There was a woman near the cliff, she was on her back watching the sunset in silence, beside her was a familiar grave, she wore a flashy white cape with a hood covering her head, most of her body was hidden underneath of the cover, with the exception of the knee down.
The woman was somewhat familiar for some reason, Ruby slowly approached the woman instinctively recognizing her, "Mother?", the girl was confused, her mother must be dead, how could she be there?
Said woman turned around, confirming her daughter's theory, "Hello my dear Ruby, I'm so glad to see you again...", a warm and affectionate smile hovered on the woman's face, "Come here and give your mother a hug." old mother".
Tears of happiness fell from the little rose's face, who quickly flew away using her face to hug Summer, "I can't believe it", Ruby said with barely contained happiness, "I thought you- You were...", she couldn't finish his sentence with the amount of joy that hovered in his chest, as he hugged his mother with all his strength.
"Ruby... I'm really sorry", something changed, as fast as the tide turned, "Mom, what..." Ruby was confused, her mother was there alive and well, full of comforting happiness, but something had changed, as soon as the little rose had hugged her mother.
A black liquid emerging from Summer's clothing that quickly stuck and immobilized the young rose, "Huh! Mom, what's going on you...!" Ruby widened her eyes, as she watched that black liquid take over the older rose's body transforming her into a Grimm, "I'm sorry my dear, I didn't mean to.".
The black liquid began to spread through Ruby's body, slowly taking her in, "Mom, I'm scared! Mom what's going on?!", Summer tried to speak but only incomprehensible grunts could be heard from her mother, while the young hunter despaired trying to free herself from the liquid.
Sunset was gone, black clouds spread across the horizon, as the sky corrupted and an endless horde of Grimms appeared on the horizon, "I'm sorry I can't protect you from her my little Rose", somehow Ruby managed understand her mother's grunts as she transformed into a Grimm herself.
Ruby yelled.
Ruby opened her eyes, using all the strength in her lungs to scream, as tears of despair fell down her face.
Normally, she would just sit and recover from her nightmare while her sister comforted her, but as soon as she got to her feet, Ruby lost her balance and fell… into a long fall.
"Which?! Shit!" Ruby was falling as soon as she'd woken up, falling off a cliff she'd previously found herself on the edge of. The young woman quickly regained her senses and with her countenance she made a safe landing, albeit a little inelegant... Very inelegant since she had fallen on the hot sand on her ass.
"Oh... What the hell", she let out a little curse, "That was a horrible start... Wait where am I?" since it was strangely circular, as if a giant cylinder from the inside of a mountain had been removed and considering the amount of dust raised, it had been recent, as if it had been done in a single second.
But this was madness, who would have what it took to remove millions of tons of stone from a mountain in a single second? Not even someone like Salem could do something like that... 'At least I think... I hope she can't do it'.
'Wait, where's everyone?', Ruby widened her eyes as she finally remembered the latest events, Cinder and Neopolitan suddenly appearing and preventing the evacuation, dozens of innocent people must have fallen into the void during the fight, Yang's fall when he tried to save her , Cinder literally betraying her ally to kill Ruby and get the relic, Blake's attempt and failure to save her that ended up taking her friend into the void as well... It was her fault that this all happened, because of her string of foolish decisions Ironwood went mad, having the need to evacuate the civilians, her arrogance in hoping that the plan made would be foolproof, causing them to be taken by surprise by Cinder and her weakness that literally made Yang and Blake sacrifice themselves uselessly for her. .. 'I'm the worst leader I could have... Weiss was right, I'm not cut out for this'.
Dark thoughts swarmed the Young Rose's mind, negativity that would normally draw Grimms in droves... Ruby smacked her cheek, she couldn't be overwhelmed by those thoughts now, she was alone and without her Crescent Rose to fight Grimms, Ruby had to stay alive for her friends!
Even though the negative thoughts were bottled up like a phenomenally fragile dam, but right now, Ruby had to focus on figuring out where she was.
She went back to surveying her surroundings, finally noticing a red thing at the end of the gorge, a red thing incredibly familiar to the Rose "Crescent Rose! There you are!".
Activating her countenance, she sprinted towards her dearly trusted weapon, swiftly crossing the great distance and arriving at her scythe which conveniently pointed at a pair of half-unlit footprints.
"Thank you Crescent Rose! You found a clue! How could I live without you!" She hugged her dear weapon, it's not like she was trying to fight bad thoughts with jokes and pranks.
"You don't happen to know where we are or the locations of others? No? It's ok, you don't have to be disappointed, that's enough for now!", she smiled happily, her smile was certainly not meant to be a mask for herself...
A treacherous tear escaped her eyes, only a single one, had emerged as she smiled happily, "Now let's find the owners of these footprints and find out why we're not on Atlas anymore."
'After all, it's not like Atlas turned to desert while I was sleeping', the rose promptly started walking, following the pair of footprints, "Don't worry Crescent Rose, we'll be fine...".
Ruby followed the pair of footprints across several kilometers of desert, luckily there was no wind to erase the footprints from the sand, unfortunately that didn't stop the trail from eventually disappearing into the ocean of sand, thus leaving Ruby lost again in a desert.
The question was now clear, as she had gone from Atlas to what she assumed was the Void desert, was it possible that the fall into the black void had sent her to another point in Remnant, as she herself did not see any of the civilians who will flee from Mantel here, or maybe Blake has saved her from her fall from the void, and the part of her falling to her death was just a hallucination, which would mean Yang was dead and she was left to die...
Ruby shook her head, trying to get these bad thoughts away, it would only serve to attract Grimms... 'Strange, so far I haven't found any Grimms around here... Did those two clean the area? Come to think of it, these two mysterious individuals left her on the edge of the cliff and then dropped my Crescent Rose near footprints that took her deeper into the desert as a trap to make her die of dehydration in the desert, while laughing sickeningly of his pathetic death? This somehow feels like something Tyrian or Cinder would do...'.
But maybe she was thinking too much or not, or maybe she was in hell, where she would wander the desert for the rest of eternity while missing her friends, but now was not the time to focus on that, she had to find some human settlement, some something that suggested the possibility that she was still alive.
She walked a lot, until the Sun touched the horizon, her aura still healing her wounds from the last battle, her body was tired not only from walking for hours without rest, but also from the trials she will face in Atlas and until now there was not a single one. Sign of life nearby, no people and no Grimms.
It got to the point where Ruby was tempted to let her emotions get the best of her, just so she could lure bloodthirsty Grimm into battle, just to do something other than walk straight across the great desert...
Suddenly Ruby flying, thrown by something heavy, it was as if a Goliath had hit her squarely, the universe really had a sick sense of humor, the reaper gritted her teeth, as she adjusted her landing, slowing down the speed at which she had been launched, landing several meters away from your attacker.
"Damn, I'm an idiot," she muttered with a sour face, as she watched the cloud of dust raised by the blow slowly fall, "Of course I attract a Grimm with my damn thoughts...".
The Grimm that had attacked was certainly strong, capable of rivaling a Goliath in strength and sagacious enough to attack underground in a sand trap.
But as the dust settled, the grim reaper's expression changed to pure confusion, even slightly loosening her grip on her weapon, "What the fuck?! Did you expect someone scarier?! You little human shit, don't underestimate me you vertebrate motherfucker! I AM THE BIG SAND CRAB DUCK AND I WILL ANNIHILATE ALL OF YOU LOWER HUMANS WITH MY INVERTEBRATE MUSCLES!", the bizarre being was some kind of weird chimera, from the waist down, the creature had the body of a scorpion 6 meters long and from the waist up was a humanoid body with three duck heads and muscles of a mutated bodybuilder with six arms.
Disaster Level: Demon, Three-headed Scorpion Bodybuilder Duck.
Ruby let out an exasperated sigh, there were only two possible conclusions, either she had completely gone mad or she really was in hell, which was the worst of the possibilities Ruby had no idea.
"How dare you sigh in my grand presence! You will pay with your life for this insolence!", the creature lunged at Rosa, who easily dodged the attack and with her scythe delivered a blow that drew blood from the creature's arm, which roared in fury.
"Please let me not be fighting the wind, please let me not be fighting the wind" Ruby prayed, "You damn human! For cutting off my beautiful arm I'm going to break every bone in your body! LEGENDARY DUCK HEAVY PUNCH!"
A powerful punch was delivered against the scythe wielder who easily dodged the attack, 'Better not use my store of dust on what is probably a hallucination', she thought as she activated her countenance and dealt several blows against the creature, causing it to bleed, although they were shallow blows as the creature's skin was very hard.
"Stand still and I'll kill you! You idiot monkey! BODYBUILDER DOUBLE PUNCH", 'I didn't know my mind could be so creative with curses and weird attack names, if Weiss were here I'd be having a migraine', a mixture of bitterness and happiness filled Ruby's chest as she remembered if from her friend... And dodged the deadly attack with the charging power of a Goliath.
The creature was slow and with a simple attack pattern, dodging its attacks was something even a hunter in training could do, unfortunately the monster showed no sign of slowing down even after Ruby's numerous attacks, as she she was already exhausted from walking through the desert for hours without rest and from the countless conflicts that had taken place on Atlas.
"POISONOUS WATER JET FROM THE INVINCIBLE DUCK! Die soon you inferior Human!" the monster's scorpion tail shot out a jet of green liquid which the reaper easily dodged, but Ruby was worried to see the ravages of the attack that corroded the sand it hit and turned the surrounding sand into glass thanks to the heat of the attack, ' This is more like acid lava than poisonous water, even though this is a hallucination I certainly don't want to be hit by it...'.
Ruby counterattacked with more cuts to the flesh of the bizarre creature's upper body, she distanced herself several tens of meters from the monster at a distance beyond the being's reach, she stopped to suck in as much air as she could, her body was drenched in sweat, her muscles aching, her breathing heavy and her heart pounding in her chest, she was tired, maybe she needed to use dust in this battle.
Ruby blinked slowly, "INFINITE SPEED LEAP!" the monster roared, while the hunter opened her eyes to see the huge creature a meter away, she prepared to dodge the blow, "SLAPPING THE FAST BITCH!".
Ruby was hit.
One moment she was taking a breath, a short break from the fight that was being waged, the next she was flying after taking a heavy blow that caused massive damage to her aura and finally falling flat on her face to the concrete of the road… "Ouch. .. Well done to me", she lay there for a few moments 'Wait, is that a road?!', "Sign of life detected, analyzing... Sign of life identified as a human female, poor health conditions, detected severe signs of fatigue and dehydration... Calling the ambulance, wait 15 for minutes", a robotic voice suddenly caught Rosa's attention as she watched a pillar about 30 centimeters high emerge from a hole on the side of the road, very close to where she had landed.
"INFINITE SPEED LEAP!", Ruby ended up not having time to think about it, as the bizarre Three-Headed Duck/Scorpion/Bodybuilder was just a few feet away from her, "LEGENDARY DUCK HEAVY PUNCH!", the hunter activated his countenance flying over the monster, as he watched the blow turn a stretch of road into wreckage.
"Alternate sign of life detected... Analyzing... Sign of life identified as a monster of disaster level Demon, calling heroes...", Ruby landed on top of the scorpion part of the creature and with her scythe delivered a couple of blows on the exoskeleton, blows that did nothing to the creature.
"DIVINE DUCK SPEAR! Impale you bitch!", Ruby activated her countenance, evading the blow and flew up, staying several meters above the monster and then descended in a quick dive, cutting against the back of the monster's left head.
"You think I didn't see you there?! SUPREME TRIPLE HEADBOARD!", the monster announced its blow in a one-sided conversation, as Rosa was too tired to speak.
The side heads bit the scythe blade, stopping the blow and the middle head stretched its neck, making it as long as a giraffe and tried to hit Ruby who once again dodged the blow using her countenance and landed on the wreckage of the road, breathing heavily.
"I have to admit human, you are certainly above average compared to the weak heroes I've faced before" the creature began to speak, while the reaper took the opportunity to catch her breath, "As a show of respect, I will tell my great story! I was originally a completely normal crab, until one day I found a human toy, a three-headed bodybuilder duck and I was so fascinated by such an object that I merged with it and that's when I knew my divine mission was to exterminate you humans of the face of the planet!" Ruby looked at the gaping creature, 'This is the worst origin story I've ever heard, my mind got creative in fabricating this hallucination...'.
"And I eat the great-", Suddenly the bizarre creature's speech was interrupted by a horn, the girl looked up and saw a frightened limousine driver looking at the monster in fear, he had accidentally honked his horn.
The driver started to back up, trying to get away from the creature that had the veins on its forehead jumping in rage, "How dare you interrupt me! LEGENDARY DUCK HEAVY PUNCH!" "No!" Ruby finally spoke as she ducked in front of the punch and tried desperately to block the attack with her scythe.
Broken ribs, dislocated left arm, blood flowed from cuts through her body, purple marks appeared all over her skin and with a final blow, the duck threw the huntress against the limousine, the impact causing her to spit out a handful of blood.
She could barely stay conscious, her Crescent Rose lost somewhere along the way, "And with that you fell, a nice warm-up indeed, you even managed to injure me," the monster muttered as it looked at its cuts strewn across its body, "Your sickle will be a great and well-deserved prize for me."
Ruby can only moan, 'Looks like this is the end... I'm sorry', she thought of her friends, of her family, 'To think that I would be killed by a weird mutation...' Ruby kind of wanted to laugh, but I also wanted to cry... The crying won, tears ran down her bloodied face.
"But before I finish you, lesser human, I'm going to kill those worms that dared to interfere with my speech, priorities...", the monster turned and from the corner of her eye, Ruby saw a little boy being removed from the limousine by a woman, supposedly her mother, 'Oh shit...'.
The creature slowly approached the woman who hadn't seen it yet, "Ma-Mama...", the child saw it, "Hush Takashi, you're going to attract the monster's attention", she whispered, while still trying to get the boy out, "Th-Behind you", he pointed, "Huh?", the woman turned around and saw the huge monster, turning pale instantly, "Shit... Moki do something!".
Suddenly the sound of gunfire started, bullets hitting the creature's skin and falling uselessly, the driver was a few meters away with a machine gun in his hands, "I may not be much, but I was once a B-class hero and I won't let you touch my boss!".
"Pathetic, let me execute you before them then", the creature slowly moved towards the driver who didn't stop taking off for a moment, while the mother, desperately pulled the child out of the overturned vehicle.
The duck creature flicked the man, who was launched several dozen meters away, and let out a small, satisfied laugh as he watched the man fly.
"Well now it's the mother and baby's turn", the creature said as it turned to the mother who had finally managed to get the child out, only for both of them to be cornered against the limousine "Mommy, I'm scared...", "Close your eyes dear...", she said, as she hugged her son protectively and looked at the monster defiantly, "Close your eyes...".
"Die Lesser Humans", he raised his fist to kill them both, but was suddenly hit in the back by countless shots that set fire, ice and electrocuted him.
"Stay away from them!" the reaper screamed, gun in hand and nonstop firing rounds and rounds of dust at the creature that quickly raised its 6 arms to block the shots. Ruby had taken advantage of the driver's distraction to crawl to her gun, leaving a trail of blood along the way, "I won't let you lay a single finger on these two!"
Unfortunately Rosa had a limited amount of dust, which had already been used up in part during Atlas's fall and the amount of ammo she herself had was extremely limited, so it didn't take long for her firing to cease.
"I see... You little bitch, you dare to attack me even though you're at death's door, Alright, I'll kIlL tHoSe TwO iN yOuR fRoNt ThEn." The creature said as it raised its fist once more, "BODYBUILDER DOUBLE PUNCH!"
Ruby closed her eyes and instinctively thought... Of her friends, her family, every one of them, from Weiss to her own mother who perished fighting Salem, she reopened her eyes that had a faint silver glint and then a light consumed all her area.
"AAAAAAAAAA, IT BURN!" the monster roared in pain and as soon as the silver light stopped a desert scorpion and a toy bodybuilder three headed duck fell into the place where the monster was previously, the little scorpion quickly buried itself in the sand while the toy stayed there.
Ruby dropped down, too tired, the sun had been gone for some time and the perfectly round moon lay in the night sky as if watching the battle, the rose looked at the moon and smiled bitterly, 'I hadn't thought of this possibility ...'.
Ambulance sounds began to sound as Ruby fell into unconsciousness.
Sweet Mask had just returned from his conversation with the newest S-Class hero, he was now in his dressing room, getting ready for the next show, before a hero association official came and to communicate with him.
"Mister Sweet Mask", the man called to him, the A-class hero resisted the urge to let out a sigh, "Speak", the clerk nodded and started to speak.
"A few hours ago a funder of the association and her son were attacked by a disaster level monster Demon", Amai Mask raised her eyebrows, this was certainly something worrying, "But they were both saved by a person who was at the scene and the Demon-level threat was neutralized, but the individual who defeated the monster was severely injured."
"Well, that's certainly a misfortune, but I don't see what problem I have to solve, unless you guys want to put this person in S-class..." Sweet Mask watched the clerk with a disgruntled expression.
"Well" the clerk cleared his throat "There's more to it than that actually, look at this data collected from the battle", the young man showed his tablet to the hero who slowly regained his interest in the situation.
After ten minutes of checking the entire report, the hero was immersed in thought, while the young man looked at him expectantly.
'Interesting, although her physical stats are not impressive, her skill with her weapon is remarkable, plus the fact that she got into conflict with that monster in previously poor health conditions and her youth shows that she would have dealt with the creature with better chances if it were under ideal conditions... Not to mention the way she defeated the mysterious being... She healed and purified him, returning him to a natural state... What could she do with the correct teachings...'.
"Has anyone else had access to this data?" he asked, but the clerk shook his head, "You are the first to be notified, just as you asked, sir."
"Okay, pay close attention to what I'm going to say and I want you to follow everything to the letter, understand?", he looked at the clerk, "Yes sir", the young man was slightly scared.
"Fine, I won't authorize her promotion to S class," the hero said, making the anxious clerk's shoulders slump in despondency, "But I want you to offer the highest A class spot you can, and I also want to be notified when her regaining consciousness and a private meeting with this girl... I also want you to keep this data confidential, the less people know the better", Sweet Mask ordered with a menacing face, "And priority to the last part, I don't I want no one else to know or there will be consequences."
The young man was almost pissing himself at the look that was given to him, cold sweat was running down his body, "Y-Yes Y-Sir", the tense atmosphere quickly dissipated, "Excellent, you are dismissed", the young man quickly disappeared to carry out your orders.
'Forgot to ask him the girl's name... I suppose I can get your name some other time...'.