"Winter has come to consume you all."
Wind whistled and howled with each new step the entity had made. Its silhouette caused a great impact in their collective imagination, leaving them even more terrified.
"Run! We have to find a way to safety!"
The cultist's insane eyes darted at each of the panicked and terrified faces of the young Huntsmen-in-training, landing finally on the professional. He ran up to the man and tried to shake him by the shoulders; he was meet with the impassive gaze.
"We will all die if we stay here any longer!"
All they would find was a mass of snow forming a thick wall wherever they looked. There was no way out.
"Fighting all the way down, huh?" the professional Huntsman muttered.
They could all see clearly now. The approaching entity had muscular arms and legs, seemingly as if crouching.
"Brr. I'm freezing my butt here."
"Tell me about it, blondie." Coco seethed, "How's the ammo situation, everyone? I'm running low."
Ruby had enough, according to her. Same for Blake. Yang could keep fighting even without the shells. Weiss would be a problem, as she relied a lot on Dust, which was also running low. Her team fared better, seeing how it relied more on melee than ranged weapons. Coco's mates had other problems, however. Their tiredness could be clearly seen on their faces, especially Fox with his fever-like symptoms.
"We can't win! We are not allowed to win! Why is this so hard to understand?!" the cultist tore at his hair in frustration, "Even if you were to win, you would exile Winter itself from the world and plunge it into chaos!"
The professional pulled him closer.
"Then what do you suggest?"
"O-one way! There is one way we can overcome this calamity! But I need time!"
"How much?"
"T-ten minutes should do it! Yes! Ten minutes at least! I must prepare –"
"Then get to it. And stay behind us."
He was pushed away from the group, where he distanced himself from the group and crouched on the snow, too terrified to even think of betraying them.
The presence stepped into their field of view. Light blue was its skin, glistening in the weak light that fell through the clouds. Muscular hands and legs, larger than human's, curled and swayed with each step. A thick white mane embraced a monstrous skull with four slits, its shape unfit to belong in any animal species. Other than a pair of horns protruding from its sides, it possessed no facial features, not even a jaw.
"Your punishment for summoning me before my time on this world is death to all the involving parties. Effective immediately. I will drag your souls to Hell the moment I snuff your lives out of your bodies."
Each word was spoken to their souls. The group felt like a mouse being caressed by a cat's claw moments before the slaughter. None of the younger Huntsmen dared to go first, for they have grown hesitant after hearing the creature's cursed speech. The professional Huntsman sighed and decided to take the matters in his own hands.
(Limbus Company – Canto 1 Battle Theme A1)
Zig-zagging through the group, the Huntsman charged at the unmoving creature with his karambit. The sky above him turned dark gray as hydrometeors the size of a human fist descended with abnormal speed. He dodged them before they could hit, letting them punch meters-deep holes in the snow.
The Huntsmen-in-training took it as a sign to step forward and provide aid. Silently agreeing to an eight-man coordinated attack, teams RWBY and CFVY decided to flank the creature with two groups. Those who could provide ranged support remained in place and shot at the target, while the melee ones would get up close and personal. A wall of rock-solid ice grew in front of the unmoving demon before the former's attacks could land a hit, followed by several-meters-tall wall that blocked everyone else in their path and thus impeding their advancement.
"To battle nature itself is a fool's errand."
Blake and Velvet noticed yellow dots glowing from the mist that surrounded them. Urging everyone to stay down, the Huntsmen avoided a mass of yellow-glowing, superionic ice shards that would tear through them no matter how tough their Aura was. The shards collided with each other, exploding into tiny fragments that scattered everywhere. Those hit by them felt as if a knife had cut their skin, despite having no physical injuries thanks to Aura.
The earth trembled as snow began to take humanoid shapes, two for each Huntsman. No matter how hard the bullets made them explode or how fast their blades sliced them into pieces; they would always reform back, thus being a great stalling technique that would eventually overwhelm them.
Unlike his younger colleagues, the professional Huntsman chose to ignore the mass of snow in front of him. He dodged a golem that tried to tackle him, jumped over a suicidal snowman filled with ice shards and blasted through the biggest of them, heading straight for the demon. The latter, still inert, watched as the former closed the distance. A pair of ice hands formed behind it and shot themselves at the Huntsman. He wrestled with one and slid under the other as it fell down to crush him. Still keeping his guard up, he reached the beast and slashed it across the chest before going for the legs, cutting the tendons with his knife. The beast knelt soundlessly as he performed multiple light cuts all over its skin. Pale blue blood leaked through the wounds and stained the snow.
It was easy. Too easy, in fact.
The Huntsman, never lowering his guard, jumped two times to make some distance between him and the monster, who stayed impassive. All of its servants crumbled into ice and snow, confusing the Huntsmen-in-training. A whiff of freezing-cold air leaked through the slits in the skull, as if it were sighing.
"Your pointless struggle is coming to an end."
(Limbus Company – Nervous Story Theme)
The youngsters turned at the sound of shrieking coming from the cultist as ice grew out of his body. Ruby used her Semblance to reach him; but it was too late. An icy prison enveloped the man, muffling his screams as his tomb sunk into the snow.
"No!"
They watched in horror as Ruby screamed, trying in vain to dig the snow with her freezing hands. The professional Huntsman ran up to the creature to attack it once again. Before he could react fast enough, the demon dug its right hand into the snow, creating a thick ice spike that shot from the ground and into the Huntsman's chest, instantly destroying his Aura and fatally injuring him. Snow and ice turned red from all the blood he was losing with his ever-stoic expression. A smaller chunk grew from the spike and pierced the back of his head.
Weiss and Coco screamed.
Everyone heard the loud snap, as if bones were being cracked. The slits on the demon's skulls opened to reveal four dark blue eyes, each so deep and enchanting that looking at them felt like being drowned in an ocean. An ocean deep and cold and uncaring.
"I am the Trumpet that signals the grim dawn of Creation. When the End is about to come, thrice strong I shall be, for Summer will be murdered by my hands. Innumerable wars will follow my ascension and many worlds will fall under my feet. The golden gates of Paradise will close and the light of Hope will stop extending its rays above the heads of the Condemned. Only then does my reign begin. I am Fimbulvetr*. Fear what has to come."
With those words carved into the souls of the living it rose to its feet and sunk into the snow, emerging in front of Yatsuhashi and Fox. It connected its fingers and pierced Fox's chest before Yatsuhashi's blade could push him away. The latter's sword connected with the beast's body, cutting through flesh-turned-snow. Its body crumbled as it rapidly transformed into snow, only to reform in the place it had been previously, as though it never moved at all.
"Fox!" cried Yatsuhashi as he dropped his weapon to hold his friend. Fox was losing a lot of blood and his wounds turned dark blue. It was such a shock for the giant that he screamed his friend's name until his cracked.
The entity raised a hand towards Weiss. A dozen ice shards formed around the Huntress-in-training within seconds, creating a barely-visible mist that surrounded her body. Her pale skin turned even paler as she dropped on her knees.
Ruby didn't know that her friend was a victim of a curse, yet she forbade everyone to approach her, out of intuitive fear that it might spread. Not that all of them were collected enough to listen to her. Blake did. Her sister failed to keep her composure and launched herself at the demon in a vain attempt to stop Weiss from sharing Fox's fate. Coco and Velvet ran to aid their team mates.
"You bastard!"
Yang burst forth, ready to unleash her anger at the demon. Her fists dug into the flesh of her target, instantly turning into snow and nullifying all damage. The demon raised its hand to swipe away the blonde berserker. Blake reached Yang in time to push her away with the help of her Semblance, leaving behind a clone that took the hit. Ice shards formed midair and were thrown at the two Huntresses. Ruby saved them this time by destroying the shards at high speed with her own Semblance.
Their situation was hopeless, she thought. The deranged cultist was their key to victory and now is probably dead or trapped inside an endless sea of snow. What could they do against a demon?
"Why are you doing this? What have we done to you?"
Stupid questions, obviously. Its blue pits for eyes told Ruby that even trying to push her human reasoning on a higher being would be met with a tragicomic end. With a flick of a finger it summoned an increasing number of ice pillars that rushed at them like a wave. Ruby, Blake and Yang moved out of the way.
A storm of bullets hit the demon's back. It spun around.
"Fuck you!"
Coco was firing from her minigun, refusing to let her finger off the trigger. The demon raised a hand and summoned four ice pillars that surrounded team CFVY. Ruby reached them one by one with her Semblance and sliced said pillars before they could crush the team.
"This isn't working." She muttered, "I need your help again, okay?"
The Huntsmen-in-training saw trails of blood staining Ruby's clothes. Thinking of the worst outcome, each had a different response. Yang's was to explode into a fiery howl with her Semblance. Before Ruby could explain what was happening to her, Yang became a burning asteroid of hatred and rage set on a collision course with the demon, crashing through every obstacle it conjured to stop her.
It raised its right hand and afflicted Yang with the same curse that it threw on Weiss, who felt so cold that she barely had the strength to move. Yang gasped, eyes wide, as a chilling sensation gripped her body and extinguished her flame. She found herself unable to move away in time to avoid being crushed by the demon's fist; smashing both of them into the snow, itself erupting into a fountain of mist.
"Yang!" Ruby cried out.
She was ready to beg others for help just so her sister could be safe. The blood hardened on her Crescent Rose enough for an attack, yet she felt weak in her legs the same moment that the demon's fist was shown to be slightly tinged with blood. Her mind immediately went for the worst conclusions, becoming more desperate with each answer to the burning question of what happened to Yang.
Ruby felt like falling into a pit of despair. Everything became a fog, as if someone threw a blanket over her. She replayed the image of the professional Huntsman being murdered by the demon and replaced him with an illusion of Yang. The image alone was more than enough to shatter her mind.
In the darkness that fell over her, caused from the thought of her sister suffering a disastrous fate, she dug deep into her being, afraid of accepting a reality that might come true. There she found a tiny dot of light that pulsated like a heart; a source of warmth unknown to her. She reached for it, desperate to do anything that could save her sister and her friends.
Her silver eyes flashed with the brightness of the stars.
(Dead Melodies – Variant Entities)
The holographic display of Remnant flickered as Jaune kept staring at the alien landmass. Many outcomes began forming in his head and all of them depended on his final decision. What was he supposed to do with this knowledge? The conspiracy theorist would quickly say how they have all been deceived by aliens or government. A scientist would have a decent explanation after a careful study has been made. His eyes returned at the star-shaped landmass. It was an eye sore, one that made him groan in discomfort.
Whoever made this place, this tomb of a city, was also influencing the heavens above their collective heads. It would be stupid to avoid facing reality. But, again, what to do with all of this? Should he be the one to make what might as well be the most important decision for all the people of his planet? If so, then what would happen to that star-like island?
He couldn't shake the thought from his mind. It was like his whole being was drawn to the tiny patch of land. Jaune tried to resize the image to get a better view, but it became pixelated the very moment that finer details could be seen. Everything else was perfectly fine. When he tried to focus the image on the island for a second time, the projection flickered, turning the whole room in a shade of deep red. The space that surrounded Remnant became hazy and distorted. Jaune was sure he could see malevolent faces staring at the planet, only to blink for them to disappear.
The Huntsman-in-training gulped and walked through the opened door. He couldn't shake off the feeling of being watched, even though there was nobody there with him. The red light seeped into the dark, narrow hallway, illuminating dozens of eyes drawn with chalk on black walls. Gripping his sword and shield tightly, Jaune ventured into the darkness. His shoes smacked against the smooth stone underneath, producing a sound that would reverberate way more than what he thought was normal. In a moment of weakness, he turned around and thought better than to go any further.
But the light was gone.
"Crap, please no. Anything but that…!"
Jaune raised his shield in front of his chest, making sure to catch every suspicious sound that would signal danger. He pushed the tip of the sword against the walls to get a better feel of the space around him, puzzled when it struck nothing but air. The hallway was supposed to be narrower than that.
"Never had a choice did I?..."
(Caldon Glover – Luibhean)
A tiny island of light could be seen in the distance. After rubbing his eyes, Jaune could see something akin to a campfire. Hesitant of the obvious bait, the Huntsman-in-training decided to give in and reach it. The smack of feet against solid rock was quickly replaced by the squelch of grass and dirt.
"Like a moth to a flame."
The campfire was there, fresh yet abandoned. Once closer to the light, Jaune could see the outlines of trees in the darkness, indicating that he was in a forest of sorts, yet unnaturally silent and static. No warmth came from the fire and the wood looked like it wasn't being consumed by it.
"Going into the darkness will be my death."
There was also a wooden stick standing inches away from the circle of light, with a piece of paper stuck on its surface. A humanoid figure stuck in a fetal position was scribbled on it with black ink. It was surrounded by floating eyes that stared at its back. Jaune heard a whistle in the distance. A path, previously nonexistent, now led into the foliage, as if something wanted him to follow it.
He felt uncomfortable as soon as he abandoned the light behind him. The lack of sound made his paranoia worse, believing that shadows were crawling just outside of his field of view. Branches above his head resembled fingers and claws ready to tear at his flesh. Increasing his pace, Jaune walked out of the forest and into a clearing with another campfire. Another note waited for him. This one, however, had text. It read:
"Do you know the difference between jealousy and envy? Jealousy is the obsessive desire to have something someone else has. Envy is pure resentment of the other's prosperity and blessings. Both aim to inflict misfortune on others. Both, eventually, lead to tragedy. Which Sin is yours?"
The back of the note had another drawing. A humanoid figure was kneeling in front of a fire. Above them loomed a hand with thin, almost claw-like, fingers.
"…That wasn't very nice…"
Another path opened, one of gravel mixed with stones. Sighing, the Huntsman-in-training decided to play along. The most obvious change was the increase in brightness of his surroundings. Shapes of thick foliage and branches became more apparent, though nothing that wouldn't be ordinary in any forest. The road ended abruptly; in front of a sword stuck in the ground, with a helmet placed on the handle. There he found the third note, with words thick enough for him to read clearly.
"You yearn for it. You envy it. The talent that separates you and your friends. The ordinary and the extraordinary. There is nothing for you here."
Jaune's hand twitched, crumpling the note slightly. The other side of the note featured further text, with a drawing of a figure sitting in a chair, cupping its head with its hands, right next to a noose.
"You spent so long daydreaming in your room. Daydreaming about how your heritage is wasted on you. How hungry you were. But not about food. It was the hunger for things that were never given to you. If only things could have been different."
A seething rage erupted from the depths of his being as Jaune tossed the note and turned around, ready to confront whatever thing that gave him the feeling of being laughed at. A breeze caught him unawares, pushing away the branches above his head.
Jaune's mind went blank.
Above him stood the entirety of Remnant, along with its moon, as if someone made a realistic model and hanged it from a ceiling. Continents and oceans were visible to the naked eye and clouds were moving in real time. Remnant's moon floated in the background; it's broken pieces trapped in a stasis exactly as he remembered. He would complain how that is impossible, but then he remembered everything that happened from the moment he went underground
His gaze returned to the ground, finding that the scenery had changed to an island sailing in the cosmic vastness between the stars. Reality began shifting as something came to life at the edges of the island; things which his being thought true yet his eyes failed to comprehend. Realspace distorted into spheres of static, Minor Cosmic Variables rejected from this reality since its conception. **
Three such Variables approached Jaune.
(Andrew Hulshult – The Beginning)
Terrified out of his mind, the blonde knight swung with his sword wildly while trying to distance himself from the threats to his life. He struck the nearest one, which made a high-pitched static noise, standing still for a whole minute before reforming in a smaller size. Jaune swiped at the second Variable and then ran for the edge of the island.
Drawing his gun, Jaune began shooting at all of them. The energy bullets punched holes in the formless bodies of sentient abstracts. Their collective screeches sent tremors throughout the island. Jaune kept shooting at the smallest one the most, while keeping the other two at bay. Once reduced to a certain size, the Minor Cosmic Variable imploded, restructuring the piece of reality it stole back to its original state. The other two quickly followed, with one erupting into a pile of chocolate coins while the other transforming all nearby rocks into identical copies of a number with three decimal points.
A bridge made of dirt rose from nothingness behind Jaune and connected his island with a point in the distance, where he could see a shining golden dot, with a triangle-shaped patch of land floating upside-down above it. Seeing no alternative, the blonde Huntsman decided to reach it.
He found an empty well near a pair of golden rings circling within each other. Touching them shattered a piece of reality that quickly became a window to the island above his head, where he would encounter another Minor Cosmic Variable.
It crawled between trees like a snake. Jaune lost the ability to recognize them as plants the moment it touched them, despite their physical appearance remaining the same. He prepared for the attack, though the Cosmic Variable didn't seem to care. His Energy Pistol shot some holes at the abstract lifeform. It hissed and scattered into multiple spheres that shattered themselves against every surface in their path, coating them with a sheet of distorted reality. Jaune couldn't recognize these objects anymore.
Fearful of the outcome, the Huntsman-in-training fled into a nearby wooden house, immediately choosing to go for the basement. Jaune opened the door and closed it right behind him as glass on a window shattered in one of the rooms above. Then the world died.
The sound of air going in and out of his lungs was the only thing he could hear in that void. There was something akin to a gentle breeze touching his skin, before a lamp illuminated a wooden desk. A pile of drawings and photographs covered the surface. Jaune inched closer out of morbid curiosity. Their contents included:
A humanoid alien huddled in a corner with a shadow that changed its shape every time he blinked, a crowd of the same alien species staring transfixed at one point with their eyes being glowing white dots, an artistic depiction of what seemed to be an apple with a human skull for a face, a photo of a leaking grayish sphere looming over a futuristic city, a young-looking alien running towards the camera as it was chased by an arm sticking out of an eyeball, a scratched chair with a missing leg, a 3D model of a building with impossible rooms, a blurry photo of a group of humanoids with animal masks in a trainyard, a drawing of a one-eyed star with hundreds of bird-like wings and a shot of a wooden chest surrounded by books.
Creeped out by the discovery, Jaune dug through the photos without paying them too much attention. He found another note:
"Just what is life without love? They never found an answer to that question and paid with everything they had as a consequence. These were their final moments as they were being devoured by time, doomed to be forgotten by everyone that came after them. Now you are here, with that question hanging above your head. Do you know the answer? A common mistake would be to say that you do because you are a human, so you know intrinsically what such an emotion means. Unlike you, though, I know the answer. I know, because I was created wrong. Or, rather, I was never meant to be here. But I am now. And it hurts.
…
I won't ask you for an apology for what I am about to do. It is in my nature to be this way. Should you overcome this obstacle, however, I hope that one day you will find the answer deep within your soul, so that you may know what it means to be loved."
As he read the last scribbled words, the room began to shake violently, with pieces of reality crumbling into pure white emptiness. This breakdown spread like a wildfire, transporting Jaune back to the tower, on the very top of it, where the last trial of the ruins waited for him.
PDA Biopedia:
*Entry #235: Fimbulvetr
Type: Living Avatar
Faction: Hell's Ultimates
Description: "What good is the warmth of Summer without the coldness of Winter to bring hope in the hearts of many? Every living soul waits for the moment when their despair, their pain, will be gone, replaced by the screams of joy and laughter and prosperity. Summer brings joy to all. It holds everyone in its bosom and promises fertility, a bountiful harvest and happy memories. Why should we care about Winter then, when it does not? Summer forgives, Winter takes. Summer preserves, Winter kills. Winter always wins." (Winter Eternal: immune to all types of Elemental Damage, the effectiveness of active debuffs on owner is halved by 50% / Heath Death of the Universe: at 25% chance, owner can apply the effect of "Frost Decay" debuff (affected target cannot use special skills, all stats are reduced by 25%) / Trial of Winter: all stats are reduced by 75%)
**Entry #236: Minor Cosmic Variable
Type: Riftspawn
Faction: None
Description: "Things rejected at the birth of creation, forever locked in the Realm of Rejected Abstracts. The clumsy handling of a mortal race had brought them into a reality where they don't belong. Now they wander, ready to force their own truths down everyone's throat." (Reality reconstruction: spawns with randomized effects (chance for death to trigger a random effect))