Roman stood at the entrance to the Smuggler's cave, clothing scorched and hanging off his frame in tatters. His Aura had flared shielding him from the explosion that had awoken him from his slumber.
His Aura had been wracked by constant explosions as he fled the cave, each explosion originated from Cinder, or her form at least. Roman couldn't look directly at the entrance, the light inside was too bright, the piercing shaft hurt to look at.
Pulsing waves of heat emanated from the cave gradually increasing in temperature to the point where Roman was pushed farther back as the air became too hot to breathe.
The waves of heat stopped all at once, a whine of energy that pierced his skull screamed powerfully from the cave, Roman had no idea what the noise meant and decided he didn't desire to know, turning he fled the site retreating into the dense foliage of the forest eventually reaching where he had landed the Bullhead a week prior.
The noise never faded though, instead of decreasing with the distance it rose in power.
Struggling with the hatch on the Bullhead he tossed it open and climbed inside slamming the hatch closed behind him.
Now encased in the metal machine the noise dulled to a bearable level but still present, it did he give himself a moment to pause and catch his breath.
Trying to calm his nerves he reached the cockpit as the noise slowly started to build and reach the level it had been at while he was outside. Roman quickly hit the necessary switches and hit the ignition and thanked whoever might be listening as the Bullhead roared to life.
Pushing the throttle more than he needed the aircraft jumped into the air with a jerk that sank Roman's stomach at the motion which was immediately reversed with a mid air stop as his stomach moved into his throat this time as the whining noise reached a fevered pitch before stopping entirely.
The disappearance of the noise only panicked him more, the whine and buildup had been something Roman was familiar with in his other life, explosions had become his thing after Neo died to one. He was more familiar with bombs that simply triggered and exploded but there were other ways a bomb could go off especially if the thing about to explode wasn't naturally a bomb to begin with.
Cinder definitely wasn't a Bomb that was simply going to explode, whatever conflict she was engaged in with her other half was going to build until completion.
Without warning, the Bullhead seemingly dropped for no reason, and it repeated the motion again, each time he would feel a drop of a few feet, staring out his window he watched as waves of air were being drawn to the cave he had so recently fled from.
Cranking the throttle to a level the modified bullhead should realistically never reach as the engine roared but the entire machine began to shake violently as he sought to escape the coming result of all the effects behind and below himself.
'Crack'
"..."
"..."
The creatures in her mind stuck her mental body physically, the blows beside seeming to jar her thought process appeared wholly ineffectual at doing real damage. The same could not be said for the beast she had caged, it fed off her, the pain was immediate and severe but she refused to allow the Grimm any advantages.
In her mind, she called forth her Semblance, the action did not know how to separate from her body as a whole so as she began wielding the fire that came naturally to her in her mind her disconnected body tried to mirror the actions.
She was entirely unaware to this and she hadn't the mental fortitude to spare to consider it either, her full attention was invested in ignoring the pain that coursed through her mind as her prisoner fed, its children or minions that had escaped the cell approached her en masse, while the blows alone caused her not damage they momentarily shattered her concentration allow the pain she already struggled to cope with flare for a brief instant to ungodly levels before she would regain control.
She swept her powers around limitlessly in her mind, anything that approached her was met with a wall of flame so hot it destroyed the bastardized abominations. Pouring forth her power she swept her entire mental castle with flames every nook and cranny was exposed to the flame, she was meticulous wanting nothing that escaped the cage to remain free in her mind.
Only once she was sure that her mind was clean did she relax, letting her Semblance fade from her mind.
Perhaps realizing its attack failed the beast had stopped feeding on her at some point, Cinder smiled as she returned to the cage and using her mind opened a small hole to allow herself to peer in and gloat over her prisoners failed attempt at wresting control of her body from her.
A portion of the prison pulled away and Cinder looked in, the entire cage roiled as the hundreds or thousands of abominations that had failed to escape the cage moved as a unified mass.
The mass left no part of the cell uncovered, even her prisoner was covered by the mass, though the mass sensed the alteration to their cage and began leaping or climbing towards the solitary opening.
She was prepared for this though and the hole slammed shut, or it should have, as more and more creatures began spilling from the hole she watched in horror as her mental castle lost its golden sheen, turning off color to a greening tinged bronze, cobwebs, and strands of fluid hung heavily from every surface.
"WHAT!" Cinder lashed forth a gout of flame poured from her arm, the flames that before had appeared so frightening and powerful now looked pathetic and weak, the flames licked at the cobwebs washing them away in an instant but the thicker strands of webbing refused her efforts to ignite.
When did this happen?
Cinder fell back from the cage, the amount of lesser creatures pouring from it grew too great for her flames to manage. She looked all throughout her mental castle for some place untouched by the discoloring bronze effect and devoid of the webbing.
'WHAM'
Cinder paused, a wave of flame burned in front of her as she struggled to hold the small creatures at bay.
'WHAM'
Cinder turned to look in the direction of the cage.
'WHAM'
Her castle shuddered violently with the third impact, she retained her footing but her castle, no her mind, shifted slightly, everything was twisted just a few degrees.
'WHAM'
Her mind shifted again this time more violently. Fear began to take hold as she sought to undo the effects that were happening, every time she began to concentrate on her mind one of the lesser creatures would interrupt her, they didn't attack en masse like the original creatures that escaped her cage, these ones came one at a time only appearing when she appeared too distracted to notice them approach.
'WHAM'
'CRUNCH'
The new noise came with a wave of nausea that sent Cinder to the floor, which inadvertently saved her from falling from the side of her mental castle as it now stood a full ninety degrees tilted. The nearby offending Grimm creatures were not so lucky as she watched several dozen fall from the wall around her into the oblivion that was outside her castle.
Standing once more and currently free of attackers she focused her mind inward and when the next hit came she was ready.
'WHAM'
'SHRRRRRKK'
Her castle began moving against the tilting a barely noticeable degree but Cinder rallied behind her small victory and began using her mind offensively as well.
Imagining the entire structure as a whole she began closing corridor's free of infestation, once a corridor was closed she imagined washing over the area with a fire burning it clear of cobwebs and the Grimm's fluids. When she discovered Grimm creatures she would collapse the corridor crushing those inside before again bathing the area in fire.
Repeating this process CInder eventually cleared the entire perimeter of his castle the walls regained there Golden Luster once more. The assault on the Cage inside never ceased but the castle never shifted again, locked permanently in an almost ninety-degree tilt.
'WHAM'
'CRASH'
Cinder felt it, her prison had failed, using her mind's eye she looked at the cell and it stood torn open from the inside. From inside she spotted the source of her current situation.
The Grimm had changed, no longer the fat ugly arachnid it was before now it looked similar to Salem's personal minion. Its bulbous abdomen remained but its fat hairy legs were missing, now it rose on eight sleek powerful legs, each tipped in jagged looking barbs, the torso was now humanoid in appearance looking like that of an undressed woman in her prime, another set of limbs were present, a monstrous pair of arms that looked both humanoid and arachnid, lastly came the head, unlike Salem's Grimm which had a head that would be considered beautiful, this Grimm did not, the head was oblong shaped and fierce structure, eight eyes were still present and no nose was visible, the mouth stood open as a flesh filled chasm, teeth jutting forward violently and a viscous fluid dripping from its permanently open jaw.
Cinder recoiled violently from the image her mind had shown her.
'Ccciiinnnnddeeerr.'
Her name reverberated through her mind, the voice no longer sounded alien and chittery, the new voice sounded almost guttural, like someone was trying to speak using their throat, which Cinder believed to be the case as the mouth she had seen was likely unable to form words.
'Whhherree ddooo yoouuuu hhhiiiiidddee.'
Cinder pulled the cage the Grimm stood perched on out from underneath it, the Grimm caught hold of the wall and pulled itself up and over, it's children were not so lucky, hundreds fell into the newly formed pit that was filled instantly with fire.
"I hide nowhere, this is my body and my mind, and I have had enough of sharing both!" Cinder shouted inside her mind as she began to collapse walls together, mentally erasing several dozen creatures at a time.
'Ssshhhhaaaarrrrreeee? Nnnnoooo, wwweeeee nnneeevvveeerrr ssshhhaaaarrrrreeeeddddd.' Cinder found the Grimm and sent a wall collapsing towards it but the agile creature merely sidestepped the attack and moved further into her castle.
Cinder watched the creature with her mind's eye, its movements were focused and precise as it pushed through her mental castle, its many legs carried it forward with purpose but the goal Cinder didn't know. "Believe what you may but you are not long for this world, I will destroy you in here and then still find a way to fulfill my promise to Salem."
'Kiiillllll, nnnooo, yyyooooouuuuu wwwiilllll nnnoooottttt killlll mmmmeeeee jjjuuusssstttt aassss Iiiii wwwooooonnnnn'ttttt kkkkiiiiiillllll yyyyoooouuuuu.' The Grimm moved without purpose or goal aside from avoiding its hosts attack's, her goal was simply to focus her Host on herself while her minions took the time to find Cinder.
Cinder paused and scrutinized the Grimm. What did it mean it won't kill me, it is clearly capable of it, just feeding to restore its own strength cripples me. With a sweep of a wall that destroyed itself then reformed whole she swept away another dozen of the black creatures that had strayed too close to her.
The Grimm turned and with what could approximate as a smile began to move in earnest through the castle, dodging collapsing walls that tried to crush her and sidestepping gouts of mental flame meant to drive her away.
Cinder watched in fury as the Grimm avoided everything she sent at it, its new agile form rapidly closing the distance between it and herself until only a single corridor remained. Fine, I'll deal with you myself just need to deal with these first. The walls around her small chamber fell away and with it a cascade of energy that flung away all of the lesser black creatures that crawled through her mind.
Cinder pulled down the castle around herself not wanting to give the Grimm anywhere to hide, in mere moments the castle was no more and the two remaining figures stood in an empty black and red expanse of nothingness.
"Their beast, no more children for you and nowhere for you to hide!" Cinder screamed mentally at the figure across from her, her mind reeled from a sense of vertigo she couldn't shake, everything in her mind's eye still had a disorienting almost ninety-degree tilt to it on the featureless landscape.
'Iiiii, nnneeeevvveeeerrrrr hhhhiiiiiddddd, yyyyooouuuuu lllllooocccckkkkkeeedddd mmmmeeeeee aaaawwwwwaaaayyyyy. Sssyyymmmbbbbyyyyooootttiiiicccc, nnnnooooottttt ppppaaaarrrrraaaasssiiiitttiiiicccc. Hhhuuummmmaaaannnnn'sssss nnneeeevvvveeeerrrrr uuunnnndddeeerrrrsssttttaaannndddd tttthhhaaatttt!' The Grimm began to move forward cautiously as Cinder took in the words.
"You expect me to believe that? You attacked me the moment you entered my body, we fought for weeks." Cinder formed and launched a spear of flame at the slowly approaching Grimm, the spear sailed harmlessly past the Grimm as Cinders aim was off due to the odd vertigo.
'Hhhhaaaaadddd ttttooooo mmmaaakkkkeeee ssssuuuuurrrrreeee yyyyyooooouuuuuu wwwwweeeeeerrrrrreeeee ssstttrrrrrronnnnggg eeeennnnnooouuuggggghhhh, wwwwwweeeeeeeaaaakkkkkk hhhhhhooooooosssssstttt wwweeeeaaaakkkk sssseeeeelllllfffff.' The Grimm watched as another pair of spears harmlessly sailed harmlessly past itself, they were however followed by a curtain of flame that it had to leap to avoid.
Cinder squinted her eyes as they began to blur and her vision started to swim. Feeling instead for seeing the Grimm she bathed the area around her in flames but the presence she felt only moved closer.
An alien hand grabbed her by the shoulder and she spun from the grip, already being disoriented by vertigo she was suffering in her mind and feeling weak her mental form collapsed onto the floor where she lay motionless, the sickness from the vertigo left her prostrate before the Grimm as the abilities she wielded inside her mind slipped from her grasp as her concentration lapsed.
"What will you do with me?" Cinder asked weakly.
The Grimm picked the mental form of Cinder off the floor with a single arm and stretched its jaw wide and with frightening power sank its teeth into her left shoulder ripping it from the mental body, no blood or bone was present in the mental landscape but the pain was unimaginable to Cinder, her weakened mind flared to life, and with every fiber of her being that remained she concentrated on herself, through shut eyelid's she fought to ignore the pain and simply focus, pulling everything she had, reserves she didn't know existed we called upon to feed the power building inside her.
The Grimm stared at its host in its hand in shock, she had thought her host defeated and she could take her time and merge their essences slowly, A Grimm was not meant to have Aura and the melding needed to be dealt with carefully lest problems occurred, The Grimm knew Cinder would never listen to her, no human would willingly give themselves to this joining but that mattered little to the Grimm as they always made it happen.
Her host, Cinder, was proving a problem though, she fought the process better than any before her, and now when she had appeared defeated and she thought she would have a moment to meld Cinder had begun a final act of defiance.
The process once started could not be halted, that would spell death for them both.
The Grimm widened its jaws again and ripped off both of Cinders mental legs consuming both in an instant, hurriedly swallowing as she readied to bite again. The loss of mass to Cinders mental form was not slowing down the buildup of power, instead, the Grimm in fear for its life realized the power was only growing faster, in desperation the Grimm turned its jaw and bit down hard on Cinder's skull.
'Crack'
"..."
"..."
Many miles away from the events surrounding Cinder and Roman a pair of Scroll's ring once each before stopping.
A young woman with pink and brown hair looked at her scroll in hesitation, the ring tone used was something Roman had set up for her in case something went seriously wrong, with an apprehensive push of a finger she looked at her scroll and after a moment stood and with a flash of white vanished.
She had felt the vibration once, the feeling was so brief she thought she had imagined it until she reached for her scroll to see who had dialed her personal line.
She recognized the number in an instant. "Excuse me Amber, I need to take this." Without waiting for a reply Winter Schnee left her shared office in Beacon Academy and made straight for the bullhead docks, messaging ahead to tell her pilot to have her personal craft prepped for her to take out solo.
Another one done.
Easily the shortest Chapter I have written for this story.
Short isn't a bad thing or a sign that I'm struggling with the story.
This chapter is short simply on the fact I felt the content involved deserved to be its own instead of having anything with it to take away from it.
A great deal happened and I left you all with another cliffhanger without resolving anything, well, that's not true, there are several hints in this chapter and the previous two that are pointing towards something major.
Anyways as always lemme know what ya think or just message me to chat if ya feel like it, my weekend starting Aug4th is free and I'm simply going to be writing.