Disclaimer: The following is a fan-based parody. RWBY is owned by Rooster Teeth and Highschool DxD is owned by Ichiei Ishibumi. Please support the official release.
Chapter 37: Gaia Juggernaut Drive
Rocks were blasted apart at Mach speeds from the power that exploded from the center of the satellite. Deep craters soon dotted the land and Kurama's Truth Seeking orbs spun around him to protect their wielder from the debris. With the asteroid completely gone, it allowed Kurama to fully see the transformation unfold over the dragon in the sky.
Scale and hide were replaced by rapidly shifting crimson armor spreading over the entire body, glowing with power. Her claws were reinforced with an extra pair and over the elbows, the armor shifted to create jet engines over the protruding bones. Her great wings were folded against her back to allow the armor to comfortably form over them and their place spread wings of iron. Over her tail, the transforming armor gave her spines a lustrous sheen till the tip where they lengthened the tail further to form a blade-like edge. The crimson metal grew up her neck, locking in like a thousand hammers over scales. Once it reached the head, the metal comfortably formed over the jaws and face, giving her horns a sharper edge and her silver eyes looked through green lenses. In the final stages of the transformation, green jewels formed at her chest area, neck, shoulders, and hind legs.
The Balance Breaker was finally complete, but it could not be called a regular Scale Mail. Never in history before did any of Ddraig's wielders ever possess a dragon form of their own and use the Balance Breaker over that as well. The voice of Ddraig thundered from the green gems announcing this new powerful form to the Mirror World and Ruby's foe.
[Scale Alter - Dominance Empress]
It was a great announcement to hear, but...
"Eh?" Ruby responded uncertainly. "I'd give only five and a half out of ten from that. Might need to workshop the name."
[What!?] Cried Ddraig. [Oh, come on! I know it's not exactly on the spot, but give me some credit.]
"A for showcase and effort, C- for effect," Ruby said. "You seem overly pushy on this. Are you... excited?"
[Can you blame me!?] Ddraig exclaimed. [Never in history has any of my partners before you achieved a transformation such as this. This is momentous.]
"So," the voice of Kurama broke the pair out of their argument, "if you're done with one of your spats, I'd like to get back to one of the most excitable fights I've had for a long while."
[BOOST BOOST BOOST BOOST BOOST BOOST BOOST BOOST BOOST BOOST BOOST BOOST BOOST BOOST BOOST BOOST BOOST BOOST BOOST BOOST BOOST BOOST BOOST]
The Balance Breaker granted power on an exponential level, and when Ruby roared it was with such force that it ceased to be. Engines along her back and elbows flared to life spewing crimson flames as propulsion. The sky cracked as the dragon burst forth to her foe, instantly shattering the sonic barrier.
It was a speed that should not be allowed on a being of such size, but Ruby did so otherwise giving physics the metaphorical middle finger. One moment she was in the sky, and not even a second passed before a great bang of two colliding forces. Ruby had tackled Kurama down to the earth, blitzing his guard with sheer speed. His chakra armor shattered from the Balance Breaker-enhanced blow, and his back met the earth like it was loose dirt. He cringed as he felt sharp claws dig into his skin and just starting to draw blood. But the more pressing matter was the maw of dragon teeth aiming for Kurama's neck.
Before Ruby could lean down to strike, Kurama gathered chakra at a point above his chest. It grew into a singularity of dense chakra till it turned pitch black for a newly formed Beast Bomb that was then launched forward. Ruby did not see the sphere of chakra collide with her chest and the Beast Bomb lifted her back before exploding in a tremendous cloud of smoke and dust that rose above the mountains. The giant form of the dragon was found flying backward out of the cloud of debris and Ruby only just managed to right her footing by planting her clawed feet of her hind legs into the ground.
She tried to lunge forward for a grab with claws extended forward, but Kurama was having enough of that. His tails shot out like striking serpents, with two wrapping themselves around a limb each and three going around her throat. They moved her body as if the great dragon weighed nothing, first by forcing Ruby to crash into the ground and dragging her through the Earth. Kurama lifted in the air and then began to use his tails to flatten the mountains with Ruby herself as the improvised tool for the job. Her great body crashed through the mountains and crumbled its towering might into a heap of rubble.
After what had to be the tenth mountain Ruby was used to flattening, Kurama started waving her up high in the air. The tails around her throat slowly tightened, cutting off Ruby's breath. Ruby's mind rapidly tried to think of a solution to get out, but the use of her arms was out of the question as they were still held down as well. Then, abandoning logical thought, Ruby went with instinctual action.
And so she opened her maw wide and bit down on the tail coiling around her throat. Hard!
(Real World)
To the spectators of the fight, everyone winced at the vicious chomp on Kurama's tails. The kitsune family themselves seem to feel it the most having clutching their own tails. For the Remnant natives, there was a look of sympathy knowing the sensitivity of Faunas' tails.
"Oof, that has to hurt real bad," Naruto commented.
"I mean, it can't be that bad," Sieg said.
"It's much worse," Blake countered. "I've seen people writhing in pain when their tails are only accidentally stepped on. It's why you never see Faunas with tails drag them on the ground."
"We feel that too," Kushina supplied. "Now imagine how Tou-san feels having three of his tails bitten down by the jaws of a dragon full force."
No one there had a good feeling trying to imagine that.
(Mirror World)
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!"
The agonized roar of Kurama could be heard across the entire eastern hemisphere fueled by the sheer pain of razor-sharp teeth digging into three of his tails. They had already uncoiled from Ruby's throat, but the dragon's jaws had dug deep enough that Ruby could taste blood. It took Kurama summoning a Beast Bomb wreathed in spiraling rings to blast Ruby off of his three tails. Kurama quickly retracted the appendages till he was peering down at the prominent bite marks bleeding still. Even the slight twitches sent sharp pangs of pain through his tails.
Meanwhile, the force of the highly explosive technique sent Ruby flying across the landscape of Japan with a velocity that would have her soaring over the ocean. Before she reached the coast, Ruby stretched her wings out to catch the wind. From below her wings and from the back of her elbows, jet engines formed and roared to life spewing crimson flames that fought, soon overcoming the force over Ruby and propelling forward. The air cracked as Ruby reached incredible speeds to go across the landscape till she returned to the battlefield.
Which was looking like it was taking up more and more of the copied Japan landscape itself.
"YOU BIT MY FUCKING TAIL!?" Kurama roared in fury.
Ruby smiled in a feral manner. "If you're not fighting dirty, you're not fighting, right?!"
Kurama narrowed his eyes and fired an elemental laser from one of his tails. With one beat of her wings, Ruby darted out of the way of the blast and returned with a flash of lightning from the membrane of her wings. Seeing the lightning bolt coming before it fired, Kurama summoned a massive slab of the earth to block with a stomp of his foot. The bolt blasted the slab into pieces, but then Kurama willed for those pieces to become fine sand that then gathered into an open palm to join a spinning ball of chakra as an elemental addition. From his tails, more elements were added into the spinning chakra such as lightning, water, magma, and ice. When wind was added, that ball of chakra gained four blades that spun with the sound of thousands of buzzsaws.
When Kurama threw it, it flew through the air like a giant shuriken. In the seconds it was between them, Ruby willed more [BOOSTS] to empower herself, intensifying her aura with the untamed might of dragons. Her body shimmered with her Aura - the shield from her soul - surrounding her in a thick bubble of energy that had grown in density along with her power. Flames of crimson rose gathered at her open maw and the heat alone turned the ground at her feet into molten slag. Her spines lit up and she unleashed the flames in a spread that dwarfed her own size. Not even ashes remained for whatever it touched and when the chakra met it, they locked into a stalemate for a few seconds. Yet while the spinning ball of chakra was pure destruction, they were not the flames of Ddraig famed for burning the authorities of gods themselves to match the claws that pierced through heaven and hell. Only the scales of Albion that stood before all proved its match and the white dragon's invisible poison was its rival. And so the chakra was not only overtaken, it burned away adding to the wrath of the legendary fire.
Kurama widened his eyes at the incoming flames. Those mystical eyes flashed, sending out an omnidirectional force of gravity. It clashed with the crimson flames and the two forces seem to be in a deadlock for a moment. But only for a second. Where gravity in this case was a force produced by the life energy of chakra, the flames of Ddraig were a conceptual weapon built on the principle of ultimate offense and pierce through all that oppose it. And so did the flames literally burn through the force of gravity of the Shinrei Tensei, making a beeline for Kurama. The great Kyuubi was forced to sidestep out of the way, allowing the flames to continue their rampage throughout the landscape. It would then collide with the shoreline of the Mirror World's ocean, bursting in a great explosion of heat and light that lit up the horizon like a second sun. This was then followed by a massive steam cloud of incredible heat boiling the waters that were in contact, and this cloud rose up above to swallow the skies of Japan. Soon, the air would grow heavy from the humidity and the rain would fall down.
"What's wrong, Kurama?" Ruby bellowed, crimson flames licking through between her sharp teeth. "You were talking so much good shit ago, and then I literally burned gravity!"
Kurama did not smirk back. In fact, his lips did not twitch from the flat line, the only outward reaction he had to Ruby's taunt was the slight twitch in his left eye. There were honestly more ways he could try fighting Ruby with the power output he was willing to use in order to challenge Ruby at her current level. He could manipulate the elements of the world to attack her from all sides. Or he could use other aspects of his unique abilities, such as swarming Ruby with summoned beasts or using his strange techno-chakra abilities. He could even use all those powers and then some by creating clones of himself to use those abilities at the same time.
Yet Ruby seemed to have weathered everything through sheer grit and the might of Ddraig's incarnation. Their abilities with chakra could not be compared, but he could use certain abilities that belonged to her magic. Magic and chakra while two forces that can create similar results are entirely separate energies that can't mix. For example, against any opponent that uses chakra Kurama could drain their chakra as well as whatever attacks are produced by chakra. He can drain Ruby's chakra, but she would still have her magic fully intact. There's also the fact that, unlike magic, chakra has no 'conceptual' power behind it. At its most basic, chakra is the manipulation of lifeforce, using pure energy to create mostly simple but explosive effects. But magic, in Kurama's own words, can do some weird shit that will bend the rules of reality into a loophole with the rarest outright breaking it. It varied from blessings, charms, curses, wards, and the many, many spells that are created through intent. Then they were powers like Ddraig that force the world to work on his own rules. When he was in his prime, there was no magical, physical, or even divine defense that stopped Ddraig. His flames, teeth, and claws came through everything in his path because his power was built on the principle that nothing could stop him. He was only halted by Albion, whose power personified that nothing could breach his defense. The closest Kurama could think where chakra came close to magic's bullshittery was fuinjutsu, an art of using calligraphy to put meaning in chakra to create any effect to what the user desired. It was a technique passed down by the Shinto primordial long ago and unfortunately, much of fuinjutsu had been lost long before Kurama's own birth.
The fact that Kurama can confidently be known as one of the strongest shows how ludicrous his own existence was. Being born with chakra unprecedented even for the strongest Yokai species, he was the definition of an overpowering disaster. He could simply force his way through any opposition, and able to contest with the mightiest of gods like Indra, Thor, and Amun-Ra. Some said that Kurama's life force was enough to fuel a whole new planet for it to compete and win against the gods and the natural authorities they possessed. He along with other certain individuals he calls brothers in arms made sure that the Shinto was still to this day a major power in the world.
Back to Ruby, the fact is that his trainee had scary potential and he was being reminded of that. If it were a year ago, Kurama would have easily stomped her into dreamland, but today was different. A year ago, she would not be able to use Ddraig's flames specifically or use stronger Shouts. She could hardly even go full dragon without losing control, yet here she was far stronger and in complete control on top of Balance Breaker. Not to mention if she discovered what her Semblance could truly do as to where right now she was only using her Aura as an extra layer of defense. Something must have happened to Ruby to force her into an explosive growth in power, besides her encounter with Fatalis. Considering she's the Red Dragon Empress and the history behind the title, it drew a few conclusions.
'I wonder, did she actually encounter the Albion's new host?' Kurama thought. 'With her being a new world, the chances were pretty low unless other Sacred Gear awakened in her home. Still, I didn't expect something like this to happen until a few years; I haven't even heard of this generation's White Dragon. He or she must've left quite the impression on Ruby to get her this motivated.'
Well, whatever happened the results spoke for themselves. Ruby was able to tangle at a level of powerful gods, monsters, and titans. The form Kurama was using was one he used in his most serious battles having taken the lives of entire armies by himself. Even tangled with the occasional Evil Dragon that decided to be annoying in his lands. But the question remained: How well could Ruby fare against a power that stood on the top?
He hasn't felt the need to let loose since fighting Sirzechs.
Ruby wasn't even given the chance for further rebuttal. Kurama's eyes flashed red, now featuring six concentric circles with nine tomoe spinning within them. More of Kurama's might came to the forefront, blowing the landscape and reducing whatever mountains were left into dust. Chakra - the energy of life - flooded from Kurama's body as he simply let go of whatever restraint the kitsune had on himself. To Ruby, it felt like the weight of the planet itself with all of its thriving energy. Despite her great mass as a dragon, Ruby felt herself being pushed back and had to [BOOST] herself more to keep steady. By now, Ruby was starting to feel the strain of so much power being forced onto her body from the Boosted Gear, at Balance Breaker no less. And Kurama unfortunately was nowhere near the level where he was going to be fatigued. Even the skies seem to roil and rumble under his might with clouds quickly darkening.
"JUST TO LET YOU KNOW," Kurama roared, a feral grin etched across his face. "YOU DESERVE THIS!"
And the world was swallowed in brilliant gold. Ruby had to shut her eyes so she wouldn't be blinded by the light. Fortunately died down, but replaced with a pressure bearing down on Ruby's shoulders. Opening her eyes, Ruby saw the strongest of Shinto wreathed in thick golden chakra that almost felt divine. Black lines stretched over his body, running along his arms, legs, and nine tails. Around his neck were a ring magatama patterning and spheres of black six in total orbit Kurama's back. At his feet, the ground seemed to revitalize itself in the presence of the golden chakra with sprouts of greenery piercing the ruined soil and soon turning into trees.
It wasn't a lie to say that Kurama was the embodiment of the life-giving sun. He certainly felt like Ruby was standing before the sun.
"Even after 500 years, I still don't have a name for this form," Kurama said. "Not enough occasions to use it. Though to put an idea to this form, the last time I used this I was punting around Sirzechs like he was pinball. And there are tricks in this form I still haven't shown to the strongest in the world yet."
For her part, Ruby tensed her body in preparation. She held herself on all fours, her spines blinking red light, and her tail waving menacingly over her with its sharp tip. Hot air - pure energy - was exhaled with every breath Ruby took, leaving her maw like thick steam. Her digits twitched ready to use the claws that adorned them to their full effect and her hind legs tensed to pounce forward. The jet engines along her body roared to life, spewing crimson flames and launching Ruby forth like a jet fighter.
And was stopped immediately by a palm glowing gold. Ruby was still airborne, but she made no progress in going forward. Even as she willed the jet engines to roar ever louder and force them to spew flames double her size, nothing was making Kurama budge. She felt his fingers clasp on the horns above her brows and tighten them.
"Clench your teeth," Kurama warned.
It was the mercy she had before Ruby was socked by a vicious uppercut. It was a blow so powerful the air rippled and roared through the air like a great crack of thunder. The armor of the Boosted Gear in Balance Breaker empowered as it was in her dragon form was rendered obsolete. The armor around her head shattered into millions of pieces, leaving her bare face to the world. Ruby could feel the strength of the blow into the very bones of her jaw almost knocking it off.
Her whole body was lifted from the blow, but Ruby wasn't given the chance to soar. The same paw that gripped her head renewed its grip around her snout. Then the world before Ruby blurred as she was rocketed at insane speeds she only knew of when traversing Remnant. She felt how her body was pelted by the air resistance carried by none other than Kurama in his glowing splendor. For the brief time, she was in the air Ruby could smell the salty mist of the ocean before it suddenly changed to new lands.
Upon reaching Kurama's desired destination, Ruby was slammed down to the earth like a meteorite. It was so hard that she felt it through her armor and scales to her very bones. Her breath was forcefully knocked out of her and when she tried to take a needed inhale of air pain lanced through her body from her sides.
'Yep, definitely more than a few broken ribs,' Ruby thought in pain.
It was harder than it looked actually trying to fight through the pain of broken ribs as they ached with every breath she took. When she raised her head, Ruby found herself starting at a new landscape she had never before seen. Instead of the familiar lands of Kyoto or Remnant, she was surrounded by tall mountains that reached to the sky like fingers instead of regular peaks. They were as numerous as a forest and clouds could be seen touching their full height. This sort of scenery tickled at Ruby's mind bringing up a certain image she had seen in paintings.
'So I guess this must be China,' Ruby thought.
That brought a sobering thought. Kurama had literally palm-faced Ruby all the way across the sea and into the main continent of Asia.
It also didn't help that Kurama wasn't finished as he sent two of the orbs orbiting Kurama's back suddenly shot forth just as Ruby got onto four of her limbs. One made a devastating impact on her cranium while another hit her sternum. Their size was already relatively big in proportion to her and Kurama, but they had far greater density as the greatest feat of chakra construction. It was like the weight of an entire mountain had hit her twice and she was sent tumbling back Her vision started to swim with Kurama looking little more than a golden smudge in her line of sight. Ruby found herself stumbling on her own four limbs to keep herself steady.
Odd, did she also receive a concussion? That would explain the strange feeling in the back of her head. Though perhaps she could try one last thing.
Heat laced through her body via her will crawling down her spine and up her tail till it reached the last segment of her tail where the scales were thicker and grown in a way to resemble a single-edged blade. In Balance Breaker, those scales were coated in a metallic gold-like coating giving it an even sharper edge. Her 'tail blade' started to glow with heat and the metal surrounding the scales became more malleable. Then she maneuvered her tail to her maw where fire started to fill her mouth. She bit down lightly just behind her frontal teeth so the tail blade could move more smoothly. Ruby started to gyrate her tail back and forth in her mouth, causing sparks to fly and sharpening the heated edge to a finer degree against her fangs.
Once she was satisfied, Ruby let her tail go with the blade now bathed in an orange glow and sporting a wicked edge. Ruby trailed the end of her tail against the ground leaving a trail of fire. Suddenly all her muscles snapped into a singular motion by spinning her entire body around while simultaneously launching her forth. Her tail blade through all in a blazing twirl, cutting down the high-reaching mountains around her. Its aim was true with the lightning-quick tail blade making a beeline for Kurama. In response to this last-ditch attack, one of the orbs acted automatically in defense of its master. It moved in the path of the tail blade and shape-shifted into a pole tapering off into a spear point.
The tail blade met the construct of chakra with a great bang like a tolling bell. Despite the power of the blow in it, the edge of her tail blade failed to move the pole. Perhaps there was only the tiniest of cuts that were dug in, caused by the coated flames burning at the chakra. How it is that Ruby failed in overpowering through the defense lay in what kind of chakra construct the orbs were. To practitioners of chakra and Yokai as a whole, the black orbs, known as the Truth-Seeking Orbs, were the epitome of Jutsu as it was they were the densest constructs that could be created with chakra alone. The only things that surpassed their virtual invincibility were creations of the divine like Mjolnir.
As Ruby continued to press on the blade, Kurama lazily put one of his fingers on the tail. With a flick, the tail was blasted back with armor and scales flying into the wind and gouging parts of the surrounding earth like bits of shrapnel. Ruby was sent tumbling back and rolled onto her back. This time she was unable to get up as her new injuries forced her down and ate at her endurance. Already she could feel the control on her Balance Breaker slipping. But Kurama was not done yet.
Another orb floated to Kurama's open palm. This time, he focused his life force to relentlessly pour into the Truth-Seeking Orb into whatever microscopic gaps remained. He poured chakra in amounts and density more than the orb could handle and natural physical laws demanded it to pour out into the wider world. Kurama did not allow that, outright forcing the chakra to go one way without it ever being expelled to maintain the Truth-Seeker orb's stability. This caused the Truth-Seeking Orb despite its incredible durability to develop cracks on the surface.
Instead of the regular chakra that Kurama was pouring in, the Kyuubi was using the life force in its two polar opposites. It was chakra taken from both nature and his own nature. One part was the purity of the life-giving forces that allowed the flora and fauna of the world to flourish that fueled Senjutsu and ran through the leylines; the other part was the negative force - the taint of malice and vengeance brought on by abuse upon the planet. It was a part of the energy Kurama had stockpiled through Senjutsu from the real world as the Mirror World lacked the malevolent energies of the modern day and was further influenced by Kurama's own inner darkness. These two forces would naturally react violently with each other especially when forced into a vessel like the Truth-Seeker Orb. By Kurama's own will, he never allowed the reaction to take place at least not yet.
Once he was satisfied, Kurama was left with an orb vibrating with barely constrained energies in his palm. He did not simply flick it, nor blast it. Not even did he will the orb to shoot forth. No, for maximum effect Kurama pulled his fist back and punched the overcharged Truth-Seeker Orb with all the strength he carried.
For Ruby, when she gazed upon Kurama striking the orb, there was no sound. Only the world vanishes into all-consuming white.
(Real World)
"HOLY SHIT!"
"AGH, MY EYES!"
Curses and surprised exclamations were common among the spectators within Yasaka's palace. The whole courtyard was suddenly filled with blinding white light, catching everyone around it in a daze. A few seconds later, the light dimmed away and everyone was able to blink their eyes until their vision returned to them. However, they could not look at the current battle as nothing but clouds of dust obscured their vision.
"Okay, can someone tell me what the hell happened!?" Yang exclaimed.
She was promptly given an elbow to the ribs courtesy of her partner. "Keep calm and maybe we'll get some answers."
"How are you so calm!?" Yang hissed.
"I mean, this is Ruby we're talking about," Blake said. "She's walked out of every ridiculous situation just fine, no matter how... intense they seem. This will probably be no different."
Yang still grimaced in worry. "Still..."
"Hey, why isn't the orb thingy fixing itself?" Jaune wondered out loud.
The kitsune family was exchanging troubled looks themselves and trading glances to the viewing orb in the center. Yasaka and her eldest daughters looked to be the most troubled with the matriarch of the family cupping her chin.
"Mother," Kushina said. "The form Father is using. The only person I've seen him use it was against Sirzechs, yet I've never seen him use a technique like that. Is it true that Father never used his full power?"
Yasaka gave a reluctant nod. "Yes. Kurama didn't confide the exact details, but you could say that he saw something from Sirzechs that made him falter. It's why Kurama settled on a tie."
"Are you saying Otou-san allowed a tie because of pity?!" Kurahime cried.
"Only thing I can say is that Kurama felt that Sirzechs was not putting all his spirit into the fight that day," Yasaka concluded. "But enough about that. Let's see what my reckless husband has done this time."
The kitsune matriarch put her hands on the orb and willed it to give her the best view of the battle. Within the orb, the images swirled and warped as the perspective shifted. It soon stopped but the new live feed that greeted them was not a small surprise. Instead of just a larger view, a clearer view, or simply a bird's eye view, the orb had instead shifted its perspective from the exosphere of the planet, which was the highest the orb was able to view upon the Mirror World. The Remnant natives were confused and slightly amazed by the view of the planet in its entirety. But for those of Earth including Sieg and Jeanne, they were taken aback by one detail that shouldn't be there.
"Not that I'm complaining about the view, but how does this help us?" Weiss asked.
"See that," Yasaka said, gesturing to a certain fissure on the continent of Asia.
A rather awfully straight stretch of land as wide as mountain ranges and long enough to almost reach the Mediterranean Sea like an ugly scar upon the planet.
"Y-Yeah," Yang said, suddenly feeling uneasy.
"That's NOT supposed to be there," Naruto finished. "And the only reason that could be there is if someone made it. And what did we see just a moment ago?"
Weiss gawked. "You're not saying..."
(Mirror World)
'...DID HE BLAST ME ACROSS AN ENTIRE CONTINENT!?'
That was the last coherent thought before Ruby was body was wracked with pain. So much pain in fact that her vision was just a smear, so she could tell what her exact surroundings were. But what she could tell from the feel was that her Balance Breaker was in pieces. Her scales were open to the world at large and more than a few ribs were cracked. Ruby was forced to take short breaths to minimize the pain.
[Pfft, I could do better.] Ddraig said. [Back in my prime, I could punt someone past the moon if I fucking wanted to.]
"I don't think this is the time for this right now," Ruby replied but she gave an amused chuckle.
[Just trying to lighten our, well mostly your, situation.] Ddraig said. [So, how does it feel to be face-to-face with the strongest.]
"Absolutely incredible," Ruby admitted. "I know throughout every fiber of my being that the strength I possess right now isn't enough. And yet I can't help how my blood boils in excitement fighting him."
[I'm almost envious of you.] Ddraig said. [But it looks like you're at your limit.]
"Well, there's still one option left," Ruby countered.
[What the fuck could you-] Ddraig argued, suddenly cutting himself off from realization. [No...]
"Yes."
[Ruby, no!]
"Ruby, yes!"
[Ruby, I'm serious here.] Ddraig cried. [Juggernaut Drive is out of the motherfucking question here. This ain't some death battle. You're just sparring with the overgrown fox. Sure yes, he's beating the piss out of you, but you just lay down and you'll wake up in a nice comfy mattress. This isn't something you literally need to throw your life away.]
"Okay, I hear ya, but hear me out," Ruby said. "So we know Juggernaut Drive at its base will use my life force as fuel to fully release the seals on your soul, right?"
[Yes, you could think of it like nuclear fusion.] Ddraig replied.
Ruby gawked. "...How the fuck do you know what nuclear fusion is!? I don't even know what nuclear fusion is. What is nuclear fusion?"
[The last wielder never really awakened me and wanted to be a nuclear physicist.] Ddraig said. [And then that retarded mess that was Chernobyl happened, and a decade or so later I was with you.]
"Okay, forget about that," Ruby said, trying to get back on topic. "The point is, what if I used an alternate source to power the Juggernaut Drive?"
[Theoretically, it should be possible.] Ddraig said. [Sacred Gears can be shaped by the desires of the user. I don't believe the Juggernaut Drive should be different. But where are you going to get this alternate life force?]
"Well, let me show you," Ruby said.
In order for this to work, Ruby needed the most absolute concentration she could muster. That meant she couldn't spare to move. Since it wasn't possible to move at all, that solved the issue of waiting. Now all she needed was time and a bit of a miracle.
From across the sky streaked a golden flash that landed at Ruby's crash site, revealing it to be Kurama in all of his golden splendor. He looked forward to the rubble of earth where Ruby was buried under. His sensory skills told him how weak Ruby's power was and any lower she would not be able to hold onto Balance Breaker. She wasn't even making a move to get out.
He took a step forward to investigate but stopped when something else caught his sight. Above him, the sky seem to be filled with flowing rivers of gold that stretched way past the horizon. It was a gathering of green motes of light - the physical manifestation of nature's energy. It wasn't just from the lands afar. From the rivers, the trees, the mountains, and even from the ground at Kurama's feet, these green motes came too and joined the river of energy.
Kurama frowned in suspicion. This wasn't normal. If Ruby was using Senjutsu, all she could use was the surrounding area. But from what Kurama could feel, Ruby was taken in natural energy from the leylines and the entirety of the planet. Kurama himself could do this, but it would ultimately be useless to the kitsune. Taking in such massive quantities of nature's chakra would upset his own. The same could be said for Ruby who had far less control of her own. What possible use could Ruby need for all of this energy?
Then he heard the words that shook him to the core and echoed throughout the world.
"I, who am about to awaken,"
(Real World)
"WHAT IN ALL OF MAKAI DOES SHE THINK SHE'S DOING!?" Yasaka screamed in equal parts worry and anger.
"Apparently she has because unless I have gone senile, that is obviously the start of the Juggernaut Drive chant," Kushina affirmed with wide eyes.
"What now!?" Yang demanded. "What did my sister do this time!?"
But her words went on deaf ears as Yasaka proceeded to grab the orb with both hands and vigorously shake it as if her actions would somehow reverse the catastrophe before her eyes. All the while she was flinging curses out of her lips.
"OF ALL THE ASININE, STUPID, IDIOTIC, DUMBASS-"
At that moment, Yang had truly reached her limit and her Semblance answered her. Her hair lit up like golden flames and her eyes blazed crimson red. As a dragon, golden scales started to dot over her skin and her horns started to peak from her forehead.
"ENOUGH!" Bellowed Yang, Divine Rhitta just begging to come to her hand. "CAN SOMEONE TELL ME WHAT IS WRONG WITH MY SISTER!?"
Yang's exclamations seem to do the trick and get attention on her. Yasaka stopped shaking the orb but only gave Yang a side glance. After a few more seconds of silence with the exception of Yang's heavy breathing, it was Kushina who answered her much-needed questions.
"What we just heard is the start of the chant of Juggernaut Drive," Kushina explained. "For Longinus Sacred Gears, it's the most powerful mechanism by unsealing all of the power the Biblical God wanted to be locked away. But it's also known as a forbidden technique for a very good reason. Using the Juggernaut Drive is using your life force to actively fuel it. It's how most users of the Boosted Gear and Divine Dividing have died in the past."
"Then why the hell is Ruby using this!?" Yang screamed.
"That's what we're trying to figure out!" Kushina exclaimed back. "It's literally a last-ditch effort. Ruby is many things, but I'm pretty sure suicide isn't one of them."
"Onee-chan isn't going to die."
Surprised looks were aimed toward the youngest of the group at her words. Unlike everyone else, Kunou had a more resolute expression. There was no doubt Kunou had that Ruby was going to make it out of this okay.
"I know it," Kunou said. "Ruby-nee is going to be just fine."
(Mirror World)
"Am the Heavenly Dragon aligned to Life and Chaos,"
For the first time, Kurama was actually being pushed back from the immense pressure that exploded from the earth. The world was awash in shades of green, crimson, and hints of gold and white. Earth and stone were not simply blown away. They were reduced to finding sand before they themselves were turned to dust by the winds.
"I laugh at Infinity, and unite the world in my Dream,"
Ruby back emerged from the rubble. Instead of the steel-like armor, the developing Juggernaut Drive had transformed into flesh that bound to its owner, adding more bulk and raw power to Ruby. Muscles increased by multiple times flexed with their new strength and scales rippled with their added density. The spines on her back grew longer and rougher in appearance like fangs along with an extra row. Her original wings were stretched to their full majesty with the veins of the membrane glowing in green energy from nature. Yet they are soon joined by another set of wings growing beneath the first. They grew out matching the first pair and soon formed the five fingers, waiting for the membrane to fill them.
"I am the Rose Empress of Domination, all shall bask in this crimson glow,"
Instead of flesh membrane, this second pair was given wings of hard-light green, reminiscent of the blue feathers of Divine Dividing. More of her body emerged, revealing Ruby's tail. It had become thicker and had been given an extra row of spines as well. At the tip of the tail, the scales had formed a curved pincer-like appendage that looked lethal to be on the opposite end of.
"And I shall use my unlimited strength to defend my domain,"
The legs finally came to the surface, bigger and bulkier with greater muscle. Electricity was now tinged in green from the overflowing nature energy coursing through Ruby's body, lighting up her scales. Her claws had grown far sharper and had gained a serrated edge if one looked close enough.
"So do I declare..."
Finally, Ruby's head emerged, changed as the armor had become flesh fused to her being. As a result, her chin had lengthened with thickened scales, she had grown a crest from behind her head reaching up to make an oval shape, and her horns grew to resemble a royal's crown. Her new appearance had given her the impression of a mighty, undaunting, divine empress of dragons. And so Ruby raised her head to the heavens and roared:
"GAIA JUGGERNAUT DRIVE!"
(Omake: Eggs?)
"Hey, Ruby," Nora said, looking over the couch at Ruby playing video games with (against) Yang. "Dragons are reptiles, right?"
"Yeah?" Ruby answered, suddenly unsure what Nora was talking about.
Nora continued. "So, if you were to get pregnant-"
Yang suddenly choked on her own breath, distracting her from the game and giving Ruby the advantage she needed. One could hear the sounds of eight-bit punching effects going off rapidly, and Yang furiously button-mashing to get back in the lead.
"-would you lay an egg?"
Silence just flooded the whole dorm room. Pyrrha stopped groping Jaune (with consent), Ren dropped his weapons that he was doing maintenance on, Weiss made an irreparable smear on her one thousand-word essay for Oobleck's class, Blake stopped reading her smut, Jeanne and Sieg stopped their strip poker session, and Ruby just went ramrod still that her video game character stopped. Yang would have taken advantage if she wasn't also silent.
Then Ruby proceeded to pause the game, drop her controller, and lay her head on her fingers in deep thought. This. This was more important. Would she give live birth or lay an egg?
"I... I don't know," Ruby whimpered. "I-I-I- how? But - what... what..."
"Uhm," Jaune said, raising a finger.
But he was ignored as Ruby brought the back of her left palm to face summoning the Boosted Gear. "Hey, Ddraig, do I lay eggs? Do dragons actually hatch from eggs? Am I actually going to lay eggs when I'm pregnant!?"
[...I don't know.] Ddraig answered. [I mean, do you remember your own birth!? Do you remember being squeezed out of your mother's womb!?]
"ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS RIGHT NOW!?" Weiss seethed, not needing that mental image right now.
"Okay, understandable," Ruby relented. "But, let's admit, with the amount of carnal pleasure you've had as a Heavenly Dragon, you must have seen some of your bedmates give birth to your children. So what was it? Live birth or eggs?"
[...]
"Ddraig?"
[...]
"Ddraig Y Goch, for the love of whatever gods that give a fuck, please do not tell me that with the number of women you've fucked, with the harems you've had, dragon or otherwise, you never actually checked up on them much less know if they were pregnant with your kids? Please do not tell me you pulled a damned Raven Brawnwen!? Please don't tell me you were a deadbeat dad."
[...Look, I'm not for settling down.]
"I̸̘͔̬̜̩͚͆͐͐A̸̝͜͝M̵̨̼̑̐̉͛͝G̶͓̻̟̞͍͓̅̑͑̚Ơ̶̬̦̦̯͍͛̅̅͝N̴͉̗̜̻̤̉̿͆́͒̎͜Ň̴͙͚͚͐̀̓͐A̶̛̪͙̟͗F̵̛̩̫̃̔̋͌͜Ü̸͓͚͗͊̋͘͠C̴̗͕͔͇̎̏̚͜K̶̰̾̐͒̐I̸̯̝̹̐͗̇͘͜N̷̠̅̇͛̃̇Ġ̴̲̺̬̭͔̀͆̐͘F̷̙̺̲͙̘̓̃͜Ṙ̸̜͎̀̐̊Ȩ̵̙̺͇̫̓̂Á̶͉̜̆͑̈̓K̷̪͊́̈́̈T̸̞̫͔̞̺̈̆͝͝H̴̡̳̟̍̏̔͐͊Ē̶͈͙͋̊F̷̻͓̮̓̈́̍̐U̵͕̱̗̫̔̋C̷̭͓͉̈́̓K̸̻̈́̀͆̇́Ȍ̶̞̰͉U̷̻͙̿̈́͌͌́͜T̸͔̕"
Ruby's cries of pure frustration proceeded to break reality just a little bit.
"We haven't considered other possibilities," Blake piped in. "Like, if you do lay eggs, do you lay more than one? I know reptiles can have clutches of five to eight."
"But you're not accounting for the size of the person," Ren added. "As it goes, reptiles of larger species will generally lay more eggs up to fifty. Given that logic and the fact Ruby's dragon form is massive, is not a stretch to say that Ruby could have about hundreds of children at once."
Ruby stared at Ren. Her mouth opened and closed. Then the intrusive thoughts came to be. A blush as bright as her full name took over her pale features. Her breath became just a tad more steamy and growing by the second.
For it would seem a new kink had been achieved.
"I-I need to go talk to someone real quick," Ruby announced, disappearing in a swirl of rose petals.
...
"Hey, uhm, what if it's like chameleons?" Jaune said. "Their reptiles and they do live births."
"Oh yeah."
But meanwhile, Ruby was running through the hall guided by a certain scent. Her journey ended when she almost bulldozed Vali Lucifer in the hall, only managing to halt her momentum and trap him to the wall.
"Ruby-"
"Sorry, Vali, but uhm real quick," Ruby said, breathing heavily with an expression that wasn't entirely innocent. "So just hypothetically. Like ya don't even have to think too hard. But just imagine uhm... would... would you mind having a few hundred babies?"
...
...
...
"Ruby the fuck-"
Hello, I have returned from hell.
Up next is Chapter 38.
Stay in touch. Please, please leave a review.