from the left, including the one that had fired the shot. there was also an arrow mid flight from there heading towards an occupied Caspar as he punched a tougher soldier repeatedly. "Dorothea, do you think you could aim a blast there before they arrive?"

"Are you saying you can turn back time?" Dorothea asked, Sothis floating over and looking over Kronya. "I think Dorothea will be able to remember this conversation if we let her, Master." The genie said. "Let me do something quick before you resume it afterwards."

Byleth nodded as he used Sothis's Divine Pulse for the first time. No, wait, he'd forgotten about the 2 times before he'd even been invited to the academy. It was an odd feeling, physically moving in reverse as he still saw all the figures around him doing likewise. In short order, it was just before Edelgard had taken her first swing at Kronya.

"That was weird." Dorothea said as the world resumed its frozen state, echoing Byleth's own feelings on the issue. A sudden smacking sound brought their attention back to Sothis, who had just given Kronya's frozen form a hard spank, right before she provided a wedgie to the enemy assassin. "Bad girl! No killing the other hot chicks!" Sothis shouted at her before flying back to Byleth. "Let's hurry up and finish this battle, you've already used more than 2 Divine pulse's worth of energy now."

Byleth nodded before looking back at Dorothea. "Remember to keep an eye on that entrance, they'll be coming in..."

"20 seconds." Sothis whispered.

"20 seconds!" He said, thanking Sothis privately for the info as he resumed time.