Chapter 49 – Senseless Death
Salem
The soldiers screamed in unified terror.
The Dark Queen suddenly blasted towards them, and grabbed the first of the soldiers by the face and lifted him off the floor, crushing the skull with little effort, splatting his blood across her once pale white. They continued to shoot at her and others attempted to flee, but Salem was only getting started. She flew into the air with a pair of huge Dragon Wings sprouted from her back, and as she flew over their heads, she launched magical projectiles of pure destruction.
It ignored their armour plating completely, burning their flesh and bone to ash as they shrieked, before opening her hand and casting a Conjuration Glyph, which created a bright gold light and formed an enormous hammer in her grasp. Salem came crashing down, burying the hammer into the floor where three soldiers were fleeing, splattering their bodies into the black sand. Salem swung around in a full spin, smashing multiple soldiers in the process before releasing the magical hammer and sending it exploding into a squad of soldiers.
Salem rolled out of the way of an incoming missile, and as a second came towards her, she raised her wing, taking the explosion head on. The wing broke apart, but she did not even wince. She just smirked as the shrapnel fell from her regenerating skin. Her arm suddenly extended, and she impaled the soldier through the head with her razor sharp fingers, and yanked his corpse towards her, grabbing onto his rocket launcher. And with one hand, she fired it towards one of the trucks that was charging towards her.
The missile completely fragments the armoured vehicle, sending the burning wreckage tumbling past her, making her long white hair blow in the wind. With her hair completely let down, it seemed to flow like it was underwater. Her eyes glowed bright red as she continued to unleash her onslaught, just as she did years ago when the people tried to rebel against her. Some soldiers attempted to fight back whilst retreating in fear, but most were just running for their lives in terror of the Dark Queen.
Salem cared not for their fear. They were all prey in her eyes.
She shot across the sand so fast that it created a shock wave behind her, and with her maiden powers, she blasted flames into the sand behind her, melting it into shards of obsidian and throwing them towards the soldiers. The shards shredding their bodies into tiny bloody chunks across the dunes, and finally she attacked the last of the soldiers who were shooting at her.
She pinned him to the floor and gently caressed his cheek. "Such meagre attempts of rebellion… what a waste…" Salem hissed, before she blasted flames from her mouth, dislocating her jaw and burning that soldier to ashes. She roared to the sky like a raging animal, blasting lightning bolts from her mouth as well. The flames came raining down all around her, burning a gunship and causing it to come crashing into the ground after the wing melted.
Another gunship remained, firing its machine guns at Salem as it hovered across the dunes, attempting to buy the fleeing soldiers some time. Salem stared at it and she narrowed her eyes at it, barely even recoiling as the bullets cut into her body. But she raised her hand and clenched it shut, collapsing the vehicle into a ball with her magical telekinesis, and then tossed it towards the soldiers.
Salem flew high into the air as she pursued them, and the sound of her nightmarish screech made one soldier turn around in pure fear. Salem flew towards her and dug her claws into the woman's face, dragging her across the rocks until her body was ripped to pieces. She slid past the soldiers and suddenly extended a huge Deathstalker Tail from her tailbone, and swung it around, smashing many soldiers into the sand, before impaling another soldier through the chest and tossing him into the air, being caught in the jaws of a Teryx.
As the soldiers all fired their guns at her, she raised her hand, stopping all the bullets from moving, and she crushed them all into a ball and launched them towards one soldier instead of redirecting them to kill them all instantly.
She wanted to savour their fear, their suffering.
The soldiers scatted, but Salem jumped high in the air and formed a golden spear and launched it towards one soldier, impaling him through the spin and pinning him to the floor. As Salem landed, she spun around and roundhouse kicked three of them across the floor, forming three individual red glyphs where Apathy arms reached from the darkness, pulling them into the sand to suffocate. They shrieked in terror before the black sand swallowed them.
A soldier yelled as he crawled away from Salem and aimed his shotgun at her head, firing and blowing a chunk off her head. She recoiled back, black blood pouring from the massive wound inflicted in her head, but her glowing red eye continued to glare at him. She suddenly levitated the soldier off the floor and smiled, before making him explode from the inside with a fireball she cast in her. Blood splattered across the side of her face, her grin never flinching.
Some soldiers shot at her as they tried to get away, but deep down, they knew she was just toying with them. As she went to attack them, suddenly massive explosions erupted behind her, and more reinforcements were headed towards her to try to slow her down. Brave warriors fired their weapons at her, only making her body physically recoil from the bullets.
She floated into the air, her eyes burning with red flames, and she held her hands together, forming a sphere of crackling dark purple magical power, and then she pushed her hands forward. Suddenly that condensed ball of raw magical power exploded and threw hundreds of highly explosive projectiles towards the reinforcements, blowing them to bits and completely destroying most of the vehicles that were getting in position to shoot at her.
Their bodies vaporised when hit directly by the projectiles, but the explosions were enough to rip them apart. Shrieking soldiers cried in immense pain, losing arms, legs and even having their torsos torn apart as well. A soldier screamed in agony as she tried to crawl away, with her lower half left behind. Salem suddenly stamped down on her head, twisting the foot in her brains as the corpse twitched beneath her.
"Such insignificance…" she scoffed, shaking her head. Screams echoed all around her, and she looked across the smoke and blood to see one more still alive, shakily pointing a gun at her. Salem walked towards the young woman, a volunteer White Fang. She couldn't have been older than seventeen years, and she could barely even hold the gun. "Tsk, tsk, tsk…" She laughed as she approached the girl. "Such a shame that a girl so young died for a suicidal cause."
Suddenly a powerful railgun shot launched into Salem's chest, blasting her away from the soldier, buying her time to escape. Salem rolled across the ground, growling as the massive hole in her chest reconstructed itself. She looked up at where the shot came from, to see one of the Dreadnaughts was aiming its cannons directly at her. She tilted her head and smiled softly.
The Broadside Cannons of the Dreadnaught all opened fire at the same time, spreading explosive cannon shells across the dunes where she was standing. Salem did not even flinch as the shells came crashing down around her, but she suddenly held out her hand, eyes glowing red. Red energy suddenly surrounded the Dreadnaught, and it rocked back and forth. The people inside screamed in terror as they felt the ship losing control.
Salem smiled sinisterly, sensing their fear from here. But the cannons continued to fire in her direction, but with her finger she batted the shells aside before they could even reach her, sending them exploding in the distance or nearby. Her white hair flicked in the air as shock waves slammed into her.
Then Salem gritted her teeth and roared with unparalleled rage, eyes glowing bright red and the sand around her starting to float. She held both hands out and pulled downwards with all her might. The Dreadnaught suddenly came crashing down into the ground in front of her, exploding in an utterly enormous fireball, throwing huge chunks of smouldering debris high into the sky. Flames danced high in the air, polluting the air with smoke.
And the flames reflected off her black, and red eyes, with wrath never fading.
She turned her attention towards the White Fang nearby, seeing Ghira and Kali fighting together. She was about to walk towards them, until she stopped, hearing the sonic boom of something…
… or someone…
… moving faster than the speed of sound towards her.
Eryka
Tyrian lunged towards the Falconess from the shadows, laughing maniacally as he sliced across her cheek, the impact landing so hard that it sent her tumbling backwards. As she rolled across the floor, she swiftly drew Constantine Damascus and fired an explosive arrow towards him. He jumped into the air, flipping over it, before rolling across the floor and firing the machine guns of the Queen's Servants at her.
She grunted as they punctured her blue aura, and then he drop-kicked her into the wall. As he brought his stinger down towards her, a glyph suddenly appeared on his left, blasting a gust of wind into him and pushing him away from Eryka. He turned and grinned, Weiss Schnee coming right at him, screaming with tears in her eyes. She thrusted Myrtenaster towards his throat, but he smacked the blade aside with his pincer blades, and suddenly wrapped his tail around her throat, flinging her against the floor.
She grunted but rolled out of the way immediately afterwards, narrowly avoiding his mechanical stinger as it stabbed down at her head. She flicked her sword upwards and formed more glyphs, lining her sword with fire dust. The glyphs shone orange and shot fireballs at him. He cackled madly, springing off his tail and flipping through the air, dodging the fireballs whilst still firing down at her.
Weiss skated across her glyphs, wiping the tears from her eyes, not realising she was now smothered in the blood of the people they came here to save. She tried her best to fight back the tears of the loss, but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't.
"BOO!" Tyrian laughed, suddenly appearing from the shadows, kicking her in the face and sending her sliding across the blood. He turned and raised his arm, stopping Slice 'N Dice from cutting into him. Eryka glared with hatred, teeth grinding together. Winter also came flying towards him, blade pointed forward and yelling with anger in her voice. She thrusted towards him but he suddenly ducked. Winter gasped, eyes widening, and she lowered the sword as fast as she could. Tyrian suddenly kicked upwards, smashing his boots into the chins, and spinning around on the spot like a breakdancer, kicking them both multiple times.
He flipped and kicked Eryka in the stomach, pushing her away, before grabbing Winter by the throat and judo flipping her over his shoulder. She grunted in pain as she crashed against the wet floor. Then he slammed both of the Queen's Servants towards Winter's throat. She swiftly raised the blade of her sword, blocking them and pushing against Tyrian as hard as she could. Winter gritted her teeth, then scowled, and suddenly slammed her hand against the floor, and a swirling glyph grew beneath her.
A huge hand emerged and punched Tyrian across the room, and the Minotaur Grimm stood tall, bellowing with fury as it hunched over Winter protectively. Tyrian scraped his blades across the floor, that demented grin never disappearing as he stared the giant Grimm down. The Minotaur bellowed, and it charged towards it, horns pushed forward. It ran on all fours like a bull, and swung the horns towards him, only narrowly missing as he jumped and swung off one of the horns.
He flipped through the air, firing his machine guns down at the glowing white Grimm before ramming the blades into the back of its neck. His laugh echoed in the amphitheatre after he pulled it back. He jumped and slammed his stinger into the roof of the beast's head, killing it instantly. The creature crumbled away into white embers, but as he landed, Winter instantly went for him, thrusting towards his chest. He suddenly stamped onto her sword, but she disconnected her shortsword from the blade, spinning around and slashing across his cheek.
Tyrian stumbled back, then his hand glowed purple, and he swung at her, only narrowly missing as she back flipped away, landing on one of her glyphs, shooting a bolt of lightning dust down at him. She then blasted off it towards him, stabbing her sword into the ground where he was just stood. He vanished back into the shadows.
Weiss and Eryka ran back to Winter, stood back to back and listening carefully.
His giggles continued to echo from all around them. "Would you like to know which ones begged? The sound of their cries as I flayed the skin from their bodies?" He laughed.
Weiss winced, and Eryka gritted her teeth with fury. "Don't let him get to you! He wants to pick us off one by one!"
One of us needs to stay level-headed… somehow…
"I'M GONNA BUTCHER YOU FOR WHAT YOU DID! YOU HEAR ME?" Eryka bellowed.
Tyrian laughed. "Yes… there it is!" Tyrian suddenly appeared behind Eryka and grabbed her by the face, pulling her away from the others. Then she felt her aura break instantly as his semblance activated, knocking out her aura. She smashed her elbow into his face and rolled away from him, just as he thrusted his stinger at her, only narrowly missing.
Eryka drew her bow, firing an arrow at him, which he easily deflected, but then she transformed the bow into shotgun form, firing it at him. He grunted as the shell fragments clipped his shoulder, but he still lunged towards her, going for her throat. She suddenly ducked and wrapped her arm under one of his arm and the other around his neck, smashing him to the floor with ease as she redirected his bodyweight down.
She choked him out on the ground, remembering her old-fashioned fighting moves, pinning his tail down as well. Tyrian gasped for air, then gritted his teeth, and he suddenly yanked his tail free and slashed across her flank. She gasped in pain, and that was enough to weaken her grip on him.
She stumbled away, holding her bleeding side. "Aw shit…" But thankfully, she spotted that he didn't pump any venom into the stinger on that attack, only went for a minor injury to weaken her grip, since it only just reloaded. But she was still cut open and her aura was also still broken from his semblance.
Weiss suddenly fired icicles towards him, getting his attention off Eryka for a moment. He sprung into the air and flipped towards Weiss, smashing his heel downwards into the floor, so hard that the tiles shattered upon impact. He spun around and swung his tail over his head, but Weiss deflected the barb, then thrusted forward, jabbing into his aura. The way he fought was like a savage animal, always staying close to the floor, his scorpion tail always arched over the top of his head.
He suddenly leapt towards her, slashing the Queen's Servants across her face, and landing behind her, thrusting his stinger towards her back, now fully loaded with venom. She gasped and slid out of the way on her glyphs, then stabbing the sword into the ground. She blasted powerful spikes of ice towards him, which upon impact launched Tyrian backwards.
He suddenly started sprinting across the wall before leaping back towards her again, slashing at her. Sparks flew as she deflected the incoming attack, then he started screaming maniacally as she slashed relentlessly. He was swinging so fast that it did not even matter he had any flow; it was just mindless strikes. But Weiss was staying as focused as she could, and just before he started his onslaught, she started using Time Dilation.
The clock glyph formed beneath her feet and slowed time, allowing her to effortlessly deflect each strike that he made. Then she thrusted a powerful attack into his chest, creating an explosion from the kinetic energy she built up. From the perspective of Eryka and Winter, Weiss moved in a blur, and nearly fifteen clangs happened within a few seconds, throwing sparks everywhere.
Tyrian tumbled across the floor, but swiftly fired back at Weiss, who blocked the incoming bullets with a protective barrier of hardlight dust. Tyrian suddenly sprinted around the room and jumped at Weiss, and as he landed he twisted around and struck at her with his cybernetic tail, hitting her in the head so hard her aura flickered and the tail shattered a couple of tiles beneath her.
Winter launched towards him and jumped, spinning through the air and slashing across his back, before kicking him in the back and allowing Eryka to rush him. She punched him in the face so hard it stunned him, staggering him and allowing her to kick him towards the wall. She didn't give him a second to retaliate, throwing a vicious combo of punches into his face, and laying three fast blows into his chest before one hard uppercut, which smacked his head against the wall.
Winter then cast a glyph behind the statue that he was against, and Eryka rolled out of the way as the glyph blasted wind into the statue of the Seneschal and caused it to crash down on top of Tyrian.
A few moments of silence passed, until Tyrian suddenly erupted from the stone with an almost demonic roar, his aura surrounded with purple energy, eyes constantly glowing purple. And then that same maniacal laugh returned.
He was throwing everything he had at them.
They had to put him down, or he will do the same to them.
Oscar
The demonic howl of Hazel Rainart echoed across the land from the Throne Room of Evernight.
"You will pay for what you did to me, Ozpin! I will tear you apart for bringing me into this cruel world!" He roared, punching both his fists into the ground, creating a powerful shock wave and launching shards of rubble towards him. Ozpin stood his ground, taking control of Oscar's body. Ozpin suddenly drove the Long Memory into the floor, creating a large glowing green magical glyph. It blocked all the burning chunks of rock from getting anywhere near him.
Nora jumped high in the air and fired a constant beam of pink energy from the head of her Axe, but he raised his arm and formed a Hardlight Shield, refracting the beam across the room, cutting through the windows that were not broken and bursting the few which remained. He suddenly formed an enormous chunk of rock in his hand and melted it into lava, and threw it towards Nora.
She gasped, but Ozpin pushed her aside and swung the cane, covering it with the lava. But the cogs inside of the weapon spun more and more, absorbing the energy that was constantly striking it. Hazel sprinted towards Ozpin and jumped towards him, going to punch him in the face so hard it would have knocked him out. Only for Ozpin to suddenly open his eyes with a green flash.
He swung around and directed all of that energy absorbed from the lava into the tip and struck Hazel across the face. That impact broke apart the few windows that remained and blasted some of the walls apart. Ozpin stood in the destroyed remains of Salem's throne room, staring Hazel down as he crashed against the wall.
He opened his hands and formed a pair of sharp spikes of rock, jamming them into the ground to stop himself from being thrown off the cliff. He relentlessly charged forward, smashing through the wall he was thrown through once again, using the armour of rock plating he created with the dust he injected himself with, becoming a battering ram. He sprinted towards Ozpin and punched him directly in the chest, sending him flying backwards.
Nora suddenly threw Magni into the side of Hazel's head, causing him to stagger away and breaking chunks of rock off the side of his head. She yelled with fury as she jumped and drove her axe downwards towards his skull, only for him to catch the blade of her axe with his hand. The blade split his fingers apart, but he ripped Stormur Skeggox from her grasp, pulling her forward so swiftly that he grabbed her by the throat and threw her against the floor.
Nora grunted, dazed from the sudden shock, and just as Hazel went to stamp on her skull with all his might, Ozpin suddenly slammed into his side, creating a powerful pulse of green energy upon impact. Hazel tumbled across the floor, then Ozpin let Oscar take partial control again, and he threw Thunderous Deception towards Hazel and wrapped the chain around his throat, before letting Ozpin take the reins once again, and he yanked Hazel forward, propelling his shorter body towards the huge monster and slammed the Long Memory into his face.
Despite the level of attacks that he suffered though, Hazel just kept on taking every single hit, despite lacking a real aura to protect his body. But as Ozpin slid across the floor, his eyes widened when he saw Hazel's split hand. Roots and rock were forming inside of the wound, and then fire melted them together, sewing it back together, and further reinforcing his body. "What? Shocked to see your own handiwork?" Hazel growled, smashing his fists together.
"I'm sorry Hazel… I never should have abandoned you." Ozpin stated.
"You abandoning me was never your cardinal sin. It was creating me in the first place!" Hazel roared, blasting off a burning root he sprouted with the Plant Dust he had implanted, then he formed a pair of lightning spears as he came crashing down. The impact created a tremendous explosion, blasting the roof off in the process.
Ozpin rolled backwards and tapped his cane against the floor, forming a pair of glyphs and fired magical projectiles towards Hazel, which exploded against his chest, burning away parts of skin, but inside they found he was held together by so many forms of dust. He was not even human anymore, just a living embodiment of the elements of dust itself.
"Damn it… nothing we do is going to do anything to him." Ozpin warned Nora.
"No… there is still a way." She stated, pointed at his head. "We cut the big bastard's head off. It won't be easy, but if we get rid of his brain, he won't be able to fight us. He may be a monster, but he can still be killed." Nora assured.
It saddens me to see her… and the others… having to fight this war…
… a war I should have ended.
Forgive me Hazel… but this is the only way.
Hazel grabbed one of the chairs and hurled it towards Nora, but she smashed it apart with Magni, then she threw the short hammer towards his head, only for him to catch it, and for it to keep going, carrying him across the room and crashing against the wall. He yelled in rage as he tried to free himself from the hammer.
Nora jumped and buried Stormur Skeggox into his knee, breaking the leg but getting the blade stuck in the rock. She held out her hand, and the gravity dust connecting her gauntlet and hammer together activated, calling the weapon into her grasp. She squeezed the trigger, and golden electricity coursed through the hammer and into her aura. The lightning turned pink, lighting her scars the same colour and the same with her eyes.
She roared and smashed her hammer into the axe with all her might, and the rock exploded, severing his right leg from his knee. Hazel roared in immense agony, further proving Nora's point that he was still a living thing, and therefore his head would always be a weak point. He dropped to his knee, no blood pouring out from how much he had to reconstruct his body with dust in the past. Nora jumped and swung towards his neck, only for him to punch her in the chest with an electrical charge, blasting her away from him.
She felt the electricity course further into her body, making her feel even stronger. But none of them expected to see how far he would push the limits of dust in his body. They watched as the stump crackled, and they saw chunks of rock form from it, extending into a razor sharp prosthetic, mixed with conductive material. Suddenly, golden electricity glowed across the new limb, and he grabbed onto a root he also formed, which flung him high above them.
He flipped and brought his sharp metal electrified leg down towards them; the impact creating a gigantic explosion of electricity, blasting both Nora and Ozpin away from him. Ozpin formed a glyph and jumped off it, striking Hazel across the face, then he held out his hand and fired a beam of green magical energy towards Hazel. He grunted and pushed his shoulder into it, before raising his right leg and swinging around, narrowly missing Ozpin's throat with the attack, then smashing his fist into the floor, pumping fire dust into the ground.
Fireballs exploded beneath their feet, blowing Ozpin across the floor. Oscar seized control once again. He extended Thunderous Deception past Hazel and around the weakened support, bringing it crashing down towards him. Hazel looked up and just took the hit. The massive chunks of brick and mortar exploded against his heavily armoured body, but he just stared back at the Former Bandit.
Oscar spun his chain around his hand and aimed the Long Memory at him. But as Hazel was about to attack, Nora suddenly jumped up behind him, eyes glowing pink as she went for the killing blow, but he turned and punched the axe from her hand, and punched her with his other face, sending her crashing into the floor. He stamped onto her neck and glared at Oscar, waiting for him to do something.
He could easily predict their moves. They always operated on their feelings first. Thus the curse of all those fighting for something good. Oscar sprinted across the destroyed room, and he smashed his hammer into the leg that pinned Nora down. She rolled out of the way and called Magni back into her hand. Just as Hazel went for her, she smashed the hammer across his face, and sending him staggering towards Oscar.
He wrapped the chains of Thunderous Deception around his throat and pulled him across the room, and with all his might combined with the strength of his previous incarnations, he flung him into the air, giving Nora the chance to fire multiple grenades into Hazel.
Hazel crashed off the side of the wall before flipping through the air and landing on both feet. Flames burned across his flesh, snarling savagely. Hazel was not going down without one hell of a fight.
They just needed something, an opportunity of some kind, to get the upper hand.
And strike that lethal blow.
Pyrrha
Pyrrha sprinted towards him, and Jaune roared with rage, taking his sword with both hands and swinging at her, but she slashed into his sword, throwing golden sparks across the air and making him stagger back. She then jumped off one of the rocks and drove her sword into his neck, dropping him to one knee. She ripped herself free and combined the two swords together, aiming the rifle at him and firing. He stood tall, taking a couple of hits and blocking the last two with his shield.
Pyrrha flipped backwards as he fired his shield at her, blasting powerful shells in her direction. The explosive shells fragmented the sand and rocks. Then she darted forward and slid underneath his legs, slicing Ira Red across the back of his knee. He yelled in anger and pain, falling onto that knee, allowing Pyrrha to jump and wrap her legs around his neck from behind. She redirected her bodyweight downwards and slammed him against the floor, holding him there whilst the sick Fall Maiden blasted across the sky, forming an Obsidian version of Milo in her hand and diving towards Jaune, ramming the weapon straight through his heart.
And nothing.
He suddenly kicked Cinder off his chest, then reached back to Pyrrha, grabbing her by the hair and lifting her off the floor with ease, and punching his shield into her chest, firing the cannon. The explosion caused Pyrrha's aura to flicker and throw her quite some distance away from Jaune.
He rolled his shoulder, snarling with no regrets in his glowing purple eyes. He turned to see Cinder flying towards him, and she slashed her dual swords across his chest. Sparks and black blood splayed outwards. Cinder gritted her teeth but felt her throat constrict, and a terrible burning sensation grew. "Gods… no… not now…" Cinder gasped, coughing up blood, until suddenly Jaune threw his sword towards her.
She gasped and rolled out of the way, spitting out blood on the floor whilst her eye leaked blood. "Your body is failing you!" Jaune yelled, firing another shell at Cinder. She gritted her bloody teeth and formed a barrier of ice, and used that opportunity to fly into the air, then slammed her swords together, melting them together into a bow. She conjured arrows and fired them at Jaune from above, two of which he parried aside with his shield, but the third landed at his feet and exploded.
The shock wave tossed him backwards, then she flew towards him and punched across his face, landing on the floor and forming a huge fireball in her hands, blasting it towards him. He raised his shield, blocking the incoming explosive projectile, staring her down. Jaune rolled away from her and scooped his sword back into his hand, and he rested the large blade on his shoulder, chuckling darkly. "Well then, even with a rotting body, you still possess some manner of skill!" Jaune laughed, blasting himself into the air by firing his cannon into the ground beneath him, riding the explosion.
He swung downwards towards Cinder, only narrowly missing her, but then she formed a sword and an obsidian axe. She jumped and spun through the air, burying the axe into his sternum, then slashing into his sword as he took a swing at her. Sparks flew from the impact, and then he thrusted forward, a line of purple light trailing from his eyes. He raised his shield and spun on the spot, smashing Cinder across the face and breaking her stance, ripping the axe from his body and launching it back at her.
Pyrrha watched as she started to get back up and turned, looking to see the Brother of Light and Darkness were still watching over her. "I need your help…"
As she tumbled backwards, he charged up his shield, and it hummed louder and louder, before he opened fire, shooting a fully automatic spray of explosive shells across the floor towards her. The ground exploded in a bright display of flames, and the impact threw Cinder against the wall so hard that it knocked the wind out of her.
Jaune approached her on the ground, pointing his sword at her throat.
"JAUNE!" Pyrrha yelled, and he stopped, hearing her voice, and turning to see her stood behind him. "Please… enough of this…" He begged her.
"Pyrrha… it isn't him anymore…" Cinder wheezed.
"He's still in there… he has to be…" she stammered as she walked towards him. He stared her down, slowly spinning his sword through his fingers as he walked towards the Invincible Girl.
She held her hand out to him. "Jaune, I know you're there… you remember me. You're stronger than Thaddeus. You always have been. Please come back to me, I need you… and I promise I won't leave you again. I will always be here…" she promised, then Jaune stopped, staring directly at her. His eyes danced around, and she reached her hand out to him.
Tears trickled from her eyes. "Jaune… we can end this… once and for all. Just please… come back to me…"
Jaune stared at the floor, then his glowing purple eyes stared back. "Jaune Arc… is dead." Thaddeus answered, ramming his sword straight through Pyrrha's chest. Her eyes widened, and she gasped with shock as she felt the blade cut straight through her heart.
"NO!" Cinder screamed, reaching out for her, rage building in her body. Thaddeus ripped the sword from her body and she fell to her knees and onto her chest, blood pooling across the floor.
"So much for being the Invincible Girl." Thaddeus scoffed, turning to the enraged Cinder Fall, about to attack him. As he walked towards her, he froze, his eyes widening and he turned, when he heard the sound of Pyrrha getting back up.
"Where are you going, Thaddeus? We're not done here… yet." Pyrrha snarled with fury in her eyes, as a golden glow from the God of Light healed her fatal wound, still protecting their Champion even now. The two gods stood side by side behind her, working together to keep her alive.
Thaddeus snarled, gritting his teeth with rage. Pyrrha suddenly sprinted towards him and Cinder flew towards him from behind as well, both yelling with unbridled anger. Thaddeus grunted as Cinder blasted a powerful bolt of lightning into his back, and Pyrrha slashed both her swords across his leg, dropping him to one knee, then immediately jumping to roundhouse kick him across the jaw. As he tumbled away, she transformed her swords together, firing the rifle at him as he raised his shield.
"The hell was that?" Cinder asked.
"I kept pulling my punches… I needed to know… if there really was anything left of the man I loved in there. If he was… he would have never done what he just did. Jaune is gone… it's just Thaddeus left in his body now." Pyrrha answered.
Now Pyrrha was done holding back.
Thaddeus aimed his cannon at the two of them and fired, but they both rolled aside, and Cinder flew high above, raining fire down from above at him. The fireballs constantly exploded around and even on him, pushing him backwards with every single one that came his way. He charged his cannon up and fired a powerful shot towards her, but she dropped and pummelled her fists into the ground so hard that fire erupted from the sand, melting and hardening it into obsidian spires. Thaddeus grunted as it scraped up his chest and smashed him against the wall.
Pyrrha suddenly rushed him and flipped backwards, kicking up his chin and landing perfectly on her feet, ducking as he swung across where her head just was. She rolled back and threw Crocea Mortem into his shoulder, then yanked it out with her polarity, and as he stumbled towards her, she sliced across his eyes, splattering black blood across the wall. He snarled with anger as he looked around. The black tar that writhed in his corpse quickly began reconstructing his purple eyes, but just as he could see again, Pyrrha suddenly fired three more explosive arrows into his side.
The explosion set his cape aflame and sent him flying, ramming his sword into the ground to slow himself down. His burning cape flowed in the wind, with billowing smoke laced with twinkling embers. He spiralled his sword around, building up the wind around him and throwing the smoke everywhere, before blasting into the air and spinning, firing constantly all around him. The shells spread out across the skirmish, shattering the cliffs, before he descended and rammed the sword into the floor so hard it knocked Pyrrha back.
She spun her swords through her fingers, staring him down with both Brothers by her side.
Lavinia
The Winter Maiden blasted massive beams of ice down towards the Black Gallows soldiers, clearing a path for her forces to continue, whilst also slamming down tornadoes into their area of the fight as well, tearing their defences apart. But her eyes were constantly darting up towards the Shadow of Broken Promises.
"Come on, guys… get that virus uploaded." She stammered, then she gasped, hearing her comms start screeching.
"We need assistance!" The Admiral of one of her Dreadnaughts screamed.
"Clarify?" She answered.
"SALEM! SHE'S BACK ON THE BATTLE… HOLD ON WE'RE GOING DOW-"
The report cut off immediately, and she turned when she heard the deafening boom and blinding orange flash of the Dreadnaught being effortlessly thrown into the ground by nothing. She then saw Salem stood in front of the flames.
Fury filled her chest, and she turned to Joanna and May. "Keep fighting! I'll keep Salem focused on me." Lavinia promised.
"WAIT!" May yelled, reaching out for her. She was the most powerful asset they had.
If they lose Lavinia…
… the tide of this battle could change in an instant.
Lavinia flew across the desert at lightning fast speeds, and the faster she went, she could feel the vapor trail increasing behind her, until finally she broke the sound barrier and created a powerful sonic boom behind her. Salem turned when she heard the crack, and saw Lavinia flying directly towards her, tackling Salem and smashing straight through the burning wreckage of the Dreadnaught that Salem just destroyed.
The two of them tumbled across the dunes, Lavinia sliding to a stop, whilst Salem extended her wings to slow herself and dug razor-sharp claws into the sand until she caught onto the rocks.
She stared ahead at Lavinia, smirking.
"Well, well… if it isn't the tenacious Winter Maiden?" Salem chuckled.
"Those were my people you just slaughtered." Lavinia snarled.
"Oh? I always assumed you never let your emotions impede your business?" Salem questioned.
"I guess you could say I changed." Lavinia stated.
"A pity… the old you could have stood a chance against me." Salem retorted. Lavinia smirked, her eyes burning blue and floating off the ground. A massive swirling storm of blue embers and snowflakes surrounded her.
"You sure about that?" The fully realised Maiden asked.
Salem smirked back, her eyes igniting as well.
Maiden against Maiden.
Author Note - Oh this is gonna be epic, basically two gods battling!
Loved writing Salem going full feral monster mode like that, really disturbing to show how effortlessly she can slaughter so many people and feel literally nothing about it. Loved having Lavinia just smash straight into Salem like that as well.
These fights were so much fun, ever since playing the Souls Games I have really been having so much fun writing these kinds of fights since it feels like it's an Elden Ring or Bloodborne boss and I love it XD.
Also that part with Pyrrha... she's been trying to accept that Jaune is not in there... but she had to know for certain, and now she does. Jaune would never have done that without hesitation. It really is just Thaddeus now. Also hell yeah to the Brothers for having her back there. That could have gone so many shades of wrong XD
I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Please review, follow and favourite!
Stay tuned for the next chapter!
- Matt