Chapter time!
It was said that there were few things on Remnant as memorable and impressive as the centre of Vale during the night.
The tall buildings stretched towards the sky as the lights from them illuminated the entire streets. The ever present lights which, at the cost of the ability to see the stars, made the night just as bright as the day. Countless cars passing by in hurry to places only their drivers knew about.
All of that made for a breathtaking sight with a very particular atmosphere of a huge city.
All of that was also far from impressive in Jaune's eyes.
How was it that despite Remnant being centuries ahead Aurielladan when it came to technology, the grandest of cities here couldn't compare to some of the places he had been there?
He quietly sighed to himself.
The answer was magic, like always.
Seriously, ever since experiencing a completely different world, he often found himself wondering, how Remnant could function for this long without the existence of magic.
There was Dust, he supposed, but when compared to all the possibilities of true magic, the exploding crystals, around which revolved the entire Remnant, were far too restrictive.
It did make him wonder how Dust would react to his more unnatural skill, he got from Aurielladan.
Would it make a bigger explosion?
Would it not explode at all, and instead simply become a harder rock?
He had no idea.
The closest comparison to Dust from Aurielladan would have been the explosives, and they didn't really count since they were mixtures of different materials instead of single crystals.
He shrugged after thinking about for a while.
It didn't really matter at the moment, and there would be time for experimentation during the war that was happening, anyway.
"Impressive, isn't it?" Yang, his current guide, asked after she mistakenly interpreted his thoughtful expression as either awe or curiosity. "I had a pretty similar reaction the first time I've come to Vale from Patch, as well."
His home village did pale in comparison to Vale, too. He would give her that.
Although, it wasn't really saying much when one of them was a backwater town at the edge of the kingdom and the other was the capital. It was like comparing a fully grown dragon to a sickly drake, even if both of them were technically related, calling them the same would have been insulting.
"I guess." He said while barely paying attention.
As unimpressive, or disappointing, as the Vale could have been, it couldn't stop him from constantly paying attention to the world around him. There were two confirmed otherworldly heroes in the city, after all.
Not to mention that openly going to an information broker like that was basically the same as putting a target on his back.
A small grin appeared on his face as he and Yang turned towards a different street.
If one of the other heroes believed they could take him out right now, then let them come. He would entertain their desire to fight. He wasn't worried. If anything, it would only make completing his task easier.
Overconfidence might have killed countless Huntsmen in the past, but was it really an overconfidence in his case, when he could level entire cities to the ground with little effort?
Even if there truly was someone far stronger than him in this war, then hiding and scheming wasn't going to help him defeat them, anyway.
"Just one more turn and we are there." Yang said with a smile as they passed another street. "I probably should do the talking first, by the way. Those guys can be quite aggressive."
He waved his hand a little as if to dismiss Yang's worries.
"You don't have to worry about anything, I can be quite persua-." He almost said what he wanted, but suddenly stopped himself when he heard something large speeding towards them from behind.
Yang tilted her head slightly in confusion at his stop.
"Move!" He shouted as he quickly pushed Yang away, with enough strength to get her out of danger, but not strong enough to harm her too much.
"Wha-?!" Yang started to ask as she flew through the air.
Before he could hear what Yang was about to say, or even see her land on the ground, something absolutely massive collided with his back with enough force to crumble castles.
"Argh!" He grunted as he was sent flying into the building in front of him.
The tall building did nothing to stop his flight, and he barrelled through it in a mare moment.
By the time he could reorientate himself and look back at what hit him, all he could see was a tall building with a hole in it and a giant eye of some lizard like creature looking at him from the other side of it.
"Damn!" He cursed as he stopped himself on another building, and stabbed his sword into it so that he could dangle off of it.
Just as he was about to either jump down, or launch himself forward at the creature which had just attacked him, he saw said creature coil forward from behind the pierced building to reveal itself to him in its entirety.
[ATHENAS, THE SPINE OF REALITY]
[LV 175]
The creature was some sort of enormous flying snake with twelve white feathered wings on its back and deep purple flames constantly spewing out of its mouth. The colour of its body was green and looking at it made you feel insignificant.
A wide smile appeared on Jaune's face as he analysed the foe in front of him.
He had defeated stronger enemies before.
The beast roared and unleashed a huge torrent of its purple flames towards him.
Seeing the attack coming, he pulled out his sword from the building, moved his legs towards the wall, and launched himself away from the danger.
During his journey through Aurielladan he had been harmed by a multitude of different flame attacks, including ones coloured purple. The fact a beast of such high level was using those flames so confidently made him not want to get hit by them, however.
No attack delivered by a creature of level beyond one hundred was ever simple.
He hit the ground with a small explosion of rubble, the asphalt beneath his feet cracking under the pressure of his landing. He then quickly turned around to look at the damage the flame did to the building he had been standing on.
To a small surprise of his, the place he had been dangling of just a moment ago had completely vanished.
He gulped a little at what he saw there.
There was nothing there, no signs of fire, no uneven destruction, no remains of anything that was destroyed. There was simply a building there, with parts of it simply not existing any more. It was like anything the flame had touched simply disappeared from existence.
His brief moment of distraction was punished by the tail of his foe smashing directly into him, making him tumble across the street.
"Ugh." He groaned as he stabbed his sword into the ground to halt his momentum.
He was lucky the beast didn't use its flames on him when he wasn't looking. It could have very likely end with his death, or at the very least with damage significant enough to cripple him.
A quick glance upwards told him, the beast was already spewing its flames in roughly his direction.
Although, it seemed that those flames were both slower and less accurate than the ones before. The speed at which they travelled could be considered as slow, even by Remnant's standards.
Was it trying to cut off all his escape paths by doing this, or maybe it wanted to bait him into trying to get past them?
He quickly tensed his legs in preparation.
Either way, it didn't matter.
If his enemy could only spew these flames out of its mouth, then as long as he would be able to get close, he only had to worry about not getting hit by its head.
It was something completely doable.
He launched himself forward with all his strength just as the flames were closing in on him. Since all the flames were coming from above, none of them had yet to touch the ground, and he was clear to dash through there.
Just as he predicted, his quick dash under the flames left him unharmed, but it also left him directly on the path of the snake's another tail attack.
"I see." He murmured before abruptly stopping in place, raising his sword a little, and forcing his magic into it to make it glow with power.
The difference in levels between him and the beast might have been huge, but fighting against many monsters beyond his level cap, back in Aurielladan, had taught him that there was a way for humans to somewhat breach that gap.
The light on his sword began concentrating and taking a form similar to a fire.
That method was usage of 'Skills'.
As the tail came closer and closer, he subtly moved his word back a little before swinging it with all his might and fully activating the skill which had slew many of his foes.
{SKILL ACTIVATION: BLESSED SLASH}
A huge arc of burning white light flew out of his sword to meet the beast's tail head on.
It wasn't some unrefined strike of pure power and no control like the one he used against the Sky Tiger. Back then, he hadn't even activate any of his Skills for it, and instead merely forced his magical power to explode out of the blade.
This time, with the Skill activated, it was a fully refined energy attack with divine power behind him. As long as its target had malice in them, the damage they received would be increased.
It was one of the two reasons he had been able to defeat the Demon King of Aurielladan in the first place.
It also, didn't seem to cause more damage than a single small wound, when it hit Athenas.
"What!?" He shouted in surprise just before the hit from a huge tail send him flying high into the air.
Apparently, despite having no issues with destroying entire buildings and attacking him from behind, the monster he was currently facing wasn't evil.
A groan escaped him as he found himself getting close to the beast's eye level.
He supposed, he should have seen that coming. He was fighting a beast of another otherworldly hero, after all. It would have been quite weird if his opponent, who had to be a hero, was truly evil, or demonic.
It seemed that some of his more powerful Skills were going to be far less useful in this war than he had thought.
He sighed silently before twisting mid-air and launching another Blessed Slash at the giant beast. Though, it might have been weaker than he expected, it was still strong enough to harm the monster.
The giant arc of light hit the beast directly in its centre, causing it to stagger a little.
As long as he could reliably deal damage to his foe, he should be able to secure the victory, sooner or later.
A loud roar echoed through the Vale as the beast looked at him in anger and began preparing itself for a counterattack. Purple flames in its mouth began to grew in intensity, its wings spread themselves as wide as possible, and it narrowed its eyes towards him as if it was frowning.
He smiled lightly, there was also another way he could utilise his Blessed Slash for.
With a quick, yet powerful, movement, he swung his sword at the sky above them. Just like the last two times he attacked, a huge arc of white light flew out of his sword. It didn't hit anything this time, though.
Instead, the force from launching such a powerful attack made him barrel towards the ground at speeds too fast for him to get hit by Athenas's attack.
As he fell down, he laughed a little, as he was pretty sure he had just seen his monstrous enemy scoffing at him in annoyance.
In the end, it didn't even bother to launch the attack!
Just as he was about to hit the ground, he swiftly turned himself around, so that he wouldn't fall on his head, and the moment his feet touched the ground he immediately launched himself towards his foe.
His blade began glowing once more, though he wasn't firing any Blessed Slashes yet.
If the energy arcs of his attacks weren't enough to deal solid damage on their own, then he would have to try hacking away at the beast with his entire sword.
At the very least, it should guarantee his strike went deeper than the last time.
The beast groaned in surprise as it saw him approach it so quickly.
He smirked a little at it, satisfied it was shocked by his aggressive approach.
Sadly, before he could get the chance to strike, the beast quickly blew its wings at him, caused a small hurricane, and quickly flew out of his way, leaving him flying through the air with no target to hit.
Before he could fly too far, though, a giant wing swatted him out of the air, and made him plummet straight into the ground.
"Ugh!" He grunted as he collided with the cold asphalt below him.
There was barely any time to recover as the beast began spewing its purple flames at him, not a moment after he had hit the ground. He was actually pretty sure, it had started its attack before that.
He quickly pushed the ground with his hand, making him rapidly slide away from the monster. He didn't even bother to get on his feet, as doing so would certainly slow him down enough for the flames to hit him.
Only after getting far enough from the beast, to not be in immediate danger, did he actually stop himself from moving, and forced himself to get up.
"I guess, you must be the ace of your master, eh?" He said while leaning on his sword after just standing up before swiftly pulling his sword from the ground and pointing it at the monster.
"Am I right, Athenas?!"
The beast didn't grant his question an answer, instead continuing to spew its purple flames towards him. Those flames didn't move nearly fast enough to be an immediate danger to him, right now, but they would still make his attempts at getting to the beast far more dangerous.
He lowered his sword a little.
"I see." He murmured.
His sword light up with a blinding white light of magical energy.
This light was wild, powerful, and unrefined. Any pretences of refined Skills and powers were thrown out of the window, as his magical power surged into his sword. It was a pure energy so vast, the ground around him was beginning to crack just from him holding his sword still.
He tensed his muscles in anticipation.
It had been quite some time since he could unleash all of his power against someone.
A small grin appeared on his face.
The very next instant, he shot forward with a huge trail of magical light energy following him.
(...)
Coco Adel watched the spectacle of white light clashing against purple flames from afar.
It was a scene that looked as if it was taken out of a children story book.
A valiant knight fighting against a giant serpentine monster. The only thing lacking was a beautiful princess stuck somewhere in the tower, and she could retell this story to young children as a fairy tale.
The fight probably would have been a great fun to join as well, but the feeling she was getting from the knight's holy light was enough to dissuade her from doing that.
She had seen what those purple flames were capable of, as well. The last thing she wanted was trying to fight against two opponents when every thrown projectile, and attack, felt like it could erase her from existence.
Yeah, she would rather just stay on the top of this building and watch the spectacle from a couple of kilometres away.
It seemed like a far more enjoyable and fair arrangement, anyway.
There wasn't any worrying about the fairness of the fight when it was just one on one.
She could relax and watch one of the most grand battles there could be on Remnant.
Over all, it was as good as it could be right now.
There was one small problem, though.
"Could you please stop pretending to hide? You stink far too much to be unnoticeable." She asked the empty space around her.
At first, when she had said it, nothing had happened, but after a couple seconds, a small rift-like portal appeared right next to her.
The portal felt weird, unnatural even. It reminded her a lot of some of the more nasty madness inducing demons she had hunted back in the Human Realm. Ordinary people would have probably went insane if they looked at it for too long.
It, also, somehow stank a lot more than the person hiding inside it.
"Hey, I don't think I smell so bad." An unkempt man in a dusty old coat said while sniffing his sleeves as he stepped out of the rift. "Is it seriously so noticeable, you've managed to sniff me in a different dimension?"
She frowned at the man as the rift closed right behind him.
It was clearly another hero, just like her and those people who currently were going at it in the distance.
Thankfully, he didn't appear to be looking for a fight, yet.
"You stink like some of the worst demon lords." She said. "The types of demons who would scheme their entire existence and never fight anyone in a straight fight. I always hated fighting those guys."
A shudder went down her spine as she remembered one particular demon who had managed to turn an entire island into their domain.
Without a doubt, it had been one of her more annoying hunts.
"Are you saying that I'm a demon?" The man asked with a raised eyebrow.
She looked at the man once again to assess him a bit more carefully.
"No, you're not." She narrowed her eyes. "You certainly smell like one, though. Maybe a tiny bit different, but still similar enough. What did you do, formed a contract with one of them?"
The man hummed a little to himself, as if amused at her question.
"You're somewhat right, I guess." The man admitted. "Although, I don't think, I'm the only one here that has some experience with monsters. Don't you think so, as well, miss with glowing red eyes?"
She raised one of her eyebrows in a slight surprise at the man.
The sunglasses she always wore were there specifically so that nobody would see her only mutation she got from her demonic powers. They were even specially enchanted by the Spiritual Realm natives, she once saved, to hide all of her demonic power better.
"Are you here to fight?" She couldn't help but ask.
Her arms were already raised a little so that when she summoned her demon sword, she could instantly swing it at the man.
One could never be too cautious in a war.
Especially not, when their opponents had all access to powers and weaponry from outside the world.
"I'm only here to watch, just like you." The man raised his arms in surrender.
There were no weapons on him, and he didn't seem to be preparing for any attack. If she were to strike first, he would have most likely used his ability to form portals in order to run away.
She still looked at him with suspicion, but she decided to relax a little.
The fight was rather attention-grabbing, and it was one of the better spots to observe it, so she couldn't really blame him for choosing to watch it from here. She personally would have preferred to watch it without the awful smell, though.
"Vale's going to become quite chaotic after this." She remarked conversely. "It might be the last time there will be a chance to not participate in a fight."
The man nodded his head slightly.
"Are you planning on staying here for all this chaos?" The man asked, although, she could tell, he was barely paying attention to her answer.
"Can't your contractor tell you themselves?" She asked back. "Those types of demons often like to gloat about their future sight abilities. I'm sure if you asked them, you would know."
The unkempt man hummed a little in response before slowly looking upwards at the stars.
She had no idea what he was searching for in there, but he spent a good half a minute, maybe even more, just staring at them aimlessly. It was almost unnerving watching a person gaze at something like that.
Was this how this guy communicated with whatever being he form his contact with?
After a while, the man sighed.
"Nah, they refuse to tell me anything about it." The man said. "They claim it would make the whole spectacle too boring for them. My own abilities leave me quite clueless about you, too."
She chuckled a little.
"I guess, you aren't as big of a deal as I feared you were." She said with a cocky smile on her face. "Don't worry, I won't be impeding your schemes for Vale. It's far easier to hunt my prey in a more stable environment."
The man raised one of his eyebrows at her in response, before a clash between the knight and the floating snake caused a giant noise explosion to echo through Vale.
It was powerful enough to make her jump a little. She was willing to bet that even other heroes would have shuddered a little because of it, especially when it was so sudden and unannounced.
The unkempt man, despite not even paying attention to the fight when it happened, didn't seem surprised by it at all, for some reason.
"Well, it's a sign for me to go." The man leisurely opened another one of his rifts. "I've got a niece to save, and an alliance to start forming. Try not to die too painfully, something tells me we aren't going to meet again, and you sadly seem like a good kid."
"W-What?" She asked quickly.
She didn't receive any answer to her question, however, as having said his parting words, the unkempt man entered his portal and vanished into the weird dimension he used to travel.
After a few seconds have passed, and the portal had disappeared completely, she grumbled a little in confusion.
At least, the terrible smell was finally gone.
(...)
As Jaune released yet another Blessed Slash from his sword, he could tell that fighting against Athenas was starting to take a toll on him.
Sadly, it was nothing unexpected. He had been throwing his magical energy around like it was some common resource for the past dozen, or so, exchanges with his opponent, after all.
After fighting for so long while giving their all, anyone would have been tired, no matter their strength.
Fortunately, he didn't seem to have been the only one who was losing stamina.
The beast, which not a few minutes ago could continuously fire of its flames like it was nothing, had finally begun to lose its breath. Now, there were actually moments during which he didn't have to worry about being erased from existence after making a single mistake!
That was progress!
It did mean that his opponent started to fight more tactically, though.
No longer could he simply rush forward with all his might and expect to outmanoeuvre the beast with just his skill alone.
The destruction their battle caused to the city didn't help him, either.
Practically all the buildings, which had previously stood in their battlefield, had been levelled to the ground. Whether it was by the purple flames of Athenas or some stray magical energy from him, it was difficult to tell by now.
All he could tell, was that the closest unruined building or street he could see was a good few jumps away from him.
It was nearly a kilometre.
The asphalt beneath his feet didn't look much better, either, as it was covered in cracks and debris.
If one were to get a single look at the place, they would have seen a place of utter destruction and ruins. By tomorrow, this place would probably become the centre of attention for every news outlet in the kingdom, if not the world.
His body shook a little as he thought of any and all casualties his fight might have caused.
Despite all his destructive power, he still considered himself to be a hero, and if not that, then at least a decent person. The last thing he wanted was having multiple deaths on his conscience.
He hoped that at least Yang was safe.
Although, they might not have known each other for long, he still considered her a friend, just like anyone else from team RWBY or JNPR.
He did push her out of the danger when Athenas first attacked him. Hopefully, she realised that whatever was happening was simply too dangerous for her, and ran away before his fight against Athenas had become truly intense.
A sigh escaped him as he looked at the beast in front of him, observing him warily.
It wasn't time to worry about his friends, yet.
After all, he still had a giant snake to defeat.
He moved one of his hands closer to his neck.
There still was one hidden ace he could use, the second reason he had the chance to defeat the demon king back in Aurielladan. It would surely be enough to defeat a single beast like Athenas.
There was a slight problem about it, though.
Unlike every other method he had access to, it was very limited.
In fact, he could use it only thirteen times in total.
He gritted his teeth a little.
No matter what, he needed to get closer to his opponent first. Using that method, so far away from his target, would only result in him wasting a single use of it before he could hit the enemy.
It wasn't something he could afford.
His grasp on his sword tightened a little as its light dimmed a little.
The very next second, he charged forward.
The asphalt beneath his feet, which had already been cracked and destroyed, shattered further from his power.
Athenas, his opponent, wasn't fazed.
It didn't take more than three seconds for him to reach the beast, and by the time he had done so, it was already moving out of the way of his attack.
He was sure it was already preparing to punish his charge, too.
With a small twist of his body, he used his sword to launch himself towards its face. He wasn't going to give it time for an attack, this was the exchange that would finish this exhausting fight.
The beast looked at his in surprise, before opening its mouth to generate some of its flames.
{SKILL ACTIVATION: BLESSED SLASH}
He launched his skill at its eyes to interrupt it.
Predictably, it caused minimal damage.
It did force the monster to flinch, though, which gave him more than enough time to launch another slash behind him and accelerate directly towards its face.
As the beast opened its eyes, and saw him flying at it with his sword, it tried to retreat from him. Even though it did move its head a little, he still managed to stab his directly into its side.
With his magical light powering it, his sword pierced right through the scaly exterior of the beast and lodged itself somewhat deep into his foe.
The beast roared in pain.
Not wanting to give his enemy a chance to recover, he quickly tensed his body, and tried to pull out his sword.
Unfortunately, with how deep the sword went into the beast, and how it was thrashing its body around, his weapon barely moved from its place.
He clicked his tongue in annoyance while holding onto his sword to not fall down from the giant snake.
It looked like, he would have to use that method, in the end.
After making sure to hold his sword with one of his hands even stronger than before, he quickly reached to his neck with his other hand. He pulled out a single small, highly-detailed ring on a string from under his armour.
Back in Aurielladan, one of the constant laws of the world was that no mortal being could ever reach a level higher than level 99.
It was a rule every human there knew very well, and he experienced it himself, as well.
No matter how much divinity a human were to collect, once they reached a certain threshold, they would always be stuck at this single level. Even if it was possible to gather more divinity, past the maximum level, the excess of it would always quickly dissipate back into the world, and return the mortal back to the accursed level 99.
However, on his journey through Aurielladan, Jaune found out that there was an exception.
It wasn't permanent.
It wasn't even energy efficient.
It did allow one to temporarily break through the final barrier of human potential, however!
With no hesitation whatsoever, Jaune instantly crushed the small ring in his hand, allowing all the stored divinity to flow into him.
{LEVEL UP!}
{LEVEL UP!}
{LEVEL UP!}
{...}
At once, more than a dozen same notifications from his system assaulted him.
In that very moment, his level jumped from 99 to 118.
It might have been a difference of merely nineteen levels, but for a human like him, it not only meant that his Skills were now almost twice as powerful, it also recovered all of his lost magical energy and stamina.
He didn't have the time to bask in this refreshing feeling, though, as his levels were already starting to fall down.
With a little effort he made his sword burn with a white light, causing a lot of harm and damage to the beast, by doing so.
Then he tried to move his sword, and cut his opponent, but to his small surprise it was still stuck.
Gritting his teeth in annoyance, he instantly reached for another one of his rings and crushed it. There was no time for hesitation when his strength was constantly trying to revert to its default state.
{LEVEL UP!}
{LEVEL UP!}
{LEVEL UP!}
{...}
Another batch of levels was added to his already impossible level of 117, making him jump directly to level 133.
With such high level and his Skill enforcing it, his sword was finally able to cut through Athenas with no issues.
Wasting no time for his levels to drop, he instantly swung his sword outwards, pulling it out, and hurting the beast at the same time.
As the beast was swirling in pain from what happened, he poured all of his impossible power into the sword, and raised it high above his head.
The light coming out of his blade was bright and intense enough to make it look like a small sun was slowly falling down from the sky. The entirety of Vale, destroyed or not, could probably see this light right now.
A grin appeared on his face.
He might as well end this fight in style.
{SKILL ACTIVATION: BLESSED SLASH}
An unbelievably large arc of blinding white light illuminated the sky as it flew from his sword and through the body of Athenas.
The giant beast tried to resist it, protect itself, but the moment the magical light touched its neck, it knew it was defeated. The light pierced through it in less than an instant, and not a moment later its head was flying through the air separated from the rest of its body.
Jaune laughed a little as he saw his foe disappear into nothingness.
"It seems that you can't defeat me, yet." He said with a chuckled as he fell through the air.
He couldn't help but feel quite satisfied about this venture. His attempt at getting information might have been a bust, but at least he had defeated the strongest, or at least one of the strongest, creature Ozpin had at his disposal.
A tired sigh escaped him, he would need to hunt that monster tamer down, after he returned to Beacon.
"Impressive." A cold, detached female voice coming from above praised him.
"Wha-?" He started to ask before finally colliding with the ground.
His hard landing resulted in a giant dust explosion and the ground cracking under his pressure again. He was also pretty sure he heard the cold voice snort at him because of that, as well.
With an embarrassed grumble, he began to slowly stand up, and while doing so he noticed a woman floating high above him in the sky. Her hair was dark as the sky and her expression cold as ice, she looked like an experienced fighter who had seen countless deaths.
The woman's level wasn't anything to scoff at, either.
[RAVEN BRANWEN]
[LV 89]
Upon having a closer look at her clothes, however, he couldn't help but feel confused.
Was he just praised by a grown up magical girl?
And Cut!
I've gonna say, I really enjoyed writing this fight.
Did you guys like to read it, too?
Anyway, this time no files for new characters because Coco already had her, Qrow did basically nothing but talk, and Raven had just appeared.
That's it from me, see ya!