Chapter Text
[13th of Horsebow Moon, 1177]
[Cloudy]
Heinrich screamed. The mage simply ignored his screaming and continued to cut into his skin, tearing through the flesh and sinew of his left arm.
Heinrich screamed some more.
That got a reaction from the masked mage. A reaction of disgust. As Heinrich screamed his throat hoarse, the mage simply sighed. Grabbing a vial of red blood, the mage plunges it under Heinrich’s skin, eliciting another scratchy scream.
The blood of the Goddess coursed through the prince’s veins. It burned his body and scorched his blood, fighting with the Major Crest of Seiros for control. But the damage it did to his body was nothing compared to the damage being done to the soul as the blood seeks to wreak bloody vengeance on the body attempting to control it.
Usually, Heinrich’s soul would not be able to hold back the rage of the blood of the progenitor god at all. It is impossible for him, and his soul had been slowly eroded by constant chemical and magical experiments.
Though, Heinrich had something that no one else in the world, save for a certain some sealed deep within the bowls of Garreg Mach, had.
He had two souls.
The first was his own, while the second was of a man not from this world.
Heinrich screams again, then suddenly stops.
The mage sighs and resumes his work. Heinrich does not make any noise, even as the mage cuts open his chest and inserts more of Sothis’s blood into him.
He doesn’t even flinch as his heart is modified to take advantage of the new blood.
The mage is confused as to why the screaming had stopped. It wouldn’t do for the new face of the empire to be braindead. He checks Heinrich’s vital information, but it spits back a reading that does not deviate from the norm. His brain is being used more than ever, and his soul hasn’t even been diminished by 20 per cent. When the first test subject accepted her second crest, her soul got reduced to 60 per cent of her original size. This one will survive.
Shrugging, the mage returns to work.
Meanwhile, Heinrich begins to see memories not his own.
A city of steel and glass, rising to reach for the stars.
A banner with 5 sets of black and yellow stripes and an eagle different from that of the Adrestian Eagle hangs from a flagpole in front of a building made of marble and white stone.
A wall made from stone stretches across the mountain tops to the horizon.
A palace of hanging buttresses and stained glass.
A tower with a massive lit clock.
Heinrich struggles to understand everything. He feels something in the back of his mind, and it dulls the pain that he’s in.
His eyelids droop, the depths of his mind dragging him deep into the recesses of his soul.
At that moment, Heinrich von Hresvelg died.
His soul broke into a thousand pieces.
But the second stayed intact
Heinrich woke up.
He looks around, his eyes unable to pierce the darkness that surrounds him.
He stands up unsteadily, using his hand to steady himself as a pulse of vertigo shakes him.
“You alright?”
Heinrich swings around and reaches for the sword on his belt, only to find nothing at his side. He doesn’t have anything on.
“W-Who are you?” Heinrich steadies himself after another wave of nausea crashes over him, causing him to stumble.
“I’ll take that as a no,” Heinrich finally sees the person he is talking to. A black-haired brown-eyed man in his mid-twenties wearing clothing of a make that is completely alien to Heinrich.
“D-Did you do this? A-A-Are you working with the slitherers?” He takes a step back. The man is taller and bulkier than Heinrich, and he knows that he can’t take him in a fight, especially now that he’s been weakened severely by the slitherers.
“Why would I be a part of the slitherers? I’ve been with you since you were born,” The man shakes his head and sighs.
“W-What?”
“Don’t you remember? When you were born, you were sickly, yes?”
“Yes? But, Mother cured me of it though a magical operation that-” Heinrich suddenly stops talking and blinks at the man.
“Finally understood, huh?”
“T-They said by infusing my body with the energy of another, it would cure me. W-Was that energy you?”
The man nods.
“From what I can gather, my soul has been combined with yours. Before, it was fine. I was in the depths of your mind while you control the body. I watched us grow, until now,”
“What happened? Why are we here?” Heinrich waves his hands around.
The man sighs.
“Because you died,”
Heinrich blinks a couple of times, then sits down.
“Ah…” A thin trail of tears starts to descend Heinrich’s face before he suddenly bursts into silent sobs.
“You need a minute?”
Heinrich nods his head.
The man sits down next to Heinrich and drapes his leather jacket over the boy. Heinrich shivers and bites his lip.
A few minutes of silence pass before Heinrich manages to find the courage to talk.
“S-So what’s your name?” He looks at the man.
“My name is Andrew. What’s yours?”
Heinrich snorts.
“You know what my name is?”
“Do I now?”
“You said you watched me grow. Of course, you know my name,”
“Still, you’ll feel better if you tell me yourself,”
“I-I guess… M-My name is Heinrich Wilhelm von Hresvelg, the eldest surviving child of Emperor Ionius IX of the Adrestian Empire,” Heinrich then scrunches up his nose. “Well, I’m no longer the eldest surviving child now, considering that I’ve died.”
Andrew smiles sadly.
“Well, is there anything you want to know?”
Heinrich thinks for a second before nodding.
“W-What were those things that I saw?”
Andrew frowns.
“What things?”
“I-” Heinrich steadies his breathing. “Before I died, I saw some of your memories. I w-wanted to know what the things that I saw were.”
“I see… Then before we begin, I think I need to tell you something. Promise me you won’t laugh and that you’ll believe me,”
Heinrich nods and turns to stare at Andrew’s brown eyes.
“I’m not from this world,”
Heinrich blinks.
“That’s what you wanted to tell me?” The brown-haired heir snorts. “I could tell from what I saw, you know?”
“Well, I suppose I should have expected this. What exactly did you see?”
“A city made from steel and glass. They were tall; taller than the tallest trees in Faergus. A building made from marble with many massive columns draped with a banner I do not recognize. A massive wall was built on the peaks of mountains. A massive palace bigger than the Imperial Palace made from stained glass and metal. A massive tower with a clock that lit up at night,”
Andrew scratches the back of his head.
“I need more information than that, Heinrich. The first one sounds like every large city where I come from. The second one sounds like most congressional buildings. The third is probably the Great Wall of China. The fourth might be the Palast des Heiligen Kaisers, but it could also be the Palace of Glass. The last one is most definitely Big Ben,”
“What’s the Great Wall of China?”
“It’s a massive wall spanning nearly 30,000 kilometres along the mountains of China,”
“How long are thirty thousand kilometres?”
“Hmmm… It would take an army nearly a thousand days to walk its length,”
Heinrich’s eyes widen.
“It’s that long? How long did it take to build it?”
“Nearly a thousand years. It’s incredible what the Chinese can build if they set their minds to it. The Great Wall, the Palace of the Immaculate Dragon, the Temple of Eternal Harmony, the Great Canal, and the list goes on. Even the grandchildren of those who planned these monuments didn’t live to see their forefather’s work be completed,”
“Why? Why would they still work on something that would take that long?”
“It’s just their culture, Heinrich. Their religion is about passing something down to their children. What better thing to leave behind than a testament to human ingenuity that lasted a thousand years and will last a thousand more?”
“What about Big Ben? How long did that take to build?”
“Sixteen years,”
“It only took sixteen years to build that?”
“Did you see the buildings around it? Those took a similar time to build, you know? By the Gregorian Era, the Britons were really good at building skyscrapers. Big Ben was simply an expression of their construction capability,”
“I see…? You lived in a wonderful world, did you?” Heinrich sighs. “I’m sorry I pulled you out of it. If I wasn’t so useless, you wouldn’t be here and you could go and enjoy your world.”
Andrew smiles sadly.
“I don’t think so. I died, Heinrich. Same as you,”
“H-How?”
“I got stabbed. I loved to travel. I made a wrong turn in Belograd and got lost. A gang decided to mug me. I resisted and got a knife between the shoulderblades for my trouble,”
Heinrich winces.
“That must have hurt,”
“It did. Though, the next minute end up here, so I guess it wasn’t too bad?”
“Wait! You said you grew up with me. Do you remember everything that I did?”
Andrew bites his lip.
“It felt like… a fever dream. I remember, but don’t remember. I don’t know know how to describe it,” Andrew sighs. “If I say the name ‘Joseph Mariner’, does it mean anything to you?”
Heinrich blinks a couple of times.
“I-I do, actually. That name feels familiar…I think. Wasn’t he a friend or something similar?”
“Exactly. He was my best friend. I saw your life through that sort of lens. I have a vague understanding of what you did, but that’s about it. A vague understanding,”
“I see… Do you mind if I test you a bit?”
“Go ahead,”
“Who’s Edelgard?”
“Your younger sister, right?”
“Yes. Dimitri?”
“One of your friends if I remember correctly. Edelgard spent a lot of time around him, I think,”
“Wow, I’m surprised you got the last bit. I won’t be able to remember anything about you,”
“That’s because I am in your body, not the other way around. The only reason you know anything about me is that our souls are currently melting together,”
Heinrich’s eyes widen as Andrew sighs.
“So that’s how I’m dying… What about you? We share the same body, right? What’ll happen to you?”
Andrew turns away from the questioning gaze of the sixteen-year-old, a conflicted look on his face.
“That’s… what I wanted to talk to you about,”
“What?”
“You see… your soul is on the verge of breaking. Any more stress on it will cause it to break entirely. At that point, I will take over your body, and you will cease to be,”
“I see… I die because of my foolishness, and you get another chance at life,”
“No. I will take your place on the gallows. My soul probably can’t handle as much pain as you can, but I’ll do my best. You will live, Heinrich, and I will not. The only problem is that I can’t do that without your permission,”
“So you came here to ask for it?”
“Yes,”
Heinrich sighs. He then grabs Andrew’s chin and pulls the older man’s head so he could look him straight in the eye.
“No,”
“What?”
“I had my chance, and I died. You deserve to live more than I do,”
“Heinrich! No! You belong here, and I do-”
A smack vibrates throughout the dark void.
“What the hell was that for!”
“You are not dying, Andrew. As the Kronprinz, I will not allow it. Now, tell me, when am I going to die?”
“Heinrich, think about this! I can’t become you! If you die, I’ll lose all of the memories that you had! I’ll be completely blind in a world that isn’t my own!”
This causes Heinrich to pause, and finally sigh, admitting the point.
“Fine… Is there a compromise, then?”
“Well… It’ll be painful,” Andrew winces.
“What do you mean by painful?”
“We could merge our souls, but since my soul is intact and yours has enough holes in it to be considered swiss chess, I believe mine will come up on top. I’m not sure what’ll happen or how fast it’ll happen, but eventually, I’ll gain control of your body, and you’ll be relegated to what I am to you right now,”
Heinrich slowly nods.
“Alright, let’s do that then,”
“Are you su-”
“Absolutely,”
Andrew sighs.
“Fine,”
Andrew grabs Heinrick and embraces him. Slowly, Heinrich and Andrew’s bodies turn to motes of light, and they slowly merge together…