Chapter 3

The Fabricated Fortune

"This isn't looking good…" Ironwood said, pacing around the office. Glynda stood uncomfortably next to the desk as Ozpin simply rested his head in this hands.

"So Heaven has abandoned us while demons roam about the world alongside Grimm." Ozpin stated, Undyne nodding.

"Zealous has made it clear that this world is doomed to die without the Catalyst. However, I discovered that around the year 2031 B.A. that a large distortion occurred in this world, and after that, separate random distortions a few decades apart from each other. My arrival was not one of those, however, and according to Summer, another distortion is bound to happen sometime soon." Undyne explained. Ozpin tapped his fingers on his cheeks, exhaling as he slid his hands down his face.

"Ozpin, if this is true, we need to hold off the Vytal Festival until after this distortion occurs. We need to be sure it won't tear apart the arena with everyone in it." Ironwood demanded.

Ozpin simply stared into space. "That might explain… no, it can't be…"

"Oz? Is everything alright?" Ironwood asked.

"Sir, perhaps we should-" Glynda began to suggest.

"No, I need to know something." Ozpin stated sternly. He then stood up and stared directly at Undyne. "Did any Fragments of Reality come into our world?"

"Besides Creation and Destruction, not as far as I can tell. But no one has seen the Fragment of Creation since the destruction of 4482." Undyne replied, Ozpin's concern becoming for more visible.

"What about the Staff of Stvaranje?" Ozpin urgently asked.

"I'm…" Undyne shuffled nervously. "...Not sure. Nobody has seen it since, well… most in Heaven consider the Staff of Stvaranje a myth."

"IT'S NOT!" Ozpin slammed his table, making everyone jump in surprise. His teeth were gritted and the glass was cracked. Slowly, the tension faded, and Ozpin sighed as he sat back down, rubbing his eyes. "I've seen it before, it exists. It's no myth."

"I understand, Ozpin. Perhaps the Staff is still here, perhaps it was lost to time and space during a distortion." Undyne responded, with Ozpin only sighing.

"The thing is… the person who was using it back then…" Ozpin said, but as he opened his mouth again, the ground shook greatly, the windows cracking and the gears above rattling.

"It's happening!" Undyne shouted, and the sky fractured for a second, and a light shot through the sky and split into several meteors, unseen by anyone. And all was still again.

"We should do a full search, see what changed here." Ironwood said immediately.

"For once, I can fully agree with that." Glynda nodded.

[five minutes earlier]

Akaria ventured around the fairgrounds, on patrol as instructed. The event that unfolded earlier, however, was lingering in her mind. The enemy she fought was not Grimm, and she kept wondering if what Undyne said was literal. She felt the need to seek out that knowledge, the knowledge of the world's destiny.

When she looked, she found herself facing the tent of a soothsayer. A fortune teller, one famed around the world for predicting the greatest tragedies and victories, the one who led the last king of Vale to his fate, and their victory.

She stepped in, certain of the fact that this woman would tell her what she needed to know.

The inside was smokey with incense, candles burning so close to the tent's cloth, but it never even got warm. The tent was green with a trim of red, and a strange symbol was painted on the front, in a tongue that no one in this world knew.

The woman was dressed in black robes, her face closely concealed. And though it was widely known that the woman was very old, her skin was hardly wrinkled, and her voice was that of a youth. "Approach, young one, and tell me what knowledge you seek."

"I want to know… about Undyne, why she is here. I get a feeling that she isn't what she seems." Akaria explained. The visioness nodded, and held out her hand. Akaria, in response, reached out and touched her hand. Instantly, a vision formed before her.

A rift split the sky open, and angels and demons poured from it, crashing to Remnant like meteors of light and darkness. Akaria saw Undyne emerge from a pool of light, and her one eye gleamed like a star. From that, nine lights formed, each one a different color, and it ended with a brilliant green light, and it flashed brightly. That light reformed into lightning, which morphed into a rose, which wilted away, and the petals swirled in a vortex to form a red coat, which formed a man with a large gun.

As the gun fired, all of those forms merged together, and formed a green jewel, which grew into a scepter with two curved blades at the end. The staff let out a bright green light, and it ran through a double edged sword with a golden hilt. The center of the hilt opened, and from it, darkness pooled out, and formed a deep lake of limbo, and from that, the demons crawled out.

"Show us! The power of the-"

"The light is an illusion, you fool-"

"The humans will know our-"

"Genesis, eradicate humanity!"

"AKARIA!"

The last word, several voices echoed through her head, and she clutched to her head in pain. "Stop! It's too much!" She shouted, begging for the vision to end.

"A thousand deaths, for a thousand years of fighting."

"At the end of paths…" The visioness now spoke, calmly, and gently, "...you will have the same choice. To save reality, or let it die. To save Earth, or raze it."

At the last words, the vision ended, and Akaria could hardly look at the woman. Her tears flowed out, and her hands shook in fear. "What… the crap… was that?"

"I'm terribly sorry, child. Had I known that such a vision would befall you, I would have made it a little less… vivid. But know that no matter what path you follow, it will always end the same for you. Your destiny is set, but the outcome is not. You are the First Catalyst, and the Second shall be arriving in…" As she said this, the ground shook and the sky fractured, a burst of light raining down and crashing to the world. As it stopped, the visioness was visibly undisturbed. "And there he is. Look outside, and you will see."

Akaria rushed outside, and in the middle of the fairground was a crater, smoking with hot rocks and smoldered grass. Akaria pushed through the quickly built crowd to see a boy in the center of it, in a grey uniform, torn and tattered from what she could assume was the fall. One look at the boy, and she somehow knew who he was. Not his name, his power, or his personality, but rather his purpose.

"Who… are you…" Akaria's thoughts of her vision were now completely gone from her mind, and now all she could think of is learning of this boy.

His hair was green, with freckles under his eyes. On his own, he didn't stand out much. But this scene, combined with Akaria's sense to him, made it obvious he was far from ordinary.

-Preview-

"Here's the preview! Izuku was warped to my world after a huge earthquake, and I got a lot of questions for him for when he wakes up. But for now, the Vytal Festival is at an all-time high! Though, it may be different from what you're used to…

Next time! Roaring Vytal Festival! Go beyond: PLUS ULTRA!"