With the last of the Stark Expo over without incident (and a few more contracts for materials supply - a few more companies had heard of my purity rates from Stark, so I was starting to make a proper killing here) and me finally remembering to warn Stark about AIM and Killian, I found myself on Remant once again.
As I inserted the last crystal of Gravity Dust into the machine, I stood back.
Ozpin stared at the innocuous blue sphere.
"So, this is it."
"Not what you were expecting, was it?"
He looked at me, "I suppose I was expecting something that would seal away the Pools of Darkness to be… a little grander."
"To be fair, you could also consider the Domain of Light to be part of the machine, that's plenty grand enough."
"I guess so."
Tossing him the device, I floated up to my staff.
"Is it time?"
"Yep, Off to the Lands of Darkness."
The nimbus of biotic energy quickly enveloped us as I took off, racing through the skies to fall into formation with the sudden mobilization of every major military asset on Remnant.
In the distance, black clouds had already begun to cover the horizon. Grimm, aerial and aquatic, here for the sole goal of protecting their mistress.
The first shorts had already been fired, by both sides, obsidian spines and onyx feathers raced across the gap towards the armada, only occasionally being knocked aside by bullets and missiles that blazed back in response.
As I flew over the formation, I fired my portal gun into the air and reached out.
And It responded.
A solid golden beam of light burst from nowhere before slashing across the sky.
An immense gaping tear presented itself, glowing with such power that it outshone the sun.
And then the light began to spill out.
Vaguely, in the glare, a shape could be made out. A monolithic silver pillar, over a kilometre long slid out from the Underealms.
The X-01 Battle Chantry.
The gentle golden glow might have blinded everyone if it was not what it was. Quadrillions of programs, running in harmony to produce more biotic energy, more life force, than some interstellar civilizations were capable of.
As I lay claim to this chariot, I announced my presence to the world.
An intangible, but unmistakable tremor passed through the air and my aura grew.
Ships, damaged by the Grimm righted themselves, mortal imperfection denied by this domain of transcendence.
Grimm ammunition evaporated as they approached my presence, such savagery excised from existence.
And then, something else happened.
The tear, still open above us, bubbled once more, but this time, darkness poured out.
The blackest depths of human depravity lanced out, tendrils od Hate, Disgust, Revulsion and Malice speared out into the distance, branching again and again, until the Tide of Grimm were blotted out.
And were removed from existence as a Raven, one so large that it turned day to night formed above us.
"My King." Raven Acknowledged as she landed next to me.
"My Queen." I replied, leaning down to kiss her.
Raven's power had changed her quite a bit since the last I had seen her. She was more mature now, several inches taller than when I last saw her, and lacking some of the smoothness of her previous youth.
She looked off towards where we could see the Lands of Darkness.
"Onwards?"
"Indeed."
So, riding upon the Sun under this Night Sky, we began our unstoppable march.
We let the locals have their fun though, avoiding another such display of power in favour of allowing our presence to augment their efforts. The Grimm attacks could not approach them, as any that got too close were drawn up to Raven's Sky. Their ammunition never ran low as my aura denied the ability of these devices to fail to serve my purposes.
Behind us, Ozpin stared at the slaughter.
The Grim crashed against us desperately, with wave upon wave of the black tides smashing against us to no avail.
And then we came upon it.
Salem's Castle.
Motioning for Ozpin to step forward, I waved down towards the castle.
He nodded and jumped off the Chantry.
In the distance, I saw four other figures fall from the mass of ships and join Ozpin on the ground before he entered the castle.
The battlefield grew quiet. There were a few rounds fired as some Grimm or the other burst through the pillars of black smoke that flowed from their fallen comrades.
Suddenly one of the towers collapsed.
The battlefield grew silent once more.
The Grimm stopped coming, While a large portion of the Grimm was here in these lands, the majority remained in the other landmasses of Remnant, too far away to contribute to this battle and would no doubt remain a problem for decades to come.
Another crash broke the silence, as Glynda made herself visible, taking control over the collapsed tower and sending it crashing into the rest of the castle, blasting it open and revealing Salem to the rest of the world.
The pale figure was surrounded by tendrils, drawn from the Pools of Darkness that she had built her castle over. The towering tentacles lashed at her once-lover, sending rubbled flying in every direction.
The other four danced between the strikes, curring away at the tendrils and generally defending Ozpin, who suddenly burst into motion.
His sword arm blurred into invisibility as he launched himself at Salem, an energy barrier blinking into existence for a moment to deflect a tendril that had gotten past his allies.
But Salem wasn't harmless without them.
A blast of energy launched into Ozpin, forcing him to deviate and doge away as he tried to close the gap.
I looked at Raven, "Somewhat anti-climactic, isn't it?"
"The battle ended a long time ago, and for the people there, It is the culmination of a battle that lasted millennia."
"I suppose it is."
"You know what he intends to do, don't you?"
"Wasn't it obvious to begin with?"
"And you let him?"
"She's insane. In more ways than the obvious. She spent over a thousand years without any human contact before Ozma was returned to her."
"And that's enough? Despite her crimes"
"But that's the beauty of it. There are things more terrible than death. And to be frank, future generations do not deserve her malice re-entering the cycle of Reincarnation here."
Blasting past one of the tendrils with a green glow, Ozpin grabbed Salem and allowed himself to be hit with one of the tendrils.
Blue light exploded from him, a wave of energy racing across him, Salem and the tentacle before disappearing into the Pools of Darkness below.
Qrow grabbed Glynda and Winter Grabbed Ironwood, moving as fast as they could away from the collapsing earth.
As the earth shook, I stared at the seal formed of two eternal souls that would prevent the Grimm from being brought to Remnant once again.
Nodding, I clasped hands with Raven, raised my Portal device and took us both back to the Under-realms.