And we're finally here! The long awaited chapter where I attempt to actually flesh out the fucking magic system. Now, at the very least, magic is a thing in canon, so I should have something to work off of.

(checks canon)

Oh no.


Oh wizard oh wizard, toucher of the stars,

Your eyes bleed as you force yourself to stare unblinking at the sun,

Your skin is flayed as you grasp the gifts of gods,

Your bones fracture as they bear the weight of your actions,

What lengths will you go to in order to satisfy your pride?


Jaune Arc was a man used to weird stuff. Darling was probably a sign of that if anything. So that's why he didn't immediately run the hell away when he saw a kid's arm and eye burning with green fire and bleeding heavily next to the blown up remains of a Beowolf. That's why his first response wasn't to freeze in shock, but to simply check for a pulse. And after checking the kid's not burning wrist, he found that there was one, if very weak.

What was even more odd was the fact that this kid had no aura.

Ah, whatever. Jaune shrugged and pumped a bit of his own in him. And immediately, an effect took place. Jaune felt like his soul had been latched onto and was being sucked up. The green fires grew and grew and grew, threatening to overtake both him and the kid, but it, like gelled hair under a comb, smoothed out and instead reeled back into the child's dark skin. Specifically, retracting back into the vein-like scars on his left arm. Now that he wasn't being consumed by flame, Jaune could get a clear look at the kid.

He was young, dark skin, short black hair, and just the barest marks of puberty. The marks on his left arm were odd because, for some reason, they didn't go further than the shoulder, as if they were cut off from spreading further. His pants were dark brown trousers with suspenders, customary for farmers around here. His shirt, or the remains of it, was white. But most of it had been burned up by the odd green flames that had been consuming him. Jaune noticed that the blood, which had been previously seeping into the dirt beneath them, was flowing backwards back into the kid.

He dully noted the oddity, but was more focused on the kid's wellbeing. Maybe his aura worked different with people who didn't have it unlocked. Maybe he had some special condition that made the blood literally crawl back into his veins. Well, at least his wounds were closing like normal, stitching themselves back up and leaving barely a trace afterwords. Now, Jaune was left with a small pubescent child in the middle of the Mistrali woods.

Jaune shrugged and decided to stick around, since the kid had regained his blood (which was curious inofitself), he should be regaining consciousness in a moment.

And on cue, the kid burst to life, sitting up and opening his eyes.

And there Jaune noticed a third oddity, well, fourth if he didn't count the green fire, the kid's left eye was cosmic, to say the least. It felt like Jaune was staring at a timelapse of the night sky. It was as if his eye was a constantly shaking fishbowl filled with grape juice and glitter. There was no white, no pupil, nothing. Just the universe itself. And the skin around the kid's eye had a scar, like it was scratched out by a singular jagged Beowolf claw. But unlike most who had those, the kid had an eye there.

"W-w-w-where am I?" The kid had noticed him and, after getting over the fact that he was half naked in the woods with a complete stranger wearing armor, had noticed that Jaune was staring. "AH! O-oh!" The kid grabbed the charred scraps of his shirt and tried to cover up his scarred arm, using his spare hand to cover his cosmic eye. "I-i-it's nothing, a birth mark! C-c-c-could you point me to the nearest town?"

"You were on fire." Any hopes of hiding the peculiarities of the situation were destroyed when Jaune said that.

"O-oh, uh, sorry for causing you trouble. What happened to the Beowolf?"

"It was dead when I arrived, blown up." The kid's eyes widened. "Anyways, what's your name?"

"O-oh, uh, Oscar Pine, sir." Oscar, as Jaune now knew him, gave an awkward smile as he scratched the back of his head. "W-who are you?"

"Jaune Arc, short, sweet, rolls of the tongue, ladies love it." A pause. "They don't, I don't know why I say that."

"Heh." Oscar snorted, even gave a short giggle at the corny introduction.

"Yea, it usually gets that reaction. Anyways, I'm a huntsman. So, do you mind telling me what's up with the green fire, the blood going back into your body, your weird arm, and your eye?" Oscar may or may not've tried to explain what was up with that, but it didn't matter as suddenly, a deck of cards by Jaune's side opened up. The faces on the many cards that flew out all held a manic smile, which converged into one as the female form of Darling burst out from the cyclone of hearts, diamonds, clubs, and spades.

"You've stumbled upon something so miraculous I could just kiss you!" Darling exclaimed, notably more excited than she normally was. Hell, she seemed on the verge of exploding with delight. To back that up, she actually did kiss Jaune, swiftly stealing his first. Though Jaune probably wouldn't tell anyone about it, mostly because it'd be hard to explain who the hell Darling was. "Do you know how lucky YOU ARE!?" Darling's smiles were manic before, but Jaune was fairly sure it wasn't normal, even for her, to have jackpots in her eyes. The cards on her suit had all flipped to joker, and the roulette wheel pin by her breast pocket had stopped, the ball falling on a lucky slot.

"Eh, what?" Oscar was paralyzed, but Jaune was far more (to a degree that Oscar considered insane) relaxed about the whole thing.

"It may have been thousands upon thousands of years since I last seen one, but I'm sure, this boy is a magus!" Jaune raised an eyebrow, what the fuck did that mean? "He's a wizard, Jaune." After that helpful note, she went on to explain why he should care, as if reading Jaune's dry internal commentary. "Don't you know? Magi are some of the most suicidally curious people on the face of the planet! Back in the age of magic I've had countless aspiring researchers of the arcane gambling with their money, their belongings, their lives, THEIR SOULS, all to learn the mystic arts, all to get an edge in the ever-creeping arms race that was magic back then. They all wanted power, artifacts, my blessings, and they were all so driven and committed to such a course as to be willing to literally offer up the ENTIRETY OF THEIR BEING FOR IT!" Darling was laughing mad at the prospect of a magus existing once more.

And now Jaune understood why. If Jaune was practically suicidal in how he bet his soul to protect others, wizards were doubly so in the pursuit of arcane knowledge.

"U-uh, y-y-y-you know other m-magic users?"

"Oh." Darling seemed, melancholic, for once. Though, Jaune noted that it was likely because she lost many good sources of entertainment. "Yes, I did, once. But, they're a dying breed, I could count how many I know of on one hand. That doesn't change with your existence, young magus." Darling sighed. "But, I must admit, this is quite the curious thing, a magus in the modern day. The ones I know of have lived for thousands of years, what's a child like you doing with the power of the arcane?"

"O-oh!" The spotlight shifted to Oscar, who chafed under the sudden pressure of 2 pairs of eyeballs. "U-u-uh, well, a month ago, I was out exploring a-and, well, I got lost. I found these t-t-things in a cave and decided to bring them back. But I was attacked and well, blacked out. W-when I woke up, I had this arm, this eye, and was lying in a giant crater still smouldering." That was very odd, to say the least. Though Jaune showed no outward surprise other than a raised eyebrow.

He was way too used to weird crap, wasn't he?

"Hmmm, curious. It seems that you've found the remains of an old magus. And it seems that, in response to you being in mortal danger, the latent powers in it latched onto you and replaced parts of your body. To be specific, the bones in your left arm-" Darling pointed her finger at the appendage in question. "-And your left eye."

This was going to take up his week, wasn't it?

"U-u-uh, could you teach me how to use this magic?"

Darling paused, as if hearing something absurd. And then, she started to laugh uproariously. "No, no, no, no I can't. I may grant power, yes, but Jaune here can provide that to you without you needing to put a terrible wager. But for knowledge, I'm out."

"What." Jaune paused and turned to Darling, inquisitive once more. "Aren't you a deity?"

"Jaune, I am. But magic as Oscar, as he calls himself, may use it is a human invention. I've never bothered to learn human magecraft because, well." Darling snapped and with the sound of a die being roll, the bark of the trees nearby all peeled off and faded to ash. "I'm far too powerful to care."

"W-wait, then w-why would anyone gamble?"

"My blessing, of course. They wanted a piece of my power. Fools gambled with Lady Luck to harness fortune itself into their spells. But those people were archmages, people who actively sought out the powers of gods, or spirits, you may say. Beginning magi focused on manipulating their own power or the power immediately close to them rather than trying to grab powers far beyond them." Darling rolled her eyes, as if this was all obvious. Oscar bit his thumb a bit before Jaune realized something.

"Darling, do you have any magical textbooks in that vault of yours?" She had a lot of weird shit. And if Jaune ever wanted anything, he'd have to gamble for it. And she knew it, from the way her eyes gleamed at the question.

"Why, what a marvelous question." Darling had anticipated this, either that or she was about to suggest it herself. "I may, but, now, why would I give it to you?" Darling's smile was smug and annoying. "Why you, and not this delicious new treat?" Jaune sighed as Darling turned to face Oscar with a sadistic grin, earning a blush from the boy. Which was fairly creepy considering Oscar was like, 15? 13? 14? 14 it is. Then again, Jaune was 17 and Darling was like, millions of years old, so it would be creepy regardless.

"She wants you to gamble for it."

"Oh!" Oscar sighed, his blush abated. "Like, pachinko?"

"Eh, I suppose." Darling shrugged. She flicked her hands and manifested a few stray pieces of worn out paper half desecrated with fruit juice (and Jaune could tell it was fruit juice) tied up with some twine. "This is the prize, the class notes of a lazy mage who thought gambling with me was a good idea. It should be good enough for you, no?"

Oscar nodded, curiosity very clear. Jaune could understand that much. If he had a mysterious powers, he'd be chomping at the bit at the prospect of learning more about them. As Oscar and Darling decided on the game, Jaune decided to (after making sure Oscar was only betting some lien he had on him and not his soul) check his scroll for a bit. He was still close enough to the CCT to get a good enough signal, so he was browsing some pictures that his family had sent him.

Well, his family, Qrow, Winter, Talos, and a few other people he'd met so far. It was good to keep in contact, he supposed. Though he could do without Qrow and Winter recreating scenes from comedies in the group chat the three of them had.

Who thought that'd be a good idea, again?

"HUH!?" Well that was a rare sight, Jaune mused as he looked up to see Darling absolutely flabbergasted as a shogi board lay in front of her, with her having been beaten in a close match against Oscar. Jaune smiled, he knew enough about shogi to know that Oscar had did some clever things in order to get checkmate. "W-well, deal's a deal, I guess." Darling handed over the notes before hobbling back into her deck. Jaune had enough sympathy to give a comforting smile and pat on the head to the luck deity as she went back in before he turned towards Oscar, who was straightening the notes and pouring over them carefully.

"Well, what does it say?" Jaune sat down by a newly barkless tree as Oscar scanned the notes.

"Well, it's a basic theory on magic. Magic energy, or 'Mana' as it is commonly called, exists as a thing within us, it says."

"Like aura?" Jaune also wondered how aura would react to any of this. Should he unlock Oscar's aura? He probably should, now that Jaune was thinking about it.

"Yes, kind of? Well, this energy exists in all of us." So that explained why Jaune's aura was sucked up by Oscar, it was actually compatible with Oscar's magic. "But the ability to do magic is the capability to convert this energy into a tangible effect." Oscar blinked before reading that sentence again. "That's vague."

"Huh, so like a video game?"

"Yea! Like a video game. Let's see, what else is here? Oh, note from nurse. It says that this Ozma guy was lucky that his reckless channeling only resulted in Arcane Vein, rather than his arm blowing up." Oscar blinked before looking at his left arm.

"Was that there before?"

"No, it was-" Oscar's eyes widened. "It was only after I used magic! That must be what Arcane Vein is. And if I'm correct in thinking what channeling is, maybe these Arcane Veins are scars from when I overloaded by body with magic to kill that Beowolf!" Jaune thought that through and nodded, it was a solid theory, being entirely honest.

"You're good at this." Jaune offered an honest smile to the boy, who simply stared at him in response, a subtle blush creeping upon his cheeks. Oscar quickly noticed and coughed.

"Sorry, not used to that." Oscar turned back to the notes. "Unfortunately, most of this is covered in fruit juice and illegible." Fruit juice, Jaune internally swore. "But there is a basic idea on channeling and circuits. It says here that channeling is the act of directing the latent magic energies inside into a single point or points. And circuits are purposefully made pathways that the energy flows through to make an effect. You know how some swords have engravings?"

"Wait, those aren't just for show!?" Jaune blinked, that was a surprise.

"Yea! It says here on the paper that engravings can make swords do things like drain blood, light on fire, and even secrete poison. And these circuits are usually created in an act called inscribing. Most of the time, inscribing is done either permanently with engravings or temporarily with things like chalk or ink, or lead I guess. But apparently, the really really skilled wizards are able to cast without those, either inscribing their body or other objects only using their internal control of their own magic or inscribing the air before them." That brought to mind Winter's glyphs.

"Is there anything else?" Jaune was curious, to say the least.

"No, not anything useful. Just a bunch of theories and ideas and some other notes, nothing on the basics." Oscar scowled as he rummaged through them. It was only after he sighed and put it down did he realize he was shirtless. "Ah!"

Jaune chuckled at the bashful display. "Don't worry, the Beowolves wouldn't care much." And then, Jaune realized something. "By the way, Oscar, where's your home?"

"Oh, it's just some small place, really doesn't matter." Oscar brushed it off easily.

"Oscar, how far away from home are you?"

"... A few miles." Jaune facepalmed, well this was a familiar situation, wasn't it?

"Jeez. Well, what are we going to do now?"

"Huh?" Oscar's eyes widened in shock.

"I want to learn more about magic and you want to learn more about magic. I also don't want to see you mauled by a beowolf. So, what do you say?" Jaune offered an excited smile to Oscar, who didn't blink for a rather unhealthy amount of time before something approaching a smile graced his face.

"O-oh, uh, sure!?" Despite the hesitancy, Oscar did seem genuinely glad Jaune was joining the ride.

"Now, where is the nearest town? I'm hungry."


Inaba was a rather stable town in Mistral. It was closer to central Anima, so it was under the banner of protection from the Mistrali council. Its main purpose was farming, of course. Vast amounts of what was in and even out of the town walls were farmlands. Terraces on the wet hills and ankle deep flooded plains filled with growing rice covered the area. In the center was the main part of town, the developed part of town, and the part of town where Jaune and Oscar were not at the moment. Instead, after loaning Oscar his hoodie, they had gotten some new clothes for the boy.

Now he was wearing a lot of medical gauze around his left arm and a medical eyepatch. Oh yea, Jaune also got him a shirt.

"I feel like a stereotype," Oscar whined as his peculiar look earned a few stares.

"At least you aren't in full armor." Jaune sighed. "I'm lucky I have ice dust in here, or else I'd be known as the Sweat Knight." Jaune chuckled a bit as he looked down to the other stuff Oscar had insisted on getting, more specifically, a small carving knife, some chalk, a pen, and a compass. "Anyways, what're those for?"

"Huh?" Oscar quickly recovered as he stared down at the items in hand. More specifically, the knife and the compass. "Oh, the last of the papers contained this blueprint for something. It's called an Origin Tracker. The idea is that the item inscribled, which has to be metal, will, when provided with another 'broken' item and magic energy, will track the missing pieces of the item." Jaune repeated that sentence in his head until he dumbed it down to a 'find your scroll app.'

"And you need to inscribe the compass needle?" Oscar nodded. "Interesting, well, you probably won't need my help, unless you want energy."

"Oh yea, you said you can give aura?"

"It's my semblance." And it was a good one. What use was speed or strength if they didn't allow him to heal the injured?

"Hmmm, well it looks like either aura is magical energy, or the bones in here converted your aura to magical energy." Either one was plausible. And with that little bit of speculation out of the way, Oscar got to work with inscribing the little compass needle. The problem was that, he was on a bench, his hands were shaky, and he clearly was not used to using a knife. He actually cut himself a few times in the process. After a few incidents where Jaune had to apply his semblance like a band-aid, Oscar had made his first iteration of the Origin Tracker, with the inscribed compass needle placed neatly back into the compass.

And when, even underneath all that wrapping, the Arcane Veins on Oscar's left arm glowed, but it didn't burst into flames. Instead, Oscar focused the energy through his fingers, creating temporary circuits that flowed through his fingertips and into the compass.

But the metal of the compass didn't have any circuits, but there was an avaliable one nearby. So the mystical green drilled through the metal of the compass' outer shell, creating vein-like markings as it went. And when it reached the needle, it began to spin.

Both Oscar and Jaune's eyes widened as they saw it, if all was well, then it'd stop spinning, and allow Oscar to place the item that needs tracking.

And then the needle promptly shattered, with the Compass tearing itself apart, with the Veins in particular being the weak points in which the metal separated. There was silence for a moment as the Knight and Magus stared at Oscar's empty hand which once carried the arcane object.

"GODAMNIT!" The frustration from his numerous screw-ups during inscription combined with the effort already put in welled up into a single burst of rage from Oscar as he threw his hand down, though he no longer had an item to throw.

"Woah, calm down." Jaune offered a comforting smile as Oscar seethed on the bench, arms withdrawn and legs closed tight. "Look, Oscar, look." Oscar, reluctantly, did look at Jaune. "It's alright, we're behind safe walls, failure is ok. And you only just learned what inscribing is, your first try probably was going to be a failure. Even this person made mistakes, see?" Jaune pointed at the nurse's note from before. Holding his breath, Jaune waited for what Oscar was going to say in response to his plea.

The boy sighed. "Sorry."

"It's ok to be frustrated, but remember, nobody starts good at anything. God knows I was terrible when I was starting out."

"Were you a bad student in combat school?"

"Eh, I was trained by a huntsman." Jaune decided to, for once, not mention the fact he had started only a year or so ago. "I was pretty bad when I started as well." Oscar didn't seem to believe him. To be fair, on their way to Inaba, Jaune had slaughtered one or two Beowolves that had tried to kill them on the way back with relative ease. Though Jaune did take a few hits, mostly to cover for Oscar. "I almost died too many times to count." Jaune, as he was, could only laugh at those memories. It really was the only way to look at it back then, it was really only him in danger, so he didn't feel bad about it. "One time, I was hit in the ass by a Beowolf, couldn't walk the entire day, even with aura."

Oscar, despite himself, found it in him to chuckle. "Alright, alright, I get it." Jaune smiled and rubbed Oscar's hair, an old instinct from his family life and interacting with his little sisters.

"Good, let's take a break, alright?" Oscar raised an eyebrow. "I meant getting some more food than these snacks." Jaune pointed to the empty bag of chips they had been eating. "Plus, we can always try using magic on other things. I'm wonder how they'd interact with plants."

"Huh, good question."


"Hmmmm, this is bad." Indeed it was, the two of them were in a situation most perturbing indeed. One might say that they had put themselves into a Morton's Fork, or have fallen prey to a Xanatos Gambit. There were many choices presented to them, but all of them lead to a disastrous outcome. The odds were stacked against them, or, they normally would be. But Oscar had an idea, an idea that might save them after all and lead them to the best outcome they could feasibly manage.

"Yes, it looks like we'll run out of Lien without even getting one prize." They were at a claw machine in an arcade in Inaba's inner walls. Arcades weren't rare, with various games in small towns being good stress-relievers. But prize games were, given the nature of their maintenance and how much it'd cost to import good prizes. Inaba, being a large farming town that is nearby a major trading road and with a major shipping river system running through it, didn't have that same problem. An arcade in it could afford to have a claw machine.

Well, just to be sure, it looked like they oiled the claws.

Either way, the two of them had their eyes set on a Hellion figurine, Hellion being a rather famous anime from a few decades back about a mischievous young man's high school days. Unfortunately, Jaune was running out of lien. Fortunately, Oscar had an idea.

"On the Origin Tracker, there's this inscription called a Binding Glyph, which is combined with a focal point, that's whatever you want to track, and a few modifiers to produce a tracking effect. If I use my magic, I may be able to produce a Binding Glyph on the claw to make it stick." Oscar's idea received a nod from Jaune, who stared intently at the Hellion figurine of the eponymous Hellion, Haru. Coral and him had watched that series a lot when they were younger and he held an appreciation for the gremlin.

"Hmmm, it's a bit risky. What if you blow something up?" Oscar shook his head.

"That'll only happen if I put too much energy, like how overloading my arms caused Arcane Vein. The problem is trying to control my mana in order to inscribe with it. Because I can't touch the claw, I have to let my mana creep through the machine." Like a snake or a parasite, Jaune supposed. Oscar then pulled out a small piece of paper to try it. Though it was dimmer, the Arcane Veins on Oscar's left arm glowed green as small amount of energy was pumped into the piece of paper. At first, it was like a drop of dye splashing in water, but then the dim green's edges became rigid on the scrap of scripture.

It shifted and bent and changed, though in the center of the lines the paper began to char. After a moment of effort, Oscar actually managed to create a Binding Glyph that he put a little more energy into before slapping his hands together. When Oscar tried to pull them apart, he was met with fierce resistance.

For about a second, where upon the paper was overwhelmed by the strain and promptly burnt up.

Still, it proved Oscar's hypothesis.

"Good job!" Jaune smiled as he flipped out another Lien coin to slam into the claw machine. "Now, as soon as you manage to make the Binding Glyph, I'll start. Don't stop until it's right above the chute, alright?"

"Alright!" Oscar rolled up his sleeves, exposing just the barest hints of his Arcane Veins on his shoulder, and put a hand at the side of the Claw Machine. Using some knowledge of the inner working from when he got bored and searched random stuff up, Oscar slowly pushed his mana through the non-visible parts of the machine. Eventually, it tapped the roof and crept into the claw itself. All the while, Oscar burnt mana pushing and guiding the metaphorical worm through the machine.

But he pushed on as he began to make the Binding Glyph on the insides of the claws, that was the easy part, he thought. So, he shaped the temporary glyphs. Jaune noticed Oscar's weak thumbs up and smiled before pushing the coin in and rapidly moving the claw. Jaune vaguely knew that Oscar couldn't keep this up forever, so he aimed and aimed before slamming the button and letting the claw fall down.

The prongs gripped the sides of the box, but instead of slipping away, the glyphs held on.

As they raised, Oscar felt the resistance of gravity, but he held on anyways, pushing just a bit more mana through the improvised circuit to reach the glyph on the claw. In hindsight, Oscar would see that the process was inefficient, because his overly long circuit (that he made for the sake of not getting caught or causing any outward damages) sacrificed some power along the way due to resistance in the material.

But, it didn't matter, because in the end, their efforts were rewarded as the box for the figurine of Haru plopped down the chute and hit the floor. With a goofy grin, Jaune reached his hand through the flap and brought it out, showing it to Oscar.

"Great job," Jaune said, offering a high five to Oscar.

"Thanks," Oscar replied with a weak grin.

Jaune would notice and treat the two of them to a meal later in the food court nearby.


"Hmmm, what's your home like?" Jaune decided to ask. He was feeling socialable at the moment as he licked his ice cream. It was hot that day and they were outside. Oscar hummed as he ate his ice cream out of a cup with as spoon (Heresy, Jaune noted), considering the question in full.

"It's fine, Auntie is nice." Oscar didn't know what else to say.

"Live out in the countryside?"

"A small farm. It's between some army outposts, we're safe." Well that was good to know, Jaune supposed. Though he has heard rumors of how shaky those defenses could be at the edges of Mistral's influence. "We farm corn, mostly. The area isn't wet enough for rice and corn's in high enough demand. Would've preferred growing rice, though. At least then my feet would be cooled in the water." Oscar sighed, they weren't exactly rich enough to afford a big harvester. So, Oscar and his aunt had to manually harvest the corn with their scythes.

"Huh, that sounds quaint." And even though there was a vast difference between Jaune and Oscar in both actual distance of their homes on top of financial difference, Jaune could see a faint similarity in the life Oscar was describing with life back at the vineyard.

"Yea, it was." Oscar smiled. "It wasn't always easy, but it was quiet. And, it was nice."

"Do you miss it?" Jaune decided to ask. On one hand, Jaune really should've pushed Oscar to go back home. But in all honestly, he couldn't. He really couldn't. Because if he did and Raiden caught wind, even if the chances were as high as Jaune somehow becoming King of Vale, Raiden would stop at nothing to hunt Jaune down and kick his ass for being a stupid hypocrite. And if anything, Jaune feared-

Well, ok he was scared of a lot. His colleagues might even say his fears were irrational and honestly unnoticeable, but they were very present. But beyond fearing Grimm, heights, the ocean, Bullheads, and a whole list of things, Jaune feared incurring the wrath of his very determined mentor.

Anyways, on the other hand, Jaune was very understandably worried that Oscar, someone about the age of a middle schooler, was going on a very dangerous journey to uncover the mysteries of magic with him. As Jaune was having those thoughts, Oscar was having his own, pondering that question.

"A bit," He finally decided on. "Though I'm pretty sure Auntie won't miss that I'm gone." Oscar gave a self-deprecating smile to Jaune, one that felt natural, yet filled Jaune with a sense of sorrow as he looked at it. "I'm like, 14. It's not like I helped that much in the field."

Jaune didn't know what to say, so he didn't say anything. Instead, he moved on.

"Say, how do you think your magic will work with plants?"

"Huh?"

"Plants. Can you like, take life from plants to convert it into mana?" It was a thing in video games, though Jaune suspected that it was a complicated thing here. Oscar thought to the glyphs he had read about before shaking his head.

"No, I don't know about that. Though, let me see how my mana works with a living thing." The two of them had been walking down the rural side of Inaba, outside the inner walls but inside the outer walls, where safe farmland lay. Oscar slid down a hill and, with his left hand, caressed a rice plant. Jaune hopped down and knelt to see the results as Oscar's Arcane Veins glowed a familiar green.

The magic slowly flowed into the plant, causing it to glow slightly as the magic coursed through its veins. But at a point, the pumping rate was too much and the plant's veins burst, killing it instantly.

"Huh, that's what happens." Jaune noted internally to never let Oscar do that to him.

"Hmmm, it looks like the power is put into the plant like storage, but if its overcharged, it explodes." Oscar thought really carefully before snapping. "Hey, I got an idea."

"Really?"

"Yea! For an attack, it's really cool. Could I have a bit of aura?" Oscar looked a bit tired, so Jaune relented and pumped a bit of his into Oscar. And with that, Oscar put his hand to the ground. His Arcane Veins started glowing once more as mana was pumped into the floor. Magic circuits spread out, but changed course mid-way, directing themselves to a singular point. And suddenly, the circuits began to glow bright and brighter, until the point where all the routes converge exploded, cracking the ground in the dark green blast. Though there were small explosions in the ground near Oscar, the majority of the power went towards the targeted area.

"Huh." That was, versatile, to say the least. And it looked to be rather easy to do. Oscar managed to remedy his lack of knowledge regarding specific inscriptions by simply using what tool he had, the ability to direct power, with the knowledge that overload meant combustion, and made use of it. "That was g-OSCAR!?" Unfortunately, it took so much energy, that Oscar fainted from the fatiguing shock.


"Ok, we should really stop using magic so liberally." Jaune sighed, he probably shouldn't have pushed Oscar to use it as he had. Oscar sheepishly chuckled from his bench as he sipped on a jelly pouch (something Jaune snatched from a convenience store so Oscar could refill his energy) "Anyways, why do you use so much energy?"

"Oh, the bones are just what's allowing me to use magic. Apparently I don't have what's called a mana core to generate any mana. So, my left arm has been converting energy into mana." It took Jaune a few seconds before a thought came to mind.

"What about aura?"

"Huh?"

"Since you can use my aura for magic, if you had your aura, you could use it as a makeshift mana core, right?" The idea was solid, Oscar admitted. Plus, it wouldn't hurt to have aura.

"I guess?"

"Why don't you have aura, anyways? Wouldn't it make farming easier?"

Oscar shrugged. "It's expensive. The crops let us afford meals and taxes, but it doesn't give us enough savings to unlock our auras. Plus, the paperwork and fines we'd have to pay would make it even more costly." Ah, that made sense.

"Why don't I unlock yours?"

"Huh?"

"Why don't I unlock your aura?"

"F-for free?"

"Uh, yea?" Jaune raised an eyebrow.

"Are you sure?"

"Pretty sure."

"U-uh, alright then?" Oscar seemed hesitant, for some reason. Jaune remembered that Oscar still had a home life, and it'd probably be hard to explain to his aunt how he got his aura unlocked. Then again, it'd be hard for him to explain the portal to the cosmos in his eye socket and the welts on his arm.

"You know, if your aunt asks, you can always say you got it from a wandering huntsman who was feeling generous. She'll probably let it go."

"Huh?" Oscar paused for a moment before realizing something. "Oh! Yea, sure. Well, go ahead I guess?" And with that, Jaune shrugged away his hesitations and put in his all to unlocking Oscar's aura.

"For it is in wandering that we achieve immortality. Through this, we piece the remnants of our souls together to become whole once more. Infinite in distance and unbound by walls, I release your soul, and by my shoulder, set thee free." And with that little touch, a pale green light enveloped Oscar. He felt weak in the knees, shaky. Those words, so little, so freely spoken, held a weight to them. They felt both like burdens and liberators that awakened something deep in his heart.

Something that was now protecting him and feeding into his left arm.

"Woah." Oscar didn't notice that his eyes were wide, unblinking. He looked down at himself, noticing how he was passively using his aura already from the pale green glow he was giving off.

"Yep, that's aura alright." Jaune sighed, that took a bit out of him. "Now, what do we do?"

"Huh?"

"We can't stay in Inaba forever. Might as well get to work on the Origin Tracker." Oscar blinked before nodding and pulling out a second compass they had bought in town. Before starting, Oscar thought about what exactly the problem was.

It was his shaky hands. The compass needle was so small that he'd constantly mess up with his knife.

So, as they sat on a stone table in a park, Oscar placed the needle on the table surface before using his left hand to create a binding glyph under it. As he casually supplied it with minimal amounts of mana, Oscar pulled out the carving knife and got to work. All the while, Jaune watched as Oscar put his all into carving it out. Circuits, Glyphs, Sigils, and all sorts of inscriptions were made on the small needle. And after Oscar was done with that, he'd gotten to work creating circuits in the compass itself, so his mana wouldn't have to force itself through the metal. He made shallow cuts, but those were enough.

And all the while, his unlocked soul churned and festered, the drain on his mana keeping pace with the regeneration of his aura, leaving him free to not worry about collapsing from exhaustion. Jaune decided to look through Calm Waters at Oscar and actually saw ripples traveling through his entire body. Ripple flowing out from his heart and towards his left arm and dipping onto the table before fitting into the ridges of the binding glyph.

After what felt like an hour of silence as Oscar worked, he had done it, he had created an origin tracker. Tenatively, he held it with his left arm, and pushed just a bit of his mana into it, with his aura now working as a functional mana core to supply energy for the endeavor.

And the needle began to spin and spin. The hairs on the back of their necks were on end, but eventually, the compass slowed down, and stopped spinning. And the inscriptions were still glowing.

It had worked.

"Brothers." Oscar was whispering, in awe of his achievement.

"Yea." Jaune had no other words. Oscar blinked and hurriedly used his free hand to rip just the tip of one of the notes and placed it in the compass.

And the comapss needle began to spin once more, until it pointed east, where the rest of the paper was.

"It works." Oscar mumbled. That was the final straw. He put down the Origin Tracker, shutting down the circuit, put his hands together, and took a deep breath. "IT WORKS!"

"YEA!" Jaune and Oscar shared a high five that left both (mostly Oscar's) hands stinging. "Alright! We're on the right track. So, what do we do with it?" That really was the question.

"Well, using this, I should be able to sense multiple origins. So we just have to look for the second closest one to find more of these papers!" Oscar was smiling, this was exciting. The world was their oyster, magic was real! And he had it! And he did it!

"Ooh, try it, try it!" With Jaune's encouragement, Oscar held onto the compass and pumped some of his mana into it. His eyes were closed in focus as he tried to feel out the Origin Tracker as if it was a new body part.

"Ok, ok, I can sense a big one nearby, that's the papers. B-but, there's also a few nearby ones. Annnnnndddd, got it!" The compass needle swerved to a different direction. "This is the second closest one. Though it's still a while away."

"Alright! Let's head out!"

"Yea!" Oscar's enthusiasm, sadly enough to Jaune, would not last.


"Why does travelling suck so much!?" Oscar whined for what felt like the tenth time that hour. To be fair, Jaune remembered complaining just as much, if not more to Raiden. Half of the time it was complaints about the lack of sleeping bags, a quarter surrounded the quality of food, and the rest were just assorted features of Raiden's style of traveling that Jaune took issue with at the time. "My back aches, my feet are on fire, and I haven't had water since lunch." Jaune chucked a canteen at Oscar. "Thank you," he said with a voice muffled by said canteen.

"Sorry Oscar, it's just how I roll." A beat. "Or well, not roll. Walk. But roll sounds better, doesn't it?" Jaune happily hummed as he walked. To be fair, if he didn't have aura and wasn't used to walking all the freaking time, he definitely would've had the same complaints. Fortunately for him (and unfortunately for Oscar) he was very used to walking long distances at a steady rate. "If it helps, your aura should be helping you."

"It should!?" Oscar groaned again, yet another thing he was doing wrong. "How? Please, if it makes my feet hurt less, tell me." Oscar was practically begging at that point and Jaune didn't make it a habit to enjoy groveling.

That was Winter's thing, as Qrow helpfully pointed out before being kicked in the shin.

"Yea. You know how your push your aura into your left arm?"

"Well, I push mana. My aura is either compatible or is converted into mana. But, what about it?"

"Put a bit of aura into your feet. You can't do magic with it, but you sure can make your feet hurt a lot less." If Jaune was remembering Raiden's occasional rants correctly, that technique was called fortification. It was common in every country's Auric Arts and similar enough in each. Oscar blinked at the relative simplicity and tried just that.

"Woah!"

"Yea, feels tingly, doesn't it?" Oscar was actually holding himself back from laughing from the feeling of relief, which just so happened to feel like his feet were being intensely tickled. After a moment, Oscar calmed down and began walking again. Fortification may have slowed down aura regeneration, but it was a passive thing, something that really wasn't all that noticeable unless you really needed to regenerate your aura.

"Alright, let's get going then!"

Jaune smiled at Oscar's renewed optimism as they walked on. The two of them were following the direction the Origin Tracker pointed them towards. To save on energy, they were just following in the vague direction while occasionally checking the compass to make sure they were going in the right direction. Anyways, there was also another part of traveling that made it incredibly rare.

The Grimm.

"OH FUCK!" Oscar began running as a Boarbatusk thought it'd be a good idea to go after the unarmed (Jaune knew he was forgetting something!) farmboy instead of the fully armored knight who was dealing with a Beowolf. Perhaps it was.

Ok, it really wasn't. Jaune boosted into the Boarbatusks side, flipped it over with a kick, and stabbed its soft underside.

Jaune admitted internally that using his booster legs were probably unnecessary, given how it used much more aura than he would've lost otherwise. Then again, Oscar was being chased, so speed was the name of the game. The boy in question was keeled over panting as he recovered from that brief chase as Jaune shot a flare right into the Beowolf's eye before running it through with Crocea Mors. His adrenaline levels dipped as he did so, his brain automatically registering the threats as gone.

Apparently, it was a common thing. It let feelings easily picked up by the Grimm die before the fight that had just ended could escalate further. It also stopped people from making brash decisions in the heat of the moment right after the 'moment' had passed.

"Thanks!" Oscar said with a strained voice and a weak thumbs up. As Oscar caught his breath, Jaune leaned against a tree and fiddled with Crocea Mors. "How do you do that?" Oscar decided to ask after he'd mostly recovered.

"Do what?"

"That! Like, swinging your sword so fast and stuff."

"Oh, training. Also, the dust infused armor helps with moving fast. Otherwise, you actually could outrun me." Yea, the armor made him super heavy.

"Oh great." Oscar sighed. "You know, I thought I wouldn't get winded from running but, well, here we are!" Oscar chuckled to himself before getting up with a sigh. For the sake of not impeding on his visuals, he had taken off the eyepatch, with his 'evil' eye (as Jaune jokingly called it) exposed for the world to see.

"Hmmm."

"Eh?"

"What does it feel like, looking through that eye?"

"Huh? Oh, it feels normal, why?" Oscar tried looking soley through it.

"Eh, just wondering. Maybe that's just a version of, what was it called? Arcane Vein?"

"Yea, that's what I was thinking. But that means there's an inscription that would be specific enough to work for the eyes. Maybe it's some sort of enhanced vision? Or maybe vision displacement, like setting a glyph and using it as a sort of camera that can be seen through." Oscar rattled off various little ideas he had but didn't know exactly if they were possible. "Though it doesn't explain why my eye doesn't have like a character on it and instead looks like this."

"A mystery to be sure."


"Woahhhh." It was night, the blanket of darkness had enveloped the Animan countryside and silence overtook the wild once more. The creatures of the wild, the wolves, the squirrels, the bugs, the bears, and almost every living being went to sleep as the sun went down. Bats and some other nocturnal bugs stayed awake and, of course, the Grimm stayed up, vigilant as ever, prowling the roads in search of some unlucky human up past their bed time. But for Jaune and Oscar, they were resting on a hill. It was high up, so they could catch whatever Grimm would try and sneak up on them, and it was also the best place to see the night sky.

And what a sight it was. Without the pollution created by larger towns or the kingdom walls, the night sky was unobstructed, letting them see the swirling soup of black, blue, and purple. The stars were pins of white that shone even lightyears away.

"Yep, here it is. The great big expanse above." Jaune had the back of his head cradled in his palms as he stared upwards. The weight of his armor, of his fatigue, of his sword, of the world, all of it was forgotten in just a moment in the moment for a moment of sheer bliss.

"Huh, there's Anitquity! She was a book keeper whose spirit fused with a library, turning her soul into the great archive." Oscar pointed to a small batch of stars that, if Jaune connected the dots, kind of looks like a lady reading a book. "And there's half of the Inaba Pharmacy! It was torn apart when the moon shattered." Oscar pointed towards one of the moon shards.

"Hey, Oscar?"

"Yea?" Though Jaune couldn't see, he could tell Oscar had a bright big smile on his face.

"What's the story of those stars?" Jaune pointed in a vague direction, curious as to how many of these things were simply records of the past, or were viewed that way.

"Those? Oh, that one. The big purple supernova, Ahriman." Oscar shivered. "That's where the god of evil sleeps. His presence still leaks over here, causing all the ills of the world." Oscar sighed.

"Hey, Oscar?"

"Yea?"

"How do you know all of this?"

"..." Oscar blinked, Jaune knew. "I-I don't know." Oscar was now looking at his hands in confusion, then at the stars. He muttered as his eyes darted from constellation to constellation, with his left eye perfectly encapsulating the stars in his eye. "I-it's like I've always known this, like I know who each star is, their story. I-i-i-it's, what is this?" Oscar was rifling through memories somehow new and old. It was a surreal experience, to say the least.

"Hey, you good?" Jaune put a hand on Oscar's shoulder, pushing a bit to make sure the boy was alright.

"Y-yea, I'm good. Sorry, that was just really overwhelming." His breathing slowly was calming down from that panicked high as he fully comprehended this new knowledge of his. "... Hey Jaune?"

"Yea?"

"What do you think magic is?"

"Hmm?"

"Like, why did we have it? What's its nature?" Curiosity welled up in Oscar, but some questions remained unsaid.

"Hmmm, I dunno." Jaune shrugged.

"Eh?"

"I mean, magic isn't all that different from a semblance, right? The only real difference I can think of is in versatility. But, my point is, I could ask the same question about my power. Why was I given the ability to transfer aura? Why not the ability to shoot lasers or something? It'd make for way more entertaining stories. Why was one of my friends cursed with bad luck? I could ask it over and over, but until we meet the person who gave us these abilities, I don't think we'll get an answer. So, no matter what purpose it had before, I'll use my powers to help those in need." Jaune paused to yawn, his eyes slowly closing as he drifted off to sleep. "You make the powers, you make its purpose."

"Really?" Oscar waited for confirmation, for approval, for something, but Jaune was asleep. Oscar was left with an answer, one telling him that there was none.


Beringels were a pain to fight, Jaune internally noted. There were a variety of factors that made them multitudes more deadly than your average Beowolf. Factor number one?

"GOD DAMNIT!" Jaune's sword barely made it a quarter of an inch into the Beringel's thick and very tough flesh. It felt like he was trying to cut jerky with a butter knife instead of using an aura-sharpened Crocea Mors against what should've been easily cut Grimm flesh. Beringels were just absurdly tough and the only places Jaune knew could be even remotely considered 'weak points' were its 'joints'. More specifically, the areas of connection between its forearms and arms, its arms and torso, its torso and legs, and its head and its body. But the problem with trying to target those were-

"OW! OW! OW!" The Beringel was fast enough to immediately avoid whatever attack he put out and slam him so hard that he was very sure his back would've broken. Oscar was staying back, keeping eyes wide and alert to make sure no other Grimm came by. But with the intense pain Jaune was currently dealing with, he wasn't sure this would stay a 1v1 very long.

"Uh, Jaune?"

"I'm in a fight, Oscar!" Jaune spoke with a hurried and annoyed tone. And even though Oscar flinched at the bite in Jaune's voice, he knew that the anger wasn't directed at the farmhand.

"Owwwww." Factor number two, Beringels hit like trucks. Even with Jaune's absurd amount of aura, it did nothing to dampen the intense pain he felt all over his body. Hell, it probably made it worse, giving him more endurance and thus, a larger capacity for pain. And that meant he had to endure worse and worse pain the more he fought the bloody gorilla.

The 'fight' was just him defending with his shield and stabbing at the Beringel while hoping that it'd give him an opening. This one was definitely an older Beringel, it was missing an eye and there were a plethora of glowing red scars across its body, so it wouldn't make the mistakes a younger one might, like throwing an overextended punch. It also wasn't about to make a mistake like giving a huntsman even an inch to breathe. It was bearing down on Jaune without restraint,

Jaune's armored feet dragged in the dirt as a particularly nasty punch was thrown by the Beringel, who made to counterattack with a lunge.

But it found that its foot was stuck to the floor and stumble to the ground. Further attempts to get up were hampered by its limbs being chained to the floor by some unknown force, giving Jaune the perfect opportunity to drop his guard, hold onto Crocea Mors with both hands, and decapitate the Beringel with sustained strikes to the neck. It was messy, it partially covered him with Grimm blood, and it was tiring, but it worked.

As Jaune got up, he noticed Oscar was breathing heavily, hand to the floor.

"That was you?" Jaune asked, partially winded from the fight with the Beringel.

"Y-yea! I did it!" Oscar looked at his hands with excitement, the green glow fading slightly. "I was wondering what I could do and, well, it seemed like it worked!" Oscar was smiling, proud of himself and how he managed to quickly inscribe a Binding Glyph in the dirt for the Beringel to step on. It did take a bit of prediction and quick thinking, but Oscar managed to make it work.

"Thanks for that." Jaune stuck Crocea Mors into the ground and caught his breath.

The sound of bile building up in a monstrous and quite anatomically unnecessary throat clued the two in that there were more Grimm coming. Two Alpha Beowolves, to be exact. Jaune sighed and engaged the Beowolves shield-first, slamming into them with enough force to stop them from charging. The fight was more Jaune stalling the two Alphas, who were too strong and too smart for him to quickly kill. Meanwhile, Oscar noticed that Jaune had dropped some vials of dust he had on him and he decided to do some quick thinking.

Even just holding that Beringel down took a lot out of him. Hell, anything more than a minor effect basically winded him. Unlocking his aura only let him recover a bit faster on top of having more energy to call on. But, if he could convert his own stamina and soul into magical energy, why couldn't he also extract energy from dust?

So, he gripped the dust vials with his left hand before slamming it onto the floor. It felt as if his arm had grown a heart, because it began beating as the new energy pumped into it at a steadily increasing rate. Green veins crept from his touch to the ground below and eventually to the tree surrounding where Jaune was. The dust was slowly turning white as the deed was done, the energy being siphoned out like an external battery.

Jaune noticed the variety of circuits building up on the trees and noticed the lack of Glyphs, which clued him in to the plan.

So, with a final bash of his shield, he backed away and let Oscar do his thing.

And Oscar did, because the tangled and messy circuits were all subsequently overloaded with the energy from the dust. The vial's contents turned white and the trees glowed a blinding green before a loud explosion rang out. The trees exploded onto the Beowolves, wooden shrapnel slamming and cutting into their flesh, inflicting extreme pain. Their eyes were stabbed out by the splinters and ones leg was even impaled by a particularly large blown apart branch.

Jaune wasted no time heading into the small crater of splinters and running through both Alphas before they could recover from their sudden blindness, only once taking a hit from the thrashing and pained creatures.

"Thanks again, I was taking way too many hits there." Jaune stretched his shoulders as he sheathed Crocea Mors. He took a dip into Calm Waters to make sure no other Grimm were approaching before sighing. "Jeez, we made a mess." He looked up to see Oscar, fine as ever. "Anyways, I thought that move tired you, how are you still standing"

"Oh." Oscar opened his palm to reveal the now entirely useless vial of dust. "I may have used this." Oscar chuckled awkwardly as Jaune groaned about how the dust cost half of his savings.


"Alright, this is it." The Origin Tracker had pointed them to the side of a mountain. Or at least, that was what they thought until Jaune kicked it enough so that the door-sized fake-mountainside fell apart. It lead them down a dusty and small shaft that opened up to a cave-like area. One which lit up somewhat when Jaune lit a candle.

"Ok, this is weird." Oscar had a hand on his chin as he looked around the room. There was a bed, or at least a makeshift equivalent made up of a soft bag filled with hay. There was a rickety table, a cauldron filled with water, a campfire pit and even a bookshelf. Aside from that, there were glyphs all over the place. There were three large glyphs on the walls, one in the campfire pit, and another above where the cauldron was.

"What's on your mind?"

"Well, there's a fire, but wouldn't it burn up all the oxygen? And how did they get water here? What are with the glyphs?" All very perplexing facts, now that Jaune considered it. "Also, it looks like whoever was here left in a hurry." Indeed, some of the books had been knocked from the shelf and the contents of the table had been scattered, with a dried up inkwell tipped over on the floor.

"Well, maybe the spellbook we're looking for will tell us about that last bit."

"Maybe." Following the lead of the Origin Tracker, Oscar dug through the various books until he found what he was looking for: an untitled leather-bound book. He opened it and was found wit the surprising sight of most of the papers being torn out.

"Ok, wow." Jaune blinked, that was a surprise. Looks like whoever lived here didn't want anyone to find out about their magic, he supposed. Oscar flipped through the ripped scraps until he found a few pages that weren't destroyed.

After looking through the cave, they found nothing much else of value. Oscar took note of the make of the glyphs in the cave, but didn't try activating them. There was always the chance they were trapped. And he couldn't read the pages he found, mostly because he was unused to reading in the insufficient light provided by the candle. After they had finished up in the place, they boarded it back up and walked down the mountainside to a field near a small village.

"I think it's named Tenko?" Jaune pondered, he remembered a directional sign, but he wasn't too confident in his memory.

"Interesting." Oscar was muttering to himself, entirely consumed by the meager scraps of knowledge they had hunted down.

"What did you find?"

"Oh! Uh, well, this is about portals and stuff." Jaune's eyes widened, portals? "Yea, I know. Portals work by connecting two glyphs with a similar make on their 'signal' spot. Though, precise transportation over longer distances takes enough magic to kill a fully grown man if they do it alone, so don't think about it." Jaune helplessly shrugged, though he honestly preferred walking. "Anyways, shorter ranged transportation is kind of easier? It takes a bit of time I guess. The size of the glyph also has to encapsulate the subject, so that takes out my idea of carrying a post-it note that lets me teleport out of danger."

"Huh, well, that's n-"

"That's not it, there are also a few recorded portals that are kind of substitutes for element creation. Because creating stuff like rocks, wind, or fire is pretty tiring. It's also impossible, it's a theoretical spell, to imitate it, though, there are these thing called Primal Portals. There are a few recorded here. There's the Tele Igni, which is a portal to the edge of the SUN!?" Oscar's eyes widened as he fully understood the weight of the implications. "Oh, phew, nevermind. Transporting the full heat of even the sun's edge would overload the circuit, so its limited to just spewing out fire. Then there's Tele Aqua, which is a portal to the bottom of the ocean." Well, that was some easy fishing if Jaune ever- "There's some additional modifiers in here that filter it to only allow water through. And there's an optional modifying Glyph to purify water. By the way, Tele Igni was in the firepit from before and Tele Aqua was above the cauldron." So that explained how the wizard hermit could access water and fire, but that left-"There's also Tele Aero, which is a portal to an eternal tornado-" What the fu-"It only allows air through, which essentially allows it to create wind." Ok, that explained how the cave was ventilated, how else would Jaune's inner monologue be interrupted?

"Wait, you mentioned you could create elements? Why would anyone bother with that when these exist?"

"Well, they're situational. While they're inscribed to be as simple and efficient as possible, Tele Igni barely works when its night, Tele Aqua is harder to use the further you are from the sea, and Tele Aero-ok Tele Aero is fine most of the time. It says it's actually one of the more reliable ones." Ok, that was nice of whoever created it. "Anyways, I'll have to work with them because actual elemental creation is impossible."

"Wait, really? But, I can do that just fine with dust."

"Well, there's the thing, none of these magical records mention dust at all. You'd think at least one spell would name it or something like it, but nope! I think dust just didn't exist back then." Well, that was a nice tidbit. "Plus, Elemental Creation would essentially be the conversion of raw mana into an element. Even if dust existed back then, Elemental Creation wouldn't rely on having dust or its purity."

"Alright then. It's actually noon right now." Jaune pointed upwards, to where the Sun had reached its zenith. "Let's see that Tele Igni!"

"Alright! Let me just inscribe it onto the dirt real quick." To save on energy, Oscar decided to do it with his feet into some loose soil. After a moment, a decently sized Tele Igni Glyph was scribbled into the dirt. It was clear, if a bit rough. "Ok, let's see if this works." And in the parted soil, a glowing energy began flowing like water flooding a once empty river. And when the circuit had been completed, green turned to red.

And something opened in the Glyph before a pillar of fire began spewing out of the portal, reaching as high as a building and standing out even under the bright sun. Jaune jumped back from shock, as did Oscar, causing the magical circuit to break and the Glyph to de-power. The fire itself, as it was dying, caused some of the dirt to move from the hot air it expelled, only further defiling the circuit.

In the end, both boys were left silent for a moment as they regarded the other and what just happened.

"Alright, maybe we should get some lunch."


"Hmmm."

"Lien for your thoughts?" Jaune decided to cut the silence (well, the relative silence sans Oscar's mumbling) as they relaxed in the village square. It was, indeed, called Tenko. It was a western Animan village, one that was under the thumb of the Branwens. But they weren't around at the moment, so the only way Jaune could really tell was the large patch of land nearby the village that had a few rusty weapons and empty bottles left in the grass. After having a nice meal, they had decided to take a break before following the Origin Tracker to their next destination.

"Before moving in with my auntie, I went to school. And in history there was some talk about the dust engine. And how at first it was just a curious novelty, but then they found practical application for it. I think I've found some practical application for magic."

"Oh?" Oscar, so far, had been thinking about the exploration of magic and the combat usage of magic. But practical every-day (well, every day for people who didn't have deathwishes) applications? This was new.

"Yea, for example, I've been hearing how the farmers have been complaining about the local river draining, but they can't really afford to do anything about it. Why don't I fill it up again with Tele Aqua?" Jaune normally would've been an advocate of responsibly using ones powers, but to be entirely honest, he couldn't see much of a problem. To put it in perspective, there was so much water in the ocean that unless Oscar made an inland sea with the water, there wouldn't be much of a tangible difference. Really, the only problem might be some minor flooding or if Oscar accidentally poisons the lake with salt water. And even then, he might be able to use a Purifier Teleported Glyph to filter the water.

"Hmmm, alright then." Jaune really didn't know what else to say, if he was being honest. Oscar seemed really excited for this, like he had undergone a revelation and was acting according to his newfound knowledge. "By the way, do you want some wizard clothes?"

"Eh?" Oscar raised an eyebrow at Jaune.

"I dunno, I'm dressed in full platemail and all, why don't you dress up like a wizard? It'll be fun!" Jaune gave an excited and childlike smile at the prospect. Playing pretend with his sisters was, in fact, very fun. He probably shouldn't have gone through that teenage angst phase where he pretended that sort of stuff was below him.

How teenage him would be appalled if he looked at present day Jaune, who was gallivanting across Remnant wearing full armor. And how kid him would've been so excited.

"Ehhhhh." Oscar, still being around 14, obviously was adverse to the idea. He was still trying to pretend that he was 'cool' and 'mature' to himself.

"What about these?" Jaune stopped by and dragged Oscar into a small weaver's, where some handmade clothes sat on a rack. There were scarves, cloaks, shrouds, and definitely hats! Oscar, very much being influenced by Jaune's new enthusiasm, sighed and decided to take a bamboo hat (he needed some shade on their long walks, damn it!) and a red scarf (he thought it looked cool). "Alright then! We'll buy 'em!" Jaune turned to the shopkeeper who nodded and didn't question the two peculiar strangers that she had heard whispers about.

So, after a short trek, Jaune and Oscar had reached the drying lake. And 'dry' was a bit of an understatement. It had fallen more than a quarter, with the mud hardening and cracking under the sun. There were a few fishermen at the pier, but they paid no mind to the two travelers as they focused on the waters.

"Hmmm, I wonder what's causing this." Jaune had a hand to his chin as he thought about it. This wasn't an uncommon occurrence, if lakes had something valuable like dust they tended to be drilled (which caused this sort of thing) or emptied in order to get that resource. On the other hand, it could be from a heating up climate or even nearby mining screwing with the amount of sediment that comes in. Or it could be from lack of rain, or the amount of water from a river being messed with. Either way, it was drying up. Oscar, likewise, wanted to know as well. Even if he could (theoretically) fix the water level, if he didn't fix the underlying issue, nothing would change.

"You wondering about Ol Lake Hina?" One of the elderly fisherman looked towards the Knight and the Magus, raised an eyebrow at the odd attire, but chose to wave it off as the eccentricities of hunters. "Well, rumor has it that a spirit has been creeping out at night and drinking from the lake constantly. I wouldn't put too much credence into the theory, but if you wish, you could check it out." Oscar looked at the old man like he had lost his mind, while Jaune was significantly less skeptical of the idea.

"Remember Darling?" Jaune whispered to Oscar, to which his eyes opened and he realized that this was actually maybe possible. Not probable, in all likelihood, but with how Jaune's life tended to go, he was willing to bet on it.

So, they got the location of the bridge from the fisherman (who looked at them like they were 5, not 14 and 17 respectively) and went on their way. Jaune wasn't sure what he expected, but an old and mossy stone bridge over the river probably should've been what he was expecting.

"See, nothing here." Oscar sighed in mild exasperation from the waste of time.

"Wait." Jaune was standing on the bridge and looking between the sides. "Look at each side of the river." Oscar raised an eyebrow, but did so. On the recieving side, the river was about 1 to 2 feet deep. And on the other side, it was-

"It's losing half of its water." Indeed it was. Something was happening while the river went under the bridge. So, Oscar and Jaune vaulted over to see absolutely nothing except running water, a few rocks, and dirt clumps. "Again, nothing."

"Well, I guess this calls for trusty old shaker." Jaune pulled out a salt shaker out of his pocket, somehow further confusing Oscar, who thought he was immunized to Jaune's eccentricities (to put it lightly) by now. "Sable may have taken the good one, but this is pretty good as well." It was actually just a small water bottle repurposed to hold salt. "Anyways, I heard it's common practice to purify things with salt in Anima."

"Well, that depends on what region you're in, I think that's a mor-and he's throwing the salt around." Indeed, Jaune was taking salt by the handful and chucking it in the small crevice under the bridge where land still was. "Why did I think this was a good idea? Why did I think this was a good idea?" While Oscar pondered the sanity of his ostensible protector, Jaune was having fun chucking the salt around.

And then, what Oscar once thought to be a rock rose up, revealing stubby arms and legs. Out from one end came a duck-billed head which bore water inside where its brain would've been. Oscar didn't have a grandpa to hear old stories from, but even he knew what this was.

It was a Kappa, a turtle spirit. And it looked lifeless. Its legs and arms were stubby, yes, but they were also thin to the bone. Its cheeks were stretched and dry, its eyes were wild and shaking. And from its mouth hung out several vines, vines that went into the river and pulsed as vast amounts of water was sucked up by the spirit.

Yet it never was able to quench its thirst.

"Alright, Jaune? Do you know how to fight this?"

"Oh, Oscar, you know, that's the funny thing." Jaune chuckled before gripping onto Crocea Mors. "I really don't."

"I hate you."

And immediately, the kappa, despite its stout nature, blitzed towards Jaune, who could barely put up his shield before the Kappa unleashed a furious amount of open palm blows. For such a weirdly cute looking creature, it was absolutely terrifying in its strength. While a Beringel's fist felt like a truck, this felt like a bullhead crashing into his shield. Jaune's arm was actually starting to bruise from the relentless assault it was defending. Jaune tried to make a stab at the Kappa when he thought it was reeling from a poorly thrown strike, but Crocea Mors instead was gripped with one fist.

He pulled back and kept his shield up.

Meanwhile, Oscar positioned himself closer to the Kappa, if it could close the distance between itself and Jaune in lightning speeds, it wouldn't matter how fast he ran. His eyes raced to catch up with the movements of the Kappa as he ran through his catalogue of Glyphs. Binding required proportional mana for the amount of resistance, so that was out of the question. Tele Aero wouldn't really do much if he was being honest and Tele Aqua would only hinder Jaune's fighting ability, as would Tele Igni. So what could he do? What could he do?

He sighed, might as well create some disposable exploding circuits. Jaune was still holding steady in his defense.

He reached his left palm out and pushed the mana out. Like a bolt of green lightning (though, the power present in lightning dwarfed what was humanly possible), his mana bolted out through the air, creating a small temporary circuit for the energy to run through and expand. It was directed by Oscar's will and would stop according to him. He aimed the bolt towards where the Kappa was, but it moved out of the way just before the bolt made contact, putting Jaune in the way of the attack.

"No!" Oscar twisted his arm and forced the bolt to move. While he could do turns and complex movements with his circuits on surfaces or when given time, making a previously fast airborne circuit like that bolt turn on command was hard and often very unpredictable. Luckily, the bolt swerved and slammed the ground, causing large explosion of green energy and spreading mud everywhere.

It also shattered the vines the Kappa was sucking from.

The tension was thick as the fight skidded to a halt.

"Thirsty." The Kappa's voice was raspy, despite the fact that they had been sucking up water for months by then. Then, it hopped towards the river and began sucking massive amounts of water. On the way, the glowing liquid in its head actually spilled out and was carried by the water, earning a pained screech from the turtle spirit. After drinking enough water (that is to say, actually managing to dry the river for a few seconds) it turned to Jaune with predatory eyes.

Jaune put his shield up immediately as the Kappa began wailing on him, but he immediately noticed a difference in speed and strength. Without the water in its head, it was significantly weaker.

Jaune smiled, just his luck.

So, after shooting a flare at the floor to force the Kappa back, he took Crocea Mors and began stabbing at the Kappa, aiming for the limbs instead of the armored shell. And he struck flesh. With every stab he pierced through rough skin and into soft flesh. It did damage, or at least it caused pain, but the Kappa showed no signs of stopping anytime soon. Plus, whenever he pulled Crocea Mors out, the wound he would've left simply closed itself after releasing some glittery blue smoke.

Then, the Kappa stomped on the ground with all of its might, tilting its entire body and raising one of its legs to do it. The pound caused the ground to shake, at least for Jaune, and for him to fall over. He cursed and bit his tongue as the Kappa immediately struck away his sword and shield, causing them to flail about before burying themselves into the mud. And the Kappa, with its stubby little hands, reached out towards Jaune. Not his body, no, it was grabbing something far deeper.

His soul. It was trying to replace the water in its head with some of Jaune's aura (though, not his permanent aura, thankfully. They weren't Darling).

Oscar, meanwhile, had been shooting bolt after bolt of mana towards the Kappa, only for them to hit its shell and the explosion to do nothing. His left arm burned, his skin feeling like fire as he forced massive amounts of energy to course through it. His Arcane Veins in particular were practically steaming.

He couldn't keep this up, he only had the energy for one spell, he guessed. But nothing was helpful here.

His eye came to mind. That's right! If his eye's change was due to something akin to Arcane Vein, then maybe like how the Veins on his left arm automatically lit up even when he poured mana through his arm without restraint, attracting mana like a pool would to water, perhaps if he pushed mana towards his eye, then whatever effect it had would automatically activate.

Well, worth a shot.

And so, the mana crept out and up his neck and reached for his left eye. And for a moment, he was half blind as a searing pain overtook him. Yet, he couldn't stop, whatever was in his left eye was pulling more and more of his energy.

And while he couldn't see it, in his eye, the stars were aligning. And soon, he could see once more.

See clearly, see the truth, see the energies of the world, see the rivers of life flowing from everything. From the grass, the wind, the trees, from Jaune and Oscar, even from the Kappa. But like a clip or pin, there was something stabbing into the radiant tapestry of adjacent yet separate rivers. It was a Grimm, a parasite. With a bone-like mask and black veins latching onto it, it was sucking water from the Kappa, causing it to constantly need to drink.

But beyond that, Oscar saw the Kappa reaching into the soul of Jaune, reaching into his vital organs. With a scream and without though, he ran towards the Kappa as it was replenishing its cranial fluids, and with his hand, he reached into its shell. The Kappa instinctively bucked and twisted to try and get the farmhand off, but Oscar clung wildly as he reached further and further. And then, his fingers met spiny bone. before the parasite could reach, Oscar swiftly removed it without tearing out flesh before throwing it on the ground and using the last of his energy to cast Tele Igni on its location, burning it to a crisp.

As the Kappa got another drink of water without feeling it being sapped away instantly, it descended from its dehydration fueled madness. Their eyes became normal and they stared at their now less skeletal hands before looking at the Knight and Magus who had helped it and were, at the moment, recouping from the fight.

"Ah, it seems like I have you two to thank for saving me." The Kappa bowed thankfully, dropping more of its liquid. Luckily, the Kappa managed to cup it with its hands before putting it back. "Forgive me for asking, but, what have I done while I was out of my mind?" The Kappa's voice was squeaky, but had a rasp. They were old, that was for sure.

"Well, ya nearly drank a lake to emptiness." The Kappa's eyes widened.

"Hina?"

"Yep." Oscar decided to refrain from speaking, given how both his left eye and arm were aching like crazy at the moment. Beyond that, there was a distnat look in his remaining eye.

"Oh my. Well, it seems like I've caused the villagers quite the bit of trouble. Here, a token of my most sincere apologies." The Kappa suddenly yanked off one of their arms, almost freaking Jaune out, who got just an inch more freaked out when the Kappa tossed him the arm. "Simply use that as energy to restore the lake. Put it in the water when you're done, it will eventually come back to me." The Kappa put their remaining hand on their chin before snapping. "Oh yes, are you a Magus?" The Kappa looked at Oscar, who nodded as best as he could. "Hmm, odd, it's been, what, a few millennia since we've had a magus." Oscar wasn't responding, he still had that distant look in his eyes.

"Are all spirits as tough as you?" Jaune chuckled awkwardly as he continued the conversation.

The Kappa looked at Jaune before bursting out laughing. "Oh, oh no, no, no. I'm actually one of the stronger spirits. Most of us left for greener pastures when the Brother Gods left. Only the strongest of us weren't forced to move on." That explained why Darling was so ridiculously powerful, Jaune supposed. "Now, if you could also toss some sake into the river, that would be appreciated." The Kappa whistled innocently, as if they weren't a turtle spirit asking for some booze from two teenagers.

"We'll see what we can do." Jaune finally decided on.

As they walked away, Jaune could recognize that there was some underlying hurt in Oscar's eyes. Hurt that Jaune desperately wanted to ask about. Hurt he wanted to heal. But hesitation and warning signs pulled him back. In the end, he settled.

"Hey." Oscar's attention was gained. "If you ever need to talk about anything, remember, I'm here."

A second of pause, a million thoughts.

"Thanks, I will."


Later, the two wanderers would reach Lake Hina. There were three signs to the wanderers that should've tipped them off to what would happen.

The first sign was the fact that the two wanderers appeared back at the pier at all. The second sign was the weird scaly arm the boy had with him. the third sign was the giant glowing marks that appeared in the sky. But, none of them asked anything from how shocked they were at the sudden usage of what was either a very weird semblance or actual magic. And suddenly, water came flooding out of the signs, flowing into the lake and, in a few short moments, making it rise back to its normal levels. The bamboo hat wearing and scarved stranger even filled some extra water as the suddenly full lake flooded into previously drying up rivers.

The two wanderers would leave behind a full lake and a legend.


"This." Jaune pointed towards the object in question. "Is a punching bag." Jaune was looking at said old and dusty punching bag that they found in an abandoned, wrecked cart, and very well buried. It was a traveler's cart and whoever was using it was ambushed, the horse killed (a decaying skeleton left behind) and most of the belongings absolutely trashed. The only thing they could find was a punching bag.

"Well, it also has magic."

"On that note, could you tell me what these glyphs are?" The Origin Tracker had taken them to this cart, where they only found yet more ripped up paper. So, it seemed like the only learning opportunity they'd get would be trying to figure out what this freaking punching bag did.

"Eh, don't look at me. You're as durable as a block of steel, you try punching it." They had hung it on a sturdy branch with some rope and it was ready for punching. The problem was, Jaune was half sure that if he punched it, it would explode in his face. There wasn't any proof of that, sure, but he didn't survive without being properly paranoid about weird arcane things that he didn't understand at all. Meanwhile, for Oscar, he was avoiding doing any physical activity beyond walking, mostly because his arm and eye were still incredibly sore. First was him overexerting his arm and eye in the fight against the Kappa and then he made it worse by filling up the lake. Sure, he didn't have to worry about power, but it still made his arm hurt like hell. On that note, Oscar had taken to carrying vials of dust (as well as a few crystals) in the many pockets of his fairly baggy pants to use as batteries. Water dust, of course, no need to endanger himself recklessly. It worked just as well either way.

"Fine." Jaune swore and made sure his aura was activated before punching the bag. He braced for some sort of impact but got nothing. The punch, like normal, sent the punching bag a few inches backwards. It wasn't a bad punch by any means, the bag itself just felt weighter than Jaune had previously thought.

"Interesting." Oscar was mumbling as he observed the Glyph that had been drawn onto the bag. The Glyph that was slightly glowing, though it would've been hard to tell if it were under daylight. When it was punched, the glyph was the first thing to glow, and it did so slightly brighter. But the glow would then disseminate through the circuit surrounding the entire thing, making the glow less and less and less. "Well? Keep punching?"

Jaune gave an over dramatic sigh before getting to doing that. He unleashed punch after punch onto the bag, with each punch making the circuits glow marginally more. With each punch, Jaune was fairly sure that the bag wasn't getting knocked back as much as it should've. And his punches felt much weaker than he thought they would've.

"Ok, is this some sort of dampening effect?" Jaune wondered.

"Maybe, maybe." Oscar decided to risk it by putting his left hand on the punching bag's circuit before trying to suck up the glow.

And it worked, he found a marginal amount of mana in the circuit simply circulating, all of which quickly entered his own body.

"Ok, I think I have an idea as to what this is." Jaune raised an eyebrow and turned away from the bag. "The glyph siphons a fraction of kinetic energy and converts it to mana that goes through the circuit. Though, it can't convert all the force into energy, so it's not like total nullification."

"Huh, that's, useful?" Jaune shrugged. "Sorry, you've gotta figure out your own way of using that one."

"Don't worry, I'll figure something out."


"What'cha got there?" The two of them were in a bar and Oscar was fiddling with a small piece of wood and his carving knife. Meanwhile, Jaune was having a drink. Oscar also had some other items he had bought, but at the moment he was just screwing around with the wood.

"Testing something." After a moment, Oscar had finished inscribing the thing. He had gotten exponentially faster and drawing those, even the more complicated ones. He took it and knocked the wood on the table, aiming for the Cushioning Glyph (that's what they called it) in particular. As expected, the glyph glowed and the mana spread out from the glyph throughout the circuit, eventually ending up at a Tele Igni Glyph at one of the ends of the stick. For a brief second, some sparks shot out of the Glyph, but that was all the energy given from that knock could afford.

"So, you copied the Cushion Glyph perfectly?" Oscar nodded, he tried dissecting what exactly each part was, but it was in some ancient script that would take way too much effort to try and translate. And playing Darling for some information would likely end with the very eager to settle the score luck spirit owning something precious of his.

"Testing a theory. Now, let's try this." Then, Oscar pulled off his boots and took his knife to the soles.

"Woah! What are you doing?"

"I'm putting Cushioning Glyphs on them." Jaune raised an eyebrow. "Because every time I take a step, I create some kinetic energy. So, with every step, I'll gradually build up more and more mana through this. It's marginal, but it'll make a difference in the long run. Plus, it looks like rubber is good at holding mana."

"Oh, that makes sense." Jaune went back to drinking and soaking in the atmosphere the bar provided. It was a rowdy place, most frontier bars were at the end of the day. Workmen and workwomen all gathering together for drinks and food and merriment. He was fairly sure these places got tax breaks because of the sheer positivity they gave out.

"I also got some ideas for weapons." That got Jaune's attention. "Engravings serve no tactical purpose whatsoever, well unless you have magic. So, I got these things." Oscar brought out some boxing tape, spiked knuckles, and his own orange leather gloves. "So, my first idea has to do with this modifier for Tele Aqua I found in the scraps-" So that's why he was looking so hard at the ripped up papers. "-It freezes water. So, with the tape, I can create water with a punch and then freeze it, limiting mobility and deadening a lot of nerves."

"Why boxing tape?"

"It's cheap and disposable. I'm fairly sure if I do it, I'll also freeze the tape I have on. But I'll probably be able to pull my fingers out." Probably. "Anyways, for Tele Igni, my leather gloves should serve well as a conduit. The tape would burn up and the knuckles would grow too hot. The idea is to just create blasts of fire with each of my punches."

"Like a fist-gun?"

"Yea! Like that." Oscar smiled as he pointed towards the last one. "Now this is based off of a fact I learned, apparently Grimm have internal organs like veins." Yea, they did, Jaune could attest. "So, I figured that they should have the same weaknesses human veins do. The spiked knuckles will have Tele Aero inscribed on them and when a spike pierces a vein, vast amounts of air will be pumped into it, popping it and causing massive pain." That was a disturbing thought and also Jaune was fairly sure that if this was meant for human opponents, this would be absolutely overkill. The others honestly were also like that. But, to be fair, if he was against someone with aura, the fire and ice one would only serve to further damage or momentarily incapacitate, while the air one would just straight up not work.

"You good at boxing?"

"Oh! Yea, uh, hehe, that's what I need to get good at." Oscar groaned as he stared down at his admittedly fairly wimpy body. "I'm going to need to do some more exercise."

Jaune laughed and slapped Oscar in the back.

"Don't worry, I'll help ya out! It'll be good to show someone else the pain of the Lightning Shogun's training regime."

"Wait wha-"


The rest of the night was spent drinking, with Jaune somehow holding his alcohol (aura was a lifesaver in that regard), and even more incredulously Oscar managing to outdrink the entire bar the entire night.

"HOW!?" Jaune had a massive headache the next day and was taking out some of the pain on a very very smug looking Oscar, one who didn't even flinch at Jaune's biting tone.

"Purifier Glyph." Oscar stuck out his tongue, which glowed with his mana in the shape of said Glyph.

"Son of A-" Jaune proceeded to swear himself a storm until his hangover had worn off. Another perk of aura was that getting drunk was abnormally hard. And most of the downsides of alcohol were kind of nullified, at least they were nullified at an earlier age. The only reason Oscar hadn't screwed with his brain was because he, as he just admitted, was purifying all of the alcohol before it entered him. "Did it taste good?"

"Eh, some of it was spicy, some were bitter, some were sour, some were sweet. Just tasted like weird juices. I guess it tastes better with alcohol actually in it?"

"Maybe, I forgot how it tastes." Eh, he tended to forget most things he didn't deem important. "Anyways, where are we heading now?"

"Well, I was piecing together some of the scraps and I found something interesting. There was a seperate letter as well." Odd, but given how the cart was half buried in the ground, it wasn't impossible. "It's talking about this top of the line fortress owned by this magus named Hale Salem. The letter itself is from his daughter, Alexandria Salem. Apparently she was named after her grandmother, who was the one who made the place. Fittingly, it's named the Library of Alexandria. Anyways, she's begging whoever catches this letter to find her in the library and rescue her."

"Reckon she made it?" Jaune was intrigued, but if he was getting his chronology right, this was thousands upon thousands of years ago.

"Yes, it was. I think whoever had this, Ozma was it?" Yea, that sounded right. "Saw this and went there. Maybe. He was a Magus and this letter, on top of promising eternal gratitude from Alexandria, offered all the knowledge the library kept." And that was basically a gold mine for any Magus, Jaune supposed. Especially if the name Hale Salem had any weight.

"So we're heading there?"

"Yep."

"Alright then." Jaune smiled, this was going to be good. "Does the Origin Tracker work on it?"

Oscar inserted one of the letter's scraps into the compass as a focal point and pumped some mana into it, causing the compass needle to spin. With some concentration, he got a distant location. "Yep."

"Let's get going then."


"So, Oscar, you know how you wanted some proper training?

"Yea?" Well, for the past few days, Oscar had been going intense physical training with Jaune. So much exercise that they had actually slowed down considerably. A part of Jaune was starting to worry. Before, in their rest periods, Oscar was always relaxing and reading some manga on his scroll and spotty CCT connection. Now, he was driving himself further with constant experimentation with his magic, he was getting less sleep. But, whenever Jaune prompted Oscar to go to sleep or do something else, the boy brushed it off. And Jaune wasn't really the type to confront.

"You see that Beowolf down there?" Jaune pointed at the bottom of the hill, where a young Beowolf was.

"Yea?"

"Have fun." Jaune shoved Oscar down the hill, sending him rolling down the grass as he let out a litany of swears towards the knight. Jaune, for his part, took it all in stride as he walked down, plopped his ass on the ground, and watched as Oscar engaged the now very aggressive Beowolf cub.

"BROTHERS DAMNIT!" Oscar lept backwards as the Beowolf made a deadly lunge towards him. "FUCK YOU JAUNE!" Oscar provided a very pronounced middle finger to Jaune, who simply gave a friendly wave, before continuing to backpedal away from the very very very deadly killing machine in front of him. He stumbled, he fell, he rolled, and he leapt, anything to not get skewered. He was hit a few times, aura luckily saving his skin, but panic was the thing controlling him.

Magic wasn't an emergency response yet. That might've been concerning to some, but those people were long dead. Jaune simply decided to let nature take its course and to intervene as soon as Oscar got in any real danger.

"GODAMNIT!" Oscar decided to throw a punch after getting clawed in the gut (aura was still strong, thankfully). That punch, due to his flailing emotional state, was imbued with his mana. Mana that overloaded the circuits on his knuckles and created an explosion that cut open his knuckles, splattering blood and smoke as the Beowolf was blown back. The explosion also tore through the Beowolf, instantly obliterating one of its arms. Jaune noted that the explosion probably would've killed a fully grown Beowolf instantly if it was placed right.

Oscar was breathing heavily, pain blossoming in his fingers. Luckily, due to magic (he suspected) his aura was a bit better in how much it could heal. Flesh and skin was sewn back together as blood crept back into his veins. Meanwhile, the Beowolf was recovering from that attack by flipping upwards and lunging towards Oscar again.

Oscar threw an uppercut. He had quickly put on his gloves, so the uppercut came with a cloud of fire that scorched the pitch black fur of the monstrous wolf. Determined not to let the wolf get back up, Oscar wrapped some inscribed tape around his knucles and slammed into the Beowolf's chest as it was falling down.

Water shot out of his fist, covering the area in which he punched, and just as suddenly, the water, and the part of the Beowolf that was soaked, was frozen solid.

The strip of boxing tape he had wrapped around his fist burned up with the overusage, but that didn't matter as the half frozen Beowolf was sent flying. Jaune nodded, that was an impressive move. Oscar, determined to finish this, put on his spiked knuckles and marched to the writhing Beowolf. And he jabbed at one of its arteries, piercing with a squelch. And with the glowing of the circuits he had inscribed onto the metal of the brass knuckles, air shot through its veins and exploded. All over its body, blood shot out in a massive burst, covering parts of the ice, the grass, and Oscar himself in crimson.

And just as quickly, the Beowolf faded to dust.

"D-did I do good?" Oscar looked towards Jaune, all anger forgotten as he was recovering from the high of battle.

"Yep." Jaune offered a thumbs up as he pulled Crocea Mors from the skull of a fully grown Beowolf that tried to inferfere.


And after days of travelling across Anima, they had finally arrived to their destination: The Library of Alexandria. It was decaying, yet marvelous. Even when ravaged by time, Jaune could tell it was a mystical piece of architecture that had an otherwordly feel to it. Arches and spires and towers with intricate and beautiful designs etched into the brick and mortar of the place. And above that was a coating of dense jungle moss and vines that grew from the vast fortress adjacent library, hiding it, yet also accentuating the fantastical charm it had.

"Woah." The two of them were in the ruins of one of its buildings, looking for the main entrance. The letter had told of the many dangers of the palace. Golems, guardians, and Alexandria's mad father, Hale Salem, who was her jailor.

But none were found, at least not yet.

"Nyeh-llo?" A soft spoken voice rang out and alerted them to another presence. Crocea Mors breathed fresh air and Oscar's Arcane Veins ambiently glowed as they tensed up, ready for combat. What they saw was a white and light orange furred cat, definitely larger than normal, maybe the size of a toddler or an adolescent, that had two tails and one eye. It also had a collar around its neck, though a bell was absent. "Woah, 'Umans, don't attack, it's just been a while since anyone's come by." The cat eyed up the two, who refused to calm down.

"Uh, who are you?" Jaune decided to break the tension with a much needed question.

"Good question, who am I?" The cat offered a chesire grin as it stared into their eyes. "Pulling ya leg, I'm Tabby, the last resident here." A pause. "Well, the last one with a mind."

"Y-y-y-you're a spirit?" Oscar was fairly sure, but it could always be something else.

"No, I'm a golem with a fur suit." A pause. "Of course I'm a spirit, Nekomata, as you 'Umans called me. Now, why are two 'Umans down here anyways? Shouldn't you knights be gallivanting in much greener and more glorious lands?" A pause. "There are still knights, correct? It's been long, I know. The Brother Gods left and well, I don't know if knighthood survived. You're wearing the armor of one, so I assumed."

"Uh, knights aren't a thing?" Jaune had seen everything.

"Oh, really? Well, in that case, why are you dressed like that?"

"It's regular armor. I'm a hunter."

"Really? What beasts are you going to be slaying? Dragons? I've heard tales of how my little kitten tried that, didn't work out well." The Nekomata looked at them, curiosity never abating. Oscar shifted uncomfortably as he felt the feline's gaze focusing on him in particular. "Hmm, it's been a while since I've seen a Magus. Now, why would one be looking here?"

"W-w-"

"That was rhetorical, Magus. Is that still a thing?" The Nekomata ruminated on it before shrugging. "Regardless, state your case, Magus, and state it well. I will not take grave robbers lightly, even if the grave is that of the man I hate the most."

Jaune and Oscar shared a look, with Oscar pleading with Jaune to help him out.

"W-well, it's bee-"

"The Magus will state his case, Knight. You are not the one who wanted to go here, am I correct?" Jaune promptly shut up, with Oscar sighing and stepping up with the honest truth.

"Well, magic is extinct." That raised an eyebrow. "Ever since thousands of years ago, magic has just disappeared for some reason. Apparently, according to Darling, I'm one of three Magi in existence." The Nekomata's eyes widened. "I have only recieved my powers recently and I have only the barest of understandings of magic. Please, let me in so I may learn more about this part of me."

"Magic's gone, huh." The Nekomata's eyes were distant. "I guess the kitten's dead. They're all gone." A pause as they processed it. "Sorry, I should've expected that. An old cat like me should be able to keep the days better, but hey, I guess I just forgot. Oh, yes, where are my manners, my full name is Tabby Mara. I used to be the cat of Alexandria Salem the Elder, then I became a Nekomata and served under Hale Salem. And under him, I served as the caretaker for Alexandria Salem the Younger. I suppose since magic is long gone, there isn't any harm to letting you see the old man's research. Might be good to share some memories before I start forgetting. Tabby got up and walked further into the dense jungle. Oscar looked to Jaune, who shrugged before walking off. Oscar followed suit.

"Well, this is it." Oscar was shaking nervously, this was the final step. This was where he'd learn the secrets of magic. This is where he'd finally be able to pull his weight and prove his abilities to be more than a gimmick.

"Yea." Jaune kept on walking, simply enjoying the architecture.

"You know, it's kind of weird. A couple of weeks ago, I was just a normal kid, a bit bored. Now, I have something, something special about me." Oscar was smiling now, smiling because he now had something that made him not worthless. Something that he could actually do in life. Something he could use.

"You don't have to be special, you know?"

"I know." Oscar knew that, of course. On a conscious level, he knew that.

Their fledgling conversation was forced to land as Tabby opened a door for them, the entrance to the remains of the Library of Alexandria.

"This is it, 'Umans. As far as I can take you. Keep in mind, the ones in armor just clean the place. The one not is the one you want to avoid." And with that cryptic message, the Nekomata disappeared. With a quick glance shared between them, the two walked into the Library.

From what Jaune could tell from scoping out the walls and looking on the insides, the entire place was a giant complex. There was the main building, which was in the center and mostly intact (minus a few blown up rooms) and then there were the outer towers and walls, which were half destroyed. The main building and towers were connected by the walls. While the towers and walls seemed to primarily serve as guard towers, the main building was the living space of Hale Salem.

In the halls, they could occasionally see an empty suit of knight's armor dusting or cleaning the various corners and furniture pieces in the halls. As Tabby said, they ignored the two visitors in favor of maintaining the palace.

"I can see glyphs in their armor," Oscar noted in a whisper.

"So they're like robots?"

"Golems, more like. But the glyphs are so large and complicated that it'd take me a day to make one. And if there are this many that have survived for so long, well-"

"Then whoever made them is very talented?"

"Yea. He must've inscribed instructions to refuel on mana when getting low so they could be self-reliant."

"Wonder what's the power source. Don't think they had dust engines back then!" Jaune chuckled.

"Eh, maybe it's some river or something." Oscar shrugged. After a while of walking around, they realized something very clear: The library was designed to be as hostile and unintuitive as possible to anyone that wasn't intimately familiar with the building. They were literally walking in circles, with no stairs in sight.

"Yea, just going to let you know, most Magi did this sorta thing, ya know? Can't have anyone walk in and steal your secrets, so your house has to be filled with traps and decoys." Darling popped out of her deck just to let them know that tidbit.

"So, I guess we're going through the rooms?" Oscar looked at Jaune, who merely sighed.

"Yea, guess we are." And so, the two of them entered the nearest door they could find, which was one with a small barely noticable notch on its side. The circular hall had two rings of rooms, an outer ring and an inner ring. The outer ring had windows while the inner ring was a mystery. The room they entered was in the inner ring, Jaune reckoning that there'd be a spiral staircase there. What they found instead was a large workshop that took up the entire inner ring. There were just multiple doors.

"Uh, Oscar?" Jaune pointed at the other doors that had large comically sized weights above them, ready to fall and kill anyone who entered.

"Yea, I don't think that crazy girl in your pocket was lying." Oscar's eyes were wide at the sight of it. And more importantly, he could see small cushioning glyphs on the floor. They'd generate the barest bit of magic when stepped on and that was all that was necessary to activate an effect that would end up with the weight falling down.

"I guess we were lucky?" Jaune nervously chuckled. "Yea, we're going to need to be careful from now on." He sighed, this wasn't going to be a normal grave robbing, was it?

Well, ancient robbery? Tomb robbing? Raiding? Tomb raiding? Ah, whatever, it was semantics.

"Alright, let's take a look here." Oscar, being extra careful, decided to go to the lecturn in the center and crouch as he opened it. As expected, a hail of arrows shot out of the book, all of them missing. To be fair, they were also rusty and dull from age.

"Wow, this guy's middle name must've been overkill." Jaune whistled as he looked at the arrows that had bounced off the roof (most of them snapping, their wood also weak from the thousands of years in stasis) and fallen to the floor. Meanwhile, Oscar began flipping through the book. Instead of it being an empty tome, it was actually empty, except for two glyphs.

One with a eye-like symbol in its circles and another with the character for hand. Prosthesis Optic and Prosthesis Muscle.

"Hmmm, let's try this one first." Oscar decided to go with the eye-like symbol. And as soon as he tapped into the circuit, his mana began going through thin circuit forks. Not knowing what lead to where, Oscar chose blindly and ended up looking through a painting's eyes in one of the rooms on the floor.

"Hey, Oscar, you good?"

"Yea, it's just that this is sort of like projecting a live feed of other glyphs into my eyes."

"Ah, well, what can you see?"

"A room, I think it's near the top." It was a giant hall, to be specific. And at the end of it, there was a large mound that he couldn't really make out in any detail. The Glyph was probably smudged or something, so aside from broad strokes, he was in the dark. He could go further into the circuit, or he could simply retract. But as he was making a decision, the floor shook, and a red dot appeared from the large mound at the end of the hall. "Uh, Jaune?"

"Yea?"

"What did the cat say about armor and stuff?" The mound had gotten up, revealing itself to be a giant snake with red scales and a row of eyes lining its back. Its drooling mouth was full of teeth and dripping venom. Venom that, when falling onto the ground, disintegrated bits of the stonework.

"That the one not in armor is the one we should look out for?" And all of a sudden, the snake charged at the Prosthesis Optic, destroying the circuit and forcing Oscar to pull out.

A slight tremor was felt in the entire castle. Jaune had entered Calm Waters and noticed vibrations everywhere, coming from the top. It was strong, very strong, strong enough to survive thousands of years without need of the outside. Strong enough for whoever owned this place to deem it good enough to act as the sole security of the place.

Jaune gulped, this wasn't good.

"H-h-h-h-hey, wh-what's that look for?"

"It's coming."

"Oh." A shiver ran down Jaune's spine as he felt its presence. They could both hear its distant slither. It had reached the first floor in no time. Oscar quickly shut himself into a cabinet, pushing aside racks of clothes to hide behind them. Meanwhile, Jaune cursed his hubris in thinking height was an advantage that gave him the benefits of looking down on his shorter sisters (and a good half of them were shorter than him) as well as poking fun at them from that fact because his frame wouldn't let him easily hide. In the end, he managed to shove himself into a large chest, making sure to lock it. It was wooden and had some holes he could breathe through. And if he really needed to, he could use his boosters to break out of it.

Jaune had to get out of Calm Waters because the ripples the Guardian was creating were so intense that it was impossible to make anything out. It was definitely magical, its aura was otherworldly and bizzare. From the chest, he could hear the squelching of its eyeballs as they danced in its eye sockets. He could hear the subtle hissing from its forked tongue as it prowled around the room that the peaker came from.

And then, its eyes turned from the lecturn to the rest of the room. It coiled about the floor, looking from area to area. Cupboard doors magically opened as it slithered by, bugs and rats were incinerated under its gaze. The bookshelf had all of its books taken out by the snake as it looked in the empty space left, killed any bugs, and put all the books back in alphabetical order.

And then, with Prosthesis Muscle, it opened the closet door. The eyes peered from the top to the bottom, but found nothing, oddly enough. Unbeknownst to the snake, Oscar had hopped sideways and had his hands and feet on the walls of the closet, with binding glyphs keeping him from falling down. He tried suppressing his beating heart, but he just couldnt get over the fear that was instilled in him as he cought a glance of the Guardian's eyes.

Luckily, the snake didn't have ears.

With no prey to be found, the guardian snake eventually slithered away, deciding to simply do some rounds around the palace before going back to sleep.

And after what felt like hours in silence, Jaune and Oscar came out of their hiding places. Jaune stretched his aching joints while Oscar panted from the amount of mana he had to use.

"That was scary." Jaune shuddered.

"Yea." Oscar nodded before he got back to inspecting the place. As Jaune was getting out, he noticed that a book had fallen out of the bookshelf, likely an accident from the snake. Jaune picked it up, opened the cover away from his face so the outgoing ice spikes didn't try impaling his face, and looked at the contents. The book was a series of notes surrounding various magical things. It contained names, locations, uses, powers, consequences, and the problems with retrieving them. Of particular note were the Ten Crystal Eyes, Ouroboros' puzzle, Yamato Orochi's offspring, and even a baby drake's claw.

"Huh." The eyes had the ability to amplify magic, the puzzle apparently was rumored to hold the secret to Elemental Creation, though it was impossible to open. Yamato Orochi's offspring had the ability to turn one into eight. And the baby drake's claw was just extremely powerful. Oscar noticed Jaune was entrenched in his reading and came over to see.

"Huh, those seem pretty rare. Wonder what the guy wanted them for."

"Well, the puzzle is pretty self explanatory."

"Think we'll find some weird lab with a bunch of drills where he tried to open the puzzle?"

"Eh, maybe."

After that, Oscar go to fiddling with the second glyph on the lecturn: The Prosthesis Muscle. Before doing anything, he recreated a Prosthesis Muscle Glyph (one on each end of a small stick) and tried messing with it. Like a finger, the stick suddenly bent, as if the circuit were muscles and each Glyph was a joint. Some ideas for actual prosthetics came to mind, but Oscar waved it off. Such a thing would be ridiculously complicated.

Looking back to the lecturn, theoretically, the glyph should work like that. Without much to lose, Oscar put his mana into the Prosthesis Muscle, and immediately felt a shock telling him he did something wrong. A few more times later and he began to immediately pull out with every move because he always anticipated a shock.

"Something burned your fingers?" Jaune looked over to Oscar, who was sucking on his zapped digits.

"I think whoever set this up planned for there to be an electrocution trap for anyone who messed up with this, but I think the shock has become dull. Either that or he was kind of bad at security." Both were fairly likely, given how his idea of preventing intruders was simply making it confusing to get around as well as having a singular serpentine guard. After a few more tries, Oscar managed to get through the entire circuit.

And then, he pulled.

ANd at once, the old stone and wood of the palace began to groan. The walls began moving-no, the floor and roof began moving. The doors disappeared downwards as they ascended and Oscar siphoned away some energy from a vial of dust to fuel his effort. Jaune warily kept a hand on Crocea Mors' hilt, worried that the serpent would hear what was going on and come after them, but nothing came.

And with tremendous effort, Oscar managed to lift the entire middle chamber of the palace up one floor.

"Woah." Oscar's knees were wobbling as his left arm burnt from the amount of effort that took, combined with the fact that the age of the place made the floor shake an obscene amount.

"Yea, kind of like a magic elevator, right?"

"..." Oscar sighed. "You just made it way more boring." There was a new floor to explore now.


While they didn't explore the first floor much, the outer row of rooms was mostly just guest rooms and a kitchen. The second floor was very different, to say the least.

The second floor was dedicated to golem storage. The 'golems' as Oscar referred to them, were suits of surprisingly clean armor with an intricate set of instructions inscribed into them on a command center cube, which was a gem that had thousands upon thousands of glyphs inscribed into it. One room was dedicated to holding the empty suits of armor(most of them rusted), another to holding unused command cubes, the majority of the floor was dedicated to hosting the repair and charging centers for the golems, and then there was the room they were in: The workshop.

In the center, an Illuminating Glyph (Oscar copied that and took notes), shone brightly on a large seat, one that someone might sit on when undergoing open heart surgery.

"Huh." Jaune looked at a diagram of what looked to be one of the armored golems, except this ones armor was much more ornate and maneuverable.

"Hmmm, it looks like this one was supposed to be for combat." Oscar dully noted as he looked at some sketches of how the motor functions of the things would work.

"Like an Atlesian Knight?"

"Yea. This guy must've wanted more security." The guy was looking to be paranoid enough for that.

"Hmmmm, it says that in order to let it work for longer with less need for maintenance, the armor would be made of gold." Jaune looked at the notes on the diagram. "Think he still has the armor?"

"I doubt i-" Jaune opened a closet to reveal a full set of ornate golden armor. "-I stand corrected, I guess." Oscar sighed. "Isn't gold soft?"

"I dunno, maybe there's some magic thing in here that prevented that from coming into play?"

"Lemme check." Oscar looked at the list of glyphs (though there were no depictions of the glyphs themselves, unfortunately enough) and noticed the redirection glyph. "Ok, it says there's a redirection glyph on every part of it. And, from how the circuits for those lead to the feet, I'm thinking that any attack that is made will simply be transferred to effect the floor."

"And the catch?"

"It costs mana for the thing to do it. That's why this gladiator golem is also outfitted with what is basically a battery."

Then, Jaune noticed something. "Hey, this all seems rather unfinished and rushed. Why did the guy need more security so quickly?" The handiwork on the diagram was rather sloppy. Oscar noticed how some of the features were ill thought out and practically reeked of desperation.

"Hmm, let's see. Well there's some anti-magic glyphs here. A Vampiric Glyph, which I guess sucks out mana? A shield with a Spell Eater Glyph, which I guess absorbs magic attacks? There's also some notes here saying non-letahl take out option with a question mark."

"So whoever this is for, it's not supposed to kill them," Jaune dully noted.

"Yes. And there are some notes here for patrol patterns and tactics." Jaune personally noted that whoever this guy was, they had no fucking clue how wielding a sword worked. Sketches for its posing and stance work, as well as its slashes, combined with how big the sword it was supposed to wield was (and it was big), were all hilariously innacurate. Either the golem was ridiculously strong (possible) or the guy just didn't have access to anyone who could wield a sword. Both were fairly possible, Jaune was sure.

"Wanna try making one?"

"Eh?" Oscar was broken out of his chain of thought and looked at Jaune, confused. "Oh, well, uh, I'm not good enough with my mag-"

"C'mon! It'll be really cool! Like a giant magical robot! Don't you want to upstage Atlas with some good old fashioned magic?" Jaune did some jazz hands with a cheeky grin as he teased Oscar. "Think about it, on the battlefield, while Atlas tech falters and sputters against the Grimm, your Golem stands strong!" Jaune sort of got in Oscar's personal space, only noticing as Oscar subtly leaned back. "Oh, sorry." Jaune pulled back, clearing his throat.

"Jeez, way to be a hype man."

"My semblance kind of does that." In a sense.

"Well, anyways, making a golem needs glyphs I don't know about. Stuff that can actually react and control it. All my glyphs rely on my input, well all except Cushioning. And even cushioning needs kinetic energy."

"Ah, got it." Jaune sighed dramatically. "Well, so much for my plans of world domination with magic robots. We could've been the dastardly duo, Oscar! Dark Lord Jaune and his loyal Wizard Oscar!"

"Yea, yea." Oscar rolled his eyes. "Hey, why can't I be the Dark Lord? I'm the one with magic!"

"Oh silly Oscar, the dark lord can't be a midget!" Oscar pouted at the petulant poke at his height.


"What'cha looking at?" Oscar was bent over and looking at a small trap glyph (that they depowered) and inspecting its make.

"When I touched it before, it felt as if all my mana was being sucked away. I'm copying it."

"Oh, is this what that Vampiric Glyph is? It even have what looks like little fangs in it!" Indeed, in the major circle, there were sigils shaped like little fangs.

"Yea. My mana regeneration is really bad, so I have to think of some way to get it." It seemed that aura was no substitute for a proper mana core. There was also the fact that, despite his constant tinkering, he was below novice levels in terms of what he knew.

"Well, I found what this floor is for." Oscar raised an eyebrow. "It's full of inscribed weaponry. Check it out." Oscar, after jotting down the Vampiric Glyph in his notebook, rushed over to the armory, where, indeed, there were plenty of inscribed weapons. Oscar looked like he had just struck gold, which, to be fair, he might've. While he had the three elements, they were fairly big drains on his mana supply and rather inflexible. Water had to make water, fire had to make fire, and wind had to make wind.

But these? These would be spellsspecially made for attacking. Spells he could copy, look at the glyph combinations of, and then make his own.

Jaune decided to watch, always keeping an eye out to make sure Oscar didn't poke one out in his enthusiasm. Before activating each weapon, Oscar would always dutifully copy down whatever glyphs were on there. The weapons were varied in effect, though they'd often shatter or crumble into dust after a few seconds. There was a dull sword that sharpened itself drastically using Tele Aeros with a super thin and slanted funnel to create a wind blade effect, an arrow that used the kinetic energy of being lodged into something in order to stick to whatever it hit, a hammer that could extend spikes out of its head, a javelin that split in the air, a bouncing arrow, and even a scythe whose blade absolutely decimated biological material.

And through it all, Oscar dutifully took notes.


"Well, this looks like the guy's personal study." They were at the top floor now. While the central room had a library full of generic books, the top floor's books were all magic. Magical theory, glyph lists, history books, medicine books, and even one or two story books. It was absolutely full of knowledge.

All the while, however, they were avoiding the Guardian of the place. It was still prowling the Library, certain of the existence of intruders but uncertain as to their location. Oscar and Jaune took to erasing their presence, but the serpentine guard was still dangerously close to finding them. That's why Oscar couldn't digest any of the information he'd gathered, because the more time they wasted, the worse their chances of staying hidden.

But, in one room, they had decided to stop and read. Oscar had just confirmed that the snake had gone to the bottom floor again and this shelf wasn't like the rest. The books on this shelf weren't informational or academic, no, they were logs. And journals. Journals by one Hale Salem.

The first one went as such.

'Ever since my battle with Kyros, my magic capabilities have been crippled. And my physical state is only marginally better. Whenever I try to use magic, my skin begins to flake and my blood boils. Its as if though the gods are cursing me by taking away that which I love most. But that's a simple minded person's conclusion. What others might see as a death sentence, I see as a challenge. A challenge to be counquered. I must simply devise a way to subvert my now very apparent mortality.'

That was the basic gist of the first book. The rest of that journal was dedicated to theory crafting and possible avenues of response. As well as matters like what to do about keeping this under wraps from his rivals and other things.

'Perhaps the very problem in trying to amplify my magical capabilities is the idea of trying to do that. After all, growth in the body and arcane halts at adulthood. So, why not cultivate a much greater source of magic and simply absorb it, making it my own? To that end, I've enlisted some help. Not on some random street trash that might carry some unknown disease, no, I'll preform the experiment on my child, Alexandria Salem. Her name will be written in history, and as such, so will mine. She is the perfect subject. Her biometric data should be perfectly compatible to mines. But, why settle on simply assimilating her magical core when she's fully grown? Why not go further?'

Jaune and Oscar shared a look of shared contempt for Hale Salem. He had shown his willingness to preform experiments and essentially raise them to simply harvest their organs. The next book was when the plan was solidified.

'So, in order to amplify the arcane capabilities of the subject, I will be hunting for and then inserting items of immense power. To that end, I will need to endanger myself to an incredible degree. Many of these items are owned by similarly paranoid magi who are willing to do much more than me to keep their precious curios safe.' The next few pages were stained with bloody fingerprints. 'Well, I've surgically inserted each of the items. I've shoved the dust of the Ten Crystal Eyes into her eyes in order to make her capbilities with magic exponentially more powerful, cracked open and then inserted that damned snake's puzzle into her head to make her naturally adept at the arcane, and replaced her gut with one of Yamato Orochi's offspring (the damned snake itself is too big and too hard to find, oddly enough for something of its size) so that her mana production is also exponentially increased. The subject had been crying the entire time, good thing I placed her in a sustainment field to keep her alive. No ordinary human would've survived otherwise.' Jaune immediately shut the book and Oscar didn't object.

They moved on to the next book.

'Progress is looking perfect. When she sneezed yesterday, she accidentally blew up an entire room. Though, now that I'm thinking about it, I should make some safety measures. She may destroy my precious work and while she is leagues better in terms of quality, I would rather not have my home destroyed. So, I will put her at the top of the tower in the Library and create a spell to lock her in. That way, if she accidentally destroys something, it'll only be the upper tower that gets damaged.' Next page. 'Tabby has instructed me that it'd be better if someone was there to help the subject emotionally grow, someone to act as a caretaker. I was skeptical, if I am being honest, but then he reminded me that if she stayed infantile in mindset, accidents like the one last week would be constant. So, I have outsourced those duties to Tabby. An emotionally stable and skilled child is far better than one without any semblance of self control.'

Next book.

'It seems that the child has reached the phase of rebellion. While some other fathers might be lenient, I cannot afford to be. To that end, I have captured and succesfully trained a Red Polyeye Serpent to act as the girl's guardian, to check up on her and make sure she stays at the tower. I've also bound Tabby so that he doesn't act rashly from an unnecessary emotional bond. Perhaps I could use a spell to affect her mind, but that field is theoretical, highly sensitive, and too risky.'

Next book.

'It seems that the girl has been luring magi and knights to my Library using letters. While I cannot stop her from doing so, as I do not know for sure how she's done it in the first place, I can stop the intruders from reaching their target. To that end, I'll be creating security measures. I've instructed the Polyeye Serpent to kill intruders and armed the entire Library with a litany of more deadly traps. I've also scattered various trinkets and prizes so whoever comes in may feel a semblance of accomplishment before leaving entirely.'

'This is bad. Most of the time, the intruders come by, die, or leave with a concession and never return. But this man, this FURIOUSLY POMPOUS KNIGHT! He was not lured here by the promise of secrets or gold, he foolishly wants the hand of my daughter! And he WILL NOT LEAVE ME ALONE! When I occasionally go to the market, he heckles me in the street for Brother's sake! Though, at the very least, he has the politeness to not strike me down. Though, I hope the next few letters do not contain any knowledge of what I've done to her in her infancy or what I plan to do in her adulthood, because if they do, I fear that Sir Ozma might not be able to restrain himself from running me through. On that note, there are just a few more years until this entire mess is done with. A few more years until I will have a working magic core.'

And that was the last book. To be fair, most of the books were just pointless meandering, theory crafting, and rambling in general. A good ten books were just the guy complaining about the royals, the nobles, other magi, and even the weather at times.

"Wow, this guy fucking sucks." Oscar was the one to say that, his pupils dilated and eyes wide at what he had just read.

"Yea, he really does." Jaune sighed. "Now I hope even more that the girl got out of there."

"At least she had Tabby, right? They were probably a better parent than this dickbag ever was."

"Hopefully, yea."

A few moments of silence. At that point, the two of them had been lugging around a trunk filled with arcane textbooks that Oscar had pilfered, and they had reached the top. Or, well, the penultimate floor.

"Now, all we can do is go up." Jaune muttered.

"Maybe we'll find out if Alexandria escaped after all."


The room at the top of the Library's tower was small. It had enough for a bed and a desk with a mirror. That was it. All across the floor, however, there were plenty of books. Books upon books upon books. Not magic books, no, fiction. Romance novels, fantasy novels, even history. The girl was clearly a lover of fiction. There were drawings on the walls, initially crude, of knights slaying dragons. And as she grew, the drawings rose more and more on the wall, as did their quality. Stick figures turned to vague fascimiles of humans to accurate and stylized portraits.

There were personal notebooks as well. While many served as sketchbooks and to vent Alexandria's frustrations, just as many were dedicated to writing fiction. She wrote a library's worth of fiction. Much of it was original, but a significant portion of it was her own renditions of her favorite novels. Familiar characters set in different settings and with different relationships.

Coral would get along well with her.

She also liked to draw of the outside world. Many of her drawings were of things like cities, other people, kingdoms, soldiers, knights, kings, queens, merchants, and food, especially food.

Jaune and Oscar saw not a girl broken from the horrors of the truth surrounding her origin, but a bright and passionate young woman who desperately wanted to fly free. She was remarkably human.

Her writing contained wit and humor, as if she was speaking directly to the reader. And Jaune could practically imagine Alexandria Salem speaking, with a sharp but innocent tongue and a curious mind desperate to learn more. Many of the concepts in the books, even if the subjects were thousands of years old, were fairly innacurate as far as Jaune could tell, but that didn't matter, because she was consistent. From her mind she created fantastical worlds and characters, breaking up the elements of the books she read and rebuilding them into new works entirely.

"Woah, this is good." Oscar was deep into reading now.

"Yea."

The mood died a sharp death when they heard slithering. The serpentine guardian was coming up the tower, towards them. Their spines shivered and they both knew what to do.

While Oscar shoved as many of the novels as he could into his backpack, Jaune picked up the trunk filled with the tomes Oscar had gathered, and they both ran.

But as they closed the door, the serpent had come up and finally gotten a gimpse at the mystery intruders. It saw the door being closed and knew where they were. It smashed into the tower, crumbling brick and mortar and demolishing the room, and through the door. Oscar and Jaune had already gone down quite a few steps and practically had a heart attack when the door (and wall) were broken instantly by the snake.

They only increased their pace. In fact, Jaune had Oscar hop onto the chest before jumping down the circular staircase and desperately pooling amplified aura into his boots to lessen the fall.

They made it down exponentially quicker, but the snake wasn't far behind. Oscar, while they ran to the central chamber, tried binding the snake to the floor, but it simply shed its skin and moved on. He shot wind bullets, but it dodged. He fired off fireballs, skewering icicles, tried curling the floor to create a wall to stop it, but it simply ran through the barricades and dodged the projectiles, its mouth opened and ready to kill. Its eyes shot out lasers to try and melt them, but they managed to dodge (or in Jaune's case, deflect) them.

Luckily, they made it to the central chamber, whereupon Oscar extended a magical circuit to touch the Prosthesis Muscle on the lecturn and immediately dropped them down to the bottom floor before the snake could enter. Just as quickly, they began running. Walls and floors collapsed as lasers shot out of the snake's eyes in order to get rid of the obstacles in its path.

Their lead only lasted them a moment, as they were huffing and panting a distance away from the library, the snake had caught up. It slammed into Jaune, smashing the trunk into splinters and scattering the knowledge inside it. Oscar tried to cast Tele Aqua before freezing the water, but the serpent simply evaporated the water with its eye lasers.

They were fucked.

Jaune amplified his wolf gaze so much that he was sure every Grimm within a ten mile radius sensed him, but he did it so that the serpent focused on him and not Oscar. His presence overwhelmed even that of the serpent itself.

And it noticed. It bashed and slammed into him, with Jaune only barely keeping up his shield. His legs were weak, his arms ached, his fingers were bruised and battered. His armor kept strong as always, as did his aura, but his entire body cried for mercy.

"GET AWAY, OSCAR!" Jaune cried out, speaking was painful, but he had to keep on doing it. He had to, because if he didn't, Oscar would die shortly after he perished.

Oscar's eyes were wide, his breathing shallow, he could somehow sense that Jaune was losing, that he was going to die. It was his fault, it was all his fault. Jaune was going to die because of him. Because he wanted more. They had to get out of there, they had to leave, they had to run.

And something in him burned. Something in him listened. Something in him answered. And as Oscar ran in front of Jaune, adrenaline pumping, and eyes openeed as wide as they could, circuits formed all over his body. Circuits he was subconsciously making. He was pushing himself.

"DON'T TOUCH HIM!" Oscar yelled as he ran in front of Jaune as the serpent was about to smash into Jaune, whose aura was flickering.

"N-n-no, get away!" Jaune's voice was broken and cracked. He desperately reached out to Oscar, trying to push him away, but could only feebly grasp at the boy's hand.

And then, at that moment, a few things happened. As the snake slammed into Oscar with the force of a hundred trains, the circuits on his body reacted. They formed hundreds upon thousands of tiny cushioning glyphs. Normally, that would siphon away a fraction of the kinetic energy created while leaving the majority of it to impact Oscar, which would normally kill him easily. But, as Jaune's hand touched Oscar's, he subconsciously activated his own semblance.

And it amplified Oscar's magic.

And while normally 0.5% of the kinetic energy created was siphoned away to become mana, with Jaune's semblance combined with his desperation to protect Oscar, it became 99.9%.

The slam did nothing. The remaining 0.01% of the energy created noise, a loud noise, louder than gunshots and explosions, loud enough to be heard miles away. But the rest of that energy flooded into Oscar's body. It flooded into the thousands upon thousands of magical circuits running along his skin. The serpent blinked.

And then, it attacked again. And again. And again. And again. It felt like it attacked thousands of times, none of the attacks doing any more damage than the last.

More and more magical energy was slammed into Oscar, it was overwhelming. His body felt like it was going to burst. It felt like he'd explode. He had to use it somehow. He had to protect Jaune.

And so, with the simple raising of his hand, thousands of Binding Glyphs stuck the serpent in place. While normally it'd be trivial to break out, the sheer amount of mana at Oscar's disposal meant that it was practically impossible. The fact that everything was frozen, with nothing left uncovered made it even harder.

And then, the Glyphs Oscar had grinded into his head with constant practice came into play. Oscar unleashed a deluge of water onto the serpent before freezing it instantly before it could hit him or Jaune. Then, Oscar used Tele Igni to instantly melt and evaporate the ice (as well as boiling the serpent from the inside), his mana supplies allowing him to expose the serpent to half of the total heat of the sun. Then came Tele Aero. The air distorted as blades of wind faster than sound shot at the serpent, crumbling its scales and cutting it to the bone.

But those wounds merely healed with the bleeding of red smoke.

Despite that, thousands upon thousands upon thousands of these blades shot out, clouds began moving from afar and consolidating in the sky above, blocking out the sun.

Red smoke tinted the sky crimson. Oscar paused, waiting to see if it was dead. He was acting on instinct now, any conscious thought was left to wait as he dedicated his entire being to destroying the serpent.

Red lasers shot out at them from the cloud of smoke, read to incinerate.

Green magical circuits shot out everywhere. Through the dirt, the stone, the trees, and the air. Relying on second instinct, the light bent, with the laser simply shooting out into the air, creating a hole in the clouds above.

With the twirl of his fingers, hundreds of thousands of Prosthesis Muscle Glyphs formed on the various things in the area. And with the gripping of his fist, the land itself curled like paper around the serpent, eating it up and trapping it in a large sphere made of dirt. Oscar still had energy to spend, though.

The small forest around them was suddenly uprooted, all at once. They were bent unnaturally as their trunks were sharpened to a razor edge, with Tele Aero Glyphs making their points even better at piercing. And all of the trees in the small patch of land around them were flung into the air before shooting down like a volley of arrows. They all pierced through the thick layer of dirt and stone that wrapped around and constaly crushed the snake.

But that wasn't enough, through his left eye, Oscar could see that it was still alive. So, reaching up into the air, he let the circuits creep upwards like a sprouting tree. The cracks shot through the air and pierced the atmosphere, reaching into the vast emptiness of space.

And then they hit an asteroid belt. A few hundred asteroids were touched by the circuits and had Glyphs similar to that of the Origin Tracker burned into them. And when provided with some of the red smoke of the snake, the asteroids began to descend.

The flaming balls of rock pierced the skies and poked holes in the clouds above, causing constant sonic booms as it descended further and further.

And then they all met their mutual target, the snake. A volley of asteroids slammed into the snake, crushing bones, shattering scales, and causing eyes to explode. Dust filled the air as the ball of land crumbled.

And despite it all, the snake was still there, bruised, battered, but still alive. And Oscar had only a bit more energy left.

So, with the last of his energy, all of the circuits condensed into Oscar's left hand, making it glow a blinding bright green. And then, the green slithered out and shot

An explosion of the likes that nobody has ever seen hit the small clearing. While Oscar managed to protect him and Jaune with a barrier, the entire area was destroyed by the blast. The Library was reduced to ash, the books from the trunk were blown away and incinerated. The grass was atomized, layers of dirt were blown away. A crater deeper than any cave ever created was smashed into the ground, with the rocks and dirt that previously occupied the space reduced to dust.

The largest mushroom cloud Remnant had ever seen before had formed. Mistral, in the past few minutes, had been shaking. The effects could be felt everywhere. From the deserts of Vacuo, to the cold tundras of Atlas. Though across the ocean, it was merely a very faint noise.

And in particular, the pulse of magical energy could be felt around the world. To most, it was nothing, but to two, it was everything.

In one tower, a bitter old woman was crying blood, her glass of wine shattered on the floor. All of her servants were out on missions, she was the only one there. And she recognized that pulse.

In another tower, a bitter old man was crying the first tears he had in centuries. A coffee mug was shattered on the floor. In front of him were the new generation of protectors, who were waiting anxiously for the words he was about to speak.

But he couldn't speak, he really couldn't. Glynda looked at him nervously, nothing had shaken up her boss like this in forever. The students looked at him worriedly, what had paralyzed the headmaster of the academy, what had paralyzed the strongest Huntsman in all of Vale?

And at the same time, the two of them whispered a single word. The woman's was heard by nobody, while the man's was heard by everybody there as his shocked mumble was amplified by the mic.

""Pandora?""

But at the field where the explosion happened, the dust had finally settled, and Oscar's body couldn't take it. Everything was burning, his energy was sapped, and with his final act being looking at Jaune, making sure he was still breathing, he collapsed, unconscious.

And Jaune, who had been amplifying Oscar's magic the entire time, fell unconscious as well, finally succumbing to fatigue.

In the distance, a cat spirit put down their barrier and noticed that their shackles were broken. They were now free to wander the world once more.

And out of the crater crawled the serpent, battered, bruised, and bleeding red smoke, but not dead.

But before it could kill the two like it was instructed, something spoke, something broke the silence that had somehow engulfed the world.

"I don't take well to things killing my entertainment." An ornate black and red revolver with a constantly spinning cylinder was pointed at the serpent as Darling's voice rang out. "Especially right after the climax. It makes the journey seem pointless in the end." And while the serpent normally didn't falter, not at the greatest of knights or at the most powerful of archmages, it made an exception.

Because while the boy that had just attacked it was monstrous in terms of strength, this thing in front of it was leagues more dangerous.

And so, it fled, fearful.

Darling looked up to see hundreds of thousands of red eyes through the dust, all of them blind to what was at the center.

"Now now, please, settle down. Turn around and bother someone else." Darling kept on a serene smile that hid just how overjoyed she was. She hadn't seen a show like that in literal millenia. The other two magi in existence had withered away. Their magic, while powerful in its old age, couldn't even begin to touch what the boy had just done. The old man's magic was a constant, he never truly aged. The artifacts in the old woman's body kept her magic alive, kept it as it was. But they were still weakened.

The old man's for an endless cycle of death and rebirth, and the old woman's for an endless hoard of darkness.

"Now, rest up, little ones. You have just changed the world. And I expect at least one of you to provide me with entertainment as we see it." Darling picked up the sleeping knight and magus and promptly carried them away to greener pastures.


When Jaune woke up, it was to blue skies. It was to a bright sun. It was to a tree on a hill of flowers.

And it was to crying. Not crying held in for the sake of politeness. Not solemn crying. Not joyful crying. But crying of the deepest of sorrows. The crying of a young boy who had just seen the last hope he had go up in flames. Jaune felt his body ache and whine as he forced himself to sit up, but he didn't care. He had to comfort whoever that was. He had to.

And as he sat up and looked around, he saw him.

He saw Oscar at the bottom of the hill.

Like so many weeks ago, he was without a shirt. His pants were dirty. The Arcane Veins on his left arm had spread to his neck, stopping short of his head.

And he was crying, watering the flowers with saline tears. So, with ragged breaths and shaky steps, Jaune walked down the hill. As he did, he heard barely intelligble whimpers amidst the wailing.

"All gone."

"Useless."

"All for nothing."

"Can't do anything."

"Wasted."

"Worthless."

"Should just-" Oscar's crying was interrupted as he felt a familiar boy embracing him from behind. It was Jaune. Like Oscar, he was unarmored. Though he couldn't see it, by the base of the tree, Darling had left Jaune's armor freshly cleaned.

He was no longer the White Knight, he was simply Jaune.

"Hey Oscar, how are you doing?" However pained he was, Jaune gave Oscar a smile.

"W-w-w-w-what?" Oscar's tears had stopped, just for a moment, but they were threatening to come out again.

"Wh-why are you crying?" Jaune's voice was reduced to a croak as his legs dragged on the flowerbed and he leaned on Oscar, who was kneeling on the dirt.

"C-c-c-c-c-c-c-cause I'm useless?" Oscar swiftly broke down weeping, but Jaune was quick to comfort.

"Why? You saved me."

"C-c-cause we lost the books! I destroyed the library! Now I'm stuck like this. I'll never be able to do that again, how could I? It was a miracle it worked. I'll never learn more, I'll never be able to grow more. I'm stuck like this, useless, worthless." Oscar's breathing was shaky, his heart pounding, his hands trembling and soaked with tears.

"Oscar, you kn-"

"YOU DON'T GET IT! I'M USELESS! I CAN BE REPLACED BY SOME DUST AND TAPE! My mana regeneration is subpar, my knowledge of magic is basic, I'm useless!"

"O-oscar, y-"

"I've always been a burden, Jaune. I've just been slowing you down, forcing you to waste your time on a stupid quest. I was burdening my aunt, I saw the finances. I was a net loss. I was burdening my parents, without me, t-t-t-t-t-t-they could've lived." Oscar's began hyperventilating. Jaune couldn't help but weep as he further embraced Oscar.

"Oscar, please-"

"YOU DON'T GET IT, DO YOU? You've always been wanted, you've always been strong. You've been trained since birth to be like this. You won't understand what it's like, finding out your parents died because they were trying to save you from Grimm. You won't understand what it's like to starve yourself so your aunt won't have to borrow money for rent. YOU WON'T UNDERSTAND WHAT IT'S LIKE TO FEEL WORTHLESS! LIKE A HORRIBLE PERSON! LIKE A BAD SON!" Oscar, upon realizing what he had said, began muttering countless apologies to the kindly knight.

"Oscar." Jaune's voice, as weak as it was, held authority. "Two years ago, my name was Jaune Arc. I was a high school student in Ansel. I played games, I goofed off, and I barely knew how to use a sword. My entire life, I felt like a joke, I felt like I wasn't good enough for my legacy. What I felt is nothing compared to your grief, but I felt something like it regardless." A pause as Jaune breathed shakily. "And I know what it feels like to be a bad son. I ran away from home, leaving my family worried for months. I'm not perfect, Oscar. You should know that. I left home just because I wanted glory. I'm not the White Knight you think I am."

Oscar paused, tears halted for just a moment. Then, he began to softly speak. "I don't remember their faces. Or their voices."

"That tends to happen to childhood memory-"

"I was 12. When I was 12, they were alive. It's just that I never knew my parents that well, despite living with them. I still wonder late at night, do they love me? Did they love me? What did they think of me? Why did they have me? Was I a mistake?"

"They sacrificed themselves for you, that should say it all."

"But why? I'm worthl-"

"Oscar, I'm pretty sure you destroyed a mountain. You're not worthless." Oscar gulped as he felt the sheer determination in Jaune's voice and relented.

"Auntie barely talks to me either. She's tried, but, I just, couldn't. I couldn't talk to someone. I couldn't bring myself to. And now I'm afraid of trying. I'm afraid of making friends. I'm afraid I'll just be a burden."

"And why did you travel so far just to learn more about magic?"

"I thought I'd finally do something useful. Maybe, this magic could help my auntie. Maybe with it, we wouldn't have to work all day in the fields to pay off the debts she took on for me. Maybe I'd finally be useful. Maybe, with magic, I could finally stop being a burden. Tch, it was all just a self aggrandizing dream."

"Oscar, there isn't any shame in wanting to be useful. But here's the the thing, you don't have to do that. You really don't. It's not your fault your parents died. You don't have to risk everything to try and be productive. You're 14. You can be a kid." Jaune choked as he felt his dry throat wince. "You are worth something, magic or not. You are smart, you are resourceful, you're inventive, you're passionate, you're mischeivous, and above all, you are a person. You do not need to work life and limb to earn love."

"R-r-r-really?" Oscar's voice was choked with tears, not tears of sadness, tears of unimaginable joy.

"Yes, you deserve love." Jaune turned Oscar around and embraced him in a proper hug. "I promise to you, right here and right now, that I will always be here for you. If not physically, then emotionally. Through snow, sand, fire, or flood, I will be here. I will always love you." And an Arc never goes back on his word.

Oscar sat there, stunned, for a good minute.

But after he had processed those words, the tears began to fully flow, and he embraced Jaune back, screaming thanks to the boy who had just shown him what unconditional love felt like.


In the end, they had spent a few weeks on their adventure through Anima. For their troubles, they lost two shirts, a backpack, and were hit a lot. The only thing they really gained in the end was Oscar's notebook, which was filled with the glyphs he had managed to record (though his library of knowledge paled in comparison to what he could've had, he swallowed that regret and worked with what he had) as well as a few of Alexandria Salem's self written novels.

Jaune, from the distance, watched as Oscar held his hand an inch away from the rickety door of his aunt's farmhouse.

He looked backwards to see Jaune, thumbs up and with a good natured grin.

With the confidence that instilled, Oscar knocked on the door.

From his position on a hill a distance away, Jaune could only vaguely make out how Oscar's aunt froze upon seeing him, embraced him in a desperate hug, and chastised Oscar.

Oscar, for his part, would break down crying in front of his aunt, revealing all those insecurities to his aunt, revealing why he disappeared (though leaving out the parts with magic).

And then, his aunt hugged him.

A smile formed on Jaune's lips as Oscar walked into his home with his aunt. Even without parents, he'd find plenty of people ready to love him for who he was, Jaune merely one of them.

With a final whisper of prayer for the safety of the mage, the knight got up from his spot on the hill, and got back to wandering the lands.


You may have guessed it, but yea, I'm using Oscar here. Why? Because why not? He's a future Ozcarnation, but I won't be going down the canon plot anytime soon so now any semblance of relevancy he may have had has been nullified. So, give him something better: A legit and personally driven motivation to adventure that isn't Ozpin.

Also, yes, that was a Persona 4 reference.

Anyways, here's an obligatory rant on magic: It's bullshit. It's so obviously bullshit that it's kind of ridiculous. I've made plenty of rules and internally consistent elements, but at the end of the day, Oscar's magic is so ridiculously versatile that he's practically useful in almost every situation. And if he has enough power, well, you've seen what he can do.

Btw, Jaune and Oscar had some misc adventures between them heading for the Library and reaching it. So, if I bring any other legends up surrounding the White Knight's Magus companion, that's where it's from.

Anyways, because canon is vague as shit as to what 'cruel father' meant, I decided to go with the Fate definition, well, ok a slightly toned down version of the cruelest shit (Search up what the Matous did to Sakura at your own fucking risk).

In case you didn't catch the hint: Oscar didn't recieve Ozma's bones. Those probably didn't survive the spat between the brothers. No, he got the bones of one of Ozma and Salem's daughters. As their spirits lived on to be the last remains of magic in the world, so did their bones. And because of unspecified magic shit, their bones simply adapted in size for Oscar's arm.

Also, no, I will not make this the main plot. Do it yourself!

Options For Next Chapter:

1: Jaune goes to Argus, meets Saphron, and gets mixed up in a cooking competition. Cut to the people who know him seeing this and laughing their asses off

2: Jaune goes to Vacuo, meets May. This will be combined with the backstory for sake of consolidation

3: Jaune meets someone in Vacuo and escorts him on a pilgrimage

4: Jaune is in a town while it defends itself from Grimm Siege. The outer town (outside the walls, mostly made up of poorer people and farmers) has been infested with Grimm and the defenders cannot afford to break defense in order to try and rescue. Jaune volunteers himself to delve into the practical wasteland.

Btw, I know how some of you feel about the Flare Gun, what if I replaced it with another weapon that fits Jaune better? Just feeling out.

Also, I'm starting to read one piece. God help me.