Roman's POV
"Let's try to remain polite now, shall we ? There's nothing pressing after all." Roman said as half a dozen guards escorted him into his cell.
They promptly ignored the thief's request and instead one of them pushed Roman into a cell with the butt of his rifle. The door slammed shut behind him, and he was left visibly alone.
The room he found himself in was bare, to put in lightly. The unpainted walls let the grey metal shine in all its non-existent splendor. A single iron bed sat in a corner. It only had a mattress, no blanket or pillow. Sleeping there was going to be awfully uncomfortable.
At least the room was warm, and there was no rust nor dust to be seen anywhere. There was a toilet on the side opposite to the bed, which was going to be a problem considering he had already noticed three cameras in the room.
Well, it wasn't like he had a choice at the moment. He had faced worse, he could pull through this. The loneliness might kill him however.
Barely had he thought this, that he felt something land into his pocket. A quick glance confirmed what he suspected, there was no one to be seen in the room beside himself. He put his hand in his pocket to get a discreet feel of the unknown object. It was a card, probably the one used to open his cell.
Roman smiled, but said nothing. If there were cameras, hearing devices were surely listening too. He nodded in negation almost unnoticeably.
"The fleet should stop at Argus on their way back to Atlas." Roman said as if he was thinking out loud.
"I have friend there. Hopefully I will be able to get out to catch up with him."
Once he was done, silence once again fell upon the room. Roman, however, knew that he had been heard when he felt the card leaving his pocket. He looked around, but even he couldn't see through Neo's illusions.
The gentleman thief began to move towards the bed, hoping to catch some rest after an eventful day. He was stopped when an invisible hand took hold of his left hand. Roman interrupted his movement in a way he hoped looked natural to the cameras. Once again he looked around instinctively, searching for someone that couldn't be seen.
A hand gently grabbed his chin, and turned his head to face a specific direction. The two invisible hands release their hold on him. Confused, Roman didn't know how to react when a pair of arm closed around his torso, pulling him into a warm embrace.
Frozen in place, Roman still feared to budge because of the cameras. He wanted nothing more than to return the gesture, but couldn't bring himself to risk Neo being discovered.
"It's alright." He instead whispered.
"Everything will be alright."
Of course his mute partner did not answer, at least not vocally. The hug lasted for around a minute longer, before Neo broke it. Her hand once again found its way on his. This time however, Roman could feel it move in a very specific pattern: sign language.
Understanding the gestures from touch alone was difficult, even for him. After some time and a repeat he nonetheless managed to get the message.
"I love you."
"I do too." Whispered Roman.
"Stay safe." He continued while gently squeezing Neo's hand.
The only answer he received was a pat on the head. Then he lost all contact with Neo. He might have thought that she was still in the room, were it not for the door's scanner changing color from red to green after a few seconds. The girl's illusions were as impressive as ever, as the door remained visibly closed even as Roman felt a light breeze coming from it.
The only thing left to do now was to wait. This wasn't his first time in prison, and it wouldn't be the last. His chance would come in time.
Ruby's POV
"Thank the Brothers, looks like the shelling is over." Remarked Blake.
"I still can't believe it. What the hell were they thinking ! We could have died !" Almost screamed a very visibly angry Weiss.
"What about the other refugees from Vale ? I doubt everyone managed to find a shelter in time." Blake asked in a slightly accusative tone.
"They're probably all dead now, and those who aren't likely sided with that necromancer. I don't trust that guy. He's associated with the White Fang and undoubtedly had something to do with the Vale's fall in the first place." Weiss continued, brushing away Blake's concerns.
"I suppose you're right about that last part. We need to get out of here." Blake reluctantly agreed while a barely listening Ruby nodded along.
"The underground train is a no-go. Those tunnels are crawling with either undeads or Grimms. I don't really want to find out which one it is." Weiss argued while starting to pace around the ruined room.
"The train would only get us back to Vale anyway. We need to have somewhere safe to go. For this we will probably need a vehicle and supplies." Blake countered.
"One of my summons should be able to take us to Vale, but not much further. Vale may not be in a good shape, but Grimms don't eat food, nor do they destroy unmoving vehicles." Weiss explained, her tone slightly aggressive.
"And where should we go after that ? That Grimm army probably razed everything on its way here. I doubt there's any town left standing on this side of the continent."
"I want to go home..." Ruby whispered. Weiss was in the middle of opening her mouth, but quietly shut it.
"I want to see my dad again. I'm sure he's worried about ... us." She nervously glanced at the street.
Weiss slowly approached her team leader. The latter's eyes were already starting to fill up with tear as memories of her sister surged up.
"Don't worry, we will bring you back home. I promise you." Weiss softly proclaimed while resting her hand on Ruby's arm.
"If that's what you want, I will do what I can to help you." Stated Blake, still leaning against the wall next to the shattered window.
Ruby looked at the two other girls for a moment, before speaking out.
"Thank you, both of you. I could never dream of better teammates... of better friends."
"And we could never hope for a better leader."
Kieffner's POV
Everyone was now walking through what was not so long ago a productive underground factory. They passed past cold furnaces and silent workshops. Almost all the undeads that once worked there had been sent to the fight. He could sense that a few remained, scattered around the city. One hundred had survived, maybe two. What a pathetic battle.
"That's quite impressive, what you managed to achieve so quickly." Adam remarked while examining a nearby furnace.
The necromancer groaned at this. He had struggled a lot for this. The rooms needed to be dug out, he had to learn how to use a furnace, how to make a rifle, and then organize his undeads to do it automatically. This world didn't even seem to have coal ! Figuring out how to burn fire dust efficiently had been an absolute nightmare.
All those efforts, what was left of them now ?
"How do you deal with the smoke ? You must have some solid ventilation system."
"The dead don't need to breathe, but they need still to see what they're doing. You can see air vents all over the ceiling. They're connected to each other and lead to the surface." Kieffner begrudgingly replied.
"And be careful, this area was still under construction. Some places aren't safe to be in, an accident is so quick to happen."
Adam seemed to take the hint, and stopped asking questions. The group continued walking in an awkward silence. They were still heading towards the railway. Kieffner wasn't so sure about the usefulness of this. A Mourngul was unlikely to simply let it's prey go, whatever the distance between them may be. But he kept his thoughts to himself. The living with him needed food, they would have leave this ruin eventually.
His internal musing was interrupted by a whimper coming from the other side of the room. Adam immediately turned around and raised his sword.
"Is it our monster ?" He whispered to Kieffner.
"No. It's alive, that's all I can say." He still readied his rifle, just in case.
As they approached, a familiar coppery smell assaulted their nostrils. Their light soon illuminated a slowly growing pool of blood. A twitching limb became visible. Adam hesitated.
A closer look revealed that it was disgustingly mutated. To upper part looked like a furred tail, but at the end of it laid a bloody paw. The paw was somehow upside down, and it looked like any step with it would break a few bones.
Adam took a tentative step forward, which was enough to illuminate the rest of the body with his sword. It looked vaguely like a dog, if you squinted hard enough.
The remaining legs weren't in a better state than the first. The worst looking one was without fur and skin. It was just a messy mass of muscles drenched in blood, barely holding on to the visible bones.
Somehow, the animal's head was in an even more appalling state. His mouth was closed in a definitely unnatural way, like the skin on both jaws had fused together.
The entire body was covered in pustules, and a sickening stench managed to overwhelm the smell of blood.
"What kind of sick god created that horror ?" Idly wondered Adam, even as he did his best to avoid meeting the animal's eyes.
"It doesn't seem aggressive though." Observed Kieffner. "But I don't think there's anything we can do to help it."
"We should end it's suffering."
The necromancer looked at Adam and the two other faunus, none of which seemed willing to do it. Adam had his sword, the Lieutenant had his chainsaw, the little girl had a pistol, and he himself had a rifle, who's ammo he couldn't afford to waste.
"Fine, I'll do it. Can I borrow your sword, Adam ?"
The faunus handed the weapon without saying a word, yet his eyes told a story deeper than anything Kieffner would care about at the moment.
He cursed his body as he was once again forced to use a two-handed weapon with a single hand. He would have to deal with this at one point, but for now he couldn't bring himself to give up what was left of his time as a living, even if it was just a sack of rotten flesh.
He had to focus, he had something to do right now, in the present. He slowly raised the sword, and did it. It was just another kill, just another life taken. He gave the weapon back to Adam, and gestured them to resume moving.
The group walked in silence for a while. Eventually however, Adam asked a simple question.
"Do you know what that thing was ?"
"I... think it was a dog. At some point."
"What happened to it then ?" Inquired a slightly on edge Adam.
"Well, it obviously mutated. Probably from being over-subjected to necrotic magic if I had to guess."
"Necrotic... So this is because of you ? Are we at risk too ?"
"I mean, do you know another necromancer ? As for your other question, no, probably not."
"Probably ?! You saying I 'may' lose my skin and die in immense agony !"
"I wouldn't worry too much if I were you. Sentient beings tend to have greater resistance to those kinds of things. There shouldn't be any effect before a few years of exposure."
"Don't you have a way to get rid of this necrotic aura or whatever ?"
"Not without stopping to use my magic. And it's not all bad you know. That dog was quite unlucky, most animal mutations tend to be beneficial. Thicker hide, stronger jaws, improved hearing. Best of all, they are easy to control with my kind of magic."
Adam groaned in response, apparently not convinced that having a bunch of super powered mutant animals around was a good thing.
But then Kieffner noticed something weird. Just around the corner he could feel the presence of five undeads, yet those were not his own, he could not control them.
"Stop." He whispered while raising his hand, and his group stopped. He gestured them to hide in a small crevice in the right wall of the corridor. Slowly readying his rifle, he waited for the undeads to turn around the corner.
They did so a few seconds later. It didn't take them long to notice the necromancer currently poking his head out of his hiding spot. And then, they opened fire on him.
Kieffner ducked back under cover as fast as he could. A few projectiles splintered the rocks behind where he was, but thankfully none exploded. One of them did manage to go through his hips however, but after a small moment of worry, they seemed to still work well enough.
"Five hostiles, at the end of this tunnel. They're using armor piercing rounds." He informed his team.
As far as he knew, none of them could see in the dark, so they weren't yet aware of the true nature of their enemies. He would rather keep it that way if possible. He didn't need his allies to start doubting his ability to control his undeads.
"They're too far away to attack in melee, and you shouldn't waste ammo shooting in the dark. I will take care of them." Kieffner said as he took aim.
One of their precious few dust rounds left the barrel, flew through the tunnel, and exploded on the wall next to the squad of skeletons. Two of them took enough damage to stop them from fighting, effectively killing them.
The necromancer readied to take another shot, but before he could fire, he sensed the undeads move away. He couldn't hit them now, and they seemed to be retreating.
There were still the remains of the two disabled skeletons laying on the ground, and Kieffner would rather get rid of any proof. He fired one last time, a little downwards and to the right compared to before. When the bullet exploded on the ground between the twice dead corpses, they got practically pulverized in an instant.
The rest of the undeads were still moving away. Deeming the corridor safe, Kieffner moved out of cover, or at least tried to. Instead, when he tried to take a step forward, his hips cracked and parts of it shattered. One of those just happened to be supposed to hold his left leg in place.
He would have completely collapsed weren't it for Adam quickly catching the necromancer's falling body.
"Oh for fuck's sake ! One arm wasn't enough for you ?!" Kieffner screamed while wildly gesturing at the ceiling.
"Are they dead ?" Asked Adam, jerking his head at the tunnel's corner.
"No, but I think they ran away."
"That's not really reassuring, but at least we should have some breathing room to patch you up."
"How are you gonna fix that ? I don't have the telekinetic powers to keep it moving while it's disconnected from my body."
"Well, a splint or a crutch would be a good start. I'm going to look around if I can find something that could do the job. You two, stay with him." Adam explained before leaving without waiting for an answer.
As the glow from Adam's blade soon moved away, Kieffner and the two faunus were plunged into almost complete obscurity. The only thing Kieffner could now see was the little girl's glowing eyes.
"So, is that your daughter ?" Kieffner asked in an awkward attempt to break the silence.
"Not really, I just took her in after her parents died. The Grimm, an unfortunately likely end for most people."
"I... see."
Not knowing what to say, everyone returned to that awkward silence. After a minute or so however, the faunus girl, Griza if Kieffner remembered correctly, began to speak.
"You can bring back the dead. That's a lot of power. You can probably achieve anything." She said, not really as a question.
"But what are you really trying to achieve ? You seem to always follow the path of least resistance to stay alive. Don't you have any dream ? Anything worth living and dying for ? You have so much power, but no purpose. No one will remember you."
'Why in the gods' names am I being talked into philosophy by a teenager ?' Was Kieffner's first thought. But then he actually thought about what the girl said. It's true that everything he had done in a long time was for the purpose of assuring his survival and long term security. Having hopes and ideals had always felt like a luxury he could ill afford. In the future however, once Salem and Atlas were dealt with, he would be free to build anything he ever wanted.
"I guess I haven't really thought that far. Not to mean I don't hold a grudge against certain groups or systems, but I'm no revolutionary. Inspiring people is not my forte, nor is emphasizing with them."
The faunus Lieutenant, who had been silent until now, interjected.
"You try to build your own kingdom and fancy yourself a king, yet say that you have no interest in making anything out of it. Don't you have a vision to share ? I thought everyone had one."
Kieffner's bony fist closed on his rifle and strongly squeezed it.
"Don't ever call me a king, and especially not a count. I have nothing to do with them. I don't wish to dominate others, only to protect myself."
"What about your undeads then ?" The girl asked.
"That's different." Kieffner replied without hesitation.
Even without seeing the two faunus' raised eyebrows he knew that they were hardly convinced.
"I can only bring back those that clung on to life in their last moments. Their anger is what channels the magic that moves their dead bodies. I only give them a chance, they're the one to take it."
The two faunus' behavior barely changed. After a moment the girl reacted with a noncommittal "I see.".
Thankfully they were spared any more awkwardness by Adam coming back with what looked like a long steel bar.
"Here, take this. I'm afraid that's the only thing I could find."
Kieffner took the bar and examined it for a moment.
"I guess it's still better than nothing." He concluded with a sigh.
"Good luck fighting with that though. You should probably hand that gun back." Observed Adam.
"So it would seem." Said Kieffner, before quickly examining his body. Most of his flesh was gone now, but most of his bones were still intact and relatively sturdy.
"Unless..."
He took the bar and violently lodged it vertically between his ribs, breaking a few in the process. He tried to make it so that the bar got stuck under his shoulder bone, which probably had an actual name. But that wasn't important, what was important was that when he tried to take a few steps forward, he didn't immediately collapse. Even better, he could use the rifle while standing now.
"Have I mentioned how disturbing you sometimes are ?" Adam said half-mockingly.
"I saw it in your eyes a few times already, yes."
The necromancer waited a few seconds to collect his thoughts, and scan the surroundings. A few undeads were still nearby. All of them refused to obey him.
"Let's not linger here any longer. The railway is nearby now, and we have to get you food before anything else." He concluded.
"Fine for me. Please warn us if anything approaches." Said Adam.
"We should be safe in this area. Every entrance to it can only be opened by my minions or myself."
Adam's brows furrowed, and he looked like he was about to point out something, yet stopped himself.
Thus they hurried towards their target, the only thing breaking the silence being the rythmic clank of Kieffner's steel leg against the cold stone floor.
Droplets of water were falling off the ceiling, slowly digging through the hard rock. A gust of wind howled through the tunnel. Fresh air brushed against Adam's cheek, air from outside.
He heard something hit stone nearby. Not from in front of them, nor from behind, but from above.
"The vents... It's in the vents !"
Just as he said that the Mourngul squeezed itself through the nearest vent exit, and landed next to them.
"Shit !" Kieffner reacted as he tried to aim his rifle with only half his members. He fired twice, both shots missing by quite a lot.
The Lieutenant, who's name Kieffner couldn't remember, pulled out his chainsaw. Instead of swinging it at the monster, he proceeded to plunge it into the nearest wall. Somehow the rotating metal managed to dig through the stone, until the wall and ceiling started shaking.
This took barely over a second, a second that the Mourngul did not lose. It leaped at the group, and almost reached the Lieutenant. Then the ceiling collapsed over it.
The beast's body was violently crushed by the heavy rocks, yet it still managed to survive. That rockfall also had the unintended effect of blocking one of Kieffner's bullets from hitting the monster.
"Now... It can't move. Finish it !" The Lieutenant practically pleaded while gasping for breath.
Kieffner obliged the faunus, and limped right in front of the Mourngul. With only two bullets left, he couldn't afford to miss.
Yet the beast wasn't as restricted as they thought. Once Kieffner got near, it squeezes itself out of the rubble, and swung its abnormally long claws at the necromancer. The latter instinctively blocked the attack with his rifle, which worked, but the monster's sharp claws cleanly cut through the wood and iron.
The Mourngul attacked again before Kieffner could recover. He would probably have been cut in two, had the Lieutenant not backhanded him out of the attack's way.
Adam catched him and tried to put him back on his feet.
"What do we do now ?" Adam asked to no one in particular.
"Can you collapse the tunnel ?" He asked to the Lieutenant, turning towards him...
Only to see him getting decapitated by the Mourngul.
The faunus girl gasped, and only now did Kieffner notice that she had been standing a good distance away during the whole fight. Her glowing eyes were the only thing betraying her presence in the dark tunnel.
"Shit ! We have to run ! There's no fire dust left either." Said a panicked Adam.
"No. There's still one." Replied Kieffner.
He cracked open his already destroyed rifle. One of the two remaining cartridge had been damaged and it's content spilled out. The other however was still intact. Kieffner grabbed it.
"I see, but what are gonna do with it ? Throw it ?" Adam asked inquisitively.
The monster was busy gorging itself on the dead faunus' body. It was distracted, and Kieffner only had one shot at this.
"Something like that."
The Mourngul raised it's head upon hearing the clanking of the necromancer's crutch. Scarlet blood dripped down its chin. Something that looked awfully like an eyeball was lodged between two teeth.
Abandoning its meal, the beast crawled forward to meet the necromancer. Once the lich got almost within reach of the Mourngul's long arms, it jumped onto the former. Its maw stretched wide open, both arms extended to each side, there was nothing Kieffner could do to effectively dodge or block it.
He did not try to dodge or block, instead he plunged his arm into the monster's torso, and crushed the fire dust in his hand.
The air shattered in heat around him and a blinding light filled his vision. The Mourngul disintegrated instantly, soon followed by Kieffner. The flames briefly licked Adam's body, before the blast threw him away.
Adam laid there, deafened and blinded, for what felt like hours. Slowly, little by little, vision and hearing came back to him.
". . .dam . . . can . . . hear me ?"
The whiteness in his vision faded away, and he saw the face of the Lieutenant's girl. Adam failed to see whatever his subordinate had seen in the teenager. Why couldn't she be the one to lose her head ? Humoring his Lieutenant with this probably had been a bad idea.
"I'm . . . fine, I'm fine." He finally answered, not without difficulty. His head was still spinning and he had trouble hearing his own voice, but he would have to bear with it.
"What about Kieffner ?"
" . . . I don't think there's anything left of him." Griza answered with a blank face.
Adam's face paled. He got up, and stumbled his way to where the explosion had taken place. The place was filled with rubble and blood. At least the Mourngul seemed to be dead. Its body was practically liquid, and had been splattered everywhere.
Griza crouched next to what was left of her adoptive father. Her fists clenched as her eyes darted around the tunnel.
Adam found a few charred bones, but little else concerning the necromancer. In his frustration he kicked a nearby rock and shooted it away.
"Be careful there ! You almost killed me !" Said another rock.
'Right, I'm already going crazy.' Thought Adam, before taking a closer look at the aforementioned rock. Picking it up he first noticed that it wasn't actually black, just covered in dirt and soot. Then he noticed that it had a jaw.
"As you can see, I'm not dead." Cackled Kieffner's skull.
"That's . . . disturbing." Adam said. He was literally holding his greatest hope into the palm of his hand.
"To think I once believed lacking one arm was awful..." Kieffner mumbled as Adam put him down on the ground.
"Anyway, I need you to kill me. Go on without me, I will meet up with you again after some time."
Behind Adam, the girl picked up the Lieutenant's chainsaw.
"What ? I kill you and you're just gonna, what, come back ?"
"Probably. It may take some time, and I also have other things to deal with. Now hurry up, we don't have all day."
"That seems incredibly reckless. Do you have any idea of what you're doing ?"
"We're wasting time. Girl, Griza was it ? Could you do it instead ?"
He saw the girl turn the chainsaw on. She raised it high, and said : "With pleasure." And everything went dark.
Here's a new chapter. We're finally getting out of those tunnels. That plotline stretched on for way longer than what I expected.
I got a comment complaining about my MC's lack of power. That's understandable from a Warhammer point of view, where everyone is so overpowered that it actually ends up somewhat balanced. But this fic is mainly taking place in the RWBY universe, and I can't have the MC beat everyone in five minutes. So I'm sorry if my he feels weak to you, just know that I'm trying to make it a process. I'm trying to make my MC grow in power organically alongside canon RWBY characters.
As a small hint of what is to come, you can see that for a few chapters already I've been introducing the idea that the use of necromancy corrupts the surroundings lands, eventually created abomination like the one we saw in this chapter. Give time for natural selection to do its job, and we'll end up with beast to rival the Grimms.
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and until next time.