The Lock-Box was just as large as I remembered it in my brief look into it. Ten stories tall and a football-field wide, and many more long. Where I landed was somewhere towards the beginning of the long corridor that made up this hidden room. I had a great view of experimental weapons, items, and artifacts ahead of me in a hallway so long I could see the imperfections of curving steel.
Looking for a door so that I may be able to get my meat-suit down here at some point, I did a 360 scan, stopping behind me at the wall. Up a large black iron staircase and lined with multiple lanterns, there was a small door with a single button next to it. Experimentally I walked up the staircase, observing the odd purple light coming from the lanterns.
When I arrived at the top of the staircase I stared at the button, large and green with the black insignia of interlocking gears, with the center gear being a clock. I pushed it, hearing a click and small beep before a voice spoke to me. "Voice confirmation of exit, please." It said to me, and I focused on what I had heard from Ozpin's voice, mimicking it.
"Headmaster Ozpin." An alarming beep before the door shoved outwards and opened. "I hope you've enjoyed your stay, Headmaster Ozpin. Have a nice day." Behind the heavy metal door was another long and dark hallway, sparsely lit with regular lights. An exploration for another time. For now though, the door was open, and that meant that there was a way in, somewhere. I could still sense no aura marks within this place or its hallway.
Turning away from the door I waltzed down the stairs, taking in the many metal weapons before me. Each of them were secured to the floor or in glass cases that were no doubt built to withstand a missile. Below or above each of them was a label of their name, and a button with different insignia, this time those of the different kingdoms. Places of origin I assumed.
Tentatively I walked towards the nearest weapon, a small dagger set with a red gemstone in the hilt and smaller specks of the same materials along it. I pushed the button.
"Topaz Dagger. Place of origin - Vacuo. This weapon is inlaid with enchanted topaz gemstones that when activated with aura, effectively triple the length of the blade and raise its temperature to 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit."
Well then. I suppose that was how it worked. With just the push of a button I could reveal a summary of whatever object or weapon in here. That made my job easier. So, like a child in a candy store, I strolled over to a large metal rail-gun with the Atlas insignia. On its barrel were alternating yellow, red, and purple dust crystals. I pushed the button.
"Atlesian Railgun. This weapon, powered by electric, fire, and gravity dust, simulates the impact of a small meteor with the approximate mass of a small transport truck. The effective range of this gun is ten miles with proper calculations. Useful for five shots with a single charge."
I liked the sound of that, though transportation of this would be very difficult. I wasn't entirely sure how they got it through the door. They very well could have built it here. I needed something a little more compact. I decided to look into the glass cases more than the stand-alone weapons. The next case was longer, but for good reason. There were three belts of grenades, each highlighted by purple, red, and brown. Under them were the buttons of different kingdoms. I pushed the first, red, made by Vale.
"Elemental Grenade, Blaze. These grenades follow signature pineapple grenade design, but with many of the shrapnel shards being replaced by hand-crafted dust plates. These plates will explode into small burst of fire themselves. Used for clearing rooms."
I pushed the brown one, Vacuo.
"In the earthy terrain in of Vacuo, this grenade holds a charge of un-stabilized earth dust. Weaponized on impact, the use was to incapacitate large machines with spires of stone."
These were starting to sound better and better. I pushed the final button, Atlas.
"Atlesian Gravity Bombs, small scale. A small scale version of Atlas' Inertia Bombs, these explode first and then implode with surprising force, colliding soldiers and weapons alike with bone-snapping force."
Leave it to Atlas to develop the best weaponry. Although the other two seemed a bit more rugged and creative. I bookmarked these in my mind before moving onto the next case, this one containing a small white rock. There was no insignia when I pushed the button.
"Moonstone. A shard of the moon fallen to earth. Recovered by all of the Kingdoms' efforts. Has the property to bring back the dead, but only part of their soul. Due to the adverse affects, the kingdoms agreed to never use the stone."
That was basically useless to me. While an interesting artifact, I was looking for weapons. Where could I find another little jackpot like those grenades, I wondered. Walking around and inspecting these weapons alone was going to take me some time. Fortunately, I had a lot of it. So I walked to another case, this one containing a metal body with no features, donned with a gleaming set of white armor with gold inlays and blue highlights on the inside. The set included a chest-plate, arm and leg set, and heavy boots. Inside of these to tie everything together was a mix of heavy black leather and chain-mail. The insignia showed Vale.
"Crocea Armis. Matching to the sword and shield known as Crocea Mors. These pieces together complete the original, impervious set owned by the King of Vale."
A bit of history to me. I knew that currently the Arc family held the sword and shield, and Jaune had obviously taken it with him to become a huntsman. If I really wanted a challenge, giving him this armor might make him formidable. Even more food for thought.
More walking and looking to do. I found melee weapons, experimental guns, unstable ammo, tainted dusts. What was in this vault truthfully impressed me, and I found a great many things that would make some fireworks. My favorite was the Atlesian Reactionary Bomb, exploding in a way that set a near unlimited chain reaction of molecules to release their energy. A test in the deserts of Vacuo showed that a Ten Square-Mile circle of nothing but sand released energy enough to turn that area into the now famous Glass Storm Region.
The only problem was that the warhead itself was very large, and that it was disarmed. I was almost certain that if needed, I could detonate it by force of my own starting explosion. It would make some very nice fireworks, but I would have to be outside of the blast radius. My meat suit was, after all, made of matter.
After many more minutes of walking, I came across a broad blue line with words scrawled into it on the floor. "Artifacts Ahead". I know I had encountered a few artifacts back behind me, but those might have just been artifacts classified as weapons. If that was true, I probably had no reason to look through these and just pass by them, but I looked for curiosity's sake.
The first one was in a glass case and sitting on a metal mount, was a large white tooth with a calcified yellow venom on the tip. I pushed the Vacuo button. "Lurker tooth, recovered from an Alpha Lurker. The venom in this tooth attacks the aura directly, forcing the semblance to activate until the aura is burned down, and beyond that into the soul. If one had not had their aura unlocked, this process happens even faster. Death occurs in one hour unless the victim is killed beforehand. No known cure."
Grim, I liked it. Unfortunately the venom was calcified and unusable. A pity. I did question how the tooth hadn't dissolved like most Grimm yet, but it didn't matter. My legs carried me to another case containing a jar of a thick black substance. Vale. "Grimm Blood, synthesized through abstract means dealing with human blood."
What were 'abstract means'? Did they mix human blood with it in order to give the darkness something to bond to? Bah. I looked to another case, this time containing a simple saw-blade shaped pendant hanging by a strip of leather. The button was blank this time. "A badge given to the first hunters to use dust. Holds no meaning anymore."
That made sense. I did vaguely remember pulling one of these off a dead hunter when I was still a powerful mortal, and not a god. More history. More facts, nothing interesting. This was similar through most of the rest of the cases that I wandered through. I was beginning to think that I would find nothing else interesting in this Lock-Box and was preparing to double back through the large weapons when I caught sight of a door.
Dark Archives
That peaked my interest slightly. What knowledge was so forbidden that it was to be contained in a place like this. A new spring in my step, I strolled up to the door and opened it. Inside was a simple, old wooden bookshelf with five books on it, covered in dust. To the left of that was a writing desk and chair with many crumpled pages on it, and signs of age much longer than it should have survived.
The Study of All Things Grimm - Darhk
The Study of All Things Godly - By. Willem
The Study of All Things Mystical - Lady Maria
The True History - By. Ozpin
These names were obviously important, and the three I didn't know must have had their first names lost to time. The last was obviously Ozpin, and I had spoken to him already. In his history, there were probably things that he didn't want hidden. The origins of the Grimm, Salem, himself. Just how real I was in the beginning.
The books themselves ranged in size from History being the largest, followed by Grimm, Mystical, and Godly. While the aspect of history bored me, and I was already tapped into the Mystical powers, What hidden secrets of Grimm interested me. I knew some about the Gods, but who and what they were still confounded me. Maybe they had some interesting insights in that small book.
Boldly I stepped forwards and grasped The Study of All Things Godly, and sat at the writing desk. The chair was comfortable, and it was silent under the weight of my astral body. The book opened under my fingers, and I began reading.
Now, there is no good way to explain what I read in these books without quoting the text almost entirely. So that is what I will do. There was a message on the first page.
"To those who dare read this forbidden and ancient text, I leave my knowledge that me and all my disciples have gained over our years. As you read further into this book, you will encounter answers and questions, as well as things you won't believe exist. Some of these things will put pieces into the puzzle of your life, and others may tear it apart with the fact of their existence."
Ooh, ominous. With a small grin on my face, I turned the page.
Chapter 1 - Forces
Forces are constants in our lives. Something that no man, woman, or thing can defy. The most notable constants are Time, and Death, and these work hand in hand. Time is a constant, passing always and lightly perceived by our lesser senses. A sixth sense, if you will, is the ability to observe time passing, and count it. Anyone can do this, but it changes.
Time is odd in the fact that while we count it in units, these units can become longer or shorter, unbeknownst to us until we realize where we have moved in the spectrum. I like to call this 'Chronal Shifting". Chronal Shifting occurs when one either consciously focuses on time, or ceases to do so. You see, we are constantly in a state of Chronal Shift, but we are in different states than others.
An example of this would be waiting. When waiting, you count the seconds, and the passage of time seems to become slower. You may think and feel as if your moment in time stretches for minutes, even hours, and yet another can perceive it as less. Say perhaps, you are doing something you enjoy, of something that requires all of your focus. The hours begin to tick by, while for others it is slow.
It is in this that I have decided Time is relevant to us all, and we all have some control over it, more than others. Physical and fixed items have no control over this, as they have no sense. They simply become useless attempts to measure Time. I have found that there is no God that controls Time, but rather we are that God.
The second Constant I will talk about in this chapter, is Death. Death is a force, but is much more concrete than Time ever will be. Death is a moment, an act; it is irreversible. When someone dies, you must accept this as fact and move on, saying goodbye to anything they have and would have done.
In many small cultures and churches, Death has often had a form, the 'Angel', of Death. The omen of the end. Darkness. The Reaper. These are both correct and mistaken. Death I have found, is what one would call a true God. Conscious and almost certianly malevolent.
Death has the power to be an un-moving constant, undeniable by any means, and so it must have the power to remain in any form it should wish, be that force, astral, or physical. Some such as Maria would argue though that Astral is a form of physical, but no matter.
Death, and by comparison, Life, are your greatest Gods. Life is similar to Death like Night is to Day. Both will happen, and this is undeniable. The only difference, is that Life is temporary, and Death is final.
I had to admit, this man 'Willem' was much more inclined and in tune to the world than most would ever be. His theories, though treated like fact, were very accurate. Me and Life were near equals, though Life had chosen not to take a physical or astral form in centuries. As far as I was concerned, his theories on Time were very interesting. I continued reading.
Chapter 2 - Gods of Remnant
Gods are not always a force, I have learned. And through many studies and experiences, I have found there to be a great many Gods. Greater and Lesser. The most notable and greatest of these would be your four elements. Air, Earth, Water, and Fire. Though the greatest of their kind, they are incomparably weaker when compared to the influence of Life and Death.
Air. Scientists can call this the aspect of weather, or simple particles and gasses moving. In this aspect, they are correct. But what makes them move, and creates the weather, they are wrong. There is no reason for currents of air to twist as violently as they would in a Tornado, or grow as large and thick as such present in Typhoons. A consciousness, however scattered, is present. If one could know how to listen, they would begin to hear words upon the wind. This is the voice of Air.
Earth. Once again, scientists think this is a simple collection of matter. But what makes the ground quake and rocks in the desert move without human interaction? What made the mountains rise and the caves open? No act, human or otherwise, could create something of such magnitude. Earth has no discernible consciousness, for it seems asleep in all aspects. It is a force, and at the same time, irrefutably physical.
Water. We know the moon makes the water rise and fall in the tides. But the moon cannot make the water wave and lap at the shores. It cannot make simple rivers carve canyons into the ground. It cannot make this one element become lifeblood, and a need for existence. Once more, water has no consciousness or personality.
Finally, we have fire. Even scientists are baffled by what makes fire, claiming 'heat', is behind it all. But what of fire creating its own heat? Fire is malevolent, and infinite. It spreads if not controlled, and hisses and coughs poison smoke as it dies. Fire is a force, an entity, and a power to harness. I myself have spoken with fire, and known its name. Through the cracks in bones and patterns in ashes, I have found a language.
Repeating phrases, 'Burn, die, blaze, spread, incinerate.' are only some of them. Rarely are they coherent, but their meaning is understood.
There were more chapters after this, but I began to lose interest in this. They devolved from amazing theories to ramblings, and I can only assume this is because in writing this, the man neared the end of his age and began to fall to me. If I had known what a mind he might have become, perhaps I would have let him live for decades more.
I picked up the second of the books that I wished to read, and opened the first page. It was a long one, and the author must have known this. Within the leather-bound cover was a glossary, containing the following categories.
Chapter 1 - The Grimm; a summary.
Chapter 2 - Origins
Chapter 3 - Creation
Chapter 4 - Biology
Chapter 5 - Colonization
Chapter 6 - Species
Chapter 7 - Varientals
Chapter 8 - Ancient and Alpha Grimm
Chapter 9 - Grimm of Legend
Chapter 10 - Dispersion Effect
Chapter 11 - Age and Influence
Chapter 12 - Salem
Chapter 13 - Grimm Herding
Chapter 14 - The Experiments
Chapter 15 - Soul Implamentation
Chapter 16 - Dust Infusion
Chapter 17 - Human/Grimm Infusion
Chapter 18 - Knowledge/Soul In Grimm
I'm very sorry about the wait for this chapter. During the recent snowstorm, I lost the chapter to a quick power surge and had to re-write it. The storms are over now, so the next one should be coming out in reasonable time.
The next chapter, if you wish to skip it, is mainly going to be the experience of Darren reading this book, and will not contain much speech. Other than a few stray thoughts from Darren, it will basically be an informative for this kind of thing. Depending on how many words this ends up being, there may or may not be story after that.
Fear not though, the chapter after that is when we jump back into the action and some of the canon.