Heya guys! Welcome back to another week of Veil of the Aether! Another side story chapter this time, but hey, its a good one. Next time we resume the actual journey with a very...special surprise. Trust me, you guys will love it. And recognize a certain someone from the previous story. With that, let's begin!
Chapter 3: Educator
The door to an abandoned apartment complex closed with a silent thud, only the tiniest of noises amongst the roaring fires in Vale. A man brought in a boy he had slung over his shoulder and laid him on the couch.
"Summer? What are you doing here?" He asked tilting his hooded head to peek into the kitchen watching as he saw Summer poke her head out from inside the fridge with a cookie in her mouth.
"Hmghe gund jon!" she said before finishing the cookie.
"Sorry… I was dropping of some new durable clothes for Damian given what's happened recently, Rox." She restated.
"Tch… Listen, right now he doesn't need clothes. He needs someone to help him control his powers and unlock the weapons deep inside him. You of all people should know that Summer." Rox said as he walked to the fridge and pulled out
a box of graham crackers, catching Summer's attention.
"Rox I think I know just the guy we need." Summer said gesturing to the graham crackers.
"Wait wait wait, hold on! You can't mean..! I only ever met her once on accident and she told me about him but… Ah who am I kidding… Fine. I'll ask him. But I hope you know that she won't agree to this at first."
"It's alright. She'll agree to it. Just make sure to be nice."
"Waaachuuu!" The white haired teen sneezed.
"Are you alright Master ?" Inuba asked.
"Peachy… Ugh...sneezing always feels uncomfortable… It's like my heart will just explode out of my chest…"
"No kidding Dante… I hate sneezing too… I know we can't die, but we can still catch a cold once in a rainbow moon… And it's then I actually feel like I'm dying for once…" said Ciel.
"Interesting… I never knew that you and your siblings could get sick Master."
"What, I never-?"
In that moment, Dante slapped his hand over his mouth, turning his head to find Inuba glaring at him.
"Master...were you perhaps hiding the fact you fell ill now and then while under my care?"
"W-What? N-No…" he said turning away, hoping she wouldn't be still looking at him.
She still was.
"Y-Yes…" he said with shame.
"That's not good Master! You need to tell me these things! I cannot fulfill my duties as your Familiar if you don't!"
"I-Its just a cold…"
"A cold could be dangerous! If ever it were to reach a point where it becomes bad for your health...I'd...I'd… I'd have to resort to some fairly questionable means of treating you…" she said as her face reddened.
"What's so questionable about your Cleaning Flame? Does it do something it's not suppose to?"
"N-No! I meant it in a way that...it'd be rather difficult to treat you given...well...your body and such…"
"True enough… My body is highly resistant to all types of magic… I wonder if that's why your healing magic hasn't been working on me all that much…"
Inuba turned her head away, finding that Ciel was looking at her with a grinning face, one that said "I know."
The Kitsune girl gasped in surprise, looking towards Leo who awkwardly rubbed the back of his head as if he were trying to apologize.
T-They know?! How?!
"Hehehehehehe… It really is too obvious…" whispered Ciel.
"Ms. Kitsukami, if you really wish for others not to know, then maybe you should try to not be rather...excuse me...blatant with your affection towards brother…"
"U-Um…"
"We understand your situation, so we'll be all hush hush about it. But~ we'll do something about it if you ask. When I say we, I actually mean me since Leo sucks at romance and the such."
"I-I do not!" He whispered rather embarrassed.
"Do too~! Anyway, just say the word and we'll have you covered!"
She couldn't respond at the moment.
"NOOOOOOO." Shouted Dante in a rather deep and demonic voice surprising them all.
They all looked to Dante as he looked to them, almost as if he were heartbroken.
"There's none left…" he said almost tearfully.
"N-None of what Master?" Asked Inuba.
"There are no more graham crackers left…"
They all sighed.
"You know…even if big brother is as smart as he is, he can still be a bit of an idiot…" said Ciel.
"Ah, hey, it's snowing again…" said Dante as he held his hand out.
Small white flakes fell from the sky to cover the already powdery, frozen earth. Winter had settled nicely in Remnant. What had transpired before it though… Events had not been preferable. Still, the teen had to admire the beauty of the winter season in Remnant. There was definitely a lot more snow than what he usually saw in Primordial, his original homeworld. He and friends would go to resorts in the mountains during their winter breaks and enjoy themselves for Christmas.
But probably Dante's most favorite memory of the winter season was visiting The Apparition Realm during that time period. Inuba's homerealm where all yokai had lived. There was so much indescribable beauty that the old and ancient realm had given off. It was enough to captivate him and make him want to return. In fact...now that he thought about it, he had a sudden desire to return. That and…
And what? What was it just now? He felt a thought arise… Moreso a memory… But as soon as he grasped at it, it disappeared from his mind like smoke. But why? This thought he had… He felt as though it were important. No, very important. But why did it slip away so easily?
Inuba's fox ears twitched slightly as her eyes focused directly ahead, forcing her to run up to her master's side.
"Master, there is a fight taking place up ahead. How should we approach?" Inuba asked.
"We'll rush over, but take a quick glance before doing anything. If they're in real trouble we'll help them of course. Come on let's go." He said before running ahead with Inuba and his sibling close behind.
Dante turned a sharp left and soon ran into a white cloaked man with a teen draped over his shoulder, a one strap backpack on his back. That, and the teen soon took note of the pistol aimed at his face. In one lightning fast swing, Dante struck the pistol form the mans hand and quick placed the sharp edge of his sword against his neck.
"Oh. It's you guys. Sorry about that, you just ran up so fast I thought you were Grimm."
You guys? Does he know us somehow?
Dante looked over his shoulder and noticed the now dissolving Grimm behind the man,
"Who are you?" Dante questioned the hooded man.
"Me? I'm a friend Dante." The hooded man stated while with his free hand he pushed aside one of Dante's now visible Aura Blade that hovered behind the man with its point at his neck.
"Being able to see Master's Aura Sword when he used Phantasmal Cloak on it… You must be able to sense Aura as well…" said Inuba
The hooded man tossed the one strap backpack to Dante soon after.
"It's got graham crackers and clothes for this guy when he wakes up." Rox said before setting Damian down against a tree.
"Well... He doesn't seem to be a bad guy after all…"
"You're only saying that because he gave you graham crackers…" said Ciel.
"(That's not entirely why…)" said the teen covering his mouth as he was already eating some of the crackers.
Once he gulped down his first bite, he turned to the new arrival to ask the second thing on his mind.
"So...who is he? Plus... I never got your name despite you mysteriously knowing mine and bribing me with a rather large bag of these." Dante said.
He took a quick glance at the boy leaned against the tree who wore a black tank top and had his right arm bandaged up entirely, just like his own. His eyes quickly took note of the scar running from the left side of his chest up to his neck and across part of his chin. His hair was short and somewhat spikey, where the front bangs were parted from his right eye towards his left.
"I'm Rox Ravenmoon, and this is Damian moon he's what you would call a Human Grimm hybrid and the only one in our Reality."
Seriously now, what is with people and Human Grimm hybrids these days? Wait...what did he just say?!
"Alright, hold on for a second. Did you just say you're from a different Reality?" Asked Dante as inuba crouched next to Damian and placed her hand on his shoulder to perform a check up.
What is with all these people crossing over to my Reality all of a sudden?! Is my Reality hosting the Extra-Dimensional Reality Olympics or something?! Jeez...
"Master... This Damian person vitals are fairly weak at the moment... May I ask what put him in this condition?" She asked looking towards Rox.
"We may not be able to crossover into your Reality, but we can still observe it from our own. Not much is different from the glimpses we've had, but I assume you also took on the Grimm Dragon as well? Your arm doesn't look all too good." Rox asked.
"Well, yes, I did manage to kill it, but that wasn't what damaged my arm. Let's just say I did something not so smart…"
"Despite that, impressive work with the Dragon. You really are strong. Unfortunately, I can't say the same about this little idiot. He managed to kill the thing but practically lost control of himself after taking it down. And as you can see...well, you get the gist of it..." Said Rox.
"That's nice and all, but why bring him here?" Dante asked.
"Ruby, the others and practically everyone else thinks he's dead. The thing is, I want to keep it that way for the next couple of days. Let me just get to the point right away. I want you to look after and teach him how to control his abilities in the next few days. Possibly even help unlock more of them. Do you accept?" Rox asked.
"Question. Of the all the people to ask, why me?"
"For now, let's just say it takes one to know one. Plus, your Reality traveling friend said you could help."
That little..! She's probably watching from somewhere far away giggling to herself maniacally like a villain who just took over Canada! Why do villains always want to take over Canada? Anyway, not important right now.
"Tch… My time's up here… Listen, I need to know now at this moment. Can you do it? Or rather, will you do it?"
"Hmmm…"
Dante turned to look towards his siblings and Inuba, the Kitsune girl and Leo being the only two to nod while Ciel simply shrugged her shoulders.
"I'll do it in three."
"Three? Three what?" Asked Rox.
"Three hours."
"W-What?!"
"Just kidding. Be back here in three days time. I'll have him whipped up into shape by then."
"Are you sure? I mean-"
"Not to sound rude or anything, but we have matters of our own to attend to. I can't afford to waste all too much time unless it's an absolute emergency. Right now, this isn't an absolute emergency for me, but considering the lengths my stalker took to send you to me, it's at least important. So three days is all I can do. But trust me, by then, I'll have his quote on quote training done. Fair enough?"
"W-Well… If you can get it done in three days, that'd be great. But I can't stay here to watch over him. I have some stuff to attend to back on our Remnant."
He pulled a small pouch from his robe and tossed it to Dante.
"After I leave, give him one of these. It's a special medicine designed specifically for him. See you in a three days." Rox said before disappearing out of sight.
"Well, we're in for an interesting three days… Here. Give him one of these Inuba." Said Dante handing Inuba the bag as she pulled one of the small skin contact patches out and placed one on his left arm and stepped away
"Well, you're our expert when it comes to healing and the such Inuba. What's his situation exactly and how does the medicine help? Is he like Hunter?" asked Dante while observing Damian's right arm, taking notice the patch placed on it had already vanished.
"I don't know the exact nature of the compounds used for the patches, but they seem to be neutralizing the adverse effects fairly well. This Damien is similar in some respects to Hunter, but of a less powerful degree. Because of this, the effects aren't as terrible as Hunter's. Even so...it'd still present some difficulties for him." said Inuba.
Damian's right hand started to glow brighter though the bandages as his eyes snapped open, his next action followed by him jerking forward to vomit out some black sludge before he leaned back against the tree looking at both Dante and inuba with his yellow eyes.
"So then... I'm going to take a guess on this… Rox dropped me off somewhere to do something? If so, what is it?" Damian asked.
"Well you're awfully polite…" said Ciel sarcastically.
"Sorry… I don't really like it when he does this kind of thing…" said Damian.
"I can tell… So Damian, I heard you killed your Dragon. How'd that happen?" Asked Dante.
"Well...from what I can remember, I'm pretty sure I ripped its wings off... But after that point it's a bit blurry so, I can't really recall all that much…"
So he's not entirely conscious when he uses his power… That can be a big problem for him in the future...
"Who are you..?" Damian asked pulling out several articles of clothing, one of them being a white a coat with blue trimming and a hood. This coat also had a scarf of sorts fastened to the right sleeve to create a partial arm cape.
"I'm Dante. And that's Inuba, my sister Ciel, and my brother Leo.
"So Dante, why am I here ?"
"To start, for the next three days, I'll be training you to control your powers to a decent enough extent where you won't lose control when you tap into instinctively." Said Dante.
"Sorry, but you have one arm. How much can you really-?"
"Quite a bit really." Said the teen appearing behind Damien in the next instant and placing his left hand on his shoulder, completely surprising him.
"We're starting in five minutes. Finish changing I'll meet you over there." Said Dante pointing towards the mountain range behind him.
Damian nodded silently and began his walk towards the range.
"Well guys, what do you think of him?" Dante asked looking towards his partner and siblings.
"Don't like him all that much." Said Ciel.
"That was quick." Said Leo unsurprised.
"In any case, we can help train him." Added the younger twin.
"Well, from what I could see, he's a lot like you in the sense that he is tenacious, unyielding against greater forces. But...there is a part of him that seems...broken."
"Think it has something to do with his right arm?" Asked Dante before he took another bite of the graham cracker he had in his hand.
"I didn't actually notice until recently, Master. But...that arm of his is certainly peculiar..."
As Inuba said this, Damian came out from behind the treeline with his new coat fully buttoned up a grey scarf around his neck and the gray and blue single strap backpack over his left shoulder a black armored fingerless gloves on his left hand and black combat boots armored at the front of the ankle and the back
on the heel finally his new dark grey cargo pants with a design on the left leg that resembled a shattered moon.
"So, where are we going again?" asked Damian.
"Alrighty then. Before we begin, we're going to gauge your basic abilities to get a decent understanding of your capabilities, that way I can properly determine how much to push you in our little three day training regiment."
"Three days? That seems a little...short."
"Like I told your friend Rox, trust me, I got this. Day one. Physical training to the max. Got a small all day regiment planned out for you."
"An all day regiment?! Are you kidding me?!"
"Not in the slightest."
"But that's-!"
"Not impossible. See those three behind me? They could do this kind of thing in their sleep. Her especially." Said pointing to Inuba.
"Trust me when is say this, she's a lot stronger than I am right now…"
"Shouldn't she be teaching me then?"
Dante laughed momentarily, slapping his hand over his knee.
"Trust me. I'm the mercy rule here. And it'd be in your best interest to keep it that way. So! Ciel, produce one."
"Got it." Said the younger girl snapping her fingers without taking her eyes off of the book she was reading on her holographic Scroll.
A circle of black Aura opened up in the air above Dante's left hand, the teen himself focusing his white Aura outlined in black to create an object. A sphere that was the size of a small throwing ball. He threw it into the circle of Aura only to have it fall out again.
"Good. Give it a toss. A normal one without using Aura or anything."
Damian gave him a skeptical look at first before he took the spehere into his left hand and tossing it up and down a few times before throwing it a far distance away until it was out of view.
"Nice. 307 meters. Not bad." Said Dante checking the throwing distance on his own HoloScroll.
"Not bad?" Asked Damian.
Dante gave him a simple smirk as another sphere dropped out of the hole of black Aura hanging above him. He tossed it about a bit until finally he threw it, a small gust of wind picking up as the ball quickly became non-visible.
"A thousand meters! Not bad bro!" Said Ciel giving him a thumbs up.
A thousand meters?! This guy...he just threw it that far without breaking a sweat… I threw it as hard as I could too…
"A thousand on my non-pitching arm? Darn… I thought it'd be better…"
Another sphere dropped out of the hole of black Aura, allowing Dante to toss it to Damian. He took aim with his left again and-
"Ah bah bah! Righty this time."
He hesitated for a moment, but soon did as he was told, took aim, and threw.
"723 meters… At least we know you're more dominant with your right hand now. Now try it with adding a bit of your Aura into the mix. You know, focused burst shot." Said Dante as he tossed Damian another ball that fell out of the hole of black Aura.
Damian did as instructed and threw. It vanished behind the treeline.
"476." Reported Ciel.
"What? That doesn't make sense…" said Damian.
"Makes perfect sense. And Inuba will tell you why since she's leagues above me in Aura Sensing and so forth. Take it away partner."
"Right then. As my Master was saying, what happened actually does make sense. You're control of Aura-"
"Sucks." Said Ciel as she continued reading while Leo was cleaning the pieces of his gun.
"Despite how she just put it, your control of Aura is rather poor. It's moderate, but in the case of fine tuning it for specific uses it's...not adequate. The case with the ball for instance. Instead of your Aura shooting the ball forwards at a greater velocity and greatly improving distance, it actually interfered with the ball's velocity and trajectory."
"How so?"
"When you threw the ball, you did in fact use your Aura. However, instead of a focused point burst, it shot out in a cone-like shape. The flow of unfocused Aura worked against your throw, and weakened it. It decreased the spin drastically and so forth."
"Aura control is an important tool for you to use and master out in the field as a Huntsmen or Huntress. Without it, it'd be like trying to fight without a limb. And don't look at me and think 'Well, it's been working out for you'. Truthfully, that's only been on occasion. Tougher enemies have forced me to use my right arm despite it hurting a lot. I'm lucky because my Semblance is Aura Manipulation, and it allows my free reign on how I manipulate my Aura. Not only that, but it's gives me a whole different set of versatile skills to use at my disposal. For instance."
Dante snapped his fingers as dozens of white Aura Swords outlined in black appeared around Damian in an instant, forming a cage of swords that pointed at him from every direction.
"What the-?!"
"See? Useful huh?"
"V-Very…"
The second the white haired teen snapped his fingers again, the swords shattered like glass and the pieces dissolved into thin air.
"Right now we don't have a full work up on you. So far, we know you're fairly strong on your own and your control of Aura isn't so great. It's always good to know your limits. So, today is about testing your strengths and weaknesses. Seeing how far you bend just before you break. Tomorrow, we train you to improve or cover your weaknesses while also improving your current strengths. Who knows? You might a new ability out of it if you work hard enough. Then, on the third day, it's final exam day."
"What'll be on final exam day?"
"That's a secret. Daylight's burning away. Let's move on! Next is some more testing before we finish up with the Infernal Deathrun!"
"The Infernal Deathrun? What's that?" Asked Damian a bit concerned.
"I'm glad you asked."
"When did you come up with this?" Asked Ciel.
"Well, back in my days while in the CGA, we had a competition to see who could create the best Deathrun Course and complete it the fastest. Inuba and I won first place." Said Dante as he was constantly moving his left arm about.
"I can see why… This course is diabolical… Even for you brother…"
"'Twas dark times Leonard. 'Twas dark times."
"He's done well so far… He's sustained some burns, but still is moving forward at an acceptable pace." Said Inuba.
"He's dodging those flames traps and my Aura Swords fairly well… Think we should tell him he can't use his teleporting ability anymore to make it more interesting?"
"I like this idea!" Said Ciel.
"That would be a bit mean…" said Inuba.
"Maybe… Oh! Almost got him with that!" Said Dante.
"Are you trying to kill me?!" Screamed Damian from down below.
"No! At least...not too badly…" responded Dante.
"You're insane!"
"Just a little bit."
Damian pressed on, dodging falling columns of fire and incoming swords of Aura from random directions.
"Well, he may not be breaking our records anytime soon, but at least he's doing well than most…"
"You did design this course to be rather...difficult, Master."
"That I did." Said the young immortal as he clenched his fist.
"Darn it! Almost got him again! Quite dodging everything!"
"Are you kidding me?! You have been trying to kill me!"
"No! Just stressing you to a certain point where you might be induced in a state of permanent sleep!"
"That's killing me!"
"Same difference! Keep going, you have half a mile left!"
Damian struggled on through the flaming deathcourse, avoiding all that he could as the three siblings and Kitsune continued watching.
"Did you guys feel it too?" Asked Dante.
"You're talking about the big ugly resting inside his soul? If so, then yeah, we felt it." Said Ciel.
"The that question remains is when does it come out? Under extreme situations of stress? Is that why you've put him through through arduous testing so far brother?"
"Not entirely. The point of today's trials was to see how skilled and durable he is. The basic rundown of what he can and can't do normally. Tomorrow will be about training using his abilities and Semblance, which is teleportation. From what I've gathered, he can teleport in a radius around him between forty, maybe forty five feet. Haven't gotten a look at his weapons yet, so that will be fun. Last day is when we'll really stress him."
"Stress him enough to force out whatever creature is lurking beneath… While this may be an adequate way of assessing how powerful the creature is and what powers it will bestory upon Damian, there's also a risk Master. If he's not strong enough, he could be overtaken."
"He's strong enough Inuba. I may have just met the guy today, but...I can see the fire in his eyes. He's not a quitter. Ah, looks he just finished." Said the teen standing up.
"So, how was the run?"
"Run?! You… You call that a run?!" Said Damian in between breaths.
"That is still the term, isn't it?" Asked Dante.
"That?! That was like taking a quick stroll through Hell!"
"Well, that is where the inspiration came from…"
"Anyway, we're done for today. We'll set up camp. In the meantime, go wash up and we'll get dinner started."
"You're not from this world?"
"Nope. Came here just over a year ago."
"So you came from another World?"
"Basically kicked out of my own."
"What did you do to earn that?"
Dante smiled momentarily.
"Having a heart."
"I don't understand...what..?"
"Let's just say there were some me unfair circumstances I didn't exactly agree on with the people above. Their...loyal soldier tried to stop me and...it didn't end all too well for him. He reported in my actions just after I finished what I was that I set out to do. After that, my overseer, informed of their decision to 'banish me for my heinous crimes'." Finished the teen in a deep, mocking voice.
"I never really saw eye to eye with those guys due to numerous...differences we've had. It just goes to show not even Angels are as picture perfect like people make them out to be. Don't get me wrong, not all Angels are like that. It's just a specific group of them that happen to run things uptop."
"Wow…"
"Yeah… Wow…"
"And you've just been living life out here on Remnant?"
"Pretty much."
"To do all those things… You've got to be unimaginably strong…"
"Nope."
"Nope?"
"I lost my old 'God Like' powers before I came here. Well, 'sacrificed' would be the more accurate term. Now I'm just about where I started all those years ago. My powers now are different compared to my old ones, but they're just as versatile. And destructive. Well, not as destructive like they were before I lost them. I guess the easiest way to put it is if I were in a videogame right now, I'd very likely be level 50 out of level 150. Something along those lines anyway…"
"What'd you sacrifice your old powers for?"
"What I sacrificed them for?"
Damian nodded.
Dante looked up towards the stars, recounting the numerous reasons he came up with. There was only one that stuck out the most.
"I guess I'd have to say...I made a huge mess of things. Or rather, I made some mistakes near the end. Those mistakes...came with a heavy price. So...I took it upon myself to fix all of those mistakes. It costed me my powers and my freedom. But to me, that meant little. If it could undo my wrongs, then I'm glad I did it. And I'd do it again."
"You really are a nice guy…"
"I wonder about that…"
"Huh?"
"I've only told you the good bits. Did you assume it was all picture perfect from the start? Not even close… See...all those good bits you've heard about is a result of all the hard work I put in to make it that way. You wouldn't really believe it, but there were times even I took the easy way out. But...that was a long long time ago. I eventually changed that part of me. There was a lot to change either way but…"
He sighed.
"It's been one big mess after another. There's also been the good. But there haven't been too many of those. Recent months have proven that… Despite all that, it's our duty as people with power to ensure there's a better tomorrow. To use our power for the greater good so all may live on to move towards the future. Of course, there are those that will stand in the way for their own needs and wants. Be they simple and selfish desires, or desires of chaos and destruction."
"You say that as if you've seen both sides…"
"I don't mean to brag or anything...but I have. I've seen and studied both sides for many many years. I've seen many unsightly things and evils that have befallen people and The Worlds. But I've seen the good as well. And it's because of that I continue fighting for good. There's a great amount of it. But it's caged and surrounded by all the bad that happens. So I've made it a goal to eliminate the bad, and to always try to do what is good and what is right. But again, not everything is picture perfect or crystal clear. Sometimes...you just have to sift through a massive amount of mire just to find the right answer. Or at least, what we think is the right answer."
Damian seemed as though he was taking in the information fairly well. He was his educator for next two days. He had experience, correction, far more experience than he did. It was only right to at least listen to what he had to say.
"What happened to your arm? I just thought about asking now…"
"Meet the One Punch Man and you'll understand."
"Who's that?"
"A glorious man is who he is. And a pretty excellent hero."
"I guess if he's called One Punch Man, he must be pretty strong…"
"You have no idea…" spoke the teen softly as he recalled a rather unpleasant memory.
"You should turn in. We're going to work you even harder tomorrow than we did today."
"Brilliant…"
"Alright. Give it a throw."
Damian reared back his arm and focused his Aura, soon throwing the ball forwards at immense speeds as it traveled far out into the distance.
"Nice! Way better than before."
"You kidding me? Of course it was. Good job to you. And~ good job to you too partner." Said the teen rubbing the top of Inuba's head between her fox ears as they folded against her head.
She shivered slightly when his hand touched the top of her head, but as her eyes closed, her face reddened slightly while her mouth slightly fell open, letting out a pleased squeak as her fox tail whipped about rapidly.
"She's an excellent teacher in Aura control, isn't she?" He said as he stopped rubbing the top of her head.
She seemed slightly sad after the head rubbing stopped.
"She is. I'm actually impressed she knows so much." Said Damian.
"Well, she is smarter than I am…"
"N-Nonsense Master…"
"It's true."
"I've been meaning to ask for a while now, but what's with the whole 'Master' thing? Is she a slave, or a servant, or-?"
"She's a slave to-"
Leonard immediately covered Ciel's mouth to stop her from going further. Knowing her, he knew full well what she was about to say.
"N-Nothing like that! She's...well...she's my partner. And she's bound to me by a Familiar Rite, meaning she's my Familiar. Despite my protests, she's very attached to the term, so...yeah…"
"It's only proper…"
"I know that, but people might get the wrong idea… Anyway...how'd he do if you were to grade his performance?"
"His control has gotten better with the regiment I introduced… Better effeciency, greater focus, faster usage time… I'd have to give his performance so far a B+. Although you have been working hard and making progress, you still had struggles in certain areas where in others you were clearly having a frustrating time. You may have gotten better, but you still need more work on your own. With practice and training, I assure you your control of Aura will drasticlsly increase."
"Well said. So then. It's my turn. I'm going to be working with you on your combat skills. Everyone, clear the area."
They did so, leaving Damian and Dante by themselves in the middle of the open, snowy, mountain range. Snow had slowly began to fall and litter the air. Dante looked to his right arm in the sling, a thought entering momentarily. He smiled to himself.
Tomorrow.
The white haired teen reached behind the left side of his back with his hand and drew his longsword slowly, giving it a short twirl before lowering it to his side.
"The goal of today isn't to defeat me. Instead, the goal is to improve your combat abilities. It's a chance for you to improve your abilities, techniques, learn new ones, etc. I'm going to be pushing you today, so be ready."
Damian nodded and extended his bandaged right arm, a one sided white longsword forming in his hands a second later.
So that's his weapon… I wonder…
Damian appeared in a blur of dark blue, striking downwards on Dante as he raised his sword to block.
"Making the first move… I like it! But..."
Dante easily pushed up his blade and prepared to swing sideways.
"Not always the best option when you don't know your opponent's strength."
His swing had enough force to send Damian skidding back on his heels.
"Moving first has the risk of getting you crushed almost immediately. This is especially true if your opponent is as strong or stronger. The risks both fighters is equal, but if the one who doesn't attack first is the type to be able to counter most attacks effectively, the risk is minimized for them."
Damian teleported to Dante and began striking at him, constantly attacking him to leave little to no room for him to counter.
"You're constantly putting me on the defensive… A decent tactic to use to prevent the enemy from attacking."
Dante parried the next attack to get Damian off balance, and quickly used the flat side of his longsword to sweep his legs from under him before smacking him in the stomach into the ground using the flat side again.
"Doesn't work too well against an enemy that can reverse the situation fairly easy. Woah!"
Dante jumped back to avoid a sword slash to his face, allowing Damian time to rise back up.
"Well now, looks like you're not one to go down so easily…"
"I'm a bit tougher than I look…"
"They always say that… Well then...let's see how you hold up against your own strategy."
Dante charged forwards and began his onslaught of blade strikes, easing up not even for a second as one attack came after another. Damian could barely keep up as it was, parrying what he could. His Aura took whatever damage he couldn't block or dodge, but just a single strike from Dante's sword felt as though the Aura shielding his body would break at any second, almost as if he knew the threshold or how much force it took to break through Aura Shielding, but struck just so much that it wouldn't break. Yet.
But it wasn't over yet. Damian still had that.
Surprisingly, Damian blocked an overhead strike from Dante, stopping the young immortal's seemingly endless assault.
You're mine!
A black, double edge longsword formed in Damian's left hand, a chain emerging from the butt of the weapon that was attached to a shackle around his wrist. He struck upwards against Dante's sword, disarming him of his weapon as Damian went in for the stab.
The white haired warrior smiled as he spun around the blade trying to run him through, moving behind Damian and swinging the back of his left hand against the back of Damian's head, sending back into the dirt a small distance away.
"Hiding a second weapon… Clever. Looks like you're more combat savvy than I originally thought you to be."
"You act as if you knew…"
"Countless eons of battle tactics, strategies, countermeasures and so forth have been etched into my mind. As such, I can create fairly decent countermeasures and strategies to use against an opponent. But to answer your question specifically, I assumed from the start you had two or more weapons. It's an assumption I always have when going into battle against an opponent. It's why I was able to counter You easily."
Damian rose back up breathing heavily, glaring at Dante.
"Never dismiss any thought or idea you may have on an enemy, no matter how simple or complex the idea is. Any thought or idea can be a deadly weapon or tool in the right hands. Just like how your immediate surroundings can be."
Dante raised his left hand up into the sky then quickly brought it down as a large ring of Aura Swords crashed into the snowy ground around Damian, creating a smokescreen of sorts as Dante moved towards a nearby stone to reclaim his weapon Anvil.
Damian dared not to move out of the screen. Not yet. He could have set up traps with his Aura Swords. Speaking of traps, an Aura Sword flew inside the smokescreen and grazed Damian's cheek as he dodged back.
He's not trying to kill me… He's told me constantly he'd be pushing me to my limits. But how far is that? Will I..?
He dodged another sword, spinning to block another and parry a sword moving towards his leg. Out of nowhere, an Aura Greatsword rapidly made its way to impale him in the chest, forcing him to bring up both his swords to block. This turned out to be a mistake, for the force of the Greatsword was powerful enough to send him skidding on his heels and out of the smokescreen.
He moved out of the way and let the Greatsword hit an outcrop of snow covered rock instead of pinning him to it, rolling around in the snow for a few moments until he got back up, only to see Dante upon him and ready to strike down. He moved his swords up into a cross formation to block the overhead strike, only to find that the young immortals sword had cut through Damian's own weapons, breaking both of them and sending him flying into a wall of rock.
"It looks as though you've lost both your weapons. What will you do now?"
He swung the chain attached to his shackle, the chain extending with the broken remains of the weapon to attack Dante. The teen simply raised up his sword to block as the chains wrapped around the base of his weapon. He felt a strong pull, but it was not enough to move his arm at all.
"Good try. But still not enough." He said swinging his blade as the chains surrounding his sword shattered, allowing him to approach Damian.
"It looks as though you're out of options at this point. If you have nothing else…"
He raised up his blade and reared it back with his arm, the point aiming for Damian's chest.
"then this is the end."
He dashed forwards at incredible speeds with the intent to pin him to the rock wall. He would have done so had something not stopped his blade.
His entire left arm and hand had been completely armored in dark metal, the fingertips of each finger having serrated, black claws that were two inches long each. Damian's armored palm had stopped the blade point of Anvil, and with the help of his right hand, he was slowly pushing back Dante.
Damian roared and pushed back Dante, moving in to punch with his right hand to find it blocked by the flat side of the young immortals weapon. The bandages on Damian's arm came undone and revealed his inhuman arm. From shoulder to wrist, his hand was plated in bone white armor reminiscent of a Grimm. The skin under the armor was also pitch black with cracks of dark blue that had a faint glow of his Aura color. This was most likely a measurement of his Aura, and the faint glow most likely told Dante that Damian's Aura was in the low. He did take a lot of hits earlier.
"So that's what it was… A Grimm arm… Not only that, but you had another weapon too."
"This ones new… But it doesn't matter! I'll use it to knock you of your feet!"
"You can try."
Dante and Damian lunged after one another, ready to strike each other again.
The girl cloaked in white stood at the top of a snowy mountain, looking down below at the combat session taking place down below between Dante and Damian.
"How's progress?" Asked Rox as he walked up beside her.
"It's moving along nicely. He just recently unlocked another one of those strange weapons of his. This gauntlet weapon seems to feed of off his rage to empower him."
"I see…"
"You never gave me a straight answer last time Rox. Why did you bring him here? There are people in your Reality who are just as capable of teaching Damian. So why Dante? Why go through so much trouble of crossing Realities for something as simplistic as this?"
"They're similar in some respects. Of course, there's the obvious differences but...knowing what I know from you, he's virtually seen it all. Well almost everything. Don't you think someone like that would make an excellent teacher?"
"While your reasoning is sound, Dante can't always make time for simple things like this. Why do you think he said three days instead of working with him for a week? Normally, he'd take this more with a grain of salt and would make sure to take his time teaching. But given the circumstances, he has his own matters to attend to as well as the mission he set out on. Didn't you say he was ahead of schedule?"
"Yes, but it is still in everyone's best interest to keep it that way."
"They're weeks ahead of Ruby's group. Couldn't they just take the time to slow down and take it easy?"
"In these times, no, not really. That and… A dark presence has coalesced… It's power is great. It's blocked it's view, as if it were expecting someone to be waiting and watching. Someone like me."
"And you can't afford to expend much power out of fear of The Plane of Angels or whatever finding Dante and then trying to smite him by smiths Remnant. I get it. Still, you're fairly strong on your own. Couldn't you just...barge in and do something about it?"
"I am only so powerful on my own Rox. Even I cannot stand alone against the Angels of The Plane. Not for long anyway."
"To think Angels of all people would be the kind of people to do something cruel…"
"Not all Angels. Only a specific group of ten. And they hold the highest seat of power currently."
"What? God isn't in charge anymore?"
"The Creator is still in charge. Only...he's been absent for centuries now. And because of this, The Council has taken it into their hands to rule as they see fit. They couldn't reign in Dante because of how free spirited he is. That, and he isn't one to follow authority. At least, when he believes he's right."
"Harsh…"
"To some degree, yes…. But merited for one reason really."
"The Cataclysm or whatever you called it. He destroyed all the passages to all the Wolrds. And because of that, no one can get in or out anymore without a 'higher power' helping them or unless they are that higher power."
"Precisely."
The two looked over the mountain top to see the training session end and an exhausted Damian collapse to his knees to catch his breath.
"Be here tomorrow evening to get him. They'll likely start early in the morning to finish things up."
"Alrighty then. See you later stalker girl." Said Rox as he waved goodbye and took his leave.
She sat alone now on the mountain top, seemingly irritated.
"I swear I'm going to kill the next person that calls me a stalker…"
"Final exam day Damian. Are you excited?"
"Sort of? I guess? How's this gonna work? Am I going to be taking on the four of you?"
"No… Your opponent will be me and only me. And your goal...will be either to defeat me or earn a draw."
Defeat him? That's almost impossible. He's immortal and it doesn't seem he ever gets tired in fight. But he's handicapped currently. He can't use his right arm. Even so...he's still a freakin monster with even one hand!
"Are you ready? Because this time…"
Dante removed his right arm from his sling as it soon became blanketed in black Aura, the Aura forming vicious-looking, black, segemented armor from his shoulder all the way to his clawed finger tips.
"I'm not going to hold back…"
The young immortal drew his longsword from its sheath and held it in his Shadow Skinned right arm
He what?!
"The reason I don't use my right arm is because it's still recovering. If I use my ability Shadow Skin on it, it'll allow me full functional use again, but at the price of halting my recovery for the duration I use it. You did well fending me off with that new toy of yours yesterday while I used only my left hand. But...how will you do against me while using both hands?"
"Well enough I hope…" said Damian summoning both his swords.
"Going with the swords first huh?"
Damian readied himself and was about to charge forwards until he heard Dante's voice close behind him.
"You won't be able to do much with those."
Damian lashed out behind him, only to miss. He then used his left sword to strike behind him, clashing with Dante.
"My my, you've gotten better at attack prediction. I'm impressed. But it won't be enough to win against me."
Damian ignored his comment and began assaulting him rapidly, Dante simply moving side to side to dodge, rarely blocking the sword swings.
He's faster… No… That's not it. I'm assuming that the white sword in his hand is boosting his speed, the black one increasing his strength. He's improved drastically on his own. But the swords can only do so much to boost his capabilities.
As he thought this, Dante was then assaulted by a furious storm of stabbing attacks from Damian's blades, forcing the young immortal to dodge even faster.
He's just assaulting me over and over again… At least Damian's doing well avoiding my attacks when I counter him...but…
Dante blocked both blades with his one sword and leaned in close towards Damian.
"It's still not enough to beat me."
The young immortal quickly broke the clash and delivered a strong side kick into Damian's stomach to send him flying into and very shortly through a tree.
"You won't win this fight as you are now. The only chance you'll have currently is if you use your right arm and that gauntlet of yours. They were the only things that kept you toe to toe with me on a marginal level. Use that power to win...or perish."
A burst of dark blue Aura emerged from the mound of wood Damian was buried underneath, his Grimm like right arm visible again paired with his gauntlet as he stood and glared at Dante.
"It seems you're a bit more motivated now. That's good. Really good."
Dante sheathed his weapon as his left arm was soon blanketed by black Aura. Both arms now had the vicious-looking, armored appearance of his Shadow Skin.
"Now then...let's have some fun…" said Dante as he stuck out his hand and moved his index finger back and forth mockingly, beckoning the young Huntsmen in training to come closer if he dared.
Damian did exactly so, dashing forwards to throw a punch that Dante easily caught. He threw another and yet again the young immortal caught it. Damian used one of his legs to kick himself away from Dante before the two charged at one another and punched. Their fists collided, unleashing a small shock wave that threw up the snow around them into the air. Another punch resulted in the same effect, only more snow now drifted in the sky.
They didn't stop there. The young immortal and the Huntsman in training began throwing punches at one another at blinding speed, their fists colliding against each other with great force that the snow drifting around them began to forcefully drift away. Dante landed a punch to the right side of Damian's face, forcing him back slightly. But it was not enough to deter him. Damian immediately lunged back towards Dante and punched at Dante, only to miss before returning to barraging each other with their fists.
Dante landed a punch directly to the center of Damian's face, expecting him to fall or stumble back. But instead, surprisingly, Damian immediately retaliated and punched Dante directly in the face as well. The force of the punch sent Dante skidding on his heels, but the young immortal immediately dived back into the fray and began assaulting Damian with another series of punches, but at an even faster pace than before.
Dante immediately noticed the more focused right punch Damian threw and blocked it by catching it in his palm, following up with a powerful punch to the Huntsman in training's chest, sending him flying a considerable distance away.
"He's really laying the smackdown on that Damian kid… I mean jeez… He could restrain himself a little bit…" said Ciel.
"You don't quite understand yet, do you Ciel?" Said Leo.
"Understand what?"
"From what Master and I have scene, and from what he's told me, those that have become Human Grimm Hybrids through magical means contain another soul within them. A newly formed soul to be more precise. This new soul becomes the center of the hosts Grimm power. This provides great risk however since the two souls will fight each other for control. That is until one of them subjugates the other. In the case of those that were created through science, the risk is considerably less, especially if the process was done correctly. They don't retain secondary souls and claim that new power immediately." Said Inuba.
"So what? The science projects are stronger than the magic made ones?" Asked Ciel.
"It depends really on the type of Grimm and the strength of the host. What remains indefinitely true is that the process of Grimmification through science has considerably less risk if done properly, but gaining strong power is likely."
"Each one has benefits, but each also have drawbacks." Said Leo.
"Okay...but what does any of that have to do with how hard big brother is pushing Damian?"
"Think about it Ciel. Remember the lessons we received on Secondary Souls? What do you think will happen if the host is pushed to his limits?"
It took her a moment to ponder her brother's words.
"The big ugly resting inside gets drawn out…" spoke Ciel.
"Precisely."
Dante stood his ground and waited. Shortly after, a massive Aura Signature swept through the area, the air seemingly rupturing and quaking as if to make its presence known to the young immortal.
Damian slowly arose as the snow around him began to fade, his eyes now changed. The whites of his eyes, his sclerae, was now a pitch black color, his golden yellow irises still remaining the same. He was growling, almost like a mad animal with a slightly distorted pitch in its tone.
Then it happened, a bone-white substance emerged from out of nowhere around Damian and began to slowly envelope his entire body, but he didn't welcome it. In fact, he was resisting it, trying to tear away the bone-white substance from his body as it slowly began forming on his body. It was if the substance was forming Bone-White plated armor around his entire body. The more he watched, the more the young immortal realized that the armor more and more resembled a Grimm.
"Well well well… I didn't expect you to screw up so badly a second time so soon, Damian… You obviously didnt listen to my warning… But no matter! Watch me closely as I kill him for you! Learn a thing or two from me!"
Dante drew his sword and blocked the strike from Damian's gauntleted left arm, soon breaking the clash of armored fist and blade and lashed out. He was gone. Dante moved his sword to his backside to block an attack to his spine, lashing out again to only miss.
So it's making use of his teleportation Semblance… Not only that…
Dante kept blocking and lashing out, making the battle a standstill for the moment.
But it's going for attacks to disable or cripple me. Damian doesn't know I'm immortal, and I'm assuming that thing doesn't know either. I should end this soon.
Dante ducked under a clawed swipe and swung his sword at Damian's ribs, shattering the armor covering it and leaving a small cut.
"You're tougher than the rest… A lot tougher… What are you?"
"An insignificant little thing. It doesn't matter who or what I am. Right now...what matters is that I end this right now."
"End this? Ehehehehehe… Oh no, we're only getting started!"
"Not likely."
Dante brought down his left hand as two Aura Swords pierced the possessed Damian's feet, pinning him to the ground as two more fell down and pierced both arms, keeping him in place.
"What the-?! I...can't...move..!"
"It's supposed to be that way. It's time we reign you in so you won't cause anymore problems."
"What?!"
"Those patches basically told me what the problem was. Luckily, the day Damian arrived here, we were already strategizing how to deal with you. It took some time, but we figured it out eventually thanks to my partner."
As he said this, Inuba appeared by his side in a burst of white flame.
"Ready?" Asked Dante.
"Yes."
The duo approached the struggling, possessed Damian, squirming around like a trapped animal trying to break free.
"Let me go you bastard! I'll kill you!"
"You're not killing anyone today. Be glad. You get to serve a new master and do something good with your life for once."
"No! Don't touch me!"
Dante grabbed hold of Damian's face with his right hand, Inuba taking his left as flaming white Aura traveled through his left arm and into his right, soon covering the entirety of the possessed Damian's head as he screamed in agony. The flames did not burn him, but they were erasing the entities control over him.
The screaming eventually stopped.
Dante removed his hand from Damian's face and caught him as he dematerialized his swords. The bone plated armor crumbled to pieces when he caught him, becoming one with the snow covering the ground.
"Looks like you did it."
The duo turned to find Rox approaching them as Ciel and Leo joined Inuba and Dante's side.
"Did you know we where going to fix this problem of his?" Asked Dante.
"In a way. So? Everything went well beforehand I assume?"
"I guess. He got a new weapon. And we just put a leash on that thing inside him. All in a day's work. Told you I'd get it done in three days."
"Heh… That you did…"
"I just gave him the basics. It's up to him to improve from here on out to grow and get stronger. Now that he's got that thing under control, it'll be a bit easier now."
"Again, I can't express how grateful I am to you for helping us. Well, him. You get the idea." Said Rox as he slung the passed out Damian over his shoulder.
"One more thing before you go…"
"What is it?"
"When he wakes up, tell him 'No matter how hard life gets, no matter what troubles you face, no matter the odds...keep moving forward.' He'll understand. If not, well, tell him what I said."
"Alright. I'll make sure to do that. Thanks again and good luck on your journey."
Rox spoke his final words and disappeared into thin air. Dante's Shadow Skinned arms returned to normal, his right arm hanging limply again.
"Well…that takes care of that…" said Dante.
"We can move on now at least." Said Inuba.
"Yeah…looks like winter is coming to an end soon… Leo?"
"Yes brother?"
"How far are we till the next village?"
"Well, it's not so much a village, but rather a city run by a rather wealthy family. They've done well for themselves so far despite being established only twenty years ago."
"And the next?"
"A village that borders the Anima Forest and village close by to it called Shion. We still have a rather long trek underway until we reach Mistral."
Dante sighed as Inuba went to work treating his arm.
"Why can't this be simple… Well, alright then. We'll pack up and move for that mini city. If we get there today, great. If we don't reach it by nightfall, we'll just camp out again and move out in the morning."
"Sounds good bro. Well don't just stand there Leo! Let's go pack!" She said kicking her twin in the rear.
"I'm going, I'm going…"
Soon, it was only Inuba and Dante that remained.
"What an odd three days it's been…" said Inuba as her white flames were slowly healing the blackened skin of his arm.
"Tell me about it… Let's just hope that's the last Reality jumping enoucnter we have. For now at least…"
"Agreed." Said Inuba giggling to herself.
"You alright? You seem kinda off these days. Like your minds two steps ahead. Or something of the equivalent."
"W-What? Oh… Well… I…"
Should I say it now? Should I tell him that I..? Would it mean anything? Would it change anything?
"It's nothing really… I've just been wondering what would happen should we meet Ms. Rose and the others with her. And...well...what would happen when we reach Mistral…"
"It'll be alright. It'll definitely be a welcome change to see them all again after so long."
Her fox ears folded against her head as she continued treating his arm.
"As for what we'll find once we reach the end… Well… You just leave all the fighting to me." He said with a smile.
She gasped as her ears perked up, making the young immortal take note of this.
"Something wrong? Is my arm going to fall off soon?! Is it going to be just a skeleton arm now?!" He asked slightly panicked.
Inuba was caught off guard, but proceeded to laugh.
"No Master… Nothing silly like that… Stand still now. I need to finish the treatment."
"S-Sure… Sorry about the little freak out there…"
"No worries…"
I wonder…
Her red irises looked up from his arm, staring directly at the young immortal as he looked off into the distance.
Is he starting to remember?
(Omake: "Counseling with an Immortal, Part 2" by OS Worldmakers)
"Thankfully I am where I am now. Sure this world has its problems, and yeah, I'm not exactly what I used to be, but I'll do what I can for it." Dante replied, leaning back in his chair as he poured himself more tea.
Almost sagely Bone nodded. "Good. Hopefully you'll stay like that for the next, say, 500 years? Angel and Dark Entity heritage is iffy in some worlds."
Dante grinned as he looked outside. It had just began snowing lightly. "Thanks to how long Inuba can live, I can live for even longer than that. Basically she's like an elf, in the sense that she can live for thousands of years. Even more."
"Aww, that's cute. Which reminds me how old I am... eh, might've been your great long lost ancestor's ancestor, but I don't care."
A eyebrow raised. "Really now?"
The psychologist sheepishly scratched his hair. "Maybe. Years get confused and jumbled if I'm thinking from outside the box. Everything's in there, but it ain't sorted. All I know is that it's possible, but really, really unlikely."
"So you're like me in the sense that you can't remember everything," the snow-haired teen said, nodding.
"More like I need to shift through it. It's like dust in the attic- you gotta sweep it away to see what's underneath. Although it's a really crowded attic..."
"There's just blocks for me. I still haven't remembered everything yet..." Dante said. And I don't know who got it luckier...
With a straight face, Bone White began. "Invest in a wrecking ball and have Inuba sing lyrics from someone, last name Cyrus. That could work- after all, it's one of infinite solutions."
Dante laughed, managing to restrain it so it wouldn't disturb the neighbors. "I'll pass on that. Granted, she's an amazing singer, I still wouldn't put her through that."
"Wow... What worries me is that you had a thought-out answer. But anyways, that's most I wanted to talk about. Last thing: you might want to invest in some pills. That's it."
"Pills? What kind of pills?"
Bone tossed Dante a little white container half the size of his palm. "Contraceptive. Keep two whole bottles in worse case scenario."
Dante dropped the bottle in shock, his face turning redder than Ruby's ever did. "W-Well... Thank you for the advice, but I'm immune to any and all drugs. Plus if you're saying what I'm thinking you're saying, then I'm not able to...ahem...get anyone pregnant until the age of 21. Some weird mumbo jumbo about my body or something..."
The psychologist growled slightly, sending Dante on edge. "That's a load of bulls***. It's due to the license by the 'Gods' above, the so-called authors. Those who created the Creator and everything in between. They're a diverse community, and not everyone's so nice. As for speaking of 'non-human' I might apply to that. Came from a cycle of humanity that appeared at the start of the world before turning into apes and then, after a really long time, back into humans. Evolution. Don't worry, I blame my author for things too. Like cross-universe interactions, for example."
"I kid you not, it's the truth!" the white-haired teen yelped. "I was just as surprised as you are. The way I know this is because there's this doctor I used to know who took interest in the...abnormalities of my body. She tested me for everything possible and examined practically every cell of my body."
An eyebrow raised. "I'm not surprised, since there's 30 out of, what, 30 girls who'd want to have your kids. Artistic license. Not a coincidence. Which also leads me to another question- how? And let me guess, super-mature big busted woman doctor? I'm right, ain't I?"
"How what? And she's in her mid twenties, and to be fair and honest, she is well well endowed and really beautiful. But besides all that, she was a big wig in the scientific community in the world I came from. Especially in biology and surgery. She was really good at what she did. They call her the 'Ultimate Doctor'. Capable of treating almost anything and everything. But they know her in name only. She's not too keen on all the fame. Which is why she worked at a hospital and the orphanage I was at."
"Well, how did she analyze you?" Bone replied. "And 'Ultimate Doctor' is a bit too... overkill and shouldn't be used. Just a thing I don't like- really long and superlative titles. 'The Greatest and Holiest Emperor' for example- I killed the dude because he kept waving it around like his dangler. Now that was a bad day."
"From what I've noticed, technology in my world is much more advanced than here on Remnant," Dante replied. "It's why myself, Inuba and my siblings are pretty much the only ones with HoloScrolls. Holographic scrolls for short. Anyway, with the kind of sophisticated tech she had and used, it was fairly easy to run the tests. It's actually how I found out that my black bones are virtually indestructible. And the whole "ultimate doctor" thing? It's a title people give her. She isn't too fond of it despite actually being that good. Like me, she isn't a glory hog or anything like that."
"Of course, man! You came into magic territory, so what did you expect? Space stations? And besides, most of the stuff you've mentioned is lost technology. Remnant developed it, but it's lost under the sea now. Other stuff, like the 'Crusaders', which the Atlesian Paladins are based on, were found in a mountain. And the secret societies dedicated to absorbing energy from Dust and the world- well, I'm not telling where those are. It's crazy."
Again, Dante finished his cup of tea. "I bet..." he started. "You must've seen some pretty amazing stuff through the ages in Remnant."
"People who could rival the Maidens, the wizard who gave them the powers, global freeze-over, travel to the Moon and beyond... Yeah, the only things left I think are death and parenthood. Oh, and maybe using 'Fumetsu' again..."
"Ah, the good old one two combo... Wait, you're old!?"
Fumetsu turned and winked at you.
"ANSWER MY QUESTION!"
(Huntsmen and Huntresses Illustrated Weapons Guide 2)
Dante and Ruby stood on stage together, dressed in costumes in preparation for Halloween.
"Howdy folks. I'm Dante."
"And I'm Ruby! I still haven't figured it out yet..."
"What's that?"
"What are you dressed as?!"
"My Halloween Costume? Cyborg Ninja of course."
"Dah! I was so close!"
"Alright little miss Dracula, lets get this show on the road. Today we'll be talking Ruby's weapon, Crescent Rose."
"YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!"
"Awfully excited aren't we?"
"I'm always excited to talk bout my baby. Well, babies." she said pinching the young immortal's cheek to his embarrassment.
"First and foremost, we'll talk about Crescent Rose's transformation modes. First is "storage" mode, the form most compact and convenient for transportating when Ruby doesn't use her weapon, which is stored underneath Ruby's cloak at her waist. Then there's rifle mode, where it takes the form of a medium-length, bolt-action rifle. In this form, the absence of the scythe makes for more effective use of the rifle component. Then there's my favorite, scythe mode, where it's in its most expanded form, where it fully extends into the form of a scythe, allowing it to be used as a mid-to-close-range bladed melee weapon. This form also can also doubles as a long-barrel sniper rifle for long-range shots without giving up the melee capabilities of the scythe. If needed, the bottom of the shaft can also unfold to add more cutting power in a close-range fight. Finally, we have the war scythe mode, where the scythe takes on a form resembling that of a spear."
"Wow! You know so much about it!
"I've really only just talked about basic stuff Ruby. But I did take the time to carefully study your weapon. "
"You did?!" she before squealing and pouncing on him, moving him not even an inch as she now hung onto him from behind, arms wrapped around his neck and legs wrapped around his waist. She rested her chin atop his head.
"Sucking of blood is not allowed, hear me?" he said.
"Got it."
"Now then, why don't you provided some input on your weapon Countess?"
"Sure sure, I can brag a bit. Since my weapon is also a sniper rifle, Crescent Rose has some massive recoil. Rather than me trying to compensate for it, I use the recoil to enhance my mobility greatly. There's practical uses like firing shots to propel myself a short distance, simultaneously attacking while evading, so forth and so on."
"And?"
"Annnnnnnnnndddddd... I can also uses Crescent Rose's recoil to launch myself into the air. Not only that, but in combat, I can pretty much fire a shot immediately before a swing and use the recoil to increase the force and speed of my attacks."
"Also, she can also embed the scythe's blade into the ground to prevent the weapon's recoil from throwing off her aim when using the sniper rifle mode, which allows for rapid and incredibly accurate shots."
"My scythe also has a small, hook-like, double-pronged, jagged blade at the bottom of the shaft which I use to manually unfold the scythe by hooking the end of the blade on something, allowing for both the normal blade and the two prongs to slice enemies at the same time for more power. In this form the muzzle is also rotated 90 degrees which enables the recoil to rotate me instead of blasting me forward, that way I can increase slicing power by a lot!"
"What about the kinds of bullets you use Countess?"
"I'm glad you asked my minion! Bwahahahaha!"
Ruby took the remote out of Dante's hands, still wrapped around him, and clicked the button to swap to images of ammo cartridges that she used for Crescent Rose.
"Normally, I only use four types of Dust Infused Ammo for different effects. Fire Dust for...well...you know, fire. Ice Dust to fire icicle projectiles from Crescent Rose, Gravity Dust to increase the recoil effect when firing Crescent Rose to propel me to even faster acceleration speeds, and Electric Dust that fires an electric projectile that briefly paralyzes my targets."
"I have to say, for a weapon made by human hands, it's a pretty deadly and versatile weapon."
"Aw~ That's so sweet of you!" she said nuzzling her head against his.
"Anyway, I think that concludes this weeks Weapons Illustrated Guide." said Dante.
"We'll see you all next time!" she said in a deep voice and accent, opening her mouth wide to-
She bit into his finger, nibbling on it instead his shoulder like she intended.
"What did I say about no chomping?"
Taking it a bit easy this time. Fairly rough week. But yes, an interesting side chapter this time around. I wonder...what does this little development here at the end mean? Hehehehehe... All in due time. Next few chapters will have a rather...complicated and interesting development go underway. Trust me. You'll like it.
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!
