Castle banquet hall
There was something to said about being in an abandoned castle.
Abandoned buildings always seemed to have a very foreboding feeling to them, as if the very structure itself could suddenly express it's vitriolic hate against the people who left it to rot via the groans and creaks of the floors and walls.
For starters, every sound made within these old places always seem to have quite the lasting echo.
Case in point.
The constant scraping of clawed feet against smooth marble was almost deafening, Azure was sure that the castle must have been overrun with them considering how many of them he could hear crawling. He whipped out his blade just in time to duck underneath and slice an overly-excited Sabyrs chest open from beneath it. After quickly side stepping and goring another three or four, he popped more Dust shots into the rapidly incoming pack.
"This is getting us nowhere fast!" He shouted as he turned to see Moon in her element as she obliterated another swath of incoming Grimm with a wide shockwave from her Battle Axe. She took a moment to assess the situation before she made one quick turn to face the staircase in the very middle of the hall.
"The Stairs!" She belted out as she leapt from her position next to the big door onto the head of an unaware Grimm. She sprung off of it's back with a slight heave and started to jump from Sabyr to Sabyr until she made it to her destination and ran up the long stairs.
Not wanting to be left behind, Azure quickly followed suit. A few Aura empowered jumps atop a few stupid Grimm later and he was speeding his way up the spiral staircase.
He made to the top in record time, not even bothering to look back as the growls and grunts were still quite prevalent. One last vault over the last step and he was sprinting down a curved hallway, just barely able to see Moons hair trailing behind her as she made turn after turn down several halls.
'Ok, something's off about this...'
As he made sure to keep on her tail, he couldn't help but feel as though she wasn't telling him everything.
The way she moved through the castle immediately struck him as someone who had to have been very familiar with the location. He recalled how he wasn't able to fully ask her how she knew so much about the castle and now, he was really hoping that this wasn't going to become an issue later.
Nevertheless, he followed her down the halls as fast as he was able to, no longer hearing the Sabyr pack as he ran deeper within the stony relic of a home.
Rounding another corner, he had to stop himself from crashing into her as she'd come to a dead stop in the middle of the hall. Upon closer inspection, she was staring into an open doorway by the time Azure made it to her side. As he paid more attention to her however, he realized her blindfolds were now in a pile by her feet and her eyes were on full display.
He'd seen a few cases on Heterochromia in Ansel, but hers were a bit different. While the left was regular, red-irised eye, the right was a reddish-pink sclera with an icy blue iris. The redness of the right eye was striking, but strangely enough it wasn't bloodshot at all. It was almost completely veinless.
When he finally peeled himself away from staring at her eyes, he noticed the room she was looking into.
If you could even call it that, every square inch of the entire room was scorched and charred black. From the bed, completely roasted with a gaping hole in the middle which seemed to melt into the floor below, to the hollowed out and split in half boudoir and night stand, was all completely and totally destroyed beyond any hope of repair. Even the floor itself was so broken down that neither of the two dared to actually step into the room for fear of it collapsing.
The young exile was astonished at how so much destruction could be confined in such a small area.
Moon didn't look or seem so surprised about any of it.
She looked rather melancholy and solemn as she stared at the black walls and former knick knacks around the room.
'Ok, time for some truth,' he figured now was as good a time as any to figure out what's really going on. "You've been here before, haven't you?"
To her credit, she did seem somewhat surprised when Azure asked, only for her to smile a bit at him.
"What gave me away?" She innocently asked.
"Too much given information, that and how you ran through the halls like you owned them..." She laughed lightly at the response but now she had a bit more mirth in her voice now.
"Yea... I... this place was home at one point..."
"Why did you hide that, it would've definitely helped if you knew a secret passage or somethin-"
"We've all got our secrets but to answer your question, the same reason I said nothing was for the same reason you so cleverly omitted who you really were when you told me your story... Jaune Arc."
Woah. Bombshell reveal.
He really didn't expect that to just be thrown out, and thrown right into his face at that.
In a flash, his Kukri was drawn and he was backflipping down the hall and away from her to gain more distance. If another fight was gonna break out, he wasn't getting caught with his pants down twice thanks to his newly honed senses.
"What the hell are you doing..?" Moon's head was cocked sideways as she sported one serious deadpanning face. "If I wanted to attack you, don't you think I've had several chances to do it?" She even raised her hands so he could see that she wasn't trying to draw for her Axe.
That's a good point, still he remained guarded.
She pouted, this wasn't the response she wanted. With all her cards on the table, she decided to just come out with it. "Look, Ja- Azure, I get it, really I do. If it's all the same to you, I was exiled, not attacked but literally kicked out. Exiled from this castle, from my ancestral home."
"How do you know my name?" Not missing a beat, Azure was quick to start his interrogation.
"Seriously? Just because we're pretty much out in the frozen boonies doesn't mean we aren't getting the news your know. Did you not see the CCT near the entrance gate?"
Ok, fair point seeing as how he didn't in fact, see the tower on his way into town.
"They've been running missing persons ads for you for most of the year. Something along the lines of: If anyone has any information or has seen this man should contact this number blah, blah, possible MIA/KIA."
Today's just full of surprises apparently, sadly he currently wasn't enjoying any of it. They sent out an alert for the people of Titan to take notice of, too bad he hadn't ever seen a Bullhead fly low enough to ever save him while he nearly froze to death every night.
His guess?
They probably weren't looking all that hard to begin with.
An untrained, barely clothed loser with a Sword and Shield, stuck in a winter wonderland of woe, who was also just outed for cheating his way into the most prodigious academy on the planet...?
Oh yeah, he could just imagine the swathes of rescuers and heroes just foaming at the bits to save someone like him from the Mahapadma Hell he'd experienced. Ah... sarcasm...
"I'll say this much, I never would've known it was you until I saw the sword. Your face... compared to was it was, there's really no comparison now. You looked, naturally, a bit feral at first but beyond that, you looked incredibly focused, tempered even," She gestured to his face as she spoke and he listened.
"Those scars definitely helped concealed your identity, considering how many you have. You've got a rugged charm to you now, even without facial hair."
He slightly blushed at that before regaining focus, "Uh thanks... I guess."
The situation had now become increasingly awkward between them, he no longer felt the need to keep his blade drawn. He lowered his hand and with his eyes still locked onto her own, he slowly sheathed his weapon.
"So... what's your story?" Hopefully, they both could come clean this time with a new introduction.
"Everything I've said up until now is almost all true, the only part I lied about was how the first Lord hid the map. It wasn't hidden, It was already passed down to the next of kin." She cleared her throat a bit before she started, this was sure to be emotional.
"My part in all of it started three years ago. When I turned seventeen, I was supposed to take on the duty of an arranged marriage and passing down the Map to the next male heir. However, I didn't want that kind of caged life for myself and for my future children."
She leaned her head down at the floor as she continued to tell the tale of her exile.
"I was already well-trained in the family fighting styles and I had an old friend who was an accomplished bounty hunter. After all of the prep work and planning, I tried to sneak out of the castle in the night and never looked back, but my father was waiting for me outside in the courtyard." She then locked eyes with Azure as she kept on conversing, a sad smile appearing on her face and tear streaking down her left cheek.
"He knew what I was doing and he wasn't happy about any of it, he told me that I was running away from my destiny. He said that I would no longer be welcome here if I left, and that he would never support my endeavors if it didn't involve the rest of the Luna clan. He never tried to stop me when I ran past him, though."
"That night, I left the Lunar Palace and never looked back."
Azure could understand that completely, the expectations placed onto a child can be overbearing beyond what words can describe. His own parents were no different in their own way, both tried their hardest to control the outcome of their only son, to no avail.
His mother and her constant fits about him being anything but a Huntsman and his fathers vehement desires of keeping Jaune from any sort of Huntsman know-how after assuming his son was incompetent in swordsmanship.
The young exile took a deep breath, he had remember not to let his own feelings hamper his outward thoughts as she explained herself.
"Almost two years of traveling and adventures overseas later and I receive a call from the Titan Government, The Castle was overrun by Grimm while my family was asleep, no survivors."
The last part hit him hard, losing her family in such way couldn't have been easy.
"Spent another year traveling just to not have think about them, about how my decision to leave could've caused...this," she gestured to the castle around her and it's near-crumbling, yet aesthetically pleasing physical state.
"It's partly why I cover my eyes in town, most of the towns folk don't know that I'm somewhat royalty. I'm sure they'll probably have some choice words for me if they knew that I pretty much abandoned them."
Guilt, she felt guilty and blamed herself for the state of her family and home. Azure, however wouldn't allow that, "Moon, you had no way of knowing that something like that would happen. Can't blame yourself for that."
A bit shocked that he would think that, she then raised her voice to complain the opposite, "How? How can you be so sure?"
"Because life happens to all of us, Moon. The unexpected happens to everyone at any time. I should know, I forged transcripts to get into Beacon just to be outed a month later by the guy who's life I saved. THEN, abandoned out here in the wild and left to die BY THE VERY SAME PERSON WHO RATTED ME OUT."
That last part definitely held some manner of hate and rage buried within it, but Moon didn't comment on it.
"So that's the full story... you really lied your way into Beacon...? That's... actually kind of Awesome."
Hold on, what?
Azure had to stop for a second after hearing that. His brain was having trouble comprehending the compliment he was just given.
"S-seriously?" he balked.
"Who has the balls to literally fake their way into an academy with no training, and make it? Not only that, but you were made a team leader too. I can see the potential in you."
She gave Azure a sincere smile this time, one that he felt that he could reciprocate.
He sighed heavily, taking in everything that's been said between the two of them before he mouth a said something stupid.
One of the various new traits he'd picked up in the wild was his appreciation of introspective thought. With so much time, silent time on his hands, his mind was always at work. Most of time, it was at work in complete quiet, as the wolves didn't make much more noise than him outside of their howls.
Once he was ready to give an appropriate response, he started. "Well... I guess we both were disappointments huh?"
She stuttered, absolutely shocked at his words... before she started to laughing softly. Azure was soon laughing along with her, the absurdity of a topic such as that being so funny to them wasn't lost on either of them.
That's what made it so damn funny.
Finally calming down from their shared giggling fit, he stood up straight and held out a hand to her, "Wanna try this again?" He asked, now sporting a small smile of his own.
She just stood there, wide eyed and staring at his hand before quickly shaking it with zero hesitation, "I'm Moon! Nice to meet you!"
Shaking his hand with just about the same enthusiasm, he re-introduced himself, "I'm Azure, pleased to make your acquaintance."
"Aww, just acquaintances? This definitely makes us friends!" She pouted as she placed her hands to her hips, he wasn't expecting that.
"Haha, ok ok. Friends."
"Awesome."
Sadly, their touching moment would soon come to an abrupt halt.
[O]
Sudden cracks from the floorboards began to resonate around them, locking eyes again, they tried to make a dash for the other side of the hall.
Too little to late, as the wood beneath them heaved and gave way, snapping wildly at random points until the pair found themselves suddenly weightless and plummeting down into the dark.
"Azure, your Aura! Quick!" She shouted, hearing her call out to him was more than enough to get him moving, he activated his natural shield just as he heard her say it. Seconds later, the hard impact onto a pile of up rotted wood and sawdust temporarily disoriented the duo.
As they struggled to climb out of the rumble, Azure instantly took stock of his surroundings. By the looks of it, they fell into the dungeon or wine cellar portion of the lower levels.
"Well, that could've went smoother..." Azure was still a little bit uplifted and was trying not to sour the mood anymore than it already was.
"So, where are we now?"
"Hmm..." Moon took a quick glance around before answering him rather tersely, "Pretty close to the family Crypt actually, it's actually just down the hall there."
Staring down yet another hall, he noticed the indentation of a short staircase further still. Thankfully, the hall didn't stretch so far this time around, but before he could turn around, something down the hall caught his eye.
There must've been an open room of sorts at the end, as he couldn't help but notice a faint red glow in the darkness.
"Hey Moon? What's up with th-!"
An odd shuffling sound made itself known, this time however, the source was clear to them. Down the hall and through the doorway, something was inside and they had a good hunch as to what.
Sighing in resignation, Azure just nodded to himself, no need to really say much after that.
Now that they were on stable footing once more, they slowly but calmly started to tread their way down the hall with their weapons drawn. In no time at all, they were in front of the wide door, which was coincidentally wide open. After sharing the the same 'Oh shit,' glance with each other they charged into the Crypt meaning serious business.
At first glance, nothing seemed out of place as far tombs went. Azure had never actually been inside of one before, but the movies, games and comic books painted pretty much the same imagery in his mind. Rows of stone caskets, check. Strangely lit torches, check and lastly one big casket that stood propped up all the way at the end of the Crypt, yep that's there too.
Sounds like one of his fantasy scenarios now, for sure. No way that's just for decor's sake.
"And that," Moon motioned towards the giant coffin with both hands, "Is my great, great, great, great grandfather and progenitor of our family, Lord Shiro Luna." She finished that last part with little a bit of what seemed to be some form of offhanded melancholy, understandable. Azure decided not to press the issue, instead opting to look at the insanely large coffin.
Was this guy some kind of freaky giant offspring? The coffin was almost over eight feet tall standing up, that's definitely one way to show off even in death.
Something else quickly caught his attention however, as he examined the coffin his eyes suddenly hit on a part of the stone grave that alarmed him.
The lid was slightly ajar.
"It's open..." he simply blurted out.
"That's impossible, it's sealed shut." Moon retorted with another pout, "Are you trying scare me, in my own home too?"
"No, Moon seriously it's-"
Before he could even finish his reply, the sound of sliding stone took the two of them by surprise.
Turning on a dime, they both were just in time to witness the big slab of concrete that covered the body continue to slowly slide open until the slab just fell forward and shattered into the dirt before them. Within the darkness of the coffin, six red spheres lit the black space ominously and a pitch black, clearly bone-like hand outstretched itself into the dim lighting of the Crypt.
What came next however, was truly nightmare fuel.
From the skeletal hand came the rest it's hollowed frame, a completely jet black, giant skeleton now stood before them. Completely bare of any clothing or armor, it's frightening visage towered over them both but more shocking still, was the oddity that appeared behind it.
From the shadows emerged a several inky, black tentacles before the misty yet vaguely humanoid shape of the Grimm variant came into view. It's familiar body was indicative of it being a Geist with its wispy yet slightly humanoid shape and shoulder spikes, but it's skull mask-like face and design was NOT that of the regular possession-type Grimm. It's six red eyes sat almost perfectly parallel from each other and it's tendrils sprouting from under its mask was clear sigh that this was something different entirely.
A quick gasp from Moon was all it took to get the young exile ready for action
"Ok, Azure I need you to listen carefully. That Grimm, it's not just one being it's two that fused into one. That octopus looking thing is a special kind of Grimm that can merge with organic material, it looks like it somehow fused itself to a Geist and it's-"
"Possessing your grandfather's remains, easy enough to follow." Interjecting Moon's spiel, Azure inwardly thanked the days of his youth tremendously for the understanding he had of the situation.
She stared at him blankly as if he'd just found out the secret to life itself, "Easy to follow...? How!?"
Before he could retort however, the hybrid Grimm was on the move. It instantly wrapped itself around the the remains of Moons ancestor, cloaking it in the signature black ooze of all Grimm, as the Mask creeped it's way onto the skeletons face. Once in place, the eyes glowed with an angry red tint as the bone body began to creak and stir with undead life.
Then, without warning, the creature let out a ungodly, moaning wail which seemed to echo throughout the entire castle. The scraping incoming of Sabyrs was becoming very prevalent again, until they began to burst through the weak and old walls.
The Crypt was now filled with at least twenty Sabyrs now, and that did not bode well for the would-be partners.
Moon was still trying to be optimistic, although being insanely outnumbered was taking it toll on her positivity. "Ok... well it definitely could be worse all things considered!"
Until it roared again.
The Sabyrs that now surrounded them grew eerily silent, unnervingly so before one turned to another... and savagely attacked. It tore its brethren's head clean off before the others followed suit, devouring themselves at the bits. After the carnage died down and the last Sabyr had fallen, all that remained was the thick piles of Grimm goop and ash.
At a complete loss for words, the duo just stared at the monstrous hybrid for some kind of answers to what they had just witnessed.
It's reply came in the form of what looked to be signs of the large skeleton beginning to heave and hunch over. It's body twitched and fidgeted wildly in its crouched stance before it threw its head back viciously and inhaled hard.
Suddenly, the Grimm remains scattered around them squirmed and moved awkwardly like weightless jelly before they all were sucked into the Skeletons maw. With some force, the massive black blob slammed into the Grimm with a heavy, gooey impact. As it oozed, congealed and coagulated, it began to mold itself around and to the bony portions of the body, becoming a black an dark purple facsimile of an emaciated mans muscular stature of sorts around it.
"It just... upgraded itself, didn't it?" Azure asked with deep groan and frown on his face.
"Uh, yea I'd say so..," Moon fully concurred.
Without further delay, the hybrid lifted dashed at Azure first with the intent of decapitation. It's first attack: a wide swing that just missed by a hairs length. Azure had slid backwards just in time to avoid the evil calcium death swipe, his eyes were glowing blue as his Semblance was now fully activated.
In his other vision, the Grimm was an large black mass not much different than any other Grimm he's seen this way. The only difference now being that he could also see the strange, light blue cracks again in certain places on the shadowy blob. One crack in particular piqued his interest, one connected to the arm it's been swinging at them.
Just like that, he had an idea pop into his thinking space.
Moon went on the offensive not long after the initial attack, unleashing a quick three-hit combination and slightly staggering the odd Grimm before rolling out of the way and to it's left side to avoid another jet black haymaker from the same direction.
This was his queue, he pumped a bit of Aura into his blade and into one of his rings, Fire dust in particular.
In one smooth motion, sliced through the arm then switched to his ringed hand and used the fire dust to enflame the wound.
Success!
The arm was blasted to the floor with a weighted thud, but before either of them could repeat the process, the hybrid almost backhanded Azure with its other hard enough to send him across the Crypt. Thankfully, he broke the fall as he tumbled a bit, also having to shake off the dizziness of spinning so much in midair however.
The strange hybrid was once again locked in one-armed combat with Moon, who was now standing between himself and the new Grimm. To its credit, it kept its pace with her blow for blow quite well for being short of a limb. Said wound was still covered in the residual flames of the dust, luckily it didn't look like it was going to grow back any time soon.
He quickly got himself together and took precise shots at the strange blue cracks over its ghastly image, hoping to slow down it's assault long enough for Moon to gain the upper hand.
A few bolts of fire stabbed into its knees just in time for it to abruptly stop its swing in discomfort, just the opening she needed.
Her Battle Axe started to tremble and vibrate wildly in her hands, arm however remained completely still. Her Semblance was in full play and with a spin to a gain some momentum, she unleashed her Axe into the air.
It was sent hurtling at the Hybrid with frightening power and speed, the vibrations still oscillating through the bladed edges. Unfortunately, the unique new Grimm was far too quick on its feet for its own good. It was certainly hit, however the attack cleaved through a portion of the beasts left shoulder and violently plunged into the wall behind through the giant coffin in the process.
The beast was now completely missing its whole arm, the axe having snatched what was left from Azures earlier attack.
The wall and some of the ceiling, by extension, promptly exploded, spilling most of the debris on top of the strange Hybrid in the process. A veritable wall of centuries old dust washed over the two of them, clouding their vision.
"Azure! You ok over there?" Moon called out, a little unnerved from the explosion and still trying to keep up her guard. A quick tap on the shoulder quickly revealed him to her.
"Yea, I'm fine now... It's still there though." Sure enough, his eyes could only see the truth as he could still make out the shifting, black mass hidden in the dusty smoke screen. "You need your weapon, right? We'll have to find it somehow."
"It's fine, I can manage with my fists, just stay ready."
He gave her a quizzical stare before just nodding and shaking himself back to the matter at hand, the smoke had finally cleared enough to see the damage done.
The Hybrid had somehow managed to remain standing, but was now covered in a layer of dirt and looking quite angry if it's low growl was anything to take stock in.
Most of what remained of the Crypt had been blasted to kingdom come, and now there was a massively gaping hole in the wall. They were exposed to the elements once more as the wild, frozen expanse stretched out before them.
Suddenly, the Hybrid charged them, bulldozing into Moon specifically and knocking her onto the ground with a rough tackle. Wasting no time whatsoever, it sprung into the air again, throwing down it's veiny, partly muscular foot directly over her head, fully intent on flattening the competition. Too bad Azure had made it to her first, with an Aura charged fist cocked back, he hooked the Bone Grimm's lower leg hard enough to knock it off course. The foot crushed most of the ground near them as they side stepped away from the impact zone.
Better the floor, than her.
The young exile quickly activated his eyes, spotting another very obvious weak point crack, square in the middle of the new Grimm's mask. Just looking at how pronounced the cracks around its face were, he knew that was where they needed to strike if they wanted this fight to end.
"Moon, the mask! We've gotta shatter that mask, it's a big weak spot," he shouted just as he parried a frontal kick to the side. The Hybrid was left wide open with one of its legs splayed awkwardly too wide.
Having heard this, Moon dashed right into the Grimm's personal space and unloaded a flurry of punches into it's fleshy, emaciated chest. Each hit sent pumping waves of concentrated vibration out from her hands and through its newly made insides. As a direct result, it shrieked in pain as it thrashed around trying to keep her away.
Too bad it simply couldn't escape as Azure was at its side in a flash, unleashing his own combo of slashes and kicks. The glow of his eyes indicating he wasn't just swinging haphazardly, but was aiming for specific points.
After a particularly clever attempt at a roundhouse kick straight at his head, he crouched low enough to give Moon the ok to use him as a lift up.
Vaulting over his shoulder, she continued the beatdown with several kicks of her own. The final hit of their powerful barrage was a clean, backflipping, cartwheel kick that connected with its chin nicely. Not only was the beast falling back into the pile of rubble behind it, but she was now landing back at Azures side efficiently as well.
The Hybrid fell back completely, crashing into the furthest wall near where they fell from. The now opened space revealed a staircase going deeper into ground below the castle.
Azure couldn't help but notice the torches that began to light the stairway.
"So that's where it was...Dad and his secret passages," Moon said in an almost aggravated, low tone. After seeing the passage, she looked to be slightly annoyed by the revelation as a very focused look appeared on her face again.
He turned back to see the dazed Grimm, still struggling clumsily to get off of its back. It's screeches and cries echoing through the now empty castle as it stared Azure down. The young exile sliced off one of its legs as a response, ensuring it's permanent placement on the floor.
Upon hearing this, Moon turned to face the dark denizen to see Azure now avoiding and swiping at its tendrils near its mask.
"Looks like the honor is all mine..." After her one-liner, she capitalized on it's distracted form and with a boost from her Aura, she was airborne.
Azure kicked into high gear as soon as he noticed her directly above them, trying his damnedest hit every glowing crack and tear he could see. Tentacle after tentacle, he was a veritable hurricane as he now stepped closer and closer to the Hybrid.
The beasts six eyes never left his own, exactly what he wanted.
Without delay, Moon dropped from the air her foot was covered in a distorted haze of oscillating waves. Just before the impact, Azure jumped back to make sure he wasn't in the splash zone, "All clear!"
In one brief moment, her collision into the Grimm's Mask-face became the only sound that could be heard for what he thought had to be miles. The heavy crunch of the bone wasn't as bad as the subsequent loud, slimy, squish that followed. Azure watched as what was once it's head, quickly exploded underneath the pressure and became a black puddle of mush and now, burning, black ash.
"Woah... Your Semblance is insane, Moon," he said, mouth partly agape in the process.
To which she just laughed boisterously, "It is pretty fun, huh?"
Azure made his way to her side as they watched the strange Grimm's remains melt. 'Man that thing was creepy, and that thing it did with the Sabyrs... Hope I never see a Grimm like that again for a while.'
His inner thoughts weren't kidding, fortunately the beast didn't gain enough body mass to actually change into something worse. 'Thankfully, even with how it just *ate* it's own brethren, it wasn't strong enough to dominate the both of us outright.'
"Come on, if I remember my childhood correctly, it's directly below us," Moons voice hit his ears with the beginnings of a slight echo, she was already on the move down the stairs. He picked up his feet and zipped down the stairs behind her.
[O]
The trek into the bowls of the Lunar Palace didn't take long, thankfully. Before long, they exited the staircase which led out into a massively wide, dome of a room.
The room was a large half sphere, strangely barren in the sense of tables or chairs minus the intricate carvings on the floor, the roof and walls. Torches aligned every corner of the space so that everything could be seen here.
Stranger still, the design of the carvings completely changed from one side of the room to the other as if it was a collaboration of two different artists. The roof was a pretty acute depiction of the night sky, crescent moon and all.
He could point out on his left side what appeared to be a mural depicting scores of Grimm emerging and climbing out of what looked to be black pools. The landscape around them looked harsh and foreboding as it's blood red sky complimented its dried out, faded brown and dusty violet landscapes. What caught his attention and simultaneously bothered immensely him however, was what was floating in the sky above the Grimm.
A pale, white figure was positioned directly above the dark horde, strands of more pale white stretched away from its upper body. There was no recognizable clothing on the figure to identify, it was a vaguely person shaped being, simply appearing to have its arm's reaching out in his direction. The only really noteworthy quality of the strange being is what seems to be its eyes.
Red irises surrounded by pitch black sclera.
He wasn't entirely sure how he felt about that side, but the other side was a far cry from the doom and gloom on the left.
The right was the complete opposite, not a drop of black was anywhere to be seen here. Hues of golden yellows, light blues, pinks, purples and greens spread around beautifully to create what appeared to be a garden of sorts. The feelings of warmth that emanated from this side of the room, comforted him slightly.
Although, he couldn't help but feel as though there was something... off about the beautiful landscape.
Almost as if something was missing here. It felt... abandoned.
As he looked to the floor however, all comfort was completely drained from his face.
On the ground, the carvings of hundreds of soldiers, man and women were locked in ferocious battle. The grey of the armors worn, contrasted with the scarlet splotches of scarlet red painted on the blades and bodies of many of these warriors. Faces contorted in anguish and pain littered the floor as well, the imagery told a very vivid story.
They weren't fighting the Grimm, they were fighting each-other.
"Moon... what the hell is this...?" Azure was really feeling uneasy at this point and it wasn't getting any better.
"Sigh... This is the part I didn't tell you about our family. How the Black Map came to be, and our duty as it's holders..."
Azure hung his head low, instantly understanding what was coming next.
"This is one of those prophecy moments, isn't it...?"
Words from the Author:
Damn, I really enjoyed writing this chapter. In the future I'll make sure to write thicc'er chapters as I have more free time to write again.
With this and the next chapter, I'm trying to introduce Jaune to "The Truth," in a way that's palatable but not the whole truth, i.e The Maidens and Opzin. To that end, I'll use the former war that Salem helped to start as a focal point, which is why she's on the big mural in the temple/room but not immediately recognizable to him by clothing or gender etc.
Just stick with me, I promise you'll like it!
Later!~