Arc-ventures across the multiverse

by Alvaaron

RWBY and friends gather to watch the adventures of Jaune across the multiverse. A collection of crossovers and one shot ideas for your reading pleasure. Enjoy

15. Chapter 14: Immersive storytelling

Disclaimer, I do not own RWBY or any of the franchises referenced in this work

Chapter 14: Immersive storytelling

Inspiration: Dark Souls

"Welcome back, I trust you all enjoyed that Christmas feast?" Blank asked once his audience had seated themselves. A flash of light later and they were back in their usual outfits, Roman sobbed a little when his candified weapon disappeared but at least he didn't have to look at its pitiful remains anymore.

"Oh yeah." Nora burped loudly and patted her stomach in a satisfied manner.

"We should do that again sometime."

"Things in moderation Nora." Ren chided while rolling his eyes.

"So what's up this time?" Ruby asked, eager to start watching the next universe.

"Something different from the previous ones. Different universes in the multiverse are usually separated, different realms may exist within each one but the full universes themselves generally don't interact with one another. For instance, Jedi and Spartans may both hail from a galactic spanning universe but they will normally never meet." Blank said.

"I take it that isn't the case for this one then." Goodwitch commented.

"Indeed. Sometimes, different universes mesh together and the impossible becomes possible. It normally takes one of two forms, several individuals from one universe finding themselves in another or more rarely, a complete and total meshing of both universes to create a new hybrid one with elements of both."

"Cool. And which one is this?" Jaune asked.

"The first. It involves an alternate crossing over with a completely different universe. Staring the fantastic four of Jaune, Ren, Sun and Neptune, I'll just start the viewing now." Blank flickered once and the lights dimmed, the screen coming on to display the Vale national library.

"Jaune, it's seven in the morning, why the hell did you drag me all the way here?" Ren blearily rubbed the sleep from his eyes.

"I'm here because Neptune begged, you're here because I need sane company." Jaune replied, a hint of frustration in his tone. Ren blinked once before scowling at his team leader.

"It's seven in the morning… a Saturday morning. I could and should be sleeping right now, again why did you drag me out here!?"

Jaune rolled his eyes and checked the time on his scroll, before displaying it to Ren with a cheeky smile. "It's seven oh one my dear boy."

Ren's growl could have given a beowolf a heart attack, Jaune just chuckled before elaborating further. "Oh cheer up, it's not like you'd be getting much sleep even if I didn't drag you here."

"My bed and I would like to disagree with that statement."

"Yeah Jaune, what's the big idea?" Ren looked to his leader, no one messed with his sleep damnit.

"I don't know, the only thing I can think off is all you can eat pancake Saturdays on the first weekend of the month. Nora never lets any of us sleep in when that happens." Jaune just shrugged.

"Damn right! How can you sleep when the pancakes are there waiting for us!" Nora proudly gave a thumbs up, missing Ren's tired sigh, Jaune's slumped shoulders and Pyrrha's headshake.

"Your bed is fine, you'd just get a close encounter of the Nora kind. You forgot this is the first Saturday of the month didn't you?" Jaune snickered as Ren paled considerably.

"Oh no. And we left Nora behind, we need to go back!" Ren was on the verge of hyperventilating as countless worse case scenarios flashed through his head, all of them ending with Vale in flames and a cackling Nora standing atop the wreckage with Magnhild held high.

"Nora. No." JPR said in unison, shooting down her idea before she even uttered it.

"Aww…" Nora whined dejectedly.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, slow down there. I ain't letting you go back to deal with Mount Valkyrie on your own. I have to help Sun and Pyrrha is off dealing with her sponsors. If you go alone… the ghosts of slaughtered pancakes will eat you alive!" Jaune grabbed Ren by the shoulders and shook him to stop him from running off.

"We can't just leave Nora unattended! Think of the damage she'll cause!" Ren pleaded desperately, moments away from a total nervous breakdown.

"I have. I'm JNPR's leader remember? Of course I already thought about it before this, it's why I dropped her off with team RWBY." Jaune's words got Ren to freeze and stop struggling.

"Why?" He asked in a small voice.

"How could you do that to them?"

"Heh, I have to beat Ruby in the prank war somehow. That stunt with Zwei was devious, underhanded and downright cruel. That was the last straw and now anything goes."

"And the rest of her team!?" Ren was starting to hyperventilate again.

"Unfortunate collateral damage. Things haven't escalated far enough that I'm willing to sic a Nora pancake rampage on Ruby alone. Weiss, Blake and Yang will be there to help mitigate the damage." Jaune replied easily.

"…You're evil you know that?" Ren took a small step back from his grinning leader.

"Hey, Ruby's the one that escalated it to this level. She should never have had Zwei sneak into our room and chew up my homework. The night before it was due. Do you have any idea what it's like being stuck in detention alone with professor Port!?" Jaune grabbed Ren's collar, a manic look on his face, equal parts fear and horror.

"Dear god, he won't shut up. He just won't shut up! For four hours! FOUR HOURS!" Jaune sobbed before releasing Ren and taking a step back, trying to get his breathing under control.

"She went too far with that prank. I heard things that I can never forget, things that still haunt my worst nightmares. That hell she subjected me to… a part of me died that day."

"Don't you think you're exaggerating it a little?" Ren asked and backed off when Jaune shot a look of ire his way.

"Oh yea? Why don't you try getting detention with him? See how you like it."

"Uh, no thanks. I'm good." Ren laughed nervously.

"At first I was mad you threw under the bus for a prank, but now I can kinda see where other you is coming from." Yang said, before glaring at her fidgeting sister.

"And Ruby, we need to have a little chat about the proper code of a prankster. There are just some lines you don't cross. Subjecting friends to cold blooded torture is one of them."

"It wasn't me! It was other me!" Ruby frantically denied.

"Maybe, but it is the kind of prank you'd come up with." Blake treacherously slipped in that comment.

While team RWBY bickered among themselves, Ozpin sighed and slowly shook his head. "Should I be worried my students are equating spending time with Peter to cold blooded torture?"

"His… stories do drag on a little, but I'm sure they're exaggerating." Goodwitch reassured.

Ozpin just glanced to where Jaune was huddling in a corner being comforted by his team. Clearly the boy had been a victim to one of said detentions in their universe as well. "Somehow, I'm not quite sure of that."

"Sup losers!" Sun's voice distracted Jaune and Ren from their thoughts of Nora fuelled revenge. The Monkey faunus plus Neptune were approaching them, Sun whistling as he dangled a keychain full of old keys.

"Damnit Sun, we're here burning our Saturday morning to help you and you're actually late!?" Jaune glowered at the unrepentant faunus.

"Many thanks for that by the way. Although I'm pretty sure my own awesomeness is enough for it, having more minions is always a good thing." Sun's bright smile brought out two ugly frowns from Jaune and Ren.

"And suddenly, I feel the need to be anywhere but a library on a weekend." Jaune stated flatly.

"My bed calls to me. Nora should have dragged RWBY off by now, so the dorm room is safe for napping." Ren followed up in an equally flat tone.

"Whoah! Relax, relax, I was just kidding! I could really use your help." Sun changed his tune immediately to try and convince them to stay.

"So. what are we doing here again?" Ren asked, just wanting to get things over with, if they finished fast, he might be able to return and get some shuteye before Nora intervened.

"Oh nothing much, just some uh… community service. Have to sort out the library's backrooms since it's messy or some such." Sun said.

"And how did you get stuck with community service anyway?" Jaune was the next to question.

"It's a long story. Really boring anywa-"

"He stole a- excuse me, his tail accidentally knocked over and picked up a banana. Then he got caught." Neptune explained, getting the two members of JNPR to facepalm.

"Damnit Sun." Blake hissed and echoed Jaune and Ren's facepalm.

"Busted for stealing fruit… wow, bravo, bravo indeed." Roman clapped sarcastically and Neo had a small fit of silent laughter.

"Let's just get this over with." Sun said as he fitted the rusty key into the library's door and unlocked it, not wanting to deal with the snickering coming from his friends.

Pushing the double doors open, he led the way into the darkened and empty interior. The Vale national library was built more than a century ago and the building reflected the style of that time. With the lights off, the only illumination came from small horizontal slits near the high ceiling that passed for windows.

Shadows enshrouded the place and despite the fact that it was usually teeming with life during opening hours, the entire place felt haunted instead. "Spooky. You think anyone ever died in here?" Sun joked as he made his way deeper into the library.

"Shut up Sun, that's not funny." Jaune hissed out.

"What, you scared of ghosts or something?" Sun ribbed.

"No, yes, maybe! Look, I can cut Grimm with my sword, but what the hell am I supposed to do against a ghost!?" Jaune spat out while nervously looking around.

"You're scared of ghosts Jaune?" Pyrrha asked as she looked at her partner.

"No! Yes. Maybe? G-ghosts aren't real right?" Jaune looked towards Blank for an answer.

"Hmm, I could give you a definitive answer on that, but nah, not gonna."

"Oh come on!"

"I hear running away in terror and screaming like a girl works." Neptune piped up.

"Are you serious man!?" Jaune looked at the blue haired boy incredulously.

"Well yeah, what else you gonna do? I'm pretty sure the trick is never to be alone when entering a haunted place though, when things inevitably go wrong everybody just panic and start running. All you have to do to survive is to present the least interesting target and outrun the rest." Neptune shrugged and replied.

"Hmm, logical answer, if it works on Grimm, it'll probably work on ghosts, unless they can haunt multiple people at a time." Roman commented.

"So you advocate abandoning others in times of crisis?" Qrow asked drily.

"Ah I never said that. To the average untrained civilian though, this is how they deal with Grimm attacks when there's no shelter to be had. Without aura or training, they aren't outrunning the Grimm, best they can hope for is that the Grimm are stalled long enough by whoever's slower than them that they buy enough time to reach safety. If they want to stay behind and help, sure, they'll be Grimm chow and buy time for someone else." Roman elaborated.

"That. Is a very cynical way of looking at things." Taiyang shook his head in disappointment.

"Calling it as I see it. It's a Grimm eat dog world out there, so try not to be the dog."

"Ah here we go, this should be the door to the backroom." Sun fiddled with the keychain as he searched for the correct key.

"There! No all we have to do is tidy up the place and we're… good… to… go." Sun trailed off as he stared and mountains of books haphazardly piled up in the room. Several ancient shelves creaked ominously as they strained under the weight of the books jammed into them.

"This could take a while." Ren stared at the mess with wide eyes.

"Hoo boy, why are we helping again? We're not the ones who got busted for being a criminal." Jaune said once his mouth started working again.

"Allegedly! And you're helping cause we're bros?" Sun chuckled sheepishly.

"I'm sure you called us losers earlier you know." Ren raised an eyebrow and Sun's nervous chuckling intensified.

"Just an expression right? You wouldn't leave us here by ourselves would you?"

"Us? Ourselves? I'm considering leaving for breakfast too." Neptune said and Sun shot him a betrayed look.

"Come on! Help a bro out would you? Please? Don't make me beg." Sun pleaded and finally Jaune sighed.

"Fine, let's just get this over with. Sooner we finish the sooner we can leave. You owe us for this Wukong."

"Aw thanks guys, what would I do without you all?" Sun cheered.

"Get stuck in a possibly haunted library sorting books out for a crime you allegedly committed, what else." Ren snuck in a parting shot, getting Sun to grumble. Chuckling, he went to help Jaune start sorting out the closest pile of books.

"At least they're surrounded by books. Some of them look ancient, I wonder what wonders lie just waiting to be discovered." Blake salivated slightly at the thought of discovering literary gold just lying there in the dust, forgotten, waiting to be rediscovered and brought into the light.

"Boring! The only good use for a book is in a book fight!" Yang rolled her eyes and smirked when her partner started glaring at her.

"How uncivilised can you get Yang? Books are treasures! Not… not toys to be used in a… book… fight." The cat faunus looked ill as she finished her sentence.

"Books are evil, and textbooks are the evilest of them all, right Jaune?" Yang looked to Jaune for support. The knight just laughed and scratched the back of his head.

"I don't know, I'm more of a comic book person. But textbooks are definitely evil."

"See? He agrees." Yang crowed victoriously and Blake just scowled.

"Uncultured savages the lot of you. Even barbarians have more class than you."

"Heeey, look at this." Sun spoke up, drawing the attention of the other three to him. In his hands was a massive leather-bound book, gold lettering that glimmered in the faint light could be seen on it.

"The big book of fairy tales huh?" He blew on it and a cloud of dust caused him to start sneezing.

"Damn, what could anyone want with such a book?" He chuckled as he flipped it open to a random story and started reading through it.

"Story of the four seasons. Huh blah blah blah, depressed wizard gave power to four maidens, blah blah blah, all power corrupts, maidens hunted for power? Hidden away and protected by a secret society? The hell? That isn't how the story goes." Sun's eyes narrowed as he read over the words again.

"No. it is not." Ozpin muttered under his breath. Creating the maidens had been one of his greatest ideas, the power transfer system on the other hand was one of his worst.

Over time, the legend had faded away to nothing more than a bedtime story as he and his worked to keep the maidens safe from those who desired their power. From what Sun was saying, that book held an accurate account of the events that transpired… something that shouldn't be possible.

He was the only one who lived long enough to witness the whole chain of events, the only one who knew the full truth, the only one who could have made that book. But he would never do something like that, some secrets were best buried for all time.

'Must be a result of that universe meshing Blank was talking about.' Ozpin mused to himself.

"What are you doing Sun? You're supposed to be cleaning up, not making a bigger mess… or reading a book for kids." Neptune scolded as Sun started flipping through the book.

"What do you mean it's meant for kids? There's some really messed up stuff in here. Good lord, who the hell wrote this? Damn, it's like someone decided to take all the fairy tales we know of and make them dark and edgy." Sun chuckled and continued flipping through.

"You can read it later, help with the sorting damn it. This is supposed to be your punishment, so why the hell are we doing most of the work?" Jaune complained, getting nods of agreement from Neptune and Ren.

"Just a minute! Some of this stuff is actually good reading… oh legend of the abyss walker. Man how edgy do you have to be to write something like that? This oughta be good." Sun laughed and flipped the page, his cheer died away to be replaced with confusion.

"Hey what gives? Why are the pages blank?" Flipping through them all, Sun found all the pages in the chapter dedicated to the abyss walker blank. The next fairy tale covering silver eyed maidens was there without problem but not the abyss walker story.

"What did you do Sun? We really don't need you getting into anymore trouble." Neptune sighed and put down the books in hand, picking his way past the many piles to his teammate.

"I didn't do anything! The pages in the book are just blank! And I wanted to see what the story was about too." Flipping back to the first page of the chapter, Sun held it up to the light trying to see if there was some kind of hidden message on it.

"Nothing. What a bust, must be the author's idea of a practical joke. Leaving a blank chapter inside the book." Flipping the page to the first blank one in the series, Sun's laughter was cut off when it happened.

A massive deformed arm made out of shadows shot out of the pages and wrapped around his skull. Before anyone could scream, the arm pulled back into the book's pages, and Sun was pulled along with it.

Into the book.

"OH MY GOD!" Jaune shot to his feet in panic, backing away from the book that was left to clatter to the floor.

"Wukong!" Ren's eyes widened to the size of saucers as he blinked rapidly, trying to convince himself his eyes were playing tricks on him.

"WHAT THE HELL! SUNNN! OI OI OI OI! IF THIS IS SOME KIND OF JOKE IT ISN'T FUNNY! SUN? SUN! SUNNNNNNNNNN!" When Sun didn't reappear, Neptune laughed nervously before his eyes rolled into the back of his head and he collapsed to the ground in a dead faint.

"Eep!" Ruby pulled her hood over her face and buried herself in her mother's arms, unable to look at the screen.

"SEE! BOOKS ARE EVIL! ONE JUST ATE SUN!" Yang leapt to her feet and jabbed a finger at the screen. Blake didn't respond, completely unconscious with her eyes wide open.

"There must be a perfectly reasonable explanation for this. There's no such thing as ghosts. There's no such thing as ghosts." Jaune repeated the words to himself as a mantra, trying to keep from freaking out and only partially succeeding.

"What was that!? Some kind of new Grimm!?" Qrow asked in between massive gulps of whiskey.

"That, was the meshing happening." Blank answered.

"So… that kind of thing can't happen in our world… right?" Weiss asked cautiously.

"Thus far no it can't happen. But there's always the possibility a Grimm with such capabilities might come into existence one day."

Roman turned to his assistant and started whispering. "Neo, remind me to burn every scrap of paper we have back home. It's the modern era, time to go full digital."

Neo nodded furiously in agreement.

"Is this the part where we run away screaming?" Ren asked as he shook Neptune awake.

"I vote no sudden movements. We're surrounded and deep behind enemy lines. Who knows which book is going to try and eat us next?" Jaune whispered as he eyes darted around the room, searching for any sign the books were about to come to life.

"Oh my head." Neptune came to with a small groan.

"I just had the weirdest dream where Sun was pulled into a story book by a giant monster arm. Funny huh?"

"Eh, hehhehe… it wasn't a dream Nep." Jaune's nervous chuckles nearly made Neptune faint again. Only Ren furiously slapping his cheeks kept him awake.

"Damnit, stay with us. If you faint again, you might not wake up ever."

"OW! Okay, okay! Stop hitting me!" Neptune pulled himself together and took in a shaky breath. Rising to his feet, he approached the discarded book of fairy tales on the floor slowly, Jaune and Ren exchanged a nervous look before watching with bated breath.

"W-what are doing Nep? Y-you sure you s-should be going near that… that thing?" Jaune took cover behind Ren, carefully peeking around his shoulders.

"Real courageous there, fearless leader." Ren shot Jaune a questioning gaze.

"You're just mad the other me got the idea first. Admit it, you'd have done the same." Jaune fired back.

"…Actually, I'd probably have pulled a Nora and tried exploding everything." Ren admitted after a few seconds of thought.

"Sun's still missing and we need to find him. That… book did that to him, it must have a way to bring him back. Might be some kind of unknown Grimm, as huntsmen in training, it's our duty to deal with it." Neptune pushed down his fear and slowly approached the book, wary of any sudden paranormal activity.

"Y-you sure it's not a ghost? Maybe we should call for help." Jaune suggested.

"You call for help, I'm just going to check-" Neptune cut himself off when his fingers brushed the books cover, runic circles spawned into existence below the three of them, spinning and covering them with a white glow.

"AHHHHH! I CAN'T MOVE MY LEGS! NEPTUNE! IF YOU GET US ALL KILLED, I'M COMING BACK AS A GHOST TO HAUNT YOU!" Jaune yells echoed around the room as the three of them struggled to exit their circle, but their legs were magically glued to the floor.

The white glow intensified and the three students had to close their eyes or risk being blinded by the radiance. There was a brief feeling of nothingness and then the light started to fade.

Once the intensity had dropped to a manageable level, Ren was the first to open his eyes. "What the hell happened to us!?"

"We're dead! We're all dead and ghosts now!" Jaune pointed and Ren and then at Neptune before finally poking himself. All three of them were now glowing softly and gold in colour. Every other colour on their clothes, skin and hair had disappeared.

"Noooo… this cannot be happening!" Neptune backed up and bumped his head against a wall.

"Ow! Wait a minute, if we're dead why do I feel pain?"

Neptune's words got Jaune and Ren to stop panicking momentarily and they started inspecting themselves.

"I don't feel very different actually. No sudden pain or emptiness or anything out of the normal." Ren analysed before slugging the wall with a fist.

"Sense of touch is still fine too, so's aura." He said while wringing his wrist.

"So we're not ghosts?" Ren asked.

"No, you're all gold phantoms instead." Blank answered.

"How is that any different!? We are ghosts!" Jaune yelled in exasperation.

"Not that kind of phantom. Phantoms here refer to beings who don't belong in that world but have temporarily entered it due to the convoluted nature of space time in that universe." Blank clarified.

"So that's the other world then? Why are they in a cave though?" Ruby asked, her face still half hidden by her hood.

"It's just where they happened to spawn in."

"Hello? Is someone there?" Sun's voice called out and the three phantoms turned to stare at the cave entrance where a familiar monkey faunus stepped through.

"SUN! You're alive!" Jaune shouted before dashing over and grabbing the monkey in a bear hug.

"GAH! Need. To. Breathe!" Sun struggled free before catching his breath from the sudden assault.

"Yeah I'm alive, not for this world's lack of trying to kill me. How'd you guys get here?"

"Neptune decided to touch the book that pulled you in. What the hell was that and where are we anyway?" Jaune looked around the cave they were in but the place was just a simple dead-end cave without any establishing markings.

"We're in Lordran, on the outskirts of Oolacile. No idea about the… arm thing that grabbed me, haven't seen it since but I've been here for about two weeks now… I think. The sun doesn't set in this place and there are no clocks so it's hard to tell the time." Sun explained.

"Two weeks!? What? How? You got pulled in less than five minutes ago! And what do you mean the sun doesn't set?" Neptune interjected, unable to make sense of Sun's words.

"I… don't know. This… isn't Remnant, or at least not the one we know. You remember the story I pointed out before I got dragged in?" Sun asked.

"Legend of the abyss walker, right?" Ren recalled.

"Yeah, that one. I think we're inside that story." Sun took a seat on a rock and exhaled a tired sigh.

"Oh don't give me that look, I know how ridiculous it sounds but what other explanation do we have? I got pulled into a book, this world is all kinds of messed up and there's a giant knight who has the title abyss walker running around."

"Looks like Sun's safe at least. You don't have to worry anymore eh Blakey? Blake?" Yang looked over to her partner and found her staring into space with a tiny bit of drool leaking out.

"Blake, this really isn't the time to be fantasizing about being able to enter your books and live them out in real life." Yang deadpanned and prodded her to bring her back to reality.

"W-wha? I was doing nothing of the sort!" Blake denied furiously.

"Yeah, pull the other one. You'd be a lot more convincing if you weren't drooling like that." Yang's eyeroll was audible.

"Okay, so say we're inside the story. How do we get out? Follow the story to its conclusion?" Ren frowned and leaned against a wall, checking his weapons just in case they would be needed later.

"That's the best guess. But the pages were blank, so I have no idea how the story is going to end. I've been sticking with Artorias, that's the abyss walker, for most of the time I've been stuck here. Pretty chill dude if a little quiet. He's here dealing with an outbreak of something called the abyss and I assume that's what his legend revolves around." Sun filled them in on his findings.

"Alright, so… you got any idea as to why we're all glowy and stuff?" Jaune asked the million dollar question that neither Ren nor Neptune could bring themselves to breach.

"You're all here as phantoms… at least I think so. Usually phantoms are white but you're all gold now. I don't really get the mechanics behind it but I've heard that you're not actually here right now, just some strange copy version or something." Sun shrugged his shoulders in helplessness.

"Good thing is you can't die like that, you just wake up… wherever you were before so back in the real world maybe? I don't know, oh and you can re-enter this world as a phantom again, how you do that…"

"You don't know. In any case, I would suggest we avoid dying to test the limits of this… phantom system." Ren said and received two nods in response.

"Do they really have to agree to not kill themselves trying to test out their new abilities? That's common sense isn't it." Weiss snarked and rolled her eyes.

"Common sense isn't as common as you think it is princess. Many, many people have maimed or killed themselves trying to find the limits of their semblances. Having a get out of jail free card like immunity to death might inspire reckless behaviour, which is fine, until the immunity stops working." Qrow said drily.

"So how's the story going anyways?" Neptune asked.

"I think I got the feel of it, so far it's shaping up to be a standard fairy tale. Princess of the kingdom kidnapped by some monster that's ruining the place, knight in shining armour rides off to the rescue. Monster slain, princess rescued and they all live happily ever after." Sun said with a mirthless chuckle.

"At least that's how it would be normally, but every single tale in that book is messed up. I really, really hope there's a happy ending to this one but from what I've seen already, that's… highly unlikely." Sun shook his head, recalling the numerous inhuman horrors he had to put down.

"So where do we stand?" Jaune fired off the next question.

"Right now, Artorias is already inside the city proper trying to rescue Princess Dusk. I'm here on the outskirts keeping the monsters from breaching containment. More silver knights from Anor Londo just arrived to set up a proper perimeter though, so I was just about to enter the city as well to try and find our abyss walker." Sun rose to his feet and prepared to move out.

"Anor Londo?" Ren raised an eyebrow.

"Yep, so called city of the gods, though just between us that's a load of crap. They be giants with honest to god magic and shit but if they were actual gods, the situation wouldn't have gone to hell like this. You guys coming?"

"Of course, what else are going to do? Wait in a cave until the story ends?" Jaune's laughter died when Sun's serious visage didn't change.

"Word of warning, we aren't facing Grimm, and there's some seriously fucked up shit out there. Ninety nine percent of everything will try to kill you."

"He makes it sound that there's something worse than the Grimm. Is there?" Summer asked quietly.

"Unfortunately for that world yes, the abyssal corruption is total in places. The city itself is already completely lost, they just haven't realised it yet." Blank said.

"What is this abyss?" Ozpin queried.

"A mistake. It's what happens when the power of darkness got twisted into a horrible caricature of itself by morons with suicidal overconfidence. Now it's just a corruptive force that warps everything it touches into madness." Blank explained.

"And when has darkness ever been good really? Isn't it always evil?" Roman rolled his eyes at Blank's words.

"Not always. It should have been a neutral force, one of the core concepts that made up that world, along with light, life and death. But all of that is shot to hell now because of a long line of mistakes that just compound on one another."

Once the four of them exited the Oolacile Sanctuary and entered the Royal Woods, there were almost instantly beset by enemies. Jaune grunted as he slashed at an animated scarecrow, sending it stumbling back. "Everything trying to kill you huh? No kidding, but why are we fighting scarecrows!?"

"They used to be gardeners for the woods, the magic powering them is going haywire thanks to abyss though. At least they go down easily, the stone guardians on the other hand…" Sun trailed off as he slammed his staff into a scarecrow, sending it tumbling over the edge of the cliff and into the waters far below.

"I assume those would be the stone guardians?" Ren pointed out the two giant humanoid figures stomping towards them, their thunderous footfalls growing louder as they got closer.

"Yeah, that'd be them. Save your ammo, bullets just bounce of them and they hit like a truck." Sun warned as the golems came within striking distance. The four of them scattered when one brought its massive weapon down and shattered the ground.

Jaune was about to dash back in for a quick counterattack while the stone great axe was buried in the ground when Sun hastily pulled him back. The stone guardian gave out a low groan before wrenching the weapon free in an explosion of dirt and rock.

"Holy crap!" Jaune backpedalled and used the shield on Crocea Mors to ward off falling rubble. Putting some distance between them.

"Yeah, getting hit by that is no joke. These bastards are the reason I had to stay behind instead of following Artorias into Oolacile. Son of a bitch broke through my aura and four ribs with one swing, good thing I heal fast once my aura came back." Sun said as he used the greater range of his staff to land several good hits on the golem.

"At least they're slow and their range is limited… okay, Neptune, Ren, you guys work together to take the guardian on the right, Sun and I will get the one on the left. They can't turn that fast so we'll use that to our advantage. Sun, Nep, you guys have the range, keep their attention on you while Ren and I stab em in the back." Jaune issued his orders after taking several moments to pick apart the holes in the stone guardians attack patterns.

"That's as good a plan as any I guess." Neptune shrugged and started jabbing at his assigned target, drawing its attention away from Ren who was sneaking behind it.

"So far so good? I've seen tougher Grimm than that to be honest." Roman commented.

"True, in terms of physical appearance, these golems and scarecrows don't appear to be much compared to some of the more nightmarish Grimm in existence. But those Grimm aren't powered by magic that does bonus damage against aura either." Blank replied.

"Say what now?" Qrow sat up, paying more attention at that tidbit.

"Much of the magic in there has been touched by the abyss, it now has a certain weight to it, and it is very, very effective at attacking the soul directly. Remind me again what aura is?"

"Oh. That's not going to end well is it?" Qrow muttered and chugged from his flask.

Working together to bring the monstrosities down, all four of them were breathing hard by the time the last stone guardian fell to pieces at their feet. Neptune was the first to break the silence. "What the hell are these things, even solid granite shouldn't be that resistant to damage."

"Magic, just fucking magic." Sun wiped away the sweat from his brow as he surveyed the wreckage around them.

"Aside from these monsters, does anyone else feel… weird? I thought it was from them at first but bad feeling is still there." Jaune said as a shiver ran down his spine, his instincts screaming at him that everything was wrong in this place.

"That's the abyssal taint infecting the area, the people in this world can't feel it but we evidently can for some reason. I'm guessing it's due to our aura, as the people of Lordran don't have it." Sun explained.

"No aura? How is that possible? Every living thing aside from Grimm has aura, it's part of our soul." Ren argued back.

"Different world different rules maybe. The sun doesn't set here and people have access to honest to god magic. Damnit, what I wouldn't give to be able to coat my weapons in freaking lightning like the silver knights." Sun complained.

Once the four had recovered from the battle, they pushed deeper into the woods, making for the city just visible in the distance. Fighting through several more pockets of enemies including three more of those infernal stone guardians, they came across the first tangible sign of the abyss.

"Fuck. Is that the abyss?" Jaune whispered as they came across a patch of ground where no grass existed, only bare ground. Blueish black patches covered the surface and they pulsed intermittently, veins extended outwards from the main body and they seemed to be slowly growing, increasing the reach of the corruption.

"Gotta be. Come on, I don't like it here, it's… disturbing." Sun repressed a shiver and led the way forwards, towards a small building situated on the cliff edge overlooking the vast city. Entering it, once all four were on the platform, it started glowing before descending.

"How does this even-ah magic right, silly me." Jaune's nervous laughter did nothing to lift the mood. The oppressive feeling weighing on them only worsened as they descended. Once the elevator came to a stop and they were free to exit, the woods outside seemed even more twisted than the ones above.

There weren't any monster trees attacking them or anything but the place just felt darker, heavier, muted. "I just realised how quiet it is. What happened to all the animals in this place?" Ren whispered as he gripped Stormflower tighter.

"Not sure we want an answer to that Ren." Jaune replied as his eyes scanned the areas for hostiles. Despite finding nothing, he didn't relax in the slightest.

"It's quiet. Too quiet." Yang stage whispered with a grin, getting a chorus of groans in response.

"So much for avoiding that cliché." Roman shook his head and sighed.

"Eh, that's a big coliseum." Pyrrha said once the Oolacile coliseum came into view.

"I sense boss battle!" Nora put aside her popcorn and starting humming boss music themes immediately.

"The entrance to the city should be here. According to Artorias, this is one of the only ones yet uncorrupted by the abyss." Sun forged ahead before freezing in his tracks. A heavily deformed human stood in the centre of the arena.

Clothed in rags that didn't survive its transformation, greyish skin with a tint of purple could be seen. Elongated arms hung at an angle and ended in vicious claws. And the head, a misshapen mess of twisted brown flesh with countless glowing red eyes embedded in them.

"EW! That is disgusting!" Yang shrieked and recoiled in horror.

"What the hell is that thing!?"

"That is one of the residents of Oolacile post abyssal treatment." Blank answered.

"You're kidding, that used to be human!?" Weiss said in shock.

"Yes."

"S-so, is that the uh… boss we're fighting?" Jaune asked.

"No."

Before any of them could say or do anything, the creature let out a screech as it looked into the sky and backed away slowly. Seconds later, an armoured figure came crashing down on top of it, a massive great sword spearing it through the head and nailing it to the ground.

"No." Sun whispered in horror.

"GrhahrGGahrrgah!" The heavily armoured knight roared as wisps of darkness swirled around him, getting drawn into his being before violently bursting out in a blast of shadows. Ripping the sword free from the ground with the corpse still attached to it, he spun round and turned to face the four friends, broken left arm hanging limply at his side.

With a mighty swing, the corrupted knight sent the body flying towards them. Roaring again, the knight took two steps forwards before leaping into the air and started falling towards them blade first.

"RUN!" Jaune yelled and the huntsmen in training kicked into gear, scattering before their enemy could visit upon them the same fate the first monster suffered.

When his strike found empty ground, the knight didn't hesitate, ripping the blade free and holding it like a lance, he shot forwards in a devastating charge straight for Jaune. The blonde grunted and did his best to ride out the blow while blocking with his shield.

Once the charge slowed to a halt, Jaune raised his sword in preparation for a counterattack, he never got the chance, the enemy knight flawlessly transitioned into a spin attack, striking his shield twice and sending him flying.

"Jaune! Hold on!" Ren fired his guns to draw attention away from his downed leader. He growled in frustration when the bullets either just pinged off the armour harmlessly or evaporated upon contact with the shadow vapours occasionally emerging from the knight. His distraction succeeded though and bought time for Neptune to help Jaune to his feet.

"What the hell is this gu-SUN! WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?" Jaune's eyes widened in shock when he saw his fellow team leader getting in between Ren and the abyssified knight.

"It's me Sun! Don't you recognise me!?" Sun pleaded, trying to get the knight to stop attacking to no avail.

"Artorias! Stop!"

"T-that's Artorias? W-what happened to him?" Jaune asked.

"He fought, he lost. And then the abyss consumed him." Blank answered.

"Can he be saved?" Ruby asked next, she gulped when Blank chose to remain silent.

"Damnit Sun!" Neptune yelled as he tackled his teammate out of the way of Artorias's charge, the blade narrowly missing the two of them.

"This is not the time to be talking to the enemy!"

"No, you don't get it, that's Artorias! He's the abyss walker, we can't be fighting him!" Sun protested.

"Is that so? I don't think he got the memo." Ren said and fired on Artorias again, baiting the knight into another charge that opened him up for a follow up attack from jaune.

"B-but he's the abyss walker! If he's already corrupted by the abyss, what happens to the story!?" Sun yelled again, trying to push forwards despite Neptune holding him back.

"I'm not sure that matters so much right now Wukong, because he's doing his utmost best to kill us at the moment. And his strength is no joke, I'm not sure how many more hits my aura can take even through the shield." Jaune spat to the side and continued trying to find a weak point in Artorias's defences.

"If we k-kill him, we might be trapped here forever. There must be another way!" Sun continued to resist, trying to find a way out that didn't involve killing a friend.

"That's a risk we'll have to take. There could be another way out for all we know. But right now, if we don't stop him, we won't live long enough to even try and find it." Ren grunted as he parried a blow with Stormflower's blades, the heavy impact jarring him and numbing his arms.

"I… I can't kill a friend!" Sun screamed out, angry tears welling in his eyes.

"Look at him Sun! He's in pain, and we can't help him!" Jaune grunted in pain when Artorias nailed him in the sternum with a brutal kick.

"What would he want?" Getting back to his feet, Jaune dived out of the way when Artorias came smashing down where he was lying. He was sent staggering back again when the corrupted knight swung his broken arm, tossing a handful of sludge at him. The liquid hit him with the force of a cannonball and the sludge immediately began eating at his aura, getting the knight to gasp in a mix of pain and surprise.

Ren tackled Jaune out of the way when Artorias started spinning again, the blade sailed over head and Ren jammed Stormflower into Artorias's arm, wrenching it back and destabilizing him. Neptune didn't waste the opportunity to rush in and start stabbing with his trident.

"Help us damnit, we can't beat him like this!" Neptune cried out when he was forced to back off.

Sun struggled with himself for several moments, his need to save his friends warring with his desire to not kill another. "GRAHH! FINE!"

Switching his weapons into their nunchaku form, Sun closed the distance and started hammering away at Artorias, relieving some of the pressure from the other three.

"Poor Sun, having to fight his friend like that." Blake fidgeted uncomfortably. Two friends fighting one another to the death for some reason was a trope that popped up from time to time in her books, usually played for drama, an enjoyable thing when done right. A hell of a lot more disturbing having to watch it happen to someone she knew.

The four of them surrounded and continued to chip away at Artorias, none of them daring to overextend in fear of a fatal counterblow. Even crippled, Artorias was still a formidable foe who wouldn't go down easily. The only real strategy Jaune could come up with was to take advantage of his madness and constantly swap his focus between the four of them with alternating attacks, never allowing Artorias the chance to overwhelm any one of them.

Unable to make headway, Artorias started absorbing darkness into himself again, standing still despite their probing attacks, the purple wisps growing into a solid mass. Jaune's eyes widened as he saw this. "Oh hell that's not good, hit him hard now before he finishes charging, we need to stun him!"

Jaune didn't wait for the others, rushing in with Crocea Mors, he started stabbing and slashing with abaddon, trying to knock Artorias loose. Fortunately, Sun, Neptune and Ren caught on fast and started whaling on the knight as well, and between the four of them, they managed to stagger Artorias just before the energy charge reached critical mass.

Artorias stumbled back as the mass of darkness dissipated harmlessly. Taking advantage of the opening, Neptune jabbed his trident into the back of Artorias's knee, the attack breaking through the corroded armour and finding flesh beneath.

"aaRHAgghah!" Artorias roared in pain as he fell to one knee, the damaged leg no longer able to hold up his weight.

"Now! Hit him with everything you got!" Jaune delivered rapid fire overhead hammer blows with his sword while Ren and Neptune continued stabbing everywhere they could. Sun hesitated for a brief moment before steeling himself and committing, striking with his staff and bringing the knight down for the last time.

Artorias collapsed on the ground and the four of them backed off. A small wheeze came from the fatally wounded titan and he turned to face Sun. The pain and shock of defeat restoring his old self just before the end.

"Sun…" A weak voice emanated from the fallen knight and Sun dashed over to his side before his friends could warn him off.

"I'm here." Sun clasped Artorias's larger hand with both of his own.

"I couldn't… couldn't him. Manus was too powerful, th-the abyss. It's ahrgh!" Artorias struggled to continue speaking as his wounds took their toll, the corruption of the abyss burning through his system only worsened his condition.

"D-don't speak, conserve your strength." Sun whispered even though he knew it was already too late.

"Manus… is… wounded. But Princess Dusk… remains his prisoner." Artorias coughed in pain as he forced the words out.

"She must be saved."

"Of course, we'll do it." Sun promised, tears stinging his eyes again.

"M-my pendant, it can keep the darkness at bay… take it." Artorias reached up and removed a silver pendant from his neck and handed it to Sun. The faunus accepted it with trembling hands.

"I'm sorry… and… thank you. My friend." Artorias whispered before his hand went limp in Sun's. The blonde gently rested Artorias's arm on the ground and hugged the pendant close to his chest, bending over, he pressed his forehead against Artorias's battered armour and screamed to the heavens. Jaune, Ren and Neptune stood by, remaining silent as they allowed their friend to grieve.

"Damn. That stinks." Ren folded his arms and frowned, his words summing up the thoughts of everyone in the theatre at that moment.

"At least he died as himself. Might be cold comfort but it is something." Ozpin said with a grimace.

"Damnit it all, it wasn't even his choice to become a monster. It reminds me too much of the first universe." Yang spat out as unpleasant memories reared their head again. Shaking her head, she left Ruby's side and plopped herself down next to Jaune.

"Just lemme have this." Snuggling in close and basking in Jaune's warmth, she made herself comfortable. Jaune said nothing, just allowing Yang to get comfortable if it would help her mood. Recalling that particular universe, Pyrrha said nothing, although she did take position at Jaune's other side.

Taiyang just glared and grumbled before turning to Qrow. "What happened in that first universe anyway?"

"Don't know, I was here for the second. Whatever the first one was, it was bad, real bad." Qrow replied before offering Taiyang a drink.

"This is goodbye then." Sun said after a while, rubbing his eyes to wipe away the remaining tears, he hefted Artorias's damaged sword and laid it on the knight before bowing one last time.

"You feeling better?" Jaune asked awkwardly, unsure of what to do in such a situation.

"No. But that doesn't matter right now, Artorias's mission is now mine. We're still stuck here and we probably will until the princess is saved. But, there's a whole world to explore, you don't have to come with me since I'm probably walking into hell anyway." Sun said as he wore the pendant around his neck.

"Like hell we're leaving you. You ain't getting rid of us that easily." Neptune shook his head and shot down the suggestion immediately. Jaune and Ren nodded their agreement, none of them were going to abandon their friend to leave on a suicide mission alone.

"I see… then thanks." Sun closed his eyes and took a moment to compose himself before taking a shuddering breath.

"Manus would probably be at the heart of the outbreak. Artorias said it started beneath ground when the people of Oolacile dug up something. If I recall correctly, there is a keep all the way at the bottom of the city, that should be our entry point if it isn't the target." Sun soldiered on and led the way into the city itself.

"A question, how long ago did this outbreak happen?" Jaune asked as he stared at the city in confusion.

"A couple weeks why? Artorias was sent here around the time I arrived after the city went silent and scouts started reporting monsters emerging from the city itself." Sun answered.

"Because the city looks like it's been abandoned for years. There's ivy and moss growing everywhere and the buildings themselves are starting to crumble… also what the hell is wrong with the architecture here? I'm getting a headache just looking at it." Jaune pointed at the twisted city and seriously wondered how anyone could live in such a place.

"Yeah, some of the buildings are even slanted at a forty-five-degree angle. The roads are messed up and everything is falling apart. There's no way anyone can live in such a city." Ren added on once he noticed what Jaune was referring to.

"Artorias did say the abyss could warp time and space itself if left unchecked. The last time it happened was with a city called New Londo where the corruption effectively erased the entire underground sections of the city, leaving only a bottomless, endless expanse of darkness that swallows up everything. It might have worsened if the hadn't halted the spread. If the all of Oolacile itself is starting to warp… then the problem is more serious than we expected." Sun said.

"New Londo, what happened to it, how'd they stop the spread of the abyss?" Neptune asked, and Sun was silent for a bit before replying.

"They couldn't, New Londo is gone. The entire city and everyone in it was lost."

"Ah hell, so its Mount Glenn all over again. Lemme guess, the powers that be decided to seal it off and leave everyone inside to die, including their own." Roman glared at the screen.

"Accurate comparison, although unlike with your own experience, there really was no choice with New Londo." Blank replied.

"Bullshit, there is always a choice." Roman argued back.

"Not at that time no. In the future I might show the events that transpired but all you need to know is that the abyssal outbreak in New Londo effectively caused a zombie apocalypse. With zombies that grow stronger, faster and more intelligent with every kill, zombies who are also functionally immortal and have magic. Sealing away the city was the only way they could keep the world from being overrun." Blank said.

"So it was a no win situation, and what about Oolacile?" Goodwitch queried.

"Manus is the lynchpin to the abyssal outbreak, but it's already too late for the inhabitants."

Fighting across the city rooftops, the four of them cut down the numerous mutated residents that rushed out en masse to kill them. Working in concert to cover one another, they slowly made their way from building to building, searching for a way down that didn't involve jumping into the unknown.

"They're not hard to take down, but there's just so many of them!" Jaune grunted in frustration as he ripped Crocea Mors free from the dying body of one of the monsters. Wincing slightly, he did his best to not look at the disgusting visage that was the creature's head.

Blinking in surprise, he found one of the creatures hanging back watching them. Unlike its brethren, this one appeared to be female and its head was even more grotesque than the rest, no small feat in that regard. A ball of darkness was forming in its hands and it was aimed straight at them.

"Oh shit." When it fired, Jaune immediately noted its trajectory heading for Ren. Stepping forwards, he raised his shield to block the strike. That turned out to be a mistake.

The orb hit his shield dead on, striking with the force of a hit from Nora's hammer. That Jaune could deal with, the magic aspect of it tearing at his aura? Not so much.

The knight went down with a silent scream as the magic invaded his system, liquid fire burned in his veins as the darkness ripped at his soul. He felt the touch of the abyss and every fragment of his soul recoiled from it, wanting nothing to do with the madness within.

"JAUNE! What the hell!? Die you son of a bitch!" Neptune switched his trident to rifle mode and fired on the caster that took down his friend, the shot blowing its head to pieces and caused the corpse to tumble backwards and over the edge into the chasm below.

Together with Ren, the two of them dragged Jaune away from the fighting and back up some stairs while Sun served as a rear guard, protecting their retreat by knocking away all comers with his staff.

"What happened!? Jaune! Look at me!" Ren gripped Jaunes armour and shook him lightly, trying to shake him out of whatever affliction was plaguing him. He couldn't tell what was wrong, as far as he could see, Jaune's aura was still intact, lower than preferable but unbroken.

Slowly, Jaune's blank eyes came back into focus and he locked onto Ren's worried ones. "I-I'm up. Oh… god… it… I'm never going to feel clean again."

The knight sat up with a small groan and his friends just looked on worriedly. Sun finished off the last of the mutated residents and had joined them, handing a small bottle of water to Jaune that he eagerly drank from.

"What happened to you? You blocked the hit and then you just went down instantly." Neptune asked.

"T-that was the power of the abyss I think. Ugh, it feels so… foul. Like I just got dunked in a tank full of negativity. I think I'm gonna be sick." Jaune shivered as he struggled to put the experience into words.

"I don't understand, how did that happen? He blocked the hit, and I've never heard of anything that would react that negatively with aura. Not even semblances can do that." Qrow commented, frowning at the puzzle before him.

"Not quite. Aura is the light of the soul, the abyss? That's the darkness inside it." Blank answered.

"The abyss… came from humanity?" Weiss asked in a shocked tone.

"Indeed, it's a quirk of that world. Souls didn't exist in Lordran at the beginning, just a world of grey where the only 'living' things were immortal, soulless, unchanging dragons. Then the first flame came into existence and brought with it souls, including four great ones, one of which happened to be the dark soul."

"So they fucked around with it and created the abyss." Roman shook his head and started muttering about idiots who just couldn't leave well enough alone.

"Effectively so. Main problem with the abyss is that the dark soul has shards of it splintered off into countless smaller fragments that became the essence of humanity. While lacking in potency compared to the original, each is still capable of being twisted should a sufficient catalyst appear. And with humanity being the dominant race in that world…" Blank trailed off.

"Dominos, all it takes is one to knock over the rest." Taiyang surmised.

"Indeed, and now the darkness becomes a twisted reflection of humanities own inner evil, their potential for cruelty to both others and themselves. When your aura is the light of your soul, it really isn't a good idea to have it come into contact with literal concentrated evil."

Once Jaune had recovered from his ordeal, the four of them headed deeper into the city of madness. Taking great care to avoid getting hit by dark magic and fighting off multiple ambushes, progress was slow.

By the time they made it across a rickety bridge with no cover, all of them were on edge, expecting a new enemy to leap out of them from the shadows at any instant. "I don't get it, how the hell are they able to literally jump out at us from the walls, those things are fucking solid." Jaune raised his shield as yet another monster leapt out of him from solid rock.

Holding the monster at bay by balancing it on his shield, Jaune allowed Ren to pull the beast off him with his own weapons. Sun finished it off with a well placed strike to the head.

"Magic? Oolacile is supposed to be a kingdom with high levels of mastery in sorcery, especially those relating to illusions and the like." Sun gave his opinion.

"These walls don't feel like illusions to me." Neptune rapped his trident against the wall the monster leapt out of, the metal bounced off the rock with a clang.

"Guys, we have lots of company." Ren called out and Sun cursed when he saw what Ren was staring at. On the landing below them, a veritable troop of those monsters were milling about aimlessly. Several casters were mixed in among them, and it just complicated problems.

"Can you guys shoot the casters?" Jaune asked.

"We can down a few, but there are too of them to get before they notice us. If they start casting their poison fog here, we're dead." Neptune replied.

"Hooo boy, we're gonna have to do this the hard way then. On three." Once Sun gave the signal, the four of them leapt over the bannister and into the throng of enemies, hacking and slashing at everything as they went. Using their own enemies as cover, the casters' spells ended up taking out their own and clearing a path to them. The sole caster that tried using poison gas found itself with a few new holey additions to its head when Ren caught sight of it.

The wet thud of the last body hitting the floor signified the end of the melee and the huntsmen were all breathing hard. "That the last of them?" Jaune asked while scanning the room.

A single gunshot rang out when Sun put a bullet into the head of one of the still twitching bodies. "That should be, yeah. Hey, we're here! The keeps just over there."

Sun pointed to the fortress entrance just visible in the distance. Smoke and shadow obscured it but they could just make it out. A bridge led to it and the glowing red eyes of its guardians were popped out from the shadows.

"I have a bad feeling about this." Jaune gripped his weapon tighter as the abyssal taint was even more potent down in the depths. They were getting closer to the source, he could feel it in his bones.

"You'll always have a bad feeling down here. Look at the floor and walls, the abyssal corruption is almost total here." Sun pointed to the blue and black veins growing across just about everything. In the dim light, they looked liquid, almost organic.

"Then we must be on the right track. Watch your steps gentlemen, I don't like the looks of the floor." Ren said and led the way out of the building.

"Wait a minute, is that… a window on the floor?" Ruby squinted at the screen to try and make out more details in the darkness.

"What? Don't be silly, why would there be a… it is a window. But how? Why?" Weiss's brain short circuited as she stared at the out of place object.

"That's because they're walking on the side of a building, a section of it anyway." Blank replied.

"But that doesn't make any sense!" Weiss cried.

"And it's not going to. Reality itself is warping thanks to the abyss. And this is just another example of it."

Jaune heaved a sigh of relief as he stepped over the corpses of the fallen mutants, giving thanks that if he had to be here, he at least had company. Giving the three fallen casters a second glance to make sure they were absolutely dead, he chuckled morbidly as he beheld Neptune's handiwork.

Trying to fight across the bridge to the keep would have been suicide if he was alone, those casters would have shredded him while their more mundane brethren kept him locked down. But with Neptune providing sniper support and eliminating them with quick clean shots to the head, mowing down the remaining enemies with his sword was a lot easier.

Pushing forwards into the keep, they found an even more heavily deformed creature waiting for them. Shuffling slowly towards them from the inner chambers, the thing could scarcely be called human anymore. Just a misshapen mass of flesh and steel chains forming around a wooden pole with some human features just barely visible on it.

"That is disgusting. What the hell is that thing!?" Jaune said and retched, dry heaving from the sight.

"Good question. And you know, I really don't need to sleep anymore after seeing all this. Hah, who needs sleep anyways?" Roman chuckled with a twitching eye. It was like the world had to constantly one up itself on creating disturbing nightmarish abominations.

"That used to be a prisoner in Oolacile's dungeons, and one of the early experimental test subjects." Blank explained.

"Experiment? Human experimentation?" Goodwitch raised an eyebrow.

"Indeed. The abyss is a corruptive force, but its also a source of power as all the turned residents can attest to. Before everything went to hell, they tried harnessing the power by experimenting on the captured criminals. It didn't end well and just hastened the spread, due to their longer and more direct exposure to the abyss, they are more heavily mutated than the rest, a lot stronger too."

"And people call me a monster." Roman muttered under his breath.

Surrounding it and whacking it to death was the strategy they chose to employ. Taking care to avoid the flailing ball and chains, the students took turns in striking it until it finally went down. Sun rubbed blood away from a nasty gash on his forehead where the wooden spar had struck him and broke through his aura. "That must have been one of the prisoners from the dungeons."

"You don't think we'll have to fight more of them, do you? I'm starting to run low on ammunition." Neptune checked his loadout and shook his head in frustration.

"Likewise." Ren's own submachine guns were almost empty, three more magazines between the two of them and that was it.

"A man can hope. They aren't that fast though, so if we run into any more, we should just go around it unless they're blocking the way forwards." Jaune said.

Falling silent, the four of them proceeded deeper into the keep. As the elevator took them down to the lowest levels, the oppressive feeling magnified several times. Jaune lost the battle against his stomach and started retching again as the abyss surrounded them. The rest managed to hold it together but weren't in much better shape.

Upon entering the dungeon, it wasn't a pretty sight. Abyssal veins coated almost every exposed surface and all the cells were empty. Neptune gulped at the sight of the cell bars completely bent out of shape, several of them heavily corroded. "Do we want to know what did that?"

"Not really no, I don't care as long as we don't meet it." Jaune said as he squinted into the all-consuming darkness, bitterly regretting his decision to not grab a lit torch from the walls earlier.

"Took the words right out of my mouth." Sun knelt done to inspect a hole at the back of the dungeon. A cave system lay on the other side, whatever it used to be he didn't know, all he could tell was that the it reeked of the abyss.

"Whatever busted down the walls knocked them in from outside. Hopefully, that means it's somewhere above us and we won't run into it in here."

If progress was painfully slow above ground, it was now excruciating. The darkness was almost total, and not even a faunus's night vision could pierce the veil of pitch black when there was no light source. The golden glow from the phantoms provided some relief but not much, it was just barely enough for them to see their own feet and avoid running into one another.

"There's a path here I thin-woah!" Jaune yelled out when Sun abruptly yanked him back by his hoodie.

"You might want to check again." Sun said before kicking a loose pebble onto the 'path'. The small rock flew forwards, vanished into the shadows and none of them heard it land. Jaune gulped and backed away from the edge of the bottomless chasm he nearly walked over.

"That was too close. How are you supposed to fight in such an environment?" Jaune said, wiping away a bead of sweat at his counterpart's close shave.

"Very, very carefully." Qrow answered.

"Hmm, this could be a nice addition to Beacon's curriculum. Aside from field trips, students don't really have the opportunity to practice in situations with poor visibility." Ozpin mused to himself.

"Of course, already taking notes. Some of the faunus students are also too reliant on their senses, enhanced as they are, there are still limits to them." Goodwitch adjusted her glasses and started penning down her thoughts on a small notebook.

"Meh, it'd be easier if Yang were there, her hair could light up the place." Ruby shrugged and tossed the suggestion out, getting an irritated glare from her sister.

"Rubes, we are not using my hair as a light source."

"But you could be." Nora chimed in with a cackle.

"Hehehhe… amazing how I hated their glowing red eyes upstairs, but now it's a blessing." Jaune said as he worked with Ren to bring down the monsters lurking in the shadows with them. What should have been a fool proof ambush with the silent monsters were spoiled by the glowing red orbs that stood out in the darkness like a sore thumb.

"If it's all the same to you Jaune, I'd rather not have to see them at all." Ren fired back as he used his blades to decapitate a target. Kicking it, he sent the corpse tumbling into another mutant sneaking up on Sun, bowling it over and allowing the faunus to bring his nunchakus to bear.

"Maybe, but look at it like this, with them there you at least know there's ground beneath their feet." Jaune swapped Crocea Mors into a backhand grip and rammed the point through a caster trying to blast him from behind. Once the last enemy fell, the four of them could breathe easier.

"That's that. See, glowing red eyes of doom equal solid grouahhhhhhhhh!" Jaune took a step forwards and the floor just disappeared under his feet, sending him tumbling into the darkness below.

"Rookie mistake. You don't tempt fate, not when everything is out to get you." Qrow shook his head and sighed.

"Jaune! What the hell!?" Sun cried out and dashed to edge of the sudden hole, looking for any sign of his friend. To his relief, he could still see Jaune's glowing form down below.

"Ow… what happened to the floor?" Jaune rubbed his behind and rose to his feet, grateful that his aura bore the brunt of the impact. Looking up at the hole he fell through, he surmised he must have fallen at least one storey, maybe two.

"I'm fine! There's a path here I think. Floor isn't disappearing on me anymore. An… oh god what the hell are these things!?" Scrambling backwards, he held Crocea Mors at the ready as the humanity phantoms approached.

Giant black sprites surrounded by white outlines were surrounding him and slowly making their way to him. Two white beads resembling eyes on each of them were locked onto him.

"G-ghosts!?" Jaune stuttered out.

"Those are humanity sprites, they aren't traditional ghosts but I suppose the difference is just splitting hairs at this point. That is one of the end stages of abyssal corruption." Blank explained.

"End stages? So you mean those monsters they've been fighting can get worse?" Pyrrha asked.

"Things can always get worse. Those mutants are born when the average human had their fragment of the dark soul go out of control and warp their bodies. The sprites are the final stage of that loss of control, when the dark soul is agitated to the point their bodies themselves are consumed and only the soul fragment is left."

"So that's where the rest of the population winded up, those that didn't get killed anyway. And those small ones… are they?" Summer asked.

"Yes."

"Oh that's dark." Qrow was about to drain his flask again when Summer grabbed it from him and started chugging.

"What's wrong?" Ren called down, the three of them unable to see the humanity sprites from where they were.

"There are fucking ghosts down here! Get away from me damn it!" Jaune yelled and lashed out with his sword once they came within striking range. He shivered lightly when his sword passed through them, some kind of feedback from where his aura coated the blade. Cutting through them was weird, it was like striking water, easy enough to go through but with some resistance.

White sparks flared from the hit and the sprite was pushed back, only for it to start approaching again. Jaune grit his teeth and just continued slashing. Forcing them back one at a time but slowly being forced to back away.

'At least they can die.' He thought when several of the sprites faded away into nothing after taking a few good hits from him.

"Hang on, we're on the way down!" Neptune called out as he steeled himself and leapt down the hole. Sun and Ren right behind him. Landing on their feet more gracefully than Jaune did, they immediately drew the attention of the spectres closest to them.

"Okay… this is new." Ren muttered and started attacking with Stormflower.

"They go down if you hit them enough but there's just so many of them!" Jaune informed them while doing his best to keep the phantoms at bay.

As the four of them fought, Sun was the first to slip up, tripping over an unseen rock in the darkness, he came into contact with one of the sprites, the thing passing straight through him. Letting his weapons fall to the ground, he keeled over and hugged himself tight as the essence of the being washed over him.

Memories not his own invaded his mind. The warmth of the sun on his back, the joy of casting his first spell. The fear when the abyss erupted. The desire and madness lurking inside the darkness. Then mind numbing pain when his body started to change. Finally, just a very muted sense of curiosity and almost complete apathy towards the world.

"Okay, that is creepy, having a ghost just invade your head like that. Brrr…" Nora shivered and Ren gave her a few calming pats on the back to calm her down.

Ozpin just coughed discreetly in his seat.

He came to shortly after once Jaune started shaking him. "Huh? What? W-where am I?"

"You're under Oolacile, we're here to stop Manus and save the princess, you back with us Wukong?" Jaune asked as Sun's dilated pupils started to focus again.

"Y-yeah, I think I am. What happened to me?"

"One of those ghosts passed through you then you just fell over and stopped moving. You were shivering like crazy too, Ren pulled you out of there once Nep and I pushed the ghosts back. But you've been out of it for almost half an hour according to Ren's count." Jaune explained.

"I see… these ghosts… they used to be the residents of Oolacile." Sun whispered and Jaune grimaced.

"Yeah, we kinda figured that. Got some memories that aren't my own floating around inside our heads now, must be our aura reacting to them in some way. You probably got a full dunk when that thing passed through you."

"Any good news?" Sun asked as he rose to his feet unsteadily.

"Some, one of the memories Neptune got from the ghosts confirms Manus is here. So we know we're definitely on the right track. Ren scouted ahead and found a trail of glowing stones leading off deeper into this place." Jaune paused for a moment before pointing off to the side.

"Also, there's that giant cat trying to get us to follow it. it's vanished again but it'll be back if we stick around some more. We thought about sending one of us to check it out, but with you out of commission and who knows what else in the darkness with us, splitting the party is a really bad idea."

"Prism stones might have been used by Artorias to mark his path, if we follow it, it could lead us to Manus. And is it wise to follow the cat?" Sun asked.

"Maybe, maybe not. It hasn't tried to kill us yet so that's a major plus in my books. It's the closest thing to a friendly we've seen since entering this twisted world. You're the expert us though, so your call." Jaune shrugged.

"Then I say we check it out, but remain on alert. We could always use more allies." Sun decided after some deliberation. Jaune nodded and called Ren and Neptune over to inform them of their new course of action.

Following the cat's path led them into a side passage with even more humanity sprites milling around. Taking things at their own pace, they carefully dispelled the phantoms without allowing any of them to come into contact with anyone to avoid a repeat incident.

Coming to the end of the path, the found an injured wolf lying on the ground, a pale golden glow surrounded it and was warding the remaining humanity phantoms off.

"That's Sif! Artorias's companion!" Sun said once he recognised the canine.

"He friendly?" Ren asked as he surveyed the area warily.

"He should recognize me. Come on, we need to get those ghosts away from it." Sun declared and the four of them kicked into action, beating back the remnants of Oolacile's people to save the wolf.

Once the last of the sprites had been vanquished, Sun knelt next to Sif and the wolf's eyes opened. Recognition flashed through them as it let out a mournful howl at the loss of its master.

"Yeah, I'm sorry he's gone too. He's at peace now at least." Sun rested his palm on Sif's fur, the two of them sharing a moment of silence for the fallen hero. Pushing itself up, Sif nudged the damaged great shield it was lying on towards Sun.

Once the faunus accepted the shield, the wolf let out one last howl before a magic circle opened up under it and it was whisked away by magic.

"Okay, where'd it go?" Neptune asked.

"Away, to recover." Sun grunted and hefted the great shield up, slinging it over his back.

"This shield used to be Artorias's it's enchanted to provide defence against magic. Damaged as it is, the enchantments should still retain some of its potency. Let's go."

"Oooh… final boss incoming." Nora whispered as she could feel the final showdown approaching.

"Good, I hope they kick Manus's ass." Ruby said and punched her fists.

"Ruby!?" Taiyang stared at his daughter in a mix of surprise and disbelief.

"Sorry dad, that wolf just reminds me too much of Zwei, that's all. And no one hurts our dog." Ruby explained.

Forging ahead, following the soft glow of the prism stones used to mark out a safe path to Manus like a trail of bread crumbs, the four of them reached the heart of the abyss. Even the glow of the phantoms seemed muted as the darkness tried to consume the light.

Suppressing the revulsion flooding them and steeling themselves for the fight, the stepped through. A low roar that seemed to shake the very cavern itself reached them and the massive arm that pulled Sun into the book shot up at them from the darkness.

Despite trying to jump back, Sun was still grabbed and dragged off into the darkness. "Fucking hell! Sun! God damnit, that must be Manus." Jaune cursed and leapt after the arm, sword at the ready. Ren and Neptune followed suit.

Sun's impromptu journey came to an end when he managed to get over the shock and start firing his weapons at the hand, forcing it to let go. Crashing to the ground and rolling to a stop, Sun shot back to his feet, weapons at the ready. Jaune, Ren and Neptune dropped in seconds later and together, the four of them beheld a demon straight from the fiery pits of hell emerging from a pit.

The glowing red eyes they'd come to recognise and hate glared at them as the giant behemoth lumbered out of the shadows. Bone spurs erupted from its body at various points, forming a set of horns and armour. The massive oversized arm hung at its side while its other more 'normal' looking limb wielded a staff that seemed to be hewn from bedrock itself. Black flames appeared to dance around it as the abyssal taint was concentrated enough to be visible in the air itself.

"Manus eh, You're one ugly sonofabitch." Sun said and a feral grin spread across his features. Launching at the beast that damned one of his friends with a soundless yell, the fight was on.

"So… still think you've seen Grimm more terrifying than that?" Blank asked Roman.

"Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope to the hell no. All aboard the train to fuck that ville." The master thief spat out and the audience agreed with him.

"I'm surprised they can fight it that well at all. Even veteran huntsmen would be more than a little freaked out by seeing something like that." Qrow pointed out.

"Side effect of having to fight through so many monstrosities already. I'm sure you know, watching it and experiencing it first hand is remarkably different. They're already numb, and the abyss is helping to keep them numb by forcing them to focus on everything except their fear. The one plus point of the abyss I guess." Blank said.

Manus roared in anger and pain as the students launched salvo after salvo of attacks at it. Jaune slashing at whatever flesh he could, Neptune stabbing with his trident, Sun blasting with his shotguns and Ren going for the eyes with his submachine guns.

"Shit, that arm of his is lethal." Jaune said as he blocked a wide swipe from the giant arm, the strike powerful enough to send him flying backwards. Bleeding off the momentum with a summersault, he landed back on his feet and shook his arm to get rid of the numbness.

Manus started leaping around the place and smashing the ground repeatedly like an overgrown ape, causing the arena to rumble. Ren cursed when the shaking threw off his aim and his last shots went wide.

"I'm out of ammo." He called out and Sun just cursed in response. A ren with no ammo meant no more covering fire putting out eyes as a distraction.

"We'll just have to make do, surround it and hit it until it's dead." Sliding under a wide swing, Sun shot up again and emptied the last of his shotgun shells into a gash in the bone armour that appeared to have been left by a great sword.

The answering roar of pain was music to his ears. Even gone, Artorias continued to aid them in their quest to put an end to the abyss.

Seeing that its attacks weren't having the desired effect, Manus roared and raised its staff, dark magic swirling around to answer his call. Countless orbs of darkness massed around them, forming an enclosure that trapped the four huntsmen, waiting to be fired.

"Oh fuck us, how are we supposed to avoid that!?" Jaune paled as he stared at the wall of death surrounding them in all directions. The orbs fired and before any of them could think to dodge, the pendant entrusted to Sun by Artorias started to glow.

A barrier of silver light sprung into existence around them, the paper-thin shield holding and keeping the darkness at bay. After several seconds of clashing against the light, the dark orbs faded into thin wisps, the magic powering them overcome by the pendants own.

"Yup, definitely still helping us." Sun grinned at the pendants magic before resuming his attack.

"If he had something that could repel the dark magic like that, how'd Artorias lose in the first place?" Blake asked, unable to conceive a reason why he could have lost with such a hard counter to Manus's magic.

"The pendant has its limits, it's not a silver bullet. Just keep watching and you'll see what I mean." Blank answered.

Despite their good showing against Manus, the father of the abyss was simply too strong to go down easily. And their own limits were starting to show, exhaustion from all the battles and constant vigilance had taken their toll and Manus's repertoire of tricks were beginning to catch them off guard.

Ren was the first to fall. Dashing in once and opening presented itself to stab at Manus's exposed underbelly, he failed to notice it was a trap and the monster had deliberately opened itself up to attack.

Without warning, Manus slammed its staff to the floor with a bang, a tidal wave of darkness shot out in a shotgun like burst that Ren had no chance of avoiding. He took the blast head on and was sent tumbling back.

As the overwhelming darkness tore through his system, Ren convulsed on the ground several times before going still. His phantom body faded away into non-existence and left the remaining three staring in shock.

"Renny no!" Nora gasped before scooting over and grabbing Ren in a death hug, ensuring he was still with her.

"It's fine Nora, I'm still here. I'm not going anywhere." Ren comforted the frightened girl.

"Kill that bastard." Jaune said in a dark tone, glaring at the screen with eyes full of hate.

"Jaune, relax. It's… not happening to the Ren you know." Yang tried to calm him down, not liking where the darkness would take him.

"How… how am I supposed to relax after seeing that!?" Jaune clenched his fists tightly.

"It's difficult I know, but you just have to relax. Because it's not 'real' in a sense."

"But… but… that's Ren! He's the closest thing I have to a brother, how can I relax!?"

"Take a deep breath and slowly let it out. Trust me, it'll help. I mean, in the first universe I watched, I had to see you kill my dad and Ruby got eaten alive. So trust me when I say I know how you feel." Yang gave a brittle smile to Jaune, it widened slightly when she saw Jaune take a shuddering breath and make an effort to calm down.

"We're here for you Jaune." Pyrrha added in as she squeezed his hand to comfort him.

"Ren! No… nononono. NOOOOOOOO! AHHHHHHHHRRRRGGHHHH!" Jaune lost it instantly, seeing his friend just die in front of him stripped away and shred of sanity he had left and he went berserk.

Rushing in uncaring of the danger, Jaune started furiously hacking away at Manus. His dormant semblance activated and his attacks became empowered. Striking again and again, forcing Manus back, he fought until Crocea Mors shattered in his hands.

Tossing the destroyed weapon away, he started wailing on the demon with his bare hands, screaming incoherently all the while.

"He's going to get himself killed!" Neptune swore and sniped one of Manus's eyes, causing it to flinch in pain and the hammer like portion of its staff to miss Jaune by an inch.

"But he has the right of it, we don't attack we're not killing Manus." Sun grunted and surged forwards to resume his own attacks.

"Damnit all, attack, attack, attack is not a plan!" Neptune complained but followed in his leaders footsteps all the same.

Things were going well until Manus released a power scream that knocked them back. While they were stunned, Manus reached out with its giant arm and grabbed hold of Neptune. With him in hand, the beast began to squeeze, drawing out a scream of pain from its captive.

Howling in rage, Manus started smashing Neptune against the floor repeatedly hard enough to crack the stone. Unable to take the damage being dished out, Neptune's phantom shimmered and shattered into motes of light as well.

While Sun and Jaune were still stunned and unable to react, Manus dredged up its abyssal magic again. A cloud of darkness manifested directly overhead and dropped straight down onto the duo that were only just climbing back to their feet.

The pendant activated again, the silver barrier holding the mass of darkness at bay. But unlike with the earlier magic attack, the mass was to dense for the barrier to dispel, simply collecting at a point directly over Sun.

As the barrier started to fade, the mass was diminished but still more than enough for a fatal blow. With Sun still dazed and unable to dodge, Jaune made his decision.

As much as he wanted to continue attacking Manus for what it had done. He'd already lost two friends, he wasn't going to lose another. Pouring aura into his legs to enhance his strength, he shot across the clearing in a superhuman jump.

Slamming into Sun and pushing him away right before the barrier failed. The last sight of Jaune Sun had was the knight giving a small smile… just in time for the mass of darkness to land right on top of him. When it dissipated, there was no longer any sign of Jaune's gold phantom.

Jaune let out a shuddering breath at the sight. "Well, guess I'm dead too. So much for avenging Ren… at least Sun's okay."

Yang and Pyrrha said nothing, just pulling him into a hug and not letting go.

"Jaune… Nep… Ren… you bastard. Just taking Artorias wasn't enough huh!?" Sun glared hatefully towards Manus. The creature's howls and screams seeming like mocking laughter to his ears.

"I couldn't save any of them thanks to you, but I'll sure as hell avenge them." Leaping into battle again without any care for self-preservation. Sun committed to the assault fully, no longer holding anything back.

As the battle dragged on, he received reinforcement from an unexpected source. A patched up Sif landed on top of Manus and started attacking as well, Artorias's damaged sword gripped firmly in its jaws.

As the two companions of the abyss walker double teamed Manus, the giant was starting to falter, all the wounds inflicted on it by everyone starting to add up.

"Kuh!" Sun grunted out as a lucky hit sent him tumbling back. As he struggled to rise from the shallow grave he found himself in, he found that he wasn't as alone as he initially thought. A young woman in a torn ornate dress was lying there, curled up into a ball.

"Princess Dusk?" He asked, a small whimper was the only response he got as the woman was effectively catatonic from whatever ordeal she'd been through.

Sun shook his head, there would be time to save the princess later, Manus had to be dealt with first. Pushing himself up, he charged back into the fray just as Sif was tossed away.

Slipping Artorias's shield onto his forearm when one of his nunchakus were ripped away and crushed, Sun used the shield to deflect the next staff strike. It created an opening for Sif to leap up and slash with the great sword.

Manus howled in agony as its horn was severed, the bony extension falling to the ground with a crash. Retaliating with a brutal swing, Sif yelped as the arm caught it mid fall and sent the wolf crashing to the ground painfully. The great sword slipped free from its jaws and clattered to the floor.

Manus started charging a darkness attack again, this one aimed at Sun. The monkey faunus was about to jump away when he recalled Princess Dusk lying behind him. If he dodged, the princess would definitely die.

The wave of darkness rushed towards him and the pendant activated again. Silver barrier holding up against the assault momentarily before failing. Sun slammed the great shield in front of him, acting as a barrier between them.

The tidal wave crashed against the shield and broke around it, bypassing the princess and leaving her unharmed. The damaged shield broke apart once the attack was done, a badly wounded Sun stood knelt on the other end of it.

Blood trickled down his face and his skin was charred in places as though burnt. Coughing in pain, his vision wavered as he noticed his hands coming away bloody when he wiped his mouth.

His aura was past the red zone, just a small silver left, even a single punch from a civilian would be enough to break it… just enough to put into one last attack. Unaware of Dusk's eyes on him, Sun staggered over to the fallen great sword and raised it.

Putting everything into his final move, he charged and Manus responded. Orbs of darkness shot towards him in an effort to put him down for the last time. Sun dodged it all, using his tail as balance for several of his riskier moves.

Once he was in range, Sun screamed out as he jumped up onto Manus's oversized arm and used it as a springboard to reach its head.

With a mighty thrust, Sun speared Manus straight through the skull with Artorias's sword. The last of his strength spent, the monkey fell back to earth, he would have crashed hard if it wasn't for Sif leaping in to cushion his fall and get him to safety.

Manus thrashed around as it tried and failed to get the weapon out of its face with its death throes. Finally falling over with a deafening bang, it twitched several times before stilling.

"Heh… so that's it than. The abyss will be halted with this." Sun whispered as Sif gently lowered him to the floor.

Sun coughed again, numbness spreading through his body as it started to fail without the aura keeping it alive. "The princess is over there, get her to safety."

Sun pointed in the direction of Dusk's shallow grave and Sif nodded its assent. The monkey faunus smiled, knowing that the princess was in good hands. The abyss had been stopped and his friends had been avenged, that was all he could ask for at this point.

"I killed a literal demon… Sage and Scarlet are never going to believe this…" He trailed off and closed his eyes. Sif howled mournfully as the screen turned black.

"That's it!? That can't be it!" Weiss was on the verge of tearing her hair out in frustration.

"Hold on Weiss, the lights haven't come on yet, maybe there's more to it than that." Blake said.

"There better be, what kind of ending is that? Where everyone dies in the end?"

"That's just how the legend goes, I've said it before but happy endings aren't guaranteed. But this time though…" Blank chuckled and allowed the movie to continue to play.

The screen slowly came back on, a blank ceiling came into view. "Oh my head, why do I feel hungover? I haven't been drinking." Sun cradled his aching head as he sat up and blinked away the cobwebs in his head.

Around him, his friends were pulling themselves together as well, all groaning in pain. Ren was the first up, he tried to stand only to fall back down. "Gah, what happened to us. I… wait… I'm alive!?"

"Shut up Ren, oh my aching head… Ren!?" Jaune's headache was momentarily forgotten as Ren's voice cut through the fog in his mind.

"You're alive! I… we're all alive! But… how!? I… I remember dying." Jaune clutched at himself to check that he was in one piece. He distinctly remembered being consumed by the darkness and then nothingness.

"Okay… so that wasn't just a dream right? Lordran… the abyss… all that was real?" Neptune asked once he got his bearings. They were all back in the library backroom, a quick check of his discarded scroll indicated it was just half past seven in the morning.

"Some kind of illusion? Hallucination? It felt real to me." Ren said with a small shrug.

"Maybe… I!" Sun clutched at his chest suddenly and started fumbling with something around his neck. Jaune, Ren and Neptune just watched on in confusion until Sun pulled the object out.

A silver pendant.

"Okay… not a dream." Sun exhaled as he stared at Artorias's gift to him.

"How?" Jaune asked, unable to make sense of it all.

"We… we were really pulled into another world? Into a story?"

Jaune's words triggered something in Sun and he made a grab for the big book of fairy tales before the rest could stop him. "Come on, come on, come on… there!"

Flipping the book to the first page of the legend of the abyss walker. He gulped and slowly flipped over the page, to his surprise, words and pictures now filled the blank chapter.

"What the hell are you thinking man!? You trying to get us all sucked in again!?" Neptune resisted the urge to jump over and start strangling his team leader.

"No, that won't be happening again I think. Look, the story's been filled in." Sun held the book out for them to see, and despite their wariness, the three of them crowded in for a better look.

"Artorias fell in battle against the abyss, unable to overcome the darkness, he was consumed and corrupted. A nameless hero and his companions arrived and freed the fallen knight from his burdens before taking up his sword and struck deep into the heart of the abyss. One by one, they fell to primeval man, but through their sacrifice, they brought down Manus, father of the abyss, saved Princess Dusk and freed the kingdom of Oolacile from the grip of the abyss. The princess, afflicted by her ordeal, only saw a figure wielding Sir Artorias's sword and shield in battle and reported as such. Thus the legend of the abyss walker was cemented." Jaune read out.

"That's… our story." Ren surmised after the four of them were silent for a moment.

"But how?" Neptune asked.

"No idea, I guess the chapter was blank because we were supposed to be in it. It's as much our legend as it is Artorias, until we lived it, the story wasn't written." Sun gave his own theory.

"If the story in the book is true… what about all the others in it?" Ren asked.

"That's a good question. But I'm not sure I want to dig into it anymore, I've had enough excitement for a long time. Back to nice sorting out old books without having to fight living nightmares thank you very much." Sun chuckled, getting his friends to laugh along with him.

Closing the book, he placed it aside from all the rest, they could decide what to do with it later. For now, there were books to sort out. Clutching the pendant tight, he slipped it back around his neck and smiled, just happy to be alive.

As the screen went dark again, the lights came on this time. Seeing this, the audience sighed in relief, no more curve balls to be thrown their way.

"That's all folks, go refresh yourselves, the next viewing will start shortly." Blank said.

"Oh yeah, maybe the next one will be less taxing on my nightmares." Roman grumbled.

"Hahahah… about that…"

---

Author's notes: A little late depending on timezone, but here's something to ring in the new year. No character replacement this time, just a straight up crossover with characters as themselves. Some modifications to the dark souls universe to make it flow a little better. If you play dark souls or know about the community, you'll get exactly why Jaune, Ren and Neptune are gold phantoms instead of white ones.