A/N: Volume 3 OP: "The World" by Jonathan Young
Chapter 16
Nightmare
"Broadcast, what are you doing‽ Shut it down!" Doctor Bartholemew Oobleck shouted into his earpiece. Even from up in the commentator's box, Bartholomew could hear the panicked and scared screams from the crowd as they stared in horror at the "corpse" of Penny Polendina. That image was now about to be broadcasted to the entire world but they had time, if only a brief moment. If they could shut down the broadcast on their end, they could catch it at Vale's Cross Continental Transmit Tower.
"Something's wrong! We don't have control of the cameras! We can't even stop the broadcast!" the operator replied.
"What‽ How is that possible‽" Bartholomew asked. His question was answered as, after lingering on the bisected body of Penny and the frozen Pyrrha Nikos, the image on the screen was replaced by a black queen chess piece on a red background.
"People of Remnant, I have come to deliver you a message," a voice said over the speakers. It was a voice that very few recognized but those who did knew without a doubt that this was Cinder Fall speaking. "You have placed your trust into children trained to fight and die for you. You create these child soldiers and demand that they sacrifice everything for the sake of your safety in this endless war. What you have seen today is a stark reminder that your champions are hollow; how could they possibly not crumble under the weight of the world that you demand they carry?"
The sky began to burn with the color of fire as the sun slowly sank below the horizon.
"Today you bear witness to the start of a revolution. There can be neither heroes nor villains in this cruel world of ours for those labels are arbitrary and ultimately meaningless. This system of ours that only perpetuates the endless cycle of war, pain, death, and misery must be burnt to the ground until only cinders remain. This system must be sacrificed so that a new one, a new world, can rise from the ashes of the old."
Atlas soldiers were torn through as Grimm began to pour out of the mist that had arisen.
"Panic. Scream in fear. Run away. Hide. The fires of this revolution shall reach you and burn you alive all the same. Let all of your curses and hatred build. Let it blanket the world and snuff out these false saviors that we call light. You cannot be saved. Even the greatest among you can stop this no more than an ant can stop a hurricane."
Professor Ozpin could only scowl and squeeze the handle of The Long Memory as he watched helplessly from his office as an untold number of people died in the stands from being trampled on by those fleeing in fear.
"Let today mark the beginning of a new system, a new world. One free from the chains of fate that bind us to our own destruction. One where we do not shun the darkness and cling to the light but rather shun the light and cling to the darkness. Rejoice and take solace that you are the sacrifice on the altar for a better future. You are the lamb being lain to slaughter. You cannot be saved but, through your blood, the future can be redeemed."
The streets on the outskirts of Vale began to run red with blood as the Grimm stormed down every street, killing all in their path.
"The starting gun has been fired. The pieces are all in place. Rally your pawns, if you so wish. Raise up your knights, strengthen your bishops, fortify your rooks; the outcome cannot be changed. Checkmate has already been declared. This game is already over."
The white moon hanging in the sky standing in stark contrast to the red was slowly consumed by black leaving a gaping hole in reality itself.
"Pray to your impotent gods! Let your cries carry your hatred and despair to the heavens! Behold and bear witness to the might of the One True God who will create this world anew!"
As the feed finally cut out, the metal of the handle of Ozpin's cane groaned in protest as he squeezed it so hard that his knuckles turned white. Countless flying Grimm rushed over the colosseum and surrounded Vytal as though it were the eye of a storm. The door to his office was thrown open as Qrow Brawnwen and Glynda Goodwitch burst into it.
"Oz!" Qrow began. Whatever he was planning to say was cut short as Ozpin turned to face them with a thousand years of hatred burning in his eyes.
"Get to the city!" Ozpin ordered. Gone was the jovial and mysterious headmaster. In his place was a warrior, a general, a master; one who had waded through seas of blood to reach where he was on this day.
Qrow and Glynda flinched at Ozpin's intensity before regaining themselves. "But—"
"NOW!" Ozpin's voice was like a physical force that carried with it absolute authority that would not be denied or questioned. Qrow and Glynda shared a look before leaving to carry out their orders and defend their kingdom.
Back at the colosseum, General James Ironwood watched as giant Nevermores, some larger than any he had ever seen, began attacking the barrier that covered the dome to protect those inside. It lit up with flashes of blue and white as it was pecked at, slashed at, and rammed into. He knew that the shields wouldn't last forever.
The ringing of his Scroll tore Ironwood's attention from possibly the worst Grimm invasion in the history of Remnant. He answered it immediately, already knowing who was on the other end. "Ozpin, I can explain the girl."
"You brought an army to my kingdom. Use it. "
The line went dead and Ironwood stood frozen in place for a moment before putting away his Scroll and pulling out a special communication device. With a simple push of a button, the signal was sent out to every ship in his fleet and every soldier in his army.
All hands, to arms. All batteries, full open. All fighters, sortie. This was war.
OoOoOoO
The skies above Vale flashed and shook as Atlesian fighter attack vehicles chased a seemingly endless swarm of flying Grimm around in a sick dance. What parts of the sky that weren't occupied by vehicles or Grimm were filled with countless rounds of ammunition flying every which way and massive explosions as missiles detonated. The fighting was concentrated most heavily around the eight Steele -class airborne battleships that had hovered over the city for a week like a threat from an almighty god.
"We've got damage to wing four and section twelve! Main thruster one is operating at 70% power!" one of the technicians aboard the bridge of one of the battleships reported as their fingers flew over the keyboard to sort through the damage reports coming in from all over.
The bridge of a Steele -class airborne battleship was shaped like a long trapezoid with terminals located all over the sides. In the center, the captain's chair was raised up and the captain was surrounded on all sides by a 360 degree holographic display that showed everything going on around the ship's exterior. This sort of event was beyond even the captain's worst nightmares but he wasn't some newly barred captain who had never seen combat. He and his crew were experienced veterans and had leapt into action the instant the order was given.
"Divert power from all nonessential systems to the ablative plating! Alpha Squadron, move to these coordinates and form a protective layer! Focus on the smaller Grimm and don't let a single one through to the city!"
"Sir! Unclassified Grimm coming in from the southeast high!"
The captain whirled his seat around to that direction to see the new enemy. "By the gods," he could only say quietly as he saw a serpent-like Grimm that was longer than his ship twist its way through the sky toward them. "Bring the ship around and ready the main cannons! Missile banks three and five, slow that thing down! Gamma Squadron, clear a path!"
The ship rocked with an explosion so violent that everyone had to grip onto their consoles and chairs for dear life. "Main cannon two has been destroyed!"
"Delta and Theta Squadrons, guard our cannons! Focus our point defense turrets on the closest Grimm!"
"Sir! Direct hits from the missiles confirmed! No visible damage!"
"All power to the remaining main cannons! I want that thing blasted out of the sky!"
Despite the will of all those involved, the fact of the matter remained that Altesian airborne battleships were slow to turn and this Grimm was fast despite its size. Just as the main cannons came to bear on it, it coiled around the entire ship and began to squeeze . The hull groaned in protest as the power flickered and warning sirens went off.
"Hull integrity at 60% and falling fast!"
The captain gritted his teeth as he looked all around at the largest Grimm he had ever seen. He needed to think of something fast or his ship and crew were finished. His hope eventually came not from his own mind but from his comrades.
"Sir! The Dalton is coming around, main cannons charging!"
"I'll have to buy Jack a drink after this. All squadrons, clear the way! I want all point defense turrets to unload on this thing the second it's off us!"
"Sir! The Dalton is… targeting us?"
"What do you mean‽" The captain turned to face the direction of the Dalton and struggled to see it around the coils of the Grimm.
"Its main cannons are targeting the bridge!"
"Evasive act—" The captain's orders, futile as they would have been regardless, were cut off as a massive beam of green energy punched straight through the ship's bridge.
Over on the Dalton , Roman Torchwick chuckled in pleasure as he looked around at the utter bedlam going on outside through the screens. All around him were the bodies of the crew that Neopolitan had mercilessly slaughtered before going to free him. He raised Melodic Cudgel like a conductor's baton and began conducting the chaos as more and more of Atlas' fighters, both manned and unmanned, fell under the control of the virus that Neo had uploaded to the fleet's private network.
Roman's chuckles morphed into full blown maniacal laughter as another one of Atlas' battleships exploded in a glorious ball of fire. It had been demeaning, frightening, and even terrifying at several points but all of it was worth it for this very moment.
"I love it when I win!"
OoOoOoO
Weiss Schnee alighted in front of Ruby Rose and Pyrrha, having used her glyphs to jump from where she had been in the seats. "Ruby! Pyrrha! We need to get out of here!"
Ruby shook herself and wiped the tears from her eyes as she took in the pandemonium around her. These people needed a Huntress. There'd be time for tears and mourning later. "We need to get our weapons. Shirou should be nearby; he can help with that."
Weiss nodded but then turned her attention to Pyrrha who was still frozen in shock. "Pyrrha? Pyrrha!" When the other girl still didn't react, Weiss marched up to her and slapped her across the face. "Pyrrha, we need to act! I know it won't help the guilt but this wasn't your fault! We need you to help put a stop to the people who did this!"
Pyrrha shook herself and looked at the Grimm attacking the barrier above before turning her gaze in the direction of Beacon. "There's something I need to do. I didn't want to do it but I don't think I have a choice anymore. I need to save as many people as possible and I need that power to do it."
Ruby and Weiss shared a confused glance before Ruby asked, "What are you talking about?"
Pyrrha looked at Ruby and Weiss with a sad smile on her face as she simply said "If I don't see you again, I'm sorry and I love you girls" before sprinting off.
"Pyrrha!" Ruby called out, reaching for her friend. Before she could do anything, there was the sound of a mighty crash as a massive Nevermore broke through the barrier and landed in front of them. The great beast roared at them, the force of its voice forcing Ruby and Weiss to shield their faces as it ripped at their clothes and hair.
Ruby glanced at one of Penny's swords but was stopped from doing anything as Weiss stepped between her and the Grimm. "Stay back, Ruby. I'll protect you. I'm not going to let that thing hurt my partner," she said as she held her left arm out. A small glyph formed around her shoulder and a blue specter came from it, crawling down her arm to form a gauntlet before a massive greatsword appeared in her hand. She still had no practice with it and it was awkward to wield without something in her hand but that didn't matter. She didn't need skill to kill this thing.
The Nevermore charged at them with the speed and force of a runaway train but Weiss didn't flinch as she locked her stance and brought the greatsword down. Weiss gritted her teeth as the force reverberated down her body and caused her to slide back but she held strong as her sword dug into the Nevermore's beak. Weiss held out her right hand and summoned another glyph but whatever she was about to do was interrupted as a horde of rocket lockers rained down on it like a storm of blades. The monster let out one final screech before fading into nothingness as the other Hunters-in-training ran into the arena to get their weapons.
Weiss released her synthesis and looked at the Griffons that were now pouring in to attack the audience. The various students were already on the move, tearing through the Grimm as quickly as they could but there were only so many of them and there were a lot more panicking civilians. As the Grimm ignored the students to attack the civilians, their negative emotions only grew which drew in more Grimm in a viscous positive feedback loop.
There were two more thuds nearby as two more lockers landed, their doors automatically opening to reveal Myrtenaster-α and Crescent Rose. A Griffon tried to land on Ruby's locker but it was pulled down to the ground by Weiss' gravity glyph and then decapitated by Ruby using one of Penny's swords before it could so much as screech.
"We need a plan," Weiss said as she retrieved her weapon only for the answer to come from an unexpected source.
"The plan, ladies," Dr. Oobleck said as he and Professor Peter Port approached, weapons in hand, "Is that you and the rest of the students will escort the remaining civilians out of the colosseum and to the docks before then leading them to the shelters. We'll stay here and prevent as many Grimm from following you as possible."
Ruby hesitated for half an instant before nodding resolutely, "Yes, sir!"
"With all due luck, we'll be able to look back on this day as a moment where we held firm against the impossible. May the gods be with you." As Ruby and Weiss ran off, Bartholomew and Peter stood back-to-back as the Grimm circled them like the eye of a hurricane. To such experienced Huntsmen, drawing them in was simplicity itself. The Grimm were drawn in by negative emotions and both of them had far more than enough hatred.
"One final match, Barty!" Peter said as he twirled Blowhard. "Place your bets!"
OoOoOoO
Over at Beacon, Blake Belladonna and Yang Xiao Long had their hands full as they along with the handful of students left worked with Atlas' military to protect all of the civilians who had been present at the fair. The two of them had thought that the battle in the forest had been desperate but this was so much worse that the previous battle seemed like a lazy afternoon. When you were dealing with so many civilians, almost none of whom had their Aura unleashed, the stakes skyrocketed beyond belief and each civilian lost was a blow to their hearts.
The two partners had tried to stick together as long as possible but were eventually forced to split up. While being together increased their own safety and boosted their efficacy in any given encounter, they could save more lives if they went on their own. As such, Yang opted to stay at the main ground where most of the civilians were while Blake ran about to save those spread out.
The lynchpin of this desperate struggle was easily the robot soldiers that Atlas had brought alongside their Human soldiers. While Yang and quite a few other Hunters easily outclassed any given soldier, their sheer number and the rate of fire of their assault weapons let them take out lesser Grimm easily enough and let Yang focus on the larger ones.
While the surprise attack had put everyone on the back foot, now that they had their wits about them, the tides were finally turning. The civilians were being herded to safety at the shelter on the school's grounds and Yang felt like she could finally breathe again. The need to protect the civilians meant that she had taken more than her fair share of blows but that just let her use Payback to wipe out some of the more powerful Grimm in one hit. She was easily the sturdiest of her team but even she had her limits. Now, she could focus on keeping her Aura up and be in it for the long haul.
After what was either two minutes or two years, Atlesian dropships arrived to let out quite a few Paladins. Yang knew firsthand just how strong those things were and they proved that they were still strong even when operated via computer. With such powerful backup, Yang was allowed time to wipe the sweat from her brow and take a quick breather.
While she had questioned it at first, Yang was now infinitely glad that General Ironwood had brought an army.
OoOoOoO
Blake flashed across the forest that surrounded Beacon, bounding off of trees and branches to strike at every Grimm she encountered. Quite a few people had fled to the woods to try and evade the Grimm. While this was a relatively sound strategy for escaping the larger ones, it just made it harder to protect them from the smaller ones who could blend in with the shadows of the trees and the darkness of the ever-approaching night.
The Grimm weren't the only ones who lurked in the shadows, however. Blake had been trained relentlessly by her mother to live up to the name of her Semblance and become Shadow herself. Her direct combat skills were then established in the White Fang and refined in Beacon. With those two factors combined, the lesser Grimm stood no chance as Blake became the Shadow that Hunted shadows.
Despite this, Blake couldn't possibly save everyone. She ran across the dead or dying more times than she liked but she didn't let it get to her. Unlike the rest of her friends (other than Shirou), she had seen death countless times before. She had encountered bodies so shredded that they were almost beyond recognition. She had smelled blood so heavy that it lingered in her nose for days after. She had felt curses so numerous that they were a physical weight and she could feel those curses, the curses of the dead, steadily building within the forest.
Blake brushed all of that aside and pushed herself to her limit to save all those that she could, directing the survivors to return to the main ground where Atlas' army could protect them. She didn't know how many of them actually made it but that was another fact that she couldn't even consider. Doing so for even a moment would cost someone their life.
Blake eventually made her way to the top of a large tree to both catch her breath and see if she could spy any particularly large group of Grimm or maybe any people. She was torn from her search, however, by the sound of screams redoubled coming from the main grounds. She nearly fell when she saw the Paladins and Knights had turned their guns on the people.
What was happening? Why was this happening? How could this happen? There was absolutely no way that this was an order from General Ironwood and the fact that the Human soldiers were fighting back only confirmed this. The burgeoning seed of hope that had been slowly growing was burnt away in an instant as something far beyond their capabilities to handle played out. Blake didn't think that things could possibly get worse.
Reality was a harsh mistress, however, as things got much worse. Several unmarked bullheads arrived and began to disgorge new fighters but this wasn't salvation; this was damnation.
Adam Taurus and the White Fang had arrived.
OoOoOoO
Cinder and Emerald Sustrai stood atop a building somewhere in Vale, the latter holding her Scroll to capture video footage of the chaos around her. Things were going somewhat poorly for the defenders of Vale. While they were fairly certain that the defenders would eventually successfully drive out the Grimm, the number of casualties— especially civilian— would be so staggering as to take out any joy from it.
"I'm worried about Mercury," Emerald said as she panned her camera across the city's streets, being able to talk freely due to not capturing audio. While she knew that this was going to happen, all of this death was starting to get to her.
"Really, now?" Cinder said with a quirked brow. "The way you two constantly bicker, I thought that you would be happy to have him gone."
"Yeah, I hate the guy but he's still— Wait, gone?"
"When I noticed that the red-hooded girl— Ruby, I think— had gotten to the arena and he didn't answer his Scroll, I checked where I last knew him to be. What I found was him neatly bisected in a pool of his own blood," Cinder said with the same tone one would use when discussing the weather.
Emerald paled as all the blood drained from her face, her body becoming like a statue as her brain tried and repeatedly failed to process that information. While she hated the man, there was no question that he was strong and he had been her companion for years by this point. For him to have died…
"They ki— Who killed him?"
"I don't rightfully know. While Team RWBY's performance has been greater than our expectations, it is impossible that it was Ruby who killed him. Certainly not without a fight, at least."
"There wasn't even a fight? He was assassinated?" The idea that Mercury Black, a highly trained assassin, could be assassinated was absurd but that was the only thing that made sense.
"No. There are signs that he confronted whomever it was that killed him but no signs of an actual fight. I can only surmise that he was killed in one move that completely bypassed his Aura."
Emerald's brain was further fried by this news. Killed in one his while his Aura was up? The gap between the power of the attack and the strength of the target's defenses had to be pretty great for such a thing to happen. Mercury had been fairly sturdy so that made it even more absurd.
"Wa-was it Qrow?" Emerald asked once she could get her tongue working again.
"No. I know for a fact that Qrow wasn't even on Vytal."
"Then who?" One of the professors, maybe? But none of them had cutting weapons and she was certain that none of them were that strong.
"Well, after eliminating the obvious candidates and quite a few of the outliers, the only reasonable person left was Emiya."
"Emiya's magecraft is strong enough to do that?" The fact that he was capable of taking Mercury down in one hit made his threat level skyrocket.
Cinder didn't seem too worried by this. "Possibly. Either that or he is physically strong enough to do so normally. That Roman fellow mentioned him having a magic lance so that well could have played a role in this."
"What are we going to do about him?"
"We won't be doing anything. You will continue broadcasting this spectacle. I will fulfill our primary objective."
"What if you run into him?"
Cinder chuckled menacingly as she began to walk away, "I shall burn him until only cinders remain."
OoOoOoO
Emiya Shirou let out a breath as he slid back into his ready stance, the familiar forms of Kanshou and Bakuya in his hands. All of the carnage and mayhem in Vale brought to mind painful memories of the destruction of Fuyuki. In his mind, he was moving back and forth from then to now, his blades effortlessly slicing through black beasts made of solidified curses. His body moved on autopilot as his vision was filled with the fire that had claimed his first life and his ears heard only the curses of Fuyuki at the end of his second. It seemed that it was he who was cursed as history repeated itself for a third time.
This was no revelation to Shirou. He had known from the beginning of his second life that he carried the curses of those who had died in the fire while he survived. He knew that he was burdened by the curses of the other orphans who had managed to survive only to be taken in by Kotomine Kirei and turned into batteries for Gilgamesh. He was the only one left who knew of the curses of all of Fuyuki as it was consumed by All the Evils of the World. He had even survived direct contact with Angra Mainyu.
While Emiya Shirou's body was made of infinite swords, his soul was burdened by bottomless curses.
Still, Shirou fought on tirelessly. Whether his existence be boon or bane, he would keep fighting to selfishly save whoever he could. He had no choice in the matter. All of this pain and death and destruction had to mean something in the end and so he had to see it out. This was his only path.
When Atlas' mechanized soldiers turned their guns on Vale's defenders, Shirou was the first to react and cut them down like any other monster. While he was no expert with technology, it was obvious that someone had somehow taken over their systems. Not that such a revelation mattered any in practice.
While Shirou had been the first one to spring back into the fight, the other people who were fighting alongside him were only a moment behind. These were the Soulkin soldiers of Atlas, visiting Hunters from all across the world, and civilians with their Aura unleashed that had chosen to take up arms. Human and Faunus alike stood side-by-side to fight back against this wave of darkness, to save the lives of those strangers around them regardless of any differences. In hindsight, it was a beautiful moment of solidarity.
The Atlas mechs proved a unique problem. They had no Aura and so taking them out was easy enough but the problem lay in their precision and reaction speed. They could coordinate their attacks with absolute perfection and with no need of any form of communication. It was less like fighting a group of creatures and more like fighting a single entity with a thousand arms.
That being said, no matter how advanced they may be, these mechanical soldiers with no soul or heart could never truly compare to the power of the Soulkin. They lacked that which drove people to greatness and pushed them beyond their limits. As such, even those of moderate skill and strength were more than a match for them as their desperation rose in equal measure with their determination.
Shirou was snapped out of his haze as he felt a ping in the back of his head from the familiar he still had tailing Emerald. He ignored it for the time being and put all of his focus on clearing out the immediate area of hostiles. When he finally had room to breathe, he reached into his pocket and placed his hand on the control circle before shifting his sight into his familiar. It took a few moments to sort out what he was seeing but his vision eventually focused to see Emerald and Cinder standing atop a roof somewhere in Vale. He commanded the familiar to move closer and shifted his hearing into it as well.
The distortion of distance and the curses that hung thick in the air made Shirou's head spin as it tried to interpret what it was getting from the familiar. With a bit of effort, he managed to push through the static enough to hear the tail end of their conversation.
"I will fulfill our primary objective."
"What if you run into him?"
"I shall burn him until only cinders remain."
Shirou cut off his connection to his familiar as he saw Cinder start to walk off in the general direction of Beacon. If this destruction wasn't the primary objective then there was only one thing that it possibly could be: the Fall Maiden. With all of Vale's defenders in the city, the school was practically unguarded. While he was positive that Ozpin had defensive measures in place, he was equally positive that Salem had given Cinder the means to bypass those measures. There was likely no one to stop her from getting to Amber and claiming the other half of the Fall Maiden's power.
That was an outcome that couldn't be permitted. Salem couldn't be allowed to get her hands on the power of any Maiden. If she did then she'd have the key to one of the vaults and the Relic that lay within. If she got one of those, she'd be that much closer to fulfilling whatever her grand design was.
Shirou needed to get to the school and he needed to get there fast. He could go to the docks and commandeer a ship but the nearest one was too far away and every ship that wasn't compromised would be needed for evacuating civilians. He looked over to the Cliffs of Beacon and then at the area around him before finding a motorcycle and getting an idea.
"Does this belong to anyone?" Shirou called out as he ran over to it. When no one responded in the positive, Shirou placed his hand on it and used his Structural Grasp to see its core mechanics. He was relieved to see that the ignition system wasn't that different from the bikes Shirou had worked on for the Fujimura group back on Earth.
Shirou stepped away from the bike and over to a pool of blood from a civilian that had been killed. He crouched down and muttered an apology as he scooped up some of it with his first two fingers. He was extremely thankful for those books on magecraft that Ozpin had given him as he was forced to work with what he knew to invent a runic array on the spot.
Moving with skilled hands, Shirou drew the necessary runes on the side of the bike with the blood on his fingers. He had to combine part of the formula for familiars that granted flight with one that manipulated weight and another that dictated the concept of "down." It was a very shoddy job and it'd be a miracle if it worked but he was short on options.
With the runic array in place, Shirou mounted the bike and used projection to create the key. The engine roared to life underneath Shirou and he hunkered down as the gunned the throttle. While the bike was fast, it wasn't nearly fast enough to increase the odds of his plan working and it needed to be sturdier to survive the forces involved. As such, as he tore down the streets of Vale, he extended his Aura to strengthen it. While the increase in speed wasn't nearly as much as he had hoped— Bumblebee was definitely faster— it would have to do.
As the Cliffs of Beacon loomed closer and closer, Shirou grit his teeth and narrowed all his focus onto the spell he was about to weave. As he was about to collide with the cliffs, he pulled the bike back into a wheelie. The instant the front tire made contact with the cliff face, he activated the runic array and prayed to whatever god that may be listening that this worked.
Either some god was listening or Shirou was better at crafting spells than he thought as it did, indeed, work. The back wheel made contact and Shirou found himself rocketing up the side of the cliff as though it were any other road. While he was relieved by that, he couldn't spare to waste any of his focus as he struggled to maintain control of the bike and avoid any particularly large parts that'd send him crashing back down to earth.
Shirou had to grit his teeth to avoid them chattering as the vibrations from bumps shook him to his bones. He didn't need his Structural Grasp to know that all this rattling about was hell for the bike. While his Aura protected it from being damaged from the outside, it did nothing for all of the components hitting each other in ways that they weren't meant to. He briefly wondered if Strengthening might work better but discarded the idea immediately. Not only could he not risk the brief moment of vulnerability in the switch over, he needed to save as much prana as he could for the fights ahead.
Shirou wasn't sure if his ride lasted a few moments or a few eternities but, either way, the top of the cliff was rapidly approaching. Worryingly, the rate at which it was approaching was slowing down as his bike began to lose speed. The spell he had woven had worked far better than it had any right to but it couldn't completely change the relative direction of gravity or grant flight. The second he had started his ascent, he had been losing speed to it. He had hoped that the bike would have been fast enough to make the ascent before that became a problem but it seemed that he wasn't so lucky.
Time crawled to a halt as Shirou assessed the situation and measured his options. The bike wouldn't make it to the top; that much was an absolute fact. If he held out until the last possible moment, he'd have maybe four or so meters to go until the top. That jump would be easy to make if he used prana burst but that would be such a large drain on his reserves that it could make things dicey if he got in a big fight. Could he make that jump using just his Aura?
It was a stupid question because he didn't have a choice. Either he made it or he didn't and the latter wasn't an option.
Time slowly inched forward as Shirou narrowed his focus to a pinprick. He needed to get as much height from the bike as possible so he had to keep the accelerator gunned until the last possible moment. At the same time, he needed to jump from the front of the bike since he couldn't get a good jump from the seat. He would need to release the accelerator, climb to the front of the bike, and leap from it with everything he had in the span of a few moments.
It wasn't the hardest thing he had ever done.
Even so, Shirou could hear his own heartbeat as his adrenaline surged and panic started to tingle at the edges of his mind. He pushed that panic aside as he called to mind the image of an armored figure clad in blue dashing across the battlefield no matter how great her opponent and making a similar climb solely under her own power. Those thoughts quieted his nerves as the golden light of Avalon washed over his spirit.
With absolutely perfect precision, Shirou released the accelerator at the perfect time, moved to the front of the bike with the speed of a rushing gale, and leaped from it with all of his strength at the perfect moment.
He was close, he was so tantalizingly close. The edge of the cliff inched forward at a snail's pace as he reached out to it even as the bike went crashing down. He was pretty certain that several lifetimes passed before he finally reached the edge and grabbed onto it for dear life. As time returned to its normal pace, Shirou quickly pulled himself up and crawled away from the edge before collapsing onto his back.
Shirou took a few moments to breathe again and get his pulse back under control. A part of him was thrilled at his success and a small part of his mind noted that, once she learned about this, Yang would be incredibly jealous but he pushed those parts aside. He got up and dusted himself off before turning to face the school that loomed high on the horizon, fulfilling its name as it stood as a shining beacon of white against the backdrop of darkness.
That light would remain shining. Shirou would make sure of it.
A/N: And here we are at the start of the Battle of Beacon. We're gunning straight for the climax now and it's gonna be a wild ride. I'm particularly looking forward to reactions of the people who have been complaining about me no making any massive changes despite the fact that I've said why that hasn't happened thus far and that it would happen in the near future so many times.
The biggest change that I made this chapter that's completely unrelated from everything else is Cinder's speech. In canon, it's disjointed and makes absolutely no goddamn sense. I knew that I was going to punch it up but then I actually read the transcript of that episode and realized that I had to throw literally everything out. This was supposed to be Cinder's declaration of war made to increase negative emotions to draw in even more Grimm. I also took the chance to tie it into Cinder's motivations a bit. She completely believes absolutely every single word she said.
Something else that I'd like to bring attention to is the location of Beacon. There's a mountain of conflicting evidence as to just where in the hell Beacon is. If you go over to its page on the RWBY wiki, you can see this for yourself. I discovered this when I got into a bit of a discussion with a friend of mine when we were talking about the motorcycle sequence. I decided to place Beacon a ways outside of Vale proper atop of a great plateau since that made the most sense to me and let me write the motorcycle sequence.
A bit of worldbuilding that I've been adding to Hunter training is that Hunters need to be in control of their emotions. On the surface, especially given the past couple examples, this seemed to just be the standard "don't panic in an emergency" deal but the bit with Oobleck and Peter was to show that the real purpose is so that way a Hunter can make themselves a magnet for Grimm my emitting more negative emotions than those around them. This is why Pyrrha was aware of such techniques all the way back in V1C2. Shirou was also somewhat unintentionally teaching this skill to Ruby when teaching her how to utilize killing intent. As for Shirou himself, he learned that bit from Kiritsugu and he learned how to keep a tight lid on his emotions out of necessity. I may or may not go into this later in the story but one of the reasons Qrow is a drunkard in RoF is to help him keep a lid on his negative emotions outside of combat.
Just a head's up, the next four-ish chapters are going to be a bit fucky in terms of chronological order again. A lot goes down during the Battle of Beacon and the best way for me to handle it was what you'll end up reading.
If you want some extra oomph when reading this chapter, I recommend that you listen to "Redeem the Future (Phase 2) from Xenoblade Chronicles 3: Future Redeemed.
It's now time for reviews and, holy shit, I'm 90% certain that the last chapter was the single most reviewed chapter of the story. I can't tell you how much your words of praise and encouragement mean to me. Given the track record of reviews that I get, it can be hard to remember that a decent chunk of people actually like this story.
Before we get to any specific reviews, I want to make one answer incredibly clear: Why did Shirou et al stop Cinder et al from doing what they did? I refer you to V3C9 where that very same question is posed and then answered. Our heroes are restricted by the confines of the law. The Vytal Festival is heavily monitored for reasons that should be very obvious. Even setting that aside, you also have the fact that they didn't fully know the capabilities of Cinder's group. The only thing they knew with absolute certainty is that they managed to subdue a Maiden and that one of them has half of the Fall Maiden's power. The simple fact that they managed to subdue a Maiden alone puts them on a threat level that only Ozpin, Shirou, or Qrow could comfortably deal with. What's more, they knew that one of them is a magus and blindly attacking a magus is usually never a smart idea (see what happened to Mercury in the last chapter for evidence). It's generally only safe for Shirou and Ozpin to fight a magus since Qrow has no defenses against compulsions (of course, Ozpin could have granted him at least temporary protection by placing him under a compulsion to undo weaker compulsions but whatever) and has no real methods of unraveling and countering Mysteries. As for why they didn't do anything after Yang's match with Mercury, they were. Shirou knew that Emerald was in the coliseum and figured that Mercury or Cinder might be there as well. He knew he could leave scanning the crowd to Ruby and Weiss which is why he was prowling the halls. It's not like he could use Hrunting, after all, since that would cause a lot of collateral damage. Shirou didn't use Structural Grasp to expedite the process since that would have put Emerald on crazy high alert once she sensed it.
Now, on to specific reviews.
AdrianEzequielGarrido: What are you talking about? Your last statement is objectively wrong. Ruby did get there on time but was stopped by Pyrrha's Semblance.
spartan-140: ... Dammit, that would have been cool. Of course, then I wouldn't have gotten to show Cinder's entire monologue and all the important bits in it but still. He couldn't have attacked her mid-speech, though, because he doesn't know where she is. If he did, she'd be dead.
raymond49090rc: As shown both in canon and in this story, the fights happen pretty much immediately after the contestants are decided. Even if someone had shot Pyrrha a text, she would have just ignored it until after the fight (assuming that her Scroll isn't in something like do not disturb mode). I actually had a conversation with the aforementioned friend of mine about this exact thing. Even if they did tell Pyrrha, nothing would have changed because she'd have no way of knowing when or if Emerald's Semblance was active. Pretty much the only thing she could do is intentionally lose or otherwise forfeit. Team RWBY was still kinda riding high on a vague sense of invincibility since everything had worked out so far up to this point.
vinayakdj1: I aim for a minimum of 5k words per chapter since I feel like that's a solid length. It's not so long as to be overwhelming but also not so short as to leave you wanting. The average word count for this story is a bit above 6k words, I do believe (don't bother using this site's info since it'd be screwed by author's notes and the bonus content). As for being notified of new chapters, yeah, this site hasn't been regularly sending people email notifications for years. Partway through posting this volume, I started getting notifications again but then they stopped. Not too long ago, I found my inbox flooded by literally over 200 emails from this site and am now getting notifications again. Yet another reason why I infinitely prefer AO3 since we don't have those problems over there.
Temsen: Ozpin is monitoring things from his office, Ironwood is present on Vytal but is busy managing his army, and Qrow and Glynda are off at Beacon to serve as protection for Amber.
Azimat: That actually wasn't something I was intentionally planning on going over in any specific detail and I won't actually be showing the fight since I see no reason to. Back in Interlude 6, the narration mentions that Qrow thinks that Shirou's Reality Marble is bullshit. All in all, Qrow was satisfied with Shirou's performance even if he had some obvious concerns as to his mental state (not that he'd voice said concerns). Ozpin, meanwhile, was highly pleased by what he saw (when it became evident to him that Shirou was about to deploy a Reality Marble, he got close enough to be caught in it) but knew that he had some serious work to do. I'll work it some more specifics as to Qrow's reactions during V4 while Ozpin's overall thoughts will be made clear in V5.
If you all wouldn't mind indulging me a bit, I'd like to run a bit of a survey. You see, each new chapter of RoF gets about 1.6k views in its release week and I'm curious as to how many of you guys actually read these author's notes. I've had a couple different people say that no one reads them but I'm not sure how true that statement is. Given that, if you do read this, I would be much obliged if you were to leave a review with the word "pineapple" in it. It can just be that word or it can be that word alongside a normal review. If anyone actually manages to leave a review with the word included in a natural-sounding way, I'll be sure to give you a special shoutout next chapter. If nothing else, just imagine the confusion on new readers' faces if they check the reviews first and just see a bunch of people saying "pineapple" for no readily available reason.
Well, that's all from me. Please leave a review telling me what you liked or didn't like and I'll see you next week!