The fighting raged on as the three sisters backed themselves into the main hall just outside the chapel where the battle for the world was to be decided. As Weiss cast walls of ice and earth to hold back the window Yang reached for the door frame and with all her might set about ripping it apart finally managing to unhinge the doors and lay them both against each other in time for Weiss to finish off the walls and secure the barred doors, firmly but still looser than the rest of the building.
They were fighting for time so they wanted to make the easiest point to hold the most tempting target. As they finished she saw Blake return from the chapel. "They are still going at it and she almost saw me this time. We aren't getting lucky with peaks anymore; we need to let Ruby fight her fight.
With a nod they set up inside the hall Yang at the door Weiss several paces behind her and Blake having half vanished into the dark rafters of the vaulted ceiling. The Grimm would never come here at least not yet. Salem's power over them was great but they knew Ruby was in play and they refused to directly engage her unless victory was assured.
That meant either Salem had to win her battle or one of the ancient Grimm arrived only one of those remained the ancient drake Lograthax he was the only Grimm to have ever been given a name and it was said that the drake loosed on Beacon during the fall was just one of this weakest sons.
They had hoped to catch him exposed and kill him like the other ancient ones but it didn't happen in time so they moved anyway. This had always been a one way trip. Taking their breather and enjoying it. Cinder was last seen fighting Jaune, her grudge against him and his team seeming to finally be worth something. She had always wanted to kill them, she hunted them. Pyrrha was luck but Ren and Nora weren't. Now Jaune was the last of his team and in truth he had become more deadly than they thought possible.
He was strong to be sure but he had one thing none of them had. True, unadulterated, unimpeded selflessness. They often chastised him with how little he valued his own life, told him that he did matter and he needed to take care of himself. But his willingness to charge headlong into the jaws of death had saved them on many occasions.
That left Watts, Hazel, and Tyrion. They had been holding back letting the grimm fight for them but now that Ruby was keeping them away it was time for them to get their hands dirty. They heard what had to be Hazel pounding at the makeshift barred door, the ice cracking as they all took one last break in the calm before the storm and the door came crashing down showering the room in shards of ice.
As the fog from the ice cleared they heard a loud clang and everyone's heart fell in their chest as they looked to see the bloody shield of Jaune Arc tossed before them with callus disdain. Cinder stepped forward looking fresh and untouched by battle as she stood on the shield. She spoke with a confidence that made Yang's teeth grind and lit a rage in Weiss she didn't know she had.
"You know I would have thought the prophecy would have been more complicated to prevent. Odd how easily they all died." she taunted stepping her other foot onto the shield desecrating it and making Yang fight the urge to rush her while Hazel, Watts, and Tyrion entered behind her Tyrion looking oddly stoic and Watts looking annoyed at Cinder's grandstanding.
"I suppose that now that it is no longer a matter of concern I can elaborate a little" she said with a smug grin.
"We must get this over with!" Hazel sternly growled as Cinder looked at him.
"She will handle the little brat, she handled the last one on her own and she can do it again. I have waited YEARS for this moment, give it to me." she shot back with a mix of anger and desperation. Whether she liked it or not Hazel was the one everyone turned to after Salem. His word was what mattered, Watts respected his intellect, and Tyrion learned the hard way not to assume the man was a dumb brute in battle.
He thought for a moment and stepped back with a nod letting her continue. "Lograthax summoned me when I was new to this ancient game. He told me that an ArcAngel born of the roots of a Juniper tree would be my death." stepping off the shield to kick it closer she kept going. "Given that there is no longer anyone alive who could fulfill that prophecy. It would seem that I am immortal."
At this new line everyone looked at her anew, true she was radiating power but that was normal she held the power of all four maidens within her. This look was not of awe, but pity. Every last one of them knew of Salem's blight, her curse of life. They understood how much immortality would eat away at you eventually. Not that anyone was going to voice such thoughts to her now.
Cinder seemed to be soaking in the moment when a cry could be heard and everyone turned to see Blake running her sword through Watts' back and out his front. Weiss looked on with a mixed mind. She had learned that Arthur Watts no matter how twisted he was now had once been a good man. And was also her biological father. He was cast out and shunned by her father, another victim of Jacques vile greed.
All at once the fighting was on with Tyrion leaping for Blake as Watts clutched at the hole in his chest sinking to his knees while dying. Hazel and Yang circled each other as Weiss took her queue. She summoned a sheet of ice to surround Cinder. Just as expected Cinder shattered it in an instant but when she did she was met with a thrust of Myrtenaster.
Cinder was fast but proud and she had failed to think that immortal meant invulnerable as the rapier grazed her face just over her good eye. It had been a calculated strike. Weiss wasn't one for superstition but on the off chance Cinder was immortal she would use this chance to inflict a deterring wound. As Cinder felt the blood start to flow she tried to heal the wound only to find that it couldn't. "In your lust for power you never asked the consequences" Weiss chastised as a strike from either Hazel or Yang shook the entire building. "The price of stealing someone's soul, their very aura, is your own."
Cinder had never thought about that. She had never had any trouble using it before now. Whatever the root of this was, she now took this battle far more seriously, wiping the blood that dripped into her human eye away while she lashed out with a wave of fire that Weiss countered with one of ice. This time it was Cinder's turn to attack blindly, firing an arrow through the fire that could have been deadly, if her sight was a little better. But instead it was just far enough off course for Weiss to parry it catching the falling bolt and tossing into the air a geyser of water shooting up from the Myrtenaster still keeping Cinder from properly seeing Weiss as well as striking the arrow and causing the fire dust withing to react with the water dust and burst into a large cloud of steam.
The room was now blanketed in mist as Blake and Tyrion leapt and danced in battle in the rafters. While Yang and Hazel ignored the fog already being close enough to engage their foe at arms length.
Weiss readied her semblance of her best card to play in this game. At once three beings of ice rose behind her. To her left stood the ice phantom of Adam Taurus felled during an attempt to kill the Belladonnas. To her right stood the summon of Klien, an old but powerful man whose dying request was that he be able to serve Wiess even in death. And behind her stood the hulking form of the Ancient Grimm who mastered the Beowolves. At once they lashed out passing through the geyser as if it wasn't real and catching Cinder more than a little by surprise.
She lunged back from the downward swipe of the Beolord and slipped the thrust from Adam only to be barreled into by Klien who took her at the hips and ran her directly into a wall. Splitting before she could respond to open her up to the others.
As both of the remaining summons moved to attack everyone stopped in their tracks. An ear shattering roar filled the air.
Lograthax had arrived.
Everyone looked outside the window the roar was heard from and saw a wave of Grimm larger than any seen before moving towards them with a flying drake at the lead, his eyes a burning fire of rage and hate, every beat of his wings being able to level small trees in its wake.
Everyone was too stunned by the sheer scale of what was coming to remember to fight. Simply standing around as the horde drew near. An empty hopelessness was about to overwhelm them just as something never seen in this cursed realm before happened.
The sun rose.
A being of pure light with the wings of an eagle stretching out to either side. Its wings beat in time with Lograthax's as it rose into the sky far over the horde on the opposing side of the castle. Lograthax looked at the being and for a moment seemed to show some emotion but was hard to read on his non-human face.
The new sun bathed the world in light, the Grimm scattering not willing to follow even Lograthax into this sun's path. Then it flashed forth burning the sky as it went over the main hall. The path of its flight led directly to Lograthax. The same drake who now seemed to wait for it, like it knew something nobody else did.
Then this angel moved faster breaking the sound barrier as it struck the ancient Grimm square in the center of its chest. The light drove within and then burned without blasting the grimm's husk to nothing but dust as it flew back to the main hall. Now that the light was starting to fade they could all see more clearly just what and who was approaching.
The face looked a lot like Jaune but the body was taller and a bit broader at the shoulders than he had been; the shoulder length hair was a dull pink instead of his own short blonde. In his left hand was a shield conjured of the same light that had killed Lorgathax and in his right a mace made much the same.
That same mace smashed through the ceiling bringing a massive part of it down and coincidentally killing Tyrion who had simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time.
The beat of his wings and the rush of their turbulence filled the room as he hovered near, four voices speaking from one mouth asking a question that sent Cinder to her knees in fear.
"Do you believe in Destiny?"