Prologue: Mythology and Insight
Creatures of Grimm, or simply Grimm. Monsters born from pure darkness, hell-bent on wiping out Humanity and the Faunus and everything they have built.
Why though?
What unimaginable force had created such creatures?
Where did the plethora of Grimm variants that appeared to have no end come from?
Why did they seek to destroy every living thing on the planet?
These were answers that the natives of The World of Remnant would never know. In fact, their chances were very slim because their world is a world of remnants. The only people to ever know truth we're two individuals known as Ozpin and Salem, along with the possiblity of them educating their comrades of this sort of history.
The Grimm we're created for one thing: to serve their master's will and that will was the destruction of everything. It was their only task and they followed it loyally, uncaring of the fact that humanity was technically their relative as they were also created by their master's. This single object that was their job would be complete and nothing will stand in their way.
The one created them was none other than the God of Darkness.
But how did Ozpin and Salem know this?
Well, not many people would believe it without evidence, but they were both immortal! Ozpin would endlessly resurrect and Salem was incapable of dying. A curse was put on both of them by The God of Light. For Salem: punishment, for Ozpin: a task.
Both were unable to die.
They lived during the reign of the two brothers and have lived past it. Now the Grimm were leaderless, no one to give them orders, no one to listen. That was no problem. The task at hand was simple: destroy and kill. They did not need to be told a second time to continue this order.
For years they alone would terrorize the two species and drive them to the brink of extinction.
That is until Salem jumped into a pool of darkness and later killed Ozma/Ozpin's first reincarnation would they have a leader again. Her magic would grow over the centuries to the point where she can mutate Grimm, summon and control constructs akin to Grimm, and graft Grimm body parts onto humans.
She was the de facto leader. In the absence of their maker they would obey her.
Well, almost all the Grimm obeyed her.
She had come across a rather interesting Grimm, an old one, very old. Salem had captured and mutated it, attempting to use it in her scheme to destroy Ozpin and humanity. To her surprise however, this particular Grimm escaped, eluded her. Unknown to her this one knew what she was, what she did.
This Grimm despised her.
She will never be its master.
There is but only one master, its master.
It was there when he emerged with the first of the Grimm. It hunted humans before they had learned to build houses. It was always there for its master. It was there when Salem approached its master.
It wasn't there when he left.
With no humans to hunt, it awaited its master's return like a puppy waiting for its owner to return from work. He never did.
So once humanity reappeared it laid waste to them, becoming a scourge across their land.
A Demon!
That name was a misnomer. It was actually a Goblin.
A humanoid, black-skinned creature with white on the talons, claws, teeth, horns, and wings.
Over its unimaginable life span though, the bony plates continued growing and so did its size, giving it the visage of an armored demon. After Salem was through with it this only enhanced the image.
A gift given to them by their Father was adaptability, much like he gave the humans magic.
The Grimm were not simple minded. The task was simple: kill and destroy.
This didn't mean that they were capable of forming speech, the task didn't require that.
It remained loyal because of this gift; it also taught it a valuable lesson when it came face to face with the Silver-eyed Warriors: know when to retreat to survive.
Survive.
Survive!
It will always survive! It will survive until Salem is dead or entombed! It will survive until its true master returns!
It will never be that horrendous abomination and it sure as Abyss won't be that disgusting offspring known as Cinder!
Centuries after its encounter with Salem it became . . . Reclusive. Ambushing humans, preying on small settlements, luring huntsmen and huntresses into traps, using other Grimm. It all became standard for him. It waited for thousands of years to see his master again, he will wait a million- no a billion more years just to see him annihilate Salem and it will continue to do so with its current methods if it means survival.
Speaking of which, the past decades have been nearly human-less.
When he had moved to the snowy island the humans here were easy pickings. Now all they've done is hole up on a giant floating island. On the other island it was just as easy, perhaps even more so. The place had been overrun and became a hotspot for Grimm activity, no doubt attracted to place because of the lingering emotions one would feel when be massacred by monsters of darkness.
It missed its old lair badly, mostly because of the suffering it caused there.
Everything was all well and dandy until the Apathy showed up. Lank skeletal Grimm with a presence and scream that drained the will and emotions from their victims, leaving them as emotionless empty shells that would just lay there and die off.
Their methods clashed with his methods.
It was a Grimm! It was meant to bring pain, sorrow, and death!
Not just look at its pretty until it dies!
It was attracted to negativity.
It wanted fear!
Which is what brought it here after the Apathy started infesting its home. The harsh weather and constant attacks would bring out such negative thoughts.
However, recently over the past decades it had come up empty handed. It had to repeatedly journey further and further to find any sort of prey. This degraded into event-less patrols across the mountains.
Much like today.
The ancient creature looked out at the sky.
Should it fly away again and relocate somewhere else?
It looked down at the forest floor like had done countless times to find prey.
The act of not hunting was unbearable to it and the act of killing gave its existence meaning, literally.
Nothing, like always.
Turning back to the sky, leaving to another island was-.
He tilted his head.
There!
In the distance near the flying island that was Atlas two specks were flying away from it.
Upon seeing this it unfurled its four massive wings and took flight.
Fresh new kills were headed straight to it!
(Flap)
(Flap)
(Flap)
It turned its head to see a collosal Nevermore flying behind it.
It stopped and crashed at the bottom of a waterfall, the Nevermore landed behind him at the top. The Goblin roared at the avian Grimm. It screeched back, but ultimately backed down.
The mutant Grimm unleashed a deafening roar that echoed across the forest to make the other Grimm vacate the area. They were his prey.
Let the hunt resume!