Jaune was running in the woods with all of his energies, not daring to look back, knowing that if he did so he will be welcomed by the sight of a Grimm running behind him trying to catch and kill him so he ignored the fatigue and kept running, hoping to find salvations in some ways; but the longer he run the more he become aware that that was it, there will be no salvation for him, he would die alone in this woods.
And to think that the day had started so well, he had finally decided to leave his house behind in order to achieve his dream to become and Huntsmen and, after having taken with him the ancestral sword Crocea Mors, he had headed towards Vale going through the woods in order to make it lose his track so that his father could not track him. Never in his mind he had thought that maybe there would be Grimms in the forest; after all his father and the others Hunters combed the woods every month in order to kill them, but it seems that this Grimm, specifically a young Beowolf had somehow managed to survive and had decided to take revenge on him.
Alas Jaune, despite his thoughts on the matter, was not exactly fit; or at least not in the way needed in order to keep running for so long so, while slowly but constantly losing speed, his vision started to become clouded and dark spot started to appear in the corner of his eyes. He knew that he couldn't kept running for much longer; but as soon as he was to stop he saw a groups of rocks, and between them a crevice small enough to still fit him inside but hopefully to stop the Grimm in his pursue, so with a last burst of speed he dived in.
Once inside he found himself in total darkness but, at last, he was fortunate enough to have a lighter in his bag pack so he, searching through all the useless stuff he brought with him, like his onesie, finally managed to find his lighter and once he lighted it he was finally capable to see where he was. It looked like the crevice was the entrance of a cavern, not a big one but still capable to easy fit at last twenty people. What was strange was that at the centre of the cavern there was a strange group of stones; it looked like a gate or an arc, the stones were covered by strange symbols, resembling nothing that he had seen before.
While looking at the strange stones Jaune heard a growl and then a rumbling noise, looking fearfully behind himself he saw his fear come true, somehow the Beowolf had managed to enlarge the crevice enough to fit itself in and now he was slowly closing on him; whit a scream of fear Jaune took hold of Crocea Mors and backed away from the Grimm, but before he could make more than two steps the Grimm lounged at him and tried to swing at him with is claws; Jaune in the effort to evade the attack tripped on his own bag pack and received a slash on his left arm, which started to bleed profusely on the strange stones .
As soon as Jaune's blood reached them a red light appeared in the cavern, bathing he and the Beowolf in the colour of fresh blood; meanwhile sound of thunders resounded inside the room, almost deafening Jaune and, before the Grimm could attack him again between the strange rocks a tear in reality appeared, quickly enlarging until it become taller than Jaune and large as two men put side by side; and into the other side Jaune could see a pat made of dark stone that seemed to lead into darkness itself, quickly thinking he decided that he preferred almost certain death into the darkness compared to the certain death at the paws of the Grimm so he lounged into the tear still holding Crocea with his good arm.
As soon as he was on the other side he felt himself freezing, finding himself in a plateau covered by snow stacked tall as his knees, in addition gusts of wind were slicing his body like blades made of ice; but, while trembling and holding his hands between his armpits, he managed to see a profile between the darkness and the snowflakes so, hoping to find a shelter against the storm he started making his way towards it, slowly and tiring making his way through the deep snow.
When he finally reached the believed shelter he found himself gaping at the sight; soaring over the snow filled plateau there was a castle, or at least the ruins of one, taller than anything he had ever seen before, the castle was covered in ruins of gargoyles and small towers, it was made entirely by some strange black stone and from the main keep of the build spike seemed to emerge randomly; finally Jaune reached the moat and find the drawbridge lowered so he entered the castle.
While walking he looked at his left arm and he was horrified by what he saw, the entire arm below the wound had turned black and, when he touched it, he discovered that he had lost the sense of feeling in his arm; a combination of the cold and the blood loss had made him tired but he kept walking forward in hope to find a place where to rest. Jaune roamed the halls and rooms of the castle for what seemed like hours until he saw, looking from a slit, a small flickering light in the distance, without thinking he made his way towards it; soon he entered a long corridor brightened by great candlesticks that hanged from the tall ceiling, the wall of the corridor were lined with a collection of bones that made him feel a sense of mounting dread, for this bones were not normal, while some were clearly of human nature others were not; there were some that resembled human skulls but scaled in size may times over, other that had massive line of pointed teeth, but what made him truly afraid was what was waiting him at the end of the corridor, for at the end of it there was a great door and overlooking it there was the greatest group of bones that he had seen so far, the massive best had a mouth capable of swallow the entirety of his family house in a single motion.
Firm in his desire to leave this creeping place Jaune tried to open the door in order to leave the corridor but before he could the great doors slammed open without anyone touching them, meanwhile the candlesticks that hanged in the corridor extinguished themselves; Jaune panicked finding himself in the darkness but before he could fall to desperation the red light of the tear appeared once more, covering him in his baleful light and making him see where he was.
Jaune was inside the biggest room he had ever seen, so tall were the ceiling that, even with this strange light, it was still not visible giving the room a eerie aura; the floor was covered by a red carpet decorated with golden tread while on the side of it there were two lines of pillars that reached tall, disappearing into the darkness, said pillars were decorated with incision representing great battles and heroic duels between mighty best and what looked like knights.
While Jaune was observing the ambience with a open mouth a voice was heard "WHO ENTERS MY DOMAIN?" the voice was strong and harsh, and scared Jaune to his bones; turning towards the voice he managed to see the end of the room, and there, under a great window decorated in a way to resembled a red armour, there was a great throne made of the same black stone that made the rest of the castle, and on it there was a figure. Jaune could not be awed and terrified by the man, if it a man was, his body was not visible, being completely covered by a red armour; the gorget of the armour was massive covering the front of his face, and the helmet, decorated by a strange skull made of metal covered the rest of his head making his face invisible, the rest of the armour was covered in spike, strange symbols and decoration in form of skull; giving the figure another terrifying feature was his size, he was eight feet tall or even more while his shoulder were twice the size of those of Jaune.
While taking in the sight of the man Jaune felt compelled to answer, "My name is Jaune Arc" "VERY WELL JAUNE OF THE ARC, THOU HAVE COME HERE TO CHALLENGE ME AND I ACCEPT, LET START THIS DANCE OF BLOOD AND GORE" the man said with a booming voice, the sound of it resembling more an avalanche that the sound vocal cords are capable of making, "Challenge?" said Jaune in confusion; confusion that quickly turned in terror when the man rose from the throne and took up a massive two handed sword taller than him and started walking towards Jaune, "Wait, wait, I'm not here to challenge you, I'm here because I was escaping a Grimm" "WHAT ARE YOU SPEAKING ABOUT, THE ONLY ONES THAT MANGED TO REACH MY CASTLE COME TO FACE ME AND TRY TO SLAY ME" "Well I am not come here for this reason, as I have said I was running from a Grimm and found myself in front of your castle" said Jaune while trembling in fear, for while the man had stopped his advance he was still holding the sword in his hands "WHAT ARE THOU SPEAKING ABOUT, I HAVE NEVER HEARD OF THIS FOE YOU CALL GRIMM, AND STILL THE ASCENSION OF THIS MOUNTAIN SHOULD BE IMPOSSIBLE TO THOSE WHO ARE NOT WORTHY" at his words Jaune felt confusion, that man didn't know about Grimms, maybe he knew about them with a different name or maybe they never managed to reach this place, after all it was at the top of a mountain.
"Well you see... I have not scaled the mountain" "WHAT ARE THOU SPEAKING ABOUT?" said the man while taking a step forward "I was fighting a Grimm in a cave when a red light illuminated it and the next thing I know is that I was crossing over a gate made of strange stones and I found myself in front of your castle" said Jaune while backing off from the giant; but at his words the armoured being simply moved, half a second before he was standing at least three meters from Jaune, then he was in front of him, he grabbed Jaune from the neck and hoisted him in the air and growled in his face "CHOOSE YOUR NEXT WORDS CAREFULY BOY, OTHERWHISE YOU PAY FOR THEM. YOU SAID THAT YOU CROSSED A GATE MADE BY RED LIGHT AND FOUND YOURSELF IN FRONT OF MY DOMAIN, BE HONEST IS THIS TRUE?".
So strong was the grip around his throat that Jaune could only nod frantically, at his motion the man let him fall on the ground and turned around to sit once more on his throne; then he spoke with voice full of grief " I MUST ASK FORGIVNESS FOR MY ACTION, IT'S BEEN A LONG TIME SINCE SOMEONE HAS COME TO MY FORTRESS WITHOUT THE INTENTION TO KILL ME; I'M AFRAID MY MANNERS HAVE LONG LEFT ME, TELL ME, WHO YOU ARE" Jaune after having gasped for air like a drowning man finally found the strength to speak "My name is Jaune Arc" "YOU HAVE ALREADY TOLD ME THIS BOY, WHAT I MEAN IS WHO YOU TRULY ARE, BY THE BLADE YOU CARRY IT SEEMS LIKE YOU ARE A WARRIOR, BUT FROM YOUR LACK OF REFLEXES AND SKILL IT SEEMS LIKE YOU ARE UNDER TRAINING"
At the stranger words Jaune blushed and replied with a weak voice, while looking at his feet "I haven't started training yet, but I'll become an Huntsman, by the way; you are an Huntsman right?" "IN MY LIFTIME I HAVE HUNTED DOWN MANY BEAST BUT I'M AFRAID THAT'S NOT WHAT YOU MEAN" "But only an Huntsman could move the way you did, you are even faster than my father when he fights Grimms "AGAIN YOU SPEAK OF THESE GRIMM, NEVER BEFORE I HAVE HEARD OF SUCH CREATURE, MAYBE YOU ARE SPEAKING ABOUT THE NEVERBORNS?" "How can you not know about the Grimms, they are darkness made manifest, they exist all around Remnant. You know? Red eyes, black bodies covered in white bones!" "I HAVE LIVED A LONG LIFE JAUNE OF THE ARC, AND I HAVE NEVER SEEN ANYTHING LIKE YOU HAVE DESCRIBED, AND WHAT IS THIS REMNANT? IS THE PLACE YOU HAIL FROM?".
At this point Jaune was exhausted, the cold and the blood previously lost had made him cranky and the questions and answers of the man were not helping him so he shouted "What kind of question is this!? Of course is where I am from, Remnant is the name of this fucking planet!" "THERE IS NO NEED TO RISE YOUR VOICE SO MUCH YOUNG ARC, AND I MUST ASK YOU A LAST QUESTION,WHAT IS THE MOST CARATTERISTIC FEATURE OF THIS REMNANT OF YOURS?" said the man while rising from his throne, then he started walking in circle around Jaune " What kind of question is this, is the Moon; or to be more precise what remains of it. What else you want to know, maybe my scroll number?" the man stopped walking and spoke "WHILE I DO NOT UNDERSTANT THE REFERENCE TO THE SCROLL I WANT YOU TO CAME WITH ME, AND DO NOT FRET, I MEAN YOU NO HARM" said so he started walking towards the back of the throne and Jaune, seeing that the light seemed to follow the strange man and afraid to remain in the darkness made to follow him.
They walked for long minutes in alleys and corridors barely light by the red light that followed the man, until they reached a door, door which the man opened with a single arm and without a single effort; walking by it Jaune noticed that the door was made of the same stone that made the rest of the castle and that was at least a foot thick, he wondered how strong was the man when he was stopped in his track by an arm clenched on his good shoulder, he looked at his right and found the man looking at the direction of the ceiling "WE ARE HERE" said the man with his rumbling voice; not understanding where they were Jaune looked around and found himself gaping once more at the sight, they were in the centre of a chamber decorated by gargoyles made to resemble dragons while the ceiling was made of panels of clear glass, from which they could see the clouded sky. Jaune feeling ever more tired asked the man "Now what?" the response of whom was to simply rise his arm and with his index he pointed at a precise place among the clouds; looking there Jaune saw the clouds parting and between the moon shone, only this moon was not destroyed in smaller pieces, before Jaune could voice his surprise from beyond the moon another one appeared, only this one was of a sick green colour, and the only sight of it made Jaune stomach twist. The combination of the cold, the blood loss and the feeling of wrongness coming from the moon made Jaune fell to his knees but before they could hit the ground he had already lost consciousness.