Fighting. Killing. Fighting. Dying. Rising. Repeat. The average day in the life of an Accursed Undead. He was nearing his end. He was slowly losing his memories as he hollowed. He had come to accept it by now. He had no choice, but to accept it. There was no cure to this madness.
As he sat by the first flame, he thought about the past hardships he was able to remember. What he did remember, was in a jumble. 'Waking up in a cell in an asylum? Getting picked up by a...dragon? No, not a dragon. Maybe a crow? Defeating an executioner and knight on a… field? In a cathedral? Yhorm, the consumer of go- no he was the giant."
He sighed as he kept thinking about other places, all the while the flame slowly crawling up his leg, the fire consuming him. The more he thought, the more things, places and people he kept mixing up. Even recent memories started to fade. After he escaped Drangleic, he started having nightmares.
One night, his nightmare took hold of his mind and soul, where it began to intensify until he was somehow in the middle of a kind of hunt. The moon was full, there were monsters roaming the streets and rumors of a greater being surfaced as he delved deeper into his nightmare. 'Blood transfusions. Fighting gods.. no, no you stupid! They called them Great Ones. Freed the Moon Presence. No, I freed the First Hunter. Hunter of Hunters….'
He had time to think of two mere things before fading away. He thought of the Hunter of Hunters before him and his hollowed companion from Astora.
"Ironwood, sir!" Ironwood turned to see one of the navigators, John Lorien, standing at attention. "At ease. What's the matter, Lorien?" He pulled out a chart on his tablet. "We've detected an explosion in the forever fall forest. Drones nearby were instantly vaporised and drones sent there were shut off. We need authorisation to send a team over and check out the area."
Ironwood pulled up a satellite image of the location Lorien was talking about and zoomed in. In the center of the forest was an ashen black circle, with dim flames outlining it. "Send men now! Find out who or what caused this."
Lorien saluted before communicating with a couple squads. After a few minutes of talking, he was done. "Sir. I notified the chosen squads about the situation. They will head out in five and have visual in fifteenth." Ironwood nodded and told Lorien to get back to his post while he kept staring at the circle.
The knight felt something he had not felt in a long time. Warmth. He opened his eyes and saw light coming through his visor. He sat up, albeit with great difficulty, and opened his visor, and took his first breath as he took in his surroundings. He was in the middle of a large circle of black ash with flames circling around, outlining it. He knew what it represent.
The Darksign. It was a symbol of the Undead. He looked around his feet and saw the coiled sword the Soul of Cinder was using. When he picked it up, his armor transformed into the Soul's armor. With the sword in hand and his warped armor equipped, he set out into the new world in front of him. As he walked, he saw black figures with white faces and red, glowing eyes in the dense forest. He hurried with his sword at the ready.
When he got close enough, the figures launched their assault. They resembled black bears, except for their facial features and the bones growing out of their backs. Or at least that's what he thinks they are. It was a group of five, so naturally they all attacked at once. He decided to stab his sword into the ground with both hands, releasing dormant flame out from the ground and disintegrating the five before they got a hit in. When he pulled it out of the ground, he noticed the fissure in the ground. It had lava on the inside. 'Hmm, looks badass.' He leaves, leaving behind the piles of ash to blow in the wind.
It was an ordinary day at Beacon. Students in their classes. Grimm situations under control. Ozpin having his half an hour coffee break. Everyone was preparing for the Festival that was on the horizon.
As Ozpin was in thought, he heard the elevator doors open, followed by hurried footsteps. "Ozpin, something happened in the forever fall forest." Ozpin turned around in this chair to face Glynda. "What is it?" She explained how team RWBY wasn't accounted for in Professor Port's class. "That's not unusual, Gl-" She interrupted him, talking about how there have been sightings of a part of the forest with a giant black circle of ash with flames on the outside. "Team JNPR spotted them flying off in a bull head, each with a bag full of fire extinguishers" Ozpin easily connected the two together. "So that's why they asked for a shipment of fire extinguishers this morning."
Glynda looked at him, horrified. "You let them take a third of our shipment of fire extinguishers?!" He went to his coffee pot and refilled his mug, before taking a long swig. "They paid enough Lien for half the shipment. In turn, we have a bit more." She looked at him for a bit. "Yeah, enough for more coffee?" He nodded and Glynda put her hand on her face. "You really need to get someone to look into your excessive coffee drinking."
Waking up after a long time after fading took a toll on the knight, so he sat down to rest on a tree. He changed back into his Elite Knight armor and switched his Coiled sword for his kite shield and the Astora straight sword. He raised his visor and took a swig of Siegbräu, reliving some of the fights he had with his favourite onionbro.
As he tried to remember where they first met, he heard footsteps and voices. "C'mon, get the extinguishers ready!" "Ruby, we aren't as fast as you, wait up!" Alert, he got up into a crouching stance, ready to strike. "What if we find someone?" "We help them, now let's go" The knight saw them and stayed where he was hiding. The one in the lead had a red hood, was wearing all black and was carrying a bag of red tubes. The one behind her was blonde with bright yellow bracelets in a leather outfit. The two behind her were in contrast with one another. One was in a white dress with a rapier on her belt, the other in all black with a black bow and a grey sword on her back. He stood up as they passed. 'Who are they? Better be on guard.'
He decided to follow them. They were heading to the Darksign. When he arrived, he saw them spraying water on the fire. He equipped Gehrmans clothes, sat down next to another tree and watched the four girls putting out the fire. After a while, took off his hat, set it to the side while running his hand through his straight white hair and downed the rest of the Siegbräu and fell asleep.
When he awoke, he saw three of the four girls standing over him, one holding her hand to him. The black haired one and the yellow haired one were behind the red haired one, who looked the most concerned. "Hello? You awake?" He just looked at her with a questioning look on his face. "What's your name?" He stared at her for a bit before speaking in a smooth voice. "My name? W-what is it. hmm…" He ends up lost in thought for a good ten minutes. "Uhh hello?" He shook his head to focus on the situation at hand. "Your name?" This time, it was the blonde haired girl, and she looked a bit impatient. "Ah yes, pardon me. I'm.. I'm" He was having trouble remembering his name. "I can't remember." The three groaned. Yellow pulled Red away, while Black followed. They started to whisper, but he could make out their names. He just needed to match the names to the people.
They returned after a few minutes. "We decided to take you to our headmaster. He might know what to do." The knight nodded. "You are?" Yellow pushed Red to the side before she could answer. "My name's Yang. This is my sister, Ruby and the one in the back is Blake." He thought about it for a bit, then groaned. "Didn't you have another person with you guys? And wasn't she wearing white?" Yang nodded. "Does her name start with W?" Yang smiled. "You mean Weiss? She's a bit of an ice queen, but if you get to know her, she's a pretty nice friend" The knight put his palm to his face and sighed. "Fucking knew it.." They couldn't hear him because his mouth was covered. "What?" He looked at Ruby. "Nothing." He said as he took her hand. She pulled him up just as Weiss arrived. "About time! Ozpin contacted me, Grimm are closing in. We need to go." She noticed him when she was done. "Who is this?" Blake shrugged. "He doesn't remember his name." Weiss looked really mad. "So you're bringing this suspicious looking guy with us when we don't know his name. Even the guy himself doesn't know his name and you're going to drag him along?!" As they were distracted, he switched to his Elite Knight armor, picked his sword and shield up and held them in a "Standby" mode.
Ruby and Weiss were arguing while Blake and Yang were watching, visibly annoyed. He started to back up when he heard a low growl behind him. Rather, multiple low growls. He slowly turned to see at least ten Ursa behind them. The others were still arguing, but Blake turned to see this unfold. "Oh fu-" He didn't finish his sentence that day, as the first one pounced at him. It swiped at the Knight, sending him flying. He slammed into Blake. "Fuck!" He sprung back up and lunged at the Ursa, stabbing it through the chest. As he shoved it to the ground, it let out a growl before dissipating.
He pulled his sword out of the corpse and backed up as he saw more than ten. He quickly counted thirty pairs of eyes. "Guys. We need to leave, now!" He turned and helped up a dazed Blake. "T-thanks." They ran the other way. "Do you know where to go?!" Ruby gets closer to him. "We'll head straight until we come across a path and then turn right to get out of here" After that, she disappeared in a mini shower of rose petals, appearing in front of the group. He couldn't run a fast or for as long as the others, so he decided to do the one thing he knew.
He stopped dead in his tracks and turned to the wave of Grimm, equipping his Harrowed Hunter set and had his Holy Moonlight Greatsword in his right hand. He started charging it by assuming a stance, pointing the sword up to the sun. The sword started to be encased in a light blue aura. The Grimm kept getting closer with every second. The others were still running, not noticing what he was behind them, until Weiss started complaining about his armor. "So, why do you wear that much armor?" … "He- what are you doing?!" They turned to see the Knight, the instant before he stabbed the ground with the charged sword, triggering a massive shockwave before an explosion. The four got launched back onto the ground. Yang was the first to get up. She saw him, kneeling on the ground with the silver sword in hand, visibly tired. He slowly stood up and began walking away from the dissipating Grimm behind him. As he closed in, they noticed that his breathing was slow and he was limping. When he was close, he asked if they were ok, before collapsing.
When he came to, he was in a bed, in a barren room. He got up and saw that he was wearing a white, thin suit. He looked around and found his Harrowed set, but not his Holy Moonlight Greatsword. He was frustrated at the fact, mainly because he had to kill one of his role models because he was too far gone and he gave him the sword with his dying breath. He searched the room, but got no results.
He heard footsteps approaching fast, so he took out his staff and cast chameleon, turning into a lampost. A man with small, black glasses, white hair and a green scarf entered the room, carrying his sword. Before he could say anything, the Knight appeared behind him, took the sword and kicked the back of his knee, before putting his knee into his back and holding his sword against his neck. "Who are you and why did you have my sword?!" The man was calm, but the knight could sense a bit of fear, deep within him. "My name's Ozpin, this school's headmaster. And you are?" The knight released Ozpin and backed up to a wall, which he leaned on. "I don't remember." Ozpin sighed. "So, you don't know your name and you tried to kill me." The knight stared at him. "You took my fucking sword. This is irreplaceable"
After an hour, they emerged from the room they called the Infirmary. "Your name is going to be Allan. Is that ok?" The knight was lost in thought, when a memory popped into his head. He remembered how his friend, Siegward, killed himself shortly after killing Yhorm. He turned to Ozpin. "What?" he shook his head. "Your name. Is it ok to be called Allan?" The knight looked at him with disgust. "No. I'll decide my name" After a few minutes, Ozpin sighed. "I'll show you where you'll be staying. You are attending this school, right?" The knight nodded. 'For now, i'll stay. Maybe I can pick up some new skills.'
Ozpin walked with him to the dorm, talking about the memories he can remember. They were talking about the Moonlight Butterfly, when they arrived. "I'll come up with a name in the morning, sir." Ozpin held out his hand and they shook hands. "I know you can." He handed him a scroll, showed him how to use it and bid farewell. As he opened the door, he saw a small room. It had a small bed in the corner with a desk on the opposite side of the room. Before he went to sleep, he took a shower. Then, he took off his Harrowed set, switching to his Clandestine Coat and Sorcerer Trousers, before laying down on his bed. He'd never slept on a bed in a very long time. Hell, he'd never felt so tired, so fast, because as soon as he put his head to the pillow, he fell asleep.
The knight awoke to a knock on his door. As he sat up, he heard a girlish voice from outside. "Hey! You've been in there for two days! Are you okay?!" He couldn't pick his jaw up off the floor. 'T-two days?!' He got up and looked at the door. "I'll be out in a few. Gotta shower first." He heard a sigh at the door, but didn't pay no mind as he walked to the bathroom. After his shower, he dressed into his normal wear, which consisted of the Foreign set and his top hat. He equipped Simon's Bowblade and strapped it to his belt, afterwards he strolled on over to the door and opened it. Outside, was Ruby. "Hello, hmm" She looked up at him in annoyance. "It's Ruby. Did you forget?" He nodded.
Ruby lead him to the mess hall where, apparently, all the students came to eat. It felt like the time he first walked by a white birch tree. The first time he saw the giant's arrow hit the enemies in front of him. He hated that feeling, because it usually meant someone was watching him. However, no one appeared to notice. Ruby tapped him on the arm, because he was too tall. "Professor Ozpin wanted to see you, but I wanted to show you the cafeteria because we'll be over…" She pointed to Weiss, Blake and Yang, who waved at him. "There." He thanked her before setting off to find this headmaster. "Oh, got up the elevator! That's the way to his office." He heard her shout, but he already found the elevator.
He got in and waited. Nothing happened. 'That's odd. Usually when I enter an elevator, it either goes up or down.' He glances down at the floor to realise that there wasn't a pressure plate there. "Fuck" He looked around until he saw buttons on the wall. 'From my experience in multiple castles, the most important place that's NOT the treasury is at the top, so…' He presses the highest button and the doors close. He waited for about five minutes, because others needed to use the elevator to get to different sections of the tower.
By the time he arrived at Ozpin's office, there were four finger indents in each hand because of how intense his fists were. He walked up to Ozpin, who was sitting in his chair, looking out the window and drinking his "Warm-up-for-more-coffee" coffee. He sees about fifty coffee pots on a separate table next to an empty space in the wall, which promptly stores itself into the wall, with a matching gray panel to cover the entrance. Which gives the knight a question: 'how much coffee does this one drink in a day?! No,, how much an hour?!'
Ozpin turns to face him as he's pondering about this guy and his coffee problem. "Hello. Have you thought of a name yet?" The knight nodded. "But before that, what does this place function as?" He got up, beckoned him over to the window and they stared outside. "This is a place to train future huntsmen and huntresses that protect us against the Grimm." The knight was confused. "Grimm? What are these things?" Now it was Ozpin's turn to be confused. "How do you not know what Grimm are? Surely you've seen them around before." He shook his head. "Let me paint a picture for you here. Giant demons. Dead. Half woman- half spider. Gone. The Soul of Cinder, a being who was manifested from all the other Lords of Cinder before it?! Destroyed. Grimm on the other hand? Nope." Ozpin wasn't believing what he was hearing. "The creatures that have red, glowing eyes, white face masks and black bodies. You've haven't seen them before?!" Something clicked. "Oh! Those things. I've only seen them around here."
Ozpin sighed as he recomposed himself. "We train people to fight those things. Depending on the type, class and size, they could be a minor rock in the shoe or a raging cyclone." The knight sighed. "So, where do I sign up?" Ozpin finished his coffee. "An initiation is how you get accepted into Beacon. What did you say your name was?" The knight went to the other side of the table and put one of his hands on the table, effectively leaning on it. "I decided that my name would be Letzter, to symbolise the last knight of Astora in my time to finish my journey and light the first flame." Ozpin smiled a bit. "We'll see, Last One…"
Ozpin gave him directions to the arena. "Your initiation will begin at 3:15. Don't be late" It was three and he couldn't find the arena. He memorised the route Ozpin said. 'I made a wrong turn. Damnit…' He looked around at the wall of trees in front of him. 'The arena's close to the edge of Beacon. If you wander off, look for the wall of trees around the property. Follow it to the midpoint, the arena should be too..' He looked to his left and saw the arena. "There..."
When he entered, it was exactly 3:15. He walked to the door that led into the arena, not to sure what was going to happen. Before hand, he equipped his Wolf Knight set and arming himself with the Wolf Knight greatsword and the Wolf Knight greatshield. He was greeted by a woman in some outfit. "Who are you?" Letzter bowed. "Are you my opponent for the initiation?" She shook her head. "You'll be facing off against team JNPR. You said you're name was Letzter?" He nodded. "Ok, stand on the opposite side of the arena, the others are preparing for the fight."
He was wondering if he should explain that he lacks this 'aura' people have been talking about when his eyes settled on a red circle on the ground. He raised his sword and assumed the Wolf stance as an invader emerged from the circle. The invader was male, wearing the Dragonknight set, except for the helmet, where the crown of Wolner sat in its dark glory. He felt numerous footsteps behind him. "Ok! We're ready….." A weak sounding male trailed off, obviously noticing the invader. "Letzter! Get back!" In reply, the invader bolted at him, Greatsword in hand. Letzter broke his stance and started to charge. As the two met in the middle they stopped and bowed, a sign of honor, before their conflict.
The invader thrusted at him, only for Letzter to stomp on the end, sending it to the ground while lunging, aiming for his chest. The invader, however, lifted his sword back up, sending Letzter flying upwards. As he came back down, he slammed his sword at him. The invader blocked the attack, but was brought to his knees. Then, Letzter kicked the invader in the stomach, knocking him on his back. Lastly, he brought the punish by stabbing the sword through his heart, effectively killing the invader. But just as the first one dissipated, he heard another one enter. Then another. He looked too his right and saw two invaders, one was cosplaying as the Dancer while the other one was cosplaying as Smough. Letzter sighed in relief as a Blue Sentinel emerged from a blue circle beside him. He was cosplaying as a member of the Undead Legion. The four bowed before the battle. The Dancer shouted at the duo. "Ready to give up?!" The summon, Lance, looked at him and nodded. "Not until we die!" Letzter switched to his Blades of Mercy and the Old Hunter set, before sprinting at the Dancer, shield still up. Smough stood in front and kicked at him. Letzter parried the kick, jumped over him while transforming the short sword to twin blades and started doing work on the Dancer. They caught each over in a deadlock, with the Blades unique design disarming the two. They heard two screams as the summon and Smough killed each over, The Undead with a massive hammer on top of him while Smough had a sword through his stomach. With their weapons scattered around the arena, they knew only one way to settle this. They took off their armor, put on Sorcerer Trousers and stuck up their fists. Letzter put on his top hat for a bonus while the invader put on his Hunter hat. The others in the arena were shocked at what was taking place. "What in the name of Vale are you doing?!" He put a finger between himself and the invader, turned to Glynda and shouted. "A Gentleman's Duel." He turned back and they partook in a gentlemanly fist fight. This went on for ten minutes. In the end, Letzter barely came out on top. He chugged some Estus, put his Wolf Knight set back on, picked up his Blades of Mercy, switching them for the Wolf Knight Greatsword and ran at team JNPR. "If you are my proper opponents, get ready, because here I come!"