I'm starting to wonder just how well this story will hold up in the future for new readers, besides the atrocious first chapter you all had to get through to get here. I mean, the last 6 chapters were released ever other Saturday night before that weeks RWBY Episode was released to nonsponsors. In the long run a few things in this story even managed to parallel RWBY, which was always fun to see happen. Even my fears of creating certain character deaths in my story started to vanish once RWBY started getting darker making it feel all the more appropriate to go ahead with some of my plans. The fact that the villains are completely irredeemable piles of garbage that would repeatedly stab a puppy if it meant furthering their goal did make some of my choices a hundred times easier though.
With my rambling over with for now, why don't you enjoy the read below.
"Only 5 of the bases are responding to our signal Cinder." Emerald said as she turned away from the radio receiver.
"We've lost over two thirds of our fighting force in the span of 3 hours along with most of our outposts going dark. The civilians of Vale have suffered too many casualties along with attacks from a third party making it impossible to rally a sizable number of them now. This operation is a loss as it stands. We retreat and recoup our losses. After all, there will be plenty of other opportunities now that the kingdoms have been thrown into chaos." Cinder looked out the window at the growing flames that were spreading through the city.
"After all we've done we're just going to leave? Mercury died so we could get this far."
"I know when a situation is lost and Vale will be gone come tomorrow. Atlas' main fleet lies above us meaning Mistral and Vacuo should be sending their armies to Atlas to end the war before it starts. Atlas can hold off two kingdoms even without their fleet, the two armies will break themselves against the walls in a pathetic attempt to save the world."
"Understood Cinder, I'll begin making preparations for our departure."
"Before you go Emerald could you take care of our guest?" Cinder said as she descended down the stairs.
"With pleasure." Drawing her revolvers, Emerald trained them on the door and fired away. Each shot would leave cannon sized holes in the wooded frame along with what sounded like steel closing against her bullets.
Two blades crossed over the door as it was kicked in throwing the debris through the room. Stepping through the door was a man clad in a black cloak with a dagger in each of his hands. He would toss one into the air letting it spin before catching the blade again to repeat the process in the other hand. Emerald eye's naturally followed one of the blades due to the steady repetition of the act only to have three knives thrown at her.
Hitting the knives aside with the barrel of her revolvers the man closed the distance as her weapons were pointed away from him. Emerald was forced to start using the curved blades underneath the barrels of her weapon to deflect his strikes. The man matched her step for step keeping within a foot of her to lockdown any of her possible counters.
Tired of this dance Emerald used her ace causing the man to panic at her vanishing. As he frantically searched the room with his eyes frozen in fear of stepping into a trap she slowly brought her weapon up in preparation of landing the decisive blow. Either from instinct of luck he leaped back as the blade passed in front of his face letting him feel the breeze coming off of the weapon.
Reaching into his jacket he threw out a wave of knives hoping to catch the girl with one to reveal her position. Unfortunately the blades all continued on until they hit the walls failing to find their intended mark. Before he could think of another plan six round slammed into his chest nearly throwing him back as Emerald vanished before him again. With both blades he struck at the air In front of himself feeling them clash against another's blade.
The illusion dispelling, he saw Emerald blocking his current attack with an annoyed look on her face. Getting into a low fighting stance he was ready to spring into the battle as Emerald mirrored him. Dashing forward his daggers sliced through Emerald as if she were air only for a familiar pair of green blades to cross his back.
"You really shouldn't have come here." Emerald mocked as the man looked around the room still unsure of where she might actually be.
"This city will be purged just as you will."
A flash of light exploded from the throwing knives around the room engulfing the walls in blue flames. Emerald was about to finish him off when a hand shot through his back and out his chest. With a flicker the flames died out while the cloaked man was lifted into the air before being thrown to the ground. Without even a gasp he died as the blood poured out of the wound onto the floor. Wiping his hand clean with a handkerchief Floes tossed the now bloody cloth atop the body.
"Didn't expect the cleaners from the Order to organize themselves so quickly."
"Everything is ruined now because of you. Why are you here?" Emerald seethed with anger looking at the man who ruined years of preparation.
"I'm just hunting down one of the many hounds making their way through the city. Can't have them thinning the beasts so early into the night before the moon's grand premiere."
"Then you won't mind this." Emerald focused on Floes for a moment in an attempt to use her semblance only for her head to feel like it was being split open from the inside.
Several shards of glass flew across the room and embedded themselves into Floes chest, "Step away from my pawn."
"I wasn't going to kill her, besides do you really think you can stop me?" He threw out his arms showing his lack of care for defense and self-preservation.
"You set me back quite a ways with what you're doing. Even Vale won't be able to recover from this after the Grimm successfully breach the kingdom's defenses. You've been busy if you managed to get to so many of my bases."
"You'll find we're quite good when it comes to multitasking. After all there's only so much you can do with one body, think of how much more productive you'd be if you had ten, a hundred, or a thousand. I may be a little disjointed at the moment, but it's only a matter of time before I pull myself back together." Floes said as he pulled one of the shards out of his chest letting it fall to the ground as Emerald clutched at her head in pain.
"Why does it hurt?" She begged as she began curling into a ball out of response to the continued pain that stabbed at her head.
"You shouldn't try messing with someone's mind when you don't know what it's connected to. You'll end up getting more than you bargained for. All that's left is Patch and I can finally start the show." Floes stated as another glass shard fell from his chest.
"You think that you can take an entire island that houses a combat school by yourself?" Cinder mocked knowing that even if he did have numbers on his side the lack of aura each of his puppets held meant they were little more than paper to most Huntsman.
"You think I'm scared of the Huntsman and Huntresses," Floes began cackling at the thought, "The only thing that scared me died out long before your time. When the power of the soul was something thought to be of pure fantasy and fairy tale. Immortal monsters that ran into battle without a care for their own body letting claws and teeth tear them to shreds before returning to fight again. Beings that would return from the dead no matter how many time they were killed to seek vengeance upon their killer."
"If they were immortal then how did they go extinct?" Cinder asked curious to what could destroy such beings.
"Perhaps immortal wasn't the correct term to use. They aged while out fighting the scourge and the destruction of their sanctuary prevented them from using their ability to resurrect. All I had to do was wait for the perfect moment to begin. Sure the moon breaking set me back awhile, but when you have nothing but time you start to lose track of it." Floes slumped against the wall finding his body began to fail him.
"Then you'll be happy to hear that Emerald came across one of your Hunters." Cinder finished as she threw a shard through his head.
Emerald was trying to stand up when Cinder walked past her, "Thanks."
"Come along Emerald we're leaving Vale." Emerald felt slightly dejected, but followed cinder out into the City.
"Dunstan go help the others I got this covered." Ruby said while cutting down another Beowolf.
"Don't go dying again. I'm unsure how much more your team could possibly take." Dunstan Remarked seeing the emotions that ran across Weiss at meeting her leader.
"No worries here. I don't plan on dying again anytime soon."
"You better not Ruby." Weiss said as she stabbed a Grimm through the head with her rapier.
Dunstan's cane turned into a whip as he began making his way into the battlefield Yang and Blake were fighting in. They seemed to be holding their own with relative ease even without their usual weaponry. Yang shattering any armor the Grimm had and Blake cutting away at anything the brawler exposed with precision. The tactic reminded him of how Hunters operating in pairs would often compensate for the other's weakness allowing them to take down prey that would usually be too much for either to handle.
Looking around Dunstan couldn't find the stranger though he heard him cutting away at the Grimm in the distance accompanied by the howls. Yang and Blake began to notice their Arena slowly getting smaller as the Grimm started to compress the circle around them. The webbing at their feet was starting to disintegrate as the fighting continued allowing them more movement at the cost of others joining the fight.
"Why do you have my weapons?" Dunstan asked as he joined the two in the center.
"I thought it would go great with my clothes." Yang joked as the stake driver smashed another skull.
"Honestly we needed the weapons since we can't get to ours." Blake said as she used the blade to block a Beowolf's claws.
"As long as you don't transform the weapon you should be fine. While the weapon isn't haunted it is just as dangerous with what it feeds off of."
"What would happen if the weapon transformed?" Blake asked worried about the harm it could bring.
"It feeds off the user's very essence until either you turn the blade back or you run empty."
"And when you run empty?"
"You die. Never had the chance to examine the bodies of the users who died this way so I'm still unsure of how exactly they die. The result of prolonged use is always the same though with the user dead and the blade returning to its dormant state once there's nothing to feed on." Dunstan thought back to the hundreds of Hunters in the dream who died experimenting with the weapon in an attempt to learn its style.
"Good to know." Blake looked down at the katana's handle wondering just how many hands it must have passed through before reaching her.
Dunstan was about to get ready to fight when a voice yelled in the distance, "Get down!"
Yang recognized the voice immediately and dove as Blake threw herself on the ground. Dunstan remembered the sound of whirling barrels beginning to speed up from his time in Yharnam and ran away from the sound. He dived to the floor the moment he heard the bullets beginning to cut through the air. Grimm began to fall to pieces as the bullets shredded everything they touched.
Yang and Blake looked up to see a student of Beacon wearing a brown beret and wielding a Gatling gun. Aviators hiding her eyes from them as she inspected the damage she caused to the Grimm. Walking forward she made her way to Yang who were still laying on the ground covering her ears until Coco kicked Yang's foot alerting her to the end of the battle.
"It's nice of you to show up Coco." Yang said as she stood up and began brushing the dirt from her attire.
"What kind of person would I be if I just left my juniors out her by themselves? The flow of Grimm was starting to slow down in our area anyways and Velvet wanted me to check on you."
"Thanks for the help." Blake added seeing the piles of smoking corpses that littered the ground.
"This is really going to start cutting into my budget with how much ammunition I've been burning through. This weapon doesn't run on peanuts you know?" Coco lifted the noticeably lighter weapon up giving it a quick check for her ammo count. "So, where's Ruby? I have to relay some information to her from the professors."
The look that flashed across Blake and Yang's face told Coco everything she needed. She never thought about any of them dying in the skirmish. The possibility just seemed nonexistent at the moment with team RWBY being involved. The team was composed of some of the best and was known to pull of miracles in the heat of battle. Pulling off her aviators she looked them in the eyes.
"I'm sorry for letting you take part in this fight. I hoped this would just be another fight to you, but it's claimed so much. I just want you to know that-"a blue flare shot up into the sky trailing smoke- "Shit. Look just stay here for now I'll send a replacement team to relieve you so you can return to your dorms." Coco ran off towards the signal hoping to prevent any other casualties from occurring that night.
"Ruby!" Weiss yelled as Blake and Yang turned to see a girl in a red cloak lying on the ground in front of Weiss.
"Weiss, bleeding out really sucks. Zero out of ten, would never recommend." Ruby laughed before clutching her gut in pain.
"This is no time for jokes, you're dying."
"Is it bad that I'm starting to get used to this? I mean I'm not nearly as far gone as I was last time so I can still think and talk pretty well. Lack of blood flow to my head tends to make lose focus after a while, but I should be good for another minute or two before I start talking nonsense."
"It may not be as bad as it looks. We just need to get a stretcher and carry you over to the medical wing."
"Weiss can you please grab Dunstan? He should be able to help me." Ruby lifted her hand finding it covered in the crimson liquid.
"I'll go get him. Whatever you do, don't fall asleep." Weiss sprinted past Yang and Blake in search of the Hunter.
"Ruby is that you?" Yang asked as she failed to hold back her tears.
"Told you Hunters can't die." Ruby smiled at the sight of her sister and Blake being fine after the battle.
"Sorry you have to see your cool big sister crying like this." Yang dropped her weapons and started wiping her eyes.
"Don't cry Yang, everything is going to be fine once Dunstan gets here."
"Ruby why didn't you get down?" Blake asked looking at the sizable wound that now covered her abdomen.
"I got a little distracted, though Coco must be using the expensive stuff again if her gun tore through everything like that." Ruby always held a high admiration towards her seniors' weaponry and talent.
"Where's Dunstan I don't think Ruby has much longer." Blake called out seeing that the blood seemed to stop flowing from the wound either from lack of flow or pressure.
"I'm right here. Would have come sooner if someone hadn't buried me under a pile of Grimm." Dunstan walked over with Weiss following behind.
"Do something already, she's going to die." Weiss ordered the Hunter in an attempt to hurry his slow movements.
"You know she can still fight? She's got at least another 4 hours in her before she'd kill over from something like that." Dunstan said to team RWBY.
"She won't last a minute if you don't do something."
"Hunters are made to be tough and fast the plague makes sure that its host won't perish from such negligible wounds. Unless the injury would cause some of the important organs to shut down or go into shock we can continue fighting."
"Important organs, they're all important you moron!" Weiss yelled as Dunstan pressed his hand against the wound which now had a thin layer of congealed blood preventing Ruby from bleeding out any further.
"A single bullet wound isn't enough to kill her. You'd have to do something much more drastic if you wanted her body to give out. Hell I knew Hunters who survived having their entire face carved open with a sickle. Sure they usually died to the next thing they saw, but the point stands that she can handle this level of damage." The team looked down at Ruby who was still clutching at her gut.
"Then why is she in so much pain?" Yang asked in concern seeing her sister so hurt.
"Well that's probably from the bullet still lodged in her gut. Have to say your aura thing really did a fine job on slowing that bullet. Not sure if you would even be alive if it tore through you like those Grimm." Dunstan remarked seeing the benefit of a shield of sorts to absorb or soften blows so the body wouldn't have to.
"Isn't there anything you can do for her?" Blake asked trying to get the man to intervene.
"The way I see it you have four options to choose from." Dunstan informed Ruby as she turned her head towards him. "The first is simple and the least labor intensive for everyone involved. You die and then come back with clean clothes and injury free."
Ruby's team visibly tensed at the suggestion with Yang's hands reaching for her weapons while Blake and Weiss grabbed theirs. Ruby cringed at the thought of dying again though the process of dying seemed to hold less value after her first two trips. Dunstan didn't bother reaching for his weapon realizing he just threatened their leader's life.
"Would you like to hear the other options before you try to kill me?" They relaxed slightly with Ruby nodding at Dunstan to continue. "Option two is you walk over to the lantern and visit the dream to reset your body to good health."
"I don't think I'm going anywhere at the moment." Ruby acknowledged thinking about the pain she'd have to through to hobble back to lantern.
"Option three involves you using you Hunter's mark to travel through the world back to lantern. Simply using it should heal the damage done. Though I doubt you can use it at the moment."
"Why's that?"
"You need a clear mind to focus on the image and you have to maintain that focus for a few seconds. Usually for Hunters the only thing that interrupts them is something striking them, but I'm not sure you can ignore the pain."
"Please tell me option four is something we can actually do since I don't think Yang, Blake, and Weiss will go with option one."
"Well I could always inject you with this." Dunstan reached into his pouch pulling out a red vial attached to what they could only imagine was an autoinjector.
"So what's the problem with this option?" Yang rolled her eyes waiting for Dunstan's to explain the horrible side effects that would follow the injection.
"Besides the pain of the needle being stabbed into your thigh you'll feel your blood boil along with you wounds burning as the flesh regenerates in seconds. Not the most pleasant feeling, but it can bring back anyone from the brink of death and was made an essential by Hunters. Also these things costed me an arm and a leg by the end of my last Hunt."
"Can you please just give it to me? I can pay you back later or something." Ruby held her arm up waiting for Dunstan to place the vial in her hands just as she felt the sharp sting of a needle hitting her leg.
The effect was instant as Ruby thrashed about on the ground. Her hand gripping at the ground trying to find anything to hold onto as the blood worked its way through her body. A fire raged under her skin as the damaged organs began regenerating. She could feel the bullet being forced out of her body as new flesh regrew behind it. The process felt like minutes to Ruby as her nerves reconnected and began firing signals back to her brain. Once the pain stopped she pressed her hand to her abdomen finding the wound gone without a trace.
"How are you feeling Ruby?" Yang asked as her sister began to sit up.
"I feel great, no pain or anything." Ruby started walking around and moving her arms to see just how well her body had coped with the healing.
"Now if you would all be so kind as to return my weapons before something bad happens that would be lovely. Some of the things you're wielding aren't exactly safe for use."
"We've used them exceptionally so far. Besides without them we would be nearly helpless in a fight." Weiss explained as she waved her arms around.
"What's that on your hand?" Dunstan asked as Weiss quickly put her hand behind her back to hide the glove.
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"That glove is haunted by vengeful spirits so unless you enjoy the ghosts clawing at your mind I advise you put it down."
"They're only like that because they were tortured and killed by those monsters of the church. If you bothered to try and communicate with them you'd be able to work with them instead of having to force your will on them." Weiss yelled back as an ominous red glow began to envelop her glove,
"They weren't innocent either, the only difference being that the Church had more resources and time to put towards their crimes. The Vilebloods killed hundreds in the name of their queen just to feed her insane idea of birthing an heir to the throne. Given the chance to grow they would have turned out just as bad as them."
"We just wanted to be free of the Church!" The glow surrounding the glove exploded outwards violently as it enveloped Weiss almost completely shrouding her in its ethereal glow.
A glyph then erupted beneath Weiss throwing the others away from her as she clutched at her chest. The usual snowflake pattern began to warp and crack until it shattered revealing a symbol that was foreign to RWBY, but all too familiar for Dunstan. The symbol was best described as a flower bud with a leaf on each side that was blooming from another flower bud. This pattern repeated downwards two more times with each subsequent repeat getting smaller until reaching the stem that held them. The only thing off about the symbol was how there were four of them in the glyph with each one facing one of the cardinal direction. Weiss fell to one knee in exhaustion as the red phantom rose behind her. Dunstan saw the familiar crow feathered cape flowing from the phantom as it stood over Weiss.
"Couldn't well stay dead could you? The Bloody Crow of Cainhurst reduced to a measly phantom." Dunstan drew his cane and pistol as he walked towards the man.
"Weiss stop!" Ruby yelled out to her partner who seemed to be struggling as the red aura embraced her.
"I'm trying to," She smashed the tip of her rapier into the glyph, "you will listen to me!"
Some of the red glow began to recede away from Weiss body being pushed back towards the glove. They reached a stalemate at her arm with neither of their influence moving an inch further. Now and then a pulse of phantasms would burst from the glove up her arm to join the struggle.
Reaching the edge of the glyph the phantom stepped out with a swing of his katana aimed at Dunstan who leaped out of the way of the blade. With no want for formalities the phantom vanished into a mist before reappearing inches from Dunstan. Even back stepping he failed to get out of the reach of the now transformed blade. The extra distance on the blade carving across his chest as he continued to backpedaled to gain some needed distance from the killer.
Blake and Yang looked ready to jump in at a moment's notice until Dunstan yelled out, "Stay out of this fight. If either of you suffer an injury from his blade you're as good as dead."
Dunstan rolled out of the way as two bullets flew past him. Looking up he saw Crow moving towards him at a slow pace as if walking towards a wounded prey to finish it off. Pulling out a vial Dunstan slammed it into his leg before charging him. Avoiding the slash of the katana Dunstan dashed behind him stabbing him in the back with the tip of his cane.
Swinging the blade behind himself the Crow expected to catch the Hunter's neck only for a bullet to slam into his chest forcing him to kneel from the impact. Dunstan drew his hand back remembering the familiar sensation of the Hunt as he stabbed his hand into his opponents gut. Ripping his hand back out a burst of blood followed the violent motion throwing the phantom to the ground momentarily. Running up Dunstan got ready to plant his cane into the man's back only to leap back when he saw the katana swing towards his legs.
Standing back up the Crow looked to be in fine shape with the only indicator of harm being the blood that now stained his front. Tough didn't even begin to describe the man before Dunstan, beast would have been a more apt term if he didn't looks human. The Crow drew his gun and was about to fire when a white flame engulfed his hand forcing him to drop the weapon. Looking over Dunstan saw a few white specters begining to form in the usual red that surrounded the glove.
"Haven't seen that happen before, but I doubt it's good news for you." Dunstan said walking forward with new confidence.
As they fought Dunstan saw the flames begin to eat across the Crow's body slowly turning the red phantom white. Each strike against the Crow seemed to feed the fires on him filling them with new life. By the end of their struggle Dunstan had some gashes over his arms, but the Crow could barely stand as the fire was now at his neck. His head was the only part of his body that still retained the red stained visage he was known for.
A white glyph of the same pattern as the one that summoned the Crow appeared beneath him. In a flash of light he was pulled back into the glyph putting up little struggle before vanishing into the ground. Weiss lowered her hand as the glyph vanished leaving her short of breath.
"Weiss that was amazing how'd you do it?" Ruby cheered in joy at her friend's recovery.
"I reached a consensus with them. If there's one thing we Schnee's are known for it's our business sense." She said with pride before toppling over to the ground. Ruby was about to grab Weiss when she saw Dunstan walking towards them with ill intent in his eyes. Looking back at Weiss she remembered what Dunstan taught her about the other workshops, specifically those requiring oaths.
"Step aside Ruby." Dunstan ordered drawing his cane.
"She's not evil Dunstan. She's nothing like those people you fought back in Yharnam." Ruby defended as Weiss tried to stand back up. Blake and Yang stood ready to leap to Ruby's aide the moment Dunstan would go in for the attack.
"There's a reason Hunter of Hunters dispose of Vilebloods Ruby. They hunt and kill others for no reason other than their own enjoyment at times. Even their so called knights were just royals fighting for sport and bragging rights."
"Back away Dunstan," Ruby threatened as her teacher continued to press on, "I'm warning you."
A white glyph appeared between them forcing Dunstan back. Looking up he saw Weiss holding up her hand. The glyph was the same kind as before with the Vilebloods oath mark set upon it four times.
"Stay away from my partner." She threatened with what little strength she had left.
"Are the dead standing to perform one last act of kindness before their passing?"
"I refuse to let Ruby get hurt because of me again."
"Dunstan, we don't even know if she's infected now." Ruby tried arguing for the Hunter to see reason.
"Then you can be the one to test her and when it turns out she has the plague you can be the one to release her." Ruby didn't even need a moment to consider her options.
"How do I test her?"
"Get some of her blood in a wound of yours. The sensation it gives off will tell you whether she's infected or not." Dunstan threw a silver knife at Ruby's feet for her to pick up.
Knife in hand she approached Weiss who held out her hand, "if it had to be anyone Ruby I'm glad it was you."
The knife slid across Weiss palm letting some blood seep out of the thin cut. Ruby brought the blade to her own hand cutting it as some of Weiss blood began to pool. Nodding in agreement Weiss tilted her hand letting the blood fall into Ruby's who flinched at the sensation of her partner's blood running across her wound. Still warm to the touch Ruby was expecting a more violent reaction given how everything about being a hunter seemed to resolve in rather painful ways.
"It feels warm." Ruby remarked looking over to Dunstan.
"Anything else?"
"The cut stings a bit, but no." Ruby tried getting a read on him from her response to no avail.
"I don't know how, but your friend just broke the rules or rather laws of nature I learned in Yharnam. From what I've learned it looks like she broke a few of your rules as well with how her glyph has developed." Dunstan put the weapons at his side knowing they wouldn't do him any good.
Weiss shook her head for a moment in disbelief over realizing what Dunstan had meant. A semblance was something of a reflection for most people's' souls, often having some relation to their personality or outlook on the world. A person's soul can't be harmed or cut and no matter how life changes for them their soul will still be their own. People can learn to better utilize their power, but it will never change. Summoning another glyph Weiss stared into it seeing the one thing she thought impossible, a life without her family's brand etched onto her soul.
"Weiss are you okay?" Ruby asked cautiously seeing her stare off into the glyph.
"I'll be fine once this night is over."
"Everyone else okay?"
"Not a single injury." Yang said with joy looking over at Blake finding her just as well.
The calm and relief that washed over the groups was just as suddenly taken away when a bright light erupted from the city. A passenger ship that was previously on course for Beacon was now listing to the side as fire spewed from one of its engines. Flashes of light would come from the windows occasionally just too abruptly stop before another floor would come to life with activity. Out of control RWBY could only watch as one of the wings clipped the docking platform destroying it. Passing over the now wrecked port it skidded across the ground coming to a stop in the pillars that surrounded the courtyard.
The four escorting Bullheads circled the wreckage with spotlights glaring at the vessel. Blood stained the viewport windows blocking anyone from the exterior getting a view at what had happened. The window began to crack with a single claw pressed against it from the interior. Soon four more appeared with each pressing a different window frame with renewed effort. The windows spider webbed as the claws disappeared from the glass panes. A heart stopping shatter echoed through the courtyard as five masses of black fur broke through the windows making a mad dash towards Beacon and vanishing between the buildings. The search lights tried to follow their movements only to fail once the beasts started running between the pillars to break line of sight.
Oobleck looked down at the ship and then Beacon in horror seeing the ship as an omen for what could come to pass at the school, "Take me to Ozpin's tower immediately. We have to warn the others."
Night had finally begun to fall upon Vale as the sun's glow vanished beyond the horizon. The people looked towards the light one last time wondering whether this would be their last time seeing such a sight. Night was approaching them and it wouldn't be long before the moon rested in the sky eager to illuminate the darkness with its pale glow.
Emeralds power is so OP when you start to think about it. The possibilities are endless when it comes to messing with someone's head. The only real limitations seems to be that once something tries to touch or hit the illusion it seems to fall apart and that it can't be used on multiple people without harming her. Also Cinder's overarching plan was something I thought of back in the age of pre-volume 3 RWBY. Those were dark times indeed for the fandom, though not as dark as now. Kind of just wanted a big bad with a plan to usurp and take over with the backing of the people before they realize she's Hitler or something after she's already in power.
Hurray, night has finally fallen on Vale and the moon has begun to rise. We all know what that means, it's time to put on our Mensis Cages and make contact with that which slumbers beneath the boundless sea. For those of you not interest you can instead put on your hunting attire and go forth into the harrowing night in a vague attempt to save the people.