Sorry for the wait, guys. Finally got the 'motivation' to write out the chapter.
To Dragonslayerajah: Eh... My age recognition is bad XD Blame me all you want XD.
To DevilsNeverCry: Thanks for the reminder about Blake. About Yang... I will mention about it in the next chapter.
To Jlargent: It got mentioned in my previous story, so...
Without any further waiting, let's get to the main game!
May 16. 08:06 PM
Prologue
There was once a demon who saved the human world from destruction. That demon became a legend, but with time his name faded from the annals of history. Now the world faces a new threat. Will the outcome of this battle be determined by man? By demon? Or perhaps…
"Woo! Now we have time and story-telling!" Ruby's excited that they now have a bit of context of the game. "Also, a prologue? Shouldn't it be Mission 1?"
"The more we can play!" Nora shouts.
"Ruby has a point." Ren agrees. "Though, I think a bit of context would be fine as well. Remember last time when we thought Dante was a bad guy?"
"That's because we're being suggested to play the FOURTH game of the series." Weiss sighs. "Maybe it's better that way though. Otherwise we might get spoiled a bit too much."
"We're spoiled the MOMENT we met them." Yang grins, referring to their past experiences with 'alternative reality'. "Not complaining though."
"…Do you know these 'friends' of them are?" Willow whispers to Winter and earns her a nod.
"You might meet him later. Just you wait."
…
'And it grew both day and night, till it bore an apple bright.'
"That… is poetic." Pyrrha comments.
The sound of violin echoes in the background, and soon the cinematic scene appears.
People are heading towards an enormous tree that sprouted from out of nowhere. They have no ideas what it is, and their curiosity draws themselves to it. Most of them watch in idle, while an elderly woman crouches down and prays. Lights are spotting on the tree, and cameras are now starting to do their works.
Among those citizens, a black man dressing in a business outfit smokes his cigar and starts speaking:
"We have known each other a long time." – The Broker, Morrison
"A broker, huh?" Blake says in curiosity. "Have we actually met one before?"
"Uh, Junior?" Yang suggests. "I mean, we did have to ask him to get to some 'buyers'…"
"Those who met punches to their faces, you mean." Weiss sarcastically says. "I am thankful you didn't interfere with the Schnee's jobs."
"Hey! They earned it!"
"You never had this much trouble. You gonna make it through this, Dante?"
"A good old friend of Dante. Bring him jobs nearly every time."
"Oh! Is he going to fight?"
"I doubt it Nora." Jaune guesses. "Most of brokers tend to not go into the actions themselves."
The scene changes towards the inner part of the tree, which looks like a Mini Demon World, with sounds of explosions can be heard. Then, it shows that The Legendary Devil Hunter Dante is fighting against the 'thing' behind the appearance of the tree. However, unlike the previous game, this time Dante is having a hard time fighting it.
"Fighting the boss right from the beginning? That's new."
"I agree, Sis. Shouldn't he be like at the VERY end of the game?"
A little bit further away, The Devil Hunter Nero is heading to the same boss while wearing a dissatisfied look on his face. "What am I doin', wasting my time here? He's got this."
"Hey, it's Nero!" Nora cheers a bit.
"Then why are you here?" Weiss facepalms. "Except the fact that Dante is NOT doing well."
The scene changes a bit to show Weiss' statement being correct.
"You should not underestimate this demon." A low-tone of a man's voice speaks up, and The Mysterious One V walks to Nero with the support of his cane. He has a thin body with tattoos drawn all over him. He looks young, black hair with green eyes. He wears a long, open sleeveless leather coat, black pants and sandals. "After all, it was he who took your right arm, and gained a great deal of power from it."
"OH…" Everyone slowly exclaims. "No wonder."
The camera shows the boss again, sitting in his throne…
"Wait, Dante fought the guy, and yet somehow the boss didn't even move once?" Jaune asks in disbelief.
"We saw him firing those large fireballs to Dante, so maybe Dante couldn't get close?" Pyrrha suggests.
A bird is flying behind V, and under his feet, some sort of black mist appears, and V says to Nero: "I'm leaving. I suggest you do not fall behind." The mist then carries V to go ahead, with the bird following him.
"Yeah…" Nero responds, but mostly says to himself. "Okay V… You are an interesting guy, but you are right." Looking down to his missing arm then to the boss, he says: "I've got a score to settle with that son of a bitch!"
"OH! Cussing!"
"Really Ruby? You are still doing that childish game?"
"Hey! Cussing is wrong, Weiss!"
The game then starts its gameplay, and Weiss takes the moment to look around the inside of a tree… "Is this actually a tree? This looks like a completely different world already."
"This looks even more ominous than in that statue!" Nora shivers. "Or a den of Grimm…"
Ren pats the girl to comfort her then says: "Same feeling here."
Weiss then checks on Nero's appearance and says in pity: "Poor him. Losing his arm is not a good thing."
"On the bright side, he can still his sword with his dominant arm." Blake comments. So far he only used the right arm to punch demons."
"True." Weiss then makes Nero do some basic movements, then presses the usual Lock-on button, to see Nero actually pulling Blue Rose from its holster and putting it in steady position. "Neat." The usual Rev is also still there, though he's still only able to do one bar at a time, like before. "Still need to buy the skills, then." And the good-old Snatch and Buster are gone due to the absence of Devil Bringer. "So basically the tutorial back then."
'She looks a lot more relax while being with her friends.' Willow thinks in her mind. 'I'm glad she have found happiness after…' She stops thinking right there.
Heading to the new area, the camera shows a disgusting bug eating something (blood) on the ground, with its sack slowly growing in size. It then notices Nero and starts screaming at him, preparing to kill him.
It's a Demonic insect Empusa.
That grosses everyone in the room as Weiss grunts: "Okay, this kicks up way too fast. I would rather fight those puppets than these ones."
Jaune has to swallow once before he throws up. "Urgh, that's so…"
"Wipe them out, instantly." Blake orders, which Weiss completely complies.
The MOMENT the fight starts, Weiss runs to the demon and destroys it without a pause. Then, two more joins the fight by… emerging from out-of-nowhere blood pools. Though they're just cannon folders that give the Hunter no problems.
Once they're done, the red barrier disappears, giving way for Weiss to run out. Though, Nero wonders to himself if he could trust V.
He then sees a few more weakened Empusa, and plans to execute them. However, a similar but smaller bug heads to one of the Empusa and releases a green liquid from its sack to the down demon. A moment later, the Empusa wakes up and prepares to fight.
The smaller demon is Airborne evil Green Empusa.
"IS… is that a… face of…" Willow asks shakily, quickly realizing what the demons' front appearance look like.
"Unfortunately... yes." The voice from the Scroll answers. "Expect things to be more disturbing than the Grimm."
"…Excuse me." Jaune says his sorry before heading out, not wanting to ruin the room.
"That aside…" Winter tries to brush it out of her mind. "It seems to be a Healing demon. I suggest prioritizing them."
"Same idea, sister." Weiss agrees.
Though, before the fight, the hint of Color Up causes team RWBY and JNPR's interest. "We have Charged Shots at the beginning?"
"…I don't think so, Ruby." Blake disagrees. "I believe it's a weaker version."
While fighting the demon horde, Nero wonders what is going on when demons start helping each other. That causes Winter to say: "Grimm do work with each other. I don't see a problem here."
After the second fight, Ruby complaints: "Without the Snatch it's so hard getting the combos!"
"We just have to bear with it. I'm sure we will get it soon." Weiss sees no worth crying over that.
Once he's done, Nero notices that V has not gone off too far ahead and just right at a conversation space. "Hey! Thought you took off?"
"Do you not understand? We cannot hope to do this without you."
"That's all right, superstar, go on with your bad self." The bird suddenly speaks up. "Go ahead, we got this."
"…If that old crow is here, I'm kicking him out." Winter is instantly reminded of a certain pain she has since a looooong time ago.
The camera shows that there are actually some Empusas left, so V is probably staying to deal with them. Seeing that he's invited to the main event, Nero starts heading out and wipes out any Empusas on his way to Dante.
Everyone then notices the 'Starring: THE DMC CREW'. Nora asks the Scroll: "What is that 'Starring'?"
"Wellllllllllll…" The word is stretching for three seconds. "You will see."
"Oh come on!" Nora whines.
"At least we know it's something fun." Ren chuckles, knowing too well of the person's 'mysterious' behavior.
…
Dante is getting flung away the moment Nero reaches the area. He notices that the boss hasn't moved from his place yet, and also sees Trish and Lady getting knocked out as well.
"Even Trish and Lady can't help Dante?" Ruby asks in disbelief. "And we're going to fight this boss with NO Devil Bringer and NO skills? How?"
The boss sends one tendril towards Dante but Nero quickly shoots it away. "Well… Looks like this won't be a total waste of time after all." He then shouts to the big demon: "HEY! JACKASS! Didn't your mother ever teach you it's not nice to steal?"
"Um… I don't think…" Willow says in worry. "Taunting him is a good idea…"
"You will get used to it, Mom." Weiss replies. "Those two taunt everything."
The boss doesn't even react once, causing Nero's irritation to go up. He then pulls Red Queen and plans the tip on the ground and revs it up. "Sorry Dante. I'm BAGGIN' THIS BITCH!"
"That's damn Qrow's attitude." Winter pins her nose bridge in annoyance.
"You can… cheer up madam." Jaune replies as he returns. "At least… that would lighten up the mood."
"Not from him."
Starting the fight, the boss throws a barrage of energy orbs towards Weiss, but the landing is easy to see so dodging is no problem. Then a big laser is fired that waves from side to side, and the speed is not great and easy to jump over. She jumps up and tries to get close to the boss, but a red crystal acting as a shield stops her from advancing. When she lands, some kind of explosions happen right under her feet, knocking her up, and the boss waves its arm up to send a shockwave that throws her away. It then throws a transparent-blue orb towards her, slowing her down, then fire two big red fireballs to her, causing massive damages. In the end, she gets stuck by the time-slow orb and the explosions below her deplete the last of her health.
"…THIS is a prologue?!" Even Weiss shouts up with Ruby at how hard the boss is.
"A force-defeat fight." Ren concludes, impressed at how the devs make the first boss fight. "That's a nice way actually."
"Oh don't make me make you guys play a boss-only game." The voice from the Scroll laughs. "I can guarantee you would like to beat the Grimm instead of play it."
"Don't you dare!" Weiss shouts back.
That one small moment causes Willow's worry to wash away as she giggles.
"It's fun, isn't it Mom?"
"It is."
Nero gets blown away, slammed on a wall and fallen to the ground in defeat. V then finally reaches the area and sees the defeated state of everyone. The bird then screams: "This is it, this is the end! It's all over!"
"Would you shut up!?" Winter and Weiss say at the same time, not happy at how inconsiderate the bird is.
The boss plans to launch an attack to end everyone, but two bullets shot from the face stops it from doing so, and it turns the head to who just shot it.
"Round two!" Dante says in a tired and irritated voice, then transforms into his DT form and draws out Rebellion. He then launches himself towards the boss and tries to attack, but a force field stops him just in front of the boss. The force applied by both sides causes the whole place to shaken up. Dante then shouts back: "V, get Nero out of here! This was a bad move!"
"I can still fight!" Nero manages to stand up and plans to head to…
"Nero, GO! You are just dead weight!"
"Wow! That's rude!" Nora whines. "Don't say things like that! It's like when Cardin called…"
"Don't need to remind me that." Jaune sighs with a smile. "I managed to grow up from that already."
"Still, Dante saying that to Nero is a bit out of character." Pyrrha says in worry. "Even if it's an emergency, there's no reasons for Dante to rudely call him that."
V tries to do as Dante orders, but Nero quickly swats it away. Though rocks start falling down and blocks his way, causing he to back out. V tries again and this time succeeds, but Nero tries to argue: "Back off! Let go!"
"We must leave here! He is far stronger than we ever could have imagined."
Even with the rocks possibly endangering his life, Nero still tries to get back as he shouts in irritation and desperation: "That BASTARD called me dead weight! I didn't come all this way for NOTHING!"
That causes V to use more force to pull Nero back and push him again the wall, pinning him there. "Stop hitting yourself, and thinks of ways to get stronger and actually help." V tries to calm down the Young Hunter. "If Dante loses… you are all that can defeat Urizen."
"Is that what you call him?" That's both the question Nero and everyone in the room ask.
"Yes, Urizen, the Demon King… that's the name of the demon that took your arm." V answers.
Back to the fight, the boss sends a direct punch towards Dante, causing him to use Rebellion to block it. However, the punch has so much power that knocks Dante away and breaks the sword instantly, turning off Dante's DT.
"NO WAY!" Team RWBY shouts.
"Not even that statue caused him that much troubles! And it's bigger than this boss!" Nora follows.
"Appearances don't matter much Nora. But, it does show this boss is an opponent that's hard to beat."
"How is he going to fight? He lost his sword." Jaune asks in worry.
"He still has his guns… but I think it's all up to Nero and V now." Pyrrha answers.
Even though it's a game, Willow feels that the two teams have great passion to it. She says to Winter: "This game must be great for them to act like that."
"…It is." Winter knows why, but she says nothing to her mother, yet.
…
Breaking the other wall of the tree, Nero and V, who's riding on something, jump out of the tree and land on the street, with the something instantly depletes away when V is completely on the hard surface. Morrison notices that the Hunter Trio is not with the duo, so he greets them and asks: "What happened to Dante? Where's Dante?"
The two keep walking, but V does answer: "He's buying time, but… It doesn't look good."
The three then stop as they feel something emerges from behind. They turn back and see huge tendrils coming from the ground and pierce through everyone who's close to it.
Everyone gasps in fear, as Pyrrha says in a low tone: "No… it's… horrible…"
"Like a Grimm invasion." Blake hisses.
"This can't be happening… Dante lost?" Even the 'best' friend of the Legendary Hunter is surprised of how things unfold.
Nero plans to go forward and help, but V stops him. "Forget it, there's nothing we can do… We must go."
Irritation level comes to max level, as Nero grunts and pushes the cane away, but turns back and walks away.
Eventually, the alive ones run away, leaving the dead behind with the tree…
"…" Everyone is silenced after the scene. Team RWBY and JNPR know that there are depression moments in the game, but it would be over soon and 'it's just a game'. However, they have experienced it once before, and they had the chance to fix it… doesn't mean they can wash the bad memories away…
"…It's just a game, dear." Trying her best, Willow speaks up. "I believe things will get better. Isn't that why you like it?"
"…Right." Weiss is the first to recover. "We shouldn't get so into it… too much. Let's continue and see how it goes. And thank you Mom."
'We all have been in their positions…' Winter thinks to herself. '…Just shrug it off. I'm sure the game would get good soon. After all, it's suggested to us by them.'
So... any of you guys want to have the honor of telling them about the Air Taunt? And some other fun extras?
Time to record the next mission :3. See you guys soon!