Chapter 1: Rebirth
First person POV
Darkness.
That was all I could see.
It felt cold, and lonely.
Just like when I lost my family.
How long has it been since I felt like this?
My eyes fluttered open as I felt a light shine on me, I looked ahead of me to see a man shrouded in light. The man walked up to me despite lacking a platform, unless it was invisible.
"Who are you?" I asked him.
"My creations call me many things, though 'God' is the one that stuck." The man replied.
"Are you god?" I asked him again.
"Hmm, let's see. I created the world and almost everything in it. You do the math." The man said.
"I honestly didn't think god would be a smartass." I deadpanned and received a chuckle as a response.
"I try to keep myself distinct form others like me." He added.
"Where am I? Is this the afterlife?" I looked around and saw nothing but darkness. "I always thought it'd be….. Brighter."
"No, no. This isn't the afterlife, this is a place I'd like to call 'The Void'. It's a place between the realms of life and death. Lingering spirits usually stay here until they wander to the realm of the living."
"So why am I here? I didn't exactly have many regrets."
"You're not a lingering spirit. I'm keeping you from entering the afterlife because you have much to do." I tilted my head a bit in confusion.
"What do you mean?" I asked him.
"I believe I do not need to remind you of the sins you've committed on 'that' day." I lowered my head in shame remembering that day. "Though you have saved many, and did enough good deeds to counter your sins, it is not something so easily forgotten. I'm taking you back, because you are the perfect candidate for what I need you to do. And once you're done, you can enjoy the afterlife with your family and loved ones." I perked up at his words. A bewildered look turns into a determined one.
"What do you need me to do?"
"I'm glad you're on board. Come with me, there is someone I would like you to meet." He snapped his fingers and a flash of light blinded me, forcing me to close and cover my eyes.
As the light subsided, I opened my eyes and saw that I was in front of a fairly large white tree with golden fruits hanging from it. I was in awe at the sight of it, the white bark made it look as if it was made completely out of marble, and the fruits made me wonder if it were solid gold or not. I was snapped out of my thoughts when I felt a gust of wind from behind me, followed by a gruff, deep voice.
"I wonder why every person that has come here is in awe of my tree, it's just a tree." I turned my head to see the source of the voice. Only to see a large dragon 4 time my size, and that's only the head alone.
I was speechless at the mere sight of it, in all my time hunting Grimm – which was 9 years or so – This was the first time I was scared of one before.
"If you were wondering, he's not a Grimm." I snapped my head in the direction towards another voice to see the man shrouded in light walking towards me with his hands behind his back.
"Then what is he?" I asked, turning back to the dragon.
"I am something much more than a Grimm, but you could say the Grimm originated from me." The dragon replied.
"So you're the source of the Grimm?" I asked again.
"No, no, that title belongs to another. The source of the Grimm and the origin of the Grimm are two different things." The dragon scoffed.
"That being said, I think we should move on to more important matters." The man shrouded in light walked over to me.
"Very well then, what did you-" My eyes widened in shock as the man shrouded in light plunged his hand straight through my chest. As he yanked his hand out, I felt as if he took a piece of me. I felt around where he plunged his hand to find that there was no hole, no wound to show. I lifted my head to look at him when I saw what was in his hands, an orb of light in the same color of my aura, which was silver in color.
"This is the first step to redeeming yourself for your sins in the world, I took your semblance away as a reminder of the destruction you have caused in your anger. But we can't have you unprepared if you're going back to keep the world from annihilation, which brings us to our next issue." The orb of light that contained my semblance disappeared in his hands and is replaced with another orb of light, this one had an assortment of colors within it, though all of the colors were tainted to an extent.
"As I have said before, the origin of the Grimm, and the source of the Grimm are two different beings. The source being a woman going by the name of Salem. She had existed for more than 2700 years, and every 900 years, her body dies and her soul goes to find a new host. Though there were supposed to be 3 hosts, there are now 4 due to a certain 'Incident' at Beacon several years ago, I believe you know what we're talking about? Or rather, WHO we're talking about?" The dragon said as Zwolf's mind flashed to an incident in his 2nd year at Beacon which ended with him killing a certain girl who mouthed the words, "Thank you". He clutched his head at the painful memory as he started to Hyperventilate.
"Yeah, yeah, I remember." He said as he calmed down a bit while controlling his breathing.
"All of her chosen hosts have had their souls tainted from contact with her. Their souls are replaced with her own, and thus their semblance are thrown aside in place of the dark power Salem holds. She grows stronger with each host body she possesses. This orb of light is the collective power of the souls of Salem's hosts' that have been thrown aside due to her possession. We are giving it to you now so that you will be able to fight her on equal terms with the very powers she has corrupted and thrown aside." The man shrouded in light walked a bit closer to me.
"Very well, I will use this power to end her."
"Good man." The man shrouded in light plunged his hand into my chest again. This time, instead of taking away something, he was giving me something, I knew it was the collective semblances of the 4 hosts Salem has occupied, but what's strange is that it did not feel foreign, it was like being around your family after not seeing them for so long, I didn't know why.
As the power fully merged with my body, the man shrouded in light yanked his arm back out. I looked around my body for any changed, but there was nothing wrong. I had forgotten to ask what were the four Semblances that were inside that orb, so I perked my head up.
"I forgot to ask what the four semblances were. Y'know, just so I know what I'll be working with."
"Ah, yes of course. I almost forgot. The four semblances include, the ability to bend nature – trees, plants and the like – to your will; Psychokinesis which I am sure you are familiar with; the ability to give others the illusion of pain; and finally, Enhancement which I will let you figure out what it does." I put my hand on my chin to think about what I was just told, I was indeed familiar with Psychokinesis as it was Sylvia's semblance, the ability to bend nature to my will – which I will call Demeter's will – is a very versatile semblance, capable of being used anywhere with plant life, then there's The Illusion of Pain which is a very terrifying semblance when used properly, and finally there was Enhancement, his mind raced at the possibilities of such a semblance. I was the kind of person who thought out of the box almost every time, which allowed me to think of crazy ideas that would almost always work in the end, it also helped me see the potential of other people's semblances, no matter how feeble it may seem to be.
"I understand believe I have grasped at least one of my new abilities. But if you want me to do this, I can't go it alone. I may be strong, but I'm not immortal." I asked the man shrouded in light.
"Ah, yes quite. I knew you would say that. Which is why you will be recruiting 9 other people. Tell me Zwolf, what do you know of angels?"
"Angels? Well, from what I've read they are beings of light, and there are 9 ranks to angels. It's not exactly a common topic back home."
"I see. Well, you are right Zwolf. There are 9 ranks to angels. You will search for people to fill one of each rank, except for the 'Seraph' rank, as it will be your rank. I need you to find, the 'Cherubim', 'Throne', 'Dominion', 'Virtue', 'Power', 'Principality', 'Archangel', 'Angel', and finally, 'Fallen Angel'."
"Fallen angel? There's a tenth rank?" I was slightly shocked at this revelation.
"It is only reserved for Angels who have been corrupted. Thankfully there have only been one so far in the history of the universe." I let out a sigh he didn't know I was holding.
"So I take it I'll have to round up the other 9 ranks?"
"Not immediately, some of them will not even be born yet for another decade and a half. Besides, you will be busy training with your new power, and learning the necessary things for your mission. Can't have you in the dark now would we?"
"I hope I won't be working with Ozpin, he tends to keep a lot of secrets. Most of which I have to find out for myself."
"Of course not. In fact, I hope you can avoid anyone you knew who isn't a part of this. For now, you should hone your skills with your new semblances and I will fill you in on what you want, and what you need to know. Your comrades won't be ready until 13 years from now." The man shrouded in light snapped his fingers and a portal opens.
"This portal will lead you to the Void. Time there moves very slowly, so you will have all the time you will need to hone your newfound skills. Which reminds me, you will need a weapon. I left your family heirloom back there so that your friends won't waste their time looking for you." I then started to wonder of what I wanted to use as my new weapon, I was familiar with many traditional weapons, such as swords, axes, spears, etc. But I was never a fan of firearms as they lacked the excitement using a traditional weapon would bring in combat, at least in my opinion anyway.
My thoughts slowly drift to my friends and their weapons. Florina uses a sword and shield, the blade of her sword can open up into a railgun, I disregarded that option, since I never used a shield, and I never used a mecha-shift weapon; Richard uses a double-bladed axe that can turn into a spear, or a trident, it can also be used as a single shot, sniper rifle, I disregarded that option for the same reason. Mary uses two shields mounted on her lower arms that open up into a bow, her arrows are all dust infused. Again, I'm disregarding this because though I have experienced using a bow, I never used a shield. Then finally, there was Sylvia, her weapons were basically two short swords with the hilt as long as the blades, they have a rolled up chain hidden within the hilt that is connected to the base of the blade, allowing it to be used in different ways, a whip is simply one of its many uses. After figuring out what I want as a weapon. I turned back to the man shrouded in light.
"I've decided on a weapon." I said to him.
"What did you have in mind?"
"I want two short swords, with the hilts as long as the blade, along with a chain hidden beneath the hilt that is attached to the blade." I explained the details of my would-be weapon to him.
"I see, so you want it be like Sylvia's weapon?"
"It's much easier to use since I have actual experience using it. Being the one who helped make it also helps." I had a small smirk on my face.
"Very well." He pulled out his hand a closed his eyes. Then, a bright flash came from it. As the light dissipated, it revealed the weapon I asked for, down to the finest details. Though I was curious about the color.
"Why is it black?" I asked.
"It's made from Obsidian. On its own it is a very strong material, but here on Remnant it can cut through aura like a hot knife through butter." I slightly winced at the description of the material used to crafting the weapon. Obsidian isn't an abundant resource on Remnant, and whenever someone does find Obsidian, it's not enough to make a weapon.
"I better make sure I don't accidentally kill someone with it." I said as I grabbed the weapon from him and examined it. The weapon was very well made. Usually, anything made with Obsidian is very heavy, even the smallest of items were about 5 times as heavy as any other items made with any other material. And yet, the weapon I held in my hands were only as heavy as the only other weapon I used.
"Now come on, I'm sure you have a lot of questions." The man said as he gestured to the portal that led to the Void. I smiled a bit as I followed him through. But not until a thought crossed my mind.
I wonder who I'll be working with?