Ok uh, I'm going to switch up the formula. Instead of there being an 'outer zone' and 'inner zone' I'm just going to merge the two. The entire Vacuan quarter is the 'inner zone' for this chapter. Anyways, remember what I said about not liking the Mistral chapter? That goes doubly so for this one.

Also, this one's a bit shorter than the others, hope you don't mind.


"So, why can you turn into a crow? Are you like, a crow spirit or something? Wouldn't be the first time I met someone like that." Jaune pointed to his hip, where the magical deck of cards rested.

"I think he took the phrase, 'eat crow' a little too seriously while in a wizard's shop."

"No, no, I got it. He found a magical fur suit, or would it be feather suit? Eh, feather suit, and then, after he put it on, he became a real crow! Better yet, he's a crow that became a real boy!"

"Or, while drunk, he accidentally offended the animal god and was cursed to be able to turn into a crow!"

"Would it be a curse though? I mean, it seems voluntary, so, not really seeing any downsides."

"Hmmm, I suppose you have a point."

"Ok, har-de-fucking-har, you got me, laugh it up chumps." Winter and Jaune quickly descended into laughter as Qrow, who had swiftly recovered from eating pavement, stared at the two of them. "Just leave it alone, I can turn into a crow, I was not born with the ability, that's all I'm saying. Think of it like a second, way more useful semblance."

"It is more versatile and controllable than 'misfortune,' I suppose."

"And way less vague! I mean, what does 'bad luck' really mean? At least with turning into a crow, you know what you can do. Bad luck can mean anything from accidentally cutting yourself to accidentally setting off a bomb! Is it quantifiable?"

"Well, there is the field of chaos theory, but I wasn't educated in i-"

"Fuck both of you." Qrow actually bore a smirk at his two companions, despite what he said implying otherwise. "My shitty semblance just nudges the double sided pendulum enough so that it goes to a worse outcome than what normally would've happened." Winter and Jaune stared at him in silence. "What? Did you think I just shrugged and accepted my semblance!? Hell no! The second I got a scroll I began research on luck, chaos, and all that so I could figure out how it works and how I can make it stop. Unfortunately, pun intended, I can't. All I can do is roll with the punches and hopefully stick around my enemies long enough so they get hit."

"Wow. Ok then." Jaune sucked in a heavy breath through his teeth and let out an equally long sigh. "Welp, I guess we're heading to the Vacuan quarter next?"

"Yep. Map?" Jaune pulled it out. "Looks like the Menagerie exhibit is also in it, we can stop by to check if there's anything there. And, likely, there will be. Anyways, passing through Vacuo was pretty painful cause of the sandstorms."

"Sand in your beak?"

"This is why I kept it a secret from my family, way too many puns. You cannot believe the amount of jokes my teammates made over it. It took a week for Summer to stop chucking birdfeed at me. Took another week to get her to stop chucking birdfeed at Ray. And it took a whole month for Tai to run out of bird puns." Qrow rolled his eyes at the fond memory. "I imagine it'll be even worse with my niece."

"I doubt her sense of humor could be any worse than yours." Jaune rolled his eyes and Winter and Qrow bickered a bit over his 'jokes.' He looked up and surveyed their surroundings. The Mistralian quarter of the Vytal Memorial grounds was actually entirely cleared, the jungle seemingly vanishing into thin air. The canyon surrounding the tea house was also filled, as if it never existed in the first place. It was a bit odd, seeing the place normal once more after getting used to a harsh and hostile jungle, but it was a welcome change.

Checking the map, Jaune guessed that the core in the Vacuan quarter would be the recreation of the oasis fountain in the kingdom proper's wall. From what Jaune remembered from history class (admittedly, not too much) the Vacuan royals had hopped into the war after a series of lefter exchanged between Vale's Warrior King Ozymandias and the then Sultan Saladin. Though, mid-way through the war the Sultan was deposed by Mantle and Mistral backed rebels, who then installed a council and proceeded to immediately turn on their benefactors.

Truly, history was quite the messy business.

"Hmmmm, did you already see the Vacuan part? Cause I couldn't get a good look from the sky, sandstorm and all." Winter shook her head.

"No, we reasoned that venturing into the sandstorm was too substantial of a risk. As was the thick jungle of the Mistralian quarter and the heavily armored enemies in the Valean quarter. I supposed that, being trained specialists for operations in Atlas, we'd be able to handle the cold of the Atlas sector."

"And you got your asses kicked."

"We went unprepared. We were in the thick of the sector before my partner's aura shattered and Jaune found us."

"Yea, yea. Can't really fault your logic though. If I'm being honest, the Atlesian part was my first choice as well, less air defenses, it was just that it was freezing. I mean, Mistral got those tengus, Vale has ballistae, and Vacuo has a constant sandstorm."

"Speaking of, are we heading there after we rest? The sun's setting." They looked up to see that, indeed, while they fought with the Emperor Feilong, the sun had begun to fall and dusk had been setting in.

"Yea, let's get some sleep. That fight tuckered me out."


Vacuo was sandy. It was quite the obvious statement, but Jaune felt the need to restate it in his mind. He really shouldn't have needed to. As Vale was synonymous with its grassy fields, Atlas with its snow, Mistral with its jungle, Vacuo was known primarily for its sand. Well, that and members of every other kingdom deriding it for being a state fractured into fifty hundred different parts. Then again, Vale would be mocked for its corruption, Atlas for its dogma, and Mistral for its collective ego and deep-rooted criminal syndicates.

But when Jaune thought sandy, he thought something like the beach. He thought it'd be bearable.

The Vacuan quarter was about as hot as one expected a dessert to be. To be specific, it was hot enough for Jaune to go topless (carrying his bundled up hoodie and shirt in his armor), Qrow to unbutton his shirt, and Winter to pad her clothes with ice dust (she didn't have enough to go around).

"Hey, you wanna know something funny? Vacuan robes are really thick and heavy, but on the inside, they're typically lined with ice dust. And given the fact that Vacuo has the highest rate of people with unlocked aura." Qrow trailed off as he desperately sucked on his flask.

Turns out, the sandstorms came around only so often, and they were in the 'calm' period. Jaune wasn't sure if that was better or worse. On one hand, the sandstorm would mean it'd be significantly cooler and he could wear his armor without drowning in sweat (also to protect him from the sand), but on the other hand, the sandstorm would effectively blind all of them, opening them up to attack from virtually anything or anyone.

"I wouldn't say that's funny. More infuriating than anything." Winter was irritated. While her clothes were cooled with the ice dust she'd spread, her forehead and face in general was sweating more than enough for her entire body. She had to remove her (bloodstained) cravat in order to dab the sweat from her neck, face, nape, and edges of her hair.

"Yea. Honestly, I'm more pissed off that nothing's attacked us yet." Indeed, the Vacuan sector had been rather peaceful so far. The buildings were half buried in sand, rubble occasionally raising high enough to poke out, but their vision was still blocked by a variety of buildings. Regardless of that, they hadn't encountered anything so far.

Emphasis on so far.

With the beating of war drums, war goliaths with marauding mourners on them, wielding scimitars, bows, and early firearms. A small army of armored and robed Vacuan forces emerged from the sands.

"Hmmm, I say we run."

"Agreed."

And so, they did. They immediately began running. And just as they settled on that plan of action, the storm began. Their visions were impaired, Jaune had to scramble to put his armor back on or else he'd be ripped to shreds by the sand carried by the high winds. Jaune wasn't sure if they were going to split up or not, but he couldn't hear, see, or feel his companions anywhere. What he could hear were the muffled sounds of gunfire and what he could feel was the occasional burning prick of an arrow stabbing into his side. So, with little hesitation, he bolted away from where the pain was coming from.

He rounded a corner and jumped through a window, entering a room half-flooded with sand but clear of the storm. It wouldn't give up though and Jaune was never comfortable with just sitting around and waiting. So he scrounged around the tight chamber he found himself in and located a door. With a bit of pushing, he managed to open it and crawl through in order to make it to the other side of the building. There was no telling if his attackers were going to crawl through the window, so it wasn't really safe staying there.

Using a flashlight he bought, he began to crawl through the dark and hollow building, with only the muffled sounds of the sandstorm outside there to keep him company.

It used to be an apartment building, he could see. Walls were torn, skeletons lay about, and homes were flipped upside down. He must've been crawling for a while, it felt. The sound of the storm gave way to the sounds of constant gunfire, constant screaming, the feeling of the earth shaking and bits of sand dropping from the roof. The room felt smaller. Jaune's breathing grew ragged. The torch's light seemed abysmal. But he had to keep moving, something was behind him. Something was coming. The tunnel was collapsing, he was sure of it. He could hear the sound of the storm growing.

Bloodstained sand began falling.

But Jaune kept on moving, fear of whatever was behind him overpowering the desire to crawl up and wait it out. He had to move, he needed to move.

And soon enough, he found relief. Another semi-open room, not too filled with sand. It had a vent leading outside, letting Jaune breath freely once more. His heart wasn't beating as fast, nothing came out to fight him.

But he could never know, the sand seemingly had eyes.

"God, I am growing paranoid." Jaune sighed and moved to the door. It had a flap for mail, so he looked through it only for him to promptly get sand chucked in his eyes. It was from the sandstorm, so at least he knew that it was still going on. Though, that knowledge was a bit pricey, considering how painful hot sand was. After a few moments of just blinking to get all of the sand out and letting the pain wear off, he wondered what he was going to do. He couldn't go out, the storm would bury him if hidden enemies didn't do that first. But he really didn't have anything else on him. Well, he did. So Jaune, ignoring his instincts, summoned darling to pass the time.

"Hello Jaune!" With a flash, Darling emerged from the deck of cards. He took a different form this time, a masculine one. His hair was still short and like a field of clovers, but their suit wasn't filled with curves that made models jealous. The card-lined suit fit well on his now slim figure. Darling looked like a dashing young man in their prime, Jaune even felt a tad attracted to it, though he could say with confidence he liked Darling's female form better. "How is my favorite gambler? Well, besides that dusty old crow, but he's more amusing than anything." Jaune rolled his eyes at Darling's lighthearted speak.

"New form?"

"Yep. Landed on heads, decided to do something new. Anyways, it seems like we're in for quite the storm." Silence reigned for a few moments as Darling simply watched as Jaune made himself comfortable in the sand. "I take it you're not doing well, cooped up?"

"It's bothering me. I don't like being trapped. But we can't go out for a while."

"You could always brave the storm."

"And do what? Go to another building?"

"I suppose that's a fair point. But what shall we do to pass the time, oh taker of chances?" Jaune's leg was itching, hopping up and down in anticipation.

"Could you tell me about your past? What was your home like? Were you even born?" Darling chuckled at the questions.

"My, so forward today. I suppose I shall grant you a free pass this time on knowledge. It doesn't seem like you're in a mood for games." Honestly, he would've accepted a game or two, but he wasn't exactly going to stop Darling from giving him a freebie. "Now, where shall I begin? Oh yes, my parents were two. Now, my mother, or was it father? Regardless, they were Kaos. As the name implies, they were the heralds of change, the mere existence of contrast. Their spouse was Unity, the very opposite of Kaos. And together I was one of their first children, the flag bearer of luck. Whether I bring a deadly plague or the fairest harvest was up to the whims of fate as I walked the lands."

Darling looked almost wistful as he smiled, remembering the past.

"Those were the days. You know, the gods always reckoned the time of their direct power was a golden age. It was, but not for the reasons they'd like to think. It was a golden age of chaos. The gods ruled supreme, but it wasn't like all was well. Bandits looted, wars were fought, and spirits only fanned the flames. I remember, when I was but a young maiden wandering the roads, seeing a flame nymph burn down a house where two generals were having a peace meeting. I simply sat there, watching as the armies of the two forces began slaughtering each other." And Jaune was reminded once more that Darling was a deity, one who had existed for millenia and had a different view on the worth of human life. But, whether Jaune liked it or not, he had grown fond of the spirit. Their carefree attitude, their playfulness. It was all so familiar, but never too comfortable. His smirks always carried an edge. Jaune was sure Darling wouldn't hesitate to cast him aside the moment he stopped being entertaining. Then again, they said as much.

"Was it better than now?"

"Oh yes! By leaps and bounds, it was. Most spirits and artifacts were found and mauled by the Grimm. Some still remain, like me, but most are long gone to greener pastures not forsaken by their deities. But I find that these desperate lands have greater prospects for entertainment than other worlds. I'm also bound here, cards and all. Plus, the Grimm get so dull after a while. I once held a twelve week game between me, an ocean nymph, an ancient mummy, and Kueta the Wise! The Grimm are so boorish, but I suppose he was never the creative type." She chuckled a bit to herself at the jab.

"Were there heroes back then?"

"Are there heroes now? In an age so desperate? Where walls have as much of a chance for there to be corpses instead of people?" Jaune wondered a bit. Jaune wasn't a hero. As much as he wanted to be one, he was just an average huntsman. Qrow didn't seem like a hero, nor did Winter. His teacher definitely wasn't one. Thinking of heroes, he traced back to his past, where his father stood tall and strong, seemingly immovable. Was he a hero? No, he said that the profession of heroism was one for fools. But what was a hero?

"I-I don't know." Jaune felt his confidence waver. What was the point in him leaving? Had he helped anyone? Was it all pointless? As he stewed in his thoughts, he felt a warm hand on his cheek. His eyes shifted and he saw Darling, who had closed the gap and was looking directly into his eyes. He seemed concerned for him.

"Now now, I can tell something's on your mind." He sat down, closer to Jaune. Jaune felt a bit warmer, with someone by his side. "I despise the idea of heroes. Heroes win, heroes always triumph. Heroes aren't my thing. You aren't a hero, you've lost, I've seen you lose. Heroes only exist in our minds. Ideals we strive for. But, I find no point in shaming those who strive to become a hero. And you? Your resolve has never wavered. From our very first game, you never compromised yourself. You played and played for the souls of people you didn't know."

"You weren't going to steal them."

"But you didn't know that." She snickered. "You refused to gamble a man's soul for a quicker win. You've gone out of your way to head out here, a dangerous den of destructive creatures, in order to assuage the fears of the citizenry. I find it admirable, how you keep on playing against the odds. And you have a habit of winning against the odds. I'm a gambler at heart and while I do love betting on the fastest horse, I can't help but ponder, what if I bet on the pauper's steed? It's the poor choice, but some people do it anyways. And what I love more than anything is someone willing to take that chance I couldn't. Plus, you have friends out there, this isn't the time to ponder about whether or not your efforts matter." Darling sighed and laid in the sand, fidgeting slightly to fully ingrain himself into it. Jaune sighed, Darling was right, he had to get up. No use sulking. Darling went back into the cards as Jaune's resolve was renewed.

So, adjusting his hoodie in order to act as a mask, he set out into the sandstorm.

And the first thought he had was that it was like a mildly heated room. It wasn't unbearably blisteringly hot like when the skies were clear, it was more passive, like he was boiling in a pot full of sand. He could make out that something was near him. Soon enough, even with his vision cut to a few feet, he could see many people around him, marching with him, seemingly impassive to him. They all marched, onward and onward, marching further and further and further.

Jaune couldn't help but march with them, unsure of where they were going. The mourners were wearing black robes as they walked with conviction. Jaune could've sworn he heard weeping, but the sandstorm was so brutal.

He felt his eyes sting as tears began to come out. He kept on marching. Stopping now would mean being trampled. He was marching with so many. He could make out the brief shape of a war goliath. He could see marauders on skeletal horses. He could see flaming Vacuan soldiers packed in cars with ruined rifles. He could see nomadic tribes of all different beliefs and ethnicity with caravans, marching solemnly in tandem. All the peoples of Vacuo were marching to a single destination.

And the storm cleared, just for a moment. And he could see what everyone was marching towards. It was a statue, many layers. It stood tall, nearly reaching the sky itself. It was golden like the sands of the dessert. It was ornate like the Sultan's palace. It shone as if blessed by the divines. It was a 12 layered statue of the Vacuan people. All the peoples of Vacuo were carved into that statue of gold, all the peoples of Vacuo united in one thing. Religious signs, cultural items, foods, and clothes were all carved in intricate detail. All of it made into a pillar representing the unity of the Vacuan state, one where a million different peoples united in the darkness to make light.

And it was split in half. The people were divided. The state was in chaos. Vacuo's council held no power. It barely held onto authority to the kingdom walls themselves. In the past eighty years, Vacuo had been rocked with many civil wars. Many seceding villages. Many independent states established in the sands. Wars were fought. Tensions were high. But all was kept to a simmer, for despite all the conflicts, the land disputes, the religious disputes, the political disputes, the personal disputes, all still held reverence to the hunters of the Grimm. For they all still were mortal.

But despite the best efforts of Shade, the Vacuan people were still divided. Unsure, pessimistic.

And the people of Vacuo Jaune had marched with were weeping over the fact. Grimm tar was bleeding from the divide in the Vacuan people.

And once more, the storm took them all, whisking them to various locations in the Vacuan quarter. Jaune felt like he wandered forever in the storm, his throat drying, his eyes stinging, and his muscles aching, before he found reprieve from the winds. They cleared briefly for Jaune to find a spring, a fountain. It was the one he thought would be the core, but he was wrong. It was actually a small oasis from the chaos. He bent down and began cupping the water and sipping it.

After what felt like hours of drying up, the water tasted like ambrosia.

"Water? OH HELL YEA!"

"Qrow, I swear to- oh my god he did it." Jaune hoarsely chuckled as Qrow, upon seeing clean water, immediately charged up and dived into the eternally flowing springwater. "Hello Jaune, it's good to know you've made it." Jaune, feeling his funk die down once more as he rejoined his friends, gave a blissful smile to Winter.

"Yea, found the thing we're looking for, by the way."

"I did as well. A giant golden statue?" He nodded. "We were also there. I joined Qrow when we split up and we were lost for a while. It seems the storm has let up for now. I feel as if we're already inside the projection. Like that version of Atlas or the underground palace." Jaune thought for a moment before nodding in agreement.

"Yea, the map's probably useless. But, how do we find the statue again?" Qrow, who was doing backstrokes in the somewhat shallow fountain, spit out some water before pitching in.

"Well, I guess we just wander around until we find it? It's not like we have much of a choice. It's not like there's a road."

"A road. The dessert." Winter thought for a moment before snapping, inspiration had struck. "I got it! Why didn't I think of this before? We travel at night in order to let it cool, as well as to avoid sandstorms. We'll definitely run into hostiles during the night, but it's better than slowly baking." Now that Winter brought the idea up, Jaune felt rather stupid for trekking through the blistering heat at all. Well, the past had past and the future awaited them.

"Alright then. Let's fuel up on water. The fountain's still going, so don't worry about drinking my sweat." Qrow had gotten out of the fountain and was currently trying to wring his clothes.

"Wait, what if you turn into a crow and then shake the water off?"

"Haha-oh, that was a serious suggestion. Uh, hmmmm. Well, my clothes come with me, so, well, I guess that's worth a shot?" Qrow shrugged and turned into his namesake before, in his corvid form, began shaking. Water flicked off of Qrow's feathers and dotted the sands. After a while, Qrow turned back into his human form to find that his clothes were immaculately dry. "Huh, that worked."

Winter nodded, a tad impressed. "That's a rather useful feature. I imagine it makes liver transplants easier." Winter smiled as Qrow rolled his eyes.

"Yea, yea. Well, I suggest we set up camp around here while we wait for the sun to go down." Jaune nodded and leaned against the wall of the fountain, yawning as he slowly drifted to sleep. Qrow, realizing that there really wasn't much camp to set, sat back idly as he let the time pass. Winter would've suggested Jaune and Qrow training to burn some energy, but running in the sandstorm took a lot out of her as well, so she resigned herself to watching.


Jaune thought the way the shattered moon reflected off of the sands was beautiful. The way the pale light softly reflected off of the grains was pleasing. The dessert wasteland the Vacuan quarter had become was actually quite beautiful, in a sense. When it wasn't plagued by sandstorms and the dunes weren't disturbed by marauding mourners, it was peaceful, tranquil even. Leaving the fountain brought them to the dunes once more, with an occasional building or two popping out of the sand in order to remind them that, indeed, this used to be an urban area.

It felt otherworldly. The corpses of ornately dressed titans poked out as well. A giant hand, or a leg, or even the top half of a skull greeted them as they wandered through the wastes. The sand felt endless as they followed the northern star, there weren't many other methods of consistent travelling.

The three of them simply walked northwards, no longer drenched with sweat, but now moving at a comfortable pace towards an uncertain destination.

The moon was large, its light illuminating the entire dessert. They could see the small cracks and craters in it, as well as how some of the pieces spun idly in space as it hung in the sky.

"Huh, what's with the giant corpses?" Jaune poked at one of them. It was an upper body covered head to toe. The only opening was for the face, which was shrouded in shadow due to the night. It clothes were robes covering chainmail, which armored the entire body. It was about the size of a large building, just its finger dwarved Jaune.

"Hmmmm." Qrow was focusing on the chainmail, thinking about it heavily. "This is familiar, I just can't put my finger on it."

"The Reyduman family." Winter looked up to see a Mantlese noble crest of the wolf on the cloth covering the rusty old armor. "They held significant holdings in Vacuo during the colonial era. Though, the house fell in a plot and their holdings became independent states."

"Huh. Oh, isn't that the Nobu clan's symbol?" Qrow looked over to another giant, who was wearing relatively lighter armor that bore a five petal flower. "I think they also had some colonies in Vacuo." And so, it went on and on. A dead giant wearing a wolf pelt and bearing the fang of the Canus Tribe of Solitas, which moved to Vacuo to avoid being attacked, only to die to a man in the dessert. A giant with numerous spears stuck into it, bearing the mark of Celkun, one of the aspiring rulers that died in the Unity Struggle centuries back. And they even found the giant body of Malik the Sunderer, divine emperor of the Vacuan Empire.

"So, are these all the corpses of people or entities who've tried to take control of Vacuo?" Jaune was poking at the ribcage of one, which was torn open by something.

"Yep. Like any country, Vacuo has had its fair share of people trying to win it all. It's just that Vacuo is still in that state." Qrow took a sip from his whiskey, less to get drunk, and more to actually hydrate.

Feeew!

Jaune ducked as an arrow flew by, Harbinger extended, and Winter's saber drew breath as their enemies made themselves known. Archers shrouded with robes of the darkest blue wielding composite bows emerged every so slightly from the shadows, all but one bow having an arrow pulled back. They had scimitars in their scabbards. They stood up on the corpses of the giants and let loose a few more arrows. Qrow and Winter dodged while Jaune used his shield to simply block the projectiles. There were around 10 of them in total. The Assassins pulled their arrows back once more as a few lept to the other bodies in the sand, spreading out. Jaune, this time, rolled to the side as two arrows came from the front and behind while Qrow and Winter quickly sliced the arrows aimed at them in half.

As one of the Assassins near him lept down, Jaune saw his chance and ran towards where they'd land, only to be kicked in the face. His aura shone as he rolled in the sand to see that a horse had risen out of the dunes for the Assassin to land on. In fact, two others had mounted their horses while the seven remaining kept on shooting at the three hunters with arrows.

Winter looked to Qrow, who nodded and turned into his namesake in order to deal with the archers while Winter and Jaune fought the cavalry. They rode in circles around them. Winter stopped trying to charge after the first two times ended with her thrusts being deflected and dodged. Jaune, not having the same mobility, had to deal with the slashes aimed at his head that he'd recieved. He even was directly charged by one of the Grimm horses, though luckily his shield stance allowed him to push the weight back into the sand instead the force crushing his spine.

Qrow was doing mostly fine, the archers had noticed the huntsman going up and had spread out accordingly, but Qrow was rather quick. The archers had shifted their focus onto him, but he was able to simply dodge or deflect the arrows shot at him. Despite it being a ridiculously large weapon, Qrow could spin around Harbinger ridiculously easy. It was a testament to how dense his muscles were for him to be able to appear scrawny while still having the strength of a Beringel.

Ok, basically nothing had the strength of a Beringel. But still!

Winter, on one of the horse charges, had used a glyph in order to make the horse stumble and throw the riding Assassin off. Winters thrust at the spinning mid-air assassin was for naught though, as it spun with its scimitar as it flew and was able to deflect the thrust. Meanwhile Jaune took the opportunity to run up and cleave the horse in half before it could be mounted once more. Before he could gang up on the horseless Assassin, the two others charged at him. He entered calm waters and ducked, rolled, deflected, and outright blocked the small storm of blows that rained upon him and by the time he was given a reprieve from the relentless assault, Winter had dispatched of the unmounted Assassin.

With the help of a glyph, she shoulder bashed one of the Assassins off of their horse. Jaune, who at the time was rolling away from the other one, swung Crocea Mors to kill the second one. Grimm Blood sprayed across the sand as Winter tried to follow up her shove with a thrust, only to find that the Assassin simply melted into the sand.

During that brief period of time, Jaune was fighting with the remaining Assassin on horseback, who knew they couldn't fight Jaune up close and instead shot at him with arrows from afar. With a sigh, Jaune pulled out his trusty flare gun and shot at the horse. From the sudden bright light, the Assassin's mount bucked and shook its rider off of it before running off. Before Jaune could run up and take advantage of the Assassin's horselesness, it simply melted into the sand as well.

And then the both of them immediately dodged from seemingly nothing. But then, they saw that the Assassins' blades had swung up from the sand, much like the triangular fin of a shark.

Jaune took the (seemingly) obvious route and threw his shield onto the floor before standing on it, thus fore making it impossible for the Assassins to stab him in the foot or groin. The previous users of Crocea Mors must've been very proud of his ingenuity. At least, they would've been after they stopped laughing at how it looked like he was going to begin surfing in the dessert.

What he didn't expect was for the Assassin, much like a shark, to pop out of the sand, scimitar in hand, and begin wildly slashing at Jaune. Stumbling backwards off his shield, he accidentally slid it into the Assassin's shin as he backed up before getting into a stance to put up a good defense. Jaune much preferred defending with his shield, but it wasn't like he always had the option, so he was well versed (enough) in defending with Crocea Mors proper.

Winter seemed to be doing well, having used a glyph to grab onto one of the blades before casting it aside, forcing her Assassin to pop up and begin using the bow. She was obviously winning the fight, though the Assassin was pretty good at evasive maneuvers.

Speaking of evasive maneuvers, Jaune was wildly dodging and leaning in order to avoid getting cut by his attacker's blade. They were going in circles when his foot met familiar metal. As he took another step back, inviting the Assassin forward, he kicked up his shield, grabbed it with his free arm, and bashed the Assassin's face in before going for a killing thrust, running the Assassin through with Crocea Mors. It wasn't his best performance, but it was serviceable.

By that point, Winter had finished off hers and Qrow was done with the archers. There were a few bruises on his body from arrows he just had to tank though.

"Hmmm, any clue what those guys were supposed to be?" The corpses of their attackers faded into black dust that flew off with a light breeze as their victims stood in the sands, having survived mostly unharmed. Winter's aura was scratched while Jaune's defensive fighting paired with Calm Waters let him get off with practically no hits.

"Hmmm, I think they're supposed to be the Secret Eye. An order of assassins that worked for Malik the Sunderer and his descendants as a sort of secret police." Surprisingly, Jaune was the one to answer that. Both Winter and Qrow raised an eyebrow at the knowledge, to which he defensively shrugged. "There's this video game called Assassi-"

"Ok, that explains it." Qrow chuckled as Jaune pouted at the interruption. "I would chastise about you knowing history from a video game, but to be fair I only passed history cause I played 'Iron Aura: Great War."

"Why am I not surprised?"

"Well, when Tai asked why I spent fourty lien on a game, and let me tell you I was broke, I told him it was a training simulation." Qrow paused to chuckle a bit. "Yea, he decided to get the game as well. We might've spent that weekend fighting against each other in it. To be fair, we did pass the Monday history test."

"Oh the bane of people everywhere, tests on Monday." Jaune was stretching after the fight, he didn't know why exactly it was a think he should've done, but he trusted Raiden enough to follow the advice.

"I must concur. Many a weekend were spent vigorously studying for tests."

"Wow, and here I thought Ice Queen came out of the womb spitting out advice on SDC policy." After that brief pause after the fight, they'd begun walking with the north star once more. "Now what am I to think? Who could've possibly led the SDC to victory except the most talented one there, a toddler?"

"I don't know whether that was a jab at me, the company, or my father."

"Eh, take of it as you will. I was feeling creative." Qrow shrugged, unsure of where that one was going himself.

"I'd hate to see you being uncreative." Jaune sipped some water from his canteen, having felt his throat dry up during the fight.

"We already have." Winter said the obvious and got Qrow to roll his eyes.


"Hmmmm, tell me again why this is a good idea?" Jaune was looking at Qrow, who he was pretty damned sure was drunk. He wasn't, he ran out of alcohol quite a while ago and had to fill his flask with fountain water, but Jaune wasn't entirely sure of that given the sheer insanity of the idea he was proposing.

"Just listen, I think the sun is a Grimm, and if we shoot it, it'll go away."

"Qrow, it's not too late to see help." Winter was stunned to silence on his first proposal of the idea. Now she was very confused. "Also, shoot it with what?"

"Well that's the idea. I remember this one time when I got drunk in Vacuo." He ignored the 'of course,' coming from Winter. "And there was this myth about how the sun goes down. It's eaten by a snake! So thus, we just need to shoot a snake at the sun!"

"..."

Winter pulled out a card. "This is a number to a military therapist, I'd advise you calling."

Qrow sighed and slumped back onto the wall of the cave they were resting in while the sun was up. "Shut up, I thought it was a good plan." He then proceeded to sulk over the unanimous veto he received for his idea. Meanwhile, Jaune inspected some of the hieroglyphs on the walls of the cave. They were painted carvings of, what Winter assumed, to be the history of Vacuo.

The first one was a picture of robed figures all converging on an oasis, which would then become the capital of Vacuo itself. From the ever-flowing spring of freshwater flowed out four rivers, which the Vacuans used to create irrigation systems for vast farmlands. Soon, a city of clay huts guarded by a clay wall was formed. Then, the city grew. Paint was made, huts were colored, palaces formed, schools created. And the city began to create more than food. Pottery, paintings, books, tools, weapons, ideas, and more flowed out of the city and to towns and villages outside of it.

Malik the Sunderer, first king of Vacuo, took the throne after a brief period of civil strife. And under him, Vacuo flourished. This was before the age of Mistral and Mantle colonies, so the only foreign entities were traders from Vale, caravans, nomads, and villagers traveling in. It was a golden age, from what Jaune could see. The Grimm were but a trouble to the caravans, nomads, and villages. The walls held firm. And following their ruler was an angelic woman who created the floating royal palace that stood above the oasis.

And then, the colonists came. Mistralian and Mantlese explorers at first took over some port towns, which wasn't much of a concern to the descendants of Malik. But then, the Sandworm War began, where Mantle and Mistral fought for dust mines in Vacuo while the Sultanate tried to fight back against the foreign invaders. In the end, Mantle and Mistral ended up carving up a significant part of Vacuo for themselves to extract dust out of. The war had depleted the treasury and left Vacuo's pride in tatters. People were left without jobs, homes, and food.

Following that, the Great War began.

After Vacuo joined the war, sending troops to assist Vale, Mantle and Mistral got nervous. So, Mantlese backed rebels in Vacuo had successfully ousted the sultanate and their unpopular rule, toppling the floating castle and casting it into the oasis. Following that, a council was set up. The rebels, knowing their benefactors would soon come to annex the country they now ruled, began to push for a unified effort of all Vacuan natives to fight in the great war, lest they become puppets to produce dust.

And so, the Vacuans were truly unified once more. Once under Malik, now against the Mistralians and Mantlese. A new front was created, where the bitterest fighting took place.

Jaune looked out of the cave to see a sandstorm, where a chaotic battle took place. Mantlese soldiers cast aside sand-jammed muskets as Vacuan natives fought with bows, blades, and firearms of their own that they adapted to work in the dusty winds. Mantle and Mistral weren't pushed aside for too long, as they came back with more troops and more weapons.

The sands would be painted crimson. This was the period of the war when technology really advanced. Semi-automatic rifles fired blindly at the enemies, the skeletons of vehicles would be lodged into the sand, and the dead were up to millions. Sandworms, sulfur fish, deathstalkers, and all sorts of Grimm slaughtered soldiers of all flags. Gas and fire was used, scorching and poisoning the dunes. The warrior king himself, Ozymandias, took part in the fighting and slaughtered thousands in the conflict. In one battle, he had fire dust planted in the dunes, so when they did a false retreat, they could burn their pursuers alive.

And after the massacre of Vytal, the fighting ceased. All sides were tired, their treasuries depleted, a whole generation raised during war, clouds of smoke were as common as ones of rain. And so, peace was brought. Mantle became Atlas, Mistral began to stabilize, and Vale grew into a juggernaut of industry, but Vacuo never moved on. While once, their people were united, without the war, the cracks began to show.

Villages were left in tatters from the conflict. Tensions between former colonies and the ones who were never taken began to grow. Religious and political rifts were exasperated. The SDC drilled at Dust reserves, reminding the people of the colonists that came before them. And so, the dessert was split once more. A variety of towns and villages seceded while the council, with a decimated guard and much bigger fish to fry, was helpless to stop it.

And now, the only reason why Vacuo wasn't at a state of total war was because of the single most powerful entity in Vacuo: Shade Academy. Shade produced huntsmen. Shade had power where the council didn't. The only reason the Red Sand States and the Ali Federation didn't go to war was the threat of Shade holding back huntsmen from their territories, effectively leaving them to be Grimm chow. It was a dire measure, but it was the only thing keeping Vacuo from blowing up into outright war.

So, conflicts remained small. Skirmishes, small raids, property damage. And Vacuans continued on with their lives. Farming, trading, creating, reading, living. But everyone in Vacuo longed for a better time, when the people could say they were the fourth kingdom, when people could take pride in being Vacuan.

"I recall there being whispers of a monarchy revival movement in Vacuo. I don't know their name, but their heads claim to be descendants of the deposed Malik. Their aims are to topple the Council and reinstate the monarchy, proceeded by unifying Vacuo and bring it back to a golden age." Winter had watched as Jaune read the bitter story of Vacuo. She'd already learned most of this in foreign history class, but Jaune hadn't.

"Jeez, this is all so complicated." Jaune sighed and sat down, his mind overflowing with the brief rundown on Vacuan history.

"History often is."


"This seems to be the Menagerie segment." Before them was a massive ziggurat with carvings of the many forms of the Animal God on the wall. One particular statue of the Thousand Horned One had its eyes on them as they tentatively approached the entrance to the Ziggurat. Seawater flowed from ziggurat, with artificial rivers and fountains leading out from it. Inside, the Furfather greeted them from the entrance, the pillars carved to look like their arms and claws clinging to the floor. Murals of the Scaleforger creating scales out of their divinity to grant as presents to reptiles were matched with those of the Featherbearer granting flight to avians.

Footsteps came close to the intruders on the holy place. Jaune, Winter, and Qrow readied their weapons as combatants came by. Knights in heavy black armor came by with axes and swords, bearing the crests of all four kingdoms.

In the tight halls of the ziggurat, Qrow and Winter took to the offensive while Jaune closed in with his shield. Qrow's scythe worked through metal platemail while Winter's saber stabbed through the chinks in the armor. Jaune served as a wall to put constant pressure on the Knights, bashing his shield and wailing on their helmets in order to put them off balance and just generally annoy them.

With the help of Winter and Jaune lining them up, Qrow swiftly aimed for the weak points of the armor and quartered each of the knights, causing them to spurt Grimm blood as they dissolved away into nothingness.

"Hmmmm, the water all seems to come from the center." They'd been wandering the torch-lit halls of the ziggurat for a while and all the while, they saw how a system of canals flowed in it. Gutters in the corners and topless pipes carried salty water from the center of the ancient palace. Along the way they fought a few more Knights, but generally had little problem.

So, they followed the streams to their source, a large chamber in the center of the ziggurat. Sunlight lit the entire room, a grand garden from where the water came from. Small animals rested in the gardens, their snores a soft melody for the three newcomers. But the melody was interrupted by the figure in the center of the room.

That figure was the a statue of the Animal God, as a consolidated form to represent all Faunus creator deities in total. As large as a titan, with a thousand tails, a million horns, scaled legs, both hide and fur skin, and dozens of different colored wings. Their mouth had rows of teeth like a shark, their eyes were that of a cat, they had the horns of deer, goats, and bulls. From their hairy beard came snakes of all colors. Scar-like gills breathed from their cheek. Elephant tusks protruded from their jaw.

And the Animal God was in chains, weeping. Their tears created the rivers that flowed out of the ziggurat. Upon seeing the huntsmen, the crying stopped as they inclined their stone head a little bit lower to get a better look at the humans.

"People, humans." The animal god's voice was old like an oak and ethereal, much like Darling's when they fully let go of their mortal form. It reminded Jaune of thorny branches and vines for some reason. "What is your purpose here?" Qrow and Winter were stunned speechless. This was definitely not a Grimm, there weren't any bone plates or anything. For all intents and purposes, it was a statue that just talked.

"W-w-w-w-what are you?" It was also colossal.

"I am Fauna. But perhaps you were wondering why I am here. For this area is the collective nightmare of a my people. A sacred temple of their origin, defiled, their deity in chains." Tears continued to flow from the statue as Fauna spoke, their whispers practically booming throughout the chamber. "And I weep, for what else am I supposed to do? My people have been put in cages and are divided. Some bark and claw at the chains, biting and barking at any stray hands as well as the others caged with them. Others forsake my gifts. And other yet turn on their people entirely. While we were once proud, it seems that our horns, scales, wings, and eyes are now subjects of shame. It saddens me."

Qrow and Winter were silent at the melancholy present in Fauna's voice. In contrast to the malevolent trickster god he'd been cast as by some, Fauna, at least for Faunus, was a benevolent creator that sacrificed bits of their own divinity to create the Faunus.

"What may we do?"

"You three? I don't know. What can you do, in the grand scale? But I know of why you are here. You are here to purge this forsaken city of its nightmares. And even if you do not bear my gifts, I bear no ill will for the creations of the brothers. So, if you wish to collapse this temple and let the nightmares stay in the realm of dreams, please, go to my side, where a massive arrow has pierced me, and purge the scourge that exists within my wound." Without much else to say, the three of them walked to the side, where, indeed, an arrow twice the size of a ballista bolt was lodged into the stone flesh of Fauna.

And from the wound came out a black tar.

"This is by far the weirdest task I've ever gotten." Qrow was, much to his disbelief, entirely sober as he looked up at the gigantic body of the statue.

"Yes, now, what did it mean by-"

Before Winter could ask the question of the nature of the task, arms suddenly burst out of the wound and grabbed all of them before pulling them into the wound. After a brief travel through what could be described as boiling black pus, they had entered Fauna's wound. It was a giant jail cell. Rows upon rows upon rows of Faunus Mourners were chained up and locked in cells. Even more were toiling away at the earth, mining for dust with rusty equipment in squalid conditions.

Qrow whistled. "Hoo-wee, this must be a wet dream for you, ey Ice Queen?" From this jab, Winter actually snarled at Qrow, who instinctively flinched at the noise.

"While I am no fan of the White Fang and do not condone their crimes, I'm not deluded in believing my family and kingdom are exactly blameless. Now, Qrow, while I do not normally bring up your family, why shouldn't I do the same as you? The Branwen tribe is a group of cowards who attack villages on the edges who can't afford to defend themselves against them. And, if I remember correctly, Mistral has had a problem with equality regarding Faunus. In fact, a majority of the villages your family has robbed, enslaved, and left destitute were Faunus. I know I am biased against them, it has been made clear to me quite a bit, but what about you?" Winter took a deep breath, letting her fists unclench. "Apologies, that was uncalled for."

"No, no, my bad." Qrow sighed. "Yea, I should know better than anyone to rib on people for stuff like that. And you, Jaune? Any thoughts on the White Fang?"

"Eh, not really." Qrow and Winter shifted their eyes to see the blonde knight maintain their easygoing grin. "The White Fang are more urban. Their activities in the frontier are mostly just raids and shipments. The frontier is mostly better to Faunus, racism breeds negativity, and negativity brings Grimm yada-yada. Unlike in the cities where they're safe from that stuff." Jaune shrugged, he hadn't really been in one of the cities in years. "Of course, it still exists. There are towns safer from Grimm that have less reason to stop. And there are also SDC camps." Jaune often didn't stick around too long in SDC towns. Often, he couldn't really do anything in them besides freelance work given he wasn't a resident or an SDC contractor (and he knew better than to sign onto those). It was also too bad he couldn't punch people out of debt traps.

"Hmm, fair nuff, kid." Qrow shrugged and turned back to the rows of cells. "So, we're looking for the core, the 'scourge' as it called it."

"Indeed if it's a representation of the ills plaguing Faunuskind, I'd bet good money on it being my father." Winter rolled her eyes as she lightened the mood by saying, "In fact, I'd put five lien on the line."

"Oh?" Qrow smirked. "Well, it's a doomed bet, but why not? Five lien it is."

"Five lien says that he's dressed like an Atlesian dictator." Jaune joined in, smiling as they walked down the hall.

"Five lien says he goes down in one hit." Winter chuckled as Jaune took the bet.

"Alright then, now that we got our bets, let's get going." And so, they made their way through the prison. There were wardens, the knights from before, except their armor was now colored navy blue. So, they slaughtered Grimm as they ventured further into the prison, where the punishments became more and more severe. The prisoners were now wearing masks of the White Fang and were all given various cruel and unusual punishments.

Faunus features were torn off bloodily, quite a few were crucified, and many others were shot, burnt, beheaded, and maimed. Winter cringed at the excessive and nightmare-worthy torture that was happening, as did Qrow. They could only imagine what someone who was actually a Faunus would feel at the graphic displays of cruelty.

And in the center of it all was a human, taking the form of Jacques Schnee (Qrow handed over five lien to Winter) wearing the outfit of a king (Jaune handed over five lien to Qrow) atop a throne carried by marble statues of SDC personnel, who were then carried by thousands of Faunus mourners, all of them chained. Those chains led up to a singular link of chains in a familiar snowflake pattern. That head chain was held by Jacques, who sneered at the three challengers.

Immediately, Jaune pulled out his flaregun and fired a shot that hit Jacques square in the face before dissipating. The King (as Jaune referred to him for now) was untouched by the flare. Actually, it might've been a bit miffed at the sudden attack. Jaune cleared his throat and extended a hand to Winter, who rolled her eyes and handed over five lien.

And with all external affairs done, they began the fight. From the King's throne came guns. Robotic arms with guns popped out from behind the throne, as well as barrel popping out of compartments of it.

In a several yard radius of the King was the horde of chained Faunus. Qrow and Winter began scaling the chains, dodging and deflecting gunfire as they did so. Jaune, with his lack of mobility, held onto his flare gun and began using it as ranged support. He shot a few flares at the King, but none of them seemed to do a thing. When Qrow turned into a bird, flew up, and turned back into a human to bisect the King with his scythe, it went through, but nothing happened.

Winter came by shortly after, making to run the King through with a glyph-enhanced thrust, but found that her blade didn't do anything as she passed by.

They went like this for a while, forsaking a bit of their aura as they tried to make even a scratch against the King. It was then that Jaune noticed what was going on with the horde beneath him. For every hit that the King suffered, a Faunus suddenly died.

"Guys! Cut the chains first! He's using them as disposable shields!" Jaune suddenly delved into the horde with Crocea Mors, rapidly swinging at the chains that bound the Faunus underneath. Qrow and Winter came by soon and with their help, they began gradually to whittle away at the binding chains the King used as a shield. All of a sudden, they all snapped. And gunfire began to ring out. The marble core made up of SDC higher-ups morphed to grow legs and become a sort of walker for the King to operate. It also pulled out heavy weapons that began to spray them with golden bullets.

When Qrow tried to charge to the King once more, he had to back up before he was slammed in the fact by one of the wayward limbs of the marble statue of statues. Winter's glyphs were hosed by bullets before she could use them at all.

They were pushed back to a large piece of rubble that had been kicked up during the fight as the King's throne came ever closer, guns at the ready to riddle them with holes.

But just as it was about to gain line of sight, explosions rang out.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Several of the Faunus mourners, now freed from their cages, used the artillery of the prison to bombard the King's throne. The King was protected by marble shields that came up to protect him, but the legs were battered and forced to buckle as it fell backwards. Taking the opportunity, Winter and Qrow weaved through the explosions and shelling in order to try their luck once more, charging the King. Seeing as it wasn't high up anymore, Jaune did as well, emerging from their cover in order to charge with his shield to block the hail of gunfire the came from the immobile King.

In the end, as the three hunters occupied the shields of the throne, the Faunus had taken their shot and fired directly at the King, instantly obliterating him, and causing the throne itself to collapse. After a few moments, the dust cleared, showing that the fight was over.

"I'd like my money back, he did die in a single shot." Jaune rolled his eyes at the petulant point.

"Uh, no? I shot him, he didn't die."

"You shot at one of the mourners beneath him."

"Nope, I shot at him and he transferred the damage to a mourner."

"Effectively, he wasn't shot at."

"But he was."

"Uh, guys?" Qrow, surprisingly, was the voice of reason as he pointed to the crumbling roof. "We should probably get out of here. Settle this later." And with that, the three of them began bolting the hell out of there. Qrow turned into a crow while Winter and Jaune were propelled by Winter's glyphs. The roof collapsed, mourners preemptively turned to Grimm dust. After they exited the prison, they found themselves in the ziggurat, which was also collapsing, as its 'nightmare core' had been destroyed and it was struggling to stay existent. Much like the amalgamation bodies Geists possess collapsing as soon as the mask leaves its host.

And so, after running through the collapsing temple, they made it out entirely just as the entrance itself fell apart. The entire place began to fade away, merely a memory in their minds.

"I still maintain that you owe me five lien."

Crap, she didn't forget.


A few long-winded arguments over who owed five lien to who, Jaune got to keep his rightful earnings while Winter stoically sulked. They found that while they explored the ziggurat, night had passed and it was day once more. So they set up camp in a shady area and waited for the sun to set again. During that time, they had to deal with a giant swarm of sulfur fish (it was very hot, sweaty, and uncomfortable) and also wait out a sandstorm. The next night, they continued their trek northwards in the ever-dessert, still looking for the giant golden statue that would let them cast away the sands from Vytal.

As they traveled, they found a site of what seemed to be a large battle. Mantlese and Vacuan soldiers lay dead in the scorched sand, crimson staining the ground, and weapons strewn about. As they were passing through, they all felt a presence nearby and instinctively dodged. That was a good idea, as a sand shark immediately popped out of the bloodstained ground and tried to swallow them whole, but missed.

It flew in the air and immediately dived back into the sand, where it began swimming. Occasionally, its jagged bone-plate fin would pop out, warning them of its presence and also acting as a terror tactic.

And to make matters worse, a group of bandits coasting on the dunes with a sand-boat came by, weapons in hand as they began their assault on the hunters. After a few moments of being outran by the unnaturally fast raiders, Qrow sighed and turned into a Qrow to board their ship. Winter put glyphs on her shoes and began to skate on the sand (feeling a bit silly as she did so) while Jaune took the dumbest option possible and accidentally mounted the sand shark.

It tried to force itself down, but Jaune gripped onto the upper side of its jaw and forced it up.

Jaune aimed the sand shark and actually was able to slam apart a few of the boats while Qrow boarded and dispatched his and Winter hit and ran her targets.

After they fought for a while, Jaune managed to somehow lost his sword in the sandshark, punch its nose so hard its eye popped out, and had Qrow slice it in half using both his and the shark's momentum before pulling his sword out of its guts. The fighting dragged them far off of their nonexistent course, propped on a dune, overseeing what looked to be a battle. Mantlese forces were guarding a giant red dust crystal in the center of the camp while flaming Vacuan soldiers (quite literally on fire) began their assault on the Mantlese camp.

To put it simply, it was an intense battle. The Vacuans kicked up sand and lead a lightning rush offense to end the battle quickly. The Mantlese forces turtled up and tried to stall the fight out. In the end, the Mantlese won after they retreated back into the trenches they made, though not before the Vacuan forces took a significant chunk out of their numbers. The Mourners dressed as Vacuan soldiers retreated afterwards, leaving only the confused spectators as the scene faded away to reveal it all to be a mirage, though the giant dust crystal still stood in the center of it all.

"Mantle did hold large chunks of land in Vacuo for dust mining, but I wonder what's so special about that crystal." After coming closer to it, they could see that it was rather large. About the size of a truck, probably.

"Well, most dust that's formed pure enough to become crystals are rather small. One this large would be worth a fortune. It could probably fuel a city for a days. Or even single-handedly act as a generator for a large building for what could be years."

"That's kind of underwhelming." Leave it to a country boy like Jaune to not get the ramifications.

"Uh, kid? In a day, Vale consumes about a hundred million lien's worth of electricity. That's a lot. And this thing probably has a lot of bloodstains, given how valuable it is. I mean, if you think White Fang attacks on SDC dust mines are bad, Mantle's assaults on Vacuan villages near mines were a thousand times worse! And likewise, Vacuan assault on Mantlese dust colonies."

"So much death, for dust." Jaune chuckled grimly a bit. "It sounds ironic."

As they took a few steps further, something happened. The large dust crystal suddenly burst into flames, causing all three of the hunters to recoil at the sudden actions. Then, ribs grew around the large dust crystal, as did large black wings that began to beat. As it raised into the air, they could see on the bottom of the dust were eyes, the eyes of Grimm.

It was a Dust Devil.

And using the power of the dust crystal, the dust devil's eye opened to reveal a gaping mouth, which then spat out fireballs that crashed against the dunes, kicking up sand, and scorching the land where it hit. While Qrow and Winter dodged, Jaune couldn't and had to put up his shield and hope for the best. Unlike what he'd seen in movies, blocking against fire with a shield was intensely painful. While yes, the fire didn't hit him directly, it just went around his shield and still practically baked him.

After what felt like an hour enduring the fire, it dissipated, letting Jaune move without fearing that he'd be burnt to a crisp.

With a sigh, he reckoned that fire dust based flares probably wouldn't do much against the eye and relegated himself to simply diverting fire. Winter and Qrow didn't have that limitation. While Winter, using some ice dust, created frosty nevermores that tried flying up to freeze the Dust Devil's wings, Qrow became a crow and simply flew up himself.

Jaune, not getting much attention from the Dust Devil, kind of just had to wait for it to be grounded. He still kept his shield up and dealt with a few sandworms and sulfur fish that noticed the fight, but Qrow and Winter were better at dealing with enemies in the air.

Qrow swerved and strafed in the air as the Dust Devil frantically spat fire at the approaching birds. Winter's Nevermore weren't able to maneuver out of the way, so they were melted and evaporated by the large balls of flame as they flew upwards. Winter dodged a stray fireball that came at her and decided to shoot an icicle upwards to clip the Dust Devil's wing. And as it reached the feathers, Qrow had gone high enough and began falling, transform Harbinger, and clip the Dust Devil's wing off with as pin.

With one wing cut and another frozen, the Dust Devil fell to the ground, where it kicked up a small cloud of sand. That cloud then began rotating rapidly as an actual dust devil formed around the Dust Devil, which began going higher up in the cyclone of sand. After testing the waters by kicking a rock into the sandy tornado, only for it to be carried upwards, Jaune shrugged and hopped into the tornado, sword and shield in hand.

Qrow and Winter joined in swiftly afterwards.

Carried by the winds, Jaune began ascending the dust storm, dodging blasts of fire and squinting to avoid getting dust in his eyes. Qrow couldn't transform into his namesake due to the high winds while Winter merely had to go with the flow of the winds.

As they rose up, Jaune had to squint to keep sand from getting in his eyes, actually entering Calm Waters to be able to dodge without needing to use his eyes. After a few moments of staying in the dust devil, the three of them reached the top, where the Dust Devil Proper's beady eye was staring at them. Jaune began to glide over to the eye, blade in hand. Its gaping maw opened to unleash another fireball on the insolent mortal and burn it alive.

With the flick of her wrist and the formation of a glyph, Winter jammed the Dust Devil as it tried to hurl another ball of flame at them, causing it to torch itself. While she was doing that, Jaune rose more and more before finally reaching the eye and stabbing it with Crocea Mors.

And it began to scream. Jaune pulled his blade out and kept on stabbing, Qrow joined in and began slashing at the Dust Devil with Harbinger. As the dust devil began to die down, Winter used a black glyph to push back against the Dust Devil's descent as she slowly fell herself.

And as Jaune noticed the black glyph, he stopped stabbing and dropped off. Qrow, noticing both the pulled back glyph and Jaune falling, turned into a crow and dived down himself. With her two allies off of the Dust Devil, she stopped holding onto the black glyph and let it fly loose, flinging the Dust Devil into the hair with such force that it became a comet, though this time it was entering the company of the stars. Qrow flew down before Jaune and scrambled to catch him, grunting as the boy's not-inconsiderable weight fell into his arms.

"Thanks." Jaune had a look of force relaxation. He was obviously very tense from the fall, but managed to keep himself from swearing like normal. Upon confirming that yes, indeed, Jaune wasn't dead, he promptly dropped the boy to the ground, earning some insults from the boy.

"Alright then, back to the journey."


They could tell they were getting closer to the statue, given that the farther they went, the less city they saw. Sometimes, Jaune even forgot they were in Vytal in the first place. As they went on, the three of them eventually got tired of traveling in silence and began to strike up conversation to kill time as they traveled.

"So, Jaune, what was your childhood like?" While they inquired on his family, Jaune never really talked about his life in Ansel.

"Oh, well it was a normal childhood, you know."

"No, we do not." Winter sighed at Jaune's comment.

"Yea, the ex-heiress and bandit's son didn't exactly have a normal childhood, kid." Qrow rolled his eyes as Jaune relented the point.

"Alright, alright. Well, Ansel was a small town. I was born to a huntsman and a farmer, middle-ish of 7 daughters. I can't really say much about it. We didn't have to worry too much about Grimm and dad usually left, but he never was gone for too long. I guess I had a normal school life. Mr. Enu was the local teacher and made sure to teach us everything we needed to know. I mean, I guess I had friends as well? The high school type, where you like each other but not really that much."

And so, Jaune painted a picture of a modest life in Ansel. He was more of a footnote in comparison to his far more outstanding sisters. He was always second fiddle, but he never resented the obscurity in comparison to his much more notable sisters. He didn't feel as much pressure and, he felt, that he didn't really deserve all that much attention.

He had friends he played games and compared notes with. He knew that a few became members of the guard, most followed the footsteps of their families and became things like bakers, farmers, and handymen. He knew at least one person who packed it up and headed to Vale proper to try and earn a living in the big city as a musician.

As for him, he only knew two paths for his future. Either manage the family business of the vineyard (with the probable help of a few of his sisters) or strike it out on his own as a huntsman. He mentioned how he was denied training at every turn. His father outright refused to train him. The other huntsmen in town knew better than to piss off his father. His mother didn't like the idea of her precious child going off into such a dangerous career either, having only barely accepted dad doing so on the grounds that they needed the money and benefits his career earned them.

His sisters didn't mince words in their thoughts on the prospect either. Nobody did, really. Saphron indulged him when he was a kid and was dreaming of being a hero like his dad, but she moved away for college when he was entering his early teens, when it'd become less of a childish dream and more of a realistic ambition. Sable and Coral always reminded him of the mortality rates out of concern for her little brother's fate. Jade and Hazel sometimes teased him for being a noodle whenever he brought it up. Lavendar poked fun at his lack of experience and training. And Amber?

Well, she thought he could do it. But in her eyes, Jaune could do practically anything.

His friends thought it wasn't a realistic idea either, but they instead said things like, "Maybe, I dunno man."

But there was plenty to like about Ansel. When it snowed, the kids would all gather up for a grand snowball fight in the empty fields behind the walls. The hot summer was helped by ice cream and swimming by the lake. The fall brought bountiful harvests and spring heralded the coming of life.

The snack shop run by Shen sold all sorts of handmade sweets as well as having a sweet arcade game that Jaune lost a lot of lien to. He remembered that time Sable was working at the diner and the whole family came to cheer her on, much to her displeasure and embarrassment.

"And despite all of the comfort, you still walked away? Jeez kid, you have balls. I left for Beacon half cause my family said so and half cause my family sucked. Though, I didn't know it at the time." Qrow had a smile on him as he listened to the description of the sleepy little town that Ansel was.

"And I left my home for Atlas Academy for similar reasons. Though, it's not like I traveled to a different continent." Winter had also enjoyed Jaune's retelling of his early life. It felt idyllic, something that huntsmen rarely got. "Nevertheless, your life sounded quite pleasant."

"It was." Jaune's smile never faltered the entire time. "Sometimes it was boring, sometimes it was frustrating. Sometimes I tripped on my own shoes. But it was home." There was silence for a moment. "I know, guys. I'll head back once all of this is over. Take a rest. But I don't think I'll ever get used to sleeping in one place again." Jaune smiled as he recalled each and every town he'd visited. The people he'd met. The things he'd done. The lives he'd saved. The joys he'd felt. The feeling of a familiar yet foreign road greeting his feet as he walked pathways paved and made in his mind.

"Well, at least you can look forward to returning home." Qrow chuckled a bit. "If I came back to the tribe for a meal, I'm pretty sure I'd have to fight for it. At least I have Tai and the kids. Never a dull meal with them, I tell ya." Qrow pulled out a toothpick and began to pick at some of the potato gunk that was in between his teeth with it.

"And with my family, I'm fairly sure my father would never stop passive aggressively commenting on my career choice, my fashion choices, my looks, and my relationship status." Winter sighed. "Though, according to someone I know, that's actually fairly normal among families."

"Yea, sounds pretty normal." Jaune chuckled, remembering when Saphron came back with a girlfriend. Poor Terra was bombarded with questions from the entire Arc family, including him. In the end, she became part of the family after marrying Saphron. "What about your siblings?"

"Well, things between me and Ray kinda went south after she left Yang. I know it's not the best idea, but I just never stop pissing her off reminding her about that." Qrow sheepishly scratched the back of his head. "And then we begin arguing about this and that. It never ends."

"My relationships with the majority of my family aren't the best. But, I like to think that I'm close with Weiss." Winter gave a genuine smile as she thought about her younger sibling. "She's actually going to Beacon for the upcoming school year." Qrow whistled, amused at the fact.

"Oh, well Yang's actually heading there as well. Pray to the brother they don't end up on a team together, cause from what you've told me of yours, they wouldn't mix well."

"On that, I must agree." Winter chuckled at the image of Qrow's free spirited niece meeting her temperamental younger sibling.

"Now that I think about it, are family relationships usually that cold and stilted in Atlas?" Jaune's question got a sigh from Winter and a wince from Qrow.

"It's actually a holdover from pre-Great-War emotional suppression doctrine." Jaune gave a long suffering sigh. "Yes, I know. On top of that, it also comes from Mantlese noble politics. A lot of influential families in Atlas actually can claim roots from noble families in Mantle. While the monarchy was toppled, many nobles never got the same treatment. Combine court politics with emotional suppression doctrine and you get how upper-class Atlesians act out of propriety. I do the same out of habit, but I do admit that I prefer the distance, mostly because I'm used to it."

"Well, could be worse. Familial affection could be shown by beatings~!" Qrow's description of what Jaune was fairly sure could be accurately described as 'child abuse' mixed with his lackadaisical sing-songy tone really threw off Jaune.

"I swear, the more I hear about your childhood, the more I appreciate your current personality. And isn't that a frightening thought?" Qrow actually keeled over in laughter over that.

"That was a good one. And hey, I'm still a bit bitter over those. But, me and Ray helped kill our father at a young age, so at least he ain't around anymore." The casual mention of fratricide sort of killed the mood for a bit.

And so, with the end of that talk, they continued on their way.


"Ooooooh! That's a lot of gold!" Qrow whistled, impressed at the sheer amount of the precious metal was in the cave they'd entered. And there was a lot of gold. The cave was absolutely giant in size, with piles and piles of gold and treasure piled to the roof of it. Murals, statues, books, silver, gold, and jewels were littered around the entire cave.

"It's a shame that since the Midas incident, the value of gold has dropped dramatically." If Jaune remembered correctly, the Midas incident was when someone unlocked a semblance that allowed them to turn things to gold permanently. They then proceeded to make a fortune off of it, tanking the value of the precious metal. Their last act, apparently, was to turn a whole building into gold. And it wasn't the cheap type, they practically flooded the market with with 24k gold. On the plus side, it made lining his armor and shield with actual gold way cheaper.

"Yea. Well, on the plus side, it's way cheaper to look tacky as shit." Qrow remembered a fashion craze in his Beacon days when the price of gold flat lined, when gold chains were considered cool. He even remembered one of his classmates who coated their weapon gold. Their blacksmithing teacher was so pissed off at the fact that they actually failed a few students for the fact.

"Makes me wonder, what if there was a semblance that could create jewels? Or maybe even dust?" The idea Jaune posited was a pretty frightening one.

"Well, if they could mass produce dust, then the SDC would black bag 'em. Or Atlas. Hell, everyone would just be clamoring to get their hands on that one unlucky shmuck."

"I have to agree. A semblance like that would essentially be a theoretically limitless mobile dust mine. Military applications could be near endless. National limitations are near endless. That person could be worth millions of lien." Powerful semblances were often desired in academy applicants. Hell, powerful semblances were generally desired in most fields. Telekinesis could save thousands in equipment costs, teleportation in transportation, healing in medical fields, and the list goes on and on. Funnily enough, the Courier's Guild is the second biggest institution of huntsmen behind the academies, mostly because they hire a lot of hunters to deliver mail and packages to and from the frontier.

When they reached the end of the cave, they saw a compass on a pedestal. Carved into the stone was, 'Oh ye faithful wanderers, may this lead you to the promised land of unity.'

"Huh. That's convenient." Jaune went and picked it up. He compared it with his normal compass to see that, indeed, they were pointing in different directions. "Alright then." Jaune pocketed it.

"I suppose this wasn't a total waste of time. Now, shall we get out of here?"

"Yea, that'll be a problem." Qrow pointed at the red eyes that were staring at them from the dark. Figures were lurking on top of the piles of treasure. There were 40 of them in total. Qrow took to forcing them from the high ground while Winter and Jaune dealt with the ones that descended. They were armed with crossbows, daggers, swords, and revolvers. But that would be troublesome enough given their numbers, if it weren't for the fact that they were also using things from their treasure horde.

Jaune had his head slammed through a painting from behind while he had chalices filled with flaming alcohol thrown at him. Winter, being far faster than Jaune, was able to avoid being dogpiled by decoration-wielding Thieves shooting, stabbing, and chucking things around.

With a twitching brow, he collapsed his shield and put it to his side, tore off the painting, and threw Crocea Mors with all his might at the mountain of gold and other assorted treasures by them.

It began to shake. Crocea Mors bounced off of it, but not before making the pile unstable. One gold piece fell. Then two. Then three. More and more came, falling like water off a cliff. Jaune had caught Crocea Mors and made to run away from the avalanche. Several of the thieves up above fell as well. Qrow momentarily lost his balance, but he was more than used to that because of his semblance, so he just went with the motion and continued to stab the thieves on the high ground. Winter saw what was happening and made to run away from the falling treasure.

Jaune actually rode the wave of gold and goods as it carried him Winter, and Qrow to the entrance of the cave while the still living of the Fourty Thieves continued to stab and shoot at them.

After cleaning up the stragglers and watching them turn to Grimm dust, they made it back to their camp.

"Huh, Fourty Thieves." Qrow inspected the symbols that were on the edges of the entrance to the treasure chamber. He decided to explain what they were before either of the others could ask. "They were a thieves' group back in medieval Vacuo. Famous for the treasures they stole. Even managed to get one of the jewels from the royal crown. When the Mantlese and Mistralians came, they did a double take and focused all of their efforts on pissing them off. Came to a head during the great war, when they were exterminated by the Mistralians. Some people still look for their famous cave of treasures. Even if the gold's worthless, the jewels, paintings, and other assorted artifacts would be worth fortunes."

"Sounds like the fabled Genesis Dunes. Father once listened to a proposal to scour Vacuo for it, but he dismissed it immediately. Said that chasing fantasies would only waste money. I can't say I disagree." The Genesis Dunes were a legend that started amongst Mantlese colonists surrounding a dessert made of dust. Historians say it was probably a reaction to how flippantly some natives used dust combined with a few local legends.

"Hmmm, sounds interesting. Also, let me guess, the cave is blocked off." The three of them looked back to see that, indeed, the entrance to the cave was gone like it was never there in the first place. "Should've guessed it. At least we have this compass." He pulled out the navigation tool in question. "Maybe we'll actually find our goal."

"One can only hope."


"And here we have the kingdom walls of Vacuo." The imitation of Vacuo that was before them was quite impressive. It had several layers of walls. In the center was the uppermost district where the council convened, the oasis sat, and where the major residential district was. The outer walls took up much more space, being farmlands. Rivers flowed out of the center and outer walls as rivers, though irrigation systems were set up to provide free water for the crops. The outer walls were made of sandy clay, with gun wielding Mourners all the walls, keeping a watch out for intruders. And those guns were automatic rifles. Jaune couldn't scale the walls, he didn't have much in the way of mobility. Winter probably wouldn't be able to make it up without having several dozen magazines unloaded at her. And Qrow might've been able to get in through his transformation, but he wouldn't be able to get them in without taking care of the guards.

Which would mean, again, taking down several opponents with automatic rifles.

And Jaune's flares didn't have the punch necessary to kill any of them, only light them on fire. And even then, they could just put it out by rolling. Or just, ignore the fire entirely.

And he couldn't go around it, given that the kingdom walls were circular and all encompassing. The walls were built to last and they weren't carrying artillery, so they couldn't go through it.

Or could they?

There were four main rivers leading out of the oasis. And while the rivers petered off into a variety of farms, the rivers still existed. They still went off through Vacuo, paving a green line in the otherwise deathly dry dunes.

"Alright, I got a plan." Winter had been scouring the area with her eyes while Qrow sat back and let Jaune do the thinking. The two of them turned towards him as he explained the idea. "So, basically, we just go into the river and swim up it." Qrow gave him a deadpan stare.

"Uh, really dude?"

"Yep."

"No other ways?"

"Yep."

"Fine." Qrow grumbled a bit as he got up. Winter didn't see any other solution, so she went along with it as well, even if she had her own doubts about it. That was because, ever from where they were, they could see that the rivers coming out from the kingdom walls were absolutely filled with sea snakes. River snakes? Swimming snakes. But yea, absolutely filled with Grimm white and black snakes. And while their aura would protect them from being punctured by their venemous fangs, it wouldn't make it any more comfortable to swim in the river flowing with them.

The following experience was very weird. It was like bathing in mud, except the mud was slithering. Or bathing in pool filled with plastic balls. Point being, it was an odd experience. Very painful, given the barrage of bites they had to deal with as they swam upstream. But at least it was better than being shot at, barely. It also meant getting wet, which was kind of a pain.

In the end, though, they climbed out of the river to reach the outer layer of Vacuo, where a majority of the farms were. They could've certainly continued swimming, but there would be little point in that, given they were a good distance away from the walls anyways.

"Ever thought about what you'd do when you retire?" Jaune asked.

"Hmmm, I guess I'd just take the money I made as a huntsman and just kick back and relax. But the day I do that is the day I break a bone. Or when the game becomes too dangerous to play." Qrow shrugged. "And I'm not sure I'll live to see either of those days, really. Silver hunters are one in a million, you know."

"And I'm still rather young, so I'd rather not make retirement plans just yet. Most likely I'll take some non-combatant role in the Atlesian military. Communications or even teaching might suit me well."

"Brothers help your students."

"Well, at least I wouldn't insult my students during training."

"One time, godamnit."

"And you, Jaune? Have you thought about what you'll do if you survive to see old age?" Jaune thought about that for a moment. On the road, he never really had any long term plans. Being both a huntsman and a nomad kind of made those secondary to just surviving. And he was very doubtful that he'd live all that long at all, really. The only hunter with grey hair that he knew, besides Qrow (he'd kill him for mentioning it), was Raiden. And his long term plans were 'kill the people who screwed me over.' And Jaune was only half sure he had done it.

He could go back to Ansel with his family, they'd almost certainly appreciate it. He could just continue wandering, but that ran many risks. Or he could give up his life on the road and stick to a singular place, which he was still wasn't sure about.

"I don't know."

"A fair answer, you're still quite young. When a hunter lives to their middle age, that's when they should start thinking about it. Speaking of middle aged-" Qrow flipped Winter off. "Aren't you already a teacher, Qrow? Why not just stop hunting full time and stick to teaching." Qrow thought about it for a long moment before shrugging.

"Eh, yea that sounds fine. Tai'd probably stop getting on my case for just disappearing constantly and I'm sure the kids would appreciate it if I was there more. Because I take missions a lot, I'm mostly just an occasional helper for Tai. Really, I'm more like a part time teacher than anything."

After an hour or so of walking, they managed to make it to the inner walls, which held Vacuo proper. They were like the outer walls, except taller and more fortified. The rivers, like before, were a valid way in, so they took another brief swim to make it through to inner walls. From where they stood, it was breathtaking. Fountains spewed out water as mourners walked on paved roads, buildings that stood as high as any in Vale or Mistral lined the streets. There were trams, scooters, and bikes, but no cars. It was crowded as well, with hundreds upon thousands wandering the streets at once.

Jaune looked at the compass. It was leading them further into the city, where the oasis was. Jaune told the others that and so, they began trekking further in. They walked and walked and walked until they reached the center, where they found the Vacuan Eternal Spring. Its bright blue water shining under the beating sun. But there was no statue, none at all. Jaune looked at the compass and, indeed, it was stiil pointing at the oasis. They tracked around it, but still, it pointed to the waters.

"Well, this could only mean thing I guess." Qrow gave a sigh as he rolled up his sleeves. Winter, seeing the signs, did so as well. Jaune got the hint and got ready to do some swimming as well.

And so, they dived into the water.


It was cool. Vacuo was a land of extremes. During the day, it was hot enough to cook eggs on the floor. During the night, it was absolutely freezing. But the water wasn't either, it was pleasantly cool. With vigor and keeping in mind that he was being weighed down by his equipment, Jaune held his breaht as he dived further into the oasis with the others. It was actually pretty pleasant, all things considered. His eyes didn't sting too much and the water was actually rather clear, so he could see a bit through the haze that he was getting closer to something shining. The others were next to him as well.

And then, they saw it. The statue from the start. The golden monument to the Vacuan people was at the bottom of the oasis. It was bleeding Grimm tar that festered on the bottom of the oasis, creating countless snakes that lingered in the waters.

Underwater combat wasn't exactly easy for most. Jaune was heavy and relied on his sword and in water, most of his strength was nullified by the resistance. The same actually went for Winter and Qrow. Really, underwater combat sucked for those who weren't used to it and none of them exactly had to go scuba diving to fight sharks that often. So, they swam a bit closer to the statue and began to poke at it. But when they got too close, the countless eyes switched from gold to glowing red. The ground began to shake. The tar began to recede.

And soon, the ground began to rise. The floating island that lay in the middle of the oasis began to rise again, with Qrow, Jaune, and Winter on it. The statue began to morph as well, stretching, growing, and mutating. In the end, when the island stood far above the oasis, with all the water having slid off back to the lake, the previously pole-shaped statue had turned into one of the titans they'd seen before in the sands. One made of gold. It only had its upper half, but it was in the center of the island. Its 8 arms and 8 hands were gigantic, its head had four faces facing the four cardinal directions.

The three hunters raised their weapons. And with that, the fight began.

It began by trying to sweep the floor with its huge arms. Winter and Qrow could easily dodge, but Jaune didn't have that same mobility. And he wasn't about to try and put his shield up against it, that was practically suicide. So, with little else as an option, he tried channeling aura into his legs as he tried to hop over the sweeping arm.

He didn't even make it half way.

Like a fly, he splatted onto it. Luckily, he scrambled over and rolled back onto the floor before he could be chucked off of the floating island. The statue then tried to jab at him with their palm facing upwards and the back of their hand practically scratching the ground. He jumped over and actually rolled onto the arm, only to be tossed into the air when they rapidly rose it and slammed with the force of a dozen trucks. He managed to put up his shield, but that really didn't help him considering he was midair. The saving grace was that he slammed his back into a glyph Winter spawned, causing him a bit more pain.

Better than falling the equivalent of twenty buildings, Jaune supposed.

'Thank the brothers for my monstrously high aura.' Seriously, he was actually feeling fine after getting slammed like that, minus the obvious pain that came from being hit that hard by something that large. But aura protected him from broken bones, popped organs, and other such damages.

Rolling back onto the ground, he saw that Winter and Qrow were dealing with a few of the other hands of the statue, dodging only to try and scale it. In fact, both of them were actually engaging it mid-air, with Qrow using his transformation to swerve between the strikes and Winter using her glyphs. Meanwhile, Jaune really didn't have any idea on how to deal with the statue.

As he dodged slams, strikes, thrusts, and punches, he began observing the statue. Ane then he noticed something, small cracks were on it. From its arm to its finger, he could see the slight slivers of lightning shaped shadow. He traced it to its source, where upon he saw a sword on one of its foreheads. He saw another in its rib. And a third on top of its head.

His mind raced for a moment. The thing was made out of solid metal. Even if gold was relatively softer than most, their weapons weren't going to be able to do much against it. But, if plunging the swords meant that they could widen the cracks in the statue, then it would be their only way of actually damaging the thing.

"Guys! Get the swords! I'll get the ribs!" He yelled himself hoarse as he picked up the pace of his sprint. His sword was useless, but he kept it out as he continued to run. His belts bobbed up and down, his hair went up with the wind as he sprinted and rolled to avoid another slam from the statue. Winter and Qrow got the message and began their work.

Qrow took the one on the top, while Winter decided to go for the forehead sword. Meanwhile, Jaune was still gaining ground. In Calm Waters, he leapt over craters and sprinted floors turned rubble. Adrenaline and aura were pumped into his legs as he desperately avoided the wild slamming of several giant golden arms. Qrow ran on the Golem's arms with vigor, Harbinger in hand, creating sparks as he charged up it. As it tried to slam him, he turned into a crow and narrowly avoided becoming soup.

Winter dashed from arm to air with the help of her glyphs, getting ever closer to the forehead where the sword lay.

Meanwhile, Jaune was actually able to get a good look at the sword stuck in its ribcage. It was of an ornate design, definitely old Valean. It was old, worn, and had a golden guard. It was actually chipped in a few placed, but Jaune ignored that fact in favor of charging at it.

With the slamming of his shield, he inserted the sword fully into the Golem's ribs. The cracks grew tenfold in size, causing a significant part of the Golem's golden shell to be discarded, revealing a massive skeleton. Winter had reached the forhead and hopped away from it, only to create a black glyph with the momentum. She then slid off of the glyph and let it hit the old Mantlese saber like a slingshot, fully inserting it as well. Another third of the gold faded into black dust.

Qrow reached the top and tried slamming the Mistralian katana on the forehead, but found that the Golem was about to slam him. So, he turned into a Qrow and barely dodged before realizing that in doing that, the Golem had just slammed the katana as well, fully inserting it. And with that, the last bits of gold had fully left.

And that left only the skeleton of the Golem. An old, withering, and tired skeleton. Its bones were fractured, many actually snapped. But it still burned with life. And it began to flail around wildly. Ribs detached and became giant javelins, fingers became spinning projectiles, shards of bone became flying razor blades. Jaune held up his shield, Winter held up a glyph, and Qrow just dodged each and every projectile that was shot their way.

And in the end, the Golem shot away most of its skeleton, leaving only a spine and skull. The last resort had failed, so the fire faded from the skeleton's eyes, the skull fell, and shattered on the floor. And with a sudden gust of wind and sand that blinded all of them, the grand dessert they were trapped in had disappeared. They were now in front of a large stone carving of the Vacuan people, no longer leaking Grimm tar.

And with that, the Vacuan quarter of Vytal Memorial Park had been cleared of its Grimm infestation.


AN: That's right, motherfucking beach episodeeeee~

Ok. This chapter was hell to write. Because I know jackshit about Vacuo, so I basically had to make up literally everything. Atlas I could easily pull on the 'military and imperialistic tendencies' angle while for Mistral there was the 'deep routed corruption' thing plus journey to the west/mythology references and I do still have plenty of ideas for Vale, but Vacuo? What the hell do I do?

Ignore me planting seeds for a far-off chapter.

Ok, ok, ok. So, yes, I promised you this wasn't caused by magic! And it isn't. Think the Nightmare from Ice Queendom except a bit weirder. But yea, these 4-5 chapters in Vytal kinda get trippy. Like, really trippy. As in I have trouble half the time reconciling the shit that happens.

Oh yea, political soapbox!

The Jacques Schnee form is inspired by Shido's golden lion in P5

Also, for the magic idea, I've decided on which character I want it to be. I'll give you a hint, it's not going to be an OC. Have fun speculating!

Oh yea, I'll have one more character join the party next chapter, mostly because Qrow & Winter interactions are getting a bit stale, at least for my tastes