RWBY 40k – Salem, Immortal Empress of the Imperium.
(I decided to leave a little surprise for you. A little tale that I wanted to do since a time).
Tales of the Imperium: The Demise of the Abyss Monk.
In the middle of the night, a young boy dressed in a small monk cloth traversing a small forest who is not far from the Grimmlands surrounded the Tree of Darkness.
He is recognizable by his very pale skin, his white hair, his red eyes with dark sclera, he is dressed in a white uttarasanga covering an antaravasaka under it.
He was following a small crow who was flying away from him when the little thing saw him. The young monk only followed him deeper in the forest.
The boy arrived to a small clearing in the forest, with a single trunk in the center, behind there is a huge dark mass.
The young monk approach and the mass move and faced the young monk. It was a huge Beowolf facing the young boy. The boy flinched in fear before kneeling in pray.
(Chants of Buddhist Mantra).
But the beast only approached him and takes something in his teeth. The young monk could feel the breath of the beast. But nothing was happening.
He hesitantly opened his eyes and witnessed something in the mouth of the Beowolf.
It was a huge red crystal in its teeth. The young monk posed and looked at the beast and especially, at the crystal in question.
Then the beast looked at the temple of monks was just under the mountain where they find themselves, lightened by the golden leaves of the tree in the sky. While in the horizon, we could see Tizca on the other side of the ocean-like lake. The boy turned in turn to face the temple too.
(Beginning of the song).
One hundred scriptures, a thousand wishes.
All can be void in a snap of a finger.
We find the child monk walking inside of the temple, with a small bag on his shoulder. He was surrounded by other monks who were dressed like him but also some wears Kasaya or accessories with some crystals inserted in their clothes, walking or giving salute to other. Their hair was in different colours with their air. But a lot of monks were like the little aspirant
Each year contains countless perils
Shutting one's eye to unfulfilled desires
After a monk passes in front, we see the monk in question who has become an adult, he was praying in a room. With his shadow behind. The shadow then transforms in the Beowolf and eats him in the darkness.
Like a swallow, a restless life chasing after fortune and recognition.
Never weary of watching the ebb and flow of drifting petals.
We see the monk who has reached the 30s, now dressed in a dark uttarasanga covered by a red Kasaya. He was walking in pray with the other monks on the mountain, slowly passing them each. Each step makes him age, his clothes fill with embroideries and some precious stones inserted in them. Finally, he has a gold staff on his right hand.
Ascension, in the end, is but an ordinary matter.
Where feelings remain, fate can be unkind.
He reaches the mountain and turns back to the crowd of monks with a kind smile, now clearly age in his 60s. Then he turns back, showing the back of his Kasaya, showing the beowolf who has his eyes made of the red stones.
In the deepest part of the temple, the crowd of the monks are reunited around the elder monk. He pointed his staff in the air, and the crystals reduced in dust who were contained inside of simple pots began to fly around the crowd. Making a multicoloured cloud around the group of monks who were impressed. All under the eyes of the Empress statue in the center of the plaza, who was dressed in the same monk clothes than them.
A long time later…
What one says with one mouth is not always what in one's heart
Sometimes karma finds a resolution in a lifetime.
The path of cultivation can end one ignorance.
Times of change do not wait for those who are complacent.
We find the elder monk, now very old, dressed in formal outfits. He is a facing a pilgrim dressed in rich clothes who puts in his hand an ornated cyan yellow and magenta coloured crystal. The eldest monk asked him to let him borrow it for the time of the pilgrim stay, pretexting by pointing his red eyes that his view has declined with age.
He finds himself in his room looking closely to the stone.
A lifetime of fame and fortune is fleeting like smoke.
The greatest sorrow is that one can never be young again.
His face has an expression of fascination while his red eyes were shining. The shadow of the Beowolf replaces his own and observed the elder monk.
Stoking the fire while drunk of desire only to sleep when finally sober.
Greed, neglect and lust. I see.
The elder monk agitates the crystal in question. Drawing lines of magic around in the room, making clouds of dust around the room. Blue, red and green clouds. But the stone has now a lot of cracks on its surface.
(The Buddhist mantras resumed).
Then he pressed on his heart the stone in question, with a satisfied smile on his face. But then the stones come out from his hands to his greatest surprise, breaking itself apart. Transforming in a multicoloured dust before enveloping the monk who panicked.
The dust swirled around him before above the monk, the dust becomes back before blasting back on the eldest monk who was struggling to exit. The Monk was screaming and agitating like he was drowning while his red eyes were shining brightly. The Beowolf roared inside of the cloud, seeming to drown too.
Then, the dark dust exited the room and goes all over the temple, the wood began to burn in all sorts of colours. The statues of the Empress presenting her like an ascended Buddha falls down on the ground while the dark dust cloud flowed all over the temple, burning it to a crisp.
Briefly, the shadow of the monk whining in pain could seen above the temple before dissipating in the air.
Only the pilgrim survived, he was in the mountain above the temple. His clothes stained by the traces of the multicoloured dust.
A long time later…
Inside of a palace, the pilgrim was kneeling in front of a figure hidden by a curtain.
"Mistress, your disciple still doesn't understand even after my travel to the temple of the First Ascended. The adepts should have already severed their ties to the mortal realm, exhausting the golden sea. Why was the abbot unable to let go a single crystal?" The pilgrim asked.
The figure stayed silent for a moment.
"If one does not put on these ornaments. Then how would others know that I have already severed my mortal ties and I have exhausted the golden sea?" Salem responded.
To be continued… Reencounter with the Chaosbender.
Zorai is expanding his empire more and more with his massive colonisation projects. But when his daughter is leading another operation of colonisation. Asuka stumbles on an old foe that his father faced back on Yitài.