A/N: From here on the chapters are going to be longer and the tone a good deal darker. If you've made it this far, thank you for reading and any feedback you have is appreciated! Also, special thanks to Kuro (u/sskirito) and Drake (u/dragonid1423) for proofreading as a write!
Chapter 10: Blood Moon
Blake lay on her bed, staring at the ceiling. She had been finding it harder and harder to sleep lately. Between being kept up by the thoughts of the people she had killed the other day, and simply being afraid to sleep due to the nightmares she'd been having, she wholly expected not to find any rest tonight. She sat up, touching the scar that ran across her back. She couldn't shake the feeling that this was all because of the blow she had taken from her new enemy, but since she appeared to be in perfect health there was nothing really to back that assumption up. Blake's scroll beeped, snapping her out of her thoughts. She opened it, answering the call that appeared to be coming from her lover.
"Yang? What's up?" she spoke into the device.
"Blake!" Yang's voice came through, panting for a second. "Meet me outside, he's on the move again!"
Roman and Kelas emerged from the gate into a forest, the trees covered with red leaves that danced vibrantly in the wind as the sun set. They scanned the area around themselves looking for any signs of life.
"So, how are we supposed to find these Grimm?" Kelas asked, looking around.
"They're attracted to negativity." Roman stated plainly. "Considering we're not exactly the most angelic pair of individuals in the world, this place should be teeming with them in no time."
"How long do you think until our guests arrive?" Kelas looked towards Roman, a sinister gleam in his eyes.
"They should be here in an hour or so. You sure they can't trace the entry gate back to our safehouse?" Roman asked, lighting a cigar.
"I shielded it so that no energy signatures can escape, and I put an illusion over the entire property. As far as Atlesian Intelligence is concerned, our base is just an abandoned warehouse." Kelas replied, sitting on a nearby rock.
Pretty soon, a pack of Beowolves had surrounded the area, stalking the pair of evildoers. Kelas stood, readying for a fight as one of the Grimm lunged at him. He lunged in and punched the creature in the abdomen, black spikes shooting out of his arm and skewering the creature, before tossing the limp corpse of the beast aside.
"These are weak, but they'll do for the research I need." Kelas stated, stretching to loosen his muscles. "I'll send one back to the containment area I prepared, feel free to use as many as you need for warmup."
Roman unholstered a pair of ornate high-caliber handguns and began quickly dispatching the surrounding Beowolves, easily dodging whenever one of the beasts decided to try it's luck at an attack. Kelas, after having thrown a Beowolf through a portal, fired off vollies of black spikes from his arm into the remaining pack, making quick work. After a few waves, the Beowolves retreated as a loud growl was heard from deeper into the forest.
"Sounds like a Deathstalker." Roman stated, reloading his handguns and holstering them at his hips. "I would ask if you can take it, but I think that's pretty much a given at this point."
"Smells like a feast!" Kelas growled, letting out a chuckle and turning his glowing gaze in the direction the Grimm's growl had come from. The Deathstalker burst out of the treeline, eyes looking for it's next prey and it's glowing stinger twitching in anticipation. "Excuse me for a moment, to feed properly I need to release all of the restrictions on my power. It might become significantly harder to breathe for a little while."
The God's smile widened into a manic grin, his red eyes glowing brightly as a smokey black aura began to surround him. His muscles bulged and his joints cracked, having not been under so much pressure in years. His teeth sharpened, increasing the demonic appearance of his grin, as his nails elongated into claws. Shadowy black demonic wings emerged from his back, unfurling and stretching as if they had not been used in years.
The Deathstalker faced down its unholy opponent, its instinctive mind unfazed by the display of power in front of it. What the creature saw was a shining well of negativity off which to feed. The Deathstalker lunged in with its claws in an attempt to immobilize its prey, but the strange being in front of it grabbed its claws and broke off the tips, causing the monster extreme discomfort. Kelas lunged forward, driving the tips of the claws into the eyes of the Deathstalker. The beast retaliated with a thrust from its stinger, only to be grabbed by the tail and flung into the air.
Kelas crouched deeply, wings extending up in the air and tendrils forming a spiked gauntlet around his left arm, before rocketing into the air towards the airborne Deathstalker and slamming a punch into the beast at blistering speeds. The impact from the triple spikes behind the punch demolished the armor of the Deathstalker and left a large opening on its back. Kelas spun over the giant scorpion and sent it hurtling back to the ground, then blasted a bolt of dark energy into the opening on its back, creating a small crater and killing the beast.
Roman stared wide-eyed as Kelas landed on the slain Deathstalker. It took a lot of power to take a Deathstalker out that quickly, but there wasn't a person on Remnant who could toss one around like a ragdoll. He wiped the sweat off of his brow and sat against the base of a tree as Kelas started absorbing the negative energy from the corpse of the once-mighty beast, wondering what exactly he had gotten himself into.
Roman woke to the sound of a Bullhead flying over, the relentless training of the previous night having worn him out. He looked over to see Kelas finishing his feast of dark energy that used to be a Deathstalker. The tall man called back to Roman.
"They're here." the God said, flexing his muscles. "You hold off the black haired faunus girl and her companion, I'll take on the rest."
"Got it." Roman shouted back, standing from his seat under the tree and walking towards where the aircraft seemed to be landing. He drew his pistols before they flattened, connecting at the base of the grip and extending to form a staff which he leaned on waiting for his challengers to arrive. It only took a few minutes before the six Hunters plus an extra guest burst out of the treeline.
"Roman." Blake growled, narrowing her eyes at the oranged haired man in front of her.
"Well well, if it isn't the lost kitten from the White Fang." Roman taunted, spinning his staff around himself casually. "I've got a score to settle with you, and I've learned a few tricks that ought to even the fight out a bit." he chuckled, grinning at the furious cat girl.
"You guys go ahead and deal with Kelas, this bastard is mine!" Blake shouted to her team, readying her weapons in the process. Everyone else except for Yang bolted off towards the location of their primary target. "Yang, I told you-"
"This guy's gotten a little to cocky for my taste." Yang cut her partner off, winking at the faunus girl in the process. "Plus, you need my backup more than anyone else right now. They'll do fine without me."
Roman chuckled again. "This is good, I was afraid I would only be left with a warm up. Now I can really stretch my muscles after being out of action so long."
The two girls lunged at Roman, going for a joint attack which Roman quickly dodged, quickly parrying the follow-up flurry of blades coming from Blake. He retaliated, swinging his staff up through an opening in Blake's attack, catching her under the chin and lifting her off her feet before withdrawing the staff and firing the far end of the staff, the recoil slamming the weapon into Blake's abdomen and sending her back.
Yang darted in, letting off a flurry of punches and forcing Roman to collapse his staff and trade hand-to-hand combat combined with sneaky shots from his pistols with the fiery blonde. He dodged inside a right hook, stomping on the blonde's left foot to throw off her concentration before striking her across the head with his pistol and kicking her away. He quickly reloaded his weapons before converting the pair of handguns back into staff form.
"Here I was thinking you two would put up more of a fight!" Roman taunted, laughing. "You two seriously call yourselves Huntresses?"
Blake was furious. This man had used faunus to do his bidding for years. He had put thousands of innocent lives at risk multiple times. She had put this man behind bars twice before she had even graduated from Beacon, and here he was again. To top it all off, he was kicking her AND Yang's ass like it was nothing. She was shaking in fury, unable to control her hatred towards the man standing in front of her. She stood, locking a canister of fire dust into her offhand blade, setting the weapon ablaze.
She bolted forward, letting off a blinding flurry of blows which Roman deftly countered. She jumped behind him with her semblance and swung for the back of his neck, only to have her attack batted away and her legs swept from under her with a spinning counter from Roman's staff. She landed with a roll, striking at Roman with an uppercut from her offhand blade which was blocked to the side. The staff continued on towards her head, forcing her to duck and try a stab with her main blade which was dodged. Roman let off a combo of sweeping attacks, using the recoil of the gun parts of his weapon to influence the path of his weapon, each attack being blocked or dodged by the enraged faunus girl. In the middle of a spinning attack, he detached the two parts of the weapon, striking the faunus girl with one of the still extended and flattened pistols in the right knee while she was off guard. Continuing his spin, he came across and struck the girl's left elbow with the weapon in his left hand and forcing her to drop her offhand blade. He brought his right hand up, converting that half of his weapon back into its pistol form and shooting the faunus twice in the right shoulder before kicking her away.
Yang, seeing her cat eared lover go down, roared in anger and rushed at Roman. She let off a blinding combo, grazing the orange haired man a few times. She ducked a swing from his still extended left hand weapon and caught him in the chest with a punch, following it up with a spinning back kick boosted by the recoil from her Ember Celica and launching Roman backwards. She rushed in to deal the finishing blow while he was down, but she was caught off guard when Roman kicked her in the abdomen and flipped her over himself, flipping back onto his feet at the same time. Yang rolled over and tried to get up, only to be forced back down under Roman's boot. He raised the handgun in his right hand and shot Yang twice in each leg and each arm, immobilizing her.
"Not so tough now, are ya blondie?" Roman laughed. "Now you get to watch as I kick the shit out of your little pet kit-" he was cut off as something slammed into him from the side. As he regained focus, he found Blake straddled over him, the faunus holding her still burning offhand blade to the man's neck.
Lupa was leading the charge of Hunters towards their intended target. He wasn't happy about being down two Huntresses for the fight, but having Torchwick distracted instead of interfering with the main fight was better anyways. They had one shot to bring this guy down, and if someone threw off their attack, they would be screwed. The group emerged from the treeline into the clearing where their target was supposed to be. Looking around, they spotted their enemy relaxing on the branch of a tree on the other side of the clearing.
"I was wondering when you all would show up." the man shouted, hopping down from his tree branch. "I see Roman is checking in on my little experiment. Should make you all a bit easier to deal with."
"Alright guys, we've got one chance. Drake, we're going to need everything you've got to pull this off." Lupa shouted back to the group before being forced to jump back due to his enemy appearing mere inches from his face.
"You're not scheming over here are you?" the God taunted the group. "Scheming is my job, you know, being the evil mastermind and all."
"NOW!" Lupa shouted. Drake's eyes glowed as time seemed to slow for Kelas. The entire group of Hunters drew their weapons. Ruby darted in, spinning around Kelas and slashing him multiple times with Crescent Rose before jumping away and firing it multiple times into his chest. Weiss followed up, engulfing the man in fire, striking him with lightning, and spearing him through with spikes of ice before firing dust charged shots of fire, lightning, and ice at him from her revolver. Ikari was next, slashing her bastard sword Equinox through the God multiple times before splitting the weapon in two and letting off a wild combo, kicking the man to jump away. Drake's turn came up, and he fired off three shots from his Geminus Catalyst before splitting the weapon into it's twin shock saber form and slashing across the center of mass multiple times. Finally, it was Lupa's turn to strike. Four glowing clones of himself appeared around him, all five deploying a snaking blade hidden up his right sleeve. They rushed in, the snake blades dancing around the God and shredding him from all angles before retracting into the sleeves of their owners and firing out at blinding speed through the critical organs of Kelas' body. Lupa jumped back, his clones merging into his position, as he drew his sword. He rushed in and stabbed directly into Kelas' center of mass and causing a shockwave behind the man.
As Drake released his semblance, Kelas was thrown back by the force of the combined assault. He crashed through the treeline, bringing a number of trees down in his wake, before a large explosion was seen in the direction that the God's body had been going.
"Well, I wasn't expecting that." Kelas' voice was heard from a nearby tree limb. "The exploding decoy strategy usually works much better than that." This statement earned more than a few dumbfounded looks before the God disappeared from the branch and appeared in the middle of the group of Hunters. "Now I think its time that I show you what I'm really capable of."
The group was forced to jump away from the God as a twenty foot radius around him erupted in flame. "Where I come from, Magic is a rather universal art." He raised his left hand and fired off a bolt of lightning at Ruby, the girl just barely dodging in mid-air with recoil from her weapon. "A creature's power is decided by their ability to sense and control the energy around them." He stomped on the ground, causing a crater to form beneath where Weiss would land and filling the crater with water. "Elemental Magic makes up the world around us and is the easiest to use and master." He froze the pond that Weiss had fallen into before waving his hand in the direction of Lupa and knocking him off his feet with a powerful gust of wind. "As you can see, Elemental Magic is powerful in its own right. However…" he fired a fireball at Drake who batted the projectile away with his swords. "...there's also Spiritual Magic which makes up every living creature in existence." He appeared behind Ikari and created a pit of quicksand directly beneath her, causing her to quickly sink into the ground. "This Magic is harder to use and master, and its manifestation is decided by the alignment of its user." He charged up a blast of fire and lightning energy and fired it at Ruby, catching her in the side with the unexpected speed of the blast. "This results in White and Black Magic. My alignment should be fairly obvious." He fired another lightning bolt at Drake, the attack being absorbed by the electrified sabers, before stomping on the ground and causing a dome of solid rock to form over Drake. "Though not as wildly destructive as Elemental Magic, Spiritual Magic has a much more pronounced effect on living beings." He surveyed the destruction around him. Weiss was melting her way out of the ice with fire dust, Ruby was nursing her burned side, Drake and Ikari were digging their ways out of piles of rubble and sand respectively, and Lupa was finally making his way back to the battlefield after being blown away.
"Black Magic is split into three arts, Shadow, Blood, and Death, the effects focused on the mind, physical body, and soul respectively." Kelas grinned at his recovering enemies. "An example of mid-range Shadow Magic can be seen afflicting your faunus friend Blake." This statement earned a scowl from Ruby and Weiss. Kelas snapped his fingers, causing a young woman to appear beside him, bound and barely conscious. "To allow you to witness the full effects of the other two disciplines of Black Magic, I present to you a test subject. First I will demonstrate Blood Magic." Kelas held his hand above the woman, a blood red circle containing a 13 pointed star and bearing the writing of an unknown language appearing below. The woman's skin turned red and she screamed as blood was drawn directly out of her body to Kelas' hand. Ruby screamed for him to stop and Weiss looked away in disgust while the rest stared awestruck at the scene in front of them. After a few seconds, the woman slumped over dead, her pale skin showing clearly that every drop of blood had been drained from her body.
"Now that that part is over with, let's get on to Death Magic. This woman is clearly dead, no?" Before Kelas could continue, Lupa rushed in for an attack. Halfway to his target, he clutched his chest in pain and fell, skidding to a halt a couple yards away from his destination. "If you thought that was the extent of what I could do with Blood Magic then you are far more ignorant than I originally thought." Kelas deadpanned. "Now, why don't you just lay there and watch before I decide to make your heart explode." Kelas pointed his left hand towards the dead woman, dark energy flowing out of it and into the corpse. "Now, as I mentioned before, Death Magic focuses on the soul. It can destroy the soul, create a temporary soul, or even bind a soul to an object." The woman's body started rising off the ground, eyes glowing a faint blue. "This includes forcing a soul back into its original body. With the use of Shadow and Blood magic, the resurrected cadaver can be reinforced and controlled to become a nearly unstoppable and completely loyal soldier." The group of Hunters looked on in disgust at what had transpired in front of them. Kelas tapped the standing cadaver, causing it to disintegrate into dust. "Now that I have demonstrated to you some of the endless intricacies of my power, why don't we wrap this up?"
Roman was running as fast as he could from the seemingly feral cat faunus that was chasing him. He had dropped his weapons when she had blindsided him, but somehow he managed to stall her long enough to figure a way out. He could fight without his weapons, sure, but something had changed about the faunus chasing him. Despite only being able to use one arm, her fighting was faster, stronger, and more aggressive. Her fighting style wasn't as refined either, like she was fighting off of pure instinct. His only focus now was to get back to the clearing without dying. He emerged from the forest into a scene of destruction, Kelas standing in the middle of the field surrounded by his four opponents, each with looks of horror plastered on their faces.
"I could use a little help over here!" Roman shouted, ducking another slash from his enraged pursuer.
Kelas looked back at the scene that had just emerged from the forest. He raised his hand and pointed it towards Blake, causing black chains to materialise and snap around the faunus girl, binding her arms tightly behind her back and preventing her from moving. "Can't have my experiment destroying my colleague, now can I?" This earned a growl from Blake as she tried to struggle against the chains holding her. Part of the chain shot out and connected back to Kelas' hand, retracting into it and dragging Blake towards the God. "I was just telling your friends here about the little experiment I've been running on you. It seems the dark energy has taken root quite nicely." Kelas grinned as the statement seemed to take root in Blake's head. Her eyes widened as the sane part of her mind started working again. She remembered all the nightmares she'd been having as well as the faunus girl she had killed.
"YOU BASTARD!" Ruby shouted, rushing towards the God that had been torturing her friend with Crescent Rose at the ready only to find herself trapped by the same spell Kelas had used to trap Blake.
"I think you seriously underestimate how easy a simple binding spell is to cast for me." Kelas said, rolling his eyes at the foolishness of his opponent. He summoned Roman's weapons onto the ground in front of him and spoke. "Grab your stuff, I'm done here." He looked back towards his other four opponents. "I'll be taking these two for research."
The four Hunters appeared around Kelas. Lupa had his snake blade wrapped around Kelas' neck, with his sword pressed into the God's spine. Drake had his sabers lined up to pierce through Kelas' heart and neck, and Ikari was ready to decapitate the tall man. Weiss had frozen him to the ground with her dust and was ready to burn him down if necessary. Lupa was the one to speak up first. "Make a single move and we kill you before you can even blink."
"You still seriously think you can stop me, let alone kill me?" Kelas laughed. "Even with that time bending trick, you wouldn't stand a chance in Hell." Kelas unleashed a little bit of his energy, black wings emerging and throwing his four assailants backwards. "If you want to stand a chance at defeating me, stop sending your children to try to bring me down. You can't send scouts into battle and expect them to breach the enemy's ramparts. You have to send your soldiers, your cavalry, your machines and artillery. Only then can you bring down the cities of your enemy. If you don't want me in this world, show me everything that you have to stop me." With that declaration Kelas and Roman disappeared, taking Ruby and Blake with them.