New Remnant: Odyssey

by Ben10Extreme

Ruby Rose dreams of becoming the Demon Queen, in a more benevolent nature than one would expect from such a title. She begins her odyssey in a revitalized World of Remnant, alongside her beloved Jaune Arc and friends, as she gradually amasses the influence and power to realize her dream. Ruby's goal soon picks up speed when they encounter a ferocious Dragon...Cinder Fall.

17. Remembrance

And here we are, prepared for yet another perilous adventure!

After rest from the copious amounts of stress that the gang has had to deal with, figured why not send them into even more stressful situations? Surely that's going to end well for them, right!?

In all seriousness, the Red Riding Hood Guild is prepared to get back to business as usual, whilst they're continuing their hunt for the other Grimm Devils.

Even so, they likely won't be the only threats to be faced...let's see what this one brings.

---

Ruby slowly descended onto the ground in a vortex of white rose petals. She slowly opened her eyes as they were currently shimmering and shining, with her wolf ears and tail currently a bright pure white. Glowing silver light swirled around her being along with the petals accompanying the gale. She maintained this for a minute more, before she sighed and released it. The gale soon dies down, her antler horns disappeared into glitter, and her fur returned to their normal colors. As she relaxed her entire body, she turned towards her mother, who was supportively smiling towards her.

"You're managing it better now, Ruby. You're making very good progress."

"You really mean it, Mom?" Ruby wondered as she hopped across the pond, before reaching her mother. Summer eventually stands up and lightly pets Ruby atop the head, causing her tail to wag.

"Most certainly. You're able to handle it much better." Summer summarized as she and Ruby smiled at one another over the latter's progress, quick as it was for her. "You'll be excelling in this skill in no time."

"Cool!" Ruby beamed as she and Summer began walking away from the pond and into a long and expansive field, petals, white and red petals seen falling down all around them in a gentle breeze. They tenderly, quietly held hands. "Did you train like this when you were younger, Mom?"

"Somewhat. When I was starting out, I was pretty hopeless at it." Summer smiled when she sensed Ruby's surprise. "It's true. I actually didn't improve much at all in wielding these powers until after I've been taken in by mother. And it's only until I've met my mentor that I've truly got better at using my powers.

Ruby thought about this, about how Summer was no good at wielding her powers before she met Grandma Salem. From the sounds of it, it didn't seem like Summer was initially in the kind of setting where she could hone her abilities reliably. Before long, Ruby tugged slightly on her mother's white cape with an inquisitive look in her eyes. "Mom? What were you like before you met Grammy?"

Summer gazed quietly at her curious daughter, the lights in both of their eyes twinkling and sparkling. After some thought, she nodded to Ruby as they both found a nice patch to sit on, surrounding themselves in the rosy meadow around them. "To be honest...my childhood before I met Mother...was not pleasant." Summer lifted her head as her eyes faced the skies, reminiscing slightly. "I was being trained at a young age in order to hone my Silver Eyes as soon as possible, like many of the other girls my age. But my instructors were not kind. They were cold and heartless, devoid of any true love."

Ruby looked at her mother in slight disbelief, as she continued caressing the top of her daughter's head. "Why were they being so mean to you, Mom?"

Summer shook her head. "One day, a powerful alpha werewolf, attacked our home because she wanted their powers for herself. Her vast dark magic and immense aura pressed down upon everything and pushed many of our warriors back. One of the warriors managed to kill her in a mutual kill, both of them having died in the battle. Not many realized it, but a patch of white roses grew around the spot where the werewolf witch and the silver eyed warrior died. When the biggest of them blossomed around summertime and opened up...there I was, a sleeping werewolf cub, with silver eyes. They chose to keep me, and named me Summer Rose."

Ruby's eyes widened. "WHHHHHAAAAA...you were born from a ROSE?! During the summertime!? That's how you got your name?!" Summer smiled mischievously at Ruby's truly dumbstruck expression, currently unblinking. "Wait...does that I was born from a rose too?!"

"Well, in a manner of speaking, you were definitely born from 'a' Rose. You were blossoming so beautifully in Mommy's tummy that Taiyang absolutely adored cuddling you while you were inside. He would just kiss and hug you from outside for hours on end, he couldn't wait to see you." Summer chuckles at Ruby's pouty face from her half-joke. "In all seriousness, with the 'help' of your father, you were born the old-fashioned way. I was not. I was born from the residual magic energy from both the werewolf witch and the silver eyed warrior melded together around the white roses, which helped them grow healthy." Summer turned to one of the white roses to her side, seeing it blossoming slowly. "That energy continued to build, until one of the white roses grew stronger and larger than all the others. Come summertime, it finally opens up and blossomed with me inside. I was an aberration and abnormality amongst our clan; born with the immense magic power of an alpha werewolf witch, and the light powers of the Silver Eyes."

"Ohhhhh..." Ruby blinked. It was such a strange tale, and yet Summer was speaking the complete truth. "Wait...does that mean you never had a mom or dad?"

"My birth was undoubtedly an unconventional one; I came into the world without parents, but nevertheless, my existence began from a rose. Which may be another way of saying that I was born from nothing." Summer lightly leaned forth and poked Ruby's forehead. "From one standpoint, your bloodline begins directly from me and your father. You and I are one of them, but at the same time, we're not. We're simply ourselves." Summer smiles fondly, hugging Ruby. "However, I wouldn't say that meant I never had a mother."

"Grammy was always your mom." Ruby smiled brightly, and Summer returned the radiant smile herself before kissing the tip of Ruby's nose, snuggling her closer.

"And from the time that I was born onwards, my home had enjoyed several years flourishing, prospering, and thriving better than it ever had before. Because of this, they called me 'Miracle Child'."

"But you weren't allowed to enjoy the miracles yourself." Ruby uttered quietly, and the somber smile across her mother's face told her that she was right. Her mother was seen as a source of power to further their own ends, not as her own person. And due to the circumstances of how she came to be, they felt no guilt or shame for their treatment of her. Summer lowered her eyes as she lightly caressed Ruby's head once more. "But you were able to get away from all of that stuff. They didn't just let you go, did they? What happened?"

Summer could still recall the incident, almost perfectly. "There was a bright flash of light within the middle of the town...one of us finally broke, and the powers went out of control and destroyed everything. The next time I opened my eyes, I was surrounded by bright scorching flames. It was clear enough to me that I had just lost everything, even if I honestly didn't have much to begin with. I was sure that I was going to burn to death all alone, in a bright blaze...that's when Mother found me."

Ruby looked her mother knowingly in the eyes. "...It was you, wasn't it? You destroyed your own home on accident."

Summer closed her eyes and smiled solemnly. "Goodness, such a smart girl you are."

"That's why you said it was super important for me to learn self-control..." Ruby slowly realized.

"Yes. Because I know from experience what an out-of-control brilliant light does. It obliterates everything, no matter who or what it is." Summer smiled sadly. "Deeming me solely responsible for such devastation, my nickname was changed from 'Miracle Child' to 'Calamity Beast'. Because of all of this, nobody wanted to be my friend. All I've made from that point onwards were enemies. Mother was my only source of comfort and safety until I've met your father and uncle, when they were taking care of Yang."

Ruby shook her head in a pouty and upset fashion, before stopping herself and resting against Summer's soft and plump, maternal bosom, nuzzling into her and cuddling her frame. "I don't get it, though. Why did they all feel the need to act like that? Why couldn't they just be nice to everyone and not be mean to you?"

"That's what I wanted to know as well. So, I did some searching and exploring for answers. I found answers within our bloodline." Summer nodded once she knew Ruby was listening along still, then held Ruby securely while gazing at the skies. "The name of our bloodline is 'Celestian'. Both because the celestial bodies in the sky shine and reflect the clearest off of our Silver Eyes, and we were amongst the first ones to truly see Remnant's remaining otherworldly, transcendental aspects after the sudden and destructive end of the Genesis Age."

"We were the first ones who could still see them..." Ruby wondered while tilting her head.

Summer hummed, her tail gently thumping against the ground. "In the Barren Age, our bloodline lived in a shining city known as Celestia, where the stars shined brightest. Since this was an era in which magic was no longer as abundant, we have given rise to many of our numbers almost as some sort of gift from the God of Light in order to try and steer its people on the proper path. Our sacred light was super effective against Grimm and other supernatural threats, so we were hailed as Remnant's greatest warriors." Summer closed her eyes and shook her head. "But because they were placed on such a high pedestal for so long, Celestians were eventually consumed with hubris."

"Hubris? You mean they became too prideful?" Summer smiled and lightly pets Ruby's head for the correct answer, which caused her wolf tail to wag attentively.

"They stopped using their abilities selflessly and wanted to be worshipped as gods. They morally degenerated and became complacent. They ended up blinding themselves with their own light. They couldn't see that they were leading themselves to their own self destruction." Summer closed her eyes, and Ruby felt her sharing images with her through their shared light; the sight of a massive meteor crashing down on the city of Celestia and destroying it, killing many of its inhabitants and scattering them across the lands. Ruby's eyes widened as a clearer perspective of the object crashing down became a bit clearer.

"Is that...?!"

"A chunk of Remnant's shattered moon fell down onto the planet and obliterated this civilization, wiping it off the face of Remnant. The disaster scattered everyone left that bore Silver Eyes, their overall numbers reduced to a crippled fourth of what it used to be. They never saw the irony in the fact that a bloodline known as 'Celestian' had been severely punished by a celestial body falling from the heavens. That's how much their hubris has blinded them."

"They really wouldn't do anything to better themselves...?"

"For that to be possible, they would first have to see that they need improvement, or that they can be wrong about things." Summer closed her eyes. "I should know, for the community that I initially grew up in still espoused these same beliefs despite how severely it's been punished in the past, which allowed them to excuse how they treated me. A light that's too bright can blind you and be very adept in the art of deception. Even when the one being blinded is yourself."

Ruby found herself looking more and more distressed at the fact that, so members of her bloodline had subjected themselves to arrogance, seeing themselves so far above everyone else due to the nature of their powers, that they eventually lost sight of what was happening on the ground. And that inflated sense of superiority was staggeringly successful in culling their sense of empathy for others. Summer gently hugged Ruby to ease her heart a little more.

"It is distressingly easy to be blindly trusting of light. People are afraid of the dark, but that doesn't inherently make light the more trustworthy option. It can blind you and lead you astray, under the guise of benevolence." Summer's bushy tail swayed as she tilted her head, ears flicking. "You think you're doing good and are a good person, when reality demonstrates that you're the farthest thing from either. You become ignorant of the truth of your own wrongdoings. People's readiness to accept light as the safer option compared to darkness means it has a far easier time deceiving them." Summer's eyes lowered and glistened under her hood. "They begin to see corruption everywhere, except within their own hearts."

Ruby was slightly left to ponder, though mostly basked in the warmth of her mother's embrace. The white rose petals fell around the duo as they spent the time in gentle serene silence. Ruby's ears flicked as her eyes twinkled with thought. She wondered if darkness really could serve as a place of shelter against such an unkind light...Ruby looked up to her mother as she gently held and caressed her hands. "Even with all of that happening, Grammy Salem still managed to save you."

Summer smiled and lightly nuzzled her head against Ruby's. "Mother ended up saving my life. And despite the shadow she cast over me, I've never felt safer under it. This shadow, the darkness she brought with her into my life, gave me comfort. I felt truly loved, for the very first time." She lightly kissed Ruby's forehead and gently cupped her cheeks so she could look into her similarly shining silver eyes. "Light can be good when it is used for good, and so can darkness. Both can also similarly blind you when you lean too far on either side, then you'll fall prey to their eviler and corruptive aspects. The key is balance. Once we achieve that balance, our perspective of the world becomes that much clearer." Summer stands up as she and Ruby held hands. "Doesn't that sound beautiful, Ruby?"

Ruby nodded readily, for she's always had a silent appreciation for the darkness. Darkness was given so that people could sleep in peace, to seek shelter in, to crave rest with, and to feel safe in its embrace. Salem has provided that shelter, rest, and safety for herself and her mother, and showered them with a lot of love. It was within the darkness that her mother was able to truly find the happiness of life. With this in mind, she couldn't possibly believe darkness was as inherently evil as people tend to say it is.

Ruby serenely closed her eyes and smiled fondly. "It's very beautiful, Mom."

---

Ruby opened her eyes as she was sipping some strawberry smoothies, lightly smacking her lips and setting the drink down in the midst of a friendly gathering of her fellow guildmates. Ruby could see hem observing the currently transformed Cinder, basking in her own beauty and showing off for her admiring comrades, flapping her glittering white wings. She allowed everyone to gaze upon her form with no small amount of pride in her majestic draconic appearance.

Weiss rubbed her chin. "I will admit...there is a certain sense of renewal regarding your appearance. Ever since that battle, your presence feels stronger, more benevolent, even."

"Before that happened, I had sensed something might have been hiding under the surface, and I was correct." Ren nodded with a hum.

Pyrrha tilted her head curiously. "I can also sense new sense of ferocity within you, as well." She pushed her hair away from her face. "This is a sign of betterment, if I'm to say more about it."

Oscar wondered as he too observed Cinder, scratching the back of his head. "And I guess she has a bit of a softer, kinder atmosphere around her too, somehow. She feels more comfortable to be around."

Jaune lightly hummed while looking her over, seeing her vanity peeking out a bit due to her basking in all the observations and praise. "Not to mention..."

"She's much bigger. Very big. I mean, look at her!" Ruby exclaimed while gesturing to the smirking and nodding dragon with both her arms. "She's so hefty!"

"Intriguing..." Penny curiously walked up and pressed her hands against the dragon's nicely round and soft, doughy belly, feeling them briefly squish inwards and compress, before pulling back and watching it slowly return to its former shape, then popping back into place with a surface rippling wobble. It seems it's elasticity would be more noticeable after being stuffed with food, and its toughness for when she's in battle. Right now, as she's perfectly relaxed, it was nice and warm and invitingly soft, having even more cushioning fat than before. And Penny could see how proud Cinder was of it all. "I'm beginning to better understand the appeal of fleshiness. I have so much to learn!"

"Please don't learn much." Weiss deadpans.

"Please learn a lot." Yang grins, earning Weiss's glare.

"Where she increased in power, her overall form has also increased slightly in sturdiness." Blake hummed with a calm sway of her tail. Speaking of which, she eyes Cinder's tail as it lies still behind her, looking fleshier than before.

"You mean she bulked up?" Yang grinned while flexing a muscled bicep.

"Mega beef!" Nora also flexed her biceps while smirking.

"Hmph. My figure now matches up with my power." Cinder smirked with folded arms and a flash of her teeth. "Now with a much more prominent display on hand, many will have no choice but to acknowledge the might of my size and power. If not, I'd be more than happy to demonstrate it to them."

"That would be fun to watch." Pyrrha chuckled a bit while turning towards a similarly amused Weiss. The image of Cinder's draconic form being incredibly satisfied with having grown fatter and thicker in some places was something only those with her kind of personality could pull off, with complete honesty and unshakeable confidence in herself. It seems even more of her eccentric side was coming to the surface the longer time went on.

"Alright, if everyone will hear me out." Ruby nodded as everyone did gather around, with Cinder hovering her head over them whilst her sister wife pulled out her Scroll. "Something weird is going on in the outskirts of Shion. There have been many disappearances around there with nobody returning."

"From what we understand, this has been happening for around four weeks." Pyrrha noted while narrowing her eyes. "That is, until a person managed to reach Argus all the way from Shion, and they looked haunted. They soon collapsed and fell into a coma."

"We're being asked to check that out while we're here." Jaune rubbed his chin.

Ren while uneasily gazing across the descriptions on the Scroll. "I cannot help but have an ominous feeling. Jaune, we might want to exercise extreme caution here, if we're all to stay safe."

"I'm going to have to agree there, Ren. We need to keep our senses sharp." Oscar shivered slightly. He was simply glad he wasn't the only one feeling disturbed. And the most distressing thing about this was that they had t even set foot anywhere near Shion, yet this feeling of foreboding was pervading them all.

"You are feeling well, Oscar?" Penny wondered worriedly while patting his shoulder.

"I'm alright. It's just, my intuition is telling me that something about this is seriously wrong." Oscar lightly patted Penny's hand while lowering his eyes. "Even if it wasn't completely accurate, it never goes off for no reason." Oscar held out his hand, lightly closing it around the Long Memory.

"Your input is appreciated, Oscar. Trust me." Ruby quietly reassured, before turning towards Jaune, holding his hands with a gentle smile. "We'll be leaving in a little bit. Everyone, get ready to leave as soon as you can!"

"Right!" Everyone else cleared out for a moment, leaving Ruby and Jaune on their own. "Ruby, you're a bit on edge. I'm already worried, but is there something else going on?"

"That's what I'm hoping to figure out, without risking anyone more than I need to. I should be the one most at risk, to keep anyone from getting hurt without a reason."

Jaune shook his head. "Not if I can help it. I'm supposed to be your sword and shield. Anything dangerous heading your way has to get through me first, and I've got the best defense out of all of us."

Ruby and Jaune suddenly felt large paws around their forms, picked up from their feet. "And my offense is undeniably powerful. Any malicious threats towards either of you will be destroyed or devoured as I see fit, after crushing them under my feet." Cinder declared with a powerful voice, filled with confidence as her tail smacked the ground behind her. "I shall prove my inherent superiority over other creatures through actions."

Jaune sighed, lightly scratching his head as he looked up towards the dragon with a tired smile. "The more powerful evil does you find, the more of them you can eat. Right?"

"My hunger burns strongly, Jaune. It's not my fault that malicious rhymes with delicious." The dragon grinned toothily, patting her rounded belly for emphasis, before she briskly turns towards Ruby. "You yourself are an alpha werewolf. You're most worthy of being an equal to me. You have me to assist in overcoming any and all threats, so that your confidence in me and Jaune remains founded."

Ruby looked towards both the confident Cinder and the supportive Jaune, before she smiles and nodded. "Right. Now, let's finish getting ready." She had her own instincts that she could tap into, and she had a feeling that she and her friends were heading into a truly dangerous situation.

She'd just have to trust them to get herself and her pack through whatever may be up ahead for them.

---

The road to Shion was drearily ominous.

Unlike the time that kick-started their clash against the Glass Unicorn, this time the day was nice and bright, the radiant light of the sun bearing down upon the lands. It wasn't that the sunlight was even scorching hot, it was more of a gentle warmth that reaches whatever it touches. There was something in edging about how bright it was, accompanying the cloudless blue skies. Not a cloud to be seen in the skies, which means there wasn't going to be a reprieve from the unrelenting sunlight for a while. Meaning no protection from the slightly overbearing light, which threatened to blind Jaune should be look up for too long just to check his surroundings.

He looked to the side as he held his hand in front of his face, seeing that Ruby was mostly focusing straight forward and not allowing the strong gaze of the sun to impede her. Then he looked to the other side, seeing that Cinder was mostly unbothered by the sun herself, barely giving it much thought. He found himself impressed by their channeled focus. Though within Ruby's eyes in particular, her eyes were already shimmering with something wary and cautious. Though from time to time, she took the time to gaze towards Oscar, who uncertain herself, and she lightly patted his shoulder. He himself moved towards Oscar and did the same.

"You alright, buddy?"

"Y-Yeah, I'm fine. I was kind of zoning out for a bit." Oscar shook his head, lightly clutching onto the Long Memory. "Shion shouldn't be too far from here. If things work out well, we should be able to get there without any complications...which means we're going to run into complications."

"Most likely." Cinder deadpanned, slightly miffed at the fact that she's well used to this kind of perspective by now. "I don't think I've ever come across Shion before when I roamed Mistral. I've certainly heard of it, but I didn't seem it worthy of my presence at the time."

"Well, it looks like you'll find out for yourself what it's like. Probably." Nora wondered as she placed her hands behind her back, walking along and also slightly reaching for more shade to protect herself from the light bearing down on her. "I do remember going on several visits to Shion with Renny when we were kids. It was one of the safest places we could go when we were just wandering around, trying to protect ourselves from danger. We weren't all that strong yet."

Ren lightly shook his head, attempting to calm his Aura whilst keeping vigilant on the area around them. "Shion was one of the several towns and cities that were destroyed in several consecutive Grimm Attacks in a row, alongside Oniyuri and Kuroyuri. The resulting negativity ended up overwhelming the three cities, and there were almost no survivors of any of the attacks, aside from Nora and myself being along the very few. The destruction didn't spare anyone, plague and illness destroyed whoever wasn't fortunate enough to escape the initial rampages." Ren shook his head while he and Nora gazed towards the forests around them. "It took years for them to fully recover, thanks to Empress Miyako 's efforts. If Shion is currently in danger, I'd rather it didn't fall into ruin once more."

Cinder tilted her head. "Hm. Is that so."

"It was before me and Renny met Jaune and Pyrrha. Before then, it was just us." Nora lightly turned towards Jaune and Pyrrha themselves, who uneasily looked back towards them. "But we managed to make it through it all. It was during those moments that made me realize that helping each other out, from the bad stuff through the good stuff, we were going to be okay."

Pyrrha smiles and nods softly. "Right." She serenely agrees while holding hands with Nora.

"It looks like we've reached Shion." Blake narrowed her eyes as the fur on her ears and tail began to rise, and her beastlike pupils thinned. Eyes locked onto the nearby flag, where the symbol of the town was most prominently shown. Though the flag was currently a noted pale blank white, with not a trace of the original design on the flag to be seen. The shadows around her grew and converged protectively around herself and her friends. "Getting closer without caution would be most unwise. I'm sensing intense danger ahead."

"So, it wasn't just me." Ruby narrowed her eyes as her ears flicked slightly, turning towards Jaune, who nodded to her. He placed up his shield and stood in front of Ruby as they both moved forward several more feet in order to test something before her. Several seconds later, multiple arrows of light shot towards Ruby, and Jaune managed to deflect them all with his shield in a timely fashion. "Looks like they're right about weird stuff around Shion. But I didn't think we'd be getting attacked this quickly."

"Definitely not the friendliest greeting we've ever received, yet surprisingly not the worst, either." Jaune narrowed his eyes as the energy around his shield expanded and shielded against further light arrows raining down upon the group. "Who the heck is firing all of these arrows?!"

"No idea, but it's not going to do any good." Weiss declared as multiple Glyphs formed in front of everyone and deflected the light arrows attempting to shoot at them, enhanced by Jaune's Aura Amplification. "Blake, you're going to have to phase us inside. We can't afford to fight outside Shion's borders like this, it wouldn't do any good to damage it more than we need to."

"Understood." Blake nodded firmly as the shadows swirled around everyone, until they closed in around them and took them away from the area, leaving the light arrows to strike nothing.

Several minutes later, everyone appeared from multiple shadows and similarly appeared somewhat invisible thanks to Blake's shadows extended to them. Blake rose up last from her shadows as she cloaked everyone in her shadows and had some help from Penny and Oscar to further stabilize them. Ruby in particular looked at her arms and paws, feeling that her presence was being masked in the darkness. Blake felt herself being suppressed by the light around them, with Penny channeling more power in order to strengthen Blake's shadows, paired with Jaune's Aura Amps in order to make them stronger and more durable under the radiant shine. Once they were sure that the coast was currently clear, they proceeded to move onwards.

'Everyone, stay silent. We can't allow anyone to discover us too soon. We should first try and see what's going on here before we proceed any further.' Ruby declares calmly before she and the others proceed to calmly and quietly scatter outwards in order to see for themselves what was going on within Shion. As soon as they've left their shadow entry point, they were allowed to scout things out with little fanfare aside from the beginning.

Soon, they were beginning to see what the source of their unease was.

The shine upon Shion was almost constant, never-ending. There didn't seem to be an obvious source of the radiant light, even with the sun adding to it. It seems to have spread across to the skies, nearly covering everything and anything that is and would have emerged in the skies. Not even birds could be seen flying across the skies and not a sound of them could be heard anywhere. But what the groups could see clearly and within their sights are the various people that occasionally passing them by, casually basking in the light that they were being bathed in. Several of them have happily greeted each other as they were passing by one another. With children moving about and playing, with their parents talking with one another, and elders conversing with each other about times long since passed. It was nice and peaceful, with the flowers blooming beautifully under the sunlight.

Ruby's instincts went off like blaring alarms.

Danger. Danger is all around us. Too quiet, too peaceful, too unmoving. Don't trust. It's not safe. Nothing is safe.

'I'm not the only one sensing this, am I?' Yang uttered quietly while rolling her arms, narrowing her eyes vigilantly.

'Something is dreadfully wrong here. Everyone's Aura here...none of them feels complete. Something is missing...' Ren uttered quietly as he attempted to sense something more in-depth with their souls. "It's like an entire portion of their whole selves has been completely silenced..."

"I can't even hear their heartbeats." Ruby warily added to this, with Penny further confirming with a nod.

"Their hearts are indeed not beating. And yet their bodies are still functioning like it does not matter." Penny analyzed calmly, currently observing everyone passing by and noticing upon deeper inspection, most of their interactions with each other, the warm and gentle beams of light shining down upon everyone and how they embraced them with joy in their non-beating hearts and silent souls...

Something was awfully wrong.

"Ruby...you might want to see this..." Jaune uttered with a shaky tone in his voice, and Ruby could tell just that she wasn't going to like what she would see. Nevertheless, she needed to know what Jaune would bring to her attention. As such, she immediately made her way to Jaune so she could see what his Aura has become distressed over. Though once she realized what's gotten her attention, her own heart was stunned. And the same shock has immediately claimed everyone else. Jaune went over to a circular, futuristic well that they could see flowing alongside a river.

There were a pair of human skeletons at the bottom of the well. And it looked like a larger skeleton was holding onto a worryingly smaller one.

"...What the fuck happened here?" Yang uttered quietly as her eyes were currently glowing red.

"We have a way of finding out...alright, Penny. Time for our upgraded version."

"Roger." Oscar and Penny were soon quietly conjuring their energy for their united ability to see into the past, forming a scanning holo-screen, altering the name to Chrono Scope. Albeit on a much smaller and less noticeable scale so as to not attract any attention. Displays of what happened soon to play out for them to observe. The scope zooms out slightly for everyone to better see through and understand.

'P-Please, we didn't mean to intrude! We were just looking for a place to stay the night!' The mother exclaimed with panic as she was holding her son close to her, who was on the verge of tears at the number of soulless stares aimed their way. And right in the middle of the gathering, was a woman in shining white garbs, who seemed to be leading the current mob. Her stare seemed more put together than the rest, almost far too much. 'A-At least spare my child! If you're to punish someone let it solely be me!'

'What say you, Sansa?' One of the onlookers consulted their leader.

Her captor, Sansa, wearing a graceful white frilled dress, her golden hair flowing in the wind, shook her head. 'You and your child have brought negativity into Shion. You feel negative emotions, which means our beloved God of Light does not love you, and you do not love him." She chanted ritualistically as several orbs of light manifested around her. "We release you from your abominable existence.' They were not given much time to plead ever more, as the orbs of light expanded and launched towards the helpless duo, as they were burned to a crisp by the blast, reduced to scorched corpses. They were soon thrown into a well without any further thought to them.

Penny and Oscar briefly looked stunned, as the others paused what they saw through Chrono Scope. Yang clenched her fists with her eyes blazing at the sight. Ruby, for her part, had become steadily calm, her eyes still staring towards the space where Chrono Scope manifested. However, Cinder's heat increased all around her as she glared heatedly towards the space before her. She nearly dispelled the shadows cloaking her so she could go on a rampage, but she was stopped by Ruby firmly grabbing her wrist with a strong werewolf paw and keeping her in place. Cinder glared towards her in response, though Ruby calmly continued looking forwards rather than look back towards the furious dragon.

"Not yet. We need to know more." Ruby uttered silently. Cinder turned towards the paw on her wrist, seeing it pulsing with increasing strength without actually harming Cinder. Infuriated veins pulsed across Ruby's, muscled arms, yet she hardly showed strong emotion on her face aside from furrowed brows. "Oscar, Jaune, Penny. Please come with me. Oscar and Penny, channel another Chrono Scope. Everyone scatter and stay hidden until I give the order." The seriousness in her voice got her friends attention, and they heeded her order without delay, vanishing to different parts of the city with the help of Blake's shadows. "Jaune. You heard what that woman said, didn't you?"

"Yeah. Looks like they're using the God of Light's name for their own ends." Jaune allowed his shadow to dash across the rooftops to stay close to Ruby, while Oscar and Penny tried to stabilize another Chrono scope in order to find out more about Shion. Once Penny was able to sense a potential ripple responding to their attempts, somewhere within the center of Shion, they got even closer as the visions began rippling more like bubbles, until it began to manifest something once again. Jaune was stunned slightly as he saw markings over at an abandoned side of a house. "This...looks like a grave? But who's is it...?"

'Negative emotions is the creation of the malevolent God of Darkness, Nexus, and is the driving force that drives all living beings to destroy one another, and what mainly attracts Grimm to humanity. He tainted the creations he made with his brother the God of Light, Aether, in order to entertain his desire for destruction and death.' The same woman, Sansa, utters during a sermon, with some of her gathers listening intently. 'That is why we must remain basked in the divine light, so that we may never be tainted with this sinister influence, where no negativity can harm us. That is why I am here to be your guide, so that you do not fall astray into them. So long as you heed me, you will long and peaceful lives. You'll never want for anything again.'

Ruby's eyes narrowed slightly while a bright light descended upon Shion, as everyone's spirits soon became lighter and happier...but it did not feel sincere. And as she felt their positivity rise to immense levels, their negativity seemed to be suppressed, if not be erased outright. It had the surface feels and emotions of a nice and accommodating place that truly didn't want for anything, they had everything they needed, and everyone was happy and cared about one another...but Ruby could easily see past the idyllic appearance and vibes. It didn't feel like it was real, and she knew that it wasn't.

Not with the foundation that it had.

Then when the Scope progressed time even further, they were met with another sight.

One of the neighbors has recently passed away, their bodies failing due to illness that wasn't treated in time. Though no one really responded to it; they simply had them buried and went about their day as if nothing actually happened. Aside from one of the younger neighbors who liked playing catch with them as they were in their chair.

'...Ilene...is this really alright? One of our neighbors just passed away, and yet nobody really minds.' One girl in black and white eventually muttered while walking alongside her friend, who was wearing a bright white dress. 'We won't get to play anymore...that doesn't make anybody sad?"

'Phoebe! We can't talk about things like that, remember? If you have negativity in your heart, the God of Light will stop loving you!' She urgently scolds her.

'I can't help but think about it, at least. Because my older sister Alina managed to leave Shion when nobody else tried, and she never came back to us. Am I not allowed to be sad about that...?'

'That's just the way things are. Besides, it's already been said that she died from Grimm. It wouldn't have even mattered. You're better off if you just don't think about it anymore. You do love the God of Light, don't you?'

'I do. But...I get the feeling that he doesn't love me back...'

Jaune lightly held his hand through his hair as time progressed further through the scope, and as the citizens were going about their business, the ones wondering about the concept of negativity being completely erased tended encourage and build upon their curiosities and desires for answers. But they were never allowed to seek those things out, because a truly benevolent person could never hold negativity within their hearts. Anyone and anything tainted by negativity was evil, and evil could not survive within the light.

Then time progresses again, and Penny and Oscar nearly lost concentration.

Phoebe was laying lifeless on the ground with multiple blades of light impaling her. A few feet in front of her, her parents were standing next to Ilene, who had observed what was going down, but didn't feel too distressed about it. The light bears down on them as the parents went on to calmly bury their child, and then moved on with their lives without ever looking back. It was courtesy of the parents saving their child from falling further into negativity, and thus become unloved by the god of light. They would always have the positive and warm memories they've had with their daughter to get them through the rest of their lives. Thinking about her beyond those would eventually lead to negativity, so every other memory eventually fades into the light.

"It's unfortunate to have this happen, but it's the ways. Our God of Light has no need to support and protect those who do not love him. And if he loves you and you won't accept it, that can never be truly forgiven. We were able to keep this one from descending further into darkness. May this tormented soul be welcomed into the light..."

Ilene stopped thinking about both her and her sister, because she was a good girl who'd never fall into negativity.

"What the heck has been going on in Shion...?" Jaune uttered, unbelieving of what he was seeing.

"Nothing good. Definitely nothing good..." Oscar quietly mutters while shaking his head.

"We keep looking." Ruby decidedly declared, with Jaune nodding quietly.

"...Pardon me. I need a moment." Penny softly requested, attempting to both reel in her horror at the scenario and to wipe her own tears away. Oscar lightly rubbed her shoulder while Jaune patted her head.

"There has to be more to this. Where did this woman come from...?" Ruby solemnly gave Penny a moment to collect herself, before they proceeded onwards through the shadows, with passerby not noticing their presence still. Though their shadows were beginning to wave slightly, and even fade to a degree. "Blake's straining herself. This won't last much longer. Need to be swift..."

They continued their silent investigation, and it was becoming clearer that their brief presence outside has been noticed, for the bright lights around them seemed to be growing more alert by the moment and searching for anything suspicious, along with notable guardians that were trying to reassure their fellows. And even through all of this, this didn't entirely compromise their currently positive vibes, and the lights beaming down on them to ensure that they were protected against the darkness and negativity that the intruders would bring upon them. Ruby's tail swayed silently as Penny and Oscar's Chronic Echo rippled once again, and this time it was set around where they currently sensed the most potent source of Aura within Shion. And Ruby immediately knew who it was.

Chrono Scope soon began to scan further and process faster, and something began to display within it.

"Our daughter has been cursed, and it's likely agonizing on her body since she's become a full-fledged witch. There's nothing more that can be done for her now...this could be our chance." Someone uttered as the lone girl whimpered and groaned from pain wrecking her entire being, unable to concentrate on anything but the severe agony pulsing through her body. She heard her parents speak of her with despondent voices. "Let's leave everything behind and go our separate ways. This is our chance to cut everything off and start over."

"We'd be better off for it; she'd only slow us down."

The young girl could sense that her two parents have left her behind and could feel nothing but deeper despondence from this realization, unable to handle such a despairing situation. She thought that parents were supposed to love and support their children, but hers were fully prepared to leave her for dead after they've purposely cursed her. At this, abandoned in her lone enchanted house, she had nobody and nothing to turn to, except for her magic. A bright, beautiful, light magic that gave her the comfort that her parents never could, and now that she wouldn't have to, for she realized that she didn't quite need them. It was difficult, but even with her weakened body, she was still able to channel her power with the book as a conduit.

"You don't need me around in order to be happy...? Hm. I think I'm fine with that. Thanks to you I realized...I don't need you, either."

She was able to prove it, before they could walk out the door. Blades of light shot through both of their backs and pierced through their hearts. Watching them fall down dead to the ground was the most peaceful she's felt, even though her physical body was still wracked with pain. It was by then that the light she was channeling turned brighter, and the glow around it turned black. It became denser, faster, stronger, and more sinister.

Then she realized that this development in her light turning dark indicated she was now powerful enough to commit to summon forth something sealed within her book. Landing on all fours, it appeared to have been a black cat, with bright golden eyes shining towards her. With time she realized that this feline was to become her familiar. Except it didn't seem to be like most familiars. For the moment it emerged, bright light emerges from her parents' corpses, and the feline hopped over and eats both of the lights. Their bodies vanished soon after, as the feline sits down before the girl.

It had eaten their souls.

"A soul eating kitty...?"

"Hey there, little one. Since you've summoned me forth, that makes you my current contractor, and me your familiar." He tilted his head. "Although as it stands, I wouldn't be able to provide you with power when your body is too weak to handle it. Perhaps there's a way to find you a stronger one...?" The girl similarly tilted her head as well at this, folding her arms as she looked through her book once more.

She might have an idea.

"I've read about an ancient wizard named Ozma, who managed to keep living on despite his original body being long gone, by transferring his soul into a newer, more suitable body that could sustain his immense power." The girl mutters as she tries flipping through several pages. "I don't think I would be able to do it exactly like he did, but there might be a way that I could come close. I just need a chance."

"Oh? Think you can find one? That's going to take a bit of patience."

The girl closed her book for a moment with a nod. "I'm not doing anything at the moment. I have time." She immediately turned around once she heard something rustling. "Who's there?!"

"S-Sorry. I didn't mean to intrude." Another girl with soft gold hair soon emerged from behind a tree, watching the other girl from afar. "I was just looking at the energy of your magic...it's really pretty." She placed her hand on her chest. "I'm Sansa."

"...Samara." The other girl greeted, and the two of them began a bit of curious small talk. The girl named Sansa spoke to her new friend about life outside of her house progressing, and how she and her father were on a camping trip in memory of her deceased mother. Samara was slightly interested, particularly in the note of Samara having a loving an affectionate father. Though before she could proceed further, she winced and held her chest again, nearly falling over. Sasna immediately rushed to help her up, with the Black Cat curiously watching with a wave of his tail. "Darn...not again..."

"What's the matter?!"

Samara shook her head. "It's this cursed body...it fills me with intense pain once in a while...so much that I can't even move right sometimes. It's been that way ever since my parents cursed me and tried to leave me behind..."

"That's awful..." Sansa uttered, wary of carelessly hurting Samara due to her condition. "Someone like you shouldn't have ended up this way. If only I could take your place..."

Samara smiles knowingly towards the Black Cat familiar, who smiled in turn. Such a kind, happy, empathetic, pure soul that Sansa held. She trusted her enough to share her story with her and trusted her enough to make the offer. "Maybe you can. At least for a little while. I'll need to get ready."

"Okay! I'm glad to help!" They both gave each other a gentle hug, before Samara tells her she'll be right back. As she takes her sickly and weakened body back into her house, the Black Cat turns her way.

"Well? What will you do now?"

"I've found my chance. It's time..."

Sansa wasn't aware of what happened at first. She saw a bright light obscure her vision, with the glowing rays tinged with a bit of black to them. Before long she found herself unable to see anything, and she collapsed onto the floor in agony. She couldn't feel her legs being present, nor one of her arms, and her eyes were gouged out. A knife made of light was impaled in her side, and her throat was scorched badly, rendering her unable to vocalize properly. She realized something was terribly wrong. After a brief moment of agonized panic, she immediately managed to piece together that this body wasn't hers.

It was Samara's.

(W-What... what's going on...?! It hurts...! It hurts!) Everything was agony for Sansa, as she was now experiencing just what's Samara has experienced every day. Though the fact that her body was mutilated was much more recent. Before long, she saw images playing by, displaying Samara's true intentions from her leftover thoughts...

"Yes. This body is in much better condition. This will definitely do." Samara, now within Sansa's body, walked away from her house, intending on leaving Sansa to her fate in her crippled and maimed body. Though her eyes widened as Sansa appeared before her in a flash of light. She blinked. "Huh, you're still able to use that body's remaining magic...?"

Muh...buhduh...plu...guh...y...buk... (M-My body...please...give it back...)

"Samara tilted her head. "And why would I do that? I've never felt better in my entire life." She smiled. "I have to thank you. My illness was going to kill me eventually. Thanks to you, I get to live on in your body, filled with such energy and health. That's fine with you, isn't it? After all, we're friends. And friends will do anything for each other, right?" Samara smirked. Sansa could only watch helplessly as Samara taunted her within her own body. "No need to worry. I'll take over your life and live it well. You won't be able to appreciate your father as a daughter as well as I will." At the mention of her father now in grave danger, in a spark of rebellion, multiple blades of light manifested around Sansa and shot towards Samara. The latter's eyes widened as several of the blades impaled her sides and shoulders, knocking her onto the ground. She grunted as Sansa summoned more blades with whatever energy she could dredge up from her current sickly body. "Y-You can still conjure that body's power...?!"

"Hoh-oh. Such intense defiance from an otherwise gentle soul." The Black Cat tilted its head.

Before things could continue, both girls could sense another presence entering the area, and Samara could see that it was Sansa's father, eyes widened at the sight of his 'daughter' being attacked. Samara looked between Sansa, the Black Cat, and her father, before she smirked and turned to the man with feigned panic.

"Help, Daddy!"

"...dha...diii...hg..." (Daddy...help...)

"Stop, monster!" The father narrowed his eyes before he immediately brought up his weapon. "Get back, Sansa!"

Samara immediately got behind the father, with Sasna instinctively obeying as well and moving back with whatever she could, only to realize that her father wasn't speaking to her. It didn't completely register with her after he shot her in the head once, and then it managed to process after she suffered a second shot to the head and seeing Samara silently giggling at her demise while hiding behind her father's legs.

(...Oh...I see. He doesn't recognize me...)

The 'witch' soon fell to the ground in her despair, lifelessly lying in a pool of blood. Something emitting from the body, as a floating bright orb. The Black Cat wasted little time hopping over the body and absorbing the orb via eating it. Her body vanishes soon after. The feline landing on all fours with a smile, turning to Samara as her 'father' helped her stand despite her injuries. As they departed together, the Black Cat remains invisible to the father's eyes, smiling all the while. "Such a succulent soul. Samara, I do believe you'll prove to be my most promising contractor yet."

"The most promising? Me?"

"I've come across many witches, and each of them have borrowed my power, which grew in vastness and versatility. So long as I am fed souls, we can bind our powers any way you wish. So far, I have been contracted with forty-three witches, all of whom provided me with a surplus of souls, an in exchange I blinded my powers with theirs. We've always parted ways satisfied with our mutual services." The Black Cat lifted his paw and licks the back of it slightly, grooming itself before turning back to Samara. "What do you say? Would you like to be my forty-fourth?"

Samara tilted her head at this. "Hm. If it means sustaining this sense of fulfilment, then I suppose it wouldn't hurt, would it? Do I at least get your name?"

The feline smiles. "I have no set name, but Ciaran is the one I tend to favor, if you'd like. I think you and I might have an interesting time together, 'Sansa'.

Having successfully stolen the girl's body, her father, and her life, Samara lived somewhat nicely and peacefully, without a single regret to be had, whilst occasionally and quietly feeding Ciaran the souls of those she killed in secret, with the light around her preventing anyone from catching her or recognizing her as the guilty one. Though enough time has passed, and things turned into a slightly despairing lull. Things became empty and hollow...the brief yet tender moments of happiness and fulfillment she felt had faded away.

Furthermore, she's been attracted by the power of light. So distant, yet always so close by. It's the one thing that's always been there aside from the darkness. She could count on light to always show her the way, when nobody else did or bothered to try. Thus, she came to a conclusion.

"...Sa...ns...a...?!"

There was a cough of blood, which landed across Samara's face. She calmly wiped it aside.

"You know...it's about time that I headed out on my own. It's been quite a nice and cozy experience, being with you. Tucked in and night with a kiss, having dinners together, bathing, storytelling...it was nice and relaxing." Samara turned towards Sansa's father, who had just been impaled with several beams of light, with just enough time to truly look into his daughter's eyes...and realize that she was never his daughter all. "Unfortunately, this love and comfort was temporary, becoming worthless and hollow. I limited myself by accepting love from only you. From now on, the only love that I can truly find happiness and comfort in, is under the eternal radiance of the God of Light. This was relaxing while it lasted, though." She hummed as the Black Cat sees the bright orb emerge from the father's chest, leaping up and eating that as well, ultimately claiming the souls of father and daughter alike. "That holds up our pact still, doesn't it?"

"Indeed, it does. You didn't even hesitate, Samara. I knew I was going to like you more than all the rest; you hold the greatest promise."

"Promise. I suppose that's a nice word for it." She turned as dozens to hundreds of beams of light that she summoned rained down from the sky and began piercing through and killing everyone that remained in town. Ciaran being left to devour their souls en masse. "This town doesn't hold that so called promise to appreciate the great God of Light...I don't think it needs to exist anymore."

This continued between them, with Samara taking on a new crusade in spreading the 'radiance' of the God of Light, basking in brightness. To sustain his favor and maintain their pact, Samara also kept her word to allow Ciaran to continue to devour souls. Especially the souls of children like Sansa, who's happiness Samara once envied and stole for herself before discarding it the moment it no longer fulfilled her. She felt a strong purpose in putting an end to them and how ungrateful they were in enjoying happiness they didn't do anything to earn. They would never be able to appreciate it as much as she did, one who worked tirelessly as a content supporter of the God of Light's luminance.

This has continued throughout the centuries, before the Red Riding Hood Guild's clash with the Glass Unicorn, and the incident surrounding Vale, inspired them to take more concentrated approaches.

Which would lead them to Mistral, and eventually settling within Shion.

The Chrono Scope soon dispersed, leaving the quartet to quietly process everything that they've seen. Penny and Oscar were supporting each other whilst holding one another up, Jaune ran his hand through his hair with a slightly stressful sigh, and Ruby narrowed her eyes further as she kept hearing mentioning's of the God of Light. She slowly stood up as her wolf ears flickered around her.

"So, Shion's been taken over by a witch." Jaune muttered while similarly standing and holding the hilt of Crocea Mors. "And it looks like she's been helped along with a soul eating cat demon, too."

"...It certainly acts like one, but that cat's no demon." Oscar uttered somewhat anxiously, which both Ruby and Penny confirmed with slow nods. Before they could elaborate, the shadows around them eventually dispersed, and they were exposed to the populace at large. "Guys, I think our cover's been blown!"

"Blake lost focus. Something's gone wrong." Ruby growled as she could already see multiple blades of light quickly manifesting around the group and shooting towards them. A spiraling dome of rose petals deflected them all, before she turned to the others. "We have to regroup with everyone, and fast!"

With the aforementioned group, Blake was on one knee while clutching her bleeding arm, which had several claw marks across it. She was staring stoically against the beast that attacked her, which was streaked with a black, darkened light around its form. Similarly golden eyes stared back at her while a small smile was seen across its features.

Ciaran.

"That was a nice shadowy camouflage you had going for you there, but I'm afraid it's not enough to hide from me." The creature declared confidently, as multiple beams of dark light shot towards Blake.

Holding her arm, Blake jumped away from the streaks of light as the areas they managed to touch proceeded to explode in blasts of dark light. The shadows managed to pull her out of the way of one of them, a distant explosion happening right afterwards. She glared at the being and its disregard for possible casualties. Then again, she didn't exactly expect it to. Another burst of dark light exploded from beneath her feet, forcing her to leap backwards in order to avoid the expanded onslaught. She lands across the ground on all fours, wincing due to the pain in her arm.

"Uh-oh. There's a ton of negativity going around at the moment. Far beyond the threshold now that you've all been exposed." Ciaran smiles with a sinister glow around him. "Shion flaked on its end of the agreement, failing to live up to the truce. And they all know what that means. By the end of the day, everyone here will be forgotten."

With the declaration, several formations began manifesting all within Shion, landing on the ground with several thuds sounding outwards. Blake looked around her as she could see several of them were various monsters that were emitting immense fury towards Shion's denizens, alongside what appeared to be several mechanical soldiers being empowered by powerful magic energy, emitting a dark sinister light within them. Weiss's eyes widened once she immediately recognized some of the technology being used. Some of it clearly Atlas based. And yet others...

She didn't have time to ponder it deeper, for one of the mechs has fired a beam of dark light that she was able to quickly deflect with Myrtenaster, though she did get pushed back a bit due to the sheer force behind the blast. She sent it upwards with a s heavy breath, before she was pulled down by Blake as another one fired of towards her. They both hit the ground as the blast soared over them and took out a chunk of the street around them. It left some of the citizens panicking and beginning to scatter. Blake turned her head towards Ciaran once more.

"Negative emotions. They're quite a pain for living creatures, aren't they? They corrupt your hearts and twist up your souls." Ciaran hummed while licking the back of his paw. "They do make souls taste a bit sweeter, though."

"You were hoping this would happen." Blake narrowed her eyes as her Aura covers Gambol Shroud.

"Not exactly, but I'm not unhappy that it did. I'm more of an 'along for the ride' kind of familiar." Ciaran smiles as dark light orbs formed around him. "So long as I can continue eating souls, things can progress however they like. "

Blake's shadows swirled around her as she swiftly dodged most of the orbs shot towards her, seeing them detonate and destroy whatever they impacted in both bright and dark explosions. "So long as you're eating souls, the outcome of all of this doesn't really matter to you at all." She shifted her head to the side as another orb barely missed her, another explosion going off behind her.

Ciaran hummed while tilting his head, several darker lights forming around his head and being shaped into sharpened swords that soared towards Blake. Aura channeled through Gambol Shroud as she deflected several of the blades with shadowy blades, her eyes focused on the beast before her. It wasn't immediately clear to most that doesn't have heightened trained senses, but she could see there was much more to the feline before her, when a massive feline beast with immense power welling within it, taking the form of an assuming domestic black cat. More blades of light were summoned and surrounded Blake all over, with her nimbly dodging most of them and deflecting them with Gambol Shroud. She went on the offensive and slashed her blade, with a crescent of shadows being launched towards Ciaran. He leapt over it with ease, smiling all the while.

"There was a time when a tribe in the Dark Ages saw me as some kind of Blessed Beast, with the power of guardians. I was just a normal black cat back then, one they rendered motherless with their selfishness. Their sheer belief in their little fantasy actually gave me the power that they thought I had. Thanks to them I thrived through the Dark Ages, walking alongside many witches and eating the miserable souls they leave in their wake." The beast smiled as it raised its paw, its claws forming several blades of dark light. "I didn't appreciate humans caging me up to be put on a pedestal, just so that could bolster their own egos by saying they're protected by a beast with blessed powers. As I was eating all of their souls, they perceived me as a Fallen Guardian, hence why my light magic has darkened, and became cursed. Fine by me honestly. It looks prettier this way." It slashed the black lights towards Blake, forcing her to dodge several of them, stoic as one of them briefly slashed her cheek.

"That anger you felt towards people imprisoning and using you for their own ends, converted into a hunger for souls?"

"It's funny how life turns out, isn't it? Always something unexpected thrown your way. I'm not mad at it though, it keeps things moving." Blake turned around as several more massive blasts of black light crashed down where she initially stood, after she jumped away from them to avoid them. "Will this latest contract last a little longer? Will it end today? Will I still be interested in her by the time it does? How many souls can I eat in the meantime? Who knows?"

"Tch..." Blake narrowed her eyes as she deflected more of the black light blades being summoned, before she sent a shadow slash his way that rends through the ground, having him dodge out of the way with a graceful jump. She chased after the Cursed Beast, unwilling to let him out of her sight for even a moment.

Over across Shion, Cinder punched her way through one of the mechs generating magic, only to be struck back by a blast of it going off against her side, slamming her into a building. She clicked her tongue and pulled herself out of the wall, brushing off her shoulder. She looked up to scope more of her enemies, only for her eyes to widen slightly at the sight of one of the creature's being called forth due to the broken pact.

"A chimera?!" Cinder exclaimed excitedly as the beast roared and slammed an enlarged fist towards her, which she blocked with her hand.

The ground crumbled around them, as the beast sent its other arm, made entirely out of snakes, towards her to have them bite her with their venomous fangs. Cinder wasted little time using her other hand to incinerate the snake heads and blast another torrent of fire into the beast's chest, sending it backwards. It regained it's footing soon enough and charged forward, ramming into her while barely missing her with its sharpened goat horns. It's lion-like head lifted and blasts a torrent of flames of its own towards her, which she was able to shrug off rather easily. Then it grabbed her by the shoulders through the bright flames and attempted to chomp on her; she knees it right in the chin and knocks it on its back, releasing her after several moments. It flaps its wings to increase its pace to chase after her.

Though she found it immediately getting back on its sharp feet as several beams of sinister light surrounded it, before each of the orbs shot towards Cinder. She managed to dodge two of them and duck under another, then surrounded herself in a wall of fire as the last four converted on her at once. The blast sent her flying, sensing the sinister light scorching her scales slightly, before she stopped herself with a flap of her own wings. She landed on the ground with a slight laugh, looking up towards the chimera as she began drooling hungrily.

Oh, you are MINE.

Penny was levitating in place as she looked around, finding herself surrounded by multiples of the mechas that were being magically empowered by the dark light within them. Several of them carried glaives on them, which they twirled around and slashed a wave of black light towards them. Penny cuts through it with her own swords glowing bright green, her arms glowing through the green lines across her body. She turned about swiftly as her swords fired beams that briefly clashed with another series of slashes from another mecha, before they overcame it and blasts it out of the air. It falls to the ground, though even more came after it.

One of the other mechas lifts their arm, and whilst being charged with magic, fired a storm of bullets towards Penny in an attempt to shoot her out of the air. Penny's eyes closed as a green barrier formed around herself that deflected the magically empowered bullets. She held out her hand as a spread series of green beans shot forth and combined, piercing through the mecha's center and destroying it entirely. She flipped to the side once she noticed another attempting to slash her from behind.

"Several enemies are focusing on me, it seems. It would be a bit difficult if I lose focus for even a moment." Penny vaulted over another creature attempting to attack her and kicked it across the head to send it tumbling across the ground. "It seems to be a response to the rise of negative emotions in the area. Did they make a truce to not let it breach a certain threshold at risk of punishment...?" Another sword manifested in her hand, and she used it to parry the claw strikes or another creature slashing its claws at her, sending its paw crashing to her side before she blasts a whole clean through its chest, leaving it to fall on its back lifelessly. "In any case, their aggression seems to be increasing."

Ruby was running through Shion on all fours, near completely in Wolf form as she burned down Sansa's scent, now that she was aware of her identity. She leapt over the various creatures attempting to get in her way, with Ren sending an Aura infused shockwave via a lunch that scattered many of the creatures across the ground, whilst Nora smashed down on others with a powerful surge of glowing pink lightning in order to clear the way for her. Pyrrha pushed back against the horde of creatures, and her magnetic abilities forced some of the mechas also attacking her to crash into each other, keeping them pinned down until Pyrrha crushed them with a powerful electromagnetic blow. She sighed as she hoisted her weapon over her shoulder when Ren and Nora caught up with her.

"They really are intent on destroying the entirety of Shion and killing everyone within it."

"Not going to happen on my watch!"

Pyrrha nodded to them both before she turned and raise her shield against one of the mechas punching towards her, stopping it in place, before pushing forward and repelling it with a magnetic push. It crashed hard into the ground from the impact. Above her, Weiss pierced through yet another that was about to attack from the side, pulling out Myrtenaster as the construct falls to the ground. "They're using a combination of monsters and magic technology to try and eliminate us and everyone else. It's almost like they were planning to do this ever since they set foot upon this place."

"That's more than likely the case." Pyrrha twirled her blade and stabbed it into the ground, where an increased magnetic pulsed simultaneously magnetized all of the enemies around her, and repelled them just as well, sending them all crashing into the ground and being stuck there for a time. "They're not going to stop until everyone and everything here is destroyed and killed."

"We should help make some room for civilians to reach safety." Ren deduced as he counters an oncoming blast of flames from another monster's mouth with a barrier of Aura, before pushing back with a fist, the shockwave slamming into the beast and outright crushing its skull inwards. "We'll have to push our way through them all in order to secure the advantage."

"I have you covered!" Nora slammed Magnhild downwards as lightning surged around everyone and blasted their enemies back with thundering shockwaves. "Everyone, come this way! Get moving super quick!"

Jaune nodded as everyone was progressing soon as they could. He was moving alongside them to make sure, but he sensed something coming down from behind, turning around and shielding himself from several blasts of light. He grimaced as he tried to see what was attacking him, then standing his ground as something slammed into his shield once again. "What in the...!?"

"So, it was you?! It's your fault!" The person exclaimed, with brighter lights forming around him and slamming down onto Jaune, which he defended against with his shield. Jaune soon pushed back and slashed with his sword, which the man proceeded to dodge via jumping backwards. "Your negative emotions pushed it all over the edge! You doomed us all!"

"What?!" Jaune wondered, before he parried several blades of light heading his way. "Shion is under the control of some witch and an evil cat! You're-" Jaune parried another slash headed his way, knocking the attacked off balance as he smacked him in the face with his shield. "Can you just hold on a second?!"

"Things have been peaceful ever since that witch came about and suppressed everyone's negative emotions." The man charged forth and clashes blades with Jaune again. "The torrent of pain endured was being silenced, and it kept everyone safe. But the lid on our negative emotions is gone thanks to your presence, and now we are being punished for it!"

Jaune lowered his eyes as he realized reasoning with this person likely wasn't happening. "You seriously thought that living like this was the better way to go? There's no way you're actually happy with all of this!" He raised his shield as, yet another blast of light crashed against it, pushing him back several feet.

"Several of us have had so many terrible events building up over the years that being able to remember them becomes too much to bear. Negative emotions will keep us in that dark corner of our psyche, where we're never able to recover." There was an overhead slash, with Jaune parrying that as well as he was pushed back again. "We were better off without anything that brings about those negative emotions. But now you've broken that veil! You've ensured our self-destruction!"

Jaune narrowed his eyes as he planted his foot in the ground. "There was no way that we were going to just do nothing about this." Jaune pushed back and slashed horizontally, with the Aura channeling through Crocea Mora greatly adding to the momentum and ended up crashing down and sending the person across the street, slamming into the wall in an explosion of force. He watched as his enemy soon collapsed onto the ground, the lights around them dying. He sighed while turning to find his friends. "Everything's such a mess...then again, what else is new?"

Ruby dashed across the rooftops, the scent of Sansa being much closer than before. Before long, she also sensed Blake moving towards the same direction as her, which allowed her to take the initiative and further close in on Sansa. Though before long, several light spears manifested around her in the dozens, which she dodged with a spiral of rose petals when they all attempted to impale her simultaneously. She landed a few feet across from where she could find Sansa, who had surrounded herself with various mechanical constructs that had a powerful light core within each of them, with two of them having flame and ice accustomed to their armors.

Yang landed on her right, Weiss on her left, and Blake rising up from a shadow from below. Ruby glared towards 'Sansa', who looked back towards her with a knowing eye. Yang pounded her fists together with her hair igniting, with Blake's shadows surrounding her like a cloak, and the air around Weiss becoming cooler. Soon enough, Ciaran emerged from an orb of light next to 'Sansa' and landed next to her, smiling mischievously.

"So, these are the ones who caused the pact to break." 'Sansa' uttered.

"To be fair, it was a stupid pact, anyway. That kind of truce was never going to last for the long run." Yang huffed while rolling her neck. "Now for more important matters, mind just giving up now and taking a hike? Not that we'd let you get away, but it's always polite to at least offer, you know?"

"One of the rare occasions you're willing to use your manners. How quaint." Weiss rolled her eyes as cold ice sheened off of Myrtenaster.

"Sansa. Or maybe I should go by your real name, 'Samara'." Ruby began with dissonant tranquility, her pointed wolf ears straight up with alertness. "The charade is over, Samara. It's about time you answer for everything you did."

"Oh, they got a bit of a peek into your history." Ciaran chuckled while the mechanical constructs began to move, with Weiss and Yang dashing to engage them both with waves of ice and fire respectively. Ciaran himself smiled as he jumps upwards, the feline barely managing to dodge a series of clawed shadow hands bursting from underneath him. Blake was not too far behind them, golden eyes meeting. "Don't you think you should relax a little? We're only two cats playing, after all."

"I'm not letting you escape." Blake declared resolutely.

Across Shion, Cinder jumped several spaces back as multiple snake heads slammed into the ground attempting to bite onto her. With her latest leap she avoids all of them attempting to converge on her and attack her simultaneously. She immediately incinerates them in a single blast, burning the snakes away into ashes. Regardless the chimera was relentless, throwing a punch against her whilst she was currently mid-leap. She put up her arms and wings to defend against the punch, behind launched across the roads before regaining her balance.

The Chimera slammed the fist down upon her after flying downwards for an axe handle. She managed to catch it despite the sheer heaviness of the blow. Before long, she grinned as a spiral of flames around her. The chimera was soon pushed back as a bright white scaled; draconic fist soon punched it across its face. The ensuing dragon emerged from the smoke, blue flames and golden eyes and horns emerging from the blast, and she roared.

"You're much more capable than the last chimera I fought. Commendable. Now allow me to show you your place, just like I did that one!"

The dragon's jaws bellowed a plume of flames against the Chimera, which attempted to protect against the flames with its own wings. Dispersing them by flapping said wings, it left itself vulnerable to the vicious tail slap from the opposing creature's large tail, the blow being heavy enough to rattle its skull and send it crashing into the ground. It has little time to recover prospect before a blast of blue flames slammed against its body, leaving harsh burns that left it scrambling to fight back against them, shielding itself with its wings once more. Sensing the onslaught was over, it growled angrily as it blasts a torrent of fire towards her in return, which had her smiling as she simply walks right through the flames, barely bothered by then aside from a slight warmth. It then attempted to take advantage of her confidence by charging through the flames itself, horns prepared to pierce her. She grabbed them both with her paws and stopped the creature in its tracks, which left her an opportunity to breathe another wave of flames against it point-blank.

The beast refused to concede, powering through regardless to tackle Cinder into the ground, genuinely taking her by surprise. It managed to punch against her skull several times with its fist, before attempting to have its snake arm have the heads bite into her in order to poison her. She never lets the heads reach her, surrounding herself in a coat of blue flames that incinerates the snake heads before they can bite her.

Taking the time to spit some blood from her jaws, she smiles smugly towards the beast as she grabs its fist, pulling herself up. She soon stomped her foot right into its tail to keep it from being sent away too far, a powerful flame eruption going off from beneath the creature. It was engulfed in a plume of fiery blue flames, burning it even further all over. Before long the flames dispersed upon Cinder's command, and the chimera collapsed onto its side, still growling but rendered unable to move any further. Cinder's clawed feet stamped on its head, causing further pain to it, which made her smile even wider.

"Chimeras truly are formidable creatures. And it seems they all don't come in simply one specific type or combination. That's an interesting first-hand experience. All the same, you've completely lost to the superior creature." The dragoness grins toothily as drool began leaving her parted jaws. "But not to worry, I'll take very good care of you..."

A bit further along, Penny was notably keeping track of everyone whilst fighting against the stronger mechanical does that seem to be making headway towards the bystanders, leaving her to block their way. Off to the sides, she could see Ren sending a pulse of Aura towards another serpent Grimm with his fist, imploding its face and sending the entire body backwards until it disintegrated. The same went for Nora, who blocked a blow from a rather sizable Beringel Grimm that slammed both of its large fists down on her in an axe handle. She wasted no time knocking the blow aside, leaping upwards and knocking the ape Grimm's head off with a lightning infused swing of Magnhild, electricity surging from her eye, and from under her eye patch. Penny kept them in mind as she dodged another blast from the mechanical guardsman attempting to attack her.

"If I do not contain the damage soon, casualties will escalate. This I cannot allow." Penny narrowed her eyes as she was bathed in a green glowing orb, surging outwards and pushing back all that attempted to attack her all at once.

Though they found themselves pierce by glowing green bullets from behind the glowing orb. Soon afterwards, Penny jumped out of the orb, wearing a tattered cloak, glowing green vest and skirt with black frills, and a green neckerchief around her neck. She wasted little time as she fired more green bullets towards her adversaries, with some of them piercing right through them. A charged shot fired from both of her blasters fired off at once, and the contact resulted in a flowing green explosion that sent them all scattering.

Penny soon landed on her black booted feet, the mechanical guns in her hands shifting about into place and charged with her magic. She stood up and against her adversaries, her neckerchief and skirt flowing, eyes glowing. Her other gun shifted back into a sword, still charged with power.

"Magitek Maiden: Gunfighter Circuit."

She fired off a shot to lead in, which resulted in a explosion of energy to scatter them, then she flew towards several of the mechas and slashed them with her sword, flowing green energy surging through it. She deflected several shots heading her way with her sword and returned fire with her blaster, as she charged towards the horde that was set upon her.

I've heard some people are rather particular about disagreeing on the pros and cons of guns versus swords. Becoming adept in both and combining their styles is more efficient than they think! Penny thought, proving herself via firing multiple shots towards a Beringel Grimm's chest to stop its charge, then keeping up and cleaving its head clean off while jumping over it, landing on her boots as her skirt flowed from the rush of different breezes. She continued on her way, determined to complete her task. Though off to the sight, quickly focused upon Oscar concentrating a barrier to shield bystanders she quickly fired a shot through the head of one of the mechs before they tried attacking him. He sighed and breathed a word of thanks, where she smiles sweetly before proceeding onwards.

Blake was chasing after Ciaran, who was leaping from rooftop to rooftop while multiple glowing, clawed paws that had dark auras surrounding them. Blake dodged each of them whilst ducking under an overhead slash, then leaping to the side as another sharpened claw slashed her across her stomach. She rolled along the ground with narrowed eyes, holding her hand across the wound, grimacing as she felt the pain intensified more than she expected. It clued her in even further on one of the properties of the dark light energy, thus she strove to avoid it even more. She similarly leapt over a blast of black light before it could explode against her, then vanished into a shadow to avoid yet another blast targeting her. Ciaran paused his movement as he waited for her to appear again, them leapt upwards as a shadow nearby slashed at him, avoiding the attack.

Then the shadows made by the slash rose up and pierced him through the middle like sharp needles, taking him by surprise for a moment. He hummed before he wiggled himself free, burning away the shadows with a flash of light. "I must say, I've encountered many users of the shadows. Some were quite skilled, and others were rather straightforward with it. But you're certainly one of the sneakiest."

"You're probably the sneakiest of them all, stringing along multiple witches so you could eat souls numbering from hundreds and thousands." Blake stands up as she brandishes Gambol Shroud. "That light was bestowed upon you by people who believed in you, and you've tainted it with your malevolence." She slashed forth with blade and sheathe, the shadow slashes multiplying with her increased speed. Ciaran avoided each of them with casual grace and a knowing smile, where a dark glow surrounded him and shielded him from the rest of the onslaught. He soon grinned and expanded the sphere outwards, causing a wave of destruction that spread outwards, blasting Blake backwards and causing her to crash along the ground. "Ngh..."

"Such a gullible kitten you are." Ciaran hopped atop a pillar of light, a black aura pulsing around it and sending out even more waves of power. "Humans made the rather pitiful mistake of assuming that since they could see more under the light that they can within the darkness, that it was on their side. Never once suspecting that any moment, just like how darkness can consume them completely, light could incinerate them down to their bones." Blake dodged more pillars of light as they sharpened into swords to slash waves of light in her direction, though she hissed as two of them managed to slash her legs, causing her to collapse from the amplified pain. "Light and Darkness do not care for concepts such as for benevolence or malevolence. For they've existed long before them." Ciaran hopped down from his pillar, and a brighter blade nearly impaled Blake through her chest, barely rolling to the right to dodge it as it scraped her shoulder.

Blake grits her teeth as she stood back up, with one hand on her pierced knees. her ears folded back, then grew even more fur, as well as having more fur gather on her tail, as the bestial energy around her being increased in intensity, her eyes glowing slightly, her hair becoming wilder. "Ngh...you're right about that...light and darkness aren't innately good or evil..." She got on all fourths, as the shadows began expanding around her, chasing away and shielding her against the dark lights attempting to pierce her once more. Ciaran noticed they were being drained by her shadows instead. Her shadows have changed slightly, alongside her being in Fauna Mode. "What's more important is the heart and soul driving and empowering that light or darkness...like how mine empowers my shadows."

Ciaran prepared himself for another clash, though found himself stunned as he found himself held in place even firmer than before, multiple shadow paws forming around Ciaran and holding him down. "These shadows are much more potent than the others...your soul is empowering them...!"

Blake simply continued to focus as she held out her clawed hand. The shadows from her hand extended around Ciaran, until it expanded outwards and appeared as an enormous feline paw with Ciaran in the center. "Shadow Crushing...Phantasm Paw." She closed her hand, and the shadows constricted and crushed Ciaran with intense force, resulting in an eruption of shadows from where he was standing. Once the shadows dispersed slightly, Ciaran was left collapsed on his side. Blake fell to her knees, feeling Fauna Mode wearing off as well.

Ciaran coughed, multiple holes in his body where the shadowed claws pierced him from the grip. "Shadows...embed with the power of the soul...heh." Ciaran shook his head. "I didn't think many people would even attempt such a thing...looks like I was the one who got too comfortable..." He briefly looked up to see Blake standing over him, with Gambol Shroud in her hands. "Oh, fellow feline. Suppose you're going to kill me, now...? You seem to be one of the more merciless ones."

"...Was there really no other way for you to live than causing misery for others?" Blake asked, stoically straightforward. Ciaran nearly huffed, lying helplessly on his side.

"It's not about how much misery I could cause, but...how much I could feel fulfilled. I've lived solely by my own desires, and nothing else. I don't...bother with... pretenses that I wouldn't be able to hold up to in the face of adversity. While some humans may have created that concept and abused by it...a majority do not. But you're not human, are you? You're a Faunus."

Blake's quiet gaze stayed locked in Ciaran, cautious of the slightest bit of movement hinting at an offensive, gripping Gambol Shroud.

"Following our selfish desires and following our instincts, unclouded by conscience and remorse, sentimentality or guilt. Those are the only things needed in order to live a fulfilling life. Where those desires take you...shouldn't really matter. I've lived the way I wanted to, by my own values, and so did Samara...and we were content. We weren't gullible enough to believe we actually cared about one another...but we were content." Ciaran sighed while still bleeding from his muzzle.

Blake pondered for a moment, then tilted her head. "...At this moment, there is only one thing that would make me feel even more content, due to the sheer number of souls you've obliterated. It wouldn't have mattered how long you prospered under the light, the shadow you cast follows you to the ends of Remnant. And awaiting to emerge from within that shadow..." Blake swiped Gambol Shroud across, her eyes unflinching and glowing as Ciaran's head was separated from his body. She soon gripped the severed head with an extended clawed paw, her vertical pupils narrowing. "...lies retribution."

Ciaran simply smiles at her, the darkness from her blade being empowered by her soul. "Such beastly, beautiful ferocity...what a pity...I'll never get to eat your soul." His sinister smile widened. "I bet it would have been delicious."

Blake crushed his head within her shadow paw, her eyes remaining stoic and unflinching. Ciaran's body soon vanished into nothing after she destroyed the head, her enemy thoroughly defeated. Blake sighed as her eyes rolled back and she nearly fell forward on her face. She was stopped by the timely arrival of Yang and Weiss, who hoisted her up onto their shoulders, their battles long since ended.

Ruby was left alone with the witch Samara, both of them gazing at one another with a serene tranquility, betraying the emotions currently welling up from within. Samara, for her part despite her exposure and how everything turned out, was still gracefully calm, simply observing Ruby from where she stood. Ruby's animalistic eyes glared harshly towards Samara, with rose petals swirling around her.

"You're causing chaous within Shion. Now they're being enveloped in negative emotions. Don't you feel any shame?"

"Shame? You of all people here, are talking to ME about shame?!" Ruby dashed towards Samara and slashed against her with Crescent Rose, with the witch parrying the blow with a blade of light gathered in her hands. "What about Sansa?! You stole her body and used it for all thwse cruel things!"

"My body was sickly and dying. She offered to take my place so that my suffering could end, and thus we traded places." Samara parried another scythe swing from Ruby, the shining particles around them each carrying a sinister energy within them. "It was noble of her to give up her body for me. That's the kind of action that's honorable, right? It was acceptable, because we were friends. Friends make sacrifices like that for each other as a true testament of that, don't they?"

"Don't give me that. You didn't see her as a friend at all!" Ruby planted CR into the ground and kicked Samara in the face, causing her to stumble as she landed on her feet and pulled her scythe out. "You took her body and her life, and then killed her father when you decided it didn't make you as happy as you wanted to be. Nothing about that sounds like something a friend would do!" She currently parried several blades of light that were shot her way, with only a few of them managing to graze her cheek and her thigh.

"All of my friends were able to make me happy with their contributions, and that's why they were considered my friends." Samara channeled several orbs of light around herself, each of them growing in size to form sizable spheres. "Happiness has always been able to thrive best when basking under the light. Always feeling positive means that there's no guilt or regret to be had on my pursuit of happiness." The spheres blasted several beams towards Ruby, who dashed out of the way of several of them, only to conjoin together above her and blast her right in the back, crashing down into the ground and cratering everything around her. Samara watched on, her hair flowing from the impact while appearing mostly unbothered. "I wished to spread this type of happiness wherever I want, with my latest stop being Shion...but like all the others, it seems they squandered their own chances of living peacefully. They remembered their negative emotions, and thus they remembered how it would be the end for them. Thus, confirming they simply weren't worthy of the joy they could have had."

Ruby grimaced as she grabbed the ground and pushed herself to her knees. "What are you talking about...?" She jumped back, pushing down her skirt as the wind kicked up around her, skidding back several feet before recovering her stance, Crescent Rose being retrieved in her hands. "You're telling me that because they hold negativity, they don't deserve to be happy...?"

A massive mallet of light crashed down where Ruby stood, forcing her to dodge to the side. More light particles gathered around Samara, and she sends them towards the werewolf. "So long as negative emotions exist, which amplifies the darkness within oneself, even the most righteous of hearts is capable of being corrupted." Several beams of black light flew around and pierced Ruby through her arms and legs, nearly causing her to collapse once again. "All it takes is the right circumstances and the right experiences, for even the most altruistic soul to fall into disgrace and ruin. I've seen those stronger and wiser than you fall to it all the same. It is an inevitable truth, so long as light never touches them."

Samara brought down another black light in the form of a spear, which Ruby barely managed to roll out of the way from. Ruby grimaced as even more light shots pierced through her shoulders and her arms, which had her staggering slightly. Pain instilling her being, she managed to dodge the rest of the light bullets, before she stumbled slightly while crashing into the ground with a grunt. She pushed herself up slightly while keeping one eye open. "There's...no way...that's...an absolute...truth..."

Samara gathered more light orbs around her person, and they fired off even more beams towards Ruby, which she dodged via dashing in a flurry of rose petals. "That can never happen under the embrace of the God of Light. I've always been happy when basked under his radiance, where darkness can never taint me." Another massive, spiked mallet slammed onto the ground, barely missing Ruby once again. "Those who won't love our God of Light, and those who refuse to accept his offers of happiness do not need to exist. Those who willingly choose to deny him shall never be forgiven!"

Ruby grunted as she placed her hands on the ground, and they slowly shifted into paws. "...Huh. So, are you saying...that if I stick to this current path...that I'll be making the God of Light mad...?" Ruby slowly lifted her head, as her hair turned white and the rose petals surrounding her similarly turned bright white. Some of her teeth grew also into sharp wolf fangs. "Good. I don't want your forgiveness for something like that. I don't need it, and I'd never accept it."

"Then you'll-"

Samara was cut off as she suddenly felt claws digging into her flesh, with Ruby's paws shifting into proper werewolf claws. She backed off as she attempted to heal the injuries, but Ruby was already upon her, pouncing upon her and viciously biting into her shoulder with her sharp fangs. A burst of light blasted Ruby away, and several lances attempted to pierce her where she stood. Ruby leapt away from the lances and away from Samara, wiping her mouth of blood. She soon ran on all fours and ran across the ground with several blades of light missing her at every turn, only for her to leap towards Samara, landing a dive kick to her stomach that staggered her and pushed her back several feet. She nearly collapsed on her knees, which left Ruby to grab her by the back of her head and slam her face into the ground. She leapt upwards as multiples of light spears emerged from the ground and attempted to impale her, which she sliced apart with Crescent Rose.

Ruby landed on the edge of a roof, calmly gazing at Samara as she balances Crescent Rose across her shoulders, with her muscular build more prominent due to her further shift into her werebeast form. "You say that the God of Light was the one who allowed your happiness to progress this far. So, is he going to help you now?"

Samara sighed as she shook her head, pushing herself to her feet while holding her bleeding face. "Such blasphemy. I'm aware of your bloodline; your eyes are a sign of that. You've been gifted with such a beautiful light, and yet throughout your entire history you've desecrated it with your selfishness and apostasy." Multiple spears of light gathered around her, and she dug them into the ground. Ruby leapt upwards to avoid them all trying to pierce her from below. "If you're so willing to defile and dishonor something so sacred, then how can you expect anyone else to honor you?" Several sharpened blades formed around Samara and soared towards Ruby, which she dodged over and under to dodge most of them. "If you're willing to demonstrate sacrilege towards the one who gifted light into this world, then everything else will become tainted." She placed a sphere of light and sent it towards Ruby, having it detonate towards her and destroying even more of Shion in the process. "Your light blinds those who claim to follow your hollow path, farthest away from happiness! How do you know that you're not leading them to their own destruction?!"

Samara found herself bleeding from her chest all of a sudden. She was confused as to why, until she realized the curved blade of Crescent Rose in war scythe had pierced her from behind. One moment she saw Ruby vanish in a flurry of rose petals. And the next, she was pierced from the back by her weapon. She slowly turned her head to meet her eyes, blood bubbling from her lips, while Ruby gazed back at her with a much colder yet tranquil glare.

"I only see one thing hollow here, and it's your soul." Ruby pulled the blade back, causing Samara to stagger slightly from the unexpected blow. "How about you show some consideration and respect for the souls you've fed to that cat for your own happiness? Or the girl you tricked, and who's life you stole and thrown away so heartlessly? You're talking to me about regrets, did you ever once feel guilty about any of that?"

"...Of course...not..." Samara uttered through bloodied lips. "When you find...a driving force in your life...that you truly believe in...it takes a truly unshakable will to see it through. My desire to be happy under light, is unburdened by such negative thoughts and emotions that lead to reservations or consternation...there wasn't anything I wasn't willing to do to achieve my own happiness...and prove my devotion to the God of Light. My happiness was achieved because him, and so I did whatever it took to see his will be done..." She began chatting one more orb of light. "The world would be a much better place to live...if his light shines everywhere and burns away all darkness and negativity without exception! Then I'd achieve happiness for eternity!" Samara turns to attack one more time...

Ruby slashed her across the chest with Crescent Rose. A trail of blood followed the curve of her blade while she stares quietly at the malevolent witch before her. "Don't talk to me about your happiness; you don't deserve it." She uttered coldly to Samara, who felt the last of her life leaving her as she soon fell to the harsh unforgiving ground. Ruby closed her eyes for a moment to utter an apology to Sansa, the original owner of the witch's current body, then opens them as she observed Shion's current state at the moment.

Yang and Weiss pierced through the remaining mechanical sentinels with blasts of fire and ice, whilst Blake was taking a brief rest. Nora, Pyrrha, Jaune, and Ren were busy easing remaining bystanders around to safety. Oscar and Penny kept certain places shielded from further onslaughts, though the former looked rather exhausted while doing so, which required Penny to support him. She heard a roaring belch, turned towards the dragonized Cinder. She was sitting against a building, looking rather blissfully satiated, as the dragoness tauntingly caressed her largely stuffed, joggling belly full of enraged chimera. It didn't care for its new 'living arrangement' at all, but Cinder found herself relishing its furious yet ultimately futile attempts at resistance.

"Alright. It looks like everything's quieting down now." Ruby sighed as she put CR in storage mode and placed it on her back, before she descended on the ground to join everyone. "I'd better rejoin everyone, make sure they're okay." She soon made a dash, expecting several reactions to everything that's happened.

Shion was left in a state of disarray, and it was unlikely that they would forget about it and move on anytime soon. All they could do now is recover at a pace they could manage.

"...Well, well. I actually got to see something pretty interesting." A levitating cat hummed, far above Shion, gazing down on it with a tilt of their head. "I never would have thought that I'd find another Celestian running around doing whatever she wants, and yet there she is, bright as rain." The purple glowing cat utters. Their cyan-colored eyes observing the entire event with interest, their white pupils reflecting across the lights still in the sky. It yawned slightly while licking its paw and grooming itself with it, pushing the paw against the cyan markings on their face. "Well, this at least saves me the trouble of having to deal with that Ciaran fellow. He would have been quite a nuisance to my master's design, with his excess soul eating." They soon flipped about in the air and levitated upside down, showing a torso patterned with a cyan checkerboard pattern.

"Aside from all of that, how would you designate this impromptu trial run?" An orb of light voiced to them after a minute passed.

"Hmmmm. Could use a few fixes here and there, but I'd say that the witch served as a pretty good look at our blueprints, even if she wasn't part of the plan." The feline levitates right side up again, their legs and tail being shined on by the light, exposing the light blue color near their ends. Their white whiskers wiggle inquisitively, and they raised their white paws with approval. "We're good to go whenever you give the okay, Mistress Juno."

"Return to the Sanctuary, we have our finalizations in place."

"Can do." The feline soon turned around, paused for a moment, and returned their gaze towards Shion. Particularly towards the moving Ruby Rose. "Huh. I wonder, truly wonder. Why would a warrior that wields such powerful light vouch for darkness and negativity as if they were good things, needed things? That's usually not how it goes, right? At least, not from what I know. Why is that?" They wondered and wondered, disappearing into a portal as they found themselves pondering about Ruby Rose.

How peculiar...

---

Shion would recover. But for the moment, the entire town was in shambles.

Ruby was moving along through Shion with her hood over her head. The night sky has fallen upon everyone like a curtain, though the stars weren't currently visible just yet. It seemed to fit with the current atmosphere, which was a very melancholy, soft and silent feeling. Buildings were slowly being fixed back up, people were trying to filter out their enforced and enhanced positive thoughts and emotions from their real ones. And of course, others were busy burying their dead and now being able to more definitively mourn those that they lost over their enforced atmosphere that Samara forced upon them.

Though, as Ruby made her away around Shion, her werewolf hearing managed to pick up on quite a few things without having to actually confront the owners of the voices. And some of them were indeed melancholy.

'All of these feelings are rushing back to me...and now that I'm remembering how much they've hurt...'

'The memories are coming back. What we've done...how can we ever live with ourselves?'

'Things much warmer when everything was brighter and positive...I didn't have to think about the consequences...'

'We brushed off some of our loved ones dying so we wouldn't have to feel bad...'

'...goodness...why couldn't we stay ignorant for a bit longer...it hurts too much...'

'Without hesitation, we've violently struck our friends down when they acted out of line...'

'We've completely betrayed our duties to truly protect Shion...'

Ruby could hear admittances like these and more, from people who felt the negativity crashing down upon them once the veil of positivity and light had been stripped away from them, and they were fully themselves again. The result was an entire town realizing that they've been living in blissful ignorance for quite a while so that they'd never have to feel negative emotions or acknowledge the negative consequences of some of their decisions.

'...Phoebe...my sister. I left her behind because I did not want to live how that witch was deciding. I could see what she was doing. But instead of doing something further about it...I hid myself away. Now...she's gone. I wasn't there to help her...' Ruby could see to the right, where a young woman could be seen holding over towards one of the glowing memorial orbs that allowed glowing names to appear before the loved one that appears before them. Ruby's ears twitched, recognizing her as Alina. 'It would probably be better for me if I just didn't have a heart that allowed me to feel these things...but I don't want to discard my memories of you. None of them. So, I'll hold onto all of these feelings, regardless of how much it hurts.'

'Phoebe...I'm sorry...I'm so sorry...I was supposed to be your friend! And yet I...!' Ilene whimpered next to Alina, who gently caressed the top of her head as she held onto her skirt for support.

Ruby lowered her eyes at it all as her ears folded against her head. It seemed that everyone was going through something rather difficult, having faced the reality that the positivity enforced upon them as detrimental to them overall. But some also wanted to remain attached to that blissful positivity because it means that the painful realizations wouldn't be able to reach their hearts. She passed each of them by, her hood still over her head whilst hearing more voices express their troubled states now that they could truly feel their negative emotions again.

'My faith has betrayed me, and I've betrayed it...what am I supposed to do now...?'

'That's enough. I'm done. This job just isn't for me...'

'That witch might have been the main cause of suppressing our negativity to such an extent...but I could feel it.'

'Deep down, we wanted an escape from all our problems.'

'To not have to think about them...'

'Never having to remember...'

Ruby listened to the voices go on, and she sighed softly and stopped in place for a moment, her tail drooping to the ground. "...A lot of people are being overwhelmed by the negative emotions that have been suppressed this entire time...the darkness in their hearts is enhancing them to a degree...so long as they remember everything that happened here, recovery is going to be rough..."

"Your light blinds those who claim to follow your hollow path, farthest away from happiness! How do you know that you're not leading them to their own destruction?!"

Ruby's thought went back to one of the things the witch said about her, and she found herself slightly shaken by them. She did acknowledge that the chances were there, should things turn for the worse, in ways none of them could account for. With the nature of their goals, it was always possible for their paths to somewhat diverge, and perhaps even clash. The kind of differences in mindset that would put each other, their allies, and their loved ones in danger. One significant wrong step, along with an inadequate or outright terrible handling of their negative emotions, and everything could fall apart easily.

That small acknowledgement of that possibility, managed to temper Ruby's confidence. Ruby gazed at her hand while opening and closing it slightly, before placing it gently over her heart. This was all the more reason to dedicate herself to this path; she didn't want all of this suffering to be rendered meaningless in the end. She would help them cultivate something better for themselves, from themselves.

As she was thinking, she felt a pair of arms wrap around her, and pull her against someone's chest. It didn't take much to know who it was, given she smelled him way before the contact. He currently smelled sweet, like strawberry cupcakes. "Hi, Jaune." Ruby quietly greets as she tenderly placed her hands over his arms, caressing them slightly. She felt his chin lightly rest atop her head, furthering their close cuddle for the moment.

"Something Samara said offset you, did it?" Jaune questions while lightly snuggling her closer to him.

"Mhm..." Ruby calmly nods.

"And all of these people expressing how having their emotions suppressed saying they would be better off without them, bet that's not helping matters either, huh?"

"Nuh-uh." Ruby shook her head.

"Nah, I didn't think so." Jaune agreed while comfortably rubbing Ruby's shoulders, whilst she leaned against him with a soft sigh. "Listen, this was kind of a stressful one, and you're exhausted. How about we get something for you to eat? Sound good?"

"Mhm!" Ruby nods again with a smile, turning towards Jaune as they briefly kissed, before heading back to the others while still embracing one another.

They gathered nearby a hotel within Shion, with most of the others coming off from a rather extended time of doing whatever they could to assist with Shion's recovery, up to and including healing those who were still injured, clearing away rubble and finding anyone potentially missing, and making sure everyone was safe and felt safe. Shaken no doubt, but ultimately safe enough to begin their time of recovery. By the time they were sure they did everything they could for the moment, then they took their time to rest up after the truly tiring day.

Jaune had helped out the cooks personally so that they could feel rejuvenated as they worked, and even had support from Ren to assist with the cooking himself as well. Weiss had assisted on helping everyone who was overheated to chill a bit by providing a gentle cool breeze for those that were currently situated outside, for it was a bit humid. Nora and Pyrrha did their heavy lifting with Yang by sending the rubble out of the way or just outright smashing them into dust clouds. Oscar and Penny were off to the side, with Penny providing blueprints that would assist in rebuilding or renovating the structures that were damaged during the battles. Blake, who ended up being the most injured out of everyone due to fighting the incredibly dangerous Cursed Beast, Ciaran, mostly on her own, had mostly kept in the back after being healed by Jaune while eating up to refill her strength. Mostly by eating through several dozen bowls of noodles with such calm grace and tranquility that most around her were impressed when she wiped her lips and requested quite a bit more.

Ruby had everyone's scents noted, keeping track of everyone and was relieved that the Guild was doing a steady job healing. She herself had gotten beef stew from Jaune, which she calmly enjoyed and currently on what's believed to be her fourth bowl and was showing no signs of stopping anytime soon. The surface she was sitting on rippled and grumbled slightly, before she heard yet another resounding belch. She turned her head towards the source; the dragon who's hefty, heaving belly she was sitting upon.

Cinder looked quite content, her wings fluttering with glee. After devouring another formidable and malevolent chimera, she basked in the wave of power and pleasure it brought her. She was quickly growing a great fondness for it, finding chimeras such as the ones she defeated and eaten to be quite nourishing when it comes to recovering energy and appealing to her gluttony. Not only that, but her various binges have augmented the femininity of her dragon form quite a bit, with a thicker set of thighs and powerful tail, fuller and wider hips, and a hefty shapely rear. Her belly also remained nicely large and rotund. She could confidently say that the largest aspects of her as a dragon would be her fat and rounded dragon belly along with her dragon sized shapely rump, both looking invitingly soft and huggable. In an overall sense her draconic appearance has maintained a stronger, yet curvier and chubbier, even cuddlier appearance. She approved of it greatly, and wished to sustain it so she could give superior cuddles to Jaune, Ruby, and playful children.

Her personal mission of balancing her voluptuous and athletic human form with her voluminous yet similarly voluptuous dragon form was going marvelously. Beautifully slender yet strong on one visual end, and beautifully plump and powerful on the other. Her draconic nature desired for even more of this wondrous, invigorating feeling in order to maintain this balance and to satisfy to her greedy, gluttonous appetite, so much more. But for now, she got a hold of herself and addressed her sister wife sitting atop her round and paunchy belly.

"Something troubles you, Ruby." It wasn't a question.

Ruby didn't bother denying it. "I wasn't naïve enough to think that the path I chose would be easy. But I'm seeing just how everyone sorta crashed after coming from such a high sense of positivity into a low state of negativity." She voiced her thought, her ears flicking as Jaune joined her with them and sits next to Ruby after climbing stop the dragon's belly. "Some people don't feel like they can go on."

"Yeah, I know what you mean. One of the warriors, Lucero Hawthorne, was actually angry that we put an end to the illusion." Jaune sighed as he pulled Ruby closer to him, resting her head against his chest. She once again embraced the cuddle, sliding her hands around him in a gentle hug. "Guess not everyone is grateful for that. We probably should have expected as much."

"Still, actually seeing how everyone feels and just how much this experience might have hurt them." Ruby lowered her eyes while Jaune softly kissed the top of her head. "I don't blame them, really. This won't be easy to recover from at all."

"Perhaps they won't ever truly recover, or perhaps they will. Either way, there's only so much you can do for them, Ruby." Cinder gave her input whilst raising her head a bit to look at her a bit more clearly. "In the end, the only thing that is going to get them through the rest of the way is their own inner strength. You can help them bolster it, but only they alone can actually use it. In times like this, they have to take care of themselves, just like we have to take care of ourselves." Cinder lowered her eyes. "They will remember this pain. And in doing so, it will help ensure that nothing like this happens again." She would certainly remember what she was shown about Sansa's fate. Someone so young shouldn't have suffered something so horrible. She watched some curious children energy playing with her hefty tail, finding comfort in hugging and laying against it. She lowered her eyes but allowed it without a fuss.

"Cinder..." Jaune looked at her, only for Ruby to tighten her hug around him, bringing his attention back to him.

"No. Cinder's right." Ruby softly nuzzles Jaune's chest as he hugged her back just as securely. "We've managed to take care of the threat and make things safe enough for them to recover without anything hurting them. Everything from then on has to be done by them. They've lost control over their lives for a bit, now they have a chance to recover so that they can take it back."

Unlike Sansa...

Ruby lowered her eyes in thought of the girl that a witch fooled, tormented, and killed before stealing her identity. That was a horribly tragic case of someone's good nature backfiring, and there being nothing they could really do about it. The last moments of that poor girl's life were her own father unknowingly shooting her daughter while calling her a monster. Having the body of a powerful witch, however terminally ill the body itself was, she possibly could have pushed past even those injuries...but Ruby sensed the girl completely give up by then and let herself die. People can only handle so much before cracking under the intense pressure, some more easily than others. And they either simply do not have the foundational resilience to endure and recover from that, or the opportunity is completely stolen away from them.

For Sansa, it was both. It was a long time ago, and there wasn't anything Ruby could do to remedy that tragedy, aside from ensuring that the cruel witch that stole her body could not cause any further harm with it anymore. Still, she couldn't help but feel solemn at how that entire scenario went down. Such a gentle soul, who's only notable mistake at her age was trusting the wrong person, did not deserve such a horrendously cruel end. Especially at the hands of the girl that manipulated her and the father that was fooled by the former.

...I hope Dad's doing alright. Ruby couldn't help but quietly think. At some point she and Yang needed to spend some quality time with him, just the three of them. Have some lunch, play some games, spar a little bit, go on a hike, say that they love him. Just a personal day with herself and Yang spending some nice father-daughter time with their shared birth father. Ruby vowed to make time for the three of them, whenever she finds the opportunity.

"...Yeah, I guess that's true. With what we have, we've done what we could." Jaune sighed while rubbing Ruby's back in soothing circles, noticing her tail beginning to wag at the attention. "It's always frustrating when there's not much more we can do."

"That's why we do our part to ensure that help comes from multiple sources, not just one." Blake declared as several of her shadows came by along with her, carrying plates with hefty amounts of food for the others. "Oh, by the way, we can afford another course."

"For reals?!" Ruby jumped excitedly, her tail wagging at the prospect.

"There's a promising offer I can get behind." Cinder utters, her draconic maw widening with a gluttonous smile.

"You two are something else." Jaune sighed as he could see the both of them drooling. Cinder's case was especially ridiculous after she's eagerly eaten an entire chimera, but she was still just hungry enough for a bit of normally cooked food on the side. He didn't truly mind either of them though, as he watched their respective fangs read through several chunks of meat relative to their current sizes.

"Soon enough it'll go beyond the point of no return for her. Ate an entire chimera and she's still going." Yang chuckled while rolling her arm.

"Hydras and Chimeras are particularly powerful, and they're tastier the stronger and eviler they are. The latter is quickly becoming a favorite of mine, for they come in many varieties."

"Good grief, girl. You're going to gain a reputation for this stuff at this rate." Yang tilted her head with a hum. "I wonder what kind of nicknames would go around if things got even crazier from there? Oh! I got one! Cinder the 'Lard Ass' Dragon! Heh."

"Cinder the 'All-Meat' Dragon." Weiss teasingly smirked.

"Cinder the 'Bubble Bum' Dragon." Ruby raised her hand with a smile.

"Cinder the 'Jelly Belly' Dragon. That sounds pleasant for children." Penny also adds in, smiling and happy to participate.

"Cinder the 'Buffet-Killer' Dragon." Ren chimed in while calmly drinking a glass of cold water.

"Cinder the 'Blubber Booty' Dragon." Jaune chuckled quite a bit at that one.

"Cinder the 'Chunky Chubz' Dragon. This one you can use one or the other, or both together. 'Chubby' works as well." Pyrrha added with a chuckle of his own.

"Me next! I'm great with these!" Nora jumped in place while raising her hand, before flexing her muscular biceps. "Cinder the 'Beefcake' Dragon!"

"Cinder the 'Big Beef' Dragon." Oscar also joined in with a bit of a small smile.

"Cinder the 'Beef Booty' Dragon." Blake casually chimed in with a calmly raised hand, which got everyone laughing quite a bit. Her expression currently remained stoic but her ears flicked, and her tail waved upwards happily at the response.

"All are quite impressive nicknames. As a superior creature, I will wear all of these titles with pride!" Cinder declared as she flapped her wings majestically, the dragoness maintaining her confident expression even after a roaring belch. Then she was right back to eating more.

"Oh wow, she's prepared to own it. Go for it then! This is sure to spread like wildfire!" Yang exclaimed with a hearty laugh.

Ruby smiled as everyone gradually relaxed, the mood overall getting lighter thanks to Cinder's antics and joining in on them. It was times like these that made the hardships being endured possible. And as she desired to further spread her philosophy as she strives to be a Queen of Demons, it was important for her to remember this, to hold onto it and recall it should she ever fall into a deep slump. Because she's been reminded that she is not immune to falling. At the very least, she has everyone here to help her through things when they happen, and she wanted to be there for them too.

I have to keep enduring, to help other's build their ability to endure...so that something like what happened to Sansa can be prevented.

---

Cinder, the fiery and gluttonous dragon that she is, has gained a taste for Chimeras. Powerful mixed creatures they are, clearly the best way for the mighty dragoness to display dominance over them is to devour them. It gets the threat out of the way so nobody's complaining. And the eviler they are, the better.

As usual, Cinder greedily wants even more. Woe to all the poor evil chimeras that encounter her from this point forward...

More seriously, it would seem that the influence of such figures like Ozma, as well as the God of Light, have left impressions upon Remnant that would lead to consequences such as witches believing that light is pure and brings total happiness. Maybe it comes at the cost of the rest of your emotions, but you're much happier now without that kind of darkness in your heart. Also, she apparently believes that because the legendary wizard Ozma did a bit of body hopping back in the day, she can do so as well and get away with robbing a little girl of her literal and figurative life.

Well, Ruby let her know exactly how she felt about all of that. Which is righteously furious.

Also, two Black Cats had a vicious cat fight. Blake wins!

...Wait...

Whaddya mean there's another cat...?

Until the next adventure!