Man oh man, finally got my project done for one of my classes. Now just another two projects/essays to do! That's mainly why it took so long to get this chapter, so hope you all understand. But with winter break on the horizon now, I should be able to get a few more chapters out than I am right now. At any rate, I'll do my best to keep you guys updated if anything should arise.

On a sidenote, I've been watching two new anime recently: Amagi Brilliant Park and Grisaia no Kajitsu. They're both pretty damn good animes so far, with the latter especially being focused on character development (albeit a little rushed). Probably because it's based off a VN. So if any of you are looking for some new anime to watch, give those two a try; you just might like them.

Now onto the chapter!

Chapter 4

Off in another part of Atlas sat a small military base. Compared to other facilities that were strategically stationed all across the kingdom, this one in particular was rather remote and a little on the small side. Yet not without some reason; its purpose wasn't necessarily to serve as an actual base for a number of soldiers, but rather to serve as something akin to a manufacturing and shipping warehouse, said 'products' being produced being the latest in military technology.

And one soldier in particular was there to oversee things for the day. However, he found his attention to his duty waning with every passing second.

"Something is amiss," the soldier grunted. "And this strange 'distortion' appears to be located near Takehiko's place…"

The soldier, having been sitting, now stood and looked out of the nearest window towards the city.

This soldier was none other than Katsu himself. Having become a magi in his thirties, he still very much looked the same, having not changed physically at all. Indeed, all that has really changed about his looks were his clothes, having long since been swapped out from his original clothes to that of one of Atlas' many soldiers. But whereas their body armor came in a few different colors such as red, blue or yellow which denoted their rank, his was silver in color; one of the highest showings of authority among Atlas' military. While he still obeyed the orders of James Ironwood, there was no other person that he had to obey.

Being such a high ranking soldier, there was very little need for him to be in this particular part of Atlas, but here he was out of his own volition. It had really been nothing more than a whim of his to even be here, having wanted to purely supervise how things were progressing, but it would now seem that perhaps there may have been something more to him wanting to be here.

"A sixth sense of sorts?" he pondered as he shifted around a bit. Having once been a shinobi and now a soldier of Atlas, he had always been accustomed to battle and had quite a knack for it. This was so much so that he had something of an instinct for when there was something afoot and now here he was, that very same instinct all but screaming at him.

Something was definitely going on right now. And from the feel of it, it involved not just Takehiko, but also Daisuke.

That bothered Katsu a bit; despite how forced his alliance with the two had felt all those many centuries ago during Ragnarok, once it had ended and they all had mellowed out, they've become good friends. And having lost his son to battle long ago, he had vowed he wouldn't lose anyone else close to him. That included those two.

"You there," he then called out to the nearest soldier as he walked towards the nearest exit of the building.

"Yes sir?' the soldier asked, snapping to attention.

Katsu motioned to the building all around him. "Something had come up – nothing for you to have to worry about – and it requires my attention for a while. Until I return, you're in charge here."

"Yes sir!" The soldier saluted.

And with little more than a curt yet thankful nod, Katsu left. He had somewhere to be right now.

Back within Takehiko's recently created space, the battle between Daisuke and Indra raged on with a vengeance in the sky above Takehiko.

Indra, using lightning itself to keep himself afloat and even fly about, attempted to attack the ancient magus from a distance, utilizing the vastness of the sky to its fullest as he kept on the move, feinting and firing off one lightning bolt after another at Daisuke.

As for the magus, he simply leapt about from one of his orgs to another, using them as though they were stepping stones. And after he had moved from position to the next, the orbs he had just stepped on would suddenly launch themselves at Indra with immense speed, nearly on fire from the sheer friction.

Indra dodged each orb perfectly, but the ones he dodged immediately altered course, turning back around and darting right for him at various angles.

"Tch." Undoing his 'lightning thrusters' for the briefest of seconds, Indra let himself fall from the sky just long enough to avoid two orbs that had been aiming for his neck and arm before reigniting his 'thrusters' again to suddenly fly tens of meters to the west in order to dodge the other orbs. However, he had been unable to account for one of them, which had taken him off guard in the form of flying up from under him and hitting him hard in the stomach.

Even as he cried out in both pain and shock, he was teleported close to Daisuke, who then leapt at him and threw a punch at his exposed back.

But alas, Indra was able to spin in midair in spite of the pain, narrowly blocking Daisuke's fist with the side of his right sai before taking aim quickly with the left and firing a lightning bolt from the left one. His own counter failed as the orb that struck him simply returned to Daisuke in an instant and he used it to teleport a fair distance away from the lightning user.

Indra quirked an eyebrow, noticing that as Daisuke teleported, the orb ceased to be in his hands. It had apparently just vanished in mid-teleport. "What the…?"

Then Daisuke raised both of his hands upwards and brought it down. "Scatter Lance!"

Danger. That was the one thing Indra's instincts screamed at him over and over again. Sensing a great deal of mana above him, it only served to further entice him into doing something to avoid being hit.

To this end, Indra began to fly towards the now falling Daisuke, Vajra spinning rapidly and producing a massive lightning shield all around him even as he flew at speeds far surpassing sound.

He was in luck.

From above the spot he had just been hovering in came Daisuke's magical weapon, all of the orbs glowing fiercely as they shot down at literally lightning speed in a lance-like formation. Clipping Indra's shield marginally, the man in question could almost visibly see his lightning being sucked in by the orbs and dispersed so far off in the distance that only those with enhanced eyesight such as himself and magi could even see it.

"Oho?" Daisuke let out in surprise, unbothered by the fact he was defenseless now as he still continued to fall even as Indra continued to rapidly close the distance between them.

"A terrifying attack to be sure," Indra began, readying himself to tackle Daisuke through the nearest building. "But it'll take more than that to do me in, especially now that this attack has ended!"

At those words, Daisuke's devil-may-care smirk changed, becoming something far more… predatory. His eyes, which had been closed during the entire battle thus far, now opened up and locked onto Indra with a confident glint contained within them. "What makes you think it's all over?"

"…Ah!" Indra's eyes went wide now and with good reason too.

Impossibly so, the orbs – still in their 'Scatter Lance' state – teleported midway through its course and now aimed for Indra's stomach, coming from directly below him at such a close range that dodging simply would be impossible.

That is, if he had been anyone other than a Holy Knight.

Showing an impressive display of reaction time and flexibility, Indra was able to suddenly pivot in mid-flight, bending in such a way that the teleported attack didn't even managed to strike him at all. What's more, he managed this without losing any speed at all as he kept heading for Daisuke.

Now the smirk on Daisuke's face vanished and was replaced with something a scowl, though not out of anger, but rather one of determination. It was clear that he couldn't quite hold back as much as he had originally thought against this so-called 'Holy Knight.'

The 'lance' teleported yet again, this time heading directly for Indra as if it had been shot out from Daisuke himself. This had been a rather simple move on the magus' part and with reason; at his current flight speed, there is simply no way that Indra would've been able to alter his flight course in time to avoid Scatter Lance now. And given how Scatter Lance works – by literally ripping apart the target's atoms and scattering them all across the area, resulting in instant death – there was also no way that Indra could guard against such an attack either.

And if the widening of Indra's eyes was anything to go by, it would seem that the man realized that too. But he wasn't quite done just yet. "Storm Riser!" he then called out.

"Huh?" Daisuke and Takehiko on the building below could only watch in genuine shock as Indra seemed to suddenly disappear in a flash of light, shooting upwards to the murky clouds above at a speed that surpassed Scatter Lance, which now came to an end as the orbs dispersed and returned to Daisuke's side as he landed on the rooftop of a building.

"Where did he go now?" Daisuke asked aloud.

His answer was thunder, which had definitely not been there before. And with the thunder came the lightning. "Whoa!" Daisuke teleported an entire city block over along with his orbs and for good reason as a massive lightning bolt shot down from the clouds above and utterly obliterated the entire building he had just been on. He felt it was a good thing this was only a space created by Takehiko, otherwise Atlas would've had to donate quite a bit of time to reconstruction.

From the sky came Indra's laughter, impossibly loud as it made even the air itself shake from vibration alone. "So even magi as old and as powerful as you can be surprised," he commented, his voice sounding deeper than before too. "As you well should be; I bet you've never encountered anything quite like this, yes?"

At that, Daisuke blinked. Then he slowly smirked. "Heh~. Maybe, maybe not. Something tells me though that you're not quite done showing me what you've got."

A snort was Indra's response to that. "That's certainly true. Just as you have been holding back – and I know you were – so was I. But now… I suppose I can take the gloves off a little…"

Following his words, the clouds began to rumble yet again, with thunder making itself known as well. So loud was it that it was nearly deafening to Daisuke. And in spite of this, Daisuke simply kept on smirking.

With a nonchalant wave of his hands, he made his orbs disappear, having 'de-summoned' them, so to speak. Naturally, this got a reaction out of Indra.

"Hm?! What are you doing?!" Indra questioned, completely taken aback by this sudden action of the ancient magus. He had expected many things of an ancient magus, but this wasn't on that particular list.

In response, Daisuke simply laughed. Tilting his head slightly to the right, he looked up at the sky in no real direction. "Come on, man. While whatever it is you're doing is actually pretty neat… you do remember just where exactly you are, right?"

"'Any fighting involving the sky is now banned,'" spoke Takehiko as he used King's Scripture.

And its effect was immediate.

The clouds above, which had become dark grey in color when Indra had disappeared into them, seemed to shudder violently before 'ejecting' the Holy Knight from their folds.

Indra was launched out of the clouds at great speeds and towards the rooftop of a building a hundred meters away from Daisuke's current spot. As surprised as he was, he flipped around several times in midair and landed perfectly in a crouched position before quickly standing up.

And he was looking both angry and amused at the same time. "Damn… it would seem that I had underestimated the power of your King's Scripture, Loki," he said to Takehiko, referring to the magus by the codename he and his fellow Holy Knights have given the magus.

Takehiko had a very smug look on his face. "In all honesty, you really should have expected that."

However, a few seconds later, Takehiko and Daisuke then almost physically recoiled when the entire space they were fighting shuddered for a brief instant. Their surprise gave way immediately thereafter though. Takehiko even cracked an amused smile.

"I didn't think you would've been able to sense us from so far," Takehiko commented.

"Your mana is far more potent than you think, Takehiko."

"Ah!" Indra responded instinctively, as he had heard this new voice come from behind. Spinning, he held his sai in such a way as to stab the new arrival right in the side.

But before he could fully do the turn, the man reached out with his right hand and grabbed Indra's wrist with ease, stopping the Holy Knight right in his tracks.

"…Looks like all three of you are now here…" Indra muttered with a forced grin.

Katsu, standing tall and proud over the shorter man, glared down at Indra before looking to the Holy Knight's sais. "Hmm, interesting. You're radiating mana, but it doesn't feel natural at all…"

"He calls himself a Holy Knight, Katsu," Daisuke then provided, standing about in a lax manner. "Was pretty tough too just now."

Indra subtly began to position his other arm, ready to attack Katsu's lower body and get him to back off. But before he could even move a muscle, Katsu spoke.

"I wouldn't if I were you. Just look to my hand," Katsu said commandingly. He gave Indra's wrist an extra squeeze.

Indra looked to Katsu's hands furtively and was surprised to see that a sleek and dark colored gauntlet adorned Katsu's hand, ending at just above the wrist. To the Holy Knight, it looked more like some kind of bulky glove rather than a gauntlet. He was further surprised when it seemed to 'shift' or 'morph,' its shape changing until it was little more than claw-like appendages that covered Katsu's fingers and sunk in a bit into Indra's wrist, just barely breaking the skin.

Indra's left eyebrow twitched. He was beginning to feel rather nervous and not without reason; in addition to the locations of these three magi, the scroll his captain had provided him with had also included a basic description of the kind of abilities each of them possessed. So he was very much aware of what Katsu's magical weapon, World Ender, was capable of, of how it could erase from existence anything it touches. That Katsu could somehow shift the gauntlet's form and touch him without immediately killing him was something shocking though.

"Oh, it looks like you know a bit about what I'm capable of." Katsu made this comment based on the subtle shift in Indra's facial expression. He saw the man's growing apprehension at being caught in his grasp like this. "In which case, I wouldn't recommend trying anything, for I can simply 'allow' my magical weapon to erase you in an instant."

"Heh," Takehiko couldn't help but chuckle. "Well that was wrapped up relatively quickly. I had just been about to subdue him myself if this battle had dragged on any longer." He folded his arms across his chest as he slowly began to approach Katsu and the captured Holy Knight.

"Mhm…" Daisuke smirked. "That said… care to tell us more about you Holy Knights?" he asked of Indra. "Because seriously, this all sounds pretty interesting to us."

Indra slowly looked away from his captured wrist and gazed upon the other two ancient magi, his expression now blank. But then a second later, that changed. An almost cheeky grin adorned his face now as he snorted. "I must confess: I knew you guys would be tough, but this actually did exceed my expectations a bit. You're more powerful and different from what the files said on you."

"Files…?" Daisuke muttered.

"We hadn't actually anticipated your magical abilities or weapons potentially 'evolving' or anything of the sort," Indra continued, no longer appearing nervous. He didn't even seem to notice Katsu's tightening grip. He shrugged. "Oh well, at any rate, I've achieved my objective."

"Oh yeah?" Takehiko replied. He quirked an eyebrow at the Holy Knight's confidence. "And just what will you do now?"

Indra flicked his wrists minutely, Vajra disappearing from his hands in response to these motions. "Why, take my leave, of course." In spite of still being within Katsu's grasp, who now tightly clenched his left shoulder, Indra lightly bowed to the magi. "This has been rather fun. A shame I couldn't quite get to go all out, but eh, it's just how things go."

Katsu grunted. "Come off it. Just what can you do in your situation? I can erase you from existence just by 'allowing' World Ender to do its natural duty."

"Heh… Eye of the Storm!" Those four words Indra spoke carried about them an incredible air of power. Enough to make the ancient magi there cover their eyes as a blinding flash of light made itself known where Indra had been standing, before said light shot up towards the sky, shattering Takehiko's created space and disappearing completely from sight.

By the time the three magi were able to open their eyes again a few seconds later, Indra was gone.

They could only gape marginally as the once sunny and clear sky of Atlas was now a sky filled with dark and ominous clouds before dissipating into nothingness before their very eyes. From the streets below, the magi could already hear the people making many, shock and panic filled comments about this phenomenon.

"Damn it. He got away," Katsu growled. He hadn't been expecting this so-called Holy Knight to actually escape under such circumstances, let alone do so in such a sudden and flashy manner.

"Heh. So what do we do now, Take-yan?" Daisuke asked of Takehiko, putting his hands in his pockets. "Something tells me we haven't seen the last of that guy. And next time around, he might not be showing up on our doorsteps alone."

Takehiko tsked, a little disgruntled over his created space being destroyed so easily. He honestly hadn't thought Indra capable of such a feat as it was certainly not an easy one to accomplish. Looks like these Holy Knights, if Indra was anything to go by, had some power after all. "As it clearly stands, we've underestimated him and vice versa a bit…" he began, speaking to not just Daisuke, but also Katsu who now looked to him dispassionately. "That said, tracking him down isn't really an option right now; he sure hightailed it out of here. And if he could break out of my space like that, tracking him with King's Scripture might not prove all that successful…" Takehiko trailed off, taking a moment to rub his chin in deep thought.

Daisuke and Katsu waited patiently for him to finish until the latter decided to speak. "So?"

Takehiko sighed heavily. "Looks like I'll be making a few calls over the next few days…"

He didn't have to say who he'd be calling for the others to know. "Think they'll be interested in hearing this?" Daisuke asked.

"Oh, I'm sure they'll be more than just 'interested' in hearing about this…" Takehiko muttered. And with those words, he began to walk off, with Daisuke and Katsu in tow.

Looks like their lives were about to get just a bit more complicated.

Elsewhere in Atlas, the authorities were already on the move, having been mobilized to go and already start looking into this strange phenomenon that had just occurred. Even by their usual standards, this kind of response time was impressive. Though if anyone were to ask any of the soldiers already on the move, it was to be expected of James Ironwood.

Said man, in all of his imposing figure, was currently overlooking a good portion of Atlas from his office. "Just what happened…?" he asked aloud to no one in particular. Being a veteran and a general, he had seen more than his fair share of odd things, especially when he and Ozpin had worked alongside one another all those years ago. But a sudden change in the weather and sky was something new to him.

And it most certainly hadn't looked very endearing. It was almost as if some angry god had suddenly shown up to mess with Atlas in some small, perhaps even petty, way. As it stood, he was already getting reports that this strange phenomenon had occurred not just downtown, but had 'spread' for all of a second nearly all across the massive kingdom before its sudden disappearance. Furthermore, there was one area in particular that had been 'hit' relatively hard by this weather change, with temperatures there having actually changed in addition to a number of people – civilians and military personnel alike – being interviewed and having reportedly seen some beam of light travel up into the sky just prior to the storm-like clouds' appearance.

And it was this last fact that bothered James quite a bit. It meant that there was a good chance someone or something had triggered this phenomenon. Now, James knew he could be rather paranoid at times and can overreact with more military force than is necessary… but this entire situation just reeked of wrongness. Whoever or whatever had caused this whole mess most likely didn't have particularly good intentions for any of Atlas' citizens. And if this kind of phenomenon could be caused by a single person or entity, then the general highly doubted a run-of-the-mill hunter or huntress could go up against such a force. Hell, he doubted a team of hunters or huntresses could do much of anything.

But of course, he silently admitted, there was no point in fighting an 'enemy' that had yet to even be identified, much less tracked down.

"Still, I can't afford to remain idle either," he commented.

Turning around so that he now faced his desk, he called up one of his assistants, putting the man on speaker. "Yes sir?" the assistant spoke as soon as he answered the call.

"I have a meeting scheduled with Ozpin in several weeks, right?" James asked of the man.

"That's correct, sir. Meant to discuss the tournament, I believe…" The assistant did little to hide his confusion.

"Get in contact with Ozpin," James requested of him.

"Of course… may I ask why though?" the assistant replied.

"Tell him that our little meeting is going to have to be bumped up quite a bit in our schedules…" James spoke.

Elsewhere, the captain of the Holy Knights was currently taking a break from his current experiments. This self-imposed break of his actually served two purposes: the first purpose naturally being to let him get just a little rest whereas the second purpose is to allow enough time to pass for part of the 'experiment' to progress on its own for a bit. He had implemented a certain 'mixture' and so he'd have to wait a while to see just what will happen overtime. No need to press forward when he ran the risk of it potentially blowing up in his face. Literally.

That said, he had been in the midst of a light nap when he had sensed the return of Indra. "That had been rather fast," he commented as Indra entered the room. "I hadn't been expecting you to use Eye of the Storm."

"My apologies, captain," Indra said, bowing before the man. "I wish I didn't have to use it to escape, but…"

The captain waved off the rest of the apology. "No need to fret. You did what you had to do." He then shifted a bit in his current seat. "So were you able to analyze a magus?"

"Two of them, in fact," Indra replied. "I had attempted to originally fight one and got a slight grasp of his abilities, but he had contact another and I had to fight that one instead. And then the third one, Katsu, showed up. That had been when I had to retreat."

The captain nodded in understanding. "I see. I'll be expecting a full written report from you later on their abilities."

Indra bowed a little. "Of course. And although it had been a brief fight, I was able to test for myself some of their abilities. And to my surprise, it seems like they may have 'evolved' in a manner of speaking…"

That got a quirk of the eyebrows from the captain. "Really now? In that, do be sure to elaborate on that in your report. That aside… your body still fine? Still stable."

"Of course. It's your handiwork after all, captain. There's no way I'd become unstable, as taxing as Eye of the Storm was." Indra's voice was filled with nothing but praise and reverence for the man sitting before him.

The captain chuckled a little. "You flatter me, Indra." Then the small smile that had formed vanished. "Well, for now, it would be best that you do get some rest though. You've completed your task and depending on what I read in your report, it may very well be enough for me to continue another little… 'side project' of mine. One that could possibly aid us all in the near future. But, of course, it will require some more modifications on your part as well as the others."

"We can handle anything you throw our way, captain," Indra stated boldly. "And if it's for our goal, more modification is a meager price to pay."

"Hm, go rest up for now. And I will be expecting your report soon," the captain said, nodding to the man before him.

With yet another respectful bow, Indra slowly turned and took his leave, leaving the captain alone once more with his own thoughts. "Evolved, hmm?" he pondered aloud. A small smile crossed his face momentarily. "So it truly was as I had expected…."

Thinking a little more on this, the captain eventually decided to go back to resting a bit longer. And as he ultimately decided to take a brief nap, if one looked at him closely enough, he sported an almost triumphant smirk.

With Indra, the Holy Knight was simply walking down a hallway in the facility that could essentially be called the Holy Knight's home base. Said facility was hidden deep within the mountains that lied deep in Grimm territory. No one save for the most skilled of hunters and huntresses would ever be able to fight their way through the hordes of Grimm that unknowingly defended them.

Indra was currently deep in thought as he walked down the hallway, heading towards his own room. He just couldn't help but think constantly about the battle that had taken place hardly ten minutes or so ago. And what a battle it had been. Although it had been quite brief, the ancient magus Daisuke had pressed him little by little and with relative ease too.

"These ancient magi sure are something…." he thought as he continued walking.

However, not even a moment later, he was roused from his thoughts when he heard loud and heavy footsteps approach him from another hallway that were perpendicular to the one he was in.

Reaching where these hallways intersected, Indra came face to low-chest level with someone else.

"Back already? How surprising!" the other person said, his voice almost booming.

Said person was very tall, easily more than 8 feet in height and was heavily muscled, his military styled uniform straining itself with small movements on his part. With lightly tanned skin, a rugged face, dark brown hair and black eyes, this behemoth of a man certainly made for an imposing sight.

But Indra was unaffected by this man's appearance at all. Instead, he politely bowed. "Heracles," Indra greeted. "I thought you'd still be asleep."

The man, Heracles, chuckled. "I don't sleep all the time." He turned a little to expose another interesting thing about him that the lighting of the hallway partially hid: the lion ears atop his head. Heracles was a lion-based Faunus. He yawned and brought a hand up to his mouth, showing off his surprisingly sharp nails. "Even I must move about sometime until the captain gives the go ahead."

"Mmm, well I don't think you and the others won't have to wait much longer," Indra spoke, taking on a more casual stance now compared to his uptight posture from meeting with the captain. "As it is, I've already told him some interesting stuff. I plan to write up a formal report for him too and I have a feeling that it might change things up a bit around here."

That got Heracles' attention. "Oh? In what way?"

Indra allowed himself a slight smirk. "You'll just have to wait and see. And you being the first seat amongst us Holy Knights, I'm sure you'll get first pick at whatever the captain may require in the future."

As of now, there were only seven Holy Knights and they were ranked by titles simply known as 'seats' in order to depict their level of power. Indra, for example, was the seventh seat, the weakest of all the Holy Knights… whereas Heracles, being the first seat, is the most powerful of them all.

At Indra's words, Heracles grinned and at the thought of what could come next, he unconsciously began to let out some of his mana. So intense and so great was his mana that the hallways began to violently tremble and slowly start to crack. "Oho… now that is something I'm looking forward to indeed," the lion-type Faunus commented eagerly as he slowly calmed down, reining in his mana.

Indra chuckled. "I'm sure you are." He then bowed respectfully yet again. "Now if you'll excuse me… it's about time I get back to my room." And without another word spoken, he left.

Heracles simply remained where he was, silently watching Indra as he left. Then he grunted as he started to mull things over. "Looks like things will finally start to get interesting around here."

He grinned predatorily, like an animal that had finally caught sight of his weak prey. He was well aware of Indra's mission prior to Indra returning and if the younger Holy Knight was acting like this, then Heracles knew that it had something to do with the ancient magi.

Ah, the ancient magi. How Heracles longed to fight them. And not the 'weakest' of them either, however relative a term that applied to them. No, he wanted to go up against one of the strongest ancient magi currently running around. As it is, the previous one he had fought nearly a decade or so ago hadn't been all that tough. A crafty and skilled warrior to be sure, but ultimately hadn't been able to satisfy his thirst for battle, even when he had ultimately killed him.

That said, he still very much agreed with his captain's goals and would see it through to the end. But being able to fight against these ancient magi, to test his mettle against them, was simply an event that he was greatly looking forward to.

And so it was with a booming laugh that Heracles finally decided to walk off. He couldn't wait to see what will develop within the coming weeks.

Slowly yet surely, I am already getting there. Wow, progress is being made relatively fast. In all honesty, I had been somewhat worried I'd have been working this story a little slowly, but it looks like I was wrong.

Yeah, little by little, I'll be dropping quite a few surprises – some good and some 'bad' – as I keep the story going. And the little tidbit of sudden info with Heracles there was merely the tip of the iceberg. Just wait until you see what other curveballs I plan to throw!

Until next time everyone. Take care.