The God of Remnant Chapter 16: The End or The Beginning?
"" – Dialogue
'' – Thinking
Vale – Location/Time
"Renewal Taekwondo" – Technique
The arena was in utter chaos as the explosions died down, only to be replaced with the piercing cries of citizens being attacked. In sections of the audience that weren't destroyed, numerous faunus rose with white masks on their faces to join in the chaos. These actions weren't without consequence, however, as the hunters and huntresses-in-training brandished their weapons to stand in opposition. All froze when a roar reverberated throughput the arena, however, shaking all who heard it so deeply that all the fighting ceased for a moment before continuing like it never stopped.
In the center of this conflict, was one Ilpyo Park. After winning his match against Mori, Ilpyo was hastily taking note of all the damage surrounding him.
'Ozpin's viewing box – destroyed. The color commentators' box – destroyed. Various sections of the audience – still intact but still in danger!' He thought as he prepared to rush off into the audience and join the fight.
"Ilpyo!" He heard from behind him, stopping him in his tracks. Turning to see who called out to him, he was slightly surprised to see Seraphina running towards him. Or so he thought as she crouched next to the unconscious form of Mori who happened to be between him and where she ran from.
"Seraphina. We're obviously under attack and the teacher's whereabouts are unknown, do you have anymore information than that?" Ilpyo questioned.
Taking Mori's shoulders into her hands and shaking him, Seraphina was unsurprised that he didn't stir from unconsciousness. "The White Fang are working with the international criminal Roman Torchwick in order to take down Beacon!" Seraphina said, recalling the information Ruby had extracted from a soldier before Seraphina ran off.
"Roman Torchwick, huh?" Ilpyo said, only able to imagine the damage this would cause in comparison to the previously thwarted Breach.
"That's not all. Blake believes an upper echelon White Fang member is present to direct this attack since it's on such a large scale. I couldn't go with her because I had to tend to Mori, so can you go help her in my place?" Seraphina asked the still foxlike teen.
"Sure! Point me in the right direction." Ilpyo requested without a moment of hesitation as he braced himself for what was to come.
-GoR-
Blake was currently in dead sprint towards the cafeteria.
Why the cafeteria, you might ask?
Once Blake had seen that the White Fang was a part of the attacking force, she knew something wasn't right. It was already a rarity to see them working under Torchwick before, but for them to attack so openly and aggressively was unthinkable unless Torchwick was involved again. Bearing this in mind and considering the info they extracted from that foot soldier, Blake figured out their next target and was currently hurrying there.
Given that the arena was under attack, it served to reason that the civilians would be ordered to evacuate towards the school here they could be better protected. With this train of thought, the only place that could house a large number of civilians was the cafeteria, so if the Fang was aiming to kill a large volume of people; their only real target was realistically the cafeteria.
Blake was just hoping that she was wrong, that the Fang wouldn't resort to mass killing to get their point across. She desperately wanted to believe that the Breach was a special case and that this was just an exaggerated scare tactic.
Blake's hopes died when she got within the vicinity of the cafeteria and the smell hit her. The overwhelming smell of blood that rode the wind almost caused her to gag, momentarily halting her approach.
Not wasting anymore time, Blake steeled herself and opened the already cracked door of the building and was unfortunately unsurprised at what she saw.
Rows of bodies and splatters of blood decorated the room. A rapidly growing fire roared as it threatened to dominate the room in a matter of minutes. At the center of the room, his blade freshly exiting a corpse, stood a tall man with red hair. Seemingly hearing the entrance of another occupant, he turned to the door and smiled at who he saw.
"Welcome, My Love." Adam Taurus said to the grimacing faunus, smirking at the disgusted expression that adorned the girl's face.
-GoR-
Pyrrha, similarly to Blake, was running like her life depended on it. Ironically, her life didn't depend on the speed at which she moved but many more than she could imagine did.
Before beginning her short journey, Pyrrha was fighting the White Fang members in the audience to defend the civilians with everyone else. Shortly after hearing the roar, Ruby spotted a ship in the sky and used her rocket locker in order to launch herself towards it, citing 'Roman Torchwick' as her reasoning. Leaving that to her, Pyrrha continued to fight with Jaune and the rest of Remi's team when her scroll alerted her of an urgent message.
'Ms. Nikos get to the basement immediately. There's no more time.' The message from Ozpin read.
Taking a split second to rejoice at the fact that her headmaster was alive, Pyrrha knew what she had to do. Announcing her departure to her comrades-in-arms, she began running without looking back.
That's how she presently found herself at the base of Ozpin's tower, waiting for the elevator to find itself to her level. This allowed her a precious few seconds in which Pyrrha actually got to think about her life in summary.
The tournaments. The many opponents she's had. The unwanted fame. The isolation. Her transfer to Beacon. Initiation. Her team placement. The Dance. "Jaune…" She thought aloud as the elevator dinged, alerting her of its arrival.
"Pyrrha!" she heard a familiar voice shout just as she stepped into the elevator.
Not even turning around, Pyrrha felt tears well up in her eyes as she heard the sounds of his shoes hitting the floor of the elevator before the doors could close.
"Jaune…" Pyrrha said as she turned to acknowledge the heavily breathing and red-faced knight that had chased her all the way from the arena.
"Pyrrha… What's going on? Why did you run? Wait! Are you crying?" Jaune asked in quick succession, barely breathing between questions. "And where are we going? "He asked as he felt the elevator begin to descend.
Jaune didn't get to ask anymore questions, however, as he suddenly felt a warmth envelop him and a weight rest on his chest.
It was Pyrrha. Pyrrha was holding Jaune by his chest and currently had her face buried into it, hiding her expression.
"P-pyrrha? Jaune asked, stuttering from the sudden physical contact.
This was an oddity for Jaune, as he and Pyrrha have been in close proximity since the beginning of their time at Beacon. It was something about the way she was holding onto him, though. Something about the way she held him allowed him to feel her uncertainty, her weakness, and her… fear. Jaune knew better than to talk as he slowly enveloped her into his arms and allowed them to stay like that for a short time.
"Jaune…" Pyrrha began, head still buried in the boy's chest. "I need you to trust me and follow my lead… no matter what happens, okay?" She requested of the blond.
Still feeling her shaking slightly in his arms, Jaune let out a shaky breath and nodded firmly.
"Thank you, Jaune…" Pyrrha said as the elevator dinged, signaling their arrival to the basement.
-GoR-
The atmosphere in the arena was getting better as the White Fang was slowly but surely suppressed. The keyword in that is was as the situation started deteriorating again as the top of the arena was flooded by a sea of black. Along with the black came a cacophony of squawks that were capable of deafening anyone with sensitive enough hearing.
A swarm of nevermore had amassed and was currently descending upon the arena.
Before the nevermore could attack anyone, however, a loud boom sounded out as the color commentators box exploded outwards with two especially prominent lines of smoke heading towards the center of the arena.
"We shouldn't let these youngsters outdo us, Barty!" A One of the smoke plumes yelled.
"Agreed!" The other yelled back as it began to run in a circle, leaving a blurry green circle in its wake.
This running motion soon built up a tornado that raged in the center of the arena. The tornado, while powerful, was not strong enough to carry anyone from the stands. No, this tornado served a special purpose.
That purpose became clear as the tornado began to rapidly suck up the mob of nevermore before they could reach any of the occupants of the arena.
"Ready, Peter?" The revealed Oobleck asked his best friend as he tossed a water dust crystal into the tornado, raising the moisture of the air.
"Always!" the now revealed Port said as he aimed his Blunderbuss/Axe at the tornado and shot a powerful blast that caused Port to slide back a bit from the recoil.
The shot he fired was loaded with ice dust, causing the blast to take on a whitish-blue color and leave a frosty residue as it flew towards the watery tornado. Once the two met, the tornado froze up immediately; this effectively trapped the nevermore in a prison of ice as the tornado stiffened.
Vacating the area before it froze, Oobleck analyzed him and Port's handiwork as he noticed they'd swept up the entire fleet of the grimm. 'Time for the finisher.' He thought as he brandished his own weapon and switched it to the melee form.
Backing up and getting a running start, Oobleck began to run full speed towards the frozen tornado with his weapon held out. Stopping just short of the tornado, Oobleck used all of the force he'd gathered to swing his bludgeon into the base of the tornado.
This had the immediate effect of spreading large spiderweb cracks throughout the entire structure before it fully collapsed in on itself. The ensuing destruction took all of the frozen grimm along with it, coating the area in a light fog tinged with the signature black smoke all grimm dissolve into.
This was the sight Mori Jin awoke to, groggily opening his eyes with a low groan as he rubbed his eyes.
"Mori!" He heard from his left, snapping him out of his waking lull.
"Seraphina…?" He asked as he surveyed the destroyed arena with his eyes. "What's going on?" He asked as he stood from the wall, she had him laid against, having long since abandoned the center of the arena where the tornado had just been.
"Long story short, we're being attacked by the White Fang, Roman Torchwick's thugs, and the grimm all at once." Seraphina summarized quickly. "The arena is mostly cleared out now and the Atlesian troops are keeping back the general grimm, but there's still a massive dragon grimm and the airships to worry about. Blake and Yang went to go take care of the White Fang's leader with Ilpyo's help" She finished, looking at Mori's expression in case he couldn't get everything.
"Hmm…" Mori hummed while rubbing his chin. "So basically, we're on dragon hunting duty?" Mori asked her with a grin on his face.
A grin that Seraphina mirrored as they began heading towards the origin of the loud roars.
-GoR-
"Adam…" Blake said, recognizing the red-haired White Fang leader that stood before her.
His Black suit and Red undershirt gave off a regal appearance that went well with his brown streaked red hair. The two black horns on his head made clear that his heritage was faunus in origin, and the white mask that obscured his face from the nose up made his allegiance clear. This was Adam Taurus, the bull faunus leader of the White Fang's Vale branch and Blake's former partner, both romantically and professionally.
"Blake, it has been far too long." Adam spoke with a voice that was smooth as silk and in a tone that was dangerously charismatic. "The last time we saw each other, you were deserting me." Adam said in an even tone.
"Why are you doing this, Adam?" Blake said, gesturing to the carnage surrounding them. The carnage caused and personally perpetrated by the bull faunus. "The Fang wouldn't do something like this! Who are you working for?" Blake asked, desperately searching for another answer.
"…Why, you ask?" Adam parroted back to her. "Do I need a reason to return the treatment these filthy humans have pushed onto us for years?" He asked in a tone that conveyed anything but a question. "'The White gang wouldn't do something like this', you said." He continued. "And what would a filthy traitor like you know about the way we operate?" He asked with venom in his voice as he pointed his long, red-lined blade at her.
"I didn't want to fight you, I was hoping we could solve this with words" Blake said, drawing her own weapon with a sigh. "But it looks like that's impossible…" She said as she crouched, preparing for a fight.
Blake was the first to move, dashing towards Adam with speed that made her nothing more than a blur. When she drew near to him, she leapt into the air and raised her blade in an attempt to slash at the man's head.
Naturally, Adam followed her movements easily and brought up his blade horizontally to block her strike.
This proved to be the incorrect response, however, as the instant Gambol Shroud contacted Wilt; 'Blake' turned to dust. The dust blocked Adam's vision of Blake's next move, so upon hearing her land behind him; he lashed out with a kick.
The kick proved to be well within Blake's expectations, however, as Adam felt his foot become locked in place. Still having his sight due to his mask preventing the dust from getting into his eyes, Adam quickly glance at his foot.
It was trapped in a stone statue of Blake.
Thinking fast, Adam drew the rifle/scabbard that rested at his waist and fired at the statue. This freed his leg in time for him to jump away and barely avoid Blake, who attempted to cut his leg off in a plunging strike from above. Deciding to go on the offensive, Adam charged at Blake with sword in one hand and scabbard in the other.
Taking aim at the girl, Adam changed his aim last second and aimed at the floor she stood on. Firing a shot that was dodged with a jump backwards, Adam kept pushing. He fired shot after shot in seemingly random order.
'Two to the right, one to the left, one in the center' Blake thought, trying to make sense of the pattern he was using. She got her answer when she felt the heat behind her rise significantly. 'He's trying to push me into a burning corner!' She realized as she backflipped over a shot to get a brief look at how much space she had left.
"Nowhere to run now, my Love." Adam Taunted as he replaced his sheath and advanced towards Blake with only his sword drawn.
'Damn it. I'm not fast enough to get past him…' Blake thought as she weighed her options, Adam's tauntingly slow walk giving her more time to get stuck in her own thoughts.
"Back off!" A voice yelled from Adam's back followed by a familiar shotgun shot.
Adam barely had enough time to face the disturbance before a yellow gauntlet covered fist planted itself in his face, sending him stumbling towards Blake.
Blake didn't miss her chance and leapt towards the stumbling faunus. She danced around his form, planting firm slashes in several areas of his body before sliding into place next to her friend.
"Why'd you have to run off so fast?" Yang said, breathing in an exaggerated fashion as she sent a playful grin at the recently saved faunus. "You're gonna agitate my poor old joints." She joked.
Blake responded to this with a small smile breaking her normal deadpan expression. "Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. Next time, I'll give you plenty of time to warm up, Grandma." She mockingly shot back before setting her sights straight with a renewed neutral expression.
Yang set her sights forward as well, only to see Adam standing there watching their exchange. "If you're done bantering, I'd like to ask you to leave." He said with a pointed look towards Yang. "As much as I would love to kill you, I have more… pressing issues at the moment." He said with a look towards Blake, one that gave off far less hostility than the one he sent Yang.
"No way! If you have business with her, then you have business with me!" Yang responded while slamming her fists together, simultaneously pumping her left gauntlet.
"You know… I was sort of hoping you'd say that!" Adam exclaimed as he descended upon the two, a sadistic grin on his face.
-GoR-
As the elevator door opened, it revealed Ozpin standing before two pods. One of them was empty and the other was occupied with the body of a beautiful woman with shoulder-length brown hair. The woman seemed to glow with a faint amber aura and was dressed in a way that indicated she was a huntress. The only odd things about the woman were the perpetual state of sleep she seemed to be in and the two odd clothing items she bore: a large white circlet around her head and a leopard printed glove on one hand.
"Woah… What is this place?" Jaune marveled at the size of the facility hidden under the school.
The room was a large space filled with nothing. The floor was made of a dark blue metal that echoed their footsteps several times, and the walls were a drab grey that seemed to be made of the same metal. Opposite the elevators stood Ozpin, mysteriously without his cane and his signature mug as he faced them with a face of utmost seriousness.
"Ms. Nikos, are you ready?" Ozpin said, ignoring the fact that Jaune was there in favor of proceeding with Pyrrha.
"Yes, Professor." Pyrrha said as she began walking towards the empty pod.
Meanwhile, Jaune stood off to the side, watching as this unfolded before him with morbid curiosity. His promise to Pyrrha being the only thing that stopped him from asking what was going on, he was silent in his observation. Pyrrha was about to climb into the pod when a series of events that would burn itself into Jaune's memory unfolded before him.
First, the sound of a large amount of liquid flowing as well as a lighter crash came from behind him. Before the blond could turn around, an orange arrow sailed past him. Completing his turn despite that, he was shocked to find the one and only Cinder Fall standing before him; bow string freshly released from her sinister grip.
Second, he heard the sound of the arrow piercing glass followed by Pyrrha's horrified gasp behind him. Slowly turning his head, Jaune was horrified to see the arrow sticking out of the center of the sleeping woman's chest. To make matters worse, the arrow was slowly dissolving the woman's body into dust that slowly flowed towards Cinder. By the time the process finished, all that remained was the white circlet and leopard glove resting at the bottom of the pod.
Lastly, he witnessed Ozpin's grave expression and the anger carried with it. Jaune couldn't suppress the shiver that ran up his spine from the atmosphere Ozpin was creating and it wasn't even directed at him.
"Ah… What power…" Cinder said blissfully, closing her eyes with the sadistic smirk on her face ruining the otherwise relaxed aura she put out. "And it's all thanks to you… Professor" she said mockingly.
"Cinder Fall…" Ozpin said in a warning tone.
"You!" Pyrrha said as she drew her weapons in their sword and shield form.
"Pyrrha!" Ozpin said, for the first time referring to one of his students informally as he placed an arm in front of her. The girl's shocked expression spoke volumes of the effect him calling her name in such a way had on her. "Take Mr. Arc and leave here. If you can, send Glynda towards this building and get as far away from here as you can." He instructed calmy compared to his previous outburst.
"But professor…" Pyrrha weakly protested.
"No buts. Your lives take priority… always." Ozpin said, looking back at her in a way that left no room for argument.
Nodding reluctantly, Pyrrha hurried over to Jaune and grabbed him by his arm. With Jaune in hand, she made a mad dash past Cinder.
This seemed to do nothing more than amuse the woman as she simply watched the teenagers run past her in unhidden mirth.
As Pyrrha made her way past Cinder, she glared into the woman's glowing amber eyes.
This caused Cinder's grin to widen slightly as she returned Pyrrha's glare with her own sadistically overjoyed gaze.
This entire exchange only lasted an instant in reality as Pyrrha hurried to the destroyed elevator shaft with her leader. Upon reaching it, she used a stray piece of metal in combination with her semblance to ascend the shaft like her life depended on it. None but Jaune would see the tears of frustration that poured out of her eyes.
Back on the ground, Ozpin and Cinder faced each other in silence.
"You know Ozpin…" Cinder began, catching the grey haired man's interest. "She was right about you." She mused, surprising the man.
"So, you've met her then… That explains quite a bit." He remarked while taking a martial arts stance that Cinder didn't recognize.
"To face me without a weapon… After I've taken almost all of the power of a maiden… She was right. You really are an arrogant fool." Cinder said as a smirk appeared on her face again, this time with her eyes glowing a brilliant amber that spilled flames out of the sides.
-GoR-
It happened when Mori and Seraphina were approaching Ozpin's tower.
That was when Mori felt it.
A pulse of energy that resonated deep within him paused him mid stride. His eyes widened and his hand instinctively shot out to grip his chest as he drew in a sharp breath.
It didn't take Seraphina more than a second to pause alongside her partner as she looked at him in confusion. "Mori. What's wrong?" She asked quickly.
"I… don't know… It just feels like my body got hit with a shockwave all of a sudden." He explained to the best of his ability, but try as he might, he didn't feel like he could put the feeling into words.
"Are you sure you're still alright from that fight with Ilpyo, even? It looked like you were out of Aura at the end…" She asked suspiciously, thinking he was running on fumes.
"Yeah, I'm definitely good there. For some reason my aura refilled at the end of the match, so I'm hardly even injured anymore." He said, showing her his scroll and by extension, his full aura bar.
It was at that moment that they heard a loud crash in front of them. Looking ahead with Mori's brief pause forgotten, they witnessed Jaune and Pyrrha fly out the entrance of the tower on a piece of metal. Soon after they exited, a wall of flames roared out behind them.
"Jaune! Pyrrha!" Mori yelled as he ran towards their downed figures with Seraphina in tow.
"Are you guys alright? What happened in there?" Seraphina asked, helping Pyrrha to her feet while Mori got Jaune.
"It's Cinder Fall. I can't explain how but she's got magical powers that she's using to fight Professor Ozpin!" Pyrrha said. "I know how crazy it sounds, but we need to help him." She added, admitting to herself that her explanation sounded farfetched.
"Look, less than an hour ago, I witnessed a human turn into a faunus before my very eyes, so magic doesn't sound too crazy right now." Seraphina reassured her. "But the help part might be hard to do quickly because all of the professors are on the other side of the campus fending off grimm and the Fang." She lamented.
Interrupting their conversation was a series of crashes that came from the tower. Following this were flashes of orange light that ascended the interior of the tower in time with the crashes.
"That has to be Cinder. We have to stop her here or else the school is finished…" Mori said, the display causing that reverberation to occur within his body again.
"But she's fighting Professor Ozpin. We'd be nothing but insects to her right now." Pyrrha reasoned against him.
"But we should at least try!" Mori argued.
"We're wasting time! We need to stop Cinder and we also need to get more help, right? So, let's do this." Jaune began after catching everyone's attention. "I'll run as fast as I can to go get help, since I'm much less useful in a fight, while you guys hold off Cinder. Sound good?" He asked, nervously sweating but not tripping over his words.
"Alright. Everybody climb on!" Mori said as he called Kinto'un in a size that could carry all three of them.
"Pyrrha!" Jaune called out as the girl climbed aboard the cloud. "Be Safe!" He called out before she turned around.
When Pyrrha spun around to wish the same to Jaune, he was already running. Nobody would see the frustrated tears of Jaune as he was forced to leave his friends behind.
-GoR-
"Damn Blake, you really like them strong, huh?" Yang joked at the girl who was standing next to her.
"…" Blake didn't respond and instead settled for sending the girl a light glare until she really got a good look at her.
Blake and Yang had been fighting Adam for the last few minutes and to say they were having a hard time would be a massive understatement. Blake was able to avoid most of the damage, being that she was incredibly agile and that her semblance was a safety net, but Yang had no such saving graces.
Yang's fighting style involved her tanking damage but dealing more than she was taking, much like the berserker class in role playing games. This caused her to focus much less on evasion than a normal hunter when this was taken in combination with her semblance. This turned out to be her greatest weakness against Adam as he was already focusing on her for being human, but her inability to dodge his attacks made her an even bigger target.
As a result of this, Yang had several deep cuts along her arms and thighs, with lighter cuts covering her torso. The lighter damage on her torso was due to her focusing her aura on that area to protect her vital organs, but the damage was beginning to stack.
Catching her friend's guilty look, Yang shrugged. "Look, don't worry about me. We've got more important things to worry about right now."
"You're right." Blake said curtly after shaking her head and refocusing on the enemy ahead.
"Still haven't given up yet?" Adam asked impatiently, having taken relatively less visible damage than the other two.
Visible because he had several bruises hidden under his suit from the punches of Yang as his aura couldn't completely absorb those.
"Not on your life!" Yang yelled as she ran towards him, obscuring his view of Blake.
Right as Yang was about to enter his striking range she yelled "Blake, now!" causing a wave of black to obscure his vision.
Their plan was a simple one, Yang charged forward and called out to Blake. At that moment, Blake would use her semblance twice. Once to appear directly in front of Adam and then again to disappear, leaving behind a shadow to block his vision. The switch would happen fast enough that Blake wouldn't be exposed to damage, and if Yang could hit him in the head, a one-hit KO was likely.
That was the plan anyway.
Yang realized something was up the instant Adam didn't swing at Blake's shadow, but she went through with her attack anyway. Having leapt to prevent Adam from hearing her footsteps to predict her attack, she shot her fist out to collide with his temple.
At that time, Adam held strong. Feet planted with his hand on his blade until the last second, Adam hopped to Yang's right. This moved him completely out of the way of Yang's attack, leaving her sailing through the air into the darkness that Blake left behind.
Blake would see the next moments in slow motion as they seared themselves into her memory forever.
She saw Adam draw his blade and swing straight upwards in a move that was likely meant to bisect Yang, or at the very least, behead her. His swing was too far to his right, however, and he only ended up taking her arm from the mid-triceps down.
Blake got to witness in horrifying detail as Yang's arm helplessly rolled away from her as the damage set in. Blake, however, wouldn't hear the screams of agony that came flying out of Yang's throat as the stub she helplessly clutched cauterized from Adam's heated blade.
"Yang…?" Blake said weakly as she attempted to process what she had just seen.
Adam, on the other hand, needed no pause.
Adam took careful steps towards Yang as he drew his blade once more. He paused once she was at his feet and he rose his blade, ready to strike the coup de grâce.
This snapped Blake out of her trance as she hurried attempted to place herself in the path of his blade. Stumbling over herself due to her body not responding slowed her down significantly as she was forced to digest a hard truth.
'I'm not going to make it!' Blake yelled at herself as she watched the blade descend towards Yang.
Closing his eyes, Adam was ready to feel the sensation of his blade ending the life of another filthy human. This expectation was subverted when he felt his blade stop short, the stiffness of his blade feeling as if he had tried stabbing it into titanium.
Opening his eyes, Adam was surprised to meet a golden iris with a slitted pupil, one that was distinctly faunus. This confused him as this man standing before was stopping the descent of his blade with only the top of his foot. He was barely able to react in time when the same foot that blocked his sword shot up to hit him in the side twice, sending him skidding away.
While Adam held his side from the unexpected heat he felt from the strikes, he looked up to analyze the teen in more detail.
The White Hair and Golden eyes didn't register in his memory as anyone he'd ever seen before. The power behind the boy's strikes and the fire licking his heels led him to believe that this was at least a second year… so why wasn't he informed of such a formidable opponent, even more so since the opponent was a faunus.
"You really had fun messing with these two, huh?" The White-haired teen said as he placed his foot back on the ground.
Adam had to suppress a shiver from the sheer power he felt from the boy's gaze and the pressure it exerted. If he had to describe it, the sensation felt… supernatural.
"Blake." The teen said in an even tone, catching the girl's attention. "Get Yang some help, she passed out from the shock, but it doesn't look like her life is in danger." He said calmy with his back to the faunus girl.
"But Ilpyo, are you sure you can handle this?" She asked wary of leaving the now-faunus boy by himself.
'Ilpyo Park!?' Adam thought in shock at hearing Blake identify the mystery youth.
Ilpyo Park was a name Adam knew well. The boy was one of the people Cinder wanted to keep her eyes on, the other being Pyrrha Nikos, due to their connection to… her. He hadn't known why Ilpyo was so important, but now he understood. The burns on his side from the flames that seemed to ignore his aura told him all he needed to know.
At this realization, Adam's face gained a smirk as he began to lightly laugh at this twist of fate.
"Ilpyo Park." Adam began, regaining the attention of the fox. "There are forces at work far more powerful than you or me, so try to survive until I can kill you myself." He said. "Oh, and I'll be sure to come back for you as well, My love. You and that blonde plaything." He said as he slashed his sword at the ground.
The swing released a wave of energy that crashed into the soot-covered ground and created an effective smokescreen. Adam's fading laughter could be heard as he retreated from the battle. When the smoke cleared, it revealed an empty space where Adam used to be, a large gash in the ground marking his previous position.
"Looks like he's gone." Ilpyo stated. "We should hurry and get Yang to some medics." Ilpyo said, picking up the girl in a bridal carry, being careful to avoid the missing arm.
"Yeah…" Blake said as she got up to follow the white-haired faunus, thoughts of what she's going to do after all this already swirling in her head.
'forces at work far more powerful than us, huh?' Ilpyo thought with a frown on his face. 'What he meant by that is probably linked to this power…' Ilpyo thought as he walked towards the safer area of the school with his two companions.
-GoR-
When the trio finally reached their destination atop Ozpin's tower, they unfortunately were greeted to a sight none of them wanted to see.
Cinder was seated atop a throne of rubble that she'd seemingly melted to fit her needs. As if to mock them, she was sitting there playing with her nails as if they'd kept her waiting.
"It took you long enough to reach me." She said as she stuck out her hand to admire her nails. "Ozpin didn't last long at all… I'm hoping you lot won't be as boring." She said, still not looking at them.
If she was looking at them, she might've been prepared for the red-shoed foot that crashed into her face, shattering the throne behind her, shrouding her in smoke.
"So impatient." Cinder's voice said as the smoke cleared, revealing she'd caught the foot with the hand she was admiring, shocking all three of the students. "Ah, to be young…" she said as she lightly flicked her hand to the left, sending Mori flying into a railing on the edge of the roof.
"Mori!" Pyrrha yelled as she rushed Cinder on her own.
"You're next? Alright, let's see just how 'invincible' you are!" Cinder said as she raised a hand and fired a blast of flames at the charging girl.
Not being able to see the red-haired teen due to the stream of flames, Cinder was surprised when the stream was broken by Pyrrha charging through with her shield raised. Recoiling in shock, Cinder was unprepared for the shield bash that hit her in the face. She regained her composure enough to dodge the following swings from Pyrrha's sword but took three shots from Seraphina's revolver as a consequence.
Jumping back to gain some distance, Cinder pondered what could have happened. That was when she got a good look at the girl called Invincible and understood why she wasn't ash.
The light amber aura that coated her frame told her everything she needed to know.
"I see, my suspicions were correct about you." Cinder said with a smirk. "Ozpin gave you a bit of the maiden's power to test your compatibility, didn't he?" She asked, getting a deeper frown from Pyrrha and a confused look from a reloading Seraphina.
Amid the tense atmosphere, Cinder was unsurprised when she sensed an attack from behind. Backflipping over the attack and stomping downwards, Cinder was equally unsurprised to find Mori sprawled out under her.
"So valiant, but so annoying." She said, standing atop the monkey faunus.
'How is she so heavy…? I can't lift her!" Mori thought as he struggled to move from beneath her feet.
Getting an idea, Cinder shot fire in a line before her. She made sure to put enough power into the flames that they would make a wall of flame that would block the other's vision. She made sure to pour a majority of her power into the wall to make it so Pyrrha couldn't get through with the measly power she had to shield her.
"Now it's just me and you, Monkey." Cinder said mockingly to the struggling Mori, who could move a little bit since Cinder's strength wasn't fully focused on keeping him down.
"Struggle all you like." Cinder said as she grabbed a hold of his tail, holding it taut. "All routes you take will lead to your doom!" Cinder said in a villainous fashion as she summoned a blade of flame from her foot and severed the appendage from Mori at the base.
The pain was so intense Mori thought he was going to pass out. It felt like Cinder had taken a part of his spine with that last attack. The pain was so intense that he couldn't even tell if he was screaming or not. The white flashes in his vision probably weren't a good indicator, either.
With that out of the way, Cinder dropped the flame wall so her two other opponents could see what she had done to their friend.
It took each of them less than a second to realize what they were seeing as Mori writhing in pain and the limp brown object in Cinder's hand made it plenty clear what happened.
Cinder relished the horrified expressions that overtook the faces of her two opponents. The shock. The anguish. The rage… It was all beautiful to the diminutive villainess.
Kicking the disabled faunus to the side seemed to tip them off as the instant she touched him, she heard six shots ring out. Allowing her aura to absorb the bullets she was clearly mocking the efforts of the shooter if her sadistic smirk was anything to go by.
Next was Pyrrha's charge, maiden powers running at the maximum she could muster, she had a dim light shining in her eye.
That candlelight was nothing in comparison to the bonfire Cinder had going, however, and Cinder would make sure she knew that.
Catching Pyrrha's sword swing in one hand and holding her shield in the other, Cinder locked down her hands. Eyes glowing the brightest they have that day, Cinder exerted enough force on Pyrrha that the ground began to crack, effectively holding her in place.
With no warning, Cinder shot her arms out; flinging Pyrrha's arms and consequently weapons out to the side. With her midsection unguarded, Cinder spun with the grace of a ballet champion and planted a kick on Pyrrha's throat.
This sent the girl rolling back to where Seraphina stood, crashing into a railing not unlike Mori from earlier. This time, however, Pyrrha seemed to be down for the count as she sat against the wall trying desperately to take a breath. The strength behind the kick seemed to have damaged her neck in a way that heavily inhibited her breathing.
Now being the last one standing, Seraphina wasn't sure what she should do. Cinder had disassembled their makeshift team within minutes and didn't seem to be running out of energy anytime soon. Despite all of these challenges, the one thing she would not do was give up.
'But how can I win…?' she thought.
Her thoughts were interrupted by a sound of something sharp cutting through the air before she felt her revolver get knocked out of her hand by a strong force. Confused as to what could have caused it, she looked closely at a finger Cinder had pointed at her and noticed a light trail of smoke coming from the appendage.
Eyes widening, Seraphina had to use her semblance to avoid the next shot, the projectiles moving as fast as bullets and presumably having more penetration than their metal counterparts made it harder and more punishing to predict.
As Seraphina activated her semblance to dodge the now volley of shots that Cinder was sending her way out of boredom, a small detail caught Cinder's attention. 'Her eyes… Could it be an effect of her semblance or nothing more?' she thought as she fired without paying much attention.
Seraphina, using the opening left by Cinder's lack of awareness, closed the distance between them with one long use of her semblance and landed a punch squarely on Cinder's face. Not stopping there, she then attempted to sweep Cinder's legs out from under her.
Key word being attempt, as the instant she contacted Cinder's legs, she felt like an ant trying to move a boulder. The failed action killing her momentum, she was momentarily at the mercy of her opponent, a chance Cinder didn't miss.
Being sure to reward the attempt with her trademark sinister grin, Cinder pounced on the girl as she retreated from her kick. Seraphina did a spin to try and evade Cinder's grasp, but the villain simply waited until Seraphina attempted to face her again and appeared before her in a blur. Grabbing the girl by her neck with enough force to restrain but not enough to choke, Cinder relished the attempts of the cat faunus to escape her.
Ignoring the punches aimed at her face, Cinder held her free hand in such a way that the pointer and middle fingers were held out. Thinking for a moment as to where she should do it, Cinder quickly came to a decision and placed the fingers into the space between Seraphina's left shoulder, chest, and collarbone.
Taking a moment to charge up, Cinder fired a concentrated blast straight through the poor girl's chest, causing her eyes to widen as far as they could go at the immense pain. The wound was to such a degree that one could see clean through her if they so pleased. The pain was too much for the girl to handle as she not-so-gracefully descended into a world of blackness.
Unceremoniously dropping the girl, Cinder then focused on her actual target: The barely breathing Redhead that she left nearly embedded at the edge of the roof.
Uncaring eyes locking onto her target, Cinder brought up her left hand in front of the right. This motioned seemed to symbolize something as black shards seemed to materialize in her hand before catching on fire. In the end, these formed a burning bow in her hands that, when she drew the string, formed a burning arrow aiming right at Pyrrha.
Without skipping a beat, Cinder released the arrow right into the center of Pyrrha's chest and was rewarded with the girl jerking from the impact before slumping over.
The effect of this action was immediately seen as the energy that resided within Pyrrha made its way over to Cinder via a golden stream of light that lazily made its way to her.
Finally feeling her power be complete was a sensation Cinder couldn't describe. It felt like she was finally whole as her eyes lit up brighter than ever, with a visible trail streaming from them. She released a loud cackle of triumph as her feet left the ground. She finally felt whole.
Or so she initially thought.
The presence of the complete power of the fall maiden within her was fulfilling at first… until she remembered the existence of the other three maidens.
Three other beings with powers equal to hers. That made her satisfaction from obtaining the power of just one feel a lot less… satisfying.
She had to have more.
-GoR-
Mori felt weak.
He'd always thought he was pretty strong. Taking out most people he met with no more than one blow, or barely struggling in most fights unknowingly filled him with a degree of arrogance.
Barring the time Ozpin completely knocked him out, he was confident he could at least do a good bit of damage to anyone he wished to fight.
Cinder proved him wrong.
The pain at the base of his spine was a constant throbbing reminder of just how outclassed he was. Being tossed to the side and unfortunately still being conscious, he was forced to witness the systematic defeat of his two female companions.
To make matters worse, he had a pain in his head that he hadn't felt since he'd eaten that weird peach that, for some reason, reappeared during his fight with Ilpyo.
What the hell was happening to him?
The pangs of pain got worse and the interval between them decreased greatly, until Mori couldn't even differentiate them anymore. They reached a fever pitch when he saw Cinder shoot a beam through Seraphina's chest. That seemed to hit him particularly hard as a memory fought to rise to the surface.
An old man? Did he know him? Why was he standing next to him?
For some reason, the memory of the old man cut Mori deeper than any attack he'd experienced thus far. The tear that came from his eye was a testament to that fact.
When Pyrrha got shot, however, that was when the memory became clear.
That was his grandpa… Taejin Jin. That was all he could remember about the man being stabbed by the hand of a man shrouded in shadow.
"Mori… Please… Stay alive… And… Don't hate people… Too much…"
The memory of those words would awaken a power within Mori Jin than none but two still believed existed.
-GoR-
Cinder was ready to leave after completing her objective, but she still had to wait on her dragon grimm to report to the rooftop. It was taking quite a while since the dragon seemed to have hit a roadblock, but she was sure it would be cleared soon.
Right as she was about to start shooting buildings for fun, she felt it.
An oppressive power coming from directly behind her. The feeling was so intense that she couldn't suppress a shiver from the similarities it bore to her power.
"What the hell is this?" Cinder asked herself as she turned to the source of the power to find the monkey faunus she'd disabled standing. Standing without the use of his tail, said appendage was still lying on the ground where she tossed it.
That was not all, though. Mori Jin was standing and reaching towards the sky with a single hand that was covered in a leopard printed glove. The boy also bore the white circlet that the maiden in the basement previously wore in addition to a beaded bracelet around his wrist.
The biggest change in him, however, was the blue iris' with black crosshairs that replaced the yellow on black that he sported before.
Pulling his hand down and looking at it in wonder, he spoke to himself. "That's right… I'm…" He said to himself.
"What are you?" Cinder asked as she prepared for a fight.
The dismissive look that he sent her, made her feel like no more than an ant. She hated that.
"You. You caused all of this carnage." Mori accused. "I'm gonna make you pay for that." He declared as he turned his body to face her.
"I'd like to see you try- "Cinder said right as Mori appeared in front of her.
'he's fast!' she thought as she instinctively jumped back to gain some distance but found herself getting grabbed on both sides of her head.
"Ssam-su: Knee Kick." Mori said as he crashed his knee into her face.
'That actually hurts?!' Cinder thought surprised by the pain that erupted from the front of her face.
So shocked, was she, that she couldn't respond before Mori landed two follow-up strikes before flipping off of her face by stomping on it.
"You rotten brat…" She said in a suddenly nasally voice on account of her now-broken nose. "I'm going to roast you alive!" Cinder yelled as she waved her arm, sending a torrent of flames at the tailless monkey faunus.
Sighing in what seemed be annoyance, Mori held out his hand before him as the torrent of flames approached him. Waiting until they were right before him, he simply clasped his hand into a fist along with a pulse of his power.
The action caused a pulse to shoot out that dispelled the wall of flames outward from his position and send a significant breeze toward Cinder that rustled her hair.
'How is this possible? For him to have power greater than the maidens… Who the hell is this guy?' she thought to herself in disbelief at the feat he just accomplished.
"You don't have time to think." Mori said from behind her, seemingly teleporting.
Cinder didn't even turn, she just instinctively sent a blast of fire behind her to destroy the threat, but knew she was too late when she saw him reappear in front of her.
"This is for Ozpin." She heard him mumble as a fist crashed into her undefended stomach, causing her to bend over and groan from the impact.
Mori's combo didn't end there, however, as he followed up by immediately bringing his hands together and slamming them into her back. This sent her crashing face-first into the ground creating cracks all around her landing zone as she bounced off the ground from the force behind the blow. Cinder still wasn't given a reprieve as a stomp immediately came down towards her.
Cinder managed to dodge the stomp with a timely roll but was shocked as the stomping foot shifted into a pivot foot with the monkey faunus crouching.
"Re: Taekwondo: Ground Drawer!" He shouted as the tip of his foot impacted Cinder's stomach with a crack, sending her skidding across the roof.
The trail of blood that Cinder spit out while skidding made the formerly confident woman seem much more human than she did before. The damage served as proof that the last attack Mori landed did some major damage.
"That was for Pyrrha." He stated in as neutral a tone as ever.
"and this…" Mori said as he raised his hands towards the sky, shadows suddenly hiding all of his face but the eerie blue glow of his empowered eyes from view. Seemingly coinciding with this action, a fleet of clouds swirled above their battlefield, clearly bunching up even in the darkness of the night sky. "…Is for Seraphina." Mori said as he brought his hand down, and with it an intense thunderclap that covered the entire rooftop in blue lightning.
-GoR-
This was the sight that Ruby managed to see in the distance after having witnessed Roman Torchwick get eaten by the dragon grimm.
After he was eaten, the other person she was fighting, Neopolitan, retreated by way of jumping off the flying bullhead that they rode atop.
After consuming Roman, the dragon took off as well. Seemingly heading towards the site of the lightning strike, prompting Ruby to mount the beast. For some reason, the dragon didn't care about the intrusion on its space as it hurried flew towards the rooftop at top speed. Ruby only managed to stay on due to crescent rose being stabbed into the grimm's thick scales.
The dragon didn't care much for landing strategies as it unceremoniously crash-landed into the tower, sending Ruby flying off of its back and onto the roof without her weapon. Normally, this would have had her panicked, but what she saw was a far more horrifying sight.
The bodies of Pyrrha and Seraphina floated in front of her on two yellow clouds, both unmoving and pale. A discarded brown tail lied on the ground near the two, leading Ruby to only one conclusion about how this could have happened.
Feeling the tears well up in her eyes along with a mysterious pressure that she'd never felt before, she was unable to hear Mori shouting her name over the dragon's own wail.
This would prove to be a pivotal coincidence as the pressure behind Ruby's eyes reached a fever pitch resulting in a blinding white light that would bring the Fall of Beacon to a conclusion.
The God of Remnant Chapter 16 -End-
A/N: Here we are once again, at the end of another chapter of The God of Remnant.
This one took a while for a number of reasons, but the lead of which was the loss of my data when I got about a thousand words in. I held out hope for about a week about recovering it, but then had to settle for just starting fresh and I think it turned out better for it.
This chapter is going to be the longest to date (almost or exceeding 9k words with the author note) and will be the one to break 100k words on this story. As always, I'm grateful to you all for your continued support on the story.
We've also recently reached 100 reviews (every one of which I read btw) and I honestly couldn't be happier about it.
About the story: This ends the Fall of Beacon in much the same way as canon, but with a couple changes that will be made more apparent in the next chapter. Mori finally has his god powers back (partially at least) and will now begin his quest to re-obtain them.
The next chapter will be a mini-chapter (probably around 3k words at most) that serves to tie up loose ends and set up the events for part 2 of the story. You can effectively consider it the end of the first part of the story or the 're-awakening saga' as I'd call it. I plan for the story to have three parts total, but that may change as time moves forward.
With that, I hope you guys enjoyed and I'll see you all in the next chapter!
-Mango G