Vale

Fuse

"Hey, aren't you Fuse, the guy who can just casually exit the barrier?" Ledot, one of the Villain Players I was about to interrogate randomly called out to me before I could speak.

So far, a lot of people are iffy on just the existence of Azure Dragon. Some people know he exists, some people don't. None of them have any clue where the guy is. Nobody even knows what he looks like.

Quite frankly, supremely irritating.

Deciding that, since people were starting to realize the implications of me being able to enter and exit their prison at will, I should leave, I turned to my companions, "Hey, let's leave before the entire city drops on us, alright?"

Team RWBY, tired of having to talk to absolute weirdos, readily agreed with Ruby once again speaking for the whole group, "Yep! We're ready to get out of here, sir!"

"Don't call me sir, that feels weird," I cringed as I hopped on Texas with the rest of the group.

I'm not that old compared to these kids, right? I swear I'm just 18-

Holy shit why am I still 18 years old.

Doing my best to ignore the fact that this entire journey of collecting dominoes, killing literally millions of people, and fighting a few people who were just straight up gods hasn't even passed its 1 year mark yet, I sat down as Texas flew out of the barrier and went straight towards Beacon.

Well, I did my best. It didn't actually do much.

"Shit, how long has it been? Like… a few months?" I tried to count the time I spent on each world.

What was it? Maybe a few weeks in Teyvat, maybe one in Terraria… A shit ton of time in Pokemon in comparison but that was ultimately just around 2 months. Then maybe a week in Tanya's world.

So, barely any time at all, actually.

Wow. Shit. I'm young as hell.

I'm not exactly sure how to feel about that, so I elect to ignore it for now.

Besides, it's all for the best…

Old people are half of what ruined America anyhow.

Beacon, Headmaster's Room

Ozpin

Talking to his so-called "Master" through the phone was never a pleasant experience. The Great Manipulator has a habit of obscuring his true intentions through evasive wording and overly fancy word choices. But he always was clear on what he wanted his pawns to do.

Taking a deep breath, he summarized his contributions to the effort to removing the Gamers in Vale, "I've sent Fuse on a wild goose chase in Vale, just as you wished. I was able to use the few contacts I had among the Gamers to station some of the more apathetic Gamers at their bases. Fuse shouldn't know of your… Status, at the very least."

The voice on the other side hummed. A lighter voice, this time, "Good. I have done my part in strewing misinformation and false accusations within their ranks to ensure Fuse will be able to escape without any of the more… Competent ones getting to speak to him. When the time comes, my hand shall guide them towards war."

To that, Ozpin was extremely surprised. Was this entire operation built on the premise that they were too rational to go to war and destroy each other? Just a few days ago, before Fuse, they were speaking of having to manipulate their psyches into a deep distrust over the course of several months, even years. Has the setting really changed that much?

His master elaborated, "They will not be so willing to fight each other at first. But this new variable, Fuse, will destroy anything he touches. All I require is for him to be isolated with another fool… A hard task in Vale, but not impossible. I shall set up the confrontation as I have foreseen. Then, it will be time to reap what has been sown."

"Hm, shall I give my thanks to Fuse, then?" Ozpin experimentally threw out there, unsure of the response he'll get back, "It seems as though our timeline has sped up exponentially."

His master audibly spat at the thought, "Never. He is with the Warrior of The Final Extinction. I shall always hate Him and all those he conspires with."

The Warrior of the Final Extinction? What a foreboding name. Ozpin would ask for more if his computer didn't warn him that Fuse was incoming.

"I see. I must go now, as Fuse is coming my way," Ozpin said, allowing him a moment to respond.

"Very well," was the only response he got back, being hung up on.

What a truly fascinating situation. If the God of Light and the God of Darkness were here, what would they think about it?

Well, knowing what he knows…

…The Gods likely don't stand a chance of even having an opinion, if they were to attempt to remove the cancer from Remnant.

"Ozpin, that list was completely unhelpful to me," I said straight up as Ruby and her team exchanged pleasantries with their principal or headmaster or whatever title Ozpin wanted to be called.

I don't really hold it against him. After all, if Azure Dragon could be found so easily, I probably would've just avoided this entire mess and just try to kill him straight up.

It was always a stretch to hope that these native folks could help me catch a guy that's leagues beyond their power level.

But still, it was pretty annoying that Azure Dragon was nowhere to be found.

Which does mean that, no matter how I try to deny the truth, it was very likely the dude could just move in and out of the barrier like he wants.

So, quite frankly, Vale is useless to me at this current moment.

But now what? Remnant is an entire planet. Even if Azure Dragon was nice enough to only be active on this continent, whatever its name is, that's still a shit ton of land to search.

Not to mention all of the Grimm that- Actually, they're probably weak enough to where I can just walk through them. They're not worth mentioning.

So all signs point to me having to spend a shit ton of time searching this planet from top to bottom trying to look for one dude who may just be a really good hide and seek player.

Shit, I may just be a bad seeker. Azure Dragon could be in Vale on the hero's side instead.

Fuck, I hate that I have to stay in Vale for a while longer to confirm it.

Ozpin, for his part, looked apologetic, "I'm sorry, Mr. Fuse. But this is par for the course when dealing with an enemy we have no idea where to look for… If you wish, I could contact my friends in Vale and see if the heroes' bases are any different?"

"Honestly, expand that search to the entire world, see if anyone knows about Azure Dragon," I said straight up, not wanting to spend another month doing the equivalent of nothing, "Maybe A.D will be nice enough to announce his presence."

Was it a long-shot? Absolutely. Did he want it to become true? Yes.

Heck, maybe if he was lucky enough, his constant questions about where Azure Dragon would trigger the other Gamers to look for the dude as well.

Ozpin nodded, "Very well. Then I ask of you to wait for perhaps a day or two until we get what we need."

Sounds about right. I think I could afford to catch up with all of my friends for one last time before I try to bumrush to the end.

After all, I have 4 of the 6 pieces of the domino. I have the power to erase concepts and to kill Gods.

Surely, I have the necessary strength to make it to the end now?

"Sure, I can do that," As I stood up to leave, I remembered something, "Ah… I gave some magic to you kids, did you notice, Ozpin?"

Ozpin blinked, "You did what?"

Pulling out the Book of the Eternal Oasis, I double check the description to make sure they could use it.

[Book of The Eternal Oasis - This tome has almost every hydromancy spell within it, allowing the user to cast their spells. If the user is a hydromancer, their hydromancy will be heavily elevated.]

Seeing nothing wrong, I handed it over to Weiss, who I felt had the most vibes of being a hydromancer, although she was an ice looking gal, "This book lets you use ice magic. It's a bit different to the Last Prism I gave you, which shoots out a huge laser beam, but it should still be pretty good."

Weiss blinked, "Ah… Thank you?"

I gave all of team RWBY a bunch of mana crystals I stole from Garbanag while evacuating his base, so they should be able to utilize the spells correctly.

Oh, and while I'm at it…

Curse Removed:

[Aquaphobia - Due to your species of slime dissolving in water, your kind has grown to fear water. Unfortunately for you, this fear is innate despite your half human side negating this weakness.]

It's a good thing no one I fought was a hydromancer. It's a good thing that this Chekhov's Gun never fired a single time in the months I've had it.

Now, it's laid to rest.

I turned around, my business done, "Alright, I'll see you in a day or so. You kids wanna join me on vacation as thanks for the help?"

Immediately, team RWBY bravely volunteered themselves to go have a quick vacation in Teyvat.

With that, I created a portal and ushered them all in.

AN:

Another short chapter, 1.6k words. Although being 400 away from the "standard," is it really short?

Yeah, it is short.

But you know what, we sometimes gotta make do.

In other news, I finally completed the outline for this fic.

Manifest Destiny will be 77 chapters long (provided no one points out something that I need to add an extra chapter for)

If you want to know roughly where this story goes and ends, the outlines are in one big google doc available on my Discord server, Fair and Balanced Incorporated. The invite code is ZPrVHumQJv

If I keep up a pace of 1 chapter a day, this fic will finish by the end of the month.

Of course, this is being written on the 13th because I'm a lazy bum.

Anyways, we're on the final stretch. 18 more chapters to go.

After March ends and all of the chapters are complete, we'll be moving to a weekly Federal Holiday upload schedule. But for March, it'll be the same upload schedule as it always has been.

Through these 200k words, we have been going after low after low after low. But with a 18 chapter backlog, surely we will reach a peak, right?

[Chapter 60 is like 4k words and I'm like 200 words away from finishing it. RIP my 1 chapter a day schedule. Now I'll have to fit in 2 chapters a day somewhere (Today).)