Ch.1 - The Choice
"Our creation rests within your hands."
The weight of an entire planet placed upon the young man's shoulders, the God of Light left the kneeling Ozma in a vanishing wave of golden particles.
The realm of spirits is difficult to describe to mortals. To the limited perception of the physical eye, it might appear as nothing more than a white space, eternity rendered plainly as an unending plane. There is both truth and falsehood in this perception. Time and location are not divorced from this realm, but nor is their relationship is as firm as it is in the physical world. Although it would appear as a moment for Ozma before his new mission made itself apparent, much more time will have passed before his return to Remnant.
In a similar vein did Light 'depart' from Ozma. Remnant's steward appointed, Light turned his attention to where his brother moved through existence, neither eager nor uneager to be reunited. Time passed, but it would not have mattered to the deity if much or little of it expired before he re-entered corporeal reality for their next experiment.
These intangible rules, however, could be exploited both ways.
I'm sorry.
Light's transit halted as he was assaulted by a feeling he had never known before: utter confusion.
A hole, thin and red, tore through the boundaries of existence.
Light's inhuman senses swung towards this new impossibility.
Light roared in agony as agony speared into his back.
So unprepared for the pain and suffering that his humanoid form flashed away into his true draconic self. His body was long and lengthy akin to a mighty serpent's form. A row of bony plates, with a small bony point per plate, interlocking down his underside. A mane of golden, wavy hair traveled down the length of his back. His triangular head boasted two extended whiskers, mirroring two great horns on top of his head. A wispy goatee trailed down between the whiskers. The unseen borders of the spiritual plane broke again, but this time back to the physical world.
Light reeled.
His mind struggled to adapt.
He was wounded.
He had been wounded!
For all of their disputes, for all of their arguments, never had Light or Darkness struck the other. From their birth to maturity, they had argued and debated but never harmed the other. Nothing in the entirety of existence had once harmed or even threatened to harm either of the twin deities. What could? Darkness had demonstrated thoroughly how harmless humanity, their greatest experiment, was to the Brothers Grimm. Then demonstrated with contempt how much danger celestial bodies, the largest objects of the physical world, were to the Brothers by carelessly shattering a moon. How could they fear anything with power such as this?
And now agony, unfelt and unrelenting agony, rolled through Light's self.
That alone shattered so many of his preconceptions, preconceptions that had outlived stars, that Light could have been forgiven for not noticing anything else. Mortals who had suffered similar blows had fallen into shock as their minds locked up trying to understand these new, often disastrous, realities plaguing them.
Yet, Light had no such luxury.
The pain was increasing, almost in tandem with the distance he was falling.
Falling was the appropriate word to describe his physical situation.
Through the pain of the deep wound he once-thought unimaginable, Light recognized the world he had created with his brother. He was miles above it, falling through the atmosphere. So well did he know this creation, he recognized through the haze of suffering the passing of years and the scars of the moon's ruin upon the surface.
Freed from the nebulous nature of the spirit realm, the first true second passed away since the attack's beginning. And it was an attack. No longer bound by human anatomy, Light's serpentine head twisted, and he looked upon what he had so grievously wounded him.
It bore the shape of a griffin, one of his brother's creations. An avian body attached to a feline lower half. Its legs split between forward talons and rear retractable claws. However, that was where the similarities ended.
Unlike Darkness' all-too fleshy creations, this entity was as ethereal as Light was. Where Light was golden, this being was a glowing crimson. No bony ridges dotted its skeletal structure or its tail. Instead, its tail was composed of a tassel of crimson fur. A layer of plumage around the neck added a regal air to the crimson entity. Its beak was hooked, unlike the Grimm's organ. Its eyes numbered only two and gleamed with intelligence.
The crimson griffin's talons dug into Light's serpentine back.
No blood flowed from the wound. The talons did not graze against bone. Not at the height of the prior experiment had either Light or Darkness ever deign to adapt bodies of flesh. Their spiritual bodies did not fear the hidden knife or the subtle poison. No such weaknesses would allow cowardly tactics to circumvent their raw power.
Only power could undo power.
Which meant the crimson talons pierced and damaged Light on an essential level he could scarcely believe was happening.
Together, the two of them fell toward the planet's surface. The crimson griffin appeared uninterested in making any attempt to arrest their fall, in spite of its impressive wings. It concentrated its eagle eyes on Light and Light alone.
Then, a third impossibility was visited upon him in half as many seconds. His disbelief, already struggling with the previous surprises, nearly blinded himself to what was happening. It was not until two more seconds had passed that he noticed the change being wrought upon him.
His power, his very being, was being drained from him. As he watched, the crimson hues of his attacker grew brighter as essences mixed. The feather and fur adopted a golden sheen, growing brighter with every second passing.
Five seconds had passed since the attack had begun.
Desperation pushed away any other thought than simple survival, even as one corner of his mind recoiled at the thought his existence could be ended. Light gathered his energy in preparation for a counter that he did not know would be strong enough to dislodge the crimson griffin. He could only hope and try; a status forcing him to acquaint with another emotion he had never encountered.
Fear.
Light struggled to balance his intense desire to strike back with time necessary to gather the requisite power to succeed in his counter. His hope was encouraged by a new truth gleaned over the painful seconds. He was gathering power faster than his attacker could drain it. He only needed a little more time.
The simple act of concentration allowed other higher mental faculties to activate. With a start, Light realized he was not as ignorant of his attacker as he thought he was. As their essences mixed, a bridge opened between them. The griffin wasn't only intelligent. It wasn't only sapient.
The griffin knew Light.
Were it not for the danger to his existence, Light would have waited and made full use of this connection to discern all he could of this unknown, crimson entity. The griffin seemed to become aware of the bridge as well and twitched with frustration and…
Fear?
A legion of questions clambered for Light's attention, but his next action was determined. He had to strike! The moment of his blow rapidly approached as he readied himself.
The griffin opened its beak and screeched. Not at Light. At the planet. Light experienced the release of power on multiple levels of existence. It was not an attack as Light had expected. Instead, he could feel the power of creation melded into the invocation. Not just any form of creation, but explicitly his power. Thus, this and through the bridge, he knew instantly what the invocation's purpose and effect was.
Humanity returned to Remnant.
Not in the form Light knew. Not in the number his brother and he had begun with. But he could feel them waking across the planet's surface. A fragment of what existed before, in more ways than one. This new race were not composed of the balance of Light and Darkness, but so closed to it. Their bodies possessed all of the previous physical attributes of the First Race, but the souls. Their souls did not shine with the gift of magic graced to them by Darkness. Only a passing resemblance to it. Even this pitiful fraction of power was locked behind ignorance and would require knowledge to access. Whatever this crimson griffin was, it could not mirror exactly what the Brothers Grimm had created.
Nor was the invocation without side effect.
Light had created more than humanity. The animals of the world owed their very existence to him as well. And now, so did a race that was both human and animal. They composed a fraction of a fraction, but Light knew their existence without a doubt. In any other situation, he would have marveled at this new facet of creation. Creating humanity had required so much precision with his brother that it had never occurred to him to try anything beyond what their united energies had formed. After all, the natural beasts of the Earth had little to entice Darkness, and such a species would be far likelier to favor Light over Darkness, given their respective domains. To see his power used as such was deeply intriguing and humiliating.
The milder side effect was what the invocation wrought upon the griffin. The golden hues washing over the crimson fur and feather vanished, leaving the attacker free of whatever influence Light's power might have had. Light could feel their energies properly separate, destroying the bridge between the two.
Eleven seconds had passed since the attack's start.
His energy nearly gathered, Light needed only a second more. The crimson griffin screeched again, and the pair fell through another tear of reality. The spiritual realm welcomed their return with indifference. It didn't matter to Light.
Light countered. Silver light stabbed at the crimson griffin. Power enough to annihilate a physical planet struck true.
Talons released Light as the crimson griffin disintegrated.
Wasting another moment, Light flew, placing 'distance' between himself and the crimson being as he maintained a close watch with his senses. The crimson entity formed an ill-defined storm of energy. The odd tendril of red whipped out, but the bulk of the energy seemed to circle around an inner point Light could not see through the bright color.
Another mystery on top of so many already. Light did not know what to make of this behavior. Was his attacker not a god as he himself was?
Time's odd passing made it seem that an eternity expired while holding hands with a second. The energy cloud reformed back into the familiar form of the griffin.
It charged at Light.
Light fired another bolt of silver, but the reforming griffin slipped beneath and tackled him. A weaker blow, its purpose became clear as the two ethereal beings smashed back into the material plane.
With a slap of his tail, Light beat back the crimson griffin. The moment of reprieve allowed him to locate himself within reality. The new battlefield was a planetoid traveling in an elliptical orbit in the same solar system as the experiment. A number of moons lazily hung around the dwarf planet, while the planet itself paid host to rock and ice. A thin atmosphere watched over mountains of and valleys and the odd plain. All of it was pockmarked by the comets who easily breached the atmosphere's weak protection.
Light reclaimed his bearing as the griffin opened its beak. Instead of a sound, a cone of ethereal flame coursed toward Light.
The fire cared not for the lack of air or temperature. It hungered as it came at Light. Light spun in a vertical circle as he summoned an ethereal shield. The heat of a star held no sway over him, but he took no chances with this unknown flame.
The river of fire struck the simple yet potent golden circle standing before Light. The two energies struggled against one another, but neither could prevail. Light embraced the reprieve as he tried to sort out the many thoughts in his mind. Attack, retreat, diplomacy, and more flitted through as he tried to make sense of all of the information that had been so callously thrown upon him.
Fear returned as realization struck Light. The ethereal fire, powerful as it was, had accomplished the crimson griffin's wish. Light had held his position. So inexperienced was he in combat, Light had only reacted to the attack.
With a beat of its wings, the crimson griffin unleashed a second wave of fire, twice the width and strength of the current stream. It moved at the speed of thought. Caught off-guard, Light had no hope of dodging it.
The brilliant circlet of golden energy cracked and shattered before the fire's enhanced strength.
Red flames washed over Light.
Torment returned, thrice as strong. The concussive force alone hammered the golden deity against the planetoid's surface. The fire clung to Light's scales as it sought to consume him. Shadows danced across craters as the fire tore at his body.
It was then he realized a terrible truth. This being, this attacker. Its power was greater than his own.
Understanding how unmatched he truly was, Light called out across all of existence. "BROTHER!"
Seventeen seconds had passed.
The crimson griffin hurled itself toward Light, power gathering in its talons for a direct blow.
Light needed time.
The golden dragon lifted itself and then bodily crashed through the rocky surface into a mantle of ice. The goal was twofold. By placing layers and layers of rock and ice between him and the crimson griffin, Light hoped for protection, no matter how limited. Second, Light did not deny the desperate hope that perhaps the ice could do what the void had not as he traveled to the planetary core.
It did not, and Light was forced to call upon his power to try to extinguish the consuming fire. The fear grew stronger, but he was at least spared from the blind panic that could affect humanity. His lack of physiology provided that one solace. A strong flash of silver smothered the flames.
Then, it was simpler to transfer power to his fore and slice his way toward the planetoid's core. Perhaps Light could utilize the dense core of metal as a defense or a tool in this battle.
Above Light, the crimson griffin shined as great as a star as it shot toward its target.
The crimson griffin did not crash into the surface.
The explosion of power met matter gutted the entire planetoid in a single detonation. Rock and ice violently flew into the void. Landmasses the size of islands threw themselves away from the destruction. The planetoid's icy insides spilled into its space in its death throes. Its elliptical orbit in the system was forever altered as it began to drift out of the solar system entirely.
Light screamed in pain as crimson energy cut into his being. Red scars and glowing burns dotted his golden body. Never before could he imagine his being be so tarnished by battle. Yet, his ploy appeared to prove its worth. At the cost of a celestial body, the deity had endured the concentrated assault. Light lived.
He screamed again as crimson talons knifed into his lengthy body, near his neck. The crimson griffin released a battle cry as it tightened its grip around Light's ethereal body. He could not be decapitated as a human could, but the consequences of what could happen were not ones he was willing to allow happen.
The two beings fought in the crater marking the very edge of the planetoid's inner core. Light threw blasts of silver energy as his golden tail battered at the crimson griffin. In turn, the talons clawed deeper into Light's golden mass as the griffin retaliated with bursts of crimson power. The silver and crimson energy blasts were too diffused to be more than a distraction.
No matter how hard Light struck with his tail, he could not break the griffin's lethal grip.
Twenty-four seconds.
"Brother!"
A beam of purple energy slammed into the griffin.
Once again, the form crumbled beneath the concentrated attack. Light enjoyed freedom as the crimson talons vanished. The crimson power reverted to its storm cloud form, hovering for a moment over Light. Yet, the new fighter was not as restrained in his actions as his older brother. The energy beam continued to press against the crimson energy, pushing the storm away from the golden figure.
Light, as wounded as he was, kept careful vigil as he stared at the crimson storm.
There!
The on-going blast forced the crimson to dedicate more of the storm's form to the fore. Light caught sight of another form in the storm's center. A glimpse of an arm. A leg.
Human, in shape.
After so many impossibilities in the span of time, one would imagine Light would cease to be shocked.
Yet, he was.
A human. Rather, a human form battled against the gods.
A new draconic being landed in front of Light, wings unfurled in a protective gesture. The God of Darkness presented a far different form than his brother's, despite being a similar mythological type. His draconic body was not long and thin but stouter. Unlike the God of Light's small, almost vestigial, arms, the God of Darkness carried himself on four strong legs. His head was stretched out and had the appearance of an external skull with a holes for eyes and nose. Jagged teeth stabbed from his gums. Unlike his brother, he had two great wings akin to a bat's, though they were pockmarked with holes. Spikes ran down the lengthy of his back. He too had horns, though they did not point upward like Light's but spiraled to a point.
Gratitude lifted Light's spirits, but he never took his eyes off of the being.
The shadowy, undefined features of the human body seemed to throw its arms forward. A crimson wave shot from the storm, strong enough to turn away Darkness' beam. At the last moment, Darkness ceased his attack and crouched in front of his brother.
The crimson wave battered at Darkness, but he endured.
A momentary pause enforced itself as Crimson began to reform the griffin.
"What are you?" Light wondered, voicing the question above all questions which plagued him.
Darkness glanced at his brother and released an imperious and furious draconic roar. "You will pay four-fold for the wounds you've inflicted on my brother!"
Crimson finished reforming itself as Light floated off the metallic core.
Crimson began to glow brighter as it prepared its next assault.
"Brother!" Light warned. "We must fight together to prevail!"
Unaware of the metaphysical power struggle happening at the edge of the solar system, Ozma opened his eyes, once more, on the world of Remnant.
Greetings, everyone! Hope you enjoy this story as we explore possibilities together! Of course, I do not own RWBY and etc.
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