Ashes of the Sacred Light
A/N: Okay, so for some reason, after I saw the RWBY trailers along with an animation of one of my favorite stories of all time, I started to think that they could mix into something great. So here is my attempt. Enjoy.
Disclaimer: I do not own both RWBY and the story that inspired me to write this.
Edit Note: I did revise this, and I will keep revising it because I will do a story on this. Hope this and possible later revisions make it tolerable for your reading experience.
The light shines on as life continues to roam free around the world.
Ruby stood up tall on one of the towers of Beacon Academy as she watched the sunset fall into the endless horizon. Enjoying the view, Ruby hefted Crescent Rose over her shoulder and looked around to see other familiar figures standing around her.
She saw Yang give one of her trademark smiles as she stood there with her Ember Celicas out and long hair blowing with the wind. Yang picked up one of her hands and moved it through her hair, enjoying more of the cool gentle breeze.
Beside Yang was Blake, sitting down as she had Gambol Shroud out with the katana in one hand and sheath in the other. Unlike Yang, Blake looked towards a different direction with a sad expression, as if longing for something that was missing in her life.
To Ruby's right, Weiss stood with Myrtenaster in her left hand and looked to the starry sky that was forming with the sun's descent. As the night approached, Weiss held the rapier in front of her with blade pointing to the sky and closed her eyes, as if she was getting ready to give a prayer.
The light is the benevolent guardian, keeping the darkness at bay with its brilliance.
Ruby looked over the ledge of the tower she was on and saw Team JNPR sitting on another tower below hers.
Ren was sitting down, looking at a lotus flower that he had in his hand while holding one of his Storm Flowers in the other. As he kept watching the flower with a sad expression, the flower started to disintegrate with its petals flying away in the rushing wind.
Nora was standing with knees bent right behind Ren, sadly smiling as she saw him watch the petals fly away. Sitting down, she placed her back against Ren's own and placed Magnhild on the top of her lap.
Standing near them was Pyrrha, who had both her shield and lance, Miló and Akoúo̱, out while keeping her own gaze straight at the setting sun. With a small smile, she kept her gaze straight even as the light dimmed over the horizon.
At the very front of the tower was Jaune, standing tall as he looked on ahead with the sun's remaining light shining directly onto him. Although Ruby could only see his back, she felt somewhat in awe at the sight as his entire figure radiated with an unusual amount of strength, with Crocea Mors and his shield shining in a brilliant blue light.
But the light can't shine forever. Darkness is bound to arrive.
When the setting sun disappeared over the horizon, Ruby saw that everybody around her also disappeared as they became engulfed by the coming darkness. As Ruby frantically looking for her friends, the darkness cleared away and revealed a new scenery before Ruby.
Ruby saw that she was standing on a familiar cliff covered in snow. Recognizing the location, Ruby looked behind her and saw that the only thing different about it is that it was larger, with many more tombstones surrounding the one that she often visited.
Looking closer at the tombstone, Ruby gasped as she saw that the words, 'Summer Rose,' was separated by a split in the stone from the remaining words, 'thus, I kindly scatter.' Horrified by the sight, Ruby tried to walk over to see if she could fix it, but the appearance of several lumps of shadows forming around the tombstone made Ruby flip out her weapon.
Placing her scythe at ready, Ruby yelled something inaudible, then blasted forward as she approached one of the shadows. As she swung her scythe, she saw that the weapon went through without any effort, which made her miscalculate her landing. After landing into the hard ground, Ruby kept skidding until she stopped near the edge of the cliff.
As Ruby picked herself up, she looked over the edge and widened her eyes as she saw hundreds of Grimm at the bottom, strangely still as they all stared at her.
As the night encroaches with each passing day, shadows gather and become the large void known as darkness.
Suddenly, the air and space around Ruby started to ripple and warp. A second later, strands of darkness appeared through them and tied themselves to Ruby's wrists and legs. With a strong grip, all of the strands lifted Ruby high and above the large mass of Grimm in the air.
Ruby struggled as her body was lifted higher, unable to free herself from their grasps. One of the strands on her arm started to grip harder, making Ruby release her hold on Crescent Rose.
Watching in terror as the scythe fell into the sea of white, red, and black below, Ruby looked forward and saw a figure appear, clothed in what looked like a sea of dark flames.
The figure turned around and lowered his head, as if he was watching the Grimm below. Raising his cloaked hands into the air, the figure boomed, "HERE IS OUR ANSWER TO THE VOID WE SEEK. NOW EVERYTHING WILL ERUPT INTO THE EMBRACE OF DARKNESS!"
All of the Grimm started to let out a thundering noise, as if cheering the words that the figure has spoken.
Behind the huge group of Grimm, Ruby saw a building shining in the darkness at a far distance. Feeling happy by the sight, Ruby looked on and hoped to see someone rush out to battle this darkness.
As the light disappears, the darkness seeks the descendants of light to consume them for its never-ending hunger.
But something was strange about the structure's light. Unlike the light that Ruby would see from the sun, this light gave out an eerie orange glow, as if something terrible was happening at that location.
Ruby looked closer and saw that the light was coming from huge flames burning buildings of great sizes. As she looked on in horror while stifling a cry, Ruby felt her heart break as she recognized the group of structures to be Beacon Academy.
Around the base of Beacon Academy, several shapes that looked like human beings were out in the open. While some of them were laying still on the ground, the others ran as their bodies were burning from the destructive fire.
As Ruby looked on, she saw a legion of Grimm heading towards Beacon, letting out unpleasant sounds as they approached to end the lives of those figures.
Yet, even as the darkness is bound to consume everything
Ruby cried out as tears fell down her face, helplessly watching the Grimm approach the people and have them disappear under the mass of darkness. Soon, the darkness spread out to cover the entire structure, then tear it down into a pile of rubble.
Unable to bear the sight, Ruby continued to weep with eyes now closed. As she kept her eyes shut, she was unable to see more legions of Grimm start to spread out to the lands beyond the remains of Beacon, intent on making others share a similar, terrible fate.
Those who remain still hope, and thus, they become the ashes of the sacred light.
Among the rubble once known as Beacon, something came out and started to shine in a small light.
Looking at the Grimm spread out around him, Jaune closed his eyes, slightly shaking yet holding himself calmly. Knowing what he must do, he took out his sword from his shield and raised it as high as he could into the air.
The sword started to glow in Jaune's light-blue Aura. As it glowed, several more lights started to appear in various places behind him, spreading all the way to the back to reveal more structures standing tall and unscathed, ready to battle the upcoming darkness.
Jaune looked around to see his team and the other survivors standing and ready to fight. Motioning with his hand forward, Jaune ran forward straight on ahead as his body let out a blinding light.
Will the light truly triumph against the ever growing darkness?
Pyrrha ran forward down a dirt road filled with Grimm, trying to buy the others time to escape. Throwing her spear into the crowd of Grimm in front of her and spinning her shield out above them, Pyrrha shot out both of her hands that were glowing in a pitch black light.
The spear she threw shot faster through the air and pierced through the Grimm unfortunate enough to be in its path. As the spear continued on forward, it eventually stopped as it stabbed one of the eyes of an incoming Deathstalker.
Pyrrha guided her shield's trajectory, using it to strike the Deathstalker's stinger and make it drop and pierce through the top of its head. Pyrrha recalled her weapons back into her hands with her magnetism, then turned around to retreat back up the road.
As she kept running, she saw a new figure jump from the red forest that was beside the road. As the figure landed, it revealed itself to be a Grimm with a humanoid body covered in a pitch black darkness and small branches of red veins.
Wearing a black and red mask over its face, the Reaper ran towards Pyrrha and screamed as tendrils of darkness and a long sharp scythe started to sprout from its back. Pyrrha got her weapons ready, not noticing a red cloak approaching her with ill intent.
The future is not clear as even the light from the stars disappear in the night sky.
Ren ran through a plain full of flowers, carrying an unconscious sweating Nora over his back. As he kept running, several Reapers jumped from their cover and ran after Ren in the cold dark night.
One of the Reapers dashed forward and extended its clawed arm to slash it through Ren's body. Ren thrust out one of his hands glowing in his pink Aura and sliced it in the air, cutting straight through the grotesque arm.
Using the flow of his Aura-enhanced hand, Ren momentarily guided the falling dismembered limb and sent it straight into another Reaper that tried to attack him from his side.
The limbless Reaper shrieked in pain as it kept running. As it raised its other arm to attack, the stump of the missing limb grew small bubbles, a sign that it's growing back. Ren kept running, despite the hopeless situation and used his free hand to reach for his weapon. While Ren prepared for the fight of his life, he heard Nora start to gasp loudly from his back, and turned to see that her face was turning paler.
Knowing that he was losing time, Ren started to run faster as his pink Aura glowed intensely around his body. Running straight into more Reapers that got in his way, Ren hoped that it wasn't too late to save Nora from the dark spot that continued to spread across her bleeding arm.
As the stars fade away, more of the lights fall into the void.
A humanoid giant with a pitch black body and cracks of red lines running all over its body dashed at an impossible speed through the desert's deep sea of sand. The giant, known as the Lost, flailed out its arms and used its mace-covered hands to smash through the pillars that got in its path.
Seeing something move in a different direction for it to kill, the Lost changed direction and headed towards a white and golden spot. Panting out loud from the mouth of its estranged, yet familiar, face, the Lost grew angry as it eventually recognized that the golden spot was Jaune kneeling on the ground.
Jaune looked behind him and saw that Weiss was still unconscious from the blow that she suffered to her head. Knowing that he couldn't escape with both him and Weiss in their condition, Jaune picked his ragged form up and lifted his shield and sword in front of him.
Running forward with both weapons at ready, Jaune let out a battle cry as he and the Lost clashed with sword meeting the Lost's mace.
Feeling nothing from the weak attack, the Lost raised its other mace into the air, then swiftly brought it down onto Jaune's head. The resulting loud crack rang through it air, as the Lost managed to get in a lethal hit.
However, Jaune somehow kept moving as his body started to glow in a blue light. A second later, the wound on Jaune's head disappeared, right as Jaune swung his sword at the Lost's head and landed a shallow, but bloody strike.
Annoyed by Jaune's recover and its head wound, the Lost continued to smash both maces into Jaune's body in a rapid motion. Jaune's body kept twisting and turning as the blows ravaged his body, soon leaving trails of blood on the ground while creating new ones that flew into the air.
Jaune kept swinging his sword through the onslaught as his body continued to glow in his Aura. Healed instantly of any damage he suffered from the Lost's trashing, Jaune struggled on, despite knowing that he won't last long at this rate.
While Jaune kept exchanging blows with the giant, his shield started to also glow in a blue light. As the light grew brighter, the white Dust shard on Jaune's chest also glowed, mixing with his blue Aura.
Raising his shield out in front of him, Jaune shouted out, "Azure Aegis!" A moment later, a field of blue light erupted from the shield and engulfed the the ruins they were fighting at.
Yet, the embers continued to burn, growing to where a new light is born.
Dozens of airships flew across the sky, firing various colors of Dust and cannon fire that met the Grimm force ahead of them. On one particular airship, Blake dashed towards her opponent and let out an after-image that allowed her to instantly get into range and swing down her katana.
However, her opponent was able to block the strike and pushed Blake away with a lance made of darkness. Blake did not relent as she landed on all four limbs and hissed as her tail swung behind her in anticipation. A second later, Blake immediately dashed forward and surrounded the figure with an army of after-images, making it impossible for any human eye to tell who the real one was.
The figure only let out a blank stare as she twirled her weapon out and around her body. Each spin of her lance managed to intercept each of Blake's strike and somehow land a blow onto each after-image that was unfortunate enough to come into range. When one of the strikes struck out at a spot, Blake twisted her body to barely avoid the blow, which forced her body to slam into the metal floor.
As the figure walked forward towards the entrance into the air ship, Blake tried to stand up, desperate to prevent the figure from achieving her objective. Before she could move any further, she saw Banshees, corrupted flying Faunus, descend from the air and approach her with claws out and ready. Unable to see any way of avoiding them, Blake placed Gambol Shroud in its pistol mode and aimed it high above her.
Shooting the blade out, Blake jumped high into the air and twirled her body around, swinging her blade in tandem with the momentum. Soon, a tornado of blades formed a large sphere around Blake's body and sliced through all of the incoming Banshees with deadly precision.
As Blake landed back on the airship and in front of the figure's path, all of the Banshees she struck landed around her, unmoving as their bodies started to disintegrate into pieces. Blake sadly looked around at her former brethren before focusing her yellow feral eyes onto the figure in front of her, who remained still the entire time.
Looking at Blake with her own green eyes, the figure once known as Pyrrha stood still while wearing a black and gray version of her battle attire. Although her eyes still held color, the emotionless face and the white paths of bone on her skin shows that the Pyrrha Blake once knew was gone. Now, her body is a puppet controlled by the Brotherhood effect.
Pyrrha took out a small round shield from her back and twirled her spear around in the other hand, ready to finish the fight in front of her. After the spear was set in position, a black burst of energy started to shoot out from the other end of the spear and dragged Pyrrha's body forward. Slowly but surely, the spear gathered power for the upcoming clash, and roared so loud that it could have been a monster on its own.
Blake closed her eyes and concentrated as her body started to glow in her black Aura. As her Aura reached a darker shade of black, Blake ran forward and jumped into the air. During her ascension, her body split apart and formed five shadow copies, all as real as the original that summoned them. Each copy used an after-image to shoot out in directions and after wielding one of Gambol Shroud's form, descended onto Pyrrha, ready to give it their all.
Pyrrha saw the incoming attacks and placed her spear at her side in a low stance. A second later, the head of the spear grew multiple spikes at the spearhead. With her transformed weapon ready in hand, Pyrrha used the burst from the other end of the spear to help her swing her weapon, intent on taking out all of the Blakes in front of her.
The darkness disperses as the light heralds a new dawn.
Yang ran through a large dark room, heading towards the altar where she saw Ruby standing at the top. As Yang kept running, a horde of Grimm came out of the darkness and surrounded Yang to prevent her from making it there.
Yang didn't stop moving, but only ran faster as her body started to glow into a yellow blaze. Soon, the blaze grew into a wildfire that lit the entire room, right as Yang.
Punching her way through one huge Thorus, Yang sent it flying in flames that engulfed its body. As Yang continued to force her way through with a barrage of punches, the other Grimm she struck met the same fate, soon littering the area with their smoldering remains.
However, more Grimm started to appear and came at Yang in a force that she couldn't handle with just her fists.. Switching to a different method, Yang popped open her Ethereal Blaze's cannon compartments and put inside them two large canisters.
Closing the compartments with a loud click, Yang placed both fists next to her waist as the gauntlets' barrels gathered energy into it. As Yang's body erupted into a pillar of brilliant flames, she shot out both of her fists to her left and right direction with open palms, creating two large blasts of fire that roared across the seemingly endless room. Turning her body around in an entire circle, Yang was able to cover her entire surrounding in a sea of flames.
The Grimm horde that surrounded her earlier either became ashes from being hit directly by the flame or burned as even the smallest graze from the fire engulfed their entire bodies.
Yang panted as she put down her arms and watched the entire area burn. Turning around to look at the top of the altar, Yang smiled and said, "Well, it's good to see you again sis. How are you doing?"
Smiling a happy, yet sadistic, smile at Yang, Ruby walked down the altar's steps as her large crimson cloak trailed behind her. When she reached the part of the altar that was covered in Yang's flames, Ruby merely walked through it, unscathed even when the flames hit her white hair and dress.
"I've never been better. Ever since I chose to become this, I found out that people can never die if they become one with me and my Shadows. I did such a good job that I got a new weapon out of it. See?"
Ruby placed an open hand into the air and summoned a dark lump into it. As the lump took shape, it became a large silver sword handle with a closed eye that opened and looked at Yang, grossing her out.
Ruby started to giggle hysterically as a black blade with a large space running down its middle finished forming on the handle. Along the middle of the blade's hole and edges, multiple jagged spikes came out, making the sword look alive and ready to bite with its 'teeth.'
"See? This is the same Alter Saber that ate up Cardin, Professor Port, and everybody else that I can get around the entire world! Now I can see them any time I want forever. We'll all be friends forever!"
Ruby started laughing as the weapon started to move its 'head' and grit its 'teeth,' revving itself like a chainsaw. Yang started to frown at this sight, saddened as she saw that the sister she truly loved was gone and turned into a monster.
Gritting her teeth, Yang swiftly reloaded her gauntlets and got into a stance, ready to finish the job that she volunteered to do herself.
"Ruby, you need to know that's a lie! You killed them and now they're never coming back! I'm sorry Ruby, but it stops here!"
Ruby abruptly stopped laughing after hearing Yang's comment. A second later, her face twisted in anger as her cloak started to lift her high into the air.
"NO, YOU'RE THE ONE FULL OF LIES! WITH THIS, I'LL PREVENT EVERYONE ELSE FROM DYING AND NEVER BE ALONE AGAIN! YOU'LL SEE, AFTER I FINISH YOU, I'LL BRING YOU AND THAT PERSON BACK FROM THE GRAVE!"
Ruby leaned forward as her cloak shot her towards Yang and raised her sword high into the air. Yang gritted her teeth and raised her gauntlets to meet the incoming strike while her body started to burn in a yellow blaze again.
Soon, the light once again shines in a radiant brilliance, banishing the darkness back into the void.
Jaune looked in front of him as the altar let out a dark shadow that plunged the burning area around it into pure darkness. Knowing that he needs to stop it, Jaune aimed his shield at the altar and started to activate it with his Aura.
Suddenly, he felt a blast of dark energy splash across his back. Looking behind him, he saw nothing there. Confused, Jaune saw a ball of dark energy approach him from the corner of his eye.
Taking immediate action, Jaune swung his blade and hit the ball of energy back to where it came from. It struck something in the air, making a figure dressed in a sea of dark flames fall to the ground. Looking up at Jaune, the figure's face became revealed and Jaune gasped as he saw it.
"You little brat! You ruined everything! If I can't have the answer, then I'll make sure that you along with this entire world perish with the question that lies unfulfilled! DESPAIR, AS EVERY INSUFFERABLE CREATURE ON THIS PLANET WILL RUE THE DAY THEY EVEN HAD THE BURDEN KNOWN AS LIFE!"
The figure discarded his flaming cloak and stood up as the darkness from the pillar started to surround his entire body.
Picking up his exhausted body, Jaune aimed his sword at his true enemy as his body glowed in a blue and white light.
"You're wrong! Life is what gave meaning to our existence, especially to every man, woman, and child who lived as we did! I'll stop you from taking that away; I'll protect that life and move forward with my everybody else, especially with her!"
The light from Jaune's body erupted and clashed with the darkness that came from the altar. The force of the clash shook the entire room and soon, both adversaries advanced onto each other's position.
Once again, there is hope, there is life created from the ashes of the sacred light.
A figure dressed in a white cape walked across the dark room and saw Jaune lying on the floor ahead of her. Walking over to him with a glowing white gown lighting the entire area, the figure dropped on one knee and picked up Jaune's head.
Even as the room around her crumbled into pieces, the figure patiently watched as her Aura restored Jaune's own diminishing Aura. She smiled as Jaune's body restored its brilliant light, happy to see that he was still alive.
When Jaune's wounds disappeared thanks to his restored Aura, his fatigue seemed to also disappear, as he started to stir out of his slumber. With eyes now open, Jaune looked up and saw a strange, yet familiar face, look down at him with a smile.
"Well, hello again Jaune. I thought you were going to be the big hero by the next time we met. Are you still up for the task, young descendant of the light? Will you keep your promise and help me sing a song that can exist in a new future?"
A/N: Well, here it is. A thought that came across my mind, which started to grow as I formed the outline of what was supposed to be a one-shot story.
It was kind of fun making this, so there isn't a lot of regret, although doing this till like 2 in the morning, then proofreading it the next day brought forth lots of headaches. (I'm deliriously laughing as I say this.)
So for anybody who figured it out, this is based off of the opening from the Fate Stay Night: Heaven's Feel, the Realta Nua version. Good story, too bad remaking that version had to be done by an author like me, especially on something made by Ufotable. And especially with RWBY; feel sad as I type this.
If anybody is curious, here is the link to the video. I do not recommend reading the visual novel unless you are over 18 years old:
watch?v=sn8mGbLpjA4
Anyways, this has been haunting me for a while, so I wanted to get it out of my head now. I felt like this is worth sharing with any interested parties, so hope you guys like it.
This will be separate from my other story (or stories if I reach that point) and it will definitely be an AU. If this was a story, there would be character deaths, so keep that in mind when you want to think about reading a story on this.
And I apologize for any heartaches, but basing it on Heaven's Feel forces me to bring out some angst onto this story, which I did not entirely enjoy doing.
Also, references since I can't take credit for everything:
-Ruby's new weapon, Alter Saber, was supposed to be a chainsaw sword with a similar appearance as those other freaky organic weapons, I think the best example is Creed's sword from Black Cat and Crona's sword from Soul Eater. And yes, the name comes from Saber's corrupt form in Heaven's Feel, but I disclaimed that, so I don't own it.
-I did type this right around when the latest episode of RWBY came out, which explains why Pyrrha could do her magnetism thing. For anybody familiar with my other work, Yin's weapons were made way before Pyrrha showed it, and the chapter earlier that day proves it (But I might have accidentally based it off of Yang's weapons by accident back when I had Yin in mind). Just wanted to let that be settled for the record.
-The Brotherhood effect is something I got from seeing that the word, Grimm, might have originated from the name, the Grimm Brothers. Since this AU story involves some kind of corruption from the Grimm, what could be a better name than that?
-The Thorus is described in my OC story, TUS. It's in the chapter about Nathan, so if you're curious about the description, look I up there. But it looks like a giant bull, so maybe that will be enough to satisfy your curiosity.
That's it. Again, review, PM, and even criticize as long as it doesn't burn me and the story.
Remember, even the darkest times cannot obscure a flame of hope, a beacon that can light the way for those willing to live on for what is right.