Tekkadan Dorm, middle of the night.
It was currently 3:00 am. All the students, and staff, at Beacon were fast asleep. Some students had projects due, some had essays and others, like the first year teams, had a field trip that would be in a few hours. Kazuki was still fast asleep and Makoto was still there too, though she was now lying down.
Unfortunately, not all was peaceful. One of Kazuki's Chaos Emeralds had yet again materialized. This time however, it was a deep purple color. To anyone else who saw it, they would think it was just a pretty gem, to the people Kazuki had shown it to, they would simply think of it as another Chaos Emerald. But to Kazuki, it was one of the seven emeralds he had to constantly keep an eye on and would rarely ever use by itself. This is because within each Chaos Emerald, is a being of immense power equal to that of their respective emerald. The beast inside the purple emerald was just one half of an immortal Time God, one who sought to merge with his other half and destroy everything. Though he was stopped, he had been split into two beings once more, one half now resides within the golden Chaos Emerald. The other half had been missing, presumed to be dead by Kazuki and the three others who helped him. But in fact, he was still alive and had since been sealed within the purple emerald.
Kazuki had to constantly suppress the power of the beast inside the purple emerald as it had found a way of escaping before. Even in his sleep he was capable of doing so, but after what had happened during the day, the seal was weakened and now, the beast could escape, though it could not keep a physical form for long lest it alert the other emeralds to it's escape. From the purple emerald came a black smoke that snuck under the crack in Tekkadan's doorway.
"It seems that he is indeed unstable… good, I can make further use of my pawn for the morning," It thought to itself as it slowly made its way to Team CRDL's dorm, once again slipping under a crack in the door.
Reaching the foot of Cardin's bed it began to take shape. It's shape was that of a black, 3ft tall anthropomorphic hedgehog, though it's other colors were pale and its quills had dull green stripes. Its eyes were also a dull green, albeit a brighter green, with reptilian slits in the eyes that gave it an intimidating look. Adding to the intimidation was the lack of a mouth. It stared Cardin down, shooting a small orb of purple energy at him to wake him up.
"Ow! What the hell?!" Cardin shouted, suddenly waking up and rubbing his head. Looking at his team, he saw that they were all still fast asleep. He then looked to the foot of his bed, "W-What the hell are you!?" Cardin asked, clearly terrified by the appearance of this… alien.
"Greetings, my name is Mephiles. Mephiles the Dark…" Mephiles said, looking at Cardin, "and you, Cardin Winchester, can help me in my plans of revenge." He told the scared boy, now floating above him.
"W-Why the hell should I help you?!" Cardin asked, terrified.
"Because, Cardin Winchester, the person I seek revenge upon, is the same as yourself. Kazuki, he has wronged me, sealed me away and now, an opportunity for revenge has presented itself! I already gave you a helping hand before but it would seem that the boy's sudden burst of power, as well as his armor, shattered the hold that I held over you." Mephiles told him.
"What?! T-that was you?! No wonder I don't remember anything before that… But again, why should I help you!?"
"Need I explain it again?"
"Look man, if you wanna make his life hell, then do it yourself, I don't have a death wish!"
"You poor fool. You do not have a choice. I do not simply intend to make his life hell as you put it. I wish to end him and release my other half so we may become one again." Mephiles explained.
"What?! I don't wanna kill him!"
"Oh? You seem to have such a hatred for this world's animal-human hybrids, yet you do not wish to be rid of them? Think of it, a world where humans ruled over everything. And with my help, you could be the ruler of the entire planet."
Cardin went silent. Yeah, sure, he really didn't like faunas but he didn't want to kill them all off! He wasn't some genocidal maniac like… like the white fang…
Cardin realized at that moment just how much he was acting like the ones he hated. The White Fang used to be peaceful, he knew that, but now, they would not hesitate to attack a human simply because they were human, and he was doing that exact thing to the faunas. But it was probably too late now, if he started to apologize then people would think that he was only doing it so that getting attacked by the White Fang was lessened. Wait a minute, what did he mean by 'this world'?
"Are you done thinking to yourself about pointless trivial matters? You can help me by either doing so willingly, or I have you assist me by force." Mephiles told him in a calm yet intimidating tone.
"Go to hell." Cardin told the intruder, spitting in his face and standing up, towering over Mephiles.
Mephiles however, simply let out a dark chuckle, "If I were to go to hell, then all of its denizens would flee from me in fear. Though I am not complete, I am still partially a God." He told him.
Cardin didn't even get time to process that last bit as he suddenly blacked out.
Morning, CRDL Dorm
Cardin woke up in a sweat, looking around, he noticed that he was still in his bed.
"Maybe… it was just a dream…? Yeah, there's no way that was real, a small anthropomorphic hedgehog with no mouth calling itself a God? Yeah right." He thought to himself as he got out of bed and proceeded to get ready.
"Ugh… yo, Cardin, what happened last night? I heard you shouting…" his teammate, Dove, told him, waking up.
Cardin froze stiff, was he really not dreaming? No.. no of course he was, he must have been shouting in his sleep… right?
"I just… had a bad dream, that's all." He told his teammate.
"Alright then."
Tekkadan Dorm
Makoto slowly opened her eyes, rubbing them after a long night's sleep. Looking around, she noticed that she wasn't in her own dorm but Tekkadan's, thankfully the team's members were asleep.
"Huh? When did I sleep in here?" She thought to herself, scratching her head.
She then heard some light snoring and looked down to her thighs and began blushing furiously. Using her thighs as a pillow, was Kazuki. He was fast asleep and appeared to not have moved at all during the night.
"W-w-w-w-what!? When!? When did… oh that's right… he passed out in Combat Class and I brought him back here… then I saw his memories thanks to that blue emerald and… I stayed here after he grabbed my hand in his sleep…." Makoto thought, remembering what had transpired the day before.
A soft smile slowly crept onto her face, "huh, he actually looks really peaceful and… wait a minute what am I thinking?! Last I remember, I saw his life! Well, his PAST life but still… to think that there was someone who had gone through that much pain…but… what were those giant robots and those portals… also 'Master'? What's with that? And what the hell are servants? And that girl, Mordred. It wasn't any of them that died but… Kazuki..." Makoto then began to blush once more as she remembered that the rest of Tekkadan most definitely saw her.
Slowly and carefully she moved Kazuki off of her and left the dorm, returning to her own, thankfully everyone had already left, most likely to the dining hall.
"At least I don't have to worry about that… but they're DEFINITELY gonna be asking where I was…" Makoto said to herself as she quickly went to get a fresh pair of clothes, unaware that almost everyone saw her and Kazuki.
Forever Falls
The Bullhead carrying teams, RWBY, JNPR, RJNN, BLST, CRDL and Tekkadan had finally arrived at Forever Falls and it, true to its name, was covered in red grass and trees with red leaves, giving it a sort if Fall feel to it.
"Now I know that the view is quite amazing but we are not here on a sightseeing trip, you all have work to do, each of you are to fill two of these jars with red sap from the trees. We will return here at 4pm sharp, so until then, continue with your assignment and most of all… have fun." Goodwitch explained to everyone as they all moved off on their own.
"Come one, let's get this done quickly so I can go and run around for a bit." Kazuki told his friends.
"Let's race each other!" Ruby shouted.
"Sure."
"Never figured you to be a runner." Ragna said to him.
"Ah well, a friend of mine had a speed semblance, bastard was so fast he had his name changed to Sonic, he was a hedgehog faunas. Fastest guy I knew, I was always JUST behind him whenever we raced but he was probably going slower to make it more fun for himself. I think he and you two would get along." Kazuki told everyone as he turned to Ruby and Yang at that last bit.
"What was he like, strength-wise?" Bang asked him.
"Took me a few years to catch up to him in strength, even more to get stronger than him, course there was also that knucklehead, if he was as fast as Sonic then he'd be able to win in every fight those two had. Oh! Then there was Tails."
"Tails?" Jaune asked.
"That was his nickname, he was a fox faunas that was born with two tails, he was just a little bit slower than Sonic but he was incredibly smart for a kid his age, hell, he used his damn twin tails to FLY!" Kazuki told them all.
"How would that even work?" Blake asked, trying to picture the image of a two-tailed fox faunas flying.
"How old was he?" Bullet asked.
"Oh, he was 8. He had an IQ of 300 I think."
Everyone stared in silence at Kazuki. Somehow, he was constantly surprising them, first was the supposed Reality Marble then the Chaos Emeralds and now he was apparently friends with a two-tailed fox faunas that was 8 years old and had an IQ of 300. Just how many crazy people did Kazuki know?!
"Well, come on, we're wasting daylight here. Oh, and Ruby, don't try to eat the sap on your team…" Kazuki told everyone.
"Same goes for you Nora." Ren told his partner.
"Aww…." Nora slumped in disappointment.
Soon, all the teams were busy gathering the sap from the trees, with team JNPR having the most trouble as Nora had taken to eating the sap, despite being told otherwise. Tekkadan had finished up rather quickly, though that was mostly because Kazuki had stabbed the trees a few times to make the sap come out faster, it didn't come out too fast but it was enough.
Looking around, he saw that Ruby and Blake had to constantly cover their noses. It's not that the tree sap smelt bad, it's smell was just too strong. Team JNPR had moved onto their tenth tree and now Nora was being held back by Pyrrha as Ren and Jaune filled her jars. RJNN was almost finished and BLST was having the same problem as JNPR, thankfully, Amane's scarf was more capable of keeping Tao still than Pyrrha was with Nora. It was then that Kazuki noticed Cardin walking towards him, sighing, he walked up to the bully.
"What do you want, asshole?" Kazuki asked him, annoyance in his voice.
"Can I… ask you something?" Cardin asked, something that surprised Tekkadan.
"... sure… what is it?"
Cardin leaned in to whisper, "D-does the name Mephiles m-mean anything to you?" he asked, sounding afraid.
It was then that Kazuki became stiff and quickly grabbed Cardin by the collar of his armor and slammed him into a tree, "Where the hell did you hear that name!?" Kazuki demanded.
Naoto and Kazuma looked surprised to see Kazuki suddenly slam Cardin into a tree and Blake had managed to hear Kazuki's demand, looking over, she saw him as well as his eyes. They were afraid but not for the same reason as before, no the type of fear she saw was from something else.
"Hey, I'm gonna go take a look around." She told her team, Ruby gave her a thumbs up, as did Yang while Weiss was annoyed that she was just up and leaving.
"Cardin, talk. Now." She heard Kazuki say.
"L-Last night! I-I though it was just some freaky dream but then… Well, Dove said he heard me shout last night and I got nervous, that… that THING said your name so I decided to chance it and ask you!" Cardin told him quickly, waving his hands in front of his face.
Kazuki let go of Cardin and walked back, looking pissed off about something. He then sighed, "Look, it's better that you stick with me then, no matter what, if you see him again, shout Iblis as loud as you can and I'll come running…." Kazuki told him.
Blake was confused. She had seen what Kazuki could do, she had seen what Cardin's done, and now, Kazuki was telling the bully to stay near him for safety? And Iblis? What did that mean? Was it the thing that Cardin was talking about's name? Iblis… Knowing Kazuki and how he apparently knew someone that killed a mad-man that was mutated by curses, she assumed that this Iblis was either that person, or it was one of the curses given a physical form.
Blake decided to spy on them a bit more, so she jumped up into a tree out of their sight. For the next few hours, Cardin had stayed close to Kazuki and his team at all times, eventually, Tekkadan and Cardin moved back to the rest of Team CRDL to make sure that they actually did their assignment and collected the tree sap. Oddly enough however, Kazuki had helped them by stabbing the trees the same way he did for his team, Blake heard him say something about, "The quicker this is done, the better," When it was nearing 4pm, Blake headed back to her own team and was immediately asked where she went by her leader and Weiss.
"Where have you been?!" Weiss demanded, pointing a finger at Blake.
"I told you, to look around." She told the ice-queen.
"Okay but what were you looking for?" Ruby asked her.
"Just to see if there were any grimm nearby, thankfully there were none."
"That still doesn't explain why you were gone for several hours." Weiss commented.
"I was also keeping an eye on Cardin's team, you know, to make sure they don't do something." Blake told her team the half-truth.
"Well ok then, let's head back to the bullhead so we can go back to Beacon now." Yang spoke up.
As Team RWBY was making their way back to the bullhead, they all noticed team CRDL walking behind Tekkadan, gathering confused looks from everyone except Blake.
"Uhm.. I do not mean to sound rude, Kazuki, but what are you doing with Team CRDL?" Bang asked him.
"Just making sure they actually did their assignment and didn't try to stir up any trouble." Kazuki told them.
In truth, Kazuki was keeping an eye out for Mephiles and was beginning to think that maybe Cardin really was just dreaming, but to dream of Mephiles specifically was a little worrying, especially since the bastard mentioned his name. As they were watching over CRDL, Kazuki had come up with a plan with his team should the moutless freak show himself.
"Well I'm glad to see that they actually did their work, for once. It seems that you being near them is quite the intimidation factor." Jin said to him, noting the look of fear on Cardin's face and nervousness on his teammates' faces.
"Yeah, well, as I said, didn't want them to stir up any trouble."
"Alright everyone, now that we have all that we came for we may now head back to Beacon, everyone on the bullhead." Goodwitch ordered the students.
It was then that Cardin gripped his head in pain and let out a scream, causing everyone to turn to him with shock and confusion written all over their faces.
"Mr. Winchester! What's happening?" Goodwitch asked him. As much as she disliked him, he was still her student and as such, his safety was her top priority.
"H-He's in my head!" Cardin shouted, causing everyone to become even more confused, except for Kazuki.
"Shit!" He swore as he ran up to Cardin, ready to pull out the Chaos Emeralds.
When he got close, he suddenly spat out his own blood as a black spike shot out of the ground and impaled him in the chest. Everyone could only look in terror as in their eyes, whatever that spike was had just bypassed Kazuki's aura. Cardin then stood up, his hands still on his head and began thrashing around as the spike dissipated and Kazuki fell to the ground.
"O-Oh my god… KAZUKI!" Makoto shouted, she had seen him impale himself on a sword but that was quickly healed before it could cause anything bad to happen, and this time, Kazuki wasn't healing.
"You Bastard!" Ragna shouted, grabbing Aramasa off his belt, ready to charge at Cardin.
Cardin's thrashing suddenly stopped and he stood there, motionless. Slowly, his face came into view again and everyone could see the pale green eyes with reptilian-like slits for pupils.
"Finally, now to grab what is rightfully mine." Cardin said, only his voice was different, it was deeper and much more sinister, "This boy has served his purpose, but as his body has proven useful, I suppose I shall allow him to be the last to fall." The voice said.
[Cue: Sonic the Hedgehog 2006 OST: Mephiles Boss theme]
"What the hell are those?!" Bullet exclaimed as creatures of purple and black began rising from the ground. Some looked like giant sand-worms while others had the appearance of a giant golem. There were also small four-legged canine looking ones and ones that looked like birds. The birds seemed like they were made out of a purple flame.
"Go and be rid of this rabble, while I retrieve the chaos emeralds that hold myself and Iblis." the voice ordered.
"It's that name again, Iblis. Then what IS this guy? It's not Cardin, that's obvious." Blake thought to herself, getting ready to fight.
"Come on! Let's get rid of these things before they attract any Grimm!" Ragna ordered as he charged at the creatures made of black rock and purple flames, "DEAD SPIKE!" Ragna roared as he swung Aramasa in an underhand motion, causing a giant wave of Darkness to come forth and slam into the creatures; unfortunately, the golem-like ones were still standing.
"Blades of Ice!" Jin shouted as he swung Yukianasa in upward and downward swinging motions, causing two blades of ice to shoot forward and hit the golems, freezing them.
"HAH!" Yang shouted as she quickly took to punching the Golem's with as much force as she could, shattering the ice and Golem's alike.
Ruby, Blake and Noel were each busy fighting off the canine and avian creatures with some difficulty, as the canine creatures had a hard protective shell that went all along their back and covered their face, while the Avian creatures were very agile. Noel had the least trouble with the Canine creatures due to the nature of Bolverk as whenever she shot one, it would immediately drop dead while Ruby and Blake had an easier time with the Avian creatures.
Suddenly, due to the fear of Team CRDL's other members and the anger of a few of the other students, namely Ragna, Naoto and Bullet, several Grimm started coming in through the forest.
"Crap!" Kazuma cursed as he just barely dodged a swipe from a Beowolf's claw.
"Everyone on the bullhead! We're leaving now!" Goodwitch ordered.
"Not a chance! Not with these things running about!" Ragna told the professor who proceeded to scowl as she too joined her students in combating the grimm.
Currently, Amane and Makoto were by Kazuki's body, with Amane using his scarf as a makeshift bandage around Kazuki's wound while Makoto killed a few Beowolves that had gotten too close.
"No, Come one Kazuki, wake up!" Makoto pleaded, afraid that her friend might die, as she knocked a Beowolf into a tree.
"Makoto, we need to stay calm, remember what he showed us with the bird?" Amane asked to her.
"Yeah… That's it! The Chaos Emeralds… but I don't remember the chant!" Makoto told him, finishing off the Beowolf from before.
"Well try to remember it, he might not have much time left."
"Guys, we'll watch over Kazuki, but you two need to go and help the others." Jaune told the two of them as he walked up with Pyrrha.
"Alright, but you need to wrap something around that wound of his if we're going to go and help, otherwise he might bleed out." Amane told him.
Makoto was deep in thought, trying to remember the chant that Kazuki used to bring the bird back to life. Unfortunately, even if she remembered the chant, she still needed the emeralds and they weren't here.
"Please! Please, save Kazuki! I know you can hear me!" Makoto thought, remembering how the Blue Emerald appeared when she wanted to know more about Kazuki.
Mephiles, using Cardin's body, watched from the distance, a smirk adorning the face of Cardin, "Yes, that's it, call forth the emeralds so I may free myself and Iblis."
As he was thinking that, he had to jump back to avoid an attack from Ragna and Naoto.
"Alright you freak, who the hell are and what have you done with the other asshole?!" Ragna demanded.
"Ah, I see, you're Ragna. Very well, since I know your name, I suppose it is common courtesy to tell you mine. My name is Mephiles, Mephiles the Dark." Mephiles introduced himself with a bow.
"I don't give a damn about your title, how the hell did you get past Kazuki's aura?!"
"You assume he had any to begin with. Surely you found it odd when he passed out after being struck in the side with this boy's mace while he was supposedly at full aura capacity." Mephiles told him, with a sinister smile on his face.
"What?" Ragna was confused but didn't get to think any further on the bastard's words as he was forced to dodge a wave of black energy that went straight at him.
Naoto had dodged to the side and quickly closed in on Mephiles and attempted to land a strike on him using a blood-whip. Something that Mephiles was easily able to dodge before speeding behind him and kicking Naoto in the back. Ragna then returned to the fight and swung Aramasa down on Mephiles, only for it to be caught in one hand.
"What!?" Ragna exclaimed before being thrown to the side.
"You don't have any hope of beating me, I have been feeding off of the negative energy from that fool from the day I was sealed within that Chaos Emerald and now my power has grown exponentially!" Mephiles explained to them.
"Dammit! Ragna, we have to keep him away from Kazuki!" Naoto told him.
"Yeah, yeah I know!" Ragna told him as they both once again charged at Mephiles.
"RESTRICTION RELEASE!" Ragna Roared as the shells on his gloves opened and he began to move even faster towards Mephiles, catching the Chaos Beast off guard and managing to get a powerful sideways slash on his torso, sending him flying.
"Not done yet!" Naoto shouted as he entered his Blood-Repulsor state and Kicked Mephiles up into the air.
Ragna then jumped up after him and attempted to knock him back down to the ground with a powerful axe kick, only for one of the Avian creatures to swoop in and take the hit, "Dammit!"
Back with those around Kazuki, they were all fending off several Grimm and some of the Golem creatures. Makoto and Nora had an easy time with pretty much everything, while Ren, Jaune and Pyrrha guarded Kazuki and Amane.
As Makoto destroyed yet another Golem, causing it to fall onto several Beowolves, she quickly ran up to Amane, "I remembered the chant!" She told him.
"That's good, now we just need to find a way to get those emeralds out." He said.
As if on cue, the Chaos Emeralds materialized, with the Gold one glowing the brightest.
"Well then. Alright, Makoto dear, it's up to you now." Amane told her.
[End Song]
[Cue: Sonic the Hedgehog 2006 OST: Wishing upon the Chaos Emeralds]
Makoto took a deep breath as she prepared herself, "The Servers are the Seven Chaos, Chaos is Power," as Makoto was uttering the chant, Kazuki's body began floating and a green glow could be seen coming from his wound, prompting Amane to remove his scarf, "Power enriched by the Heart,"
As this was happening, Mephiles saw what was happening and slowly began to panic, "No!" He shouted as he dodged another attack from Ragna and Naoto's combined assault.
"Eyes on us bastard!" Naoto taunted.
"The Controller serves to Unify the Chaos." Makoto opened her eyes, "Please, heal Kazuki and save him!" She pleaded.
As the words left her mouth, Kazuki's body was completely enveloped, causing everyone to cover their eyes, the Grimm stopped attacking to cover their own eyes as well and the creatures summoned from Mephiles appeared to cower before the light.
As the light dimmed, they all saw Kazuki standing upright, the Emeralds circling around him. Opening his eyes, he locked right onto Mephiles. He then raised his hand to the sky as several weapons began raining down upon the creatures he summoned as well as some of the Grimm. Once the barrage had ended, he looked over to Kazuma and nodded.
Kazuma, seeing this, ran up to the currently distracted Mephiles, "Ouroboros!" He called out as a green and black portal opened up, shooting out of the portal, was the green chain with the snake head, quickly ensnaring Cardin's body.
"What?! NO! I was so close!" Mephiles shouted as he struggled to break free.
Kazuki then walked up, with the purple Chaos Emerald in his hand, "Time for you to go back to your jail, you sick bastard." The Chaos Emerald then left Kazuki's hand and began to glow, "Iblis, Kiritsu, keep a closer eye on him now." Kazuki said, seemingly speaking to no one, only for the Red and Gold Emeralds to appear, "Chaos… Control!" Upon uttering those two words, a black smoke began to leave Cardin's body and moved into the Emerald, all the while, Mephiles could be heard shouting.
"Glad that's done with…" Kazuki said, letting out a sigh, he then turned to the Bullhead, "Everyone get onto the Bullhead and get into the air unless you wanna get burned! Kazuma, release Cardin." Kazuki ordered everyone as he ran back to the Bullhead alongside Naoto, Ragna, Kazuma and Cardin.
"What about you?" Makoto asked.
"Me? I'll be fine, the fire won't harm me, but it doesn't distinguish between friend and foe and Mephiles' attack attracted quite a few Grimm, I have the perfect weapon to deal with them." He explained.
"And that weapon is?" Bang asked.
Kazuki only smiled and projected the sword he used to stop Yukianasa before the initiation.
"It's that sword again.." Jin observed.
[End Song]
[Cue: Fate/Extra: Last Encore OST: Wild Hunt]
"You wanna know why it was melting Yukianasa's blade, Jin? You're about to find out, now get onto the Bullhead." Kazuki told everyone.
After everything else that had just happened, only Goodwitch had wanted to argue, but seeing all her other students get on without any kind of worry stopped her before she could even argue. Once everyone was on the Bullhead and a good bit away from Kazuki, they were horrified to see him not moving as a massive horde of Grimm encircled him.
"This sword is a reflection of the sun itself." As Kazuki said this, he threw the blade high up into the air.
"WHAT'S THAT MORON DOING!?" Ragna shouted.
He was soon shut up however as it burst into what could only be described as a miniature Sun.
"It is the other Sacred Sword of Stars." Kazuki then got into a stance that made it look as if he was holding the hilt of a very large sword, then underneath him, the image of a sun appeared, with arrows serving as rays rotating before finally stopping, then, a beam of fire from the miniature sun shot down and into Kazuki's open hand, the miniature sun beginning to shrink before becoming a large blade of pure fire.
Everyone on the Bullhead could only stare in amazement at what they were seeing, even though it was the equivalent of a sun, not one of them could feel any kind of heat, except for Ragna who was sweating profusely. Down below, the Grimm began to back away.
"The heat of these flames shall cleanse the impure," Kazuki brought his sword to his side.
"Excalibur, Galatine!" He shouted as he spun around with the blade made of fire in a full circle, burning all of the Grimm to ashes before him, not leaving a single one alive. Even the creatures that Mephiles had summoned that weren't already dead were swiftly burned. As the heat died down, not a single pile of ashes remained, signifying that any ashes of the Grimm or Black Creatures created by Mephiles were also burned into nothing.
[End Song]
As the bullhead came down to pick Kazuki up, Makoto, Ruby, Yang and Kazuma all quickly jumped out to get to Kazuki who was kneeling down, now holding Excalibur Galatine once more, though not because he was exhausted as they originally thought. In fact, from what Makoto could hear, he was apologizing.
"Sorry for copying your sword, Gawain, but I needed something that wouldn't destroy the forest." She heard him say.
"Kazuki! Are you ok?! What was that, it was so awesome! YouthrewthatswordupintotheairandweallstartedtofreakoutbutthenitturnedintoasmallsunandthenitbecameabaldeandyouwerealllikeEXCALIBURGALATINEandalltheGrimmburnedand-" Ruby was quickly shut up by Yang who covered her sister's mouth with her hand.
"Ruby's fangirling aside, for real, you ok? I mean, you were stabbed through the chest somehow, came back and then created a sword that created a miniature sun and killed off all the Grimm without burning the forest down." Yang said to him.
"Yeah, I'm good now, Makoto, thanks for saving my ass back there." Kazuki thanked her with a smile.
"You're welcome," She then promptly punched him over the head, "And don't ever scare us like that again!"
"OW! Sorry ok?! Jeez!" Kazuki apologized, rubbing the back of his head.
"I'm guessing we're just going to chalk everything that happened up to you being you then?" Kazuma asked.
"I guess."
"Oh, by the way, what are we gonna do with Cardin over there?" Yang asked him, pointing to Team CRDL's leader who was getting an earful from Goodwitch.
"I got this." He said, walking over.
"Unbelievable! What do you have to say for yourself?! You almost killed another student and put the rest of your peers in danger!" Goodwitch lectured Cardin who only looked down in shame.
"Hey, Professor, lay off of him will you? He wasn't exactly in control" Kazuki said to her.
"What!? Mr. Kazuki, he almost killed you!"
"And in case you didn't hear me, he wasn't in control, I'm just gonna come clean right here and now. There are things more powerful than the nine Nox Nyctores and I'm currently the guardian of Seven of those objects, each of them having a Beast within them. One of them almost escaped completely and was using Cardin as means to completely free himself." Kazuki explained, giving Goodwitch a stern stare of his own, showing that he wasn't fooling around.
Goodwitch wanted to say he was lying, but considering everything that had just happened, she couldn't find any other explanation and had no other choice but to believe him. She let out a sigh, "Fine, Mr. Winchester gets off with a long detention but you are going to have to explain this to Headmaster Ozpin, am I understood?"
"Yes, Professor. Oh, and one more thing, to all of you." Kazuki said, staring them down, "If word of this reaches anyone else who I haven't told myself, then I won't hesitate to use Excalibur Galatine on you, or maybe I'll use something worse." He threatened, his face serious and in a dark tone, showing that he wasn't joking and really would do that, "General Ironwood is to hear NOTHING about what had happened here, lest he try to take the Chaos Emeralds by force, cause I'm gonna say it now, the Emeralds and technology, NEVER mix well." Kazuki then turned around and got into the bullhead, his threat ringing in Goodwitch's head on repeat.
Bullhead back to Beacon
The ride back to Beacon was silent, almost everyone had heard what Kazuki said to Goodwitch and Cardin. Blake and Makoto hearing every word of it. Blake always had a reason to suspect Kazuki when she heard from Ruby that he made armor with a V-Fin on its head. Then there was the thing in History where he said he wouldn't hesitate to kill Adam. And just then, an hour ago, he threatened to kill Professor Goodwitch and Cardin, and anyone else really, that told anyone of the Chaos Emeralds and everything else that happened in Forever Fall.
Makoto wasn't suspicious so much as she was concerned, the Chaos Emeralds could perform literal miracles, but after seeing what could happen if one of the Beasts inside them escaped, she also realized that they could bring nothing but destruction in the wrong hands. Kazuki had apparently been the guardian of these things, most likely in his past life too, meaning that he had to prevent curses from destroying his body AND had to make sure those Beasts didn't escape their seals. He also said that the Emeralds and technology never mixed, implying that someone had tried to mix the two before.
Ruby, wanting to change the mood, decided to speak up and get everyone's mind off of that Mephiles guy, "So…. Kazuki, that sword, who used it again?" She asked, tilting her head to the side.
"Sir Gawain, Knight of the Round Table and more well known as The Knight of the Sun." Kazuki told her, projecting Excalibur Galatine.
"Let me guess, someone from your village happened to conveniently have the same name as well as the sword?" Jin asked, sarcasm in his voice.
"Yep."
"Anyone else?"
Kazuki then scratched the back of his head, "U-Uh… yeah actually… Arthur, Mordred, Lancelot, Galahad - though Galahad was a girl called Mash Kyrielight - Gawain, Tristan, Gareth - also a girl - and a few more."
"Oh yeah? Like who?" Ragna asked.
"Umm… let's see, there was Fionn Mac Cumhaill, Diarmuid Ua Duibhne, Scáthach, Karna, Arjuna, Siegfried, Atalanta, Achilles, Hercules, Chiron-"
"Woah, woah, woah! Hercules and Achilles?! Weren't those two Demi-Gods in Greek Myth?" Naoto interrupted.
"Demi-Gods? Greek? What the hell are Greeks?" Ragna asked.
"Greeks are people from the long lost country of Greece. And you already know what a Demi-God is." Kazuki told him.
"I don't!" Ruby told him.
"Okay so you take a God or a Goddess and you make their… lover a regular human or faunas, their child would be a mix between a mortal and a God, hence the term Demi-God." Kazuki explained to her, "Even though the way Achilles got his divinity is different from other Demi-Gods, seriously, who the hell puts their baby, head first into a river held by the heel, or put their entire body, minus the heel, into a fucking fire?!" Kazuki thought, still baffled by Ancient Greeks.
"Ohhh… so, what other Demi-Gods were in your village?!"
"What? None, they just happened to share their names… and weapons…"
"Aw… Okay then, what other people were named after demi-gods?"
"Let's see, there's Cú Chulainn, Hercules, Achilles, Karna, Arjuna, Gilgamesh… um… shit I can't remember…" Kazuki said, slumping down in disappointment.
"What about actual Gods then? I'm sure those Long Lost Countries you keep talking about had their own Gods, aside from the Brother Gods we know today." Weiss said to him.
"People named after full Gods? Okay, so there's Ishtar, Ereshkigal, Zeus - no one liked him, hit on women too much and thankfully NEVER succeeded, we didn't need a full reincarnation of the real Zeus - Artemis, Orion, Asclepius, Astraea, Nagao Kagetora, Brynhhildr, Chiron, Caenis, the list goes on."
"That's… a lot of people named after Gods and Goddesses…" Kazuma said aloud.
Naoto had a visible sweat-drop rolling down his face, knowing that Kazuki most likely interacted with each and everyone of them.
"Did Ishtar and Ereshkigal have red eyes?" Makoto asked him.
"Hm? Yeah, how'd you know? Then again, all Mesopotamian Gods have red eyes…. Except for Ishtar when she's angry, then her eyes turn orange…" Kazuki said.
"Uh… lucky guess?" Makoto told him, a line of sweat rolling down her face, hoping that Kazuki doesn't figure out she saw his memories.
Beacon, Ozpin's Office.
To say that Ozpin was confused would be an accurate assessment. Kazuki, one of the three students he had been keeping a watchful eye on, had been brought to him by a rather annoyed looking Goodwitch. From everything he saw, Kazuki had only ever endangered a student once, said student was Cardin Winchester but he was quick to punish himself for his outburst. From everything he had done, Kazuki had not once stepped out of line and had been a rather grand student, of course there was the time he had passed out in Goodwitch's combat class but he was then brought to his dorm by Makoto Nanaya, there was however, the two times earlier that day where the camera's in the halls, and even on one of the balconies, had stopped working. Still, there was the current matter at hand that had to be addressed.
"So, Mr. Kazuki, may I ask the reason why Professor Goodwitch has brought you to me today? Something happened in Forever Fall, I presume?" Ozpin asked, pushing aside the reports he had been looking over, reports on empty White Fang encampments on Vale's outskirts that seemed to be completely empty, as if they were abandoned. No blood or bodies or anything, just supplies.
"You could say that." Kazuki replied, not looking at all bothered with being in the Headmaster's office.
"Mr. Kazuki, you said you would explain… whatever that thing that happened in forever fall was." Goodwitch told him.
Ozpin raised an eyebrow at that. That thing? Could she have perhaps encountered something relating to Terumi? "No, not possible, Terumi wouldn't reveal himself this early…" Ozpin thought.
"Right, right… That… well I suppose, it would be better to show you." Kazuki said as seven gems appeared before them all, rising into the air and forming a circle, "For now, just shut up and watch, I'll answer questions after the little recap."
Ozpin's eyes widened in disbelief. What he was seeing was the events that had transpired in Forever Falls. This Mephiles was something to keep an eye out for, or more precisely, to keep an eye on the purple emerald. The showing ended and the emeralds vanished, Ozpin then looked back towards Kazuki who was sitting straight on a chair, his face serious.
"Well? Questions?" He asked.
Ozpin became focused again, "Yes, this, Mephiles, what is he?" He asked his student.
"Depends, do you want what he used to be a part of or what he's relegated to?"
"Both, if you don't mind."
Kazuki let out a large sigh, "Fine, both it is, but first, a question to you, dear headmaster." He said to Ozpin in a semi-serious tone.
"Very well, ask away." Ozpin said, bracing himself for whatever question he might be asked.
"Do you believe in Gods OTHER than the two lazy shites known as Remnant's Brother Gods?" Kazuki asked.
Ozpin was slightly confused, surely the boy wasn't referring to Amaterasu. How anyone outside of his or her inner circles would know is beyond him, because one thing was for certain and that was that Kazuki was in neither.
"I do, I believe in three, the Brother Gods you mentioned and one more." Ozpin told him.
"I see… well I hate to shatter reality for you Oz, but there's more than just three, WAY more." Kazuki told him.
Ozpin wanted to refute this but there was no way he could without accidentally divulging anything.
"Would you care to elaborate on that?"
"Sure, for starters, Mephiles is just half of a God."
Ozpin's face became serious, Mephiles was merely half of another God, one unknown to him at that, "and what would the name of this God be?"
"Solaris, the God of the Sun and Time. Immortal to boot, you wanna kill him? Then you'd need to kill him in the past, present and future at the same time… at least… that's what was supposed to be the case." Kazuki said, his face not at all changing.
"Then What happened, because clearly, you have either witnessed such an event first hand, or you were aware of its existence." Ozpin said to him. This boy, Kazuki, he really must have been from another world, there was no other explanation for it.
"He was split into two separate beings once more, Mephiles the Dark, and Iblis, the Flames of Disaster. Though despite that name, Iblis only truly gained a conscience of his own after the second split. So his name as The Flames of Disaster is now inaccurate." Kazuki explained.
Ozpin went silent before continuing, "Mr. Kazuki, this next question relates to you specifically." he said, his tone now serious.
"Shoot away."
"I have reason to believe that you are from another world. Am I correct in my assessment?" Ozpin asked him, noting how Kazuki went stiff upon hearing the first half.
"... What gave it away?" He asked, looking rather annoyed.
Goodwitch, who was present the entire time, couldn't believe her ears. One of her students was from another world and had brought things, dangerous things, from that world too.
"Well, I suppose your encounter with Mr. Kval during initiation, I was just barely able to figure out what it was you had said to him and your reaction has just confirmed my suspicions. This also confirms that Mr. Kval is also from another world, or rather, an alternate timeline, judging by what you said." Ozpin explained.
Kazuki's face showed very clearly how annoyed he was, wondering how he was figured out so soon perhaps.
"Yeah, that's right, Naoto is as well, though I'm guessing you figured that out too?" Ozpin nodded at this.
"Well yeah, I'm just gonna tell you the truth, My entire Universe was destroyed." Kazuki told him.
Goodwitch and Ozpin looked shocked to hear this, someone losing their home is one thing, it happens a lot in the outskirts of each kingdom but to lose your entire world?
"I'm assuming you came to this one in search of a new life then?" Ozpin asked.
"Something like that, it was completely random but yeah, that's the jist of it." Kazuki said.
"And, how did you survive?"
"... I wish I didn't… Everyone else had to die when me, someone who definitely doesn't deserve it, survived.. And if you're wondering, it was a God that did it. Don't know his name, just that he killed himself on accident."
"That is… quite the story, Mr. Kazuki.. I… don't think I can actually come up with anything to say to-"
"Don't bother, there isn't a damn person in existence that's experienced the shit I went through, and if there is, I haven't met em" Kazuki interrupted in an annoyed tone.
"I see… well one last question, those gems, what are they?"
"They're called the Chaos Emeralds, I'm their guardian, and they are probably the reason I'm still alive. Within each of them is a Chaos Beast, Mephiles and Iblis are just two of them." Kazuki explained, "Can I go back to my dorm now? Before everyone thinks I got detention."
"Of course, I may call you back again Mr. Kazuki, there are some people who probably deserve to hear your story too." Ozpin told him.
"If one of them is General Ironwood, forget it, I've never gotten along with any kind of military, nor do I intend to, if you tell him about the Chaos Emeralds, I won't hesitate to kill you." Kazuki said in a dark tone as he walked to the elevator and left.
"He said the same thing to everyone at Forever Falls, I wonder… what else could have happened to him." Goodwitch pondered aloud.
"We may never know, Glynda, not everyone talks about their past so willingly… but that begs the question… does she know of his existence yet…" Ozpin said aloud.
Team RWBY Dorm
"Do you think he's ok?" Ruby asked her sister.
"I'm sure he's fine Rubes, he's just gone to explain everything to Ozpin, that's all." Yang told her younger sister.
"Still, those emeralds and that thing that came out of it, how can we be sure that will never happen again? For all we know, that thing could be using Kazuki." Blake told them.
"Blake, where is this coming from? That thing clearly wanted Kazuki dead." Yang said to her partner.
"It's just… how do we know he's not secretly helping it? How can we know that it won't happen again?"
"Blake, how could you say that? You saw what he could do, if he wanted to do something to us, he would have already done it." Ruby told her, defending Kazuki.
"I know but… there's just SOMETHING about him that screams Get Away whenever I'm near him." Blake explained.
"Does it have to do with that… what was it called? A Reality Marble? Does it have anything to do with when he was showing part of that?" Weiss asked.
"Something like that."
"Yeah, I felt it too, it was almost as if… he wasn't even… well, a person anymore." Yang said.
"Yeah, let's not forget the things he said too. First was that chant, it was almost like it was a description more than anything, then there's the fact that it belonged to that Archer person." Weiss said.
"Yeah, and when he told us how similar Archer's and his own semblances were." Ruby added.
"I think I overheard Noel use her semblance on him and she said something along the lines of Armory." Blake told them.
"Unlimited Blade Works and something to do with an Armory…" Weiss muttered, cupping her chin in her hand and thinking about what it could mean.
Team RWBY didn't get to continue their discussion as they heard Kazuki being greeted by his team. Looking outside of their dorm's door, they saw Kazuki was talking with Kazuma and Naoto, both of whom looked rather annoyed.
"You told him?" Blake heard Naoto say.
"Sorry but I was gonna have to tell him eventually, at least now he understands our situation a bit better." Kazuki said, scratching the back of his head.
"I'm honestly surprised he caught on this quickly." Kazuma said.
"Kazuma we literally found you in the forest during initiation." Naoto deadpanned.
"Oh right, there is that." Kazuma said sheepishly.
"They found him in the forest?" Blake said to herself.
"Wait, what?" Weiss asked.
"Kazuma didn't get here normally, they found him in the forest during initiation." Blake told her.
"What?! And Ozpin let him in?!"
"Shush, both of you!" Ruby told them.
"You know, you guys are the exact opposite of sneaky." Ragna told the four, standing in his team's doorway. He then pointed to Tekkadan who were now looking right at them.
"W-Whoops…" Yang said, rubbing her head.
"I see you are back from the Headmaster's office! That's good, did you get into trouble or something of the sort?" Bang asked Kazuki, walking up to him alongside Jaune, Pyrrha and Amane.
"Nah, he just wanted to know about what happened in Forever Falls and I told him… except the part about me almost dying.." Kazuki told them.
"What?! Why not?! That's definitely something you should tell the headmaster!" Ruby scolded him, rushing up to side and punching him in the arm.
"Ow… Okay, jeez I'm sorry, I promise I'll tell him some other time" Kazuki told her.
"I'd think that would be best for you, I'm still amazed that your wound healed so quickly, even if those emeralds of yours can heal all wounds and perform miracles." Amane said.
"Eh, I'm used to it."
"That's…. Not a good thing." Yang told him, walking up to the group.
Kazuki stood there, looking like he wanted to slap himself in the face, "How the hell do I always manage to make others worry about me…." He thought, then, he remembered his time at Tekkadan and how he always seemed to almost always be the most hurt. He then let a soft smile grace his face, "It is nice though… I won't deny that…"
"Kazuki?" He was interrupted from his thoughts by Noel and Makoto, Noel who called his name and Makoto who was waving her hand in front of his face.
"Huh? Yeah?"
"You ok? You were spacing out there." Makoto told him.
"Yeah, I'm fine, just remembered something." He told her.
"What was it?" She asked.
"Promise not to hit me?"
"No"
"Eh, worth a shot. Not telling though."
"Ugh, fine!" Makoto conceded.
"Well, it's just that back with the original Tekkadan, our resident healer was always the most worried about me since I always seemed to get hurt the most, though that's what I get for always letting my guard down!" Kazuki then winced as Makoto punched him in the arm, "OW! You said you wouldn't hit me!"
"I lied, seriously, just how careless are you? And that's coming from me!" She told him.
"T-Too much…" He said, rubbing his arm.
"Well you gotta start being careful, you got people who worry about you, ya know?" Yang told him.
"Yeah, yeah, I know." Kazuki said to her, smiling.
"Well, it seems that we have the rest of the day considering what happened earlier, so how about we go to Vale's shopping district and pick out a few things? I know the Beacon Dance isn't going to be for a while but it pays to be prepared." Amane said to them.
"Nope!" Kazuki siad, quickly running past them all.
"Sorry I uh… gotta go catch up on Grimm Studies! Yeah that's it!" Naoto said, going the opposite direction.
Ruby had also tried sneaking off, only to be grabbed by the hood by Yang, "Ah, Ah Sis. You're coming with." She told her.
"But Yaaaang! I don't even like dances!" Ruby protested, flailing about to no avail.
"Too bad sis, now come on."
"Count me out." Ragna said, walking back to his dorm.
"Huh? Why?" Noel asked.
"Same reason as Ruby, don't really care for dances. Don't think Jin does either." He told her walking off.
"Well… I'm not quite good when it comes to fashion so I shall rely on you to help pick something out for me, Amane." Bang told his teammate.
"Of course, now let's get going, dears!" Amane said, cheerfully.
Vale, Abandoned Warehouse
"You want us to do what!?" a female voice from over a scroll asked, panic and terror in her voice.
"You heard me, brat, you are to go to these coordinates, break in, destroy the security robots while I take care of the cameras and break him out." Hazama told her, annoyance in his voice, "Or are you THAT shit at your job as a lackey?"
"Now, Hazama, there is no need for that." A voice called out from behind him, causing him to freeze.
"And if you don't mind me asking, why is that… sir?" Hazama asked.
The girl on the other end of the scroll was confused, Hazama calling someone else sir? He didn't even show respect to Cinder, but this random guy, who Roman says just showed up, got that?
"I understand your confusion Emerald Sustrai," The voice said, causing Emerald to freeze, "But all you need to know is that I am Hazama's… original boss of sorts, I'm simply lending a helping hand to your boss' plans." He told her.
"W-well then, why are Myself and Mercury no longer required to go and free the Mad Dog?" She asked, relieved that she no longer has to go and free Azrael, the infamous Mad Dog, known for killing both friend and foe alike.
"That's because I already freed him, you are however to meet up with him at the same coordinates, expect some resistance. And you needn't worry, I already told him that the two of you would be arriving and that you'd be no fun to fight, cause had I not told him that, then you two would most certainly die." The boy told her.
"U-Understood…" Emerald said, shutting off her scroll.
"You already went and freed him? Then why not bring him here?" Hazama asked, no longer sounding afraid.
"Good to see that Takehaya isn't influencing your reactions anymore, or should I call him Terumi? And if you must know, I'm curious to see just who shows up."
"I see, well you've certainly piqued my interests in that too, boss." Hazama siad, a wicked grin appearing on his face.
Atlas, broken facility
"This is the place!? It's completely wrecked!" Mercury said, looking at the broken down doors and Altesian guard robots.
Mercury is a pale young man with gray eyes and gray hair, partially slicked back while unkempt at the front. He wears a slate gray and black two-tone partial-zip jacket that covers his upper body. He also wears a single notched belt with what appears to be a sash or bandanna draped over it. Protecting his arms are a set of rerebraces and vambraces.
"Yeah, I have eyes, Merc, I can see that." Emerald told her partner.
Emerald is a young woman with medium-brown skin and dark-red eyes. Her hair is a light, mint-green with a straight fringe and bangs as well as two long locks on each side in the back. She wears two bronze-colored rings on her middle fingers as well as a pair of strappy high-heeled pumps. The rest of her attire consists of an intricate white top and an olive-colored crop top, on the back of which is her personal emblem. This emblem is in the shape of a cut gem, most likely referring to her name. This is accompanied by white shorts, decorated with what appears to be a gold coin-plated belt with four gold chains draping around her back from two of the coins and what seems to be a green loincloth.
"So… you're the two that the brat sent to meet up with me?"
[Cue: BlazBlue Chronophantasma OST: The Tyrant]
Suddenly, both Emerald and Mercury freeze with fear, turning around, they saw him. Azrael, The Mad Dog.
Azrael is a large, powerfully built man with long, dark blue hair, a goatee, and blood red eyes. He wears a white trench coat with white buttons that barely cover his body, acting as a sort of cape with the sleeves hanging loose. The inside of the coat is purple. His trousers are pure white with a black cover over his right leg. His shoes are a bright golden hue and large tattoos decorate a great deal of his body, including his back; chest and even forearms.
"Gotta say, I'm disappointed with what I'm seeing, is this really the best he could send to show me the way? Although he did say that the two of you were rather weak and it seems he wasn't exactly lying." The Mad Dog said to the two before him.
Normally, Mercury would have responded to someone calling him weak with some sort of insult or just kicking them in the face, but he wasn't stupid, as much as Emerald said he was, he knew when he'd lose a fight and going against The Mad Dog would just outright kill him.
"Well, enough standing around, let's just go to wherever it is we're meant to be, you two are supposed to lead me there right?." He said.
"Y-Yeah, just follow us…" Mercury said, nervousness plaguing his face.
"HALT!" A voice from above called out to them.
Looking up, they saw several Altesian bullheads carrying Several Altesian Soldiers as well as Robots hovering above them.
"You are in a restricted area! Surrender now or-Oh my Gods!" The Commander who called out to them before began stuttering when he noticed that the tall man behind Emerald and Mercury was Azrael, "Y-you've gotta be kidding! T-The Mad Dog has escaped! Alert General Ironwood immediately!" He ordered his pilot in a panic.
"Sir! We can't, something's jamming our communications!" The pilot told him in an equally panicked tone.
All of the Altesian soldiers began to shake with fear. They had all heard the stories about Azrael and how he killed anyone when he was on the battlefield, regardless if they were friend or foe. It had taken twenty huntsmen to finally capture him with thirteen being killed and five severely injured to the point they had to retire.
"This'll barely count as a warm-up." Azrael said as he picked up a piece of wreckage and chucked it at one of the bullheads, causing it to go through it like a hot knife through butter, killing anyone unlucky enough to be in its path.
"D-Dear Gods… f-fall back!" The soldier from before ordered, only for more pieces of the wreckage to be hurled at the bullheads, clipping their wings and causing them to crash.
"Come on, don't chicken out on me now." Azrael said, walking up to the crashed Bullheads.
"W-we don't have a choice now… All units! Apprehend The Mad Dog and his allies! Bring them down, permission to kill granted!" The commander ordered.
All of the soldiers and Altesian Robots began to open fire on the three, with Emerald and Mercury dodging to find cover while Azrael just stood there, the bullets harmlessly bouncing off of him. He proceeded to stretch his arms out before bringing them back together, clapping loudly and sending a powerful shock-wave forward, disorienting a few soldiers and destroying most of the robots.
"Hey, look at that, you're still alive, I must have lost my edge." Azrael said with a smirk.
One of the soldiers had gotten up close to Azrael and attempted to strike him with his mecha-shift gun-sword, only for The Mad Dog to weakly flick the soldier away. Weakly by Azrael's standards, that is. The soldier was sent flying into a tree, his aura having been shattered. Looking up, he saw Mercury staring him down.
"Sorry, but we can't really leave any survivors." Mercury told the soldier before kicking him in the face, a gunshot ringing out, signifying that the soldier is now dead.
Emerald was currently walking up behind two soldiers who appeared to be firing at some avian Grimm.
"First The Mad Dog escapes and now Grimm!? We're gonna die!" one of the soldiers cried before being quickly silenced by Emerald, who then proceeded to quickly take out the other soldier beside him.
Azrael looked over and hummed, "Illusions huh? Not bad kid, but heads up if we ever end up on opposite sides, they don't work on me." He said aloud before continuing to effortlessly crush the rest of the Altesian Robots with a few flicks to their heads.
Running up behind Azrael was another Soldier, blood running down his head. He was holding a long sword blade, most likely from his gun that lay on the ground behind him, broken. When he got close, he brought down on The Mad Dog's arm, only for it to do nothing, causing the vibrations to run up his own arm. Azrael looked down at him with a bored expression before kicking him, sending him flying through a few trees and killing him.
Azrael then looked to another soldier who was holding the cut in half corpse of one of his comrades, most likely someone who died when Azrael chucked a piece of wreckage at the first bullhead. The soldier then looked at Azrael with both anger and fear in his eyes and opened fire on him. Azrael, the bullets not at all affecting him, quickly appeared in front of the soldier, grabbing the gun by its barrel and crushing it.
"W-what the hell are you!?" The soldier asked, terrified.
"Bored." Was Azrael's response as he brought his hand down on the soldier's head, crushing it and killing him.
[End Song]
"Like what you see?" Azrael asked out loud, confusing Emerald and Mercury as he clearly wasn't talking to them.
"Yes indeed, most impressive, Azrael. I can see why you earned the names The Mad Dog and The One Who Carries Death." A voice replied.
Looking up, Mercury and Emerald saw the boy that Hazama had referred to as Sir. He was hovering in the air, without the use of any kind of technology, "But you seem to have missed one." He said, a green explosion erupting from under the wreckage, causing Mercury to flinch and Emerald to jump in surprise.
"He would've died anyway, not much point in finishing someone who can't even fight." Azrael told him.
"Yes, indeed, but it always pays to be cautious, although I'm disappointed that THIS was all they sent… I was hoping Atlas' famous general would show up himself." The boy said, disappointment in his voice.
"Yeah, me too, I was hoping for MUCH more of a challenge!" The Mad Dog said, cracking his knuckles.
"Don't be so hasty now, Azrael, you will get the fight you're looking for, I can guarantee you that, but allow me to make myself clear. There is someone at Beacon Academy who looks exactly like me, except for his blue eyes and ring. HE'S mine to kill, and don't inform him of my existence, I wish to be the one to deliver the news of my existence to him." The boy said, a sinister grin on his face.
"Sure, whatever, but if I see him first I'm gonna fight him." Azrael told him, his tone indicating annoyance.
"That's fine, I never said that you couldn't fight him, just that you're not to kill him." He said.
"What is he your brother or something? What's so important that YOU'VE gotta be the one to tell him about yourself?" Mercury asked, not at all intimidated.
"The importance that I lived. He thinks me to be dead, I wish to see his world crumble around him." The boy informed him, "Now, let us leave. You two will be heading to Vale by normal means, I shall take Azrael with me myself, if either of us were to go with you then it would draw too much attention."
"Then why not take us with you?" Emerald asked him.
"Simple, Ter-I mean Hazama doesn't like you, I need more time to make sure that he won't immediately go ape-shit on you when he sees you, he really hates those with illusion-based semblances and has an immunity to them, it's for your safety." The boy informed her, suddenly, both he and Azrael were enveloped in a green flash, blinding Emerald and Mercury. When the light faded, the two were gone.
"What was that… Hey, Em, Who was that guy?" Mercury asked Emerald.
"I don't know but apparently he was Hazama's original Boss… As for what just happened… I have no idea…" She told him.
The two then began to make their way to Atlas' port in order to get a bullhead to Vale. On the way, Emerald couldn't help but keep thinking about Hazama's old Boss. Just what was he? She didn't know, nor did she want to find out. But it didn't matter. If he ended up being a liability, then Cinder would deal with him because one thing's for sure, neither herself nor Mercury could.
"Em, hello? Remnant to Emerald?" Mercury called her, waving his hand in front of her face.
"Huh? What is it, Merc?" She asked.
"Nothing, you just spaced out for a second there, you good?" He asked.
"Yeah, it's just… that guy, there was something about him that rubbed me the wrong way…" She told him.
"What about him? The fact that could look at the Infamous Mad Dog like he was a regular person, he was flying, that he caused a random explosion or the fact that he just vanished alongside Azrael in a flash of green light?"
"All of it, I guess."
"Yeah, I feel that too… he's just… weird, and this guy who's supposed to look like him? What do you think he'll be like?" Mercury asked.
"I don't know, I just hope that he's nothing like our new business partner." Emerald said to him.
Beacon, courtyard
Kazuki was walking with Naoto and Ragna, the two others who managed to get out of being dragged into Vale for more clothes. He didn't know why but Kazuki suddenly felt extremely uneasy and shivered a bit.
"Hey, you ok?" Ragna asked, "Jin's not around here is he? Cause it doesn't feel cold."
"Yeah, I'm fine just… got a bad feeling about something… don't know what though…." Kazuki told him.
"Normally I'd say it's nothing but this is you we're talking about so it's probably something bad." Naoto said.
"I'm sure it's nothing. Amane and the others probably just got us stuff and are gonna try to force us to wear them later." Kazuki told the two, waving off their concerned looks.
"Riiiiight…" Ragna said sarcastically.
"No, I'm serious, Yang, Weiss and Amane would do that… oh god I can't imagine what they're putting Ruby and Kazuma through…" Kazuki said, "At least it ain't Coco…"
"Who?" Naoto asked.
"Team CFVY's leader and a second year, got a real sense of fashion and probably plans on getting Kazuma something as a thanks for helping out Velvet." Kazuki informed them.
"Hold on, you weren't even there, how'd you know about that?" Ragna asked.
"Uh, Naoto and Kazuma told me, duh."
"Oh yeah, guess that makes sense, by the way, were you actually sick that day or was it more of that black ooze?"
"Oh no I was actually sick… I ate something that my stomach didn't exactly agree with…" Kazuki said, rubbing his stomach.
As the three continued walking, they noticed Bullet talking with Noel who looked… well, jealous for lack of a better word, with it being no secret as to what she's jealous about.
"Interesting, so if I were to climb into an Altesian ship and you could still see me, you'd be able to shoot me, despite there being a wall in the way?" Bullet asked Noel.
"Y-yes, that's right, and you get stronger the more times you punch something?" Noel asked.
"That's right."
"That's like the opposite of Yang's semblance."
"Oh? So are you telling me that the more damage she takes, the more she can dish out?"
"That's right, honestly, I think you two would make a great team, you could hit Yang a few times and the two of you would get stronger in the process!"
"They seem to be getting along well." Ren said, walking up behind the three boys alongside Nora.
"Yeah, Noel's semblance is great for stuff like that, if you need to find an enemy semblance's weakness, ask Noel. If you need to know how dangerous it is, ask Noel." Ragna told him.
"Shit, I don't actually have a semblance! What would happen if she used it on me? Would it not show anything or…" Naoto thought to himself in a small panic.
"So, Ragna, I heard from someone that you can cook, is it true?" Ren asked.
"Yeah, who told you though?" Ragna asked.
"Did you ever cook for both Noel and Makoto?" Naoto asked.
"Nevermind then, that answers that."
"Hmm…" Kazuki hummed, "I wonder…"
"Everything good?" Ragna asked.
"Huh? Oh yeah, remember how I said Archer was a great cook?" Naoto, Ren and Nora nodded, "Well, I asked him to teach me how to cook once but it's been a while since I last practiced, Ragna, would it be ok if you oversaw me cooking something up?" Kazuki asked.
"Uh, sure but why me?" The reaper asked, confused.
"Because other than Ren, you're the only one I know at Beacon that can cook." He explained.
"I guess that makes sense, sure why not?" Ragna told him, "But mind telling us the reason why you want to cook something?"
"It's either that or I drag you to the training rooms for a sparring match." Kazuki said.
"You say that as if it's something I wouldn't be alright doing." Ragna told him with a smirk.
"Trust me, you wouldn't, I know for a fact that I've got more stamina than you."
"Is that a challenge?"
Ragna and Kazuki then stared each other down, anyone who was just passing by would think that they would break into a fight right then and there, that is until Naoto stepped in between the two.
"H-Hey, calm down now. Come on, Ragna, what's the problem with just doing this one thing for him?" Naoto asked, pushing the two away from each other.
"Fine, I'll help you out." Ragna conceded.
"Thanks." Kazuki said, giving him a thumbs up.
"So who's gonna be the taste testers?" Naoto asked.
"Nora, Ruby, Yang and… anyone else who wants to I guess." Kazuki said.
"Well, let's get to work then, before the others get back then." Ragna said, walking off.
Beacon Halls
The girls, Amane, Bang, Jaune and Kazuma had all come back after going into Vale for a few hours to get prepared for the Beacon Dance that would be happening around the time other students arrived for the Vytal Festival. Ruby however, was the only person who had been dragged along with everyone else going willingly.
"So hungry…." Ruby groaned.
While they were out, Amane had told them that they'd each have to pay for their own clothes as he was running short on Lien due to something he was working on. This of course, left them with barely any Lien to buy something to fill their stomachs with.
"I know… all that money and no food…" Yang added.
"Well, we could always just eat the food that Beacon serves." Kazuma told them, only for Ruby and Yang to groan once again.
It's not that Beacon's food tasted bad, not by any means whatsoever, more so that they were tired of having the same types of food day in and day out.
"Wait… what's that smell? It smells… Gorgeous!" Makoto said aloud, catching the attention of everyone.
"Now that you mention it, I do smell something quite amazing. I wonder what it is?" Amane said.
"Maybe Ragna decided to cook us something?" Makoto wondered aloud.
"Hold on, that brute can cook?" Weiss asked.
"Yeah, and it's amazing! It felt like heaven.." Makoto told her, her mouth watering at the thought of Ragna's cooking.
"Well come one then! Let's go!" Yang said as she and Ruby sped off to where the dining hall was.
Once the others had arrived at Beacon's dining hall, they were met with the scene of Ruby, Yang, Nora, Tao and even Bullet and Naoto scoffing down food. Standing at the end of the table were Ragna and Kazuki, with Kazuki having a proud smile on his face and Ragna giving a nod of approval alongside Ren. Noel looked as though she had just ascended to the Heavens with the smile that was plastered on her face.
"Holy Crap!" Jaune said aloud, looking at the feast before him.
"Hey guys! I see you all came back on time!" Kazuki shouted over to them, waving his hand.
"This aroma… oh my goodness it's absolutely amazing!" Amane said.
"Well? Are ya gonna eat or what?" Ragna asked.
Immediately, Makoto, Jaune and Bang nodded, rushing to sit with their teammates and began eating too. Kazuma sat down in-between Ruby and Naoto and went for a slice of meat. Upon tasting the meat, one could swear that they saw his mind explode before he began to scoff down more of it. Even Weiss had to admit that it tasted amazing while Blake went straight for the fish, her own mouth watering by simply looking at them.
"Ragna, I know Makoto said you could cook but this is absolutely amazing! I have no other words for it!" Weiss told him, re-thinking the way she viewed the Reaper.
"Thanks but I had no involvement in this other than keeping other students away from it. This was all Kazuki." He told her, causing everyone to look at the Hybrid Faunas in surprise.
"You can cook!? And you never told any of us!?" Yang demanded.
"Sorry but I thought I'd be rusty, it's been ages since I last practiced cooking so I was a bit afraid that this would turn out crap." He told everyone.
"From now on, you're cooking for all of us!" Ruby told him.
"How about just special occasions? Consider this a teaser." He replied.
"DEAL!" She shouted.
Everyone then stopped their talking to enjoy their meal, it was then that Jin walked in.
"Hey, Jin. Glad you could finally show up" Kazuki said to him.
"I had a feeling this was your doing." Jin replied in an unusually friendly tone.
"Are you just gonna stand there or are you gonna join?! Come one, before Nora and Tao eat everything." Makoto said to him.
"Fine, it would be a waste to let this food go to waste." Jin replied as he sat down, immediately everyone looked at him as he went to eat a rather large pork-chop. Everyone was then a little creeped out by the smile that graced his face, "This is…"
"Amazing right?" Ragna asked him, a smirk on his face.
"Y-yes… There's no other word for it." Jin told him.
"I wonder if this is how Archer felt when he cooked at Chaldea for the first time… oh god I'm like Archer if he wasn't a cynical bastard to begin with. I know Projection Magic, Tracing to be specific, I can cook really fucking well and I have a Reality Marble… well sorta…" Kazuki thought to himself as he ate some of his own cooking, "...Not enough salt." He thought.
After everyone had finished their food, Kazuki went to the Kitchen in order to clean up all the dishes, Makoto, Ragna and Ren offered to help but he refused., not that it stopped them anyway. To say that everyone was satisfied would be an understatement too, even Jin had an unusually happy smile on his face as he finished his food.
"You know, you're really damn talented." Ragna told Kazuki.
"Huh? What do you mean?" He asked.
"Well let's see, you can cook as well as Ragna, you know how to fight with swords and pole-arms, you know how to teach combat and according to Naoto and Ruby, you know hand-hand combat as well." Ren told him, placing down a plate he just finished cleaning.
"Yeah, it's actually kinda scary too, just imagine what you'll be like a few years from now!" Makoto told him.
"Thanks but… I'm not really that special, there are many other people out there who are WAY better than me." Kazuki told the three of them.
"Let me guess, most of them are your masters?" Ragna asked, Kazuki nodded.
"As true as that may be, they helped to shape you into who you are now, everything else is your own doing." Ren told him.
"Yeah, maybe, still need better control over my emotions, I'm one emotional bitch." Kazuki said.
Makoto was about to tell him otherwise until Ragna spoke up, "Does it have to do with those emeralds?"
"Yeah, they have two types of energy, Positive and Negative." Kazuki told him.
"Yeah, about that. That freak in Forever Falls mentioned something about feeding off of your negative energy ever since the day it was sealed. What did it mean by that?" The Reaper asked
Kazuki went silent before speaking, "The Chaos Beasts absorb both types of energies through the emeralds however... there are a total of three Chaos Beasts that thrive off of Negative Energy specifically. Mephiles is the second of the three. The first is called Supplicium, the third is the stronger of the three, only because he has a total of three transformations while Mephiles only has two. The third one's name is Nazo. Supplicium is the strongest in his base by default and has only one transformation." He explained.
"And what about the others?" Ren asked.
"The others all take both kinds of energy equally, with Itsu being an outlier, he thrives off of the Positive Energy. There is, of course, The Master Emerald. Its Chaos Beast being the oldest and the one where the term Chaos Beast comes from, he is simply named, Chaos." Kazuki explained further.
"So wait… each of the emeralds has one of those things living in them?" Makoto asked.
"Yes. Each with their own emerald. The Master Emerald houses Chaos. The Yellow or Golden Emerald houses Iblis. The Blue Emerald, Itsu. The Red, Kiritsu. Green, Kizu. Light Blue, Nazo. Purple, Mephiles. And finally, the Grey, Supplicium. There was however, an eighth emerald." Kazuki told them.
"Was? The hell happened to it then?" Ragna asked.
"I don't know, all I know is that it was destroyed long ago. The Black Emerald, it was full with nothing other than Negative Energy. Its Chaos Beast was called, Nuru-Garando. I don't think I need to say why it was destroyed." He said.
"No, you don't.." Ragna said before going deep into thought, "Master said that the Black Beast was a result of Human experiments… did they try to recreate that Black Emerald and its Beast? Is that what the Black Beast was?"
"Anyway, that should be all of the dishes done now, what do you say we go and do something else? Day's not over yet so we could probably try and do something fun." Kazuki said, leaving the kitchen.
"Emeralds that feed off of emotions… then does that mean that they can sense out the locations of panic, similar to the grimm?" Ren muttered to himself.
"There are three of those things that are like Mephiles.. And Kazuki has to make sure they don't free themselves…" Makoto said, "Even after he…. d-died, he still has to guard over them like that…" Makoto thought to herself as she also left the kitchen.
AN: holy shit, this thing is around 30 pages long in Google Docs holy fk… well there ya go, another Universe revealed and I'm just gonna say this, I created absolutely none of the chaos beasts I ain't that creative, all of them - except for Nazo - belong to a guy called shadefalcon on DeviantArt and Newgrounds, I really shouldn't have to say who owns Nazo at this point in time but I'm going to because that man deserves every bit of credit and respect. Nazo was created by Chakra-X on Newgrounds, DeviantArt and YouTube. Guy made a whole flash movie and is working on a sequel whenever he gets the chance to. Now that that's outta the way, I finally got back around to out villains, I won't lie, I've been wanting to write Azrael for a while and it is only now, 11 chapters (technically 12 but the prologue isn't numbered so shush), that I realize how shite I am with writing fight scenes, also, cooking, I'm not even gonna try to write that, maybe when I get to work on that Fate/Stay Night (technically it's the whole series cause some servants aren't from SN specifically but again, shush) and RWBY crossover but not now. So until whenever the next chapter comes out (who knows when cause I got Exams coming up, god help me cause Lord knows I need it), see ya!