Hero of Remnant: Veil of the Aether

by Aetherveil

Following after the events of the Volume 3 Arc, Dante, and his partner Inuba travel across Remnant to make their way to Haven, searching for clues that will lead them to the real mastermind behind the attack on Vale 6 months prior. They will meet allies, both old and new, and face challenging new enemies on their journey. Secrets will be revealed. Continuation of Hero of Remnant.

2. Chapter 2: Visitor

Heya wonderful people! We are back for this week with the second chapter of Veil of the Aether! Opening day was good and within some expected parameters, so let's make this week even better than last! Please enjoy!

---

Chapter 2: Visitor

"Out of the two of you, who's the better cook?" Asked Ciel.

The group of four traveled along the snowy road, switching from conversation to conversation to bide the time until they reached the next village.

"That would be Inuba." Said Dante, the Kitsune girl thoroughly surprised.

"I guessed as much." Said Ciel.

"Master, I have to object. If anything, you're the better of us when it comes to cooking."

"What? No way. You are literally ten time better at cooking than I am. It's a proven fact." Said the teen looking towards his younger siblings.

"Alright then. Since the two of you seem troubled by this, I hereby decree that the both of you will take part in a cook off! As soon as we find a suitable village to do so! Who will win?! The older brother?! Or the totally awesome and spicy Kitsune partner?!"

"Ciel, I don't think that they-"

"Very well. Challenge accepted." Said Dante interrupting Leo.

"Egg-cellent! Get it? Egg? Celent? Cause we're having a cook off later?" Said Ciel as Inuba laughed at her joke.

"Well, I definitely know for a fact you're my younger sister now."

"How so?"

"Your jokes are just as bad as mine."

Everyone else laughed as Ciel pouted a bit, switching to Dante's left side to punch her older brother in the arm.

The group of four walked along the road through the snow-bound forest, unaware of the dark figure silently leaping from tree to tree. On the next leap, it vanished. A minute or so later, Dante saws a reflection of light forcing him to move in front of Inuba to take a bullet in shoulder.

"Master?!"

Dante quickly spun around and drew his sword, Inuba drawing hers as Ciel and Leo summoned forth their weapons, the four going in a back to back formation to cover all sides. Their eyes carefully scanned the snowy landscape, waiting for the next attack.

A hooded person appeared with a puff of black vapor in front of Dante and reached out with one clawed hand. The teen quickly took note and lashed out sideways, but his foe was quick. Fortunately, the teen was faster. Before the clawed hand could reach him for a follow up attack, the point of Dante's longsword pierced through the clawed hand to stop it, making the figure leap backwards shortly after. It shook its hand, splattering blood on the ground. Black vapor rolled out from its robe, temporarily blinding the group. When the cloud dissipated, the robed attacker was gone.

"What was that..?" Asked Ciel.

"No idea. But it felt as though it had a bone to pick with us. Me specifically."

Without having to be asked, Inuba approached her Master and touched his shoulder, Dante's sclera with turning black and his light sky blue eyes turning a crimson red with slit pupils. He could see a small trail of Aura that the attacker left behind.

"Well...they went through all this trouble. We may as well follow." Said Dante.

Just as he was ready to head off, a Beowolf lunged out from behind the tree lines, jaws agape to take a bite out of the teen. Instead, the creature was cut in half down the middle. The woods soon became flooded with Beowolves, all snarling and slowly encroaching upon the group of four.

"I'll catch up with you guys later. Take care of these uglies and wait for me at the village entrance." Said Dante.

"You...do not wish for me to accompany you?" Asked Inuba.

"Yeah, I'm seriously finding some flaws in your plan there brother. She should probably tag along with you." Said Ciel.

"It'll save time for us. You guys clear out Grimm, making the village borders safe, and I take care of that guy and am back in thirty minutes or less and we don't have to worry about him. Simple no?"

"Please be careful Master. As it is, you are unable to use your right arm unless you use Shadow Skin it. Though it may restore function to your right arm, it will set back your recovery."

"I understand Inuba. I'll do my best not to use Shadow Skin. That's unless it's unavoidable. Look at it this way...at least it gives me the excuse to try to beat a tough opponent using only one arm."

"Master! Please don't be so reckless!"

"Sorry, sorry... I'll be sure to be careful."

Dante lashed out towards the group of Beowolves in front of him to clear a path, leaving Inuba, Leo and Ciel focused on the large pack of Beowolves surrounding them.

"You sure you want to let him go on his own?" Asked Ciel.

"I trust him more than anything and anyone in the world. We'll do as planned and quickly take care of this bunch and wait outside the village perimeter. Fifteen minutes is the most we'll wait."

"I can agree with that." Said Leo.

"Ugh... Fine. Let's clear these guys out quickly then."

---

Dante picked up the trail of the attacker, which was surprisingly easy to follow due to there being almost no twists and turns until the end. He followed it to a clearing and saw a masked teen wearing a black leather robe in the center with his hands folded inside his sleeves. A beowulf charged towards him, only to be shredded by a flurry of icicles.

"Strange..." the mysterious teen said as he slowly tilted his head to one side. "Your mind bears no evil, yet your Aura reeks of it..." he said as he got to his feet.

Dante lowered his sword slightly, keeping his eyes trained on the figure the entire time, keeping steady awareness around himself.

"Let's just say I'm a special case... Speaking of which...mind telling me who you are and why you were targeting us?"

The teen smirked, then said, "To answer your first question, yes. In answer to your second question, I didn't want to deal with them while we fight."

He pulled his hands out of his sleeves, revealing a pair of black metal gauntlets that burned with black flame.

Dante's grip tightened on his sword as he raised it once again.

If he's a complete close range fighter like Yang, I'll be at a disadvantage considering I can only use one arm currently. I can shift my weapon to use my greaves and gauntlets mode...but...

"So out of all us, you were after me... Answer this then, are you with Cinder Fall?"

"And if I am?" the teen says as he drops into a crouch, his fingers stiffened into claws.

"Then you just made a very big mistake. I'm a little surprised Cinder wouldn't come and find me on her own, but I guess it doesn't matter at this point. After all, she's pretty fond of sending lackeys to do her dirty work, so if you're with her, I guess I'll make use of whatever information you have."

"I AM NO ONE'S LACKEY!" the teen roared as he charged toward Dante.

"That's what they all say before they end up kissing her feet!" Said Dante as he quickly dashed forwards and lashed out with his sword.

The hooded teen sidestepped, then lashed out with his claws, slicing deep into Dante's side. He then vanished in a puff of black smoke, then reappeared where he was standing previously, swiping his claws to his sides to clear the blood.

"Still a little slow..." Dante whispered to himself as he looked up towards his attacker.

Dante's Shadow Eyes appeared, where his white sclerae turned black as his irises turned white, pulsating with a white glow as he engaged his attacker once again by landing an overhead strike that was blocked by his opponent's metal gauntlets, burying his feet in the ground.

"Brute force isn't going to get you anywhere, I'm afraid." the teen said as he lifted one leg, then slammed his foot into Dante's gut with an explosion of black energy.

Dante coughed up blood as he was launched up into the sky spinning until he recovered midair and searched for his opponent as he fell, soon spinning behind to deliver a backwards slash that his foe blocked using his forearms.

His foe grabbed hold of the blade with his right hand as he reared back his left to deliver a devastating punch. Before he could do so however, he found that Dante had managed to break free of his hold and spun his body in a vertical motion to deliver a powerful heel kick to the top of his enemies head, sending him plummeting back down into the ground that created a miniature shockwave, making a haze of snow that obscured his sight momentarily. When the haze cleared, his opponent was nowhere to be found.

Dante began looking around as he heard a voice that seemed to come from everywhere, and nowhere, say, "I vanish, like a shadow, into thin air. Where am I?"

An icicle shot out of the trees and was sliced apart by Dante's sword. When he looked in the direction it came from, he saw only a slowly dissipating mass of black vapor.

"Two can play at this game!"

Dante quickly dodged another icicle as he rapidly swung his sword around him in all directions at blinding speed, defending against an onslaught of icicles coming from numerous directions at once. His eyes continued to search for their target as icicle after icicle threatened to pierce him from numerous directions. It was in the next attack he found his opportunity to counter attack the onslaught, doing so by using his sword to touch the side of one of the larger icicles he dodged, redirecting it towards another icicle that ricocheted of another group, which quickly made contact with the others and redirected their trajectory in different directions.

His opponent appeared in a puff of black vapor, just in time to see an icicle head straight for him as he shot out another to counter. As he did so, he reared back his arm to shoot out another, barely noticing the other icicle zooming towards his head. With what time he had, the unknown attacker quickly tilted back his head as the icicle only managed to break off a piece of his mask on the left side, allowing him to flip twice in the air before landing on the ground.

As he looked up at him, Dante could see strands of silver hair within the mask, also seeing a purple eye glaring at him.

"Big mistake..." said a voice in Dante's head.

The purple eye that he could see flashed red and began to burn with a manic light. He reached into his robe and pulled out a pair of giant, double-barreled pistols. He pulled the triggers, and Dante was sent flying back as a pair of .50 armor piercing bullets slammed into a defensive line of Aura Swords.

The hooded teen began to laugh insanely as he pulled the triggers over and over, pushing back Dante little by little, letting his Aura Swords take the full force and damage. But the sheer force and impact of the bullets, as well as being shot at numerous times began to dent and crack the defensive line of swords.

This guy's a maniac! I need to find a way to throw him off balance!

A bullet had pierced through the line of swords and made contact with his face, rocking his head back with great force as he fell on his back. The crazed attacker stopped his blaze of bullets, growling with disappointment.

"Come on...was that it? Tch... What a waste of my time..." He said approaching the kneeling and bloodied Dante.

He reloaded, then slipped the pistols back into his robe and kicked Dante full in the face, knocking him over.

He crouched at Dante's side, then said, "Thy soul is by vile fear assailed, which oft so overcasts a man, that he recoils from noblest resolution, like a beast at some false semblance in the twilight gloom."

As he said this, he slowly rolled Dante over, finding the teens white blade aiming for his heart, but quickly grabbed hold of the blade with both hands to stop the blade, Dante slowly inching his way closer and closer.

"How are you still alive?!" Growled the attacker.

Dante chuckled, soon baring his teeth to show he caught the bullet in between his teeth before spitting it to his side.

"Sorry pal...but it looks like this fight is mine."

"You think you have me beat? Nice try...but that's not gonna work!"

Dante only glared with an equally menacing look that he had received.

"Sorry for what I'm about to do."

Four white Aura Swords outlined in black had pierced his attackers backside, only one of the blades managing to pierce through his body completely. Dante's now pin cushioned foe coughed up blood in his mask, droplets falling from his mask and onto the teens white coat, staining it momentarily before disappearing with each drop, as if the coat ate away his blood.

"Normally I'd avoid using dirty tricks like what I just did. But you're a bad apple through and through. If I did let you live, you'd only try again."

Dante brought up his foot and kicked his attacker in the stomach with enough force to shatter the swords that were embedded into his backside, save the one that had pierced through his body. His robed enemy's body crashed into the snowy ground with a loud thud as blood seeped out into the snow, turning it red.

"May you find peace." Spoke the teen as he sheathed his sword and walked away as a cool breeze swept through the area.

As he turned to walk away, Dante stopped suddenly, his eyes widening as he heard growling behind him and turned to see his attacker slowly trying to raise himself off the ground.

"He's still alive?!"

His body began to burn with a black, flame-like Aura as he slowly got to his feet. His hood fell back, revealing his face for the first time. The lower half of his face was black as night, with veins of the same color stretching into the rest of his face. He reached for the sword in his chest, grabbed the blade, and with a sharp jerk, shattered it.

"That was your second mistake..." said a voice in Dante's head.

"I was hoping not to have to use this," it said as the teen reached into his robe and pulled out a black katana and sheath.

"This is Chaoseater...I don't typically use this weapon."

"And why's that?" asked Dante.

"Tell me, would you use a nuke to kill a spider?"

Dante smirked before he gave his response.

"How big?"

"What?"

"How big of a spider we talking about here?"

The teen shot towards Dante, moving faster than ever. He unleashed a barrage of blindingly fast slashes, then in one fluid motion, swiped his blade upwards to force up Dante's sword. Then, when his foe sheathed his sword, numerous parts of his body had been cut apart, blood seeping out for only a moment until his wounds instantly the second after.

It's no wonder why he rarely uses that thing... He's incredibly fast when using it! Judging by the way he's been fighting, he's one who likes to toy around with his enemies until he's likely bored... And since I've been putting up a fight more than he really expected, he's more than interested in fighting me now... Just what is this guy and why is he after me?

A deathly silence had set in as their eyes locked, Dante's robed attacker more than eager to spring from his place. But he too waited, watching patiently to see if he would use anything else.

So it's come to that then...

"Like I told you before..." Started Dante.

Dante plunged his sword into the ground as he used his left hand to take his right arm out of its sling, the right arm soon becoming blanketed in black Aura. When the Aura dispersed, it revealed an entirely Shadow Skinned right arm. Thin, black, hide-like armor segments layered his entire hand and arm, the gaps glowing and pulsating with white Aura.

He moved his wrists around a few times before curling up his fingers twice. A strong burning sensation could be felt throughout his entire right arm. The teen removed his longsword from the ground and lashed it out to the side.

"Two can play at this game."

"Then perhaps it's time to change the game." Spoke his opponent.

He pulled a small trigger on the hilt of his katana, making the entire weapon shift into a thick, wide Greatsword that the teen hefted onto his shoulder effortlessly.

What's with this guy? Just a minute ago he was a laughing maniac. And now he's this…cold, calculating living machine. Dual personalities? No...

His Shadow Eyes glared directly at his opponent, focusing his vision to see something slightly intimidating. He had two souls.

What is it with people and two souls these days..? Doesn't matter... His speed will either have a significant decrease or a minor decrease now that his weapon is that big. Either way... I need to be adjust to any alterations to his speed. His strength will definitely be boosted, so I need to compensate for that as I go about fighting him now.

As Dante was thinking this, his enemy shot forward and sent him flying with a rapid swing.

"Keep your eyes on the fight!" his opponent taunted.

Quickly finding a tree in his flight path, Dante grabbed hold and spun around it, quickly planting his feet on the tree before kicking off it, dashing directly for his enemy as he raised his sword up once again and swung at the approaching Dante.

He missed due to the teen shifting his body midair to barely avoid the swing, dropkicking his opponent in the face with both feet to deal decent damage. Dante attempted to slash downwards on his enemy as he drew his sword, only to find that he dodged backwards and prepared another full force rapid swing that Dante blocked allowing the two to head-butt each other with tremendous force.

"Just who the heck are you?!" asked Dante.

The robed attacker grinned again, then leaped away as his eye color turned pure red like that of a Grimm. Clouds of dark vapor enshrouded him, and he began to grow taller and bulkier. The cloud vanished, and Dante found himself staring at the face of a giant, humanoid Dragon Grimm with a now larger sword. It roared at him, black flames emerging from its maw.

"Human Grimm..? You're another survivor..?" asked Dante as he slightly lowered his blade, backing away slightly.

"Hardly..." the giant Grimm growled. "My name is Abaddon, and I am a Grimm Lord!"

It lifted its sword, then growled, "And you... are dead!"

It swung its sword down on him, and a massive cloud of dust was kicked up by the impact. The dust cleared, and the humanoid dragon grimm was shocked by what he saw.

Dante remained unharmed as the massive blade was caught by a Shadowy clawed left hand, the rest of Dante's body now blanketed by black Aura, forming his Shadow Skin. His entire body from neck to toe was layered in thin, vicious-looking segmented armor, small gaps found in a few places that glowed and pulsates with white Aura.

His eyes were simply perfectly round circles that gave off an ominous white glow, an equally eerie white glow emerging from inside the maw of numerous shadowy teeth part of the secondary skin. His white hair was absent, and was replaced with two large horns on the sides of his head that bent inwards before curving outwards The maw opened up to reveal the glowing white energy within its mouth as Dante spoke in a hollow, echoing voice.

"Abaddon...huh? Sorry to say that you're confusing yourself with someone else..."

"INCOMPETENT BRAT! YOU DARE QUESTION MY IDENTITY?!" asked the humanoid dragon as it continued trying to overpower the transformed Dante.

"I do...because..."

The teen then moved his arm back as he slashed the massive humanoid dragon across the chest, sending it skidding backwards on its feet. When it stopped, its gaze met Dante's as they readied themselves for combat yet again.

"The real Abaddon vanished with my old powers!" he said charging the humanoid dragon.

The dragon swung wildly, and Dante easily dodged the clumsy slash, quickly leaping up into the air to upturn his sword and stab the humanoid Grimm creature right between the eyes. The creature fell to his knees, clutching his head and began to shrink.

He shrunk back into the teen, who got his feet and said, "You just caused an identity crisis for Abaddon..!"

The teen reached for his sword, but found a shadowy foot step on it to hold it down to the ground, the teen turning his head seconds later to see the white longsword inches away from his throat.

"Start talking before I consider letting my hand slip. Who are you, why are you after me, and most importantly, why are you claiming to be someone who's dead?"

The teen's hand shot out and wrapped around the hilt of his sword, and both vanished with a bamf and puff of black vapor. They reappeared several feet away, and the teen hefted his sword to his shoulder again.

"I'm not sure of your meaning. Abaddon is one of a kind in my books." said the strange voice in Dante's head.

Then he raised his hand to his ear, and Dante heard a chatter of a comlink.

"What? What do you mean, he's not the one?" he said.

One of a kind..? Wait... He said Grimm Lord... If that's the case, then he's not the real Abaddon... Which means...

"Hey! Answer my questions! Who are you, and why are you here?"

"Excuse me a moment," the voice in Dante's head said as the teen lifted a finger. "You better start talking, Serena," he heard.

Serena? Who's that?

Dante sheathed his weapon, but transitioned out of Shadow Skin, keeping only his right arm Shadow Skinned in case he were to be attacked again. The painful burning sensation that coursed throughout his entire arm persisted. Even so, it was better to be safe than sorry later.

He attacks me out of the blue then all of a sudden stops? What the heck is going on here..?

"Are you sure this time?" said the voice. "Fine. Bye."

The teen turned to Dante, then pulled another mask out of his robe and slipped it on.

"Sorry about that, Dante. I believe some introductions are in order. My name is Hunter Rose, leader of the Horsemen." he said as he extended his hand.

Dante was hesitant at first, unsure if this was some sort of ploy to force him to drop his guard. But considering he raised his left hand to shake with him, he was certain "Hunter" had taken note of the condition of his right arm and was being considerate to use his left. He...seemed sincere. So he thought it would be rude not to shake his hand.

"Well...you know who I am apparently. And Horsemen?"

"The Horsemen are my team. Hunter, Raven, Serena, Mors, and Navi. Together, we make up Team HRSMN, the most powerful team of Huntsmen and Huntresses Remnant has ever seen." he said with a proud smirk on his face.

I highly doubt that, but sure, let's let him believe that.

"Hey, so, um... are you gonna be okay after that beating?" Hunter asked.

I'm sorry, who was beating who just now?

"Yeah, I'll be fine."

"Good. You're lucky I didn't use the big bullets."

Am I now?

"Yeah...lucky me... Wait a minute...did you say your name is Hunter Rose?"

"Um, yeah?"

Dante hesitated at first with his next question, but asked it anyway.

"You say you're from an alternate reality of the future...right?"

"Yes. And no, you're not my dad, if that's what you're wondering."

Dante took an extreme sigh of relief.

"Oh good...good... Wait, if that's not the case, what's your relation to Ruby's family then?"

"When I arrived in Remnant, team RWBY took me in. Eventually, Ruby legally adopted me."

Adopted...

"Did anyone ever mention my name in the future? Do I even exist in you Reality?"

"I've never heard of you." Hunter said. "As far as I know, in the alternate reality I'm from, you were never a part of Remnant's past."

"Your friend must really be someone special if she can not only send you to a different reality, but a different time period within that reality... I thought my colleague was the only one who could breach different Realities... So in that reality, I've never crossed over to Remnant... How's the state of affairs in your Remnant?"

"Well, when I showed up in Remnant, the Grimm were becoming more plentiful. My team and I were getting ready to take on a Grimm named Absalom. If we fail to destroy him, the world is as good as dead. No biggie."

"End of the world huh? Remind me of my old job..." said Dante.

"Your old job?" asked Hunter.

"Story for another time. Right now though...you attacked me because...what? You thought I was some sort of threatening anomaly?"

"Exactly. Serena, my time-traveling colleague, traced the power to you. However, when I stopped fighting you, Serena told me that the power around you was being projected from somewhere else. I need to find the source of the power and eliminate it."

"This source of power wouldn't happen to be this Absalom...would it?"

"We won't know until we find it. I have an idea for that, actually. One of the more obscure uses for Dust is tracking power sources." Hunter said as he pulled out an unfamiliar Dust crystal and began fiddling with it. "Let's see... add a little Aura... etch this into the surface... and voila!" he said as the crystal began to glow and float above his hand.

"Huh... To think Dust could be used for tracking... But the basic idea is you have no idea what the anomaly is at this point?"

"Only that it's evil and powerful. This crystal should lead us to the source. I infused it with a little Aura, then inscribed an infinite feedback loop to keep it powered."

"To think people from the future would actually know what they're going to be dealing with concerning something in an almost similar past..."

"Everything isn't so clear cut as you think it is. We can't foresee or predict everything from the past. There's still many undiscovered anomalies that we might or might not know about."

"No need to get angry. It's just...if I were you, I would have tried to search for slightly similar cases in the past and trace them back to a point of origin, regardless of timeline. It would make things a whole lot easier."

"Again, not as easy as you make it sound. And you think we didn't try that already?"

So defensive...

"Before we head out to find...whatever it is we're looking for...I'm going to make a stop at the village nearby so I can take care of this." Said Dante using his left hand to point to his still injured right arm.

"What even happened to your arm?"

"Oh. Well...I kinda did something my colleague considered stupid..."

"The fox girl?"

"What? Oh no, not her. My other colleague. She just kinda...comes and goes as she pleases. But she's been a big help when she's meant to."

"What did you do exactly?"

"I...uh...discharged all of my Aura through one punch?"

Hunter was shocked when he heard this.

"How are you still alive?!"

"Uh...that's a secret..."

Hunter sighed before pocketing the crystal.

"Fine. I'll drop you off at the village and head out afterwards."

"What do you mean? I'm going with."

"Thanks. But I don't need your help."

"Look...I know for a fact you're strong. Really strong. But if you guys accidentally picked me up as the anomaly at first, then that means whatever you're tracking is pretty bad. I wouldn't want to just send you off by your lonesome when there's something my partner, siblings and I could do to help."

"Fine then. I could use some more Dust and ammo. Let's go." Hunter said.

A pair of giant, bat-like metal wings, as well as a long, thin metal dragon's tail unfolded from a small metal box on his back. He leaped off the ground, his wings holding him aloft, and tossed a small black earpiece to Dante.

"This'll allow us to stay in contact while I'm flying."

"Got it. See ya in a bit."

As soon as Hunter took off, Dante sighed in relief as he painfully placed his right arm back into sling. Shadow Skinning his right arm did indeed allow him to use it fully, though it would bring him a great amount of pain.

---

After taking a last glance at his arm, Dante brought up his left arm while also bringing it in towards his body as he squeezed it into a fist, soon instantly vanishing in a stream of white and black Aura, reappearing in near the village entrance near Inuba and his siblings.

"Master!"

"Heya..."

"Master, your arm..."

"Um...yeah...I'm gonna need you to help me out with that...if you don't mind that is."

"It's alright. I'll take care of it immediately, but what of our attacker?"

"Oh him? Turns out it was an honest mistake. Who knew?" Said the teen shrugging his shoulders.

"Seriously? And what? You just let him go?" Said Ciel.

"It really was an honest mistake. Whatever tracking gear he has accidentally pointed in my direction. So technically, he wasn't at fault."

As he spoke, Inuba had taken off his coat and went about burning away his entirely bandaged arm, revealing his blackened arm yet again. It was starting to look a little better.

"What did you do to your arm brother?" Asked Leo.

"Yeah, you never really told us what happened there." Said Ciel.

"Well then... I guess it's time I give you an explanation. Listen closely, for what I am about to say is absolutely and completely one hundred percent true."

He most certainly caught his younger siblings attention due to the fact they leaned in towards Dante, listening with interest.

"For one moment...and one moment only...I became Saitama, the One Punch Man."

The two siblings stared at him in confusion.

"He's joking. At least, to some extent... What actually happened was that he discharged all of his Aura through a punch in order to destroy some...creature. Thankfully, at least we won't be seeing that rude boy anymore at least." Said the Kitsune girl finishing her round of treatment.

"Actually...we will."

"What? Why?" Asked Ciel.

"That anomaly he was tracking was strong. Strong enough that it was confused to be me for a bit. We can't just let him take a swing at it by himself. Who knows what kind of damage they'll do... So why not help him out and minimize the damage as much as possible? That...and he can go home a lot quicker and leave us to relax a while before we head out again."

"If you say so, Master... How is your arm feeling?"

"Better thanks to you."

"O-Oh! T-Thank you master! Think n-nothing of it!" She said as her fox tail happily whipped about.

"Ya know, I might be able to help with that arm." Hunter said as he now stood behind them all.

"How-"

"-did I know about that? I'm a telepath. I can sense your thoughts, feelings and emotions. That includes pain."

Inuba, Ciel and Leo immediately readied themselves.

"Hold it you guys. We're not here to fight one another." Said Dante getting in between them.

"But-"

"Relax. It's him."

"Still-"

"It's okay. Trust me."

They all hesitated for a moment but lowered their guard shortly after.

"If you try anything at all, be sure of the fact that I will be the first to respond." Said Inuba before backing away.

"I'd like to see you try..." Said Hunter.

"I wouldn't make her angry if I were you..." Said Dante whispering to Hunter.

"Why not?"

"To be honest with you...she's actually a lot stronger than I am. Not to mention scarier when she's angry and is really trying to defeat you. Or trying to do worse."

Hunter was yet again surprised.

That fox is stronger than he is?

"I don't believe you."

"Truthfully, if she put in her absolute effort, she'd very likely leave no trace of you."

Knowing what he did now made Hunter shudder a bit.

"Now...what business do you have with my Master?" asked Inuba.

"We're hunting for something." he said.

He turned to the shadowy being that appeared, then said, "What did you find, Ariel?"

"One, that the disturbance originates from a mountain to the north. And two, that Kitsune tend to think with their weapons rather than their heads." it said in a dry voice.

"Mind your tongue vermin...or I will take it from you..." She said.

Hunter looked over to see Dante standing behind Inuba, using his left hand to silently but rapidly plead to tell Hunter to not have his ally provoke Inuba further.

"Hehehe... I'd like to see you try." Ariel said as he drifted closer to her, only to stop with a jerk.

Hazy tendrils of shadow had attached to his arms, stretching back to Hunter's gauntlet. His eyes flashed, and Ariel drifted back towards Hunter, grumbling the entire way.

"Ariel, if you don't start acting your age, there will be some serious consequences." Hunter said.

"Anyway, I meant what I said earlier." Hunter said. "My Semblance allows me to heal someone by transferring their injury to my body. This includes mortal wounds as well. If I die from it, my Aura will heal, then resurrect me."

"It's not so much that I don't believe you...but Inuba's Cleansing Flame is one of the best kinds of healing magic out there. If that didn't work...well..."

"It couldn't hurt to try." Hunter said with a shrug. "It might speed the healing process, at the very least."

"We could try... But don't blame me if it doesn't work..." said Dante taking out his right arm from the sling.

Hunter's hands began to glow with his dark Aura, and he held them over Dante's arm. The pain flared up suddenly as Hunter's Aura sank in, then slowly began to lessen as the Aura faded.

"Wow... you were right... I did all that could for your arm, but the nerves have been overloaded with Aura. There's not much I can do for Aura-damaged nerves except slowly drain the excess Aura away so they can heal, which is what ms. Fox is doing with her treatment." He said as he moved backwards.

"If you'll excuse me." he said as he reached up to his right shoulder, then tore his arm off.

The group of four were shocked beyond belief at what he just did. That was until they saw metal and wiring, instead of muscle and nerves.

"I overloaded the Aura feedback circuits." Hunter said as he put the metal arm in his satchel.

"Luckily, I always carry spares." he added as he pulled out another one and attached it to the socket in his shoulder.

"Fake arms... Definitely something to carry around spares for... What happened to your arm? If you don't mind asking that is..."

"I was fighting the White Fang... Got both my arms sliced off by a masked katana wielder named Adam Taurus. Later, a building fell on top of me and crushed my legs. Both had to be amputated and replaced." he said.

"Dear me that's brutal... And that guy chopped off both your arms?!"

"Yeah..."

"Master, I have one other thing to report..." the demon Ariel said. "There was also evidence of an Adept in the area."

"You're joking, right? Adepts shouldn't exist in this Reality. Especially since I don't." Hunter said.

Dante and Inuba looked to each other questionably before Dante asked the big question.

"What's an Adept and why is it important whether or not it exists in this timeline with or without you being here?"

"When I entered the universe of Remnant in my Reality, a new species of Grimm came into existence. These Grimm were known as Adepts, and resemble me when I have my hood up. They're incredibly powerful. And it's very bad news that they showed up here."

"Bad news how? Like end of the world bad news or..?"

"They can strengthen and evolve Grimm. So, yeah, they're bad news," Hunter said.

"Oh that does sound bad... Well, we should go find them then. Unless we have something else to track down."

"Dante and I need to find and destroy the power source. The Adepts move invisibly and intangibly during the day, only appearing at night. Ariel, however, can track them."

"This...creature is capable of such a task?" Said Inuba as she shot the shadowy being a cold glare.

"Yeah. However, he can't kill them. I'd have to give him a incorporeal body when I summoned him, or he would have killed me. If you two can get along, Ariel can track the Adepts, while Inuba and your little brother and sister kill them."

"Sounds like a plan." Said Dante.

He then quickly took Inuba and his siblings to the side away from Hunter and Ariel.

"Be nice you three. Ariel seems like a bit of a troublemaker and...very sassy. Not Blake sassy, but you get my point. Be the better people in this instance. If Ariel is being rude, just ignore it."

"I...I will attempt to do my best master..."

"I'll maybe remember that." Said Ciel.

"Ciel..."

"Fine! I'll behave. Maybe..." she whispered silently at the end.

"Good."

"I'm not sure Ariel will escape without a burn or two brother..." said Leo.

Dante only chuckled to himself nervously before the four returned to Hunter and Ariel.

"I heard that." Hunter whispered to Dante. "We'll be lucky if Ariel comes back alive." he added in an undertone.

Dante chuckled silently alongside Hunter.

"I told you...you make Inuba angry...it'll be the last thing you do..." He said still chuckling.

"Right. I need to do some maintenance on Chaoseater." Hunter said.

He pulled out his giant sword, and it shifted into what looked like a very large cannon.

"What, last checkup didn't go so well?"

"Yeah," he said as he disassembled the gun. "Couple of the focusing lenses are slightly out of alignment... gotta fix those, or the gun'll go nova if I try to fire it."

"That would be bad. How long do you need?" Asked Dante.

"Couple hours? Then I need to test fire it."

"You know, if you explain how it works to me, we could cut hours into a few minutes... I mean, it's not like I'm gonna use a giant laser cannon in the near future. Not my style anyway..."

"Not gonna happen. It's not that I don't trust you, it's that I don't trust anyone but myself when it comes to the specs of Chaoseater."

"Suit yourself. We'll head into town then. Want anything?"

"I'll come with. If you're gonna be fighting side by side with me, might be a good idea to get to know each other better."

"Alright then. Works for me." said Dante, much to Inuba's surprise.

Ariel darted into Hunter's gauntlet, and the odd group walked into town. They received a few glares from some people

"I get that we're not a popular Idol Group, but seriously, what's with the stares? They don't take too kindly to strangers or something?" Said Ciel.

"That could be possible." Said Leo.

Only Inuba and Dante knew why a small majority of the villagers stared at them.

"Master, are you sure you do not wish for me to hide my tail and ears?"

"What? No way. You don't need to hide your cute fox ears or your cute fluffy tail because of some jerks."

"C-C-Cute?!" She whispered as her face reddened, slapping her hands over her face to hide her embarrassment.

She soon opened up her fingers slowly to peek through them as she saw him chuckling.

"Oh wait, you got a little smudge on your cheek." He said stepping in front of her.

"Where-?"

Before she could finish her sentence, a rock made its way towards Inuba's head. The rock would have made impact had Dante not stood in front of her. Blood trickled down his face as he looked in the direction the rock came from.

"Which one you bastards threw a rock at my brother?!" Said Ciel summoning her Scythe through a burst of white Aura outlined in black.

The ones responsible quickly backed away and made a run for it, Ciel about to give chase until she was stopped by Dante's hand. She growled slightly as she dematerialized her weapon, understanding his silent plea.

Dante wiped the blood off of his face with the left sleeve of his coat, the blood vanishing seconds later. He noticed Inuba slightly shaking with an angered expression on her face. No one else saw it except for Dante, but her hand began to flow with a small burst of white fire until Dante's hand began holding her flaming hand, the flames slowly dying down.

"How can you let them do that Master..? Much less let them walk away..?" She said with her voice slightly raised while in a whisper.

"Not worth the time and effort to correct a few bigots. Besides, a little old rock isn't enough to take me out." He said giving her a thumbs up before walking ahead of her.

"Is he always like that? Forgiving I mean..." asked Hunter.

"In previous times...no... He always fought back to ensure someone would understand that such a thing was not ok, but... Now...he's changed. And for the better."

"I didn't know people would continue such discriminatory beliefs given with what's been happening over the past few months..." said Leo as both he and Ciel followed behind Dante, Inuba and Hunter.

"Seriously... I should have just ignored him and gone after them..." said Ciel.

"I'm not too happy about it either. But if brother said not to do anything about it, then don't. We don't need trouble."

---

"I'm ready whenever you guys are." Hunter said. "I've already locked in the coordinates for our destination." he added as he pulled a small rod out of his robes.

He snapped it, then tossed it on the ground. It expanded into what looked like a mechanical horse with a mane and tail made of black flame, which Hunter jumped onto shortly after.

He rode over to Dante, then lowered his hand and said, "You coming?"

"Yup. Just a second."

He then turned to Inuba and his brother and sister.

"Remember the plan. As soon as the sun sets, you guys will head out with Ariel and track down however many Adepts there are. Find them and take care of them quickly. Afterwards, have Ariel guide you back to us. We might or might not be done by the time you are. Got it?"

"Understood Master. Please be safe." she said with a bow.

"Thanks. You too. And behave yourselves you two. Whatever Inuba says is law. If she asks you to jump, you ask how high and so forth. In short, you listen to whatever she says."

"We got it already. Just go do your thing and hurry back." Said Ciel.

Hunter grabbed hold of Dante's left hand and slung him atop the horse.

"Onwards noble steed! To freedom! And glory! Yeehaw!" shouted Dante as the horse raised itself on its hind legs before taking off into the night.

---

They reached the mountain just as the sun finished setting, and dismounted. The horse collapsed back into its storage, and Hunter picked it up and slipped it back under his robe.

"There should be a cave somewhere around here." Hunter said as he pressed a small button on the side of his mask.

"There." he said as he pointed at a cliff. "The cave should be right here," he said as he felt along the cliff.

He reached into his robe and pulled out a small device, then placed it, backed away and triggered it. A small sphere of energy expanded from it, then collapsed on itself, revealing a tunnel that lead deeper into the mountain.

Hunter bowed to Dante like a doorman and said, "After you."

With that, the two of them vanished into the dark depths of the mountain.

"A Grimm hiding underneath a mountain... It's like the Dragon all over again..."

"Huh?"

"I don't know if this happened in your Reality and future timeline, but months ago...Beacon fell. A majority of Vale has been overrun with Grimm, but there's been safezones established for survivors. From what I know, Vale is slowly being retaken and the safezones are expanding. As to what caused it...Cinder Fall... She incited panic amongst the crowd during the Vytal tournament, which made the Grimm bold enough to attack. Ships were hijacked and defenses were turned against us as well as White Fang within the city. It was afterwords that the Dragon Emerged from a mountain range near Vale. After a...difficult struggle...I managed to kill it."

"Is that why your right arm is injured?"

"No...I...uh...injured it fighting something else... After my 'other colleague' picked up both Inuba and myself, we managed to find clues that pointed us towards Haven, which is why Inuba and I aren't in Vale re-taking the city. Whatever's in Haven is what started this mess. And I'm more than determined to find out who or what exactly was responsible."

"Mein Gott," Hunter muttered to himself. "None of that happened in my timeline."

"You're lucky it didn't... There's a lot of things that's happened in my Reality. The one 'True Reality' as my colleague put it. Things you don't know about. Secrets hidden from plain view. I'm not talking about the ones in Remnant..."

"You mean like the demons?" I said. "Ariel's one of them."

"Not just demons... Frankly...anything you call a demon is just a...by-product of the actual thing."

"What do you mean?"

"Not everything that you've been told is lies or anything like that. There are greater things out there Hunter. Things bigger and far older than both you and I. And I've seen almost all of them."

The two walked in silence for a while longer until they walked into a large, ice-filled cavern.

"Well well...what do we have here?"

The ice began to crack, and Hunter dropped into a crouch, black electricity crackling between his fingers. The ice shattered, unleashing a torrent of icy Grimm. Hunter leaped forward and slashed down a group of Beowulves, then began to float in midair. He extended his gauntleted hands, and black electricity roared from his fingers. He played the electricity back and forth over the ranks of Grimm, burning them to ash almost instantly.

"Not bad!" said Dante drawing his sword before turning it upside down, watching as more Grimm came their way.

He then raised his held sword high into the sky as white Aura outlined in black engulfed the entirety of the blade. After a few seconds, his Aura surrounding the sword grew larger and larger until finally, he plunged his sword deep into the ground, unleashing a sea of Aura Swords that tore apart the masses of Grimm as more and more fell by the second.

"Fun! I can do ya one better though!" Hunter said as he spread his arms.

Dozens of black Aura Sword, each one crackling with electricity, appeared behind him. They shot forward and embedded themselves in the ground between the Grimm. Hunter spread his arms wider, and electricity arced from sword to sword, frying any Grimm in between.

The two continued onwards throughout the cave, remaining cautious as they walked deeper into the Darkness. Though the threat behind him was taken care of, what lied in wait was the concern of the two teens. They battled their way through multiple icy, Grimm filled caverns, until they reached a cavern much larger than the others. In the middle of the cave was a massive rock formation that seemed to ooze darkness.

Hunter drew his sword, then said, "That's it. That's the source of the dark power I was sent back to eliminate."

He walked closer to it, then said, "I don't like this. Too quiet."

"It's always too quiet..."

The rock formation uncurled with a roar, revealing itself to be a giant, draconic Grimm. Dante jumped back as it snapped at Hunter. He vanished in a puff of black smoke and reappeared next to Dante.

"Holy crap!" he gasped as he fake-gagged. "Dude, or dragon, you need a TicTac, or Altoid.. or... or something. Your breath reeks!"

Dante waved his left hand back and forth across his face to hopefully rid himself of the smell.

"I agree..."

Hunter turned to Dante and said, "When I distract it, attack it. And don't hold back."

He vanished in a puff of black vapor, then reappeared on the Dragon's neck.

"Hey, ugly! Up here!" he shouted as electricity crackled through his hands into the Dragons neck.

"Now, Dante!" he shouted as the Grimm flailed its head around.

Dante sprinted towards the Dragon, the creature slightly focusing on Dante for a few moments as orbs of flame shot up into the sky and homed in on the teen. He swatted the orbs of flame out of the sky with Anvil in its longsword form, soon jumping towards the creatures chest, quickly slashing away at scaly hide in horizontal and vertical motions as he feel back down towards the ground.

Hunter leaped off, his sword shifting into a huge scythe. He swung around one of the Dragon's wing joints, landed on top, and severed the wing. The Dragon screamed as Hunter's scythe shifted back to a sword. His fist smoked with icy vapor, and he slammed it into the Grimm's back, freezing its armor. He capitalized on this, and ran down its back, shattering the armor as he went.

"Throw me!" Hunter shouted.

Dante nodded, sheathing his sword before grabbing Hunter's hand with his left, swinging him around rapidly before Hammer tossing his ally towards the Dragon. Just before Hunter hit the Grimm, he whipped out one of his pistols and pulled the trigger, sending him into a spin. He drilled into the Dragon's chest, emerging from the back of the Grimm.

The body of the Dragon heaved suddenly.

"Um...what?!" Said Dante.

The body of the Dragon heaved again, then bulged and exploded outwards. Hunter had been covered in the Dragon's remains, while Dante had luckily and quickly summoned a row of Aura Swords that had fully shielded him from all the blood and chunks of meat, vanishing seconds later.

"Gross..." Hunter said.

He burned off the viscera with his Aura, then looked at the being which rose from the corpse. It looked like a Dust Knight turned Grimm, with a giant black sword and a cape made of viscous darkness.

"Well that's new..." Shouted Dante.

"Thank you for destroying my prison..." the towering Grimm said in a deep, menacing voice.

"Who are you?" asked Hunter.

"I am the Grimm King, Absalom," it replied.

"So...you're the miserable excuse of a Grimm threatening my Reality...I thought you'd be taller. And slightly more threatening." said Dante.

"I could say the same for you...child..."

"The way I see it...you've got two options. Give up, and by that, I mean kill yourself, or stay and die by our hands. The choice is yours pal." Said Hunter.

"And if I refuse?"

Dante grinned menacingly at Absalom, sporting a vicious grin.

"You will make him a very happy camper today." He said nodding towards his ally.

"GRAAAAAH!"

Absalom screamed as he swung his sword down at the Huntsman and Horseman.

The duo dodged to the side in opposite directions, then quickly darted forwards to slash past his ribs.

"Aw, what's wrong? Are we frustrating you?" Hunter taunted.

"ENOUGH OF YOUR TAUNTS!"

Absalom raised his massive sword into the air to slam it down on the two teens, but Dante had blocked the attack, allowing him push away his sword and run towards Absalom full speed. The Grimm managed to break free and went for a horizontal slash that Dante avoided as he spun vertically in the air with Anvil and took away a massive chunk of its armored arm, the teen slowing himself to a halt with his sword as he passed by.

"This may take a while..."

---

"Well, Kitsune?" Ariel hissed. "Shouldn't we be going?"

Inuba glanced once outside the window, seeing that the sun had finally set as night took over. She unsheathed her sword halfway and gazed at her reflection before quickly sheathing her sword and tucking it in on the left side of her black sash.

"We are now. Lead the way."

Ariel drifted up into her face and said, "You don't give me orders."

He drifted back, then turned, drifted back through the door and headed outside.

"I may just kill him before you do." Ciel said to Inuba.

Inuba, Ciel and Leo followed after the creature of the Dark, eyes on it at all times.

"The way I see it...we are the only ones capable of killing these adepts currently... If you think yourself leading this part of the mission, then I suggest you quickly re-evaluate your position. If anything, she is the one in charge." Said Leo.

"Watch yourself, boy" Ariel hissed as a ball of crackling black energy formed in his hands.

He fired it at Leo as the younger brother summoned forth his handcannons in a burst of white Aura outlined in black. Then, they heard a pained screech behind Leo, the three spinning around to see a hooded figure falling back. Leo looked backed towards the demon and fired at Ariels head, the small stream of his uniquely colored Aura missing the creatures face by a few inches as another pained screech sounded off into the night, another hooded had fallen.

"Watch yourself...Darkling..." he said with a smile.

"That one behind you is still alive... let me see what I can do to find the rest of the Adepts... Also, I am no Darkling," he hissed as he drifted closer to the paralyzed Adept.

Inuba and the siblings approached as well, Ciel summoning her skeletal scythe to plunge its blade into the Adept's back where it's spine was located to prevent it from moving any further.

"Do what you got to do. And hurry up! We don't have all night!" Ciel said to Ariel.

"What did I say about giving me orders..." Ariel growled as he drifted closer to the Adept.

He grabbed the Adept's head, and it screeched in pain as Ariel ripped its memories from its mind.

"Follow me. And try to keep up children." he said as he rapidly glided away

"How many are there and how far away are they?" Asked Inuba.

"At least 10, maybe more. All roughly 3 miles away." Ariel said. "Along with an army of evolved Grimm between us and them."

"Are some of them in groups?" Asked Leo.

"Of course they are! Grimm travel in packs. The various packs are spread out over a mile, all protecting the coven of Adepts." Ariel snapped, sounding exasperated.

"He meant the Adepts you gross looking idiot. We know that Grimm travel together in packs. He was asking whether or not there are Adepts bunched together." Said Ciel.

"Of course they're together, you stupid girl! Except for the ones they've sent after us." Ariel snapped.

Ciel spun around with blinding speed as she grabbed hold of Areil by the neck, raising him up into the sky.

"Be sure of one and one thing only. My brother said to 'play nice.' If that weren't the case, you would have most likely lost one of your arms by now. Here is how the rest of this goes. You do your job, and we'll do ours. And maybe we'll be sure to return you to your master with a few limbs attached. Are. We. Clear?" Said Ciel.

Ariel dissolved in her grip, then reformed a short distance away, rubbing his neck.

"As crystal." he growled.

"Good." She said dusting her hands off.

"Now, if you would be so kind, give us a layout of all the groups and we'll spread out to quickly eliminate them. After we do so, we will make our way back to our brother." Said Leo.

"Fine." he growled as he sent out a line of black Aura that formed a trail for Ciel and Leo.

"You two be sure not to take any risks."

"You don't have to worry about us. We can handle ourselves."

With that, Ciel and Leo went in different directions from Inuba and Ariel, their path leading them into a first.

After a few minutes, Inuba stopped saying, "Something is not right..."

Dark figures dropped from the trees and surrounded her, Ciel and Leo as Ariel slowly dissolved out of view

"Oops. Did I forget to warn you?" he said with a malicious cackle.

"How mature of you..." said Inuba with her hand hovering over her katana.

Four of them lunged at her full speed, but from her perspective, they slowly moved in the air as they tried to reach her. The Kitsune girl quickly removed her weapon from her sash with her left hand and went about smacking away the three in front of her first, unsheathing her weapon as she stared at its reflective surface to see the other behind her ready to strike. Inuba then quickly slashed downwards on the first foe, splitting it clean in half before spinning around once to deliver a horizontal slash that chopped off both the arms and heads of the other three.

As their bodies fell to the ground, Inuba had slowly sheathed her weapon and waited silently until five more charged in after her. With great speed, the fox yokai smacked around the figures with her sheathed weapon, soon allowing her blade to drink deep of their blood as she hacked off arms, legs, heads, bodies. The center was simply one huge meat grinder as she spun around and delivered a final rotational slash that put her behind the rest of the enemies.

Before the figures could readjust their view, the fox yokai had already dashed in between them, rapidly slashing around and in front of her as she continued making minced meat of the figures until she lashed outwards across from her body. With that, Inuba had placed her sheath behind her back as she lashed out to her side once more to clean her blade of the blood, soon twirling the sword around twice before placing it behind her back and dropping the sword back into her sheath, moving it from behind her back and tucking it back into her sash. And so, she took a sigh of relief.

"You can stop hiding now Ariel."

He re-materialized well out of reach, then said, "Shall we continue?"

"After you."

---

Ariel drifted off, Inuba following close behind as they headed deeper into the woods

"How did a creature such as yourself come into servitude under your Master? From what I know and have experienced, your kin are not particularly friendly."

"I don't think that's any of your business..." he said as he drifted ahead of her.

"Very well... Suit yourself then... How far until the next group?"

"Right... now." he said as he faded out again.

This time, it was a pack of Beowulves, as well a giant Galapagos, a colossal turtle Grimm.

"Brilliant..."

The Galapagos roared loudly, signaling the rest of the Beowolves to charge forwards and attack.

"Weaver of Light!"

Inuba lashed outwards in front of her, unleashing a massive wave of flame like white Aura that crashed into the masses of Beowolves, the flames like webs of fire that bound them in place. She then turned her blade upside down and plunged it into the ground.

"Abyssal Light!"

Black flames erupted and merged with the white webs of flaming Aura, soon setting off a chain reaction of explosions that killed the Beowolves ensnared by the webs as numerous body parts had taken to the skies, Inuba moving her head out of the way as the leg of one of the Grimm passed by.

A surviving Beowolf that was missing its entire lower half crawled towards her, but she simply lashed outwards and decapitated it, walking towards the Galapagos as its mouth glowed with red energy. Inuba sprinted forwards at blinding speeds, dodging the orbs of red energy that made their way towards her, soon dashing in the air towards the colossal turtle Grimm as it opened its jaws to devour her. Shifting her body upwards, the Kitsune girl dodged the snapping jaws, and in one fluid motion, delivered a horizontal slash, soon spinning vertically to deliver a vertical slash, landing on the top of the turtle Grimm's shell. Twirling her blade twice, Inuba sheathed her sword as the Galapagos' head exploded into numerous bloody pieces, its body dropping to the ground before beginning to evaporate.

"Well... that was fun." Ariel said as he reappeared. "Let's keep moving."

---

"This guy's relentless!" said Dante dodging sword swipes while dealing some of his own.

"It seems like he's getting stronger!" Hunter said. "Time to bring out the big guns..." he added as he pulled out his hand cannons.

He started running circles around Absalom, firing the entire time, until his guns clicked empty. The empty mags dropped out of his pistols, and another pair floated out of his robe and slammed into place. He pressed a small button on the sides of his guns, and a pair of triggers flipped down. He lifted the guns, then pulled the triggers.

There was a deafening boom, as a pair of 25 mm, high velocity, armor-piercing rounds blasted out of the larger barrels of his guns. They slammed into Absalom, making him stumble back a few steps. Hunter clicked another button, and a pair of electromagnetic fields inside the bullets shut down. A speck of antimatter in each, no larger than the width of a hair, floated up and touched the inside of the bullet. Instantly, Absalom was sent flying by a pair of matter-antimatter annihilations.

"Now, aren't you glad that I didn't use the big bullets when we were fighting?" Hunter said to Dante.

"I'll admit, even if I don't use guns at all, that was still pretty neat."

Hunter broke the barrels of his hand cannons and ejected the used shells as another pair floated out of his robe loaded themselves in. He flipped the barrels back up, then slipped the guns back under his robe.

"Here's a little trick I learned from a close friend of my family." Hunter said.

A set of eight swords floated out of his robe and began to orbit behind him. He gestured, and the swords shot forward and began slashing at Absalom, breaking some of his armor.

"Two can play at that game kind sir!" said Dante in an English accent.

He then shot his arm out towards Absalom as it glowed with white Aura outlined in black. Hundreds of Aura swords soon materialized around the Grimm, forming a cage of swords. Dante soon clenched his left hand as all the Aura swords pierced Absalom's body from all directions, turning him into a literal pin cushion as he fell to his knees. Soon after, two massive Aura swords nailed the Grimm's hands to the floor to keep him in place.

"I'm assuming Penny taught you that?" said Dante as he sheathed his sword.

"Yeah." Hunter said.

A pair of swords shot out of his sleeves soon after. Chains shot from the pommels and wrapped around his forearms, His eyes flashed, before turning red as he shot towards Absalom, cackling insanely. He began spinning and slashing, never faltering in his attack. That is, until Absalom shattered the sword in his right hand and grabbed Hunter's head in his fist. The Grimm King slowly stood up, and the Aura swords were consumed by tendrils of darkness.

"Pitiful insects..." he said as he grabbed Hunter's feet with his other hand and twisted savagely. Dante heard the sound of bones snapping, and Absalom threw Hunter's twisted body at Dante.

As soon as Dante turned around, he found himself in the grasp of Absalom as he raised him in the air.

"Pathetic... I expected...well...more from you."

"Yeah...well..."

Dante's right arm transformed into its Shadow Skin form as he removed it from his sling and dug his claws deep into the hand that held him, forcing Absalom to drop him.

"You're about to be in a world of hurt!"

Absalom raised his sword in the air and swung down, only for Dante to block it overhead by putting his arms in an x formation, his left arm soon Shadow Skinned as well. Dante pushed upwards and stabbed his hand into Absalom's wrist that held the sword. The white haired teen then grabbed hold of the sword and pulled with all his effort as the Grimm charged at him. Dante picked up the blade and slashed Absalom across the chest, delivering another slash that brought him to his knees as Dante spun around and went for the stab.

Absalom quickly grabbed hold of the point and prevented his impalement, but Dante continued pushing, quickly forcing the Grimm to slide backwards on his feet. Before his back hit the nearby wall, Absalom moved his body to the side as the blade entered the wall, allowing the Grimm to attempt to grab Dante. The teen quickly dodged to the right and jumped on the blade, soon leaping into the air to deliver a powerful punch to the Grimm's jaw, forcing his head into the ground.

Dante then quickly grabbed hold of Absalom's right arm and raised him into the air above him before turning around and slamming him back down into the ground. With a loud roar, the teen spun the Grimm around a few times before leaping into the air with his enemy still in tow, still spinning him around before tossing him back down into the ground.

Dante then dropped down upon his enemy with another punch, this time between his mouth and nose. With that, the teen reared back his right leg as it transformed into Shadow Skin mode, then delivered a kick directly under his jaw as he sent Absalom flying, Dante flipping in the air vertically once before gently landing on the ground, standing back up seconds later.

"Where you expecting that?"

Dante heard movement behind him, and he spun on his heel to see Hunter's body slowly rising on its feet. It straightened up, and its upper body flopped limply forward. Dante heard the sickening sound of bones snapping back into place as Hunter slowly straightened up. He tilted his head slowly to one side, eliciting a series of loud cracks from it.

"You can't kill me that easily." he said.

He reached into his robe and pulled out his black, sheathed katana, then slammed the end of the sheath into the ground.

"Rise, O dwellers in the darkness," he said, his mental voice taking on a peculiar choral quality. "Rise, and serve your master."

The ground all around his katana cracked, and shadowy hands reached up and clawed their way to the surface. The hands belonged to tall, thin, shadowy wraiths, with blazing purple eyes like Hunter's.

"What in the world..?"

Hunter pulled his katana out of the ground, then wrapped his hand around the hilt and charged forward. The wraiths followed suit, and began slashing at the Grimm King with suddenly razor-sharp fingers.

---

Inuba had sliced the last hooded figure in half, taking a deep breath before lashing out to the side to clean the blood of her blade, sheathing it seconds later.

"Was that the last of them?"

"No. This is strange. Normally covens of Adepts are much smaller. This must be several different covens gathered together. This way." Ariel said, sounding slightly concerned. Ariel drifted off, then stopped and said, "How are you holding up Kitsune?"

"Just fine. But what has you so concerned?"

"Adepts aren't like your typical Grimm. You seldom find more than one anywhere at any given time. When they do gather in their covens, the reason is never good. I can sense power flowing from the central coven to that mountain our masters descended into."

Inuba closed her eyes and concentrated. She could feel Dante's presence, as well as Hunter's. Then, she felt an extremely powerful presence colliding with the two.

"They're feeding power to some sort of creature in the caverns of the mountain! Quickly! Lead us to the central cavern!"

"Right!" he hissed as he darted off.

Inuba followed close behind, until they reached a large hill with a cave in the side. They quickly moved until it opened out into a massive cavern. There was a circle of Adepts with their arms raised in the center, surrounding a crystal that was swirling with red and black energy. At their head was an Adept with red markings on his hood, and a black sword at his side.

"See the Adept with red markings?" Ariel whispered to Inuba. "He's an Arch-Adept, the evolved form of the Adept. He must be the leader of the coven."

The Arch-Adept's hood lifted slightly as he lowered his hands. The other Adepts followed suit, getting into fighting crouches as their leader stepped forward.

"Greetings, demon. And to you as well, Faunus." he said courteously in a deep voice as smooth as silk, bowing slightly as he did.

"I am Balthazar, leader of this coven. Welcome to our humble abode."

"You won't have the pleasure of staying long...monster..."

"Am I really? Would a monster have greeted you in this fashion? I may be a soulless Grimm, but I possess knowledge and intelligence, greater than any other of my kind." he said, gesturing to make his point. "Tell me, what defines humanity? Is it a soul? Or intelligence, sentience, free will?"

Inuba kept her hand steady over her sword, thinking of the conversation as some sort of ploy to catch her off guard. But nonetheless, she would answer him.

"I have asked my Master the same question numerous times. What makes a human? What defines being human? He himself has searched for many years to find the answer. Questioning whether it'd be the soul, their sentience or their free will. And from what he tells me...he believes all of the above. But the most important, determining factor...is ones heart."

"An excellent answer. Am I any less human? All I've done was to gain some sort of equality for my people. Would you condemn me for that?"

"Equality?! You consider destruction as a means of equality?!"

"I will do whatever I have to." he said.

He looked at the other Adepts and said, "Kill them."

"Then I will do what I must as well." Replied Inuba

"Do your worst."

"You may wish to stand behind me for now." said Inuba to Ariel.

The demon did so as Inuba slid her left foot back, her right hand hovering over the handle of her blade as white, flame like Aura surrounded her entire body, the flames growing larger and larger as the minor Adepts ran towards her.

"Kitsukami Secret Art: FoxFire Nova!"

Her flaming white Aura condensed to her right arm and sword, the Kitsune girl opening her eyes as they flashed red briefly. As the Adepts drew in closer, Inuba lashed out with her katana, unleashing a arcing sea of brilliant white flame that turned the Adepts to ash upon contact. After a few seconds or so, the flames died down as Inuba stood up normally and held her sword tightly, waiting in anticipation.

The flames cleared, revealing Balthazar to be completely untouched. He slowly drew his sword, the blade of which was red. He crouched, then shot towards Inuba.

"Reap what you've sown, Faunus!" he hissed before slashing at her.

They came to a clash as sparks emerged from the point of contact, each trying their best to push the other back.

"There are better ways for equality than resorting to destruction! You claim to be different, but in truth, you are no different than all the others I have faced!"

He blurred, then vanished. He reappeared behind her, lifting his sword to cut her down, until he was struck in the back by a bolt of black energy. Inuba heard the boom, and she spun to see Ariel floating behind her, his hands crackling with dark energy.

"Watch your back, girl..." he said dryly.

"Shouldn't you be watching your own, demon?"

Ariel turned to find the Arch-Adept behind him, ready to take his head. This would have been the case had Inuba not stuck out her blade to block then push back, delivering a slash that the Arch-Adept blocked, sending him skidding backwards on the heels of his feet. The Arch-Adept blurred again, then reappeared immediately in front of Inuba, his sword lifted to stab her.

"No!" Ariel said as he darted in front of her and took the stab directly in his chest.

Inuba's eyes widened in surprise, as did the Arch-Adepts. But instead of remaining completely stunned, Inuba took the chance to slash the humanoid Grimm across the chest while avoiding Ariel, leaving the creature with a nasty cut as she soon placed her foot on its stomach, grabbed hold of Ariel, and kicked off the creature, taking Ariel with her as they distanced themselves from the Arch-Adept.

"Why would you-?" started Inuba.

"Go... kill that...that bastard," he said weakly.

He slowly dissolved into a pile of black dust, which swirled around Inuba's feet. The dust swirled higher and higher, then was pulled into her body.

"Really now? Do you truly believe yourself capable of killing me?"

"I do... As my Master used to say, 'It's my duty you see...to rid the world of scum such as yourself.' Believe me...you will not leave this place alive. That...is a fact."

"Hehehehehehe... heheheHAHAHAHA!" Balthazar laughed. "I killed your little darkling friend easily enough. I'll kill you just as quickly!"

"Is that what you think? Foolish creature... You have no idea...who you are truly dealing with."

"Oh really? Show me."

"Gladly."

Inuba vanished in a quick burst of white flame, reappearing behind the Arch-Adept as she drew her sword and lashed out at him.

He spun, and deflected her slash effortlessly with the armor on his arm.

"Pathetic," he said. "Why don't you use the power your darkling friend gave you. At least then you'll be more of a challenge."

"First of all...he is not a Darkling..."

Inuba shot her hand forwards as numerous bolts of black energy struck at the Arch-Adept, the Grimm dodging the first few blasts before being struck by the quick barrage of black bolts. As he lowered his arms from blocking, the Arch-Adept could not see Inuba, soon feeling a blade pierce through his abdomen, the white katana blade crackling with black energy, the Grimm slowly turning its head back in surprise to see the fox yokai.

"Second...when an external source of power is integrated with my own, my overall power and abilities is doubled. In the case of my Master however, since I am connected to him constantly, his power alone increases mine double of what it originally is. And considering the years we've been connected to one another...despite the loss of his old powers, a portion of them have been permanently added to my own power, making me four times more powerful than I normally am. You lost this fight before it even began." she finished as she plunged the blade deeper into the Arch-Adept's abdomen, a cry of pain emerging forth as blackened blood began dripping profusely onto the floor.

The Arch-Adept spat up black fluid, then slowly began to dissolve.

"Thank... you" he whispered as he dissolved into a pile of black dust.

The dust swirled up, then was absorbed into Inuba's body.

"Hope you don't mind if I share your body while I gather enough power to reform." said Ariel's voice in her head.

Inuba lashed out her weapon to the side, twirling it twice before sheathing her weapon.

"Take however much time you need..." she sighed as she knelt down to the pile of black dust.

"Something the matter?" asked Ariel.

"He said thank you before he turned to dust... Why?"

"From what I gathered, Adepts are corrupted humans. The process is excruciating, and the human part of them is locked deep within. They're only released once the Adept is killed."

"Which is why they had a humanoid shape... I suspected some form of corruption but...could not believe it when I saw it..."

"Precisely... the Adepts of my Master's Reality were a result of his entry into the universe of Remnant. Adepts seem to come into existence wherever my Master goes."

"Then if he were to leave...they would be gone as well? Or would they remain?"

"They would remain. They're tenacious little buggers."

---

Dante stood and watched, waiting for a chance to do something. But Hunter and his specters seemed to do a decent job on their own

"He's starting to slow down!"

Hunter as he unleashed a flurry of lightning fast slashes. Absalom slapped him back, and his wraiths caught him and set him down gently.

"Maybe I spoke too soon..." Hunter said.

Dante took a few quick steps forward until he reached Hunter, soon whispering in his ear.

"Really now?" Asked Hunter.

Dante nodded his head twice smiling.

"A little trick I picked up from a previous employer of mine. He taught me some of his moves so it'll work out nicely. Besides...I think it'll do the trick just nicely."

"But I thought-"

"I'll make an exception this time."

Dante quickly sheathed his longsword and extended his left hand to Hunter as he handed him one of the hand cannons he held. Dante drifted the cannon down to his left thigh as it invisibly attached itself to the side of his thigh, the teen soon unsheathing his sword again as he walked slowly towards Absalom. The large Grimm charged at Dante full speed, and as he did, the teen himself dashed towards him as he leapt towards Absalom. The Grimm tried for a stab with its massive sword, but Dante spun out of his way midair and tried for a stab himself.

Absalom managed to jump backwards to distance himself a bit from the blade point, bringing up his own sword to block the stab and lash outwards. When his field of view was clear, he could no longer see Dante, only his sword twirling up high into the air. Panicked, Absalom quickly looked around him, still not able to see the teen. Then, he heard a clicking noise and looked to his right to see Dante standing atop his right arm, Hunter's handcannon aimed directly at his head.

"It's time you left my Reality."

With that, Dante pulled the trigger as blast of white Aura outlined in black hit Absalom directly in the face, smoke covering the area where his head was as the massive Grimm's body began to slowly lean back, the teen jumping off and attaching the hand cannon to his thigh, shortly catching his sword midair before twirling it twice and placing it back in the sheath on his back. Hunter walked to his side as the wraiths surrounded Absalom's body, it's head now fully revealed as both teens stared directly at him.

"The honor is all yours." Said Dante as he removed the gun and twirled it three times before handing it to Hunter.

"Thank you." Hunter said. Black vapor swirled around him, and he transformed into his Grimm Lord form. His eyes changed from purple to pure red, and Abaddon picked up Absalom's sword.

"A fine blade..." he said as he looked it over. He threw it at Absalom, and it embedded itself in the ground by Absalom's head.

"Pick it up. I won't dishonor myself by killing an unarmed opponent."

Absalom slowly got to his feet, and pulled the sword out of the ground.

"Abaddon... you were once my most loyal lieutenant. Now you are being controlled by some... human child..." he said as he lifted the massive sword.

"I slaughtered millions of humans under your command... spilled seas of blood. By killing you, I can begin to make amends for what I have done." Abaddon said as he summoned his own blade. "I have seen the world through the eyes of a human, and I have seen the horrors wrought by the Grimm."

Absalom lifted his sword and swung it at Abaddon, who swatted it aside contemptuously with the flat of his blade. This continued for a while, until Abaddon created an opening. Then, the Grimm Lord lifted his sword high overhead, then stabbed Absalom through the chest.

"For the lives I've destroyed..." he said as he stabbed Absalom again. "For Remnant..." he said as he stabbed him again. His blade began to burn with black energy as he lifted it one final time. "For...my...FREEDOM!" he roared as he drove it through Absalom's heart.

Absalom coughed up black blood, then slowly began to dissolve into dust, which was absorbed into Abaddon's body.

The Grimm King leaned forward, then said, "You know... what...my greatest sin...is?"

Abaddon leaned in closer, then stiffened as Absalom stabbed his hand into the Grimm Lord's chest.

"That... I... never planned to... die... alone," the Grimm King said as he dissolved completely. Abaddon fell to his knees, then shrank back into Hunter, who slowly fell forward, black liquid leaking out of his wound.

Dante ran over, and turned Hunter onto his back. He saw the black veins in Hunter's face start to spread further, and bone start to protrude from the sides of his head.

"What the heck is going on?!" Dante said to himself.

He heard a weak voice in his head say, "Grimm blood... it's speeding the progress of the Grimmification…"

"Master!"

"Inuba? What happened to you?" Dante said.

Inuba's appearance had changed slightly. Her hair, ears and tail were now black.

She took note of this and answered quickly, saying, "Ariel took significant damage and needed to reside in my body until he is able to recuperate. He changed my appearance slightly. But what's wrong with him?"

"It's his blood... Inuba, can you do something for him?"

"I'm...I'm not sure Master... I've never had to treat such a thing..."

"Please, try!"

She gave a quick nod as she place both hands on his chest, white flames engulfing his body soon after.

"Please Master, hold him down!"

Dante quickly Shadow Skinned his right arm, soon using both arms to hold down Hunter as he kicked and screamed in agony. Dante's right arm was soon consumed with pain, his arm having the sensation of extreme burning as he fought the pain to hold down Hunter.

"Inuba!"

"His blood is resisting the treatment Master! And his psychological state is not helping my efforts either!"

The white haired teen growled in frustration before raising up his left arm and punching Hunter in the face hard enough to knock him out. Dante took a sigh of relief as his right arm reverted to normal, going completely limp again as he leaned back and sat on the ground, putting his right arm back into the sling shortly after.

"We'll treat it later... Did that help?"

"Despite the method, it did. Now that he isn't thrashing about, it's making the treatment go smoother. In a matter of minutes, I can purify his blood completely and prevent further...occurrences."

"How so?"

"With you master, you were unaffected by the adverse effects of a Dark Entity soul, a King Class no less, because you are part Dark Entity yourself, rendering yourself immune. However, Hunter is only a human. A human with such a soul residing within, even if they have come to terms with another will still affect his body...and...from what he's told us, will make him turn into a Grimm."

"And your Cleansing Flame will prevent him from turning...how?"

"Have you forgotten Master? The Kitsukami clan has combatted Dark Entities for centuries. As such, we have developed effective means of combating them, as well as healing the effects they have of people of all varieties. Whether they be human, magical creature, or a spirit. This... process isn't all that far from the effects of Dark Entity possession. Even so, it will take some time to completely purify his blood and his body. The purification is lasting, so he won't have any future instances."

"And 'his' Abaddon?"

"Their souls are intertwined. The purification will only negate the adverse effects, but will cause no harm to either of their souls."

"Good... If that wasn't the case...I'm pretty sure he'd be angry once he woke up," said Dante leaning back all the way to the ground to rest.

Inuba continued trying to purge the Grimm blood from Hunter's system. The bone at his temples receded, as did the black veins. However, they only receded to their previous orientation, before Hunter had been stabbed by Absalom.

"Is that it?" asked Dante.

"Yes. All done."

"Good. Now we can carry him back into town."

"But Master, your arm..."

"Ah, don't sweat it. I'll be fine. Besides, I left a sword back in our room at the inn. We won't have to travel far."

---

Ciel and Leo were cutting through the masses of Grimm and Adepts with relative ease, Ciel's scythe easily making minced meat of them as Leonard's Aura Beam's that hid his bullets easily penetrated their targets both at close range and at a far distance. Ciel heard a small chirping tune and raised her left hand in the air to bring up a holographic screen that soon expanded, revealing the words "voice call".

"Leo, keep these guys off me for a little bit. Dante's calling."

"Understood."

Leonard moved closer to Ciel and kept firing at the crowds surrounding, this time with a more rapid pace.

"What's cooking big brother?"

"How are things going on your end Ciel?"

"So far so good. We're nearly done since we're on our last group. What about you guys?"

"We killed the anomaly causing this this mess and are returning to the village. How long until you guys are done?"

"Um..."

Ciel looked around, seeing the last few masses of Grimm mounting up to charge them for a final attack. She moved her head out of the way to allow Leonard to take a shot at a Grimm closing in on her.

"Probably two minutes or less."

"Alright. Finish up and meet us back here."

"You got it." Said the younger sibling closing her screen.

"You got this Leo?"

"Basically. I've set up enough shots by now, so clearing them out now should be no problem."

"Alrighty then. Don't mess up!" She said playfully punching him in the shoulder before vanishing out of sight in a blur of black and white.

"Honestly...you always leave me to do all the clean up work..."

Leonard quickly twirled around his handcannons and fired in numerous directions around him, leaving small "spots" of his Aura in the air surrounding him, totaling to one hundred spots. Shortly after, the same type of spots appeared directly behind the Grimm, forming a cage of these "spots" of Aura that numbered in the hundreds. The process was complete. Leonard only raised up his right handcannon and pointed it in front of him, giving the creatures of Grimm before him a menacing glare.

"Horizon of Subterfuge."

Leonard pulled the trigger of his gun, and in that instant, the "spots" of Aura became large circles that shot out large, devastating columns of white Aura outlined in black from all circles at once, annihilating all traces of the Grimm from both sides as the beams tore through them with eases, turning them into ash.

The immense glow of Aura ceased and the smoked cleared. Numerous small craters littered the wide area around Leonard as he twirled both guns and dematerialized them. A legless Adept went to reach for Leonard, but Ciel's scythe pierced the top of its skull, the girl soon tearing it through the rest of its body to cut in half.

"Looks like you missed one." Said Ciel slinging her scythe on her shoulder.

"Pure luck."

"Uhuh, sure~"

Ciel swiped her Sycthe across her body, leaving a massive slash of black Aura outlined in white that expanded into a large circle of the Aura.

"After you, mi hermano..." said Ciel motioning to her portal.

Leo stepped inside, followed by Ciel as the portal closed behind them.

---

Dante and Inuba teleported back inside their room in the inn and laid Hunter on one of the beds.

"Jeez this guy is heavy..."

"Agreed..."

A small, circular portal of black Aura outlined in white opened up, allowing Ciel and Leo to step on through.

"Heya broman, how'd it go? Woah. What happened to him?" Asked Ciel.

"Long story. Is your stuff already packed up?"

"Yes?" Asked the younger sibling slightly confused.

"Cool beans."

Dante reached into Hunter's robe soon after, pulling out another one of his iconic masks and placing it in the bed stand next to him.

"Master? What are you doing?" Inuba asked.

"Figured he's gonna want one when he wakes up."

"We will be leaving then?" Asked the Kitsune

"Well, we can't just wait around all day for him to wake up. We've got places to be. Clues to find. The faster we get there, the better. Plus, I don't really like this village all too much for certain reasons. If you'd be so kind, can you guys square away the bill while I leave him a note?" said Dante, removing a few lien cards from his coat and handing them to Inuba.

"Of course Master. I'll get right on it." she said as she took the cards and headed through the door with the younger siblings.

Dante sat down in a chair and sighed in relief.

"Haven't had that much excitement in a while..."

He found a piece of paper in the desk nearby and a pen, soon beginning to write out a note. After about two minutes, he put away the pen and place dryer corner of the note under mug near the bedstead were Hunter rested.

"Well...it's been fun. Take care of yourself, friend." he said patting the end of the bed before leaving the room.

---

"Are you sure he will be alright brother? Maybe we should head back quickly and-"

"Trust me, he'll be fine. He doesn't need a babysitter. Besides, he's standing right over there."

"What?!" Said the other three in unison, looking ahead of Dante to see that indeed Hunter was standing ahead of them currently.

"Hey." said Hunter casually.

"We weren't expecting you to wake up so soon." Said Dante.

"I need to be heading back to my Reality. Or whatever you call it.

"How did you get here so fast?"

"Teleported."

"Oh yeah… Forgot you could do that…"

"Anyway, good luck on your journey everyone. So long and thanks for all the fish!" Hunter said as a white portal opened behind him. He stepped through it, and it vanished, leaving no evidence that he had ever been there.

"Fish?" asked both siblings and Inuba simultaneously.

It seemed as though only Dante had realized the true meaning of Hunter's parting words.

"Aha! I see what he did there!"

"Are you just saying that or did you really understand what he was saying there?" Asked a skeptical Ciel.

"I understood it. Speaking of fish, do you guys think we should have some tonight?" asked Dante.

"If that is what you wish Master." Replied Inuba.

"Sure."

"Why not?"

"Well, do you guys want fish?"

"As long as you cook and prepare it Master." Said Inuba.

"We still need to settle our cooking duel of the ages you know. Not that it'd really matter since you'd win hands down..."

"Of course Master. Will the next village suffice?"

"Sure thing."

"We're judging! Just so you guys know." Said Ciel.

"Wouldn't you be slightly more biased towards your brother?" Asked Inuba.

"When it comes to food, no. That's bias-free at all times."

Inuba giggled to herself.

"Of course. Well Master, I wish you luck during our competition."

"Thanks. I'm really going to need it."

---

(Omake: "Counseling with an Immortal, Part 1" by OS Worldmakers)

Dante looked down yet another time at headmaster Ozpin's elegant writing. "I suggest you visit a friend of mine. You'll find him on 00004 2nd Street East, Vale. Just say my name and show him the letter, and it'll be free..." the white-haired immortal read out. "Sincerely, Ozpin. Well, that'll be easy."

Does Ozpin think I need counseling? I think I'm fine-

"Oi, don't loiter around. If you're going in, just knock or stand closer to the door."

Dante turned around to face someone unfamiliar. Black hair like midnight nearly covered silver- no, mirror-like eyes. They reflected every color perfectly.

"Ozpin sent you?" the stranger said.

"How did you know?" the tennager asked.

The bigger question was... well, who was the person in front of him? He looked like he could be in Beacon with him.

The teenager in front of Dante rolled his eyes.

"Oh, I don't know. A Grimm, maybe?" he said sarcastically.

"You're my age. I'm pretty sure you don't have a PH.D or a M.D.," Dante replied.

"Even if my name's Bone White? Oh well. You can come in if you want."

And so the Beacon student followed the self-proclaimed psychologist into his home. It was surprising to say the least.

A honest wood and charcoal flame lived in the fireplace, warming the rest of the room. The living space was simple and minimally unadorned, its beauty in its utility and matching style: modern. Cozy.

"Just take a seat, Dante. Ozpin let me know you were coming ahead of time. He says there's one specific issue you might have, and it's related to girls. Now that I'm thinking about it, I think it was Rose Red Petite and Lady 9-Tailed Foxy specifically..."

Dante stared at Bone.

"Ruby and Inuba." he corrected.

The psychologist laughed, quietly slapping his hand against his thigh.

"If you thought those two, who I assume are really cute, were the only two, you're wrong. If anything, they're the main reason."

"What..?" asked Dante confused as to what he meant.

"Let's not go there. For now, I just want you to imagine you're in a mall full of women. Doesn't matter if they're clothed or not."

He left Dante to his thoughts as he patiently brewed peppermint tea for himself and green tea for his client.

The sudden prompt made Dante redden a bit as his mind first switched to a scantily clad Ruby, then an equally scandalous Incuba, then...

Dante slapped his hands over his eyes in a feeble attempt to block out the images he produced. Unfortunately, the one thing he hated about his imagination is that when he had a painted picture in mind, it was near impossible to forget.

Forget seeing for a while!

He removed his hands from his eyes as they fluttered open in embarrassment as the person in front of him began.

"You see a lot of beauties, right? That gives you choices you must make, much like the ones you make when buying coffee." Bone started. He picked up a pen and began flipping it, weaving it through his fingers in marvelous dexterity.

The white-haired immortal couldn't help but interrupt.

"I like tea. But coffee's just as nice on occasion."

To counter Bone, Dante too tried to flip a pen, only for it to slip out of his fingers.

Bone waved away Dante's response as he caught Dante's pen.

"Doesn't matter. What does matter is the opposite gender. After all, you have... ahem, Harem Attracting Syndrome. HAS. And yes, it's real. Infinite possibilities, infinite diseases."

"HAS?" Dante took a sip of green tea. Nice. Goes down smooth. It's as good as Inuba's.

"You heard right. You will inexplicably attract all members of the opposite sex you happen to be around, and although it's not love at first, it might as well be in the end. You have Stage 2, which is lucky. Stage 3, all women are attracted to you. Stage 4, anybody human wants you to bone them. Stage 5... well, all of those who've reached that stage died from intercourse related diseases."

Dante momentarily choked on his beverage.

"Stage 5? We're talking about other worldly feminine beings?"

"Not only them. Guys who are your rivals, cougars, animals, and just maybe Grimm. And don't ever think this is a good thing. I've met one person from a world who pilots exosuits. He's at Stage 3. It's pretty bad: all the women are having a little war over the poor guy. That said, I don't think that'll happen to you."

"Thankfully."

Bone White took a sip of his own tea: both hot and cold.

"You're an odd case. Your looks alone and nature would warrant a Stage 5," he began. "Yet you've been lucky enough to avoid the most clingy of significant others, and you travels have been limited enough so that you aren't on their radar. Either you have an outside power helping you or you're just a lucky bastard."

Dante laughed a bit.

"Trust me, back then before I came here to Remnant... oh boy... it got out of hand a few times," he replied. "Even the female villains were...interested in me... Right now I'm pretty sure Cinder has taken an interest in me given the small 'bondage' session she gave me during the assault on Beacon."

"Bondage session..? You got cougared hard, man."

"She pinned me to the wall with arrows, so...yeah..."

A yawn and a nod of understanding.

"Given The World and their infinite variations, in theory, that your Creator has, it could've been worse. You could've stepped into a version of Primordial or Remnant where everyone is, you know, hot and female and really, really tsundere/yandere. Not to mention clingy and really into you."

"That would be bad for everyone else really... Wait, you know about The Worlds?"

"Yep. When you're about as old as one of the earliest Remnants, you'll know. But that's from an alien's viewpoint, at least. Outside of The Worlds is even crazier. For example, think of an infinite number of Remnants with female Professor Ports, which have infinite versions, some of which also have different versions and so on and so forth."

Dante was silent for the next few seconds.

"I don't think I'd ever want to see that. Much less imagine that."

---

(Semblance Encyclopedia)

"Heya Folks! I'm Ciel!"

"A-And I'm Leo..." said the twin sibling awkwardly.

"And we're here to bring you Semblance Encyclopedia!"

Ciel looked towards here awkwardly standing brother and slapped him on the back.

"Come on Leo! Don't tell me you're still awkward around new people!"

"I-I'm sorry... I just can't help it..."

"Well... Why don't I start us off then. Leo? Whose Semblance should we gossip about for our first episode?"

"M-Maybe brother's Semblance..?"

Ciel gasped in mock awe.

"An excellent idea! Alright, it's settled then! Today we'll be talking about our brother Dante's Semblance, which, if you're new to this whole thing, is Aura Manipulation!

"A-Aura Manipulation allows brother free reign to manipulate his Aura in practically any way imaginable." Said Leo as a large holographic display appeared between the two siblings.

"He can do cool things with it! Like make weapons out of his Aura!" Said Ciel as the display showed Dante forming different weapons out of his Aura.

"Sadly though, he can't make complex machinery. At least not yet. It'd be awfully convenient if he could make a toaster for toast in the morning..."

"A-A real tragedy... But that's not all brother can do! In fact, here's an interesting ability! By planting swords across the battlefield, and maybe even embedding them in enemies, brother can teleport to any sword of his choosing that he sent out in virtually an instant! He calls this ability Embedded Shifting."

"But wait! There's more! Since Dante isn't a fan of guns, he actually uses these Aura-made swords as his ranged weapon. He literally make and shoot them at a person ridiculously fast! Like a factory line on crack! These sword also travel faster than any bullet, making them really deadly ranged weapons!"

"W-What about defensive capabilities?"

"Ah! Asking all the right questions! I like it Leo! Ahem. For defensive purposes, Dante can create a tightly knit, defensive wall of swords that can block normal bullets and is highly durable overall."

"H-How durable are brother's Aura Swords and weapons overall?"

"I'm glad you asked Leo! Luckily..!"

Ciel dragged a case on stage and opened it up, pullling out two Aura Longswords that glowed with white Aura, each sword retaining a black outline.

"I brought two to test that out! Here we go!"

"W-Wait Ciel! Maybe we should-!"

Ignoring Leo, Ciel went straight ahead and smashed both swords' sharp edges against one another. The result was that only one of the Aura Swords broke.

"See that everyone? Both of them are Aura Swords and both are identical in shape and size. So then, why is it only one of them broke? Leo, you're the smart guy. Answer this one for us."

"Are you asking because you don't know the answer yourself Ciel?"

"Of course I know! I just want to make sure that we're on the same page...and...stuff...yeah... Anyway, tell 'em why already! Don't make them wait!"

"Of course... The reason why one sword broke and the other didn't is actually quite simple. The Aura Swords brother can make actually vary in durability. Normally, if brother simply creates an Aura Sword to shoot at any enemy, especially if he creates numerous swords one after another, they're not as highly durable. But if brother creates an Aura Sword to use for upclose combat, it's far stronger than one he would use for shooting at an enemy. This also applies to when he makes his defensive line of swords."

"That's fine and dandy, but how durable is each one?" Asked Ciel

"Well, a normally created sword for simple use of shooting at an enemy is almost as tough as tungsten in its purest form, which is highly durable. An Aura Sword made for upclose combat is as tough as Calcified Steel or Empyrean Steel, which are materials found only in the Dark World and The Plane. Those materials are also considered some of the best quality metals in all of The Worlds and even the toughest. There's a reason why Dark Entities and Angels use their respective metals found in their Worlds. There's only a rare few weapons made that have both used as an alloys to make some of the strongest weapons known in Creation. Our weapons for example, brother's weapon Anvil, and ms. Kitsukami's DarkLight Antithesis."

"So the swords made for upclose combat are a tier or two below our weapons?"

"Pretty much. The only downside is timing used to create each sword. For a quick use sword to shoot at an enemy, the creation time takes half a second. But if brother wants to use another sword for upclose combat purposes or defensive purpsoes, he'll need more time to create it. At least two seconds."

"I see, I see... So durability also has relation to time it takes to make one. Less time equals less durability, more time equals more durability. Well, good to know, right?"

"Right..."

"Lastly, here's a cool ability I like! Phantom Blades! Dante can make his Aura Swords or weapons invisible! That way an enemy can't notice he's using his swords as teleportation markers." said Ciel.

"Brother's usage of his Aura Swords can vary greatly as you can see, which can give him a superior advantage against enemies, especially in terms of range, sneak attacks, and defense."

"All of which are useless against me!" Said Ciel placing her hands on her hips confidently.

"If I recall, brother used those very same swords against you and won."

"Pure luck! Plus I wasn't fighting at my fullest!"

"Of course Ciel. Of course."

"Tch... Anyway, we have one last thing to share with you. Roll the footage!"

The holographic display showed Dante in his Shadow Skin form, also displaying numerous combat scenarios he has used it in.

"You guessed it folks! Dante's Shadow Skin! It's currently his most powerful ability of his Aura Manipulation Semblance!" Said Ciel

"When brother uses his Shadow Skin, it exponentially boosts all of his parameters to be ten times of that which they already are. It's like receiving a massive all-around parameter boost to put it in simple terms. And given how strong brother already is, Shadow Skin is a huge benefit, especially if he uses it to finish or crush foes. Though really, he only uses Shadow Skin to put himself at the level of very tough enemies or even rise above them. It's real purpose is to even the playing field or rise above it."

"Shadow Skin doesn't only serve as a massive parameter boost, but also as a sort of suit of armor that's weightless! Think of Shadow Skin as a skin tight suit that's extremely durable. But given the evolution it underwent six months ago, it looks more like armor than a skin tight suit that looks like a second skin."

"Where as there was virtually no armor in the first version of Shadow Skin, the second current version utilizes vicious-looking, segmented armor that layers his entire body from neck to toe. Considering this fact, I would assume this only adds more to his overall durability without slowing him down in the slightest. In fact, one of the many parameter boosts brother receives is actually a huge speed boost that makes him nearly as fast as Ruby Rose in terms of speed. Even so, we've determined she still is able to move faster than brother if she pushes herself to do so."

"Also, have you taken a look at it? I mean, that form is freaking scary looking! It'd send shivers down anyone's spine! Brrrrrrrr!"

"Well, it's meant to do that. After all, it's supposed to resemble his previous Dark Entity form."

"One more thing to add folks. Should anyone manage to pierce or break a section of the Shadow Skin hide, Dante can use his Aura to rectify the area. 'But wait!', you ask. 'How does Shadow Skin work in terms of Aura consumption?' Leo?"

"An also fairly simple answer. Brother uses a decent portion of his Aura to create the Shadow Skin surrounding his entire body, but after his Shadow Skin is formed, it no longer consumes Aura afterwords. In the event his Shadow Skin is damaged or breached, brother's Aura will automatically reform and rectify the damaged area."

"Excellent as always Leo! I think they have the gist of it by now. You guys do, don't you?"

"I think they do Ciel. If they do have questions, they can always ask us."

"Anyway, we hope you enjoyed this weeks Semblance Encyclopedia!"

"Until next time everyone."

---

Second week in and I'm feeling fine! Sort of! I had midterms this week, so I'm bit tired. And sick. I take studying for tests and the such seriously. But that aside, this is one of two submitted side stories, the next chapter also being another side story adventure that Dante, Inuba and siblings will be a part of. Credit this time for the main story here goes to Ezra Soulthief, for providing this interesting side story. And characters. Seriously guys, they're really neat.

Now then, I highly recommend you all go check out the freaking amazing collab Xera Stark and I are currently working on concerning his story XSRA's Flame. His story overall is absolutely fantastic and is a must read, so I suggest you read from the very start. But, if you're just interested in the awesome collab our two minds put together have created, then mozy on down to chapter 53 of his story for the start. I've said it once and will say it again, you won't want to miss out on this story, and especially this exciting story arc we've created.

Please remember to review, follow and favorite this story if you really enjoyed it and want to continue seeing more of it. And hey, even tell others about this story! Remember that your support is what helps make this story grow even larger and what helps improve it. With that, I bid you all an excellent week/weekend and hope to see you next time! Bye-bye now!