Chapter-47

Tristan, Shirou, Yang

"Choice is the Root of Kingship." Tristan spoke as he walked through the corridors of Amity arena. Sigurd and his group had already left for the attack on Prometheus' base by this point, so he, Achilles and Serenity were just waiting for the news to come in.

He had been thinking what Durin's message meant, where exactly was the real door to the Vault housing the Relic of Choice.

But I still can't figure out what it is trying to tell. Tristan thought in frustration. It honestly seemed like he needed the help of other servants, if he was to figure out what the blasted message meant.

In his thoughts, Tristan passed by Serenity. For some reason, something troubled him whenever he saw the assassin.

It always feels as if I've done something…wrong. And Serenity keeps reminding me of it. Tristan thought.

"No time for our session?" Serenity asked in a soft voice.

Ah, yes. The 'sessions' Serenity and I had been involved in. Tristan thought. When they'd first met, something about Serenity's identity caught Tristaan's interest, and he'd pulled the assassin aside to talk.

Those sessions were the result of the agreement they'd reached, as they practiced on a periodic basis at nighttime.

"No. Today is going to be quite busy." Tristan replied as Serenity nodded.

"Oh…I see. I shall be going to Achilles." Serenity spoke before walking off.

Tristan, meanwhile, decided to go take a look at how things were going in the arena.

"LADIES AND GENTLEMEN! IT IS MY PLEASURE TO WELCOME YOU TO THE FINALS OF THE VYTAL FESTIVAL!" Tristan heard Port exclaim as he entered the stands.

He knew Port was sitting with Oobleck, giving commentary from the announcer's box, while in the VIP lounge, Ozpin was sitting with Vale's Councilmembers, along with General Ironwood as well as Maria, most likely due to her status and reputation within the huntsmen community.

As Port began talking about the match, Tristan looked at Yang and Pyrrha, who stood in the arena. Achilles was guarding the elevator that connected to where Amber was being kept, but he'd said he'd watch the match through the scroll.

As Tristan walked through the stands, he suddenly heard Ruby's voice.

"GO, YANG! GET THE VYTAL TROPHY FOR TEAM RWBY!" She yelled as Weiss and Blake cheered as well.

"DON'T LET YANG BREAK YOUR STREAK, PYRRHA!" Tristan heard Nora yell as well.

"Yang's been practicing!" Ruby spoke, turning to JNR.

"She knows how to counter Pyrrha, and she's going to win this time!"

"What makes you think that?" Jaune asked as he and Ruby soon descended into an intense debate on who was going to win.

"Oh, hello, Tristan!" Jaune spoke, noticing Tristan.

"Woah, you decided to come?!" Ruby exclaimed in excitement as Tristan nodded.

"Nice! Yang and Pyrrha are waving to you by the way." Ruby spoke as Tristan nodded to Yang and Pyrrha's direction.

"So, will you be staying here to watch?" Weiss asked as Tristan shook his head.

"I'm afraid not. I just came to see how things were going."

"Oh pooh…" Ruby spoke with a pout.

"Don't be so dejected, Ruby. I can't see, remember?"

Ruby huffed and crossed her arms. "I don't get it. What's the problem with just opening your eyes, Tristan?"

"He says he's had a really hard life, and doesn't want to see the world a lot anymore." Jaune spoke as Tristan turned to him.

Their training had been going well, as Tristan was able to hone Jaune's skill in the suitable direction while Achilles sparred with Pyrrha to coach her as well.

In that short time, Tristan and Jaune had developed a sort of mentor-student relationship, all starting from Jaune's eyes sparkling when Tristan declared himself a knight.

Ever since then, Jaune has been pestering Tristan about the Code of Chivalry and how was the life of a Knight.

A bright young man, who sadly isn't aware the difficult of upholding the ideals of knighthood in a world of tricksters. Tristan thought.

"So, Jaune? No questions on Knighthood?" He asked as Jaune scratched his head.

"N-No. Still makes me giddy to think of it…"

"Keep that passion, that determination and that kind heart with you, Jaune Arc. You'll make a fine knight one day." Tristan spoke as Jaune brightened up in happiness.

"Anyways, I'll be taking your leave. Enjoy yourselves." Tristan spoke.

"Ok, Tristan!" Ruby spoke as Tristan nodded.

"Go…"

"!" Tristan froze as he heard a faint voice speak in his mind.

"Where did…?" Tristan muttered as he looked around in confusion but saw no one.

"Go…To the False Vault."

What? Tristan thought. Was he hearing the voice of a wraith?

His eyebrows scrunched in confusion. Wraiths generally stayed back in the physical world out of some unfinished business, or areas of grudges.

But a Wraith in Amity Arena? What happened in this stadium that I can hear the voice of a Wraith? Tristan thought.

"Tristan? Something wrong?" Ruby asked as Tristan shook his head.

"No…felt something odd." Tristan spoke before walking off.

The Wraith told me to go to the False Vault. Tristan thought as he walked briskly through the corridors towards the bay area of Amity Arena.

"Was there something going on in the Vault?" Tristan muttered.


Good thing I've got this. Mordreed thought as she walked through Beacon's grounds. For a school, Beacon Academy was by all accounts a fortress.

Mordred could only see Huntsmen patrolling Beacon's grounds, all of them being enough to make up a small army. In the outer boundaries, Mordred could also spot Vale's soldiers with rifles standing watch.

At least they're not as much as compared to Vale. Mordred thought. Vale had a proper army of huntsmen, along with the Valeian and Atlesian militaries, a number of defensive armaments, and a huge wall that could give Camelot's wall a run for its money.

If Vale had been a kingdom in Britain, it would have been a force to be reckoned with. At the gate to Beacon tower, she spotted one of Ozpin's underlings, Qrow Branwen, standing with a number of Atlesian guards, all covered in extremely durable exosuits made of Valeian steel carrying rifles in their hands.

Despite not being as strong as the Huntsmen, these soldiers were also pretty elite compared to regular humans

"Hm, did you see that?" Mordred heard one of the Atlesian guards speak as Qrow looked at him.

"Yeah, thought the air rippled for a second."

Mordred held back a curse and moved away.

"Thought it came from in front of us. You two go and check." Qrow ordered as the guards nodded and walked up.

The guards slowly crept up, keeping their distance as they kept their eyes peeled for any air rippling again.

I need to get that huntsman off the door. Mordred thought as the guards pointed their guns at her position.

Mordred moved again, and the guards perked up.

"Alright, there's something moving. Sir!" The guards called as Qrow came in, keeping their rifles trained in a radius.

"We think there might be someone moving!" One of them spoke as Qrow narrowed his eyes.

"Alright then, let me check." He spoke before closing his eyes.

Right, aura sensing. Boss did say Mistral-born huntsmen knew how to sense the soul. Mordred thought as Qrow turned his head around in confusion. Aura sensing was a particularly annoying ability for servants because being spirits, they might as well be a shining torch to anybody trying to sense aura.

But again, Prometheus' doo-hickey saved her by concealing her magical signature, otherwise Qrow would have definitely sensed her.

Mordred quickly passed through the door in her spirit form to enter Beacon tower.

Inside, she spotted more guards, and to her irritation, Achilles, standing in front of the elevator. Achilles was grinning as he was looking at something on his scroll, but he wasn't distracted, as evident from his glances to check nothing was wrong.

Hope this bastard doesn't catch me. Mordred thought. She couldn't get past Achilles' weird immortality and the man wouldn't be keen to let her hit his heel.

Mordred tried to keep her distance as she walked past him, but froze as Achilles' spear suddenly slammed down close to her.

Achilles frowned as he looked in her direction, and took a step.

Shit, shit, shit! Mordred thought as she went to move away before Achilles' scroll rung.

"Yeah?" He spoke as he turned away.

"..."

"Really? Well…alright, then." Achilles spoke putting down the scroll.

"Alright, time to head to Ironwood's ship, I guess." He muttered before walking out of the room

Mordred breathed a sigh of relief as she went up to the elevator.

To her luck, the elevator at that moment immediately opened to reveal two Atlesian soldiers, stepped out.

Mordred snuck into the elevator door as it closed and came out of Spirit form, pressing the button to the Vault.

Apparently, this wasn't the real door where the Relic was being kept, and boss had a good idea where it actually was.

But her goal wasn't really to go to the Vault, actually.

The doors opened as Mordred ran through the Fake Vault to stop at Amber's pod.

No, her job was just to get the Fall Maiden transferred to Cinder.

Why not use an Assassin, then? Well, in case they got caught, they would never make it out of Beacon alive.

After she'd killed Amber, Mordred had to just wait until the fun began.

Mordred looked at Amber, and summoned Clarent.

"Well, sorry there, but in all honesty, death's the only way you'll find any sort of freedom now." Mordred spoke as she went to stab Clarent into Amber's heart…

…Before she heard a whistling sound of arrows flying.

Mordred brought Clarent back to deflect the arrows, and felt the force of a vacuum hitting her blade.

Wait a minute…I recognize those arrows. Mordred thought as she spotted a familiar figure standing with their bow.

"Well, well, well. Look who it is." Mordred spoke as Tristan stood silently with Failnaught in hand.

"..."

"Fine reunion, eh, Tristan?"

"..."

"Oh come on! No greetings to your former comrade? I remember when you would actually have a good time with me, Lancelot and Gawain."

"...That was until you decided to raise arms against your king."

"Oh…so that's what it is? Pulling out the traitor card, are we? Well, I've already screamed it out to the world why I rebelled against father."

"To satisfy your own selfish desires and hunger for power…"

"To take what was rightfully mine!" Mordred snapped before rubbing her eyebrows.

"Besides, are you sure you have any right to lecture me on abandoning the king?"

Tristan's grip on Failnaught tightened. "I-I gave in to my emotions…"

"And so did I! Both of us were sick and tired of father refusing to acknowledge his humanity and trying oh so hard to be the 'perfect' little king that disaster Merlin told him!"

"...That, I cannot dispute." Tristan spoke.

"But the time has passed. Right now, you are trying to transfer the Fall Maiden to the acolyte of Salem, something that I can't allow."

"Right…" Mordred spoke as her casual clothes were replaced by her armor.

"Which is why I need to kill you, if I am to complete this mission." Mordred spoke as Failnaught disappeared.

"Hm? Putting away your bow?"

"The only reason I'm even an Archer is because I once wielded this bow. Surely, you haven't forgotten what weapon I used for most of my time as a Knight?" Tristan asked as Mordred grinned.

"...So a good old swordfight? Great, I guess I'll be having fun in this mission." Mordred spoke, raising Clarent.

Tristan, in response, unsheathed his sword, a much narrower blade that suited his agile style.

"Alright, Child of Sadness, are you ready to say goodbye?" Mordred spoke as Tristan scowled.

"I may not have the raw power of draconic and fae blood that runs in your veins, but what I do have is skill and years of rigorous practice. We'll see what wins - Your natural gifts, or my hardwork towards honing my skill."

Tristan took off his white cloak and stood in his armor.

Mordred's body tensed, before she shot forward in a Mana Burst.

"TRISSSTAAAAAANN!" Mordred bellowed as the two former Knights commenced their duel.


Shirou sat in one of the rooms of the warship. After they'd settled in, Shirou excused himself.

That's it. I'm done…My part of the job is over. Shirou thought. He'd played his part as the traitor, he'd passed in the necessary information to Prometheus that his forethought could not cover, he'd been the one to open the gates that led to the Fall of Cysgod, and he'd managed to get the information about the Wyvern to the Will.

Now, all that was left was for him to take one of the bullheads and leave for the Dragon Continent, where he would enter the Land of Darkness and await further instructions at Salem's castle.

All while the first step towards the Salvation of humanity would be taken with the Fall of Vale.

So why do I still feel dissatisfied? Shirou thought clutching his head. He could not find any sense of fulfillment, any sort of joy that what he'd wanted to accomplish was going to start.

No, he only felt guilt. Guilt at betraying the trust of those who he called comrades.

Shirou could remember the smiles of Ruby and Sigurd in his mind, Cú's joking attitude whenever they went on patrols, Tristan's narcissistic obsession with his tragedy that often had him make amusing statements.

He thought of Robin's words to him, to see what his humanity wanted. And Shirou had chosen salvation, because that's all he heard. He wanted salvation.

I'd done it all…to achieve what I wanted. He thought.

What I wanted…

What I wanted…

But what did I want? Shirou thought. He wanted salvation, did he not?

Yet as Shirou thought about it, some other thought came to his mind.

Why did I even want salvation in the first place? Shirou thought.

What flaw in humanity did he see that he wanted its salvation?

What was that observation that drove Shirou to strive for salvation in the first place?

Shirou looked out the window, seeing as they were getting close to their location - Mount Glenn.

He thought of his promise to Ruby, the promise that he'd come to see the Vytal fireworks with her.

Shirou gulped as his shoulders started shaking, his guilt threatening to take him over as he put his hands over his face.

The Vytal Festival… Shirou thought. The festival that was celebrated to commemorate the end of the Great War, when Remnant was more divided than ever.

It was a festival to celebrate, Peace, Unity and…Harmony.

Shirou looked up.

Harmony.

A distant memory came back to Shirou's mind.


"Padre Francisco." A young Shirou spoke, sitting alongside a Portuguese Jesuit monk in a small hut where the monk was giving his prayers.

They'd come to a small village to talk to the local Christian community, but unfortunately, some soldiers of the Matsukara clan had been informed of two Christian monks coming to the village to preach, and had been on high alert. They'd been given shelter by a poor farmer and had made plans to sneak out of the village and leave before the Katsuie soldiers grew suspicious of their presence.

"Hm, yes, Geronimo?" Francisco spoke.

"I…um, need to go out for a moment."

"Really? While I don't really mind, it's not safe. You are well aware of the Katsuie roaming the village, looking for us."

"Don't worry, Padre. I have my Black Keys as well as my katana. I'll simply cover myself in a brown cloak and change to a peasant's clothes to avoid detection." Shirou replied as Francisco frowned.

"Alright then, go on." He spoke as Shirou went to change into his clothes, put on a brown cloak, and hid his katana and black keys.

Shirou ventured out of the hut and walked through the village, sneaking past Matsukara soldiers. On the way, Shirou noticed some of the Matsukara soldiers dragging peasants out of their homes along with images of Christ and smashing them to the ground.

Shirou winced at the desecration of the sacred images but continued on.

Soon, he reached the outskirts and his destination - A small shrine to the local Kami.

Even though he was born a Christian, Shirou couldn't help but be fascinated by the other two religions of the Shinto and Buddhism as well. So, he would pay a visit to the local Kami shrine to observe the prayers.

He hid himself in a bush, and watched as worshippers came to the shrine to offer their prayers before returning to their homes.

Shirou stayed there for some time before he eventually got out, heading back to the hut.

On the way, Shirou frowned. He didn't really understand the need for the Shinto worshippers to persecute the Christians.

If they also worshiped the divine force that shaped up creation, then what made them different from the Christians?

As he walked on, Shirou found himself growing more and more somber at the divide that had been there between Christians and the other religions for decades.

"Why couldn't they simply co-exist?" Shirou muttered before he suddenly found himself pushed down.

"Huh?" Shirou spoke as he looked behind him to see a Matsukara soldier scowling at him, holding a naginata in his hand. The both of them had found themselves in a relatively secluded corner where people rarely came by.

"Um…"

"I knew there was something off about you…Kirishitan." The soldier snarled as Shirou looked down to see his cross exposed.

Shirou chastised himself for getting distracted and not seeing the Katsuie soldier spotting him.

The Matsukara soldier reached down towards Shirou's cross, as the boy's eyes widened.

Wait, no! Shirou thought, realizing what the soldier was about to do.

Shirou's cross was something he'd received as a gift from his parents. It was the last piece of attachment he still had towards his parents before he left to pursue his path to being a messenger of the Lord. It was the symbol of his faith and devotion.

He couldn't let the soldier take it away.

Shirou's katana was out, and the soldier suddenly spat out blood. Shirou stared in wide eyes as the soldier grasped his bleeding neck before collapsing dead.

Shirou looked at his bloodstained Katana before touching his cross.

He'd taken someone's life. Even if he'd done it to protect his faith, taking another's life was still a sin that was not easily forgiven.

Shirou's mind went back to the discord between Christianity and the other religions.

Why couldn't the Christians be left in peace? Why did Christians have to kill in order to protect their devotion? Why couldn't everyone simply live in peace and harmony?

At that moment, Shirou heard the voice of the Lord.


"Yes…" Shirou spoke as it all came to him.

His rebellion…His quest for salvation…all of it came from his desire to bring about harmony.

Before he'd become Amakusa Shirou, the one who'd heard the Voice of God and led the Shimabara rebellion, he'd been a boy who'd simply wanted everyone to be in harmony.

That desire had to be set aside in the flames of rebellion, and had only returned when Shirou was at his last moments.

He'd made his last stand to fight for Harmony, not for Salvation.

The people of Remnant faced a great threat in the form of the grimm, and the Great War had taught them that Peace, Unity and Harmony was the only way they could survive.

The cause Shirou was fighting for…it had abandoned the people of Remnant. He was not fighting for Harmony anymore. He was fighting for discord. For destruction.

So engrossed in doing what he thought was the 'Work of the Lord', Shirou had become the Matsukara soldiers who represented the demons he sought to conquer.

And the image of Beacon academy burning down, its students ending up with the same fate as the rebels of Hara castle assaulted his mind.

…All because of what he did.

At that moment, the dam broke. Shirou's body began moving on its own as he walked out of his room and towards the cells.

Most of the guards did not pay him heed as Shirou walked up to the cells where Winter and Robin were being kept. He had the guards leave the hallway so that he could talk.

By this point, both of them had woken up, and scowled as Shirou came to their cell.

"So, are you here to apologize?" Robin spoke with an edge to his voice.

"Did you come here to make sure I don't put an arrow in your head when I break out of this cell?"

"Robin. Have any of the others talked to you yet?" Shirou asked as Robin shook his head.

"You're the first one. And that makes it even worse."

So they haven't gotten any information out of him, yet. Shirou thought in relief as he looked around to make sure no one was listening.

"Look, Robin…"

"I swear, if this is about conveniently turning turncoat and giving us false hope with a proposal to break us out…"

"Robin, listen to me. We need to get to Beacon."

Winter perked up. "What?"

"The attack's about to begin. We need to warn Ozpin…"

"Bullshit! You're actually trying to give us that excuse?!" Robin snapped at him as Shirou raised his hands.

"Robin, please. Beacon is about to get attacked. If we do not get there in time, there will be heavy casualties."

Winter's eyes widened. "An attack? Already?"

"Yes, yes. You all were wrong that Prometheus would take more time. Mount Glenn was simply to lull you all into a false sense of security. Prometheus has been building up his army of phantasmals and grimm beyond the mountains for months. He was simply waiting to spread us out and bring him what he needed so that he could completely crush Beacon and Vale in one all-out assault."

"..."

"With most of the servants away and Atlas' forces also being stationed at Vale, Beacon is not at all prepared for the assault. Sigurd and the others cannot contact Ozpin, and we need to go and warn him."

"..."

"Please. We need to warn them all and get the citizens evacuated." Shirou spoke as Robin stared at him before slumping.

"Damn it, Shirou, I can see it in your eyes that you mean it." Robin spoke. "Fine. Are we just going to leave, then?"

"Yes. I can unlock your cell doors, since Prometheus encoded our handprints as well after he hijacked the ship, and get you to the bay area. We'll take a bullhead and then head to Beacon Academy."

"What about the soldiers?" Winter asked.

"They won't be an issue." Shirou assured.

"How can you be so sure?"

"Prometheus' authority isn't controlling their minds, only their bodies. He's controlling all of them to steer the ship. If he isn't expecting anything unusual, the guards won't report it to him. Right now, Prometheus is not paying attention to us."

"He isn't?"

"Possibly because he isn't expecting one of his own servants to turn against him. Now quick!" Shirou spoke as he pressed his hand against the scanner and the hard-light shield dissipated, as Robin and Winter came out.

"You have your weapons?" Shirou asked as Winter showed her sabre and Robin his bow.

"I guess they were too cocky to get them off us."

"Alright. Let's go. Turn yourselves invisible." Shirou spoke as Winter pulled out a hard-light projector to turn herself invisible while Robin put on his hood, turning invisible with No Face May King.

Shirou led the two out of the cell, and the group of three headed towards the bay area.


Yang cracked her knuckles as she looked at Pyrrha. Pyrrha was smiling and waving to the crowd, but after reading her expressions during their sparring sessions, Yang knew when Pyrrha put on her 'Celebrity Smile'.

Inside, she could guess Pyrrha was very, very nervous. And for good reason. If she lost this match, then it would be a very big blow to her reputation as the 'Invincible Girl'...

But that's what it would be. A blow to her reputation. Yang did not think for one second it would ruin her life as long as she was able to not put much thought to it.

Most of Pyrrha's fans were in truth people who followed the Mistral tournament, which included only people living in the Capital cities of the Kingdoms.

Pyrrha's fanbase was rooted in the capitals. Outside of the Kingdoms, Pyrrha would be no more than an exceptional huntress. If her fans rejected her, there would be many more people out there who would welcome a bright huntress to their community.

Yang caught a pleading look from Pyrrha, which was trying to tell her she was sorry.

Yang smiled and gave a thumbs-up. She wasn't going to bow down because of Pyrrha's reputation. With her talk with Ozpin, Yang had gotten a glimpse of how problematic Pyrrha's reputation is for her.

She'd been training for a lot of days, having formed plans to counter Pyrrha's semblance should she decide to use it. All that training so that she could win the Vytal Trophy for her team.

If that meant breaking Pyrrha's reputation, then so be it. She was sure Ozpin wouldn't let one of his students get mentally pressured by the public in case she lost.

"May the best fighter win, Pyrrha!" Yang called out as Pyrrha looked at her, her façade dropping for a moment to reveal the nervous girl.

"M-May the best win, Yang!"

"Now, ready your weapons!" Professor Port spoke as Yang loaded Ember celica while Pyrrha raised her weapons.

"3!"

"2!"

"1!"

Yang and Pyrrha both stared at each other, ready for their battle to begin.

"GO!"

Yang immediately fired off Ember Celica at the ground, forcing Pyrrha to jump back as the explosions from Ember Celica's rounds created smoke. Yang fired her gauntlets back to launch herself forward and get close to Pyrrha.

Yang had learnt from a few defeats that Pyrrha first fired off a few rounds with surprising accuracy, and that combined with Yang's desire to get hit to charge up her semblance, often resulted in her losing a lot more aura than she thought.

So, she had to get close to Pyrrha without giving her that chance. While Yang Xiao-Long usually tried to charge up for one finishing hit, Yang this time would be more patient, because whittling down Pyrrha was much better than trying to withstand her strikes to charge up for a one-hit knockout.

Yang sent out two jabs which Pyrrha blocked with her shield, before weaving away from Pyrrha's slashes and batting away Milo as Pyrrha shifted it into spear form to stab her.

The next cause for defeat - Yang misjudging when Pyrrha attacked and when she blocked. Pyrrha loved mixing up her offense and defense, blocking a few hits before countering extremely quickly while the opponent is expecting another block.

Go too aggressive, and Pyrrha will counter too soon for you to put up a defense. Better was to be slightly more defensive and focussed more on timing Pyrrha's counters rather than trying to break down her guard.

Yang grabbed Pyrrha's spear and pulled her in, ready to send her fist cracking against Pyrrha's forehead in a hook. Instead, Pyrrha simply bashed her shield against Yang's stomach and sent her stumbling.

Pyrrha jabbed with Milo multiple times, all striking Yang before Pyrrha got close for a heavy slash…

Only for fire dust to explode against her shield and stagger her as well, with Yang getting her balance back and sending her fist cracking against Pyrrha's jaw.

Pyrrha twisted back in a stumble as Yang went for another flurry of punches, only for them to be blocked by Pyrrha's shield, although the girl did wobble with each punch.

Yang stepped back as Pyrrha sent a flurry of slashes before ducking as Pyrrha jabbed with milo in its spear form and sending another punch to Pyrrha's stomach.

To Yang's surprise, Pyrrha grit her teeth and stayed her ground, after which Yang received a number of slashes to the face.

Pyrrha slammed the edge of her shield against Yang's face, sending her down to one knee, before stabbing down with milo towards Yang's back.

Yang swung Ember Celica back and batted away Milo, before her leg lashed out in a powerful kick that sent Pyrrha back and got up again.

Pyrrha fired off with her rifle as Yang blocked a couple with her fists before firing ember celica back at Pyrrha, who blocked with her shield.

Yang ran forward before firing Ember celica to launch herself into the air.

Yang fired off Ember Celica down at Pyrrha who continued blocking with her shield, before firing them again to launch herself at Pyrrha, twisting and using a little bit of her semblance to swing her leg down in a powerful kick.

Pyrrha, as expected, blocked it, and the force knocked her off her feet and sent her sprawling.

Yang immediately got on top of her, and sent fists raining down towards Pyrrha. Pyrrha received two punches to the face before she blocked with her forearm, grabbed Yang's arm and pushed her off with a kick.

"Oh my! It seems Ms. Xiao-Long has gotten quite a lot of hits on the Invincible Girl! I don't think I've ever seen a more even fight involving the Invincible Girl before!" Professor Oobleck exclaimed.

"Well, Ms. Xiao-long is Ms. Nikos' sparring partner. I have seen them spar a lot in the arenas, so I wouldn't put it past Yang to have grown used to Pyrrha's combat style." Port spoke.

Yang looked at the board. All her observation, her practice sparring with Pyrrha, and her little more extra training courtesy of Sigurd and Shirou to react faster are doing their magic.

Their auras were at similar levels. She could hear the sounds of surprise coming from the stands at the beating Pyrrha's taking.

Aw…People are more concerned than Nikos getting socked in the face than me getting sliced open. Wish people had concern. Yang thought with a pout.

Pyrrha flipped back onto her feet and stared at Yang, rubbing her jaw.

"You're using a lot of new tricks, Yang." Pyrrha spoke as Yang grinned.

"I've prepared, plus I know your style very well. But, you took me off-guard as well."

"You're not the only one who's got a read on the other's style." Pyrrha replied.

Pyrrha then put her shield back and changed Milo to a spear form.

"Oh…" Yang spoke.

Now that's something I haven't gotten used to. She thought. Things had gotten more difficult for her.


Tristan moved his head as Mordred tossed Clarent towards him, embedding itself in the wall.

Tristan did not have the time to contact Ozpin, and he could not give Mordred the opportunity to kill Amber either.

Of course, such a thing was difficult because Mordred's style of fighting was completely unorthodox.

Tristan charged forward with a stab, which Mordred caught with her gauntlet before she kicked at Tristan.

Tristan leaned away from the kick and twisted his sword out of Mordred's gauntlet to almost lop her head off with one fluid move.

Mordred charged Tristan with a mana burst, knocking him back before pulling out Clarent from the wall.

"YAAAH!" Mordred screamed, jumping into the air as Tristan scrambled away, with Mordred slamming down Clarent where his head had been and creating a small crater as her blade sunk into the ground.

Tristan got up and immediately crouched as Mordred pulled out the chunk of concrete with Clarent and threw it straight at Tristan, before charging back again..

Mordred swung wildly at Tristan immediately, who only listened with the whistling in the air from Mordred's blade as he parried and deflected her strikes. At one point, Tristan managed to block Mordred's strike and moved her sword away before quickly bashing his hilt against her face.

From the sound of cartilage breaking and Mordred's curses, Tristan could tell he'd managed to hit her on the nose.

Mordred stumbled back as Tristan immediately swung his sword in a blur towards Mordred's head, with the girl only managing to lean back in the last second to prevent Tristan's sword from cutting her head clean in half and only got a gash to her cheek.

Mordred sent an enraged look at Tristan before tossing her sword in the air and land a spinning kick on it.

"!" Tristan grunted as Clarent shot forward like a bullet, forcing Tristan to block it with his sword and get blown off his feet by the momentum of the sword.

Tristan fell back and quickly tossed away Clarent before picking up his sword. However, Mordred blasted forward with another mana burst and spun around to swing down her leg towards Tristan's face.

Tristan raised his sword to block and felt his arms nearly snap off as Mordred's kick landed, the ground collapsing beneath Tristan as he struggled to keep Mordred off him.

"At least you can hold on. Bedivere would have just given up by this point." Mordred spoke as Tristan kicked her back and got up.

That kick would have smashed my skull to pieces if I hadn't blocked. Tristan thought as he felt his arms still trembling from the trauma of taking Mordred's kick head-on.

Mordred grinned and picked up Clarent again. Tristan took a deep breath.

"You know you're all alone. Even if you put me down, you won't be able to make it out."

Mordred chuckled. "Oh, really? Well, poor me."

Tristan frowned at Mordred's statement. Mordred even being here all alone was odd.

The Wraith may have warned me about the break-in, but I can't help but have a feeling that something bigger is going to happen. Tristan thought in worry.


Yang jumped back as Pyrrha jabbed at her with her spear, shooting rounds with Ember Celica, as Pyrrha deflected the bullets by twirling her spear while running towards Yang.

Pyrrha again jabbed at Yang, who blocked it with her gauntlets before Pyrrha stepped in and swung her fist, surprising Yang as she was hit by the surprising punch before Pyrrha hit her with a number of slashes and kicked her back.

Yang fell to the ground and rolled away from Pyrrha's following stab and went to get up, before Pyrrha's boot slammed against her back to force her down.

Pyrrha pressed her spear against Yang's back as her aura started sparking.

S-Shit! I'm not used to this! Yang thought in panic before shaking her head.

I may have not fought Pyrrha before, but I have fought spear-users. Yang thought as he blasted her gauntlets to the ground, forcing herself against Pyrrha's spear as she lifted up from the ground and elbowed Pyrrha to knock her away.

Yang noticed her aura now was lower than Pyrrha's by a considerable margin.

Yang breathed deeply and raised her fists, watching Pyrrha closely. Pyrrha threw her shield as Yang caught it and dropped it.

Pyrrha came in, feinting a stab before stabbing her spear to the ground and vaulting to launch a dropkick at Yang, assuming she would be distracted from her shield.

But Yang reacted faster than she expected, as she caught Pyrrha's legs and slammed Pyrrha to the ground. Pyrrha flipped back up, attempting to catch Yang with a kick but the girl leaned away and countered with a volley of punches.

Pyrrha wove around the punches and swung her spear, which Yang dodged as well before she jumped up to launch a kick at Yang. Yang blocked the kick with her forearms and took a step back and pretended to be stunned temporarily.

This allowed Pyrrha to go forward with a stab.

Alright, time to go to the old Xiao-Long move. Starting with…

Yang slightly moved her body. Milo barely scraped against her waist as it went past as Yang fired up her semblance.

And now, to slip in the classic Xiao-Long one punch! Yang thought.

Pyrrha's eyes widened at Yang's crimson ones before Yang launched her right arm at Pyrrha's face with a loud yell.

People in the stadium winced as Pyrrha was launched back, almost falling off the arena as Milo fell away.

"YEAH!" Ruby cheered as Yang smiled at her sister's support.

Pyrrha struggled to get up, her eyes blinking out black spots as Yang's strike had managed to send Pyrrha's aura below hers in one move.

"OH! And Yang manages to knock down Pyrrha with one devastating punch!" Professor Port exclaimed.

"Ms. Nikos will be feeling that hit for a long time, Peter! If Ms. Xiao-Long had more energy to put in with that hit, I think we might have been seen history in the making!"

Yang smiled. Things were even and got rough in the middle, but she'd taken a risk and succeeded. Now she just had to get Pyrrha's aura low enough before Pyrrha started using her semblance.

"I can't believe it!"

"How is she losing?!"

"She's the Invincible Girl!"

"Pyrrha shouldn't be getting beaten by the blonde bimbo!"

"Blondie must be cheating!"

While Yang didn't pay attention to much of the insults, she was used to it, Yang noticed a desperate look come upon Pyrrha's eyes.

Shit, she wasn't expecting things to go this bad. Yang thought in worry. Despite her friendly conversations with Yang, Yang knew Pyrrha had secretly expected the fight to be relatively easy in her victory. Yang hadn't pushed Pyrrha this hard ever since their last spar…

…And that was all because Yang had been practicing and putting in a lot of thought about her strategy to beat Pyrrha in the fight. It'd allowed her to react to Pyrrha's attacks better while comprehending the flaws in her style to land her own hits.

Pyrrha, on the other hand, did her own rigorous training, but all her surprising moves and successful strikes stemmed from instinctual prediction of Yang's attacks from sparring with her. She had expected a victory, and hence hadn't put in the same amount of strategy as Yang did.

Come on, Pyrrha! Don't fall for it. Don't slip into the 'Invincible Girl' persona. Yang thought before Pyrrha got up with her fists clenched, her eyes now much colder than usual. Pyrrha didn't have to say a word for Yang to know she'd been taken in.

Shoot. Yang thought as Pyrrha used her semblance, her weapons coming back to her as many in the crowd gasped.

"What did she just do?!"

"There was some sort of black aura on her shield!"

"Its her semblance!"

Pyrrha now ran towards Yang again, and as Yang went for a counter, she felt something grab onto her gauntlets and pull them to the side, rendering her unable to block as Pyrrha slashed at her.

What had started as a seemingly friendly fight and quickly descended into an intense struggle filled with desperation, as Pyrrha had started taking her minor losses very, very, seriously.

Even if it was strange that Pyrrha had started reacting this seriously, but sometimes the pressure could do that to people.

"Well, Ms. Xiao-Long has managed to push Ms. Nikos to the point of openly using her semblance!" Oobleck spoke.

"Indeed. Pyrrha usually uses her semblance, Polarity, in a subtle manner. But here, you can clearly see it from the way Yang's gauntlets are being directed away from Pyrrha."

Come on, is it important to focus on my beatdown right now. Yang thought as she desperately stumbled and dodged Pyrrha's strikes, getting hit multiple times because of Pyrrha's

"That means, all those matches that she one…"

"She was using her semblance!"

"Does that mean many of her opponents could have…won?"

"Come on, Yang!" Yang heard Ruby spoke as Pyrrha continued to slash at her, Yang being unable to do much as whenever she tried to strike or defend, Pyrrha would pull away her arms with her semblance.

But Yang didn't train hard to lose to Pyrrha's semblance.

Pyrrha's semblance was difficult to get around because so many people were dependent on their weapons…

…But not Yang.

Yang managed to jump back from one of Pyrrha's slashes, noticing her aura was just above elimination.

"Come on, Yang! You can do it!" She heard her teammates cheer as Yang quickly took off her gauntlets, flexing her wrists from the sudden liberation before her hair ignited, as Yang slammed her fists together.

Pyrrha's eyes widened in alarm as she no longer had anything to divert.

Pyrrha shifted Milo back to rifle form, but Yang was already there. Yang pushed Milo aside, and punched Pyrrha in the stomach. While Pyrrha could have dodged the punch at the beginning, Yang had managed to disorient and tire her out enough to reduce her coordination.

Pyrrha stumbled back and attempted to swing back with Milo, only to miss completely as Yang's fist impacted her face.

Huh, that was way off me. Yang thought as Pyrrha's expression suddenly turned fierce, as her attacks lost all of their coordination and Pyrrha began swinging much more wildly. Yang also noticed Pyrrha's eyes darting from side-to-side.

What's wrong with Pyrrha? It's like she's completely lost focus. Yang thought in confusion as Pyrrha continued missing her, receiving punch after punch that sent her stumbling back while Yang kept her momentum.

Pyrrha's vision was blurry as she attempted to hit Yang, only for milo to pass through before her vision would go white as Yang's fist cracked against her jaw.


In the stands, Emerald had her eyes narrowed in concentration. Since the beginning of the fight, Emerald had been using her semblance to make Pyrrha hear things she normally wouldn't.

Whenever Yang landed a surprising hit on her, Emerald would take the opportunity to slip in mocking voices to put the pressure on Pyrrha.

The pressure of course forced Pyrrha to slowly start taking the fight more seriously, letting Emerald exploit her fears and doubts to spur her into fighting even more aggressively.

But Yang had surprisingly put up a great fight, even managing to badly stun Pyrrha on numerous occasions, which of course made Emerald change her strategy and now focus on badly disbalancing Pyrrha, being only too happy with the growing irritation of the fans among the crowd to further wrench open Pyrrha's growing pit of terror.

Despite all that, Yang had pulled through, and now Emerald was focussed on making Pyrrha see Yang in the wrong spots, having her miss so that Yang could batter her further.

Just a few more hits, and Pyrrha should snap, finally losing control of herself and severely injuring Yang in the process. Emerald thought while another one of Yang's punches sent Pyrrha down to a knee.

Yang stepped back in concern as Pyrrha got up, her knees trembling as her body swayed, the girl barely holding on in order to keep fighting, and Emerald went to assault Pyrrha's mind with the mental trigger…

…Only for a sharp pain to erupt on her right thigh as Emerald mouth opened in a scream.

Before a glove clamped over her mouth as Emerald's concentration broke, freeing Pyrrha from the effects of her semblance.

Emerald looked to her right to see Serenity's bored eyes as the assassin sat clad in a black hooded cloak.

"I heard a ghost say you were here. So I came over." Serenity spoke.

How did she get so close to me? Emerald thought.

"I sat beside you minutes ago. People tend to not notice my presence." Serenity replied blandly.

"Come with me." She spoke pulling Emerald up, the girl not doing anything because of the fact she had been caught by a servant, and was led away by Serenity from the stands.


Yang suddenly noticed Pyrrha's eyes blink rapidly, before launching one final punch.

Pyrrha's body did a 180 as she fell to the ground, with the buzzer sounding.

All suddenly went quiet.

Yang stood back as she looked around. Everyone was staring at the arena in silent shock.

I did it. I managed to beat Pyrrha Nikos… Yang thought. After a year of getting her ass handed to her by Pyrrha, Yang had managed to…

"AND YANG XIAO-LONG IS VICTORIOUS!" Oobleck yelled.

"WHICH MEANS THE WINNER OF THE 40TH VYTAL TOURNAMENT IS…TEAAAAMMM RWWWBBYYYY" Professor Port yelled as Ruby, Weiss and Blake jumped out of their seats, screaming at the top of their lungs as Yang shot Ember Celica into the sky in victory.

"WOOOOOOOO HOOOOOO!" Yang yelled, before she remembered Pyrrha.

Yang looked down towards Pyrrha, only to see she hadn't gotten up. Yang couldn't see her face, but from below her head, Yang could see teardrops falling to the floor. Yang could hear some silent sobbing coming from Pyrrha.

Yang frowned, her elation giving way to pity as she knelt next to Pyrrha, and put a hand on her shoulder.

Pyrrha turned to her, and Yang could see tears falling down her face.

Yang helped Pyrrha up, as she could hear within the cheers of the crowd, also Pyrrha's fans screaming in outrage at her defeat.

"It's all over…" Pyrrha spoke.

"Pyrrha?"

"The Invincible Girl…It's all over…" Pyrrha spoke.

"What am I going to do? What are mom and dad going to think of me?" Pyrrha spoke in panic as Yang blinked.

"Pyrrha…" Yang spoke gently as Pyrrha looked up.

"...Please don't be upset." She spoke as she wrapped up Pyrrha in a hug.

"I know you're afraid. But don't worry, me, my team, your team, our other friends at Beacon and Ozpin will make sure no one tries to hurt you for this." Yang spoke.

"...R-Really?"

"To many people living within the kingdoms, and to many huntsmen-in-training, you're 'The Invincible Girl'. But to many of the older huntsmen, you're just Pyrrha Nikos. If anyone tries to do anything, Headmaster Ozpin will be there to protect you. And if he doesn't, then I'll kick their asses…"

"..."

Yang felt Pyrrha's hands wrap around her as Pyrrha returned the hug.

"Y-Yang…" Pyrrha whimpered as Yang smiled.

They held the hug before Yang picked up her gauntlets and led Pyrrha, the girl wiping her tears off as they walked off the stage to meet with their teams.


"Interesting scene there, Ozpin." Ironwood spoke as Ozpin smiled.

"I did describe Ms. Nikos' mental state to Ms. Xiao-Long during our discussion. So, Ms. Xiao-Long definitely felt a sort of responsibility to support her friend." He spoke sipping his coffee while Maria pumped her fist.

"Firecracker actually did it!" She exclaimed.

"She beat The Invincible Girl!"

"Ms. Xiao-Long had grown used to Ms. Nikos' style, she'd planned a lot on how she was going to approach the fight, and her balanced dependence on her weapons made Ms. Nikos' semblance near useless when Ms. Xiao-Long took off her gauntlets."

"While that certainly is an achievement…" Ironwood frowned at the uproar that was taking place in the stands.

"...Her Fans don't seem to take it well."

"Let them be angry. Most of Ms. Nikos' fans come from Atlas and Mistral. If they dare lay a finger or even harass her, they'll find out just how much Vale cares about its huntsmen and huntresses."

Ironwood smiled before frowning. "I still haven't gotten an update from Winter yet."

Ozpin looked back. "You haven't?"

Prometheus may have disrupted communications. Odin spoke in his mind as Ozpin nodded.

He didn't like that possibility, but he hoped they got through it.

Speaking of the servants, he wondered where Tristan was.


Tristan flipped back, dodging another swing from Mordred. He didn't know how much time had passed, but it was clear to both of them that it wasn't long before one of them made progress.

"Come on, Tristan! All you have to do is make one mistake!" Mordred yelled as Tristan sidestepped one of her swings to stab at her, only for Mordred to jump back.

"Please, Mordred. I could regularly match Lancelot in our spars. It is tragic that you think you still have any sort of swordsmanship to match the other knights."

"Shut up! That skill won't matter when I can rip through your defenses with sheer strength alone!"

"...Why are you even doing this? What good will come from destroying a school that trains warriors to protect humanity from the grimm?"

"Simple. It's time for a change. This world's humanity is as stupid as our world's, producing selfish pricks like myself who would burn down the world for their own needs. Of course, I still do want to prove that I am worthy of being the King of Camelot."

"You do, and that's what disgusts me about you. Still having dreams about ruling Camelot even after being the cause of its destruction."

"Don't blame Lancelot's actions on me!"

"Not blame them on you? Please, you stoked Gawain's hatred against Lancelot and spurred him to drag Camelot into a civil war in the midst of the Saxon invasions. And then, just like the vile Vortigern, you allied with your father's enemies..."

"SHUT UP!" Mordred yelled as both she and Tristan fought each other with growing anger, with their strikes getting more ferocious.

The two of them continued this dance until Tristan feinted a stab before bashing Mordred's forehead with his hilt.

Tristan quickly struck with fluid motions, forcing Mordred to block with Clarent's flat side clumsily and taking quite a few cuts on her exposed parts while managing to bounce off some attacks with her armor.

Now get reckless and make a mistake. Tristan thought before one of his swings was blocked by Clarent.

Mordred glared at Tristan and pushed him back, making him stagger before moving forward with a particularly quick slash tearing towards Tristan.

Tristan stood there before shifting slightly, allowing Clarent to slide past him before he twisted his sword, disarming Mordred and managing to stab downwards to get Mordred in the shoulder.

Mordred screamed, first of pain before quickly turning into rage as Mordred pulled out the blade and pushed Tristan back, her eyes now taking a wild look.

Tristan swung at Mordred, but this time she caught his blade and wrenched it away before grabbing Tristan and driving him up against the wall and throwing him away.

Forgone the sword already? Tristan thought as Mordred charged at him, before an arrow went past her armor's gap and sank into her shoulder.

"Grk!" Mordred grunted from the stinging pain as Tristan stood with Failnaught and fired arrows.

"Oh no, you're not putting me down with that little music instrument!" Mordred yelled as she shot forward with another Mana burst, ignoring the arrows piercing her body through the gaps in her armor and grabbing Tristan by the head.

"HAAAAH!" Mordred screamed as she blasted forward, dashing through the corridor while scraping Tristan's head against the ground, before tossing him further.

Tristan tried to get up, but Mordred kicked him back down grabbing him and dashing him against the wall again.

Mordred then repeatedly bashed Tristan's head against the wall, before Tristan managed to force her back with a kick and collapsing to the ground.

Tristan's body was hurting, with his face bleeding from multiple spots along with his body, as his armor was stained with both his and Mordred's blood.

Mordred panted heavily as she stared at him.

"You…" Mordred spoke walking upto Tristan.

"I never thought anyone would give me as much trouble as Lancelot did. But no, you've got all his skill and none of his power."

"...True…" Tristan spoke as Mordred raised her foot.

"But it's a good thing you have none of his power. This shit took way longer than I wanted it to." Mordred spoke, completely forgetting about Tristan's sword which lay by him.

Tristan's hand clutched his sword as Mordred went to stomp on his head.

Tristan stabbed his sword into the gaps in Mordred's foot, causing her to cry out in pain again.

Tristan immediately got up, ignoring the pain shooting through him before swinging his sword at blurring speeds once again.

Blood erupted from Mordred's face as she fell back, clutching her face as she groaned in pain.

Tristan leaned on his blade as Mordred looked back with wide eyes, a deep gash running across her face that covered the lower half of her mouth in blood.

Mordred attempted to use another Mana burst, but nothing happened. She'd run out. Mordred stood up, leaning against the wall.

Tristan raised his blade.

"Mordred…"

"...Damn it…" Mordred spoke as she picked up Clarent and turned to spirit form.

"Mordred-!" Tristan spoke but couldn't walk further as he fell to his knees.

Tristan then looked back at Amber's pod.

At least I stopped Mordred from killing her. Tristan thought, as he picked up his scroll to call Ozpin.


Shirou, Winter and Robin reached the bay area, where the soldiers were moving about. Again, they did not see anything as the three quietly slipped into a bullhead.

"You know how to fly one, Winter?" Shirou asked as Winter nodded.

"Of course." She spoke sitting down before looking at the open bay doors.

"The doors are open?"

"Again, Prometheus isn't expecting anything like this. He's kept it open for the bullheads to moved around the ship. If we can get out the back and move away, we should be good."

As soon as the doors opened for some jets to move out, their bullhead started up and slipped out of the warship.

Shirou kept an eye out as they got farther and farther away, before finally breathing a sigh of relief as the warship soon faded out of distance.

"First, we need to talk to Sigurd." Shirou spoke as Robin pulled out his scroll.

"That won't work. The signals are jammed for their scrolls, unfortunately." Shirou spoke as Winter frowned.

"But then, how do we…?"

"I can talk to His Majesty." Robin spoke as Shirou looked at him.

"It's something we developed to keep in contact without scrolls. I can pass the message to Richard immediately through druidic magecraft." Robin spoke, pulling out some herbs and eating them.

After that, he quickly pressed his fingers against the sides of his head as his eyes turned pearl-white.


Your Majesty?

Richard jumped. Did he just hear Robin's voice in his head?

But wait…that means…

"Something wrong, Richard?" Odysseus spoke as Richard grinned at him.

"We just heard Robin's voice in our head!"

Cú perked up. "Druidic magecraft, I think. I do remember there are some herbs dull the five senses to allow druids to establish a telepathic communication with others."

Yes, I'm using our link, Your Majesty.

Robin! Are you alright?

I'm fine. Winter and I have escaped.

You have?! How?!

Will explain later! Your majesty, where are you headed?

Well, for Vale, of course. Sigurd believes that Prometheus must have diverted forces for an attack on Beacon while warship heads elsewhere.

He's right! It's too late to stop Prometheus! We need to get to Vale quickly!

Robin, if that is so. Then hold the line till we get there.

Got it. I'll inform Ozpin.

Richard turned back. "Alright, Robin and Winter are on their way to Beacon."

"That's good. The others could use another servant." Odysseus spoke.

"Wait, how did they escape?"

"Robin said he'll explain later. How much time before we get to Beacon?"

"We're still too far away." Sigurd spoke, his eyebrows furrowed in frustration.

Damn it. Good luck to you and the others, Robin.


"I've warned Sigurd and the others. Do the communications work for Ozpin?"

"I believe so. Prometheus as cut off Sigurd's group from communication. I don't think we should face a problem talking to Ozpin."

"Then let's do it quickly!"

"What should I warn him about?" Winter asked as Shirou immediately told what Prometheus intended to do.

Winter's eyes nearly fell out of their sockets when she heard it.


Prometheus suddenly heard a call coming from Mordred.

"Yes?"

"I failed! That bastard Tristan somehow managed to catch me!"

"...How disappointing." Prometheus spoke before using his consciousness to access the network, noticing the Vytal broadcast had ended.

Meaning Emerald had been compromise as well.

"Hm, it seems we've been delayed." Prometheus spoke.

"Delayed?" Perseus spoke.

"Emerald was caught. The Vytal tournament's already ended. Amity arena might have emptied by now."

"Damn it, that's not good!"

"No, it's fine. It may not be ideal, but nothing too devastating for our plans. Let's do it immediately."

Cinder crossed her arms. "We still could have hijacked the broadcast to…"

"What? Deliver a speech questioning the motives of huntsmen and those in power? Cinder, our plan is based on surprise, something which would obviously be ruined if someone decided to come on camera and start laying out their motives. It would only serve to create negativity for a short period of time, but no long-lasting effects. It is unnecessary, and we have already wasted enough time."

Prometheus then pointed his finger in the direction of Beacon academy, ready to launch his opening attack.


Ozpin sat in his office, having just come back from handing the Vytal Trophy to Team RWBY. Most of the citizens had gone back to Vale while the students were heading back to their dorm rooms.

I can still remember Ruby's excited face when she received the trophy. Summer would be proud. Ozpin thought with a smile before his scroll suddenly rung, the call coming from…

"Winter Schnee?" Ozpin spoke in confusion before taking the call.

"Hello?"

"Ozpin! This is Winter Schnee! Where are you right now?!"

Ozpin frowned at the sheer panic in Winter's voice, which meant something had gone terribly wrong.

"In my office? Why, wha…"

"Ozpin! Get out of there right now!" Winter screamed as Ozpin's eyes widened.

What is going on? Ozpin thought before numerous voices came up on the intercom on his desk.

"Ozpin, we've found one of Cinder Fall's associates!" Ironwood's voice.

"Ozpin, Mordred just tried to kill Amber in the vault…" Tristan's voice.

Wait… Ozpin thought before his screen suddenly switched on to reveal amity arena hovering above Beacon tower.

"Why is…?"

"Prometheus is about to attack Beacon!"

"...What?!" Ozpin exclaimed.

"Ozpin, get out of there before he drops Amity Arena!"

He's going to do… Ozpin noticed Amity Arena slowly getting closer towards the top of Beacon Tower.


"What the…? What's going on up there?" Ruby, who'd been walking alongside her team and JNPR who were comforting Pyrrha, suddenly noticed Cardin speak.

Ruby looked up and gasped.

"What's going on up there?!" She yelled.

"Amity arena…is falling?" Weiss spoke in confusion.


In the warship, Prometheus had his finger pointed in the direction of Beacon as he slowly moved his hand down.

It all began when Shirou slipped in the virus into the CCT. The virus, of course, could hack the Vytal broadcast as Dr. Watts had intended it too, but Prometheus felt it could be used for a better purpose.

And so, he put in a part of his consciousness within the virus' programming, allowing him easy access into the CCT.

After that, all that was left was to slip into Amity Arena's systems through the CCT.

Now, Prometheus could control the superstructure at will. It would have been better if Emerald hadn't been caught, but no matter.

And with that…

"Let the Fall of Beacon Commence."


Ozpin crashed through his window, jumping out of the tower to shapeshift into a Falcon. Ozpin sped away from the tower and landed on top of one of the dorm buildings.

What he looked back upon was something he'd never imagined would happen within a 100 years…"

Students screamed as Ozpin looked in horror.

"...By the gods." Were the words that slipped out of his mouth as Amity arena crashed into Beacon tower.


A/N: Holy shit, this was a long chapter! When I wrote a 4000 word chapter for the attack on Prometheus' base, I'd thought, 'Hey, maybe this won't be so long', and then I write chapters reaching almost 10000 words. Heck, I think this chapter might even reach it with all my post-chapter stuff.

But anyways, Tristan vs Mordred and Pyrrha vs Yang. Someone once described the Camelot singularity as the 'Star Wars of FGO', and I definitely agree. With all the strained relationships that were created among the Knights of Arthurian legends, it's just way too easy to give them a good reason to fight. Besides, after having Tristan get knocked down with poison constantly and shoot arrows, I wanted him to show off his swordsmanship against a fellow Round Table Knight.

As for Yang vs Pyrrha, hear me out. I know it's pretty shocking that Yang managed to beat Pyrrha, so let me just list down the circumstances of this battle. In this fight:

1. Yang had almost a year of practice in sparring against Pyrrha, so she was a lot more familiar with Pyrrha's moves than others.

2. I've written that Yang had planned for days on how she was going to beat Pyrrha, thinking of all the counters she could do to the flaws in Pyrrha's combat.

3. Pyrrha was at disadvantage environment-wise, because on the stage, the only things Pyrrha could control with her semblance are her weapons and Yang's gauntlets.

4. Pyrrha also did not do the same level of strategising as Yang.

5. Pyrrha used her semblance very late, meaning she was open to getting beaten up by Yang.

6. Emerald was messing with Pyrrha's head the whole time, which of course put her at a disadvantage.

Even then, I had Pyrrha almost push Yang to the point of defeat, so its not like it was a one-sided battle, which would definitely have been really contradictory to the lore power levels.

Anyways, Fall of Beacon begins next chapter, where we'll be getting more diverse species of grimm.

Hope you guys enjoyed and Constructive Criticism is appreciated!


Warning, Shirou Rant coming up (Because I need to blow off some steam):

So, I went through Shirou's fate lore, because this chapter was very important in terms of Shirou's character development and redemption, and I noticed that I changed Shirou's story after he died in the Shimabara rebellion.

In Fate, Shirou died racked with guilt over his failure to do fulfill the work he'd been given by God, and when he came back as a servant, he was filled with loathing for how humanity seemed to accept what he perceived as 'evil', before he eventually realised he was going down the same path and decided to cast away his hatred, attempting to reject his human flaws so that he could 'rescue' humanity from evil through salvation. Hence, he tried to force his vision of 'perfection' onto humanity, which of course was not accepted because everybody has their own thoughts about things.

Now how I wrote Shirou was - Shirou was not only a devout christian, but he'd always been a compassionate boy who wanted his people to practice their faith in peace and even co-exist peacefully with other religions. He was also racked with guilt after his failure, except he now found himself in a completely different world where all the people he cared for were gone, yet there were still people who faced oppression. He thus sought to save them as well from oppression after learning of the lives of huntsmen, but found himself questioning the morality of his actions because of how much it involved tearing down the lives of those people. Soon, he realised that whatever he was doing was not saving them, but simply destroying them with the very oppressive forces he wanted to save them from, all for the sake of making their species better instead of the individuals themselves. He realised he had to save the people who were living their lives, not the abstract people who would come at the cost of the living, and chose to abandon his earlier path.

Now, just to get this out of the way, I love Shirou's backstory. Heck, most of the characters I 'dislike' are either because they're written to be like that and the writers did a good job, or their stories rarely interest me. Rarely do I ever dislike characters because of bad writing. Shirou falls under the second category. Shirou would be a top character in my list if not for the fact that his character clashed with my perception of his status as a Messiah.

See, after watching the movie 'Prince of Egypt', I fell in love with the idea of the Messiahs not devolving into mouthpieces for God or becoming delusional megalomaniacs who see themselves above the rest of humanity and thus have the right to decide its future (Which is what Fate Shirou became), and behaving like normal people forced into a grand task that they found difficult to accomplish. Moses sobbing in the aftermath of the 10 Plagues of Egypt pretty much cemented in my mind 'A religious figure who remains humble and contented with their humanity'.

So, if Shirou had been anything other than a Prophet-like figure, I would have loved him. But because he is, I lost interest as soon as I realized what his end goal was as a result of his backstory.

Anyways, it seems I made a big miscalculation in the depiction of Amakusa Shirou in accordance with his fate lore, but I don't regret it. I just wanted Shirou to get a redemption arc and be a compassionate man who found his peace through his struggle against humanity's evils, and I'm satisfied with what I've done for Shirou.


Response to Reviews:

Zoukuyuujinchou: Yeah, It always feels nice to see your reviews whenever I post a chapter.