Well, ladies and gentlemen. I have finally gotten my lazy butt in gear. I don't own RWBY or any of it's characters, because if I did it would have been called Remnants with Jaune, Ruby and their teams as actual rivals. But never mind that.
Now to do some I could have done in chapter two, response to reviews properly..
He Who Seeks the Joy in Life- Monster is a matter of perspective, but they are pretty awful. As far as just desserts, you will just have to wait and see.
Kunzero2- Did someone say "Hexblade Jaune with Salem as his Patron"
Nyanyakittyface- I freaking love Escanor and butler thing is kinda inspired by him. Also, as far as all the questions go, I have no doubt you will figure them out in time. But for right now, I got you hooked.
KorevainsoLightshire- Yeah, a butler is kinda useless outside of their swore house. As far as the level 2 thing, I wanted to do it in a tier system (Novice, Apprentice, Journeyman, Expert, Master) and have changed it accordingly. Sorry for the confusion.
An Arc keep his word, no matter how dumb it is.
Also, you saw nothing. You and everybody else imagined the updated stats for Jaune because totally didn't accidentally click copy instead of cut.
Also on another note, thank you to both you and Nyanya because I started reading Survival Story of a Sword King in Another World thanks to you two. It is so good in all the ways I have to make sure not to take too much inspiration from.
Mickeysofine- Fixed it, thank you for the heads up.
Sdphantom10- I am still figuring out the transition and how editing Docs of the story manager works, sorry about that. And shucks, it ain't that good. I still have plenty of ways to improve.
OmegaDelta- All in due time.
0akarigan0- Gracias, I am glad you like it. I was super excited to add elf Weiss and elf Pyrrha, I think it fits them well.
Sentinalslice- Yep and do I seem like the type of person to break apart a family?
Asonia99- Redemption arcs need to be used sparingly or it gets dumb if everbody gets to turn a new leaf, it is actually one of the many problems I have with Ruby's character in perticular. This isn't Naruto so no talk no jutsu. And the dynasty thing is on the right track.
!zzarune- Thank you and not intentionally. (Human Rayla is best character)
Guest4- I know it feels rushed, and I am working on the pacing. Trainwreck, ha, you ain't seen nothing yet.
Blackhawk43- I don't know about that.
Viftech, Joselol489, Guest1, Guest2, Nineyetis, Guest3 and Dragon2000- Thank you, I hope you guys enjoy what is to come.
Thank you everybody for the encouragement, it really does help.
But now, onto the story!
Chapter 3: Of Gods, Magic and Blood
"I have your towels." A voice called through the door. "May I come in?"
The two shared a look as Pyrrha found her voice absent from her throat. Weiss raised an eyebrow, "Come in."
Jaune entered the room, a bundle of towels in his arms. He seemed to notice the change of atmosphere as he came to a stop just inside the door. Weiss now looked at him like he was a puzzle to be solved. She silently seemed to study him as she took a towel from him. Pyrrha knew she must have been given him a similar, and did her best to soften her expression.
"Um,...here are the towels you asked for." He said, flinching slightly as his voice betrayed him, the uneasy clear. "Is everything alright?"
"Yes," Pyrrha heard Weiss hummed when the silence she took a towel, sighing as she dried her hair and ears. "Mmmm, much better."
"Is there anything else?" He asked, his voice still strained.
"Yes!" Pyrrha shouted. Jaune flinched, quickly turning a guarded expression in her direction. Her cheeks and ears when flush as she realized how loud and sudden her outburst was.
Weiss could only shake her head with a sigh. "What my friend means, is would you mind staying for a moment. There is something we want to ask you."
"Um,...sure." Jaune replied, raising an eyebrow.
"Well boy, I am going to take my leave and get some sleep." Orin, who had been standing at the threshold the entire time, chimed in before turning. He stopped only for a moment. "Oh, and Jaune don't forget my advice and have a good night." Jaune blushed at the sly wink he got before the door shut without a sound.
"Um, so what do you want to ask?" Jaune asked, the color standing rigid as a statue.
A thick silence settled over them as Weiss pointedly glared at the redhead who seemed to be lost in thought. "Pyrrha."
"Right," Pyrrha mumbled as she seemed to steel herself, taking a deep breath. A feeling of dread rocketed down his spine. "Your level…..," He rocked on his heels as if struck.
"Stop, I know what you're going to ask." He sighed."My level,...I am….cursed? Broken? Defective? It wouldn't increase no matter what I do!" He ended up shouting, turning away.
Fourths felt the panic and horror wash over her as she realized her grave misstep. She shot to her feet and reached for his shoulder in an attempt to calm him. She realized her mistake the moment her hand landed. His whole body wrenched away from her and he swung at her. Her body turned with the blow on instinct as his fist barreled at her in a wild haymaker. He overextended, throwing his whole body behind it. He was in the air over her shoulder in an instant. Weiss stumbled off her bed as he crashed into the other bed.
"I'm sorry." Pyrrha's hands flew to her face before rushing to his side. "I am so sorry."
Jaune gasped as his lunges desperately searched for the air that she had knocked out of them. Her voice sounded distance and hollow like he was under the surface of a rushing river. He groaned as he caught his breath with an iron grip. "What the fuck."
"I didn't mean, I, I," Pyrrha stumbled through her sentence, overwhelming guilt clouding her vision as Jaune looked up at her in rage. She felt Weiss beside her, shifting uncomfortably.
"If you want to make fun of the fucking fiver, you don't need to get physical!" He glared as he just stared up at them.
"That isn't what I was trying to ask! And you are the one who swung at me." Pyrrha cried as she pulled him to a seated position. "Y'gnerr guided me here," She plucked the totem from the ground, the bronze glowing almost a molten orange. "The gods guided me to you."
She watched as Jaune's gaze to the bronze lion in her hand as angry melted into something else. Pyrrha chose to ignore the tears gathering in the corners of his eyes, as the myriad of emotions crossing his face threatened to bring forth her own. With bated breath, she watched as his hand tentatively moved to take it.
"The gods sent you,...to me?" He said in a hoarse whisper. He flinched as his hand made contact with the bronze, waves of heat borderlining on unbearable must have washed over him like it had her. "All these years, all my prayers, they heard me?"
"Jaune, the gods are always listening." Pyrrha replied with a soft smile as she let the totem go.
There was something about her words, the sincerity and resolve in her voice that coaxed an almost hopeful smile from him. Jaune turned his gaze to the bronze lion in his hand, as if the weight anchored him in what he would otherwise assume as a dream. He could help but admire its craftsmanship, the scarring where the shackles dug in, the beast's snarl of frustration as it looked to be trying to shake off the blindfold. "So now what?"
"Now," Weiss cut in. "We figure out what is holding you back?" She said.
Scribe Skill Activited: Arcana Desk
With a wave of her hand, an ink well, quill and blank sheet of paper flew out of her pack. The trio glided through the air and positioned themselves in front of the white haired scribe neatly, suspended in mid air at a comfortable height.
"You said you think you are cursed?" Weiss asked, wetting the quill.
"Yes," He answered, turning his gaze to the towel in his hand as if he found the stitching infinitely more interesting. "I am able to meet the experience requirement, but it says there is a prerequisite I am not meeting."
"A prerequisite at level six," Weiss muttered, the light scratch of her quill coming to a halt. "It is unheard of to have such a roadblock so early, though not impossible."
"You must have a great destiny for your path to be so narrow," Pyrrha hummed, her eyebrows furrowed in thought. "Jaune," She stopped short.
"Yes," He looked up at her, head tilted, looking at her from behind his bangs. Her heart thundered in her chest as he looked up at her with such fear, such hope that she wanted to turn away. She was used to the stares of awe, envy and fear. But this, he looked up at her like a single look could save or destroy him. She felt like a god holding his future in her hand, and decided she hated it.
"I know it is rude to ask but," Her voice began to lose volume as her nerves began to fail her. She made eye contact as the bed faintly creaked. Her body froze against her will as he rose. His eyes lit with a light, a hope, she couldn't refuse. "Would you be open to sharing your profile with m,...us?"
He blinked as that light grew brighter. He slid into the bubble of her personal space, shoulders touching. He waved his hand and menu sprung into existence with the familiar chime. Weiss, at this point, had abandoned her seat to join them.
Jaune Arc
Race: Human
Combat Class: Fighter(Level 5), Career Class: Butler(Journeyman)
Might: 15, Dexterity: 10, Fortitude: 16, Intelligence: 11, Instinct: 13, Aura: 15/15
Exp: 205,153/50 (Error)
She felt Jaune tense as a gasp escaped Weiss, doing everything in her power to ignore how he leaned into her. She hadn't expected a simple word to fill her with so much dread, but something about it was so wrong, like an infected wound spreading to the skin and muscle around it. She saw the pinpricks of tears start to gather in the corner of Weiss' eye as she stamped out the ones threatening her own.
"By the gods." Weiss whispered. Pyrrha hadn't known what to expect but what caught her off guard wasn't the word Error, but the sheer amount of experience next to it. She knew hardened hunters who were twice age who hadn't reached that amount. How many times had he levelled up with nothing to show for it. How had he not fallen into despair or madness?
"Flip to your Class and Skill tab, that is where any level up information will be listed." Pyrrha said, a hardened edge creeping into her voice, a small ember she hadn't known was there fanning into flame.
Jaune nodded, sparing her a weary glance before flipping to his Class and Skill page.
Level One: Warrior
Level Two: Heavy Strike
Level Three: Block, Parry
Level Four: Shield Bash
Level Five: Two Strike Combo
Level SIx: Prerequisites to Level Up, 205,153/50 Experience
Pyrrha glared at the last line of his Combat Skill, searched for anything amiss. "Weiss, can you cast a Divination Spell? The highest level of the spell that you can."
Weiss frowned, her chin in her hand as she weighed the risk. "I can, it will wipe me out afterwards though and my casting abilities will be diminished for the next few days. It will take me ten minutes to prepare the spell. I am going to need an open space." Weiss responded with a firm nod, gesturing at the furniture. Jaune watched in confusion as Weiss began rummaging through her bag for something as Pyrrha set to work pushing beds aside.
"Don't feel the need to hold back. If the spell requires suffering, I can take it." Jaune huffed, moving into action a moment behind her. She could tell he was becoming increasingly weary of the two women who blew into his life, supposedly sent by the gods. "The first time I get to see real magic up close, and I end up in the center of it."
"You have never seen magic before?" Pyrrha asked as Weiss pulled several vials of colored powders from her bag.
"There was one time, Marron was practicing her spellcraft without supervision. She was showing Rouge something." Jaune explained, his voice adopting a somber tone as he continued. "They didn't know I was there. I was so curious that I slowly snuck closer, to see if maybe magic is what I was missing. Mom caught them and then she saw me."
Pyrrha knew there was more, her instinct was to back off, let him open up when he was ready. But Y'gnerr was a goddess of action and movement, and felt compelled to push him. "What happened next?" Her voice was soft but probing.
"We were punished, I had to move rocks back and forth between two piles at opposite ends of the grounds for two weeks. If I wasn't passed out from exhaustion, I was moving rocks. All in all, I just used it as strength training. Rouge was made to do all the chores I would normally do on top of her normal training and chores. Marron, her punishment was handled by her teacher, my grandmother. She and my grandmother vanished for a week. I never found out what had happened to her, but she was never the same afterwards." He finished, guilt and regret laced in his words as if he was solely to blame.
"Why did you never leave?" Her voice tainted with a barely restrained plea.
"Where would I have gone?" Jaune hummed, staring at the faded and not so faded scars on his hands. "Plus, they are my family, I can't just abandon them."
"Vale, Shade, any number of small towns in the frontier." Pyrrha replied, keeping her voice low so as to not distract her friend who was drawing arcana symbols in the air. "Somewhere where you aren't neglected and abused."
"They are my family despite everything," His voice took on an iron edge of its own. "I could never go to Vale or Shade, I would have died in the wilderness long before I reached anywhere. Plus, Vale is where the Magnus is." She raised an eyebrow at the terror that crept in at the end.
"Magnus?"
"Yes," His voice dropped to a ghost of itself. "The Magnus, the immortal wizard who wages a war with the Witchqueen of the Grimm."
"Jaune, there is no immortal wizard. Nor is there a queen of the Grimm. They are just monsters." She said softly. "There is no war, or secret war. Our world is at peace with the other realms and has been for a hundred years." She could see the doubt written on his face.
"But even my uncle says it is true." He muttered.
"The ritual is ready." Weiss said, efficiently postponing the current dialogue.
"Well," Jaune sighs, clenching his fists. "Let's do this." Weiss nodded before mentioning him to step into the center of the intricate circle drawn or chalk and powder.
Weiss frowned as she and Pyrrha watched as he seemed to stumble. "I know you're nervous, but please don't smudge any of the lines or dust. If you do I will have to start over."
Pyrrha felt something settle in the pit of her stomach as Jaune nodded as if in a daze. Maybe this was a bad idea, she had seen others react badly to magic in the past. What if something goes wrong or the spell makes whatever is affecting him worse.
For it is in searching that we find knowledge.
Through this, we become a bastion of wisdom to guide both our own actions and those who seek counsel.
So here I search, open my eyes to all things hidden and let nothing hide from my searching.
Reveal to me the truth!
Greater Spectral Divination
Weiss' eyes closed as the glyph erupted in the arcana power. Pyrrha found her breath caught in her chest as magic glyphs rimmed with piercing blue eye ringed Jaune. Three rings rotated and revolved along three moving axis at random patterns. Weiss' eyebrows furrowed as the dust burned and sparked
"There is definitely a powerful magic on him that is not his own." She said as her voice drew thin, strained. "Open your menu, quickly."
Pyrrha paled as Jaune didn't move. "Jaune?!"
"Now is not the time to space out," Weiss growled between grit teeth. Jaune remained completely unresponsive.
The blue magic wavered and crackled as eyes started winking out of existence one by one. The veins bulged beneath his skin like roots lacing the earth and his eyes rolled back into his skull. The glyphs creaked and distorted unnaturally as a red hue started to taint them, like blood in water. The smell of ozone and iron permeated the room.
"Pyrrha?!" Weiss' trembled, eyes wild in terror. The spell buckled and Pyrrha found herself moving without thinking.
Shield
Weiss thrust out of her hands, a glyph of ice and snow manifesting in front of her. The bolt of magic rushed for her, slamming against her barrier. Pale blue eyes widened in horror as the ice strained red, splinters branching out in slow motion. Y'gnerr, please let me reach her in time. The blood red glyph shattered into a torrent of jagged shrapnel where the white hair mage had been only a moment before. And then like a receding tide, the red washed back into Jaune.
"I am ready when you are." Jaune's voice broke the eerie quiet that settled over the room.
"What?" She heard Weiss say, her breathing heavy beneath her.
"Um,...you just told me to be careful not to smudge the lines?" His voice grew concerned. Pyrrha looked at Weiss, seeing the reflection of her own terror in her friend's eyes. "Are we not doing this?"
"Jaune," She began slowly, rolling off of Weiss as the girl groaned. She would apologize later. "She just cast the spell."
"Oh," Jaune said, looking disappointed. "With all that work, I was kinda expecting more."
"Pyrrha," She felt the bed shift next to her. The urgency in her hoarse whisper immediately drew her notice immediately.
"Is she alright?" He asked, eyes narrowing in concern. Pyrrha ignored him as her friend struggled to sit up. She would apologize to him later. Weiss was deadly pale, her ears drooped and her eyes bloodshot.
"Pyrrha," Weiss whispered as her arms failed her. "It is a blood curse." She managed before her head hit the mattress and passed out.
"What happened?!" He came rushing to their side.
"Aura Burnout." Pyrrha forced her voice not to quiver. "Using magic is taxing on the user, it drains their aura. She wasn't expecting to use a counter spell on top of the divination spell." She said as she adjusted her friend into a comfortable position. "She will be consincess by the morning, but for now she needs rest."
"Counter spell? Why would she have to cast." His voice petered out.
Her heart sank when she looked up, Jaune was staring at the ice embedded in the wall. She watched as his gaze swept back to the now broken circle, his blue eyes darkening. She quashed a wave of pity as he connected the dots as to what happened.
"What,...what is a blood curse?" He muttered as he turned back to the ice. She really wished Weiss hadn't passed out.
"It is one of the most powerful and cruel curses known to mages." She sighed. "From what little I know, it is a binding curse. It uses the victim's blood as a medium for the magic, most curses need a source of power to maintain their effect. Normally when the medium for the curse is destroyed the curse is broken."
She was surprised as the fear in his eyes hardened into something darker. "But since the medium is my blood, it can't be destroyed without killing me. Are blood curses common?"
"No." Pyrrha replied. Her eyebrows knitted together the more she thought about it. "No, they are almost unheard of in this day and age."
"A powerful and rare curse, good to know. It would take a powerful mage to cast such a spell, wouldn't it?" His voice deepened as he finally turned back to her with a grim, humourless smile that didn't fit the man who greeted her at the gate. The look in his eyes sent a shiver down her spine, it wasn't a look of fear or even angry though both were there. No, it was the look of unbridled, ravenous desperation.
"Yes," She said slowly. The hair on the back of her neck bristled as his anger gaze turned toward the door, his knuckles turning stark white. "You…..you think it was your grandmother, don't you?"
A growl rumbled in his throat. "She is the only mage in the family with the skill to do something like this. And if it wasn't her, she will know who did."
"Jaune." She spoke gently like the way she spoke to her horse when it was spooked. "Even if she is terrible enough to do something like that to you, what is your plan?"
"If you are asking me if I am suicidal enough to confront my grandmother about this directly," He said grimly. "I am not, not yet anyways."
"You really think she would try to kill you?" She frowned, some part of her did not want to believe a member of his family would do such a thing.
"If it was just my life at risk, I would go find out." His gaze swept over her and Weiss. "But I can't risk your lives, especially after all you two have done for me."
For the first time since the spell started, her heart lightened just a bit. With all the cruelty he had only now learned he had endured, his noble soul sot their safety first. A lion, indeed. Whatever her goddess's design was, this was surely only the beginning. "First you swear away any right to ask for help to any guidance and now you stay your, rather justified, wrath for two people you have only just met. You are certainly an odd one, Jaune Arc."
He blinked, seemingly caught off guard. She found a small smile creep across her face as his eyes grew wide as her words sank in. His frown relaxed just a touch before the faintest of chuckles escaped his lips. "Gods, this situation really is ridiculous."
"It is not what I expected our return journey to hold." She grinned. She couldn't help but laugh as his shoulder slumped as it looked like exhaustion had finally begun to creep in.
"I imagine so." He hummed, his hand somehow finding the bronze lion from its nest in the blankets. He turned over and over in his hands, looking at it but not really seeing it. He threw up his arms and glared at the heavens beyond the ceiling. "I hope the gods are entertained by the trials and tribulations of Jaune Arc, the bound."
"The divine aren't done with you yet. And neither am I." She said, eyebrow raised at his blasphemy. His arms dropped as he watched her out of the corner of his eye. "I am sworn to deliver Weiss back to Beacon. But I will return for you after that, assuming I can't convince you to leave with us."
"I….I am not some damsel in distress." His voice cracked slightly. "Thanks to you two, I have a better understanding of what I am up against. You two have given me a fighting chance and that is more than enough."
"I wouldn't say damsel, per say. Not that you aren't pretty,..er, handsome enough to fit the roll. You have shown far more perseverance to be helpless." She hated sounding so awkward, problems were so much easier when you could solve them with a spear. "What I mean is, you are worth the effort and risk of returning for. Even if this wasn't a task from the divine I would still come back."
She was surprised how honest those words were until after they left her lips. They borderline blasphemy, for one's god should come before all things. But she found herself unable to feel guilty or even remorseful.
"I…...Why?" His cobalt eyes stared at her with so much hope and doubt that a part of her wanted to shy away. He looked at her like she was one of those heroes from the stories her mother read to her as a child. That flame from earlier warmed in her chest, squaring her shoulders.
"It is more than wanting to free you." She raised her hand as he went to interject. "You have so much potential, and have persevered defiance of your limitations. I believe you will do great things if you were given the chance."
She shoved down the bitter tang as the words left her mouth. It is easier in that moment, as the doubt in his eyes clears away like clouds under the summer sun. His fingers tracing the shackles and chains. "I don't know about that. I just want to be able to protect those I care about and walk with them as an equal in this life."
Pyrrha's eyes widened as he echoed a small voice from the past. That bitter taste roiled into a pit in her stomach. She struggled to keep her voice steady. "I believe you will."
"You really think so?" She didn't trust herself to speak with the smile he sent her way, instead just nodding. "Thank you."
"Of course, Jaune." She hummed softly.
"It is late," He coughed as he averted his gaze for some reason. So much had happened that night and she could help but wonder what was going through his head. She held in a giggle as he tried desperately not to yawn as he rose to his feet. He sighed, glancing at the bronze in his hand. "I should probably give this back."
"Yes it is," She turned to his outstretched hand. That pit in her stomach had begun to unknot itself as she instead cupped his hand and closed his fingers back around it. "It is not mine anymore. For I am not the lion."
"Oh, um…..thank you." He mumbled, his grin turning bashful for only a moment but his shoulders straightened. She thanked the goddess that her skin had tanned or Jaune would surely notice the blush on her cheeks as the knot faded away into waves of conformable warmth. "I will…….think over your offer."
"Thank you, Jaune, that is all I ask." She said as he gave her a nod as he headed for the door. She couldn't help but smile as there was a strut in his gate that wasn't that before.
"Good night, Pyrrha." He hummed before slipped out the door like a shadow in the night.
"Good night, Jaune." What had Y'gnerr gotten her into.
The door closed behind him with a soft click as he slipped out the guest room. The halls of his childhood home stretched out before him, somehow less than before. The shadows seemed deeper as the torches struggled against the damp, shuddering and hissing. The storm raged outside, the din of the pitter patter of rain beating against the window didn't offer its old comfort. When he had walked into that room this place had been his home, now he was having a hard time not seeing it for the barred windows and thick stone.
He frowned as he pushed through a false wall into his haven of tunnels hidden from all but him. Even here felt like a prison. He shivered as he slinked through the drafty passage.
"I can't believe I blacked out," He grumbled to himself. What was the last thing he remembered before stepping into the spell. The hellfire that coursed through his veins in the very next moment. No, there was something else. A tone, a single note that hummed without sound. His soul reached out for it and whatever it was reached back only for something to bar the connection.
"I had some sort of reaction to the spell, or maybe just the magic itself." He hummed, navigating darkness effortlessly. "I will have to ask Weiss to teach,...Oh."
His shoulders sagged. He would have to do as he always had, by watching and just doing. His eyes narrowed as he came to a stop. With a flick of his wrist, his menu sprung to live. He flipped to the skill table, his hand slightly trembling.
Level SIx: Prerequisites to Level Up; 50/50 Experience, Use Aura to a
The text was fading as the curse had already obscured the rest. A grin slipped onto his face, because that didn't matter, not now.
"So it has something to do with aura then?" He mused as the walls were a wash with a white light, pulsing and flickering like flames.
Phew, there it is my friends. I am really happy that I decided to have it from Pyrrha's point of view. The spell and how spell and magic worked had me stumped, so I decided to have Pyrrha's spell(When you think about it, it was totally a spell) as a base for magic in this world.
Hopefully I answered some of your questions and raised even more. Mwahahahaha (Lightning flashing as my cape bellows dramatically.)
But really, I am not going to treat you like idiots like a lot of actual fiction treats their fans(Cough, Disney, Cough). You guys are smart and when you figure stuff out and speculate, I am excited. So I hope you enjoyed it, until next time.
Smokebomb!