The Awakened One: Book 1 Remnant

by Nentai

Nova is the 18-year-old college student who is fated for greatness. An unknown past shrouded in confusion, a mental intellect far above those of his World locked behind monotony, and unbelievable power slumbering in his Soul, all factors that kept this man from becoming all the things that he was meant to become, but soon these factors will be null and void. Gamer OC x Rwby Harem!

9. Scars

(A/N)

If you are wondering why I don't just mass upload the entire story onto this website in a single day it is literally because I am omega lazy and that would take a metric fuckton of effort to do. But, if enough of you really, really, really want me to do it then I may have to consider going through the tiresome process. Even though that would also, probably, more than likely, take away from how many people reach this story and therefore read it, and therefore review on it to let me know what to improve. Also, if you were wondering what chapter it ends on it is chapter 56, although I think I included that in the very beginning of the story, I think.

Please Review :)

Chapter 16: A Mysterious Figure

After the enthusiastic reply Nova expected to get right into the meat of the lesson, fixing some of the obvious mistakes and ensuring that they had the correct game plan in mind to succeed. However, Neyah looked to Nova questioningly, her face clearly full of concern. "Uhm Darling, there is kinda a problem with training for the next hour fifteen."

"What is it?" he asked.

Nix chose to finish her sisters concern by saying, "sorry Baby, but we are currently extremely low on Aura. I don't believe we can do much weapon and Semblance training without it."

"Damn, your right. I hadn't even thought about it. Hhm, what can we do about that?" He then began thinking of possible solutions to the issue that he was presented with. The obvious ones were simply buying some Aura replenishing items in the shop, but "them shits are so damn expensive!" Exactly, so he decided to find an alternate solution. He mentally went over all of his skills and abilities to see if it might be possible for any of them to assist him, but it didn't seem very likely. Or at least that's what he thought at first. "I mean, maybe, nah no way, but it might work tho. Would it? I know I can create new Skills just by doing the action, but can I change the properties of Skills if I try hard enough? Fuck it, no reason not to try at worst we waste mana." As he made his decision, he walked over to the exhausted girls as they leaned on each other for support, while petting Byakko to past the time.

Nix looked up at Nova questioningly, "do you have an idea on what we're going to do for the rest of our training time?"

"Yes, I do, but I have no idea if it'll work or not so be a little patient with me aright" he said softly to the girls. Nix of course took his words at face value and relaxed back into her sister's shoulder. He told her to be patient, so patient is what she'll be. On the other hand, Neyah completely ignored whatever her lover was doing, opting instead to mindlessly pet Byakko as she visioned trained new techniques and the advice that she was given by her Darling.

"Aight let's see how this goes. First let's see how it feels to use the Skill. Will of Humanity." The sensation that weld up within him was euphoric in nature. The Skill Will of Humanity was one of his many rewards for saving the Earth, more specifically he acquired it when he got the title Savior of Earth. And it was the only healing Skill that he had.

*Will of Humanity* {Lvl: MAX}- All of Humanity's will to survive, thrive, and conquered is reaffirmed within you. Restore 75% HP; HP regeneration of 50hp/10sec for 200ec; Cost 500mp.

Its effects were extraordinary, and he could clearly feel it as a warm, high like sensation flooded his entire body. After doing the Skill once more, Nova began to feel confident in his ability to recreate a similar effect on someone else. The key was the distribution of the mana throughout the body. Normally when he used a skill, the mana in his body immediately travels from his core to wherever it's needed in his body and whenever he uses this healing Skill, the mana travels to his brain and then trickles through his entire body healing everything. As he figured that out, he crouched down and placed his hand atop Byakko's extremely soft furry head, and he manually recreated the healing effect in her body. It took a moment for him to get the hang of the trickle down, but eventually a notification appeared in is mind.

*New* Skill Obtained: *Humanity's Encouragement* {Lvl: 1}- All of Humanity's drive to help, encourage, and heal one another out of the toughest of situations is stapled into your soul; Restore 50% of one Allies HP; HP Regen 25hp/10sec for 100sec; Cost 500mp

"Perfect! Now all I gotta do is recreate that same thing, except somehow do it for Aura instead of Health. How the fuck am I supposed to do that?" He took a moment to feel the Aura in his body and he reaffirmed what he already knew about it. Aura sits beneath the skin on your body and kinda just waits for you to release it. So, he had to determine what it was like to recover the Aura, if the brain was the center for HP and the core was the center for MP then he quickly deduced that Aura's center was the skin. So, with that knowledge in mind he then coated his skin in mana and let it sit there for a moment on its surface. He then slowly introduced the mana into his skin, allowing it to naturally meet the Aura that was chilling beneath his skin. The interaction between the two energies was awkward to say the least, they were like oil and water, and they refused to directly contact each other. However, when they met with the Skin being the only separation between each other, the mana began naturally converting itself into Aura in order balance the plentiful fluid MP on the exterior with the scarce but sturdy Aura on the inside.

*New* Skill Obtained: *Will of Remnant* {Lvl: 1}- All of life on Remnant will to grow, thrive, and overcome is reaffirmed within your soul; Restore 25% your own AU; AU Regen 10au/10sec for 100sec; Cost 500mp

After he did that, the rest was easy, he replaced his hand on the soft head of Byakko and did the same process he did on himself, on the cub.

*New* Skill Obtained: *Remnant's Encouragement* {Lvl: 1}- All of Remnant's drive to rebuild, reinforce, and heal one another out of the toughest of situations is stapled into your soul; Restore 25% of one Allies AU; HP Regen 10au/10sec for 100sec; Cost 500mp

"Alright, I am finished. Would you two kind gorgeous ladies take my hand in yours?" He said as he reached out both of his arms to pick the two of them off the ground. They both giggled slightly as they took his hands and were subsequently raised from the comfortable position on the floor of the training room. "Now, before I do this, I am warning you that this may feel a little wired ok? Don't get scarred, or horny, we still got shit to do." The girls turned to each other, clearly confused by what their lover was referring to, but they both shrugged off his warning. They however did trust him with whatever he was about to do, so they still braced themselves for the sensation.

Nix responded with, "we trust and believe in you Baby, do whatever you must."

Neyah on the other hand remained silent, however she flashed a bright smile and with her free hand she put up a thumbs up. Using that as confirmation that they were ready for his skill, he focused for a moment, and spoke, "Remnant's Encouragement, Remnant's Encouragement, Remnant's Encouragement, Remnant's Encouragement." The instant he spoke, the effects began to take place, and the sensation was unlike anything they had ever felt before. Covering their bodies like a second layer of skin, was a blanket of bliss that could only be described as sweet, but to the touch. The euphoric blanket slowly seeped into their skin, creating the wonderful feeling of rejuvenation throughout their bodies. As each moment passed, the blissful blanketing sensation lessened, but it gave way to an increasing feeling of rejuvenated energy, as their Aura replenished itself using Nova's mana.

Eventually the feeling subsided, and the twins were left with a little more than half a tank of their Aura refilled. Nova determined that this amount would allow them to do some more specific training without being completely drained by the end of the session. The reason being that he didn't plan on doing any more intense sparring in the rest of the time that they had in the private room. "Using my ultra-mysterious powers, that I promise to explain later, I have refilled your Aura to around 60% of its max capacity. This should be more than enough to finish the rest of our training for today, but if for whatever reason you start getting low, I'll be able to fill you up again as needed. I could literally do it infinitely since I'm recovering 10% of my mana every 10sec,"

The duo looked at their man completely awe struck at his abilities, it seemed like every time they thought the surprises were finished, he found another way to leave them both in complete shock. Neyah recovered from this shock momentarily and looked to her lover with a loud smile. "I fucking love you so much!" She said as she wrapped her arms around him and pulled him into a deep hug.

Nix joined in the sentiment, as she became a quick addition to the showing of affection. As she enjoyed the warmth of the ones she loved, she whispered, "you are truly a phenomenal being. We are so lucky to have you."

The group sat in the embrace for a moment, before breaking the hug and getting down to business. "Alright," Nova began, "we got about an hour and ten minutes left before we can't use this room anymore, so let's put this room to good use while we got it!" After his announcement, they immediately got to work improving their skills, focusing mainly on the big issues that Nova was able to identify in their short sparring sessions. And in the relatively short amount of time they had left, Nix and Neyah somehow managed to improve greatly. They turned their weaknesses into exceptional strengths, with Nix being able to completely comprehend the limits to her newfound strength and Neyah using her innate battle intellect to develop strategies to counter act some of her more exploitable weaknesses.

As the time began winding down, the girls requested one more sparring session with Nova and of course he oblige them. He used his new skill to completely refill their AU and, in the process, managed to level the skill up greatly. Neyah went first, as she did before, and she started the spar with something the Nova did not expect. Instead of rushing in like usual, she started with her bow and arrow, shooting three arrows towards her lover in hopes that he would attempt to counter them with his punches that he showed earlier. Her hopes were correct, and as he pressures punched the arrows out of the air, she switched her blade into the spear and quickly tore them into the dual spear heads, and then she rushed into combat. Using her speed and strength she was able to easily contend with Nova's skills, but his finesse was still much greater than her own. It took a lot more hits than before, and he needed to resort to some skills he hadn't used quite yet, but he was still able to pull off the victory. Neyah was extremely satisfied with her performance and Nova showered her with compliments as he was proud of her quick improvements.

The spar with Nix was similar, as she opened the battle with her long-range pistol to keep him out, and her shots were far more accurate this time around. But Nova's speed and unpredictability were his savior as he was able to dodge and weave past her shots and close the distance between them. Once inside her range the close combat encounter went much differently than it did before, as Nix chose to go on the offensive rather than remaining on defense. Her swings were quick and carried the strength to contest with his own, but his skill versatility was something that Nix was not prepared for. It was because of this, that Nova was able to defeat her even with her switch to speedy offense.

"You both did amazing today! I have no doubt that if we keep this going, you'll easily be able to stomp the competition during the final tournament. Shit, maybe it'll be a sister verses sister grand finals, but I guess that just depends on the seeding." The thought lingered in Nova's mind for a moment before it quickly dissipated.

The timer on the window was down to its last minute and it was time for the group to exit the private room. Nova picked the exhausted girls off the ground with a helping hand and gave them one last Aura recovery to give them energy for the rest of the day. As they were getting themselves together, the window timer reached 0:00:00 and the lights in the room turned from white to red giving the entire space an eerie vibe. At the same time as the lights sudden change, the door rose from the ground, opening to the hallway, letting them know it was time to leave. Byakko leaped onto Nova's shoulders as she normally did, and Nix and Neyah linked arms with him as they exited the room into the hallway and walked towards the way they came. As they reached the entrance/exit to the training arena, one of the receptionists gave the group a valediction and told them to take care. They replied with the same sentiment and with that, they finished the beginning of their first day in Beacon.

As they walked back into the bright sun, Nova couldn't help but wonder what exactly they were planning to do for the rest of the day. "So, what are we doing for the rest of the day? We still got a bunch of time before dark, or before either of you start getting tired for that matter."

Neyah shrugged her shoulders, clearly not having any sort of plan for the rest of the day. Nix on the other hand spoke up saying, "well, there are numerous different activities we could take part in. The Beacon campus is massive so there are numerous things to do on campus and since we have these Temp cards, we can also access some of the basic facility's that are available to all the students at Beacon."

"So, you basically wanna explore the campus? I'm down, it'll be good to spend the day relaxing before your matches tomorrow." With that decided, the lovers began exploring the campus and the various facilities that were on its property. Nova was right in his original assessment of the campus because it was much more like a town than a school. There was an entire commercial district on the campus that was extremely popular as its streets were filled to the brim with students and civilians alike. The shops, however, were almost entirely commercial selling products like foods, clothing, jewelry, and other usual services like movie theaters and barbershop and the like.

There was no Dust, or weapon shops in the district at all, which was incredibly surprising to see considering the fact that this was the school where all aspiring Hunts People in the area went. But as he gave it a bit more thought it began to make more sense. This is the prestigious academy that breeds Huntsman so if the students were out buying dust and weapons from random retailers, it could create some issues. He then concluded that the school must provide weapon enhancements and Dust ammunition for the students that attend the school, so they can assure the quality of the products.

Nova, Nix, Neyah, and Byakko walked the streets of the retail district admiring the various products the shops had to offer. They window shopped, ate delicious food, and enjoyed each other's company for hours on end. As they continued enjoying their day in Beacon Academy's retail district, across the campus another duo of people was working hard to address the school's issues to ensure a smooth start to the new year.

High up in the sky, at the very peak of Beacons height was a large room with a decorate interior. The floors were covered in dark forest green shallow, soft carpet that softly padded each step of anyone that entered the office. Its design used pure white carpeting to depict the entire circular room as a large clock with roman numeral digits lining the edges of the space. The interior of the clock was made from ever shrinking circles, with intricate gear designs, in various shades of green that spiraled to the center of the room. White clock hands formed at the center of the spiraling circles and jutted out with the minute and hour hand both pointing straight forward at the Roman numeral 12 (XII) on the clock.

On top of the carpet clock's hands was a large desk that faced towards the entrance of the room which was on the 6. Behind the desk was a seemingly ever-expanding window with an extraordinary clock in its center. The window had a fantastic view, showing off all of Beacon's wonderous structures and sights. The ceiling of the room was transparent, and on the other side was the interworking of an everchanging gear mechanism. The entire office was incredibly grand, but very empty as the only thing in the room was the large desk and the mechanical chair behind it.

Sitting in this intricate chair was a silver-haired man that looked to be in his late twenties or early thirties. On his face were small black spectacles that balanced themselves on the bridge of his nose. He had thin, sharp brown eyes that hovered over his black spectacles as he looked deeply at the various paperwork that sat in front of him. "It's like there is more and more work to complete every day. I wish the year would just begin already" he thought as he released a large exhale in exasperation.

"Headmaster, why don't you take a short break? You've been working hard all month." The sharp stoic voice came from the beautiful woman that stood next to the exhausted Headmaster. She was a gorgeous middle-aged woman with extraordinarily soft facial features apart from her sharp bright green eyes. She had bright blonde hair that was tied up into a bun with a long curl hanging on the side of her face. She wore thin ovular glasses that gave her an air of elegance and professionalism that perfectly fit her natural energy.

"I'm fine Miss Goodwitch, this much work is expected of someone who is in this position, and besides the sooner I get this done, the better the school will be for it" the headmaster responded calmly. "And please, call me by my name there's no need for formalities now."

"Understood Ozpin" the woman relaxed slightly, no longer completely upholding the formal atmosphere. "So, what did you need from me? Calling for me at this time is fairly rare for you." Goodwitch inquired what Ozpin needed from her, as she had been requested personally and it was 'urgent' as he put it.

"The reason I called for you Glynda, was because your abilities were requested by the staff at the Battle Arena. They said it was urgent."

"Do you have any details about the request?" Glynda asked.

"Not exactly, they said that it would be easier to just show you, then tell. However, they did mention that it dealt with one of the training rooms. Unfortunately, I am just as confused as you are, and because of that I am choosing to go with you to address the issue." Glynda looked questionably at Ozpin as he spoke.

"So, this is why you refused to take a break. You're using my assignment as one." She crossed her arms and rolled her eyes at Ozpins antics.

Ozpin waved off the accusation and stood from his seat as he spoke. "Well, let's not throw around any misinformed accusations miss Goodwitch. I am simply doing my job as the headmaster of this Academy. Now let's not keep them waiting any further." Ozpin picked up his cane that was leaning on the desk next to him and grabbed his mug, taking a small sip as he walked. Glynda rolled her eyes even further into the back of her head, but still did as she was told and continued towards the elevator door that would lead them out of the massive building.

The pair took the elevator down to the base floor and exited the building while happily greeting the students they came across. The pair took a leisurely walk to the training arena, discussing various topics regarding the skill of this years class of students and how they could improve the overall curriculum. They made it to the building in no time at all, and were greeted kindly by the receptionist who lightly explained the situation. "Headmaster, and Miss Goodwitch, welcome! It is always great to see you both in good health."

Ozpin responded with a warm smile, "you as well. Now what exactly are we doin here, your supervisor said it was urgent."

The receptionist perked up slightly, "of course! I would explain it to you, but it would be much easier to just show you. Please follow me." The receptionist lead the respected pair through the halls of the large building as she walked them to the location of the problem. They soon reached the endless corridors of the private training room sector of the Arena. They soon reached room 432, where the receptionist came to a stop and turned to face the professor. "This is where the issue occurred and where your assistance is needed."

Glynda looked around at the outside of the room, looking for the source of the problem. "I'm not seeing anything wrong." As she was looking around, the receptionist woman swiped a black and grey card in the slot on the door and it rose from the ground barring them entrance.

She turned to Glynda and Ozpin saying, "the problem is in here." The three of them walked into the bright white room and all their attentions were suddenly brought onto one portion of the room.

On this portion of the room was a large wall, but this wall looked incredibly different than how it was supposed to and the reason it was looked off was obvious to the group. The entire wall was crushed inwardly with a massive crater in it. This crater spanned the entirety of the western wall, with the initial impact, and deepest part, of the large cavity being towards the bottom of the wall, closer to the ground. The epicenter of the crater was incredibly deep and spanning from it was a web of deep cracks and fractures in the wall destabilizing the entire structure immensely. It was honestly a miracle that it was able to hold on as long as it did. The destructive cavity left the group in awe at the sight of the meteor strike that crushed the wall of this private room.

Glynda looked at the structure for a moment before she recovered from her shock, "I see." That was all she said, but the words spoke volumes about there current situation. "I don't believe my Semblance will be able to help much with something like this, I can carry and replace broken objects, but I cannot simply repair them instantly. The best I can do is hold the structure in place and rearrange some of the debris to make the wall more stable, and that'll have to do until someone can come repair it completely."

"Yes, please professor, that would help greatly!" Glynda raised her black riding crop and prepared to reinforce the wall before Ozpin suddenly raised his hand and motioned for her to stop.

"Wait just a moment Miss Goodwitch, I know you are aware, but these walls aren't normal. They are specially reinforced to allow for students to train to their hearts content without the worry of destroying anything. Even if someone were to have concentrated an unbelievable amount of Dust onto this wall and exploded it all at once, the structure should still hold its form." Ozpin walked up to the awesome crater, analyzing all the information he could gather from it.

Glynda watched as Ozpin looked around at the fragmented wall and she decided to inquire more about his thought process. "Are you saying that a student possibly caused this? That is highly unlikely, if anything someone brought in a large weapon for testing and shot the wall. They probably didn't expect this kind of damage though."

Ozpin didn't look up from the wall as he replied, "its not possible that this was done by a weapon."

Goodwitch looked surprised by the statement, "how do you know?"

"Firstly, if someone brought a weapon strong enough to shoot a crater this large into this wall then someone would've noticed. Also, the weapon would leave Dust residue from the explosion, either a bullet casing, ash, or anything of the like, but there is none that I can see. And plus, there is no reason for a student to want to test a weapon in here, there are firing ranges and weapon testing centers for things like that." Glynda couldn't argue with the points that he made, so she chose to just listen as he spoke. "Secondly, the point of impact is far to wide for a bullet to have been it, and it's not necessarily large enough for a battering ram or anything destructive like that to have been used. If anything, it looks like a foot caused this, but its distorted almost like someone kicked the same spot twice. Hmmm, interesting." Ozpin took some more time to completely investigate the crater before he came to a final theory of what happened in the room.

"Excuse me," the professor said to the secretary to get her attention, "do you know who had rented this room when the crater was formed?"

Ozpin quickly followed up with, "yes I would like to know who caused this as well."

"Uhm, we had not fully investigated this event yet due to not fully knowing the seriousness of it. I apologize for that." The receptionist bowed slightly as she apologized for their blunder. "However, we can easily find out as the group that reported this destruction were the only other group in room 432."

"Alright then, lets go." Ozpin, Glynda, and the receptionist left the training room section of the building and walked into a special area exclusive to upper-level staff and senior professors. The group got onto a computer like machine, which was activated by her special black card, and she quickly opened the private room logs. She filtered the search by the day and room number to quickly find the person that the room was registered under.

"This is it. The room was registered under an incoming freshman student by the name of Nieva Panthera, she's B-Rank, and she was joined by two others. One of her companions was female with the other being male. The session was held for 2 hours in room, and they reportedly used the entire time with no brakes, as the door only opened once when they walked in and once when they walked out. Would you like to see the camera near the entrance of the room?"

"Yes/Yes" both headmaster and professor spoke.

The receptionist quickly tapped on a few buttons and icons to quickly pull up the video of the culprits entering and exiting the training room. "These are the only two videos we have of the group around the private room, the camera does clearly show their faces." She looked at the footage a bit closer, "and it seems that they had some kind of pet animal with them as well. The woman is another freshman at Beacon her name is Neyah Panthera, and she is the sister of Nieva, also B-Rank. However, for some reason the system can't get an ID on the third person present or on the type of animal they brought with them."

"Shouldn't the camera be able to ID everyone, even visitors? After all they still need a pass to enter the campus." Glynda asked the confused receptionist.

"Yes, that is correct professor, but for some reason this man seems to be an anomaly. Headmaster, what should we do?"

Ozpin put his hand to his chin for a moment, thinking of what actions to take. As he finished his thought he turned back to the other two woman, "Well a B-Rank freshman couldn't have caused anywhere near this much damage, so the crater was almost definitely caused by this third figure. However, I wouldn't worry about it too much. Even if we don't have a positive ID for this guy, we still know what he looks like, and I highly doubt any of these people have any ill intent. I would just like to know who this man is because he could be a possible asset to the school, or maybe a thorn in its side." The headmaster let the words sit in the air for a moment before he continued. "I'll be handling this issue personally and we will be treating this incident with the utmost secrecy. So, this information doesn't leave this room, is that understood?"

"Yes sir!"

"Good." He then turned to the gorgeous lady that was standing quietly next to him. "Well, I guess you better hurry up and stabilize that wall then Miss Goodwitch, and then we can head back to the academy together, as we came" he said with a slight smirk.

The elegant professor scoffed at his words, "Of course headmaster, this is what I came here to do." The passive aggressive tone was not missed by anyone in the room, but it was ignored as Glynda and the rest walked back to room 432, she quickly worked her magic with the wall, and the pair left the building. As they left, they received a ton of thanks from the staff member and greetings from the various students flooding the halls.

As they exited the building and entered the cool air of the summer evening, the sun had already made its rounds and was beginning to fall over the horizon line. The pair walked quickly, and once they were clear of all students and visitors both Glynda and Ozpin's faces turned serious, with Ozpin having the clearest change in facial expression. Glynda kept facing straight as she asked Ozpin a question, "how worried should we be about this development?"

"I don't know yet. Bypassing the camera's ID system is not a preventative measure that an ordinary visitor would take when entering Beacon. But at the same time what kind of criminal would just walk right into the heart of Beacon without care. There is only one real solution I can come up with and that this is a showing of strength. A message to me and all of Beacon, 'I am here. I am strong. I am not hiding.' The only thing that I cannot figure out is what his objective is." Ozpin began racking his brain over the objective of this mysterious person as they entered back into the central building.

He was taken from his thoughts as Glynda began speaking with him, "how about you let me figure that out?"

"What do you mean? That would be needlessly dangerous even for a Huntress as strong as yourself. This man was able to put enough force to easily crush the wall but was able to be precise enough to not let the wall crush in on itself. If anything, that feat is more impressive than the ability to crush the wall itself."

"I am well aware of the risks, but this seems to be the best course of action. If you, the headmaster of Beacon, attempted a discussion with him the result could be disastrous. And plus, you said it yourself, we don't know his objective. So, it would be best to play it safe and allow me to talk with him and find out that objective. It is our best option right now."

Ozpin absorbed her words and thought about it for a moment. "I hate it when you're right" he said with a chuckle. "Just be careful, I'll send you the information on Nieva and Neyah so you can better find this mystery man. If you need anything else from me, you know how to reach me."

"Of course, Ozpin, I'll talk to you again another time. Have a good rest of your night."

"You as well, Glynda."

Chapter 17: Scars

"Achoo!" Nova suddenly sneezed hard in the cool air of the evening.

"Baby, are you alright? Are you getting a fever?" Nix asked concerningly.

"Nah I can't get sick. I think someone's talking about me or something." He shrugged off the random sneeze and looked at the environment around them. The air had cooled tremendously allowing a nice breeze to flow through the air as they walked the lit streets of the district. He had come to the sudden realization that it was night already, the time had flown by, and now that they were finished exploring the sites of the district, the sun had already set over the tree line. Nova brought the time of day up to the group and determined it was time for them to start heading back to the temp dorm room.

Neyah protested the idea since she wasn't tired, but she conceded once she understood that Nix's pool began very early in the morning and plus, they needed to fix their sleep schedule anyway. So, the group headed back to the hotel room in high spirits, ready to rest up for the interesting day they would have tomorrow.

As they entered the room, Nova noticed that the room had been left in the exact same state that they had left it in, which confirmed to him that these were dorms instead of hotel rooms. At the sight of the bed, Neyah yawned loudly despite her assertion that she wasn't tired, with Nix following with a quiet yawn of her own. The girls then walked into the bathroom and prepped themselves for bed, brushing their teeth and what not, but Nova was trying to figure out a way to sneak out of the room without them noticing. He sat down onto one of the desk chairs with Byakko laying comfortably on his lap and started to think. "How the fuck am I supposed to get outa here? They can't fall asleep if they aren't cuddling me, so maybe I can just leave a pillow in my place? Nah, they'll notice the lack of my smell. Maybe I can just ask to leave? Nah aint no way they are letting me just dip in the middle of the night, and they'll wake up if I just teleport out. Shit! Maybe… I…could…ju-" his mind completely stopped moving as he watched Neyah and Nix step out of the bathroom. They were not wearing what they were before, in fact they were wearing a lot less than before.

Neyah's bandages that normally wrapped across her chest were gone, exposing her large bountiful breasts to the air. Her breasts were large, but still very perky, with pink stiff nipples standing strongly in the cool room air. Her arm wrappings were gone, but her thigh high like leg bandages were still gripping tightly to her gorgeous thighs. Across her waist were tight fitting white panties that seductively hugged her hips and ass. Her long tail was completely elongated, swaying slowly, entrancingly in the air behind her. Nix was wearing was wearing a cute matching pair of black bra and panties that showed off her incredibly curvaceous body. The bra showed off the cleavage of her perky breasts beautifully, and the panties were incredibly thin and tight, showing off the sexy outline of her womanhood through the soft fabric. The glistening black of the undergarment contrasted gorgeously with her pale white skin. Her thick thighs remained tightly hugged with her grey thigh high socks, and they accentuated the soft, plump thigh below. Her fluffy tail swished through the air, as she looked excitedly for her lover so she could cuddle him close and quickly fall asleep.

As Nix's eyes met her lovers, she noticed him in trance like state and became concerned. "Baby, are you alright? You don't look very attentive right now. Are you sleepy?"

Nova snapped back to reality as he heard Nix talking to him, "Huh? Oh yeah, I'm fine, you both just look extremely sexy in your sleep wear."

The girls faces grew to a bright red as they heard the compliment, but Neyah was quick to counter. "We normally sleep like this; don't you take your clothes off to sleep normally? We haven't really been able to over the past couple of days because of the exhaustion, but now we got time. Darling, you should get comfortable too, take you clothes off!"

Nix agreed with her sister's assessment, "yes it would be unfair for us to be the only ones comfortable for bed. I would also like to see you partially naked." She whispered that last part incredibly quietly, but it didn't escape his enhanced hearing. But he still listened to their request and began undressing.

"I don't know why you wanna see me half naked so bad, I swear my body is not that impressive." He stood up, Byakko jumping from his lap to the bed, and took off his jacket to begin stripping his clothes from his body at their request. As was going through the process, he had a sudden thought, "I actually haven't even seen myself naked since I Awakened. I wonder if my body has changed at all." He draped his jacket over the chair and lifted his shirt off his body.

The girl's eyes widened in shock as they saw his chiseled form. However, they weren't shocked by his incredibly chiseled, Adonis like form, it was the various marks on top of those muscles that brought shock and concern to their eyes. Tears began forming in Nix's eyes as she began slowly approaching her lovers' body, but Neyah was the first to verbally react to the sight. "Darling, what the fuck happened! Who did this to you! I'LL FUCKING KILL THEM!" Anger shot through Neyah's body as every muscle in her body trembled with rage.

Nix reached her man's body as the tears that grew in her eyes began to fall uncontrollably. She reached out and gently caressed his chest and torso, "Baby, Baby, Baby, Baby, "she whispered as her lips quivered with each loving word. "What happened Baby? Are you alright?"

As he saw their reaction, Nova started to get insanely confused at why they were acting this way, but as he looked down and inspected his own body, he quickly realized the reason. His entire chest and back were littered in deep and light scars of various shapes and sizes. In the center of his abdomen was a long horizontal light scar but connected to it was a much darker scar that rose from his pelvis up to his right shoulder. On top of these two main marks, his abdomen, chest, shoulders, and arms were littered in smaller cuts like scars.

On his forearms were extremely deep scarred tissue gashes that looked like deep ravines, but even that wasn't the worst of it. Across his back was three extremely large, deep, scars that looked like claw marks from a massive beast and in between these large scars were smaller cut like marks like the ones on the front of his body. "I didn't realize that I was still scarred from the Battle with the Devil, I kinda just figured that all this shit disappeared when I Awakened. These aren't anything that serious, it just apart of some shit I went through to get here. They don't hurt or anything so don't worry about. And Neyah, I already killed the fucker that did it so there is no need to be angry, I promise I'm ok."

It seemed like his explanation calmed them a bit, but his lovers were incessant in their concern for his safety. Neyah ran up to him, joined her sister, and began gently tracing her soft fingers around each and every scar that was sprawled across his body. They comforted him with their warm, loving touches, trying to somehow undo the damage that had already been done. Neyah whispered quietly to him, "Darling, I'm so sorry I let something like this happen to you. I wish I could've been there to protect you."

Nix followed up after her sister's words, "we wouldn't have let any harm befall you in anyway." She whispered softly with a shaky voice, still sniffling slightly as her tears calmed down. "You are so strong; you've been through so much. I wish-" she stopped for a moment, chocking on the words as tears started to fall again. "I wish I could undo the pain and torment you went through. I wish I could've protected you. Baby, I love you so much and I apologize for allowing something like this to happen to you."

Nova chose not to say anything in return, but instead he brought the two girls into his scarred body and hugged them tightly. The group naturally moved to the closest bed where Nix and Neyah gently laid their lover down as if he were the most fragile, important thing in the world, and they followed him by laying gently on top of him, protectively wrapping their arms and tails around him. Before the two fell back into a deep sleep, Nova whispered "I love you both too" into their ears, and with that they fell back into a deep slumber.

Nova sat there for a moment, enjoying the warm embrace that the girls were providing him with. But he couldn't help his mind from wondering as to why they felt so deeply about his scars. "I understand that they love me, but they weren't even there. How can they feel responsible for injuries I received before they even met me? Hell, I had to get these scars to even meet them in the first place." As he completed that thought, an extremely eerie idea popped into his mind. "Wait, what if I never came to Rwby? Would they have been overcome by the Grimm horde they were fighting at Mount Glenn? Is that why they were never in the original show?" For whatever reason, the though made him feel incredibly negative. Not just anger, but sadness and dread overcame him when he thought about not being able to save them at Mount Glenn. Just the possibility that they would've or could've died without him even knowing them made him feel extremely negative. "Well, I guess I kinda understand how they feel now. I just must focus on the fact that I did save them, and I was able to protect them. And because of it I have two fantastical, gorgeous, sexy lovers that love me more than life itself. I truly am the luckiest man alive."

He sat in those words for a moment, fully appreciating everything it took to make it to where he is today. The trials and tribulations that he went through were far from pointless, and he was able to find true happiness because of it. And the best part about the thought was that it was just beginning, he still had far more to look forward to in his life and he had a seemingly infinite amount of time to accomplish it. "But I don't have an infinite amount of time. The Animus is still coming, and since I don't know when it's coming, I have to be prepared at all times. If I'm not strong enough to deal with them then everything that makes me happy could be compromised." He took a good look at the girls that were protectively holding onto him as they slept, and he mentally thanked them for the care that they gave him. "I would love to rest in your embrace forever, but if I wanna be strong enough to protect you both in the future I gotta leave for a bit. There's some shit I gotta get done." At the declaration, he subtly activated his Aura, prompting his Semblance to activate as well.

He then began testing an idea that he had when he first activated his Semblance. When he initially used it, he saw Aura follow-up his petting of Byakko, and his initial thought was his hand had doubled itself. This idea was true, however the Aura automatically followed up any of his physical actions without him moving it. So, he briefly considered attempting to control his Aura to make it not double his actions and instead do whatever he wanted it to do. He decided to disregard the idea earlier due to his lack of knowledge on Aura and his inability to control it fully, but now was as good a time as any to try it out.

As he subtly activated his Aura, he began filling his body with the substance, essentially activating his Semblance, but the action that it was following was him lying in his lovers embrace. As he used all up all of his Aura filling out his body, he forced it to remain still by controlling the energy similarly to how he manipulated mana. As soon as he felt ready, he mentally activated a skill "Devil's Step," in an instant, he was no longer in the embrace of the two girls he loved so much, and in his place was a perfect replica of himself that was created entirely out of Pink Aura.

*New* Skill Obtained: *Call Off* {Lvl: 1}- A skill using your Semblance, Overtime, to create a complete perfect replica of yourself. It has the same touch, taste, look, sound, and smell as you, but it is created entirely out of Aura; Cost 100% au

*New* Title Acquired: Aura Master

Aura Master- Your skill and ability to use and manipulate Aura is unmatched in the world of Remnant. The things that you can do and create with your Semblance is unbound, and with your tremendous knowledge you are surely to break new ground. Increase amount of Aura granted on level up. +1 AP to END on level up. Ability(s) Obtained: *True Aura Manipulation*, *MAX Aura Regeneration*

*True Aura Manipulation*- Manipulate Aura into whatever form you so choose, within the limits of your Semblance, and the confines of your own body

*MAX Aura Regeneration*- Slowly regain Aura by actively generating the energy from the strength of your soul; +10% Base Aura/10sec

Nova watched as the two woman he loved so much continued sleeping peacefully, completely unbothered by his Aura clone remaining in his place. However, Byakko leaped from her comfortable place in between his Call Off's legs and into his real body's arms, sensing his intentions for the night through their deep bond. "Who would've thought that I could do this much with my Aura just by concentrating a lil bit." As he finished admiring his ability for a moment, he walked over and gave quick loving kisses to Nix and Neyah before he left. "I'll see you both when you wake up, I promise." After he bid his final farewell, he quickly picked up his clothing, and used Devil's Step to teleport outside of the room, and silently blurred his way across the campus towards the exit.

As he reached the massive gate that separated Beacon from Vale, he silently leaped over the large structure, remaining completely unseen throughout the process. Nova briefly considered saying a quick hello to Coco and Velvet on his way out but decided against it since his nightly activity's needed to remain a secret and plus, he didn't want to waste any of the time he had been allocated. So, he quickly made his way back down to Vale and decided that Byakko and his first activity for the night would be to finish off the final Dungeon in the Upper-Class district.

As they approached this final Dungeon, Nova noticed a seemingly off Aura about the distorted entrance. The rift was similar in color to the usual Dungeons, however this one was far larger and more distorted than the rest. Fractures exuded from the rift, covering the space surrounding it and each of these cracks leaked a blood red Aura into the surrounding air. Nova was completely unbothered by the murderous Aura of the dungeon, and put his hand through the entrance, activating the notification.

Vale's Upper-Class Boss Room

Recommended Level: 5

Are you sure you want to enter?

Y/N

"Boss Room? This should be interesting." He quickly replied yes to the System's question and entered the mysterious space. As the duo walked into the rift in space, they immediately recognized the surrounding area. They were back into the destroyed and distorted version of the towns square, except the space was larger than it was in the other dungeons. The other main difference was the surrounding buildings were no longer infinitely tall, instead they were normal average height, almost perfect replicas of the real buildings that surrounded the real square in Vale. In the center of the large open space was a massive bird that they recognized as a Nevermore, but this Nevermore was way bigger than the other ones.

Name: Nevermore (Giant)

Age: ?

LVL: 7

Race: Grimm

HP: 2800/2800 {2200/2200}

MP: 700/700

Attributes:

STR; 38

END; 23

DEX; 47

VIT: 29

INT; 26

LUK; 8

As usual, Byakko chose to step up to the plate, she prepped to use more of her unique skillset to eliminate the latest target that plagued her master. However, said master chose to give her a special request this time around, "hey Byakko. How about you try to use your strongest attack against this Nevermore. It'll probably still die in a single hit; however, it'll give me a much broader understanding of your maximum output of strength using a single skill." Byakko nodded in acknowledgement at her master's suggestion, turning to the perched Nevermore with excitement. Byakko, sat for a moment, seemingly concentrating on the task at hand, but not a moment later blue lightning began coursing through her form again.

As the lighting began to form the already blackened sky somehow got darker as black clouds with electricity shocking throughout them began forming. The blue lightning in the clouds created thundering Booms that rolled and echoed throughout the empty Dungeon city with each flash. After a moment of charging, the lightning surrounding Byakko's body and the clouds reached critical mass, and with a loud roar from Byakko all the built-up energy erupted in fantastic fashion. A massive field of shining blue electricity shot from Byakko's body, covering the entirety of the massive square.

The electric field shocked the Giant Nevermore into action as it had finally noticed that it had visitors, but it was completely unable to react as its body was paralyzed into submission. At the same moment, a pillar of lightning roared through the sky, striking down on the helpless Nevermore like God Smiting a sinner. The instant the Smite of lightning contacted the ground, the dungeon shook with an intensity that Nova had never felt before. The surrounding building's windows shattered from the sound alone, but the earth-shattering rumble that the attack created caused the buildings to crumble under the pressure, sending them crashing to the ground like a magnitude 8 earthquake had shattered them. The Nevermore on the other hand was not doing any better than the buildings as the instant it was touched by the God like Smite it was vaporized with no evidence that it had ever existed in the first place.

Byakko Defeated Upper-Class Boss Nevermore (Lvl: 7)!

As the earth-shattering attack began to dissipate, Byakko excitedly turned back to her master, her tail wagging rapidly back and forth. She quickly bound towards him and sat at his feet, expectantly waiting for his approval. Nova stood still for a moment, awe struck at the skill that Byakko had used to vaporize the Arena boss, but he was quickly brought out of stupor by the adorable tiger cub that sat at his feet. He reached out to the cub, patting her gently on the head as he spoke, "that was amazing! I didn't know you could cause large scale destruction like that! The paralysis field, plus the godly smite was an incredible combo!" He continued to praise his companion for a moment longer, with Byakko enjoying every second of it, before she gave him the bounty of her kill in the form of a gift.

In the gift, he received almost nothing of value, only a black powdered Dust vial and a single AUS, but he did receive one thing that he found incredibly valuable. The item itself wasn't special in any way, or even that cool for that matter, but it was what it could do that made it valuable. The item he was referring too was of course a singular Nevermore (Giant) Grimm Mask. As he received the item, he immediately pulled it out of his inventory, much to the joy of Byakko. "Alright, this should be the last Grimm thing that you need to eat to fully assimilate the Grimm creatures. Are you ready?" Byakko responded with an excited Mwrah and in response, Nova presented her with the mask. The eager white tiger chomped down on the item, crushing it in her jaws and consuming its essence immediately.

| Byakko |

Grimm Assimilation Rate (100%)

!Alert!

A Major change is occurring in Byakko!

"Oh, shit its happening!" Nova watched as Byakko's brilliant luminescent Icy blue eyes slowly shifted and darkened from the piercing blue to glowing purple, finally finishing at a wonderous noble red. The tattoo like marks that surrounded her eyes began to grow and morph into a white mask with decorated red marks over top of it. Her fangs began growing larger and larger until her 4 canines were too large for her mouth and the sharpened fangs were exposed like that of a sabretooth tiger. A similar thing happened to her claws as they outgrew their retractable utility, instead being fully elongated and always exposed. The black stripes on her pure white fur grew in size and density until they were covering her entire form, exuding a shadowy black substance that fogged the surrounding area. Along her back, sharp bone like structures jutted out in jagged patterns and various lengths. These bony structures followed along her body, stopping at her tail. Designs very similar to the mask that adorned her face formed in various spots around her body, creating a Grimm like body armor that protected various vulnerable parts of her form. With this the adorable celestial white tiger had vanished from his sight, in her place was a ferocious tiger like Grimm that was poised to kill.

Name: Byakko (Grimm)

Age: ?

Race: Celestial White Tiger, Grimm

Titles: Celestial White Tiger, Goddess of Righteousness, Queen of Animals, Guardian of the West

LVL: 14 (13.42%)

HP: 13500/13500 {+3125}

MP: 2650/2650 {+1063}

Bond Lvl: MAX

Attributes:

STR; 292, {+73}

END; 226, {+56.5}

DEX; 185, {+46.25}

VIT; 250, {+62.5}

INT; 58, {+14.5}

LUK; 19, {+4.75}

"Congrats Byakko! You've achieved a new level of strength and you look pretty damn cool as well." Byakko remained excited as she continued getting praised by her master. She tried to reply with her usual adorable meow, but what ended up coming out was a deep growl that vibrated the air surrounding them. If it hadn't come from his companion that he loved so much and knew so well, he would have been afraid for his safety from the seemingly aggressive and threatening gesture. However, since he did know Byakko it came across just as sweet and adorable as the usual sounds she made. Byakko jumped back into his arms and the two cuddled as Nova stroked her new fur and thought about her changes. "Byakko's new form changed her states around a ton. Her strength, endurance, and vitality are through the fucking roof, but her intelligence and luck are bellow ground level. She also lost her ability to use Aura which is probably because Grimm don't have souls or whatever the fuck the lore was. Overall, it's a pretty good trade off if Byakko doesn't wanna use her mana for anything and instead wants to be a strong ass tank. The only other question is can she turn back to normal on a dime." As the thought crossed his mind Byakko replied to his silent thought with another deep growl that vibrated his whole body and in that moment in a shimmer of blue the Byakko that he hatched a few days prior returned as if she'd never left. "So, you can do it on command, that's a pretty dope ability."

After a few more moments of just enjoying each other's company, Nova stood up with Byakko and made the decision to keep shit going. "Aight Byakko we still got a lot of night ahead of us so let's get back to it." With that they took the now white exit portal out of the boss room and back into Vale's night sky.

Congratulations! You have cleared Vale's Upper-Class Area! Here are your rewards:

+10 AUS | +1 Black Dust Crystal

Nova took the rewards he was given gladly, even if it clearly wasn't much something was better than nothing, and plus he was thinking about the resources he needed to move his plan another step forward before his 7-day deadline arrived, so he planned on putting some of this stuff to use.

After finishing his thoughts about his rewards, he opened his mental map to see which location him and Byakko would be conquering next, and it seemed that the industrial district was the obvious choice. However, the first thing he noticed about the map was the change in the look of the Upper-Class area of the map. The entire section was glowing with a white radiance to it, almost as if that section of the map had been purified from something. He figured that this was the effect of clearing all the dungeons in a certain area and looking at it from the map's perspective gave him extra motivation to clear out the other dungeons in Vale as well. The commercial and residential districts by far had the most dungeons out of Vale's sectors so he chose to save those two for last.

After finishing up his final decisions, he and Byakko leaped building to building until they reached the first dungeon in the Industrial district. They immediately entered the Dungeon, bypassing the notification because of the strength difference between them and the Grimm.

Dungeon: Vale's Industrial District Grimm

Recommended Level: 5

Inside the dungeon was similar to the Upper-Class area in that the Dungeon replicated its surroundings. This dungeon took place in a broken down, decaying warehouse of massive proportions. The warehouse was unnaturally big in that it was like being outside, but with a massive gray dome with holes from decay in it laying overtop everything. Large shipping containers of various shapes, colors, and sizes filled the massive space. Plus, there were a ton of Grimm that stood together in large groups of 4 to 5 unlike the ones in the maze of the Upper Class. These groups contained a variation of Grimm, most often with two Beowolves and two or three Nevermore chicks. For this dungeon, he decided to just activate the Devil's Domain and he immediately saw the effects. Every Grimm that was in a 30-40ft radius of him instantly combusted into a black ball of essence that was naturally absorbed into his body, and he immediately felt the effects. After the first absorption, he immediately checked on the pale pink egg that he had nursing in the incubator, and he found that Meta's assessment was correct. Simply absorbing the Grimm that he came across was enough to increase the progress meter towards an eventual hatched egg.

He decided to focus on hatching the egg as a priority, so he sprinted across the grounds of the Dungeon absorbing everything within his domain and looting anything he could until he reached the boss. Then at the boss fight he would let Byakko deal with it since she received the greatest boost from actively killing them. The boss room in these Dungeons were found behind seemingly randomly placed rusted double doors in the warehouse. Nova deducted that it was random from its location in this first dungeon that he was currently in. It was literally the very first side room that led off the set path that was created by the Dungeon, and he knew that it was the boss room because it was a black spot on his mini map. Of course, he chose to skip over this room to loot and absorb the rest of the Grimm and chests in the Dungeon first before he went back to the boss room.

"Alright Byakko, you ready to fuck this thing up?" Byakko replied with her usual Mwrah which Nova took as a resounding yes. "Ok then, lets open this bitch up." He grabbed both door handles and swung the door open, walking into a surprisingly basic room. It was the same as the rest of the dungeon, a random large storage room with a few industrial parts like cargo containers, steel poles, steel barrels, and other random items of that sort lying around the floor and lining the walls of the room. And in the center of it all was a large Grimm, much bigger than a Beowolf, and even the Alpha version as well. It walked on all fours and looked very similar to a Bear in both face and stature. It had long claws and three rows of sharp bones lining its back. It stood in the center of the room, snarling, and growling at seemingly nothing at all.

Name: Ursa Minor

Age: ?

LVL: 8

Race: Grimm

HP: 4800/4800

MP: 50/50

Attributes:

STR; 22

END; 37

DEX; 22

VIT: 68

INT; 0

LUK; 0

Nova turned to his partner and whispered, "Byakko, your up. Show me what you can do." The tiger cub nodded and began slowly stalking forward towards the bear Grimm. With every silent step she took forward her body began shifting. Black smoke emerged from her paws, her claws and fangs grew in length, a white and red mask formed over her face, and finally her fur turned impossibly black. The transformation seemed to alert the Ursa as it let out a roar that shook the air in the room. If a normal animal were to hear such a roar they may have run in fear or bare minimum felt extremely intimidated, but Byakko instead dug deep and began growling aggressively under her breath. The growls trembled the ground slightly with every passing moment, but the grumbling growls grew in volume until she let release a deafening roar that shook the foundation of the building. The ground shook like an earthquake had taken place causing the industrial items to shake violently and fall harshly to the ground.

As the roar stopped, the Ursa was left standing dead in its tracks. It didn't grumble, growl, or move even the slightest bit out of pure fear of the small tiger Grimm in from of it. However, it knew that it had to fight, so after a moment of hesitation it charged its way towards Byakko, opening its jaws wide to swallow her whole. In response, Byakko leaped at the charging Ursa preparing to meet its open jaws with her long claws. Nova wished he could say that Byakko was dominating this fight, but that wasn't what he bared witness to. What he says wasn't a fight at all, it was pure slaughter. As Byakko jumped towards the face of the large bear, with one swipe of her claws she managed to send it soaring through the air, slamming the Grimm harshly against a cargo container flattening it in the process. After the first attack she didn't let up, quickly dashing into the recovering Grimm claws first. As she reached it, she stabbed her claws into its chest and opened her jaws wide to bite down strongly on the Grimm. Her elongated fangs dug deep into the Ursa's fur and the Grimm howled in pain and agony, but Byakko kept going, biting and gouging out chunk after chunk of the beast's flesh until the Ursa simply couldn't take it anymore. After a moment of the slaughter, the Ursa suddenly disintegrated into black shadows leaving nothing but a notification behind in its wake.

Byakko Defeated Dungeon Master Ursa Minor (Lvl: 8)!

After the Grimm was defeated, Byakko's aggressive growling and snarling stopped entirely, and she quickly ran from the flattened cargo container straight to her master bearing the gifts of her kill. Her master looked at her differently for a moment, his eyes were wide, and his body was frozen. The look scarred Byakko, she started to think that she may have done something wrong, but her master suddenly blinked and came back to reality. An enormous warm smile grew on his face, and he put his hands gently around her head, which she loved. And a moment after that, the voice she loved so much began flowing into her ears, "You did amazing! That growl almost made me go deaf, I know that Ursa was shook! You're such a good girl!" Nova showered Byakko in praise after her impressive showing of her strength. He also graciously took the items and watched as Byakko return to her usual form. They then exited the dungeon, and went to conquer some more, hoping to get some more good loot, and becoming stronger in the process.

Hope you enjoyed!