Chapter time.
I'm thinking about changing my update schedule to update this story Wednesdays, instead. With how I usually write, I end up having a chapter of this story finished by Tuesday, and then just sitting unpublished for half a week, as I sparsely look at it, and contemplate if I want to change something about it. In the end, I almost never do.
Whether she liked it or, Winter Schnee had returned from the other world a changed woman.
She was aware of that.
It was next to impossible to have experienced half the things she did in Terravia, and not turn into a completely different person as a result. She knew that from experience, and was beyond lucky that she didn't change for the worse.
Unfortunately, her drastic change, and a year of absence, did come at the cost of alienating her from her family.
Sure, her parents' opinion of her might not have mattered much to her, anymore, but growing distant with Weiss, and partially Whitley as well, hurt her quite a bit.
It was especially painful for her, after she had learned how much worth a family could have back in the other world.
Which was why, despite the strained relations they had, she had been trying her damn hardest to reconnect with her younger siblings, ever since returning to Remnant.
The closed door of team RWBY's room loomed in front of her.
It was only a pity, she had absolutely no idea how to do it properly.
Before her sister went to Beacon, she did try to talk to, and spend time with, her a lot, but all her attempts at connecting with her younger siblings always ended up in failure. Sometimes it was because of how different her perspective was to any ordinary person on Remnant, and other times it was because she simply was too different to how she acted before visiting Terravia.
In the end, no matter what she did, she was always a bit off, when compared to everyone else, to connect with her siblings.
Despite all of that, however, she wasn't about to give up anytime soon.
If it was impossible for her to befriend her siblings back in Atlas, she would simply have to try to do it here in Beacon, and if it turned out to be impossible too, then she would keep trying after the heroes' war ended!
The only thing she needed to do was knock on that door before her, and think of a topic to talk about with her own younger sister.
When compared to everything she went through to get here, it sounded like a piece of cake. It certainly wasn't anything an otherworldly hero like her couldn't do if she put her mind to it.
She raised her intact arm, and prepared herself to knock on the door, but before she could do that, it was opened from the other side instead.
"Uhm, good morning?" A young, short-haired, girl greeted her awkwardly from the opened door. It was clear as day that she didn't expect any guest right before her doors when she was about to leave.
Great, she must have made the process of leaving her own room incredibly awkward for the poor girl.
"Yes, greetings." She said, with a forced professionalism.
The young girl blinked a couple times at her in silence, unsure of what to do.
"I came here to visit my younger sister." She forced herself to cough into her hand, from awkwardness. "Is it possible for me to talk with Weiss? I promise to not distract you from any activities you might be partaking in."
The girl blinked owlishly, opened her mouth, closed it, turned around to check whether Weiss was still in the room, before finally looking back at her, and answering.
"Y-Yes, you can." The girl nodded her head in a stiff manner. "She's currently pa-partaking in laying on her bed, at the moment."
An amused chuckle escaped her.
It was good to know, she wasn't the only one awkward about human interactions, anymore. Maybe there was still a chance to reconnect with her younger sister, after all?
"I-I will go now." The girl stuttered as she inched forward, through the door, before starting to sprint the moment she moved past her. "I've an important task to partake in library right now, bye!"
A small, amused, smile appeared on her face, as she saw the younger girl break into a flurry of petals while turning at the end of the corridor.
It was truly heartening to see her own sister have such a dedicated student as her teammate. Surely, a person so excited about doing school work had to be a perfect student.
A quiet sigh escaped her, as she shook her head a little.
No, it didn't actually matter in the end.
As long as her sister was happy with her teammates, she was going to support them full-heartedly, anyway. One could find competent students everywhere, but finding trusted friends never ceased to be a challenge.
She would know, considering how many betrayals she had to endure back on Terravia.
A sigh escaped her once again, this time a more audible one.
It wasn't time for reminiscing about her past. If she wanted to do that, then she would certainly have plenty of time for it in between her numerous fights, later in the war.
Now was time for reconnecting with her sister.
"It is good to see you again, Weiss." She called out, while turning towards the center of the room. "I see you found quite interesting friends in your short time at Beacon, sister."
"Winter!" Weiss shouted in surprise at her visit, while frantically standing up from her bed.
A fuzzy feeling went over her as she saw her younger sister look at her with a wide smile on her face.
No matter how much had changed about her, she would never stop loving her younger siblings. If anything, her deep love for them was only strengthened by her long visit to Terravia.
There was hardly anything as affirming of one's love of someone as the desire to return to them, despite the long distance and time, after all.
"How have you been, Weiss?" She asked, as Weiss approached her. "Is Beacon meeting all of your expectations for a famous huntsmen school? Or do you want me to assist you with anything?"
"I'm doing fine, Winter." A hollow smile donned on Weiss's face, as she stopped right before her, to answer. "The only issues I had with Beacon, until now, were no fault of their own, at all."
A frown appeared on her face as she heard her sister's words.
Of course, she knew what her sister was talking about, it was difficult not to when she was as involved in it as she was, sadly, there wasn't much she could do about, it at the moment.
The war of heroes was a serious issue even for her, she didn't want to imagine how terrifying it had to be for ordinary Beacon students.
"It's alright, Weiss." She playfully ruffled the hair of her younger sister, with a reassuring smile. "I, together with the Atlas military, am already taking care of the biggest issue in Vale. It won't take long before things come back to normal."
"Will it, though?" Weiss whispered.
"Hm?" She raised one of her eyebrows questioningly at her sister.
"The situation is already terrible." Weiss said out loud. "It will take years, if not decades, to repair the city of Vale, and one of our friends from Beacon had already died in this disaster."
"Weiss." She said slowly, with a serene expression on her face.
Weiss looked down.
"I don't know how long will it take for the situation to calm down. However, by the time headmaster Ozpin allows us to help, all the city, if not more, is going to be destroyed, and the issue will be over." The emotions of despair and rage dripped from Weiss's words.
Weiss raised her head upwards to look at her directly with tears in her eyes.
She immediately hugged her as tightly as she could.
Through the whole war, she didn't think how helpless people like her own family must feel. Those people not only had to hear about all the destruction their fights were causing, but couldn't do anything about them by themselves.
It was so terrible her own sister didn't even react when she hugged her with her ice-cold hand, which had replaced the one she had cut off, in her own mess of emotions.
"It's going to be alright, Weiss." She whispered. "I promise."
(...)
While the capital of Vale was currently facing the biggest crisis since its creation, almost all the villages across the kingdom were continuing their mundane existence as if nothing was happening, at all.
There was no panic on the streets, or pathways, connecting all the homes in a town, and the only indication that something bad was happening in Vale was a slight nervousness about the increased numbers of Grimm migrating towards the center of the kingdom as a result of the increased negativity in the capital.
Sure, some of the villagers had been killed by the travelling Grimm, but it was hardly anything new for people used to living on the frontier towns of Vale.
At least, this type of nonchalant apathy was what Coco liked to imagine all the people, she passed by on the streets of the random village she was visiting, were feeling, at the moment.
In spite of all her experience in the Human Realm, and the strength she gained from it, she couldn't consider herself acquainted with the attitude most small villages on Remnant had.
She, herself, was a city girl, through and through.
The only villages she had ever visited before this war of otherworldly heroes, were from the Human Realm, and heavily occupied by devilish forces. Sufficed to say, those escapades of hers weren't the perfect time to experience the typical life in a village.
A shiver went down her spine, as she felt something different, unnatural, and weirdly noble, passing through this village.
The next moment, a bloodthirsty grin appeared on her face.
Although, despite her lack of knowledge about the life in a village, she couldn't exactly call this place an ordinary village, at this very moment, either.
After all, what sort of ordinary village would have two different otherworldly heroes visiting it, at the same time?
This other hero didn't appear to be a coward, like the last one she met on her way here, either. No coward, she could think of, would have announced themselves so proudly despite visiting such a small settlement.
Such blatant provocation had to be the action of someone confident in themselves.
She rapidly built up her demonic power, in preparation for a fight.
The few villagers around her instinctively looked at her, and felt the primal need to back away, making her stand out in the middle of the street.
Perhaps, this glaring show of strength wasn't the smartest move she could have done, right now. However, if her enemy was arrogant enough to flaunt their own strength to everyone like it was nothing, then she wasn't going to chicken out of showing off her own power, too.
"I see you came well-prepared to hand me my first victory of this war!" A voice of a young boy, who couldn't be older than fifteen, echoed arrogantly through the village. "Here's to hoping you will be a worthy opponent."
She scoffed hearing the arrogance of the younger boy, before instantly forcing her body to jump away, as all her combat instincts screamed at her that she was about to get skewered.
Seconds later, a deafening blast of dirt, rocks, and sand, exploded at the place she had been standing on.
Whatever the other hero had thrown at her just then, it certainly could make a huge mess out of the environment. The street barely looked like something normal people could stand on, anymore.
A slight frown appeared on her face, as she looked at the destruction behind her.
However, even with all that destructive power behind it, that attack still didn't actually look like something that should be capable of harming her. If anything, an attack of such power, could at most scrape her a little.
Why were all of her instincts telling her she was going to die if she got hit by it, in that case?
The moment she touched the ground again, she immediately looked towards the boy who had attacked her.
Contrary to the unnaturally noble feeling her enemy's mere existence seemed to generate, the boy itself looked far from impressive. Short brown hair, hazel coloured eyes, and the clothes which didn't look out of place in the village they were fighting. The only thing unusual in his appearance was a small leather pouch on his belt, and a weird golden dust that seemed to be floating around him.
Were it not for the sheer power, she could feel from the boy, she would have assumed him to be a random villager, who was maybe using some weird concoction to make himself sparkle a lot.
The boy, meanwhile, looked at her with no interest in his eyes.
"Have you admired me enough, already?" The boy asked, while spreading his arms wide. "If you didn't then I welcome you to do it more! A king should never forbid others from witnessing their glory!"
She raised her eyebrow at the arrogance of her foe.
"You were a king in your world?" She asked.
The boy laughed boisterously.
"The Eternal King!" The boy bragged.
That told her absolutely nothing.
Although, considering how different the other worlds could be from one another, she shouldn't really be surprised about it. For all she knew, the tittle of an Eternal King was some form of award for saving a world.
Considering that, back in the Human Realm, she was someone famous for killing nearly all the most notable Devil Lords in existence, saving an entire world itself didn't really sound so farfetched.
Then again, the boy might have been summoned to another world to simply be a king, because why not?
A sigh escaped her.
Whatever the case, it didn't change the fact they were about to fight each other.
"Alright then, king boy." She exaggeratedly stretched her arms, preparing herself for battle. "Do you want to prove to me that you are worthy of your royal title in a fight, or are we going to stand around talking all day?"
The boy looked at her with enough contempt in his eyes to bury a person.
"There's nothing need proving to a person as insignificant as you are."
With a lazy snap of the boy's finger, she instantly felt all her instincts warn her about impending danger, and making her want to dodge.
She gritted her teeth, and forcefully went against her impulse to dodge, for a moment.
While it was possible for her to dodge simple attacks indefinitely by following her instincts alone, the last thing she wanted was to end up dodging all sorts of attacks without even knowing what they were.
Such blind trust in nothing but her impulses, would only result in her falling for every trap imaginable!
The thing that was flying towards her, and her instincts kept telling her would skewer her, was the golden dust she noticed floating around the boy, earlier.
It didn't look so loose anymore, however.
Instead, the dust, soaring towards her, looked less like a floating dust, and more like a small golden spear thrown by someone who trained their entire life to do nothing but throw spears ridiculously fast at people.
She extended her hand towards the flying projectile.
No matter what sort of attack it was, as long as she could intercept it with her devilish sword, it wouldn't be able to harm her. There couldn't exist a single thing capable of breaking through her weapon.
Her sword appeared in a flurry of flames, its tip positioned in such a way it would directly meet the spear's tip, and stop it from moving any further.
"Huh?" The boy started to look at her with some interest in his eyes. "It is an interesting form of weaponry, you're using. I wouldn't put it too far behind such legendary weapons as Durendal or Szczerbiec."
The boy's words meant nothing to her, as she ignored them completely, and merely focused on thrusting her sword forward to meet the soaring spear, head on.
"It isn't nearly enough to match my arsenal, however." The boy said, with a scoff.
As the tips of their weapons met, her sword passed directly through the golden spear with so little resistance it instantly threw her off balance, leaving her open for all sorts of different attacks.
Meanwhile, the golden spear her opponent had used, simply turned into its dust form, before starting to reform right above her head, the very next moment.
"Damn!" She cursed, noticing the weapon forming.
Not wasting any time, she used her demonic strength, and pushed herself forward, charging directly at the boy.
If that kid was a long range focused fighter, like he appeared to be with his tricky weapon, then she would simply have to bring the fight closer to him!
Ferocious wind raged through the village, and a thunderous burst of sound echoed, as she raced towards her enemy at speeds no normal human, or any creature native to Remnant, would have been capable of.
By the time she reached her foe, no more than a fraction of a second had passed, and she was already in the middle of a sword slash aimed directly at the boy's neck.
Her weapon, however, didn't meet the flesh of her enemy.
Instead, a loud clanking sound of colliding weapons greeted her ears, as her sword was effortlessly stopped by the boy holding out another golden weapon, this time a sabre, on the way of her attack.
"Is that all?" The boy asked, unimpressed with her charge, before pushing his arm outwards, and throwing her away.
"It is far from everything!" She grunted out through her gritted teeth, as she grabbed her sword with both her hands, and, using all the strength she could find in herself, brought it down, on the boy's head.
Her extensive effort must have been enough for the boy to realise he probably couldn't take this attack head on, because he chose to take a quick step back, instead of blocking it outright, the moment her weapon came close to hitting him.
The mighty force she put behind her strike meant there was no way she would be able to stop it from hitting the ground, and burying itself deep in it. Things like momentum, and other just as important laws of physics, would make it next to impossible.
A grin appeared on her face, as her sword momentarily disappeared in a flurry of red flames.
Of course, such a silly little concept like momentum mattered surprisingly little when she was a Demon Hunter capable of making her devilish weaponry disappear into complete nothingness.
"Interesting." Her opponent remarked out loud, seeing her smoothly shift from such a heavy attack into another offensive against him.
The boy shifted a little to the side, before making a one-handed golden sword out of his floating dust, grabbing it, and using it to try blocking her assault.
It, however, didn't work out the way her enemy had probably intended to.
It was because, the moment her sword was about to get blocked by the golden weapon, she quickly made it disappeared into the flurry of flames, before making it reappear in her hand, right after it would have passed through her enemy's sword.
"I've got you, kid." She said with a grin, as her weapon tasted the blood of her foe.
Her enemy didn't have the monopoly on making a weapon become incorporeal in order to get past someone's defences.
"Wha-?!" The boy shouted in disbelief.
She didn't give the boy a chance to gawk at his own injuries.
The very next moment, before her weapon could even properly be stained with blood, she immediately made it disappear again, only for it to reappear in a position convenient for another attack, right after.
A chance to win this fight had presented itself to her, and there was absolutely no way she was going to waste it.
"You dare!" The boy shouted in rage upon seeing her continue the assault.
Right after which, she felt a push of unstoppable force slam directly into her, sending her flying.
There was no way for her to tell what exactly had she been hit by, but it felt as if the world itself had struck her. Whatever form of power that boy used to attack her was, it had to be beyond any demon she had fought.
She hit the ground with a loud thump.
"W-What was that?!" She coughed out while slowly trying to get up.
If that was the type of power her enemy could wield, then it certainly explained why her instincts were screaming at her for danger whenever the boy attacked previously.
It wasn't something, she felt confident in surviving.
"It was a power beyond your insignificant mind's comprehension." The boy answered as he extended his hand forward, to gather in it all the golden dust floating around him, and some more he had hidden in the pouch on his belt.
She watched as the golden dust gathered, and swirled, to form another weapon with unexplained dread in her eyes.
"It was the power only people worthy of being kings could wield."
The weapon, her foe was forming, was shaping itself to be a large two-handed sword of gold. It was being created with far more details, and splendor, than any of the boy's prior golden weapon.
"The great power of all the Eternal Kings to rule over reality!"
As the boy finally grabbed his sword, another wave of the unstoppable force exploded from him.
"It's the power of the only foreign Eternal King in existence, Oscar Pine." The boy, Oscar Pine, pointed his weapon directly at her, and just staring at it somehow made her feel insignificant. "It is the power of my will."
It felt as if the world itself didn't dare to move as Oscar stood still while holding his weapon.
The only other time she felt something close to this was when she was facing against the Grand Demon Lord of the Demon Realm back in the other world. Yet, even that wasn't exactly equal to what she was feeling, right now.
She summoned her demon sword back, solely to have something to hold onto to, and keep her confidence, under that pressure.
"I see you resolved yourself to face your death, fellow hero." Oscar smiled widely, already forgetting the wound she inflicted on him, moments ago, before spreading his arms wide open in an inviting manner. "Come at me then!"
Her grip on the demonic sword tightened.
"Show me the strength you've earned to become a hero!"
With her whole body tense, and a healthy dose of fear going through her, she charged forward to face her opponent.
Although the oppressive feeling she was getting from her current enemy might have been something she had never experienced before, it didn't mean she wouldn't be able to overcome it, and defeat him.
All the challenges she had faced back in the Human Realm seemed just as impossible to her back then, and yet she had succeeded.
She could do it.
It wasn't impossible.
It would most likely require her to unleash all of her demonic power, though.
The ground cracked under the pressure of her feet, as she charged forward, her body starting to get enveloped in the same red flames she created when summoning her demonic weapons.
"Oh?" Oscar raised his eyebrow at her change, before shifting a little defensively in anticipation of her attack.
She swung her sword widely, with enough power put into it to make all her previous assault seem tame in comparison.
Had her target been a demon, or any other type of enemy she could face, she would have likely cut them in half with just the air pressure her swing created, let alone the demonic sword itself.
With Oscar being the one before her, it only resulted in it getting parried by her opponent.
The clash of their weapons caused an explosion of wind huge enough to demolish some of the smaller building in the village. The only reason why they could withstand it, without being thrown away, was because they were the ones who created it.
"Your strength isn't truly human, is it?" Oscar remarked as they locked their sword with each other.
An annoyed grunt escaped her as she tried to bat the golden sword away.
Considering how much of her demonic power she was currently using to power herself up, it wouldn't have come as a surprise to her if an ordinary civilian could notice that she was a demon, let alone a fellow hero.
Her eyes must have been literally glowing from all that demonic power!
It was all without mentioning all the red flames which were covering her from head to toe.
Despite all her demonic power, and all the effort she was putting into pushing the golden sword, though, her enemy's weapon wasn't budging an inch. It felt almost like trying to move an immovable wall!
Unfortunately, the strategy of making her weapon disappear for a second to get past her opponent's defences, she had used to wound Oscar before, would have likely resulted in her getting cut down by the newly freed sword of her opponent.
The effectiveness of surprise attacks always faltered after their first success.
She felt a subtle change in the tension between their swords.
"Let's test your power in a more aggressive environment." Oscar grunted out as he shifted in place, violently pushing his sword outward and breaking their sword lock. "One can't say they faced a real combat if they only ever attacked, can they?"
The sudden push made her stumble back a bit, revealing her for a counterattack.
With gritted teeth, she frantically thrust her weapon forward as she fell down. There was no way such a haphazard attack would protect her from anything, but it should be capable of hurting her enemy if they decided to follow up on their push.
If her opponent was about to hit her anyway, she could at the very least make him pay for it!
"Good try," Oscar lazily dodged her sloppy thrust, and raised his weapon a bit higher for an attack. "but it won't be enough to stop me."
She saw the golden sword descend on her, and having no way to either block it or dodge it. Instead, she turned her weapon sideways for a desperate wide slash, and swung it with all the strength she had.
Oscar's golden sword bit deep into her shoulder, nearly separating one of her arms from her body.
The only thing her attack accomplished was making a small flesh wound at her foe's side, before the force from the strike she had received made her stumble down, mitigating any further damage she could have caused.
"Argh!" She shouted in pain as her body collided with the ground.
Her red flames were still covering her body, and the demonic power she had was doing its absolute best to heal her new injury, but she knew that her opponent was going to kill her before she could heal herself fully.
"It seems that your power is insignificant compared to mine, in the end." Oscar huffed as he looked down, somehow managing to make it look noble. "Was this pitiful strength of yours truly enough to save the world you've been sent to?"
She gritted her teeth in pain, as she tried to stand up.
She failed.
"If you've been sent to the same world I had, you wouldn't have lasted a minute in a fight against that place's warriors."
She tightened her fists in anger.
The red flames around her started to burn brighter than ever before.
It wasn't the end of her.
It couldn't be.
"I entered this war hoping to find worthy opponents." Oscar raised his sword once again, readying it for her execution. "Sadly, if all the other heroes are only as powerful as you are, then it doesn't look like I will find any."
Her body began to rapidly change under the influence of her demonic power.
The wound on her shoulder stitched itself together, as her skin turned deep red, like the one of a devil. The feeling of unstoppable strength went over her, as her muscles and bones became stronger, as well.
The surrounding air grew unbearably hot.
Her form ceased to resemble that of a human.
There was a belief, back in the Human Realm, that the strongest Demon Hunters were the ones whose body changed the least upon receiving the demonic power. As far as she knew, this belief was true.
However, it only applied to the strength of demonically boosted humans.
Right now, she became something closer to a human controlled devil rather than a human.
She held the power that was beyond any limit a mortal could hold, at the moment.
She was going to win this war.
"Pathetic." Oscar scoffed at her new form, before swinging his sword down.
Confident in her strength to handle any type of attack, she didn't bother dodging it.
The intricate golden sword hit her directly.
It cut through her skin, and went through her muscles, but the moment it met her bone it stopped. In the end, the human king, no matter how strong, couldn't overcome her devilish powers.
"It appears that I am more than worthy opponent for you, boy." She opened her mouth to laugh, her chuckles sounding demonic.
Oscar raised his eyebrow at her, unimpressed.
"If you really think that by assuming this disgusting form you can be considered as anything else than a vermin, then you aren't worthy of being called my opponent." Oscar raised one of his hand above his head.
She felt the world stop, the exact same way it did the moment Oscar formed his golden sword.
"Let me show you what true power looks like." Oscar sighed, before snapping his fingers. "Let me show you the beauty of my Eternal Palace."
A blinding golden light extended from Oscar, enveloping both of them instantaneously, and conquering the world around them.
She had no idea what sort of power was it, but the moment she was trapped by it, and felt her enemy commanding the reality itself, she instinctively knew there was nothing she could do.
It was her end.
And cut.
Coco's dead. Killed by Oscar.
There will be Oscar's file for this chapter, hope it will make some things about his powers a bit clearer.
Anyway that's it for now, see ya!
[World Name: The Earth/Gaia/Terra]
[Inspiration: Fate Series/God of High School]
[Hero: Oscar Pine]
[Description: The Earth, also known as Terra or Gaia, is a place of magic and legends. Every tale which had ever been told there, had some basis in reality. Every legendary king existed and ascended to eternity. There's a system to its magic, however. All the great people from there had, consciously or unconsciously, learned how to use the power of their very Will, and countless Sorceries, to push past their limits, and bend reality. It doesn't mean that everyone with a strong enough Will, or magical knowledge, was capable of doing whatever they pleased, though. The whole world was always controlled by the Heaven's Will, against which every Sorcerer or, person with a strong Will, had to contend. People with the strongest of Will, the so-called King Will, were capable of taking that fight to another realm altogether. They did it by forming their own world out of their Will to control, called the Eternal Palace, which they, upon their physical death, would ascend to and form a separate human realm between the realms of Heaven and Earth. All the kings who had ever formed an Eternal Palace were named the Eternal Kings.]
