Author Note: Psst. You! Yes, you! I hear you've been scouring all of the lands for this. Heh, I knew it by the look on your face. *Open's trench coat revealing the eleventh chapter* This is want you want isn't it? Then you must devote 80 humanity to me, your dealer to read it. Just kidding! I'm no humanity dealer that will exchange and irresponsible amount of precious lifeforce for this long-awaited chapter! Not yet, at least...
Also! I've come out with another story called Something Wicked Comes This Way! It's a crossover between Divinity Original Sin 2 and RWBY! It's another series that's lacking in the crossover department, so why not devote a story to it as well?! Give it a shot if you haven't already. It could be good, bad, or in between. Such an amazing game it is.
Enjoy this chapter!
"I thought you were wiser, but I thought wrong! Tis a terrible pity. Like a moth flittering towards the flame." - A certain golden Knight.
"Oh crap! oh crap! oh crap! OH CRAP!" Neptune's self-talking kept going on as he did his best sprinting away from the terrifying visage of a literal rock chasing after him. He skidded to a stop and quickly looked left and right before choosing which way to bolt. His only choices were Crystalline Street or Cornell Way. A place filled to the brim with people in apartments? Or the street that main square of Vale where he's out in the open and likely to be turned into a pancake? Damnable choices indeed.
What was more frightening was the fact that he couldn't hear the thing's footsteps. What on Remnant were they made of? It should've been waking up half the town with the way it has been chasing him.
"Perhaps tis best to climb somewhere?" Priscilla pointed to the rooftops of the apartments surrounding them." She felt a tinge of excitement for perhaps being of use to the blue-haired man.
Neptune shook his head, "And endanger a family watching television as that thing crashes through their roof? Yeah! How about no!" Priscilla elicited a frown. Neptune, of course, panicked and continued down Cornell Way, which eventually leads to the main square. Why on earth had he paid attention to such a girl? Now he may die. Alone, afraid, and an uncool dude.
His speed could only take him so far, but for the rock following him? It showed no signs of fatigue whatsoever!
"What is he on?!" Neptune cried out in frustration, yet at that moment, an imaginary lightbulb flashed before his head, "Uh, quick grab my scroll!" He jerked his head to the bottom left coat pocket. Call the police!" His breathing and screaming weren't helping the situation, yet it did add a sense of emphasis on severity.
Priscilla was bouncing and swaying to the left and right as Neptune's sprint didn't stop, although it was slowing. That was not good. Not good at all.
Her small hands went to his coat pocket as she unzipped it. But all she did was stare at it. Like a child would if they didn't understand or comprehend what was on it.
"You… umm… can read right?" Neptune asked in a super concerned voice as he took small glances to the girl who just stared at his scroll with eyes discerning the letters on it. "You're not able to read, are you? Who am I kidding? Why did I choose to escort you?!"
The night was still looming above them and Neptune's only way of knowing if that rock man, thing, or creature was still behind him was by constantly looking at the reflections of windows of cars, stores, and houses.
He glanced to see it was still right on his tail.
What will he do? He's starting to hyperventilate. He hasn't breathed this much since the time he first experienced the traumatizing/murderous aspects of water at such a young age! It was like nature itself wanted to remove him off the face of the earth! It wasn't mere coincidence that seaweed mysteriously wrapped itself around his leg and dragged him down to the bottom of the abyssal ocean's depths! (Highly exaggerated by Neptune's mind of course.) Ever since then, water has been his nemesis across his entire life. The others mock him, but they don't know how terrifying it was!
"Neptune! Keep running!" Sun's voice was heard above him, he looked up and saw his savior.
Wait a minute. Was he following him this whole time?!
"Hey! A little help would be nice!" The rock creature increased its speed to get within grabbing distance.
"DUDE! Seriously! Help me!" Neptune screamed as he reached the main square of Vale's empty if not popular choice of locations. The moonlight flickering in an out of view from the dark blue sky above as it shone upon their confrontation.
"I got it, I got it!" Sun leaped down from the rooftops and landed onto the ground with ease. His Ruyi Bang and Jingu Bang transforming into its staff form as he did. He smirked and prepared a stance.
"Alright big guy! Let's cool it down a notch and maybe, just maybe we won't seriously hurt you."
The living hunk of rock stopped and that same oversized dough hammer appeared in its hands out of thin air. Slinging atop its right shoulder and staring, or presumably staring at Priscilla instead.
She let a hand touch the pouch which contained the Dark Soul.
"Neptune, keep an eye on the kid. I'll handle this!"
"You… Hahhh… Do that! I'm going to call 911. Hey, gimme the scroll." He held his hand out to Priscilla who looked at it with determination and shook it.
"What are you doing?" He asked. "I asked for my scroll, not a handshake."
"I prithee to ask me again what you mean?"
Neptune carefully let Priscilla down from the poor excuse of holding her like a potato sack. He was going into serious mode as they slowly backed into the plaza where the trees surrounding them. Their slight bristles being made from the strong breeze.
"Where is my scroll? You didn't... No." He chuckled lightly, "You're joking! Hah!" His fake laughter could be heard so easily. "No, but seriously where is it?"
"Thine possession that you handed to me? I fear that I've dropped it as we were fleeing some time ago." Her grimace showed honesty and guilt.
"Some time ago?! Don't tell me you lost it just a minute after I handed it to you? Argh! Let's just keep out that bad dude's sights, and I'll provide covering fire for Sun!" Neptune breathed in and out several times as they were gaining some notable distance away from Sun and their pursuer.
It's completely fine, Neptune. It's going to be okay. I'm sure your pride will accept the fact that the scroll she lost had memories forgotten forever in your scroll. I'll be fine…
Neptune wasn't fine at all; he was dying of despair.
Sun, on the other hand, kept blocking its advance. As soon as he dropped down, he was greeted with an overhead slam downwards. The sheer strength of it alone created a small crater, and he had already witnessed what happens if he were to ever be caught and slammed into dough with that hammer.
The image of Greg the Red guard's splattered corpse still lingered in his mind. He tightened his grip onto his staff, "I don't know what your deal is, but killing that innocent man is a no-go for huntsman like me and Neptune." He then looked to the destruction of Vale's popular plaza done in once more. "Also, c' mon! We just got all of that fixed from the breach! I mean, Goodwitch did all of it, but still!"
Once again, it didn't answer.
"Not much of a talker, huh? Well, I guess I'm going to have to beat those words outta you!" Sun lunged forward, slapping the thing's right ankle with his staff, trying to test its stability in that hunk of armor. It simply bounced off like he was striking a stone wall. His brow furrowed as he thought of another way. Skidding to a halt and dodging another slam, Sun rolled out of the way to see another crater form around the small circular street they were in.
"C' mon, Neptune. Where are you?" Sun stole a slight glance to see nothing from the opposite side of their location. Where was he then?
THIP!
A loud energy noise flicked itself into existence as it rebounded, but made an admirable mark against their opponent. There was his lifelong best friend, shooting atop a car with his goggles on.
"I got ya, dude!" He waved and shot again.
"You better not chicken out on us now that we're ready!" Sun smirked and returned to his usual stance.
It did exactly that and rushed towards Neptune's location next to the famous Fro'Yo shop.
"Why do you do that?!" Sun gripped his head and yelled, his tail swirling around in anger. "I just hope that the old man is doing better than us."
He wasn't doing better.
Dajorn's labored breaths were taking a toll on him again. He was far too weak in the endurance part of all this fighting to wear his opponents down. Had he that illustrious, if not enchanted ring to aid him, maybe he'd fair better. For right now? Dajorn rolled from left to right, evading this pyromancer's furious fireballs that went on without end.
Not to mention that whip which managed to get a scratch upon his left ankle.
His opponent laughed with mirth and joy. T'was a woman given the physique, but her laugh was inducing to those weak-willed to seductive acts. The voice itself felt glazed with smooth honey; dulcet tones covered in venomous words.
"Tis laughable. At first, I thought you a worthy opponent, yet now? I'm just facing an old fool who is well past his prime. Perish and be grateful that I hadn't eviscerated you already." She snidely remarked, another huge flame forming within her hands.
"I know not of where this place resides, but I recognize the sensations that a Dark Soul can release. Perhaps someone of familiar stature or thinking stands before me? Isn't that why you are trying to leave this beautiful town? To ensure that we wouldn't snatch it? 'Tis far better in the hands of a Darkmoon than a hideous Darkwraith after all." Emerald eyes narrowed onto her prey. "Don't think that I wouldn't have noticed your stench." She paused before unsheathing a stiletto covered in charcoal resins. "Especially not the Blade of Kaathe himself."
He winced. That title was long abandoned by him. He ensured to never indulge in the euphoria that came with snatching away another's humanity and souls. That he promised after joining the Way of The Sun.
"How pathetic. And to think that at one point in our lives, we feared you not as a man, but as a monster. Then again, aren't all of you hideous grotesques that feed off of others? Rest for assured, I, Silva shall stain this land in the ashes of he who spilled blood that which would fill a lake."
Her arm was riveting with chaotic energy. Dajorn's eyes widened out of their sockets to see her slam the fist filled with vibrant energy into the cement ground. Twelve pools of magma swirled into existence as he counted them surrounding the area.
"You'll alert the town of your presence." Her opponent warned. "There will be without a doubt, many consequences of this."
"I care not." Silva snidely remarked, "If it means the death of a known murderer such as yourself, and the acquisition of the Dark Soul, so be it. The Darkmoon shall triumph."
Dajorn stepped back, only for those magma pools to suddenly erupt and sprout forth twelve feet tall pillars of fiery fury upon him. In that moment of chaos and distraction, Silva charged in through her volcanic machination, stiletto and barbed whip prepared in hand.
One of the said pillars yanked him and propelled him up into the air for a short moment.
The intense feeling of pure, unfiltered rage of this fire scorched into his being. Fire, as it always was and has been, is something he died to quite often.
For that quick moment, he slammed back down into the concrete, coughing and hacking to retrieve the air that was knocked out of him. His Furysword fell out of his grasp.
The tip of Silva's stiletto caressed his neck, close to the jugular.
"You're pathetic." Angered and overall disappointed, Silva hoped to see some hidden trick behind Dajorn's weakness, only to witness unmistakable truth. "Was it not boasted that you were a master of pyromancy at one point? Are you so weak to no longer call up even a spark?"
Dajorn's chances were slim. Far too slim to call in a victory. Was this it? Dying at the hands of an unknown Darkmoon assailant?
"Perish and wither away, Darkwraith." The motion was about to slide easily across his neck.
THIP!
An arrow managed to lodge itself into Silva's shoulder, easily coming out from the other side.
"ARGHH!" She screamed as the literal fire was burning away flesh from the arrow's tip and shaft.
In the distance, a very weak and tired Faunus did their best at holding their bow steady enough.
"Jade?" Dajorn whispered.
The aforementioned Jade smirked, if only temporarily. Leaning against a glass window of a clothing store was her only way of steadying herself. Tremors still present in her hands and wisps of black spots filling her vision.
"Y-you… w-won't kill him… just yet!" Her eyes were furious and drowsy. "Not until… I've had words with him…"
Jade's mark slowly, if not painfully pulled the arrow shaft from her shoulder, scowling at Dajorn.
The opponent focused on the new threat, all the while trying to mend her new wound. There were no belts of any sort of this figure except for a sheathe for that dagger and whip. No strange flasks or bombs like that sorceress.
"How annoying. Another nuisance to come and bother us, just like those two fools who ran off with the Dark Soul."
There was that thing again. That word: Dark Soul. Like it meant something to these people. Jade shook with anger; her scowl becoming much more prominent as she steadied another arrow.
When this is all over, she will get answers from Dajorn. Why is this happening? Who is he? Who or what is the Dark Soul? Why leave her?!
Dajorn still exhausted beyond all belief tried crawling towards his Furysword. Singed clothing and a sizzling, scorched torso weren't meant to be there. He had no estus either. He needed an alternative to solve his wound. Except crawling proved painful. Each move stung and wracked his whole body with pain. Chaos fire wasn't to be taken head-on without the right armor. Especially not mere clothing.
In the distance, sirens were wailing off and bright red and blue lights were going off and on from where he last saw those two take Priscilla.
He had only hoped those two fared better than his precarious situation.
To be quite honest, they weren't doing better. They were doing terrible at keeping their thick-skinned enemy occupied.
Sun could count the seventh crater filling in the prized plaza of Vale's main square.
However, with each swing, they got more powerful than the last. It seemed that electricity dust did at least chip some of its armor. Circling him and trying to bombard him with staff attacks proved useless unless he wanted to be squashed.
"Did you get the police on the line, yet?!" Sun asked in quick haste, dodging another overhead slam.
"No! This girl lost my scroll after I handed it to her!" He yelled, shooting another beam of electricity upon him. He also pointed to Priscilla who pointed to herself in confusion.
"Damn it! Um." Sun kept thinking of other ways to alert the police, surely somewhere there would be a phonebooth right? Or at least someone waltzing into this square in the middle of the night? His thinking got him caught by a sideways strike and it immediately launched him through a cafe's glass window. That, of course, triggered the alarm for a break-in.
Were it not for his aura, Sun would've lost his ribs and entire left side of his body. Still, those strikes lowered it down a great deal.
Not getting hit by that again.
"Huh. Would you look at that." Neptune scratched his hair, then got serious and held his arm out to the now ruined cafe, "SUN!"
Once the main distraction got out of the way, the living armor proceeded to charge after Neptune and Priscilla.
"Okay! New plan, which doesn't involve either you, a child and me, a huntsman-in-training to not die."
What was his plan?! Was it running away hopefully lose it? Yeaaahhh, like running away for the past fifteen minutes had proved useful before. Fighting? Nope. That was out of the question. Evading and waiting for the police to get here? Maybe even the Atlas military? Maybe. Just maybe? Oh, who was he kidding?! He doubted that would happen in the millionth of a chance.
Sirens wailed in the distance, coming towards the main square.
A single tear went down Neptune's face, a manly, cool and dude like-thing.
His rock thing, man, or creature halted its advance and noticed. It looked back to him and Priscilla one last time before kneeling and praying?
Hah! Praying before being sent to the jailhouse! Like that would…
It was disappearing through a white light.
"Huh." Twenty seconds passed as Neptune stared at that spot.
"HUH?!" He stared at that spot and back to Priscilla pointing at it with his index finger and back to her. His mouth gaping at the sight.
Back at Beacon Academy, Scarlet David, and Sage Asana, both widely regarded as 'Testosterone-filled manly boys' are in their dorm room. Awaiting their foolish team leader and member as they were prancing about as Junior Detectives…
Team SSSN had some slight issues with its leader and co-member. Some of which involve a stubborn leader that may or may not be stalking another of Beacon's team members, and another that is deathly afraid of water. What could happen next? Sun and Neptune involved in a wide case with police in the middle of vale? Yeah, that won't happen.
"Hey, look. Something is going on at the Vale Plaza." Sage showed Scarlet his scroll, and news reporter known as Lisa Lavender was currently explaining the situation within it."
"We have a confirmation that two young men had fought, and I quote 'To the death,' against a living rock-man with a large golden dough hammer."
It can't be...
"Their names are Sun Wukong and Neptune Vasilias. They defended a young child against this foe that managed to put eight craters into Vale's recently restored plaza after its breach not too long ago. This is truly astounding and-" Scarlet shut his scroll off and could already feel a headache coming along.
No doubt that scary Glynda woman and their headmaster will have words with them once they return to Haven Academy. Just wonderful, Scarlet thought.
"Isn't the Vytal tournament starting next week?" Sage asked, polishing and inspecting his greatsword.
"Yes. Unfortunately, it is, and we will probably have everybody questioning what happened with Sun and Nep."
It isn't the first time they had talks with Leonardo about their questionable behavior…
And that's the end of the eleventh chapter! Forgive this unsavory hollow for being gone again for so long. But I haven't kicked the bucket yet if you're wondering. Perhaps we'll see our hollowing faces again, only if you don't succumb to its tenacious grasp on your soul that is. *Insert that famous Andre laugh*
Don't get yer self killed. Neither of us wanna see you go hollow.
\[T]/ PRAISE THE SUN!
*Disappears into the ground*