The story is now crossposting on Archive of our Own, under my username HeavensEye02 (the english translated version of my FF username) I may be adding illustrations into the fic at certain points, so look out for that!

Fighting Rose

Chapter 44

When it Falls

Cinder knew that she would have to unleash everything she had, because she knew that anything less would mean her destruction at Ozpin's hands. Technically, it was the iron hands of the tenth son slain by betrayal which posed the biggest threat, the ungodly strength behind its blows making her believe the Atlan legends that he had enough power to level mountains in his life, and still retained lethal strength even in this half-summoned state. She barely slipped past a right-cross that threatened to pop her head like a ripe melon, throwing herself into the air to avoid its following left uppercut that would've caved her chest in.

She'd managed to blast him all the way down into the lowest vault of Beacon, where she knew the half-dead form of her target lay. She was able to trade blows with him with only a fraction of the power that once belonged to him, barely over ten percent if her estimates were correct; if she could reach Amber's body and siphon the rest of that power away, Ozpin wouldn't stand a chance. Ozpin knew that, and in turn was throwing everything he had into killing her as quickly as possible. She sped in, drawing on the infinite energies of her stolen power and flooding her muscles with it, even going so far as to dilate time around herself in order to better counteract Ozpin's own natural control of time. Weaving under a flurry of blows from the summoned fists, she closed the distance and viciously bat aside Ozpin's expert counterthrust, not hesitating for a second as she rammed her conjured glass blade through his chest up to the hilt. He coughed blood but she knew he wasn't done, roaring as she poured power into the blade, its form unable to handle so much astral mass as it exploded, taking out both lungs, spine and heart in an instant.

Still he fought, eyes bloodshot with agony as he punched her clean in the eye socket with a fist wreathed in shining aura, her vision going white and body spasming as she was blasted into a wall, a crater forming under her back. Even then he was still moving, the Relic on his face rapidly healing the damage that should have otherwise ended the fight. Cinder smirked despite her own pain and twitching face. He still felt pain, and it was brief, but lethal damage was still enough to give him pause, if only for a moment. She was starting to notice it as well; the overcompensation in his movements, the moments where he needed to catch his balance after a mighty swing. Every injury and killing blow was healed by the Relic, yes, but doing so was exhausting him. The iron hands flickered in and out of reality for a moment before he grit his teeth and charged, his C̜̒a̵̩̕n̛͎ë̵͙́sw͙̌ǒ͇r̶̝̄d̶̨͘Ȁ̷̰N̵͎͘ẠT̳̀H̵̗̽E̴͚̊M̴̧͝A̷̹͂ aimed to pierce through her skull as the spectral arms unleashed a torrent of blows that threatened to smash her into paste. Slashing with her Athame, she slit reality apart and dove in, reappearing behind Ozpin and stabbing at his knees, dashing away as he stumbled while the iron hands attempted to backhand her away, though unable to reach her, tethered as they were to Ozpin's location. She sprinted hard, knowing that she could only take a few steps at best and knowing every step forward counted.

"NO!" Ozpin roared, a sudden pressure squeezing around her body. She cursed as the air was torn from her lungs: she had been so keen on watching his physical attacks and the lethality of the summoned fists that she'd lost her focus on his psychic abilities. She grit her teeth and prepared herself for the pain that was to come.

"RAUM."

Bones snapped and reformed, tendons bursting and shifting as skin pulled and stretched unnaturally. Her body doubled in height, black leather and white bone wings bursting from her back like a great mantle. Her face had become sharper, more angular, eyes blazing like orange embers and hair flowing in a non-existent wind, a single bony horn curving up from her forehead proudly. A peculiar obsidian spear flashed into existence within her grip, Cinder spinning and literally cutting through the telekinetic hold Ozpin had over her before she flew forward with a beat of her wings, twenty steps covered in one moment. Ozpin was suddenly in front of her, rage and desperation twisting his expression as he threw an open palm forward and blasted a torrent of lightning at her, one she snarled and caught with the haft of her spear. It pushed her ten steps back before she deflected the stream of force to the side and charged. Ozpin met her apparent forward attack with one of his own, launching himself at her with the aid of the spectral arms to suddenly increase his speed as they dug into the floor for extra purchase, his own weapon swinging through empty air.

He spun on the spot, feeling her presence behind her and again hitting nothing but air before her spear appeared from above in a flash of black, lopping his arm off at the elbow and punching the armoured joint of her wing on the top of his head, blood firing out from his nose and mouth. She didn't stop, blasting in like a comet while shielding herself with her wings from the inevitable pummelling that came from the spectral fists, enduring as it felt like entire buildings were being hammered onto her wings in a mere moment before she reached him. Her spear tore through his collarbone and split him to his waist but she didn't stop, opening her jaw wide to reveal predator's teeth before she screamed a wall of toxic-azure fire over him. His flesh peeled away from his bones, those bones blackening in an instant under the sea of warpflame he was bathed in, and still, still he somehow continued to struggle as little more than a scorched skeleton, the outline of the Relic of Choice shining on his head as his eye sockets burned with green light.

"Be swept away by the gales of the warp!" Cinder roared, "WIND OF CHAOS!"

She thrust her spear through his ribcage, allowing all of her power to explode out in a single blast, lightning, fire and pitch-black malice swallowing Ozpin's form and sending the summoned arms back to where they came from, a hole a hundred meters deep ripping through the wall. After what felt like an eternity, Cinder finally ran out of the stamina to keep up the attack, falling to her knees and gasping for air as her body painfully reverted back to its regular state with the popping and clicking of bones and musculature. Calling upon the daemon grafted to her soul by possession was always painful and extremely draining, not to mention unstable: she could tell that its essence had been fractured by something in the past, and thus its transformation was always short-lived. Still, something about it was… comforting, even as she failed to understand what it was trying to say to her, all save its name. She hoped that after gaining the full portion of Ozpin's past power, she'd be able to mend its spirit and finally be able to listen to the one being in the world that she could fully trust.

Dragging herself to her feet, she gnashed her teeth and took off in a staggered run towards the end of the vault. She saw the glow of the Relic at the end of the hole she dug for Ozpin and knew that it was healing him, hoping that this time it would drain him so thoroughly that he wouldn't even be able to lift a finger. It wasn't long before she turned a corner and saw the stasis coffin that held Amber's floating body, utterly vulnerable for what was about to happen next. She grimaced and summoned the Athame, preparing to finish what she had started until she felt the hair rise on the back of her neck, her skin tingling in an ill omen. Looking over her shoulder, she kissed her teeth as her eyes went wide in disbelief.

"Gods above, are you kidding me?"

The half-regenerated form of Ozpin was entirely limp, skin magically crawling over his exposed muscle and bone as he dragged himself forward with the summoned iron arms, his face still a ruined mass of meat but its single working eye glaring at her. It was almost comical if it weren't so disturbing. She cursed and hobbled forward faster, only to trip and fall flat on her face with a muffled cry. Ozpin's corpse took the opportunity and tore across the distance, the iron hands wildly clawing across the floor in a spray of stone before it leapt and aimed to smash her flat. His malformed hands tightly gripped his cane as he stabbed down, the floor imploding under him as he blurred and landed like a meteor. Ozpin gasped for air through a half-formed throat, his power spent as the iron hands dissipated and power dried up, his body unable to even move as the Mask of Life immobilized him during its healing, though looking down he realized what went wrong. Earth was all his last-ditch strike had destroyed, Ozpin's eye shooting up to see Cinder stumble out of a rift made by the Athame clutched in her hand, triumph in her eyes as she glared down at him next to Amber's stasis coffin. A feint. She'd gotten him to put as much strength as possible by doing something as childish as tripping, and he'd bought it.

"Please... stop."

He begged up at her, his voice barely a hoarse whisper. She'd heard it, her eyes softening as she watched the sorry state of the man who was her enemy.

"…When your closest friend created me," She said, "When he revealed to me the truth behind the rebellion of your sons, when he revealed to me the truth of who you were and what you had done, when those secrets of his drove me insane, I begged with those same words."

His brows furrowed before his eyes went wide. He knew who she was.

"When I learned what I was and that I was intended only as an ear for you and your empire's sins, I begged with those same words. But do you know the funny thing? I know my answer to those words now."

(Bloodborne Ost: Ludwig the Holy Blade)

Her hand blurred and she plunged the Athame into Amber's stomach, the frail woman releasing a soundless gasp as she was forcibly yanked into agonized consciousness.

"I will never stop. I will never be the same for the insanity you forced upon me. I will always be this scarred, broken thing by your hands, and I will always seek to fill the fractures you left on my soul with suffering."

The life began to leave Amber's husk of a body, a piercing glow streaming up the Athame and into Cinder's arm as her eyes glowed like malevolent suns.

"The Imperium? Chaos? The four Kingdoms? I will not stop until everything burns."

She began to float in the air, her veins molten fire under her skin as even her mouth filled with the bright eclipse of raw power. The physical symbol of her power, her Vision, shone in full above her head, its dull red and half gray erased as a mix of fiery gold and pitch-black light swirled to life within the orb. Her demonic features were more uniform and almost breathtakingly majestic while her human features were untouched, radiant in their beauty. She spread her massive, scaled wing-arms sprouting from her shoulder blades in the shape of heaven's dark wheel, the air roaring in tune with her soul.

"I̶ ̵A̶M̶T̴HE̶̷RU̷I̵N̴ W̸R̶O̷U̴G̸H̸T̸̴̴B̵Y̶̵YOU̷R̴OW̵N̴FO̵L̵L̶Y̵."

Her voice shook the entire vault, cracks glowing with black light spiderwebbing across the entire structure as her presence engulfed the cavernous room. Ozpin himself was almost reduced to a pile of smashed offal under the weight of her power. Time and time again, he was faced with the results of his own arrogance, and she was the same. He was so tired of this. The years of immortality weighed heavy on his head, eyes hung low in shame.

'No.'

He suddenly clenched his teeth. This girl was the price he paid for his pride, yes, but he would not give in. He had changed from the Tyrant who had once conquered Remnant and had created an era of genuine peace. He would not allow the world he loved to fall back into the grasp of Chaos so easily. Looking at his 'cane,' he knew that drawing on its stored power would rapidly heal and empower him, though he did not want to risk becoming that Tyrant again, his compassion and emotion temporarily overridden by the essence of his past life, not to mention the fact that it simply wasn't enough to overcome Cinder as she was now. Now though, it was clear in order to contain the collateral damage, he had no choice. He closed his eyes, inhaled deeply, connecting his soul with his cane and drew. His eyes shot open, his entire body glowing gold as he stood tall, the cane transforming into a simply beautiful greatsword, his silver blade and golden hilt wreathed in brilliant flame. In this sunless realm, the sun would rise one last time.

"I do not deny my past," He spoke, his voice echoing with the tone he once used as The Master of Mankind. "But I will not allow it to destroy humanity's future."

"Y̴O̴U̴WI̶L̵L̷L̶O̴S̵E̴.̴" Cinder said, no taunt or threat in her voice, only blunt truth.

"Yes," Ozpin, Ozma Neoth, the Emperor, agreed. "But I will return, and I will never stop fighting. And you will find that I am not the only one."

"T̴H̵A̵T̵̴RE̶MA̷I̵N̷S̶̶T̵O̵BE̷S̷E̵EN̴," She said, wielding that same obsidian-glass greatspear. They leapt at each other, and the Vault flashed white.

{…Beacon's Library…}

He wasn't taking her seriously at all. In fact, this all seemed like a fun little spar to him, and it wasn't hard to see why. His strength was overwhelming. A casual, almost playful slash sent her smashing through rows of books and shelves before she was planted onto a wall. She didn't even have time to register pain as he appeared next to her, standing on the wall as if it was a regular floor and idly slicing down at her exposed neck. She vaulted off the wall in a panic, spinning and yelling in exertion as she unleased an aura-blade with a swipe of Gambol, accidentally channelling her Semblance into it to seemingly no effect. Adam raised Wilt, easily blocking the attack only for it to split into two, four, eight, sixteen exploding blades of aura in a fraction on a second. She blinked at the sudden revelation, surprised at the versatility of her own Semblance.

"That was good," Adam congratulated, the dust clearing and revealing him and the wall under his feet to be entirely untouched while the immediate area around him was chewed up by her attack, "Creative, efficient and good destructive potential. You've gotten stronger Blake."

'He blocked all of that!?' Her mind screamed in panic.

Worse yet was the glow of Wilt's blade being absorbed into Adam's arm, the red light under his skin flaring brighter. Anything she threw at him, he simply absorbed with his Semblance and further increased how dangerous he was becoming. Blake paused at that thought, her mind now racing as she embraced Ruby's mindset. He was already capable of killing her whenever he wanted to, and pretty easily to boot. What did it matter if she gave him more power? If anything, freely giving him energy to store would eventually lead to him creating an opening to try and finish her off, a fantastic display of power meant more to scare rather than put her down for good.

'Screw it!' She gnashed her teeth, writhing black script crawling across her skin, 'I've got nothing left to lose!'

Adam cocked his head to the side, curiosity in his eyes as Blake closed the distance, her outline turning hazy and distorted as she threw everything and the kitchen sink at him. She fired off a barrage of Colour-Up shots, the rounds exploding against the flat of his blade before he parried and deflected the consuming storm of Blake's bladework. Shroud chopped at his knee and Gambol rose up for his neck, both blades propelled forward faster than she would have normally been capable of as her body twisted and undulated, never aiming at the same area twice and pressing the attack as hard as she could. When he blocked the heavy cleaver of Shroud, she shifted Gambol into its pistol form and fired a point-blank Colour-Up right into his mouth. She wanted to scream in frustration as he bit down on the bullet, his head utterly unmoved as he casually swallowed the aura-burst. It almost made her freeze up in shock, but she forced herself to continue the assault, now weaving in the cloned attacks of her Shade Slash to make him focus on constantly blocking one area while she used her footwork to immediately exploit the openings made by his defence.

"It's best if you just give up Blake," Adam said calmly, "All Faunus deserve to know the truth of what we're capable of."

"And that means murdering innocent people, sacrificing them like barbarians and injecting Grimm blood into each other!?" She screamed.

"That's the gist of it, yes."

He blocked those attacks too, sometimes using his sword with sheer speed and dexterity alone, other times using his free hand to easily palm them away. She openly roared this time, shifting Gambol into its Kama-sickle and pelting it into one of the few standing bookshelves, yanking and bringing the entire thing down on both of them. He barely bothered to look up, his arm and sword turning into a blur of red as the entire shelf was cleanly diced into cubes, books and splinters raining down. She was already behind him, stabbing at the base of his spine. His blade was already there to intercept but Blake had leapt to his left side and slashed at his neck. He blocked the Shade Pierce aimed at his back and caught her descending blade with his hand, stopping her momentum so suddenly that her shoulders jerked painfully.

"…You're already almost there!" He said excitedly, "I can feel it. I can feel your blood rising, your desire. That's it Blake: don't hold back, give in to those instincts! That's the true power of the Faunus!"

He shoved Blake away and she gladly allowed the distance to open up, sheathing her blade and pointing her thumb, index and middle fingers at him.

"BLACKREND!"

Adam's eyes glanced over himself and his blade on a whim, and he saw the dozens of tiny marks left behind by Blake's numerous attacks glowing faintly with her aura, the glow suddenly flashing a piercing lilac before they exploded, hundreds of aura-blades ripping through the air and ground. She didn't let up, unsheathing Gambol and immediately shifting it into its chain-kama mode before roaring and spinning wildly with it, each pass unleashing a dozen blades of aura into the silhouette of Adam and each of them exploding into more clones of themselves, the entire library lit in purple light for almost a full thirty seconds. The dust cleared as Adam swiped her blade through it, grinning like a madman. His arm and blade visibly seemed scuffed, but no damage seemed to have penetrated any further.

"Very clever," He nodded approvingly. "Try again."

"ADAM TAURUS! DROP YOUR WEAPON!"

She sharply looked over to the right, Atlan soldiers lining the second-floor balcony with their weapons trained on him. Adam looked as if someone had just pissed in his cereal, sending an idle scowl up to the soldiers.

"GET BACK!" Blake screamed.

His hand blurred and the red light under his skin flared harshly for only an instant, the entire balcony reduced to a pile of splinters and the Atlan soldiers' limbs ripped to ribbons. Their limbless forms were still alive as they screamed and fell, an amused smirk on Adams face as they crashed onto the floor howling in agony, a giant bookcase toppling over after them and ending their pain as it smashed them into a pile of broken offal. Horror at his unbound cruelty turned to rage, her blood boiling in her veins as her teeth gnashed together so hard that they audibly scraped like steel on steel.

'There's no humanity left in him. I need to stop him. I want to stop him. I WILL stop him.'

"Sorry about that," He sighed, "Hate it when chaff gets in the way. Anyway, where were we?"

"AAADAAAAAAAM!" Blake screamed, her aura exploding from her body as she crouched and blasted forward, completely disappearing. For a moment, nothing happened, though Adam's eyes darted around as if he was watching a fly. The air suddenly erupted with the sound of hundreds of blades unleashing metallic shrieks, small storms of phantom slashes appearing at random to rip through the floor, the air, bookcases, tables and chairs.

"JUDGEMENT REND!"

Almost fifty miniature spherical storms all shot towards him, a dome of death by a thousand cuts threatening to swallow him whole and rend him to bloody mist. He smiled wildly and dramatically flicked Wilt to the side, sinking into a deep crouch and slowly, lovingly sheathing his blade. Every part of his body save for the scars on his skin and his eyes turned pitch-black, the eight-pointed halo behind his head glowing so harshly that its rays began to pierce through the collapsing dome of Blake's attack.

"SPARDA'S SIN."

Every single storm of slashes was sundered in an instant, torn to shreds as Adam drew Wilt and the world was swallowed in red. The world returned to normal a moment later, Adam standing there with his blade raised high. He looked out of the corner of his eye, smiling and sighing before he spun on the spot, slicing through Gambol at it was poised to stab him through the back of his neck and punching Blake in the mouth. Her lip burst open, blood flying from her mouth and nose as she was sent shooting through a dozen tables. She didn't get up, vision swimming from the single blow as the broken katana fell from numb hands. Blinking rapidly, she tried to put her feet under her only to vomit from the sheer pain knifing into her skull. Her jaw and nose were definitely broken, but she had enough aura to take the blow and he'd held back enough not to pulverize her head. That wasn't any comfort though, pain, rage, frustration, shame, horror and sorrow overwhelming her as she began to sob. He was crouching down in front of her, head cocked to the side as he simply observed her.

"…Seems like I hit you a bit too hard," Adam chuckled, though there was a lack of humour in his tone.

"Y-you're not Adam," She whimpered, "You're… just a monster."

"…and maybe monsters are what are needed now Blake," he said simply, holding out his free hand as his aura slowly coalesced into the shape of a greatsword similar to the one his father wielded, broad-bladed with a skull-shaped hilt. "Peaceful protest and talking got our people nowhere. What we've always needed was someone to rise up and strike out. If I am the one chosen by the gods to march to Atlas and slay Jacques Gele, then so be it. If I must cut down anyone and everyone who stands in my way, then so be it."

Mirage Rebellion

The air was ripped from her lungs as the aura-forged blade slid into her stomach, piercing through her aura like it was non-existent, her mouth opening in a silent scream of agony. This wasn't just her being stabbed; he was doing something to her with his aura, the sensation making her muscles freeze up.

"But I don't want you to be among the people I will kill for my dream," He said, softly, "I meant it when I said I want to share that dream with you, a dream we once had. For it is in fulfilling our dream that we achieve immortality. Through this, we shed our humanity and embrace chaos to rise above all, infinite in potential and unbound in power. I release your inner demon, and by my hand grant thee ascension."

She felt like her body was being turned inside out, knowledge that nobody was meant to witness flooding her mind and soul. Her body thrashed on the floor, fingers clawing at her chest as her heart threatened to burst. Her blood glowed a dark purple, the writhing script slithering and constricting every inch of skin until it was covered in what looked like a flowing mass of black fur. Her nails turned into aura-tipped claws, hair growing and writhing in the shape of a great mane around her head. And just as suddenly, the transformation faded, leaving Blake laying there with her eyes rolled into her head.

Adam hummed, satisfied before he allowed Mirage Rebellion to dissipate, turned around and began to walk away, only to pause. He sharply pivoted and brought Wilt up to block, Blake having closed the distance with a right cross aimed directly as his face. His blade sliced right between her knuckles and embedded itself in the middle of her hand, but he was pleased that it went no further, the bleeding having already stopped. She was baring her teeth at him, all of them looking noticeably sharper, her pupils slit like a feline predator's and her amber eyes glowing.

"The devil inside of you has awakened as well," He smiled, "Good."

Bones clicked and flesh tore as Blake slowly twisted her hand to grab his blade, gripping it tight and snarling and she bodily threw him into a wall, the stone caving in under the force while Adam remained entirely unaffected as he simply watched her. She slowly took one dragging step after the other towards him, drawing in deep heaving breaths as her aura popped and crackled wildly around her.

"Show me Blake," He said reverently, "Show me your true power."

Blake threw her head back and roared, the transformation, her Devil Trigger taking hold once more in a burst of black and violet aura. Aura-bladed claws slashed into his torso, blood flying into the air from the shallow wounds as he grinned widely. He raised Wilt to block her next swipe, his arm trembling from the force as he was sent skidding across the floor.

"That's more like it!" He laughed, "Now we can - ! Oh."

Blake had collapsed onto her knees in her regular state, gasping for air as her body trembled.

"…Yeah, I shouldn't be surprised," He sighed, "You've been fighting nonstop since Master Erebus opened the rift, and then I made you push yourself past your limits. So long as you've tapped into the truth behind your Faunus heritage, then my work is done."

A flame-wreathed fist boosted by white snowflake-Glyphs smashed into the side of his face, again sending him skidding across the floor as blood flew from his mouth. The force of the blow was already surprising enough, but the presence behind it… he recovered in a heartbeat, the already healed as his gaze snapped over to the two new figures who entered the fray. Yang was stomping her way towards him, her power rolling off of her skin like a black heatwave, every fire in the room drawn towards and into her body. Weiss was giving some of her aura to Blake, the latter steadily recovering thanks to Weiss's incredible auric precision.

"YOU."

The room was swallowed in crimson, Adam's shadow towering over everyone as his aura engulfed the area with suffocating rage. He suddenly clutched at his head, drool dripping from his teeth as his glare darted between Yang and Weiss.

"You have my – Sparda's power…" Adam snarled at Yang, "And you've tainted it. It does not belong to you. And YOU…" He pointed Wilt at Wiess, the latter stiffening in fear at the wall of bloodlust that slammed into her, "I'LL COVER BEACON IN YOUR BLOOD, SCHNEE!"

{...Beacon Airdocks...}

"How much longer to we have to wait!?" Torchwick yelled as he blasted away with his cane. A civilian with rotting skin, milky eyes and a wood-like horn growing out of his neck groaned as it stumbled towards them before Nora blasted it and the group of others like it to burnt gibbets.

"As long as it takes!" Coco growled, standing alongside Velvet as they blasted away with their weapons, the latter having copied her minigun to create a continuous stream of bullets into the crowd of Grimm, Daemons, and things that were no longer people. "There's a few more scattered squads and teams who are making their way here, the faster we can clear the way, the faster the rest of us can get the hell out of here!"

"Well they better come quick, I'm starting to run low on rounds!" He replied with grit teeth. As much pressure as he was feeling however, he knew that it wasn't anywhere near as bad as what the rest of team JNPR were feeling. They were knee-deep in the fight, Jaune doing his best to attract as much attention to himself as possible while amplifying his aura to take the resulting blows on his shield. Nora was mixing up ranged and melee combat, her face pulled tight in uncharacteristic determination as she smashed into whatever was trying to maul Jaune or blasting away with her grenade launcher, pink lightning exploding on every impact. Ren himself was a blur, limbs shooting out faster than the eye could track to seemingly only tap or lightly graze an enemy, only for them to explode or implode in a burst of gore, the daemons seemingly unable to track or even see where he was even if he stood right in front of them. Neo acted as support wherever she could, cloaking herself with her own semblance and delivering instantly fatal stabs with her estoc whenever possible, immediately retreating to invisibility when she couldn't.

The Atlan Guard were no small help, their firing squads precise and efficient as one half knelt and opened up into the horde while the other half reloaded and directed attention to more grave threats. If anything, the defensive line had been holding strong, and what few survivors anyone had managed to find were being rapidly hauled away via airship to a safe zone outside of Vale. The city-sized warship hovering over Vale didn't inspire much hope though, nor did the fact that parts of the Kingdom itself appeared to be shifting and changing before their very eyes. Buildings seemed to bend and writhe, the dying screams of the kingdom somehow audible from such a great distance, some swearing that the tallest buildings appeared to grow extra appendages and even great toothed maws.

The defenders at the docks felt as if the battle had been dragging on for half a day at least, even if their scrolls and watches had only signalled the passing of around two hours since the chaos started. They were tired, the screams of the traumatised and wounded only further weighed on their shoulders, but still they stood defiantly against the terror. A matured Creep-type Grimm standing easily over fifteen feet tall and wielding a massive, bladed tail bellowed as it burst through a wall leading to the main courtyard of Beacon, casually crushing its own kind underfoot as it sprinted at them.

"DINOVALDO!" Jaune yelled, "TOPPLE IT AND AIM FOR THE TAIL!"

Nora was already firing grenades not only at its legs but at where it was going to step, rapidly forcing it to slow down to try and catch its balance. Ren had appeared at its right thigh with Neo at its left, the former unleashing a high-pitched battle cry as he descended and pummelling its leg with blindingly fast punches on the way down, Neo's estoc flashing back and forth in a blur of thrusts to pierce through in much the same manner. The Grimm screeched in pain as is legs collapsed out from under it, its right leg outright exploding and sending it pitching onto its face, tumbling right in front of Jaune. He saw as its legs began to heal and simply acted, dashing forward and amping his physical prowess with his Semblance, breathing in deeply as he raised his blade above its neck.

"Black Flash!"

A crescent of pitch-black unlight sliced down through the Dinovaldo's neck, its screaming cut short as its head rolled free in a fountain of ichor. The death of its strongest member sent the last of the daemons hissing and screeching, slowly backing away.

"That's what I thought!" Nora shouted, "Suck our nuts you stupid little-!"

"Have faith, my Neverborn host!"

From the hole in the wall leading to the fountain stepped an Astartes in deep crimson armour, black runes, flayed skin and unhallowed scripture inscribed and welded onto his warplate. A helmet depicting a snarling vox-mouth and a single golden horn sprouting from its brow stared at them with piercing green eye-lenses, the Word Bearer's presence appearing to rally Grimm, daemons and possessed alike.

"There are a handful of other sacrifices left within Beacon. Go and devour them. I will not allow the Ceremony to be stopped."

"DON'T GIVE HIM ANY ROOM, OPEN FIRE!" Jaune roared, Atlan Guard and Hunters alike already wise enough to already begin unleashing a wall of ordnance at the Astartes, but it was already too late. As his sprinted forward, his already frightening speed increased in an instant as the metal of his armour suddenly bulged and stretched like living muscle, one hand bursting out of its gauntlet in a taloned claw as the other morphed into a bladed imitation of a crab-like claw. The horn on his helm split down the middle and twisted up on itself in a jagged spiral, the vox-grill ripping open to make way for a fanged maw that screamed –

"GLORY TO THE GODDESS OF RUIN: ALL HAIL THE BLACK QUEEN!"

"You glorify nothing but your own nihilism!"

Artoria Pendragon stepped in and blocked his charge with the flat of Excalibur, a pristine *GONG* ringing through the air as a golden shockwave drove him back. He hissed in pain, his demonic mutations visibly burning and flaking away wherever her blade had touched. The group of survivors, civilian and exhausted Hunters alike she had brought in stumbled into the safe-zone, her mere presence lifting everyone's hearts. With Excalibur held in a two-handed grip, Artoria silently faced the Possessed Word Bearer down.

"Dragon's-child," He snarled, "Even if I fall, you will not stop the procession, no matter what blade you wield."

Artoria spared him no words, the two engaging in one-on-one combat. He thrust his pincer forward, Artoria weaving to the side directly in the path of his follow-up spinning backfist. She ducked and slashed up, severing his hand at the wrist and smoothly directly Excalibur down to slice through his thigh in a single motion. He stumbled, and that was all the time she needed, piercing Excalibur through his ribs and into his chest, ripping the blade up and out through his spine and skull. Daemons and Grimm alike shrieked and retreated for the time being as the defenders and civilians cheered, Artoria turning to them and raising her blade in triumph, a small but warm smile on her face as Excalibur glowed with golden light.

Jaune saw through the act. He saw how her feet were planted wider to stabilize herself, he saw the dents and dried blood on her armour, the sweat caking her face, the way her skin seemed paler than normal. The constant running back and forth on top of fighting notable threats wherever they popped up was taking its toll on her, even with Mordred helping out, and he knew what to do.

"Mom," He called, walking over.

"Jaune," She greeted with a stiff nod, "I heard the authority of your words dealing with the large daemon and the Astartes. Very well done. I wish I could stay longer, but there are still people one Beacon who can be saved, and the Traveller is here to spread his foul corruption onto the corpses of the fallen, Barbatos cannot hold his attention for much longer."

He swallowed the blooming pride in his chest and held out a hand, Artoria clasping his forearm in a warrior's handshake. He called on his Semblance and poured his will into granting his mother strength: her auric reserves were vast, dwarfing his own, yet he still tried. She took a deep breath in, colour returning to her skin and her strength returning to her.

"You need it more than I do," He said, "And I can always just regenerate my own aura quickly enough to compensate."

She pulled him into a sudden and tight hug, catching him off guard for a moment before he leaned into it and closed his eyes. She smelled like fresh bread on a rainy day.

"Thank you," She said softly before pulling away and cutting off his healing, placing her hands on his shoulders, "But stay vigilant and rely on your comrades. These people are your wards, and you cannot defend them if you've passed out."

"…okay mom," He said, his throat unexpectedly tightening up at the trust in her eyes. "I will."

She nodded again and kissed his cheek before giving a thumbs up to Ren and Nora before sprinting off into Beacon's compound again. He felt the strain of using his semblance too frequently, but Ren and Nora were already there to help hold him up before he could stumble, the trio sharing easy grins and Jaune righted himself.

"Alright," He turned to the defenders, "RESTOCK ON AMMUNITION, DON'T BE STINGY AND SHARE IF SOMEONE NEEDS IT! ANYONE WHO NEEDS MEDICAL ATTENTION, VELVET AND I ON THE WAY-!"

The ground suddenly shook violently, everyone falling to their knees and trying to brace onto something or each other.

"What now?" He groaned.

"TH-THE LAKE'S BEEN SPLIT IN HALF!" Someone shouted. The trio gave each other a look and ran over to the edge of the dock, seeing that the body of water that had separated Beacon from Vale proper had been forcibly split to reveal a dry path leading to directly to the dock itself. Worse was the rising stone from underneath the waters forming a path wide enough to fit a dozen tanks all the way across, the path rising up and connecting directly to the lip of the dock. Worse yet was that the shaking hadn't stopped, and a noise echoed all the way from Mountain Glenn: the shattering of stone followed by a bellowing roar.

...TWBY Continued...