"Indeed." Rumbled the figure as he scratched his beard. "'Tis the season to be merry, yet all I see is a grumpy little face. That won't do, little lady. It simply won't do."

Ruby was in an uncanny valley of its own sort. Her senses warned her of an invisible danger whenever she would look at the man in the clerical garments. The aura that kept emanating from his person brought a warm, fuzzy feeling of childlike trust and wonder. Her gun was aimed at his chest, ready to blow a hole whenever he would try to act funny. And she was embarrassed about it.

He took a step towards her. It didn't help that he wasn't trying to hide whatever intention he had in his mind.

"The child is fine, don't you worry about him. It's you that is the problem here. Bad children…"

Reality itself warped, transporting him in front of Ruby with his golden staff raised like a spear. Ruby yelped and moved out of the way with her Semblance. The staff came down with a gust of wind that scattered the fallen snow in all directions, as if a bomb had gone off.

"Now, now! Don't you run from discipline, little lady. Lord willing, Sinterklaas is here to teach you a lesson you will never forget!*"

What was she supposed to do? Ruby never had to raise her Crescent Rose against an elderly person. In fact, why was she even having such thoughts? He was clearly hostile.

(Mili – Between Two Worlds)

Ruby cringed as she dashed forward, smacking the blunt end of Crescent Rose at his midsection. He failed, or at least pretended to fail, to raise his staff in time to defend himself. A loud thwack echoed throughout the forest as the Sinterklass went flying. He crashed into a tree, shaking some of the snow stuck on the branches.

"Ow! Oof-oof-oof… Ack!" the elderly man yelped as some of the snow landed on his head. "Good Lord!"

Ruby gasped, immediately feeling sorry for her act. Feeling compelled to help, she rushed into his aid.

"Oooh-ho-ho! Thank you, little lady. Here's your reward!"

The tip of the staff struck her stomach. She looked into the gentle face of the man as a powerful wind blew her into the air, through several branches and over a giant rock, bouncing off the snow like a pebble above water.

Ruby sucked the chilly air through her teeth as pain overwhelmed her senses. How could a simple attack like that cause her body to spasm like that, she thought. She looked at the rock, trying to fight against the urge to give in to the pain. A blue line split the rock in half, expanding into a portal to a world of eerie black shapes living in a dark red background. Something humanoid with long limbs shambled towards her.

"E-eeek!"

She jumped and crawled backwards, trying to increase the distance between her and the approaching silhouette as the now-familiar overwhelming fear gripped her being to the core. Heat leaked through the portal, melting the nearby snow and withering all plants that stood in its way. A rumbling, guttural growl was heard as the thing came closer to the portal. But, as it set foot through the tear in reality, a familiar foot was visible yet again. The gigantic figure was quickly reshaped into a smaller, more humane one as the Sinterklass come through the other end.

It became clear to Ruby that her opponent was able of emotional distortion the moment her feelings of fear and nausea turned into compassion and warmth at the sight of the pretending clergyman. And more importantly, it appeared to be connected to one of "them". How was she supposed to beat him?

"Come now, surrender without making a fuss and I'm sure it will all be water under the bridge."

Ruby fought. She fought hard to gain back her mental faculties, to stop her legs from crawling on the snow like a child begging for affection. The saintly smile never left the man's face as he walked over to her, swinging his staff like a baseball bat. It struck her stomach, lifting her in the air. She was thrown further backwards with a second swing. Ruby managed to catch herself enough to land on her legs, though not without wincing from pain.

"Ugh! I can hardly bring myself to point Crescent Rose at him. What's happening to me?"

Watching the Sinterklaas doing his strides was like watching a wooden puppet move on its own and it took Ruby a while to spot all the hints, greatly increasing the malaise she felt all the while. Something wasn't quite right. She thought; was he somehow a victim in this story? A fog began to settle in her mind, making it difficult to concentrate on the approaching menace, who whacked her on the head with the staff.

Ruby gasped at the impact, her eyesight getting dimmer as second strike met her stomach and a third threw her against a tree. Falling on the snow, her body began twitching spasmodically. Warm rivulets of blood ran down her hands and forehead. The Aura that protected her began to flash as a warning sign that it was about to be depleted.

"Am I… going to die here?"

Her consciousness was barely holding on against the merciless psychic assault on her mind and being, exerted by the dark forces at play. The blood spilled over Crescent Rose. It soon became viscous, more solid, more akin to an extension of her blood vessels. Her inhibitions came undone one after the other and the Id, the animal side that makes mankind whole, rose to the occasion as an inner voice protested against her helplessness to deal with the issue at hand. Sinterklass loomed over her with his puppet-like smile. Her hand snatched the Crescent Rose's. His staff was prepared for a fatal blow.

"No, not like this! This jerk will go down before! I must win! Win!"

Her grip tightened.

"Wiiiiin!"

The scythe flew in the air like a hammer, connecting with the man's head. He made a mid-air spiral before crashing face first deep into the snow.

Ruby was growling by this point. There was no clumsy yet elegant grace in her movements as she jumped to her feet; only a primate blinded by a rage that was buried deep within her heart, now too explosive to be put back on a leash.

In order to add fuel to her surge of adrenaline, the thing that shared her blood dug deep into her memories, bringing up every time Ruby had to repress her anger or sorrow in order to avoid hurting those she cared about. But that was useless now. There was no family around. No friends. Only an enemy.

A powerful enemy.

The thing understood that. It was well versed in the language of violence and was more preferred by it than the language of logic. But it also understood that this was Ruby, not the person it used to know. And Ruby had mercy, which is why the blunt end was used for an attack. Ruby demanded it. If not her body, then her soul.

"Stand…"

Her feet jumped as soon as her eyes spotted the familiar movement of the clergyman's robes. She jumped and threw down her scythe on the man's back, obliterating the snow sheet into hundreds of tiny flakes.

"Ouch! You bad girl, you! Hitting poor old men is-"

Smack. There he went, flying like a golf ball, with Ruby following closely behind. Sinterklass frowned as he reached the ground, using his staff to break the speed of the impact. Ruby lunged at him like an animal. He blocked her attack with the staff, the clang's reverberation knocking down some snow that was stuck on nearby trees.

"Naughty!"

Sinterklass swung his staff. Ruby spun, aiming to tank the hit with her blood-stained cape. As it connected, a pair of crimson tendrils rose from the nearest stains and wrapped around the object, preventing further action. Ruby aimed at a tree and pulled the trigger. The bullet's explosion pushed her back, ramming into the man's midsection and sending them crashing against the giant rock. They would have collided if it weren't for the portal that opened seconds before the man hit the solid surface. But rather than both, only Ruby fell through the other end, backrolling to her feet.

It was a different world, one enveloped in a thin crimson mist, populated by dead trees. Its inhabitant soon made itself known, as hooves clapped against the rocky terrain. A tall, muscular, fur-covered biped growled at Ruby, ready to pounce and tear her head off. Big, fiery eyes frowned under a pair of thick horns, oh so willing to drag the misbehaving child into the unknown, as it did many times before. Krampus was his name, condemned to be branded with all the infamy that said name carried for all eternity. **

The sight carved itself deep into Ruby's subconscious. The primal fear that was passed down through generations suddenly pierced her rage-induced confidence. Her knees betrayed her and she fell down in fear. Even in the stat of near-unconsciousness, a mortal soul could never stand against a being that was fundamentally superior to it in every possible way.

But it wasn't the same for the thing in her bloodstream. It wasn't alive as a human. It knew not of the fear that plagued Ruby, but it was able to recognize something of that profound existence. There was power. Overwhelmingly so. Power in the hands of the enemy meant a challenge. And challenges meant that it could go all out.

Gritting her teeth to the point of nearly breaking them, Ruby stood up and jumped away from a swipe of the demon's claws. More blood trickled out of her body and onto her hands, feet and weapon. Almost all rational thought was gone now. There was only one goal in mind; overcoming the challenger.

She pierced the left thigh with a swipe, cutting it open all the way to the knee as Krampus moved the limb. Rather than reacting to pain, the demon swung its arm again, colliding with Ruby's left side like a charging bull. Her Aura shattered as something within her cracked. The psychological shock paralyzed her completely as she slammed against a dead tree. Her left arm went limp, yet the mental haze dulled the pain. Something other than her was moving the body, urging it to stand up and clash against the approaching enemy.

Krampus growled as he brought down a fist. A pair of tendrils shot out from Ruby's stained clothes and pulled her away. As the furred fist blew up the ground like a bomb, the tendrils brought Ruby further up the tree, throwing her against Krampus' head. A manic grin spread across her face as the blunt end of her scythe collided with the monster's head with a loud, meaty plop. Krampus growled as it was thrown off its hooves and fell with its whole body.

A powerful, animalist howl erupted from her throat as she buried the blade, now completely red, into the demon's other leg. Crimson spikes erupted from the fur, spraying unholy blood all over the manic Huntress-in-training. Krampus growled in what seemed to be annoyance as it tried to shake off Ruby, who drew the scythe out from the flesh. The other hoof slammed against her body. Another crack, louder than the first. She crashed on the dirt, vomiting blood.

The maddening agony would be the fuel that would keep the madness going; to keep fighting in order to win. What the thing that held Ruby from collapsing failed to understand was the nature of the enemy, thus driving its host to a suicide charge. Even as Krampus stood up, blood gluing patches of fur into clumps, Ruby's body was willing to fight.

But something snapped deep within. A tiny shred of sanity, of Ruby's willpower, rose and took control for only a moment. She blinked multiple times, trying to ignore her wounded and exhausted body's proclamations. In that moment, through the mental fog, Ruby saw, in the distance, the last Dark Totem that held the chaos together. She knew she had to destroy it in order to win.

She tried to concentrate on that thought. The viscous blood turned liquid and the pain began to tear at her brain. But she tried. She tried until she could be sure that the thing that led her body could understand.

"Focus on that. If you do, we win!"

It was too much for her to bear any longer. As she relapsed, the thing regained control on her body. It understood the message.

Krampus, was fast approaching, willing to tear the human into pieces with its hands. Some of Ruby's blood trickled down on her boots and formed a crimson layer under the soles, using them to boost her jump forward, between the furred legs and straight for the Dark Totem. She destroyed the cursed object with one swift attack before the demon could do anything to stop her. Reality collapsed within seconds. All that was left were Krampus' howls of rage as sanity prevailed on Remnant once again.

She was back to the dark basement. The boy and the elderly man stood silently in front of the wall with the sigil made of chalk. A golden aura surrounded them both as the last eye within the sigil stopped glowing. Both figures smiled and bowed their heads, then vanished behind a curtain of golden light. A deep sense of peace filled the room.

Ruby's legs buckled and she fell like a log. Even the thing that shared her body had its limits. The blood that coated her body and weapon turned liquid, giving her the appearance of a slaughtered corpse. The thing retreated deep into the bloodstream, now focused on fixing the host's body. It felt alive for the first time in a while.

(Genshin Impact – When All Has Elapsed)

The road ahead proved far more treacherous than anticipated. After a second encounter with dangerous-looking wildlife, Jaune learned to avoid piles of debris that made passing through ruins even more of a challenge. One street was guarded by three of the Kestros; those strange alien turrets. He avoided a direct confrontation with them by passing through the remains of a building and nearly getting beheaded for it by a silver-flowered bush that dwelled on the ceiling. Who knew that petals could be as sharp and as sturdy as knives?

A nearby staircase led to a tunnel that diverged into several different paths. If they weren't buried under rocks, then they were entirely engulfed in darkness, which was another thing he learned to avoid down here. But thankfully there were another set of stairs ahead of him. Back to the surface he went.

Humanoid shades walked around an oval building. They were entirely featureless and seemed to ignore Jaune. He wasn't sure whether encountering them was a good or a bad thing. A pair would walk up to the entrance, stand still, then turn right, pointing at something in the sky. The one on the left would urge the one on the right into the building. Before it could join its comrade, the shade looked up, hid its face and disappeared. Both of them would then return to the starting point. A third shade just kept running in circles. Jaune left them behind and went towards the tower.

The next landmark was a structure surrounded by white marble pillars, like a parthenon of old. Figures in different poses were carved on each pillar and the entrance was built out of black obsidian-like stone, engraved with the blue light patterns that Jaune was already familiar with. The inside resembled a museum robbed of nearly every priceless object put on exhibit. Those artifacts that remained were destroyed or withered with time.

Trying to find a way out, Jaune walked to the back of the building, where the exhibits ceased and were replaced by long hallways. A staircase led to the upper floor, despite the fact that the building, from outside, looked way too short to have more than one. Behind a marble door was a tiny room filled with black stone boxes, damaged statues and small empty containers. One box stood apart from all the others; placed in a far corner of the room and covered with decayed remains of what was probably a brown sheet once. One side was drilled open, with a hole large enough to fit a human head. Jaune brushed away some spider webs and used his Scroll to check the insides of the box.

He found two shattered plates with tiny symbols carved on them, one rusty medallion with a scratched outline of an alien and many pearly-white sticks that felt metallic to the touch, with some of them even having triggers. He found something among the trash just when he was about to give up on his search.

It resembled a pistol with a short, wide barrel, covered with two rusty white plates. The paint fell off long ago and all the metal pieces were rusty. It felt primitive when compared to his Energy Pistol, yet he thought it was probably far more advanced. Jaune pointed the gun at the wall and pulled the trigger. All he heard was a faint whirring noise, as if the gun tried to suck the air into itself, but that was all there was to it. No lasers, no special effects, not even a bullet. He held the trigger longer, thinking it needed to recharge its batteries or whatever. Nothing.

"Oh well, not that I had hopes. Though someone on the surface might have more luck with it than me."

He would later return to the exhibits and walk out of the building, trying to find a way through the rubble. There was a sinkhole in the middle of a district, leading to the bottomless depths. He thought he heard a voice singing quietly down there. It was his clue to leave.

The many-colored crystals grew bigger and shinier the more he approached the tower. Even the air was warmer and moisture seemed to gather on rocks. At one point, things began happening that messed with his perception of reality. He would go through a door only to find himself standing right in front of the building. Some areas, when going through them, seemed to become colorless and all the noise would disappear from the world. Flowers would go through their whole life cycle within seconds and tiny critters would evolve into complex forms with each step, only to suddenly die and turn to dust. Things like that weren't meant for a brain accustomed to mundane, everyday life.

Even among such disorienting phenomena, one could still find beauty among the ruins. Alien vines coiled around a human-sized statue, creating sparkling red flowers. The sheer beauty of the moment made him snap a picture with his Scroll. Some time later, he had found a crater surrounded by trees. A statue sat in the crater's lowest point, stabbed with multiple spear-like objects. Teardrops fell from the leaves as if the trees were crying.

Chaos gradually grew the more he came closer to the tower. The buildings weren't just destroyed. The material that built them was either turned to glass or scorched to the point of becoming the closest thing to whatever was a substitute for charcoal down here. Though rare, some of the ruins flew in the air, like pieces of a puzzle put in an eternal stasis. Then it came to the point where the buildings were just flattened two-dimensional shapes on the soil. After that, there was just scorched earth.

What hit Jaune more than anything was the utter desolation of the place. Utter emptiness stood between the city and the tower. He stopped walking and just stared. There was nothing for what seemed like miles, not even a rock to sit on. He grabbed some of the black dirt, only to watch it crumble between his fingers. The emotional burden that had built itself inside his mind was liberated through bitter tears. He knew nothing about the previous inhabitants. But the despair never left. Everything they had endured to raise their civilization had proven to be insignificant in the face of a power they could never claim.

He felt that the ruins had many secrets to uncover and many stories that needed to be passed down before it all turned to dust. People from all over Remnant could use it to avoid the pitfalls their predecessors obviously failed to recognize in time. He would have to go back to the surface and show the pictures he made to his friends and allies. Though, he would first have to see the tower for himself; the light that gave life to this relict of a bygone era.

PDA Biopedia:

*Entry 232: Sinterklaas

Type: Demonic Corruption - Hero

Faction: Legions of Hell

Description: "Who was that stranger? He had a weird saintly aura going on, like the statues you could see in a typical Brothers' church. He fell victim to their plots… like I did."

**Entry 233: Krampus

Type: Demon - Hero

Faction: Legions of Hell

Description: "I used to believe that the Grimm were all the evil on Remnant as a kid. Then I learned about superheroes and how they did their best to defeat the villains and it sat right with me. There's obviously people doing bad things, but they themselves weren't born bad. Everyone deserves a second chance because everyone makes mistakes. But this? How can someone be like this? I heard the stories too. Bad children would be taken away by the bad man or eaten by the monster under the bed. The boogeymen and such. I never believed them to be real, though! Obviously I was wrong. So very wrong."