Seriously, I can't do anything without getting stuck somewhere !
All right Orion, just try and think...Oh Elias you cheeky cheeky bastard !
What had happened suddenly came back in the form of memories to Orion. Realizing what had been to him, Orion tried to focus what ever strength he could but found that he couldn't even feel the area around him.
Orion simply sighed in anger as he felt the area around him began to feel like it was compressing and attempting to destroy itself. He could barely struggle to keep himself awake but failed as he drifted off into unconsciousness.
Despite having lost, Orion thought he a familiar voice attempt to wake him up and so he did. Only he wasn't on the battlefield but rather he was watching himself stand over the ruins the of one.
He quickly realized that he was simply sifting through a lost memory, or rather one he wished he was able to keep repressed.
Before, the village before him might have been a small settlement, composed of many nomadic peoples who were just trying to live their lives as best as they could. Some might have been able to use their aura's, and some might have been charged with defending the village. Like all villages, there were people who were charged with defending it from attacks from Grimm and renegades. What it was in the past however, meant nothing compared to what it was now.
Intense flames rose and burned everything came in contact with asunder, bodies were strewn about the sand, some twitching and gasping for life while some were simply being burned to ashes. In the center of the inferno was a red-haired crying youth, who sat in the center of the massacre. Black flames dance wildly around him, consuming any and all in their wake yet curiously only a ring around him was composed of the hellish flames. The flames that began to burn the village around him were basic but soon began to turn a dark black, only as if they were becoming infected by the boy's emotions, which were those of anger and anguish.
Orion only watched in shock at the image before him before taking a deep breath. Of all the atrocities he had committed, of all the bloodshed he had caused, it was this exact moment that he couldn't forget.
The memory continued onward, until a brown cloaked figure rushed into the blaze, dropping several crystal along their way. The crystals suddenly began to absorb the black flames, creating a clear path for the figure to lift the young red-haired boy out of the flames and to the outskirts of the destroyed village. The figure removed the hood of their cloak to reveal a women with dark black hair and a youthful face.
Cinder looked down at the young Orion in her arms as he continued to kick, scream and cry his heart and soul out until Cinder had enough and struck him in the base of his neck. Not hard enough to cause lasting harm, but hard enough to knock the consciousness out of the young child.
From there, the entire scene changed to a forest like environment to which Orion was unfamiliar with but suddenly the whole scene simply vanished. What was left was a simple lake similar to when Orion had met with Chaos but instead of an ancient entity, he came face to face with Raven.
Orion had to blink several times and to ensure that he wasn't hallucinating so he bit into his arm and recoiled at the pain, satisfied that he was awake.
" Don't be surprised that I'm here. You should learn to stop being captured, it is truly ironic for someone like you. In any case, it seems that Elias has already used the Ebony Eclipse, so you should find a way out and escape quickly."
" Whoa whoa whoa, hold up there. Exactly, how and why you here ? " Orion question Raven who sighed as she sat in the lake, causing a ripple affect across the water.
" If the aura is the manifestation of the soul, than that would that giving someone your aura means giving them a portion of your very soul. So in your terms, when I gave you my aura, I gave you a part of my soul, literally in this case, " Raven explained to Orion who rubbed his temples and groaned.
" Fine, I'll accept it but only because I don't even wanna delve to learn how that works. Look I'm glad to see you again, I really am but I need to figure a way out and kick the shit out of Jaune's ancestor."
Raven simply shook her head and sighed. She then waved her hand and suddenly the whole scene changed to a black void that seemed infinite. " You aren't leaving here, Orion. The Ebony Eclipse was created to destroy both body and soul by withering both away to nothingness. Elias only spoke of it to me but my soul is weakly intertwined with yours so we must escape. Jaune has already escape his prison, and I can only think of one way to do that," Raven explained to Orion who actually listened to her.
" Well don't beat around the bush. How do we get out ? "
" To destroy the soul, you must torture it and make it fall before all its ill darkness. In your words, you have be beat down by your failures to the point where your soul can't take it and from that your soul starts to wither away. Then when the soul is gone, the husk of the body follows behind it. Jaune was able to escape, so I assume his will to succeed is stronger than his feeling of failure. He is quite admirable in that regard, considering he is Elias's descendant I suppose it's no surprise," Raven said to Orion who slowly began to put the pieces together.
" If that's the case, why the hell am I not out there ?! "
Raven sighed and began, " You have to accept what you truly are. You may say one thing, but your soul feels another. You may be able to lie to others but you can't lie to you soul, it always knows what you truly want. That means that you feel must weak, possibly feeling regretful for your past actions maybe ? Our souls may be intertwined but I can only read your soul so much. I can read however, read enough to make an educated guess about you," Raven explained to Orion who twitched slightly as the area around him became a small ring of embers and the lake became an ocean of sand.
" I'd rather fight a Goliath with my bare hands than-"
" Than what ? Say how you truly feel, Orion ? Emotions besides anger and rage are not a weakness or a handicap. Emotions are what make you human. I know you've cried, felt regret and even wished you hadn't done certain things but that is all normal. Those are what separate us from people like Elias, who throw away everything and see themselves as gods amongst men. I've sifted through your memories enough to know that while you think casting away things you see as trivial, they really never left you. While I didn't known Cinder fall personally, I know that you saw her as a mother figure and you admired her like one. I know that there is a phrase she said that stuck to you so here is one from me to you, " Raven said calmly, like a mother explaining their wrong to their child. Orion felt a warm hand on his shoulder as Raven gave him a motherly like hug.
" And...what exactly are were you going say ? " Orion asked through what sounded like a childish sniffle.
" Be strong, live to your aspirations and remember, you don't have to fight alone. Now listen to me, I can only cling for so long so I want you to give whatever remainder of my aura you have left to Yang, there are some things that I need to tell her. Can you promise me that ? "
" Yeah...yeah I can, " Orion said weakly but that was enough for Raven who suddenly vanished with a smile as the entire scene changed again to Orion's past but this time it was a younger him tucked under blankets and sleeping next to a fire while Cinder sat across from him.
Orion closed his eyes and everything turned to black as he heard the screams and cries from his childhood along with the sounds of carnage and destruction but somewhere in the slightest, farthest corner in that symphony of loss he could hear the sounds of blades clashing against each other. That was something he knew didn't belong here and when he opened his eyes he could faintly see Elias holding off a synchronized assault by Sun and Jaune who were suddenly sent crashing back by a shockwave from Elias who then pointed his sword in Orion's direction.
" It's too late, he's nothing now but lost in the void. You've already lost."
Orion twitched in anger as the entire void filled with golden flames and blue flames that grew more intense by the second. Soon the area was like a blue flamed hell and suddenly the area seemed to crack like glass. Then Orion remembered what Cinder had always told him.
Your will to live will give you strength for what lies ahead.
Sun had scarcely blinked before Elias had cut his staff into cleanly in half, breaking the chain links that connected the his shotguns together. Elias's blade would have sunk it's teeth into Sun's flesh but a black tendril suddenly stopped the blade, much to everyone's surprise.
Elias looked up to see that it came from the orb that Orion was imprisoned in. However, it suddenly began to shatter and combust in blue flames that suddenly flooded the immediate area. Soon they suddenly rushed forward like water, and formed flaming hands that attempted to drag Elias down, but managed to separate Jaune and Sun from Elias. Soon Orion himself emerged from his Ebony Eclipse prison, more angered than he'd ever been. Still he motioned to Sun and Jaune who each stood on either side of him.
" Looks like you're back," Sun said snidely to Orion who brushed of the sarcastic tone in Sun's voice.
" Whatever, just focus. We're running on fumes so we only get one shot at this. We each have to hit him with everything we've got. I've got something that I've been saving just finish of you both but I suppose using it now is better than never," Orion said to Sun and Jaune who both smirked at Orion.
" What a shock, we both thought of some things to use if we had to finish you. Funny how that turns out," Sun said to Orion just as his flames were suddenly absorbed into a black vortex created by Elias, who managed to survive the baptism of flames, no worse for ware. " I'm gonna need a few seconds so buy me some time,"
" Last time I did that, I got stabbed but why the hell not ! " Orion taunted before charging at Elias, forming a massive battle axe out of blue flames and began to press the attack.
Sun and Jaune retreated a few feet away to give Orion room to deal with Elias while Sun and Jaune prepared.
Sun crossed his arms as a spiral golden light suddenly began to form and swirl around in gap the between his hands, forming a swirling mass of golden energy around him. Soon the light began siphon bits of darkness from the dome Elias had created. When it was done, Sun had created what resembled a dense spiraling galaxy that swirled and flowed with a life of it's own.
Jaune had formed several floating spheres of white light around him. Soon they began to shift and changed to orbiting white blades of pure light that Jaune could control with thought alone. Orion narrowly avoided being decapitated but sent crashing in between Sun and Jaune by a shockwave Elias had struck him with.
Orion took notice at what both Sun and Jaune had created and simply whistled at the sight. " Well lets see if those bite as much as they bark," Orion said hopefully as they saw Elias motion his arms as if he was going to create another Ebony Eclipse.
They assumed correctly as a wave of phantoms suddenly began to flood the are but this time Orion formed a sea of flames and began to burn the phantom shades. Elias however began to summon more and more shades but Orion contested with Elias to see who would prevail.
" Get down ! " Sun warned Orion who dived to the side, giving Sun a clear shot as he threw the galaxy he created above Elias who looked at the creation in curiosity as it expanded and simply hovered above him. Sun, having expanded all his energy to create that, simply passed out into the snow and with his last words he said, " Finish it.,"
" What a shame, he created such an interesting object. No matter," Elias said as he raised his arm, " I admire your courage but this has dragged on long enough."
He attempted to call upon his powers but found out that he felt simply nothing. Elias attempted to step from underneath Sun's creation but found that he was trapped in the area. He looked down to see that he was standing in a sigil and at it's center was Sun's emblem of a monkey.
Jaune began to walk forward and held his arm out as he pointed at Elias, causing the dozen swords to all piercing Elias and pin him place. Jaune then radiated a white light from his palm and it looked as though he was pouring fragment of strength he had left, causing the blades to shine and hum more and more. Soon they began to generate steam, and began to sear Elias throughout his body. Jaune soon fell to the ground in a heap, exhausted leaving only Orion who whistled and nodded.
Elias could only weakly drop to one knee, heavily damaged as Orion simply stared at him with his arms crossed.
" Ok, I'll admit I probably wouldn't have lived through that one but I had something I planned on using too."
Orion aimed his left hand at Elias and splayed open his palm. Soon Orion's entire arm was covered with interlocking blue flames. He then used his right arm to grip his left tightly to support it. He amassed a large blaze of flames and soon the flames began to stir about rapidly before. Orion began to channel every remaining reservoir or aura he had and poured both his full mental and physical strength into this last move.
From inside the dome, the sound created was akin to that of a sonic boom and kicked with the force of ten cannons. With that, Orion released a large bullet-like stream of fire from his arm with the kick-back shattering his left arm and sending him sailing a foot back.
Elias could only stare wide-eyed at the oncoming stream of flames but he couldn't move or summon his aura to defend himself. He merely closed his eyes and embraced the oncoming onslaught.