From Ashes to Dust

by joecola00

Remnant is a world housed by the remains of a people constantly warring with soulless monsters that would see them extinct. Yet they aren't the only remnants on their planet. Remnant is far older than any of its denizens could imagine, older than even their Brother Gods. One of these relics of their past is not as dead as the rest, and its awakening will bring fate to its knees...

26. Unbreakable

Ch 25 - Unbreakable

A/N: Hey, remember when I said that you'd find out who Roman's associate was when we got to Mt. Glenn? Well, here we are.

Apparently I have a reader from Bhutan. Color me surprised.

So it wasn't intentional, but with the way uploads happened, chapter 24 went up 4 days before my birthday. Considering that this was a big chapter in terms of importance for me, and to the story in general, I'm giving this one out as a reverse Birthday Present (though I certainly wouldn't say no if anyone wanted to wish me a happy birthday. I mean, I can legally drink alchoholic beverages now! Responsibly, of course. And I'm certainly not going driving if I'm not 100% sober.) Enjoy!

Also, to the troll who attempted to post the entire Bee Movie script in the reviews... you're not funny. I'm not counting it towards the review total either. Please report that guy if his review hasn't been taken down by the time this chapter goes up. Spam isn't funny. I get enough spam IRL from telemarketers, and I HAVE to pick up the phone because it might be someone I applied for an internship to. I don't need spam here too.

I finally killed Fatalis in Monster Hunter World. Honestly, the fight was both easier and more fun than Alatreon was. IDK, I just don't enjoy being forced into an extremely specific build if I don't want to cart on every Escaton Judgement. Next up is Arch-tempered Velkhana.

Got my first covid vaccine shot on Saturday. Pfizer. Felt like absolute shit when I woke up Sunday Morning, but I felt better by the end of the day. Can't wait to get my second in a couple weeks so I can stop worrying about dying from covid.

Lastly, we got another long chapter.

Review Responses:

YermakGundyr: You know, this may be minor but I love the direction on how you handled Team CRDL here, seriously, it's just...tiring or a bit disappointing whenever a fanfic turns them into a punching bag for the protagonists to assert on how "right" and "morally good" they are. Fanfics where Post-Forever Fall Team CRDL are depicted as becoming jerks or assholes with hearts of gold are rare and I like those fics that take them in that direction.

Yes, we all hate racists and bullies but I would like to point out that Team CRDL are still 1st Year students attending an academy, a place of learning, hell, look at Weiss' character during the first months of Beacon, if she can change, then why not them too?

My response: Honestly, I'm kinda surprised that I got like 5 reviews within 12 hours of the chapter going live specifically pointing out how they enjoyed the CRDL redemption arc. I've stated that its NOT going to be a focus in the story by any stretch, but I'm glad you're enjoying it. You also bring up a good point with Weiss changing. If she can be a better person, why not CRDL?

Skeletalrepublic: Nice job with furthering Cardin and His team's character development. It's nice to see characters that barely get attention have development to show that the world around main cast is constantly changing.

Also now that you brought it up, Pyrrha's status as a super celebrity really never went anywhere in the show and that's a pretty big missed opportunity to further hit home how her celebrity life can be a detriment to not only her, but her friends as well.

I mean, the most obvious example I can think of her celebrity life bleeding in the story in a way is after her death. Jaune and his team are heavily blamed by admirers and reporters over her Death because of not being there for her. Probably affecting Jaune, Ren, and Nora hard and putting stressing themselves over the fact that there was a chance they could have saved her.

The fact that you utilized her popularity and integrated it in the story shows that there's much more you can do with what was just a simple bit in RWBY.

My response: Again, the whole CRDL thing's a side-bit at best, but I'm glad you're enjoying it. Though it only occurred to me just now that CRDL actually is a pretty nice lens to show how the world is changing around the main characters.

Yeah, that always kinda confused me in canon. Like, they hype Pyrrha up as this amazing tournament champion and everything... and then don't really go anywhere with that behind using it as an excuse to make her want to get in Jaune's pants because he doesn't give a crap that she's famous. Like, even if they just showed a bunch of Pyrrha fans with merch and stuff in the audience in the Vytal Festival Tournament, some reporters trying to hound her at some point, or a bunch of fans begging for autographs, that would have satisfied me. Not only just a plot hole/failing for RT, but you're right that its a missed opportunity for RT to show how a celebrity life is a detriment to the celebrity and those close to them IRL. Especially in Mistral, I feel like some Pyrrha fans should have given Jaune flak when they saw him, and the crushing guilt he would feel would play into his character development.

It honestly surprises me that only some of the better fanfics on the site end up utilizing that fame at all.

ScreamingStuka: Ohhhhh, now this I like. You're right that we don't see much in the way of Pyrrha's fame, so its really cool that you did this, and accurately portrayed just how nosy the paparazzi is. They'll sell their soul, you're soul and that of anyone else just for a half interesting story.
As I'm writing this I'm trying to beat Slave Knight Gael (first DS3 playthrough), wish me luck. Also managed to put together Vyliria's armor and Gwyn Damn does it look cool. Interesting how some sets can mix well with others.
Liked Jaune catching up with the fam, Blake's early public unveiling and Cardin stepping in. Cant wait to see just how much changes with Mountain Glenn and the Breach with Magic and a Champion of Ash involved.

My response: Yeah, the media can be real arseholes. Wow, you got pretty far with Vyliria. And I certainly wish you luck. Yeah, I spent WAY too much time on fashion souls in that game, and in general. You should see some of the outfit combos I came up with in Monster Hunter.

But yeah, I kinda wanted to expand on Pyrrha's fame, while also showing how canon's being changed. This was an opportunity to do both. There's a lot that will change.

Oh yeah, and you're about to find out that there's more than JUST magic and Vyliria altering the equation at Mt. Glenn. Remember Roman's associate? Because he's about to make his debut.

Supreme Gamer: Okay, I've read the entirety of the story from start to finish and am ready to give my two cents. Fair warning, I have a tendency to be brutally honest, so sorry if I kind've sound like an asshole.

I guess the first thing to talk about would be the heroine of the story, Vyliria. Simply put, I personally don't like her for the simple fact that she's all plot device, but no substance. She's a great sorcerer, a great pyromancer, a great sword fighter, a great cleric, a wise sage, a best friend to every dark souls character across the board, an amazing teachers in all arts of combat, romance and magic, has intimate relationship with gods ands other beings, knows about everything from Lordran to Irithyla and just an all around perfect pansy. Where's her strife? Where's her journey? Right now, she's literally only there to "Slightly" alter normal RWBY events or downright steal character moments. It might as well be RWBY (Oh, and Vyliria).

It gets so boring to have every second, of every word, of every sentence be a constant reminder that she's from the Dark Soul's universe and needs be an exposition sponge because someone asked her a minor question. Just dial it back and allow her to be a character with at least a flaws and quirks. Have her actually have to "Try" at something, or better yet, have her fail and be defeated at something instead of everyone, villain's included, marveling at how amazing and powerful she is.

My point is, make her less of a Mary Sue by showing a bit of weakness or flaw.

She has no aura. Maybe a good old fashion bullet storm ambush courtesy of cinder make Vyliria show more caution to bullets, the things she hasn't seemed to show any interest in despite them being way more practical than magic. Or maybe Salem sends the hound after her and gives her more than she bargained for in a fight. Or heck, how about a bit of time just showing her figuring out she likes coffee more than a cappuccino? Just anything to make her into a character that actually has her own interest.

But hey, there's plenty of good to go along with the bad. Even if it could use a bit deviation from the HUGE wall of text, I love the attention to detail to you put into fight scenes and describing characters themselves. It paints a nice and clear picture for sure. And I was definitely into the small tales that get recited when anyone does a miracle. Its just a real mood killer that its always usually followed up with more dark souls exposition or showing how "amazing and understanding" big teach Vyliria is.

I do have a few more comments, but seeing as this reviews gotten kinda long, I think I'll end it here. This is all just my opinion by the way, so feel free to take all of it with a grain of salt. Best of luck in the future, bro.

My response: Just to start off, I wanna say I absolutely ADORE Dark Souls: Derp edition, so it made me very happy to see your review when I went onto FFN.

As for Vyliria... you're right. She IS a very powerful character. But the issue that comes up when you put a Dark Souls character who's finished their game is thus: They've done all the things. They've grabbed all the spells. They've gotten a LOT of levels. And besides running through DS3, Vyliria was running about as an undead for a couple decades, which then culminated a journey to Link the First Flame that failed. She may have a body that's stuck at 19, but she's got several DECADES (probably closer to a century, but I don't want to give an exact timeframe) of combat experience, and that timeframe is PLENTY of time to learn every spell she can get her hands on, and practice with a wide variety of weapons.

I do need to dial back on the exposition. I need to learn to balance explaining things to begin with versus explaining too much. That's a flaw of mine. Not sure how much I can shift things around, considering that this fic is already done and I'm just spacing out uploads, but it's something that I'll try to work on in the sequel.

As for her not having aura... well, I did say I planned for her to get it (though while its soon, when exactly is a spoiler). Though on the subject of bullets, basically anything that's not a shot to the brain or a round directly severing her spinal cord won't have that much effect on her. And her armor is shown to be perfectly capable of handling a few rounds before anything penetrates as well.

I AM moving a lot of stuff ahead of the canon schedule, but I don't think the hound is gonna make an appearance just yet.

I'll admit: It's hard trying to balance what I want/need Vyliria to be for this story with being a character with flaws and whatnot.

Ironically, I was most afraid I screwed up fight scenes and character descriptions, so it makes me glad to hear I've done THAT well. Also glad you like the miracles; some of them were a PAIN to come up with.

Again, thanks for the review, and good luck with your fic as well.

Boshwa: Found this fic after trying to find a good rwby crossover. Was a little bit hesitant at the beginning, especially with how much effort was put into describing the characters to a somewhat unnecessary degree, but I quickly found myself enjoying the read.

One question though: Can Vyliria roll to get invincibility frames? Can she teach it to others?

My response: Glad you're enjoying it. I'll admit, I originally got into RWBY by reading DS xovers. So I try to be descriptive with characters and give large amounts of exposition so that any reader who isn't familiar with one of the 2 xover elements isn't left in the dark.

While her inventory capabilities certainly feel gamey, I can at least rationalize that as part of being unkindled, and sorta being a bonfire-to-go in terms of storage capabilities. However, literal invincibility frames is definitely a step too far into the "real person operating on video game mechanics" territory. So while she can roll to dodge stuff, and has become very adept at bodily hurling herself out of harm's way before scrambling back to her feet, and has gained a bit in terms of flexibility from all the practice, she still has to actually avoid whatever is trying to kill her for the Nth time. So no, she can't teach it either, because i-frames aren't actually a thing in this universe.

Disclaimer: I don't own Dark Souls or RWBY. Dark Souls belongs to From Software and RWBY belongs to Rooster Teeth. I only own my own OC.

(Ruby)

It was way too late… or was it too early for this? Ruby mused as she caught up to Zwei to see him heeding nature's call. "Zwei, this is a wasteland," she whispered, gesturing to the ruined expanse of Mountain Glenn around them. "You literally could have done that anywhere." The corgi barked.

"What was that?" A voice called out. Ruby grabbed her dog and hid around a corner, peeking around to see two armed White Fang grunts searching around.

"What was what?" the other one responded.

"I thought I heard a beowolf or something…"

"Let's just finish our patrol and get back to base. This place gives me the creeps."

Ruby expertly sneaked along behind them, applying all the movie techniques she had watched over the years to silently tiptoe behind them and dash between bits of cover. Seeing them round a corner, she held Zwei to look around for her. "Are they gone yet?" she asked the corgi. "One bark means yes." A few seconds passed, before a door opening and shutting was heard, and he barked once. Ruby rounded the corner.

"This is it, this is it!" she excitedly whispered as she fished out her scroll, trying to dial her team… only for the lack of signal to prevent her from doing so. "Oh, man! Come on, we gotta get the others."

She started walking across the street… only for the ground beneath her to buckle, crack, and sink a few inches. "Huh?"

The ground opened up, Crescent Rose on safe ground, but Ruby barely holding onto the asphalt and a dangling Zwei. She tossed the corgi to safety, and tried to climb up herself. She thought she heard footsteps, but then the chunk of street she was holding fell…

Only for a hand to just barely grab the cape that extended from her hood. "Hnnng!" a male voice grunted. "I gotcha, kid!" the voice said with a strange accent, slowly but surely hauling her up back onto safer ground, where they both scrambled back from the hole that went Oum knows how deep. Ruby took a look at her unexpected savior once she verified that he, Zwei, and herself were all in the clear. She noted that as she was observing him, Zwei wandered off again.

The man in question was now squatting, legs bent, and elbows on his knees as his hands hung around ankle level. He was bald, with a pointed nose and a seemingly perpetual smirk upon his face. He had black leather shoes, and covering his lower black fabric pants were black leather greaves, going from the knee to the shoe. He had two bands of brown leather on his thighs, and a brown belt sat over both his pants and his black, long sleeved shirt that covered his upper body. Two light grey leather gloves, with patches of metal covering the back of the palms and fingers, but not quite gauntlets, sat on his hands, and light grey metal wrist bracers were just behind them. Over his left shoulder was a metal pauldron, and slightly further down the arm were two leather straps connected by metal. On his right shoulder was a much larger brown leather pauldron, with some kind of floral or vine-like pattern on part of it, straps connecting it to another patch of leather armor on the opposite side of his upper chest. "That was a right close one, wasn't it?" the man asked. "It was a bloody good thing I was nearby."

"Uh, yeah," Ruby replied, "Thanks, Mister…"

"Oh, where are my manners! You can call me Lapp, Miss."

"I'm Ruby. Thanks again, Mister Lapp."

"Oh, drop the Mister! It makes me feel old!"

"Sorry."

"No offense taken, kid."

"So what are you doing out here?" Ruby asked.

"Now, I could ask the same of you, it is awfully suspicious for a kid to be out and about at night in the middle of Mt. Glenn of all places," Lapp replied.

"Oh, I'm a student at Beacon! I'm here with a huntsman on a mission. But there's White Fang here! I saw them just before I fell."

Lapp swallowed, looking nervous, though Ruby put it down to hearing about the terrorists in the vicinity. "White Fang, you say? Damn, this place just got a lot more dangerous for a scavenger like me."

"Scavenger?"

"Well, a lot of people left this place in a hurry. A lot more didn't leave at all. Everyone left some kind of valuables behind. Soooo… I go poking around and picking them up." At Ruby's raised eyebrow, he hastily amended, "Well, and I check if the trinkets belong to people who still have living families. If they do, then I bring them back, see?"

"Oh! That's really nice," Ruby said.

"Yeah, it is," he said, hastily nodding. "But, ah, I'm not supposed to be out here, technically speaking, so I'd kind of appreciate it if you don't let your pals know. Cause then they'd have to arrest me for being out here without a permit, you see? Consider it a favor for keeping you from that nasty fall?"

"Oh, sure, I totally understand, Lapp. My lips are sealed." Ruby mimed zipping her lips.

"Right, thanks a million, kid."

"You talk funny," Ruby said, "kinda like my friend Vyliria."

Lapp seemed to choke for a few seconds. When he recovered, he said, "Ah, terribly sorry, some spit went down the wrong pipe. Vyliria, you said? Care to elaborate on that?"

Ruby didn't know why, but some part of her felt she could tell Lapp without any problems. So she did. "Oh yeah, my friend Vyliria Avalon. She's on another team, so she isn't here," Lapp seemed to relax, but Ruby didn't pay that mind. "She's great, and she has magic. All kinds of sorceries, miracles," Lapp squinted in slight annoyance at that particular word, but again, Ruby didn't pay it mind, as she was too absorbed in talking about her friend, "and pyromancies. She's teaching my sister and another of my teammates that last one, and is teaching my partner sorceries. And I learned a dark miracle called lifehunt scythe, and she's gonna teach me lightning arrow."

"Wow," Lapp swallowed, starting to sweat. "That sounds… interesting… and dangerous… which is why I'm sweating! I'm sweating because that sounds very dangerous for kids to be wielding something like that!"

"Okay? But it's fine! We're huntresses in training, and Vyliria makes sure we all stay safe while we're learning. Yang hasn't even set anything on fire by accident for two months!"

"Riiiiiiight, I'll take your word for that," Lapp drawled out.

"Ruby?" She heard Yang's voice call out, shortly followed by Weiss, then Blake.

"Miss Rose, are you unharmed?" Prof- Doctor Oobleck also shouted.

"Oh, that's my team! You should probably go," Ruby said to Lapp.

"Er, right! I'll get to that. Thanks a million for not telling anyone about me, Ruby," he said as he scrambled up and ran off away from the direction of her team's voices.

She waited a few more seconds, before calling out, "I'm over here!" Shortly after, they came running around a corner, and Yang scooped her up in a hug. "I love you too, Yang," she wheezed, "But there's White Fang here!" Her sister let her go, and she took in oxygen for a few breaths. "They went through that door, but then I… nearly fell down that big hole in the floor that opened up."

Doctor Oobleck carefully stepped up to the hole and looked down. "Of course… of course, of course, of course!"

"What is it?" Blake asked.

"How could I be so stupid?"

"Doctor Oobleck, what's wrong?" Yang questioned.

"What Yang said," Ruby added.

The Doctor stepped up to Ruby, his face inches from her own, before starting to speak at a mile a second. "Mountain Glenn! Yes, an expansion of Vale that was inevitably destroyed by the creatures of Grimm." He dashed in front of Yang now. "Previously home to thousands of people." Now he was in front of Blake. "Working people, commuting to the city, the main city," Weiss was the next subject of his runaway speech train, "developed a subway system to the inner city!" He was back to Ruby, "Grimm attacks increase, population in danger, now desperately searching for shelter. City evacuates into metro tunnels!" He stepped back from them all, and RWBY breathed a collective sigh of relief. "And what do they find?!" He kneeled down, now in Zwei's face, not that the corgi which must have brought her team back when it left earlier, minded. "The southeast quadrant of Vale is known for its wild forests, and deep caves!

"Doc, what are you saying?" Yang managed to recover first.

He sprung up and forwards, grabbing Yang by the shoulders and shaking her as he spoke. "My dear, we're not just looking for an underground crime network! We're looking for an underground crime network!"

"They've been working in caves?" Blake blurted out, while Yang's eyes rolled in their sockets and she shook her self to be rid of Oobleck induced disorientation.

"No, no, Mountain Glenn was Vale's first serious attempt at expansion! It worked for a short period of time, thanks to an aggressive perimeter defense, and unique transportation. The city of Vale built an elaborate subway system to carry citizens safely from the new territory into the main kingdom. Sadly, without the many natural barriers Vale had to protect its borders, Mountain Glenn was doomed from the start!" Oobleck lowered his voice to a whisper. "As the end drew near, the citizens of the territory made one last attempt at survival. They took up shelter beneath the city, in the massive caves they had cleared out for the subway, and they had cut themselves off from the surface."

"An underground village?" Ruby went to clarify.

"In a manner of speaking, yes. A safe haven. Until… an explosion opened the mouth of another cavern, filled with subterranean Grimm. After that, the kingdom officially sealed off the tunnels… creating the world's largest tomb." Ruby paused a moment to think, and said in her head, Actually, if Vyliria is as old as she said she is, then the world's largest tomb is probably wherever Irithyll was. Or some other big city from way back when she wasn't ancient.

"If the White Fang are down there," Oobleck grabbed his thermos, and a handle extended from one side and a nozzle from the other. "Then we must find them."

(Honestly, you shouldn't be surprised)

Patches cursed again, having to run an extra four miles to the next nearest door that went to the undercity.

"Of all the things you could neglect to tell me, Roman," he said to himself as he continued his sprint, "It's that Vyliria of fucking Avalon is still alive and kicking! Bloody hell! I don't rightly give a shit if I die to Cinder, since it won't stick. But while Fire Bitch could kill you and Neo, if we end up following her to what I think the end goal of her plans are, Vyliria will kill us all… and make sure we stay that way."

He grumbled another swear as the first mile finally disappeared beneath his feet.

(Jaune)

"I'm sure they're fine," Pyrrha claimed, when Jaune finished explaining the apprehension he had at the strange call he had received from Ruby about 20 minutes before he would have woken up normally.

"And I'm sure that any minute now, there's either going to be a terrorist attack in the middle of Vale, a metric arse-ton of Grimm attacking the city, or both!" Beacon's resident mage shot back.

"You know, that doesn't exactly make me feel better," Jaune said.

"It's probably a butt-dial." Nora just skipped along towards the waiting bullhead.

"Team RWBY has always performed exceptionally in the field," Ren said as he tried to calm Jaune and counteract Vyliria's paranoia. "We should be focusing on our own mission."

"We're gonna be deputies!" Nora practically squealed.

"I just got this feeling," Jaune trailed off.

"Jaune," Pyrrha went to comfort him again, putting a hand on his shoulder… right before the city alarms for a Grimm attack started wailing. Everyone stopped, and slowly turned to Vyliria, who just crossed her arms, and took a deep breath while cinders washed across her form and her combat attire was donned.

"I TOLD YOU SO! Make fun of my paranoia again! Go ahead!"

Jaune made up his mind, and took control, the scraggly blonde tapping out so the tactician could take his place. "We're changing the mission," he said, jogging the remaining distance to the bullhead as his team kicked into action to follow him. "Everyone on board!"

They all clambered onto the ship, Jaune stopping Ren for just a second to tell him, "Ren, we'll make it to that village another time." He stepped into the bullhead, and slammed the inside wall with his fist twice, shouting to the pilot, "Take us into the city!" as it began to lift off and the bay doors shut.

(Vyliria)

The craft sped along, approaching the chaos, the doors opened again, and Vyliria surveyed their destination. The plaza, the same one that Ironwood had advertised his latest mechanical minions weeks ago, that was the epicenter of the outbreak was in shambles, as RWBY fought a seemingly endless wave of Grimm that were pouring out of a hole in the ground, the head of a train of all things sticking out of the breach. They were a four-woman army, fire, both of a chaotic and dark variety, and sorcery carving their way through the spawn of the Abyss like a blade through wheat, occasionally interpressed with the shrieks of lifehunt scythe as it rent through the air with as much killing force as it did any Grimm.

Nora was the first off the craft, jumping out, and putting Magnhild underneath her in its hammer form as she used a grenade's recoil to launch herself at a king taijitu, slamming the weapon into its head, though that wasn't an extreme deterrent when the other end of the massive serpentine Grimm bore another head, which moved its way out of the breach. With the aircraft now directly over the carnage, Vyliria jumped out, calling her murakumo to hand, shouting at the top of her lungs as she went to slam her own Blade into the other head of the massive Grimm.

"PLUNGING ATTAAAAAACK!" The curved greatsword stabbed down to the hilt, instantly killing the other half of the taijitu, before she yanked it out and jumped to the ground.

"That was AWESOME!" shouted Nora next to her. Vyliria just gave a nod as the rest of her team joined her. The unkindled rolled her neck, and dismissed the murakumo, calling forth the sellsword twinblades, the slightly curved twin swords gleaming in the light as she held them together, and drew Yorshka's chime in her left hand. Running it along the weapons, she intoned:

The Dark Spirits sallied out to reap a stolen bounty of souls,

They swarmed forth to slay the innocent and take a grisly toll,

The servants of the Dark Sun gathered to deliver unto the sinners their due,

For every death of the pure, twice the count of guilty would be run through,

The final vengeance shall be paid,

Fear the bite of the Darkmoon Blade!

As she did so, the weapons were enveloped in a twinkling blue light, somehow reminiscent of the moon. Holstering her chime, she took the second scimitar in her left hand, flicked them behind her, and charged forth. She became a whirlwind of death, blades sweeping in a near-artistic manner, as she cut down whatever was in her path. Two slices from the right literally disarmed a beowolf, a spin severed its head, and two vertical cuts in the opposite direction cleaved through the skull of an ursa. A reverse of the grip on her left hand and another spin in the other direction embedded her left blade into another ursa's eye, and rather than retrieve it, she willed the burning ash within her down her arm, activating the inner mechanisms of the repeating crossbow even as it formed, a barrage of explosive bolts downing another two beowolves. She placed her ranged weapon back with the rest of her arsenal, yanked the other sellsword blade out of the fading corpse, and turned again, as she heard a ringing along with:

The Three Pillars of Lothric to their duties did beckon,

The knights charged forth, each raising a Blessed Weapon!

She saw Jaune's sword glowing with a white light as he blocked a paw from an ursa, and sliced it's head clean off, whirling around to two charging beowolves, parrying one with his shield and riposting it through the mouth and into its skull, before yanking his blade out and rolling a swipe from the other, coming up and hacking it down. Running over to him, she tossed her right blade up into the air, flinging forth a chaos bed vestige to down one of three ursai that were now charging at him, catching her falling blade and slaying a second with two full spins. The last one went to strike her while she was recovering, only for Jaune to charge in with a yell, bashing it in the face with his shield and landing a flurry of strikes on the stunned beast. They both gave a nod to each other as they went back into the fight.

Nora gave some nondescript battle cry, charging into another quartet of beowolves, Magnhild swinging, a grenade firing off as the hammer connected with the first opponent, the explosion incidentally killing a second. She twirled, the weapon swinging with her and slamming into her third target and crushing its skull. As the forth lowered its head and charged at her back, it was knocked off course courtesy of a kick to the face from Ren, the stoic man flipping away from the strike, landing on his feet and unloading the magazines from StormFlower to finish it off. Ren twisted as soon as it dropped, charging down a lone ursa, guns blazing, before jumping out of the way of a swipe of a paw, and engaging in a flurry of slashes to put the beast down.

Pyrrha's spear, covered in lightning, was swinging and stabbing with a deadly grace, each calculated strike felling a foe, and that was before one counted the multitude of miracles she was casting. Even as she jammed Miló in its javelin form down the throat of a creep, a two legged Grimm faintly resembling some manner of "dinosaur" called a raptor that Vyliria had read about, she whirled around, prayers leaving her lips as a lighting stake slammed into another. Throwing the spear at another creep and killing it by guiding the blade into its skull with her semblance, she raised the sunlight talisman to chest level, giving another poem as she let forth a trio of lighting arrows to slay three more beowolves, spinning around to gain some extra momentum as she cast a great lighting spear to kill an alpha, before holstering the talisman and calling her weapon back to her, using her semblance to trigger the mechanism to shift it to a xiphos mid-flight while she pulled out Akoúo̱, blocking a beowolf charging from behind her before hacking it down as soon as she had her sword.

"Nobody move!" Vyliria ignored Sun and Neptune as they blabbered something about badges and junior detectives, cutting down another three opponents before they finished whatever they were going to say. What she didn't ignore was the arrival of the metaphorical cavalry, as the full military might of the Atlesian Air Force arrived, gunships laying down suppressive fire as hordes of mechanical Knights dropped down into the plaza to begin gunning Grimm down.

The tide of battle seemed to turn, with the arrival of Cinder, Mercury and Emerald dispatching even more Grimm, before another bullhead flew in and Team CFVY joined the fray, along with Professor Port, and Prof- Doctor Oobleck… and a corgi… emerged from the breach. Yatsuhashi removed a greatsword that bore more resemblance to a miniaturized version of Yhorm's Great Machete than its actual weapon class, a single slam into the ground taking out four beowolves at once. Velvet's kicks downed a creep while Fox used reverse wrist-mounted curved blades, dispatching an ursa major, which then exploded, it's bone spikes functioning as shrapnel and slaughtering even more Grimm. Coco walked up… and slapped Fox in the arse whilst congratulating him. A beowolf alpha growled in front of her, standing on its hind legs.

She just pushed her sunglasses down, and told it, "You just destroyed my favorite clothing store." She spat to the side. "Prepare to die." She deflected a paw with her purse, and kicked it in the crotch. While Grimm didn't have genitalia, it reacted as if it did, clutching the area with both forelimbs and falling to the floor. As a woman with family jewels, Vyliria almost had some sympathy for it. Almost. Coco slammed her purse down onto its skull to put it out of its apparent misery. She bat aside another quartet of charging beowolves, and jumped back from a deathstalker, telling Velvet not to spoil her weapon here, before engaging a mechashift on her purse, turning it into a six-barrelled minigun that was several times the size of the handbag it previously was. The barrels spun, and she unleashed a stream of annihilation, anything hit by the bullets cut apart and blown up, which was likely her semblance at work.

Port and Oobleck blasted through a dozen Grimm on their own, before Professor Goodwitch strolled up, using her semblance to pick up the rubble from the breach, preparing to seal it… just as some White Fang grunts began to start desperately climbing out.

"Professor!" Jaune called, as she went to look at him. Please don't, Vyliria thought. Jaune pointed back to the breach, and shouted, "Even they don't deserve to die sealed down there with the Grimm!" Of course he did, with his Gwyndamn hero complex and his bleeding heart. Goodwitch stopped what she was doing, giving a single nod, and while she was annoyed, she started directing team CFVY to form an immediate perimeter around the breach, while Jaune led the way into the hole, closely followed by his team, a reluctant Vyliria that was nonetheless following her superior, and RWBY. Jumping down into the train tunnel revealed a scene out of a nightmare. Low light conditions, partially clouded by dust, both of the mundane and elemental variety, with White Fang soldiers and a single undamaged Paladin desperately trying to form a perimeter against the swarming Grimm, even as the wounded were the first to be helped up towards the streets of Vale above. A good deal of the terrorists pointed their weapons to the student huntsmen and huntresses as they landed, but lowered them as soon as they went charging towards the Grimm, redoubling their efforts to get their fellows out of the tunnel. At the frontline, several of the insurgents stood in blank shock as a Schnee of all people blasted some sorcery past them and engaged the Grimm. Vyliria launched forth a wave of golden sorcery, pushing all the dust in the tunnel back in order to increase visibility, hastily reapplying Darkmoon Blade to the sellswords and then engaging the endless waves of enemies. They were actually managing to hold the line, an unspoken and unofficial truce declared as the Fang provided covering fire for the Beacon students helping them, with the Paladin hitting far above its weight as its missiles and miniguns eviscerated Grimm like it was going out of fashion. As they did so, the terrorists were slowly falling back as more and more of the radical faunus got to safety… and the waiting Atlesian droids who were arresting them, though given the circumstances at least they didn't resist. Unfortunately, the good luck streak ended when it came in.

A geist was a ghost-like Grimm, vaguely humanoid in form, with a single eye in the middle of its bone mask. On their own, they weren't a problem. What was the problem were the things' fondness of possessing inanimate objects and forming them into giant, incredibly durable golems that liked to smash things. And this one was made of concrete and broken train cars.

Vyliria charged ahead of her compatriots, blasting forth a multitude of great soul dregs, the projectile forcefully staggering it each time the struck, before she had to use her black knight shield to tank a colossal punch that sent her flying back to the shrinking number of White Fang members. Her friends ineffectually engaged the thing, even as Grimm started to bypass them, and they had to fall back to make sure they weren't overwhelmed. As the rest backed off, Yang held her hands together, pyromantic power gathering, before she fell to one knee and spread her arms out, palms down. Pillars of lava erupted in a chaos firestorm, buying time by killing dozens of Grimm in the confined space, yet the geist didn't care. Yang looked exhausted, her aura flickering as Vyliria closed in once again, while the geist reared back a train-fist and sent another punch towards the blonde brawler. Realizing she wouldn't be able to get out of the way in time, Vyliria shoved Yang out of the way, placing herself in its path instead, and without any further time to react, she crossed her arms in front of her chest, closed her eyes, and braced for an unpleasant trip back to the bonfire. At least it was a worthy sacrifice.

WHUMP!

Pain. Blinding, agonizing pain. Which meant she wasn't dead yet, because first there would have been darkness, then pain. Oh joy, she thought. More pain, as she bounced off the floor a couple times, before tumbling to a stop, lying on her chest. Cracking her eyes open, she saw her left arm splayed out in front of her… and a black field flickering a fraction of an inch off said arm. She coughed, and it was wet. Of all the Gwyndamn times to unlock my aura, of course it had to be now, she thought. Well, almost dead means not-quite dead. Ergo, I can do this. Her rings were swapped for the red tearstone and magic clutch rings, along with the spare young dragon and bellowing dragoncrest rings she had looted from Orbeck's corpse (she knew he had been holding out on her), and as she dismissed the sellswords she still had an iron grip on, her right hand called forth a morion blade pilfered from Yuria, when she had cut the Darkwraith down, and her left called forth her favored staff. A scholar's candlestick came into being on her hip, and while the veil and face-grill stayed, the Dancer's Crown itself was replaced by the Crown of Dusk. She used the Izalith Staff's innate magic to give it a small self-boost, and noted as she stood up that the pilot with glasses over his mask was abandoning the Paladin. A quick glance confirmed he was the last Fang member to leave the tunnel. She took in a deep breath, and bellowed at the top of her lungs to her friends, even as she charged her spell and her staff began to drone at an increasing volume.

"GET THE FUCK OUT OF THE WAY!"

Without question, RWBY and JNPR hit the deck, and the monstrously boosted soul-stream screamed forth, drilling a hole straight through the center of the Geist, vaporizing the mask on its torso and the Grimm within it. She moved the beam down, and swept it across the tunnel, unmaking every single Grimm it swept across for well over a hundred meters, barely passing over her prone friends the whole time. When the beam finally dissipated, she called out at a slightly lower volume (she was concerned the soul stream may have temporarily deafened her friends), "Time to go!" and made to suit her actions to her words as she limped out of the tunnel, Goodwitch telekinetically lifting her as soon as she saw her, and her friends came running out seconds later. Goodwitch then directed her semblance to grab all the rubble, and finally moved everything back to the way it was this morning, sealing the breach in the ground and ending this painful fight. Vyliria chugged half her estus flask, moving all her gear back to where it was supposed to be, and then flopped to the floor, lying on her back with all limbs splayed.

"Hey everyone," she tiredly called out as she idly watched Torchwick and well over a hundred White Fang members marched onto Atlesian military bullheads in handcuffs. When she was sure she had their attention, she continued, "I unlocked my aura!" she said with completely sarcastic joy as she flared the soul-shield she now possessed, the black coloration flickering across her body.

She instantly regretted speaking as everyone present began piling on congratulatory comments, before resolving to steer the conversation to something else as soon as possible. Surprisingly, Goodwitch was the one to provide that opportunity.

"What- how did this get in my pocket?" the telekinetic teacher asked, brandishing a sunlight medal. Vyliria gave a flicker of thought to her own storage, and sure enough, another golden medallion emblazoned with a smiling stylized sun had joined the rest. Begrudgingly rising to a seated position, she gazed over to the other students in the square, and one by one, with the notable exception of Cinder, Emerald, and Mercury, who had already departed, every member of RWBY, JNPR, CFVY, and even Professor Port and Doctor Oobleck all pulled out a sunlight medal of their own.

"That," Vyliria started, "is a sunlight medal. It is a gift, from the Nameless god of war, to those who would engage in jolly cooperation with his Warriors of Sunlight against foes most foul. It is simultaneously a badge of honor, proof of deeds accomplished, and a religious symbol. If you received one, it's yours to keep. I suppose if you don't wish to have it on you at all times you could place it on a wall in your office, in your room, or somewhere similar. Just don't sell them. I know they're solid gold, but that would literally be sacrilegious, and I'd deeply appreciate it if you didn't offend my faith like that."

Professor Goodwitch looked Vyliria straight in the eyes. "So you're claiming that your 'god of war,' who you also said lacks a name, magically put a solid gold medallion in our pockets for engaging in 'jolly cooperation?'"

"Well, when you put it that way, it does sound like something Professor Port would come up with-" "Now hold on just a moment!" "-but how else do you explain getting it?" the Irithyllian argued.

The combat instructor narrowed her eyes, but dropped the argument with a curt "Very well," and moved back to damage control. With that subject seemingly dealt with, Ruby finally took the opportunity to jump ahead of any other questions about sunlight medals from those outside their group by channeling her inner weapons geek.

"Hey, Vyliria, those curved swords were amazing! It was like you were doing a dance… of death!" the red reaper gushed.

"If you think I'm good with curved swords that had Darkmoon Blade applied to them, remind me to tell you tales about the Darkmoon knight Oroboro later. The man's skills with a falchion were the stuff of legends," she shot back.

"Oro-who?" Yang asked

"You know what? I'll just tell you all about Oroboro now," Vyliria said, taking in a breath to start another story on a legend from her past.

(Cinder)

In the sunset at the end of a rather extreme day, four individuals stood atop one of the buildings overlooking the now-repaired plaza. Even Cinder had to begrudgingly admit that Vyliria's and Goodwitch's abilities combined made rapid repairs of virtually anything absurdly easy.

"So, how do you think it went?" Mercury asked her, with an air of bored indifference.

"All in all? In spite of the acceleration of this phase's timetable, and Avalon now having an aura to boot, I'd call today a success," Cinder said, giving a smile as she imagined the pieces on the board moving how she desired.

"Those stupid kids really made a mess of things," Emerald complained.

"Yep," Mercury chimed in, "nearly all the faunus made it out of those tunnels, but Dusttube has had two videos go viral in the past few hours alone. That Arc kid casting damn miracles to heal mortally wounded Fang members just after the breach got plugged, and some grunt named Perry pulled the feed from the cameras on a Paladin that captured the Schnee running in to save the terrorists that would be trying to kill her under literally any other circumstances."

"It's gonna be hell to convince them to keep listening to us," Emerald finished.

"Don't worry about it," the fourth person on the roof finally joined the conversation, the man stepping up, "They'll listen to me."

The bull faunus, Adam Taurus, leader of the Vale Branch of the Fang, which was currently helping Cinder with her plans, was still frowning as he said this, his mind clearly on something else. Within his short, spiked, swept back auburn hair sat the two reddish brown horns marking his heritage, pointing back like his hair. From his forehead to his nose sat a white mask in the traditional White Fang style, obscuring his eyes from view. Cinder had to admit that at least his fashion sense was on point. His asymmetrical black, long-sleeved, double-breasted stylized high-collared blazer with slit sleeves had red thorn sigils adorned with a white crest that lined up on his left shoulder. His suit jacket had crimson lining atop his red shirt, red thorn sigils sitting atop a black flap attached to the bottom of the left hem. His wilting rose emblem was emblazoned on his back, superimposed over a white sigil resembling a nightshade, an appropriately deadly plant for an appropriately deadly man. His blazer was half-buttoned, a red shirt with a black line running parallel to the collar beneath it. His long black dress pants ended in black shoes with red soles, and on his hands were black gloves with red symbols resembling the ancient Mistralian letter omega. His black belt had white domino marks on it, and the mask itself was decorated with red horn-like symbols.

"And if they don't want to, I'll make them," he added. "Especially now that I know where Blake went." He tightly clutched a scroll in his hand, and at a glance, the only thing Cinder could see past said hand was the title of the newspaper, the Argus Augur.

()

A/N: There you have it. The one, the only, Unbreakable Patches. Because if anyone could survive all that time between the end of the Age of Fire to now, it would be the guy who's been through it all, even longer if you subscribe to the theory that the "bad" ending in Demon's Souls leads to Dark Souls, whereas the "good" ending leads to Bloodborne. "What is he doing with Torchwick?" you might ask, or "Does he have an aura and/or semblance?"… well, beyond me confirming that Patches does have an aura, you'll have to keep reading to find out. I also really enjoyed subverting expectations by having Patches save someone from falling off a cliff rather than being the one to kick them down there in the first place. And his attire has slightly changed. Just the addition of a couple bits of armor on the hands and wrists. Getting those chopped off isn't fun, you know? And of course he's using a cover name, and what else would it be but Lapp?

And Patches has been around the block more times than even I can imagine at this point. Who's to say that he hasn't gotten involved in the Ozpin's and Salem's shadow war over Remnant a couple times, always slinking back out unscathed and forgotten by the big players?

I also always pictured Patches as having a soft spot for kids. Considering that we never see him interact with children in Dark Souls, it's entirely plausible. I mean, if the guy can form such a deep bond with Greirat that he'll attack you to try and avenge his death if you kill the thrall-hooded thief, he's gotta have compassion for something somewhere in his not-quite-beating heart.

Also, congrats to Kiue Jin, for actually guessing that Patches would be showing up back in ch 16, before I even hinted at his existence.

Holy cow the breach was tough to write, because entire paragraphs happened in the span of seconds, where I had to come up with ways not to repeat myself in order to describe Grimm getting murdered en masse. And I kinda cheated with a Vyliria POV so I could skip basically the entirety of RWBY's fighting sequence there. Also, I had the last two lines of DMB for a month, but the first four took me 20 minutes to come up with. Blessed Weapon took less than two minutes in its entirety, by comparison.

So, uh… there were a lot of White Fang on that train. And Goodwitch basically killed them all when she plugged the hole. And… no one really talks about that in the show besides a single line from Mercury. So this is my take on that. Oh yeah, and Perry survived, and was piloting that last Paladin. I don't think he'll ever pop up in this story again, but he lived!

I just wanted to throw it out there, Neo still fought Yang on the train, though RWBY was offscreen for the most part in this chapter. And despite an abundance of pyromancies, Neo still kicked Yang's ass, because she's Best Girl. Granted, Neo probably used her semblance, and took the fight more seriously, and Yang probably also got some of her own hits in, but it was still a solid victory for everyone's favorite ice-cream-themed parasol-wielding mute badass. Raven still showed up to save Yang. But since Yang all but got knocked out, I'm assuming her aura isn't in the best of shape, and that's before you factor in the combat scene in the breach, and the fact that the whole team is running on only a few hours of sleep. Without a doubt, by the time they're in the tunnels, all of RWBY is running on fumes, Yang especially. But Weiss did soundly beat the White Fang Lieutenant. Sorcery has ensured she's lost her special ability to lose to every named character she fights.

I had planned for Vyliria to get her aura unlocked during the breach around when I started writing the prologue, but it was only as I was writing this chapter that the mechanism of a Geist punch taken to save a friend was chosen to do it. Vyliria developing a semblance is something I won't confirm or deny, though if she does, I know what I want it to be, and I can say it won't be in this story, but would be in a sequel at the earliest.

Also, there's an Oroboro reference. Once again, no DS streamer/youtuber is going to actually play a part in the story, but references are certainly on the table.

I also refuse to believe that Orbeck would hand off his rings to you if he didn't have spares. Whether he found them, along with another bellowing dragoncrest ring, or took them from the corpse of someone he killed in Vinheim is up for debate, but he absolutely obtained spares. Therefore Vyliria could go full glass-cannon, and since I'm not in the game, she's allowed to actually move the soul-stream as she fires it, like the Soul of Cinder does.

Given Pyrrha being from Mistral and her whole Sparta/Ancient Greece theme, I'm going with the assumption that ancient Mistral (or whatever it was called back then) is Remnant's Ancient Greece.

We got one more chapter before volume three, because I want to explore the aftermath of the breach among the cast members and set a few more things up before skipping straight to the Vytal Festival.

Also Adam is here now. So we can all unite in acknowledging that his special power is being the worst. Props to everyone who gets that reference.

Lastly, this chapter's original title was "Honestly, you shouldn't be surprised." But I figured that Unbreakable did better as both a reference to Patches and to the Breach. Though I didn't want to get rid of the old title in its entirety, so it was moved to the POV marker.