New Story! I don't want to get burnt out with just Time Erodes All so I'm branching out with another character and another fandom. Also, wow I rewrote/changed so much of this.
See if anyone can find the Undertale and Warframe references here.
X
The thick smoke was suffocating and brought tears to his burning eyes. His head ached with pulses like a beating drum; flashes of pain followed by brief respite. Ritualistic ropes bound him tightly, digging into his flesh and smelling deeply of various herbs despite the heavy smoke of burning incense. He coughed out a lungful of air when a draft brough the smoke to his face.
The figure in black fidgeted in nervousness in front of him, a firewood staff held in uncertain hands. An expression of pity adored their young face. In contrast, the figure in brown offered no sympathy, knowing it would only be an insult to him and those before him. Still, a sense of profound weariness and sadness could be felt in them behind the stern expression they wore.
Their names escaped him, like a jigsaw puzzle with just enough pieces missing for you to make out what background it was without letting you able to identify from where it was taken. It bought him a fleeting sense of rage before it was too swept away like everything else.
Limitless hate flooded his senses, and he fought to not cry out in agony. He fought back burning tears, to the concerned glances of his onlookers.
"Are you sure?" Asked the figure in black, in uncharacteristic seriousness. Red eyes looking, searching, begging for a no. Still in denial of the inevitable.
He wasn't. But it mattered not; for the Devourer of Dreams was too great of a threat to allow to exist. He turned towards the figure in brown; his god, his saviour. The one who named him and set him free.
A name drifted in his shattering psyche. A herculean effort for the simple task of catching it. Rex Lapis, it said.
He turned his head as much as the binding allowed to the figure in the black. Another name came from the fog, faster and easier still. The young director of the Wangsheng Funeral Parlour, Hu Tao. The feeling of being irritated came up almost by reflex by thinking of her.
More and more, names and faces and memories rushed to his mind. A smile, or more a snarl, broke across his face.
Ha, even with the corruption of a god who knew his weakness, a god of the realm of the mind, the bonds he had made, the friendships he had forged, (and had been dragged into,) mortals and Adeptus both. In his mind, they once again appeared strong.
'Thank you, Traveller', he thought, 'for showing me this power.'
He was ready now, or as ready as he would ever be. He opened his mouth and not a noise escaped. He tried to say yes, to do it, that he was surer than ever, but the power of speech still eluded him.
Another wave of pain came washing in. And with it another coughing fit and even less control over his own body. He didn't have much time left, and looking at Rex Lapis, he knew that too.
He steeled his resolve, determination filling his soul. With a grimace, he summoned the last drags of his power. His heart felt like it would explode with the monumental task, as he wretched the lost control away from the evil deity if only for a moment.
A cracking and crumbling mask covered most of his face. And with it, so did shaky control over his Adeptus power. He could feel a crowd outside the temple, their worry and fear and sadness, and found solace in just how many were in attendance. He had resigned to pass away alone and unnoticed.
"I-Is my con… contract over?" he forced out.
Rex Lapis sighed, a melancholic smile on his face. The Director looked between them both nervously. A brittle mask of courage on her face.
"Yes, you have done your duty well, Xiao. Now is your turn to rest."
Xiao… yes, that was his name.
"Rest?" he asked, but he already knew the answer.
All of a sudden, he was feeling very tired. The crackling and snapping of withered grass set ablaze was a strangely calming sound. The pain wrenching his body, the poisonous powers coursing through his veins falling out of his mind. His powers slipped out of his controls like sand through fingers. His eyes were getting heavy. He took a slow blink.
Phantom butterflies took flight, made of stray sparks and those left behind. The room was getting hotter and the smoke thicker still. Smouldering him in its suffocating embrace.
"Yes…" He trailed off, closing his eyes, "rest…"
And as the imposing darkness took Xiao, he heard one last thing.
"Only an unbound flame can purify the filth of this world."
…
No karmic debt is bigger than a fleeting memory for someone who has lived over two thousand years. No grudge last for a thousand years, and no debt can't be repaid in enough time.
In the end, the one who Xiao always had to fight against was himself.
And today, he lost.
X
Jaune Arc was known as the weird kid.
Not out of any wrongdoing on his part; far from it even. Jaune Arc was a normal-looking kid for the most part if a little on the scrawny side. He had the classic Arc looks with his blond hair and blue eyes. He tended to favour loose-fitting clothing white with little regard to fashion, which was though strange was understandable at his age.
A little weirdness was expected of him, even. With having seven sisters both older and younger and having no male role model with how often his father was away.
Still, he was just… too good at anything he tried his hands on. And while that itself might not have been that uncommon. Especially among the ambitious and the overachievers. But he had no desire to use said skills unprompted.
By the age of ten, Jaune was reportedly already better than his mother at cooking. At eleven he was better at all housework which did not require one to be tall. By his thirteenth birthday, he could beat his father, a seasoned huntsman, in a spar without having an Aura. No one was quite sure who taught him how to use weapons, or when and where he even practised. And to top it off, he was learning how to play new instruments faster than his school could find new ones.
And this was all while being the top student in his grade, year after year. It didn't lend him to have many friends and a lot of the children tried to pick on him. As was often with children when they did not understand others.
Which came around to the second weird thing about him.
Just… Jaune didn't seem to understand the concept of bullying. He tended to just stare at the children before they got spooked out and ran away. The one time they did get physical, he just danced around them, letting them tire out by hitting each other.
If asked about his opinion of not having friends, he would sometimes enigmatically answer "I already have enough friends" or more commonly, "I have you all" to his family with a tilt of his head. His family ate it all up, while outsiders were left even more bewildered.
Still, as Jaune approached the age of fifteen and his random assortment of skills and knowledge grew further still, the question remained.
What did he want out of life?
X
He had gold hair now. The colour of Cor Lapis, of Stardust, of Geo. The same colour as the Traveller.
'Was this a signal,' he wondered, 'or just a coincidence?' Combing through his hair with his finger, he left that train of thought behind. For better or for worse, they were In Tayvat, and he was in a different world.
His Lord's dream was given to an unworthy soul. Looking at the mirror, he could easily imagine this being a vessel for Rex Lapis. The body's dimensions were close enough, if not for the significant lack of muscle mass which could be corrected with rigorous training.
He looked at his hands. Not the palms of an ever-vigilant guardian, who fought day and night to protect the ever-ignorant innocents. Not the palms of a friend killer, a monster stalker, a conquer of demons.
The soft palms of a civilian greeted him. what was hidden in these palms that his Lord desired, he wondered.
~*Knock*knock*knock*~
"I am almost ready" He called out, broken away from his thoughts. Quickly, he tied his shoelaces and took out his wallet, house keys and Scroll from a drawer. He then picked up his school bag, which had an extra pair of clothes.
It was going to be a busy day today. Jaune had to take his littlest sister, Amber (the figure in red, always smiling), all the way to Mountain Glenn. One of her friends had recently moved there, and so had sent her an invite for a new home party or something. His sister going to have to stay there overnight for a "girl's night" while Jaune himself would sleep in a hotel nearby. He didn't see what was the point of this celebration, but he didn't see a point in a lot of things Rex Lapis did after his retirement as an Archon either.
Upon opening his door, he suppressed his battle-born instincts and slightly braced as his sister ran forth and tacked his stomach to make sure she did not hurt herself. They both landed in his room, air escaping his lungs with a pained *oof. His sister then just giggled his mother shouted at them from the ground floor. How annoying, such a fragile thing, he thought. Still, she was lively, and if nothing else it made being near her entertaining.
Smiling, he ruffled her hair for an indigent squeak of protest. All the while, his mind kept on pointing out how he was unworthy of this all. She got off him quickly, giving him a stink eye.
"Jaune, Amber!" Saphron, one of his elder sisters, called out. "You guys are gonna miss the Air Ship!"
Amber's eyes widened, and she tried her best to drag him by his arms with her weight. Jaune humoured her, and let himself be pulled along. Goodbyes were given to everyone who crossed their sight, the duo exited the house and Jaune unchained his bicycle.
The train tracks to go to Mountain Glenn were still underway. And going to Vale first and then Mountain Glenn was both longer and more expensive than just taking an Air Ship ride there. Still, that came at the price of the Air Ship station being further out in the outskirts of Ansel.
It took about fifteen minutes of gentle cycling before they reached the station. Jaune helped his sister off before chaining his bicycle to a cycle stand. A nod to the ticker and a punch of their ticks and they were abroad, ready to depart.
Air Ships were miracles of human engineering. Large, rectangular vehicles that were capable of fast and long-distance flight all without elemental energies or Adeptus sigils. In the absence of gods, it seemed like the man had captured the heavens. It brought a sense of pride and giddiness to him, even if they were not his humanity.
Was this what Rex Lapis saw in humans, he wondered. Fleeting lives that burn fast and bright.
His sister patted his thigh twice, breaking him out of his thoughts. She reached out her hand to him as if asking for something. Jaune turned away and tried to ignore her, only for her to escalate and shove him until he acknowledged her presence. When he did turn toward her, the stares of other passengers too hard to handle, he just grumbled, "Don't complain about motion sickness" and handed her his Scroll.
It would take a few hours for them to reach, Jaune figured he might as well catch up on some sleep. Once again ruffling his sister's hair, who was too distracted by her video game to do anything other than lean away into the aisle, he closed his eyes.
X
The first thing Jaune noticed upon exiting the Air Ship was the large number of people taking ships that were leaving Glenn. The next thing he noticed, a scarce few seconds later, was that there were an unusually high number of guards around. His sister noticed nothing and pushed and pulled at him to walk faster, which he did but not before making a note to research more.
Exiting the station was not any better. Or rather, in ways it was worse even. There was a general sense of weariness and gloom that permutated the area. No colourful shops or stores greeting them like he had seen when Jaune had the last time arrived at Mountain Glenn with his family. The station was near one of the Three Walls of the settlement, sure, but it was a transport hub and there should have been more people setting up shop here. Even if she didn't understand why, Amber too picked up on this, if the way her face twisted up was any indication. She was too smart for her age. How old was she even? Single years swept by him like driftwood in a river. No, he forced himself back to the present.
Hailing a Taxi was easy enough with the number of people getting off at the station. And with the Taxi came its driver and an easy source of gossip. He was never good at talking, but Jaune was good at listening (even if not at understanding) and the driver was more than happy to oblige.
It turned out that there were increasing reports of Grimm attacks at the borders. Although hunter teams had been dispatched, the reports were not slowing down and there were rumours of some hunters dying or getting injured seriously too. The council was trying to suppress the news to prevent unrest and more negative emotions, but everyone knew something fishy was going on. By the end of it all, Jaune was happy that he had handed his sister his Scroll beforehand. He didn't want to freak her out.
Still, he didn't think he would be getting much sleep tonight. Staying up late and guarding his sister with vigilance in case something bad happens. Because, no matter how unlikely the chances of a Creature of Grimm reaching the heart of a city were, those were odds he would not play with.
All it takes was one mistake, after all.
And just like that, they had reached their destination. Eyes still glued to his Scroll; Amber almost stepped into a puddle before Jaune stopped her. It did nothing to deter her desire to continue the game but at least she did not accidentally ruin her boots and shoes before meeting her friend. Jaune just sighed before taking out the gift from Amber's bag (it was not a bunny; he sighed in reverence and happiness) and began guiding her to the address written on it.
Glenn was being called the "Tall City" due to how high some of the skyscrapers in it reached. All due to how little land there was to work with and how many people wanted to move there. And finding one specific building between twelve identical ones was easier said than done. The dull grey colour was starting to grate at his eyes. At least Amber had returned him his Scroll so that he could better navigate with it. But the CCTS signals here were atrocious. Their Taxi driver had said that the signals were significantly better at the outskirts, something about less diffraction and bouncing?
They passed the correct building twice over before Amber's friend ran out and showed them the way in. It turned out that they were late and the party had already begun. It looked like a fun celebration, but Jaune had no metric to compare it by. What he found fun and what other mortals found fun was widely different.
He could barely stomach mortal food, even if now he needed it to live. Where he ever to pick up a paintbrush, the scenes he would paint would be of bloodstained battled fields. And even now, he had not matched the music of the Anemo Archon that had protected and healed him so long ago.
With heavy thoughts, Jaune entered the building. But even heavier still was the feeling of dread polling in his gut. Hard-earned instincts telling him to stay alert.
X
Jaune had just forced down his dinner and was the last one about to leave when it happened.
The ground shook, the light flicked and died and then silence.
Suddenly, sirens began to play and a message was broadcasted by both speakers outside and messaged to Jaune's Scroll.
Mount Glenn Police Department is issuing a mandatory evacuation order for Mount Glenn. The horde of Grim has been detected making its way towards the settlement.
All citizens are to make their way towards either the underground train station or the Air Ship station. The Air Ship station will only be available for the next hour before it is shut down for fear of avian Grim.
All residents are advised to leave all personal belonging and pets behind. Any able-body volunteer can report to East, West or South walls for help in repelling
A shelter is open at the old mines.
Please listen to the Vale Emergency Broadcast for updated details.
It was as if a switch had been flipped. Amber's friend's mother picked up her daughter while the father ran to get the car keys, using his Scroll as a torch.
Jaune picked up Amber and followed the small family to their parked cars. It seemed like others had the same idea as them, but Jaune, Amber and the family of three were quick to get in and the first to leave the building, thus evading major traffic for the most part.
They had decided to go towards the Air Ships; it was close to them than the train stations. And as it was near the West walls, fewer people were going there. As they drove on, they found more people going the same way.
As they drove, Jaune silently transferred his keys, wallet and Scroll to his school bag. He would not need them.
Finally, just as they were about two minutes from the station and closest to the West walls, the sound of gunfire almost deafening even from such far away, that Jaune tapped the father on his shoulder and spoke.
"Leave me here."
Amber made a sound of shock and disbelief as the car stopped with the screeching for tires. The father turned towards him in conformation and he nodded. Jaune then took one good look at his sister's face, to remember what he was fighting for before tossing his bag towards her and stepping out.
"Keep here safe." He said as the mother restrained his sister. She nodded, and the car drove off with a screeching and clawing Amber inside. Tears trailed down her cheeks. Accusations of betrayal danced on her face. He hated that look.
Jaune- no, Xiao sighed and look at his hands. An ethereal glow covered his body, both familiar and strange. It almost seemed to clink into place. He had seen his before, know what this was.
Aura.
He almost laughed at the absurdity of it all. He still had a soul.
X
Grimm were creatures of darkness drawn forth by negative emotions and with blood lust for human flesh and bones. From on top of the wall, where he stood with the other defenders who were shooting at the Grimm below, Xiao knew the wall would not stand. Not with a three-face assault.
The cold and comforting mask of the Yaksha adored his face. He stared into the dark tides; the mass-produced gun spears being passed around transformed into the spear in his hands.
"Hey-!" One person started, but Xiao would not hear the rest as he jumped off and plunged into the depths. The Grimm stopped their charge for a moment in confusion, the few Grimms that were clawing at the wall turning around to measure him up.
The walls could not fall, or else so will the anti-air defences, allowing entry to avian Grimm. Then there was no stopping them. There was no way a single person could hold all three walls. Nothing gets them more riled up than negative emotions and behind him was an entire settlement panicking.
….
Hate.
….
Cursed memories filled his mind.
….
Dread.
….
The karmic debt he has paid.
….
Despair.
….
Enough to consume flesh.
….
Agony.
….
Enough to consume bone.
….
Madness.
….
Enough to consume the soul.
….
Death.
….
"Evil Spirits, This Is Your Reckoning!"
But it was possible to bring all the Creatures of Grimm place. For who else would have more darkness in their heart. Humans with their fleeting lives or the conquer of demons.
The Grimm growled and rushed at him. No problem. The gunfire too began anew, though they were not shooting the Grimm near him. That too was probably for the best.
"Begone, Exiled to Where You Belong!" Xiao declared; his weapon ready. His Aura surrounded him and empowered him. In a flash of ethereal green flames, the winged nemesis took flight once more.
The Grimm were quite similar to monsters born of hatred of lingering gods. They attacked with familiar single-minded savagery and with the purpose to cause the most damage they could before they fell.
Which meant it was a surprise when a group of ape-like Grimm used the onslaught rushing him to attack him in the back. He barely spotted the hit in time, activating his Aura to the fullest to tank it.
This brought him to the second surprise, as he flew into the Grimm rushing him, out of balance and disoriented. Some Grimm is disproportionally stronger and faster than their size suggests.
An image flashed through his mind as he tried to fight barehanded, his movement restricted and quickly accumulated too many hits. Of a war-torn village that he was too late to help. The feeling of helplessness and the determination that followed.
And as the light was blocked up by the piling bodies and pain, he remembered his dream, his ambition.
A world which didn't need him anymore.
…
A familiar weight rested in his hands and an old weapon in another. He put his all into one strike, his Aura shattering as the Grimm were sent flying. But it didn't matter.
He hooked his Vision to one of his jeans' buckles and twirled the Primordial Jade spear with both his hands.
Ethereal flames danced around him, as he declared his promise, a contract no longer binding and yet still upheld.
"Evil Conquering!"
He jumped high, and almost seemed to hang mind-air, in flight.
"Worthless!"
Of the Grimm, only black smoke remained.
X
"Look at the news!" Jade's mother said and thrust her Scroll to Amber. Amber tried her best to stay out of her reach, she didn't want to be near her. She didn't want to hurt Jade's mother with her nails, no matter how much she deserved it. And the best way to do that would be to stay away from her.
"It's your brother."
Amber snatched the Scroll and took a look herself. The jacket was the same if torn and riffled, and so were the jeans. But why? The green mask too was a weird thing to wear. 'What was he doing there alone in the darkness?' She wondered in nervousness, but she didn't have to wait for too long. A flash of the green flams and the black sea of Grimm he was battling alone was illuminated.
Her eyes widened, and she almost let out a scream. Only Jade's fast actions in covering her mouth stopped her. Not that Amber noticed it.
S-so many Grimm. She wanted to cry. She wanted to run away. She wanted mom and dad. She wanted Jaune.
X
And that's a wrap. Wow, this was exhausting. Also, I have no idea how to write fight scenes