Chapter 9: Bloody Evolution

Location Unknown

Gilgamesh had wandered up and down the halls of this fortress castle. It seemed that its previous owner had taken great strides in maintaining it. There was nothing to be seen in the way of uncleanliness. Not a single piece of furniture or decoration was out of place, only signs that this place had been lived in.

For the past few days, he took to scanning the entirety of his newest acquisition. It was an irrepressibly drab place, so in order to get it up to his standards, he would have to do a lot of renovative work. He had considered razing the entire place to the ground, but his decision not to stemmed from a simple reason: he didn't want to expend more effort doing so; he would have to build an entire castle from the ground up. Thus, he chose to do some major modifications and leave it at that.

The King of Heroes returned his attention to his more pressing concerns. With Salem out of commission and her power now in his hands, he had to make his next move. Although he was now in a position to dictate the tempo of this world, he didn't use this as an excuse to dawdle. Sooner or later, someone would realize that there had been a power shift and Salem's enemies would now be his enemies, mainly the headmaster of Beacon Academy.

Learning about Ozpin through the witch left Gilgamesh slightly tickled. It turned out the man was little more than a hero fallen from grace, a man turned soft by the woman that he still loved. Frankly speaking, the cold war between the two of them was pathetic. It amounted to little more than a proxy for their lover's quarrel. It was the result of unresolved emotions. It was so uninspiring that it almost seemed like a good idea to turn their drama into a sort of comedic drama for the sake of sheer amusement if nothing else.

The former ruler of Uruk only had a few moments of humor before he thought about what other information he had taken in. This world was the result of a joint effort between two brothers, one of light and one of dark. They were the creators of this world and in this world's history, they were once revered as gods.

The golden-haired man sneered in contempt. His life had been fraught with the interference of gods and goddesses. The only thing that he could feel for any being with divinity of any kind was loathing. They had created him and made him into something that he had no choice in. They had inconvenienced him time and time again. They had killed his first and only friend to spite him. In short, he would most certainly not be greeting the gods of this world with open arms. If anything, he would annihilate them on site should he ever encounter them.

But to lessen the chances of them ever coming back to this world, the relics would need to be retrieved from the academies. As long as these four items were at large, Remnant would never be able to move forward. These distractions needed to be removed from the picture entirely.

On that front, there was progress. Roman Torcwick had informed him via scroll message that he had managed to secure entry into Beacon Academy via one of his subordinates. Locating the vault was a work in progress, not entirely good news, but at least there was progress in that department.

Besides the issue with the relics, there was one other outstanding issue. With Salem gone, the Grimm were effectively directionless. Without something to anchor them, they would surely start ravaging the world needlessly and that would be a waste of life. As they were, the artificial monsters were not as powerful as they could be. They were built purely with destruction and hatred and nothing else. It was such a primitive construction that it could hardly constitute something truly threatening. That being said, there was potential hidden underneath all the current flaws. Something incomplete could be made into something whole. All it needed was a little effort.

Gilgamesh looked out one of the many windows present to bear witness to the many pools of blackness down below. There were so many of them and they were spawning so many different types of Grimm, all of them with unique abilities and combative techniques. He had seen this process repeat itself so many times, but had not gone down there himself to discern the properties of these pools, but now that his mind was on the subject, now probably was as good of a time as any.

So he casually broke the window separating him from the outside world, then leaped down, hitting the ground with a soft thud. He then casually walked up to the nearest black pit and stared into it for a few seconds. He couldn't see anything besides a black mess, but there was something else within this substance, something that gave form to these beasts. That was the only aspect that he was interested in. The rest was of no consequence.

The demigod reached his left hand into the muck and the moment he did, he felt something in this vile slush try to inflict harm upon. Granted, it wasn't enough to even so much as dent her perfect body, but the fact that it was trying to hurt him at all irked him. He began to pour his own power into the pool. He would not be denied his prize and whatever was trying to fight him would be made to submit to his will.

Gilgamesh narrowed his eyes in slight concentration as he called upon one of the noble phantasms stored in the Gate of Babylon, then utilizing an ability to force the pool to cease its attacks against him. For a moment, the pit resisted his attempts to pacify it, but it eventually settled down, then ceased to put up a fight altogether. Now he could dissect this stuff without another impediment.

So he reached his hand further, using his non-human senses to detect something resembling a power of creation or something akin to the nature of life itself, but he was met with so many vile emotions all contained in just this small little puddle. Such a concentration of hatred was so quaint. The God of Darkness must have been in an especially foul mood when he first created the Grimm. Either that, or he was simply always this unbearable. If that was the case, then it wasn't hard to guess what sort of individual his brother was.

The King of Heroes pushed past these aberrations and resumed his search. Even in this soup, there had to be something constituting the power of creation. All beings possessing divinity desired to create something mirrored in their own image or failing that, their own ideals. In that respect, all gods and goddesses were vain. Still, it was hard to navigate through territory comprised of simple and raw ingredients, but then again, considering when the Grimm were created, it wasn't all that surprising.

The Grimm were the absolute epitome of the God of Darkness, a means of destroying life that the God of Light created. Perhaps in a way, this was an attempt to mirror his brother's concoctions in order to prove superiority. The only reason for one person to knowingly and willingly destroy someone else's work was because they despised either the work or the person behind it. Most likely, such an action stemmed from insecurity of some kind.

Gilgamesh felt something tugging at him, something vaguely resembling demonic properties. That had to be somehow connected to the building blocks of the Grimm. Seizing the chance, he grabbed ahold of this power and began to absorb it. What followed with an immense surge of power far more potent than any magic that the maidens or Salem could conjure. The power to make life, regardless of imperfections, was unquestionably the most powerful capabilities that anyone could have, so it was not surprising that what he was feeling now was actually fairly powerful, even by his standards.

Carefully removing his hand from the pool, he saw a swirl of purple energy dancing on his palm. Already he had begun to analyze everything that this newfound ability would provide for him. Once he knew what it could do, he would begin in earnest.

Remnant was a world of bloody evolution and the Grimm had once been the source of that need to be constantly evolving. Now that status quo was about to change. No longer would pathetic monsters roam the world. The past would soon be looked back on as an easier time to live in. Any sort of weakness, big or small, would no longer be tolerated. There was room for only two types of individuals: those who were worthy enough to live or those who were willful enough to live.

It was time to cull some mongrels.


Fate/Stay Night - - - RWBY


Lily had plenty of ways to practice with her magical powers and ever since they had established the scary castle as a new home, she had spent a lot of time down with the Grimm as they came at her relentlessly, each of their attacks intended to deal a killing blow and every time, she dealt her own death strikes.

It was amazing what her power could do. It made even the most casual moves extremely potent. One wave of her arm and she could create a fire wave to cut down multiple enemies in front of her. Another thing she could do was release intense energy all around herself in a way that would vaporize anything and anyone close to her. She could absorb heat in her area and plunge the temperature to sub-zero numbers. All of this she could do and so much more; this was merely the tip of a massive iceberg.

To make her training all the more rigorous, she wasn't merely contending with the Grimm that she was familiar with. Instead, she was now facing an evolved species of Grimm, something that Gilgamesh had created during an experiment of his. Apparently, he could not create his own monsters at will, but that wasn't much of a surprise. When it came to her brother, there seemed to be nothing that he couldn't accomplish.

Back to her training, these evolved Grimm were a step up from their previous incarnations for one reason: they were already smart beasts from the moment of their creation. While not on the level of a human or a faunus, they were certainly superior to the mindlessness of their predecessors.

Their changes were denoted by their appearance. No longer were they the midnight-black that they once were. Now they sported a bright glowing color, the same as Gilgamesh's golden hair. The bone plates and shark spikes were gone, leaving a more slim build. One noticeable holdover from the original design was the red eyes. In fact, all along these new Grimm were red lines signifying their allegiance to their new ruler.

Lily threw a fireball at the new Grimm type as it cautiously approached her. The evolved monster was smart enough to dodge and still kept coming forward. She tried a more instantaneous assault. As fire was connected to light, which in turn was the fastest known entity in the entire universe, there was no way for the beast to dodge. It was effectively reduced to a pile of golden ashes, which then converted into magic energy.

The green-haired fell to the ground in order to avoid getting tackled by a Beowolf. The four-legged predator didn't take long to turn itself around and try again, this time approaching with a more precise vector in mind. The little girl took flight, using her powers to lift herself into the air out of reach of her enemy. She followed up by conjuring molten rock to hurl down like a rain of fire.

With a momentary reprieve, she noticed for the first time since she had begun that she was short of breath. This usually happened when she was ultra-focused on something. That combined with her pushing herself to the next level had her feeling weak at the knees.

"Decent." Gilgamesh sounded off. "But hardly the most rapid way of dispatching your foes. Again."

Raw power cackled forward from his hand and surrounded Lily on all sides. From this bolts came new enemies. This time, it was a Death Stalker, a Griffin, and a King Taijitu. Near instantly, the three of them moved into a circle formation so as to cut off whatever means of escape that could be executed.

The faunus girl forgot about her fatigue, her head looking to her left, then to her right. Her senses could clearly detect each of the unique signatures that these Grimm were displaying. Keeping track of all of them simultaneously was the key here. Against superior numbers, situational awareness would be the winning factor here, not her power.

The snake-like best lunged a head, She narrowly weaved before delivering a fire-induced chop, severing it cleanly. The second head moved even faster than the first, intended to capitalize on a split-second distraction. It might have worked had she not been positioned so that she could see a flash out of the corner of her eyes before reducing the second head to a pulp with a fist of pure energy.

The scorpion thrust its tail forward to which the girl lunged forward and then channeling a flame to engulf the much-larger enemy, much like a flamethrower. A charring smell came some ten seconds after. Next came the sound of its large body hitting the ground dead.

Once the arthropod was sufficiently subdued, she initiated an offensive, aiming to clip the wings of the Griffin before it could take off. Her aim enabled her to hit one wing only, but it was enough to prevent flight. Slinking away, its approach was now cautious, having lost a means of mobility. The more careful approach didn't work long as the maiden made a deep blue flame rise up from the ground, turning the thing into ashes.

Another round of fighting was done, she felt something wet in the corner of her eyes. Wiping her brow, she came to realize that her exertions were causing her to sweat immensely. In fact, her entire body felt damp, like someone had taken a small bucket and doused her with it. Also, she felt hungry and thirsty and sleepy all at the same time.

"That will be all for now." Gilgamesh declared as he walked up to her. "We will resume training tomorrow."

"Okay." Lily said on instinct, yet groaned mentally.

She collapsed to the ground, now able to assess the exhaustion that had seeped into every part of her body. She had no idea how long she had been doing this, but it must have been for a while seeing as she had fallen on her back breathing heavily and any movement felt like trying to move a castle.

"A true master of his craft must be willing to devote many hours of practice and training." Gilgamesh knew what she was thinking. "You cannot very well become powerful without being able to endure the monotony of discipline."

"Monotony?" Lily didn't know what that meant.

"Repetitiveness." Gilgamesh quickly explained. "Doing the same thing over and over again."

"Oh." Lily found that answer disappointing.

Honestly, she felt more than ready to take on new challenges. Ever since she had first won against an opponent that was far stronger and more experienced than herself, she felt like now was the time to push the limits and see just how far she could go, but whenever it came to the word of her guardian, she couldn't help but obey. He was the most powerful person that she had seen so far in the world and she had to respect that.

Her eagerness to expand her horizon might be due to her ability to control her fears in a way that didn't interfere with her ability to fight. Whenever she was in a combative mode, she felt a lot of her brain shutting down and relying solely on knowledge related to her semblance, her magical powers, and her survival instinct. It was a sort of trance-like state, something she wasn't aware of in the moment, but could recall clearly in hindsight.

Lily didn't know all that much about the world, but she did know that she didn't want to die. She had seen plenty of it in her life and especially so in the time she had been picked up by Gilgamesh and didn't seem to fear death at all. That had to mean that he had so much power that death wasn't even a problem for him anymore.

She wanted to know how to think like that, so while training and all of that was not exactly what she wanted to do, if he said that it was needed, she didn't have any greater reason to argue against him.

"You will understand one day." Gilgamesh stood over her with his arms crossed. "Power is the measure of all things in the universe. A man with power will be able to inspire people to do as he pleases because of his power. Whether his power comes from his wealth, his ability to influence other people, or an ability that is unique to himself, all that matters is that these can all be leveraged as a means of creating power."

All of that was a lot of mumbo jumbo, but she did understand the part about power. She even had magic, something that almost no one else on Remnant had, so she could say that she was special in that regard. Now all she had to do was take that power from the others that had power like her and then there would be no one else on Remnant with her power. That would leave her virtually unopposed.

To become so powerful that the thought of even fighting her would be unthinkable?

That sounded fine to her.


RWBY - - - Fate/Stay Night


Leonardo Lionheart was growing more unsettled with the days that passed by. It had been quite a while since his last communication with Salem and he was growing rather antsy. He didn't recall any of his past actions being particularly offensive to her, but then again, he couldn't say that he knew much about her.

His growing caution was due to a recent message from Ozpin. Amber Autumn was dead and there was a new Fall Maiden, but the identity of said maiden was a mystery. Not even the headmaster of Beacon Academy knew who she was. Normally, this would have been a sign that the plan was beginning, but the problem was that there had been no communication with any of Salem's inner circle since then.

That silence was frightening to say the least. It could mean a lot of things. A surprise, a change of plan, a hurdle in the road, it could be any of these things, or it could be none of those things.

Leonardo couldn't do much as things stood right now. Events in Mistral weren't supposed to occur until after Beacon had fallen. With that part of the plan now in limbo as far as he knew, what was he supposed to do but wait?

Truthfully, his duties as headmaster of Haven Academy seemed almost easy when compared to what he did behind closed doors. Training aspiring young adults to become the defenders of the world was something he knew everything about. After all, in his prime, the lion faunus had been one of the very best of his generation. Granted, his skills were very rusty now, but he knew the feeling of wanting to do good.

And because he knew what doing the right thing meant, he could only fall further into a slump as he reminded himself daily that he had literally sold his soul to the devil because he didn't have the will nor the mettel to fight against the evil that haunted this world. He had given up in the face of that evil and was actively working for it.

But against a power that was unstoppable, was there a choice?

Leo asked himself this question many times and no amount of rationalization was going to change the fact that he was utterly ashamed of himself for what he had become. He wanted to save his own skin, but he wasn't fully committed to turning to the dark side because his old sense of good and righteousness wouldn't let him fully convert.

It was a never ending loop of self-hatred and he saw no sign of it ever stopping, not as long as he lived and no matter who won in the end, he would still feel the same way. If Salem won, he would live with the guilt of having had a part in condemning innocent people to a fate far more frightening than death. If Ozpin won, he would live with the guilt of letting his cowardice overtake his sense of heroism and not doing his part to fight the good fight. It was a lose-lose situation no matter where he turned.

Leonardo sighed softly before settling into his seat. If he had the time to think about the ways that he would spend his remaining days, then he could be doing something productive. There was always something to do. If he wasn't doing work for the academy, there were also some things he could speak to the council about. Really, anything to keep him distracted from the morality of his situation was welcome.

Powering his console, he began to read through some unread messages. These were from alumni, other important associates, and some issues relating to behind-the-scenes issues of Mistral. He processed what he needed and responded accordingly, performing his task with speed and precision.

This task would carry on for some time. He would spend at least a minute or two reading and then five minutes formulating a proper response. Finishing several of these wasn't time-consuming, but considering his position, dozens more needed to be looked at. He would need to get at least some rest before he resumed tomorrow, so maybe two or three more and he would call it a night.

It was purely coincidence that Leo shifted his head to look directly in front of him, but once he did, he was met with the sight of a young man with golden yellow hair and blood red eyes standing there. It was enough to shock him and he jumped out of his chair and let out a cry.

"A coward, she called you." The newcomer said. "It would appear that her assessment of you was correct."

"W-who are you?" Leonardo tried his best to compose himself, but something about this one didn't feel right.

"I did not come here to answer your questions, you feeble animal." The return words were harsh. "I came here to relay a message."

"A message?" Leo was confused. "From who? What about?"

"From myself, of course." The shorter man narrowed his eyes. "When I speak, it is for no one other than myself. My word is law. My judgement is final. There is no one on Remnant who is even marginally close to matching me in any capacity. Not even your master, Salem could stand against me."

"W-what?" Leonardo's eyes widened.

If he was interpreting all of this correctly, then this young man was saying that the queen of the Grimm was no longer in the picture, but how could that be? Salem was all powerful and immortal. Nothing short of an actual god could truly stop her.

"Accept my words or do not. I care not about how your petty mind deciphers my words." Those red eyes were inscrutable and that was terrifying. "I am here to speak of what is to come for you and your ilk. If you value your own survival, then you will heed these words carefully."

From the palm of the person in front of the headmaster of Haven Academy came forward a display of magic, something that the huntsman had not seen from anyone other than Ozpin and Salem. Just that alone was enough to add some credibility to the now less outrageous statement of being able to take down the witch.

Then the entirety of his office was swallowed up by the power sprouting from the hands of this unknown man. In place of a simple room came forward a vision, but one almost indistinguishable from reality.

What it showed was something truly horrifying.

Men and women of all combative types were fighting for their lives as Grimm-like creatures came from everywhere. These beasts were gold and red and they seemed to be killing all who opposed them. Military, huntsman, it didn't matter. Anyone with a weapon was a target and they targeted.

The screams of desperation and death filled the air with constant noise. It was a sensory overload merely listening to all of it. With sensitive faunus hearing, it might as well make him go deaf.

Fire reigned from the heavens and the skyline that was once blue was now crimson red. All those that didn't perish in the fighting were being swallowed by a red sea of unknown origin and composition.

Leonardo's attempts to shut out all of his senses were all for naught. He couldn't make his body respond in that way. He could move around, change how he stood, where he looked, but it was as if he was being compelled to watch it all.

"Make it stop!" The huntsman began to yell. "PLEASE!"

"Your begging amounts to nothing, faunus." That familiar voice boomed all around him. "I have spared the world Salem, but in exchange, this world must prove that it deserves to move forward and thrive. It must prove that it is worthy."

Collapsing to the ground in sheer terror, the faunus man was utterly shocked to the point of being numb. What did all of this mean? What was he supposed to take away from it all? What was the best thing for him to do? Was there anything he could do at all?

"I have come to evolve this world. When this world sees its next generation of huntsmen and huntresses take their first step to joining the fight, this world will see itself accelerate to the next stage where new battles will be waged. There will be no mercy shown. There will be no quarter given. I, Gilgamesh, the King of Heroes, the Ruler of Uruk, promise that what I unleash upon the world will make death feel welcoming."

Death? Welcoming?

Leonardo didn't know what that meant.

He didn't know what any of this meant.


Fate/Stay Night - - - RWBY


Ozpin was in a tough spot.

With the Fall Maiden effectively out of his hands, he had lost his only key to the Relic of Choice. This was a significant problem that he didn't have a solution for and any period of time spent trying to figure out a new solution had him coming back with nothing.

It angered him further that he had no ideas as to the identity of the killer. Even with his vast connections, there had been little in the way of concrete evidence. The only thing that was a possible connection to the Fall Maiden was an unexpected blaze reported late in the night on the outskirts of the city. According to police reports, the flames had come up out of nowhere. There was no sign of a source of the fire, but the coincidence was a little too perfect.

But this didn't help the old wizard figure out who he was dealing with. His first assumption was that Salem had gotten her hands on a pawn that was to act as a vessel for the power of the maidens, yet something this obvious seemed unlike her usual cunning and subtle approaches.

At this point, he was taking shots in the dark, so the logical thing to do was to consolidate all of his remaining assets. He had made various phone calls to important people. James had been informed about the recent development and he was now keeping very close tabs on the Winter Maiden. Leonardo was still unsure as to the whereabouts of Spring and Summer was somewhere in Vacuo, but that might as well be like searching for a needle in a haystack. In short, there was only one maiden accounted for.

Ozpin lifted his head from his folded hands and took a long sigh. With all the events going on, it could only mean that something big was happening. Eighty years of peace were about to come to an end and now would come a second Great War and maybe this time, the fate of Mankind would rest on this conflict that was incoming. Despite fighting an uphill battle, he couldn't give up now.

He just needed to dedicate some effort into the pieces that he did have. Another year was coming up and new freshmen were getting ready to begin their journey as huntsmen and huntresses. All four academies were preparing for these incoming young men and women who were eager to make their mark upon the world. They would be trained to become the best that they could be. Whether or not that would be enough for what was to come, that remained to be seen.

The grey-haired man let his eyes wander to the arrow containing the note that forewarned of the changing of the Fall Maiden. He kept it for one reason: it contained magical properties, but nothing like he had ever experienced in all of his lifetimes. His attempts to study it had been so far unsuccessful.

He didn't want to jump to conclusions, but he didn't want to rule out any possibilities either, but he had an idea that he didn't much like himself.

Gods.


Many of you have speculated as to what will happen with this story and while many of you are getting some parts right, no one has figured it out fully yet. I'm sure this will jog some imaginations.

I will admit that writing this chapter had me struggling. Due to a self-imposed challenge of writing 40,000 words a month, I've been struggling with initially coming up with concepts, but so far it's worked out in the end. I just need to condition myself into writing this much in a set time frame.

I think this chapter speaks for itself, so I have nothing else to say about it.

Thoughts? Opinions? Feedback, as always, is greatly appreciated.

Thank you all for reading.

"There is no force so powerful as an idea whose time has come."

Everett Dirksen