Hello, how's the 2020 expansion pack treating you guys? Attempted coup on top of the Rona going apeshit all in the first week of 2021. Not a good look for this season of the USA.
However, I promised you guys some information on what all is going on. It's going to be a large info dump for most of the needed background information that I will go into further in the next chapter. The intentions of the Nazis and some of the other characters will be explained further in the next chapter. I wanted to break it up, so it's not too much at once.
Edit Note: Changed a date from 1937 to 1939
[Valhalla]
Jaune stared into the flames resting in the brazier. The gentle flares danced about in this oil pan with no pattern to be found. Their glow lighting this otherwise pitch dark room. However, there were many places where the light did not touch. Long shadows cast from the furniture created this ring of columns bordering every side of the fire.
The oil pan rested in the centre of a table—this piece made from black stone, which did not reflect the light. The centre was cut out creating a foot wide tridecadonal ring. On each side was a throne, symbolising the thirteen knights who would come to rest here. Every chair held similar iconography to the thrones in the great hall but was more subdued. Now, a grey stone chair instead of a golden one.
Decorations fit for a war room. The place where a council of soldiers would come to discuss their next movements, where to strike, where to flank when an opening appeared, what to do about the prisoners inevitably taken in battle. They each would bring their judgement to the king for his decree on what action to take to shift the tides of war.
However, this room did not cease in giving Jaune something to gaze at. There were also thirteen stained glass windows behind each chair with only a single one revealed. The rest were constantly rearranging their panes, giving no indicator to what was painted onto their canvas. Three were glowing red, white, and black, pulsing every few seconds with the colour. Only one, Jaune's, was revealed, showing him sitting in a ram-adorned throne with a sceptre and globe in each hand.
As Jaune rested in this room, he felt something was off about Valhalla. There was a shift in the air that gave him this impression. As if the castle had been altered with the introduction of new souls. At that moment, Jaune realised what had happened. The soldiers once residing in this fortress were missing. Jaune could hardly feel their consciousness any longer. They were faint as if they had been introduced to Valhalla's garden.
"You devoured them," Jaune expressed, smiling widely as he rested his head on his left fist. "Cassius, you devoured my men..."
The SS appeared next to him, practically walking out of the darkness behind the chair. His smile showed little in the way of guile. He had nothing to hide about the Legion's actions. There was a reason behind it.
"What did you expect," Cassius replied, placing a hand on his hip. "We are the Einherjar in Valhalla. The Legio Nachzehrer. A legion of vampires risen from the dead after suicide-"
"To feed upon the Sæhrímnir every night until the end of time," Jaune finished with a chuckle. "It is too bad we do not have any valkyries to bring us mead... However, your fill of souls I take will suffice, I presume?"
With every soul he added to this menagerie, the legion grew stronger and so did Jaune. The amount of relatively weak soldiers walking about the castle now would not be able to last long before they were brought to the gardens of Valhalla. The Nachzehrer would devour them within a few weeks. Yet, they were not gone for they would be called to serve when Ragnarok came. Whatever came next would be for them to decide. They would be given a new world to explore.
"Ja," he replied, nodding his head. As he became quiet, the man appeared to have something on his mind. "My lord, I do have a question, however."
"Speak then, I'm curious," Jaune prodded, leaning back into his chair.
"What did you mean when you said, 'May we achieve victory in the battles to come?'"
"Hehehe," Jaune laughed, knowing that he'd seen a layer deeper into that single line, yet did not know what lie there. "We are beings of anger, you and I. Forged by it, by our history, our lineage, by the choice of others. We are victims to the ten thousand years of humanity standing behind us. All of Men share this anger, this rage. At our circumstances, at the boot of those pressed on their necks, at those who deny freedoms because of their own fears. It makes us covet, which we do not possess and kill our brother and sister humans over such squabbles. The men of God use anger to stir the populace against others for who they are. I simply find this unacceptable because I am a fellow victim to it. I desire a victory to remove us from that law and to establish my own. To make my dream a reality and to overcome our pathetic humanity, creating the world of Tabula Rasa. Those shackles which have bound all in their iron cannot stand if we pull as one. If I may find my knights, only we may be capable of altering the circumstances we find ourselves in. To create the perfect empire of men. With my Rubedo, Albedo, and Nigredo as my battalion commanders, nothing shall be allowed to impart their will unto humanity any longer."
"I see..."
"Then do you mind if I pose the same question to you, Cassius," Jaune asked, not moving from his current position. "What victory do you desire? Why do you shout 'Sieg Heil' while the Totenkopf Empire has fallen? Indeed, you would not be so foolish as to continue their work? You pledged fealty to the man who exemplifies what those men were not."
Cassius appeared to think about this question for some time. Despite some of his prior madness being cured, it would seem the recovery had yet to be completed. He needed to cast off the lies fed to him, so he could find the answer.
Cassius growled deep in his throat, disappointed in himself for what he was about to say. "I don't know," he confessed, turning his face away from Jaune.
"Then find an answer," Jaune ordered. "We have all of time, so let this be my challenge. Don't disappoint me, and allow yourself to die before you come up with one."
'What is this?'
Before Cassius could say anything in response, Jaune's eye caught something. On the door to the chamber, there was a small keyhole. In that slot, an eye had appeared some time ago. Jaune had only noticed it now, staring at the two men. The green iris was barely visible in the hole. Jaune may have missed it without every spotting who was there.
However, as Jaune's eyes met her's, the spy stepped away from the door.
"My lord, do you wish for my men and me to search for her," Cassius asked, prepared to act on any order without question.
"No, begin preparations for a ball, we have a most esteemed guest, and I wish to give her something worthy of her time," Jaune expressed, pushing himself out of the chair before calmly walking over to the door.
Opening it, Jaune turned in the direction of the clicking heels running down the hall. There, he saw a flowing white dress fluttering about alongside waist-length white hair tied into a wolf-tail. She did not look back, turning the corner and bolting down the hall.
With a smile, Jaune followed behind, strolling with his hands clasped behind his back. The sounds of his boots filled the hall as hers faded and then stopped. Eventually, Jaune rounded the corner, using her scent to track the girl easily. He continued after the trail before he came to a door.
This place was not any different from the millions of other chambers throughout the castle. So, Jaune went to open it by pressing his right hand into the flat plane. However, as he applied pressure, it would not yield even for him. Despite putting enough there to destroy a city block, that door would not move. It refused any such order, outright telling him off for his intrusion.
'Hmmm, so this is her own Weltall?'
[Beacon Academy: The Next Morning]
"Thanks for the lift, Jaune," Yang expressed, taking a sip of her iced coffee. "I'll be in there for a few minutes. You gonna hang out here, or just fuck around inside while I grab Rubes' stuff? Got to give back my track stuff too, so it might be a while."
"Hmmm, I wanted to jam out to Kpop, but that sounds like more fun," he quipped, shutting off the vehicle.
"Fuckin' weeb," Yang retorted before taking another sip of her drink.
Each of the teens got out, finding themselves practically alone in the parking lot. Aside from what was a few staff members' vehicles, there were no other people here. A complete skeleton crew while the school remained closed for now.
That would change in a few days. Goodwitch had decided to bring everyone still in Vale back for class, given the lack of significant incidents. It seemed the fight between him and Cassius was hardly broadcasted. A few were present for the battle, but the news was not as widespread given the hour at which it took along with the prior damage.
"How was Ruby doing," Jaune asked, beginning to climb the steps to the academy courtyard. "Didn't get to see her this morning?"
Last night, Jaune had only gotten a call from Yang about what happened. From the girl's description, some guy fell out of the sky and slammed his fist into the ground, throwing her off her feet with the ensuing explosion. Before Ruby blacked out, another man had arrived and had begun fighting the other. A satisfying explanation given everyone knowing about the presence of these 'supermen.' The previous tale of gas explosions no longer held true.
"We got her hopped up on hydrocodone, so she's not feeling a thing," Yang explained, tossing her drink in the trash. "Rubes was still passed out when I woke up, but I don't think she's gonna be moving around for a while."
"At least she gets to stay home," Jaune pointed out. "I don't think Ruby would be able to last a day with the ribs and torn ligaments."
"Yeah, that's always nice, baby sister nearly got killed by some asshole, so school's the last thing she needs to worry about," Yang spat, running a hand through her hair as she sought to keep her temper under control. The big sister in her was anxious about her younger sibling's condition. "Clubs are cancelled too, so this year's turning out to be a piece of shit already! What's the point of us coming here if we can't do anything?!"
On some level, Jaune understood her anger. However, the complaint about not being allowed to run track any longer was lost on him. Everything he'd seen up to this point made that such a minute concern, there was hardly any room for comparison. In fact, the only thing Jaune wished was for him to be able to return to a time when such minor qualms were his only concern.
"Yeah, they don't want their students getting killed because a few of them decided to stick around," Jaune countered, grabbing the front door and holding it open for Yang. "You're not one of those supermen, Yang, and they come out at night, so those are already two strikes. Ruby caught the third and got lucky they decided to fight it out and ignore her."
Ruby already learned how fragile she was in the presence of a vampire. If Yang or anybody else came across Freyja or Arthur, they would not be given the chance to make that mistake again. The sheer gravity of their aura was enough to tear a regular man's soul from his body. Yang wasn't even weak either, she was above average, closer to Weiss than Ruby was.
"How do you know they only come out at night," Yang asked with a raised eyebrow.
"So far, all of those fights have been either at dusk or in the middle of the night," he explained, stepping into the academy foyer. "They probably don't want to get spotted, and it's easier for them to move around."
"You gotta point," Yang agreed, running another hand through her hair. "I just hope they catch these guys. It's getting too dangerous to go out anymore with that killer and them." She turned down a hallway leading to Ruby's locker. "But I'm gonna go get Rubes' stuff, so I'll text you in a bit when I'm ready..."
Yang left him alone in the middle of the hall. Jaune took a whiff of the air with nobody else around, smelling a large concentration of magic all around him. The scent had become permeated within the walls. Only the absence of life here allowed this observation to take place.
"Magi," Cassius said, walking out from behind Jaune. The shadow had no regard for the public setting of this conversation. "Those who possess the true arcane. Dumbasses... They really think they're tough shit?!"
"I can see that," Jaune replied with a smile. "Conceal yourself before one of them spots you. We are in a den of lions."
Jaune hadn't known this before. There was too much interference with everyone walking the halls to truly discern their nature. His fellow students were not only powerful humans, but those who were capable of the magical arts. Though not all of them were significantly powerful. They were weak and barely able to be distinguished from an ordinary human. None could stand against Jaune even if they threw everything they had at him.
He began strolling the empty halls, not finding a single soul anywhere in the building. Jaune eventually came upon his locker and decided to open it. The repairs done to his belongings surely would have reeked with magic. It was merely out of curiosity that he went to check.
Opening the container, a piece of paper fell out, landing on the floor. Jaune picked it up and opened the folded slip. Inside, were a few lines scrawled in nearly perfect cursive. He recognised it as Pyrrha's handwriting. It fit her perfect girl label.
Jaune, meet me on the roof.
-Pyr
"You going to meet with your girlfriend," Cassius teased, leaning against the locker next to him. "I've got to admit, you have good taste..."
Jaune ignored him, shutting the locker and making his way to the roof. The only thought Jaune had on his mind was what she was calling him up there for. A simple text could have sufficed, but whatever she wanted from him required more delicate handling. Regardless, Jaune found himself almost excited by the prospect. The unknown lured him to its grasp.
...
Pushing open the door leading to the roof, Jaune did not find Pyrrha there. Only a man standing directly in the centre of the rooftop with a hand on his hip. He looked Jaune up and down with a look that bordered on either smug or nonchalant.
His slicked-back hair fluttered in the wind along with his clothing. He wore a grey button-down shirt and black slacks with matching shoes. Jaune could discern the few items from here aside from those were the rings on his fingers and cross-shaped pendant.
Without warning, he reached for something on his side and threw it his way. It was a dagger aimed directly for Jaune's chest. The boy caught it by the blade without any struggle, but as he grasped the metal, it began to burn his hand. The pain was enough to make him drop the dagger.
Where's Pyrrha?
Jaune gave his reply, bolting over to the man at supersonic speeds and slamming into him. They came to a stop at the edge of the roof just before the fence barricading the students on top. Jaune gripped his right hand down on the man's throat, threatening to tear his oesophagus out with little more than a tug.
"Where is she," Jaune asked, attempting to restrain himself from outright killing the man. "Where's Pyrrha?!" He clamped his hand down tighter, beginning to cut off his airway.
"Same side kid, same side," the man croaked with what little air he had left. His left flailed about, looking for some sort of leverage he could use to free himself.
"I will ask you once more," Jaune growled, closing his fist further. "You will give her back, or I will break you fucking neck!"
"Down there, on the field," he confessed, pointing towards the track.
Jaune looked in that direction, and there she was. Pyrrha was standing among a few girls having a conversation. Yang was making her way across the field to join them, waving to the group who returned the gesture. The feeling of relief washed over the boy as he determined the girl to be safe.
He dropped the man right there, allowing him to fall onto the ground unceremoniously. The man hacked and coughed as his airway became clear. Jaune's hand left a definite bruise on the tissue, which quickly began healing.
"What do you want," Jaune demanded, taking a step away from the man. "Who are you, and what do you want?"
He's the man I followed around last night. He has the same scent.
The man lifted himself off the ground and brushed his clothes off. Without saying anything, he reached for a pack of cigarettes on in his pocket and lit one. He took two puffs and exhaled deeply, turning his gaze unto Jaune.
"Name's Corvus, kid," he began, leaning against the fence. "Listen, I'm gonna keep this part short because she's gonna be up here in a few minutes and pissed as all hell. I got assigned to follow you around town. Keep track of where you go, who you meet, what you do where and with who. Though I gotta ask, you go to church at all? Pay kowtow to an immortal sky wizard in any way? What about your friends?"
"No," Jaune denied, leaning against one of the nearby tables. "Weiss is the only one I know who goes to church. If you were assigned to follow me around, I thought you would know this stuff?"
Jaune had never been a religious person. His parents only baptised him because of tradition in the family. Neither of his parents went into any effort to make their children go to church, allowing them to develop their own ideals. Even his father had a very cynical viewpoint when it came to religion. However, the reason behind Corvus asking Jaune about it appeared very odd from his perspective.
"Don't worry about her, we know all about Ice Queen," Corvus brushed off, taking a puff of his cigarette. "But yeah, we're not some group of know it alls who keep a dossier on every asshole who's interesting. Ice Queen and a few others are the only ones we've gone over with a fine-tooth comb. The reason I'm asking about it is that churches are no longer your friend."
"Why is that?"
"Well, the churches hate vampires," he revealed, gesticulating with the lit cigarette. "Most of the big ones like the cathedral we got in town are built to keep you guys out. Catholics have been hunting vampires since their founding. Crusades were because of vampires. They'll be going after you once they establish a task force in the city. I wouldn't be surprised if the Anglicans or even the Mormons wanted a piece. They and a few others have operatives all over the place. And these guys are not the type to go bomb an abortion clinic, they're professional exorcists with training in how to deal with magic. They won't hesitate to kill you or anybody else you know once they catch your scent."
"They'll die," Jaune declared without hesitation. "I don't care if they bring an army. I can handle it."
They have nothing to stand against Valhalla. They're only humans.
"I like the confidence, but I've seen some of the shit they're packing," Corvus continued. "The kind of stuff that'll make your asshole pucker so hard it turns purple. On top of all of their Nazi gold, I'm talking about the Lance of Longinus, the Nails of Helena, and I'm pretty sure they got Big J's corpse stuffed in a cubby somewhere."
"The Lance of Longinus," Jaune asked, raising an eyebrow. "I've seen it before."
"You have?"
"In a memory," Jaune explained. "He was killed by the vampire Methuselah. I saw him stab Christ and get attacked by the undead afterwards."
"Well shit, we know about him," Corvus replied, taking another drag from his cigarette. "We don't know who killed him. You got to his corpse before we could pick him up. But how much do you know about vampires? I watched you kick Pasty's ass, but I only started following you a day before that."
"Enough to know souls fuel this," Jaune stated, casting Crocea Mors and planting the blade into the roof at his feet. The man instinctively jumped back, so he didn't get cut by the projectile. "I have theories, but you know more than I do about the mechanics."
The man stomped out his cigarette and took a step away from the sword. "Kid, get comfy, I'm gonna learn you a thing or two," he said, crossing his arms. "So, humans and faunus have about four hobbies that are enjoyed globally: rape, concubine slaughter, Jew murder, and war. That last one is important. The guys who fight wars tend to carry weapons on them. Those weapons get handed down or stolen off their corpses. They spend decades always covered in another guys blood or gutting some poor woman who got stuck inside a besieged city. Over time, the weapons develop something resembling a mind of their own. They took so many souls, they are now magical, holy relics or Ahnenerbe we call them. Each is different in their own way, and they all have their own abilities attached to them."
"This is different from ordinary magic. That's just bending the laws of nature with your will, writing a new law saying fire does this or water moves in some way. A few people are capable of doing that. It's like one per cent of one per cent. About one per cent of Americans can even sense magic. One per cent of them can use it. Vampires have been using these weapons for as long as humans have been around. Anybody can pick them up off a guy they killed, make their own, or summon one. Any item can become a relic or familiar if you want it badly enough or kill enough people with it. With these weapons, vampires liked to join wars and kill a shit ton of people to up their standing or get some blood."
"Now among vampires, there's a subset of the group. We call them high vampires. They're not very different from the generic brand. However, they're able to use relics immediately, whereas other vampires have to practice decades to make it work. Most never get a relic. We don't know how they can do this or why they exist, but high vampires are very rare. A hundred years ago, almost all of them lived in Europe numbering about twenty thousand. Now, there's only thirteen. You're one of them. Any vampire with golden eyes is a high vampire with some exceptions."
I know what I am now... A high vampire.
There was hardly any significance to his nature. A simple label did not tell Jaune anything further. There was still a marked difference between the likes of him and Freyja when compared to other vampires. The access to a relic would only ensure a greater abundance of souls due to their power.
At least the formation of these artefacts was understood. They fed off of suffering, which in turn, gave the relics life. From then on, they craved sacrifices to ensure the pact between their user and weapon remained. If the person could not provide an outside source, then the weapon would devour them when in use.
"Why did they disappear," Jaune asked, cocking his head to the side.
"Good question, Daniel-san, you're my best student," Corvus quipped, clasping his hands together and bowing slightly. "To know that, we gotta go back to where pretty much all things start, Germany. Back before the Second World War, the number two Kraut, Himmler, started an organisation to investigate the occult and promoting racial doctrines, the Deutsches Ahnenerbe. The Nazis began looking worldwide for artefacts to prove the Aryan race was really a thing. However, the kicker is, they found a shit ton of holy relics, the Ahnenerbe, they called them. Ancestral heritage or relic. Pretty much everything we know about them comes from the Nazis, they did all the research on them. So, they got the naming rights, and it just stuck"
"Somewhere along the line, they found the Lance of Longinus and a bunch of other weapons we thought were lost forever. At about 1939, someone showed the Nazis how to use them. For regular people at this point, it was pretty rare for someone to get ahold of an Ahnenerbe. Mages used conventional magic because that was the culture back then. The Nazis knew all about magic and how it worked, but they kept a tight lid on it and used it sparingly since the few mages they had were targets. The Reich was pretty much the only nation which sponsored mages officially. That is a massive advantage if no one else uses mages in the military. Almost all other mages were private practitioners who did not show off their powers, so no one in the UK, France, or the US knew about them back then. A couple hundred mages could walk all over a nation if they chose. Now, the reason we're not a bunch of goose-stepping morons today is that the Nazis bit off more than they could chew. They picked a fight with the European high vampires. Nazis saw them as a threat and chose to get rid of them. This started an underground war where the SS's mages hunted every single high vampire in Europe until only two were left. Without the mages on the actual war's front lines, Nazis lost their only wonder weapon and could not recover. They went all in and lost the gamble. This part of the story is where I tell you how you got made."
Corvus pulled a flask out of his pocket and took a swig. "About twenty years ago, the American high vampire we called Twelve, turned a woman into another high vampire. Back then, there only twelve in total. She became Thirteen. Somehow, she killed him, and we were left with only twelve high vampires with her taking his place. This was a pretty big deal since creating another high vampire is like a one in a million type chance even if one is trying to turn someone on purpose. A few weeks ago, a kid named Jaune Arc got jumped by Twelve and turned into the next Thirteen. We didn't realise it was you until you showed up at school showing all the signs of being a high vampire after fighting that giant on the bridge. We knew you were a vampire a long time before that. My boss almost had to step in when you tried to eat Ice Queen in the middle of the hall. It's just a bunch of bad fucking luck on your end."
"Yeah, I remember that," Jaune said with a sigh. "She's a mage, isn't she? Magic's coming off her like nobody I've seen except with other vampires."
"Not just any mage," Corvus corrected, pointing in his direction. "Back in Nazi Germany, the Lebensborn were not only dedicated to pumping out more kids to die in future wars. They were attempting to breed mages on the industrial scale, the Sonnenkinder Projekt. They wanted the ideal Aryan with powerful magical abilities, using eugenics and sorcery to make it happen. I won't go into the details on their fuck ups, but they only managed to get a single child to work. The rest died. Fortunately, the war ended before they could use him for anything. The kid aged to about twenty years old within a single year and then began ageing naturally after. From our sources, the guy was a genius, a prodigy in anything put in front of him. Eventually, he outsmarted the doctors working with him and mastered several dozen fields in a single year. After the war ended and he managed to escape the lab, he stole some documents and came across the pond to the good ol' US of A. Here, he started a company with some gold he stole from a Nazi cache back in Europe. It eventually grew to be one of the world's largest energy production businesses—the Schnee Electric Company. Ice Queen and Ice Queen 2.0's grandfather, Nicholas Schnee. Not a bad guy I hear, he didn't inherit that from the Nazis."
"I see," Jaune mumbled, cupping his chin with his right hand. "You mentioned her sister? Is she a mage too?"
"Yep," Corvus chirped. "Winter's a soldier working for the Army under General James Ironwood. They gotta whole branch dedicated to killing you and recruiting mages. She goes by the name Sonnenkind, the child of the sun. Her sister's got the name too. We call anybody who's descended from a Nazi mage, a sonnenkind."
"Why hasn't the Army picked Weiss up, or trained her," Jaune pointed out. "If she's as powerful as you say she is, then it would be advantageous to recruit her."
"She hasn't unlocked her magic yet," Corvus explained, taking a sip from his flask. "It probably has something to do with her father, as well as us. He's kinda got his hand in Jimmy's pocket. It helps that he's also a member of one of the oldest mage dynasties around. Guy's gotta lot of pull just from that."
"You think he married into the family because of Weiss' ancestry," Jaune asked, staring Corvus dead in the eye.
"I don't have any confirmation on that, but yeah, the guy's not exactly the most kosher sonofabitch around," Corvus spat. "You know what type of guy he is. My organisation's been investigating the company's ties to Nazi remnant groups and modern-day Neo-Nazis for a while now. Nothing solid yet, but then we didn't have a vampire working with us."
"You want me to work with you, join forces to fight other vampires and mages," Jaune charged, drawing out his motives. "However, there's something you didn't know about the high vampires. There's another one in the city, Freyja. She's a Nazi in command of several vampires I encountered a few days back."
"Shit," Corvus spat, snapping his fingers. "We don't know anything about her. The Council only recovered a few documents after the war. Barely anything on personnel involved with it. Do you know what Ahnenerbe they have?"
"Excalibur and Machecoul were the only two I saw," Jaune replied, shaking his head. "Do you know of any other relics? Or does your organisation possess any I may use?"
"Council's not in the habit of handing them out," Corvus said. "The only other super dangerous relics we've accounted for are the Ark of the Covenant, Holy Grail, and the Lance of Longinus. No one can use the Lance or even pick it up. Kills anybody who touches it immediately. Catholics somehow recovered it before anybody got their hands on it and it's in their vault right now. The Grail and the Ark are both missing. We think they're semi-conscious and keep moving around. A while back, some kid got ahold of the Grail and tried to destroy it, but reformed back into the cup and vanished. We've been attempting to destroy a bunch of Ahnenerbe, but they keep coming back, so it's the same for all of them."
"Then what use do I for you and your Council," Jaune questioned, crossing his arms. "I only need to fight a proper battle and summon an Ahnenerbe. I don't need your help. Freyja and her soldiers won't act until I'm strong enough."
"You got a point, kid," Corvus confessed, exhaling loudly. "Listen, my job was to just follow you around and report back on whatever the fuck you do, then kill your ass. I could do it yesterday, but then Pasty bit the dust, making it impossible. There are only two or three mages stronger than you right now, and I ain't one of them. So, if you can't beat 'em, try to recruit them. All I can offer you is the chance to kill vampires or rogue mages. Guys with pretty powerful souls, so they're not a waste of your time. There's money in it, but I don't think you care about that shit."
"I don't-"
The sound of a door opening interrupted the conversation. Jaune turned around and found Goodwitch staring at them with rage in her eyes. Corvus sighed as they made eye contact, kneading his face before taking another swig of his flask.
"Corvus, what are you doing," Goodwitch snarled, beginning to close the distance between the pair.
"Kid, run, save yourself..."
"You violated a direct order not to contact Leonhardt in any way," she shouted. The piece of wood in her hands was about ready to break from how hard she bent it. "Do you have any idea what the Council's going to do once they learn about this?!"
"They're not going to do anything, Witch," Jaune declared, reaching out and stopping the woman's approach with his hand. Only the tips of his fingers dug slightly into her right shoulder. "By what right do these men have to dictate Corvus' actions? By what law do they claim to lordship? They justify their position with power and threats, but they fear another lord who does not have to posture. What does that say about the man considering an alliance of convenience with your organisation? Tell me, Malleus Maleficarum."
Goodwitch stepped away from him. Corvus did the same. Both were now uniquely aware of what they were dealing with. The Golden Lord stood in their midst, demanding terms for their alliance. A once in a lifetime offer they would not be allowed to renegotiate.
If you guys didn't know, Corvus just means Crow. Very creative name for our favourite alcoholic. Malleus Maleficarum is a treatise on witches from the fifteenth century.
Encyclopedia of MAJMLYAI.
Vampires:
Jaune
Aliases: Leonhardt, Julius Caesar, Lord-Commander of the Black Round Table, Element Unknown, Element Unknown, Element Unknown, Element Unknown
Familiar/Ahnenerbe: Crocea Mors, Element Unknown, Element Unknown, Element Unknown, Element Unknown, Element Unknown, Element Unknown, Element Unknown, Element Unknown
People Consumed: 228
Nazis Killed: 1
Major Arcana: The Emperor
Cassius
Aliases: Cassius,
Maria
Aliases:
Familiar/Ahnenerbe: Machecoul
Major Arcana:
Freyja
Aliases: Mephistopheles, Helena, Freyja
Familiar/Ahnenerbe:
Major Arcana:
Arthur
Aliases: Arthur Pendragon
Familiars: Excalibur
Major Arcana:
Other:
Brynhildr Valkyrie
Aliases:
Familiar/Ahnenerbe: Musphelheimr Laevetinn
Major Arcana: Temperance
General Ironwood
Aliases: Deus Ex Machina
Familiar/Ahnenerbe:
Major Arcana:
Qrow
Aliases: Corvus
Familiar/Ahnenerbe:
Glynda Goodwitch
Aliases: Malleus Maleficarum
Familiar/Ahnenerbe:
Winter Schnee
Aliases: Sonnenkind
Familiar/Ahnenerbe:
Major Arcana:
Methuselah, Pierre
(He ded.)
Friends/Allies:
Ruby
Aliases: Element Unknown
Yang
Aliases: Element Unknown
Pyrrha
Aliases: Element Unknown
Weiss
Aliases: Sonnenkind, Element Unknown, Element Unknown, Element Unknown, Element Unknown
Familiar/Ahnenerbe:
Major Arcana:
Blake
Aliases: Element Unknown
Concepts:
Ahnenerbe/Familiar/Holy Relic: Form of magic where objects are given a will of their own from the feelings put into them. They can be found, created, or summoned by those powerful enough to bend the world with their willpower. Those who use them, have their souls bound together with the object. They demand fuel through souls. It does not matter the source.
High Vampires: Vampires which have a greater connection to magical forces, which allows them easier usage of relics. All but twelve were wiped out by the forces of the SS in WW2. Further mechanics behind their power is unknown.
Mage: Someone able to bend the world through magic. Typical spell caster.
The Council: Secret Organisation with presently unknown goals.