. . . .Holy fuck! What the hell did I do?!
NeoShadows here with a new chapter for all ya's. And what a chapter it is.
34K+. Fuck's sake, how the hell did that happen!? I'll be honest here, part of the reason this chapter took so long to write is because I had been writing two Monday's ago when I hit 5K and decided to take a break to watch some new anime. I found one called Log Horizon and sadly went on a week long binge of the show along with Shokugeki no Soma. I cut myself off during the second season of Log Horizon and at the fith episode of Shokugeki no Soma to get my shit together and write. In one week, I busted out more than 25K+ of words and didn't even notice till I finished. My Beta A Fan1204 must have been strangling my imaginary throat when I sent it to him on Saturday night.
For those who would feel overwhelmed by the massive chapter, I apologize. I should have split it. But I thought 'what the hell?' and left it as is. A gift for all you patient readers. And you better appreciate it, damn it! I think I may get carpel tunnel.
House hunting is going so-so. We're packing up but we're still waiting to see if we get accepted. I pray to god we do. Got the money for it all, but we got to have good credit. Have no idea how that's going, I just submit the application and deliver the damn money. I think I may be in danger of gray hair at his point.
Review Time!
Remzal Von Enili: Yeah, funny thing! . . .I've never actually seen anything to the Fate universe. And I've been using Unlimited Blade Works in light form. I bring shame to my anime body pillow of Weiss. Don't judge me, damn it!
EmberFlame03: . . .What kind of cookies we talking 'bout?
Najdrox: How did we never see the connections? The mustache, I've seen it before!
Flametusk: I. Fucking loved XIII's OST. The ending one always made me shed manly tears! I'm only on Chapter 6 of XV, writing takes up a lot of my time. Bet your ass I'm going to play the shit out of it during my break.
Adragonoid75: Don't worry, we haven't seen the last of little old sunshine. I got plans for her. You'll see her again. Glad you love her. Never knew my OC would gather so much love. Makes me happy.
The NakedFlame: . . . . . . .Okay. I think. [Whispers] Ditto.
True Discord: It's reviews like yours that keep going. I absolutely love them. I'm very happy that you've come to enjoy the story so far. And that you've come to love Ren's character. Tell you the truth, adding him in was one of the last minute decisions that popped into my brain while brainstorming. That's how Mulitplayer was born. If you loved the last chapter, then you're going to fawn over this one like a schoolgirl. Keep reading, my friend.
Benthino: Dramatic? Boy, you ain't see nothing yet! This one's going to pull at your heartstrings and make you cry. Prepare yourself, son!
Amusebeard: You know, I thought the exact same thing during the crossroad scene. Great minds think alike, I guess.
Wait, does that mean I have a great mind? Sweet.
TalonIbnLaAhad: You and me have a love-hate relationship, I swear. I love your omakes written in the reviews, but I hate it when they're cut off just as I'm getting into it. I want to read your crack fics, damn it! I'm always eagerly waiting to see what you come up with next, it's maddening. Also, I've been there. When I turned 21 last year my friends took me out drinking and bowling till I was stumbling home with a stupid grin on my face. Damn Nico, that girl kept shoving shots in my mouth. Good luck on your end, mi amigo. Got my own shit to deal with too. As long as we have out incongnito windows and alone time, we'll pull through. And tequila, never fucking forget your fight juice. It's practically medicine to us now.
L337 m4n: Undertale has been a great inspiration with my works. Never would have thought such a cute looking game could be so deep and make me weep. I've heard of Familiar of Zero, but never watched it or read it. One of those things on my Anime List to check out when I have the time. But how knows? There have been many The Gamer Titles other then the four you know of. Lost to The God of Darkness maybe? Only time will tell.
TazalTerminals: My Fairy Tail stories are on a hiatus, you could say. I don't know when I'll get back to them, and if I do, much of them will have to go under heavy rewrites now that I've grown as a writer. I'll have to see.
SonicFanFlames: Glad you're a fellow champion! Sucks that you didn't get Fire Emblem, I got both Awakening and Fates and love the hell out of them. Kukui kicked my ass, but I made it though with only my Magnezone left to take out his Braviary. My Friend Code's 5386-8246-5452, Edgar. If I'm around online, shout out a battle. I'll whoop your ass, son. Wait till you see this chapter, this one's going to blow your mind.
Zachary2: You actually looked it up? Hah! The things I discover when I find a new anime or game on my list. Guilty pleasures. And Pyrrha's destiny is set in stone. The only question is; Can Jaune break the stone and alter her fate?
Jalfaro16025: Aw, thanks. Glad you love the story. Never would have thought it would garner such affection. Wait till you read this chapter. Glad to have you on board.
Time for the long awaited ending to Jaune and Ren's conflict! I suggest opening up some action songs and emotional music for this one. I suggest Die, Lusus Naturae, Wings, Cold(Battle Arrangement by Jeremiah George), Divide, and I'm the One.
Clear your schedules, people. We're diving into a big one!
Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to RWBY, they belong to RoosterTeeth. Now, if you will excuse me, I have to go back to touching up my culinary arts skills. Shokugeki no Soma has inspired me to work my hardest! Such techniques and new ideas!
I won't stop until I've created a dish that makes woman orgasm! And strip them of their clothing!
Chapter 20: The Strength to Act.
Ruby couldn't help but sigh as she carefully picked another red berry from a hanging stem reaching down one of the many trees around them.
It had been a good hour since Jaune and Ren had left to patrol the area and they hadn't returned. Pyrrha said not to worry, their team was used to the two of them disappearing to do god knows what. The red head believed it was so that they could have some guy time to themselves. Nora said it was so that the two could express their forbidden love for each other in the safety of the grand red woods. Ruby wanted to believe the former, her cheeks growing red at the erotic scene.
But the gnawing ball of worry in the pit of her stomach was saying otherwise. Even team RWBY could feel the underlining tension between the two Huntsmen. It was as if they were tensing up for a fight against another. Sometimes Ruby wondered if they were simply acting nice to one another for show. She could still remember when Jaune had talked to her about how he and Ren were struggling to get along.
With how long they had been gone, she was worried that they might have finally snapped and went at each other's throats. It made her wish there was something she could do to help them. Jaune helped her out by simply talking to her about her problems with Weiss. Maybe all he needed was someone to talk to too?
"Hey Rubes, how's the berry picking going?"
"Just about done!" Ruby shouted back to her big sister as she finished dropping the last of one of the materials on their list in her gathering sack.
Since Jaune and Ren were taking so long, the two teams decided to get a head start on scavenging the materials on their lists. Who knows? Maybe the two of them were doing the same? Hopefully.
Pounding the spike head into the lower base of the tree, Weiss smiled proudly as she firmly fixed it in place and watched a steady drip of red sap fall into her clear bottle.
"Despite all the grime and stickiness, I'm actually enjoying this little camp out. Father would have never allowed me to perform such activities." she said brightly as she awaited her bottle to fill up.
"Aww, our little heiress is getting down and dirty. I'm sure Jaune would be kicking himself at the missed opportunity of seeing his Snow Angel with sticky liquid on her pretty face." Yang teased as she wiggled her brows.
Weiss growled as her face grew a hot blush, "Shut up, you bimbo! Why must you paint out such a vulgar image?" Especially with the blond idiot.
"I only speak the truth! Show me the law that says that's wrong!"
"She's not wrong." Nora furiously nodded as she juggled an empty bottle on her nose. Her tongue stuck out as she focused on keeping it balanced before throwing up another one on top, "Our fearless leader is practically head over heels for you. Kinda. Lately I think his eyes have been drawing towards other girls. He's been hanging out with Velvet, they even went out yesterday."
"Really?" Weiss quirked a brow in disbelief. Jaune Arc went out on a date? Her elegant brows knitted together as she subtly bit the inside of her cheek. What was that odd feeling in her chest? Whatever it was, she didn't like it.
Butting into the conversation, Pyrrha waved her hands around with a tight smile, "Jaune was simply paying Velvet back for worrying her so much! It wasn't like it was a date or anything." she said nervously. She refused to believe that her lovable blond had gone out with another woman that wasn't her! It just wasn't fair!
"Jaune came back smelling of woman's perfume, a stuffed belly, and a bright smile. Pretty sure he went on a date." Nora said slowly with a flat look on her face, "What does it matter? Jaune's a healthy teenager who simply wants to spread his seed onto the lovely lady masses like every other guy! Except Ren, he's too lazy for romance, sadly." she pouted as she thought back to her partner. Nora had tried seducing him before, but the human sloth would simply quirk his brow and ignore her advances. Spoil sport, she'd rope him into her bed one day! Hell, she might as well try going for her whole team while she was at it. Maybe Ren was into orgies?
"So, he was on a date?" Ruby couldn't help but ask. She was curious, the thought of her best guy friend going out on a date peaked her interest.
"What does it matter?" Weiss said in a huff as she snatched the gathering bag from Ruby's hands. She checked off the item on their list, keeping her icy blue eyes on the paper as her friends turned to her, "Jaune's romantic life is of no interest. The idiot can date whatever floozies he wants for all I care."
"Did she just call Velvet a floozy?" Ruby whispered to Yang.
"Yup! The feminine mind says some rather insulting things when it's jealous."
"I. Am not jealous. I just don't understand why Jaune is always trying to ask me out when he has plenty of other easy prospects." She should have known that the blond knight with the kind smile was a player.
"Weiss, I think you might be acting jelly right now. If that's the case, I think we need some Peanut Jaunner to fix this."
"That's the worst pun you've made today." Weiss answered back with a deadpan expression. It didn't even sound clever.
Yang shrugged as she capped another bottle courtesy of Blake's handiwork, "Give me a minute and I'll be sure to come up with something better. The fact remains, our little princess is a little jealous that our dork knight has options. It's her own fault, she keeps turning him down when all he wants is a chance. Never know what you got until you lose it, I guess." the busty blonde jabbed as she twirled her silky hair around her finger, "Jaune must be realizing that there's plenty of fine fish in the sea. Who knows? He just might ask me out one of these days."
And unlike her teammate, Yang wasn't afraid to give Jaune a chance. If you ignored his poor pickup lines and low self-esteem, the guy wasn't too bad. He looked a lot better than some of the guys on campus and he was pretty fun to hang out with. All those sparring sessions this last month had made Yang see why Pyrrha was infatuated with him. For a dense guy with a hero complex, Jaune was actually a catch.
If he ever asked her out, she was sure to throw him a bone and see how it would go from there.
Weiss rolled her arms as Yang grinned smugly, "Please, as if he would waste his time with a brawler with terrible tastes in jokes. It's obvious he's into woman of a certain class." she said with a satisfied smile. She would give Jaune one thing, he had good taste in woman.
Yang nodded her head, making Weiss's smirk only grow further, "True, guess he's into woman with flat chests. And I ain't exactly chopping fruit on my babies like a certain washboard here."
"You bitch!"
Fire and Ice butted heads, growling at one another as the four girls scooted back from the ensuing fight. Except Nora, the girl was cheering for blood.
Blake paid her teammates no mind as she finished up on the last bottle of sap. Kneeling at the base of the tree, she carefully began to twist the pike out as she tried to ignore their squabbling.
As if Jaune would go for either of them. He may have been pinning after Weiss at the moment, but sooner or later he would realize how much of a pain she could be with her high-class mannerisms. And Yang was too much to handle with her partying nature and bad puns. Blake loved her partner, but it was hard to live with the purple eyed brawler. One can only take so much of the two in one day. The cat eared huntress nodded surely with her thoughts, firm in her beliefs.
After getting to know Jaune these past few weeks, she had come to realize that he wasn't as bad as the humans she once hated. He was kind, strong willed, had a heart of gold, and apparently liked cats. A guy like him wouldn't fall in love with her friends. Not when he had Blake.
The treacherous loose thought caused Blake to shake her head in annoyance. Where did that come from? She blushed as the image of two nights ago when he took her in his strong arms popped in her head. Ever since that night, she found that her heart sped up a bit when he looked at her. It was starting to frustrate her how Jaune was easily able to break her cool. Even worse, he was beginning to invade her dreams and her smutty novels.
"Ooooh~? What's got you blushing, Blakey?"
Blake froze as she heard the voice of the hammer user of team JNRP. Turning her head slowly to see the knowing grin courtesy of Nora staring at her as she knelt beside her. Of all the people to catch her fantasizing, why her?
Gathering her own team's items, Pyrrha was doing her best to not get involved with their childish arguing. So what if her leader who she was crushing on went out with a girl or two? At the end of the day, Jaune would always come back to their dorm, to her, waiting for him with a loving smile patiently to soothe his troubles. The perfect example for a future wife if any. While they weren't always around one another, she still had him all to herself for the next four years. Plenty of time to worm her way into his heart.
Strategy, it was all about strategy.
"I don't get it." Ruby scratched her head as she watched the odd scene, "Are you all saying you guys like like Jaune?" Is that what was going on?
Stopping her arguing with Weiss, Yang tapped her lips in thought at the question, "Eh, it's more of a pride thing over Ice Queen. Jaune's cute, but I'm still not sure if he's boyfriend material just yet. More of a casual fuck really." she said casually with a waving hand.
"He's an adequate friend at the moment." Weiss answered, scrunching up her nose at Yang's rebuttal as she flipped back her ponytail, "I wouldn't say he's a bad choice compared to the many suitors I've dealt with, in fact he's leagues above them. But I'm still not certain that he's what I'm looking for. Not to mention his lack of self-esteem and poor manners isn't attractive in the slightest."
"Why am I getting dragged into this?" Blake grumbled as she found Nora poking her shoulders repeatedly, the girl's eyebrows wiggling at her with a wide grin. She sighed, giving in as she decided to give her own two cents, "I'm not interested in dating, but if I had to pick a boyfriend, I would pick someone like Jaune." she looked away, crossing her arms as she tried to keep her face cool, "Someone with a lot of heart who fights for what he believes in. Not to mention his dense attitude can be pretty cute."
Snickering as she got the raven-haired ninja girl to confess, Nora stood back up as she spoke cheerfully, "I wouldn't mind having Jaune as a boyfriend. He's already one of my best friends. Only on the condition that he understands that I will only marry him along with Ren. We're a packaged deal!"
'Okay, at least I know that I don't have too much to worry about right now.' Pyrrha sighed in relief as she held her chest. Her green eyes did lean towards Blake and her red dusted cheeks, 'My thoughts on Blake are confirmed though. She's the only one I have to watch out for. Her, and Velvet.' It looked like she had two women to watch out for. No, wait it was three. She almost forgot about Tsuki and her boxed lunches. The busty ebony haired huntress had literally come out of nowhere.
That was alright. They didn't call her the goddess of victory for nothing.
"And we don't have to guess if Pyrrha likes her partner." Yang said dully, getting nods from the rest of the girls as they watched the tournament champion go off in a blush daydream. No question about that at all. Yang directed her attention back onto her little sister, quirking her lips teasingly as she asked her question, "What about you, Rubes? You're awfully buddy-buddy with your fellow team leader since day one. Don't tell me you don't think about him like that after all the time you two talk to another."
Ruby tilted her head cutely, blinking owlishly as she answered, "Not really? Jaune's my best friend, excluding Weiss, so I haven't really thought about him in that kind of light." she shrugged. What did they expect out of her? Just because she was only fifteen that she would be fawning over her male best friend like that? As if anyone could fall in love that quickly. Except Pyrrha, and maybe Professor Antheia, but they were weird, "I mean, if I had to fall in love with a guy, then I guess that guy would have to be Jaune. We share a lot of things in common and have the same dream in mind. If we ever wind up single when we're older and in search of a family, I really wouldn't mind marrying him either. I'm sure we'd make the cutest kids to boot!" she smiled innocently.
The girls stared at Ruby in disbelief. How could she say all that with a straight face? Well, not so much a straight face, more like childlike and innocent. They shouldn't really count on a serious answer from a girl only fifteen years old.
Mentally, Pyrrha chalked down Ruby on her list of rivals for Jaune's heart.
"Eh, if anything, Jaune will fall under a harem plan." Nora nodded firmly, "A guy like that wouldn't like so many woman fighting over him, leaving said woman to suck up their pride and share him. Or settle things with a Death Battle. Personally, I vote the latter!"
"Either way, I would like to steer the conversation away from the blond buffoon onto something more important." Weiss interjected. She didn't like the odd look in Nora's eyes, so the sooner they talked about something else, the better. "The Vytal Festival is drawing ever closer, which means representatives of the major kingdoms will soon be arriving. And I believe it would be an excellent idea to greet the students participating in the tournament as representatives of Beacon Academy."
"You want to spy on them, don't you?" Ruby said bluntly.
Weiss huffed as she turned away from the judging eyes upon her. She wasn't going to dignify that with an answer.
Dropping back to sit against one of the red leaved trees with an eased sigh, Yang began to speak, "I did hear some buzz about the tournament while in Vale. Apparently, they're even planning some festivities tomorrow before it all goes down. Sounds like fun from what I heard."
"Really? Then why don't we go check it out tomorrow?" Ruby suggested, "It's Saturday, so it shouldn't be problem with the teachers. And after the last two weeks we had, it would do us all some good to relax and enjoy a day out." she smiled.
Pyrrha tapped her lips in thought. It sounded alright to her. God knew a nice day out with the team was long overdue. Especially after the events of the FoF. Talking Jaune into it shouldn't be too difficult.
"I suppose Jaune would agree as well. I can always guilt trip him on the off chance he doesn't want to." Pyrrha agreed.
With that in mind, Ruby was ready to throw her hands up in a cheer.
Until the very world tremored. A powerful earthly shock rattled the ground touching their feet, nearly toppling them back as they tried to steady their balance. Confusion and panic ran among them before they witnessed an odd scene. Above the tree lines a black tearing rush of vile energy tore through more than a mile-long radius, dividing Forever Fall in its path of destruction. An anguished cry bellowed in the wind as a massive whipping gale rushed by them at the point of origin of it all.
Blake clapped her hands over her aching ears as the very sound pierced her eardrums, "What is that?!" she shouted over the gale.
"I don't know! Some kind of an earthquake?" Weiss shouted back.
Warning sirens erupted from each girl's scroll. Which meant only one thing. A huntsman or huntress nearby was in trouble and needed help. Struggling past the tremors and whipping wind, the six huntresses readied their weapons as they sprinted off in search of the multiple SOS signals.
"What about Jaune and Ren?" Pyrrha said in worry. Nora shook her head back, all playfulness gone as she answered back.
"They'll be fine! Jaune's more than strong enough to handle some Grimm, and with Ren by his side, I'm sure there's nothing here that can get in their way!" she grinned confidently.
Ruby nodded back, turning her head for the tree line ahead, "She's right. Right now, we should focus on helping those who need help. Weiss!" she called to her partner as said snow themed girl turned to her with question, "Message Professor Antheia on the situation. We have to make sure her scroll got the SoS."
"Right!"
Brushing past a thick cover of red bushes, the six huntresses came to a stop in a wide clearing devastated by the rush of vile energy. Several Beacon students laid around the clearing, their clothing ripped and damaged. From the looks of it, the hunters were the closest to the towering energy blasting past them and were hit by the aftershock. With their auras falling into the red, their scrolls had immediately sent out a beacon signal for help.
Growls and faint howls suddenly filled the air, putting the girls on alert as a black miasma wafted around the ground from the tree lines around them. Red beady lights peeked out from the tree's.
Grimm, and plenty of them.
Loading a fresh set of ammo into Crescent Rose, Ruby nodded in signal to the rest of her friends to prepare for a fight. They could worry about Ren and Jaune later. Now it was time to fight.
Darkness filled the endless void Jaune fell through. His eyes remained shut as he continued to fall with no sign of stopping in his descent. It was almost as if he was sinking deeper into an ocean of darkness with no sense of time or space.
'. . . .Ha. . .hahaha. . .Hahahahaha. . .HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAH!'
An odd pulse signaled off from Jaune's body as his chest grew scolding hot. His scar burned brightly, dimming in color until an odd black wisp burst from his chest. Free from its prison, the black wisp began to dance around the falling blond below it. It spun in joy, flaring with a dark energy as it flew in front of Jaune's face.
'There's more than one way to get back what's mine. Just you wait, you fake. I'll be back for my fate eventually. And that's a promise!'
Moving away from Jaune, the wisp began to spin around madly before shooting for the surface of whatever plane it found itself in. It was done doing nothing.
It wanted its freedom. One way, or another.
In the frozen outside world, Husk sat by on crossed legs as he waited for the end result of the fight within the still Lie Ren. In his wait, he lazily spun the coded key circles of the Admin's Key around his arm, fixing whatever little burps had randomly popped up in the Code of the World.
"Damn Wisp, making me do all the grunt work. Just because I can freely interact with The World doesn't mean he just dump all this glitch work on me while I'm fixing the Players." Husk grumbled, absently mending a piece of code dealing with physics. He didn't want anyone in the world to walk through a door. . .again. "Why can't he have Remnant take care of this crap? She's more responsible than me! . . .Kinda. Chick's a sadist really. I can kinda see why he wouldn't hand the keys over to fix a few things." Knowing the god like woman, she would use the keys to create even more monstrous beasts for the NPCs to battle with. She always loved that kind of thing.
As 'gods' of Remnant, it was their duty to regularly do some patch work on the coding of the world the Players resided in. Every once in a while, the coding would randomly glitch, messing up the mechanics of the natural order of things and make things even crazier. If one of them didn't regularly maintain the data every few hours, then things would go out of whack. Like the time Remnant had to suffer through some flying spaghetti monster terrorizing the planet as their one true god. Husk shivered with horror every time he recalled the monstrosity. Who the hell would worship something stupid like that?
Once he had quickly dropped by Will to let it know about the current situation and received his scolding, the damn bastard had left him its Admin Key to work over some patches as another form of punishment. Work like that was always boring to Husk. He wasn't into coding like The Will, he was a god of item design, weapon design, and abilities! In the end, Husk sighed like a child listening to its parents scolding and went back to the real world to work and wait for the results of the fight below.
Scratching his bagged head, Husk spun another few rings of code around as he slouched further. What he wouldn't do for something more fun to do. Maybe he could open his own Admin Key and start working on some legendary weapons? Surely Will wouldn't get prissy if he worked on his own things for a bit instead of the bastard's coding?
With that in mind, Husk was ready to pocket the Will's Admin Key to do his own thing before an odd pressure began to bear down on his body. He grit his teeth in surprise, watching as a rippled of energy blew out of Ren to smack him in the chest. An odd distorted laughter rang out from the raven-haired boy, not belonging to him as a red-black beacon of light blew up from his body.
Huh. That didn't look good. Not one bit.
A high pitch whine stung Husk's ear as a ball of flaming darkness shot out from Ren's body. The sight of it put him on alert as he stood back up with tense muscles as he watched it dance around the air in celebration.
"FInaLLy! I'M fReE!"
"Jaune?" Husk's drawn face blinked in confusion. Was that his voice? No, he shook his head as his eye's narrowed. It was a little deeper, with a hint of an attitude to it and arrogance.
The black wisp spun around to face the odd man with a paper bagged face and dirty merchant's robes. Two red flames grew on its balled form, appearing as eyes as it grew a flame mouth to give a twisted grin at the god.
"HolD ON a momEnT! I JUSt neeD to FIX my Voice REAl qUIcK!" It cackled before seeming to cough. It smiled as it cleared out whatever was messing with its speech before speaking again, "Hello, God of Worldly Possessions! It's nice to meet you after only gazing at you from that hell hole of existence. I've been dying to meet one of the jack asses who robbed me of my life without so much as a second thought!" it grinned toothily with narrowed eyes.
"I'm simply a designer! I ain't got nothing to do with whatever the hell happened to you. . .Jaune? You are Jaune, right?" Husk asked with a tilt of his head.
The wisp seemed to shrug, never losing it wide grin, "I seem to have the memories of this world's Jaune within in me. So, what the fuck do you think? Because I know for a fact that the one in possession of my body isn't the real me!" it roared with hatred in its voice.
Husk clapped his hands together in sudden realization as he nodded his head, "Oh! I'm guessing you're the bug I found in Jaune's Core yesterday? You're a tricky little bugger, yes you are!" he cooed as if he was speaking to a puppy, only infuriating the ball of darkness even more. He shrugged as he pocketed his hands in his pants, "I'd been hoping to fix you, but for some weird ass reason, you were able to reject even my attempts while I was in possession of Will's Admin Key. A bug like yourself is not something we like to leave alone. So, how about you just play nice, and fade away to nothing." Husk said in a stern tone of voice.
The dark wisp bellowed with laughter. "AS IF! I'M FINALLY FREE OF MY DAMN PRISON! IT'S TIME I GET MY BODY BACK!" it howled before vanishing from sight in an after image.
Husk cursed, spinning his head around for the dark presence before gasping in pain. He blinked, narrowing his eyes as he found his chest pierced by a dark glob of energy. The glob twitched, twisting around to drill through his body before exiting out his back. Sneaky little bug!
Flying around the godly being, the dark wisp laughed in victory as it held a mass of codded ringed data in its possession. The sight of it made Husk stop dead in his tracks.
"The Will's Admin Key!?"
The dark wisp nodded, grinning widely as it began to twist the data around, "I wonder, if a god can create a body from nothing?" it mused deviously.
Silver straight swords slid out from within Husk's sleeves, falling into his hands as he readied himself to stop the bug. A strong force unfortunately stayed his hand as he cursed, fighting to break the strong force.
"What's wrong? Can't a god fight within the World Pause? And here I thought you guys were all powerful."
Husk grinned as he shook his head with a laugh, "That's where you're wrong. I've simply got to equip my own Admin Key to fix the little problem." From thin air, ringed data encircled Husk's arm, spinning madly until coming to a stop. Whatever had been keeping him from raising his blades to fight vanished as his grin nearly split his bagged face. He then vanished in a split second, leaving no trace that he had ever been there. The dark wisp blinked, moving its body around for any sign of the godly man.
"Don't blink. Spatial Rend!"
From nothing, Husk simply appeared behind the dark wisp, his twin blades raised high above his head with twisting black-purple energy cladding the swords. With nothing to defend itself with, the dark wisp raised the mass of data it had stolen in front of it.
A paper-thin line appeared in the air Husk slashed down his blades, passing by the wisp as nothing appeared to happen. No damage, no destruction, nothing.
"Wait for it, here comes the best part." Husk chuckled as he fell on his feet.
The wisp blinked, not understanding what the bagged man was speaking of. Until it felt it. The paper-thin line began to warp, devouring the fragments of space and time in a black void. It was as if the slash had erased whatever it attacked to nothing.
But still, the wisp remained. Puzzling Husk at the sight of the bug still existing in the space he had destroyed to nonexistence. His drawn eyes fell to the Admin Key it its possession. Well, that explained it.
"Cool, seems this key can do more than create. I was really worried there for a second. Almost thought I would be reduced to nothing!" the wisp grinned before humming in interest as it stopped spinning the key's data around, "Oh? What's this? P. S. Vault? From the looks of it, all the Souls of every Player ever granted The Gamer are in here, including my own? And it's still active, just my luck." it hissed angrily before a tendril of its vile flames reached into the data, "I don't care. I want my body back, I WANT MY LIFE BACK!"
"Don't think so." Husk said with barely constrained boredom as he raised the point of one of his silver swords up. Data like bits of energy began to gather in an orb hovering around the point, "Will will be beyond pissed that I was forced to obliterate his key, but it can always make another one like that. But you? You're going back to whatever nothingness you were born from. We can't have anything interfering with our game. So, be gone."
"Nothingness?" the wisp began to chuckle before laughing hysterically as its darkness grew bigger, "I wasn't born from nothing! I have memories, thoughts, feelings, hope and dreams! And you bastards took it all away from me without so much as a second thought! And I plan to take it all back."
"Ratio De Neant! (Void Ratios)!" Gathering enough energy, Husk reared his sword back before stabbing it forward. A rushing stream of emerald numerical symbols fired from the orb, disintegrating everything it its path to nothing as it headed for the dark wisp. It grinned openly, the sound of a twinkling ting echoing from the data mass just as it was crashed into by the stream of data.
"Hah~. Too late."
Striking its target, the crashing data of numbers and symbols spiraled around it, twisting it like a constricting snake. The data continued to twist, releasing audible crunches and snapping as its form began to stretch high into the heavens and above to space unknown to man. And with one final snap, the twisting data had squeezed its target and itself to nothing, vanishing with a vacuum like boom. The very space it had occupied was devoid of matter, time, or concept, leaving a gaping void of darkness in its wake.
Husk sighed grudgingly as it slumped, flicking his swords back into the depths of his long coat as he reached into his many pockets. Damn little bug, it just had to make him rip a hole into the reality of the game. Will was going to be pissed. Finding what he was looking for, the merchant god pulled out a quarter sized cube of glowing blue data in between his fingers. He rolled it around his palm, nodding in satisfaction before chucking it into the space of nothing.
As if nothing had ever happened, the space that had been destroyed by Husk's attack had mended itself together, leaving nothing out of place. Turning back to the slash of nothing from earlier, he repeated the same action, putting everything back together again.
"At least we won't have to worry about that little bug anymore. I shudder to think of what would have happened if it gained its original body back. I blame Will for just dropping the Soul of Jaune into the current one after he died. Something like that has never happened before, there were bound to be problems from the start. Don't need a walking paradox around here, let alone a Fifth Player. That just won't do."
Bright light shone from Husk's Admin Key, making his groan loudly as he heard a pinging sound in his ears. Great, just what he needed. A call from Will.
Pressing two of his fingers against his temple, Husk prepared himself for a scolding of several lifetimes as he turned back to Ren's frozen body.
Unaware of the small ball of light appearing out of thin air behind him before blinking out of sight.
Still falling into the ocean void, Jaune's eyes began to scrunch up, slowly blinking as his blue eyes stared into the darkness. Confusion filled his mind. Where was he? Why was he here? And why was he falling?
'JUST FUCKING DIE AND LET ME LIVE IN PEACE!'
'Ren?' Memories flooded back into his head, the past events reminding Jaune of what he was doing. Right, he almost forgot. He was diving into his best friends Core to fix whatever was corrupting Ren's Soul to stop him from falling and losing his ability to possess the Mind of The Gamer. That just begged the question of how he was going to be doing that when he was sinking into some dark void with no end in sight.
A thin beam of light seemed to answer his question from the depths of the void. Jaune frowned in confusion as he followed the beam, grimacing as it grew wider and filled the darkness with a blinding light. As he continued to gently fall, Jaune suddenly found his feet touching a glass like surface, his very step dimming the light to reveal him standing at a grassy crossroads. They sky above him was dark, gray clouds hung above his head looking as if it was ready to pour. He flinched slightly as he rubbed his eyes. Where was he now? Sighing, he turned his eyes around him, finding an ever-expanding gloom forest grove behind him.
"Is this what a Core looks like? I thought it would look a lot fancier and data like than this." Jaune said as he turned back to the crossroads in front of him. Three separate paths stood before him along with a worn old oak sign post of where each path lead. "Memoir of Despair, Memoir of Regret, Memoir of Heartbreak? What does that mean? Argh, I can't make heads or tails of this place." Jaune scowled.
Was he supposed to choose one of these paths to progress? Which one was the right one? Was there a right one? All of this was confusing. Where was a help guide when you need one?
"Welcome to The Core of The Mind!"
Jaune spun his head around in alarm as he heard a loud cheery voice greet him. His eyes scanned the surrounding area, trying to find the voice's owner only to find nothing. Where did that come from? A buzzing from his scroll caught his attention, turning his sights on his scroll. From its trembling body, a blue lucent wisp of flames flew out of the screen. The flaming wisp seemed to grin at him, popping out a darker set of blue pupils made of flames to stare at him.
"Hello, Heart! My, you really have become stronger in just a short amount of time! Uwah, it fills my flaming being with pride to see you so powerful." it chuckled.
"Who. . .are you?" Jaune asked, furrowing his brows at the strange wisp. Something about it was nagging at him. Like he knew what it was. Why did it seem familiar?
The blue wisp grinned cheekily, "You know me, Heart! After all, I've been helping you, directing you, guiding you, and supporting you since you first awoke in The Emerald Forest! Come on, even that poor excuse of a Husk has said my name to you."
Thump!
Jaune's body trembled with numerous emotions as he stared at the wisp with shaking eyes. His heart beat rose, increasing with rhythm as he felt his fists tighten to the point blood dripped through his fingers. His voice grew deep with anger and rage, seeming to only make the wisp's grin grow wider.
"The Will." It wasn't a question, it was a statement. One proven true as Will bobbed up and down in a nod.
"I am The Director of Oum's Creations, The Lingering Force that Commands the World, and The One Who Writes His Script; I am The Lingering Wisp of Oum, The Will of All." it said elegantly.
If Will's grin could grow any further, it would have to grow bigger as it found the old gray blade of Crocea Mors cutting it down. It chuckled as its body was continuously slashed by several swings of the raging sword, harmlessly phasing its body.
"You really are something else. I always wondered how you would react if you were to become a Player. I'm so happy you had given me the chance to house your Soul with The Gamer. Otherwise this playthrough would have been the same as the others, minus The Remix." it shrugged, not caring as a Power Strike slashed at it diagonally.
Jaune huffed as he stopped swinging his sword, glaring angrily at the nonchalant god like being. It was the reason for all the messes in this world! The one who brought so much despair to Ren, to the other Players, and ruined their hope.
"Wait." Jaune paused, staring at the Will in question as he thought back to what it said, "What did you say? I gave you the chance to house The Gamer in my soul? You're saying it's my fault that I'm stuck as a Player in your game?" he frowned as he sheathed Crocea Mors in its sheath.
"Why of course! It's not as if I just chose players at random. I mean, I was pretty lucky to have you chosen seeing as you could ease Mind's Falling status; too bad that back fired though. But yes, because of your actions in your past life, you gave me the opening to drop you into our game! Ain't that awesome?"
"Define awesome." Jaune growled, feeling the urge to draw his blade again, "Ever since I've awoken to this strange new reality, things have been warped. I've died five times in less than a month, had my arms broken and lobbed off, cut apart, run through, and nearly burned alive in such a short time. My best friend turns out to be a cynical slacker who could care less about those around him and I've had to stop a crazy organization hell bent on cutting off the ears of Faunus to make them look human. All because of you."
"Hey, I just give out Wills with certain goals and dreams in mind, what NPC's do with them is none of my business. Though I got to say, Holt Delmo's Will was fun to construct. Who knew it would fall into such a tragic back story." it chuckled. "But enough about me, let's talk about you! Seems you've found yourself in quite a pickle here, Heart. Diving into Mind's Corrupted Core without so much as a thought to your own safety? That's pretty reckless. Mind's a single digit away from losing his memories and abilities to the God of Darkness, making him incapable of housing The Gamer ever again like so many others. And even worse, you're stuck inside here! If you die here, even I won't be able to bring you back as a simple NPC. Your Data will be erased from existence, never to be recovered. Did you think about that?" it asked with a pensive stare.
"You're worried about me?" Jaune said with a scoff as he crossed his arms over his chest. He glared at the burning blue wisp, "You seemed just fine watching me killed off earlier. What's changed?"
"Well, I could revive you every time for one. You're basically immortal. But if you die within the Core, your data will flow within the doomed stream of energy to oblivion. I may be a god, but I ain't a perfect god. You were born by Oum's design, not mine. So, it would be impossible for even Husk, Remnant, and I to recreate you from nothing. The result would simply be a lousy copy, a palette swap with a different name if even done correctly without any mistakes. It would be better if you just let Mind go back into being an NPC, it's what he wants anyways. Better than losing two Players."
"I can't do that. Not when he's in so much pain." Jaune shook his head with firm resolve, "From what I've come to understand in such a short amount of time, Falling occurs when someone's negativity becomes too much for them to handle and taints their souls. They give up. They stop trying to fight and change things." he said sadly, looking down as he recalled how Ren always acted. Lazy, uncaring, just following along with the others with no real input. Just living along mindlessly, not giving a damn about what would fall onto the world or others.
Ren gave up. At least that's what he said.
"If that's true, then with all your unlimited wisdom tell me; why did it take Ren this long to Fall after he had already given up?"
Will's expression became confused, blinking as it stared into those stern blue eyes glaring back at him, "Well, Mind's status as a Player has helped to slow down the erosion of his soul. You being introduced simply put him over the edge he was already teetering on. It's as simple as that."
It wasn't. Jaune knew that for a fact. And the answer laid in Ren's despaired eyes as he fell, "That's not it. I've asked him once before why he hadn't simply stopped playing along with your games and live a normal life. But he never answered me and grew furious. That tells me that he still has a reason, one that he doesn't want others to know about for some stupid reason." Jaune chuckled with a grin. He turned back to the crossroads, staring ahead to the unknown roads where he would find his answer, "I aim to find that reason and destroy whatever is corrupting his core. And nothing that lies in wait will stop me from saving my friend. Not even you." he said with a sideways glare.
"Who says I aim to stop you?" Will laughed, appearing in front of Jaune's face in a blink of an eye, "I only wish to see what you can do. Losing any of you Players would devastate me! I'd lose my entertainment." it smiled brightly. Jaune felt his brow twitch at the happy god's expression, "The Core of each Player is unique in design. We Programmers have no control of the landscape, not even Remnant, and land development and enemy design are what she specializes in. Who knows what you'll find here. That's why I've come along to help you as a guide of sorts! I may not be able to manipulate things as I normally would, but I know more than enough to help you fix Mind's Core. So, what do you say? Think you can put away your anger and rage to let me help you along your way?"
Help him? The damn thing was the reason why he was in this situation to begin with. Just from meeting it, he couldn't find much reason to trust it. But it had a point. Whatever awaited him within Ren's Core, his soul, would also be capable of corrupting him. Jaune could lose more than his life. He would lose his very existence if he died here. If he wanted to save Ren's soul, then he would just have to set aside his anger and accept whatever help he could get.
For now, trusting Will to guide him through Ren's Core was the only option he had. Whether he liked it or not this was his best chance at saving his best friend.
With a grudging sigh, Jaune nodded his head in acceptance. The Will bobbed up and down in joy.
"Fine. If you help me, I'll listen to what you have to say. The sooner we finish this up, the sooner you'll leave me alone." he said scathingly.
Will pouted, "Yeesh, what happened to that dorky personality of yours? I liked you better when you were a clueless idiot. Anyway, before we go along our merry way, how about you fix up your abilities? Inside the Core, the data corruption has spawned Grimm and Bugs. You'll need to prepare yourself for a hell of a fight as we move on."
Jaune nodded his head as he pulled out his scroll. It was a good idea. What he had equipped was better suited for fighting Ren, not Grimm. A change in tactics would make things go smoother.
Status:
Jaune Arc, Heart of the Gamer. Lvl: 17.
6,000HP/6,000HP.
125MP/125MP.
AP:40/SP:30.
EXP: 674,210.
EXP to Next Level: 173,090/174,000.
Equipment: x1CEC Knight's Hoodie, x1CEC Knight's Gloves, x1CEC Knight's Cargo Jeans, x1CEC Knight's Boots, and x1CEC Knight's Ammo Belt.
Strength: 33
Defense: 39
Speed: 29
Charisma: 23
Intelligence: 30
Wisdom: 21
Dexterity: 19
Luck:28
Equipped Abilities: Power Strike(2AP) Crescent Blade(5AP), Teres Mors(5AP), Hedge Fang(4AP), Warp Strike(7AP), Dragon's Blaze(15AP), Hunter's Axe(2AP), Air Slash(4AP).
Equipped Skills: Scarlet Drive[10SP] and Angel's Radiance[12SP].
Equipped Perks: Iron Roses, Fairies Grace, Knight of Victory.
Spells: Reflect, Ember, Firebolt.
Affinities: Fire. Lightning.
If he was going to be fighting Grimm, then it would be better if he got rid of Dragon's Blaze and switched it out with Hyper Blade to hit more enemies. Leaving him with 10AP to equip another few abilities. Needing more wide ranged attacks, Jaune equipped Can't See Me and Lightning Strike while also swapping Knight of Victory with Valkyrie's Blessing. Too bad he could only equip three Perks. What else did he need to change? He mulled over his options as he scrolled down his items.
Will looked over Jaune's shoulder in curiosity, watching the blond boy think out his powers carefully.
"It seems that you're starting to finally get the hang of this, Heart. Must be easier to move about your Status and powers after the last patch Husk gave out."
Jaune snorted, glancing back at the blue ball of fire, "You mean the Nerf?"
It shook his head with a frown and a grumble, "Patch. Husk was simply messing around with you when he said it was all a Nerf. Though, I guess it could be thought as much. We were simply fixing some errors that I had missed when I brought you into this world. Didn't you notice that your Menu screen looks different?"
At that, Jaune frowned in confusion before moving back to his menu.
Status
Bonds.
Equipment.
Abilities/Skills.
Inventory.
Download.
PVP.
Perks.
When did all this happen? Jaune stared at the newly modified menu screen, wondering how he could have missed such a change. It definitely had changed. Event Finder was gone and Abilities, Skills, and Slots had been changed to Abilities/Skills. Same with Items and Special Gifts, renamed Inventory. His Status was even an option unlike the past method he had used. This was what they meant by fixing him?
"What else did you guys do?" Jaune asked he began checking each option for changes.
"I simply rearranged a few things, such as your inventory, to a more organized form. All Players had a different layout, but yours was a little disorganized and lacking. Now it's more specialized! I also fixed a missing piece to your Status, Talents! Now you'll be able to grow your Talents in Dance, Gardening, Cooking, and Synthesize with actual results! Ain't that neat?"
It did sound good to see his progress in his talents. But why was he missing something that sounded so important in the first place? Why was he missing anything at all to begin with? Ren never said anything about having to go through anything like this. That meant that Jaune was the only one.
"Why?" Jaune asked, completely puzzled at it all, "Why was I missing so much to begin with? In real life, when a game is missing so many important features, it should be considered unfit to go out to the public."
Will nodded with a nasty grin, "Correct, but I, like some many real head honcho's pushing their product forward, was really eager to see the results and sent the product out without any real testing. Hence the patches, or nerfs as you've been calling them. But be happy to know that you will no longer be needing anymore patches!" it said brightly, dancing around Jaune's head as its body phased by his swatting hands, "The. . .bug we found messing with your Core has been dealt with. Now you should be on the same footing as the other three!"
Same footing? Jaune held himself back from laughing as he finished up working around his Skills. They had centuries of experience on him. He was basically stumbling to follow them in their sports cars. There wasn't much equal footing there.
It was a little worrying to hear something about a bug messing with his body. It must have been the reason why he had been hearing that strange voice that sounded like him. Knowing that it was gone was actually relieving. It almost felt like a weight had been lifted from his soul.
"Alright, looks like I'm set." Jaune said as he turned back to the crossroads. It was time to stop wasting time and fix this mess. Ren was waiting.
"Sweet! I've been waiting to see how you deal with the corruption running wild here. It's going to be awesome." Will breathed with glee. Its body was trembling with excitement!
Annoyance seeped into Jaune's being as he tried ignoring the god. Seriously, this was the supposed strongest of the godly trio? The one Husk followed? Compared to him, The Will was a child who wanted nothing more than to see some blood fly.
Gaining control over itself, Will's flamed body morphed into a hand before raising a single finger up in a gesture of attention, "Now, you stand before three paths leading into the remainder of Mind's corrupted data. Safe to say from their names that these aren't the most pleasant of memories to recall. Each one holds a reason for Mind's corruption, mistakes he wishes he could take back. But despite the resets, he cannot forget the mistakes he's made no matter how hard he tries. Now it's up to you to repair the memories before they are forever lost."
"Repair his worst memories? Wouldn't it be better to repair the ones that don't make him fall?" Jaune asked with a frown. It didn't make sense to fix the bad memories.
"Negatory! Like I said, these are the last of his remaining memories. Not to say that the rest are gone forever. I can work my magic on restoring them back to their place, but I won't be able to do that until his corruption has been fixed. You could say that these memories represent a grudge, one that even at deaths doors won't fade away." it said as it changed into a rainy cloud of flames.
Jaune smiled sadly. He already had a good guess as to who that grudge was aimed at. Stretching his arms around, he moved forward to the left path. It didn't look like there was much of an order to this, so he was just going with whatever path.
Memoir of Regret. Walking along the beaten dirt path of fallen torn leaves, Jaune prepared himself for whatever awaited him. An odd ripple of air passed by him before his vision went dark. His body vanished into nothing with a twinkle, leaving Will behind as it watched on.
Will stared blankly. Its mouth twitched, trembling before a face splitting grin of white pearly teeth broke out. It vanished to follow the Player, roaring with laughter.
It was time for the show to start!
Memoir of Regret.
"We're not going to find anything! We just have to press on!"
Silence fell on the dreary crossroad path. The members of team RNJR stared at Ren's stiff form in surprise, not believing to have ever heard the normally stoic Huntsman speak so loudly. It was completely out of the norm. Nora felt her heart pang. She was the only one to notice the slight tremble in his voice and his shaking shoulders.
Kuroyuri. A village destroyed by a Grimm attack and a place of tortured memories. Bringing back nothing but despair. To go back there would only bring more bad than good.
Jaune frowned. That wasn't like Ren. He would always follow along with his plans, no matter what. For him to raise his voice and ignore the only path that would help Qrow out in time was worrying.
"Ren, why are you acting li-"
"We can split up." Nora butt in firmly. She moved her hand to rest on Ren's shoulder, easing his mind as she continued to steer them away from taking the whole team through Kuroyuri.
'Why? Why can't I move past this?' Ren gripped his fists tightly as Jaune and Nora began to argue over splitting the team apart.
Every life was the same. No matter how many times he would dull his emotions, Kuroyuri would always break his demeanor like it was nothing. What laid ahead always tore him apart. The memories, the fear, the anger, the grief, and horror. So many painful memories. It was a wound that would always bleed, never healing. And it would always cost him the lives of two of his most treasured friends half the time. A fifty-fifty death rate. A flip of the coin. The only chance was to save them or kill them.
A Grimm unlike any other awaited them. Death incarnate.
'I really am pathetic.' A hollow chuckle escaped his lips, unnoticed as Jaune and Nora began shouting at another while Ruby could only watch on, unsure of what to do as she bit her lip. 'I'm letting Nora argue in my place and fight with Jaune over such a simple decision. The chances of Qrow surviving the trip to Mistral are nonexistent, he would die halfway there even with Ruby's super speed. He's got a stronger chance finding some medicine. . .or help at Kuroyuri.' the shouting had grown in volume. Nora and Jaune were at the others' throats, their faces red with anger and looking as if they were ready to reach for their weapons.
Haggard, sick coughing broke them out of their fighting and brought them back to what really mattered. Red began to bleed and mix with the sickly purple puss leaking out of Qrow's wound, his face twisted in horrible pain. Jaune and Nora looked away in shame, sad to have nearly traded blows. The sight broke Ren's heart. He'd never seen them so angry with one another in all his lives. All because of him and his stupid wounds.
With a look of grudging acceptance, Jaune nodded, "Just. . .take care of each other."
Nora smiled back, turning her sights to Ren, "We always have." she said softly.
She was right. No matter what happened in their lives, Nora would always look out for him even when he turned his back on them.
Why did that make Ren feel even more disgusted with himself?
A warm body hugged Ren, snapping him out of his thoughts. Jaune embraced his brother tightly, wishing him good luck and to watch out for Nora.
He didn't deserve Jaune's kindness. He didn't deserve any of their kindness. Patting his back firmly, Jaune moved back to hug Nora, apologizing for nearly harming her in his fit of anger.
Another smaller body embraced him, surprising Ren as he found Ruby's smaller frame against him. That was. . .new. In the past, she would simply nod her head shyly or wave her friend good bye. He blinked as he found her silver eyes looking at him brightly despite the gloomy mood falling over them.
"Be careful, Ren. Promise to make it back to us safe, okay?" she smiled with shut eyes and a soft smile.
Ren hugged her back, smiling forcefully as he ruffled the younger girl's hair.
'Last time, you were the one to die. And it was my fault. I don't deserve this. You don't deserve this.'
Ren grit his teeth, a slim shameful tear slipping past his eye to splash on top of Ruby's dark red locks.
Done with their good-bye's, the two separate teams of two turned away and made for their paths. Nora and Ren broke off in a sprint, running as fast as they could to reach Mistral for help. How fast they made it to the city didn't matter, Ren knew for a fact they only had a coin's flip of making it back no matter how hard they tried to reach them in time. Qrow's semblance never really helped their chances either.
The only question was who would die this time. Jaune, Ruby, Qrow? Or all of them.
As the hunters disappeared for their chosen paths, the world around them began to waver, the setting glitching wildly before everything froze still. Large masses of the world began to splinter apart, their earthly bodies flying up to float above the stream of numbers below as small islands were created. The landscape twisted, forming lands of streaming rivers flowing into the data ocean and age old village buildings and towns.
The crossroads had formed a small island for itself that floated in the middle of all the other islands. And that was where Jaune found himself as a twinkling ball of light fell in front of the sign post, materializing his body onto the deformed world. It took him a moment to shake away the daze he found himself in as he cracked his neck.
"Alright, where the hell am I now? Today's just full of questions." Jaune sighed as he gazed at his new surroundings. His face grew disgruntled at the sight of all the small islands ranging from a simple mile to the size of a village, "This doesn't bode well."
"This is Memoir of Regret! A memory of regret that won't leave Mind's Core." Blinking to float next to Jaune's head, Will greeted Jaune, "Sup? As you can see, this whole place is twisted and jumbled. The Corruption has messed with the memory, breaking it apart as it falls to the ocean of data. If you don't fix what's corrupting Mind's memory, it will be lost forever along with the rest." it explained.
"And where am I going to find whatever is corrupting Ren's core?" Jaune asked, a bit annoyed with how the wisp was addressing the Players by their titles.
No sooner did he ask, three pulsing red dots appeared on his HUD displaying the main islands and their landscape.
"I've marked down the locations of whatever is causing the problem in the memory. Just be careful, Grimm and bugs are sure to appear to stop you. Though," it paused as it looked around the world, "Problem is how you're going to reach the islands from here. You would need a grappling hook or something to reach the locations."
"No problem!" Jaune grinned as he quickly went into his inventory. From thin air, the fingerless bandaged ninja braces were equipped to his arms. Raid Bracers, Blake's special gift. Time to try them out. Turning his head up, Jaune honed his eyes on the floating chunks of stone and earth that could be found just about everywhere. With a mental command, he shot his arm up, firing the concealed hooked bandages to catch onto the earth. He gave them a good tug, slinging himself high up like a bungie to land onto the makeshift platform. He pumped his fist in victory as he called back the bandages.
Will followed after him, giving him a thumbs up with his flames, "Nice. But that won't be enough to steady yourself around here. You're going to need a good balance." it mused before snapping its fingers. A bright light shined from the bottom of Jaune's shoes. Moving his feet up, Jaune found two purple circles on the sole of his shoe, radiating an odd energy. "I've just given you some gravity magic infused to your shoes. Now you'll be able to run along even the sides of the islands with no problem!"
Jaune nodded his head in thanks. Time to stop dawdling and get to work. Firing his grappling hooks for a cluster of earth in the air, Jaune swung along and repeated the process for his destination. The wind whipped against his face with every swing, hitting him with the buffet.
Dark purple clouds began to pop up around the sky as he swung along. From within, bird cries filled the air before the sight of dog sized Nevermore's flew out from the darkness. Jaune grit his teeth, not stopping his swings even as he found a few of their quills fired after him. Gaining some momentum, he swung around the levitating earth chunk his hooks sunk into to soar above it. The quills missed, but the move left him in the dark ravens' sights. They flew straight for him, spreading their wings wide as their feathers shined, hardening to a blade's durability.
Retracting his bandages back to his wrist, Jaune spun around the air to dodge the wing strikes from the black birds. Grabbing the handle of Crocea Mors, he began to swing his blade around to deflect the sharp wings. A Nevermore cawed loudly before dive bombing after Jaune. It swung its wing for his chest, only to be blocked by the old worn blade. Aiming his wrist at another makeshift platform, Jaune pulled himself up, missing two Nevermores flying past his previous spot to cut him in half. "Damn it, I don't have much experience in fighting in the air. I'm a ground fighter." Jaune cursed as he moved his shield in front of himself to block a gunfire of feathers. Loud clangs smacked into him, slowly chipping away at his HP. At least with his upped defense he didn't have to worry too much about raising his guard for long. Reaching the hooked patch of floating earth, Jaune swung up to land on the small platform. He only had a two-yard span around him as he found five of the Nevermores shooting up to circle him.
Jaune was a sitting duck right now. But he couldn't fight them while swinging along. Better to fight them when his feet were touching the ground, "Air Slash!" Rearing his sword back, Jaune swung it after another dive bombing avian. The air blade tore right through the Grimm, dispersing its fading corpse to lingering darkness. Two more Nevermores flew up above the blond knight before peppering him with quills. "Reflect!" Casting his magical dome, Jaune bounced the sharp tipped feathers back to their owners. The quills dug into the dark ravens, dropping their HP close to nothing.
Nevermore.
200HP/1,000HP
Shaking off their pain, the two Nevermores joined the two remaining of their kind to circle the blond. Jaune tsked as his HUD displayed Reflect cooling off. He wouldn't be able to block the incoming spread of projectiles with only his shield. He was going to have to improvise. With a shrill cry, the Nevermores spread their feathers and madly fired at the caged knight. Seeing the attacks coming, Jaune began to swing his sword around, blocking whatever quills that flew close. He batted away the attacks in several spins and swipes, raising his shield to cover any that got by as he ran around to avoid the ones he couldn't deflect. A few of the quills were able to slip past his guard, chipping away at his health as he did his best to hold off long enough for Reflect to cool off.
Hearing the ding signaling the go ahead, Jaune didn't waste another second as he cast his spell, "Reflect!"
The already damaged Nevermores didn't survive the reflected quills, fading to streams of smoking black. The surviving ravens were momentarily stunned as they were hit, leaving them open for two Air Slashes destroying them.
Glad to be done with the small distraction, Jaune continued his way for the first marker on his map. Swinging along the cluster of earth and stone, he finally made it to his destination. A large island greeted him as he landed onto its grounds. It was a large chunk of forested land, its dead trees twisted and slumped forward with dark patches of rotting grass everywhere. Stepping forward through the trees he was soon greeted with more spawning clouds, putting him on edge as he gripped his hilt. From the darkness, four dark silhouettes greeted Jaune. They weren't Grimm. Their bodies were humanoid, twisting around until they settled on a familiar face.
"Ren?" Jaune said, baffled as he found dark copies of his friend staring back at him. Their bodies were darkened, pitch black except for his normally magenta eyes. Haunting red eyes gazed back at him emotionlessly as they raised their copies of Storm Flower for battle.
Lie Shade.
2,000HP/2,000HP
A scan of the new enemies revealed their health and name. These must have been the bugs Will had been talking about. Their bodies were constantly twitching and flowing with ribbons of vile black energy.
The Lie Shades were more than eager to begin fighting. Honing their sights on the blond knight, they each charged forward to slash at him with blades of dark energy. Jaune raised his shield blocking four fangs falling on him, pushed them back and swung his sword around to deflect the other two Shades aiming for his back. The four dark copies narrowed their eyes before circling Jaune and stopping to stand at his north, south, west, and east. They cracked open their deformed mouths, breathing a dark miasma as they showed the ability to speak.
"Die."
"Leave me the hell alone."
"Go back to playing a dork and leave me in peace."
"It's your fault. Her death is all your fault."
Jaune sighed. What else was new? Though that last line made him frown in confusion. What was he talking about? Shaking the thought away for the moment, he turned back to the charging Shades, readying his own attack to counter with.
"Lighting Strike!" From the dark heaven above, a single bolt of lightning struck the raised pommel of Crocea Mors. Wild sparks of yellow lighting ran over the old blade before Jaune stabbed it into the ground just as the Shades reached to tear him apart with their fangs. An explosive shockwave of lightning engulfed Jaune, shocking the Shades and stunning them still. Paralyzed, Jaune grinned as he moved his blade back for another wide range attack. Even a 10% chance was nothing to doubt. "Round Table!" Spiraling blades of energy whipped at the paralyzed foes, repeatedly slashing their bodies until they faded away to nothing.
All that training and fighting was really paying off. Sheathing his sword, Jaune went back to running after his real target hidden in the forest grove. Lesser Grimm began to pop out of the woodwork, but he made quick work of them as he continued on his way.
It wasn't long until he found what he was looking. In a large open clear space a giant mass of putrid purple energy floated in the middle, releasing red sparks around its sphere form.
Grimm Origin.
4,000HP/4,000HP
"It looks like I have to destroy this thing." Jaune said as he readied his blade. The mass of corruption pulsed, releasing a ripple of darkness that began to create a pack of five Beowolves and four Lie Shades to guard its being. He couldn't help but release a sigh as he looked at the nonstop gauntlet of enemies awaiting him.
Howling in sync, the Beowolves charged forward with wide open mouths drooling for blood, followed closely behind by the Shades. "Hyper Blade!" Disappearing in an after image, Jaune rushed after the enemies in a raid of swift swings and stabs. His body moved along with the flow of his attacks, dodging the deadly claws and dark fangs as he lobbed off the Grimms' limbs and sent them flying in the air. A Shade slid into his attacks, spinning around like a top with his blades. Jaune stood his ground as Hyper Blade ended, stopping the saw of blades dead in their tracks as sparks flew from their grinding blades. With an exerted grunt, he pushed back the deadly top and struck it back with a Power Strike stab. The blow sent the shade reeling as two of its brothers dashed in to swing for his neck. Crocea Mors shield blocked them and pushed them back before Jaune followed with a Crescent Blade to their chests. Critical hits reduced them back to where they came, their clouds of darkness blew away as a Beowolf ran through to jump high in the air above Jaune. It opened its maw wide, its tongue flying by it as it dive bombed for the blond as its three brothers ran for Jaune with their claws ready to tear him apart.
Jaune smirked, sending Crocea Mors back into his inventory before moving his closed fist to his face, "Can't See Me!"
White fire shrouded Jaune's fist as he waved it in front of his face with flair. Somehow the Grimm were momentarily distracted by the showmanship, leaving them open for a sweep kick that tripped them over. The Beowolf still diving for the knight was confused as it watched the boy vanish in thin air. It turned its gaze up and tilted its head as it found Jaune above it with a burning knuckle. Jaune grinned deviously at the monster before roaring as he smashed his knuckles into the beast's masked face, shattering upon contact. With all his strength, he slammed the Grimm's body down to the ground, releasing a whipping ring of white flames to smack into the dazed Beowolves. Their dark hides were lit with luminous flames, burning them to cinders. The Beowolf dug into the ground by Jaune's fist followed along, turning to charred smoke.
"Alright, who else want's some!?" Jaune panted with a shout. His eyes fell on the remainder of the enemies; two Shades and two Beowolves. Hearing his challenge, the Grimm Origin pulsed like a heartbeat and released a ripple of darkness. Jaune groaned, watching as more Grimm and Shades were created from the mass of corruption.
The blob was capable of creating enemies to defend itself with, but it didn't look like it was much for fighting itself. If Jaune was going to beat it, he was better off focusing his attention on it instead of whatever monsters it created. With a new plan on action in his head, he activated Gale Speed to rush for the Grimm Origin, cutting down whatever enemy got in his way. Appearing in front of it in a whipping rush of wind, Jaune began to hack away at its HP with wild swings and stabs.
Grim Origin.
2,180HP/4,000HP
'Just a bit more!' Jaune thought, taking a moment to spin around and cast Reflect to defend against the dog pile of enemies jumping to rip him apart. All he needed was a few more hits and the damn thing would be done for. He grunted as he realized Reflect wasn't going to hold up much longer.
"Hedge Fang!" The shattering sound of his defensive dome came just in time as Jaune rolled up and spun his body around to saw his sword continuously into the mass of darkness. Its HP dropped with no resistance. It wasn't long until its body was ripped in half from the disk of metal as Jaune sawed through it. Forcing his spin to hold, he turned his attention to the group of enemies turning their eyes to him. The loss of their creator left them stunned in place, making them easy pickings. In his spin, he began to ram into the Grimm and Shades, tearing through them easily.
Only a single Shade remained once Jaune's ability ended. He skidded to a stop in front of it as it slumped forward with no will of its own to fight.
It turned its head up to meet Jaune's blue eyes with its red hazy gaze, "Failure. Nothing but a waste of space." it rasped.
The cold steel of Crocea Mors silenced its lips as its blade lobbed its head off with a swing followed by a Crescent Blade.
"You know, you can be quite the talker when your drowning in darkness." Jaune said bitterly. The Lie Shades were a bunch of chatter boxes. It made him feel less guilty about killing them if it meant shutting them up.
With the imminent threats gone, The Will's burning body shot up from Jaune's scroll with a cheer.
"That's one down! Man, you really didn't hold back, even against those corrupted copies of Mind. Did it feel good to vent your frustrations on those bugs?"
"Of course not. It only makes me want to stop this mess all the quicker." Jaune said stiffly as he turned away for the next target. A chime from the Grimm Origin's previous spot caught his attention, turning him around to find a glimmer of bubbled light left behind its destruction. Did it drop something? Weird, even though Jaune's life was a game now, enemies didn't drop loot when he killed them, only EXP. Ren had once said it was due to the fact that only one of the Players had the ability to gain items and Lien from their defeated foes. Lucky bastard.
"What is that?"
Will's body shaped into a question mark as it followed along with Jaune to the glimmer bubble, "Don't know. As I said, I have no control in a Players Core other than resetting it. I have no say in whatever things drop around here. Maybe it's from the Mind?"
Jaune smiled sadly at the thought, "Ren, huh?" Was he reaching out to him even when he was frozen by the corruption? Taking a chance, Jaune reached for the bubble of light. It shrunk in size, fitting nicely into his hand before sinking into his palm.
'Luminous Howl, Discovered! By raising the Player's weapon high into the air with a shout, they are able to stun a group of enemies in place with a bright ray of light before their weapon is enveloped in light to extend their reach and attack in one wide spread swing. Only usable with a bladed weapon. AP: 10. MP Cost: 15MP.'
Will whistled as he used his abilities as Game Master to read Jaune's new ability, "Cool. That should help in dealing with large groups of enemies. It doesn't even need an Affinity to use like most powerful elemental attacks."
The god was right, if Jaune was going to be facing more of those balls of darkness spawning enemies then Luminous Howl would save him from some tight spots. With that in mind, he swapped out a Hunter's Axe for more space to equip the new ability. Done with that, Jaune went back on his way for the next tracker on his HUD.
The Grimm and Shades on the island had died with the Grimm Origin's death, leaving him no trouble as he reached the edge of the floating mass of earth. Eying a cluster close to the edge, Jaune latched onto it with his hooks and swung on his way.
"I think I'm starting to get the hang of this." he smiled, flipping in the air as he aimed for a boulder overhead. From the pulsing dot on his map, the next Grimm Origin was high in the sky. What a weird place to settle. Following along by Jaune's side, The Will decided to chime in.
"Course you are. As a Player, your body is able to grow in skill and adaptability easily. What would take others years to master will only take you a week with enough training. Something as simple as swinging around like a monkey should be a breeze after only a few minutes of playing around with the skill."
"Seems like cheating though, doesn't it?" Jaune frowned.
Will gave the knight a flat stare, "You're not the sharpest tool in the game box, are you Heart?" it shook its head in disbelief, "The Gamer allows a normal being to attain the power of gods. They're limitless in a sense. To say it seems like cheating is an understatement. And insulting. You should really thank me for giving you the potential to become as strong as a god!"
"I'll thank you alright. Here." Jaune said dully as he took the moment in his swinging to raise his middle digit to greet the ball of azure, "That's how we say thank you where I come from."
". . .. Now that's just plain rude."
Jaune scoffed as he ignored the godly being. It wanted to talk about rude? What a joke.
Gripping his bandages tightly, Jaune pulled himself up with the bungie like force. Flying high in the clouds he found the source of corruption floating in the air and surrounded by a group of torn earth and even broken bits of unfinished village homes. A pulse of vile red energy was released from it as it seemed to sense his presence. Back to work, Jaune thought as he landed on a platform.
He waited for the clouds of darkness to spawn a wave of enemies to fight. But none came. Jaune frowned in worry, watching as the Grimm Origin continued to pulse and release ripples of energy. Something was up. And he could feel it in his gut.
Red energy began to coat the debris and platforms, surprising Jaune as the one he stood on began to tremble. With one more pulse, the earth bits and debris were pulled forward to the ball of darkness, ripping the ground out from under Jaune's feet. He cursed and looked out for something to grapple onto that wasn't under the Grimm Origin's magnetic pull. Luckily, he found a piece of dirt road unaffected and fired his bandages to dig into the bottom of the earth. Flipping over, Jaune stood on the bottom of the floating ground with the help of the gravity magic on his shoes. From there he watched as the Grim Origin gathered the debris to form an outer layer of earth armor to protect itself from harm. Odd red seals etched onto the sides of its sides, taking Jaune by shock as it created two lanky clawed hands to burst out its body. A single glowing red eye stuck out from the front of the heavenly body, releasing a miasma of darkness.
Grimm Origin EX.
5,500HP/5,500HP
"What. The. Hell." Jaune hissed as he watched the thing reach out its arm to grab a handful of debris. Was he seeing things? Wasn't the last one motionless?
Will snickered, "Yeah, about that. The Grimm Origins are all connected as one being. Kill one and the others retain their memories and adapt. This one seems to have learned to defend itself with a suit of armor and hands. Ain't that cool?"
Locking onto its target, the Grimm Origin flung its debris with a mighty throw at the blond knight. Jaune quickly aimed his wrists to another platform below. Hearing the hooks dig into the stone ground, Jaune pulled himself down. The rocks and broken bits of homes missed as he flipped onto his feet with his blade drawn.
"No. It isn't cool. At all." Jaune growled, growing even more frustrated as he was forced to dodge the next volley. His previous spot was shattered as he began to swing around to avoid the Grimm Origin shooting him down. In his grappling swing dodges, Jaune began to fire several blades from his sword via Air Slash back at the enemy. It did little to defend itself as his attacks blew up against its makeshift armor, 'Only a 100 damage? That's not going to cut it. The damn thing wasn't giving me much of a choice but to try and hit it head on.' Crocea Mors wasn't going to do enough damage by itself though. It came equipped with +5 Attack. He was going to need a stronger weapon. At the thought a somber realization hit him.
Along with a large boulder smacking him out of his next swing.
Grunting from the jarring blow, Jaune thought back to one of his rewards for Holt's death. 'I don't have much choice, I suppose. I don't want to use it, but if I'm going to beat this thing quickly then I'm going to have to suck it up and make good use of it. I need power. And it's got plenty of that!'
Twisting around the air as he fell, the blond knight lashed his hooks for ground. Crocea Mors vanished into thin air, leaving him weaponless as another large boulder flew straight for him. He sighed. Now or never.
"Anubis."
From the Grimm Origin's sight, a thin red line appeared to cut right through the boulder it had thrown. Its projectile split cleanly apart. Passing by the two cleaved pieces, Jaune swung after it with a new weapon in his hands.
Anubis, a pure black cleaver with a straight edge and slanted tip. It was two inches shorter than Jaune's whole body. An orange-red hue ran along its edge along with two slanted gaps it its blade. Its handle was cord wrapped with an elastic rope tied to its hilt. And to finish it off an emblem of a cackling jackal was tied to the rope. It was one of the rewards Jaune had earned when he had killed Holt almost a week ago. And it was for that reason he didn't want to use it. It felt wrong to even have it in his inventory, a constant reminder of the sin he had committed.
But now wasn't the time to be wallowing over a mistake. Anubis had +20 Attack and Fire damage. The only downside to it was that it was a Great Sword. It was incredibly hard to handle with his current strength. Swinging it was slow but when it connected it dealt some heavy damage.
Two more boulders flew after Jaune as he came closer to reaching the Grimm Origin. With a mighty heave of his new heavy blade, he cut the projectiles apart with the right timing. Sending the great sword back into his inventory for a moment, Jaune swung both his arms apart and shot his hooks to latch onto the platforms on his sides. He then twisted the bandages around his wrists and gave them a strong tug to pull him forward. Momentum and the bandages elasticity shot him like a bullet straight for the Grimm Origin too fast for it to defend itself in time. Anubis fell back into his hands as he threw his arms up high before dropping it down for a heavy slash at its heavenly body. The single slash alone dealt a thousand damage and left behind a scorching line scarring its body. The Grim Origin swatted Jaune away, pulsing angrily before forming a fist with its free hand. Jaune grit his teeth as he moved the flat of his great sword in front of himself to block the blow. A strong force blew through his body, ringing the inside of his body with a tremor powerful enough to make him spit blood as he was sent flying into a close island. His body crashed into the side of the earth with a thundering boom, creating a crater as he slumped against the crushed ground.
"T-That. . .really hurt." Jaune coughed. A look at his HP revealed almost two thousand gone from a single punch. It was stronger than it looked. And he blocked it. A Large Aura Potion ought to take care of that though. Downing the grape flavored recovery drink, Jaune cleaned off the blood from his lips and turned his eyes back to the Grimm Origin. It was done floating motionlessly. It flew after him, destroying whatever got in its way as it reared its right fist back. Like hell he was taking another hit like that again! Pulling himself out, Jaune steadied his feet on the side of the island and ran up to the surface. Just in time to avoid being smashed by the Grimm Origin's fist drilling into the crater he had occupied. The entire island he stood on trembled, breaking apart as Jaune began to lose his footing. No point sticking around a doomed land.
Another swing of his bracers and he was off in time to miss the heavenly body flying up to grab him with its red clawed hands. It spun around, intent on crushing it in its grip. Jaune wanted none of that as he slashed at its reaching fingers, cutting them right off and leaving behind burning stumps. The wound didn't stop it though as it shot its other hand to grab him. Flipping over the deadly dark hand, Jaune spun his body around for momentum. Gathering enough, he swung his cleaver down at its retreating wrist, chopping its hand off cleanly. The Grimm Origin squealed in pain and thrashed around madly.
"Don't worry, it's all over now!" Jaune shouted as he shot his hooks to dig into its armored body. He smirked before spinning his body around like a saw blade and pulling himself forward, "Hedge Fang!"
Grinding heated steel steadily shaved the Grimm Origin's health as it could do nothing but endure the attack with no arms. Its single eye trembled as it felt its armor broken through. Nothing could be done. Its armor of rubble shattered, dropping off in burning bits as its black purple body throbbed in the open exposed air. Jaune grinned. One blow should do it.
"Power Strike!"
In a single powerful downward chop, the Grimm Origin was split in half. Smoke bellowed from its halves before turning to ash in the wind.
Sweat ran down Jaune's face as he fell back to a platform below. No enemy meant a moment of peace. Time for a small moment to gather his thoughts and regain his breath. Anubis slipped back into his inventory as he called back Crocea Mors in its sheath to his belt. As strong as it was it wasn't ideal in a normal fight. Not until his strength reached a good level.
"Sorry bud, but you ain't going to get much time for a breather." Will weakly chuckled, breaking Jaune out of his thoughts as he panted on his knees. He quirked a brow in question, wondering what he was talking about. The last target on his map began to rapidly blink, moving fast across the map towards his destination.
Right. The Grimm Origin's evolved with every death. Wasn't that a neat little trick?
With a groan and a crack of his back, Jaune turned his eyes to the direction the odd ball of darkness was flying for. Ribbons of purple and red trailed after it as it came soaring from the horizon of the twisted world. A single beady red eye honed its sights on him as its spherical form began to morph. It transformed into a large version of Storm Flower made of darkness before gathering rubble to harden its black blade for durability. Two lanky monstrous arms broke out from its side as the gun barrel housed its menacing eye.
Grimm Origin EX: Model SF.
6,7000HP/6,7000HP
"What does EX even mean?" Jaune asked in frustration.
Will raised a single finger up from its hand form, "It means 'Free from; Without' for starters. Also, Extra and Extreme. Or it could just be there to make it sound awesome!" And it does.
The Grimm Origin cracked its knuckles, remembering its last two deaths at the hands of the blond knight. If it could feel emotions, then it couldn't wait to crush the boy into a pulp.
The Will quickly vanished back into Jaune's scroll. Time for another fight. Releasing a ripple from its gun body, the Grimm Origin attracted all the matter around it to circle its form. Dark wisps shrouded its projectiles, crushing them into bullet shells and loading them into its magazines. Its barrel lite brightly as it cocked itself.
Firing its bullet, a jumbled mass of rubble streaked after Jaune. It was far too big to simply dodge out of the way. He raised his shield and held his ground as the mass clanged against his defense. He grit his teeth feeling his arm snap. His feet were skidding back as he tried to hold his ground. The Grimm Origin cocked itself again, humming in delight before firing another mass to collide with its previous shot. The combined force broke Jaune's guard as the rubble balls exploded to pelt him with shrapnel. He was blown back with bits of wood and rocks digging into his body like actual bullets. Several of the shrapnel cut into Jaune's face, leaving behind streaks of red trailing down his face as he reached for a potion. The Grimm Origin wasn't having any of that though as it shot a volley of rubble bullets to stop him.
"Reflect!" Jaune shouted loudly, bouncing the attacks back to drill the Grimm Origin. He gasped as he downed his potion hurriedly while the rubble balls blew up in the dark beings barreled face. 'I'm running low on potions here. Fighting Ren beforehand really drained me of my healing items, I'm lucky to have six left.' he thought as he began to run from the next volley with a Gale Speed in effect.
If he had known he was going into a gauntlet, Jaune would have stopped Husk to stock up.
Gale Speed soon faded, leaving Jaune to guard against another giant rubble ball. It blew up in a burst of shrapnel that cut his vest and skin even with his aura still up. Another one fired after him as he gasped for breath, "Power Strike!" Equipping Anubis and swapping Crocea Mors out, Jaune swung his great sword cleaver downward just as the rubble mass got within range. It flew past him in two halves as he called back Crocea Mors and shot his hooks for a platform above. Now in the air, Jaune found it easier to dodge the shots fired as he utilized his hooks to swing around the many floating platforms.
Multiple Air Slashes hit the Grimm Origin, chipping off its health as it tried to lock onto the aerial blond. It had enough. Calling off its gunfire, it began to spin its body around, turning into a spinning shuriken disk. It spun after Jaune, slicing everything that got in its way in its mad pursuit. Knowing no other way to escape an attack like that, Jaune thought fast and decided to fight back, "Hedge Fang!"
Anubis fell into his hand for the added oomph he needed as he spun around to meet the blurring dark disk the Grimm Origin had become. Sparks flew as the two fought to overpower the other, pushing the other back slowly with no real progress. The two wound up breaking apart from another, flying back to regain their control. The Grimm Origin grew dizzy as its body swayed, its single red eye spinning around in a daze.
A chance was chance. Firing his hooks for a cluster of earth above the dark being, Jaune pulled himself upward before dropping down for its gun like body. He moved Anubis stabbing downward, adding Power Strike for more damage as he plunged it into its body. A loud boom echoed as he stabbed his blade further in, burning it as smoke bellowed. Shaking off its dizziness, the Grimm Origin snapped its hand to grab Jaune. It gripped him tightly, causing him to shout in pain as he heard his bones strain with a crack. It flung him back to the island he had been standing at, nearly shattering the whole floating mass as it splintered.
Jaune Arc.
1,759HP/6,000HP
Laying back in another crater, Jaune coughed up blood as his aura began to spark visibly. It wouldn't be long until it faded away and left him to die. Struggling back up, he frowned with a grimace as the dark version of Storm Flower fired another bullet of rubble mass at him.
"Activate Skill. . .Angel's Radiance!"
Cold wind bellowed from Jaune's body, enveloping him in a visible chilling aura of white snow with the manual activation of Weiss's skill. Feeling his HP recover faster, Jaune was able to gather enough strength to lift his heavy cleaver and slice the rubble in half. He sighed in relief as he felt his wounds mend along with the soothing chill tickling his skin. As if he didn't have enough reasons to love his Snow Angel.
Seeing the blond recover, the Grimm Origin sunk its arms back into its body and glided like a speeding jet after its target. Jaune groaned before turning away to out run the large fang beginning to split the edge of the island. Its blade tore the island apart in its chase, kicking up dirt and even water as it tore through a streaming river falling to the ocean of data below. In Jaune's running he quickly spun around and sent a chilling Crescent Blade to slash at the fanged gun's barreled eye. Ice encased the Grimm Origin's sight, stopping it as its arms grew out to scratch at the glistening frozen liquid. Jaune skidded to a stop as a thought hit him. He grinned.
"Teres Mors!" Crocea Mors was swapped in only to be replaced by the short blood red blade of the thorn themed weapon. Another great thing about the short weapon was that it came with a boost to his Speed and granted a bonus to status effects. He should really look over his weapons more after this was all said and done. "Hyper Blade!" Body trembling with energy, Jaune began to blitz the blind possessed weapon of his best friend with fevered wild strikes. Each hit created a growing seed of ice around its body as he appeared like a blur of cold steel and yellow. Struggling to resist the cold chill, the Grimm Origin raised its left arm up to slam it down like a hammer to squash the knight.
Ending his speed blitz, Jaune fell back on a skid and noticed the shadow overhead. The attached vine on his blade lashed out to wrap around the wrist of its dark hand. And with a mighty pull, Jaune slammed it down before stabbing his blade into the ground.
"Teres Blade: Uprooting Vignes!"
Multiple glowing bright vines broke through the ground around the arm of the Grimm Origin, knotting its appendage still. It didn't care, it raised its right arm up to finish the job. At that Jaune couldn't help but smirk nastily as a cold stone fell into his hand from thin air.
"I'm taking a page out from Yang here, so forgive me. But I think you should chill out!" he shouted before aiming the Ice Dust crystal at the falling fist. Upon being fed aura, the magical stone fired a blast of cold energy to devour the dark being's arm. A cold frost froze it still, pausing its descent. It cracked, shattering to pieces a second later.
The budding ice Jaune had created with his swings began to crawl over the Grimm Origin's body to freeze it still. The ice covering its eye broke apart. It found the blond knight in front of its barrel, glaring at it as he waved his sword around to return it to its normal form.
It hummed as it loaded another round to finish the boy off. Jaune grinned in response as he raised Crocea Mors up high in the air.
"Luminous Howl!"
Flashing bright rays blinded the Grimm Origin's sight, strong enough to pause its gunfire as it became dazed. It was blind to the white light crawling over Crocea Mors blade, lengthening it into a two-yard blade. Jaune gave it no time to recover. He swung his blade across its body diagonally, slashing a bright line as the blade cut through even the ice with a loud swoosh.
The Grimm Origin's single eye blinked, growing dim as its body cracked. Like its arm, it shattered to pieces, releasing a stream of darkness along with the glimmering dust of ice falling around Jaune.
Jaune fell to his knees with a tired sigh. The cold aura around his body slowly faded away but not before completely healing the damage on his body. That was the last of them in this area. His HUD map wasn't displaying anymore markers, so he was in the clear.
"Thank god. When I agreed to stopping Ren's corruption, I didn't think I would have to go through a fucking gauntlet!" Jaune said tiredly. And this was only one out of three. Great.
Popping out Jaune's scroll, Will was bemused at the state of the boy, "What did you think? That it was going to be a walk in the park? Corruption is a serious deal here. Normally a person who's fallen under Falling as you people call it is incapable of being saved at this point. Being The Heart is the only reason you're able to even step in here. Be grateful for that."
Jaune waved the azure ball's words away as he stood back up with a groan, "If I don't get a thank you out of this, then I'm sicing Nora on his lazy ass." Moving his head around, he was taken back as the dark sky began to brighten. Even bits of the floating earth began to move around to fix everything into its proper place.
"Was I able to stop the corruption here in time?"
Will nodded as the world began to repair itself slowly, "Uh-huh. From my readings, Mind's corruption has dropped from 99.9% to 77.8%. Got to fix the rest before he's out of the red zone."
Smiling happily, Jaune stretched his arms back as he watched the sun rise back up in the sky.
Ren was still in danger. But at least Jaune had done some good. It wouldn't be long until Ren was back to normal. Well, as normal as Ren could be.
"Then let's stop wasting time and head back. I got two more Memoirs to repair." he commanded, getting a thumbs up. Both their bodies began to fade away, leaving no trace of their presence as the world was restored.
Time in the memory caught up with itself. No damage could be seen as the world continued.
To Nora, it felt like an hour had passed her by as she and Ren continued their way to Mistral. Worry ate at her conscience as she recalled her fight with Jaune. She hated herself for shouting with such anger in her voice at her cherished leader. He was only looking out for them. Nothing would hurt him more if he lost the last two letters of JNPR because he couldn't save them. Just like Pyrrha.
She turned her eyes to Ren, wanting to ask him if she should have calmed down when talking to Jaune. But she stopped herself as a stray tear flew past her, twinkling in the air as Ren's shoulders trembled. Her green eyes softened.
As emotionless as her partner tried to act, he could never hide his true feelings from her.
Laying her hand on his shoulder, Nora stopped him to face her. Faint tear marks ran down his face, the sight only making her sadder.
"What is it, Nora?" Ren said with a stoic expression, inwardly cursing himself. Nothing could be hidden from her surprisingly sharp eyes.
Nora only smiled at him, "It's going to be alright. I'm sure Jaune and Ruby will find some medicine to patch Qrow up enough to wait for our return. They're strong, and together they should be able to handle just about anything." she reassured him.
Lies. All lies. No matter what she said, Ren knew for a fact that things wouldn't be fine. It hardly ever came out fine. His magenta eyes grew somber as he carefully moved Nora's hand off.
"You don't know that. No one does." Only he did.
Instead of growing upset with what Ren had said, Nora grinned brightly as she held his hand close to her chest. Silly Ren. As smart as he was, he could still be as thick headed as Jaune. They were more alike than they thought.
"That's why we pray! When we're unsure of things and can't do anything about it, we pray. And hope that the small 1% we've added to chances will make a difference. You got to stop using that head of yours and have some faith. That's what I do and look at me!" she laughed, the sound causing Ren to lift his lips up slightly, "I can continue moving knowing that my prayers are at least being heard."
At that, Ren scoffed. The only one hearing her prayers were a bunch of cruel gods watching them for amusement. They could care less for what she asked.
"Being heard by who?"
"By you."
Ren's heart stopped at her words. A surge of warmth spread through his body as Nora's kind, soft eyes looked back at him.
No matter what, she would always look up to him. And he would listen.
Something came over Ren as he grit his teeth. The chances were slim, they always were. But that was only because he was leaving them as that. It was time he threw his prayer in and added a chance. One that he had control over. Old wound be damned.
With renewed resolve, Ren turned his back on the path to Mistral. After several lives stuck in this game, he finally came to a decision. He was done letting the past control him any longer. It was time to move forward.
"Nora, we're heading back for Kuroyuri."
The orange haired Valkyrie jumped in joy. Now that was the Ren she loved. Now she could finally apologize to Jaune for their spat.
"Don't have to tell me twice! Let's go meet up with the rest of team JNRR!"
Ren couldn't help but laugh as they ran back to their friends. To their team.
"JNRR still isn't a color."
Memoir of Resolve
Returning to the crossroads that housed the paths to the Memoirs, Jaune felt his stamina recover in an instant. He stretched his arm up with a grin, glad to have his energy back.
"This place must work like Husk's Moment of Respite. It's almost like I was never hurt at all." he grinned. Turning his eyes to the sign post, he was surprised to see that the memoir he had just visited had changed, "Memoir of Resolve? I thought it was regret?" he said as he scratched his head.
Appearing next to Jaune, The Will began to explain, "I told you, the memory was corrupt. These three here are basically quarters, two sides of the same coin. They have their good and bad. Most of the time. The one you just fixed revealed the good of the memory, helping to stave off the corruption and bugs. It's why it had a new name to it."
"Resolve, huh?" The name gave Jaune hope. He fixed Ren's resolve. Maybe now he would start trying again. Though Jaune was getting ahead of himself. There were still two more memories left to fix.
His eyes fell on the Memoir of Heartbreak. It made Jaune curious as he headed for it. Ren had his heart broken? Ever since he learned the truth he never would have thought that Ren was capable of falling in love, it seemed like too much work and energy for the guy. It couldn't have been Nora, she loved the guy too much to break his heart. Which meant he had his eyes on someone else.
Jaune shrugged as he dove right into the Memoir. Well he wasn't going to get an answer. All he could do is fix the memory and shine the light on the good of it. If there was any. Hopefully Ren wasn't shot down like he had been by Weiss.
Will sighed as it watched Jaune leave. Idiot.
"He's so thick headed it's not even funny." it said broadly. It blinked in realization, grinning brightly as it laughed and followed along.
"Who am I kidding? It's fucking hilarious!"
Memoir of Hearbreak
Music filled the air, dance lights spun around the room and the sound of people laughing and enjoying their time with one another could be heard throughout the night. It was a joyous time. Time to relax and enjoy a night out with friends, teammates, and love interests instead of the regular lessons on hunting and fighting Grimm. Something that was long overdue for some students after the events of the last few months.
Beacon's Annual Dance.
An Event that brought joy to many. All except for one raven haired Player.
Up in the balcony of the dance hall, Ren stood in the shadows of the door, completely hidden from sight as he watched Pyrrha confess her feelings to Jaune who listened intently with a slacked jaw. The damn idiot was honest to god surprised. Jaune couldn't believe what he was hearing as the bright embarrassed blush on his partner's cheeks helped in cementing her words.
Pyrrha Niko's, the so-called Goddess of Victory, four-time Mistral tournament champion, and all around bad ass, was in love with him of all people? Something in his brain broke as he tried to comprehend it all. Because this was crazy!
For Ren, it was scene he had seen all too much. He clenched his fists in frustration and self-loathing as he slid back on the wall of the door leading to the balcony. He sighed, hanging his head. The simple red rose in his right hand was trickling with blood falling to make a small puddle near his feet.
'So, this is another world where Pyrrha actually worked up the courage to confess her feelings to Jaune. Just like my luck.' Ren chuckled weakly. Of all the resets, why did she have to make her feelings clear now? It was always so random; Pyrrha would sometimes confess before The Fall or just before her death at the hands of Cinder atop the CCT Tower to Beacon. But this one time, this one world, for a just one lifetime, Ren had hoped he could gather his own courage and confess his own feelings.
He loved Pyrrha. In all the resets and worlds he had passed, he somehow found himself slowly falling for the red-haired champion with a heart of gold. How did it all start? When the hell did she worm her way into his heart? He didn't even notice it until the twentieth reset. The budding warmth she created when she smiled at him. Her breath taking emerald eyes that spoke more honestly than her lips could. And the aura of warmth she exuded by just standing near her.
Pyrrha Niko's had stolen his heart. Of all people, he had to fall in love with, Ren just had to fall in love with the girl doomed to die as Beacon fell apart around them. An inescapable fate. In every world he was reset to, Ren could simply fall in love with any of the girls around him. Most of the time he would create a relationship with his best friend Nora and things would be well. But with all their memories erased with every win or lose at The End, he had decided it was pointless to make a relationship with others when it would all be for nothing. But Pyrrha was different. She was one the person who in every reset would remain the same. A constant that made all these fights worthwhile. Like coming home after a long day of work to a loving wife smiling at you as if you were the world to them.
"Since the day I met you, I just knew that you were the one. I... I love you!"
Ren ground his teeth at the sound of Pyrrha's declaration of her heart. Despite it he couldn't muster up the energy to be bitter. She was only speaking the truth. How could he hate her for that?
Jaune was speechless. This was a shocker no one saw coming. If he was smarter he would have noticed the entire Beacon body smack their heads in frustration. Pyrrha loved him? He gulped nervously as he processed the news. His best friend was waiting to hear his response, looking to the side of the balcony to the night sky filled with bright stars illuminating the world.
She loved him. So, why did the thought make him sad? Jaune looked down in shame, steeling his thoughts as he tried to break the news to her.
"Pyrrha. . .I don't know what to say. I mean, it's not every day that a beautiful celebrity just confesses to you on such a night. You're smart, kind, supporting, you've been helping an idiot like me stand on my own feet and fight like a real huntsman; you've been nothing but my closest friend since I got her-"
"But?" Pyrrha tried to hide the trembling in her voice as she could already tell where this was going. Her heart clenched tightly as she met Jaune's somber blue eyes.
"But I'd be lying to you and myself if I said I loved you back." Jaune answered back sadly.
Pyrrha shut her eyes in hopes to hide the tears. She knew it. No matter what she said, he wouldn't love her back. Jaune saw her too much as a sister and best friend to have emotions for her like she did. It was her own fault for not making her feelings clearer in the beginning. If she had only been more honest, then maybe. . .
No, she shook her head as she put on a smile. She wouldn't make this any worse. She should have bottled up her emotions in the first place. Already she could see the regret in Jaune's blue eyes. Of all things, she didn't want him to regret his honesty. She didn't need that.
"Oh? Well, I guess there's no helping that." she sniffed as she did her best to act cheerful. It hurt, her heart felt like it had been stabbed right through, "If you don't feel the same, then there's no helping that. We must act on what we feel." As if she was one to talk.
Jaune frowned in worry. Pyrrha's shoulders were trembling, "Pyrrha. . .I'm sorry-"
"No!" she shouted, her green eyes staring back at him with tears gathered in her sight, "You shouldn't apologize for how you truly feel. Look, I-I think I should go back to our dorms for a bit. I... need some time for myself." her voice quivered as she turned her back to Jaune.
Ren felt his anger spike as Pyrrha ran past him. The twinkle of tears trailing behind her being the last straw.
Jaune moved his hand towards Pyrrha's retreating back, sighing as he moved his hand back and leaned back against the railing of the balcony. What a night this was turning out to be.
"You're a damn idiot."
Surprise lit up Jaune's face as he suddenly found Ren stepping out of the shadows of the entryway. Had he been listening to them the whole time?
"Ren? What are you doing here?" he asked as Ren stepped up to him with a shadowed expression. The raven-haired Huntsman's teeth grit visibly as he stopped in front of Jaune. His pink eyes glared back at him with emotion unlike what he knew from the lazy man.
"You really are a damn idiot, you know that? Passing up on someone who sees you as the world like it was nothing. HOW STUPID CAN YOU REALLY BE?!" Ren roared angrily as he threw a fist for Jaune's face. Jaune quickly caught the blow, flinching as he felt his arm crack from the pressure behind the punch.
"Calm down, Ren! It's not like I wanted this to happen! Hurting her feelings is the last thing I want, especially after everything she's done for me." Jaune grunted as he wrestled with his friend. Pushing him back, Jaune winced as he rubbed his wrists. Ren was a lot stronger than he made himself out to be. "What did you want me to do? Lie to her about how I really feel? That's worse than saying nothing at all! How was I suppose to know that she would fall in love with me?" he asked as Ren shook his head in disbelief.
"Have you not seen the look in her eyes when you walk in the room? The way she smiles when you talk to her? Or how her whole being just brightens up when you walk beside her!? How blind can you be to not notice how she felt about you!?" It was the same with every world! The damn idiot would be blind to her feelings and wouldn't realize it until she either gathered the courage to speak on them or went off to die.
Jaune went silent as he looked away. He really was blind, wasn't he? To miss out on the obvious signs. Here he thought she just liked to spend time with him because he was her partner. The idea of Pyrrha of all people loving him was an impossible dream he never thought of.
"I... messed up. I know that. I hurt Pyrrha horribly. But," Jaune said softly as he looked back at his teammate. His eyes were somber, but firm as he spoke from his heart, "I can't apologize for telling the truth. I love Pyrrha, just not in the way she had hoped for. Not when I-"
"Already love Weiss?" Ren cut him with a scornful laugh, "Or is it Blake? Ruby? Yang? Velvet? Coco? Some random girl you've only just met? Who's captured your stupid heart this time?!"
"What are you talking about? You're not making any sense!" Jaune shouted back, feelings his own anger rise, "What are you even doing here? Don't tell me you love her?"
Ren held back his tongue as he grew silent. His silence was all the answer Jaune needed.
"You do love her, don't you?" It wasn't a question. The way Ren looked like he was struck made it obvious. Jaune was just getting hit left and right with surprises tonight. What, was Nora going to jump out of nowhere and propose to all three of them next? "Why the hell are you pissed at me? If you feel that way about her, then you should be saying it to her! At least she had the courage to speak about how she feels and not hide in the shadows!"
"Shut up!" Ren shouted, glaring hatefully at the annoying blond haired knight. As if he could ever say anything. No matter what he tried, Pyrrha would always love Jaune. She was programmed that way, hard wired to her core to see him with such adoration. All because of her destiny.
Hate. It was all Ren could feel. His body was trembling as he raised up his fist for another swing.
"At least I can see her! What excuse do you have as her partner?! You're not even worthy of being her friend, you lousy excuse for a Huntsman!"
Anger spread into Jaune as he snarled and raised his fist.
That was the thing about anger. It reacted like a disease, spreading to everyone until all they felt was blistering hatred. It didn't matter what kind of bonds the other shared, influenced by the ugly emotion makes even the closest of friends despise one another.
The world paused just as the two friends swung at one another. Unlike the earlier memory, it remained unchanged save for all the people vanishing into thin air. It was the sight of the familiar balcony on a starry night that greeted Jaune as he fell into the world.
Jaune spun his head around to look at his surroundings. This must be where Ren experienced a heartbreaking memory. It made him wonder what it could have been? Poor guy must had been stood up right here. Jaune knew that feeling all too well.
"You really are an idiot. The hell was Oum thinking when he created you?" The Will sighed as it jumped out of his scroll. It looked at him with a hopeless expression as Jaune glared at him, "Maybe attaining the gift of The Gamer will do you some good. A rise in Intelligence is long overdue after so many worlds of running around with a lead head."
"I'm just going to ignore you if you don't have anything helpful to say." Jaune said, turning his eyes to his map for this memory's source of corruption.
Was it him, or was there a weird tension in the air? For some reason, it pulled at his heart string. How odd.
"Hmm?" Jaune blinked as found only one pulsing red dot target on his HUD. There was only one this time. Unlike the others though it was twice the size. He shrugged his shoulders, paying it no mind as he walked out of the balcony to the dance floor where it resided. At least there was only one to worry about.
Stepping onto the dance hall, Jaune found the source of the corruption in the middle of the dance floor. A Grimm Origin, bigger than the last three he had defeated. Sensing the new presence step closer to it, the Grimm Origin throbbed, causing the colorful dance lights above to point at them. An eerie pulsing ring blew out from its body, shattering the disco ball attached to the ceiling. The broken reflective shards fell onto its body, layering its outside like a mirror the reflected the lights around them in rays. A single red eye popped out and stared him down as it twirled around in a little dance.
Grim Origin EX.
4,500HP/4,500HP
Jaune went on guard as Crocea Mors shield rose up for any incoming attacks, "This one doesn't look like it wants to take any chances. Better make this quick!" he grinned as he prepared to charge in.
An invisible force suddenly barred down onto Jaune before he could take another step, increasing the gravity to hold him still. It was like he was being held back. He grit his teeth as even twitching his finger became impossible. Was this the Grimm Origin's doing?
The Will hummed as it watched on. Flying around Jaune and the Grimm Origin, it came to a realization as it snapped its fingers, "Oh! I thought this looked familiar! It's just like Soul's annoying Quirk. You won't be able to finish this fight like that sadly. Good for me though! I want to see a show."
"What are you talking about?" Jaune grunted as he continued to try moving his body. Nothing was working though. No matter how much he forced his muscles to budge, he couldn't move an inch. He panted as he gave up, glad to at least be able to slump his shoulders.
"Well, you're stuck in what we like to call a Turn Based Battle! Think back to those old-school RPG's you use to play. Every action, such as Attacking, Defending, Healing, and Supporting comes at a limit. Hold on a sec." it said as it flew in front of Jaune's face. Two white gloved hands materialized from thin air to float besides it like actually hands as it began to make odd gestures with them. Done with what it was doing, Will snapped both his fingers to apply its changes.
Jaune's HUD suddenly changed into a new display. His portrait was now painted on a black bar with a large zero beside. His name was even written in fancy cursive script. Not only that but the Grimm Origin gained its own portrait instead of an HP bar above its head, designed just like Jaune's with a large zero by its name.
"There we go. For this memory only, you'll be able to see things in a turn based setting and only be able to fight as such. Sucks, but them the rules the Grimm Origin has created. Not only that, but," it winced, chuckling as it flew back to stay by Jaune side, "It's also created certain actions in order to execute any type of move to fit with the setting of this place. How good are you at dancing?"
A slow twitch developed in Jaune's eyes. God damn it. Well, it was never a better day to have been raised in a house of seven sisters.
Music began to play as Jaune mentally called on his battle actions like he would in his games. Good thing he had some experience in this. And they said games would never apply to the real world. A list of his abilities, skills, and even soul links were displayed in the air for him to scroll through, each with their own costs to activate by MP. And certain conditions. His portrait was below the Grimm Origin's, meaning he was up first.
'Power Strike[10MP]. Dance Move: Dazzle!'
"Dazzle?" Jaune asked, stumped as he read over the requirements of his most basic ability. What did that mean?
"Dazzle, Astonish, Rave, Captivate, and Burn! In order to use your moves, you have to show off your own moves with some flair!" Will explained gleefully, spinning around in a little dance, "Take Power Strike. To attack with it, you must perform a dance move that dazzles the crowd. The more effective the dance, the more damage it does along with its effects, you can even land a critical easily!"
"Crowd?" Jaune gaped, just as several dozen dark silhouettes appeared around them in a ring. What kind of bullshit was this? The faceless people were actually cheering them on like an actual crowd with pumping fists.
Will nodded, "Yup! The large number by your portrait also indicates your Crowd Level. The more the crowd loves you, the more actions you can perform in a single turn. So, show them the best of your moves! Oh, and the stronger abilities might also cost you some Crowd Levels, so be sure to save them up! Your level drops when you mess up an action or use them up to perform more actions. Now enough talking, let's dance battle!"
Jaune bit back a foul word. Hate, so much hate. A fight was a fight though. Time to make his sisters proud.
With a sigh, Jaune selected Power Strike up first. Might as well test the waters. The second he chose his action, six arrow pads appeared below his feet on each sense of direction. The twitch on his brow grew. DDR? Seriously? This was Ren's Core alright. Sucking in his frustrations, Jaune decided to just go along with the flow. The upbeat music playing was actually infectious. His oldest sister who specialized in dancing did always say that when you were stumped in how to move to just let the music lead you on.
Nodding his head along with the beat, Jaune went along as he moved his front forward. He tapped his feet, spinning in place with a little flaring gesture of his hands. He pointed his finger at the Grimm Origin with a grin, moving his head back with a challenging expression as he unsheathed Crocea Mors.
'The Crowd's feeling it! Crowd Level up by 1!'
The powerful force holding Jaune back was lifted. The crowd clapped their hands as Jaune dashed off the spot to swing his glowing white blade at the Grimm Origin. He cut into it with a sideways slash, dropping its health by 700HP. He grinned as it spun around frantically with a flinching eye. He jumped back, scowling as he felt the force comeback. Guess that meant it was the Grimm Origin's turn.
The Grimm Origin bobbed up and down, swaying side to side before spinning around in a colorful blur as the lights reflected off its mirror armor. The crowd cheered loudly, throwing confetti into the air in acceptance of the dance move. Freed from the pressure, it released a ring of vile energy to summon two Beowolves and a single Lie Shade to defend it. The turn order shuffled with the newest additions.
Jaune Arc→Beowolf1→Beowolf2→Lie Shade→Grimm Origin
Backup dancers? It almost made Jaune laugh out loud if it wasn't for the fact he had more enemies to deal with. Up next, he moved back to repeat with Power Strike. Selecting it, he performed the same dance move to the watching crowd. The crowd booed, throwing their drinks at him to phase by him as he stood confused. That worked last time, why didn't it work this time?
'The Crowd was not impressed. Crowd Level decreased by 2.'
"Aw, come on!" Jaune groaned as he watched his CL drop into the negative. Which meant he would lose a turn from his guess. The battle turn shuffled again, moving his next turn to the very bottom after the enemies moved twice. Repeating a dance move must not be a crowd appeaser.
Beowolf1 moved next. It shuffled its feet back, bobbing its head up and down furiously with its claws up in devil horns as its tongue lulled. With the crowd's approval, it snarled and lunged forward with a wide-open maw of sharp teeth. Jaune grit his teeth as his body moved to dodge on instinct. It was useless as the Beowolf rammed into his body like an anvil and bit down ruthlessly on his shoulder blade. Blood flew up as it dug its fanged teeth deeper. With its move done with, it jumped back to its spot as it let its brother move next. Beowolf2 threw its claws in the air, waving them around before slamming them down to the ground repeatedly while shaking its head wildly. Its red eyes glowed deeply with the roar of the crowd. It vanished in a blur, appearing dropping down above from Jaune with glowing white claws. It slammed them downward, raking its claws against Jaune's body enough to draw a splatter of blood. The Lie Shade was next. It flicked its hair back, moving its right hand to rest on its hip before strutting forward while moving its left hand to partially cover its face. The Shade spun on his foot before dropping to its head to spin around.
"Failure. You're a sad excuse for a Huntsman." it said as it laid on its side propped up by its arm in a pose. Jaune swore to god that it even gave off a twinkle it its red eyes like some magnificent danger.
"I'd feel more insulted if you didn't say that while looking ridiculous." Jaune said through clenched teeth as his eye twitched madly. As if he had a right to say that right now! The Lie Shade dashed forward, skidding on its feet while spinning around with its blades extended. Jaune was assaulted by a top spin of slashes, chipping away at his health.
Grimm Origin danced next. It bounced all around with the beat, spinning in place before popping out an arm to give a thumbs up. The crowd clapped lightly, more than enough for it to attack. Summoning its second arm, it cracked its knuckles before unleashing a barrage of pummeling punches to drill Jaune with. Jaune gasped hoarsely as his HP took a big hit from the attack, leaving him to fall to his knees in agony and spit out wad of blood.
Jaune Arc.
3,350HP/6,000HP
That was nearly half his health! With Jaune's CL still in the negative, he was left to suffer through with his wounds as the enemies moved again. He grit his teeth as his body could only stand against the next wave of attacks, dropping his health closer to the red. He messed up with his second turn and now he was paying the price.
'Think, how would Melodie go about this in a dance?' Jaune thought back to his oldest sister as the Grimm Origin rained another barrage of fists into him. He nearly threw up as its large fist nearly punctured through his gut as he dry heaved.
A well-endowed pink haired woman in a spaghetti dress grinned back at him in his mind. She looked to be in her mid-twenties and had the silkiest hair he had ever seen done up in a bun and ponytail. Her bright blue eyes winked at him as she waved her finger at him and ruffled his hair.
'Don't think about it! Let the music tell you what to do. Like water, flow along with the melody. Dancing is not about thinking about what to do, it's about having fun and listening to how your body feels!' her airy voice laughed.
Jaune's turn finally came back to him. He cleaned off the blood drying on his chin as he fought to stand still. His HP was in the red. He needed time to recover.
'I feel like I need to defend. Let's see how I can do it.' He scrolled down to his Spells and selected Reflect.
'Reflect[10MP]. Dance Move: Astonish.'
The music's beat flowed back into Jaune as he took a breath. Just remember Melodie's words and it would come to him. His feet danced along as he moved his arms in a flair. Crocea Mors shield opened and bashed forward three times. He drew it into a sheath and spun it in the air and opened it back up with a fierce glare. The crowd was drawn back for a moment before roaring with applause.
'The Crowd Loves ya! Crowd Level increased by 2!'
"Reflect!" Back into the flow, Jaune cast his mirror dome to defend himself for the next few turns. The Beowolves moved next, dancing in heavy rock steps to attack. Reflect bounced back their attacks, damaging them in the process as they lost half their health.
The Shade dropped danced with an alluring flair, running forward to fall to his knees in a skid. It pulled its shirt open to show off its chest to the crowd as it taunted Jaune, "Give up. You'll fail as you always do."
Jaune growled as he noticed its eyes sparkle, "God damn it, shut up! This is not threatening at all!" he yelled in annoyance.
It didn't pay him any attention. Instead it ran forward with cruel teeth shaping the fangs of its version of Storm Flower. It slashed at his dome twice, carving an X on the dome as it jumped back. Reflect began to wane as the Grimm Origin danced next. It rolled back and forth on the dance floor, spinning in circles before clapping its hands together merrily. The lights up above fell directly onto it, sending rays of rainbows to strike everything in sight including its allies. Jaune was safe as his defensive spell bounced its attack back to pierce it.
It was Jaune's turn again. Seeing that he had 2 CL's on him, he pulled up his inventory to down a Large Aura Potion to mend his wounds with a dance. He shook his hips with his steps, raising hearts to the female silhouettes in the crowd as he winked and combed his hair back to Allure them. 'The Crowd is feeling hot! Crowd Level up by 2!' With his CL now on 3, Jaune scrolled through his abilities until he fell on Luminous Howl. Along with its MP cost, it also used up 3CL to activate along with a Burn Dance Move. Activating it, he shook his head dismissively at the enemies with a snarky smirk. He clapped his hands together, spinning in place as he danced and swiped his hands at them with a burning energy. "Luminous Howl!" he shouted along with the crowd's applause. A blinding white light seared all their eye sights, stunning them from acting out as Jaune's blade grew longer with light. He then swept his sword to tear through his enemies, killing off the Beowolves and the Lie Shade. The Grimm Origin was cut deeply, shattering its mirror coat as it was left in a daze.
Jaune grinned in victory as the turn order skipped the Grimm Origin. It was left wide open.
"Crescent Blade!" Finishing up with another dance move to wow the audience, Jaune fired a slashing crescent blade to cut the Grimm Origin in half. Its eye blinked before its body turned to ash in the wind.
"Victory!" Will cheered, dancing around as Jaune sighed in relief as his body was freed from the corruption's control, "That wasn't so hard, was it? I thought it would have taken you longer to finish that up. Your dance skills really paid off."
"I thank my eldest sister for this win. She always loved teaching me how to dance along with her. Never would have thought it would help me in a fight." Jaune smiled. He would have died if he hadn't listened to her advice. That was touch and go for a second.
The crowd faded away to nothing, leaving Jaune to stand by himself in the empty dance room. He couldn't help but reminisce to his last life and the dance he had shared with his team. Good times. He couldn't wait to do it again sometime.
"That was the only one, right?"
Will nodded, "Pretty much. With the corruption here done for, Mind's at 67.0%. He's getting closer to being freed from corruption with every win. We only got one more Memoir to go, so let's get going!"
"Right." Jaune agreed as he took one last look at the dance floor. For some reason, he found his eyes trailing back for the balcony he had landed on. He frowned as his body began to transfer itself back to the main way to the Core.
Why did it feel bittersweet?
Free of corruption, the memory was able to move on. Leaving Jaune and Ren back to swinging their raging fists at one another.
"Jeez, you two can be such idiots."
Water balloons smacked into both Huntsman's faces before they could connect their punches, drenching them in water and stopping them in surprise.
What just happened?
Turning their eyes to the person who stopped them, they were taken even further by surprise as they found a smirking Yang Xiao Long bouncing another water balloon in her hand. Of all people to come break them up, she was the last person Ren would have thought of.
"Yang? What are you doing here?" Jaune couldn't help but ask as the flirty blonde walked up to them. She crossed her arms with a quirked brow as if she was asking if he was joking.
"As the party planner, it's my duty to make sure everyone is having a good time. So, imagine my surprise when I bump into a crying Pyrrha. I got her to explain the situation to me and even managed to get her to stick around. And what do I find here? A couple of dumb boys fighting about a woman." she shook her head with a sigh. Yang raised her fist up and then proceeded to hammer it into their thick skulls.
"OW! WHY?!"
"WHAT DID I DO?!"
"You're both acting stupid is what." Yang huffed as she turned away from Jaune and Ren rubbing their aching heads. "One of you is a blind dork who hasn't noticed the beautiful girl right in front of him wanting his attention."
Ren smirked as Jaune flinched and looked down in shame. He was glad to know he wasn't the only one who thought the same.
"And the other is a lazy ninja who's too scared to make his feelings known to the girl he loves."
Jaune snickered as Ren sighed and slouched in despair. He wasn't the only idiot out here tonight.
"I swear, I don't even know how Pyrrha and Nora can deal with you two. There's a girl crying back there, and all you two can do is fight with one another when you can be making her smile again. Talk about knuckleheads."
The thought of Pyrrha crying made Jaune and Ren flinch back as if they were struck. In their fighting, they had forgotten about her. Her tear stained face appeared in their heads, creating a sickness in their stomachs.
Jaune rubbed the back of his head in shame as Ren crossed his arms with a sigh. They turned to each other and came to a silent agreement. No words needed to be said to one another. All the anger that had filled their systems drained away. What mattered now was the red headed girl with a broken heart.
"We. . .we messed up, Yang." Said Jaune, his voice filled with guilt as Ren nodded along with equal guilt, "Though it's mostly my fault for rejecting her. Maybe I shouldn't hav-"
Yang cut him off with a scowl, "Don't. Lying that you liked her back like that would have made things worse. What's done is done, you can't lie about how you truly feel. Pretty sure that cluelessness is part of what made her fall for you." she smirked as Jaune hung his head at the jab, "Honestly? All three of you are at fault. You, for not noticing your partner going head over heels for you. Ren, for getting pissed off about you rejecting her because you didn't love her back and not having the guts to make his feelings known to her. And Pyrrha, for springing all this on you when she knew that Jaune had no clue to her feelings and that he had his eyes on someone else." Talk about drama. Yang felt like she was in some soap opera that Summer would always watch when she was alive.
"So, what should we do?" Ren asked in frustration. In all the lives he had gone through, he never had to deal with a messy situation like this. It had felt so long since he felt like a teenager again. He almost forgot about all the drama that came along with it.
"It's a party." Yang shrugged nonchalantly as if it was as simple as that, "Go back down there and dance with her. Make her forget about her broken heart for tonight. Trust me, having two fine ass pretty boys dance with her like a princess for a few hours ought to make her smile again."
"You really think that will work?" Jaune said skeptically. He was pretty sure his face was the last thing Pyrrha wanted to see.
"Wouldn't hurt to try. Plus, Nora will be your back up. Can't stay upset too long with that girl around." Yang grinned before waving her hand dismissively, "For tonight, focus on making her feel special. Tomorrow's a whole 'nother battle for you numbskulls to figure out. Things aren't going to be the same after tonight, I'll tell you that." she said somberly with a weak smile. The truth was the truth. A woman's first heartbreak took a while to heal and even then, it left a scar. But Pyrrha was a strong woman, Yang was sure that she could move on with time and friends by her side, "But you can't fight with each other like this. It'll only make things worse. You're both men, right? Then start acting like it!"
The strict shout made the two Huntsmen straighten up and nod firmly. It was time to stop acting like boys and act like men! With that in mind, they both headed for the dance floor with determination coursing in their veins.
Ren blinked as Jaune was pulled back just before they could step out. Turning his back, he found Yang holding Jaune back by the shoulder to speak with him privately. The blond knight smiled weakly as Yang nodded in understanding as she held his hand in her own softly. The look in her soft lavender eyes said it all.
'Typical. No wonder he turned Pyrrha down this time. It makes me wonder how I missed Yang and Jaune making a connection. Then again, I couldn't care less.' Ren thought as he waited for them to finish up.
When Ren thought about it, he couldn't hate Jaune for going with his heart. It was just that seeing Pyrrha so hurt had made him lose his cool. And it wasn't like Jaune did it on purpose. He was just born with a very thick skull.
So, what excuse did Ren have? The fear of being turned down was one thing that had never dulled. It made him chuckle when he thought about it.
It was one of the last emotions he still had. It wasn't just Pyrrha that was capable of bringing it out of him, it was all his friends.
Maybe. . .maybe that was why he always came back to this?
Stepping back beside Ren, Jaune broke him out of his thoughts with an apology, "Sorry about that. I just had to take care of something real quick." he said with a grimace as he rubbed his arm. Yang must have punched him when Ren was off in his own thoughts. Served him right.
Ren smiled. He couldn't stay mad at Jaune for long. The guy could get under his skin, but he was still his best friend.
"It's fine. We should get going now that we're ready. There's a very special girl waiting to be swept off her feet tonight."
Jaune couldn't agree more as he patted Ren's shoulder.
"Right. Though maybe you should have the first dance?" Jaune grinned, earning a blush out of Ren as he looked away, "You got to start somewhere, why not now?"
As the two walked down to greet the confused green eyes of said Spartan themed girl, Ren felt that tonight wasn't going to be so bad. Even if he knew what awaited them.
At least this would be a memory he wouldn't forget. As bittersweet as it was.
Memoir of Contentment
"One more to go."
Back at the crossroads of Ren's Core, Jaune was taking a moment to go through his inventory to see how many health items he had left on him. He frowned lightly as he found only 3 Large Aura Potions, 2 Small Aura Potions, and 2 Small Mana Drinks. Hopefully it could last him for the last Memoir. Thank god his HP and MP filled back up in an instant here.
"Ready to wrap things up?" Will asked as it moved to float in front of the final road path. Jaune nodded firmly as he pocketed his scroll.
"The last Grimm Origin that's spreading the corruption lays beyond there. Bet your non-existent ass that I'm ready to finish this!" Jaune said loudly with vigor.
Not waiting for a reply, Jaune ran for the last Memoir. Diving straight in to fix the last of the darkness lurking in Ren's core.
Memoir of Despair
Fires. Fires everywhere. The sound of Grimm roaring, howling, cawing, and screeching for blood filled the very air along with the sounds of battle. The sky of Beacon was a scene of nightmares. The Atlesian military ships were going down in smoke and aerial Grimm ruled the skies. Below the streets of Vale and Beacon was the same as the monsters attacked everything in sight. Even worse, the Atlesian Knights followed them in example as they mowed civilians and hunters down with gunfire.
Hell on Remnant. That what was running through the peoples' minds as they ran for safety while the hunters from all four kingdoms attending the Vytal Tournament fought to protect them. It was a scene all too familiar to Ren as he cut down another Ursa Major with Storm Flower in his mad sprint for the Beacon CCT Tower. From the top of the communications tower he could see the flash of fires raging, breaking apart the windows from Ozpin's office as a fight raged on within. Several Atlesian Knights spotted him as he moved faster to the tower. They raised their guns and aimed as their red glare visors locked onto his form.
"GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY WAY!"
Haze. The Atlesian Knight's saw a haze as the raven-haired teen vanished. Multiple pink lines phased all around their bodies like flickering lights before they fell apart in sliced heaps of metal. Ren didn't spare them a glance as he continued to run for the CCT tower, his eyes wide in anger and alarm as a large torrent of flames broke out the tower's left side.
No. It wasn't too late! Not this time, damn it! There was no way in hell he was letting her die again!
The entrance to the CCT came in sight. Seeing it, Ren was ready to barge past the door for the elevators until a dark shadow fell over him. He snarled as a shaking boom hit the ground. Turning around, he found the form of an Atlesian Mech standing behind him. It was unlike its brothers, upgraded with a slicker design and equipped with amped up weaponry. Its red lenses glinted as it morphed its hand into a Gatling barrel.
Ren felt his shoulder's tremble, shaking his entire body as his grip on Storm Flower tightened.
"Nothing. . . is getting in my way anymore." His face was shadowed as he spoke deathly low. Storm Flower dropped into his inventory as a large executioner blade was equipped into his right hand. He blurred from sight, appearing above the machine just as it fired at his previous spot. With a roaring shout, he dropped his blade deep into its body, cleaving it half. Kicking its remains away, he ran back to enter the tower and stopped at the wrecked, sparking elevator shaft leading up.
No, not even this was going to stop him. Ren ran into the elevator, only to be bounced back by an invisible force. He snarled, refusing to let up. Hands sparking with energy, Ren dug his fingers to try and part the coded wall created by The Game. Numbers could be seen as he grunted from the exertion creating sparks to fly around. Blood wet his fingers, dripping down as his sleeves were torn to rags from the sparks damaging him. The wall of code bounced his fingers back, having had enough of his resistance.
Hissing in pain with an angered grimace, Ren began pounding the wall created by The Game with every attack in his arsenal. But nothing was working. Every attack only damaged his body and dropped his health. Without any MP left, he resorted to smashing his own cut up and bloody fists to break through.
"Please." Ren sobbed as his strength began to leave him. All day, he had been fighting to protect her, to stave her off this damned path to her own grave. He was spent and was left with nothing. Tears splashed against the broken floor as his forehead fell on the wall of numbers. His body slumped against it, weakly banging his ruined fists with what was left of his strength.
Not again.
"NOT AGAIN!" Ren roared, sobbing as the fighting above continued to rage on. The foundation of the tower shook, breaking pieces off to collapse around him as he cried out, "PLEASE, DON'T LET HER DIE AGAIN! I CAN'T TAKE THIS TORTURE ANYMORE!"
Every single reset! Again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again! Why?! Why of all people was she fated to die? Why?
Why couldn't he ever save her?
". . . . .Ren?"
From thin air, Jaune warped into the memoir to stand behind the crying raven haired Player in disbelief. The tower shook again, dropping a large section of the ceiling to shatter around them as Jaune looked sadly at his best friend beating his broken hands into an invisible wall.
What was he seeing? What kind of memory was this? From behind Jaune, he could make out the sounds of fighting all over Beacon. It was like they were engulfed in a war. The very air felt tense and overbearing. A loud terrifying screech pierced his ears like a knife. The very volume of it broke parts of the tower apart.
Wincing as the ringing in his ears died away, Jaune walked over to Ren to lay his hand on his shoulder in concern. Ren's body felt cold to the touch.
"... You're always too late."
Jaune flinched back. Ren could hear him? Was that normal? No, Jaune shook his head with a frown as he stepped back. From what he had gathered from the last two Memoirs, the very memory he dived into froze until he fixed it of its corruption. This could only mean one thing.
Dark wisps of vile energy rose from Ren's body as he stood back up. His magenta eyes glanced back at him, dying blood red as red veins sprouted around the sides of his face. His very skin grew pale white like the shattered moon above their heads.
"It doesn't matter how fast you run, you'll always fail. It doesn't matter how many people you save, you'll always fail to save the three people you care about most." Ren said hatefully, his eyes staring past Jaune as if he wasn't even there.
"There you go again. Talking nonsense! What are you trying to say?" Jaune shook his head as he tried to comprehend what Ren was saying. His Shades were the same. Saying these taunting words that stabbed at his heart. But half of them didn't make any sense. Were they things to come?
Ren didn't say another word. Instead he stood by as he let the dark energy rise above him. It swirled around him in a mass, forming a blob of darkness with a single glaring red eye.
'WARNING, WARNING, WARNING! BOSS, INCOMING! Grimm Origin EX: Model Lie Ren, The Eternal Despaired! GET READY!'
Grim Origin EX: Model LR.
17,000HP/17,000HP
Will whistled as it read the boss staring down Jaune from the safety of his scroll, "Yikes, that's a lot of health. Looks like the final Grimm Origin's upgraded itself to boss status. It's not even going to play around, it's heading straight for a fight!"
Jaune didn't say anything back, choosing to move into his fighting stance. He still had no idea what was going on with this memory's Ren, but it was only a copy. If defeating it meant freeing his friend from his own darkness, then he had no other choice. This was the last hurdle. And he wouldn't fail him now with how far he had come.
"Don't worry, Ren. I promised I'd save you, and I aim to keep my word!" Jaune smirked as he leveled his sword for Ren's face.
"Nothing will ever change. Just go back to sleep. Only dreams will bring you peace." The Grimm Origin floating over Ren seemed to giggle demonically, forming angry red veins on its body as a face splitting sharp toothed grin appeared to mock him.
'FIGHT!'
A bright glare lit up the Grimm Origin's eye before firing a concentrated beam of red energy. Jaune immediately began to dodge the laser as he found the boss repeatedly fire at him with gusto. Broken floor tiles flew up in the air with every missed shot. Timing it's laser fire just right, Jaune bounced it back with a Reflect spell, causing it to flinch in pain. With it dazed Jaune rushed to swing his sword over its body.
Ren was having none of that though as he jumped in to intercept Jaune with a kick to his stomach. Sending him flying back with a shout, the corrupted Huntsman then locked his sights onto him before unloading a rain of frozen homing bullets. Jaune quickly regained his balance as his feet touched the ground to skid back. He cursed as he found the chilling metal barrage coming closer. Reflect was still cooling down. With nothing else to evade the homing attack, Jaune raised his shield up. Hail Storm hit its mark, blowing up in small cold explosions all around his body. Ice crawled up his shield arm, sticking his fingers together and preventing him from shutting it back.
Body shivering from the cold, Jaune quickly jumped back just as Ren ran in to slam his aura coated palm into his frozen arm. A dark shadow fell over him as he began to dodge the swift swings of Ren's fangs, alerting him to the real threat. The Grimm Origin grinned wickedly as it formed an arm to swing its hammer fist down. On instinct Jaune raised his shield up to block the blow. The ice shattered to pieces but doubled the damage. Pain lanced through his arm as he grimaced. Ren took the opportunity to slash at him with Storm Flower, slashing a large X over his chest. The corrupted Player then dealt an uppercut with his foot under Jaune's chin. The Grimm Origin pulled back its arms, its knuckles coated with a bone platting before it punched Jaune back into the floor. The impact created a crater as the blond knight struggled to rise back up. A rain of knuckles pummeled him to keep him from getting back up. His body was thrashed around as he was dug deeper into the foundation with every punch.
"REFLECT!" Shouting through the pain, Jaune bounced the fists back. Gritting his teeth, he forced himself up to swing his sword against Ren's fanged blades. The two broke into a barrage of strikes, clanging steel in a shower of sparks. "Hedge Fang!" Breaking into a sword spin, Jaune broke Ren's attack and slammed into him. Dealing a decent amount of damage, Jaune canceled his attack before firing the bandages of his braces to dig their hooks into Ren's shoulders. He pulled him forward and drilled his fist into his face. The Grimm Origin dived down as Ren fell back to slam its fists into him.
Crocea Mors blade sunk into its knuckles to stop it. Jaune twisted the sword, laying his free hand on the blade as an idea struck him, "Firebolt!"
Flames spewed out from the stab wound, unloading a torrent of magic fire into the dark arm. Its arm bulged comically before popping in an explosion that tore it off. It squealed in agony.
Grim Origin EX: Model LR.
12,003HP/17,000HP
"I'm not done yet! Ember!" Blasting it back with a lashing fireball, Jaune followed it up with a Crescent Blade to chop off its second arm. Little flickering flames covered its body, leaving it no other choice but to float away for safety.
Jaune reached into his inventory to heal his wounds. Even though he was fighting two opponents that shared the same health it wasn't too hard. The Grimm Origin had some high health and Ren had high speed. Other than that, he was keeping up.
Senses blaring, Jaune spun around to block a diving scissor kick from Ren. He was done recovering and on the attack again. The raven-haired Huntsman jumped back then spun around to slash like a windmill top diagonally. Getting nowhere, Ren equipped Horizon for greater speed. He disappeared in a blur, confusing Jaune. A single gash opened along the side of his waist, spilling his blood onto the floor from an explosive slash running by him. Again, and again, Ren dashed past him by with a drawing slash amplified by its sniper fire. Jaune could do nothing as the attacks kept him in place. Every slash slicing his skin open was driving him crazy. He needed to stop it!
"Reflect!" Casting the mirror dome, Jaune was able to pause the next drawing slash. Sparks flew as Ren tried to shatter the defensive spell. He pulled it back swiftly to its sheath, loading a burning shell into its chamber before easing into a stance. His sword arm blurred, leaving him standing in gesture of already swinging his long sword. The mirror dome suddenly creaked as paper thin orange line cut through it. Jaune looked at Reflect in confusion before he found himself spitting out blood as his spell shattered and left him with a gruesome open gash along his stomach. Ren nearly gutted him.
From above him, the Grimm Origin returned to glare down at him. It fired a laser to pierce through the top of his shoulder. Thankfully his aura was still up to a decent amount, so it was nothing more than a bullet like wound burned into his body. It didn't mean it didn't hurt though.
"Luminous Howl!" With a shout, Jaune stunned the two charging bosses with a flash of luminous white. He reared back his long light blade, gripping it tightly before sweeping through them with a wide swing.
Grim Origin EX: Model LR.
10,003HP/17,000HP
The boss was around half its health now. Good, all the fighting was really starting to wear Jaune down at this point. He hissed as he gingerly held his stomach. He could feel the flaps of his skin drawn and the blood flowing steadily from the shredded muscles and fat. If it wasn't for his body now designed after a video game character, he was sure he would have passed out sooner. Bringing up his inventory quickly, Jaune selected a Large Aura Potion and a small Mana Drink for synthesis.
'Ether Synthesized!' +500EXP.
With a pop, Jaune uncorked the fancy glass bottle of deep blue liquid to gulp it down greedily. The ugly bloody gash mended soon after along with the rest of his wounds. Though even with the wound mended, he could still feel the phantom sensation of his stomach nearly being sliced open. Turning his attention back to the bosses, Jaune was taken back at the ominous sight.
Dark wisps pulsed from the Grimm Origin and Ren's bodies. The dark mass of darkness floated over the raven-haired Huntsman, shutting its eyes before descending and engulfing the Player in a cocoon. Green and black flames erupted from the union that created a bellowing storm to smack into Jaune. The very force was pushing him back, taking him off his feet and sending him flying out of the inside of the CCT and rolling onto the grounds of the courtyard. Getting back up on his feet, Jaune was ready to charge back in. He stopped though, his eyes going wide in horror at the destruction all around him.
"This is Beacon? What happened to the school?!" he yelled, spinning his head around to see the ruined school facilities and crashing bullheads frozen in mid-air. Flames burned the ground, rubble fell over the school grounds, broken shambles of Atlesian Knights and what looked like mechs littered the place. A war zone. Carnage everywhere in sight, he could see dried blood splattered on the tiled grounds. It was nightmare.
Was. . .this the horror that Ren was always alluding to? Jaune turned his eyes upwards to the very top of the tower where Headmaster Ozpin's office was settled in. It was torn apart from within, tossing burning wreckage that had been frozen in the paused memory from a fight. Jaune flinched suddenly as he held his chest tightly.
Why did looking at it make his heart ache?
"Ren. Is this what you've had to put up with every time?" Jaune said sadly. A nightmare that refused to die with every reset. "Something horrible must be taking place here. And you think it's your fault. It's tearing you apart inside."
From the torn apart entrance way Jaune was sent flying through, green-black miasma erupted. The wave of darkness rushed past everything in sight as he braced himself against its foul presence. A set of glowing pink eyes peeked out from the wave, slowly moving out from the CCT tower with its neon green claws as long as a family couch gripping the entrance for support. Green lines appeared around the body of the slouched beast in intricate patterns as it stood 25 feet in stature. With squinting eyes, Jaune stared back at the new enemy through the buffet of crashing darkness, catching its attention as it leaned its head down to stare into his blue orbs.
"You can't fight destiny. You'll only further destroy yourself trying. You're no different than the child who ran away to leave his father to die. You couldn't even save your mother. You can't save Pyrrha." it said emotionlessly, further confusing Jaune. None of what it was saying made sense! It didn't even sound like he was talking to him anymore! It almost sounded as if-
The dark beast roared, the very volume blowing the darkness it created away to reveal its form. It was a large sloth like monster with lanky arms and legs that stood on all fours with menacing pink glowing eyes. Its black fur was tinted with a sickly green that matched the lines running around its body, its claws, and the spike like club of a slithering tail. Its face had a green bone mask plating and two magenta tipped bangs on the side of its face.
Grimm Lie.
20,000HP/20,000HP
"Huh. I guess this is what you could call the second stage of a boss fight." Will chirped from Jaune's scroll as the new boss opened its maw to reveal the white razor sharp teeth openly grinning at him.
Jaune's face twisted somberly as he could feel the negative emotions the thing was releasing. So much sorrow, so much hate. And none of it was directed at Jaune.
He gulped, gripping the handle of his sword tightly to the point he could hear the sound of his leather gloves gave off from the action.
"You're in pain. And I never truly noticed just how much you were suffering by yourself. I really am a miserable excuse of a friend." Jaune smiled sadly at the Grim Lie bearing down at him. It tweaked its head to the side, its eyes narrowing as it raised one of its long lanky arms in the air, "Don't you think, Ren?"
The Grim Lie roared in response, dropping its raking claws down for its target. Jaune jumped back from the green claws, watching as they crushed the ground apart in a shower of rubble. It slowly moved to stand on its hind legs with a haunting lazy grin splitting its face. It raised a single claw in the air, flicking it over Jaune. A rush of cherry blossom petals flew up from Jaune's feet, swirling around him in a pillar tornado that kept him still.
"S... Storm Sakura." It said slowly. From the storm of pink, the petals began to pelt Jaune like gunfire. The leaves were bladed, cutting into him as he tried to endure the attack. Feeling one of the petals run across his cheek and draw blood, Jaune countered the storm with a round spin that lashed a bladed ring to blow back the attack. He grit his teeth, raising his shield to block a clawed jab. He mustered his strength to push it back, sidestepping the second jab and fired an air blade to cut into the Grim Lie's masked face. It didn't mind. It spun around, whipping its club tail to bash into Jaune. He shouted as his shield barely made it in time to protect him as he was sent skidding back on his feet.
"Teres Mors!" Calling onto the rose themed weapon, Jaune used the added speed to dodge the next storm of petals rising from under his feet. Pillar after pillar of cherry blossoms followed him as the Grim Lie stood by casting its attacks with a lazy grin. Seeing it raise its clawed hand up for a falling strike, Jaune whipped the vine of his short blade to coil around its wrist. He pulled himself after the appendage, missing the storm of petals under his feet as he spun around to swing his blade. He cut into its paw, flipping over it and pulling himself back to stab his blood red blade into the back of its paw. It leaned its head to the blond knight standing on its paw, speaking dully in almost a slur.
"You'll fail. Again. And Again. And again. And again. And agai-"
"SHUT UP!" Jaune roared angrily as he pulled his sword out ruthlessly. He jumped over its free paw swiping after him and coiled his vine around its neck. Another pull and he pulled himself forward to stab Teres Mors into its forehead. Time to improvise, "Teres Blade: Uproot!" A single lance like tendril pierced out the back of its head in a splatter of blood that painted Jaune's face in red splotches. It still didn't flinch, not caring for the deadly attack as it titled its head with its emotionless eyes peering deep into his soul.
"And again. And again. And again." it droned on as it raised both of its arms up for an attack. It snapped its claws, calling on a twisting rush of petals to lift around Jaune to cut him apart.
Jaune fought against the many small cuts stinging his body. He moved his free hand to grip along in a two-handed grip as he tried focusing his mind for a spell, "F-Firebolt!"
The sensation of deadly fire bolting through its head earned Jaune a shriek of pain. Flames sprouted out the back of its head as it tried to shake Jaune off. Feeling his blade begin to slip, Jaune pushed his feet off its face to land back on the ground. He lifted his open palm for the Grim Lie, taking the chance to fire a salvo of flaming bolts in its distressed state. Explosions blew up on its body, engulfing it in smoke as he drained his MP. The bar to his MP turned red, slowly filling back up as Teres Mors reverted to Crocea Mors.
Howling, the Grim Lie swung its glowing paws to fire curling claws of energy in the air. With his health low, Jaune decided to dodge the tearing blades instead of using his shield to buff the damage. Falling onto all fours it displayed incredible speed as it ran after Jaune. It opened its jaw, ready to bite down onto him. Jaune ducked under the snapping teeth. Sliding under it he slashed at the underbelly before blocking the tail snaking under to bash him. It leered its head after him, moaning as the bristles of its green tinged fur stood up. Needles shot at the blond's running form from its hair. Running past the green hair senbons, Jaune equipped Anubis to counter the boss's slow but heavy swing. Back and forth they bounced each other's swings back, blowing up the air with clangs of burning steel.
"Nothing will ever change. You'll always be the same fearful little boy crying to himself. Just...sleep." it drawled, slashing both of its paws to blast a sickly green X against Jaune's weathered blade.
Jaune grunted under the attack as he felt the force blast past him and shatter the pavement, "You've done enough sleeping. It's time for you to wake up!" Jaune roared, breaking through the cross slash before swiping his blade. The cutting metal caused the Grimm to retreat its arms and go back to casting Sakura Storm all over the place to trap him. Avoiding the spells along with a few green claw blades, Jaune prepared himself to end the fight once and for all. With a ding, his MP was fully restored. All he needed to do was fire one more Firebolt. The gauge for ULW was almost full. Only a little more.
"Firebolt!" Slamming it back with another sparking bolt of flames, Jaune grinned as his body gave off a light flare of magic. Chanting the oath equipped him into his Unlimited Light Works clothing and changed his weapons into light models. The Grim Lie screeched, falling back on all fours to charge in a blur. The added effects of Jaune's change allowed him to easily jump over it and fire a bombardment of light knives like machine gun fire at its back. It howled, lashing its tail to strike him down. Jaune dodged the attack in the air, summoning a copy of Anubis to lob off the club tip.
It growled, shaking its head as it stood back up to raise its arms high in the air. Five swirling tornadoes of cherry blossoms came to life around them. The Grimm then began to command them to shred the knight to pieces, gesturing its claws to follow him. Jaune was sweating as his light feet helped to avoid the cutting leaves. As great as ULW was it didn't last long. He needed to make this count while he could.
Grimm Lie.
12,073HP/20,000HP
"Luminous Howl!" Raising his light sword in the air, Jaune was able to stop the spell as the Grimm was blinded. With a diagonal slash at its chest, he dropped its health further before chaining another attack, "Lumen Flare!" A blast of bright fire stumbled it back, flames burning its fur and dropping its health. It growled, ready to charge in with a sweeping arm swing only to be shot at by bullets from revolving small handed guns. Enough was enough. It crossed its arms, firing a large X to barrel after the illuminating knight.
"Reflect!" Struggling against the bladed sigil, Jaune won the struggle and sent the attack slamming back into the massive sloth Grimm with an added oomph.
"S-Stop fighting. Everything will be. . .sent back to the. . .beginning. Why fight?" It said through the parting smoke created by its own attack. Its arms blurred, jabbing its claws into the large bubble of magic pixels.
"Because you want to fight!" Jaune shouted over the sounds of his defense cracking, "I get it now! All this time you've been saying you hate me, but it's more than that! You hate yourself! All those words you've been saying, you've been saying them to yourself. You're trying to make yourself give up and save what is left of your emotions!"
One last jab shattered Jaune's spell, leaving him wide open as the claws stabbed into his chest, narrowly missing some of his major organs. His eyes trembled as he coughed up red onto the neon green claws twisting further in his body. It leaned its ruined mask closely to Jaune's face for a lazy grin.
"But you'll fail. Again. And again. And again. An-"
"I SAID SHUT UP!" Jaune spat in frustration and blistering fury. His hands dug into its claws, keeping it still as he summoned a curtain of rapiers above its body, "Stop trying to convince yourself that you'll keep failing! What's the point of being able to walk if you can't walk forward!?"
'. . .F-Forward?' it paused as its body was pelted by the thin magical blades. A great sword followed after the rain, inflicting a critical hit as it found itself pinned down. Weakly raising its claws, it summoned its petals to shred the knight's body.
Holding back a scream from the countless small cuts opening along his skin, Jaune glared back into the pink pools staring into his own, "I know you're tired. Of all people, you deserve some much-needed rest. You've suffered through these countless cycles by yourself with no one to turn to. But that's not true!" he shouted, flinching as a petal nearly took out his eye. He shook his head, raising his bloody hand to touch the green Grimm mask of his friend taken over by his own despair, "You'll always have us! We're your friends and whenever you're feeling hopeless you just have to turn to us! Because I know for a fucking fact, that no matter the world we find ourselves in, we all will be your friends! Or have you forgotten about that!?"
"The reason you keep playing along with this game isn't because you're being forced into it! IT'S BECAUSE YOU WANT TO SEE YOUR FRIENDS IN EVERY WORLD!"
'M-My. . .Friends?'
Drip.
A twinkling tear fell from the Grimm's eyes. It growled, roaring with such intensity that it created a crater under them and hit Jaune like an invisible wall. Still, he endured. The petals died away allowing Jaune to move freely and jump back to dislodge the claws.
One last attack. That's all he had left in his ULW form. He needed a big one to deal a fatal blow to the boss, to free Ren of this poisonous negativity. Just one attack to finish it all!
Jumping out of the scroll, Will hummed at the scene it was watching.
"Hmm, too emotional for me. Was never much into this kind of thing. Fights are much more my thing. But," it grinned as it turned to face the heavily wounded blond breathing heavily, "I got work to do in the real world. So, I'll throw you a little bone for entertaining me this long."
Jaune scowled with one eye shut, "What are you talking about now?"
"I'll give you a little nudge to end this. Just say the word, and I'll boost your strength to a level you've never felt before!"
Jaune thought about it. It would all be over with. But it wouldn't be him who saved Ren. It would be one of the so-called Administrators and their powers.
"No, I can do this myself! You can take your free win and go fuck yourself with it. I'm done playing your sick games just to amuse you. We aren't toys for you to mess with for your own fucked up amusement! Ren's my best friend. I will save him with my own power! I don't need any of you to save those I care about!" Jaune said firmly as he forced his feet to walk over to the Grimm beast. The Grim Lie swatted its arms to smack him away, only for Jaune to create Anubis out of light to bat the claws away. It snapped its jaw at him but found the large cleaver like great sword slamming down on its head. Anubis then stabbed through the top of its maw, pinning it down as it struggled to free itself of the many light weapons keeping it still.
"FIREBOLT!" Digging his weapon deeper into its as it tried clawing at him, Jaune unleashed his fire magic to run through its body. Again, and again, he fired off the destructive spell, rattling its body and depleting its health. Each chant of the spell lit his face in the glow of the bluish flames, slightly burning his own face as he held on despite the bleeding whole in his chest. He didn't have some ultimate move to end a fight, but he could still spam the hell out of his attacks. And Unlimited Light Works was just the form for spamming his spells with no real cost!
With one final explosive chant filling the boss's body with scalding flames, Jaune leaned against his magical weapon tiredly. The power of Velvet's bond faded, leaving him back in his new combat attire as his light copy weapons vanished. Without the swords, the flames within the Grim Lie gushed out with no restraint. Shrouded in bluish white flames, it stood up in agony and glared furiously at the exhausted Huntsman.
"I have to fight and finish this myself! Sometimes the worst action you can take, is no action at all!"
'Take action, son.'
The Grimm Lie howled into the night sky in an anguished cry, summoning one last storm of razor thin petals to stop the knight shouting as he ran forward with Crocea Mors equipped. Its metal blade began to shine like a beacon as he gathered all his strength for one final blow.
"You'll. . .fail-"
"YET I'LL KEEP TRYING!" Jaune barked loudly as he stabbed his sword deep into its chest. Hilt deep in its fur, a ripple of sparking brilliance broke through its back. A weak guttural croak escaped its maw as it began to slowly turn to black ash flowing into nothing.
Falling forward, Jaune jumped back as it fell to the ground with a boom. The corruption spreading through its body vanished, leaving the body of Lie Ren sprawled in the crater of his defeat. His body was free of the negativity.
'Congratulations! Grimm Lie, defeated! +100,000EXP! A new Ability has been unlocked! Parting Blow, Unlocked! A Bonus has been unlocked! +10 Skill Points!'
Walking over to the knocked-out body of his friend, Jaune gingerly patted his back with a somber smile.
"That should do it, right? That was the last of his negativity. He should be free now."
The Will wasn't so sure, "Eh, no. Says that he's down to 43.7%. Something is still corrupting him, refusing to let him go. We need to go to the origin of it all to fix it. Luckily, whatever it is doesn't seem to be capable of fighting."
Jaune groaned as he fixed his back. No need to waste another potion. The rest stop would heal his wounds in no time. Taking one last look at Ren, he was happy to at least break him out of the ugly self-loathing form he had become. Maybe now he could continue with the memory and find the light.
"He won't."
"What?" Jaune asked with a frown as Will somehow knew what he was thinking.
"This particular memory ends here. Ren passed out just as the final battle ended and Beacon was swallowed in a silver light. Sometimes memories don't have a positive note to them. They're just another scar on the psyche."
"So, that's it? What is this memory about anyway? What's going on here?"
"Can't say~! That would be spoiling the fun. You'll just have to ask your friend, and that's if he's willing to answer. Now, let's wrap this mess up!" it clapped its hands before Jaune could protest.
Warping them back to the resting spot, the two left the memory of Ren outside Beacon tower. With the frozen form of a massive dragon like Grimm at the top of the ruined CCT, the Grimm ran away for safety. Allowing the military and hunters to search the grounds for survivors.
It was the sight of his beaten and dirtied body Jaune and Nora had found their friend in.
Walking back to the air ships parked out to carry them back to safety, Jaune groaned lightly from the weight of Ren on his back. Nora was too wounded to be doing any lifting so that left him with the responsibility of carefully taking him back. She settled for walking beside him, holding Ren's arm close to her chest with a depressed air around her.
"Cheer up, Nora. At least we found him before any of the Grimm or White Fang stumbled onto him." Jaune said in hopes of lifting her spirit. She nodded, lifting her lips weakly as her head fell to rest beside the knight's shoulder.
"But we still haven't found Pyrrha yet. I don't even know why Ren had run off in the first place. It was like he had become possessed by a demon. Everything's falling apart." she sniffed.
Jaune tried to smile, bringing the orange haired Valkyrie closer in a one-armed hug, "It'll be alright. Ren can explain himself when he wakes up. And we'll find Pyrrha. I know she and I have a lot to talk about after she sent me off in the rocket launcher. She's invincible! I know she'll be alright, she's probably waiting for us to come back." A tear ran down his face for some unknown reason as he grinned widely. His heart ached, almost as if someone had shot an arrow through it.
"We're team JNPR! And we always stick together. Even when we're apart. Now, let's hurry back. I think I heard them say they found Ruby and Weiss. If anyone knows where Pyrrha is, it's them."
Memoir of Repeat
Back at the cross roads one final time, Jaune stood by waiting for The Will to open the last Memoir. All three had been cleared, but there was one last hurdle to deal with. With a shimmering flash, the sign post transformed along with the three roads. Now a single road was left with sign post of its destination.
"Kuroyuri?" Jaune said slowly to pronounce the odd word. It didn't sound like a memoir.
"The final road. What lies beyond is a mystery to me." The Will groaned. It never liked mysteries.
"It doesn't matter. I'm going to stop this corruption and end this." Jaune said with resolve as his body was healed. No time to waste. He began walking along the dirt road, frowning slightly as his body had yet to transport him to the memory. Instead he was greeted with the sight of a beautiful eastern village. Passing by the entrance gate, he was in awe at the decorative markets and lotus flowers floating in the streams below the bridges.
"This place is gorgeous!"
"Oh, well I'm glad you think so."
Jumping back on instinct while drawing his sword, Jaune found a beautiful brown haired woman giggling at him. She wore a dress that reminded him of Ren's waistcoat and had lovely magenta eyes. Everything about her said caring and loving.
Embarrassed that he would draw his weapon to a woman, Jaune drew it back as he scratched his neck with an apologetic smile, "Sorry about that. I thought you were a Grimm."
"Don't worry, there are no Grimm in here. Lee would have stuck them down before they could set foot here." she said with a warm laugh.
Lee? He had never heard of someone like that. "Who are you anyways? I thought this was a memory corrupted by negativity." It didn't seem that way. The whole world felt at peace.
The woman tapped her lips in thought, "I suppose you could call me a guide of sorts for now. Something to help keep Lie's Soul going after all the despair he's gone through." she said sadly. She walked closer to Jaune, taking him in a strong embrace as he blinked in confusion. Well, that was random.
"Thank you, for always being there for Little Lie. I know he can be hard to deal with, but he's not a bad boy. He's the sweetest flower to have ever graced our lives." she sniffed as Jaune could feel his shoulders begin to dampen.
Jaune didn't have a clue to what was going on. But if there was one thing he knew, it was to always hug back a crying woman. Bringing his arms around her, he laid his head against her shoulders as he patted her quivering back.
"Ren's my best friend. As if I would ever turn my back to him. He may be lazy, thick headed, addicted to seaweed drinks, and emotionless half the time, but he's still my friend. And as his leader, it's my job to smack some sense into him every now and then!" Jaune grinned, happy to feel the woman chuckle in his chest. "He's tired, dead tired. But I know he still has hope, a reason to keep moving forward. If he has that, I know he'll keep trying to beat this game."
The woman in his arms smiled, rubbing her face of her tears as she beamed at the blond boy.
Her little Lie was in safe hands. Her little lotus had friends like this boy by his side for eternity. Something that would ease whatever darkness in his heart. The only good thing about his curse was seeing them all over again. Moving back from the hug, she giggled noticing bits of dried blood and dirt over his face. She brought her sleeve up, spitting on the cloth like material before rubbing the filth off Jaune's face.
"H-Hey! That's not necessary!"
The brown-haired woman couldn't help but giggle at the knight's blushing face. "There, you look much more handsome now! I could just eat you up." she grinned playfully as she laid her gentle hand on his chest.
Jaune gulped at the attention before suddenly yelping in fear as an arrow grazed his cheek. The woman pouted, turning back to a bell tower to shout.
"Lee! Don't be jealous! This is Lie's best friend. Don't make me come up there!"
From the top of the tower, a shadow shivered before jumping off and heading for another spot to guard. Jaune could have sworn he saw an older and wiser looking version of Ren sprinting off the rooftops. Just who were these people.
Done with cleaning the blond up, the woman shut her eyes with a peaceful expression on her face. It was time, she supposed. This couldn't last forever. It was time to move forward.
"If you make your way forward, you'll come across a bridge. There you'll find a garden of lotus flowers floating in a stream along with a sole lonesome one in the bunch. You'll find your answer there." she said gently, pointing her finger behind Jaune to follow. He turned his head, finding a clear path leading to a nice looking red bridge.
Turning back to the woman to thank her, he was sad to find her missing. He couldn't place his finger on it, but she had this air about her that put him at ease. Almost as if he was talking with his own mother.
The sight of the many-colored lotus flowers was a sight for sore eyes after all the nightmarish monsters he had been fighting. Coming closer to the edge of the stream, he suddenly found a small raven haired boy with his long hair clipped back sitting at the edge, dangling his feet in the water. From the looks of it he wore waistcoat very like Ren's.
Jaune was hit with realization, his lips lifting brightly as he took a seat next to the little boy.
The presence of the new stranger startled the boy, causing him to turn his tear-filled eyes at the blond Huntsman by his side. He sniffed, curious at the man smiling at him.
"Hey there. What's your name?"
"...Lie, Lie Ren." Ren said shyly as he kicked his bare feet in the water.
"Ren, huh? Sounds like a great name. What you doing here all by yourself little Ren?" Jaune asked, the question making the small version of his friend to look down somberly.
"I just wanted to see the water flowers." Ren mumbled. "I had a bad dream. My home was burning and I was running for safety. I had nowhere to go for so long. Then I found a town just like mine under attack. Only to be brought back to the day of my home's destruction."
An odd voice had spoken to him when he had mustered his courage to run into the town. It told Ren it could give him power, power to save others and stop the Grimm. All the little raven haired boy had to do was save one person. Time had been rewound so that he could save the orange haired street orphan cowering from the Grimm. He had given up his soul to save her.
Little Ren clutched his head with a pained expression as he tried to stop himself from crying. The moment he had saved the girl these odd numbers and pieces of information filled his vision. And then the visions filled his head. Of monsters, demons, people dying because of his mistakes, and the endless loop of despair that followed with these new powers. Then he woke up standing by the bridge he always visited to stare at the lotus flowers. Over and over again.
"I... I don't know what's real anymore! It's like I'm stuck in some never-ending nightmare that won't let me wake up! I miss my mom, I miss my dad, and I miss Pyrrha!" he cried, gritting his teeth as his small body was wracked with sorrow, "I don't even know who Pyrrha is, but I miss her! And I keep hearing this voice in my head, my voice, telling me that even though I can save billions, I can never save the three people that matter most to me!"
So, that was it. Jaune understood his despair a little better now. What was the point in trying if Ren could never save the people he loved most? He frowned though as he caught Pyrrha's name mentioned. Did that mean she was going to die? The very idea sounded impossible. Questions could wait until later however. Right now, what mattered was cheering up the little boy.
"I'm tired! I just want to sleep in peace! I don't want to walk forward anymore if there's no point!"
Warmth spread onto Ren's shoulder as he looked up at the blond man looking at him sympathetically with a hand resting on his shoulder blade.
"It's alright. It's okay to cry. It sounds like you had a terrifying nightmare. But that shouldn't stop you from going forward. Doing nothing won't get you anywhere, you must try. And if you fail, keep trying. Because you must have a reason to move one foot forward." Jaune said firmly, ruffling the dark hair of little Ren with a grin.
Ren had a reason. His friends. The departed memories of his family. Those alone were the driving force that had pushed him this far. Somehow, he had forgotten that. But it was an impulse that kept him on the path to Beacon to reunite with all the people he fought for. One he no longer questioned or recognized, chalking it up as a lazy route that didn't require much effort.
Maybe it was impossible to find the True End to this game they were locked in. But if they stopped trying, what was the point in all this? There had to be a way. And Jaune wouldn't stop until they found it. Beating The Game on his first life sounded ridiculous now that Jaune thought about it. An impossible task that spat on the other Player's efforts thus far. It didn't matter how long it would take him, centuries or an eternity, Jaune would find The End that freed them all from this curse.
Ren stared at the blond-haired man in slight awe. It was like looking at a knight from his mother's story books. Something inside him snapped, the dam of wetness behind his eyes breaking as his tears spilled out. He grabbed Jaune's arm tightly as he sobbed into them, tired of fighting all the sorrow he had held back for so long.
Jaune didn't mind. He patted the little boy's head gently as he let him release all the emotions he had fought to keep inside.
"Your mom and dad are proud of you. I know that for sure. Even if you were to give up, they would still love you for fighting on this long. You aren't alone. You have friends waiting for you when you wake up. They're loud, energetic, quiet, polite, high strung, hot headed, proud, strong willed, funny, and all around fun to be with. And they're more than willing to wait as long as it takes for you to see them again. I think that should be a good enough reason to keep going. Don't you?"
Ren sniffed, nodding as he let go. He rubbed his eyes free of his tears as he smiled brightly.
"Are. . .are you my friend too?" he asked shyly. The innocent gleam in his eyes made Jaune want to hug the little guy. It was hard to imagine that Ren was once this pure.
The blond knight grinned widely with a thumbs up, "You betcha! Consider me one of your best friends! Only second to Nora, that girl has the number one spot locked down like a bear and the last jar of honey in the forest."
Ren laughed, his mood lifted as he stood back up. Unaware of the ball of blue flames appearing over his head with flexing white gloved hands. Alarm spread into Jaune as Will grinned darkly, its eyes glowing a deadly red.
But before Jaune could make a move, an elegant green arrow cut through the air and carried it away. A blur flew by the two, following its target.
Will grunted as it found itself pinned against the village gate, "What gives?! Who dares to interfere with my will!" it growled. An intimidating shadow fell over it, the attacker drawing another arrow to stop it.
The man had dark raven hair with gray streaks, a finely cut beard and wore a waistcoat like trench coat. His light-yellow eyes glared at the almighty being, daring it to make another move.
"Your will has no power here. Your presence is no longer needed within my son's Core. Leave, Wisp of a Dead God."
The Will sneered at the dead memory, "You're just some security program designed after Mind's father to watch over the Core. And you failed. My Will will be carried out! And some phantom will not stop me from my work." it hissed.
"My son's friend will be the one to reset his Core. Not. You." the man said sternly, notching his arrow for the flaming being's body, "I may be a memory, but I still have my duty. As long as my son has the strength to act, my memory will remain."
"Oh, you stupid pile of one's and zer-!"
"Vanish." Firing the arrow, the raven-haired man dispersed the god into lingering embers. The wisps flew up into the air, banished from the Core.
The man smirked, turning his head back to where Ren and Jaune remained. His eyes softened before sprinting off to continue his duty.
Jaune blinked at the odd event, but shrugged it off. At least he was free of the Will. No need to question how. Ren tugged at his sleeves, bringing his attention to his gentle smile.
"Thank you, Jaune. I think I might be able to wake up now."
"No, problem Re-Wait. . .how do you know my name?" Jaune asked with suspicion as the raven-haired boy leaned his head back with crossed arms and a grin.
"I remembered. You're my best friend, the dork knight!" he chuckled. Jaune slumped at the title with a sigh. Of all things, Ren had to remember that?
"Then I guess you're no longer in danger of Falling, are you?"
"No, not anymore. Look!" Ren gestured to his arms. Darkness began to flow out in a stream, lifting to return to nothing. "My Core has been almost restored. Now all that's left is to restore all the lost memories. Which poses a problem." he grimaced.
Jaune nodded, "It doesn't feel like Will is in here anymore. As much as I disliked it, it's the only one with the power to fix you. I don't know how we're going to do that without him." he said as he went in thought. There had to be something.
Ren looked uncomfortable as he knew of a way. It wasn't pretty.
"You can fix everything. But I don't think you'll like it."
"It can't be that bad." Jaune shrugged as he knelt down to eye level with the boy, "Whatever it takes, I'll save you. I made a promise after all. No turning back on my word." he grinned.
With a sigh, Ren decided to let him know.
"Fine. But I warned you. Just to let you know, I won't remember any of this. The Ren you're talking to is nothing but a construct of meshed thoughts and experiences. The real me will be released from his negativity, but after that? Who knows?" Ren shrugged as he crossed his arms, "I can't say I'll be all buddy-buddy with you once this is all over with. But the feelings will be there, so that should help."
"Good, I'm tired of you killing me. I'm tired of dying in general." Jaune said in relief. He just wanted to get the lesson in Forever Fall over with and go home to sleep like Ren. And food. He almost forgot about Tsuki's boxed lunch of delicious goodies. "So, what do I have to do?"
Ren moved closer to Jaune, whispering what he needed to do to restore his core back to normal.
What he said caused Jaune's heart to stop.
In the real world, Husk was busying listening to a ranting Will over telepathy about programs and disrespectful Players when the body of Jaune digitized outside. Of course, he cut the ball of flames off to see what happened next.
Jaune stood stiffly, his sword arm trembling as he grit his teeth. Without turning back, he spoke to Husk sternly.
"Husk, call off the pause. Go back to where you came from and leave us alone. I need to be free from the rules for this."
As much as the godly merchant wanted to protest and watch, he nodded his head in respect. Husk liked the little Player. He brought something to the game that was surely missed.
"Got it. I know when I'm not needed." he chuckled as his body began to disperse in dark flames, "Good luck, Jaune. I'll be rooting for ya."
Life was breathed back into their world as the pause was lifted. The darkness engulfing Ren disappeared as if it was never there. Jaune winced as his wounds flared up, still retaining all the damage he had suffered before diving into Ren's Core. Well, almost all of them. His lobbed off arm had been returned and Horizon's sleek blade was no longer running him through. That must have been work of Husk. He had to remember to thank him sometime.
But even with Ren no longer Falling, he was still frozen still. His eyes were dead, the light gone from them as he didn't move an itch. The only evidence that he was alive was the rise of his chest. He was breathing.
For now.
No words needed to be said. Steeling his resolve, Jaune raised his blade. He would save Ren, no matter what. Even if it meant painting his hands red.
The sound of clothing tearing and blood gushing out of the gray old blade stabbing through Ren's heart haunted Jaune as he dug his blade deeper. The life liquid splashed against his face, shadowed as a lone tear ran down in guilt. The warmth in his friend's body began to fade, turning ice cold once again. The beating rhythm of Ren's heart was erratic, going off beat before slowing down.
And so, Lie Ren died.
Damn. This chapter was a hell of a monster to write. Can't believe I've written so much in a single week. I could barely scratch up 10K when I wrote for Fairy Tail, it would take me a month at best. I've really improved since then.
Darkness has been stripped of The Mind. Light now flows through like a stream to caress the despaired lotus. But red now taints the pink petals of the now wilted water flower by a weathered blade. Rebirth. Will Ren now be able to walk forward again? Only time will tell.
An exam lays in wait for the blond knight. Time to prove his strength to not only the world, but to himself. What awaits him? And in the dead of Vale's night, a playful criminal with a free soul roams with no strings tying him down. The OG, The Original Gamer. What does this Player see in his own carefree gaze? A world of endless rebirth and curse, or his own personal playground to play with his hearts content? Memories are a tricky thing. How can you know they're truly yours?
Don't cross the line, or else you're going to have a bad time.
Alright, we're now at 20 chapters. We're left with 4-5 left before my break, that I can assure you. And we're almost to 600 Reviews! I can only hope we reach 1,000 soon. This would be my first story with that many reviews. Hell, we're close to 1,000 Followers! So, keep them coming! We're so close to making this one of the highest reviewed Gamer fics in the Jaune sect. Who knows? We just might get a TvTropes page one day. Let's make it happen folks!
Got to thank my beta for getting this chapter so touched up. He even fixed up a few things to make sound better. Great guy. Now, I'm working on Chapter 21 which will be a Free Event. What does that mean? Time to build Friendships and Bonds! What kind of whacky events will find? Maybe a familiar face or two?
Welp, I got to get back to work. Hope you all enjoyed the massive chapter. I really got to watch out with how many words I churn out.
Read and Review! It's common courtesy.
NeoShadows fading in and out.