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Fighting Rose

Chapter 45

Prodigal's son

Devil May Cry OST – Ultra Violet

For all intents and purposes, the deathmatch was a ping-pong game using a bomb that increased in power with every volley. Yang would unload a barrage of punches at Adam, the latter either reflexively blocking or outright taking the strikes head on, fuelling his Semblance which he immediately unleashed upon Yang with a flurry of slices with Wilt. They were little better than rabid animals tearing at each other, but it was all that stood between Weiss being set upon by him. Every chance he got, Adam threw Yang off to the side and made to leap towards Weiss, intent on ripping her to shreds only for Yang to tackle him and renew their assault on each other.

Weiss was busy mending Blake's battered body, especially the brutal stab-wound on her stomach that she held close with several tiny Glyphs while she used her aura to speed its healing, though Weiss noticed that Blake seemed to be healing far faster than normal. It was clear that her exhaustion wasn't being dealt with along with her wounds; only Jaune's semblance and aura seemed to have that super-invigorating effect, and Weiss wished he was here now to provide that aid.

"W-Weiss," Blake wheezed, grabbing her arm, "Help… Yang!"

"Blake, you need-!" She started before Blake squeezed tightly.

"I-I'll heal," She gurgled, spitting out blood that was already clotting, "Yang can't win… you need to help her!"

She was scared, terrified by just how much raw hatred and intent to kill was being blasted towards her even as Adam brawled with Yang. The shame of the brand on his face didn't help. It didn't change the reality that Blake was right. She could see Yang faltering under her own power, her molten metal skin marred by charcoal-black patches, the constant uncontrolled intake and expulsion of kinetic and thermal energies too much for her body to handle. Adam snarled as he ate three uppercuts from her right fists, yanking his head back down and hammering a horn into her brow, molten blood flying through the air before Yang unhinged her jaw unnaturally wide and bit down on his neck. He was engulfed in a car-width beam of pure aura before he could stab her, roaring in fury as he was blasted through a bookcase.

Weiss had hoped that such a powerful attack launched point-blank would have ended it, but that was hoping for too much. He seemed to grab the beam with one hand and stab Wilt into it using the other, all of it absorbed into him in mere moments. Yang had already blasted towards him, three left fists cocked back ready to decapitate him only for Adam to roar and slash across Yang's body from collarbone to hip, a crescent moon of red aura the length of a bus slamming into her and driving her into the floor as she screamed in pain.

"BEGONE!" He bellowed triumphantly, diving down and aiming to stab through her skull.

*CLANG*

A bloodletter's Hellblade crashed against the flat of Wilt right before it could pierce Yang's head, diverting it to the side as it pierced the floor right by Yang's ear. She didn't waste the opening, the auric wing-arms on her back growing in size and glowing even brighter as they blasted into Adam, pummelling him so repeatedly that he was momentarily suspended in the air. Weiss's ultra-greatsword, Licht Berggipfell, exploded into his vulnerable ribs and sent him tumbling across the floor, the tiles shattering under his fall as he snarled and stabbed Wilt down to halt his tumble, seemingly unaffected by a strike that should've cut him in half.

"SCHNEEEEEEE!" He screamed, red light bleeding from his eyes and the eight-pointed halo behind his head glowing brighter.

She quickly helped Yang stand, the two silently nodding at each other before they both unleashed battle cries of their own and charged at the blood-crazed Adam. He aimed for Weiss first, of course, lashing out with a barrage of aura-blades that she barely managed to block with the flat of Berggipfell, bodily throwing himself at it. She knew he'd do this, sharply launching herself up with a Glyph before he could reach her and making him run face-first into Yang's fists. For as mad as her power had made her, years of diligent training had been hard-coded into her body, and no sudden powerup was going to erase that. A right-hook snapped his head to the side, two more right hooks from her auric arms smashing into his shoulder and stomach, a left uppercut sending his head flying up before a spectral overhand-left yanked his head back down, a final spectral left-hook to the liver doubling him over and letting Weiss hammer down with the flat of Berggipfell onto Adam's back, attempting to drive him into the floor like a hammer to a nail.

Where Yang's attacks were capable of hurting him, Weiss's evidently lacked the power to do much other than move him thanks to their sheer weight and momentum. Berggipfell rebounded off his back with a ringing *GONG*, the vibrations and sudden jarring impact stabbing up Weiss's palms and through her arms, the pain distracting her for more than long enough to let Adam spin on the spot and launch himself up with a swing of Wilt. He spun twice, each spin letting him slash up with Wilt and every slash slicing deep through Weiss's blade while tossing Yang away as she tried to shield herself, arms shaking from the strain before he reversed the spin and slashed down, slicing through Berggipfell in one smooth motion.

"DIE!" He sneered triumphantly as the stored power exploded from his back in the vague silhouette of insectoid wings, Wilt poised to thrust through her chest.

"YOU FIRST!" She roared back as she brought out the Hellblade, smashing Wilt to the side and aiming a decapitating cut in one violent blur of motion. He somehow managed to react in time, eyes going wide and weaving out of the way. Through the haze of artificial rage, Weiss was pleased that her little hypothesis proved correct: the Hellblade was a supernatural blade forged by ultraterrestrial powers, and thus its cutting power bypassed most physical defences. Even if she didn't have the raw physicality to match Adam, she would at least have a weapon capable of harming him. They landed and took a moment to pause, Adam glancing at the Hellblade in her grip and snarling before they blasted forward and locked blades, Adam immediately winning the contest of strength as he began to push her into the floor until Weiss whipped out Myrtenaster with a free hand and firing ice into his eyes.

He didn't flinch, his eyes not even closing as he raised a free hand of his own to cave her skull in. Yang grabbed him by the wrist before he could end Weiss's life, an uppercut to the jaw flinging him into the air. She blasted towards him as her auric wings turned into jets of fire, a flying one-two combination exploding into his chest. Her fists hammered down onto his head, punting him down into a Glyph that shot him right back into Yang, her second pair of auric fists repeating the motion, and the third as he was pinballed back and forth between Yang's fists and Weiss's Glyphs.

The rally wouldn't last, Adam tucking and spinning with Wilt, slicing through the Glyph and landing in a crouch before springing towards Weiss. His sheer speed was almost too much for her but the Hellblade seemed to move on its own, just barely redirecting the stab to her heart before she instinctively countered with a downward cut meant to flay the skin from his arm. He parried it by slamming his elbow into its flat almost as an afterthought yet she turned the momentum into an upward slash at his neck, a split-second and excellent move that he halted by biting down on the sword with his teeth. The edge sliced into his cheeks as she pushed it up a little further before Weiss stabbed Myrtenaster into his chest with her right hand, the point unable to pierce his skin but the Glyphs circling the blade enough to blast him backwards, though not before his teeth shattered the Hellblade into motes of light.

Yang was there to catch him, wrapping six arms around his own and squeezing tight before bending over backwards in a perfect suplex, springing off her feet from the awkward position and repeating the motion before leaping high into the air, spinning head-over-heels to slam him down on the back of his head one more time. He roared and broke free of the grip, Yang's auric arms shattering as he grabbed her by the mouth and reversing their positions to dunk head headfirst into the floor. She tried to spring back to her feet only for him to charge his fist with the stored energy and blast it into Yang's stomach.

"Rest in pieces!" He snarled. "GEHENNA!"

Music End

Blood-red cracks spread across Yang's body from the point of impact before she literally exploded, her body unable to handle the impact and the influx of power. A shockwave of red light tore up the floor and shattered the windows as Weiss was flung back with a choked cry, the wave hammering the air from her lungs. She scrambled to her shaky feet, tears welling in her eyes as she feared the worst mixing with the fury at the fate of her companion. She prepared to charge in only to receive a backhand to her cheek from behind that fractured her jaw and sent her crashing into a wall, blood flying from her nose and mouth. Her head was suddenly encased in the crested helm of the World Eater, the Hellblade in her right hand and the Chainaxe known simply as 'Bite' gripped in her left as she roared and launched herself at him, a Time-Dilation Glyph further amplifying her speed. She was linking together moves and techniques that were not her own to hack, slash and stab at Adam in a frenzied flurry, but Adam was no mere Bloodletter, contemptuously weaving around, parrying and even outright taking some of her blows on purpose, the snarling teeth of Bite chewing fruitlessly against his torso as she attempted to disembowel him.

"Amateur," He sneered, grabbing the axe's teeth with his bare hand and forcing it off of himself, squeezing down and shattering it in a shower of astral metal and fragmented aura. "This is how you go for the kill."

Mirage Rebellion materialized in his right hand and he went to work, a diagonal cut down smoothly sweeping up to smash her guard away before he wheeled the blade over his head to draw her attention up before switching hands mid-swing to land a deep gash across her ribs, the flaring agony making her stumble. He exploited the opening ruthlessly and efficiently by switching to his right hand and thrusting the blade forward so hard that the Hellblade shattered on impact as she hastily brought it up to block, the concussive force appearing to punch through the broken sword and her stomach. She vomited blood and bile on the spot as her helmet broke into motes of light, collapsing to her knees and almost falling on her face. Even through the pain, she gnashed her teeth and struggled to stand up using Myrtenaster as a crutch before she felt something sharp press into her neck.

"This is a mirage of the blade my father once wielded," Adam said, his voice disturbingly calm as he forced her to look up into his eyes, "The blade of a man who died at the hands of your father."

Mirage Rebellion bit into her neck, and her mind was flooded with memories that weren't her own as she peered into the history of the auric construct. A kind man with messy white hair and a scraggly morning shadow, a beautiful lady with red and green eyes and short black hair playing with the young, carefree boy who would become Adam. The man showing off as he demonstrated ridiculous sword-techniques that the young boy copied with a beaming grin. Their house being smashed into by a towering figure with frost-white hair and piercing blue eyes, blue eyes she knew all too well. Adam's father transforming into something beyond human as he and his mother fought side by side. She watched as Jacques Gele crushed his mother's chest and stabbed his father through the heart with a rod of pure light, whispering words used by a race long forgotten and freezing Adam's father in place, tearing his skull-hilted sword away from him as a trophy. She saw as her father looked upon the scared child that was Adam and took him too, forever branding his face with her family name. It made her stomach churn again.

"You are not your father," He said simply, raising his conjured blade, "…But this is a good start."

"Black Flash: REAL IMPAAACT!"

A demonic fist exploded into his ribs in a burst of black flame, his face twisting in surprise as he was launched across the room, though he stayed on his feet. Yang, now reverted to her Black Sun state, was clearly delirious with pain, her skin visibly and badly cut in angry red lines, but she was alive. Weiss almost wept with joy as Yang shot her a shaky grin and stood by her, though she noticed that Yang's right arm was still in its demonic state, crackling with potent power and evidently hurting Yang, judging at how she was clutching her arm and clenching her teeth.

"…is that it?"

Their heads both snapped up to see Adam looming over them, face twisted in disgust. Worse yet, any wound they had managed to inflict on him was gone without a trace, just as fresh as if he hadn't even fought. They flinched away as aura-packed bullets burst harmlessly across his face and torso, Blake having propped herself up and firing fruitless shots at him.

"A Schnee who's only as good as the weapons she steals," He said, "And a human who can't even control her own latent potential, potential that doesn't even belong to her? You've made poor friends Blake."

Yang screamed and poured all of her power into her demonic hand, blackflame hair fading to dull blonde as she threw her entire body forward with her punch. Weiss roared as she summoned Berggipfell one more time, bringing it down in an overhead chop powered by numerous propulsion Glyphs. Yang's fist exploded into Adam's mouth, Weiss's Ultra-greatsword chopping down on his collarbone, the floor behind and under him shredded and caved in. Adam was completely unmoved.

"What does she even see in you?" He spat at them.

His palm-strike was like taking a speeding car to the face, sending her crashing into Blake as the two rolled across the floor in a messy pile. Yang wasn't given the chance to react as Mirage Rebellion stabbed up through her forearm, tearing a scream of agony from her lungs as he forced her to her knees. She shook in pain and terror as Adam bore down on her, the image of someone so much more powerful than her burning into her brain as he sneered.

"If only I could've gotten my hands on uncle's Yamato, I would have been able to sever that undeserved power from you," He sighed, "But allowing a power that never belonged to you devour you instead… that's far more poetic."

He booted his heel into her stomach, sending her crashing into Blake and Weiss as they hastily attempted to catch her. Yang was thrashing, her mouth wide and unleashing gurgling cries as the demonic attributes of her arm rapidly crawled up to her shoulder, parts of her body sporadically and randomly shifting in and out of its Desperate Devil Trigger with the painful warping of muscles and popping of bones.

"Wh-what did you do!?" Blake cried out.

"My father's sword was capable of drawing out the latent demonic power within anyone who had it," he said, looming over them with his arms crossed, "And that power is also mine by birthright. Though that sword was stolen, I could craft a copy of it using my very soul… though it's not as precise in its ability to draw out potential, nor is the process particularly… gentle."

"BASTARD!" Weiss screamed, summoning the Hellblade one last time as she blasted herself into him, sword-tip leading the charge. It barely sank half-an-inch into his stomach. He smirked at her and walked forward, the blade sinking deeper and deeper of his own volition as Weiss didn't stand there gawking, trying and failing to twist the blade in order to damage his organs. The point of the sword emerged from his back, barely a few drops of blood hitting the floor as he willingly impaled himself all the way to the hilt. Weiss's own Trigger flickered and flared on her skin, bloody teeth bared at Adam as she tried to kill him, only for Adam to sneer down at her.

"I'll give you this," He said, "You put in a fine effort… for a Schnee."

His hand came up, quick as a blink, with Wilt poised to stab down directly through Weiss's neck and into her heart. None of their efforts would be able to stop it, and Blake could only watch in horror as the blade descended. Adam suddenly flinched and stopped, the blade having barely pierced Weiss's skin. He looked up, seemingly towards nothing, only for Blake to realize that he was staring in the direction of Ozpin's tower, the CCT.

"…It's already starting?" He muttered, surprised. "She does quick work, I'll give her that much."

She sharply sheathed Wilt, grabbing Wiess by the mouth and slamming her headfirst into the floor without hesitation, extracting the blade embedded in his stomach without even a grunt.

"I have business to attend to," He said simply, taking one last look at Blake's tear-stained, enraged face, "…stay out of my way or be cut down Blake. This is your only warning."

He shot straight up through the ceiling, a burst of wind whipping the hair from her face as she tried to process just how badly they had lost, Weiss shakily pulling herself out of the floor and Yang still writhing in her arms.

{-The Skies Above Beacon-}

Samus was growing even more powerful, and Diodes couldn't fully understand why. Yes, the shattering of the veil would flood the Kingdom with raw warp-energy and thus empowered all daemonic entities, but there was more to it than that. He, Ironwood and Penny Poledina were holding him off well, but the tide of battle was quickly shifting. The Greater Daemon's mere presence was allowing its lesser brethren to manifest onto the ship, and while the Atlan Guardsmen were holding their own, losses were piling up and the warship would soon be overrun.

'All the more reason to banish him quickly,' He thought, setting his jaw and leaping back in, Penny's gauss-blasts providing suppressive fire onto Samus as Diodes hacked and shot at its ankles. Samus snarled smashed his fist down elbow deep into the floor, Diodes leaping and running up its arm all while working his spear in a continuous spin, its master-crafted powerblade slicing through the astral flesh with ease until he shot forwards and thrust his spear right through the daemon's eye, firing a dozen explosive rounds into its brain. He watched as its brain-matter and fragmented skull burst apart, watched as its eyes liquified and the entire top half of its head pulverized, yet Samus still did not die.

It smiled with broken teeth and snapped its jaws at him, forcing him to leap over all while firing a stream of bolter-rounds into its already-pulped head and landed in a crouch to avoid its backhanded swing, Penny's gauss-blasts piercing through its elbow and shoulder to disable its arm. A dozen rapid-fire stabs lanced into its thigh, each strike punctuated with a compact explosion until Diodes was forced to retreat again, spinning and firing his spear at Samus as it stomped towards him, swiping its functioning arm at him as the other was already healing. In fact, its skull had almost fully reformed and it was moving even faster, closing the gap and hammering its fist down onto Diodes's head. It had overcompensated, Diodes slipping past the lethal blow and driving his spear into its heart, continuously opening fire as he grunted and ripped his blade up and out of its head. Even if the damage wasn't enough to kill it, Samus did stagger.

"GENERAL IRONWOOD, PENNY, NOW!"

Penny unleashed a concentrated beam of gauss-energy that engulfed the daemon from the torso up, not able to kill it but further slowing its regeneration before she shut it off for an instant. Ironwood stepped out from behind cover and fired sanctified rounds into its charred mouth, melting teeth gnashing open and closed as it clawed at its own throat to be rid of the pain. Penny, Ironwood and Diodes blasted away at its knees and elbows, not stopping until its limbs were severed in a spray of ichor, Diodes dashing in as its torso fell and slicing up with his spear, decapitating Samus with ease. He breathed a sigh of relief, echoing through the warship's hangar before he tensed up, whirling around and instinctively opening fire. The bolt-rounds passed harmlessly through Samus's body, is form turning into smoke as its cackles rocked the hangar.

"Where did it-!?" Ironwood shouted, eyes darting back and forth.

"Picking an abnormal spike in warp-energy by section B!" Penny called out, her scanning systems just a split-second faster than the ancient but powerful technologies built within Diodes's armour. The three of them broke into a sprint towards the section of the hangar bay, noticing that without Samus physically present, the number of daemons spontaneously breaking into reality (some even possessing the handful of Atlan Knight Droids) had dramatically decreased. Pockets of Atlan guard resistance fought back fiercely, using the breathing room afforded by Samus's temporary banishment to push through and band together into more effective squads. Now all they had to worry about were the endless number of flying daemons from outside.

They reached the hangar area quickly, even with Penny and Diodes having to hold back for Ironwood to keep up, but there seemed to be nothing out of the ordinary, the Experimental Assault Paladin sitting quietly in its docking station.

"But I was sure that…" Penny's voice trailed off in confusion before Diodes's eyes went wide.

"Destroy the Pala-!" He started, already levelling his spear at the mech before it jerked to life, moving far faster than its mechanical components should ever allow it to and punching Diodes square in the chest. Under normal circumstances, his specially-modified suit of Custodian armour would've been able to absorb the full force of the blow without much issue, but Diodes felt his ribs crack as he was sent skidding backwards, blood filling his mouth.

"IT WILL NNNOT BE SSSO EASSSY TO DEFFFEAT ME!" The Paladin cackled with Samus's voice, its form twisting and reshaping as vascular, skinless flesh began to spontaneously appear and crawl through its systems. One mechanical hand was entirely subsumed into a three-clawed talon as fleshy whips tipped with bone-spines exploded from the other, cloven keratin bursting apart and replacing the feet and lower legs of the mech. A single, curved horn exploded out of the temple of the Paladin, the lower half of its face tearing open with a squeal of metal to create a crude, fanged maw that unleashed an ear-piercing shriek.

"General, get out of here!" Diodes said, he and Penny side-by-side brandishing their weapons at the newly forged abomination.

"I'm not going to shy away from-!" Ironwood growled before Diodes slammed the butt of his spear into the floor.

"You are needed to command the forces of the Atlesian Militarum, and the Emperor will not have you die a meaningless death. Now go!"

Ironwood ground his teeth before his common sense took over and he nodded, turning away to reunite his scattered forces. Samus pounced the moment he turned his back, Diodes and Penny blasting into its torso as full-tilt just before it could wrap its hand around Ironwood, Penny's blades expelling energy at full throttle as she cried out with the effort. It was enough to let Ironwood escape, but Samus gladly turned its attention towards the two combatants who had been pestering him so consistently.

Flesh-whips wrapped around Penny's limbs and smashed her into the floor, Diodes managing to dive in and snatch her up before it could smash her flat with a stomp. A turret on its shoulder immediately swived and opened fire before he could even land, but Penny was just as quick to position her blades into a spinning shield, Diodes perfectly firing in between each pass of her blade wall the moment he landed. The turret exploded in a shower of scrap metal but Samus's fleshy claws cut through the smoke in a decapitating swipe at Penny, the latter already reacting and firing her blades under her to send her sailing over the swipe. Dozens of tendrils followed her but she and Diodes was ready this time, twisting and weaving through the air as they both shot at the appendages, her gauss-weaponry burning them to atomic ash as his bolter-rounds burst them like rotting fruit. None of the damage lasted though, Samus's possession allowing the mech to rapidly repair itself.

Samus roared and shot its arm straight up to grab Penny only for Diodes to slide in under it, a flurry of stabs lancing into the daemon-engine's armpit. He grimaced at the feedback joling up his arms, knowing that his blade didn't pierce deeply enough to disable its arm before he leapt up onto his feet right as Samus brought its fist down on him. It sailed down barely an inch away past his face and torso as he slashed up with his spear, biting deep into its wrist but unable to fully slice through the unholy amalgamation of demonic flesh and steel, at least not before it could mend itself. He never paused or hesitated, changing up his strategy and style on the fly to harass and annoy the daemon, probing for a weakness. Penny was quick to pick up his change in tactics as they opened fire at anything that could've been considered an eye, keeping their distance and parrying any attacks it sent their way.

"You picking anything up?" He grunted as he deflected a stream of bullets meant to punch through a Goliath shell.

"All standard Paladin weaknesses have already been fortified in this iteration, and it seems that the daemonic possession has only served to strengthen it even further," She said with a grimace of her own, "But while its defensive capabilities have increased, the Paladin acts as a shell sufficient enough to contain most of its warp-essence, preventing it passively summoning other daemons."

He flipped over a sweeping strike, deflecting bullets and firing back at the turret mid-air, Penny weaving out of the storm of lashing tendrils as her blades spun around her in a mesmerising array.

"So we need to destroy it before it destroys the ship," Diodes summed up as he launched his spear clean through another fleshy turret, a special magnetic lock on his gauntlet bringing back just as quickly into his hand in time to weave under a meaty fist while stabbing up and shooting into its elbow, "But we can't destroy it without causing it to spawn more daemons… great."

A message appeared in the corner of his eye, one that he initially ignored before he realized what it said. Reinforcement arriving, ETA five seconds. Stand clear of Deep-Strike entry-zone.

He immediately picked up on the smell of ozone and ionized air, frost spontaneously beginning to appear around them, centring just behind the daemon. It paused as it noticed the sudden change in the air, snarling as it whirled around to strike right as a flash of light blinded everyone. There was a terrible rending of steel and flesh, the metallic scream of Samus echoing through the ears and soul of everyone aboard the ship. Diodes felt as if frost was coating his lungs, his nose bleeding as a mind that was familiar but even more powerful than he'd ever remembered it being appeared in the hangar.

The 'man' easily stood a full head taller than Diodes, his blizzard-white power armour rimmed with gunmetal grey and burnished copper designs was dull and a little worn but still very operational, slim and form-fitting. A thin Grimmfur cloak billowed around him, the shadow cast by its hood obscuring most of his features save for a white-moustached mouth drawn in a scowl and eyes that glowed frost-blue.

"Oh Emperor help me, not you," Diodes groaned, his exasperated comment at odds with his tense posture. Penny on the other hand had a far stronger reaction. She was shaking like a leaf, her pupils pinpricks in her irises before she immediately landed on her knees and slammed her forehead into the floor, literally prostrating herself before the figure as he strode right up to her.

"U-Übermensch!" She squeaked. He was silent, simply leaning in observing her with his piercing eyes.

"Abominable Intellect Penny Poledina," He said, his quiet, sharp voice almost bringing Diodes down to a knee from the sheer weight of it. "…I am not the Übermensch yet. But I am close now."

He turned to look at Diodes, the latter grinding his teeth as another blood vessel popped in his nose under the man's presence.

"Greetings Captain General," The man said, his scowl turning into a twisted smirk.

"Look at you, flexing your new power like a child showing off a new toy," Diodes spat, "And you wonder why we had you locked away under the palace."

"I don't actually, nor do I blame you for it," He corrected, the smirk disappearing as his tone turned shockingly honest, "Stasis didn't fully work on me, and it gave me time to repair my sanity since the Rangdan incident. Time to think. Plan."

"YOU DARE TURN YOUR BACK TO MEEEE!?" Samus screeched, sprinting towards them frighteningly fast while opening fire with a rack of missiles.

"Cease." The man hissed, the missiles freezing in the air, even the propulsion appearing as if time had been frozen, "Return."

The missiles' momentum reversed on a dime, shooting backwards as the same speed they were fired at and slamming into the shocked daemon.

"Dilate time."

His body blurred as he moved forward, unnaturally fast as his hands went to his hips and drawing two shortswords crackling with blue lightning. Where Diodes was superhuman in his own right, easily faster and far stronger than most Astartes, this man was beyond that. He was weaving past and even parrying Samus's blows, his shortswords biting deep into its arms. Stranger still was that the wounds he inflicted weren't healing, the daemon actually screeching in pain with each mark. It roared as it raised both arms to smash him flat –

"Kneel."

Molten froth dribbled from its machine-mouth as it shuddered and was forced to its knees. Ports on its torso popped open and extra turrets opened fire at point-blank range, his arms turning into smears of motion as he deflected each and every shot, striding closer and closer to the machine before his blades tore into the chassis, blood and metal spraying onto the floor. Samus screeched again as it tried to back away, lashing out with a stomp that would've caved in a tank, the man stopping it with his palm, armoured fingers piercing through the bottom of its foot to yank it forward and tear its leg off at the knee. Landing awkwardly on its back, it shrieked and tried to throw another wild punch to throw the man off –

"Freeze and shatter."

He stabbed his blade into the oncoming fist, the entire arm coated in frost before shattering like glass under the weight of its own attack in an instant, the other arm following suit in the same fashion as he shattered each whipping tendril in a blur.

"Wh-what is thisss!?" Samus cried, "I have fought the likes of you before, so why-!?"

"SILENCE!" The man roared, everyone on the ship collapsing to the floor as if an iron vice had just clamped around their throats, everything on the floating structure responding to the command of the man.

"…To answer your question," He said, once again using his sharp, quiet tone, "You have always had a poor matchup with users of Psychic power. The one known as Cerberus was capable of parrying your blows with mere muscle. I have that… and so much more."

He slammed his boot into and through the fleshmetal chassis, ichor squirting, bones shattering and organs pulping wetly as he sheathed his blades and pointed a single finger at the daemon's head.

"Nuclear fission."

The display for Diodes's helmet suddenly grew fuzzy before a tiny pinprick of blue light appeared at the very tip of the man's index finger. His Geiger counter started to go off. Tickticktick.

"Singularity."

He stretched out his middle finger, a wobbling black dot appearing at its tip. The daemon's body began to shake and shudder, bits of loose and scrap metal flying into the tiny black dot while those that flew too close to the blue one evaporated instantly.

"An artificial sun and a black hole…!?" Penny gaped in fear and awe. Diodes only grimaced at the display of oratory might.

'To think that he'd grow into this much of a threat… we never should have taken him prisoner, he should've been executed on the spot!'

The man wasn't done, sweat beading his forehead as he grasped the two spheres and sharply pulled. The spheres melded together, black at the centre of toxic blue stretched and shaped into a paper-thin blade as long as the man's arm.

"I am the herald of the Golden Path: by my hand, I will sever the veil and pave the way for the future of humanity," He intoned, holding the blade in a reverse-grip, "Illuminate: WEGBEREITER."

He stabbed down into the daemon's face and its entire body lit up with the same blue light, the barest start of a scream issuing from the daemon's mouth before its body evaporated in an instant, the metal of the Paladin reduced to molten slag just as quickly. The blade made with forces beyond the power of mere science and forged by a language older than time dissipated to nothing with a flick of his wrist.

"Samus will not be able to return for the duration of Beacon's Fall," He said, not bothering to look at either of them, "Penny Poledina. Come to me."

She stood ramrod straight and jerkily walked up to him, her face slack but her eyes wildly darting back and forth. Diodes acted instantly, levelling his spear at the man's head.

"Release her now," He hissed, "I'll kill you where you stand – !"

"Diodes Arc. Come to me."

His nerves were lit aflame as his muscles were forced to move against his bidding. He strained and gnashed his teeth, but his body would not listen to the commands of his mind. And so, he walked behind the man whose voice shackled all who heard it to his will.

Future Übermensch

Jacques Gele, the Eleventh Primarch

"Now…" He muttered, a finger tapping a bead in his ear, "Equerry Whitley, report on the current state of the ship."

"Eighty-seven percent of the ship has been liberated with the number continuously rising," he said, "Losses are estimated to be around over fifty percent, though largely centred around the anti-boarding combat units rather than essential crew."

"Good. Tell them to reactivate the Gellar-field and Hardlight shielding as soon as possible. We will require them in order to return to Atlas safely."

"Understood father," Whitley said. "…And what of my dear sister?"

"I will personally retrieve her soon," Jacques confirmed, "But first… I must have a chat with my dear brother Lorgar."

…TWBY Continued…

Now, another point I've been dying to get to has finally been reached: Weiss's father. I hope a few pieces of the puzzle start to fall into place for you readers out there. Anyone who's dipped their toes into Warhammer 40K understand just how powerful Primarchs are, even the physically weakest of them (like Lorgar) are so far beyond human that you'd at least need to throw a miniature sun at them to put them down. More importantly though is Jacques's distinction: the eleventh Primarch, one of the two erased from Imperial records, supposedly locked up under the Imperial Palace... which itself is located in a snowy region. And Primarchs are known to increase the level of technological advancement wherever they call home. Just... food for thought ;D