Heretic notes:
Changed the cover. Cool, right? Took me a while to make that. It's Vladimir Tepes.
Can't post the link here, so I think I will put it later in my profile.
Either way, this chapter marks the start of the second arc (yay)
The BGM shall be...
Yu-Gi-Oh! Arc-V OST: Yuto's Passionate Soul
RWBY: Against All Odds
Silence, that was what followed them.
The girl called Mummy of Impossible defeat ran as if her life depended on it.
Jaune, Ren and Ruby follower her in silence, all of them knowing how serious the situation was.
Then, they passed through those streets. A scenario filled with destruction with many cracks on the ground and near buildings. Many marks of calamity here and there but it was not the place.
It was only then that Jaune realized where the pillar of flames happened: when he looked afar and saw a few people gathered in that area.
Yes, the pillar happened recently, it was not like many people could rush there right away, but...
That was the place where he fought with Vladimir. That was the place where the prince's dreams and ideals were destroyed by Jaune Arc.
Jaune's chest started to ache.
With the rays of dawn coming from the sky, he saw the blackened battleground filled with ashes and destruction.
He climbed down those stairs, the stairs where he threw the prince off, the place where he fell from grace.
And when he reached the ground at the bottom...
"No!" Shouted Tracy.
She ran to where a few people where gathering. There were two places and the first was ignored.
Jaune followed her, side-glancing at the first place: where several mechanical pieces and a giant robot arm was left destroyed.
"Nooooo!" Shouted Tracy.
And in the other place...
A Dawn Reeking of Blood
"Ugh" was unbearable to see... "Th-this is..."
A bloodied ground
A dismembered right arm and bat wing
A humanoid pile of charcoal
An uncanny three meters long spear carved in there
The smell of...
D
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H
'No... This can't... This can't be... This can't be it!'
The mere thought of that possibility led him to despair.
The possibility he couldn't accept.
The outcome that shoudn't happen.
The end a person did not deserve.
'Someone, please tell me it's a lie' thought Jaune upon looking at that scene. 'Please!'
"Jaune!" Ren shouted his name.
Jaune started to have a white glow, in his despair he activated his aura.
"Argh!" His chest, the location where the spear once pierced opened. The wound that was healed started to hurt and bleed like never before.
And that spear, Vladimir Tepes' spear that was carved in the blackened and bloodied ground started to glow red.
It was the same scene Ren once saw. That time when Jaune's and Vlad's auras ressonated.
But this time, he felt it too...
"What's this?!" Asked Ruby while having an ominous feeling.
"This can not be!" Tracy's box also reacted and...
In Beacon...
"Our weapons!" Shouted Luna as her armor on the ground started to shine.
"What's going on?!" Asked Weiss worried.
Newton's sword also started to twist and turn and Luna said:
"Our weapons are made based on ancient technology, if this is happening it means..."
She couldn't complete the phrase.
On the bed, the sleeping Newton shed a few tears and muttered:
"Please... don't go..."
Newton, Luna, Weiss and Oobleck saw that scene...
And at the park...
Tracy, Jaune, Ren and Ruby saw the same scene the spear showed...
[OST - Yuto's Passionate Soul plays]
In the past...
Everything played out from his eyes, the eyes of Vladimir Tepes...
Unable to use aura, and also gravely wounded. The pain from his burned wings and his whole body.
The mere act of staying awake already was a burden.
In front of him, the giant machine of war and destruction, an opponent that could not be beaten nor could he flee from.
And the Impaler Vampire remembered Tracy...
"I made that choice... and it was very easy..."
The machine closed in and Vladimir remembered it.
His whole life of arduous training.
His fall from grace, lying on the bottom while a talented person stood on the top.
The time when his ideals and dreams were destroyed.
And once again, an impossible opponent was before him, but...
"I will never give up..." He looked at that Atlesian Paladin with courage and determination. "I will not give up on myself ever again!"
And he ran.
With that spear and wounded body, he ran.
It was an impossible battle, but that underdog managed to fight back.
With his intelligence, he even managed to take ou an arm of that machine.
But his defeat was still inevitable...
With one hit from that machine, he felt his bones break once again.
But that wouldn't take him down.
In a time, when he was little, breaking his bones was merely a daily routine in his inhumane training. Pain was part of him since a long time ago.
His spear was shining and the prince stood once more.
"I will not... give up..."
And then, the 'chest' of the robot opened and the flames were released.
The ever-lasting pain in his body was surpassed by the scorching light.
But he didn't give in. He gripped his spear and felt hope.
It was then that the situation took its turn for the worst.
With the remaining arm of the Paladin, a blade slashed Vladimir Tepes.
An arm and a wing separated from the body while blood came out.
In Tepes' eyes, his last hope, his prized spear was out of the hand's grasp and the arm away from the body.
And the light of destruction finally covered his view as his body was being burned alive
When the vision ended, Tracy dropped to her knees crying:
"NOOOOOOOOO!"
And Jaune, couldn't believe in it... only then he remembered Vladimir's words...
- I already became someone that prioritizes the life of another before his own a long time ago...
The dismembered arm and wing that were cut out.
- I needed to become someone that can make the hardest choice when the time comes...
A carved spear on the ground.
- When a battle beyond my thinking happens... when strategy and trust won't be enough...
Tracy crying on her knees.
- One to save...
A humanoid pile of charcoal in the blackened and bloodied ground.
- One to die.
'He made the choice' Jaune realized it as tears appeared on his eyes.
"He... really did it..."
- Life isn't a fairy tale, you peasant...
'He chose the girl he loved to live and...' Jaune looked at that pile of charcoal, eternally burned by the unforgivable pillar of light.
Just like in tales of vampires, the person named Vladimir Tepes had that end...
Eternally burned by the light.
And Jaune realized it... not everyone had a happy ending and...
What is a war?
A dispute with everything on the line.
A confront of the so-called heroes.
Then who is the villain?
In the end, such a strife has no heroes, no winners and certainly no happy ending.
It's a tale without villains, only victims.
A story where in the end, someone will cry.
"Vladimir Tepes..." he muttered those words while his chest bled.
D
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E
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Arc 2: Fallen Hero
START
At an unknown place...
A person moved the pieces in the chess board once again.
Just as the pieces were finally at their place, these words were muttered:
"And now, with the fall of the prince of the chimeras, the chess board is finally set".
A black pawn was lying in that black and white board, defeated by the white knight