CHAPTER 5 - The Wanderer
October 14th, 790 E.A
Outskirts of Arcadia, Domain of Nemea, Kingdom of Mistral Territory
The Lone Huntsman's posture remained calm and steady, even amidst the pouring rain. Through countless years and battles, Zhu Ren had grown accustomed to fighting anywhere - whether in the middle of a dark forest or an arid desert.
The sound of the horns blared somewhere behind, reminding him that his companions had started the hunt - as always, the wildenbears and the rabbits were fair game, while they would attempt to avoid hurting any of the deer - The Forest Kings as the people in Arcadia seemed to call them.
The Great Hunt was a tradition in Arcadia - come every October, the people would hold a festival to greet the coming winter season, a tradition that emerged from local folklore after the Great War that The Forest Kings had taken the winter away from them and they had to pray to get it back - a belief stemming from local fables about the valkyries. The people would hunt wild animals and feast, offering the celebration and the consumption of what nature provided as a ritual prayer. Sure, nobody believed this would work, but Zhu Ren understood the importance of hope during the darkest times - not to mention that every bright day in their lives would help stave off the Grimm even more.
While Arcadia's evolving traditions still puzzled him, in the countless years of accompanying hunting parties for the festival, Zhu Ren had long since become adept at noticing if the creatures of Grimm lurked in the forest and protecting the hunters. He did not know whether it was because of the overall positive and hopeful mood the festival would bring or because of other matters, but the Grimm would rarely appear in their way during those days.
The forest trail - well kept and maintained - remained clear from the usual signs of Grimm presence - no new withered trees, no black patches of grass, no sign of sick animals either. Just the sound of rain hitting the trees and the grass below his feet, the raindrops sliding down from the ever-useful bamboo hat he had gotten comfortable wearing - back in Youdu, they used those things to protect from the intense desert sun, but it would redirect rain all the same too. In his years as a soldier, he had gotten used to changing weather conditions, even if his clothing style had changed since he had settled here with his wife and son.
The appearance of the Great Lake after the Great War hadn't just altered the behavior of The Grimm or breathed life into new traditions. The change had thrown the entire ecosystem into disarray, altering the behavior patterns of the animals too - people never knew why, but rainstorms would drive animals into the open, dulling their survival instincts now - a perfect time to hunt, as counter-intuitive as that would sound.
Half the continent had paid the price for ending the bloodshed, now living in a surreal landscape where seasons would skip around like a broken record - a reminder of the massive loss of life that had occurred with the rushing water. People coped the way they could, finding meaning in simpler things rather than grand conquests and ideals that had defined the age of war. While the world already had been built upon the reverence for the myths of once upon a time, the post-war generation gorged down the fairy tales with a newfound intensity, using them as the source of hope - the legends of conflicts had been replaced by surreal everyday depictions of forces greater than life engaging in simple acts of kindness, rewarding those who stay true to themselves.
Zhu Ren was content to live in this world, even if he had been preparing for the previous one, honing his skills for the bloodshed and chaos that had long since been left behind by the world. He had found happiness in using his talents to protect people rather than harm them now.
His leather coat, light brown, like the cedar trees, clung comfortably around him - he had bought it somewhere in Argus - Zhu Ren did not bother to remember where - and it had served him well for a while now, no matter the season. A somewhat crumbled white shirt, a leather coat, a bamboo hat, and a giant spear - Zhu Ren couldn't help but find it funny - his current appearance had deviated so much from the soldier he used to be, he could almost see himself on a cover of a fantasy novel Ren would have bought his son.
Once upon a time, he was a great warrior, but with a peaceful life like this, Zhu Ren preferred this life more. He hoped the post-war Remnant - the one he helped establish through the turmoil of his youth wouldn't need warriors - just Huntsmen.
He froze as a distant sound reached his ears amidst the crackling thunder. Was it a Wraith? If so, he'd likely have been able to take it out with just his semblance.
No - this was the sound a human would make - a cry by someone hidden - he had heard sobs like that when he had still been a warrior, protecting the construction of Mistral Railway and the rebuilding efforts, just like his parents before him. A thought flew by him - his parents would likely be quite angry with him - now a simple Huntsman in an average town - not even one of the Hearts.
Zhu Ren crept forward - he made sure to hide his weapon - a giant brandishing a lance would leave a horrifying first impression. He still kept it at the ready, though - even humans can be monsters sometimes.
When he stumbled deeper through the bushes, he could finally see a human form - lying inside a hole that he could only assume the person had dug themselves. Desperation and survival went hand in hand as far as human nature would go.
He looked closer - a child, dressed in what he could only assume was a white garb, now muddy gray from the dirt, lay there as she sobbed, hiding from the rain.
"Over here." - he shouted behind him and then took out a little silver whistle from his pocket. A traditional code - hunting horns warning about animals, whistles warning about the presence of humans.
Whether a crashed convoy or one of the smaller villages hit by the Grimm, it was not that unusual to find people in Mistral's forest - what was far rarer was to reach them alive - especially a small child like this.
"I mean no harm, okay?" - The Lone Huntsman tried to sound as calm and gentle as a fifty-year-old soldier could under these circumstances. - "Are you hurt? Can you speak? What's your name?"
The kid stared at him - short, messy orange hair and aquamarine eyes - Zhu Ren could see her moving her lips as if mouthing syllables that never materialized. He wondered how long this child had been here and whether she had forgotten how to speak.
Thunder crackled once again, and in a few seconds, a flash of lightning covered everything in his view as it hit the tree a few steps away, the smell of burnt wood enveloping them all.
The girl screamed a long and desperate wail that threatened to sever her vocal cords. Her head darted to the sides as she frantically attempted to dig a deeper hole.
"It's okay, kid, it's okay. That's just thunder, it's all okay, it's over now. We'll take you somewhere safe, okay?."
The girl went back to sobbing as his words reached her - well, at least she could understand him. And that meant that she mustn't have been here long - even if the experience would have left mental scars, she could, hopefully, with time, get better.
The hunting party surrounded them. The man, a bit younger than him, extended him his jacket. Zhu Ren carefully picked up the girl, wrapping her in it as if in a blanket as he carried her. He knew who the man was - someone who began so confrontative and suspicious of him when Ren and his wife had moved here.
Openness and good-natured gestures go a long away.
"Where did this kid come from?" - The man asked him. - "Logistics are good few days out and we haven't heart of any village nearby being hit recently, not that there are that many anymore."
"It's not like she appeared here out of thin air." - Zhu Ren turned his gaze toward the child again. - "What's the name of your home? Where are your parents?"
"I don't…" - The girl could barely manage a few syllables through the uncontrolled sobbing.
Figures - it was unlikely for anyone to survive here, so even her alone was a miracle - if she was alone here, it likely meant her parents were already gone. And, of course, to kids this young, every direction would seem the same in the forest.
Zhu Ren glanced at the men.
"Send a message back to town - we are going back."
"What? Empty-handed?"
"A saved life isn't empty-handed."
Zhu Ren stared at the kid in his arms, who had grown silent. He noticed an inscription embroidered on her torn gown.
"Magnhild? Do you know what it means? Is that your name?"
"Magnhild?" - The girl responded, her hand stretched towards his lance as if in a trance. - "I Don't know."
Zhu Ren felt even more sure the girl was an orphan. A scared child appearing in the forest amidst lightning and the storm - an orphan that managed to survive here long enough for them to reach her without the Grimm swarming her due to her distress. Just before the great festival too.
Zhu Ren could already see the rumors and myths this might spawn. So why not lean into it?
"I will call you Nora for now, okay?" - He said.
The girl nodded.
Nora - the light of the Valkyries - a fitting name for her circumstances.
Zhu Ren marched back to Arcadia as fast as he could, shielding the child from rain.
January 15th, 797 E.A
Town of Kulhara, Domain of Nemea, Kingdom of Mistral Territory
Rocks, varying shapes and sizes, floated through the air - that was the first thought Ruby Rose managed to form as her ears rang with the melody of despair like thunder. Within seconds, the idyllic world around her again dissolved into a cacophony of violence, the atmosphere around them all seeping with despair.
Her eyes darted to the sides as she attempted to grasp the full extent of what had just happened, as people zoomed past her in all directions - their screams echoing through the town.
The civilians rushed to the warehouse to hide. Meanwhile, any soul capable of holding a weapon bolted in the other direction, towards the north, facing the advancing malevolence - the duality of chaos unfolding in front of her.
She glanced towards their destination - the stone walls ahead were gone - shredded, like pieces of paper. In the gap between loomed a shadow, surrounded by dust, smoke, and falling debris - a horseman? Just trying to get a clear look at the thing brought up a head-splitting headache, the same way it did with the apparition in that village.
Ruby now had a vague idea what that meant - the thing ahead was likely one of the cogitowhateers like the Wraith was - having a psychic effect upon those that witness or hear it. Those things echo back at the people who observed them, and that echo would ring through their brains - a feeling all too familiar from her encounter with the Wraith.
"Ruby!" - She could hear someone scream from her left.
She darted to the side to find Jaune, clutching his shield, leaning on one hand from behind a well.
"Where are the others?" - Jaune said as he drew his sword.
"Never mind that we have maybe a few seconds before whatever blew up the wall enters the town. And then all hell will break loose." - She retorted, screaming as Ruby ran from her friend and into the chaos ahead.
Ruby turned around and flew up the rooftop again, transforming Crescent Rose into her ranged form. She looked through the lens, trying to focus on the enemy - to at least get a better look at what they were about to face.
Optics or not made no difference - the thing was a headache-inducing blur - just a black spot of nothingness as if someone had smeared paint on her scope. It was as if she had stared far too long at the sun and her eyes had begun playing tricks.
And then it wasn't even there.
"Ruby, that thing is in the town now! How did it get to the town square? Wasn't it outside?" - Jaune shouted from below amidst the chaos. - "Did you see it move?"
Ruby's gaze jumped through the town - the weird horseman now stood just two or three buildings over from them. Did it move somehow? Every muscle in her body tensed up as a sense of dread overcame her - something horrible was about to happen.
A swirling noise came at her, like someone tearing apart a piece of paper, like a well-tuned guitar string breaking loose - a dark spear-like projectile covered in what she could only describe as smoke grew closer in size, flying towards her.
The thing had thrown something at her. A weapon? Why Her? Is it because she looked at it through her sights?
All Ruby could do was push herself off the rooftop. She didn't have time to think about landing. As she hit the ground, shoulder first, pain jolting through her body, she looked up back at where she was just a few seconds ago - the roof was gone. Not damaged or crumbling - it was as if some sheer force had pushed it down, grinding it into dust as it touched the roof tiles.
Not just the roof but the whole house, twisted and bent, lay in rubble within mere seconds that it had taken her to reach the ground. A two-story building lay in ruins as if flattened in an instant by an invisible hand of a deity.
She turned back toward where the apparition was, but it, yet again, had disappeared as if it had never been there. Ruby couldn't even tell how tall the creature was or how close it stood to them. And she couldn't even tell when it had moved. Did it move?
Before she could even form a coherent thought on what to do next, a familiar bad feeling once again enveloped her - she had to run - as fast as she could, or it would all be over. She would be over.
But it was already too late - another black spear flying right into her, inches away from her face. There was no way to dodge it in time, even with her semblance.
As her mind raced, a beam of energy flashed right in front of her face - not just deflecting the projectile but obliterating it. She turned toward the source of the shot and saw a spear. No, not a spear, a trident, as a familiar obnoxious show-off stood there, posing.
"You guys okay?" - Neptune spun the weapon, now a gun, as he fired a few returning shots toward the general direction of the projectiles. - "What the hell is that thing?"
"It moved from outside to all the way here in the split second and then again." - She replied. - "And it keeps throwing things. So far, seemingly at me."
"It might be able to tell if you are looking at it." - Jaune got up from the ground. - "The moment I found it in the fog, it aimed at me, too."
Ruby stared at where he had been before - the stone well had been completely obliterated.
"Some sort of cogitohazardous type of protection via perception?" - Neptune got lost in thought for a second. - "Is such a thing even possible? Grimm being defensive is something you don't see every day."
"If that's true, then we gotta move, we gotta move, we gotta move." - Jaune repeated. - "I don't know about you all, but I don't want to end up like those buildings."
"Chill, let's test this." - Neptune said, peaking from behind the building as he intentionally stared into the void ahead.
Then he darted to the side as fast as he could, motioning them to move.
Sure enough, in less than a second, the apparition changed locations again, and a projectile hit where specifically Neptune was standing -the impact leaving behind a hole in the ground.
Then another set of projectiles hit a house further ahead - the thing was moving and attacking anything that would observe it.
Ruby stared at the rooftops, dozens of projectiles flying out again and again - every single one an attack against someone watching it, someone who likely had no idea what was coming their way. The thing ahead had trimmed down the town's defenses, one person at a time.
Ruby felt her dinner come back up. She struggled to push it back down.
"Is it keeping threats at a distance this way? Or searching for something?" - Jaune said.
"It's a Grimm, Jaune, and they aren't usually known to want more than just guts." - Ruby replied as she ran between buildings, transforming Crescent Rose into a scythe. - "It's instinct."
"Something within its nature - just like how a Griffon or a Nevermore instinctively know how to fly despite skipping all the steps animals and birds take." - Neptune interjected.
"Any of you guys noticed Ren and Nora?" - Jaune cut them off. - "Would like to confirm if they are safe."
"We all got caught off-guard, Jaune." - Ruby said.
Thunder crackled.
And the apparition's attack befell them once again.
It did not matter which of them had laid their eyes upon it - keeping one's enemy within the line of sight was one of the most basic rules of survival. And they couldn't guarantee that the thing wouldn't attack them if they did not look either.
The trio bolted forward, running through the wreckage, the energy projectiles screaming past them, leaving holes as they hit the ground. Ruby could feel the impact craters crackle with electricity even long after the hit.
Ruby's eyes wandered around the changing landscape - in the few minutes the hell had begun in, at least ten buildings now have been reduced to just a pile of uneven stones or burning wood - by a single Grimm.
The Monster, whatever it was, could cover the distance from the outskirts to the central parts of the town in mere seconds and seemingly was capable of ranged combat - both being pretty unusual for a Creature of Grimm.
It did not act like a Grimm should - it did not chase after the terrified townsfolk hiding in the storehouse, nor did it target people based on their emotions.
Surprise attacks would also not work if Neptune's theory was correct and the apparition could tell whenever someone is looking at it and respond to it in force - how would anyone launch a sneak attack without confirming where the target was?
No matter how fast her thoughts spun, she couldn't formulate a single idea right now - the visage of crumbling buildings and screaming people kept shifting between the chaos of the present and the all-too-familiar flames of ruined Beacon, burning Vale.
Ruby realized the sound of projectiles stopped.
And then it was like all the air around her disappeared, pushed to the sides, displaced by the sudden movement of something she couldn't see appearing there in the blink of an eye.
Neptune tried to scream something, mouthing something off at her, but she couldn't hear - the sound had stopped existing, pushed away by the encroaching malice. In this moment, only the melody of death remained.
To her right, Jaune blocked something with his shield, the force of impact pushing him backward as he gritted his teeth, his shield vibrating upon contact with the dark void emptiness of the universe.
Her head hurt.
The apparition was right in front of her. When did it get here?
This time, Ruby got to stare at it up close - to observe the death made whole in all its glory as her eyes traced the visage that defied logic.
A horseman loomed ahead - a shriveled humanoid carcass, its arms disproportionately long. The black void that covered its form strained itself thin around a skeletal outline, threatening to break.
The faceless head. A mouth but no eyes and no nose - a dark void where the eyes should be. A bone-like Grimm mask was nowhere to be found, as if an unknown force had torn it off.
Instead, its shriveled mouth convulsed and moved as if the apparition had launched into a tirade, speaking faster than humanly possible - an uncanny mimicry of communication. But it hadn't made a single sound.
The longer Ruby looked at its form, the more off and unsettling it felt - for one, its neck was way too long, a pulsating pipe disappearing between the shoulders into an exposed collarbone - in the way that human necks usually wouldn't - the creature's chest area had its ribcage exposed, bones protruding out of the dark skinny void covering its form. The longer she looked, the longer she felt like its chest was a giant opening maw.
One of its elongated arms dragged through the ground while the being had thrown the other over, hanging it on its shoulder.
A word permeated her brain - Wiederganger. Revenant.
Wanderer.
Ruby realized that calling it The Horseman might be incorrect - there was no horse - the thing below was a part of the terrifying whole, all connected. Its lower part resembled a horse but did not move like one.
If this were a horse, then it would have been a horse that had fallen on the ground, all its legs broken, as it frantically wailed the broken form to sides to get back up, to push itself off the ground.
That was how this apparition moved, its four legs bent, and how it strode to sides - like a convulsing dying animal - its form alien and unfitting of its purpose.
Her head hurt.
Behind the apparition, Neptune rushed at it, his weapon now a halberd. He screamed something to her and Jaune as he pointed at the thing in front of them.
To her side, Jaune jumped back up, brandishing his sword,
The two swung their weapons in sync at the same time.
Ruby watched the movement as if in slow motion. She knew - it wasn't enough. The sword and the halberd bounced off as if they'd have hit rubber - the weapons did not make a single sound when connecting with the apparition, as if repelled by an unseen force.
And the next second, the abomination shifted to the sides, its horse legs kicking the duo into opposite directions - a silent film unfolding in front of Ruby, as if death had already drowned the world.
Ruby could see blood trickling down the side of Jaune's face as he struggled to stand up after hitting a wall. She wanted to move, to help, but every muscle in her body had frozen solid.
A strange sense of deja vu overcame her as Ruby Rose found herself in a situation echoing her nightmare - she couldn't move, facing the void ahead. That was a common theme in her nightmares, but Ruby could recognize it in her everyday life, too - she never was enough.
Is this my life now? To watch my friends die as I stand there helpless? What kind of a hero watches the world wither and burn? Is that all I am good for?
For the first time in her life, a complete certainty washed over Ruby - everything, anything, anywhere - all the things will die one day.
The people she knew died, are dying, and will die.
One day, she will bury her pet, say goodbye to her father, kiss her sister to sleep, honor her friends, and place flowers on the graves of everyone she ever knew.
People die, Animals die, Kingdoms die, stars die -from smallest particle to the vast infinity.
Beginning of the End, End of the Beginning - all things must die.
Ruby struggled with the torrent of thoughts - of alien certainty that crawled into her head. She realized with vague yet chilling certainty - these weren't her ideas, her knowledge, her beliefs - she did not suddenly decide to ponder on the nature of death in the middle of the fight - this was knowledge, for some reason, flooding her mind.
Her eye-sockets burned up as her eyeballs threatened to crawl out as if thousands of ants were running through their surface - a familiar feeling she hadn't felt ever since on top of that tower when an arrow struck Pyrrha's chest and-
The Apparition stopped moving - Ruby could swear it was staring right at her - it studied her. And then all she could see was the endless dark void enveloping all.
When she opened her eyes once again, the creature disappeared - this time Ruby could see its form dissolve within black fog.
When she opened her eyes again, the creature disappeared - this time - Ruby could see its form dissolve within a black fog. She could feel a liquid dripping down onto her lips, through her chin, and onto her cloak. Her nose bled.
"Is it over? Where did it go?" - Jaune said, still struggling to get up as he lightly hit his head with his fist as if trying to punch the vertigo out of himself. - "What did you do?"
Ruby's eyes darted to Neptune, standing while using his weapon as a support. And then to the rest of Kulhara, now ravaged by the indescribable that had befallen it, like a tsunami.
The fight hadn't lasted even ten minutes, yet more than half of town had been gone - the town hall was missing its entire second floor, and the water tower had bent to the side, a gaping hole in it. At least over ten houses were flattened into rubble as if a tornado had swept across them.
Ruby, her head ringing, tried to comprehend her surroundings. The apparition was nowhere to be found - not inside nor outside by the broken wall. And then she noticed the bodies - a hand sticking out from the rubble there, a motionless leg here.
Kulhara was littered with bodies, with death. Ruby screamed at herself to not attempt counting.
She felt disgusted from comparing the monster to storms and natural disasters - nature held no malice - it just was. Storms wouldn't come to kill people, while the sickening creature had been darting through the town, its sole motivation to extinguish life.
"It just disappeared." - She struggled to speak.
"Whatever you did to that thing, Ruby, it will be back." - Ren's voice echoed behind her. - "It always does."
Ruby turned around. Nora and Ren, supporting each other, walked up to them amidst the destruction. The duo looked pretty battered.
"Ren! Nora!" - Jaune shouted as he limped to them as fast as he could, hugging them. - "You guys okay?"
"Yeah, all things considered." - Ren smiled as he struggled with the weight of both Nora and Jaune. - "We can consider ourselves lucky."
"We were inside the tavern. We argued about stuff, and-" - Nora's voice shook as she gripped Magnhild. - "We heard a commotion outside, and then half the tavern just crumbled right in front of us."
"Since that moment, it was all about avoiding the destruction all around." - Ren placed his hand on Nora's shoulder. - "We need to tell them."
"Tell what?" - Ruby struggled to her feet. - "What's going on, guys?"
"We might know a little bit about what that thing is." - Ren said.
"Yeah, and it's anything but fun." - Nora added.
Ruby stepped closer, Neptune and Jaune moved, following her lead, still reeling from the aftermath.
"What we faced here? Locals call it The Wanderer. It's a Grimm, but with the way tales go, one could also call it a Fable."
"I heard of those." - Neptune interjected. - "The Fables are like urban legends or myths - creatures or events that defy normal explanation and hold no proof in reality but still reverberate through the communities enough to spread. Myths of terrifying beings or unexplainable occurrences."
"Like Bigfoot." - Jaune noted.
"Yes, but one thing we can tell you for sure is that Wanderer is real." - Nora said, her voice shaking and her arms crossed.
Ruby couldn't bear seeing Nora this way - so lost and guarded.
Ren stepped forward in front of Nora.
"Because seven years ago, to the north of here, by the Great Lake, the Wanderer destroyed our home." - he said.
"We need a plan." - Ruby replied.
Ruby stood among the debris, gripping Crimson Rose. The moment the thing was to reappear, they would have mere seconds to enact their plan. She glanced at the sky, now pitch-black - another impossibility in a long list of today's events.
They hadn't been fighting for that long when that thing breached the walls. Yet now night had shrouded the entire town. Was this also the apparition's doing? While the best-case scenario was that the apparition wouldn't show again, Nora and Ren assured her it would. And if it did? Ruby hoped their plan would work.
Her thoughts carried her back to what Ren and Nora told them.
Town of Arcadia. Population two thousand - gone in a single night during the storm. The death toll is impossible to confirm. According to Ren, an entire town enveloping the Great Lake crumbled to nothingness, leaving behind a few rundown buildings that likely don't resemble buildings after all these years. Numbers like that would have been impossible to believe just a while ago, but Ruby herself had seen a metropolis fall in a single night.
Town of Kulhara. Population one thousand and fifty. Over thirty people died in five minutes of its assault, at least as far as the people could count in half an hour after the Wanderer had vanished. Ruby was almost sure the numbers would increase if they removed the debris - the number of people she had failed would only rise.
Ruby knew - this was the risk every single settlement beyond the big cities would have to bear - encountering something beyond their comprehension that could wipe them off the face of this land. And often, it wouldn't take an incomprehensible monster like this - even a Wraith would suffice.
As the last few months have shown, even big cities like Vale aren't safe from this fate. Despite the irony, in the age of Ever After, no person would be able to live happily after.
Ruby had never bothered to look up how many people had lived in Vale. A Few hundred thousand? A million? Vale was a bigger city than the place they were going to - Nemea - and yet even Nemea had a population of around five hundred thousand people, according to the books she had looked up before the journey.
Would knowing the exact numbers of the deaths change anything for her?
Why did the creature run? Did it react to her eyes? Did her gaze affect the creature somehow? Lacking any knowledge about the silver eyes infuriated her.
Ruby's thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a whistle.
Ren and Nore were right - the creature returned within half an hour after being defeated. Ren's father and every huntsman in Arcadia supposedly had fought it for an entire night.
The only option Kulhara's citizens had was to run - to collect whatever belongings they could and use the convoy vehicles to escape to either Nemea or Argus. And their job was to distract the being until they did that. Kulhara wasn't necessarily lost - they could all possibly return one day as long as people were still alive.
That said, Ruby still really wanted to defeat the thing. To prove the inevitability wrong. Could she do anything, something with her eyes? She had stopped a far worse thing atop that tower if only she could figure out how to use what she had.
Alas, until that day came, they would have to stick to the plan she had outlined to the team mere minutes ago.
As the apparition disappeared and then reappeared inside the town, Ruby jumped forward.
"At this point, the best option is to try to close the distance and attack it at a close range. There has got to be a reason it is trying to keep others at a distance, right?"
She remembered telling them what to do - acting like a leader again, using everything she could remember from the previous confrontation. She hoped it would turn out better than the last time she had done that.
Now she took her time, lining up a few shots to get its attention. Likely, she did not need to because it could detect her, but this also served as a test on whether a high-caliber sniper rifle could pierce it. No luck, the shots bounced off it's form, as expected.
"At this point, neither Jaune nor Neptune could scratch it. Nora is likely our hardest hitter right now. I'd say we all rush at it and keep it distracted while Nora charges up an attack while NOT looking at the thing. Once she is ready, we need to inform her where the creature is so she can randomly swing at the approximate location with her full power, considering she doesn't really need much accuracy with her semblance. We might not be able to kill it, but we should be able to hurt it and distract it long enough to save lives. Alternatively, killing it would be good too if we can find a way."
Crescent Rose transformed in her hands into a scythe. Ruby, with a burst of her semblance, rushed forward - she only had mere seconds before the projectiles would come her way, so she needed to gain enough speed to zoom past them.
Sure enough, black bolts flew toward her with a weird humming sound emanating from their movement.
She dodged the first five.
A beam of electricity shattered the other four.
"Neptune does have one advantage in that his energy weapon is the only thing we have seen to shatter the projectiles mid-flight. So while he can't hurt the thing, he can protect the distractions, as long as he doesn't lock eyes with the enemy."
She slightly turned her head to the right - Neptune held a quite comfy position on one of the intact rooftops, his gaze turned the opposite direction as he hid behind cover, waiting for the peculiar projectile sound to peek out and do his job again.
Ruby moved forward, closing in on the apparition as she vaulted over the destroyed well, finding herself in the town square between the storage house and the decimated town hall. On the other side, Ren emerged from behind the destroyed tavern, cornering the beast from the other direction.
"Ren and I will be the distraction. We are fastest here, so even if that thing can fight up close, we can likely hold our own."
Ruby swung her scythe and, yet again, was greeted with a dull, almost rubber-like sound as it bounced off the Wanderer's form.
The Wanderer moved a few steps to the side, and then, after a short pause, another barrage of projectiles emerged out of thin air, only to be greeted by shots from Neptune's Tri-Hard.
This time, the Wanderer responded by pointedly turning its attention to the rooftop and focusing fire there - they all expected this - even in their last fight, the creature already acted beyond mere instinct.
Ruby stared at where Neptune was. As the smoke and dust subsided, revealing a shield, it became clear that the plan worked.
"If the thing decides to attack Neptune, your job, Jaune, is to protect him. You are the only one here with defensive equipment , and Neptune is our only means to counter the monster."
Ruby spun as she swung her scythe again and again, each time met with the same outcome.
Forty more seconds.
Ren had vaulted over the creature, yet the shots did zero damage to the thing.
Ruby clasped Ren's hand, using the momentum of her attacks to swing him around her.
Thirty more seconds.
The thing had switched tactics, flailing at them with its elongated arms. Ruby managed to block the attacks, but a counter-attack was out of the question now.
Twenty more seconds.
Neptune's attacks pierced through another burst of projectiles. This time, the monster responded with an even more furious attack, forcing Jaune to drag Neptune off the rooftop and relocate to another spot as the house they were on top of finally crumbled.
Ten more seconds. It was time to gently guide the storm to its target.
With a burst of her semblance, Ruby rushed forward, barely getting Ren out of the way of the creature's swing.
Ruby, breathless, mouthed off the countdown, blocking another attack with Crescent Rose taking the brunt of the damage, the force pushing Ruby back. She could feel the dark energy tingle at her skin even if the attack hadn't reached her.
The Wanderer swung its other arm, this time Neptune and Jaune blocking the hit.
They broke the formation, and the creature used both arms to attack, but it did not matter anymore.
Ruby shouted, swinging her scythe as the others did the same.
As expected, even all four of them attacking at once didn't seem to phase the creature.
But that was not the point.
Thunder crackled as a massive figure jumped toward them, hitting the creature point black with a hammer.
As the tip of Magnhild pressed against the Wanderer's skull, the night turned into the day again as everything went white.
Ruby again used her semblance, pushing Jaune, Neptune, and Ren out of the crackling electricity descending upon the creature.
Glancing behind her, she could see Nora's attack landing point-blank, the shroud around the wanderer dissipating.
Malice and instinct guided the beasts.
But Nora? Nora was the very definition of a raging storm.
They succeeded.
Except that they didn't.
Ren screamed at Nora to get away.
The Wanderer had done something no Grimm had done before - completely change tactics mid-fight.
Gone was the mist, torn apart by Magnhild.
Half of The Wanderer's shoulder was missing, alongside most of its head and chest area, torn apart by Nora's attack.
It now held a long spear imbued with what Ruby could only perceive as pitch-black thunder. The Wanderer had drawn the strange weapon out of his own shoulder.
Before Ruby could utter a word, she observed the creature swinging its spear forward through Neptune's stomach, swatting him to the side, leaving a gaping hole where his right side should be.
A desperate thought flashed in her mind.
"Nora!" - Ruby screamed. - "Can you channel his energy back at him?"
Ruby rushed forward, Crescent Rose transforming into a sword as she rammed its blade into the Wanderer's chest.
Nora understood her cue as she grabbed onto the Wanderer's spear, channeling the dark electricity through herself and into Magnhild. Ruby could only hope that she could do this and the source of thee electricity did not matter.
Then Nora slammed her hammer with all her might into Crescent Rose, channeling that same electricity through Ruby's weapon.
Ruby could feel the air around them heat up as her hair stood up.
She glanced to the side to where Neptune was. Jaune was screaming something, his hand pressed to Neptune's wound. For a second, Ruby could swear the two had been enveloped by a strange light emanating from Jaune. Ruby thought she imagined the wound shrinking.
The sound of vibrating air made her focus back on the fight.
When her sight wandered back to Crescent Rose, she could see a giant hole grow where the Wanderer's chest should be, electricity crackling as it expanded.
And then the whole top of the Wanderer was no longer there, blown clean off.
Ruby could hear Nora scream.
She turned to look behind her, just in time to see Nora's hammer, Magnhild, crumble to pieces from the energy channeled through it. Nora could take the gambit - her weapon couldn't.
The Wanderer stumbled like a dying horse without a horseman. Its form fell to the side, leaking red mist.
And then its whole form had just…crumbled in on itself like a deflated balloon?
The red mist enveloped everything, as Ruby instinctively gasped for air.
A sense of drowning encroached upon every inch of her body. Every sensation in her body vanished. She couldn't breathe nor feel the wind touch her or move.
But she could see.
Ruby Rose stood on a cliff, a city in front of her. Was this even a city? She could recognize the visage of buildings, walls, windows - none of them followed the logic they should follow - buildings that defied basic geometry, windows, doors that led nowhere, walls that seemed to disappear into the middle of the doorway.
The only thing Ruby could tell about the city was that it hungered.
The City in front of her wasn't built by any man. Ruby could understand that it was like a mirror reflection of her mind.
It was asking her to give it form, to give it meaning, but she couldn't offer it any.
Her gaze shifted beyond the city, off the edge of the cliff.
A dark, empty void stretched as far as she could see, just like in her nightmare with the thief.
Just by looking at it, Ruby could feel vertigo drag her as if she was falling into emptiness.
She had experienced this feeling before somewhere - the idea of falling through an empty, dark void with no beginning or end. Was she ever here before?
And then Ruby Rose opened her eyes as if awakening from a dream.
She could feel cold, wet stone beneath her.
She could hear the dripping water somewhere in the distance.
She struggled to see, but her surroundings were shrouded in darkness.
The air was damp, carrying a smell of dirt with it - she was in a cave somewhere.
While darkness covered everything around her, Ruby could hear voices and movement around her. She could recognize her friends all having ended up here.
A buzzing sound follow and the light blinded her as Neptune's Tri-hard lit up.
"Did not know your weapon doubles as a flashlight."
She could hear Jaune's voice.
As her eyesight adjusted to the weapon's blue glow, she could see her friends.
Desperate, she looked at Neptune who had been gasping on the ground just mere seconds ago.
There was no wound - Neptune's clothes had been completely torn to the side, but there was no wound. He was completely fine.
"What happened?" - Ruby managed to say as she stood up, her head ringing.
"Well, that was certainly an experience." - Ren said, getting up from the ground as he fruitlessly attempted to dust off his clothes. He slouched toward Nora, helping her up.
"Where are we?" - Nora asked as she struggled to her feet.
"Probably somewhere near water." - Ruby noted, remembering the sounds. - "How did we even get here?"
"Probably the thing took us with it when it retreated or crumbled or whatever." - Jaune noted as he struggled to get up.
Ruby, silent, looked at Jaune.
Then, at Neptune.
Then, at Jaune.
"Look, I don't know what happened, but he seems to have transferred his aura, and it healed my wounds." - Neptune started first, unable to bear the silence.
"On the flipside, I think mine's depleted right now." - Jaune noted. - "I don't know what I did."
"You always thought yourself a knight would have never taken you for a healer." - Nora patted him on the back, the way Nora would do that. Jaune almost fell over from the hit.
"Any thoughts, Ren?" - Ruby asked, as she could see Ren lost in thought.
"If I had to guess, we might be somewhere near or even under the Great Lake. There's plenty of caverns there that look similar from before Great Lake had formed."
"And do any of those caverns have weird murals?" - Neptune interrupted, pointing Tri-Hard at a wall covered with strange writings. - "Those sure are some interesting glyphs."
"Guys." - Nora interjected.
"Do you recognize these?" - Jaune looked at Neptune. - "Being self-proclaimed smartass and all."
Neptune coughed, adjusting his voice as if he suddenly had become a professor in the middle of the classroom.
"Nemea, Ryugu-jo, and Youdu - while there's a common language that had spread through Remnant after the Great War, all three hearts have their own written word they had preserved from the ancient times. Each location on Anima has a different name depending on who you ask, but most still use the commonly accepted ones. Everyone knows Haven, but in Youdu, you wouldn't be surprised to hear them call or write the name of that Academy as Kunlun, for example. After all, every place, every tale has as many names as there are Kingdoms, and Mistral is more of a collection of three very different nations than a coherent whole." - Neptune, holding his weapon up in one hand, traced the wall with his fingertips. - "This, however, doesn't seem to match any of those or anything they taught at the Academy. I have my guesses, though."
"You really got the whole smartass aesthetic down, huh?"
"Like I said, Jaune. Top grades."
Part of Ruby felt content observing her friends banter like nothing happened even in situations as bewildering as this one. Just because she couldn't find joy from simpler things in life, didn't mean others shouldn't.
"Guys." - Nora spoke again. - "I don't feel so good."
A sense of deja vu jolted through Ruby's brain once again.
She turned towards Nora, as she watched her friend stumble down on tone knee.
And then Nora just fell over backwards, gasping.
Ruby rushed forward as fast as she could, the images of her nightmare again playing in her mind. What happened? Did the creature catch or hurt Nora somehow, just like Neptune? Ruby had no idea. All she could see was her friend on the ground, her face contorting into a scream, her eyes wide with unseen terror as her gaze darted towards Ruby and others around her.
Ruby froze in her steps "
Her breathing is erratic, and her heart's beating for ten people." - Ren knelt beside her, checking her pulse.
"She's freezing too." - Jaune noted, checking her forehead with his hand.
It took a good few seconds till Ruby could move again.
She stumbled on her knees, closer to Nora.
Ruby's mind raced through ideas of what she could do as a familiar sense of helplessness overcame her.
Why was she so useless? What kind of hero keeps failing again and again?
All she could do was grasp Nora's hand, hoping to reassure her. And so she did.
And then, Nora's screams pierced the cavern, echoing through the darkness.
Ruby recoiled backwards, as her eyes darted to Nora's hand she just held.
The skin fractured, separated by surging blood as it peeled off.
January 15th, 797 E.A
Somewhere.
Emerald observed the facial features of the woman in the recovery pod as she wondered what came next.
The hall echoed with the sounds of dripping water - the melody of the waves she couldn't see. Emerald never asked where, exactly, the portals took them - she just knew that Cinder did not like to travel through them - she had used tiny versions of the portal to bring herself necessary tools like during the confrontation with whatshername Maiden girl. She would always travel light and travel like humans do, which, to Emerald, implied that wherever they were now was an actual physical location. She wasn't going to ask the Demon in Black where this was, though - Emerald had enough of a sense of self-preservation not to.
If Emerald had to describe this place to someone she would call it a semi-abandoned ballroom. An empty hall, brimming with nobility and wealth, but also informing whoever had entered that whoever had owned this place would never return.
Red carpets and intricate chairs clashed with steel pipes and torn curtains.
From what Cinder had told them about the menshen - using those portals requires paying a terrible price and can kill you. For some people, they'd hurt less, some - none at all, and for some - using the menshen would equal a death sentence. You could mitigate the effects via the use of a special mask or a containment capsule like the one they had used to send Professor Ozpin here, but even with all the contingencies and precautions, Cinder refused to use menshen portals. She'd always say she had no intention of bargaining with forces that would leave her at a disadvantage.
Even for power, this woman had lines she refused to cross if they meant relinquishing control - that aspect always fascinated Emerald.
This time, Cinder had no choice but to travel through the menshen via the use of a similar containment unit as what they had used for Ozpin. What would Emerald have done otherwise? Carry the idiot through a Grimm-infested landscape? She will have to live with it.
Emerald still couldn't get used to the surreal atmosphere here. She would have never willingly chosen to be in this horror show - in any other situation, she would have taken Mercury's advice and dipped as far away as she could.
But she didn't - part of her knew that she already had gone too far - Emerald would never be able to undo the sheer damage and death caused, and the other part urged herself to not abandon Cinder Fall - there had to be a meaning in all the carnage and violence she had unleashed in her name.
And if there hadn't, Cinder would have to tell her that straight to her face.
"Did you seriously put me through a menshen?" - Voice echoed from inside the capsule.
Emerald tensed up - it was showtime.
"Now, now, Cinder, you should really learn how to say thank you to the people who saved you." - Emerald smirked, keeping her distance. - "You would still be on top of that tower otherwise."
"A menshen?" - Cinder repeated, furious. - "Are you perhaps an idiot, Emerald? Did you want all of my skin to peel off? The last thing I wanted is for my hands to rot away because of your brilliant ideas, you imbecile!"
"Say it, Cinder. You know you want to"
"You-"
"Thank you, Emerald, you saved me!" - Emerald made sure to draw out the sentence, mouthing off every word. - "It's not that hard."
"If you keep acting like a brat, then by the time I reach you, it will be goodbye and not a thank you! I can promise you that." - Cinder struggled out of the capsule, fuming.
"This is from Atlas…" - Cinder noted, brushing her hand over the glass covering of the coffin she awoke in. - "That thing helped you. There's no way you two idiots achieved this on your own."
Emerald could see her struggling to stand straight up - part of her wanted to help her, but Emerald was smart enough to know Cinder Fall's pride would never let that end with anything but Emerald flying into a wall with severe burns.
Cinder struggled, step by step, clinging to various objects in the hall, whether the torn curtains, now even more damaged, or a table. Emerald found it amusing to watch Cinder use whatever was in her way to prove her strength to Emerald.
Prideful to a fault.
"Oh, I actually got my hands on this on my own, Cinder. You really shouldn't underestimate my talents." - Emerald shook inside, but she wasn't going to show that. - "The rest of it all, though, yeah, we had some help from your generous benefactor."
"Absolute brain worms!" - Cinder screamed as she picked up the glass of water on the table and threw it at the wall.
Emerald took a few steps back, shaken by the raised voice. She tried to push the vivid imagery of what Cinder might do to her to the back of her brain - the last thing she needed was to let her smell weakness.
She did not care for displays of violence - those were always performative with Cinder. It's what Cinder wouldn't say and wouldn't show that she had to be afraid of.
If Cinder wanted to hurt someone, she would just do it.
"Hey now, it's not like I was the only one making deals." - Emerald said.
"How is Vale? Atlas? Mistral? Vacuo?" - Cinder cut her off as she leaned on the glass table, seemingly simmering down. - "Did it work?"
"It's all chaos, as expected." - Emerald finally slumped onto the metal chair in the corner, relieved that Cinder was still Cinder. - "First Atlas closed their borders, now Mistral is making some funny moves just like you thought they would. And who even knows what's happening at Vacuo."
"Figures the fools at Mistral would make their move the moment their leash was off. Home is always ever so predictable." - Cinder smiled as she pushed herself off the table and stumbled forward. - "The inter-continental system is still down?"
"Oh, permanently. Don't think any of the Kingdoms have resources to spare to bring it back up right now. Can they even do it without the good ol' headmaster? I really doubt they could."
"I wouldn't be so sure about that, Emerald. Don't ever underestimate the lengths people like the General might go to retain control. There's also the matter of certain birds who I am sure will find this turn of events liberating. Of course, that is also to our benefit."
"So what's next? When are we leaving this dump?" - Emerald asked.
"As soon as I get what I wanted from Ozpin."
"Sometimes, she just sits there and stares at him. It's creepy. I think she's talking to him, you know? It's not like he can answer in his current state anyway."
"Here's the last advice I will give you because I am feeling good today." - Cinder cut her off as she continued walking, the distance between them increasing again. - "Don't ever mistake deals with that thing for charity."
Cinder glared at Emerald from across the room with the kind of stare that left Emerald's blood running cold.
"She will warmly greet you and offer help like a long-lost friend. But she's not some fairy godmother you never had. That thing has existed for thousands of years. Our goals or interests don't even make a blip on her radar. Just like Ozpin, it plays its own game." - Cinder stopped in her tracks. - "They are not human. They don't live or die like humans do. They don't plan or wish like you or I. Every deal you make, whether with Ozpin or the woman in black, you would never even know what you are actually trading away to make it or how it benefits them."
"But you made a deal with her."
"I knew what I was getting into, Emerald." - Cinder smirked. "The last thing you should ever want to trade away is power and control, and I had neither back then. If I had, I would have never made that choice."
Emerald observed Cinder - this was the woman who would grovel before the Woman in Black and gladly accept both praise and reprimands from her. The only time she had ever seen Cinder lower her voice was when talking to the thing known as Salem.
But Emerald was sure now - Cinder was not a puppet on Salem's strings - the woman Emerald had chosen to follow always had her dreams and goals, and the terrifying demon was just the means to an end.
What did Cinder wish for? Was her goal the same as what she told her when she recruited her? Emerald had no answers to those questions.
"Don't worry, Emerald. One day, time will reward all our sacrifices." - Cinder's words echoed through the hall as she disappeared into the area ahead where Emerald had never dared to venture.
Emerald sat there, staring at the ceiling, trying to ignore the sound of rushing waves that weren't even there. The image of Cinder waking up, terrified, lingered in her mind.
Cinder might have talked with her usual threatening tone, but Emerald knew whatever happened atop that tower had shaken her immensely. Cinder was a genius manipulator and someone who dreamed big, but she was only human.
Emerald didn't know Cinder or what drove her to such extreme lengths. But now that their plans had progressed forward and she was with them once again, Emerald once again had hope to unveil that secret one day.
Cinder being here didn't make the ghosts go away - the images of Vale in ruins still gnawed at Emerald.
But something had changed - maybe because of how she had found her or what she saw now - Emerald realized she wasn't afraid of Cinder anymore.
She saw the woman whose goals she dedicated her life to be weak and dependent. As much as Cinder had fumed in this confrontation, Emerald had come out of it unscathed. She had taunted the Fall Maiden, and nothing happened - Cinder needed them.
But Cinder, even as terrified and lost as she had been mere seconds ago, likely still knew exactly what she wanted.
Emerald found herself unwittingly smiling.
Today, for the first time in months, she had glimpsed something she had never seen in Cinder. The side to her that hid behind her usual femme fatale nonsense that did her best to sell to others around her.
Just like Emerald, this was a woman who had attempted to play the best play with a bad hand she had been dealt. She did not know where Cinder began or why, but this realization convinced Emerald that there was something to be gained from following her - a hope that all the terrible things they had done were somehow worth it, still.
Emerald no longer felt below her - she had saved her, confronted and teased her, and yet stood unscathed, instead having learned a snippet of Cinder's past she would have never shared before.
Cinder was right about control - getting a taste of it makes you want to never let go.
"So, satisfied with little domestic drama?" - A familiar annoying voice came from the other side of the hall. -"You never got that thank-you from her."
"Piss off, Mercury."
Emerald closed her eyes, leaning back at the wall as her thoughts drifted toward the girl that never talked - another person Salem had granted their wish for - the one Salem went through the trouble of finding herself and offering her help to.
Why would the Woman in Black do all of that? Cinder was right - Salem was no fairy godmother or a genie in the bottle, and fueling someone's dreams of revenge seemed so petty compared to helping Cinder shatter an entire Kingdom.
If everything the Woman in Black had done was part of some bigger game, Emerald couldn't help but wonder what role the little vengeful ice cream girl would play.
The Woman in Black lingered in darkness as she observed the man in front of her, sleeping peacefully.
"You always thought yourself smart, Ozpin. But the simple reality of it all is - I let you do whatever you wanted. Did you really think you just evaded my grasp for centuries? Just like that? You know better than that, Ozpin."
The void between them simmered as if responding to her words. Distance and time held no meaning here, so they could talk with each other again and again as they embarked on their journey through all of time.
"From the moment I met you, you always had a plan. And beneath that plan, you had another one. You prided yourself in your talents, in your ability to read people around you, to get them to dance to your tune. I don't really blame you for that. Your manipulative nature has got you pretty far even before our little game began…"
Water coursed through the void, the sound of waves its herald. Both of them had long since gotten used to this melody, whether afraid or excited about what it meant.
Water - something that had been there before everything else has been given names.
Before knowledge, before language itself.
The Ocean Above, The Ocean Below - two forces perfectly mirrored in each other at the beginning. When there's nothing to reflect, they might as well have been the same.
All of reality was recorded within those reflections as a disturbance.
Like a myth. Like a fairytale.
"Even after your endless journey began, you still clung to your ideas, your plans, your Monomyth. You refused to look past your human perspective, to see the world for what it truly was - what it could offer you. Instead, you chose to cling to that past, like the pitiful fool that you are."
Both of them had been shaped by the decisions that came before they embarked on this journey. Both of them had inherent knowledge that they had a self before it. One chose to chase after it, if only to ignore their guilt, while the other chose to reject it, accepting the consequences imposed upon them.
Meanwhile, the life around them rushed forward, like the water in the rivers they built their cities around. Oblivious to where the remnants of their civilization had emerged from.
The one who ran could never escape that water, no matter how hard they'd climb.
A great river cut Vale in half as it touched Beacon Academy.
Four rivers met in Haven, going in all directions of the world.
Shade Academy was an oasis, a river flowing right through in a devastated wasteland.
Atlas Academy was built on the ground atop a frozen waterfall etched into Mount Atlas.
Water. Knowledge. Flow of History and flow of Time.
Perfect landscape for the four pillars of the coward's path.
"Kingdoms rose and fell - only with your permission. You took the despair around you and attempted to give it order. Each time, humanity came this close to eradicating itself, and you'd stop it just in time, no matter the cost. After the Great War ended, you had fooled yourself into thinking it was peace you brought them as you kept arranging your pawns - collecting allies, as you love to call it. It took you decades to realize your mistake. As you ran out of time, you gathered your chess pieces at the Beacon Academy. I am not going to lie, Ozpin, that was a very good idea - You set up so many pawns and placed them in crucial roles for what was to come. I was, honestly, impressed - you learned from some of your failures before."
The crystalline structures around the Great and Powerful shifted as if responding to her voice. It was still not the time for the being in front of her to return, to wake up. She had made sure his body was intact.
Capturing Ozpin only to kill him and let him return anew would have run counter to everything she wanted, even if it would have set another monster upon the land.
"The intricacy in your web of lies would always fascinate me, but you outdid even yourself this time. You have a penchant for finding interesting people and setting them on the paths they would have never walked otherwise - the foolish general in his impossible quest or the rose with silver eyes. The latter one did not work out as you hoped it would, did it? You shared too much, you told too little. She ended up straying way beyond the path you laid out for her. You still attempted to get what you needed in the end, but even that did not go as planned."
Summer Rose. That name meant nothing to her, even if she did have a conversation with that woman once. They were similar, in a way. Way more similar than Ozpin would have ever admitted them to be.
The foolish bearer of the silver eyes shared a common understanding with the herald of death. But the rose's thorns would never allow her to embrace it.
The Rose of Summer was, despite the meaning of her name, a cold torrent of chaos rather than warmth.
"The honest truth of the situation is that your longing for humanity had always limited what you can do. Because you see - humans are fallible and frail. Their lives are so short they pass in a single sigh. They rush, desperate, to accomplish something - to leave a mark. To prove that they were there. And in turn, they overlook things. You overlook things - You couldn't foresee the way Summer Rose would view the world around her after you told her the truth. You could not imagine what she would do, what she would set in motion. Is it that surprising you would fail with her daughter too, even though you tried not to?"
Why did Ozpin want to go back? Why did he long for that form, that existence that had long since been consumed and replaced by what he was now? Even after everything he had done, everything he had caused, this fool still longed to go back to the very self that doomed his world.
The very same self that had torn her apart in a betrayal that transcends concepts of human empathy - all for the sake of power, more power.
Did he want to forget about the shackles that had bound them all? Would he rather keep sacrificing his pawns than accept the inevitable outcome of his path?
"And not just her. You collected the finest chess pieces - the silver-eyed warrior, the heiress of Atlas, the Faunus rebel, even the Hero of Mistral. None of them will work out like you'd want them to, Ozpin. None. You never dreamed of the Hero of Mistral falling as a sacrifice. You had such high hopes for her, but in the end, she wasn't your champion. You still have no idea what her death had set in motion, Ozpin. You will, one day."
The man in front of her was so enamored with his ability to predict and to foresee that the thought he couldn't wouldn't ever have crossed his mind.
It made some twisted sense, of course - Ozpin had lived for centuries, for thousands of years. The theory of Monomyth was the pinnacle of what he had achieved before this, and it haunted him as the sense of futility and repetition ate away at him. But part of him likely found peace in that futility, in the knowledge that nothing changes.
The Cycle continued, and its defining elements reappeared again and again even if the two of them were to never do anything at all.
One could almost say it was like water, as it kept flowing.
"You know, I always was fascinated with humans. Just like you, they plot and they scheme. They do that so much that I never felt the need to interfere. All they need are the right tools for the job, and they will more than happily destroy themselves again and again. And each time, you will realize how fruitless and pitiful your efforts have been. The mistakes you made. Each failure is a step closer to that day when you finally burn."
She found it amusing to think about where it all started for the Great and Powerful - a wasteland of his regret - everything and everybody he ever knew dying around him, the world he longed to grasp in his hand drowning in death itself.
He had made a promise to keep going, to carry on their hopes, but he would always fall back to the same vices that defined him as human.
The Ruins in the desert beyond Vale were a cenotaph of his naivety.
The Great Lake was the symbol of his failures.
The great Mount Atlas, etched and hollowed by the vermin of humanity, had long since become the monument to his idiocy.
She had no reason to do anything - the fire had always been there.
Salem would just grant humanity their wishes and fulfill their longings - and then, they would do the rest, burning their world to the ground.
She did not care whether humanity would end - it was a given even if she had not lifted a finger.
"Did you know about the girl? Was she in your plans? Was she anything but another capable and strong person to fill up a spot in an important team?"
This was a game for her - a debate between her and Ozpin that would last for all eternity. And eventually, she would prove her point.
"Your obsession with the past is fascinating, yet pitiful, Ozpin. You focus on specific things so much that you forget the rest! Silver-eyed warriors are so much more exciting than a simple girl with a hammer!"
The in front of her might as well have been called a Storyteller. For centuries, he had weaved the narrative guiding humanity.
Even at this moment, the emptiness around them convulsed as if begging him to give it meaning, to feed it information.
Could the void around them be aware of them? The two of them now stood on the fallen stars as they breathed in the dissolving galaxies.
Unlike the myths, two of them have always been real.
Ozpin still didn't answer her.
"Legends and fairytales built up on a lie. Did any of them ever wonder what those tales truly mean? What do they hide? The cruel truth obfuscated by emerald glimmers of truth that show them the way? You spent eons building those myths - weaving tales about the people you knew and the things you experienced. Do you think those unfortunate souls from the tales would hate you? Would King Mistral despise you with all his heart? Would Anima want you dead?"
The people in the myths, the ones from before - the reality never resembled the myth because reality lacked what Ozpin would call narrative intent. There was no underlying theme to all of their existences, whether the Monomyth had bound their purpose or not.
The people in the myths, they were just like her and Ozpin.
Yet only the two of them are here now.
And only one of them was currently able to talk.
"You wove those people into your tales - as a lesson - a metaphor. You twisted their lives into something they never wanted to be just so you could guide those who came after. I do have to say it's pretty funny, Ozpin, that you never inserted yourself into those stories. None of your tales sing the praise of your greatness. I guess, in a way, you are at least somewhat self-aware of what a hypocrite you are."
Ozpin - The Great and Powerful, The Wanderer people would call him. He was the lord of knowledge and the great horseman, the god of shapes, and the spider trickster. He was the storyteller and the beggar, the whisper in the wind and the moon's sin.
He had many titles, and his every incarnation would have a name - just like she had no names, he had many - another manifestation of the Monomyth defining the rules of reality.
"But the world is littered with stories of your deeds, Ozpin, whether you want it or not. With each incarnation, you leave behind a revenant - a creature of Grimm that embodies an aspect of your life rather than their kin. These revenants wander the Land acting upon your desires, chasing after your long-forgotten goals. And yet, now your precious pawns are the ones clashing against one of them. Did you ever foresee this happening?"
The sound of steps reached her. The child must have been successful in retrieving Cinder. Every success would have warmed her heart if she had one.
Humans were such fascinating creatures - the moment they got everything they wanted, they would do everything in their power to self-destruct.
It's no wonder the creatures were attracted to that destruction.
She decided to continue with whatever little time she had left before she had to go.
"Did humans ever wonder just what Creatures of Grimm are? They call them Grimm. After all the focus on how names are important, these vermin throw this one around, ignorant of the history behind its meaning. It must sting, doesn't it, Ozpin? It's one trace of your sins you couldn't erase from the world."
As the steps grew closer, she knew she had to leave this place once again.
"It's such a fitting name - for death. In ancient times, before corners of this land had lost their names, the Creatures That Asagrimm Unleashed they called them. One of many names of the foolish lord who, with his ego and with his pride, had flooded this pitiful land with death itself."
Salem opened her eyes as she rose from the chair.
In front of her stood a giant metallic container with a glass panel as one of its walls. The man, currently named Ozpin, lingered inside, still sleeping.
She glanced beyond it, into the confines of her domain - the sound of waves still reigned. Not the same waves, but this would have to do all the same.
Whether the dark void or her modest abode - to her, it made no difference, but she couldn't talk to these children from over there. How silly, of course, they couldn't hear her from over there. It had to be here - talking to humans like humans do.
"Salem."
The Woman in Black turned around to face the source of the noise - to observe the child, now in front of her.
"Hello, Cinder, dear. I thought I told you to not call me that. I am so happy to see you alive. How are you holding up?"