Ruby never figured that she would be spending so much time in the headmaster's office in her stay at Beacon,
True, she had only been up there twice so far. But that was two times more than all of the teams in her class had been called up the tower.
But at least she had her team with her this time, ascending up the spire in the cramped elevator.
Weiss, to Ruby's right now clean in her school uniform like all of them. Blake directly behind her staring silently at the floor, and Yang to her left looking over her friends trying to think of anything to lighten the mood.
They had barely been back at Beacon for half an hour when Professor Goodwitch swept into the dorm and ordered them all up to see the headmaster. No one had seen anyone from team APRC, the three remaining members had all disappeared once the airship Atlas had called for them landed at the school. The girls would have gone to find them, but first things first,
The evening sky had a familiar orange and red tint in the clouds as night slowly crept up on the city. But understandably Ozpin was alert at his desk watching the elevator, waiting for his students. Slightly ignoring General Ironwood standing before him to the left and ranting about their security and the White Fang. But still listening enough to nod his head or grunt one word answers when it was required.
The doors quietly eased open. The four girls stepped out of the box and slowly approached the desk shoulder to shoulder. The general stopped talking and folded his hands behind his back, waiting for the Professor to start.
Ozpin sighed a little bit, "Well girls, busy day?"
They all nodded solemnly,
The general looked down at Weiss, "Your father is safe and sends his regards, as does your sister."
"Fine," the Heiress replied, "If you could let him know I have no wish to see him."
"Are you sure? Your father cares deeply for you Weiss. And he is worried."
"He can worry all he wants I don't want to see him."
The older Atlesian half sighed and groaned, "Very well."
Ozpin stood, "Now girls do you think you could kindly fill us in on some of the details about what happened beneath the city this afternoon?"
The four of them awkwardly shifted their stances and looked around quietly for a moment.
"Well… I don't know what you want to know." Ruby started, "We went to go rescue Weiss and her family, we ran into Kad and Co'Balt who were looking for their teammates, they headed down with us and, well..."
Ozpin looked down at his desk, an expression of near despair on his face. "Yes," he sighed a little bit, "The rest is history, as they say."
The General addressed Ruby, "How did you know where they would be?"
She shrugged and averted her silver eyes, "Just… Following our instincts."
Unsatisfied but unwilling to press the issue Ironwood looked to his old friend, "This never should have happened."
The professor turned, "But it has James, are you satisfied now?"
"No I'm not." Ironwood replied, "One of your students is dead," he stabbed his right index finger down onto the glass, "The entire festival put on hold on the verge of a panic and we are no closer to ending this mess. I kept telling you we needed to act and look where it's got us."
He looked back to team RWBY, "Was there anything you noticed down there that could help us find the rest of the White Fang?"
Ruby shook her head, "No, I don't think so."
Blake spoke up, "We mostly kept away from the main camp."
Then Weiss again, "We didn't see much in the cell."
Yang growled back at the two men getting defensive, "Kad was in the thick of things go ask him."
"No," Ozpin said, "They need some time, to grieve and collect themselves. Professor Port offered to talk to them."
"Yeah, okay." Ruby nodded.
The Professor leaned back, "Thank you that will be all. Get some sleep. The tournament will be canceled for now. Good night girls."
The girls quickly turned on their heels and walked back to the elevator. Heads down eager to both obey their teacher and get as far away from that room as possible.
As the metal doors pressed shut Ironwood looked back to Ozpin who was slowly turning ninety degrees to the left to stare out the panoramic window.
"It's not too late," The General said quietly, "Please with your support…"
He was cut off by the grey haired man, "Obviously you don't need me James."
Taking a brief moment to try and massage his headache away Ozpin stood and sighed in resignation, "Do what you must. I know I can't stop either of you."
"The marshal may have misspoken earlier,"
"Ha!" Ozpin laughed once, genuinely amused, "The council is in his pocket now. I have no idea how. And Szary has never minced words with me. He wants me gone and retired."
Ironwood nodded in acknowledgement, "Oz..."
"I'm afraid it is far too late James… As I said, do as you must..."
The Atlesian smiled, "Good, I had a feeling that you might be coming around when I heard Qrow and Taiyang were active again."
That did get a reaction from the normally reserved headmaster. He looked sideways out of a slightly wider eye at Ironwood.
"Yes," The general continued, "I know they're back in the field, have they found anything?"
Seeing no reason to lie Ozpin allayed the General's curiosity, "Qrow no, but Taiyang hasn't reported back from Vacuo yet. If they find anything you will be among the first to know."
"Thank you Oz."
"Don't thank me yet, I sense this trouble is far from over."
Ironwood nodded in agreement, "Since you say that. I, would like to discuss a proposition Professor."
"Of what nature?" Ozpin asked.
"One of my scientists…"
It seemed the entire campus was holding its breath.
News of what had happened after the bomb blast had traveled incredibly fast.
Team APRC took the more direct route back to their dormitory. Kad kept catching other students glancing at the three of them and then turning away thinking he hadn't noticed.
But he did,
And it was getting on his already frayed nerves.
None of them had wanted to stick around in the infirmary after the solemn Atlas medics bore the stretcher carrying Jaxon's body to the heart of the school. The staff had been polite and supportive. But the giant, the Faunus, and the red haired girl walked away as quickly as they could.
What was done was done, now they had to live with it.
Kad was thinking, as usual. Wondering where Cinder could be and what he was going to say when he found her. She hadn't answered his quick message yet. He was pondering whether or not she could be down in town. Co'Balt, and Alicia were side by side, one choking down his barely contained rage, and the other trying and failing to suppress all of her sobs. Time starting to work on them in two very different ways. The pair of them entered into the normal doors on the resident building, Kad walked around the outside looking for their first floor window to climb through. It was easier for him than crouching through the halls because of his towering stature.
As he pulled open the large arched windows Kad paused in surprise.
The door to the hallway was wide open and Alicia's grandfather old grey bearded Professor Port was pulling a chair away from the girl's rarely used desk to set down the fine porcelain tea set he had brought with him. The red dressed man caught himself as he saw the team leader at the window.
Not even a second later Co'Balt and Alicia entered into the room and collectively took half a step back.
"Grandpa?" Alicia said, quite surprised.
"Of course my dear, who else?" Port replied trying to smile, as he set down his china.
Alicia came forward and threw her arms around the much shorter man's neck. He hugged his only grandchild close and patted her braided pony tail to comfort her.
"Dreadful, dreadful day children." He said, drawing in a tired breath, "I'm so sorry you were caught up in this."
Alicia and Port parted from their embrace. Co'Balt moved over to his corner of the room and rather violently flung his weapon onto the wooden desk at the foot of his bed.
Kad stepped through the window and sat down on the frame between the clear glass panes, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees. Casting an eye over at Co'Balt who silently crossed his arms, watching the others. He was a little worried the Faunus was going to snap, and if he did it wouldn't be pretty.
"I know you'll probably tell me you're fine, and be lying." Port said turning back to the boys, "But are you all right?"
"Fine." Co'Balt said brusquely, before sitting down.
Kad rubbed his right thumb along the index finger of the same clenched hand before he simply replied, "I'll live."
Port sighed and nodded once in acknowledgement. "Very well. I'm sure you all miss Jaxon terribly already… Unfortunately his fate was an all too common one for a huntsman."
He gently caressed his left palm along Alicia's tear streaked cheeks. "I remember when my first partner passed away."
The giant in the window leaned forward a little more in interest. Alicia wiped her face and sniffed slightly before going to sit on her bed as the professor continued.
"Fine lad he was Grön… Please, don't despair children. There was nothing any of you could have done differently in this situation. And I think I might know you three enough to guess where you're headed right now."
He looked and pointed a finger at Co'Balt, "Anger won't bring Jaxon back. You're with friends here, don't push them away with your rage."
The Faunus developed a sudden interest in his dirty brown boots. Taking in a shuddering breath crossing his forearms across his lap, rubbing them slowly.
Port turned to his granddaughter, "You were there for him, even if you couldn't save him just remember… You were there, Jaxon was lucky with that."
Her eyes shut and Alicia pulled her feet up onto the edge of her bed and hugged her knees.
Finally he turned to the last student in the room.
"Well my boy," Port began, before folding his arms behind his back to slowly move in front of Kad, "I'm sure you got your pound of flesh."
The big trainee shifted a little bit backwards, Port carried on, "Don't worry, you're not in trouble. But still, don't beat yourself up about this."
"I'm not going to…" He replied.
The old man smiled, "You never do anything by halves Kad, work… friendships. You might hide it, but I see, you care with your whole being, but still... Just. You carry a lot of weight as a leader. Don't carry the dead as well."
Kad exhaled and balled up his fist tighter. Pondering the old man's words.
Port clapped his hands suddenly together, "Now," he said as moving to the yet unused tea set, its contents gently steaming. Picking up a fragile little cup and pouring a drink,
"Here," He raised the little porcelain receptacle high, "To the lost, we shall remember… Always."
Yang was having a very strange dream,
She didn't remember how it started, or even going to bed really.
She had just been so, so tired, after getting changed again. Her vision seemed to be shrouded in darkness. Like she was replaying some memory in her head while still focusing other places.
She found herself running through what looked like a rundown construction site. When Yang looked out of the unfinished windows she saw a vast cityscape. Tall, tall buildings with lights outlining the defensive perimeter around the metropolis.
She crouched through the boxes and tables covered in power tools, hand on the hilt of the sword on her right hip.
Looking.
For what she didn't know, but some knowledge told Yang she had to be quick. Her senses, especially her hearing seemed to be much sharper now. She listened to the night sounds around her, every rumble rustle and ring.
Cars, wind, people. The city of Haven.
Voices.
Of the people she came here to find.
Of the people she came here to warn.
She just wanted to make a few more circuits around the tower, just to be safe.
Something spoke from the air. "That was the only reason I'm still alive."
Yang jumped in her sleep, she knew that voice,
Raven.
Coming from the back of her head to comment on the memory she was sharing. Yang tried to wake up, tossed and turned and desperately attempted to wrench her eyes open. But whatever the other Huntress was doing to her kept the blond thoroughly restrained.
Down the open tower center. Yang heard a voice shout. A male, deep with an edge of anger.
"Hey! You can't be here!"
Yet before the unseen man could go on with his threats a noise shattered the heavy tone of night wrapped around them all. She heard a loud crash, a brief cry of surprise and then a heavy crack of impact below her. Whatever had happened was violent enough to send a tremor up through the floors to her.
Yang's heart thumped against her ribs, she was too late.
She crawled to the edge of the precipice next to an abandoned hand cart, through the memory forcefully playing out on her dream she saw a sight that chilled her blood burning in panic.
A dark towering figure, powerfully built with a fluid grace steeping into the light.
One of the Mistral secret policemen fallen at the foot of a large pillar streaked with red from where he had hit to down where he now lay un-moving. Next to a big pit of unfilled floor four others, all male, all middle aged and all drabbed in various collections of business attire turned reaching for their weapons.
But their attacker was fast,
Blindly fast.
The black steel chain around his right arm unwound as he let go and lunged forward swinging.
Of his four targets, the two closest on the edge of their group clustered on the far side of a work bench had their necks shattered. The last few links of the chain smacked into their throats. The sheer force blasted through their aura broke their spines and splattered their windpipes across the brand new flooring and their colleagues in a crimson spray.
On the right, one unbuckled his pistol and started to take aim.
The giant moved, already only a blink away from the group. Left hand hooking under the table edge to flip it up. The heavy fixture spun up and hit the Mistralan square on his forehead. He fell back to the ground with the table on his legs.
The last one standing, suited up in a full dress coat and tie of the best his money could buy pointed a revolver at the attacker whose steel wrapped right arm hooked left and struck the cop mid fore arm. Yang heard the cannon snap and the screech of hideous pain as the bone tore through skin and silk in a shower of blood.
The back hand follow through crushed half of the man's ribs. Then drew back, clamped his massive left hand on the other's injured shoulder and hammered his fist up into the arms smuggler's stomach
Just one blow made gore come gushing and gushing out his throat accompanied with coughs from his collapsing lungs. The killer raised his right hand high then slammed the elbow down onto his victim's skull. Sending splintered bone shards down into his brain, death was instantaneous.
More footsteps from one other set of feet broke the stunning silence in the aftermath of the attack. Yang watched through Raven's eyes as she ducked down, peeking over the ledge.
Some grey suited youth, with a mop of the same colored hair on his head walked up grinning in triumph.
Her Faunus boosted hearing picked up his quip, "Nice Kad,"
"But?..." The big one replied, drawing out that word.
"Four out of five. You missed one." The smaller assassin answered while pointing.
"Go on then," His companion replied, "Do the honors Mercury."
The one cop with the table on his legs was too concussed and disoriented to do more than blindly flail backwards looking for his lost weapon. The grey cloaked one slowly stalked forward enjoying the moment before he raised up his left gun boot and brought it down on the poor man's face.
The blast of a concealed shotgun made Yang flinch, she reached back to a large loading cart to steady herself before she moved.
The giant was lifting a pallet of heavy cement bags from across the room, his companion rolled over a small mixer, then turned to look for a water supply. But first Mercury stepped over to a pile of stacked black plastic boxes and opened the top one.
He whistled in excitement then lifted out a Shawcross carbine rifle. "Definitely them," he called back to his partner while test aiming the gun in a circle around him.
The giant moved over and took the weapon from him with one hand around the barrel,
"Cool," Kad agreed after examining the rifle for a moment then handing it back.
Yang felt herself unwillingly place more weight on her hand holding the cart preparing to move, but froze in panic at the feeling of something inside shifting.
Several metal rods clanked against each other,
Loud, and far too obvious to be an accident.
Quickly she looked back down, but the two assassins had suddenly disappeared. Leaving their bloody work behind them.
Crap,
That one thought went through her head again and again.
They knew,
She didn't want to open a portal yet, having been up for nearly three days straight there was no guarantee that she could even manifest her semblance, let alone control it. Now might have been the time to panic a little. Yang watched through Raven's eyes as she turned back to the wall open to the rest of the city. And after several long running strides she leapt into the night,
And caught a ladder on some scaffolding that stretched down to the lower floors. The smooth metal burned against her bare hands as she slid down. One, two, three and then four floors down.
Hopefully to safety,
But that wasn't going to happen on this night.
Her feet hit a plywood plank that stopped her from falling the rest of the way to the street. Raven almost wished she would have fallen when she turned inside. And witnessed the smaller male coming around a dark corner and staring right at her.
Raven's heart raced in panic, Yang shared her sudden rush.
Even though he had the rifle on his back Mercury didn't reach for it as he charged forward. Raven tucked down then rolled forward, her hand fell to her sword and she came up slashing.
Mercury ran sprang off a wall and kicked the sword away with his leading foot. He turned in the air and smashed the heel of his left boot into Raven's forehead.
She fell stunned to the ground, her sword slipped from her grip. Mercury landed on his feet then leaned down taking hold of her collar in both hands raising her up. He was almost a head taller than her. Her neck rolled backwards when she finally focused again
"Don't you know what happens to sneaks bitch?" Mercury growled, shaking her.
Raven jumped up, bringing her knees up between her stomach and his then kicking out breaking the hold. Knocking the wind from Mercury's chest and gaining some distance.
She rolled onto her stomach looking for a weapon. Mercury jackknifed up. Raven swung with a small brick she had luckily found close, up from the left and into the side of his head.
The stone slab shattered against his aura, he reeled back a few steps crying out in pain and rage with his hands on the soon to be bruise. Raven crouched and picked up her sword, re sheathing it and spinning the Dust selector. But still Mercury smiled once he bothered to look up.
Yang felt herself frown, she'd wipe that smirk away.
The red blade flashed up from her left hip, he was at the edge of her reach.
Mercury dove to his left, gripping the handle bars of another cart. He corkscrewed his feet off the ground, landed, and then pushed the trolley at her. She jumped onto the speeding object, again over the handle. Cutting down as she fell.
He clapped his hands together and caught the razor metal before it split his face in two, he spun using momentum pushed her sword to the left then kicked out straight and low when he was bent at the knee. Raven jumped backwards, Mercury's hands flew to the rifle on his back and brought the weapon up.
Raven's eyes widened, as she rolled to her right narrowly dodging a spray of bullets. Her sensitive ears rang from the firing, but she tucked her head down and started sprinting.
But not even four steps later she felt something hard strike her left shoulder,
And then start to burn.
Raven cried out and fell forward half turning to avoid landing on her now wounded arm, but still her whole body exploded in pain when she landed, her back against a stone support pillar. Through half clenched eyes she glanced down.
Her arm was a bloody mess and her beating heart was pumping all of her life blood out through the exit wound. She grasped that wrist in pain trying to focus her aura to stop the bleeding.
Yang thrashed in her sleep at this memory the shared pain making her whimper in sympathy.
The half Faunus rolled to her feet, Mercury flung the empty rifle aside. And chills shot down her spine when he nodded to something behind her. Raven cringed as she heard the clatter of steel falling to the ground, forcing herself to fight through the fear and look. The big one was slowly stalking forward, dragging his black instrument of death behind him, sparking on the ground.
The girl played the only card she had left. She pushed all that remained of her strength into her semblance. Focusing as hard as her agony and adrenaline riddled mind would allow.
The portal winked into existence on the ground behind her.
The giant swung his arm down then lunged forward.
Raven saw it coming to crush her, but she didn't have any strength to dodge. The only thing she could do was faint on her side and fall through the portal.
Before her eyes shut in unconsciousness she watched the chain embed itself in the pillar now above her. Sending shards of rock flying every which direction, as the deep red edges of the portal swallowed her whole.
Light passed over Yang's eyes, she knew that she was still being forced to dream with Raven or whatever this was, because she definitely could not remember going to sleep outside of Beacon in the court yard in her usual outfit.
Raven was standing a couple of steps away from the blond, arms crossed with smugness all across her face.
Yang brought up her fists, "You bitch!"
"I just thought showing you, rather than telling you would be most effective warning," The other Huntress said.
Keeping up her fighting stance, the final member of RWBY paced to the left. Trying to circle her tormentor. "Sorry, didn't see anything there. But I still see a coward here."
"Really? When I showed you a murderer?"
"How can I trust you?" Yang demanded, "This,"
She waved her hands indicating the dreamscape, "Isn't even real! You run off, breaking the promise you forced me into I don't appreciate when…"
Raven snarled, "What did you see down there? In the tunnels?"
"A dead friend for starters."
"And?"
Yang was practically shouting now, "And a whole lot of nothing!"
She jabbed an accusing finger forward, "Maybe even you'd have seen it to, if you had bothered..."
"I've been close enough to that one before," Raven interrupted again, while she subconsciously rubbed her shoulder, "No thank you."
Yang was about ready to start pulling out her precious hair at the woman's sickening vagueness.
"Think for a second Yang." Raven asked, "The White Fang would tear any Human to pieces if they got to their camp. They didn't do it to him because they knew him. Feared him, and fear his master."
"Oh, his master," Yang joked and sneered, her voice dripping with sarcasm. "The plot thickens…"
"Yang,"
"Give me one good reason why I should trust you?"
"Do you want more?..."
The blond blinked once, even in this world of whatever it was her semblance still seemed to work. Drawing power from her anger, her violet eyes turned a murderous red,
"Wrong answer."
Yang struck.
Raven was taken off guard, Ember Celica blasted a fireball and knocked the dark girl backwards off her feet. She slid to a stop against the rim of the fountain. Yang began running forward, Raven blinked in surprise down on the cold cobblestones.
She kicked out her feet when the angry blond got close. Twisting their ankles together in a mess. Raven scissored her legs and tripped Yang down onto her back.
"You don't believe me," Raven said, slowly coming up to her knees, "Let's go ask him."
"No!" Yang tried to protest. Raven brought her right hand down on the prone trainee's face. Yang's eyes went wide between the gloved fingers. She felt a sense of rush or flying. As Raven psychically dragged her to…
Everything was gray,
Like ash, like smoke.
He saw mountains in the distance, rolling hills and flat, flat, plains. Shadowed by the clouds that hung heavy over his head. The whole landscape as far as he could see was desolate and decimated, but that was good. That was,
Adrenaline shot through Kad's blood. Where was he? What had happened?
"This is what you will build for us..."
His fists tightened, left coming up in a fist, right clenching the pole he suddenly noticed he was holding. Not a pole, a tall scepter, taller than he was. With an intricate three dimensional medallion of barbed circles and spikes atop.
He let it fall to the ground with a muffled thud, which was when Kad looked at his hands.
They were covered in black slates of armor, his hands in matte mail gloves with sharp white talons on the tips of his hidden fingers. He flexed his arms and felt the weight of more plates covering his body. Massive shoulder pauldrons and thick layers all over, and something heavy on his back.
Plus a weight on his neck and weight on his head.
"You will see…"
Kad slowly raised his hands up to his face, the razor tips on his gloves came to a sudden stop in front of his eyes. He ran his palms across, then clamped them down and lifted the helm from his head. It was white, big and bulky with twin horns like blades sticking straight up and back diagonally from the top.
I'm dreaming, he thought quietly.
"Dreamsss... Powerful, No?"
Kad slwoly rotated the helmet around, twitched in fright, and dropped the piece of armor to the ground.
An ugly Grimm face was staring back at him, glowing red eyes, jagged black teeth and a pointed snout traced with thin red lines.
"A glimpse."
"Show yourself!" He shouted to the ether.
Slow heavy beats sounded through the dead air,
Wings.
Through the deathly clouds a giant Nevermore appeared. Twice the size of a bullhead, black feathers longer than Kad's arm. And a white mask not dissimilar to the one at his feet atop its head where its red eyes glared down at the speck that was him. The phantom bird circled around him, once, twice then landed in front of the Huntsman,
"Of, the inevitable." The creature hissed,
Kad crouched and brought up his hands in a fighting stance, teeth bared to prelude a snarl of rage.
"Yessss," The voice said through the air. "You do our work and do not even know it."
The demon bird threw back its head screaming to the dark skies, beating its wings and sending torrents of dirt and dust everywhere. Kad crossed his arms to block the stinging spray, and shouted up at the monster, "What do you want?"
"Please, we are set to do each other such grievous injuries and have barely broken words. Might we treat for a moment?"
But Kad wanted nothing to do with the beast, instead he roared in challenge jumping at the Grimm. But it disappeared in a swirl of smoke before his clawed hands landed. Kad's knees bent when he struck the ground. He quickly searched for the Grimm again.
"…Alas," The voice remarked, "If only we had found you first… If only you were not cursed with such ruinous hands. But you have promise still."
"I promise I'll tear you to pieces!"
The air cracked behind Kad and he spun to face the disturbance. The Nevermore came at him talons out to kill. He side stepped, the demon bird struck nothing then took off again circling.
"You have tasted the truth Huntsman. What bitterness it must be for it to come in the form of such failure."
"Talk of failure!" Kad called, "Your supposed future looks like a whole lot of nothing to me!"
The creature laughed, "Hahahahaha! Not nothing. Behold!"
The sky erupted in fire, supernatural red waves swallowed the sky and flashed across the horizon. It was kilometers away but Kad still felt himself reeling back. He knew that glow. These were the colors that haunted his sleep.
The colors of the Warp spreading over the world.
But the strange sights did not stop there. The ground began to shake and in the blink of an eye great crystalline spires had burst from the ground across the barren landscape. The lights in the sky swirled together, coming to a vortex eclipsing all the distant stars over his head. Until only the valley he stood in remained.
Something drew the giant's superhuman eyesight to the spires. At first Kad simply believed he had never set eyes on its likeness before. No one would noticed what he did anywhere else in the galaxy.
It was Dust.
The elemental crystal that so much of the world depended on. But it was wrong… Changed, touched by something sinister. A new power flowed through the crystals. One that did not belong…
"Twisted purpose and blind devotion...Or is that fear that paralyzes your senses… What do you really want Huntsman?"
The voice mocked him. He wanted to fight, he wanted to tear this Grimm apart limb by limb.
He wanted it to stop.
Kad felt a surge of power through his bones, aura and adrenaline boiling his blood, drawing strength from that anger. The black Nevermore landed atop a ledge on one of the towers. Built of hard angles, spears and spires reaching every direction. From the shadows beneath the twisted Dust spires more Grimm began to emerge. Spectral outlines of every shape and size of monster the Primarch had studied and fought. Even some Kad didn't recognize, all outlined by the glow of their hate filled eyes.
Looking at him.
"You do not know you know only lies, what you don't dare accept in your rage at the world… Come Huntsman. Don't you want to know the truth of yourself? What the others twist to their own purpose. See the universe in all its twisting horror and splendor…"
Kad's armor creaked as he tensed. All instincts telling him this was not supposed to be. The Grimm wanted him, to trick and ensnare him to its malevolent will. To be as they were,
"No…" He growled between clenched teeth, "No… I'm not like you… I won't be like you… Daemon…"
The beast shook its head, "Oh but you will see stripling, when face what your cursed father offers… And learn there is only one way to save your friends, save your world."
Kad raised his hands, ready for battle. Whatever mysteries the Grimm could unravel weren't worth the price, "Are you done?" The giant asked.
The bird cackled and flapped, sensing his violent intent. "We are eternal! And now we are manifest, and shall not be put back! Remnant will burn, and then the galaxy!"
The red eyes shimmered with flame and dark sorcery, "With or without you…"
The nevermore drew back its head, drawing in breath readying to call the horde and devour the Primarch. But the great beast suddenly shifted its gaze towards something unseen by the Primarch. Kad watched, confused at the sudden pause in its dramatic tirade.
"Hssssss, clever, foolish creaturesssss." The voice whispered, almost too low for him to hear.
But the Daemon soon turned back to Kad, red locked on titian eyes still bright with defiance. Its jagged claws gripped the perch ripping through the construct. It leant forward and let loose a long screeching cry to its numberless kin. Thunder shook the ground from hundreds upon thousands of impacts on the ground beneath their charge. The very air vibrated with howls of hunger for the soul of this demigod.
Kad met their roar with one of his own, now fighting for his life.