It was eerily quiet as team JNR travelled to the village at the base of the Mountain of Souls known as Mire. There wasn't a sound to be heard for miles. They hadn't really spoken to each other either, opting to travel in silence. They hadn't been able to contact RWBY or Qrow, so they didn't know if they were successful in their endeavours. They finally reached the village, and there didn't seem to be anything out of the ordinary. It was a fair sized village, bordering on a town, with quite a few houses and a few less shops. People were walking around, going about their daily routines. Everything seemed perfectly normal. All except for the large building near the path leading up the mountain. When they got closer, they saw a sign that had a message written in a strange language they'd never seen before. Jaune approached one of the citizens, a tall, bald man cleaning up his stall.
"Hey, what's that building for, and what's the sign say?"
The man just snickered to himself. "New here, ey? That's the Hall of the Unworthy. Wanna know anything else, ask its current caretaker, Ryo. He's right over there." He pointed to an old man that was walking, with the help of his cane, towards the Hall.
"Excuse me, sir?" Ren approached Ryo. He stopped and gave his attention to them, smiling.
"Ah, visitors." He greeted. "We rarely ever get those, and even then, they never stay long. How can I help you young man?"
"We were wondering what that building over there is for. The man over there," he indicated to the man at the stall. "said it was called the Hall of the Unworthy.
His smile vanished after that. "Oh, that. Yes, that is what we call it, though nobody knows its true name. Before I tell you what it is for, are you aware of the legend of the Soul Harvester?" None of the teens spoke up.
"I thought so. No worries. Hardly anybody outside Mire knows it." As he began retelling the story, he continued walking to the Hall. "It speaks of something that resides atop the Mountain of Souls. Nobody knows what it is, but nobody can doubt its legitimacy. Whenever someone ventures to the top, the Soul Harvester judges them, determining if they are worthy of his aid, and he takes the souls of those he deems unworthy as payment for bothering him."
"What do you mean nobody can deny the legend is true?" Ren pressed for information.
The old man had a solemn look on his face, before opening the doors to the Hall, and allowing them inside. They were shocked by what they saw. The walls were covered in hundreds upon hundreds of small wooden masks, each one wholly unique. And each mask had a name etched into the forehead.
"Whenever an unworthy person's soul is taken, a mask representing them appears at the beginning of the mountain. When that happens, the caretaker of time will collect the mask and add them to the walls, further expanding the collection. It is a rare occurrence for someone to be deemed worthy, and those that do return from the summit unharmed and with a gift, though they never say what they saw. They only say that they have been sworn into secrecy, and must never speak of what happened."
"Well, why haven't you asked the kingdoms for help and figure out what's up there?" Nora suggested.
"Why do you think there are so many masks?" He answered, slightly annoyed. Her eyes widened, and she looked down dejectedly. Ryo sighed. "I apologize, I am not in the best of moods. My son recently ventured to the peak after his mother passed, and his mask appeared yesterday." He looked very sad.
"Don't worry sir, we're going to the top, and we'll figure out what happened to him." Jaune offered.
"I know that you plan to make the trek, people rarely come for other reasons, and I know what fate has befallen my boy, but I have one request."
"What's that?" Nora asked.
"Send only one of you up there, the other two should stay here. It will ensure not all of you die."
Jaune immediately spoke up. "I'll go."
"What?! No!" Nora immediately objected. "If all three of us go and he tries to take our souls of whatever, we can easily fight him off." She said with confidence.
"Nora, did you not listen to what Ryo said? The kingdoms have sent armies to confront the Soul Harvester, and not one of them ever returned. Do you really think just us three could defeat him?" Ren reasoned. Nora tried to argue more, but Jaune put a hand on her shoulder.
"I'll be fine." He reassured. "I'll be back before you know it."
"Ok." She relented, looking even more dejected than before.
After a few hours of preparation, Jaune said goodbye to his teammates and began the journey to the top.
One hour later
Jaune was almost to the top. The climb wasn't that bad, since the path was clearly defined and relatively easy to follow, it was just long. But what was strange was that he never saw any sign of life, whether it be man, animal, or even Grimm. It was like the mountain was devoid of the souls it was named after. It had also become foggier and foggier the closer he got to the top. This answered his question for why they didn't fly a Bullhead up here. He could still see a little well, but it would be impossible for anything outside the fog to see in.
The path had evened out and he started walking in a straight line for the first time since he started the climb. At the same time, he started to feel like he was being watched, scrutinized, judged. Eventually the fog started to clear, and he saw a strange building. It looked like a dojo, but had clearly been neglected for a very long time. The red paint had almost completely peeled off, vines and vegetation were covering most of the structure, and it looked like nobody had even stepped inside in ages. As he got closer, a feeling of dread washed over him, like he shouldn't be there.
"What have you come here for?" A voice spoke to his right. It was a loud, harsh whisper. He quickly spun and faced the voice, drawing Crocea Mors, unfolding his shield and getting into a combat stance. He looked up and saw who had spoken. He was perched on a tree branch, crouching and staring at him.
He was wearing a pair of sandals with wooden shin plates on his legs. Above that, he had standards around his waist, light blue with golden clouds and studs throughout. He also had a thick rope for a belt, with two wooden masks attached, one was black and seemed happy and content, while the other was a yellowy white and full of rage. He had a cloth vest with his chest exposed, an intricate dragon tattoo visible. He also had a rope harness, though the purpose for it wasn't very clear. On his arms, he had wooden guards for his lower and upper arms. But what really stood out was his headwear. It was a black sack with two eye holes cut out and strange symbols painted on the face. The symbols resembled the ones on the sign at the Hall of the Unworthy.
He wielded a large double-sided ax propped on his shoulder. It was largely turquoise, with some shade differences throughout. It was also covered in ornamental snakes. There was one wrapped around the handle, four more on the blades, two for each, and the head of another on the top, reared back and ready to strike.
"Are you the Soul Harvester?" Jaune asked, unable to hide his fear. This man had destroyed armies.
"Indeed. I assume you have come to request aid of some sort?" He said, hopping down and landing on the ground with a heavy thud.
"Ozpin needs your help. WE, need your help. Beacon has fallen and-"
"So you are not here of your own volition, but because Ozma sent you like the pawns he sees both you and the rest of his allies. I care not for his shadow war, but if you prove yourself worthy, I will aid you."
"What do I have to do?"
The Soul Harvester placed a hand on the ground, and a dark purple portal appeared.
"You must face your demons."
A figure suddenly burst from the portal, flying high a landing with a crouch. When it rose, he recognized her. She was dark purple with wisps of black flowing throughout, and her eyes glowed yello. But her weapons and armor made no mistake of her identity.
"P-Pyrrha?" He loosened his grip on his weapons and walked towards her, tears in his eyes. "I thought you were dea-" She kicked him back with a bone cracking kick to the chest.
"You left me to die!" She shouted with anger, her voice slightly distorted. Now he was even more confused. He hadn't wanted to leave her, but she ran off and sacrificed herself. There was nothing he could do. But he was not thinking logically, his mind clouded by emotion.
"I didn't want to leave you, please!" he shouted, desperately. She shouted with rage and charged him. It may have been Pyrrha, but whatever this was it didn't use her fighting style. It swung its weapon at him haphazardly, letting its rage guide it. He looked to the Soul Harvester, but he was watching with casual interest, not intending to help him. He went to stab her, hoping she would dodge and back off a little. But it didn't. The blade struck true, and it went right through her. It shocked him, expecting her to at least have Aura. But there was none.
She dropped her weapon and shield and clutched his arm, breathing ragged. She fell back and off his blade, but there was no blood. Instead, she began to dissolve like a Grimm, but much faster. Before he could do anything, she had dissolved completely. He was heart broken. He had a feeling it wasn't actually her, but it did little to stop the pain. He had just killed his friend.
The sound of clapping resonated behind him. He turned around, and the Soul Harvester had stuck his ax into the ground and was slowly clapping at his victory.
"Congratulations, you have proven yourself worthy of my aid. Though, truth be told, I went easy on you. I merely wish for a reason to leave. What do you require?"
Before he could answer, he heard a series of footsteps behind him. He turned around, and there were about two dozen White Fang, all pointing guns at them. Jaune got into a combat position, but the Soul Harvester just stood there, holding his ax with the blades resting on the ground.
"Who are you to intrude on my home?"
"That doesn't concern you, human. Now surrender yourselves to us and we won't have to kill you."
The Soul Harvester began to slowly walk towards them.
"Wretched warriors. Nothing more than flesh and bones." The Faunus tensed. "You no longer need to suffer, I offer you peace and salvation." His tattoo began to glow deep purple, and he stopped approaching. "Be not afraid." Hundreds of portals appeared on the ground, surrounding the terrorists. "Your souls are now mine!" He slams his ax into the ground and out of each portal a random person claws their way out and began to slaughter the White Fang with whatever weapons they had. To Jaune, it was just a horde of spirits, but to the White Fang, it was the souls of the innocents they slaughtered, summoned to enact retribution.
The White Fang were terrified and many of them dropped their weapons and tried to run. A few tried to fight, but their bullets passed right through the screaming ghosts. Some Faunus were outright killed, while the unlucky ones were dragged into the portals from whence they came. When the fighting came to an end, all the White Fang were dead, and the spirits looked to the Harvester expectantly.
"Your deaths have been avenged, you may now rest peacefully." With those words, the spirits smiled and dissipated. Jaune was shocked by all of this. He knew the Soul Harvester was powerful, but to be able to summon the souls of the dead? It made him shiver, and he was glad he wanted to help Jaune already. He was shocked out of his stupor by the Soul Harvester addressing him.
"You may call me Yato, it was the name I used before becoming the Soul Harvester." Yato told him. "Now, what were you about to say?" He asked, once again in a relaxed posture.
"I need your help to fight the Grimm, Beacon's fallen and Professor Ozpin is dead. We need your help."
"That is not a request I can do. I swore to never interfere with the war between light and dark." Jaune wasn't expecting that, but he wasn't surprised. If he did interfere, the Grimm probably wouldn't be here. Jaune sighed and asked him the second most important thing.
"I want you to kill Cinder Fall." He spoke with determination.
"Ah yes, the woman with the glowing dress. There are many souls that have died by her hands, and she shall answer to every last one of them."
Gonna be taking a break from writing Anarchy for a bit and try to get the chapter counts of the other stories up. For those of you who want to know exactly what Yato has for equipment, it's North Star armor, and the Hebi No Ikari weapon. You can look them up if you don't already know what they look like.
Now, the reviews.
Herpaderp1028: Well here you go, and I also love For Honor, which is why I made this fic.
DivineWhiskey: Well I didn't pick Kensei for the Samurai, but maybe I'll use the Lawbringer? You won't know till next chapter.
The Teletrap: Thank you friend.
CatsAreFluffeh: That's what inspired this concept, thanks for picking up on that.
Guest: DEUS VULT INFIDEL!
Well that's that. Have a good day and I hope you enjoyed.
Edit: I fucked up his name, it's supposed to be Yato, but for some fucking reason I put Sakura. I've rectified that mistake.