Chapter 1


Weiss gritted her teeth, biting back the irritation as the glyph in front of her lazily rotated.

Irritation flared inside of her, and she knew that it was childish to indulge in her broiling emotions, but after an hour of continuous practice, she had yet to further her semblance any further. She could almost feel Winter's hand on her shoulder again, her sister once again explaining how emotions could give her strength at the cost of control. How she should never be reliant on them. It had been enough for the first thirty minutes, and she had patiently and gently given her lazy summoning circle her aura, all while trying to keep a clear head.

The failure burned at her, and Weiss clenched her teeth harder, and poured her anger, and hatred toward Jacques pet knight, desiring him to answer her summons. The circle spun a little faster, before returning to its sedate rotation, without a sign of anything happening save for a dip in her aura and more frustration building up. Weiss threw her arms up, setting Myrtenaster on the bench beside her before she allowed herself to sit down next to it. She wiped a single bead of sweat from her brow, and picked up her water bottle, taking a sip to rehydrate herself.

Weiss let her head rest against the wall of the practice arena, letting the stone cool her. She was missing something for her summoning. That much was obvious. The question was what. Winter had tried to help, but following her advice had resulted in being tired and low on aura. Even taking breaks between attempts to reconsider her approach only served to leave her considering the stone wall, hoping for an answer that was not coming. Just like she was currently doing. Weiss resisted the urge to let out her frustration with an ironclad control built under the strict supervision of the largest opportunist this side of Remnant, and focused instead onto the clock blinking at her from the wall.

It hadn't been five minutes yet, and she had poured more of her aura into the last glyph than she had previously, but a quick check of her scroll told her that she was still above half. Logically, she knew that she should take a longer break, but Weiss was quite sick of sitting, watching her aura tick up percent by percent on her scroll. Myrtenaster found its rest disturbed as it found its way back into her hand, and she once again positioned herself in the center of the arena. She felt the telltale pull on her aura as the Glyph appeared on the floor in front of her. Weiss took in a breath, and readied herself for her latest attempt to craft a summon.

There was a knock at the door.

Weiss swiveled, her concentration was broken as a familiar blonde intruder stumbled into her training space. Granted, Jaune had been significantly more bearable since the breach, but after suffering through two semesters of Beacon with the blonde knight being a bane to her peace of mind, he was one "Snow Angel" away from frying her last nerves on a good day.

"Jaune". Weiss tried to be courteous. She definitely had more control than to growl out a greeting. Jaune approached her slowly, as if he was approaching a savage beast rather than a classmate.

"Weiss. Ruby was looking for you." Weiss knew that. Ruby had wanted the team to meet up to tour the stalls in the stadium. She had told her that she would be able to join after she had finished with her training for the day.

"And you got involved, how?" Jaune scratched at the back of his head, and a small smile inched up his lips.

"I was headed back to the dorms anyway to review the last round of fights. Ruby waved me over as I got back to Beacon and asked me to tell you that the rest of your team went on ahead and that they'll meet up with you there." Weiss let some of the irritation go, and she recomposed herself. There was no point taking out her irritation at her failures out on Jaune.

"I'll finish up here in a quarter of an hour. Thank you for letting me know." Jaune nodded before glancing behind her. She rolled her eyes as she focused back on the Glyph, the small drain on her aura slowing down her aura's natural regeneration. It was surprising that it was still present, even after having snapped out of her concentration. It spoke to her proficiency with her semblance that she could maintain it subconsciously. Even Winter had to concentrate to maintain her glyphs. Feeling of pride swam through her chest at that thought.

"So what exactly are you doing?" Weiss huffed. She doubted that the idiot would understand the nuances of what she was trying to accomplish. His own semblance was either non-combative or more likely unknown. Still, what harm would indulging him do?

"The Schnee Semblance is famous for its ability to create Summons. It is the one aspect that I have not mastered yet." Jaune nodded, glancing at the glowing glyph on the floor.

"So, can I see?" Weiss rolled her eyes, irritation once again bubbling to the surface. "Don't you have fights to watch Arc?"

The blonde shrugged. Weiss felt the telltale twitch in her eye coming back. A Schnee may fail on occasion, but showing it off as if it was a performance? She would not suffer such an indignity. "Leave." Her voice left no room for questions. Jaune raised his hands in surrender before backing out of the room, closing the door behind him. Weiss moved over to the door, locking it to stop further intruders into her training space, before returning to the Glyph still glowing in the center of the room, its continued existence a mockery to her goal. She was skilled enough to keep a glyph materialized without conscious thought, and yet she couldn't use it to shape a Summon?

A thought crossed her mind. Maybe she was on the correct path, but had stopped pumping aura into her glyph before it had fully materialized. If the glyph was fully materialized with the smallest amount of aura to sustain it, and no concentration, wasn't that a step closer to crafting a summon? Somewhere in her mind, a voice whispered an affirmative. Weiss checked her aura one last time before she focused onto the glyph.

"Heed my summons" The words slipped from her lips, as she dumped her frustration and anger into the glyph. All of the painful lessons under her father. All of the irritation at the weight of the Schnee name. All of the humiliation caused at the dance. Even the anger at a stupid blonde knight's ability to understand the word 'No'. The glyph shone brightly, spinning faster than any other glyph she had ever seen. The light from her own glyph grew blinding, and she was forced to cover her eyes as the sudden exhaustion drove her to her knees. It felt as if her life was being ripped out of her, and she tried to cut off the flow to the glyph.

Where she would normally find a thin strand connecting her aura to her semblance, now she found an unbreakable bond of power quickly draining her of her last dregs of aura. The loud alarm inside of the training room was drowned out by the ringing in her ears as she fully collapsed onto the ground. She was unconscious before her head touched the ground.


The door to the room was locked. That was why Jaune was outside the training room, slamming his weight into the reinforced iron door to no avail instead of inside, checking on the person without any aura. What a hell of a time for the guy in charge of monitoring the training room to disappear to whomever knows where. Jaune slammed his weight against the door again, and the door refused to budge.

He had known something was up. Sure, Weiss could be cold on the best of days, and he knew he was still in an awkward position with Weiss. Memories before the dance flashed before his eyes like an appalling slideshow of poor decisions. Still, she was usually the pinnacle of self control when it came to image. To growl at him like a rabid Grimm should have been unthinkable. He should have pressed when he noticed how off she had been acting.

Jaune balled up all those feelings, and with renewed vigor checked the doors durability against the strength of a huntsman in training. The door stubbornly held, and Jaune felt panic seeping into him. What if he couldn't open it, and Weiss was bleeding out after expending her aura. He fueled his anger into trying to open the door. The door remained unmovable.

Heavy boots pounded down the halls as a middle aged man charged down the hall. Jaune barely had time to comprehend what was happening when he was bodily shoved out of the way. Without losing momentum, the man slammed his boot into the door, right next to where the lock would have been. The door swung inwards, crashing against the opposing wall with an ear ringing bang.

Jaune's eyes swept the room, locking onto the figure in white. Weiss was face down in the center, her weapon sitting atop the Schnee Snowflake carved into the ground that was decidedly not there a minute ago. The red light of the alarm bathed Weiss in pink, doing nothing to hide the bleeding coming from her nose. Jaune didn't know when he had kneeled down to pick her up, only coming to realize that when a hand shove him aside, stopping him.

"For it is our hardship that- " The man's hand glowed with an almost rust colored aura, before he pulled it away from the crumpled form in front of him, his hand spasming as he brought it to his chest. The man turned to face Jaune, his piercing blue eyes boring into Jaune's own.

"I don't have enough aura to donate." Jaune flinched as the man's eyes shifted from Jaune to his scroll. The ring of light surrounding the open button glowed a bright green, a sign that his aura was in the green. It was a feature of all Beacon Scrolls that Jaune had never had to worry about before. Now he understood why it had been made mandatory.

"I don't kno-" The man grabbed his hand with his own, practically shoving him atop Weiss.

"Well, congratulations. You get a hands-on lesson. Now flex your aura." Jaune instinctively put his aura up, the stress of the situation pushing his aura to defend him from attacks that would never come his way. The man nodded.

"Good, now imagine that you aren't just protecting yourself. You have to protect and heal anyone under you". That too was easy. Weiss breathed uneasily beneath his fingers. She needed aura, and if he could learn how to donate, he had gone to blood drives before. How much different would this be. Slowly, as if his aura could listen to his desires, the golden glow surrounding Jaune extended itself to Weiss, wrapping her in its soothing presence. The stranger sighed in relief as he watched. Slowly, his hands left Jaune's own as the man stood.

"Seems that you already have it down. Just keep it up until her aura is out of the red. I'll go get help." Jaune wanted to call the man back, asking him to explain how he was supposed to keep this up. To explain anything really. He wanted to know why Weiss had collapsed in the first place. Logically, the man was probably as in the dark as he was about Weiss, even more so since he had been the last person to see her before she locked the door and passed out.

Jaune did none of those things. Instead, he kneeled at a friend's side, desperately pushing his aura into her, trusting that there was not too much of a good thing when it came to aura.


Ozpin watched over Beacon from his office, his eyes searching for something to stand out to him. The students and citizens of vale went about their business unaware of the danger hiding amongst them. He knew they were there. The men and women who were propping up the white fang, and who had snuck into the CCT for reasons yet unknown. Even after weeks, he still had no idea what the exact purpose was for that. It likely didn't matter either. Not anymore.

"Still brooding I see". The man who seemed to appear beside him was rather short, standing an entire head beneath him. Thick bushy brown hair covered his face, and draped down to obscure his eyes. A beacon uniform was pressed firmly against his figure, the arms of the uniform slightly too short, while the body was too long. It was a quick fix that would only fool the uninformed. He leaned on his weapon, the longsword pressing a groove into his marble floor.

"Alex. Please mind the floor. Your sword has made a rather sizable hole already." Alex barked out a laugh, his posture shifting to put even more pressure on his weapon. Ozpin sighed, thinking about how he would go about explaining the mess. He was strangely hoping that the queen would move her pieces before he had to file the paperwork to have his office fixed. If his office got wrecked in a fight, he could write off any damages under insurance, and he would be rid of his paperwork for a time. Ozpin shook the image from his mind. No doubt if the queen's pieces moved now, he would have more work to deal with, not less.

"How are Lancer and her master?" Alex shook his head. Ozpin sighed, and returned to observing the academy grounds. Lancer was in a rather tough spot with her master in a coma. It was fortunate that she was summoned regardless of her Master being unable to breathe unassisted. It was a miracle that the usurper had not summoned her instead. Still, the constant drain on the fall maiden's magic was costing her. Without intervention, it was unlikely that Lancer could stay to fight for them until the end of the week, let alone through the entire war.

He had hope that Amber's downward spiral was only a temporary thing. Unfortunately, it looked as if it would not be. Now, he was forced to act or lose his second most valuable piece.

"Are you still planning to use the Nikos girl?" Ozpin nodded towards his companion.

"I can not take undue risks. Not with the stakes so high. Even if Miss Nikos declines, Miss Rose will not. The queen will seek out those with potential to be masters, and seek to either kill them or convert them. Miss Rose is on that short list, and I would rather not give Salem such an easy target to kill." Ozpin felt his age as he looked at the glass rather than through it. Tired eyes met their reflection, as he hoped to see a sliver of the vigor from ages past. He only found a jaded old man looking back at him.

"As proficient as Miss Rose is for her age, most Masters stand heads and shoulders above her in terms of combat. That is why Miss Nikos will get the opportunity first. She is more skilled than her peers and may be able to survive combat where would fall. She can always be a backup, in case there are free servants in need of a Master or a change of Masters." Qrow would likely strangle him for the thought. He didn't want to imagine what Lancer's own thoughts on the subject would be.

Ozpin was no stranger to sacrifice. Losing small battles for the benefit of the greater good.

Ozma was no stranger to sacrifice. He had grown numb to the losses caused by the constant battle between the champion of the brother gods, and the heretic they had left behind.

Oz was just tired. Maybe this Holy Relic War was a blessing in disguise. One battle to finally determine the fate of Remnant. He only hoped that he had enough strength left to win it.

"Alex… no, Servant Saber. Can you send a message to James to meet me downstairs. I shall have Glynda bring Miss Nikos there shortly. It is time we changed strategies to suit the new situation we find ourselves in." The Servant of the blade chuckled as he began to dematerialize into golden motes of light. His last words drifted through the office. "As you command my king".


Welcome to Remant's Holy Relic War. This idea has been bouncing around my head since Coeur Al' Aran's Arc Royale, and the release of Volume 9 of RWBY has gotten me to actually writing out a plot idea. That said, I can not promise an update schedule, only say that I will release chapters as I write them.

Edit: There were some issues during the convert where names were being left out. I have since fixed them.