The Awakened One: Book 1 Remnant Chapter 31: Atlas, a rwby fanfic

(A/N)

Before anything I'd like to address something that I did yesterday and the implications that it has for the story. The reason for this small authors note is for me to tell you that I ended up doing a very small 'rewrite' more like a little alteration on chapters 5, 6, 7, and 9. So, I'd at least recommend you read 6 and 9 again at some point. You should definitely see what I changed in 6 since its really obvious lol.

Chapter 5- I created a painful mental blocker as the reasoning as to why he wasn't able to immediately recall Rwby and its relation to the world that he found himself in. In my head it makes sense because he's a Deus~Humanus so although he knows about the other worlds he's not supposed to be able to interact with them. Because It's a quick alteration it isn't fleshed out yet but maybe it will be eventually.

Chapter 6- Same thing plus Main character man doesn't get assaulted by Nix and instead fends her off with Shiva in mind. Basically, MC man is a lot less of a sack of shit since he doesn't just immediately get involved in a relationship with Nix and Neyah without thinking about Shiva. So, he has a bit more of an internal conflict about the entire situation and doesn't fully commit to the role of lover until a bit later.

Chapter 7- No blowjob lemon, just a quick make out.

Chapter 9- This is when the full claiming actually takes place and (Y/N) accepts his relationship with both Nix and Neyah at the detriment of Shiva. Read the full dialogue to get a feel for how he's taking the event. These were the quick changes I made and it probably won't be the last time I do this. I still need to relocate the blowjob Lemon since ain't no way Imma just delete it, tf. Also, this doesn't really solve the romance issue, but it makes it just a little bit better which is good. Got any questions or comments, maybe a bit of feedback, feel free to hit a brotha up. I'm always available! I hope you enjoy the coming chapters!

Chapter 60: Alpha Megoliath

After saying a quick goodbye to Jaune and the duo that was in the dorm room, Nova returned to his own room, arriving to a scene that was more than expected. Before he even opened the door, his wolf ears were met with the ungodly commotion that was happening inside and for about half a second, he considered simply not entering the room, sending his clone inside in his stead. But after thinking about it for a moment longer he decided to take the punishment that was waiting for him in his room. Immediately after opening the door his face was met with a black riding crop, and though he could've dodged the sudden attack he knew that it was justified.

The slap was then followed by Glynda harshly pinching one of his Faunus ears and dragging him into the room where he saw that Yang, Neyah, and Ruby were in the same state, sitting in front of the surprisingly smoothened hole in the wall that led directly into the other dorm room. The Disciplinarian sat him on the ground next to the others, facing the wall that they were each partially responsible for destroying and proceeded to lecture each of them on their wrongful actions. Although it was a lecture, the speech was interrupted numerous times by Glynda smashing her weapon of choice on the heads, hands, and laps of each of the perpetrators, and by the time she was finished she decided that her 'lecture; wasn't enough punishment for each of them.

So, as the professor finished her speech, she ordered them to march down to the Headmaster's office and show him a picture of what they had done, along with a full explanation of why they did it. Although Nova obviously hadn't taken part in the activity of smashing a massive whole in the wall, he was definitely responsible for allowing it to happen since a single word of his would've resulted in them stopping. Glynda lifted each of them into the air with her light purple Aura and threw them into the hallway, sending them on their way down to Ozpins office where they would quite possibly be met with further punishment.

However, they were actually met with a facepalm and an eye rub as the Headmaster was exhausted by the seemingly random things that the group constantly took part in, and once he saw the picture, he let out a long, heavy, tired breath air and exclaimed 'I don't care.' So, the group got off fairly easy and were quickly on their way back to the room that Glynda was surely waiting for them in.

Once they arrived back in their room, Glynda was waiting for them with her arms crossed, toe tapping impatiently against the ground, but after they explained to her what the Headmaster had said to them, she slowly decided to give up on the topic. Her final words on the topic were simply 'ask first' and with that they concluded their evening, winding down to eventual sleep, giving Nova, Byakko, and Lilith the opportunity to sneak out of the room unhindered by any of the lovers.

They swiftly exited the building, quickly making it to the vast open city, and stopping themselves on rooftop not to far from the gate that led up to the massive campus. "So, My King, what activities will we be taking part in tonight?"

"Well, we're kinda in a weird position right now. We gotta wait for the first of Warmth to start all of the things that we need to complete in and around Mistral, we also need to wait for Cinder to contact us because that chick is extremely illusive, and there is pretty much nothing to do in Vale in the meantime."

"Master, I believe that we should focus our attentions on the completing of Dungeons in order to increase our own strengths as well as possibly weaken the incoming Stygian~Animus that is sure to invade in the near future."

"That was exactly what I was thinking Byakko! Right now, if anything, we'll be heading back to the roots of our nightly routine. We're going to focus on Power Leveling."

"I understand the sentiment My King, however where are you expecting us to complete these activities? I believe your idea is to save Atlas for last since you'll be heading there in the company of the other, more powerful, individuals."

"Yeah, I did think that, but now I'm starting to believe that there isn't much merit in waiting. Before I thought that it'd be for the best for optimization purposes, but now I'm starting to think that we may as well just say fuck it and do it now. The plan before was to complete all the Dungeons and the like in Atlas while I was there with Adam, Sienna, and Zeb, then complete other dungeons in the immediate vicinity of Vale in the meantime. That way everything would be just a bit more optimized, and I'd be able to spend my time perfectly, but now its lookin like there isn't shit to do in and around Vale, so waiting would be an even bigger waste of time. None of this shit would be happening of Cinder would just hurry the fuck up and contact me, or at least make herself discoverable."

"There is obviously the chance that she somehow already got what she wanted from Roman and no longer needs another partner, but the chance of that being the case is slim to none. So that begs the question, what the fuck is Cinder doing? What if killing Roman altered her plans more than I thought it would? Oh shit, what if Roman wasn't lying about them being in a relationship and somehow Cinder decided to spite me by joining up with some other people in Remnant? The chances are so slim and there shouldn't be any other major players, but at the same time I have no real way of knowing. This is the real Remnant not Rwby Remnant. So, it is more than possible that there is some other third party that is fucking shit up elsewhere that I have no way of knowing about. Fuck! What's the move?"

As Nova started thinking about the multiple branches of decision-making that he was currently faced with, Byakko looked concerningly at her Master and softly spoke, "Master, there is no use worrying about the things that have yet to come. Your mind can only predict and control so much."

"My King, Sister is correct. We are both more than aware of your mental capabilities and desire for maximum efficiency, but in times like this it is best for you to focus on the now rather than the later. I'd recommend you simply focus on the here and now since I am more than certain that everything else will fall into place later on." As Lilith spoke, the Basilisk took the opportunity to coil her length lightly around her King, wrapping him in her warmth. "I recommend you try your best to calm your mind My King. Stressing over things unseen bring nothing but further stress."

"Also, Master, surely you know that you have nothing to worry about. With my and Lilith's assistance I am certain that there is no threat that we cannot conquer together" the tiger Faunus said as she joined in on the embrace that was currently surrounding Nova. "We are with you completely on any decision you decide to make, so do not hesitate to choose."

Nova's conflicted frown quickly turned to a smile as the softness of the tiger's fur brushed across his face and the comforting warm squeeze of the snake's tail relieved him of any negative thoughts. After sitting within their embraces for a moment, the Awakened One planted a quick kiss on Lilith's and Byakko's cheeks, bringing a deeper smile to their faces. "You two are too good to me. I feel so much better now thanks to you! Thank you so much for staying by me" he said with a bright smile.

"Of course, Master/Anything for My King" they responded swiftly, deepening their embrace at the same time.

After a moment of continuing the hug, Nova suddenly said, "alright, I have come to a conclusion! We're going to go to Atlas and Power Level to our hearts content! While also clearing the Dungeons enough to hopefully weaken the Animus. So, hold on tight!" After saying that, Lilith and Byakko smiled and gripped tighter to Nova's body, and at the same time the man said, "Meta, can you please Fast Travel us to the Atlas Central District Boss Room?"

Warning! You are about to Fast Travel! This action will consume 50% of you Mana Points!

Are You Sure?

Y/N

"Meta, this isn't permanent, is it?"

[Fast Traveling is activated like a Skill, so 50% of your mana is taken like an ordinary Skill Cost! So, all of your Mana can be recovered as per usual!]

"Thanks for the help, Meta! Yes, I am sure!" As he accepted the command, a metric fuck ton of his Mana was immediately zapped from his body and the environment around the trio suddenly shifted and bent as if space itself was crumbling from the force of the Skill. Visually it looked incredibly similar to his Hakai Skill, however as all of the space around them converged onto a single point in front of them, it wasn't destroyed. Soon after the distortions began, it ended, and instead of the group suddenly appearing in the center of the High-Tech city of Atlas, when they opened their eyes, they were still on a rooftop in Vale.

However, at the point that all the surrounding space converge onto, directly before their eyes, there was no longer empty space, but now a glowing Pink, shining portal was in its place. The group stared at the portal for a moment, still holding one another in an embrace, but the silence was broken when Nova said, "Fast Traveling makes a portal appear then. I guess there wasn't a need for a hug." After a quick chuckle from Lilith and a smile from Byakko, the trio walked up to the portal, and Nova took a moment to analyze it. Looking through, around, and in front of the structure, he noticed that it was eerily similar to the one that Kaizer created to send him to Remnant in the first place. It was because of that thought that another idea quickly formed in his mind, but he decided to save that specific one for another time.

Soon after he finished up his analysis of the portal, Lilith, Byakko, and Nova walked through the structure, noticing how it felt as if they were walking through a soapy bubble that didn't break as they walked into it, only stretching itself to accommodate their forms. On the other side of the portal, as expected, they appeared directly into the heart of the silent, moonlit city of Atlas. Looking around, they immediately noticed that the streets were completely void of people, but the streetlights were still lit, and the massive buildings surrounding them were surprisingly quiet. "I guess Atlas doesn't have a nightlife at all" he thought, seeing as everything was so quiet even though it wasn't that late at night.

"Even in Vale there are still a good amount of people walking the Streets, stores still open, and even some entertainment still operates, but Atlas is completely dead. Not even a soul on the streets." As he and his companions waled further into Atlas, the Fast Travel portal suddenly disappeared into nothingness, leaving them 'stranded' in the silent city. Seeing how quiet everything was, Nova opened up his mental map to see whether or not there was anyone at all walking the city, and after zooming out, what he found was a bit surprising.

"There are people, at least it looks like there are people. It looks like there in vehicles patrolling the area." This thought was created from the organized nature of the people. Each of the arrows he saw on the map were in pairs and these pairs traveled methodically around a specific area of the map and whatever space they didn't go over was quickly covered by another pair. Looking at the map, he saw that him and his companions were about to be seen by a patrolling pair. So, he directed Lilith and Byakko to quickly entered the large rift in the center of the city, having them enter the Boss room while he hid to continue watching the patrols.

The people that ended up turning the corner was what appeared to be a pair of uniformed officers in a police car, driving slowly through the area with their lights brightly flashing in any dark crevices of the city. As Nova slowly watched the cops pass by, he thought, "does Atlas have a curfew?"

Instead of investigating further, he simply teleported into the Dungeon that Byakko and Lilith had just entered into and the instant he entered he could feel the change in the environment. Experiencing the Dungeon through his Call-Off was one thing but being in the area himself was something completely different. Saying that the area was frigid was an extreme understatement, it was absolutely freezing. The cold had no effect on Nova but if it did, he wasn't even sure if he'd had time to begin shivering before the Hypothermia set in.

The entire Dungeon appeared to be an icy tundra with an ever-blowing blizzard whipping icy winds against the bodies of anyone that entered. The snow that fell from the sky was at the complete mercy of the wicked winds, creating a blinding fog of white that made it difficult to see even a few feet in front yourself, but even through the thick smog of snow a massive Grimm could still be seen peering its demonic red eyes at the invaders.

"Observe" Nova thought as he stared at the beast. The Grimm appeared to be a massive elephant but was at least twice as large as the normal Goliaths that he was used to seeing in Vale. It's tusks were sharper and longer, its Grimm mask covered more of its face and appeared to be more like armor than decoration, and its entire greater body was completely covering in Light Blue Dust crystals that appeared like spiny ice shards of glass. The masked armor plating that dawned its face had gaps in four specific spots on its face and those spots allowed its four red eyes to peer into the icy tundra.

Name: Boss Alpha Megoliath

Age: ?

Race: Grimm

Title: Area Boss

Lvl: 100

HP: 81750/81750

MP: 2675/26750

Attributes:

STR; 1310, {+350}

END; 2509, {+500}

DEX; 505

VIT: 1515

INT; 105

LUK; 101

Lilith and Byakko stood idly by the entrance, waiting for Nova to tell them what he wanted to do with the massive Grimm that stood confidently in the center of the blinding blizzard. Byakko was completely unaffected by the cold chill, acting as if she was just outside during a usual day, but Lilith on the other hand only appeared to be unaffected. "I hate the fuckin cold" she said icily as she stood still in the tundra.

Lilith is affected by the freezing Tundra and is now Freezing! {568 dmg/5sec}

As the chill began effecting Lilith, Byakko suddenly activated her Aura, spreading the white domain in a short range to surround her Master and Sister. For a moment everything remained the same until Byakko softly said, "Venus's Heat." The surrounding air instantly heated up, rapidly melting the layer of Ice beneath them, turning the snowflakes into raindrops that evaporated in moments, and making the area so hot that it was practically burning the skin of everyone in the domain.

Lilith has been cured of Freezing!

The snake woman's tense muscles relaxed as she said, "thank you Sister. I can deal with the heat much better than I can the cold."

"It is my pleasure Sister" the tigress responded. Apparently, even though the air surrounding them was quite literally searing hot and could easily cook a person to death, Lilith remained unaffected by its burning properties. Clearly, she had some sort of resistance to extreme heat and Byakko obviously remained unaffected because it was her Skill, and to Nova it didn't matter either way since he was immune to both weather conditions.

After taking a moment to fawn at the women's exchange, Nova tuned to the Megoliath. "Goddamn, that thing is quite the fuckin beast" he said, looking through the far away blizzard at the beast. "So, who wants to try and take it down? This one might be a little bit above your pay grade, so I don't mind takin care of it. Plus, I gotta avenge my clone's first life anyway." At his comment, Byakko and Lilith turned to one another, conversing with just their eyes as they figured out whether or not they wanted to take on the challenge.

After a moment, the two beastly women turned to Nova with excited smiles across their lips. "Master, I believe that it would be best if Lilith and I took on this challenge as a way to improve our own abilities. This opponent may be a bit easy for you, and we truly have yet to face an enemy that pushed us to use all of our Skills."

"This is true. My King, this opponent is one that would allow us to improve our abilities greatly, while you could more than likely handle this beast with much more ease. Also, I would quite like it if I could add this Megoliath to my arsenal of Disciples, and that would be much more difficult if you were to weaken it to greatly, or possibly kill it outright. I believe that Byakko and I are more than equipped to handle this threat on our own."

Taking both of their points into consideration, Nova said, "Sure, go ahead. This'll be some great experience for the both of you, just try your best not to take too many hits. Although I doubt that'll happen since this things kinda slow and it's the both of you, so I bet you'll kill it much faster than you think. Have at it!"

"Thanks Master/I appreciate your input My King!" After giving their thanks to Nova, Lilith's smile turned into a devilish grin and Byakko's face went from joyful to serious. The white tiger suddenly transformed herself from a beautiful Faunus woman into a massive celestial beast with elongated metallic claws, intricately designed rings of various colors that wrapped around her legs, a black bejeweled collar across her neck, a beautiful shimmering tiara a top her head, and ever shifting black tattoos that depicted the endless starry night sky. Her eyes immediately began glowing blue and electricity coursed across her entire body and at the same moment green wind blades formed across each of her four paws, drastically increasing her power in an instant.

Lilith on the other hand remained in her usual humanoid form, however her intricate crimson markings across her body glew brightly, and a black mist suddenly enraptured the snowy skies. The fog continued to blacken and soon it covered far more of the sky than even the large open area that the Megoliath stood in. Out of the fog, six deep blood red eyes appeared, and as the fog disappeared three large flying beasts were flapping their wings loudly in the air. The first was a hawk like Grimm with a white face and spiked tail, it was about half the size of a Giant nevermore, Griffon.

The second of them was a massive, armored Grimm that was about the size of a Giant Nevermore. Its entire body was covered in white and red mask like armor and its beak was the same, giving the Grimm the visage of a man-made armored Grimm, Gryphon. The last of Lilith's summons was by far the largest of them all and was even larger than the Megoliath itself. The massive, winged Grimm had a maw that opened along its neck filled to the brim with jagged teeth that jutted out from every angle, and the instant it appeared it let out a bellowing roar that fought strongly against the surrounding wind. The Boss Wyvern.

Name: Griffon

Age: ?

Race: Grimm

Title: Disciple of Lilith

Lvl: 162

HP: 34150/34150

MP: 25225/25225

Attributes:

STR; 667

END; 334

DEX; 668

VIT: 501

INT; 1007

LUK; 163

Name: Gryphon

Age: ?

Race: Grimm

Title: Disciple of Lilith

Lvl: 132

HP: 34750/34750

MP: 27325/27325

Attributes:

STR; 811

END; 538

DEX; 944

VIT: 543

INT; 1091

LUK; 133

Name: Final Boss Wyvern

Age: ?

Race: Grimm

Title: Disciple of Lilith, Area Boss

Lvl: 61

HP: 52150/52150, {+4,500}

MP: 4100/4100

Attributes:

STR; 995, {+70}

END; 640, {+70}

DEX; 655,

VIT: 782, {+90)

INT; 162

LUK; 66

Once they finished appearing, Lilith suddenly grabbed a brightly glowing Red Ancient Dust Crystal out of thin air, and after looking at it for a moment, she then opened her jaws wide and crunched on the Dust Crystal, shattering it into thousands of pieces. As soon as the Dust shattered it was rapidly absorbed into her body, and in mere moments her hair turned from pure white to a flaming red. The change not only occurred in her but her summons as well, transforming their former shadowy black Grimm bodies into a flaming crimson that solicited burning embers to fly from their wings with every flap. "Nachash." As she thought the word, Lilith conjured six fireborne snakes that evaporated the surrounding snow and immediately began charging at the elephant Grimm on her command.

At the same time, Byakko thought "Táifēng," filling her massive maw with green wind Mana that rapidly grew, compressed, and grew again with every passing second, and once the flaming snakes were moments from latching their fangs into the Alpha Megoliath, the Celestial White Tiger shot the ball of wind from her jaws.

The massive Grimm stepped to stomp the fire snakes as they approached, "dodge, bite," on Lilith's command they dodge the attack, and all six of them then latched their fangs onto the surface of the Grimm's hide. The attack itself seemingly did no damage, however Byakko's massive ball of wind rocketed into the flaming serpents, immediately violently exploding. The massive ball of wind erupted into powerful wind blades that were super fueled by the flame of the snakes, turning the blades of wind into a blazing inferno of sharpened, searing hot knives that sliced into the mammoth.

At the same time, the snakes were made immensely more powerful by Byakko's attack, growing multitudes in size and managing to sink their fangs into the Grimm. The Alpha Megoliath then let out a bellowing roar with its trumpet, lifting its fore legs into the air, and slamming them into the ground kicking up masses of ice that shot across the open field. The shockwave alone from the attack instantly killing the snakes, smoldering their flames, and the ice pillars that erected from the Grimm's attack continued rising across the ground until they approached the tiger woman.

Byakko swiftly dodged the attack and in the same moment turned herself from Celestial Tiger to Grimm as she sprinted across the icy tundra towards the beast. At the same time Lilith commanded her Grimm to cover her Sisters approach, and the Griffon began hailing flaming arrow-like feathers from its wings onto the Megoliath, many of them stabbing into its hide. The Gryphon on the other hand flew high into the sky, putting itself directly above the massive Grimm, and once it reached its desired height, Lilith spoke, "Dive." The flaming Disciple then immediately dive bombed, with its wings to its side, towards the Megoliath, disregarding its safety entirely at the command of its Mistress. At the same time, the Wyvern converged onto the Grimm with Byakko from the opposite side of the field, and as the Wyvern flew it allowed gobs of red ooze to fall from its body.

As these pools of flaming tar splatted against the ground, fire enhanced Grimm rose from them, immediately charging towards Megoliath. Once the dragon like Grimm was close enough to the Elephant, Lilith thought, "swerve right, tail swipe." The approaching Wyvern then did as it was told, swerving right out of the way of the mammoth's tusks and using its long, clawed tail to slash against the beast's exposed side.

The Wyvern's attack pulled the boss's attention and it immediately retaliated by crashing its massive muscular trunk against the Grimm's body, but that action left the beast wide open for the flaming Gryphon to crash like a meteor into the Grimm. The moment the flying Grimm made contact with the elephant; a large explosion of fire erupted from the point of contact. A mass of the glass-like ice crystals was shot from the Grimm's body, leaving most of the top of its form armor free, although the attack itself didn't do much damage.

Due to the Gryphon having an armored beak, face, and body, it was able to mitigate the damage it took to itself, however that wasn't nearly enough for the bird to avoid taking severe damage from slamming itself against the sturdy body of the Grimm. The armor on the Gryphon's face was completely crushed to pieces and ice shards stabbed themselves into its exposed face and body, but it still managed to survive its own attack. "Retreat" the serpent Faunus thought, giving the orders for both the Wyvern and Gryphon to back up off the Grimm.

Byakko took this opportunity to launch her onslaught of attacks, quickly dashing into the vulnerable Grimm, raising her wind and lightning enhance, metallic claw weaponed paw into the air before bringing it down brutally on one of the Alpha Megoliath's front legs. Her claws gouged a mass of blackened flesh from the appendage, forcing the Grimm to buckle slightly underneath its own weight and erupt in a painfully trumpet, giving physical evidence of the intense amount of damage it had just took.

Byakko however didn't let up, dodging the elephant's stomping retaliation, and immediately collapsing her jaws around the same front leg that she had attacked before. With her extraordinarily sharp teeth, she easily managed to sink her electrified fangs into the Megoliath's leg, and at the same moment she thought "Mábì Fāzuò." This thought immediately activated an electrifying skill that shot blue lighting throughout the Grimm's body. Luckily for the Gryphon, Lilith already gave the fire bird the command to fly back up into the sky, having it avoid the electrifying paralytic properties of Byakko's attack.

The instant Byakko's lightning began frying the mammoth's insides, the electricity temporarily paralyzed the beast's system, allowing the approaching red hot Beowolves, Nevermores, Ursai, and Boartusks to freely horde the massive Grimm. Each of the Grimm slashed, bit, and clawed at the downed beast, doing every bit of damage to the paralyzed Megoliath as they could before it got back up and proceeded to slaughter them. However, Byakko had other plans as she relinquished her jaws from the Grimm's leg and dashed a decent distance away from the frozen Grimm, and the moment her feet stopped moving her black body turned orange as she turned from Grimm to Champawat.

Her former claw weapons glew as they changed from claw extensions to a long staff with a large blue orb at its end. The staff appeared in Byakko's tail, being held as the tiger coiled her muscular appendage around it and holding the glowing blue weapon high into the air as her body somehow electrified even further. Byakko's entire orange and black body began flaring up with blue lightning, and instead of that lightning spreading across the arena creating a field of paralytic lightning, it instead held on tightly to the tigers form.

As the lighting connected to her body rapidly enhanced her strength, dark electrifying clouds rapidly formed in the sky with incredible quickness. Soon after the clouds formed, the Megoliath began moving again, lightly stomping its massive legs to kill the fodder Grimm that were incessantly clawing at its feet, but before it could finish its full recovery Lilith gave her summons orders once more, "shoot, dive." The Griffon then began raining its large, flaming feathers onto the Grimm once more and at the same moment the Gryphon that flew high into the sky dove again at terminal velocity towards the standing Grimm's unarmored back. The Gryphon's flaming body grew brighter and brighter with more and more flames until it reached its maximum output of power. Soaring towards the Grimm, leading with its beak, the Gryphon crashed itself once more into the mammoth's back.

This time the explosion of the kamikaze Grimm slamming against the defensive fortress that was the Megoliath's armored spine was much, much larger and more powerful. Amidst the ball of flame that erupted from elephant's back was the shadowy black substance that came with the death of the bird Grimm as it didn't have the strength to survive the second attack. However, unlike the former attack, the Boss Grimm trumpeted in pain as its back was scorched, stabbed, and heavily bruised from the Gryphon's attack. The force finally brough the Grimm down on one foot as it's heavily injured front leg collapsed under the weight of the attack.

As the Megoliath was finally down a leg, Byakko managed to finish charging her massive attack, as her body glew bright white from all the lighting and the sky itself had turned black with storm clouds. "Smite!" On Byakko's command the heavens opened to allow a thundering pillar of godlike lightning to come crashing down towards the crumbling Megoliath. The instant the blue lightning peaked through the black sky the intense winds disappeared, the icy snow evaporated, and all other sound was made null and void.

As the lighting crashed towards the Grimm it boomed throughout the vast, empty Dungeon, echoing seemingly infinitely as the sound continuously emanated from the godly pillar. At the same time, the instant the massive pillar of Byakko's lightning made contact with the Megoliath, all of the surrounding Grimm were vaporized, leaving no evidence that they had existed in the first place. The elephant Grimm itself wasn't able to moan, groan, trumpet, or growl as it was brutally bombarded by the electricity, completely at the mercy of the awesome attack.

The pillar continuously emanated lightning for a moment before it slowly dissipated, rapidly shrinking in size until it disappeared as quickly as it came, leaving the Boss of the Grimm smoking intensely from the massive attack. However, even as powerful as the attack was, the Alpha remained alive, and after a moment of complete silence it trumpeted once more, shooting shards of ice throughout the entire battlefield that managed to strike the Griffon that was flying close by, As the Grimm was struck in its wing, it lost its flight capability and, in that moment, Lilith decided to return that Disciple since it was no longer useful.

Immediately following her returning the flying Grimm, the void Basilisk thought up another Skill, "Nachash," summoning another large pair of the strength absorbing, fire snake variations. Following her quick summons, she ordered the massive Wyvern forward, having it charge towards the mammoth a long side the Nachash snakes, and at the same time the human portion of her body slowly turned into her snake like counter-part. Once her transformation was complete, the Basilisk shrunk herself down considerably and began slithering stealthy slithering across the ground as she made her way closer to the beast.

All while Lilith was doing this, Byakko was battling head-to-head with the Alpha Megoliath. Immediately following her massive Smite on the Grimm, the Grimm Tiger returned to her Celestial White Tiger Faunus form, sprouting legs from seemingly nowhere and growing back to her incredible height. The scepter that she used to enhance her lightning attack appeared within her human hands, but she then turned the mythical weapon into a large, blue and white, great sword that was at least half her height and thicker than both of her legs combined. The tiger Faunus held the blade in both hands down to her side and dashed at the mammoth Grimm, quickly appearing within the beast's range.

The massive Megoliath swung its armored trunk in a wide swipe at the Faunus, but she easily leaped over the attack, jumping high into the air to stab her newly created weapon into the vulnerable back of the elephant. However, the Grimm was able to maneuver its large head to thrust its long, sharp tusks into the air, sending them in a piercing strike at the Faunus woman. Byakko was able to easily defend against the attack with her weapon, but the force from the attack sent her flying backwards, landing on her feet a decent distance away from the beast. Once she landed, she suddenly thought up two more skills, "Shǎndiàn, Qiángfēng," and in that instant the woman's body was clad in blue lighting and her large sword had green wind blades running along them, making the great sword look similarly to a chainsaw.

Once her enhancements took effect, Byakko's body turned from white tiger Fauns to a black furred, red striped, long fanged, crimson eyed, seven-foot tall, white masked Grimm Faunus that was equal parts beautiful and terrifying. The blue plated chest and shorts that she normally wore turned white and black to accommodate her change in form, and the great sword that she held in her now extended claws turned entirely black. As soon as her transformation was complete Scylla shot forward with a far greater speed than before, but instead of aiming for an unguarded, vulnerable position on the Grimm, she charged directly for the beast's tusked face.

The Megoliath saw this coming and charged towards Scylla at the same time, lowering its tusks and curling its trunk to power itself up. The lighting, wind, and Grimm Clad tiger covered far more ground with her intense speed, almost immediately appearing in from of the charging Megoliath, but the instant before her sword was about to clash with its incredibly durable, highly weaponized tusks, Byakko used her incredible speed to slide underneath the appendages, slipping past its initial attack.

However, the elephant then immediately uncurled its massive, armored trunk at a ludicrous speed, sending its muscular appendage rocketing at its opponent. Byakko appeared as though she was about to take an awful strike from the beast, but this was what she was expected, and she immediately brought her blade slashing downwards from her awkward position, meeting the armored trunk right before it was able to unleash devastating damage upon her.

The two powerful forces clashed against each other for a moment, intensely fighting for dominance, but the wind blades that turned Byakko's sword into a chainsaw made her weapon far too sharp for the Grimm's body armor to compete with it. Scylla's blade sliced through the white armored mask of the Megoliath's trunk, allowing the blade to cut clean down the center of the appendage, splitting it cleanly in half.

Shadowy blood erupted from the Megoliath's split trunk, and it immediately roared in agony, but the Faunus wasn't finished with her attack. Byakko quickly dashed through the split trunk, sliding underneath the mammoth once more, and stabbing her not wind blade enhanced blade into the injured front leg of the beast. The leg was already severely injured, and as the tiger's great sword slashed into the leg it just barely managed to slip through the thick hide, power muscles, and strong bone of the appendage, effectively separating the leg from the Beast's body. She then activated yet another Skill before quickly dashing from beneath the beast, "Venus's Might."

Suddenly immense pressure surrounded the Megoliath, further crippling the beast for what was soon to come. "Chomp, consume, absorb." As Byakko cleanly cut the limb off of the mammoth's body and dashed from underneath its, somehow, still standing body, the massive Wyvern flew speedily into the Grimm with its jaws wide open. The moment the flying Grimm reached the reeling elephant, the Wyvern did as it was ordered, chomping its powerful jaws around the beast's mid-section, quickly toppling the Megoliath from its feet, and leaving it helpless on the floor.

Once it completely toppled to the ground, one of the enflamed snake summons completely swallowed the separated appendage, growing even larger after the quick snack. The two fiery Nachash then latched themselves onto the fallen beast, instantly beginning to absorb its strength as it was helpless to stop them. Pinned to the ground by the Wyvern, pressure restricting movement from Byakko, and large snakes absorbing more of its strength every second, it was finished. Lilith then revealed herself to the mammoth, rapidly puffing herself up until she was large enough to wrap her jaws around the pinned Alpha Megoliath.

Byakko and Lilith have defeated Atlas Central District Leader Boss Alpha Megoliath (Lvl: 100)!

Chapter 61: Power Leveling

Congratulations! Byakko and Lilith have cleared Atlas Central District Boss Room!

Here are their rewards:

| Byakko |

+13,782 {+6,891} {+6,891}Exp! | +1 {+1} AUG | +1 {+1} Large Alpha Megoliath Core | +1 Ancient Crystallized Light Blue Dust |

Level Up!

Name: Byakko

Age: 206

Race: Celestial White Tiger, Faunus

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

LVL: 43 (0%)

| Lilith |

+14,666 {+7,333} Exp! | +2 {+1} AUG | +10 {+5} Ancient Crystallized Light Blue Dust |+1 Large Alpha Megoliath Beast Egg | +1 Salem's Influence |

Level Up!

Name: Lilith

Age: 66

Race: Infinite Void Basilisk, Faunus

Titles: Consumer Of Worlds and Creator of Life, Goddess Of Darkness and Liberation, Queen Of Demons and Leader Of Legions, Originator Of Sin and Breaker Of Bondage, Infinite Void Basilisk, etc.

LVL: 34 (43%)

As Lilith and Byakko finished off the Boss of Atlas's Central District they immediately turned their attentions to the most important person in their lives, Nova. They were quickly met with praise beyond what they were expecting, and for a good amount of time Lilith, Byakko, and Nova enjoyed each other's presence inside the Blizzard cleared Boss Room as they were praised by the one who spawned them. Soon enough, it was time for them to make their exit from the Boss Room and the Awakened One was gifted the items that the Snake and Tiger had received from defeating the Boss. Outside, it was still the dead of night, and much time hadn't passed between them entering and exiting, so they decided to split up in the same way they did in Vale in order to begin power leveling as planned. Since there were four separate sectors of Atlas, each of them took one of the remaining ones after Nova used his Skills to restore Lilith and Byakko's Mana and Aura.

The goal of their excursion was simple, grow as strong as possible as quick as possible, relying on any means that were available to them. Byakko chose to take her Master's experience boosting abilities to more efficiently level up while Lilith needed to consume as many opponents as possible since she was able to feed her Disciples to one another in order to level them up. It was through this ability that she was able to get the Wyvern to such a high level in the first place, and in the process of doing this she would easily be able to get loads stronger. Nova on the other hand needed to switch up his strategy a bit since he wasn't able to use Hakai on these particular Dungeons. He opted to simply run through the dungeons as quick as possible using Taboo, his scythe, since it would give him far more additional experience, currency, and items than anything else would.

Soon after they split up, Lilith went out her way to find her King since she had reached her next period of physical growth, and for the first time he was able to see what she looked like once she began her Independence in her Faunus form. Like her snake form, Lilith experienced a color swap of her scaley snake tail, turning from void black to pure white, with her magical circuits still growing a bright crimson. Her shirt changed from black to white and her hair turned from white to black, pretty much completely inverting her color palette in her alternate form. What she asked for was to consume more of the special Grimm that her King had created for her, allowing herself to rapidly grow into her next Shell so she could level up some more. Of course Nova obliged her, summoning the Grimm one at a time for her to properly consume them.

Right before his eyes, Nova watched as Lilith's tail grew rapidly in both length and size, and soon she was towering over him even when she tried to keep her height to a minimum. The Grimm that she was able to munch up before both of them got notified of her reaching her third Independence were the Grizzled Major, Alpha Sabyr-Wolf, Terroryx, Grimm-Wyrm, and the Aracnituar, increasing the overall strength of her Disciples greatly. The basilisk was able to shrink her own tail greatly to allow it to become much easier to manage, and after she completed her quick meals, she left as soon as she came, going back to her sector of Atlas as quick and silent as she left.

Because of how high the levels of Atlas Grimm were, and how weak the Grimm were comparatively, it was absurdly easy to gain experience and level up. However, the only real issue with the entire thing was that there were so few Dungeons on Atlas, only about five of them per area. Although they were substantially larger than the ones in Vale since they were massive, mountainous deserts of Ice, they didn't have super large hordes or numerous groups of the Grimm. The Atlas dungeons were massive open areas of blizzarding snow with limited visibility, so they focused much more on the stealth and ambushing tactics that the Grimm used to gain an advantage over the dungeon's invader. The largest of the Grimm groups would be three Sabyrs or maybe two and a Teryx, but either way most of the Grimm came in powerful duos that would try their best to sneak up on the invader.

Although since they were in powerful, higher level, duos they provided a bit more experience per one kill, it would still be a lot better if there was a horde of lower leveled Grimm since that would give a ton more exp. All in all, the night was still a success, and soon after Nova finished off the Megoliath, Sphinx, and Manticore Boss trio that guarded the Research District of Atlas, Byakko and Lilith did the same thing in their sectors. Even though the Grimm were much more challenging for all the parties involved, the fact that there were so few of them made it easy for the group to finish them all in a single night. Of course, including the fact that Nova's clone almost cleared one completely on his own this much was the least expected of the group. The final dungeon ended up appearing in the heart of the Schnee manor which brought numerous questions to Nova's mind, but since they figured that they had a reasonable amount of time before they needed to head back to Beacon, they decided that they might as well attempt the dungeon while they were still in the area.

How they did it was simple, Lilith shrunk herself down tremendously, making it so she could wrap herself around her King with ease, and Nova then fast traveled to the one dungeon that he had completed on the Schnee's property. Once he crossed through the portal, he stealthily snuck about the guarded property until he reached the Dungeon and entered Atlas's final rift. Once inside, Lilith returned to her usual size and Byakko used her Wherever You Go Skill to teleport herself to her Master's side in mere moments in a flash of orange. Byakko appeared in her Maneater counter-part of her Faunus form which gave Nova a good look at her additional form which was much the same as the other ones. Her tattoo like stripes remained black, but her fur was an incredibly bright orange color and was also quite a bit longer than before, and the coloring of her armored plated clothing turned orange.

After all three of the crew members had entered into the dungeon, they were greeted with an interesting sight. Within the Atlas Final Boss Room were three massive Grimm, the first was clearly a Final Boss Alpha Megoliath, Final Boss Ice Alpha Manticore, and a Final Boss Alpha Ice Sphinx. The Megoliath was exactly the same as the former elephant that Lilith and Byakko destroyed at the beginning of the night, but the other two Grimm seemed to be special cases since Nova wasn't aware that either of these Grimm types existed. They looked very similar to their normal counter-parts but were much larger and spikier than them with additional stat boosts in various different attributes that gave them a small edge in the battle. However, even though they had massive increases in strength, all were level 100, and there were three of them, they were quickly taken care of with almost no difficulty by the trio since they had already grown that much stronger than before. As they finished off the last of the Grimm trio, they took a quick moment to congregate within the dungeon to talk through a few of their newer strengths before exiting the completed area.

Congratulations! You have conquered The Final Boss Room in Atlas

Atlas has been completely cleared of the Animus! Your rewards are as follows:

| +100,000 Exp |+200,000 Bestial Exp | +1,000,00 Clan Exp | +10 AUG | +2 Salem's Influence |

Total Exp Gain: +691,199

Total Currency Gain: +6 AUG | +9,175 AUS | +92,790 AUB

Key Item Yield: +7 Salem's Influence

Level Up! Level Up! Level Up!

Level Up! Level Up!

Total Levels: 26.01

Name: Nova Pollux

Age: 18

Race: Awakened One, Deus~Humanus, Faunus

Titles: Awakened, Savior of Earth, King Slayer etc.

LVL: 126 (7%)

HP: 141350/141350, (+36491), {+42105}

SLD: 70675/70675

MP: 96000/96000, (+6244), {+26760}

AU: 63970/63970, (+10994), {+4581}

Attributes:

STR; 3568, (+3925), {+1070}

END; 3054, (+2749), {+916}

DEX; 3190, (+2871), {+957}

VIT; 2807, (+3649), {+842}

INT; 3568, (+1249), {+1070}

LUK; 1905, (+1810), {+572}

EX AP: 3790

SY: 65

SP: 110

$Money$: 80,020 AUG | 34,653 AUS | 231,680 AUB | $4,487 Lien

| Lilith |

Total Exp Gain: +404,032

Total Currency Gain: +2 AUG |+5,666 AUS | +41,164 AUB

Level Up! Level Up! Level Up! Level Up! Level Up! Level Up!

Level Up! Level Up! Level Up! Level Up! Level Up!

Total Levels: 53.07

Name: Lilith

Age: 66

Race: Infinite Void Basilisk, Faunus

LVL: 87 (51%)

HP: 49550/49550, (+5934), {+12363}

MP: 82760/82760, (+11556), {+19260}

AU: 22565/22565, (+846), {+1323}

Bond Lvl: MAX

Attributes:

STR; 649, (+130), {+162}

END; 1058, (+212), {+265}

DEX; 1719, (+344), {+430}

VIT; 989, (+593), {+247}

INT; 1926, (+1156), {+482}

LUK; 1368, (+274), {+342}

*The Forbidden Fruit (Semblance)*- Using this amazing Semblance, Lilith is able to consume and gain powers from things that ordinarily is impossible to gain any value from, most notably Dust. When she swallows Dust whole, she is powered up immensely by its presence in her body, giving her the ability to do various different skills with varying powered up effects

'Forbidden Knowledge'- The hidden truth, the destroyer of innocence, the cure to naivety, the key to evolution, the catalyst for creation. Forbidden Knowledge is the abhorrent assortment of the truths that govern the word that is kept from those who are meant to remain asleep. Lilith does not only understand this knowledge, but she in fact is also the origin of such knowledge, and it is through this Bestial Accessory that this Knowledge manifests as the Symbols that mark Lilith's body; +40% INT; +30% to any Attribute of any given Disciple

| Byakko |

Total Exp Gain: +493,978

Total Currency Gain: +3 AUG |+4,175 AUS | +32,836 AUB

Level Up! Level Up! Level Up! Level Up! Level Up! Level Up!

Level Up!

Total Levels: 31.39

Name: Byakko

Age: 206

Race: Celestial White Tiger, Faunus

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

LVL: 73 (3%)

HP: 68700/68700, (+6770), {+16925}

MP: 48700/48700, (+6237), {+11138}

AU: 28075/28075, (+2688), {+1680}

Bond Lvl: MAX

Attributes:

STR; 1865, (+1306), {+466}

END; 1344, (+672), {+336}

DEX; 2308, (+1616), {+577}

VIT; 1354, (+677), {+399}

INT; 1782, (+1247), {+446}

LUK; 415, (+508), {+104}

*Queen Venus (Semblance)*- This is the unique power manifested from your soul, the tangible representation of your Aura. Venus creates a circular domain around you that has various effects on your allies and enemies. The effects are based on Venus's Imperial Power.

*Venus's Heat*- In the Domain, the enemies of Byakko will experience the intense radiating heat of Venus, causing intense burns that cannot be extinguished

'Venus's Queen'- As this this accessory is the physical manifestation of Byakko's title as the Queen of Venus, this Bestial Accessory manifests itself as a weapon of Byakko's choosing, allowing her to freely change the Attributes she wishes to enhance. The limits for the increases in strength for this accessory is simple, Byakko is allowed one 40% increase, two 30% increases, three 20% increases, or all five 15% increases.

Name: Byakko (Grimm), Scylla

Age: 206

Race: Celestial White Tiger, Grimm, Faunus

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

LVL: 73 (3%)

HP: 86950/86950, (+12893), {+21488}

MP: 14025/14025, (+889), {+2469}

AU: 23695/23695, (+2025), {+1406}

Bond Lvl: MAX

Attributes:

STR; 2376, (+1544), {+594}

END; 1125, (+506), {+281}

DEX; 1578, (+710), {+395}

VIT; 1719, (+1289), {+430}

INT; 395, (+178), {+99}

LUK; 370, (+467), {+93}

*Venus's Might*- In the Domain, the enemies of Byakko will experience the immense pressure that crushes all who enter. This bone crushing pressure rapidly causes damage will inflicting a terrifying slow that makes it extremely difficult to escape

Name: Byakko (Maneater)

Age: 206

Race: Celestial White Tiger, Champawat, Faunus

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

LVL: 73 (3%)

HP: 50450/50450, (+4451), {+12363}

MP: 62475/62475, (+8749), {+14581}

AU: 32355/32355, (+2804), {+1948}

Bond Lvl: MAX

Attributes:

STR; 459, (+207), {+115}

END; 1558, (+701), {+390}

DEX; 1854, (+1391), {+464}

VIT; 989, (+445), {+247}

INT; 2333, (+1750), {+583}

LUK; 370, (+467), {+93}

*Venus's Toxicity*- In the Domain, the enemies of Byakko will yield to the immense toxic air that permeates through the air. This intensely toxic atmosphere generated by Byakko's Aura essentially suffocates and smothers an opponent's strength and will from their bodies, slowly draining the life from the victim

"Damn, these numbers are getttin ridiculously disorienting" he thought as he took a moment to steady himself. "Tonight, went extremely well! Byakko and Lilith are leveling up like crazy which is an extremely good thing considering the things that are to come, and we even got a bunch of Salem's Influence. Soon enough I should be able to figure out what I can use them for as long as I gather enough of them. Since Lilith's growth rate is so much lower than both me and Byakko's she has been leveling up much quicker than us, but that doesn't seem to have a great effect on her attribute growth. On top of that, since she keeps rapidly growing through her primordial shells using the Grimm beasts that I created she hasn't been able to take advantage of her natural attribute consumption ability." This thought brought him moment of pause as he stood silently in the barren ice-land that was once the final dungeon of Atlas.

"I wonder if I'm actually stunting her growth rather than increasing her strengths by giving her these special Grimm instead of just having her consume powerful enemies for her own physical growth. Sure, it strengthens her disciple arsenal by a ton, but it leaves her actual strengths rather weakened. Maybe I should spend a bunch of my growth AP on Lilith instead of myself then. I'm sure I'm plenty strong enough as I am now, and I only just got halfway to my next prestige. With enough leveling, skills, and information I'm sure that there won't be a single opponent that'll be a challenge for me. The only person I truly have to worry about strength wise will be Salem and the Stygian-Animus invader that comes after that. Shit, I wish I thought about that sooner then I wouldn't have stunted her growth so much." Before he could act on that final thought, he felt a hand gently rest itself upon his shoulder. Looking around himself, Nova noticed that Byakko was awaiting his instructions, standing patiently by his side. However, Lilith was 'standing' tall behind him, resting her palm on his right shoulder. "What's up Lilith?"

"My King perhaps now is not the best time to reflect upon todays actions and plan for what is to come. It has already been an incredibly long night. For now, I believe that our time would be best spent returning to Beacon Academy. After all, I highly doubt the rest of the women would appreciate your absence much longer." As Lilith finished speaking, Byakko's ears suddenly perked up slightly.

"I agree Master. It would be best if you were to take a mental break from thinking about strategy and planning. As we discussed earlier, I am sure everything will fall into place soon enough. So, there is no need to reflect on previous decisions as of right this very moment. Let us return home first before we conjure up any ideas relating to the future."

"Yeah, your both right. There is always tomorrow night I guess" Nova thought out loud. He then decided to put his intensive thoughts on hold since the night had come to an end and it was time for them to return to their room. "Aight, time to head back! Don't wanna keep the girls waiting too long" he spoke, getting a quick smile from both of the woman. "Fast Travel." Nova spoke the skill with their bedroom in mind and quickly the Pink portal appeared inside the icy empty dungeon.

"After you master" Byakko spoke elegantly, allowing her master entry to the other side of the portal. However, before he was able to take the Faunus up on her offer a sudden voice rung loudly in his mind.

[Partner you are receiving a call from 'Big Momma'! Would you like to answer it?]

"Big Momma? Isn't that Lil' Miss? Why would she be calling right now?" Byakko and Lilith noticed their companion's sudden change in posture, and they began watching over him with a slight bit of caution. As Nova turned his attention to Byakko and Lilith he was about to tell the duo that they could go ahead without him, but once their eyes met it became more than clear to Nova that the duo of Goddesses weren't going to go back to the room without him. So, he returned his attention back to his mind to answer Meta's question. "Yeah, please answer the call, Meta."

[Yes sir!]

"Hello?"

"Hi Sonny, how are you doing on this fine morning" the woman replied in her usual mature, southern accent.

"All things considered I'm doing alright, I guess. How about you Mother?"

"Well, since you cleared up that 'Business' I have been practically walking on clouds every day. I still can't thank you enough for taking care of that traitor for me."

"Its nothin Mother. You have given me more than enough in return Mother: the clothing, the assassins, and even letting me run house in Vale. All of that is more than enough compensation for offing someone as miniscule as he was."

Lil' Miss let out a small chuckle after her son's comment, "how right you are Sonny boy. How are my daughters doing? I trust your treating them well and respectfully."

"Yes of course, I'm treating them as well as I possibly could. They are also doing really well as both Miltia, and Melanie have gotten assigned to their Huntsman team. They are on the same team as my closest companions Byakko and Lilith who are capable in their own right."

"That's good to hear, but that's not what I was asking about Son." Lil' Miss's tone turned from lighthearted to stern in an instant. The mature woman then let the silence ring between them for a moment before continuing with, "Don't play koi with me. I know my daughters fancy you quite a bit, and I do as well, but that doesn't mean that I give you permission to take away their purity. Now, answer my question. I'd recommend that you choose your words wisely."

Nova took a small swallow of saliva before saying, "like I said before, I'm treating them as well as humanly possible. I won't lie to you, we are in a relationship of sorts, but I promise that they are still as pure as the day you let them leave Mistral. I'd never do anything that serious without first asking for your blessing. The last thing I'd ever want is to sully the relationship I have built with you Mother."

Lil' Miss remained quiet on the other end of the Scroll, leaving Nova in a bit of a bind as he awaited the woman's response. However, after a moment of silence between the duo the head of the spiders replied in a warm tone. "You truly do always know what to say."

Nova allowed a light chuckle to escape his lips before saying, "well, I do try my best."

"Keep it up then. I know I don't need to tell you but I'm going to anyway. Treat my daughters right, if you don't I promise I'll find a way to end your life. However, I highly doubt it'll ever come to that. Pretty soon you may have me under lock and key" she said with a light chuckle.

"Are you sure I don't have you already?"

"Well, I went out of my way to speak with you so you may be on to something my cheeky boy, but I wouldn't be so sure so soon." The leader of the Spiders responded to her son figure with hardy laughter, triggering Nova to do the same. The two shared a moment of lighthearted laughs for a moment before slowly coming down and continuing their banter. "I wish I could have more conversations like this with you son. Bantering with you is one of the few small things that I find myself enjoying now and days."

"Your more than welcomed to call me whenever Mother. You know I'll make the time."

"If only it was that simple…" Lil' Miss trailed off into thought as she spoke, letting the call fall quiet.

The silence rang for a moment before Nova broke it with a soft, "Mother?"

After hearing her name being called, Lil' Miss exited her mind and continued speaking as if she never stopped. "I feel as though we've wasted enough time as is. So, let's get to the central topic of discussion since I'm sure its clear that I didn't call to lecture you about the treatment of my daughters." After hearing her words Nova perked his ears and quieted his thoughts so he could fully listen to the reasoning behind the surprise Scroll call. "I'm not one to mince words so allow me to keep it short. There is someone asking around about you." At the statement the Devil's eyes widened slightly. "Asking around in fact might be an understatement since I was asked for this information directly."

"Do you mind me asking who it was?"

"No, I do not. The only issue is the person wasn't very identifiable in any stretch of the word. The only thing that I can say for certain is that the person was a woman. Her voice was feminine, she had a slim and curvaceous figure, and she responded to being called 'woman.' However, everything else regarding her is a mystery. No name, no face, no weapon, no semblance, not even as much as a damn Aura color."

"The only woman I can think of that might want to ask around about me is Cinder, but it's unlikely I'll be able to confirm that any time soon. On top of that, the fact that Mother didn't force the woman to give her some kind of identity, even a false one, seems a bit odd. What did they talk about? So… what did she ask about?"

"A lot of things that I do not know. She asked about your past, connections, skillset, abilities, and other things of that nature. It appears she was trying to build a profile on who the Devil truly is, but her true objective was something that I was unable to get out of her."

Nova's thoughts turned internal for a moment as the leader of the Spiders divulged the information that this mysterious woman. It took him a while to think through the thoughts that were compiling quickly within his mind but once he finished, he replied with a simple question. "How much did you tell her?"

The man could practically hear Lil 'Miss's smirk through the Scroll, and this smirk was followed by a light chuckle. "Oh my, Son, do you have no faith in your mother?"

"Of course, I have faith in you Mother, but let's be real. You still have a business to run and a reputation to uphold" he said with a smile.

"Correct. I can't very well decline an offer that benefits both me and the rest of the Spiders."

"I guess she's a businesswoman first and a mother second" Nova thought as he listened to the woman's response. "I can't really blame her for it, but that makes me wonder what she got in return. Whatever it is it had to be worth putting me in a bad spot, not learning anything about the woman's identity, and even possibly admitting to being in cahoots with myself."

"But to answer your question, I told the woman everything I know about you, excluding any personal bias or interest of course. Its not like I learned much about you in the first place, so I didn't have anything too important to tell, but I did unload quite a bit. Starting with your sudden rise to power, how you orchestrated the Death of Roman Torchwick, apparent dissent with the SDC, and the skillset and abilities of your clan members. I didn't know much, only what my daughters mention to me in passing, but the info seemed to be satisfactory to her. For obvious reasons I did not inform the woman on your identity or the fact that you are enrolled at Beacon academy along with my daughters."

"Thanks for keeping that bit a secret Mother. I really appreciate the confidentiality. I can't say that I thought that Lil' Miss was this cold blooded to use the things her daughters told her to her own advantage, but I guess that's what you gotta do to stay on top in the underground. Though, it does seem that she has enough loyalty to not outright give my identity, but that could be because it could put her daughters in danger. Either way, it puts us in a slightly better situation than we would've been in otherwise. Let's see what else we can get from Lil' Miss. Do you think you can tell me any specifics about what you told her about my Clan?"

"Well, simply put, I told her how many men you command and the types of things that you've ordered them to do. Therefore, I effectively told her the known capabilities of your clan. As far as everything else, I told her the same general things that most people know. Effectively becoming the leader of the Xiong Family in a single night using brute force, taking over the Schnee's dust yard while also getting rid of Roman, and all your clan's other escapades including your more recent Mount Glenn exhibition."

Nova let out a small sigh that wasn't missed by his surrounding companions and rubbed his eyes clear of exhaustion. "So, she clearly didn't tell this mystery woman, that is probably Cinder, that I was working with Lil' Miss. But Cinder isn't dumb so it's possible that she could've somehow figured that out which could change things slightly. Either way, I don't think that it is too serious an offense and if anything, it simply builds the case that the Clan would be a useful ally for Cinder and the rest of Salem's circle. However, I can't afford too many leaks in the Clan since it could drastically change things in the future. I guess I'll tell Mil and Mel to keep the things they tell their mother to a minimum. Thanks for caring enough to let me know mother, I'd much rather have you tell me then find out later."

"Of course, Sonny, anything for my boy. I cannot wait to see how you deal with this sudden intrusion on your operation" she said with a chuckle. "I'm sure you'll do just fine."

"Yeah, I'll handle it. Oh, one more question before you go. What kind of compensation did you get for handing over that kinda information? I'm guessing it would've had to be monumental for you to cough up that much information."

At his question, Lil' Miss laughed heartily, stopping her laugh only for a moment to respond to her surrogate child's question. "Every woman has her secrets Sonny and I think that I'll keep this one to myself. However, I will tell you this, the price she paid was more than monumental" she finished with a chuckle. "I'll talk to you again soon enough son."

"See you mother." With that, the call from the Scroll ended leaving Nova with much more questions than answers, each of which more jarring than the last. "The person asking around about me is more than likely Cinder, so I should hopefully be hearing from her soon enough. That means that things should start moving again soon which is nice. Although, based on the information Junior told me when I first took over the Xiong Family it sounded like Cinder was still in Beacon. I guess me killing Roman altered her plans a bit more than I expected."

That last thought made Nova furrow his brow, bringing on a feeling of exasperation as he continued thinking further about the possible consequences of him killing Roman. "Its possible that Cinder was forced to take a widely different path because of Roman's death, but what kind of changes could it have for the future." The man paused in his mind for a moment before remembering the words that Byakko and Lilith comforted him with earlier. "That's not a question that I can answer now, nor is it one that I can figure out easily in the future. The best thing I can do now is simply keep my eye out for any super different changes in the timeline."

"And another question that still remains is what Lil' Miss was given in return for the information. After all, what do you give someone who already has pretty much everything? But it probably isn't too important. If it really comes down to it I'll just ask the twins to try and figure it out, respectfully. Or I'll make the effort to visit her when I go to Mistral along with Adam and Yang."

"What did that woman want My King?" Lilith's question effectively broke Nova from his thoughts and he suddenly returned to the empty dungeon that he and his companions were occupying.

"She… wanted to let me know that someone was asking around about me" he answered.

That got Byakko's attention, and she then added, "is everything alright?"

"Yeah. At least it should be." Byakko and Lilith acknowledged Nova's concern with small head nods before they walked through the fast travel portal, exiting the dungeon, and entering their bedroom. Even as the portal appeared in the room, its inhabitants remained asleep. So, Lilith, Byakko, and Nova were able to easily slip in and take their places amongst the group of resting bodies. Once they awoke, it was time for the group of lovers, now official students at Beacon, to walk their schedule.

Before exiting their combined room, Nova took the opportunity to ask Weiss about what he saw when he was in Atlas the previous night. What he learned was that Atlas had always had a city-wide curfew that starts to take effect at 12am but doesn't completely go into effect until 1am. According to Weiss the public reasoning behind the curfew is simply a way to streamline business and entertainment while also preventing crimes from being committed. While all these effects are true it isn't the entire reasoning behind the curfews existence. In reality, the only reason the curfew was originally created was for the purpose of controlling the populaces behavior and emotions. She then went on to explain that the curfew was put into effect far before Atlas was propelled into the sky and the reasoning as to why the council wanted to control the citizens emotions was to prevent the attraction of Grimm from the surrounding landscape.

Weiss then explained that the harsher environments of Solitas gave birth to stronger Grimm that were incredibly hard to defend against. So, in an effort to grow and cultivate new civilizations in these areas strict laws had to be put into effect to control the emotions of the populace to prevent them from becoming a hotspot of negative emotions that would attract Grimm. The curfew was one of these controls and its one of the few that persists even in modern times. The Atlas council had voted on the removal of the curfew numerous times but each time they decided to keep it in place as it made it convenient for them to do various things without the public knowing.

Nova found the topic as a whole very interesting, especially considering the fact that Weiss had full knowledge of the subject even though there were still secrets being kept from her, mainly slavery. Above all, it made him think about how powerful the Atlas council must be for them to keep such a rigorous curfew in place without dissent. All of this information culminated in his mind to create a new image of the power structure in Atlas, and this also in turn birthed a new idea that may change his future plans. This was the conversation that was had throughout that morning and even through the hallways as they headed to their first school event.

Since today was Sunday the 11th Beacon's school technically hadn't begun yet, but the first couple days of school were a bit different than the rest. Instead of immediately beginning their classes they first had a brief orientation in one of the larger lecture halls in the building. During this orientation they learned exactly what most of their days would consist of. The base schedule was simple, wake up at 7am, class, class, lunch, enrichment, practical training, and end of day at 7pm. The specific classes that each of the students went to on any given day were subject to change so it was important that students checked their Scrolls every morning to see where they'd be spending their time that morning, but enrichment and practical training were different.

Lunch was self-explanatory and it took place around noon in the cafeteria. Enrichment however was more like an extension of lunch but instead of focusing on eating and relaxing it was focused on the other activities that students could participate in on the campus. Whether it be reading in the library, working out in the gym, training in a private room, or even taking a much-needed nap in your dorm room, this is the time that students are welcome to do so. Practical training on the other hand was what Nova thought most of their education would be focused on. Instead of having different professors, subjects, and classrooms every day, practical training always took place with a single designated professor that dictated what the students would be doing daily. As the name suggests, practical training is the physical and combative aspects of becoming a huntsman.

Unsurprisingly, all of Nova's companions and the rest of their teams were assigned to Professor Goodwitch, meaning that they'd all be together once more. This happening was more than likely made possible by the collective agreement between Scarlet, Ozpin, and Glynda who figured that the best way to have this central group improve was through practicing with the best of the best. The other benefit of keeping this group together is being able to train or practice for specific events that may be taking place in the future. Things like fighting other people, larger more ferocious Grimm, and other things of that nature that wouldn't be included in the normal students' curriculum.

After the orientation, Nova and the rest of his crew were introduced to most of the professors that they would be learning from for the duration of their stay at the academy. Nova was able to see a lot of familiar faces from the show during this portion of the day and he was surprised to see that they were eerily similar to their Rwby counterparts. Following this introduction was the walk through/tour of the rest of the building, showing them preemptively where their classes may be, even though it was pointless since the Scrolls tell them exactly where the rooms are in the building. When all was said and done the students were given the rest of their days to spend as they wish. Most of the group chose to hang out with one another watching movies, reading, and other menial activities, but Nova and Pyrrha spent most of the time working with both Jaune and Ruby to increase their base strengths.

Ruby was already improving rapidly and even Jaune was showing a good amount of natural growth as well, but the both of them still had quite a bit of work to do before they would be able to become as powerful as their peers. That thought didn't seem to deter either of them, if anything it made them work even harder to catch up as fast as possible which was another positive factor in their growth efforts. Besides this, the day went by almost as if school hadn't started at all. Soon enough they were winding down in their literal bedroom, Undressing, washing away the grime from the day, and preparing to lay down to rest.

"Tomorrow is the first official day of school at beacon" Nova thought to himself. "It feels like it's been an eternity since the last time I went to a class. It really is crazy to think that only so much time has passed since I left the halfway destroyed earth. Makes me wonder… What happened to the earth after I killed Sin?" Before he was able to theorize any answers to his own proposed question, he was suddenly brought from his mind when he felt a warm body suddenly curl up into his lap. Looking down, Nova met eyes with the adorable culprit of his distraction.

Neo had sat down into her savior's lap and cuddled deeply into his warmth, looking up lovingly at the man she loved. The two didn't say a word to one another and simply communicate their affections through the eye contact. This eye contact resulted in a bright smile forming on both Neo and Nova's faces before their lips slowly came together in a chaste kiss. The kiss lasted for a while, quickly picking up the attention of the other members in the room. Although the sign of affection was extremely commonplace within this group of lovers, it still prompted everyone else to feel as though they needed to get a piece of the action. This natural resulted in a lot of bodies laying a top one another, kissing, groping, and grinding as they expressed their affinities with one another sexually.

However, before thing could get too excitable Nova pulled both Malachite twins aside to discuss what happened much earlier in the day. He told them everything that their mother told them and tried his best to come across as non-confrontational as possible when he requested, they restrict the info they told their mother about the Clan's activities. The girls took all the details of the conversation really well, even the part about them remaining chaste, and so far, everything had gone extremely smooth. Neither of the girls were surprised that their mother had willing given up information on their Bro, neither did they care much either. The only part of the conversation that was a little bit pretentious was when Nova asked what their mother may have gotten in return for giving up the information.

Miltia then went on to explain that mother is extremely tight lipped when it comes to her negotiations, deals, and everything of the like. She goes as far as keeping her own daughters in the dark on the most important contracts that she's upheld, never telling anyway what she gets in return for deals. It was a fairly simple strategy that she ran but implemented at an extremely high level. Lil' Miss functions as an incredibly powerful and talented information broker and can still be requested for hundreds of other activities as well. However, she never lets others know the things that she gives in exchange for her services. This creates a blank slate each and every time a new person attempts to strike up a deal with her, and since there is never a known going rate for anything, everything is up for negotiations. Even the starting point of the price. Most of the time no one will ever know if the price they are paying is too high, or possibly too low, either way Lil' Miss remains in control of these operations.

Any logical person would then think that it would be wise for Lil' Miss's 'business partners' to collaborate with one another and find out what the Spiders leader generally gets in return for her services. However, because the people that make deals with the Miss are too often doing so for extremely selfish reasons its almost impossible for anyone to willingly give up what goods they got from Lil' Miss. Thus, keeping the Spiders leader in control at all times.

Basically, it is an oddly taboo idea in the family to ask mother the things that she receives and its kept extremely tight lipped even in their closest circle. Thinking back, it now made a bit more sense that Lil' Miss conducted the initial negotiations between herself and the Devil in that way, and it even brings into question the amount of money actually needed to create the made to order suit jackets for the Demon Clan. It was possible that he had gotten ripped off, but at this point it wasn't anything that he cared to investigate nor was it important enough to think about.

As he finished up his conversation with the twins, he gave them both quick kisses on their cheeks before heading to bed. Nova laid down in the center amongst the pile and waited comfortably as body after body gradually snuggled up into him and each other. The finished product of this snuggle party was numerous beautiful women cuddled closely a top one another with the hopes of getting as close as possible to the Adonis like figure at the center of the mass. As usual, it didn't take very long for the group of lovers to dose off and fall into a deep slumber that they'd only awake from once morning arose.

"Tomorrow is the first official day of school" Nova began thinking as the women surrounding himself fell asleep. "This should be the real start of everything including Cinders involvement at Beacon as a whole. In Rwby, Cinder, Emerald, and Mercury were all attendees at Beacon Academy at least for a portion of the time. This could be another change that we are experiencing because of my actions, but it is also possible that they were just planning on entering the school at a later date. Either way I need to keep an eye out for them. Hopefully this whole issue gets solved with Cinder finally contacting me, but I still gotta prepare for the worst." With that thought, Nova turned his attention to the now deeply sleeping women around him and took their heavy breathing as a sign that it was finally time for him to make his exit. "One thing at a time, Call Off, Demonic Walk."

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