[X] Sacrifice the Blade.
Adam's sword had a lot of history behind it. Good memories. Bad memories. This is the sword Adam used when teaching Blake to fight. The same sword he had used the first time the White Fang had turned to violence, back when it was easier to say they were the good guys. The sword he had held when the White Fang started making a difference, when the threat of violence forced the various companies to improve conditions.
The sword he had held, when he had walked away from the Atlas ball covered in blood. The sword that, as Blake had found out later, had killed the matriarch of the Schnee family. The sword which had eventually been taken by Four and turned against him, leaving his broken body to burn.
There was still so many questions which Blake had never gotten to ask him, never gotten an answer to. It was hard, at times, to remember what had happened before Four entered the scene. But Adam had killed a woman, and Blake had never gotten to ask why.
She'd never gotten to confront him, and ask him about it. The White Fang had gotten more extreme over time, and Blake had never gotten to tell Adam her concerns. She'd never gotten to ask why he killed the Schnee woman. Questions she had wanted the answer to, but had left it until too late.
She was never going to get the answers she wanted. She could make guesses and assumptions, but she'd never be able to be sure. Because he was dead. His motives, his intent, his reasons, all of those had been lost. The sword was all that was left.
...But the sword wasn't him. There was no need to keep the sword, when the path to power would be harder with it. Adam's sword was nothing, really. Avenging his name and bringing justice was.
She had to kill Four.
She needed to be stronger to even be able to stand a chance of surviving Four's presence.
She couldn't just wait, and let Four get away with it. She couldn't let Four continue hunting down the White Fang. Even in the few months she had waited, Four had been busy.
The White Fang in Atlas were almost entirely wiped out, in the short amount of time, and although Mistral only had a few members as it was, she had heard the reports from Vacuo. There were White Fang members there who just vanished, never to be seen again, and before long, hideouts would be burnt to the ground or everyone inside them would be found dead.
If Four just kept acting as she was, it wouldn't be long before the White Fang as a movement were gone. And then where from there? Four was a worse extremist than even the most extreme members of the White Fang. She wouldn't stop, once the White Fang were gone. Faunus not aligned with the White Fang would be met with similar fates if Four was given leeway.
She couldn't accept that. Blake had to stop her.
Blake had to do it. She was the only person who could do it. She was the one who had seen Four in action, she was the one who had survived the massacre, she was the one who had seen people die to Four.
Adam's sword was something she'd been treasuring, but she couldn't afford to treasure anything. Not now. She was already too far behind Four.
That was why she'd refused to make any attachments to anyone. That was why she had shunned Ilia, even though she was an old friend. She couldn't afford to give herself a distraction, something that would hurt to lose, someone she couldn't leave behind.
All that mattered was justice, revenge against Four. She couldn't let something distract her from that. She had to kill Four, no matter the cost. Who cared if she reminded Four of Adam in her dying moments?
Adam was dead. Blake was avenging him, but it was her vengeance she was taking.
Pulling the sheath from her waist, Blake held both blade and sheath in front of her, and put one in the other.
...After all this time, it was still so rare for her to think of it as Wilt and Blush. It was always 'The Sword' or 'Adam's Blade.' There was an attachment right there. Maybe she needed this, to be able to properly focus on her goal.
Letting go of the hilt and holding the blade by the sheath, Blake looked over into the volcanic rock, and threw the sword.
Before it even touched the molten magma, the heat of the area took its toll on the blade. Without Blake's Aura to protect it, it had melted like an ice block in the summer sun before it had even struck the ground. The glowing orange metal was unrecognisable by the time it hit the magma, and after a moment of watching it, Blake didn't know if it had sunk or not.
It was gone.
"There." Blake said frostily. "It's gone. It's gone."
"You sacrificed the blade." The salamander noted, its voice emotionless and bland. "Your resolve is strong enough to destroy metal. Congratulations."
"I did as you asked." Blake hissed. "Don't lessen it now."
"I am not." The Salamander corrected. "I am stating exactly what you did. You had a weapon. Now you do not. Your resolve has been tested, somewhat. It will now make its demand, if you meet it."
"And where is it?" Blake asked.
The Salamander looked into the magma. "If you have the resolve to face it, step forward."
Blake followed its gaze, into the boiling magma at her feet. The Dust-induced cooled rock had receded somewhat again, but there was no denying what the Salamander was saying.
"What the fuck is this?" Blake demanded. "I sacrificed my sword. Get your beast out here."
"You said you seek revenge." The Salamander noted. "How important is this to you? Are you willing to risk your life for it? Would you be willing to die for it?"
"I'm not going to die pointlessly!" Blake snapped, drawing Sorrow's Splinter. "I-"
"It controls the heat." The Salamander noted. "The Grimm die near this place because it has enforced the strength of the flame. If it is impressed by your resolve, it will spare you. If it finds you lacking, you will die."
"I'm here to get power." Blake said hotly. "Not to die. How am I supposed to kill Four if I'm dead?"
"How will you get your revenge if you lack power?" The Salamander questioned.
Blake curled her fist into a ball, and for a moment, she considered leaving.
But...
It had taken months, to prepare this operation. People had been captured, interrogated, likely tortured and broken, to try and figure out the plan. People had risked so much, helping Blake after she had made an enemy of Four. Her anonymity had been lost.
If she failed here, then it would have been for nothing. She would have put her face all over the news and let people know of her role in the White Fang for nothing. She would have sacrificed Adam's sword for nothing.
And if she walked away, she'd have to find something else to forge a Pact with. Something that might not offer her the slightest chance, or force her to do something as bad, or worse, in order to convince it to Pact with her.
She had come this far. She couldn't stop now.
Turning back towards the magma, Blake took a deep breath, focused her Aura, and took a step forward.
And then she was drowning in the heat.
She fell through the boiling rock slowly, but couldn't pay attention to the lack of oxygen or the pressure of the molten magma, compared to the heat. She couldn't even feel how fast her Aura was fading, compared to-
Beneath her, something moved. A bright light became visible through the magma, a shining ball even through the liquid flame.
But it was too far, too far, she wouldn't reach it while her Aura was intact, she couldn't...
Closing her eyes to focus, Blake abandoned focusing her Aura, in favour of propelling herself downwards. Her Semblance let her throw herself down while leaving shadowy copies behind her. The heat was immense, and had Blake not been under the liquid boiling rock, she would have screamed in the pain.
She had to get to the light. Her saviour had told her enough about Pacts to recognise it, whatever the beat was, that was its Soul bared to her. Blake swam down, barely moving at all as she desperately pushed herself down, reaching an arm out for the light as she felt her Aura burn away, fade away, and-
Her hand reached down, reaching for the light. But at the last second, her Aura failed, and her hand burnt away.
Not, not just her hand. Everything was burning away she was burning away burning away burn-
Something slammed into her chest, and suddenly, there was blackness.
"Perfect..." Hissed a sinister voice, that seemed to resonate from within Blake's... Head? "Yes, this is quite nice..."
Blake took a moment to try and breath. W-What had just happened? For a moment, she thought she had-
"Died?" Asked the hissing voice. "Oh, that is still a possibility. This current state is not a Pact. You have yet to seal your end. My abilities shall keep you alive for now. If you wish to survive, however, it would seem that my terms are the ones to be acknowledged."
...It had wanted her to die, Blake realised. It had wanted her to the brink of death, where she had no choice but to accept its terms. The Pact would restore the condition of one near death, so if she accepted its terms, she would live, but if not, then she died.
"Exactly." The beast hissed again. "Now, shall you hear my term-"
The terms didn't matter. None of it mattered. As long as the beast would help her kill Four, she'd agree to anything.
The creature fell silent.
And then, crashing through her head like a roaring inferno, it laughed.
"You're serious!" It roared again, like the burning flame. "You can say it, but I can sense your thoughts, and I can sense your intention. Your desire for a revenge burns true. But its easy to say this when your resolve has not been tested. Your attachments and your life, you have been ready to throw away. But what of your morality?"
Explain, Blake demanded.
"You seek to slay this person in vengeance, Four?" The creature asked. "That's a beginning. But for her to be dead is not enough. I will help you, but you cannot stop at killing her."
"I want you to ruin her."
Blake kept waiting for an explanation, and the creature gave it.
"Every living being effects every living being alongside it, a sign that it was alive. Undo this for your vengeance. Do not stop at the person you seek vengeance against. An eye for an eye are the words of cowards. Tear apart her life. Kill her loved ones. Destroy her legacy. Undo everything she ever worked towards. If you want my power, earn it. Show me that you will end her."
Images flashed through Blake's mind. The airship burning and crashing, the corpses of children she walked past after the crash, the casual ease of which Four killed Sienna, the broken and maimed corpse of Adam, the words of her saviour as she explained the Intoners to her.
Four wasn't going to care who she targeted. She was going to destroy everyone around her targets, and justify it after the fact. The dead children who had the misfortune of having parents in the White Fang were proof enough that Four didn't care about how indiscriminate she was.
So why should Blake be any different? Why should Blake hesitate?
"Excellent." The flame monster hissed again, as smoke started to seep into Blake's vision. "Then let it be done. Bare your soul to me, and the Pact shall be sealed."
Blake reached into herself, into her chest, and as the flames hissed guidance into her ear, her soul was poured into her palm. Extending her hand, a light appeared in the smoke before her.
"Now, place your soul in mine."
Blake did so, and instantly, she was bathed in light. Her body fizzed, and she could feel a short burst of pain from her limbs and skin, as well as longer lingering pain across her right side, where the burns she had gotten from the dragon were.
Opening her eyes, Blake found herself hovering above the magma.
"And thus the Pact is sealed." She heard, and she looked around, to see smoke condensing above the lava as well. A tendril of smoke around her leg faded, letting her go, and Blake almost flailed, until her foot touched the magma and stood on it like the ground.
"The heat and flame are mine." The smoke creature continued, as it turned to flame. Hovering in the air, something resembling a human torso with arms and a head was formed. "For I am the avatar of Flame, Ifrit. And you?"
"Blake Belladonna." The cat Faunus introduced herself. She looked herself over, noting how not in pain she was now, and quickly trying to identify what her Pact Price had been.
Her soul had been crippled in some way, to connect her to the Pact Beast, this Ifrit. And whatever she had lost would be marked, somewhere, she had heard. So what-
She looked down, she noticed smoke emerging from the back of her shoulder, Pulling away her shirt a bit to look down it, Blake starred down at a burn from there, and saw that her burns were producing the smoke themselves.
"What an interesting consequence..." The Ifrit mused.
"What do you mean?" Blake asked. "Do you know what this is?"
"Perhaps I'll tell you." The Ifrit's snakelike voice hissed. "If you can earn it. Take the head of one close to this Four woman, and we shall see if it is still a mystery to you then."
"So you're done?" A voice asked. Blake turned, and came face to face with her mysterious sponsor again.
"I've forged the Pact." Blake noted. "And you've helped me so far. Where do I go from here?"
The young woman shrugged. "I can't tell you too much. Still a little bit to go before the me that's recording gets to step in, so I can't tell you much. However, I can tell you, there are people preparing to fight the Intoners. They may value an ally."
Behind Blake, the Ifrit turned to smoke, and circled around her, before all the smoke started sucking into her burns, eventually disappearing. A thin trail rose from here and there, but for the most part, the Ifrit was gone.
The young woman hummed thoughtfully at the smoke coming out of Blake, and seemed to want to say something, but stopped herself at the last moment.
"There's a group in Mistral." The girl noted. "But I don't think they'll be right for you, just yet. Too many personalities you'd clash with, especially the one guy keeping them in hiding. Not that the others'll be much better, but she'd probably do it if I offered her a sword..."
"Just tell me." Blake insisted. "Stop wasting my time."
"So mean." The young woman complained. "But I can see you're in a rush, so I won't keep you. I can't say much, but... Go to Vacuo. The north shores. There's a city, as far north to the Kingdom as you can go, where you can hire somebody to take you to a weapon stall near the beach. She'll meet you there."
Picking up a small rock out of the magma, the young woman blew on it, and the area was filled with smoke. It vanished almost instantly, but by then, she was gone.
Hm. Can't help but feel like this resolved quicker than usual.
Ah well. On we go. Soon enough, important things will be happening. But first, back to Yang. Her Uncle should be returning soon enough, after all.
[X] Qrow teaches Yang some more about weird dream spirit journey stuff.
[X] Qrow wants to see how far Ruby has advanced, Yang offers to be a sparring partner.