New Remnant: Odyssey

by Ben10Extreme

Ruby Rose dreams of becoming the Demon Queen, in a more benevolent nature than one would expect from such a title. She begins her odyssey in a revitalized World of Remnant, alongside her beloved Jaune Arc and friends, as she gradually amasses the influence and power to realize her dream. Ruby's goal soon picks up speed when they encounter a ferocious Dragon...Cinder Fall.

9. Labyrinths and Legacies

This is what happens when I get a wee bit carried away. Just a wee bit, nothing drastic. No, of course not.

Oh, who am I kidding.

Am I still getting the hang of this? We'll know soon enough. I'll probably be the slowest to realize it though, so an outside perspective does help. My beta seems to believe I'm steadily improving, so that's something of a good sign of my progress. But as always, it'll be a doozy to see if I can maintain it. Still dreading the drop.

Ah well, no use worrying about that.

Let's get started.

---

Jaune sighed, quietly looking out towards the surrounding lake. He pushed his hand through his hair, not wearing most of his armor at the moment, but keeping his sword by his side in order to be prepared for any possible attacks. He undid his wolf tail hair for the time being and simply allowed his hair to relax, much like it's been a relaxing morning this far.

Though he was at the nearby lake for quite a curious purpose. And it was currently arriving right now, as Cinder was making her way towards him across the lake, her tail waving side to side behind her, her crimson and gold scarf billowing alongside her hair. Her golden eyes met Jaune's blue ones, and she quietly folded her arms while looking out to the lake.

"I knew you would arrive. You're not one who turns their back on a promise, after all." Cinder hummed while lightly pushing some of her hair away from her face.

"Well, yeah. I just didn't think you'd call in the favor so soon." Jaune admitted while also folding his arms a bit and looking out towards the lake. "I was wondering what you were going to have me do. You were pretty serious about me owing you a favor, and you're not one to joke around. So I decided 'hey, why not'." Jaune shrugged while rolling his arm. "Now then, what are we here for? A little one on one spar? We kinda have a training room for that."

"No, no sparring. This was a request I wanted to have fulfilled without anyone really noticing. I want this to remain between us, until I say otherwise." Cinder muttered while turning towards Jaune. "I'd like for us to have a private conversation."

Jaune tilted his head curiously. "That's it? That's the big favor? I mean, I'm not exactly against speaking with friends when we're on our own, but I don't think you needed to call me out here for that."

"That's mostly because that's not the entire reason why I called you here. Yes, the favor is part of this, but it's not the actual request I'd like to fulfill." Cinder lightly rubbed her arm and looked to the side. "I'd like for you to...well...um..."

"What is it?" Jaune worriedly asked, seeing her get a bit quiet at the thought of asking. She could see it in his eyes and hear it on his voice, the concern he had for her. She didn't want him to be concerned, for it really wasn't too big a deal. So she decided to simply be blunt before it gets out of hand. Of course, she couldn't manage it without her face going just a bit red.

"I'd like for you...to...b-b-bathe me..."

Jaune thought he misheard for a moment, scratching the back of his ear and lightly picking at it to make sure he really wasn't just hearing things. Because just for a split moment, he thought she said something quite bizarre. "Uh...say again?"

"You heard what I said! Don't make me repeat myself, damn it!" Cinder growled with a stomp, which was strong enough to briefly cause the ground to quake.

"Alright alright alright! Take it easy!" Jaune attempted to ease her, while scratching the back of his head. "You want me to bathe you? You realize we have a bath in the Guild Hall, right?"

"...I want this to be private." Cinder muttered while rubbing her shoulder. "There are some things that I wish to speak with you about, and this is the best way I could go about it. Besides, I'm more used to bathing outdoors anyway." She turned towards the water and actually managed to take in how clean and crystal-like it looked, alongside the nearby water all pouring down at the very end. "This water looks so...beautiful."

Jaune looked out towards the lake and nodded. "Yeah. Ruby once told me that these are one of the spots that's been revitalized by the Spring Maiden. That's why the water and plant life here looks healthier and cleaner than most. The water probably feels great too. Is that why you went ahead and picked this place?"

"Indeed." Cinder sighed while turning away again. "I'm just...I'd like this to be a private conversation, and this is the way I'd like to go about it to maximize my comfort. For you see..." Cinder lowered her eyes. "I've...very rarely, ever bathed in my draconic form."

"Oh, I think I understand now." Her dragon self was the one she was born as, and her human appearance is mostly a disguise. Thus the times she's cleaned herself was mostly in her human form where it might have been a bit easier. It was probably harder for her to clean herself as a dragon, or at least as efficiently as she could in human form. "So you're asking me to clean you while you're a dragon?"

"T-That's right...that's my request." Cinder sputtered while doing her utter and absolute damnedest to hide the blush from her cheeks. It was a bit embarrassing to ask this of him, but she refused to back down and rescind. She was following through on this one way or another.

Contemplating, Jaune nodded to himself while getting a second look at the lake in front of him. "Well, if that's what you want. That's not too unreasonable at all. If I'm being a little bit honest, I was kinda expecting something a little bit crazier."

"You're a knight who's agreed to bathing a dragon. Do you not see-" Cinder began with a deadpan tone, then stopped and rubbed her chin a little, before shaking her head. "Actually, no. That makes sense. It takes something truly bizarre to make you question the normalcy of things, doesn't it?"

"At this point bizarre and normal are hardly different."

"Fair. All right, I'll get ready." Cinder hummed, turning around as she held firm to her dress and began undoing it and her shirt while pulling both articles off of herself. She blinked when she realized Jaune had sputtered slightly and quickly turned away from her. "What's wrong?" She asked, as if she weren't already down to her bare shoulders and back.

"Y-You're really just gonna take of your clothes like that?! So casually?!" Jaune stuttered as he kept his back to her.

"I can't very well bathe in these kinds of clothes, Jaune." Cinder deadpanned, it seemed simple enough to her. Can't get these clothes wet, so leave them to the side so that they can stay relatively dry. She has no idea why Jaune suddenly started to freak out and-wait, it was coming to her now. "Oh, right. It's not exactly socially normal for someone to just strip down their clothes out of nowhere, is it? I was told once that walking around as I do in human disguise isn't very ladylike. But I've never really had the motivation to care about that."

"That's not exactly the entire problem here. You could have at least given me a heads up..." Jaune uttered while shaking his head. "You're as bad as Ruby is in this regard..."

"Ruby doesn't mind being nude?"

"Being a werewolf, she simply doesn't mind not having clothes on sometimes. She's not the type to get flustered over stuff like that. Which...doesn't go over very well with Weiss." Jaune scratched his cheek with a sigh.

He remembered, for the very first time, he had experienced this aspect of Ruby when her clothes were somewhat wrecked during a mission aside from her cloak, and she just casually began changing out of her clothes right then and there after the smoke cleared. He and Oscar were utterly gobsmacked by her audacity, Yang and Nora were laughing their butts off, Blake and Penny simply tilted her heads, Ren and Pyrrha politely looked away, and Weiss slapped her upside the head while furiously telling her to put her clothes back on. It was then that a certain exchange between them happened, and still admittedly made Jaune chuckle a bit to this day.

"Ah, right. I forgot. This isn't very ladylike, is it?"

"No! No it is not!"

"I mean, it's not like I'm even completely naked! I still have my cape and hood! That kinda counts, right?"

"ARE YOU A WILD ANIMAL?!"

In some strange way, that about sums up the friendship between Ruby and Weiss in particular.

"Humans are sensitive about the strangest things." Cinder hummed.

"...Yeah, I kinda figured you'd say that." Jaune sighed while shaking his head and clenching his fists. "Can you just hurry up, please?" He could practically feel her roll her eyes at him as she slid out of the rest of her clothes and out them to the side. Then he heard her slowly stepping into the water with a slight shudder, then gradually wading into it. Then he heard a loud spiral of flames rise up behind him, and he realized then that it was somewhat safe to look now. He turned towards her and he saw her in her draconic state, calmly staring at him with her draconic eyes. "Cool. I just need some things to get ready. I'll be right back."

"Do take your time." Cinder deadpanned once more, which made Jaune roll his eyes back at her, before he went off to get what he needed as she began relaxing in the water.

As he promised, he didn't take long. He didn't let it be known what he was up to, only that it was private. Cinder hummed as Jaune approached, as he rolled his shoulder. "Alright. How are we gonna start this?"

"My scales."

"Right. So, just one more time for clarity. For something like this, why ask me specifically? Even with the request I owed you?"

"...Right now, you're the only one I'll allow to be around me, when I'm this vulnerable. You're the only one I trust enough to let down my guard to this extent." Cinder admitted quietly and honestly, which briefly took Jaune aback. "So...will you please?"

"...Huh. Alright then."

Without further prompting, he quietly stepped into the water, and took to washing her scales. Very quickly, he noticed her posture relaxing quite a bit, her wings laying flat against her back, her head lightly floating above the water as she closed her eyes. He took special note of how relaxed she currently was when she was pleasantly humming and lightly wading her tail around in the water. The crystal clear and relaxing waters must have something to do with it, at least in part. Even as he was carefully washing her scales, he wasn't at real risk in hurting her, due to how tough they tended to be. Despite this, with how she increasingly hummed with peaceful bliss, she was still quite sensitive enough through them to appreciate how nice it felt.

To be quite honest, as he was going around washing the scales on her sides, and a bit on her back, he felt like he was washing a car. No, perhaps a large van. Maybe a truck. A small plane. Any of the above, perhaps all of the above.

It would take quite a bit of time to completely wash her down in this form, though she didn't seem to mind this at all, and in a way he didn't quite mind either. The sun was shining down on both of them, the water was peaceful and clean, the water far off provided quite a bit of pleasant atmosphere to the entire area. He couldn't lie, he kind of liked it. It was nice and peaceful, perhaps a bit cozy. With all this in mind, he was slowly becoming glad he agreed to do this, a bit of a break from all of the crazy.

"Hwwwhaaaaa..."

True enough, she was completely relaxed by this point. Her pleasant sighs were becoming more and more notable, and he wondered about the last time she's taken a bath of this nature, in this form. Guessing by her reactions it's been a very long time, and it was probably even rarer for her to ask someone to help her bathe easier in this form. She probably wasn't used to being pampered like this, especially in this form.

Her eyes closed serenely, her jaws slightly parted to reveal her fearsome fangs, her tail happily wading through the water. But from how she appeared at the moment, she looked and felt akin to a really large kitten. The large kittens that absolutely loved to play in the water and relax in it with pleasant and peaceful growls.

Jaune chuckled to himself, as the irony of a fire dragon feeling so relaxed in water finally kicked in.

"You also wanted to chat with me one on one during this, right? So, what's up?" Jaune wondered as he lightly splashed some suds away from her tail. This managed to get a bit of Cinder's attention, and she came back from her blissful unawareness. Looking back towards Jaune, she sighed and returned her gaze to the water, eyes halfway closed.

"...There are a few bits of my history that I'd like to share with you. Only you. Maybe I'll change my mind on the matter someday, but that day is not today. Am I understood?" Cinder pushed forth with a glare. Jaune calmly looked back at her with a nod of understanding, which got her gaze to soften and turn back to the water once more. "To be truthful...I did have friends once upon a time. Before any of you."

"Did you now?" Jaune lightly splashed a bit of water over her right paw when she raised it.

"It's been such a long time. Over a decade ago. I was sixteen. Traveling for so long on my own, with how much dragons are rare and feared or hated, no one could really trust me to stay in one place and not cause some kind of trouble. But there was a time. One time that was more not able out of many, where I was accepted by someone." Cinder closed her eyes as she slowly turned over onto her back, floating above the water. "Up here."

"Really? Alright." Jaune shrugged as he climbed up to the top of her belly, and continued on with washing her. And it also once again cake to his attention just how large and fat her belly was in particular in this form of hers. Other parts of her were relatively big and bulky in a somewhat muscular way, but her belly was definitely the biggest part of her when she was like this, as well as the roundest. "So you were accepted by someone before, long before you met us. Way long. Do you still remember them?"

"There was no way I couldn't. Their hospitality towards me was among those rare times I could settle in one place and relax without worrying about being backstabbed." Cinder let a pleasant growl rumble through her as a bit of Jaune's scrubbing involved a circular motion around her belly. "Of course, it wasn't completely without a bit of selfishness on both of our parts. I declared their town mine, and they would have to feed me whatever I wanted and provide me shelter and food whenever I wanted. As such, I repaid this by keeping all possible threats away from them that could threaten them as a whole." She wistfully looked towards the skies while thinking back. "I remember the very first time several creatures tried to infringe upon the territory I've already claimed."

"I'm gonna take a guess and say that didn't end too well for them."

"No, not in the slightest. I ate quite a lot of them."

"Of course you did." Jaune deadpanned, with the admittance to her being a greedy glutton bringing attention to the fact that he was currently washing and cleaning the very cushion like belly that has claimed many a monster and malevolent foe. Her best and favorite method of dispatching of an enemy for good was to eat them, and she took an ecstatic amount of enjoyment doing so. If there was something preventing her from doing so, or she didn't find them worthy of eating, then, as the poor succubus from before found out, burning them alive until they were ashes was a very fun second option for her. The former came from a rather predatory and sadistic impulse. The latter, just the second. Fortunately she was self aware enough to find acceptable outlets for these impulses.

"In any case, I spent quite a while protecting that town. I lived there for a while. Not too long, but long enough that I was beginning to feel...cozy. But I still had to leave eventually. Yet during that time, I found myself...somewhat proud of being able to keep my territory safe. It was a demonstration of my strength and power." Cinder nodded lowly. "The people there, despite me admitting to using them for my own comfort...I didn't mind it. I was actually feeling quite fulfilled at some point. The work I put in to protect my territory, what was mine...reflects upon my abilities and my competence. Somehow, I was able to do well."

"You were proud of it." Jaune reasoned while washing a bit of suds away from the dragons belly, which Cinder nodded to.

"I know what I said before when I first decided to join the guild. But I also have a better shaping of things now." Cinder mutters. "Before those times I've never had the luxury of having true pride in myself. A life without pride is pointless. So I wish to keep proving the superiority that I claim, earn the luxuries that I gain, and be recognized for the effort that I put in. I wish to he proud of all of these things that make me what I am. My strength and my power, my standing as a superior creature to other supernatural creatures, my convictions, my abilities, my resolution. I wish to prove all of these things, not simply say them. Every claim I make about my strength and power and capabilities, I wish to reinforce through demonstrations. Truly prove my inherent superiority."

Jaune smiles. "You wanna earn your bragging rights fair and square, then flaunt them."

"ABSOLUTELY!" Cinder enthusiastically roars. Jaune couldn't help but laugh. "Jaune, on our next expedition, I would like to take down something mighty as further proof of my strength!"

"Heh. I'll check with Ruby and see what we can manage." Jaune shook his head while wiping his brow. "For the record, I still think you're plenty amazing as you are, but there's no way I'm gonna tell you to stop wanting to improve. So you keep doing what you're doing I'm that regard. I've got your back there."

"Appreciated." Cinder paused for a moment. "...Jaune. I would like a hug."

"Huh? Oh, okay." Jaune shrugged, as he was mostly done cleaning her. Indeed, she felt a lot cleaner and fresher than before, her scales gleaming brilliantly. Not to mention she felt a lot more relaxed. So without much hesitation, Cinder gently placed both paws around Jaune and hugged him closer to her, snugly pressing him against her squishy dragon belly. He shuffled about a few times in order to adjust. "Man, no wonder kids like hugging you this way. You're really soft and cozy."

"H-Hush..." Cinder sputtered while looking away with a bright blush, ensuring he couldn't see it on her face. "A-Anyway, I was wondering about something Salem once said. And I wanted to know about your views about it. Could vices really be used as vices, with the right direction?"

Jaune settled well onto his current rest place, and he nodded to himself then to Cinder. "Why, sure they can. It can be pretty easy, when you probably have the direction for it. Though I'm gonna go ahead and guess that you'll want a few examples in order to illustrate my point, huh?" Jaune smiled while lightly laying down on the belly cushion, which made Cinder blush harder at how relaxed and comfortable he was. "Alright then, give me a few and I'll shoot off a few counters of my own."

Cinder nearly rolled her eyes, but she decided to go ahead and play along.

"Pride?"

"A sense of superiority becomes a motivation to become the best that you can be, so that you can genuinely back up all the boasts you make, and give better credence to your confidence. That's not too bad at all."

"Greed?"

"You're a very hard worker, building up whatever skills and abilities you can so you can thrive in good times and bad. Anything you've earned with your hard work and effort, you can truly consider yours."

"Gluttony?"

"Certainly comes in handy when dealing with monsters." Right on cue as a response to that, to Cinder's great misfortune, the dragoness' chubby belly rumbled hungrily, enough for it to jiggle for a few seconds. Cinder could barely muster the strength to hide her brightly blushing face at how Jaune both heard and felt that due to him being hugged right to it. She resisted the impulse to throw him very far away from her out of embarrassment. That certainly wouldn't be fair to him, especially as she was the one who called him out here in the first place. Jaune however, simply laughed. "Woah, that was quite a growl there! I even bounced for several moments after that! What a jelly belly you have when you're like this."

"S-S-Silence!" She cursed herself for stuttering again and strove to quickly move on before it got any worse, which got a laugh out of Jaune, and an annoyed yet cute pout out of Cinder. "...Lust."

Jaune tilted his head, and snapped his fingers. "You wanna live more comfortably than you did before, so you desire a lot of food, respect, conquering enemies, and the power to achieve all of these things."

Oh, right. Lust did accompany an overall meaning as a desire for pleasure, and being able to do those things did please Cinder quite a lot. She did find the prospect of gaining these things and achieving them to be quite pleasing indeed.

How is he doing this?

"Envy?"

"You're kinda envious if Weiss and you wanna improve yourself so you can prove that you're better than her. Can you defeat more enemies than her? Bigger and stronger enemies than her? Did kids like her better than you? That kind of envy will drive you to improve yourself so you can surpass her successes. Of course, she isn't going to just let you do that, hence why you're rivals."

"There is no rivalry. I'm her innate superior. Her not realizing that is her delusion."

"If you say so."

"Hmph. Sloth." There's no way he can find one for this. She didn't consider herself lazy at all.

"When you go around eating as ravenously as you tend do, sometimes it's for the best to take a break and lie down for a little while to let yourself settle. It's also great to be able to rest for a long while after you know you've been working really hard." Jaune nodded while laying back a bit. "You've been learning when to take some time to recharge so you'll be ready for the next battle and adventure. Taking in a bit of laziness once in a while to just rest and relax. Like right now. You're the one who asked me to bathe you, remember? Taking a bit of an off day."

He did it. He actually did it. He even interpreted something like laziness into a possible virtue, and ended up using her request against her to do so. Cinder looked at him, slightly baffled.

"Wrath?"

"When you've found something you care about, like the peace, tranquility, and safety of of yourself and your loved ones, there's plenty of reasons to get mad whenever they're threatened. That ferocious, dragon anger of yours can be pretty scary, but it also helps sharpen your focus so you can defeat the threat as quickly as you can. That rage gives you the focus to face a world of danger head on."

Cinder wondered if there were any more vices she could come up with, but she was sort if exhausted form what's already transpired. Jaune pointed the finer points so effortlessly that she could barely find it in herself to try and counter them. He even managed to put a positive spin on aspects of several vices she wasn't aware if, to find the virtue that a vice could become if it was pushed in the right direction. It was like he knew exactly what right say regarding this, even though it could have gone fully in a more negative perspective. But he managed to find the potential good in what many would consider bad traits.

"...You have a lot of benevolent things to say about me."

"That's because there's a lot of good things about you. It's alright if you yourself don't see it, because I'll be around to remind you whenever you doubt it. Until you yourself start believing it all on your own." Jaune looked into her eyes as he goes to sit up right. "You have your share if vices. But with all of the skills and abilities and experiences you've built up over the course of your past, you'll be able to turn those vices into virtues. Your negative sides can become positive, with the proper drive and direction. Then you'll see for yourself that you're a lot greater than you already are."

Cinder blinked owlishly at him, allowing the words to really sink in. This time she didn't even end up a blushing mess, for she was too shocked to even succumb to that. A thought came to her over the course of this, and she lifted her head a bit. "You've incorporated a bit of Ruby's philosophy into your judgement, haven't you?"

Jaune lowered his head with a quiet chuckle. "I would be lying if I said I didn't. She has a way of doing that kind of thinking when she puts her mind to it. I guess she rubbed off on me in that regard." He lifted his head. "So, it looks like you're pretty cleaned up now. Is there anything else you might need from me?" Unprompted and unhesitating, Cinder gently placed her paws around Jaune again and pulled him into her belly, once again lightly squishing him against it. Jaune didn't hesitate to return the gesture, hugging her back as much as he could with his he was. "You wanna stay like this for a while?"

"That would be pleasant."

With that, the two of them lied in a gentle embrace, the chubby dragon floating atop the water with a knight snugly hugged to her belly. Both of them took in the serenity and allowed themselves to relax, at least until they were summoned for another job. Then it would be back to business as usual, but both would be leaving with a bit of a better understanding from one another.

Out of the blue, the dragon's tummy let out another audible growl. Cinder nearly gasped at this, while Jaune chuckled again. "Don't think your stomach appreciates being ignored. Wanna take care of that?"

"N-No...I'll be fine for a little while longer. I just want to stay like this for a bit-" The even louder growl from her belly protested this idea, making her belly jiggle to such a degree that Jaune felt like he was right on top of a bouncy house. Cinder glared harshly at her stomach and blushed deeply at its audacity. "Will you knock it off?! You'll be fed in due time, so just be silent damn you!" The following low growl provided an answer to that, and Cinder just felt like covering up her face and flying away. Jaune couldn't help but laugh the entire time, with her glaring at him with weakened ferocity. "S-Stop laughing! It's not funny!"

Cinder was rather proud of her fat and rotund belly as a dragon. Truly she was, so she wasn't embarrassed about that. More so the fact that she was trying to have a quiet and peaceful moment, and her draconic gluttony has come to pay her a visit in the form of a rumbling gut, and denying her that wish in the shamelessly selfish demand to be fed. She probably could have avoided this entirely if she had eaten just a bit-a LOT-more before coming out to do this...

Meanwhile, as Jaune and Cinder respectively laughed and grew annoyed at the rising need to satiate her gluttony, a pair of silver eyes watched them silently from atop a high tree, her red cloak billowing about and mostly covering her head and face. Those very same eyes soon narrowed.

...Hmmm.

In a spiral of swirling rose petals, Ruby silently vanished.

---

Jaune could hardly believe it.

Actually scratch that. He could totally believe it.

Finally, finally. After long lasting, the wait was over. He could have some reprieve. He could have a bit of support. Some backup furthermore. An extra pair of hands to help him steady himself through the storm that was his life. A rock for him to hold onto.

"You're going to keep listing things off like that?"

Jaune could hear the calm yet joking tone as he came across his friend. He smiled and waved as he made his way over to him, and he was greeted by the entire guild at that. Jaune reached out his hand, and the new arrivals takes it and they clash them strongly.

"Ya made it in one piece, Ren."

Ren smiled at Jaune while pushing some hair away from his face, pale pink eyes gazing at the line up. "You even went though the trouble of getting everyone to wait outside for me. Am I allowed to he flattered?"

"Yeah, it's cool. This was worth the occasion, I feel."

Ren folded his arms. "You might want to be careful, Jaune. Showing a bit too much closeness to me, you might make Ruby a bit antsy. You wouldn't want to go through a whole unexpected misunderstanding."

"Ha ha, I forgot how to laugh." Jaune muttered while lightly pushing Ren's shoulder. "I'm under no pretense that life is at all stable at this point, dude. Trust me, it's been a hit up and down in stability when you all were gone."

"What matters is that you're back and in one piece!" Ruby beamed while raising a hand.

"You're here with us, friend. This is cause for celebration!" Pyrrha clapped her hands, as Nora zapped past all of them and glomped Ren right on the spot, almost knocking him off his feet. "And of course, Nora missed you too."

"RENNY!" Nora beamed brightly while nuzzling his cheek with a beaming electric smile. Ren smiled quietly while lightly caressing the top of her hair. "I knew you'd be able to make it here on your own. I just knew it."

"Your faith in me is appreciated, Nora. And it was a rough path to get here." Ren nodded while pressing her forehead against hers. "But I endured. Were you able to do the same? We were separated for several days apart, after all."

"Pfft! You took too poorly of me, Renny!" Nora zapped back with a twirl, then did a curtsy. "I'll have you know, I'm super capable of handling myself and keeping it together when you're not by my side. I had no reason to worry, you had no reason to worry, which means we're both fine! Everything's fine, and now we're all together again!" Nora blinked and turned on a twirl, pointing towards Cinder. "With a bonus!"

Cinder took a look at the one known as Lie Ren. Just from looking at him, and getting a feel for the air he gave off, he's probably the most stoic and even tempered member of the group alongside Blake herself. Wearing a green jacket with a pink overcoat, lined with white accents, he appeared to be one of the more disciplined members. Even the feel for his Aura felt the most controlled and refined out of everyone present, which gave a bit of credence to them saying that he's the best of them when it comes to Aura Control.

He must be quite capable.

"So you're Cinder. A pleasure." Ren nodded to her, while she folded her arms and nodded back. "I have to be honest, you're not quite what I was expecting, initially. I've kept he's ring that you and Jaune have once came to blows several times without a definitive victory over the other. In the truest sense, you kept coming to a stalemate."

"She's the unrelenting offense to by reinforced defense. We kept outlasting each other when it came to attacking and defending." Jaune rolled his arm. "I could replenish my stamina quite a lot of times, but I gotta cool down eventually, and that cool down lasts the longer I keep going. Meanwhile, she can keep fighting for hours on end without ever really getting tired, if she truly pushed for it."

Lie Ren rubbed his chin. "I see. By the time she finally breaks down your defenses to the point of leaving you unable to build them back up properly, she would have exhausted a majority of her own firepower and be unable to attack anymore. Which leads to an impasse, and thus a draw."

"That about sums it up!" Ruby chirped while rolling her arm several times.

"She must have been a fearsome opponent."

"Hmph."

Ruby lightly clapped while placing her hands behind her neck. "Okie dokie! Now, I know you guys wanna catch up and have your quality guy time, but, uh..."

"Yeah, we have another assignment." Oscar noted while looking over his Scroll.

"No need to worry. There will be plenty of time for that. Hopefully. Time has not been our ally recently." Ren admitted with an uneasy smile.

"Gah, I'm sure it'll all work out somehow!" Yang waved off the confirm with a scoff. "We're really gettin' down to business now, since we're all gatherer together."

"You're certainly confident in yourself aren't you?" Weiss shook her head. "You haven't even earned it yet."

"You can just say that you're too petrified to take part, Schnee." Cinder casually dissed, which prompted Weiss to turned towards her with a frigid glare. "Staring things down isn't going to make the truth go away, you know."

"I've already tried!" Nora agreed with a wave.

Cinder slowly turned toward Nora with a questioning gaze, before she immediately incinerated the thought and shook her head. No, she was not doing this right now. Not with her. There's a limit to what she could handle, and Nora was constantly standing over the limit. She didn't even know where the line was and she's already crossed it dozens of times.

"We shall begin our next assignment with earnest!" Penny raised her hand dutifully. "With any fortune, things will not go wrong!"

"Which means things are gonna go wrong." Blake noted.

"Precisely!"

Alright, I've officially been here too long. I'm not only used to this, but I actually agree. Cinder thought tiredly.

---

If Ruby had known that the next destination for the assignment would be a temple, she would have sent the gang there ages ago.

She was giddily eyeing said temple with great glee and eagerness, her wolf tail saving side to side as many a thought of what could possibly be inside filled her head with all sorts of possible scenarios. Furthermore, it wasn't the usual kind of ancient magic temple. At least, not entirely on its own. No no, it was an ancient technomagical temple. Surges of magic could be seen glowing through several parts of the sleek looking structure from afar, several moving parts floating above the air and going to several other floating platforms.

It seems Penny would be within her element here.

"It looks so cool!" Ruby beamed with an excited hop in her step. "Technomagical ruins that are ripe for exploring! Oh I can't wait!"

"Looks like Penny will be our best bet at navigating through it." Oscar noted while looking through his scroll. "It's constantly changing and shifting, transforming. It doesn't look like anyone's actually behind it, either. At least, not from what we've seen so far. Anyone could have been here before us and messed with a thing or two."

"It's best to take these into consideration. We've been sent here because of those exact suspicions. Something important might be here." Weiss gripped Myrtenaster tightly while keeping vigilant. "These are the kinds of exploration sites that are often rife with traps waiting to be sprung."

"You would think that these things would kinda stop working or something like that, since they've gone so long without anyone touching them." Nora shrugged while skipping forward. "Oh well!"

"I'll scout the surrounding area in case anything follows us inside." Blake said as she stepped back into the shade of a tree, and vanished within it in a matter of seconds.

As Oscar was double-checking what they all knew so far, Ruby placed a hand in his shoulder to pull him back a bit. "Do you think we'll be able to find anything we can use?"

"From what the info we managed to gather, we should get at least a scrap of something." Oscar sighed while pocketing his Scroll. "A scrap isn't exactly much, though it sure beats nothing at all. If it's correct, we'll come out of this one with something incredibly useful for the future."

"All the more reason to take this on. Alright, I'm convinced!" Ruby hopped up with a clap. "Let's head on inside, everyone! Eyes and ears open for anything cool or usable! That WON'T cause any explosions!"

"Why specifically explosions...?" Jaune shook his head and lightly packed his shield behind his back. "No, what am I saying? There's likely gonna be a few explosions. That's just our kind of luck." He smiled as he could see Ruby, Yang, Nora, and Penny giddily hopping up and down in sheer eagerness. "Although knowing you, that's probably something you're looking forward to, anyway."

"I don't really understand why we're going through this trouble." Cinder folded her arms as she began descending down the cliff, using her wings to slow her fall and hover slightly. "Why go through the trouble of unearthing something ancient? Something that happened so far off in the past...what possible benefit could those times bring us now?"

"More than you think, Fall." Weiss gracefully skated down the cliff using her glyphs, before landing in a clearing with perfect posture. "Although I suppose you wouldn't really understand, it's quite a complicated subject to get into. It might be too much for your rather impatient mind to keep up with."

"And you can? Doubtful."

"Of course I can. You didn't really give me reason to believe otherwise. I mean, unless you can demonstrate your skill and prove me wrong..."

"Maybe I will!" Cinder stomped past Weiss while gritting her sharpened teeth all the while. Jaune noticed this as Weiss huffed from behind, following her.

Their competitiveness reaches even here.

Jaune turned to Ren, as they began clearing several of the gaps in between pathways. It was then that Jaune was very glad Ren had joined up with them when he did. He would gracefully, skillfully find the proper paths forward without missing a single step. Then he would turn around and patiently wait for Jaune to catch up, rather clumsily. Knights such as Jaune were quite known for their skill in swords and shields and such, and would especially prove quite a suitable ally when it fake time to tank an attack for the rest of his allies.

It was simple enough to say that they were not built for areas that required high mobility and ability to get through, hence why Ren would dutifully help Jaune up whenever he tried to get across a pass and barely make it. Although, not without having a things to say about it at his expense.

"It would seem that our resident knight doesn't quite excel in the art of 'jump good'."

"Ha ha." Jaune crawled as Ren helped him once again, and they began walking alongside one another. "See if I cover for you when a tree trunk falls on top of your head."

"Oh no, a tree trunk. My greatest weakness." Ren shook his head with a chuckle. "Without you, Jaune, I would surely be dealt a swift defeat by way of tree trunks falling on top of me. I would fall pitifully against the trees of might."

"You're being cheeky right now and I don't care for it at all." Jaune grumbled as Ren good-naturedly pats him on the shoulder. While they walked alongside one another, Jaune rubbed his shoulder. "So, how ya been? You've been out the longest out of all of us. Nora was pretty worried about you."

"She was able to endure without me, which speaks much about her own strength. I'm glad." Ren hums whole the wind blew past his hair, allowing it to flow a little bit. "I myself have been held up a little. But I managed to handle it delicately enough. Nothing too serious, but I've had to exercise greater caution on the rest of my journey." Ren then gazed towards Cinder, who was in front of them. "I never thought I would be able to see a dragon up close. Her Aura is overwhelming. The sheer immensity of her power underneath the surface, it's staggering to think about."

"You can feel that?"

"It's quite difficult not to. I'll take a guess and say that she's not one for subtlety or restraint. A certain part of her soul knows she's a mighty creature and she wants everyone around her to know it." Ren lightly scratched his chin. "Yet at the same time...it seems to be something else, something much smaller but no less crucial, hidden beneath all of that draconic arrogance. She certainly lives up to that part."

"Arrogant, oh yeah." Jaune turned to Ren for a moment. "But what do you mean by 'something else'?"

Ren could sense it. Cinder's Aura. A constant wild storm of heated flames surrounding the soul, taking the shape of a fiery dragon. Yet for the briefest of moments, almost to the point of being too swift to recognize if it existed, there was something shining and sparkling beneath all of the flames, which didn't entirely match everything else about Cinder...for now.

"Jaune. Is there anything about Cinder that feels like it should be there, yet it doesn't?" Ren noted while they traversed past several pillars with Ren helping Jaune up every few hops. "Is there anything that you've noticed about Cinder that stuck out more than usual, throughout the time you've both known each other?"

Jaune tried to think of something, and initially came up short. Though he recalled the bath that she requested him to give her. As he was scrubbing away at her scales, for the most brief of moments, he did see something sparkling underneath all of those scales, that didn't entirely match the rest of her. He didn't think too much of it at first, figuring it was a trick of his eyes. Though now that he thought about it more...

"Whaddya think this means?"

"That there might be more to our draconic comrade than even herself knows." Ren looked forward. "Or at the very least, she might not be able to recall it under her own power."

"For real...?" Jaune wondered. He shook his head. "Well, moving on back to you. You held back a bit and let Nora go on ahead. There anything more specific regarding what kept you?"

Ren narrowed his eyes, and he nodded towards Ruby, who returned the gesture to confirm she was paying attention. "I had my reasons to stay behind while Nora went ahead. This was something I would be better suited to do, and I would be more efficient at it on my own. It was best for us to split at the moment while she reunited safely with the rest of you." Oscar and Penny both looked at each other, before Oscar set up a bubble of time, and Penny assisted in stabilizing it, resulting in a Chronic Echo to show what Ren has experienced. He continued on in order to give context to the images beginning to play out. "There was something bothering me along the way of the path. After sending Nora, I pursued. Further along, I came across a village that seemed prepared to burn a woman at the stake."

"What?!" Nora gasped at the recalling. "Why wouldn't I wanna help you with that, Renny?! I definitely could have!"

"And I truly appreciate that, Nora. But please let me finish." Ren gently called her via holding her hand in his own. "There was something going on here. They were all infuriated, driven by hatred more than anything else. The woman seemed to be...disconnected from the entire situation, like she was simply acting out a play of sorts. I sense deception in her words, after already sensing the malevolence in her Aura. Though..." Ren shook his head. "Nothing could have prepared me for what happened next..."

The Chronic Echo viewed the event from Ren's perspective.

People were chanting, screaming, yelling at the woman they had supposedly 'captured' and prepared to incinerate. She pleaded for mercy, but Ren could sense that there was no true emotion within it, despite the convincing acting. Something wasn't right, nothing about this was right. Everyone was celebrating with food and drink, but Ren didn't want anything. He wasn't hungry or thirsty. He was just trying to figure out how to resolve this situation without having everyone lose themselves to their hatred.

Unfortunately, it was far too late for that.

It happened so abruptly. Everyone was preparing to burn the witch. But then, all of a sudden, they all froze. Ren's eyes widened as he felt their Aura's suddenly stall and become colorless. Then, one by one, each of them seemingly melted into liquid masses of blood, almost bursting into it without leaving anything else behind. Ren looked on horrified as they all seemingly burst and melted into nothing but blood. And then, all of it began to swirl into a glowing red orb, that soon hovered over the woman's head.

She went from pleading to mercy to slowly chuckling at the massacre that had just ensued. Ren lacked the finger details of the situation, but it was clear that this was the woman's fault indeed. Especially with how she casually gathered all of the blood around her and pooled it into an orb hovering over her palm.

"The energy of life derived from blood; blood force. You humans tend to spill so much of each other's blood, which means wasting so much potential energy to be used, over the most trivial of things." The woman spoke condescendingly. "Well, if you're not going to use it efficiently, then you should surrender it to those who can. It'll be a honor for you to serve your betters this way, no?"

It was then that she slowly turned and walked into a portal of blood, with it closing behind her. Ren eventually came out of hiding, having concealed his Aura in order to not be found by the woman who orchestrated this travesty of an event. He eventually began looking all over for survivors, anybody at all, who could have survived the event and have not fallen under the woman's machinations, her trickery. But no matter how far he looked, expanded his Aura in order to try to find more signatures, more signs of life...he could find none.

He stopped in place, gently knelt down, and picked up what appeared to he a stuffed doll, one item upon many that has been left behind due to what transpired today. His eyes closed tightly and he clutched the doll as an intense sense of failure washed over him.

Everyone had perished.

The group went silent as the Chronic Echo slowly turned gray. Nora had tightened her grip on Ren's hand, rather tenderly. "I took my time getting back after that. Not only to gather as much information as I could regarding what happened, but to also pay my respects. Whatever happened there, I wasn't able to stop it. From what I've heard from that village clashing with hat woman, her plans were in play long before I got there. The damage use already been done." Ren closed his eyes. "It likely would have turned out the same whether I was there or not..."

Cinder tugged her scarf with a sigh. "That's what you took so long for? What would be the point of that? It won't change the fact that they're dead." She shook her head. "Your time would have been better spent coming back sooner rather than stay behind and thus worry your friends about how late you were. Even with their faith in you about eventually returning, your delay sowed the seeds of concern in their hearts. How are you going to make it up to them for wasting so much time with ultimately little to gain from it?"

"Cinder!" Jaune seethed at her, while she stoically looked back.

"It's simply the truth."

"That doesn't mean that-!" Jaune was stopped by Ren placing a hand on his shoulder, causing him to pause and turn his head towards him.

"It's alright, Jaune. You don't have to defend me. She's being brutally honest about it, but she's right." Ren conceded as he was looking ahead with a sense of calmness. "It's not going to do anything to help them or bring them back. It wasn't about either of those things. It was about leaving a reminder with myself so that I can keep instances such as those from happening again anywhere else to anyone else. Keeping these in mind and keeping them close at hand will ensure that we don't let these things repeat." Ren hummed while moving onwards. "The past helps us prepare and ready ourselves for what might go on today, and perhaps events in the future."

Cinder scoffed slightly as Ren went on ahead a bit, whilst Jaune held back a bit to shake his head at her. She raised an eyebrow. "What?"

"You didn't have to demean his intentions and reasons like that."

"I just don't see the point." Cinder doubled down, staring back into his eyes. "Why would you ever want to remember how much and how many times you've failed? It's a black mark against the credence of one's capability and competence. One's lack of success reflects badly upon themselves regarding those things, and thus how much you can be relied on. You've proven a disappointment to yourself and those who expected success out of you." She grumbled while clutching her scarf. "Besides, it's a lot easier for people to condemn you for your failures and defeats than praise you for your victories and successes. So why would you ever want to keep track of those failures?"

"There are some past failures that will yield greater successes, given enough time." Oscar noted while hopping across to another platform. "Not everything can go perfectly, Cinder. Sometimes things go wrong, badly wrong. Though because we have that precedent in play, we can take the time to make sure we reduce the chances of it ever happening again."

"This makes up for quite a few security drills back in the Atlas Military." Penny hummed while hovering over another clearing and landing on her feet. "Were it not for those occasional malfunctions in machinery, we'd never be able to know that something is wrong. Thus thanks to this malfunction being more manageable, we could prevent an even worse malfunction that can't be managed in a timely or effective manner, from happening in the future."

"True enough, many safety regulations of all sorts are created because unfortunately, something or someone failed along the way, which paved the way towards improving things further on." Weiss walked across a bridge of ice formed by her Glyphs. "In the long run, some failures are more beneficial to our growth in some aspects, than unyielding success."

"Past failures make way for future successes, with the right approach." Ruby hummed as she stood atop a pillar and looked outwards for any signs of trouble. "We've had to get used to that long before we decided doing this kind of thing for realsies."

"...Is that so?" Cinder quietly uttered as she clutched her scarf once more, before following after with a single leap, assisted by a flap of her wings, speeding herself up to follow everyone closely. I wonder...

As Ruby was leasing the way, everyone came across different paths. She pointed to each of them, and several of them split off into groups in order to cover more ground. As they descended further inside, she sniffed the air around her, and her ears twitched.

...they'r...soo...rea...ny...ment...

Ruby could hear several voices being uttered that were somewhat cluttered and muffled, but she managed to piece them together quickly. She narrowed her eyes, but proceeded onwards, briefly tapping Jaune on the shoulder. He nodded in understanding as they briefly bumped fists, before proceeding upon their selected paths.

So that's how it is.

---

"It looks like we've reached the center of the complex." Ruby landed on all fours, her rail swaying and her nose sniffing the trails she's picked up along the way. Cinder soon followed suit, along with Oscar landing clumsily, nearly falling over until Penny safely caught him. Ruby stood up and looked around for a little bit, still sniffing the air, until she looked forward and pointed with her wolf and tail ears up. "There!"

Oscar turned towards the spot and his eyes widened at the clock-like circular pillar standing in the center of the room, slowly rotating along with the current time. He briefly checked his book, briefly skimming through a page, and nodded readily. "It's true, Ruby. These are definitely one of them, there's no doubt about it!"

"Alright, that's great! We've almost made progress."

"Almost?" Cinder raised an eyebrow, before she too sniffed the air, and her eyes narrowed. "I see..."

"Enemies approaching." Penny declared with a hand up, and her swords manifesting around her and spreading our like wings. She also used her strings to gently attach to her friends and quickly pulled them out of the way of a wide attack that devastates the area where they were just standing. Several claws tore through the ground and tore it apart, before someone climbed through it, riding atop what appeared to be, a sizably large Grimm.

"Greetings, one and all. You're all looking quite lovely this evening. I have a dragon to round up, in order to keep rhino simple. The rest of you can all be destroyed at the hands of Callista Tenebris." The woman soon conjured something in her hands. "And I do intend on doing a rather apt job at it." The circles around her flower bright red, and from the ground emerged several monsters and Grimm. What appeared to be a Deathstalker Grimm emitting an ethereal dark shadow around itself, along with a creature that had the heads of a lion and a goat with both of them having horns atop their heads and feathery wings on it's back, with a slender and long tail that was actually the head of a snake hissing at them. Finishing up the lineup was...

"Woah, wah?" Penny blinked. "That looks like the combat androids from back home! Except...!" With the way it was currently emitting a dark and sinister flow around itself, and current total readying it's weapon systems, and looked overall far more demonic than mechs usually tend to be, Penny could quickly gather that there has been a bit of tampering with this machinery.

"You all aren't the only ones who like to play around with technology." Callista smiled.

"They're emitting demonic energy in waves." Penny analyzed while tilting her head, puzzled. "Does that it's demonic forces are turning it's technology demonic as well? It is a machine empowered and transformed by it's self sustainable demonic energy."

"So, a Mechanical Demon? A MechaDemon?" Ruby blinked.

There was a pause, then a loud gasp, as both Penny and Ruby's eyes grew big and sparkly. They clasped hands and marveled at the demonic androids in front of them, each lifting one foot up for good measure.

"A new discovery, a new possibility! How sensational!"

"That is so COOL! Does it use demonic weapons?!"

"Most likely!"

"I wanna see I wanna see!"

"I would like to as well!"

"They're our enemies though, so still a bad thing. But it's a COOL bad thing!"

Cinder rolled her eyes at them, while her attention lies ahead towards the mixed creature ahead of her, along with the Deathstalker. "That mixed beast over there..."

"Yeah, I see it. Kinda hard not to." Oscar held up the Long Memory and kept it tightly held. "That's definitely a chimera. Lion and goat heads, snake head tail, and wings on its back. And it's a pretty large one, at that..."

"As well as being powerful. It's definitely a mighty beast." Cinder hummed as she extended her hand, which slowly turned into a draconic claw. With the way Cinder was going, it didn't take very long for Oscar to guess what she was probably thinking. "I'll be handling it personally. Can you handle the woman?"

"It seems that she's a sort of demon witch. More specifically, a beldam." Oscar noted as he held his cane in front of him, as Callista was slowly descending upon him for the offensive. "That would sort of explain how the things she summoned are filled with such a surplus of demonic energy."

"A beldam, huh?" Cinder hummed. "I haven't eaten that before."

"Ah." Oscar deadpanned as Cinder flew off towards the Chimera, shifting to her fiery draconic form with a roar. Oscar sighed as he turned towards Callista, eyes narrowing. "Alright, everyone's sorta set. It's just her and me."

"Why, helllooooo there." The beldam cackled wickedly as the energy surging around her began to expand about and become larger and more imposing than before, and Oscar smiled somewhat fearfully.

Yup. Just her and me...this was a terrible mistake.

Over through several rooms, Jaune and Ren were leading the way, whilst Blake, Yang, and Weiss kept further back for the time being, as they noticed that enemies were e beginning to close in on them from several sides.

"Not the warmest of welcomes." Ren noted as he and Jaune were back to back, getting a view of several of the foes around them. "Is it possible that they were waiting for us to arrive?"

"With our kind of luck, I'm almost counting on it." Jaune grumbled as he pushed through, his shield bashing over the door that attempted to block his way.

Yang was also just on her way from making it through the obstacles that began to manifest all around her, only to narrow her eyes and jump back as a massive shattering law slammed into the ground and cracked jr heavily, with said cracks traveling along the ground. She looked up with her hair pushed back to see Yao right up ahead, snarling at how he missed at hitting her.

"Yao, you gotta learn when you're not cut out for something, dude."

"Enough! I'm getting tired of you broads showing me up and messing with my operations! I'm getting damn sick of it!"

"As I said, you might wanna consider changing career paths." hang deadpanned as she jabbed right, smashing her distance into Yao's face while knocking him flat on his back. "You took part of so much fucked up things in order to save your own ass. I really don't think you've earned the right to complain about people showin' up to stop ya." She said as she dodges his upcoming bear swipe upwards, before striking him quick in the chest with a fiery punch that staggered him upon impact. "You've gotta accept it, Papa Bear. Your time is up. You don't get to take other people's time in order for make up for the loss of your own, anymore. This is the end of the line for you."

"Like I'm gonna accept any such thing!" Yao roared as he attempted to claw at her with added shrapnel of earth attached to his arm. She immediately put up her fists and dodge ducked to the right, swiftly closed the distance with a dash forward, and uppercuts Yao right in his lower jaw, sending him off his feet and crashing onto his back.

"It ain't a matter of you accepting it. Now it's just a matter of whether you realize what you're doing is wrong. Guess not."

"Grrr..." Yao snarled as he goes to grab the necklace around his neck and holding it tightly as it began glowing menacingly.

Ren has meanwhile punched his way through an Ursa Major, with Aura smoothly channeling through his arm. It returned to being evenly distributed throughout his body, the flow returning focus to the area around him. Narrowing his eyes, he ducked under as an Alpha Beowulf leapt over his head, and he punched right through it's chest with another Aura infused blow, blasting a hole right through it as well. He took a breath while channeling his Aura into his feet, then moving forward to run and kick another Ursa Major right into a nearby Beowulf, causing them both to crash into the wall.

Jaune finished them both with a single downwards slash, with the two of them being sliced in half from the attack. He and Ren returned to being back to back, as both of them sent an Aura Infused Slash/Palm outwards that either pummeled or slashed apart the Grimm targets surrounding them.

"It would seem that our bear friend has a bit of responsibility towards the precious messes you've had to deal with for a while." Ren noted while kicking away a Beowulf that attempted to lunge towards him. "Several atrocities, and he seems to have been connected to white a few of them. " It might do us well to stop him right here and now, before he can potentially contribute to any more of them."

"I'm with you there!"

Yao was knocked down by a fiery fist blasting a pulled of flames towards him. He ended up crashing against the wall and falling to all fours. Smoke rose off of his body as Yang cracked her knuckles and rolled her neck slightly.

"End of the line for ya, Yao. You don't get to mess with any more lives that save your own ass."

Yao snarled as he felt some of them beginning to surround him, cutting off any further attempts at escaping away. He growled and stomped his way back up, his Aura flaring malevolently. There was no way this was how it ends. He was going to pull off all the stops he possibly could to come out on top above all of this, and he meant it.

He needed the help. This was his last chance, he couldn't waste it no matter what.

"NEO!"

Yang's eyes widened as she suddenly jumped back, a drilling spiral nearly piercing through her from above. She slid back several feet and narrowed her eyes are the sudden arrival. She lifted her head and pushed away some of the debris that nearly landed atop her. Then she recognized the brown and pink hair, as well as her hetero chromatic eyes, as well as the twirl of her parasol. She slowly stands up and brushes off her blood red dress, before gazing emotionlessly towards Yang.

"Again with you?"

Ren sensed the new arrival as she came down, immediately noting that something was off with her. Though he wasn't given enough time to ponder it, as Yao was attempting to gain more soap e between everyone as Neo sped forth in the offensive. Ren immediately thrusts a palm forth, and the shockwave of his Aura smashed right through the wall Yao nearly left at, startling him. He briskly turned towards Ren, who simply shook his head. Like he was simply going to let him leave after everything he did.

"Are you really gonna get in my way?!"

"I'm afraid I'll have to. From what I've heard, your escape acts are getting quite troublesome." Ren nodded. "You won't escape this time. You haven't considered the lives of those you trampled upon in order to stave off capture for several moments longer. This is the day all of your past transgressions catch up to you for good."

"Who do you think you are?!" Yao savagely roared, as he charged towards Ren with an enlarged bear claw, and swiped downwards, sliding up several bits of the ground.

He failed to hit Ren with any of them though, as he seamlessly moved around the blows without nary a flinch. Aura channeled and flowed through Ren's body and eventually began gathering into his hands. Soon enough, his movements flowed smoothly towards Yao, and places both his hands on his chest, with his left hand sideways above his right hand which is pointing down.

Right after wards, a surging beam of Aura shoots through Yao and carves through the terrain behind him, rending the earth and even piercing through the side of a nearby mountain, until it ended with an explosive blast of Aura are the end of it's path. Ren stepped back to observe as Yao looked out of it, not knowing what was where, coughing blood until he fell to his knees, and soon fell over onto his face.

Jaune looked rather impressed with his friend's accomplishment, with both of them looking out towards the hole he made in the wall, and both of them bumped fists. "Looks like he won't be getting up again. Thank goodness for that, he won't get away anymore."

Ren looked at his friend, exhaustedly. "Perhaps we should save that for after he's most certainly in custody, with no chances of slipping away again."

"That...is an excellent point. We should-" As he said this, both of them were startled as bubbles of blood gathered around Yao's unconscious form, and eventually took him under, in which he eventually vanished. Jaune groaned and palmed his face. "Damn it! I jinxed us!"

Yang launched the ground, which launched several fiery pillars from the ground. Neo smoothly dodged around each and every one of them. Though once she saw that Yao has been whisked away, she jumped upwards as she too, vanished right into a portal of blood.

"Are you kidding me?! That bastard got away AGAIN! For fuck's sake!" Yang growled as she clutched her head in agitation.

"I'd be calm about this for a little bit, Yang." Weiss narrowed her eyes as she swiped Myrtenaster across, several pillars of ice shooting up and piercing through the Grimm around her. Blake had done the same, swiping Gambol Shroud in a vicious arc that sliced through many of the Grimm that came to obstruct them. "We will have time another day to capture them both or eliminate them out right. But for now, we must continue making our way through this labyrinth."

They both heard a gasp and turned towards Nora, who jumped ahead and slammed her warhammer through a wall, taking it down in a single blow. She grinned as immediately afterwards, a Manticore Grimm leapt at her with the attempt to a life at her with its claws. But with a smooth maneuver, Pyrrha and Jaune used their shields to block against both it's claw strikes and knock it off balance, whilst Nora and Ren both moved on either sides of it. With lightning in her hammer and Aura through his palm, both of them slammed down onto the Manticore Grimm's head and crushed it utterly, leaving the Grimm pulverized from the assault.

Everyone landed in unison, with Nora and Ren next to each other and smiling up ahead.

"Any reason you chose to go this way, Nora?"

"You betcha! Check that out!" Nora pointed forward as the gang gazed upon the entrance to a wide spread vault, filled with various amounts of inscriptions. "Looks like Oscar was right on the money with this one!"

"This labyrinth is a holdover from the Genesis Age. It explains the immense dense magic energy I can feel within it." Weiss narrowed her eyes while rubbing her chin. "I dread to think of what these scoundrels could want from places like this. Fortunately we were able to stop them quickly."

"Nn. And if Oscar and Ruby's hunches are right, we'll be able to keep people like that from infiltrating them again." Blake nodded slowly. "Until then, let's guard this area until we have the all-clear."

Up back with Ruby, she leapt over the extended tail of the Death Stalker, which had cratered the ground upon impact. She leapt around other tail lashes it made several times, dashing around them on all fours while leaping ahead. It's stinger lashed out akin to a blur, though she was faster; she ducked under a lash without so much as flinching, then went and hopped over another one with a similar amount of effort. It lashed it's stinger at her, and she kicked it away, seeing it crash through the wall beside her. She soon dashes forth and heel kicked it atop it's head, cracking the ground around them. Her ears twitched as she leapt upwards before the stinger could return and stab her from behind.

She skidded backwards while looking around in the space, and could see Cinder going against the Chimera. She fired a torrent if flames towards the two headed ferocious beast, only for it to return the favor with a huge plume of flames of its own. Cinder stomped the ground and held her ground, intensifying her own flames.

"You think you can overpower me?! You're welcome to try!" The push back, the resistance, seemed to invigorate her somewhat, as she pushed through the flames with her own, and slammed her clawed fist into the goat head of the two, knocking the creature down a few times.

Ruby soon turned to another part of the room, where Own thing was flying about and combating the demonic combat droids. Admittedly, they were quite quick and powerful themselves; channeling the demonic energy through their weapons and attempting to slash at her through their blades. She turned around as a forcefield deflected the slashes, and she clashed swords with several of her floating ones, fascinated.

"Intriguing. They're able to handle this demonic presence quite well." Penny hummed curiously as she flipped over one and kicked it into the ground, smashing one into pieces. Another one attempted to blast her from behind with a widespread explosion, and her forcefield protected her against that as well. Two of her swords pinned to get her and spun rapidly, blasting a green beam of energy that slammed into the assailing android and crashed it into the wall. "Quite dangerous, these are."

Ruby hummed at Penny's analytical nature whilst observing the demonic androids, and turned around back to Oscar, whom she was on the verge of assisting, as soon as the Death Stalker could be pushed away from her.

Oscar rolls about as the shards nearly pierced him, and he kept himself from being attack for several seconds at a time. Trapping several projectiles in time bubbles that slowed them down for four seconds, which was just enough for him to get out of the way of the worse attacks heading his direction.

"You're quite young to involve yourself in affairs such as this." Callista snickered as another wave as another wave of research soon engulfed the area, nearly lasting Oscar under. Fortunately he jumped over it with a boosted jump. "You ought to know when not to get involved in the affairs of others! It only ensures that you get the punishment for meddling that you deserve!"

"M-Meddling?!" Oscar calls out, as he rolled our of the way of several more blasts, until his back literally is against the wall. He ducked under yet another, fleeing from the onslaught. "You can't be serious about that, can you?!"

"Don't play silly now, we all know that you and your group of troublemakers like causing ad uss, and it's rather irritating to those trying to conduct business! You and your lot tend to get in the way!" Callista pushed forth, as a darkened gust of wind slams into Oscar and knocks him into the ground with a bloodied gasp. "That's why I'm here, to put a stop to you young meddling nuisances! I've been picked for this mission, and I'll need this on my resume in order to be picked out my other large names! I'm on my way to increasing the notoriety of witches everywhere! Much like our idol would have wanted!"

"W-What idol...?"

Oscar struggled as the waves pushed against him, keeping his best to hold his ground as Callista stepped forth with greater strides. "The greatest, wickedest witch of all! Salem!"

Ruby, turning towards the beldam with widened eyes of surprise, was stunned just long enough for the Death Stalker to happen upon her, slamming its tail against her side with enough force to smash her into the nearby wall. Penny gasped as she immediately had several of the demonic androids up in wires and slammed them down onto the ground, before rushing off to tend to Ruby. Oscar was meanwhile left with the beldam that crashed several bits of lightning in his direction. He kept his barrier up, wincing and sweating from the strain.

"No witch in history can match the sheer wickedness of the Sorceress Supreme, Salem!" Callista smirked as the Death Stalker immediately turned it's sights towards Oscar, it's eyes flowing menacingly. "The inspiration of many an evil witch throughout the centuries! Her four hundred year reign over Remnant was tragically short, but that short time sparked a new age of wicked witches!"

"Oh boy." Oscar grunted as he rolled our of the way of the stinger that nearly slammed right into him. Overhead, he gasped at the sight of the Chimera slamming Cinder right into the wall, whilst she was in her draconic form, the two of them breathing fire at one another.

"This beast isn't messing around, so it might actually be worth my time!" Cinder roared, while glaring in the direction Ruby was sent flying. "Get up, Ruby! I know for a fact that something like that isn't enough to stall you for long!"

Oscar was slammed against the wall, rolling our of the way of the Death Stalker attempting to pierce him with it's stinger again. Callista came down with an array of floating orbs, which each short towards him. He set up a barrier and tried to defend against them, slowing them down so he could escape their range once again.

"The greatest wicked witch of all. Her presence inspired fear in all living things, she strove to ruin all things around her. To bring pain and misery to the world of Remnant and ensure its kept in an eternal state of agony!" Callista pushed downwards as Oscar was brought to his knees from the amount of pressure crashing atop his head. "I have a chance of rising to greater heights and becoming capable of improving upon and reigniting her sinister legacy! You'll all serve as a nice stepping stone towards this end!"

Oscar narrowed his eyes as he used another bubble to slow down another barrage of attacks, while turning towards Penny as she was lifting the rubble off of Ruby. Then he turned back towards Callista and pulled himself up, tightly gripping the Long Memory. He pulled back slightly as temporal energy surged through it via his magic. He helped himself back to his feet.

"Call this a hunch...but I don't think Salem would care much about what you're doing today." Oscar grunted while he held the Long Memory forwards. "Some values from the past aren't going to hold up today in the present for various reasons, and those values you talked about are definitely among them!"

Oscar fired a temporal blast towards Callista, who's eyes widened as the clock like glyph expanded around her and slowed her down by severe seconds. The energy around her expanded for several moments, before it closed around her and resulted in a concussion explosion that sent her flying across the room and slamming into the wall, disoriented and embedded in it. Oscar sighed as he stared at the Long Memory, the stored up energy slowly dissipating and returning to normal. He sighed breathlessly. Well, he can now be sure that the modifications worked.

Meanwhile, Ruby shot up from the rubble she was buried under, to the slight surprise of Penny. She soon zipped towards the Death Stalker that tried once more to pierce and sting Oscar while he was tired. She pulled back her fist, which eventually expanded and enlarged into a slightly hulking wolf paw, and slammed it right on top of the Death Stalker's head, completely crushing it as well as the surrounding ground around her. She rose up from the corpse, her breath briefly misty.

Over on the other end of things, the Chimera clashed claws with the draconic Cinder, who briefly had to move her neck to the side. Not because it was going for her neck-though she wasn't going to chance that either way-but mostly because it very nearly tore into her scarf that grew with her. She snarled at this as she grabbed it's goat head by the horns.

"Don't you dare ruin this. Or I'll hurt you even worse."

She lifted the beast by its goat horns and slammed it roughly into the ground with a surging crack. It attempted to breathe fire through its lion head, but she shoved her paw right onto its mouth and forced the fire back into it, along with channeling some of her own into the mix. The result was the creature gasping hoarsely as a fiery explosion went off from inside its body. And she could tell that definitely did some serious damage, as even though it still managed to throw her off of it to a degree, it couldn't get up as quickly as before, its mouths emitting smoke from its torched body inside and out. She actually grinned at this, her draconic instincts delighting her to her prey's struggling against her. It would only prove her draconic superiority further once she subdues such powerful prey.

The chimera attempted to lunge towards her and impale her with the goat horns. She immediately caught it by the head, briefly seeing the snake head tail shooting towards her with bared fangs. She blasts a wave of heat off of her as the snake head recoiled from her. She soon clenched her clawed fist and smashed it into the lion head, and an explosive mix of smoke, fire, and embers, sending him scrambling into the ground, against the wall. It fell to the ground, and despite its best attempts as if was growling, it couldn't get up again.

"You fought well, beast. I commend your strength." The dragoness cooed as she stomped her way over to the Chimera, her fangs bared and appearing quite large over the defeated beast. "Now then..."

Callista gasped as she landed on her feet, barely able to catch her breath. Ruby and Oscar stood over her, whilst Penny landed behind her and restrained her with her techno magic wires. The woman gasped and kept trying to catch her breath, which ended with a sigh as her face gave way, and her true appearance came about. She was covered in warts, her skin was quite wrinkled, her rotten teeth were crooked, and her nails were hideously long. Her back hunched slightly from her restraint, and her hair vanished from her head.

"So you changed yourself up a bit." Ruby hummed while adjusting her cape and cowl, her wolf ears twitching.

"Considering your name means something along the lines of beauty, the fact that you are actually hideous is quite ironic!" Penny innocently declared, and Oscar felt bad for having to repress a snort of laughter.

"That was cold blooded, Penny."

"Was it? I actually feel quite warm."

Callista sighed and lightly called while holding herself up to her knees. "Heh...so you all weren't pushovers. No matter. Your defeat is all but assured in eventuality."

Ruby walked up to the old woman and knelt down in front of her, arms over her knees. "You think you know about Salem's will, huh? What does that even mean?"

The woman gazed towards her. "She has embodied all of the traits that a true witch would have! She's the apex of all witches, the centerpiece of a witch's way of life. Misery and agony for all." She called while shaking her head. "There would be no point in a mutt like you trying to understand. Werewolves aren't capable of such thought processes."

"Try me." Ruby deadpanned. "Witches are supposed to be evil and cruel and mean and stuff, right? Casting curses on people, spreading plagues and diseases, kidnapping children for slavery or sacrifices, ruining crops, and in a major sense just out right refusing to even think about using their magic for good." Ruby rolled her eyes at Callista's doubtful gaze. "My years of storybook reading tends to pay off in times like these. Now, you really think that this is the kind of thing Salem did during her time? Just hurting everybody and everything around her for the sake of it, for a good laugh, for some of her goal? Just being cruel and spitting on the sanctity of life?"

"It's the ideal that all witches strive for. It's the ideal that Salem set forth."

Ruby just stared dully at her. "You know, at some point, the word 'witch' was simply one other title to call female magic users. People like you are the ones who gives that term an even worse evil reputation than it already has."

"As it should always be."

"...Oscar. Penny." Ruby soon noted seriously.

Both of them nodded to each other, and once more, they serve forth a Chronic Echo bubble, this time using Callista as a medium in order to see what Ruby was suspecting. It didn't take them very long to understand what they were currently gazing at.

It was a glimpse into the Dark Ages.

Callista was a bit younger back then, somewhat of a young woman with a cleaner complexion. She was currently being tested, along with many other a witch around her. With a small smile, she joined the others in acts that tests her cruelty. Like turning people into animals and leaving them helpless at the whims of their predators, spreading diseases among those without the resources to quickly combat them. And posing as sweet old ladies who had children's best interests at heart, only to cruelly betray them for the means of enslaving them, sacrificing them, or outright eating them.

Back then, they've only significantly worsened the fear of being left alone outside of the safety of civilization, alongside the threat of other creatures such as the Grimm. The fear and terror they spread added to the sheer oppressive atmosphere of the Dark Age, and wouldn't let up for years to come. As not only were these practices encouraged, but actively cultivated and rewarded.

Once Callista passed her trials-dooming her home village to death via starvation and dehydration by closing off their escape, then creating an oppressive plague from her cauldron and utterly ruining their food and water supplies-accepted a new practice of demonic magic, she became one of the demonic witches known as a Beldam.

She was ecstatic, but of course admitted without shame she couldn't come anywhere close to the amount of malice that her idol was capable of.

The Chronic Echo bubble soon disperses, and Callista smiled knowingly at them. Oscar shook his head, while Ruby's was lowered.

"Oscar. Those were..."

"Yeah. Salem Witch Trials." Oscar muttered. "Testing to see if those are truly committed to Salem's 'ideals'..."

"As our biggest inspiration, of course we would name them after her." Callista smiles. "Of course, we could never top her. We could only dream. Especially with what we consider her most inspiring act or malevolence. Her coupling with The High Wizard, Ozma!"

Oh no. Oscar mentally panicked as he could already see the darkening look on Ruby's face.

"She lured him in with her captivating charms, allowing him to drop his guard around her. He was wrapped around her finger, and they even had four daughters together. So that once the opportunity fame, she'd either completely have him under her heel forced into complete obedience, or she could completely and utterly crush his spirit." Callista looked positively thrilled. "The fool was crushed! He truly believed she loved him and their daughters! They were all a means to an end towards her ultimate domination over the world, and subjugating or eliminating her biggest obstacle! And to prove it and finalize her wickedness, she killed them right before his eyes! His spirit was irrevocably shattered!" Callista cackled at the thought of the event. "Such dedication to crushing a hero's spirit is awe-inspiring! She truly is the Queen of Evil we all aspire to be like! She's the ideal of what ALL witches should-"

"Ruby. Calm down." Oscar carefully asked his close friend.

...Huh?

Callista was so taken in by her maddened spiel, she completely didn't notice that Ruby had her wolf claws around her throat, and they were just shy of completely tearing it out. Thanks to Oscar stopping her at the last moment, the claws only got as far as barely beginning to pierce her skin. Several trickles of blood ran down her neck, but otherwise no serious damage was done. All the while, Ruby was gazing at Callista with her animalistic silver eyes, her disquieting calm gaze having barely been broken. Though Oscar and Penny could very easily tell what she was thinking behind those eyes. The silence weighed heavily on them for several moments, with Ruby's fur standing in a rather feral manner, contemplating on whether or not she should go through with it.

It all invoked the image of a wolf having it's fangs around the throat of it's potential kill. Callista blinked owlishly at how she wouldn't have been able to notice she could have been killed right then and there if Ruby wasn't stopped.

"So you're not a fangless werewolf pup." Callista admitted with a sincerely impressed huff. Ruby just gazed calmly at her.

"...This is why we keep updating our history books and stuff. So we can have an accurate understanding of what happened in the past. Because you've got a few facts so terribly wrong, I can't even begin to bother correcting you." Ruby uttered, her hands turning back to normal as she pushed herself off the ground, and began walking away. "I've heard enough. Oscar, let's get what we're here for."

"Right." Oscar nodded as he got up and followed her. Penny means while kept watch over Callista, who narrowed her eyes are Ruby's back.

"I got the facts wrong? What does a filthy bitch like her know?"

"Ruby is actually far more informed than you on the truth." Penny casually declared. Not even in an outwardly insulting way, but rather a factual and clinical way. Which might be slightly worse. "But unfortunately, I do not think it will matter to you for very long."

"How so...?" Callista trailed off, only for the dragoness to stomp her way over to her from behind. The woman slowly turned around to meet her gaze, her fiery eyes glaring into hers.

"Take a good guess." Cinder growled. Callista got an extended look at her, and then her eyes widened towards the dragons now engorged belly. She looked around for her defeated Chimera and expecting it to be dead and probably burned, only to realize it was nowhere to be found. She slowly turned her head back towards the dragon and her stomach, hearing infuriated roaring from within, and immediately put two and two together.

"D...Did you eat my Chimera?!" She gawked, unable to believe it even if she was currently seeing it right in front of her. The dragoness smirked as her tail lightly tapped the side of her stuffed belly to further revel in her victory, alongside taunting the Chimera and its master. She's making it quite clear who's come out of this encounter the superior, dominant one.

"Such a large and powerful creature indeed. A worthy repast. Though it won't be quite complete without you, now would it?" Cinder growled as she picked up Callista by the back of her gown, gazing viciously at her. "You got quite a dedication to your cause. I'll admit to respecting how far you're willing to take it. That takes quite an immense amount of tenacity, with a hint of delusion. Not to mention, your power is somewhat impressive as well." Cinder gradually broke into a cruel smile. "But I'm superior to you in both tenacity and power, as I've decisively proven. I do thank you for giving me the opportunity to demonstrate that fact."

"You've proven nothing..." Callista snarled back defiantly.

"You may have passed the Salem Witch Trials back then and were rewarded with power, but you and your pet Chimera failed today's trial of coming out on top against a dragon's power. Here's your penalty." Callista was greeted to a rather menacing view of the dragon's jaws slowly parting, and the utterly distressing sounds of her Chimera angrily struggling from within. Despite being somewhat disconcerted by the prospect of her upcoming fate, she refused to cower and whimper. A true follower of Salem's Will never concedes to regretting her malevolence. She remains proud and unflinching of her malice to the bitter end, just like her idol.

If she only knew...

Ruby and Oscar approached the very end of the room, stopping in front of the circular clock pillar in front of them. Oscar briefly sensed the energy welling within it, and nodded to Ruby. "Yeah, this is definitely one of them. The information, as well as our hunches, were right. How about it?"

"Yeah, do it."

Oscar placed his hand against the pillar, and it glowed a bright green and responded to him, the sounds of a loudly ticking ethereal clock echoing throughout the room. The image of a hand clock spinning counter clockwise soon came into play, and after enough rotations it stopped at a certain point, and a holographic magic image soon came up, with someone sitting in front of the pillar.

"After enough trial and error, I managed to figure it out." The person began speaking. "The reason the Grimm Devils were able to evade everyone for so long and are able to torment the world as they do. It's mostly from a distance. They each reside in their own personal domain. Their authority over said domain is so overwhelmingly powerful that not even those with dimensional magics or technology can break through them safely. They, or those they've infused with their power-thus granting them some of their 'authority'-have to willingly let you in. Tricking you into entering their domain falls under this rule as well. It IS possible to forcefully leave on your own...but that's simultaneously easier and yet even more difficult than getting inside, because they can freely manipulate this territory to their whims, and they will not let you easily escape with your life."

"Unless you are exceptionally prepared and powerful enough to manage it, a straightforward battle against a Grimm Devil in their own domain is not recommended. As such, the best way to confront them is to get them to leave their domain, forcefully seal the 'door' to their domain before they can reenter it, and defeat them quickly before the seal wears off. It will not last forever, as they're actively wearing it down with their presence alone, and you also have to focus on maintaining that seal against that pressure, hence the urgency of defeating them quickly. They WILL outlast you if the battle is extensive."

"The longest I've managed was two minutes. Of course, all of that in of itself is easier said than done. I've only managed to lure some of them out four times, and was defeated and nearly killed for it twice in battle before they eventually vanished back into their domains."

"They do not make it easy..."

The image soon disperses, and Oscar committed several of the images to memory, alongside the sigils and runes he saw along the way. The sealing glyph appears in Oscar's grimoire, and he closed if and placed it in his satchel, he does writing things down in his book.

"Alright, this was pretty helpful. They really left quite a bit of information behind here." Oscar nodded.

"So they're hiding away into their own personal domains that can't be forced into without being put in a severely heavy disadvantage. No wonder so few were able to find them, and even fewer could pin them down." Ruby scratched her wolf ears. "Never mind fighting them. Just to confront them, they'd have to either willingly come out of their personal realm, or invite/force you in. Kicking them out of their own home from the inside isn't an option. We aren't capable of that. Yet."

We'll find a way to make that impossibility possible. But it's best to take this one at a time.

"Ooh! Alliteration fun! We'll call these places 'Devil Domains' as a term to remember them by!" Penny raised her hand excitedly, and both Ruby and Oscar chuckled.

"Sure, Pen. Whatever works." Oscar nods, which for a bright smile out of the bionic mage."

"Alright then. Basically we have to lure and lock a Grimm Devil outside of their home turf to force them to fight on our terms. Fighting them in their home territories is asking for a serious butt kicking with us on the receiving end, so we avoid that as much as we can." Ruby rubbed her chin while gazing at the pillar. "Not to mention that bit about them granting 'authority' to others to access their domain. Oscar, you don't think...?"

"Deals with Devils. Yeah, the thought came to me too. It's definitely a very likely possibility. Best keep it in mind, just in case." Oscar held up his grimoire. "I could probably learn to form the sealing glyph through my clock magic, but even if I managed it, I'm not gonna last long against a Grimm Devil tearing away at it just by being there. I wouldn't have the reserves to maintain it for long with something like that at my back."

"I can assist with that." Oscar blinked as Penny gently approached form behind, sliding her hands around him in a hug. "It is much like our collaboration when we formulated our Chronic Echoes bubbles. With my magitek magic enhancing this 'Chronic Sealing', we can keep the Grimm Devils from reentering their domain before we defeat them. I can help you keep if stabilize it and increase the time it lasts."

"It's like trying to keep a door to the house locked from the outside. Activating the locks from the outside remotely could backfire in certain circumstances." Oscar looked towards Ruby. "Any way you put it, these takedowns will require a team effort to pull off."

"Definitely." Ruby sighed while pulling out her Scroll. "Exploration was a success, everyone. Time to regroup! And take a breather...whew."

Upon Ruby's suggestion, everyone else managed to gather back to where she and the others were, and they occupied the space enough to sit around and rest until they were prepared to leave. Of course, Cinder was currently taking up a huge chunk of that very space with her current satiated self, which brought rolling eyes to Weiss, a chuckle from Yang and Nora, a sigh from Jaune, and a smile from Pyrrha.

"What was it this time?" Jaune sits down next to Ren and Nora while gazing about at the dragon in the room. Oscar and Penny joined in on the small circle, as Cinder gazed at him and huffed.

"A beldam witch and her Chimera. A beast merged with a monster lion, goat, and snake. It was certainly a rarity to behold." Cinder growled while rolling onto her back, her wings briefly spread across the floor. "She spoke rather annoyingly, but she was at least willing to stick to her nonsense to the very end. That is more than I can say for most who'd back down from their words when it becomes clear they'll die upholding them. Despite her hunched back, she actually had something akin to a backbone."

"And thus this is what she gets for it?" Weiss deadpanned while gesturing to all of Cinder. She half-scoffed, half-hiccupped.

"Why of course. She failed the trial by fire against me, and obviously there are penalties for that. Not my fault she wasn't prepared for what that penalty would entail." Cinder lowered her eyes as her clawed paw lightly reached across the ground. "What is it with all of these rules, traditions, and clues from the past? You would think that people would learn to let go of such things at some point."

"I don't quite agree with that line of thought, Cinder." Ren hummed whilst sitting next to Nora, her hand atop his own. "It's very important that we take occasional looks into history. Not to the degree that it takes over, but to occasionally refresh our memories on what used to be. There are times that we have to face our pasts. They're filled with lessons that will help us enhance the wisdom we've gained."

"If we don't do that, eventually something is gonna pop up that'll mess up our ability to live in the present with a mostly free mind and no massive weight on your mind." Nora stretched her arm while slight crackles of pink lightening danced around her. "The present can be considered a gift, as it means we've lived to thrive for another day. The best way to handle the present is with confidence!"

"And should it fester even further and worse than that, without ever dealing with it properly...we might find our selves without a future." Pyrrha briefly takes off her circlet and let's her hair down, flowing it with a few shakes and a push of her hand. "The future is our motivation, and how it ends up rests within our hands. That realization gives way to responsibility. And with that, our ability to dream becomes more power than ever, our control over our destinies greatly enhanced."

Cinder wondered about all of this. And as she did, Ruby jumped upwards in a swirl of rose petals, and landed gracefully atop the center of the dragon's belly. She gazed at her while sitting down cross legged. Tilting her head, she lightly placed her hand atop the surface of it.

"Sheesh. You really are a big ol' monster muncher, huh? What a big, round, soft tummy you got here!" Ruby's wolf ears twitched slightly, hearing the muffled sound of roaring and cursing. "These two really don't appreciate being on the other end of it, though."

"Well that's just too damn bad, isn't it?" Cinder scoffed, though her gaze curiously remained on Ruby as something the Beldam madly ranted about before came to her. "Ruby. What that Beldam said about Salem..."

Ruby was quietly silent for the moment, unblinking as she locked gazed with Cinder. The werewolf stared idly at the dragon as her fluffy tail calmly waved back and forth behind her, as she tried to figure out what to say, how much she should say, and how she should say it. In the end, she decided. "Cinder. Grandma Salem's story isn't mine to tell in full, it's hers. But to put it simply, she's had a terrible life. And what makes it even sadder, is that a good chunk of it was self-inflicted. A lot of things could have been different if she had been wiser with her choices, and she knows this. She's really good at not letting it show on her face, but she has thousands of years of regret weighing on her heart."

The regrets on her heart...

The fool was crushed! He truly believed she loved him and their daughters! They were all a means to an end towards her ultimate domination over the world, and subjugating or eliminating her biggest obstacle! And to prove it and finalize her wickedness, she killed them right before his eyes!

That portrait of Salem, with that main and four little girls...

Don't touch that. Mind your hands. I did not give your permission to...

From how utterly visceral she reacted to the mere possibility of Cinder damaging it, the latter had guessed that it was incredibly important to her. And now even further, she's able to put two and two together and figure out who all of those people were in the portrait with her. And now, she's quite certain that the nonsense that Callista was spouting was just that, nonsense. She had absolutely no idea of the actual truth, as Cinder herself has seen hints of it from the source.

"...What about this 'Ozma'?"

"Ozma has been dead for a long time. His soul fully passed on, ever since the end of the Barren Age." Oscar briefly jumps in, looking towards Cinder. He briefly locked eyes with Ruby and they nodded to each other. "But because he was one of the greatest Magic users to ever live, alongside Salem herself, remnants of his formerly vast power were left scattered across the world. And certain people who come across it, end up with this magic power 'bequeathed' itself to them , and they wield it in as their own, thus carrying on his torch in a roundabout way. There have been several of them. The Old Wizard that was saved by the Four Maidens, the Warrior King that protected Vale during the beginning years of the Dark Ages, my mentor Ozpin..." Oscar's body briefly pulsed green. "...and myself."

That...Cinder was absolutely not expecting.

"Only those who carry on torches of Ozma's magic can fully access the secrets he's left behind." Ruby hummed. "And some of those secrets could definitely help on fighting against the threats that he and Grandma left behind. Ozpin is mostly focused on managing Vale's safety and protection. That's why I need Oscar's help. He's more open and free to go where he wants. Which is with his friends."

"Somewhat. But he's overall fine with me going where I wish to go so long as I check up with him every now and then." Oscar nodded. "He provided a better farming life for my aunt, so it's not like I'm not grateful to him. I just think...he needs to be more openly...open with people. Sometimes he forgets he's not the only one who wants to protect the world, and he's not the only one capable of doing it."

"Ozpin is bad at trusting people sometimes." Penny pouted cutely with folded arms, still recalling how much Ozpin placed pressure on Oscar the other day when they visited Salem's cottage.

"He's an asshole." Cinder growled. She hasn't forgotten how he laid out a laundry list of terrible things that could happen to her with the same tone of describing the weather, just to gauge her potential response and threat level. She doesn't give a damn what his deal was or his reasons, Cinder vehemently hated his guts from then onward.

"...He just needs to connect with the people around him more." Oscar smiled. "And not just a vague acquaintance, ally like thing, actually connecting. It sometimes doesn't dawn upon him that he really does have friends he can trust count on."

"Tch." Cinder scoffed, but didn't argue further. "So...this whole thing. Ruby wants to be the Demon Queen after Salem. And Oscar has holdovers of Ozma's power. Salem and Ozma had a special bond..."

"You could say that our destinies ended up crossing over one another." Oscar shrugged. "There are some things Ozma left behind that he wasn't able to deal with, so plenty of people after him continued his work. I'm kind of next in line for that. Uncovering the finding he and others like him left behind fall under some of the things I gotta do."

"And me..." Ruby sighed. "In an overall sense, Grandma did a lot of bad stuff during her time, a lot of stuff that end up having far reaching consequences on Remnant. We have these witches and others who worship who she was during her eviler days, and wanna continue the cycle of pain and misery she helped start. And we have the Grimm Devils, who believe Salem cowardly backed down from conquering the world and destroying everything and everyone that's not Grimm. She left a pretty nasty legacy behind, and it's grown beyond her ability to fix. And she believes she's hurt the world enough already. Needless to say, Grandma is not at all proud of the life she lived up to that point. She's not happy with the story she's lived through. And because of that story she's unhappy with, it left a sinister shadow over Remnant that lasted a very long time."

"Salem's legacy, huh..."

"Yup. I wanna replace that sinister shadow she placed over the world, with a much kinder and gentler shadow. One everyone can sleep peacefully under, and allow them to better face their negative sides of themselves and accept that it's okay for feel these things and have them be a part of you and your life. Turning them into something good and helpful isn't impossible."

Cinder tilted her head. "You want to replace Salem's shadow over the world with your own?"

"I want to write a better story for her. I want Grandma to have a legacy she can be proud of. A warmer one." Ruby looked upwards with narrowed eyes. "It's the other thing that will prove that I can become the Demon Queen. In order to create a better legacy for Grandma, I have to overwrite her old one first. That means getting rid of the Grimm Devils that try to crush everyone and everything continuing where she left off, and all those who follow the old shadow of Grandma. Once I've done all that...I can replace that old legacy with a newer and better one." Ruby lowered her eyes. "And then...maybe Grandma can allow herself to feel happier about herself. I'm not saying she'll heal completely. That might not be possible after everything that happened to her and what she's done and regretted. But if I do this, then there will no longer be any constant reminders of the worst, most shameful times of her life. This final burden will be lifted off her shoulders, and she can hold her head up high at having a much better legacy in her name. She'll be able to continue through life, with a more stable sense of peace of mind."

Cinder hummed softly, while looking towards Ruby's resolute expression. And hearing the sincere tone in her voice. The dedication and affection she had whenever she spoke about her Grimm Grandmother. And even though it's incredibly obvious, it was beginning to dawn on her even further after hearing more about Ruby's drive.

A hefty deal of it was for her grandmother's sake. Obviously she accomplishes something of her own, but so much of this has to do with her grandmother, Salem. Cinder won't ask any further because it's also rather personal, but from what she's far here's, Salem was one of the most menacing figures in Remnant's history. How she went from that to being a loving and spoiling grandmother living in a humble cottage, she couldn't guess. But Ruby willing to go this far for her further made it clear to Cinder that she really loves her with all her heart. A repayment, a show of gratitude for someone who nurtured and cared for her and taught her how to navigate around the world.

Something about that managed to reach Cinder. She respects Ruby now more than ever. How secure and confident she was in herself and her abilities, as well as her friends and family. She felt slightly envious of it, but she couldn't be more impressed with her at that moment. Both because of her grand ambitions, and because of her sheer and sincere love for Salem further strengthening said ambitions, and that allowing herself to become stronger, and strengthening everyone around her.

It reminded her of...

...

Cinder sighed as she reached her claws around her enlarged scarf, gently getting a feel for it and lowering her eyes as most of the conversation regarding the others drowned out for a moment.

...Hmph. How quick of a turn around this was. To think I wanted to push back on ever being reminded of the past.

And yet here I am, longing to re-experience that one time in my life, that I felt the warmth of one who cared wholeheartedly for me. That very first time in my life, the experience of actually feeling happy about myself.

...the very first time I felt safe and secure enough, to be happy to be me.

---

"Wait! Wait!" Yao grunted as he began backpedaling in a panic, fully realizing what was about to happen to him, and doing his damnedest to try and talk his way out of it. Though he knew well in his heart that words would not do anything, give the company he was surrounded by.

"Aw, look at that, sis! He's begging for his life!" The first sister grinned as she was crackling with lightning.

"I do believe you have completely exhausted your ability to be beneficial to our mother. Therefore it's only sensible you will be useful in another fashion." The second sister breathes an icy mist, calmly gazing at Yao.

He blinked despondently as he realized the futility of his situation. He glared and fully shifted to that of a werebear. "I'm not going out without..."

He trailed off, having an opened jawed expression or disbelief. He could see his body a few feet away from him, and he soon began to realize that his head had been separated from his body before he even felt it. Well, now he could barely feel anything. And he swore he saw a blip of lightning before it all happened. Now that too, sight, was useless. The first sister chuckled while casually watching blood drip from his torn off head.

"Yapping Yao. What a piss-poor lead grunt you were." She scoffed as she casually drank from the blood of the head.

Meanwhile her sister had wistfully fed from the blood of the rest of the body, not taking much time at all to consume all of it. Then she stepped back as the shriveled body was immediately frozen in red ice. She hummed while tilting her head. "I was correct. He does make for a sturdy ice sculpture. His torso, at least."

Far in the back, several of the head vampires were regrouping for a meeting, and one of them nearly cracked the table they were near in half after getting a full recollection of what had happened.

"Defeated so easily. How disgustingly pitiful." One of the huffed at the mention of Yao, how was currently being drained and eaten by the two vampire sisters. Neo could be seen off to the side staring stoically, several bruises on her face and across her eye. It didn't look like it was caused by her enemies. "And she made an embarrassment out of me with her less than stellar performance. Tch! Well, if there is a silver lining to all of this nonsense, it's that I managed to get the blood energy that we needed."

"Yes, Lady Vanille. That's quite fortuitous for us indeed. Because now, we've made significant progress." Lady Beat added on, briefly flapping her wings while stretching her arms. "This third element has pushed us further onward."

"Precisely so, ladies."

Their lead soon waved in front of the circular orb that hovered above them, as the last of the blood energy they gathered swirled into it.

Some time later, the large orb of blood soon began to harden rapidly. And, akin to an egg hatching, something cracked it's way through the hardened blood orb and climbed it's away out of it. The creature slowly rose it's head. An unsettling set of owl-like wings on one side with the bones being outside of them rather than within them, and the other side appearing to be white wriggling, hissing, and snapping snakes with glowing red eyes of their own.

Not to mention the haunting Grimm Mask it adorned on its face, which seemed to be some unnatural, nightmarish fusion of an owl and a snake screeching in unison. It soon descends upon the trio of vampires as a pair of haunting crimson eyes glowed softly from behind the Grimm Mask. The moment the creature fully began manifesting, many vampires in the area hissed and howled with ecstasy as they were suddenly filled with a vast increase in power. The head herself was mostly calm, even though her own power possibly received the highest surge of them all.

"Nice of you to finally join us. Lilith."

The creature tilted it's head.

"...Mara Mazikeen. You actually kept up to your end of the contract. I was expecting someone of your stature to be a bit more dishonest." It hummed while lightly tapping it's mask. "Then again, your blood will tell me when you're lying, so it wouldn't exactly help you either way, now would it?"

"Indeed." Mara hummed as she sipped some blood from a wine glass. "Now that your power has returned...will you join us in our mutually beneficial path?"

Lilith paused for a moment, it's head still being somewhat tilted.

"Mutually beneficial. You did indeed promise me you'd help establish my own territory in the outside world, in exchange for assisting in your vampiric ascension." Lilith reached out its clawed hand. "My very own, idyllic blood garden. An ideal territory where I can always replenish myself with the blood and negative energy of humans. Theirs have always been the most potent and satiating of all living creatures that walk this world. Oh yes, an eternal banquet of sustenance and indulgence..." The creature slowly smiled in a rather disturbingly blissful manner. "Just imagining it all, feels so wonderfully enrapturing. I can hardly wait."

"Well, good thing for you, the wait won't be long."

"Hm?"

"I have just the place in mind, in order for you to shake off the rust from your years of inactivity. I know an ideal sacrificial ground for you to further restore your power. Just to get you started." Mara finished the rest of her glass. "In exchange for all of this, not only will you continue assisting in my ascension, you'll help me reacquire what is rightfully mine." She slowly looked up, towards the Grimm Devil she's contracted with. "What do you think?"

Lilith's blissful smile slowly turned sinister, the blood swirling around her glowing and humming with chaotic anticipation.

"That sounds...sublime."

Mara nodded as she walked forward, placing her glass down, whilst the glass unicorn statue she passed by glowed a much brighter and menacing red, with the horn on top getting even sharper, the eyes even more malevolent.

It was finally time for her to personally lead her operations.

---

Alright, the entire gang is here! At least, the initial lineup.

Let's get one confirmation out and about!

Red Riding Hood Guild Ages:

Oscar- 19

Ruby and Penny- 21

Weiss, Blake, Ren, Jaune, Nora, Pyrrha- 23

Yang- 24

Cinder- 27

As you can see, Cinder's very much the oldest of the lot, with Yang following. Yang is an extra year older than Ruby in this world. There are a few in-world reasons for that, though it won't be for some time that they're really dived into.

In any which case, it seems that things are about to go wrong. REALLY wrong. Certain preparations are about finished, and a gathering of vampires are done standing by. And they've got themselves a secret weapon that's sure to quickly become not so secret...

We'll see where it all goes next time!