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Chapter 163: The Final Hour
"They're still on our tail" Penny's voice was entirely blunt and detached as she spoke, relaying the information from the Pearls' various sensors and targeting systems before the AI that operated the heavily modified and upgraded transport could do so itself; the emotionless tone itself an indication of just how tense and worried the copper haired android was becoming as the situation progressed. She, Ruby and Nickel were rapidly nearing their destination, the island chain upon which Salem had built her fortress and Teams FADE, NEON, GORE and CLIR were likely already attempting to halt the Queen of the Grimm's plans after setting off from Menagerie and ripping through the air at impossible speeds; problems had come, seemingly inevitably however when the three of them had encountered Creatures of Grimm en route. No matter how stoic the three of them had attempted to outwardly appear the fact remained that they were travelling directly towards what they knew would be one of the most hard fought battles in the history of Remnant upon which the fate of the world itself and all those lived on it might well rest and as such their emotional states, impossible to truly mask had served as a siren call and a beacon.
A beacon which the Grimm had flocked to.
They had likely disturbed several packs, flocks and swarms of monsters as they had passed over them and Ruby only added to her silent worries as she considered how many outlying settlements might be attacked as the Creatures of Grimm gave chase to the Pearl and the palpable fear that must have radiated from it; their more immediate concern however was that somewhere off the coast of Mistral they had unwittingly drawn the attention of a swarm of Lancers that simply refused to relent, hundreds upon hundreds of the things forming a droning cloud that cast a shadow on the waves below as it followed the Pearl out to sea, persisting even as Penny worked in tandem with the Pearls' AI to gun them down by the score.
The Lancers forced Ruby into action as one their harpoon-like stingers became visible from the cockpit as it whizzed passed the Peal, narrowly missing the transport before being retracted and causing Ruby's expression to darken into an annoyed scowl.
"How many are left?" she asked cautiously
"Two dozen" Penny answered before her hands flashed out across various control panels and the many weapons of the Pearl rotated backwards in ways that those of a normal Bull-Head were unable to and the far more powerful armaments promptly unloaded, flashes of light reaching the cockpit of the craft and causing Penny to check the readings she was receiving again.
"Seven" she amended "But the Atlesian fleet are experiencing similar troubles and some of their vessels may not be combat ready by the time they reach the target"
Ruby's frown deepened and the mechanisms of her cybernetic right eye whirred faintly as her mind raced; if was to be expected that the Atlesian warships would run into the exact same problem that they had and on a larger scale as they made their way from the icy Kingdom, many of the ships not having any form of cloaking or stealth capacity so simply relying on their massive weapons to cut down the insectoid monsters that chased them was unfeasible; the fact remained however that having Grimm on their tail when they arrived was unacceptable and so too was allowing Penny to expend all of their ammunition so that they were of no use at all upon their arrival.
It was time to see just what she could do with one Silver Eye.
"Open the hatch, this has gone on for long enough" Ruby said simply as she made her way towards the rear of the Pearl, entering the cargo hold and deploying Crescent Rose; she had no intention of needing the weapon but she would be lying to herself if she pretended that its' familiar presence wasn't calming, before she could reach the hatch however she found her way barred by Nickel, the younger android looking like Penny no matter how much she dyed her hair, pierced her ears or went through various adolescent phases to establish her own identity yet having a demeanour all of her own as she cut Ruby off.
"Sorry chief, I got dibs on this one….not your fight"
"Not my fight?" Ruby demanded incredulously
"Nope" Nickel confirmed, popping the P in a way that she'd picked up after living with Ruby, Penny and their twin children "You want to drop the hatch and use your Silver Eyes….eye, anyway you want to finish the Grimm of that way to save ammo; but we're gonna need that on the ground when the real work starts" Ruby made to object but found herself unable to do so, Nickel had surmised her strategy, noted the flaws in it and was making an effort to correct them
"So what's your plan?"
"I told you, I got dibs" Nickel answered simply, shrugging nonchalantly as she added "The Omega Destroyer is already out there, I may as well use it" Ruby nodded in understanding and as the rear hatch of their transport finally opened she rested a hand on Nickel's shoulder
"Go, but be careful" Nickel merely rolled her eyes before allowing herself to fall backwards out into the open air. The Omega Destroyer was indeed already outside, mounted to the hull of the Pearl with a series of newly added docking clamps which promptly released and after a single, heart-stopping moment of plummeting downwards Nickel was caught as the heavily repurposed Atlesian drone fighter caught up with her and began to transform, encasing the android in her truly monstrous and undeniably impressive battle-suit.
Nickel was a force of nature in the air.
Two of the seven remaining Lancers were crushed as the Omega Destroyer rocketed upwards from beneath them and seized each of them by the thorax with its' massive clawed hands and promptly crushed them, another was sent careening out of the sky with its' entire right side a twisted pulp as Nickel tackled it simply so that she had a better angle to gun down two more with her laser weapon, a further two Grimm were immolated by the flamethrower that Nickel refused to remove from her weapon no matter how unbecoming of a Hunter it was. The final Lancer however managed to avoid the androids' fury for just long enough to fire its' harpoon stinger directly at Ruby who still stood in the open hatch of the Bull-Head.
It missed her entirely.
With a swift use of her Semblance Ruby managed to sidestep the incoming attack and as the barbed stinger ploughed into a case of supplies she promptly stood on the strand of of tissue that attached the stinger to the body of the Grimm and placed all of her weight on it, reversing the situation and making it the Lancer who was trapped before shifting Crescent Rose into its' sniper rifle form and finishing off their Grimm problems with a single well placed shot. She watched as Nickel's shoulders sagged and even wearing a battle-suit and in mid-air the android managed to look moody and annoyed by having her fun cut short; Ruby had no time for such trivialities however and rushed back into the cockpit of the Pearl and leaned over Penny's shoulder.
"Grimm are dealt with, what's our ETA?"
"Less than five minutes with no more distractions" Penny answered her, clearly trying sound reassuring despite her own concerns; they had lost time but hopefully it would not be too late
"Pearl" Penny continued "Long range scan, give us a visual of target area" the AI silently complied and Ruby and Penny were both treated to a blurry and pixelated image of Salem's island, the best that the sensors of their Bull-Head could provide from their current distance.
"Woah" Ruby mouthed out, trying to piece together exactly what had happened thus far but being momentarily taken aback by the sheer scope of the destruction; far in the distance and approaching from another angle they could see the indistinct outlines of the Atlesian fleet with clouds of what could only be Grimm enveloping them, on the island itself however Ruby and Penny could see that Team GORE's ship had been run aground and most surprisingly of all that Salem's fortress, terrifying and heavily armoured as it must have been, was at least partially destroyed.
"I'm gonna contact Corey" Ruby said "We need to get a better idea of what's going on down there" with that she used her Scroll, which was still connected to the Bull-Heads' comms to hail her niece, only to be left concerned when the call went unanswered; rationally she knew that Corvid could be in the midst of dealing with a particularly bothersome Grimm or any number of other tasks but the fact remained that the Omega Wing allowed her to answer without using her hands and so Ruby quickly began searching for Corvid's Aura to ensure that the young Huntress was still alive.
She breathed out a sigh of relief upon finding that Corvid's Aura tracker was still sending a signal even if it informed Ruby that her nieces' Aura was broken and depleted; it was the location that confused her however, it seemed that Corvid had never made it to Salem's island
"Nickel" Ruby opened a comm channel to the android who had remained in the air and could be seen flying alongside them from the cockpit "I'm sending you Corey's co-ordinates, she might need help"
"Got it chief" an instant later Nickel could be seen veering away and speeding off in the direction of Corvid's signal. Silence hung in the cockpit until Penny reached out and squeezed her wife's hand.
"Just the two of us flying into incredible danger and more Grimm than we can hope to defeat alone, but still planning to do it anyway" she murmured quietly
"Yeah….brings back memories right?" Ruby noted, the two of them shared soft smiles as they remembered the last war, the months of high alert that had followed it and the years that they had spent living an almost nomadic lifestyle as Atlesian Freelancers; taking jobs that no other Hunter would dare risk alone.
"It does" Penny noted "They're sensational memories" with that they sped onwards, towards whatever awaited them.
If Salem had been a terrifying opponent before, what she was now that her plans had been brought to a halt and now that her only driving force was simply revenge and a singular intent to butcher those responsible was something that could simply not be described with words alone.
Diamond had been forced to fall back, with her shattered Aura she was in no position to continue fighting the Queen of the Grimm head on and instead she merely snapped off pot-shots whenever the opportunity presented itself though it was fair to say that most of her attention was focused squarely on not falling into the magma below; her cybernetic arm gripping onto railings of the bridge that had been dropped onto the Grimm Drill with inhuman strength as the ground shook beneath her with every blow that those still fighting exchanged despite the rising heat making the metallic limb uncomfortable and gradually more painful to keep attached.
From her current vantage point she could see just how much her friends were struggling against Salem.
Eagle with her damaged armour, Arctus with his flickering and steadily depleting Aura and Felix with his sole remaining sword rushed into the fray once again, their blades flashing out and filling the air with the sound of metal clanging against something more akin to bone or solid rock as Salem countered and duelled against each of them in turn, an after-image trailing behind her as she moved with impossible speed and skill.
The three of them were flung back soon after as the Queen of the Grimm seemed to tire of their attempts to fight her and swung her broad-sword out in a wide arc that unleashed a surge of howling, screaming winds and pure concussive force yet the trio launched into another attack the moment they skidded to a halt; Felix rushed towards Salem, ready to strike only to reveal his attack to be a ruse as a glowing Glyph appeared before him laying horizontally in the air, the Faunus used the platform as a springboard to launch himself over his opponent and as Salem turned to face him Arctus simply barrelled into her before the two of them attempted to attack her from both sides.
"Struggling and delaying the inevitable until the very end" Salem sneered "This futile display has stopped being entertaining" her voice reverberated and shifted in pitch unnaturally as she tapped into the corrupted powers of the Wizard once again, bending the flow of time around herself in a way that allowed her to move at speeds the two Hunters could never hope to match or counter; Arctus's overhand slash at her exposed back was halted as she spun towards him and batted his sword aside with her own blade and threw him off balance, following the motion through parried Felix's stabbing attack and forced his blade downwards, its' screaming chainsaw blade sending sparks flying as it cut into the carapace like ground below and still the assault continued, Arctus tried to rush back into combat only for Salem to lash out and drive the elbow of her left arm into his snout and send him crashing backwards without even turning to face him, Felix lunged at her and her empty hand flew out and her taloned, armoured fingers wrapped around his neck before she lifted him off of the ground and preparing to run him through with her enormous broad-sword.
Then Eagle rejoined the battle.
The snowy white and golden brown feathered bird of prey landed on the flat edge of her blade and in a flash of brilliant white Aura Eagle returned to her true form, standing on Salem's sword and swinging her own weapon directly at her neck yet the Queen of the Grimm countered even this, pulling the blade out from beneath Eagle's feet in a burst of speed and launching herself at the Huntress as she landed; the swords clashed until in another burst of her arcane might Salem flung Eagle, along with Felix who had been preparing to assist her backwards. The two of them skidded to a halt, crouching and using their blades to slow themselves yet before they could launch any kind of counteroffensive Salem unleashed another burst of power, this time using her mastery of the Grimm to send a wave of spikes and curved, serrated talons bursting from the surface of the bridge rushing towards the two blondes like a tidal wave of jagged bone; Felix and Eagle braced themselves for the incoming attack and prepared to simply power through it.
Yet it never reached them.
The dull, muffled crack of Lex Talionis firing filled the air and both Felix and Eagle were left in a state of stunned suspense, hearts pounding in their chests as they waited to see what exactly had happened, until a moment later the spikes that Salem had intended to skewer them with retracted back into the chitinous surface of the bridge; the movement itself revealing that the Queen of the Grimm still lived, yet as Felix and Eagle's gaze shifted from Diamond, who was perched precariously on the bone railings of the damaged bridge with the scope of her sniper rifle still against her eye and smoke rising from the barrel to Salem herself two of them were stunned.
Salem was bleeding.
The Witch had managed to avoid being shot directly in the head, yet the armour piercing round had whizzed passed her at such close proximity that it had grazed Salem's cheek and thin trickling beads of some viscous and tar-like substance that coursed through her black, pulsing veins could be seen marring her ghostly pale flesh; the fact that Diamond had managed to inflict even this minor wound seemed like a victory to Team FADE who had thus far managed to do nothing more than chip and crack the Witch's armour; yet one glance at her hateful red eyes was enough to convince them that Salem intended to make them all suffer for spilling her blood.
"ENOUGH!" she turned and sunk her sword into the ground before holding both arms outstretched and unleashing another wave of rising bone shards, this attack made all the more ferocious by writhing and grasping limbs appearing between the jagged carapace blades which surged directly towards Diamond in a clear effort to hurl her over the edge of the bridge or simply tear her apart completely, an attack that without Aura she could do little to protect herself against. Fortunately Arctus had recovered enough to intervene and mustered all of his strength into a single Glyph, his Aura flickering around his hands and blood dropping from his nose from the strain of overusing his Semblance as he launched the glowing projectile across the width of the bridge, its' glowing and rotating edge cleaving neatly through the tsunami of Grimm tissue and halting it in its' tracks; the Bear Faunus then shifted Grimmiger-Henker into its' laser cannon form and levelled it at Salem's chest.
"NO MORE!" Salem retaliated before he could fire and the Hunter was forced to abandon his plan to attack as a single spear of solid bone, wider around than both of his palms erupted upwards at an angle that would see it impale him through the chest and with the last of his strength the Bear Faunus flung up several Glyphs, the barriers shattering one by one and doing little more than slow the oncoming attack slightly before finally, after being expended with so many devastating attacks Arctus's pale blue Aura flickered around him once last time before visibly failing and shattering, leaving Diamond's scream ringing in his ears as the bone spear rushed towards his now unprotected chest.
It never reached him.
An explosion of truly unspeakable force and proportions shook the entirety of the bridge and magma filled chasm that it had fallen into and when the dust settled Arctus was stunned by the sight that greeted him and could only assume that Eagle and Diamond were similarly shocked.
Felix stood in the centre of the bridge, his golden Aura blazing around him a shallow trench torn into the ground where he tackled Salem with all his might; the Queen of the Grimm had been blasted from her feet, her armoured form shattering first her sword as she had struck it and then the bone spear as she was sent crashing through it before coming skidding to a halt at the very edge of broken bridge.
Yet still she rose to her feet.
"Know this" Salem thundered "Before I kill you I will make you suffer in ways you cannot imagine, I will destroy everything you love and extract every ounce of terror and pain from you before I am finished" the air trembled around her as she spoke but with each movement it became clear that Felix's attack had done more damage than even he might have anticipated; Salem's armour was broken completely, her cracked breastplate was the first piece of it to shatter and fade away into wisps of darkness as it fell to the ground yet it was closely followed by the rest of the suit of manifest darkness, leaving Salem unprotected and just how exhausted and injured she was exposed, her shoulders sagged and her entire right arm was a twisted and mangled mess that hung limply whilst jet black blood continued to leak from the gash in her cheek.
"No. You won't" Felix answered simply as he braced himself and felt the familiar burning sensation and steadily building pressure that preceded his Balrog state whilst the Aura regulator in his tail began to whir into action, allowing him to ascend into his Ultimate Balrog form and unleash the power that he had been holding back thus far.
It was time to end this fight.
"ETHER! OLLIE! NYANZA!" Helios yelled out the names of his missing team-mates once again as he continued to trudge and stagger his way through the ruins and debris of Salem's fortress, his vision obscured by rising smoke and mist as vast chunks of what had been walls and floors made of hardened, dense and calcified Grimm tissue continued to dissolve and fade away which only gave his surroundings an even more hellish appearance. His vision swam as he moved and he was almost certain that he was losing too much blood from the gashes his own armour had cut into his chest yet still he continued, stumbling through the darkness in steadily rising desperation until he saw something moving through the clouds of smoke and instinctively he drew Milo, the sword he had claimed from the twisted mirror image of Pyrrha Nikos from another Remnant was twisted and mangled, sparks burst from the damaged weapon as he tried to shift it into its' spear form and it refused to comply so Helios simply trudged forwards and called out again, keeping his eyes on the figure moving blindly through the darkness ahead of him
"ETHER!"
"We're over here!" the voice that answered him belonged to Nyanza and was pained and muffled, leading Helios to quickly realise that at least one of his friends was pinned beneath the piles of rubble their attempt to destroy Salem's Spawning Pit had resulted in; hearing the voice he staggered towards it and saw that the figure had done the same, though as he drew closer he soon realised with both a massive swell of relief and at the same time intense, almost tangible grief that it was not some Creature of Grimm that had survived the attack skulking around blindly.
It was Olivine and she was critically injured.
The diminutive woman's outfit was a burned and tattered mess with bloodstains littering the now ragged boiler-suit that hung off of her body, her weapons had been sacrificed in the attack and the exoskeletal support struts that they had been attached to were mangled to the point of being unrecognisable, simply twisted chunks of metal wrapped around her body that had mercifully not impaled her. It seemed that Nyanza's effort to get Buster Bravo off of Olivine's arms before they detonated had not been entirely successful and her hands and forearms were scorched, blackened and bloody where her own weapons had burned her flesh away yet it was her face that made bile rise in Helios's throat as he realised exactly why she had been wandering through the debris so blindly
"Ollie, Ollie its' me, I've got you….you're gonna be okay" he whispered, trying to make his voice soothing even as it cracked as he gently took hold of her so that he could guide her towards where Nyanza's voice had come from; her goggles had shattered and been pushed back into her face and Helios could tell by the blood trickling from the remains of the ruined lenses without ever having to look at what had become of her pale lavender eyes that Olivine had been completely blinded.
"Heely?" she whimpered "Heely I can't see"
"I know, but it's going to be okay" he repeated, forcing himself to believe his own words "We're going to find the others and then we're going to make our way back to the ship….You're going to get out of here, I'll get us all out of here" he kept talking, soothing the wounded, dazed and frightened woman as best as he could, periodically calling out to Nyanza so that he could locate the rest of Team NEON until finally he found a heap of rubble and slowly dissolving Grimm matter. Helios could likely have waited for the living darkness to fade away and simply extract his friends that way yet he had no intention of doing so and instead drove his sword into the wreckage and used it as a lever to pry it away revealing that Nyanza had shielded Ether with his own body and had expended the last dregs of his own Aura in doing so.
"We all made it" Nyanza managed to crack a smile, blood staining his teeth as he helped Helios lift Ether to safety, the young man was deathly pale and unconscious, blood and cold sweat clinging to his form yet, as he listened closely Helios realised that he was indeed still breathing; laying his wounded friend on the ground he then turned his attention towards freeing Nyanza who had used some last remains of his good fortune to ensure that it was only fleshy Grimm matter than landed on top of him, though his cybernetic leg had been trapped beneath solid rock and as the redhead lifted it away he saw that his partners' mechanical limb was a sparking mass of twisted steel from midway down the shin.
"Can you still feel it?" he asked
"Oh yeah" Nyanza admitted through clenched teeth "Feels like razors on my nerve endings….But I think I can stand, I might need a hand walking though" Helios nodded in understanding and helped Nyanza to his feet, noting that his partners' bushy feline tail was bent at an odd angle as though one of the joints in had been dislocated yet Nyanza was correct in his assertions and could stand, even if he did keep his weight off of his ruined prosthetic.
"Oh my Oum" the Faunus mouthed out, visibly fighting the urge to retch "Ollie your-"
"Don't" she cut him off, her own voice trembling "Don't tell me how bad it is"
"Come on, we have to move….we can't stay here" Helios insisted "Nyanza, guide Ollie; Ollie help him walk….I'll carry Ether, he's okay Ollie we'll get him to a doctor" with that he crouched down, wincing at the tightness in his chest and lances of stabbing pain that the motion caused him yet before he could scoop Ether's unconscious form up into his arms he heard a familiar sound that left him rooted to the ground in silent dread.
The sound of snarling Grimm.
"No" he whispered as the first pair of glowing red eyes began to pierce the gloom that still hung over their surroundings; a Beowolf stalked into view and Helios knew that more would come even if he couldn't see or hear them yet and as such he did the only thing that he could; he stepped in front of his beaten and bloodied team-mates and slipped his broken shield onto his arm, his weapons were damaged and his Aura had failed him yet he would fight, he would stand here and face the Grimm alone with nothing but his own willpower at his disposal and he would be torn apart before he allowed a single monster to harm any of his team.
Yet the Beowolf exploded as a hail of gunfire ripped through it, sparing Helios the need for a final heroic last stand.
"It's a Bull-Head!" Nyanza called out as the sound of engines rapidly approaching from above reached his ears; he was proven correct moments later as those same roaring engines dispersed the smog of deceased Grimm that surrounded them and revealed that help had arrived in the form of Team CLIR's vibrantly coloured personal transport which hovered in the air close by, the crafts' hatches opened, revealing Onyx Ursabane; the hulking Puma Faunus standing with his artillery piece at the ready and firing into an oncoming pack of Grimm as he glanced over his shoulder and bellowed
"GET ON!" with no further incentive needed Helios picked Ether up and with Nyanza and Olivine close behind him made his way towards the waiting Bull-Head.
The Spawning Pit was destroyed and Team NEON were alive and safe, if wounded now all that mattered to Helios was the fate of Team FADE and the outcome of the battle that they raged against Salem for the fate of Remnant itself.
In his elevated state and channelling all of the power of his Semblance in the most effective and efficient way possible Felix was a force of nature beyond the comprehension of most adversaries and now Salem's entire chamber and the chasm that had been burrowed into it trembled with each world-shattering blow as he and the Queen of Grimm fought in a way that was akin to Gods or titans of myth.
Felix's entire body was rocky and craggy whilst veins of white hot light blazed across his hardened form and his eyes and hair blazed with the same heat and he was surrounded by a glowing Aura of blue-tipped flames as he streaked towards one of the stone walls of the deep chasm that Salem's Grimm Drill had bored into the bedrock of her island fortress. The Lion Faunus impacted against the outer wall of the chasm as he and Salem were flung back from the force of their latest attacks, his remaining sword was slung across his back and the two fought hand to hand, the ground beneath his feet beginning to glow and melt under the heat he exuded; the two of them were no longer battling on the bridge that had previously hung suspended any more and instead fought in the air as though neither of them could truly fly the pair were both capable of inhuman leaps and put this superior manoeuvrability to good use. Across the chamber Felix saw that Salem too had landed in a crouch, the taloned fingers of her left arm cutting into the rock face whilst her right arm hung loosely and her fiery red irises blazing in the gloom until her eyes narrowing a fraction served as a warning; the Witch kicked off of the bare rock and Felix responded in kind sending himself hurtling towards her with the intent to deliver a crushing blow.
The two met in a head on collision and for an instant it seemed as though the universe itself had collapsed.
Felix landed a crushing right hook on Salem' midsection and the sound of bone shattering filled the air as the Queen of the Grimm was folded entirely in half by the blow and, still in mid-air the Lion Faunus flipped backwards to deliver an equally punishing kick to her chest. Salem was lung backwards once again and struck the wall in an explosion of rock whilst Felix arced upwards, striking the opposing surface and skidding upwards along, carried by his momentum and leaving a trail of glowing stone behind him.
And then Salem retaliated
Felix's first indication that he should be wary came as the debris that had been sent hurtling in all directions by her impact with the wall came to a sudden halt in mid-air as the Witch used her time-warping abilities and then, an instant later a blur of darkness streaked outwards and ricocheted from each chunk of rock to the next. Felix realised that it was Salem, moving it incredible speed and hurtling towards him yet he was impossible to act on that realisation before she reached him, appearing in a flash of obsidian, her form blurry and indistinct as it bled into the space around her as she leapt into the air and delivered a spinning kick to Felix's temple; the Lion Faunus was sent flying by the blast, rock being torn apart as he was ploughed into wall of the chasm and Salem was on him again in an instant; the two trading blows even as the Hunter struggled to right himself until finally with another use of the corrupted Wizard's powers Salem bent time to her will once again and began to simply weave around the Blazing Faunus' attacks at speeds that left it seeming as though she were in multiple places at once, driving her fist into Felix's face, chest and gut before delivering another roundhouse kick that sent him hurtling though the air. Before he could react he felt something collide with his body with the force of a comet and realised and Salem had leapt after him and seized him by the midsection, a moment later he felt a rush of movement as the Witch made to hurl him downwards and on pure instinct alone he reached out and grabbed Salem, his Semblance of unstoppable force ensuring that he was dragged along with him and as the two wrestled whilst hurtling downwards Felix managed to ensure that Salem hit the ground first.
They struck the bridge like a missile
The entire surface of the bridge shattered and was flung into the air in countless, Felix hearing his friends panicked yells leapt to his feet despite the pain he was in, his Ultimate Balrog state still blazing around him as he reached out and caught two of the largest pieces of the bridge, the pieces that Arctus, Diamond and Eagle still clung to and, with all of the monumental force he could muster he stabbed their hardened carapace surfaces into the pulpy flesh of the Grimm-Drill; ensuring that his battle with Salem would continue on this mountain of obsidian tissue whilst the rest of Team FADE looked up from the relative safety of their new position. Then Salem rose to her feet; though it was more fitting to say she exploded upwards like some enormous sea-monster breaching the surface as she flung Felix backwards and landed in a crouch close by. The two of them stood at opposite edges of the mound of repulsive flesh that was the Grimm Drill, putting several dozen feet of space between them even at the narrowest point. Felix charged again, a feral roar escaping him only for him to be brought staggering to a halt before he could reach Salem.
"No" Salem said simply, the word filled with aeons of hatred focused into a single point; Felix's limbs suddenly felt heavy and his shoulder sagged, his chest was tight and his breath came in ragged, laboured gasps whilst his head was light and dizzy. It took him a moment to realise what was happening but once he did his eyes widened in fright that was plainly visible despite the blinding light that poured from them.
"Now you understand" the Witch cackled darkly as she rose to her feet, the comprehension dawning on Felix bringing a smile of pure, malevolent glee to her face. Felix's Ultimate Balrog state was failing him and exhaustion was setting in far sooner than it should have as Salem was bending time once again, yet she was making the Lion Faunus himself the focus of her abilities rather than accelerating her own movements.
"You can't truly harness that power….I remember from your fight with Eldritch, you can only experience it for a limited time" Salem continued "And I control time, I control your limit-" she fell silent and her glowing crimson eyes widened as a look of pain formed on her face.
Eagle hand joined the battle.
Felix's partner had used her avian form to fly up onto the peak of the Grimm Drill and had, throwing all honour and heroism to the wind, thrust her sword through Salem's back and its' black blade currently burst from her chest. The Witch's focus was broken and Felix felt the rapidly increasing weariness begin to subside, yet he released his Balrog form upon realising that he would barely be able to sustain it for more than a few seconds now; a final burst of power to deliver the final blow. Salem's attention however was turned to Eagle and, with impossible speed borne of the Witch channelling much of her own remaining strength she ripped herself free of the sword that impaled her and drove her her right fist into Eagle's skull, the blondes' pure White Aura flickering around her as she fell from the Grimm Drill, striking the railing of the railings of the bridge before dragging herself, with the help of Arctus and Diamond onto the impromptu platform that the Lion Faunus had made for them.
"You can't save them" Salem spat as she turned to Felix "You can't save each other, after this setback is dealt with I will crush this Remnant along with each and every other iteration of it" her words were furious and filled with unspeakable malice yet her voice was a breathy pant as she staggered back towards the Lion Faunus before bracing herself and now that she was stood upright Felix could see just how much damage he and Eagle had done to her.
The Queen of the Grimm was barely able to stand.
After using so much of her power and being cut off from so much of the Grimm Felix it was unlikely that she even had the strength left to regenerate, streaks and spatters of jet black blood stained her snowy hair and ghostly flesh, her right arm was barely attached to her body at this point and hung limp and torn almost entirely free whilst a deep, bloody glow shone from the hole that Eagle's blade had left in her torso; showing that the key to victory was very much close at hand.
The Heart of Darkness in Salem's chest.
The edges of the fist-sized shard of ancient and fossilised Grimm tissue that pantheon had used to bring Salem but into the physical realm glinted in the light that it itself produced and as he saw it Felix drew his remaining sword, he knew that Salem would be at her most dangerous now, despite all of her threats she was desperate and knew how precarious her own situation yet the fact remained that he could see his path to a victory that would save all of Remnant in front of him. The two exhausted titans locked eyes and both understood the same truth.
The end of this battle was upon them.
Carcharodon fought like a man possessed and in a sense it could be argued that he was; the Shark Faunus was entirely beyond desperation or self preservation and acted on sheer rage and unfettered hatred alone as he cut a swathe through the Grimm that attempted to drag him down, entirely heedless of the way his own Aura flickered and failed around him as he pushed himself beyond his limits.
"FOR HELLION!" his voice cracked as he let out a fierce war-cry and charged once more into the tide of Grimm that had managed to storm the Nemesis Kharybdis yet had been unable to truly surround the lone Hunter and drag him down and in that first charge a dozen monsters were cut down, their bodies neatly bisected as the Red Waves ripped through them. From there Carcharodon was unstoppable, a Beringrel leapt at him only to strike nothing but empty space as the Faunus's Semblance brought him behind the Grimm and an instant later its' head fell from its' fading body whilst Carcharodon turned to his next target, some scuttling and insectoid thing that he sent to its' end before he had even fully identified it; kicking it back over the edge of his ships' ruined prow as it attempted to climb aboard. A Beowolf fell next, cut from shoulder to hip and this was followed the Red Waves being dragged through the limbs of those Grimm still attempting to make their way onto the Nemesis Kharybdis before he turned his attention back to those already on the open deck, Carcharodon was no longer fighting rationally and instead was little more than a frenzied berserker lashing out at anything that neared him.
The Shark Faunus soon paid for his loss of focus.
The sound of heavy paws on metal was all the warning he received and whilst it was enough for him to turn around and face this new attacker he was still unable to entirely defend against it. The Grimm was large and powerful, a roughly feline thing with curved sabre-teeth and a bestial agility about it that the visible bones and jagged spikes adorning its' body only seemed to accentuate. Carcharodon's pale lilac coloured Aura rippled as the thing collided with him and finally shattered and failed him completely was he was flung to the ground.
"Not here, not like this" he rasped out, suddenly far more aware of his own mortality and pending doom than he had been a moment ago now that the weight of the Sabyre was pressing down on him, far too great for him to throw off in his spent and exhausted condition. Carcharodon refused to accept his death without a fight however and managed to raise the Red Waves and cross them over the Grimm's neck as it made to close its' jaws around his skull and from there it became a battle of wills, he fought every ounce of strength that remained yet the Sabyre was simply far stronger than him now and Carcharodon felt ribs crack beneath its' weight as he bore down on him, followed by the sting of his skin being broken as the fangs of the sabre-toothed monster cut through the metal of his helm, leaving a ragged scar in the crown of his people whilst all around him more Creatures of Grimm drew closer; eager to claim some of his flesh for themselves.
Yet, a the last moment when it seemed all hope was lost Carcharodon was spared, his rescue coming from two sources at once.
Firstly gunfire rained down from above, shredding both the deck of the Nemesis Kharybdis and the many Grimm that had fought their way onto it as Onyx returned; Team CLIR's absurdly coloured transport felling the monsters felling the monsters from the air before the Puma Faunus made a perilous manoeuvrer that saw the roof of the craft mere inches from the ice wall that Arctus had created as he simply ploughed through the Grimm still attempting to climb aboard, using Old Unreliable as a battering ram. The Sabyre remained on Carcharodon's chest however and continued to try and pierce his skull with its' fangs until an avian shriek filled the air.
Marauder.
Hellion's bird of prey swooped down with talons extended and in a flash of motion the Grimm fell away from Carcharodon, howling in pain and thrashing as its' eyes had been put out; the Shark Faunus wasted no time and seized the opportunity before him by driving his weapons through the beasts' back with the last of his strength before collapsing with a thud onto the twisted and bullet-ridden deck that so much had been given to defend.
It was over, they had held the line yet Carcharodon could not call it a victory in any real sense.
"Car, Car!" Onyx's booming voice forced him to focus and kept him from simply drifting into unconsciousness; a moment later the hulking man was beside him.
"Team NEON are alive, Team FADE are still inside" he continued "We can't stay here, all of Team NEON are injured, they need a doctor now….Car, Car? Where's Hellion?" Onyx's voice fell to a hushed whisper as Marauder landed between them and as Carcharodon managed to roll onto his back Onyx's saw the truth written on his oldest friends' face.
"No"
"It's my fault" Carcharodon whispered "I gave the Grimm an opening and she died protecting me so that they couldn't exploit my mistakes…..she fell"
"No" Onyx repeated, sinking to his knees and shaking his head as he simply refused to believe the glaring truth "It can't be" the two of them remained in grief-stricken silence for a time that neither of them had the presence of mind to measure, the Grimm were gone and Team NEON remained on the Bull-Head meaning that the only sound beyond their own sobs was a faint scratching of something grating against metal; Onyx finally found himself unable to ignore this intrusion on his thoughts any longer and sought out its' source, only for his yellow-green eyes to widen in utter disbelief at what he saw.
"Car! Car look!" he exclaimed, physically grasping the Shark Faunus and turning him towards what he had seen; Marauder, Hellion's bird of prey was stood between them and bobbing animatedly on the ground whilst it used its' sharp talons to a series of tribal glyphs into the surface of the deck which Carcharodon realised formed a simple message.
'I still live'
"How….how is this….Hellion, you were cunning until the very end" Carcharodon murmured, his face morphing into a gentle smile that was unable to convey the burst of sheer, unrelenting joy that filled his chest as comprehension dawned on him.
"What-" Carcharodon raised a hand to silence Onyx and explained.
"When Hellion fell, she used the last of her Aura on her Semblance….I thought she was trying to call Marauder to her, instead it seems that she knew that was defeated and instead moved her own mind and soul into Marauder's body"
"Then….that's Hellion" Onyx mouthed in shock "She's trapped in the birds' body but she's still alive?"
"It would seem so" Carcharodon nodded, collapsing back onto the deck of his ship as exhaustion caused his vision to dim; the final thing he saw before the darkness claimed him and he slipped into unconsciousness being several Atlesian warships approaching in the distance.
It seemed that they would be victorious after all.
It would all end here.
Salem and Felix charged at each other, each of the two combatants pushing every ounce of strength and determination that they had left into a single, decisive strike and as the two of them met atop Salem's destroyed and immobile Grimm-Drill, the Queen of the Grimm with her taloned fingers outstretched and Felix with his remaining sword drawn back for a finishing blow their surrounding shook; trembling under the force of the cataclysmic impact.
"You have failed" Salem ground out as her blow landed, her claws closing around the Lion Faunus's neck and chin as she he lifted him off of the ground and choked the life out of him; determined to watch the light leave his eyes before she cast his body into the magma that continued to well up from the wound her final creation had bored into the crust of Remnant.
Felix made no verbal response and pushed through the pain, the fear that the sight of his Aura flickering around him caused and the feeling of suffocation as the Witch's grip tightened; forcing his failing body onwards despite his muscles screaming in protest at every movement as he brought his chainsaw bladed sword screaming into life, seizing the weapon with both hands as he swung at Salem's chest.
The Queen of the Grimm shrieked in agony and reality itself warped around her in response to her rage.
Felix was flung backwards by the blast but quickly surged back to his feet and transferred his weapon into his left hand as he bolted forwards; his weapon had ripped into the existing wound that Eagle had made and torn open Salem's chest to reveal her Heart of Darkness in all of its' gruesome and terrifying glory; the chunk of ancient and fossilised Grimm tissue that served as Queen of the Grimm's last tether to both the tattered remains of the Grimm Hive-Mind and through it the physical plane was now on full display, its' midnight black form tinged deepest indigo at its' jagged edges and glowing with some menacing crimson light as thick strands of viscous tar-like primordial sludge held it place and bonded the vile thing to the rest of her body. As Salem continued to writhe and contort in pain Felix crossed the distance between them and did the only thing that he could.
He drove his hand into her chest and grasped her heart firmly before attempting to pull it free.
"It's over Salem!" he yelled
"Nothing is over!" the Witch spat back, viscous ichor lacing her words as it fell from her mouth yet Felix persisted and made to pull his arm free and take Salem's anchor to reality with it yet as he felt the thing budge a fraction of an inch his world exploded into white-hot, searing agony the likes of which he had never felt before.
"NOTHING IS OVER!" Salem screamed again, her left hand closing around Felix's forearm and as he looked down the Lion Faunus saw the source of the excruciating pain; like any fossilised Grimm the Heart of Darkness was primordial and volatile to its' core and his attempt to remove it had caused it to react, fresh Grimm matter spewed from the thing to give Salem fresh life and vitality, beginning to close her wounds and twist her ruined right arm back into place whilst at the same time the roots of some terrible infection burrowed into his arm which the Witch held firmly in place, black veins crawling beneath his flesh and bursting through his skin as jagged spikes; corrupting the Faunus and tearing him apart from within, yet with bile rising in his throat and his vision swimming from the sickening sensations Felix persevered and made one final gambit.
He entered his Balrog State.
The last burst of strength that he had clung to after Salem had warped time around him came roaring into life and as his body glowed like the magma beneath them, his flesh hardening into charred, blackened rock once again he felt his own strength come flooding back and, with his Semblance making him truly unstoppable he seized the chunk of fossilised Grimm that continued to tear through him and ripped it free of Salem's body entirely before crushing it in his hand with a roar of pained exertion.
Both of them felt their power leave them in the same instant.
Salem swayed and staggered, vomiting copious amounts of primordial Grimm as her body seemed to wither and melt away from the bones of Ozymandias Eldritch yet Felix paid not mind to it, his Balrog State had failed, his body had returned to its' natural state and his world was consumed entirely by the agony of his flesh being torn apart by the Grimm infection that had taken root in his body and was steadily spreading through his forearm until, in an act of desperation Felix took his sword and, with a scream that echoed around the cavernous chamber brought down on his own elbow, cutting the limb away and excising the corruption before it could spread further.
Then there was movement in front of him.
With her body melting Salem lunged at him, talons bared as she made to tear him asunder, one final act of destruction with the last of her strength to mark her passing; yet without the corrupted powers of the Wizard at her disposal Felix was faster and, throwing his sword aside he charged towards her before, in a reversal of their earlier positions using his own remaining arm to grasp the former Queen of the Grimm, defeated and exiled from the Hive-Mind by the neck and, with no more strength left to fight simply made his way to the edge of the Grimm Drill and allowed them both to topple over the edge.
The battle was over and Felix was at peace until the moment he heard his friends calling for him as he hurtled towards the magma with the last of his Aura still flickering around him.
Ruby arrived with all of the gravitas and awe-inspiring presence that the hero and living-legend she had once been regarded as could command, yet it seemed to make little difference in the face of such utter destruction.
She leapt out of the rear of Penny's personal transport and sent herself rocketing downwards with a burst of her Semblance to land in a crouch on the ruined remains of the deck of the Nemesis Kharybdis, landing in a crouch with her cape billowing out behind her and Crescent Rose at the ready only to see that, here at least the battle seemed to be over. the sight that greeted her was a strange one, Team CLIR's Bull-Head was hovering above the deck whose twisted, mangled and bullet-scarred surface seemed that it would not support the craft landing on it and the hatches of the Bull-Head were opened to reveal Team NEON within, all four of them sporting various injuries, many of which could only be described as grievous and seemingly barely able to move under the weight of simple exhaustion; outside of the craft Onyx was helping a wounded Carcharodon to his feet whilst the Shark Faunus, who was struggling to breathe and in clear pain gently handled a fierce looking bird of prey as though it were the most precious thing in the world.
Yet there was no sign of Team FADE anywhere.
Casting her gaze further afield Ruby watched as Penny's Bull-Head streaked over Salem's fortress and tore through the air on a course that would see her rendezvous with the Atlesian fleet; the fleet itself would arrive at any moment and with Penny's help the massive warships and their own wings of fighter craft were cutting down the last of the Grimm that they had encountered on the way to Salem's island fortress and Ruby felt that she could almost taste the ozone in the air from here as their weapons batteries charged and prepared to deliver an apocalyptic salvo. Her silver eye and whirring cybernetic replacement narrowed as she glanced towards the fortress itself, one entire side of the massive structure entirely collapsed; she new on some base, primal level what needed to be done but still she made her way towards the young Hunters to make sure.
"Where are Team FADE?" she demanded, making a conscious effort to keep any harshness from her voice; these Hunters were still freshly graduated, barely more than students and had carried the fate of Remnant.
"Still in the fortress" it was Helios that answered her "They went to face Salem herself" with that Ruby's blood turned to ice in her veins and she found herself nodding stiffly in understanding, blind panic almost forcing all rational thought from her mind until she quickly mastered herself and turned to Onyx
"Corvid and her team-mates are on the other islands Nickel is with her now, get out of here. Load everyone up onto one of the Atlesian ships; you can all get medical treatment there" Onyx and Carcharodon nodded in understanding and clambered aboard Old Unreliable, preparing to follow the instructions without question as the idea that either they or the Kingdom of Atlas would maintain their mutual enmity towards one another in such circumstances was absurd.
With that matter attended to Ruby launched into action.
She activated her Semblance and the powers of the Silver Eyed Warriors in the same instant, revealing just how much of her mystical might she could channel through her remaining eye as she raced towards Salem's fortress with a stream of falling petals and a contrail of brilliant white light trailing behind her. She reached the walls of the hideous structure in an instant and manipulated her speed in a way she had learned as a teen, vibrating herself so that she simply phased through the walls whilst at the same time swinging Crescent Rose in wide arcs and sending her power directly into the very fibre of the Grimm tissues' being; every molecule of the nightmarish substance that Ruby Rose encountered was unmade on the most fundamental of levels and she raced through Salem's Fortress with reckless abandon, following the signs of battle that waited to be found and obliterating in her path as some instinct she couldn't identify guided her forwards.
She found the entrance to Salem's throne room in moments and an instant later she was within the magma filled chasm that her monster had created.
"Where's Fluffy!" Ruby yelled as she came skidding to a halt, rose petals falling around her in front of Arctus, Diamond and Eagle; all of whom were beaten, exhausted and covered in sweat and soot after climbing on the peak of the Grimm Drill. There was a moment of silence as each of Felix's friends shared glances and suddenly Ruby realised the truth yet simply refused to accept it; her entire body seeming to sag and crumple as her silver eye widened and filled with tears.
"Where's Felix….Arctus-"
"He….He….Aunt Ruby I'm sorry, we couldn't stop him" the Bear Faunus managed to choke out before collapsing into Ruby and breaking down into a fit of strangled sobs as he tried to explain that Felix had sacrificed himself to rid Remnant of Salem once and for all, ripping her connection to the greater Grimm consciousness away from her before casting her physical form into the magma with nowhere left for whatever lingering malevolent spirit she possessed to go.
Yet before he could form any of the words he would need something shook the chamber.
"No" Diamond gasped, the pain of her cybernetic limb burning her flesh forgotten in an instant as she turned towards the source of the noise "She can't be alive, not after everything" Ruby and the remaining members of Team FADE glanced down into the magma, whose fiery surface began to bubble and rise as though something were about to breach its' surface and Eagle sank to her knees, tears of pure joy streaming from her eyes and cutting through the ash and grime that covered her face
"It's not Salem!" she exclaimed realising what would happen next a moment before it occurred.
Felix erupted out of the magma and landed beside his team-mates with a mighty roar.
The Lion Faunus lived, his Cybernetic tail had been utterly destroyed, his right arm was a burning stump at the elbow and his clothes were ablaze yet still he lived, his Aura whilst close to the point of failure and flickering with its' final sputtering bursts of power as he had fallen into the magma yet it had still been intact and the heat of the molten rock had, instead of the certain death it would have been for anyone else granted Felix enough thermal energy to activate his Balrog State for a few seconds longer and burst free of the fiery demise that Salem had met. Ruby, Arctus, Eagle and Diamond each stared at Felix as he staggered towards them and struggled to speak, making it a few steps before his Balrog State failed, the fiery glow receding from his form and he finally, inevitably collapsed forwards with Ruby rushing out to catch his unconscious form whilst weeping with simple joy and relief.
"He's alive, he made it….you all made it, it's over now, you can go home" with that she pressed a small comm bud that she had placed in her ear and contacted Penny, pure and indescribable happiness in her voice as she spoke
"I've got the kids, we need an evac but tell the Atlesian Fleet to fire at will, I'll get them out of here" with that Ruby collapsed herself and prepared to rush the four Hunters to the safety of a waiting transport; flitting through the ruins of Salem's fortress and evacuating each member of Team FADE in turn whilst the hardened Grimm tissue was blasted and torn apart all around them as the warships high above them unleashed a destructive firestorm upon it.
Salem was gone and all that was left was to scour every last trace of her legacy from the face of Remnant.
It was over.
Author's Notes:
So….how are we all feeling?
I actually wrote Chapter 162 and 163 back to back….which means it was a 20,000 word kinda week.
Also, only two more chapters left to go; a denouement and an epilogue and then whatever comes next comes next.
I know I'm gonna say it again in the epilogue notes but I have been writing this story for three and a half years and I cannot thank those of you who've stuck with me this long enough; it's been a trip and I only hope you'll follow me in whatever adventure I choose to invent for myself next.
But anyway we've still got two more chapters before I'm allowed to get super emotional, so let's summarise shall we?:
Had to break the immersion of writing everything that was happening on the island to remind everyone that Ruby was en route.
And I know might sound like bullshit plot device stuff that both Ruby & Penny and the Atlesian fleet were waylaid by Grimm but to me it makes senses, Grimm feed on negativity and everyone had at least some idea of what they were heading into.
Two dozen….correction….seven; 'cos Penny is just that good.
Yay for Nickel, being the hero and making sure Ruby still had a full tank of hero juice when she needed it.
Also yeah, she totally sulked when Ruby tagged the last one.
So that's Nickel removed from play and Team CLIR rescued.
Yeah Diamond is still conscious but basically out of action, she's a sitting duck if she tries to fight Salem now.
In my head Felix, Arctus and Eagle rushing Salem from all angles like that only to still get wrecked was an absolute set piece.
Of course Diamond took a pot-shot from behind….Also, casual throwback to Ozymandias Eldritch getting shot in the head from behind with the death ray.
Of course Arctus went in for the save and now he's out of Aura two, that's half of Team FADE down.
Armour broken, sword destroyed, bleeding and severely pissed off Salem has been activated and Felix has finally gone for the big guns, shit just got real.
Okay so I blame the overall tone of the Team NEON scene at least partially on reading DCeased lately.
So overall, Helios will be fine, Nyanza's leg can be rebuilt but Ether couldn't feel his legs after being stabbed in the gut and Ollie was blinded as well as some pretty nasty burns….I'm gonna come out and say this, I was genuinely unsure up until the last minute whether I was gonna let Team NEON survive this in tact but I decided I couldn't kill Nyanza after having him spend the last volume in a coma, I didn't want to kill Ether OR Ollie and killing them both seemed gratuitous.
I did say last chapter that they had Grimm inbound.
Onyx to the rescue, enjoy.
Final form Felix and Salem fighting is pure DBZ shit and I felt like the two of them rocketing at each other around the inside of chasm like super-powered Beyblades was the only way it could happen.
Whenever Salem breaks out the Dio Brando time-stop it's gonna be a bad day for someone.
Okay so interesting to note here, both Felix and Salem used techniques from their fight with Nickel back to back, Felix using the falling from mid-air + his own Semblance to bulldoze Salem followed by Salem using her time-bending to drain his power-up state faster.
Oh I'm sorry did you think Eagle wasn't going to do anything cool? She put a big enough hole in Salem that Felix could literally see her fossilised Grimm heart….But now it's just Felix Vs Salem.
Of course Carcharodon was gonna fight to the very end, what else was he going to do at this point?
He isn't Raffia though, he can't get away with not paying attention.
They're one of the few canon Grimm I haven't used before and they've got the teeth for the job, so enjoy the Sabyre making an appearance….Also, I've never really liked the Geist before but reading "War Machines" by Air Force Muffin changed my opinion, it's also a great story that I recommend everyone gives some love to.
It was a brief thing but Carcharodon's crown/helmet thing getting damaged seemed important and fitting.
Onyx and Hellion both came in clutch to save Car.
I told you last chapter to put the torches and pitchforks down….Hellion's last action before her Aura shattered was to use her Semblance and jump into Marauder's body; now, who does Hellion know whose mother is the head of an Atlesian robotics company, the same company involved in the creation of robots with souls and Aura transfer machines?
Yes….like Oscar did in the other timeline and told Arctus about, Felix is going to use a method of stopping Salem that doesn't involve Silver Eyed Warriors; he's going to literally rip her heart out.
Fossilised Grimm Matter is basically a Spawning Pit, ask Nyanza what having a Spawning pit take root inside you feels like….Also, this is why Oscar's right arm was necrotic in the other timeline, he was keeping this at bay.
Felix wins, Fatality.
Of course Salem's body melted, she's the Witch.
Ah, the Xiao Long right arm treatment.
Of course it ends with them falling into magma, but I hope you all noticed that I made a point of having his Aura still in place.
Enter the Ruby.
So Penny is helping the Atlas fighters get the last of the Grimm away from their big ships and Onyx is gonna get Teams GORE, CLIR and NEON onto an airship for medical evac, the day is saved.
Ruby with one eye is still a powerhouse.
Oof that heartbreak there.
Wait….did you really think that Salem was gonna come back….I'll admit I did actually toy with the idea of giving her a giant monstrous form but after the armour and the time-bending it felt like too much.
So yeah, Felix's Semblance saved him….but I will maintain that it isn't plot armour because he has had that power set since Vol.01.
So Ruby didn't do any of the actual fighting against Salem because a) That fight has happened b) This isn't her story and c) She was there to be the escape route and make sure that the heroes all survive, which is honestly more important at this point.
It was over….Or was it?
Thank you to SumoSnipe, MajorBrony95 and Funlander for their reviews on the last chapter.
Diamond is the spiritual successor to Missy, the sniper with the brains to be the leader when the situation calls for it.
I mean it's crazy enough to work and even if its, sometimes the job is more important.
I see everyone called that I had something planned for Hellion.
…..Quietly files "Locust Grimm" away as an idea for later.
Heretic for a Praying Mantis Grimm is a really nice name, go for it.
With Car, I honestly don't know….I'm sure someone has said that line but I couldn't tell you who it was.
Salem wasn't quite on her last leg, as you can see she had a few tricks left.
As always thank you to everyone that reads this, with a special thanks to those of you that follow, favourite and review
