Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or Highschool DxD.
It looked like hell.
The desolate battlefield was the only thing that met the eyes of the group. The grass was long destroyed, its soil desecrated, never to bear life again. Multiple craters were on the ground, each having over a hundred meters in diameter in its encompassing area and several meters deep. The clouds were filled with thick, billowing smoke, blinding the sky in darkness.
The students watched in helplessness at the situation. The soldiers of Atlas were being pushed back by the monsters of Remnant. Citizens were forced to take up arms and support the legion of man. Human and Faunus, huntsman and mercenaries, bandits and criminals. All were united against the bane of humanity, Grimm.
The wall cracked and shattered on the forces of darkness, and yet it was not impeded. For every damage it took, it will only build itself back up and grow stronger. The wall itself was magic. A castle that was found by mankind in its time of need.
And thus, it was named. Humanity did not know this, for it was in a time since long passed, but the castle was once owned by an individual. An individual that was a girl who became a boy, a boy who became a man, and a man who became a king. However, the price he had to pay was too costly, too much. And the kingdom that once prospered was destroyed, leaving only the castle as its remains.
Still, it stands in the hopes of fulfilling its purpose. That which resides within the walls shall forever be protected so long as they were in need of help.
It was named during the time when all seems lost, in which they had nothing going for them except in the hopes of humanity rising back up again when the time comes.
Ivory walls standing tall in the face of adversity, it will not fall so long as humanity still stands.
A Castle of Distant Ideals. The kingdom of the Once and Future King.
Camelot.
In any other circumstances, with civilians and criminals, faunus and human, the unity of humanity would have been heartwarming – particularly between a forlorn headmaster and a hopeful cat faunus – however, the situation was anything but.
The reason for that is because out in the distant fields, came a legion of despair. The ground shook as the marches of the Goliath was heard throughout the battlefield. The sun was blocked by the Nevermores, Beetles, Gryphons, and multiple airborne Grimm. Every type of Grimm, known and unknown to man was seen approaching.
And on the forefront, was a group of dangerous individuals. People who have done multiple atrocities to further their own agenda. The most wanted of criminals, and the group who served the Witch.
Salem's Inner Circle.
Cinder Fall, the half-turned-full maiden. Maidens are bearer of the long-lost variable of Remnant called Magic. They are capable of commanding nature itself, and possess vast amounts of power independent of Dust and Aura. Originating from where it was first given by Ozma, it has travelled from woman to woman until it was stolen by Cinder Fall, to where she got the full power during the Breach of Beacon.
Arthur Watts, the disgraced scientist of Atlas. He used to be one of the backbones of Atlas, propagating the advancement of its technology. His greatest achievements were the network of Mantle, environmental Dust controls, and even the famed Paladins. Unfortunately, due to his own hubris, he was cast out of Atlas and has sworn vengeance upon them.
Hazel Reinhart, the mournful brother. A man with conviction and turmoil due to the death of his sister. A calm and collected man, that turns into a berserker with no thought but rage when encountering the supposed cause of her death, Ozpin.
Tyrian Callows, the zealot. A scorpion faunus whose faith in Salem is so devout it's on the field of insanity. Only one word can be described to this man: unhinged.
And finally, on the forefront of the Grimm army, was Salem herself. A girl stuck in a tower, saved by the man she used to love, and a betrayer of the Brother Gods. A woman with nothing left to lose other than her life, which is exactly what started this whole war in the first place.
Knowing this, what other word could be used to describe this situation other than:
"…shit," Ren cursed. It takes a certain kind of situation to ever make Ren cuss something like that, and this situation is exactly it.
"Gasp! Renny said a bad word!" That didn't stop Nora from making light of it, with her hiding behind Pyrrha and pointing at him.
That's right. Pyrrha didn't die, what a shock, isn't it? Fortunately, she never had to encounter Cinder Fall in her escape after acquiring the Fall maiden's other half – seeing as Ozpin was too late to bring her to the underground of the academy. Unfortunately, since Cinder didn't encounter any difficulties, the maiden's powers were up for grabs, and grab she did.
"While Nora's being Nora… what are we going to do about… that?" Yang pointed out to her leader-slash-sister.
"Hmm, let me think about it…" Ruby mused. This day could just not have been her day, could it? Event after event, each one being worse than the last…
LINE HERE
"Yang, do not step on that tile!"
"Oops,"
"Damn it, Yang!"
…
"Nora, no!"
"NORA YES!"
…
"Why did you fall for that obvious trap, Blake?!"
"IT WAS FISH!"
LINE HERE
And now, without even having any kind of meeting or war council or whatever, Salem shows up with the big guns and trying to end this once and for all…
AGH! She just wanted to pull her hair out of frustration! However, she couldn't do that, otherwise morale will plummet. Her team is looking out for her for guidance, and she'll sooner damn herself in hell than disappoint them! And the same situation applies to her friend Jaune and his team as well!
While Ruby was busy thinking about things, Yang decided to converse with the others instead.
"So, what do you think about all…" Yang vaguely gestured to the marching army. "this?"
"It's shit," Ren repeated and Nora gasped in shock once again.
"Yeah? I think…"
LINE BREAK
Jaune POV
"…so too," Yang talked to my teammates as I tried to make a plan upon the situation before us.
Overwhelming firepower? No, that's impossible. We'd burn out before we even take out a third of them. Covert Op? We're in broad daylight, and they're in the forefront of the battlefield, we'd be spotted a mile away. Assassination? No, that's stupid.
A stray thought entered my mind that I found amusing.
"Ah, this year's probably the year we're graduating," I found myself saying that out loud.
It's funny. To think that the situation turned out this badly.
It all started out as normal. Well, as normal as can be when a 17-year-old boy who's out of his depth tried to fake into Beacon and somehow managed to succeed. And then tried faking his way into making it look like he belonged there when he clearly does not, and somehow still fooling the majority of the residents there.
Things were… good. A day in the life of a Beacon student involving all the boring parts like attending classes, submitting homework, and being called up by the teacher to answer a question, to all the interesting shenanigans like the massive food fight, that one time Nora challenged Professor Port in a wrestling match, and all sorts of situations.
And then the Vytal Festival happened.
Calling that situation "bad" is a fucking understatement. It went down to shit. And even then we were lucky to make it out alive. Had Salem gotten another wyvern – because I refuse to call that thing a dragon; dragons are way cooler – or had Cinder actually took things more seriously and didn't spend most of her time gloating and jilling herself to new heights, then we wouldn't have survived.
Then we went on a journey, trying to find a way after finding out from Ozpin that Salem can't be killed, not permanently anyway. Visiting libraries for certain fairy tales, touring hidden chambers and vaults whilst collecting the Relics on the way, just to make sure that we don't fuck ourselves over. Risking the visit to the outlands which are lands that are unoccupied by the Kingdoms, since the limited land we do have on Remnant, if you split a quarter of that, then that's how much land we actually occupy.
Ancient ruins and civilizations we thought would have been destroyed by the gods… actually survived. I guess the Brother Gods sought to only eliminate humanity itself, not necessarily including what they've created.
And finally, after a gruesome and more life-threatening than usual adventure, we found a trump card.
Sacred Gears.
Yeah, no shit. Like that Noble Phantasm from the DxD universe. Not only are they Bullshit Powers™, they've left the ability without the soul living inside them. So no having to bond with the spirits living inside them to access their full potential. So even more bullshit.
Now you might be wondering: why have I, Jaune Arc, self-proclaimed ladies' man, most useless member of my team – though Ruby and my team would argue against that – know this kind of information?
Well, it's simple.
You see, when we were up against the final boss of the labyrinth before the Sacred Gears, we've fought the natural enemy of our group.
No, not Grimm. But an enemy that's very harmful to people with Aura. More specifically, though not that much, is that it damages the Aura or rather the Soul. When you get hit by it, you literally feel it in your soul. Fortunately, that's it's only Bullshit Power™ and we more or less defeated it by the skin of our teeth. Unfortunately, like a typical last boss, it can call out a final move in its dying breath, and me – being the unlucky sonuvabitch I am, and also a self-sacrificing idiot who cares so much about his friends its detrimental, took one for the team quite literally, and I was hit.
Can you guess what happened? Yeah, parts of Jaune's soul was just obliterated. Normally, anyone hit by that should be, well, dead. Apart from Ozpin and Salem, I think, though even I'm not sure what a permanent damage to the soul will do to them. And well, Jaune did die in a way. But for some mystical, magical, and marvelous reason another soul was transported into the body in order to build and make up the missing parts of the half soulless Arc. A soul that just died from Truck-sama and ended up into his body.
Yep. I got isekai'd and self-inserted into Jaune Arc. What's worse, I got self-inserted into events so different from canon that there's nothing even familiar. So I got self-inserted into an alternate reality or, god forbid, a fanfiction. The only thing worse than this is if it's a bad fanfiction, and worse than that is if it's a one-shot with no other explanation on how events went into this. I swear if this is a real thing that I've read I would've sued.
Okay, so maybe not that simple.
Anyway, I won't bother you with the bullshit that went after that. Let's just say I've managed to convince them that I'm still me, that all the drama and bullshit that self-inserts have to deal with, like admitting the truth to them, somehow managed to turn out well for me. And that we've trained using our Sacred Gears for the most part.
Truthfully, with the Sacred Gears on our person, a plan is kind of redundant. But it's still pretty useful to plan that just go in half-assed. And suddenly revealing Sacred Gears is pretty risky, because what if the Brother Gods noticed this shit and just decided that a reset button is a must. I don't even know how Sacred Gears ended up in this shithole in the first place, but you don't see me complaining.
Hopefully it will never come to that. But with the way the situation is…
I brought myself out my musing just in time for the conversation of my friends to end.
"So, Jaune, do you have a plan?" Pyrrha asked me almost exactly right after I finished processing my thoughts, which if Pyrrha wasn't so nice, I would've thought it creepy.
Still, I'm making a stupid risk here, but I never really said that I was a smart individual.
"We're gonna use the Sacred Gears." I declared.
Silence for about five seconds, and then…
"WHAT?!" I winced at the loud noise, especially the shrill scream of Weiss. Damn, she's definitely a singer, because that voice range is high!
"Jaune, are you sure about this?" Pyrrha asked me. Hoo wow. Pyrrha is like the person who trusts me the most, even through my bullshit ideas based on metaknowledge. No matter how risky it is, she always just smiles that nice little smile and nods. And now she's doubting this for the first time, which shows exactly how stupid it is.
Of course, since all of us have been made aware of the Brother Gods and have experienced the annihilation of the first humanity via memory from Ozcar, she'd have every reason to be wary about them.
"Yeah, Jaune; I don't know if we can do it," Ruby added. Damn, the Ruby Rose! The leader of team RWBY, the one who comes up with the most stupid and dangerous plans bar me, is not sure if we can pull it off? I must've died again.
Blake nodded her head. "It's too risky, even for us," Wow, she's talking about the whole team RWBY here. Y'know? The team that does the most suicidal shit you can think of without regard for the consequences and how they affect the people around them?
"Fearless leader, are you okay?" What the fuck? Okay now it's really unnerving. Nora is asking if I am okay. The one who trusts me a lot, second only to Ren, and the one who always agrees to my plans, no matter how crazy, second only to Pyrrha. Man, I really did a stupid move, but I'm not gonna back down from it.
And then everyone added their input, going through a feedback cycle of discussion and doubts. Until I decided that it's time to put a stop to the conversation.
"Guy—" my words were cut off by Ruby firing a shot from Crescent Rose aiming for the sky. We all turned to her. Huh, guess I wasn't the only one thinking about stopping the squabble.
"Oops! Ehehe, go ahead Jaune," Ruby heard my first words and laughed nervously. Classic Ruby.
I cleared my throat. "A-hem. So, as I was about to say…" And here was where I decided to let out my leader aura. You know, the thing that leaders put out when they're about to give some orders to their subordinates?
And here I was, about to implant onto them the biggest risk of death plan I ever thunked. A real deal-breaker if you ever saw one.
"Just trust me" I declared with a smile on my face.
Silence.
And now I was nervous because- holy shit Weiss is taking a deep breath and about to go on a rant-
"Ruby, do you agree?" She asked her team leader.
Ruby snapped out of it and looked around her friends. And after a while, she nodded. "Yeah, um… yeah, I trust Jaune,"
"Fine! But if I die, I'm haunting you for the rest of eternity!" Weiss huffed and started walking off.
What?
One by one, the rest of my friends agreed and got into their positions – we didn't even discuss about where to go for their positions; maybe fighting together for so long they just knew how to do it? – leaving me flabbergasted as to how they just agreed so easily.
But I'm not going to look at a gift horse in the mouth.
Thank goodness we have fallback plans that actually involved Sacred Gears. We scrapped that back then because we didn't want the gods to notice that we had them, but now that point is moot.
Aight, let's win this shit!
…
Salem thought she had won.
Salem thought she would win this by a landslide.
And could anyone blame her?
For centuries, she had been planning the downfall of Ozma and his cloak-and-dagger schemes. She had spent all this time studying tactics, reading books of anything that might help her win this shadow war. Experimenting with Magic and the Grimm, combat training, memorizing dozens and dozens of fighting styles.
Everything went according to plan.
Even the battles where she lost and died, was part of the plan. For every battle fought, Ozma grew weaker and weaker, and Salem just came back with a literal vengeance, learning more about him, his fighting style, what makes him tick.
She even went and got rid of the Silver-Eyed Warriors. Sure, there were survivors, but that's few and far between to ever be a threat.
And she even had two maidens to her side, Fall and Summer. Unexpectedly, Cinder executed the plan perfectly without any drawbacks from Ozma, and thankfully, the new Fall maiden didn't gloat like a little bitch, unlike the other time when she got the half maiden powers. And the Summer maiden, called Scarlett.
Not to mention that she has literally divided humanity. With a lot of them cooped up inside the Camelot Fortress whilst a few outliers are far away, isolating themselves from the world and trying to hide – not that it will work, but she found the effort amusing.
So yes, she thought she had this by the bag.
So, what the fuck was going on?!
…
Yang hit the ground running, clearing the army of Grimm in her way, with Nora, surprisingly, following. They are the spearhead of the spear formation, the first one to clear the waves and breach the frontlines, so to speak.
The blonde punched her way inside the enemy of Remnant itself. She swerved right and did an overhead punch on a Boarbatusk, shattering its skull. She then jumped backwards and fired Ember Celica on a descending Nevermore, and immediately after that, grabbed two Beowolves and threw them on the Grimm. More and more came after that.
Nora jumped in front of Yang, Magnhild raised high, as she pressed a button on the handle, and electricity burst forth from her person and her weapon.
And then she slammed it down and the ground shook.
A plate of the ground rose up from the surface, and hordes of Grimm were let up into the sky to fall back down. And then the plate fell down around the surrounding hordes, crushing them and eliminating tens of Grimm of all kinds.
Yang and Nora in tandem, fighting back-to-back. A cacophony of noise, lightning and flames, with gunpowder and explosions as the cherry on top.
Hundreds of Grimm have fallen already, but it was still not enough. More and more keep showing up, nearing the yellow and orange power duo.
But a blur of black and green came up from behind the Grimm, and then they were no more.
Grimm body parts flew into the air before fading out of existence. The blades of Stormflower slicing through the skins of its enemies before blitzing theme with bullets.
Gambol Shroud soared through the air with Blake flowing through the battlefield, a subtle move of the hand and suddenly the blade snapped back into its owner's hand, taking along tens of Grimm along the way.
Blake and Ren ran through the crowds of Grimm, killing everything in their way.
But it was still not enough.
Despite the fact that they knew the Grimm were limited in this battlefield, it felt like an endless horde.
And that's when another army of Grimm came from behind them.
Only this time, they weren't the classic red, white, and black that you'd expect from a Grimm, nor were they tinged with green like Merlot's experiments.
Every single one of these Grimm were light blue, almost white in color.
They came out in droves, squadrons of summoned Grimm rushing through the battlefield. Goliaths smashing their way into the mosh pit, with Boarbatusks aiding them. Stragglers were ripped apart with Beowolf packs, with Ravagers attacking the Nevermores.
Grimm are mindless, soulless creatures. They hate, and hunger, and kill. They have the most basic of animal instincts, derived from the main animal they resemble. Not possessing enough intelligence apart from those who live long enough to develop it.
They don't have the ability to perform tactics and be organized.
And yet, looking at the battlefield, it's happening.
From the backlines of Salem's army, a gigantic Manticore approached the field. It was huge, taller than a three-story building. By all means, this was a Grimm that could destroy a part of a city.
And yet it was decapitated by a single swing from a ginormous sword from a literal white knight.
A summoned Arma Gigas took its arms and charged. And from the backlines, white hair flowed.
Standing proudly with her rapier pointed at the ground, multiple Glyphs behind her, and from that; summoned Grimm came.
Weiss Schnee enters the fight.
A stab of her sword into the ground, and frost descends on her enemies, freezing them and breaking them apart. With a flick of her wrist, the ground itself seems to converge into a quagmire, banishing the pitiful fools who were on top of it. A wave of her arm and fire spreads unto her foes, like a wave crashing into the beach.
Dust Manipulation, for years she has studied, and now she's near the pinnacle.
Of course, even with all of this training, and all of her adventures from when she enrolled into Beacon to now, she shouldn't be able to do this. Her Aura had always been one of the lowest of their team.
But she isn't doing this by her Aura alone.
"[BOOST!]" a voice intoned from her left hand, a bluish color that glowed as it spoke.
Sacred Gear: Twice Critical, the Hand of the Dragon. A sacred gear that has the ability to double the user's power for a limited amount of time. It takes the form of a gauntlet.
With this sacred gear, a wave of fire becomes an inferno, a tremor in the ground can become an earthquake, and the amount of Grimm she just summoned becomes… doubled.
A pair of creeps, by sheer luck, had survived the onslaught and were well on their way to kill the Schnee heiress, when a bang was heard and the both of them dropped dead.
In the midst of battle, more and more Grimm fell from their armies. A Beringel was holding a creep and using it as a weapon, dragging it across the ground as it opposed the soldiers of the human army, only to get shot down by a sniper.
A Megoliath fell, crushing the others under it. A Cenitaur was shot by its ventral plane, spraying acid amongst its fellows.
On top of the walls, Crescent Rose gleams in the battle as it shoots bullet after bullet. Ruby kneels behind it, silver eyes shining as she takes aims…
And fires.
Fun fact: did you know Ruby's Sacred Gear is Variant Detonation? It's a sacred gear whose ability is that it can turn anything the user touches into a bomb.
Including the bullet that she just fired.
As it comes into contact of a Grimm in the middle of a group, the bullet explodes, taking the victim that came into contact alongside the poor sods that were near it.
…
In the midst of chaos, throughout the battlefront, one Grimm rose. It was different from the others. Not in appearance, though its bone plating was littered with cracks and looked aged. But in presence alone. It doesn't walk, it stomps. It doesn't fly, it soars. This is a Grimm that has lived long, and had the power to prove it.
Titan Class Grimm.
Grimm are creatures that are not intelligent. They do not have the ability to think, at all.
So, what happens when they do have the ability to do so?
Titan Class are Grimm who are not only given sentience, but have fatal ability that makes it a threat across all the four kingdoms. Fatal Abilities can vary from adaptability, spawning other Grimm, or sometimes having magic itself.
This Titan will take dozens of huntsmen to even incapacitate. It will take dozens more to kill it.
This Titan also got killed the moment it made its presence known and roared.
As it took its first step to what it would think its victory, it was shot down by a two-pronged spear. A spear made of light, the holy element. The spear floated off of the Titan and returned to a golden plated arm, which is connected to the rest of the golden plated body, with purple orbs glowing with power.
As the figure let out its Aura, all the Grimm that could be counted as strong, rose up to the challenge.
…
Jaune POV
I retracted my spear, named Joshua – and yes, I really did name it that – and once again marveled at the choice of my Sacred Gear.
Because holy shit Azazel's Downfall Dragon Spear and his Balance Breaker: Downfall Dragon Other Armor is cool as fuck. Although I didn't have the black wings. Probably due to me not being a Fallen Angel. But it's still cool as fuck.
Yeah, I'm a chuuni, bite me.
I blinked out of my stupor which took less than five seconds, because fuck those inner monologues that main characters do that somehow passes in real time. Even regular people think faster than that.
Anyway, I looked at the garden of war, and I have to say…
Damn, that is a lot black. And then I looked at my teammates, my friends.
Ruby, speeding up and slashing through her enemies, while gunning down the others using Crescent Rose. The fact that it makes others explode is just a sight to behold, much to the chagrin and happiness of Nora: the fact that she didn't have Variant Detonation, and the fact that it's still explosions anyway.
Weiss, empowering her Arma Gigas just as it swung its sword, sending the surrounding Grimm flying. Thankfully just like with the Boosted Gear, Twice Critical can boost anything, including her Aura regeneration. Even though it's an inferior version of the Boosted Gear, it's still plenty useful.
Blake, blitzing her way through the lines and taking out multiple enemies in the process. It may not look like it, but her fighting style has changed to become a lot more aggressive. And she has practiced with her semblance enough that even when caught off guard, she can just switch positions with a clone.
Yang, who's cheering loudly while beating Grimm up. And freezing Grimm to stone using her Sacred Gear: Aegis Mineralization. It's a round shield that has Medusa's head on it, that has the ability to shoot beams of light that can turn its enemies into stone. Simple, if a bit heartwarming considering she has another ability in common with her little sister. And thankfully it can change sizes so it's mostly at the size of a watch combined with her Ember Celica.
Nora, who's doing a pirouette while swinging her hammer, creating an electric tornado.
Ren, avoiding attacks and throwing out tons of throwing knives, and also using Strategy Trap, which allows him to make holes that transport people and items. So now he's going around the battlefield, rescuing other huntsmen and doing a pseudo-Gate-of-Babylon, but with knives.
And finally, Pyrrha Nikos. With literally one of the most powerful Sacred Gears, a Longinus. Thankfully, and ironically, it isn't Unknown Dictator, which has the ability to manipulate iron of any kind, and can assimilate into any kind of machine.
Her Sacred Gear is obvious, seeing as how she didn't bother to turn and block a move from a Titan aiming for her, since it was attacked by a woman in a white cloak. Followed by more attacks from more figures.
All these people, these legends. Powerful in their own right, but they did not belong here. For they were dead.
Not anymore at least.
I stared at them, and I felt proud. Really, thank fucking goodness I convinced them to train. Not that they weren't already, but I didn't just make them train… I made them train. Hell-week training, all day every day ever since I took over Jaune's body.
Especially since I can see the benefits. Oh yeah the benefits…
I snapped out of my trance just as I lean to the left and kill another Grimm. Damn it, I've been staring more and more into my female teammates than usual, and that's saying something. Especially when I stare at their tits and ass, although I pay more attention to their panties.
Hmm, even without the need to communicate the sealed ones in the Sacred Gear since they're not there – and yet we can use the full abilities that we can think of –, their ticks and fetishes still affect me.
I know Azazel was a member of the Boob Church, the same as Issei, but I inherited Fafnir's love for treasures (read: panties) as well? I've been getting urges on hoarding their panties, especially the recently used ones more lately, and thankfully I can hold them back, but damn if it isn't tempting.
Oh well, I'll leave that problem up for future Jaune. That guy must hate me so much right now.
…
"Wow, I feel so much better than when I was previously alive!" Summer Rose cheered as she kept zooming around and killing everything in her way.
Honestly, it was all pretty janky: the past few days, she meant. A few days ago she was… dead. And yet from her perspective she was just facing Salem after bidding goodbye to her family. Then all of a sudden she was here, being told that she was dead, has been for over a decade, and that she's now being called and brought back to the land of the living to fight Salem and her army.
And being told that Salem was immortal, and that the Brother Gods made her that way… and also the Sacred Gears.
Also, she hasn't even gotten a word out before her daughter Ruby slammed into her, and then Yang – and boy did the two grow up – and it was a very jarring experience. Still, she hasn't even spent that much time of a reunion between her daughters before they went on a war plan.
She wanted to spend more time with her daughters, and by the looks of them before they separated, they wanted it too.
But for now, she – they must save the world first before that.
Another dead Huntsman who was brought back for this battle by the Sephiroth Graal, shouted as he bashed another Deathstalker. "Ga-hah! Come one, come all, you little shits! I'll take you all on!"
The girl next to him snorted and rolled her eyes. "Men," she scoffed before turning to Summer and smiled softly. "Go on, leave this to us,"
Summer opened her mouth to object but the woman interrupted her.
"No-no, I see that look on your face, you definitely wanted to spend more time with your daughters, and that's okay. It's fine, we can handle it," she gestured to the other revived warriors, all fighting for the salvation of Remnant.
"I… okay, thank you!" Summer smiled brightly at all of them before dashing off.
Don't worry girls, Momma's coming
…
It's been over two hours now, and seeing as her army isn't doing much – even exhausting the stamina of the opposing army – Salem decided that it's time for a more direct approach.
"Take to the battlefield, I will go for Ozma," she stood up from her chair and commanded her subordinates.
"Yes, mistress!" the Inner Circle replied.
Seeing her lackeys dispersed, Salem narrowed her eyes in thought as she looked at the war in front of her.
Those children, they have something…
Something powerful…
But so do I…
…
Hazel didn't expect to struggle this much.
Sure, he knew that killing Ozpin is easier said than done. Seeing as he's the headmaster of Beacon Academy, arguably the best huntsman school across the four Kingdoms.
A headmaster is already a problem enough, but the headmaster from the top school? Even more so.
That's not taking into account his past lives, starting from Ozma. Salem said that he was stronger than her the first dozens of times, until he was weakened by making the maidens.
But still, from a time before even the first humanity was wiped out. The experience piles up, and it piled up a lot.
Not to mention his own Inner Circle. First, there was Qrow Branwen, one of the top huntsman of Vale, and a troublesome semblance to boot. Then, James Ironwood, General of Atlas, and another headmaster – this one is of Atlas Academy. And finally, Glynda Goodwitch. Just her telekinesis semblance is a threat, and with her of all people wielding it… even the Maidens will have to work for their victory.
Those three were just the ones Salem was able to find out were part of his inner circle. Who knows how many members he's had under his thumb.
Still, that was that. He thought he'd have to get through the inner circle to get to kill Ozpin. He's accepted that.
So…
Why is he struggling against children, of all things?
His thoughts were interrupted as he raise his arm to block a punch.
"Not a good idea to let your thoughts wander, old man!" the blond one – Yang was it? – exclaimed as she jumped back to get distance.
He didn't bother to get a response. He wasn't the kind of fighter to banter.
He moved in to strike again and this time, she has to block instead of swerving away. However, this time she grabs onto his fist and keeps him there.
He didn't know why and was about to take advantage, when he sensed danger and, seeing as it was coming too fast, only had time to raise his other arm and block it.
BOOM!
And then he got sent flying away and he just became a bit more wary.
Because he felt it.
His semblance is Numbing Agent. Basically, a pain nullification ability. It can render him insensitive to pain.
But he felt it. He didn't actually feel pain, more like bumping into someone accidentally in the street. but just the fact that it was able to make him feel something should be telling how powerful that strike was.
He looked to where the attack came from and found an orange-haired girl, spinning a very large hammer and aimed it at himself.
"You shall not pass!" She said and popped a bubblegum in her mouth.
Yang jumped next to her. "Thanks for the help, Nora. But, I think I got this," she exclaimed while pounding her fists together.
Nora shook her head. "I know you can, but fearless leader said to hurry things up, we need to outnumber Salem,"
Yang was about to protest but acquiesced. "Fine, then do your thing." That was the last thing she said before attacking Hazel once more.
As Hazel exchanged hands with Yang once more, he noticed the state of the clouds. They were swirling, like someone was commanding nature itself.
Now usually, he wouldn't minded something like that. Their Maidens could do the same thing after all. But this one felt different.
And it showed a moment later when Nora suddenly shouted something.
"Midgardsormr! Ragnarök Aesir Berserk, Balance Breaker: Jörmungandr!"
And then she was struck by the heavens themselves.
Lightning converged in the clouds and arrived with a booming crack as she was covered more and more by armor. And then the clouds started covering her while the sound of thunder went louder and louder.
And then it dispersed. Leaving an armored figure with a massive hammer that's a mix of fantasy and technology.
Her breathing was in rhythm with the thunderclaps, and when she opened her eyes, lightning was crackling around it.
"Get ready to be thunderstruck!" she said and for some odd reason that Hazel can't explain, he was hearing a guitar solo somewhere.
And the she moved and he was out. The sound of Nora's cackles remained on the battlefield as she moved on to more enemies, and Yang was sighing once again. "Girl really can't save some for me, eh? Ah well, there's plenty of 'em so I don't really mind,"
…
Watts was never really a man for the frontlines.
No, he was a scientist through and through.
Don't get him wrong, he can fight, and he can fight well. Enough to take on the headmaster of Atlas. Granted, he lost, but he lasted a fair bit of time, and that should be enough.
Still, he'd prefer making the guns instead of shooting and getting shot by them.
Unfortunately, you couldn't exactly say no to the Queen of Grimm. Not unless you have a death wish.
And so here he is, on the place he tried to avoid by becoming a scientist, betraying Atlas and defecting to the enemy, the frontlines.
Watts sighed. When did his life become this complicated? He just wanted to be left alone in his lab! But dear old Jimmy didn't like that, and Salem sure as hell wouldn't like it either, so he's between a rock and a hard place.
Fucking hell, he'd really kill for a—
THUMP!
Watts was knocked out of his musing, literally, by a white figure zooming through the ground.
…
"Huh? Felt like I hit something," Summer thought as she blitzed through a Beowolf pack.
"Ah, well! Doesn't matter." she ignored it and kept on going.
…
Cinder floated in the air as she used her maiden powers to blast through the huntsman army.
She had a smirk on her face and her eyes were filled with sadistic glee as she shrugged off the attacks of her enemies' semblances.
That smirk ended when she was punched in the face and was sent flying.
The culprit was Blake Belladonna doing a somersault as she landed, rolling her arm as she sighed in satisfaction.
"Damn, I always wanted to do that." Spoke Blake, only to widen her eyes and immediately jump out of the way of a fireball.
"You dare attack me?!" Cinder seethed.
"Yeah." Blake deadpanned in response.
"DIE!" the Maiden gathered her magic of weather manipulation and summoned lightning and fire on her person.
In response to this, Blake used Gambol Shroud's ribbon and shot it towards Cinder's wrist to… wrap around it.
Cinder stared at the cloth for a moment, then at Blake, and was about to laugh at the futileness of it, when she felt a powerful presence surrounding her.
Dry.
She felt dry. As if every essence of her was being drained just by being in the presence of this being before her. Her magical reserves were being emptied out at fast speeds. And her Aura reserves were being drained just as quickly.
She tried to move but her body screamed at her that it would be a bad idea. As her eyes darted around trying to look for what it is, a shadow loomed over her. She looked up.
A massive purple dragon was over her, looking down on her as if nothing more than a pest.
As it baled its red eyes at her, she felt the brightness of her world going out. Blind, she was going blind, and her throat was dry.
Her last thoughts before passing out was that she needed a lot of water.
Blake pulled the ribbon which was a Sacred Gear and put it back on Gambol Shroud.
Vritra, the Enveloper. One of the Five Evil Dragon Kings, the Vedic serpent, the personification of drought, evil, and chaos.
Delete Field, one of the Vritra Sacred Gears. Unlike the Heavenly Dragons Ddraig and Albion, Vritra was split into multiple Sacred Gears. And hers was Delete Field, which can suppress and negate the abilities of its opponent in their range.
She picked Cinder, turned, and retreated to the base, intending on imprisoning her.
…
Jaune POV
"I got Cinder." Blake's monotone voice sounds like music to my ears, despite the fact that it was literally monotone.
Nice. Hazel was picked up by Yang, Watts was found by Ren as he was traveling the fields, and now Cinder. That's three for four.
Speaking of four…
I descended from the skies as I spotted the scorpion faunus charging to the frontlines, using the surrounding Grimm as platforms.
Not that it mattered much, since as soon as he was on the air I was on his ass and knocked him out. That's four for four!
Cinder's goons were nowhere to be found… Roman and Neo fucked off to somewhere before the war, the Summer maiden was defeated by Pyrrha, the resurrected warriors and Ruby, so she didn't even stand a chance.
Now there's nothing that's in our way from getting to Salem.
…
As the eight of us surrounded Salem, I couldn't help but feel uncomfortable.
I know I shouldn't be feeling this. From the moment I declared my intention on using the Sacred Gears, and my friends' approval of them, this should've been a curb stomp.
And it was, we surrounded the boss, there weren't a lot of casualties on our army, and even if there were, Sephirot Graal could revive them.
Everyone single one of us had their Sacred Gear active, and Blake is already trying to make contact with Delete Field.
So why do I feel a sense of dread?
"It's over, Salem. We have you beat!" Ruby spoke.
Salem turned her eyes on the silver-eyed girl, chin propped on her hand as she sat on her throne.
"Truly?" She said dryly with a tinge of amusement. As if a parent responding to their child bragging.
That seemed to tick Yang off, so she charged. Nora, seeing this, decided to get in on the action as well.
Big mistake.
As soon as they went near Salem, she was no longer there, and to the surprise of everyone involved, Weiss was on the throne, too shellshocked to even move, and was promptly hit by the force of Yang and Nora's strength.
Barely even five seconds and she was out of the fight.
That started off the fight between us and Salem.
Sacred Gears are a wonderful thing, really. In the DxD verse, the God of the Bible created them to give humanity a fighting chance to stand up to the other supernatural factions. Of course, it didn't really end well for humanity, seeing as how some of them were killed and some of them were recruited into the other factions precisely because of their Sacred Gears.
They can turn the tide of battle into being even, and with their Balance Breaker achieved, turn it in their favor.
Now, there are eight of us currently facing Salem, not to mention the others on our side who have their own Sacred Gear. The reason for them not being in the battlefield is because they are trying to prevent the Brother Gods, and by extension any other Gods from noticing the battle. Power attracts power, and when the other Gods figure out the existence of Longinus Sacred Gears, it'll be hell on Remnant.
But I digress. Now, eight against one. While there is a possibility of one winning against an eight – I should know, I watch anime, the concept of one vs many was just another aspect of the rule of cool – when you add Sacred Gears into the mix, this shouldn't be going the way it's going.
In fact, I would say that we are actually losing, our hits are hitting where they shouldn't be, the ones that do hit can be parried and blocked and also not deal that much damage, and she somehow knows how the battlefield is going to go. It's as if fate itself is helping—
No. No. Nonononono.
Fuck.
Salem caught my eyes and she smirked once she noticed that I realized something. Then she broke off of the fight and uttered two words.
"Telos Karma"
That's when everything went to shit.
A/N: My longest chapter yet. And also the one that makes the least sense, I guess? I kinda made stuff up for the word count. Ah well, who cares. So yeah, an SI-Jaune inserted into AU RWBY with DxD elements, wouldn't that be fun, eh?