Chapter-58
Ana, Sigurd
Ana darted from left to right as she dodged Ruby's bullets, which she shot from her weapon Crescent Rose.
Since the scythe was a difficult weapon to use against people, Ana had been assigned to help Ruby practice her skills with her scythe against human opponents. And according to her 'godmother' Maria, also help serve as a sparring partner to help Ruby's powers grow.
Ana was reluctant. She already did not like interacting with people, and after all the chaos she'd seen in Vacuo in the past year she'd worked for Headmaster Theodore, she was even more wary of doing much interaction. She was contented with staying with a fellow goddess Quetzalcoatl, who'd declared herself as Ana's 'Big sister' for some reason, and the human Moses, who was the only one she'd grown used to, although that was because he was less a human and more a spirit.
So, Ana was not happy when Theodore had her be the sparring partner of one of the young huntresses. But she couldn't really refuse, so…there she found herself.
Ana dodged another bullet before she noticed Ruby dash towards her extremely quickly in her petal form, and jumped in the air as Ruby's scythe came swinging towards her.
Ana threw her chains to wrap around Crescent Rose and tugged, yanking it up as Ruby looked up.
Before Ana could pull her in, Ruby turned into her petal form and slipped out of the chains, as Ana gave an annoyed grunt before Ruby materialised in the air, shooting bullets at her.
Ana twirled her scythe to block the bullets as she fell down, before twisting to land on her feet and run towards Ruby.
Ruby dashed down, shifting Crescent Rose into a war scythe and stabbing down at Ana.
Ana dashed away from attack and came up behind Ruby with her scythe raised, but Ruby
Had her scythe back and pressed the trigger, firing a blank whose blast staggered Ana and launched Ruby away from her.
As soon as her momentum slowed, Ruby quickly turned her scythe back and fired again, propelling herself back towards Ana for another strike.
Ana ducked at the last moment as Ruby sailed over her before wrapping her chains around her feet and tugging her down.
Ruby fell down, but again escaped before Ana could slash at her, and continued swinging her scythe in its war scythe form, forcing Ana back with its superior range.
Ana had suggested that Ruby use Crescent Rose like a war scythe more, since it made hitting the opponent much more likely. And truth be told, if Ana wasn't a servant, she would have honestly struggled with Ruby, because the girl was picking up fast and was slowly getting used to her extremely quick attacks. Even though Ana doubted Ruby could still hold up against the full speed of a powerful servant, right now she still could hold her ground against the weaker ones.
The ground suddenly trembled as Quetzalcoatl suplexed Yang to the ground for the fourth time, laughing as Yang groaned before getting up to continue engaging the goddess in a fist fight.
The trembling caught both Ana and Ruby off-guard, and disbalanced. Ana tried to capitalize on this and hit Ruby like she did in their last spar, but Ruby had learnt her mistake and managed to quickly bring up Crescent Rose and bat away Ana's scythe.
Ana tried to weave around Ruby's guard, but Ruby managed to bring up Crescent Rose every time, the sound of metal grinding as Ruby's and Ana's scythes slid against each other in an attempt to get past each other's guard…
…Before Ana threw her chains, expecting Ruby to get close to her in her petal form.
Ruby did so, and Ana quickly swung her scythe to strike. But Ruby suddenly split into three more masses of petals, reforming above her and shooting down at Ana.
Ana twirled her scythe to block the bullets before Ruby fired her scythe to propel herself towards Ana.
Ana ducked as Ruby again went past her and Ana went up to attack.
But…Ruby's leg suddenly shot out, glowing with white light.
"…!" Ana immediately brought up her scythe to block, but when the kick came, Ana was knocked off her feet, launching backwards and she fell sliding across the sand with her back on the ground.
So that's the power of silver energy. I admit…that kick was surprisingly strong. Ana thought as she got up.
"Great job, Rosebud!" Maria cheered from the stands as Ruby got up. "Keep practicing and kick that ghost's butt!"
Ana scowled at Maria, but ignored the comment before continuing her spar with Ruby, both of them getting into a dance as they spun their scythes, metal clanging as their scythes bounced off of each other on impact.
Every once in a while, Ruby would attempt to kick at Ana with her silver energy kicks, which Ana would of course avoid seeing how hard the first one had hit her.
Even though Ana was stronger and faster, Ruby had a really useful semblance that allowed her to escape from Ana's attempts to pin her down, while dodging and even blocking Ruby's enhanced kicks where starting to take their toll.
Not to mention this was happening in the background of Quetzalcoatl's and Yang's spar, which was the ground trembling from Yang's punches and Quetzalcoatl's suplexes, as well as the air getting hot from Yang using her fire powers as the Fall Maiden as well as Quetzalcoatl using her solar authority, which disrupted Ana's spar multiple times as she and Ruby were forced to dodge the destructive attacks of their 'big sisters'.
At the end of their fight, Ana prevailed as one last strike shattered Ruby's aura and ended their spar.
"Phew, Sigurd wasn't lying when he said you guys are much faster now!" Ruby spoke panting as Ana nodded.
"…"
"Good spar, by the way."
"…"
"No words?"
Ana shook her head and went to walk off. She didn't need to talk too much to the huntress…
…Until Ruby suddenly appeared in front of her.
"Come on, Ana, it's rude not to do that?" She asked. "Please?"
Ana shook her head.
"…Good Spar." She spoke coldly before moving past Ruby, who frowned. Ana didn't pay heed and walked to the stands.
Ana remembered the servants from Vale were set to arrive today.
Sigurd Sigmundsson. Robin Hood. Sir Tristan. Ana thought, again feeling uncomfortable at meeting the new servants…
…Especially Sigurd.
The Varangian servant was well known for slaying a 'monster', as so many humans like to put it. And those types of heroes were the ones Ana was the most wary of.
After all, he was also a hero known for killing a 'monster'.
I wonder what this so-called 'dragonslayer' will think of me. Ana thought.
It was a bit silly to be having those thoughts when all of them were on the same side, but Ana still did not feel good working with a slayer of demonic beasts.
Ana then started thinking on what Sigurd could possibly look like.
Maybe piercing eyes that promised nothing but death? Maybe he had long, shaggy hair and was really tall. Ana thought, getting more and more concerned as she started visualizing how Sigurd looked.
At that moment, Theodore entered the arena.
"They're here!" He called out as Ana immediately perked up.
Oh, they're here already?! Ana thought as Ruby grinned.
"Sigurd's here?" She spoke in excitement as Theodore nodded. "He's here with Tristan and Robin."
With that, the vale servants entered.
The first was an orange-haired man in a green cloak with a wooden crossbow attached to his right hand, the second was an armoured knight with a white cape draped around their shoulders wielding a metallic bow with multiple strings…
…And the final was a man who towered over both of them, clad in black armoured with grey metallic spikes jutting out from the shoulders. A purple cape draped around his shoulders ran down his back. On his hips were 4 glowing blue daggers along with a massive glowing blue greatsword on his back.
The man had short spiky grey and purple hair, and his face was covered by a horned mask shaped like a snarling monster with two cold blue lights glowing where his eyes should be.
Ana gulped slightly. This is him. This is Sigurd, the slayer of the dragon Fafnir.
Except for the long hair, Sigurd looked disturbingly identical to how Ana imagined him, and she felt chills down her spine whenever she looked at his mask.
Suddenly, Ana didn't feel like staying in the arena anymore.
She wanted to slip away. Maybe learn more about Sigurd from Moses later.
"Oh no you don't, little sister!" Quetzalcoatl's voice suddenly came in as a powerful arm wrapped around Ana.
"Let go…of me!" Ana hissed as Quetzalcoatl simply grinned.
"That won't do, sister~ Big sister Quez's not going to let you run away from new friends like you did the first time."
Ana flinched, remembering the chase in Vacuo as she had tried to run away from the servants working for Theodore the first time she met them. It was Quetzalcoatl again who had caught her that time.
"F-Fine, just keep me away from him." Ana spoke as Quetzalcoatl looked at Sigurd, who was now talking to Team RWBY.
"Oh! Don't worry. While I doubt Sigurd's actually a nasty person, I'll be there if there's any difficulties."
Quetzalcoatl dragged Ana over with the rest of Theodore's servants as they faced their Valeian Counterparts.
Moses waved to the servants, Nitocris gave a nod, Quetz gave a bright smile and Jack simply clung to her 'mother', Weiss, who felt a little uncomfortable but decided to keep Jack clinging on to her.
"Welcome to Vacuo." Moses spoke with a smile as Robin nodded back.
"Yeah, we already got our welcome by the big man himself." Robin grumbled as Theodore sighed.
"Honestly, I can see why Ozpin says you guys are trouble magnets. Not even an hour into our city, and you managed to get into a shootout with local gang members and Tezcatlipoca himself. I think that record's only been beaten by Quetzalcoatl over here." He spoke as Sigurd looked over to Quetz.
"Quetzalcoatl? As in…Tezcatlipoca's sibling?" He spoke as Quetz sighed with a nod.
"Yes. I did seek out a fight with my brother as soon as I entered this kingdom."
"And Ozma help me the both of you were about to really duke it out and blow this kingdom to oblivion. I'm really lucky Tezcatlipoca decided not to do that for some reason."
Sigurd frowned. "Tezcatlipoca almost destroyed Vacuo…and didn't do it?" He asked.
"That is quite strange, considering Prometheus' entire operation." Tristan spoke from the side.
"Yeah, I know. That robot god had spent a year trying to destroy Vale, right?"
Sigurd nodded. "Yes, that is what happened."
"Yeah, that doesn't seem to be Tezcatlipoca's goal…exactly."
"It isn't?" Sigurd spoke.
"No. In the past year, the only thing he's done is simply…grow his network, that's it. Tezcatlipoca's entire plan throughout the year has just been bringing most of Vacuo's underworld under his control, along with acting as a sort of business partner to the Crown's operations."
"The Crown…a Royalist militant organisation, I believe?"
"Yep. Pretty sure Oz gave you the briefing, so I won't waste time on that. I'll take this time to introduce you to the servants working here." Theodore spoke as he began introducing the servants.
Ana continued looking at Sigurd with trepidation, whose head moved as Theodore introduced her companions before coming to her.
"And this is…"
"Lancer." Ana spoke, trying to keep up a stoic expression to hide her nervousness in Sigurd's presence.
Please be satisfied by that and move on. Ana thought frantically, hoping Sigurd wouldn't pay too much heed and simply move on to discussing other matters with Theodore.
Unfortunately for her, Sigurd merely tilted his head.
"Lancer? You don't wish to give your True Name?" He asked as Ana shook her head.
"No." She spoke coldly, again trying to keep up a stoic demeanor.
"Hm, I see…if that's what you want." Sigurd spoke as he went to turn to Theodore, and Ana breathed a sigh of relief…
…Which was when Quetz decided to open her big mouth.
"Come on, Ana! No need to be shy. We're all allies here." Quetz spoke as Robin frowned.
"Well, last time we thought that, we…"
"We are aware of Amakusa Shirou's betrayal. We assure you that all of us here can vouch for each other's innocence." Nitocris spoke, although Ana noticed Ruby give a sad frown at the mention of Amakusa Shirou.
"It is good to hear that, Lady Nitocris, but please…don't refer to Shirou as a traitor. Shirou may have worked for the enemy, but it was because of his warning that we were able to prepare for the Battle of Vale. If Shirou hadn't done so, a lot many people would have died." Tristan spoke up.
Nitocris looked at him, and Ana also noticed a hint of confusion on her face.
"Sir Tristan…have we met before?"
Tristan furrowed his eyebrows. "We obviously have not met in life, considering the chronological gap in our lives. Perhaps we may have met in some past manifestation before. Is there something wrong?"
Nitocris shook her head. "It's nothing major. Simply a sense of familiarity and…wariness."
"I see. I apologise if that is the case. Perhaps our past encounter may not have been a friendly one."
"Yes…I think that might be the case. But whatever has happened is irrelevant. We are right now allies, and I expect there to be utmost cooperation."
"Of course, of course."
"Anyways, you said your name is Ana?" Sigurd spoke before leaning down towards her.
"Hello, Ana. I am Sigurd Sigmundsson." He spoke in a soft but serious voice as Ana freaked out at his close proximity, and shrunk back, completely dropping her façade to reveal her nervousness.
"H-Hello." She spoke, trying not to look at the blue lights on Sigurd's mask's eyes.
Quetz immediately stepped up. "You're making her afraid."
"Oh." Sigurd spoke, his serious voice turning into something more embarrassed.
"I am so sorry. I did not realize I was cutting an imposing appearance." He spoke, before his mask collapsed back to reveal his face, which was very well-defined along with piercing blue eyes looking at her through black-framed glasses.
"Is this fine, Ana?" He asked as Ana continued staring at Sigurd.
He had a handsome face, but Ana knew better than to judge simply based on looks. After all, he had also been a handsome man before…
Ana gulped.
"Think it's not working, Sigurd." Robin pitched in as Sigurd sighed.
"Right, um…" He spoke as an awkward silence stretched between them.
"Come on, Ana…Sigurd's not that scary, I can tell you that!" Ruby also spoke from the side as Ana glanced at her before back at Sigurd.
"Sigurd, do your glass thing!" Robin spoke.
"Right…Ana, do you need me to 'clear' your head?" Sigurd spoke, as Ana suddenly blinked at his shining glasses.
Another award silence stretched, before Yang simply stared at Sigurd dumbfounded.
"Did you just…make a pun?"
"Okay, I just asked you to do that dorky glass shine. You didn't need to slap a terrible joke with it." Robin spoke.
"What's a pun, mommy?" Jack asked Weiss, who simply shook her head.
Ana meanwhile, still continued staring.
"The joke was bad?" Sigurd asked as Robin shook his head.
"Really bad."
"Hm, It seems I need to work on my humour. Forgive me, Ms. Ana. I am not used to making such light-hearted jokes." Sigurd spoke as Ana blinked.
That was…absurd. Ana thought.
But even then, he doesn't really behave like the rugged monster slayer I imagined. I suppose that's alright. She thought.
"It's fine. I am not really comfortable around humans." She spoke.
"Is that so? You are not human?"
Ana silently cursed at herself for the slip-up.
"Yeah. Ana doesn't really like being around humans for some reason. The first time we met…she kept running away from us and almost joined Tezcatlipoca's group."
"You didn't need to mention that." Ana spoke sternly as Theodore raised his hands.
"Right, right. Sorry."
"You almost joined Tezcatlipoca?" Robin asked as Ana nodded hesitantly.
"Don't be so harsh, Robin." Quetzalcoatl spoke. "She didn't feel comfortable joining us at first. But eventually she warmed up and came over…"
"Didn't you, Ana?"
Ana nodded slightly.
"Y-Yes."
No. Ana thought. She may not have been comfortable with Theodore's faction at first, but she almost joined Tezcatlipoca's faction for a different reason.
"But anyways, that's our servants. Now…what do you three have to say for yourself?" Theodore asked, crossing his arms.
"We were helping out an ally." Robin spoke.
"An ally, you say? Why didn't you bring him to us?" Nitocris asked.
"Well, he said he was pretty busy with some work in the northern parts of the desert." Robin spoke up.
"He only came here to deliver us a message." Tristan spoke.
"About the evidence about the MTC's connection to Tezcatlipoca?" Theodore spoke.
"Wait, we have evidence?" Blake asked.
"According to this 'ally'. But it's also sitting in the MTC's hands as of now." Theodore spoke.
"So can't we just steal it?" Blake asked.
"Tezcatlipoca knows that. The dude's got some sort of Caster servant who's been placing some security around the MTC's Vacuan headquarters, led by another ridiculously powerful servant, who may be a Lancer."
"Hm, and do we know the identities of these servants?" Sigurd asked.
"Nope. We only know that one of the servants working for Tezcatlipoca is some guy named Arash."
"Arash? The Persian Archer?" Tristan asked. "Rather strange he would be working towards sowing conflict within this kingdom."
"Yeah, Moses said that from what he knows of Arash, it's pretty weird for him to be working for Tezcatlipoca." Theodore spoke.
"Other than that, we know the servant guarding the MTC's base is Roman." Ana spoke up.
"You do?"
"Yes. He was wearing the typical armour of a Roman soldier." Ana spoke.
Not to mention his spear gave off similar vibes to Moses' staff. Ana thought. But, she wasn't sure if the Roman servant was related to Moses in any way.
"And the caster?" Sigurd asked.
"Nothing on him. Although, you did say that there was someone else with Arash who attacked you?" Theodore asked.
"Indeed. He was one of the servants working for Prometheus back in Vale. In fact, I would consider him the most dangerous out of all the servants we'd faced."
"Is he strong?"
"No. He's not weak, but he's not particularly powerful in terms of combat skill. But what he lacks in strength, he makes up for cunning." Tristan spoke.
Lacks in strength, but very cunning? Huh, that reminds me of him for some reason. Ana thought in curiosity.
"And you know his true name?" Theodore asked.
"We do." Sigurd asked.
"…His true name is Perseus."
Ana spluttered, as her mind grinned to a halt at the mention of his name.
W-WHAT?! She thought in shock, before her hands started trembling in terror.
"H-He's here…?" Ana muttered in a very soft voice.
This can't be happening.
Of all the servants whose name Sigurd had to utter…
It would be his.
It would be that of that accursed son of Zeus who'd come and taken her life.
She will be facing Perseus again.
"O-Oh my goodness…" Ana muttered, trying not to panic further at the sound of Perseus' name.
"Ana…are you alright?" Quetzalcoatl spoke as Ana shakily nodded.
"E-Excuse me…" She spoke before running out of the arena, as the other servants glanced worried glances towards her.
"Is something wrong?" Tristan asked as the Vacuan servants shared knowing looks, recognising the significance of Perseus' name to Ana.
"Well…yes. Let me go to her." Quetzalcoatl spoke before she left as well.
"I assume Ana recognises that name?" Sigurd asked as Moses hesitantly nodded.
"She does. And I believe that was a hint big enough to show you who Ana is." Moses spoke.
Ah, if Ana is who I think it is, it does explain her reaction to me and to Perseus. Sigurd thought.
"Is the kid going to be alright?" Robin asked.
"She will be fine. Out of all of us, she's been the closest to Quetzalcoatl. She'll be able to calm her down." Nitocris spoke.
"Thank goodness. Anyways, Perseus is one of the servants, so…"
"So we know the identities of Perseus and Arash. However, we'll still need to figure out the identities of the rest of the servants." Theodore spoke, before looking at Sigurd.
"You said Oz sent you here to simply stop by Vacuo before leaving for the Meteor and the Jungle around it?"
"He did, but we still have time to do that. If there is something major going on in Vacuo, we can certainly provide help and sort out whatever is going on before we leave for our primary objective."
"Got it. But I doubt Tezcatlipoca's operation is limited to just the kingdom."
"Of course not. I'm certain the Jungle is Tezcatlipoca's doing. But if he is spreading his tentacles through Vacuo, then we should first remove his influence before we move on towards figuring out what he is doing with the meteor as well as the recent tensions of the desert tribes."
"That he is. But anyways, this is Team RWBY's training session?"
"Yep! I just got my butt kicked by Ana!" Ruby spoke up grinning.
"Same here. Quetz suplexed me the entire time." Yang spoke with a groan.
"Jack's surprisingly sneaky." Blake spoke before jumping as Jack had managed to get onto her shoulder before smiling at her.
"You dropped your guard. Hehe." Jack spoke as she jumped off Blake's shoulder.
"And what about you, Weiss?"
"Nitocris helped me with using my glyphs much faster and in different ways." Weiss spoke.
"Your glyphs are very interesting in the sense that they are like summoning circles, and they work depending on your thoughts and intent with the spell you're casting…"
"…Like Runes." Sigurd spoke.
"Or Hieroglyphs, in my case." Nitocris spoke. "I think you should join us and help out with Weiss."
"Weiss herself approached me in helping her learn runic magecraft." Sigurd spoke. "So, I suppose both you and I can continue Weiss' training."
With that, Tristan and Robin left while Sigurd joined the other servants in helping with RWBY's training.
After some time, Quetzalcoatl came back with a much calmer Ana, before they went back to sparring with Ruby and Yang.
Sigurd and Nitocris, on the other hand, took Weiss to the side.
"So, have you memorised all the runes?" Sigurd asked as Weiss nodded.
"I have."
"List them."
"Okay so, Ansuz, Berkana, Kenaz, Dagaz, Ehwaz, Fehu, Gebo, uh…Haglaz, Isa, Inguz, Jera, Laguz, Ma…uh….right, Mannaz, Nauthiz, Othala, Perthro, Raidho, Sowilo, Tiwaz, Uruz, Wunjo, Eihwaz, Algiz."
"Perfect. And you know their meanings?"
Weiss nodded.
"Good. Now, Weiss, how do you use your glyphs?"
"Well…I simply think of what I want my glyphs to do."
"Her glyphs utilise her soul's spiritrons as a medium for channeling dust's mana." Nitocris spoke.
"Yes. I believe that is because those glyphs channel the mana from dust crystals, and then take her own thoughts as verbal triggers to convert that mana into spells."
"Um, and that means?" Weiss asked.
"That is delving into our world's magic, you could say. I'll explain it later." Sigurd spoke. He still needed to know how Myrtenaster worked then, since Weiss also used it in a similar manner as her glyphs.
"But anyways, we're getting distracted. You say you simply think to make your glyph perform their various abilities?"
"Yes. Although I also think of how far the glyph's effects would reach or where the glyph would materialize."
"Ah, then you shouldn't be having too much trouble with the visualising step of the process of casting runes. Very well. Let's begin with a simple elemental spell."
"For the moment, we'll practice inscribing runes on a solid surface, then we'll move onto more abstract spaces for carving runes." Sigurd spoke.
"…Like the air itself." He spoke before inscribing a Haglaz rune in the air that sent a gentle breeze.
"Now, Weiss. I want you to cool the air into a small sphere of water." Sigurd spoke. "You may decide which rune to use."
While I did say it should be easy, I should still take a look. After all, Remnant's humans draw upon a completely different way of drawing Od, that is their souls in the form of a core rather than magical circuits like us."
"Okay." Weiss spoke before kneeling down and drawing the shape of a laguz rune.
However, her finger did not leave a glowing line as nothing happened.
"What?" Weiss spoke in confusion as Sigurd looked at the spot.
"Hm, I thought something like this would happen." Sigurd spoke.
"You can't draw upon your Od because you as a human do not have a circuit system. You use the energy of your souls…"
"What if she used Aura?" Nitocris asked as Sigurd stopped.
"Hm, that could work." He spoke. "Weiss, try using your aura."
Weiss nodded and did the same. Sigurd could spot a glowing white line show up before fizzling out.
Weiss was silent before attempting the same thing, only to be met with failure. Sigurd cast an Ansuz rune to block out the noise of Ruby's and Yang's spars while Weiss focused on getting her rune right.
After another failed attempt, Weiss let out a frustrated grunt.
"Gah!" Weiss grunted, her breathing getting quicker.
"Something wrong?"
"It's draining my aura a bit to do this. And it's annoying I can't get it." Weiss spoke in frustration.
"That is to be expected. Casting your first rune is always a struggle. Casting it the second time will only be marginally easier, so do practice this at your lodgings as well." Sigurd spoke.
"It was hard even for you?" Weiss asked.
"Of course." Sigurd spoke.
"Even when you had the blood of Odin?" Nitocris asked as Sigurd nodded.
"That was the same question I asked Reginn that day." Sigurd spoke.
"SKíTR!" A young Sigurd yelled in rage as his rune fizzled out again.
"Odin's beard, boy." Reginn grumbled as he inspected a ring on his workbench.
"Where did you learn that little nasty thing? One of my usual conversations with a disgruntled client?" He asked as Sigurd flushed.
"N-No!"
"So you did. Little eavesdropper, aren't ya? Well, if you want to be a hero, you better learn to keep that dirty mouth shut. Or do you want me to tell your mother that her sweet, innocent boy's been learning some bad stuff?"
"N-No! Please don't tell mother! I won't say that again!" Sigurd hastily apologized as Reginn chuckled.
"Hard to believe a snowflake like you is a Völsung. By the way, rune fizzled out again?"
Sigurd looked down. "...Yes." He spoke with gritted teeth.
"What's wrong? Pissed off your rune's not working."
"Yes!" Sigurd spoke, throwing up his arms.
"Mother said my family is descended from Odin himself and that I have some of the All-Father's divine power within me. I'm the descendant of Odin, the god who created the runes, and I'm struggling to cast even a single rune."
Reginn barked out a laugh. "Really? That's what's gotten your tunic in stitches?"
Sigurd pouted at him. "Why? What's wrong?"
"Boy, I think you've got it all wrong. Odin didn't MAKE those Runes. The Runes were just discovered by him when he gazed into Yggdrasil's core, before he scooped them out and brought them to the nine realms. Besides, even if he did make them, don't think just because you have Odin's blood means you're some sort of prodigy who can throw out runes without any practice."
Sigurd slumped.
"But I can guarantee you'll learn them much faster than a regular person because of your connection."
Sigurd perked up.
"Really?"
"Yeah. You're right that you being a descendant of Odin does give you some special abilities, but not to the extent of mastering the Runes immediately. You just have to practice, although I'm pretty sure once you get your first rune right, learning the rest won't even take you a month."
Sigurd grinned.
"But don't let what I said get to your head, boy." Reginn called out.
"Being related to a god isn't always a great thing. It has as many problems as it has benefits."
It was hard to believe that he'd been so energetic as a young boy, although Sigurd could chalk up Reginn's harsh training and entering politics at a young age contributing to his slow descent towards a more serious persona.
Now, I don't think I would be comfortable being the boisterous boy I once was. Sigurd thought as Weiss kept practicing her rune.
Looking at Weiss and remembering his childhood memory, Sigurd also remembered Reginn's words that day.
"Being related to a god isn't always a great thing." Sigurd muttered.
If only he'd realized that lesson earlier…
Speaking of realization and knowledge…
As time passed, Sigurd was slowly getting tempted to go to Vale and use the Relic of Choice. He found himself getting slowly restless.
Restless that he wasn't using the Relic of Choice.
Because I need to know… Sigurd thought.
…I need to know my future in this coming conflict.
A/N: If you're wondering what took me so long to get this chapter out, blame it on FGO. I'd finally managed to get back to the point in the storyline I was at on my old account, and you know how many hours you can spend playing FGO without skipping cutscenes. Especially when playing through LB6.
I'll post my thoughts on LB6 once I've finished playing through it, although I can give my thoughts on Ordeal Call in this A/N.
Anyways, I'll just talk briefly about the chapter because there are a lot more stuff I need to talk about.
So, Ana VS Ruby. First of all, yes, I have written Ruby actually putting up a fight against a servant (Even though we all can agree that no RWBY character except for maybe Ozma, Salem and the Brother Gods can take down servants), but I just want to say that I will be working towards balancing out power levels. Plus, FGO's sort of slightly trivialized servants because clearly you can't really have a storyline if the servants are the 'superhuman beings who other creatures cannot even touch' type of stuff that FSN did. Also, I have written that Team RWBY had already started training for being able to defend against servants during the Vale Arc, so I just wanted to slowly raise Ruby power levels to show she's getting stronger. It's still a long way before Ruby can actually pose a serious threat to a servant, but right now I'm just teasing that potential in this little spar.
Not much focus on Yang and Quetzalcoatl because this chapter is focussed on Ana and Sigurd. And as for servants meeting, I think Ana would probably be a little wary of the 'heroes' who became famous by slaying demonic beasts. After all, she herself was treated as a 'demonic beast' slain by Perseus. And also her little panic attack on hearing Perseus' name, although if I see it in terms of character, I think Ana's the only version of Medusa that would actually be scared of Perseus.
Saber Medusa...well, some people are saying she might not actually be Medusa and just Athena hijacking her body (Which to be fair, makes for interesting ideas I'll incorporate in the future).
Rider Medusa and Gorgon I'm pretty sure would just kill him on sight.
And, yeah. Other than that, Ana will be sort of the servant protagonist for the Vacuo Arc like Sigurd was for the Vale Arc. Sigurd's still the servant protagonist overall.
And lastly, Weiss' magecraft training. It was so difficult trying to explain Weiss' semblance with Nasuverse terminology while at the same time not making her semblance basically 'magic' as defined by RWBY lore. So, yeah. The explanation might be a little bullshit in my opinion, but it's the best I could come up with.
And the rune part is sort of inspired by Mundatorem's 'Demon of Fodlan', although i'm still peeved that Ansuz is being used as the fire rune in that fanfic as well. But well, I don't want to talk further without descending into nerdy ramblings about Norse mythology.
The flashback sequence is basically me finally figuring out a proper character arc for Sigurd. I spent so much time thinking of RWBY's character arcs while writing the chapters of the Vale storyline, I realized how little planning I'd done for Sigurd. That's thankfully not the case anymore, because I have a better idea now how to write Sigurd's flaws and the consequences those flaws will have on the story.
Now that I've taken a bit of a break from LB6, I'll focus more on writing.
Hope you guys enjoyed and constructive criticism is appreciated!
Foot Notes:
Skitr: It means 'shit'. Nothing else to say about that.
Thoughts on Ordeal Call 1:
Ah, yes. Ordeal Call's first arc, which people have been calling the 'Real LB4'. Honestly, I sort of agree with that, because there were way more characters from Hindu mythology to make for diverse arcs than the usual 'Arjuna VS Karna'. I already don't like how it was handled in the Fifth Singularity, and I was deeply disappointed by LB4 for AGAIN falling upon it. But even then, as an Indian kid who's grown up on consuming the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, I still have my reservations
Duryodhana: Yay, our loving asshole Kuru prince is now in Fate. Man, I didn't appreciate the complexity of Duryodhana's character in Mahabharata as a kid. Even then, still don't know why he's shit scared of the Pandavas considering the number of times he's laughed and mocked them in their faces even when they could easily crush his skull. As for his skills...WHY ISN'T THERE AN INVINCIBLE SKILL FOR HIM, FATE?! I don't get how Duryodhana, the man who basically became the Indian Achilles, didn't get an invincible skill as a servant. Other than that, I'm fine with his design.
Bhima: And here's the second Pandava brother. It's weird that even with how he's been presented, I think fate couldn't capture just how much of a monster Bhima was in terms of strength and durability. This is the guy who fell from a cliff as an infant and emerged unscathed while crushing the rocks underneath him, and has the strength to carry upto 90,000,000 kilograms (Based on math and statements from Mahabharata). But it's good.
I do wonder what that snake on his weapon is on the final ascension. I mean, I know Bhima did once go to the Naga (Serpent) kingdom as a child where he became immune to poison and got his infamous strength by drinking Rasakunda, but I don't really remember any specific Naga being connected to him other than Vasuki (The Naga king who gave him Rasakunda) and Nahusha (A former human turned into a naga who almost killed Bhima by draining his life force. Read up on Nahusha, because this dude's story is a crazy tale of its own.)
Durga: It was already awkward as a Hindu to see Durga be depicted in a slightly sexualised manner. It gets even more awkward as a Bengali Hindu, because Durga is our Patron Goddess. I did not think that the goddess who I've been worshipping since I was 2 years old would one day shown wearing a really revealing dress. But eh, this is Fate. Getting offended about it would just be a waste of time. Whatever clothes she's wearing, I'm just happy my patron goddess is in Fate. Although I'm disappointed she doesn't have her signature weapon (the Trishul), while Parvati has it.
Kali: And then there's Kali. Unlike Durga, her not wearing much clothing isn't weird because we Indians pretty much depict her in the same way. And looking at her look, her intro and what she's done...
...I think Fate's Kali is tame compared to the mythological one. Mythological Kali just goes hardcore. She wears skulls as necklaces, arms as skirts, and carries a bowl of blood as well as the decapitated head of a demon in her arms. And even then, she's considered the tame one when compared to Chamunda. If Kali is Durga's Alter Ego, Chamunda is Kali's Alter Ego and holy shit, if Chamunda had been the final boss, I think I would have shit myself because of how terrifying she is in Hindu Lore. So, yeah. If you all think Kali is scary as the Alter Ego of Durga, Kali's own alter egos are even worse.
Heck, in Bengal, we worship a form of Kali who basically cut off her own head and drinks the blood gushing out of her own neck (She's called Chhinamastha, by the way).
Anyways, really like the first chapter so far both as a fate fan and a Hindu. Let's see what TYPE-MOON has in store in the future.
The Story of my Insane FGO luck:
Guys, I think I sold my soul to the Devil without knowing it.
Because there's no way to explain my Gacha situation as of now.
I am an F2P player on the NA server, because I do honestly consider FGO's gacha system and just the gacha system in general to be an even more pointless form of gambling. So, I usually don't have a lot of SQ for the banners. So, of course, I have the risk of missing out on servants. Thankfully, playing through the story helps me gather my SQ for the banners, and I learnt my lesson from using SQ on the x1 summon.
I first pulled on the Mordred banner and got her after a decent amount of pulls, before struggling to get Sigurd on his banner. I think I got Sigurd on the day before his banner expired. So, after that, I didn't have much hope for the LB6 servants.
That was before the insane luck got in.
First was Orion. I knew I should save for the LB6 servants, but considering I really wanted to get Orion, I decided to try my luck, even though I was feeling pretty down after it took me so much time to get Sigurd. I thought 'Orion will probably take a lot of time'...Before he showed up on my screen and I just went WTF?! because that was the first time I'd pulled an SSR on the first try. Right now, Orion is sitting at level 92 as my third best servant after Sigurd at level 96.
Next was Morgan. Again, I was pretty scared I wouldn't get her because I'd thought she'd be hard to get, before just like Orion, Morgan showed up on my screen, with Tam Lin as a bonus. At this point, I thought 'Well, there goes a year's worth of FGO luck for me. Right now, Morgan is sitting at the top as my best servant at level 100.
After that, I thought I won't get Castoria, because I didn't get her on her banner in my old account. I thought 'Eh, if I didn't get Castoria before, I probably won't get her this time too. Not after I pulled Orion and Morgan on the first pull'. And at first, when I saw Nitocris pop up, I went 'Yeah, looks like Castoria's not coming. Got Nitocris though, that's at least a good Caster servant I can level up to...HOLY SHIT' because right after Nitocris, Castoria came out of nowhere. After that, I pretty much forgot about Nitocris, and leveled Castoria straight to level 92.
And we come to the most recent one, Melusine. THIS was the most insane one for me. Before I did the first pull, my finger stopped above the summon button because I thought 'After getting SSRs on the first try three times in a row, there is no way I'm getting Melusine now. Maybe I'll get Percival' before I pressed. And lo and behold, even after my already insane streak, guess who popped up on the first pull? The worst part is that Melusine didn't just come up on the first pull, she was the FIRST FUCKING CARD on that pull.
After that, I am convinced that something is wrong, because my streak lasting this long can only be chalked to demonic luck I received by secretly selling my soul to the devil.
There is no other way to explain my batshit insane luck that's been going on for so long. If I get the rest of the LB 6 servants at this point, I'll fucking publish an LB6 fanfic. I'm not joking I am actually going to do it.
Response to Reviews:
Pelican117: Yeah, I know introducing evil servants would be a great way for RWBY to delve into the grey morals of servants, but I still need to think of some who would fit well into the story. And I gotcha. Yeah, Mordred's a fan favourite because of Apocrypha. Not that that's ever going to redeem her in my eyes, after having read Historia Regum Britanniae by Geoffrey Monmouth.
Also, I'm not going to discuss anything about the Nomad in the A/N section, so I won't be writing my thoughts regarding your theory.
Toyomasu: Again, I won't be discussing about the Nomad in the A/N section, so I sadly cannot share my thoughts regarding your theory.
Also, gods damn it. After I asked the question, I started jogging my own memories and remembered that both Grimm Stay Night and Fate Zero have Kiritsigu working for Salem. I was hoping those wouldn't be the two fanfics you were referring to.
