"Even the most brilliant lights flicker and die. And when they are gone, darkness will return."
The sun began to rise on the Remnant, sunlight lighting up the thick forests as it made its way towards civilization. The sun's warm rays soon passed over one rocky hill, and invaded one cave in which a man lay sound asleep in a sleeping bag. The sun brushed across his face, and after a moment, his eyes snapped wide open, and he lifted himself from his bag.
The man was in his late forties, the top of his head balding, and his face decorated by a thick, but short, grey beard.
He had decorated his cave with the homeliest accessories; a pile of books here, an alchemy set and cauldron there, a campfire over there. There was also a bag of dust crystals he had collected. Unlike other dust crystals though, which were usually colored, these crystals were clear, empty, like empty glasses of water. He always kept in mind that he should travel light. He never knew when he would have to pack up quick and move due to an unexpected attack from a Grimm creature, or some other aggressive animal, which had happened quite often over the past years.
He was so excited for today. All of his work was coming together finally. He had spent years exploring these woods, gathering all of the necessary ingredients, studying the creatures of Grimm, testing different reagents. If he had run into anybody in these woods and been asked what he was doing, he would lie say he was a nature writer researching for his next catalog.
He had lost count of the number of years he had spent in these woods. He may have started off with some followers; fellow researchers, wizards, and scholars, maybe a couple of hunters they had hired to act as bodyguards. He had forgotten how many exactly there were. Over the course of time, some of the party must have died off, killed by the creatures, while others had given up and left to return to the kingdoms. But not this man. This wizard refused to abandon his goal. And now his only defense against the deadly beasts roaming these woods was a crowbar which lay beside his pile of books. He had managed to prevent it from getting too rusty or dull.
A smile on his face, he quickly ate some porridge for breakfast, and then went right to work. He had finally come close to accomplishing his goal. After all of his research, after all of his trials of testing each ingredient individual, never minding how difficult it was to find those ingredients in the first place, last night he had finally prepared the formula for his potion. He had it this time! He just knew it!
First, he lifted his cauldron over the fireplace, and then filled it up with water. After that, he placed some logs under the cauldron, and then lit them aflame. He then prepared all of the ingredients, such as the fur and blood of an ursa, and then various herbs and plants and grains, and a cup of his own blood, all measured to the exact milligram he needed, and dropped them into the cauldron. Next, he took one of his clear dust crystals and then stuffed it into a custom-made "pepper grinder" he had made. With a few twists of the top, the crystal was ground up into the dust that had been compacted to make it. Tiny powdery flakes fell into the brew.
By now the mixture had turned grey and thick, and was bubbling and boiling due to the heat from the fire. The wizard stirred the mixture with his large stirring rod. The thick brew resisted his strokes, no longer being as fluid as the water it started as.
Finally, once the brew had been stirred enough, the wizard knew it was almost ready. It just needed to settle now, and then cool. He dumped another pail of water on the logs to put out the fire. Now came the boring part. He would have to wait a few hours before the potion would be ready. Sighing, he took out one of his books to read to pass the time. It was quite boring though, as he had read each of his books dozens of times in the years he had been on this journey.
Finally, at around midday, the wizard figured that enough time had passed. He looked over at the mixture in the cauldron. It was black and thick. He knew it was ready by now. He took a ladle, and dipped it into the cauldron. It smelled awful, but he knew he had to drink it. Holding his breath, he touched his lips to the metal, and chugged the liquid. It burned, and it tasted so foul. He resisted his urge to stop drinking or spit out the potion. He knew there was no turning back now. All of his work had lead to this.
At last, he had finished every last drop of the spoonful, and dropped the ladle.
This was it. Now was the time. He took a few breaths, trying to ignore the horrid aftertaste the potion had left him with. He could feel the potion in the pits of his stomach. He felt a burning sensation, similar to heartburn, but so far nothing too much out of the ordinary. He kept waiting for the potion's effect to take place.
After a few more seconds of silence, finally, the heartburn increased ten fold. He suddenly felt as though his legs were being crushed. He fell to his knees, and rolled over on his back, clutching first his stomach, then his knees, until his arms started to feel pressure as then felt as though something inside his head were trying to push his eyeballs out. He clutched his skull. He noticed that his hands were no longer their usual tan. Something black began to snake up his arm, and it burned. With his other hand, he tried to brush it off, but it did nothing. It must have been under the skin. That was when he saw it was happening to both arms!
And suddenly, he felt something grasp at his throat. It must have been the black ink. He grasped his own throat and started choking, as though he were choking on a large piece of food. He began thrashing on the stone floor, now fearful for his life. Had he miscalculated? Was this it? Was he going to die?
On the outside, one would see that indeed the black ink was infecting his body, wherever his bare skin was seen. His clothes were then set aflame, and he frantically tossed his pants and shirt aside, now naked. His reproductive organs seemed to be gone though. Just… vanished. The black ooze had made its way to his head, burning his beard, and causing his eyeballs to pop from his head. His teeth fangs like a vampire. Suddenly, the top of his head was set aflame, but with a blue flame rather than an orange one. His eye sockets glowed blue like a lantern.
Suddenly, the wizard turned over on his stomach, supporting himself on his arms, and threw up onto the floor. A massive wave of blood and a few organs splashed out from his mouth. As they hit the floor, they began to steam, as though touching hot metal.
The wizard coughed a few times after puking, and then started to breathe. He took a few deep breaths, just sitting there for a few minutes. At last, when he had caught his breath, he lifted himself up, and tried to stand. He managed to stand on both legs okay. In fact, he was able to hold himself up as well as he had before, as though nothing had changed.
He felt slightly light-headed, but he felt fine aside from that. And then… his headache vanished as quickly as it had come. He felt totally fine.
My body must be adjusting to the changes, the wizard thought, quite quickly I might add as well.
He looked down at his black hands, which seemed now more like crocked tree branches than human hands. He sniffed his arm. It smelt the same as any Grimm creature, just as he had expected.
A smile grew on his face. His spell had worked, it seemed, just as he had expected it would.
Now it was time to put his spell to the test.
He went over to his bag of clear dust crystals, and grabbed one. He held it too his chest, and as though his chest were made of an adhesive substance, the crystal stuck to him.
"Yes!" he hissed. He picked up more crystals and stuck them to his body, until all crystals were stuck to him, and it looked as though he were wearing a shirt of clear crystals. He then picked up his crowbar and his black cape, the last bit of clothing he had left, and walked out of the cave.
Using his magic, willed himself off the ground, and started floating from the mountain top, and then gently descended into the woods below.
As luck would have it, just below him, a beowolf happened to be passing by. It sensed the wizard even before the latter's feet touched the grassy floor. It turned its head toward the wizard and barred its teeth.
How fortunate, the wizard thought. It's a miracle I caught lone wolf, and not a whole pack.
Rather than preparing to lunge at the threat like it would for a normal human, the wolf walked forward cautiously. It got very close, so close that the wizard could take two steps and pet the wolf. The wolf sniffed the air.
Just as I expected, the wizard thought. He recognizes me as one of his own.
After another second, the wolf stopped sniffing and just stood where it was. The wizard remained still. He had study the behavior of all creatures of Grimm. He had to show confidence and strength to this wolf, but also gentleness, so it would not consider him a threat.
After a moment, the wizard raised his finger, gaining the wolf's attention.
"Sit!" He barked, pointing down.
As instructed, the wolf sat down on its hind likes just like any normal dog.
"Now roll over!" Again, he made a "roll" gesture with his finger.
And again, like a docile dog, the wolf got down low and rolled over.
And then the wizard grinned and decided to step it up a bit. He pointed over to the nearest tree.
"Attack that tree!" He ordered.
The wolf growled and turned towards the tree. It then charged at the tree, and began mauling it and clawing at it furiously.
Within seconds, the tall tree had been torn up into a pile of wood chips.
"Excellent," chuckled the wizard. "You'll be the start of my collection." He reached under his cape, and pulled out a clear dust crystal. He held it out before him, and from it, he shot a bolt of opal-colored lightning at the beast.
The beast flinched and was about to jump out of the way, but it was too slow, and the bolt struck him. The wolf seemed then to fade away into a cloud, and the cloud was sucked into the crystal.
Now instead of an empty crystal, the wizard now held a crystal holding what seemed like a tiny, moving mass of black ink.
"YES! YES!" The wizard exclaimed. He could not hold it back anymore. He let loose a cackle that had been building up in the pits of his stomach.
The spell worked perfectly! He thought. Now, after all these years, I can finally put my plan into action!
Author's Note: I kind of feel odd about this chapter. I didn't mean to make it so long. I feel like it may get boring with all the descriptions of the Wizard's cave and the pain he went through taking the potion. I mean you probably didn't come here to read about that, did you?
So if you hadn't guessed yet, this wizard is Demongo. In the next chapter, or chapter 3, he'll announce that he's adopting that name, and that he is disowning is original name. Also, I know I never officially gave him a name. That was intentional.
Not sure exactly what to put in the next chapter. I can either have a chapter about Ruby and the rest of the cast of Beacon, mainly for exposition, or I can have a chapter about Demongo going forth with his plans and making his first move, which will be the inciting incident of the story. I'll probably try the former route though. I also might have some shipping in this story, namely Ruby X Weiss and Jaune X Pyrra. Not sure about Blake and Yang, either together or with anybody else.
So I hope you liked the start of this story. Reviews would be appreciated, especially if you could tell me if I overdid it on the descriptions and whether or not you'd like to see shippings in the story. Thank you!