Forever Fall was a Beacon Academy tradition that had been passed down as a right of passage for first-year students since Beacon's founding. There was no significant meaning in the field trip other than to gather tree sap in a location where Grimm wandered, but that was part of the experience. Not only would first-years experience Grimm outside the walls of the kingdom, but they could do so under the safe supervision of trained professors. In short, it was just another part of Huntsmen training.
And Yang was going to miss it, not that Ruby was all that depressed with the outcome.
In fact, Ruby was rather relieved that things had turned out this way, as she'd played no small part in ensuring the result. Rather, it all began with her.
By being able to confide with Summer, many more avenues that had been locked to Ruby as a student with no credibility or connections of influence were suddenly opened.
Ruby could not have been any more relieved. She'd always viewed her mom as a hero, but the swiftness and decisive actions Summer had taken left Ruby embarrassed at her own lack of initiative. To even compare her bumbling approach to her mother's had her flustered.
Together, Ruby considered herself and her mom a team to prevent future tragedies- Together, they were the Roses!
"Ruby, can you stop?" Weiss whined, hiding her face with a hand while jutting an elbow into Ruby's side. "You're embarrassing us."
"Oh, uhm, sorry," Ruby blushed and quickly stopped pumping her fists in determination while Weiss made a face and tried to scoot away from Ruby.
Neo grinned and foiled Weiss's attempts by pressing herself closer to Ruby and Weiss, and wrapping her arms around them. Weiss squirmed in outrage, trying to break free, causing Ruby to squawk when Weiss shoved her face away.
Pyrrha sighed and shook her head from the side. Out of everyone on the Bullhead to Forever Fall, her team had to be the one that was acting up on the way. Then again, Jaune's team wasn't any better with Jaune looking green the entire way, and Blake keeping her distance.
Team SEVR was the best behaved. Emerald looked bored. Ren was putting up with Nora who'd ditched her team, Vernal was brooding, and Ector was working over his spear.
Pinching the bridge of her nose, Pyrrha glanced towards Ruby before sneakily making her way to pat Jaune on the back.
She had to score those brownie points where she could get them.
/-/
"Please remember to keep with the group, and do not wander on your own unless given permission," Glynda warned, heavy stress lines on her forehead. "Professor Port and Oobleck will be accompanying us, and no one is to stray from eye-sight of a professor. Am I clear?"
"Yes!" Ruby mumbled with the rest of her classmates while her mind focused elsewhere.
Here she was. At ground zeroes.
Taking a breath, Ruby tried to keep her composure, but couldn't prevent herself from fidgeting. Weiss thought she was too childish to contain her excitement on a mere field trip and rolled her eyes at her, but Ruby didn't even notice.
She was tense, cautioning Shirou to always stay on guard.
He was idling near her in astral form, ready to act at a moment's notice, but Ruby was stressed because he was ready to act in the wrong place and time!
Subtly, Ruby tried to remember where Summer had collaborated with Ozpin to coordinate an ambush on Cursed Arm. She knew that she wouldn't be of much help on her own, but where she goes, Shirou would definitely go.
Shirou had already declined the option of leaving her on her own with how antsy she was being, and nothing could convince him otherwise. The best she'd managed to convey to Shirou so far was that she had a bad feeling about Forever Fall, and that wasn't enough to convince him. He wouldn't put her in danger because that was the type of person he was. A big softie.
Therefore, the only option was to run towards danger, string him along, and instigate him into action when all he wanted to do was to keep her safe.
.
.
.
W-Was this what Yang meant about acting like a B-word?
Guilt suddenly welled within Ruby, but she was convinced that with Shirou there along with Ozpin, Uncle Qrow, and the others, then Cursed Arm was done for!
Cursed Arm was the start of many tragedies that could be prevented if he was nipped from the bud before he could cause them.
The goal now was to defeat Cursed Arm with or without Summer who'd gone to retrieve a certain weapon that could flip the odds in their favor.
Ruby knew exactly what weapon it was, and why her mother would prioritize obtaining it over aiding in the ambush.
It was the very weapon that took down Cursed Arm in Ruby's future diary.
If Summer and Ruby had their way, Forever Fall would not have happened. Instead, Summer had opted to plan for after they had obtained Fragarach, but Ozpin warned of the repercussions. The advantage of future knowledge is only an advantage if the events were kept close enough to be exploitable.
Should Cursed Arm not show up here, who knows where he would have attacked instead?
This ambush was a risk, and everyone knew it, but it was a planned risk, rather than an unknown one.
Understandably, the professors were on edge, and Ruby could see this. Weiss, Pyrrha, and her other classmates may think that Glynda was just being stricter than usual, but Ruby had the context.
Lives were at stake.
Rather than have the students disperse to collect sap, Glynda insisted on moving as a large group.
Moreover, Glynda should have been the only one to accompany the students to Forever Fall, but Professor Port and Oobleck were also present. Their job was to ensure the safety of the students while Ozpin arranged the trap for Cursed Arm.
The situation made it all the more difficult for Ruby to sneak away to the planned ambush site. She trusted Ozpin, Qrow, and the others, but Shirou was Ruby's guarantee of Cursed Arm's downfall.
Wetting her lips, Ruby bided her time for a chance to sneak off, but in the end failed under Gylnda's hawk-like gaze.
Desperate, Ruby had no choice but to sell herself off to a teammate.
"N-Neo, could I ask for a favor?" Ruby whispered to the mute of her team, tugging on Neo's sleeve.
Ruby was more than aware of what Neo's Semblance was capable of in her future diary, and knew that Neo would be able to help her here.
Neo paused and stared at Ruby. Neither Weiss or Pyrrha noticed as they were too studious and focused on Glynda to catch the act.
Neo hummed.
'Favour?' She subtly flashed the text of her scroll to Ruby. 'What can I get?'
"My friendship?" Ruby said weakly.
'No.' Neo snorted.
"Y-Your killing me!"
Neo's brows knit in annoyance, before she had a sudden thought. 'You were the one with Archer right?'
"Uh, I- I mean yes!" Ruby was grasping at straws.
'Get me a favor from Archer. Then we'll talk.' Neo stated her terms while idly glancing at her polished nails.
"Ruby. Just because you can doesn't mean that you shoul-"
"Done!" Ruby spoke over Shirou's warning. To her, the price was worth it. The sound of Shirou sighing in her ears was ignored.
Neo grinned, pocketing her scroll. Then, she gestured to Ruby to tell her what she wanted.
Moments later, a 'second' Ruby appeared and stayed with Team PRWN, while the real one snuck off out of Glynda's watch.
Creeping through the large trees of Forever Fall, leaves crunched under Ruby's feet as she navigated ahead. Crinkling her nose, Ruby refused to acknowledge that she was feeling somewhat lost. Habitually, she pulled out her scroll and hoped to text her mom to remind her of the ambush location, but Forever Fall was outside of Vale's reception range.
Slumping her shoulders, Ruby quickly hid her scroll's screen when she realized that Shirou might be able to read her message logs. It was too big of a risk for her to lose the foresight of her future diary now that her mother was there to help make things better for everyone.
Ruby muttered to prevent herself from feeling discouraged.
Where was it? It had to be here somewhere?!
What was worse was that Shirou was watching her walk circles in the middle of nowhere. Her plan to indirectly get him on board with her operations would soon fail along with her credibility if she didn't get any results.
-There it was!
Ruby abruptly stilled, turning into a flurry of rose petals that congregated up a tree with a view into an open clearing. She could see her uncle Qrow tensely scanning his surroundings in the middle, features fraught with uneasiness.
"See?" Ruby muttered, more to reassure herself than Shirou. "I told you they'd be here."
"You didn't tell me anything."
"Oh, right, sorry." Ruby flinched at Shirou's exasperated reply. He wasn't wrong, but wasn't important. "Listen, Uncle Qrow and the others are planning an ambush. If Cursed Arm shows up, I need you to kill him."
"Kill? Not defeat?"
"...Y-Yes. Kill him," Ruby hesitated against her better judgment, but didn't change her mind. Through her future diary, she could sense how dark she was becoming from tragedy after tragedy.
Again, keeping Cursed Arm alive was too much of a risk.
Shirou gave Ruby a flat look while recalling the things she'd said to him in the past. He could read between the lines. The biggest hint was how Ruby knew of Cursed Arm's existence on Remnant when she shouldn't have been involved.
Ruby shied away from Shirou's piercing stare, urging her to elaborate when she knew that she couldn't.
"Just keep on guard, okay?" Ruby brushed the subject off and focused on her uncle.
Cursed Arm would appear in Forever Fall, and if things go south, Shirou was Ruby's final trump card.
His presence near her was Ruby's greatest source of comfort and strength.
Beads of sweat trickled down Qrow's brow as he tried to condition his mind for what was to come. A part of him was still skeptical of Summer's prophetic ability, but he'd had several days to verify things for himself.
He started with subtle and nuanced instances that Summer would get right, like what would be broadcast and said on Scrolls or the CT network. Then he moved on to the bigger things Summer predicted.
All Qrow had to do to verify what Summer had said about the Branwen Tribe was wait for Raven to come back with bloodshot eyes and a hollow expression. She'd left for the tribe the moment she'd heard Summer's words, but nothing had happened. Raven had been just as skeptical about Summer's warning than Qrow was, so she left when she saw that nothing was wrong.
The next time she went to check…a ruined encampment was all that greeted her.
Shit was hitting the fan, and Qrow had no better way to express it.
Raven was on standby while Ozpin was readying his magic to lock the area down as soon as the bait was taken.
Cursed Arm was assumed to be after the Branwens, and Qrow having seen Cursed Arm face-to-face was the greatest bait second to Raven. As Raven was the one who could portal everyone out under immediate danger, she couldn't be used as bait. Hence why Qrow was in the open like a sitting duck.
Then there was Yang who shared Raven's features.
Cursed Arm could target Yang too, and according to Summer, the bastard did target Yang in Forever Falls. That was why it had been decided to keep Yang away under Qrow and Raven's insistance.
Yang was therefore still in Beacon, but not alone.
Summer had Archer stay with Yang and protect her from any unforeseen variables, despite knowing how much of a help Archer could be in battle.
At the very least, Yang took the arrangement a lot better. She'd been moody after Glynda barred her entry into the event. However, the realization that she'd miss out on Forever Fall, but would be able to spend that time with Archer, had spun Yang's complaints one-eighty.
In contrast, and rather irrelevant, Emerald was livid.
Qrow shook his head at how fickle Yang could be at her age, but he digressed over the sobering thought that he could die today.
Summer had told Qrow straight that Cursed Arm kills him, and given Summer's track record of predictions, a whole lot more gravity was placed on her words.
Qrow shared a look with Raven gliding in the sky.
Raven was in her bird form, keeping a vigilant lookout for Cursed Arm.
Qrow gave Raven a small smile, watching as light glinted over her red eyes. This may be the last time they saw each other alive, and Qrow still couldn't read if Raven even gave a damn.
"Caw! Caw!"
Narrowing his eyes at Raven's calls, Qrow noticed a flock of birds rise up from the trees followed by a terse silence.
Circling, Raven hovered closer to the ground before morphing back into human form. She shook her head at Qrow.
"Well?" Qrow asked, fully alert.
"Nothing," Raven muttered with balled fists. She was never quite the same after what happened to the tribe. She was more reticent and cynical. Vengeful was also an apt term, but there was also some deeper emotion hidden in there.
By now, Qrow felt that something was off.
Why wasn't that bastard here yet?
Summer had warned everyone that the future she saw may deviate since she'd shared her knowledge, but she was also certain Cursed Arm would be here.
Qrow, as the bait, could not have made his position any more obvious, and if the bastard wasn't here then-
BOOM!
Qrow's pupils dilated.
"Shit!" He cursed, dashing towards the sound with Ozpin and Raven in tow.
/-/
Hidden out of sight, Ruby paled at her perch.
Cursed Arm had appeared in the wrong place.
"Shirou!"
'-I'm on it. Just try to stay out of danger.'
Swallowing, Ruby didn't promise. Instead, she grew determined and ran as fast as she could back in the direction that she'd come.
-Moments Prior.
/-/
Glynda was many things, but anxious had never been one of them. Growing up, she'd either been equal or ahead of her highest achieving peers. It was the same in combat school, Huntsmen Academy, and even now as vice director second only to Ozpin in Beacon. There was practically nothing that should have been able to phase her anymore.
She'd seen it all.
Idiots, crooks, criminals, beasts, delinquents, people who thought they were funny but were terrible, Qrow, damn Branwens, and Ozpin. Definitely Ozpin. No single superior had ever given Glynda as much of a hassle as Beacon's headmaster, but she stuck with him since his heart was in the right place.
Her fortitude and resilience had been tried and tested, and no matter the situation, she secretly prided herself in maintaining them.
Forever Fall was different.
There was a thick line between what she knew she could handle, and what she couldn't. The domain of magic and artifacts that had recently come to light in Remnant was something she was far from well versed in. Even in Archer's class, she could be delegated to no more than another student learning for the first time.
And Qrow, that idiot, somehow freed an ancient killing machine on the side of the God of Darkness.
No matter how Glynda tried to wrap her mind around it, this whole operation was too optimistic. Other than Ozpin, Archer would have been more suitable here than Glynda, but he had to stay behind for Yang who was not only a potential target, but a Maiden.
Yang's protection couldn't be jeopardized, leaving their manpower in Forever Fall, cut in half between Archer and Ozpin. Summer apparently had a sure-way of defeating this Cursed Arm, but it was unlikely that she'd be able to make it back from Vacuo so soon.
Damn it.
In the end, Glynda was just nervous about the potential outcome and the students who were unaware yet involved in it.
Port and Oobleck were informed of a potential danger, but Glynda wasn't quite sure if Ozpin had made them aware of just who the danger could be.
"Keep pace," Glynda warned the students following behind her. "Stragglers will be given severe demerits."
A chorus of grumbles greeted Glynda's declaration, but she didn't care. If she needed to be stricter today or act as a drill sergeant, then so be it.
Glynda's job was to lead everyone as far away from the ambush site as possible to prevent getting the students involved, but not all plans ever go accordingly.
The first signs that Glynda noticed was how quiet the forest was. Beyond the murmurs of Beacon's students, Forever Fall should have been surrounded by wildlife and prowling Grimm. Falling leaves, snapping twigs, and even splintering wood were common sounds, but Glynda could hear none of them.
There was an almost eerie sort of undertone in the atmosphere that caused Glynda's eyes to sharpen, and her grip on her riding crop to grow clammy. She was never a paranoid woman, but as an experienced Huntress, she knew to trust her instincts.
Glynda's vigilance heightened. If the lack of sound was the first sign, then the cold wind and subtle pressure that charged the air was the next. It felt like walking through static, or wading through a film of water.
It wasn't normal.
Fumbling with her glasses, she readjusted them with a finger and began scanning her surroundings just enough to finally notice an obscure skull mask staring at her from the darkness of a tree's shadow.
Glynda froze, the voices of the students and Port's boasting behind her, turning into white noise in the background. Her pupils gradually constricted, her soles stiffly planting into the ground and dragging behind her, her pace slowing to a crawl.
"Glynda?" Oobleck muttered with a frown followed by Port.
Beads of sweat were forming over Glynda's brow, but her gaze never strayed from the enemy. Trained Huntsmen as Oobleck and Port were, they quickly followed Glynda's line of sight and paused when they saw what appeared within it.
They froze just like Glynda.
The murmurs of the students gradually settled as they took notice of the state of their professors. Confusion abounded, but the more astute were able to grasp what others were missing.
"Oof," Jaune grumbled after bumping into Blake who suddenly stood rooted in place. "Why'd you stop- Blake? Nora?"
Neither of Jaune's teammates replied, but the reason would soon be evident.
A figure stepped out from the shadow of the looming trees; one that no one that had seen Archer's lectures would fail to recognize.
Glynda's complexion was pale, rattling alarm bells sounding ceaselessly in her mind.
"Everyone back away!" She yelled, cutting through the suffocating tension. "Port, Oobleck, protect them!"
The response was immediate from the professors. Glynda uprooted numerous trees with her Semblance and formed a floating blockade, while Port and Oobleck readied their weapons and created a defensive perimeter, their Aura's blazing.
However, the students were naturally slower to react, some still in disbelief.
"P-Pyrrha, please tell me that's not who I think it is?" Weiss bit down on her lips, hands quickly equipping her weapon.
Pyrrha did not answer. Solemnly, she raised her sword and shield, but her nervousness was just as apparent as everyone else.
What they faced before them now was no Grimm, but an existence that could only be countered by its opposing opposite: A hero to defeat a villain.
Light to defeat dark.
A heavy magic pressure suddenly caused everyone's knees to wobble. The ground began to flatten, the area dimming into a dreary gray.
The tintinnabulation of unseen bells echoed.
Glynda, who'd been maintaining a blockade of uprooted trees, staggered as those trees abruptly crashed into the ground, revealing Cursed Arm who stood silently on the other side.
'Ruby' shattered into fragments of fading glass as Neo lost concentration of her Semblance right then and there, but no one had the mind to pay attention to it.
A Grimm trailed behind Cursed Arm; a moving shadow in the form of a shimmering veil. It was the very same Grimm who'd fought alongside Cursed Arm against the Branwen ancestor. At the hem of its body, swaths of cloth trailed out like feelers.
No one moves in the silence.
"What do you want?" Glynda could feel her blood running cold as the reality of the situation fully dawned on her.
Cursed Arm ignored Glynda and glanced at Port and Oobleck instead.
"Neither of you are the 'Ozpin' the witch spoke of." Cursed Arm muttered.
Glynda immediately frowned at the words. As far as she knew, Cursed Arm was apparently after the Branwens. Bringing Ozpin into the picture only made things more complicated, let alone who Cursed Arm was referring to as the 'Witch.'
Glynda could hazard a guess, and it didn't bode well.
"Leave! You are not welcome here!" She resolved herself to fight. At the very least, she could buy time.
Cursed Arm's skull mask shifted towards Glynda, and ignored her once more, turning instead to the crowd of students who shifted uncomfortably on their feet.
"Your opponent is us!" Glynda stepped up, followed by Port and Oobleck.
All could tell that Cursed Arm's gaze focused on the banner held stiffly in Jaune Arc's hands. The light the banner naturally excluded was pushing back against the oppressive energies Cursed Arm was releasing.
A boulder suddenly zipped past Cursed Arm's face, the man not even flinching before turning to Glynda.
"Your opponent is us!"
Galvanized by the light of the Saint's banner, Glynda's Semblance was surging. Grains of dirt and dust lifted into the air in a storm of boulders and uprooted trees that formed a boundary between Beacon's professors, and the students.
Wordlessly, Cursed Arm nodded at the Grimm behind him.
Acknowledging the command, the Grimm flattened into a shadow that spilled over the ground, releasing numerous black strips that Glynda and the others tried to stop, but couldn't. Cursed Arm made sure of it by tossing daggers coated in darkness that tore through Glynda's telekinesis. She had no choice but to focus her attention on him.
"W-What is this thing?!"
Glynda, Port, and Oobleck flinched as they glanced at their students and saw the strange Grimm rise from the shadows. Its cloth-like appendages splayed out and began grabbing those stricken by terror and imobile.
"Get it off! Get it off!" Dove shrieked, pulling at the shadows that sought to bind him.
Cardin and the rest of his team didn't stand idle and moved to help by pulling and tearing through the bindings with their weapons, but not everyone was so lucky.
"B-Beneath you!" Someone yelled in warning.
The strange Grimm had flattened itself over the ground again, and immediately covered the very ground everyone stood on in a veil of darkness. It was like spilled water gushing over a flat surface, too quick to react unless by reflex.
Weiss and her team were saved by virtue of jumping onto a hurriedly created glyph. The rest weren't so lucky.
The ground beneath them was instantly dyed black, the feelers able to shoot out from all angles.
Those caught by the Grimm's appendages were tightly bound and gradually pulled into the void, kicking and screaming as if they were sinking into quick-sand.
"Shoot! Shoot it-mmmff!" A student yelled, before the shadows wound around his face.
Dust shells and ammunition peppered the ground, but everything was absorbed into the veil of darkness. It was formless, making it unable to be impeded by physical means.
Only a single area remained untouched.
"R-Rally to Arc!"
It was a desperate cry. Through the light of the Saint's banner, a wide area of protection was cast around Jaune that everyone scrambled to. Already within that light were Pyrrha, Weiss, Blake, Neo, Nora, Cardin who dragged his team in, and just a few others.
"Jaune, help!"
"No, go here! We're closer!"
"!"
Jaune was panicking. Where he went, the light of the banner would follow, but its light could not reach everywhere at once. He needed to move around and free his bound classmates, but doing so would allow the strange Grimm's shadow to encroach back into the area he left. It didn't help that everyone was bunching around him, heavily reducing his mobility.
"Ren! No, REN!" Nora pulled on Jaune and pointed at where team SEVR was trying to free Ren out of the darkness seeking to swallow him. "Jaune, this way- THIS WAY! YOU BASTARDS, MOVE!"
Nora started shoving, forcing everyone in the direction she wanted.
"Jaune…" Pyrrha muttered weakly, looking at their other classmates who needed help on the opposite side of Ren and team SEVR.
Jaune swallowed, but Nora was already in his face and pleading with him. He nodded subconsciously, and that was all Nora needed. She propped Jaune with an arm and manhandled him towards Ren and the others.
As soon as the banner's light shone over Ren, the shadows fled, and the bindings released him and those in the area at once. Nora let go of Jaune and checked over Ren, but that was when everyone blankly turned back to see the area Jaune had left.
The screams had stopped.
The classmates still bound by cloths of shadow were fully submerged in the darkness beneath them and disappeared. The shadows moved on, but nothing was left.
"Brother Gods…" Ector swallowed in disbelief. "They're gone."
"We could have saved them," Blake mumbled.
"J-Jaune, it's not your fault."
"It's coming back!"
Huddling closer together, Jaune and the others did their best to avoid the shadows while Glynda, Port, and Oobleck had their hands full with Cursed Arm.
"Port!" Glynda warned, trying to hold back Cursed Arm's daggers with her Semblance, but failing again. Either the darkness that coated them or the weapon itself was disrupting her Semblance.
Nodding at the warning, Port nimbly side-stepped before raising his sword and blocking another flurry of daggers.
Oobleck raised a gun and fired several Dust rounds in retaliation, but a feeler from Cursed Arm's accompanying Grimm opened a black portal that swallowed the bullets.
The hairs on the back of Glynda's neck raised.
A bell continued to toll in the background.
"In life, fear of death is engraved within every act."
"I don't like the sound of that." Port shivered as Cursed Arm suddenly stopped moving and stared everyone down.
The bindings around Cursed Arm's arm gradually began to loosen, triggering memories of Archer's lecture and what was likely coming.
Glynda felt adrenaline coursing through her veins as her heart beat accelerated. "Stop him!"
"Humans create their kingdoms, clinging unto walls built of sand."
Cursed Arm strafed around Port and Oobleck, promptly shattering the telekinesis trying to bind him.
The cloth continued to unwind, swaths of red energy dying the area in its fiery glow.
"I am the shadow of a remnant left behind, used and treacherously forgotten."
Grabbing Oobleck's weapon with a free arm, Oobleck's surprise attack was dispassionately thrown to the wayside before a kick indented the thin man into a tree.
"Fool was I. Peace was all I sought beyond any personal sacrifice."
Port screamed as a dagger found its way through his Aura and into a knee cap. He doubled over, lowering his head to a back hand strike to the neck.
"Port!" Oobleck gnashed his teeth as Port went down unconscious.
Shadows stretched forward to claim him.
"Yet peace was left wanting. Promises broken. Curses are all that remain."
"Y-You were a hero!" Oobleck pleaded.
Oobleck had inferred the meaning within the words by referencing what he knew now and in Archer's lecture. All Champions of Dark had once championed light.
Cursed Arm froze for a second, before he shook his head. It was too late.
Oobleck finally went down with a well-placed stab to the stomach, feelers of the strange Grimm pulling him into its shadow.
"Hear of it, and know of the despair of betrayal!"
"Oobleck, Port!" Glynda's eyes widened in alarm before she screamed, flaring her Aura and increasing her Semblance to its maximum output.
The air rippled around her, depressing the ground in which she stood and blasting out across the entire area. Trees toppled, vegetation, stones and boulders crushed and condensed under the mounting pressure.
"That which takes life."
The cursed arm was now free from its restraints and dangled in the air like a loose stinger. The ends were a glowing red as if a piece of heated metal, the folded joints, unraveling.
"That which spurred mankind's terror; the monster that lurks unseen, unheard."
Wind began to stir, an ominous air sweeping through the forest.
Glynda heaved, her pupils constricting in fury. Her veins popped over her skin as she sent everything forward to crush the enemy before her. Any Grimm would have died and been pulverized, but her adversary was no Grimm.
Servant Class specification: Assassin.
The emotionless skull mask gleamed. A symbol transcending time, yet forgotten through history.
"From the mountains I come."
Cursed Arm ignited with ominous red magic energy, his cursed arm whipping forward: A one-tipped winged spear.
"For judgment I reap."
Glynda's knees buckled as she tried to dodge or fend off the incoming arm by swerving her body just enough so that the arm just barely touched her.
"His evening bell beckons thy toll."
The arm retracted.
"Thy toll is…Zabaniya."
Palm facing upward, fingers opened to reveal a beating ether heart, a reflection of the real thing.
The heart lay beating in Cursed Arm's grasp, unbearably squeezed between fingers.
"The cursed fruit of the tormentor."
Glynda gasped, retching at the acute pressure she could feel in her chest.
Everyone knew it from that day's lecture.
Aura meant nothing in the face of that curse.
Glynda shivered with cold sweat, a hand pressing over her chest as she desperately used her Semblance to pry those fingers off to no avail. Her body swayed, her features growing vacant, as her vision turned black.
Those who could see what was happening screamed; noises that echoed faintly in the background.
"Ms. Goodwit-!"
"All is equal in death."
The heart was crushed.
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