Happy New Year guys! Time for a new chapter to arrive!

June 15, 06:35 AM

M04 V

Nero and V split up to find separate paths to the Qliphoth, the demonic tree. Nero encountered a deadly demon wielding light as a weapon. When defeated, it turned out to contain Lady. Can she shed some light on the battle with the demon king? And what is V's true motive?

"The time's nearly aligned with Nero's mission?" Weiss asks herself in curiosity. "So if it really happens, the two would be at two places…"

"That are near each other and can see other." Blake concludes. "That's why we saw V fighting in the previous mission… controlled by another player. So that's why the name is different. It's a real player playing alongside us. This game has multiplayer."

"It's a Cameo System. You can only see others in some missions though, not the whole game."

"If that's the case then we can actually fight WITH either V or Nero if we choose one, right? A double tag-team?" Nora says in excitement. "Imagine all the combos you can perform!"

"…I didn't actually expect much from that man." Winter comments. "But maybe he can command those… how do you call them for appropriation?"

"Familiars."

"Thanks. Those familiars would do the work better, no offense."

"So V. You think this kid can kill Urizen?" V is heading to the next location, with Griffon flying next to him.

"One can only hope." For some reasons, a part of the building behind them collapses, blocking their way back. "But for now, we have a more… pressing engagement."

"So the cane's more of his defensing option than an item to help him walk." Jaune concludes. "What's with the cane and style?"

"You just answer that yourself." Ren chuckles.

"I mean, isn't a sword better than…"

"A cane is better if you want to beat someone without fearing of accidentally sending them to hell." Yang jokes.

"That's… actually true, though." Pyrrha replies. "In this case, you replace a rapier like Weiss' and a cane, and the fight would still be the same, minus the blood maybe."

They then see a tip about changing playable character from Nero to V, showing that V is indeed going to use 'three demons' to fight as he stands back and commands. Weiss sighs in relief: "So we still have orbs for…"

"Nope! Orbs used on Nero won't be refunded."

"…Damn it."

"At least this game is generous with Red Orbs so no need to complain."

Weiss then gets to the Customize shop… and other than Blue Orbs and Purple Orbs, she can't buy skills. "What the… I can't buy his skills?"

"And in context, it's a bit out of order. It should be this shop first then to the scene." Blake points out one of the illogical things in the game-making.

"But, there's Purple Orb. Do you think that…"

"I think it's like Lady's Bomb throwing than him turning devil, Pyrrha." Jaune explains.

"…Well, at least we still have some health and energy." Weiss sighs and gets what she can, then gets back to the gameplay.

"We've a minor errand before we reach Urizen." V speaks to either himself or to Griffon as he continues his walk, with the panther now also accompanying him. The demons, however, decide to greet him by ganging up on him.

"Ooooh, genius, says 'be careful'. Yeah no shit, Shirley! Ain't that right, V?" Griffon flies around and speaks in a mocking tone. "I mean, you ARE fragile at the moment. Wouldn't take much to wipe you out in a sticky situation." V smirks and starts pulling out his book. "I'm just saying running away is okay. It's always okay to run away, if you're not up for it!"

"He who desires but act not, breeds pestilence." Opening a random page, he reads out the line, then closes it and puts the book away. "…So it is written."

"Just how many quotes does he have in his book?" Blake questions as another ding sound rings up. "And did he just randomly open a page having the exact same quote?"

"I think that's just an instinct thing. He probably has that quote ready in his head." Weiss shakes her head and shrugs. "Like when you just look at your watch even though there's a huge clock next to you."

"Habits die hard." Winter adds.

"Okay Shakespeare. Just remember this."

"Wrong William."

"Wrong?" Blake questions.

"There is a William Shakespeare and a William Blake. And both are poet. Though, I think the former one is a more popular one. If I'm wrong, sorry for being an uncultured swine."

Griffon lands on V's waiting left arm. "You and I like to exist. So get rid of those demons quick, 'cause killin' them ain't my shtick!" He then flies away to find a better position. "I got your back, 'cause dying is whack!"

"…I can get a drink pal like him."

"Please, no, Yang." Both Blake and Weiss instantly imagine a scenario where those two drink to the 'near passed out' point and start making terrible jokes.

"Adding a crow in it…"

"Don't you dare." Winter shakes her head trying to dismiss the scenario. "I swear, if you pull him in here…"

"I did that last time. I will bring a different guest, though."

The older sister sends her younger sister a glare, and Weiss nods. "Yes, Qrow did join us before."

The player then returns her attention to the TV, and sees the tips of how to play as V. "Hm… so the panther's name is Shadow? A bit generic." However, she can see why as she orders Shadow to attack with its claws and the shadow enhances its attacks then it retracts back to V's location under the shadow. Replacing Nero's High Roller, Shadow flips itself up to the air and drags the enemy up to the air with its tail, and the panther turns itself into a vertical spinning blade to attack.

Then, somehow the enemies survive after the target HUD shows that their health deplete, but then it changes to a cool-down circle with the demons staggering while turning purple. The tip shows again and tells that only V can end the enemies. "Strange… the familiars can't execute the demons?"

"At least they give V something to do?" Ruby guesses.

It then shows that V's range attack is the bird, Griffon, firing lightning out of its beak. Or maybe his wings as well when it launches columns of purple lightning towards enemies.

"It's going to be annoying, isn't it? We have to run around to reach the demons and deal the final blow."

"I think he can teleport, though. Remember the previous mission?" Yang reminds Blake of the V's demonstration from other player.

"…So the big blob one is the Devil Trigger?" Jaune predicts. "Shadow for melee, Griffon for range attack."

"Sounds true." Ren nods, his legs slightly move to the rhythm of V's theme. "The song sounds good."

"It fits with him." Pyrrha agrees.

"And his dodge looks smooth too." Ruby says as Weiss uses Forced Move. "Though I doubt he can roll like Nero or Dante."

After beating the final wave of the first attack, Weiss heads to an open area and sees the location where she controls as Nero jumping over buildings. However, she sees no one there. "Huh? Where's Nero?"

"Probably ran ahead. You did take a long time to watch cutscene."

Weiss then faces a wave of Pyrobats, and this time she has Gambit to reach the enemies from distance. "Okay, now this is better." And when Gambit is used, V does make some good backflip moves. "At least he gets a style of his own."

"Speaking of styles. You were trying Dante's Swordmaster right, Jaune?"

"More like his uses of Rebellion, Nora. And no, before you ask, I can't do the Round Trip."

"Pyrrha can help you with that."

"Then that's just her, Ren. No offense Pyrrha."

"It's alright Jaune. Besides, that's teamwork. I see nothing wrong with it."

…

A group of Empusas approach V. The man slightly lowers his body a bit, then raises his left arm up straight to the air and snaps his fingers. Instantly a large part of his tattoo disappears, and his hair turns from black to white. A small meteor appears from the sky and lands in the middle of the demon group, sending them fly away and depleting their first layout of HP for V to teleport in and execute them.

"Wow… that's an entrance." Yang whistles as Nightmare emerges and attacks the demons. "So he attacks on his own, huh? A bit lame."

"He's slow, so maybe it's better for him to do on his own. And I don't think we have enough buttons to control him as well." Weiss adds as she controls Shadow and Griffon fighting the demons.

With Nightmare's help, the upcoming demons are easily dealt with. V heads to the bridge and notices a big blot from the root of the tree. He orders Shadow to destroy it, but he's caught off guard when the bridge starts collapsing. He quickly jumps away and summons Griffon to carry him to the other side of the bridge while the structure falls down to the flooded area.

"Even after he said that the bridge is unstable." Winter states. "But, given that the blot is actually the thing holding the bridge, I can't blame him."

"Sometimes we just have to break our way through!" Yang and Nora fist-pumps, being the 'destroyer' of their own team.

After landing on the solid ground, Weiss continues her trip and grabs another parasite and destroys some roots plus demons spawning after picking it up. During that, V says something about not allowing a person to gain more power. "Must be Urizen then."

"Who else?" Ruby asks back.

Weiss then decides to press Taunt after killing the demon while V's mid-air, and he grabs his cane like a mic stand and shouts 'Come on!' like a singer. "Hm… that cane is neat."

"He has an appearance of underground-music singer, so yeah."

After grabbing the Purple Orb Fragment (which Weiss sighs and says about more hidden items to find), she heads out… and another wave of enemies. "…I think this is just walking then fighting demons then walking again in V's missions." Though, when she calls Nightmare again, instead of shooting down from the sky or emerging from the ground, he punches through a nearby building and jumps out. That action also reveals a Blue Orb Fragment. "…Wait, so Nightmare can be used to find hidden paths?"

"That would be a waste of DT, and it seems White Orb doesn't drop that much." Blake comments.

However, a new tip appears and it shows a skill literally named 'Read book' that slowly fills the DT gauge. Weiss tests it out, and V pulls out his book and starts reading while the familiars keep attacking the enemies. And the Scroll in the room keeps making 'DING!' sounds after every time V turns the page.

"That's just taunting at its finest." Yang laughs and turns to her Faunus friend. "Hey, how about we do something like this? Letting you command for a mission while we do the dirty work?"

Blake glances back with a half-amused face, then shakes her head with a smile, knowing her friend too well.

After a few more demons fighting, and a wall being broken down by Nightmare, Weiss finds another secret mission that involves collecting all Red Orbs in an amount of time… that takes her a few tries to get a good strategy to get it done.

V sees another phone booth and calls for Nico. After the call, V takes a few steps outside of the phone booth… and hears a shout from above him. He looks up to see the van FALLING down from a road above. He quickly uses the phone booth as a boost for height and Griffon to gain further height, then calls out Phantom so the panther could kick the van down and land on all its tires instead of the only head. Though that doesn't stop the van from spinning a few more rounds.

"…Is this thing a Devil Arm? Seriously, how can it still move?" Jaune asks, clearly convinced that this van is NOT normal at all.

"…It probably has plot armor."

"Even plot armor would be dense overtime." Blake counters.

"Your choice of thinking."

Now Weiss is capable of learning V's skills, and she picks a few ones that she likes, then faces the boss…

…

Something like a snake head launches towards V and tries to bite him, but Griffon also sees that and brings V out of the danger zone. Then, the boss itself appears as it grunts: "You. Dodged. Me!"

Parasitic fiend: Nidhogg

"So this is the real one… disgusting." Everyone instantly nods in agreement with Weiss' statement.

"Did. You. Dodge. Me!?"

"Urgh, Nidhogg. I never liked this guy." Griffon grunts as he lands on V's left arm.

"You. Pest. Do I. Know you?"

"Dumb as a box of rocks. Let's not even mess with this guy, V." The man himself smirks at the bird's remark, knowing that he would have some 'fun' with this boss. "He can't even leave the Qliphoth, anyway. Just a Qliphoth parasite."

"Did you. Insult me?"

"…Uh oh."

"YOU! INSULT ME!"

"I think he heard me…" Two more snake-head roots attack V and he dodges away. "And he's angry!"

"I'M! GOING TO! KILL YOU!"

"You just loudly spoke in front of him. What did you expect the result to be?" Both Winter and Weiss facepalm as the younger asks the question.

"And he even said to not mess with Nidhogg." Yang says with a chuckle.

V lets out a chuckle and replies: "Not in this lifetime. 'As the air to a bird, or the sea to a fish. So is contempt, to the contemptible." With his cane pointing straight to Nidhogg, he declares the fight to the parasite.

After that, Weiss calls out Nightmare instantly since she experiences that she can spawn the blob very frequently. Though that makes Nidhogg question on why V is a human yet uses demons to fight him.

"If the fool would persist in his folly, he would become wise."

"Augh…? Ah…?"

"Meaning don't try to think too much, shithead! HAHAHAHA!"

"Yep, they keep messing with him!" Nora laughs at how the two roast the boss as Weiss eliminates the roots and focuses on the boss himself.

Due to how dumb he is, Nidhogg's attacks are extremely easy to foresee, and V's Forced Move has quick movements so Weiss dodges most attacks with ease. The only few times she's hit because she's testing the 'Read Book' move. Even if the boss manages to beat both Phantom and Griffon and send them into Stalemate, she would just call Nightmare and revive them back.

"Even the big bad kitty knows you got shit from brains! HAHAHA!"

"QU-QU-QUIET! YOU… YOU… BIRD AND CAT!"

"Even his retorts are bad." Pyrrha now feels a little sad for the boss. "How is he even regressed to this state?"

"That's what most parasites become. Just focusing on ruining others' life without thinking."

Even when Nidhogg reaches low HP, the only threatening thing to be careful of is the attacks of the other roots while the boss himself attacks. And there's only one time all attack at once which is a bit hard to dodge all and Weiss takes some hits. But in the end, a few Nightmare summons and Nidhogg is done for.

Teleporting to the boss, V stabs his cane through Nidhogg's main head from right to left. While the boss screams, V speaks: "The cut worm forgives the plow. What do you say?" He then pulls the cane out and stabs again, this time pinning Nidhogg's head into the tree, ending its life. He then jumps back to the ground and uses magic to get his cane back.

The boss and the roots fall dead to the floor and start vanishing. The root that Nidhogg parasites on now collapses… and reveals another boss that notices the fall of the root and turns to V.

"Okaaay… um, all right, that's not good at all. That's not good." Griffon also notices the big boss and guesses the situation. He turns to V to see the man walking away. "Woah woah, wait, where-where are you going? Are you running away? That… that's not a good sign."

"Beating another boss right after one is not a good idea." Ren comments. "Better run and reinforce or just run away in general to recover strength."

"Applying to normal people?"

"Applying to normal people, Yang. That includes us."

"I'm afraid that… that's a little bit more than I can take on right now." V replies as he calmly walks away…

Until the boss fires energy bolts that causes all of them to start running (flying in Griffon's case). The bolts are strong enough to shake the ground and break it apart, causing V to fall through a hole, though fortunately he has escaped from the boss.

I'm sorry for the length of this chapter. I can't really find anything worth writing during this mission. Also I let the background a bit too loud so some of V's quoting after Blake is unable to listen so I can't write them down. I will try to fix that in next chapters.