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Chapter 148: Opening Salvo
The power Salem channelled as she stood atop one of New Vales' monolithic Hive Towers was simply unspeakable; coruscating bolts of black and crimson lightning travelled along her form, lashing out to sunder anything that might have dared draw close and filling the air with the scent of simple, unmistakable death whilst her eyes glowed with arcane light and a corona of deep bloody scarlet engulfed her, the light pulsating as though it were a living thing that breathed as the Wizard and Queen of the Grimm harnessed her monstrous powers with the sole, hateful intent of destroying the entirety of the Kingdom below her.
In all honesty Salem couldn't be said to be relishing or enjoying the rush of employing her godlike abilities or the thrill that might have come from sowing devastation on such a grand scale for the simple fact that her mind was not confined to a single physical location or even plane of existence. The primordial Grimm matter that she had transformed into a creeping penumbra that simply engulfed everything in its' path allowed Salem to be present, at least in some degree in every aspect of the raging battlefield below her where New Vales' defenders fought desperately for their lives; already having been forced back from the largely flat and open suburbs where they had made their stand into the Hive Towers themselves as they searched for higher ground to escape being simply swallowed by the darkness only to find yet more Creatures of Grimm waiting for them there. As the physical plane was engulfed by the creeping darkness and the unrelenting fires of war however, so too was the ephemeral and Salem found her plans meeting resistance from an unexpected force.
Wizards across the Multiverse.
It seemed that the enormity of her goals had resulted in an unforeseen consequence; the space between realities and the infinite moments between moments in which she had been trapped were not a physical space and whilst she, as the manifestation of the Grimm hive-minds' higher intelligence had been stranded there consigning something as large as an entire city, filled with countless hundred of thousands, if not millions of souls into the void created a ripple effect that spread across all iterations of time and space and as she continued to sink the city into the waiting abyss Salem felt mental resistance from at first a lone Wizard, a single pinprick of light that guttered and waned and threatened to be swallowed whole by the darkness but was soon joined by another and then another as her cataclysmic actions continued to reach yet more Wizards in different Remnants and each of them lent their might to stop her; unknowing of where the threat originated form, only that it was an abomination that could not be allowed to come to a pass. Salem let out a snarl which was echoed by every Creature of Grimm under her sway as her efforts to cast New Vale into the abyss were brought to a torturous crawl, the darkness lapping around the ankles and calves of those still stranded within it as the city slipped into oblivion inch by creeping, inevitable inch.
And then a screaming wave of psychic backlash forced Salem to direct at least part of her attention away from her plans.
Her mind retracted back from the obsidian flood which filled New Vale and into her own physical form, the terrifying magical glow subsiding from her eyes as they narrowed in pure, unfathomable rage at the sight of yet another of her Grimm Spires being decimated by New Vale's new weapon in an earth-shattering explosion which left those spires to either side of it with heavy damage and engulfed countless thousands of freshly spawned Grimm before they could even begin their rampage against those who defied her.
To make it worse the Silver Eyed warrior herself had come to their aid.
Ruby Rose was a lone figure, miniscule from this distance and entirely dwarfed by the warships that filled the sky around her yet the carnage and devastation that she inflicted upon the Creatures of Grimm could not be overstated; her eyes glowed and twin contrail of pure white light followed her every movement as she flew through the air, her own Semblance combining with her powers allowing her to defy gravity as she unmade a hundred monsters at a time with nothing more than a glance in their direction; yet Salem noted something of vital importance, she legendary Huntress was focusing all of her efforts on defending a single vessel which Salem realised meant that this warship alone carried the chemical weapon which ripped through Grimm matter and had brought down her spires.
It had to be destroyed.
"Die" the word echoed unnaturally in the air as it escaped Salem's lips in a low, sibilant hiss; as if summoned by her command the Grimm Spires which remained, which numbered far more than those that had been destroyed began to spawn more monstrous creates to combat the enemy; these however were not the swarms of relatively small horrors that plagued and harassed the night sky in their thousands already, instead each spire spat forth a gargantuan beast equal in size to the airships themselves that lumbered through the besieged city or tore through the air, draconian and serpentine colossi screaming and roaring as they surged towards either Ruby Rose herself or the massive vessels around her; forcing her to turn her attention away from the airship armed with the anti-Grimm weapon.
Salem smiled.
The pool of darkness that stood within began to gather and coalesce, forming a dozen jagged spines of condensed Grimm matter which were rapidly covered with thick layers of bony carapace to create smaller versions of the spires, each of them shaped like a javelin that stood at five times the height of a man.
With an expression of savage glee Salem launched them.
"THEY'RE IN THE ENGINE ROOMS!" the panicked scream over the warships' internal comms sent a chill through Dove Bronzewing even as he was distracted by a far more imminent threat in the form of a pack of Beowolves which he cut down without mercy or hesitation; refusing to allow himself to retreat even a single step.
It would seem that their slow and methodical destruction of the Grimm Spires had not gone unnoticed and had drawn the ire of what could only be Salem herself. The first volley of the bony javelins impacted against the vessels' shields, their splintering forms unleashing the oozing, primordial darkness they contained across the defensive barrier and although it was vaporised and reduced to a fine mist and steam before any true Creatures of Grimm could be birthed and take form the attack massively sapped the shields, leaving the ship surrounded by a flickering and failing veil of hexagonal patterns which were destroyed entirely by Salem's second volley.
From there the carnage had truly begun.
The crew of the warship had been forced to fall back and abandon several sections of the ship as thirty foot long skewers tore into its' hull, damaging several critical systems before unleashing their monstrous payload into the bowels of the vessel, followed by a third volley and then a fourth until what few soldiers and Atlesian Knights were left patrolling its' hallways were simply overwhelmed and Dove had been forced to abandon his post at the bridge in order to protect several members of the crew as they ran towards the nearest escape pods.
The Grimm that now stalked the ship had ambushed them on the way on Dove had fought alone, cutting down each beast in turn until finally he heard the hiss of decompressing air that preceded the escape pods being ejected; rushing air howling behind him and threatening to suck him out of the ship to his demise and forcing him to leap away. A lone Beowolf chose to take advantage of his momentary distraction and leapt at one of the last escape pods to leave only to miss its' intended target by mere inches and fall to its' doom before blast doors sealed over the spaces where the pods had been; with nobody left to protect Dove was free to fight without restraint and within moments the Grimm Studies Professor had carved through the last of his foes.
"Starboard escape pods have been ejected!" Dove warned frantically, addressing those who were fleeing from the engine room "Make your way to the aft-"
"Aft escape pods are cut off" Glynda Goodwitch's steely and matter-of-fact tone interjected "All personnel converge on port side escape pods, do not engage with Grimm unless no other option is available….Bronzewing, report to the bridge"
if Dove had felt a chill before it was nothing to the ice running through his veins at that moment, the order to evacuate and converge on the remaining escape pods could only mean one thing and the fact that he had been ordered to remain aboard suggested that something truly unthinkable was about to happen; after a moment however his dazed numbness was intruded upon by the lights flickering and the airship seeming to lurch, presumably as a result of the Grimm tearing the engine room asunder, bringing Dove back to his senses enough for him to reply.
"Aye Captain….I'll be there as soon as I can" true to his word Professor Bronzewing readied his sword and stormed out into pitched battle that the vessels' interior had become once again with a wordless battle-cry on his lips; wading into the Grimm that rushed towards him snapping jaws and snuffing them out by the score until finally, with black smoke trailing from his blade and body, deep gouges torn into the surface of his armour and blood trickling from a gash in his cheeks and dripping from between the individual armoured plates adorning his right arm where a hooked claw had ripped into his flesh Dove staggered, beaten and weary onto the bridge to find Glynda Goodwitch waiting for him.
Alone
"The bridge crew have been evacuated, they're well trained enough to handle any Grimm they encounter…..I'm currently controlling the ship via its' AI; though how long we can remain airborne for is questionable" her blunt and detached appraisal of the situation left bile rising in Dove's throat as he realised exactly what she intended and that the bleak sense of finality she spoke with would damn them both.
"What's the plan?" he asked, hoping to be proven wrong or at the very least she would at least have the decency to ask him to lay down his own life rather than simply assume.
"Don't play stupid Bronzewing we do not have the time" she snapped harshly "I need you to remotely prime the remaining Fracture warheads…..and a self-destruct sequence takes two clearances….we're Hunters Dove, we are the sword and shield that protects the Kingdoms; we swore oaths" her voice cracked and Dove was left utterly broken by the sight of Glynda Goodwitch, resolute, immovable and constant Goodwitch, crying as she realised that the end was upon them and though his legs trembled beneath him and he fought the urge to vomit out of sheer terror even as tears spilled from his own eyes Dove nodded in understanding as he realised that there was no other way.
"They'll tell my wife and kids what happened won't they?" he managed to choke out "It won't be classified, I need them to know; I need them to know that at the end I-"
"They'll know you died a hero" Glynda assured him, voice gentle as she removed her glasses and wiped her own eyes. The two of them working in silence as Dove began to prepare the Fracture warheads for detonation and Goodwitch plotted a collision course that would send the ship crashing towards several of the remaining Grimm spires in a final act of defiance before the pair of them entered the clearance codes that would see the ships' main reactor engulf everything for over a mile around engulfed in an apocalyptic blast.
Only for the bridge to become entirely dark and silent as the ship lurched again, the vessel falling through the air as the sound of clawed and taloned libs scrabbling against a metallic floor announced the arrival of the Creatures of Grimm, desperately trying to gain access to the bridge.
"Cover me if they breach the door" Goodwitch instructed simply before closing her eyes, Dove nodded in understanding and readied his sword in his still mobile arm with a murmur
"It's been an honour professor" with that that Glynda Goodwitch, Headmistress of Halo Academy, former militia commander of Vale and Deputy Head of Beacon Academy activated her Semblance for the last time; seizing the entire vessel in her telekinetic grip and simply hurling it towards her target. It became clear to Dove that the Grimm would not breach their defences in time and so he cast down his sword and simply opened his Scroll, spending his last moments looking at a picture of his family; himself, his wife, their son Redshank who even now was at Halo Academy doubtlessly wishing to be in the midst of this battle and their two daughters.
And then everything was consumed in a white light and both Dove Bronzewing and Glynda Goodwitch ceased to be
The afternoon sky was choked with smoke and flames and the sounds of terrified screaming and weapons being fired had shattered whatever delusions of peace those who called the Allied Remnant Resistance Movement base in the ruins of Vale their home may have been harbouring as the White Fang tore through the defences of the base with frenzied determination.
"We've got incoming!" Eagle yelled frantically as reappeared behind Arctus; the two of them had been between buildings that served as makeshift watchtowers and weapon emplacements when Caliginous Null had offered his terms and now the two of them were all that remained to defend a considerable section of the bases' perimeter; those manning the watchtowers having been picked off through a combination of snipers and grenades. Eagle had been using her Semblance to soar above the defences for a few seconds at a time before reporting back to Arctus and instructing the Bear Faunus where to hurl a Glyph and unleash one of his summoned constructs against the attacking forces whilst Sentinel gunned down and electrocuted those Faunus militants who managed to traverse the maze of barricades before they could scale the final walls or enter the base; leaping to a truly macabre display at the entrance to the outpost and a bleak situation made all the more unsettling by the sudden look of fear in Eagle's eyes as she returned from another foray above the proverbial parapet.
"How many?" Arctus demanded, another Glyph beginning to form in his palm only to flicker away as Eagle shook her head and drew her sword a moment before the sound of screeching metal informed the Bear Faunus that the approaching threat was far greater than simple infantry.
The barricades exploded open.
Both Arctus and Eagle were flung back by the force of the intrusion and whilst Eagle used her Semblance to both make herself a smaller target and retreat from immediate harm Arctus wall pulled from danger by Sentinel's claws, the Faunus in turn shielding the droid with a Glyph even as his eyed widened at the sight of their new adversaries.
They had once been Atlesian Paladins battle-suits.
He and Eagle had been told about these weapons, employed when Adam Taurus had ordered those engineers and other mechanically inclined individuals under his command to make the original Paladin chassis more efficient. Arctus had almost hoped that the resistance fighters telling the stories had been exaggerating or embellishing the tales for the sake of appearing more daring but it seemed that he was wrong; the armour from the battle-suits limbs had been removed and the appendages had been lengthened; extended digitigrade legs and reaching upper limbs giving the things a loping, savage appearance with new, spiked armour crudely affixed over the new limbs to prevent anyone from grabbing at them and the entirety of each of the machines' cockpits had been re-shaped to resemble a snarling, lupine maw. The true threat however came from their armaments; in response to the order to make the battle-suits more efficient all of their ranged weapons save for a single rack of missiles attached to the back and shoulders had been removed, these machines were intended for close quarters combat and did not require ammunition; instead the left arm of each machine ended in a chainsaw whose blade was both taller and broader than Arctus's entire body whilst their right arms ended in a simple, dense mass of Atlesian steel with spikes affixed to it to form a simple cudgel or hammer.
These were New Menagerie's 'Werewolf' units and three of them strode through the breach in the outposts' defences, their now ageing and dubiously maintained power systems snarling like the monsters they were built to mimic.
"Sentinel, target one and bring it down!" Eagle's order pierced the pervading sense of dread that the fierce looking machines inspired and reminded Arctus that whatever weapons the enemy employed, he was a Hunter and was expected to be equal to them. He watched his team-mates' mechanical companion bleep and chirp animatedly before aiming and firing its' compact mini-gun at the first of the trio of battle-suits to charge towards them, a salvo of bullets ripping through hydraulic pistons and coolant lines in one of its' legs and hobbling it; the splash of oil and fluids the final push Arctus needed to spring into action and draw his sword as he manifested another Glyph and summoned another of his glowing constructs; this time his ubiquitous Minotaur Grimm which smashed into the crippled machine; holding it firm whilst Sentinel continued to open fire.
"Eagle I could use a hand!" Arctus called out as he charged full-tilt into one of the two unoccupied battle-suits; shifting his weapon into its' ranged form and firing its' twin lasers to burn gaping wounds into the machines' armour before returning it to its' sword form and gathering as much of his strength and Aura as he could muster as the thing brought its' chainsaw limb to bear in a wide arcing slash, his own expertly timed and delivered blow turning through the point where the crude implement was attached and sending the saw blade flying away from the arm in a shower of sparks; only for the hammer mounted on its' other arm to knock him several dozen feet and leave him rolling to a stop.
Before the machine could press its' advantage however the Bear Faunus rose to his feet, standing on admittedly shaky legs and with a defiant smile crossing his face as he watched a bird of prey with gold and ivory feathers swoop down behind the battle-suit. Eagle returned to her natural state and plunged her sword deep into the machines' back and tore into some vital internal component that left smoke billowing from within and its' joints shuddering uncontrollably before Arctus readied Grimmiger-Henker in its' ranged form once again and fired a single shot, twin beams lancing from his weapons barrels and tearing through the battle-suits cockpit resulting in a catastrophic explosion.
The third and final battle-suit made to charge them but was sent skidding across the street as though it were no more than simple litter when it was struck by what appeared to be a rainbow coloured comet.
"Good work kids" Neon panted out as the aurora of light that enveloped her subsided; before she could add more the Werewolf battle-suit that she had thrown so carelessly aside began to rise to its' feet, revealing just how heavily damaged it had been; sparks spewing from several components and threatening to ignite oil and fuel that leaked from several points on its' chassis. Neon readied her own weapons as she positioned herself between Arctus and Eagle, the three of them preparing themselves for another exchange of blows even as the Feline Faunus's eyes scanned their surroundings in search of something unseen.
And then the last battle-suit exploded.
"About time!" Neon exclaimed as Squish deactivated his Semblance and rippled into view a safe distance away from the now burning chassis of the machine, Breaker still smoking as he held the weapon over one shoulder.
"What's the situation?" Eagle breathed out, her expression making it clear that she was hesitant to ask
"Bleak" Squish admitted "Snipers picked off most off our watch-towers and we haven't been able to get anyone in there to take over and they've gotten through the barricades"
"Small breaches, pushed back" Neon countered resolutely "Yeah we're taking losses but so are they, they caught us off guard but we're getting the upper hand-"
She fell silent as a new sound ripped through the air; one that each of the four of them had heard before, a deafening cacophony of rushing air undercut by a droning, chattering buzz and an endlessly wailing scream that preceded the sound of metal and stone being torn asunder as the defences of the outpost were simply consumed entirely.
Arctus, Eagle, Neon and Squish all shared horrified looks as they realised that Caliginous Null had joined the battle in person.
Things had been going badly for them since the moment they had been forced to retreat from their chosen battlefield. Within minutes of the aerial bombardment of the Grimm Spires the ground had been sundered and pools of primordial Grimm matter had welled up from the cracks, filling the streets and rapidly morphing into flowing rivers of pure darkness that simply consumed anything that was submerged into them, as was proven when a member of New Vale's military positioned close to Team NEON had fallen backwards and simply vanished without a trace.
To Helios it had felt like an omen.
The Nikosi simply did not run from combat and the idea repulsed Helios to his core yet he had been forced to order Ether and Olivine to do so, the three of them providing cover for the tanks and personnel carriers that the soldiers they were supporting had at their disposal as they retreated, the vehicles thankfully too large to be swallowed whole by whatever monstrous void lay beneath them as they made for higher ground. Upon reaching the Hive-Towers however they had soon realised that there was no respite to be found within them; the all consuming darkness was here as well and Creatures of Grimm had flooded the city, hordes of monsters rampaging through the streets as debris rained down on them from airships and fighter craft that were plucked from the sky and destroyed by airborne monsters.
Several tanks had been lost already, abandoned and overwhelmed by the sheer scale of the threat and more worrying still was the fact that the darkness seemed to be rising, or perhaps the city itself was simply sinking into it. Eventually however a dim flicker of hope had been found as the soldiers Team NEON were working alongside managed to re-establish command with their comrades and begin organising a counter offensive.
Only for their current threat to intervene
"FALL BACK!" Helios roared "WE CAN'T LOSE ANY MORE VEHICLES!" seeing the truth of his words the soldiers did as instructed, the remaining heavy armour rumbling as it retreated slowly across a bridge between two gargantuan Hive-Towers as Helios, Olivine and Ether proceeded to hold the line against a seemingly endless tide of Creeps; their lithe and diminutive forms proving difficult for the tanks to target, though a far larger threat would join them momentarily of the thundering footfalls drawing closer were any indication
"We need a plan Heely!" Ether warned, flitting from place to place with his Semblance as his axe tore Grimm apart by the score; only pausing for long enough to launch area of effect attacks with his Dust crystal guitar picks.
"I have one" Helios assured him, batting four Creeps over the edge of the bridge with a swing of Akuo and impaling another through the mouth with Milo "Ollie are we clear?"
"The last tank just made it across, we're clear!" Olivine announced, Buster Bravo in its' close combat mode and the oversized gauntlets crackling with lightning and wreathed in flame as she used Dust reserves to make obliteration of any Grimm that drew close all the more spectacular.
Then their true foe arrived.
Helios had no idea how a herd of Goliaths had been hidden below the city and frankly did not have time to care, the stampeding titans had been what had initially forced the armoured company his team were supporting to retreat as, conversely to the Creeps the elephantine juggernauts were simply too large and too powerful to be brought down by the remaining artillery before would rampage into them.
"GET ACROSS THE BRIDGE!" Helios yelled, darkness swirling around him as he began to focus his Semblance for a single decisive blow; Ether and Olivine bolted without a word and made it across before him and the booming, trumpeting calls of the Goliaths rang in Helios's ears until finally he made it across and into the next Hive-Tower before turning and focusing of the stampeding herd as they surged across the bridge after them; the moment one of their number reached the centre of the bridge the armoured redhead unleashed his Semblance and magnified gravity on that Grimm by orders of magnitude, breaking the bridge in half and sending the entire herd of Goliaths falling, though he was horrified to see that several of them were resilient enough that the fall only wounded them and they managed to stagger to their feet to continue their attack anew.
"That bought us some time, now we can-" Olivine's attempt to find a silver lining was cut off as the night sky was set ablaze and explosion that sounded as though a cataclysmic storm had been condensed into a single moment shook the entire city; looking up revealed the source and Team NEON were horrified to see that one of the anti-gravity platforms that hung above New Vale had been destroyed; it's propulsion system a burning wreck as the floating island plummeted downwards and impacted against another Hive-Tower in the distance, ripping through no fewer than fifty levels of the monolithic tower before coming to a stop, resting inside the larger building at an angle and with a raging inferno spreading from it.
"Oh my Oum" Olivine gasped, removing her goggles and staring at the carnage with tears in her eyes and a look of utter disbelief as though she hoped that the tactical readouts of her goggles were lying to her somehow.
"Ollie" Ether clasped her hand gently "Ollie we need to go"
"He's right" Helios nodded gesturing towards the remaining soldiers of the armoured company who had positioned their vehicles defensively nearby, forming a perimeter to ensure that Team NEON made it safely across the bridge after them. Silently Olivine nodded and the three of trudged towards their allies with grim determination; they would see this through and see this city defended whatever the cost, all they needed to do at that moment however was safely bring the tattered remains of their armoured company to the rallying point from which the counter attack would be launched.
A scream splitting the air pushed such thoughts from their minds.
The Grimm that swooped into the Hive tower from behind Team NEON dove towards the tanks and personnel carries like an obsidian meteor, it's clawed tail and scything upper limbs ripping through sheet metal as if it were paper whilst it's humanoid lower arms and taloned feet grasped at any soldiers brave of foolish enough to try and fight the monster directly until finally a flash of light hurled the thing backwards as Olivine shifted Buster Bravo into its' ranged form and fired.
"GO!" Helios all but screamed to the soldiers "GO NOW! WE'LL BUY YOU SOME TIME!" with that he shifted Milo into its' rifle form and fired off several shots to keep his opponents' attention firmly on himself and his team.
Pantheon obliged and spread their vast wings wide before leaping into the air and launching themselves at Team NEON with their claws at the ready.
Gangrel and Weiss Slate, Kataigida Nikos, Blake and Yang Xiao Long and Adam Taurus had all watched with baited breath and sheer stunned disbelief as the airship fell from the sky; hurtling towards Salem's monstrous spires at a speed and angle so unnatural that it could only be the work of a telekinetic Semblance and four of the six of them, those who had studied at Beacon Academy and knew Professor Goodwitch well found themselves struggling not to weep or simply sink to their knees in defeat as her ship collided with the spires and promptly exploded.
The blast looked as though the world were ending.
A sphere of pure white light, blinding in its' intensity and over a mile across blossomed into existence with a shock-wave rushing out from the point of epicentre that levelled anything in its' path and a mushroom cloud of flames that rose high into the night sky.
The true measure of the explosions' destructive force however was the damage it wrought on the Grimm Spires, the ship had struck them at an angle and ploughed into three of horrific constructs as it crashed and those three had been destroyed instantly once the Fracture warheads and the ships' reactor had detonated in tandem, beyond this another half a dozen or more of the spires had been damaged, several of them critically and the onlookers were amazed and relieved to see that they did not seem to be regenerating from the attack, instead they were simply gutted and dormant husks unable to produce more Grimm to replace the thousands upon thousands that had been unmade in Goodwitch's final gambit.
"Oh my Oum" Weiss choked out, wiping her eyes and forcing herself to focus on the task at hand rather than be overwhelmed by what she had witnessed.
"Never have I seen a war like this" Kataigida murmured "Not even in Atlas" Adam merely shifted his weigh with a low rumble of discontent escaping from the back of his throat until Gangrel spoke up.
"It's time to move, that path is as clear as it's gonna get….we might be able to use that opening to get civilians out-"
"What about the Grimm….or whatever it is on the ground?" Blake asked nervously, the six of them had been listening to reports and warning from those fighting throughout the city and were well aware of the full extent of Salem's attack and how it was seemingly consuming New Vale into some unknowable darkness.
"We'll have to be careful" Gangrel admitted "Reports say that you have to be completely sunk into it to….well vanish" the six of them shared concerned glances, even Kataigida the inarguably most gung-ho of their group plainly concerned by the recent developments even if she had no way to articulate it other than simple magic from the age of myths and legends. The six of them, Hunters, tribal warrior and Faunus militant stared out at the open space that lay between them and their goal in silence for several moments longer; a wasteland of open roads and abandoned cars marking a major road into New Vale where they had taken up positions, picking off Grimm drawn to the city by the violence as they waited for the signal that they had now been given until eventually Yang spoke up
"Okay, let's do this" she sighed, gauntlets unfurling around her knuckles "Let's start this party with a-" she was silenced and flung backwards, sent crashing into the hood and grill of a pickup truck by an ebony comet that trailed black rose petals.
The Chimera had arrived.
"With a Yang by any chance?" Yang Branwen chuckled as she looked down at them from where she stood atop an upturned truck. Now that the two of them were in the same place it was plain to see just how much of a twisted and monstrous parody of Yang Xiao Long the Chimera truly was; gleaming golden cybernetic arm replaced with a clawed limb of sickening Grimm tissue, pale amethyst eyes turned blazing red by the predatory rage and bloodlust that filled her and distinctive mane of golden hair shorn and styled into fierce spikes.
"I've been waiting for you" Yang Branwen announced with a smile that spoke of twisted, sinister glee "I've seen you skulking around here for days and I knew that you'd try and fight your way in like brave little heroes….I know you've all got Semblances that are worth taking as well, especially you Taurus, don't think I can't see you hiding in the back there-"
"If you were so eager to face us you should have come to us….or does Salem keep you chained like the unruly dog you are when she doesn't need you?" Kataigida spat venomously as she strode forwards, spear at the ready
"I see someone wants to be the first to die" the Chimera chuckled menacingly, Kataigida merely braced herself and gave a feral smile.
"I've wanted to test myself against the legendary Yang Xiao Long for a very long time….you're not her, you're merely a creature and an abomination but you'll suffice" she pointed her spear directly at Yang Branwen's chest as her allies readied themselves behind her "I am Kataigida Nikos of the Nikosi and I challenge you to an honour duel, to the death!"
The Chimera wasted no words and simply charged.
Another of Salem's gargantuan monsters lumbered through the streets of New Vale; letting out deafening roars and unleashing gouts of flame that tore through the sides of Hive Towers whilst its' thrashing tail laid waste to everything that wasn't simply crushed underfoot as it went, leaving a trail of destruction behind in its' wake. It was a monstrous, saurian thing which stood at several stories high and supported itself on two legs each almost wide as a small house, its' entire back was covered in thick layers of armour plating, which extended out from its' spine in large diamond shaped ridges.
The Grimm was a Gojirex and it died in an instant as Ruby Rose cleaved its' head from its' body with a single slash, travelling it several times the speed of sound. She let out a wordless roar of grief and fury as the gesture saw her sailing through the air before she brought herself to a halt by landing on one of the bridges that spanned between Hive-Towers and took a moment to gather her senses and take stock of the situation.
New Vale was burning.
Even as the city slowly sank into the darkness below which her Silver Eyes seemed to have no effect on at all, at the deepest point of the abyss two entire levels of the city having been subsumed entirely the Creatures of Grimm still rampaged through the Kingdoms' defences like a tsunami of fangs, claws and violence. Goodwitch had sacrificed herself but it seemed to have done little to stem the tide, with the only only real improvement in the situation that Ruby could see being the fact that no new titanically huge Grim were being spawned and with the Gojirex destroyed the only monsters that remained were those that could be deemed normal, at least by the standards of Hunters but even then Ruby knew that she had her limits and would have no chance of simply overpowered the hundreds of thousands, if not millions of nightmares made flesh that had breached New Vale and realised that she needed a new plan.
Inspiration came in the form of a fresh barrage of bony javelins being fired at another airship.
Ruby's eyes glowed, her powers manifesting almost subconsciously through her sheer rage as she hefted Crescent Rose and scanned the skies, unable to see the Bull-heads that her niece and nephew and their respective teams were using against the vast backdrop of the ongoing aerial battle; what she could see however was the direction from whence the attack that had claimed Professor Goodwitch's life along with New Vale's greatest weapon had come.
"Salem" the word was snarled with unmitigated hatred as Ruby honed in on the highest point of one of the many towers that formed that Hive City and, with both her Semblance and the power of her Silver Eyes working in tandem she launched herself from the bridge she was currently perched upon and simply flew towards her target, eyes blazing with light. Salem must have sensed her arrival as a salvo of almost a hundred chitinous spears were unleashed in her direction, yet with total mastery of her abilities and reflexes that bordered on precognition Ruby weaved between them and drew ever closer until finally she simply ran along the surface of the last projectile and used it as a platform from which to launch herself into a somersault and an arcing downwards slash of her scythe aimed to cleave her opponent in half.
"I hoped you wouldn't be so cliche" the Queen of the Grimm spoke in a tone that seemed utterly disinterested as she sauntered into view again, having vanished in a flash of darkness at the last possible moment before Ruby's blow could land. Ruby herself had landed in a crouch, the pool of primordial Grimm matter covering the rooftop vantage point boiling and vaporising in her presence; with a wordless yell Ruby unleashed her powers only to be stunned as they seemed to do little, Salem simply tapped into the powers of the Wizard in response and regenerated the damage that was inflicted in an instant
"I had almost hoped you would by swallowed and cast into the abyss along with all of the others, just as entirely irrelevant and unremarkable in the face of the inevitable" Salem continued as though nothing had occurred before letting out a sigh of disappointment "But I suppose I should have known better, that wouldn't have it any other way….Truthfully I can't say I mind"
"There's only one way this ends!" Ruby declared as she rose to her full height and twirled the iconic scythe "With me saving this city and stopping you"
"Oh you are precious" Salem laughed "You think that this will be like our last encounter, or like all the fairy-tales that you tell each other, stories about how that darkness doesn't come" she sneered before reaching over her back where the uneven growths that protruded from her shoulder-blades, resembling a shattered crescent moon fused together and formed the blade of her own scythe which she readied with a flourish. The Silver Eyed Warrior and the Queen of the Grimm stared at one another for a moment that stretched out, seemingly forever before Salem gave a scornful sneer
"You poor, simple soul"
"There she is! Grab-" the White Fang officer, roaring commands at a dozen of their fellow insurgents as they pointed frantically at Jade had no chance to react. Whatever warnings and advice on how to deal with and capture the Spring Maiden was proven to be woefully inadequate as Jade planted her feet firmly on the ground and before the contrails of forest green light bursting from her eyes had even fully manifested she activated her powers.
The ground erupted.
Gnarled roots, vines and tree-trunks burst from beneath cracked and pot-holed asphalt still glowing with magical light and began to ensnare the militants, the fibrous plant-life hardening and growing denser and more sturdy as it wrapped around limbs and held weapons in place, growing thorns and flowers who lurid colours seemed ominous to dissuade those she had captured from struggling further. One of their number however was a capable fighter, likely with some form of combat experience prior to the war; a Monkey Faunus whose prehensile tail reached into their vest and produced an Ice Dust crystal which they promptly used to freeze part of the vines holding them in place solid and shatter them. Jade prepared to use her powers again but as her attacker readied their weapon and took aim she knew that she would be shot before she could trap the Monkey Faunus or steal their weapon.
They fell to the ground unconscious before they could squeeze the trigger.
The rest of the group that had attacked her were rendered similarly unconscious, their struggling coming to a halt within barely more than a second as Jade managed to catch the faintest glimpses of movement, a barely visible silhouette enveloped in an acid green light that flickered in and out of view around the group of attackers.
And then Jade found herself somewhere else entirely
"Stay out of sight, there's no sense in making yourself a target" Oscar's voice chided. Turning around Jade realised first of all that she had been brought to the coffee shop that the young Wizard was using as temporary lodgings in the Resistance outpost and secondly that it was Oscar himself who had brought her here and apprehended her attackers, the surface of the staff he often walked with smeared with blood from where it had been swung savagely into the faces of White Fang fighters.
"I can fight!" Jade exclaimed furiously "I might not have been trained like the others but I can! Besides, it's me they want I can't sit here and hide while people die for me!"
"You getting captured would be catastrophic!" Oscar shot back "If the White Fang find you they will kill you and transfer your Powers to someone else, someone who will use them to tear down every base that the Resistance has on Remnant!" Jade fell silent, clenched fists shaking with anger that desperately sought release
"I need to something, I can't just sit here and hide" she repeated, voice cracking and wavering "What can I do to help?" Oscar paused, expression thoughtful as he sought for a non-combat role for the Reindeer Faunus to fulfil that would keep her safe from the attention of the White Fang
"Okay, here's what-" he got no further, instead falling silent before collapsing to the ground howling in pain as his eyes glowed with ethereal light and blood trickled from his ears, nostrils and eyes. From his point of view the world around him ceased to exist, instead Oscar could see countless timelines and possibilities along with the past, present and even possible futures all laid atop one another until each potential reality seemed to fracture and disperse and he could see nothing but a simple, all consuming nothingness that existed between and outside of space and time, the infinite abyss of moments between moments which no sane or mere human mind could fully comprehend.
Something was being dropped into it.
At first all Oscar could see what an impossibly large mass being slowly thrust into the void which he realised with utter shock was the lowest reaches of an entire city, one far large than anything that existed on the Remnant that he called his own. From there he saw miniscule pinpricks of light shining in the darkness like stars and realised as he felt that their familiar magic brushing against his own that each glimmering light was another Wizard, thousands of them from across the multiverse struggling to hold this unthinkable act of devastation at bat and without hesitation he added his own might to their efforts; in doing so he found himself entirely overwhelmed by a flood of images and glimpses of the timeline that this unthinkable act was occurring it. The flashbacks started with his own death and followed the use of the Wizard's powers up to the current moment in time, showing every vile act that they had been used for before Oscar frantically returned his consciousness to his own body and found an ashen-faced Jade standing over him, crying and frantically trying to wake him up
"I'm...I'm okay" he managed to gasp out, wiping blood from his face and rising to his feet on trembling legs "But you need to go"
"What?" Jade demanded, utterly lost
"Go" he repeated "Find Arctus and Eagle and bring them here….Salem is attacking their home but what she's doing….it's so large scale that I can use it as an anchoring point. Find Arctus and Eagle and tell them that this is their only chance to go home"
Author's Notes:
And now, we are well and truly into the finale of Vol.11
Three chapters left to go and then we're into the final volume of the story….we really are in the endgame.
This chapter feels a little short and I'm not sure why to be honest.
Also I know we didn't get any Felix and Diamond, Team GORE or Team CLIR this chapter, I promise that you'll get your fix next chapter.
But anyway, let's summarise shall we?:
In short, Salem is not fucking around.
But of course I'm not gonna make it a total whitewash, you can throw an entire city into the void and nobody notice.
And hey, at least the defenders are doing something back.
Simple divide and conquer, 'cos it's a lot easier to bring a ship down when you don't have to deal with Ruby as well.
Grimm javelins, if you read Downward Spiral then think back to Grimm-Raven at the battle of Menagerie.
I'm sure you probably guessed where this scene was going right from the offset.
And if you didn't know what was coming when you saw Goodwitch was the only one left on the bridge then I don't know what to say.
So yeah, first named casualties of this battle are Glynda Goodwitch and Dove Bronzewing.
Things are not going too great in the other timeline either.
New Menagerie 'Werewolf' Battle-Suits, they're obviously not gonna be seen beyond this battle and they didn't really do much do it's a cool idea that I had that I wanted to do something with.
Okay Arctus may have got slapped around there but think back to the Fall of Beacon in canon, how many people did it take to bring down that one robot before Velvet started flexing?
And I will forever believe that Neon is secretly one of Atlas's best.
Oh someone's gonna have to take Null on directly soon.
So…..don't fall into the void, you won't come back.
Seriously, I don't think we've ever seen Helios or Team NEON as a whole on the retreat like this before.
Because of course there's Goliaths.
So, the Anti-Gravity platform going down….that's what Oz wanted to do to Halo Academy.
Pantheon vs ¾ of Team NEON…..this seems a little one sided.
Well at least Goodwitch didn't sacrifice herself for nothing right?
Yeah the Nikosi really don't have enough of a grasp on technology for Kataigida to fully understand what's going on.
"With a Yang by any chance?" Oh come on, you knew that this was gonna be one of the match ups….but admit, that's a great intro.
So, Gangrel, Weiss, Blake, Yang, Adam and Kataigida against Yang Branwen….how many casualties are we expecting.
The Gojirex is just a callback for Downward Spiral readers.
Two entire levels is four stories….at the deepest part of Salem's attack, in the centre of the city four stories have been sunk into the void.
Aww shit, she's going for a showdown.
So Salem is just instant-recovering from Ruby's Silver Eyes…..not a good start.
Scythe on scythe combat.
"You poor, simple soul"….Oof. Also, I feel like I should remind you all of one critical fact of this story: Ruby is not the main character.
Rule for henchmen and lackeys, if you shout "Grab her" you're probably not gonna grab her.
Spring Maiden and Wizard combo….nice.
Oscar is smart enough to guess what Null is gonna do if he catches Jade.
And boom, now the shock-wave across the Multiverse has reached Oscar….It did have to travel ten years back.
AND THERE IT IS! That's what I was setting up…..Everyone is one universe is trying to stop Salem, Arctus and Eagle are relying on Salem's plan to go home because using Hellion as an anchor point didn't work, but using an entire city will.
Thank you to SumoSnipe, 57558585885, Funlander and MajorBrony95 for their reviews on the last chapter.
Well you were right about Ruby going for Salem….though it was the obvious choice, even if it is less likely to work than you'd think.
You know I'm not gonna spoil any of the other match-ups beforehand.
Well I was planning on AJ and Astra going to the same academy so maybe one of them will get a Skunk Faunus buddy, I have the beginnings of an idea for a Grasshopper Faunus team-mate for AJ though….I actually did have a Skunk Faunus in this story, Pepe Le Puce of Team PSTL; same year a Team FADE died in the big battle at the end of third year with the rest of his team.
Is it as horrific and brutal as you expected?
Yeah we're getting near to the end but we're by no means winding down….we've still got another full volume; so I think I'll be writing this story for another three or four months roughly.
Well let's hope Nyanza's operation goes well….'cos Team NEON could use some luck right now.
As always thank you to everyone that reads this, with a special thanks to those of you that follow, favourite and review