What Ghira was hearing was a lot to take in, less because it was hard to fathom, and more because it was hard to believe. He was the acting leader of Vermillion, and no decision could be taken lightly.

Sighing while seated in front of his desk, Ghira put aside the welcoming gifts he'd prepared and pressed a hand over his eyes. Taking in a breath, he slid his hand down over his face, and gave a long and hard stare at the people before him.

They were delegates from both Vale and Atlas led by Adam who grunted before crossing his arms and leaning his back on the wall, a hand ready to grab the hilt of his sword at a moment's notice.

"You want me to put the entire kingdom on high alert for a single man?" Ghira reiterated in the silence. "How can you expect me to do that when even people of your own party appear unconvinced?"

"Damn it, Winter!" Qrow grumbled, Winter snorting.

"It's just one man…?" Winter's expression remained firm. She was a specialist, and as Vermillion was relatively new, perhaps they didn't know the weight the title held, let alone Branwens who were bandits? "I fail to see why we need this level of permission when we can ask to waive restriction rights to operate freely in Vermillion. Our team is good enough."

"Why are we working with her?" Qrow quipped, lip twitching as he resisted the urge to growl at her. "You don't understand who were facing."

Winter did not deny the words, but it wasn't as if she hadn't been briefed. "I understand enough to know that the target is nothing if I remain in ranged combat."

"You think you'd be able to do that?" Qrow argued. Cursed Arm's speed and agility were no joke, let alone from Winter who was relying on reports rather than experience. "Unlike us, you have nothing to rely on."

"I know I can. Atlas Specialists are always built different regardless of whatever trinket you got from Ozpin." Winter raised her chin and stood proud of her station and accomplishment. Her words were not empty. Only her ignorance.

The little trinket was another magic artifact from Summer.

Qrow ground his teeth, but Raven shook her head at him. "If the Schnee dies, that's one less problem."

Winter glared, slightly offended, more so at Adam's snide agreement from behind her. Shoulder's drooping, Winter lamented that this was a team missions.

Ghira pinched the bridge of his nose, the dynamic between Qrow and Winter reminding him of his own interaction with Sienna Kahn in the White Fang.

Regardless, arguing got things nowhere.

"Is this problem not solved by just issuing an arrest warrant and an elite team?" Ghira murmured, a hand ruffling his beard. "I have my own trusted personnel who could deal with such things."

Qrow fell into silence before scrutinizing Ghira. A light bulb lit over his head. "Do you have a daughter?"

Ghira frowned, his eyes narrowing from a fleeting mixture of anger and frustration, but he still couldn't wrap his mind around why Qrow would be asking that.

"I do."

In the end, Ghira had no reason to hide it.

Qrow nodded to himself, realizing there was merit in his train of thought.

"Her name Blake?" He continued asking.

Ghira and Adam perked up at the same time, but Ghira looked more restless as a father as he understood that there was a connection between his run-away daughter and Vale.

"Yes," Ghira leaned forward, a tad uneasy. "For her own reasons, she chose to run away and hasn't told me where she's gone."

The letter Blake had left for Ghira and her mother, Kali, was that she'd give them a surprise at the Vytal Festival, and not to worry. She regularly communicated with them, which helped ease their doubts, but she never told them where she was.

"Technically, I'm one of the staff in the Huntsman Academy she enrolled in." Qrow recalled the events of the Forever Fall and the faces of the students he'd help save. Blake Belladonna was there and experienced Cursed Arm's capabilities first hand. "She was involved in a recent incident, so why don't you give her a call?"

Alarmed, but suspicious, Ghira had no reason to refuse, especially with what Qrow was hinting at. It had also been a while since he'd spoken with Blake, and Kali said Blake had been looking pale recently.

Dialing Blake's number, it wasn't long before the line was answered.

"Dad?" Blake's voice echoed through the room as Ghira put the scroll on speaker.

"Kitten, I have a question for you?" Ghira started. He frowned, but watched Qrow continue to nod at him.

"I-I told you not to call me that. I-I'm sharing a dorm, if my partner ever hears, she'll never let me live it down!" Blake hissed before the voice grew muffled by the sound of a pillow. "What's wrong? You don't normally call at this time, and-"

"Do you know someone named Cursed Arm?"

The line went silent, and in that silence, Ghira could sense a feeling of utter nervousness.

"W-Why are you asking?"

"Through a source, I've gotten word that this Cursed Arm is going to attack Vermillion-"

"Put the city on alert! Tell mom and the others not to go out! He has this dangerous Grimm Shadow, and you can't ever let yourself get touched by his bandaged ar-"

Qrow stepped forward and hung up the line, not putting much consideration for how Blake would feel at the sudden hang up, and more focused on a frozen Ghira who stared hard at him.

It was evident that the recent incident Qrow said regarding Blake involved Cursed Arm. That would mean the information Qrow and the others provided about Cursed Arms abilities and danger had merit.

"You said Cursed Arm is targeting Vermillion's sun?" Ghira grew serious.

"Affirmative," Winter spoke up, back straight and hands clasped behind her. "The general has tasked myself and the team to prevent any error. The light energy of Vermillion's sun has a potent effect on Grimm, and likely Cursed Arm himself. Naturally, he'd seek to destroy it. Therefore, to avoid an international case, we'd like your permission for freedom to act."

"Winter, we were asking for cooperation, not freedom," Qrow grimaced. "Cursed Arm is not someone to be taken down using ordinary means!"

Ghira realized everything went back to square one as Winter and Qrow started glaring at each other again.

Qrow and the others were trying to lift restriction on their movement while operating in Vermillion, and Ghira could do that for them, but not everyone in Vermillion's upper management would approve of it.

There was going to be backlash, especially with a Schnee and humans involved.

The sound of a scroll vibrating drew everyone attention back to the table where a call was coming.

Ghira creased his brows while checking the caller identification on his scroll. The name was all too familiar.

Sienna?

Knowing her, she wouldn't be calling for anything trivial amid an important meeting.

Picking up the scroll and bringing it to his ear, Ghira answered with a feeling of foreboding.

"Sienna-"

"There's a situation. Call Adam, and put the city on high alert."

There was no way Ghira couldn't notice the timing, but he held his thoughts to himself and waited for a better explanation.

"This bastard is…no," Sienna cut off for a second, her tone shaky as if high on adrenaline and trying to find the words. "Hawk's dead," she finally settled on.

"What?" Adam was the one who spoke up, keenly listening in the silence of the room.

"He's dead." Sienna repeated. "We were out patrolling near the outskirts of the Sun district before we were attacked."

Ghira glanced at the suddenly hardened expressions Qrow and Raven were wearing, knowing Cursed Arm's target.

"Can you describe the attacker?" Ghira pressed urgently.

"Dark rag-like cloak with a white skull half-mask. He managed to touch Hawk with a weird arm and…I think the bastard can steal hearts."

Ghira felt his stomach sink in real time while Winter looked vaguely uncomfortable, like hearing something out of a children's horror story was real.

"What happened to the heart?" Ghira wet his lips, trying to match details to explanations Qrow and Raven had insisted on.

"…It was crushed, and Hawk went down."

A curse. That was what Qrow and Raven called it. A form of magic not too dissimilar to magic weapons which were all the latest craze, but far more sinister.

"Do not engage him on your own." Ghira warned. "What's your current condition?"

Sienna did not answer right away.

"I'm on my way back," she said. "I'll fill you in on the details in person, but this guy is dangerous. Aura means nothing."

No matter what, it was hard to believe, but the more proof piled up, the more Ghira could not deny.

Qrow did not waste the opportunity. "We know what this bastard's after, and we know him better than you do. Let us help."

.

.

.

Vermillion was put on high alert, and Vale and Atlas representatives were allowed free movement.

Having given permission, Ghira quickly moved to pass down orders and give instructions, but all at once, all communications were suddenly cut off and explosions echoed through air.

/-/

-Elsewhere.

Blake had a panic attack. No one was answering her calls.

"A trifling matter."

A neat man with a gentleman's mustache clicked a button on his personal scroll and shut down most of the Vermillion's infrastructure.

Arthur Watts, a former scientist of Atlas that had defected to Salem's inner circle in order to pursue his own research. He wore an overcoat, and carried a demeanor of crass professionalism.

Watt's did not care to ask why Salem would ask him to cripple Vermillion's technological infrastructure on such short notice, but it only helped that he was already present within the fledgling kingdom.

An old rival from Atlas was stationed here, and rumour was that Polendina had a breakthrough with one of his projects.

Watt's sneered in bitterness. Both were scientists, but Watt's was the one that had been ostracised and banished. Atlas would rue the day, but for now, Watt's could easily surmise that Salem's new orders had to do with the cooperation with a new ally Watt's had yet to meet.

Regardless, his role was done.

All that was left now was a personal goal to steel research on Polendina's 'Sun' project.

Archer made his way through Vermillion in the guise of Cursed Arm.

With Salem's cooperation, one of her agents had been sent to create a disruption while he made his way towards Vermillion's Sun district. The overloaded residual energies of a certain Noble Phantasm existed within, and security would be lacking in the chaos.

However, Archer was frowning at the damage.

Bombs had exploded along city lines, and although they proved distracting, they weren't without injuries. Salem's agent seemed to care little for whoever got caught in them, but Archer was different.

His entire goal never focused on killing others.

People buried in rubble, and screaming from injuries that could prove fatal caused him to divert from his course numerous times.

But few if any welcomed his approach.

The shadow Grimm Salem had created for him would absorb all the injured and preserve their lives in a subspace. Technically, it was saving them, but all others could see was a Grimm devouring countless citizens and Cursed Arm's figure passing through.

"Y-You monster. T-The entire market…"

It was all gone, submerged in a shadow of black that swallowed all.

Archer ignored any protest until the entire destroyed area was swept up and became a ghost town. Only then did he continue his path towards Vermillion's sun.

The facility housing his target was heavily secured with guards, automated defence technology, and thick walls. With technology jammed, much of the security was derived from personnel who would have no clue as to Archer's capabilities.

"Stop!" A guard called out to him.

Archer's outfit would no doubt draw suspicion, and he wasn't hiding because there was no need to.

An assassin was not caught if there were no witnesses.

Daggers formed under his sleeve before he dashed in.

Throwing a dagger to divert gunfire, he punched with an open fist, striking a man's sternum, and sending him tumbling across the ground.

"You bastard!"

Archer tilted his body, dodging an overhead swing on the side before he countered with a leg sweep. Catching the enemy off balance, he grabbed a woman by the collar and hefted her up as a shield for a barrage of weapons that were aimed at him.

The woman's guard Aura could not hold out for long, and blood splattered as the bullets began to graze her.

Throwing the woman into the crowd of gathering security, a black shadow began pooling down his legs and spreading across the surface of the ground. Wherever the darkness touched, dark hands pulled the bodies into the abyss.

The innate parameters of his existence as a Heroic Spirit far outstripped ordinary guards, and in a few minutes filled with screams and violence, the area grew eerily silent.

The Vermillion Sun research facility was huge. Various investors had contributed towards its construction and numerous scientists had flocked to discern the nature and utility of Vermillion's light.

The building was circular shaped like a stadium with the center remaining open-air. A dome-like structure was on top that revolved to direct the light of the miniature sun floating in the middle.

With security defeated, Archer made his way passed the large doors of the facility, and started making his way to the inner sanctum that housed the stone an overloaded Excalibur Galatine was planted in.

It was silent through the halls, Archer unable to detect any signs of life nearby. It was something he'd grown accustomed to in Remnant. Everyone had an Aura, and each Aura gave Archer a certain scent in the air that denoted a person's unique signature.

The facility was submerged in Galatine's sun properties, but that's what made it all the more jarring when a portion of the same energy started moving.

Archer's steps slowed as the echo of heels clicking over the tiled halls entered his ears.

He could detect no signs of life, but the unmistaken figure of a woman appeared walking in front of him. Short and curly orange hair drew tied up with a pink bow caught his attention first, followed by the most innocent pair of bright green eyes.

That, and the lack of any fear or situation awareness on the girl.

"Hello, masked man! My name's Penny! Who are you?"

Archer said nothing. In the end, the girl was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

He raised his hand and willed the shadow Grimm forward.

Creeping along the ground, the shadow approached the girl, but the girl looked more curious than anything until a careful hand pulled her away.

Winter appeared, placing Penny behind her.

"Penny." An icy voice said slowly. "Get away from here."

"Ah, Salutations! Friend Winter!" Penny saluted, but Archer was drowning out whatever else came from her mouth as he focused on Winter.

It was only natural that Winter would appear here considering that the objective was known.

Which meant to say Qrow and Raven would not be far.

"Stay right where you are," Winter warned while drawing out her sword. "I will detain you here under my name as a Specialist."

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