The screen began to bubble and boil as the familiar silver door rose from it's depths, the thick purple chains corroding and breaking apart as the door opened up and bathed everything in dark purple.
From the tainted light, came a single red eye that glared at the screen before the door slammed shut and everything became static, a crumbling rose symbol appearing every so often as the title began to form.
The Ruinverse: Chapter Fifty, Omniphobia Realm.
Xxxxxxx
-Remnant, Anima, Kuroyuri-
The sun shone high in the sky as the settlement of Kuroyuri was in a state of peace for the first time since its foundation.
The people were happy, businesses were flourishing and families were together at home, trying to eke out a living in this world of Grimm and Huntsmen.
All seemed calm…peaceful even to the untrained eye.
"AH! She bit me!"
Well, it was peaceful until, right near an open street corner, three boys were circling a young child, seemingly mocking her as another child was staring at them with uncertainty.
The child within the semi-circle of boys was a short fair skinned girl with short straight orange hair, turquoise eyes, wearing a long sleeved white shirt sporting a pink heart on the chest, a black hooded jacket, faded pink pants and faded pink shoes with black tape bound around them, who seemed to be trying to protect a moldy piece of bread like her life was depending on it.
As for the other child, it was revealed to be a short fair skinned young boy with long black hair that had a magenta streak on the left side and was tied in a bun, magenta eyes, wearing a long sleeveless dark green tailcoat with black and silver trimming, magenta shoulder patches, a black sleeveless turtleneck with red tasseled ropes over the hips, long pink-to-black detachable bicep length sleeves that were attached to his middle fingers by gray metal bands, light tan pants that get tighter below the knees and black calf-high open-toed sandals, who seemed mixed between helping the girl out or returning home with food from the bakery.
This was Lie Ren, the only child of the Ren family….and he was just bringing food back to his mother….only to see the cruelty of man taking center stage.
"She's dressed all weird!" yelled the shortest boy while pointing at the girl.
"I bet she's abandoned! Like a dog or something!" said the tallest bully as he chuckled with glee.
"Does that mean I have rabies?" asked the bully of middle height before noticing that the girl's gaze turned from their direction to Lie's, making him nudge his friends and pointed towards the newcomer.
Panicked, Lie quickly turned away, regardless of his feelings towards the girl.
He could've saved her, maybe become friends…maybe more, since she was cute in his eyes…..but-
SWIISH!
KISHI!
Such dreams of happiness and possible halcyon days ended as an arrow punctured the girl's right eye, blood dripping from her face as she fell backwards onto the pavement, warm haema seeping into the stone as the boys turned to the body in horror.
"AHHH!"
"What the!?"
"AHHHH!"
Lie's eyes widened as he recognized the arrow and turned his head, facing the assailant to this helpless girl.
That being a tall pale skinned man with long black hair with gray streaks running down the ponytail, a black mustache and goatee, pale gold eyes, wearing a sleeveless green tailcoat, a long sleeved white shirt, a black archer's glove on his left hand that exposed his thumb and pinky fingers, a greenish brown quiver with golden lining on his back, a gold hilted knife with a green scabbard on his left hip that had a golden lotus emblem on the side, a black sash with a single pouch on the front, black pants, open-toe sandals, and holding a greenish brown bow with gold metal on it in his left hand as his expression was one filled with a hit of sorrow and a lot of conviction.
This was Li Ren, patriarch of the house of Ren…and his own father.
"AHHHH!" the bullies screamed while running away, the fear of death overcoming their need to bully the weak and helpless.
"F….F….a….the….r….?"
"I'm sorry Lie." He said while putting the bow on his back. "But it was necessary for the community's survival."
"B-But why?! Why kill her!?" Lie yelled in shocked horror. "She didn't even do anything wrong!"
"I know, and if things were different maybe I wouldn't have used drastic measures." he said while moving closer to his son, who backed away in fear. "Lie, you need to understand. She wasn't going to be a good influence on you."
"B-But you don't know that!"
"I know, but it isn't about her possible influence on you. It is about….her appearance." he said while sounding a little ashamed he had to tell his son something this…life altering after killing a child. "Her hair isn't normal."
"...eh?"
Li sighed while expelling a heavy sigh, something that made his son even more terrified. "Lie, hair in Mistrali culture is significant. The color of black is seen as standard, any deviation from the norm is seen as good or bad omens. The girl's hair was the latter, an ill omen of doom."
The boy's eyes widened in shock, never expecting the girl, whom he felt compelled to save, to be an 'ill omen'. 'W-What…but….how could she? I mean….she didn't do anything wrong….she wasn't.'
As the boy continued to think about the girl, the more he felt fear, more than he had felt in his entire life.
For he just saw his own father kill in cold blood, a trained hunter of animals….killing a human being like a simple deer.
It was…..terrifying.
"Lie." Li said while trying to move closer to his son. "The girl was….a stranger, an outsider that would've polluted the minds of Kuroyuri. She needed to be dealt with."
"But…..she wasn't…."
"Lie, she was filth, nothing more." he said as the boy's perception of life was shattered instantly, his eyes dilating inward as he started to hyperventilate.
For if his father, the one that took care of him and his mother, was this heartless….was he safe? Was he going to die too? Was he filth for trying to help a young girl his age?
Was he going to die?
Was he going to die?
Was he going to die!?
He was going to die!
He was going to die!
HE WILL KILL HIM!
HE'S GOING TO KILL HIM!
"Lie, let's go hom-"
WOOOOOSH!
"NO!" Lie yelled in fear as his body began to glow a sickly emerald green, the energy pulsating outwards from his direction and encompassing the entire village in a matter of seconds. "I DON'T WANT TO DIE!"
Li's eyes widened in surprise before noticing that the energy was forming around his own body, unknowingly causing his shadow to rise from the ground behind him. 'What is…he unlocked his aura? But what sort of semblance is this?'
As the sounds of screams and guttural cries of unknown animals rang across the village, Li's shadow began to turn from a dull black to a pale emerald green color, changing its shape as wisps of smoke moved across its sides.
"Lie, stop! Calm down!"
"GET AWAY FROM ME!" He screamed in fear as the shadow began to form pale white eyes and cackled a little, making the hunter turn around and go wide eyed in shock.
For right behind him was the same little girl he had just killed, staring at him with an unnatural grin plastered on its otherwise featureless face.
"Hehehehehehehehehehe~"
"No…it can't be possible." Li muttered in horror before-
SWIISH!
SKISH!
"GAH!" he cried out in pain as a pale green arrow hit him right on the shoulder, followed by several more hitting his legs, hands, back and stomach, causing blood to drip from the wounds as he fell on his knees in pain. "Ah…what…?"
"Grrrrrrr."
Li's head turned around, slowly due to the pain, as he saw….himself pointing a notched arrow at him with the intent to kill. 'What!?'
"D….i…..e…."
SWIIISH!
As the arrow flew through the air towards the shocked man, the screen began to fade away until.
SQUISH!
Everything was drenched in a dark crimson red.
(Many years later)
The sun rose in the east, but its light failed to illuminate the world in color…for in place of yellow and orange, the star was sickly green, revealing a world blanketed in a strange greenish tinted aura.
But besides the green hues….nothing was left to give it any color, the ground was a barren gray wasteland, plants long since wilted or rotted away, animals either lying on the ground as white skeletons or standing motionless like statues, and the remains of buildings and vehicles rusting or crumbling away into nothing.
The camera zoomed downwards towards the ground, where the destroyed and rotting remains of a village loomed in the middle of this grassless realm, a large decaying cherry tree standing tall in the center of a marketplace, its roots bulging out of the bedrock as parts of its branches were breaking off from age and rot.
RUMBLE!
RUMBLE!
RUMBLE!
RUMBLE!
The ground began to shake, dust flying in the air as the wooden beams began to crack, breaking off from the foundation in the process, as several large sickly emerald green figures began to move towards the center of the village.
Each one varied in size and appearance, but mostly given the form of wasps, hooded cobras, Leviathan Grimm, multi-headed lobsters, venomous tarantulas, humanoid trees with noose-like fingers, behemoth worms with dagger-like teeth, faceless robotic automatons, one eye sentient Dust golems, and numerous others.
Yet in their pale white eyes, a sense of unrelenting duty and drive filled them as they converged towards the village center, where wisps of smoke from their own bodies began to solidify and transform into tendrils of energy, connecting themselves to a massive pale green lotus that seemingly reached towards the sky, expelling a large amount of green aura into the atmosphere every second.
RUMBLE!
RUMBLE!
RUMBLE!
On the ground beneath the construct's legs, numerous smaller beings, all sporting the same pale green hue, moved about, moving about like ants as they avoided their larger counterparts.
"Grrrrrr." growled one of the constructs, one in the shape of a massive burning effigy, as it moved towards the tree, its 'flames' licking against the tendrils as its right arm casually dropped something onto the hard ground.
Bounce.
Tang.
Tang.
Tang.
That something being a small rubble ball, covered in moss and age as it rolled into the lotus, passing through its structure as it stopped near the feet of an unknown being.
That being was a tall skeletal pale skinned young man with extremely long flowing white hair that had a magenta streak on the left side and went down to his bare feet, dull magenta eyes, thick black circles around the eyes, wearing a tattered long sleeveless dark green tailcoat with black and silver trimming, ripped magenta shoulder patches, a dirt covered black sleeveless turtleneck with red tasseled ropes over the hips, long ripped pink-to-black detachable bicep length sleeves that were attached to his middle fingers by rusted gray metal bands, ripped light tan pants that get tighter below the knees, and was covered from head to toe in pale emerald green tendrils that seemed to be sucking his vitality away as his expression was….one of constant unbridled fear.
"P….p…lease….." he choked out while curling into a ball as the toy touched his feet. "N…N…o…more…."
"Grrrrr."
The man's eyes looked up and saw….something that made him quickly jerk his head back into his fetal position in an instant.
That being a pale emerald green construct of a hunter, one holding a bow in one hand, who patted the man on the head with his free hand with 'sympathy'.
"Do…not…worry." it said while the various creatures around him began to grow larger, more solid with every passing second. "We…will….protect…"
"I…I want…to…die….p..lease…." the man whispered in despair as the screen began to be coated in pale green energy, causing it to develop static interference in the process.
ZIZZZZZIZIZIZIZ!
"P…lease…." he repeatedly said while the screen suddenly turned black, a green lotus emblem appearing on screen for a few minutes before it was swallowed up by the darkness as well.
Xxxxxxx
Name/Designation Title: Lie Ren/Bhay Ka Samraat (Omniphobia Realm Lie Ren- ORLRRWBY)
Age: 8~14
Affiliation: Omniversal Evil.
Dimension: - 33333009123- 00 ORLRRWBY
Abilities: Limited strength and speed, unnatural aura pool, aura absorption (via semblance constructs), limited control over fear, fear detection, brittle human physiology (maintained via semblance), high longevity (via semblance), limited regeneration (via semblance), limited immortality (via semblance).
Semblance(s): Tranquility (Formerly), Phobia (a mutated yet destructive form of Tranquility infused with pure negative emotion that allows the user to cause anyone that comes into contact with them to experience their worst fear or overarching prejudice thoughts and brings them to life through the creation of solid aura constructs. Any construct formed by this process has the ability to absorb the aura from others to maintain the user's body, drastically increasing their longevity but also prematurely aging the user in the process, while also creating a 'hive mind' within the constructs to assist in surveillance and combat purposes. If the user loses control over the semblance, then the constructs will spawn without end and prevent the user from disengaging, creating a 'Fear Wave' powerful enough to turn an entire planet into a paranoid web of fearful life forms within a matter of years, possibly days depending on the type of constructs created.)
Bio: In this timeline, in the settlement of Kuroyuri, Lie Ren made contact with one Nora Valkyrie at a young age, as in the original timeline of the realm beyond the Silver Doors, and would have become friends and possibly lovers in the distant future…if a simple act of barbarity didn't ruin it. The patriarch of the Ren family, Li Ren, instead of driving away the boys with his presence, he drew his bow and fired an arrow into Nora's right eye, killing her in the process as the sudden shock terrified both the bullies, who ran away, and Lie Ren himself. When confronted by his son's words, he explained that Nora wasn't a good match for him, a 'filthy' bad omen due to her nature as an outsider and her orange hair, which by Mistrali tradition was considered bad luck, and her presence in Kuroyuri would hurt the community itself along with 'ruining' his family's fortunes. However, this simple action caused Ren's semblance to activate and violently mutate into a new more destructive form called Phobia/Fear, which allowed those nearest to him to experience their greatest fears and prejudices and bring them to life as living breathing constructs of aura. These constructs, once taking physical shape, killed Li Ren in cold blood before attacking the entire settlement, killing everyone as Ren lost control of the semblance, flooding all of Remnant in perpetual fear as everyone's worst fears came to life and absorbed the life from others as part of a twisted 'maternal bond' with their 'creator'. Kept alive for the next hundred years, Ren's body would prematurely age with each aura infusion granted to him by the constructs, turning him into a being that can never die as his own fears keep the constructs in the material plane and thus keep the cycle going. In the end, sentient life would suffer from this 'Fear Wave', always suffering under the hands of Bhay Ka Samraat, the Emperor of Fear….even if he doesn't want to.