The clash between the Red Riding Hood Guild and the Glass Unicorn ends here. Only one faction is walking away from this battle this time, while the other one will lie in ruin and shame. They've built up quite an animosity for one another with their multiple encounters and personal insults, and now it's time to see who's will win the night and cull the other for good.
A wolf howls, a dragon roars.
Here we go.
The sight of Beacon Tower was not a pleasant one. It was thoroughly ruined.
Over the course of Lilith's extended darkening influence over it, it was resembling its former appearance less and less by the moment. Instead, most of its exterior was replaced with a dark substance that pervaded nearly everything around it, akin to the feel and appearance of Grimm pools. Constantly, more Owl and serpent Grimm in particular have been rising out of the blackness and heading out in all directions to cause further disarray across Vale's central city. Slight bits of the blackness extended to strands, with the Grimm far occasionally splattering to the ground and making even more pools to spawn Grimm from. Pools of blood have also begun gathering around the tower, likely from the numerous humans that have already been killed at the hands of the Grimm sent out. With every kill, the 'center' of the tower pulsed a bright blood red akin to a heartbeat. And it's been pulsing for quite a while the longer the attacks go on. Screeching Owl Grimm and hissing serpent Grimm continued to bring forth more kills and more blood, and the 'heart' of the tower continues beating, thus growing more potent as it spawns even more Grimm.
Lilith was standing high atop the tower, with her owl/snake wings spread outwards, a crimson glow emanating from her mask.
"Oh... it's just like the good old days. Reliving prior experiences in the present can be its own sort of wisdom." Lilith cooed as her mask shifted slightly, lowering her head. "My precious, wonderful Blood Garden. It's so beautiful. It's shaping up nicely, and it's only going to become prettier from here. I'll have to remind my children to leave enough humans alive, in order to cycle their terror, breed them for their negativity. Their new role is to be our sustenance and delectation, and our source of blood. This will be a truly notable step in proving the true superiority of the Grimm over all other beings." The red lights within Lilith's eyes softened slightly, as she lowered her hands and turned towards the sound of commotion. "...Hm?"
Something was amiss.
Lilith wondered what was going on, until the glow behind her mask brightened as she looked further upwards; multiple clusters of rose petals began manifesting high in the sky. Two red clusters, one black cluster, a white cluster, a golden cluster, two pink ones, and two green ones, all gathering far above Lilith, and were each growing increasingly larger. Some of them were soon infused with different elements relative to their colors, like shadowy petals, ice petals, fire petals, lightning petals, and more. Further to the point, each of the clusters seem to be massively enhanced Aura-wise, giving them even more reinforcement. Lilith's glow behind her ask grew bigger as she realized they were getting increasingly close at a rapid pace, far faster than she was initially thinking. Then, right within the center, she sensed a certain someone she recognized and taunted.
Suddenly, each of the rose petal clusters shifted shape, taking the form of massive, howling wolves, and glowing glints appeared in each of their 'eyes'.
Lilith could only hum in respect of how menacing the image looked in the sky, as she quickly tried to form a blood barrier around herself. She had to hand it to them, she knew just by looking that she wasn't going to be able to stop this.
"Petal Meteorites: Wild Hunt."
Because it was far too fast.
The howling, wolf shaped rose clusters came raining down in a storming blitz, one after another, surrounded by other just as large clusters, and crashed down on the area, resulting in several massive spiraling explosions of rose petals swirling about and engulfing everything they touched. Blast of ice petals froze their area in the blast, blast of shadowy petals made several enemies vanish into the shadows, a blast of fire petals scorched everything unfortunate enough to be too close by, lightning petals crashing down and electrocuting everything via chaining multiple victims together in a lightning arc. One after another several spiraling clusters of rose petals dropped down like bombs, infused with several different elements after the first ones landed, and served to clear out a majority of the area rather quickly. Each of the craters resembled the aftermath of a meteor crashing down from above.
Emerging from the shadowy rose petals, was Blake. From the flame petals, Yang. Ice for Weiss, lightning for Nora. Pyrrha, Penny, Oscar, and Ren soon emerged from the petals like blooming roses, as they scanned the area around each of them respectively.
"It looks like our compound assault was impactful." Pyrrha noted as she gazed at the destruction surrounding everyone in their respective spots.
"Yeah, we've managed to surprise them this time!" Nora grinned maniacally as pink lightning danced around her fingers, though her glowing electric eye also betrayed her thunderous rage. "Now, where's the bitch that swiped Cinder and made her cry? I owe her big time for my eye. Hey, that rhymes!"
"Focus, Nora." Blake advised as she rose up from the shadows, her golden eyes glinted.
"Ooooooh, don't you worry about that, Blakey. I'm perfectly focused right now." The sudden surge of lightning in her eye, as well as a crack of thunder across the sky, let everyone know that Nora meant it.
"Infiltration complete." Penny commended while standing up straight, helping Oscar do the same as he was slightly wobbly from the whole experience. "The enemy is likely to be surrounding us soon. It might be best to get started on one of our objectives."
"Yeah, we've got some work to do." Yang craned her neck and cracked her knuckles. "And so do the two above us."
A single red petal cluster remained, mixed in with a bit of gold, had shot towards the tower at a blinding speed. Shooting right towards the chamber where Mara was currently with Cinder, the latter slowly falling under the influence of the former, the Seer Grimm maintaining it's tight grip around her body in her weakened state. The glow within its center intensified in the glare of her eyes, as she felt her hold on her free will beginning to loosen and fade away into thoughts about Mara, only about Mara, always about Mara...
Cinder struggled to retain her own sense of self as her tail smacked the ground. Mara clicked her tongue with a sigh. "You're seriously trying to remain defiant, even now...what good will that do you at this point?"
Mara retained her tranquil gone as a whip of blood smacked Cinder across the face, sending her crashing into the ground. She coughed from the harshness of the blow, only to be hit by another, and another, and dozens more, and tripling that. Cinder yelped and cried out in agony from the numerous whips lashing at her, and the collar tightening around her neck, while she was left completely unable to defend herself.
"I told you, you would be disciplined. And that it would be harsh. It was not mere falsehood to make you submit." Mara remarked as she walked up, another vicious whip across Cinder's head making her yelp pitifully. "When are you going to realize? You belong to me. Body, soul, heart, and mind. You have no right to defy me. The right to free will has been denied to you, and yet still, you insist on burning away my precious time I'm forced to waste to deal with your excessive and needless insubordination."
"...I..."
"You will remember this torment. Then, you'll NEVER defy me again."
Cinder lies on the ground, the embers in her eyes all but extinguished, and yet still she felt the bloody whips constantly lashing at her and cutting into her body and beating her bloody, while the collar around her throat tightened and continued shocking her relentlessly through it all. She couldn't even bring herself to focus on wincing, flinching, or yelping from the pain at that point. She couldn't muster up any will through the physical torment, denied any and all chances to protect herself...but really, why should she protect herself? What exactly about her was worth protecting at all, if this is where it all leads to? Was this really where all of her worth was meant to go? Just to end up back where she started in an even worse state then before.
Why even try? All she did was end up hurting herself somehow. Every decision she's ever made in her life, what were they all for it this was where it all leads to? Was she wrong to run away after Rhodes died? She couldn't imagine her be very happy with how much he did for her ending up to be for naught, that she gave her own freedom up for others and it ends up not even mattering. He must hate her for making him waste his own life for someone so completely and utterly hopeless.
That thought was the one where Cinder began to willingly give into Mara's voices. Thinking hurts. Feeling hurts. Doing anything for herself just ends up hurting her further. She didn't want to hurt anymore, and the one thing that hurts most is her own desires to not be shackled like a mindless beast. Perhaps it was best to just discard that desire and submit completely, so that she wouldn't have to think about anything ever again, especially something trifling and worthless as freedom.
Forced to kill Rhodes to save her own life, having to leave friends behind so she wouldn't get them hurt, throwing her own freedom and happiness away for someone else's sake...what did she even get out of any of these things that made her feel like she did well for herself?
Nothing. None of those things led to anything better for herself. If anything, things end up turning for the worst. No matter what choice she makes, the world finds a way to punish her for it. So why bother making choices for herself anymore?
If this is what freedom and free will is ultimately going to get me no matter what I do, then...then I don't want them anym-
And suddenly, everything was coherent and clear again.
Cinder blinked, her eyes widening at the sight she was witnessing. Red and gold rose petals, bursting into the chamber and devastating it as of a missile had blasted everything within it. It took several seconds more to see the culprits behind the surprise arrival.
Mara's conditioning had been interrupted, courtesy of Ruby bursting straight through the wall and kicking Mara square in her cheek, which would send her hurtling to the other side of the room. Furthermore, Jaune stops it completely by taking Cinder in one arm, and slashing Crocea Mors downward through the Seer Grimm, severing it in half.
The entire sequence happened in under four seconds.
Ruby slid her feet across the ground and stood up straight, with furious veins pulsing through her head and a more furious glare reaching her eyes. "You tried taking from us multiple times. Now you're going to see what happens when a wolf pack hunts in unison and takes everything away from you."
"Are you okay?" Jaune asked Cinder, seeing her eyes still appearing somewhat hazy from her conditioning, though she was still aware enough to be able to tell what was currently happening. And she wasn't sure if she should be absurdly relieved or intensely worried and pissed off about it.
...Why...? I had already left them behind for their sake...so why did they...?
"You two need to have a chat. I'm going to take this elsewhere for a bit so that she can't interrupt you." Ruby declared without looking back, in which Jaune nodded, to Cinder's confusion. "Once you're done, join the others as soon as you can."
"Got it." Jaune nodded firmly.
"What..." Cinder uttered, still completely lost.
Mara was already back up from the kick, eyes glowing in outrage. "You intend to stand in my way yet again?! Wretched, disgusting, meddlesome mongrel?!"
"Yeah. That's really got to make you mad, huh? Wanna know what else might make you mad?" Ruby dashed forth and tackled Mara further through the walls, insisting on taking their battle elsewhere away from the other two.
This left Jaune and Cinder alone.
"Jaune, I don't understand. Why did y-" Cinder was cut off as Jaune scooped her up in her arms and ran out of the room with her, the action taking her off guard. "Hey! What are you doing?!"
"Need a place more stable than this. We don't want to be in the same place if Mara comes back." Jaune uttered in a hurry, keeping Cinder close to his chest, which startled her out of her distress and lightly made her blush. She wondered if they had really pushed their way through all of these enemies just to get to her. And she didn't entirely understand why they would go through all of that when she had already given up. She couldn't quite comprehend it completely.
Though as soon as Jaune found a stable spot to rest, making sure there were no enemies around, he gently sets her down against the wall, sensing how she's thoroughly exhausted. After sighing, soon sensing he was immediately at work with healing what he could with her. "...I don't get it. You both...no, I'm pretty damn sure all of you are here. I just want to know why you choose to follow after me and take the fight to her once more? I had already given up; what use is there to try to get me back?"
"If you really have to ask that question, then we really have done a terrible job of having you see us as dependable. To the point where you thought you had to give yourself up to save us was the best answer." Jaune admitted while briefly looking straight at the ground with a sigh, continuing at his rejuvenation and healing her wounds. Something was beginning to shimmer under the surface. "We completely failed on that front. On behalf of the lot of us, I'm sorry you had to resort to that."
"Seriously?! That's...ugh, damn you!" Cinder growled. She should have known this would happen; she's been with them long enough to realize that they wouldn't give her up so easily. As soon as they caught their breath, they immediately came back to help her. She wanted to be completely annoyed by this, yet she was even more annoyed by how happy it made her feel down. "You didn't need to do all of this! I've already accepted my fate!"
"Your heart wasn't in the decision. That's another reason why none of us were going to just lie down and accept it. We're not about to just give up one of our own without doing something about it. It doesn't matter who tries to steal one of us away, nobody and nothing tries that and gets away unscathed." Jaune sternly told Cinder, who continued to snarl.
"You're both damn fools. I never asked for you to...graaaugh!" Cinder snarled and angrily turned away. "...So what? You think I'm in need of rescuing or something, like some kind of helpless damsel? Who do you think you are? I'm vastly more powerful than you. What would I need your help for?"
Jaune gruffly hummed. Ruby warned him about this ahead of time, she was intentionally being difficult to push him away. It wasn't going to work. And as Ruby said, she had done her part in wearing her down, so he had to take care of the rest.
"Even the strongest need someone to have their backs sometimes. And from what I can tell so far, you've been without anyone having your back for so long, you don't know what it feels like when someone's prepared to go above and beyond for your sake. Me and my friends do that kind of thing all the time for each other, should the situation require it." Jaune shook his head. "I didn't have you or Ruby's backs. I messed up, and both of you got hurt for it. That's my failure."
"You didn't fail, dumbass! I did!" Cinder grunted while running a hand through her hair. "If I wasn't so weak, I could have found a better way out of this! I could have fought back, I could have clawed and burned through everything! But I'm weak despite all of my vast power, so this was what I was forced to do just to save your sorry asses! I've always been completely powerless for when it actually mattered!"
My helplessness cost me Rhodes, and now it's going to cost me everything else...why...why couldn't you all just stay away and save yourselves?! I'm not worth all of this!
Cinder grimaced while turning away. "And yet Ruby kept saying that I was making a terrible mistake to make the choice with the miniscule possibility of keeping you all from being slaughtered."
"I agree with Ruby. You were making a terrible mistake. But you wouldn't have been driven to that point if we had done a better job of being dependable in those difficult spots. We haven't proven to you just how much were care, and that you wouldn't have to let your fear drive you to such lengths. I'm going to make up for that failure, tonight." Jaune could see Cinder further shrink away him, so he reached out and gently grabbed her hand. "Cinder...you're not weak. Not even close."
"...How would you know?"
"Don't you see? Mara's manipulation of you, constantly degrading you, making you feel like you're nothing, like you aren't wanted...she's wrong about all of that." Jaune insisted, taking her hand into his own. "I've seen it for myself. You're far stronger than you think you are. Mara knows that, and she doesn't want that power finding its way to the surface before she's taken control of it. That's why she's so hellbent on breaking you down. Because once you've fully regained your sense of self, she'll never be able to control you again. That's the kind of power you have in your hands, the kind of strength she can't stand, as the one who 'adopted' you. You're an element, given the right circumstances, she'll never be able to control, and she can't tolerate that. She's trying to take away what power you have, so that you can't use it against her. She's afraid of you, Cinder."
Cinder blinked in astonishment. "...Afraid...of me...?"
"Yeah, that's right. She's afraid of you and what you can do. You scare her more than anything she's ever encountered, and she can't stand that. That's why she wants to control you and the power you wield. But you can't let her. This is your power, your life. You have to fight back, for real. With everything you have. If you don't stand your ground, you're never going to be able to escape her. And with everything that's happened so far, its reach the point of now or never."
The sounds of battle could be heard outside, but Jaune and Cinder were only focused on each other at the moment, with the latter simply staring off to the side.
"...I...I don't know if I can..."
Jaune nodded. They were getting close, but there's still hesitation.
Ruby was definitely not bluffing about her stubbornness. She leaves me no choice. Time to break out the big guns!
"Cakes."
Cinder blinked. "...C... Cakes?"
"Cakes, cupcakes, pastries, custards, pudding."
"What are you doing?"
"Ice cream, sherbet, sorbet, gelato, smoothies."
Cinder's belly roared hungrily, as she held her hands over it. "Jaune, this isn't funny..."
"Brownies, tarts, pies, crepes, muffins!"
"ENOUGH! Stop tormenting me like this! What do you hope to gain from this torture?!" Cinder exclaimed at him with infuriated clenched fists, in which the intimidation factor was lacking under the fact that she was currently drooling.
"You've spent a lot of time fighting for your life, you rarely ever got to stop and enjoy things like this, did you? And when you were presented with these kinds of things, you could never really indulge yourself. The Glass Unicorn. I bet you always were tempted to eat all the sweets you saw but could never even so much as taste them. Whereas now...I could make as many of them and as much of them for you as you want. You only needed to ask me. And I always came through. And you always came through by making sure you worked for it first. To feel like you've earned the right to treat yourself after jobs well done. That's the work ethic you shaped for yourself. It benefited others as well as yourself, and you felt happy with that."
"W-What's your point?" Cinder uttered, wiping away her drool. Her love for sweets was being used against her.
"I'm saying, all these simple pleasures, the small things that make life worthwhile. Like eating all sorts of foods and sweets and snacks, relaxing in the outdoors, hanging out with friends and family, playing with orphan children and giving them true hope, and just kind of basking in the moment and all? The simple and small things in life that make the big and grandiose things worth enduring and getting through. If you don't stand your ground here, Mara will take all that away from you for good. She'll only ever give you what you need to sustain yourself and not die, never what you'd actually like that will make you feel happy and fulfilled. And you'll be forced to accept that as your new normal. Can you really lay down and allow that to happen?"
Cinder quietly gazed at her hands, briefly turning them to draconic claws. She clenched and unclenched them, before they returned to human hands. After some consideration, thinking back to all the progress she's made up to now, as well as the last words the one she first cherished parted to her, she quickly narrowed her eyes as she raised her tail, then slammed it into the ground.
"There's no way I could ever just let something like that that happen to me. She's a mere scum sucking vampire, and represents the absolute worst of them, giving the decent and benevolent ones a bad name. She can't tell me what to do, who to be, or how to live my life. I am a dragon. Between the two of us, no matter how much she tries to steal from me and claim it as hers, I'm the superior creature!"
Jaune slowly smiled. That sounded much more like the Cinder he grew to know. Though he did notice that she seemed to literally be shining a bit more now.
Cinder took a deep breath and sighed.
Truth be told, there's a lot of things that I wish to do, see, and experience in this life of mine...and yet someone who's supposed to love me and take care of me and support me, my own STEPMOTHER, keeps getting in my way...I hate her. I HATE HER. I HATE HER.
A flash of flames spiraled around Cinder, and she was back in in her draconic state. He continued healing her from the various grievous wounds she suffered at her stepmother's hands, each of them beginning to vanish. As he maintained his healing glow around her, seeing that she was likely prepared to fight again, he saw that her red scales were beginning to crack further and further as a response to his rejuvenation. Something was glowing and shining from underneath the cracking scales, responding to his healing.
Every single time I feel the slightest bit of happiness with my life or a desire to want better for myself, every DAMN time, she interferes and ruins it! Well, I'm done. I am tired of her getting in the way of me living however I want! She's not going to ruin anything else for me! I'M GONNA DESTROY HER!
The cracks in her scales began to glow, until a bright flash engulfed her entire body. The scales themselves dispersed and flew away from the bright flash, and Jaune once again had to cover his eyes for several moments as it went on. When it slowly dies down, Jaune found it safe to look again...and he was in awe at what he managed to witness. The red dragon that he was familiar with somewhat was no longer there. Now in its place...
A white dragon.
A shining white dragon with a now golden underbelly, brilliantly radiant golden horns, and similarly shiny golden claws. The flames around it shifted from the usual fiery red, to separate and mixed colors of white and blue. Shiny clean white wings with golden tips flapped majestically as some of the flames dispersed and swirled about, and golden eyes opened as they examined it's newer and more refined, radiantly glowing appearance. Its bright white, thick tail gently waved upwards and tapped the ground, waving slightly as glittering blue flames briefly sparked from the tap. The creature let out a low growl, steam blowing from its nostrils and maw. As it stood upwards, supported by its similarly thick and strong hind legs and thighs, as well as its wide hips, it was quick to notice the aforementioned underbelly. Specifically, how despite the vast changes to its overall appearance and such, the giant and rotund, thick belly still managed to carry over into the new appearance. The dragoness smiled proudly at the sight of it, briefly wobbling it with a few admiring pats. It was the most prominent symbol of her power and gluttony that she eccentrically believes it to be, and she was glad it was able to stick around. Furthermore, it still managed to fit in nicely with the rest of the dragon's now fierce and powerful, chubby and curvaceous, kinder and even heroic appearance. The cheerful smile accompanying this action made her appear jolly, of all things. Even the cherished scarf she always carried with her appeared to be good as new along with her, being much cleaner and better cared for, and the golden decorations of the black scarf appeared to glitter and shimmer much more than before. She gently ran her paws across the currently enlarged scarf, and she smiled fondly with closed eyes. Wisps of blue and white fire continued surrounding her, appearing brighter and more powerful, more beautiful and graceful than her flames have ever appeared or felt before.
Brimming with power, grace, and dignity, this was Cinder's true appearance.
I remember now...I didn't always used to wear red... when I met Madame Mara...when I 'fell' from somewhere...the clothes I wore...and my scale color...they used to be...white. And all the red that colored my scales over the years...it was my own blood. I had simply forgotten what my original scale colors were...but now I know. The years of torment I've endured at her hands made me forget it all. This isn't a newfound power...I've ALWAYS had this power...she wanted me to forget it, to bring it under a suppressed level so she could control me...but that's no longer possible now. She wanted my power completely under her control...and now I'm going to kill her with it.
"Cinder?" Jaune briefly questioned.
The dragon looked towards Jaune and hummed. A brief flash of blue and white flames later, Cinder appeared in her human form, much sleeker than her form as a dragon, and remains voluptuous and muscular. Her horns on her head were now golden as golden as her eyes, her thickened tail was now white, and her previously red dress also became white as the remaining red on it slowly faded away. Cinder smiled softly as she briefly picked up the hems of her dress, then lowered them slightly.
"...Jaune. You've returned to me something I had lost. I was able to find myself again."
"You're definitely a lot shinier than before, trading out most of the red for white. How do you feel?"
Cinder turned towards Jaune, and her smile was the most spirited he's ever seen from her so far. "I feel...free."
Getting lost in the moment, Cinder closed the distance between them, her tail coiling around Jaune and pulling him towards her into a kiss. She had him in her arms, holding onto him as the wave of newfound freedom has her acting on feelings she had previously hidden away, her inhibitions thrown to the wayside at the moment. She didn't mind at all when Jaune pulled her closer with his arms around her back, meaning she could spend even more time kissing him in the moment, simply indulging herself in something she's denied herself for a while. Cinder felt incredibly warm against Jaune, this is the warmest and coziest he's ever sensed from her. It felt like a massive weight has just been lifted from her entire being.
...But once she realized and remembered one of the reasons why she kept these feelings buried for the time, she gasped and immediately pulled away. "Oh, shit! I'm sorry! I just got lost in the moment, the wave of freedom crashed over me, I wasn't really thinking and... what about Ruby?" Cinder eventually calmed herself down to express her greatest concern regarding her impulsive action. She hoped she didn't ruin anything after having basically been through a reawakening. That'd be the absolute worst way to kill her recently, vastly improved mood.
To her surprise, Jaune simply smiled. "Don't worry too much about Ruby."
"What do you mean by that...?"
"It's probably best that we pin that conversation for later...after we deal with everything else." Jaune narrowed his eyes as he gazed towards the skies outside. "Lemme ask you just to be sure. Do you trust me? Do you have faith in me and my ability to help you through all of this?" Cinder also gazed outside...and her eyes narrowed, her wings sprouting and flapping from her back.
"Yes. I trust you. I have faith in you. We'll both prove it by torching these leeches once and for all!"
Outside of Beacon Tower, Ruby jumped back as Mara fired another ball of green flames from her currently draconic maw, missing her by a few feet and detonating a few yards away. Rose petals surrounded her as she flew around the dragon attempting to shoot her down with her flames, which she continued to avoid with her superior speed. Irritated by this, Mara surrounded herself in green flames and expands them outwards, creating a fiery pulse. Ruby manages to slice right through the wave of flames with a well-timed slash of Crescent Rose, but still managed to get burned a few times along her arms, which caused her to fall back a bit with a pant.
With a leap, she had jumped up as Mara attempted to claw at her with flames, then she turned and kicked her upside the head, with a heightened burst of winds adding extra impact to the blow; Mara was sent skidding back several feet due to it, her skull rattling from the force of the blow. Though she soon grits her teeth and stomps the ground, eventually stopping herself. She slammed her tail to the ground as a wave of flames was sent towards Ruby, which she avoided via a whirlwind of rose petals carrying her upwards.
"This is the last time we see each other, Mongrel. You're not going to live to see the next sunrise." Mara growled as her maw opened to launch another fireball.
Ruby winced at the sight, but soon sensed something coming, and slowly smiled. "I don't know. I think I like my chances."
Mara glared but found something slamming into her side and sending her flying away from Ruby, spiraling her out of place before she used her wings to right herself midair. Seeing the object that collided with her, she narrowed her eyes as she saw Cinder's draconic form, which had shining white scales rather than the bloodied red she had for years. Cinder briefly locked eyes with Ruby, and the latter smiles.
"Well, well. It feels like I'm seeing the real you for the first time ever. How do ya feel?"
"It's like waking up from a deep lucid dream. My body feels lighter. More in control." Cinder hummed, before she turned and flared towards Mara, who's wings flapped with a huff. Cinder narrowed her eyes as she could sense malevolence coming off of Mara in waves now. It seems that some of her senses were enhanced and were extra sensitive to detecting malice.
"Oh. You're back to looking like you did when I first found you. How did you do it?"
"None of your damn business. I'm not going to let you mess with my head again. Can you guess the greatest desire I have welling in my heart at the moment?" Cinder grinned as she flapped her wings. "Rejoice, 'mother'. I feel like spending some quality mother-daughter time with you. Because it is the last time, we will ever see each other."
"And why do you think so, Cinder?"
"Because tonight is the night where my destiny truly begins. And to start things off, I'll make you pay for everything you've done to me and destroy everything you've ever strived for! I'm going to completely erase you from my life, for my time to be free has come! And your destiny is to BURN!"
Their clash began with the both of them launching their own fireballs at one another, green clashing with blue, and the result was an explosion of spiraling flames that blasted away almost everything that stood too close to them. They soon soared towards one another and found themselves in a grapple lock, pushing against each other with their claws. A point black fireball from both of their maws, and a much larger explosion soon engulfed them both.
They both rose from the resulting smoke relatively unharmed.
Ruby and Jaune watched them both go at it. That was Cinder's opponent well and truly occupied.
Which only left...
"Well, those two apparently have issues to work out. Guess that leaves me, doesn't it?"
Ruby was rather quick to move, and to push Jaune out of the way as several blood serpents smashed into where they were previously standing together. Jaune ended up stumbling slightly yet was suddenly helped by Oscar having his back. Meanwhile Ruby skids across the ground in her feet while glaring at the Grimm Devil hovering in the air, surrounded by misshapen screeching owls and snakes. The volume heightened a bit and focused on Ruby, though Lilith hummed behind her mask once she saw roses puffed around Ruby's ears. She learned from earlier, it seems.
"You're back so soon, Ruby! Are you going to flee with your tail tucked between your legs again, pup? Because you looked pretty pitiful trying to run away from me." Lilith swiped her hand as a wave of blood soon manifested and attempted to crash down upon Ruby, but it was near-immediately frozen in place. She blinked, only then noticing Weiss having pointed her rapier towards the large wave and having frozen it. Soon afterwards, Penny flew right towards the wave and ends up smashing through it, dispersing it entirely. "And you brought back friends to play with you, too! You're being awfully generous, bringing me more flesh and blood for me to eat!"
"I think you've fed yourself enough!" Jaune shouted.
"Oh, I think not! I'll make Vale my Blood Garden, and that'll just the beginning! My lust for chaos, blood and death might be impossible to truly satisfy, but I'm definitely going to have a good time trying!" Several bloody owl heads manifested around her and let off shockwave screeches. Oscar and Jaune were briefly blown away by said shockwave, with Penny and Ruby respectively catching them before they could fly too far away. Another head in the form of a serpent opened it's maw and launched a beam of bright blood towards them, which barely miss d them but also burned slightly from the intense heat and power. Penny manifested multiple swords around her and sliced through many of the heads that kept heading for her or Oscar. "As for you. It may not be immediately obvious to most who pay attention, but I know exactly what's going on with you. I never thought Atlas would take their arrogance so far, but with what I'm sensing dwelling within you, this all but confirms it. I wonder if your superiors see you as either their Ultimate Protector or Ultimate Weapon?"
"It would not matter either way; you would still be an enemy necessitating elimination." Penny declared as one of her swords fired a green bean to counteract the blood beams, both of them canceling out.
"Hah, fair enough. Though I still hate you for making off with my morsels! I had them, damn it!"
"Like we said before, you've eaten enough!" Ruby slashed Crescent Rose towards Lilith's head, which she nimbly ducked, with a sprouted owl head firing a shockwave screech that sent Ruby flying back.
Her back landed against a Glyph, a flowing white one that she quickly identified to be Weiss's. Another Glyph formed besides her and fired multiple snowy beams towards Lilith, counteracting them. Multiple shards of ice formed around Lilith, and she twisted and turned to dodge the lot of them. She then extended her arms as she also immediately caught Blake's Gambol Shroud and Yang's Ember Celica in her hands, the shadows attempting to cut her and the fists attempting to burn her. Lilith let go of the both of them and ducked backwards as Pyrrha's javelin barely scraped her mask. Lilith hissed as she realized the Guild was steadily ganging up on her from all sides. An annoying prospect, given that she wanted to focus solely on Ruby.
"Well, well, I think I need to do my part to even out the odds."
Multiples of Grimm and vampires continued coming through the numerous blood portals beginning to surround everyone. Ren and Nora stood back to back against the horde, with Pyrrha and Yang standing against the other side. Blake, Weiss, and Penny were hovering in the air, Blake being helped by Glyphs, taking to the airborne enemies.
"We got to deal with her quickly." Jaune insisted, before he turned around and parried the blow of a mallet against his shield. Though he blinked, something feeling off about the one currently attacking him.
Cinder smashed her paw against Mara, then briefly turned towards Jaune and company. Then her eyes widened in disbelief.
"...Rhodes...?"
Jaune was forced off his feet as the one before him suddenly sent him flying with a much heavier steel blow from his hammers, crashing him against the wall. 'Rhodes' flew towards him again and attempted to slam his hammers down onto him, with Jaune reinforcing his shield to stand up against the blow, his knees buckling from the strain.
"...Cin...der..."
"What the hell...?!" Jaune uttered in disbelief.
"'Lust' isn't that far away from 'Desire', and desire can also mean yearning. And when it comes to desires, one that dwells within her heart is to see her mentor and father figure again. An anguished yearning to be with him again. Although, I suppose she didn't want it to be like this." Lilith taunts while tilting her head.
Jaune immediately realized it. The desire for Cinder to see Rhodes again was from nostalgia. Lilith gave that desire a physical form, by having restored his corpse into another vampire. Worse yet, he was plenty sure that whoever the man was back then, he didn't have the physical appearance of a Grimm. The manifestation of Cinder's nostalgic desire, twisted and corrupted into something malevolent.
"Cin...der...dra...gon...must...prote...ct... can't...I...c...an...'t...!" Rhodes spoke incompletely, even as he smashed his hammers into Jaune's shield and forced him back further.
"You're kidding me...!"
Cinder balked at the walking vampirized corpse of Rhodes, unprepared to defend against the blast of green fire that nearly scorched her face and shot her out of the sky. She growled as Mara launched another, with Cinder batting it away with her wing and soaring towards her to tackle her. Jaune still didn't miss this, though. So long as Rhodes was at play, Cinder was going to be heavily distracted. Logically she knew that wasn't the real Rhodes, but her heart was still being heavily affected by it. She couldn't help herself.
But he could help her. He believes this as he clashed blades with the vampire Rhodes.
"I can't have you distracting Cinder. You're dealing with me." Jaune decided, pushing back against Rhodes as his Aura reinforced around his body, eventually slashing with Crocea Mors to send him away with a pulse of Aura.
"De...al...y...ou...wh..o...a...re...?" Rhodes uttered slowly, before dashing towards Jaune and clashing blades with him again.
"Let's see. How can we keep the rest of you occupied..." Lilith slowly sneered at Oscar. "Ohohoho, yes. I think this will do nicely. I know what one of your desires are, little morsel. Allow me to assist you."
Oscar felt something awry, and Penny had to quickly grab him and pull him out of the way as a blast of wind devastated the place where he initially stood. Coughing, he turned around for a moment...and looked on in disbelief.
Slowly gaining solid form, stood illusionary copies of the Wizard that paved the way for the four Maidens...and the Warrior King of Vale, Ozia. The former conjuring sinister corruptive elements around him, and the latter brandishing his sword that was almost pitch black. Both of them looked very Grimm-like as well. Oscar recalled after some research, that the Wizard was named Oziel.
Did she manifest them out of my desire to better know and understand my predecessors?!
"...Oscar. These power of these two men is as vast as they were back then. Even more so due to Lilith's corrupting of them." Penny calmly, sternly, warily informed him as she helped him to his feet. "If we allow them to escape this area, either one of them could destroy Vale singlehandedly."
The urgency in Penny's voice was heavy, yet cold and logical. Because she was completely right. With the way a chunk of Vale's cities was in chaos at the moment, they wouldn't be able to even come close to beating back Wizard Oziel and Warrior King Ozias themselves, two of the most powerful of Ozma's successors, through magical and physical might respectively.
The best and quickest way to dispel them is for Ruby to kill Lilith. And until she did so, they'd have to deal with this themselves.
"She turns people's desires against them, even nostalgic ones, to manifest some of them with solid forms...then corrupting them however she wants." Oscar noted while he picked up the Long Memory and anxiously clutched it. "This is the kind of danger we're dealing with."
"Oscar, you'll have to divide your focus. Blake, Penny, and I will be handling Oziel. Yang, Nora, and Pyrrha will stand ground against Ozias. Ren will keep anything and everything else from interfering." Weiss proclaimed as she slid her fingers across Myrtenaster, her eyes narrowing. "We shall see to it that they don't expand this battle away from here!"
"Dudes with your kind of strength were pretty rare back then." Yang flicked her wrist a bit as her hair ignited. "Things have changed, though. New era, new ballgame! You'll find that standing up to others with your level of power became a lot less impossible!"
"And through this, more possibilities open up for everyone. We can't let you be the ones who close them off." Oscar noted in agreement. "Real or not, you're my predecessors...so I'll take responsibility in holding the line against you."
With that, they engaged.
Ruby landed on the roof of Beacon Tower, slowly raising her head as Lilith flew above her, hissing snakes and hooting owls echoing throughout the space. Ruby stood up as her ears flicked and her cape billows with the incoming night winds, especially given all the chaos that has engulfed everything by now.
"...'Lust' can also be or lead to the corruption of desires..." Ruby uttered with narrowed eyes, having a better understanding of what Lilith just pulled.
"And now, it's just you and me, little pup. I do hope that you didn't think I'd forget about you." Lilith cooed as Ruby glared at her from under her hood. "Your gaze keeps getting more intense and sharper. What, did I upset you, or something?"
"You made a mockery out of a father-daughter bond. There's no way I'm just going to let that go." Ruby uttered, referring to the manifestation of Rhodes that Jaune was currently fighting. It didn't take her too long to figure out what the man meant to Cinder way back then, and the thought of Lilith perverting that to edge the battle in her favor may very well have ticked away whatever tiny pieces of patience Ruby had left.
"Are you quite certain that slaying me will ensure your beloved Grandmother will have a better name for herself? Are you saying you're going to act in her stead?"
"...You made a mess out of her name, insulted her. Now, I'm going to have to come to her defense. I already know she feels she doesn't deserve defending. But 'deserve' doesn't matter to me in this instance. I'd do it anyway." Ruby quietly declares. "If the world decides to come after her and bringing it to its knees is what it'll take to defend her, then that's what I'm prepared to do."
"HAH! You believe in your desires that much to be willing to do something like that? Does she really mean THAT much to you? That definitely sounds like a feat worthy of the title you aspire for! You think you have the ruthlessness to go that far, then prove it!" Lilith cackled as she was surrounded in a glow of blood energy, surging with serpents and owls, her wings spreading outwards. "If you end up getting killed here, that means your desires were never meant to be, and that your devotion to your grandmother was worthless! That shame sounds so wonderful to impart upon you and your dying howls!"
Ruby silently lowered her head, as glowing golden horns/antlers once again sprouted from it.
"...It's very important that we don't forget about what drives us: Love, justice, reverence...but then you and Mara thought that you could place your desires above mine. You truly think your desires are greater than mine, but you're going to lose them all. I'm not threatening you. This is just the truth. You're going to be examples of what happens when anyone crosses me as harshly as you two did."
The red rose petals surrounding Ruby began turning a shining white, along with the fur on her ears and tail.
"You disrespected and messed with my grandmother's name and inspired your comrades to do so too. Thanks to you, now I truly have my own special reason to personally hunt down and kill all of the Grimm Devils to the last. I'll begin with you, and you'll be the demonstration as to what I'll eventually do to the rest."
Ruby's eyes flashed silver and shimmered brighter, streams of light emanating from them.
"You can carry that with you, as you vanish into the abyss."
Across the battlefield, things only intensified.
Oscar knew well enough about the potential power and strength of his predecessors. And the fact that Lilith was able to just manifest them out of his desire to better understand the legacy he was inheriting was rather frightening to see in action. And the pressure they gave off, they somehow managed to be as powerful as they were back then, and stronger still by Lilith corrupting the image of them by giving them the appearance of Grimm. The fact that the wizard Oziel and the warrior Ozias had their Auras emanating in a rather sinister manner, was also frightening to witness. They could not allow either of them to leave this area, or else they would rampage all over Vale and flatten it all by themselves.
If Glynda was here, she could likely stop them both herself. But she wasn't due to her own crisis she was occupied with that kept her from returning immediately, so they would have to place a majority of their bets on Ruby killing Lilith before they became too much to handle. If they somehow managed to defeat them themselves, that would also be quite fortunate and approved. But that particular path was a much steeper hill to climb.
Case in point.
Oscar could sense the intentions of his manifested predecessors the best, due to how Oziel was conjuring his magic and sending massive attacks across the field with barely any effort at all. Gusts of wind, blasts of fire, waves of water, eruptions of earth, sprouting of wholesale trees. The winds smashed against everything with the force of a gale, the blasts of fire torched most that got caught by it, the heavy waves of water crushed whatever it crashed down in, the massive conjurations of rock tore apart several complexes, and the quickly growing trees pierced through several structures and rendered most of them unstable. All of this was happening almost simultaneously. And yet, it was hardly anything that Oziel could call effort.
Ozias's sheer strength was much easier to understand, but not quite as easy to actually deal with. Several swipes of his sword would be enough to casually obliterate entire blocks with how much destructive force was placed behind them. This was the kind of might that could eventually tear Vale apart if they allowed it to continue. It was the kind of might that Lilith was aware she could not handle in a head-on clash at the level of power she was at back them, hence why she focused on tearing apart his will to fight in the worst way she could with the resources she had back them. The proper timing, planning, and execution of such a thing had left one of the most powerful figures in Remnant's history reduced to being yet another hapless prey for Lilith to consume, without ever getting into an actual confrontation with him.
These two were implicitly under Lilith's command due to the way she manifested them from Oscar's desire to understand them. That was far too dangerous.
Oscar was knocked off balance by a sudden emergence of trees that nearly knocked him off balance and sent him falling to the ground, though Blake was quick to catch him via appearing as a shadow. She set him down as Weiss skids in front of them and formed a Glyph in front of them that shielded them against a massive spiral of water sent their way. The Glyph glowed brightly for several moments before the water touching it immediately froze over in a flash of white. Several swift slices from Myrtenaster later, and the waves were reduced to glitters of ice.
"Oziel had formidable magic power for an assuming old man back in the day." Weiss uttered while sliding her fingers across her blade. "His magic presence is incredibly dense, it's like it's pushing down on the whole area. With his level of mastery, he could conceivably attack from anywhere without actually telegraphing it." Weiss turned to the slice and formed another Glyph, causing a spiraling blast of ice and snow to smother a blast of flames that appeared by her side before it could slam against her. "Fortunately, I can sense the shift in the air before the attacks actually manifest. Though whether we're quick and accurate enough to capitalize on that will prove crucial."
"Incoming." Blake immediately covered the two of them in shadows and sunk into some more, as a combined mixture of water and fire blasts the spot where they were initially standing around, destroying a chunk of the structure in a matter of seconds. The manifested Oziel sensed them appear several seconds later a few bits away and was quick to attempt to form another attack against them. Just as well, he turned around and blocked a kick to the head with a wall of rock, seeing that Penny flew up to him and struck while he was unable to focus on the others.
"We cannot allow you to cause so much damage, Oziel. Please understand that."
As she declared this, miniature, mechanical rockets appeared around her leg and drastically increased the momentum behind her kick, completely breaking through the rock barrier and sending Oziel crashing into the ground. The best chance they had at besting Oziel on their own is simply not giving the man time to conjure any of his magic. Which was significantly more difficult than one would think, given what Weiss laud out earlier. Penny found herself on the wrong end of a wave of water expanding forth in midair and crashing into her in a wave, and then a blast of lightning sent into the water zapped her heavily before sending her crashing through a building behind her. The entire thing came down on her moments later.
"Penny-!" Oscar nearly called out, but Blake pulled him back as he was nearly pierced through by an emerging surge of trees with sharpened branches.
"Lose focus for a moment and you'll be left open." Blake hissed seriously to him, as some of the branches were able to lash at Blake and give her numerous cuts across her body, and one even managed to pierce her leg a little bit. She held him by his shoulders. "Stay levelheaded."
Oscar looked startled by Blake's intense stare as she said this but managed to clear his head for a moment and nodded in agreement. He helped Blake up slightly and looked towards her pierced leg. "That doesn't look good."
"It's not as bad as it looks, but it's going to hinder my speed like this." A shadowy cat's paw emerged from in front of them and batted away a large sphere of flames lightning that would have crashed down on them if they stayed where they were. "I can still move, but not reliably quickly enough. We need a way to land more clean, decisive blows."
"I'll try and think..."
"Tch...!" Weiss shielded herself with a glowing glyph as she found herself on the other end of a constant stream of flames attempting to pin her down. Infused further into it was a blast of lightning. The combined flame lightning blasted her Glyph to pieces and slammed into her full force, sending her off balance and scorching her. "AAAGH!"
Blake immediately leaps up to catch her as well, though was off balance due to the injury to her leg. She winced and hissed at the suddenly pulsing pain as she caught Weiss and both of them ended up crashing into the ground in pained heaps. Oscar went to try and help them, but a crash of lightning exploded right in front of him, sending him skidding across the ground until he hit his head hard at a wall, falling forward.
He slowly raised his head, his heartbeat heard loudly in his ears as he saw Oziel levitating above him, lightning surging around him and seemingly prepared to strike him down. He winced as he tried to move despite the severe damage he took. The manifested wizard was focused on him, in which Oscar decided that this would be the only opportunity that he would have. They needed truly decisive attacks. Allowing this battle to extend any further would make things too dangerous. The lightning crackled before him, and he had only a second to see it make its way towards him before it crashes down on.
He blinked as he noticed Penny holding out her hand, her clothes somewhat in tatters but otherwise she was still standing on her feet. The more bionic side of her powers running through her body, glowing green lines running along like digital circuits. Her eyes glowed softly as well as her Aura, and she seemed prepared to counter whatever else Oziel had to offer.
"Oscar. Accelerate all three of us." Penny suggested, turning to the side as she noticed Blake and Weiss beginning to stagger back to their feet, barely. Oscar looked at all three of them, before he nodded, and tapped the Long Memory onto a Clock Glyph.
"Can't let this extend...we'll deny his opportunity to fight back. Speed them up and slow him down...cut off his chances completely...!"
Multiple Clock glyphs have been placed under Weiss, Blake, and Penny's feet. Weiss could see the intent and used her own Glyphs under them to stack the effect with her own, furthering their effects and duration.
Soon enough, Weiss, Blake, and Penny were all suddenly moving swifter, appearing as black, white, and green glowing blurs that left behind speeding afterimages. Oziel flashed exploding spheres of fire, lightning, and water in order to obstruct their paths, but they proved swifter than that. Before long, four of Penny's blades shot forth towards Oziel, and each of them exploded against him on impact. From the sides, two of Weiss's Gylphs shot ice pillars from both sides and crashed into Oziel, before she dashed through and pierced him with Myrtenaster. And from above and below simultaneously, Blake slashed right through Oziel with her own body and a shadowy clone of herself with Aura infused strikes of Gambol Shroud. Oziel was not given time to react in the slightest and was cut down and sent falling to the ground before he could do any more damage.
Oscar and Weiss both breathed heavily, before they both nearly collapsed where they stood. Blake managed to keep Weiss from falling, and the Schnee was still doing her best to remain conscious. Oscar's case he fell against Penny, who gingerly held him in her arms with a soft smile.
"Sensational, Oscar."
Oscar smiled back at her, while looking onwards with a nod. "It's not over yet...there's Ozias to deal with. I need a moment...will you be okay...?"
Penny nodded reassuringly. "I'm still combat ready, Oscar!"
Meanwhile...
Yang crossed her arms as the sword Ozias swung towards her slammed into her, successfully knocking her off of her feet before she had a chance to brace herself for the impact. Despite the odds she couldn't help but look at the manifested King of Vale himself with a slight bit of a tilted smile.
"Never thought somethin' like this would ever happen, especially not with the way it happened, but I'm all for standin' my ground against it!" Yang grunted as she sent several shots of Ember Celica towards Ozias, who effortlessly deflects each of the shots his way before dashing towards Yang and closing the distance in moments. Pyrrha manages to appear before her and block the attack with her shield, though the force behind it manages to make them both buckle and crash against the ground. "Pyrrha...!"
"Yang, we are not going to defeat this man in a head on battle." Pyrrha deduced while helping Yang stand, blood bleeding from her forehead. "We're going to have to adjust ourselves a little to be victorious. Or at the very least, stall for an extended period." She braced herself as Ozias was in front of them again, her short sword just barely blocking the sudden overhead strike from above. The impact cratered the ground and nearly had her buckle her knees again. But this time she retaliated immediately; a sudden magnetic push forced Ozias back, but not off his feet. He simply skids back several yards before stopping in place. "He is a formidable foe indeed. Or rather, he was."
"You're tellin' me..." Yang grunted. Then she noticed that Ozias was standing under something that was beginning to flow rapidly, before there was a sudden explosion of lightning and cracks of thunder sounding through the area. The explosion of lightning engulfed Ozias in the blast, and Yang realized what had happened.
Nora was soon slamming Magnhild down onto the King with a warrior yell, the blow barely parried. Ozias looked squarely at her and swung her away forcefully, resulting in her crashing into the wall and falling on her face. She groaned as she slowly pulls herself back up, with her face covered in her own blood from the impact. She spits some of it away from her with a grunt and pulls her hammer up with her. It wasn't for too long until Ozias was upon her again, but this time she was immediately ready as her hammer swung with an extra boost of its rocket, slamming into Ozias head and sending him hurtling across the ground. Though she could only balk as he immediately landed on his feet despite the amount of tumbling, he did.
"Yeah, I don't think a straight battle is going to help us here..."
Ozias clutched into his sword and soon swung around him, resulting in a circular sword slash that sent slashes of energy all around him, severing nearly everything around him. Even with the girls dodging some of the slashes and then attempting to block and reflect them via channeling their Auras, they still ended up getting cuts all over from the sheer amount of them and the sheer power behind them. Before long they were all sent flying in different directions as some of those slashes themselves exploded and severed even more around them. Yang landed first, on her face. Pyrrha landed just next to her while remaining in her feet, and Nora attempted to but managed to be caught by the former.
Pyrrha tried to think of a way around this mountainous power of a man. The warrior in her would have relished an extended battle with strength like this but the lives of her friends vastly took priority this. She needed to win in order for this to go their way, but they weren't at the level where they could take a man like this down in a straight fight. There had to be another way to tell him. And as she watched him lift his sword and prepare for her another attack, an idea managed to come to her.
She lifted her weapons and held up her shield, before she locked onto Ozias as he gripped his sword. She dashed towards him shield first, keeping a close eye on the sword at hand. Once he began his next swings her eyes narrowed as she focused her Aura into her shield, but not only that. Once the sword attempted to make contact with the shield, it repelled itself so forcefully that the sword ended up violently lashing and piercing through the chest of its owner. Complete with electromagnetic surges within the blade paralyzing him mostly, she had left him vulnerable. She then pushed forth, and the magnetically affected sword sent both it and Ozias soaring back until he crashed onto the ground, sword jammed through him and into said ground.
"Now! Don't let him recover!"
"Nora's got you covered, with a crash of lightning!"
Nora had picked up on Pyrrha's approach, having already leapt high into the air, then shoot directly downwards to slam her lightning infused hammer onto the hilt of the durable sword, further driving it into the downed man and shocking him with various volts of pink lightning in order to completely stall any attempts he might have made to escape. Then, once she skids and zaps away, Yang could be seen hovering over the man as she gathers solar energy into her fist. Her eyes closed as a chant echoed through her soul and reflected off of her Aura.
I've got the power of the sun in my hands. Calling upon light, nurturing the beloved, vitality ever growing. Fire burns brightly in the dark, heat scorches the oppressors and destroys the malevolent...every time the light of the sun hits the horizon, we etch our names into fate...!
Yang's eyes flashed open, her hair flared up bright gold, her magic rapidly depleting as her Aura grows brighter and hotter.
Solar Crash!
Before long, she pulls her fist back as it shined brilliantly like the sun and threw a massively powerful punch downwards. It resulted in a colossal, fiery explosion that glowed bright gold, with heated shockwaves that encompassed a massive radius around the point of impact. The powerful waves of heat and flames spread outwards and incinerated many of the enemies surrounding Yang and her friends, without harming any of her comrades. Instead, only a nurturing warmth passed over them, while anything perceived as an enemy was incinerated or badly burned in the sake of the blast. The sheer amount of light and flames and heat generating from the powerful impact was so great, one could mistake that daytime had come for several seconds, even though it was the middle of the night. As per the name, it was as if a miniature sun had crashed down from above.
Oscar coughed slightly as he and the others felt the warmth for themselves, and how it wasn't harmful at all. But everything that has been attacking Yang's friends were badly burned by the blast, if they weren't vaporized entirely by the heat. The fact that with such a powerful attack, she managed to not harm a single hair on any of her comrade's heads. The amount of control something like that, and that Yang was managing quite well, was nothing short of astounding.
Though even with the progresses they were making, Oscar was still on guard. "Even if we take the two of them down, there's nothing stopping them from standing up again after enough time...which means we need to give Ruby the opportunity to kill Lilith before that happens!"
"I'm with Oscar. It's unlikely that we'll be able to defeat either of them more than once. This has to be a one and done deal, or they'll wipe us out!" Weiss deduced while raising her hand, caging them both in prisons of hardened ice. "These two need to stay down, until Ruby kills Lilith! JAUNE!"
"I heard!" Jaune parried the blades from the manifested Rhodes, as one of Weiss's Glyphs appeared next to him and he pressed his sword into it for several seconds, and the ice Weiss manifested around Oziel and Ozias was suddenly further reinforced with Aura. "I'm going to need you two to stay where you are." He winced as their power pulsed, and the ice was already beginning to crack slightly. "No, you don't...!" He managed this as the Glyph shrunk and placed itself on the back of his hand, before he immediately turned and parried another sword slash from Rhodes, sparks spraying from the clash. "You! You're the one who saved Cinder back then, weren't you?"
"...Sa...v...ed...? did...n't...sav...e...di...e..d...l..e..f..t..he...r...al..o..ne..."
Rhodes sent a hammer swing Jaune's way, which he was barely able to guard against with his Aura-reinforced shield, which still managed to knock him off his feet and onto his back. He rolled out of the way of hammers slamming into the ground, getting back up quickly. Another swing was immediately sent his way, but he was surprised by Ren coming around to deflect the blow, sending it into the ground with a palm. Jaune immediately gets up while smashing at Rhodes while he was off balanced. It probably wouldn't do any good talking to this man as he is, reanimated against his will, his soul tarnished for as long as it remained in this world.
But he wanted to say these things anyway. As far as he knows, he was speaking to Cinder's father.
"You DID save her! If she had stayed with her all her life, she'd have never truly had one of her own. She never would have had a choice or a chance when it came to living her own life." Jaune muttered as he quickly parried the dual blades, grunted as pain ignited in his palms due to the blades being enforced with metal, and malefic energy. Rhodes entire body was suddenly covered in a dark metal, and Jaune found himself unable to cut him when he tried again and had to block another blow to keep from being knocked over again. He breathed heavily as he tried to focus his sight.
"Ci..nde..r..."Rhodes uttered while trying to hovel with his swords in hand. "Cin..d..e...r...l...o...ve..."
"Yes! That's why you risked everything for her sake, and that effort eventually led to the Cinder we see now! She has a choice and a chance to be whoever she wants to be! She's the Cinder that I grew to know and love! And it might have taken a while, but thanks to you she's not alone anymore! She's cared for and loved! So, I'm letting both of you know, what you did for her! It wasn't for nothing!"
Cinder clashed claws with Mara once more, her blue flames clashing against the green flames, and it's around that time that she heard Jaune's declaration and looked positively astonished at his declaration of him loving her...this ignited something within her, as she soon turned towards Mara and glared, breathing an even brighter torrent of blue flames towards her treacherous mother, pushing her back and managing to burn her to a degree.
"Increased ferocity...what's gotten into you all of a sudden, Cinder?"
Jaune was pushed back as his next sword slash harmlessly bounced off Rhodes harden metallic armor and needed Ren to pull him out of the way as a larger metallic hammer nearly dropped onto him. "That's crazy tough metal skin! I can't break through it!"
"Not with the current approach, at least." Ren deduced while his Aura pulsed several times, channeling through his hands before his eyes opened. "Strike for the chest, Jaune. The very center."
"If you say so...!" Jaune held his shield up and moved forward. Several times he felt the heavy resistance from Rhodes' onslaught, which was several slashes from his sword that have been enhanced by a demonic malefic force, along with the striking of hammers that nearly knocked his shield away outright. But before long he finally manages to close the distance between them, and he went for a thrust channeled with Aura, managing to strike the center of his chest. It expectedly didn't do much once it actually made contact, aside from just barely pricking it.
"The setup is in place...!" Ren's Aura pulsed once more, a pinkish flare surrounding him, as he managed to catch up with Jaune and strike the hilt of his sword as he was handing onto it. Almost in an instant, the blade already just barely piercing his chest, plus the Aura-enhanced from Ren, resulted in a pink/gold blast of Aura to pierce right through Rhodes' back and completely shatter his armor from both sides, sending him flying into the air several feet before landing square on his back, unmoving. Ren's Aura soon calmed as he and Jaune took a moment to catch their breath.
"Sorry, Rhodes. I can't have you distracting her...she'd never be able to stay focused if you remained in play." Jaune uttered.
"The...worst...kind...of...evil...is the...ki...nd...that...doesn't...seee...themselves...as...evil...the Remnant...Ho...ly...Knights...that's...the...kind...of...evil...that...will come...for Cinder...after...this...night...they...will...never acc...ept...her...Guard...ians...of...th...e...daw...n...th...ey'll...wa...nt...t...o...des...troy...her..." Rhodes struggled to say in his further damaged state.
"Let them try." Jaune declared with utter seriousness, getting the gist of what he was trying to say. "There's no way a group like that is going to take Cinder away from us. We have our own ways to protect and fighting. They try to interfere with us, they're going down." Rhodes seemed to smile at this. Cinder has allied with some reliable.
Cinder headbutts right into Mara while the latter slams her tail into her side. Both dragons roared at one another before their respective flames blazed around them and pushed them back in either direction. Cinder's wings flapped before she slashed her claws, a wave of blue fire thrown forth and slamming into Mara. The latter returned fire in the literal since by blasting Cinder in the chest in a torrent of green flames. They soon flew towards each other again and caught each other by the claws while roaring at each other. Before this moment Cinder might have faltered in the force of Mara trying to force, he authority and get her stepdaughter to submit to her without effort, but those days are firmly behind her. She torched those specific memories so that she could focus on moving beyond them. She refused to be treated so terribly without resistance.
Simply put, she would make this the last time she and her mother disagreed on anything.
"You would still rebel against me?! Even after I've already warned you of the consequences?!"
"If I kill you then those consequences won't matter!" Cinder roses as she swiped her claws at Mara, who swiped them away with her own, before lashing out with a claw-full of flames. Cinder roared in pain as she was scratched alongside her left arm and left side of her face, the marks glowing a sickly green, before she was sent spiraling downwards into the ground, headfirst.
"And you intend to kill me with such paltry efforts?!" Mara roared at her, before she turned and batted away a massive gear that was thrown at her like a disc. She glared heated daggers at Pyrrha, who looked prepared to throw as many of them as she could so long as she had the stamina for it. Mara almost ignored her to focus on Cinder, but then four more large gears started being tossed her way one after another, and she quickly grew irritated with Pyrrha's audacity.
Cinder snarled as she attempted to stand back up and fly, until she noticed Jaune briefly tapping her arm. She blinked as she turned her head towards him, noticing how resolute he appeared. Then he gestured to the defeated Rhodes, seeing him weakly reaching for her. Her eyes widened in shock for a moment, before she lowered them solemnly. She came down on all fours and leaned her head closer to the downed Rhodes, seeing that the cheer amount of damage he's taken in his weakened corpse of a body was causing him fall apart. He was putting whatever strength he had left to reach out for her.
"Ci...n..der..." The dragoness's eyes shimmered slightly, before she closed them and pressed her head into the much smaller hand. "...You've...be...come...so strong...an...d...beau...tiful..." She shuddered slightly at his praise, whimpering but also exceedingly happy with it, before taking a breath.
"...Father. That's what I wanted to ask during those times, but I couldn't gather the courage...back then, I wasn't able to fully express how much you meant to me." Cinder muttered while opening her eyes again, shining with sincerity. "I wanted to ask you...if it would be possible for me to call you Dad. If you would have been fine with that. I wanted you to be my father, and I wanted you to acknowledge me and see me as your daughter. That's what I wanted to say...!"
Rhodes smiled fondly towards Cinder while she affectionately nuzzled into his hand, their eyes quietly meeting. "...Y...you...are in...good...hands...my...Fall...Trea...sure..." Having spent the last of its power, the walking corpse soon fell apart and burned up entirely, with Cinder watching over it and lightly wiping her eyes with her paws. She soon turned towards Jaune, who nodded readily towards her.
"Let me prove him right. You take the lead, and I'll support."
A moment of thought later, Cinder agreed as she allowed Jaune to hop onto her back, before she took flight again with a great flap her wings. Jaune held true and tight onto the dragoness as Cinder went to confront Mara once more. He placed his hand on her back and began steadily amplifying her Aura.
Across, Lilith was sending waves after waves of glowing crimson blood towards Ruby, who slashed through them one after another with Crescent Rose, spiraling rose petals surrounding her and mimicking her actions. Lilith clasped her paws together as two large serpent Grimm hissed at Ruby and lashed at her with their widened jaws from two different directions. She flashed her eyes, as two sickles sliced right through their necks before they could reach her, immediately disintegrating them. She jumped over and slashed through another wave, but ended up knocked off balance as Lilith slashes a hardened blade of blood across her face.
"So easy!"
"Ugh!" Ruby was sent through the air, briefly out of control, before Penny caught her mid fall. She shook her head and readjusted as she and Penny levitated within the air. She held her face for a moment, shaking it as she felt slight pain across the right side of it. "Thanks, Penny..."
Penny nodded while narrowing her eyes towards Lilith. Hovering next to her on a sigil platform, was Oscar, assured from afar by Weiss. Oscar looked towards the downed Oziel and Ozias, then back towards Lilith. "The most surefire way of making sure those two stays down are killing Lilith. So, we got to do it before they break free from their prisons."
"Not a problem." Ruby uttered as she held Crescent Rose across her for a moment, preparing for a dash. Her eyes flashed briefly before she ended up in front of Lilith and slashed horizontally. Lilith ends up dodging upwards with grace, laughing at the miss. She brought her head up as she noticed Penny flying towards her with her swords, and they came together firing a green bean towards her. She smirked as she smashed her paw through the beam, immediately dispersing it. She then lashed a hardened blood whip downwards, Penny barely catching it and being force back into the ground for several moments, before multiple swords cut through the blood.
"Look at how much all of you are stumbling! It's pretty pitiful to watch!" Lilith raised her paw, and multiple large pillars of falling blood suddenly came down from the skies themselves. Ruby ends up dashing to grab Oscar and Penny to move out of the way of the massive spouts of blood. She had to turn around for a moment and defend against the onslaught with a shield of light, which sent all three of them crashing against the ground. Their fall was softened by yet another of Weiss's Glyphs appearing to catch them.
"Please cease from falling all over the place! This takes concentration!" Weiss muttered, swearing and gritting her teeth as the ice prisons surrounding Oziel and Ozias began cracking further. "And I need as much as I can muster to keep these two pinned!"
"Essentially, make haste." Blake declared calmly as she held her hands across, and multiple shadowy paws enlarged around the two copies of mighty figures and clamped around them to further keep them pinned. "This will not keep them down for long, so you need to finish this and, quickly."
Lilith cackled as she began swooping towards Weiss, Ruby howling out to her in a warning. Weiss's eye widened as she was left exposed for an attack. Then before she could strike her with her claws, she was suddenly dodging back as a flame pillar blasts upwards, coming between her and her target. She turned around, a hardened wall of blood forming around her, which quickly broke away and she herself was knocked back from the shockwave, as Yang smashed through it with an explosive and fiery punch. Her eyes flashed crimson at the moment.
"I don't think so!"
Lilith looked to the side as she saw Ruby glowing silver, and nearly jumped upwards, only for a light sickle to carve into her side slightly. She winced from the cut, as Ruby slashed Crescent Rose, releasing a wave of silver light that crashed into Lilith and sent her spiraling away, nearly crashing into the grown. She flapped her scaly snake/feathery wings to avoid the crash and rose back up in the air again. "Are you trying to cut into my fun?"
"I'm trying to cut you into pieces."
Cinder was flying around multiple torrents of flames, still feeling the slight aches from the scratches she took from before. Jaune had his hands on her back, amplifying her Aura and continued jump starting her healing. She blasts a blue spiral of flames towards Mara, who held her wings in front of her, defending against them and dispersing them with a powerful flap. Both of them slammed their draconic fists into each other, sending each other away before once again flapping their wings to stabilize themselves midair.
"You say that you're fighting for your freedom, and yet once again you're depending on someone else to help you achieve it." Mara scoffed as she held a paw over her head, a massive ball of green fire forming in seconds. "Even with your potential returning, you're still completely incapable of doing anything on your own!"
"There's plenty of things I can do myself! But you wouldn't care about that unless it benefited you! And I'll do whatever it takes to make you DISAPPEAR!" Cinder defiantly shouted, taking a deep breath, her chest puffing, before she breathed a massive ball of blue flames of her own. Mara tossed her opposing green fireball towards her, and they both crashed and exploded in an explosion of mixing flames that managed to torch nearly everything at its epicenter. Cinder briefly covered her eyes as the resulting smoke briefly blinded her, before she felt something clamping onto her shoulders. Mara had flown through the smoke to grab her. She then bared her fangs and attempted to bite into Cinder's neck to siphon more of her blood.
She found herself unable to breach her scales. Her eyes widened at their enhanced toughness due to her Aura being drastically enhanced, before she moved her head just slightly and glared at Jaune, who glared right back as he was continuously amplifying Cinder's Aura. "You...!"
"Me." Jaune responds simply, yet resolutely. Mara glared as she unhinged her jaws and fired off a massive wave of flames directly towards Cinder. Jaune amplified her Aura still as he held out his other hand, a super-sized glowing shield of Aura blocked the stream of flames and dispersing. "You're going to have to do better than that! This time I'm serious about helping Cinder make sure you go down for good!" He exclaimed as Cinder flew towards Mara, his giant Aura Shield deflecting another giant fireball. "And besides, I'm not the only one here who's pissed at you."
There was a flash of pink lightning. Mara turned towards the source, and saw Nora flying towards her, grinning manically as lightning surged around her, as well as some glowing from her empty right eye socket.
"Saaayyyyyy CHEESE!"
The last sight Mara's right eye saw was Nora's hammer swinging towards her, before it was completely pulverized by her lightning infused blow, which exploded several seconds afterwards. It separated them, and Nora whooped at her successful attempt at payback. Mara roared and swore as she angrily tried to figure out how Nora reached her so quickly in the sky, lightning or not.
Then she noticed Nora being caught by pink rose petals.
Her sight was nearly blinded by fury; she immediately locked her eyes onto Ruby Rose, who hatefully glared right back at her. She was in the midst of fighting Lilith yet had just enough space and time to send Nora flying Mara's way so she couldn't interfere with Cinder catching Jaune. Also, she was aware of how Nora wanted retribution for her lost eye.
"Insipid, slobbering, flea-ridden bitch...!"
"I bet the idea of 'eye for an eye' never even occurred to you, figuratively or literally. Especially when you're on the receiving end." Ruby uttered with contemptuous tranquility.
"Eye up front!" Jaune shouted. Mara looked back, her eye crushed and taking time to heal, as Cinder and Jaune, the former igniting herself on blue fire and latter maintaining his sizable Aura Shield, rammed full speed into Mara with a powerful tackle, making her gasp and taking the wind out of her from the blow. This continues until Cinder eventually stopped, sending Mara crashing into the ground in a crumpled heap. She smashed the ground with a furious growl, lifting her head and breathing an even grander wave of flames, with Jaune once again blocking them with his Aura shield, though he did begin feeling the intensity of the heat crashing against his shield and his hands.
Ruby and Penny flew around the torrents of blood flying all around them, with both of them slicing clean through the spikes jetting from some of the pillars erupting from the ground. Lilith was levitating in the center of all the chaos, attempting to wipe them out along with everyone else around her. Penny's lasers sliced through the tougher hardened blood barriers while Ruby's cleaved clean through any torrents that tried to obstruct her vision and path. Once the both of them reached Lilith again they slashed with their respective weapons simultaneously. Lilith easily slips past several of the slashes before she ends up sending both of them away with a forceful slash of her talons and a flap of her wings, them a slam of her tail to send them both hurtling down into the ground. A large bush of rose petals managed to cushion their fall, though they rolled off of it slightly exhausted.
Several serpent and owl Grimm hiss and screeched at them while trying to surround them. Ruby growled as her eyes flashed, a blast of light obliterating them wholesale, while Lilith was pushed back by the intensity of it. After regaining her bearings, she flapped her wings, feathery and scaly, and saw Ruby coming at her with another slash of Crescent Rose. Lilith just about gets out of the way of the sharp and swift attack, missing her by several seconds, before she raised her arm, and a pillar of blood briefly separated her from Ruby. She pushed her hand into the pillar as multiple clawed hands shot outwards and attempted to impale themselves into her. She jumped away crime each and every one of them, cleaving through them with swift swiped and slashes of Crescent Rose, before slashing and sending another wave of silver light towards Lilith. Lilith ends up moving out of the way, but her arm manages to get cut by the glowing attack, and she smirked even through the pain that said injury brought her.
"Your power admittedly stings pretty fierce, but I'm afraid you're not going to be able to just blink Grimm Devils away!" Lilith spreads her arms as multiple blood serpents emerged from blood portals of various shapes and sizes, including a giant winged one that hiss/roared at the Ruby and Penny duo. They began moving to avoid them. Ruby managed to pick up speed and dodging by running on all fours, while Penny flew about and sliced through several of the serpents while blasting clean through the others. It worsened when the larger blood serpents opened their jaws and began blasting entire beams of blood energy towards the duo, further decreasing their room to dodge them. "As I thought! All you can do is flee like a running scared puppy! And here I thought you were a fearsome wolf!"
"This fearsome wolf travels in a pack." Ruby narrowed her eyes, which began glowing softly. "Penny, let's do it."
"Roger!"
Penny's eyes glowed as she and held out her hands, multiple swords manifesting all around her, up to the dozens, and all of them began charging their own beams. Ruby's eyes glowed brighter, and all the swords were now tinted with her light, glowing a bright green, white with how they were charging. Soon, they each fired off all at once, piercing through the beams the blood serpents were firing off and blasting back their attempts of firing off their own attacks. Each of the heads fell one after another, easily cleaved through by the duo's collaboration. Penny narrowed her eyes as more of her Silver-empowered lasers clashed against the blasts of the blood serpents, then she looked upwards to see a blood owl flap its wings mightily towards them. Both of them ended up flying back from the force of the gale. They nonetheless managed to land on their feet, looking up as Lilith was gathering a large amount of blood energy above her paw. It was massive enough to possibly replicate her obliterating a quarter of the city, twice-over.
"Hey, wolfie! Wanna play a game?" Lilith grinned as she tauntingly waved her paw downwards. "Fetch."
Ruby glared at the enormous orb of blood energy that was menacingly getting closer to her and Penny. "This is our chance. Penny, you and Oscar get ready."
"Understood!" Penny saluted, as she flew away as a green streak of light.
Ruby stood turned towards the glowing orb of blood energy, which began glowing brighter and crackling more and more. She gripped Crescent Rose tightly as a silvery glow embodied it, and it shimmered and glowed a bright white. She planted her feet in place, twitched her ears, swayed her tail. And with a powerful swing upwards, she launched a crescent shaped slash of light up towards the blood orb, clashing against it and stopping it in place, before both of them ended up detonating while also reducing the force of the latter's blast. Sending glowing white and red energy everywhere, the commotion could be seen even on the close outskirts of Vale, and some might even feel just how much went into the clash as brief as it was.
Mara briefly looked over towards the commotion, snarling as she glared back towards Cinder and Jaune.
"It's about time we've ended this argument, 'Mother'." Cinder declared strongly. "I have no intentions on being your subservient tool."
"You think you're in the position to say things like that? I'll remind you of your place and burn it into your soul!" Mara roared as she flew downwards towards Cinder and Jaune.
"Here she comes..." Jaune held up his shield.
"And here we go."
Cinder flapped her wings and soared upwards towards Mara, who was beginning to glow with dark green flames. Cinder herself was ignited with bright blue and white flames, which felt nice and warm around Jaune and didn't burn him at all. She flapped her wings to put forth more momentum, with Jaune further enhancing her Aura so she could maintain her focus. With Mara closing in, her dark green flames intensifying, the two opposing dragons seemed to be prepared for one more head-on clash, to see whose flames would reign supreme.
Or so Mara thought.
Cinder, at the last moment, firmly grasped Jaune in her paw, and with a powerful throw, tossed him straight at Mara, with him holding up his Aura-reinforced shield that was surrounded by blue flames. Mara's eyes widened as she didn't have enough time to get out of the way, with the shield smashing her right into her face and completely wrecking her concentration. She growled and snarled at the ploy, but she'd pay dearly for falling for it.
Emerging from the smoke, Cinder's eyes glowed, as she opened her jaws and fires off a draconic blast at point-blank range before Mara could do anything about it, the results being a blue and white explosion that engulfed her and Cinder alike, the former having her left side nearly obliterated.
Lilith, on the other hand, didn't have too much of a difficult time locating Ruby, as she dashed towards the Grimm Devil with her eyes shimmering brightly, even though she's been scraped and cut all over from the fallout of the blast. Admittedly, Lilith was feeling drained herself due to the sheer brightness of the light managing to harm her anyhow. Still, she looked elated as Ruby headed towards her again. So elated, in fact, so lost in her lust for bloodshed, that she didn't notice two green energies coming up from behind her...
"You're definitely going to be a worthwhile sacrifice to beautify my Blood Garden, Ruby Rose! I do hope you consider that a great honor! Well, even if you didn't, I'd do it anyway." Lilith grins under her mask as she began building up for another horde of serpents and flock of owls. "I'll have my Blood Garden, and the Grimm shall-" Lilith's eyes widened behind her mask as she noticed she had completely stopped moving. Furthermore, she immediately realized that she was surrounded in a bright green orb of sorts, which was surrounded by images of gears and clocks.
"Chrono Cage." Both Penny and Oscar chanted, with the former empowering the latter to pull it off, and he looked significantly more exhausted due to it. Nevertheless, it did what it needed to do. Which was to keep Lilith in place.
The Grimm Devil's eyes glowed helplessly under her mask as she watched Ruby come down on her, pulling her scythe over her head. But then she saw something, and she thought it was her eyes playing tricks on her.
For a few moments, just several seconds, she saw Ruby shrouded in some sort of shadow, completely enveloped in shadows and darkness. Her hair, as well as the fur on her ears and tail having gone pitch black as the night sky, and her skin a ghostly pale white. Her eyes were flashing a mixture of purple, with silver pupils right within their center. Throughout it all, she was wearing a black cloak of sorts and was surrounded in swirling dark blood red, black, and purple rose petals. Not only that, but she also had several bones around there...Grimm-like bones. Lilith could sense it all, this darkness surrounding and welling up in Ruby. It was immense, it was powerful, and it was...gentle?
This vast, growing darkness Lilith sensing within her, she's never sensed anything of the sort be so immense and yet so, positive...and it was gradually expanding and becoming more and more powerful. It left her questioning just what Ruby was.
She didn't have enough time to deeply ponder this as Ruby called out to her, snapping her back to reality, and leaving her wondering if what she saw was just a hallucination, she caused to herself right before what came next happened.
"Now, Lilith, do you remember what I promised you?"
"...Oh dear."
Ruby slashed.
Lilith didn't feel it at first. It wasn't an instantaneous realization, further helped by the fact that she didn't feel any pain from it, though that was probably due to the shock of it all. But once she saw that her vision of the world had suddenly been divided and was sliding in two different directions, Lilith was smart enough to be able to put two and two together, despite her current status.
'...She really followed through with cleaving me in half.'
The two halves of Lilith slid away from each other and came apart, with Ruby glaring at the remains of her nemesis. Far behind the both of them, the darkened skies have been split open, revealing the full moon in all of its luminescent radiance.
"...Well...that happened. Damn, this is embarrassing...I really wanted to enjoy my blood garden...my paradise...it would have been gorgeous...what a pathetic way to go out..." Lilith muttered through both of her halves. Having used up most of her energy and being cleave din half by Ruby's light, she knew that bouncing back from this was not going to happen. "...oh well...I at least succeeded in... making your thorny path...even harder on you. Now no matter what you do, forces of light AND darkness shall unify to become your enemy...and eventually the world will be your enemy, just like it was once Salem's...they will completely...annihilate you..."
"They can go ahead and try." Ruby calmly replied, simple and to the point.
Lilith laughed mockingly at Ruby's confidence. "You're completely done for...but I will admit to this much...you are indeed a ferocious and formidable wolf." She soon sighed as more of her began vanishing. "...There's only one regret that I have...just one...I won't get to see...just how humiliatingly Mara is going to die now... since she's on death's door and no longer linked to my power...heh...it would have been a splendid last sight...hahahaha...!"
Ruby continued her glare as Lilith eventually faded away into nothingness, her laughter being the last thing she does. The wolf soon sighed and shook her head. "Those two really didn't care about each other at all, huh..." She turned towards Oscar and Penny, with the latter smiling and the former giving an exhausted thumbs up. Ruby smiled and nodded to the both of them, as they eventually made their way to the ground. Her eyes sparkled as Jaune and Cinder both emerged from the smoke from their own battle. She ended up running up and hugging Jaune with a spin, briefly kissing him with a wag of her tail, before they parted as he sets her down on her feet.
"Hah...guessing you managed to get her, huh...?"
"Target eliminated." Penny raised her hand with an affirmative nod.
"It would seem that the battle is over. Oziel and Ozias are vanishing, since Lilith is no longer tethering their existence." Pyrrha noted as the two figures vanished, which allowed Weiss and Blake to finally rest. "Victory is ours, friends!"
"Yeah, I definitely know for sure that we won this battle. But everything's not over." Yang folded her arms as she nodded her head to the side. "Not yet."
Everyone looked in the direction Yang gestured to. Slowly hovelling, shuffling about through the smoke and embers, and having been badly injured to the point where her self-healing had been completely ruined, was Madame Mara Mazikeen. Once the proud and powerful leader of the infamous Glass Unicorn guild, as well as the contractor of the bonded Grimm Devil, Lilith. A sufficiently feared and dreadful figure in the supernatural underworld...reduced to a battered and bloodied vampire who's just barely clinging to life, after having just been completely defeated. Needless to say, she was not taking this incredibly well.
Far from it. She was livid.
"How...how DARE you reduce me to this...!" Mara seethed while holding her right side, which didn't heal in the slightest after Cinder breathed a powerful blast of fire through it. She couldn't sense Lilith's power anymore; she's been completely disconnected from it. Which could mean two things. Either she's forcibly severed their connection, or she's been killed, and she had a pretty good idea of it not being the former. She whipped her head towards Ruby Rose, who just looked at her quietly, with just the barest minimum of attention. "You...you...YOU..."
"Hey there. Name's Ruby Rose. You ever going to use it?" Ruby deadpans.
"You rotten dog...you did this...you've ruined me...!" Mara uttered as she collapsed onto her knees. "Of all people, of anyone in the world, how could Cinder ally herself with you! A putrid werewolf of all things?! An inferior, lowly, unthinking beast that should have been put down the moment it left the womb!"
"And yet somehow, I'm still here. Isn't that crazy?"
"Don't bark down to me, cur!" Mara hissed as she snapped her eyes towards Cinder. "Cinder! Destroy them! Kill them! Obliterate them!"
"She still thinks she's in control here." Weiss muttered in disbelief.
"Then we should more clearly disabuse her of that notion." Blake narrowed her eyes, gripping onto Gambol Shroud.
"Yeah, let's show her what for." Jaune glared as everyone began heading towards Mara, only for Ruby to wordlessly hold up her hand in an order to cease their advance. "Ruby?"
Ruby didn't respond, simply keeping her hand out and letting them know not to interfere. As such, Mara was allowed to speak with Cinder uninterrupted, with the latter callously glaring at her.
"...Look at you, Cinder. Look how powerful you've become." Mara began quietly. "You've pushed past every hardship you've come across and came back more powerful than ever, and it led up to this point. Needless to say, you never would have reached this level of power if it were not for me. So, it is time you repay the favor by contributing to my rejuvenation and killing these people for putting me in this state."
Mara paused as Cinder continued silently glaring at her, with the wind briefly passing the both of them by, causing their dresses, and Cinder's treasured scarf, to sway slightly.
"...Cinder? Respond to me, Cinder. I'm your mother. We can still put things behind us. Don't you want to make up, Cinder?" Still, Cinder did not verbally respond to her, scoffing as she contemptuously turned her head away. That definitely set Mara off, throwing away what little of her fragile patience she had left. "...wretched rebellious harlot, look at me when I talk to you!" Mara stumbled forward onto the ground, using her arms to drag herself over to Cinder, furiously gripping to dirt to pull herself further, further dirtying herself "You wouldn't be here if it wasn't for me. You fell from the sky and would have starved to death if I didn't take you as my own. You would have been worthless to anyone who didn't understand your true value like I did. You wouldn't have become as strong, feared, or powerful if it wasn't for me pushing you into awakening your power. You could have become a part of something meaningful! And you're just going to throw it all away?! For these peasants?!" Mara eventually reached Cinder and gripped her ankle, glaring hatefully towards her stepdaughter. For her part, Cinder simply looked at her, bored. "Don't you understand, Cinder?! Without me, you are nothing! You owe your existence to my intervention! Your fate and destiny have become my right to choose!"
"...You're right. Without you, I am nothing." Cinder pulled her ankle away from Mara, folding her arms. "...But thanks to you...I can be anything."
"What...?!"
"Look at you, dragging yourself across the ground, right at my feet. It seems you finally know your place." Cinder smirked. "I'm the superior creature. Even after draining my blood for my power, you couldn't win against me. You're pathetic."
"How...DARE...you...!"
"So pathetic, in fact, that it might not even be worth the trouble of killing you. You're no longer a threat to me. I'll just leave you with the shame of knowing you've completely failed to force your will upon me, despite wasting so much of your resources towards that end." Cinder tilted her head, then narrowed her eyes. "Hm. No. Actually, leaving you alive isn't worth it either." She snapped her fingers as a tiny ember of flame appeared above it. "Here, Mother. My final contribution to you. Hopefully it'll warm up the cold void where your heart would be." Cinder casually flicked the ember forth, and it landed in Mara's hair, and the woman began screeching as she quickly caught fire. She had already begun yelling in agony as Cinder turned around and began walking without soaring her further thought. "We're done here. Let's go home."
"Fine by me." Ruby nodded as she led everyone away from the ruined sight, leaving Mara to burn where she stood, screeching and screaming in disbelieving fury, demanding for Cinder to return to her where she belonged. Her demanding yells became weaker as the inferno quickly escalated until it was brightening up the whole area behind everyone. But Cinder paid her no heed, completely cutting her off from her focus. That chapter of her life was behind her, and she fittingly left it to burn.
As she thought about this, Ruby herself thought about their significant accomplishments, particularly how they managed to slay Lilith. That was one Grimm Devil down and out. Though with what she said about her thorny path from then on our, she didn't doubt for a moment that she was correct in that things were only going to get more difficult for her from here on out.
Meanwhile...
"...Hm. I was late to the battle. It appears that the main threats have been dealt with." Glynda Goodwitch hummed, tilting jo her witch hat as she hovered over the center of the city. "That makes things a bit easier on me, certainly. The recovery and reconstruction efforts will have to begin post-haste."
The remnants of the Grimm, Ghoul, Vampire, and Succubus rampages that ravaged Vale for most of the night, that still chose to attack and kill when it was clear that they are already defeated. The smarter, wiser ones have already cut their losses and retreated from the city in order to avoid swift retribution. As for whoever and whatever remained...
Glynda Goodwitch completely culled the rest of the enemy forces, in under four minutes.
Salem couldn't believe she had to deal with this right now, but it was imperative that she did. She had intended on enjoying a nice and relaxing bath, but no, Ozpin had to show up literally dead at her doorstep. Resuscitation had been a bit of a chore since he had taken so much critical damage and lost lots of blood against his clash with Lilith. Considering the amount of it and the sheer extent of the wounds, she guessed that he was tricked into being caught in her Devil Domain and ended up paying a painful price for it.
Serves the nuisance right. He put so much unnecessary pressure on Oscar by trying to get him to ease drop on her possible motives and objectives through him. That was uncalled for and she was going to hold him to that whenever possible and was glad that Penny was doing the same. She deserves her privilege to be petty about this because she actually liked seeing Oscar whenever he came over.
But it wouldn't do to simply leave him to die. She wouldn't care one bit for the man if he did end up perishing, but she knew that Oscar definitely would despite not always seeing eye to eye with the man. Reluctantly, that was enough for her to not stand idle, and proceed with his healing. Though once more, it wasn't quite outright easy due to the extent of the damage. She scoffed in annoyance as the various tendrils around her had succeeded in her assistance of closing up and sealing his more severe wounds, to leave more room and ease for them to heal properly.
"Good grief. You'd better believe that you're in debt to me for this, Ozpin. Watching the ants crawl across the wood would be a more fulfilling use of my time than this." Salem uttered, as she put up her equipment for the time being and settled him down. She could sense some bits of his Aura returning, his soul finding the body habitable again, but only barely. He had died out there, but his soul held onto the body just long enough for her to resuscitate him from clinical death. Had he not brought himself to her, or if he wasn't able to escape at all, his death would have been assured. "Lilith truly did a number on you, hasn't she. You really must have been desperate to cling to life if you forwent all subtly and came directly to me." She soon looked towards a manifested Seeker Grimm, alongside looking towards her Seer so she could see what Lilith was up to now. She was curious about how much the situation has exacerbated and how much further her framing was going to progress. She had been aware of how the deaths of her daughters had been framed-which was a low blow that left her boiling on the inside-and was now just wondering if Lilith had anything else under her sleeve to further throw Salem under the bus. She'll admit, if the primary goal was to set Salem off, she certainly succeeded there. Not to mention convincing the world that she was out to get them, again. Which was preposterous.
If Salem truly wanted to take over the world, she would have done it already. But nobody is going to quite believe that, so it wouldn't do any good to let people know this either way. It didn't get her what she wanted before, and it wouldn't do so now. There'd be no point in lording that over everyone's heads except to agitate them further, and that's a headache Salem didn't feel like dealing with.
As she viewed the events, the first surprise she got was when Cinder shed her red scales as the white dragon within her resurfaced. Her scales shined a radiant white, her flames glowing a brilliant burning blue, and her overall disposition suddenly felt more heroic and positive.
Salem smiled at it. White dragons, as she remembered, were seen as symbols of betterment and goodness...they were also amongst the most powerful and ferocious dragons types of all. Their beautiful and might were undeniable, and she silently thanked Cinder for letting her witness one yet again.
All that being said, as things steadily progressed, the next event she saw was even more shocking and surprising to her. She wasn't quite expecting to see Ruby cleave the Grimm Devil in half. And as she watched it completely disintegrate, she knew the kill was legitimate, for she could no longer sense Lilith's presence in the woods like she subtly could with the other Grimm Devils.
Ruby killed one. She actually killed one.
Salem always believed she could do it, but to actually see it play out brought a different kind of joy to her millennium's year-old heart. Which means she'd let the others know that she'll be coming for the rest of them now that one of their number had fallen. And the fact that the first one to go was the Devil that took her grandmother's shape so she'd take the fall for her atrocities, badmouthed her on a personal level in front of her granddaughter, and desecrated the memories of the love she had for her daughters for the entire world to see?
Salem slowly smiled and sighed a breath of relief. It wouldn't quite fix all the damage that Lilith had already done, but Salem was prepared to endure that. It's been a long while since she's been this happy to watch something die, and not feel an ounce of trepidation about it.
"Hmhm. As always, seeing my precious, blooming granddaughter is one of the things in my life that will always improve my mood."
And with Lilith's destruction and Madame Mara Marzikeen's death, the Glass Unicorn has been completely annihilated! Victory goes to the Red Riding Hood Guild! And of course, Grammy Salem witnesses her Granddaughter smiting the Grimm Devil that directly mocked her, brings nothing but sheer joy to an elder's heart. That's one of them down, and Ruby's definitely given her a sight that will make her Grammy proud.
Cinder being a white dragon all along was hinted at several times throughout the chapters. Her red scales were her blood was covering over her white scales up over the years due to her horrific abuse to the point that she legitimately forgot that her scales were actually white. Madame Mara was THAT cruel to her.
It also plays into how her canon self initially wore white and seemed somewhat innocent and sadly hopeful before falling fully into villainy and began wearing red and black. Instead that turn towards evil was completely avoided because of Rhodes rather than worsened by him. And later on, she falls in love with Jaune.
Which she quickly finds to be awkward, especially as she kissed him during her power high, since he's obviously seeing Ruby. But apparently she doesn't need to worry too much about that? Suppose Ruby herself will have something to say about this, when they address it during the aftermath of this massive battle.
With a Grimm Devil erased and a major leader of a sinister faction turned to ashes along with said faction, what impact might these defeats have? And just what might Ruby, Jaune, and Cinder have to talk about?
We'll soon see.
