Chapter Text
Byleth descends to the ruins of Arch. Phistomel is in the ruins, prancing around. He stops, and waves at Byleth.
"There you are,Phistomel."
"Ah, if it isn't my good ol accomplice," Phistomel greets them. He raises his eyebrows and gasps a bit, before turning it into a smile. "Nice seeing you here on this fine evening."
Phistomel walks around in circles, before walking to Archs altar.
"There's something I wanted to ask."
"Which is?" Phistomel asks.
"Who was Joshua?"
"Ah you're wondering about who Joshua was before I disguised as him?" Phistomel responds with a question, eyes glinting up. "Our kind does disguise themselves as surfacers in order to infiltrate your society and work in secret. Like how that assassin who murdered your father disguised herself as a student. Or how that old tool of a sorcerer disguised himself as the trusted monastery librarian."
Phistomel holds a dramatic pause and plays with his fingers for a bit before continuing. The pause leaves a suffocating silence.
"I'm sorry to disappoint you, but there isn't a satisfying answer to that. You see, Joshua never existed to begin with," Phistomel responds. "He was little more than an alter ego I came up with as a way to advance my plans. A fake persona or role of sorts. Nothing more, nothing less."
"Was everything a lie?" Byleth asks, confused.
"I wouldn’t say
everything
was a lie," Phistomel shrugs. "I did implement aspects of my own personality and experiences into Joshua, making. However, Joshua himself never lived. I never stole anyones identity. Rather, I created him from scratch."
Phistomel walks a bit, stretching his arms. He circles around Byleth, looking at them every passing second. He then stops in front of one of Archs pillars.
"Is that even possible?"
"Normally it isn't," Phistomel responds, crossing his arms and leaning towards the pillar. "In order to disguise ourselves, my kind needs to inject the blood of the person we want to mimic. It requires us to come in contact with the person and to drain their blood into these capsules. We then use the capsule to inject the blood in our veins, which allows us to change our form. More often than not said progress drains all of the victim's blood, leading to their death."
Phistomel takes a strange looking capsule out of his jacket pockets. The capsule is thin and small, made from clear material similar to glass. They’re unlike anything Byleth has seen before.
"I am a different case however, as my blood is slightly different compared to the rest of my kind," Phistomel continues his explanation, as he plays with the capsule, twirling it around. "I don't need someone’s blood to mimic them. I just need a clear image in my mind of who I want to mimic and focus really hard to change my form."
Phistomel continues to play with his capsule a bit, before putting it back to the pocket it came from.
"I admit, I had a rather difficult time controlling it when I was a child," Phistomel chuckles, half embarrassed. "Sometimes, I constantly switched my form without even noticing. Other times, it took days to be able to change my form. Regardless, it was a hassle both to myself and those around me. Eventually, through time and practice, I gained ability to control it. Took around a few decades till I had full mastery of it though." Phistomel sighs half-amused, his cheeks puffed out a bit. "And now I am the master of disguise, capable of disguising as ANYTHING I want. Even people who don’t exist, gweh-heh."
"How is that even possible?" Byleth asks.
For a brief glimpse Phistomel's expression sours, before returning to his usual carefree smirk.
"Curious aren’t you?" Phistomel smiles cryptically, lightly waving his hands back and forth. "Like I said, my body is a bit different compared to the rest of my kind. There isn’t really much else to it." Phistomel avoids direct eye-contact, instead only glancing bit.
Phistomel playfully winks and twirls his left index-finger for a while before stopping. "We have talked for a while haven’t we?" Phistomel says. "It was a fun chat, but I feel I need to go to do some things. My plans won’t fullfill by themselves, you know? So see you later then. Ciao~ " Phistomel twirls around a bit, and waves. He then teleports away, leaving Byleth alone.