You think of me as fearless? I'm have my own nightmares to face, and the big one that haunts me is the one that resides among us. ...I wish it was that Demon, but fate is not that kind to me. ~Unknown, to his allies.
John never figured out when he began humming Paint it Black; when he thought about it, it was probably when two Goliaths romped in during a battle against five Deathstalkers, three Taijitus, and 83 Creeps. By the time the song finished in his head, the trees that surrounded him, creating a large fog of war because of the proximity between each trunk, were indeed painted black. But that wasn't the worst of the end result: fires rampaged on the plants, the Solar energy carving through the girth of the woods. Splinters, small and large, littered the ground, where devastating attacks from both the Champion and the Grimm went astray from their intended targets. And the champion himself, standing in the middle of the carnage, looking no worse for wear.
This was all just another day in the life of the Emerald Forest, after all.
John sat on a trunk of a felled tree – he lost count when he hit the thousands back on Amirokal, but this was the 27th, if memory served correctly, on Remnant – inspecting his sword; the Terra Blade. Back before the Moon Lord made his presence known, the Terra Blade was the strongest weapon against all foes; not even the overgrown weed or the ancient construct were able to fend off the blade of the balance. It may have lost precedence since the Last Prism was given to him, but it, alongside the Lunar Gauntlet's powers, was a go-to weapon, when absolutely necessary.
Taking out a silk rag, he began polishing the pulsating green blade, removing the Grimm blood off of the sword. It has been some time since the Terra Blade has seen action, as many other weapons took the interest of the Champion, so since he entered Remnant, John decided to take better care of the weapon.
As he cleaned the blade, the Champion began going over the objectives he was given by Ozpin: (1), Survive against the Grimm as you travel to an abandoned temple. (2), Collect something important – from what he heard, it wasn't chess pieces. (3), Head to the cliffside that rises above a ravine.
Seemed simple enough. At least, if he wasn't being monitored.
Then again, the Champion couldn't blame them; he was an anomaly, a new player in a game running well over the past few centuries, with tools that can undermine one, many, or all sides if he saw fit. A man wielding that kind of power makes you a prime target by these sides, whether it be for allying with the anomaly, destroying it, or taking control over it.
The former, John can work with. The other two, well...the display he put on does say a lot about their chances.
He figured this out thanks to his wire cutters, which, surprisingly enough, are able to trace Dust Lines, which ran similarly to the Wires he utilized constantly. There was a camera at his 4:30 position, and he kept it observing the battle of impossible odds. And as much as John was reassured that his skills wouldn't be displayed to the students, his first desire was to smash the cameras upon encountering them.
He was deep in thought, and almost cut himself with the blade, had he not felt the rag fall apart in his hands. 'That was far too close for comfort,' John thought. 'Best get to that temple now, wherever it might be.'
Was he lost? The Cell Phone he had said otherwise. And that was almost bad, considering that he was almost caught with the device, while transferring data from the Scroll he was given by Professor Ozpin, by none other than White, who was actually called Weiss Schnee. She was curious as to what he was doing, and after giving her a semi-bullshit excuse about figuring out the Scroll's functions, that was dropped immediately. What John didn't expect was for her to apologize for her actions against him, which did take a lot out of her, from what he could tell. Once she left, the transfer was done, and the Champion immediately trashed the Scroll in his inventory, which somehow was more bottomless than the Underworld was.
The forest was thick, though, so trying to find a temple in here was harder than finding the Temple in the Jungle. Luckily, because it is exposed to the sky, a bird's eye view would be beneficial.
"Note to self," John deadpanned. "Don't insult a man who can cage Grimm easily."
Earlier, he said that it was quite unlikely that he could break a sweat down in the Emerald Forest, because the Grimm weren't proving too difficult a task in front of a portly man. What he found was that five seconds upon landing in said forest, he was hounded down by who knows how many Grimm. After the seventh encounter of this madness, the Champion began plotting the torture of that man on one of his many back-burners.
A bird's eye view in trying to find the temple was, in fact, a good idea. It would get him away from being possibly cornered again, and find said temple a lot quicker.
Sure, he found the temple he was looking for. The only downfall was that a swarm of Nevermores decided that he'd be good for lunch. That portly man would be the face of the next poster John decided to begin making – which involved him actually ripping the face off of the guy to begin with.
Landing in the center of the temple, the Lunar Gauntlets began glowing a light purple. Taking careful aim, the Champion began firing Nebula Blazes at the murder of crows. The sounds of pained caws and explosions were very cathartic to the Terrarian.
"'You'll know what the artifact is when you see it.' Really helpful, old man..." John muttered. There wasn't anything on the pedestals, nothing on the ramparts of the columns, or anything behind the temple. Popping a cork off a golden potion, he chugged the mixture in one go. Immediately, something sparkled beneath him. Fortunately, the plate he stood on was removable, and was able to gain access to whatever was within.
The object was...an amulet of an interesting design and make. Grabbing it out of the crevice, the Champion began inspecting it. The base and chain was a mix between Titanium and Platinum, infused with Dust of an unknown type. Judging from how it simply bounced when thrown towards the ground at 90 miles an hour, it appears to have the ability to create a shield around it.
Engraved in the center of the amulet appeared to look like a heart, but split down the middle, and plateaued at the top and sides of the heart. Flipping it over, the symbol engraved on it was a snowflake with a crescent moon on one side of it, the fragments of said moon on the other side of the flake.
What happened next was quite the disturbance: Flipping it in the same direction didn't bring up the first symbol, but a different one. A tree stood tall and proud, with what appeared to be a gust of wind blowing through the leaves, water dripping from the branches. John flipped it back to the snowflake, and then again to the tree, in utter confusion. This wasn't an illusion; he's faced illusions before, against many invading Champions, and trained himself to prepare for any situation.
Shoving aside paranoia, as the amulet didn't prove a threat yet, he flipped it again. A sun, glowing brightly onto the ground, a cloud moving away from the ball of fire. The greenery was shooting upwards, enraptured by the glow of the light. When he flipped it again, it returned to the heart.
Nodding once, John knew this was the artifact Ozpin wanted him to find. But judging by the way the first engraving was dimly glowing, there was more to this amulet than the headmaster was letting on.
'I'll figure this one out on my own, if blows come to blows,' the Champion affirmed to himself. 'However, I doubt that Ozpin would be faulty in terms of-'
What he was about to think of next was interrupted by a whistling noise coming from behind him. John dashed to his right, just as an obsidian-colored arrow flew past him, with the intent of piercing his back. He extended the SDMG and aimed into the treeline, his senses going haywire. Then, the camera nearby him shut off instantly.
'Someone cut the wires. But who?'
Silence. Then, figures burst from the treeline, all around him. They weren't Grimm, but they were humanoid in shape. John took a quick glance at each one; the most common theme was a symbol of a red wolf's head and three scratches going through it's head and out the jaw, and each uniformed figure wore what appears to be a recreation of a Grimm masking over their faces, with one of the masks covering their entire face.. The Hunter's potion he drank earlier today gave them a black outline, like before. However, deep in the back of his head, an old Itch began to fester once more.
"Hand over that amulet, human," the fully masked figure demanded. "And we may make your death quick and painless."
The Itch began building. It was hard to concentrate.
"Calling me a human, are we?" John said quickly. He unfurled his wings from behind his cloak, displaying them to the uniforms. "Change that statement, and we may yet be friends."
Their silence bought him time to stop the Itch. But it was short-lived.
"...Take him in, too!" the supposed leader barked.
His heart-rate began to slow down. They charged forward, brandishing weapons of monstrous intent. Their outlines turned red; a very, bright, red. The twitching he felt stopped. He stopped.
"I see a red door, and I want it painted black...No colors anymore...I want to PAINT IT BLACK!"
White.
How ironic.
"Urgh..." John moaned in pain. He shielded his eyes, or tried to, based on the fact that he couldn't move his arms. Or legs. Or any part of his body, besides his head. So, blinding white became his best friend until his vision cleared up. It did take a few minutes, after all.
From simply looking around, he thought the place he was at was an infirmary of sorts. Vials to his left, filled with unknown substances. An IV drip, leading down to his arm. His armor, hung neatly on a mannequin-
'MY ARMOR!'
Panic. Who saw his form? Where was he? Did they confiscate all his weaponry? What day was today? Answers were needed, but first, he needed to escape his bindings.
As he began struggling, his first thought was that his bindings were much looser than before, as they came off with ease. He ripped the drip out of his arm, wincing for a moment before removing the medical devices placed on his body, and sprinted to his armor.
Then he stopped as he felt another presence behind him. Turning around slowly, knowing that he was defenseless, his eyes landed on...Ozpin?
'...I'm sorry, but now I no longer know what's going on...'
"Hello, Johnathan. Sleep well?" the headmaster said, an invisible toothy grin on his face. "Because you have a lot of explaining to do." He pointed out the window.
When John looked outside, he saw the Emerald Forest...or, the 1% that was left of it, outside the school.
"...oh..." John stated. "...for the record, Professor, that was entirely their fault..."
"Do you mean that floating head of a White Fang member?"
'Ok, what in the Underworld did I even do after THAT?!'
Now, I haven't responded to your reviews as of yet. So, because of my laziness, I'll get onto that immediately.
Named Reviews:
Tehpootisman: Thank you for welcoming me into the club, good sir! And more of the story is what you will get.
Catacus: I'm glad you like the idea!
Guest Reviews:
Unanimously: Asking nicely isn't necessary; I was bound to make more of the story anyways. But I appreciate your kindness.
Guest: She's an Icicle, man! Diplomacy isn't her family's 'sharp' point to begin with...that was terrible, but I love it.
IN ANY CASE! I modified the updating schedule to possibly once or twice a month. There will be a confirmed chapter release on the fifteenth of each month; as for the second chapter of the month, it depends on how fast I can update. If I'm able to get one before the end of the month, then yay for everyone! If not, don't fret! It just means the quality of that chapter will be improved for the next fifteenth that'll come up.
This will also mean that I'll be going through the older chapters to improve their quality as well during that time; I won't be doing it this early, however, so I can utilize my time wisely for each chapter.
Shorter chapter this time around, mainly because I didn't want to put in too much exposition here, as it would get very droll for me to write out. And it would then be half filler, half action, and although filler is necessary in some cases, it won't be the case here. Which means that after this chapter, there will be time skips aplenty.
However, because I just announced it, it has been a day after 1-02; Johnny learned Weiss' name, updated his Cell Phone to include the functions of a Scroll, and that's kinda about it. And at the beginning of each chapter, I'll inform you how many days have went by since the previous chapter aired. Some chapters will be immediately after the previous one; others may be days, weeks, months, or years after.
Now, time for my exhausting rant of life. If you want to skip it, then that's fine. After the rant, the last thing there will be the sign-off and the date of completion.
So, moving sucks. Majorly. I'm having to deal with a shitty internet connection again, so no streaming right now! YAAAAAY-not really. It's the only possible thing I can do to try and get an income right now, I'm flat broke. Mainly because I just graduated high school, and immediately after that, having to help my dad go through depression.
I'm just hoping that tomorrow brings forth the modem that brings happy speeds to the Internet-I'm having to hop on an Extender that hops on a WAP, which has shitty speeds. It's better than nothing, at least.
However! I'm going to be auditioning my voice for a project that's possibly going to happen within the next few months: Aftertale. Yes, it's unoriginal. Look it up on YT – Aftertale Auditions (1/3), it might be the first result. I'm not sure. I won't say anything more, though – lol – as that information is for you guys to find on your own. It'll be awesome, though!
RANT OVER!
This is TehUnoman, and I'll see you guys next month or sooner, if my internet gets laid...
DATE OF COMPLETION: 10/1/16